{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_22075/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_22075","id":"gutenberg_22075","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22075","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Epistles -- Commentaries","Bible. Gospels -- Commentaries","Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Sermons, English"],"text":"Produced by Al Haines\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Life of Duty\n\n\nA YEAR'S PLAIN SERMONS\n\nON THE\n\nGOSPELS OR EPISTLES.\n\n\nVOL. II.\n\nTRINITY TO ADVENT.\n\n\nBY\n\nH. J. WILMOT-BUXTON, M.A.,\n\nVICAR OF S. GILES-IN-THE-WOOD, N. DEVON.\n\nAUTHOR OF\n  \"SUNDAY SERMONETTES FOR A YEAR.\"\n  \"MISSION SERMONS.\"\n  \"THE LIFE WORTH LIVING AND OTHER PLAIN SERMONS.\"\n  \"THE CHILDREN'S BREAD A SERIES OF SHORT SERMONS FOR CHILDREN.\"\n  \"THE LORD'S SONG SERMONS ON HYMNS,\" ETC.\n\n\n\nSixth Edition.\n\n\n\nLondon:\n\nSKEFFINGTON & SON, PICCADILLY, W.,\n\nPUBLISHERS TO H.M. THE QUEEN AND TO H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES.\n\n1898.\n\n\n\n\n  TO\n\n  MY DEAR MOTHER,\n\n  MY EARLIEST\n  AND\n  BEST TEACHER AND GUIDE,\n  THESE SERMONS\n  ARE\n  DEDICATED.\n\n\n\n\nContents.\n\n\n\nTHE OPEN DOOR (_Trinity Sunday_)\n  REV. iv. 1.\n  \"A door was opened in Heaven.\"\n\n\nTHE CONTRAST (_First Sunday after Trinity_)\n  S. LUKE xvi. 19, 20.\n  \"There was a certain rich man, . . . and there was a certain\n  beggar named Lazarus.\"\n\n\nTHE WAY OF LIFE (_Second Sunday after Trinity_)\n  1 JOHN iii. 14.\n  \"We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we\n  love the brethren.\"\n\n\nMAN'S LIFE HIS MONUMENT (_Third Sunday after Trinity_)\n  1 S. PETER v. 10.\n  \"The God of all grace . . . make you perfect, stablish,\n  strengthen, settle you.\"\n\n\nTHE BLESSING OF MERCY (_Fourth Sunday after Trinity_)\n  S. LUKE vi. 36.\n  \"Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.\"\n\n\nTHE WORDS OF OUR LIPS (_Fifth Sunday after Trinity_)\n  1 S. PETER iii. 10.\n  \"For he that will love life, and see good days,\n  let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips\n  that they speak no guile.\"\n\n\nALIVE UNTO GOD (_Sixth Sunday after Trinity_)\n  ROMANS vi. 11.\n  \"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead\n  indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus\n  Christ our Lord.\"\n\n\nSERVANTS OF SIN (_Seventh Sunday after Trinity_)\n  ROMANS vi. 20.\n  \"The servants of sin.\"\n\n\nKNOWN BY THEIR FRUITS (_Eighth Sunday after Trinity_)\n  S. MATT. vii. 16.\n  \"Ye shall know them by their fruits.\"\n\n\nRENDERING OUR ACCOUNT (_Ninth Sunday after Trinity_)\n  S. LUKE xvi. 2.\n  \"Give an account of thy stewardship.\"\n\n\nTHE TEARS OF CHRIST (_Tenth Sunday after Trinity_)\n  S. LUKE xix. 41.\n  \"He beheld the city, and wept over it.\"\n\nTHE GRACE OF GOD (_Eleventh Sunday after Trinity_)\n  1 Cor. xv. 10.\n  \"By the Grace of God I am what I am.\"\n\n\nDEAF EARS AND STAMMERING TONGUES (_Twelfth Sunday after Trinity_)\n  S. MARK vii. 37.\n  \"He hath done all things well.  He maketh both the deaf\n  to hear, and the dumb to speak.\"\n\n\nTHE GOOD SAMARITAN (_Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity_)\n  S. LUKE x. 30.\n  \"A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell\n  among thieves.\"\n\n\nWALKING WITH GOD (_Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity_)\n  GALATIANS v. 16.\n  \"Walk in the Spirit.\"\n\n\nTHE PREACHING OF NATURE (_Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity_)\n  S. MATT. vi. 28.\n  \"Consider the lilies of the field.\"\n\n\nPAST KNOWLEDGE (_Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity_)\n  EPHESIANS iii. 19.\n  \"To know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.\"\n\n\nTHE PRISON-HOUSE (_Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity_)\n  EPHESIANS iv. 1.\n  \"The prisoner of the Lord.\"\n\n\nFIRM TO THE END (_Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity_)\n  1 COR. i. 8.\n  \"Who also shall confirm you unto the end.\"\n\n\nSCHOLARS OF CHRIST (_Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity_)\n  EPHESIANS iv. 20.\n  \"Ye have not so learned Christ.\"\n\n\nWARY WALKING (_Twentieth Sunday after Trinity_)\n  EPHESIANS v. 15.\n  \"See then that ye walk circumspectly.\"\n\n\nSTRONG CHRISTIANS (_Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity_)\n  EPHESIANS vi. 10.\n  \"My brethren, be strong in the Lord.\"\n\n\nTHE FORGIVENESS OF SINS (_Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity_)\n  S. MATTHEW xviii. 28.\n  \"Pay me that thou owest.\"\n\n\nTHE FREEDOM OF THE CITY (_Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity_)\n  PHIL. iii. 20.\n  \"Our conversation is in Heaven.\"\n\n\nTHANKFUL SERVICE (_Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity_)\n  COL. i. 12.\n  \"Giving thanks.\"\n\n\nGATHERING THE FRAGMENTS (_Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity_)\n  S. JOHN vi. 12.\n  \"Gather up the fragments that remain.\"\n\n\nWHAT THE FLOWERS SAY (_Children's Flower Service_)\n  PSALM ciii. 15.\n  \"As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.\"\n\n\nDAILY BREAD (_Harvest Thanksgiving_)\n  PSALM lxv. 9.\n  \"Thou preparest them corn.\"\n\n\nGOD'S JEWELS (_Schools_)\n  MALACHI iii. 17.\n  \"They shall be Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts,\n  in that day when I make up My jewels.\"\n\n\nMUTUAL HELP (_Female Friendly Society)_\n  S. MARK iii. 35.\n  \"Whosoever shall do the Will of God, the same\n  is My brother, and My sister, and My Mother.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXXV.\n\nTHE OPEN DOOR.\n\n(Trinity Sunday.)\n\nREV. iv. 1.\n\n\"A door was opened in Heaven.\"\n\n\nWhen Dante had written his immortal poems on Hell and Purgatory, the\npeople of Italy used to shrink back from him with awe, and whisper,\n\"see the man who has looked upon Hell.\"  To-day we can in fancy look on\nthe face of the beloved Apostle, who saw Heaven opened, and the things\nwhich shall be hereafter.  We have summed up the great story of the\nGospel, and have trodden the path of salvation from Bethlehem to\nCalvary.  We have seen Jesus, the only Son of God, dying for our sins,\nand rising again for our justification, and ascending into Heaven to\nplead for us as our eternal great High Priest.  We have heard of the\ncoming of God the Holy Ghost, the gift of the Father, sent in the name\nof the Son.  To-day, the Festival of the Blessed Trinity, Three\nPersons, yet one God, we are permitted to gaze for a moment through the\nopen door, on the Home of God, yes, and the Home of God's people, who\nare redeemed with the Precious Blood of Christ.\n\nNow, there are many people who never think of Heaven at all, and many\nwho think of it in a wrong way.  When we were baptised, the door was\nopened for us in Heaven, and Jesus said to us, \"Behold, I set before\nyou an open door.\"  From that day we were permitted to look with the\neye of faith upon those good things which pass man's understanding.\nBut some of us would not look up.  We were like travellers going along\na muddy road on a starlight night, and who look down on the foul, dirty\npath, and never upwards to the bright sky above.  My brother, turn your\neyes from this world's dirty ways, look away from your selfish work,\nand your selfish pleasure, look up from the things which are seen and\nare temporal, from the fashion of this world which passeth away, and\ngaze through the open door of Revelation at the things which shall be\nhereafter.  I said that many people never think of Heaven at all.\nThese are they who love this world too well to think of the world to\ncome, they are of the earth, earthy.  \"As is the earthy, such are they\nthat are earthy, and as is the Heavenly, such also are they that are\nHeavenly.\"\n\nI said, too, that many think of Heaven in a wrong way, as did the lady\nof fashion, who fancied Heaven would be like the London season, only\nbetter, as there would be no disagreeable people.  Now, if we are to\nthink rightly of Heaven, we must do as S. John did.  He heard a voice\nsaying, \"Come up hither, and I will show the things which shall be\nhereafter.  And immediately he was in the Spirit.\"  We must ask for the\nHoly Spirit to lift our hearts and minds to Heaven; we must try to go\nup higher in our thoughts, words, and works; we must try to get above\nthe world, above ourselves, so shall we be able to look, though with\nbowed head and shaded eyes, through the open door.  Let us reverently\ndo so now, and see what we can learn of the things which shall be\nhereafter.  First, I think we learn that Heaven and earth are not, as\nsome people fancy, two very different places, very far apart.  The\nChurch of Christ is one family, bound together by _one_ faith, _one_\nBaptism, _one_ hope, acknowledging one God and Father of us all.  This\nfamily has one Home; here in earth it dwells in a lower chamber, after\ndeath it passes into a higher room of God's great House.  The Apostle,\nspeaking of the Church, says, \"Ye _are_ come, (not ye _will_ come,)\nunto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the Heavenly\nJerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general\nassembly and Church of the firstborn which are written in Heaven, and\nto God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,\nand to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of\nsprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.\"\n\nIn a word, our Heavenly life should commence when we are baptised, day\nby day ought we to grow in grace, and when we have grown sufficiently,\nGod takes us to the upper Room above.  It is this mistake of separating\nHeaven and earth which makes people careless of their lives.  If you\nwant to dwell with God through all eternity, you must walk humbly with\nGod all the days of your earthly life.  Look again through the open\ndoor, and learn that in Heaven God is the central figure.  So, if we\nare living here as Christ's people, God will be the central figure in\n_our_ life, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end of all our\nwork, our wish, our plan.  My brothers, if you feel that with you\n_self_ is the chief object in your existence, be sure that you are not\nliving the Heavenly life.  You have put yourself in the place of God.\n\nAgain, as we look through the open door, we see the intense _beauty_ of\nthe Heavenly life.  We see gates of pearl, and a throne on which sits\none like a jasper and a sardine stone, and the rainbow round about the\nthrone is in sight like unto an emerald.  In all ages precious stones\nhave been objects of the greatest value.  We are told that Julius\nCaesar paid a hundred and twenty-five thousand crowns for one pearl,\nand monarchs have boasted of possessing a diamond of priceless value.\nYou remember that God says of His redeemed ones, \"they shall be Mine in\nthat day that I make up My jewels.\"  Well, I think we hear so much of\nprecious stones in the description of Heaven, that we may learn that\nits great glory and beauty consists in the holiness of those who dwell\nthere.  _They_ are the pure and precious pearls which build up the\nfoundation, and they get their brightness from God, who sits enthroned\namong them, and who is to look upon as a jasper and a sardine stone.\nAnd these precious stones are of different colours, as they reflect the\nlight from a different point.  So is it with the people of God, they\nreflect the light from the face of God in various ways, and so have\nvarious virtues.  One shines with fiery zeal, like the red ruby.\nAnother glitters with the soft beauty of a humble spirit, like the\npearl, whilst yet another sparkles with many graces, like the\nparti-coloured flashes of the diamond.  Some lives which here are\nobscure and neglected, like the precious gem at the bottom of the\nocean, shall one day glitter in Heaven, and be among the jewels of the\nMaster.\n\nAh! my brothers, are _our_ lives such that we can ever hope to adore\nGod's jewel-house above?  Can these poor dull characters of ours ever\nshine as the stars for ever and ever?  Think, what makes a gem flash\nand sparkle?  Light.  Well, then, let us walk as the children of light,\nlet us look up, and catch the radiance from the face of Jesus, and\nreflect it in our lives; then will our light shine here before men, and\none day shine yet brighter as we draw nearer to the source of all\nlight.  And think again that often the brightest and fairest forms come\nfrom the least likely materials.  Of the same mould are the black coal,\nand the glittering diamond.  The unsightly slag which is thrown away\nfrom the iron furnace forms beautiful crystals, and the very mud under\nfoot can, as men of science tell us, be turned into gleaming metal, and\nsparkling gem.  The fair colours which dye our clothing can be formed\nfrom defiling pitch, and some of the most exquisite perfumes are\ndistilled from the foulest substances.  My brother, the same God who\nbrings beauty out of ugliness, and fair purity from corruption, can so\nchange our vile nature, and our vile body, that they may be made like\nunto Him.  The work of the Blessed Trinity, of the Creator, the\nSaviour, the Sanctifier, is day by day operating on the children of\nGod, and making all things new in them.  And remember that work is\ngradual.  A man can make a sham diamond in a very short time, a real\ngem must lie for ages buried in the earth.  So, if we are really and\ntruly God's people, we must grow gradually, and bear all the cutting\nand polishing which God sees right, before we are fit for the royal\ntreasury.\n\nThe same Divine Hand which changed Mary Magdalene to a loving penitent,\nand the dying thief to a trusting disciple, and lifted Augustine from\nthe foul grave of lust to be a pillar of the Church, can likewise\nchange us, and make us to shine with the light of a stone most\nprecious.  Once again, as we gaze through the open door, we hear of\nmusic in Heaven.  Those who have wrong ideas of the life to come seem\nto imagine that the Heavenly existence consists in minstrelsy and\nnothing else.  Surely the song of the redeemed, and the music of the\ngolden harps, are a type of the perfect _harmony_ of Heaven.  This life\nis often full of discords, the life to come is perfectly in tune.  Here\non earth our lives are very like musical instruments.  One plays\nnothing but dirges of sorrow and discontent.  Another life is made up\nof frivolous dance music; another is hideous with the discord of \"sweet\nbells jangled, out of tune, and harsh.\"  The life to come is one of\nperfect harmony, for each servant will be in complete accord with the\nMaster's will and pleasure.  And I think the vision of those who play\nupon their harps, and sing their song before the throne, show us that\nthe life to come is one of _occupation_.  There will be, doubtless,\ngrowth, progress, experience, work in Heaven.  But there we shall be\nable to do what we so seldom do here--all to the glory of God.  Here we\nwork so selfishly, there all work is worship.  Here we struggle for the\ncrown that we may wear it, there they cast down their crowns before the\nThrone of God.  When we speak of resting from our labours after death,\nand being at peace, we cannot mean, we dare not hope, that we shall be\nidle.  When a famous man of science died, his friends said one to\nanother, \"how busy he will be!\"  We are bidden to be workers together\nwith God, and we may believe that He has new and higher tasks for us\nall, when we shall have passed through that door in Heaven which Jesus\nhas opened for all believers.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXXVI.\n\nTHE CONTRAST.\n\n(First Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. LUKE xvi. 19, 20.\n\n\"There was a certain rich man, . . . and there was a certain beggar\nnamed Lazarus.\"\n\n\nWhat was the rich man's sin?  We are not told that he had committed any\ncrime.  He is not described as an extortioner or unjust.  There is no\nword about his having been an adulterer, or a thief, or an unbeliever,\nor a Sabbath breaker.  Surely there was no sin in his being rich, or\nwearing costly clothes if he could afford it.  Certainly not: it is not\n_money_, but the _love_ of money, which is the root of all evil.  The\nsin of Dives is the sin of hundreds to-day.  He lived for himself\nalone, and he lived only for this world.  He had sunk all his capital\nin his gold and silver, and purple and fine linen.  He had no treasure\nlaid up in Heaven.  So when the moth and rust had done their work, and\ndeath had broken through like a thief and stolen all his earthly goods,\nhe had nothing left.  This parable is full of sharp contrasts.  First,\nthere is the contrast in the life of these two men.  The one rich, the\nother a beggar.  The one clothed in purple and fine linen, the other\nalmost naked, and covered with sores.  The one fared sumptuously every\nday, the other lay at the gate starving, and longing for the crumbs\nwhich fell from the rich man's table.  The one had friends and\nacquaintances who ate of his meat and drank of his cup, the other was\n\"a pauper whom nobody owns,\" and the dogs were his only earthly\ncomforters.  The rich man had great possessions, yet one thing he\nlacked, and that was the one thing needful.  He had the good things of\nthis life, yet he had not chosen the good part which could not be taken\naway from him.  He had gold and silver, purple and fine linen, but he\nwas without God in the world.  Lazarus, the beggar, was after all the\ntruly rich man, \"as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.\"\nNext, there is a contrast in the death of these two men.  One expired\nin a luxurious bed.  No doubt there were learned physicians beside him,\nand perhaps friends and relatives, though, as a rule, selfish people\nhave few true friends.  The other died we know not where, perhaps in\nthe hot dusty road at the rich man's gate.  There were no doctors to\nminister to his wants, no kindly hands to sooth his burning brow, to\nmoisten his parched lips, to close his glazing eyes.  But the angels of\nGod were about his bed, and about his path, and in their hands they\nbore him up, whom no man on earth had loved or cared for.  And there is\na contrast in the after time for these two men.  The rich man was\nburied, doubtless, with great pomp.  Some of us have seen such\nfunerals.  What extravagance and display take the place of reverent\nresignation and quiet grief!  Of the beggar's burial place we know\nnothing.  But the sharpest contrast of all is in the world beyond, from\nwhich for a moment Jesus draws back the veil.  He who had pampered his\nbody and neglected his soul is now in torment; he who never listened to\nthe whisper of his conscience, is forced to hearken to its reproaches\nnow; he who had great possessions is worse off than a beggar--he had\ngained the whole world and lost his own soul.  And worst of all, he\nsees Paradise afar off, and Lazarus resting there, where he may never\ncome.  That beggar whom he had despised and neglected, to whose wants\nhe had never ministered, is comforted now, and the rich man is\ntormented.\n\nOh! awful contrast!  Dives in his misery of despair looks up, and for a\nmoment sees--\n\n        \"The Heavenly City,\n    Built of bright and burnished gold,\n  Lying in transcendent beauty,\n    Stored with treasures all untold.\n\n  There he saw the meadows dewy\n    Spread with lilies wondrous fair--\n  Thousand thousand were the colours\n    Of the waving flowers there.\n\n  There were forests ever blooming,\n    Like our orchards here in May;\n  There were gardens never fading,\n    Which eternally are gay.\"\n\nSaddest of all fates indeed must it be to gaze on Heaven and to live in\nHell.  Then Dives remembers his brethren in the world, who are living\nthe old life which he lived in the flesh, spending his money perhaps;\nand, still selfish after death as before, he asks that the beggar may\nbe sent from his rest and peace to warn them.  The answer comes that\nthey, like Dives himself, have Moses and the Prophets to teach them, if\nthey neglect them nothing can avail them.  And so the curtain drops\nover this dreadful scene.  Let us, brethren, hearken to some of the\nlessons which come to us with a solemn sound from the world beyond the\ngrave.  In the first place, let us learn that being respectable is not\na passport to Heaven.  No doubt the rich man of the parable was very\nrespectable.  If he had lived in these days, and there are many of his\nfamily with us now, he would have worn glossy broadcloth instead of\npurple, and have held a responsible position in his town and parish.\nHe would have gone to church sometimes, and have been very severe with\nthe outcasts of the gutter and the back slums.  And yet we find that\nall this outward respectability, these salutations in the market place,\nwere no passport to Heaven.  The man lived for himself--he was a lover\nof himself.  He had no love for his brother whom he had seen, ay, every\nday, lying at his gate; and so he could have no love for God whom he\nhad not seen.  The sin of Dives, remember, was not that he was rich, it\nwas that he was utterly selfish and worldly.  A poor man may be just as\nsinful.  The man who makes a god of his body and its pleasures, the man\nwho makes a god of his work or his science, or of anything save the\nLord God Almighty, the man who lives for himself and does nothing for\nthe good of others, be he rich or poor, is in the same class with Dives\nin the parable.  Next, there comes a thought of comfort from the story\nof the beggar Lazarus.  There was no virtue in his being poor--but he\nloved his God, and he bore his sorrows patiently, and verily he had his\nreward.  Jesus tells us that blessed are they that mourn, for they\nshall be comforted; that all who have borne hunger and thirst, and\npersecution, or loss of friends for His sake, shall hereafter have a\ngreat reward.  You, my brethren, who are any ways afflicted or\ndistressed, who have to bear sickness or poverty, who have few friends\nand few prospects in this world, and yet are patient, and trustful, and\nbelieving, look beyond the veil, and be sure that there, if not here,\nyou shall have your good things--such good things as pass man's\nunderstanding.\n\nAgain, we learn that death does not deprive us of memory.  One of old\nsaid wisely that they who cross the sea change their sky, but not their\nmind, and that no exile ever yet fled from himself; and even after we\nhave exchanged this world for the unseen world to come, we do not\nescape ourselves, our thoughts and memories are with us.  The rich man\nwas bidden to remember his past life.  It must have been a terrible\npicture as seen in the clear understanding of the spirit world.  Once\nhis life had appeared pleasant enough, harmless enough; now Dives saw\nit in its true colour, and understood the selfishness, the worldliness,\nthe godlessness which had ruined his soul.  He saw all the mistakes\nwhich he had made, and felt the terrible conviction that it was too\nlate to repair them.  \"Four things,\" says the Eastern sage, \"come not\nback again: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the\nneglected opportunity.\"\n\nMy brothers, what fate can be more awful than that of having to look\nback upon a wasted life through all eternity?  God has committed to you\na precious trust in the life you have.  Your position, your wealth, or\npoverty are nothing, whatever your life is it must be consecrated to\nGod.  You must live for Him, and by Him, and walk in the way of His\ncommandments, if you are to be with Him through eternity.  You can make\nyour own choice: God or mammon, this world, or the world to come are\nbefore you, but both you cannot have.  If you make your Heaven out of\nthe world's materials, you cannot expect to find it again beyond the\ngrave.  Lastly, let us learn that the means of grace which we have are\nsufficient for our salvation.  The brothers of the rich man had Moses\nand the Prophets, and further help was denied them.  We have in God's\nChurch, and Sacraments, in God's Word, and in Prayer, the means of\ndrawing near to our Saviour, and saving our soul alive.  We must not\nask for some new revelation, some fresh Gospel, some sign or miracle.\nIf we use not the means given us, neither shall we be persuaded though\none rose from the dead.  It is sometimes the fashion in these days to\nsneer at the preacher, or to listen with a polite contempt.  God grant\nthat those \"who come to scoff, may remain to pray.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXXVII.\n\nTHE WAY OF LIFE.\n\n(Second Sunday after Trinity.)\n\n1 JOHN iii. 14.\n\n\"We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the\nbrethren.\"\n\n\nThe writings of S. John the Evangelist breathe forth love as a flower\ngarden does sweetness.  Here lies the secret of S. John's title, \"the\ndisciple whom Jesus loved.\"  Love begets love, and the disciple was so\nnear to the heart of his Master because he loved much.  When the text\nwas written he was a very old man, and Bishop of Ephesus.  It was in\nthat fair and famous city that men worshipped the goddess Diana, of the\nEphesians, in a temple which was ranked among the seven wonders of the\nworld.  In the olden days there had been another temple to the goddess,\nwhich was burnt on the night when Alexander the Great was born.  Two\nhundred and twenty years was the new temple in building, and each of\nits columns was the gift of a prince.  All that the art of Greece could\ngive was lavished upon the building.  The hand of Praxiteles carved the\naltar, the magic pencil of Apelles adorned its walls with a picture of\nAlexander.  Ephesus was also famous for its magic arts; and when the\npeople had been turned to Christ by the preaching of S. Paul, they\nbrought their books of conjuring and curious arts and burned them\nbefore him.  Now the grass grows rank among the broken columns and few\nstones which mark the ruins of what was Ephesus.\n\nIt was in such a city, then in its full pride and beauty, that S. John,\nthe aged, spent the last days of his long life.  S. Jerome tells us how\nthe old Bishop was almost too feeble to be carried into the church,\nwhere now was worshipped the true God; and how his trembling lips could\nonly fashion the same words over and over again: \"My little children,\nlove one another.\"  His hearers growing weary of this one text, asked\nS. John why he was ever repeating it, and the old man answered,\n\"Because it is the teaching of the Lord; and if this alone be observed,\nit is sufficient.\"  To be as little children, and to love one another,\nsuch is the whole duty of man.  S. John had lived a long life, and had\nseen men and cities, and the one lesson which he had learnt above all\nothers is that which he teaches above all others--love.  I think,\nbrothers, we can picture the old white-haired Bishop of Ephesus, borne\nday after day upon a litter into his church, and ever saying the same\ntender words, \"little children, love one another.\"  What a retrospect\nthere was for S. John to look back along that stretch of years!  What\nmemories must have filled the old man's heart of those days when he was\na sunny-haired stripling, working with his brothers in the fishing\nboat, and casting net, and pulling oar over the bright waters of\nGennesareth.  What memories must have come of that Gracious Presence\nwhich one day appeared among the fisher folks, and opened a new world\nand a new life to S. John and his companions.  How every word and act\nof Him, who spake as never man spake, and went about doing good, must\nhave been engraved on the memory of the beloved disciple!  He had\ndoubtless heard words spoken which no other ear had heard; he who was\nnearest to the heart of Jesus, must have listened to mysteries which\nthe rest could not hear.  Day by day as the old Bishop lies in the dim\nreligious light of the minster, he looks back and sees, as in a vision,\nthe story of the vanished years.  What sees he?  He looks in memory\nupon a marriage feast, far away in Cana of Galilee.  He sees the giver\nof the feast anxious and troubled.  The wine is exhausted.  He hears\nthe Master give the answer to the Virgin Mother's request, and His\ncommand to the servants.  He recalls the astonishment of all present\nwhen \"the conscious water saw its God, and blushed;\" and he learns from\nthat first miracle of the Master a lesson of love.  Many another loving\nact of mercy comes back to his memory.  He seems to see once more the\nimpotent man, lying sadly at the pool of Bethesda.  Again he looks on\nthe multitude thronging the mountain by the Lake of Galilee; and in the\nbroken bread which feeds the crowd, S. John sees a lesson of love.\nOnce more he looks upon the trembling, sinful, sorrowful woman, whom\nthe Jewish rulers drag to condemnation.  Once more he sees the Master's\nhand-writing upon the ground, and hears this gentle sentence, \"Go, and\nsin no more.\"  Once more he hears the wondrous lessons of the Light of\nthe World, and the True Vine, and the Good Shepherd, which his own hand\nhad written from the Master's mouth.  Once more he seems to stand\nbeside the grave of dead Lazarus, and as he sees the dead alive again,\nhe learns another lesson of love, and whispers, \"We know that we have\npassed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.\"  After all\nthat lapse of ages, the old man seems to see the sparkle of Mary's\ntears, and to smell the perfume of her precious gift.\n\nThen, too, there comes the memory of Palm Sunday, with its glad\nprocession, its waving branches, its joyful shouts, in which S. John,\nthen young and vigorous, had delighted to take part.  Then the\nbeginning of sorrow, the days of wonder, and of terror, and of gloom,\nbegin to darken round the old man's sight.  The night comes back to him\nwhen the dear Hands of Jesus washed his feet, and when, at that sad and\nsolemn parting feast, he had lain close to the loving Heart of the\nMaster.  Once more he sees Judas go forth on his dark errand; once more\nhe sees the gloomy shadows of Gethsemane, and hears the clash of arms\nas the soldiers enter, Then all the confusion and horror of that\ndreadful night come back to him.  He hears S. Peter's denial, and marks\nhis bitter tears.  Presently he seems to stand again beneath the Cross,\namid the awful gloom of Calvary, and anon he is leading the Virgin\nMother tenderly to his own home.  She has been buried long since in\nthat very city of Ephesus, but the old days come back to him.  He is\nrunning once more, young, and lithe, and active, to the garden\nsepulchre, and outrunning the older S. Peter.  And in all these visions\nof the past, S. John sees one lesson--love, the love of Jesus teaching\nmen to love each other.  Still the beloved Apostle looks back along the\nages, and thinks of that scene on the Mount, when Jesus ascended up,\nand appeared for the last time to nearly all eyes but his.  He was to\nsee the Master again, though in a very different place, and under\nwidely different circumstances.  Now his thoughts fly to the lonely,\nrock-bound isle of Patmos, whither the Roman tyrant had banished him.\nHow often he had watched the sun rise and set in the purple sea; how\noften in his cavern cell he had pondered over the Master's teaching,\nand the lesson of love.  And one day he saw a light brighter than the\nsun, and a door was opened in Heaven.  S. John seemed to be no longer\nin lonely Patmos, but amid a great multitude which no man can number,\nwith whom he was treading the shining streets of the Heavenly city.\nHis eyes looked on the gates of pearl, and the sea of glass, he\nlistened to the song of the elders and the angels, and he beheld the\nthings which shall be hereafter.  Once more he looked upon the Master's\nFace, and beheld the King in His beauty.  And remembering these things,\nthe old man murmurs to the crowd, \"Little children, love one another.\nWe know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the\nbrethren.\"  From death unto life!  It is a strange expression!  We all\nknow of the passage from life unto death.  We have all seen the\nloosening of the silver cord, and the breaking of the golden bowl.  We\nhave all marked the fading cheek, the shrinking limbs, the glazing eye,\nwhich mark the passage from life unto death.  But that other change\nfrom death unto life cannot be seen, it is the invisible work of the\nHoly Spirit.  Yet S. John says, we know that we have passed from death\nunto life.  How?  By our fruits.  If the love of God is in our hearts,\nif we have passed from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness,\nif we are risen with Christ, if, in a word, we are truly Christian\npeople, we shall show it by our love for our brethren.  If we are\nselfish in our religion, trying to get all good things for ourselves,\nand caring nothing for others; if we pray only for ourselves, if we\nwork only for ourselves, if we live only for ourselves, if we see\nothers in want, yet shut up our compassion, how dwelleth the love of\nGod in us?  Away with such self-deception, my brothers, if any one of\nus seems to be religious, and yet stretches out no helping hand to his\nbrother, that man's religion is vain.  When we see a fellow man fallen\namong thieves, and lying by the wayside of life, what do we do?  Do we\npass by on the other side, without a thought or care, like the Priest?\nOr do we look on our fallen brother with curiosity, and leave him to\nhis fate, like the Levite?  Or do we give him a helping hand, pouring\nin the wine and oil of kind words, and gentle ministry, binding up the\nhurts which a cruel world has given him?\n\nMy brethren, how many Good Samaritans are there among us?  Our brothers\nlie wounded along life's highway in crowds.  There are feeble folk who\nwere never strong enough for the hard life battle; there are brave men\nwho have fought, and failed; there are some crushed down by hard times,\nothers who have \"fallen on evil days and evil tongues;\" some who were\nwounded by the stoning of harsh judgment and cruel sneers.  Some have\nlost their health, others their money; some their faith, and others\ntheir friends.  Sirs, we be brethren, shall we run from our neighbour\nbecause he is in trouble, as rats run from a falling house?  Shall we\nturn away from a brother because the world speaks hardly of him?  Shall\nwe be ashamed of a man because he is unfortunate?  Oh! if you would\never rest where S. John rested, on the bosom of Jesus, learn his\nlessons of love.  Look around you and see if there is no Lazarus laid\nat your gate whom you may feed; no struggling toiler in the back street\nwhom you may help to work; no sick sufferer whose couch you may make\nmore easy; no broken heart which you may comfort.  \"Dwell in the land,\nand be doing good.\"\n\n  \"If time be heavy on your hands,\n  Are there no beggars at your gate,\n  Nor any poor about your lands?\n  Oh! teach the orphan boy to read\n  Or teach the orphan girl to sew.\"\n\nAnd you who are busy and cumbered with much serving, may find a\nthousand ways, in the midst of your active work, of showing your love\nto your brethren.  Be unselfish, be gentle, be courteous, be pitiful.\nNever say a word which may wound another; never turn away when you can\nhelp a neighbour; never ask with the sneer of Cain, \"Am I my brother's\nkeeper?\"  \"We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we\nlove the brethren.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXXVIII.\n\nMAN'S LIFE HIS MONUMENT.\n\n(Third Sunday after Trinity.)\n\n1 S. PETER v. 10.\n\n\"The God of all grace . . . make you perfect, stablish, strengthen,\nsettle you.\"\n\n\nAmong the many monuments and epitaphs in S. Paul's Cathedral, there is\na simple tablet to the memory of him who built it, and on the stone are\nengraved the words in Latin, \"if you seek his monument, look around\nyou!\"  And as you gaze upon the grandeur and beauty of the vast\nCathedral, you feel that indeed the work of the architect is his best\nmonument.  He needs no sculptured tomb, no gorgeous trappings, no\nfulsome epitaph, to keep his memory green.  The cunning hand has\nmouldered away this many a year, and the busy brain is still, as far as\nthis world is concerned, but the work remains, and the builder cannot\nbe forgotten.  Now, this world is full of monuments raised by good and\nbad, some monuments of glory, others of shame.  There have been\nmonuments of human pride, like the tower of Babel, and the great city\nof Nebuchadnezzar, and God who resisteth the proud, has laid them even\nwith the dust.  There have been monuments of human wickedness, like\nSodom, and like Pompeii, and God, who hateth sin, has buried them\nbeneath the fiery tempest of His wrath.  There have been monuments of\nhuman obstinacy and impenitence, like the deserted Temple of the Jews,\nwhere once God delighted to put His Name, and to receive worship.  And\nagain, the world is full of the monuments of the great, the gifted, and\nthe good.  We need not go farther than our own chief city, and its\nChurches.  There we see carved in stone and marble the glories of Poet\nand Painter, King and Priest, Statesman and Warrior.  But after all, my\nbrothers, these are not the true monuments of these men.  The stately\nAbbey may one day fall to ruin, the hand of violence may break and\nscatter those costly tombs, but the _memory_ of those who sleep there\ncannot die, their lives are their true monuments.  Shakespeare's tomb\nmay perish, but _Hamlet_ will live for ever.  And men will honour\nNelson by the memory of Trafalgar, and Wellington by the thought of\nWaterloo, though they may not recall one stone upon their sepulchres.\n\nMy brothers, when we die no one will raise a grand memorial over us;\nthey will not carve our story upon marble tombs.  And yet, I tell you,\nwe shall have our monument, we have it now, and we are building it\nourselves each day we live.\n\nYes, our life and our works are our monument, and it lasts for\neternity.  The good life stands like a fair carved memorial of white\nmarble.  The evil life stands too, like Lot's wife turned to a pillar\nof salt, a monument of sin and disobedience.\n\n  \"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever;\n  Its loveliness increases; it will never\n  Pass into nothingness.\"\n\nAnd this is specially true of the beauty of holiness.  The palace of\nCaesar, the ivory house of Ahab, the gorgeous home of Pilate, have\nperished, but the loving tenderness of Ruth, the sweet ministry of\nMary, and the holy affection of S. John, stand as monuments before God\nwhich shall never perish or decay.  Never mind, my brothers, what sort\nof tomb they give us, never mind what epitaph they write upon it,\n_they_ cannot know the truth.  But let us try so to live near to Christ\nthat our life may be a monument of His love and pardoning grace, and of\nour poor endeavour to do right.  If we want to make our life a _good_\nmonument, we must ask God to help us in raising it.  \"Unless the Lord\nbuild the house their labour is but lost that build it.\"  Each one of\nus needs the prayer of S. Peter in my text, \"The God of all grace make\nyou perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.\"  Yes, we must be\n_stablished_ and _settled_, that is, we must have a good foundation to\nbuild on.  We must raise our monument on the foundation of a firm,\ntrusting, humble faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  On that basis we must\nstrive each day to build the _life of duty_, by just doing what God\nputs before us with all our might.  It matters not what our rank in\nlife may be, whether we are princes or farm labourers, merchants or\npetty traders, artizans or cabinet ministers, officers in high command,\nor soldiers of the rank and file, one thing has to be done by all--_our\nduty_, in that state of life where God has placed us.  Every piece of\nearnest work well done adds a something to our monument.  No matter\nwhether it be the building of a cathedral or a log hut, whether it be\nthe making of a poem, or the making of a pair of boots, work well done\nleaves its mark, and builds our monument.\n\nMy brothers, we must not expect to find the life of duty always easy,\nor the narrow way strewn with roses.  But it is not for us to ask\nwhether a thing is pleasant, it is enough for us to know that it is\nright.  The Duke of Wellington once sent this message to his troops,\n\"Cindad Rodrigo must be taken to-night.\"  And the answer of those\ntroops was not to ask of the danger, or the difficulty of the task, but\nsimply to say, \"then we will do it.\"  So when God puts our duty before\nus, we must not stay to ask if we like the work or no, but simply make\nanswer, \"then, by God's grace, we will do it.\"  Come what may, let us\ndo our duty.  When the battle of the Alma was being fought, a message\nwas brought to a general that the guards were falling fast before the\nenemy's fire, and suggesting that they should retire under shelter.\nAnd the general answered that it would be better that every man of the\nbrigade of guards should fall, rather than that they should retire from\nthe enemy.\n\nWhatever hardship, sorrow, loss or trial it may please God to send us,\nlet nothing turn us back from the path of duty.  Remember, by our\nactions we are raising a monument which will last for ever, when every\nmemorial of brass or marble has crumbled into dust.  Every act of\n_brave self-sacrifice_ adds a something to our monument.  Some time ago\na ship was wrecked upon the rocks within sight of shore.  The captain\nordered the crew to save themselves, whilst he kept his place on the\ndeck.  When all the men had gone, there crept forth trembling from his\nhiding-place a boy, a waif and stray of the streets, who had concealed\nhimself on board as a stowaway.  The boy begged the captain to save\nhim.  Looking across the wild water that lay between him and the shore,\nthe captain muttered, \"I can swim as far as that,\" and then unfastening\nthe life-belt which he wore, he fixed it on the stowaway.  Both sailor\nand child entered the waves, and the stowaway was kept afloat by the\nlife-belt, and safely carried ashore.  But the brave man who had saved\nhim never reached land alive.  Well says the writer of this true story,\n\"words would be wasted in saying more of the perfect humanity, and\nnoble self-forgetfulness of a man, who gave up his best chance of life\nwithout hesitation, 'for one of the least of these little ones' who\nstood helpless by his side, when man and boy were in the immediate\npresence of death.  That captain unlashing his life-belt, with two\nmiles of white water between himself and the shore, to tie it upon the\nlittle boy who had stolen a passage with him, is a figure which tells\nus with new and noble force, that manhood is stronger than storm, and\nlove mightier than death.\"  And it is not only such sublime acts of\nself-sacrifice as this which are acceptable to God.  To live for others\nis sometimes as hard as to die for them.  The patient nurse, the gentle\nsister of mercy, the humble priest, unknown outside his own parish,\nthese, and thank God there are many such, have a place and a monument\nin God's great House of many mansions.  It has been said that \"the\nworld knows nothing of its greatest men,\" and some of the best, and\npurest, and most unselfish souls live unknown, and die neglected, but\nthey have their reward.  The world gave them no monument, but God looks\non the fair memorial of an unselfish life.  Let this thought be ever\nbefore us, we are building, raising our monument, for eternity.  The\nTurks carefully collect every scrap of paper which they find, because\nthe Name of God may be written upon it.  We ought to use every scrap of\ntime to good purpose because it belongs to God, and we have to employ\nit for eternity.  I have said that every honest work well done leaves\nits mark, and builds our monument.  Never then be ashamed of your work,\nmy brothers, however humble, if it be done well and rightly.  If your\ncalling be lowly, try to raise it and ennoble it by being strictly\nhonest and faithful in following it.  Never be ashamed of the source\nfrom which you spring, only be ashamed of doing wrong.  If you were to\nvisit the old city of Mayence, you would notice that for its coat of\narms the city bears a white cartwheel.  For many a century it has borne\nthese arms, and their origin is this.  Long ago, an Archbishop of\nMayence was chosen for his piety and learning, but many remembered him\nas the wheelwright's son, who had once worked at his father's trade.\nAs the Archbishop passed in stately procession to the Cathedral, some\njeered him, and one jester had chalked white cartwheels on all the\nwalls on either side of the procession.  When the Archbishop was\nenthroned in the Cathedral, he saw, hanging above his head, a shield\nwhich was to bear his arms.  The Archbishop was told that he might\nchoose what blazonry he liked, and he at once ordered a painter to\ndecorate the shield with a white cartwheel, that amid the great and\nnoble people around him, he might never forget whence he sprang.  After\nhis death, the people of Mayence adopted his arms as those of the city,\nin memory of the wise and holy rule of the wheelwright's son.\n\nAnd there are other monuments which are built up in the home circle,\nand by the fireside.  The good wife and mother, be she high or low, who\nfills the home with the sweet-smelling savour of holiness and love,\nprecious in the Lord's sight as Mary's ointment; who leads her children\nin the right way, by the gentle ministry of a good example; who is\nalike cheerful and resigned in bright days and dark, \"making a sunshine\nin a shady place,\" such an one has a monument fair and stately, on\nwhich God's own finger writes, \"She hath done what she could.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXXIX.\n\nTHE BLESSING OF MERCY,\n\n(Fourth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. LUKE vi. 36.\n\n\"Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.\"\n\n\n\"Mercy\" is the one great cry of human nature.  We dare not ask for\njustice, we can only plead for mercy.  David, after his great sins,\ncould utter nothing but the mournful cry, the model for all penitent\nsinners, \"Have mercy upon me, O God, after Thy great goodness.\"  The\npublican standing afar off, and looking at his faults, and not at his\nvirtues, offers the pattern prayer for all men, \"Lord, be merciful to\nme a sinner.\"  The blind man by the wayside, the leper filled with\nloathsome disease, speak in the same strain, \"Jesus, Thou Son of David,\nhave mercy upon us.\"  And so now from ten thousand altars, from\nbedsides wet with tears, from stately mansion and humble cottage, there\nrises one cry to Heaven, \"O Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of\nthe world, have mercy upon us.\"  And we know to our comfort that \"to\nthe Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have\nrebelled against Him.\"\n\nBut there is something more to think of beside our need of mercy.  We,\nwho want so much mercy from God, must learn to show mercy to our fellow\nmen.  We are bidden to be merciful, even as our Father is merciful.  We\nare all ready enough to talk of the mercies and lovingkindnesses of God\nto us and to all men, but what mercy, what lovingkindness, do _we_ show\nto our brethren here in the world?  And yet an exceeding bitter cry is\nbeing heard amongst us.  The poor cry to the rich, the starving to the\nwell fed, the sorrowful to the prosperous, the weak to the strong.  All\nalong life's highway lie those who have fallen among thieves, who are\nwounded and stripped, who are friendless and fallen, and they cry not\nonly to God, but to man for mercy.  Think, my brothers, you who have\nthis world's good, how often have you answered the cry?  Have you ever\nstayed by the fallen traveller when others passed by; have you ever\npoured in the wine of help, and the soothing oil of sympathy; have you\never tried to bind up the wounds of one injured by the cruel tongues of\nthis hard world?  Or did you pass by with the crowd on the other side,\nsaying how sad a sight it was, but still no affair of yours?\n\nO brethren, for whom Christ died, for whose sake He went about with sad\neyes, and weary feet, seeking to save the lost, how can we look to Him\nfor mercy if we never show mercy, how can we ask forgiveness unless we\nforgive?  The earthly life of Jesus is, in every respect, the model for\nour life.  He came to seek and to save, to search for the lost sheep,\nto call home the prodigals, to bind up the broken-hearted, to visit the\nfatherless and the widows in their affliction, to assist the weary and\nheavy-laden to find rest.  As Christ's disciples, we are bidden in a\nhumbler way to go and do likewise.  This world is full of sorrow and\nsickness, doubt and anxiety.  All around us there are brethren with\nbroken fortunes, or breaking hearts; there are those whose house is\nleft unto them desolate, and over whose threshold has fallen the shadow\nof death.  There are prodigals who only need a kind word to bring them\nhome, wandering sheep who only want a loving hand to turn them back to\nthe fold.  And God bids us do what we can to help these our brethren,\nsaying that inasmuch as we have done it unto the least of them, we have\ndone it unto Him.  We are all fellow-pilgrims through this world, and\nwe _must_ help one another.  We are all dwelling in a world of sorrow\nand sin, and we _must_ strengthen each other to bear their troubles.\n\"We know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain\ntogether until now.\"  Even \"the dumb, driven cattle\" have their share\nof suffering, and look at us with beseeching eyes, asking for mercy.\nAnd if we refuse mercy to them, our humbler brethren, or if we refuse\nit to our fellow men, how dare we look for mercy on the day of Christ's\nappearing?  We are distinctly told that as we do unto others, so shall\nit be done unto us.  \"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain\nmercy.  Judge not, and ye shall not be judged.  Condemn not, and ye\nshall not be condemned.  Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.  Give, and\nit shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken\ntogether, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.  For with\nthe same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured unto you\nagain.\"\n\nLet us think, then, of some of the ways in which we can show mercy.\nFirst, we must shew mercy and lovingkindness _practically_, by deeds,\nnot words.  To cry over a starving man, and to leave him to starve, is\nof no use.  To sigh over the sins and miseries of our fellow men,\nwithout trying to mend them, is mere waste of time.  Practical mercy\nand kindness can be shown in a thousand different ways.  Try to make\nthe lives of others happy.  We are always seeking our own happiness,\nlet us try rather to make the lives of others brighter, helping our\nneighbour, and happiness will come to us.  We often see people who are\nneglected and uncared for in life, and when they die men scatter\nflowers upon their coffin, and write their praises on their tomb.\n\nMy brethren, let us not keep our flowers for our neighbour's coffin,\nbut send them to him now, to brighten and bless his life.  Mary did not\nreserve her alabaster box of perfume till her Lord was dead, she filled\nthe whole house with sweetness where the living Jesus was.  Let us do\nlikewise.  If we have an alabaster box of love and tenderness, let us\nnot keep it sealed till our friends are dead.  Pour forth the sweetness\nof loving words and kindly thoughts now, make their lives happy, you\ncannot \"charm the dull, cold ear of death\" with your praises.  When we\ndie we have done with the troubles of this world, and its flowers, and\nits pleasant things concern us not.  But now that we are alive, and\nhave to bear many hours of suffering and sorrow, kind, loving words,\nand the touch of gentle hands, and the help of strong arms, cheer and\nstrengthen us like the sight of flowers, or the perfume of Mary's gift.\nScatter your choicest blossoms upon men's lives, instead of on their\ncoffins.  Blessed are they whose lives are like the violets, making the\nhomes and lives of others sweet and fragrant.\n\n  \"There be fair violet lives that bloom unseen\n  In dewy shade, unvext by any care;\n  And they who live them wear the flower-like face\n  Of simple pureness, which, amid the crowd\n  Of haggard brows, strikes like a sweet perfume\n  Upon the jaded sense.\"\n\nThis world would be far more like Paradise, and less like the howling\nwilderness which it is to so many, if men would show love and mercy to\ntheir fellow men.  Nothing opens the heart to angels' visits, and shuts\nthem against the attacks of Satan, like love.  Truly it has been said,\n\"the heart of him who loves, is a Paradise on earth; he hath God in\nhimself, for God is love.\"\n\nWe are sent into the world to make each other happy, by showing mercy\nand kindness.  \"Some men move through life as a band of music moves\ndown a street, flinging out pleasure on every side through the air, to\nevery one, far and near, who can listen.  Some men fill the air with\ntheir presence and sweetness, as orchards in October days fill the air\nwith perfume of ripe fruit.  Some women cling to their own homes like\nthe honeysuckle over the door, yet, like it, sweeten all the region\nwith the subtle fragrance of their goodness.  There are trees of\nrighteousness which are ever dropping precious fruit around them.\"\nBlessed are those lives which make others better and happier, purer,\nand stronger, verily they have their reward.\n\nAgain, we can show mercy by _forgiving those who injure us_.  Few\nthings are more talked of, and less practised, than the duty of\nforgiveness.  This world is darkened by the stinging hail of spite, and\nvindictive bitterness, just because people who have been wronged by\nothers will not be reconciled, will not forgive.  If you believe in\nprayer, you ask God for pardon every day, but is not that something\nlike mockery, if you from your hearts do not forgive another's\ntrespasses?  And remember also that forgiveness does not mean merely\nabstaining from injuring one who has wronged us.  We must try to do\nsuch an one good if we can.  Once, after a great battle, an English\nofficer, accompanied by his orderly, was examining the wounded on the\nfield.  He came to one of the enemy who was badly hurt.  \"Give him a\ndrink of water,\" said the officer.  As he turned aside, the wounded man\nraised his rifle and fired at the officer, the bullet just missing him.\n\"Give him the water all the same,\" was the order of the brave man who\nknew how to forgive.\n\nTime would fail me to speak of the many ways in which we may show\nmercy.  Kind judgment of another's motives, patient bearing with\nanother's temper, gentle sympathy with another's weakness, noble\nself-sacrifice for another's good, all these are signs of the life of\nmercy.  Let me tell you, in ending, that mercy ever brings its sweet\nreward.  Each act of lovingkindness comes back to us with abundant\ninterest.  \"Good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and\nrunning over.\"\n\nOnce, a farmer, out on the Western Prairies of America, started for a\ndistant town, to receive some money due to him.  As he left his house,\nhis only child, a little girl, clung lovingly to him, and reminded him\nof his promise to bring her home a present.  Late on the same night the\nfarmer left the town on his way home.  The night was very dark and\nstormy, and he was yet far from his home, and in the wildest part of\nthe road, when he heard the cry of a child.  The farmer thought that it\nmight be the device of some robber, as he was known to carry money with\nhim.  He was weary and wet with his journey, and inclined to hasten on,\nbut again the cry reached him.  The farmer determined that whatever\nhappened he must search for the child, if child there were.  Groping in\nthe darkness, at last he found a little figure, drenched with rain, and\nshivering with cold.  Wrapping his cloak about the child, he rode\nhomewards as fast as possible, but when he reached his house, he found\nit full of neighbours, standing round his weeping wife.  One said to\nanother, \"do not tell him, it will drive him mad.\"  Then, the farmer\nset down his bundle, and his wife with a cry of joy saw that it was\ntheir own lost child.  The little one had set forth to meet her father,\nand had missed her way.  The man had, without knowing it, saved his own\ndaughter.  \"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XL.\n\nTHE WORDS OF OUR LIPS.\n\n(Fifth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\n1 S. PETER iii. 10.\n\n\"For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his\ntongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.\"\n\n\nAmong the scientific wonders of the day, one of the most remarkable is\nthe telephone, by which we can hear each other's words at a\nconsiderable distance.  By means of that instrument the sermon of the\npreacher, the music of the singer, the weighty words of the wise, and\nthe silly babble of the foolish, can be carried over a great space.\nHave you ever thought, brethren, that if a telephone could be invented\nsufficiently large to convey the words uttered in one day in one of our\ngreat cities, or even in this place, what a babel of strange discordant\nsounds would come to our ears?  What a mixture of wisdom and folly,\nlove and hate, selfishness and self-denial, would be heard!  Few of us\nwould be the happier for hearing all the talk of their town or parish\nfor one day.  Now, God does hear every word spoken throughout the\nworld.  All that men say, good or bad, wise or foolish, is known to\nthat God to whom all hearts are open, and from whom no secrets are hid.\nAnd more than this, these words of ours are noted in God's Book of\nRemembrance, from which we shall one day be judged.  When a man is\ntaken into custody on suspicion of having committed some crime, he is\nalways warned that whatever he may say will be used in evidence against\nhim.  Such a man is very careful to keep a curb upon his tongue.  My\nbrothers, we have all need to remember that for every idle word we must\ngive account, and that what we say every day of our life will be used\nas evidence against us, since \"by our words we shall be justified, and\nby our words we shall be condemned.\"\n\nI have read of one of old time who, being unable to read, came to a\nPriest, and asked to be taught a Psalm.  Having learnt the verse, \"I\nsaid I will take heed to my ways, that I offend not with my tongue,\" he\nwent away, saying that was enough if it were carried out practically.\nSix months later he was asked why he had not come to learn another\nPsalm, and he answered simply that he had not yet been able to master\nwhat he had learned already.\n\nMost important, then, and most necessary among Christian duties, is\ncontrol of the tongue, and yet it is much neglected.  Many, who would\nhesitate to do a foolish or wicked thing, do not scruple to say what is\nboth unwise and wrong.  There are men living respectable and clean\nlives who yet love to tell an unclean story.  There are those who sing\nGod's praises in Church, and pray earnestly, and with the same tongue\nswear and use bad language when their temper is ruffled.  Out of the\nsame mouth proceed blessing and cursing.  There are some good mothers,\nperhaps, who would shudder at a bad word, or an immodest story, who yet\nhabitually sin with their tongue.  They shoot out their arrows, even\nbitter words, which wound a sister's reputation, and leave scars which\nnever pass away.  Truly says a well-known writer, \"Heaven keep us from\nthe destroying power of words.  There are words which sever hearts more\nthan sharp swords do; there are words, the points of which sting the\nheart through the course of a whole life.\"\n\nMy brothers, we all, like a deadly serpent, carry a fearful weapon in\nour tongue, and woe unto our happiness, and that of others, if the\npoison of asps is under our lips.  No one has learnt aright the lessons\nof Christianity unless he can curb his tongue.  We dare not call\nourselves followers of Him who went about doing good, and spake as\nnever man spake, if we go about with lies, with cruel speeches, with\nthe sneering sarcasm which maddens, and the unjust judgment which\nkills.  Let us put this matter before ourselves very practically, and\nthink of some words from which we must restrain our mouth as it were\nwith a bridle.  First, let us guard against the _unkind word_ of every\nclass.  This world is full of sunshine, and flowers, and singing birds,\nbecause God is full of kindness.  So, if we would find sunshine in our\nlife, and flowers about our path, we must be kindly affectioned one to\nanother, pitiful, courteous, in our words.  The man who goes through\nlife saying cruel things is like a musical instrument out of tune,\nwhose only sounds are discord.  It is the kindly tongue which makes\n\"the music of men's lives.\"  Think what an unkind word can do!  It can,\nand has, parted husband and wife, parent and child, for ever.  It has\ndriven a man from the Paradise of home, to the cold, outer world of\nlonely misery.  It has blighted a young life as a cruel frost kills the\nbudding may.  It has embittered a parent's declining years, and brought\ndown grey hairs with sorrow to the grave.  Of all miseries, surely one\nof the greatest must be to stand by the open grave of some friend, and\nto feel that the poor heart, lying cold and still beneath us, has been\nwounded by our cruel and unkindly words.  O sons and daughters, take\nheed to your words, lest when you lay father or mother in the grave\nthere comes the sad accusing whisper, \"my angry temper, and my\nthoughtless tongue, saddened my parent's last days on earth.\"  A great\nEnglish writer said sadly, \"What would I give to call my mother back to\nearth for one day, to ask her pardon upon my knees for all those things\nby which I gave her gentle spirit pain.\"  Watch and pray against unkind\nwords, they never did, or can do, good.  They never softened a hard\nheart, or convinced an unbeliever, or converted a sinner.  You cannot\nshape lives into beauty by hard words, as you can a stone by hard\nblows.  Say a kindly word whenever you have the opportunity, and you\nwill be like one sowing the seed of a fragrant flower, which will bring\nsweetness to others, and most surely to yourself.  One of the best\nlessons we can learn is to be silent at the right time.  One of the\ngreatest of the old Greek philosophers condemned each of his pupils to\nfive years' silence, that he might learn self-control; and Holy Writ\ntells us plainly that a man full of words shall not prosper upon the\nearth.\n\nAnother which we must guard against is the _discontented word_.\nEverywhere around we hear people murmuring, and finding fault.  Nearly\neveryone whom we meet has some complaint.  It is almost a miracle to\nfind a man who says, \"I am well, very happy, and quite contented.\"  Let\nthe skies be ever so blue, the eyes of the murmurer can discover a\nrising cloud.  Let to-day be ever so bright and prosperous, the\ndiscontented forsees trouble to-morrow.  The greatest and the best of\nmen appear in his eyes to be full of faults and weaknesses.  Everyone\nhas his price, he says, no man serves God for nought.  In a word, he\ncan see no good in God's world, no beauty in God's creatures, no\nblessings in his own life.  He can tell you all his misfortunes, but\nask him what good things God has done for him, and he cannot remember.\nMy brothers, guard against the discontented tongue.  It is a grievous\nsin against God, and it makes its owner and all around him wretched.\nLet the praises of God be in your mouth, and the two-edged sword of\nfaith in your hand, and you will make your way through all\ndifficulties, and triumph over all troubles.  Count up God's mercies\nand blessings every day, and you _cannot_ murmur.  Sing the _Te Deum_\noftener, and you will have no time for the miserable ditties of the\ndiscontented.  Imitate the bees, who gather sweetness from the common\nthings of life.  Look up to God's bright sky, and not down into the\ngloomy cavern of your own heart.  Pray to be lifted out of self, and\nfilled with thoughts of God's love and mercy, then you will be able to\nsay--\n\n  \"My heart leaps up when I behold\n  The rainbow in the sky!\n  So was it when my life began;\n  So is it now I am a man;\n  So be it when I shall grow old,\n  Or let me die.\"\n\nAnd next, let us guard against the _untruthful word_ of every kind.\nThere are hundreds of ways in which men sin against the truth, and yet\nthe world does not call them by the terrible name, the most shameful of\nall names--a liar.  The world is very fond of giving wrong names to\ncertain sins.  A man appears in the morning with pale face, and shaking\nhand, and lack-lustre eye, and the world says he has been spending a\nfestive evening, whereas the _truth_ is he has been drunk.  The man who\nleads an unclean life is pleasantly styled by the world a _fast man_.\nGod in the Bible calls him by a very different name.\n\nLet us learn to call things by their right names.  If what we say is\nnot quite true it is a lie, neither more nor less.  If we go about with\nidle tales of our neighbour, tales which have some truth in them, but\nnot all the truth, then we are verily guilty concerning our brother;\nsince the truths which are only half truths \"are ever the worst of\nlies.\"  If in our business we say more than the truth, or less than the\ntruth, we are verily guilty.  A lie is no less a lie because it is\nprinted in a prospectus, or written up in a shop window.  A tradesman\nwho sells a pair of boots which fall to pieces, or a garment which will\nnot wear, and tells us that they are good and genuine articles, is just\nas false as Ananias himself.  I have heard traders declare that they\ncannot afford to be honest.  This is an utter mistake.  Every Christian\nman is bound by the vows of his Baptism both to speak and act the\ntruth.  Well says a preacher of our day, \"we have dethroned the Most\nHigh in the realm of commerce, and in the place of the Heavenly Majesty\nhave erected unclean and pestiferous idols; we have put into the holy\nplace the foul little gods, named Trickery and Cunning.  We have tried\nto lock God up in the Church, and have shut upon Him the iron gates of\nthe marketplace.\"\n\nMy brothers, if you would prosper you must have God with you in your\nbusiness, guiding your plough, blessing your farm, ruling your trade.\nYou must have God with you behind the counter of your shop, or your\noffice, and if God is to be there you _must speak_ the truth.  A\nChristian man must have nothing to do with an unjust balance, or a\nfalse weight.  He must refuse to adulterate his wares, for these things\nare lies.  The Chinese are in the habit of adulterating some of their\ntea for the market, but they are honest enough to call it in their\nlanguage _lie tea_.  I only wish our traders would do the same when\nthey offer us false articles under the name of genuine wares.  The time\nwould fail me to tell one quarter of the ways in which God's law of\ntruth is broken.  I may not stay to speak of the false advertisement,\nof the highly-coloured description, of the quack medicine, which we are\nsolemnly told will cure any kind of disease.  I would only say, take\nthe matter home to your own hearts.  Whoever you are, make up your mind\nthat as Christians you must speak the truth, the whole truth, and\nnothing but the truth.  And may the God of all truth give your strength.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XLI.\n\nALIVE UNTO GOD.\n\n(Sixth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nROMANS vi. 11.\n\n\"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but\nalive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.\"\n\n\nEvery baptised person belongs to God.  He is His absolute property,\nmarked with the sign of the great King.  As the broad arrow is the mark\nthat certain property belongs to the British Government, so the Cross\nof Holy Baptism is the sign and pledge that we are God's.  Think of\nthat, my brothers, you are not free to choose your own way, your own\nmasters; you belong absolutely to Jesus Christ.  He made you His\nproperty by taking your flesh, by suffering in it, by dying in it, by\nrising with it in triumph.  In Baptism you are made partakers of all\nthese benefits.  You are baptised into the Death of Christ that your\nold sinful nature may die and be buried.  You are baptised too in His\nResurrection, that you may after Baptism begin a new and higher life,\nwith Jesus as your Ruler and Guide.  From this fact come two others;\nfirst that we are not free to sin, because if we do wrong, we sin not\nagainst ourselves, but against Jesus Christ, \"whose we are, and whom we\nserve.\"  I do not say that sin will not come in our way, will not tempt\nus.  We must, in passing through the world, encounter foul smells,\nhideous sights, dirty roads.  But we can turn away from the foul smell,\nwe can shut our eyes to the bad sight, we can pick our way carefully\nover the dirty road.  So if sin meets us, we must turn aside from it,\nwe must stop our eyes and our ears to the evil sight, or sound, we must\ntry to keep in a clean path.  The strength which our Master, Jesus,\ngives us in the Sacraments will be sufficient for us.  And the second\nfact is that, as baptised people, we are never alone, never forsaken.\nA great part of our life, and our work, must be solitary, and yet we\nare not alone, for God is with us.  We must _do our work alone_.  No\none can tread the path of duty for us, or fight the good fight on our\nbehalf.  Like the solitary sower in the fields, we are all sent into\nthis world to sow some seed, to do some work, _alone_.  There may be\ncrowds around us, and yet each of us has his thoughts, and hopes, and\nfeelings, with which others cannot intermingle; no two men think or\nfeel exactly in the same way, each of us is alone.  We know that we\nmust fight the battle of life and duty alone, we know that we bear our\nsorrows and bereavements alone, we know that alone we must die, and be\njudged, and yet, as Christians, we know that Jesus will never leave us,\nnor forsake us, that He is with us even unto the end of the world, and\nthat when most solitary we are _alone with God_.\n\nIt is this thought that has strengthened the bravest and best of God's\npeople in their hour of trial.  It was this which enabled Abraham to\nleave home and friends, and to seek a land of strangers; he was not\nalone, for God was with him.  It was this which comforted Joseph in the\nEgyptian prison, and enabled him to feel as many another captive has\nfelt--\n\n  \"Stone walls do not a prison make,\n    Nor iron bars a cage;\n  Minds innocent and quiet take\n    That for a hermitage.\"\n\nIt was this which nerved Daniel to dare the den of lions, and Shadrach\nand his brethren to brave the fiery furnace; they were not alone, for\nGod was with them.  This cheered David when he walked through the\nvalley of the shadow in his deep repentance; this gave courage to S.\nPeter, and S. Paul, and all the noble army of martyrs, to speak boldly\nin Christ's Name, and to meet death with a smiling face.  This carried\nMoses through the desert, and Columbus to the new world, the thought\nthat in their loneliest hour God was with them.\n\nYes, and it was the same thought which supported the dead hero, for\nwhom all England weeps.  Day after day passed over Gordon in his lonely\nexile far away.  Day after day he saw the sunrise flash on the white\nwalls and fair palm trees of Khartoum, and the sunset redden the desert\nsand.  Cut off from home, and comrades, and countrymen, far from the\nsound of English voices, and of English prayers; there is no more\nlonely figure than that of the martyr of duty.  Day by day he strained\nhis eyes to see the rescue which never came, and yet in all this lonely\nwaiting we cannot believe that the heart of Gordon failed, for he could\nsay to his God, \"I am not alone, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with\nme.\"\n\nThus, in one sense, every man must stand alone, and yet the Christian\nman knows that he is a child of God, and that his Father will never\nforsake him.  Every one of us must _labour alone_ in the great workshop\nof the world.  Each of us has his corner where God has placed him to\nweave in his little bit of the pattern of this world's history, to add\nhis little portion of colour to the picture called Life.  For each of\nus there is the day's work, wherein we can labour, or idle, as we\nchoose, and for each there comes the night when no man can work.  And\nwhat we have to do we must do _alone_.  The majority of men who live\nthe life of duty do so unnoticed and uncared for.  They are like those\nstars which our eyes never see, but they shine all the same.  Such men\nwork and suffer, and wait till their time comes to join\n\n        \"The crowd untold of men,\n    By the cause they served unknown,\n  Who moulder in myriad graves of old,\n    Never a story, never a stone.\"\n\nBut such men have the comfort of knowing that they have not run in\nvain, neither laboured in vain; they have lived unto God in this world,\nand if solitary, they have been alone with God.  Again, _we must all\nsuffer alone_.  However kind and sympathetic our friends may be, they\ncannot enter into our pains and agonies.  They can be sorry for us, but\nthey cannot feel as we feel.  When the body is racked by severe pangs\nof suffering, even the presence of friends is too much for us.  We want\nto be alone, _alone with God_.  And this is specially true of the\nsorrows of the mind.  \"The heart knoweth its own bitterness.\"  No one,\nnot even our nearest and dearest, can go with us to the Gethsemane,\nwhere we suffer, or the Calvary, where we endure our cross.  But it is\nin these hours of bitterest suffering that the Christian feels that he\nis not forsaken.  He remembers that his Master, Jesus, trod the\nwinepress of sorrow alone, and that of the people there was none with\nHim.  He knows that he is permitted to walk the same lonely path as\nJesus trod before him.  He knows that as he kneels in the darkened room\nwith his solitary sorrow, with his breaking heart, with his sinful soul\nbowed down in penitence, that Jesus is with him--he is alone with God.\nAnd again, _we must all die alone_.  The moment of death is the most\nsolitary of all our life.  The Prince, with his armies, and crowds of\nfriends and courtiers, is, at his death, as much alone as the beggar\nwho drops and dies by the roadside.  Loving hands may clasp ours\nfondly, but we must let them go.  Husband, mother, wife, or child may\ncling to us in close embrace, but they cannot detain us, or go with us,\nwe must die alone.  And yet in that most solitary moment the Christian\nwho is dead unto sin, and living unto God, knows that he is not alone.\nHe knows that when he has heard the sound of the last voice on earth,\nhe shall hearken to other voices, never listened to before.  When the\nlast farewell is spoken, and the last hand clasped on earth, there will\ncome the meeting with a new and glorious company, and the touch of\nthose dear Hands once wounded for our transgressions.  Be sure that\nGod, who is with us in life, is specially with us in the moment of\ndeath; we die alone, but we are alone with God.  My brothers, we are\ntempted sometimes to murmur because our life and its work are dull,\nmonotonous and solitary.  Let this thought help us to check the\nrebellious sigh, the thought that if we are trying to do our duty, God\nis with us, and He that seeth in secret, shall Himself reward us\nopenly.  We may be tempted to cry sometimes in our darkest hours, \"My\nGod, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me;\" but the loving Hand has not\ngone from us, though we cannot feel its touch.  Those dark hours often\nbring out the light of Christ's great love most clearly.  I have seen a\nfamous picture of the Crucifixion, which shows its sad beauty best when\nthe window is darkened.  Then there seems to shine a light of hope and\nsplendour behind the Cross, and the face of the Saviour beams with\ntenderest love.  So when the windows of our life are darkened, when\nbereavement, or ill-health, or disappointment come upon us, let us turn\nour eyes to the Crucified, and see a new light, a new meaning in our\nSaviour's sorrow, and our own.  Let us learn that the trouble has come\nto lead us apart from the world and its selfish ways, that we may be\nalone--alone with God.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XLII.\n\nSERVANTS OF SIN.\n\n(Seventh Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nROMANS vi. 20.\n\n\"The servants of sin.\"\n\n\nThere is no existence in the world so sad as that of a slave; and there\nis no slavery so hard as that of sin, no taskmaster so bitter as the\ndevil.  There was a tyrant in the old times who ordered one of his\nsubjects to make an iron chain of a certain length, in a given time.\nThe man brought the work, and the tyrant bade him make it longer still.\nAnd he continued to add link to link, till at length the cruel\ntaskmaster ordered his servants to bind the worker with his own chain,\nand cast him into the fire.  That hardest of tyrants, the devil, treats\nhis slaves in like manner.  At first the chain of sin is light, and\ncould easily be cast off.  But day by day Satan bids his victims add\nanother link.  The servant of sin grows more hardened, more daring,\nmore reckless in his evil way.  He adds sin to sin, link to link, and\nthen the end comes, and the tyrant binds him hand and foot with his own\nchain, and casts him into outer darkness, where there is weeping, and\ngnashing of teeth.  Very often the slaves of sin do not know that they\n_are_ slaves.  They talk about their freedom from restraint, they tell\nus they are their own masters, they would have us believe that the\ngodly, who try to keep the commandments, and walk in the narrow way,\nare slaves, but _they_ are free!  Oh! fools, and slow of heart!  As\nwell might a prisoner cover his irons with a cloak, and try to pass as\na free man.  We can _hear the clank of the chains_.  So is it with the\nslave of sin.  Once I visited a madhouse, and talked with some of the\npoor patients.  Some had one delusion, some another.  One thought he\nwas a king, another fancied himself the heir to a fortune.  But one\nthing they all believed, that they were in their right minds.\n\nMy brothers, the slaves of sin are like these poor mad folk, they do\nnot understand that what they call freedom is slavery, that what they\nstyle pleasure is misery, that instead of being the clever, reckless,\nfree people they think themselves, they are only mad people possessed\nof the devil.  First, then, we have seen that the servants of sin do\nnot know that they are slaves.  The tyrant, Satan, blinds their eyes\nbefore he binds them in the fetters of his prison house, even as the\nPhilistines blinded the strong man of old.  Next, the servants of sin\nbear about the marks of their master  I have seen gangs of convicts\nworking on Dartmoor.  You could not mistake them for anything else if\nthey were dressed in the best of clothing.  The word _convict_ is\nstamped upon every grey face, as plainly as the Government mark is\nstamped upon their clothing.  The servants of sin have their marks\nalso.  Look at the shifty eyes, and downward glance of the knave and\nthe false man; mark the flushed brow and cruel eyes of the angry man;\nsee the weak lips and trembling hand of the drunkard; they bear the\nmarks of their slavery very plainly.  So, too, the sensualist who lives\nfor his body, the impure man, the slave of lust, the criminal, haunted\nby a guilty secret, the selfish worldling, who cares only for this\nlife; these all bear the traces of their sin upon them, these show\nwhose they are, and whom they serve.  Again, the servants of sin have\ntheir so-called enjoyments, these are the baits with which the tyrant\ngets them into his power.  For a time the way of transgressors is made\neasy and pleasant.  The broad road is shaded, and edged with fair\nfruits and flowers.  The down-hill path is strewn with glittering\njewels, the booths of vanity fair are fitted with all manner of\ndelights, and the poor slave goes on, scarce feeling his chains, or\nknowing of his slavery, till the day of reckoning comes.  \"There is a\nway which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of\ndeath.\"  A saint of old once saw a man leading a herd of swine, which\nfollowed him willingly.  The saint asked whither he was taking them,\nand he answered, to the slaughter.  When the saint marvelled that the\nswine should go so readily to their death, the man showed him that they\nfollowed him for the sake of the sweet food in his hand, and knew not\nwhither they were going.  My brothers, the servants of sin follow Satan\nfor the sake of the sweet things which he offers, and know not that\nthey are going to their death, even the living death of a lost soul.\nSome of you remember the old German legend of doctor Faustus.  It is a\nterrible parable of the fate of all those who become the slave of sin.\nFaustus is represented as a man of great learning, who used his\nknowledge for evil instead of good.  Being filled with pride, he\nrefused to bow down to God, and made a bargain with Satan that he was\nto have his own way, and every wish gratified for a certain term of\nyears, and then he was to pay the price--his own soul.  During those\nyears he had all the health and strength of youth, he enjoyed all the\npleasures of the body, the world, the flesh, and the devil were his\nservants.  But one thing he lacked, he had not God, and so he had no\nhope.  There were times when he thought of the horrible bargain which\nhe had made.  He desired to see Paradise and Hell, and he was shown a\nglimpse of both.  His servants found him in deep sorrow, and asked him\nwhat he had seen, and what the sorrows of Hell were like.  But he\nanswered that he remembered not, one thing only he recalled, the peace\nand beauty of that Paradise which he had forfeited for ever.  This is\nthe story of every slave of sin.\n\nMy brothers, there are many who have bargained with Satan, offering the\nprice of their own souls.  When the Tempter came to the Saviour in the\nwilderness, he offered Him the glory and splendour of the world if\nJesus would fall down and worship him.  It is the same with us.  Satan\noffers us this world instead of the world to come.  He offers us our\nown way, so dear to all of us.  He offers us the pleasures of the body,\n\"let us eat and drink.\"  He offers us self-indulgence in all the lusts\nof the flesh.  He offers us all the flash and glitter of the world, but\nhe does not let us see the foulness and rottenness which they cover.\nTo the man of science he comes, as to Faustus in the legend, and tries\nto induce him to set up his knowledge against the All-wise, and to\ndrive God out of His own fair universe.  He does not show him how sad\nlife must be without the knowledge of God: how miserable death must be\nwithout a Saviour.  He comes to the man of business, and shows him\nvisions of vast wealth.  He whispers, \"All these things will I give\nthee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.\"  And that implies false\ndealing, sharp practice, trickery, knavery.  It implies loss of\nself-respect, loss of honour, the reproaches of an ever-accusing\nconscience.  The tempter comes to the young man or woman, and shows\nthem all the delights of a life of pleasure.  They see the sparkle of\nthe wine cup, the glitter of the ball room, the pomp and vanities of\nthis wicked world.  But they do not see the other side of the picture.\nThey do not see the grey, cold morning of sorrow which follows the\nnight of dissipation and sin.  The young woman looks on the tempting\ndress, the flash of jewels, the gay company.  She does not see the\n_price_ she must pay.  She cannot see herself disgraced and ruined, and\ncast aside like a broken toy.  She can hear the music of the revel, but\nnot the reproaches of a broken-hearted dying mother.  The young man\nsees only the bright side of the picture, Satan keeps the dark side\nhidden.  He fancies himself his own master, free from the restraints of\nhome and parents, walking in his own way, in the lust of the eye, and\nthe pride of life.  Ah! brother, the way seems very charming now--it\nwill be hard enough one day.  The cup of pleasure seems very sweet now,\nthe dregs thereof will be bitter enough one day: as for the ungodly,\nthey shall drink them and suck them up.  The food which the world\noffers seems as honey and the honeycomb now: the day is coming when it\nwill be as ashes.  You will come one day to the husks--the sick room,\nthe dying bed,--and you will know that you gained this world and lost\nthe world to come: like the rich man, you will in this life have had\nyour good things, but _you will have paid the price_.  And those old\nwords will have a terrible meaning for you then, \"What shall it profit\na man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?\"  Yes, the\nservants of sin must fulfil their contract and receive their wages, and\nthe wages of sin is death.  Ah! brethren, be serious; are these things\nnothing to you?  Are there none of you who _know_ that you are the\nslaves of some besetting sin?  Look into your lives, see whose marks\nare upon you, whose servants you are.  Are you still tied and bound\nwith the chain of your sins?  If so, turn you to Him who can alone set\nyou free; to Him who drove the strong man armed from his palace; to Him\nwho conquered Satan in the wilderness, in the garden, on the cross; to\nHim who can make the weakest strong, the most sorely tempted able to\ntriumph; Who can wash the foulest life till it shall be whiter than\nsnow.  Brothers, dare we turn away and carry our chain of slavery\nlonger?  No, let us make a struggle to be free, and let our prayer be,\n\"O God, whose nature and property is ever to have mercy and to forgive,\nreceive our humble petitions; and though we be tied and bound with the\nchain of our sins, yet let the pitifulness of Thy great mercy loose us,\nfor the honour of Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Advocate.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XLIII.\n\nKNOWN BY THEIR FRUITS.\n\n(Eighth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. MATT. vii. 16.\n\n\"Ye shall know them by their fruits.\"\n\n\nThe religion of Jesus Christ is one of deeds, not words; a life of\naction, not of dreaming.  Our Lord warns us to beware of any form of\nreligion, in ourselves or others, which does not bring forth good\nfruit.  God does not look for the leaves of profession, or the blossoms\nof promise, He looks for fruit unto holiness.  We may profess to\nbelieve in Jesus Christ, we may say the Creed without a mistake, we may\nread our Bible, and say our prayers, and yet, if our lives are bad, all\nour religion is vain.  If we would know whether we are being led by the\nHoly Spirit, we must see if we are bringing forth _fruits_ of the\nSpirit.  If we would discover if the works of a clock are right, we\nlook at the hands.  So, by our words and deeds we shall show whether\nour hearts are right with God.  A religion of the lips is worth\nnothing.  We may cry, \"Lord, Lord,\" in our place in Church, we may\nrepeat the words which speak of the Will of God, and utter pious wishes\nwhen we sing chant or hymn, and all the while we may be far off from\nthe Kingdom of Heaven, because we are not in our lives doing the will\nof our Father which is in Heaven.  If we are selfish, self-willed,\nproud, lovers of our own selves, our religion is but the sheep's\nclothing covering the wolfish heart, or the white paint hiding the\ncorruption of the sepulchre.  It is easy enough to assume the character\nand manner of a Christian, but to live the Christian life is not so\neasy.  A man can make a sham diamond in a very short time, but the real\ngem must lie for ages in the earth before it can sparkle with perfect\npurity.  We have far too many of these quickly made Christians amongst\nus, who have never brought forth fruits meet for repentance, nor gone\nthrough the fire of trial, and sorrow, and self-sacrifice.  Do not\ntrust to feelings, or words, in yourselves or others, look at your\nlife; a real and a false diamond are very much alike, and yet there is\nall the difference in the world in their value.\n\n\"If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall\nlive.  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons\nof God.\"  My brothers, who is our leader and guide, the Holy Spirit, or\nour own will?  How shall we know?  By our fruits.  They tell us that\nwhenever the holy saint David, of Wales, stood up to preach, there came\na milk-white dove, and sat upon his shoulder.  It is a serious question\nfor you and me, for preacher and people, does the White Dove perch on\nmy shoulder as I preach?  Does the Holy Ghost descend like a dove on\nyou who hear?  Men of business, anxious workers, is the White Dove with\nyou in your factory, your farm, your office?  Mothers and fathers,\nyoung men and maidens, is there a place in your home where the Holy\nSpirit may come, and continually dwell?\n\nLet us look into our lives very closely, and see whether we are\nmistaking outward form for true religion, words and professions for\nholiness, leaves for fruit.  What are some of the fruits which God\nlooks for in the life of a Christian?  At the head of all, I think, we\nmust place _love_.  Ah! you will say to me,--I only wish I could love\nGod more.  It is so hard to love One whom we cannot see.  I worship\nGod, I try to keep His commandments, but I am not sure that I _love_\nGod.  My brother, my sister, let not your heart be troubled.  If you\nreally try to do God's Will it is a proof of your love.  \"If ye love\nMe, keep My commandments.\"  \"For this is the love of God, that we keep\nHis commandments.  If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he\nis a liar.  We know that we do know Him if we keep His commandments.\"\nYou can show your love to God by showing love and kindness to your\nbrethren.  By kindly judgments of another's fault; by gentle words of\ncomfort, of pity, or of warning; by tender hands stretched out to bring\nback the wandering sheep; by loving acts of charity to the sick and\nsuffering; by care for the poor bruised reeds of this rough world, you\ncan show your love for God, who is the source of all love.  If we love\nGod we shall try to lead others to Him.  A true Christian cannot be\nselfish.  Think of the example you set to others.  Is it a good one, a\nstrong one, a light shining before men so that they can see your good\nworks?  At the battle of Tel-el-Keber our troops had no sufficient\nplans of the ground.  The General therefore ordered a young naval\nofficer to lead the Highland Brigade by the light of the stars to their\ndestined post.  When the fight began the Highlanders were ready, and\namong the first to fall was their young leader.  The victory was\ngained, and the General hastened to the tent of his wounded officer.\nThe dying man smiled as he raised his trembling hand to his commander,\nand looking him in the face said, \"General, didn't I lead them\nstraight?\"  My brothers, we are leading our fellow men by the example\nof our lives, the question is, _are we leading them straight?_\n\nAnother fruit for which God looks in a Christian's life is _humility_.\nEvery act and word of our Saviour's earthly life teaches us to be\nhumble.  Let the haughty, the proud, the self-satisfied man, open his\nGospel, and he will find a reproof to his pride on every page.  Let him\nbend his head, and bow his stiff knee before the Almighty God, cradled\nin a manger, fasting in the desert, homeless, friendless, silent before\nHis foes, stripped, mocked and beaten, dying upon the Cross.  Go, my\nbrother, and bow your head at Gethsemane; go, kneel before the Cross of\nCalvary, and ask God to make you humble.  The longer a true Christian\nlives the more humble-minded he becomes.  A young man, just starting in\nlife, holds his head high, and is inclined to look down on others.  But\nas he journeys on through the world, learning by experience, his head\ngrows bent and lowly.  So is it with Christ's people.  The longer we go\nto His School, and the more we know of the way of godliness, the\nhumbler we become.  Like S. Paul, we count not that we have attained\nthe mark, we only press forward towards it.  We begin with shame to\ntake the lowest place, we learn to consider others better than\nourselves, and to say to our Lord, \"I am not worthy that Thou shouldest\ncome under my roof.\"  As the laden fruit tree bends its branches\nnearest to the earth, and the fullest ears of corn hang lowest, so the\nholiest man is ever the humblest.  In a certain city abroad every child\nfound begging in the streets is taken to a charitable asylum.  Before\nhe is washed, and dressed anew, his portrait is taken as he stands in\nhis beggar's rags.  When his education is finished, this picture is\ngiven to the child, and he is made to promise that he will keep it all\nhis life, that he may be reminded what he was, and what great things\nhave been done for him.  It is good for us to remember, my brothers,\nwhat we were: helpless wanderers in this world, clothed in filthy rags\nof sin; and we must remember, too, what God has done for us.  How He\nhas redeemed us from our slavery, making us His own children by\nadoption, washing us in the Blood of Christ which cleanseth from all\nsin, and giving us the white robe of holiness.  Who is there who,\nthinking upon these things, can be other than humble?  Let us examine\nourselves, and see whether we are bringing forth that fruit.  We preach\nhumility to others, we expect to see it in others' lives, are we humble\nourselves?  Have we learnt to walk _humbly_ with our God?\n\nAnother fruit which God expects in the lives of His people is\n_forgetfulness of self_.  Have you stayed to calculate how much of your\ntime is occupied in thinking and talking of yourselves?  In some houses\nthey line the rooms with looking glasses, so that wherever you turn you\nsee a reflection of yourself.  My brethren, some of us pass all our\nlives in such a room; we are for ever contemplating our own selves.  We\nspend our time in looking into a mirror that we may see our beauty, our\ncleverness, our fine clothing.  One glass reflects our pleasures and\namusements, another our sorrows and misfortunes.  But every inch of\nspace is so filled with self that there is no room for another's joys\nor sorrows, and, above all, there is no room for Jesus.  Let us strive\nby God's grace to get away from self, and the eternal thinking and\ntalking of our own concerns.  Even Jesus Christ pleased not Himself,\nand believe me, we are no Christians unless we are trying to forget\nourselves, and to deny ourselves.  We must be crucified with Christ if\nwe are to reign with Him, and alas for us if we cannot show the marks\nof the nails where we have been fastened to our cross.  My brethren,\nthese are serious thoughts for us all.  By our fruits, and by them\nonly, we shall be known.  If our lives show no love, no humility, no\nself-sacrifice, no patience, no meekness, how shall we stand when the\ngreat day of ingathering comes?  Often the Dresser of the Vineyard has\nlooked upon some of us, seeking fruit, and finding none, and we know\nnot how soon the sentence may go forth, \"Cut it down, why cumbereth it\nthe ground.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XLIV.\n\nRENDERING OUR ACCOUNT.\n\n(Ninth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. LUKE xvi. 2.\n\n\"Give an account of thy stewardship.\"\n\n\nMy brothers, we shall all hear that command one day.  When our earthly\nbusiness is finished and done with, when our debts are paid, and our\njust claims settled, and our account books balanced for the last time,\nwe must render our account to God, the Righteous Judge.  But it is not\nonly at the day of Judgment that the Lord so calls upon us.  _Then_ He\nwill ask for the final reckoning,--\"Give an account of thy stewardship,\nfor thou mayest be no longer steward.\"  Now, whilst we are yet alive on\nthe earth, whilst we are still in the enjoyment of our stewardship,\nGod, at certain times, calls for an account.  Whenever the Holy Spirit\ntouches our hearts, and stirs our conscience, and we look into the\nsecret places of our life, and examine ourselves, then we hear the\nwhisper of God, \"Give an account of thy stewardship--how much owest\nthou unto my Lord?\"  Then at our dying bed there will be all our past\nlife; our youth, our manhood, our working days, our times of pleasure,\nthese will all be clamouring in our ears--\"Give an account of thy\nstewardship.\"  The dying bed of a sinner, who has wasted his life, will\nbe haunted by the ghosts and phantoms of the past.  Days dead and gone,\nsins dead and forgotten, yet not forgiven, will be there to trouble the\nthoughts of the dying man, to murmur, \"God requireth that which is\npast; give an account of thy stewardship.\"  Such a death-bed must be an\nawful thing, no wonder that some people are said to _die hard_.  It\nmust be indeed a sad ending to a misspent life, to leave it amid the\nshadowy crowd of our former faults and failures; to the sound of the\nevil words which we have spoken; to the stern summons of our unquiet\nconscience--\"Give an account of thy stewardship.\"  May the merciful\nJesus save us from such a death as that.  And that we may find pardon\nand peace at the last, let us use the present, and not allow our\naccount to grow, like that of a reckless debtor, till we are\noverwhelmed by the amount.  We are all the stewards of Almighty God.\nWhatever things we possess are our Master's goods.  Let us see how we\nhave used them hitherto.  \"Give an account of thy stewardship.\"\n\nWhat are some of the goods which our Master, God, has entrusted to our\ncare?  First of all, there is the treasure of _time_.  Our years, our\nmonths, and weeks, and days, are all so many precious jewels lent to\nus, and we must give a strict account of every one of them.  Every day\nof our life has its special work for God; have we always tried to do\nthe day's work with our might?  Every day of our life is a teacher in\nGod's great School, and brings its lesson; have we tried to learn the\nlesson aright?  If we must give an account for every idle word, so\nsurely must we for every idle day.  And remember that any time spent\nentirely on selfish pleasure, or amusement, is wasted.  Unless we are\ndoing some good, we are certainly doing some harm.  There is a motto\nvery commonly engraved upon a sundial, which means that the moments of\ntime are perishing, and are being recorded in God's Book.  Yes, they\nare being put down to our account on one side or the other, just as we\nhave used, or misused, them.  Look on two death-beds.  A Queen of\nEngland is dying, surrounded by her attendants.  What are the last\nwords they hear her speak, as she passes over the brink of eternity?\n\"All my possessions for a moment of time!\"  Now look on another\npicture.  An English Admiral lies wounded unto death.  The decks are\nslippery with blood, and the air dark with smoke; but the sound of many\nvoices is heard, it is the British shout of victory.  The dying hero\nclasps the hand of his friend, and murmurs, \"Now I am satisfied; thank\nGod, I have done my duty.\"  Brethren, our ending of this life must be\nlike one of these.  Either we must cry helplessly over wasted days,\nwhich cannot return, and beg in vain for time to right some wrong; or\nwe shall die with the comforting thought that, in spite of many faults\nand failures, we have tried to do our duty.  Remember that time once\nlost cannot be recovered.  \"Lost wealth may be replaced by industry,\nlost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance and medicine, but\nlost time is gone for ever.\"\n\nAgain, \"give an account of thy stewardship,\" of the good things which\nGod has given you; your creation, preservation, and all the blessings\nof this life; and above all, the redemption of the world by Jesus\nChrist our Lord.  I knew a man once who said that he was not thankful\nto God for having created him.  I think that man was wrong.  We ought\nto thank God for having made us, for if He had not we could never know\nthe joys of Heaven.  This world is full of beauty, full of good things,\nand we must give an account of our stewardship of them.  God has sent\nthe sun to warm and cheer us, blue skies and flower-dotted meadows,\nseed time and harvest, summer and winter, wind and storm fulfilling His\nWord.  Too often we take these gifts as a matter of course, and forget\nto thank God, who giveth all.  God has fed you, and clothed you, and\npreserved you all these years; have you been thankful?  \"Give an\naccount of thy stewardship.\"  Then think what we owe God for our\nredemption, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.  For\neach of us Jesus suffered hunger and thirst, the temptation in the\nwilderness, the agony in the Garden, the cruel torture of the Cross.\nDo we think lightly of our sins?  They were heavy enough to drive those\npiercing nails through the Hands and Feet of Jesus.  Do we _speak_\nlightly of our sins?  They were heavy enough to force that bitter cry\nfrom Jesus, \"My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?\"  How much do\nyou owe unto our Lord for these benefits?  \"Give an account of thy\nstewardship.\"\n\nThen, too, the means of grace--how are we using them?  There are the\nSacraments of the Church, do we value them as we ought?  Do we\nunderstand the privilege and the blessing of having been baptised into\nChrist's Holy Church, and made partakers of the resurrection of Jesus?\nDo we appreciate the value of that Holy Sacrament, when we bring our\nchildren to be baptised?  Then think of that other Sacrament, the\nblessed legacy of our dying Saviour's love, the Holy Food of us\ntravellers through the wilderness.  Why are not all of you who hear me\nnow Communicants?  Why should there be two classes among you; one class\nof Church-goers only, the other of Church-goers who are Communicants?\nYour Saviour offers you the highest of all blessings in that Sacrament,\nHe offers you Himself.  Are you afraid to look upon God?  You _must_\nlook on Him one day.  Are you trying to live without the Precious Food\nof the Altar?  Man doth not live by bread alone; he _cannot_ live by\nbread alone, unless God feeds him there is no life in him.  As you turn\naway from this Altar, and go to that other altar which you have raised\nto some unworthy idol, does there come no reproach to you, no warning\nvoice--\"What hast thou done?  Give an account of thy stewardship.\"  And\nso with all the means of grace, we must give an account of them.  Our\nConfirmation, that solemn coming of age, when we were bidden to take\nunto us the whole armour of God; have we remembered that, and all its\nresponsibilities?  Our prayers in private, and our public worship in\nChurch, we must answer to God for them.  When you are tempted to hurry\nover your prayers, to say words with no heart, perhaps no meaning in\nthem; or when in Church you are silent and inattentive, instead of\nthrowing all your heart and mind into the act of worship; remember that\nfor all these things God will bring you into judgment, and will say,\n\"Give an account of thy stewardship.\"  Is that your Bible on the shelf,\ncovered with tell-tale dust?  Well, God lent you that good thing, and\nHe will ask for an account of your use of it, or your neglect.\n\nThen again, God has sent you trials, sorrows, losses, as teachers who\nwarn you of your state.  You must render an account for them.  You\nstood by the grave of someone stricken very suddenly by death.  That\nwas a message sent to you by God, reminding you that man's time passeth\naway like a shadow, and bidding you take heed to your ways.  Did you\nlisten to the warning, my brother, and take heed?  Some of you have\nlost your money, others your health; some have seen their cherished\nplans disappointed, their dearest wishes fail.  All these are whispers\nfrom God, warnings from the Unseen.  Have you understood them?  God\nwill ask you one day.\n\nAgain, God has given you bodies and minds _in trust_.  You must give an\naccount of your use of them.  Are you keeping those bodies of yours as\ntemples of the Holy Ghost, in purity, chastity, temperance?  Or have\nyou defiled those holy temples with drunkenness and lust?  \"Give an\naccount of thy stewardship.\"  Man of business, God has given you a\nquick brain, a keen eye, an aptitude for you [Transcriber's note:\nyour?] calling.  How are you using these things?  Are you in your\nbusiness walking honestly, as in the day?  Will your accounts bear\nlooking into by God's Eye?  \"Give an account of thy stewardship.\"\n\nFathers and mothers, God has given you children, souls precious in His\nsight.  Do you take good care of those souls?  You clothe your\nchildren, you feed them, you educate them; yes, but do you take care of\ntheir _souls_?  Do you educate them for Heaven?  Do you give them that\nbest of all teaching--a good example?  What if our children fall\nthrough our fault, because we have set no good pattern before them!\nWhat if they never get to Heaven because they have never seen _us_\nwalking in the right way!  God grant that these solemn thoughts may\nsink deeply into our hearts, and bear fruit of amendment, before the\nday when God shall say to me who preach, and you who hearken--\"Give an\naccount of thy stewardship.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XLV.\n\nTHE TEARS OF CHRIST.\n\n(Tenth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. LUKE xix. 41.\n\n\"He beheld the city, and wept over it.\"\n\n\nThe saddest sight, save one, in the history of the world is that\npictured in the text--the Son of God weeping over the city which God\nhad chosen to put His Name there.  Let us, in fancy, to-day look upon\nthe scene on which our Saviour looked, and recall the history of that\ncity which had lost sight of the things concerning her peace.  No other\ncity in the world, not even Rome, has such a wonderful story as\nJerusalem.  Looking back into the past we see the city as the\nstronghold of the heathen Jebusites, perched on her rocky crest, and\nholding out when every other fenced city had yielded to the arms of\nDavid.  The Jebusites were the last old inhabitants of the land to give\nplace to the conqueror; they trusted in the marvellous strength of\ntheir position, where \"they had made their nest in a rock.\"  They\ntrusted in \"the everlasting gates,\" which had never been forced by an\ninvader; and they declared boastfully that the blind and the lame were\nstrong enough to defend their citadel, and that David should not come\nin thither.  But, as we know, the day came when David attacked the\ncity, and declared that the man who first smote the Jebusites should be\nchief and captain, and that man was Joab.  Still looking back over the\npast, we see David solemnly consecrating the once heathen city to the\nGod of his Fathers.  The Ark, the most sacred treasure which Israel\npossessed, was brought home with solemn state and loud rejoicing after\nits long exile.  As the procession of Priests and Levites, with the\nking and his chief captains, wound up the steep ascent, there rose the\nfamous shout which Israel had so often uttered in the wilderness--\"Let\nGod arise, and let His enemies be scattered.  Arise, O Lord, into Thy\nrest, Thou and the Ark of Thy strength.\"  And as the Ark is borne\nnearer to the ancient gates, which once defended the heathen Jebusite\nagainst all foes, a new cry is raised--\"Lift up your heads, O ye gates,\nand be lift up ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come\nin.\"  And so the Ark entered into Jerusalem, henceforth the Holy City,\nof which God said, \"The Lord had chosen Zion, He hath desired it for\nHis habitation.\"  Still looking at this Jerusalem of the past, we see\nthe same David fallen from his high estate, sore punished for his sin,\nweeping for the dying child of His shame, fleeing from the city before\nthe threats of another son whom he had loved \"not wisely, but too\nwell.\"  Then we see the buildings of the temple rising high above\npalace and homestead, and mark the glory, and the wisdom, and the\nweakness of Solomon.  Later we see clouds of sin and sorrow gathering\nthick over Zion.  Idolatrous kings have set up their heathen altars and\nhigh places.  Of nearly every monarch the same dark sentence is\nrecorded--he did \"that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.\"  The\ndays come when we see the Temple of God closed; no sound of Psalm, no\nsmoke of incense within its walls.  Men burn sacrifices to Baal and\nAshtaroth, and the Valley of Hinnom echoes with the cries of hapless\nchildren offered to Moloch, the hideous idol of the Ammonite.  We see\nthe Ark of God cast out of the holy of holies, the name of Jehovah\nremoved from every public document, the altars of God overthrown, and\nHis Priests slain with the sword.  Even to-day they point to the\nmulberry tree of Isaiah, where one of the greatest of the prophets was\nslain in the Valley of Kedron.  Still looking back, we see the hand of\nthe spoiler and the oppressor busy with the city which had forgotten\nGod--forgotten the things which concerned its peace.  The ruined walls,\nthe desecrated temple, the mournful band of exiles, all these seem to\npass before us like a dream.  Then for a time come brighter scenes, as\nIsrael returns from its exile, and with joyful Psalms sings, \"Let them\nrejoice whom the Lord hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and\ngathered them out of all lands.\"\n\nSuch was the Jerusalem of the past, over which the Son of God gazed and\nwept.  What was the Jerusalem of the present, on which He looked; what\nof the future?  It was a doomed city, because in spite of all its\nchances, its warnings, its opportunities, it repented not.  Its Rulers\nand Chief Priests refused to hear the Word of God spoken by the\nMessiah.  What the common people listened to gladly, what the fishermen\nof Galilee, and the sick and sorrowing rejoiced to hear, Jerusalem\nrejected.  And so Jerusalem was doomed.  Over gorgeous temple, stately\npalace, and quiet home alike was written Ichabod--thy glory is\ndeparted.  Already the axe was laid to the root of the tree; already\nthe sentence had gone forth, \"cut it down: why cumbereth it the\nground?\"  Already the hand of the destroyer was upon the city; the\nRoman eagle glittered amid the halls of Zion, and the once glorious\nsceptre had departed from Judah.  Over such a city Jesus wept.  And\nwhat of the future?  The end came soon.  Quickly the Jews filled up the\nmeasure, of their sins.  Little thought they, as they watched with jibe\nand insult the agonies of God's Son, that those streets of theirs\nshould run red with the blood of their best and bravest.  That famine,\nand pestilence, and treachery, and civil war should all attack them\nwithin, whilst the Roman hosts surrounded them without.  Little they\nthought that the temple where Jesus had been presented, where He had\ntalked with the doctors, where He had taught such wondrous lessons,\nshould be burned by the hand of the enemy; that its altars should drip\nwith Jewish blood; the abomination of desolation stand in the holy\nplace, and the golden candlestick grace a victor's triumph in the\nstreets of Rome.  Little thought those cruel men, who crucified the\nLord of Life, that within a while the Romans should crucify their\nbrethren outside the walls of Jerusalem, till there was no wood left to\nmake a cross.  \"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this day,\nthe things which belong to thy peace!  But now they are hid from thine\neyes!\"\n\nBrothers, those tears of Jesus should be very precious and very\nterrible to us.  Precious, because they teach us the sympathy, the\ntenderness of Christ; terrible, because they show us the awfulness of\nsin.  What must sin be like if it made God weep!  Are there no cities,\nno towns, among us over which Jesus might shed tears?  Think of the\ncrimes of our great busy centres of wealth and commerce; think of the\nfraud and falsehood which too often disgrace our trade; think of the\nselfish, cruel struggle for wealth, in which the weak are trampled down\nand ruined; think of the shameful scenes which night after night make\nour streets hideous, and then ask whether or not Jesus weeps.  And more\nthan this, let us bring the matter home to ourselves.  Each one of us\nis, so to speak, a city, a temple of the living God.  We have been\nconsecrated to Him in Baptism, as was Jerusalem by the coming of the\nArk.  God has promised that He will dwell in us.  Are we trying to keep\nour lives pure and holy, remembering that we are the temples of the\nHoly Ghost?  Is God dwelling in the holy of holies of our heart, or\nhave we cast Him out, like Israel of old, to make room for some\nunworthy idol?  A man's god is that which he loves, admires, and trusts\nto most.  It may be money, it may be pleasure, or fame, or beauty:\nthese are all idols.\n\nBrethren, who is your God?  Who dwells in the secret place, the holy of\nholies of your heart?  God's people Israel were commanded to keep the\nsacred fire always burning upon the altar of sacrifice.  It was never\nto go out.  It was to be fed daily with wood, and with sacrifices of a\nsweet-smelling savour.  It is supposed that this sacred fire was kept\nburning for a period of eight hundred years, till the reign of the\nwicked king Manasseh.  From his days, when the fire was suffered to go\nout, the nation fell lower and lower into absolute ruin.  When we were\nbaptised, the sacred fire of the Holy Spirit came down upon the altar\nof our hearts.  Are we keeping that holy flame alight?  Are we feeding\nit with offerings of self-sacrifice and love; offerings of a\nsweet-smelling savour to God?  If we have allowed the sacred fire to\ndie out of our hearts God is no longer there.  Our life is like the\ndesecrated temple of the Jews, silent, abandoned by all, except by foul\nthings which dwell in desolate places.  Oh! that our eyes were open to\nsee our true state; to see the things concerning our peace, before the\nfatal day when they shall be hid for ever from our eyes!\n\nAn ancient legend tells us that the Centurion who pierced our Lord's\nside at the crucifixion was a soldier named Longinus, and that he was\nblind.  When the Blood poured from the wounded side of Jesus it was\nsprinkled on the blind eyes of the Centurion, and he received his sight\nand testified, \"Of a truth this was the Son of God.\"\n\nMay that same Precious, Redeeming Blood open our eyes to see our sin,\nand to know Jesus as our Saviour.  Then we shall ask Him to come into\nthe temple of our heart, as He went into the Jewish temple of old, and\nto cast out all those evil demons of lust, and selfishness, and pride,\nand envy which defile the shrine of our body.  We shall ask Him to\ncleanse and purify the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of His\nHoly Spirit.  We shall ask Him to break down the idols which we have\nset up in His Holy Place, and to overthrow the altars reared to self.\nWe shall pray that the sacred fire may once more be kindled, and the\nsacrifice and oblation of our love once more offered, since \"the\nsacrifice of God is a troubled spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O\nGod, shalt Thou not despise.\"\n\nBrethren, if we have caused Jesus to weep over our lives, to weep over\nour wasted chances and neglected opportunities; if He has mourned over\nthe city of our life, wherein we have crucified Him afresh, let us turn\nto Him now.  Those tears tell us of His love, His mercy, His great\npitifulness.  Let our prayer be now--\"O be favourable and gracious unto\nZion; build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.  Lord, hear our prayer, and\nlet our cry come unto Thee.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XLVI.\n\nTHE GRACE OF GOD.\n\n(Eleventh Sunday after Trinity.)\n\n1 COR. xv. 10.\n\n\"By the Grace of God I am what I am.\"\n\n\nIn the Epistle and Gospel of the day we read the words of two\nPharisees, who offer a very striking contrast.  The one is S. Paul, the\ngreat Apostle, who humbly declares that he is not fit to be called an\nApostle, because he had persecuted the Church of Christ.  The other is\nthe nameless Pharisee of the parable, who trusted in himself, and\ndespised others.  In the case of S. Paul we see the marks of a true\nconversion, of a real repentance.  He had been proud; as haughty and\nvain of his religion as the Pharisee of the parable; but he had seen\nhis sin and repented of it, wherefore he abhorred himself.  He had been\nbrought exceeding low, and then it was that he was accepted to be God's\nApostle.  When he looked back upon his past life, the picture filled\nhim with shame, and humility.  He recalled the day when they stoned S.\nStephen, and he was consenting to his death.  He remembered how he had\nseized innocent men and women, and dragged them to prison, merely\nbecause they confessed Christ crucified.  He knew that many a happy\nfamily had been broken up; many a child torn from its mother's arms;\nmany a husband sent to chains and martyrdom, because of the faith of\nChrist.  And remembering these things, S. Paul forgets the glorious\nwork which he had since done for Jesus, and declares himself the least\nof all Apostles, unworthy of the name.  He does not, like that other\nPharisee, boast of his good deeds, but only declares humbly that it is\nby the Grace of God that he is what he is.  Here, then, we have a test\nto try whether our repentance is real or not.  When we look back upon\nour past sins and failures, does the memory make us sad--make us\nhumble?  If we do not hate our old sins our repentance is not true.\nAnd again, if the recollection of our faults does not make us _humble_,\nwe have not really repented.  Directly we find ourselves trusting in\nour own righteousness, and despising others; boasting of what we were,\nand what we are; walking through the world with our head lifted up, and\ntalking with a stiff neck, let us be sure that we are in great danger.\nLet us get to our Lord right humbly, crying with the Publican \"Lord, be\nmerciful to me, a sinner.\"  Learn, too, from S. Paul's words, that if\nwe are trying to lead holy, gentle, pure lives, it is by God's grace\nthat we are what we are.  Not by our own sword and our own right hand\nhave we gotten the victory.  It is God's grace and help which alone\nhelp us to lead a holy life.  Let us think, then, how that grace may be\nobtained.  God's grace comes to us through certain channels ordained by\nGod Himself, and these are, speaking generally, the Sacraments and\nOrdinances of the Church, Prayer, and the study of the Bible.\n\nLet me speak of one special means of grace to-day--Confirmation.  It\nmay be that there are some here who are not confirmed, and are not\nwilling to offer themselves for that holy rite.  The hindrances which\nkeep people from Confirmation differ with different people.  There is\none class of persons which will not be confirmed because it does not\ncare about God, or desire to lead a holy life.  A young man or woman of\nthis class says, I mean to have my own way; I am not going to be tied\nand bound by promises and vows; I shall do what I like, whether it be\nright or wrong.  Such persons are, I hope and believe, uncommon.  Then\nthere is a second class of people, which is indifferent about\nConfirmation, because it does not fully understand the blessings\nbelonging to it.  These people have probably never been taught true\nChurch doctrine, and so they tell us that Confirmation may be a very\ngood thing, but they can do very well without it.  They tell us that\nthey know such an one who has never been confirmed, and who is a very\ngood man.  They assure us that they do not \"hold with Confirmation;\nthey do not see the use of it.\"  Precisely, they \"do not hold\" with it,\nbecause they know nothing about it.  Then there are others who form a\nthird class, who have grown up, grown old, perhaps, without being\nconfirmed, who tell us that they are too old now; that they have lived\nall these years without Confirmation, and are all right, and that\ntherefore they see no reason why they should come forward.\n\nNow, I will say a few words to each of these classes of people.  First,\nlet me speak to those who refuse to be bound by any vow or promise,\nbecause they do not care to lead a godly life.  They imagine that if\nthey are not confirmed they are free to do as they like.  But it is not\nso.  They are bound by the vows and promises of their Baptism, and they\ncannot throw them aside.  To such persons I say, you _are_ God's\nchildren, signed with the Cross, pledged to lead a holy life.  If you\nmake up your mind to have your own way, to do what you like, even\nthough it be wrong, then you commit a deadly sin.  You are doing just\nwhat Satan did, rebelling against God, and the wages of such sin is\ndeath.  Understand distinctly that, as baptised people, you belong to\nGod; if you sin, you sin against Jesus Christ; if you repent truly, God\nwill pardon you for Christ's sake; if you go on sinning, you will be\nlost.  If you say, I will not be confirmed, because then I shall be\nfree to do as I like, you will be committing deadly sin, and saying\nwhat is not true also.\n\nNext, I speak to those who are indifferent about Confirmation, because\nthey do not believe, or probably understand, the benefits belonging to\nit.  Let me speak very earnestly to them.  I take it for granted that\nyou want to please God; that you want to lead good lives; to be saved,\nto go to Heaven.  You have been baptised, you bring your children to be\nbaptised.  Well, Confirmation and Baptism are very closely connected.\nBaptism _gives us life_; Confirmation strengthens us to _live that\nlife_.  Baptism is only the beginning of life.  You know we have two\nkinds of life: that of the soul, and that of the body.  When we are\nborn our bodies are alive, but our souls are dead in trespasses and\nsins; we are spiritually dead.  Now life is the gift of God the Holy\nGhost; in the Creed we speak of the Holy Spirit as \"The Lord, and Giver\nof life.\"  In Baptism, God the Holy Spirit comes to us, we are born\nagain of water and the Holy Ghost, we become new creatures.  We are no\nlonger children of sin, but children of God, and heirs of eternal life.\nThus we begin our spiritual existence, and commence to walk in the\nnarrow way.  But not all who are baptised go on leading a holy life.\nIt does not follow that because we are born again we shall be saved.\nWe have been made God's children, but we may become prodigals, and\nleave our Father's House.  We have been made heirs of everlasting\nsalvation, but we may forfeit our inheritance.  What we need is\nstrength to keep on the right way, to persevere to the end, to resist\nthe temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.  Now think\nspecially about Confirmation.  All of you will admit that we are very\nweak creatures.  No one here will dare to say that he is strong enough\nby himself to keep on the right way.  No one here will deny the truth\nof those words, \"We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything\nas of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.\" Well, if we are\nnaturally weak, we need special strength and help, just as a new-born\nbabe requires care, food, warmth, to keep it alive.  We want strength\nto keep our souls, our spiritual nature, alive.  Confirmation is one\nvery important means by which this strength, this grace of God, is\ngiven to us.  In Confirmation, God the Holy Ghost, who gave us life,\nmakes us strong to live such a life here that we may abide with God,\nand continually dwell with Him hereafter.  Surely there is no one\namongst us unwise enough to say--I do not need this strength, I am\nstrong enough by myself.  But there are some here, perhaps, who will\ntell me that they do need strength, that they do want the help of the\nHoly Spirit, and that they can obtain that strength without being\nconfirmed.  They will tell me that they do not hold with rites and\nceremonies, and that God can give us His grace without them.  Yes, God\n_can_, but God will not.  God will give us help in His own way, not in\nour way.  He has ordained certain channels, as I have already told you,\nby which His grace comes to us, and by them only.  There are some who\nsay--\"I do not see the need of Sacraments.\"  Then why did God ordain\nBaptism, and order His disciples to baptise all nations?  Why did\nJesus, on the night of His betrayal, ordain the Sacrament of the Lord's\nSupper, and command His disciples--\"Do this, in remembrance of Me?\"\nOthers, again, will say--I do not see the use of Confirmation, it is\nonly a ceremony.  Why then has the Church, from the earliest ages, from\nthe days of S. Paul and the other Apostles, used Confirmation?  If it\nbe only a ceremony, what does the Bible mean by saying that when the\nApostles laid their hands upon certain persons they received the Holy\nGhost?  And remember that what the Apostles did, the Bishops, as their\ndescendants, have done ever since.  But some men will say--why cannot\nGod give me grace and strength without these forms?  And I answer,\nsimply because it is not God's pleasure; we are not to teach Him, but\nto obey Him.  If you read your Bible you will find that God constantly\nused earthly means to provide spiritual blessings.  When the people\nwere threatened with the destroying angel in Egypt, they were bidden to\nsprinkle the blood of the Paschal Lamb on their door-posts.  This was a\nrite, or ceremony, but if neglected, death followed.  The Israelites,\nwho were bitten by fiery serpents, were commanded to look on the brazen\nserpent, made and lifted up by Moses.  That was a ceremony, but to\ndisregard it meant death.  When Naaman wished to be healed of his\nleprosy, he was bidden to wash in Jordan seven times.  That was a\nceremony, but it was the only means of his cure.  There must be a\nchannel, a communication, between God and man through which His grace\ncomes.  Suppose you were to come to a deep well, but had no pitcher or\nother vessel to let down into it, of what use would the water be to\nyou?  You forgot that \"the well is deep, and you have nothing to draw\nwith.\"  You have seen the telegraph instruments in the post office.\nWell, there is plenty of electricity there to send your message for\nhundreds of miles, but if there is _no wire_ the force of the\nelectricity is in vain.\n\nBut perhaps some men will say to me--I know certain sects who do not\nbelieve in Confirmation.  My brethren, how does that concern you?  I\nknow certain people who never wash themselves, who never pray; but what\nhave they to do with us?  I am speaking to believers, to Church people,\nnot to outsiders.  I am speaking to those who are baptised into the\nChurch of Christ, and for whom it was promised that they should be\nbrought to the Bishop, to be confirmed by him.  I think, then, that you\nmust see that it is _right_ to be confirmed, because the Church has\nordered Confirmation, and used it from the beginning; and next, that it\nis good for us to be confirmed, because we are too weak of ourselves to\nlead holy lives.  Now let me say a word, in ending, to those who have\ngrown up, grown old, perhaps, without Confirmation.  What is their\nexcuse?  They say--I have neglected Confirmation so long, it is not\nworth while now.  I have gone on so far without it, and I am all right.\nMy brothers, how do you know that you are all right?  You cannot see\ninto your own heart, God can, and does.  You may think you are alive,\nand behold, you are dead.  You cannot be _all right_ whilst you are\ndisobeying God.  Remember Samson.  He knew not that the Spirit of the\nLord had departed from him.  What if the Holy Ghost has left you, and\nyou know it not?  What if the Holy Spirit no longer dwells in you, what\nmust the end of such a life be?  Eternal death.  Do you tell me that\nyou have delayed so long that it is too late now?  I answer, it is\n_not_ too late to mend.  Suppose a man to have neglected prayer for\nyears, is that any reason why he should not begin to pray now?\n\nIf any of you have neglected a plain duty, and shrunk from receiving\nthe precious gifts of the Holy Spirit, make up for the past now; do not\noffer excuses, but never rest till you can say with truth, \"By the\ngrace of God I am what I am.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XLVII.\n\nDEAF EARS AND STAMMERING TONGUES.\n\n(Twelfth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. MARK vii. 37.\n\n\"He hath done all things well.  He maketh both the deaf to hear, and\nthe dumb to speak.\"\n\n\nSuch was the verdict of the people who saw one of our Lord's miracles.\nHow far more strongly may we say the same, having seen the work of\nChrist in the life of the Church at large, and in each of our\nindividual souls!  We cannot look on the world of nature without\nechoing the words of the text.  No thoughtful man can mark the\nspring-time coming to the woods and hedgerows, and waking the sleeping\nplants as with the wand of an enchanter, or see the orchards white into\nthe harvest of fruit, or look into the gold mine of the ripe corn, or\ngaze at the slumbering earth in winter, wrapped in its white sleeping\ndress of snow, without acknowledging the truth that God hath done all\nthings well in the _creation_ of the world.  No Christian man can look\nat the earthly life of Jesus, without feeling that He hath done all\nthings well in the _redemption_ of the world.  Whether we look on Jesus\nas the lowly Child, setting an example of obedience, increasing in\nfavour with God and man; or as the humble worker, showing the dignity\nof labour in the workshop of Joseph the carpenter; or as the Friend of\nSinners, teaching the fallen woman at the well; or as the sympathising\nBrother of Humanity, weeping for Lazarus, and drying the tears of the\nwidow; or as the Teacher, speaking as never man spake; or as the Meek\nSufferer, bowed down in Gethsemane, silent before the jibing crowd,\npraying for those who nailed Him to the Cross, we must accept the\nperfect life, the perfect pattern, and declare--\"He hath done all\nthings well.\"\n\nBut turning from this subject in its wider sense, let us look specially\nat the miracle of to-day's Gospel.  A man is brought to Jesus, deaf,\nand having an impediment in his speech.  It is a well-known fact that\nthose who cannot hear sounds are usually unable to utter them\ncorrectly.  Now let us regard this miracle from a spiritual point of\nview.  There are among us many who are spiritually deaf, and cannot\nspeak aright.  And it is because they are deaf to the voice of God,\nthat they speak amiss.  God utters His voice in many different tones,\nbut their ears have waxed heavy and they cannot hear.  God speaks to us\nby the _Voice of Nature_.  This world has a myriad of voices for those\nwho have ears to hear.  There is the voice of praise and thanksgiving\ngoing up from singing bird, and rustling forest, and rushing waterfall.\nEvery flower is an altar of pure incense, offering its sacrifice of a\nsweet-smelling savour.  \"Earth, with ten thousand voices, praises God;\"\nand yet some of us hear nothing of these things because we are\nspiritually deaf.  Again, God speaks to us by the _Voice of\nConscience_--a still, small voice, speaking from the innermost\nsanctuary of our soul.  And some of us hear it not.  They have stopped\ntheir ears like the deaf adder, and so they go on wilfully\nsinning--deaf to the Voice of God.  I have read how a notorious\nprisoner, who had been convicted of many serious crimes, was found to\nhave the whole story of our Lord's crucifixion marked upon his breast.\nHow utterly deaf to the voice of conscience that man must have been!\nAlthough he bore in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus, yet he was\nthe slave of the worst sins.\n\nMy brothers, we all bear the sign of the Cross, given to us in our\nBaptism, and if our ears have become deaf to the Voice of God, that\ncross is a witness against us.  Sometimes we hear of a man being\narrested who has on him a certain letter, which marks him as a deserter\nfrom the army.  Are there any among us who feel that God has set that\nfatal mark on them: the sign that they, once soldiers and servants of\nJesus Christ, have deserted their Leader, gone back, and followed no\nlonger after Him?  Then again, God speaks to us by the _Voice of His\nChurch_.  There is no asylum in the world where you will find so many\ndeaf people as at a service in Church.  Their ears are open to listen\nto the praises of their friends, or the eager talk of the market, and\nthe place of business; but the warnings of God, the message of Christ's\npardoning love, the threat of punishment, or the absolving word, fall\nunheeded upon deaf ears.  How often from that altar has the loving\nmessage been uttered--\"Come unto Me, all ye that travail and are heavy\nladen,\" \"Take, eat; this is My Body, which was given for you,\" and the\ndeaf ears heard not, nor understood?  How often has the wickedness of\nsin been proclaimed in this place, and the deaf ears heard only of\n_another's_ faults, without heeding the warning cry--\"_Thou_ art the\nman?\"  And these people go through life unconscious of their danger,\njust as a deaf man would walk along a railway and never hear the sound\nof the advancing train.\n\nNotice, too, that those who are spiritually deaf have also an\nimpediment in their speech.  This is shown in many different ways.\nWhen I find persons who will not speak out boldly for the honour of\nJesus Christ, who will not confess Him before the world, I know they\nhave an impediment in their speech.  When I find persons in Church\nsilent throughout the Service, making no responses, singing no Psalm,\nor Chant, or Hymn, I know they have an impediment in their speech: they\nwill not put their tongue to its right use, which is to praise God with\nthe best member that we have.  If I find a man saying what is false,\nhesitating to give a plain, straightforward answer, I know that he has\nan impediment in his speech, his stammering tongue cannot utter the\ntruth.  If I hear a man wild with passion, using bad language, I know\nthat he has an impediment, he cannot shape good words with his tongue.\nAnd so with those who tell impure stories, or retail cruel gossip about\ntheir neighbour's character, they are all alike afflicted people, deaf\nto the Voice of God, and with an impediment in their speech.  And now\nlet us look at the means of cure.  They are precisely the same as those\nmentioned in to-day's Gospel.  They brought the afflicted man to Jesus.\nThat is the first step.  If we would find pardon and healing we must be\nbrought to Jesus.  The Holy Spirit leads the sinner back in many\ndifferent ways.  It was the reading of one text of Scripture which\nturned Augustine from his evil life.  It was the single word _Eternity_\nprinted in the tract which a man had torn scoffingly in two, and which\nlay in a scrap of paper on his arm, that led him to repent.  Sometimes\nit is a word in a sermon, or a verse in a hymn; sometimes it is the\nquestion of a little child, or the sight of a dead face in a coffin;\nbut whatever it is which brings us back to Jesus, that must be the\nfirst step to finding pardon and healing.\n\nAnd next, Jesus was _besought_ to heal the afflicted man.  My brethren,\nour plain duty, as Christians, is to intercede for our fellow men.  We\nare often far too selfish in our petitions.  Whilst we humbly remember\nour own sins, and pray for pardon, let us beseech the Lord also for\nothers.  And then Jesus took the man aside from the multitude.  The\nLord could have healed him with a word in the midst of that crowd; but\nHe took him aside.  Why?  Surely to teach us a lesson, that if we want\nto be healed of our sins, we must go aside out of the crowd of our\neveryday words, and thoughts, and companions.  We must seek some quiet\ntime, and place, where we can get away from the world, and be alone\nwith God.  So much of the religion of the day is thin and shallow,\nbecause people do not think about it enough; they have never gone aside\nout of the world.  The multitude of worldly cares and pleasures, work,\nmoney getting, politics, jostle them on all sides, so that they cannot\ncome near to Jesus and be healed.  Have you never felt this when you\nhave knelt down to pray?  You have not been able to tell your secrets\nto God, any more than you would tell them to a friend, in the midst of\na multitude.  You want to go aside out of the crowd, where you can\nspeak quietly.  When you have knelt down, although it may have been in\nyour own room alone, yet there is a crowd with you--a multitude of\ndisturbing thoughts.  To-day's work, and to-morrow's pleasure, the\nmoney to be paid, or the money that is owing to you, the cares of\neating, and drinking, and clothing, the recollection of a trouble, real\nor fancied, the remembrance of some sharp word that made us smart and\ntingle, all these things make a crowd, and keep us back from Jesus.  I\ndo not say that we can get away from the throng of thoughts entirely,\nbut I _do_ say that we should try every day of our lives to go aside\nout of the crowd, and find a quiet time, when we can think, and talk to\nGod.\n\nAnd next, Jesus put His fingers into the deaf man's ears.  If we would\nfind pardon and peace, _Jesus must touch us_.  It will not help us to\nbelieve only in a Saviour who died, we must acknowledge One who is\nalive for evermore.  It will not avail us to think of a Jesus who has\ngone away into Heaven, we must look to Christ ever abiding here in His\nChurch.  When we draw near to Him in the sacred service of that Church,\nJesus puts His Hands upon us.  When we have truly repented of our sins,\nand the words of absolution are spoken, we have the pardoning Hand of\nJesus laid upon us.  When we kneel at the Altar of the Blessed\nSacrament, Jesus touches our every part.  Our sinful bodies are made\nclean by His Body.  He lays His Hands upon ear, and eye, and tongue,\nand heart.  He opens our eyes to see the wondrous things of His law; He\nunseals our ears to listen to the Voices of God; He touches our lips\nwith a live coal from off the Altar, and our mouth shall show forth His\npraise.  He strengthens our tottering feet to walk in the narrow way,\nand dismisses us with His Blessing, \"depart in peace, thy faith hath\nsaved thee.\"\n\nNever look for Jesus afar off, or speak of Him as though He were lost.\nJesus is here, standing in our midst to-day.  He is ready now, as of\nold, to cure all manner of diseases.  My brother, what aileth thee?  Is\nit well with thee; is it well with the husband; is it well with the\nchild?  Prove to-day the truth of those words, \"He hath done all things\nwell.  He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XLVIII.\n\nTHE GOOD SAMARITAN\n\n(Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. LUKE x. 30.\n\n\"A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among\nthieves.\"\n\n\nThe scene of the parable is a wild, lonely road between Jerusalem and\nJericho.  It is a road with an evil name for murder and robbery, and is\ncalled the red, or bloody way.  The mishap of the traveller was common\nenough in our Lord's day, and is common enough now.  But I would take\nthe scene of this parable in a wider sense; I would ask you to look at\nit as the wayside of life.  The road through this world is a dangerous\nway, leading through the wilderness, stained by many crimes, haunted by\nmany robbers.  Travelling along this highway of life, I see crowds of\npersons, of all sorts and conditions of men.  And I see moreover that\nall of them bear scars upon them, as though they had been wounded, and\nmany I see are lying by the wayside in sore distress.  All have at some\ntime or other fallen among thieves.  There is a famous picture by the\ngreat French painter which illustrates this.  It represents a number of\ndifferent people journeying through the valley of this world.  The way\nis rough and gloomy, and all bear signs of having known weariness and\nsorrow.  The king is there in his royal robes, and wearing his crown;\nbut his brow is furrowed with care, and he seems to ask, like our own\nKing Henry--\n\n  \"Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade\n  To shepherds, looking on their silly sheep,\n  Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy\n  To kings, that fear their subject's treachery?\"\n\nThe poet is there crowned with laurel, but his eyes are sad, as though\nhe felt how poor a thing is fame; how valueless the garland which\nto-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven.  He looks with a\nyearning glance, as though searching for something not yet found.  Even\nlike the great poet Dante, who, when asked in exile by the monks, \"My\nbrother, what are you seeking?\" answered, \"I am seeking _peace_.\"  The\nsoldier is there, his sword hacked, and his armour marked by many a\nblow.  But he seems \"weary with the march of life,\" and looks sadly\nupon the glittering stars and crosses which adorn him, remembering how\nsoon they will only serve to decorate his coffin.  There, too, is the\nminister of state, who directed the fortunes of empires.  \"Whom he\nwould he slew, and whom he would he kept alive.\"  But his head is bowed\nwith trouble, and he seems to look wistfully to the time when \"the\nwicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.\"  Among the\ncrowd there are women; the widow with veiled head, and tearful eyes;\nthe mother clasping her dead child; the poor slave, cowering beneath\nthe lash of the taskmaster, and stretching out her chained hands for\npity.  There, too, are many sick folk.  Blind men sit in darkness by\nthe wayside; cripples drag their maimed bodies wearily along; beggars\ngrovel in their sores and raggedness.  And all these different people\nseem to turn their faces longingly to one place, where a bright light\nbreaks over the dark valley, and where there stands One with\noutstretched arms, and loving smile.  It is Jesus, the Good Samaritan,\nwho is ready to help these travellers on the road of life; it is the\nGood Physician, who has medicine to heal their sickness; and who says\nto every suffering heart, king and beggar, desolate widow, weary\nwarrior, childless mother, \"Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and\nheavy laden, and I will give you rest.\"\n\nMy brothers, this life is a pilgrimage through the vale of tears, a\njourney along the robber-haunted road.  Everywhere we see the traveller\nof the parable who has fallen among thieves.  Some have fallen among\nSatan and his followers, thieves and murderers of souls.  I see young\nmen who have thus fallen.  My brothers, where is the white robe of your\nBaptism, the shining armour of your Confirmation?  Is that troubled\nface of yours the same over which a pure mother wept and prayed, and\nwhich she sanctified with holy kisses?  Can you recall a time when you\nwent through the world \"wearing the white flower of a blameless life?\"\nAnd now, your white robe is stripped off from you, your armour is\nbroken and cast aside, there are ghastly wounds upon you.  Your\nconscience is wounded, your good name is wounded, your purity is all\nstained and foul, you have trampled on the white snow of some innocent\nlife.  You have wandered out of the right way, and strayed into bad\ncompany, into the drunkard's haunt, or the gambler's den, or the house\nof shame.  You have fallen among thieves, and they have stripped you,\nand wounded you, and left you half dead.\n\nYoung men, is not this too true of some of those who hear me now?  What\nwill you do?  Will you lie there in the dangerous path, and die, die in\nyour sins?  No, look for help--but where?  The world cannot aid you.\nThe world is selfish, the world is hard upon those who have fallen, the\nworld will pass by on the other side.  Money will not help you, it\ncannot purchase clothing for you, or procure medicine for your disease.\nYour clothing must be bought without money and without price.  Turn to\nJesus, the Good Samaritan, He alone has medicine to heal your sickness.\nTurn to Him in weeping, in praying, and He will give you wine, which\nmaketh glad the heart of man, even the wine of pardon; and oil to make\nyou a cheerful countenance, even the oil of comfort to your wounded\nspirit.  He will clothe you once again, and make you in your right\nmind.  O wounded wayfarer on the road of life, cry out to Jesus, the\ngood Samaritan.  Some have fallen among the thieves of bereavement and\nloss.  As they lie there in their sorrow, they tell us how their money\nwas lost in the bank, or their savings swallowed up in bad times of\ntrade.  There are poor widows lying there, who say to us, \"We have\nburied our husband, the bread-winner, how can we feed and educate and\nclothe the children?  How can we struggle on through a hard world?\"  To\nthem I say--Listen for the footsteps of Jesus, the Good Samaritan.  The\nsame love which comforted the widow of Nain will comfort you.  The same\nHands which wiped away her tears will dry your eyes.  Only believe, and\nturn to the Good Samaritan.  Some have been beaten in the battle of\nlife, and are nearly heart-broken.  I have tried so hard to get\nwork--they say, but there seems no room in the world for me,\ndisappointment has been my meat and drink day and night.  Ah! my\nbrothers, have you not been trusting to the Priest and the Levite,\nrather than to the Good Samaritan?  The world has passed you by, but\nJesus will not.  He will bind up your broken heart, and show you that\nthere is room in God's world for all who will do their duty.  But there\nis another lesson for us to learn.  If Jesus does so much for us, we\nought to help each other.  \"Go thou and do likewise.\"  The common,\npopular idea of religion, is utter selfishness.  We are taught that the\ngreat end and aim of religion is to get our soul saved, as cheaply as\npossible sometimes.  Now this teaching is utterly wrong.  It leads us\nto think only of ourselves, it makes us go to Church from a wrong\nmotive--that we may get good.  True religion teaches us to be good\nSamaritans, to do all to the glory of God, to love Him with all our\nheart and strength, and our neighbour as ourself.  \"Pure religion and\nundefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless\nand widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the\nworld.\"  The great lesson of the parable is this, that every man is our\nneighbour when he needs help, and we can give it.  The Jews, as we\nknow, had no dealings with the Samaritans, and our Lord's story showed\nhow that middle wall of partition should be broken down.  The Good\nSamaritan did not stay to question the fallen traveller about his\nreligious views, or his political principles--he saw him in trouble,\nand he helped him.  May we all go and do likewise.  We Christians are\nall too ready to build up a wall of separation between ourselves and\nour brethren.  One of these walls is that of religious difference.  We\ndisagree about some point of doctrine or ritual, and allow the\ndisagreement to embitter our feelings, and to shut out our sympathy.\nPolitics form another wall of separation.  We differ from a neighbour\nin our political views, and we refuse to recognise any good in him\nbecause he does not think as we do.  There are some among the rich who\nlook down with contempt upon the poor, as though poverty were the\nunpardonable sin.  And there are endless prejudices of rank and class\nwhich shutout man from man.  Against all these things the parable of\nthe Good Samaritan is a protest and a warning.\n\nIt is the way of the world to leave a fallen man to his fate, but it is\nnot Christ's way.  It is the way of the world to speak very hardly of\nthose who are in want and misery, for as nothing succeeds like success,\nnothing fails like failure.  But again, that is not Christ's way.  He\nnever breaks the bruised reed, or quenches the smoking flax.  My\nbrothers, let us learn to look on all men as our neighbours, let us\nstretch out a helping hand to those who have fallen among thieves, let\nus pour the wine and oil of sympathy, and kind words where we can, let\nus be gentle in our judgment of another's fault, since \"blessed are the\nmerciful.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XLIX.\n\nWALKING WITH GOD.\n\n(Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nGALATIANS v. 16.\n\n\"Walk in the Spirit.\"\n\n\nThe life of a Christian must be one of progress.  S. Paul says, \"_Walk_\nin the Spirit;\" he does not say, stand still.  It is not enough for us\nto have been born again of Water and the Holy Ghost, and to have\nreceived the Gifts of the Spirit from time to time through the\ndifferent means of grace.  We are bidden \"to stir up the gift that is\nin us;\" we are told to \"_grow_ in grace.\"  God has set us upon our feet\nin the right road.  He has taken us by the hand, that is, the Holy\nSpirit is our leader and guide; but we have something to do--we must\n_walk_.  There are some who tell us that everything has been done for\nus in the past, and that everything will be done for us in the future;\nand those who believe that doctrine never do a day's work for Jesus.\nThey never go into His vineyard; they never make any use of their five\ntalents, or even of one; they never put on the whole armour of God.\nThey tell us they have nothing to do, all is done for them.  I should\nbe sorry to hold so selfish, idle, and unmanly a doctrine as that.  I\nknow very well that God _has_ done, and is doing, for me what I could\nnot do for myself.  I know how weak I am, and how much need I have of\nGod's guiding, strengthening Hand: but I know also that He expects\nsomething from me.  He bids me fight and struggle against temptation;\nHe tells me to press forward towards the mark--to go up higher, to seek\nthose things which are above, to forget those things which are behind.\nHe would have me labour and strive to enter in at the strait gate, and\nto work out my own salvation.  He commands me to take up my cross and\nfollow, and all this means work, struggle, _progress_.  \"Walk in the\nSpirit.\"  When Jesus had opened the eyes of the blind man, he did not\ncontinue to sit by the wayside begging, he arose and followed Christ.\nIt is only blind folks, whose eyes Jesus has not yet opened, who are\ncontent to sit by the roadside of life and do nothing.  God says to\neach one of us--\"This is My way, walk ye in it.\"  Let us see what this\nwalking means.  First, I think it means _going forward_.  There is no\nstandstill in God's natural world, nor is there in God's spiritual\nworld.  If a child is healthy, he is growing: _getting on_, as the\nphrase is.  So a true child of God is getting on, making progress,\ngoing forward every day.  He goes on growing in grace till he comes of\nage, then God takes him to His Home, and gives him his inheritance.  If\nyou look at the tombs in a churchyard, you will see that those lying\nthere died at all kinds of ages.  Here is the tiny grave of an infant,\nsnatched from its parents' arms almost as soon as the cross was written\non its brow.  But in God's sight that little one had come of age, and\nso was taken Home.  Here is the grave of a child who had begun to do\nsome work for God, and was as sunshine in its home, and the joy of its\nfriends.  When death took the child, people mourned because he died so\nyoung; but God had said of him, and his work, \"He has come of age--it\nis finished.\"  Here is the grave of an old man, a village patriarch.\nIt required nearly a hundred years before he came of age, and he had to\nwalk for many a weary day, and carry his cross, before God saw that the\ntime of harvest had come, and sent \"the reaper, whose name is death.\"\nAnd now comes the solemn question--are we making progress, going\nforward; are we striving to do the work which God has given us to do?\nNext, walking in the Spirit means _discipline, self-denial_.  \"I keep\nunder my body,\" is the motto for every Christian man.  We must turn our\neyes from the sight which tempts us to leave the right path; we must\nclose our ears to the whisper of those who would lead us aside.  We\nmust keep our mouth, as it were, with a bridle; we must lay aside every\nweight.  Each of us has his special temptation, which becomes a weight,\na hindrance.  One man is so weighted with the cares of business and\nmoney-getting, that he cannot walk in the right path.  The gold and the\nsilver weigh him down, and make him stumble.  Another has piled up such\na load of troubles and worries upon his shoulders that he cannot\nadvance.  One woman is so cumbered with her domestic concerns that she\nmakes no progress towards Heaven.  Another is overwhelmed with\npleasures and amusements which cling about her, and hinder her from\ngoing forward.\n\nMy brethren, do not let the world over-weight you, or drag you back\nfrom the right way.  There is one weight, however, which we must all\ncarry--our cross.  I have heard of a picture which represents two\npilgrims along the road of life.  One bears his cross on his shoulders,\nand steps forward manfully, looking up to Heaven; the other is dragging\nhis cross after him along the rough road, with painful and unwilling\nlabour.  We must _take up_ our cross and bear it if we would walk in\nthe Spirit.  If we suffer it to drag behind us, it will only hinder\ninstead of helping us.  Each sorrow, each loss, or bereavement, is as a\nnail to fasten us closer to our cross.  Let us stretch out our hands\nwillingly to receive the nail, sharp though it be.  Remember we must be\n_crucified_ with Jesus if we are to be glorified with Him.  Again,\nwalking in the Spirit means _patient perseverance_.  A religion of fits\nand starts is worth nothing.  There are many who come running to Jesus,\nlike the young ruler, but when they know what being a Christian means,\nthey go away.  There are many who, at the time of a Confirmation or a\nMission, declare that they will follow Christ whithersoever He goeth.\nBut, after a little while, the enthusiasm dies out, they grow weary in\nwell-doing, unstable as water, they follow no more after Him.  If we\nwould reach our journey's end, we must _keep on walking_, steadily,\npatiently, perseveringly.  \"He that endureth to the end shall be\nsaved.\"  Again, walking in the Spirit means _looking forward_ along the\nroad.  Too much of our religion is _short-sighted_.  We see the\npleasure or the sorrow at our feet, but we see nothing of the glorious\nfuture, the rest that remaineth for the people of God.  We are like\nthose who see the clod of earth against which their foot strikes, but\nnever lift their eyes aloft to look on the towering mountain.  Men of\nscience tell us that shortness of sight is greatly on the increase\namongst us, especially with those who live in great cities.  The reason\nfor this is that the city dwellers wear out their eye-sight by looking\nconstantly on objects close to them, without having any wider or more\ndistant prospect.  So it is with our spiritual sight.  We wear it out\nby fixing our eyes on some worldly object close to us.  One man has\ngrown near-sighted by gazing day after day at his money bags, till he\ncan see nothing else; and another has studied his ledger and cash book\ntill he has no eyes left for God's fair Heaven above him; another has\nlooked at his own picture till he sees his own cleverness or greatness\nreflected everywhere.\n\nMy brothers, look forward, look up: see God's love and mercy on all\nsides of you.  Come out into God's sunshine; ask Him to open your eyes\nthat they may see the wondrous things of His law.  I think, too, that\nwalking in the Spirit means having _perfect trust in God--walking with\nour hand in His_.  If you see a man fearful about to-morrow, dreading\nthe future, always expecting and anticipating evil, meeting misfortune\nhalf-way, be sure he is not walking in the Spirit.  Hold fast to God's\nHand--trust Him.  Do you remember the story of the little Russian boy\nwho trusted in God?  He and a younger sister were left utterly\ndestitute on the death of their father.  Left alone in the house,\nwithout money and food, the little boy knew not how to comfort his baby\nsister.  At last, urged by the tears of the little one, the boy wrote\non a piece of paper, \"O God, please to send me three copecks (a penny)\nto buy my little sister some bread,\" and then hurried away with this\nstrange letter to the alms box of a neighbouring church, believing in\nhis simplicity that in this way his letter would reach Heaven.  A\nPriest saw the little boy trying to force the paper into the alms box.\nHe took the letter from him and, having read it, gave the child food\nand assistance.  Next day the Priest preached in the church on behalf\nof the orphans, and when he had related the story of the child's letter\nto God, a liberal offertory was given.\n\nLastly, I think that walking in the Spirit means _walking in hope_.  If\nwe trust God and do our best, we cannot despair.  We shall find the\nroad hard and stony at times, but let us hope and go steadily forward.\nWe shall fall sometimes, we shall make mistakes, we shall suffer\ndefeats, we shall be cast down, and weary.  Still let us hope, and go\nsteadily forward.\n\n  \"Hope on, hope ever, tho' dead leaves be lying\n  In mournful clusters 'neath your journeying feet,\n  Tho' wintry winds through naked boughs are sighing,\n  The flowers are dead, yet is their memory sweet\n  Of summer winds and countless roses glowing\n  'Neath the warm kisses of the generous sun.\n  Hope on, hope ever, why should tears be flowing?\n  In every season is some victory won.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON L.\n\nTHE PREACHING OF NATURE.\n\n(Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. MATT. vi. 28.\n\n\"Consider the lilies of the field.\"\n\n\nThis world is God's great Temple, and the voices of Nature are His\npreachers.  The Holy Spirit speaks to us through these preachers like\nthe wind breathing through the pipes of a great organ.  To those who\nhave ears to hear, the roar of the ocean, or the sound of the mighty\nrushing wind, are as an anthem of praise.  The song of birds, the hum\nof insects, every voice in the world of Nature combine to take part in\na hymn of thanksgiving, a great _Benedicite_, and to sing, \"O all ye\nworks of the Lord bless ye the Lord, praise Him, and magnify Him for\never.\"  And yet, my brothers, there are many of us too blind and too\ndeaf to see and hear these things.  To one man this world is only a\ngigantic farm, to be divided, and ploughed, and tilled, that it may\nbring forth more fruit.  To another the world is merely a great market,\na warehouse filled with all kinds of goods, which may be bought and\nsold.  To some the world is like a chess-board, where each man plays a\nselfish game, and tries to overreach his neighbour.  To others the\nworld is a mere play-ground, where they pass a frivolous, useless\nexistence, sitting down to eat and drink, and rising up to play.  To\nthe selfish man the world is a vast slave plantation, where unhappy\nslaves are forced to toil and labour to supply the needs of cruel\ntaskmasters.  To the faithless man the world is nothing better than a\ngraveyard, where lie buried dead friends, dead hopes, dead joys,\nwithout any promise of a resurrection.  But to the Christian this world\nis a great and solemn Temple, where he can worship the Creator, and\nwhere ten thousand voices teach him to \"look through Nature up to\nNature's God.\"  When he stands in the meadow grass, or under the\nshadows of the pine-wood, he can feel that surely God is in this place,\nand that the place wherever he stands is holy ground.\n\n  \"Oh, to what uses shall we put the wildweed flower that\n        simply blows?\n  And is there any moral shut within the bosom of the rose?\n  But any man that walks the mead, in bud, or blade, or\n        bloom, may find,\n  According as his humours lead, a meaning suited to his mind.\"\n\nLet us listen to-day to the preaching of Nature, and learn a lesson\nfrom the grass which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven.\nLet us consider the lilies, and make them our teachers.  The first\nlesson which these silent preachers would have us learn is the\nunfailing care of God for His creatures.  He never neglects to clothe\nthe ground with grass, or to nourish the lilies, which neither toil nor\nspin.  Yet we who both toil and spin, and haste to rise up early, and\nso late take rest, are often distrustful and full of doubt.  Brethren,\nlet us work our work, but not put our trust in it.  It is God's right\nHand and His mighty Arm which must help us.  Let us strive to do our\nbest, and leave the result to God.  Let us dwell in the land, and be\ndoing good, and verily we shall be fed.  And next, we learn from the\ngrass and the flowers how short our time is.  Every meadow, every\ngrassy hillock in the churchyard, seems to say to us, \"as for man, his\ndays are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.  For\nthe wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall\nknow it no more.  All flesh is grass, and all the goodness thereof as\nthe flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth;\nbecause the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it; surely the people is\ngrass.\"  Yes, surely this thought should be a check to our pride, and\nour schemes, and our worldliness, that we must one day lay them all\naside, like a worn-out garment, and that the pleasant grass, which our\ncareless foot is pressing, shall grow green upon our grave.  Let us\nhearken to the warning of a quaint old epitaph which I have seen in a\nYorkshire Churchyard:--\n\n  \"Earth walketh on the earth,\n    Glittering like gold;\n  Earth goeth to the earth\n    Sooner than it would.\n\n  Earth buildeth on the earth\n    Palaces and towers,\n  Earth sayeth to the earth--\n    All shall be ours.\"\n\n\nI read the other day that lately a workman, employed in some\nexcavations at Rome, found a funeral urn containing the ashes of one of\nthe Caesars.  The workman knew nothing of the matter, but seeing that\nthe ashes were very white, he sent them to his wife to bleach linen\nwith.  And this was all that remained of that body which had worn the\nimperial purple!  \"To what base uses we may return!\"  But the grass,\nand the flowers of the field, not only tell us of the shortness of\nlife, and the certainty of death, they speak to us also of the\nresurrection.  Looking at the world in the autumn and winter time we\nsee nothing but death and decay.  \"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,\" is\nthe mournful text of every falling leaf, and faded flower.  But God who\nlays nature in her grave, will, in the spring time, roll away the stone\nfrom the sepulchre.  Who can look on Nature, touched by the warm breath\nof May, and doubt the resurrection?\n\n  \"Each tree she kindles by her touch bursts into leafy flames,\n  And, like the sacred desert bush, God's presence there proclaims.\n  The chestnuts spread their leafy palms in blessing on the air,\n  And from their minarets of bloom call all the trees to share.\n  With bridal blossoms, pure and sweet, the blushing orchards glow,\n  And on the hawthorn hedges lie soft wreathes of scented snow.\n  God reigneth, and the earth is glad!  His large, self-conscious heart\n  A glowing tide of life and joy pours through each quickened part.\n  The very stones Hosannas cry; the forests clap their hands,\n  And in the benison of Heaven each lifted face expands.\"\n\nCan we doubt, my brothers, that the same Jesus who rose from the dead,\nand also makes all Nature rise from the dead each spring time, will in\nlike manner raise us up, and give us a body like unto His glorious\nBody, in that fair Kingdom where He maketh all things new?  If we have\nseen our dear ones cut down like the grass, and withered like the\nflowers of the field, let us remember that the grass will spring again,\nand the flowers will once more appear on the earth; and that our loved\nones will also come again, clothed in resurrection beauty by Him who\nclotheth the lilies of the field.\n\n  \"Oh, rainy days!  Oh, days of sun!\n  What are ye all when the year is done?\n    Who shall remember snow or rain?\n\n  Oh, years of loss!  Oh, joyful years!\n  What are ye all when Heaven appears?\n    Who shall look back for joy or pain?\"\n\n\nAnd again, the flowers teach us a lesson of usefulness.  They are sent\nto make God's earth beautiful and sweet, and to gladden the heart of\nman.  Surely we are sent for the same purpose.  Most of us are destined\nto occupy a lowly place in life.  Our position is like that of the\nhumble violet, not of the towering forest tree.  But, my brothers, the\nsweetest spot is where the violet blooms, and it is better to be sweet\nthan to be grand.  Never suppose that you can do nothing because God\nhas placed you in a quiet corner of the world.  God put you there as He\nputs a violet in a lonely nook, that you might make your corner\n_sweet_.  If we could only remember this we should not have so many\nprickly tempers, and black looks, and cruel words spoiling our home\nlife, and making the world a desert.  Life would be what God would have\nit to be, if each of us would try by gentleness, by good temper, by\nunselfish love to make his corner sweet.  Make up your minds now; say\nto yourselves--I cannot do any great work for God or my fellow man, but\nI will try by purity, by cheerfulness, by thought for others, to make\nmy home sweet.  And once more, the flowers teach us to be a comfort to\nour neighbours.  When the earth is wrapped in snow, and the skies are\ngrey and cold, and no leaf hangs on the tree, the snowdrop puts forth\nits fair, pure blossom to cheer and comfort us.  The sight of that\nliving flower when all the world seems dead, is like a message from the\nother world, whispering of coming spring and the resurrection.  Well,\nthere are times when it is winter weather in our heart.  When sorrow\nand loss have made life desolate as a December day, and blessed, thrice\nblessed, are they who come to comfort us, and to whisper of brighter\ndays in store.\n\nIn the highest part of the Peak of Teneriffe, far above the clouds, and\nin a dry and burning waste, there grows a plant which, in the spring\ntime, fills the air with delicious fragrance.  There are some of us who\nmay be condemned to live in a barren and dry land of hard work, and\nlonely trouble.  But loving natures, and gentle words, can make that\ndesert blossom as the rose.  The beauty of holiness, the sweetness of\nsympathy, will make the poorest home lovely and fragrant.  May Jesus,\nthe Rose of Sharon, teach us to learn the lesson of the lilies, and to\nmake our lives sweet with purity and love.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON LI.\n\nPAST KNOWLEDGE.\n\n(Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nEPHESIANS iii. 19.\n\n\"To know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.\"\n\n\nThere are some things which no earthly school can teach us, no earthly\nscience explain.  Science can do very much, it has done marvellous\nthings, and will do still more.  Men can work now with ease such wonders\nas would have sent them to the fire as wizards three hundred years ago.\nScience can calculate the exact time of an eclipse ages before the time,\nscience can connect two worlds with the electric wire, science can make\nthe powers of earth, and air, and fire, and water its slaves; but science\ncannot teach us the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, or show us\nhow to find the peace of God which passeth all understanding.  No, we\nmust go to the school of Jesus Christ to learn these things; and in that\nschool the learned, and the ignorant, the powerful, and the lowly, are\njust on a level.  The man of science may be there, like Sir Isaac Newton,\nof whom some one said that he had the _whitest soul_ of any man he had\never known.  But it was not the power of the telescope which had brought\nthe love of Jesus to his sight.  The poor, ignorant cottager, who cannot\neven read, may be there.  He is no scholar, but he has learnt what some\nscholars are ignorant of, to trust God and love his neighbour as himself.\nYes, brethren, if we would learn to know the love of Christ, we must go\nto His school, we must kneel at His Feet, we must hold close communion\nwith Him, we must daily endeavour ourselves to follow the steps of His\nmost holy life.  Grey-haired old man, tender little child, anxious\nmother, busy worker, Jesus calls you to learn the lesson of His love,\nsaying, \"Come, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.\"  But\nS. Paul says that the love of Christ passeth knowledge.  And indeed we\npoor, sinful, selfish creatures can never hope, at least here, to\nunderstand all the wideness, the depth, the power, of that love.  When\nthe astronomer looks up at the starry sky above him, he does not think so\nmuch of what he knows about that shining world as about what he does\n_not_ know.  He thinks of the mysteries which those calm skies hold, and\nof the countless stars which no telescope has ever yet brought within the\nrange of human eye.  So the more we learn of the love of Christ the more\nmarvellous it appears.  There are some among us who know absolutely\nnothing of the love of Christ.  They are as ignorant of it as a blind man\nis of the beauties of Nature.  To them Jesus is a character in history\nwho did certain things, who suffered for them and for others, and with\nthat they are quite content.  But they know nothing of the love of\nChrist, and care nothing about it because they do not love Him\nthemselves.  Such people either neglect the duties of religion\naltogether, or perform them as an idle schoolboy does his task,\nunwillingly, grudgingly.  There is no love in their service, and\ntherefore it is worthless.  There are many, I trust, who hear me now who\nhave learned something of the love of Christ; others who would willingly\nlearn.  To them I say, come into Christ's school to-day.  A willing\nscholar can always learn, if you _want_ to love Jesus you have begun\nalready to do so.\n\nFirst, let us think of some things in the love of Christ which make it\nwonderful, past knowledge.  The love of Christ is wonderful because it is\n_impartial_.  \"He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and\nsendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.\"  Look at the sunshine\npouring down over a great city, and think on what different characters\nthe light falls.  The same sun shines on the Church and its faithful\nworshippers, and on the house of shame and infamy.  The same light gilds\nthe dying bed of the Christian, and the couch of the infidel and\nblasphemer.  The same beam glitters on the blessed Altar of the faithful,\nand on the cell of the impenitent murderer.  Look at the sunshine and the\nshower in the country.  The fields of the earnest, prayerful man, and\nthose of the unbelieving, prayerless scoffer lie golden under the same\nsunlight, are watered by the same showers.  And why is this so?  Surely\nit is a type of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.  Surely it\nteaches us the wondrous height, and depth, and breadth of divine love.\nIt warns us not to be kind and loving only to the good and gentle, but to\nlove our enemies, to do good to those who persecute us and speak evil of\nus, to try to give all a chance to amend, even as God, in His\nlong-suffering mercy, makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good.\nWe shall get to know more of the love of Christ if we learn to be more\n_impartial_ in our love for our fellow men.  I know a little island where\nthe society, small enough already, is divided into certain classes, and\nit is considered a want of breeding for one class to unite with another.\nYou can imagine the angry feelings, and petty jealousies, which such a\nsystem excites.  But even in the greater world we are too much inclined\nto surround ourselves with a circle of friends and acquaintances, and to\nleave the rest of the world unknown and uncared for.  The love of Christ\nteaches us to see in every man a brother, a neighbour, whom we must help\nif we can.  The love of Christ would have us look on ourselves and others\nas one great family, joined together by one common Faith, one Holy\nBaptism; or as one consecrated building, where high and low, rich and\npoor, are all built into their appointed place, \"Jesus Christ being the\nhead corner-stone.\"  My brothers, try to be more wide, more liberal, more\nimpartial in your love for others, if you would learn the love of Christ\nwhich is wider than the ocean, impartial as the sunshine--passing\nknowledge.\n\nAgain, the love of Christ is wonderful in its effects.  It makes the\nbrave still more heroic; it makes the timid courageous, the sad joyful,\nthe hardened tender.  It was the love of Christ which made S. Stephen\nbrave in the hour of his martyrdom, and taught him to pray for his\nmurderers.  In all the long roll of heroes there are none so great as\nthose who fought under the banner of Christ's love.  Feeble old men,\nlittle children, weak women, were transformed by that marvellous power;\nthey could do all things through Christ who strengthened them.  They\nsuffered and died, but their death gave life to the faith of Christ.  Did\nyou ever read, brethren, how the last fight of gladiators in the\nColosseum ended?  It was when Rome had become Christian, but still the\ncruel sports of the people had not been entirely given up.  After a\nfamous victory, the Emperor, a feeble boy, and all the great men of Rome,\nwent to the crowded theatre to witness the amusements given in honour of\nthe triumph.  After the harmless sports were over some gladiators entered\nthe arena armed with sharp swords.  The people shouted with delight\nbecause the old savage amusements of their heathen days were restored to\nthem.  Suddenly an old man, dressed in the habit of a hermit, and unknown\nto all, sprang into the arena, and declared that as Christian people they\nmust not suffer men to slay each other thus.  An angry cry rose from the\neager crowd.  The gladiators, disappointed of their gain, menaced the\nhermit fiercely, crying, \"back, old man, for thy life.\"  But the stranger\nstood fearless before that angry mob, he heeded not the swords of the\ngladiators, nor the yells of the people, but solemnly protested against\nthe deed of blood.  In another moment he lay dead on the red sand,\npierced by a dozen wounds.  He died, but his words lived.  When the\npeople saw the fearless courage of a weak old man, shame filled their\nhearts; the sports were stopped, and never again did the gladiators fight\nin the Colosseum.  My brothers, if we are learning the love of Christ, we\nshall be brave to do the right, come what may.\n\nAgain, the love of Christ is wonderful in its effect on our _work_.  It\nis a common saying that such and such a work is a labour of love; and,\nbelieve me, that is the best done of all which is done for love.  Did you\never watch a young mother making the clothes for her first child?  Never\nbefore has she bestowed such care, such thought, such patience, on her\nsewing, every stitch is prompted by love.\n\nLong ago, there was an old Cathedral somewhere abroad, I cannot tell you\nwhere.  On one of the arches was sculptured a face of exceeding beauty.\nIt was long hidden, but one day a ray of sunshine lighted up the\nmatchless work, and from that time, on the days when the light shone on\nthe face, crowds came to look at its loveliness.  The history of that\nsculpture is a strange one.  When the Cathedral was being built, an old\nman, worn with years and care, came to the architect, and begged to be\nallowed to work there.  Fearing his age and failing sight might cause the\nold man to injure the carving, the master set him to work in a dark part\nof the roof.  One day they found the stranger lying dead, with the tools\nof his craft around him, and his still face turned up towards that other\nface which he had carved.  It was a work of surpassing beauty, and\nwithout doubt was the face of one whom the artist had long since loved\nand lost.  When the craftsmen looked upon it, they all agreed--\"this is\nthe grandest work of all, it is the work of love.\"\n\nWe, my brothers, are all set to do some work here in the temple of our\nlives, and the best, the most beautiful, the most enduring, will be that\nwhich we do because the love of Christ constraineth us.\n\nAnd yet once more, the love of Christ is wonderful in its _power of\npardon_.  Have you ever known what it is to have sinned grievously, and\nto have repented truly?  Have you felt the shame, the sorrow, the misery\nof knowing your sin, and the exquisite sense of relief when you knew that\nyou were pardoned?  Have you known the power of Christ's absolving word?\nHave you felt that He has given the prodigal the kiss of pardon, that He\nhas carried the lost sheep home once more, that He has said to _you_--\"I\nwill, be thou clean, depart in peace?\"  To know this is to know the love\nof Christ.  Are there no prodigals here now who have not yet arisen and\ngone to their Father?  Are there no weak, tempted women straying into\ndanger, like the lost sheep?  Are there none here who are carrying about\nsome secret sin which poisons all their life?  If there are such, I say,\ncome and make trial of Christ's love _to-day_.  \"Come, drink of the water\nof life freely.\"  Come with your sin, your sorrow, your trial, your\ntemptation, to the feet of Jesus, and you shall learn \"the love of Christ\nwhich passeth knowledge.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON LII.\n\nTHE PRISON-HOUSE.\n\n(Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nEPHESIANS iv. 1.\n\n\"The prisoner of the Lord.\"\n\n\nThis is what Paul the aged called himself in writing to the Ephesians.\nHe had appealed unto Caesar, and he was a captive at Rome.  But he does\nnot style himself Caesar's prisoner, but the prisoner of the Lord,\nwhose he was, and whom he served.  Let us think first of the place and\nmanner of St. Paul's imprisonment.  The place was Rome, the capital of\nthe world.  A city full of glorious memories of the past, and famous in\nthe present for art, and eloquence, and learning.  Its soldiers could\nboast that they had conquered the world, and could point out the tombs\nof Pompey and of many another hero along the Appian Way.  Its streets\nhad been trodden by some of the greatest of poets, and its Senate-House\nhad echoed with the burning words of the first orators of the world.\nRome was full of contrasts, wealth and beggary, beauty and squalor, the\npalace of Caesar, and the haunt of vice and shame, were close together.\nThe city was ruled over by a cruel tyrant, at once a hypocrite and a\nmonster of iniquity.\n\nIt was in such a place, so glorious and so shameful, that S. Paul was a\nprisoner.  He was not, however, confined in a dungeon.  By the favour\nof the Praefect of the Praetorian Guard, whose duty it was to take\ncharge of all prisoners awaiting trial before the Emperor, the Apostle\nwas allowed to live in a hired house of his own, to have free access to\nsuch friends as he had, and to preach the Gospel freely to those who\nwould hear him.  But still S. Paul was a prisoner.  After the Roman\nfashion, he was chained to a soldier, and at night probably two\nsoldiers were linked to him.  Perhaps no such wonderful sermons have\never since been preached as those spoken by S. Paul, \"the prisoner of\nthe Lord.\"  We can fancy the old man, grey-haired, and bent with\nsuffering, and want, and hardship, bearing on his wrinkled face and\nscarred body those marks of the Lord Jesus, of which he tells us, and\nyet brave, unflinching as ever.  We can picture him preaching the\nGospel of Jesus with the same boldness in his bonds as when at freedom,\nglorying in the cross of his Master, and rejoicing that he is permitted\nto enter into the fellowship of His sufferings.  We can fancy even the\nstern Roman soldier watching with admiration, as the old man exhorts\nhis hearers to show themselves good soldiers of Jesus Christ, to fight\nthe good fight, to take unto them the whole armour of God.  Whilst many\na Christian's heart must have swelled with emotion as the fettered\nhands were lifted in earnest exhortation, and the blessing was given\namid the clanking of the Apostle's chains.  And thus all the hearers of\nS. Paul must have been struck with the wonderful faith and patience of\nthe man; just as we are struck when we read his words to-day.  Although\nhe was an exile, a prisoner, waiting for a trial where he would have\nlittle chance of justice, knowing that the sword hung above his head\nready to fall at any moment, S. Paul utters no complaint, no murmur of\ndiscontent.  On the contrary, he bids his hearers rejoice in the Lord\nalway; he himself thanked God, and took courage; he tells his disciples\nthat he has learnt in whatsoever state he is, to be content.  He is\npoor, yet making many rich.  He has nothing, yet possesses all things.\nHe has that peace of God which passeth all understanding, that good\npart which shall not be taken away.  The heathen tyrant can make him a\nprisoner, but his chains cannot keep him from the glorious freedom of\nthe sons of God.  Persecution may drive him from his home, but nothing\ncan rob him of his home eternal in the Heavens.  The sword of the Roman\nmay slay him, but to him to die is gain, and he is ready to be offered.\nHe has suffered want, and sorrow, and loss; he has endured perils by\nland and by sea, by robbers, by shipwreck, by the heathen, and by his\nown countrymen, but for this S. Paul cares not, he has kept the faith,\nhe has run the race set before him, looking unto Jesus, and he knows\nthat the crown of glory is laid up for him.  A great preacher of our\nday tells us how they brought the news to Athens that the battle of\nMarathon was won.  The swiftest runner had come panting and exhausted\nwith the glad tidings of victory, and worn out with exertion, he\ndropped, and died on the threshold of the first house he reached,\nsobbing out with dying breath the words--\"Farewell, and rejoice ye, we,\ntoo, rejoice.\"  So the Apostle, the prisoner of the Lord, dying daily,\nand expecting each hour to be his last, tells the glad tidings of\nChrist's victory over sin and death, and whispers with his dying\nbreath, \"rejoice.\"  It is no wonder that such a preacher should have\nproduced marvellous results, and should have begotten many spiritual\nchildren, as he tells us, in his bonds.  Luke, his fellow traveller\nthrough so many varied scenes, was there to comfort Paul the aged in\nhis bonds.  Tychicus, who had formerly accompanied him from Corinth to\nEphesus, was ready to carry the Apostle's letters to the Churches; and\nMark, who had once failed in his ministry, was once more restored to\nthe side of his great teacher.  Others, too, were with him, but none\nperhaps was dearer to S. Paul than a certain slave, Onesimus, who had\nfled from his master, Philemon, in Colossae.  This runaway slave had\nfound his way to Rome, and here probably some one, who had seen him in\nthe house of his Christian master, took pity on the fugitive, and\nbrought him to S. Paul.  How tenderly the prisoner of the Lord dealt\nwith the erring slave we can well imagine, as we read the loving words\nwhich the Apostle wrote in his Epistle to Philemon.  Then, too, we can\nfancy the prisoner of the Lord talking to his jailor, the stern Roman\nsoldier, who was chained to him night and day.  Often in the long night\nwatches, when the care of all the Churches kept S. Paul from sleep, he\nmust have conversed with the warrior so closely linked to him.  I think\nwe may believe that a yet closer link than that of the iron chain at\nlast united the prisoner and the guard.  I think that the earnest\nprayers, and burning words, of that brave soldier of Jesus Christ, must\nhave led the soldier of Caesar to take up his cross, and follow Jesus.\n\nAnd now what lesson can we learn from the prison-house at Rome?  We can\nlearn this, that this world in which we live is in one sense a\nprison-house to all.  It is a prison-house of hard work.  In our great\ncities the roar of traffic, the rattle of machinery, the shriek of the\nsteam-whistle, the eager crowds flocking to office and bank and\nexchange all mean one thing--_work_.  Every man's talk is of business;\nhe is in the prison-house, and he is chained to his work.  Next, this\nworld is a prison-house of _sorrow and trial_.  Every one who has lived\nany time in the world can show you the marks of his chain.  Every one\nwhom we meet is wearing a crown of thorns.  It is hidden under the\nscanty white locks of the old, and the sunny tresses of youth.  It is\ncovered by the soldier's helmet, or the peer's coronet, or the widow's\ncap; but the crown of thorns is there.  Specially is this world a\nprison-house to those who strive to do their duty, and help their\nfellow men.  For them in all ages there have been prison bars, and\nchains of persecution.  Joseph resists temptation, and he is cast into\nprison.  But the iron of his chain made his soul as iron, and changed\nthe spoiled darling of his father into the wise ruler of Egypt.  He was\nthe prisoner of the Lord, and this suffering was the way to glory.\nTruly says a great poet (Milton), \"who best can suffer, best can do.\"\nIf we would look on some of the greatest teachers, philosophers, and\nbenefactors of mankind, we must look for them in a prison-house.\nSocrates, when seventy-two years old, was a prisoner, and condemned to\ndrink poison, because he taught higher lessons than the mob could\nunderstand.  He died discussing the immorality of the soul, and his\nfarewell to his judges was full of quiet dignity.  \"It is now time,\" he\nsaid, \"that we depart--I to die, you to live; but which has the better\ndestiny is unknown to all, except to God.\"  Bruno was burnt at Rome,\nbecause he exposed the false philosophy of the day.  When Galileo, an\nold man of seventy, taught the truth about the earth's motion, they\ncast him into the dungeons of the Inquisition, and after death the Pope\nrefused a tomb for his body.  And so for many others who dared to do\ntheir duty and to speak the truth,--reformers in religion, in science,\nin politics,--there was a prison-house, there was a chain.  But the\nstone walls could not confine the mind; the iron chain could not bind\nthe truth.  Some of the most glorious works in literature were composed\nin prison.  The prison-house at Rome has given us some of those\nEpistles of S. Paul which have gone far to convert the world; and the\nfinest allegory in the English language was written in Bedford gaol.\n\"If we suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are we.\"  If we are the\nprisoners of the Lord, let us welcome the chain of trial, of sorrow, of\nself-denial, of persecution.  There are prisoners who are not the\nLord's.  There are some fast bound in the misery and iron of bad\nhabits, and habitual sin.  These are lying in the condemned cell, bound\nhand and foot with the devil's chain.  The drunkard, the impure man,\nthe unbeliever, these are prisoners, but not the Lord's.  I do not\nspeak now of them.  I speak to you, my brothers, who are trying to live\na godly and a Christian life, the life of duty.  And I tell you that\nyou will often find this life a prison-house, where you must give up\nyour own will, deny yourselves, learn to endure hardness, and to bear\nthe chain which suffering, or neglect, or ignorance put upon you.  If\nyou are indeed the prisoners of the _Lord_, the iron of your chain will\nmake you brave to suffer and be strong.  The same hope which sustained\nPaul the aged long ago will sustain you now; the glorious certainty\nthat after a while the Lord looseth men out of prison, and receives\nthem into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON LIII.\n\nFIRM TO THE END.\n\n(Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\n1 COR. i. 8.\n\n\"Who also shall confirm you unto the end.\"\n\n\nSteadfastness is one of the most important characteristics of a\nChristian.  Perhaps you will tell me that love, and self-denial, and\npatience, and faith are the chief marks of Christ's followers.  And I\nanswer that these things are useless without steadfastness.  It will\nnot avail us to be very loving, and self-sacrificing, and patient, and\ntrustful for a little while, and then to fall away, and be selfish, and\nimpatient, and faithless.  It is not the best regiment of soldiers\nwhich makes the most headlong charge, but which can _stand firm_\nagainst the enemy.  The Spartans of old were forbidden by their laws\never to flee from a foe.  In the Pass of Thermopylae stands a monument\nto Leonidas and his followers, bearing this inscription--\"Go, stranger,\nand tell at Lacedaemon that we died here in obedience to our laws.\"  My\nbrethren, what we want, as soldiers of Jesus Christ, is not so much\nzeal, or enthusiasm, or outward profession, as _firmness_ to the end,\nsteadfastness to die, if need be, for the laws of our God.\n\nWe find plenty of people ready to make professions, to be very zealous\nin the service of God, but after a time the fire of their zeal dies out\ninto dead ashes; they have no _staying power_; like the seed on the\nrocky ground they wither away, because they have no root.  Such\nunstable religion as this is useless.  We must be firmly _rooted_ and\n_established_ in the faith.  We must endure to the end, if we would be\nsaved.  We must, for our part, hold fast to the truth as it is in\nChrist Jesus, and He, for His part, will confirm or strengthen us unto\nthe end.  Every period of the Church's history has had its special\ndangers and temptations.  The Corinthians had theirs long ago.  We have\nours to-day.  Let us see what some of the special dangers of the Church\nare now, and how Jesus provides means to confirm us to the end.\n\nFirst among these dangers we may place the _restless spirit_ of the\nage.  This is the result of various causes.  The spread of education is\none cause.  Men are taught to cultivate their heads at the price of\ntheir hearts.  Children are sent to schools where God is almost shut\nout.  Many people get that \"little learning\" which \"is a dangerous\nthing,\" and which makes them doubtful and uncertain in the faith.  The\ngrowth of cheap literature is another cause.  The printing press which\ngives us a cheap Bible and Prayer Book, and a vast amount of pure,\nuseful reading, also sends out much that is dangerous, and positively\nwicked.  The most holy mysteries of the Christian faith are held up to\nmockery and ridicule, and treated as old wives' tales; and the restless\nspirit of the age leads people to read these things, and to have their\nfaith shaken and their ideas confused.  Thus we find nowadays people\narguing and doubting about doctrines which at one time were taken for\ngranted.  One says, _perhaps_ we shall rise again after death; another\n_wonders_ if there be such a place as Hell.  One _thinks_ that God\nanswers prayer, another is doubtful about it.  Now we do not find S.\nPaul and the other Apostles talking in this way.  We do not find the\nearly Church talking in this way.  They could say, \"I know in whom I\nhave believed.  I believe, therefore will I speak.\"  The fact is, some\nof us in these days are getting too clever.  We have got a few drops of\nlearning, and we fancy that we can pour the whole great ocean of\nknowledge into our poor little bottle.  Education is a great and\nglorious blessing, but, like every other blessing, it may be put to a\nwrong use.  And when we find shallow young men and women, who have just\nmastered enough subjects to be able to pass an examination, sneering at\nthe Bible, and calling religion superstition and folly, we can only\nwish that they had drunk deeper, or not tasted, of the water of\nknowledge.  True education makes us humble, because it shows us our\nignorance.  My brothers, what are the doubters and the unbelievers\ngoing to give you in exchange for what they rob you of?  They can\nperhaps rob you of your faith in Jesus Christ as a Saviour.  But what\nthen, they cannot make you forget that you are a sinner.  You know\nbetter, your own heart tells you the truth.  They can take away the\nSaviour, and only leave you your sins.  The doubter may scoff you out\nof believing in the resurrection.  But can he laugh you out of\nbelieving in death?  When your little child dies, and you look at the\nloving eyes closing for the last time, what comfort has your doubting\nfriend to give you?  Not a word.  He leaves you alone with your dead,\nand he has robbed you of the only hope which makes death bearable--the\nresurrection unto eternal life.  You come to your own dying bed; is\nthere one of these doubting, scoffing faith-destroying friends who can\nbring peace or calm to your last hours?  Will it be any comfort to you\nto hear them say that \"there is nothing new, nothing true, and that it\ndoes not signify?\"  They tell you one fact, which you know already,\nthat you are dying.  But beyond that they know nothing, hope nothing,\nbelieve nothing.\n\nMy brothers, do not let these people, with their shallow talk and\nshallow books, rob you of your peace, cheat you out of your birthright.\nLook at the lives of these doubters, and then look at the lives of\nJesus and His saints.  See which example is the purer, the more noble.\nWhich is better, to imitate the life of self-sacrifice which Jesus led,\nto copy the dauntless faith of S. Paul, the loving gentleness of S.\nJohn, the humble penitence of Augustine, the fearless courage of\nSavonarola, or to sit at the feet of those who spend a selfish life in\ntrying to describe a world in which there is no God?\n\nAnother of the dangers of the day is a constant desire for _something\nnew_, and, if possible, sensational.  There are some who would have\ntheir religion as full of novelties as their newspaper, or their\namusement.  The old paths which God has given us to walk in have become\ntoo commonplace for such as these; and they run eagerly into any new\nway, however fantastic.  And, above all, these people want a religion\nwhich is made easy for them.  They have no objection to being saved\nprovided that the process is quick, easy, and costs them nothing.  They\nturn away from the thought of self-denial, of keeping under the body,\nof fasting and prayer, of watchfulness and self-examination.  They must\nbe made good all at once, and be admitted into the front rank of\nsaints, without having fought and suffered in a lower place.  My\nbrethren, beware of this mushroom religion, which grows up suddenly,\nand as suddenly vanishes away.  The best fruit is not that which ripens\nmost quickly, and the best Christian certainly does not come to\nmaturity all in a moment.\n\nThere is a fable of the Persians which tells us how a gourd wound\nitself round a lofty palm-tree, and in a few weeks climbed to its very\ntop.  The quick-growing gourd asked the palm-tree its age, and the tree\nanswered, \"an hundred years.\"  Then the gourd answered boastingly that\nit had grown as tall as the palm in fewer days than the tree could\ncount years.  \"True,\" answered the palm-tree, \"every summer has a gourd\nclimbed round me, as proud as thou art, and as short-lived as thou wilt\nbe.\"\n\nThese, then, are some of the special dangers of the time--an unfixed,\nunsettled faith, leading men to question, and argue, and doubt, when\nthey should believe; and next, a restless desire for something new and\nexciting in religion.  And, besides these, there are special dangers\npeculiar to ourselves, arising from our position, or temperament.  This\nis a specially _busy_ age, when men must work if they would eat bread.\nEvery walk of life is crowded, and the competition in every calling and\nbusiness is most keen.  Now there is great danger in all this to a\nman's spiritual life, if he has not _God with him in his work_.  He\nwill become selfish, unscrupulous, and determined to gain a place, and\nmake money at any cost.  He will think only of himself, and God is not\nin all his thoughts.  There are some who would have us believe that\nreligion is one thing and business another, and that the two must be\nkept distinctly apart.  Never believe that false doctrine, my brothers.\nA Christian man may not take part in any work on which the name of God\nmay not be written.  Whatever business he may engage in, a Christian\nmust always remember that he must be about his Heavenly Father's\nbusiness.  The great merchants of old times used to begin their ledger\nand business books at the new year by writing \"_Praise be to God_\" on\nthe top of the first page.  I would that all men of business could\nhonestly do the same now.  Consecrate your work to God, so that you\nneed not be ashamed to pray about it, to study the Bible about it, to\nwrite _Praise be to God_ on all your business transactions.  And last\nof all, a word as to the means by which Christ will confirm or\nstrengthen you unto the end.  I can tell you nothing new about this, I\nwould not if I could.  The old wine of the Gospel is better than all\nthe new inventions with which some men would poison the cup of\nreligion.  God confirms you by the gift of the Holy Ghost, given by His\nWord, and Sacraments, and means of grace.  Let no one laugh you out of\nbelieving in the Bible; let no one argue you out of trusting in that\nBook which has been the guide, the teacher, the comforter of tens of\nthousands.  The followers of new creeds would like you to exchange your\nBible for their books.  They will offer you the gospel of selfishness,\nthe gospel of pride, the gospel of hopelessness, the gospel of\nmoney-making; turn away from them, and hold fast to the Gospel of the\nLord Jesus Christ.  Hold fast to the Sacraments of the Church.  Let the\nscoffer sneer, let the proud man refuse to bend before the Altar of his\nLord; but let nothing drive you from the Blessed Sacrament of Christ's\nlove.  Hold fast to prayer.  Let no crowd of difficulties, or worries,\nor troubles keep you back from Jesus.  Press through the crowd like\nthat woman of old, and touch the hem of Christ's garment, in prayer.\nOnly hold fast to your Bible, to your Altar, to your prayers, and \"the\nLord Jesus shall confirm you unto the end, that you may be blameless in\nthe day of the Lord Jesus Christ.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON LIV.\n\nSCHOLARS OF CHRIST.\n\n(Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nEPHESIANS x. 20.\n\n\"Ye have not so learned Christ.\"\n\n\nEducation is a very prominent feature in the England of to-day.\nSchools are among the most conspicuous of our public buildings, and\ncompetitive examinations are thronged by eager crowds; and, seeing all\nthis, it seems almost impossible that a few years ago most of our\npoorer brethren could neither read or write.  I am not going to speak\nto you now about the blessings and the evils of the present state of\neducation; I want you to think of another school, and another kind of\nlessons, which are far more important than all else in the world.  The\ntime comes when the schoolboy can lay his books by, and when the young\nman quits college, they have finished their education.  But it is never\nso in Christ's school, about which I am going to speak.  As long as we\nare here in the world we must go to school.  And when we come to die,\nour education is not finished, but we go to a higher class, as it were,\nto learn such lessons as we never could master on earth.\n\nIn the school of Jesus Christ it is not always the oldest or the\ncleverest who are the best scholars.  There are white-haired old men\nwho are only just learning the alphabet of Christ's religion, in the\nlowest place; and there are little children, so pure and white-souled,\nthat they have already mastered some of the hardest lessons.  In other\nschools the scholar must be naturally clever, or, at least, most\nindustrious, if he is to gain a high place, and win a prize.  In\nChrist's school there is a place, and a prize, for the dullest, and he\nwill succeed very well if only _he wants to learn_.  I have known many\npeople who, as they said, \"were no scholars,\" and yet they were not\nvery far from the kingdom of Heaven.  Brethren, some of us have never\nyet been to Christ's school.  We have been playing truant, or\naltogether taken up with the lessons of that great, selfish,\npublic-school--the world.  I want you all to come to Christ's school\nto-day, old and young, clever and dull, and to hear some of the lessons\nwhich that school teaches.  I think that if we examine ourselves\nhonestly in these lessons, we shall find how little we really know, and\nwe shall begin with shame to take the lowest place.  And we must\nremember this, that in Christ's school we shall have to _unlearn_ a\ngreat deal which the world's school has taught us.  The world will have\ninstructed us to take care of ourselves, at the expense of others.  One\nof the favourite mottoes in the great world school-room is--\"every man\nfor himself.\"  The world will have taught us that to make money, and to\nbe successful, are the highest aims possible.  And there are many\nsimilar lessons which are being daily learnt in the world school.  Now,\nwhen we become scholars of Christ, we have to unlearn a great deal of\nthis.  Instead of finding the text, \"every man for himself,\" placed\nconspicuously before us, we see another, and quite opposite\ncommand--\"No man liveth unto himself, and no man dieth unto himself.\"\nWe were taught in that other school outside that to make money and to\nsucceed were the greatest good.  Here we are instructed differently.\n\"Lay not up for yourselves treasure on the earth, where rust and moth\ndoth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.\"  One of the\nchief things which we learnt in the world's lesson-book was to mistrust\nour fellow men, and to be ready to resent an injury when discovered.\nIn Christ's school the lesson is quite different, we are told to love\nour neighbour as ourself, and more than this, to love our enemies.\nThere are some here to-day, perhaps, who are very old scholars of the\nworld's school.  They have got all its lessons by heart, they can\nrepeat its selfish maxims, and practise its hard teachings.  My\nbrothers, God grant that you may find out how greatly your education\nhas been neglected!  God grant that you may learn, before it is too\nlate, how little you know about the things which concern your peace.\nYou, who have grown grey in the great world school, learning its\nsordid, selfish lessons, grinding away at its daily tasks, adding up\nyour sums of addition, and interest, scanning the money table with\neager eyes, practising your skill in profit and loss, and daily writing\nas your one copy--_make money, and be rich_--to you, I say, come into\nChrist's school to-day, and see whose teaching is the better: that of\nthe world, or that of the Son of God.  There comes to every school a\nday of breaking up, when the scholars go home.  One day a man is missed\nin the great world school.  His place is vacant.  The shutters are up\nat the shop, or office, the servants at the place of business speak in\nsmothered whispers.  They miss the sound of the master's voice, the\necho of his step upon the stair.  He has learnt his last lesson in\nworldliness, and his schooling is over.  The world has broken up, as\nfar as he is concerned, and he has gone home.  But where?  He knew\nnothing beyond the world's lessons, he never provided for another home.\n\"What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his\nown soul?\"\n\nBriefly, then, let us look at some of the chief lessons which we must\nlearn in the school of Jesus Christ.\n\nFirst, we must learn to hate our old sins.  Like David, like S. Peter,\nlike every penitent, when we think of the past we abhor ourselves, and\nsit down among the ashes of humiliation.  Like the Prodigal, we cry, \"I\nam no more worthy to be called Thy son.\"  If you find yourself taking\npleasure in the thought of former sin, boasting of your evil deeds, be\nsure you are yet in your ignorance, you have never learnt the alphabet\nof Christ's lesson.\n\nNext, we must learn to know our own weakness, and our need of a\nSaviour.  The world will not give us that lesson.  The world will tell\nus to make our own way, to trust to ourselves, to our cleverness, and\nsharpness.  In Christ's school we shall be taught our weakness, and\nshall learn to say, \"Lord, save me, I perish.\"\n\nAnother of the lessons we must learn is to _conquer ourselves_.  The\nworld gives a great many instructions about conquering difficulties,\nbeating down obstacles, overcoming enemies; but it is Christ's school\nalone which can show us how to conquer _ourselves_.  You have probably\nnoticed the change in a young country lad after he has enlisted for a\nsoldier, and gone through his drill.  Whereas he was a high-shouldered,\nslouching, ungainly figure, now he has learnt to carry himself like a\nsoldier, he has conquered the old bad habits which he acquired by\nlounging in the lanes, or plodding along the furrow.  My brethren, we\nhave all got our bad habits, our ugly tempers, our sharp tongues, our\ndiscontented feelings, and it is only the drill of Christ's soldiers,\nand the teachings in Christ's school, which will make us get the better\nof them.  Christ's school will make a radical change in us.  Jesus--our\nMaster--says, \"behold I make all things new,\" and we know that they who\nare in Christ are become new creatures, old things are passed away.  We\nmay be quite sure that if we are Christ's scholars we shall be changed\npeople.  S. Paul tells us, as he told the Ephesians, some of the marks\nof this change.  We shall learn to speak, and act, the truth.  \"Putting\naway lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour.\"  We shall learn\nto control our temper,--\"be ye angry, and sin not.  Let not the sun go\ndown upon your wrath.\"  We shall learn to work, and to work\nhonestly,--\"let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him\nlabour, working with his hands the thing which is good.\"  We shall\nlearn to control our tongue,--\"let no corrupt communication proceed out\nof your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying.\"  We\nshall learn to be kind and gentle to our neighbours,--\"let all\nbitterness and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put\naway from you, with all malice.\"  The great world school will teach us\nto practise these things, but not the school of Jesus.  There we shall\nlearn \"to be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one\nanother, even as God, for Christ's sake hath forgiven us.\"\n\nAnd we shall learn in Christ's school to be brave.  The world school\ncan teach us a certain kind of courage, but not the highest, nor the\nbest.  The world can teach us how to resent an injury, not how to\nforgive one.  It is in Christ's school only that true heroes are made.\nThe world can make such soldiers as Caesar, or Napoleon, but the school\nof Christ alone can make a Havelock or a Gordon.  I have read of a poor\nboy who came to school with a patch on his clothes.  One of his\nschoolmates singled him out for ridicule and insult; and the boy\nanswered--\"do you suppose I am ashamed of my patch?  I am thankful to a\ngood mother for keeping me out of rags, and I honour my patch for her\nsake.\"\n\nAll the noble army of martyrs, of every rank and kind, learnt the\nsecret of their courage in the school of Christ, and have left us an\nexample to follow.\n\n  \"By all the martyrs, and the dear dead Christ;\n  By the long bright roll of those whom joy enticed\n  With her myriad blandishments, but could not win,\n  Who would fight for victory, but would not sin;\n  By these our elder brothers, who have gone before\n  And have left their trail of light upon our shore,\n  We can see the glory of a seeming shame,\n  We can feel the fulness of an empty name.\"\n\n\nMy brothers, it may be there are some here now who have not so learned\nChrist.  Who have been in the world's school from the beginning, and\nhave grown weary of its selfishness, and its hollow maxims.  If it be\nso, pray now that Jesus, the Great Teacher, may give you a new heart,\nand a new mind, bow the proud head, and bend the unwilling knee, say to\nthe Lord--\"Lord Jesu, make me as a little child, let me come to school\nto-night.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON LV.\n\nWARY WALKING.\n\n(Twentieth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nEPHESIANS v. 15.\n\n\"See then that ye walk circumspectly.\"\n\n\nSome people tell us that salvation is the easiest thing in the world.\nWe have only to _feel_ that we believe in Jesus Christ, and all is\ndone.  Now neither Jesus Christ Himself, nor the Apostles whom He sent\nto teach, tell us anything of the kind.  On the contrary, our Saviour,\nwhilst He dwells on the fulness and freedom of salvation, offered to\nall without money, and without price, tells us that many are called,\nbut few chosen.  He warns us in to-day's Gospel that when the King\nmakes His Great Wedding Feast of salvation numbers make light of it,\nand go their way to their farm, and their merchandise.  He shows us\nhow, when the Bridegroom cometh suddenly.  He finds half of the virgins\nin darkness, their lamps gone out, and He commands us to watch, because\nwe know not the day nor the hour of the Lord's coming.  He tells us\nalso that the way of life eternal is a narrow way, and the gate of\nsalvation a strait gate, whilst the road to eternal ruin is broad, and\neasy.  Our Lord bids us _strive_ to enter in at the narrow gate, and\nassures us that few there be who find it.  Now all this does not put\nthe Christian life before us as a life of idleness, and inaction; nor\ndoes it describe salvation as a very easy thing.  Both Jesus and His\nholy Apostles tell us that we must strive, climb, fight, run the race\npatiently, walk circumspectly, watch, pray, arm ourselves, have on a\nwedding garment; a very different doctrine this from that dangerous,\ndo-nothing creed, which some would have us accept.  I think S. Paul had\nthe narrow way and the strait gate in his mind, when he told his\nfollowers to walk circumspectly, looking around them, minding their\nsteps, proceeding with care and caution.  It used to be said of old\nthat all roads led to Rome, because she was the capital of the world.\nAnd nowadays, in the most remote country place in England, you will\nfind a road which leads to London.  But all roads do not lead to\nHeaven.  Some foolish people like to believe that they can travel\nanyway they please, and yet reach Heaven at last.  They love to imagine\nthat they can hold to any doctrine, however false and extravagant, and\nset up a gospel of their own, and yet find the way to Heaven.  There\nare some who choose to walk in a way which seems right in their eyes, a\nway of selfishness, and pride, and obstinacy; they will have _their own\nway_, they tell us.  Yes, but it is not God's way, and it does not lead\nto Heaven.  There are just two roads from this life to the life to\ncome, no more.  The narrow way of God's commandments, ending in the\nstrait gate which opens on Heaven; and the broad road of sin,\nterminating in the wide gate of Hell.\n\nLet us think of some of the rules by which we must walk in the narrow\nway.  We must walk _humbly_.  It is a narrow way remember, and if we\nwalk with our heads lifted up by pride, we shall miss our footing, and\nslip from the path.  The gate, too, is strait, or narrow.  It is like\none of those low-pitched, narrow entrances which you may still see in\nold buildings, and which were common once in all our ancient towns.  A\ntraveller could not get through these gates unless he bent his head,\nand bowed his shoulders.  So, my brothers, if we wish to enter into the\ngate of life eternal we must do so with bowed head, and with an humble,\nlowly, penitent, and obedient heart.  Pride cast Satan out of Heaven,\npride locks the door of life against many a man now.  An unbeliever\nonce asked, with a sneer, who made the devil.  And he was answered that\nGod made him what he _was_, and that he had made himself what he _is_.\nSo is it with us all.  God makes us His children, heirs of Heaven, and\nwe too often, by our foolish pride, make ourselves into devils.\nBelieve me, the gate of life eternal is far too narrow to admit us with\nthe great swelling garment of pride puffed out on all sides of us.\n\nNext, if we walk along the narrow way _we must not overload ourselves_.\nThere are some burdens which we _must_ bear, but the dear Lord, who\nlaid them upon us, will give us strength to carry them.  It is the\nburden of the world's making which will hinder us.  We see a man who\nwants to walk in the right way, who hopes to pass through the narrow\ngate, who has so loaded himself with worldly things that he goes\nstaggering along, till at length he slips off on to the broad road to\ndestruction.  He is like one escaping from a shipwreck, who tries to\nswim ashore with all his money bags, and is sunk to the bottom by their\nweight.  Sometimes people, coming home from abroad, bring with them a\nquantity of smuggled goods, and their clothes are all padded with\nlaces, and other ill-gotten gear.  What happens?  They are stopped at a\nnarrow gate, and stripped of all their load before they are permitted\nto return home.  So, my brothers, if you would pass the gate which\nleads _home_, to the rest which remaineth for the people of God, you\nmust not overload yourselves with this world's gear.  You must not fill\nup your thoughts with your business, and drag that burden with you to\nthe very edge of the Churchyard mould.  You are just blocking up the\nway to eternal life with your bales of goods, your manufactures, your\nbusiness books.  Some of you are blocking God's highway with the\nwaggons of worldly commerce, others with the gay chariot of frivolous\npleasure.  Here is a woman trying to walk in the narrow way.  She has a\ncrowd of children hanging upon her skirts.  She has tried to be a good\nmother, but she has let the cares and plans for her children draw her\naway from God, and we see her dragged from the narrow way by those whom\nshe ought to have helped along it.  Believe me, it is not open,\nnotorious evil-doers who form the majority on the broad road to\ndestruction.  It is not the murderer, the thief, the drunkard, the\nadulterer, the unbeliever, who crowd that down-hill road.  They are\nthere with the rest, but they are outnumbered by those whom the world\ncalls very respectable.  Amid that crowd of all ages and ranks, there\nare those who have attended our Church Services, and knelt at our\nAltars, some of them do so still.  They have no vulgar vices, they\nnever swear, or exceed moderation in food and drink, they have wives\nand families, and they pay their way like respectable householders.\nAnd yet,--Oh! the pity of it--they are travelling on the broad road.\nIt is not open; disgraceful sin which has placed them there, but just\n_worldliness_.  The dust of the world has filled up every corner of\ntheir life, and they have no room for God.  The windows of their soul\nare so begrimed with the dust and cobwebs of this life that the\nsunshine of God's Holy Spirit cannot shine through them.  One is so\ntaken up with his farm that his heart and soul seemed buried in the\nsoil of it.  The Gospel message rings in his ear, but he makes light of\nit.  Another is so occupied with his merchandise, with making, and\ngetting, that he has no time to see how it stands with his soul, no\ntime to think of the account to be rendered to God when all earthly\naccounts are closed for ever.  One is so eager to obtain a good\nposition for himself, or his children, in the world, that he utterly\nneglects to fit himself, or them, for a place in the world to come.\nWith some the idol is work, with others pleasure, but in either case\nthey worship an idol, and not God.  There are women whose minds are so\ntaken up with the latest fashion, and the newest dress, that they have\nneglected the white garment of holiness, and forgotten the old, old\nfashion--death.  My brothers, my sisters, take heed.  It is not so much\nthe coarse vices of the brutal and ignorant which ruin souls, as the\nselfish worldliness of those who ought to know better.  If you are\nliving for self, for work, for pleasure, for society, for anything but\nGod, then, in spite of your respectable name, and your outward forms of\nreligion, you have slipped from the narrow way which leads to life\neternal.  If you are determined to make this world your Heaven, you\nmust not be astonished if you are shut out of Heaven in the world to\ncome.\n\nIf these poor worldly folk could only see the end, could only\nunderstand now how hollow and worthless, and disappointing, the things\nof this world are at the last, they would cast aside every weight, and\nstrive to regain the narrow way of God's commandments.  History is full\nof instances of those who found, some too late, that the pleasures of\nthe world are worthless.  How melancholy is the declaration of one who\nsays, \"I have dragged on to thirty-three.  What have all those years\nleft to me?  Nothing except three and thirty.\"  Diocletian the Emperor\ntells us that he is happier planting cabbages at Salona, than ruling\nthe world at Byzantium.  Another Emperor, Severus, declares that he has\nheld every position in life from the lowest to the highest, and found\nno good in any.  Look into the history of France, and see what the\nworld gave to Madame de Pompadour at the last.  She had sacrificed\nvirtue and honour for the glitter of the court of Louis XV.  And now in\nthe latter days she tells us that she has no inclination for the things\nwhich once pleased her.  Her magnificent house in Paris was refurnished\nin the most lavish style, and it only pleased her for two days!  Her\ncountry residence was charming, and she alone could not endure it.\nThey told her all the gossip of the gay world, and she scarcely\nunderstood their meaning.  \"My life,\" she says, \"is a continual death.\"\nAt last the end came.  And as they carried her to her burial, the king,\nwho had once professed to love her, said with utter unconcern--\"The\nCountess will have a fine day.\"  This is what the world gave to Madame\nde Pompadour.\n\nMy brethren, I have been striking the old notes to-day, and re-telling\nan oft-told story.  But sin and sorrow are ever the same, and the one\ngreat concern of your life and mine is the same as when Jesus died for\nus on Calvary.  Let us take heed to our ways, and see on which road we\nare journeying.  If we have gone out of the way Jesus will bring us\nback, _if we want to come back_.  Ask Him, brothers, ask Him now.  Pray\nas perhaps you never prayed before.\n\n  \"True prayer is not the imposing sound\n  Which clamorous lips repeat;\n  But the deep silence of a soul\n  That clasps Jehovah's feet.\"\n\n\"Strive to enter in at the strait gate.  For wide is the gate, and\nbroad is the way, which leadeth to destruction, and many there be who\ngo in thereat.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON LVI.\n\nSTRONG CHRISTIANS.\n\n(Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nEPHESIANS vi. 10.\n\n\"My brethren, be strong in the Lord,\"\n\n\nA weak and cowardly soldier is a pitiful object, but a weak-kneed,\ncowardly Christian is still more so.  S. Paul told the Ephesian\nChristians to be _strong_ in the Lord, and in these days especially we\nneed strong Christians, strong Churchmen.  I do not mean that we want\nmen to presume on their strength, to repeat the sin of the Pharisee of\nold, and talk of their righteousness, or condemn their neighbours.  I\ndo not mean that we must be noisy and violent, and quarrelsome in our\nreligion.  None of these things are a proof of strength.  A giant of\npower is ever the gentlest, having the hand of steel in the glove of\nsilk.  So the stronger a Christian is the more humbly he bears himself.\nA writer of the day says very truly, \"if the world wants iron dukes,\nand iron men, God wants iron saints.\"  Much of the unbelief and\nindifference of these days is caused by the weakness of professing\nChristians.  When a man can point to a soldier of Christ who has\ndeserted his post, and fled from the battle, it is no wonder that he\nhesitates to join an army which has such weak and cowardly warriors.\nWhen the enemies of the Church can show us unprincipled Churchmen, who\nhave no firm faith in the doctrines which they profess, who have\ndrifted away from their moorings, and, like ships without ballast, are\nblown about by every wind, it is not surprising if these enemies still\nremain outside the Church.  Can we marvel that some should sneer at\nHoly Baptism, when they can name those who have tried to wash out the\nsign of the Cross with every kind of sin?  Can we marvel that they make\nlight of Confirmation, when we have so many who have been confirmed\ngoing back from holiness, forsaking their Church, and joining the\nworld, the flesh, and the devil?  Or need we wonder that they neglect\nthe Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, and try to keep others from it, if\nthey lay their finger on the Communicant whose life is bad?  My\nbrothers, we need to set our own house in order, we of the Church are\nas a city on a hill, men look at us, and woe unto us if the light\nwithin us be darkness.  What we want are strong Christians to set a\nstrong example.  Teaching, argument, may do much with a careless world,\nbut the example of a consistent, holy, life will do far more.\n\nBrethren, be ye strong, first of all, in _Faith_.  Be quite sure that\nyou _do_ believe; be quite clear _what_ you believe, and then show your\nfaith _strongly_.  Our faith is not built on sand, but on a rock.  It\nis not founded on such words as--perhaps, I suppose, I hope.  No, the\nCreed of the Church says, _I believe_.  There are crowds of people\noutside who will all tell you what they do _not_ believe.  There is the\ninfidel who says he does not believe in God.  There is the man who says\nhe believes in God, but not in the Blessed Trinity.  There is one who\ntells you that he believes in Jesus Christ, but not as God, only as\nMan.  Then comes another and declares that he does not believe in\neternal punishment.  One says that he does not believe we are born\nagain in Holy Baptism, another will not believe in the Baptism of\ninfants.  Some will not believe in Bishops, and others refuse to credit\nany sect but their own.  But the Church says plainly and boldly, I\n_believe_.  The Faith once delivered to the saints, the Faith which\nJesus taught to the first Apostles, the Faith which S. Paul preached,\nand for which he died, is ours.  Let us hold fast to it in unity of\nspirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life.  Be ready\nto give a reason for the faith that is in you.  There are mysteries\nwhich none of us can understand, but, thank God, we can believe.  And\nwe must show this faith of ours not only by believing in the doctrines\nof the Church, but by putting our full trust and confidence in the\nmercies of God.  Where is the use of talking about our faith if we are\npoor, fearful, unhappy people?  If our faith is not strong enough to\nlet us trust God for to-morrow it is not worth having.  It is the\nmelancholy, over-anxious, troubled about many things Christian, who is\nalways anticipating misfortunes, who does so much harm.  Brethren,\ntrust God all in all, be strong in the Lord, be strong in your faith.\n\nNext, brethren, be ye strong in _your language_.  Now, do not\nmisunderstand me.  I do not mean that you are to copy those who, in\npulpit and on platform, declare their favourite views and theories in\nwords of the most violent and intemperate kind.  But I _do_ mean that\nwhen the time comes to speak out, you should speak boldly and plainly.\nLet the world know that you _do_ believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and\nthe doctrines of His Church, and that you are not ashamed to own it.\nNever be afraid to show your colours, or to declare the name of your\nLeader.  When Lord Nelson was going into his last battle, they wished\nhim to cover, or lay aside, the glittering orders of victory which\nadorned his breast.  But the hero refused, and perhaps his refusal cost\nhim his life.  Well, let us never hide the marks of our profession as\nChristian soldiers, even if we have to suffer, let men know that we\nbear about in our bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Oh! we\nwant these strong Christians in shop, and factory, in omnibus, and\nrailway carriage, in soldiers' barrack-room, in schoolboys' dormitory,\nin servants' bed-chamber,--Christians who speak out strongly for Jesus.\n\nAgain, brethren, be strong in _self-sacrifice for Jesus_.  We must not\nforget our cross.  The surest mark of a Christian is a willingness to\ndeny ourselves for the sake of others.  Let me tell you the stories of\ntwo simple servant maids who, under very different circumstances, gave\nup their life for the life of little children.  The scene of the first\nstory was in America, nearly five and twenty years ago; that of the\nsecond story was in London, only a few weeks since.  A young English\ngirl had taken service in a family going to America, and her special\nduty was the charge of the three motherless children of her widowed\nmaster.  One cold day in December they all embarked in a great\nMississippi steamboat bound for the far North West.  Day after day they\nsteamed through the swollen river, where pieces of ice were already\nshowing, past dark and gloomy shores, lined with lonely forest.  One\nnight, near the end of their voyage, the girl had seen her charges, two\ngirls and a boy, safely asleep, and now, when all the other passengers\nhad retired, she was reading in the saloon.  Suddenly the silence was\nbroken by a terrible cry, which told the frightened passengers that the\nsteamboat was on fire.  The captain instantly ran the vessel for the\nshore, and ordered the people to escape as best they could, without\nwaiting to dress.  The faithful servant had called her master, and then\ncarried the children from their beds to the crowded deck.  Quickly the\nblazing vessel touched the muddy bank, and the father placed the\nshivering children and the servant on one of the huge branches which\noverhung the river.  A few other passengers, fifteen in all, reached\nother branches, the rest went down with the burning steamer.  But what\nhope could there be for the children, just snatched from their warm\nbeds, and now exposed unclad to the bitter December night?  Their\nfather had no clothing to cover them, and, as he spoke of another\nsteamer which would pass by in the morning, he had little hope of his\nchildren holding out.  Then the servant maid declared that if possible\nshe would keep the little ones alive.  Clinging in the darkness to the\nicy branches, she stripped off her own clothing, all but the thin\ngarment next her body, and wrapped up the shivering children.  Thus\nthey passed the long, dark hours of that terrible night.  I know not\nwhat prayers were spoken, but I know that Jesus, who suffered cold and\nhunger for our sakes, made that servant girl strong to sacrifice\nherself.  During the night one of the children died, but in the\nmorning, when the first light came, the little girls were still alive.\nThen, when her work was done, the freezing limbs of the brave girl\nrelaxed their hold, a deadly sleep fell on her, and she dropped\nsilently into the rushing river below.  Presently a steamer came in\nsight, and the two children, for whom she had died, were safe.\n\nOnly quite lately there was a great fire in London.  In the burning\nhouse were a husband and wife, their children, and a servant maid.  The\nparents perished in the flames, but the servant appeared to the sight\nof the crowd below, framed, as it were, in fire, at a blazing window.\nLoudly shouted the excited crowd, bidding the girl to save herself.\nBut she was thinking of others.  Throwing a bed from the window, she\nsignalled to those below to stretch it out.  Then, darting into the\nburning room, she brought one of the children of her employers, and\ndropped it safely on to the bed.  Fiercer grew the flames, but again\nthis humble heroine faced the fire, and saved the other children.  Then\nthe spectators, loudly cheering, begged her to save herself.  But her\nstrength was exhausted, she faltered in her jump, and was so injured\nthat death soon came to her.  My brothers, no one will raise a grand\nmonument to Emma Willoughby, and Alice Ayres, who passed, the one\nthrough water, the other through fire, for Christ's dear sake.  But\nsurely in God's great Home of many mansions their names are written in\nletters of gold.\n\nLastly, brethren, be strong in _fighting the battle_.  You know that\nlife is a great battle-field.  And you know, too, that as Christians\nyours is the _good_ fight.  Put on, then, the whole armour of God.  Do\nnot trust to any newly-invented weapons.  Take the same armour in which\nS. Paul, and many another veteran soldier of Christ, fought and\nconquered.  \"We wrestle not against flesh and blood.\"  No, our battle\nis with Satan and his hosts.  One of old says that we must strip if we\nwould wrestle with the devil.  We must cast aside every weight, strip\nus of all the hinderances, and worldly cares, which weigh us down; and\nbe clad in the spiritual armour of God.  Hold fast to the old armour,\nthe shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, the sword of the\nSpirit.  Be strong in the strength of the Holy Ghost, for your strength\nshall be made perfect in weakness.  Stand, as Christ's soldiers, side\nby side, shoulder to shoulder, with your faces to the foe.  When\nNapoleon retreated from Moscow, and the main body had passed by, the\nmounted Cossacks hovered around the stragglers, who, overcome by cold\nand fatigue, could only force their way slowly through the snow.  Many\na weary Frenchman thus fell beneath the Cossack lances.  Presently a\nband of these fierce horsemen saw a dark object on the snowy plain, and\ndashed towards it.  They were face to face with a small body of French\nwho had formed into a square to resist them, their bayonets at the\ncharge.  The Cossacks rode round and round, seeking for a weak place\nfor attack, and finding none.  At length they charged the square, and\nfound it formed of frozen corpses.  The Frenchmen had died whilst\nwaiting for the foe.  Brothers, may death find us fighting the good\nfight.  \"Be strong in the Lord.\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON LVII.\n\nTHE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.\n\n(Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. MATTHEW xviii. 28,\n\n\"Pay me that thou owest.\"\n\n\nThe Gospel shows us in a parable a picture of a king who called his\nservants to a reckoning.  That King is the Lord God Almighty.  We are\nHis servants, and He calls us to account every day.  All we possess we\nowe as a debt to God.  Day by day He gives us our food, and supplies\nour wants by His good Providence.  On every hour of our existence is\nwritten, Jehovah-Jireh--The Lord will provide.  Day by day God takes\ncare of us, and shields us from danger.  He provides for our souls as\nwell as for our bodies, and gives us the ministry of His Church, the\ngrace of His Sacraments, the teaching of His Bible, the blessing of\nprayer.  And all these blessings are a debt which we owe to God, and He\nis ever saying to us.  \"Pay Me that thou owest.\"  And how can we pay?\nBy doing what God bids us.  By using our gifts in His service.  We can\ngive Him _worship_, not only worship in Church, but in all our everyday\nlife and work, \"doing all unto the glory of God.\"  We can show forth\nHis praise not only with our lips but in our lives.  God has given us\nhands and brains to work with; and He says, \"Pay Me that thou owest.\"\nThat means that we must do good work, honest work, unselfish work,\nbecause we owe our power to labour as a debt to God.  He has given us a\nvoice, and He says, \"Pay Me that thou owest.\"  That means that we must\nuse our voice to sing God's praise, to maintain His honour, to spread\nthe truth of His Gospel, to comfort His people.  We must devote our\nvoice to speaking good words, and never defile it with vile language in\nthe devil's service, because it is a debt which we owe to God.  So with\nour health, our strength, our time, for all these God reckons with His\nservants.  If we are misusing these things, wasting our time, devoting\nour strength to mere selfish, worldly pursuits, neglecting our\nopportunities, terrible will be the final day of reckoning when God\nwill say for the last time, \"Pay Me that thou owest.\"\n\nWe read in the parable of to-day's Gospel that one of the king's\nservants owed him ten thousand talents.  This was so vast a sum that no\nman could possibly pay it.  In that servant we see ourselves.  We owe a\ndebt to God which we cannot pay.  The wages of sin is death, and as\nsinners we are like the servant, we owe a vast debt, and we have not\nwherewithal to pay.  Nothing that we can do will put away our sin, or\nexcuse us from the penalty.  That servant in the parable prayed his\nlord to have patience, saying that he would pay all.  We may think\nfoolishly that we can pay the debt of old sins by leading good lives\nnow.  But it may not be.  If a man owes money he is not excused the\ndebt because now he pays his way.  Our sins are the great debt of ten\nthousand talents.  God's law is written in the ten commandments, and we\nhave broken them a thousand times.  We cannot pay.  The king in his\nmercy forgave the servant.  So God forgives us through the merits and\nmediation of Jesus Christ.  He paid the debt which we cannot pay, He\nbore our sins, the sin of Adam born with us, and the actual sins of our\nlives, on the Cross of Calvary.  His Blood was the price which paid the\ndebt.  When we are baptised we are baptised into His Death, and the sin\nof Adam is forgiven.  When we repent truly of a sin of our own\ncommitting, we are made partakers in the benefits of His Passion.  When\nwe come devoutly to Holy Communion our sinful bodies are made clean by\nChrist's Body, and our souls washed in His most Precious Blood, and our\nsins are forgiven us.  But the parable not only teaches us our need of\npardon, and the fulness of God's mercy, but the necessity of forgiving\neach other.  The servant who owed the vast debt was pardoned.  Yet he\nwould not forgive his fellow servant who owed him a trifling sum.  The\nstory of the unmerciful servant is being repeated everywhere around us.\nWe see men crying to God for mercy--poor, sinful, debtors, bankrupts,\nwho have not wherewithal to pay.  Every day we are obliged to confess\nthat we owe a debt to God, and cannot pay it.  And every day the Lord\nof mercy and love forgives us our debt.  Yes, but only on certain\nconditions.  God has Himself taught us to say, Forgive us our debts, as\nwe forgive our debtors.  If we are unmerciful servants, refusing to our\nfellow men what God gives us, He will treat us as He treated the\nservant of the parable.  He had forgiven him all, but now He withdraws\nHis pardon, and delivers him to the tormentors.  A man with an\nunforgiving spirit, who nourishes hatred and revenge against a\nneighbour, is already possessed by a devil, and his future must be\nspent in the society of devils.\n\nAnd now bring the matter home to your own individual cases.  Are you\nnourishing bitter, unforgiving feelings against anyone who has injured\nyou?  Is there anyone whose success annoys you, and whose misfortune\nwould give you pleasure?  Are you thinking of some wrong done to you,\nsome hard word spoken about you, some unjust judgment passed on you;\nand are you hoping that a day may come when the person who has so\nacted, or spoken, may suffer for it?  My brothers, if so, you are just\nso many unmerciful servants, going through the world, and seizing your\nbrother-sinners by the throat, and saying--\"Pay me that thou owest.\"\nGive up calling yourselves Christians, give up asking God to pardon\nyou, unless you can freely and fully forgive your brethren the little\ndebts of this little world.  A certain king of France said that nothing\nsmelt so sweet as the dead body of an enemy.  And there are people\namong us now who tell us that revenge is sweet.  But it is false.  To\nforgive is sweet, is blessed, to hate brings only the remorse of\ndevils.  But you tell me it is so hard to forgive sometimes.  So it is,\nbut the greater the pardon given the greater the blessing.  And\nremember that forgiveness must not be measured, and stinted, but free,\nand full.  We must not say, \"I will forgive him this once, but never\nmore.\"  S. Peter asked Jesus how often he should pardon a brother's\nsin, and suggested seven times.  The Jewish teachers said that after\nthree faults men need not forgive.  S. Peter was in advance of them,\nbut the Lord's answer must have astonished him,--\"until seventy times\nseven,\" that meant _always_, without stint, or measure.  And remember\nalso, that forgiveness must be real and true.  We may not forgive with\nour lips, and bear malice in our hearts.  Such sham forgiveness is only\ntoo common.  A man was lying on his sick bed, and the clergyman by his\nside was urging him to be reconciled to some one who had injured him.\nAfter much persuasion the man said, \"If I die I will forgive him, but\nif I live he had better keep out of my way.\"  And again, our\nforgiveness must be willing, not forced from us.  As says our greatest\npoet--\n\n        \"the quality of mercy is not strain'd;\n  It droppeth, as the gentle rain from Heaven,\n  Upon the place beneath: it is twice blessed;\n  It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes:\n  Tis mightiest in the mightiest.\"\n\nA boy, nearly broken-hearted with grief, stood by his mother's coffin.\n\"Oh! let me see my dear mother once more, only once more,\" he pleaded.\nA man who was about to screw down the coffin-lid thrust him aside with\nbrutal violence, and even struck the orphan child.  Years afterwards\nthat man stood in the dock, to be tried for his life as a murderer.  He\nhad no counsel to defend him, but just as the case commenced a young\nbarrister rose in court, and offered his services to the prisoner.  His\nspeech for the defence was so eloquent, and so convincing, that the\nprisoner was acquitted.  Outside the court he turned to thank his\npreserver.  The stranger looked at him steadily, and said, \"Do you\nremember years ago, driving a poor, broken-hearted boy from his\nmother's coffin with a curse and a blow?  I was that boy.\"  The man was\noverwhelmed with shame and confusion.  \"Why have you given me my life?\"\nhe asked.  \"To show you,\" answered the other, \"that I can forgive.\"\n\nOh! my brothers, if we would find pardon for our many sins, let us ask\nHim who prayed for His murderers to teach us how to forgive.\n\n  \"Walk with care 'mid human spirits,\n  Walk for blessing, not for ban;\n  'Twere better never to have lived,\n  Than lived to curse a deathless man.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON LVIII.\n\nTHE FREEDOM OF THE CITY.\n\n(Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nPHIL. iii. 20.\n\n\"Our conversation is in Heaven.\"\n\n\nPeople often fail to get at the meaning of this glorious text because\nthey mistake that word _conversation_.  Really the text means--our\ncitizenship is in Heaven, we belong to the Eternal City.  Once S. Paul\ndeclared with pride that he was a Roman citizen; and when the Chief\nCaptain in surprise declared that he himself had purchased that\nprivilege at a great price, the Apostle answered, \"but I was free\nborn.\"  Every Christian has the right to call himself a citizen of\nHeaven, and to declare that he is free born.  When in Holy Baptism we\nwere born again of water, and of the Holy Ghost, the freedom of the\nCity was given to us, and we were made a peculiar people, citizens of\nthe Heavenly Jerusalem, with all the privileges, and all the\nresponsibilities, belonging to such a position.  Get this glorious fact\ninto your minds, brethren, not that you are _going_ to belong to\nHeaven, but that you _do_ belong to it now.  Here in earth you are\nforeigners, strangers and pilgrims.  Here God's Israel is in exile by\nthe waters of Babylon, Jerusalem on high, the Heavenly Sion, is yonder,\nand that is home.  Heaven is yours now, if you forfeit it, if you lose\nyour inheritance, it will be from your own fault, your own sin.\n\nFirst, I think that the fact of Heaven being our home should make us\n_love_ it.  Sometimes we find people who have willingly settled in a\nforeign country, and done their best to forget the manners and language\nof their native land.  But such cases are very rare.  If you meet with\nan Englishman out in the Colonies, he always speaks of the old country\nas home.  Even colonists who have been born in our foreign settlements,\nand have never seen England, speak of _going home_ when they visit it.\nIn many an Australian hut, or New Zealand farm, there is a swelling of\nthe heart, or a glistening in the eyes, as the faded flowers drop from\nthe home letter.  The flowers are poor enough, and dead enough, but\nthey once grew in a home garden, or blossomed in an English meadow.\nOne of our great novelists tells us how two men in Australia walked\nmany weary miles only to listen to the song of the skylark.  That\nhomely bird was precious in their eyes because it reminded them of\nhome.  I have read that when Swiss soldiers are abroad, they are not\nallowed to play, or listen to, their national airs.  The music reminds\nthem of their cow-bells ringing among the fair valleys and mountains of\ntheir native land, and under its influence some have deserted the army,\nand some even died of grief.  The German loves to talk of the\n_Fatherland_, and has a word in his language which very strongly\nexpresses home-sickness.  Talk to a Scotsman about the beauties of\nVenice, or Rome, and he will tell you that you should see Edinburgh, or\nAberdeen.  Speak to an Irishman of the wonders of the tropics, and he\nwill at once begin the praises of the Green Isle.  The love of home is\nthe very root and core of our nature.  Well, if we love our earthly\nhome, where we stay for so short a time, where, after all, we are but\nstrangers and pilgrims, we ought still more to love Heaven, whose\ncitizens we are.  A child was once asked where his home was, and\nanswered with eyes full of love--\"Where mother is.\"  Brothers, our home\nis where Jesus is.\n\nNext, I think we ought to be _proud_ of being citizens of so fair a\ncity as Heaven.  A Greek of old was proud to belong to a country which\ncould boast of the learning of Athens, the wisdom of Plato, the courage\nof Leonidas.  If a Roman in former days was asked to do a mean, or\ndishonourable action, it was enough for him to answer, \"I am a Roman\ncitizen!\"  A burgess of London City to-day is proud of the position\nwhich he holds, and of the rights and privileges gained by many an\nancient charter of freedom.  But what ought we to think of the\nprivileges and glory of belonging to that City which is God's Home; of\nbeing fellow citizens with the saints in light; of claiming as our\nbrethren that great multitude which no man can number?  Each town and\ncity of earth is proud of its most famous citizens, but what city can\nshow such names as our City, Jerusalem on high?  What streets are\ncrowded with such a goodly company as the streets of Heaven?  All that\nis great and good, glorious, pure, gentle, self-sacrificing, finds a\nplace in Heaven.  Mighty Preachers and Apostles, like S. Paul or S.\nChrysostom; simple girls, like Naaman's maid, or Veronica, the\nfarm-servant; brave women who died martyrs for Jesus in the Arena, and\nthose who _lived_ as witnesses for Jesus, like Grace Darling, and\nFlorence Nightingale, and Sister Dora; these, and such as these, of\nwhom the time would fail me to tell, form the company of Heaven.\n\"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever\nthings are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are\nlovely, think on these things.\"  And think, too, \"'Tis mine, 'tis mine,\nthat country, if I but persevere.\"\n\nWe must remember, however, that a citizen has certain duties, as well\nas rights and privileges, and if he neglects the former he forfeits the\nlatter.  We, as citizens of Heaven, though exiles here in earth, have\ncertain duties and responsibilities laid upon us; if we fail to perform\nthem, we lose our position as God's people.  When an Englishman goes\nabroad to a foreign country he is at once recognised.  When the\nforeigner sees the reckless courage, the cool daring, the love of\nadventure, displayed by his visitor, he says at once, \"that is an\nEnglishman.\"  We are here in a strange land, does the world take notice\nof us as those who belong to Jesus?  Does the world recognise us, by\nour manners, and way of life, as citizens of Heaven?\n\nThink of some of the duties laid upon us as those who have received the\nfreedom of the City.  We are bound, first of all, to keep ourselves, as\nfar as possible, unspotted from the world.  We must live in the world\nfor a time, but we must not be of it.  If an Englishman were compelled\nto live for a season among savages, whose habits were horrible and\ndisgusting, he would take care not to become like them.  He would think\nof himself as being a civilized man, to whom the manners of the people\nwere revolting, and he would endeavour, whilst avoiding their example,\nto set them a better.  So should a Christian man be in the world.  He\ncannot avoid seeing and hearing much that is evil.  But let him take\ncare lest, like Israel of old, he mingles with the unbeliever, and\nlearns their ways.  Let him remember that he is a citizen of Heaven,\nand that he has no more right to take part in the frauds, and lies, and\nimpurity of the world, than Lot had to join in the abominations of\nSodom.  A Christian man should stand above the waves of this\ntroublesome world, as a lighthouse stands above the tumbling billows of\nthe sea.  And, like that beacon, he should give forth a warning light,\nclear, bright, and steady.\n\nNext, as citizens of Heaven, we are bound to work for our Heavenly\nMaster.  No matter that we are in a foreign workshop here in this\nworld, no matter that we are employed by earthly masters, one Master is\nours, and He is in Heaven.  We must be busy about our Father's\nbusiness, we must do all, looking unto Jesus.  Suppose that the Queen\nwere passing through this parish, and were to stop at one of your\nhomes, say that of a cabinetmaker.  And suppose that she were to order\nhim to make her a cabinet after a particular pattern.  Well, the man\nwould be very much flattered at the order, and you may be sure he would\ntake the greatest pains to put good work into the cabinet.  \"You see it\nis for the Queen,\" he would say to his neighbour, in explanation of his\nextra care.  Now, my brothers, whatever kind of work we have to do, we\nought to do it as well as we can, saying to ourselves, \"it is for the\nKing of kings, you see.\"  Oh! if men would only remember that, then\nthere would be no more cheating, and swindling, and lying in trade; no\nmore labourers and artizans scamping their work, putting in bad\nmaterial, working short time, and committing the endless dishonest acts\nwhich disgrace a Christian land.  Try to remember that whatever you\nhave to do, you are working for God, you are a citizen of Heaven, and\nto your Heavenly Master must the account be rendered.  There shall\nenter into Heaven nothing that maketh a lie.  If our lives are not\nquite genuine and honest here, we are locking ourselves out of Heaven.\nLet us, as citizens of no mean city, keep aloof from the hypocrite, the\nteller or maker of a lie, and speak every man truth with his neighbour.\nAgain, I think that as citizens of Heaven, we ought to take very good\nheed to our _words_.  You know how our streets and lanes in this world\nare defiled and made hideous by vile language.  Can you fancy that sort\nof talk in the streets of the Heavenly City?  No, there shall not enter\nthere anything that defileth, peace is upon her palaces.  The swearing\ntongue, the impure tongue, the angry tongue, can find no place there.\nThe cruel, slandering tongue talks many a soul into ruin, for they have\nno room for the scandal-monger in Heaven.  Let us guard our speech,\nbrethren, let us remember that, as Heavenly citizens, our lips should\nbe sanctified by the fire of God's Altar.  \"Whoso keepeth his mouth and\nhis tongue, keepeth his soul from troubles.\"\n\nOnce more, as citizens of Heaven, we must keep our home ever fresh in\nour minds.  Here we are strangers in a strange land.  You know how we\nEnglish abroad always cling to anything which reminds us of _home_.\nThe settler in the Australian Bush keeps Christmas Day beneath the\nburning summer sky exactly as he always kept it amid the snow and ice\nof an English winter.  When letters come, how eagerly are they read if\nthey come from home!  Many a rough miner on the other side of the world\ngrows gentler as he looks at the faded photograph, or the yellow note\npaper; they remind him of home.  Well, here in earth, far from our\nHeavenly home, we have certain means of keeping its memory fresh.  We\ncan go to God's Holy Church, and there join with Angels and Archangels\nand all the company of Heaven in praise and adoration of our King.  We\ncan read our Bible, and then we gaze, as it were, upon the picture of\nSaviour Jesus, and upon the faces of our brother citizens who have\nentered by the gates of pearl.  We can pray, and so send a message to\nour City, and get an answer back again, a blessing coming like a sweet\nflower sent from the fields of Paradise.  When our soldiers do noble\ndeeds abroad, their thought is--what will they say in England?  Let us\ndo our duty here in a strange land, thinking--what will they say in\nHeaven?  My brother, my sister, let this thought help you to struggle\nagainst temptation--I must walk worthy of my vocation, I am a citizen\nof Heaven.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON LIX.\n\nTHANKFUL SERVICE.\n\n(Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nCOL. i. 12.\n\n\"Giving thanks.\"\n\n\nIn one of our northern coal-pits there was a little boy employed in a\nlonely and dangerous part of the mine.  One day a visitor to the\ncoal-pit asked the boy about his work, and the child answered, \"Yes, it\nis very lonely here, but I pick up the little bits of candle thrown\naway by the colliers, and join them together, and when I get a light I\nsing.\"  My brothers, every day of our lives we are picking up blessings\nwhich the loving Hand of God has scattered around, every day we get the\nlight, but how many of us sing?\n\nI want to talk to you about the duty and blessing of thankfulness, and\nhow it can be shown.  Gratitude is the root of all true Christian\nservice and worship.  If we go to Church, and give money for religious\npurposes, only because we want to stand well with God, or to get\nsomething from Him, our service is mere selfishness.  We are like\npeople buying votes to get themselves into a charitable asylum.  All we\ndo in the service of God should be done from a motive of thankfulness.\nThe thought should be, \"What shall I render unto the Lord for all His\nbenefits?\"\n\nIf a man does the state some great service we give him a pension, or a\nstatue.  It is nothing very much, but we do what we can to show our\ngratitude.  During the last American War a farmer was discovered one\nday kneeling by the grave of a soldier lately killed in battle.  He was\nasked if the dead man were his son, and answered that the soldier was\nno relation: and then he told his story.  The farmer, who had a sickly\nwife, and several children, was drafted for the army, and had no one\nwho could carry on his farm, or take care of his family, whilst he went\nto the war.  Whilst he was overwhelmed with trouble, the son of a\nneighbour came forward, and said, \"I have no one depending on me, I\nwill go to the war in your place.\"  He went, and was killed in action,\nand the farmer had travelled many a weary mile to kneel beside his\ngrave, and to carve on the headstone the words--\"_Died for me._\"\n\nBrethren, what ought our gratitude to be to the Lord Jesus, who loved\nus, and died for us upon the Cross of Calvary?  True gratitude is shown\nby deeds as well as words.  We must try to show our thankfulness to God\nnot only with our lips but in our lives.  Too many people are content\nto get all they can from God, and never to give anything in return.\nThey tell us that they are poor miserable sinners, who can do nothing,\nand give nothing, they must leave all to the mercies of Jesus.  Now,\nbrethren, this is very often mere selfishness.  They do not _want_ to\ngive anything to God, they are not really thankful.  It is not true to\nsay that we can give nothing to God.  We are bidden in the Gospel to\nrender unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things\nthat are God's.  We can all give God _worship_, and we should give it\nin the best way possible, as a token of our thankfulness.\n\nIt is for this reason that we build beautiful Churches, and decorate\nthem with stained glass windows, and rich carvings.  Such Churches are\nthank-offerings, signs of our gratitude to Him who on earth was\nhomeless, who was born in a stable, who had not where to lay His head.\nThere are people who murmur at the expense of building and decorating\nsuch Churches.  They say, \"To what purpose was this waste?\"  They are\nvery nearly related to Judas Iscariot of old, who asked the same\nquestion, and, like him, they love themselves, and the money bag,\nbetter than their Master.  These people tell us that God does not care\nfor handsome Churches and stately services.  So they would give the\nAlmighty a white-washed building, whilst they dwell in a fair and\ncostly mansion.  They would have fine damask and soft covering for\ntheir table, whilst they have dirty linen and a moth eaten cloth for\nthe Altar of their God.  They will drink out of cut-glass and silver at\ntheir feasts, and they leave the feast of Christ's dying love, the\nBlessed Sacrament of praise and thanksgiving, to be celebrated in\nvessels of base metal.  Their houses are kept in excellent repair, and\ncleansed by careful hands, but they suffer the House of God to fall to\ndecay, and allow His Presence Chamber to be defiled with dirt.  And all\nthis arises from a want of thankfulness to God.  If we are thankful we\ndo not grudge what we give, we feel that we can never do enough for Him\nwho has redeemed us.  But these people say, \"God does not care for a\nbeautiful Church, He loves simplicity.\"  Where has God told us this?\nDavid believed just the opposite.  He said that he was ashamed that he\nshould dwell in a house of cedars, whilst the Ark of God dwelt among\ncurtains.  You know how he was prevented from building the Temple, and\nhow Solomon did the work.  Now, did Solomon act upon the mean principle\nof building a poor, cheap house for God, whilst he erected a gorgeous\npalace for himself?  No! the Temple was one of the most glorious\nbuildings ever seen, and those that were erected in later times were\nsplendid also.  We find our Blessed Lord attending the Temple services,\nand those services were beautiful and elaborate.  There was nothing in\nthe Temple or its worship to suggest that God prefers the ugly,\nwhite-washed building, and the slovenly, irreverent, service which some\nwould offer Him.\n\nIf you love someone very dearly you do not visit him in your oldest and\ndirtiest garments, you do not send him the cheapest present you can\nbuy, nor put up a roughly erected tombstone to his memory.  You give\nhim the very best you have.  If you love God you will do the same to\nHim.\n\nAgain, we show our thankfulness to God by giving Him a hearty worship\nin His Church.  I wonder how many people know exactly why they come to\nChurch at all.  Some say they come to get good.  That is mere\nselfishness.  Some say they come because it is respectable.  Yes, but\nworthless, unless it means something more.  Others would tell us, if\nthey were quite honest, that they come to Church because they want to\nstand well in the good opinion of the Clergyman, or with the Squire.\nThis is sheer hypocrisy.  There is only one true reason for coming to\nChurch,--the fact that we love God, and are grateful to Him for all His\nmercies, and want to show it.  We should come to Church to _worship_\nGod with the best member that we have; we should come with the\nfeeling--\"I was glad when they said unto me we will go into the House\nof the Lord;\" \"I love the place, O Lord, wherein Thine honour dwells.\"\nAll slovenliness in the performance of the service, all irreverence, or\nsigns of inattention, and indifference, are tokens of a want of\nthankfulness.  We should get this thought fixed in our minds when we\nenter Church,--I have come here to-day mainly to thank God for His\ngreat goodness to me, and to all men.  I have come also to ask for\ncertain things, the forgiveness of my sins if I am truly penitent, the\nhelp and strength of the Holy Spirit to renew my life; I have come to\nask for those things, which are requisite and necessary as well for the\nbody as the soul, and I seek instruction in the lessons, the Gospel and\nEpistle, and the sermon.  But the chief object of my presence here is\nthe worship, the glory, the honour of God.  And so I will give Him the\nbest I have.  If you once grasped that fact, my brothers, we should\nhave no silent lips, no sleepy eyes, no lounging bodies, no irreverent\nconduct in God's Holy Church.  Remember God is present in His Church,\ntherefore we must behave with the greatest humility and reverence.  In\nsome Churches you will see the people obstinately sitting throughout\nthe service, but if one of the Royal Family enters, they all rise up.\nNow, if we remember that the King of kings, and Lord of lords, the only\nRuler of princes, is present, we shall stand up to do Him honour.  It\nis defrauding God of the honour due to Him when we refuse to show Him\nmarks of reverence.  Do you know that in the House of Lords it is\nalways the rule for members to bow to the throne, although it is empty,\nas being the seat of the Majesty of England.  We bow to the Altar as\nbeing the throne of the Most High God, the place where He visits His\npeople in the Blessed Sacrament.  There we should honour and reverence\nGod, in whose presence we are, with the best members that we have.  Our\nheads should bow in humility before the God of Heaven and earth.  Our\nknees should bend in adoration before Him who is worshipped by the\nHeavenly Host.  Our eyes should be fixed upon our Prayer Books that\nthey may not wander.  Our thoughts should be centred on the fact that\nGod is there with us, that we are in the presence-chamber of the great\nKing.  Our voices should be used to praise God in chant, and psalm, and\nhymn, and to offer prayer or thanksgiving.  If we are silent we are\ndefrauding God.  God's Priest does not say, \"let _me_ pray for you,\" he\nsays, \"let _us_ pray.\"  We cannot worship God by proxy, we cannot give\nGod what He asks by means of a choir, whilst the congregation is\nsilent.  Let us, each one of us, for the future, remember why we have\ncome to Church, and that it is our individual business to worship God\nwith reverence and holy fear.  And in all you sing or say here, be in\nearnest, _mean_ what you say.  It is an insult to God to say words\nwhich you do not believe, or understand.  Once in a certain Church,\nduring Lent, an Easter hymn had been put down by mistake, and was sung\nvery heartily by the choir.  The choirmaster after service spoke to the\nsingers, regretting that such a mistake should have occurred.  And he\nwas answered, \"Oh, it does not matter, we only think of the tune, and\ndo not trouble about the _words_.\"  I am afraid that too many hymns are\nsung in the same careless fashion, but if so, they are not _praise_.\n\"Sing ye praises with _understanding_.\"\n\nOne word more; we are bidden to render unto Caesar what belongs to him,\nand to God what is His.  This world has certain claims upon us.  Part\nof our time and our money must be devoted to our business and our\nposition in the world.  But not _all_ of our time and money must be so\ngiven.  God claims His share, and our gratitude for His mercies ought\nto make us gladly render unto God the things that are God's.  He claims\na certain part of our time for His public worship in Church.  If we\nstay away from His House, or if, when there, we are careless, and\nindifferent, we are robbing God.  God claims a certain part of our\nmoney, to be dedicated to the relief of the poor, or the maintenance of\nHis Church.  If we spend all our money on the world we are defrauding\nGod of His right.  May He grant us all more thankful hearts, for Jesus\nChrist's sake.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON LX.\n\nGATHERING THE FRAGMENTS.\n\n(Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity.)\n\nS. JOHN vi. 12.\n\n\"Gather up the fragments that remain.\"\n\n\nThe fragments that remain!  What are they?  Something more than the\nremnants of that miracle of feeding.  We have come to the last Sunday\nof the Church's year, only a few more fragments, a few more days,\nremain, and then Advent will have come, and we shall begin a new year.\nAgain we shall hear the warning cry--\"Prepare to meet thy God.\"\nBrothers, are we ready to meet Him?  We are one year nearer the day\nwhen we must render in our account; one year nearer the time when the\nMaster will come to reckon with His servants; one year nearer the\nreturn of the Bridegroom.  What of our lamps, are they burning?  What\nof our talents, have they yielded interest?  Another year\ngone--eternity nearer by twelve months; surely this is a solemn time\nfor us all.  Let us gather up the fragments of time that remain before\nAdvent.  Do not put off making resolutions, or giving up bad habits,\ntill next Sunday.  We know not how few fragments of our life remain.\nAs says a Bishop of our Church, \"they who dare lose a day are\nprodigals, but those who dare misspend it are desperate.  Time is the\nseed of eternity, the less that remains the more valuable it becomes.\nTo squander time is to squander all.\"  The events of one brief day have\noften influenced a whole life, aye, a whole eternity.  The flight of a\nbird determined the career of Mohammed; a spider's spinning that of\nBruce; and a tear in his mother's eye that of Washington.  Voltaire,\nwhen only five years old, committed to memory an infidel poem, and grew\nto live and die an unbeliever; whilst Doddridge, as a child, studied\nthe Bible from the pictured tiles at the fireside explained by his\nmother.  Use the moments, the fragments, that remain, and so begin this\nAdvent season rightly, your lamp burning, the works of darkness cast\naway, the armour of light girded on.  But not only must we look\nforward, the end of the Church's year is a fitting time for looking\nback.  Some of us can do so joyfully, thankfully, peacefully.  Week by\nweek the teachings of Holy Church have shown them the life of duty, and\nthey feel that they have tried to live that life by the help of God's\nHoly Spirit.  The first half of the year's teaching showed us God's\nlove for us, the second half taught us how we can show our love to God.\nLast Advent told us of the battle of life, the good fight of the faith,\nand the love of God strengthening us in the conflict, and promising the\ncrown of victory.  Christmas brought us once more the dear, glad,\ntidings that Jesus is our brother, bone of our bone, and flesh of our\nflesh.  Epiphany showed us our Saviour manifested in our work, in the\nchanged character of a believer who out of weakness is made strong, in\nthe cleansed sinner whose leprosy is healed, in the storm of life made\ncalm.  The star of Epiphany led us to Jesus, to hope, to rejoicing, and\ngladly we offered our gifts, to the King our gold, to the Great High\nPriest our incense, to the Crucified our myrrh.  Lent showed us the\nsterner side of the life of duty, and brought its lessons of\nself-denial and self-restraint.  Those of us who went out into the\nwilderness of this world with Jesus, \"glad with Him to suffer pain,\"\nresisting the tempter, found their reward at the glad Easter-tide.  The\nsorrow which had endured for the night of Lent gave place to the joy\nwhich came with Easter morning.  And so in every Sunday of the year we\ntrace the golden thread of God's loving mercy lying along the narrow\nway, the path of duty.  If we have tried to keep in that path, then we\ncan look back joyfully over the year that is gone, and for the future\nwe can, like S. Paul, \"thank God, and take courage.\"\n\nThey tell us that the fishermen of Brittany, when going forth on a\nvoyage, offer this prayer--\"Save us, O God, thine ocean is so large,\nand our little boat so small.\"  That may well be our prayer as we begin\nanother year.  \"Gather up the fragments.\"  For some of us that will be\na sorry task; we are like children crying in the midst of the broken\npieces of some costly vase, shattered by our carelessness.  The\nfragments that _remain_!  How many remain of the lessons and warnings\nof the past year?  How much of the good seed remains undestroyed by the\nchoking thorn?  Some of us made good resolutions last Advent, we\nstarted well with the beginning of the Church's year, we girded on our\narmour, we determined to make a fight for the true faith, and we took a\nfirm stand on the promises of the Gospel.  And now nothing remains of\nthose good resolutions except the broken fragments to witness against\nus and upbraid us.  As for the good fight, we have fled from the battle\nbeaten, our shield has been left disgracefully behind, we have turned\nourselves back in the day of battle.  My brother, what is that dark\nstain upon the white robe of your purity?  It was not there a year ago.\nLast Advent you could look father and mother, aye, the whole world, in\nthe face.  And now you have a guilty secret spoiling your life.  You\nmay cry with Macbeth--\n\n  \"Had I but died an hour before this chance\n  I had liv'd a blessed time; for, from this instant,\n  The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees\n  Is left.\"\n\nYou cannot wash away that stain, even though you could \"weep salt\noceans from those eyes.\"  To look back mournfully will not help to undo\nthe past.  To lament over the fragments of a misspent year, or the\nmemory of broken resolutions, vows unfulfilled, and chances lost, will\nnot bring back \"the tender grace of a day that is dead.\"  The thought\nwould be maddening if we did not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The\nknowledge that we cannot recall one lost day, nor alter one past page\nin our life's story, would bring a remorse cruel as the fabled vulture\nwhich ever fed upon the vitals of the chained Prometheus.  But thanks\nbe to God, Jesus says, \"He that sitteth upon the throne saith, Behold,\nI make all things new.\"  Dear brothers and sisters, some of us need to\nturn over a new leaf, to make a fresh start, how shall we do it?  Let\nus take our secret sin, our secret sorrow, to Jesus now.  Let not the\nsun go down and find us impenitent, unpardoned.  Let us no longer go\nthrough life like galley slaves, chained and labouring at the oar.\nJesus waits to strike off our chains, He came to preach liberty to the\ncaptives.  Think of that, you who are yet prisoners, slaves of some\nsin.  Jesus will set you free.  As long as you hide your fault you are\na slave, you are torn and bitten by remorse, the worm that dieth not,\nthe fire that is not quenched.  Tell the story of your sin to Jesus\n_now_.  Never mind how sad, how shameful it is.  He is the _same_\nJesus, remember.  The same who cleansed the Magdalene, who pardoned the\nadulteress.  Can you, will you, say to-day--\n\n  \"We come to Thee, sweet Saviour,\n  With our broken faith again;\n  We know Thou wilt forgive us,\n  Nor upbraid us, nor complain.\n\n  We come to Thee, sweet Saviour,\n  Fear brings us in our need;\n  For Thy hand never breaketh\n  Not the frailest bruised reed.\"\n\n\n\"Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.\"  Let\nAdvent find us once more fighting the battle from which some had\nretreated.  Let the marks and scars upon our armour teach us our\ndanger, and help us to fight more watchfully, more humbly.  Let the\nmistakes, the weaknesses, the negligences, the ignorances of the past,\nbe warnings to us for the future.\n\n  \"Saint Augustine, well hast thou said\n  That of our vices we can frame\n  A ladder, if we will but tread\n  Beneath our feet each deed of shame.\n\n  Deem not the irrevocable past\n  As wholly wasted, wholly vain,\n  If, rising on its wrecks, at last\n  To something nobler we attain.\"\n\n\nDo you remember the Eastern story of the magician, who gave a ring of\nvast beauty to a certain prince?  Not only was the ring set with\npriceless gems, but it had this wonderful quality.  If the king\nindulged in any evil thought or wish, or devised any sinful act, the\nring contracted on his finger, and warned him by its painful pressure.\nMy brothers, does the ring of conscience press no finger here to-day?\nIs there no one here now who says in his heart: \"Would to God that I\nwere as in years past?\"  If so, cling to the cleansing Hand of Jesus\n_now_.  A well-known Scottish physician tells us that, during a\nterrible outbreak of cholera, he was summoned to a small fishing\nvillage where the plague had broken out.  As they approached the place\nby boat, they saw a crowd of anxious watchers waiting for the doctor's\narrival.  Suddenly an old man, of great height and strength, dashed\ninto the water, reached the boat ere it could reach the land, and\nseizing the doctor in his mighty arms, carried him helpless through the\ncrowd to the bedside of his cholera-stricken grandson.\n\nBrethren, if the plague spot of sin is upon you, seize upon the Hand of\nthe Good Physician, clasp Him in your arms, cry to Him now: \"wash me\nthroughly [Transcriber's note: thoroughly?] from my wickedness, and\ncleanse me from my sin!\"\n\n\n\n\nSERMON LXI.\n\nWHAT THE FLOWERS SAY.\n\n(Children's Flower Service.)\n\nPSALM ciii. 15.\n\n\"As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.\"\n\n\nChildren, have you ever heard of the language of flowers?  Now, of\ncourse, we know that flowers cannot speak as we can.  I wish they\ncould.  I think they would say such sweet things.  But in one way\nflowers do talk to us.  When you give them some water, or when God\nsends a shower of rain upon them, they give forth a sweet smell; I\nthink that the flowers are speaking then, I think that they are saying,\n\"thank you.\"  Let us listen to the preaching of the flowers to-day.\nWhat do they say to us?  Well, some say one thing, some another; but\nthere is one thing which all of them say--\"trust God.\"  God takes care\nof the flowers, and sends them dew, and rain, and sunshine, and fresh\nair, and they tell us that the same God who cares for the flowers cares\nalso for us.  And next, I think, all the flowers say to us, \"thank\nGod.\"  See how the daisies in the meadow seem to look up thankfully to\nGod.  Someone says that God smiles on the earth, and that the earth\nsmiles back again with its flowers.  Is not that a pretty thought,\nchildren, that the flowers are the smiles of the grateful earth?  Next,\nthe flowers say to us, \"be contented.\"  They are quite satisfied to\ngrow, and smell sweet, and look pretty, in the place where God puts\nthem.  Now, just as God plants the flowers in a certain place, some up\nhigh on the hills, others down low in the valley; some in the Queen's\ngreenhouse, others in the cottager's garden, so He puts you children in\nyour right place.  Be quite sure, my children, that the best place for\nus is where God puts us.  Have you ever noticed the sweet-scented wall\nflowers growing on an old stone wall?  They have scarcely any earth for\ntheir roots, only a little bit between the stones, yet they make the\nold wall beautiful, and no flower smells sweeter.  They teach us to be\ncontented.  They seem to say, we have no grand place to grow in, no\ncarefully-prepared bed, only a bit of old wall for our home, but we are\nquite satisfied, and we mean to make home as bright and sweet as we\ncan.  Let us learn the lesson of the wall flower.  Let us try to make\nhome bright and happy, and sweet, no matter how poor it is.  Another\nthing which all the flowers tell us is this, \"remember that you must\ndie.\"  When the Autumn and Winter come we say the flowers are dead\nbecause we cannot see them.  But the flowers are not really dead.  They\nare sleeping in the earth till the Spring comes again.  God has put\nthem to bed in the warm ground, and when the proper time comes they\nwill waken up.  Just what God does to the flowers He does to us.  One\nday He will send us to sleep, and take our soul to a safe place in\nParadise, whilst our body is put to bed in the earth beneath the soft\nand pleasant grass.  People will say that we are dead, just as they say\nthe flowers are dead.  One day the resurrection morning will come, it\nwill be our spring-time, and God, who raised Jesus Christ from the\ngrave, will raise us up again.\n\nSo you see, children, the flowers tell us not only that we must die,\nbut that we must rise again.  What else do the flowers say to us?  I\nthink they say, \"keep in the sunshine, be happy.\"  You always find that\nflowers are on the sunny side of things.  So ought we to be.  A plant\ncannot grow, and blossom, in a dark cellar.  It must have sunshine.  So\nif you want to be God's children, that is, good children, you must have\nsunshine in your hearts, sunshine in your faces.  Look at the face of\nan innocent child, one who is gentle, obedient, loving, pure.  You will\nsee the face full of sunshine.  But look at the face of a child who has\ndone something wrong; who has told a lie, or done some cruel, mean, or\ndishonest act.  There is no sunshine on _that_ face.  There is nothing\nbut a dark heavy cloud.  The ill-tempered child has no sunshine on his\nface.  He lives down in a dark cellar.  The discontented child has no\nsunshine on his face.  He lives down in a black dungeon with Giant\nDespair.  My children, ask God to keep you innocent; or if you have\ndone wrong, ask God to forgive you for Jesus Christ's sake, then you\nwill have sunshine, you will be happy.\n\nThere is another thing which the flowers say to us--\"Be sweet.\"  There\nis nothing so delicious as to go into a flower garden after a warm\nshower, and to smell the sweet scents.  Well, God has sent you into the\ngarden of this world to be sweet like the flowers.  How can you be\nsweet?  You can be sweet-tempered, sweet-mannered, sweet-spoken.\nSometimes you hear people say that someone has a sweet face.  Now that\nneed not mean a pretty face; a person may be pretty, and yet not sweet.\nThose who are sweet-tempered show it in their faces.  You know how a\nbunch of flowers in a room makes it sweet and wholesome.  Now every\ngood child in a home, or a school, is like a nosegay of blossoms,\nmaking the place sweet and wholesome; and every bad, vicious, unruly,\nchild is like the smell which comes from poisoned water.  When I used\nto visit the sailors in their ships to talk to them about God, I used\nto say to them, \"Now I want one of you men to be a little pinch of salt\nin this ship, I want you to keep things sweet.  Who will be the little\npinch of salt?\"  You understand what I mean, children?  I wanted a good\nman, who prayed, and read his Bible, to help the others, to try and\nstop bad talking, to keep things sweet, as salt does.  Well, I want\neach of you children to be God's sweet flower, and to try to make your\nhome sweet by your gentleness, your good temper, your love.  Some\nchildren are regular stinging nettles in a home, or a school.  They\nalways make people uncomfortable.  They sting with their tongues, and\nthey sting with their looks and their tempers.  Make up your minds,\ndear little ones, to be, by God's help, sweet flowers, not stinging\nnettles.\n\nAnd now, before I leave you, let us think what one special flower\nteaches us.  I told you that there is such a thing as the language of\nflowers, that is, that each flower has its special meaning.  Well, what\ndoes the rose say?  Surely the rose says, \"love one another!\"  Do you\nknow who it is who loves us best, and who has done most for us?  Our\nLord Jesus Christ.  Yes, and it is for that reason, I think, that He is\ncalled in the Bible a Rose,--the Rose of Sharon.  Whenever you see a\nrose, think of Jesus, the Rose of Sharon, and remember what He says to\nyou, \"Little children, love one another.\"  I will tell you a story\nabout a rose.  A little brother and sister lived in a crowded court in\na great city.  It was a wretched, dirty, ugly, place, where scarcely\nany sunshine ever came, and where the people were often rough and\nwicked.  Little Willie and his sister knew nothing about green fields\nspotted with daisies, they had never seen a flower.  One day a kind\nfriend took all the poor children living in the court for a drive into\nthe country.  I cannot tell you how happy Willie and his sister were\nwhen they saw the trees and hedges, which were all new and strange to\nthem.  Presently they passed a garden in which were growing some\nsweet-smelling red flowers.  Willie had never seen anything half so\nlovely, and he was anxious to know what the flowers were called, so\nthey told him that they were roses.  Well, after a time, when the\nWinter came, little Willie fell ill.  Day after day his sister sat\nbeside him, holding his thin white hand in hers.  Often they talked\nabout that wonderful day in the country, where they had seen the roses.\nOften, too, they talked about Jesus, and the still more beautiful\ncountry where He lived.  The children were very ignorant, but they had\nbeen to Sunday School, and learnt something about the dear Lord who\nloves children.  One cold, dark day, little Willie was much worse, and\nhe said to his sister--\"Oh!  I wish I could see a rose once more.  I\nwish you would go and get me one of those roses we saw that day!\"  So\nthe little sister, who loved him dearly, set out to walk to the place\nwhere they had seen the flowers.  After a long and weary journey, she\ncame to the field where they had played, and the garden where the roses\ngrew.  But the field and the garden were white with snow, and there\nwere no roses there.  The little girl was worn out with hunger and\nfatigue, and she dropped on her knees in the snow, and prayed, and this\nwas her prayer--\"Dear Jesus, send me one rose, only one, for little\nWillie.\"  Just then a carriage came along the road, and the lady who\nrode in it had a beautiful red rose in her hand, which had grown in a\ngreenhouse.  She dropped it from the window, I suppose, by accident,\nbut when the little girl saw it lying on the snow, she thought that\nJesus had sent it to her, and took it up lovingly to carry to her\nbrother.  But she had no more strength to struggle through the cold\nnight, and when the morning came they found her dead upon the white\nsnow, with the red rose in her hand.  That night little Willie, lying\nalone in the cold, dark, garret, also died.  And the writer of this\nstory thinks that when the brother and sister met in the Paradise of\nGod, the sister, who gave her life for love, carried a beautiful flower\nin her hand, and said, \"Willie, here's your rose.\"  So thinks the\nwriter, and I think so too.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON LXII.\n\nDAILY BREAD.\n\n(Harvest Thanksgiving.)\n\nPSALM lxv. 9.\n\n\"Thou preparest them corn.\"\n\n\n\"Come, ye thankful people, come,\" and let us thank God for another\nharvest.  Once more the Father, the Feeder, has given bread to\nstrengthen man's heart, and we turn from the corn stored in the garner,\nto God's own garner the Church, where He has stored up food for our\nsouls.\n\nAnd first of all, my brothers, let us be honest with ourselves.  Are we\nquite sure that we _are_ thankful to God for the harvest?  We have\ndecorated God's House with the first-fruits of the year, we have met\ntogether now to celebrate our Harvest Festival; but is there real\n_meaning_ in all this?  Are we thankful to God? if not our Festival is\na mockery.  Let me give you a few thoughts which may help you to be\nthankful.  The first thought is this: the harvest is _God's_ harvest,\nnot yours.  \"Thou preparest them corn,\" is spoken of God, not of man.\nCorn is unlike any other kind of food, it is the direct gift of God to\nman in fully-developed state.  Other fruits of the earth are given to\nman in a wild state, and he must improve them by care and cultivation,\ntill the wild vine is turned into the rich wine-producing plant of the\nvineyard, and the sour crab into the delicious apple.  It is not the\ncase with corn.  No one, says a writer, whose thoughts I am following,\nhas ever discovered wild corn.  Ages ago, when the Pharaohs reigned in\nEgypt, and the Pyramids were a'building, men sowed just the same corn\nthat you sow to-day.  Corns of wheat like our own have been found in\nthe hands of Egyptian mummies which have been dead for thousands of\nyears.  The grain which Joseph stored in Pharaoh's granaries, and with\nwhich he fed his brethren, was precisely similar to the produce of your\nown fields.  Geologists tell us that there is no trace of corn to be\nfound in the earth before the creation of man.  When God made man He\ncreated corn to supply him with food.  The old Greeks and Romans had a\ndim perception of this when they thought that corn was the gift of the\ngoddess Ceres.  You know we call all varieties of corn _cereals_, after\nthat same goddess.  In these days there is, with some, less religion\nthan ever the old heathen possessed.  They would shut God out of the\nworld of Nature, and see in a harvest-field only man's cleverness and\nenergy.  Let us rather humble ourselves before God, and see that it is\nHis Hand which sendeth the springs into the rivers which run among the\nhills, where all the beasts of the field drink thereof, and the wild\nasses quench their thirst; beside them shall the fowls of the air have\ntheir habitation, and sing among the branches.  Let us believe that it\nis God who watereth the hills from above, so that the earth is filled\nwith the fruits of His works; that it is God who bringeth forth grass\nfor the cattle, and green herb for the service of men, that He may\nbring food out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of\nman, and oil to make him a cheerful countenance, and bread to\nstrengthen man's heart.  Whilst the unbeliever, blinded by his\nself-conceit, is worshipping his own little stock of knowledge, and\nneglecting God, let us be singing our _Te Deum_--\"We praise Thee, O\nGod, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.\"\n\nHere is another thought which will help you to recognise corn as being\nspecially the gift of God to man.  It grows all over the world.\nWherever man can live, corn of one kind or another flourishes.  \"From\nthe bleak inhospitable wastes of Lapland to the burning plains of\nCentral India, from the muddy swamps of China to the billowy prairies\nof America, from the level of the sea-shore to the lofty valleys and\ntable-lands of the Andes and the Himalayas, it is successfully\ncultivated.  The emigrant clears the primaeval forest of Canada, or the\nfern-brakes of New Zealand, and there the corn seed sown will spring up\nas luxuriantly as on the old loved fields of home.\" [1]  All this\nshould teach us to see in the harvest the result, not of our skill and\ncleverness, but of the good God's lovingkindness.  Ask yourselves now,\nmy brothers, whether you are truly thankful to God for this harvest: is\nyour presence here to-day a real act of thanksgiving, or only an idle\nform?\n\nAmong the many curious relics of the past which were dug up in the\nburied city of Pompeii were some loaves of bread, looking just as they\ndid when they came out of the oven.  Think of those loaves baked\neighteen hundred years ago, and still preserved as witnesses against\nthat wicked city.  God was good to those people in Pompeii, and\nprepared their corn, and bread to strengthen their heart, just as He\ndoes for us.  And they went on thankless and careless in their sin,\ntill the fiery stream overtook them, and that same fire which destroyed\nthem preserved the bread, as a sign of God's goodness and man's\ningratitude.\n\nThere is yet another thought about the corn, which ought to make us\nfeel how dependent we are upon God for our _daily_ bread.  Unlike the\ngrass which is permanent as a food for cattle, or certain trees which\nbring forth fruit season by season, corn must be sown annually.  Man\ndepends upon the result of each year's sowing for the staff of life.\nAnd we are told that as a fact there is only as much corn in the world\nin each year as the world can consume in that time.  \"It is not\nprobable that there was ever a year and a half's supply of the first\nnecessary of life at one time in the world.\"  Thus, as every\nharvest-time comes round, we are almost looking famine in the face, and\nthen God opens His Hand and filleth all things living with\nplenteousness.  Rightly indeed do we pray, \"Give us day by day our\ndaily bread.\"\n\nAnd now let us look at the spiritual meaning of all this.  As corn is\nthe special gift of God to man, so is the gift of grace and pardon.\nGod gives us what we cannot obtain for ourselves, does for us what we\nare powerless to do.  As He feeds our bodies with the bread of corn, He\nfeeds our souls with the Bread of Heaven.  His Holy Catholic Church all\nover the world is a great granary stored with precious food.  Just as\ncorn grows wherever man lives, so wherever two or three are gathered\ntogether in Christ's Name there is He in the midst of them, feeding\ntheir souls.  The exile in a foreign land can sow his corn seed, and\ngather the same food as in the fields of home.  The same exile can find\nbeneath other skies the same holy teachings, the same blessed\nSacraments, the same prayers, as in the Church of his childhood.  The\nbread of earth and the Bread of Heaven are God's two universal gifts to\nman.  The penitent sinner can kneel at the Feet of Jesus, and find the\ngrace of pardon beneath the skies of England, and India, and New\nZealand, alike.  The faithful Churchman can come to the Altar and\nreceive the Body and Blood of his Saviour, even the Heavenly Bread to\nstrengthen man's heart, all over the Christian world.  As God gives us\neverywhere light and food, without which we cannot live, so does He\ngive light and food for our soul.  As says a Saint of old (S. Thomas a\nKempis), \"I feel that two things are most especially necessary to me in\nthis life; prisoned in the dungeon of the body, I acknowledge that I\nneed two things, food and light.  Therefore Thou hast given me, a sick\nman, Thy Body for the refreshment of my soul and body, and hast made\nThy Word a lantern unto my feet.  Without these two I cannot live well;\nfor the Word of God is the light of my soul, and Thy Sacrament is the\nBread of Life.\"\n\nMy brothers, whilst we thank God for giving us this harvest of corn,\nlet us still more thank Him for the harvest of spiritual blessing, for\nthe precious grace and mercy which make glad the hearts of hardened\nsinners, for the anointing of the Holy Spirit which makes our faces\nshine with joy and gladness, for the Bread which came down from Heaven,\nand which strengthens our hearts to be Christ's faithful soldiers and\nservants.\n\nOne last word.  The return of seed time and harvest teaches us that we\nare all sowers, and that the harvest is the end of the world.  We\nseldom reap here the full results of our acts whether they be good or\nevil.  \"The evil that men do lives after them,\" yes, and the good too.\nIt may seem to some of us who are trying to do our duty, trying to live\nas God's servants, that there is no harvest for us.  We seem destined\nto labour in the weary field of the world, and to see no fruit of our\nlabours.  Ah! brothers, the harvest is not yet, but it will come, the\nharvest of the good and of the evil, since--\n\n  \"We are sowers, and full seldom reapers,\n  For life's harvest ripens when we die,\n  'Tis in death alone God gives His sleepers\n  All for which they sigh.\n\n  Cast thy bread upon the waters: after\n  Many mornings, when thy head is low,\n  Men shall gather it with songs and laughter,\n  Though thou mayest not know.\"\n\n\n\n[1] Hugh Macmillan's _Bible Teachings in Nature_, to which work I am\nindebted for the structure of this Sermon.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON LXIII.\n\nGOD'S JEWELS.\n\n(Schools.)\n\nMALACHI III.  17.\n\n\"They shall be Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make\nup My jewels.\"\n\n\nThere is a legend of old time which tells us how a certain Jewish Rabbi\nreturned to his home after a long absence.  His first question\nwas--\"Where are my boys?\" for his wife had greeted him alone.  Then,\ninstead of answering her husband's question, the wife asked his advice.\nShe told him that some years before someone had lent her something very\nprecious, and she would know whether after fourteen years the loan\nbecame hers.  The Rabbi gently reproved his wife, and assured her that\nthe treasure thus lent could not become her own.  Then the wife told\nhim that on that very day He who had lent the treasure had returned and\nclaimed it.  \"Ought I to have kept it back, or repined at restoring the\nloan?\" she asked.  The Rabbi was astonished that she could ask such a\nquestion, and again enquired anxiously for his two boys.  Then the wife\ntook him by the hand, and turning back the sheet upon the bed, showed\nhim the two boys lying dead.  \"The Lord who gave hath taken.  They are\ndead.\"\n\nMy brethren, we who are parents should learn to look upon our children\nas a precious loan from the Lord.  They are God's treasures, His\njewels, and He lends them to us for a little while.  Now, to-day, I\nhave to speak to you about schools, and the duty of supporting a\n_Christian_, as opposed to a mere _secular_ education.  But, first, I\nwant to speak about another kind of education, the teaching of home.  I\nwould speak most earnestly to you mothers, because as you are the\nearliest, so are you the most powerful teachers of your children.  It\nis a tremendous responsibility which God has laid upon you.  He has\nlent you a precious jewel, an immortal soul, which will be saved or\nlost mainly through your influence.  Well says a writer of the day,\n\"Sometimes mothers think it hard to be shut up at home with the care of\nlittle children.  But she who takes care of little children takes care\nof great eternities.  She who takes care of a little child, takes care\nof an empire that knows no bounds and no dimensions.  The parent who\nstays at home and takes care of children is doing a work boundless as\nGod's heart.\"  O mothers! never grow weary in well-doing, never think\nthe children a trouble and a weariness, but a precious loan which God\nwill ask one day to have restored.  May none of you ever have to say--\n\n  \"I wonder so that mothers ever fret\n  At little children clinging to their gown,\n  Or that the foot-prints, when the days are wet,\n  Are ever black enough to make them frown.\n  If I could find a little muddy boot,\n  Or cap, or jacket, on my chamber floor;\n  If I could kiss a rosy, restless foot,\n  And hear it patter in my house once more;\n  If I could mend a broken cart to-day,\n  To-morrow make a kite to reach the sky,\n  There is no woman in God's world could say\n  She was more blissfully content than I.\n  But ah! the dainty pillow next my own\n  Is never rumpled by a shining head;\n  My singing birdling from its nest is flown;\n  The little boy I used to kiss is dead.\"\n\n\nMy sisters, God would have you who are mothers to be nursing mothers\nfor Heaven, your nursery, your home, the school of Christ.  Let every\nmother here take to heart the story of Monica and Augustine.  You know\nthat the future Bishop and famous preacher was as a young man given up\nto all kinds of vicious courses, and refused to embrace the faith of\nhis mother, a devoted Christian.  His dissipation and impiety were a\nconstant source of sorrow to the gentle Monica, who never ceased to\npray for him.  When Augustine was a student at Carthage, drinking\ndeeply of the beautiful poisoned chalice of heathen literature, the\nmother's letters to her son were full of the sweet lessons of\nChristianity.  Still Augustine persevered in the old evil way, and when\nhe gained fame as a teacher he still disregarded the words of Monica\nShe prayed on, but almost in despair.  One night she dreamed than an\nangel appeared to her, and promised that where she was there her\nbeloved Augustine should be.  She told the vision to her son, who made\nlight of it, saying, that if it meant anything, it was that she should\nadopt his faith.  \"Nay,\" said his mother, \"it was not said to me,\n'Where he is you shall be,' but, 'Where _you_ are he shall be.'\"  Still\nthe years went on, and there was no change in Augustine.  Monica\nconsulted a great Christian Bishop, who bade her persevere, since it\nwas impossible that the child of so many tears and prayers should\nperish.  After a while Augustine journeyed to Rome, his mother's\nprayers going with him.  There he heard S. Ambrose preach, and his\nheart was touched.  There was a hard struggle between the old life and\nthe new for a time, and Monica was with Augustine in his conflict.  At\nlast she saw of the travail of her soul, and was satisfied.  O mothers,\npray as Monica prayed for Augustine, if you would have your children\ngrow up as God's children set them a strong example, and pray without\nceasing.\n\nThere is, in a certain country Churchyard, a grave-stone with this\nepitaph--\"He loved little children.\"  Few of us could wish for a\nbetter.  Sometimes a whole life is written in one sentence, it was so,\nno doubt, in this case.  There is not, to my mind, among all the\nepitaphs in S. Paul's Cathedral, or Westminster Abbey, telling the\npraises of soldiers, heroes, statesmen, anyone to compare with the\nsimple sentence--\"He loved little children.\"  Now, brethren, if we love\nlittle children, we can best show our love by having them brought up as\nChristian children; by having them taught to love the Church of their\nBaptism, and to know and reverence the Bible.  The question of the day\nis education with God or without God, a creedless School where the\nyoung may believe anything, or nothing, or a Church School where they\nare brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and grounded\nin the faith of their fathers.  Perhaps there was never a time when\nEngland was in so critical a state as now, and its future depends on\nour children.  Outside enemies are clamouring at the doors of the\nChurch, crying, \"down with it, down with it, even to the ground.\"  The\nFranchise will be practically in the hands of everyone; and what will\nthe future of the Church and the State be, when this new power is\nplaced in the hands of those who have been brought up without any\ndefinite religious faith?  The policy of the day is to shut God out of\nour Schools, as we have tried to shut Him out of our legislature and\nour commerce.  We find our boys at the Public Schools, and our young\nmen at the Universities, frequently taught by men who openly profess\nunbelief, and talk of the Incarnation and kindred doctrines as\n\"beautiful myths.\"  We find the children of our parishes brought up in\ncreedless Schools, where all dogmatic teaching is excluded, and we may\nwell fear lest England should drift into the utter unbelief of France.\n\nMy brethren, you may take care of your children's intellects, you may\ngive them what is called a \"good education,\" but I tell you no\neducation can be _good_ which is not based upon the Gospel of the Lord\nJesus Christ.  You may educate a child to pass one of the endless\nexaminations of the day, but we must remember that there is a great and\nfinal examination to be passed, when all earthly competitions are\nended.  Remember your child's soul, and educate him for Heaven.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON LXIV.\n\nMUTUAL HELP.\n\n(Female Friendly Society.)\n\nS. MARK iii. 35.\n\n\"Whosoever shall do the Will of God, the same is My brother, and My\nsister, and My mother.\"\n\n\nThere are just two points which I want to put before you to-day.\nFirst, what you as Christian women ought to be.  Secondly, how you can\nhelp each other to be so.  On the first point I would ask you to\nremember the glory and dignity of womanhood.  You get this dignity from\nJesus Christ, who was born of a woman, and who said, \"Whosoever shall\ndo the Will of God, the same is My brother, and My sister, and My\nmother.\"  Before Christ came into the world the condition of women was\nmost miserable.  They were degraded, despised, treated as slaves, and\nbeasts of burden, as they are in heathen lands to this day.  Since\nChrist came every good woman is loved, honoured, and respected.  Jesus\nChrist set us the example.  It was on a woman's breast that the Son of\nGod found earthly refuge.  It was to a woman who had been probably a\ngreat sinner, and out of whom He had cast seven devils, that Jesus gave\nthe first news of His Resurrection.  He told Mary Magdalene to announce\nthe Gospel of the risen Jesus to His disciples.  This, my sisters, is\nthe true work of every Christian woman, to teach those around you, the\nchildren, the household, the busy men, the Gospel of the higher life,\nthe Gospel of the Resurrection.  And this is not to be done with the\npreacher's voice from the pulpit, but with the still, small voice of\nlove and gentleness, and sweet temper, and purity; by that most\npowerful of all sermons--a good example.\n\nNext, I want you to remember the wonderful power which God has given\nyou, and which you can use either for good or evil.  God has, in one\nway, made men stronger than women.  But every woman has influence, the\npower of leading others right or wrong.  Do you know that from the time\nof Eve women have mainly made the history of the world?  Men may have\ndone the deeds, but women have led the men.  \"The hope of France is in\nour mothers,\" said a famous French Bishop, and every good man owes the\nbest part of himself to his earliest and best teacher and guide--his\nmother.  The origin of most sins also can be traced to the influence of\na bad woman.  Samson, the giant, becomes the blinded, helpless slave,\nby trusting to false Delilah.  Ahab loses honour and life by making\nJezebel his counsellor.  Mark Antony, the conqueror, sits helpless at\nthe feet of Cleopatra.  Never forget the power of leading others which\nyou have as mothers, wives, or sisters, and take good heed that you\nlead them in the right way.\n\nSecondly, let me give you a few homely words of advice about the\nspecial temptations and dangers which surround you, and the best means\nof helping each other to resist them.  Many of you passed from home\nlife into domestic service, where you have very frequently to stand\nalone, without the help of parent or teacher.  Every position in life\nhas its special trials and temptations.  I have temptations which do\nnot come to you; you have trials from which I am free.  I have heard\nmany life-stories like yours when I have been holding a Mission, and\ntherefore I know far more of your special temptations than you imagine.\nOne of these special dangers is _bad company_.  You all have your\nholidays, and your \"days out,\" and you naturally look forward to them\nvery eagerly.  But, my sisters, stay, and ask yourselves the\nquestion--How do I spend my holidays?  If the day be Sunday, do you\nkeep God's Commandment, and observe the Sabbath Day to keep it holy?\nIf not, how can you expect to be kept from evil?  You promised in your\nBaptism and your Confirmation to keep all God's Will and Commandments,\nand one of these is, \"Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath Day.\"\nTake care what company you keep.  If you cannot say, \"I am a companion\nof all such as love the Lord,\" be sure your company is of the wrong\nsort.  I have known many a one who has lost name, fame, character, all\nthat a woman holds most dear, and who has brought an honest name to\ndisgrace, and broken a mother's heart, by mixing with bad company.  The\nproverb says that a person is known by his friends, by the company he\nkeeps.  You cannot touch fire and escape burning, and you cannot keep\ncompany with those who laugh at religion, who make a mock at sin, who\nnever pray, who talk immodestly, and are disobedient to the wishes of\nparent or employer, without falling into sin yourselves.\n\nIf any of you who hear me are entangled with such company, make up your\nmind now, and give it up.  Be brave enough to do what is right.  Ask\nGod to make you brave.  And one word more, _help each other_ to do what\nis right.  I say to you who want to go in the right way, keep each\nother company.  None of us can stand alone, we need help.  You have\nprobably heard the story of the blind man and the lame man who were\ncalled to journey to a distant place.  What was to be done?  The blind\nman could not see, the lame man could not walk; so they helped each\nother: the blind man carried the lame man, who directed him in the\nright way.  Some of you have stronger wills and characters than others,\nlet the strong help the weak.  But _how_ can you best help each other?\nSoldiers in battle assist each other by closing their ranks, and\nkeeping together.  There is the secret of strength, _keep together_.\nLet all the members of your society march together.  Try to set each a\ngood example, a _strong_ example, by prayer, by reading your Bible\ndaily, by attending the services of the Church as frequently as\npossible, by coming to the Altar of the Blessed Sacrament, whenever it\nis possible.  Above all, pray, intercede, for each other.\n\n\n\n\nTHE END.","title":"The Life of Duty, v. 2: A year's plain sermons on the Gospels or Epistles","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":54849}