{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_21987/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_21987","id":"gutenberg_21987","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21987","summary":null,"tags":["Anglican Communion -- England -- Sermons","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity","Church of England -- Sermons","Church year sermons","Sermons, English"],"text":"E-text prepared by Al Haines\n\n\n\nTHE VILLAGE PULPIT\n\nA Complete Course of 66 Short Sermons, or Full\nSermon Outlines for Each Sunday, and Some\nChief Holy Days of the Christian Year.\n\nby the\n\nREV. S. BARING-GOULD M.A.,\n\nAuthor of\n\"A First Series of Village Preaching for a Year.\"\n\"A Second Series of Village Preaching for a Year.\"\n\"Village Preaching for Saints' Days.\"\n\"The Preacher's Pocket.\"\n\"The Mystery of Suffering.\"\n\"Sermons to Children.\"\n\"Sermons on the Seven Last Words.\" &c.\n\nVOL. II.\n\nTRINITY TO ADVENT.\n\nSecond Edition.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLondon:\nSkeffington & Son, 163, Piccadilly.\n1886.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\nSERMON XXXVII.\n\n_CHRISTIAN UNITY._\n\n(Trinity Sunday.)\n\nS. Matt. xxviii. 19.\n\n\"In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.\"\n\n\nSERMON XXXVIII.\n\n_GREAT SURPRISES._\n\n(1st Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Luke xv. 23.\n\n\"In hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments.\"\n\n\nSERMON XXXIX.\n\n_THE HOLY COMMUNION._\n\n(2nd Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Luke xiv. 16.\n\n\"A certain man made a great supper.\"\n\n\nSERMON XL.\n\n_RECEIVING AND SELECTING._\n\n(3rd Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Luke xv. 2.\n\n\"This Man receiveth sinners.\"\n\n\nSERMON XLI.\n\n_RASH DECISIONS._\n\n(4th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Luke vi. 37.\n\n\"Judge not--condemn not--forgive.\"\n\n\nSERMON XLII.\n\n_THE SECRET OF SUCCESS._\n\n(5th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Luke v. 5.\n\n\"We have taken nothing; nevertheless, at Thy word I will let\ndown the net.\"\n\n\nSERMON XLIII.\n\n_PERSISTENCY IN WRONG DOING._\n\n(6th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Matt. v. 25.\n\n\"Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the\nway with him.\"\n\n\nSERMON XLIV.\n\n_THE MEASURE OF SIN._\n\n(7th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Mark viii. 2.\n\n\"I have compassion on the multitude.\"\n\n\nSERMON XLV.\n\n_CASTING BLAME._\n\n(8th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Matt. vii. 15.\n\n\"Inwardly they are ravening wolves.\"\n\n\nSERMON XLVI.\n\n_PETTY DISHONESTY._\n\n(9th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Luke xvi. 3, 4.\n\n\"What shall I do?--I am resolved what to do.\"\n\n\nSERMON XLVII.\n\n_THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN._\n\n(10th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Luke xix. 42.\n\n\"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the\nthings which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from\nthine eyes.\"\n\n\nSERMON XLVIII.\n\n_SELF-INSPECTION._\n\n(11th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Luke xviii. 13.\n\n\"The publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as\nhis eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be\nmerciful to me, a sinner.\"\n\n\nSERMON XLIX.\n\n_PERFECTION TO BE SOUGHT._\n\n(12th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Mark vii. 37.\n\n\"He hath done all things well.\"\n\n\nSERMON L.\n\n_ZEAL._\n\n(13th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Luke x. 25\n\n\"What shall I do to inherit eternal life?\"\n\n\nSERMON LI.\n\n_GRATITUDE._\n\n(14th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Luke xvii. 18.\n\n\"There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save\nthis stranger.\"\n\n\nSERMON LII.\n\n_TRUST IN GOD._\n\n(15th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Matt. vi. 31.\n\n\"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.\"\n\n\nSERMON LIII.\n\n_THE CONTEMPLATION OF DEATH._\n\n(16th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Luke vii. 12.\n\n\"Behold, there was a dead man carried out.\"\n\n\nSERMON LIV.\n\n_HUMILITY._\n\n(17th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Luke xiv. 2.\n\n\"Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that\nhumbleth himself shall be exalted.\"\n\n\nSERMON LV.\n\n_PROFESSION AND PRACTICE._\n\n(18th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Matt. xxii. 42.\n\n\"What think ye of Christ?\"\n\n\nSERMON LVI.\n\n_EVIL THOUGHTS._\n\n(19th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Matt. ix. 4.\n\n\"Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?\"\n\n\nSERMON LVII.\n\n_THE HEAVENLY BANQUET._\n\n(20th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Matt. xxii. 4.\n\n\"Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings\nare killed, and all things are ready; come unto the marriage.\"\n\n\nSERMON LVIII.\n\n_EXAMPLE._\n\n(21st Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. John iv. 13.\n\n\"And himself believed, and his whole house.\"\n\n\nSERMON LIX.\n\n_THE PREACHER AND HIS HEARERS._\n\n(22nd Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Matt. xviii. 23.\n\n\"The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a certain king, which\nwould take account of his servants.\"\n\n\nSERMON LX.\n\n_THE IMAGE OF SELF._\n\n(23rd Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Matt. xxii. 20.\n\n\"Whose is this image?\"\n\n\nSERMON LXI.\n\nDREAD OF RIDICULE.\n\n(24th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Matt. ix. 24.\n\n\"And they laughed Him to scorn.\"\n\n\nSERMON LXII.\n\n_WHAT LASTS, AND WHAT PASSES AWAY._\n\n(25th Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. Matt. xxiv. 35.\n\n\"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not\npass away.\"\n\n\nSERMON LXIII.\n\n_THANKFULNESS TO GOD._\n\n(Harvest.)\n\nS. Matt. xxii. 21.\n\n\"Render--unto God, the things that are God's.\"\n\n\nSERMON LXIV.\n\n_THE FORMATION OF HABITS._\n\n(SCHOOL SERMON.)\n\nProverbs xxii. 6.\n\n\"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old\nhe will not depart from it.\"\n\n\nSERMON LXV.\n\n_RELIGIOUS ZEAL._\n\n(Dedication Festival.)\n\nPsalm lxix. 9.\n\n\"The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up.\"\n\n\nSERMON LXVI.\n\n_THE MEETING HEREAFTER._\n\n(Funeral Sermon.)\n\nJoshua iii. 17.\n\n\"And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord\nstood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan,\nand all the Israelites\npassed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed\nclean over Jordan.\"\n\n\n\n\nXXXVII.\n\n_CHRISTIAN UNITY._\n\nTrinity Sunday.\n\nS. Matt. xxviii. 19.\n\n\"In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--An ancient writer informs us that when the Egyptians named\ntheir Greatest God who was over all, they cried thrice, \"Darkness!\nDarkness!  Darkness!\"  And when we come to speak of the great mystery of\nthe Holy Trinity, the utmost we can do is to repeat their cry, and say,\n\"Darkness!  Darkness!  Darkness!  In the name of the Father--Darkness,\nand of the Son--Darkness; and of the Holy Ghost--Darkness!\" for however\nmuch the mind may strive to penetrate this mystery, it can never attain\nto its solution.  Just as the eye, looking at the sun, sees the\nOverpowering light as a dark ball, being dazzled by its excessive glory,\nso the eye of the mind perceives only darkness, when looking into the\ninfinite splendour of God in Three Persons.\n\nWe may, indeed, see sundry likenesses here on earth, which assist us in\nbelieving the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, but they are helps, and helps\nonly; and not explanations.  Thus, the sun may shine into a glass, and\nthe glass reflect in clear water, and we see three suns, a sun in the\nheaven, a sun in the glass, and a sun in the water, which proceeds from\nboth;--and this assists us to understand how the Son of God is of the\nFather, and the Holy Ghost is of the Father, and of the Son, and how that\neach is God, and yet that there are not three Gods, but one God.  But,\nafter all, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is a matter of Faith, and not\nof Reason.  We must believe, though we cannot understand.\n\nSUBJECT.--In this Holy Trinity of Persons there is perfect unity\nexisting, an unity of substance, an unity of Godhead, an unity of\nperfection, an unity of love.\n\nAnd on earth, among men, there should be unity.  \"Be ye perfect,\" said\nour Lord, \"even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect.\"  The\nFather is love, the Son is love, and the Holy Ghost is the love of the\nFather and of the Son, and this love requires the same of us--even love,\nor unity.\n\nThis is what God wills on earth, our living unity, even as it exists in\nHeaven between the Three Persons of the glorious Trinity.\n\nBut there are three great hindrances to Christian Unity.\n\nI.  _Selfishness_.  Each man seeks his own interest, not the general\ninterest.  Let his own selfish interests be touched, and all concord is\nat an end.  Look at two little dogs playing together, they put their paws\non each other's shoulders, and dance round each other, and roll each\nother over, and are full of affectionate play.  Throw them a bone, and it\nis a true bone of contention at once.  All their affection is dead, and\nthey are fighting each other for the bone.  It is the same with men, they\nare perfectly friendly with each other so long as no little bone comes in\nthe way--some little money matter--and then there is no end to the\nsnarling and snapping and growling.  How often it is that the dearest\nfriends fall out about money!  This has been so often noticed that it has\nbecome a common saying, \"Have no money dealings with your friend.\"  Even\nnear relations become bitter, and are estranged, over some provision in a\nwill.  All this arises from self-seeking.  Each cares for himself, and\nnot for others.\n\nNow look at the Holy Trinity.  The Three Persons share in equal Power,\nMajesty, and Eternity.  The Father commits all power unto the Son, the\nSon gives all honour to the Father, the Son gives over to the Holy Ghost\nthe government of His Church.  The Father shares with the Son and the\nHoly Ghost the Divine nature, wisdom, and glory.  All three are equally\neternal, equally almighty, equally perfect.\n\nII.  _Pride_.  Each man seeks to place himself before another.  'I am as\ngood as another, or I am above so-and-so,' is a common thought.  No man\nis content with what he is, he desires to thrust himself ahead of\nanother.  The whole of society is like a cabbage-stalk covered with\ncaterpillars, and none is satisfied till it has crawled to the top.  The\ncaterpillar at the bottom bites the one above him, gets over his back,\nand then exults, 'There is a caterpillar nearer the bottom of the\ncabbage-stalk than I,' and so all the way up the stalk, those below\nscrambling over those above, and they at the top--at the proud elevation\nand unique honour of being at the head of a cabbage-stalk--tumble off,\nand are buried in the soil.\n\nWas there any such pride of place in the angel host?  Yes--once.  The\nDevil wanted to be at the top, and he fell.  The other angels are content\nwhere they are, and they remain angels.  If they began pushing ahead of\neach other, cherubim wanting to be above seraphim, and angels envious of\narchangels, what a falling there would be from heaven!  Falling stars\nindeed!  All turning into devils.  Look at the Blessed Trinity.  God the\nSon says, \"My Father is greater than I.\"  He places Himself in the lowest\nrank.  He calls Himself \"The Son of Man\"; there is no boasting, \"I am the\nSon of God.\"\n\nIII.  _Obstinacy_.  That is the third source of discord.  Each man\nfollows his own will, his dogged, headlong will, regardless of the wishes\nand advice of others.\n\nIn the Book of Judges we read that Samson caught three hundred foxes and\ntied them together by their tails, and put burning brands between them,\nwhere their tails were tied.  What was the consequence?  The wretched\ncreatures dashed in opposite directions, each wanted to get away from the\nbrand that scorched his tail, and so each wanted to go exactly in a\ndifferent direction from the fox to which he was tied, and so the whole\nlot went dashing in a mad, disorderly manner among the standing corn, and\ndestroyed a whole harvest.\n\nThat is something like a great number of people I know.  They will tear\noff in their own direction, and drag others after them who wish to go in\nanother direction, and the fire of discord is between them.\n\nLook at the Blessed Trinity.  Christ said, \"I came not to do mine own\nwill, but the will of Him that sent me.\"\n\n\"Let us make man,\" was said at the Creation.  God the Father did not say\n\"I will make man,\" nor God the Son \"I will make man in My image,\" nor God\nthe Holy Ghost \"I will make man, and breathe My spirit into him,\" but all\nunited in one work, and that work was very good.\n\nCONCLUSION.--When Julian the Apostate was Emperor, three Christian\nsoldiers were brought before him.  Their names were Emmanuel, Sabael, and\nIsmael.  He ordered them to be examined apart, lest they should encourage\none another in their faith and endurance under torture.  Emmanuel, seeing\nhis object, said, \"Tyrant! we Three are one in one Trinity.\"\n\nNow, listen to our Lord's prayer, \"I pray not for these alone, but for\nthose also which shall believe on Me through their word, that they all\nmay be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee.\"\n\n\n\n\nXXXVIII.\n\n_GREAT SURPRISES._\n\n1st Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Luke xvi. 23.\n\n\"In hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--What a great surprise for Dives!  So utterly unawaited!\nDives, who had lived so comfortably, clothed in purple and fine linen,\nand had had such a good coat, and such excellent dinners, and such a\ncellar of wine, and such good friends at his dinners, goes to sleep one\nnight after a banquet, and wakes up, and lo!--he is in hell.  Surprise\nnumber one.\n\nHe feels the flames, he perceives himself surrounded by demons, his\ntongue is burning with thirst, and he lifts up his eyes and\nsees!--surprise number two!--Lazarus, the poor dirty wretch who had\nlain full of sores at his door.  He did not know that the fellow was\ndead.  And--surprise number three!--this wretched fellow is in Paradise.\n\nThere is another story of a great surprise in the Gospels.  That is of\nthe man who laid up for himself great possessions, and said to himself,\n\"Soul! thou hast much goods laid up for many years,--I will pull down\nmy barns and build greater--take thy ease, eat, drink and be merry.\"\nThat night he died, and when his soul came to realise the fact that he\nhad nothing left of all he had laid by--that was a great surprise, and\na very unpleasant one.\n\nSUBJECT.--Let us take care that we do not have some such a great and\nunpleasant surprise ourselves.  \"Take heed,\" says our Lord, \"to\nyourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with\nsurfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day\ncome upon you unawares.\"\n\nI.  Now I am going to tell you a story of another great surprise.  The\nking of Syria was engaged in war with the king of Israel, and one of\nthe servants of the king of Syria told him that Elisha the Prophet saw\nand knew all that was planned by him against the king of Israel, and\nthat he told the king of Israel, so that the Syrians were never able to\ncatch him at a disadvantage, and defeat him.  Then the king of Syria\nenquired where this prophet lived, and was told that he was then at\nDothan.\n\n\"Therefore sent he thither horses and chariots, and a great host: and\nthey came by night and compassed the city about.\"  Then Elisha prayed\nto God to deceive and blind the eyes of the soldiers, and he went out\nof the gates of Dothan to them, and said, \"This is not the way, neither\nis this the city; follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you\nseek.\"  So he went before, and led them along the road to Samaria, the\ncapital of the king of Israel.  Then he brought them all in through the\ngates, and they followed, as docile as lambs, and when they were in the\nmarket-place, he said, \"Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may\nsee.\"  And the Lord opened their eyes, and lo! they were in the\nmarket-place in the midst of Samaria, and all around them were the\nsoldiers of their enemy, the king of Israel, with swords drawn, and in\nthe windows were others armed with stones and javelins and molten lead\nto hurl down on them.  Here was an unpleasant surprise!\n\nThe king of Israel and all his soldiers were eager to be at them and\ncut them to pieces, but Elisha was too good-hearted for that, he\npersuaded the king to be generous, to give them their breakfast and\nsend them home.  So \"He prepared great provisions for them; and when\nthey had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their\nmaster.\"  They were lucky to be let off so easily, and they owed their\nlives to there being a Saint of God there to intercede for them.  But\nyou may be assured to their dying day they carried with them a lively\nrecollection of the very unpleasant surprise it was to them when their\neyes were opened, and they found themselves in the midst of their\nenemies, when they fondly supposed themselves in the humble and\nundefended little town of Dothan.\n\nII.  Now for you!--Whither are you going?  Whither are you being led?\nAre you at all aware?  I very much fear that a great many of you are as\nblind and as ignorant of the road you are treading as were those\nsoldiers of the king of Syria.  You are going on headlong, chattering\nwith one another, laughing and singing, in open order, very little\ndiscipline, and perfectly confident that you will come to no harm.\nTake care!  Some day your eyes will be opened, and you will experience\nan unpleasant surprise.  Then, when your eyes are opened you will see\nyourselves surrounded by the enemies of your souls, ready to drag you\nto destruction, and no help near.  Very unexpected was this case of the\nSyrians, that the prophet prayed for them, and that instead of being\nput to death they were fed and sent away in peace.  That is not what\nyou must expect.  Dives, when his eyes were opened, cried to Abraham,\nbut got no help, no, not even a drop of water to cool his tongue.\n\nIII.  No man need go blindly to destruction, for God has given him\nguidance, and power of seeing whither he goes.  The prophet led these\nsoldiers of Syria into the midst of their enemies, but God's good\nSpirit, which is our guide, will lead us into the Land of Righteousness\nif we will listen to His voice, and go where he points the way.\n\nWe have no right to plead blindness and ignorance, if hereafter we find\nthat we have gone astray, and our eyes are opened when we are in the\nmidst of our enemies, for blindness can not come upon us unless we\nwilfully shut our eyes to the light, and with the teaching of Christ\nand His Church ever sounding in our ears, we have no right to plead\nignorance.\n\nMoreover, God is so merciful, that He never allows any to go to\ndestruction unwarned of their danger.  As He sent His angel to stand in\nthe way of Balaam, so will He send some check, and throw some obstacle\nin the road you are treading, to bring you to your senses in time, and\nwill not allow you to perish, unless you wilfully and deliberately\npersist in the road of evil, knowing the consequences, and knowing\nwhither you are going.\n\nCONCLUSION.--Lastly.  It was a great surprise to Lazarus when he found\nhimself in Paradise.  He had no doubt hoped and prayed to be admitted\nthere, but when he found himself there, he was amazed to see how far\nits happiness and its peace surpassed his expectations.  So with those\nof us who are found meet to enter Heaven.  However great our\nanticipations, they will be surpassed.  Eye hath not seen, nor ear\nheard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, to conceive those\ngood things which God hath prepared for those who love Him.\n\nMay He bring us all to that glad surprise.\n\n\n\n\nXXXIX.\n\n_THE HOLY COMMUNION._\n\n2nd Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Luke xiv. 16.\n\n\"A certain man made a great supper.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--When the fulness of time was come, God the Eternal\nFather said: \"In burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin, I have no\npleasure.\"  Then said the Son, \"Lo, I come.\"  He came that He might\ntake away the valueless sacrifice, and establish the one full and\nperfect propitiation for the sins of the world.  And indeed it was\ntime.  All creation was groaning and travailing in pain, and waiting\nfor redemption, then said He--\"Lo, I come.\"  The souls of the faithful\nwere in Hades, prophets, patriarchs, and kings, desirous to see His\nDay, prisoners of Hope, desirous to be released by His Blood of the\nCovenant,--then said He--\"Lo, I come.\"\n\nMen wandered in darkness, desiring light, the whole head was sick, and\nthe whole heart faint, and in their error, darkly, and in their\nsickness, faintly, they sought the Lord, if haply they might feel after\nHim; then said He--\"Lo, I come.\"\n\nThey knew not the way of God how they might walk, and they needed a\nguide; then said He--\"Lo, I come.\"\n\nThey were sunk in sin, and found that the old bloody sacrifices and\nburnt offerings could not take away guilt, they needed a more perfect\nsacrifice; then said He--\"Lo, I come.\"  They knew not what the nature\nof God was, and they formed to themselves gods, in the likeness of men.\nHow should they know without a teacher?  Then said He--\"Lo, I come.\"\n\nNor is this all.  At this day, still His answer is, promptly, when He\nis needed--\"Lo, I come.\"\n\nDoes any father desire his dear little one to be taken into the arms of\nChrist and blessed, still His answer is--\"Lo, I come.\"\n\nDoes any man need direction, guidance, help in the way of life?  He\nsays, \"Lo, I come; I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.\"\n\nDoes any desire sustaining food by the way?  He says--\"Lo, I come, and\nthe Bread I give is My flesh, which I give for the life of the world.\"\n\nIs any burdened with the weight of sin, and desires pardon and\nreconciliation, He says--\"Lo, I come, though thy sins be as scarlet,\nthey shall be made as white as wool.\"\n\nIs any in sorrow, and heart sore?  He says, \"Lo, I come to bind up the\nbroken-hearted.\"\n\nIs any dying?--He is still ready with His answer, \"Lo, I come, when\nthou goest through the waters I am with thee.\"\n\nYou see how striking is the readiness of Our Blessed Lord.  Now look at\nto-day's Gospel, and see how this is met by man.  Christ is represented\nas having made a great supper, the Holy Eucharist, and to that he\ninvites all Christians, and He sends forth His messengers to bid them\ncome, then they all with one consent begin to make excuse.  The\nmessengers go to the man who has bought oxen, and invite him to the\nsupper of his lord, and his answer is, \"I pray thee, have me excused.\"\nThey go to a man who has bought a farm, and his answer is, \"I pray\nthee, have me excused.\"  They go to a man who has married a wife, and\nhis answer is, \"I cannot come.\"\n\n\"Lo, I come!\" says Christ.  \"I cannot come,\" says man.  \"Lo, I come to\nman,\" says Christ.  \"I cannot come to Christ,\" says man.\n\nI.  It was the rule among the early Christians to communicate every\nLord's Day.  The rule of the Church, as laid down in the service-books,\nthen ordered that all those who were open and scandalous livers, all\nthose who had committed some deadly sin, and had not been reconciled to\nGod, should leave church before the Consecration, after the reading of\nthe Gospel.  Now suppose some good old bishop of that day were to rise\nfrom the dead, and come into this church, what would he see?--Directly\nthe sermon is over,--a rush of almost all in the church, men, women,\nand children, running out of the door, and only three or four, or at\nmost a dozen, remaining to partake of the Lord's Body.  That is what he\nwould see.  Now, what would he say?--He would lift up his hands in\nhorror, and say, \"What is this?  All these notorious sinners!  All\nthese open profligates!  All these burdened with mortal sin, cutting\nthem off from the grace of God!  Take me back to my grave, I do not\nwant to see any more of such horrible days.\"\n\nBut if I happened to be present, I would say to him.  \"You are jumping\nto conclusions too rashly.  Times are altered.  It is not the criminals\nand profligates who go out of church before the Consecration of the\nBlessed Sacrament, and are unworthy to eat of the Lord's Body, it is\nthose who cannot make up their minds to do exactly what the Lord\ncommanded; it is those who are half-hearted, who wish to serve God, but\ndo not want to serve Him very much.\"  Then, I doubt not, the old bishop\nwould turn upon me with a wrathful face, and say, \"Let me go back to my\ngrave!  This is worse!  A thousand times worse!  The whole Christian\nworld has grown cold of heart, and dead of faith, if all with one\nconsent begin to make excuse, and say, 'I cannot come.'  I had rather\nthey were either hot or cold, but because they are neither hot nor\ncold--away!  I cannot bear to look at their faces!  Let me go back to\nmy grave.\"\n\nIII.  I know what is passing in your minds as well as if you had got\nglass skulls.  And this is what I see that not a few of you are\nthinking.  \"Ha! there is the Parson at it again! always hammering away\nat Communion.  Can he not leave us alone?  Let him talk to us of other\nmatters; let him preach to us some real stinging gospel truth, and make\nus wince.  Anything but this eternal preaching about coming to\nCommunion.\"  Now I will tell you why I preach about this, and hammer,\nhammer, at it.  Because it is good stinging gospel truth, and the\ngrumbling that is going on is because your consciences really are\nwincing at what I say.\n\nListen:--other folks talked like you in olden times.  When the children\nof Israel came out of Egypt, God in mercy sent them Bread from Heaven,\nthe manna, to feed them on their way through the wilderness.  What said\nthe people in return for the blessing?  Were they very grateful?  Were\nthey very eager to gather up the Angels' food?  By no means, they sat\ngrumbling in their tents and said, \"Our soul is dried away; there is\nnothing beside this manna before our eyes.\"  Put into modern language\nthat is, \"Our souls have dried up for want of preaching of free\njustification, and no good at all in keeping the law; we don't want any\nof your Sacramental teaching, no Communion for us, we can do very well\nwithout that, our soul abhorreth this light food, as for this Holy\nCommunion, there is nothing but that preached to us, year in, year out.\"\n\nWell!  If this Sacramental teaching be not God's own blessed Gospel,\nthere is no meaning in words.  Listen to this!  I never said anything\nso strong, and this is what Christ Himself spake:--\"I am the Bread of\nLife.  Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.  I\nam the living bread which came down from heaven, if any man eat of this\nbread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is My\nflesh, which I give for the life of the world.\"  \"Verily, verily, I say\nunto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His\nblood, ye have no life in you.  Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My\nblood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.  For\nMy flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.\"\n\nNow--mark you.  When Jesus said this, many of His disciples said, \"This\nis a hard saying\"--and, from that time they went back, and walked no\nmore with Him.  It is so still, it will be so always.  Just as many of\nthe old Israelites loathed the manna and said, \"Our souls are dried\naway; there is nothing but this manna before our eyes,\" so there always\nwill be faithless disciples who when they hear the invitation to\npartake of the Body of Christ, the true Manna, will say, \"This is a\nhard saying,\" and will thenceforth no more walk with Him.\n\n\n\n\nXL.\n\n_RECEIVING AND REJECTING._\n\n3rd Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Luke, xv. 2.\n\n\"This Man receiveth sinners.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--In to-day's Gospel our Lord represents Himself as a Good\nShepherd seeking His lost sheep, going out into the wilderness after\nthem, to bring them back into the fold.\n\nThe fold is that place where He keeps His flock shut behind the hurdles\nof the Ten Commandments.  Every now and then a sheep leaps one of these\nhurdles, or pushes his way between them, and runs away into forbidden\npastures.  Then the Good Shepherd goes after the erring sheep, and\nbrings it back.  \"And when he cometh home, he calleth together his\nfriends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have\nfound my sheep which was lost.\"\n\nSUBJECT.--Christ is not always to be regarded as the Saviour receiving\nsinners.  The time will come when He will be the Judge, rejecting them.\nHe is a shepherd now, bringing back the straying sheep, and replacing\nthem in the fold, but one day He will do just the contrary, He will go\nto His fold, and pick out the incorrigibly bad sheep, and cast them out.\n\nI.  We will consider Him now as the Good Shepherd.  What is His purpose\nin bringing back the straying sheep?  That they may remain within\nbounds for the future.  Christ has come to save sinners, that is to\nsay, He brings them to repentance, and pardons their transgressions, in\norder that, for the future, they may walk in newness of life, and not\ncommit the sins of which they were guilty before.  Thus if He brings\nback one who has been a liar, it is to truth that he returns, and\nChrist expects him to speak the truth ever after.  If He brings back a\ndrunkard, it is to temperance, and He expects him to be sober for the\nfuture.  If He brings back one who has sinned through impurity, it is\nto chastity and modesty.  This is what S. Paul means when he says, \"Put\noff concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt\naccording to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your\nmind.  Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his\nneighbour.  Let him that stole steal no more, let no corrupt\nconversation proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the\nuse of edifying.  Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and\nclamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.  And\nbe ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another.\"\n\nII.  We will consider Christ as the Judge.  The time will come when He\nwill separate the bad from the good, when He will go over His fold, and\npick out all those diseased sheep which are good for nothing, and which\ntaint and infect the others, and will cast them outside.\n\nThat is to say, the time will come, when Christ will no more call\nsinners to Him, and bring them to His Church, but will examine those\nwho are in His Church, and unless they have mended their ways, unless\nthey have become better for being there, He will throw them out, and\nhave nothing further to do with them.\n\nWhen Joshua was leading the people of God into the Promised Land, God\nsaid to Joshua, \"Up!  Sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves\nagainst to-morrow.\"\n\nIn what did this sanctification consist?  \"Joshua rose early in the\nmorning, and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was\ntaken: and he brought the family of Judah; and took the family of the\nZarhites: and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man; and\nZabdi was taken: and he brought his household man by man; and Achan,\nthe son of Carmi was taken.\"  Then Joshua learned how this man had\nsinned and incurred the anger of God, and he and all Israel carried him\nand his family outside the camp unto the valley of Achor, \"and all\nIsrael stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they\nhad stoned them with stones.\"  That was the sanctification of\nIsrael,--the putting away the black sheep out of the flock.\n\nWhen Jesus sat with His Twelve in the supper chamber, at the Last\nSupper, Judas rose and went out, and when he was gone forth, Jesus\nsaid, \"Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.\"\nA little while before, while Judas was in the room, we are told, \"Jesus\nwas troubled in spirit.\"  But the moment the evil one among the\nApostles was cast forth, the glorification of the Son of Man began.\n\nSo it is now, and so will it be hereafter.\n\nNow, as long as there is evil in the Church, as long as there are\nsinners who will not amend, as long as there are tares growing up with\nthe wheat,--so long \"Jesus is troubled in spirit.\"  But when the great\nDay comes, when our true Joshua will lead the people of God into the\nPromised Land, then He will sanctify His people by casting out from\namong them the Achans; then from the company of His Elect the Judases\nwill be banished, and the Son of Man will be glorified indeed.\n\nCONCLUSION.--Therefore, my Brethren, be careful to amend.  You may have\nbeen strayed sheep who have been mercifully brought back to the fold,\nif so, amend your ways, and grow in holiness and in spiritual health;\nor in the Last Day you will be thrust forth as incurable, and the\nChildren of God will be sanctified, whilst you are buried in the valley\nof Achor.\n\n\n\n\nXLI.\n\n_RASH DECISIONS._\n\n4th Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Luke vi. 37.\n\n\"Judge not--condemn not--forgive.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--Our Lord here condemns all rash judgments.  We know not\nthe motives of other men's actions, and therefore have no right to pass\na sweeping condemnation upon them.  From our ignorance, we ought to be\ncautious and merciful in our judgments, and from our own weakness, we\nshould be forgiving to those who have trespassed against us.\n\nRash judgments arise from pride.  It is because we are puffed up with a\nhigh opinion of our own selves, our own goodness, the soundness of our\njudgment, the sharpness of our perception, that we are so prompt to\npass judgment on others.\n\nSUBJECT.--This same Pride urges us to something else, Persistency in\nmaintaining that on which we have determined, even after we know it is\nunwise.  It is of this which I am going to speak to-day.  This fault is\nso closely akin to rash judgment of others, that I may well address you\non the subject upon a Sunday when our Lord warns against the other.\n\nI.  Many a man, out of pride, sticks to what he says after he knows\nthat it is wrong.  He will not admit that he is wrong, or he is moved\nby a false sense of what is due to himself to hold to his word, or to\nhis opinion, when his conscience tells him that he is in error.  You\nmust have met with those stubborn persons who are not to be moved by\nany argument, not to be convinced by any proof, that they are wrong.\nThey have made up their minds once for all, and are no longer open to\nreverse their decision.\n\nLet us look to Scripture, and see if we have any examples of such.  I\nfind two; and one of these is in a man of whom we might have hoped\nbetter things--King David.\n\nI.  When David came to the kingdom, he was very anxious to show\nkindness to any son of Jonathan whom he might find; and he heard of\nMephibosheth, who was lame in both his feet, and at once made over to\nhim all the landed property that had belonged to King Saul, his\ngrandfather.  After seven years, Absalom, David's son, conspired\nagainst his father, and David was obliged to fly from Jerusalem, with a\nfew friends.  As David was escaping, there came to him Ziba, a servant\nof Mephibosheth, with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two\nhundred loaves of bread, and a hundred bunches of raisins, and an\nhundred of summer fruits, and a skin of wine.  Then David asked Ziba\nwhat these were for, and Ziba answered that he had brought them to the\nking as a present, thinking he might need them in his flight.  And the\nking asked after Mephibosheth; then Ziba said, \"O! he is at home in\nJerusalem, he said in my hearing, A good time is coming to me.  To-day\nshall the house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father.\"  Now\nall this was a wicked lie.  Mephibosheth had sent the present, and Ziba\nhad promised to tell David why his master could not come with him,\nbecause he was crippled in both his feet, and could not get about.  As\nfor any idea of recovering the throne of Saul, it had not once entered\nhis head.  Now when David heard the slander of Ziba, he was very angry\nwith Mephibosheth, and at once he judged him, and condemned him,\nwithout waiting to hear more, and said to Ziba, \"Behold, I will give\nthee all that belonged to Mephibosheth, if ever I get back to Jerusalem\nand recover my power.\"\n\nNot long after there was a great battle, and Absalom was slain, and the\nenemies of David put to flight.  Then David returned over Jordan from\nthe wilderness where he had taken refuge, and Mephibosheth met him.\nThis good man, full of love for David, \"had neither dressed his feet,\nnor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes,\" all the time of David's\nabsence, to shew his great grief.  David at once reproached him for his\ndisloyalty, and then only he heard how great a lie Ziba had told.  Then\nDavid answered, \"Why speakest thou any more of thy matters?  I have\nsaid, Thou and Ziba divide the land.\"  Mark the wicked injustice.  The\nlying, slanderous servant is rewarded with half the property of poor\nMephibosheth,--why?--because David had promised him the whole when\nmisinformed.  David knows that Ziba has acted falsely, yet, because he\nhad said to him that he should be given the land of his master, he\nkeeps his word to him, though he knows he is doing an injustice to\nMephibosheth.\n\nThere you have a pretty example of an obstinate man sticking to what he\nhas said, after he is convinced that he has been misled, and doing a\ngreat wrong rather than acknowledge that he had judged rashly, and\ncondemned on no good grounds.\n\nII.  I can give you another example.  King Herod was pleased with the\ndancing of the daughter of Herodias one evening at a supper, and he\nswore to her, when he was half tipsy, that he would give her what she\nliked in reward for her display.  Then she asked him to cut off the\nhead of S. John the Baptist, and give it her in a dish.  Now, as soon\nas she asked this, the king was sorry, for he knew that S. John was a\ngood man, and he knew also that he had no right to have a man murdered\nin prison to please the whim of a wicked woman; however, because he had\npassed his word, he was too proud and cowardly to go back from it, and\nrefuse her what she had no right to ask.  Then he sent an executioner,\nand he cut off the head of the saint, and put it in a dish, and it was\nbrought thus to the girl, and she carried it to her mother.\n\nIII.  A man is right to stick to his word, if his word be right.  He is\nright to stick to his promise, if he have promised that over which he\nhas a just right.  He is right to stick to his opinion if his opinion\nbe founded on good grounds, and if he have heard nothing that ought to\ncause him to alter it.\n\nBut--no man has any right to stick to his opinion simply because it is\nhis opinion.  He has no right to hold a promise which he had no right\nto make.  He has no right to adhere to a harsh judgment simply because\nhe has formed that judgment.\n\nWhen our Lord bids us not judge, He bids us be very cautious in forming\na decided opinion, and in sticking to it through thick and thin.  We\nknow so little here, and so imperfectly, that our opinions must be\nformed on uncertain grounds, and therefore we have no right to be\ntenacious about them.  Yet many persons are as touchy about their\nopinions as though it were a sacrilege to dispute them.  Some of the\ngreatest injustices have been done through obstinacy, in clinging to\nopinions that have become untenable.\n\nCONCLUSION.--Remember then the lessons taught you by our Lord in this\nday's Gospel, and also by the conduct of David.  Be very cautious of\nforming a judgment, and when you have formed one, do not allow Pride to\nstand in the way of confessing your fault, and changing your opinion,\nwhen you are given reasonable grounds for so doing.\n\n\n\n\nXLII.\n\n_THE SECRET OF SUCCESS._\n\n5th Sunday after Trinity\n\nS. Luke v. 5.\n\n\"We have taken nothing; nevertheless at Thy word, I will let down the\nnet.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--S. Peter and the other Apostles had been fishing all\nnight, and had met with no success at all, then Jesus entered into the\nboat of Simon, and bade him launch out and let down his net.  S. Peter\ndid not hesitate.  He had met with no success when fishing in the\nnight, nevertheless now, at the word of Christ, he fishes again, and\nthis time the net encloses a great multitude, so that the net breaks.\nNo doubt our Lord desired to show those who were to become fishers of\nmen that there were two ways of doing a thing, and that one way would\nbe successful and the other would not.\n\nIf they were going to become fishers of men, they must try to catch\nthem by carrying Christ, _i.e._ a Christlike spirit, with them, and the\nspirit of Christ is love and gentleness.  If they were to be successful\nin winning souls, they must have a loving zeal, and that would gain\nmore than hard work without love.\n\nSUBJECT.--We are all of us, in our several callings, fishers of souls.\nOf course, especially are the clergy fishers, but not they only, every\nman who loves God must seek to win souls for God, every man who is in\nthe net of the Church must seek to draw others into the same net.  If\nthe fisher is to be successful, he must fish in the spirit of Christ,\nthat is, actuated by love, and must deal gently with the souls he\ndesires to gain.\n\nI.  I say, we are all fishers.  Those of us who are parents desire to\ndraw to Christ the souls of our children, those who are masters, the\nsouls of their servants.  The husband seeks to win the wife, and the\nbelieving wife the husband.  \"What knowest thou, O wife,\" says S. Paul,\n\"whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man,\nwhether thou shalt save thy wife?\"\n\nThe servant seeks to win the fellow-servant, the labourer in the field\nhas the welfare of his fellow-labourer at heart, and seeks to draw him\nto God.  It was Cain who said, \"Am I my brother's keeper?\"  And the\nsame isolating, selfish spirit is in those who take no interest in\nthose they associate with, and do not seek their good.\n\nI was much struck last spring with something a gentleman said to me,\nwho had been a good deal in America; he was much surprised and struck\nwith the interest felt in England by the rich for the poor, by the\nmaster and mistress for their servants, by the landowner for his\ntenants, and he said to me, \"This seems to me the most marvellous thing\nI have seen in England.  With us a master cares not one snap of the\nfingers what becomes of the man he employs, he no more thinks of what\nbecomes of him than he does of a dollar that passes through his hands.\nHe sees that he does his work, and if the man dies, the master gets\nanother in his place to-morrow, and asks nothing about the man who has\ndisappeared.\"\n\nWell!  I thank God we are not come to that yet, however advanced we may\nbe in our independent ways; and it is not right and Christian that we\nshould.\n\nII.  Now we come to the way in which we are to try to draw other souls\nto Christ, the souls of our children, of our servants, of our\ncompanions, of our fellow-workers.  The first principle of success is\ngentleness.\n\nIn the 4th chapter of the 2nd book of Kings we have this story.  There\nwas a Shunammite woman who had an only son.  She was a good\nkind-hearted woman, who had shown much hospitality to the prophet\nElijah [Transcriber's note: Elisha?].  One day the little boy ran out\ninto the harvest field, when the sun was hot, and he had a sunstroke,\nand was very ill.  \"He said unto his father, My head, my head.  And he\nsaid to a lad, Carry him to his mother.  And when he had taken him and\nbrought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then he\ndied.  And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and\nshut the door upon him, and went out.\"  Then she ordered one of the\nservants to saddle an ass, and drive her to the prophet; and when she\nfound him, she told him the piteous story, and how the poor little\nfellow whom she loved so dearly, and who was such a darling of his\nfather, and such a pet of the old Elisha when he paid them his visits,\nwas lying white and dead upstairs on the bed.\n\nThen Elisha was sorely troubled, and he gave his staff to his servant,\nGehazi, and made him run as fast as he could to the house of the\nShunammite.  \"Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and\ngo thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute\nthee, answer him not again; and lay my staff upon the face of the\nchild.\"  Gehazi obeyed, but it was of no use.  \"He laid the staff upon\nthe face of the child: but there was neither voice, nor hearing.\"  Then\nElisha came himself, and he shut the door, and laid himself beside the\nlittle body, and put his lips to the lips of the child, and his warm\nloving heart against the little dead heart, and took the chill hands in\nhis.  Then the spirit of the child came back into him again, and he sat\nup, and Elisha delivered him alive to his mother.\n\nNow this story contains some lesson for us.  And this is the short\ncomment on the miracle by an old writer, \"Him whom the rod of terror\nwill not rouse, _love_ will.\"  Or in other words, we may learn by this\nthat gentleness will succeed where harshness will fail.\n\nIn the time when all the north of England was heathen, there was an\nassembly held at Iona to decide who should preach the gospel to the\nEnglish of Northumbria.  Then one missionary was sent, and after having\nlaboured for some years, he came back to give an account of his\nmission.  And a council was held, and he said, \"Those Northumbrians are\na stiff-necked, hard-hearted people.  I threatened them with God's\nwrath, I spoke to them of Hell-fire, I warned them of the terrors of\njudgment, I denounced the vengeance of God on them, and they would not\nbe converted.\"  Then one sitting in a bark seat said, \"My brother, it\nseems to me that you went the wrong way to work.  You should have gone\nin love, and not in wrath.  You should have tried to win, and not to\ndrive.\"  All eyes were turned en the speaker, and it was decided with\none voice that he should be sent, and he went.  His name was Aidan--and\nhe was the Apostle of all Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire.  He\nhad the joy to see the whole people bow their necks to receive the yoke\nof Christ.\n\nWhat says S. Paul?  \"What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or\nin love, and in the spirit of meekness?\"  If he had come with the rod,\nhe would have gone back disappointed.\n\nCONCLUSION.--Let us then, dear brethren, in dealing with the souls of\nothers, approach them, not with the rod, or we shall fail to awake them\nto a new and better life, but in love, and in the spirit of gentleness,\nand then we shall meet, I doubt not, with good success.\n\n\n\n\nXLIII.\n\n_PERSISTENCY IN WRONG DOING._\n\n6th Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Matt. v. 25.\n\n\"Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with\nhim.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--I spoke to you the Sunday before last about the\nobstinacy of persisting in an opinion after you have good cause to\nbelieve that this opinion is unjust, or unreasonable.  I am going to\nspeak to you to-day of another form of obstinacy.\n\nSUBJECT.--My subject is Persistency in doing wrong, because you have\nbegun wrong.  This is only another form of the same fault.  The other\nis thinking wrong persistently, this is perseverance in doing wrong.\nAnd the source of both is the same, Pride.  Pride stands in the way of\naltering an erroneous opinion, and in the way of altering a wrongful\ncourse of action.\n\nI.  In the tenth chapter of the second book of Samuel we have a\nstriking story of the way in which a man having once done a wrong,\npersists in it, and it brings about his ruin.\n\nKing David, when firmly established on his throne, began to look about\nhim to see who had been kind to him in his day of adversity, and to\nreward, or thank them.  He showed his gratitude to the memory of his\nfriend Jonathan by investing his son Mephibosheth with his\ngrandfather's property.  Then he remembered that Nahash the King of\nAmmon had shown him hospitality, and he heard also that he was just\ndead.  So David said, \"I will show kindness unto Hanun the son of\nNahash, as his father showed kindness unto me.\"  And David sent to\ncomfort him by the hand of his servants for his father.\n\nThe message was kindly intended.  David wished to show that he was not\nforgetful of past favours, that he was ready to make a lasting\nfriendship with Hanun, and he desired to exhibit his sympathy with the\nson for the loss of his father.  These were the three motives actuating\nDavid, all good.  Now, how did Hanun act?  One would naturally suppose\nthat he would appreciate these motives, and that he would be glad, when\nscarce settled on his throne, to secure the powerful friendship of King\nDavid.  No!--he was young, insolent, inconsiderate, and fond of\npractical joking,--a vulgar-minded fellow, puffed up with conceit at\nhis elevation to power.  Hanun took the servants, the ambassadors of\nDavid, and shaved off half their beards, and cut off the lower half of\nall their clothes, and sent them back to David.  And when it was told\nunto David that his messengers had been thus ignominiously treated, \"he\nsent to meet them, because the men were greatly ashamed, and said,\nTarry at Jericho, until your beards be grown, and then return.\"  As\nsoon as Hanun and his Ammonites had done this, what was their next\nstep?--As perhaps you are aware, by the laws of civilized and\nuncivilized people, the persons of ambassadors are held to be sacred.\nTherefore Hanun had not only done an insolent, and utterly blackguard\ntrick, but he had gone against one of the first laws of nations.  What\nhe ought to have done, was at once to send to David a most humble\napology, with an acknowledgment that he had acted wrongly.  But he was\ntoo proud for this.  He would not admit that he had erred.  He at once\nsent and hired the Syrians of Beth-rehob, and the Syrians of Zoba,\ntwenty thousand foot soldiers, and of King Maacah a thousand men, and\nof Ish-tob twelve thousand men, so that this malicious trick began to\nshew that it was an expensive one.  Then David's army drew up in array\nagainst this army of Ammon and their hired allies, and at once, all the\nmercenaries ran away.  So then there was nothing for it but for the\nAmmonites to return as quickly as possible within the walls of their\ncity.  Now, what should Hanun have done?  It was clear that David was\nnot eager to punish him, for he had not even sent his army against\nAmmon till Hanun had collected the great host against him, and as soon\nas the Ammonites, deserted by their auxiliaries, had retired within\ntheir walls, the army of David had not pressed them, but gone quietly\nback to Jerusalem.  What then ought Hanun to have done?  Of course, he\nshould now have sent his apology, and said how wrongly he had acted,\nhow ashamed of himself he was, and how desirous he was to have the past\nforgotten.  But no, having done wrong once, his pride would not let him\nacknowledge it, and he went on.  He now engaged Hadarezar, King of the\nSyrians, and this time there was a great battle, and David slew of the\nSyrians seven hundred chariots, and forty thousand horsemen, and smote\nthe captain of their host, so that he was left dead on the field, and\nall the Syrians who could escape ran away for their lives.  Then\nHadarezer had had quite enough of fighting against Israel, and he made\npeace with David, and \"So the Syrians feared to help the children of\nAmmon any more.\"  Now the Ammonites were left completely without\nauxiliaries.  What chance was there for them?  Still David did not\npress them.  A whole year passed, and he made no move.  He was waiting\nfor an apology.  But no.  That headstrong Hanun was still too proud to\nmake it.  He would die with all his people rather than say he had done\nwrong.  So, at the end of a year, David sent his army against the\nAmmonites, and destroyed them utterly.  He killed Hanun, and took away\nhis crown, and plundered his capital town, and ruined all his cities.\nThat was the end of one practical joke unapologised for.\n\nII.  In the Gospel for to-day, our Lord warns against the same\nhard-headedness in persisting in refusing an apology, and to make up\nfriendship that has been broken.  \"Agree with thine adversary quickly,\nwhile thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary\ndeliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer,\nand thou be cast into prison.  Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no\nmeans come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.\"  He\nurges Christians when they have done an injury to any, frankly to\nconfess it, to put their pride in their pocket, and to ask forgiveness.\nIt is not an easy thing to do, to acknowledge that you have done wrong,\nbut there is more true courage in doing so, than in persevering in\nspite of the consequences, in wrong doing.  Many a lasting and\nmiserable quarrel has arisen because at the outset one little word has\nnot been said, which would have made all things smooth.  Two families\nbecome estranged and bitterly hostile, because some one has reported to\nthe mother in one, that the mother in the other had made a disparaging\nremark about her.  A little word, and all would be explained, and set\nto rights.  \"Let not the sun go down on your wrath,\" says the Apostle,\nand an excellent piece of advice this is:--Make up all quarrels the\nsame day that they break out.\n\nThere was a good old bishop of Alexandria called John the Almsgiver,\nand he and the Governor of the city were great friends.  Something\noccurred which made a breach between them.  If I remember aright, it\nwas this.  The bishop was very charitable, and was always urging the\nrich people to give to the poor, and they were constantly sending him\nmoney to distribute among the sick and needy.  Now at this time the\nGovernor had experienced some difficulty in raising the taxes, and this\nruffled his temper.  He was on a visit to the Bishop, when he saw on\nthe stairs a number of servants of a rich lady bringing up, as a\npresent to the bishop some pots, labelled \"Virgin Honey.\"  The Governor\nsaid he did not believe they were pots of honey, but pots of gold, and\nwhen the bishop offered to open them and let him see for himself, he\ndashed out of the door in a rage, and said, \"No wonder I can't get\nmoney in taxes when you swindle it out of the people, to feed the\nbeggars on honey.\"  When the Governor was gone, the old Bishop was very\ntroubled, and he sat in his room all the rest of the day, waiting for\nthe Governor to come and make it up with him.  But no! the Governor was\nfuming with anger and would do no such thing.  That evening the\nGovernor had a party, and as he was sitting at table with the guests, a\nlittle scrap of paper was put on his plate, a servant of the Bishop had\nbrought it.  The Governor took it up and saw, \"Dear old Friend--THE SUN\nIS SETTING.\"  Then his heart relented, he excused himself to his\nguests, and ran to the house of the Bishop, and they fell into one\nanother's arms and made friends again.\n\nCONCLUSION.--Now remember this story.  Whenever you have a quarrel with\nanother, let not the sun go down on your wrath.  Make it up before set\nof sun.\n\n\n\n\nXLIV.\n\nTHE MEASURE OF SIN.\n\n7th Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Mark viii. 2.\n\n\"I have compassion on the multitude.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--In to-day's Gospel we see the tender compassion of our\nLord for those who came into the wilderness to hear Him.  This is only\none example out of many of His great love and mercy: and indeed \"His\nmercy is over all His works.\"  \"Thou, O Lord,\" says David, \"art full of\ncompassion and mercy, long-suffering and truth.\"  This is a verity of\nwhich we are so convinced that it is quite possible we may overlook the\nother truth, that His mercy, though unlimited in extent, is limited in\nits application.  His mercy is extended for a definite purpose, and\nwhen it ceases to avail for this purpose, then it ceases to flow.  What\nthat purpose is, S. Paul tells us.  \"Knowest thou not,\" he says, \"that\nthe goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.\"  That is, God is\nmerciful that we may amend, not in order that we may continue in sin.\nNow, if men thought that when they had fallen into grievous sin there\nwas no more a hope of recovery, then they would sink into despair, and\nbecome hard and impenitent.  But that this may not be the case, God\nassures us of His mercy, but he assures us of His mercy only to insure\nour amendment.\n\nSUBJECT.--It seems plain from Holy Scripture that to each man there is\na fixed measure of sin, and that if he fills that measure, after that\nthere is no place for repentance, and no more pardon.  This is a very\nterrible truth,--but a truth it is, as I shall show you.\n\nI.  There was a nation of Canaan called the Amorites, and God promised\nto Abraham that He would give their land to his descendants, but that\nHe could not give it yet without injustice.  The land was in the\npossession of the Amorites, a people on their trial, and till the day\nof their probation was expired, their kingdom could not be taken from\nthem.  \"In the fourth generation,\" God said, \"thy seed shall come\nhither, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.\"  Now\nactually it was not till four hundred and seventy years later that the\ndestruction of the Amorites was accomplished.  Four generations after\nAbraham, that is some two hundred and forty years after, the measure of\ntheir iniquities was full, and yet they existed on till Joshua crossed\nJordan with the Israelites, and then they were all put to the sword.\n\nIn the New Testament we hear the Jews addressed as though they also had\na measure of sin they must fill up before God would forsake them.  Our\nLord says to them, \"Ye are the children of them which killed the\nprophets.  Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.  Ye serpents,\nye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of Hell?\nBehold I send unto you prophets, and wise-men, and scribes: and some of\nthem ye shall kill and crucify: and persecute them from city to city:\nthat upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth,\nfrom the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of\nBarachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.\"  The Jewish\nnation had done great wickedness, but the measure of their iniquities\nwas not full till they had rejected Christ, and had refused to listen\nto His Apostles, and the Holy Ghost speaking through their mouths.\nTill then He would not cast them off entirely.\n\nII.  David prays to God, \"Lord, let me know the number of my days, that\nI may be certified how long I have to live.\"  No doubt, God has fixed\nfor all men a certain length of life.  No doubt also He has set for\neach a certain limit of forbearance; a line, an invisible line drawn\nsomewhere, and He says to man, Thus far mayest thou go, and I will\nstill be merciful and pardon, but no further.  Transgress that line,\nand I forgive no more.  My Spirit will not always strive with man.\n\nIn those cases which I have quoted to you, God is dealing with nations,\nbut He deals with individuals in the same way.  His laws are uniform;\nas He deals with an assemblage of people, so He deals with single\nindividuals.  If He fixes a bound to nations, beyond which they cannot\ngo without His forsaking them, it is because there is the law, which is\nof general application to all human beings; a law applying to single\npersons, and to persons in the aggregate.\n\nIn the Prophet Amos we read a message from God to Judah, \"Thus saith\nthe Lord: For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not\nturn away the punishment thereof.\"  This means, if I mistake not, Judah\nhas committed some two or three gross sins, and I was ready to turn\naway the punishment, had there been a sign of repentance, but when to\nthe three they added a fourth, then it was too late.  The time of\nrepentance was past, and the punishment threatened must fall.\n\nAnd now perhaps you can understand a saying of S. John in his first\nEpistle.  He says:--\"If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not\nunto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin\nnot unto death.  There is a sin unto death, I do not say that he shall\npray for it.\"  S. John is not speaking here of what we call mortal\nsins, but of mortal sins continued till the measure is filled up, and\nwhen the last sin has been added which completes the measure, that is\nthe sin unto death, which it avails nothing to pray for, for that sin\nends in death.  Before, there was life, spiritual life, perhaps\nflickering, but extant, then comes the last sin, and the life is gone\nout, all is dark, and dead, and cold, no more fanning of the black\nashes is of any avail, the fire is out and cannot be revived.\n\nIII.  How does God deal with those who have gone beyond this measure?\nIn one of two ways.  Either:--\n\n1.  There comes a sudden call,--a sudden death-sickness or accident\ncuts them off.  Or:--\n\n2.  Dead impenitence settles over the soul, which no longer wishes for\nanything better, which feels no desire for pardon.\n\nOf the first case, we have instances in Scripture.  King Belshazzar had\ncommitted many transgressions, he was weighed in the balances, but\nstill found wanting in the final and irreversible act of wickedness,\ntill that night when he brought out the sacred vessels used in the\ntemple to drink out of them at his riotous banquet in his palace.  That\nact of sacrilege was the one sin which weighed down the balance.  What\nsays the sacred text?  \"In that night was Belshazzar the King of the\nChaldeans slain.\"  I may instance also Judas, who having for long been\na thief, added to his former sins the one last and terrible sin of\nselling his Master, and then a fit of madness came over him in which he\nhung himself.\n\nBut sometimes hardness and impenitence is the result.  The conscience\nis dead, and, to use S. Paul's words, \"there remains no more sacrifice\nfor sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery\nindignation, which shall devour the adversaries.\"\n\nCONCLUSION.--Let us, therefore, be very cautious of adding sin to sin,\nthat grace may abound, but rather fly from it as from the face of a\nserpent.  We know not what is the number of our days determined by God,\nand we know not what is the number of our sins beyond which there is no\nforgiveness.\n\n\n\n\nXLV.\n\n_CASTING BLAME._\n\n8th Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Matt. vii. 15.\n\n\"Inwardly they are ravening wolves.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--A Schoolmaster finds one day that several of his\nscholars are playing truant.  The morning passes and they do not\narrive.  At last, in the afternoon, the truants turn up.  The master\nhas a strong suspicion where they have been: however, he asks, \"Why\nwere you not at school this morning?\"  \"Please, sir, mother kept me at\nhome to mind the baby.\"  \"Indeed--let me look at your mouth.\"  He opens\nthe mouth, and finds it black inside.  \"Ah!  I thought as much,\nrambling in the woods, picking and eating whortleberries.\"  So with the\nothers, they make their excuses, but he looks into their mouths, and\nthe black colour betrays them.\n\nNow, my friends, I am almost afraid to look in your mouths, lest I\nshould see them black, not with whortleberries, but with something much\nsweeter, blame and fault-finding.  You are, I suspect, all of you\nnearly fond of abusing your neighbours, of finding fault, of telling\nunkind things of them, of blackening their good names.\n\nSUBJECT.--I am going to take as my subject to-day the Casting of Blame.\n\nI.  \"Be ye merciful,\" said our Lord, \"even as your Father which is in\nheaven is merciful.\"  He did not mean only in our dealings with others,\nto be merciful to their bodies, and merciful in not exacting debts, and\nmerciful in not punishing neglect, and so forth, but He meant also that\nwe were to be merciful with their characters.  We are not to be ready\nto impute evil, not ready to cast blame, not ready to believe hard\nthings of others and retail them to our neighbours, but to be very slow\nto suspect evil, very slow to charge it on others, and exceedingly slow\nto say what is evil of others.\n\n\"Charity,\" says S. Paul, \"is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil,\nrejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all\nthings, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.\"\nIt seems to me, that charity is the exact reverse of this\nfault-finding, blame-imputing character.  \"Charity thinketh no evil,\"\nbut how is it with you?  Do you not always suspect that the motives of\npeople are bad, do you not always think people are worse than they\nreally are?  \"Charity rejoiceth not in iniquity.\"  Ha! there is a bit\nof scandal, something very bad has come out about So and so.  What a\nrunning about from house to house! the village is like a hive of bees\nswarming.  Do you mean to tell me it is not a delight, a joy to you, to\nhave this little bit of iniquity to talk about?  I know better.\n\"Charity rejoiceth not in iniquity,\" but charity is not to be found in\nthat tittle-tattling, excited crowd of talkers.  \"Charity believeth all\nthings\"--will, that is, believe and trust, as long as it is possible,\nthat people are not so bad after all, that the stories told are not\ntrue, and \"Charity hopeth all things,\" hopes even against hope that it\nis so.\n\nO! what a blessed thing is charity!  S. Paul said he would rather have\nthat, than be able to speak with tongues, and to prophesy; he would\nrather have that than work miracles.  It is a better thing even to have\nthat than Faith.  But, alas! if it be such a good thing, it is also a\nvery rare one.\n\nII.  How very often we cast blame when there is no cause, and are\ntherefore guilty of serious injustice.\n\nI was one day walking in the street of a little town, when a poor\ninoffensive dog passed me.  He went quietly along without a thought of\ndoing anyone an injury, when he happened to pass a knot of boys just\ncome out of school.  At once one of the urchins took up a stone and\nthrew it at him, the others clapped their hands, and hooted after him,\n\"Hit him!  Knock him over!  Mad dog!\"  Away ran the unhappy cur, and\nall the boys yelling after him, throwing dirt, and striking at him with\nsticks.  What next?  Everyone in the street ran to the door, and saw\nthe brute tearing down the way, with his tail between his legs.  Then\nout of every door rushed all the house-dogs, the butcher's dog, and the\ncoach-dog, and even the little lap-dog jumped up, and ran down stairs,\nand out of the door, to join in the barking, and away went all the dogs\nof the place after the poor wretch.  There was a tumult!  And the\npeople in their doors and at their windows shouted, and one said, \"Kill\nhim! he is mad!\" and another, \"He has bitten a woman!\" and another, \"He\nhas stolen some meat!\" and another, \"He has knocked over a child!\"\n\nNow all this arose from one boy throwing a stone at a harmless dog.\nAnd all the things said about the dog were untrue.  The proverb was\nverified, \"Give a dog a bad name, and you may hang him.\"\n\nIs not this very much like what takes place among men?  Someone throws\nblame on a poor harmless person for no cause in the world but out of\nsheer malevolence, or love of mischief, and at once others join in.\nEveryone has something to say, everyone joins in the general abuse.  No\nlack of blame.  No lack of unkind things said.  And--all untrue, all\nunjust!\n\nI do not mean to say that when a person has done what is wrong we are\nnot to speak of it at all; but what I do say is, that we should be very\ncareful indeed not to cast blame till we are quite sure that we are\njustified in doing so.  \"As for this way, we know that it is everywhere\nspoken against,\" was what was said of Christianity.  All sorts of bad,\nlying things were said of the early Christians, that they killed and\nate children, that they practised horrible idolatries: the stories were\nnot true, but they were believed, simply because everyone said these\nthings were done.\n\nIII.  Now this is the advice I give you:--\n\n_a_.  Be sure that blame is just before you cast it.\n\n_b_.  Be merciful in attributing blame even when it is deserved.\n\nFirst:--Be sure that you have real cause to cast blame, be sure that\nyou are not committing a great injustice, and doing another a grievous\ninjury which is unmerited.\n\n\"Do to others as you would they should do to you.\"  Consider how\nmiserable you would feel were you the subject of unmerited blame.\n\nSecondly:--Be merciful in attributing blame even when it is deserved.\nRemember that you yourself are not guiltless.  There are things that\nyou have done which deserve censure quite as much as those things you\nblame in others.  One day a woman, taken in adultery, was brought\nbefore Christ, and the Jews desired to stone her to death because of\nher sin.  Then our Lord said, \"He that is without sin among you, let\nhim first cast a stone at her.\"  And when they heard it, being\nconvicted by their own consciences, they went out, one by one,\nbeginning at the eldest even unto the last.\n\nI say to you: when you are inclined to cast blame, even when just,\nthink, \"Am I without sin, that I should judge and condemn another?\"\n\n\n\n\nXLVI.\n\n_PETTY DISHONESTY._\n\n9th Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Luke xvi, 3, 4.\n\n\"What shall I do?--I am resolved what to do.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--The dishonest Steward in to-day's Gospel shows us the\nnatural tendency of the human heart when in a scrape--to have recourse\nto dishonesty to escape from it.  He knows that he is about to be\nturned out of his stewardship because he has been wasteful--not\ndishonest, but wasteful.  He has not been a prudent and saving steward,\nbut a sort of happy-go-lucky man who has not kept the accounts\ncarefully, and has been content so long as he has not lost much money.\nSo soon as he sees himself about to be turned out of his stewardship,\nhe is wakened out of his easy-going ways with a shock, and he says to\nhimself, \"Here am I in a predicament!  I shall lose my livelihood, and\nam not likely to get another situation; I am too old to work with my\nhands for my living, and I have too much self-respect to try.  What can\nI do?--I am resolved what to do.  I will cheat my master.\"\n\nSUBJECT.--I believe that a very similar process goes on now-a-days in a\ngreat many hearts.  Bad times come.  What is to be done?  There is\nnothing for it but to be just a little bit dishonest.  Honesty won't\npay.  So the manufacturer weaves bad silk, and makes shoddy cloth, and\nthe wine-merchant doctors his wine, and the brewer his ale, and the\nmilkman puts water into his milk, and the butterman sells butter made\nof Thames mud, and the calico is dressed with chalk, and the ready-made\nclothes come to pieces because the thread's ends are not fastened, and\nthe farm work is half done, and the whole trade and commerce of the\ncountry is one great system of adulteration and petty cheating.\n\nI.  Abraham was a very scrupulous man.  In all his dealings he was\nperfectly just and honourable.  Once five kings came into the valley of\nthe Jordan, and made a sudden onslaught on the towns there; they\ncarried away all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and thoroughly sacked\nthe cities.  They did not only that, but they carried off as well a\ngreat number of the inhabitants as captives.  Then Abraham lent his\nservants to the king of Sodom to help him to recover the booty and\nliberate the captives, and there was a battle, the result of which was\nthat the five kings were defeated, and all the spoil and the prisoners\nrecovered.  Then the King of Sodom offered Abraham the booty in\nrepayment for his valuable services.  He said, \"Give me the persons,\nand take the goods to thyself.\"  But Abraham answered, \"No!  I will not\ntake from a thread even to a shoe-latchet, and I will not take any\nthing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abraham\nrich.\"  Now, this was just an occasion when he might have fairly\nclaimed remuneration from the recovered plunder, but no! he was far too\nscrupulous.  He knew of what that plunder consisted--it was made up of\nthe household goods of the inhabitants of the towns of Sodom and\nGomorrah; of all the sticks of furniture, and clothes, and crockery,\nand household ornaments that the people valued.  He would not deprive\nthem of one, lest they should think that Abraham had enriched himself\nat their expense.  He puts an extreme case,--lest some poor woman\nshould lament that she had lost all her thread wherewith to mend her\ntorn clothes, and say, \"Ah!  I had plenty of thread once, but Abraham\nhas it now,\" or another should say, \"I have no buckle to my shoe,\nAbraham has taken of the spoil, and my shoe-buckle he has got now.\"\n\nWell, now listen to what follows immediately.  This upright conduct of\nAbraham so pleased God, that we read, \"After these things the word of\nthe Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abraham: I am\nthy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.\"\n\nHow many are there now who act like Abraham?  How many who fear lest it\nshould be said of them that they had been enriched by those whose money\nthey had no right to take?  There would be fewer failing banks, and the\nlittle stores of widows and orphans swallowed up, were the bankers more\nof the mind of Abraham.  There would be fewer swindling speculations\nswallowing up the savings of the thrifty, if men shrank from taking\nthat which is not lawfully and fairly their own.\n\nII.  All purchases, and all agreements for labour, are contracts.  The\npurchaser asks for one thing, and of that thing a certain amount, and\nif for his money he is given another thing, or a smaller amount than\nthat for which he has paid, then there is dishonesty.  If you went to a\nshop and asked for a pound of tea, and were given something which was\nnot tea, or tea which weighed less than a pound, you would be dealt\nwith dishonestly.  So if you go into another shop to buy flannel, and\npurchase three yards, and then when you come home and measure it, you\nfind that it is six inches short, you would have been dealt with\ndishonestly.  In both cases you would be exceedingly angry with the\ntraders, and justly so.  But consider, do you always act justly with\nyour employers?  When you are hired for a day's work, do you give good\nwork?  And is the time just measure?  Or is there much idling and\ntalking when you are unobserved?\n\nLet there be honour and fairness all round.  How would you like to be\npaid in clipped coin, that was not full weight?  And yet you have no\nscruple in giving clipped time, and work in short weight.  I speak\nplainly about this, for it is a crying evil of the day.  There is\neverywhere apparent a lack of conscientiousness in the dealings of man\nwith man.  We used to do a large trade with our manufactures in Europe\nand the East, and now we have to a large extent lost it--because we\nhave sent out bad material and sold it as good.  It is a common\ncomplaint that men do not work now as well as of old in every\ndepartment of industry.  They rob their masters of time and labour,\nwhich they have contracted to give.  Then the masters say, \"What shall\nwe do?--we are resolved what we will do, we will make up the loss by\nadulteration of our goods.\"  Then purchasers discover this and refuse\nto buy, so the trade of the country declines.\n\nIII.  Remember, then, in all your transactions, how Abraham dealt with\nthe King of Sodom, and how God rewarded him for his honesty, and you\nmay be very sure that God will not overlook you if you deal with others\nfaithfully.  The eye of God is over all, and He sees whether you fulfil\nyour obligations honestly or not, and He will certainly bless\nabundantly those who recognise His presence.  S. Paul bids all who\nserve others--we all do that in one way or another--do their duty, not\nwith eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as though they were working for\nChrist, not as if they were doing the will of man, but the will of God,\nfrom the heart, \"Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the\nsame shall he receive of the Lord.\"\n\n\n\n\nXLVII.\n\n_THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN._\n\n10th Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Luke xix, 42.\n\n\"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things\nwhich belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--I spoke to you the other day about the measure of sin,\nand showed you that there was a certain limit allotted to every man,\nbeyond which he could not go and still expect forgiveness, a point in\nthe downward course at which the Holy Spirit will cease to strive to\nhold him back.  We see in this day's Gospel that there is also a Day of\nGrace, a period, that is, during which God is ready to give pardon and\nstrength and guidance, and that if this Day of Grace be wasted, then\nthose things belonging to our eternal peace which were offered are\nwithdrawn, or hidden from the eyes.  This is, in fact, the same thing\nas what I said about the measure of sin; after a time of sin and\nneglect, the opportunity for redeeming the past is lost beyond recall,\nand that time is measured out by the amount of the transgressions of\nthe person or the people with whom God is dealing.\n\nSUBJECT.--I am not, however, going to speak to you again on this\nsubject from another aspect, but of sin itself, and the consequences it\nbrings.  Those consequences we overlook.  We believe that God for\nChrist's sake pardons sin and wipes away transgressions, but we forget\naltogether that He does not deliver us from the consequences of sin,\nor, at least, not from all of them.\n\nI.  Sin is the transgression of God's commandment.  And it entails\nthree consequences.  1. It separates from God.  2. It entails\npunishment.  3. It leaves a stain.\n\nGod has given His Commandments for the good of men.  They are the\nmaxims by which they must rule their conduct, in order that the world\nmay go on in peace and orderliness, and that they may remain in\ncommunion with Him.  Sin is the violation of this law, the break-up of\norder, the disturbance of peace, and the interruption of communion.\n\nII.  _It separates from God_.  When mortal sin has been committed, the\nflow of divine grace is arrested, just as when something gets into a\npipe it chokes it, so that the stream of water can no longer run till\nthe stoppage is removed.  Thus the presence of mortal sin in the\nconscience at once cuts off from the favour of God, and prevents growth\nin the spiritual life.  The sinner is guilty in the sight of God, and\nif he die in unpardoned deadly sin, stands in great danger of being\nlost.\n\nNow, here it is that Christ intervenes.  He reconciles the sinner to\nthe Father, and He takes away the barrier which separates them.  He\nremoves the stoppage which interferes with the flow of Grace.  In one\nword, He removes the guilt.  That is the work of the Atonement.  For\nthis Christ died.  But for the Cross of Calvary, man, once alienated\nfrom God by sin, must remain in alienation.  \"Christ,\" says S. Paul,\n\"having made peace through the blood of the Cross, hath reconciled all\nthings unto Himself.  And you, that were sometimes alienated and\nenemies in your mind by wicked works, now hath He reconciled in the\nbody of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable\nand unreproveable in God's sight.\"\n\n_It entails suffering_.  God's law is that all sin must be\npunished--that is, where there is transgression, suffering must follow.\nWhen a man squanders his fortune by extravagance, he may bitterly\nrepent, but he continues to suffer for his folly.  When a man has got\ndrunk, he may be full of sorrow for what he has done, but he has a\nheadache next day all the same.  When a woman has lost her character,\nshe may weep tears of bitter repentance, and God may pardon her as He\npardoned Magdalen, but she can never recover her character, and must\nsuffer the consequences of her act.  In this world or in the next, all\nsin must be expiated by suffering.  Christ by His death removed the\nguilt of sin, but not the suffering for sin.  S. Peter bids us remember\nthat suffering remains a consequence, for he exhorts us, \"Forasmuch as\nChrist hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with\nthe same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from\nsin.\"  That is, the sin is wholly expiated only when the suffering it\nbrings after it has been undergone.\n\n_It leaves a stain or scar_.  No man is the same after sinning as he\nwas before.  The sin may be forgiven and suffered for, but the scar\nremains on his soul.  The soul as it leaves the hand of God is white\nand innocent, in its passage through life it meets with many\nself-inflicted wounds, these wounds of the soul are sin.  Thus it\nsuffers till the wound is healed, and the medicine of the soul is the\nblood of Christ.  The blood heals, but the scar remains.  The soul, as\nseen by God and angels, is marked all over with the traces of the sins\nwhich have torn it.  The baptized child is given a robe of innocence\nwhite as snow.  Every sin is a stain upon it, and if you could see now,\nas angels see, your baptismal garment, you would find it spotted and\nsmeared all over.  Suppose I were to take this surplice and splash it\nover with ink, I might with much labour take out the ink stains, but\nnever so entirely cleanse it that no trace remains.  Or I might walk in\nit through the bushes, and get it torn with the thorns and brambles.\nThen all the rents might be carefully darned up, but--the surplice\nwould never look as sound and beautiful as when new.\n\nThis is precisely like the state of the soul after sin, it is torn and\nstained, and although the sins may be forgiven, and the stains washed,\nand the rents healed, yet to the end of life the marks remain of where\nthey have been, the effects are uneffaced.\n\nIII.  Now what are some of these effects?  In the first place, every\nsin weakens the soul.  It takes from it not only its innocence, but its\npower of resistance.  Just as a wound weakens you by the loss of blood,\nso a sin weakens you by loss of resisting power.  You are not so strong\nto fight against evil after sinning as you were before.\n\nIn the second place, you have become more careless and even hardened\nabout sin than you were before.  When you have a new coat or gown, you\nare very careful of it that it be not spotted and torn, but once it\nloses its first newness, you are not so particular, and the more\nspotted and torn it becomes, the less you care for the injuries done\nit, you say, \"It is an old dress and very much used, another stain or\npatch does not matter.\"  So with the soul, when you have become\naccustomed to sinning, you no longer dread sin.\n\nCONCLUSION.--And now remember, in this thy day, the things that belong\nto thy peace, and dread sin for its consequences, lest by over much\nconfidence you may exceed your measure, and then the chance of recovery\nwill be gone from you for ever.\n\n\n\n\nXLVIII.\n\n_SELF-INSPECTION._\n\n11th Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Luke xviii., 13.\n\n\"The Publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes\nunto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me\na sinner.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--I have spoken to you on former occasions pretty strongly\nupon the evil of backbiting, slandering, and casting of blame without\nsufficient cause.  I am not going to address this day those who speak\nevil, but those of whom evil is spoken.\n\nThe Publican in the Parable stood far from the Pharisee, who had no\ngood word for him, even in his prayer, and he took a great deal of\nblame to heart, and prayed to God for mercy on him for his\nshortcomings.  No doubt the Publican was well aware in what estimation\nhe was held by the people, and how utterly he was despised by the\nPharisee.  The Publican was the tax-gatherer, and as the tax-gatherers\nin those days were often hard men, and exacted more than was due to the\nState, that they might pocket the difference, the general opinion was\nthat they were all of them dishonest men, and men without hearts.  This\nwas not true, we know, of this Publican, nor of Zacchaeus, nor of Levi,\nwho are commended in the Gospel.  Perhaps this Publican who was\npraying, saw the Pharisee cast a contemptuous glance at him, perhaps he\neven heard the words of his prayer, but if so, he made no attempt at\njustifying himself.  His prayer was not, \"God, I am not what other men\nsay of me, unjust, hard-hearted, peculating, exacting: on the contrary,\nI am strictly honest in my dealings, and I am very forbearing and\ntender-hearted, and I do not press for payment when no money is to be\ngot.\"  No! nothing of the sort! all he says is--\"God, be merciful to\nme, a sinner.\"\n\nSUBJECT.--I would have those who are blamed by others, instead of\nmanifesting great eagerness to excuse themselves, and clamouring\nagainst those who speak against them, look into their own hearts and\nlives, and see if there be not something blameworthy there.\n\nI.  King Philip of Macedon was informed by some of his courtiers that\none of his officers, Nicanor by name, was always speaking evil of him,\nthat wherever Nicanor was, there he did nothing but grumble against the\nking, and disparage and blame him.  What was to be done?  Should he be\narrested and thrown into prison.  \"No!\" said King Philip, \"Before\npunishing Nicanor, I must look and see whether I have not given\noccasion for this abuse of me.\"  Then the king thought things over, and\nit occurred to him for the first time that he had not rewarded Nicanor\nfor some signal services he had rendered him.  By some oversight no\nnotice had been taken of Nicanor, though he had risked his life for the\nking.  Then Philip sent for him, and gave him a good appointment, which\nbrought him in a handsome income, and was one of great honour.  Some\nwhile after, Philip said to his courtiers, \"How does Nicanor speak of\nme now?\"  They answered that he was never weary of praising the king.\nThen Philip said, \"Do you not see? it lies in ourselves whether we are\nwell or evil spoken of.\"\n\nIt is seldom indeed that you will escape blame, that evil of some sort\nwill not be spoken about you.  When that is the case, remember what\nPhilip said, \"I must look and see whether I have not given occasion.\"\nAlways go to your own heart, always examine your own life, and see\nwhether, after all, there be not something there which is wrong or\nunwise, and which may be altered, so as to cut off occasion from evil\nspeakers.  As the proverb says, \"There is no smoke without a fire,\" and\nit is not often that blame is cast without there being some cause for\nit.  It may be attributed unjustly, but it is sometimes just, though\nexcessive.  Everything casts a shadow, and if you see a shadow you may\nbe sure there is some body to cast it, though the shape and size of the\nshadow may be wholly unlike and out of proportion to the object which\nthrows it.  A tree casts a shadow, a house casts a shadow, a needle\ncasts a shadow, even a hair--where the shadow is, there is some\nsubstance to fling it; where great blame is cast, there is some\noccasion for it.  You may have stood on a rock, and seen your shadow\nthrown all down a valley and up the side of an opposite hill, an\nenormous figure, and a ridiculous caricature of yourself.  So the blame\ncast on you is often excessive and altogether unreasonable and\nmonstrous.  Nevertheless it would never be cast at all unless there\nwere some little fault to cast it.  Stick up a pin on a table when the\nsun is low, and it will throw a shadow from one end of the table to the\nother, four feet long, and the pin is only an inch in height.  So is it\nwith faults: little faults throw long shadows, cause great talk, but\nthere would be no talk at all if the little faults were not there.\n\nII.  What then is it that you should do?  Examine yourselves whenever\nyou are blamed, and do your utmost to correct what is amiss in you.\n\"Blessed are ye,\" said our Lord, \"when men shall revile you, and shall\nsay all manner of evil against you falsely.\"  Why?  Why when falsely?\nBecause it will make you all the more watchful that you give no\noffence, that you avoid even the appearance of evil.  Blessed are ye\nwhen men revile you, and say all manner of evil against you, for then\nyou will examine yourselves, and if you see there is any ground\nwhatever for what they say, you will amend your ways; and blessed are\nye when they speak evil against you falsely, for then, though their\nblame be exaggerated and lying, yet it will make you infinitely more\nparticular to live a blameless life, and to have a conscience void of\noffence toward God and men.\n\nCONCLUSION.--If you do not use for your self-correction any blame you\nmay undergo, then you may be sure that more and more will attach to\nyou.  You may surmount one calumny, but others will follow at its\nheels.  In Revelation we hear that an angel cried, \"One woe is past;\nand behold there come two woes more hereafter.\"  So will it be with\nyou, if the first woe does not profit you to make you better.  If the\nplague of stinging, tormenting insects had made Pharaoh better, and\namend his ways, the other plagues would not have fallen upon him.\nThus, when you are tormented by evil tongues and spiteful words, if you\ndo not strive your utmost to live better lives, and undo any wrong you\nmay have committed, though the first woe may be past: behold, there\nwill come two more woes hereafter.\n\n\n\n\nXLIX.\n\n_PERFECTION TO BE SOUGHT._\n\n12th Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Mark vii., 37.\n\n\"He hath done all things well.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--It was said by an old heathen writer that God cares for\nAdverbs rather than for Substantives.  That is to say, God had rather\nhave things done _well_, than that the things should be merely done.\nHe had rather have you pray earnestly than pray, communicate piously\nthan merely communicate, forgive your enemies heartily than say you\nforgive, work diligently than spend so many hours at work, do your duty\nthoroughly than solely be content with discharging your duty.\n\nOf Christ, observe what is said.  It is not \"He hath opened the eyes of\nthe blind, He hath unstopped the ears of the deaf.  He hath loosed the\ntongue of the dumb, He hath healed the sick,\" but--\"He hath done all\nthings well.\"  The eyes do not become dull again, nor the ears again\nlose their power of hearing, nor the tongue stutter once more, nor the\nsick relapse into their sickness--what He hath done He hath done well\nand thoroughly.\n\nSUBJECT.--This, then, is what God desires of you--whatever you\nundertake, to do it well.  Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with\nall your might.  If a thing is worth doing at all, it is worth doing\nwell.  It is not sufficient for us to coldly perform our duties, we\nmust perform them with zeal and thoroughness.\n\nThe prophet Amos was one day shown a vision.  \"Behold, the Lord stood\nupon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in His hand.  And the\nLord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou?  And I said, A plumbline.\nThen said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my\npeople Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.\"\n\nIn this vision we have the work of God, as carried out by the\nIsraelites, represented under the form of a wall.  God had given them\ncertain duties to perform, so much work in this world to be done for\nHim, and He left them to themselves for a while.  Then they thought,\n\"God is not here, He is not a hard overseer, we will work as we like,\nand take it easy.  So long as the thing is done, it does not matter\nvery much how it is done.\"  So they did every thing in a careless,\nslovenly manner.  They neglected their duties or carried them out in a\nbare formal manner.  If we come back to the comparison of a wall, it\nwas just as though masons engaged on one put in any sort of stones, any\nhow, and did not trouble whether they built it in line and upright,\nwhether some of the stones stuck too far out, and some were too far in.\n\nThen God appears to Amos and says, \"I will not again pass by them any\nmore; there has been too much of this sort of work.  I will not\noverlook it, I will try it with the plumbline of My justice, and the\nbad work shall be pulled down, the jutting stones knocked away, and the\ncrooked wall made straight.\"\n\nThis vision applies to you quite as much as to the Jews.  You have got\na set task: you have to build up the wall of the Lord, that is, day by\nday you have to work at your salvation, and put in at least one stone\nso as to raise the work, and what you build must be good, and upright,\nand in line.  You have a prayer to say, say it well, say it with\ndevotion.  Then it is a stone put on the wall in its right place, and\nit is a good stone of the right quality.  You have quarrelled with a\nneighbour, you have made it up, heartily and bear no more malice, that\nis a good stone;--forgiveness of injuries--a capital stone that won't\nlet the water through.  Lay it level, and lay it upright.  You have a\nchance of showing a kindness to someone who needs, do it quietly and\nwithout fuss or show.  That will stand.  It was otherwise with the\nPharisees.  When they did their alms, they made a noise and called\nattention to it.  That was like putting a stone in the wall that stuck\na long way out, so that all might see it.  When the Lord comes with His\nplumbline, He will knock it off with His trowel, and it will go all to\npieces like a bit of slate, and be no good at all.  You come to church,\nand you take my sermon home.  What will you do with it?  Toss it away\non your road home, and make no use at all of it?  I hope not; build the\nlesson I am giving you tight into your lives, and it will raise your\nwall, and you can lay other good lessons on top of it.  What do you do\nwith your Sunday?  Is it wasted in lounging about, ferreting rabbits,\nidle talking?  If it be so, then it will add nothing to the wall of\nyour salvation.  It will be like a mere lump of earth put in where\nthere should have been a stone; it will wash out and leave a hole.\n\nNow remember that our great architect, Jesus Christ, is the man with\nthe plumbline, and He will go over all our work and try how it is done,\nand whether it is upright and likely to stand.\n\nII.  S. Paul gives another help to us to understand the parable of the\nwall.  He says that we are building the wall of our salvation on the\ncornerstone of Christ, and he goes on to say, \"Now if any man build\nupon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay,\nstubble: every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall\ndeclare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall\ntry every man's work of what sort it is.  If any man's work abide which\nhe hath built thereon, he shall receive a reward.\"\n\nS. Paul, you see, says that the wall will be proved with fire, that is,\nthat God will try all men's work and see of what sort it is--good,\nmoderate, or worthless.  The worthless will disappear in the judgment,\nthe moderate will be seen in its faulty condition, but the good will\nlast for ever.\n\nCONCLUSION.--Try, then, to look upon your life as a time of building up\nthe work of your salvation, and at every day as contributing something\ntowards it.  Ask yourself each day, What have I done to-day towards\nthis work set me?  And if I have done anything towards it, how has it\nbeen done?  Moreover, try to do all things well, to be zealous and\nthorough in every thing you undertake.\n\nAlso, offer all you do to God, and ask Him to prove it, and to cut off\nfrom it all that is faulty, and to enable you to do better in time to\ncome.\n\nWhen Nehemiah had rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem, and restored much that\nwas cast down, and put right many abuses, he prayed, \"Remember me, O my\nGod, concerning this, and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done.\"\nLet this also be your prayer, that He may look on all you do for Him\nand bless it, and remember it for good, in the day when He tries every\nman's work of what sort it is.\n\n\n\n\nL.\n\n_ZEAL._\n\n13th Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Luke x., 23.\n\n\"What shall I do to inherit eternal life?\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--The Kingdom of Heaven, said our Lord, is like unto a\ntreasure hid in a field.  One day a man is turning over the stones\nwhich lie in a heap in a corner of the field, and he finds under them\nan iron chest, and this chest he believes to be full of gold.  Then he\ncarefully covers it up again with stones and earth, and goes off in the\ngreatest excitement to the owner of the field, and offers him a price,\nand when that is refused he sells his house, and garden, and everything\nhe can turn into money, and gives that to the owner in exchange for the\nfield.\n\nI fear this is rather a picture of what ought to be than what is.  No\ndoubt whatever that we ought to show just as great eagerness to gain\nthe Kingdom of Heaven, as did that man to buy the field.  No doubt we\nought to be just as eager to cast away everything that stands in the\nway, to divest ourselves of every thing we have, in order that we may\ngain the Kingdom of Heaven,--but, as a matter of fact, we show very\nlittle eagerness about it, and we are very indifferent whether we gain\nit or lose it.\n\nSUBJECT.--What we need is more zeal, more enthusiasm, more earnestness\nin our quest.\n\nI.  King Solomon built the Temple at Jerusalem.  He was engaged on it\nseven years, and after that, he built his own house, and on that he\nspent thirteen years.  He therefore spent very nearly twice as much\ntime and labour, and I doubt not, money over his own house than he did\nover the work of God's house; he was wise and good, and he did a great\ndeal for God, but he did more for himself, and not only for himself,\nbut for his wives, since he built for them as well.\n\nIt is just so with us, we are ready to do something of God's work, to\nseek a little the Kingdom of Heaven, but we do not put our heart in\nthat work, all our heart and zeal is reserved for our own worldly\naffairs and our temporal interests.\n\nOne day a heathen maiden came to the princess Pulcheria, sister of the\nEmperor Theodosius, to complain to her that she was an orphan, and that\nher two brothers had turned her out of the house on her father's death,\nand had taken all his inheritance to themselves.  Now the Emperor\nTheodosius, brother of Pulcheria, a young man, was behind a curtain,\nand heard the girl pleading her cause with many tears, and he saw how\nbeautiful she was, and he loved her, and resolved to make her his wife\nand exalt her to be Empress of the East.  Pulcheria bade her come\nanother day, and then she told the maiden what was intended.  After\nthat she was taught the faith of Christ, and was baptized, and is known\nin history as the Empress Eudoxia.  Now when she came from her baptism,\nPulcheria noticed that she was crying, and she went to her lovingly and\nsaid, \"Why are you bathed in tears, Eudoxia?\"  And then the young girl\nanswered, \"When you told me that I was to become the wife of\nTheodosius, and Empress of the East, my heart was like to burst with\njoy, but now that I have been made a member of Christ, a child of God,\nand an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven, I feel no such exceeding\njoy, but take it all without any emotion,--and I am grieved at my\ncoldness and want of faith.  That is why I am crying.\"\n\nIs it not very much the same with us?  Anything that concerns our\nearthly welfare fills us with excitement, but we trouble ourselves very\nlittle about our spiritual concerns.  If we have a chance of getting 50\npounds a-year, we are full of delight, but we receive the precious gift\nof God without even gratefulness.  If we knew that an inheritance of a\nthousand pounds was ours if we applied for it, should we not apply?\nBut when it comes to our approaching the altar of God to receive the\nBread of Heaven, the priceless gift of the Body of our Lord, which will\ninfuse into our mortal flesh the germ of immortality, we turn\nlistlessly away.  If we had an acquaintance who, we thought, could put\nus into a good way of making our fortune, we would be always at his\nheels, but we are cold and careless about seeking God in His house, and\nin prayer, and yet our eternal welfare depends on our retaining His\nfavour.\n\nII.  Now, this is not a satisfactory condition to be in.  \"The Kingdom\nof Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by storm,\" said\nour Lord, and He meant that if Heaven is to be won, it must be won by\nthose who are in earnest, and vehement in their desire to get it.\nHalf-hearted soldiers are not good soldiers.  Half-hearted servants are\npoor servants, half-hearted workers are unsatisfactory workers, and the\nbattle we have to fight is a hard one, it is a battle against flesh and\nblood, against Satan and all his host, against the world, and against\nour own wills.  Is such a battle to be won when we go into it without\nany desire to be conquerors?  We are servants of God, and given a work\nin this world to do.  Are we likely to do it if half-hearted?  Are we\nlikely to keep His commandments, if we care just a little to please\nHim, but only a little?  Are we likely to win our wage, Eternal Life,\nif we do not work zealously, but waste the time of work in half-hearted\ntrifling with our task?\n\nNo, we must be in earnest.  We want zeal.  How are we to acquire this?\nThis is what the Holy Ghost gives.  Before Pentecost the disciples were\nhalf-hearted, and when temptation and trial came, they fell away and\ndid not follow their Master.  But after the Holy Ghost came down, then\nthey were of one heart and mind, and their souls were inflamed with\nzeal, they cared nothing what became of them, so long as they won the\nKingdom of Heaven.  \"I count all things as dung,\" said S. Paul, \"if so\nbe I may win Christ.\"\n\nIII.  The Holy Ghost is still in the Church, and still His mission is\nto impart zeal.  He will come to you, if you pray, and will inflame you\nwith that fire which will make your hearts burn within you, and give\nyou no rest till you have set about the work appointed you by God.  \"I\nam come,\" said Christ, \"to send fire on the earth: and what will I, if\nit be already kindled?\"  That fire is the fire of zeal; and it is for\nthat fire we pray in the Whitsuntide hymn,\n\n  \"Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,\n  And lighten with celestial fire.\"\n\n\n\n\nLI.\n\n_GRATITUDE._\n\n14th Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Luke xvii. 18.\n\n\"There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this\nstranger.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION,--There is nothing that the merciful God desires more from\nman than thanks, and there is nothing of which He receives less.  In\nthe Gospel for to-day we have an example.  Christ performs a notable\nmiracle.  He heals ten lepers, and only one returns to thank Him.  The\ndisease from which He delivered them was disgusting, and it was one\nwhich cut the sufferers off from association with other men.  They\nmight not approach, under penalty of death, a man who was sound.  All\nat once they are healed.  The disgusting disease is removed, and they\nare restored to the society of their fellow-men.  Yet nine out of the\nten are ungrateful, they do not take the trouble to give thanks to Him\nwho had healed them.\n\nSUBJECT.--That story is repeated over and over again.  We are\nincessantly receiving blessings from God, and nine to one, but we do\nnot thank Him: we take them as a matter of course.  However, God\nexpects thanks.  S. Paul exhorts us, \"In everything give thanks: for\nthis is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.\"  And again,\n\"Give thanks always, for all things, unto God and the Father, in the\nname of our Lord Jesus Christ.\"  And again, \"Whatsoever ye do in word\nor deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and\nthe Father by Him.\"\n\nI.  When the children of Israel reached the river Jordan, on their way\ninto the Promised Land, out of the wilderness in which they had\nwandered forty years, Joshua bade the priests that bare the ark go down\ninto the river.  And as soon as their feet were dipped in the water,\nthe river was divided, \"The waters which came down from above stood and\nrose up upon an heap; and those that came down towards the sea of the\nplain failed, and were cut off, and the people passed over right\nagainst Jericho.  And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of\nthe Lord, stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the\nIsraelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed\nclean over Jordan.\"\n\nNow when this had taken place, Joshua ordered twelve men, one out of\nevery tribe, to go down into the river, and each bring up a large stone\nout of the bed of the river, from the place where the priests had\nstood, and plant them in the earth, on the bank, at the place where\nthey lodged that night.  But this was not all.  They were to carry as\nhuge stones as they could manage down into the bed of the river, and\nset them up also there, so big and strong as to stand above the surface\nof the stream, and resist the force of the current.  This seems a\ncurious proceeding, does it not? to take twelve stones out of the bed\nof the river and plant them on the ground, and roll twelve great stones\noff the bank into the river, and set them up there.\n\nWhat was the purpose of this?  Listen to what Joshua says: \"This shall\nbe a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time\nto come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?  Then ye shall answer\nthem, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the\ncovenant of the Lord, when it passed over Jordan; and these stones\nshall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.\"  In one\nword, they were to be perpetual reminders to the Israelites to be\ngrateful to God for having brought them into the land promised to their\nfathers, the land flowing with milk and honey.\n\nVery well! how many times has God sent you great deliverances, and\nbrought great blessings upon you: has carried you through great\ndangers: has brought you out of the depths of sickness?  Over and over\nagain has He done this.  He blesses you every day.  Look around--you,\ntoo, have got your tokens set up as a memorial unto you for ever.  Look\nat your houses, they are memorials to you of what God has brought you\ninto.  Look at your children, every one of them is a little mark-stone\nor memorial of God's goodness to you.  Look at your health, your good\nstrong arms.  They should be to you memorials for ever of God's loving\nprotection extended towards you.  Look at your conscience, which stings\nyou when you do wrong, which approves when you do right.  What is that\nbut a mark-stone or memorial that God's Good Spirit has been given you\nto be a guide?  Look at this church, it is a mark-stone or memorial to\nyou that God's word sounds in your ears, and God's Sacraments are\ncelebrated for your benefit.  Look at that altar, it is a memorial for\never that Christ died for you, and gives His Body and Blood for the\nstrengthening and refreshing of your souls.  Verily, you have only to\nlook into your homes, and look through your lives, and you will find\nmany and many a memorial set up to remind you of, the love of God, and\nalso--mark this!--to be thankful.\n\nII.  When Jacob was dying, he said to Joseph, \"Behold, I die, but God\nshall be with you.  I have given to thee one portion above thy\nbrethren.\"  Now, my brethren, there are diversities of gifts, you have\nall received of God many gifts, some of one sort, some of another.  I\nturn to the rich.  You have been given wealth, whilst so many are poor.\n\"God hath given to thee one portion above thy brethren.\"  What use do\nyou make of it?  Are you thankful?\n\nI turn to those with talents.  \"God hath given to thee one portion\nabove thy brethren.\"  What use do you make of the talent committed you?\nAre you thankful?\n\nI look at you who are so healthy and robust.  There are numbers infirm\nand ailing.  \"God hath given to thee one portion above thy brethren.\"\nHow do you show your thankfulness?\n\nYou, tradesmen!  On all sides I see men failing in business, but to you\nwork comes, as much as you can execute.  Well, \"God hath given to thee\none portion above thy brethren.\"  Are you grateful?\n\nAnd you, good house-wife!  You have got a steady, affectionate husband,\nand, alas! so many have drunken or unthrifty mates, or husbands with\nbad tempers.  Verily, \"God hath given to thee one portion above thy\nsisters.\"  Thank Him, thank Him on your knees.\n\nCONCLUSION.--\"In everything give thanks,\" says S. Paul.  Remember, Adam\nand Eve were in Paradise surrounded by every blessing, but we do not\nhear that they thanked God for them, and they lost them.  Beware lest a\nthankless spirit forfeit those good things which you now enjoy.\n\"Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits!  Who\nforgiveth all thy sin: and healeth all thine infirmities: Who saveth\nthy life from destruction; and crowneth thee with mercy and\nloving-kindness.\"\n\n\n\n\nLII.\n\n_TRUST IN GOD._\n\n15th Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Matt. vi. 31.\n\n\"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--We read in ancient Roman history that a general named\nAemilius Paulus was appointed to the Roman army in a time of war and\ngreat apprehension.  He found in the army a sad condition of affairs,\nthere were more officers than fighting men, and all these officers\nwanted to have their advice taken, and the war conducted in accordance\nwith their several opinions.  Then Aemilius Paulus said to them, \"Hold\nyour tongues, and sharpen your swords, and leave the rest to me.\"\n\nIt seems to me that our Lord's advice in this day's Gospel is of\nsomewhat the same nature.  He finds in the army of His Church everyone\nclamouring after his worldly affairs, wanting this, and objecting to\nthat, all seeking their own, and not the things of Jesus Christ.  Then\nHe says, \"Hold your tongues, and sharpen your swords, and leave the\nrest to Me.  Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or what shall\nwe drink? or wherewithal shall we be clothed?  Your heavenly Father\nknoweth that ye have need of all these things.  But seek ye first the\nkingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be\nadded unto you.\"\n\nSUBJECT.--In our great solicitude after our temporal welfare, we do not\nseek first our spiritual welfare, but put that altogether in the\nbackground.  In fact, we do not trust God, we trust ourselves chiefly.\nWe fear if we do not devote our whole attention to our worldly\nprosperity, we shall not get on.  And so we neither seek the kingdom of\nGod, nor the righteousness of God; we seek only the world and the\nthings that are in the world.  If we had more trust in God, it would\nnot be so.\n\nI.  The Bible is made up of six classes of books.  To the first class\nbelong the historical books.  To the second the book of Psalms.  To the\nthird class belong the books that deal with Wisdom.  To the fourth the\nProphets.  To the fifth the Gospels, and to the sixth the canonical\nEpistles.\n\nNow in all these different classes of books we find the same assurance\nmade by God, that if we will but attend to our spiritual concerns, He\nwill see that our temporal affairs do not suffer.  In one of the first\nhistorical books we have this promise (Levit. xxvi. 3, 4, 5), \"If ye\nwalk in my statutes, and keep my commandments and do them; then I will\ngive you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and\nthe trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and ye shall eat your\nbread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.\"  In the book of\nPsalms David says (xxiv. 9), \"O fear the Lord, ye that are His saints:\nfor they that fear Him lack nothing,\" and again (xlv. 23), \"O cast thy\nburden upon the Lord, and He will nourish thee.\"  In the books that\ndeal with Wisdom we have (Proverbs x. 3) \"The Lord will not suffer the\nsoul of the righteous to famish.\"  In the Prophets (Isai i. 19), \"If ye\nbe willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.\"  In the\nGospels (S. Matt. vi. 33), \"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His\nrighteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.\"  In the\nEpistles (Pet. v. 7), \"Cast all your care upon Him, for He careth for\nyou.\"\n\nWe are generally perfectly satisfied when we have an agreement drawn\nout between man and man,--one promise on one scrap of paper is enough,\nbut here we have at least five, and I could produce you plenty of\nothers, yet, because it is a bond signed by God, you mistrust it, O ye\nof little faith.  You will take a bond signed by a Jew, but not one\nsigned by God.\n\nII.  \"Your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these\nthings.\"  Is God not our Father?  There is no Father like to Him, no\nFather loves us as He does.  If He loves us, will He not care for us?\nWhat good father will neglect his child, and deny it those things that\nare necessary for it?  Ask any little boy whom you see in rags, 'My\nchild, why are you in rags?  What will you do to get a new suit?  You\nhave nothing of your own.'  Certainly, his natural and proper answer\nshould be, 'I will ask my father.  He will supply me.'  When a child is\nhungry, whither should it go?  To whom should it apply?  To its father.\nWhy then do not we trust our Heavenly Father as any little child will\ntrust its father on earth?  Yet we know that He is our Father, and is,\nas S. Paul says, \"rich in mercies\" Our Lord bids us look at the birds\nof the air.  Who feeds them?  Their Creator.  Will He not then care for\nus far more, who are His noblest creatures?\n\nIII.  A great poetical and satirical writer (Horace) says that this was\nthe popular maxim of his day, \"Seek money first, and be good\nafterwards.\" [1]  What he had the boldness to say, a great people have\nthe boldness to do.  They leave the kingdom of Heaven to be sought,\nafter they have spent their lives in seeking the things of this world.\nBut the things of this world sought without God will not profit.\n\nWhen Isaac set his sons to bring him venison, that he might bless them\nand die, Jacob arrived first with the savoury meat; then Isaac lifted\nup his voice and blessed his son; \"God give thee of the dew of Heaven,\nand the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine.\"  Afterwards\nEsau came in with venison.  And when he saw that his brother had\nreceived the first blessing, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter\ncry, and said unto his father, \"Bless me, even me also, O my father.\"\nThen Isaac said to him, \"Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of\nthe earth, and of the dew of Heaven from above.\"  Each had the same,\nthe richness of golden harvests, the abundance of fruit, and the soft\ndews and rains in their season.  But there was a notable difference,\nadapted to the characters of the two brothers.  Esau was a profane man,\nhe disregarded divine things.  He was ready to sell his birthright, his\nprivilege to be the forefather of Messiah, for a mess of pottage.  He\ncared not for God, neither was God in all his thoughts.  It was\notherwise with Jacob, he regarded God, he sought God, he saw God in the\nvisions of the night, he strove with God in prayer.  He had set God\nalways before him.  And thus these several blessings were apportioned\nto them.  Esau had the fatness of the earth and the dew of Heaven,\nJacob also had the fatness of the earth and the dew of Heaven, but\nIsaac said to Jacob alone \"_God give thee_ all these things.\"  To Esau\nonly \"Thou shalt get for thyself all these things.\"  God before all to\nJacob, and all these things added unto him.  All these things to Esau,\nand God nowhere.\n\nCONCLUSION.--And now, my brethren, try to trust God more.  Do not give\nup all thought to the concerns of this life, but leave them somewhat on\nthe hands of God, whilst you consider the concerns of your soul.  You\nwill not suffer for it.  \"If ye be willing and obedient, and seek the\nkingdom of Heaven, He will nourish thee.\"\n\n\n\n[1] \"Quaerenda pecunia primum, virtus post nummos.\"\n\n\n\n\nLIII.\n\n_THE CONTEMPLATION OF DEATH._\n\n16th Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Luke vii. 12.\n\n\"Behold, there was a dead man carried out.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--The name of the village where the miracle was wrought\nwhich is recorded in this day's Gospel, was Nain, and the meaning of\nthe name is \"Pleasant\" or \"Beautiful.\"  A sweet little village, you can\npicture it to yourself where you like, in the East, anywhere in Europe,\nhere in England, it is all the same, an \"Auburn\" among villages, with\nthatched cottages, and green pastures, and the cows coming home lowing\nin the evening, when the curfew tolls the knell of passing day.  The\ngrey church tower peeping above the lime trees, and the rooks cawing\nand wheeling above the old trees.  The trim gardens blazing with\nhollyhocks and large white lilies, and the orchards with the apples\nshewing their rosy cheeks to the sun.  The bell is slowly\ntolling--\"Behold, a dead man is carried out.\"  Who is it?  To-day a\nyoung man, the only son of his mother, and she a widow.  To-morrow the\nold squire, who can no more mount his cob and go after the hounds, his\nwhip and red coat are laid aside, and the bell is going.  \"Behold, a\ndead man is carried out.\"  Again the Sexton is working in the\nchurch-yard, and turning up the fresh smelling earth.  The bell is\ngoing.  For what?  Up the steps and along under the avenue come little\ngirls about a tiny coffin, over which is cast a white pall, and on\nwhich lies a wreath of white hyacinths.  \"Behold, a dead child is\ncarried out, the darling of its father.\"  And now the yellow leaves are\nfalling, and are heaped about the feet of the limes, and fall through\nthe warm damp air, that smells of dying vegetation, and the priest\nstands in surplice waiting in the path, and the dead leaves drop on the\ncoffin as it is borne along.  Who is this?  \"Behold a dead woman is\ncarried out, an aged mother, with her weeping grown up sons and\ndaughters and grandchildren all in black following.\"\n\nSUBJECT.--It is not a pleasant thing to think of, and yet it is well\nfor you to contemplate, that some day the same question will be asked\nas the church bell tolls, Who is this?  Who is dead?  And the same\nanswer will come, \"Behold, a dead man is carried out,\" and that will be\nyou.  Nothing is more commonplace than to say that we must all die, and\nnothing is less realised and taken to heart and acted upon.\n\nI.  That procession the Saviour met, was coming out of Nain, the\n\"Pleasant,\" the \"Beautiful.\"  And so, every dead man is carried out of\nwhat is a Nain to him, a pleasant, beautiful world.  It is a pleasant,\nbeautiful world.  We cannot deny it.  God made it and pronounced it\nvery good.  It has in it many unpleasantnesses, it has in it much that\nis ugly, but there is pleasure and beauty in it still, the traces of\nits own loveliness before sin drew furrows in its face and saddened its\nheart.  A very Nain it is.  We are now in Autumn, and the leaves are\nturning fast.  The dogwood leaves are bright carmine, and the maple\nyellow as sulphur, the last flowers are out in the hedges, the pink\ncranesbill and the blue oxtongue which will hang on till after\nChristmas.  The elder which was so white and fragrant in May, is\ncovered now with purple berries, and the ash is hung with scarlet\nbeads, so bright, so many, and so beautiful, that the swallows are\nhovering round them all day impatient to begin, and improvident of the\nfuture.  Nature even in its decay is beautiful, and what was it in\nspring?  Remember the primroses out on every bank, and the anemones in\nthe wood, and the blue flush of wild hyacinths in the coppice!  Verily,\nwe are in Nain, a pleasant and beautiful place.  Alas! alas! my\nbrother! my sister!  Behold there will be a dead man, a dead woman\ncarried out from it, to see it no more, and that will be one of us.  Is\nit sad?  Yes, no doubt it is.\n\nII.  But though sad, the thought of it must not be put away.  S. Paul\nsays, \"We have the sentence of death in ourselves.\"  We carry about in\nus ever the doom--we are sentenced men--and the sword will fall on us\nsome day.  The story is told of a Norwegian king that he promised to\ngive a young nobleman any reward he chose to ask for, because of\nsomething he had done for him.  Then the young man boldly asked for the\nhand of the princess, the only child and heiress to the kingdom.  The\nking answered him, \"Yes!  I have promised.  You shall have her hand,\nand lose your head, the same day.\"  Then a grand wedding was prepared.\nAnd a stately procession moved to the church, of the bride in white,\nand the bridegroom in his most gallant apparel, but as he went along,\nhe heard a sound of a file from the executioner's room, who was\nsharpening his axe.  And he stood before the altar with his bride, and\nthe priest joined their hands,--but all the while the executioner was\nsharpening his axe.  Then the bells of the city pealed, and the heralds\nblew their trumpets, and the people shouted, and girls strewed flowers\nin the path, and their way went by the executioner's lodging where he\nwas still engaged on his axe.  Then there was a great feast, and wine\nflowed, and the most dainty meats were put on table; it was a hot day,\nand the windows were open, and above the din of tongues and laughter,\ncame the thud of a hammer.  In the courtyard of the palace the\nexecutioner was setting up the scaffold.  And after the banquet came a\ngrand ball, and the rooms were lighted up, and the ball-room was hung\nwith festoons of flowers, and the bride and bridegroom led the dance,\nbut ever as they danced they turned their heads and looked out of the\nwindow, and saw the scaffold, which was being draped in black.  At\nlength, in the midst of all the merriment, the bell began to toll, and\nthe door flew open, and before all the dancers stood the executioner\nwith his axe in hand and a black mask over his face, and he beckoned to\nthe bridegroom to come.  \"And behold a living man was carried out--to\ndie.\"\n\nMy Brethren, it is not so very different with us.  We carry about the\nsentence of death in ourselves.  Whatever we do, wherever we go, the\nsentence of death is in us.  You do your work.  You are ploughing the\nfield and whistling, and you carry, as you make the furrow, the\nsentence of death in yourself.  You are busy about your house-work,\ngood-wife, sweeping, dusting, mending, scouring, cooking,--and all the\nwhile you have the sentence of death in yourself.  You have a holiday,\nand go on a pic-nic, and laugh, and are merry, and come back under the\nevening sky singing and making jokes--but you carry with you to your\npic-nic and back again the sentence of death in yourselves.\n\nIII.  Now if this be so, how ought we to live?  Ought we to thrust the\nthought away from us as horrible?  Ought it to mar our happiness?\nOught it to disquiet us in our work?  Far from it.  Nain is a pleasant\nand beautiful place, but there is one more pleasant and more beautiful,\nwhere the leaves do not fall, nor the flowers wither, where no sickness\ncomes, and where no dead men are carried out.  Let us look to that, the\nnew Jerusalem, the Heavenly City, the vision of peace, and that will\nbanish our sadness, we shall not be downcast at leaving so much that is\npleasant behind, but rejoice that we pass on from things temporal to\nthings eternal.\n\nNo! we shall not be saddened by the contemplation of death, but we\nshall be made more earnest to use this world without abusing it, to\nmake the most of our opportunities, to redeem the time because the days\nare evil, to run our race temperately, and not uncertainly, and so to\nrun that we may obtain the incorruptible crown, that we may attain to\nthe goal, the prize of our high calling.\n\n\n\n\nLIV.\n\n_HUMILITY._\n\n17th Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Luke, xiv. 2.\n\n\"Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth\nhimself shall be exalted.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--Both Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the apostle John saw in vision\nthe glory of Heaven and the throne of God, and near it four beasts,\n\"full of eyes, within and without.\"  That is to say the beasts saw all\nthat was within them as well as all that was outside them.  Most of us\nhere on earth are very different.  We are full of eyes without, we see\neverything that is going on among our neighbours, and a great deal\nwhich is not there also, but we have no eyes for seeing anything\nwithin, and we know nothing of ourselves, our own faults, and our own\nerrors.\n\nWe see every wrong thing done by a neighbour, we have eyes for this,\nbut we see no wrong done by ourselves, we have no eyes for that.  We\nsee all the weakness of others, we have eyes for this, but we see none\nof our own weakness, we have no eyes for that.  We see all the folly of\nothers, we have eyes for this, but for our own stupid acts and words we\nare blind, we have no eyes for that.  It would be better if we were\nwell supplied with eyes within, instead of so many eyes without.  It\nwould be better for our neighbours, and it would be better for\nourselves.  In to-day's Gospel we hear of the chief Pharisees watching\nChrist.  They had eyes for that.  They watched Him to find occasion\nagainst Him.  But that they were hypocrites and perverters of the law,\nthey knew not.  They had no eyes for this.\n\nSUBJECT.--The first shall be last, and the last first, says our Lord.\nThat is, those who have eyes without only, for the rest of the world,\nwho see themselves as perfect, and have no eyes for their own defects,\nshall find themselves hereafter at the foot of the ladder, and those\nwho have eyes within, seeing their own weakness, shortcomings, falls,\nwho have therefore been humble, and esteemed others more highly than\nthemselves, these will be exalted to the top of the ladder.\n\nI.  Most men value themselves more highly than they have any right, and\nvalue themselves very often for those things which are not their own,\nthey take the honour paid to their possessions, as though due to\nthemselves.\n\nThis fable is related by an ancient writer.  An ass once had the golden\nimage of the Goddess Isis set on his back, and he was led through the\nstreets of a city in Egypt.  Then the Egyptians fell down on their\nfaces and worshipped, and raised their hands in supplication.  The ass\nwas puffed up with pride, and began to prick up his ears and prance.\nThen the driver brought down his stick upon his back, and said, \"You\nass! the honour is given not to you, but to what you bear.\"  There is\nmany a man who is no less elated by his position, or by some good\nfortune that falls to him, than this ass.  The man of wealth holds up\nhis head and expects every one to bow to him; he thinks a great deal of\nhimself, and he finds that a great many persons cringe to him and\nflatter him.  \"Man! the honour is given, not to you, but to the gold\nyou carry.\"  It may be the same with office, or title; respect is given\nto the magistrate, or the nobleman, or the general, or the captain, or\nthe poor-law officer, or the policeman, and he thinks much of himself\naccordingly.  \"Man! the honour is given not to you, but to the title or\noffice, or authority you carry.\"  And there is many a woman who puts on\nnew and gay clothes, a new bonnet, or a new gown, in the highest\nfashion, and she sails into church with her chin in the air, and a\nflutter in her heart, knowing that all eyes are upon her.   \"Woman! all\nare admiring--not you,--but the clothes you carry.\"\n\nWhatever it be that we have, which others have not, it should not\nelate, but humble us, for a talent entails a responsibility.  He that\nhas gold has to answer to God what use he makes of it.  \"How hardly\nshall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of Heaven.\"  He that\nhas office and authority is under great responsibility to discharge his\nduties in his office, and exercise the authority entrusted to him well.\nIt was the fact that he was a man in authority which made the Centurion\nhumble, and brought on him the commendation of Christ.  \"Lord, I am not\nworthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof; neither thought I\nmyself worthy to come unto Thee, for I am a man set under authority,\nhaving under me, soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to\nanother, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth\nit.\"  He that has intellectual gifts must be humble, not proud, because\nof them, for he is answerable for the use he makes of them.\n\nII.  God is very likely to humble those who set too high a price on\nthemselves; and better that He should bring them down to a just\nappreciation of their own selves, in this world, than hereafter.\n\nKing Nebuchadnezzar had a vision.  He saw a great image, the head was\nof gold, the breast and arms of silver, the belly and thighs of brass,\nthe legs of iron, and the feet of clay.  He called Daniel to interpret\nhis dream to him, and Daniel said, \"Thou, O King, art a King of kings,\nfor the God of Heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength,\nand glory--thou art this head of gold.\"  Then the prophet went on to\nspeak of other great nations, and how that all would be involved in a\ncommon ruin, a little stone out of the mountain would roll down on the\nfeet of clay and break them, and then the great image, golden head, and\nsilver breast, and brazen body, and iron legs, would all go to\npieces--they rested on an infirm footing, fragile clay.\n\nKing Nebuchadnezzar, however, thought only of himself as the golden\nhead.  Golden head must have golden breast, and a golden breast must\nhave a golden trunk, and golden trunk golden legs, and golden legs must\nrest on feet of gold.  That will stand, and that will represent me\nbetter than this patchwork affair of which I dreamed.  So he set him up\nthe golden image in the plain of Dura.  That represented himself as he\nregarded himself, the image seen in vision represented him as he was in\nreality, as God saw him.  What followed?  God smote him and he went\nmad.  He was driven out as a wild beast into the fields, as a raving\nmadman, and thus he remained till his senses returned, and he\nacknowledged with humility, that his prosperity did rest on a fragile\nfooting, and that God knew better what he was worth than did he himself.\n\nNow apply this to yourselves.  No doubt that each of you has his\nexcellence.  One has got a head of gold, another a heart of gold.  One\nhas the strength and endurance of iron, another has means, plenty of\nsilver, each has something of which he can boast; but take care not to\nmake golden images of yourselves and set them up, and expect every one\nto bow down before them and take you at your own estimation.  God will\nhumble you.  The feet are of clay, and the proud statues will fall some\nday.  Therefore try to see yourselves as you really are, \"Let him that\nexalteth himself take heed lest he fall.\"  \"Be clothed with humility,\"\nis the exhortation of S. Peter, \"for God resisteth the proud and giveth\ngrace to the humble.  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand\nof God, that He may exalt you in due time.\"  And S. James says, \"Humble\nyourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.\"\n\n\n\n\nLV.\n\n_PROFESSION AND PRACTICE._\n\n18th Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Matt. xxii. 42.\n\n\"What think ye of Christ?\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--Many men are Christians neither in understanding nor in\nheart.   Some are Christians in heart, and not in understanding.  Some\nin understanding, and not in heart, and some are Christians in both.\nIf I were to go into a Temple of the Hindoos, or into a Synagogue of\nthe Jews, and were to ask, \"What think ye of Christ?\" the people there\nwould shake their heads and deny that He is God, and reject His\nteaching.  The heathens and Jews are Christians neither in\nunderstanding nor affection.  But there are, and always have been pious\nmen who have not known Christ, but have lived good self-denying lives,\nlived a great deal better than most Christians, and have died, yearning\nto see God, whom they groped after, but did not find.  I should say\nthese were Christians in heart, though not in understanding.  If I were\nto put the question to you, \"What think ye of Christ?\" you would answer\nat once that He is very God, of one substance with the Father, and also\nvery Man, of the substance of His Mother, the God-Man, your Redeemer,\nand Saviour, and Lord.  When I hear the answer, I say--Well! here we\nhave indeed Christians in their understanding.  Now I want to know\nfurther, are you Christians in heart and affection?  S. Paul says that\nin his time there were some who were Christians in profession, that is,\nin understanding, and there their Christianity came to an end.  \"They\nprofess that they know God, but in works they deny Him, being\nabominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.\"  Is\nit in any degree so with you?\n\nSUBJECT.--The true Christian is he who is such in understanding and in\naffection, or, in other words, in profession and in practice.\n\nI.  It is very necessary to have a good understanding of Christ and His\ntruth.  \"Without faith it is impossible to please God; for he that\ncometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of\nthem that diligently seek Him.\"  There are certain truths, the\nknowledge of which we believe are necessary to salvation.  That is,\nwithout an understanding of certain definite revealed truths, there is\nnot much chance of salvation, for the ignorance of these truths is\nproper in a Christian, and without a knowledge of them, a Christian is\nnot able to live a spiritual and a Christian life.  These truths are\ncontained in the Creed, and are taught to every child.  It is not\nenough to repeat the Creed like a parrot, but the meaning of the truths\ncontained in it must be grasped by the mind and understood.  This is\nthe advantage of Christian instruction, and I think it would be well if\nwe Clergy, instead of so generally appealing to your consciences to\nlead good lives, were more frequently to refresh your minds with the\ntruths which you must embrace with your understandings.  I believe one\ngreat reason why you make so little advance in the spiritual life is,\nthat you so little understand what God requires of you to believe.\n\nAfter the Children of Israel had been carried into captivity by the\nAssyrian king Shalmanezar, a number of persons were sent from Babylon\nto inhabit Samaria, the capital, and other cities of Israel.  They\nsettled there, but did not thrive, for this reason, the land was\noverrun with lions.  You will find the story in 2 Kings xvii.  A great\nmany of the colonists were killed by the lions.  \"Therefore they spake\nto the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed,\nand placed in the cities of Samaria, have lions among them, and behold,\nthey slay them.\"  What course did Shalmanezar adopt, on hearing this?\nDid he send them hunters, expert in killing lions?  No.  Or dogs to\ndrive them?  Did he supply them with snares, and teach them how to make\npitfalls for the lions?  No!--listen to what he did.  \"Then the king of\nAssyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye\nbrought from thence; and let him teach them the manner of the God of\nthe land.\"\n\nThis succeeded, for we learn that the lions ceased to trouble the\ncolonists when they had learned to know and fear the God of Israel.\n\nWhat a lesson this heathen king sets us!  \"The devil walketh about as a\nroaring lion seeking whom he may devour, whom resist, steadfast in the\nfaith.\"  Do you notice the words of S. Peter?  The lion who seeks to\ndevour you, who lays waste the land, who destroys so many souls, can be\nmastered and expelled, but only if you are steadfast in the faith, only\nif, like these settlers in Samaria, you have been taught the manner of\nthe God of our land.  Evil of all sort, temptations and snares, evil\nspirits and seductions will draw you into destruction, and you will be\nquite powerless to escape or resist, unless you know the manner of the\nGod of our land, or--in S. Peter's words--are steadfast in the faith.\n\nII.  It is not enough to understand, you must also love and follow the\nlaw of your God with all your hearts.  You must not only know God, but\nyou must obey Him.  You must not only be instructed in the manner of\nthe God of our land, but you must also observe it.  Now there are a\ngreat many who are Christians in profession only, they draw near to God\nwith their lips, and say Lord! Lord! but with their hearts they are far\nfrom Him.\n\nOne day a philosopher came before king Herod Atticus, and when the king\nasked him what profession he was of, what office he held, the\nphilosopher answered, \"Look at my robe and you will see what I am.\"\nFor the philosophers affected a certain sort of garment.  Then Herod\nanswered, \"Pardon me, I see the habit, but not the philosopher.\"  That\nis to say--\"I see what you call yourself, and pretend to be, but I do\nnot know whether you are the wise and learned man for which you give\nyourself out.\"\n\nI fear that if I were to follow and watch you during the week, I should\nbe obliged to say--\"I see the habit, but not the Christian.\"  It is\ntrue there is the profession.  You say you are a Christian, you assure\nme you believe in God, you undertake to live a sober and godly life, to\nresist evil, and cleave to what is good.  All this is the outside\nhabit, the mere name and profession, I see the habit,--but in your acts\nI do not see the Christian.  No! there is not the Christian in you when\nyou tell lies.  Not the Christian when you slander your neighbour.  Not\nthe Christian when you deal dishonestly with your masters.  Not the\nChristian when you fly into a passion and swear and curse.  Not the\nChristian when you use foul words.  On Sundays you have on your Sunday\ncoat, or your Sunday gown, and you are as demure as Saints, and attend\nChurch regularly.  There is the habit.  I see the habit.  But where is\nyour Christianity in the week?  How much prayer?  How much thought of\nGod?  How much self-restraint?  I see the habit, but not the Christian.\n\nCONCLUSION.--Remember then that it is not enough to know Christ, and to\nbelieve.  You must also love Christ and obey.  Only by acting up to\nyour profession, by walking worthy of the vocation whereby you are\ncalled, can you be regarded as a true disciple of Christ.  He is not\nthe true soldier who is enrolled, and deserts; he is not the good\nservant who says to his master, I go, and goeth not.  If you know of\nChrist, you have a greater obligation laid on you to follow Him in love\nand obedience, than if you knew Him not.  \"What think ye of Christ?\"\nThat is not enough.  \"How live ye as Christians?\" is needed as well.\n\n\n\n\nLVI.\n\n_EVIL THOUGHTS._\n\n19th Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Matt. ix. 4.\n\n\"Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--Thoughts are only thoughts! who is to beheld accountable\nfor them?  They are clouds blown about by fancy, taking various shapes.\nGod is not so hard as to judge us for our thoughts; He will try us by\nwhat we have done, not by what we have dreamed.  No garden is without\nweeds; there are tares in every cornfield.  Who speak thus?  Is it\nthose who are conscientious and scrupulous to drive away evil thoughts?\nOr those who allow their heads and hearts to be hives in which they\ndwell?  I allow that evil thoughts must enter the mind, and I add that\nthey do no harm so long as they are not admitted into the heart.  I\nallow that it is impossible to keep the mind so closed against evil\nthat no bad thoughts find admission.  There is no sin in the bad\nthoughts coming, but the sin begins when they are allowed to settle,\nand to fly-blow the heart.\n\nSUBJECT.--I am not going to speak to-day anything that will distress\nthose good souls who struggle with, and drive away, evil thoughts when\nthey torment them; God has seen fit to try them with these, as He\nsuffered the Israelites to lie tried by the remnants of the heathen\nnations which remained in the land,--but I am going to speak to those\nwho indulge in evil thoughts of all kinds, and make no effort to banish\nthem.  I tell them that this is a dangerous thing.  If they rely on\nbeing safe so long as they keep their bodies from evil, and allow their\nminds and hearts to revel in evil thoughts, they are guilty of sin;\nthey may not be staining their bodies, but they are corrupting their\nsouls.\n\nI have lived for some weeks on the side of the Rhine where a bridge\nconnected the German side of the river with the town on the other side,\nwhich is in Switzerland.  When the market-women came over the bridge,\nthe Custom-House officers made them open their baskets, and they looked\nin to see whether they brought over anything taxable.  I would have you\nexamine all the thoughts that come drifting through your head, and if\nthey are bad, and not allowable, turn them back.\n\nI.  \"Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?\"  Our Lord tells us that\nsin commences in the heart, and is as truly in the thought as in the\nact.  \"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt\nnot kill.  But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother\nwithout a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.  Ye have heard that\nit was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery.  But I\nsay unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath\ncommitted adultery with her already in his heart.\"  S. John Chrysostom\ntruly said, \"Men's souls are not so greatly injured by the temptations\nwhich assail them from outside, as from those evil thoughts which\npoison them within.\"  There may be evil thoughts of many kinds, envious\nthoughts, discontented thoughts, profane thoughts, unkind thoughts,\nangry thoughts, avaricious thoughts, impure thoughts.  All these\nthoughts come buzzing about the head and heart, and will settle to do\nharm, unless driven away.  They are only little thoughts.  Each is very\nsmall, but altogether they are a great host.  They are like flies.\n\nPharaoh, King of Egypt, was plagued with flies.  They came upon his\nservants, and the houses of the Egyptians were full of swarms of flies,\n\"and the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies.\"  The\nheads of a great many people are like the houses of the Egyptians--full\nof swarms of evil thoughts thick as flies, and all as small, and in\nthemselves as insignificant.  The flies tormented the Egyptians when\nthey sat in their chambers, flying round them, buzzing in their ears,\nlighting on their hands and faces; when they went to their meals the\nflies were there, all over the meat and the bread, and falling into\ntheir cups, and defiling every thing.  When they went to bed the flies\nwere in their bedrooms, and all night long were racing over their\nfaces, and driving away sleep.\n\nNow look at your evil thoughts, you who are plagued with a swarm of\nthem.  When you kneel down to say your prayers, they are there\ndistracting your attention.  When you are at table or with friends,\nthey are there disturbing your thoughts, perhaps corrupting your\nconversation.  When you are alone, they are there filling your mind\nwith images and sounds.  When you are in bed, they are there, keeping\nyou awake.  Your thoughts--these evil thoughts, so numerous, in such\nswarms, never forsake you.  In church they are present, disturbing you.\nWhen you walk, they surround you, when you work, they interrupt you.\nAnd, like the flies in Egypt, \"the land is corrupted by reason of the\nswarm.\"  Your hearts are corrupted by the bad thoughts always hovering\nover them, and settling down on them.\n\nAm I drawing a fanciful picture?  Not at all.  I know it is so with\nmany, I do not say all, but with many.  They disregard evil thoughts\nbecause they are such trifling things--like flies, so easily brushed\naway; like flies, so light and volatile; like flies, so little.  And\nyet they utterly degrade and corrupt the heart.  \"The land was\ncorrupted by reason of the swarm of flies.\"\n\nII.  When Abraham prepared a sacrifice to the Lord, there came down on\nit swarms of birds of carrion (Gen. xv.)  And when they did so, we are\ntold that Abraham \"drove them away.\"  The chief Baker of Pharaoh had\nmeats in a basket on his head, and the birds came down on them, and\ncarried them off.  \"The birds did eat them out of the basket upon my\nhead\" (Gen. xl.)  To Abraham was given a promise of a great blessing\nand glorious future.  To the Baker was given a warning that he should\nbe hanged within three days.  One drove the birds away, and the other\ndid not.\n\nNow this applies to evil thoughts.  If you will be like Abraham and be\nblessed, you will drive the evil thoughts away as fast as they come on.\nIf you let them come, and make no effort to repel them, they will carry\naway from you all the graces wherewith you have been endowed at\nbaptism, and they will corrupt your heart as well.\n\n\n\n\nLVII.\n\n_THE HEAVENLY BANQUET._\n\n20th Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Matt. xxii. 4.\n\n\"Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings are killed,\nand all things are ready; come unto the marriage.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--The Kingdom of Heaven has two meanings in this parable.\nIt means in the first place the Catholic Church.  Into that the\napostles and pastors of Christ invite men to enter, and many refuse.\nIn the second place it means the Church Triumphant,--eternal\nblessedness, and into that the pastors of Christ's Church invite you\ncontinually, Sunday after Sunday, and many refuse.\n\nSUBJECT.--Our subject to-day shall be the Heavenly Banquet, and the\ninvitation to it.\n\nI.  When God created the world, He did so with a \"Let be.\"  He said,\n\"Let there be light\"--and light was.  \"Let there be a firmament in the\nmidst of the waters,\" and it was so, at once.  He said, \"Let the waters\nbe gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear,\" and,\nimmediately, it was so.  And it was the same throughout the work of the\nSeven Days.  He spake the word and the world was made, and all the host\nof heaven by the breath of His mouth.\n\nBut when man's salvation was wrought it was otherwise.  There was\nnothing instantaneous about that.  Long ages passed before the time\ncame for the Son of God to be born.  The preparation was lengthy, there\nwas delay.  And when He came, there was no \"Let there be,\" and it was\ndone, but there were thirty-three years spent on earth, and there were\nthe laborious ministry, the sufferings, and the death.  That was not\nall.  Still more was done.  The Son of God ascended into Heaven after\nhaving spent forty days on earth after His resurrection, founding and\nframing His Church.  Then He sent the Holy Ghost down on the Church He\nhad made.  Still all is not done.  The Church has to battle with the\nworld, to endure persecution, the blood of martyrs has to flow, and\nthree hundred years to pass, before she emerges out of her hidden\nsuffering life into light before the world.\n\nThat is not all.  Still the work goes on.  The Sacraments are\nministered, the word of God is preached.  Invitation to the Banquet of\nHeaven is given.  Salvation is not yet come; the work goes on, and goes\non slowly.\n\nLook at yourselves, and see how slow the process is.  You are baptized,\nand thereby made a member of Christ.  Is all done?  By no means, the\nwork is only begun.  You grow older, and your temptations grow\nstronger.  Then comes Confirmation, the Holy Spirit is given to\nstrengthen, the seal is put on the Baptismal Contract.  Is all done?\nBy no means, it is only progressing.  The Holy Communion is given you.\nYou partake of the sacred Body and Blood of Christ.  Surely now all is\ncomplete, and salvation secured.  No--by no means, not yet.  All\nthrough life the work goes on.  It is not done at death.  It will not\nbe done till the Judgment Day.\n\nWhy is this?  Because man has Free Will, and can oppose and hinder the\nwork of God.  He can even bring it to naught.\n\nWhen God made the world it was done at His word, for there was no\nopposition, no independent free will had to be taken account of; but in\nthe salvation of man it is otherwise, man has to be considered, he has\na will which can turn all the good intentions of God from him, and make\nthem of no avail.  God cannot save man without his free consent.  God's\ngrace cannot sanctify him without his co-operation with it.  God can\ninvite and attract, He cannot force.  In the parable, the king sends\nout to entreat his subjects to come, and when they refuse he punishes\nthem, but he does not send his soldiers to drive them into his\nbanqueting hall.\n\nII.  All that God can do is to invite; but He invites most pressingly,\nand holds out every inducement that He possibly could.\n\nGod desires all men to be saved, He willeth not the death of a sinner.\n\"Christ,\" says S. Paul, \"died for all,\"--to reconcile all men to God.\nHe hung on the cross for all, to save all that will come to Him and be\nsaved--He died \"for us men, and our salvation.\"\n\nThe Amalekites attacked the city of Ziklag, and took it, and burned it\nwith fire, and departed, carrying away with them the two wives of\nDavid, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail, who had been the wife of\nNabal the Carmelite.  When David knew this, he fell into great\ndistress, and he gathered an army and went to the place, and there he\nwept \"till he had no more power to weep.\"  And he pursued after the\nAmalekites with four hundred men, and he fell on them, and the battle\nraged four and twenty hours.  \"He smote them from twilight even unto\nthe evening of the next day,\" and he recovered out of their hands his\ntwo wives.  Now suppose that one of them, say Abigail, fell into low\nspirits, thinking that David did not love her, and would not bring her\ninto his palace, and show her favour, one would say to her, What is the\nmeaning of this?  Your sad spirits and gloomy doubts are proof of an\nunthankful spirit.  Look at David.  See a clear evidence that you are\nwrong.  Look! he is covered with dust from the battle, he is so\nexhausted that he can scarce breathe.  For you he fought, for you he\nexposed himself to great risk, for you he conquered.  He has redeemed\nyou out of the power of the enemy.  See! he extends to you his hand,\nred with his blood shed for you.  He holds out his hand to invite you\nto follow him, that he may bring you home in safety.  Away with these\nwicked doubts and this black mistrust!\n\nI may say exactly the same to you.  Do you want any token of the love\nof Christ?  Any assurance of His goodwill towards you?  Look at Him!\nSee what He has done and suffered for you!  For you He spent\nthirty-three years in struggle, for you He was exposed to the scoffs of\nthe Jews, for you He was scourged, for you He was crucified.  To you He\nextends His hand, red with His blood, to beckon you to follow Him, that\nwhere He is there you may be also.  He has shown you His love.  What\ncould He have done more?  He has promised you Heaven.  He has assured\nyou that He is gone there to prepare a place for you, that He may\nreceive you unto Himself.  He tells you that there is the kingdom He\nhas prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  Could He make\nbetter promises?\n\nIII.  But He can do no more.  He cannot drive you into Heaven.  It is\nleft to you, to your free will to decide.  You can accept, or you can\nrefuse.  You can make use of the Sacraments, the means He has provided\nfor enabling you to gain the Kingdom, or you may turn your backs on\nthem.  He will not drive you.  All He will do is to invite, and say,\n\"Come! for all things are now ready.\"\n\n\n\n\nLVIII.\n\n_EXAMPLE._\n\n21st Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. John iv. 13.\n\n\"And himself believed, and his whole house.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--As the tree so the fruit, as the parents so the\nchildren, as the master so his men, as the mistress so her household.\nThis is not indeed a rule without exceptions, but as a general rule it\nholds.\n\nNo man liveth and dieth to himself, we are all members one of another,\nand we all influence the conduct of others, and determine their\ncareers, more than we ourselves imagine.  It is not, indeed, always\ntrue that good parents have good children, but it is generally the\ncase.  It is not always that bad parents have bad children, but it is\nexceptional when it is otherwise.  Indeed, the virtues of parents\nbecome in some way inherent in their offspring, and the vices of\nparents last in the blood of their children, and even descend to their\nchildren's children.  How often is this the case with a tendency to\ndrink!  Although the child may have lost his parent young, and not seen\nhis bad example, yet he has in him a yearning after stimulants, and\nvery often becomes a drunkard like his father.\n\nSUBJECT.--Let us, to-day, consider the effect of the example of parents\non their children; and of teachers on their pupils.\n\nI.  There is a striking passage in the fifth chapter of S. John which\nmay not hitherto have attracted your attention.  One Sabbath Day our\nBlessed Lord went to Bethesda, and there healed a man who had had an\ninfirmity thirty and eight years.  He healed him, and bade him take up\nhis bed, and walk.  The Jews were wroth, and said, \"It is the Sabbath\nDay, it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.\"  Then we are told the\nJews did persecute Jesus, and sought to slay Him, because He had done\nthese things on the Sabbath Day.  \"But Jesus answered them: My Father\nworketh hitherto, and I work.\"  That is to say--My Father worketh on\nthe Sabbath, He sends His rain, He makes the grass to grow, He feeds\nthe young ravens, He causes the sun to rise and set, He works good to\nall creatures, feeds, and heals, and as I see my Father act, so,\nnaturally, as a Son, I act also.  Whatsoever the Son seeth the Father\ndo, He doeth likewise.  The argument of the Jews avails nothing, that\nas the man has lain infirm for thirty-eight years, he may lie another\ntwelve hours.  \"My Father worketh hitherto good on the Sabbath, and\ntherefore I work.\"  It matters nothing what the Law may enjoin, nor how\nstrict may be the tradition of the Pharisees, \"My Father worketh good\non the Sabbath, and therefore I work.\"  Our Lord produces this as an\nargument against which there can be no resistance, to which there can\nbe no reply, an argument commending itself to every man's\nunderstanding--to universal experience--As the father acts, so acts the\nson.  The example of the father is the law of right and wrong to the\nchild.\n\nDo you know the fable of the crab and his children?  The crab was sore\ndistressed to see his little ones run crookedly on the sand of the sea\nshore, so he said, \"My sons, walk straight!\"  \"Yes,\" answered the\nlittle crabs, \"lead thou the way, father, and we will follow thy\nfootsteps.\"\n\nIs it a wonder to you, a wonder and a distress, that your sons do not\nturn out well, that they go to the public-house too much, and that they\nare idle workmen, that they swear and use foul language?  If you wish\nthem to grow up differently, it is of no use saying to them, \"My sons,\nwalk straight!\" you must lead the way, that they may follow.\n\nIs it a wonder and grief to a mother that her girls become giddy,\nfrivolous, and unsteady, and perhaps cause her shame?  Do you want them\nto be quiet, to stay at home, and be neat, modest, unselfish girls?\nthen do not be giddy and a gadabout yourself.  \"Lead thou the way,\nmother, and they will follow.\"\n\nDo you, parents, find that your children ramble about the lanes with\nidle companions instead of coming to Church on Sundays, that they do\nnot love the worship of God, that they do not fear God, and reverence\nHis sanctuary?  Do you want them to be God-fearing, pious, consistent\nChristians?  Then do you lead the way and they will follow.\n\nDo you want your boys and girls to hold a check on their tongues, and\nnot to be always wrangling and snapping at one another, scolding, and\nfinding fault, and quarrelling?  Then do you lead the way, that they\nmay follow.  Lead the way by keeping a check on your tongues, by being\ngentle and forbearing--you, husband and wife, one with another, not\ngiven to railing, but, contrariwise, to blessing.\n\nII.  You may have observed how often in Holy Scripture the expression\nrecurs, \"The God of your Father,\" or \"The God of your Fathers,\" \"The\nGod of my Father,\" or \"of my Fathers.\"  This is a remarkable\nexpression.  Is God short of Names that He should be thus designated?\nMight He not be better termed Almighty, Everlasting, Jehovah?  The\nexpression is of such frequent recurrence that it must have a\nmeaning--and this is what it means.  There is such a thing as an\nhereditary religion.  As a man regards God, so will his children regard\nHim.  If a man is reverent and devout, and shows that he honours God,\nand regards Him as a just and righteous God, hating iniquity, and\nrewarding all those who keep His commandments, then his children will\ngrow up regarding God as just and righteous; but if a man thinks of God\nas indifferent to righteousness, as so ready in His kindness to forgive\neverything, and let men do what they like, that He will pardon them for\nany and everything they do, then his sons will grow up looking on God\nas the great Author of moral disorder among men.  If a man regards God\nas expecting worship and honour, then the sons will grow up with the\nsame idea of God, and will worship and honour Him, and if a man has no\nGod at all, then his sons will also have no God at all.\n\nIII.  In Exodus God threatens that He will \"visit the iniquity of the\nfathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the\nthird and to the fourth generations.\"  In like manner He blesses a\nwhole posterity for the righteousness of their parents.  You see now\nhow and why this is.  It is because when a father and mother are\nwicked, their children grow up wicked also, and their children's\nchildren, till the whole family dies out through its vicious habits, or\nthere rises out of it some redeeming element of good.\n\nIn the same way good parents have good children, and these good\nchildren marry, and have also good offspring, and so the goodness of\none pious and righteous pair goes on descending and spreading like a\nfertilizing river, bearing blessings to all who are near it.  What an\nencouragement this is to you parents to lead God-fearing lives!  What a\nwarning to those of you who are careless!  The belief of the ruler\nbrought belief to his whole house.   The salvation of Zacchaeus brought\nsalvation to his whole house also.  Righteousness may bring a blessing\nto your children, and children's children, for many generations.\n\n\n\n\nLIX.\n\n_THE PREACHER AND HIS HEARERS._\n\n22nd Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Matthew xviii. 23.\n\n\"The kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a certain king, which would take\naccount of his servants.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--I have been a good deal abroad, over the Continent of\nEurope, and whenever I am in a little country inn, I make a point of\ngoing into the room where the men are smoking and drinking wine or\nbeer, and hearing their opinions on the politics of the day, and of\ntheir country.  Now, my experience tells me that in country taverns in\nFrance, and Germany, and Belgium, and Switzerland, and Austria, the\nmain topic of discussion is--the Parsons.  I have not been much about\nin this way in England, but I have an idea that it is pretty nearly the\nsame here.  What I have heard often said is this, \"Nothing easier than\nto preach!\"  \"Ah! they are always preaching at us, it is a pity that\nthey do not preach to themselves.\"  \"Ah! if they would only practice\nwhat they preach, we would listen more readily.\"\n\nSUBJECT.--To-day I am going to preach to the preacher, to myself, at\nleast in the first part of my sermon, and you may sit and listen.\nAfter that, I will have a word with you.  In to-day's Gospel we hear\nthat the king will take account of his servants, that is, God will take\naccount of all those who are His servants, first with those who are His\nspecial Ministers, the Clergy, and preachers of His Word, and secondly,\nof those who are the hearers.\n\nI.  Now, let me see what God expects of a preacher, and what I ought to\nbe and to do.  S. Paul says: \"We preach Christ crucified.\"  That is the\nfirst thing I am bound to do.  I must remember to do that.  Then, S.\nLuke says that Jesus was \"mighty in word and deed,\" and as Christ has\nsent us even as He was sent by the Father, so must we preachers be\nmighty, as far as we can, both in word and deed, we must speak boldly\nand vigorously, and we must act in the same way, we must practice what\nwe preach.  That is a great deal expected of us.  If we were only to\npreach up to the level of our own lives, it would be easier.  But the\npreaching goes first; we must preach the highest virtue, and then try\nto live up to that.  S. John the Baptist was set before us as an\nexample of a preacher, and \"he was a burning and a shining light.\"  We\npreachers must give you doctrine which not only shines but also burns,\nwe must not only enlighten your minds by teaching, but also burn your\nconsciences.  We must instruct the intellect, and warm and fire the\nheart.  That is requiring a great deal of us.  \"He maketh his ministers\na burning fire,\" says David, and S. Paul quotes his words approvingly.\nIt is a pleasant thing to enlighten, but to burn is not so pleasant.\nYet that is what we preachers are bound to do, we must not speak to you\nsmooth things, but those things which will sting you and make you arise\nand cry out.  Not only what you like, but a great deal that you do not\nlike.  That is what is demanded of a preacher.\n\nThen again he must not \"use the Word of God deceitfully,\" twisting it\nto enforce what is not God's truth, but his own fancy.  We read that at\nthe trial of Christ there were found two false witnesses who declared\nthat Christ had said, \"Destroy this temple, and in three days will I\nbuild it up.\"  Now when we look at S. John's Gospel we find that He did\nsay this.  How, then, were they false witnesses?  They were false\nwitnesses because they gave His words a meaning He never intended them\nto have.  He spoke of the temple of His body; they made His words apply\nto the temple of Jerusalem.\n\nMoses desired that his preaching might be as the dew.  \"My doctrine\nshall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small\nrain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass\" (Deut.\nxxxii. 2.)  Very pleasant it would be to speak so that one's words came\ndown like the dew, or even as the small rain on the tender grass.  You\nwould like that, and so would I.  You would hold up your heads like the\nflowers, and drink the dewy doctrine in.  But stay!  \"As the showers\nupon the grass\" as well, says Moses.  It will not do for the preacher\nto speak only gently; his words must come pattering about your heads\nlike a driving April shower, when you will shrink from the rain and\nhide to get out of the way.  The preacher must pour out on you a good\nstrong shower of hard words.\n\nBut that is not all.  He must use the Word of the Lord as a sword.\n\"The Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged\nsword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and of spirit, and\nis a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.\"  How will the\nhearers like that?  The preacher must not ask that, he must use the\nWord as it is given him, whether his hearers like it or whether they do\nnot.\n\nThere was at one time at Coimbra two famous preachers, and all the town\nran to hear them; but some thought A. was the best preacher, and some\nthought that B. was the best.  It was discussed among the professors of\nthe University, and then it was found that they were divided--some\nliked A., and others preferred B.; then an old professor spoke, \"I will\ntell you what I think.  I have heard them both, and have formed my\nopinion.  When I have listened to a sermon by A., I come away highly\npleased with the preacher; when I come away from a sermon by B., I am\nheartily disgusted with myself.\"  Then you see which was the true\npreacher.  A. sought his own glory and to show his talent, B. only\nconsidered the souls of those he was speaking to.\n\nAnd now I have said what a preacher ought to speak, and also how he\nought to act.  I do not think it is so easy a matter, if he be a\nfaithful preacher.\n\nII.  Now then I turn to you, the hearers.  Be ye not hearers of the\nWord, but doers.  The word preached you will not profit unless you take\nhold of it.\n\nOne day Agilmund, King of the Lombards, was riding past a river.  At\nthat time it was customary for heathen mothers to drown those of their\nchildren whom they did not care to rear.  He saw floating down the\nrapid stream a number of little crying babes in baskets in which they\nhad been cast in.  The king's heart was touched, and he went to the\nedge of the river where there was a pool and an eddy, and he knelt down\nand held out his spear to the children; then one of them extended his\nlittle hands and clasped hold of the spear, and clung to it, and the\nking very gently and carefully drew the spear to him with the little\nfellow holding tight to it.  But all the other babes merely cried and\nsank into the water.  Then he carried home the child in his arms,\nadopted him as his son, and made him his heir to the kingdom.\n\nNow all the preacher can do for you, swimming down the great river of\ntime, threatened with death, is to hold out the Word to you.  He cannot\nsave you.  He cannot do more for you than that.  You must lay hold and\ncling tight to the Word.\n\nBut why do I say the preacher?  It is Jesus Christ Himself who really\nextends the Word to you, and He will save you if you hold fast to it,\nand bring you through the waters, and land you in His country, and\nexalt you to His kingdom.\n\n\n\n\nLX.\n\n_THE IMAGE OF SELF._\n\n23rd Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Matthew xxii., 20.\n\n\"Whose is this image?\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--Some people are very fond of contemplating their own\nexcellencies, of admiring their good qualities, or their success in\nlife; they will talk to you of what they have done, how they made this\nlucky hit, how they outwitted so-and-so, how they escaped such a danger\nby their foresight.  But they are not fond of considering their\nimperfections, of lamenting their faults, of confessing their failures,\ntheir lost opportunities, their neglected duties, their grave\ntransgressions.  No, no! they do not see them, they see only their own\ngood qualities and none of their blemishes, they extol their successes,\nand hold their tongues over their failures.\n\nSUBJECT.--But it would be well for us to contemplate ourselves as we\nreally are, and see ourselves in the light in which we are seen by God,\nfor the Apostle says: \"If we would judge ourselves, we shall not be\njudged,\" that is, if we would only see ourselves with all our defects,\nand repent our faults here, and judge ourselves and go and amend, then\nwe should escape the judgment hereafter.\n\nI.  King David says, in the 51st Psalm, \"I acknowledge my faults, and\nmy sin is ever before me.\"  Now, think of this!  If any man had\noccasion to boast it was King David.  He had been a poor sheep-boy\nattending the flocks of his father, a farmer at Bethlehem, and he was\ntaken from the sheepfolds and exalted to be king.  What an exaltation\nfor him from a humble origin to the highest place!  He might well look\nback on that with exultation; but no, a shadow steps between and clouds\nthe view, \"My sin is ever before me.\"\n\nI daresay his palace walls were hung with tapestry, or painted in\ncolours with pictures representing his deeds.  There he was shewn\nfighting the bear, there taking the lamb from the lion's mouth, and\nsmiting him.  There he was pictured with his sling going against the\ngiant Goliath.  There he was represented standing over the fallen\nPhilistine and hewing off his head.  Look! another picture! his\nmarriage with Michal, the daughter of King Saul.  \"Whose is this\nimage?\"  It is that of the conqueror over Amalek.  \"Whose is this\nimage?\"  It is David crowned king of Judah in Hebron.  And here is a\ngoodly picture; of whom is it?  This is David anointed King over all\nIsrael.  There is another!  David defeating the Philistines in the\nbattle under the mulberry trees.  There is one more!  \"Whose is this\nimage?\"  It is that of David bringing the ark from Kirjath-jearim, and\nplaying his harp and dancing before it.  What a goodly array of\npictures!  All--all about the glories and successes of David.  David\npaces idly through the halls, he sees the tapestries and paintings, but\nhe regards them not, \"My sin is ever before me.\"  He sees only one\npicture, which is not upon the wall, which the flattering painter has\nomitted, his guilt with Bathsheba.\n\nHe goes to war in his armour, and takes the city of Rabbah.  He carries\noff the crown of the king and puts it on his own head.  The spoil of\nthe city is great.  In the turmoil of battle, in the flush of victory,\n\"My sin is ever before me.\"\n\nHe flees before his enemies, before his rebellious son, and is in\nhiding in the wilderness with a few faithful friends, and then there\nrises up before him the remembrance of his great transgression, and\nweighs down his heart.  \"My sin is ever before me.\"\n\nIn joy, in sorrow, in prosperity and in distress it is always the same.\n\"Whose is this image?\"  It is that of a great king, a mighty warrior, a\nsweet poet,--\"No, no!\" says David, \"It is the image of a grievous\nsinner.  My sin is ever before me.  Let no man call me a good king, I\ngave over the innocent Uriah to the sword, and took from him his\nbeloved wife.  Let no man call me a just man, I divided the land of\nMephibosheth with his false, lying slave Ziba, because it went against\nmy pride to go back from what I had said.  Let no man call me merciful,\nwhen I tortured the Ammonites cruelly, putting them under saws, and\nunder harrows and axes of iron, and made them pass through the\nbrickkiln.  Let no man speak of me as a conqueror, when I was miserably\nconquered by my wicked passions.\"\n\nMy brethren!  I wish that you would see yourselves in the way in which\nDavid did.  I wish that instead of turning away your eyes from those\npictures in your life which do you no honour, you would look at them\nwith shame.  I wish that instead of boasting yourselves as the image of\nall perfections, you would see yourselves as sinners.\n\nII.  There was a painter called Bonamico, who was engaged by Cardinal\nAretino to paint a series of pictures in his chapel.  He began with a\nbeautiful fresco of Jesus Christ.  A day or two afterwards, when he\ncame to his work in the morning, he found his picture smeared all over\nwith dabs of colour, red, and black, and blue, and yellow, and utterly\ndefaced and spoiled.  The painter was so angry that he refused to go on\nwith his work till the culprit was found.  A watch was set, and then it\nwas discovered who had done it.  When the painter had left the chapel,\na pet ape of Aretino's came in, and having during the day seen the\nartist at work, he took up brush and colours, and began, in mischief or\nin imitation, to daub over what the painter had executed.\n\n\"Whose is this image?\"  You were made in the image of God, and redeemed\nby Christ.  Whose is the image?  You are expected to grow to the\nstature of the fulness of Christ, to be like Christ, but alas! the\nDevil, or your evil passions, deface the image, and obliterate the\nlikeness.  Can I see anything like Christ in you?  Where are the traces\nof the divine image?  I know what Christ is.  \"I am meek and lowly of\nheart.\"  Where is your meekness?  Some ape has daubed self-conceit over\nit, and I see nothing else but his bold colours.  \"He shall not strive\nnor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the street.\"  Where is\nthis quietness and unobtrusiveness in you?  Do I not hear angry words\nand quarrelling?  Some ape has daubed out this feature of the Saviour.\n\"I am come not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.\"\nWhere is this readiness to submit to the will of God?  Do I not see an\neager following of your own wills?  Surely also this characteristic of\nthe Son of God is effaced.\n\nCONCLUSION.--My brethren, one chief reason why we should see ourselves\nas we really are is, that we might be able by penitence to wipe out the\nugly smears that deface the divine image, and that we might go on to\nperfection, becoming daily more like unto Him who is our pattern, so\nthat at the Last Day, when we wake up, it will be with the likeness\ncomplete, for \"we shall be like Him.\"\n\n\n\n\nLXI.\n\n_DREAD OF RIDICULE._\n\n24th Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Matt. ix. 24.\n\n\"And they laughed Him to scorn.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--\"All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer\npersecution\" (2 Tim. iii. 12.)  This is what S. Paul says.  This is\nwhat everyone of you must make up your mind to, if you intend to live\ngodly lives, and, moreover, to live in Christ.  Do you know what that\nmeant to the early Christians?  It meant that if they were going to be\nfirm in their faith, live up to their profession, and eschew evil, they\nshould be dragged before governors, and hung on what was called the\n\"little horse,\" and their flesh torn with redhot pincers.  It meant\nthat they should be scourged to death, or that they should be roasted\nalive over slow fires, or that they should be gored in the amphitheatre\nby a bull, or torn to pieces by a lion, or that they should have their\nskin taken off, or that their heads should be struck off, or that they\nshould be crucified.  So when they were baptized and professed the\nCreed, and were signed with the cross, they knew that they were\nenlisted to suffer persecution if they acted up to their profession,\nand were worthy of the cross on their brows.\n\nBut this is not the sort of persecution you will be subjected to.  The\ntime of such cruel torture is over.  The world has become Christian in\nname, but in heart it is pagan still.\n\n\"_All_ that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.\"\nS. Paul does not limit this to his day.  It is not only all in the\nfirst century, but all in the nineteenth century as well.  Only this is\naltered--the mode of persecution.\n\nSUBJECT.--The persecution you will be subjected to, if you live godly\nin Jesus Christ is--Ridicule.  No one will make you suffer in the body.\nNo pincers and knives will be brought against you,--only Tongues.\n\nI.  Noah was ordered by God to build an ark on dry ground.  Imagine the\nridicule he met with!  How the people would flock out of an evening, to\nsee how he was getting on.  What jibes!  How he was tormented with\nquestions, When was the great boat to be launched?  How was he to bring\nthe sea up to it?  Was he with his three sons to put their shoulders to\nit, and push it down to the seashore?  But Noah did not heed them, he\nwent on with his building.  It was very unpleasant to bear.  It made\nhim very red with shame and annoyance sometimes.  But he did not give\nup.  If he had done so, he would have been drowned.  And one day the\nflood came.  The fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the\nwindows of heaven opened, and then the water overflowed the land.\nThen!--how was it with those men and women who had made fun of Noah?\nOn whose side was the laugh now?\n\nThe Israelites were ordered by God to camp against Jericho.  They were\nto march round the city once a day, with the priests going before,\nblowing their trumpets; this was to be done six days in succession, but\non the seventh day they were to march seven times round the city, with\nthe priests leading the way, blowing the rams' horns.  The first day\nthe inhabitants of Jericho rushed to their walls, and watched, and\nwondered.  The second day they saw the same procession go round the\ntown.  It had ended in nothing on Sunday, so they laughed and pointed\nat them.  What a ludicrous sight!  All those men armed with swords and\nspears, who do not use them, those priests blowing the horns as to\nencourage the Israelites to battle, and not one rushing forward to\nscale the walls.  The third day all the women and children were on the\nwalls, marching round and mimicking them, blowing toy trumpets.  What\njokes!  What jeers shouted from the walls!  So on to the Friday.  On\nthe Sabbath the people got rather tired of this same scene.  It was\ngrowing monotonous; so they did not come in such numbers.  However,\nafter the Israelites had marched round once, they began to march round\na second time.  Here was something new!  Something still more\nnonsensical; and the people of Jericho came out on their walls again to\nflout them, and pass their jokes.  When the Israelites had been round\ntwice, they started to go round a third time, then a fourth, then a\nfifth, then a sixth.  The mocking grew more excessive, the ridicule\nmore keen.  But, when the circuit of the city was made the seventh\ntime, then, the walls of the city fell down, and the Israelites rushed\nin over the ruins, and killed all they came across.  On whose side was\nthe laugh then?\n\nII.  As I told you at the beginning of my sermon, if you will live\ngodly in Christ Jesus, you must expect persecution, and the only sort\nof persecution you will get is Ridicule.\n\nTherefore, if you will live godly in Christ Jesus, you must be prepared\nto be taunted, and made fun of, and teased.  The tongues will wag and\nsay all sort of hard things about you; You are a hypocrite, or you are\ngoing too far, or you are a fine person to set up to be a saint!  but\nbe of good cheer, do not mind the laughter, it is only for a while, and\nthen the tables will be turned, and the laugh will be on your side.\n\nIt is very unpleasant to be made a butt for ridicule.  Of course it is,\nbut it is not so unpleasant as to have your flesh torn off with redhot\npincers.  The early Christians who would live godly in Christ Jesus had\nto expect that.\n\nIt is very galling to have bitter things said of you, often unjust and\nuntrue, only because you have begun to serve God, and lead a better\nlife.  Of course it is, but it is not so bitter to bear as a cruel\ndeath, and that is what the early Christians had to expect if they\nwould live godly in Christ Jesus.\n\nThen again.  As the Master was used, so the servant must expect to be\ntreated.  Jesus Christ had not only to endure the cruelty of wicked\nmen, but their ridicule as well, \"They laughed Him to scorn.\"\n\nCONCLUSION.--Pluck up a little courage, my brethren, and do not be such\ncowards.  If you lack courage, ask of God, and He will give it you.\nThe Spirit of Fortitude is one of the gifts of the Holy Ghost.  He gave\nit to the martyrs to strengthen them under torment, and they were able\nto endure and not forsake their Lord.  Then surely He will give to you\nthat measure of fortitude which will enable you to stand up against\nRidicule.\n\n\n\n\nLXII.\n\n_WHAT LASTS, AND WHAT PASSES AWAY._\n\n25th Sunday after Trinity.\n\nS. Matthew xxiv., 35.\n\n\"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass away.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--Yes! all will pass away!  This beautiful world and all\nthat is on it.  Our houses, our churches, our cities, will crumble\naway; the very earth with its mountains and rivers, and plains, and\nseas, will pass away.  The stars will fall from heaven, the sun will\nhave exhausted its fires, the moon will sink into night.  But the words\nof Christ will last.\n\nSUBJECT.--Incessant is the change.  Ever are things present passing\naway, but there is still something that remains.  Things pass in their\npresent fashion, but in substance remain.\n\nI.  S. Paul, in his 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, says (vii. 31):\n\"The fashion of this world passeth away.\"  It is as though this world\nwere a theatre, on which pass many scenes.  The curtain rises, and we\nsee first Eden, all beautiful; there is no sin, no death; how lovely is\nthe world in its maiden freshness and innocence, the flowers are\nblooming, and the birds are singing, and Adam and Eve stand surrounded\nby the beasts, which fawn on them, and fear them not.  O that this\nlovely scene might remain!  But no!  \"The fashion of this world passeth\naway.\"\n\nAnother scene.  The Angel armed with the flaming sword drives our\nparents forth, the earth brings forth thorns and briars.  Man slays the\nbeasts to provide him with food and clothing.  The earth is full of\nviolence, Cain raises his hand against Abel.  All flesh is corrupt\nbefore God.  \"The fashion of this world passeth away.\"\n\nThe flood has purified earth, but now men are scattered through the\nconfusion of tongues, and go over all the world colonising, cutting\ndown trees, planting corn, hunting wild beasts, pasturing cattle, and\nhaving flocks of sheep.  \"The fashion of this world passeth away.\"\n\nGreat empires arise, the Chaldean or Assyrian, the Persian, the Greek,\nthese three.  Do they last?  \"The fashion of this world passeth away.\"\nA fourth arises; the mighty Roman Empire, extending over the whole\nknown world.  The Roman poet wrote of it in the name of his false god,\nJupiter, \"I put no bounds to this empire, neither of space nor of time,\nI give it a kingdom without end.\"  Was it so?  We find scattered almost\neverywhere in the old world where we travel traces of this mighty\nempire, its roads, its castles, its palaces, its coins, but it is gone,\ngone utterly away, swept away by the hordes of Gothic barbarians.  \"The\nfashion of this world passeth away.\"\n\nIf we look back at the past times of our own country, what changes do\nwe see! the fashion ever changing, the fashion of government, the\nfashion of religion, the fashion of dress, the fashion of architecture,\nall is change, change, and change.\n\nHave you ever seen fireworks?  Have you seen the rockets rush up into\nthe air, casting a golden light, pouring forth sparks, and then\nbursting, this one into a silvery globe of light, that one into a\nthousand stars, crimson, blue, green, yellow, that again into sparks of\ncurling fire-dust?  What became of them?  Down they fall, and all that\nremains is a stick and a bit of smouldering brown paper.  The fashion\nhas wondrously changed.  Are not these rockets figures of the life of\nman?  Up we rush in the eagerness of youth, and cast a light about us,\nup, up, growing brighter, throwing out our stars and globes of light,\nand then, \"the fashion changeth,\" and we come down and are laid in our\ngraves, a little ash.  Here is the man who was full of wealth and\nhonour, how he blazed as a sun, how he scattered his gold.  \"The\nfashion changeth.\"  He is now a crumbling bit of clay.\n\nHere is the man who made such a noise in the parish, such a boaster, so\nquarrelsome, so litigious, no one could come near him.  \"The fashion\nchangeth.\"  He lies still as a mouse now, and can resent no injury done\nto his dust.\n\nHere is the active housewife, whose hand was always busily employed\nsewing, darning, scouring, never idle for one minute, keeping her house\nclean, and her children tidy.  \"The fashion changeth.\"  She can stir no\nhand, can think for no one any more.\n\nII.  Evilmerodach, king of Babylon, was wroth with Daniel, because he\ndenied that Bel was a god.  Meats were placed on the altar before the\nidol every night, and before morning they had vanished.  \"Therefore,\"\nsaid the king, \"Bel must be a god.\"  But Daniel got fine ashes and\nstrewed the temple floor, and locked the doors.  Next morning he came\nwith the king to the temple, and when the doors were opened, the king\nsaw that all the meat was gone, then he cried out that Bel was a god.\nBut Daniel pointed to the floor, and there, in the ashes, were the\nprints of many feet, for the priests had a secret door under the altar,\nand in the night they came out with their wives and children, and ate\nwhat had been offered to the idol.  Then Evilmerodach had them all\nslain.\n\nNow, my brethren!  Job says of God: \"Thou lookest narrowly unto all my\npaths,\" or, as it might be better rendered, \"my footprints.\"  That is,\nThou, O God, seest my traces where I have been, and Thou wilt take\naccount of what I have done.  Mark this!--The steps pass away, but the\nfootprints do not pass away.  The steps go on into Endless Life or\nEternal Death, but the footprints remain to shew where you have walked.\nYour fashion in this world may pass away, but your footprints remain to\ntell tales of you; they pass not away.\n\nYou house-father!  You house-mother! you will go your way, but your\ntraces will remain in your family, the good you have done, or the bad,\nthese cannot be wiped out.\n\nYou who have done any dishonest act, spoken falsehood, dealt\ndeceitfully, all your dishonest acts, and false words, and deceitful\ndealings, will pass away, but the traces will remain, and God will look\nnarrowly at them.\n\nYou have been given talents, intelligence, physical strength, spiritual\nopportunities; these pass away, but not their traces.\n\nYou have been a boy, a youth, a man, and are now old.  Each age has\npassed away, but not the footsteps, they shall not pass away.  What you\ndid when first you got your reason, your childish acts, are passed\naway, but not the results.  Your actions when young,--did you yield to\nyour passions or conquer them? those acts are passed away, but not the\nresults.  In your manhood, what have you done in your family, what\nexample have you set?  You are now old and white-headed.  Vigorous\nmanhood is over, passed away, but the footsteps, the tell-tale\nfootsteps remain.\n\nCONCLUSION.--Now then, considering this, I urge you sincerely to live\neach day as if the last, to live so that you may not be afraid of your\nfootsteps that will betray of what sort your life has been.\n\n\n\n\n\nLXIII.\n\n_THANKFULNESS TO GOD._\n\nHarvest\n\nS. Matthew xxii., 21.\n\n\"Render--unto God, the things that are God's.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--David says in the 8th Psalm, \"What is man, that Thou art\nmindful of him: and the son of man that Thou visitest him?  Thou makest\nhim to have dominion of the works of Thy hands; and Thou hast put all\nthings in subjection under his feet, all sheep and oxen; yea, and the\nbeast of the field, the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea.\"\n\nI.  The mastery of man is even more extensive than this; he controls\nthe elements.   The earth he tills and makes it bring forth fruit and\ncorn, as he wills.  He will not suffer it to run wild, but schools and\ndisciplines it.  He hedges it about, and ploughs, and sows, and reaps.\nHe burrows into it for fuel and for metals, he cuts roads over its face.\n\nThe air he makes use of also, it is his servant to turn the sails of\nhis wind-mills, to grind his corn, it fills out the sails of his ships\nto carry his merchandise from one land to another.\n\nFire, that most terrible of elements, he dominates and makes into a\nslave, it smelts the ore for him, it raises the steam that drives the\nengines, it heats his house, it lights it, it cooks his food.\n\nWater is also under control, he leads it where he will in canals and\npipes, he makes it turn the wheels of water-mills, it is used for\ndrinking, and for washing.  And yet even that is not all.  Man controls\nthe lightning, he makes of that a slave to carry messages round the\nworld, and he carries it into globes, and lights streets and railway\nstations, and shop windows with it.\n\nWhen man was innocent in Eden, the beast and birds were his familiar\nfriends, but when he sinned they fled from him.  God said to Noah, \"The\nfear of you, and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the\nearth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the\nearth, and upon all the fishes of the sea, into your hand are they\ndelivered.\"\n\nSee how the animals have been subjected to man; the horse, the useful\ncow, the dog, and the sheep have been tamed, the horse which once roved\nwild submits to have a saddle on his back, and a bit in his mouth.  The\ncow gives her milk and her meat, and the sheep both wool and meat, for\nthe nourishment and the clothing of man; the dog, which, when wild, was\nfierce as his brother the wolf, has become the friend and companion of\nman; even the gigantic elephant has become docile, and the Indian\nmother leaves her babe under its charge, that the monster may brush\naway the flies from the sleeping infant with a branch.\n\nWe have dominion over the birds in the air, we have tamed the domestic\nfowls and make them yield us their eggs, and we keep the pigeons about\nour homes that we may kill their young; we snare and shoot them as we\nwill, their high flight and rapid wings are no protection for them.\n\nWe have dominion over the fishes of the sea, we strew the net and bring\nthem in for our food; we hunt the whale for his oil and for the fringe\nof bone in his mouth; we dive into the sea after the oyster that we may\nextract from it the pearl, and we strip the shell of its\nrainbow-coloured scales to inlay therewith our furniture.\n\nII.  What follows from all this?  Is not this enough to make man proud,\nto exalt him in his own conceit? unfortunately it would seem so, but\nthe lesson I would draw from all this is, Render unto God that service\nwhich is due to God, as all inferior creatures render unto you the\nservice you demand of them.\n\nAn old writer (Hugo Victorinus) beautifully says--\"It is as though the\nearth appealed to man, and said to him, See how He loved thee who made\nme for thee.  I serve thee because I was made for thee, and do thou\nserve Him who made thee and me.\"\n\nSuppose a king were to take you by the hand and lead you into a\nbeautiful estate, and say to you, \"Here, I give you this mansion, with\nthe park and the fields, and the woods and the river, you may do what\nyou will with it, hunt, and shoot, and fish, and till the soil, and\npasture sheep, and cattle, I give it you all freely and entirely, I ask\nof you nothing but that you will recognise me as your king and not join\nmy enemies in fighting against me.\"  Then, I think, you would embrace\nthe offer with the greatest eagerness.  Now this is just what God has\ndone to you; He has brought you into the world, and has given you power\nover the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, the fishes of the\nsea, He has given you the earth to grow your corn, and on which to\npasture your cattle, He has given you dominion over the elements, and\nall He asks in return is that you will recognise Him as the Giver, and\nnot join His enemies.  \"Render unto God that honour and homage that be\nGod's.\"\n\nIII.  Balaam, the prophet and seer, rode on his ass to go to Balak,\nking of Moab.  God had forbidden him to go and curse the chosen people\nof God, but Balaam, moved by covetousness, and eager for honours from\nthe king, started on his way to go.  Then an angel stood in the way\nwith a drawn sword to stop him.  Balaam did not see the angel, but the\nass did, and fell down under Balaam.  Then he cried out in a rage, \"I\nwould there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee,\" and\nhe beat the ass savagely with his stick.  Do you see!  Balaam expects\nthe ass to obey him blindly, to go where he chooses; but he himself\nwill not obey God, and refrain from going whither he is forbidden.\n\nHow is it with you?  Is it not with you as with Balaam?  You expect the\nearth to yield you what you choose, and are wroth if it withholds the\ncrop; but you do not yield to God what He desires, and show a harvest\nof good fruit unto life everlasting from the seed of Grace He has sown\nin you.  You expect your sheep to give their wool, and your cows their\nmilk, and to obey you, and come into the fold, or go out into the\npasture, docile to your will.  But do you act thus to God?  Are you\ndocile to His will?  Do you eat that heavenly food He has prepared for\nyou in the pastures of his Church?  You expect your orchard to yield\nyou apples.  Do you show any fruit of the Spirit?  When Christ comes\nand searches among the leaves of your profession, does He find any\nfruit of good works there?\n\nCONCLUSION.--Then, Brethren, in your farm-work, bear this ever in mind,\nthat as you expect the fields and the cattle to yield to you what is\nyour due, so render also yourselves unto God that honour, that worship,\nthat gratitude, which are God's.\n\n\n\n\nLXIV.\n\n_THE FORMATION OF HABITS._\n\nSchool Sermon.\n\nProverbs xxii. 6.\n\n\"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will\nnot depart from it.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--There is a district, high up in the Black Forest, where\nthe ground is full of springs.  It is a plain some nine hundred feet\nabove the sea.  Thousands upon thousands of little springs gush out of\nthe soil; you seem to be on the rose of a vast watering-can.  Now, from\nthis great source flow a good many rivers, and they flow in very\ndifferent, nay, opposite directions.  There rises the Danube, which\nruns East and dies in the Black Sea, and also the Neckar and a hundred\nother tributaries of the Rhine, which flows West, and falls into the\nNorth Sea.  A very little thing on that plain--a slight rise or fall in\nthe ground, this way or that--decides the direction in which a river\nshall run.  You can easily make a little stream run this way and feed\nthe Rhine, or that way and swell the Danube; but after a few miles all\ncontrol over the stream is gone.  It runs on, and will run on to the\nend in the direction you have given it, or which it took by chance when\nit started.\n\nIt is the same with children.  All these little springs of vigorous\nlife are bubbling up round us, and whither shall they flow?  To the\nright or to the left?  To Life or to Death?  We can give them their\ndirection now.  A few years hence, and all power over them will be gone.\n\nSUBJECT.--As a habit is formed in early youth, so it remains to old\nyears.\n\nI.  We take our children and we train them for God.  God has given them\nto us for this, to train them as citizens of His kingdom.  We neglect\nour duty if we neglect this.  He placed the flexible little characters\nin our hands to bend this way or that, expecting us to make them grow\nupright and not crooked, to look to Heaven, instead of trailing on\nearth.  They are a solemn trust for which we must give account.\n\nIt would have been one of the chief woes of Hell to Dives, if he had\nhis five brethren there to reproach him for having set them a bad,\nselfish, luxurious example.  Think how bitter your future state would\nbe, if your children in the outer darkness were to be for ever\nreproaching you, \"You brought us up to the world and not to God, you\nfed our bodies but not our souls, you set before us the transitory life\nas the one thing to care for, and did not teach us to lay up treasure\nand toil for the life eternal!\"  Think, also, how it will increase your\nhappiness to have your children in Life Eternal, and to receive their\nblessing, and experience their gratitude for having so taught them, by\nword and example, that they have through life walked in the narrow path\nthat leads to the gates of Heaven.\n\n\"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will\nnot depart from it.\"  You teach your children obedience, in order that\nwhen young they may form the habit of submitting to rule.  When they\nare old they will not depart from it.  God has His laws.  God exacts\ntheir obedience.  They learn now to bow to the commands of a teacher\nwhom they can see, they will obey afterwards the invisible Divine\nTeacher.  You teach your children order and method when young, that\nthey may live an orderly life when they grow older.  You teach them\nself-control now, that they may be able to exercise it in greater\nmatters hereafter.\n\nII.  Habits of obedience, and order, and self-control, acquired in\nchildhood will be confirmed in manhood, and will remain to the end of\nlife.  A man of business, who has spent his youth and manhood in\nlooking after his shop, or attending to his office, is miserable in old\nage when he gives up his business and retires; he misses the old\nroutine, he would be happier if he could go on in the accustomed round\ntill he drops.  The days hang heavy on his hands.  The relaxation to\nwhich he had looked forward, and for which he had worked, palls on him.\nAnd these are habits of industry.  Bad habits retain a stronger hold on\nman.  A bad youth and a bad manhood make a vicious old age.  Many an\nold man who had led a disorderly life retains his wicked habits, though\nthey afford him no pleasure.  He goes on in vice merely because vice\nhas become habitual, not because it is pleasurable.\n\nEli, as we read in the 4th chap. I Sam., when aged ninety and eight\nyears, and his eyes were dim, that he could not see, \"sat upon a seat\nby the wayside watching.\"  What is the meaning of this?  The old man of\nnearly a hundred has his chair brought outside the temple, and sits\nthere looking up the street, and that although his eyes are so covered\nwith a mist that he can see nothing.  The sacred writer does not say\nthat Eli sat on the seat by the wayside seeing what went on, but only\nstraining his sightless eyeballs up the street.  If we turn back to the\nfirst chapter, we shall see that this was a habit with Eli.  When he\nwas many years younger, some thirty years before, when Hannah came up\nto Shiloh to entreat the Lord to have mercy on her and take away her\nreproach, we read \"Now Eli, the priest, sat upon a seat by the post of\nthe temple of the Lord.\"  And his eyes, then sharp and clear, were\npeering about and watching all that was going on, and examining the\nfaces of the people who were coming in and going out, and were engaged\nin prayer.  One would have thought that common decency would have kept\nhim from watching the face of the poor woman who was engaged in prayer,\nbut Eli had not acquired control over his eyes--indeed, his great\namusement was peering into people's faces and guessing what was going\non in their minds.  Hannah wept as she prayed, \"And it came to pass, as\nshe continued praying to the Lord, that Eli marked her mouth.  Now\nHannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was\nnot heard,\"--then with that want of charity, and tendency to think evil\nwhich so commonly goes with peeping and prying--\"Eli thought she had\nbeen drunk.\"  He saw what was not--drunkenness--in the weeping,\nsorrowful-hearted woman, but he saw not the wickedness which was in his\ndisorderly sons.  Here is an illustration of how habits last.  Eli had\nacquired this habit of sitting in the gate and watching what went on,\nwhen he was a man in the vigour of his days, and when he was a very old\nman and blind, the habit continued.  He had his chair brought out into\nthe street that he might look up and down it, though his eyes were dim\nand he could see nought.\n\nIII.  Now the great advantage of a school to a child is that therein\nthe child is taught good habits.  The child has got certain talents,\nbut cannot turn these talents to any good account without application.\nIn school he is given the habit of application; that is, of keeping his\nattention fixed on one subject.\n\nBut application is not all; to that must be added perseverance.  No\nadvance will be made in anything, unless a man first applies his mind\nto his task, and then perseveres in it till he has fulfilled what he\nundertook.  Nothing is more common than to begin a thing and to be\ndisheartened at the first difficulty, and to throw it up.  At school\nthe child is given the habit of perseverance.\n\nThat is not all.  No work will be carried out thoroughly without order\nand system.  You see people who work all day and work hard, but never\nmake any way, because they work in a muddle, and with no regular plan.\nAt school the child is given the habit of orderliness.\n\nI have instanced only a few of those necessary habits which we try to\nimpress on children at school.  We endeavour to impress them on the\nyoung, because then they are open to instruction, their characters are\nsoft and take impressions, as warm wax does from a seal.  We train them\nup in the way in which they should go, trusting that when they are old\nthey will not depart from it.  We teach what is good, that good may\nbecome a habit with them, and when anything has become a habit, it\nsticks.  It is not shaken off.\n\n\n\n\nLXV.\n\n_RELIGIOUS ZEAL._\n\nDedication Festival\n\nPs. lxix., 9.\n\n\"The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--David spoke the truth.  The one great desire of his\nheart was the glorification of God by the erection of a temple\nbefitting His worship at Jerusalem.  Although he had plenty of cares to\ndistract him, yet he never had this out of his heart.  \"I will not come\nwithin the tabernacle of mine house; nor climb up into my bed; I will\nnot suffer mine eyes to sleep, nor mine eyelids to slumber; neither the\ntemples of my head to take any rest; until I find out a place for the\ntemple of the Lord; an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.\"\n\nOne of the first things he did after he was anointed King over Israel,\nwas to go to Kirjath-jearim, and bring up thence the ark of God from\nthe house of Abinadab in which it had lodged.  And David went before\nthe ark playing his harp, and his heart was so full of joy that he\ndanced before the ark, singing and striking the strings of his harp.\nThen Michal his wife, Saul's daughter, looked out of a window, and\nsneered at him, \"and despised him in her heart.\"  She was one of your\ncold-blooded people, with no enthusiasm in her, with no zeal for God,\nno heart for God's glory.  Better David dancing for joy of heart, than\ncaptious Michal with a contemptuous curl of her lips.\n\nDavid collected great treasures to build the temple, and directly he\nwas at peace, his heart began to yearn to be about the work, and build\nto the glory of God.  \"See now,\" he said, \"I dwell in an house of\ncedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.\"  But the word of\nGod came to him by Nathan the prophet, forbidding him to build, because\nhe was a man of blood, the temple was to be erected by his son Solomon.\nNevertheless, David collected for the temple, and above all, composed\nhis beautiful psalms to be sung in it.  The gold and the cedar that\nSolomon set up are gone, but the Psalms remain, and have passed over to\nbe the heritage of the Church.\n\nSUBJECT.--How striking is the zeal of David, and how little zeal have\nwe for God's glory, and for the adornment of His house!  Let us\nconsider to-day this zeal for God's house, and for those things that\nappertain to the worship of God, and tend to His glory.\n\nI.  Of all the pathetic stories in the Bible, there is one which has\nstruck me for its singular pathos, yet it is one which I dare say has\nescaped your notice.  You have heard of the zeal of David, how his\nenthusiasm carried him away, out of himself, so that he forgot his\nroyal dignity, and danced before the ark.  You have heard of his bitter\ndisappointment, how when through many years he had longed and planned\nto build the temple of God, his desire was not allowed to be carried\ninto effect, but the honour was reserved for his son.  The zeal of\nGod's house had eaten him up.  This was very touching, I think, but I\nremember a still more touching story of zeal for God's house, and God's\nhonour, and that, not in a great man, but in a humble woman.\n\nEli, the priest and judge of Israel, had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas,\nand they were priests in Shiloh.  They were utterly bad, profligate\nmen, utterly regardless of the honour of God, and they disgraced their\nsacred calling by their shameless lives.  They snatched from the\nsacrifices the best portion of the meat, and kept it for themselves,\nand they dishonoured the tabernacle by their shameless immoralities\ncommitted with those women who came to Shiloh to worship.\n\nIn a great battle fought between the Israelites and the Philistines,\nthe ark of God was taken, and Hophni and Phinehas were both slain.\nThen the news was brought to Eli the priest, and the old man, when he\nheard it, fell back off his chair in a fit, and broke his neck and\ndied.  The news also reached the wife of Phinehas.  We do not know her\nname.  We only hear of her this once, but by the one little incident\nrecorded of her, we know what she was.\n\n\"The daughter-in-law of Eli, Phinehas' wife, was with child, near to be\ndelivered, and when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was\ntaken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed\nherself and travailed; for her pains came upon her.  And about the time\nof her death, the women that stood by her said unto her, Fear not, for\nthou hast borne a son.  But she answered not, neither did she regard\nit. . .  And she said, The glory is departed from Israel, for the ark\nof God is taken.\"  Good, God-fearing, loving heart!  Not a thought\nabout herself.  She is in great suffering; not a cry from her other\nthan this, \"The ark of God is taken!\"  They tell her that her\nfather-in-law, old Eli, has fallen and broken his neck, \"But she\nanswered not, neither did she regard it\"--only she said, \"The ark of\nGod is taken.\"  They tell her that her husband has been killed in the\nbattle.  \"But she answered not, neither did she regard it\"--only she\ncried, \"The ark of God is taken.\"  They brought to her her new-born\nchild, a son.  What dearer to a mother than the little infant to whom\nshe has given life?  But no, even that does not move her mind from the\none absorbing idea, \"She answered not, neither did she regard the\nbabe,\" only she cried, \"The glory is departed from Israel, for the ark\nof God is taken.\"  Then the women who stood by said to her, \"What shall\nthe name of the child be, thy husband who should have named it is dead,\nthy father-in-law is dead, thou must name it.\"  \"But she answered not,\nneither did she regard it,\"--only she cried, \"The glory is departed\nfrom Israel.\"  Then the women that stood by said, \"So shall the name\nbe,\" and they called the child Ichabod, which means, \"Inglorious.\"  A\nfew minutes later, and she was dying, and the last murmur on her lips,\nand the last thought of her heart were, \"The ark of God is taken.\"\n\nI say this is a singularly touching story, for it shows us a woman\nwhose whole soul was imbued with zeal for the glory of God, and that\nwoman was the wife of a man whose whole priestly career was one of\ndishonour to God.\n\nII.  Now I have given you two striking instances of zeal for God's\nhonour, one in a man, and one in a woman.  Have you any such zeal in\nyou?  Are your thoughts at all taken up with God's church, God's altar,\nGod's worship?  Are you eager that all should be beautiful and seemly\nin the temple of God?  Does it pain you above every other pain when you\nknow of something which is to the dishonour of God and of His Church?\nHave you any zeal at all like that of David?  Have you any\nself-forgetfulness in what concerns His honour, like that of the\nnameless wife of Phinehas?  I think if there were a little of this\nzeal, so many of our churches would not be untidy, neglected, ruinous.\nThere would not be moth-eaten altar-cloths, and worm-eaten altars.\nThere would not be green mouldering walls, and broken pavements.  There\nwould not be a service slovenly, unmusical, irreverent, or if not\nirreverent, at least unworthy of the glory of God.\n\nIn heaven flame the golden candles, and the censers fume with\nfrankincense.  In heaven the seven lamps ever burn, and the altar\nshines like the sun.  In heaven the angels and the saints cease not day\nnor night in singing praises, and bowing in worship--and we! how do we\nshow that we love God's worship?  The zeal of God's house does not eat\nus up, we do not even know what it is.\n\n\n\n\nLXVI.\n\n_THE MEETING HEREAFTER._\n\nFuneral Service.\n\nJoshua iii. 17.\n\n\"And the priests that bare the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood\nfirm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites\npassed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over\nJordan.\"\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.--That must have been a striking sight!  The whole of\nGod's people passing over Jordan.  On one side, on that of the\nWilderness, a crowd pressing down, and going into the deep river bed,\non the other, those who had traversed, rising out of it, and spreading\nout on the high bank, looking down and watching those who descend into\nthe bed, and cross through it to rejoin them.  They stand in a blaze of\nlight.  The sun is setting, and the whole sky behind them is flaming\nwith golden clouds, the light strikes in the eyes of those on the\nfurther bank, and they look down into the dark channel and shrink, it\nis immersed in shadow, but then again, they look up, and see the glory,\nand the forms of their fathers, and brothers, and mothers, and sisters,\nand children standing there, steeped in light, and they pluck up\ncourage and go down.\n\nThey have no cause to fear.\n\nIn the midst of Jordan stands the Ark of the Covenant, and it will not\nmove from that place till the last has passed over.\n\nSUBJECT.--That story may serve for our comfort.  We, like the\nIsraelites, are on our journey, and we have to pass through the dark\nbed of the stream of Death, before we can enter into the promised land.\n\nAnd we have two subjects of consolation.\n\n(_a_) We have the Ark of the Covenant standing in Jordan to secure the\npath.\n\n(_b_) We have our dear ones watching and waiting for us on the farther\nshore.\n\nI.  We have the Ark of the Covenant standing in Jordan to secure the\npath.  \"Lo, I am with you always,\" said Christ, \"even unto the end of\nthe world.\"  That Ark signifies His abiding presence in His Church,\nwhich stands between the living and the dead, a Church on this side,\nmilitant, on the other, triumphant, a Church on this side made up of\ngood and bad, of tares and wheat, of sheep and goats, on that side, a\nCommunion of Saints.\n\nThe Ark and the priests stood in Jordan, so does God's Church and\npriesthood ever remain, so long as the world lasts, and that world will\nlast till the number of the elect has been made up, till the last of\nthe people of the Lord is passed over Jordan.\n\nThe Ministry will remain to teach the way of the Lord, and point the\npath through the river bed, and to cheer those who are downhearted, to\nlift up the finger and bid them look to the further shore, and to the\nglory there, and to those who stand on it watching.\n\nThe Sacrifice will remain, the atoning Blood for the remission of\nguilt, the altar will remain as well as the pulpit, the priest as well\nas the teacher, sacrifice as well as instruction.  Ever throughout the\nyear, the atoning Blood will be pleaded with the Father for the pardon\nof the sins of the people.  The Bread of Heaven, the manna will remain,\nto be man's spiritual food and sustenance, and strengthen the heart for\nthe passage of Jordan.\n\nThe presence of Christ will remain, \"I will never leave thee, nor\nforsake thee.\"  \"When thou passest through the waters, I will be with\nthee, and through the waves, they shall not overflow thee.\"  Therefore,\nwell says David, \"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of\nDeath, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.\"\n\nII.  Metabus, King of the Volsci, was pursued by his enemies.  He\ncarried in his arms a little babe, his niece Camilla.  In his flight he\ncame to the brink of a river, deep, troubled, and strong in current,\nand it arrested his flight.  He would not have been afraid of the\nstream himself, had it not been for the little child.  He hesitated.\nWhat should he do?  He dare not enter with the babe, as he must use\nboth arms to battle through so strong a stream.  The enemy were behind.\nHe heard their shouts!  From a distant hill-top they had spied him.  He\ncould not find it in his heart to desert the little one whom he loved\nso dearly.\n\nThen, what do you suppose Metabus resorted to?  There were a great many\nreeds by the river side, with his dagger he reaped them down, and he\nwrapped the babe up in rushes and reeds thickly round it, and tied them\ntogether with his girdle, and then he raised the little bundle in both\nhis hands, and flung it with all his might across the river.  After\nthat he sprang into the water and swam across to the other side.  He\npicked up the dear little bundle, took the child out, found it quite\nunharmed, and escaped with it lying next his heart.\n\nMy Brethren!  Is not this something like us?--we may have our little\nones, and be called on to part with them.  There lies the river, the\ndark rolling river of death.  We must cross sometime ourselves.  Safety\nis yonder.  Danger, destruction, here.  In God's name, trusting in Him\nwhen He wills it, we part with those so dear to us.  We wrap them up in\ntheir white wraps, and close them from sight in their coffin, and cast\nthem away.  They are gone--over the river, and then we are ready in our\nturn to plunge in and follow.\n\nNow it is a great encouragement to us to follow when we know that those\nwe love are passed and are in safety.  You parents who have parted with\nyour darlings, you have wrapped them up and cast them away.  Whither?\nThey have only flown across the river, and when you leap in and swim\nthrough, you will find them there--your Camillas, safe and smiling on\nyou, on the other side.\n\nCONCLUSION.--Ah! my brethren, what a happy meeting that will be!\nFather, mother, brothers, sisters, children, whole families gathered\ntogether.  What embraces!  What tears of joy!  What stories to tell of\npast troubles!  What gratitude to God for his mercies shown!  What\nthankfulness for His Ark that rested in the midst of Jordan, that\nsupplied direction, sustenance, propitiation, comfort, and nourishment\nfor the journey.","title":"The Village Pulpit, Volume II. Trinity to Advent: A Complete Course of 66 Short Sermons, or Full Sermon Outlines for Each Sunday, and Some Chief Holy Days of the Christian Year","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":39013}