{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_18369/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_18369","id":"gutenberg_18369","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18369","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity","Sermons, English -- 19th century"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1881 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price,\nccx074@pglaf.org\n\n\n\n\n\nWESTMINSTER SERMONS.\n\n\nWITH A PREFACE.\n\nBY\nCHARLES KINGSLEY.\n\nLondon:\nMACMILLAN AND CO.\n1881.\n\n_The Right of Translation is Reserved_.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nI venture to preface these Sermons--which were preached either at\nWestminster Abbey, or at one of the Chapels Royal--by a Paper read at\nSion College, in 1871; and for this reason.  Even when they deal with\nwhat is usually, and rightly, called \"vital\" and \"experimental\" religion,\nthey are comments on, and developments of, the idea which pervades that\npaper; namely--That facts, whether of physical nature, or of the human\nheart and reason, do not contradict, but coincide with, the doctrines and\nformulas of the Church of England, as by law established.\n\n* * * * *\n\nNatural Theology, I said, is a subject which seems to me more and more\nimportant; and one which is just now somewhat forgotten.  I therefore\ndesire to say a few words on it.  I do not pretend to teach: but only to\nsuggest; to point out certain problems of natural Theology, the further\nsolution of which ought, I think, to be soon attempted.\n\nI wish to speak, be it remembered, not on natural religion, but on\nnatural Theology.  By the first, I understand what can be learned from\nthe physical universe of man's duty to God and to his neighbour; by the\nlatter, I understand what can be learned concerning God Himself.  Of\nnatural religion I shall say nothing.  I do not even affirm that a\nnatural religion is possible: but I do very earnestly believe that a\nnatural Theology is possible; and I earnestly believe also that it is\nmost important that natural Theology should, in every age, keep pace with\ndoctrinal or ecclesiastical Theology.\n\nBishop Butler certainly held this belief.  His _Analogy of Religion_,\n_Natural and Revealed_, _to the Constitution and Course of Nature_--a\nbook for which I entertain the most profound respect--is based on a\nbelief that the God of nature and the God of grace are one; and that\ntherefore, the God who satisfies our conscience ought more or less to\nsatisfy our reason also.  To teach that was Butler's mission; and he\nfulfilled it well.  But it is a mission which has to be re-fulfilled\nagain and again, as human thought changes, and human science develops;\nfor if, in any age or country, the God who seems to be revealed by nature\nseems also different from the God who is revealed by the then popular\nreligion: then that God, and the religion which tells of that God, will\ngradually cease to be believed in.\n\nFor the demands of Reason--as none knew better than good Bishop\nButler--must be and ought to be satisfied.  And therefore; when a popular\nwar arises between the reason of any generation and its Theology: then it\nbehoves the ministers of religion to inquire, with all humility and godly\nfear, on which side lies the fault; whether the Theology which they\nexpound is all that it should be, or whether the reason of those who\nimpugn it is all that it should be.\n\nFor me, as--I trust--an orthodox priest of the Church of England, I\nbelieve the Theology of the National Church of England, as by law\nestablished, to be eminently rational as well as scriptural.  It is not,\ntherefore, surprising to me that the clergy of the Church of England,\nsince the foundation of the Royal Society in the seventeenth century,\nhave done more for sound physical science than the clergy of any other\ndenomination; or that the three greatest natural theologians with which\nI, at least, am acquainted--Berkeley, Butler, and Paley--should have\nbelonged to our Church.  I am not unaware of what the Germans of the\neighteenth century have done.  I consider Goethe's claims to have\nadvanced natural Theology very much over-rated: but I do recommend to\nyoung clergymen Herder's _Outlines of the Philosophy of the History of\nMan_ as a book--in spite of certain defects--full of sound and precious\nwisdom.  Meanwhile it seems to me that English natural Theology in the\neighteenth century stood more secure than that of any other nation, on\nthe foundation which Berkeley, Butler, and Paley had laid; and that if\nour orthodox thinkers for the last hundred years had followed steadily in\ntheir steps, we should not be deploring now a wide, and as some think\nincreasing, divorce between Science and Christianity.\n\nBut it was not so to be.  The impulse given by Wesley and Whitfield\nturned--and not before it was needed--the earnest minds of England almost\nexclusively to questions of personal religion; and that impulse, under\nmany unexpected forms, has continued ever since.  I only state the fact:\nI do not deplore it; God forbid.  Wisdom is justified of all her\nchildren; and as, according to the wise American, \"it takes all sorts to\nmake a world,\" so it takes all sorts to make a living Church.  But that\nthe religious temper of England for the last two or three generations has\nbeen unfavourable to a sound and scientific development of natural\nTheology, there can be no doubt.\n\nWe have only, if we need proof, to look at the hymns--many of them very\npure, pious, and beautiful--which are used at this day in churches and\nchapels by persons of every shade of opinion.  How often is the tone in\nwhich they speak of the natural world one of dissatisfaction, distrust,\nalmost contempt.  \"Change and decay in all around I see,\" is their key-\nnote, rather than \"O all ye works of the Lord, bless Him, praise Him, and\nmagnify Him for ever.\"  There lingers about them a savour of the old\nmonastic theory, that this earth is the devil's planet, fallen, accursed,\ngoblin-haunted, needing to be exorcised at every turn before it is useful\nor even safe for man.  An age which has adopted as its most popular hymn\na paraphrase of the mediaeval monk's \"Hic breve vivitur,\" and in which\nstalwart public-school boys are bidden in their chapel-worship to tell\nthe Almighty God of Truth that they lie awake weeping at night for joy at\nthe thought that they will die and see \"Jerusalem the Golden,\" is\ndoubtless a pious and devout age: but not--at least as yet--an age in\nwhich natural Theology is likely to attain a high, a healthy, or a\nscriptural development.\n\nNot a scriptural development.  Let me press on you, my clerical brethren,\nmost earnestly this one point.  It is time that we should make up our\nminds what tone Scripture does take toward nature, natural science,\nnatural Theology.  Most of you, I doubt not, have made up your minds\nalready; and in consequence have no fear of natural science, no fear for\nnatural Theology.  But I cannot deny that I find still lingering here and\nthere certain of the old views of nature of which I used to hear but too\nmuch some five-and-thirty years ago--and that from better men than I\nshall ever hope to be--who used to consider natural Theology as useless,\nfallacious, impossible; on the ground that this Earth did not reveal the\nwill and character of God, because it was cursed and fallen; and that its\nfacts, in consequence, were not to be respected or relied on.  This, I\nwas told, was the doctrine of Scripture, and was therefore true.  But\nwhen, longing to reconcile my conscience and my reason on a question so\nawful to a young student of natural science, I went to my Bible, what did\nI find?  No word of all this.  Much--thank God, I may say one continuous\nundercurrent--of the very opposite of all this.  I pray you bear with me,\neven though I may seem impertinent.  But what do we find in the Bible,\nwith the exception of that first curse?  That, remember, cannot mean any\nalteration in the laws of nature by which man's labour should only\nproduce for him henceforth thorns and thistles.  For, in the first place,\nany such curse is formally abrogated in the eighth chapter and 21st verse\nof the very same document--\"I will not again curse the earth any more for\nman's sake.  While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, cold and\nheat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.\"  And next: the\nfact is not so; for if you root up the thorns and thistles, and keep your\nland clean, then assuredly you will grow fruit-trees and not thorns,\nwheat and not thistles, according to those laws of nature which are the\nvoice of God expressed in facts.\n\nAnd yet the words are true.  There is a curse upon the earth: though not\none which, by altering the laws of nature, has made natural facts\nuntrustworthy.  There is a curse on the earth; such a curse as is\nexpressed, I believe, in the old Hebrew text, where the word\n\"_admah_\"--correctly translated in our version \"the ground\"--signifies,\nas I am told, not this planet, but simply the soil from whence we get our\nfood; such a curse as certainly is expressed by the Septuagint and the\nVulgate versions: \"Cursed is the earth\"--[Greek text]; \"in opere tuo,\"\n\"in thy works.\"  Man's work is too often the curse of the very planet\nwhich he misuses.  None should know that better than the botanist, who\nsees whole regions desolate, and given up to sterility and literal thorns\nand thistles, on account of man's sin and folly, ignorance and greedy\nwaste.  Well said that veteran botanist, the venerable Elias Fries, of\nLund:--\n\n\"A broad band of waste land follows gradually in the steps of\ncultivation.  If it expands, its centre and its cradle dies, and on the\nouter borders only do we find green shoots.  But it is not impossible,\nonly difficult, for man, without renouncing the advantage of culture\nitself, one day to make reparation for the injury which he has inflicted:\nhe is appointed lord of creation.  True it is that thorns and thistles,\nill-favoured and poisonous plants, well named by botanists rubbish\nplants, mark the track which man has proudly traversed through the earth.\nBefore him lay original nature in her wild but sublime beauty.  Behind\nhim he leaves a desert, a deformed and ruined land; for childish desire\nof destruction, or thoughtless squandering of vegetable treasures, has\ndestroyed the character of nature; and, terrified, man himself flies from\nthe arena of his actions, leaving the impoverished earth to barbarous\nraces or to animals, so long as yet another spot in virgin beauty smiles\nbefore him.  Here again, in selfish pursuit of profit, and consciously or\nunconsciously following the abominable principle of the great moral\nvileness which one man has expressed--'Apres nous le Deluge,'--he begins\nanew the work of destruction.  Thus did cultivation, driven out, leave\nthe East, and perhaps the deserts long ago robbed of their coverings;\nlike the wild hordes of old over beautiful Greece, thus rolls this\nconquest with fearful rapidity from East to West through America; and the\nplanter now often leaves the already exhausted land, and the eastern\nclimate, become infertile through the demolition of the forests, to\nintroduce a similar revolution into the Far West.\"\n\nAs we proceed, we find nothing in the general tone of Scripture which can\nhinder our natural Theology being at once scriptural and scientific.\n\nIf it is to be scientific, it must begin by approaching Nature at once\nwith a cheerful and reverent spirit, as a noble, healthy, and trustworthy\nthing; and what is that, save the spirit of those who wrote the 104th,\n147th, and 148th Psalms; the spirit, too, of him who wrote that Song of\nthe Three Children, which is, as it were, the flower and crown of the Old\nTestament, the summing up of all that is most true and eternal in the old\nJewish faith; and which, as long as it is sung in our churches, is the\ncharter and title-deed of all Christian students of those works of the\nLord, which it calls on to bless Him, praise Him, and magnify Him for\never?\n\nWhat next will be demanded of us by physical science?  Belief, certainly,\njust now, in the permanence of natural laws.  That is taken for granted,\nI hold, throughout the Bible.  I cannot see how our Lord's parables,\ndrawn from the birds and the flowers, the seasons and the weather, have\nany logical weight, or can be considered as aught but capricious and\nfanciful \"illustrations\"--which God forbid--unless we look at them as\ninstances of laws of the natural world, which find their analogues in the\nlaws of the spiritual world, the kingdom of God.  I cannot conceive a\nman's writing that 104th Psalm who had not the most deep, the most\nearnest sense of the permanence of natural law.  But more: the fact is\nexpressly asserted again and again.  \"They continue this day according to\nThine ordinance, for all things serve Thee.\"  \"Thou hast made them fast\nfor ever and ever.  Thou hast given them a law which shall not be\nbroken--\"\n\nLet us pass on.  There is no more to be said about this matter.\n\nBut next: it will be demanded of us that natural Theology shall set forth\na God whose character is consistent with all the facts of nature, and not\nonly with those which are pleasant and beautiful.  That challenge was\naccepted, and I think victoriously, by Bishop Butler, as far as the\nChristian religion is concerned.  As far as the Scripture is concerned,\nwe may answer thus--\n\nIt is said to us--I know that it is said--You tell us of a God of love, a\nGod of flowers and sunshine, of singing birds and little children.  But\nthere are more facts in nature than these.  There is premature death,\npestilence, famine.  And if you answer--Man has control over these; they\nare caused by man's ignorance and sin, and by his breaking of natural\nlaws:--What will you make of those destructive powers over which he has\nno control; of the hurricane and the earthquake; of poisons, vegetable\nand mineral; of those parasitic Entozoa whose awful abundance, and awful\ndestructiveness, in man and beast, science is just revealing--a new page\nof danger and loathsomeness?  How does that suit your conception of a God\nof love?\n\nWe can answer--Whether or not it suits our conception of a God of love,\nit suits Scripture's conception of Him.  For nothing is more clear--nay,\nis it not urged again and again, as a blot on Scripture?--that it reveals\na God not merely of love, but of sternness; a God in whose eyes physical\npain is not the worst of evils, nor animal life--too often miscalled\nhuman life--the most precious of objects; a God who destroys, when it\nseems fit to Him, and that wholesale, and seemingly without either pity\nor discrimination, man, woman, and child, visiting the sins of the\nfathers on the children, making the land empty and bare, and destroying\nfrom off it man and beast?  This is the God of the Old Testament.  And if\nany say--as is too often rashly said--This is not the God of the New: I\nanswer, But have you read your New Testament?  Have you read the latter\nchapters of St Matthew?  Have you read the opening of the Epistle to the\nRomans?  Have you read the Book of Revelation?  If so, will you say that\nthe God of the New Testament is, compared with the God of the Old, less\nawful, less destructive, and therefore less like the Being--granting\nalways that there is such a Being--who presides over nature and her\ndestructive powers?  It is an awful problem.  But the writers of the\nBible have faced it valiantly.  Physical science is facing it valiantly\nnow.  Therefore natural Theology may face it likewise.  Remember\nCarlyle's great words about poor Francesca in the Inferno: \"Infinite\npity: yet also infinite rigour of law.  It is so Nature is made.  It is\nso Dante discerned that she was made.\"\n\nThere are two other points on which I must beg leave to say a few words.\nPhysical science will demand of our natural theologians that they should\nbe aware of their importance, and let--as Mr Matthew Arnold would\nsay--their thoughts play freely round them.  I mean questions of\nEmbryology, and questions of Race.\n\nOn the first there may be much to be said, which is, for the present,\nbest left unsaid, even here.  I only ask you to recollect how often in\nScripture those two plain old words--beget and bring forth--occur; and in\nwhat important passages.  And I ask you to remember that marvellous essay\non Natural Theology--if I may so call it in all reverence--namely, the\n119th Psalm; and judge for yourself whether he who wrote that did not\nconsider the study of Embryology as important, as significant, as worthy\nof his deepest attention, as an Owen, a Huxley, or a Darwin.  Nay, I will\ngo further still, and say, that in those great words--\"Thine eyes did see\nmy substance, yet being imperfect; and in Thy book all my members were\nwritten, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none\nof them,\"--in those words, I say, the Psalmist has anticipated that\nrealistic view of embryological questions to which our most modern\nphilosophers are, it seems to me, slowly, half unconsciously, but still\ninevitably, returning.\n\nNext, as to Race.  Some persons now have a nervous fear of that word, and\nof allowing any importance to difference of races.  Some dislike it,\nbecause they think that it endangers the modern notions of democratic\nequality.  Others because they fear that it may be proved that the Negro\nis not a man and a brother.  I think the fears of both parties\ngroundless.\n\nAs for the Negro, I not only believe him to be of the same race as\nmyself, but that--if Mr Darwin's theories are true--science has proved\nthat he must be such.  I should have thought, as a humble student of such\nquestions, that the one fact of the unique distribution of the hair in\nall races of human beings, was full moral proof that they had all had one\ncommon ancestor.  But this is not matter of natural Theology.  What is\nmatter thereof, is this.\n\nPhysical science is proving more and more the immense importance of Race;\nthe importance of hereditary powers, hereditary organs, hereditary\nhabits, in all organized beings, from the lowest plant to the highest\nanimal.  She is proving more and more the omnipresent action of the\ndifferences between races: how the more \"favoured\" race--she cannot avoid\nusing the epithet--exterminates the less favoured; or at least expels it,\nand forces it, under penalty of death, to adapt itself to new\ncircumstances; and, in a word, that competition between every race and\nevery individual of that race, and reward according to deserts, is, as\nfar as we can see, an universal law of living things.  And she says--for\nthe facts of History prove it--that as it is among the races of plants\nand animals, so it has been unto this day among the races of men.\n\nThe natural Theology of the future must take count of these tremendous\nand even painful facts.  She may take count of them.  For Scripture has\ntaken count of them already.  It talks continually--it has been blamed\nfor talking so much--of races; of families; of their wars, their\nstruggles, their exterminations; of races favoured, of races rejected; of\nremnants being saved, to continue the race; of hereditary tendencies,\nhereditary excellencies, hereditary guilt.  Its sense of the reality and\nimportance of descent is so intense, that it speaks of a whole tribe or a\nwhole family by the name of its common ancestor; and the whole nation of\nthe Jews is Israel, to the end.  And if I be told this is true of the Old\nTestament, but not of the New: I must answer,--What?  Does not St Paul\nhold the identity of the whole Jewish race with Israel their forefather,\nas strongly as any prophet of the Old Testament?  And what is the central\nhistoric fact, save One, of the New Testament, but the conquest of\nJerusalem; the dispersion, all but destruction of a race, not by miracle,\nbut by invasion, because found wanting when weighed in the stern balances\nof natural and social law?\n\nThink over this.  I only suggest the thought: but I do not suggest it in\nhaste.  Think over it, by the light which our Lord's parables, His\nanalogies between the physical and social constitution of the world,\nafford; and consider whether those awful words--fulfilled then, and\nfulfilled so often since--\"The kingdom of God shall be taken from you,\nand given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof,\" may not be the\nsupreme instance, the most complex development, of a law which runs\nthrough all created things, down to the moss which struggles for\nexistence on the rock.\n\nDo I say that this is all?  That man is merely a part of nature, the\npuppet of circumstances and hereditary tendencies?  That brute\ncompetition is the one law of his life?  That he is doomed for ever to be\nthe slave of his own needs, enforced by an internecine struggle for\nexistence?  God forbid.  I believe not only in nature, but in Grace.  I\nbelieve that this is man's fate only as long as he sows to the flesh, and\nof the flesh reaps corruption.  I believe that if he will\n\n   Strive upward, working out the beast,\n   And let the ape and tiger die;\n\nif he will be even as wise as the social animals; as the ant and the bee,\nwho have risen, if not to the virtue of all-embracing charity, at least\nto the virtues of self-sacrifice and patriotism: then he will rise\ntowards a higher sphere; towards that kingdom of God of which it is\nwritten--\"He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.\"\n\nWhether that be matter of natural Theology, I cannot tell as yet.  But as\nfor all the former questions; and all that St Paul means when he talks of\nthe law, and how the works of the flesh bring men under the law, stern\nand terrible and destructive, though holy and just and good,--they are\nmatter of natural Theology; and I believe that here, as elsewhere,\nScripture and Science will be ultimately found to coincide.\n\nBut here we have to face an objection which you will often hear now from\nscientific men, and still oftener from non-scientific men; who will\nsay--It matters not to us whether Scripture contradicts or does not\ncontradict a scientific natural Theology; for we hold such a science to\nbe impossible and naught.  The old Jews put a God into nature; and\ntherefore of course they could see, as you see, what they had already put\nthere.  But we see no God in nature.  We do not deny the existence of a\nGod.  We merely say that scientific research does not reveal Him to us.\nWe see no marks of design in physical phenomena.  What used to be\nconsidered as marks of design can be better explained by considering them\nas the results of evolution according to necessary laws; and you and\nScripture make a mere assumption when you ascribe them to the operation\nof a mind like the human mind.\n\nNow on this point I believe we may answer fearlessly--If you cannot see\nit, we cannot help you.  If the heavens do not declare to you the glory\nof God, nor the firmament show you His handy-work, then our poor\narguments will not show them.  \"The eye can only see that which it brings\nwith it the power of seeing.\"  We can only reassert that we see design\neverywhere; and that the vast majority of the human race in every age and\nclime has seen it.  Analogy from experience, sound induction--as we\nhold--from the works not only of men but of animals, has made it an all\nbut self-evident truth to us, that wherever there is arrangement, there\nmust be an arranger; wherever there is adaptation of means to an end,\nthere must be an adapter; wherever an organization, there must be an\norganizer.  The existence of a designing God is no more demonstrable from\nnature than the existence of other human beings independent of ourselves;\nor, indeed, than the existence of our own bodies.  But, like the belief\nin them, the belief in Him has become an article of our common sense.  And\nthat this designing mind is, in some respects, similar to the human mind,\nis proved to us--as Sir John Herschel well puts it--by the mere fact that\nwe can discover and comprehend the processes of nature.\n\nBut here again, if we be contradicted, we can only reassert.  If the old\nwords, \"He that made the eye, shall he not see? he that planted the ear,\nshall he not hear?\" do not at once commend themselves to the intellect of\nany person, we shall never convince that person by any arguments drawn\nfrom the absurdity of conceiving the invention of optics by a blind man,\nor of music by a deaf one.\n\nSo we will assert our own old-fashioned notion boldly: and more; we will\nsay, in spite of ridicule--That if such a God exists, final causes must\nexist also.  That the whole universe must be one chain of final causes.\nThat if there be a Supreme Reason, he must have reason, and that a good\nreason, for every physical phenomenon.\n\nWe will tell the modern scientific man--You are nervously afraid of the\nmention of final causes.  You quote against them Bacon's saying, that\nthey are barren virgins; that no physical fact was ever discovered or\nexplained by them.  You are right: as far as regards yourselves.  You\nhave no business with final causes; because final causes are moral\ncauses: and you are physical students only.  We, the natural Theologians,\nhave business with them.  Your duty is to find out the How of things:\nours, to find out the Why.  If you rejoin that we shall never find out\nthe Why, unless we first learn something of the How, we shall not deny\nthat.  It may be most useful, I had almost said necessary, that the\nclergy should have some scientific training.  It may be most useful--I\nsometimes dream of a day when it will be considered necessary--that every\ncandidate for Ordination should be required to have passed creditably in\nat least one branch of physical science, if it be only to teach him the\nmethod of sound scientific thought.  But our having learnt the How, will\nnot make it needless, much less impossible, for us to study the Why.  It\nwill merely make more clear to us the things of which we have to study\nthe Why; and enable us to keep the How and the Why more religiously apart\nfrom each other.\n\nBut if it be said--After all, there is no Why.  The doctrine of\nevolution, by doing away with the theory of creation, does away with that\nof final causes,--Let us answer boldly,--Not in the least.  We might\naccept all that Mr Darwin, all that Professor Huxley, all that other most\nable men, have so learnedly and so acutely written on physical science,\nand yet preserve our natural Theology on exactly the same basis as that\non which Butler and Paley left it.  That we should have to develop it, I\ndo not deny.  That we should have to relinquish it, I do.\n\nLet me press this thought earnestly on you.  I know that many wiser and\nbetter men than I have fears on this point.  I cannot share in them.\n\nAll, it seems to me, that the new doctrines of evolution demand is\nthis:--We all agree--for the fact is patent--that our own bodies, and\nindeed the body of every living creature, are evolved from a seemingly\nsimple germ by natural laws, without visible action of any designing will\nor mind, into the full organization of a human or other creature.  Yet we\ndo not say on that account--God did not create me: I only grew.  We hold\nin this case to our old idea, and say--If there be evolution, there must\nbe an evolver.  Now the new physical theories only ask us, it seems to\nme, to extend this conception to the whole universe; to believe that not\nindividuals merely, but whole varieties and races; the total organized\nlife on this planet; and, it may be, the total organization of the\nuniverse, have been evolved just as our bodies are, by natural laws\nacting through circumstance.  This may be true, or may be false.  But all\nits truth can do to the natural Theologian will be to make him believe\nthat the Creator bears the same relation to the whole universe, as that\nCreator undeniably bears to every individual human body.\n\nI entreat you to weigh these words, which have not been written in haste;\nand I entreat you also, if you wish to see how little the new theory,\nthat species may have been gradually created by variation, natural\nselection, and so forth, interferes with the old theory of design,\ncontrivance, and adaptation, nay, with the fullest admission of\nbenevolent final causes--I entreat you, I say, to study Darwin's\n\"Fertilization of Orchids\"--a book which, whether his main theory be true\nor not, will still remain a most valuable addition to natural Theology.\n\nFor suppose that all the species of Orchids, and not only they, but their\ncongeners--the Gingers, the Arrowroots, the Bananas--are all the\ndescendants of one original form, which was most probably nearly allied\nto the Snowdrop and the Iris.  What then?  Would that be one whit more\nwonderful, more unworthy of the wisdom and power of God, than if they\nwere, as most believe, created each and all at once, with their minute\nand often imaginary shades of difference?  What would the natural\nTheologian have to say, were the first theory true, save that God's works\nare even more wonderful that he always believed them to be?  As for the\ntheory being impossible: we must leave the discussion of that to physical\nstudents.  It is not for us clergymen to limit the power of God.  \"Is\nanything too hard for the Lord?\" asked the prophet of old; and we have a\nright to ask it as long as time shall last.  If it be said that natural\nselection is too simple a cause to produce such fantastic variety: that,\nagain, is a question to be settled exclusively by physical students.  All\nwe have to say on the matter is--That we always knew that God works by\nvery simple, or seemingly simple, means; that the whole universe, as far\nas we could discern it, was one concatenation of the most simple means;\nthat it was wonderful, yea, miraculous, in our eyes, that a child should\nresemble its parents, that the raindrops should make the grass grow, that\nthe grass should become flesh, and the flesh sustenance for the thinking\nbrain of man.  Ought God to seem less or more august in our eyes, when we\nare told that His means are even more simple than we supposed?  We held\nhim to be Almighty and All-wise.  Are we to reverence Him less or more,\nif we hear that His might is greater, His wisdom deeper, than we ever\ndreamed?  We believed that His care was over all His works; that His\nProvidence watched perpetually over the whole universe.  We were\ntaught--some of us at least--by Holy Scripture, to believe that the whole\nhistory of the universe was made up of special Providences.  If, then,\nthat should be true which Mr Darwin eloquently writes--\"It may be\nmetaphorically said that natural selection is daily and hourly\nscrutinizing, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest;\nrejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up that which is good,\nsilently and incessantly working whenever and wherever opportunity offers\nat the improvement of every organic being,\"--if that, I say, were proven\nto be true: ought God's care and God's providence to seem less or more\nmagnificent in our eyes?  Of old it was said by Him without whom nothing\nis made, \"My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.\"  Shall we quarrel with\nScience, if she should show how those words are true?  What, in one word,\nshould we have to say but this?--We knew of old that God was so wise that\nHe could make all things: but, behold, He is so much wiser than even\nthat, that He can make all things make themselves.\n\nBut it may be said--These notions are contrary to Scripture.  I must beg\nvery humbly, but very firmly, to demur to that opinion.  Scripture says\nthat God created.  But it nowhere defines that term.  The means, the How,\nof Creation is nowhere specified.  Scripture, again, says that organized\nbeings were produced, each according to their kind.  But it nowhere\ndefines that term.  What a kind includes; whether it includes or not the\ncapacity of varying--which is just the question in point--is nowhere\nspecified.  And I think it a most important rule in Scriptural exegesis,\nto be most cautious as to limiting the meaning of any term which\nScripture itself has not limited, lest we find ourselves putting into the\nteaching of Scripture our own human theories or prejudices.  And\nconsider--Is not man a kind?  And has not mankind varied, physically,\nintellectually, spiritually?  Is not the Bible, from beginning to end, a\nhistory of the variations of mankind, for worse or for better, from their\noriginal type?  Let us rather look with calmness, and even with hope and\ngoodwill, on these new theories; for, correct or incorrect, they surely\nmark a tendency towards a more, not a less, Scriptural view of Nature.\nAre they not attempts, whether successful or unsuccessful, to escape from\nthat shallow mechanical notion of the universe and its Creator which was\ntoo much in vogue in the eighteenth century among divines as well as\nphilosophers; the theory which Goethe, to do him justice--and after him\nMr Thomas Carlyle--have treated with such noble scorn; the theory, I\nmean, that God has wound up the universe like a clock, and left it to\ntick by itself till it runs down, never troubling Himself with it; save\npossibly--for even that was only half believed--by rare miraculous\ninterferences with the laws which He Himself had made?  Out of that\nchilling dream of a dead universe ungoverned by an absent God, the human\nmind, in Germany especially, tried during the early part of this century\nto escape by strange roads; roads by which there was no escape, because\nthey were not laid down on the firm ground of scientific facts.  Then, in\ndespair, men turned to the facts which they had neglected; and said--We\nare weary of philosophy: we will study you, and you alone.  As for God,\nwho can find Him?  And they have worked at the facts like gallant and\nhonest men; and their work, like all good work, has produced, in the last\nfifty years, results more enormous than they even dreamed.  But what are\nthey finding, more and more, below their facts, below all phenomena which\nthe scalpel and the microscope can show?  A something nameless,\ninvisible, imponderable, yet seemingly omnipresent and omnipotent,\nretreating before them deeper and deeper, the deeper they delve: namely,\nthe life which shapes and makes; that which the old schoolmen called\n\"forma formativa,\" which they call vital force and what not--metaphors\nall, or rather counters to mark an unknown quantity, as if they should\ncall it _x_ or _y_.  One says--It is all vibrations: but his reason,\nunsatisfied, asks--And what makes the vibrations vibrate?  Another--It is\nall physiological units: but his reason asks--What is the \"physis,\" the\nnature and innate tendency of the units?  A third--It may be all caused\nby infinitely numerous \"gemmules:\" but his reason asks him--What puts\ninfinite order into these gemmules, instead of infinite anarchy?  I\nmention these theories not to laugh at them.  I have all due respect for\nthose who have put them forth.  Nor would it interfere with my\ntheological creed, if any or all of them were proven to be true\nto-morrow.  I mention them only to show that beneath all these theories,\ntrue or false, still lies that unknown _x_.  Scientific men are becoming\nmore and more aware of it; I had almost said, ready to worship it.  More\nand more the noblest-minded of them are engrossed by the mystery of that\nunknown and truly miraculous element in Nature, which is always escaping\nthem, though they cannot escape it.  How should they escape it?  Was it\nnot written of old--\"Whither shall I go from Thy presence, or whither\nshall I flee from Thy Spirit?\"\n\nAh that we clergymen would summon up courage to tell them that!  Courage\nto tell them, what need not hamper for a moment the freedom of their\ninvestigations, what will add to them a sanction--I may say a\nsanctity--that the unknown _x_ which lies below all phenomena, which is\nfor ever at work on all phenomena, on the whole and on every part of the\nwhole, down to the colouring of every leaf and the curdling of every cell\nof protoplasm, is none other than that which the old Hebrews called--by a\nmetaphor, no doubt: for how can man speak of the unseen, save in\nmetaphors drawn from the seen?--but by the only metaphor adequate to\nexpress the perpetual and omnipresent miracle; The Breath of God; The\nSpirit who is The Lord, and The Giver of Life.\n\nIn the rest, let us too think, and let us too observe.  For if we are\nignorant, not merely of the results of experimental science, but of the\nmethods thereof: then we and the men of science shall have no common\nground whereon to stretch out kindly hands to each other.\n\nBut let us have patience and faith; and not suppose in haste, that when\nthose hands are stretched out it will be needful for us to leave our\nstanding-ground, or to cast ourselves down from the pinnacle of the\ntemple to earn popularity; above all, from earnest students who are too\nhigh-minded to care for popularity themselves.\n\nTrue, if we have an intelligent belief in those Creeds and those\nScriptures which are committed to our keeping, then our philosophy cannot\nbe that which is just now in vogue.  But all we have to do, I believe, is\nto wait.  Nominalism, and that \"Sensationalism\" which has sprung from\nNominalism, are running fast to seed; Comtism seems to me its supreme\neffort: after which the whirligig of Time may bring round its revenges:\nand Realism, and we who hold the Realist creeds, may have our turn.  Only\nwait.  When a grave, able, and authoritative philosopher explains a\nmother's love of her newborn babe, as Professor Bain has done, in a\nreally eloquent passage of his book on the _Emotions and the Will_, {0a}\nthen the end of that philosophy is very near; and an older, simpler, more\nhuman, and, as I hold, more philosophic explanation of that natural\nphenomenon, and of all others, may get a hearing.\n\nOnly wait: and fret not yourselves; else shall you be moved to do evil.\nRemember the saying of the wise man--\"Go not after the world.  She turns\non her axis; and if thou stand still long enough, she will turn round to\nthee.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON I.  THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS.  A GOOD FRIDAY SERMON.\n\n\nPHILIPPIANS II. 5-8.\n\n   Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in\n   the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made\n   Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a slave, and\n   was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man,\n   He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of\n   the Cross.\n\nThe second Lesson for this morning's service, and the chapter which\nfollows it, describe the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, both God and\nMan.  They give us the facts, in language most awful from its perfect\ncalmness, most pathetic from its perfect simplicity.  But the passage of\nSt Paul which I have chosen for my text gives us an explanation of those\nfacts which is utterly amazing.  That He who stooped to die upon the\nCross is Very God of Very God, the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe,\nis a thought so overwhelming, whenever we try to comprehend even a part\nof it in our small imaginations, that it is no wonder if, in all ages,\nmany a pious soul, as it contemplated the Cross of Christ, has been rapt\nitself into a passion of gratitude, an ecstasy of wonder and of love,\nwhich is beautiful, honourable, just, and in the deepest sense most\nrational, whenever it is spontaneous and natural.\n\nBut there have been thousands, as there may be many here to-day, of\ncolder temperament; who would distrust in themselves, even while they\nrespected in others, any violence of religious emotion: yet they too have\nfound, and you too may find, in contemplating the Passion of Christ, a\nsatisfaction deeper than that of any emotion; a satisfaction not to the\nheart, still less to the brain, but to that far deeper and diviner\nfaculty within us all--our moral sense; that God-given instinct which\nmakes us discern and sympathise with all that is beautiful and true and\ngood.\n\nAnd so it has befallen, for eighteen hundred years, that thousands who\nhave thought earnestly and carefully on God and on the character of God,\non man and on the universe, and on their relation to Him who made them\nboth, have found in the Incarnation and the Passion of the Son of God the\nperfect satisfaction of their moral wants; the surest key to the facts of\nthe spiritual world; the complete assurance that, in spite of all seeming\ndifficulties and contradictions, the Maker of the world was a Righteous\nBeing, who had founded the world in righteousness; that the Father of\nSpirits was a perfect Father, who in His only-begotten Son had shewn\nforth His perfectness, in such a shape and by such acts that men might\nnot only adore it, but sympathise with it; not only thank Him for it, but\ncopy it; and become, though at an infinite distance, perfect as their\nFather in heaven is perfect, and full of grace and truth, like that Son\nwho is the brightness of His Father's glory, and the express image of His\nperson.  Such a satisfaction have they found in looking upon the\ntriumphal entry into Jerusalem of Him who knew that it would be followed\nby the revolt of the fickle mob, and the desertion of His disciples, and\nthe Cross of Calvary, and all the hideous circumstances of a Roman\nmalefactor's death.\n\nBut there have been those, and there are still, who have found no such\nsatisfaction in the story which the Gospel tells, and still less in the\nexplanation which the Epistle gives; who have, as St Paul says, stumbled\nat the stumblingblock of the Cross.\n\nIt would be easy to ignore such persons, were they scoffers or\nprofligates: but when they number among their ranks men of virtuous\nlives, of earnest and most benevolent purposes, of careful and learned\nthought, and of a real reverence for God, or for those theories of the\nuniverse which some of them are inclined to substitute for God, they must\nat least be listened to patiently, and answered charitably, as men who,\nhowever faulty their opinions may be, prove, by their virtue and their\ndesire to do good, that if they have lost sight of Christ, Christ has not\nlost sight of them.\n\nTo such men the idea of the Incarnation, and still more, that of the\nPassion, is derogatory to the very notion of a God.  That a God should\nsuffer, and that a God should die, is shocking--and, to do them justice,\nI believe they speak sincerely--to their notions of the absolute majesty,\nthe undisturbed serenity, of the Author of the universe; of Him in whom\nall things live and move and have their being; who dwells in the light to\nwhich none may approach.  And therefore they have, in every age, tried\nvarious expedients to escape from a doctrine which seemed repugnant to\nthat most precious part of them, their moral sense.  In the earlier\ncenturies of the Church they tried to shew that St John and St Paul\nspoke, not of one who was Very God of Very God, but of some highest and\nmost primeval of all creatures, Emanation, AEon, or what not.  In these\nlater times, when the belief in such beings, and even their very names,\nhave become dim and dead, men have tried to shew that the words of\nScripture apply to a mere man.  They have seen in Christ--and they have\nreverenced and loved Him for what they have seen in Him--the noblest and\npurest, the wisest and the most loving of all human beings; and have\nattributed such language as that in the text, which--translate it as you\nwill--ascribes absolute divinity, and nothing less, to our Lord Jesus\nChrist--they have attributed it, I say, to some fondness for Oriental\nhyperbole, and mystic Theosophy, in the minds of the Apostles.  Others,\nagain, have gone further, and been, I think, more logically honest.  They\nhave perceived that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, as His words are\nreported, attributed divinity to Himself, just as much as did His\nApostles.  Such a saying as that one, \"Before Abraham was, I am,\" and\nothers beside it, could be escaped from only by one of two methods.  To\nthe first of them I shall not allude in this sacred place, popular as a\nlate work has made it in its native France, and I fear in England\nlikewise.  The other alternative, more reverent indeed, but, as I\nbelieve, just as mistaken, is to suppose that the words were never\nuttered at all; that Christ--it is not I who say it--possibly never\nexisted at all; that His whole story was gradually built up, like certain\nfabulous legends of Romish saints, out of the moral consciousness of\nvarious devout persons during the first three centuries; each of whom\nadded to the portrait, as it grew more and more lovely under the hands of\nsucceeding generations, some new touch of beauty, some fresh trait, half\ninvented, half traditional, of purity, love, nobleness, majesty; till men\nat last became fascinated with the ideal to which they themselves had\ncontributed; and fell down and worshipped their own humanity; and\nchristened that The Son of God.\n\nIf I believed that theory, or either of the others, I need not say that I\nshould not be preaching here.  I will go further, and say, that if I\nbelieved either of those theories, or any save that which stands out in\nthe text, sharp-cut and colossal like some old Egyptian Memnon, and like\nthat statue, with a smile of sweetness on its lips which tempers the\nroyal majesty of its looks,--if I did not believe that, I say--I should\nbe inclined to confess with Homer of old, that man is the most miserable\nof all the beasts of the field.\n\nFor consider but this one argument.  It is no new one; it has lain, I\nbelieve, unspoken and instinctive, yet most potent and inspiring, in many\na mind, in many an age.  If there be a God, must He not be the best of\nall beings?  But if He who suffered on Calvary were not God, but a mere\ncreature; then--as I hold--there must have been a creature in the\nuniverse better than God Himself.  Or if He who suffered on Calvary had\nnot the character which is attributed to Him,--if Christ's love,\ncondescension, self-sacrifice, be a mere imagination, built up by the\nfancy of man; then has Christendom for 1800 years been fancying for\nitself a better God than Him who really exists.\n\nThousands of the best men and women in the world through all the ages of\nChristendom have agreed with this argument, under some shape or other.\nThousands there have been, and I trust there will be thousands hereafter,\nwho have felt, as they looked upon the Cross of the Son of God, not that\nit was derogatory to Christ to believe that He had suffered, but\nderogatory to Him to believe that He had not suffered: for only by\nsuffering, as far as we can conceive, could He perfectly manifest His\nglory and His Father's glory; and shew that it was full of grace.\n\nFull of grace.  Think, I beg you, over that one word.\n\nWe all agree that God is good; all at least do so, who worship Him in\nspirit and in truth.  We adore His majesty, because it is the moral and\nspiritual majesty of perfect goodness.  We give thanks to Him for His\ngreat glory, because it is the glory, not merely of perfect power,\nwisdom, order, justice; but of perfect love, of perfect magnanimity,\nbeneficence, activity, condescension, pity--in one word, of perfect\ngrace.\n\nBut how much must that last word comprehend, as long as there is misery\nand evil in this world, or in any other corner of the whole universe?\nGrace, to be perfect, must shew itself by graciously forgiving penitents.\nPity, to be perfect, must shew itself by helping the miserable.\nBeneficence, to be perfect, must shew itself by delivering the oppressed.\n\nThe old prophets and psalmists saw as much as this; and preached that\nthis too was part of the essence and character of God.\n\nThey saw that the Lord was gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of\ngreat kindness, and repented Him of the evil.  They saw that the Lord\nhelped them to right who suffered wrong, and fed the hungry; that the\nLord loosed men out of prison, the Lord gave sight to the blind; that the\nLord helped the fallen, and defended the fatherless and widow.  They saw\ntoo a further truth, and a more awful one.  They saw that the Lord was\nactually and practically King of kings and Lord of lords: that as such He\ncould come, and did come at times, rewarding the loyal, putting down the\nrebellious, and holding high assize from place to place, that He might\nexecute judgment and justice; beholding all the wrong that was done on\nearth, and coming, as it were, out of His place, at each historic crisis,\neach revolution in the fortunes of mankind, to make inquisition for\nblood, to trample His enemies beneath His feet, and to inaugurate some\nprogress toward that new heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth\nrighteousness, and righteousness alone.  That vision, in whatsoever\nmetaphors it may be wrapped up, is real and true, and will be so as long\nas evil exists within this universe.  Were it not true, there would be\nsomething wanting to the perfect justice and the perfect benevolence of\nGod.\n\nBut is this all?  If this be all, what have we Christians learnt from the\nNew Testament which is not already taught us in the Old?  Where is that\nnew, deeper, higher revelation of the goodness of God, which Jesus of\nNazareth preached, and which John and Paul and all the apostles believed\nthat they had found in Jesus Himself?  They believed, and all those who\naccepted their gospel believed, that they had found for that word\n\"grace,\" a deeper meaning than had ever been revealed to the prophets of\nold time; that grace and goodness, if they were perfect, involved self-\nsacrifice.\n\nAnd does not our own highest reason tell us that they were right?  Does\nnot our own highest reason, which is our moral sense, tell us that\nperfect goodness requires, not merely that we should pity our\nfellow-creatures, not merely that we should help them, not merely that we\nshould right them magisterially and royally, without danger or injury to\nourselves: but that we should toil for them, suffer for them, and if need\nbe, as the highest act of goodness, die for them at last?  Is not this\nthe very element of goodness which we all confess to be most noble,\nbeautiful, pure, heroical, divine?  Divine even in sinful and fallen man,\nwho must forgive because he needs to be forgiven; who must help others\nbecause he needs help himself; who, if he suffers for others, deserves to\nsuffer, and probably will suffer, in himself.  But how much more\nheroical, and how much more divine in a Being who needs neither\nforgiveness nor help, and who is as far from deserving as He is from\nneeding to suffer!  And shall this noblest form of goodness be possible\nto sinful man, and yet impossible to a perfectly good God?  Shall we say\nthat the martyr at the stake, the patriot dying for his country, the\nmissionary spending his life for the good of heathens; ay more, shall we\nsay that those women, martyrs by the pang without the palm, who in secret\nchambers, in lowly cottages, have sacrificed and do still sacrifice self\nand all the joys of life for the sake of simple duties, little charities,\nkindness unnoticed and unknown by all, save God--shall we say that all\nwho have from the beginning of the world shewn forth the beauty of self-\nsacrifice have had no divine prototype in heaven?--That they have been\nexercising a higher grace, a nobler form of holiness, than He who made\nthem, and who, as they believe, and we ought to believe, inspired them\nwith that spirit of unselfishness, which if it be not the Spirit of God,\nwhose spirit can it be?  Shall we say this, and so suppose them holier\nthan their own Maker?  Shall we say this, and suppose that they, when\nthey attributed self-sacrifice to God, made indeed a God in their own\nimage, but a God of greater love, greater pity, greater graciousness\nbecause of greater unselfishness, than Him who really exists?\n\nShall we say this, the very words whereof confute themselves and shock\nalike our reason and our conscience?  Or shall we say with St John and\nwith St Paul, that if men can be so good, God must be infinitely better;\nthat if man can love so much, God must love more; if man, by shaking off\nthe selfishness which is his bane, can do such deeds, then God, in whom\nis no selfishness at all, may at least have done a deed as far above\ntheirs as the heavens are above the earth?  Shall we not confess that\nman's self-sacrifice is but a poor and dim reflection of the\nself-sacrifice of God, and say with St John, \"Herein is love, not that we\nloved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation\nfor our sins;\" and with St Paul, \"Scarcely for a righteous man would one\ndie, but God commendeth His love to us in this, that while we were yet\nsinners, Christ died for us\"?  Shall we not say this: and find, as\nthousands have found ere now, in the Cross of Calvary the perfect\nsatisfaction of our highest moral instincts, the realization in act and\nfact of the highest idea which we can form of perfect condescension,\nnamely, self-sacrifice exercised by a Being of whom perfect\ncondescension, love and self-sacrifice were not required by aught in\nheaven or earth, save by the necessity of His own perfect and\ninconceivable goodness?\n\nWe reverence, and rightly, the majesty of God.  How can that infinite\nmajesty be proved more perfectly than by condescension equally infinite?\nWe adore, and justly, the serenity of God, who has neither parts nor\npassions.  How can that serenity be proved more perfectly, than by\npassing, still serene, through all the storm and crowd of circumstance\nwhich disturb the weak serenity of man; by passing through poverty,\nhelplessness, temptation, desertion, shame, torture, death; and passing\nthrough them all victorious and magnificent; with a moral calm as\nundisturbed, a moral purity as unspotted, as it had been from all\neternity, as it will be to all eternity, in that abysmal source of being,\nwhich we call the Bosom of the Father?  It is the moral majesty of God,\nas shewn on Calvary, which I uphold.  Shew that Calvary was not\ninconsistent with that; shew that Calvary was not inconsistent with the\ngoodness of God, but rather the perfection of that goodness shewn forth\nin time and space: then all other arguments connected with God's majesty\nmay go for nought, provided that God's moral majesty be safe.  Provided\nGod be proved to be morally infinite--that is, in plain English,\ninfinitely good; provided God be proved to be morally absolute--that is,\nabsolutely unable to have His goodness affected by any circumstance\noutside Him, even by the death upon the Cross: then let the rest go.  All\nwords about absoluteness and infinity and majesty, beyond that, are\nphysical--metaphors drawn from matter, which have nothing to do with God\nwho is a Spirit.\n\nBut God's infinite power too often means, in the minds of men, only some\nabstract notion of boundless bodily strength.  God's omniscience too\noften means, only some physical fancy of innumerable telescopic or\nmicroscopic eyes.  God's infinite wisdom too often means, only some\nabstract notion of boundless acuteness of brain.  And lastly--I am sorry\nto have to say it, but it must be said,--God's infinite majesty too often\nmeans, in the minds of some superstitious people, mere pride, and\nobstinacy, and cruelty, as of the blind will of some enormous animal\nwhich does what it chooses, whether right or wrong.\n\nIf the mystery of the Cross contradict any of these carnal or material\nnotions, so much the more glory to the mystery of the Cross.  One\nspiritual infinite, one spiritual absolute, it does not contradict: and\nthat is the infinite and absolute goodness of God.\n\nLet all the rest remain a mystery, so long as the mystery of the Cross\ngives us faith for all the rest.\n\nFaith, I say.  The mystery of evil, of sorrow, of death, the Gospel does\nnot pretend to solve: but it tells us that the mystery is proved to be\nsoluble.  For God Himself has taken on Himself the task of solving it;\nand has proved by His own act, that if there be evil in the world, it is\nnone of His; for He hates it, and fights against it, and has fought\nagainst it to the death.\n\nIt simply says--Have faith in God.  Ask no more of Him--Why hast Thou\nmade me thus?  Ask no more--Why do the wicked prosper on the earth?  Ask\nno more--Whence pain and death, war and famine, earthquake and tempest,\nand all the ills to which flesh is heir?\n\nAll fruitless questionings, all peevish repinings, are precluded\nhenceforth by the passion and death of Christ.\n\nDost thou suffer?  Thou canst not suffer more than the Son of God.  Dost\nthou sympathize with thy fellow-men?  Thou canst not sympathize more than\nthe Son of God.  Dost thou long to right them, to deliver them, even at\nthe price of thine own blood?  Thou canst not long more ardently than the\nSon of God, who carried His longing into act, and died for them and thee.\nWhat if the end be not yet?  What if evil still endure?  What if the\nmedicine have not yet conquered the disease?  Have patience, have faith,\nhave hope, as thou standest at the foot of Christ's Cross, and holdest\nfast to it, the anchor of the soul and reason, as well as of the heart.\nFor however ill the world may go, or seem to go, the Cross is the\neverlasting token that God so loved the world, that He spared not His\nonly-begotten Son, but freely gave Him for it.  Whatsoever else is\ndoubtful, this at least is sure,--that good must conquer, because God is\ngood; that evil must perish, because God hates evil, even to the death.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON II.  THE PERFECT LOVE.\n\n\n1 JOHN IV. 10.\n\n   Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent\n   His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.\n\nThis is Passion-week; the week in which, according to ancient and most\nwholesome rule, we are bidden to think of the Passion of Jesus Christ our\nLord.  To think of that, however happy and comfortable, however busy and\neager, however covetous and ambitious, however giddy and frivolous,\nhowever free, or at least desirous to be free, from suffering of any\nkind, we are ourselves.  To think of the sufferings of Christ, and learn\nhow grand it is to suffer for the Right.\n\nAnd why?\n\nPassion-week gives but one answer: but that answer is the one best worth\nlistening to.\n\nIt is grand and good to suffer for the Right, because God, in Christ, has\nsuffered for the Right.\n\nLet us consider this awhile.\n\nIt is a first axiom in sound theology, that there is nothing good in man,\nwhich was not first in God.\n\nNow we all, I trust, hold God to be supremely good.  We ascribe to Him,\nin perfection, every kind of goodness of which we can conceive in man.  We\nsay God is just; God is truthful; God is pure; God is bountiful; God is\nmerciful; and, in one word, God is Love.\n\nGod is Love.  But if we say that, do we not say that God is good with a\nfresh form of goodness, which is not justice, nor truthfulness, nor\npurity, bounty, nor mercy, though without them--never forget that--it\ncannot exist?  And is not that fresh goodness, which we have not defined\nyet, the very kind of goodness which we prize most in human beings?  The\nvery kind of goodness which makes us prize and admire love, because\nwithout it there is no true love, no love worth calling by that sacred\nand heavenly name?  And what is that?\n\nWhat--save self-sacrifice?  For what is the love worth which does not\nshew itself in action; and more, which does not shew itself in Passion,\nin the true sense of that word, which this week teaches us: namely, in\nsuffering?  Not merely in acting for, but in daring, in struggling, in\ngrieving, in agonizing, and, if need be, in dying for, the object of its\nlove?\n\nEvery mother in this church will give but one answer to that question;\nfor mothers give it among the very animals; and the deer who fights for\nher fawn, the bird who toils for her nestlings, the spider who will\nrather die than drop her bag of eggs, know at least that love is not\nworth calling love, unless it can dare and suffer for the thing it loves.\nThe most gracious of all virtues, therefore, is self-sacrifice; and is\nthere no like grace in God, the fount of grace?  Has God, whose name is\nLove, never dared, never suffered, even to the death, in the mightiness\nof a perfect Love?\n\nWe Christians say that He has.  We say so, because it has been revealed\nto us, not by flesh and blood, not by brain or nerves, not by logic or\nemotions, but by the Spirit of God, to whom our inmost spirits and\nhighest reasons have made answer--A God who has suffered for man?  That\nis so beautiful, that it must be true.\n\nFor otherwise we should be left--as I have argued at length elsewhere--in\nthis strange paradox:--that man has fancied to himself for 1800 years a\nmore beautiful God, a nobler God, a better God than the God who actually\nexists.  It must be so, if God is not capable of that highest virtue of\nself-sacrifice, while man has been believing that He is, and that upon\nthe first Good Friday He sacrificed Himself for man, out of the intensity\nof a boundless Love.  A better God imagined by man, than the actual God\nwho made man?  We have only to state that absurdity, I trust, to laugh it\nto scorn.\n\nLet us confess, then, that the Passion of Christ, and the mystery of Good\nFriday, is as reasonable a belief to the truly wise, as it is comfortable\nto the weary and the suffering; let us agree that one of the wisest of\nEnglishmen, of late gone to his rest, spoke well when he said, \"As long\nas women and sorrow exist on earth, so long will the gospel of\nChristianity find an echo in the human heart.\"  Let it find an echo in\nyours.  But it will only find one, in as far as you can enter into the\nmystery of Passion-week; in as far as you can learn from Passion-week the\ntruest and highest theology; and see what God is like, and therefore what\nyou must try to be like likewise.\n\nLet us think, then, awhile of the mystery of Passion-week; the mystery of\nthe Cross of Christ.  Christ Himself was looking on the coming Cross,\nduring this Passion-week; ay, and for many a week before.  Nay rather,\nhad He not looked on it from all eternity?  For is He not the Lamb slain\nfrom the foundation of the world?  Therefore we may well look on it with\nHim.  It may seem, at first, a painful bight.  But shall it cast over our\nminds only gloom and darkness?  Or shall we not see on the Cross the full\nrevelation of Light; of the Light which lightens every man that comes\ninto the world: and find that painful, not because of its darkness, but\nas the blaze of full sunshine is painful, from unbearable intensity of\nwarmth and light?  Let us see.\n\nOn the Cross of Calvary, then, God the Father shewed His own character\nand the character of His co-equal and co-eternal Son, and of The Spirit\nwhich proceeds from both.  For there He spared not His only-begotten Son,\nbut freely gave Him for us.  On the Cross of Calvary, not by the will of\nman, but by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, was offered\nbefore God the one and only full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice,\noblation, and satisfaction for the sin of the whole world.  God Himself\ndid this.  It was not done by any other being to alter His will; it was\ndone to fulfil His will.  It was not done to satisfy God's anger; it was\ndone to satisfy God's love.  Therefore Good Friday was well and wisely\ncalled by our forefathers Good Friday; because it shews, as no other day\ncan do, that God is good; that God's will to men, in spite of all their\nsins, is a good will; that so boundless, so utterly unselfish and\ncondescending, is the eternal love of God, that when an insignificant\nrace in a small and remote planet fell, and went wrong, and was in danger\nof ruin, there was nothing that God would not dare, God would not suffer,\nfor the sake of even such as us, vile earth and miserable sinners.\n\nYes, this is the good news of Passion-week; a gospel which men are too\napt to forget, even to try to forget, as long as they are comfortable and\nprosperous, lazy and selfish.  The comfortable prosperous man shrinks\nfrom the thought of Christ on His Cross.  It tells him that better men\nthan he have had to suffer; that The Son of God Himself had to suffer.\nAnd he does not like suffering; he prefers comfort.  The lazy, selfish\nman shrinks from the sight of Christ on His Cross; for it rebukes his\nlaziness and selfishness.  Christ's Cross says to him--Thou art ignoble\nand base, as long as thou art lazy and selfish.  Rise up, do something,\ndare something, suffer something, if need be, for the sake of thy fellow-\ncreatures.  Be of use.  Take trouble.  Face discomfort, contradiction,\nloss of worldly advantage, if it must be, for the sake of speaking truth\nand doing right.  If thou wilt not do as much as that, then the simplest\nsoldier who goes to die in battle for his duty, is a better man than\nthou, a nobler man than thou, more like Christ and more like God.  That\nis what Christ's Cross preaches to the lazy, selfish man; and he feels in\nhis heart that the sermon is true: but he does not like it.  He turns\nfrom it, and says in his heart--Oh! Christ's Cross is a painful subject,\nand Passion-week and Good Friday a painful time.  I will think of\nsomething more genial, more peaceful, more agreeable than sorrow, and\nshame, and agony, and death; Good Friday is too sad a day for me.\n\nYes, so a man says too often, as long as the fine weather lasts, and all\nis smooth and bright.  But when the tempest comes; when poverty comes,\naffliction, anxiety, shame, sickness, bereavement, and still more, when\npersecution comes on a man; when he tries to speak truth and do right;\nand finds, as he will too often find, that people, instead of loving him\nand praising him for speaking truth and doing right, hate him and\npersecute him for it: then, then indeed Passion-week begins to mean\nsomething to a man; and just because it is the saddest of all times, it\nlooks to him the brightest of all times.  For in his misery and confusion\nhe looks up to heaven and asks--Is there any one in heaven who\nunderstands all this?  Does God understand my trouble?  Does God feel for\nmy trouble?  Does God care for my trouble?  Does God know what trouble\nmeans?  Or must I fight the battle of life alone, without sympathy or\nhelp from God who made me, and has put me here?  Then, then does the\nCross of Christ bring a message to that man such as no other thing or\nbeing on earth can bring.  For it says to him--God does understand thee\nutterly.  For Christ understands thee.  Christ feels for thee.  Christ\nfeels with thee.  Christ has suffered for thee, and suffered with thee.\nThou canst go through nothing which Christ has not gone through.  He, the\nSon of God, endured poverty, fear, shame, agony, death for thee, that He\nmight be touched with the feeling of thine infirmity, and help thee to\nendure, and bring thee safe through all to victory and peace.\n\nBut again, Passion-week, and above all Good Friday, is a good time,\nbecause it teaches us, above all days, what it is to be good, and what\ngoodness means.  Therefore remember this, all of you, and take it home\nwith you for the year to come.  He who has learnt the lesson of Passion-\nweek, and practises it; he and he only is a good man.\n\nNay more, Passion-week tells us, I believe, what is the law according to\nwhich the whole world of man and of things, yea, the whole universe, sun,\nmoon, and stars, is made: and that is, the law of self-sacrifice; that\nnothing lives merely for itself; that each thing is ordained by God to\nhelp the things around it, even at its own expense.  That is a hard\nsaying: and yet it must be true.  The soundest Theology and the highest\nReason tell us that it must be so.  For there cannot be two Holy Spirits.\nNow the Spirit by which the Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed himself upon the\nCross is The Holy Spirit.  And the Spirit by which the Lord Jesus Christ\nmade all worlds is The Holy Spirit.  But the spirit by which He\nsacrificed Himself on the Cross is the spirit of self-sacrifice.  And\ntherefore the spirit by which He made the world is the spirit of self-\nsacrifice likewise; and self-sacrifice is the law and rule on which the\nuniverse is founded.  At least, that is the true Catholic faith, as far\nas my poor intellect can conceive it; and in that faith I will live and\ndie.\n\nThere are those who, now-a-days, will laugh at such a notion, and\nsay--Self-sacrifice?  It is not self-sacrifice which keeps the world\ngoing among men, or animals, or even the plants under our feet: but\nselfishness.  Competition, they say, is the law of the universe.\nEverything has to take care of itself, fight for itself, compete freely\nand pitilessly with everything round it, till the weak are killed off,\nand only the strong survive; and so, out of the free play of the self-\ninterest of each, you get the greatest possible happiness of the greatest\npossible number.\n\nDo we indeed?  I should have thought that unbridled selfishness, and the\ninternecine struggle of opposing interests, had already reduced many\nnations, and seemed likely to reduce all mankind, if it went on, to that\nstate of the greatest possible misery of the greatest number, from which\nour blessed Lord, as in this very week, died to deliver us.  At all\nevents, if that is to be the condition of man, and of society, then man\nis not made in the likeness of God, and has no need to be led by the\nSpirit of God.  For what the likeness of God and the Spirit of God are,\nPassion-week tells us--namely, Love which knows no self-interest; Love\nwhich cares not for itself; Love which throws its own life away, that it\nmay save those who have hated it, rebelled against it, put it to a\nfelon's death.\n\nMy good friends, instead of believing the carnal and selfish philosophy\nwhich cries, Every man for himself--I will not finish the proverb in this\nHoly place, awfully and literally true as the latter half of it\nis--instead of believing that, believe the message of Passion-week, which\nspeaks rather thus: telling us that not selfishness, but unselfishness,\nmutual help and usefulness, is the law and will of God; and that\ntherefore the whole universe, and all that God has made, is very good.\nAnd what does Passion-week say to men?\n\n   \"Could we but crush that ever-craving lust\n   For bliss, which kills all bliss; and lose our life,\n   Our barren unit life, to find again\n   A thousand lives in those for whom we die:\n   So were we men and women, and should hold\n   Our rightful place in God's great universe,\n   Wherein, in heaven and earth, by will or nature,\n   Nought lives for self.  All, all, from crown to footstool.\n   The Lamb, before the world's foundation slain;\n   The angels, ministers to God's elect;\n   The sun, who only shines to light a world;\n   The clouds, whose glory is to die in showers;\n   The fleeting streams, who in their ocean graves\n   Flee the decay of stagnant self-content;\n   The oak, ennobled by the shipwright's axe;\n   The soil, which yields its marrow to the flower;\n   The flower which breeds a thousand velvet worms,\n   Born only to be prey to every bird--\n   All spend themselves on others; and shall man,\n   Whose twofold being is the mystic knot\n   Which couples earth and heaven--doubly bound,\n   As being both worm and angel, to that service\n   By which both worms and angels hold their lives--\n   Shall he, whose very breath is debt on debt,\n   Refuse, forsooth, to see what God has made him?\n   No, let him shew himself the creatures' lord\n   By freewill gift of that self-sacrifice\n   Which they, perforce, by nature's law must suffer;\n   Take up his cross, and follow Christ the Lord.\"\n\nAnd thus Passion-week tells all men in what true goodness lies.  In self-\nsacrifice.  In it Christ on His Cross shewed men what was the likeness of\nGod, the goodness of God, the glory of God--to suffer for sinful man.\n\nOn this day Christ said--ay, and His Cross says still, and will say to\nall eternity--Wouldest thou be good?  Wouldest thou be like God?  Then\nwork, and dare, and, if need be, suffer, for thy fellow-men.  On this day\nChrist consecrated, and, as it were, offered up to the Father in His own\nbody on the Cross, all loving actions, unselfish actions, merciful\nactions, generous actions, heroic actions, which man has done, or ever\nwill do.  From Him, from His Spirit, their strength came; and therefore\nHe is not ashamed to call them brethren.  He is the King of the noble\narmy of martyrs; of all who suffer for love, and truth, and justice'\nsake; and to all such he says--Thou hast put on my likeness, and followed\nmy footsteps; thou hast suffered for my sake, and I too have suffered for\nthy sake, and enabled thee to suffer in like wise; and in Me thou too art\na son of God, in whom the Father is well pleased.\n\nOh, let us contemplate this week Christ on His Cross, sacrificing Himself\nfor us and all mankind; and may that sight help to cast out of us all\nlaziness and selfishness, and make us vow obedience to the spirit of self-\nsacrifice, the Spirit of Christ and of God, which was given to us at our\nbaptism.  And let us give, as we are most bound, in all humility and\ncontrition of heart, thanks, praise, and adoration, to that immortal\nLamb, who abideth for ever in the midst of the throne of God, the Lamb\nslain before the foundation of the world, by Whom all things consist; and\nWho in this week died on the Cross in mortal flesh and blood, that He\nmight make this a good week to all mankind, and teach selfish man that\nonly by being unselfish can he too be good; and only by self-sacrifice\nbecome perfect, even as The Father in heaven is perfect.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON III.  THE SPIRIT OF WHITSUNTIDE.\n\n\nISAIAH XI. 2.\n\n   The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him; the spirit of wisdom and\n   understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of\n   knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.\n\nThis is Isaiah's description of the Spirit of Whitsuntide; the royal\nSpirit which was to descend, and did descend without measure, on the\nideal and perfect King, even on Jesus Christ our Lord, the only-begotten\nSon of God.\n\nThat Spirit is the Spirit of God; and therefore the Spirit of Christ.\n\nLet us consider a while what that Spirit is.\n\nHe is the Spirit of love.  For God is love; and He is the Spirit of God.\nOf that there can be no doubt.\n\nHe is the Spirit of boundless love and charity, which is the Spirit of\nthe Father, and the Spirit of the Son likewise.  For when by that Spirit\nof love the Father sent the Son into the world that the world through Him\nmight be saved, then the Son, by the same Spirit of love, came into the\nworld, and humbled Himself, and took on Him the form of a slave, and was\nobedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.\n\nThe Spirit of God, then, is the Spirit of love.\n\nBut the text describes this Spirit in different words.  According to\nIsaiah, the Spirit of the Lord is the spirit of wisdom and understanding,\nthe spirit of Counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear\nof the Lord--in one word, that I may put it as simply as I can--the\nspirit of wisdom.\n\nNow, is the spirit of wisdom the same as the spirit of love?\n\nSound theology, which is the highest reason, tells us that it must be so.\nFor consider:\n\nIf the spirit of love is the Spirit of God, and the spirit of wisdom is\nthe Spirit of God, then they must be the same spirit.  For if they be two\ndifferent spirits, then there must be two Holy Spirits; for any and every\nSpirit of God must be holy,--what else can He be?  Unholy?  I leave you\nto answer that.\n\nBut two Holy Spirits there cannot be; for holiness, which is wisdom,\njustice, and love, is one and indivisible; and as the Athanasian Creed\ntells us, and as our highest reason ought to tell us, there is but one\nHoly Spirit, who must be at once a spirit of wisdom and a spirit of love.\n\nTo suppose anything else; to suppose that God's wisdom and God's love, or\nthat God's justice and God's love, are different from each other, or\nlimit each other, or oppose each other, or are anything but one and the\nsame eternally, is to divide God's substance; to deny that God is One:\nwhich is forbidden us, rightly, and according to the highest reason, by\nthe Athanasian Creed.\n\nBut more; experience will shew us that the spirit of love is the same as\nthe spirit of wisdom; that if any man wishes to be truly wise and\nprudent, his best way--I may say his only way--is to be loving and\ncharitable.\n\nThe experience of the apostles proves it.  They were, I presume, the most\nperfectly loving and charitable of men; they sacrificed all for the sake\nof doing good; they counted not their own lives dear to them; they\nendured--what did they not endure?--for the one object of doing good to\nmen; and--what is harder, still harder, for any human being, because it\nrequires not merely enthusiasm, but charity, they made themselves (St\nPaul at least) all things to all men, if by any means they might save\nsome.\n\nBut were they wise in so doing?  We may judge of a man's wisdom, my\nfriends, by his success.  We English are very apt to do so.  We like\npractical men.  We say--I will tell you what a man is, by what he can do.\n\nNow, judged by that rule, surely the apostles' method of winning men by\nlove proved itself a wise method.  What did the apostles do?  They had\nthe most enormous practical success that men ever had.  They, twelve poor\nmen, set out to convert mankind by loving them: and they succeeded.\n\nRemember, moreover, that the text speaks of this Spirit of the Lord being\ngiven to One who was to be a King, a Ruler, a Guide, and a Judge of men;\nwho was to exercise influence over men for their good.  This prophecy was\nfulfilled first in the King of kings, our Lord Jesus Christ: but it was\nfulfilled also in His apostles, who were, in their own way and measure,\nkings of men, exercising a vast influence over them.  And how?  By the\nroyal Spirit of love.  In the apostles the Spirit of love and charity\nproved Himself to be also the Spirit of wisdom and understanding.  He\ngave them such a converting, subduing, alluring power over men's hearts,\nas no men have had, before or since.  And He will prove Himself to have\nthe same power in us.  Our own experience will be the same as the\napostles' experience.\n\nI say this deliberately.  The older we grow, the more we understand our\nown lives and histories, the more we shall see that the spirit of wisdom\nis the spirit of love; that the true way to gain influence over our\nfellow-men, is to have charity towards them.\n\nThat is a hard lesson to learn; and those who learn it at all, generally\nlearn it late; almost--God forgive us--too late.\n\nOur reason, if we would let the Spirit of God enlighten it, would teach\nus this beforehand.  But we do not usually listen to our reason, or to\nGod's Spirit speaking to it.  And therefore we have to learn the lesson\nby experience, often by very sad and shameful experience.  And even that\nvery experience we cannot understand, unless the Spirit of God interpret\nit to us: and blessed are they who, having been chastised, hearken to His\ninterpretation.\n\nOur reason, I say, should teach us that the spirit of wisdom is none\nother than the spirit of love.  For consider--how does the text describe\nthis Spirit?\n\nAs the spirit of wisdom and understanding; that is, as the knowledge of\nhuman nature, the understanding of men and their ways.  If we do not\nunderstand our fellow-creatures, we shall never love them.\n\nBut it is equally true that if we do not love them, we shall never\nunderstand them.  Want of charity, want of sympathy, want of good-feeling\nand fellow-feeling--what does it, what can it breed, but endless mistakes\nand ignorances, both of men's characters and men's circumstances?\n\nBe sure that no one knows so little of his fellow-men, as the cynical,\nmisanthropic man, who walks in darkness, because he hates his brother.  Be\nsure that the truly wise and understanding man is he who by sympathy puts\nhimself in his neighbours' place; feels with them and for them; sees with\ntheir eyes, hears with their ears; and therefore understands them, makes\nallowances for them, and is merciful to them, even as his Father in\nheaven is merciful.\n\nAnd next; this royal Spirit is described as \"the spirit of counsel and\nmight,\" that is, the spirit of prudence and practical power; the spirit\nwhich sees how to deal with human beings, and has the practical power of\nmaking them obey.\n\nNow that power, again, can only be got by loving human beings.  There is\nnothing so blind as hardness, nothing so weak as violence.  I, of course,\ncan only speak from my own experience; and my experience is this: that\nwhensoever in my past life I have been angry and scornful, I have said or\ndone an unwise thing; I have more or less injured my own cause; weakened\nmy own influence on my fellow-men; repelled them instead of attracting\nthem; made them rebel against me, rather than obey me.  By patience,\ncourtesy, and gentleness, we not only make ourselves stronger; we not\nonly attract our fellow-men, and make them help us and follow us\nwillingly and joyfully: but we make ourselves wiser; we give ourselves\ntime and light to see what we ought to do, and how to do it.\n\nAnd next; this Spirit is also \"the spirit of knowledge, and of the fear\nof the Lord.\"  Ay, they, indeed, both begin in love, and end in love.  If\nyou wish for knowledge, you must begin by loving knowledge for its own\nsake.  And the more knowledge you gain, the more you will long to know,\nand more, and yet more for ever.  You cannot succeed in a study, unless\nyou love that study.  Men of science must begin with an interest in, a\nlove for, an enthusiasm, in the very deepest sense of the word, for the\nphaenomena which they study.  But the more they learn of them, the more\ntheir love increases; as they see more and more of their wonder, of their\nbeauty, of the unspeakable wisdom and power of God, shewn forth in every\nblade of grass which grows in the sunshine and the rain.\n\nAnd if this be true of things earthly and temporary, how much more of\nthings heavenly and eternal?  We must begin by loving whatsoever things\nare true, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, honest,\nand of good report.  We must begin, I say, by loving them with a sort of\nchild's love, without understanding them; by that simple instinct and\nlonging after what is good and beautiful and true, which is indeed the\ninspiration of the Spirit of God.  But as we go on, as St Paul bids us,\nto meditate on them; and \"if there be any virtue and if there be any\npraise, to think on such things,\" and feed our minds daily with\npurifying, elevating, sobering, humanizing, enlightening thoughts: then\nwe shall get to love goodness with a reasonable and manly love; to see\nthe beauty of holiness; the strength of self-sacrifice; the glory of\njustice; the divineness of love; and in a word--To love God for His own\nsake, and to give Him thanks for His great glory, which is: That He is a\ngood God.\n\nThis thought--remember it, I pray--brings me to the last point.  This\nSpirit is also the spirit of the fear of the Lord.  And that too, my\nfriends, must be a spirit of love not only to God, but to our\nfellow-creatures.  For if we but consider that God the Father loves all;\nthat His mercy is over all His works; and that He hateth nothing that He\nhas made: then how dare we hate anything that He has made, as long as we\nhave any rational fear of Him, awe and respect for Him, true faith in His\ninfinite majesty and power?  If we but consider that God the Son actually\ncame down on earth to die, and to die too on the cross, for all mankind:\nthen how dare we hate a human being for whom He died: at least if we have\ntrue honour, gratitude, loyalty, reverence, and godly fear in our hearts\ntoward Him, our risen Lord?\n\nOh let us open our eyes this Whitsuntide to the experience of our past\nlives.  Let us see now--what we shall certainly see at the day of\njudgment--that whenever we have failed to be loving, we have also failed\nto be wise; that whenever we have been blind to our neighbours'\ninterests, we have also been blind to our own; whenever we have hurt\nothers, we have hurt ourselves still more.  Let us, at this blessed\nWhitsuntide, ask forgiveness of God for all acts of malice and\nuncharitableness, blindness and hardness of heart; and pray for the\nspirit of true charity, which alone is true wisdom.  And let us come to\nHoly Communion in charity with each other and with all; determined\nhenceforth to feel for each other and with each other; to put ourselves\nin our neighbours' places; to see with their eyes, and feel with their\nhearts, as far as God shall give us that great grace; determined to make\nallowances for their mistakes and failings; to give and forgive, live and\nlet live, even as God gives and forgives, lives and lets live for ever:\nthat so we may be indeed the children of our Father in heaven, whose name\nis Love.  Then we shall indeed discern the Lord's body--that it is a body\nof union, sympathy, mutual trust, help, affection.  Then we shall, with\nall contrition and humility, but still in spirit and in truth, claim and\nobtain our share in the body and the blood, in the spirit and in the\nmind, of Him Who sacrificed Himself for a rebellious world.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON IV.  PRAYER.\n\n\nPSALM LXV. 2.\n\n   Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come.\n\nNext Friday, the 20th of December, 1871, will be marked in most churches\nof this province of Canterbury by a special ceremony.  Prayers will be\noffered to God for the increase of missionary labourers in the Church of\nEngland.  To many persons--I hope I may say, to all in this\ncongregation--this ceremony will seem eminently rational.  We shall not\nask God to suspend the laws of nature, nor alter the courses of the\nseasons, for any wants, real or fancied, of our own.  We shall ask Him to\nmake us and our countrymen wiser and better, in order that we may make\nother human beings wiser and better: and an eminently rational request I\nassert that to be.\n\nFor no one will deny that it is good for heathens and savages, even if\nthere were no life after death, to be wiser and better than they are.  It\nis good, I presume, that they should give up cannibalism, slave-trading,\nwitchcraft, child-murder, and a host of other abominations; and that they\nshould be made to give them up not from mere fear of European cannon, but\nof their own wills and consciences, seeing that such habits are wrong and\nruinous, and loathing them accordingly; in a word, that instead of living\nas they do, and finding in a hundred ways that the wages of sin are\ndeath, they should be converted--that is, change their ways--and live.\n\nNow that this is the will of God--assuming that there is a God, and a\ngood God--is plain at least to our reason, and to our common sense; and\nit is equally plain to our reason and to our common sense that, as God\nhas not taught these poor wretches to improve themselves, or sent\nsuperior beings to improve them from some other world, He therefore means\ntheir improvement to be brought about, as moral improvements are usually\nbrought about, by the influence of their fellow-men, and specially by us\nwho have put ourselves in contact with them in our world-wide search for\nwealth; and who are certain, as we know by sad experience, to make the\nheathen worse, if we do not make them better.  And as we find from\nexperience that our missionaries, wherever they are brought in contact\nwith these savages, do make them wiser and happier, we ask God to inspire\nmore persons with the desire of improving the heathen, and to teach them\nhow to improve them.  I say, how to improve them.  All sneers, whether at\nthe failure of missionary labours, or at the small results in return for\nthe vast sums spent on missions--all such sneers, I say, instead of\ndeterring us from praying to God on this matter, ought to make us pray\nthe more earnestly in proportion as they are deserved.  For they ought to\nremind us that we possibly may not have gone to work as yet altogether in\nthe right way; that there may be mistakes and deficiencies in our method\nof dealing with the heathen.  And if so, it seems all the more reason for\nasking God to set us and others right, in case we should be wrong; and to\nmake us and others strong, in case we should be weak.\n\nWe thus commit the matter to God.  We do not ask God to raise up such\nmissionary labourers as we think fit: but such as He thinks fit.  We do\nnot pray Him to alter His will concerning the heathen: but to enable us\nto do what we know already to be His will.  And this course seems to me\neminently rational; provided always, of course, that it is rational to\nbelieve that there is a God who answers prayer; and that if we ask\nanything according to His will, He hears us.\n\nNow the older I grow, and the more I see of the chances and changes of\nthis mortal life, and of the needs and longings of the human heart, the\nmore important seems this question, and all words concerning it, whether\nin the Bible or out of the Bible--\n\nIs there anywhere in the universe any being who can hear our prayers?  Is\nprayer a superfluous folly, or the highest prudence?\n\nI say--Is there a being who can even hear our prayers?  I do not say, a\nbeing who will always answer them, and give us all we ask: but one who\nwill at least hear, who will listen; consider whether what we ask is fit\nto be granted or not; and grant or refuse accordingly.\n\nYou say--What is the need of asking such a question?  Of course we\nbelieve that.  Of course we pray, else why are we in church to-day?\n\nWell, my friends, God grant that you may all believe it in spirit and in\ntruth.  But you must remember that if so, you are in the minority; that\nthe majority of civilized men, like the majority of mere savages, do not\npray, whatever the women may do; and that prayer among thinking and\ncivilized white men has been becoming, for the last 100 years at least,\nmore and more unfashionable; and is likely, to judge from the signs of\nthe times, to become more unfashionable still: after which reign of\ndegrading ungodliness, I presume--from the experience of all history--that\nour children or grandchildren will see a revulsion to some degrading\nsuperstition, and the latter end be worse than the beginning.  But it is\nnotorious that men are doubting more and more of the efficacy of prayer;\nthat philosophers so-called, for true philosophers they are not--even\nthough they may be true, able, and worthy students of merely physical\nscience--are getting a hearing more and more readily, when they tell men\nthey need not pray.\n\nThey say; and here they say rightly--The world is ruled by laws.  But\nsome say further; and there they say wrongly;--For that reason prayer is\nof no use; the laws will not be altered to please you.  You yourself are\nbut tiny parts of a great machine, which will grind on in spite of you,\nthough it grind you to powder; and there is no use in asking the machine\nto stop.  So, they say, prayer is an impertinence.  I would that they\nstopped there.  For then we who deny that the world is a machine, or\nanything like a machine, might argue fairly with them on the common\nground of a common belief in God.\n\nBut some go further still, and say--A God?  We do not deny that there may\nbe a God: but we do not deny that there may not be one.  This we say--If\nHe exists, we know nothing of Him: and what is more, you know nothing of\nHim.  No man can know aught of Him.  No man can know whether there be a\nGod or not.  A living God, an acting God, a God of providence, a God who\nhears prayer, a God such as your Bible tells you of, is an inconceivable\nBeing; and what you cannot conceive, that you must not believe: and\ntherefore prayer is not merely an impertinence, it is a mistake; for it\nis speaking to a Being who only exists in your own imagination.  I need\nnot say, my friends, that all this, to my mind, is only a train of\nsophistry and false reasoning, which--so I at least hold--has been\nanswered and refuted again and again.  And I trust in God and in Christ\nsufficiently to believe that He will raise up sound divines and true\nphilosophers in His Church, who will refute it once more.  But meanwhile\nI can only appeal to your common sense; to the true and higher reason,\nwhich lies in men's hearts, not in their heads; and ask--And is it come\nto this?  Is this the last outcome of civilization, the last discovery of\nthe human intellect, the last good news for man?  That the soundest\nthinkers--they who have the truest and clearest notion of the universe\nare the savage who knows nothing but what his five senses teach him, and\nthe ungodly who makes boast of his own desire, and speaks good of the\ncovetous whom God abhorreth, while he says, \"Tush, God hath forgotten.  He\nhideth away his face, and God will never see it\"?\n\nTrue: these so-called philosophers would say that the savage makes a\nmistake in his sensuality, and the worldling in his covetousness and his\ntyranny; that from an imperfect conception of their own true\nself-interest, they carry their philosophy to conclusions which the\nphilosopher in his study must regret.  But as to their philosophy being\ncorrect: there can be no question that if providence, and prayer, and the\nliving God, be phantoms of man's imagination, then the cynical worldling\nat one end of the social scale, and the brutal savage at the other, are\nwiser than apostles and prophets, and sages and divines.\n\nThese men talk of facts, the facts of human nature.  Why do they ask us\nto ignore the most striking fact of human nature, that man, even if he\nwere a mere animal, is alone of all animals--a praying animal?  Is that\nstrange instinct of worship, which rises in the heart of man as soon as\nhe begins to think, to become a civilized being and not a savage, to be\ndisregarded as a childish dream when he rises to a higher civilization\nstill?  Is the experience of men, heathen as well as Christian, for all\nthese ages to go for nought?  Has it mattered nought whether men cried to\nBaal or to God; for with both alike there has been neither sound nor\nvoice, nor any that answered?  Has every utterance that has ever gone up\nfrom suffering and doubting humanity, gone up in vain?  Have the prayers\nof saints, the hymns of psalmists, the agonies of martyrs, the\naspirations of poets, the thoughts of sages, the cries of the oppressed,\nthe pleadings of the mother for her child, the maiden praying in her\nchamber for her lover upon the distant battle-field, the soldier\nanswering her prayer from afar off with, \"Sleep quiet, I am in God's\nhands\"--those very utterances of humanity which seemed to us most noble,\nmost pure, most beautiful, most divine, been all in vain?--impertinences;\nthe babblings of fair dreams, poured forth into nowhere, to no thing, and\nin vain?  Has every suffering, searching soul which ever gazed up into\nthe darkness of the unknown, in hopes of catching even a glimpse of a\ndivine eye, beholding all, and ordering all, and pitying all, gazed up in\nvain?  For at the ground of the universe is \"_not a divine eye_, _but\nonly a blank bottomless eye-socket_;\" {39} and man has no Father in\nheaven; and Christ revealed Him not, because He was not there to reveal;\nand there was no hope, no remedy, no deliverance, for the miserable among\nthe sons of men?\n\nOh, my friends, those who believe, or fancy that they believe such\nthings, must be able to do so only through some peculiar conformation\neither of brain or heart.  Only want of imagination to conceive the\nconsequences of such doctrines can enable them, if they have any love and\npity for their fellow-men, to preach those doctrines without pity and\nhorror.  They know not, they know not, of what they rob a mankind already\nbut too miserable by its own folly and its own sin; a mankind which, if\nit have not hope in God and in Christ, is truly--as Homer said of\nold--more miserable than the beasts of the field.  If their unconscious\nconceit did not make them unintentionally cruel, they would surely be\nsilent for pity's sake; they would let men go on in the pleasant delusion\nthat there is a living God, and a Word of God who has revealed Him to\nmen; and would hide from their fellow-creatures the dreadful secret which\nthey think they have discovered--That there is none that heareth prayer,\nand therefore to Him need no flesh come.\n\nMen take up with such notions, I believe, most generally in days of\ncomfort, ease, safety.  They find the world so well ordered outwardly,\nthat it seems able enough to go on its way without a God.  They have\nthemselves so few sorrows, struggles, doubts, that they never feel that\nsense of helplessness, of danger, of ignorance, which has made the hearts\nof men, in every age, yearn for an unseen helper, an unseen deliverer, an\nunseen teacher.\n\nAnd so it is--and shameful it is that so it should be--that the more God\ngives to men, the less they thank Him, the less they fancy that they need\nHim: but take His bounties, as they take the air they breathe,\nunconsciously, and as a matter of course.\n\nAnd therefore adversity is wholesome, danger is wholesome; so wholesome,\nthat in all ages, as far as I can find, the godliest, the most moral, the\nmost manful, and therefore the really happiest and most successful\nnations or communities of men, have been those who were in perpetual\ndanger, difficulty, struggle; and who have thereby had their faith in God\ncalled out; who have learned in the depth, to cry out of the depth to\nGod; to lift up their eyes unto the Lord, and know that their help comes\nfrom Him.\n\nI know a village down in the far West, where the 121st Psalm which I just\nquoted, was a favourite, and more than a favourite.  Whenever it was\ngiven out in church--and the congregation used often to ask for it--all\njoined in singing it, young and old, men and maidens, with an\nearnestness, a fervour, a passion, such as I never heard elsewhere; such\nas shewed how intensely they felt that the psalm was true, and true for\nthem.  Of all congregational singing I ever heard, never have I heard any\nso touching as those voices, when they joined in the old words they loved\nso well.\n\n   Sheltered beneath the Almighty wings\n   Thou shall securely rest,\n   Where neither sun nor moon shall thee\n   By day or night molest.\n   At home, abroad, in peace, in war,\n   Thy God shall thee defend;\n   Conduct thee through life's pilgrimage\n   Safe to thy journey's end.\n\nDo you fancy these people were specially comfortable, prosperous folk,\nwho had no sorrows, and lived safe from all danger, and therefore knew\nthat God protected them from all ill?\n\nNothing less, my friends, nothing less.  There was hardly a man who\njoined in that psalm, but knew that he carried his life in his hand from\nyear to year, that any day might see him a corpse--drowned at sea.  Hardly\na woman who sang that psalm but had lost a husband, a father, a brother,\na kinsman--drowned at sea.  And yet they believed that God preserved\nthem.  They were fishers and sailors, earning an uncertain livelihood, on\na wild and rocky coast.  A sudden shift of wind might make, as I knew it\nonce to make, 60 widows and orphans in a single night.  The fishery for\nthe year might fail, and all the expense of boats and nets be thrown\naway.  Or in default of work at home, the young men would go out on\nvoyages to foreign parts: and often never came back again, dying far from\nhome, of fever, of wreck, of some of the hundred accidents which befal\nseafaring men.  And yet they believed that God preserved them.  Surely\ntheir faith was tried, if ever faith was tried.  But as surely their\nfaith failed not, for--if I may so say--they dared not let it fail.  If\nthey ceased to trust God, what had they to trust in?  Not in their own\nskill in seamanship, though it was great: they knew how weak it was, on\nwhich to lean.  Not in the so-called laws of nature; the treacherous sea,\nthe wild wind, the uncertain shoals of fish, the chances and changes of a\nlong foreign voyage.  Without trust in God, their lives must have been\nlives of doubt and of terror, for ever anxious about the morrow: or else\nof blind recklessness, saying, \"Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we\ndie.\"  Because they kept their faith in God, their lives were for the\nmost part lives of hardy and hopeful enterprise; cheerful always, in bad\nluck as in good; thankful when their labours were blest with success; and\nwhen calamity and failure came, saying with noble resignation--\"I have\nreceived good from the hand of the Lord, and shall I not receive evil?\nThough He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.\"\n\nIt is a life like theirs, mixed with danger and uncertainty, which most\ncalls out faith in God.  It is the life of safety and comfort, in which\nour wants are all supplied ready to our hand, which calls it out least.\nAnd therefore it is that life in cities, just because it is most safe and\nmost comfortable, is so often, alas, most ungodly, at least among the\nmen.  Less common, thank God, is this ungodliness among the women.  The\nnursing of the sick; the cares of a family, often too sorrows, manifold\nand bitter, put them continually in mind of human weakness, and of their\nown weakness likewise.  Yes.  It is sorrow, my friends, sorrow and\nfailure, which forces men to believe that there is One who heareth\nprayer, forces them to lift up their eyes to One from whom cometh their\nhelp.  Before the terrible realities of danger, death, bereavement,\ndisappointment, shame, ruin--and most of all before deserved shame,\ndeserved ruin--all the arguments of the conceited sophist melt away like\nthe maxims of the comfortable worldling; and the man or woman who was but\ntoo ready a day before to say, \"Tush, God will never see, and will never\nhear,\" begins to hope passionately that God does see, that God does hear.\nIn the hour of darkness; when there is no comfort in man nor help in man,\nwhen he has no place to flee unto, and no man careth for his soul: then\nthe most awful, the most blessed of all questions is: But is there no one\nhigher than man to whom I can flee?  No one higher than man who cares for\nmy soul and for the souls of those who are dearer to me than my own soul?\nNo friend?  No helper?  No deliverer?  No counsellor?  Even no judge?  No\npunisher?  No God, even though He be a consuming fire?  Am I and my\nmisery alone together in the universe?  Is my misery without any meaning,\nand I without hope?  If there be no God: then all that is left for me is\ndespair and death.  But if there be, then I can hope that there is a\nmeaning in my misery; that it comes to me not without cause, even though\nthat cause be my own fault.  I can plead with God like poor Job of old,\neven though in wild words like Job; and ask--What is the meaning of this\nsorrow?  What have I done?  What should I do?  \"I will say unto God, Do\nnot condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.  Surely I\nwould speak unto the Almighty, and desire to reason with God.\"\n\n\"I would speak unto the Almighty, and desire to reason with God.\"  Oh my\nfriends, a man, I believe, can gain courage and wisdom to say that, only\nby the inspiration of the Spirit of God.\n\nBut when once he has said that from his heart, he begins to be justified\nby faith.  For he has had faith in God; he has trusted God enough to\nspeak to God who made him; and so he has put himself, so far at least,\ninto his just and right place, as a spiritual and rational being, made in\nthe image of God.\n\nBut more, he has justified God.  He has confessed that God is not a mere\nforce or law of nature; nor a mere tyrant and tormentor: but a reasonable\nbeing, who will hear reason, and a just being, who will do justice by the\ncreatures whom He has made.\n\nAnd so the very act of prayer justifies God, and honours God, and gives\nglory to God; for it confesses that God is what He is, a good God, to\nwhom the humblest and the most fallen of His creatures dare speak out the\ndepths of their abasement, and acknowledge that His glory is this--That\nin spite of all His majesty, He is one who heareth prayer; a being as\nmagnificent in His justice, as He is magnificent in His majesty and His\nmight.\n\nAll this is argued out, as it never has been argued out before or since,\nin the book of Job: and for seeing so much as this, was Job approved by\nGod.  But there is a further question, to which the book of Job gives no\nanswer; and to which indeed all the Old Testament gives but a partial\nanswer.  And that is this--This just and magnificent God, has He also\nhuman pity, tenderness, charity, condescension, love?  In one word, have\nwe not only a God in heaven, but a Father in heaven?\n\nThat question could only be answered by the coming of our Lord Jesus\nChrist.  Truly He said--No one cometh to the Father, but by me.  No man\nhath seen God at any time: but the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom\nof the Father, He hath revealed Him.  He revealed Him in part to Abraham,\nin part to Moses, to Job, to David, to the prophets.  But He revealed Him\nperfectly when He said--I and the Father are one.  He that hath seen me\nhath seen the Father.  Yes.  Now we can find boundless comfort in the\nwords, \"Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy\nGhost\"--Love and condescension without bounds.  Now we know that there is\nA Man in the midst of the throne of God, who is the brightness of God's\nglory and the express image of His character; a high priest who can be\ntouched with the feeling of our infirmities, seeing that He was tempted\nin all things like as we are, yet without sin.\n\nTo Him we can cry, with human passion and in human words; because we know\nthat His human heart will respond to our human hearts, and that His human\nheart again will respond to His divine Spirit, and that His divine Spirit\nis the same as the divine Spirit of His Father; for their wills and minds\nare one; and their will and their mind is--boundless love to sinful man.\n\nYes, we can look up by faith into the sacred face of Christ, and take\nrefuge by faith within His sacred heart, saying--If it be good for me, He\nwill give what I ask: and if He gives it not, it is because that too is\ngood for me, and for others beside me.  In all the chances and changes of\nthis mortal life we can say to Him, as He said in that supreme hour--\"If\nit be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not my will, but\nthine, be done,\" sure that He will present that prayer to His Father, and\nto our Father, and to His God and to our God; and that whatsoever be the\nanswer vouchsafed by Him whose ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts\nas our thoughts, the prayer will not have gone up to Christ in vain.\n\nAnd in such a case as this of missions to the heathen--If we believe that\nChrist died for these poor heathen; if we believe that Christ loves these\npoor heathen infinitely more than we, or than the most devoted missionary\nwho ever lived or died for them: shall we say--Then we may leave them in\nChrist's hands to follow their own nature.  If He is satisfied with their\ndegradation, so may we be?  Shall we not rather say--Their misery and\ndegradation must pain His sacred heart, far more than our sinful hearts;\nand if He does not come down again on earth to help them Himself, it must\nbe because He means to help them through us, His disciples?  Let us ask\nHim to teach us and others how to help them; to enable us and others to\nhelp them.  Let us pray to Him the one prayer which, unless prayer be a\ndream, is certain to be answered, because it is certainly according to\nGod's will; the prayer to be taught and helped to do our duty by our\nfellow-men.  And for the rest: let us pray in the words of that most\nnoble of all collects, to pray which is to take refuge from our own\nignorance in the boundless wisdom of God's love--\"Thou who knowest our\nnecessities before we ask, and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion\non our infirmities, and those things which for our unworthiness we dare\nnot, and for our blindness we cannot ask, condescend to give us, for the\nworthiness of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON V.  THE DEAF AND DUMB.\n\n\nST MARK VII. 32-37.\n\n   And they bring unto Jesus one that was deaf, and had an impediment in\n   his speech; and they beseech Him to put His hand upon him.  And He\n   took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers into his ears,\n   and He spit, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, He\n   sighed, and said, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.  And straightway his\n   ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he\n   spake plain. . . . And they were beyond measure astonished, saying, He\n   hath done all things well: He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the\n   dumb to speak.\n\nOur greatest living philologer has said, and said truly--\"If wonder\narises from ignorance, it is from that conscious ignorance which, if we\nlook back at the history of most of our sciences, has been the mother of\nall human knowledge.  Till men began to wonder at the stratification of\nrocks, and the fossilization of shells, there was no science of Geology.\nTill they began to wonder at the words which were perpetually in their\nmouths, there was no science of Language.\"\n\nHe might have added, that till men began to wonder at the organization of\ntheir own bodies, there was no science of healing; that in proportion as\nthe common fact of health became mysterious and marvellous in their eyes,\njust in that proportion did they become able to explain and to conquer\ndisease.  For there is a deep difference between the wonder of the\nuneducated or half-educated man, and the wonder of the educated man.\n\nThe ignorant in all ages have wondered at the exception; the wise, in\nproportion as they have become wise, have wondered at the rule.\nPestilences, prodigies, portents, the results of seeming accidents,\nexcite the vulgar mind.  Only the abnormal or casual is worthy of their\nattention.  The man of science finds a deeper and more awful charm in\ncontemplating the results of law; in watching, not what seem to be\noccasional failures in nature: but what is a perpetual and calm success.\n\nThe savage knows not, I am told, what wonder means, save from some\nprodigy.  Seeing no marvel in the daily glory of the sunlight, he is\nstartled out of his usual stupidity and carelessness by the occurrence of\nan eclipse, an earthquake, a thunderbolt.  The uneducated, whatever their\nrank may be, are apt to be more interested by the sight of deformities,\nand defects or excesses in nature, than by that of the most perfect\nnormal and natural beauty.\n\nThose, in the same way, who in the infancy of European science, thought\nit worth while to register natural phenomena, registered exclusively the\nexceptions.  Eclipses, meteors, auroras, earthquakes, storms, and\nespecially monstrosities, animal or vegetable, exercised their barbaric\nwonder.  The mystery and miracle which underlies the unfolding of every\nbud, the development of every embryo, the growth of every atom of tissue,\nin any organism, animal or vegetable--to all this their intellectual eye\nwas blind.  How different from such a state of mind, that calm and\nconstant wonder, humbling and yet inspiring, with which the modern man of\nscience searches into the \"open mystery\" of the universe; and sees that\nthe true marvel lies, not in the infringement of law, but in its\npermanence; not in the imperfect, but in the perfect; not in disease, but\nin health; not in deformity, but in beauty.\n\nThese words are true of all nature; and specially true, it seems to me,\nof our outward senses and faculties; true of sight, hearing, speech.  The\nwonder, I think, with the wise man will be, not that there are deaf and\ndumb persons to be found here and there among us: but that the average,\nnay, the majority of mankind, are not deaf and dumb.  Paradoxical as this\nassertion may seem at first, a little thought I believe will prove it to\nbe reasonable.\n\nWhatever view you take of the origin of sight, hearing, voice, the wonder\nto a thoughtful mind is just the same; how, under the storm of\ncircumstances, and through the lapse of ages, those faculties have not\nbeen lost again and again, by countless individuals, nay, by the whole\nspecies.  For we must confess that those faculties are gradually\ndeveloped in each individual; that every animal and every human being\nwhich is born into the world, has built up, unconsciously, involuntarily,\nand as it were out of nothing, those delicate and complex organs, by\nwhich he afterwards learns to see, hear, and utter sounds.  Is not the\nwonder, that he should, in the majority of cases, succeed without any\neffort of his own?\n\nAnd if I am answered, that the success is owing to hereditary tendencies,\nand to the laws by which the offspring resembles the parents, I answer:\nIs not that a greater wonder still?  A wonder which all the discoveries\nof the scalpel and the microscope have been as yet unable, and will be, I\nbelieve, to the last unable, to unravel, even to touch?  A wonder which\ncan be explained by no theories of vibratory atoms, vital forces, plastic\npowers of nature, or other such phrases, which are but metaphysical\nabstractions, having no counterpart in fact, and only hiding from us our\nignorance of the vast and venerable unknown.  The physiologist, when he\nconsiders the manifold combination of innumerable microscopic\ncircumstances which are required to bring any one creature into the world\nwith a perfectly hearing ear, ought to confess that the chances--if the\nworld were governed by chance--are infinitely greater in favour of a\nchild's being born with an imperfect ear rather than with a perfect one.\nAnd if he should evade the difficulty; and try to explain the usual\nsuccess by saying that nature is governed by law: I answer--What is\nnature?  What is law?  You never saw nature nor law either under the\nmicroscope.  They too are metaphysical abstractions, necessary notions\nand conceptions of your own brain.  You have seen nothing but the fact\nand the custom; and all you can do, if you be strictly rational, is with\na certain modern school to say, with a despairing humility, which I\ndeplore while I respect--deploring it because it is needless despair, and\nyet respecting it because it is humility, which is the path out of\ndespair and darkness into hope and light--to say with them, \"Man can know\nnothing of causes, he can only register positive facts.\"  This, I say, is\none path--one which I trust none here will tread.  The only other path, I\nbelieve, is, to go back to the lessons which we ought to have learnt in\nour childhood, for those to whom the human race owes most learnt them\nthousands of years ago; and to ascribe the ever successful miracles of\nnature to a Will, to a Mind, to a Providence so like that which each of\nus exercises in his own petty sphere, that we are not only able to\nunderstand in part the works of God, but to know from the very fact of\nbeing able to understand them--as one of our greatest astronomers has so\nwell said lately--that we are made in the image of God.  To say with the\nold Psalmist, that the universe is governed by \"a law which cannot be\nbroken:\" but why?  Because God has given it that law.  To say \"All things\ncontinue as they were at the beginning:\" but why?  Because all things\nserve Him in whom we live and move and have our being.  To confess the\nmystery and miracle of our mortal bodies, and say with David, \"I am\nfearfully and wonderfully made; such knowledge is too wonderful and\nexcellent for me, I cannot attain unto it:\" but to add the one only\nrational explanation of the mystery which, thank God, common sense has\ntaught, though it may be often in confused and defective forms, to the\nvast majority of the human race in all times and all lands--that He who\ngrasps the mystery and works the miracle is God; that \"His eye sees our\nsubstances yet being imperfect; and in His book are all our members\nwritten, which day by day were fashioned, when as yet there were none of\nthem.\"\n\nAnd then to go forward with the Psalmist, and with the common sense of\nhumanity; to conclude that if there be a Creator, there must also be a\nProvidence; that that life-giving Spirit which presided over the creation\nof each organism presides also over its growth, its circumstances, its\nfortunes; and to say with David, \"Whither shall I go then from Thy\nSpirit, or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?  If I climb up to\nheaven, Thou art there.  If I go down to hell, Thou art there also.  If I\ntake the wings of the morning, and remain in the uttermost parts of the\nsea; even there Thy hand shall lead me; Thy right hand shall hold me\nstill.\"\n\nYes.  To this--to faith and adoration--ought right and reason to lead the\nphysical philosopher.  And to what ought it to lead us, who are most of\nus, I presume, not physical philosophers?  To gratitude, surely, not\nunmixed with fear and trembling; till we say to ourselves--Who am I, to\nboast?  Who am I, to pride myself on possessing a single faculty which\none of my neighbours may want?  What have I, that I did not receive?\nConsidering the endless chances of failure, if the world were left to\nchance; and I may say, the absolute certainty of failures, if the world\nwere left to the blind competition of merely physical laws, is it not\nonly of the Lord's mercies that we are not failures too? that we have not\nbeen born crippled, blind, deaf, dumb--what not?--by the effect of\ncircumstances over which we have had no control; which have been working,\nit may be, for generations past, in the organizations of our ancestors?\n\nBut what shall we say of those who have not received what we have\nreceived?  What shall we say of those who, like the deaf and dumb, are,\nin some respects at least, failures--instances in which the laws which\nregulate our organization have not succeeded in effecting a full\ndevelopment?\n\nWe can say this, at least, without entangling and dazzling ourselves in\nspeculations about final causes; without attempting to pry into the\nmystery of evil.\n\nWe can say this: That if there be a God--as there is a God--these\nfailures are not according to His will.  The highest reason should teach\nus that; for it must tell us that in the work of the Divine Artist, as in\nthe work of the human, imperfection, impotence, disorder of any kind,\nmust be contrary to the mind and will of the Creator.  The highest\nreason, I say, teaches us this.  And Scripture teaches it like wise.  For\nif we believe our Lord to have been as He was--the express image of the\nAlmighty Father; if we believe that He came--as He did come--to reveal to\nmen His Father's will, His Father's mind, His Father's character: then we\nmust believe that He acted according to that will and according to that\ncharacter, when He made the healing of disease, and the curing of\nimperfections of this very kind, an important and an integral part of His\nwork on earth.\n\n\"And they brought unto Jesus one that was deaf, and had an impediment in\nhis speech, and besought Him to put His hand upon him.  And Jesus took\nhim aside from the multitude, and put His fingers into his ears; and He\nspit, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, He sighed, and\nsaid unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.  And straightway his ears\nwere opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain\n. . . And they were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all\nthings well: He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.\"\n\nConsider this story awhile.  He healed the man miraculously, by means at\nwhich we cannot guess, which we cannot even conceive.  But the healing\nsignified at least two things--that the man could be healed, and that the\nman ought to be healed; that his bodily defect--the retribution of no sin\nof his own--was contrary to the will of that Father in Heaven, who\nwilleth not that one little one should perish.\n\nBut Jesus sighed likewise.  There was in Him a sorrow, a compassion, most\nhuman and most divine.\n\nIt may have been--may He forgive me if I dare rashly to impute motives or\nthoughts to Him--that there was something too of a divine weariness--I\ndare not say impatience, seeing how patient He was then and how patient\nHe has been since for more than 1800 years--of the folly and ignorance of\nman, who brings on himself and on his descendants these and a hundred\nother preventible miseries, simply because he will not study and obey the\nphysical laws of the universe; simply because he will not see that those\nlaws which concern the welfare of his body, are as surely the will of God\nas those which concern the welfare of his soul; and that therefore it is\nnot merely his interest but his solemn duty to study and to obey them,\nlest he bear the punishment of his own neglect and disobedience.\n\nIt is not for man even to guess what thoughts may have passed through the\nmind of Christ when He sighed over the very defect which He was healing.\nBut it is surely not irreverent in us to say that our Lord had cause\nenough to sigh, if He foresaw the follies of mankind during an age which\nwas too soon to come.--How men, instead of taking the spirit of His\nmiracles and acting on it, would counterfeit the mere outward signs of\nthem, to feed the vanity or the superstition of a few devotees.  How,\ninstead of looking on His miracles as rebukes to their own ignorance and\nimbecility; instead of perceiving that their bodily afflictions were\ncontrary to the will of God, and therefore curable; instead of setting\nthemselves to work manfully, in the light of God, and by the help of God,\nto discover and correct the errors which produced them, mankind would\nidle away precious centuries in barbaric wonder at seeming prodigies and\nseeming miracles, and would neglect utterly the study of those far more\nwondrous laws of nature which Christ had proved to be under His\ngovernment and His guidance, and had therefore proved to be working for\nthe good of those for whom He came to die.  Christ had indeed sown good\nseed in His field.  He had taught men by His miracles, as He had taught\nthem by His parables, to Whom nature belonged, and Whose laws nature\nobeyed.  And the cessation of miracles after the time of Christ and His\nApostles had taught, or ought to have taught, mankind a further lesson;\nthe lesson that henceforth they were to carry on for themselves, by the\nfaculties which God had given them, that work of healing and deliverance\nwhich He had begun.  Miracles, like prophecies, like tongues, like\nsupernatural knowledge, were to cease and vanish away: but charity,\ncharity which devotes itself for the welfare of the human race, was to\nabide for ever.\n\nChrist, as I said, had sown good seed: but an enemy--we know not whence\nor when--certainly within the three first centuries of the Church--came\nand sowed tares among that wheat.  Then began men to believe that devils,\nand not their Father in Heaven, were, to all practical intents, the lords\nof nature.  Then began they to believe that man's body was the property\nof Satan, and his soul only the property of God.  Then began they to\nfancy that man was to be delivered from his manifold earthly miseries,\nnot by purity and virtue, reason and knowledge, but by magic, masked\nunder the sacred name of religion.  No wonder if, in such a temper of\nmind, the physical amelioration of the human race stood still.  How could\nit be otherwise, while men refused to see in facts the acted will of God;\nand sought not in God's universe, but in the dreams of their own brains,\nfor glimpses of that divine and wonderful order by which The eternal\nFather and The eternal Son are working together for ever through The\neternal Spirit for the welfare of the universe?\n\nWe boast, my friends, at times, of the rapid triumphs of modern science.\nWere we but aware of the vast amount of preventible misery around us, and\nof the vast possibility of removing it, which lies in the little science\nwhich we know already, we should rather bewail the slow departure of\nmodern barbarism.\n\nThere has been no period of the world for centuries back, I believe, in\nwhich man might not have been infinitely healthier, happier, more\nprosperous, more long-lived than he has been, if he had only believed\nthat disease, misery, and premature death were not the will of God and of\nChrist; and that God had endowed him with an intellect which could\nunderstand the laws of the universe, in order that he might use those\nlaws for his own health, wealth, and life.  Very late is society in\ncommencing that rational course on which it ought to have entered\ncenturies ago; and therefore very culpable.  And it is not too much to\nsay, that to the average of persons suffering under preventible disease\nor defect, even though it be hereditary, society owes a sacred debt,\nwhich it is bound to pay by making those innocent sufferers from other's\nsins as happy as possible; where it has not yet learnt--as it will learn,\nplease God, some day--to cure them.\n\nThere is, thank God, a healthier feeling than of old abroad of late upon\nthis point.  Men are learning more and more to regard such sufferers not\nas the victims of God's wrath, but of human ignorance, vice, or folly.\nAnd it was with deep satisfaction that I read in the last Report of the\nSchools for the Deaf and Dumb a statement of what were considered the\nmost probable physical causes of deafness and dumbness, and a hope that\nit would be possible, hereafter, to prevent as well as cure those\ndiseases.\n\nWhether the causes assigned in that Report are the true ones, is a point\nof inferior importance for the moment.  The really important point is,\nthat the principle should be allowed, the question raised, by a society,\ncomposed of religious men, and teaching to those poor deaf and dumb as\nalmost their primary work that true religion which they are just as\ncapable of receiving as we.  The right path has been entered--the path\nwhich is certain in due time to lead to success.  And meanwhile our duty\nis, while we confess that it is the fault of society and not of God, that\nthese afflicted ones exist among us--it is our duty, I say, to cultivate\nand to develop to the highest every faculty, instinct, and power, in them\nwhich God's order has preserved from the effects of man's disorder; to\nfeed the eye with fair and noble sights, though the ear be shut to\nsoothing and inspiring sounds; to cultivate the intellect to such a pitch\nthat it may be able to perform practical work, and if possible to earn a\nsufficient livelihood, even though the want of speech makes it impossible\nfor them, deaf and dumb, to compete on equal terms with their fellow-men;\nto awaken in them, by religious training, teaching and worship, those\npurer and more unselfish emotions by which their hearts may become a\nfield ready and prepared for God's grace.  To do this; and to regard\nthem, whenever we come in contact with them; not merely with pity, while\nwe remember how much their intellects lose, in losing the whole world of\nsound; but with hope, when we see that through the one sense which is\nleft they take in fully not only the meaning of the voluble hands which\nteach them, but more, the meaning of that meaning--the spiritual truths\nand feelings which signs express; with wonder, not at the defect, but at\nthe innate health which almost compensates for the want of hearing by\nconcentrating its powers upon the sight; and lastly, with admiration for\nthat humanity which, as it were imprisoned, fettered, maimed, yet can, by\nthe God-given force of the immortal spirit, so burst its prison-bars, and\nrise, through hindrances which seem to us impassable, to the tenderest,\nthe noblest, the purest, and most devout emotions.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON VI.  THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT.\n\n\nST JOHN III. 8,\n\n   The wind bloweth whither it listeth, and thou hearest the sound\n   thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth: so\n   is every one that is born of the Spirit.\n\nIt is often asked--men have a right to ask--what would the world have\nbeen by now without Christianity? without the Christian religion? without\nthe Church?\n\nBut before these questions can be answered, we must define, it is\ndiscovered, what we mean by Christianity, the Christian religion, the\nChurch.\n\nAnd it is found--or I at least believe it will be found--more safe and\nwise to ask a deeper and yet a simpler question still: What would the\nworld have been without that influence on which Christianity, and\nreligion, and the Church depend?  What would the world have been without\nthe Holy Spirit of God?\n\nBut some will say: This is a more abstruse question still.  How can you\ndefine, how can you analyse, the Spirit of God?  Nay, more, how can you\nprove its existence?--Such questioners have been, as it were, baptized\nunto John's baptism.  They are very glad to see people do right, and not\ndo wrong, from any well-calculated motives, or wholesome and pleasant\nemotions.  But they have not as yet heard whether there be any Holy\nSpirit.\n\nWe can only answer, Just so.  This Holy Spirit in Whom we believe defies\nall analysis, all definition whatsoever.  His nature can be brought under\nno terms derived from human emotions or motives.  He is literally\ninvisible; as invisible to the conception of the brain as He is to the\nbodily eye.  His presence is proved only by its effects.  The Spirit\nbloweth whither it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but thou\ncanst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth.\n\nSuch words must sound as dreams to those analytical philosophers who\nallow nothing in man below the sphere of consciousness, actual or\npossible; who have dissected the human mind till they find in it no\npersonal will, no indestructible and spiritual self, but a character\nwhich is only the net result of innumerable states of consciousness; who\nhold that man's outward actions, and also his inmost instincts, are all\nthe result either of calculations about profit and loss, pleasure and\npain, or of emotions, whether hereditary or acquired.  Ignoring the deep\nand ancient distinction, which no one ever brought out so clearly as St\nPaul, between the flesh and the spirit, they hold that man is flesh, and\ncan be nothing more; that each person is not really a person, but is the\nconsequence of his brain and nerves; and having thus, by logical\nanalysis, got rid of the spirit of man, their reason and their conscience\nquite honestly and consistently see no need for, or possibility of, a\nSpirit of God, to ennoble and enable the human spirit.  Why need there\nbe, if the difference between an animal and a man be one of degree alone,\nand not of kind?\n\nWe answer: That there is a flesh in man, brain and nerves, emotions and\npassions, identical with that of animals, we do not deny.  We should be\nfools if we did deny it; for the fact is hideously and shamefully patent.\nNone knew that better than St Paul, who gave a list of the works of the\nflesh, the things which a man does who is the slave of his own brain and\nnerves--and a very ugly list it is--beginning with adultery and ending\nwith drunkenness, after passing through all the seven deadly sins.  And\nneither St Paul nor we deny, that in this fleshly, carnal and animal\nstate the vast majority of the human race has lived, and lives still, to\nits own infinite misery and confusion; and that it has a perpetual\ntendency, whenever lifted out of that state, to fall back into it again,\nand perish.\n\nBut St Paul says, and we say: That crushed under this animal nature there\nis in man a spirit.  We say: That below all his consciousness lies a\nnobler element; a divine spark, or at least a divine fuel, which must be\nkindled into life by the divine Spirit, the Spirit of God.  And we say\nthat in proportion as that Spirit of God kindles the spirit of man, he\nbegins to act after a fashion for which he can give no logical reason;\nthat by instinct, and without calculation of profit or loss, pleasure or\npain, he begins to act on what he calls duty, honour, love,\nself-sacrifice.  But what these are he cannot analyse.  Mere words cannot\ndefine them.  He can only obey that which prompts him, he knows not what\nnor whence; and say with Luther of old: \"I can do no otherwise.  God help\nme.\"\n\nAnd we say that such men and women are the salt of the earth, who keep\nsociety from rotting; that by such men and women, and by their example\nand influence, direct and indirect, has Christendom been raised up out of\nthe accursed slough into which Europe and, indeed, the whole known world,\nhad fallen during the early Roman Empire; and that to this influence, and\ntherefore to the Holy Spirit of God alone, and not to any prudential\ncalculations, combined experiences, or so-called philosophies of men, is\nowing all which keeps Europe from being a hell on earth.  And we say,\nmoreover, that those who deny this, and dream of a morality and a\ncivilization without The Spirit of God, are unconsciously throwing down\nthe ladder by which they themselves have climbed, and sawing off the very\nbough to which they cling.\n\nDuty, honour, love, self-sacrifice--these are the fruits of The Spirit;\nunknown to, and unobeyed by, the savage, or by the civilized man who--as\nhas too often happened--as is happening now in too many lands, on both\nsides of the Atlantic, is sinking back into inward savagery, amid an\noutward and material civilization.\n\nMoreover--and this appears to us a fair experimental proof that our old-\nfashioned belief in A Spirit of God, which acts upon the spirit of man,\nis a true belief--moreover, I say: It is a patent fact, that wherever and\nwhenever there has been a revival of the Christian religion; whenever,\nthat is, amid whatsoever confusions and errors, men have begun to feel\nthe need of the Holy Spirit of God, and to pray for that Spirit, a moral\nrevival has accompanied the religious one.  Men and women have not only\nbecome better themselves; and that often suddenly and in very truth\nmiraculously better: but the yearning has awoke in them to make others\nbetter likewise.  The grace of God, as they have called it, has made them\ngracious to their fellow-creatures; and duty, honour, love,\nself-sacrifice, call it by what name we will, has said to them, with a\nstill small voice more potent than all the thunders of the law: Go, and\nseek and save that which is lost.\n\nIn no case has this instinctive tendency to practical benevolence been\nmore striking, than in the case of that great religious revival\nthroughout England at the beginning of this century, which issued in the\nrise of the Evangelical school: a school rightly so called, because its\nmembers did try to obey the precepts of the Gospel, according to their\nunderstanding of them, in spirit and in truth.\n\nThe doctrines which they held are a matter not for us, but for God and\ntheir own souls.  The deeds which they did are matter for us, and for all\nEngland; for they have left their mark on the length and breadth of the\nland.  They were inspired--cultivated, highborn, and wealthy folk many of\nthem--with a strange new instinct that God had bidden them to feed the\nhungry, to clothe the naked, to visit the prisoner and the sick, to bind\nup the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and to preach\ngood tidings to the meek.  A strange new instinct: and from what cause,\nsave from the same cause as that which Isaiah assigned to his own like\ndeeds?--Because \"The Spirit of the Lord was upon him.\"\n\nYes, if those gracious men, those gracious women, did not shew forth the\nSpirit and grace of God with power, then there is either no Spirit of\nGod, no grace of God; or those who deny to them the name of saints forget\nthe words of Him Who said: By their fruits ye shall know them; of Him Who\nsaid, too: That the unpardonable sin, the sin which shewed complete moral\nperversion, the sin against the Holy Spirit of God, was to attribute good\ndeeds to bad motives, and say: He casteth out devils by Beelzebub, the\nprince of the devils.\n\nYes, that old Evangelical School may now have passed its prime.  It may\nnow be verging toward old age; and other schools, younger and stronger,\nwith broader and clearer knowledge of dogma, of history, civil and\necclesiastical, of the value of ceremonial, of the needs of the human\nintellect and emotions, may have passed it in a noble rivalry, and\nsnatched, as it were, from the hands of the old Evangelical School the\nlamp of truth, to bear it further forward in the race.  But God forbid\nthat the spiritual children should be ungrateful to their spiritual\nparents, though God may have taught them things which their parents did\nnot know.\n\nAnd they were our spiritual parents, those old Evangelicals.  No just and\nwell-informed man who has passed middle age, but must confess, that to\nthem we owe whatsoever vital religion exists at this moment in any school\nor party of the Church of England; that to them we owe the germs at\nleast, and in many cases the full organization and the final success, of\na hundred schemes of practical benevolence and practical justice, without\nwhich this country, in its haste to grow rich at all risks and by all\nmeans, might have plunged itself ere now into anarchy and revolution.  And\nhe must confess, too, if he is one who has seen much of his\nfellow-creatures and their characters, that that school numbered among\nits disciples--and, thank God, they are not all yet gone home to their\nrest--some of the loveliest human souls, whose converse has chastened and\nennobled his own soul.  Ah, well--\n\n   The old order changeth, giving place to the new;\n   And God fulfils Himself in many ways,\n   Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.\n\nAnd new methods and new institutions have arisen, and will yet arise, for\nseeking and saving that which is lost.  God's blessing on them all, to\nwhatsoever party, church, or sect they may belong!  Whosoever cast out\ndevils in Christ's name, Christ has forbidden us to forbid them, whether\nthey follow us or not.  But yet shall we not still honour and love the\nold Evangelical School, and many an Institution which it has left behind,\nas heirlooms to some of us, at least, from our mothers, or from women to\nwhom we owed, in long past years, our earliest influences for good, our\nearliest examples of a practical Christian life, our earliest proofs that\nthere was indeed a Spirit of God, a gracious Spirit, Who gave grace to\nthe hearts, the deeds, the very looks and voices of those in whom He\ndwelt; Institutions, which are too likely some of them to die, simply\nfrom the loss of old friends?\n\nThe loss of old friends.  Yes, so it is always in this world.  The old\nearnest hearts go home one by one to their rest; and the young earnest\nhearts--and who shall blame them?--go elsewhere; and try new fashions of\ndoing good, which are more graceful and more agreeable to them.  For the\nreligious world, like all other forms of the world, has its fashions; and\nof them too stands true the saying of the apostle: That this world and\nthe fashion thereof pass away.  Many a good work, which once was somewhat\nfashionable in its way, has become somewhat unfashionable, and something\nelse is fashionable in its place; and five-and-twenty years hence\nsomething else will have become fashionable; and our children will look\nback on our ways of doing good with pity, if not with contempt, as narrow\nand unenlightened, just as we are too apt to look back on our fathers'\nways.  And all the while, what can they teach worth teaching, what can we\nteach worth teaching, save what our fathers and mothers taught, what the\nSpirit of God taught them, and has taught to all who would listen since\nthe foundation of the world, \"shewing man what was good:\" and what was\nthat--\"What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love\nmercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?\"\n\nAh! why do we, even in religious and moral matters, even in the doing\ngood to the souls and bodies of our fellow-creatures, allow ourselves to\nbe the puppets of fashions?  Of fashions which even when harmless, even\nbeautiful, are but the garments, or rather stage-properties, in which we\ndress up the high instincts which God's Spirit bestows on us, in order to\nmake them agreeable enough for our own prejudices, or pretty enough for\nour own tastes.  How little do we perceive our own danger--so little that\nwe yield to it every day--the danger of mistaking our fashion of doing\ngood for the good done; aye, for the very Spirit of God Who inspires that\ngood; mistaking the garment for the person who wears it, the outward and\nvisible sign for the inward and spiritual grace; and so in our hearts\nfalling actually into that very error of transubstantiation, of which we\nrepudiate the name!\n\nWhy, ah why, will we not take refuge from fashions in Him in Whom are no\nfashions--even in the Holy Spirit of God, Who is unchangeable and eternal\nas the Father and the Son from Whom He proceeds; Who has spoken words in\nsundry and divers manners to all the elect of God; Who has inspired every\ngood thought and feeling which was ever thought or felt in earth or\nheaven; but Whose message of inspiration has been, and will be, for ever\nthe same--\"Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with thy God\"?\n\nCould we but utterly trust Him, and utterly believe in His presence: then\nwe should welcome all truth, under whatever outward forms of the mere\nintellect it was uttered; then we should bless every good deed, by\nwhomsoever and howsoever it was done; then we should rise above all party\nstrifes, party cries, party fashions and shibboleths, to the\ncontemplation of the One supreme good Spirit--the Spirit of Jesus Christ,\nthe same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; and hold to the One Fashion of\nAlmighty God, which never changes, for it is eternal by the necessity of\nHis own eternal character; namely,--To be perfect, even as our Father in\nHeaven is perfect; because He causes His sun to shine on the evil and on\nthe good, and His rain to fall on the just and on the unjust.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON VII.  CONFUSION.\n\n\nPSALM CXIX. 31.\n\n   I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O Lord, confound me not.\n\nWhat is the meaning of this text?  What is this which the Psalmist and\nprophets call being confounded; being put to shame and confusion of face?\nWhat is it?  It is something which they dread more than death; which they\ndread as much as hell.  Nay, it seems in the mind of some of them to be\npart and parcel of hell itself; one of the very worst things which could\nhappen to them after death: for what is written in the Book of the\nProphet Daniel?--\"Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall\nawake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting\ncontempt.\"\n\nAnd we Christians are excusable if we dread it likewise.  How often does\nSt Paul speak of shame as an evil to be dreaded; just as he speaks, even\nmore often, of glory and honour as a thing to be longed for and striven\nafter.  That one word, \"ashamed,\" occurs twelve times and more in the New\nTestament, beside St John's warning, which alone is enough to prove what\nI allege, \"that we have not to be ashamed before Christ at his coming.\"\n\nAnd how does the Te Deum--the noblest hymn written by man since St John\nfinished his Book of Revelations--how does that end, but with the same\nold cry as that of the Psalmist in the 119th Psalm--\n\n\"O Lord, in thee have I trusted, let me never be confounded\"?\n\nNow it is difficult to tell men what being confounded means; difficult\nand almost needless; for there are those who know what it means without\nbeing told; and those who do not know what it means without being told,\nare not likely to know by my telling, or any man's telling.  No, not if\nan angel from heaven came and told them what being confounded meant would\nthey understand him, at least till they were confounded themselves; and\nthen they would know by bitter experience--perhaps when it was too late.\n\nAnd who are they?  What sort of people are they?\n\nFirst, silly persons; whom Solomon calls fools--though they often think\nthemselves refined and clever enough--luxurious and \"fashionable\" people,\nwho do not care to learn, who think nothing worth learning save how to\nenjoy themselves; who call it \"bad form\" to be earnest, and turn off all\nserious questions with a jest.  These are they of whom Wisdom says--\"How\nlong, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity, and the scorners delight\nin their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?  I also will laugh at your\ncalamity, and mock when your fear cometh.\"\n\nNext, mean and truly vulgar persons; who are shameless; who do not care\nif they are caught out in a lie or in a trick.  These are they of whom it\nis written that outside of God's kingdom, in the outer darkness wherein\nare weeping and gnashing of teeth, are dogs, and whosoever loveth and\nmaketh a lie.\n\nAnd next, and worst of all, self-conceited people.  These are they of\nwhom Solomon says, \"Seest thou a man who is wise in his own conceit?\nThere is more hope of a fool than of him.\"  They are the people who will\nnot see when they are going wrong; who will not hear reason, nor take\nadvice, no, nor even take scorn and contempt; who will not see that they\nare making fools of themselves, but, while all the world is laughing at\nthem, walk on serenely self-satisfied, certain that they, and they only,\nknow what the world is made of, and how to manage the world.  These are\nthey of whom it is written--\"He that being often reproved, hardeneth his\nneck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.\"  Then they\nwill learn, and with a vengeance, what being confounded means by being\nconfounded themselves, and finding themselves utterly wrong, where they\nthought themselves utterly right.  Yet no.  I do not think that even that\nwould cure some people.  There are those, I verily believe, who would not\nconfess that they were in the wrong even in the bottomless pit, but, like\nSatan and his fallen angels in Milton's poem, would have excellent\narguments to prove that they were injured and ill-used, deceived and\nbetrayed, and lay the blame of their misery on God, on man, on anything\nbut their own infallible selves.\n\nWho, then, are the people who know what being confounded means; who are\nafraid, and terribly afraid, of being brought to shame and confusion\nefface?\n\nI should say, all human beings in proportion as they are truly human\nbeings, are not brutal; in proportion, that is, as they are good or have\nthe capacity of goodness in them; that is, in proportion as the Spirit of\nGod is working in them, giving them the tender heart, the quick feelings,\nthe earnestness, the modesty, the conscientiousness, the reverence for\nthe good opinion of their fellow-men, which is the beginning of eternal\nlife.  Do you not see it in the young?  Modesty, bashfulness,\nshame-facedness--as the good old English word was--that is the very\nbeginning of all goodness in boys and girls.  It is the very material out\nof which all other goodness is made; and those who laugh at, or torment,\nyoung people for being modest and bashful, are doing the devil's work,\nand putting themselves under the curse which God, by the mouth of Solomon\nthe wise, pronounced against the scorners who love scorning, and the\nfools who hate knowledge.\n\nThis is the rule with dumb animals likewise.  The more intelligent, the\nmore high-bred they are, the more they are capable of feeling shame; and\nthe more they are liable to be confounded, to lose their heads, and\nbecome frantic with doubt and fear.  Who that has watched dogs does not\nknow that the cleverer they are, the more they are capable of being\nactually ashamed of themselves, as human beings are, or ought to be?  Who\nthat has trained horses does not know that the stupid horse is never\nvicious, never takes fright?  The failing which high-bred horses have of\nbecoming utterly unmanageable, not so much from bodily fear, as from\nbeing confounded, not knowing what people want them to do--that is the\nvery sign, the very effect, of their superior organization: and more\nshame to those who ill-use such horses.  If God, my friends, dealt with\nus as cruelly and as clumsily as too many men deal with their horses, He\nwould not be long in driving us mad with terror and shame and confusion.\nBut He remembers our frame; He knoweth whereof we are made, and\nremembereth that we are but dust: else the spirit would fail before Him,\nand the souls which He hath made.  And to Him we can cry, even when we\nknow that we have made fools of ourselves--Father who made me, Christ who\ndied for me, Holy Spirit who teachest me, have patience with my stupidity\nand my ignorance.  Lord, in thee have I trusted, let me never be\nconfounded.\n\nBut some will tell us--It is a sign of weakness to feel shame.  Why\nshould you care for the opinion of your fellow-men?  If you are doing\nright, what matter what they say of you?\n\nYes, my friends, if you are doing right.  But if you are not doing\nright--What then?\n\nIf you have only been fancying that you are doing right, and suspect\nsuddenly that you have been very likely doing wrong--What then?\n\nWhen a man tells me that he does not care what people think of him; that\nthey cannot shame him: in the first place, I do not quite believe that he\nis speaking truth; and in the next place, I hope he is _not_ speaking\ntruth.  I hope--for his own sake--that he does care what people think of\nhim: or else I must suspect him of being very dull or very conceited.\n\nAnd if he tells me that the old prophets, and holy, and just, and heroic\nmen in all ages, never cared for people's laughing at them and despising\nthem, provided they were doing right according to their own conscience: I\nanswer--That he knows nothing about the matter; that he has not honestly\nread the writings of these men.  I say that the Psalmist who wrote Ps.\n119, was a man, on his own shewing, intensely open to the feeling of\nshame, and felt intensely what men said of him; felt intensely slander\nand insult.  We talk of independent and true patriots now-a-days.  I will\ntell you of four of the noblest patriots the world ever saw, who were men\nof that stamp.  I say that Isaiah was such a man; that Jeremiah was such\na man; that Ezekiel was such a man; that their writings shew that they\nfelt intensely the rebukes and the contempt which they had to endure from\nthose whom they tried to warn and save.  I say again that St Paul, as may\nbe seen from his own epistles, was such a man; a man who was intensely\nsensitive of what men thought and said of him; yearning after the love\nand approbation of his fellow-men, and above all of his\nfellow-countrymen, his own flesh and blood; and that that feeling in him,\nwhich may have been hurtful to him before he was converted, was of the\ngreatest use to him after his conversion; that it enabled him to win all\nhearts, because he felt with men and for men; and gained him over the\nhearts of men such a power as no mere human being ever had before or\nsince.\n\nAnd I say that of all men the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, had that\nfeeling; that longing for the love and appreciation of men--and above\nall, for the love and appreciation of His countrymen according to the\nflesh, the Jews, He had--strange as it may seem, yet there it is in the\nGospels, written for ever and undeniable--that capacity of shame which is\nthe mark of true nobleness of soul.\n\nHe endured the cross, despising the shame.  Yes: but there are too many\non earth who endure shame with brazen faces, just because they do not\nfeel it.  If He had not felt the shame, what merit in despising it?  It\nwas His glory that He felt the shame; and yet conquered the shame, and\ncrushed it down by the might of His love for fallen man.\n\nDo you fancy that in His agony in the garden, when His sweat was as great\ndrops of blood, that it was only bodily fear of pain and death which\ncrushed Him for the moment?  He felt that, I doubt not; as He had to\ntaste death for every man, and feel all human weakness, yet without sin.\nBut it was a deeper, more painful, and yet more noble feeling than mere\nfear which then convulsed His sacred heart; even the feeling of shame--the\nmockery of the crowd--the--But I dare not enlarge on anything so awful;\nat least I will say this--That he had to cry as none ever cried before or\nsince, \"O God, in thee have I trusted, let me never be confounded;\" for\nhe had, it seems, actually, at one supreme moment, to feel confounded;\nand to say, \"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?\"  That was the\nhighest and most precious jewel of all his self-sacrifice.  Of it let us\nonly say--\n\nOur Lord and Saviour stooped to be confounded for a moment, that we might\nnot be confounded to all eternity.\n\nAnd therefore our blessed Lord is to us an example.  As he did, so must\nwe try to do.  He entered into glory, by suffering shame, and yet\ndespising it.  He submitted to be confounded before men, that He might\nnot be confounded in the sight of God His Father.  And so must we,\nsometimes, at least.  Every man who makes up his mind to do right and to\nbe good, must expect ridicule now and then.  Rich or poor, boy or man, if\nyou try to keep your hands clean, and your path straight, the world will\nthink you a fool, and will be ready enough to tell you so; for it is\ncruel and insolent enough.  And the more tender your heart; the more you\nwish for the love and approbation of your fellow-men; the more of noble\nand modest self-distrust there is in you, the more painful will that be\nto you; the more you will be tempted to obey man, and not God, and to\nfollow after the multitude to do evil, merely to keep the peace, and live\na quiet life, and not be laughed at and tormented.  And thus the fear of\nman brings a snare; and naught can deliver you out of that snare, save\nthe opposite fear--the fear of God, which is the same as trust in God.\n\nJoseph of old feared God when he was tempted; and said, \"How can I do\nthis great wickedness, and sin against God?\"  But I doubt not there were\nplenty in Egypt who would have called him a fool for his pains.  There\nare hundreds of gay youths in any great city--there may be a few in this\nAbbey now for aught I know--who would have laughed loudly enough at\nJoseph for throwing away the opportunity of what certain foolish French\nhave learnt to call, as its proper name, a \"bonne fortune\"--a piece of\ngood luck.--As if breaking the 7th Commandment could be aught but bad\nfortune, and the cause of endless miseries in this life and the life to\ncome.\n\nAnd it may be, as Joseph was all but confounded and brought to shame, at\nleast from man, when he found that all that he gained by fearing God\nwas--a false accusation, the very shame and contempt from which he most\nshrank, danger of death, imprisonment in a dungeon.\n\nBut he was true to God, and God was true to him.  He trusted in God; and\ntherefore he feared God: for he trusted that God's laws were just and\ngood, and worth obeying; and therefore he was afraid to break them.  He\ntrusted in God; and therefore he hoped in God; for he trusted that God\nwas strong enough and good enough to deliver him out of prison, and make\nhis righteousness as clear as the light and his just dealing as the\nnoonday.  He cried out of his prison, doubt it not, many a time and\noft--\"O God, in thee have I trusted; let me never be confounded.\"\n\nAnd he was not confounded.  He came into Egypt a slave.  He was cast into\nprison on a shameful accusation: but he came out of prison to be a ruler\nand a prince, honoured and obeyed by the greatest nation of the old\nworld.  He trusted in God, and he was not confounded for ever; even as\nthe Lord Christ trusted in God and was not confounded for ever; even as\nwe, if we do not wish to be confounded for ever, must trust in God; and\ninstead of being scornful, careless, conceited, must fear Him, and say,\n\"My flesh trembleth because of Thy righteous judgments.\"  And then the\nlaughter of fools will end, where it began, in harmless noise, like (says\nSolomon) the crackling of thorns under a pot.  Then, whosoever may scorn\nyou on earth, the great God in heaven will not scorn you.  You may be\nconfounded for a moment here on earth.  Worldly people may take advantage\nof your misfortunes, and cry over you--There, there, so would we have it.\nTake him and persecute him, for there is none to deliver him; where is\nnow his God?  So it may be with you; for as surely as you fall, many a\ncur will spring up and bark at you, who dared not open his mouth at you\nwhile you stood safe.  Or--worse by far than that--the world may take\nhold of your really weak points, of your inconsistencies, of your faults\nand failings; and cry--Fie on thee, fie on thee.  We saw it with our\neyes.  For all his high professions, for all his talk of truth and\njustice, he is no better than the rest of the world.  And that scoff does\ngo very near to confound a man; because he feels that it is half true,\nhalf deserved, and is afraid that it may be quite true and quite\ndeserved: and then confounded indeed he would be, by his own conscience\nand by God, as well as by man.  All he can do is, to cry to God, like him\nwho wrote the 119th Psalm,--I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O Lord,\nconfound me not.  I know I am weak, ignorant, unsuccessful; full of\nfaults too, and failings, which make me ashamed of myself every day of my\nlife.  I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost.  But seek thy\nservant, O Lord, for I do not forget thy commandments.  I am trying to\nlearn my duty.  I am trying to do my duty.  I have stuck unto thy\ntestimonies: O Lord, confound me not.  Man may confound me.  But do not\nthou, of thy mercy and pity, O Lord.  Do not let me find, when I die, or\nbefore I die, that all my labour has been in vain; that I am not a better\nman, not a wiser man, not a more useful man after all.  Do not let my\ngrey hairs go down with sorrow to the grave.  Do not let me die with the\nmiserable thought that, in spite of all my struggles to do my duty, my\nlife has been a failure, and I a fool.  Do not let me wake in the next\nlife, like Dives in the torment, to be utterly confounded; to find that I\nwas all wrong, and have nothing left but everlasting disappointment and\nconfusion of face.  O Lord, who didst endure all shame for me, save me\nfrom that most utter shame.  O God, in thee have I trusted; let me never\nbe confounded.\n\nWake in the next life to find oneself confounded?  Alas! alas!  Many a\nman wakes in this life to find himself that; and really sometimes by no\nfault, seemingly, of his own: so that all he can do is to be dumb, and\nnot to open his mouth, for it is God's doing.  For a man's worst miseries\nand sorrows are, too often, caused not by himself, but by those whom he\nloves.\n\nConsider the one case of vice, or even of mere ingratitude, in those\nnearest and dearest to a man's heart; and of being so confounded through\nthem, and by them, in spite of all love, care, strictness, tenderness,\nteaching, prayers--what not--and all in vain.\n\nNo wonder that, under that bitterest blow, valiant and virtuous men, ere\nnow, have never lifted up their heads again, but turned their faces to\nthe wall, and died: and may the Lord have mercy on them.  Confounded they\nhave been in this world; confounded they will not be, we must trust, in\nthe world to come.  The Lord of all pity will pity them, and pour His oil\nand wine into their aching wounds, and bring them to His own inn, and to\nHis secret dwelling-place, where the wicked cease from troubling, and the\nweary are at rest.\n\nOne word more, and I have done.  Do you wish to pray, with hope that you\nmay be heard,--O Lord, confound me not, and bring me not to shame?  Then\nhold to one commandment of Christ's.  Do to others as you would they\nshould do to you.  For with what measure you measure to your fellow-men,\nit shall be measured to you again.  Have charity, have patience, have\nmercy.  Never bring a human being, however silly, ignorant, or weak,\nabove all any little child, to shame and confusion of face.  Never, by\ncruelty, by petulance, by suspicion, by ridicule, even by selfish and\nsilly haste; never, above all, by indulging in the devilish pleasure of a\nsneer, crush what is finest, and rouse up what is coarsest in the heart\nof any fellow-creature.  Never confound any human soul in the hour of its\nweakness.  For then, it may be, in the hour of thy weakness, Christ will\nnot confound thee.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON VIII.  THE SHAKING OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH.\n\n\nHEBREWS XII. 26-29.\n\n   Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.  And this\n   word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are\n   shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be\n   shaken may remain.  Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be\n   moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with\n   reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire.\n\nThis is one of the Royal texts of Scripture.  It is inexhaustible, like\nthe God who inspired it.  It has fulfilled itself again and again, at\ndifferent epochs.  It fulfilled itself specially and notoriously in the\nfirst century.  But it fulfilled itself again in the fifth century; and\nagain at the Crusades; and again at the Reformation in the sixteenth\ncentury.  And it may be that it is fulfilling itself at this very day;\nthat in this century, both in the time of our fathers and in our own, the\nLord has been shaking the heavens and the earth, that those things which\ncan be shaken may be removed, as things that are made, while those things\nwhich cannot be shaken may remain.\n\nAll confess this to be true, each in his own words.  They talk of this\nage as one of change; of rapid progress, for good or evil; of unexpected\ndiscoveries; of revolutions, intellectual, moral, social, as well as\npolitical.  Our notions of the physical universe are rapidly altering,\nwith the new discoveries of science; and our notions of ethics and\ntheology are altering as rapidly.  The era assumes a different aspect to\ndifferent minds, just as did the first century after Christ, according as\nmen look forward to the future with hope, or back to the past with\nregret.  Some glory in the nineteenth century as one of rapid progress\nfor good; as the commencement of a new era for humanity; as the\ninauguration of a Reformation as grand as that of the sixteenth century.\nOthers bewail it as an age of rapid decay; in which the old landmarks are\nbeing removed, the old paths lost; in which we are rushing headlong into\nscepticism and atheism; in which the world and the Church are both in\ndanger; and the last day is at hand.\n\nBoth parties may be right; and yet both may be wrong.  Men have always\ntalked thus, at great crises in the world's life.  They talked thus in\nthe first century; and in the fifth, and in the eleventh; and again in\nthe sixteenth; and then both parties were partially right and partially\nwrong; and so they may be now.  What they meant to say, what they wanted\nto say, what we mean and want to say, has been said already for us in far\ndeeper, wider, and more accurate words, by him who wrote this wonderful\nEpistle to the Hebrews, when he told the Jews of his time that the Lord\nwas shaking the heavens and the earth, that those things which were\nshaken might be removed, as things that are made--cosmogonies, systems,\ntheories, prejudices, fashions, of man's invention: while those things\nwhich could not be shaken might remain, because they were according to\nthe mind and will of God, eternal as that source from whence they came\nforth, even the bosom of God the Father.\n\n\"Yet once more I shake, not the earth only, but also heaven.\"\n\nHow has the earth been shaken in our days; and the heaven likewise.  How\nrapidly have our conceptions of both altered.  How easy, simple, certain,\nit all looked to our forefathers in the middle age.  How difficult,\ncomplex, uncertain, it all looks to us.  With increased knowledge has\ncome--not increased doubt: that I deny utterly.  I deny, once and for\nall, that this age is an irreverent age.  I say that an irreverent age is\none like the age of the Schoolmen; when men defined and explained all\nheaven and earth by a priori theories, and cosmogonies invented in the\ncloister; and dared, poor, simple, ignorant mortals, to fancy that they\ncould comprehend and gauge the ways of Him Whom the heaven and the heaven\nof heavens could not contain.  This, this is irreverence: but it is\nneither irreverence nor want of faith, if a man, awed by the mystery\nwhich encompasses him from the cradle to the grave, shall lay his hand\nupon his mouth, with Job, and obey the voice which cries to him from\nearth and heaven--\"Be still, and know that as the heavens are higher than\nthe earth, so are my ways higher than thy ways, and my thoughts higher\nthan thine.\"\n\nBut it was all easy, and simple, and certain enough to our forefathers.\nThe earth, according to the popular notion, was a flat plane; or, if it\nwere, as the wiser held, a sphere, yet antipodes were an unscriptural\nheresy.  Above it were the heavens, in which the stars were fixed, or\nwandered; and above them heaven after heaven, each tenanted by its own\norders of beings, up to that heaven of heavens in which Deity--and by\nHim, be it always remembered, the mother of Deity--was enthroned.\n\nAnd if above the earth was the kingdom of light, and purity, and\nholiness, what could be more plain, than that below it was the kingdom of\ndarkness, and impurity, and sin?  That was no theory to our forefathers:\nit was a physical fact.  Had not even the heathens believed as much, and\nsaid so, by the mouth of the poet Virgil?  He had declared that the mouth\nof Tartarus lay in Italy, hard by the volcanic lake Avernus; and after\nthe unexpected eruption of Vesuvius in the first century, nothing seemed\nmore clear than that Virgil was right; and that men were justified in\ntalking of Tartarus, Styx, and Phlegethon as indisputable Christian\nentities.  Etna, Stromboli, Hecla, were (according to this cosmogony) in\nlike wise mouths of hell; and there were not wanting holy hermits, who\nhad heard, from within those craters, shrieks, and clanking chains, and\nthe howls of demons tormenting the souls of the endlessly lost.\n\nOur forefathers were not aware that, centuries before the Incarnation of\nour Lord, the Buddhist priests had held exactly the same theory of moral\nretribution; and that, painted on the walls of Buddhist temples, might be\nseen horrors identical with those which adorned the walls of many a\nChristian Church, in the days when men believed in this Tartarology as\nfirmly as they now believe in the results of chemistry or of astronomy.\n\nAnd now--How is the earth shaken, and the heavens likewise, in that very\nsense in which the expression is used by him who wrote to the Hebrews?\nOur conceptions of them are shaken.  How much of that mediaeval cosmogony\ndo educated men believe, in the sense in which they believe that the\nthree angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles, or that if they\nsteal their neighbour's goods they commit a sin?\n\nThe earth has been shaken for us, more and more violently, as the years\nhave rolled on.  It was shaken when Astronomy told us that the earth was\nnot the centre of the universe, but a tiny planet revolving round a sun\nin a remote region thereof.\n\nIt was shaken when Geology told us that the earth had endured for\ncountless ages, during which continents had become oceans, and oceans\ncontinents, again and again.  And even now, it is being shaken by\nresearches into the antiquity of man, into the origin and permanence of\nspecies, which--let the result be what it will--must in the meanwhile\nshake for us theories and dogmas which have been undisputed for 1500\nyears.\n\nAnd with the rest of our cosmogony, that conception of a physical\nTartarus below the earth has been shaken likewise, till good men have\nbeen fain to find a fresh place for it in the sun, or in a comet; or to\npatronize the probable, but as yet unproved theory of a central fire\nwithin the earth; not on any scientific grounds, but simply if by any\nmeans they can assign a region in space, wherein material torment can be\ninflicted on the spirits of the lost.\n\nAnd meanwhile the heavens, the spiritual world, is being shaken no less.\nMore and more frequently, more and more loudly, men are asking--not\nsceptics merely, but pious men, men who wish to be, and who believe\nthemselves to be, orthodox Christians--more and more loudly are such men\nasking questions which demand an answer, with a learning and an\neloquence, as well as with a devoutness and a reverence for Scripture,\nwhich--whether rightly or wrongly employed--is certain to command\nattention.\n\nRightly or wrongly, these men are asking, whether the actual and literal\nwords of Scripture really involve the mediaeval theory of an endless\nTartarus.\n\nThey are saying, \"It is not we who deny, but you who assert, endless\ntorments, who are playing fast and loose with the letter of Scripture.\nYou are reading into it conceptions borrowed from Virgil, Dante, Milton,\nwhen you translate into the formula 'endless torment' such phrases as\n'the outer darkness,' 'the fire of Gehenna,' 'the worm that dieth not;'\nwhich, according to all just laws of interpretation, refer not to the\nnext life, but to this life, and specially to the approaching catastrophe\nof the Jewish nation; or when you say that eternal death really means\neternal life--only life in torture.\"\n\nRightly or wrongly, they are saying this; and then they add, \"We do not\nyield to you in love and esteem for Scripture.  We demand not a looser,\nbut a stricter; not a more metaphoric, but a more literal; not a more\ncontemptuous, but a more reverent interpretation thereof.\"\n\nSo these men speak, rightly or wrongly.  And for good or for evil, they\nwill be heard.\n\nAnd with these questions others have arisen, not new at all--say these\nmen--but to be found, amid many contradictions, in the writings of all\nthe best divines, when they have given up for a moment systems and\ntheories, and listened to the voice of their own hearts; questions\nnatural enough to an age which abhors cruelty, has abolished torture,\nlabours for the reformation of criminals, and debates--rightly or\nwrongly--about abolishing capital punishment.  Men are asking questions\nabout the heaven--the spiritual world--and saying--\"The spiritual world?\nIs it only another material world which happens to be invisible now, but\nwhich may become visible hereafter: or is it not rather the moral\nworld--the world of right and wrong?  Heaven?  Is not the true and real\nheaven the kingdom of love, justice, purity, beneficence?  Is not that\nthe eternal heaven wherein God abides for ever, and with Him those who\nare like God?  And hell?  Is it not rather the anarchy of hate,\ninjustice, impurity, uselessness; wherein abides all that is opposed to\nGod?\"\n\nAnd with those thoughts come others about moral retribution--\"What is its\npurpose?  Can it--can any punishment have any right purpose save the\ncorrection, or the annihilation, of the criminal?  Can God, in this\nrespect, be at once less merciful and less powerful than man?  Is He so\ncontrolled by necessity that He is forced to bring into the world beings\nwhom He knows to be incorrigible, and doomed to endless misery?  And if\nnot so controlled, is not the alternative as to His character even more\nfearful?  He bids us copy His justice, His love.  Is that His justice,\nthat His love, which if we copied, we should call each other, and\ndeservedly, utterly unjust and unloving?  Can there be one morality for\nGod, and another for man, made in the image of God?  Are these dark\ndogmas worthy of a Father who hateth nothing that He hath made, and is\nperfect in this--that He makes His sun shine on the evil and on the good,\nand His rain fall on the just and on the unjust, and is good to the\nunthankful and to the evil?  Are they worthy of a Son who, in the fire of\nHis divine charity, stooped from heaven to earth, to toil, to suffer, to\ndie on the Cross, that the world by Him might be saved?  Are they worthy\nof that Spirit which proceeds from the Father and the Son, even that\nSpirit of boundless charity, and fervent love, by which the Son offered\nHimself to the Father, a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world--and\nsurely not in vain?\"\n\nSo men are asking--rightly or wrongly; and they are guarding themselves,\nat the same time, from the imputation of disbelief in moral retribution;\nof fancying God to be a careless, epicurean deity, cruelly indulgent to\nsin, and therefore, in so far, immoral.\n\nThey say--\"We believe firmly enough in moral retribution.  How can we\nhelp believing in it, while we see it working around us, in many a\nfearful shape, here, now, in this life?  And we believe that it may work\non, in still more fearful shapes, in the life to come.  We believe that\nas long as a sinner is impenitent, he must be miserable; that if he goes\non impenitent for ever, he must go on making himself miserable--ay, it\nmay be more and more miserable for ever.  Only do not tell us that he\nmust go on.  That his impenitence, and therefore his punishment, is\nirremediable, necessary, endless; and thereby destroy the whole purpose,\nand we should say, the whole morality, of his punishment.  If that\npunishment be corrective, our moral sense is not shocked by any severity,\nby any duration: but if it is irremediable, it cannot be corrective; and\nthen, what it is, or why it is, we cannot--or rather dare not--say.  We,\ntoo, believe in an eternal fire.  But because we believe also the\nAthanasian Creed, which tells us that there is but One Eternal, we\nbelieve that that fire must be the fire of God, and therefore, like all\nthat is in God and of God, good and not evil, a blessing and not a curse.\nWe believe that that fire is for ever burning, though men are for ever\ntrying to quench it all day long; and that it has been and will be in\nevery age burning up all the chaff and stubble of man's inventions; the\nfolly, the falsehood, the ignorance, the vice of this sinful world; and\nwe praise God for it; and give thanks to Him for His great glory, that He\nis the everlasting and triumphant foe of evil and misery, of whom it is\nwritten, that our God is a consuming fire.\"  Such words are being spoken,\nright or wrong.\n\nSuch words will bear their fruit, for good or evil.  I do not pronounce\nhow much of them is true or false.  It is not my place to dogmatize and\ndefine, where the Church of England, as by law established, has declined\nto do so.  Neither is it for you to settle these questions.  It is rather\na matter for your children.  A generation more, it may be, of earnest\nthought will be required, ere the true answer has been found.  But it is\nyour duty, if you be educated and thoughtful persons, to face these\nquestions; to consider seriously what these men would have you\nconsider--whether you are believing the exact words of the Bible, and the\nconclusions of your own reason and moral sense; or whether you are merely\nbelieving that cosmogony elaborated in the cloister, that theory of moral\nretribution pardonable in the middle age, which Dante and Milton sang.\n\nBut this I do not hesitate to say--That if we of the clergy can find no\nother answers to these doubts than those which were reasonable and\npopular in an age when men racked women, burned heretics, and believed\nthat every Mussulman killed in a crusade went straight to Tartarus--then\nvery serious times are at hand, both for the Christian clergy and for\nChristianity itself.\n\nWhat, then, are we to believe and do?  Shall we degenerate into a lazy\nscepticism, which believes that everything is a little true, and\neverything a little false--in plain words, believes nothing at all?  Or\nshall we degenerate into faithless fears, and unmanly wailings that the\nflood of infidelity is irresistible, and that Christ has left His Church?\n\nWe shall do neither, if we believe the text.  That tells us of a firm\nstanding-ground amid the wreck of fashions and opinions.  Of a kingdom\nwhich cannot be moved, though the heavens pass away like a scroll, and\nthe earth be burnt up with fervent heat.\n\nAnd it tells us that the King of that kingdom is He, who is called Jesus\nChrist--the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.\n\nAn eternal and changeless kingdom, and an eternal and changeless King.\nThese the Epistle to the Hebrews preaches to all generations.\n\nIt does not say that we have an unchangeable cosmogony, an unchangeable\neschatology, an unchangeable theory of moral retribution, an unchangeable\ndogmatic system: not to these does it point the Jews, while their own\nnation and worship were in their very death-agony, and the world was\nrocking and reeling round them, decay and birth going on side by side, in\na chaos such as man had never seen before.  Not to these does the Epistle\npoint the Hebrews: but to the changeless kingdom and to the changeless\nKing.\n\nMy friends, do you really believe in that kingdom, and in that King?  Do\nyou believe that you are now actually in a kingdom of heaven, which\ncannot be moved; and that the living, acting, guiding, practical, real\nKing thereof is Christ who died on the Cross?\n\nThese are days in which a preacher is bound to ask his congregation--and\nstill more to ask himself--whether he really believes in that kingdom,\nand in that King; and to bid himself and them, if they have not believed\nearnestly enough therein, to repent, in this time of Lent, of that at\nleast; to repent of having neglected that most cardinal doctrine of\nScripture and of the Christian faith.\n\nBut if we really believe in that changeless kingdom and in that\nchangeless King, shall we not--considering who Christ is, the co-equal\nand co-eternal Son of God--believe also, that if the heavens and the\nearth are being shaken, then Christ Himself may be shaking them?  That if\nopinions be changing, then Christ Himself may be changing them?  That if\nnew truths are being discovered, Christ Himself may be revealing them?\nThat if some of those truths seem to contradict those which He has\nrevealed already, they do not really contradict them?  That, as in the\nsixteenth century, Christ is burning up the wood and stubble with which\nmen have built on His foundation, that the pure gold of His truth may\nalone be left?  It is at least possible; it is probable, if we believe\nthat Christ is a living, acting King, to whom all power is given in\nheaven and earth, and who is actually exercising that power; and\neducating Christendom, and through Christendom the whole human race, to a\nknowledge of Himself, and through Himself of God their Father in heaven.\n\nShould we not say--We know that Christ has been so doing, for centuries\nand for ages?  Through Abraham, through Moses, through the prophets,\nthrough the Greeks, through the Romans, and at last through Himself, He\ngave men juster and wider views of themselves, of the universe, and of\nGod.  And even then He did not stop.  How could He, who said of Himself,\n\"My Father worketh hitherto, and I work\"?  How could He, if He be the\nsame yesterday, to-day, and for ever?  Through the Apostles, and\nspecially through St Paul, He enlarged, while He confirmed, His own\nteaching.  And did He not do the same in the sixteenth century?  Did He\nnot then sweep from the minds and hearts of half Christendom beliefs\nwhich had been held sacred and indubitable for a thousand years?  Why\nshould He not be doing so now?  If it be answered, that the Reformation\nof the sixteenth century was only a return to simpler and purer Apostolic\ntruth--why, again, should it not be so now?  Why should He not be\nperfecting His work one step more, and sweeping away more of man's\ninventions, which are not integral and necessary elements of the one\nCatholic faith, but have been left behind, in pardonable human weakness,\nby our great Reformers?  Great they were, and good: giants on the earth,\nwhile we are but as dwarfs beside them.  But, as the hackneyed proverb\nsays, the dwarf on the giant's shoulders may see further than the giant\nhimself: and so may we.\n\nOh! that men would approach new truth in something of that spirit; in the\nspirit of reverence and Godly fear, which springs from a living belief in\nChrist the living King, which is--as the text tells us--the spirit in\nwhich we can serve God acceptably.  Oh! that they would serve God;\nwaiting reverently and anxiously, as servants standing in the presence of\ntheir Lord, for the slightest sign or hint of His will.  Then they would\nhave grace; by which they would receive new thought with grace;\ngracefully, courteously, fairly, charitably, reverently; believing that,\nhowever strange or startling, it may come from Him whose ways are not as\nour ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts; and that he who fights\nagainst it, may haply be fighting against God.\n\nTrue, they would receive all new thought with caution, that conservative\nspirit, which is the duty of every Christian; which is the peculiar\nstrength of the Englishman, because it enables him calmly and slowly to\ntake in the new, without losing the old which his forefathers have\nalready won for him.  So they would be cautious, even anxious, lest in\ngrasping too greedily at seeming improvements, they let go some precious\nknowledge which they had already attained: but they would be on the look\nout for improvements; because they would consider themselves, and their\ngeneration, as under a divine education.  They would prove all things\nfairly and boldly, and hold fast that which is good; all that which is\nbeautiful, noble, improving and elevating to human souls, minds, or\nbodies; all that increases the amount of justice, mercy, knowledge,\nrefinement; all that lessens the amount of vice, cruelty, ignorance,\nbarbarism.  That at least must come from Christ.  That at least must be\nthe inspiration of the Spirit of God: unless the Pharisees were right\nafter all when they said, that evil spirits could be cast out by the\nprince of the devils.\n\nBe these things as they may, one comfort it will give us, to believe\nfirmly and actively in the changeless kingdom, and in the changeless\nKing.  It will give us calm, patience, faith and hope, though the heavens\nand the earth be shaken around us.  For then we shall see that the\nKingdom, of which we are citizens, is a kingdom of light, and not of\ndarkness; of truth, and not of falsehood; of freedom, and not of slavery;\nof bounty and mercy, and not of wrath and fear; that we live and move and\nhave our being not in a \"Deus quidam deceptor\" who grudges his children\nwisdom, but in a Father of Light, from whom comes every good and perfect\ngift; who willeth that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge\nof the truth.  In His kingdom we are; and in the King whom He has set\nover it we can have the most perfect trust.  For us that King stooped\nfrom heaven to earth; for us He was born, for us He toiled, for us He\nsuffered, for us He died, for us He rose, for us He sits for ever at\nGod's right hand.  And can we not trust Him?  Let Him do what He will.\nLet Him lead us whither He will.  Wheresoever He leads must be the way of\ntruth and life.  Whatsoever He does, must be in harmony with that\ninfinite love which He displayed for us upon the Cross.  Whatsoever He\ndoes, must be in harmony with that eternal purpose by which He reveals to\nmen God their Father.  Therefore, though the heaven and the earth be\nshaken around us, we will trust in Him.  For we know that He is the same\nyesterday, to-day, and for ever; and that His will and promise is, to\nlead those who trust in Him into all truth.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON IX.  THE KINGDOM OF GOD.\n\n\nLUKE XXI. 29-33.\n\n   And Jesus spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the\n   trees; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves\n   that summer is now nigh at hand.  So likewise ye, when ye see these\n   things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.\n   Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all\n   be fulfilled.  Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall\n   not pass away.\n\nThe question which naturally suggests itself when we hear these words,\nis--When were these things to take place?\n\nIf we heard one whom we regarded as at least a person of perfect virtue,\ntruthfulness, and earnestness, foretell that the city in which we now\nstand should be destroyed.  If he told us, that when we saw it\nencompassed with armies, we were to know that its desolation was at hand.\nIf he told us that then those who were in the surrounding country were to\nflee to the mountains, and those in the city to come out of it.  If he\npronounced woe in that day on mothers and weak women who could not\nescape.  If he told us, nevertheless, that when these things came to pass\nwe were to rejoice and lift up our heads, for our redemption was drawing\nnigh.  If he told us to look at the trees in spring; for, as surely as\ntheir budding was a sign that summer was nigh, so was the coming to pass\nof these terrible woes a sign that something was nigh, which he called\nthe Kingdom of God.  If he told us, with a solemn asseveration, that this\ngeneration should not pass away till all had happened.  If he went on to\nwarn us against profligacy, frivolity, worldliness, lest that day should\ncome upon us unaware.  If he bade us keep awake always, that we might be\nfound worthy to escape all that was coming, and to stand before Him, The\nSon of Man.  If he used throughout his address the second person,\nspeaking to us, but never mentioning our descendants; giving the signs,\nthe warnings, the counsels to us only, should we not, even if he had not\nsolemnly told us that the present generation should not pass away till\nall was fulfilled--should we not, I say, suppose naturally that he spoke\nof events which in his opinion our own eyes would see; which would, in\nhis opinion, occur during our lifetime?\n\nWhether he were right in his expectation, or wrong, still it would be\nclear that such was his expectation; that he considered the danger as\nimminent, the warning as addressed personally to us who heard him speak.\n\nWe should leave his presence with that impression, in fear and anxiety.\nBut if we afterwards discovered that our fear and anxiety were\nsuperfluous; that the events of which he spoke--the most awful and\nwonderful of them at least--were not to occur for many centuries to come;\nthat, even if some calamity were imminent, the immediate future and the\nvery distant future were so intermingled in his discourse, that it would\nrequire the labours of commentator after commentator, for many hundred\nyears, to disentangle them, and that their labours would be in vain; that\nthe coming of the Son of Man, and of the Kingdom of God, of which he had\nspoken, were to be referred to a time thousands of years hence; though we\nwere told in the same breath to look to the fig-tree and all the trees as\na sign that it was coming immediately, and that our own generation would\nnot pass away before all had taken place:--would not such a discovery\nraise in us thoughts and feelings neither wholesome for us nor honourable\nto the prophet?\n\nI cannot think otherwise.  We may be aware of the difficulties which\nbeset this, and any other, interpretation of our Lord's prophecies in\nMatthew, Mark, and Luke: we may have the deepest respect for those\nlearned and pious divines who from time to time have tried to part the\nprophecies relating to the fall of Jerusalem from those relating to the\nend of the world and the day of Judgment.  Yet, in the face of such a\npassage as the text, especially when we cannot agree with those who would\nmake this \"generation\" mean this \"race\" or \"nation,\" we may--we have a\nright to--decline to separate the two sets of passages.  We have a right\nto say,--He who spake as man never spake, and therefore knew the force of\nwords; He who knew what was in man--and therefore what effect His words\nwould produce on His hearers--did deliver a discourse--indeed, many\ndiscourses--which asserted, as far as plain words could be understood by\nplain men, that the Kingdom of God was at hand; and that the coming of\nthe Son of Man would take place before that generation passed away.\n\nAnd that all His disciples, and St Paul as much as any, put that meaning\nupon His words, is a matter of fact and of history, to be seen plainly in\nHoly Scripture.\n\nBut, while the text compels us to believe that the destruction of\nJerusalem by the Romans was a coming of the Son of Man--a manifestation\nof the Kingdom of God--a day of Judgment, in the strictest and most awful\nsense; yet we are not compelled to limit the meaning of the text to the\ndestruction of Jerusalem.\n\nNo prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation.  Prophets,\napostles--how much more our Lord Himself--do not merely indulge in\npresages; they lay down laws--laws moral, spiritual, eternal--which have\nbeen fulfilling themselves from the beginning; which are fulfilling\nthemselves now; which will go on fulfilling themselves to the end of\ntime.\n\nSo said our Lord Jesus of His own prophecies concerning the destruction\nof Jerusalem.  It was but one example--a most awful one--of the laws of\nHis kingdom.  Not in Judaea only, but wherever the carcase was, there\nwould the eagles be gathered together.  In the moral, as in the physical\nword, there were beasts of prey--the scavengers of God--ready to devour\nout of His kingdom nations, institutions, opinions, which had become\ndead, and decayed, and ready to infect the air.  Many a time since the\nRoman eagles flocked to Jerusalem has that prophecy been fulfilled; and\nmany a time will it be fulfilled once more, and yet once more.\n\nAnd what else, if we look at them carefully and reverently, is the\nmeaning of the words in this my text, \"Heaven and earth shall pass away,\nbut My words shall not pass away\"?\n\nShall we translate this,--Heaven and earth shall not come true: but My\nwords shall come true?  By so doing we may put some little meaning into\nthe latter half of the verse; but none into the former.  Surely there is\na deeper meaning in the words than that of merely coming true.  Surely\nthey mean that His words are eternal, perpetual; for ever present,\npossible, imminent; for ever coming true.  So, indeed, they would not\npass away.  So they would be like the heavens and the earth, and the laws\nthereof; like heat, gravitation, electricity, what not--always here,\nalways working, always asserting themselves--with this difference, that\nwhen the physical laws of the heavens and the earth, which began in time,\nin time have perished, the spiritual laws of God's kingdom, of Christ's\nmoral government of moral beings, shall endure for ever and for ever,\neternal as that God whose essence they reflect.\n\nTherefore I mean nothing less than that the great and final day of\nJudgment is past; or that we are not to look for that second coming of\nour Lord Jesus Christ which, as our forefathers taught us to hope, shall\nset right all the wrong of this diseased world.\n\nGod forbid!  For most miserable were the world, most miserable were\nmankind, if all that our Lord prophesied had happened, once and for all,\nat the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies.  But most miserable,\nalso, would this world be, and most miserable would be mankind, if these\nwords were not to be fulfilled till some future Last Day, and day of\nJudgment, for which the Church has now been waiting for more than\neighteen centuries--and, as far as we can judge, may wait for as many\ncenturies more.  Most miserable, if the Son of Man has never come since\nHe ascended into heaven from Olivet.  Most miserable, if the kingdom of\nGod has never been at hand, since He gave that one short gleam of hope to\nmen in Judaea long ago.  Most miserable, if there be no kingdom of God\namong us even now: in one word, if God and Christ be not our King; but\nthe devil, as some fancy; or Man himself, as others fancy, be the only\nking of this world and of its destinies; if there be no order in this mad\nworld, save what man invents; no justice, save what he executes; no law,\nsave what he finds convenient to lay upon himself for the protection of\nhis person and property.  Most miserable, if the human race have no\nguide, save its own instincts and tendencies; no history, save that of\nits own greed, ignorance and crime, varied only by fruitless struggles\nafter a happiness to which it never attains.  Most miserable world, and\nmiserable man, if that be true after all which to the old Hebrew prophet\nseemed incredible and horrible--if God does look on while men deal\ntreacherously, and does hold His peace when the wicked devours the man\nwho is more righteous than he; and has made men as the fishes of the sea,\nas the creeping things that have no ruler over them.\n\nI said--Most miserable, in that case, was the world and man.  I did not\nsay that they would consider themselves miserable.  I did not say that\nthey would think it a Gospel, and good news, that Christ was their King,\nand that His Kingdom was always at hand.  They never thought that good\nnews.  When the prophets told them of it, they stoned them.  When the\nLord Himself told them, they crucified Him.  Worldly men dislike the\nmessage now, probably, as much as they ever did.  But they escape from\nit, either by treating it as a self-evident commonplace which no\nChristian denies, and therefore no Christian need think of; or by smiling\nat it as an exploded superstition, at least as a \"Semitic\" form of\nthought, with which we have nothing to do.  They confound it, often I\nfear purposely, with those fancied miraculous interpositions, those\npaltry special providences, which fanatics in all ages have believed to\nbe worked for their own special behoof.  Altogether they dislike, and\nexpress very openly their dislike, of the least allusion to a Divine\nProvidence \"interfering,\" as they strangely term it, with them and their\naffairs.\n\nAnd they are wise, doubtless, in their generation.  The news that Christ\nis the King of men and of the world must be unpleasant, even offensive,\nto too many, both of those who fancy that they are managing this world,\nand of those who fancy that they could manage the world still better, if\nthey only had their rights.  It must be unpleasant to be told that they\nare not managing the world, and cannot manage it: that it is being\nmanaged and ruled by an unseen King, whose ways are far above their ways,\nand His thoughts above their thoughts.\n\nFor then: Prudence might demand of them, that they should find out what\nare that King's ways, thoughts and laws, and obey them--an enquiry so\ntroublesome, that many very highly educated persons consider it, now-a-\ndays, quite impossible; and tell us that, for practical purposes, God's\nlaws can neither be discovered, nor obeyed.\n\nMoreover, their scheme of this world is one which would work--so they\nfancy--just as well if there was no God.  Unpleasant therefore it must be\nfor them to hear, not merely that there is a God, but that He has His own\nscheme of the world; and that it is working, whether they like or not;\nthat God, and not they, is making history; God, and not they, appointing\nthe bounds and the times of nations; God, and not they, or any man or\nmen, distributing good and evil among mankind.\n\nThey do not object, of course, to the existence of a God.  They only\nobject to His being what the Hebrew prophets called Him--a living God; a\nGod who executes justice and judgment by His Son Jesus Christ, to whom He\nhas committed all power both in heaven and earth.  They are ready\nsometimes to allow even that, provided they may relegate it into the\npast, or into the future.  They are ready to allow that God and Christ\nexerted power over men at the first Advent 1800 years ago, and that they\nwill exert power over men at the second Advent--none knows how long\nhence.  But that God and Christ are exerting power now--in an\never-present and perpetual Advent--in this nineteenth century just as\nmuch as in any century before or since--that they had rather not believe.\nTheir creed is, that though heaven and earth have not passed away; though\nthe laws of nature are working for ever as at the beginning: yet Christ's\nwords have passed away, and fallen into abeyance for many centuries past,\nto remain in abeyance for many centuries to come.\n\nIn one word--while they believe more or less in a past God, and a future\nGod, yet as to the existence of a present God, in any practical and real\nsense--they believe--how little, I dare not say.\n\nWhether this generation will awaken out of that sleep of practical\nAtheism, which is creeping on them more and more, who can tell?  That\nthey are uneasy in the sleep, there are many signs.  For in their sleep\ndreams come of another world, of which their five senses tell them\nnought.  Then do some fly to mediaeval superstitions, which give them at\nleast elaborate and agreeable substitutes for a living God.  Some fly to\nimpostors, who pretend by juggling tricks to put them in communication\nwith that unseen world which they have so long denied.  Some, again, play\nwith unfulfilled prophecy; and fancy that it is for them, though it was\nnot for the apostles, to know the times and seasons which the Father has\nput in His own power, and the day and hour of which no man knoweth, no\nnot the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.\n\nBetter that, than that they should believe that there is nothing, and\nnever will be anything, in the world, beyond what their five senses can\napprehend.\n\nBut whether they awake or not out of their sleep, their blindness does\nnot alter the eternal fact, whether men believe it or not.  That is true\nwhat the Psalmist said of old: \"The Lord is King, be the people never so\nimpatient.  He sitteth upon His throne, though the earth be never so\nunquiet.\"\n\nThe utterances of the old Psalmists and prophets concerning the\never-present kingdom of God are facts, not dreams.  Whether men believe\nit or not, it is true that the power, glory, and righteousness of His\nkingdom may be known unto men; that His kingdom is an everlasting\nkingdom, and His dominion endureth throughout all ages; that The Lord\nupholds all such as fall, and lifts up those that are down; that the eyes\nof all wait on Him, that He may give them their meat in due season; that\nHe opens His hand, and filleth all things living with plenteousness; that\nthe Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works; that He\nis nigh to them that call upon Him, yea to all who call upon Him\nfaithfully.  He that planted the ear, shall He not hear?  He that made\nthe eye, shall He not see?  He that chastiseth the nations; it is He that\nteacheth man knowledge: shall He not punish?\n\nWhether men believe it or not, that is true which the Psalmist\nsaid--Whither shall I flee from His Spirit, or whither shall I go from\nHis presence?  If I climb up to heaven, He is there; if I go down to\nhell, He is there also.  If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in\nthe uttermost part of the sea, even there shall His hand lead me, His\nright hand hold me still.\n\nWhether men believe it or not, that is true which Christ spake on\nearth--That the Father hath committed all judgment to Him, because He is\nthe Son of man; that to Him is given all power in heaven and earth; and\nthat He is with us, even to the end of the world.\n\nWhether men believe it or not, that is true which S. Paul spake on Mars'\nhill, saying that the Lord is not far from any one of us, for in Him we\nlive and move and have our being; and that He hath appointed a day in\nwhich He will judge the world in righteousness, by that Man whom He hath\nordained, and raised from the dead.\n\nWhether men believe it or not, that is true which Christ spake--Heaven\nand earth shall pass away; but My words shall not pass away; at least\ntill He has put down all rule and all authority and power, and delivered\nup the kingdom to God, even the Father, that God may be all in all.\n\n\"That one far-off divine event, toward which the whole creation moves,\"\nwill be, not the resumption, but the triumph, of Christ's rule; of a rule\nwhich began before the world, which has endured through all the ages,\nwhich endures now, punishing or rewarding each and every one of us, and\nof our children's children, as long as there shall be a man upon the\nearth.  For by Christ's will alone the world of man consists; in Christ's\nlaws alone is true life, health, wealth, possible for any man, family or\nnation; out of His kingdom He casts, sooner or later, all things which\noffend, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.  He said of\nHimself--Whosoever falleth on this rock shall be broken; but on\nwhomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON X.  THE LAW OF THE LORD.\n\n\nPSALM I. 1,2.\n\n   Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly,\n   nor stood in the path of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the scornful.\n   But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law will he\n   exercise himself day and night.\n\nThe first and second Psalms, taken together, are the key to all the\nPsalms; I may almost say to the whole Bible.  I will say a few words on\nthem this morning, especially to those who are coming to the Holy\nCommunion, to shew their allegiance to that Lord, in whose law alone is\nlife, and who sits on the throne of the universe, King of kings, and Lord\nof lords: but I say it to the whole congregation likewise; nay, if there\nwere an infidel or a heathen in the Church, I should say it to them.  For\nin this case what is true of one man is true of every man, whether he\nknows it or not.\n\nWe all should like to be blessed.  We all should like to be, as the Psalm\nsays, like trees planted by the waterside, whose leaves never wither, and\nwho bring forth their fruit in due season.  We should all wish to have it\nsaid of us--Whatsoever he doeth it shall prosper.  Then here is the way\nto inherit that blessing--\"_Blessed is the man whose delight is in the\nlaw of the Lord_, _and who exercises himself in His law day and night_.\"\nThe Psalmist is not speaking of Moses' Law, nor of any other law of forms\nand ceremonies.  He says expressly \"The law of the Lord\"--that is, the\nlaw according to which the Lord has made him and all the world; and\naccording to which the Lord rules him and all the world.  The Psalms--you\nmust remember--say very little about Moses' law; and when they do, speak\nof it almost slightingly, as if to draw men's minds away from it to a\ndeeper, nobler, more eternal law.  In one Psalm God asks, \"Thinkest thou\nthat I will eat bulls' flesh, and drink the blood of goats?\"  And in\nanother Psalm some one answers, \"Sacrifice and burnt-offering thou\nwouldest not.  Then said I, Lo I come, to do thy will, O God.  Thy law is\nwithin my heart.\"  This is that true and eternal law of which Solomon\nspeaks in his proverbs, as the Wisdom by which God made the heavens, and\nlaid the foundation of the earth; and tells us that that Wisdom is a tree\nof life to all who can lay hold of her; that in her right hand is length\nof days, and in her left hand riches and honour; that her ways are ways\nof pleasantness; and all her paths are peace.\n\nThis is that law, of which the Prophet says--that God will put it into\nmen's hearts, and write it in their minds; and they shall be His people,\nand He will be their God.  This is that law, which the inspired\nPhilosopher--for a philosopher he was indeed--who wrote the 119th Psalm,\ncontinually prayed and strove to learn, intreating the Lord to teach him\nHis law, and make him remember His everlasting judgments.  This is that\nlaw, which our Lord Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled, because the law was\nHis Father's law, and therefore His own law, and therefore he perfectly\ncomprehended the law, and perfectly loved the law; and said with His\nwhole heart--I delight to do Thy will, O God.\n\nThe will of God.  For in one word, this Law, which we have to learn, and\nby keeping which we shall be blessed, is nothing else than God's Will.\nGod's Will about us.  What God has willed and chosen we should be.  What\nGod has willed and chosen we should do.  The greatest philosopher of the\n18th century said that every rational being had to answer four\nquestions--Where am I?  What can I know?  What must I do?  Whither am I\ngoing?  And he knew well that--as the Bible tells us throughout--the only\nway to get any answer to those four tremendous questions is--To delight\nin the law of the Lord; to struggle, think, pray, till we get some\nunderstanding of God's will; of God's will about ourselves and about the\nworld; and so be blessed indeed.\n\nBut to do that, it is plain that we must heed the warning which the first\nverse of the Psalm gives us--\"Blessed is the man that hath not walked in\nthe counsel of the ungodly.\"  For it is plain that a man will never learn\nGod's will if he takes counsel from ungodly men who care nothing for\nGod's will, and do not believe that God's will governs the world.  Neither\nmust he, as the Psalm says, 'stand in the way of sinners'--of profligate\nand dishonest men who break God's law.  For if he follows their ways, and\nbreaks God's law himself, it is plain that he will learn little or\nnothing about God's law, save in the way of bitter punishment.  For let\nhim but break God's law a little too long, and then--as the 2nd Psalm\nsays--'God will rule him with a rod of iron, and break him in pieces like\na potter's vessel.'  But there is even more hope for him--for he may\nrepent and amend--than if he sits in the seat of the scorners.  The\nscorners; the sneering, the frivolous, the unearnest, the unbelieving,\nthe envious, who laugh down what they call enthusiasm and romance; who\ndelight in finding fault, and in blackening those who seem purer or\nnobler than themselves.  These are the men who cannot by any possibility\nlearn anything of the law of God; for they will not even look for it.\nThey have cast away the likeness of rational men, and have taken upon\nthemselves the likeness of the sneering accusing Satan, who asks in the\nbook of Job--\"Doth Job serve God for nought?\"  When the greatest poet of\nour days tried to picture his idea of a fiend tempting a man to his ruin,\nhe gave his fiend just such a character as this; a very clever,\ncourteous, agreeable man of the world, and yet a being who could not love\nany one, could not believe in any one; who mocked not only at man but at\nGod and tempted and ruined man, not out of hatred to him, hardly out of\nenvy; but in mere sport, as a cruel child may torment an insect;--in one\nword, a scorner.  And so true was his conception felt to be, that men of\nthat character are now often called by the very name which he gave to his\nSatan--Mephistopheles.  Beware therefore of the scornful spirit, as well\nas of the openly sinful or of the ungodly.  If you wish to learn the law\nof the Lord, keep your souls pious, pure, reverent, and earnest; for it\nis only the pure in heart who shall see God; and only those who do God's\nwill as far as they know it, who will know concerning any doctrine\nwhether it be true or false; in one word, whether it be of God.\n\nAnd now bear in mind secondly, that this law is the law of the Lord.  You\ncannot have a law without a lawgiver who makes the law, and also without\na judge who enforces the law; and the lawgiver and the judge of the law\nof the Lord is the Lord Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nRemembering Him, and that He is King, we can understand the fervour of\nindignation and pity, with which the writer of the 2nd Psalm bursts\nout--\"Why do the heathen rage, and why do the people imagine a vain\nthing?  The kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers take counsel\ntogether, against the Lord, and against His Anointed--\n\n\"Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their cords from us.\"\n\nFor the great majority of mankind, in every age and country, will not\nbelieve that there is a Law of the Lord, to which they must conform\nthemselves.  Kings, and governments, and peoples, are too often all alike\nin that.  They must needs have their own way.  Their will is to be law.\nTheir voice is to be the voice of God.  They are they who ought to speak;\nwho is Lord over them?  And because the Lord is patient and\nlong-suffering, and does not punish their presumption on the spot by\nlightning or earthquake, they fancy that He takes no notice of them, and\nof their crimes and follies; and say--\"Tush, shall God perceive it?  Is\nthere knowledge in the most High?\"  But sooner or later, either by sudden\nand terrible catastrophes, or by slow decay, brought on sometimes by\ntheir own blind presumption, sometimes by their own luxury, they find out\ntheir mistake when it is too late.  And then--\n\n\"He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn.  The Lord shall\nhave them in derision.  For He has set His King upon the throne\" of all\nthe universe.\n\nYes, Christ the Lord rules, and knows that He rules; whether we know it\nor not.  Christ's law still hangs over our head, ready to lead us to\nlight and life and peace and wealth, or ready to fall on us and grind us\nto powder, whether we choose to look up and see it or not.  The Lord\nliveth; though we may be too dead to feel Him.  The Lord sees us; though\nwe may be too blind to see Him.  Man can abolish many things; and does\nboth--wisely and unwisely--in these restless days of change.  But let him\ntry as long as he will--for he has often tried, and will try again--he\ncannot abolish Christ the Lord.\n\nFor Christ is set upon the throne of the universe.  The Father of all--if\nwe may dare to hint even in Scriptural words at mysteries which are in\nthemselves unspeakable--is eternally saying to Him--Thou art my Son, this\nday have I begotten Thee.  And Christ answers eternally--I come to do Thy\nwill, O God.  The nations are Christ's inheritance; and the utmost parts\nof the earth are His possession, now, already; whether we or they think\nso or not.\n\nAnd there are times--there are times, my friends--when the awful words\nwhich follow come true likewise--\"Thou shalt bruise them with a rod of\niron, and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel.\"\n\nFor as to this world in which we live, so to the God who created that\nworld, there is a terrible aspect.  There is calm: but there is storm\nalso.  There is fertilizing sunshine: but there is also the destroying\nthunderbolt.  There is the solid and fruitful earth, where man can till\nand build; but there is the earthquake and the flood likewise, which\ndestroy in a moment the works of man.  So there is in God boundless love,\nand boundless mercy: but there is, too, a wrath of God, and a fire of God\nwhich burns eternally against all evil and falsehood.  And woe to those\nwho fall under that wrath; who are even scorched for a moment by that\nfire.\n\n\"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.\"\n\nWe are all ready enough to forget this; ready enough to think only of\nGod's goodness, and never of His severity.  Ready enough to talk of\nChrist as gentle and suffering; because we flatter ourselves that if He\nis gentle, He may be also indulgent; if He be suffering, He may be also\nweak.  We like to forget that He is, and was, and ever will be--Lord of\nheaven and earth; and to think of Him only in His humiliation in Judaea\n1800 years ago, forgetting that during that very humiliation, while He\nwas shewing love, and mercy, and miracles of healing, and sympathy and\ncompassion for every form of human sorrow and weakness, He did not shrink\nfrom shewing to men the awful side of His character; did not shrink from\nsaying, \"Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.  Ye serpents,\nye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?\"--did\nnot shrink from declaring that He was coming again, even before that very\ngeneration had passed away, to destroy, unless it repented, the wicked\ncity of Jerusalem, with an utter and horrible destruction.\n\nThink of these things, my friends: for true they are, and true they will\nremain, whether you think of them or not.  And take the warning of the\nsecond Psalm, which is needed now as much as it was ever needed--\"Be wise\nnow therefore, O ye kings, be learned, ye that are judges of the earth.\nServe the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto Him with reverence.  Worship\nthe Son, lest He be angry, and so ye perish from the right way.  If His\nwrath be kindled, yea, but a little, blessed are all they that put their\ntrust in Him.\"\n\nBut you are no kings, you are no judges.  Is it so?  And yet you boast\nyourselves to be free men, in a free country.  Not so.  Every man who is\na free man is a king or a judge, whether he knows it or not.  Every one\nwho has a duty, is a king over his duty.  Every one who has a work to do,\nis a judge whether he does his work well or not.  He who farms, is a king\nand a judge over his land.  He who keeps a shop, a king and a judge over\nhis business.  He who has a family, a king and a judge over his\nhousehold.  Let each be wise, and serve the Lord in fear; knowing that\naccording as he obeys the law of the Lord, he will receive for the deeds\ndone in the body, whether good or evil.\n\nNot kings? not judges?  Is not each and every human being who is not a\nmadman, a king over his own actions, a judge over his own heart and\nconscience?  Let him govern himself, govern his own thoughts and words,\nhis own life and actions, according to the law of the Lord who created\nhim; and he will be able to say with the poet,\n\n   My mind to me a kingdom is;\n   Such perfect joy therein I find\n   As far exceeds all earthly bliss.\n\nBut if he governs himself according to his own fancy, which is no law,\nbut lawlessness: then he will find himself rebelling against himself,\nweakened by passions, torn by vain desires, and miserable by reason of\nthe lusts which war in his members; and so will taste, here in this life,\nof that anger of the Lord of which it is written; \"If His wrath be\nkindled, yea, but a little, ye shall perish from the right way.\"\n\nTherefore let each and all of us, high and low, take the warning of the\nlast verse, and worship the Son of God.  Bow low before Him--for that is\nthe true meaning of the words--as subjects before an absolute monarch,\nwho can dispose of us, body and soul, according to His will: but who can\nbe trusted to dispose of us well: because His will is a good will, and\nthe only reason why He is angry when we break His laws, is, that His laws\nare the Eternal Laws of God, wherein alone is life for all rational\nbeings; and to break them is to injure our fellow-creatures, and to ruin\nourselves, and perish from that right way, to bring us back to which He\ncondescended, of His boundless love, to die on the Cross for all mankind.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XI.  GOD THE TEACHER.\n\n\nPSALM CXIX. 33, 34.\n\n   Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto\n   the end.  Give me understanding, and I shall keep Thy Law; yea, I\n   shall observe it with my whole heart.\n\nThis 119th Psalm has been valued for many centuries, by the wisest and\nmost devout Christians, as one of the most instructive in the Bible; as\nthe experimental psalm.  And it is that, and more.  It is specially a\npsalm about education.  That is on the face of the text.  Teach me, O\nLord, Thy statutes, and I shall keep them to the end.  These are the\nwords of a man who wishes to be taught, and therefore to learn; and to\nlearn not mere book-learning and instruction, but to acquire a practical\neducation, which he can keep to the end, and carry out in his whole life.\n\nBut it is more.  It is, to my mind, as much a theological psalm as it is\nan experimental psalm; and it is just as valuable for what it tells us\nconcerning the changeless and serene essence of God, as for what it tells\nus concerning the changing and struggling soul of man.\n\nLet us think a little this morning--and, please God, hereafter also--of\nthe Psalm, and what it says.  For it is just as true now as ever it was,\nand just as precious to those who long to educate themselves with the\ntrue education, which makes a man perfect, even as his Father in heaven\nis perfect.\n\nThe Psalm is a prayer, or collection of short prayers, written by some\none who had two thoughts in his mind, and who was so full of those two\nthoughts that he repeated them over and over again, in many different\nforms, like one who, having an air of music in his head, repeats it in\ndifferent keys, with variation after variation; yet keeps true always to\nthe original air, and returns to it always at the last.\n\nNow what two thoughts were in the Psalmist's mind?\n\nFirst: that there was something in the world which he must learn, and\nwould learn; for everything in this life and the next depended on his\nlearning it.  And this thing which he wants to learn he calls God's\nstatutes, God's law, God's testimonies, God's commandments, God's\neverlasting judgments.  That is what he feels he must learn, or else come\nto utter grief, both body and soul.\n\nSecondly: that if he is to learn them, God Himself must teach them to\nhim.  I beg you not to overlook this side of the Psalm.  That is what\nmakes it not only a psalm, but a prayer also.  The man wants to know\nsomething.  But beside that, he prays God to teach it to him.\n\nHe was not like too many now-a-days, who look on prayer, and on\ninspiration, as old-fashioned superstitions; who believe that a man can\nfind out all he needs to know by his own unassisted intellect, and then\ndo it by his own unassisted will.  Where they get their proofs of that\ntheory, I know not; certainly not from the history of mankind, and\ncertainly not from their own experience, unless it be very different from\nmine.  Be that as it may, this old Psalmist would not have agreed with\nthem; for he held an utterly opposite belief.  He held that a man could\nsee nothing, unless God shewed it to him.  He held that a man could learn\nnothing unless God taught him; and taught him, moreover, in two ways.\nFirst taught him what he ought to do, and then taught him how to do it.\n\nSurely this man was, at least, a reasonable and prudent man, and shewed\nhis common-sense.  I say--common-sense.\n\nFor suppose that you were set adrift in a ship at sea, to shift for\nyourself, would it not be mere common-sense to try and learn how to\nmanage that ship, that you might keep her afloat and get her safe to\nland?  You would try to learn the statutes, laws, and commandments, and\ntestimonies, and judgments concerning the ship, lest by your own\nignorance you should sink her, and be drowned.  You would try to learn\nthe laws about the ship; namely the laws of floatation, by fulfilling\nwhich vessels swim, and by breaking which vessels sink.\n\nYou would try to learn the commandments about her.  They would be any\nbooks which you could find of rules of navigation, and instruction in\nseamanship.\n\nYou would try to learn the testimonies about the ship.  And what would\nthey be?  The witness, of course, which the ship bore to herself.  The\nexperience which you or others got, from seeing how she behaved--as they\nsay--at sea.\n\nAnd from whom would you try to learn all this? from yourself?  Out of\nyour own brain and fancy?  Would you invent theories of navigation and\nshipbuilding for yourself, without practice or experience?  I trust not.\nYou would go to the shipbuilder and the shipmaster for your information.\nJust as--if you be a reasonable man--you will go for your information\nabout this world to the builder and maker of the world--God himself.\n\nAnd lastly; you would try to learn the judgments about the ship: and what\nwould they be?  The results of good or bad seamanship; what happens to\nships, when they are well-managed or ill-managed.\n\nIt would be too hard to have to learn that by experience; for the price\nwhich you would have to pay would be, probably, that you would be wrecked\nand drowned.  But if you saw other ships wrecked near you, you would form\njudgments from their fate of what you ought to do.  If you could find\naccounts of shipwrecks, you would study them with the most intense\ninterest; lest you too should be wrecked, and so judgment overtake you\nfor your bad seamanship.\n\nFor God's judgment of any matter is not, as superstitious people fancy,\nthat God grows suddenly angry, and goes out of His way to punish those\nwho do wrong, as by a miracle.  God judges all things in heaven and earth\nwithout anger--ay, with boundless pity: but with no indulgence.  The soul\nthat sinneth, it shall die.  The ship that cannot swim, it must sink.\nThat is the law of the judgments of God.  But He is merciful in this;\nthat He rewardeth every man according to his work.  His judgment may be\nfavourable, as well as unfavourable.  He may acquit, or He may condemn.\nBut whether He acquits or condemns, we can only know by the event; by the\nresult.  If a ship sinks, for want of good sailing or other defect, that\nis a judgment of God about the ship.  He has condemned her.  She is not\nseaworthy.  But if the ship arrives safe in port, that too is God's\njudgment.  He has tried her and acquitted her.  She is seaworthy; and she\nhas her reward.\n\nHow simple this is.  And yet men will not believe it, will not understand\nit, and therefore they wreck so often each man his own ship--his own life\nand immortal soul, and sink and perish, for lack of knowledge.\n\nFor each one of us is at sea, each in his own ship; and each must sail\nher and steer her, as best he can, or sink and drown for ever.\n\nFor the sea which each of us is sailing over is this world, and the ship\nin which each of us sails, is our own nature and character; what St Paul,\nlike a truly scientific man, calls our flesh; and what modern scientific\nmen, and rightly, call our organisation.  And the land to which we are\nsailing is eternal Life.  Shall we make a prosperous voyage?  Shall we\nfail, or shall we succeed?  Shall we founder and drown at sea, and sink\nto eternal death?  Or shall we, as the clergyman prayed for us when we\nwere baptized, so pass through the waves of this troublesome world, that\nfinally we may come to the land of everlasting life?  Which shall it be,\nmy friends?  Shall we sink, or shall we swim?  Certain is one thing--that\nwe shall sink, and not swim, if we do not learn and keep the law, and\ncommandments, and testimonies, and judgments of God, concerning this our\nmortal life.  If we do not, then we shall go through life, without\nknowing how to go through life, ignorantly and blindly; and the end of\nthat will be failure, and ruin, and death to our souls.  If we do not\nknow and keep the Laws of God, the Laws of God will keep themselves, in\nspite of us, and grind us to powder.  Do not fancy that you may do wrong\nwithout being punished; and break God's Law, because you are not under\nthe law, but under grace.  You are only under grace, as long as you keep\nclear of God's Law.  The moment you do wrong you put yourself under the\nLaw, and the Law will punish you.  Suppose that you went into a mill; and\nthat the owner of that mill was your best friend, even your father.  Would\nthat prevent your being crushed by the machinery, if you got entangled in\nit through ignorance or heedlessness?  I think not.  Even so, though God\nbe your best of friends, ay, your Father in heaven, that will not prevent\nyour being injured, it may be ruined, not only by wilful sins, but by\nmere folly and ignorance.  Therefore your only chance for safety in this\nlife and for ever, is to learn God's laws and statutes about your life,\nthat you may pass through it justly, honourably, virtuously,\nsuccessfully.  And the man who wrote the 119th Psalm knew that, and said,\n\"Oh that my ways were made so direct, that I might keep thy statutes.\"\n\nBut moreover, you must learn God's commandments.  He has laid down\ncertain commands, certain positive rules which must be kept if you do not\nintend to die the eternal death.  So says our Lord.  \"If thou wilt enter\ninto life, keep the commandments.\"  \"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God\nwith all thy heart and soul, and thy neighbour as thyself.\"  There the\nten commandments are, and kept they must be; and if you break one of\nthem, it will punish you, and you cannot escape.  And the man who wrote\nthe 119th Psalm knew that, and said, \"With my whole heart have I sought\nthee: oh let me not go wrong out of Thy commandments.\"\n\nMoreover, you must learn God's testimonies: what He has witnessed and\ndeclared about Himself, and His own character, His power and His\ngoodness, His severity and His love.  And where will you learn that, as\nin the Bible?  The Bible is full of testimonies of God in Christ about\nHimself; who He is, what He does, what He requires; and of testimonies of\nholy men of old, concerning God and concerning duty; concerning God's\ndealings with their souls, and with other men, and with all the nations\nof the old world, and with all nations likewise to the end of time.  And\nif people will not read and study their Bibles, they cannot expect to\nknow the way to eternal life.  That too the man who wrote the 119th Psalm\nknew, and said, \"I have had as great delight in Thy testimonies, as in\nall manner of riches.\"\n\nMoreover, you must learn God's judgments; the way in which He rewards and\npunishes men.  And those too you will learn in the Bible, which is full\nof accounts of the just and merciful judgments of God.  And you may learn\nthem too from your own experience in life; from seeing what actually\nhappens to those whom you know, when they do right things; and what\nhappens again, when they do wrong things.  If any man will open his eyes\nto what is going on around him in a single city, or in the mere private\ncircle of his own kinsfolk and acquaintance; if he will but use his\ncommon sense, and look how righteousness is rewarded, and sin is\npunished, all day long, then he might learn enough and to spare about\nGod's judgments: but men will not.  A man will see his neighbour do\nwrong, and suffer for it: and then go and do exactly the same thing\nhimself; as if there were no living God; no judgments of God; as if all\nwas accident and chance; as if he was to escape scot-free, while his\nneighbour next door has brought shame and misery on himself by doing the\nsame thing.  For it was well written of old, \"The fool hath said in his\nheart--though he is afraid to say it with his lips--There is no God.\"  And\nthe man who wrote the 119th Psalm knew that, and said, \"I remembered\nThine everlasting judgments, O Lord, and received comfort; for I was\nhorribly afraid for the ungodly who forsake Thy law.\"\n\nI say again: that the only way to attain eternal life is to know, and\nkeep, and profit by God's laws, God's commandments, God's testimonies,\nGod's judgments; and therefore it is that the Psalmists say so often,\nthat these laws and commandments are Life.  Not merely the way to eternal\nlife; but the Life itself, as it is written in the Prayer-Book, \"O God,\nwhom truly to know is everlasting life.\"\n\nBut some will say, How shall I learn?  I am very stupid, and I confess\nthat freely.  And when I have learnt, how shall I act up to my lesson?\nFor I am very weak; and that I confess freely likewise.\n\nHow indeed, my friends?  Stupid we are, the cleverest of us; and weak we\nare, the strongest of us.  And if God left us to find out for ourselves,\nand to take care of ourselves, we should not sail far on the voyage of\nlife without being wrecked; and going down body and soul to hell.\n\nBut, blessed be God, He has not left us to ourselves.  He has not only\ncommanded us to learn: He has promised to teach.  And--as I said in the\nbeginning of my Sermon--he who wrote the 119th Psalm knew that well.  He\nknew that God would teach him and strengthen him; enlightening his dull\nunderstanding, and quickening his dull will; and therefore his Psalm, as\nI said, is a prayer, a prayer for teaching, and a prayer for light; and\nhe cries to God--My soul cleaveth to the dust.  I am low-minded, stupid,\nand earthly at the best.  Oh quicken Thou me; that is--Oh give me\nlife--more life--according to Thy word.\n\nThy Word.  The Word of God, of whom the Psalmist says--O Lord, Thy Word\nendureth for ever in heaven.  Even the Word of God, Jesus Christ our\nLord, the Son of Man who is in heaven; and who, because He is in heaven,\nboth God and man, can and will give us light and life, now and for ever.\n\nAnd now take home with you this one thought.  There is one education\nwhich we must all get; one thing which we must all learn, and learn to\nobey, or come to utter shame and ruin, either in this world or the world\nto come; and that is the laws, and commandments, and testimonies of\nGod,--God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; for only by\nkeeping them can we enter into eternal life.  And if we wish to know\nthem, God himself will teach us them.  And if we wish, to keep them, God\nhimself will give us strength to keep them.  Amen.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XII.  THE REASONABLE PRAYER.\n\n\nPSALM CXIX. 33, 94.\n\n   O Lord, teach me Thy statutes, and I shall keep them to the end.  I am\n   Thine, O save me; for I have kept Thy commandments.\n\nSome who heard me last Sunday, both morning and afternoon, may have\nremarked an apparent contradiction between my two sermons.  I hope they\nhave done so.  For then I shall hope that they are facing one of the most\ndifficult, and yet most necessary, of all problems; namely the difference\nbetween the Law and the Gospel.  In my morning sermon I spoke of the\neternal law of God--how it was unchangeable even as God its author,\nrigid, awful, inevitable by every soul of man, and certain, if he kept\nit, to lead him into all good, for body, soul, and spirit: but certain,\ntoo, if he broke it, to grind him to powder.\n\nAnd in the afternoon, I spoke of the Gospel and Free Grace of God--how\nthat too was unchangeable, even as God its author; full of compassion and\ntender mercy, and forgiveness of sins; willing not the death of a sinner;\nbut rather that he should be converted, and live.\n\nBut how are these two statements, both scriptural; both--as I hold from\npractical experience, true to the uttermost, and not to be compromised or\nexplained away--how are they to be reconciled, I say?  By these two\ntexts.  By taking them both together, and never one without the other;\nand by taking them, also, in the order in which you find them, and\nnever--as too many do--the second before the first.  At least this was\nthe opinion of the Psalmist.  He first seeks God's commandments and\nstatutes, and prays--Give me understanding and I shall keep Thy law, yea,\nI shall keep it with my whole heart.  Make me to go in the path of Thy\ncommandments; for therein is my desire.  And then, only then, finding\nhimself in trouble, anxiety, even in danger of death, he feels he has a\nsort of right to cry to God to help him out of his trouble, and prays--I\nam Thine, oh save me!\n\nAnd why?  What reason can he give why God should save him?  Because, he\nsays, I have sought Thy commandments.\n\nNow let all rational persons lay this to heart; and consider it well.\nThere are very few, heathens and savages, as well as Christians, who will\nnot cry, when they find themselves in trouble--Oh save me.  The instinct\nof every man is, to cry to some unseen persons or powers to help him.  If\nhe does not cry to the true and good God, he will cry to some false or\nbad God; or to some idol, material or intellectual, of his own invention.\nBut that is no reason why his prayers should be heard.  We read of old\nheathens at Rome, who prayed to Mercury, the god of money-making--\"Da\nmihi fallere,\"--Help me to cheat my neighbours: while the philosophers,\nheathen though they were, laughed, with just contempt, at such men and\ntheir prayers, and asked--Do you suppose that any God, if he be worth\ncalling a God, will answer such a request as that?  Nay, in our own\ntimes, have not the brigands of Naples been in the habit of carrying a\nleaden image of St Januarius in their hats, and praying to it to protect\nthem in their trade of robbery and murder?  I leave you to guess what\nanswer good St Januarius, and much more He who made St Januarius, and all\nheaven and earth, was likely to give to such a prayer as that.\n\nSo it is not all prayers for help that are heard, or deserve to be heard.\nAnd indeed--I do not wish to be hard, but the truth must be spoken--there\nare too many people in the world who pray to God to help them, when they\nare in difficulties or in danger, or in fear of death and of hell, but\nnever pray at any other time, or for any other thing.  They pray to be\nhelped out of what is disagreeable.  But they never pray to be made good.\nThey are not good, and they do not care to become good.  All they care\nfor, is to escape death, or pain, or poverty, or shame, when they see it\nstaring them in the face: and God knows I do not blame them.  We are all\nchildren, and, like children, we cry out when we are hurt; and that is no\nsin to us.  But that is no part of godliness, not even of mere religion.\n\nBut worse--it is still more sad to have to say it, but it is true--most\npeople's notions of the next world, and of salvation, as they call it,\nare just as childish, material, selfish as their notions of this world.\n\nThey all wish and pray to be \"saved.\"  What do they mean?  To be saved\nfrom bodily pain in the next life, and to have bodily pleasure instead.\nPain and pleasure are the only gods which they really worship.  They call\nthe former--hell.  They call the latter--heaven.  But they know as little\nof one as of the other; and their notions of both are equally worthy\nof--Shall I say it?  Must I say it?--equally worthy of the savage in the\nforest.  They believe that they must either go to heaven or to hell.  They\nhave, of course, no wish to go to the latter place; for whatever else\nthere is likely to be there--some of which might not be quite unpleasant\nor new to them, such as evil-speaking, lying, and slandering, envy,\nhatred, malice and all uncharitableness, bigotry included--there will be\ncertainly there--they have reason to believe--bodily pain; the thing\nwhich they, being mostly comfortable people, dread most, and avoid most:\ncontrary, you will remember, to the opinion of the blessed martyrs, who\ndreaded bodily pain least, and avoided it least, of all the ills which\ncould befal them.  Wherefore they are, in the sight of God, and of all\ntrue men unto this day--the blessed martyrs.\n\nBut these people--and there are too many of them by hundreds of\nthousands--do not want to be blessed.  They only want to be comfortable\nin this world, and in the next.  As for blessedness, they do not even\nknow what it means; and our Lord's seven beatitudes, which begin--\"Blessed\nare the poor in spirit\"--are not at all to their mind; even, alas! alas!\nto the mind of many who call themselves religious and orthodox; at least\ntill they are so explained away, that they shall mean anything, or\nnothing, save--I trust I am poor in spirit: and nevertheless I am right,\nand everyone who differs from me is wrong.\n\nThe plain truth is--when all fine words, whether said in prayers or sung\nin hymns, are stript off--that they do not wish to go to hell and pain;\nand therefore prefer, very naturally, though not very spiritually, to go\nto heaven and pleasure; and so sing of \"crossing over Jordan to Canaan's\nshore,\" or of \"Jerusalem the golden, with milk and honey blest,\" and so\nforth, without any clear notion of what they mean thereby, save selfish\ncomfort without end; they really know not what; they really care not\nwhere.  And that they may arrive there or at a far better place; and have\ntheir wish, and more than their wish: I for one heartily desire.  But\nwhether they arrive there, or not; and indeed, whether they arrive at\nsome place infinitely better or infinitely worse, depends on whether they\nwill give up selfish calculations of loss and gain, selfish choosing\nbetween mere pain and pleasure: and choose this; choose, whatever it may\ncost them, between being good and being bad, or even being only half\ngood; as little good as they can afford to be without the pains of hell\ninto the bargain.\n\nMy friends--What if Christ should answer such people--I do not say that\nHe does always answer them so, for He is very pitiful, and of tender\nmercy;--but what if He were to answer them, Save you?  Help you?  O\npresumptuous mortal, what have you done that Christ should save or help\nyou?  You are afraid of being ruined.  Why should you not be ruined?  What\ngood will it be to your fellow-men if you keep your money, instead of\nlosing it?  You are making nothing but a bad use of your money.  Why\nshould Christ help you to keep it, and misuse it still more?\n\nYou are afraid of death.  You do not wish to die.  But why should you not\ndie?  Why should Christ save you from death?  Of what use is your life to\nChrist, or to any human being?  If you are living a bad life, your life\nis a bad thing, and does harm not only to yourself, but to your\nneighbours.  Why should Christ keep you alive to hurt and corrupt your\nneighbours, and to set a bad example to your children?  If you are not\ndoing your duty where Christ has put you, you are of no use, a cumberer\nof the ground.  What reason can you shew why He should not take you away,\nand put some one in your place who _will_ do his duty?  You are afraid of\nbeing lost--why should you _not_ be lost?  You are offensive, and an\ninjury to the universe.  You are an actual nuisance on Christ's earth and\nin Christ's Kingdom.  Why should He not--as He has sworn--cast out of His\nKingdom all things which offend, and you among the rest?  Why should He\nnot get rid of you, as you get rid of vermin, as you get rid of weeds;\nand cast you into the fire, to be burned up with all evil things?  Answer\nthat: before you ask Christ to save you, and deliver you from danger, and\nfrom death, and from the hell which you so much--and perhaps so\njustly--fear.\n\nAnd how that question is to be answered, I cannot see.\n\nCertainly the selfish man cannot answer it.  The idle man cannot answer\nit.  The profligate man cannot answer it.  They are doing nothing for\nChrist; or for their neighbours, or for the human race; and they cannot\nexpect Christ to do anything for them.\n\nThe only men who can answer it; the only men, it seems to me, who can\nhave any hope of their prayers being heard, are those who, like the\nPsalmist, are trying to do something for Christ, and their neighbours,\nand the human race; who are, in a word, trying to be good.  Those, I\nmean, who have already prayed, earnestly and often, the first prayer,\n\"Teach me, O Lord, Thy statutes, and I shall keep them to the end.\"  They\nhave--not a right: no one has a right against Christ, no, not the angels\nand archangels in heaven--not a right, but a hope, through Christ's most\nprecious and undeserved promises, that their prayers will be heard; and\nthat Christ will save them from destruction, because they are, at least,\nlikely to become worth saving; because they are likely to be of use in\nChrist's world, and to do some little work in Christ's kingdom.\n\nThey are God's: they are soldiers in Christ's army.  They are labourers\nin Christ's garden.  They are on God's side in the battle of life, which\nis the battle of Christ and of all good men, against evil, against sin\nand ignorance, and the numberless miseries which sin and ignorance\nproduce.  They are not the profligate; they are not the selfish, the\nidle; they are not the frivolous, the insolent; they are not the wilfully\nignorant who do not care to learn, and do not even--so brutish are\nthey--think that there is anything worth learning in the world, save how\nto turn sixpence into a shilling, and then spend it on themselves.  Not\nsuch are those who may hope to have their prayers heard, because they are\nworth hearing, and worth helping.  But they are the people who say to\nthemselves, not once in their lives, not once a week on Sundays, but\nevery day and all day long--I must be good; I will be good.  I must be of\nuse; I must be doing some work for God; and therefore I must learn.  I\nmust learn God's laws, and statutes, and commandments, about my station,\nand calling, and business in life.  Else how can I do it aright?  I dare\nno more be ignorant, than I dare be idle.  I must learn.  But how shall I\nlearn?  Stupid I am, and ignorant, and the more I try to learn, the more\nI discover how stupid I am.  The more I do actually learn, the more I\ndiscover how ignorant I am.  There is so much to be learned; and how to\nlearn it passes my understanding.  Who will teach me?  How shall I get\nunderstanding?  How shall I get knowledge?  And if I get them, how shall\nI be sure that they are true understanding, and true knowledge?  Mad\npeople have understanding enough; and so have some who are not mad, but\nmerely fools.  Wit enough they have, active and rapid brains: but their\nunderstanding is of no use, for it is only misunderstanding; and\ntherefore the more clever they are, the more foolish they are, and the\nmore dangerous to themselves and their fellow-creatures.  Knowledge,\ntoo--how shall I be sure that my knowledge, if I get it, is true\nknowledge, and not false knowledge, knowledge which is not really\naccording to facts?  I see too many who have knowledge for which I care\nlittle enough.  Some know a thousand things which are of no use to them,\nor to any human being.  Others know a thousand things: but know them in a\nshallow, inaccurate fashion; and so cannot make use of them for any\npractical purpose.  Others know a thousand things: but know them all in a\nprejudiced and one-sided fashion; till they see things not as things are,\nbut as they are not, and as they never will be; and therefore their\nknowledge, instead of leading them, misleads them, and they misjudge\nfacts, misjudge men, and earth, and heaven, just as much as the man who\nshould misjudge the sunlight of heaven and fancy it to be green or blue,\nbecause he looked at it through a green or blue glass.  How then shall I\nget true knowledge?  Knowledge which will be really useful, really worth\nknowing?  Knowledge which I shall know accurately, and practically too,\nso that I can use it in daily life, for myself and my fellow-men?\nKnowledge, too, which shall be clear knowledge, not warped or coloured by\nmy own fancies, passions, prejudices, but pure, and calm, and sound;\nSiccum Lumen, \"Dry Light,\" as the greatest of English Philosophers called\nit of old?\n\nTo all such, who long for light, that by the light they may see to live\nthe life, God answers, through His only-begotten Son, The Word who\nendureth for ever in heaven:--\n\n\"Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall\nbe opened to you.  For if ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to\nyour children, much more will your heavenly Father give His Holy Spirit\nto those who ask Him.\"\n\nYes, ask for that Holy Spirit of God, that He may lead you into all\ntruth; into all truth, that is, which is necessary for you to know, in\norder to see your way through the world, and through your duty in the\nworld.  Ask for that Holy Spirit; that He may give you eyes to see things\nas they are, and courage to feel things as they are, and to do your work\nin them, and by them, whether they be pleasant or unpleasant, prosperous\nor adverse.  Ask Him; and He will give you true knowledge to know what a\nserious position you are in, what a serious thing life is, death is,\njudgment is, eternity is; that you may be no trifler nor idler, nor mere\nscraper together of gain which you must leave behind you when you die:\nbut a truly serious man, seriously intent on your duty; seriously intent\non working God's work in the place and station to which He has called\nyou, before the night comes in which no man can work.\n\nIf a man is doing that; if he is earnestly trying to learn what is true,\nin order that he may do what is right; then he has--I do not say a\nright--but at least a reason, or a shadow of reason, when he cries to God\nin his trouble--\n\n\"I am Thine, oh save me, for I have sought thy commandments.\"\n\n\"I am Thine.\"  Not merely God's creature: the very birds, and bees, and\nflowers are that; and do their duty far better than I--God forgive me--do\nmine.\n\n\"I am Thine.\"  Not merely God's child: the sinners and the thoughtless\nare that, though--God help them--they care not for Him, nor for His laws,\nnor for themselves and their glorious inheritance as children of God.\n\nAnd I too am God's child: but I trust that I am more.  I am God's school-\nchild.  O Lord Jesus Christ, I claim Thy help as my schoolmaster, as well\nas my Lord and Saviour.  I am the least of Thy school-children; and it\nmay be the most ignorant and most stupid.  I do not pretend to be a\nscholar, a divine, a philosopher, a saint.  I am a very weak, foolish,\ninsufficient personage; sitting on the lowest form in Thy great school-\nhouse, which is the whole world; and trying to spell out the mere letters\nof Thy alphabet, in hope that hereafter I may be able to make out whole\nwords, and whole sentences, of Thy commandments, and having learnt them,\ndo them.  For if Thou wilt but teach me Thy statutes, O Lord, then I will\ntry to keep them to the end.  For I long to be on Thy side, and about Thy\nwork.  I long to help--if it be ever so little--in making myself better,\nand my neighbours better.  I long to be useful, and not useless; a\nbenefit, and not a nuisance; a fruit-bearing tree, and not a noxious\nweed, in Thy garden; and therefore I hope that Thou wilt not cut me down,\nnor root me up, nor let foul creatures trample me under foot.  Have mercy\non me, O Lord, in my trouble, for the sake of the truth which I long to\nlearn, and for the good which I long to do.  Poor little weak plant\nthough I may be, I am still a plant of Thy planting, which is doing its\nbest to grow, and flower, and bear fruit to eternal life; and Thou wilt\nnot despise the work of Thine own hands, O Lord, who died that I might\nlive?  Thou wilt not let me perish?  I have stuck unto Thy testimonies: O\nLord, confound me not.\n\nTherefore remember this.  If you wish to have reasonable hope when you\nhave to pray--\"Lord, save me:\" pray first, and pray continually--\"Teach\nme, O Lord, Thy statutes, and I will keep them to the end.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XIII.  THE ONE ESCAPE.\n\n\nPSALM CXIX. 67.\n\n   Before I was troubled, I went wrong: but now have I kept Thy Word.\n\nLet me speak this afternoon once more about the 119th Psalm, and the man\nwho wrote it.\n\nAnd first: he was certainly of a different opinion from nine persons out\nof ten, I fear from ninety-nine out of a hundred, of every country, every\nage, and every religion.\n\nFor, he says--Before I was troubled, I went wrong: but now have I kept\nThy Word.  Whereas nine people out of ten would say to God, if they\ndared--Before I was troubled, I kept Thy Word.  But now that I am\ntroubled; of course I cannot help going wrong.\n\nHe makes his troubles a reason for doing right.  They make their troubles\nan excuse for doing wrong.\n\nIs it not so?  Do we not hear people saying, whenever they are blamed for\ndoing what they know to be wrong--I could not help it?  I was forced into\nit.  What would you have a man do?  One must live; and so forth.  One\nfinds himself in danger, and tries to lie himself out of it.  Another\nfinds himself in difficulties, and begins playing ugly tricks in money\nmatters.  Another finds himself in want, and steals.  The general opinion\nof the world is, that right-doing, justice, truth, and honesty, are very\ngraceful luxuries for those who can afford them; very good things when a\nman is easy, prosperous, and well off, and without much serious business\non hand: but not for the real hard work of life; not for times of\nambition and struggle, any more than of distress and anxiety, or of\ndanger and difficulty.  In such times, if a man may not lie a little,\ncheat a little, do a questionable stroke of business now and then; how is\nhe to live?  So it is in the world, so it always was; and so it always\nwill be.  From statesmen ruling nations, and men of business \"conducting\ngreat financial operations,\" as the saying is now, down to the beggar-\nwoman who comes to ask charity, the rule of the world is, that honesty is\n_not_ the best policy; that falsehood and cunning are not only\nprofitable, but necessary; that in proportion as a man is in trouble, in\nthat proportion he has a right to go wrong.\n\nA right to go wrong.  A right to make bad worse.  A right to break God's\nlaws, because we are too stupid or too hasty to find out what God's laws\nare.  A right, as the wise man puts it, to draw bills on nature which she\nwill _not_ honour; but return them on a man's hands with \"No effects\"\nwritten across them, leaving the man to pay after all, in misery and\nshame.  Truly said Solomon of old--The foolishness of fools is folly.\n\nBut the Psalmist, because he was inspired by the Spirit of God, was of\nquite the opposite opinion.  So far from thinking that his trouble gave\nhim a right to go wrong, he thought that his trouble laid on him a duty\nto go right, more right than he had ever gone before; and that going\nright was the only possible way of getting out of his troubles.\n\n\"Take from me,\" he cries, \"the way of lying, and cause Thou me to make\nmuch of Thy law.\n\n\"I have chosen the way of truth, and Thy judgments have I laid before me.\n\n\"Incline mine heart unto Thy testimonies, and not unto covetousness.\n\n\"Oh turn away mine eyes, lest they behold vanity, and quicken Thou me in\nThy way.\n\n\"Thy word is my comfort in my trouble; for Thy word hath quickened me.\n\n\"The proud have had me exceedingly in derision, yet have I not shrunk\nfrom Thy law.\n\n\"For I remembered Thine everlasting judgments, O God, and received\ncomfort.\n\n\"Thy statutes have been my songs, in the house of my pilgrimage.\n\n\"I have thought upon Thy name, O Lord, in the night-season, and have kept\nThy law.\"\n\nThis was the Psalmist's plan for delivering himself out of trouble.  A\nvery singular plan, which very few persons try, either now, or in any\nage.  And therefore it is, that so many persons are not delivered out of\ntheir troubles, but sink deeper and deeper into them, heaping new\ntroubles on old ones, till they are crushed beneath the weight of their\nown sins.\n\nWhat the special trouble was, in which the Psalmist found himself, we are\nnot told.  But it is plain from his words, that it was just that very\nsort of trouble, in which the world is most ready to excuse a man for\nlying, cringing, plotting, and acting on the old devil's maxim that\n\"Cunning is the natural weapon of the weak.\"  For the Psalmist was weak,\noppressed and persecuted by the great and powerful.  But his method of\ndefending himself against them was certainly not the way of the world.\n\nPrinces, he says, sat and spoke against him.  But; instead of fawning on\nthem, excusing himself, entreating their mercy: he was occupied in God's\nstatutes.\n\nThe proud had him exceedingly in derision--as I am afraid too many\nworldly men, poor as well as rich, working men as well as idlers, would\ndo now--seeing him occupied in God's statutes, when he might have been\noccupied in winning money, and place, and renown for himself.\n\nBut he did not shrink from God's law.  If it was true, he could afford to\nbe laughed at for obeying it.\n\nThe congregation of the ungodly robbed him.  But he did not forget God's\nlaw.  If they did wrong, that was no reason why he should do wrong\nlikewise.\n\nThe proud imagined a lie against him.  But he would keep God's\ncommandments with his whole heart, instead of breaking God's\ncommandments, and justifying their slander, and making their lie true.\n\nStill, it went very hard with him.  His honour and his faith were sorely\ntried.  He was dried up like a bottle in the smoke.  It seems to have\nbeen with him at times a question of life and death; till he had hardly\nany hope left.  He had to ask, almost in despair--How many are the days\nof Thy servant?  When wilt Thou be avenged of them that persecute me?  The\nproud dug pits for him, contrary to the law of God; contrary to honour\nand justice; and almost made an end of him upon earth.  The ungodly laid\nwait to destroy him.\n\nBut against them all he had but one weapon, and one defence.  However\nmuch afraid he might be of his enemies, he was still more afraid of doing\nwrong.  His flesh, he said, trembled for fear of God; and he was afraid\nof God's judgments.  Therefore his only safety was, in pleasing God, and\nnot men.  I deal, he says, with the thing that is lawful and right.  Oh\ngive me not over to my oppressors.  Make Thy servant to delight in what\nis good, that the proud do me no wrong.  If he could but keep right, he\nwould be safe at last.\n\nI will consider Thy testimonies, O Lord.  I see that all things come to\nan end.  Bad times, and bad chances, and still more bad men, and bad ways\nfor escaping out of trouble--they all come to an end.  But Thy\ncommandment is exceeding broad.  Exceeding broad.  There are depths below\ndepths of meaning in that true saying; depths which you will find true,\nif you will but read your Bibles, and obey your Bibles.  For in them, I\ntell you openly, you will find rules to guide you in every chance and\nchange of this mortal life.  Truly said the good man that there were in\nthe Bible \"shallows where a lamb may drink, and deeps wherein an elephant\nmay swim.\"\n\nThere are no possible circumstances, good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant,\nin which you can find yourselves, be you rich or poor, young or old,\nwithout finding in the Bible sound advice, and a clear rule, as to how\nGod would have you behave under those circumstances.  For God's\ncommandments are exceeding broad, and take in all cases of conscience,\nall details of duty; saying to each and every one of us, at every\nturn--\"This is the way, walk ye in it.\"\n\nAt least this is the teaching, this is the testimony, this is the life-\nexperience, of a true hero, namely, the man who wrote the 119th Psalm; a\nhero according to God, but not according to the world, and the pomp and\nglory of the world.\n\nNo great statesman was he, nor conqueror, nor merchant, nor financier\npassing millions of money through his hands yearly; and all fancying that\nthey, and not God, govern the nations upon earth, and decide the fate of\nempires.\n\nHe was a man who made no noise in the world: though the world, it seems,\nmade a little noise at him in his time, as it does often bark and yell at\nthose who will not go its way; as it barked at poor Christian, when he\nwent through Vanity Fair, and would not buy its wares, or join in its\nfrivolities.  Such a man was this Psalmist; for whom the world had\nnothing but scorn first, and then forgetfulness.  We do not know his\nname, or where he lived.  We do not even know, within a few hundred\nyears, when he lived.  I picture him to myself always as a poor,\nshrivelled, stooping, mean-looking old man; his visage marred more than\nany man, and his figure more than the sons of men; no form nor comeliness\nin him, nor beauty that men should desire him; despised and rejected of\nmen: a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, even as his Master was\nafter him.\n\nAnd all that he has left behind him--as far as we can tell--is this one\npsalm which he wrote, as may be guessed from its arrangement, slowly, and\nwith exceeding care, as the very pith and marrow of an experience spread\nover many painful years of struggle and of humiliation.\n\nI say of humiliation.  For there is not a taint of self-conceit, not even\nof self-satisfaction, in him.  He only sees his own weakness, and want of\nlife, of spirit, of manfulness, of power.  His soul cleaveth to the dust.\nHe is tempted, of course, again and again, to give way; to become low-\nminded, cowardly, time-serving, covetous, worldly.  But he dares not.  He\nfeels that his only chance is to keep his honour unspotted; and he\ncries--Whatever happens,--I must do right.  I must learn to do right.\nTeach me to do right.  Teach me, O Lord, teach me; and strengthen me, O\nLord, strengthen me, and then all must come right at last.  That was his\ncry.  And, be you sure, he did not cry in vain.\n\nFor this man had one precious possession; which he determined not to\nlose, not though he died in trying to hold it fast; namely, the Eternal\nSpirit of God; the Spirit of Righteousness, and Truth, and Justice, which\nleads men into all truth.  By that Spirit he saw into the Eternal Laws of\nGod.  By that Spirit he saw who made and who administers those Eternal\nLaws, even the Eternal Word of God, who endureth for ever in heaven.  By\nthat Spirit he saw that his only hope was to keep those eternal laws.  By\nthat Spirit he vowed to keep them.  By that Spirit he had strength to\nkeep them.  By that Spirit, when he failed he tried again; when he fell\nhe rose and fought on once more, to keep the commandments of the Lord.\n\nAnd where is he now?  Where is he now?  Where those will never come--let\nfalse preachers and false priests flatter them as they may--who fancy\nthat they can get to heaven without being good and doing good.  Where\nthose will never come, likewise, who, when they find themselves in\ntrouble, try to help themselves out of it by false and mean methods; and\nso begin worshipping the devil, just when they have most need to worship\nGod.  He is where the fearful and unbelievers and all liars can never\ncome.  He is with the Word of the Lord, who endureth for ever in heaven.\n\nWith the Word of the Lord, who endured awhile on earth, even as he the\nPsalmist endured.  Who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession,\nand endured the cross, despising the shame, because He cared neither for\nriches, nor for pleasure, for power, nor for glory; but simply for His\nFather's will, and His Father's law, that He might do to the uttermost\nthe will of His Father who sent Him, and keep to the uttermost that Law\nof which His Father says to Him for ever--\"Thou art my Son, to-day have I\nbegotten Thee.\"\n\nInto His presence may we all come at last!  But we shall never come\nthither, unless we keep our honour bright, our courage unbroken, and\nourselves unspotted from the world.  For so only will be fulfilled in us\nthe sixth Beatitude--Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see\nGod.  Unto which may God of His free mercy bring us all.  Amen.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XIV.  THE WORD OF GOD.\n\n\nPSALM CXIX. 89-96.\n\n   O Lord, Thy word endureth for ever in heaven.  Thy truth also\n   remaineth from one generation to another: Thou hast laid the\n   foundation of the earth, and it abideth.  They continue this day\n   according to Thine ordinance: for all things serve Thee.  If my\n   delight had not been in Thy law, I should have perished in my trouble.\n   I will never forget Thy commandments: for with them Thou hast\n   quickened me.  I am Thine, oh save me: for I have sought Thy\n   commandments.  The ungodly laid wait for me to destroy me: but I will\n   consider Thy testimonies.  I see that all things come to an end: but\n   Thy commandment is exceeding broad.\n\nThis text is of infinite importance, to you, and me, and all mankind.  For\nif the text is not true; if there is not a Word of God, who endures and\nis settled for ever in heaven: then this world is a miserable and a mad\nplace; and the best thing, it seems to me, that we poor ignorant human\nbeings can do, is to eat and drink, for to morrow we die.\n\nBut that is not the best thing we can do; but the very worst thing.  The\nbest thing that we can do, and the only thing worth doing is, to be good,\nand do good, at all risks and all costs, trusting to the Word of God, who\nendures for ever in heaven.\n\nBut who is this Word of God?  I say who, not what.  We often call the\nBible the Word of God: and so it is in one sense, because it tells us,\nfrom beginning to end, about this other Word of God.  It is, so to speak,\nGod's word or message about this Word.  But it is plain that the Psalmist\nis not speaking here of the Bible; for he says--\n\n\"Thy Word endureth for ever in Heaven:\" and the Bible is not in heaven,\nbut on earth.\n\nBut in the Bible, usually, this Word of the Lord means not only the\nmessage which God sends, but Him by whom God sends it.  The Word of God,\nWord of the Lord, is spoken of again and again, not as a thing, but as a\nperson, a living rational being, who comes to men, and speaks to them,\nand teaches them; sometimes, seemingly, by actual word of mouth;\nsometimes again, by putting thoughts into their minds, and words into\ntheir mouths.\n\nRecollect Samuel: how when he was young the Word of the Lord was\nprecious--that is, uncommon, and almost unknown in those days; and how\nthe Lord came and called Samuel, Samuel; and put a word into his mouth\nagainst Eli.  And so the Lord appeared again in Shiloh; for the Lord\nrevealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by The Word of the Lord.  In\nSamuel's case, there was, it seems, an actual voice, which fell on\nSamuel's ears.  In the case of the later prophets, we do not read that\nthey usually heard any actual voice, or saw any actual appearance.  It\nseems that the Word of the Lord who came to them inspired their minds\nwith true thoughts, and inspired their lips to speak those thoughts in\nnoble words, often in regular poetry.  But He was The Word of the Lord,\nnevertheless.  Again and again, we read in those grand old prophets, \"The\nWord of the Lord came unto me, saying,\"--or again, \"The Word which came\nto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying.\"  It is not the Bible which is meant\nby such words as these--I am sorry to have to remind a nineteenth century\ncongregation of this fact--but a living being, putting thoughts into the\nprophets' minds, and words into their mouths, and a divine passion too,\ninto their hearts, which they could not resist; like poor Jeremiah of\nold, when he was reproached and derided about The Word of the Lord, and\nsaid, \"I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His name.\nBut He was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was\nweary with forbearing, and I could not hold my peace.\"\n\nBut now, what words are these which we read of this same Word of the\nLord, in the first chapter of St John's Gospel?  \"In the beginning was\nThe Word: and The Word was with God, and The Word was God.  By Him all\nthings were made, and without Him was not anything made that was made.\nAnd in Him was life, and the life was the light of men.\"\n\nThus--as always--the Old Testament and the New, the Psalmist and St John,\nagree together.\n\nThis is the gospel and good news, which the Psalmist saw in part, but\nwhich St John saw fully and perfectly.  But because the Psalmist saw it\neven in part, he saw that The Word of the Lord endured for ever in\nheaven; and that therefore his only hope of safety was to listen eagerly\nand reverently for what that Word might choose to say to him.\n\nBut why does the Psalmist seemingly go out of his way, as it were, to\nsay, \"Thou hast laid the foundation of the earth, and it abideth.  They\ncontinue this day according to Thine ordinance, for all things serve\nThee\"?\n\nFor the very same reason that St John goes, seemingly, out of his way to\nsay, \"All things were made by The Word, and without Him was not anything\nmade that was made.\"\n\nWhy is this?\n\nLook at it thus: What an important question it is, whether This Word of\nGod is a being of order; a regular being; a law-abiding being; a being on\nwhose actions men can count; who can be trusted, and depended on, not to\nalter His own ways, not to deceive us poor mortal men.\n\nThe Psalmist wants to know his way through this world, and his duty in\nthis mortal life.  Therefore he must learn the laws and rules of this\nworld.  And he has the sense to see, that no one can teach him the rules\nof the world, but the Ruler of the world, and the Maker of the world.\n\nThen comes the terrible question--too many, alas! have not got it\nanswered rightly yet--\n\nBut are there any rules at all in the world?  Does The Lord manage the\nworld by rules and laws?  Or does He let things go by chance and\naccident, and take no care about them?  Is there such a thing as God's\nProvidence: or is there not?  To that the Psalmist answers firmly,\nbecause he is inspired by the Spirit of God--\n\nO Lord, Thy Word endureth--is settled--for ever in heaven.  In Thee is no\ncarelessness, neglect, slothfulness, nor caprice.  Thou hast no\nvariableness, neither shadow of turning.  Thou hast laid the foundation\nof the earth, and it abideth.  They continue this day according to Thine\nordinance; for all things serve Thee.  The world is full of settled and\nenduring rules and laws; and God keeps to them.  The Psalmist looks at\nthe sun, moon and stars over his head, each keeping its settled course,\nand its settled season: and he sees them all obeying law.  He looks at\nsummer and winter, seedtime and harvest: and he sees them obeying law.  He\nlooks at birth and growth, at decay and death; and sees them too, obeying\nlaw.  He looks at the very flowers beneath his feet, and the buds in the\nwoodland, and all the crowd of living things about him, animal, vegetable\nand mineral: and they too obey law; each after their kind.  The world, he\nsays, is full of law.  It is a settled world, an orderly world, made and\ngoverned by a Lord of order, who makes laws and enforces laws; a Lord\nwhose Word endures for ever in heaven.  Therefore--he feels--I can trust\nthat Lord.  If He has laws for the beasts and birds, He must have, much\nmore, laws for men.  If He has laws for men's bodies, much more has He\nlaws for their souls.  What I have to do, is to ask Him to teach me those\nlaws, that I may live.\n\nBut then comes another, and even a more awful question--If I ask Him,\nwill He teach me?  Alas! alas! too many have not found the answer yet;\ntoo many of those who know most about the Laws of Nature, and reverence\nthose laws most: and all honour to them for so doing; for, even though\nthey know it not, they are preparing the way of the Lord, and making His\npaths straight.  But they have not found the right answer to that\nquestion yet.  Still there the question is; and you and I, and every soul\nof man, must get some reasonable answer or other to it, if we wish to be\nmen indeed, men in spirit and in truth; and it is this--\n\nIf I ask this Word of God to teach me His Laws--Will He teach me?  Will\nHe hear me?  Can He hear: or is He Himself a mere brute force, a law of\nnature and necessity?  And even if not, will He hear?  Or is He, too,\nlike those Epicurean gods, of whom our great poet sings--a sad and\nhopeless song:--\n\n   They lie beside their nectar, and the bolts are hurled\n   Far below them in the valleys, and the clouds are lightly curled\n   Round their golden houses, girdled with the gleaming world,\n   Where they smile in secret, looking over wasted lands,\n   Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery\n   sands,\n   Clanging fights, and flaming towns, and sinking ships, _and praying\n   hands_.\n\n_And praying hands_.  Oh, my friends, is not the question of all\nquestions for such poor mortal souls as you and me, beset by ignorance\nand weakness, and passions which are our own worst enemies, and chances\nand catastrophes which we cannot avert--Is not the question of all\nquestions for such as us--Will this same Word of God--will any unseen\nbeing out of the infinite void which surrounds our little speck of a\nplanet, take any notice of our praying hands?  Will He hear us, teach us,\nwhen we cry?  Or is God, and The Word of God, like those old heathen\ngods?  Is He a God who hides Himself, and leaves us to despair and\nchance: or is He a God who hears, and gives us even a single ray of hope?\nIs He a gracious God, who will hear every man's tale, however clumsily\ntold, and judge it according to its merits: or even--for that is better\nthan dead silence and carelessness--according to its demerits?  Is He a\njust God?  Or has He likes and dislikes, favourites and victims; as human\nrulers and statesmen, and human parties too, and mobs, are wont to have?\nMay He not, even, like those Epicurean gods, despise men? find a proud\nsatisfaction in deceiving them; or at least letting them deceive\nthemselves?--in playing with their ignorance, and leaving them to reap\nthe fruits of their own childishness?\n\nTo that the Psalmist answers--and I know not how he learnt to answer so,\nsave by the inspiration of the Spirit of God; for I know well that\nneither flesh and blood, the experience of his own brain, thoughts, and\nemotions, nor the world around him, either of nature or of man, would\never have revealed that to him--to that he answers confidently, in spite\nof all appearances--\n\nThy truth, O Lord, abideth from one generation to another.  Thou art a\ntruthful God, a faithful God, whose word can be taken.  A God in whom is\nno variableness, neither shadow of turning; who keepeth His promise for\never; true, as man can be true; and truer than the truest man.  And I\nknow it, says he, by experience.  God has actually taught me His law: for\nif my delight had not been in it, I should have perished in my trouble.  I\nwill never forget His commandments; for by them He has given me life; has\ntaught me what to do, and enabled me to do it, to prevent the death and\nruin of my body, and soul, and spirit.\n\nNow for the very same reason it is, that St John is so careful, first to\ntell us that The Word of God made all things; and then to tell us that He\nis full of grace and truth.\n\nHe tells us that The Word made all things, that we may be sure that He is\na God of order, because all things which He has made are full of order; a\nGod who acts by rules and laws which we may trust.  He tells us that The\nWord made all things, that we may be sure that all things, being His\nhandy-work, will bear witness of Him and teach us about Him, and shew\nforth His glory.\n\nBut he tells us moreover--Oh gospel, and good news for blind and weak\nhumanity!--that The Word's glory is full of grace; gracious; ready to\ncondescend; ready to teach us, and give us light to see our way through\nthis world which He has made.\n\nHe tells us that The Word's glory is full of truth; that He is truthful,\naccurate, and to be depended on; and will tell us nothing but what is\ntrue.  That He is a true Word of God, and when He speaks to us of His\nFather and of our Father, He tells the truth.\n\nAnd so do St John and the Psalmist agree in the same gospel, and good\nnews, of the mystery of Christ The Word.\n\nThere is an eternal Being in heaven, who is called The Word of God;\nbecause He speaks of, and reveals--that is, unveils and shews--to men,\nand angels, and archangels, and all created beings, that God whom no man\nhath seen, or can see; a Word who dwells for ever in the bosom of The\nFather, in the light which no man can approach unto: but who for ever\ncomes forth from thence to proclaim to all created beings--There is a\nGod, and The Word is His likeness; the brightness of His glory, and the\nexpress image of His person.  None hath seen the Father at any time: but\nthe only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath\ndeclared Him.  None cometh to the Father, but through Him.  But he who\nhath seen Him, hath seen the Father; and He is none other than Jesus\nChrist our Lord.\n\nHe is The Word of God, who speaks to men God's words, because He speaks\nnot His own words but His Father's, and does not His own will but His\nFather's who sends Him.\n\nHe speaks to us and to all men, in many ways; and to each according to\nhis needs.  To all men, Christ speaks through their consciences, shewing\nthem what is good, and warning them of what is evil; for He is the Light\nthat lighteth every man that cometh into the world.  To Christians Christ\nspeaks in many ways--to which, alas, too few give heed--through the\nBible, through the sacraments, through sermons, through the thoughts and\nwords of all wise and holy men.  To the good He speaks with gracious\nencouragement; to the wicked with awful severity.  To the hypocrites He\nsays at times, \"Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape\nthe damnation of hell?\"  To the self-satisfied and bigoted He says, \"If\nye had been blind, ye had had no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore\nyour sin remaineth.\"  To the careless and worldly He says, \"I know thy\nworks, that thou art neither cold nor hot.  Thou sayest, I am rich and\nincreased with goods, I have need of nothing: and knowest not that thou\nart wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.\"\n\nTo those who are ruining themselves by their own folly He says, \"Why will\nye die?  I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the\nLord: but rather that he should be converted, and live.\"  To those who\nare tormented by their own passions He says, \"Take My yoke upon you and\nlearn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest\nunto your souls.\"  To those who are wearied with the burden of their own\nsins He says, \"Come unto Me, all ye that are weary, and heavy laden, and\nI will give you rest.\"\n\nTo those who are struggling, however weakly, to do what is right He says,\n\"I know thy works.  Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and none\ncan shut it; for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and\nhast not denied My name.  Because thou hast kept the word of My patience,\nI also will keep thee from the hour of temptation.\"\n\nAnd to those who mourn for those whom they have loved and lost He says,\n\"Fear not, I am the first and the last, I am He that liveth, and was\ndead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of\nhell and of death.  He that believeth in Me, though he die, yet shall he\nlive; and he that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.\"\n\nFor every one of us, according to his character and his needs, Christ\nspeaks a fitting word from God, because He is The Word of God; and every\nword which He speaks to us is true, and sure, and eternal, according to\nthe laws of God His Father.  For He is The Word who endures for ever in\nheaven; and though heaven and earth may pass away, His words cannot pass\naway.\n\nYes; Christ The Word speaks to all: but most of all to children: to the\nchildren, of whom He said--\"Suffer the little children to come to me, and\nforbid them not;\"--of whom He said to grown-up people, not--Except these\nchildren be converted and become as you--He left that message for the\nPharisees of His own time, and of every age and creed: but--Except you\ngrown people be converted and become as little children, you, and not\nthey, shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.\n\nLet us tell children that--that Christ Himself is speaking to them.  That\nThe Word of God is educating them.  That the Light who lightens every man\nwho comes into the world is labouring to enlighten them, their intellect\nand memory, their emotions and their consciences.  Let that be the ground\nof all our education of children.  Then it will matter little to us who\nteaches them what is miscalled secular knowledge.  For we shall tell our\nchildren--In it, too, Christ is teaching you.  The understanding by which\nyou understand the world about you is Christ's gift.  The world which you\nare to understand is Christ's world; for He laid the foundation of the\nearth, and it abideth.  The physical laws of the universe are Christ's\nlaws; for all things serve Him, and continue this day according to His\nordinance.  Every natural object is a result of Christ's will, and its\norganization a product of Christ's mind; for without Him was not anything\nmade that was made.  The whole course of events, great and small, is\nChrist's providence; for to Him all power is given in heaven and earth.\nSo far, therefore, from being afraid to teach our children Natural\nScience, we shall hold it a sacred duty to teach it; for it is the will\nand mind of Christ, The Word of God.\n\nAnd as for morality--we shall be ready to teach that, as far as the\nprudential and paying virtues are concerned, as boldly and on the very\nsame grounds as the merest Utilitarian.  For we shall teach honesty,\ncourtesy, decency, self-restraint, patience, foresight, on the warrant of\nthe Bible; which is, that Christ has made the world so well, that sooner\nor later every wise and just act rewards itself, every foolish and unjust\nact punishes itself, by the very constitution of nature and society,\nwhich again are laid down by Christ.  But what of the nobler, the non-\nprudential, and non-paying virtues?--call them rather graces.--Them we\nshall teach our children--as I believe we can only teach them rationally\nand logically, either to children or to grown-up people--by pointing them\nto Christ upon His cross, and saying to them, \"Behold your God!\"\n\nFor so we shall be able to train them in the orthodox doctrine of morals,\nwhich is--\n\nThat there is nothing good in man which is not first in God.\n\nWe shall be able to make them comprehend what we mean when we tell them\nthat they are members of Christ, and must live the Life of Christ; that\nthey are children of God, and as such must imitate their Father, and\nbecome perfect, even as their Father in heaven is perfect.\n\nFor we shall say--The pure and perfect graces, the disinterested virtues,\nthe unselfish virtues--obedience, mercy, chivalry, beneficence,\nmagnanimity, heroism,--in one word, self-sacrifice--beautiful these are:\nbut are they necessary? are they mere ornaments? or are they sacred\nduties?  The duty which dares and suffers for the thing it ought to do;\nthe love which dares and suffers for the thing it loves; the unselfish\nspirit which looks for no reward:--why should these dwell in man?  To\nthat we shall answer--Because they dwell for ever in God.  If we are\nasked--Why are they beautiful in man? we shall answer--Because they are\nthe very beauty and glory of God; the glory which the Incarnate Word of\nGod manifested to men, when He hung on the cross of Calvary; and was more\nutterly then, if possible, than ever, The Word of God: because He then\ndeclared most utterly to men the character and essence of God.  Love\nwhich is not content--as what true love is?--to be a passive sentiment, a\nself-contained possibility, but which must go out of itself, pitying,\nyearning, agonizing, to seek, to struggle, to suffer, and, if need be, to\ndie for the creature which it loves, even if that creature love it not\nagain.\n\nWe need not say this to children.  We need only point them to Christ upon\nHis cross, and trust Christ to say it to them, in their heart of hearts,\nthrough instincts too deep for words.  All we need say to our children\nis--\"Behold your God!  He it is who inspires you with every dutiful,\ngenerous, and unselfish impulse you have ever felt; for they are the\nfruits of His Spirit.  By that Spirit He was once unselfish even to the\ndeath.  By that Spirit He will enable you to carry out in action, as He\ndid, the unselfish instincts which He has given you; and to live the\nnoble life, the heroic life, the life of self-sacrifice; the life of God;\nthe life of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; and\ntherefore the only life fit for those who are baptized into that Holy\nName.\"\n\nThis is the ground and method on which we should educate our children;\nfor it is the ground and method on which The Word of God is educating us.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XV.  I.\n\n\nPSALM CXIX. 94.\n\n   I am Thine, oh save me.\n\nLet us think seriously this afternoon of one word; the word which is the\nkey-note of this psalm.  A very short word; for in our language there is\nbut one letter in it.  A very common word; for we are using it all day\nlong when we are awake, and even at night in our dreams; and yet a very\nwonderful word, for though we know well whom it means, yet what it means\nwe do not know, and cannot understand, no, nor can the wisest philosopher\nwho ever lived; and a most important word too; for we cannot get rid of\nit, we cannot help thinking of it, cannot help saying it all our life\nlong from childhood to the grave.  After death, too, we shall probably be\nsaying that word to ourselves, each of us, for ever and ever.  If the\nwhole universe, sun, moon, and stars, and all that we ever thought of, or\ncan think of, were destroyed and became nothing, that word would probably\nbe left; and we should be left alone with it; and on what we meant by\nthat little word would depend our everlasting happiness or misery.  And\nwhat is this wonderful little word?  What but the word I?  Each one of us\nsays I--I think, I know, I feel, I ought, I ought not, I did that, and\ncannot undo it: and why?  Because we are not things, nor mere animals,\nbut persons, living souls, though our bodies are like the bodies of\nanimals, only more perfect, that they may be fit dwelling-places for more\nperfect souls.  The animals, as far as we know, do not think of\nthemselves each as I.  Little children do not at first.  They call\nthemselves by names by which they hear others call them: not in the first\nbut in the third person.  After a while there grows up in them the\nwonderful thought that they are persons, different from any other person\nround them, and they begin to say--I want this, I like that.  I trust\nthat I shall not seem to you as one who dreams when I say that I believe\nthat is a revelation from God to each child, and just what makes the\ndifference between him and an animal; that God teaches each child to say\nI; to know that it is not a mere thing, but a person, a living soul, with\na will of its own, and a duty of its own; responsible for itself; which\nought to do some things, and ought not to do other things.  And what a\nsolemn and awful revelation that is, we shall see more clearly, the more\nwe think of it.\n\nIt may be a very dreadful and tormenting thought.  It does not torment\nthe mere savage, who has no sense of right and wrong; who follows his own\nappetites and passions, and has never learnt to say, \"I ought,\" and \"I\nought not.\"  But it does torment the heathen when they begin to be\ncivilized, and to think; it has tormented them in all ages.  It tormented\nthe old Greeks and Romans; it torments some Eastern peoples still--that\nterrible thought--I am I myself, and cannot be any one else.  I am\nanswerable for all that I ever did, or shall do; and no one can be\nanswerable for me.  All the bad deeds I ever did, the bad thoughts I ever\nthought, are mine, parts of me, and will be for ever.  I can no more\nescape from them than I can spring off my own shadow.  But men have been\nalways trying to escape; to escape from the burden of their own self, and\nthe dread of an evil conscience; and have invented religion after\nreligion, often fantastic enough, often pathetic enough likewise, in\nhopes of hiding from themselves the secret thought--I am I, and must be\nmyself for ever.  But I am not what I ought to be, and therefore I may be\nwrong, and miserable for ever.  And how many people, in this Christian\nland, are saying at this very moment to themselves, \"Oh that I could get\nrid of this I myself in me, which is so discontented and unhappy!  Oh\nthat I had no conscience!  Oh that I could forget myself!\"  And they try\nto forget themselves by dissipation, by gaming, by drinking, by taking\nnarcotic drugs, even sometimes by suicide, as a last desperate attempt to\nescape from themselves, they know not and care not whither.  It is all in\nvain.  There is no escape from self.  As the pious poet whose bust stands\nbeneath yonder tower has said:\n\n   Each in his separate sphere of joy and woe\n   Our hermit spirits dwell, and range apart.\n\nI must be I, thou must be thou, he must be he, she must be she, and no\none else, throughout our mortal lives, and, for aught we can tell, for\never; alone, each of us, with our own souls, our own thoughts, our own\nactions, our own hopes, our own fears, our own deservings.  Stay\nalone:--with all these?  Yes, and alone with one more.  Each of us is\nalone with God.  Face to face with God, seen by Him through and through,\nand directly answerable to Him at every moment of our lives, for every\ndeed, and word, and thought.  And is that not a more terrible thought\nthan any?  Ah! my friends, it may be.  But it may be also the most\ncomforting of all thoughts, the only really comforting thought, if we\nwill but look at the question as the Psalmist looks at it, and cry with\nhim to God, \"I am Thine, oh save the me whom Thou hast made.\"\n\nThere are those, and those who deserve a respectful hearing, who will\ndiffer from all that I have been saying, and indeed from the beliefs of\n999 out of 1000 of the human race in every age.  They will say--This\nfancy that you are an I, a self, individual and indivisible, is but a\nfancy; one of the many idols which man creates for himself, by bestowing\nreality and personality on mere abstractions like this I and self.  Each\nman is not one indivisible, much less indestructible, thing or being.  He\nis really many things.  He is the net result of all the organic cells of\nhis body, and of all the forces which act through them within, and of all\nthe circumstances which influence them from without, ay, and of all the\nforces and circumstances which have influenced his ancestors ever since\nman appeared on the earth.  But because he remembers many states of\nconsciousness, many moments in which he was aware of sensations within\nhim, and of circumstances without him, therefore he strings all these\ntogether, and talks of them as one thing which he calls I; and speaks of\nthem as his remembrances of himself, when really the many things are but\nlinks of a chain which is perpetually growing at one end and dropping off\nat the other.  To say, therefore, that he is the same person as he was\nwhen a child, or as he would be when an old man,--is, when we know that\nevery atom of his physical frame has changed again and again during the\ncourse of years, a popular delusion, or at least a misnomer used for\nconvenience' sake; as when we say that the sun rises and sets, when we\nknow that the earth moves, and not the sun.  A man, therefore, according\nto this school, is really no more a person, one and indivisible, than is\nthe coral with its million polypes, the tree with its million buds, or\neven the thunderstorm with its million vesicles of attracting and\nrepelling vapour.\n\nNow that a truth underlies such a theory as this, I am the last to deny.\nHow much of the character of each man is inherited, how much of it\ndepends on his actual bodily organization; how much of it, alas! on the\ncircumstances of his youth; how much of it changes with the mere physical\nchange from youth to old age--who does not know all this, who has ever\nneeded to fight for himself the battle of life?  Only, I say, this is but\nhalf the truth; and these philosophers cannot state their half-truth,\nwithout employing the very words which they repudiate; without using the\nvery personal pronouns, the I and me, the thou and thee, the he and him,\nto which they deny any real existence.  Beside, I ask--Is the experience\nand the conclusion of the vast majority of all mankind to go for nothing?\nFor if there be one point on which human beings have been, and are still,\nagreed, it is this--that each of them is, to his joy or his sorrow, an I;\na separate person.  And, I should have said, this conviction becomes\nstronger and stronger in each of them, the more human they become,\ncivilized, and worthy of the respect and affection of their fellow-men.\n\nFor what rises in them, or seems to rise, more and more painfully and\nfiercely?  What but that protest, that battle, between the everlasting I\nwithin them, and their own passions, and motives, and circumstances;\nwhich St Paul of old called the battle between the spirit on one side,\nand the flesh and the world on the other.  The nobler, surely, and\nhealthier, even for a moment, the manhood of any man is, the more intense\nis that inward struggle, which man alone of all the animals endures.  Is\nit in moments of brave endeavour, whether to improve our own character,\nor to benefit our fellow-men: or is it in moments of depression,\ndisappointment, bodily sickness, that we are tempted to say?--I will\nfight no more.  I cannot mend myself, or the world.  I am what nature has\nmade me; and what I am, I must remain.  I, and all I know, and all I\nlove, are things, not persons; parts of nature, even as the birds upon\nthe bough, only more miserable, because tormented by a hope which never\nwill be fulfilled; an empty pageant of mere phenomena, blown onward\ntoward decay, like dying autumn leaves, before the \"everlasting storm\nwhich no one guides.\"  Is this the inward voice of health and strength?\nor rather, for evil or for good, that voice which bids the man, the\nwoman, in the mysterious might of the free I within, trample on their own\npassions, defy their own circumstances, even to the death; fall back, in\nutter need, on the absolute instinct of self; and even though all seem\nlost, say with Medea in the tragedy--\n\n   Che resta?  Io!\n\nMedea?--Some one will ask, and have a right to ask--Is that the model\nwhich you set before us?  The imperious sorceress, who from the first has\nknown no law but self, her own passions, her own intellect; who, at last,\nmaddened by a grievous wrong, asserts that self by the murder of her own\nbabes?  You might as well set before us as a model Milton's Satan.\n\nJust so.  Remember first, nevertheless, the old maxim, that the best,\nwhen corrupted, is the worst; that the higher the nature, when used\naright in its right place, the baser it becomes when used wrongly, in its\nwrong place.  When Satan fell from his right place, said the old Jews, he\nbecame, remember, not a mere brute: but worse, a fiend.  There is a deep\nand true philosophy in that.  As long as he was what he was meant to\nbe--the servant of God--he was an archangel and more; the fairest of all\nthe sons of the morning.  When he rebelled; when in pride and self-will\nhe tore himself--his person--away from that God in whom he lived and\nmoved and had his being: the personality remained; he could still, like\nMedea, fall back, even when he knew that he had rebelled against his\nCreator, on his indomitable self, and reign a self-sufficing king, even\nin the depths of hell.\n\nBut the very strength and richness of that personality made him, like\nMedea, only the more capable of evil.  He stood, that is, his moral\nhealth endured, only by loyalty to God.  When he lost that, he fell; to\nmoral disease: disease the vaster, the vaster were his own capacities.\n\nAnd so it is with you, and me, and every soul of man.  Only by loyalty to\nGod can this undying I, this self, this person, which each of us has--or\nrather which each of us is--be anything but a torment and a curse; the\nmore terrible to us, and those around us, the stronger and the richer are\nthe nature and faculties through which it works.\n\nWouldest thou not be a curse unto thy self?  Then cry with him who wrote\nthe 119th Psalm--I am Thine.  Oh save the me, whom Thou, O God, hast\nmade.\n\nFor he who wrote that psalm had an intense conviction of his own\npersonality.  I, and me, are words for ever in his mouth: but not in self-\nsatisfied conceit; nor in self-tormenting superstition, crying\nperpetually, Shall I be saved? shall I be lost?  No.  Faith in God\ndelivers him from either of these follies.  He is forced to think of\nself.  Sad, persecuted, seemingly friendless, he is alone with self: yet\nnot alone.  For at every moment he is referring himself to his true place\nin the universe; to God; God's law, God's help.  The burden of self--of\nmingled responsibility and weakness--is to him past bearing.  It would be\nutterly past bearing, if he could not cast it down, at least at moments,\nat the foot of the throne of God, and cry, I am Thine.  Oh save me.\n\nAnd if any should ask--as has been asked ere now--But is there not in\nthis tone of mind something undignified, something even abject? thus to\ncry for help, instead of helping oneself? thus to depend on another\nbeing, instead of bearing stoically with manly independence?  I\nanswer--The Psalmist does bear stoically, just because he cries for help.\nFor the old Stoics cried for help; the earlier and truer-hearted of them,\nat least.  Some here, surely, have read Epictetus, the heathen whose\nthought most exactly coincides with that of the Psalmist.  If so, do they\nnot see what enabled him, the slave of Nero's minion, to assert himself,\nand his own unconquerable personality; to defy circumstance; and to\npreserve his own calm, his own honour, his own purity, amid a degradation\nwhich might well have driven a good man to suicide?  And was it not\nthis--The intensity of his faith in God?  In God the helper, God the\nguide?\n\nIf any man here have learnt, to his own loss, to undervalue the\nexperience of prophets, psalmists, apostles: then let him turn to\nEpictetus the heathen; and learn from that heroic slave, that the true\ndignity of man lies in true faith in God.\n\nNay more.  It is a serious question, whether ungodliness--by which I\nmean, as the Psalmist means, the assertion of self, independent of\nGod--whether ungodliness, I say, is ever dignified; whether, as has been\noften said, Milton's still dignified Satan is not an impossible\ncharacter; whether Goethe's utterly undignified Mephistopheles is not the\ntrue ideal of an utterly evil spirit.  Ungodliness, as we see it\nmanifested in human beings, may be repulsive, as in the mere ruffian,\nwhose mouth is filled with cursing, and his feet swift to shed blood.  It\nmay, again, be pitiable, as in those human butterflies, who live only to\nenjoy, or to minister to, what they call luxury and fashion.  And it may\nbe again--when it calmly and deliberately asserts itself to be a\nphilosophy, and an explanation of man and of the universe, and gives\nitself magisterial airs, however courteously and kindly--it may be then,\nI dare to think, a little ludicrous.\n\nBut as for its dignity, I leave to you to say which of the two beings is\nthe more dignified, which the more abject--a little organism of flesh and\nblood, at most not more than six feet high, liable to be destroyed by a\ntile off the roof, or a blast of foul gas, or a hundred other accidents;\nstanding self-poised and self-complacent in the centre of such an\nuniverse as this, and asserting that it acknowledges no superior, and\nneeds no guide--or the same being, awakened to the mystery of his own\nactual weakness, his possible strength; his own actual ignorance, his\npossible wisdom; his own actual sinfulness, his possible holiness: and\nthen; by a humility which is the highest daring; by a self-distrust which\nis the truest self-assertion, vindicating the divine element within, by\ntaking personal and voluntary service under no less a personage than Him\nwho made him; and crying directly to the Creator of sun and stars and all\nthe universe--I am Thine.  Oh save the me which Thou hast made?\n\nMake up your own minds, make up your minds, which of the two figures is\nthe more abject, which the more dignified.  For me, I have had too good\ncause, long since, to make up mine.\n\nAnd if you wish to judge further for yourselves, whether the teaching of\nthe Psalmist is more likely to produce an abject or a dignified\ncharacter, I advise you to ponder carefully a certain singular--I had\nalmost said unique--educational document, written by men who had\nthoroughly imbibed the teaching of this psalm; a document which, the\noftener I peruse it, arouses in me more and more admiration; not only for\nits theology, but for its knowledge of human nature; and not only for\nwhat it does, but for what it does not, say.  I mean the Catechism of the\nChurch of England.\n\nYou will remark at first sight, that it does not affect to teach the\nchild; with one remarkable exception to be hereafter noticed.  It does\nnot tell the child--You should do this, you should not do that.\n\nIt is strictly an Educational Catechism.  It tries to educe--that is,\ndraw out--what is in the child already; its own native instincts and\nnative conscience.  Therefore it makes the child speak for itself.  It\nmakes each child feel that he or she is an I; a person, a responsible\nsoul.  It begins--What is your name?  It makes the child confess that it\nhas a name, as a sign that it is a person, a self, a soul, different from\nall other persons in earth or heaven; and that its name was given it at\nbaptism, for a sign that God made it a person, and wishes it to know that\nit is a person, and will teach it how to be a true person, and a good\nperson.  It teaches the child to say--I, and me, not in fear and dread,\nlike those heathen of whom I spoke just now, but with manly confidence,\nand self-respect, and gratitude to God who has made it a person, and an\nimmortal soul.\n\nTo say--I am a person; and in order that I might be a right kind of\nperson, and not a wrong kind, I was made a member of Christ, a child of\nGod, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.\n\nTo say--I am a person; and that I may be a right kind of person, I must\nknow and believe certain things concerning God Himself, Father, Son, and\nHoly Ghost.  I am a person; and that I may be a right kind of person, I\nmust keep certain commandments and do certain duties toward God, and my\nparents, and my Queen, and my country, and my neighbour, and all toward\nwhom I am responsible for right behaviour.\n\nAnd then, and only then, after it has made the child say all this for\nitself and about itself, the Catechism does begin to teach; and in a few\nvery short words, tell the child about that which is not itself--\n\n\"My good child, know this, that thou art not able to do these things of\nthyself, nor to walk in the Commandments of God, and to serve Him,\nwithout His special grace; which thou must learn at all times to call for\nby diligent prayer.\"\n\nNow consider these words.  There is comfort and strength in them; comfort\nfor the child; comfort for you, and me, and every human being who has\nawakened to the sense of his own personal responsibility, and finds it\ntoo often a burden heavier than he--and, alas, often, she--can bear.\n\nThe Catechism tells the child that it must not merely know doctrines\nabout God, or do duties to God; but more: that it is alone with God\nHimself, face to face with God Himself day and night.  But that therefore\nit is to dread God, and look up to God as a taskmaster and tyrant, and\ntry to hide from God's awful eye, and forget God, and forget itself--if\nit can?--God forbid; God forbid.  The Catechism leaves such teaching for\nthose Pharisees who tell little children that unless they are converted,\nand become as them, they shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of\nheaven.  The Catechism says, My good child--not, My bad child--know this.\nKnow that thou art weak: but know that God is strong; and look up to Him\nas the Father of all fathers, the Teacher of all teachers, the Helper of\nall helpers, the Friend of all friends, who has I called thee unto His\nkingdom of grace, that He might shew thee graciousness; and make thee\ngracious and graceful in all thy thoughts, and works, and ways: and,\ntherefore, far from trying to hide from Him, call on Him with diligent\nprayer.  For the Father of all fathers is the Father of thy soul, the Son\nof all sons died for thee upon the Cross, the Holy Spirit of all holy\nspirits will make thee a holy spirit and person, even as He is a Holy\nSpirit and Person Himself.\n\nBelieving those words, no one will dare to forget to say his prayers.  For\nwhen he prays, he is indeed a person.  He is himself; and not ashamed,\nhowever sinful, to be himself; and to tell God about himself.  Oh, think\nof that.  You, each of you, have a right, as God's children, to speak to\nthe God who made the universe.  Therefore be sure, that when you dislike\nto say your prayers, it is because you do not like to be what you are, a\nperson; and prefer--ah foolish soul--to be a thing, and an animal.\n\nBelieving those words, no man need long to forget himself, to escape from\nhimself.  He can lift up himself to God who made him, with reverence, and\nfear, and yet with gratitude and trust, and say--\n\nI, Lord, am I; and what I am--a very poor, pitiful, sinful person.  But\nThou, Lord, art Thou; and what Thou art--happily for me, and for the\nwhole universe--Perfect.  Thou art what Thou oughtest to be--Goodness\nitself.  And therefore Thou canst, and Thou wilt, make me what I ought to\nbe at last, a good person.  To thee, O Lord, I can bring the burden of\nthis undying I, which I carry with me, too often in shame and sadness,\nand ask Thee to help me to bear it; saying--\"Thou knowest, Lord, the\nsecrets of our hearts.  Shut not Thy merciful ears to our prayers: but\nspare us, O Lord most Holy, O God most Mighty, Thou worthy Judge Eternal,\nand suffer us not, for any temptation of the world, the flesh or the\ndevil, to fall from Thee.\"  Guide me, teach me, strengthen me, till I\nbecome such a person as Thou wouldst have me be; pure and gentle,\ntruthful and high-minded, brave and able, courteous and generous, dutiful\nand useful, like Thy Son Jesus Christ when He increased not only in\nstature, but in favour with God and man.\n\nTo which may God in His mercy bring us all!  Amen.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XVI.  THE CEDARS OF LEBANON.\n\n\nPSALM CIV. 16.\n\n   The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which He\n   hath planted.\n\nLet me say a few words this afternoon about the noble 104th Psalm, which\nwas read this afternoon, as it is now in many churches, and most wisely\nand rightly, as the Harvest Psalm.  It is a fit psalm for a service in\nwhich we thank God for such harvest as He has thought best to send us,\nwhether it be above or below the average.  But it is also a fit psalm to\nbe thought earnestly over just now, considering the turn which men's\nminds are taking more and more in these times in which it has pleased God\nthat we should live.  For we have lost, all of us, unlearned as well as\nlearned, the old superstitious notions about this world around us which\nour forefathers held for many hundred years.  No rational person now\nbelieves that witches can blight crops or cattle, or that evil spirits\ncause storms.  No one now believes that nymphs and fairies live in\nfountains or in trees; or that the spirits of the planets rule the fates\nof men.  That old belief is gone, for good and for evil, and it was good\nthat it should go; for it was false: and falsehoods can do no good, but\nonly harm, to any man, in body and in soul alike.  It has died out\nquickly and strangely.  Some say that modern science has destroyed it.  I\ncan hardly agree to that: for it has died out--and that almost since my\nown recollection and under my own eyes--in the minds of country people,\nwho know nothing of science.  I had rather say--as I presume the man who\nwrote the 104th Psalm would have said--The Lord has taken the belief out\nof men's hearts and minds.  And I cannot but hope that He has taken it\naway, and allows us to believe no more in demons and fairies ruling the\nworld around us, in order that we may believe in Him, and nothing but\nHim, the true Ruler of the world; in Him of whom it is written, \"Him\nshalt thou worship, and Him only shalt thou serve;\" even God the Father,\nof whom are all things, and God the Son, by whom are all things, and God\nthe Holy Spirit, who is the Lord and Giver of life, alike to sun and\nstars over our heads, and to the meanest weed and insect under our feet;\nthe Lord and Giver of life alike to matter and spirit, soul and body,\nworm and man, and angel and archangel before the throne of God.  I hope\nit is so.  I trust it is so.  For we never had more need than now to\nbelieve with all our hearts in the living God; to take into all our\nhearts the teaching of the 104th Psalm.  For now that we have given up\nbelieving in superstitions, we are in danger of going to the other\nextreme, and believing in nothing at all which we cannot see with our\neyes, and handle with our hands.  Now that we have given up believing in\nthe fabled supernatural; in ghosts, fairies, demons, witches, and such-\nlike: we are in danger of giving up believing in the true and eternal\nsupernatural, which is the Holy Spirit of God, by whom the whole creation\nis kept alive and sound.  We are in danger of falling into a low, stupid,\nbrutish view of this wonderful world of God in which we live; in danger\nof thinking of nature--that is, of the things which we can see and\nhandle--only as something of which we can make use--till we fall as low\nas that poor ruffian, of whom the poet says:\n\n   A primrose on the river's brim\n   A yellow primrose was to him,\n      And it was nothing more.\n\nLower, that is, than even our own children, whom God has at least taught\nto admire and love the primroses for their beauty--as something precious\nand divine, quite independent of their own emotions about them.  Men in\nthese days are but too likely to fall into the humour of those poor\nsavages, of whom one who knows them well said to me once--bitterly but\ntruly--that when a savage sees anything new, however wonderful or\nbeautiful, he has but two thoughts about it; first--Will it hurt me? and\nnext--Can I eat it?  And from that truly brutish view of God's world, we\nshall be delivered, I believe, only by taking in with our whole hearts\nthe teaching of the 104th Psalm; which is indeed the teaching of all Holy\nScripture throughout.\n\nThe Psalmist, in the passage which I have chosen, is talking of the\ncirculation of water on the earth; how wisely and well it is ordered; how\nthe vapours rise off the sea, till the waters stand above the mountain-\ntops, to be brought down in thunder-storms--for in his country, as in\nmany hot ones, thunder was generally needed, at the end of the dry\nseason, to bring down the rain; how it forms springs in the highland, and\nflows down from thence in brooks and rivers, making the whole lowland\ngreen and fertile.  Well--all very true, you may say.  But that is simply\na matter of science, or indeed of common observation and common sense.  It\nis not a subject for a psalm or for a sermon.\n\nTrue: in the words in which I have purposely put it.  But not in the\nwords in which the Psalmist puts it; and which I purposely left out, to\nshew you just the difference between even the soundest science, and\nfaith.  He brings in another element, which is the true cause of the\ncirculation of water; and that is, none other but Almighty God.\n\nThis is the way in which the inspired Psalmist puts it; and this is the\ntruth of it all; this is the very kernel and marrow and life and soul of\nit all: while the facts which I told you just now are the mere shell and\ndead skeleton of it--\"_Thou_ sendest the springs into the rivers.\"\n\nThou art the Lord of the lightning and of the clouds, the Lord of the\nhighlands and of the lowlands, and the Lord of the rainfall and of the\ndrought, the Lord of good seasons and of bad, of rich harvests and of\nscanty.  They, like all things, obey Thine everlasting laws; and of them,\nwhatever may befal, poor purblind man can say in faith and hope--\"It is\nthe Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him good.\"\n\nYes.  He was not of course a man of science, in the modern sense of the\nword, this old Psalmist.  But this I know, that he was a man of science\nin the soundest and deepest sense; an inspired philosopher, as well as an\ninspired poet; and had the highest of all sciences, which is the science\nand knowledge of the living God.  For he saw God in everything and\neverything in God.\n\nBut--he says--the trees of the Lord are full of sap; even the cedars of\nLebanon which He hath planted.  Why should he say that specially of the\ncedars?  Did not God make all trees?  Does He not plant all wild trees,\nand every flower and seed?  My dear friends, happy are you if you believe\nthat in spirit and in truth.  But let me tell you that I think you would\nnot have believed that, unless the Psalmist, and others who wrote the\nHoly Scriptures, had told you about trees of God, and rivers of God, and\nwinds of God, and had taught you that the earth is the Lord's and the\nfulness thereof.  You do not know--none of us can know--how much we owe\nto the Bible for just and rational, as well as orthodox and Christian,\nnotions of the world around us.  We, and--thank God--our forefathers for\nhundreds of years, have drunk in Bible thoughts, as it were, with our\nmother's milk; till much that we have really learnt from the Bible we\ntake as a matter of course, as self-evident truths which we have found\nout for ourselves by common sense.\n\nAnd yet, so far from that being the case, if it had not been for the\nBible, we might be believing at this moment, that one god made one tree,\nand another another; that one tree was sacred to one god, and another\nflower to another goddess, as the old Greeks believed; and that the wheat\nand barley were the gift, and therefore the property, of some special\ndeity; and be crying now in fear and trembling to the sun-god, or the\nrain-god, or some other deified power of nature, because we fancied that\nthey were angry with us, and had therefore sent us too much rain and a\nshort harvest.\n\nIt is difficult, now-a-days, to make even cultivated people understand\nthe follies of those who, like the heathen round the Jews, worshipped\nmany gods: and all the more because our modern folly runs in a different\nchannel; because we are tempted, not to believe in many gods, but in no\nGod at all; to believe not that one god made one thing and another\nanother, but that all things have made themselves.\n\nWhen Hiram, king of Tyre, sent down timber cut from the cedars of\nLebanon, to build the temple of God for Solomon; his heathen workmen,\nprobably, were angry and terrified at what they were doing.  They said\namong themselves--\"These cedars belong to Baal, or to Melkart, the gods\nof Tyre.  Our king has no right to send them to build the temple of\nJehovah, the God of the Jews.  It is a robbery, and a sacrilege; and Baal\nwill be angry with us; and curse us with drought and blight.\"\n\nBut now-a-days men say--\"The cedars of Lebanon are not God's trees, nor\nare any other trees.  They belong to nature.\"  Now I believe in nature no\nmore than I do in Baal.  Nature is merely things--a great many things it\nis true, but only things--and when I add them all up together, and call\nthem nature, as if they were one thing, I make an abstraction of them.\nThere is no harm in that: but if I treat that abstraction as if it really\nexisted, and did anything, then I make of it an idol, the which I have no\nmind to do.  I believe, I say, in nature no more than I do in Baal.  Both\nwords were at first symbols; and both have become in due course of time\nmere idols.  But those who worship nature and not God, say now--God did\nnot make trees; they were made by the laws of nature and nothing else.\nWell: I believe that the so-called philosophers who say that, will be\nproved at last to be no more right, and no more rational, than those\nheathen workmen of Tyre.  But meanwhile, what the Psalmist says, and what\nthe Bible says, is--Those trees belong to God.  He made them, He made all\nthings; the sap--the mysterious life in them, by which each grows and\nseeds according to its kind--is His gift.  Their growth is ordered by\nHim; and so are all things in earth and heaven.\n\nThen why speak of them especially as trees of God?  Because, my friends,\nwe can only find out that something is true of many things, by finding\nout that it is true of one thing; and that we usually find out by some\nstriking instance; some case about which there can be no mistake.  And\nthese cedars of Lebanon were, and are still, such a striking instance,\nwhich there was no mistaking.  Upon the slopes of the great snow-mountain\nof Lebanon stood those gigantic cedar-trees--whole forests of them\nthen--now only one or two small groups, but awful, travellers tell us,\neven in their decay.  Whence did they come?  There are no trees like them\nfor hundreds, I had almost said for thousands, of miles.  There are but\ntwo other patches of them left now on the whole earth, one in the Atlas,\none in the Himalaya.  The Jews certainly knew of no trees like them; and\nno trees either of their size.  There were trees among them then,\nprobably, two and three hundred feet in height; trees whose tops were as\nthose minster towers; whose shafts were like yonder pillars; and their\nbranches like yonder vaults.  No king, however mighty, could have planted\nthem up there upon the lofty mountain slopes.  The Jew, when he entered\nbeneath the awful darkness of these cedars; the cedars with a shadowy\nshroud--as the Scripture says--the cedars high and lifted up, whose tops\nwere among the thick boughs, and their height exalted above all the trees\nof the field; fair in their greatness; their boughs multiplied, and their\nbranches long--for it is in such words of awe and admiration that the\nBible talks always of the cedars--then the Jew said, \"God has planted\nthese, and God alone.\"  And when he thought, not merely of their grandeur\nand their beauty, but of their use; of their fragrant and incorruptible\ntimber, fit to build the palaces of kings, and the temples of gods; he\nsaid--and what could he say better?--\"These are trees of God;\" wonderful\nand glorious works of a wonderful and a glorious Creator.  If he had not,\nhe would have had less reason in him, and less knowledge of God, than the\nHindoos of old; who when they saw the other variety of the cedar growing,\nin like grandeur, on the slopes of the Himalaya, called them the\nDeodara--which means, in the old Sanscrit tongue, neither more nor less\nthan \"the timber of God,\" \"the lance of God\"--and what better could they\nhave said?\n\nMy friends, I speak on this matter from the fulness of my heart.  It has\nhappened to me--through the bounty of God, for which I shall be ever\ngrateful--to have spent days in primeval forests, as grand, and far\nstranger and far richer than that of Lebanon and its cedars; amid trees\nbeside which the hugest tree in Britain would be but as a sapling;\ngorgeous too with flowers, rich with fruits, timbers, precious gums, and\nall the yet unknown wealth of a tropic wilderness.  And as I looked up,\nawestruck and bewildered, at those minsters not made by hands, I found\nthe words of Scripture rising again and again unawares to my lips, and\nsaid--Yes: the Bible words are the best words, the only words for such a\nsight as this.  These too are trees of God which are full of sap.  These,\ntoo, are trees, which God, not man, has planted.  Mind, I do not say that\nI should have said so, if I had not learnt to say so from the Bible.\nWithout the Bible I should have been, I presume, either an idolater or an\natheist.  And mind, also, that I do not say that the Psalmist learnt to\ncall the cedars trees of God by his own unassisted reason.  I believe the\nvery opposite.  I believe that no man can see the truth of a thing unless\nGod shews it him; that no man can find out God, in earth or heaven,\nunless God condescends to reveal Himself to that man.  But I believe that\nGod did reveal Himself to the Psalmist; did enlighten his reason by the\ninspiration of His Holy Spirit; did teach him, as we teach a child, what\nto call those cedars; and, as it were, whispered to him, though with no\naudible voice: \"Thou wishest to know what name is most worthy whereby to\ncall those mighty trees: then call them trees of God.  Know that there is\nbut one God, of whom are all things; and that they are His trees; and\nthat He planted them, to shew forth His wisdom, His power, and His good\nwill to man.\"\n\nAnd do you fancy that because the Jew called the great cedars trees of\nGod, that therefore he thought that the lentiscs and oleanders, by the\nbrook outside, were not God's shrubs; or the lilies and anemones upon the\ndown below were not God's flowers?  Some folk have fancied so.--It seems\nto me most unreasonably.  I should have thought that here the rule stood\ntrue; that that which is greater contains the less; that if the Psalmist\nknew God to be mighty enough to make and plant the cedars, he would think\nHim also mighty enough to make and plant the smallest flower at his feet.\nI think so.  For I know it was so with me.  My feeling that those\nenormous trees over my head were God's trees, did not take away in the\nleast from my feeling of God's wisdom and power in the tiniest herb at\ntheir feet.  Nay rather, it increased my feeling that God was filling all\nthings with life and beauty; till the whole forest,--if I may so speak in\nall humility, but in all honesty--from the highest to the lowest, from\nthe hugest to the smallest, and every leaf and bud therein, seemed full\nof the glory of God.  And if I could feel that,--being the thing I am--how\nmuch more must the inspired Psalmist have felt it?  You see by this very\npsalm that he did feel it.  The grass for the use of cattle, and the\ngreen herb for men, and the corn and the wine and the oil, he says, are\njust as much God's making, and God's gift.  The earth is \"filled,\" he\nsays, \"with the fruit of God's works.\"  Filled: not dotted over here and\nthere with a few grand and wonderful things which God cares for, while He\ncares for nothing else: but filled.  Let us take the words of Scripture\nhonestly in their whole strength; and believe that if the Psalmist saw\nGod's work in the great cedars, he saw it everywhere else likewise.\n\nNay, more: I will say this.  That I believe it was such teaching as that\nof this very 104th Psalm--teaching which runs, my friends, throughout the\nOld Testament, especially through the Psalmists and the Prophets--which\nenabled the Jews to understand our Lord's homely parables about the\nflowers of the field and the birds of the air.  Those of them at least\nwho were Israelites indeed; those who did understand, and had treasured\nup in their hearts, the old revelation of Moses, and the Psalmists, and\nthe Prophets; those who did still believe that the cedars were the trees\nof God, and that God brought forth grass for the cattle, and green herb\nfor the service of men; and who could see God's hand, God's laws, God's\nlove, working in them--those men and women, be sure, were the very ones\nwho understood our Lord, when He said, \"Consider the lilies of the field,\nhow they grow.  They toil not, neither do they spin.  And yet I say unto\nyou, that Solomon in all his glory was not compared unto one of these.\"\n\nAnd why should it not be so with you, townsfolk though you are?  Every\nLondoner has now, in the public parks and gardens, the privilege of\nlooking on plants and flowers, more rich, more curious, more varied than\nmeet the eye of any average countryman.  Then when you next avail\nyourselves of that real boon of our modern civilization, let me beg you\nnot to forget the lesson which I have been trying to teach you.\n\nYou may feel--you ought to feel--that those strange and stately\nsemitropic forms are indeed plants of God; the work of a creative Spirit\nwho delights to employ His Almighty power in producing ever fresh shapes\nof beauty--seemingly unnecessary, seemingly superfluous, seemingly\ncreated for the sake of their beauty alone--in order that the Lord may\ndelight Himself in His works.  Let that sight make you admire and\nreverence more, not less, the meanest weed beneath your feet.  Remember\nthat the very weeds in your own garden are actually more highly\norganized; have cost--if I may so say, with all reverence, but I can only\nspeak of the infinite in clumsy terms of the finite--the Creator more\nthought, more pains, than the giant cedars of Lebanon, and the giant\ncypresses of California.  Remember that the smallest moss or lichen which\nclings upon the wall, is full of wonders and beauties, as inexplicable as\nunexpected; and that of every flower on your own window-sill the words of\nChrist stand literally true--that Solomon in all his glory was not\narrayed as one of these: and bow your hearts and souls before the\nmagnificent prodigality, the exquisite perfection of His work, who can\nbe, as often as He will, greatest in that which is least, because to His\ninfinity nothing is great, and nothing small; who hath created all\nthings, and for His pleasure they are, and were created; who rejoices for\never in His own works, because He beholds for ever all that He makes, and\nit is very good.\n\nAnd then refresh your hearts as well as your brains--tired it may be, too\noften, with the drudgery of some mechanical, or merely calculating,\noccupation--refresh your hearts, I say, by lifting them up unto the Lord,\nin truly spiritual, truly heavenly thoughts; which bring nobleness, and\ntrust, and peace, to the humblest and the most hardworked man.\n\nFor you can say in your hearts--All the things which I see, are God's\nthings.  They are thoughts of God.  God gives them law, and life, and\nuse.  My heavenly Father made them.  My Saviour redeemed them with His\nmost precious blood, and rules and orders them for ever.  The Holy Spirit\nof God, which was given me at my baptism, gives them life and power to\ngrow and breed after their kinds.  The divine, miraculous, and\nsupernatural power of God Himself is working on them, and for them,\nperpetually: and how much more on me, and for me, and all my children,\nand fellow-creatures for whom Christ died.  Without my Father in heaven\nnot a sparrow falls to the ground: and am I not of more value than many\nsparrows?  God feeds the birds: and will He not feed me?  God clothes the\nlilies of the field: and will He not clothe me?  Ah, me of little faith,\nwho forget daily that in God I live, and move, and have my being, and am,\nin spite of all my sins, the child of God.  Him I can trust in prosperous\ntimes, and in disastrous times; in good harvests and in bad harvests; in\nlife and in death, in time and in eternity.  For He has given all things\na law which cannot be broken.  And they continue this day as at the\nbeginning, serving Him.  And if I serve Him likewise, then shall I be in\nharmony with God, and with God's laws, and with God's creatures, great\nand small.  The whole powers of nature as well as of spirit will be\narrayed on my side in the struggle for existence; and all things will\nwork together for good to those who love God.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XVII.  LIFE.\n\n\nPSALM CIV. 24, 28-30.\n\n   O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all:\n   the earth is full of Thy riches.\n\n   That Thou givest them they gather.  Thou openest Thine hand, they are\n   filled with good.  Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled.  Thou\n   takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.  Thou\n   sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created: and Thou renewest the face\n   of the earth.\n\nWhat is the most important thing to you, and me, and every man?\n\nI suppose that most, if they answered honestly, would say--Life.  I will\ngive anything I have for my life.\n\nAnd if some among you answered--as I doubt not some would--No: not life:\nbut honour and duty.  There is many a thing which I would rather die than\ndo--then you would answer like valiant and righteous folk; and may God\ngive you grace to keep in the same mind, and to hold your good resolution\nto the last.  But you, too, will agree that, except doing your duty, life\nis the most important thing you have.  The mother, when she sacrifices\nher life to save her child, shews thereby how valuable she holds the\nchild's life to be; so valuable that she will give up even her own to\nsave it.\n\nBut did you never consider, again--and a very solemn and awful thought it\nis--that this so important thing called life is the thing, above all\nother earthly things, of which we know least--ay, of which we know\nnothing?\n\nWe do not know what death is.  We send a shot through a bird, and it\nfalls dead--that is, lies still, and after a while decays again into the\ndust of the earth, and the gases of the air.  But what has happened to\nit?  How does it die?  How does it decay?  What is this life which is\ngone out of it?  No man knows.  Men of science, by dissecting and making\nexperiments, which they do with a skill and patience which deserve not\nonly our belief, but our admiration, will describe to us the phenomena,\nor outward appearances, which accompany death, and follow death.  But\ndeath itself--for want of what the animal has died--what has gone out of\nit--they cannot tell.  No man can tell; for that is invisible, and not to\nbe discovered by the senses.  They are therefore forced to explain death\nby theories, which may be true, or false: but which are after all not\ndeath itself, but their own thoughts about death put into their own\nwords.  Death no man can see: but only the phenomena and effects of\ndeath; and still more, life no man can see: but only the phenomena and\neffects of life.\n\nFor if we cannot tell what death is, still more we cannot tell what life\nis.  How life begins; how it organizes each living thing according to its\nkind; and makes it grow; how it gives it the power of feeding on other\nthings, and keeping up its own body thereby: of this all experiments tell\nus as yet nothing.  Experiment gives us, here again, the phenomena--the\nvisible effects.  But the causes it sees not, and cannot see.\n\nThis is not a matter to be discussed here.  But this I say, that\nscientific men, in the last generation or two, have learnt, to their\ngreat honour, and to the great good of mankind--everything, or almost\neverything, about it--except the thing itself; and that, below all facts,\nbelow all experiments, below all that the eye or brain of man can\ndiscover, lies always a something nameless, invisible, imponderable, yet\nseemingly omnipresent and omnipotent; retreating before the man of\nscience deeper and deeper, the deeper he delves: namely, the life, which\nshapes and makes all phenomena, and all facts.  Scientific men are\nbecoming more and more aware of this unknown force, I had almost said,\nready to worship it.  More and more the noblest minded of them are\nbecoming engrossed with that truly miraculous element in nature which is\nalways escaping them, though they cannot escape it.  How should they\nescape it?  Was it not written of old--Whither shall I go from Thy\npresence? and whither shall I flee from Thy Spirit?\n\nWhat then can we know of this same life, which is so precious in most\nmen's eyes?\n\nMy friends, it was once said--That man's instinct was in all unknown\nmatters to take refuge in God.  The words were meant as a sneer.  I, as a\nChristian, glory in them; and ask, Where else should man take refuge,\nsave in God?  When man sees anything--as he must see hundreds of\nthings--which he cannot account for; things mysterious, and seemingly\nbeyond the power of his mind to explain: what safer, what wiser word can\nhe say than--This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?\nGod understands it: though I do not.  Be it what it may, it is a work of\nGod.  From God it comes: by God it is ruled and ordered.  That at least I\nknow: and let that be enough for me.  And so we may say of life.  When we\nare awed, and all but terrified, by the unfathomable mystery of life, we\ncan at least take refuge in God.  And if we be wise, we shall take refuge\nin God.  Whatever we can or cannot know about it, this we know; that it\nis the gift of God.  So thought the old Jewish Prophets and Psalmists;\nand spoke of a breath of God, a vapour, a Spirit of God, which breathed\nlife into all things.  It was but a figure of speech, of course: but if a\nbetter one has yet been found, let the words in which it has been written\nor spoken be shewn to me.  For to me, at least, they are yet unknown.  I\nhave read, as yet, no wiser words about the matter than those of the old\nJewish sages, who told how, at the making of the world, the Spirit, or\nbreath, of God moved on the face of the waters, quickening all things to\nlife; or how God breathed into man's nostrils the breath or spirit of\nlife, and man became a living soul.\n\nAnd in the same temper does that true philosopher and truly inspired\nPsalmist, who wrote the 139th Psalm, speak of the Spirit or breath of\nGod.  He considers his own body: how fearfully and wonderfully it is\nmade; how God did see his substance, yet being imperfect; and in God's\nbook were all his members written, which day by day were fashioned, while\nas yet there was none of them.  \"Thou,\" he says, \"O God, hast fashioned\nme behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me.  Such knowledge is too\nwonderful and excellent for me; I cannot attain to it.\"  \"But,\" he says\nto himself, \"there is One Who has attained to it; Who does know; for He\nhas done it all, and is doing it still: and that is God and the Spirit of\nGod.  Whither\"--he asks--\"shall I go then from God's Spirit?  Whither\nshall I flee from God's presence?\"  And so he sees by faith--and by the\nhighest reason likewise--The Spirit of God, as a living, thinking, acting\nbeing, who quickens and shapes, and orders, not his mortal body merely,\nbut all things; giving life, law, and form to all created things, from\nthe heights of heaven to the depths of hell; and ready to lead him and\nhold him, if he took the wings of the morning and fled into the uttermost\nparts of the sea.\n\nAnd so speaks again he who wrote the 104th Psalm, and the text which I\nhave chosen.  To him, too, the mystery of death, and still more the\nmystery of life, could be explained only by faith in God, and in the\nSpirit of God.  If things died, it was because God took away their\nbreath, and therefore they returned to their dust.  And if things lived,\nit was because the Spirit of God, breathed forth, and proceeding, from\nGod, gave them life.  He pictured to himself, I dare to fancy, what we\nmay picture to ourselves--for such places have often been, and are now,\nin this world--some new and barren land, even as the very gravel on which\nwe stand was once, just risen from the icy sea, all waste and lifeless,\nwithout a growing weed, an insect, even a moss.  Then, gradually, seeds\nfloat thither across the sea, or are wafted by the winds, and grow; and\nafter them come insects; then birds; then trees grow up; and larger\nanimals arrive to feed beneath their shade; till the once barren land has\nbecome fertile and rich with life, and the face of the earth is renewed.\nBut by what?  \"God,\" says the Psalmist, \"has renewed the face of the\nearth.\"  True, the seeds, the animals came by natural causes: but who was\nthe Cause of those causes?  Who sent the things thither, save God?  And\nwho gave them life?  Who kept the life in floating seeds, in flying\nspores?  Who made that life, when they reached the barren shore, grow and\nthrive in each after their kind?  Who, but the Spirit of God, the Lord\nand Giver of life?  God let His Spirit proceed and go forth from Himself\nupon them; and they were made; and so He renewed the face of the earth.\n\nThat, my good friends, is not only according to Scripture, but according\nto true philosophy.  Men are slow to believe it now: and no wonder.  They\nhave been always slow to believe in the living God; and have made\nthemselves instead dead gods--if not of wood and stone, still out of\ntheir own thoughts and imaginations; and talk of laws of nature, and long\nabstractions ending in ation and ality, like that \"Evolution\" with which\nso many are in love just now; and worship them as gods; mere words, the\nwork of their own brains, though not of their own hands--even though they\nbe--as many of them are--Evolution, I hold, among the rest--true and fair\napproximations to actual laws of God.  But before them, and behind them,\nand above them and below them, lives the Author of Evolution, and of\neverything else.  For God lives, and reigns, and works for ever.  The\nSpirit of God proceedeth from the Father and the Son, giving, evolving,\nand ruling the life of all created things; and what we call nature, and\nthis world, and the whole universe, is an unfathomable mystery, and a\nperpetual miracle, The one Author and Ruler of which is the ever-blessed\nTrinity, of whom it is written--\"The glorious majesty of the Lord shall\nendure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in His works.\"\n\nI believe, therefore, that the Psalmist in the text is speaking, not\nmerely sound doctrine but sound philosophy.  I believe that the simplest\nand the most rational account of the mystery of life is that which is\ngiven by the Christian faith; and that the Nicene Creed speaks truth and\nfact, when it bids us call the Holy Spirit of God the Lord and Giver of\nlife.\n\nThat this is according to the orthodox Catholic Faith there is no doubt.\nMany mistakes were made on this matter, in the early times of the Church,\neven by most learned and holy divines; as was to be expected, considering\nthe mysteriousness of the subject.  They were inclined, often, to what is\ncalled Pantheism--that is, to fancy that all living things are parts of\nGod; that God's Spirit is in them, as our soul is in our body, or as heat\nis in a heated matter; and to speak of God's Spirit as the soul and life\nof the world.\n\nBut this is exactly what the Nicene Creed does not do.  It does not say\nthat the Holy Spirit is life: but that He is the Lord and Giver of life--a\nseemingly small difference in words: but a most vast and important\ndifference in meaning and in truth.\n\nThe true doctrine, it seems to me, is laid down most clearly by the\nfamous bishop, Cyril of Alexandria; who, whatever personal faults he\nhad--and they were many--had doubtless dialectic intellect enough for\nthis, and even deeper questions.  And he says--\"The Holy Spirit moves all\nthings that are moved; and holds together, and animates, and makes alive,\nthe whole universe.  Nor is He another Nature different from the Father\nand the Son: but as He is in us; of the same nature and the same essence\nas they.\"  And so says another divine, Eneas of Gaza--\"The Father, with\nthe Son, sends forth the Holy Spirit; and inspiring with this Spirit all\nthings, beyond sense and of sense--invisible and visible--fills them with\npower, and holds them together, and draws them to Himself.\"  And he prays\nthus to the Holy Spirit a prayer which is to my mind as noble as it is\ntrue--\"O Holy Spirit, by whom God inspires, and holds together, and\npreserves all things, and leads them to perfection.\"  I quote such words\nto shew you that I am not giving you new fancies of my own: but simply\nwhat I believe to be the ancient, orthodox and honest meaning of that\nsame Nicene Creed, which you just new heard; where it says that the Holy\nSpirit is the Lord and Giver of life; and the meaning of the 104th Psalm\nalso, where it says--\"Thou lettest Thy breath--Thy Spirit--go forth, and\nthey shall be made, and Thou shall renew the face of the earth.\"\n\nAnd now--if anyone shall say--This may be all very true.  But what is it\nto me?  You are talking about nature; about animals and plants, and lands\nand seas.  What I come to church to hear of, is about my own soul--\n\nI should answer such a man--My good friend, you come to church to hear\nabout God as well as about what you call your soul.  And any sound\nknowledge which you can learn about God, must be--believe me--of use to\nyour immortal soul.  For if you have wrong notions concerning God: how\ncan you avoid having wrong notions concerning your soul, which lives and\nmoves and has its being in God?\n\nBut look at it thus.  At least I have been speaking of the works of God.\nAnd are not you, too, a work of God?  The Lord shall rejoice in His\nworks, even to the tiniest gnat that dances in the sun.  Is the Lord\nrejoicing in you?  I have said--Whither shall a man go from God's\npresence?  Are you forgetting or remembering God's presence?  And--Whither\nshall a man flee from God's Spirit?  Are you, O man, fleeing from God's\nSpirit, and forgetting His gracious inspirations; all pure and holy, and\nnoble, and just and lovely and truly human, thoughts, in the whirl of\npleasure, or covetousness, or ambition, or actual sin?  If so, look at\nthe tiniest gnat which dances in the air, the meanest flower beneath your\nfeet; and be ashamed, and fear, and tremble before the Living God, and\nbefore His Spirit.  For the gnat and the flower are doing their duty, and\npleasing the Holy Spirit of God; and you are not doing your duty, and are\ngrieving the Holy Spirit of God.  For simply: because that Spirit is the\nSpirit of God, He is a Holy Spirit, who tries to make you--O man and not\nanimal--holy; a moral, and spiritual, and good being.  Because you are a\nmoral and spiritual being, God's Spirit exercises over you a moral power\nwhich He does not exercise over the plants and animals.  He works not\nmerely on your body and your brain: but on your heart and immortal soul.\nBut if you choose to be immoral, when He is trying to keep you moral; if\nyou choose to be carnal like the brutes, while He is trying to make you\nspiritual, like Jesus Christ, from whom He proceeds: then, oh then,\ntremble, and beware, and be ashamed before the very flowers which grow in\nyour own garden-bed; for they fulfil the law which God has given them.\nThey are what they ought to be, each after its kind.  But you are not\nwhat you ought to be, after your kind; which is a good man, or a good\nwoman, or a good child.\n\nOh beware lest the Lord should fulfil in you the awful words of this\nPsalm; lest He should hide His face from you, and you be troubled; and\nlest when He takes away your breath you should die, and turn again to\nyour dust; and find, too late, that the wages of sin are death--death not\nmerely of the body, but of the soul.  Rather repent, and amend, and\nremember that most blessed, and yet most awful fact--that God's Spirit is\nwith you from your baptism until now, putting into your heart good\ndesires, and ready to enable you--if you will--to bring those good\ndesires to good effect: instead of leaving them only as good intentions,\nwith which, says the too true proverb, hell is paved.\n\nSo will be fulfilled in you the blessed words of the next verse--When\nThou lettest Thy Spirit go forth, they shall be made; and Thou shalt\nrenew the face of the earth--words which St Augustine of old applied to\nthe work of God's Spirit on the souls of men.\n\nFor well it is with us--as St Augustine says--when God takes away from us\nour own spirit, the spirit of pride and self-will and self-righteousness;\nand we see that we are but dust and ashes; worse than the animals, in\nthat we have sinned, and they have not.  Confess--he says--thy weakness\nand thy dust: and then listen to what follows:--Thou shalt take away from\nthem their own spirit; but Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit on them, and\nthey shall be made and created anew.  As the Apostle says, \"We are God's\nown workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.\"  And so--he\nsays--God will indeed renew the face of the earth with converted and\nrenewed men, who confess that they are not righteous in themselves, but\nmade righteous by the grace of the Spirit of God; and so the Lord shall\nrejoice in His works; you will be indeed His work, and He will rejoice in\nyou.\n\nYes.  God will indeed rejoice in us, if we obey the godly inspirations of\nHis Spirit.  But again, we shall rejoice in God; if we be but led by His\nSpirit into all truth, and thence into all righteousness.  Then we shall\nbe in harmony with God, and with the whole universe of God.  We shall\nhave our share in that perpetual worship which is celebrated throughout\nthe universe by all creatures, rational and irrational, who are obeying\nthe laws of their being; the laws of the Spirit of God, the Lord and\nGiver of life.  We shall take our part in that perpetual Hymn which calls\non all the works of the Lord, from angels and powers, sun and stars,\nwinds and seasons, seas and floods, trees and flowers, beasts and cattle,\nto the children of men, and the servants of the Lord, and the spirits and\nsouls of the righteous, and the holy and humble men of heart--\"O all ye\nworks of the Lord, bless ye the Lord, praise Him and magnify Him for\never.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XVIII.  DEATH.\n\n\nPSALM CIV. 20, 21.\n\n   Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the\n   forest do creep forth.  The lions roar after their prey, and seek\n   their meat from God.\n\nLet me say a few words on this text.  It is one which has been a comfort\nto me again and again.  It is one which, if rightly understood, ought to\ngive comfort to pitiful and tender-hearted persons.\n\nHave you never been touched by, never been even shocked by, the mystery\nof pain and death?  I do not speak now of pain and death among human\nbeings: but only of that pain and death among the dumb and irrational\ncreatures, which from one point of view is more pitiful than pain and\ndeath among human beings.\n\nFor pain, suffering, and death, we know, may be of use to human beings.\nIt may make them happier and better in this life, or in the life to come;\nif they are the Christians which they ought to be.  But of what use can\nsuffering and death be to dumb animals?  How can it make them better in\nthis life, and happier in the life to come?  It seems, in the case of\nanimals, to be only so much superfluous misery thrown away.  Would to God\nthat people would remember that, when they unnecessarily torment dumb\ncreatures, and then excuse themselves by saying--Oh, they are not human\nbeings; they are not Christians; and therefore it does not matter so\nmuch.  I should have thought that therefore it mattered all the more: and\nthat just because dumb animals have, as far as we know, only this mortal\nlife, therefore we should allow them the fuller enjoyment of their brief\nmortality.\n\nAnd yet, how much suffering, how much violent death, there is among\nanimals.  How much?  The world is full of it, and has been full of it for\nages.  I dare to say, that of the millions on millions of living\ncreatures in the earth, the air, the sea, full one-half live by eating\neach other.  In the sea, indeed, almost every kind of creature feeds on\nsome other creature: and what an amount of pain, of terror, of violent\ndeath that means, or seems to mean!\n\nWe here, in a cultivated country, are slow to take in this thought.  We\nhave not here, as in India, Africa, America, lion and tiger, bear and\nwolf, jaguar and puma, perpetually prowling round the farms, and taking\ntheir tithe of our sheep and cattle.  We have never heard, as the\nPsalmist had, the roar of the lion round the village at night, or seen\nall the animals, down to the very dogs, crowding together in terror,\nknowing but too well what that roar meant.  If we had; and had been like\nthe Psalmist, thoughtful men: then it would have been a very solemn\nquestion to us--From whom the lion was asking for his nightly meal;\nwhether from God, or from some devil as cruel as himself?\n\nBut even here the same slaughter of animals by animals goes on.  The hawk\nfeeds on the small birds, the small birds on the insects, the insects,\nmany of them, on each other.  Even our most delicate and seemingly\nharmless songsters, like the nightingale, feed entirely on living\ncreatures--each one of which, however small, has cost God as much\npains--if I may so speak in all reverence--to make as the nightingale\nitself; and thus, from the top to the bottom of creation, is one chain of\ndestruction, and pain, and death.\n\nWhat is the meaning of it all?  Ought it to be so, or ought it not?  Is\nit God's will and law, or is it not?  That is a solemn question; and one\nwhich has tried many a thoughtful, and tender, and virtuous soul ere now,\nboth Christian and heathen; and has driven them to find strange answers\nto it, which have been, often enough, not according to Scripture, or to\nthe Catholic Faith.\n\nSome used to say, in old times; and they may say again--This world, so\nfull of pain and death, is a very ill-made world.  We will not believe\nthat it was made by the good God.  It must have been made by some evil\nbeing, or at least by some stupid and clumsy being--the Demiurgus, they\ncalled him--or the world-maker--some inferior God, whom the good God\nwould conquer and depose, and so do away with pain, and misery, and\ndeath.  A pardonable mistake: but, as we are bound to believe, a mistake\nnevertheless.\n\nOthers, again, good Christians and good men likewise, have invented\nanother answer to the mystery--like that which Milton gives in his\n'Paradise Lost.'  They have said--Before Adam fell there was no pain or\ndeath in the world.  It was only after Adam's fall that the animals began\nto destroy and devour each other.  Ever since then there has been a curse\non the earth, and this is one of the fruits thereof.\n\nNow I say distinctly, as I have said elsewhere, that we are not bound to\nbelieve this or anything like it.  The book of Genesis does not say that\nthe animals began to devour each other at Adam's fall.  It does not even\nsay that the ground is cursed for man's sake now, much less the animals.\nFor we read in Genesis ix. 21--\"And the Lord said, I will not any more\ncurse the ground for man's sake.\"  Neither do the Psalmists and Prophets\ngive the least hint of any such doctrine.  Surely, if we found it\nanywhere, we should find it in this very 104th Psalm, and somewhere near\nthe very verse which I have taken for my text.  But this Psalm gives no\nhint of it.  So far from saying that God has cursed His own works, or\nlooks on them as cursed: it says--\"The Lord shall rejoice in His works.\"\n\nOthers will tell us that St Paul has said so, where he says that \"by one\nman sin entered into the world, and death by sin.\"  But I must very\nhumbly, but very firmly, demur to that.  St Paul shews that when he\nspeaks of the world he means the world of men; for he goes on to say,\n\"And so death passed upon all men, in that all have sinned.\"  By\nmentioning men, he excludes the animals; he excludes all who have not\nsinned: according to a sound rule of logic which lawyers know well.  What\nSt Paul meant, I believe, is most probably this: that Adam, by sinning,\nlost his heavenly birthright; and put on the carnal and fleshly likeness\nof the animals, instead of the likeness of God in which he was created;\nand therefore, sowing to the flesh, of the flesh reaped corruption; and\nbecame subject to death even as the dumb beasts are.\n\nBe that as it may, we know--as certainly as we can know anything from the\nuse of our own eyes and common sense--that long ages before Adam, long\nages before men existed on this earth, the animals destroyed and ate each\nother, even as they are doing now.  We know that ages ago, in old worlds,\nlong before this present world in which we live, the seas swarmed with\nsharks and other monsters, who not only died as animals do now, but who\ndid devour--for there is actual proof of it--other living creatures; and\nthat the same process went on on the land likewise.  The rocks and soils,\nfor miles beneath our feet, are one vast graveyard, full of the skeletons\nof creatures, almost all unlike any living now, who, long before the days\nof Adam, and still more before the days of Noah, lived and died,\ngeneration after generation; and sought their meat--from whom--if not\nfrom God?\n\nYes, that last is the answer--the only answer which can give a thoughtful\nand tender-hearted soul comfort, at the sight of so much pain and death\non earth--In every unknown question, to take refuge in God.  And that is\nthe answer which the inspired Psalmist gives, in the 104th Psalm--\"The\nlions roaring after their prey do seek their meat from God.\"  And if they\nseek it from God, all must be right: we know not how; but He who made\nthem knows.\n\nConsider, with respect and admiration, the manful, cheerful view of pain\nand death, and indeed of the whole creation, which the Psalmist has,\nbecause he has faith.  There is in him no sentimentalism, no complaining\nof God, no impious, or at least weak and peevish, cry of \"Why hast Thou\nmade things thus?\"  He sees the mystery of pain and death.  He does not\nattempt to explain it: but he faces it; faces it cheerfully and manfully,\nin the strength of his faith, saying--This too, mysterious, painful,\nterrible as it may seem, is as it should be; for it is of the law and\nwill of God, from whom come all good things; of The God in whom is light,\nand in Him is no darkness at all.  Therefore to the Psalmist the earth is\na noble sight; filled, to his eyes, with the fruit of God's works.  And\nso is the great and wide sea likewise.  He looks upon it; \"full of things\ncreeping innumerable, both small and great beasts,\" for ever dying, for\never devouring each other.  And yet it does not seem to him a dreadful\nand a shocking place.  What impresses his mind is just what would impress\nthe mind of a modern poet, a modern man of science; namely, the wonderful\nvariety, richness, and strangeness of its living things.  Their natures\nand their names he knows not.  It was not given to his race to know.  It\nis enough for him that known unto God are all His works from the\nfoundation of the world.  But one thing more important than their natures\nand their names he does know; for he perceives it with the instinct of a\ntrue poet and a true philosopher--\"These all wait upon thee, O God, that\nThou mayest give them meat in due season.\"\n\nBut more.--\"There go the ships;\" things specially wonderful and\nsignificant to him, the landsman of the Judaean hills, as they were\nafterward to Muhammed, the landsman of the Arabian deserts.  And he has\ntalked with sailors from those ships; from Tarshish and the far Atlantic,\nor from Ezion-geber and the Indian seas.  And he has heard from them of\nmightier monsters than his own Mediterranean breeds; of the Leviathan,\nthe whale, larger than the largest ship which he has ever seen, rolling\nand spouting among the ocean billows, far out of sight of land, and\nswallowing, at every gape of its huge jaws, hundreds of living creatures\nfor its food.  But he does not talk of it as a cruel and devouring\nmonster, formed by a cruel and destroying deity, such as the old\nCanaanites imagined, when--so the legend ran--they offered up Andromeda\nto the sea-monster, upon that very rock at Joppa, which the Psalmist,\ndoubtless, knew full well.  No.  This psalm is an inspired philosopher's\nrebuke to that very superstition; it is the justification of the noble\nold Greek tale, which delivers Andromeda by the help of a hero, taught by\nthe Gods who love to teach Mankind.\n\nFor what strikes the Psalmist is, again, exactly what would strike a\nmodern poet, or a modern man of science: the strength and ease of the\nvast beast; its enjoyment of its own life and power.  It is to him the\nLeviathan, whom \"God has made to play in the sea;\" \"to take his pastime\ntherein.\"\n\nTruly this was a healthy-minded man; as all will be, and only they, who\nhave full faith in the one good God, of whom are all things, both in\nearth and heaven.\n\nThen he goes further still.  He has looked into the face of life\ninnumerable.  Now he looks into the face of innumerable death; and sees\nthere too the Spirit and the work of God.\n\n   Thou givest to them; they gather:\n   Thou openest thy hand; they are filled with good:\n   Thou hidest thy face; they are troubled:\n   Thou takest away their breath; they die, and are turned again to their\n   dust.\n\nPoetry?  Yes: but, like all highest poetry, highest philosophy; and\nsoundest truth likewise.  Nay, he goes further still--further, it may be,\nthan most of us would dare to go, had he not gone before us in the\ncourage of his faith.  He dares to say, of such a world as this--\"The\nglory of the Lord shall endure for ever.  The Lord shall rejoice in His\nworks.\"\n\nThe glory of the Lord, then, is shewn forth, and endures for ever, in\nthese animals of whom the Psalmist has been speaking, though they devour\neach other day and night.  The Lord rejoices in His works, even though\nHis works live by each other's death.  The Lord shall rejoice in His\nworks--says this great poet and philosopher.\n\nBut what Lord, and what God?  Ah, my friends, all depends on the answer\nto that question.  \"There be,\" says St Paul, \"lords many, and gods many:\"\nand since his time, men have made fresh lords and gods for themselves,\nand believed in them, and worshipped them, while they fancied that they\nwere believing in the one true God, in the same God in whom the man\nbelieved who wrote the 104th Psalm.\n\nDo we truly believe in that one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit?\n\nLet me beg you to consider that question earnestly.  The Psalmist, when\nhe talked of the Lord, did not mean merely what some people call the\nDeity, or the Supreme Being, or the Creator.  You will remark that I\nsaid--What.  I do not care to say, Whom, of such a notion; that is, of a\nGod who made the world, and set it going once for all, but has never\nmeddled with it; never, so to speak, looked at it since: so that the\nworld would go on just the same, and just as well, if God thenceforth had\nceased to be.  No: that is a dead God; an absentee God--as one said\nbitterly once.  But the Psalmist believed in the living God, and a\npresent God, in whom we live and move and have our being; in a God who\ndoes not leave the world alone for a moment, nor in the smallest matter,\nbut is always interested in it, attending to it, enforcing His own laws,\nworking--if I may so speak in all reverence--and using the most pitifully\ninsufficient analogy--working--I say--His own machinery; making all\nthings work together for good, at least to those who love God; a God\nwithout whom not a sparrow falls to the ground, and in whose sight all\nthe hairs of our heads are numbered.\n\nIn one word, he believed in a living God.  If anyone had said to the\nPsalmist, as I have heard men say now-a-days--Of course we believe, with\nyou, in a general Providence of God over the whole universe.  But you do\nnot surely believe in special Providences?  That would be superstition.\nGod governs the world by law, and not by special Providences.  Then I\nbelieve that the Psalmist would have answered--Laws?  I believe in them\nas much as you, and perhaps more than you.  But as for special\nProvidences, I believe in them so much, that I believe that the whole\nuniverse, and all that has ever happened in it from the beginning, has\nhappened by special Providences; that not an organic being has assumed\nits present form, after long ages and generations, save by a continuous\nseries of special Providences; that not a weed grows in a particular\nspot, without a special Providence of God that it should grow there, and\nnowhere else; then, and nowhen else.  I believe that every step I take,\nevery person I meet, every thought which comes into my mind--which is not\nsinful--comes and happens by the perpetual special Providence of God,\nwatching for ever with Fatherly care over me, and each separate thing\nthat He has made.\n\nAnd if a modern philosopher--or one so called--had said to him,--'This is\nunthinkable and inconceivable, and therefore cannot be.  I cannot \"think\nof\"--I cannot conceive a mind--or as I call it--\"a series of states of\nconsciousness,\" as antecedent to the infinity of processes simultaneously\ngoing on in all the plants that cover the globe, from scattered polar\nlichens to crowded tropical palms, and in all the millions of animals\nwhich roam among them, and the millions of millions of insects which buzz\namong them:'--Then the Psalmist would have answered him, I believe,--'If\nyou cannot, my friend, I can.  And you must not make your power of\nthought and conception the measure of the universe, or even of other\nmen's intellects; or say--\"Because I cannot conceive a thing, therefore\nno man can conceive it, and therefore it does not exist.\"  But pray, O\nphilosopher, if you cannot think and conceive of the omnipresence and\nomnipotence of God, what can you think and conceive?'\n\nThen if that philosopher had answered him--as some would now-a-days--'I\ncan conceive that the properties of very different elements,--and\ntherefore the infinite variety and richness of nature which I cannot\nconceive as caused by a God--that the properties--I say--of different\nelements result from differences of arrangement arising by the\ncompounding and recompounding of ultimate homogeneous units'--Then, I\nthink, the Psalmist would have replied, as soon as he had--like Socrates\nof old in a like case--recovered from the 'dizziness' caused by an\neloquence so unlike his own--'Why, this proposition is far more\n\"unthinkable\" to me, and will be to 999 of 1000 of the human race, than\nmine about a God and a Providence.  Alas! for the vagaries of the mind of\nman.  When it wants to prove a pet theory of its own, it will strain at\nany gnat, and swallow any camel.'\n\nBut again--if a philosopher of more reasonable mood had said to him--as\nhe very likely would say--'This is a grand conception of God: but what\nproof have you of it?  How do you know that God does interfere, by\nspecial Providences, in the world around us; not only, as you say,\nperpetually: but even now and then, and at all?'\n\nThen the Psalmist, like all true Jews, would have gone back to a certain\nold story which is to me the most precious story, save one, that ever was\nwritten on earth; and have taken his stand on that.  He would have gone\nback--as the Scripture always goes back--to the story of Moses and the\nIsraelites in Egypt, and have said--'Whatever I know or do not know about\nthe Laws of nature, this I know--That God can use them as He chooses, to\npunish the wicked, and to help the miserable.  For He did so by my\nforefathers.  When we Jews were a poor, small, despised tribe of slaves\nin Egypt, The God who made heaven and earth shewed Himself at once the\nGod of nature, and the God of grace.  For He took the powers of nature;\nand fought with them against proud Pharaoh and all his hosts; and shewed\nthat they belonged to Him; and that He could handle them all to do His\nwork.  He shewed that He was Lord, not only of the powers of nature which\ngive life and health, but of those which give death and disease.  Nothing\nwas too grand, nor too mean, for Him to use.  He took the lightning and\nthe hail, and the pestilence, and the darkness, and the East wind, and\nthe springtides of the Red sea; and He took also the locust-swarms, and\nthe frogs, and the lice, and the loathsome skin-diseases of Egypt, and\nthe microscopic atomies which turn whole rivers into blood, and kill the\nfish; and with them He fought against Pharaoh the man-God, the tyrant\nruling at his own will in the name of his father the sun-God and of the\npowers of nature; till Egypt was destroyed, and Pharaoh's host drowned in\nthe sea; And He brought out my forefathers with a mighty hand and an\noutstretched arm, because He had heard their cry in Egypt, and saw their\noppression under cruel taskmasters, and pitied them, and had mercy on\nthem in their slavery and degradation.'  That is my God--the old Psalmist\nwould have said.  Not merely a strong God, or a wise God; but a good God,\nand a gracious God, and a just God likewise; a God who not only made\nheaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is, but who keepeth His\npromise for ever; who helpeth them to right who suffer wrong, and feedeth\nthe hungry.\n\nYes, my friends, it is this magnificent conception of God's living and\nactual goodness and justice, which the Psalmist had, which made him trust\nGod about all the strange and painful things which he saw in the\nworld--about, for instance, the suffering and death of animals; and\nsay--'If the lion roaring after his prey seeks his meat, he seeks his\nmeat from God: and therefore he ought to seek it, and he will find it.  It\nis all well: I know not why: but well it is, for it is the law and will\nof the good and righteous and gracious God, who brought His people out of\nthe land of Egypt.  And that is enough for me.'\n\nEnough for him? and should it not be enough for us, and more than\nenough?--We know what the Psalmist knew not.  We know God to be more\ngood, more righteous, more gracious than any Prophet or Psalmist could\nknow.  We know that God so loved the world, that He spared not His only-\nbegotten Son, but freely gave Him for us.  We know that the only-begotten\nSon Jesus Christ so loved the world that He stooped to be born and suffer\nas mortal man, and to die on the cross, even while He was telling men\nthat not a sparrow fell to the ground without the knowledge of their\nheavenly Father, and bidding them see how God fed the birds and clothed\nthe lilies of the field.  Ah, my friends, in this case, as in all cases,\nrest and comfort for our doubts and fears is to be found in one and the\nsame place--at the foot of the Cross of Christ.  If we believe that He\nwho hung upon that Cross is--as He is--the maker and ruler of the\nuniverse, the same from day to day and for ever: then we can trust Him in\ndarkness as well as in light; in doubt as well as in certainty; in the\nface of pain, disease, and death, as well as in the face of joy, health,\nand life; and say--Lord, we know not, but Thou knowest.  Lord, we\nbelieve, help Thou our unbelief.  Make us sure that Thou, Lord, shalt\nsave both man and beast.  For great are Thy mercies, O Lord; and the\nchildren of men shall put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings.\n\nYes, my friends, this is, after all, a strange world, a solemn world, a\nworld full of sad mysteries, past our understanding.  As was said once by\nthe holiest of modern Englishmen, now gone home to his rest--whose bust\nstands worthily in yonder chapel--This is a world in which men must be\nsometimes sad who love God, and care for their fellow-men.\n\nBut it is not over the dumb animals that we must mourn.  For they fulfil\nthe laws of their being; and whatever meat they seek, they seek their\nmeat from God.\n\nRather must we mourn over those human beings who, being made in the\nlikeness of God, and redeemed again into that likeness by our Lord Jesus\nChrist, and baptized into that likeness by the Holy Spirit, put on again\nof their own will the likeness of the beasts which perish; and find too\noften, alas! too late, that the wages of sin are death.\n\nRather must we mourn for those human beings who do not fulfil the laws of\ntheir being: but break those laws by sin; till they are ground by them to\npowder.\n\nRather must we mourn for those who seek their meat, not from God, but\nfrom the world and the flesh; and neglect the bread which cometh down\nfrom heaven, and the meat which endureth to eternal life, whereof the\nLord who gives it said--Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His\nrighteousness, and all other things shall be added unto you.\n\nRather must we pray for ourselves, and for all we love, that God's Spirit\nof eternal life would raise us up, more and more day by day, out of the\nlikeness of the old Adam, who was of the earth, earthy; of whom it is\nwritten that--like the animals--dust he was, and unto dust he must\nreturn; and would mould us into the likeness of the new Adam, who is the\nLord from heaven, into the likeness of which it is written, that it is\ncreated after God's image, in righteousness and true holiness; the end of\nwhich is not death, but everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord.\n\nAnd so will be fulfilled in us the saying of the Psalmist; and the Lord\nshall rejoice in His works: for we too, not only body and soul, but\nspirit also, shall be the work of God; and God will rejoice in us, and we\nin God.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XIX.  SIGNS AND WONDERS.\n\n\nJOHN IV. 48-50.\n\n   Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not\n   believe.  The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child\n   die.  Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth.\n\nThese words of our Lord are found in the Gospel for this day.  They are a\nrebuke, though a gentle one.  He reproved the nobleman, seemingly, for\nhis want of faith: but He worked the miracle, and saved the life of the\nchild.\n\nWe do not know enough of the circumstances of this case, to know exactly\nwhy our Lord reproved the nobleman; and what want of faith He saw in him.\nSome think that the man's fault was his mean notion of our Lord's power;\nhis wish that He should come down the hills to Capernaum, and see the boy\nHimself, in order to cure him; whereas he ought to have known that our\nLord could cure him--as He did--at a distance, and by a mere wish, which\nwas no less than a command to nature, and to that universe which He had\nmade.\n\nI cannot tell how this may be: but of one thing I think we may be\nsure--That this saying of our Lord's is very deep, and very wide; and\napplies to many people, in many times--perhaps to us in these modern\ntimes.\n\nWe must recollect one thing--That our Lord did not put forward the mere\npower of His miracles as the chief sign of His being the Son of God.  Not\nso: He declared His almighty power most chiefly by shewing mercy and\npity.  Twice He refused to give the Scribes and Pharisees a sign from\nheaven.  \"An evil and adulterous generation,\" He said, \"seeketh after a\nsign: but there shall be no sign given them, but the sign of the prophet\nJonas.\"  And what was that,--but a warning to repent, and mend their\nways, ere it was too late?\n\nNow the slightest use of our common sense must tell us, that our Lord\ncould have given a sign of His almighty power if He had chosen; and such\na sign as no man, even the dullest, could have mistaken.  What prodigy\ncould He not have performed, before Scribes and Pharisees, Herod, and\nPontius Pilate?  \"Thinkest thou,\" He said Himself, \"that I cannot now\npray to My Father, and He will send Me presently more than twelve legions\nof angels?\"  Yet how did our Lord use that miraculous and almighty power\nof His?  Sparingly, and secretly.  Sparingly; for He used it almost\nentirely in curing the diseases of poor people; and secretly; for He used\nit almost entirely in remote places.  Jerusalem itself, recollect, was at\nbest a remote city compared with any of the great cities of the Roman\nempire.  And even there He refused to cast Himself down from a pinnacle\nof the temple, for a sign and wonder to the Jews.  If He, the Lord of the\nworld, had meant to convert the world by prodigious miracles, He would\nsurely have gone to Rome itself, the very heart and centre of the\ncivilized world, and have shewn such signs and wonders therein, as would\nhave made the Caesar himself come down from his throne, and worship Him,\nthe Lord of all.\n\nBut no.  Our Lord wished for the obedience, not of men's lips, but of\ntheir hearts.  It was their hearts which He wished to win, that they\nmight love Him--and be loyal to Him--for the sake of His goodness; and\nnot fear and tremble before Him for the sake of His power.  And therefore\nHe kept, so to speak, His power in the background, and put His goodness\nforemost; only shewing His power in miracles of healing and mercy; that\nso poor neglected, oppressed, hardworked souls might understand that\nwhoever did not care for them, Christ their Lord did; and that their\ndisease and misery were not His will; nor the will of His Father and\ntheir Father in heaven.\n\nBut because, also, Christ was Lord of heaven and earth; therefore--if I\nmay make so bold as to guess at the reason for anything which He did--He\nseems to have interfered as little as possible with those regular rules\nand customs of this world about us, which we now call the Laws of Nature.\nHe did not offer--as the magicians of His time did offer--and as too many\nhave pretended since to do--to change the courses of the elements, to\nbring down tempests or thunderbolts, to shew prodigies in the heaven\nabove, and in the earth beneath.  Why should He?  Heaven and earth, moon\nand stars, fire and tempest, and all the physical forces in the universe,\nwere fulfilling His will already; doing their work right well according\nto the law which He had given them from the beginning.  He had no need to\ndisturb them, no need to disturb the growth of a single flower at His\nfeet.\n\nRather He loved to tell men to look at them, and see how they went well,\nbecause His Father in heaven cared for them.  To tell people to look, not\nat prodigies, comets, earthquakes, and the seeming exceptions of God's\nrule: but at the common, regular, simple, peaceful work of God, which is\ngoing on around us all day long in every blade of grass, and flower, and\nsinging bird, and sunbeam, and shower.  To consider the lilies of the\nfield how they grow: which toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say\nunto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of\nthese.--And the birds of the air: They sow not, neither reap, nor gather\ninto barns; and yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.  How much more\nwill He feed you, who can sow, and reap, and gather into barns?--O ye of\nlittle faith, who fancy always that besides sowing and reaping honestly,\nyou must covet, and cheat, and lie, and break God's laws instead of\nobeying them; or else, forsooth, you cannot earn your living?  To see\nthat the signs of God's Kingdom are not astonishing convulsions, terrible\ncatastrophes and disorders: but order, and peace, and usefulness, in\ncreatures which are happy, because they live according to the law which\nGod has given them, and do their duty--that duty, of which the great poet\nof the English Church has sung--\n\n         Stern Lawgiver!  Thou yet dost wear\n            The Godhead's most benignant grace\n         Nor know we anything so fair\n            As is the smile upon thy face.\n         Flowers laugh before thee on their beds,\n         And fragrance in thy footing treads;\n      Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong,\n   And the most ancient heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong.\n\nBut men would not believe that in our Lord's time; neither would they\nbelieve it after His time.  Will they believe it even now?  They craved\nafter signs and wonders; they saw God's hand, not in the common sights of\nthis beautiful world; not in seed-time and harvest, summer and winter;\nnot in the blossoming of flowers, and the song of birds: but only in\nstrange portents, absurd and lying miracles, which they pretended had\nhappened, because they fancied that they ought to have happened: and so\nbuilt up a whole literature of _un_reason, which remains to this day, a\ndoleful monument of human folly and superstition.\n\nBut is not this too true of some at least of us in this very day?  Must\nnot people now see signs and wonders before they believe in God?\n\nDo they not consider whatever is strange and inexplicable, as coming\nimmediately from God?  While whatever they are accustomed to, or fancy\nthat they can explain, they consider comes in what they call the course\nof nature, without God's having anything to do with it?\n\nIf a man drops down dead, they say he died \"by the hand of God,\" or \"by\nthe visitation of God:\" as if any created thing or being could die, or\nlive either, save by the will and presence of God: as if a sparrow could\nfall to the ground without our Father's knowledge.  But so it is; because\nmen's hearts are far from God.\n\nIf an earthquake swallowed up half London this very day, how many would\nbe ready to cry, \"Here is a visitation of God.  Here is the immediate\nhand of God.  Perhaps Christ is coming, and the end of the world at\nhand.\"  And yet they will not see the true visitation, the immediate hand\nof God, in every drop of rain which comes down from heaven; and returneth\nnot again void, but gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater.  But\nso it always has been.  Men used to see God and His power and glory\nalmost exclusively in comets, auroras, earthquakes.  It was not so very\nlong ago, that the birth of monstrous or misshapen animals, and all other\nprodigies, as they were called, were carefully noted down, and talked of\nfar and wide, as signs of God's anger, presages of some coming\ncalamity.--Atheists while they are in safety, superstitious when they are\nin danger--Requiring signs and wonders to make them believe--Interested\nonly in what is uncommon and seems to break God's laws--Careless about\nwhat is common, and far more wonderful, because it fulfils God's\nlaws--Such have most men been for ages, and will be, perhaps, to the end;\nshewing themselves, in that respect, carnal and no wiser than dumb\nanimals.\n\nFor it is carnal, animal and brutish, and a sign of want of true\ncivilization, as well as of true faith, only to be interested and\nsurprised by what is strange; like dumb beasts, who, if they see anything\nnew, are attracted by it and frightened by it, at the same time: but who,\nwhen once they are accustomed to it, and have found out that it will do\nthem no harm, are too stupid to feel any curiosity or interest about it,\nthough it were the most beautiful or the most wonderful object on earth.\n\nBut I will tell you of a man after God's own heart, who was not like the\ndumb animals, nor like the ungodly and superstitious; because he was\ntaught by the Spirit of God, and spoke by the Spirit of God.  One who saw\nno signs and wonders, and yet believed in God--namely, the man who wrote\nthe 139th Psalm.  He needed no prodigies to make him believe.  The\nthought of his own body, how fearfully and wonderfully it was made, was\nenough to make him do that.  He looked on the perfect order and law which\nruled over the development of his own organization, and said--\"I will\npraise Thee.  For I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Marvellous are\nThy works, and that my soul knoweth right well.  Thine eyes did see my\nsubstance, yet being imperfect; and in Thy Book were all my members\nwritten, which day by day were fashioned, when as yet there was none of\nthem.  How dear are Thy counsels unto me, O God! how great is the sum of\nthem!\"\n\nAnd I will tell you of another man who needed no signs and wonders to\nmake him believe--the man, namely, who wrote the 19th Psalm.  He looked\nupon the perfect order and law of the heavens over his head, and the mere\nsight of the sun and moon and stars was enough for him; and he said--\"The\nheavens declare the glory of God, the firmament sheweth His handy-work.\nOne day telleth another, and one night certifieth another.  There is\nneither speech nor language, where their voice is not heard among them.\"\n\nAnd I will tell you of yet another man who needed no signs and wonders to\nmake him believe--namely, the man who wrote the 104th Psalm.  He looked\non the perfect order and law of the world about his feet; and said,--\"O\nLord, how manifold are Thy works.  In wisdom hast Thou made them all: the\nearth is full of Thy riches.  So is the great and wide sea also, wherein\nare things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.  These all\nwait upon Thee, that Thou mayest give them their meat in due season.  Thou\ngivest to them; they gather.  Thou openest Thy hand; they are filled with\ngood.  Thou hidest Thy face; they are troubled.  Thou takest away their\nbreath, they die, and return to their dust.  Thou sendest forth Thy\nbreath, they are created; and Thou renewest the face of the earth.  The\nglory of the Lord shall endure for ever.  The Lord shall rejoice in His\nworks.\"\n\nMy friends, let us all pray to God and to Christ, that They will put into\nour hearts the Spirit by which those psalms were written: that They will\ntake from us the evil heart of unbelief, which must needs have signs and\nwonders, and forgets that in God we live and move and have our being.  For\nare we not all--even the very best of us--apt to tempt our Lord in this\nvery matter?\n\nWhen all things go on in a common-place way with us--that is, in this\nwell-made world, comfortably, easily, prosperously--how apt we all\nare--God forgive us--to forget God.  How we forget that on Him we depend\nfor every breath we draw; that Christ is guarding us daily from a hundred\ndangers, a hundred sorrows, it may be from a hundred disgraces, of which\nwe, in our own self-satisfied blindness, never dream.  How dull our\nprayers become, and how short.  We almost think, at times, that there is\nno use in praying, for we get all we want without asking for it, in what\nwe choose to call the course of circumstances and nature.--God forgive\nus, indeed.\n\nBut when sorrow comes, anxiety, danger, how changed we are all of a\nsudden.  How gracious we are when pangs come upon us--like the wicked\nqueen-mother in Jerusalem of old, when the invaders drove her out of her\ncedar palace.  How we cry to the Lord then, and get us to our God right\nhumbly.  Then, indeed, we feel the need of prayer.  Then we try to\nwrestle with God, and cry to Him--and what else can we do?--like children\nlost in the dark; entreat Him, if there be mercy in Him--as there is, in\nspite of all our folly--to grant some special providence, to give us some\nanswer to our bitter entreaties.  If He will but do for us this one\nthing, then we will believe indeed.  Then we will trust Him, obey Him,\nserve Him, as we never did before.\n\nAh, if there were in Christ any touch of pride or malice!  Ah, if there\nwere in Christ aught but a magnanimity and a generosity altogether\nboundless!  Ah, if He were to deal with us as we have dealt with Him!  Ah,\nif He were to deal with us after our sins, and reward us according to our\niniquities!\n\nIf He refused to hear us; if He said to us,--You forgot me in your\nprosperity, why should I not forget you in your adversity?--What could we\nanswer?  Would that answer not be just?  Would it not be deserved,\nhowever terrible?  But our hope and trust is, that He will not answer us\nso; because He is not our God only, but our Saviour; that He will deal\nwith us as one who seeks and saves that which is lost, whether it knows\nthat it is lost or not.\n\nOur hope is, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy; that\nbecause He is man, as well as God, He can be touched with the feeling of\nour infirmities; that He knoweth our frame, He remembereth of what we are\nmade: else the spirit would fail before Him, and the souls which He has\nmade.  So we can have hope, that, though Christ rebuke us, He will yet\nhear us, if our prayers are reasonable, and therefore according to His\nwill.  And surely, surely, surely, if our prayers are for the improvement\nof any human being; if we are praying that we, or any human being, may be\nmade better men and truer Christians at last, and saved from the\ntemptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil--oh then, then shall\nwe not be heard?  The Lord may keep us long waiting, as He kept St Monica\nof old, when she wept over St Augustine's youthful sins and follies.  But\nHe may answer us, as He answered her by the good bishop--\"Be of good\ncheer.  It is impossible that the son of so many prayers should perish.\"\nAnd so, though He may shame us, in our inmost heart, by the\nrebuke--\"Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe\"--He will\nin the same breath grant our prayer, undeserved though His condescension\nbe, and say--\"Go in peace, thy son liveth.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XX.  THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD.\n\n\nLUKE XIII. 1-5.\n\n   There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans,\n   whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.  And Jesus\n   answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were\n   sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?  I\n   tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.  Or\n   those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them,\n   think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?\n   I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.\n\nThis story is often used, it seems to me, for a purpose exactly opposite\nto that for which it is told.  It is said that because these Galilaeans,\nwhom Pilate slew, and these eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell,\nwere no worse than the people round them, that therefore similar\ncalamities must not be considered judgments and punishments of God; that\nit is an offence against Christian charity to say that such sufferers are\nthe objects of God's anger; that it is an offence against good manners to\nintroduce the name of God, or the theory of a Divine Providence, in\nspeaking of historical events.  They must be ascribed to certain brute\nforces of nature; to certain inevitable laws of history; to the passions\nof men, to chance, to fate, to anything and everything: rather than to\nthe will of God.\n\nNo man disagrees more utterly than I do with the latter part of this\nlanguage.  But I cannot be astonished at its popularity.  It cannot be\ndenied that the theory of a Divine Providence has been much misstated;\nthat the doctrine of final causes has been much abused; that, in plain\nEnglish, God's name has been too often taken in vain, about calamities,\nprivate and public.  Rational men of the world, therefore, may be excused\nfor begging at times not to hear any more of Divine Providence; excused\nfor doubting the existence of final causes; excused for shrinking,\nwhenever they hear a preacher begin to interpret the will of God about\nthis event or that.  They dread a repetition of the mistake--to call it\nby the very gentlest term--which priests, in all ages, have been but too\nready to commit.  For all priesthoods--whether heathen or Christian,\nwhether calling themselves priests, or merely ministers and\npreachers--have been in all ages tempted to talk as if Divine Providence\nwas exercised solely on their behalf; in favour of their class, their\nneeds, their health and comfort; as if the thunders of Jove never fell\nsave when the priesthood needed, I had almost said commanded, them.  Thus\nthey have too often arrogated to themselves a right to define who was\ncursed by God, which has too soon, again and again, degenerated into a\nright to curse men in God's name; while they have too often taught men to\nbelieve only in a Providence who interfered now and then on behalf of\ncertain favoured persons, instead of a Providence who rules, always and\neverywhere, over all mankind.  But men have again and again reversed\ntheir judgments.  They have had to say--The facts are against you.  You\nprophesied destruction to such and such persons; and behold: they have\nnot been destroyed, but live and thrive.  You said that such and such\npersons' calamities were a proof of God's anger for their sins.  We find\nthem, on the contrary, to have been innocent and virtuous persons; often\nmartyrs for truth, for humanity, for God.  The facts, we say, are against\nyou.  If there be a Providence, it is not such as you describe.  If there\nbe judgments of God, you have not found out the laws by which He judges:\nand rather than believe in your theory of Providence, your theory of\njudgments, we will believe in none.\n\nThus, in age after age, in land after land, has fanaticism and bigotry\nbrought forth, by a natural revulsion, its usual fruit of unbelief.\n\nBut--let men believe or disbelieve as they choose--the warning of the\nPsalmist still stands true--\"Be wise.  Take heed, ye unwise among the\npeople.  He that nurtureth the heathen; it is He that teacheth man\nknowledge, shall He not punish?\"  For as surely as there is a God, so\nsurely does that God judge the earth; and every individual, family,\ninstitution, and nation on the face thereof; and judge them all in\nrighteousness by His Son Jesus Christ, whom He hath appointed heir of all\nthings, and given Him all power in heaven and earth; who reigns and will\nreign till He hath put all enemies under His feet.\n\nThis is the good news of Advent.  And therefore it is well that in\nAdvent, if we believe that Christ is ruling us, we should look somewhat\ninto the laws of His kingdom, as far as He has revealed them to us; and\namong others, into the law which--as I think--He laid down in the text.\n\nNow I beg you to remark that the text, taken fully and fairly, means the\nvery opposite to that popular notion of which I spoke in the beginning of\nmy sermon.\n\nOur Lord does not say--Those Galilaeans were not sinners at all.  Their\nsins had nothing to do with their death.  Those on whom the tower fell\nwere innocent men.  He rather implies the very opposite.\n\nWe know nothing of the circumstances of either calamity: but this we\nknow--That our Lord warned the rest of the Jews, that unless they\nrepented--that is, changed their mind, and therefore their conduct, they\nwould all perish in the same way.  And we know that that warning was\nfulfilled, within forty years, so hideously, and so awfully, that the\ndestruction of Jerusalem remains, as one of the most terrible cases of\nwholesale ruin and horror recorded in history; and--as I believe--a key\nto many a calamity before and since.  Like the taking of Babylon, the\nfall of Rome, and the French Revolution, it stands out in lurid\nsplendour, as of the nether pit itself, forcing all who believe to say in\nfear and trembling--Verily there is a God that judgeth the earth--and a\nwarning to every man, class, institution, and nation on earth, to set\ntheir houses in order betimes, and bear fruit meet for repentance, lest\nthe day come when they too shall be weighed in the balance of God's\neternal justice, and found wanting.\n\nBut another lesson we may learn from the text, which I wish to impress\nearnestly on your minds.  These Galilaeans, it seems, were no worse than\nthe other Galilaeans: yet they were singled out as examples: as warnings\nto the rest.\n\nBelieving--as I do--that our Lord was always teaching the universal\nthrough the particular, and in each parable, nay in each comment on\npassing events, laying down world-wide laws of His own kingdom, enduring\nthrough all time--I presume that this also is one of the laws of the\nkingdom of God.  And I think that facts--to which after all is the only\nsafe appeal--prove that it is so; that we see the same law at work around\nus every day.  I think that pestilences, conflagrations, accidents of any\nkind which destroy life wholesale, even earthquakes and storms, are\ninstances of this law; warnings from God; judgments of God, in the very\nstrictest sense; by which He tells men, in a voice awful enough to the\nfew, but merciful and beneficent to the many, to be prudent and wise; to\nlearn henceforth either not to interfere with the physical laws of His\nuniverse, or to master and to wield them by reason and by science.\n\nI would gladly say more on this point, did time allow: but I had rather\nnow ask you to consider, whether this same law does not reveal itself\nthroughout history; in many great national changes, or even calamities;\nand in the fall of many an ancient and time-honoured institution.  I\nbelieve that the law does reveal itself; and in forms which, rightly\nstudied, may at once teach us Christian charity, and give us faith and\ncomfort, as we see that God, however severe, is still just.\n\nI mean this--The more we read, in history, of the fall of great\ndynasties, or of the ruin of whole classes, or whole nations, the more we\nfeel--however much we may acquiesce with the judgment as a whole--sympathy\nwith the fallen.  It is not the worst, but often the best, specimens of a\nclass or of a system, who are swallowed up by the moral earthquake, which\nhas been accumulating its forces, perhaps for centuries.  Innocent and\nestimable on the whole, as persons, they are involved in the ruin which\nfalls on the system to which they belong.  So far from being sinners\nabove all around them, they are often better people than those around\nthem.  It is as if they were punished, not for being who they were, but\nfor being what they were.\n\nHistory is full of such instances; instances of which we say and cannot\nhelp saying--What have they done above all others, that on them above all\nothers the thunderbolt should fall?\n\nWas Charles the First, for example, the worst, or the best, of the\nStuarts; and Louis the Sixteenth, of the Bourbons?  Look, again, at the\nfate of Sir Thomas More, Bishop Fisher, and the hapless monks of the\nCharterhouse.  Were they sinners above all who upheld the Romish system\nin England?  Were they not rather among the righteous men who ought to\nhave saved it, if it could have been saved?  And yet on them--the purest\nand the holiest of their party--and not on hypocrites and profligates,\nfell the thunderbolt.\n\nWhat is the meaning of these things?--for a meaning there must be; and\nwe, I dare to believe, must be meant to discover it; for we are the\nchildren of God, into whose hearts, because we are human beings and not\nmere animals, He has implanted the inextinguishable longing to ascertain\nfinal causes; to seek not merely the means of things, but the reason of\nthings; to ask not merely How? but Why?\n\nMay not the reason be--I speak with all timidity and reverence, as one\nwho shrinks from pretending to thrust himself into the counsels of the\nAlmighty--But may not the reason be that God has wished thereby to\ncondemn not the persons, but the systems?  That He has punished them, not\nfor their private, but for their public faults?  It is not the men who\nare judged, it is the state of things which they represent; and for that\nvery reason may not God have made an example, a warning, not of the\nworst, but of the very best, specimens of a doomed class or system, which\nhas been weighed in His balance, and found wanting?\n\nTherefore we need not suppose that these sufferers themselves were the\nobjects of God's wrath.  We may believe that of them, too, stands true\nthe great Law, \"Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every\nson whom He receiveth.\"  We may believe that of them, too, stands true St\nPaul's great parable in 1 Cor. xii., which, though a parable, is the\nexpression of a perpetually active law.  They have built, it may be, on\nthe true foundation: but they have built on it wood, hay, stubble,\ninstead of gold and precious stone.  And the fire of God, which burns for\never against the falsehoods and follies of the world, has tried their\nwork, and it is burned and lost.  But they themselves are saved; yet as\nthrough fire.\n\nLooking at history in this light, we may justify God for many a heavy\nblow, and fearful judgment, which seems to the unbeliever a wanton\ncruelty of chance or fate; while at the same time we may feel deep\nsympathy with--often deep admiration for--many a noble spirit, who has\nbeen defeated, and justly defeated, by those irreversible laws of God's\nkingdom, of which it is written--\"On whomsoever that stone shall fall, it\nwill grind him to powder.\"  We may look with reverence, as well as pity,\non many figures in history, such as Sir Thomas More's; on persons who,\nplaced by no fault of their own in some unnatural and unrighteous\nposition; involved in some decaying and unworkable system; conscious more\nor less of their false position; conscious, too, of coming danger, have\ndone their best, according to their light, to work like men, before the\nnight came in which no man could work; to do what of their duty seemed\nstill plain and possible; and to set right that which would never come\nright more: forgetting that, alas, the crooked cannot be made straight,\nand that which is wanting cannot be numbered; till the flood came and\nswept them away, standing bravely to the last at a post long since\nuntenable, but still--all honour to them--standing at their post.\n\nWhen we consider such sad figures on the page of history, we may have, I\nsay, all respect for their private virtues.  We may accept every excuse\nfor their public mistakes.  And yet we may feel a solemn satisfaction at\ntheir downfall, when we see it to have been necessary for the progress of\nmankind, and according to those laws and that will of God and of Christ,\nby which alone the human race is ruled.  We may look back on old orders\nof things with admiration; even with a touch of pardonable, though\nsentimental, regret.  But we shall not forget that the old order changes,\ngiving place to the new;\n\n   And God fulfils Himself in many ways,\n   Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.\n\nAnd we shall believe, too, if we be wise, that all these things were\nwritten for our example, that we may see, and fear, and be turned to the\nLord, each asking himself solemnly, What is the system on which I am\ngoverning my actions?  Is it according to the laws and will of God, as\nrevealed in facts?  Let me discover that in time: lest, when it becomes\nbankrupt in God's books, I be involved--I cannot guess how far--in the\ncommon ruin of my compeers.\n\nWhat is my duty?  Let me go and work at it, lest a night come, in which I\ncannot work.  What fruit am I expected to bring forth?  Let me train and\ncultivate my mind, heart, whole humanity to bring it forth, lest the\ngreat Husbandman come seeking fruit on me, and find none.  And if I see a\nman who falls in the battle of life, let me not count him a worse sinner\nthan myself; but let me judge myself in fear and trembling; lest God\njudge me, and I perish in like wise.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXI.  THE WAR IN HEAVEN.\n\n\nREV. XIX. 11-16.\n\n   And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat\n   upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth\n   judge and make war.  His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head\n   were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he\n   himself.  And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his\n   name is called The Word of God.  And the armies which were in heaven\n   followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and\n   clean.  And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he\n   should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron:\n   and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty\n   God.  And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING\n   OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.\n\nLet me ask you to consider seriously this noble passage.  It was never\nmore worth men's while to consider it than now, when various selfish and\nsentimental religions--call them rather superstitions--have made men\naltogether forget the awful reality of Christ's kingdom; the awful fact\nthat Christ reigns, and will reign, till He has put all enemies under His\nfeet.\n\nWho, then, is He of whom the text speaks?  Who is this personage, who\nappears eternally in heaven as a warrior, with His garments stained with\nblood, the leader of armies, smiting the nations, and ruling them with a\nrod of iron?\n\nSt John tells us that He had one name which none knew save Himself.  But\nhe tells us that He was called Faithful and True; and he tells us, too,\nthat He had another name which St John did know; and that is, \"The Word\nof God.\"\n\nNow who the Word of God is, all are bound to know who call themselves\nChristians; even Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary,\ncrucified under Pontius Pilate, rose again the third day, ascended into\nheaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God.\n\nHe it is who makes everlasting war as King of kings and Lord of lords.\nBut against what does He make war?  His name tells us that.  For it\nis--Faithful and True; and therefore He makes war against all things and\nbeings who are unfaithful and false.  He Himself is full of chivalry,\nfull of fidelity; and therefore all that is unchivalrous and treacherous\nis hateful in His eyes; and that which He hates, He is both able and\nwilling to destroy.\n\nMoreover, He makes war in righteousness.  And therefore all men and\nthings which are unrighteous and unjust are on the opposite side to Him;\nHis enemies, which He will trample under His feet.  The only hope for\nthem, and indeed for all mankind, is that He does make war in\nrighteousness, and that He Himself is faithful and true, whoever else is\nnot; that He is always just, always fair, always honourable and\ncourteous; that He always keeps His word; and governs according to fixed\nand certain laws, which men may observe and calculate upon, and shape\ntheir conduct accordingly, sure that Christ's laws will not change for\nany soul on earth or in heaven.  But, within those honourable and\ncourteous conditions, He will, as often as He sees fit, smite the\nnations, and rule them with a rod of iron; and tread the winepress of the\nfierceness and wrath of Almighty God.\n\nAnd if any say--as too many in these luxurious unbelieving days will\nsay--What words are these?  Threatening, terrible, cruel?  My answer\nis,--The words are not mine.  I did not put them into the Bible.  I find\nthem there, and thousands like them, in the New Testament as well as in\nthe Old, in the Gospels and Epistles as well as in the Revelation of St\nJohn.  If you do not like them, your quarrel must be, not with me, but\nwith the whole Bible, and especially with St John the Apostle, who\nsaid--\"Little children, love one another;\" and who therefore was likely\nto have as much love and pity in his heart as any philanthropic, or\nsentimental, or superstitious, or bigoted, personage of modern days.\n\nAnd if any one say,--But you must mistake the meaning of the text.  It\nmust be understood spiritually.  The meek and gentle Jesus, who is\nnothing but love and mercy, cannot be such an awful and destroying being\nas you would make Him out to be.  Then I must answer--That our Lord was\nmeek and gentle when on earth, and therefore is meek and gentle for ever\nand ever, there can be no doubt.  \"I am meek and lowly of heart,\" He said\nof Himself.  But with that meekness and lowliness, and not in\ncontradiction to it, there was, when He was upon earth, and therefore\nthere is now and for ever, a burning indignation against all wrong and\nfalsehood; and especially against that worst form of falsehood--hypocrisy;\nand that worst form of hypocrisy--covetousness which shelters itself\nunder religion.\n\nWhen our Lord saw men buying and selling in the temple, He made a scourge\nof cords, and drove them out, and overthrew the tables of the\nmoney-changers, and said,--\"It is written, my Father's house is a house\nof prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.\"\n\nWhen He faced the Pharisees, who were covetous, He had no meek and gentle\nwords for them: but, \"Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye\nescape the damnation of hell?\"\n\nAnd because His character is perfect and eternal: because He is the same\nyesterday, to-day, and for ever, we are bound by the Christian faith to\nbelieve that He has now, and will have for ever, the same Divine\nindignation against wrong, the same determination to put it down: and to\ncast out of His kingdom, which is simply the whole universe, all that\noffends, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.\n\nAnd if any say, as some say now-a-days--\"Ah, but you cannot suppose that\nour Lord would propagate His Gospel by the sword, or wish Christians to\ndo so.\"  My friends, this chapter and this sermon has nothing to do with\nthe propagation of the Gospel, in the popular sense; nothing to do with\nconverting heathens or others to Christianity.  It has to do with that\nawful government of the world, of which the Bible preaches from beginning\nto end; that moral and providential kingdom of God, which rules over the\ndestiny of every kingdom, every nation, every tribe, every family, nay,\nover the destiny of each human being; ay, of each horde of Tartars on the\nfurthest Siberian steppe, and each group of savages in the furthest\nisland of the Pacific; rendering to each man according to his works,\nrewarding the good, punishing the bad, and exterminating evildoers, even\nwholesale and seemingly without discrimination, when the measure of their\niniquity is full.  Christ's herald in this noble chapter calls men, not\nto repentance, but to inevitable doom.  His angel--His messenger--stands\nin the sun, the source of light and life; above this petty planet, its\nfashions, its politics, its sentimentalities, its notions of how the\nuniverse ought to have been made and managed; and calls to whom?--to all\nthe fowl that fly in the firmament of heaven--\"Come and gather yourselves\ntogether, to the feast of the great God, that ye may eat the flesh of\nkings, and of captains, and of mighty men; and the flesh of horses and of\nthem that sit on them; and the flesh of all men, both free and slave,\nboth small and great.\"\n\nWhat those awful words may mean I cannot say.  But this I say, that the\nApostle would never have used such words, conveying so plain and so\nterrible a meaning to anyone who has ever seen or heard of a\nbattle-field, if he had really meant by them nothing like a battle-field\nat all.\n\nIt may be that these words have fulfilled themselves many times--at the\nfall of Jerusalem--at the wars which convulsed the Roman empire during\nthe first century after Christ--at the final fall of the Roman empire\nbefore the lances of our German ancestors--in many another great war, and\nnational calamity, in many a land since then.  It may be, too, that, as\nlearned divines have thought, they will have their complete fulfilment in\nsome war of all wars, some battle of all battles; in which all the powers\nof evil, and all those who love a lie, shall be arrayed against all the\npowers of good, and all those who fear God and keep His commandments: to\nfight it out, if the controversy can be settled by no reason, no\npersuasion; a battle in which the whole world shall discover that, even\nin an appeal to brute force, the good are stronger than the bad; because\nthey have moral force also on their side; because God and the laws of His\nwhole universe are fighting for them, against those who transgress law,\nand outrage reason.\n\nThe wisest of living Britons has said,--\"Infinite Pity, yet infinite\nrigour of Law.  It is so that the world is made.\"  I should add, It is so\nthe world must be made, because it is made by Jesus Christ our Lord, and\nits laws are the likeness of His character; pitiful, because Christ is\npitiful; and rigorous, because He is rigorous.  So pitiful is Christ,\nthat He did not hesitate to be slain for men, that mankind through Him\nmight be saved.  But so rigorous is Christ, that He does not hesitate to\nslay men, if needful, that mankind thereby may be saved.  War and\nbloodshed, pestilence and famine, earthquake and tempest--all of them, as\nsure as there is a God, are the servants of God, doing His awful but\nnecessary work, for the final benefit of the whole human race.\n\nIt may be difficult to believe this: at least to believe it with the same\nintense faith with which prophets and apostles of old believed it, and\ncried--\"When Thy judgments, O Lord, are abroad in the earth, then shall\nthe inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.\"  But we must believe\nit: or we shall be driven to believe in no God at all; and that will be\nworse for us than all the evil that has happened to us from our youth up\nuntil now.\n\nBut most people find it very difficult to believe in such a God as the\nScripture sets forth--a God of boundless tenderness; and yet a God of\nboundless indignation.\n\nThe covetous and luxurious find it very difficult to understand such a\nbeing.  Their usual notion of tenderness is a selfish dislike of seeing\nany one else uncomfortable, because it makes them uncomfortable likewise.\nTheir usual notion of indignation is a selfish desire of revenge against\nanyone who interferes with their comfort.  And therefore they have no\nwholesome indignation against wrong and wrong-doers, and a great deal of\nunwholesome tenderness for them.  They are afraid of any one's being\npunished; probably from a fellow-feeling; a suspicion that they deserve\nto be punished themselves.  They hate and dread honest severity, and\nstern exercise of lawful power.  They are indulgent to the bad, severe\nupon the good; till, as has been bitterly but too truly said,--\"Public\nopinion will allow a man to do anything, except his duty.\"\n\nNow this is a humour which cannot last.  It breeds weakness, anarchy, and\nat last ruin to society.  And then the effeminate and luxurious,\nterrified for their money and their comfort, fly from an unwholesome\ntenderness to an unwholesome indignation; break out into a panic of\nselfish rage; and become, as cowards are apt to do, blindly and wantonly\ncruel; and those who fancied God too indulgent to punish His enemies,\nwill be the very first to punish their own.\n\nBut there are those left, I thank God, in this land, who have a clear\nunderstanding of what they ought to be, and an honest desire to be it;\nwho know that a manful indignation against wrong-doing, a hearty hatred\nof falsehood and meanness, a rigorous determination to do their duty at\nall risks, and to repress evil with all severity, may dwell in the same\nheart with gentleness, forgiveness, tenderness to women and children;\nactive pity to the weak, the sick, the homeless; and courtesy to all\nmankind, even to their enemies.\n\nGod grant that that spirit may remain alive among us.  For without it we\nshall not long be a strong nation; not indeed long a nation at all.  And\nit is alive among us.  Not that we, any of us, have enough of it--God\nforgive us for all our shortcomings.  And God grant it may remain alive\namong us; for it is, as far as it goes, the likeness of Christ, the Maker\nand Ruler of the world.\n\n\"Christian,\" said a great genius and a great divine,\n\n   \"If thou wouldst learn to love,\n   Thou first must learn to hate.\"\n\nAnd if any one answer--\"Hate?  Even God hateth nothing that He has made.\"\nThe rejoinder is,--And for that very reason God hates evil; because He\nhas not made it, and it is ruinous to all that He has made.\n\nGo you and do likewise.  Hate what is wrong with all your heart, and\nmind, and soul, and strength.  For so, and so only, you will shew that\nyou love God with all your heart, and mind, and soul, and strength,\nlikewise.\n\nOh pray--and that not once for all merely, but day by day, ay, almost\nhour by hour--Strengthen me, O Lord, to hate what Thou hatest, and love\nwhat Thou lovest; and therefore, whenever I see an opportunity, to put\ndown what Thou hatest, and to help what Thou lovest--That so, at the last\ndread day, when every man shall be rewarded according to his works, you\nmay have some answer to give to the awful question--On whose side wert\nthou in the battle of life?  On the side of good men and of God, or on\nthe side of bad men and the devil?  Lest you find yourselves forced to\nreply--as too many will be forced--with surprise, and something like\nshame and confusion of face--I really do not know.  I never thought about\nthe matter at all.  I never knew that there was any battle of life.\n\nNever knew that there was any battle of life?  And yet you were\nchristened, and signed with the sign of the Cross, in token that you\nshould fight manfully under Christ's banner against sin, the world, and\nthe devil, and continue Christ's faithful soldier and servant to your\nlife's end.  Did it never occur to you that those words might possibly\nmean something?  And you used to sing hymns, too, on earth, about\n\"Soldiers of Christ, arise, And put your armour on.\"  What prophets, and\napostles, and martyrs, and confessors meant by those words, you should\nknow well enough.  Did it never occur to you that they might possibly\nmean something to you?  That as long as the world was no better than it\nis, there was still a battle of life; and that you too were sworn to\nfight in it?  How many will answer--Yes--Yes--But I thought that these\nwords only meant having my soul saved, and going to heaven when I died.\nAnd how did you expect to do that?  By believing certain doctrines which\nyou were told were true; and leading a tolerably respectable life,\nwithout which you would not have been received into society?  Was that\nall which was needed to go to heaven?  And was that all that was meant by\nfighting manfully under Christ's banner against sin, the world, and the\ndevil?  Why, Cyrus and his old Persians, 2,400 years ago, were nearer to\nthe kingdom of God than that.  They had a clearer notion of what the\nbattle of life meant than that, when they said that not only the man who\ndid a merciful or just deed, but the man who drained a swamp, tilled a\nfield, made any little corner of the earth somewhat better than he found\nit, was fighting against Ahriman the evil spirit of darkness, on the side\nof Ormuzd the good god of light; and that as he had taken his part in\nOrmuzd's battle, he should share in Ormuzd's triumph.\n\nOh be at least able to say in that day,--Lord, I am no hero.  I have been\ncareless, cowardly, sometimes all but mutinous.  Punishment I have\ndeserved, I deny it not.  But a traitor I have never been; a deserter I\nhave never been.  I have tried to fight on Thy side in Thy battle against\nevil.  I have tried to do the duty which lay nearest me; and to leave\nwhatever Thou didst commit to my charge a little better than I found it.\nI have not been good: but I have at least tried to be good.  I have not\ndone good, it may be, either: but I have at least tried to do good.  Take\nthe will for the deed, good Lord.  Accept the partial self-sacrifice\nwhich Thou didst inspire, for the sake of the one perfect self-sacrifice\nwhich Thou didst fulfil upon the Cross.  Pardon my faults, out of Thine\nown boundless pity for human weakness.  Strike not my unworthy name off\nthe roll-call of the noble and victorious army, which is the blessed\ncompany of all faithful people; and let me, too, be found written in the\nBook of Life: even though I stand the lowest and last upon its list.\nAmen.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXII.  NOBLE COMPANY.\n\n\nHEBREWS XII. 22, 23.\n\n   Ye are come to the city of the living God, and to the spirits of just\n   men made perfect.\n\nI have quoted only part of the passage of Scripture in which these words\noccur.  If you want a good employment for All Saints' Day, read the whole\npassage, the whole chapter; and no less, the 11th chapter, which comes\nbefore it: so will you understand better the meaning of All Saints' Day.\nBut sufficient for the day is the good thereof, as well as the evil; and\nthe good which I have to say this morning is--You are come to the spirits\nof just men made perfect; for this is All Saints' Day.\n\nInto the presence of this noble company we have come: even nobler\ncompany, remember, than that which was spoken of in the text.  For more\nthan 1800 years have passed since the Epistle to the Hebrews was written:\nand how many thousands of just men and women, pure, noble, tender, wise,\nbeneficent, have graced the earth since then, and left their mark upon\nmankind, and helped forward the hallowing of our heavenly Father's name,\nthe coming of His kingdom, the doing of His will on earth as it is done\nin heaven; and helped therefore to abolish the superstition, the misrule,\nthe vice, and therefore the misery of this struggling, moaning world.  How\nmany such has Christ sent on this earth during the last 1800 years.  How\nmany before that; before His own coming, for many a century and age.  We\nknow not, and we need not know.  The records of Holy Scripture and of\nhistory strike with light an isolated mountain peak, or group of peaks,\nhere and here through the ages; but between and beyond all is dark to us\nnow.  But it may not have been dark always.  Scripture and history\nlikewise hint to us of great hills far away, once brilliant in the one\ntrue sunshine which comes from God, now shrouded in the mist of ages, or\nliterally turned away beyond our horizon by the revolution of our planet:\nand of lesser hills, too, once bright and green and fair, giving pasture\nto lonely flocks, sending down fertilizing streams into now forgotten\nvalleys; themselves all but forgotten now, save by the God who made and\nblessed them.\n\nYes: many a holy soul, many a useful soul, many a saint who is now at\nGod's right hand, has lived and worked, and been a blessing, himself\nblest, of whom the world, and even the Church, has never heard, who will\nnever be seen or known again, till the day in which the Lord counteth up\nHis jewels.\n\nLet us rejoice in that thought on this day, above all days in the year.\nOn this day we give special thanks to God for all His servants departed\nthis life in His faith and fear.  Let us rejoice in the thought that we\nknow not how many they are; only that they are an innumerable company,\nout of all tongues and nations, whom no man can number.  Let us rejoice\nthat Christ's grace is richer, and not poorer, than our weak imaginations\ncan conceive, or our narrow systems account for.  Let us rejoice that the\ngoodly company in whose presence we stand, can be limited and defined by\nno mortal man, or school of men: but only by Him from whom, with the\nFather, proceeds for ever the Holy Spirit, the inspirer of all good; and\nwho said of that Spirit--\"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou\nhearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and\nwhither it goeth.  So is every one who is born of the Spirit\"--and who\nsaid again, \"John came neither eating nor drinking, and ye said, He hath\na devil.  The Son of man came eating and drinking, and ye say, Behold a\nman gluttonous and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.  But\nI say unto you, Verily wisdom is justified of all her children\"--and who\nsaid again--when John said to Him, \"Master, we saw one casting out devils\nin Thy name, and he followeth not us\"--\"Forbid him not.  For I say to\nyou, that he that doeth a miracle in My name will not lightly speak evil\nof Me\"--and who said, lastly--and most awfully--that the unpardonable\nsin, either in this life or the life to come, was to attribute beneficent\ndeeds to a bad origin, because they were performed by one who differed\nfrom us in opinion; and to say, \"He casteth out devils by Beelzebub,\nprince of the devils.\"\n\nThese are words of our Lord, which we are specially bound to keep in our\nminds, with reverence and godly fear, on All Saints' Day, lest by\narranging our calendar of saints according to our own notions of who\nought to be a saint, and who ought not--that is, who agrees with our\nnotions of perfection, and who does not--we exclude ourselves, by\nfastidiousness, from much unquestionably good company; and possibly mix\nourselves up with not a little which is, to say the least, questionable.\n\nMen in all ages, Churchmen or others, have fallen into this mistake.  They\nhave been but too ready to limit their calendar of saints; to narrow the\nthanksgivings which they offer to God on All Saints' Day.\n\nThe Romish Church has been especially faulty on this point.  It has\nassumed, as necessary preliminaries for saintship--at least after the\nChristian era--the practice of, or at least the longing after, celibacy;\nand after the separation of the Eastern and Western Churches,\nunconditional submission to the Church of Rome.  But how has this\ninjured, if not spoiled, their exclusive calendar of saints.  Amid\napostles, martyrs, divines, who must be always looked on as among the\nvery heroes and heroines of humanity, we find more than one fanatic\npersecutor; more than two or three clearly insane personages; and too\nmany who all but justify the terrible sneer--that the Romish Calendar is\nthe \"Pantheon of Hysteria.\"\n\nAnd Protestants, too--How have they narrowed the number of the spirits of\njust men made perfect; and confined the Paean which should go up from the\nhuman race on All Saints' Day, till a \"saint\" has too often meant with\nthem only a person who has gone through certain emotional experiences,\nand assented to certain subjective formulas, neither of which, according\nto the opinion of some of the soundest divines, both of the Romish,\nGreek, and Anglican communions, are to be found in the letter of\nScripture as necessary to salvation; and who have, moreover, finished\ntheir course--doubtless often a holy, beneficent, and beautiful course--by\na rapturous death-bed scene, which is more rare in the actual experience\nof clergymen, and, indeed, in the conscience and experience of human\nbeings in general, than in the imaginations of the writers of religious\nromances.\n\nBut we of the Church of England, as by law established--and I recognize\nand obey, and shall hereafter recognize and obey, no other--have no need\nso to narrow our All Saints' Day; our joy in all that is noble and good\nwhich man has said or done in any age or clime.  We have no need to\ndefine where formularies have not defined; to shut where they have\nopened; to curse where they either bless, or are humbly, charitably, and\ntherefore divinely, silent.  With a magnificent faith in the justice of\nthe Father, and in the grace of Christ, and in the inspiration of the\nHoly Spirit, our Church bids us--Judge not the dead, lest ye be judged.\nCondemn not the dead, lest ye be condemned.  For she bids us commit to\nthe earth the corpses of all who die not \"unbaptized,\" \"excommunicate,\"\nor wilful suicides, and who are willing to lie in our consecrated ground;\ngiving thanks to God that our dear brother has been delivered from the\nmiseries of this sinful world, and in sure and certain hope of the\nresurrection to eternal life.\n\nAt least: we of the Abbey of Westminster have a right to hold this; for\nwe, thank God, act on it, and have acted on it for many a year.  We have\na right to our wide, free, charitable, and truly catholic conception of\nAll Saints' Day.  Ay, if we did not use our right, these walls would use\nit for us; and in us would our Lord's words be fulfilled--If we were\nsilent, the very stones beneath our feet would cry out.\n\nFor hither we gather, as far as is permitted us, and hither we gather\nproudly, the mortal dust of every noble soul who has done good work for\nthe British nation; accepting each and all of them as gifts from the\nFather of lights, from whom proceedeth every good and perfect gift, as\nsent to this nation by that Lord Jesus Christ who is the King of all the\nnations upon earth; and acknowledging--for fear of falling into that\nPelagian heresy, which is too near the heart of every living man--that\nall wise words which they have spoken, all noble deeds which they have\ndone, have come, must have come, from The One eternal source of wisdom,\nof nobleness, of every form of good; even from the Holy Spirit of God.\n\nWe make no severe or minute inquiries here.  We leave them, if they must\nbe made, to God the Judge of all things, and Christ who knows the secrets\nof the hearts; to Him who is merciful in this: that He rewardeth every\nman according to his works.\n\nAll we ask is--and all we dare ask--of divine or statesman, poet or\nwarrior, musician or engineer--of Dryden or of Handel--of Isaac Watts or\nof Charles Dickens--but why go on with the splendid diversities of the\nsplendid catalogue?--What was your work?  Did we admire you for it?  Did\nwe love you for it?  And why?  Because you made us in some way or other\nbetter men.  Because you helped us somewhat toward whatsoever things are\npure, true, just, honourable, of good report.  Because, if there was any\nvirtue--that is, true valour and manhood; if there was any praise--that\nis, just honour in the sight of men, and therefore surely in the sight of\nthe Son of man, who died for men; you helped us to think on such things.\nYou, in one word, helped to make us better men.\n\nWelcome then, friends unknown--and, alas! friends known, and loved, and\nlost--welcome into England's Pantheon, not of superstitious and selfish\nhysteria, but of beneficent and healthy manhood.\n\nYour words and your achievements have gone out into all lands, and your\nsound unto the ends of the world; and let them go, and prosper in that\nfor which the Lord of man has sent them.  Our duty is, to guard your\nsacred dust.  Our duty is, to point out your busts, your monuments around\nthese ancient walls, to all who come, of every race and creed; as proofs\nthat the ancient spirit is not dead; that Christ has not deserted the\nnation of England, while He sends into it such men as you; that Christ\nhas not deserted the Church of England, while He gives her grace to\nrecognize and honour such men as you, and to pray Christ that He would\nkeep up the sacred succession of virtue, talent, beneficence, patriotism;\nand make us, most unworthy, at last worthy, one at least here and there,\nof the noble dead, above whose dust we now serve God.\n\nYes, so ought we in Westminster to keep our All Saints' Day; in giving\nthanks to God for the spirits of just men made perfect.  Not only for\nthose just men and women innumerable, who--as I said at first--have\ngraced this earth during the long ages of the past: but specially for\nthose who lie around us here; with whom we can enter, and have entered\nalready, often, into spiritual communion closer than that, almost, of\nchild with parent; whose writings we can read, whose deeds we can admire,\nwhose virtues we can copy, and to whom we owe a debt of gratitude, we and\nour children after us, which never can be repaid.\n\nAnd if ever the thought comes over us--But these men had their faults,\nmistakes--Oh, what of that?\n\n   Nothing is left of them\n   Now, but pure manly.\n\nLet us think of them: not as they were, compassed round with\ninfirmities--as who is not?--knowing in part, and seeing in part, as St\nPaul himself, in the zenith of his inspiration, said that he knew; and\nsaw, as through a glass, darkly.\n\nLet us think of them not as they were, the spirits of just men imperfect:\nbut as the spirits of just men made, or to be made hereafter, perfect;\nwhen, as St Paul says, \"that which is in part is done away, and that\nwhich is perfect is come.\"  And let us trust Christ for them, as we would\ntrust Him for ourselves; sure \"that the path of the just is as a shining\nlight, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.\"\n\nAh, how many lie in this Abbey, to meet whom in the world to come, would\nbe an honour most undeserved!\n\nHow many more worthy, and therefore more likely, than any of us here, to\nbehold that endless All Saints' Day, to which may God in His mercy, in\nspite of all our shortcomings, bring us all.  Amen.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXIII.  DE PROFUNDIS.\n\n\nPSALM CXXX.\n\n   Out of the deep have I called unto Thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice.\n   O let Thine ears consider well the voice of my complaint.  If Thou,\n   Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss, O Lord, who may\n   abide it?  For there is mercy with Thee, therefore shall Thou be\n   feared.  I look for the Lord; my soul doth wait for Him: in His word\n   is my trust.  My soul fleeth unto the Lord before the morning watch: I\n   say, before the morning watch.  O Israel, trust in the Lord: for with\n   the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption.  And He\n   shall redeem Israel from all his sins.\n\nLet us consider this psalm awhile, for it is a precious heirloom to\nmankind.  It has been a guide and a comfort to thousands and tens of\nthousands.  Rich and poor, old and young, Jews and Christians, Romans,\nGreeks, and Protestants, have been taught by it the character of God; and\ntaught to love Him, and trust in Him, in whom is mercy, therefore He\nshall be feared.\n\nThe Psalmist cries out of the deep; out of the deep of sorrow, perhaps,\nand bereavement, and loneliness; or out of the deep of poverty; or out of\nthe deep of persecution and ill-usage; or out of the deep of sin, and\nshame, and weakness which he hates yet cannot conquer; or out of the deep\nof doubt, and anxiety--and ah! how common is that deep; and how many\nthere are in it that swim hard for their lives: may God help them and\nbring them safe to land;--or out of the deep of overwork, so common now-a-\ndays, when duty lies sore on aching shoulders, a burden too heavy to be\nborne.\n\nOut of some one of the many deeps into which poor souls fall at times,\nand find themselves in deep water where no ground is, and in the mire\nwherein they are ready to sink, the Psalmist cries.  But out of the deep\nhe cries--to God.  To God, and to none else.\n\nHe goes to the fountain-head, to the fount of deliverance, and of\nforgiveness.  For he feels that he needs, not only deliverance, but\nforgiveness likewise.  His sorrow may not be altogether his own fault.\nWhat we call in our folly \"accident\" and \"chance,\" and \"fortune,\"--but\nwhich is really the wise providence and loving will of God--may have\nbrought him low into the deep.  Or the injustice, cruelty, and oppression\nof men may have brought him low; or many another evil hap.  But be that\nas it may, he dares not justify himself.  He cannot lift up altogether\nclean hands.  He cannot say that his sorrow is none of his own fault, and\nhis mishap altogether undeserved.  If Thou, Lord, wert extreme to mark\nwhat is done amiss, O Lord, who could abide it?  \"Not I,\" says the\nPsalmist.  \"Not I,\" says every human being who knows himself; and knows\ntoo well that--\"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the\ntruth is not in us.\"\n\nBut the Psalmist says likewise, \"There is forgiveness with Thee,\ntherefore shall Thou be feared.\"\n\nMy friends, consider this; the key of the whole psalm; the gospel and\ngood news, for the sake of which the psalm has been preserved in Holy\nScripture, and handed down to us.\n\nGod is to be feared, because He is merciful.  It is worth while to fear\nHim, because He is merciful, and of great kindness, and hateth nothing\nthat He hath made; and willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that\nhe should turn from his wickedness and live.\n\nSuperstitious people, in all ages, heathens always, and sometimes, I am\nsorry to say, Christians likewise, have had a very different reason, an\nopposite reason, for fearing God.\n\nThey have said: Not--there is mercy: but there is anger with God:\ntherefore shall He be feared.  They have said--We must fear God, because\nHe is wrathful, and terrible, and ready to punish; and is extreme to mark\nwhat is done amiss, and willeth the death of a sinner: and therefore they\nhave not believed, when Holy Scripture told them, that God was love, and\nthat God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, and sent\nHim to visit the world in great humility, that the world through Him\nmight be saved.\n\nGod has seemed to them only a proud, stern, and formidable being; a\ncondemning judge, and not a merciful Father; and therefore, when they\nhave found themselves in the deep of misery, they have cried out of it to\nsaints, angels, the Virgin Mary; or even to sun, moon, and stars, and all\nthe powers of nature; or even, again--what is more foolish still,--to\nastrologers, wizards, mediums, and quacks of every shape and hue; to any\none and any thing, rather than to God.\n\nBut do not you do so, my friends.  Fix it in your hearts and minds; and\nfix it now, before you fall into the deep, as most are apt to do before\nthey die; lest, when the dark day comes, you have no time to learn in\nadversity the lesson which you should have learnt in prosperity.  Fix in\nyour hearts and minds the blessed Gospel and good news--\"There is mercy\nwith Thee, O God; therefore shall Thou be feared.\"  There is mercy with\nHim, pity, tenderness, sympathy; a heart which can be touched with the\nfeeling of our infirmities; which knoweth what is in man; which despiseth\nnot the work of His own hands; which remembereth our weak frame, and\nknoweth that we are but dust: else the spirit would fail before Him, and\nthe souls which He has made.  Think of God as that which He is--a\ncompassionate God, a long-suffering God, a generous God, a magnanimous\nGod, a truly royal God; in one word, a Perfect God; who causeth His sun\nto shine on the evil and on the good, and sendeth His rain on the just\nand on the unjust; a God who cannot despise, cannot neglect, cannot lose\nHis patience with any poor soul of man; who sets Himself against none but\nthe insolent, the proud, the malicious, the mean, the wilfully stupid and\nignorant and frivolous.  Against those who exalt themselves, whether as\nterrible tyrants or merely contemptible boasters, He exalts Himself; and\nwill shew them, sooner or later, whether He or they be the stronger;\nwhether He or they be the wiser.  But for the poor soul who is abased,\nwho is down, and in the depth; who feels his own weakness, folly,\nignorance, sinfulness, and out of that deep cries to God as a lost child\ncrying after its father--even a lost lamb bleating after the ewe--of that\npoor soul, be his prayers never so confused, stupid and ill-expressed--of\nhim it is written: \"The Lord helpeth them that fall, and lifteth up all\nthose that are down.  He is nigh to all that call on Him, yea, to all\nthat call upon Him faithfully.  He will fulfil the desire of those that\nfear Him, He also will hear their cry and will help them.\"\n\nYes.  To all such does God the Father, God who made heaven and earth,\nhold up, as it were, His only-begotten Son, Christ, hanging on the Cross\nfor us; and say: Behold thy God.  Behold the brightness of God's glory,\nand the express image of God's person.  Behold what God gave for thee,\neven His only-begotten Son.  Behold that in which God the Father was well\npleased: in His Son; not condemning you, not destroying you, but humbling\nHimself, dying Himself awhile, that you may live for ever.  Look; and by\nseeing the Son, see the Father also--your Father, and the Father of the\nspirits of all flesh; and know that His essence and His name is--Love.\n\nTherefore, when you are in the deep of sorrow, whatever that depth may\nbe, cry to God.  To God Himself; and to none but God.  If you can go to\nthe pure fountain-head, why drink of the stream, which must have gathered\nsomething of defilement as it flows?  If you can get light from the sun\nitself, why take lamp or candle in place of his clear rays?  If you can\ngo to God Himself, why go to any of God's creatures, however holy pure,\nand loving?  Go to God, who is light of light, and life of life; the\nsource of all light, the source of all life, all love, all goodness, all\nmercy.  From Him all goodness flows.  All goodness which ever has been,\nshall be, or can be, is His alone, the fruit of His Spirit.  Go then to\nHim Himself.  Out of the depth, however deep, cry unto God and God\nHimself.  If David, the Jew of old, could do so, much more can we, who\nare baptized into Christ; much more can we, who have access by one Spirit\nto the Father; much more can we, who--if we know who we are and where we\nare--should come boldly to the throne of grace, to find mercy and grace\nto help us in the time of need.\n\nBoldness.  That is a bold word: but it is St Paul's, not mine.  And by\nshewing that boldness, we shall shew that we indeed fear God.  We shall\nshew that we reverence God.  We shall shew that we trust God.  For so,\nand so only, we shall obey God.  If a sovereign or a sage should bid you\ncome to him, would you shew reverence by staying away?  Would you shew\nreverence by refusing his condescension?  You may shew that you are\nafraid of him; that you do not trust him: but that is not to shew\nreverence, but irreverence.\n\nIf God calls, you are bound by reverence to come, however unworthy.  If\nHe bids you, you must obey, however much afraid.  You must trust Him; you\nmust take Him at His word; you must confide in His goodness, in His\njustice, in His wisdom: and since He bids you, go boldly to His throne,\nand find Him what He is, a gracious Lord.\n\nMy friends, to you, every one of you--however weak, however ignorant, ay,\nhowever sinful, if you desire to be delivered from those sins--this grace\nis given; liberty to cry out of the depth to God Himself, who made sun\nand stars, all heaven and earth; liberty to stand face to face with the\nFather of the spirits of all flesh, and cling to the one Being who can\nnever fail nor change; even to the one immortal eternal God, of whom it\nis written, \"Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the\nearth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands.  They shall perish, but\nThou shalt endure.  They all shall wax old, like a garment, and as a\nvesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed.  But Thou art\nthe same, and Thy years shall not fail.\"\n\nBut it is written again, \"My soul waits for the Lord.\"  Yes, if you can\ntrust in the God who cannot change, you can afford to wait; you need not\nbe impatient; as it is written--\"Fret not thyself, lest thou be moved to\ndo evil;\" and again--\"He that believeth shall not make haste.\"  For God,\nin whom you trust, is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that\nHe should repent.  Hath He promised, and shall He not do it?  His word is\nlike the rain and dew, which fall from heaven, and return not to it again\nuseless, but give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.  So is every\nman that trusteth in Him.  His kingdom, says the Lord, is as if a man\nshould put seed into the ground, and sleep and wake, and the seed should\ngrow up, he knoweth not how.  So the seed which we sow--the seed of\nrepentance, the seed of humility, the seed of sorrowful prayers for\nhelp--it too shall take root, and grow, and bring forth fruit, we know\nnot how, in the good time of God, who cannot change.  We may be sad; we\nmay be weary; our eyes may wait and watch for the Lord as the Psalmist\nsays; more than they that watch for the morning: but it must be as those\nwho watch for the morning, for the morning which must and will come, for\nthe sun which will surely rise, and the day which will surely dawn, and\nthe Saviour who will surely deliver, and the God who is merciful in\nthis--that He rewardeth every man according to his work.\n\n\"Oh trust in the Lord.  For with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is\nplenteous redemption; and He shall deliver His people from all their\nsins.\"\n\nFrom their sins.  Not merely from the punishment of their sins; not\nalways from the punishment of their sins in this life: but, what is\nbetter far, from the sins themselves; from the sins which bring them into\nfresh and needless troubles; and which make the old troubles, which\ncannot now be escaped, intolerable.\n\nFrom all their sins.  Not only from the great sins, which, if persisted\nin, will surely destroy both body and soul in hell: but from the little\nsins which do so easily beset us; from little bad habits, tempers,\nlazinesses, weaknesses, ignorances, which hamper and hinder us all every\nday when we try to do our duty.  From all these will the Lord deliver us,\nby the blood of Christ, and by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit, that\nwe may be able at last to say to children and friends, and all whom we\nlove and leave behind us--\n\n\"Oh taste and see that the Lord is gracious.  Blessed is the man that\ntrusteth in Him.\"\n\nYes.  This at least we may do--Trust in our God, and thank God that we\nmay do it; for if men may not do that, then is that true of them which\nHomer said of old--that man is more miserable than all the beasts of the\nfield.  For the animals look neither forward nor back.  They live but for\nthe present moment; and pain and grief, being but for the moment, fall\nlightly upon them.  But we--we who have the fearful power of looking\nback, and looking forward--we who can feel regret and remorse for the\npast, anxiety and terror for the future--to us at times life would be\nscarce worth having, if we had not a right to cry with all our hearts--\n\n\"O God, in Thee have I trusted, let me never be confounded.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXIV.  THE BLESSING AND THE CURSE.\n\n\nPreached on Whit-Sunday.\n\nDEUT. XXX. 19, 20.\n\n   I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have\n   set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose\n   life, that both thou and thy seed may live: that thou mayest love the\n   Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou\n   mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life, and the length of thy\n   days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy\n   fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.\n\nThese words, the book of Deuteronomy says, were spoken by Moses to all\nthe Israelites shortly before his death.  He had led them out of Egypt,\nand through the wilderness.  They were in sight of the rich land of\nCanaan, where they were to settle and to dwell for many hundred years.\nMoses, the book says, went over again with them all the Law, the\nadmirable and divine Law, which they were to obey, and by which they were\nto govern and order themselves in the land of Canaan.  He had told them\nthat they owed all to God Himself; that God had delivered them out of\nslavery in Egypt; God had led them to the land of Canaan; God had given\nthem just laws and right statutes, which if they kept, they would live\nlong in their new home, and become a great and mighty nation.  Then he\ncalls heaven and earth to witness that he had set before them life and\ndeath, blessing and cursing.  If they trusted in the one true God, and\nserved Him, and lived as men should, who believed that a just and loving\nGod cared for them, then they would live; then a blessing would come on\nthem, and their children, on their flocks and herds, on their land and\nall in it.  But if they forgot God, and began to worship the sun, and the\nmoon, and the stars, the earth and the weather, like the nations round\nthem, then they would die; they would grow superstitious, cowardly, lazy,\nand profligate, and therefore weak and miserable, like the wretched\nCanaanites whom they were going to drive out; and then they would die.\nTheir souls would die in them, and they would become less than men, and\nat last--as the Canaanites had become--worse than brutes, till their\nnumbers would diminish, and they would be left, Moses says, few in number\nand at last perish out of the good land which God had given them.\n\nSo, he says, you know how to live, and you know how to die.  Choose\nbetween them this day.\n\nThey knew the road to wealth, health, prosperity and order, peace and\nhappiness, and life: and they knew the road to ruin, poverty, weakness,\ndisease, shame and death.\n\nThey knew both roads; for God had set them before them.\n\nAnd you know both roads; for God has set them before you.\n\nThen he says--I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day,\nthat I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing.\n\nHe called heaven and earth to witness.  That was no empty figure of\nspeech.  If you will recollect the story of the Israelites, you will see\nplainly enough what Moses meant.\n\nThe heaven would witness against them.  The same stars which would look\ndown on their freedom and prosperity in Canaan, had looked down on all\ntheir slavery and misery in Egypt, hundreds of years before.  Those same\nstars had looked down on their simple forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and\nJacob, wandering with their flocks and herds out of the mountains of the\nfar north.  That heaven had seen God's mercies and care of them, for now\nfive hundred years.  Everything had changed round them: but those stars,\nthat sun, that moon, were the same still, and would be the same for ever.\nThey were witnesses to them of the unchangeable God, those heavens above.\nThey would seem to say--Just as the heavens above you are the same,\nwherever you go, and whatever you are like, so is the God who dwells\nabove the heaven; unchangeable, everlasting, faithful, and true, full of\nlight and love; from whom comes down every good and perfect gift, in whom\nis neither variableness nor shadow of turning.  Do you turn to Him\ncontinually, and as often as you turn away from Him: and you shall find\nHim still the same; governing you by unchangeable law, keeping His\npromise for ever.\n\nAnd the earth would witness against them.  That fair land of Canaan\nwhither they were going, with its streams and wells spreading freshness\nand health around; its rich corn valleys, its uplands covered with vines,\nits sweet mountain pastures, a very garden of the Lord, cut off and\ndefended from all the countries round by sandy deserts and dreary\nwildernesses; that land would be a witness to them, at their daily work,\nof God's love and mercy to their forefathers.  The ruins of the old\nCanaanite cities would be a witness to them, and say--Because of their\nsins the Lord drove out these old heathens from before you.  Copy their\nsins, and you will share their ruin.  Do as they did, and you will surely\ndie like them.  God has given you life, here in this fair land of Canaan;\nbeware how you choose death, as the Canaanites chose it.  They died the\ndeath which comes by sin; and God has given you life, the life which is\nby righteousness.  Be righteous men, and just, and God-fearing, if you\nwish to keep this land, you, and your children after you.\n\nAnd now, my dear friends, if Moses could call heaven and earth to witness\nagainst those old Jews, that he had set before them life and death, a\nblessing and a curse, may we not do the same?  Does not the heaven above\nour heads, and the earth beneath our feet, witness against us here?  Do\nthey not say to us--God has given you life and blessing.  If you throw\nthat away, and choose instead death and a curse; it is your own fault,\nnot God's?\n\nLook at the heaven above us.  Does not that witness against us?  Has it\nnot seen, for now fifteen hundred years and more, God's goodness to us,\nand to our forefathers?  All things have changed; language, manners,\ncustoms, religion.  We have changed our place, as the Israelites did; and\ndwell in a different land from our forefathers: but that sky abides for\never.  That same sun, that moon, those stars shone down upon our heathen\nforefathers, when the Lord chose them, and brought them out of the German\nforests into this good land of England, that they might learn to worship\nno more the sun, and the moon, and the storm, and the thunder-cloud, but\nto worship Him, the living God who made all heaven and earth.  That sky\nlooked down upon our forefathers, when the first missionaries baptized\nthem into the Church of Christ, and England became a Christian land, and\nmade a covenant with God and Christ for ever to walk in His laws which He\nhas set before us.  From that heaven, ever since, hath God been sending\nrain and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness, for\na witness of His love and fostering care; prospering us, whensoever we\nhave kept His laws, above all other nations upon earth.  Shall not that\nheaven witness against us?  Into that heaven ascended Christ the Lord,\nthat He might fill all things with His power and His rule, and might send\nfrom thence on us His Holy Spirit, the Spirit whom we worship this day,\nthe spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might,\nthe spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.  By that same Spirit,\nand by none other, have been thought all the noble thoughts which\nEnglishmen ever thought.  By that Spirit have been spoken all the noble\nwords which Englishmen ever spoke.  By that Spirit have been done all the\nnoble deeds which Englishmen have ever done.  To that Spirit we owe all\nthat is truly noble, truly strong, truly stable, in our English life.  It\nis He that has given us power to get wealth, to keep wealth, to use\nwealth.  And if we begin to deny that, as we are inclined to do now-a-\ndays; if we lay our grand success and prosperity to the account of our\nown cleverness, our own ability; if we say, as Moses warned the\nIsraelites they would say, in the days of their success and prosperity,\nnot--\"It is God who has given us power to get wealth,\" but--\"Mine arm,\nand the might of my hand, has gotten me this wealth;\"--in plain words--If\nwe begin to do what we are all too apt to do just now, to worship our own\nbrains instead of God: then the heaven above us will witness against us,\nthis Whitsuntide above all seasons in the year; and say--Into heaven the\nLord ascended who died for you on the Cross.  From heaven He sent down\ngifts for you, and your forefathers, even while you were His enemies,\nthat the Lord God might dwell among you.  And behold, instead of thanking\nGod, fearing God, and confessing that you are nothing, and God is all,\nyou talk as if you were the arbiters of your own futures, the makers of\nyour own gifts.  Instead of giving God the glory, you take the glory to\nyourselves.  Instead of declaring the glory of God, like the heavens, and\nshewing his handiwork, like the stars, you shew forth your own glory and\nboast of your own handiwork.  Beware, and fear; as your forefathers\nfeared, and lived, because they gave the glory to God.\n\nAnd shall not the earth witness against us?  Look round, when you go out\nof church, upon this noble English land.  Why is it not, as many a land\nfar richer in soil and climate is now, a desolate wilderness; the land\nlying waste, and few men left in it, and those who are left robbing and\nmurdering each other, every man's hand against his fellow, till the wild\nbeasts of the field increase upon them?  In that miserable state now is\nmany a noble land, once the very gardens of the world--Judaea, and almost\nall the East, which was once the very garden of the Lord, as thick with\nliving men as a hive is with bees, and vast sheets both of North Africa,\nand of South and of North America.  Why is not England thus?  Why, but\nbecause the Lord set before our forefathers life and death, blessing and\ncursing; and our forefathers chose life, and lived; and it was well with\nthem in the land which God gave to them, because they chose blessing, and\nGod blessed them accordingly?  In spite of many mistakes and\nshortcomings--for they were sinful mortal men, as we are--they chose life\nand a blessing; and clave unto the Lord their God, and kept His covenant;\nand they left behind, for us their children, these churches, these\ncathedrals, for an everlasting sign that the Lord was with us, as He had\nbeen with them, and would be with our children after us.\n\nAh, my friends, while we look round us over the face of this good land,\nand see everywhere the churches pointing up to heaven, each amid towns\nand villages which have never seen war or famine for now long centuries,\nall thriving and improving year by year, and which never for 800 years\nhave been trodden by the foot of an invading enemy, one ought to feel, if\none has a thoughtful and God-fearing heart--Verily God has set before us\nlife and blessing, and prospered us above all nations upon earth; and if\nwe do not cleave to Him, we shall shew ourselves fools above all nations\nupon earth.\n\nAnd then when one reads the history of England; when one thinks over the\nhistory of any one city, even one country parish; above all, when one\nlooks into the history of one's own foolish heart: one sees how often,\nthough God has given us freely life and blessing, we have been on the\npoint of choosing death and the curse instead; of saying--We will go our\nown way and not God's way.  The land is ours, not God's; the houses are\nour own, not God's; our souls are our own, not God's.  We are masters,\nand who is master over us?  That is the way to choose death, and the\ncurse, shame and poverty and ruin, my friends; and how often we have been\non the point of choosing it.  What has saved us?  What has kept us from\nit?  Certainly not our own righteousness, nor our own wisdom, nor our own\nfaith.  After reading the history of England; or after recollecting our\nown lives--the less we say of them the better.\n\nWhat has kept us from ruin so long?  We are all day long forgetting the\nnoble things which God did for our forefathers.  Why does not God in\nreturn remember our sins, and the sins of our forefathers?  Why is He not\nangry with us for ever?  Why, in spite of all our shortcomings and\nbackslidings, are we prospering here this day?\n\nI know not, my friends, unless it be for this one reason, That into that\nheaven which witnesses against us, the merciful and loving Christ is\nascended; that He is ever making intercession for us, a High-priest who\ncan be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; and that He has\nreceived gifts for men, even for His enemies--as we have too often\nbeen--that the Lord God might dwell among us.  Yes.  He ascended on high\nthat He might send down His Holy Spirit; and that Spirit is among us,\nworking patiently and lovingly in many hearts--would that I could say in\nall--giving men right judgments; putting good desires into their hearts;\nand enabling them to put them into good practice.\n\nThe Holy Spirit is the life of England, and of the Church of England, and\nof every man, whether he belongs to the Church or not, who loves the\ngood, and desires to do it, and to see it done.  And those in whom the\nHoly Spirit dwells, are the salt of England, which keeps it from decay.\nThey are those who have chosen life and blessing, and found them.  Oh may\nGod increase their number more and more; till all know Him from the least\nunto the greatest; and the land be filled with the knowledge of the Lord,\nas the waters cover the sea.\n\nAnd then shall all days be Whit-Sundays; and the Name of the Father be\nhallowed indeed, and His kingdom come, and His will be done on earth, as\nit is in heaven.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXV.  THE SILENCE OF FAITH.\n\n\nPSALM CXXXI.\n\n   Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I\n   exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.  Surely\n   I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his\n   mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.  Let Israel hope in the\n   Lord from henceforth and for ever.\n\nWe know not at what period of David's life this psalm was written.  We\nknow not what matters they were which were too high for him to meddle\nwith; matters about which he had to refrain his soul; to quiet his\nfeelings; to suspend his judgment; to check his curiosity, and say about\nthem simply--Trust in the Lord.\n\nWe do not know, I say, what these great matters, these mysteries were.\nBut that concerns us little.  Human life, human fortune, human history,\nhuman agony--nay, the whole universe, the more we know of it, is full of\nsuch mysteries.  Only the shallow and the conceited are unaware of their\npresence.  Only the shallow and the conceited pretend to explain them,\nand have a Why ready for every How.  David was not like them.  His was\ntoo great a mind to be high-minded; too deep a heart to have proud looks,\nand to pretend, to himself or to others, that he knew the whole counsel\nof God.\n\nSolomon his son had the same experience.  For him, too, in spite of all\nhis wisdom, the mystery of Providence was too dark.  Though a man\nlaboured to seek it, yet should he not find it out.  All things seemed,\nat least, to come alike to all.  There was one event to the righteous and\nto the wicked; to the clean and to the unclean.  Vanity of vanity; all\nwas vanity.  Of making books there was no end, and much study was a\nweariness to the flesh.  And the conclusion of the whole matter was--Fear\nGod, and keep His commandments.  That--and not to pry into the\nunfathomable will of God--was the whole duty of man.\n\nJob, too: what is the moral of the whole book of Job, save that God's\nways are unsearchable, and His paths past finding out?  The Lord, be it\nremembered, in the closing scene of the book, vouchsafes to Job no\nexplanation whatsoever of his affliction.  Instead of telling him why he\nhas been so sorely smitten; instead of bidding him even look up and\ntrust, He silences Job by the mere plea of His own power.  Where wast\nthou when I laid the foundation of the earth?  Declare, if thou hast\nunderstanding.  When the morning stars sang together; and all the sons of\nGod shouted for joy.  Shall he that contendeth with The Almighty instruct\nHim?  He that reproveth God, let him answer.\n\nBut, it may be said, these are Old Testament sayings.  The Patriarchs and\nProphets had not that full light of knowledge of the mind of God which\nthe Evangelists and Apostles had.  What do the latter, the writers of the\nNew Testament, say, with that fuller knowledge of God, which they gained\nthrough Jesus Christ our Lord?\n\nMy friends--This is not, I trust, by God's great goodness, the last time\nthat I am to preach in this Abbey.  What the Evangelists and Apostles\ntaught, which the Prophets and Psalmists did not teach, I hope to tell\nyou, as far as I know, hereafter.\n\nBut this I am bound to tell you beforehand--That there are no truer words\nin the Articles of the Church of England than those in the VIIth\nArticle--that the Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in\nthe Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by\nChrist, the only Mediator between God and man, being both God and man.\n\nYes.  That the Old Testament is not contrary to the New, I believe with\nmy whole heart and soul.  And therefore to those who say that the\nApostles had solved the whole mystery of human life, its sins, its\nsorrows, its destinies, I must reply that such is not the case, at least\nwith the most gifted of all the writers of the New Testament.  We may\nthink fit to claim omniscience for St Paul: but he certainly does not\nclaim it for himself.\n\nWhen he is vouchsafed a glimpse of the high counsels of God, he exclaims,\nas one dazzled--\"Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and\nknowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past\nfinding out!  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been\nHis counsellor?\"--While of himself he speaks in a very different\ntone--\"Even though he have been,\" as he says, \"caught up into the third\nheaven, and heard words unspeakable, which it is not lawful for a man to\nutter,\" yet \"he knows,\" he says, \"in part; he prophesies in part; but\nwhen that which is perfect comes, that which is partial shall be done\naway.\"  He is as the child to the full-grown man, into which he hopes to\ndevelop in the future life.  He \"sees as in a glass darkly, but then face\nto face.\"  He \"knows now in part.\"  Then--but not till then--will he\n\"know even as he is known.\"  Nay, more.  In the ninth chapter of his\nEpistle to the Romans, he does not hesitate to push to the utmost that\nplea of God's absolute sovereignty which we found in the book of Job.\n\n\"He has mercy on whom He will have mercy; and whom He will He hardeneth.\"\nAnd if any say, \"Why doth He then find fault?  For who hath resisted His\nwill?\"  \"Who art thou that repliest against God?  Shall the thing formed\nsay to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?  Hath not the\npotter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel to\nhonour, and another to dishonour?\"\n\nWhat those words may mean, or may not mean, I do not intend to argue now.\nI only quote them to shew you that St Paul, just as much as any Old\nTestament thinker, believed that there were often mysteries, ay,\ntragedies, in the lives, not only of individuals, nor of families, but of\nwhole races, to which we shortsighted mortals could assign no rational or\nmoral final cause, but must simply do that which Spinoza forbade us to\ndo, namely--\"In every unknown case, flee unto God;\" and say--\"It is the\nLord, let Him do what seemeth Him good;\"--certain of this, which the\nCross and Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ shewed forth as nothing else\nin heaven or earth could shew--that the will of God toward man is an\nutterly good will; and that therefore what seemeth good to Him, will be\ngood in act and fact.\n\nIt is this faith, and I believe this faith alone, which can enable truly\nfeeling spirits to keep anything like equanimity, if they dwell long and\nearnestly on the miseries of mankind; on sorrow, pain, bereavement; on\nthe fate of many a widow and orphan; on sudden, premature, and often\nagonizing death--but why pain you with a catalogue of ills, which all,\nsave--thank God--the youngest, know too well?\n\nAnd it is that want of faith in the will and character of a living God,\nwhich makes, and will always make, infidelity a sad state of mind--a\ntheory of man and the universe, which contains no gospel or good news for\nman.\n\nI do not speak now of atheism, dogmatic, self-satisfied, insolent cynic.\nI speak especially to-night of a form of unbelief far more attractive,\nwhich is spreading, I believe, among people often of high intellect,\noften of virtuous life, often of great attainments in art, science, or\nliterature.  Such repudiate, and justly, the name of theists: but they\ndecline, and justly, the name of atheists.  They would--the finest and\npurest spirits among them--accept only too heartily the whole of the\nPsalm which I have chosen for my text, save its ascription and the last\nverse.  We too--they would say--do not wish to be high-minded, and\ndogmatize, and assert, and condemn.  We too do not wish to meddle with\nmatters too high for us, or for any human intellect.  We too wish to\nrefrain ourselves from asserting what--however pleasant--we cannot prove;\nand to wean ourselves--however really painful the process--from the milk,\nthe mere child's food, on which Mother Church has brought up the nations\nof Europe for the last 1500 years.  But for that very reason, as for\nasking us to trust in The Lord, either for this life, or an eternal life\nto come, do not ask that of us.\n\nWe do not say that there is no God; no Providence of God; no life beyond\nthe grave: only we say, that we cannot find them.  They may exist: or\nthey may not.  But to us; and as we believe to all mankind if they used\ntheir reason aright, they are unthinkable, and therefore unknowable.  God\nwe see not: but this we see--Man, tortured by a thousand ills; and then,\nalas, perishing just as the dumb beasts perish.  We see death, decay,\npain, sorrow, bereavement, weakness; and these produced, not merely by\nlaws of nature, in which, however terrible, we could stoically acquiesce;\nbut worse still, by accident--the sports of seeming chances--and those\noften so slight and mean.  Man in his fullest power, woman in her highest\nusefulness, the victim not merely of the tempest or the thunderstroke,\nbut of a fallen match, a stumbling horse.\n\nTherefore the sight of so much human woe, without a purpose, and without\na cause, is too much for them: as, without faith in God, it ought to be\ntoo much for us.\n\nAnd therefore in their poetry and in their prose--and they are masters,\nsome of them, both of poetry and of prose--there is a weary sadness, a\ntender despair, which one must not praise: yet which one cannot watch\nwithout sympathy and affection.  For the mystery of human vanity and\nvexation of spirit; the mystery which weighed down the soul of David, and\nof Solomon, and of him who sang the song of Job, and of St Paul, and of\nSt Augustine, and all the great Theologians of old time, is to them\nnought but utter darkness.  For they see not yet, as our great modern\npoet says,\n\n            Hands\n   Athwart the darkness, shaping man.\n\nThey see not yet athwart the darkness a face, most human yet divine, of\nutter sympathy and love; and hear not yet--oh let me say once more not\nyet of such fine souls--the only words which can bring true comfort to\none who feels for his fellow-men, amid the terrible chances and changes\nof this mortal life--\n\n\"Let not your heart be troubled.  Believe in God, and believe also in\nMe.\"\n\n\"All power is given to Me in heaven and in earth.\"  \"Lo I am with you\neven to the end of the world.\"  Oh let us, to whom God has given that\nmost undeserved grace, by the confession of a true faith to acknowledge\nthe glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty\nto worship the Unity--Let us, I say, beseech God that He would give to\nthem, as well as to us, that comfortable and wholesome faith; and\nevermore defend them and us--if it seem good in His gracious sight--from\nall adversity.\n\nAnd surely we need that faith--those of us at least who know what we have\nlost--in the face of such a catastrophe as was announced in this Abbey on\nthis day week; which thrilled this congregation with the awful news--That\none of the most gifted men in Europe; the most eloquent of all our\npreachers--the most energetic of all our prelates; the delight of so many\nof the most refined and cultivated; the comforter of so many pious souls,\nnot only by his sermons, not only by his secret counsels, but by those\nexquisite Confirmation addresses, to have lost which is a spiritual loss\nincalculable--those Confirmation addresses which touched and ennobled the\nhearts alike of children and of parents, and made so many spirits, young\nand old, indebted to him from thenceforth for ever--That this man, with\nhis enormous capacity and will for doing his duty like a valiant man, and\ndoing each duty better than any of us his clergy had ever seen it done\nbefore--with his genius too, now so rare, and yet so needed, for\ngoverning his fellow-men--That he, in the fulness of his power, his\nhealth, his practical example, his practical success, should vanish in a\nmoment: and that immense natural vitality, that organism of forces so\nvarious and so delicate, just as it was developing to perfection under\nlong and careful self-education, should be lost for ever to this earth:\nleaving England, and her colonies, and indeed all Christendom, so much\nthe poorer, so much the more weak; and inflicting--forget not that--a\nbitter pang on hundreds of loving hearts: and all by reason of the\nstumbling of a horse.\n\nAnd why?  Our reason, our conscience, our moral sense; that, by virtue of\nwhich we are not brutes, but men, forces us to ask that question: even if\nno answer be found to it in earth or heaven.  What was the important\n_why_ which lay hid behind that little how?--The means were so paltry:\nthe effect was so vast--There must have been a final cause, a purpose,\nfor that death: or the fact would be altogether hideous--a scribble\nwithout a meaning--a skeleton without a soul.  Why did he die?\n\n\"I became dumb and opened not my mouth; for it was Thy doing.\"\n\nSo says the Burial psalm.  So let us say likewise.\n\n\"I became dumb:\" not with rage, not with despair; but because it was Thy\ndoing; and therefore it was done well.  It was the deed, not of chance,\nnot of necessity: for had it been, then those who loved him might have\nbeen excused had they cursed chance, cursed necessity, cursed the day in\nwhich they entered a universe so cruel, so capricious.  Not so.  For it\nwas the deed of The Father, without whom a sparrow falls not to the\nground; of The Son, who died upon the Cross in the utterness of His\ndesire to save; of The Holy Ghost, who is the Lord and Giver of life to\nall created things.\n\nIt was the deed of One who delights in life and not in death; in bliss\nand not in woe; in light and not in darkness; in order and not in\nanarchy; in good and not in evil.  It had a final cause, a meaning, a\npurpose: and that purpose is very good.  What it is, we know not: and we\nneed not know.  To guess at it would be indeed to meddle with matters too\nhigh for us.  So let us be dumb: but dumb not from despair, but from\nfaith; dumb not like a wretch weary with calling for help which does not\ncome, but dumb like a child sitting at its mother's feet; and looking up\ninto her face, and watching her doings; understanding none of them as\nyet, but certain that they all are done in Love.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXVI.  GOD AND MAMMON.\n\n\nMATTHEW VI. 24.\n\n   Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.\n\nThis is part of the Gospel for this Sunday; and a specially fit text for\nthis day, which happens to be St Matthew's Day.\n\nOn this day we commemorate one who made up his mind, once and for all,\nthat whoever could serve God and money at once, he could not: and who\ntherefore threw up all his prospects in life--which were those of a\npeculiarly lucrative profession, that of a farmer of Roman taxes--in\norder to become the wandering disciple of a reputed carpenter's son.  He\nbecame, it is true, in due time, an Apostle, an Evangelist, and a Martyr;\nand if posthumous fame be worth the ambition of any man, Matthew the\npublican--Saint Matthew as we call him--has his share thereof, because he\ndiscovered, like a wise man, that he could not serve God and money; and\ntherefore, when Jesus saw him sitting at the receipt of custom, and bade\nhim \"Follow Me,\" he rose up, and left his money-bags, and followed Him,\nwhom he afterwards discovered to be no less than God made man.  \"Ye\ncannot serve God and Mammon.\"  It is very difficult to make men believe\nthese words.  So difficult, that our Lord Himself could not make the Jews\nbelieve them, especially the rich and comfortable religious people among\nthem.  When He told them that they could not serve two masters; that they\ncould not worship God and money at the same time, the Pharisees, who were\ncovetous, derided Him.  They laughed to scorn the notion that they could\nnot be very religious, and respectable, and so forth, and yet set their\nhearts on making money all the while.  They thought that they could have\ntheir treasure on earth and in heaven also; and they went their way, in\nspite of our Lord's warnings; and made money, honestly no doubt, if they\ncould, but if not, why then dishonestly; for money must be made, at all\nrisks.\n\nSt Paul warned them, by his disciple Timothy, of their danger.  He told\nthem that the love of money is the root of all evil; and that those who\nwill be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and\nhurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.\n\nSt James warned them even more sternly; and told the rich men among the\nJews of his day to weep and howl for the miseries which were coming on\nthem.  They had heaped up treasure for the last days, when it would be of\nno use to them.  They were fattening their hearts--he told them--against\na day of slaughter.\n\nBut they listened to St Paul and St James no more than they did to our\nLord.  After the fall of Jerusalem, even more than before, they became\nthe money-makers and the money-lenders of the whole world.  And what\nbefel them?  Their wealth stirred up the envy and the suspicion of the\nGentiles.  They were persecuted, robbed, slaughtered, again and again for\nthe sake of their money.  And yet they would not give up their ruinous\npassion.  Throughout all the middle ages, here in England, just as much\nas on the Continent, they lent money at exorbitant interest; and then\ntheir debtors, to escape payment, turned on them for not being\nChristians; accused them of poisoning the wells, and what not; massacred\nthem, burnt them alive, and committed the most horrible atrocities;\nfulfilling the warnings of our Lord and His Apostles, only too terribly\nand brutally, again and again.\n\nDo I say this to make any man dislike or despise the Jews?  God forbid.\nThe Jews have noble qualities in them, by which they have prospered, and\nfor the sake of which--as I believe--God's blessing rests on them to this\nday.  They have prospered: not by their love of money, not even by their\nextraordinary courage, persistence, and intellectual power; but by their\nkeeping two at least of the commandments, as no other people on earth has\nkept them.  They have kept the second commandment; and hated idolatry,\nand any approach to it, with a stern and noble hatred, which would God\nthat all who call themselves Christians would imitate.  They have kept,\nlikewise, the fifth commandment; and have honoured their parents, as no\nother people on earth have done, except it may be the Chinese, who\nprosper still, in spite of many sins.  Their family affections are so\nintense, their family life is so pure and sound, that they put to shame\ntoo many Christians; and where the family life is sound, the heart of a\npeople is sure to be sound likewise; and all will come right with them at\nlast: and meanwhile the days of the Jews will be long in whatsoever land\nthe Lord their God shall give them, till the day of which St Paul\nprophesied, when the veil shall be taken off their hearts, and they shall\nacknowledge that Christ, whom their forefathers crucified in their\nblindness, for their King, and Lord, and God; and so all Israel shall be\nsaved.  Amen.  Amen.\n\nAnd meanwhile, who are we that we should complain of the Jews now, or the\nJews of our Lord's time, for being too fond of money?  Is anything more\ncertain, than that we English are becoming given up, more and more, to\nthe passion for making money at all risks, and by all means fair or foul?\nOur covetousness is--alas! that it should be so--become a by-word among\nforeign nations; while our old English commercial honesty--which was once\nour strength, and protected us from, and all but atoned for, our\ncovetousness--is going fast; and leaving us, feared indeed for our power;\nbut suspected for our chicanery; and odious for our arrogance.\n\nAnd it is most sad, but most certain, that we are like those Pharisees of\nold in this also, that we too have made up our mind that we can serve God\nand Mammon at once; that the very classes among us who are most utterly\ngiven up to money-making, are the very classes which, in all\ndenominations, make the loudest religious profession; that our churches\nand chapels are crowded on Sundays by people whose souls are set, the\nwhole week through, upon gain and nothing but gain; who pretend to\nreverence Scripture, while they despise the warning of Scripture, that\nthe love of money is the root of all evil.\n\nHave we not seen in our own days persons of the highest religious\nprofession, whose names were the foremost on every charitable\nsubscription list, so devoured by this mad love for money for its own\nsake, that though they had already more money than they could spend, or\nenjoy in any way soever, save by saying to themselves--I have got it, I\nhave got it--they must needs, in the mere lust for becoming richer still,\nruin themselves and others by frantic speculations?  Have we not seen--but\nwhy should I defile myself, and you, and this holy place by telling you\nwhat I have seen; and what I hope, and hope alas! in vain, that I shall\nnever see again, among those who must needs serve God and Mammon?  Has\nnot the love of money become such a chronic disease among us, that we can\nactually calculate, now, when the disease will come to a head; and\nrelieve itself for a while: though alas! only for a while?\n\nAbout every eleven years, I am informed, we are to expect a commercial\ncrisis; panics, bankruptcies, and misery and ruin to hundreds; a sort of\nterrible but beneficent thunderstorm, which clears the foul atmosphere of\nour commercial system at the expense, alas! not merely of the guilty, but\nof the innocent; involving the widow and the orphan, the poor and the\nsimple, in the same fate as the rich and powerful whom they have trusted\nto their own ruin.  And yet we boast of our civilization and of our\nChristianity; and hardly one, here and there, lays the lesson to heart,\nbut each man, like a moth about a candle, unwarned by the fate of his\nfellows, fancies that he at least can flutter round the flames and not be\nburned; that whoever else cannot serve God and Mammon, he can do it; and\nholds, by virtue of his superior prudence, a special dispensation from\nthe plain warnings of Holy Scripture.\n\nBut every reasonable man knows what advantages money, and nothing but\nmoney, will obtain, not only for a man himself but for his children; and\nanswers me--If I wish to rise in life, if I wish my children to rise in\nlife, how can I do it, without making money?\n\nGod forbid that I should check an honourable ambition, and a desire to\nrise in life.  We all ought to rise in life, and to rise far higher than\nmost of us are likely to rise.  But I ask you to consider very seriously\nwhat you mean by rising in life.\n\nDo you mean by rising in life, merely becoming a richer man; living in a\nlarger house, eating, drinking, clothing, better; having more servants,\ncarriages, plate?  Is that to be the highest triumph of all your labours?\nIs that your notion of rising in life?  If it is, you are not singular in\nyour notion.  There are thousands who call themselves civilized and\nChristians, and yet have no higher notion of what man's highest good may\nbe.  But do you mean by rising in life, simply becoming a nobler, because\na better man?  For if you mean that latter, I seriously advise you to\nhearken to what the Creator and Governor of all heaven and earth, Jesus\nChrist our Lord, has told you on that matter, when He said--\"Seek ye\nfirst the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things\nshall be added unto you.\"\n\nSeek ye first the kingdom of God.  Alas! this money-making generation\ntalks a great deal about religion and saving their souls, being quite\nindifferent to the serious question--whether their souls are worth saving\nor not: but as for the kingdom of God, of which our Lord and His Apostles\nspeak so often, they have forgotten altogether what it is.  They talk\ntoo, a great deal, about the righteousness of Christ: but they have\nforgotten also what the righteousness of Christ, which is also the\nrighteousness of God, is like.\n\nThe kingdom of God; the government of God; the laws and rules by which\nChrist, King of kings, and King, too, of every nation and man on earth,\nwhether they know it or not, governs mankind, that is what you have to\nseek, because it is there already.  You are in Christ's kingdom.  If you\nwish to prosper in it, find out what its laws are.  That will be true\nwisdom.  For in keeping the commandments of God, and in obeying His laws;\nin that alone is life; life for body and soul; life for time and for\neternity.\n\nAnd the righteousness of God, which is the righteousness of Christ;--find\nout what that is, and pray to Christ to give it to you; for so alone will\nyou be what a man should be, created after God in righteousness and true\nholiness, and renewed into the image and likeness of God.  You will find\nplenty of persons now, as in all times, who will tell you that you need\nnot do that; that all you need, for this world or the world to come, is\nsome righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees; calling that--oh shame\nthat such a glorious and eternal truth should be so caricatured and\ndegraded by man--justification by faith: while all they mean is,\njustification not by faith, but by mere assent; assenting to certain\ndoctrines; keeping certain religious watch-words in your mouth, and, over\nand above, leading a tolerably respectable life.  But what says our Lord?\n\"Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and\nPharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.\"  Not\nmerely--not dwell in it for ever, but not even enter it, not even get\nthrough the very gate, and cross the very threshold, of it.  The merely\nassenting, merely respectable, even the so-called religious and orthodox\nlife will not let you into the kingdom of heaven, either in this life or\nthe life to come.  No.  That requires the noble life, the pure life, the\njust life, the gentle life, the generous life, the heroic life, the\nGodlike life, which is perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect,\nbecause He lets His sun shine on the evil and on the good, and His rain\nfall on the just and on the unjust.  But how will this help you to rise\nin life?  Our Lord Himself answers--and our Lord should surely know--\"Seek\nye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things\nshall be added to you.\"  Have faith in God, and in His promise; and your\nfaith in God shall be rewarded.  You shall find that your heavenly Father\nknows that you have need of all these things; and has arranged His\nkingdom, and the whole universe, accordingly.  The very good things of\nthis world--wealth, honour, power, and the rest, for the sake of which\nworldly men quarrel, and envy, and slander, and bully, and cringe, and\ncommit all basenesses and crimes--all these shall come to you of their\nown accord by the providence of your Father in heaven and by His\neverlasting Laws, if you will but learn and do God's will, and lead the\nChristlike and the Godlike life.  Honour and power, wealth and\nprosperity, as much of them as is justly good for you, and as much of\nthem as you deserve--that is, earn and merit by your own ability and self-\ncontrol--shall come to you by the very laws of the universe and by the\nvery providence of God.  You shall find that godliness hath the promise\nof this life, as well as of the life which is to come.  You shall find\nthat God's kingdom is a well-made and well-ordered kingdom; and that His\nlaws are life, and are far more worth trusting in than the maxims of that\nill-made and ill-ordered world of man, which you all renounced at your\nbaptism.  You shall find that the promises of Scripture are no dreams,\nbut actual practical living truths, which come true, and fulfil\nthemselves, in the lives and histories of men.\n\nChoose, young men; choose now; and make up your minds which way you will\nrise in life; by merely getting money; or by getting wisdom and honour\nand virtue.  The Psalmists of old, yea our Lord Himself, tell you what\nwill happen in each case.  If you want only to be rich, why then be rich;\nif you are clever enough.  The Lord may give you what you want, in this\nevil world.  He may give you your portion in this life, and fill you with\nHis hid treasure.  He may let you heap up money which you do not know how\nto spend, and be a laughing-stock to others while you live; and after you\ndie, your children will probably squander what you have hoarded; while\nyou will carry away nothing when you die, neither will your pomp follow\nyou: and take care lest you wake, after all, like Dives in the torment,\nto hear the fearful but most reasonable words--\"Son, thou in thy lifetime\nreceivedst thy good things, and therefore thou art tormented.\"  Those\nwords too, I fear, will come true, in this very generation, of many a\nwretched soul who while he lived counted himself a happy man; and had all\nmen speaking well of him, because he did well unto himself.  On whose\nsouls may God have mercy.\n\nChoose, young men: choose; now in the golden days of youth, and strength,\nand honour, ere you have laid a yoke on your own shoulders--even the yoke\nof money-worship;--not light and easy, like the yoke of Christ, but\nheavier and heavier as the years roll on, while you, with fading\nintellect, fading hopes, and it may be fading credit, and certainly\nfading power of any rational enjoyment, have still, like the doomed souls\nin Dante's Inferno, to roll up hill the money-bags which are perpetually\nslipping back.  I have seen that, and more than once or twice; and it is,\nI think, the saddest sight on earth--save one.  Choose, I say again,\nthen, young men, before you have spread a net round your own feet, which,\nas in disturbed dreams, grows and tangles more and more each time you\nmove--even the net of greed and craft, which men set for their\nneighbours; and are but too apt, ere all is done, to be taken in\nthemselves; the net of truly bad society, of the society of men who have\nset their hearts on making money, somehow or other; and with whom, if you\ncast in your lot, you may descend--O God, I know full well what I am\nsaying--to depths from which your young spirits now would shrink; till\nyour higher nature be subdued to the element in which it works; and the\npoet's curse on all who bind themselves to natures lower than their own\ncome true of you--\n\n   Thou shall lower to their level, day by day,\n   All that once was fine within thee growing coarse to sympathize with\n   clay.\n\nOr you may choose--God grant that you may choose--the other path; the\npath of the law of Christ, and of the Spirit of Christ; the kingdom of\nGod and His righteousness.  And then shall come true of you, as far as\nGod shall see good for your immortal soul, those other promises--\n\n\"Come, ye children, and hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of\nthe Lord.  What man is he that loves life, and would fain see good days?\nLet him keep his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no\ndeceit.  Let him eschew evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue\nit.  For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are\nopen to their prayers. . . For the Lord ordereth a good man's going, and\nmaketh his way acceptable to Himself.  Though he fall he shall not be\ncast away, for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand . . . I have been\nyoung, and now am old, and yet never saw I the righteous forsaken, nor\nhis seed begging their bread.  Flee from evil, and do the thing that is\ngood, and dwell for evermore.  For the Lord loveth the thing that is\nrighteous.  He forsaketh not His that be godly, but they are preserved\nfor ever.\"\n\nChoose that; the better part which shall not be taken from you; for it is\naccording to the true laws of political and social economy, which are the\nlaws of the Maker of the Universe, and of the Redeemer of Mankind.  And\nthen, whether or not you leave your children wealth, you will, at all\nevents, leave them an example by which they, and their children's\nchildren, must prosper to the world's end.  And your prayer will be, more\nand more, as you grow old and weary with the hard work of life--\n\n\"I will go forth in the strength of the Lord God, and make mention of His\nrighteousness only.  Thou, O God, hast taught me from my youth up until\nnow.  Therefore will I tell of Thy wondrous works.  Forsake me not, O\nLord, in my old age, when I am grey-headed, till I have shewn Thy\nstrength unto this generation; and Thy power unto those that are yet to\ncome.\"\n\nTo which end may Christ bring us all, of His infinite mercy.  Amen.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXVII.  THE BEATIFIC VISION.\n\n\nPSALM LVII.\n\n   _A Psalm of David when he fled from Saul in the cave_.\n\n   Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth\n   in Thee, and under the shadow of Thy wings shall be my refuge, until\n   this tyranny be over-past.  I will call unto the most high God, even\n   unto the God that shall perform the cause which I have in hand.  He\n   shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproof of him that would\n   eat me up.  God shall send forth His mercy and truth: my soul is among\n   lions.  And I lie even among the children of men, that are set on\n   fire, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp\n   sword.  Set up Thyself, O God, above the heavens, and Thy glory above\n   all the earth.  They have laid a net for my feet, and pressed down my\n   soul: they have digged a pit before me, and are fallen into the midst\n   of it themselves.  My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will\n   sing, and give praise.  Awake up, my glory; awake, lute and harp: I\n   myself will awake right early.  I will give thanks unto Thee, O Lord,\n   among the people, and I will sing unto Thee among the nations.  For\n   the greatness of Thy mercy reacheth unto the heavens, and Thy truth\n   unto the clouds.  Set up Thyself, O God, above the heavens, and Thy\n   glory above all the earth.\n\nSome people now-a-days would call this poetry; and so it is.  But what\npoetry!  They would call it a Hebrew song, a Hebrew lyric; and so it is.\nBut what a song!  There is something in us, if we be truly delicate and\nhigh-minded people, which will surely make us feel a deep difference\nbetween it and common poetry, or common songs; which made our forefathers\nread or chant it in church, and use it, as many a pious soul has ere now,\nin private devotion.\n\nDavid did not compose it in church or in temple.  He never meant it,\nperhaps, to be sung in public worship.  He little dreamed that we, and\nmillions more, in lands of which he had never heard, should be repeating\nhis words in a foreign tongue in our most sacred acts of worship.  He was\nthinking, when he composed it, mainly of himself and his own sorrows and\ndangers.  He intends, he says, to awake early, and sing it to lute and\nharp.  Perhaps he had composed it in the night, as he lay either in the\ncave of Adullam or Engedi, hiding from Saul among the cliffs of the wild\ngoats; and meant to go forth to the cave's mouth, and there, before the\nsun rose over the downs, he would, to translate his words exactly, \"awake\nthe dawning\" with his song in the free air and the clear sky, singing to\nhis little band of men.\n\nAnd to some one more than man, my friends.  For his poetry was poetry\nconcerning God.  His song was a song to God.  He does not sing of his own\nsorrows to himself, as too many poets have done ere now.  He does not\nsing to his men; though he no doubt wished them to hear him, and learn\nfrom him, and gain faith and comfort and courage from his song.  He sings\nof his sorrows to God Himself; to the God who made heaven and earth; the\nGod who is above the heavens, and His glory above all the earth.\n\nThis is the secret, the virtue, the charm of the song; that it sings to\nGod.  This is why it has passed into many lands, into many languages,\nthrough hundreds and hundreds of years, and is as fresh, and mighty, and\nfull of meaning and of power, now, here, to us in England, as it was to\nDavid, when he was a poor outlaw, wandering in the hills of the little\ncountry of Judaea, more than 2000 years ago.\n\nThe poet says,\n\n   A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,\n\nand this psalm is most beautiful, and a joy for ever to delicate and\nnoble intellects.  But more, a thing of truth is a help for ever.  And\nthis psalm is most true, and a help for ever to all sorrowing and weary\nhearts.  For the Spirit of truth it was, who put this psalm into David's\nheart and brain; and taught him to know and say what was true for him,\nand true for all men; what was true then, and will be true for ever.\n\nAnd what in it is true for ever?  The very figures, the metaphors of the\npsalm are true for ever.  \"Under the shadow of Thy wings shall be my\nrefuge\"--that is a noble figure; can we not feel its beauty?  And more.\nDo none of us know that it is true?  David did not believe any more than\nwe do, that God had actual wings.  But David knew--and it may be some of\nus know too--that God does at times strangely and lovingly hide us; keep\nus out of temptation; keep us out of harm's way; as it is written, \"Thou\nshall hide them privately in Thy presence from the provoking of all men.\nThou shall keep them in Thy tabernacle from the strife of tongues.\"  Ah,\nmy dear friends, in such a time as this, when the strife of tongues is\nonly too loud, have you never had reason to thank God for being, by some\nseemingly mere accident, kept out of the strife of tongues and out of\nyour chance of striving too, and of making a fool of yourself like too\nmany others?  The image of the mother bird, hiding her brood under her\nwings, seemed to David just to express that act of God's fatherly love,\nin words which will be true for ever, as long as a brooding bird is left\non the earth, to remind us of David's song; and of One greater than\nDavid, too, who said--\"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have\ngathered thy children, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,\nand thou wouldest not.\"  God grant that we all may do, when our time\ncomes, that which those violent conceited Jews would not do; and\ntherefore paid the awful penalty of their folly.\n\nAnd the darker and more painful figures of the psalm: are they not true\nstill?  Is not a man's soul, even in this just and peaceful land, and far\noftener in lands which are still neither just nor peaceful--Is not a\nman's soul, I say, sometimes among lions?--among greedy, violent,\ntyrannous persons, who are ready to entangle him in a quarrel, shout him\ndown, ay, or shoot him down; literally ready to eat him up?  Are not the\nchildren of men still too often set on fire; on fire with wild party\ncries, with superstitions which they do not half understand, with brute\nexcitements which pander to their basest passions, running like fire from\nhead to head, and heart to heart, till whole classes, whole nations\nsometimes, are on fire, ready like fire to consume and destroy all they\ntouch; and like fire, to consume and destroy themselves likewise?\n\nAre there none now, too, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their\ntongue a sharp sword?  Such use the pen now, rather than the tongue: but\nthey know, as well as those whom David met, how to handle the spears and\narrows of slander, and the sharp sword of insult.  Are there none left,\nwho set nets for their neighbours' feet, by gambling, swindling, puffing,\nby tricks of trade and tricks of party?--none who, like the Scribes of\nold, try to entangle men in their talk, and make them offenders for a\nword; and who, like David's enemies, fall now and then into the very pit\nwhich they have digged, and ruin themselves in trying to ruin others?\n\nMy friends, such men will be, as long as there is sin upon the earth.\nTheir weapons are very different now from what they were in David's time:\nbut their hearts are the same as they were then.  \"The works of the flesh\nthey do, which are manifest;\" and a very ugly list they make; as all who\nread St Paul's Epistles know full well.\n\nBut such men have their wages.  God is merciful in this; that He rewards\nevery man according to his work.  And He is merciful to the whole human\nrace, in rewarding such men according to their work.  To the flesh they\nsow, and of the flesh they shall reap corruption.  Of old it was\nwritten--\"The wages of sin are death;\" and that, like all God's words, is\na Gospel and good news to poor human beings.  For if the wages of sin\nwere not death, what end could there be to sin, and therefore to misery?\n\nBut while such men exist, how shall a man escape them?  How shall he\ndefend himself from them?  Not by craft and falsehood, not by angry\nreplies, not by fighting them with their own weapons.  The honest man is\nno match for them with those.  The man who has a conscience is no match\nfor the man who has none.  The man who has no conscience does what he\nwills; everything is fair to him in war; and there--in his\nunscrupulousness--lies his evil strength.  The man who has a conscience\ndares not do what he likes.  His scruples--in plain words, his fear of\nGod--hamper him, and put him at a disadvantage, which will always defeat\nhim, as often as he borrows the devil's tools to do God's work withal.\n\nHe must give up those weapons, as David threw off Saul's armour, when he\nwent to fight the giant.  It was strong enough, doubt not: but he could\nnot go in it, he said; he was not accustomed to it.  He would take\nsimpler weapons, to which he was accustomed; and fight his battle with\nthem, trusting not in armour, but in the name of the living God.\n\nIn the name of the living God.  That is the only sure weapon, and the\nonly sure defence.  In that David trusted, when he went to fight the\ngiant.  In that he trusted, when he was hid in the cave.  And because he\ntrusted in God, he prayed to God.  He spoke to God.  Remember that, and\nunderstand how much it means.  David, the simple yeoman's son, the\noutlaw, the wanderer, despised and rejected by men, one who was no\nscholar either, who very probably could neither read nor write, and knew\nneither sciences nor arts, save how to play, in some simple way, upon his\nharp--this man found out that, however oppressed, miserable, ignorant he\nwas in many respects, he had a right to speak face to face with the\nAlmighty and Infinite God, who had made heaven and earth.  He found out\nthat that great God cared for him, protected him, and would be true to\nhim, if only he would be true to God and to himself.  What a discovery\nwas that!  Worth all the wealth and power, ay, worth all the learning and\nscience in the world.--To have found the pearl of great price, the secret\nof all secrets; I, David, may speak to God.\n\nAh, my friends, consider the meaning of that.  Consider it, I say.  For\nwhen that great thought has once flashed across a man's mind, he is a new\ncreature thenceforth.  He need speak to no father-confessor or director;\nto no saints or angels; to no sages or philosophers.  For he can speak to\nGod Himself, and he need speak to no one else.  Nay, at times he dare\nspeak to no one else.  If he can tell his story to God, why tell it to\nany of God's creatures?\n\nHe is in the presence of God Himself, God his Father, God his Saviour,\nGod his Comforter; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  God is listening to him.\nTo God he can tell all his sorrows, all his wrongs, all his doubts, all\nhis sins, all his weaknesses, as David told his; and God will hear him;\nand instead of striking him dead for his presumption or for his\nsinfulness, will comfort him; comfort him with a feeling of peace, of\nfreedom, of being right, and of being safe, such as he never had before;\ntill all the troubles and dangers of this life shall seem light to him.\nLet the world rage.  Let the foolish people deal foolishly, and the\ntreacherous ones treacherously.  For if God be with a man, who can be\nagainst him?  He has no fears left now.  He has nothing to do, save to\nthank God for his boundless condescension; and to trust on.  To trust on.\nIf he has set his heart on the Lord, he need not fear what man will do to\nhim.  If his heart is fixed; if he is sure that God cares for him, he\nwill, as it were by instinct, sing and give praise to God, as the bird\nsings when the rain is past, and the sun shines out once more.\n\nBut I think that when a man has reached that state of mind, as David\nreached it, he will rise, as David rose, to a higher state of mind still.\nHe will rise, as David rises in this psalm, from thoughts about his own\nsoul, to thoughts about God.  In one word, he will rise from religion to\nthat which is above even religion, namely theology.\n\nHis first cry to God was somewhat selfish.  He went to God about himself;\nabout his own sorrows and troubles.  That is natural and harmless.  The\nchild in pain and terror cries to its mother selfishly to be helped out\nof its own little woes.  But when it is helped, and comforted, and safe\nin its mother's bosom, and its sobbing is over, then it forgets itself,\nand looks up into its mother's face, and thinks of her, and her alone.\n\nAnd so it should be with the man whom God has comforted.  When the\ndeliverance has come; when the peace of mind has come; then surely, if he\nbe worthy of the name of man, he will forget himself, and his own petty\nsorrows; and look up to God, to God Himself, and say within his\nheart--This great awful Being, eternal, infinite, omnipotent, who yet\ncondescends to take care of a tiny creature like me, who am, in\ncomparison with Him, less than the worm which crawls upon the ground,\nless than the fly which lives but for an hour--This God, so mighty and\nyet so merciful: who is He?  What is He like?  He is good to me.  Is He\nnot good to all?  He is merciful to me.  Is not His mercy over all His\nworks?  Nay, is he not good in Himself?  The One Good?  Must not God be\nThe One Good, who is the cause and the fountain of all other goodness in\nman, in angels, in all heaven and earth?  But if so--what a glorious\nBeing He must be.  Not merely a powerful, not merely a wise, but a\nglorious, because perfect, God.  Then will he cry, as David cries in this\nvery psalm--\"Oh that men could see that.  Oh that men could understand\nthat.  Oh that they would do God justice; and confess His glorious Name.\nOh that He would teach them His Name, and shew them His glory, that they\nmight be dazzled by the beauty of it, awed by the splendour of it.  Oh\nthat He would gladden their souls by the beatific vision of Himself, till\nthey loved Him, worshipped Him, obeyed Him, for His own sake; not for\nanything which they might obtain from Him, but solely because He is The\nperfectly Good.  Oh that God would set up Himself above the heavens, and\nHis glory above all the earth; and that men would lift up their eyes\nabove the earth, and above the heavens likewise, to God who made heaven\nand earth; and would cry--Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and\nhonour and power; for Thou hast made all things, and for Thy pleasure\nthey are and were created; and Thy pleasure is, Peace on Earth, and\nGoodwill toward men.  Thou art the High and Holy One, who inhabitest\neternity.  Yet Thou dwellest with him that is of a contrite spirit, to\nrevive the heart of the feeble, and to comfort the heart of the contrite.\nWe adore the glory of Thy power; we adore the glory of Thy wisdom: but\nmost of all we adore the glory of Thy justice, the glory of Thy\ncondescension, the glory of Thy love.\"\n\nAnd now, friends--almost all friends unknown--and alas! never to be known\nby me--you who are to me as people floating down a river; while I the\npreacher stand upon the bank, and call, in hope that some of you may\ncatch some word of mine, ere the great stream shall bear you out of\nsight--oh catch, at least, catch this one word--the last which I shall\nspeak here for many months, and which sums up all which I have been\ntrying to say to you of late.\n\nFix in your minds--or rather, ask God to fix in your minds--this one idea\nof an absolutely good God; good with all forms of goodness which you\nrespect and love in man; good as you, and I, and every honest man,\nunderstand the plain word good.  Slowly you will acquire that grand and\nall-illuminating idea; slowly, and most imperfectly at best: for who is\nmortal man that he should conceive and comprehend the goodness of the\ninfinitely good God?  But see then whether, in the light of that one\nidea, all the old-fashioned Christian ideas about the relations of God to\nman; whether a Providence, Prayer, Inspiration, Revelation; the\nIncarnation, the Passion, and the final triumph, of the Son of\nGod--whether all these, I say, do not begin to seem to you, not merely\nbeautiful, not merely probable; but rational, and logical, and necessary,\nmoral consequences from the one idea of An Absolute and Eternal Goodness,\nthe Living Parent of the Universe.\n\nAnd so I leave you to the Grace of God.\n\n\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n\n{0a}  Second edition, pp. 78, 79.\n\n{39}  J. P. Richter.\n\nCAMBRIDGE.  PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.","title":"Westminster Sermons: with a Preface","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":90469}