{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_55160/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_55160","id":"gutenberg_55160","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55160","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: History - Warfare","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Sermons, English","World War, 1914-1918"],"text":"Transcriber's Note: Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold\ntext by =equal signs=\n\n\n\n\nTHE WAR AND THE GOSPEL\n\n\n\n\n THE WAR\n AND\n THE GOSPEL\n\n SERMONS AND ADDRESSES DURING\n THE PRESENT WAR\n\n By\n HENRY WACE, D.D.,\n Dean of Canterbury,\n Hon. Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford;\n Fellow of King\u2019s College, London.\n\n London:\n CHAS. J. THYNNE,\n 28, Whitefriars Street, E.C.\n\n 1917.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nAs is usual in Cathedrals, it is the duty of the Dean of Canterbury\nto preach on the chief Festivals of the Christian year; and most of\nthe following Addresses have been delivered in the discharge of this\noffice. My comfort in the performance of this duty, especially to an\naudience of soldiers, in these solemn days, has been the sense that I\nwas commissioned to deliver the message of a Gospel which has \u201cbrought\nLife and Immortality to light,\u201d and which proclaims the good news of\nthe presence of a Saviour in all the circumstances Of life or death. I\nhave simply endeavoured, therefore, to bring some of the light of this\nGospel to bear on the distressing and perplexing experiences which this\nWar has forced upon us all, and especially upon those who have borne\nits chief sacrifices. I am sure that, if only believed and realized,\nthe message of this Gospel is sufficient to support and to strengthen\nus under all such trials and strains; and I hope I am not presumptuous\nin offering these slight contributions towards that purpose to a wider\naudience than my Cathedral congregations.\n\n H. WACE.\n\nCANTERBURY, January 1917.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n PAGE\n\n I. THE CHRISTMAS MESSAGE (preached in\n Canterbury Cathedral, Christmas Day,\n 1914) 1\n\n II. CHRISTMAS AND THE WAR (preached in\n Canterbury Cathedral, Christmas Day,\n 1915) 16\n\n III. THE THINGS SEEN AND THE THINGS\n NOT SEEN (preached in Canterbury\n Cathedral, Easter Day, 1915) 28\n\n IV. THE EASTER MESSAGE (preached in Canterbury\n Cathedral, Easter Day, 1916) 40\n\n V. THE NEED AND THE MEANS OF RIGHT\n JUDGMENT (preached in Canterbury\n Cathedral, Whit Sunday, 1915) 53\n\n VI. THE ADVENT MESSAGE AND THE WAR\n (preached in Canterbury Cathedral,\n Advent Sunday, 1914) 67\n\n VII. DIVINE JUDGMENT AND RENOVATION\n (preached in Canterbury Cathedral,\n October 11th, 1914) 82\n\n VIII. RESISTANCE UNTO BLOOD (preached in\n Canterbury Cathedral, Good Friday,\n April 21st, 1916) 97\n\n IX. INTERCESSION FOR KINGS AND RULERS\n (preached in Canterbury Cathedral the\n Day of the King\u2019s Accession, May 6th,\n 1915) 105\n\n X. THE CHRISTIAN SANCTION OF WAR (Address\n at the Service of Intercession in Canterbury\n Cathedral, August 9th, 1914) 117\n\n XI. THE WARNING OF THE TOWER OF SILOAM\n (preached in Canterbury Cathedral,\n October 25th, 1914) 129\n\n XII. THE RIGHTEOUS IDEAL (preached in Canterbury\n Cathedral, January 15th, 1915) 143\n\n XIII. REASONS FOR INTERCESSION (preached in\n Canterbury Cathedral, June 17th, 1916) 158\n\n XIV. THE ETERNAL SOURCE OF GOODNESS\n (preached at Holy Trinity Church,\n Margate, November 7th, 1915) 173\n\n XV. THE NATIONAL IDEAL (preached in Canterbury\n Cathedral, January 3rd, 1915) 188\n\n XVI. RELIGION AND WAR (from _The Record_,\n Thursday, September 3rd, 1916) 203\n\n XVII. PRAYER FOR THE DEAD (from _The Record_,\n Friday, November 20th, 1914) 215\n\n XVIII. CHRIST AND THE SOLDIER (preached in\n Canterbury Cathedral at the Military\n Church Parade, September 27th, 1914) 228\n\n XIX. THE ETERNAL LIFE OF THE SOUL (preached\n in the Nave of Canterbury Cathedral\n at the Military Church Parade, October\n 15th, 1916) 239\n\n\n\n\nTHE CHRISTMAS MESSAGE.\n\nA SERMON PREACHED ON CHRISTMAS DAY A.D. 1914.\n\n \u201c_And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly\n host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on\n earth peace, good will toward men._\u201d--St. Luke ii. 13, 14.\n\n\nIf Christmas this sad year is to be a real comfort and help to us,\nwe must realize very clearly what it is that was the cause of the\njoy of the Angels, and has been always the source of the true joy of\nChristmas, during the nineteen hundred years or more since that first\noutburst of heavenly praise and song. The reason had been announced by\none Angel to the shepherds abiding in the fields in the words, \u201cFear\nnot; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall\nbe to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a\nSaviour, which is Christ the Lord.\u201d The Jewish people were looking and\nlonging for the Christ Who would come, as is expressed in Zacharias\u2019\nsong, to deliver them from the hand of their enemies, and to grant\nunto them that they \u201cmight serve Him without fear, in holiness and\nrighteousness before Him all the days of their life.\u201d This was the\npromise which, as Zacharias said, had been given by the mouth of God\u2019s\nprophets since the world began, for which they had craved through long\nsuffering, and captivity, and disappointment; and it is this promise\nwhich the angel declared was now fulfilled. A Saviour had been born to\nthem, One Who was able to realize for them the great hopes of blessing\nwhich the prophets had held out. He would be able, in the words of\nanother angel, \u201cto save them from their sins,\u201d and by saving them from\ntheir sins to save them from the sufferings and sorrows which those\nsins had entailed upon them. By the birth of our Lord that had become\nan accomplished fact. There existed from that moment One Who stood\nbetween heaven and earth, between God and man, and united both--the Son\nof God and the Son of Man, with power \u201cto save to the uttermost all\nwho come unto God by Him,\u201d and able, first by His sacrifice for our\nsins, and then by His exercise of the royal authority and power which\nare entrusted to Him, to put down all enemies under His feet, and to\ndeliver up the Kingdom to God the Father, \u201cthat God may be all in all.\u201d\n\nThat is the grand consummation which, to the vision of the Angels, was\ncomprehended in this simple saying, \u201cUnto you is born this day in the\ncity of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.\u201d Let us clearly\nobserve that it is not merely the future hope, but the present fact,\nwhich causes the Angels\u2019 rejoicing. The Saviour is born, the King is\nrevealed, the work of redemption is actually commenced. \u201cGlory to God,\u201d\nthey exclaimed, \u201cin the highest, and on earth peace; goodwill toward\nmen.\u201d The goodwill of God toward men is now embodied in the Babe Who\nis Christ the Lord; or, as it is translated in the Revised Version\n(in different words, but with the same meaning), God\u2019s goodwill is\nmanifested \u201cto men in whom He is well pleased.\u201d It is much more than a\ngeneral declaration of peace and goodwill. It is a grand revelation, a\nrevelation which opened the heavens and evoked from a host of Angels,\nsuch as had never before nor has since been seen, a burst of glory to\nGod for the blessing that from that moment there was a living Saviour\nin human form in the world.\n\nNow I wish to urge this fact upon you this morning in all its glorious\nreality, because it is in that fact alone that we can find comfort\nand help amidst the dark distress of such a Christmas as this, and\nbecause it affords us the one supreme guidance in our deep perplexity.\nThe feeling is in all our hearts, and the phrase on many lips, \u201cWhat\na contrast is exhibited by this tremendous and cruel war to the\nwords of hope and peace in the angels\u2019 song,\u201d and the old complaint\nis uttered, Where is the promise of His coming--the coming of the\nPrince of Peace? But we have only to consider the immediate sequel of\nthe first Christmas Day, to realize that the assurance given by the\nangels, and their joy, involved no such facile creation of a time of\npeace and righteousness as the eager hopes of men imagine. The first\nresult of the Saviour\u2019s coming to His people, and claiming their trust\nand allegiance, was that they rejected Him and crucified Him. He\nrose from the dead and sent His Apostles to proclaim His resurrection\nand His full assumption of His power as a King and Saviour, but they\ncontinued to reject Him; and the result was that, instead of entering\non that Kingdom of righteousness and peace and glory of which their\nprophets had spoken, their nation was crushed in scenes of \u201cblood\nand fire and vapour of smoke,\u201d and all the bright hopes of Zacharias\nwere apparently extinguished. So the world went on, Christmas after\nChristmas, and century after century, through successive scenes of war\nand destruction and desolation, of which the spectacles of which we\nread day by day afford us a horribly vivid example. If the angels\u2019 song\nhad meant simply to promise peace on earth, it was contradicted by the\nexperience, not merely of bitter times like the present, but by every\nyear and every century which followed.\n\nBut where, then, is the fulfilment of the promise? You have the record\nand the evidence of it in your New Testament. There, in the history of\nthe Apostles and disciples of our Lord, and in their Epistles, you\nbehold a body of men whose souls are filled with peace, and with the\nsense of the goodwill of God, and who are living the life described\nand enjoined by our Lord in the Gospels--the life of the Sermon on\nthe Mount, and of His parting discourses to His disciples recorded by\nSt. John. They are living in the midst of that world of passion and\nviolence and tyrannical domination of which I have spoken, and yet they\nspeak to us in tones of the most profound peace, and joy, and hope,\nand even exultation. The reason is that, through faith in our Lord,\nin His sacrifice, and in the promise of His spirit, they have found\npeace with God--the peace of which the angels spoke; they live in the\nblessed assurance of His goodwill, and they look forward with infinite\nrejoicing to His return, to establish, as He promised, a new heaven and\na new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.\n\nThat spiritual Kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy\nGhost has subsisted continuously from that time to this. It is here in\nthe midst of us. There are souls whom we are privileged to know, who\nare visibly living in that kingdom of Divine peace and goodwill, and\nwho, when they leave us here, pass, as we and they are assured, into\nfuller realization of that kingdom, looking forward to its complete\nestablishment and revelation at the Day of the general Resurrection.\nThat is the kingdom Of the Lord\u2019s elect, of the Saviour\u2019s followers,\nof the saints--perfect or imperfect, but still saints, of all ages,\nthe Church of Christ and the Kingdom of God. It is a kingdom within\nwhich every Christian soul is admitted by baptism to his place and\nhis privilege, and it rests only with him to claim its blessings by\nhis faith and his life. In a word: the Acts of the Apostles and the\nEpistles are the record of the fulfilment of the angels\u2019 promise of\npeace and love and Divine goodwill, for all who would submit to the\nKing and Saviour whose advent they proclaimed, and who would receive\nHis blessings in the way in which He offered them. To all whom would\n\u201crepent and believe and be baptised in the Name of Jesus Christ for the\nremission of sins,\u201d the promises of the angelic song were fulfilled,\nand they have been fulfilled similarly to this hour.\n\nBut has the promise, then, no bearing on the ordinary secular life\nof mankind? Are the instincts of men wrong in looking eagerly to it,\nas they have done from generation to generation, for the prophetic\nassurance of peace between men, as well as of peace between men and\nGod--of goodwill from man to man, as well as from God to man and man\nto God. Most certainly they have not been wrong in that eager hope and\nexpectation; but where they have been wrong, and still are wrong, is in\ntheir conception of the methods and means by which that secular peace\nand those purely human blessings and happiness are to be realized. If\nChrist is, as the angels said, the Saviour, the Saviour of the world;\nif He is the King Who alone can save His people from their sins; and if\nwar and all the miseries of the world are, in one form or another, the\nconsequences of those sins, then the only way of obtaining salvation\nfrom those sins, and deliverance from those miseries which are God\u2019s\njudgments upon them, is by submitting ourselves entirely to Him,\nrepenting of our failure in obedience to Him, living only by His laws,\nand seeking His grace and His Spirit for our guidance and inspiration.\nHave we done that? Has Europe at large been doing it these last fifty\nyears?\n\nPeople ask how such a war as this can be possible after nineteen\ncenturies of Christianity. What do you mean by Christianity? If you\nonly mean that, during the greater part of those centuries, there has\nbeen a general and nominal acknowledgment of the authority of Christ\nand of His laws, such a description of the condition of the world\nduring that time may be allowed. But if you mean a real submission\nof the mass of men and women, in heart and life, to the will, the\nlove, and the Spirit of Christ, then we have not really had nineteen\ncenturies of Christianity, and the state of the modern world, out\nof which this war has arisen, has not been a Christian state. It is\nnotorious for instance, and not impugned anywhere, that the spirit of\nGermany, which has provoked this war, has not only not been a Christian\nspirit, but has been violently anti-Christian. The Divine authority\nof Christ as the King and Saviour of the world has been openly and\nvehemently impugned for at least a generation or two, especially in\nthe public and authoritative teaching in the Universities, which have\nsuch immense influence in German life. Christ to them has not been the\nKing of kings and Lord of Lords, the very incarnation of God, \u201cthe\nbrightness of His glory and the express image of His person.\u201d\n\nIf we are honest, we must also acknowledge that in far too great a\ndegree the same failure has prevailed among ourselves. It has, to say\nthe least of it, not been sufficiently recognized in our literature of\nlate years, or in our public life, that \u201call form is formless, order\norderless,\u201d which is not entirely subject to Christ and informed by\nHis Spirit. The very vice with which we now charge the Germans has\nbeen more than a temptation among ourselves. We have had great writers\namong us exalting statesmen and kings of the past on the ground of\ntheir mere strength. It was a great English writer of the last century\nwho glorified Frederick the Great of Prussia as an example of a really\nstrong king; and it is not a long step from that glorification to the\nworship which has been paid on the Continent of late to the supremacy\nof strength and self-assertion. That is not the Christian spirit, and\nthe \u201cred ruin and the breaking up of laws,\u201d into which Europe is now\nplunged, is to be charged, not to any weakness in Christianity, but\nto a grievous neglect, and in some degree to the very negation, of\nChristianity.\n\nThe peace and goodwill which the message of the angels promised is,\nin fact, within the scope of Christianity, and might be realized in\nthe world at large, but solely on the condition of the true methods\nbeing observed--on condition, that is, of Christ, and the law of\nChrist, being acknowledged from the heart as the true and only source\nof peace and truth and goodwill, and on the condition of penitent,\nhumble, and earnest devotion to Him. That is the one supreme condition\non which peace to the world is promised by the Gospel. When emperors,\nand kings, and statesmen, and soldiers, and men and women in general\nbelieve the angels\u2019 proclamation that Christ is their only Saviour,\ntheir only King, that He alone, by His sacrifice, His laws, and His\ngrace can save His people from their sins, then, but then only, may\nthey hope in the life of the State, as well as in that of the Church,\nto realize the angels\u2019 promise of peace and goodwill. In a word: it is\nnot by strength, nor by liberty, nor even by law, that the blessings of\nwhich Christmas holds out the promise can be realized. It is only by\nChristian liberty, Christian law, and Christian strength--that is to\nsay, liberty and law, and strength exerted in obedience to the will of\nChrist--that these blessings can be obtained. It is not Christianity\nthat has failed; it is not the angelic song that has disappointed us.\nIt is nominal Christians who have failed, from not being Christians\nin reality. And the angelic song has proved its truth by the very\ndisasters which have fallen upon men who have not lived as though\nChrist were their Saviour and their King.\n\nBut, thank God, if these considerations point to our weakness, they\nalso point to our hope, and to the means for our deliverance. We have\nstill as much reason to rejoice as the angels had when they sang this\nsong, because the great joy of it lies in the eternal fact that there\nis a Saviour and there is a King, Who, if His people will trust Him,\nwill save them from their sins and all the miseries that their sins\ninvolve. If our own lives and the life of our nation and the life of\nEurope can be made truly Christian, if we can bring more of the love\nof Christ and the life of Christ into our daily existence, we have the\nassurance that He will save us, and will extirpate the abuses and the\nfalsehoods which have brought the nations of Europe to this terrible\npass.\n\nIn a few days we are to have a Day of Humble Prayer and Intercession\nto Almighty God. Let it be, above all, a day of humble acknowledgment\nof our failure as individuals and as a nation in His true faith and\nobedience. I would fain it had been called by the good old Christian\nand English name of a Day of Humiliation. We ought to be humiliated.\nWe have, in such ways as I have indicated, been contented with a\nhalf-Christian life in public affairs and in society. We and our\nmen of letters, and men of learning, and men of affairs, have been\naffected with the same half-heartedness in our allegiance to Christ,\nwhich shocks us when we see it displayed in all its nakedness in other\ncountries, and especially in the one which is chiefly opposed to us.\nLet us be humiliated for it before God, not caring, in comparison with\nour true relation to Him, what interpretation the world may put on our\nrepentance.\n\nBut let us also rejoice more than ever in the assurance of Christmas\nthat a Saviour has been born to us, that we have an eternal King in our\nLord Jesus Christ, Who can save us from our sins, and our ruin, and\nourselves, if we will but give ourselves up to Him absolutely. Let us\nrealize with infinite thankfulness that the souls of those who are now\nsacrificing their lives for us are in His saving and merciful hands.\nLet us be reminded by the angelic vision that we ourselves, and the\nsouls of those who have passed and are passing away, are not brought\nmerely into contact with the \u201cblackness and darkness and tempest\u201d of\nwar, but are come unto \u201cMount Zion, to the city of the living God,\nand to an innumerable company of Angels, and to the general assembly\nof the Church of the Firstborn and to Christ the Judge of all, and to\nthe spirits of just men made perfect.\u201d Let us realize this more than\nwe have yet done. Let us realize the truth of the Angels\u2019 proclamation\nthat Christ and Christ alone is our Saviour and our King, that He alone\ncan save us, individuals and nations alike, from our sins; and then,\nin spite of all the distress and anxiety which surrounds us, this may\nprove the most blessed Christmas of our lives, and it may bring us a\nhappiness which will last unto life eternal.\n\n\n\n\nCHRISTMAS AND THE WAR.\n\nA SERMON PREACHED ON CHRISTMAS DAY A.D. 1915.\n\n \u201c_Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according\n to our works, but according to His Own purpose and grace, which was\n given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made\n manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, Who hath\n abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light\n through the Gospel._\u201d--2 Tim. i. 9, 10.\n\n\nThere has never been an occasion in our own lives, and there have been\nfew occasions in the world\u2019s history, on which we have had more reason\nfor unbounded thankfulness for the blessed message of Christmas. We\nare celebrating this Festival to-day in a sadder and darker world than\nany of us can remember, amid scenes of bloodshed and desolation, of\nwhich an adequate description can only be found in the lurid pictures\nof the Book of Revelation, with war and hatred all around us instead of\npeace and good will, and with death and destruction raging over a great\npart both of Europe and of Asia. If we had to confine our vision to\nthe present world, and to the prospects it offers, men\u2019s hearts might\nwell, in our Lord\u2019s words, be \u201cfailing them for fear, and for looking\nafter those things which are coming on the earth\u201d; but Christmas breaks\nupon this dark scene with a message and a promise, which enable us to\nlift our hearts and hopes above this present world and this earthly\nscene. The heavens are opened; a great illumination bursts upon the\nworld; and an innumerable multitude of the heavenly host are heard\nsinging, in tones of rejoicing and thankfulness, \u201cGlory to God in the\nHighest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.\u201d They are good\ntidings of great joy, proclaiming peace and good will from God towards\nmen--good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people, that unto\nus was born that day in the City of David \u201ca Saviour, which is Christ\nthe Lord!\u201d Such tidings of great joy are the very things for which our\nhearts are yearning amid the distresses, bereavements and sorrows, and\nthe overwhelming anxieties of the moment, and such are the tidings\nwhich Christmas brings. Let us beware of allowing the heavy burdens\nand sorrows of the hour to obscure, or to muffle, to our hearts these\ntidings of great joy. On the contrary, the darker the hour, the heavier\nthe burden; let us open our hearts the more to this glory of God\nshining round about us, as on this day, and to the tidings of great joy\nwhich are proclaimed to us by the Angelic Choir.\n\nIt is well we should remember, in the first place, that, even though to\nourselves this hour is peculiarly dark, it is but an aggravation, and\nwe may hope a comparatively brief one, of human experience throughout\nall history. That history has been from the first marked by two\naspects, in the sharpest contrast to one another. In the first place,\nfrom century to century it has been one of incessant struggle, of war,\nof the rising of nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom;\nand the Book of Revelation depicts the world as ending in scenes of\ngreater struggle and desolation than have ever gone before. That has\nbeen the terrible reality of human experience from the commencement\nto the present time. But, on the other hand, throughout these\ndistressing scenes there has always been heard a moral and spiritual\nVoice, assuring men that God was controlling all these sufferings and\nstruggles, and that all was working for good, alike to the world at\nlarge and to the individual.\n\nYou have the representation of the experience of every generation of\nmen in the pages of the Bible, and especially of the Prophet Isaiah.\nHe is known as the Evangelical Prophet, because he depicts in deeper\nand nobler tones than any other inspired voice that blessed promise of\ngood will, of which the final proclamation was uttered to-day. But let\nus bear in mind the circumstances under which the glorious promises\nwhich we recite and sing at this season were uttered. Let us listen to\nIsaiah\u2019s own description of them in the twenty-fourth chapter: \u201cBehold,\nthe Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it\nupside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.... The\nland shall be utterly emptied and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath\nspoken this word.... All joy is darkened; the mirth of the land is\ngone. In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with\ndestruction.\u201d These were the visible realities around him, but he is\ninspired to look over them and through them; and he ends that passage\nby declaring that \u201cit shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord\nshall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings\nof the earth upon the earth;\u201d and that, at the last, \u201cthe moon shall\nbe confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall reign\nin Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously.\u201d\nIsaiah and his fellow-Prophets were surrounded by scenes of war and\nbloodshed and desolation as terrible as any we have around us in our\nown day, and it was over these fields of battle and destruction that\nthe glorious songs were heard which are our delight and encouragement\nat this season. \u201cComfort ye, comfort ye my people saith your God. Speak\nye comfortably to Jerusalem, and say unto her that her warfare is\naccomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received at\nthe Lord\u2019s hand double for all her sins.\u201d There is nothing more amazing\nin the experience of the human heart, and more inspiring to ourselves,\nthan that these grand songs of hope and deliverance and comfort should\nhave echoed over the desolate fields of Judea, and lived in the hearts\nof a people who were as crushed, and all but destroyed, as any of the\nruined nations of Europe of the present day.\n\nIt has been the same all through history. Even where there was not the\ninspired voice of Revelation, there was still among the Greeks and\nRomans the ineradicable hope of a Golden Age; and an inner witness\nof God\u2019s Spirit kept alive in the whole human race a firm belief in\nHis justice and His ultimate deliverance, both for the world and for\nindividuals, from age to age. Let us not think, therefore, that in the\nstrain and distress and suffering of the present hour we are undergoing\nany novel or special experience; and if we should be tempted to be out\nof heart, let us be shamed by the faith of the past, by the inspiration\nof the Prophets, and even by the uninspired faith and courage of\nmankind at large. Let us believe, through all, as they did, that the\nLord reigneth, and that though \u201cclouds and darkness are round about\nHim, righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His seat.\u201d The\nbirth of our Lord, which we celebrate to-day, and the Divine Voice\nwhich spoke in Him through human lips, have given us a final assurance\nthat He is reigning, and that He will judge the world in righteousness.\n\nBut it has done other things, of which my text more particularly\nspeaks, which are a source of still greater joy and assurance to us\nindividually. By the message which our Lord brought us, an infinite and\nblessed light has been thrown over the great mystery which darkened\nthe minds, and dimmed the faith, of men before His time. The Apostle\nsays that our Saviour \u201chath abolished death, and hath brought life\nand immortality to light through the Gospel.\u201d Though looking first,\nas we may and ought, with the Prophets, to the ultimate vindication\nof righteousness and justice throughout the world, by the fulfilment\nof God\u2019s judgments in the struggles of mankind, there still remained,\nand there remains at this moment, to many hearts among us, the mystery\nof the sacrifice of life which such judgments involve--the mystery\nof the destruction of thousands of lives precious in themselves, and\ninfinitely dear to those who loved them, and who lived with them and\nfor them here. Before the Gospel, men\u2019s hearts strained at the burden\nof that mystery, and it is wonderful that human nature endured it with\nsuch courage and patience; but now, says the Apostle, God\u2019s purpose and\ngrace in this bitter experience \u201cis made manifest by the appearing of\nour Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath abolished death, and hath brought life\nand immortality to light through the Gospel.\u201d\n\nIt would be rather truer to the original, and more closely\ncorresponding with the facts, to say--not that our Lord hath abolished\ndeath, for, alas! that still remains around us--but that He hath\nbrought death to nought, annihilated its power, and destroyed its\nstrength. \u201cThe last enemy,\u201d we are told, \u201cwhich shall be destroyed is\ndeath\u201d; but meanwhile, for every Christian soul, its greatest distress\nand terror is gone because our Lord has thrown a glorious illumination\nupon it, and has \u201cbrought life and immortality to light through the\nGospel.\u201d He has enabled us to see beyond the grave, beyond those\ndreadful battlefields, strewn with the bodies of those whom we had\nloved and honoured, and has made manifest to us that they still live\non in a new life, and a glorious immortality. Who can estimate the\nmercy to sad and sorrowing hearts of the establishment of that blessed\nhope on the firm assurance of our Lord Himself, who, after suffering an\nagonizing death here, appeared to His Apostles and declared, \u201cFear not;\nI am the first and the last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; and,\nbehold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and\nof death\u201d? The pain of bereavement remains--that is like the loss of\na limb, which time alone can soften--but the definite assurance, from\nthe Saviour\u2019s lips, that those who have died in His faith and obedience\nhave entered on a new and blessed life, must be of infinite comfort\nto those who loved them. We are not left any longer to hopes and to\nfuture expectations; but can grasp the assurance of present realities\nwhich are vouched for by the Saviour who took our nature upon Him, who\nlived our life, and died our death, and showed Himself alive beyond\nthe grave. This is what we owe to the Saviour\u2019s birth, with all the\ngracious revelation of which it was the commencement.\n\nThe Apostle\u2019s assurance goes, indeed, beyond this illumination of our\npresent experience, and seems to throw a glorious light upon the whole\nhistory of mankind. \u201cGod,\u201d he says, \u201chath saved us, and called us with\nan holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own\npurpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus, before the world\nbegan.\u201d It is now made manifest by the appearing of our Lord Jesus\nChrist, but it existed from all eternity \u201cbefore the world began.\u201d\nIf so, then through those long ages which preceded our Lord\u2019s birth,\nthis life and immortality were given to the millions to whom His Name\nhad not been manifested, but who died in the discharge of their duty,\nand who faithfully made the sacrifices which were involved in His\ngovernment and just judgment of the world. Christ revealed the wars and\nsufferings of this world as the inevitable consequence of the operation\nof God\u2019s righteousness and justice upon the evil, the sin, and the\nGodlessness of mankind. Sooner or later those sins and evils gather to\na head, in some great corruption of society and political life, in some\nenormous crime of ambition or pride; and the righteousness and justice\nof God, working through the ordinary laws of human nature, evokes some\ntremendous reaction against them; and we behold the overthrow of a\ngreat Empire, or a European Revolution, or a world-wide clash of the\nforces of right and wrong. That is the course of history, as determined\nbefore the world began by the inscrutable righteousness and wisdom of\nGod.\n\nThat is the condition under which the world now exists, and people\nwho talk of abolishing war are like people standing on the crater of\na great volcano, and trying to persuade themselves that there will be\nno more eruptions. As long as there is evil in the world and God\u2019s\nrighteousness in the world, you will have the moral reactions between\nthe two bursting from time to time into some awful conflagration like\nthe present. That is the revelation of the whole Bible, brought to its\nculmination in the Book of Revelation. But what was manifested to-day,\nand proclaimed by the Heavenly Hosts, was God\u2019s love and mercy to\nthe individual souls who have been the victims of these convulsions,\nand who might seem to have been treated as mere passing elements in\nthe temporal scene. At the Birth of Christ, and by means of it, were\nmanifested and assured God\u2019s peace and good will to every soul of man\nwho passes through this brief scene of struggle and, it may be, of\ndeath. It proclaims that for each individual soul death may be said to\nhave been in effect abolished, that for every one of them, according to\nthe eternal purpose of God, \u201clife and immortality\u201d have been prepared\nand assured; and that the struggles and sufferings of this mortal life,\nterrible as they may be, are not worthy to be compared with the glory\nthat was designed, before the world began, for those who do the will\nof God. This is the blessed revelation of Christmas, and it is our\nprivilege to fix our eyes and our hearts upon it, amid the sorrows and\ntroubles of the moment; and in proportion as we do so, we shall respond\nwith our whole hearts and souls to the exhortation of the same Apostle.\n\u201cTherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always\nabounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your\nlabour is not in vain in the Lord.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nTHE THINGS SEEN AND THE THINGS NOT SEEN.\n\nPREACHED IN CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, EASTER DAY, 1915.\n\n \u201c_For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet\n the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which\n is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal\n weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but\n at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are\n temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal._\u201d--2 Cor. iv.\n 16.\n\n\nThese touching words of St. Paul are based upon the grand truth to\nwhich Easter Day is a standing witness. \u201cTherefore,\u201d he says, or \u201cfor\nwhich cause, we faint not.\u201d That cause is stated in the verse just\nbefore, \u201cKnowing that He Which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise\nup us also with Jesus, and shall present us with you.\u201d The Apostle\nhad just been giving a vivid description of the extreme strain, and\nalmost mortal struggle, in which the work of his ministry involved him.\n\u201cWe are troubled,\u201d he says, \u201con every side ... always bearing about\nin the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus\nmight be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in\nus, but life in you.\u201d The Apostle was undergoing a strain which was\ndraining the very life of his body, in order to preach the Gospel which\nwas bringing life to the souls of others; but he endured it in the\nknowledge that, even if it involved the sacrifice of his life, He Who\nraised up the Lord Jesus would raise him up also by Jesus, and present\nhim in a new life at the day of the Resurrection. In this knowledge,\nhis experience that his outward man was perishing did not make him\nfaint, for he knew that his inward man was being renewed day by day.\nIf he was daily dying, he was but experiencing the dying of the Lord\nJesus; and thus, by entering into closer sympathy with his Lord, he\nwas becoming united also with His life. Christ\u2019s resurrection in glory\nwas an assurance to him of his own resurrection, and the sufferings of\nthe moment were as nothing to him in comparison with that glory. That\naffliction was, after all, light and momentary, when it was realized\nthat it was working out for him, more and more exceedingly, an eternal\nweight of glory. The things which he saw and felt at the moment were,\nafter all, but temporary, whereas the things which were not then\nvisible were eternal. If the earthly frame, which was his present\ntabernacle, were dissolved by death, he knew that there was ready for\nhim \u201ca house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.\u201d\n\nIs not this application of the great message of the Resurrection\npeculiarly opportune and welcome to us at the present moment? We are\nliving through a time when the things that are seen are distressing and\npainful beyond anything in our experience--we might perhaps say, in the\nexperience of Christian Europe. We seem to have gone back, on a sudden,\nto the days before the flood, when \u201cthe earth was corrupt before\nGod, and the earth was filled with violence\u201d; and we seem to need a\nre-issue of the Divine proclamation, after that world of violence had\nbeen swept away: \u201cSurely your blood of your lives will I require; at\nthe hand of every man\u2019s brother will I require the life of man. Whoso\nsheddeth man\u2019s blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image\nof God made He man.\u201d The curse of this violence and bloodshed is being\ninflicted, day by day, upon innumerable homes; and day by day we each\napprehend it for our own families. In order to stay the curse, the\nblood of our own brothers and sons is being poured out like water, and\nthe desolation of our homes is becoming more and more appalling. The\nblood-stained fields of Belgium, France and Poland, the engulfing of\nthe innocent lives of women and children in the ocean--these are the\nthings that are seen; and we need some supreme assurance--nay we need\nsome Divine revelation--if we are to live through such experiences\nin faith, and hope, and in Christian charity. We mourn, day by day,\nthe loss of precious lives, and we are appalled at the thought of the\nfurther sacrifices of such lives, young and mature, which we fear must\nbe required; and so far as we look only on the things thus seen, our\nhearts might well fail us. Like St. Paul, as he describes himself in\nthe context, \u201cwe are troubled on every side ... we are smitten down,\nthough not destroyed.\u201d\n\nLet us then observe the manner in which the Apostle meets this\noverwhelming oppression. He looks off from the things which are seen\nto the things which are not seen; \u201cfor,\u201d he says, \u201cthe things which are\nseen are temporal (or temporary), but the things which are not seen are\neternal.\u201d Perhaps that is the first condition for our seeing things in\ntheir true light. It is very difficult for us not to have our vision\nalmost wholly occupied by the visible things around us, which are also\nthe things of which we are the most immediately sensible, and which\nnaturally absorb our ordinary thoughts, feelings and energies. Yet, as\na matter of fact, as St. Paul reminds us, they are a very small part\nindeed of the realities with which we are surrounded. \u201cThe things which\nare seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.\u201d\n\nEternal as compared with temporary! Do we often realize sufficiently\nwhat that comparison means? What is the longest life here? Call it\none hundred years, and what is that compared with life eternal,\neverlasting, never ending? That is the ultimate reality with which we\nare all concerned. Our hearts are filled, first, with the thoughts of\nyouth, then with those of manhood, then with those of old age; but\nthere lies before us, before each one of us, an interminable existence,\nin which we are destined to experience profounder happiness, or\nprofounder unhappiness, than any we have experienced here. All that has\nexercised our thoughts and feelings here will indeed leave its mark\nupon us, but it will all pass away; it is essentially temporal, and\nthere lies before us an unending existence for weal or woe.\n\nSo far, therefore, as any individual life is concerned, so far as\nthose young lives are concerned, whose premature loss is so bitter to\ntheir nearest and dearest, and seems so sad to all of us, it is well\nwe should clearly realize that to the individual life itself, a few\nyears more or less--nay, half a life-time more or less--is practically\ninsignificant. Are there fifty, or forty, or thirty years behind it?\nThere is all eternity in front of it. There is a fulness of life and\njoy, and even glory, before it, which can never end. To one who has\nlived, and who dies, in the true faith and love of Christ, all the\ngracious and glorious promises of our Lord and His Apostles are fully\nassured; and even if, in any particular case, we may not have the\nfull evidence of that entire Christian devotion, we may surely apply\nto every life which is willingly sacrificed at the call of duty, for a\nrighteous cause, and with a generous self-surrender, the assurance of\nSt. Paul, that God will render \u201cto every man according to his deeds.\nTo them who by patience in well-doing seek for glory, honour, and\nimmortality, eternal life\u201d; or, as he says again, \u201cGlory, honour, and\npeace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first and also to the\nGentile.\u201d Or, as we may surely paraphrase it, to the Christian first,\nand also to every human soul. If, in fact, our vision were merely\nconfined to this world, and we did but catch a doubtful glimpse of\nwhat is beyond it, the spectacle of the sacrifice of human life, and\nparticularly of young human life in a war like this, would be scarcely\nendurable. But let us have, not merely that \u201cgleam beyond it,\u201d of which\nthe Christian poet speaks, but that clear vision beyond it, of an\neternal life of which our Saviour assures us, and of \u201cthe grace of the\nLord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy\nGhost,\u201d in the peace of which that eternal life will be spent, and we\nmay be able to feel, like St. Paul, that the affliction of the moment\nis light, in comparison with the eternal abundance of glory which\nawaits the soul in the future.\n\nWe are too apt, in a word, to take our stand within the horizon of\nthis life, and to judge of all things as they are reflected in this\nworld\u2019s mirror; but if we would see them in their true perspective and\nso measure their real values, we must take our stand in the life beyond\nthe grave. We must look, not at the things which are seen, but at the\nthings which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal,\nbut the things which are not seen are eternal. In some degree, though\nnot to the same extent, we may apply a similar consideration to the\nsufferings of nations, and of the world as a whole, in a great war. It\nis revealed to us in the Book of the Revelation of St. John that, at\nthe consummation of all things, after scenes of carnage which are at\nleast equal in their horror to the dreadful spectacle now before our\neyes, a new heaven and a new earth will be created, by Him Who sits\nupon the throne making all things new. Even so far as the present\nworld is concerned, the sufferings and sacrifices involved in great\nwars have doubtless won for future generations the greatest blessings\nof true Christian civilization--liberty, order, peace, and justice.\nIt might, indeed, be thought that the price of such blessings was too\nhigh, if we judged of the sacrifices of individual lives in the light\nonly of the things that are seen; but when we can feel that every\nlife thus sacrificed, that every suffering thus unselfishly endured,\nworks out for the sufferer himself an exceeding and eternal reward,\nwe can look to the things which are not seen, and can again realize\nthat, in comparison with them, it is not too much to speak, with St.\nPaul, of \u201cour light affliction which is but for a moment.\u201d That is the\ngrand comfort, also, of the mourners who are left behind, who may be\nsimilarly assured that, in their patient acceptance of their bitter\nshare of these sacrifices, they will be united with those they have\nloved and lost, in the eternal blessedness to which St. Paul looks\nforward.\n\nBut who does not realize that we need very strong evidence, and the\nfirmest assurances, to sustain flesh and blood amid such bitter trials\nas men and women are now experiencing--fathers and mothers, wives and\nsisters, lovers and friends? It is not, perhaps, even a St. Paul whose\nword alone would be sufficient to bear that strain. If we had only that\nto depend on we could but speak of hope and trust; we could hardly say,\nas he goes on to say, that \u201cwe know\u201d that if our earthly house of this\ntabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God, a house eternal\nin the heavens. But the ground of his knowledge was the reality of\nour Lord\u2019s resurrection, and the assurances which our Lord, when so\nraised, had given him. We know, he says, \u201cthat He Who raised up the\nLord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus.\u201d The great certainty from\nwhich St. Paul\u2019s Gospel starts is that our Lord, Who had undoubtedly\nsuffered death in its most agonizing form, had not less undoubtedly\nrisen from the dead, and appeared again and again to St. Paul, as to\nmany others, and had given him the personal assurances on which we are\ninvited to rely. That is the cardinal fact of the Christian Faith. Had\nour Saviour not risen, had He not appeared in such a form as to prove\nthat He had completely overcome death, then we should still, at the\nbest, have been in the region of hopes and imperfect beliefs, and of a\nyearning trust. We could not have said, with the Apostle, that we know\nthat Christ is risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them\nthat slept. But now it is no mere prophet or Apostle, but the risen\nSaviour Himself, Who stands in the midst of human life, as He stood in\nthe midst of His disciples on the morrow of His resurrection, and Who\nsaid Himself, \u201cI am the Resurrection and the Life. He that believeth on\nMe, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and\nbelieveth in Me shall never die.\u201d Those were His own words; that is the\nconviction He stamped upon the mind and heart of such men as St. Paul,\nSt. Peter, and St. John; and that is the sure foundation on which we\nstand in believing that, if we suffer and die with Christ, we shall\nalso live with Him.\n\nLet me only add that this blessed revelation can only bring its full\nblessing and comfort in proportion as we realize, for our own souls,\nand for all who are dear to us, that union with Christ in spirit which\nis essential to our union with Him in life, here and hereafter. \u201cIf\nany man,\u201d says St. Paul, \u201chave not the spirit of Christ, he is none of\nHis.\u201d There are, no doubt, degrees in which men can possess that spirit\nof Christ; and even if we possess it in but a feeble degree, we may\nhumbly trust that He will not disown it, and that He will grant us some\nportion of His grace and of His life. But if this eternal life, this\nlife of abundant glory, is open to us all provided we are in union with\nHim, which of us will not be moved by the afflictions of the present,\nand the eternal promise of the future, to seek for ever closer union\nwith that Lord of Life, looking less and less at the things that are\nseen, and more and more at the things that are not seen, and knowing\nthat our life is hid with Christ in God?\n\n\n\n\nTHE EASTER MESSAGE.\n\nPREACHED IN CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, EASTER DAY, 1916.\n\n \u201c_If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,\n where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on\n things above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead, and your\n life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is our life, shall\n appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory._\u201d--Col. iii. 1-4.\n\n\nEaster Day brings us the most blessed message that could possibly be\nproclaimed at any time; but at present it is perhaps more blessed and\nmore appropriate than at any other time in our experience. It tells\nus, in the first place, that Christ was raised from the dead after His\ncrucifixion, and now sits at the right hand of God, Who has highly\nexalted Him, and given Him a name that is above every name. But it\ntells us, also, that the blessedness of that resurrection is open to\nall of us, and that we are admitted to share in the glory which Christ\nwon for Himself; so that when Christ, Who is our life, shall appear\nwe also shall appear with Him in glory. If we appreciate what these\nassurances mean, we shall be lifted up by them into the apprehension\nof realities which transform our whole life in this world, and enable\nus to look beyond it, to an eternal existence of the highest spiritual\nbliss hereafter.\n\nThere are two ways in which men may think of their position in life.\nThe realities of this life may be predominant in their thoughts, so\nas almost to absorb their whole minds. That, I fear, is the natural\ntendency of most of us. The claim which the things of this world make\nupon us is so incessant, and often so intense, that we have too often\nneither the energy nor the inclination to look beyond it. There have,\nindeed, been good and brave men, who have said that we should not look\nbeyond it; that we should concentrate all our energies on the work\nand the duties imposed upon us, and leave the future to take care\nof itself, even though it be that vast, and, as we believe, eternal\nfuture, on which we shall enter at death. That was necessarily the\nattitude of good men before the revelation of the Gospel. There have\nbeen, unhappily, some good men among us in recent times who practically\nlive a similar life, not realizing or believing the truths that are\nopened to them by the Gospel, but content to do their duty to the best\nof their power. I fear a similar life is practically lived by too many\nChristians. Their interest and their thoughts are mainly absorbed in\nthis present visible world, in their duties, their pleasures, and their\nworldly happiness; and they do not, for the most part, think of much\nbeyond. One consequence of this attitude of mind is that they judge of\nall occurrences by their effect on this life; and particularly they\nare apt to consider all the dispensations of God\u2019s providence, all\nHis judgments and all His mercies, with reference to their effect on\nthis world. How is it possible, for instance, they ask, that a God of\nperfect goodness and love can permit such an awful dispensation to\nfall upon men as a great war like the present, that He can allow the\nsufferings, and the bereavements, and the miseries which such a war\ninvolves? I think, if we are candid with ourselves, we shall find that\nwhen that question is acutely felt, it is practically with reference\nto this life that it is urged. Why should there be all this suffering\nin the world in which we are now living? Why should so many young and\nprecious lives be sacrificed? Why should so many homes be darkened, and\nso many hearts all but broken, in this present time? It is the present\nsuffering and the present time that are uppermost in our thoughts. We\nare apt to speak and think as if the life in the present world of those\nwho are lost had been the matter of greatest consequence for them,\nand as if we were without any positive compensation, to them and to\nourselves, except the victory of the cause for which they laid down\ntheir lives.\n\nNow the great blessing of the Easter message is that it entirely\nreverses this aspect of life. It reveals to us, on the assurance of\nChrist and His Apostles, that this world and this life are a very small\nthing indeed compared with the realities which Christ has revealed\nto us by His resurrection. He has revealed to us, first for Himself\nand in His own person, and secondly for ourselves, that the world in\nwhich we really live is an eternal and spiritual realm, in which we\nare privileged to be in the company of Christ Himself, and of all the\nsouls who, from the commencement of the world, have lived and died in\nharmony with the spirit of Christ and the will of God. That is the\nreal life into which every one in this congregation is admitted, if\nhe will. One of those great men in the past, to whom I have referred,\nimagined the case of men having lived all their lives in a cave to\nwhich only broken beams of sunlight penetrated, and who had no idea of\nthe splendid vision of the sun, and of the earth with all its beauties,\nwhich would burst upon their vision the moment they stepped outside\ntheir cave. That, as his marvellous wisdom perceived, is the case of\ntoo many among us, even among Christians. We have our caves, created by\nthe temporal interests and obligations around us; and broken gleams,\nfrom the truths of the Gospel which we imperfectly realize, afford\na dim religious light to our condition. But, in reality, there is a\nspiritual, a glorious, and an eternal world around us, which will burst\nupon us with overpowering splendour when, after death, we step out of\nthe cave of this flesh. The problems of God\u2019s dispensations, both to\nthe world at large and to ourselves, are beyond our comprehension and\nsolution, because they have reference not merely to this world, in\nwhich most of us live for no more than three score years and ten, but\nto that eternal and infinite world of spirits, which will endure for\never, and which is beyond our ken. To each individual soul, young or\nold, the question of chief importance is not what happens to them in\nthis world, whether their life be short or long, whether it be a happy\nlife or a sad one, but what happens to them afterwards, in that eternal\ncareer, which opens to them all at death. The only true Christian\nattitude, as the Apostle says elsewhere, is to \u201clook not at the things\nwhich are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things\nwhich are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are\neternal.\u201d\n\nBut what are these things that are eternal? That is one of the most\nprecious parts of the Christian revelation. In some respects, of\ncourse, they must remain unknown to us while we are in the flesh, for\n\u201ceye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart\nof man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.\u201d\nBut though we do not know what the external circumstances of that life\nwill be, we do know, because Christ Himself, and His Apostles on His\nauthority, have revealed it to us, what the essential part of them will\nbe so far as our spiritual nature is concerned. They will be simply\nand precisely the spiritual things which are the highest and best in\nthis world. They will be perfect truth, and peace, and love, and, in a\nword, all those graces and perfections which were manifested in Christ\nHimself. The Apostle bids us \u201cseek those things that are above, where\nChrist sitteth on the right hand of God\u201d; and then he proceeds to\nexplain what those things are. \u201cPut on,\u201d he says, a few verses further,\n\u201cas the elect of God a heart of compassion, kindness, humility,\nmeekness, long suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one\nanother; ... even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye; and above all\nthese things, put on love, which is the bond of perfectness ... and\nwhatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,\ngiving thanks to God the Father through Him.\u201d That is the character of\nthe future world, the future society, to which we have the privilege of\nbeing admitted at death: a world in which all the graces and glories\nof the Christian character exist, without any of the imperfections by\nwhich even the holiest lives are clouded here; a world of perpetual\nthanksgiving to God the Father for the love with which He has loved us;\na world in short which is ablaze with the light and warmth of all love\nand truth.\n\nOne blessed consequence from this revelation of the nature of the\nspiritual world, in which the risen Christ reigns, is that we can enter\nit, and live for it, even in the present life, without any disregard\nof the obligatory claims which this world has upon us. However busy a\nman\u2019s life, however absorbed he may necessarily be in the requirements\nand duties of his daily occupations, he can also be exerting his\nenergies of thankfulness and prayer to God, of truth and love and\ncompassion and meekness and peace, which make the life of the eternal\nworld. There is no occupation or condition of life in which those\nblessed graces may not be exerted and cultivated; and men and women\nmay thus live in the spirit and light Of Heaven, even while they are\nconfined within the cave of the flesh. In proportion as they are living\nin this light even here, they are being prepared for the eternal Heaven\nof the future; they are fulfilling, all the more completely, their duty\nto the society and the life of this world because they are guided by\nthe illumination, both of the present Heaven which overshadows their\nsouls, and of the future Heaven, of which the approaching gleams throw\nflashes of light across their path.\n\nBut what I would more particularly ask, at the present moment, amid\nthe strain and distress of these months and years of war, is whether\nthe promise of this eternal blessedness, the vision of this unseen\nand eternal world, does not justify the Apostle\u2019s description of all\nthe sorrows and sufferings which he and his fellows underwent, as\n\u201cour light affliction, which is but for a moment.\u201d If this world were\nthe main scene of our life and of our hopes, there would be something\nappalling in the destruction, or mutilation, of so many of the best\nlives among us, and the cruel bereavement of those who are left\nbehind. But in the light of this revelation, is it not our privilege\nto regard it all as \u201ca light affliction, which is but for a moment,\u201d\nand which is working for us all, for those who are taken and for those\nwho are left, a far more exceeding and eternal glory? What does it\nmatter to a life, however young and bright, that it should be cut short\nin this world if, through death in the discharge of duty, it passes\nto the full enjoyment of those \u201cthings that are with Christ,\u201d in that\nworld where Christ will welcome it with the greeting: \u201cWell done, good\nand faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord?\u201d It is,\nindeed, a hard fate for those whose life in this world is, for the\nfuture, maimed by injuries, or marred by bereavement. But for them,\ntoo, there is the assurance of Christ that if they suffer with Him, and\nin sympathy with Him, they shall also be glorified together, and that\nall they suffer, in obedience to His will here, will help them forward\nin the way that leads to everlasting life. These are not mere human\nhopes and imaginings; they are the express promises and assurances of\nthe Lord, Who suffered and died upon the Cross, and of those Apostles,\nwhom He commissioned to bring His message to the world. This Heaven,\nof the present and the future, has been constituted by them the great\nreality, the greatest of all realities, the supreme reality, of our\nlives, here and hereafter; and in proportion as we look at everything\nhere in the light of it, the sorrows and sacrifices of this life are\nreduced to comparatively small proportions, and the hope and the\nblessings of the eternal life become the great Heaven, the glorious\nvault of God\u2019s light and love by which we are surrounded.\n\nIt is thus that Easter Day brings home to us a message which satisfies\nthe deepest cravings and necessities of life, and affords a practical\nsolution of the difficulties which, without such a revelation, are\ninvolved in the miseries of war. War itself, indeed, points to some\nsuch solution, and compels men in practice to embrace it. It has been\nsaid that war is the greatest of educators, and there are various\nsenses in which this is true. It educates, it exercises, it manifests,\nas nothing else does, some of the highest excellences of human nature:\nself-sacrifice, endurance, mutual devotion, faith and loyalty, and,\nin Tennyson\u2019s pregnant phrase, \u201call that makes a man.\u201d But perhaps its\ngreatest educative influence consists in the fact that it compels men\nto act, without hesitation, on the instinct, which God has implanted\nin their hearts, that nothing in this world is of any importance in\ncomparison with the maintenance and the assertion of righteousness,\ntruth, justice, and mercy. The mass of a people may be living in\ncomfort and luxury, with their minds and affections mainly engaged in\nthe energies, the pleasures, and the interests of this life; but as\nsoon as some great challenge is offered to those supreme principles\nof righteousness and mercy, on which the whole fabric of true human\nlife depends, their hearts spring up with an instinct that everything\nthey value in this world must be sacrificed in defence of those moral\nand spiritual causes. The moment the note is struck of a great war\nfor righteousness, like the present, that moment men and women feel\ncompelled, by their very nature, to \u201cset their affection on the things\nabove,\u201d not on the things of this world; they realize, that to this\nworld they must become practically dead, and live for those high\nmoral and spiritual causes which are the supreme treasures of mankind,\nand that, in this sense at all events, their \u201clife is hid with Christ\nin God.\u201d If, as we may confidently say, we are warring for right and\ntruth, and for the maintenance of the will of God among men, we may\nthen apply even to the war itself, and all the national and individual\nsacrifices it entails, the thankful conviction of the Apostle that\n\u201cour light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far\nmore exceeding and eternal weight of glory.\u201d It is working out for our\nnation and Empire, and for the world at large, the establishment on\na firmer basis than ever of true Christian civilization. Those whose\nlives are sacrificed are but brought by death into the nearer presence\nof Christ, where His love and His mercy, no less than His justice, will\nbe still more to them than in the world they leave; and those who are\nleft behind may learn to prize the privilege of suffering with their\nSaviour, that they may in time be glorified with Him.\n\n\n\n\nTHE NEED AND THE MEANS OF RIGHT JUDGMENT.\n\nCANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, WHIT SUNDAY, 1915.\n\n \u201c_The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in\n My Name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your\n remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you._\u201d--St. John xiv. 26.\n\n\nNever in our time, perhaps never in the history of the world, has there\nbeen such urgent occasion as there is to-day for joining with all\nour hearts, in the prayer of the Whit Sunday Collect, that God will\ngrant us, by the help of His Spirit, \u201cto have a right judgment in all\nthings.\u201d We have before our eyes the most tremendous illustration ever\nafforded of the awful consequences which may ensue from the absence of\nsuch a right judgment, and the prevalence of a wrong judgment. In the\nfirst place, the war itself is entirely due to the exercise of a wrong\njudgment by some person or persons. Nothing but a great misjudgment, on\none side or the other, of the circumstances which occasioned the war,\nor of its consequences, could have precipitated all the nations of\nEurope into such a deadly and disastrous conflict.\n\nEvery statesman, of course, thinks that some other statesman has\nblundered, but the mutual recriminations form at least a general\nconfession of wrong judgment somewhere. When we see such wrong judgment\npossible among the ablest and most powerful men in Europe, in a\nmatter which involves the sacrifice of tens of thousands of lives,\nthe desolation of thousands of homes, and the devastation of some\nof the fairest countries in Europe, have we not need to cry to God,\nwith the most intense earnestness, that He will grant to us, and to\nall who act for us and with us, the help of His Spirit to give us a\nright judgment in all things? This gift of a right judgment may seem,\nperhaps, in ordinary times, a comparatively small matter to be treated\nas the culminating blessing won for us by the Death and Resurrection\nand Ascension of our Lord. This is the final festival of the series\nwhich commemorates the great events of His Life; for Trinity Sunday,\nwhich follows, does but sum up the whole substance of the Christian\nrevelation, as that of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Whit Sunday\nCollect embodies the final craving of the Christian life, for those\ngifts which, on our Lord\u2019s Ascension, He became empowered to bestow\nupon His Church. But we may appreciate, at this time, better than ever\nbefore, why all those gifts are summed up in the prayer that we may be\ngranted a right judgment in all things. Upon that right judgment in\nthe leaders of the Christian nations depends the peace of the whole\nworld, and the possibility of ourselves leading a peaceable life in all\ngodliness and honesty. It is demonstrated, by the most awful example\never given, that all the wisdom, all the experience, all the knowledge\nof human nature, accumulated for twenty centuries, are insufficient, of\nthemselves, to ensure that right judgment; and we are driven to-day to\nact upon the exhortation of St. James, \u201cIf any man lack wisdom, let him\nask of God\u201d and \u201cit shall be given him.\u201d\n\nBut this failure of good judgment in the political management of the\nworld is not the only, nor the most terrible, exhibition which is\nafforded at the present time of the grievous liability of human nature\nto form wrong judgments. The worst and most distressing exhibition of\nall is seen in the moral perversion of one of the greatest of European\nnations. Unless our own judgment is absolutely perverted, Germany has\nbecome possessed by an utterly false, un-Christian, and even inhuman\njudgment in moral conduct. The case was justly summed up in a letter\npublished the other day by an eminent member of our Church, the Dean of\nExeter--\u201cWomen outraged, treaties broken, inoffensive citizens, women\nand babes, murdered wholesale by land and sea, wells poisoned, deadly\ngases taking the place of manly conflict, Houses of God ruthlessly\ndestroyed, fair lands desolated, noble cities destroyed without\nprovocation, without reasonable object or purpose, the world filled\nwith abominable lies, the hymn of hate chosen as a national anthem, and\na baleful curse placed, as a nation\u2019s prayer, on the lips of children,\nand placarded in the streets, a fit sequel to the hymn of hate\u201d--this\nis the moral and religious spectacle which Germany now exhibits, and\nits rulers and guides not only allow these things to be done, but have\npleasure in them that do them. It is not merely that these un-Christian\nand inhuman things are done, but that they are justified, that they are\ntreated as lawful and meritorious, that the spirit which promotes them\nis recognized and applauded as the right spirit--this is the amazing\nand appalling exhibition of wrong judgment which Germany now offers to\nthe world.\n\nLet us, moreover, if we would duly appreciate the lesson to be derived\nfrom such a spectacle, bear in mind the character and capacities of the\nnation by which it is exhibited. We should bear in mind that Germany\nis probably the most highly educated country in Europe; its science,\nits literature, its arts, its industry have been among the finest\nthat the world has seen. In religion it gave Europe the Reformation;\nand the great Protestant nations of the world, alike in Europe and\nAmerica, recognize the immense spiritual debt they have owed to it in\nthe past. Our own theological literature, during the last century,\nhas acknowledged an immense debt to it, and German scholars have, in\nour own time, been in the front rank of the learning of the world. It\nis a country which was proud of its culture, and, in such matters as\nI have mentioned, with full justice. No thoughtful man can treat the\nGermans, as a nation, as inferior to any other in Europe, in all the\nexternals of such culture. All the achievements of past history, all\nthe acquisitions of Christian civilisation, lay open before them, as\nmuch as before ourselves, and they are bound to us by intimate ties of\nblood and of common interests. It is a nation, in short, with every\nequipment which human intellect, and art, and Nature can bestow; and\nyet, notwithstanding all this, the nation, as a whole, has formed a\njudgment so false and inhuman, on the very elements of moral duty, that\nwe are forced to recognize that in fighting it we are fighting not\nmerely a political foe, but a moral outlaw from Christian civilisation.\n\nIf such an awful perversion of judgment is possible, have we not\nreason to tremble at the possibilities of human error? The horrors I\nhave recalled are a disgrace to Germany; but let us not disguise from\nourselves the lamentable fact that they are also a disgrace to human\nnature. To this, we must realize, human nature can come, in spite of\nliterature, and science, and art, and the traditions of generations,\nand profound religious capacities. One cannot divide the Germans from\nall other human races, or even from ourselves, and say that they have\na human nature of their own. It is our common human nature which, in\nthis case, has succumbed to such a degraded judgment, and which has\nbecome false to the inherited principles of Christian civilization.\nWhat we ought to learn from so distressing a spectacle is the absolute\nneed of some influence higher than any that mere human nature, when\nleft to itself, can exert, if the moral judgment, the moral sense, the\nmoral character of nations and races, and of ourselves among them,\nare to be kept true to the ideals towards which human nature, at its\nbest, has always been striving, and which our Lord Jesus Christ has\nrevealed as the eternal standard established by God. I am afraid\nthere can be no doubt respecting one cause, at all events, of this\nterrible degradation. For the last generation or two, in consequence\nof the prevalence in Germany of a false philosophy and an extravagant\ncriticism, the minds of the educated classes in that country have\nbeen imbued with a complete distrust of the Scriptures, and of the\nrevelation of God in Christ; and, in consequence, they have abandoned\nall deference to the authority of God\u2019s Word and the example and\nteaching of our Lord. I believe, indeed, that faith in God and God\u2019s\nWord, and love of Christ, still subsist in much of their old intensity\namong the simpler classes of the German nation--among numbers to whom\nthe name and the teaching of Luther are still a venerated influence.\nBut they have ceased to mould the character and guide the thoughts of\nthe educated classes, and the consequence is that human nature has\nbroken loose from all control, and has abandoned itself to an unbridled\nlust of power and of earthly pleasure.\n\nIt is painful to contemplate such a spectacle, and to recall it to\nyou; but it is necessary we should realize what it means, if we are\nto learn the lesson which is the most imperative for us at this\nmoment, and if we are to take home to our minds the full blessing of\nthe promise of Whit Sunday. It is encouraging to bear in mind that a\nsimilar spectacle and crisis existed in the world at the time when our\nLord spoke the words of the text. The Roman Empire, although, like the\nGerman nation, it rendered great services to mankind, was in His day\ndeveloping into a terrible despotism, and its rulers were becoming\nthe incarnation of a ruthless and unscrupulous force. The age of the\ntwelve C\u00e6sars, some of whom were monsters of violence and vice, was\ncommencing; and at that moment there appeared another influence, that\nof the twelve Apostles, who proclaimed in the world the authority and\nthe inspiration of another King, their Lord and Master, who taught\nthe blessedness of another ideal--the ideal of poverty of spirit, of\nmourning, of meekness, of mercy, of purity, and of peacemaking. The\ntwo ideals struggled side by side for three centuries; but the spirit\nof violence proved unable to crush the spirit of meekness, and had at\nlast to acknowledge its superiority, and to submit, in great degree, at\nall events, to the authority and example of our Lord. The mostly highly\norganized physical force that the world at that day had ever seen was\nslowly but surely undermined by the spirit of Christian meekness and\nlove; and from that moment Christian principles of conduct extended\ntheir authority more and more over the whole range of worldly life,\nand even over the fierce passions and struggles of war. Gradually\nthere became established those principles of chivalry under which, as\nour great philosophical statesman described it, there prevailed \u201cthat\nsensibility of principle, that chastity of honour, which felt a stain\nlike a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity,\nwhich ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost\nhalf its evil by losing all its grossness.\u201d That great amelioration of\nhuman passion and of human evil was won by the persistent contemplation\nand assertion of the authority and example of our Lord, and by the\nperpetual inculcation of the teaching of His Apostles. The Spirit\nof God, descending as on this great day, inspired Evangelists and\nApostles to write those Gospels in which the Person, the teaching,\nand the example of our Saviour are so marvellously depicted, and\nthose Epistles in which they are brought home to our hearts with such\ntouching force. The same Spirit was vouchsafed to the great teachers\nand leaders of the Church, and quickened in the hearts of the people\nat large the gracious seed which was thus sown. If the new embodiment\nof the rule of force in human affairs is to be effectually overcome,\nit can only be by the same means. It cannot be done by our arms alone.\nForce alone is no remedy for force. The Spirit of Christ as it lives in\nthe Books of the New Testament, must again make its appeal to the minds\nand consciences of the nations of Europe; and the Spirit of God, acting\nthrough those examples and exhortations, must bring home to us, once\nmore, the life and love of Christ, must open men\u2019s hearts to receive\nHis image, and so enable them once more to have a right judgment in all\nthings.\n\nThe prayer of the Collect, therefore, should turn our hearts and minds,\nat this juncture, to the supreme necessity, if we would save ourselves\nfrom the dangers of wrong judgment, and if, according to a famous\nsaying, we would \u201csave Europe by our example,\u201d of submitting our\nhearts and lives with the deepest earnestness to the ideals set before\nus in the Scriptures, and especially in the teaching and example of\nour Lord and His Apostles, as the only sufficient means of maintaining\na right judgment among us on the great moral problems of life. As a\nnation we have hitherto enjoyed unique advantages in this respect. To\nno other nation in the world has it ever been given to have the Word\nof God, the whole Word of God, read aloud in our churches, Sunday by\nSunday, for more than three hundred years; and to have thus had the\nwords and deeds of Christ, and the exhortations of His Apostles, and\nthe devotions of Psalmists and Prophets, impressed upon our minds\nweek by week, and sometimes day by day, until much of them has become\nthe most familiar of all the records of our memories. There has been\nanother means, moreover, especially in Scotland, but in England also,\nby which we have been kept in constant touch with the same influence,\nand that is the custom, which generally prevailed till recently, of\nFamily Prayer, and the reading of the Holy Scriptures in the family\ncircle. By these means that Divine Seed was sown in the hearts of young\nand old, and it could not but produce much fruit. If we desire to\npreserve the Christian instincts, which can alone protect us against\nsuch dreadful relapses into a world of violence and ungoverned passion\nas human nature has been proved capable of, let us submit ourselves\nwith renewed earnestness to those Divine Words, and to that Christian\ndiscipline, which have maintained for so long, in this country, the\ncharacter of Christian gentlemen and gentlewomen, and have upheld among\nus, in spite of our many faults and failures, at all events the main\nprinciples of a right judgment. When our Lord says, in the text, that\nHis Spirit would bring all things to the remembrance of the Apostles,\nwhatsoever He had said unto them, He gave a promise which was in the\nfirst instance fulfilled, as I have said, in the writings of the\nEvangelists and the Apostles, but to which it is also the privilege\nof every Christian to appeal. If we will read His Scriptures, He will\nopen our minds to understand them, He will bring home to us, by His\nfellowship, the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God; He\nwill save us from false judgments of all kinds; and will enable us to\nuphold in our own hearts, and in the world at large, that truth and\nlove, that meekness, gentleness, and humility, for the protection of\nwhich we are now appealing to the arbitrament of battles, and of the\nGod of battles. May He grant us victory in that appeal; and when it\nhas been granted to us, let us strive to render the victory secure by\nliving more devoutly in His faith and fear, and seeking more diligently\nthe Grace of His Holy Spirit.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ADVENT MESSAGE AND THE WAR.\n\nIN CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, NOV. 29, 1914.\n\n \u201c_Because He hath appointed a day, in which He will judge the world in\n righteousness by that Man Whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given\n assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead._\u201d\n\n\nThe season of Advent, with which the Church\u2019s year reopens brings to\nus a message of peculiar appropriateness and encouragement at the\npresent moment. It does so because it lays the corner-stone of the\ngrand edifice of the Gospel, or the good news of God, of which we\nshall follow the construction through the Church\u2019s year. What is the\nspecial message of Advent? It is the message of that grand verse in the\nPsalms, \u201cRighteousness and judgment are the habitation of His seat.\u201d It\nproclaims to us the message of the prophets, opened to us in triumphant\ntones by the prophet Isaiah in the Lesson of to-day, that righteousness\nis the very foundation on which God is building up society; that it\nis the very root from which our own lives and the life of our nation\nderive their existence; that it was to promote this righteousness that\nour Lord came into the world at His first Advent in great humility;\nand that it is to establish that righteousness finally that He will\ncome again in great glory to judge the quick and the dead. This is the\nbeginning of God\u2019s revelation to us, and it is also the end and the\nculmination of His revelation. It is the beginning of the Gospel, and\nit is also the end of the Gospel.\n\nIf we would understand the blessing of the Gospel, we must begin\nwith the conviction that the one great object for which this whole\ndispensation of human society exists is that complete righteousness,\nthe glory of the Divine righteousness, may be established in it, and\nthat nothing but this can promote either the glory of God or the\nhappiness of man. Read the Psalms with this consideration in your mind,\nand I think you will be deeply impressed with the fact that every\nprayer to God embodies a prayer for the establishment of right against\nwrong; so that the Psalmist only dares to pray for himself so far as\nthe deliverances and successes he prays for are in harmony with the\nrighteous will and purposes of God. Every prayer is in the spirit of\nthe exquisite Psalm of this evening: \u201cDeliver me, O Lord, from mine\nenemies: for I flee unto Thee to hide me. Teach me to do the thing that\npleaseth Thee, for Thou art my God: let Thy loving spirit lead me forth\ninto the land of righteousness.\u201d We have no right to ask or expect help\non any other condition than that; for the one supreme work which God is\nworking day by day, and year by year, and century by century, is the\nrealization in human life of what that righteousness and judgment are,\nwhich are the foundation of His throne.\n\nAdvent reminds us, in the first place, of this grand and simple fact,\nand bids us make it the starting point of all our Christian thought\nand hope; but it gives us the further assurance that God is not\nonly carrying forward that work of righteousness now, but that He\nwill complete it hereafter. It repeats that message which St. Paul\nproclaimed to the world at large, through the Athenians, that \u201cGod hath\nappointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness\nby that Man Whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance\nunto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.\u201d That was\nthe culmination of St. Paul\u2019s Gospel to the people of Athens. That\nis the culmination of the message of the Gospel to ourselves at the\npresent day. What do we need more than all at this moment? What are our\nminds full of but the dreadful spectacle before us of the whole earth\nfilled with violence, of an awful outbreak of hatred, unrighteousness,\ninjustice, wanton cruelty, and barbarity? The words of Isaiah read\nthis morning are exactly applicable to the spectacle of Belgium and\nFrance at this moment: \u201cYour country is desolate; your cities are\nburned with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence,\nand it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of\nZion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of\ncucumbers, as a besieged city.\u201d Might not our hearts almost fail us\nas we contemplate such a volcanic eruption of injustice and violence\nafter nineteen centuries of Christianity? But our hearts will not fail\nus, any more than the heart of Isaiah failed him in his day. And why?\nBecause of this assurance--an assurance deep down in our souls--that\nthis unrighteousness cannot prevail. That conviction lies very deep in\nhuman nature, even apart from God\u2019s revelation in the Psalms and the\nGospel. But by this revelation it is given an irrefragable strength,\nand we grasp with the deepest conviction the assurance of the Psalmist:\n\u201cLet the floods clap their hands, and let the hills be joyful together\nbefore the Lord, for He is come to judge the earth, with righteousness\nto judge the world, and the people with His truth.\u201d That is the message\nof Advent, and there never was a time in history when we could grasp it\nmore thankfully with all our hearts and souls.\n\nThere is something inexpressibly elevating and inspiring in this\nmessage of a future judgment and of the final vindication of\nrighteousness, as it enables us to look beyond this present scene\nof distress and trouble, to realize that all that is passing around\nus is in reality only part of a far larger and grander scene, and\nthat the events of the hour are but a brief passage in a universal\nhistory, which has been carried forward for centuries under God\u2019s\nhand, and is being worked out under His guidance to a glorious and\nrighteous conclusion. If you allow your gaze and your thoughts to be\nfixed mainly on your own lives, on the lives of your own generation,\nor even of our own national history, you may well be distressed and\nperplexed at the apparent defeat of righteous causes and purposes, at\nthe overthrow of the laborious work of years of peace, at what seems\nlike the destruction of those bonds of human society to which prophets\nand saints and soldiers and statesmen had devoted their labours and\ntheir very lives for generations. So it seemed to Isaiah in his day;\nso it seemed to Habakkuk when he exclaimed, \u201cthat judgment doth never\ngo forth.\u201d So it has seemed to many a devoted servant of God and man,\nif he trusted only to his own eyes, from generation to generation.\nNothing but prophecy, the prophecy of the Old and New Testaments,\nis, in fact, adequate to the strain thus put upon men and women by\nthese experiences. But only believe, as the prophets assure you, only\nbelieve as our Saviour declared, and as His Apostles proclaimed\nby His commission, that it is but part of one great history, one\ngreat universal dispensation, in which God is steadily ensuring, by\nwhatever means may in His Divine wisdom be necessary, the supremacy of\nrighteousness and the overthrow of evil, and you can then live through\nit, and struggle through it, not merely with the patience, but with the\nexultation, which marked the Jewish prophets and psalmists. Belgium and\nNorthern France are now passing through the very experiences, to the\nletter, which Isaiah described in the case of the people of Israel in\nhis day; but Isaiah looked through all these distresses to a time when\n\u201cthe Lord\u2019s House should be established in the top of the mountains and\nshould be exalted above the hills, and all nations should flow into\nit\u201d; when \u201cout of Zion should go forth the law, and the word of the\nLord from Jerusalem\u201d; when \u201cHe should judge the nations, and should\nrebuke many peoples, and should beat their swords into ploughshares,\nand their spears into pruning hooks, when nation should not lift up\nsword against nation, neither should they learn war any more.\u201d That\nwas Isaiah\u2019s assurance, even in the dark days he describes. We have\na hundred-fold more ground for the same assurance when it has been\nproclaimed to us by our Lord Himself, and sealed with His blood, and\ncountersigned with the assurance and the blood of His Apostles and\nSaints.\n\nEven from this general point of view, the message of Advent comes to us\nwith a supremely inspiring force in the crisis of our great national\nstruggle, but it has other aspects of profound grace and comfort as\nwell as of warning. The most gracious, perhaps, of all its aspects is\nthe assurance it gives us that the final judgment of the world, the\nfinal establishment of righteousness, the final reward of the good,\nwill be in the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. This, of course, is a\nmatter of faith, based on positive revelation, resting on the personal\nassurance of our Lord and His Apostles. It is no matter of speculation,\nno matter of opinion, but a positive statement of fact, which is one of\nthe corner-stones of the Christian religion. There is too much tendency\nat present to resolve that religion into matters of mere human\nthought and feeling and hope, and to make its acceptance depend on its\nconformity to modern ideas; but there is no possibility of treating in\nthat manner such a point of definite, momentous, fundamental fact as\nthat our Lord Jesus Christ has been appointed by God to be the Judge of\nquick and dead, to sum up the whole world\u2019s destiny, and to assign to\neach one of us, to every one in this congregation, his place hereafter\nin the Kingdom of God or outside it. The office of judge, even in this\nworld, is a solemn one. How infinitely awful is the position of the\nEternal Judge of all! Now the substance of the revelation of Advent\nis that this great office is not veiled, as it was to the Jews, and\nas it must needs be, without revelation, to all the world, in the\nmysterious, distant, and dread form of the absolute majesty of God\nHimself; but that it is formally delegated to One Who is not only the\nSon of God, but the Son of Man, to the Lord Jesus Christ, Who took our\nflesh and blood upon Him, Who died for us and rose again. \u201cGod hath\nappointed a day,\u201d St. Paul says, \u201cin the which He will judge the world\nin righteousness by _that man_ Whom He hath ordained ... Whom He\nraised from the dead.\u201d The grace which is involved in this declaration\nis so infinite that I hesitate to speak freely of it in my own words,\nand I am thankful to be able to express it in language of one of the\nmost authoritative of all divines, our own Bishop Pearson, in his grave\nand deliberate _Exposition of the Creed_. \u201cIf,\u201d he says (page 305),\n\u201cwe look upon the judgment to come only as revealing our secrets, as\ndiscerning our actions, as sentencing our persons, according to the\nworks done in the flesh, there is not one of us can expect life from\nthat tribunal at the last day.... It is necessary, therefore, that\nwe should believe that _Christ_ shall sit upon the throne, that our\nRedeemer shall be our Judge, that we shall receive our sentence, not\naccording to the rigour of the law, but the mildness and mercies of\nthe Gospel; and then we may look not only upon the precepts, but also\nupon the promises of God. Whatsoever sentence in the sacred Scriptures\nspeaketh anything of hope, whatsoever text administereth any comfort,\nwhatsoever argument drawn from thence can breed in us any assurance,\nwe can confidently make use of them all in reference to the judgment\nto come; because by that Gospel which contains them all we shall be\njudged. If we consider Whose Gospel it is, and Who shall judge us by\nit, \u2018_we are the members of His Body, of His Flesh, and of His Bones;\nfor which cause He is not ashamed to call us brethren_.\u2019 As one of our\nbrethren He hath redeemed us, He hath laid down His life as a ransom\nfor us.... Well, therefore, may \u2018_we have boldness and access with\nconfidence_,\u2019 by the faith of Him unto the throne of that Judge, Who is\nour brother, Who is our Redeemer, Who is our High Priest, Who is our\nAdvocate, Who will not by His word at the last day condemn us, because\nHe hath already by the same word absolved us, saying, \u2018_Verily, verily,\nI say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent\nMe hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is\npassed from death into life_.\u2019\u201d\n\nAt a time when death is all around us, when so many of our nearest and\ndearest and best may pass at any moment through the shadow of death to\nthe judgment which is beyond, it is of infinite comfort to be assured\nby this Divine message that they pass, not to a severe tribunal which\nwill judge them by the letter of the law, and by a strict estimate\nof their faults, but to this gracious and merciful throne of their\nBrother, their Advocate, and their Redeemer, Who will judge them with\ninfinite mercy and equity. I do not hesitate to say that He will judge\nthem with peculiar sympathy, because they have died in the very cause\nin which He died Himself, and which it is His office as a judge to\nmaintain--the cause of righteousness. In the ancient Church, martyrdom\nwas regarded as ensuring remission of sins and absolution. Soldiers, no\ndoubt, would feel that it would be putting their case too high to place\ntheir sacrifice of their lives in the cause of their King and country,\nin a war like this, on quite the same level as the heroic martyrdom of\nthe great Saints of old. But it is a sacrifice of the same nature. It\nis coloured by the virtue of the sacrifice of Christ Himself, and of\nHis followers; and we may confidently be assured that those who meet\ntheir death on the battlefields of this war in the spirit of faith in\nChrist, and in simple devotion to duty, will be received by Him in the\nsense of those gracious words, \u201cWell done, good and faithful servant,\u201d\nand may hope to be admitted in some degree into the joy of their Lord.\nAccording to the judgment of the ancient Church, and the greatest of\nour own Divines, we may confidently bear the memories of them in our\nprayers before that Throne of gracious judgment--not presuming to know,\nor desiring to know, more than this, that they are in the hands of One\nWho is at once a Judge and a Saviour, and trusting that, in praying\nfor His gracious and merciful reception of them, we are but giving\nexpression to the yearnings of His own Divine and Human Heart.\n\nSuch are some of the blessed assurances which the Advent Season brings\nus, and we cannot be too thankful for them in our present time of\ndistress. But it brings us one lesson of warning, which it is equally\nimportant for us to bear in mind. A war like this is undoubtedly a\njudgment. It springs from the sins of men, from their passions and\ntheir lusts, their lack of love, their unrighteousnesses of various\nkinds. War shows us death, and all that is involved in death, as\nthe natural consequence of human passions, when not controlled by\nthe spirit of Christ and the Will of God. \u201cWhen lust hath conceived\nit bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth\ndeath.\u201d That is the law of Nature. It applies more or less to all\nwho are engaged in war, and we, in this war, must not shrink from\nacknowledging our part in the accumulation of human wrong which has,\nat length, exploded into this scene of violence and misery. Advent,\ntherefore, bids us look into our own hearts and lives, and ask\nourselves what there has been in them which is not in conformity with\nthe Will of God and with the law of the Saviour Who is to be our Judge.\nOne immense blessing conferred on us by the knowledge that He will be\nour Judge is that we know, by His teaching and by His example, what\nare the principles of that righteousness and judgment which it is His\noffice to enforce. It points us to the records of His love and teaching\nin the Gospels, to the messages of His Apostles, and to the Bible\nwhich was His law, as our guide in daily life in all circumstances\nand relations. That is the standard by which we shall be hereafter\njudged; and in proportion as we believe and realize this, shall we\ndevote ourselves to its study and strive after its fulfilment. We are\nsadly reminded now that in this world there is no comfort on which we\ncan permanently rely; but there is one comfort in life and in death of\nwhich we may be assured; it is that which our Lord revealed to us, when\nHe gave us at once this command and this assurance, \u201cIf ye love me,\nkeep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you\nanother Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever.\u201d Let us seek\nthat comfort in life and in death, and it will not fail us.\n\n\n\n\nDIVINE JUDGMENT AND RENOVATION.\n\nCANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, OCTOBER 11, 1916.\n\n \u201c_And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things\n new._\u201d--Rev. xxi. 5.\n\n\nThese words were uttered by Him that sitteth on the throne, as the\ninterpretation of the grand vision which passed before the Apostle at\nthe conclusion of the Revelation vouchsafed to him. \u201cI saw,\u201d he says,\n\u201ca new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth\nwere passed away.... And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying,\nBehold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them,\nand they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and\nbe their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and\nthere shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall\nthere be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And He\nthat sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.\u201d\n\nBut this vision was the sequel of fearful scenes which had passed\nbefore the Apostle as the future course of the Divine judgments\nwas unrolled before him. He had witnessed a terrible succession of\ndestructions, and plagues, and wars, falling upon the inhabitants of\nthe earth, involving miseries and sufferings incalculable. He had seen\npassing before him the awful punishments inflicted upon the enemies of\nGod, of Christ, of righteousness, and truth. One quotation in the final\nscene will be enough to remind you of the nature of the visions. \u201cI saw\nan angel,\u201d says the Apostle (chapter xix. 17), \u201cstanding in the sun;\nand he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the\nmidst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper\nof the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of\ncaptains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of\nthem that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond,\nsmall and great.\u201d At length, when these fearful plagues and judgments\nare completed the Apostle sees a great white throne and Him that sat\non it, from Whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there\nwas found no place for them. Then the books were opened, and the dead,\nwho stood before God, both small and great, were judged, every man\naccording to their works. Then it is, after this awful consummation,\nthat the Apostle sees a new heaven and a new earth. And He that sits\nupon the great white throne says, \u201cBehold, I make all things new.\u201d\n\nSuch, in brief, is the burden of the Book of Revelation. It will\nbe observed that it involves these two cardinal points: First, the\njudgment and the extirpation of all that is evil by a series of\nstruggles and agonies; and secondly, after this terrible experience,\nthe creation of all things new. The first part, however, in the\nprocess of the Divine administration, consists of a series of scenes\nof miseries, disasters, and bloodshed than which nothing more terrible\ncan be imagined, and which are described with a lurid force to which\nno other human writing offers anything comparable. War and disease\nand the confusion of all the elements of human society, and even of\nheaven and earth, are brought before us, until men are reduced to\ncry to the very mountains and rocks to cover them. All is described\nas the inevitable result of the wrath of God against evil and its\nrepresentatives, and a fearful joy is ascribed to the heavenly beings\nwho behold this vindication of the Divine righteousness. The four and\ntwenty elders fall on their faces and worship God, saying (xi. 17), \u201cWe\ngive Thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, Which art and wast and art to\ncome, because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power and hast reigned.\nAnd the nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of\nthe dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give\nreward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the Saints, and to them\nthat fear Thy Name, small and great, and shouldest destroy them which\ndestroy the earth.\u201d And then in awful response are heard, in the temple\nof God, \u201clightnings and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake and\ngreat hail.\u201d\n\nThese dread scenes, these fearful judgments, are depicted as the\ninevitable preliminary in the manifestation of the Divine Will and\nthe establishment of the Divine Kingdom. This is the main fact which\nstands out broadly from the Book. It is not necessary, for the purpose\nof appreciating this, to comprehend the signification of each of the\nawful scenes which are predicted. How far they are capable of any\nexplanation before the final events may well be doubted. Old Testament\nprophecy remained in great part mysterious until the moment of its\naccomplishment, and the full interpretation of Christian prophecy\ncan hardly be less dependent upon its actual realization. But one\nthing is plain, that the establishment of the Kingdom of Christ upon\nearth, the full realization of all its promises of peace and goodwill,\nthe complete manifestation of the glory and power of its King--that\nthese great hopes and blessed promises cannot, according to the Book\nof Revelation, be realized without the world passing through scenes\nof fearful struggle and misery, and without the execution of Divine\njudgment upon the evil and falsehood with which it abounds.\n\nThese are stern truths which it is well for us to bear in mind amidst\nthe terrible scenes which are now being enacted in the present war. The\nNew Testament begins with promises of peace, and it ends with a vision\nof peace and glory in which God will wipe away all tears from our\neyes; but the warning is conveyed to us, through the mouth of the last\nApostle, that this blessed condition cannot be reached except through a\nmanifestation of Divine justice and Divine wrath, which will bring upon\nearth and upon all mankind inconceivable miseries. The sins of men must\nbe brought into judgment. The Divine righteousness must expose their\nreal character by the consequences they naturally involve. The truth\nmust be manifested that there is a Judge of all the earth, Who brings\nevery work of man into judgment, whether it be good or whether it be\nevil; and the evil in the works of men is so deep and far-reaching\nthat its judgment must needs involve the most terrible suffering. In\nproportion as God takes to Himself His great power and reigns, the\nfirst result must be seen in these agonies of human nature, and must\nculminate in the disruption of the very elements of nature itself.\n\nIt is well we should remind ourselves how fearfully these pictures\nof the Apostle of love have been fulfilled in the history of the\nworld since his time. It was not long after he wrote, when a series\nof persecutions broke upon the Christian Church, which were at length\navenged by terrible intestine wars between the heads of the Roman\nEmpire, and in due course of time, by the overthrow of that Empire\nitself in a long series of wars and devastations, which can only be\nfitly described in some of the vivid language of the Apocalypse itself.\nIt would be appalling if we could realize the extent to which Europe\nwas filled with \u201cblood and fire and vapour of smoke\u201d during the five or\nsix centuries which elapsed between the overthrow of the Roman Empire\nand the establishment of the Christian civilisation of the Middle\nAges. Then followed the incalculable miseries and untold bloodshed\ninvolved in the contest between the Christian and the Mohammedan\nworld, throughout the long period of the Crusades. Add to this all the\nintestine wars between Christians themselves during the Middle Ages,\nand the fearful devastation of which the East was the victim in the\ncourse of Mohammedan conquests and revolutions, and you have before\nyour eyes a picture not adequately described elsewhere than in this\nterrible Book. The Reformation was followed by a long series of wars,\nduring which a great part of the surface of Europe suffered the most\ncruel devastations; and even to the present day the whole world open to\nour observation has been suffering from almost continuous bloodshed in\none part or other of its surface.\n\nThe scenes which strike us with such horror at this moment are but a\nspecimen of agonies which have been endured for long generations in\nthe successive struggles of mankind; and if we are horrified at the\nwars and agonies around us, we may be reminded, by the readiness of all\nnations for such conflicts, that they are almost the normal condition\nof humanity. In the middle of the last century Burke calculated that,\nassuming the numbers of men then upon earth to be computed at 500\nmillions at the most, the slaughter of mankind in the various wars\nand revolutions which were known up to that date amounted to upwards\nof seventy times that number, or 35,000 millions. That, on what\nhe thought a moderate estimate, represents the amount of bloodshed\nwhich the passions of men had, up to his time, inflicted upon human\nsociety. How much more is to be added to that tremendous calculation\nfor the wars which have followed since that date in the East and West?\nTaking these facts into account, we shall see good reason to recognize\nthat the Book of Revelation, in its fearful scenes, is but a true\ndescription of the actual experience of mankind. The plagues, and\ndestructions, and slaughters which that Book depicts, as the result of\nthe just judgments of God, have, as a matter of fact, been realized,\nand it is through scenes of suffering and misery of this nature that\nthe world is being conducted by the Divine justice to its ultimate goal.\n\nBut we have the more reason to be inexpressibly thankful that that\ngoal is revealed to us as one of peace and bliss. It is when we bear\nin mind the miseries and agonies which the Book of Revelation depicts,\nand which are brought so bitterly home to us by such a war as the\npresent, that we realize the full force of the promise that \u201cGod shall\nwipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death,\nneither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain:\nfor the former things are passed away.\u201d Seeing what the world has\nbeen hitherto, and the miseries by which it is burdened now, we might\nwell despair of such a result, unless we had the express assurance of\nRevelation that there is One sitting upon the throne Who gives this\nas the very definition of His work, \u201cBehold, I make all things new.\u201d\nWe should, indeed, be ungrateful not to recognize that the state of\nthings around us contains in itself some pledge and earnest of this\nrevelation. Grievously as the passions of mankind degrade them in\npractice, there is nevertheless publicly recognized, in principle,\na higher standard of responsibility, a higher and more universal\nobligation to maintain peace and goodwill on earth, than at any\nprevious time in the world\u2019s history. Even amidst such a war as is now\nwaging, principles have been established for its conduct, which produce\na great alleviation of its miseries, compared with those which were\nsuffered in the great struggles of nations and of races in previous\nages, or even during the last century. But still, none must feel more\ngrievously than those who have the conduct of human affairs how slight\nwould be our hopes of the establishment of complete peace on earth, did\nit depend simply on the wisdom or strength of even the wisest leaders\nof mankind. They cannot extirpate the passions which are the real\nultimate cause of the wars and fightings among us. They cannot take out\nof men\u2019s hearts the lusts which war in their members, and which nullify\nthe best laws and institutions. Our hope lies in the assured faith\nthat all the terrible scenes of which the earth is full, like those\nin the Book of Revelation, are under the control of Him that sitteth\non the throne, that they are working out great purposes of truth and\njustice, that the actions of all men, small and great, are subject to\nHis ultimate judgment, and that, finally, when the issues of right and\nwrong in this world have been thus worked out, in a manner which shall\nvindicate the truth and righteousness of God, He will fulfill His great\nwork, in which He is even now engaged, of making all things new.\n\nIt is, indeed, an unconscious faith of this kind which sustains men,\nand has ever sustained them, amidst the confusions and sufferings of\nlife and history. A deep instinct compels them to believe that they are\nin the hands of a God of justice and truth, and to appeal to Him in\nthe midst of their struggles, and even in those crises in which their\nbest efforts seem to be defeated. But it is the special privilege, the\nspecial grandeur, of the Christian Faith to have an explicit assurance\nof this truth from the mouth of the Judge Himself. He said unto His\nApostle, \u201cWrite, for these words are true and faithful.\u201d He, the King\nof Peace, left with His last Apostle the warnings and the promises of\nthis Book. Lest men should be discouraged by the terrible experiences\nthrough which they were yet to pass, He warned them beforehand that\nsuch experiences were inevitable, and that the world would have to\npass through a purgatory of this kind; but at the same time He told\nthem that, when judgment was completed, a new Heaven and a new Earth\nwould be the result, and He bade them be assured that, amidst whatever\ndarkness and confusion, He was sitting on the throne making all things\nnew.\n\nAll that we have to do individually is to see that we are true to Him,\nand in our hearts live in obedience to His will. In the text He goes\non to say to the Apostle, \u201cI am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the\nend. I will give unto him that is athirst of the water of life freely.\nHe that overcometh shall inherit all things; and _I_ will be his God,\nand he shall be My son.\u201d \u201cBlessed,\u201d he says again, \u201care they that do\nHis commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and\nmay enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs,\nand sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and\nwhosoever loveth and maketh a lie.\u201d We are not able, with our limited\nand earthly vision, to discern \u201cthe work that God worketh from the\nbeginning of the world,\u201d or the course of His judgments in the world\nat large. That is beyond us, and we must submit and take our part,\nwhatever it may be, in these mysterious manifestations, possessing\nour souls in the patience which such assurances as those in the text\ncan alone provide. But we can have the comfort, for our own selves,\nof passing through this strange and painful scene in sure and certain\nhope of our ultimate blessedness, provided in our own hearts and souls\nwe give ourselves up to the rule and the order of Him Who is the\nBeginning and the End, the First and the Last, provided we make it the\nwhole purpose of our lives to do His commandments, and, by His grace,\novercome the evil which besets us in our own lives. Our personal and\nprivate lives reflect in greater or less degree those stern experiences\nwhich this Book describes in the case of the world at large. We have\nour sins, and as the consequences of our sins our sufferings and\nsorrows, desolations and punishments of various kinds, and we must\nexpect to have to bear them till the moment of our departure arrives.\nBut by God\u2019s grace we are also allowed in some measure to anticipate\nthe privilege which is held out to the world at large, and which is our\nown ultimate hope. The fulfilment of the blessed promise of making all\nthings new is not merely commenced, but, if we will, is consciously\ncommenced, within our hearts and souls while we are upon earth. \u201cWe\nourselves,\u201d says St. Paul, \u201cgroan within ourselves, waiting for the\nadoption, to wit, the redemption of our body,\u201d just as \u201cthe whole\ncreation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.\u201d But we\nhave the first-fruits of the Spirit. His grace is within us at all\ntimes to give us new hearts and new spirits, to introduce His peace\ninto our souls, and to enable us to spread that peace around us. Let\nus only seek it faithfully, and the renewing and replenishing water of\nlife will restore us and maintain our energies, and will be in us as a\nwell of water springing up into everlasting life.\n\n\n\n\nRESISTANCE UNTO BLOOD.\n\nCANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, GOOD-FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1916.\n\n \u201c_Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin._\u201d--Heb.\n xii. 4.\n\n\n\u201cYe have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.\u201d That is\nthe manner in which the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews applies\nthe Cross of Christ as an example and an inspiration to Christians. He\nis exhorting them to \u201clay aside every weight, and the sin which doth\nso easily beset us,\u201d and to \u201crun with patience the race that is set\nbefore us,\u201d \u201clooking unto Jesus the Author and Perfecter of our Faith,\nwho, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross.\u201d It is an\naspect of our Saviour\u2019s Cross which it is most important to realize\nif its significance for ourselves is to be duly appreciated. What was\nit that brought our Lord to the Cross? Of course, the ultimate cause\nwas that the will of God required that sacrifice to be made for the\nexpiation of human sin. \u201cHim,\u201d said St. Peter, \u201cbeing delivered up by\nthe determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and\nby wicked hands have crucified and slain.\u201d But God\u2019s counsel and will\nwere worked out by human agencies; and it is of infinite interest to\nconsider what were the motives which led men like the leaders of the\nJewish nation to commit the awful crime of putting to death the Son of\nGod, manifested in perfect human nature. The simple explanation is that\nHe \u201cresisted unto blood, striving against sin.\u201d Our Lord strove against\nsin, and sinners could not endure His antagonism; and the opposition\nbetween the two was so intense that one or other of the two antagonists\nhad to be overpowered. That is the substance of the story of our\nLord\u2019s life as told by the Evangelists. Our Lord came proclaiming that\nthe Kingdom of Heaven was at hand--a Kingdom with higher claims and\nseverer judgments than the Jews could tolerate. It claimed a spiritual\nperfection instead of a legal one, an obedience of the heart instead\nof a mere compliance in external acts; it penetrated into the secrets\nof the conscience; and our Lord further declared that He Himself was\nthe Judge by Whom these claims would be enforced. The Jewish rulers\nfelt that this amounted to superseding themselves and their authority,\nand they treated our Lord as a usurper who must be suppressed. The\ntremendous denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees: \u201cWoe unto you,\nScribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,\u201d was an act of open and righteous\nhostility to the authorities who had rejected His mission and spurned\nHis claims. They felt that He or they must be overthrown, and they used\nthe Roman Government to destroy Him.\n\nIt thus appears that our Lord\u2019s crucifixion was the culminating\nstruggle in the never-ceasing battle between right and wrong,\nrighteousness and sin, in which the history of mankind consists. Our\nLord appeared as the representative of absolute righteousness, and He\nwas put to death because men could not endure that righteousness. In\nHis rejection by the Jews and His crucifixion by the Roman Governor,\nthe highest official representatives of human righteousness at that\ntime and place combined to condemn themselves. But they could not have\nconsummated that sacrifice without the consent and even co-operation\nof our Lord Himself. He had power, if He had chosen to exert it, to\ndestroy them and assert His Divine supremacy. \u201cThinkest thou,\u201d He\nsaid, \u201cthat I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently\ngive Me more than twelve legions of angels? But how, then, shall the\nScriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?\u201d Instead of destroying\nHis enemies, He submitted to be put to death Himself. He allowed the\nunrighteousness of human nature to break in full force upon His own\nhead; He Himself became its victim, and a victim of such infinite\ngreatness as to constitute an expiation for all the sin of mankind. Sin\nand evil can only be avenged by an adequate exhibition and endurance\nof their consequences. But that endurance and that manifestation were\nafforded, in the highest conceivable form, in the destruction, so far\nas men could effect it, of perfect goodness and holiness. That was\nwhat our Lord\u2019s submission to the Cross involved. When that expiation\nhad been made to God and God\u2019s righteousness, our Lord assumed His\nfull authority as a Saviour and a Judge, and, by His Resurrection and\nAscension, established the Kingdom of Heaven in all its grace and\npower. Henceforth men have lived under that dispensation of love as\nwell as of justice, and the Cross has been held aloft among them as the\nmeans and the assurance of forgiveness and of grace.\n\nNo human being can imitate our Lord in that supreme act of\nself-surrender to His Father\u2019s will, by which He abandoned all His\nright and power to avenge Himself on His enemies, and became the\nsupreme victim, and therefore atonement, for human sin. But it is\npossible for men to follow Him in the course of action which brought\nHim to that awful decision and agony. \u201cHe resisted unto blood, striving\nagainst sin.\u201d So far as we strive against sin and evil, whatever the\nconsequences to ourselves, we are following Him to the foot of the\nCross. It is not the mere endurance of suffering, the mere surrender\nof life in itself, which renders us followers of our Lord in His\nsacrifice: men have endured much and sacrificed much for more or less\nselfish reasons, for ambition or for military glory and power. But\nthe essence of our Lord\u2019s sacrifice was that it was made in the cause\nof righteousness and truth only. \u201cTo this end was I born,\u201d He said,\n\u201cand for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness\nunto the truth.\u201d We are following Him so far as in all our words and\nacts we are bearing witness unto the truth. That witness may at any\ntime involve suffering and death. God has so constituted mankind that\nfew great causes have ever been finally won without the voluntary\nsacrifice of life. That sacrifice may sometimes be made, like that of\nour Lord and of the martyrs, by the voluntary endurance of the cruel\npenalties inflicted by the enemies of the truth; or it may be endured\nin obedience to the claim of lawful authorities that we should take up\narms and offer our lives, in defence of some righteous cause. Men may\nact in our Lord\u2019s spirit if they submit to wrong in their own persons,\nrather than avenge themselves. But the authorities who, as St. Paul\nsays, are the ministers of God, are bound to protect those committed\nto their charge, and for that purpose have a right to call upon those\nunder them to use the sword at their command to defend the right. In\nso using the sword at the command of their rulers, at whatever cost to\nthemselves, they also are acting in Christ\u2019s spirit, because they are\nupholding righteousness and asserting the truth in the manner required\nby their duty. To all forms of organized sin the witness of the Jewish\nsacrifices holds good. \u201cWithout shedding of blood is no remission.\u201d\nThat, so long as the present dispensation lasts, is the unalterable law\nof God\u2019s Will and Word. Soldiers, therefore, who are obeying a lawful\ncommand in defence of the right, are offering their lives in the spirit\nin which Christ endured the Cross, and may claim the comfort of being\nfellows with Him in the \u201choly war\u201d of right against wrong.\n\nBut if the Cross of Christ is to be the centre of our lives, we must\nstrive to live in all things, and not only in such great crises as\nthose of war and the battlefield, in the spirit which brought our Lord\nto His Cross--the spirit of absolute obedience in all things to the\nrighteous will of God. What the Spirit of the Cross requires of us\nis the absolute surrender of our own wills to the will of God, and\nthe constant endeavour to bear witness to that will, and to promote\nit in every part of our lives. It is not the mere meditation on the\nsufferings of the Cross which will bring us into harmony with it.\nThe Apostles do not dwell much on them, profoundly as they must have\nbeen moved by them. What they dwell on is the spirit which moved our\nSaviour to accept them and to bear them. That spirit is to be discerned\nthroughout His life, as well as in His agony in the garden and in His\nsayings on the Cross. It is embodied in His gracious words: \u201cWhoever\nshall do the will of My Father which is in Heaven, the same is My\nbrother and sister and mother.\u201d The Cross is the highest and final\nexpression of His devotion and His Father\u2019s will; but we can follow\nthat spirit in every duty, however humble. If the National Mission is\nto fulfil its object, it must impress that spirit of supreme devotion\nto the will of God, as revealed in Christ, upon the nation as a whole,\nand the Cross must become the symbol of our national, no less than of\nour individual, life.\n\n\n\n\nTHE KING\u2019S ACCESSION AND INTERCESSION.\n\nCANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, 1915.\n\n \u201c_I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers,\n intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men: for kings, and for\n all that are in authority: that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life\n in all godliness and honesty._\u201d--1 Tim. ii. 1.\n\n\nIt is in fulfilment of the duty prescribed in this text that we\nhold every year a Service of Thanksgiving and Intercession on the\nanniversary of our King\u2019s accession to the throne, and I am sure we\nall know and appreciate the abundant reasons we have for offering such\nthanksgivings. We know that every public action of the King since he\ncame to the throne has borne witness to his unreserved devotion to the\nwelfare of his subjects in all parts of his Empire. His visit, for\ninstance, to India was a very arduous and anxious undertaking, and was\nprompted by his own desire to assure the Indian people of his deep\npersonal care for them, and also to strengthen the bonds between them\nand his subjects at home; and no doubt the generous service which\nIndian princes and soldiers are now rendering to the Empire on the\nplains of Flanders is in great measure due to the influence of that\nvisit, in deepening the loyalty and devotion of his Indian subjects.\nWe have had abundant evidence, moreover, in the last few months, of\nthe King\u2019s deep sympathy with his people in the sorrows and losses\nwhich this war is inflicting upon them. He has sent his son and heir\nto serve with his soldiers at the Front, and has himself visited them\nthere to thank and cheer them, and he has lately set a very conspicuous\nexample of personal self-denial in the ordinary habits of life. We see\nthat the King and Queen live for the good of their subjects, and for\nthe promotion of all that is good and true and gracious throughout\ntheir vast Empire, and that their example is one of the chief\ninfluences which are working among us for these noble ends. Knowing and\nappreciating all this, I need not say more to induce you to join with a\nfull heart to-day in the words of our Service, and to \u201cyield unfeigned\nthanks to God\u201d that He was pleased, as on this day, to place His\nservant our Sovereign Lord King George upon the throne of this realm.\n\nBut I think it may be desirable and opportune to lay some special\nstress on those intercessions which we are bidden to offer \u201cfor\nkings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet\nand peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.\u201d Those words remind\nus, first of all, that the purpose of God, so far as this world is\nconcerned, is that we may live a life of peace in all godliness and\nhonour--a state of peace in which men may enjoy the happiness for\nwhich God intended them, in which they may \u201creplenish the earth and\nsubdue it,\u201d and develop to the utmost the faculties and capacities\nwith which God has endowed them. That is the main object to be kept in\nview for the purpose of the present life. The next fact of which the\nwords remind us is that the maintenance of these peaceful conditions\nof life depends mainly upon Kings and all that are in authority. It\ndoes not depend merely upon Kings, but also upon those in authority,\nwho are the Kings\u2019 Ministers. In some parts of the world, as in this\ncountry, Kings no longer have the power by themselves, and of their own\nmotion, to determine the course of public affairs, to keep the peace or\nto declare wars. Yet their position must always give them an immense\ninfluence in the government of a nation; and even now, in the two\ngreatest countries of Europe--Germany and Russia, they have not merely\nthe supreme control, but the supreme initiative, in affairs of State.\nThe peace of the world, the possibility of our living a quiet and\npeaceable life, depends in Europe, in the main, on the rulers of Russia\nand Germany, upon those in authority in France, and upon the King of\nEngland and his Ministers.\n\nIt is a momentous fact, and a surprising one to realize. God has so\nconstituted mankind that the welfare of the masses, of the millions of\nordinary men and women, depends upon the actions of a few dozens of\nthe leading men in the various countries of Europe. We are proud of\nbeing a constitutional country, and of the fact that by the election\nof members of Parliament--by selecting, that is, the members of the\nHouse of Commons--the vast majority of Englishmen have a voice in\ncreating their own Government; and to a certain extent in that way we\ngovern ourselves. But nevertheless, in the last resort, the fate of the\ncountry depends upon the dozen or two men who are placed in power by\nthe House of Commons. It is a simple fact that the mass of the people\nin this country had no voice whatever in determining whether we should\nor should not enter upon this terrible war. It was determined for us in\nthe course of a few hours by the King\u2019s Ministers, and by the action\nthey took in their relations with other countries. In the nature of the\ncase it must be so. Whether they will or not, great masses of people\nand great nations cannot do without a Government; and when they have\nestablished one, that Government must necessarily act in many critical\nemergencies without waiting to consult the people whom it governs. A\nnation and its King, with his Ministers, constitute as much one body,\nto use St. Paul\u2019s image, as the various elements and limbs of the human\nbody and its brain. We become one single organism, under the control\nand management of the brain of that organism, which is the King and\nhis Ministers. It is an awful responsibility for men to have entrusted\nto them, to be able to declare war and thus to launch many millions\nof men in their own country, and hundreds of millions of men in the\nEmpire and in other countries, upon a gigantic struggle, of which all\nwe know for certain at the outset is that it will involve a sacrifice\nof tens of thousands of lives, the devastation of fair countries, and\nthe waste of enormous treasure. But so it is and ever must be. In the\nfreest republics that ever existed the chief rulers have had similarly\nto act as the brain of the whole people; and it depends on their wisdom\nand faithfulness, not merely at critical moments, but in that daily\nadministration of affairs out of which critical moments arise, whether\nthe people shall live a quiet and peaceable life or not.\n\nWe must add to this the fact--which no one would be more ready\nto recognize than these leaders and rulers, Kings, Ministers, or\nPresidents, themselves--that the affairs with which they have to deal,\nthe problems they have to solve, are too vast and mysterious to be\nfully grasped by any human brain, and that they are liable to the\nmost grievous miscalculations. If you need evidence of this, look at\nthe outbreak of the present war. Our rulers in this country had no\nidea at all, within a few days of the event, that such a war was about\nto break upon us; the rulers of all other nations have been loudly\nproclaiming, ever since it began, that they are not responsible for it,\nand that it would not have happened but for circumstances which they\ncould not foresee or control. There seem, indeed, to have been wild and\nunscrupulous spirits in Germany who were eager for it, and who had long\nbeen intriguing for it; but none the less it burst upon Europe suddenly\nand unexpectedly, and it baffled the foresight of European statesmen in\ngeneral. In the face of such imperfect competence for these problems\nof statesmanship, and of such enormous responsibility for them, are\nwe not compelled to stretch out our hands towards Heaven, and implore\nGod\u2019s guidance for the rulers who are feeling their way amidst such\ndim lights--\u201cfor kings and for all in authority,\u201d upon whose words\nand actions the fate of the world and its peace, the happiness and\nthe very life of millions of men and women are dependent? If, indeed,\nwe could not do so, we might well despair. We should behold before us\na mass of nations rising against one another, blinded--as we see in\nGermany that nations can be blinded--by passion and pride, and fighting\nwildly, almost like men in the dark, and we might well feel helpless\nbefore such a chaos. But knowing, as it is the privilege of Christians\nto know, that \u201cthe Lord sitteth above the water-floods,\u201d that \u201cthe Lord\nremaineth a King for ever,\u201d knowing, as another Psalm says, that \u201cthe\nLord is King, be the people never so impatient. He sitteth between the\ncherubim, be the earth never so unquiet,\u201d we cry unto the Lord in our\ntrouble, and implore Him to deliver us out of our distress.\n\nThere is another reason for our thus appealing to Him, which is, that\nwe are assured by His Word that the whole history of the world has\nbeen under his control, and that He has been directing its course\nthroughout, and determining the fate of nations for His own purposes.\nWe have before us the most conclusive evidence of this in the history\nof the Jews. The course of their history and their position in the\nworld at the present day were announced to Abraham and Moses thousands\nof years ago, and they have fulfilled, and are now fulfilling, the\nplace and the function in the world which were then assigned to them.\nThere is nothing, accordingly, on which the Bible insists more urgently\nand constantly than that the great issues of war and history are in the\nhands of God. It is not merely that He exercises a general controlling\ninfluence over them, but that He has His own purposes, which He is\ngradually fulfilling by means of \u201cthe unruly wills and affections\nof sinful men.\u201d It teaches us that \u201cexcept the Lord build the house\nthey labour in vain that build it; except the Lord keep the city the\nwatchman watcheth but in vain.\u201d He does not merely interpose in the\ncourse of the building, but He is the Builder. He is building up,\nthrough the ages, some great design, and all nations will be made in\nthe end to conform to it.\n\nIt is certain, for instance, that it was not by our design or\nforethought, or our skill, that the Empire which we are now called on\nto defend was built up. A hundred years ago--nay, fifty years ago--no\nstatesman seems to have imagined that the British Empire would grow,\nor could grow, to the vast dimensions it now possesses. Not merely\ndid they not imagine it--some of them actually deprecated its growth.\nIt has not been by our will and design, but in great measure against\nthem, that the British nations have been developed into one great\nbody politic. It must be the hand of God which we see in all that\ndevelopment. We have, whether we will or no, a great work laid upon\nus all over the world--in India, in America, and in the Islands of\nthe sea--and we recognize that it is by God\u2019s will that this task and\nresponsibility, which is at the same time a great privilege, has been\nlaid upon us. We may well, therefore, implore continually His help\nand guidance in the discharge of it. Is it not, then, an imperative\nduty, is not St. Paul right in putting it in the very forefront of our\nduties, that we should offer up supplications, intercessions, urgent\nprayers for the King and for all in authority under him, that they\nmay be guided to know God\u2019s will in the vast problems which are set\nbefore them? that \u201cGod\u2019s wisdom may be their guide and that His Arm may\nstrengthen them,\u201d and that He may direct their actions and endeavours\nto His own glory, to the accomplishment of His great designs, and to\nthe welfare of our people?\n\nLet us ask ourselves earnestly whether we have realized, as we ought,\nsince this war began, that it is in God\u2019s hands, and not in ours, to\ndetermine its issue. War is not merely an appeal to the sword--it is,\nin a far higher degree, an appeal, the final appeal, to God Himself.\nLord Bacon observes that great soldiers and Commanders have always been\nconspicuous for their acknowledgment that the issues of their great\nbattles and campaigns all depended upon some supernatural power. They\nknew better than others the infinite accidents and chances upon which\nthe issue of war depends, and they realized that it was in God\u2019s power\nto determine that issue as He pleased. I fear it must be owned that we\nhave not, as yet, acknowledged this truth in the present war as much as\nwe ought. If we had, would not the Services of Intercession in this\nCathedral and elsewhere be more frequently and more earnestly attended?\nLet us be reminded then, by this Service of Prayer and Supplication,\non the anniversary of the Accession of our King, how deeply he and\nhis Ministers need that prayer and intercession, how wholly dependent\nthey are, in bearing the momentous burdens laid upon them, upon \u201cthe\ngood hand of our God upon them\u201d; and let us henceforth \u201cpray without\nceasing\u201d for God\u2019s blessing upon our King, and particularly, at this\ntime, for his victory over the bitter enemies by whom he has been\nforced into this dreadful struggle.\n\n\n\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN SANCTION OF WAR.\n\nAT THE SERVICE OF INTERCESSION FOR THE KING\u2019S NAVAL AND MILITARY FORCES\nIN CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, AUGUST, 1914.\n\n\nWe are assembled here this afternoon, at the call of our King in\nCouncil and of our Archbishop, for the purpose of solemn intercession\nwith Almighty God on behalf of his Majesty\u2019s naval and military\nforces now engaged in war. That is in accordance with the solemn\npractice of our fathers at all the great crises of our history; and\nit is only about fourteen years since we were similarly interceding\nwith Almighty God in this cathedral, when the King\u2019s forces were\nengaged in an arduous struggle in South Africa. But the gravity of our\npresent struggle is greater than that of any in the memory of living\nmen, perhaps greater than that of any other in our history. The very\nexistence of our Empire, and even the independence of our Kingdom, is\nat stake; and the Power by which we are threatened has been, of late\nyears, deemed the greatest military force in Europe, and a naval force\nonly second to our own. It may be that the capacities and resources\nof our Kingdom and Empire will be strained as they have never been\nstrained before, and that all our manhood, and even our womanhood,\nwill be called upon for all the force and endurance of which they are\ncapable. Prayer to God is incumbent upon us at all times; but there\nare special reasons why, in a great war, it is the most important of\nall duties, and the most precious of all privileges. The issues of war\nare, in an extraordinary degree, beyond the control of man. The issue\nof a battle or a campaign may, in fact, be determined by incidents,\nmoral and physical, which no human power can foresee or control. Our\nown deliverance from the Spanish Armada was certainly determined, in an\nincalculable degree, by the tremendous storm which wrecked the Spanish\nfleet at the critical moment; and again and again in history have\ngreat battles been decided by influences of that nature, or by some\nincalculable turn in the feeling and temper of an army. Consequently,\nwhen nations go to war they place themselves and their fortunes in the\nhands of God in a more absolute manner than in any other human affairs.\nThat is what we have now done by declaring war against Germany; and we\nhave, therefore, more reason than at any other time in our history to\nfall before God\u2019s footstool, and to implore Him for the protection and\nblessing which He, and He only, can give us. It is still more true now\nthan in the Psalmist\u2019s time that \u201cthere is no king that can be saved by\nthe multitude of an host, neither is any mighty man delivered by much\nstrength; an horse is counted but a vain thing to save a man, neither\nshall he deliver any man by his great strength. Behold the eye of the\nLord is upon them that fear Him, and upon them that put their trust in\nHis mercy.\u201d In that spirit we now bow before His throne--in the words\nof our daily prayer in time of war and tumult--before the throne of\n\u201cthe only Giver of all victory.\u201d\n\nComing before Him in these solemn circumstances, and with this\nmomentous petition, it becomes us to ask ourselves whether we are doing\nso in a spirit, and with a cause, in which we can expect His blessing,\nand a favourable answer to our prayers. \u201cIf I incline unto wickedness\nwith my heart,\u201d says the Psalmist, \u201cthe Lord will not hear me.\u201d If we\nare to offer our prayers with a believing and confident heart, we must\nhave our conscience clear; and before men ask God\u2019s blessing in so\ntremendous an issue as that of war, they must consider with the most\nsolemn earnestness whether they can feel assured that what they are\ndoing and asking is in accordance with His will.\n\nAs to the lawfulness of war itself, though some good Christian minds\nare troubled by the question, the answer seems clear and simple. War\nis justifiable for the same reason that it is lawful to put men to\ndeath for great crimes, like murder and treason. The conscience of\nmankind at large, the conscience of Christian States at large, has\nuniformly wielded the sword of justice in avenging and averting, by the\npunishment of death, such crimes of violence and treachery as destroy\nthe very frame of Society. That use of the sword of justice, moreover,\nhas the express support of Revelation, for St. Paul has declared that\nthe ruler \u201cbeareth not the sword in vain; he is the minister of God,\nan avenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.\u201d But if it is\nlawful to use the sword of justice against individuals, it must be\nequally lawful to use it against a community of individuals--in other\nwords, against a society, or a nation, who are unjustly destroying or\nthreatening the lives and the peace of another society or nation. The\nuse of the sword--which is an elementary name for war--has been shown\nby thousands of years of experience to be, in the last resort, the only\neffectual means of punishing and preventing unjust violence. It is vain\nto argue what might be possible or desirable if man were an uncorrupt\ncreature. He is, as a matter of fact, a sinful creature; and, as St.\nPaul plainly says, it is God Himself who has put the sword into the\nhands of human authority to punish, and to restrain, the effects of\nthat sinfulness.\n\nThus the mere fact of our resort to the sword need not of itself burden\nour consciences. But if this account of its awful purpose be true, one\nindispensable condition for its use is obviously requisite. If the\npurpose of the sword is to punish injustice, then we must take care\nthat it is used for that solemn purpose only. It was not given to men\nto enable them to gratify their ambition or pride, or to enlarge their\nkingdoms at their pleasure, or for any selfish purpose whatever. He\nwho draws the sword for any purpose but that of upholding justice and\njudgment on the earth is committing the crime of murder on the vastest\nscale, and renders himself justly liable to the stern use of the sword\nagainst himself. If, therefore, we are to come before God with a clear\nconscience at this moment, we must be able to say, from our hearts,\nthat we have not now drawn the sword from any selfish motive, or under\nthe influence of any violent passion, but that we have drawn it simply\nand solely in the discharge of our bounden duty, and in fulfilment of\njust promises and engagements to our neighbours. My brethren, I believe\nit may be confidently asserted that this country has never been engaged\nin a war in respect to which this could be said with more unqualified\nconfidence than in the present case.\n\nI think, indeed, we may thankfully consider, in reviewing our long\nhistory, that the wars by which our Empire has been developed and\nestablished have, on the whole, been of this character, and have\nnot been prompted by either national or dynastic ambition. The\nwars under Queen Elizabeth, in which the germs of our Empire were\nlaid, were mainly prompted by a just indignation against the cruel\nand superstitious tyranny of Spain; and the wars of Marlborough\nand Wellington were similarly fought to protect Europe against an\noverbearing and unjust domination. In the heat of those struggles we\nmay have been betrayed, in some instances, into an unjust use of the\nsword; but, on the whole, we may thank God that the wars which have\nestablished Great Britain in its present position have been--at least\nmainly--fought in just causes. Certainly in the present instance we\nhave no other motive or object. We covet no other nation\u2019s possessions;\nwe have not interfered--and do not desire to interfere--with any other\nnation\u2019s affairs; we would not willingly exert our influence for any\nother purpose but that of promoting righteousness and freedom; and if,\nin our later history, we have erred, as human beings can hardly avoid\nerring sometimes, the errors have been due to a failure of judgment,\nand not of motive or intention. As to the particular occasion of this\nwar, we have offered no provocation whatever, except what has been\ncalled \u201cthe strong antipathy\u201d of right to wrong; the provocation which\nadherence to promise and treaties must ever offer to those who would\nbreak them; the provocation which defence of the weak must ever offer\nto those who would overbear them. We can say in a word, with a good\nconscience, that we are at least earnestly endeavouring to act as the\nservants of Him of Whom the Psalmist exclaims: \u201cThe Lord is King; the\nearth may be glad thereof; yea, the multitude of the isles may be glad\nthereof. Clouds and darkness are round about Him; righteousness and\njudgment are the habitation of His seat.\u201d It is in the cause of that\nrighteousness and judgment that we desire to act.\n\nBut there is one other condition that we must fulfil, if we are to\ndare to claim the favour of God in this great struggle. We must not\nonly ask whether we are upholding righteousness in our public action\nbut whether we are observing it in our own hearts, and in our national\nlife. Sufferings, we are told in our Prayer Book, may be sent \u201cto\ncorrect and amend in us whatever doth offend the eyes of our Heavenly\nFather.\u201d Can we fail to be sensible that there is much in our lives,\nboth private and public, which must offend His eyes? Our private sins\nmust be left to our private consciences. But who has not listened\nduring the last few years, with a painful sense of their justice,\nto reproaches among ourselves at the luxury, the extravagance, the\nreckless pursuit of pleasure, the general self-indulgence, which have\nbeen too prevalent among us? With what heart can men appeal for God\u2019s\nfavour and protection, in their hour of need, who, in their hours of\nwell-being, have neglected His worship and disregarded His Word and\nSacraments? Before going into battle as a nation and as individuals,\nlet us seek His absolution in that comprehensive prayer of our Litany\n\u201cthat it would please Him to give us true repentance, to forgive us all\nour sins, negligences, and ignorances, and to endue us with the grace\nof His Holy Spirit to amend our lives according to His Holy Word.\u201d\n\nIn so far as we approach Him in this spirit, we may humbly hope for\nHis blessing on the bravery and the self-sacrifice of our sailors and\nsoldiers. Those sacrifices, moreover, alike for them and for ourselves,\nwill be relieved of their worst bitterness, and will be glorified by\na sacred and Divine example. They will not be fruitless sacrifices.\nThey will be sacrifices which will win for the fellow-countrymen of\nthose who offer them, and for the world at large, grand additions to\nthat edifice of righteousness and judgment, of Christian civilization,\ntowards which the hopes of mankind are directed with an inexpressible\nyearning. If this war results, as we now pray that it may, in the\nreassertion of principles which were in danger of being forgotten\nor overridden, in the re-establishment of the faith of treaties,\nand in the protection of the weak against the strong, it will have\nestablished for Europe and the world a great consolidation and advance\nin the essential principles of national truth and justice. It is a\ncomparatively poor thing to die for glory, or for power and wealth;\nbut it is a grand thing to die for righteousness and equity, for the\nGod who allows us to be His instruments in upholding them, and for\nthe King and country whose call we are proud to obey. If, moreover,\nmen go to war in this spirit, they may claim a still more Divine\nprivilege. In the sacrifice which soldiers make in a righteous cause,\nthey are following, in the most essential characteristic, the \u201cauthor\nand finisher of our Faith,\u201d the \u201cCaptain of our Salvation,\u201d whose\nwork is summed up in that soldier-like phrase, \u201cHe resisted unto\nblood, striving against sin.\u201d The soldier who sheds his blood on the\nbattlefield in a righteous cause, and with a righteous purpose, is\ndoing the very thing that Christ did, and he may be assured of Christ\u2019s\napproval and blessing. In quiet times we may fail to realize adequately\nthe solemn truth that, whenever we receive the Holy Communion, we are\nreceiving spiritual benefits which were won for us by the sacrifice of\nthe Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ. If war, in one aspect, is a\nhorrible thing, so was the Cross; but the whole hope of the salvation\nof mankind, here and hereafter, was won by that Divine bloodshed; and\nits grace and glory are reflected over every battlefield, in which\nblood is shed in the long struggle against unrighteousness. In these\nconvictions, and with these solemn resolves, let us now appeal to God,\nin firm and humble faith, for His help in this hour of need; and let us\nenter into this dread conflict with the full assurance that \u201cGod is our\nrefuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nTHE WARNING OF THE TOWER IN SILOAM.\n\nPREACHED IN CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, OCTOBER 25, 1914.\n\n \u201c_I tell you, Nay; but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise\n perish._\u201d--Luke xiii. 1-5.\n\n\n\u201cExcept ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.\u201d In these solemn\nwords, twice repeated, our Lord affords us a flash of light upon the\nprinciples and methods of the Divine judgments, and utters a solemn\nwarning; and I think that both the revelation and the warning will be\nfound intensely applicable to the distressing sufferings and anxieties\nthrough which we and our country are now passing. Our Lord had been\nspeaking about the severity of the Divine justice, and about the\nblindness of men in not foreseeing the approach of His judgments. \u201cYe\nhypocrites,\u201d He said, \u201cye can discern the face of the sky and of the\nearth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time? Yea, and why\neven of yourselves judge ye not what is right?\u201d and He warns them that\nif they fall into the hands of justice, they will not depart thence\ntill they have paid the very last mite. At this mention of the Divine\njudgment, some who were present told Him of a dreadful act of violence\nwhich had recently occurred, of some Galil\u00e6ans, \u201cwhose blood Pilate\nhad mingled with their sacrifices.\u201d It would seem they were members of\nan extremely zealous sect of Jews, who objected to the custom which\nthen prevailed of offering sacrifices in the Temple for the welfare of\nthe Roman Government; and Pilate treated their conduct as treasonable,\nand had them slaughtered in the Temple while they were offering their\nown sacrifices. The object of the interruption seems to have been to\nask our Lord whether these men had brought such a punishment upon\nthemselves by unusual sin, and it may also have been intended to tempt\nHim to pronounce some censure on Pilate, and thus to bring Himself into\nconflict with the Roman authorities. But our Lord\u2019s reply lifts the\nmatter at once out of any personal or local bearings, and lays down a\nprinciple which applies to all such tragedies. \u201cSuppose ye,\u201d He said,\n\u201cthat these Galil\u00e6ans were sinners above all the Galil\u00e6ans because\nthey suffered such things? I tell you, Nay; but, except ye repent, ye\nshall all likewise perish.\u201d He drives the truth home by applying it to\nanother recent tragedy, which might have seemed a mere accident. \u201cThose\neighteen,\u201d He said, \u201cupon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them,\nthink ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?\nI tell you, Nay; but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.\u201d\nIt is not for you, He seems to say, to be curious about the reason why\nthese particular men have suffered in this way. What you should do is\nto learn that you are all liable to suffer in the same way, and that\nyou will do so unless you repent.\n\nNow, it will be seen that there is a momentous revelation contained\nin these words, respecting the real cause of such dreadful disasters\nas these two incidents illustrated. When He says, \u201cExcept ye repent,\nye shall all likewise perish,\u201d He clearly intimates that a Divine\njudgment is going forward in the world, which sooner or later brings\nsuffering and destruction upon men in consequence of their sin. Even\nwhat we might call a physical accident, like the fall of a tower which\nkills eighteen persons, is a warning to men that they are liable to\nsuch a death at any moment, and that, therefore, they should repent\nand be prepared for it. It is an example of what may befall any of us,\nand of what will befall all of us in one way or another, unless we\nrepent. If we look more particularly into the example of the men whom\nPilate slaughtered, we shall realize that it has a peculiarly close\napplication to our own day. These men, who were resisting the Roman\nGovernment, were examples of the vehement passions which were at that\ntime surging among the Jewish people. Our Lord Himself was the victim\nof the fierce hatred of foreign influence which prevailed among the\npeople. The priests and Pharisees said among themselves, \u201cWhat do we?\nFor this man doeth many miracles, and if we let Him thus alone, all\nmen will believe on Him, and the Romans will come and take away both\nour place and our nation.\u201d And the High Priest, Caiaphas, replied, \u201cYe\nknow nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that one\nman should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.\u201d\nThus it was that the passions of the Jewish people were worked up into\nsuch blindness and wickedness, that they committed the awful crime of\nputting our Lord to death; and then in forty years the prediction of\nour Lord was fulfilled, and the great mass of them perished in just\nsuch a slaughter as that which Pilate committed, the blood of the\nnation being shed in torrents in the Courts of the Temple, and amidst\nits sacrifices. These events--the massacre by Pilate, the murder of\nour Lord, the destruction of the Jewish people--were not separate and\ndisconnected events. They were all the consequence of the sins and\nevil passions which our Lord denounced among the Jews of His time;\nand the disasters which the Jews suffered were the judgments of God\u2019s\nrighteousness upon those sins.\n\nNow what this reveals to us is the constitution of that world of human\nsociety amidst which we live. The bedrock of it, the basis of its\nwhole constitution, is the righteousness of God and His unwavering\nmaintenance of His moral laws. As the Psalmist says, \u201cClouds and\ndarkness are round about Him,\u201d and we cannot follow in all respects\nHis mysterious dispensations; but one thing we know for certain, that\n\u201crighteousness and judgment are the habitation of His seat.\u201d All His\nprovidential government of mankind is based on the assertion of right\nand the punishment and repression of wrong; and, as another prophet\nsays, when you see God\u2019s judgments in the world you may be sure that\nthe object of them is that the inhabitants of the world may learn\nrighteousness. But it is of the first importance we should realize\nhow those judgments are for the most part executed. It is not, as a\nrule, by the special and visible interposition of God\u2019s hand. There\nhave been times, indeed, as on various occasions in the history of\nthe Jews, such as the deliverance of His people from Egypt, when God\nmanifestly interposed, by miraculous means, to punish His enemies and\nto deliver His people. But for the most part, and in the general course\nof history, the moral and religious laws which God has established in\nhuman nature are left to work out their natural consequences, and men\nare punished not merely because of their sins, but by their sins, and\nby the working out of their sins in their lives. The explanation of the\nchief troubles of mankind, and in particular of the wars and sufferings\nwhich have cursed the earth from generation to generation, is contained\nin that statement of St. James: \u201cFrom whence come wars and fightings\namong you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your\nmembers? Ye lust and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot\nobtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask,\nand receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your\nlusts.\u201d When the men and women of whom a nation is composed give way\nto those lusts of which St. James speaks, to covetousness, jealousy,\nsensuality, and untruthfulness, they are gradually storing up the fuel\nof passions for some great conflagration, which arises in the natural\ncourse of things, as the consequence of some great public injustice\ninto which they are betrayed. They thus rouse the indignation of other\npeople, they commit injustices which must be resisted, and then the\nworld is convulsed in some great war like the present.\n\nWar, in fact, is the natural penalty by which, under God\u2019s\nconstitution of the world, the evil passions of men punish themselves.\nWe may take an example from the physical world. The earth under our\nfeet is held together, and affords us a sure foothold, by virtue of\ncertain physical and chemical laws which are perpetually at work in it,\nsuch as the law of gravitation and the laws of chemical attraction.\nThey are always working silently, and it is by means of the incessant\naction of those laws that the whole face of the earth is maintained\nfrom day to day. But from time to time, from some causes which we\ndo not yet understand, something occurs to disturb their ordinary\npeaceful course, and then by their own natural action they produce\nsome tremendous convulsions, like earthquakes or the eruptions of\nvolcanoes. So it is with the moral world of national and international\nlife. It is maintained in peace and stability, as a rule, by the\nprinciples of mutual trust and regard, if not of love, which are at\nthe root of social and political life; but if falsehood and jealousy\nand covetousness accumulate in some part of the world, there is sure,\nsooner or later, to be a terrible convulsion and a devastating\neruption of \u201cblood and fire and vapour of smoke.\u201d War is thus the\noutburst, the visible embodiment, of the passions behind it, of the\naccumulated sins which nations and generations have been indulging. We\nlook with horror on war and all its miseries, and justly so; but what\nwe ought to look on with more horror are the sins and wickedness and\npassions of which war is the inevitable result. People say that war\nis wrong, and of course it is wrong that there should be war; but the\nwrong in it is not the actual waging of the war, not at least the using\nof the sword, in the Name of God, to assert right against wrong; that\nis the bounden duty of the lawful authority. Where the wrong lies is in\nthe passions which make the war, and which compel men to resort to so\nterrible a vindication of righteousness.\n\nHave we not, I must ask, a glaring illustration of the profound moral\nprinciples thus asserted by our Lord in the present war? The means\nof communication in our day enable us to realize the feelings which\nare at work over the face of Europe amidst this terrible convulsion;\nand there is one fact which is appallingly conspicuous in that\nmanifestation. That fact is the falsehood, the hatred, the violent\nimputations of evil motives, the overbearing ambition which are at work\nin the great nation--for a great nation it is--with which we are at\nwar. As I will presently observe, I am far from acquitting ourselves\nof all blame in the matter. There was never a human struggle yet in\nwhich either side was perfectly free from blame; but as to the gross\nmisrepresentations which are eagerly disseminated abroad respecting\nthe motives and the conduct of this country, there can be no question\nwhatever, and no adequate excuse. Whatever faults and errors we have\ncommitted, our statesmen have not been animated in the development of\nour Empire by greed and selfish ambition, or by a mere desire to be\nsupreme over other nations. So far as our enemies are acting upon these\nideas of our motives, they are absolutely blind; and there is nothing\nmore terrible in the revelations which this war affords than that\nindividuals and nations are capable of such absolute delusions, on so\nvast a scale, respecting one another\u2019s motives and characters. It is\nplain that what has made this war is a total absence of that Christian\ncharity between individuals and nations which St. Paul inculcates as\n\u201cthe very bond of all virtues,\u201d and which is therefore the bond of all\nsociety. The most heart-rending thing, after all, is not that we are at\nwar, but that Christian nations should be capable, in their daily life\nand thought, of such an absolute negation of those principles of moral\nlife and faith which our Lord came to establish among us. Our Lord here\nwarns us that unless men repent of this uncharitable temper, and of the\nsins associated with it, war can never be abolished, and we shall all\nperish in some fearful conflagration. At present the conflagration,\nlike the tower in Siloam, has wrought its destruction mainly upon\nothers than ourselves. A modern despot, indignant, like Pilate, at\nopposition to the claims of his nation, has mingled the blood of\nBelgian men and women and children with their sacrifices, with their\nruined churches and desolated homes. But it is certainly not because a\npeople like the brave Belgians were sinners above all men that dwelt\nin Europe that they have thus suffered. \u201cI tell you, Nay,\u201d our Lord\u2019s\nVoice is heard in this text; \u201cbut, except ye repent, ye shall all\nlikewise perish.\u201d Look to yourselves; ask yourselves whether there are\nor have been sins prevailing among you which, under the laws of God\u2019s\nrighteousness, must work out their evil consequence in your social and\nnational life; and repent, lest ye likewise perish.\n\nIt is impossible, in dealing with this subject, not to express, as\nI have done, a deep indignation at the motives and the spirit which\nhave been displayed by our enemies in this war. But we should miss the\nwhole purpose of our Lord\u2019s warning unless we applied it in the first\ninstance, and in the main, to ourselves. Let us bear in mind that what\nhas happened in Belgium and France might in conceivable circumstances,\nin the further development of scientific warfare, in the air as well\nas in the sea, happen to ourselves; and let us take to heart the clear\nwarning of our Lord that the only way to avert such destructions, and\nto avoid perishing ourselves, is to repent, and from our hearts to\ncultivate among us those principles of charity, truth, righteousness\nand religion, which alone can keep human nature in peace.\n\nAfter all, can we be sure that we are not partly to blame for this\nwar by our own faults and failures? Have our statesmen, have we\nas a nation, been looking facts in the face and meeting them with\nfaithfulness and self-sacrifice? Do not many among us ask whether this\nwar would ever have been possible if we had realized our danger and\nour duty in time, and prepared ourselves, at whatever cost, to avert\nthe danger? How far have we, and those who guide us, allowed ourselves\nto be diverted from the truth of our condition by sectarian and party\npassions and uncharitable class jealousies? Have we seriously laid to\nheart \u201cthe great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions?\u201d Is it\ncompatible with the love of God and of Christ that those divisions\nshould prevail so far as to lead to the curtailment of the Christian\ninstruction of our school-children, and the secularization of property\nleft by our ancestors for the hallowing of God\u2019s Name and the promotion\nof Christ\u2019s Kingdom? We have, moreover, been on the verge of civil\nwar; and the very possibility of such war is proof enough, on the\nprinciples we have been considering, that some of the passions which\nlead to all wars have been rife among us. The possibility of that\nintestine war seems, in fact, to have been one of the considerations\nwhich encouraged the present attack upon us. Add to all this the social\nand personal vices, against which good men among us and great societies\nhave been struggling for years, and have we not abundant reason to\napply earnestly to our nation and to our individual selves the Lord\u2019s\nwarning: \u201cRepent, or ye shall likewise perish?\u201d For my part, I could\nwish that we were afforded an opportunity, by some solemn appointment\nof a Day of National Humiliation as well as Intercession, to search\nour consciences in the sight of God, and to unite in one great act\nof national repentance. But let us at least endeavour to discharge\nthis duty of repentance and amendment for our own souls and in our\nindividual lives; and we may then be assured that we are doing the best\nwe can towards averting from our nation that suffering and ruin, which\nare brought so closely home to us in the miseries of our Allies.\n\n\n\n\nTHE RIGHTEOUS IDEAL.\n\nAT CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY, 1915.\n\n \u201c_Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,\n nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the\n scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord: and in his law\n doth he meditate day and night._\u201d--Ps. i. 12.\n\n\nIt is with the utmost appropriateness that this psalm is placed first\nin the Psalter, for it expresses the spirit which underlies all other\npsalms, and, in fact, the whole of the Scriptures. Its message lies,\nindeed, at the root of the religion of the Old Testament, and of the\nNew Testament also. Let us notice, in the first place, that its opening\nword--the word \u201cblessed\u201d--is the keynote of the Scriptures from first\nto last. In the first chapter of Genesis, which we have read this\nmorning, we read, not only that God saw everything that He had made,\nand behold it was very good; but more particularly, that when God made\nman He blessed them, and gave them a special commission. He placed\nthem in the Garden of Eden, in which He made to grow every tree that\nis pleasant to the sight and good for food, the Tree of Life also in\nthe midst of the Garden. He blessed them, and intended them to be\nblessed; and He gave them a command which they had only to obey in\norder to enjoy that blessing. Man forfeited the blessing by disobeying\nthe command; but the last chapter of the Bible, which we have read this\nevening, describes the recovery of it by those who have faithfully\nserved Him. It describes a day when there shall be no more curse, but\nthe throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in the new Garden of the\nTree of Life. \u201cThe throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and\nHis servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face; and His name\nshall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and\nthey need no light of lamp, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God\ngiveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.\u201d Thus the\nBible holds out, from beginning to end, the prospect of blessedness, or\nperfect happiness, as that which God designs for men, and which will be\nultimately bestowed upon His faithful servants. Between the beginning\nand the end, in the midst of this great dispensation, when our Lord\nappeared with His new covenant, His message is described as a Gospel,\nas \u201cgood tidings of great joy,\u201d and the first word He utters in that\ngreat Sermon on the Mount, which contains his special teaching, is this\ncharacteristic word \u201cblessed.\u201d He repeats it again and again, \u201cBlessed\nbe ye poor.... Blessed are ye that hunger now.... Blessed are ye that\nweep.\u201d The promise of blessing is thus the keynote of our Saviour\u2019s\nmessage.\n\nNow this characteristic of the Bible and of our Saviour\u2019s teaching\nexplains, and in great degree justifies, the universal craving of\nmen and women for happiness. The pursuit of happiness in one form or\nanother is the most universal motive of human conduct. It inspires some\nof our best exertions, and it prompts most of our sins. The motive\nof our first mother, as described in the third chapter of Genesis,\nis still that of nearly all of us, in one way or another. \u201cWhen the\nwoman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant\nto the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of\nthe fruit thereof and did eat.\u201d The world, the flesh, and the devil\nare perpetually offering men fruits of this kind, and the craving for\nthe happiness they promise is so great that men and women seize them,\nin spite of the knowledge they have in their consciences that to do\nso is wrong and against the will of God. In daily life we find that\ndifferent fruits--forbidden fruits--appeal to different classes of men\nand women, but they are all liable to be attracted by some fruit or\nother and to be possessed by some \u201cruling passion.\u201d It is striking,\nmoreover, to look at the course of history, and observe how different\nfruits, different ideals, have attracted the various nations of the\nworld. To the Greek the attraction was that of beauty and art, and\ntheir temptation was to give themselves up to the pleasures which\nthose ideals could afford them, with but little moral restraint.\nThe fruit which most attracted the Roman mind was that of rule and\npower. The passion, indeed, for creating great empires has been\none of the strongest in mankind. We see it in full strength in the\ngreat Assyrian and Babylonian empires, and, unhappily, we see it in\nfull force in a great nation of the present day. These pleasures and\nglories have accordingly been the subject of a vast amount of human\nliterature--poetry, and history, and song.\n\nBut the characteristic of the people of Israel, and of Jewish\nliterature, is that none of these ideals of happiness, whether of\nbeauty or glory or power, have animated their best representatives. The\none ideal which was always before the minds of their great prophets,\nand poets, and teachers was the ideal of righteousness, the ideal of\nthe law of God, which is the subject of this first Psalm. The truth,\nwith which the Book of Genesis opens, that God has given a law to\nmen, that He has declared His will to them, and given them statutes\nand commandments in which that will is expressed--this is the supreme\nthought in the mind of the Jewish Psalmist or prophet, and, in spite\nof all their faults, of the Jewish nation as a whole. Psalm cxix.\nis, perhaps, the fullest expression of this conviction and passion.\nThat psalm is one long variation of its opening verse, \u201cBlessed are\nthey that are undefiled in the way, and walk in the law of the Lord.\nBlessed are they that keep His testimonies, and seek Him with their\nwhole heart.\u201d \u201cO how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day.\u201d\n\u201cHow sweet are Thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to\nmy mouth! Through Thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate\nevery false way.\u201d You will see that these phrases express a positive\npassion in the mind of the Psalmist for the law of God--as strong a\npassion at least, or even stronger, than the passions of some men for\nthe pleasures of sense, and of others for the pleasures of ambition and\nworldly success. \u201cI opened my mouth,\u201d says the Psalmist, \u201cand drew in\nmy breath, for my delight was in Thy commandments.\u201d The whole frame of\nthe man, his body as well as his mind, is absorbed in this passion for\nthe law of God. The Jew craves for blessing, or for happiness, as much\nas the Greek or the Roman, but he seeks that blessing in the knowledge\nand obedience of the law of God. He knows it is to be found in the way\nof righteousness and nowhere else. Thus the first Psalm is a fitting\nintroduction to all the rest. \u201cHis delight,\u201d it says, \u201cis in the law\nof the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night. And he\nshall be like a tree planted by the waterside, that will bring forth\nhis fruit in due season. His leaf also shall not wither; and look,\nwhatsoever he doeth, it shall prosper.\u201d This psalm, in short, embodies\nthe very essence of the belief of the true Jew, which is that the law\nof God and the righteousness of God are the one source of all happiness\nand blessedness, and that the highest privilege of men and women is\nto give themselves up, body and soul, to the pursuit of the happiness\nwhich is there to be found.\n\nI think we shall all recognize that the tendency of men and women\nis, for the most part, too different from this. They may wish to do\nright and to avoid wrong, but it is comparatively rare for the supreme\npassion of their lives to be the pursuit of righteousness, and for\nthe supreme love of their lives to be for the law of God. Is it not\nour general tendency to pursue our own objects, to seek enjoyment,\nand happiness, and success in our own ways, and to regard the law of\nGod, and the principles of righteousness, as a controlling power, an\nexternal authority, which checks us when we are in danger of going\nwrong and so far guides us? but the love of it, and the longing for\nobedience to it, is too rarely the main motive of our lives. That is\nthe characteristic of those whom we regard as Saints, but it is not, I\nfear, the characteristic of the mass of men and women. This, however,\nis the ideal put before us, throughout the Scriptures, as that which\nought to be predominant in our hearts and lives. \u201cThou shalt love\nthe Lord thy God,\u201d says Moses, \u201cwith all thy heart, and with all thy\nsoul, and with all thy might.\u201d \u201cThis,\u201d said our Lord, \u201cis the great\ncommandment.\u201d \u201cBlessed,\u201d according to this Psalm, \u201cis the man whose\ndelight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day\nand night.\u201d It is not enough for such a man not to do wrong; his whole\nsoul is absorbed in the passion for doing what is right. He believes\nthat the law of God has set before him a great ideal, a vision of the\nperfection of human nature; and his great craving is to realize that\nideal and to be what God intended him to be. He knows that all blessing\nis to be found in that law and in those visions of perfection, and he\npursues them with his whole heart.\n\nThis spirit of the godly man is associated with another aspect of\nthe same truth which is ever present in the Bible, and which is very\nimperfectly realized among men in general. We are apt to be satisfied\nwith recognizing right and wrong as one of the many elements with which\nwe are concerned in life. Life is a vast scene of innumerable passions,\nand interests, and pleasures, and schemes--personal, social, political,\nand imperial; and nearly all of us recognize, no doubt, that right and\nwrong, righteousness and justice, have a momentous place among these\nvarious energies and interests; but in the light of the Bible, and in\nthe teaching of our Lord, that is a very imperfect view to take of\ntheir position. There, right and wrong, righteousness and justice, are\nsupreme over all other interests; they are the foundation on which\nthe whole edifice of life is built up; or they are, as it were, the\nvery cement by which the whole is held together. As the history of the\nJewish people is told in the Bible, every event in their career is\nshown to turn on the question of their righteousness or wickedness.\nGod\u2019s one object is to educate them to be a righteous nation, to keep\nHis commandments, and statutes, and judgments, so that they may realize\nHis great design for them. They suffer punishment, such as invasion\nby enemies, or captivity by Assyria or Rome, not merely because of\nthe ambition of those nations, and of their own comparative weakness,\nbut because they were becoming faithless to the law of God, and not\nliving for His honour and glory. All that the world, and the worldly\nhistorian, might see of them was that they had provoked the Assyrian\nor Roman monarch by some act of self-assertion and pride, and that\nhe avenged himself by invading and desolating their country. But the\nprophetical men who wrote the Books of Kings, and other historical\nBooks of the Old Testament, went behind this immediate cause, and\nsaw that it was by the providence of God that the people were thus\npunished, because they had forgotten the God of their fathers, and\nwere ceasing to serve Him. They were inspired to see this element of\nrighteousness, and of the law of the Lord, as the most essential in\nthe whole history, and asserting itself continually under the control\nof God\u2019s providence.\n\nI venture to think we might illustrate the matter by an example from\nmodern science. We know now that the most important and universal\nforce in nature is that of which one of the most familiar forms is\nelectricity. We know that its influence in the form of light and\nmagnetism pervades the whole of nature; we know that the very movements\nof our limbs, of our hands and fingers, are dependent upon it, that\nthis is the force which animates our nerves and through them controls\nour whole bodies. We know that the element in which it works--the\nether--pervades the whole universe, and that the light which flashes\nfrom stars hundreds of millions of miles away is due to this subtle\nforce. And yet until less than a hundred years ago men hardly realized\nits existence. It was an unseen force, which worked behind all other\nforces, and even men of science had but a dim appreciation of it. So it\nwas with this supreme force of righteousness, until it was brought into\nfull light by the revelation of the prophets and of our Lord and His\nApostles. What they revealed to us, what the Bible is teaching in every\npage, what our Lord, above all, impresses on us with supreme force, is\nthat God\u2019s righteousness is like the ethereal fluid, which is at once\nthe illuminating agent and the motive force of all human life. It is\nquiet for the most part, and men hardly observe it; but on a sudden it\nbursts out into some great storm, like that which startled the author\nof Psalm xxix. \u201cThe voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of\nglory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters.\u201d We see the flash of\nthe lightning of righteousness, and hear the crash of its thunder. \u201cThe\nvoice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord\nshaketh the wilderness.\u201d That is the meaning, no doubt, of a great war\nlike the present. Some evil had been accumulating, some passions of\nambition and greed, some failures in duty, some defections from truth,\nfaults of one kind in one nation, and sad failures of duty in another,\nand, on a sudden, some spark lights an explosion, and the whole world\nis ablaze with flames of fire. So it is also in our private lives. We\nmay go on for a long time yielding to weaknesses, or even sins, and\nrighteousness may seem to be silent, the voice of conscience may seem\nto be a mere voice and not to be asserting its supremacy; but, on a\nsudden, or after a long and gradual accumulation of wrong-doing, God\nasserts His law, our neglect of righteousness finds us out, and God\u2019s\njustice is vindicated upon us.\n\nThese considerations ought to lead to a deeper devotion to those\nprinciples of right and wrong, and to that supreme vision of\nrighteousness which the Bible and our Lord and His Apostles impress\nupon us; but I would add that it is the great message we should take\nhome to ourselves, not merely in our individual lives, but in our\nnational life. We see before us a great nation, endowed with some of\nthe highest capacities of human nature, allowing itself to be absorbed\nmore and more, year by year, by a great passion for power and dominion\nand supremacy in the world. This passion has taken such hold on it\nthat it thinks itself justified in over-riding and defying the laws\nof truth and justice and mercy, even in the imperfect form in which\nthey have been formally recognized in the law of nations. Everything,\nwe are told, must yield to the demands of a nation which believes that\na certain supremacy in the world is necessary for it. The consequence\nis that the air has to be cleared by this awful outburst of national\nthunder and lightning. But let us apply the danger and the lesson to\nourselves. What is our own ideal as a nation and as an empire? Perhaps\nwe too have been in danger of being fascinated too much by that vision\nof empire. It is a legitimate ideal when applied to right purposes,\nand subject to the right control; but those purposes must be those of\nDivine righteousness, and the control is the control of the law of\nGod. If we make it the main object of every power with which God has\nentrusted us to promote His laws, to support and to spread further the\nKingdom of His Christ, to do righteousness and justice in the world, so\nfar as our power and influence reaches; if for that purpose we strive\nto ensure that all our legislation, and all our imperial and national\naction, is deliberately and constantly directed to the support and\nextension of the law of God and of Christ, then we may hope for God\u2019s\nblessing on our achievements, and may trust to be preserved from those\nperversions of national spirit, and from that military and arbitrary\npassion, against which we have at this moment to maintain so desperate\na struggle. Let us strive after this great object, alike in ourselves,\nin our country, and throughout our Empire, and then we may hope that as\na nation we may be, in the Psalmist\u2019s words, \u201clike a tree planted by\nthe rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season,\u201d and\nthat whatsoever we do may prosper. In a word, as a nation no less than\nas individuals, let our delight be in the law of the Lord, and in His\nlaw let us meditate day and night.\n\n\n\n\nREASONS FOR INTERCESSION.\n\nCANTERBURY CATHEDRAL: DAY OF SPECIAL INTERCESSION FOR THE WAR, JUNE 17,\n1915.\n\n \u201c_The heathen make much ado, and the kingdoms are moved: but God hath\n shewed His voice, and the earth shall melt away._\u201d--Ps. xlvi. 6.\n\n\nWe are come here this evening to offer our earnest prayers and\nsupplications to God for His help in this grievous and dangerous crisis\nof our national life, to entreat Him to grant the victory to our King\nand his Allies, and to deliver our nation, our Empire, and the world\nfrom the violence and oppression with which they are threatened by the\nenemy. In order that we may do so aright, it is necessary we should\nrealize distinctly what is God\u2019s special concern with the war, and\nwhat is our own relation to Him in respect to it. Now, the one supreme\ntruth which I would urge upon you this evening is that the war, as a\nwhole--its origin, its course, its end, and its purpose--is in the\nhands of God, and that we must look to Him, and to Him alone, for our\nguidance in it, and our deliverance from it. I fear we are too much\ndisposed to think of the natural causes of the war, of the natural\nmeans we have of conducting it, and of the human and physical forces\nwhich are engaged in it; while we think of God as standing outside the\nstruggle, and appeal to Him to interfere in it, as we might appeal to\nsome great human power, in our extremity. We are too much disposed\nto act and think as if the result depended entirely on the number of\nmen we can put in the field, upon the munitions of war we can obtain,\nthe guns and the shells and the other physical means we can bring\ninto action. It is true that these thing--men and the munitions of\nwar--are the indispensable instruments of success and victory. Even\nin times when God interfered miraculously, He required His people, as\nunder Joshua and David, to put forth their full strength, and to make\nthe utmost sacrifices for their cause. But the main lesson which is\ninculcated in the Scriptures respecting war is that it is one of God\u2019s\ngreat agencies for carrying out His will and accomplishing His own\npurposes, and that its issue is in all cases absolutely in His hands.\nIt is He Who permits war; it is He Who in the exercise of His righteous\njudgment, occasions war; it is He Who alone can determine the issue of\nwar; and it is His purposes, and not ours, which are brought to pass by\nwar.\n\nIf, in fact, we would apprehend our position and the position of our\nEmpire and of Europe in this war, we must in spirit see God upon His\nthrone, permitting by His judgment the fierce passions of war to break\nforth, and controlling the whole course of the tremendous storms they\ninvolve by His justice and His will. As the Psalmist says, \u201cThe Lord\nreigneth, be the people never so impatient, He sitteth between the\nCherubim, be the earth never so unquiet.\u201d Or, again, \u201cThe Lord is King,\nthe earth may be glad thereof; yea, the multitude of the isles may be\nglad thereof: Clouds and darkness are round about Him, righteousness\nand judgment are the habitation of His seat. There shall go a fire\nbefore Him and burn up His enemies on every side. His lightnings gave\nshine unto the world: the earth saw it and was afraid.\u201d That might\nbe taken for a picture of war with the thunders and lightnings of its\n\u201cred artillery.\u201d Let us, if we would turn this occasion to due account,\nlook up for a while from the human thunders and lightnings by which\nthe earth and sea are now shaken; let us raise our eyes and our hearts\nto the Psalmist\u2019s vision of God sitting on His throne, above all these\nearthly and human struggles and sufferings, and though clouds and\ndarkness are round about Him, yet controlling them by His righteous\njudgment.\n\nLet us look into this general consideration a little more particularly.\nWar is the result of human passion, human error, and human sin. If\nonly men were unselfish, wise, and true, there would be no occasion\nfor the struggles from which it springs; but instead of that they are\ncovetous, foolish, and blind, and God has so constituted mankind that\nthe ultimate appeal of these passions and follies must be made to\nforce; and in the ordinary course of His providence He leaves them to\nmake that appeal. He lets their passions work themselves out to their\nnatural results, and so bring their own punishment upon themselves.\nIf, indeed, men sought His guidance and grace in all humility and\nearnestness before war broke out, we may be confident He would guide\nand control them; but the very danger of their pride and their passion\nis that it makes them forget Him, and then He suffers them to find\ntheir need of Him by leaving them to bear the consequences. But\nwhen those consequences have broken out into war, they are then, in\nthe most absolute degree, subject to His over-ruling hand. It is an\nessential characteristic of war that it sets forces loose which are\nbeyond calculation, and beyond human control. Ordinary ways of action\nare suspended, and we become subject to the most unexpected and most\nincalculable influences. We are beginning to see it ourselves in the\npresent war. We are forced to resort to public measures which all\nconfess to be absolutely unprecedented; and the whole world, old and\nnew, is immersed in dangers and disorders never before dreamed of. But\nwhen men and nations are in this tumult and disorder and blindness,\nthen they realize, as they too often fail to do in quiet times,\nthat they are absolutely dependent on God. He has at His command\ninfinite natural and spiritual forces by which the result of a war\nor a battle can be determined. As in the famous battle of Joshua, or\nin the destruction of the Spanish Armada in our own history, storms\nand tempests, or a mere turn in the weather, or it may be added, the\ninvisible interposition of some angelic agent, may defeat all human\nschemes and determine the issue of a battle, and, through a battle,\nthe fate of an Empire. Of great commanders, moreover, no less than of\nkings, the words of our Collect are true, that their hearts are in\nGod\u2019s rule and governance, and that He disposes and turns them as it\nseems best to His godly wisdom.\n\nThe message of the Bible, in fact, from first to last, the message of\nJewish history, and the message of the Psalms, is that God is in a\npre-eminent degree the \u201cLord of war,\u201d with Whom it lies to bring on\nmen the judgment of war, to control war, and to make wars to cease.\n\u201cO come hither,\u201d says the Psalm of my text, \u201cbehold the works of the\nLord, what destruction He hath brought upon the earth. He maketh wars\nto cease in all the world, he breaketh the bow, and knappeth the spear\nin sunder, and burneth the chariots in the fire. Be still, then, and\nknow that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen and I will be\nexalted in the earth.\u201d Or, as it is expressed in another Psalm, \u201cThere\nis no king that can be saved by the multitude of an host, neither is\nany mighty man delivered by much strength. A horse is counted but a\nvain thing to save a man, neither shall he deliver any man by his great\nstrength. Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon\nthem that put their trust in His mercy.\u201d Or, once more, \u201cWe have heard\nwith our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what Thou hast done in\ntheir time of old; How Thou hast driven out the heathen with Thy hand,\nand planted them in; how Thou hast destroyed the nations and cast them\nout. For they gat not the land in possession through their own sword;\nneither was it their own arm that helped them; but Thy right hand and\nThine arm, and the light of Thy countenance, because Thou hadst a\nfavour unto them.\u201d\n\nThe first conviction, then, with which we should come before God to-day\nis that, although the utmost efforts on our part are required, still,\nwhen we have used the last ounce of our strength, and made the last\nsacrifice of life and limb, we are absolutely dependent for the issue\nupon the will, the power, and the over-ruling providence of God. We\nare bound to fall at His feet as His helpless creatures, absolutely\ndependent on His hand. We are bound to recognize that the wealth and\npower we enjoy, the great position which this Empire occupies in the\nworld, have been gifts from Him, and that we gat not this possession\nby our own sword; neither was it our own arm that helped us; but God\u2019s\nright hand and God\u2019s arm, and the light of His countenance, because He\nhad a favour towards us, for some great purposes of His own.\n\nBut what were those purposes? If we feel that we are thus the\ninstruments of God\u2019s hand, to be used as He pleases, we must needs\nask, with anxious earnestness, What are His great purposes? and can we\nknow whether we are acting in accordance with them? We know that we\nare not in the hands of an arbitrary power or an unreasoning will. We\nknow that whatever God does is done with reason and justice and love.\nHere, again, it is our privilege to have revealed to us, in God\u2019s Word,\nthe great purposes for which He is working. His methods and His ways\nof carrying His purposes out are beyond our comprehension, but He has\ngraciously told us what those purposes are. Their great object is the\nmanifestation of His glory, His truth, His love, to be the light, the\nsalvation, the infinite happiness of man. That was the object of the\nwhole of His work in establishing the people of Israel in their land,\nin protecting them, in bringing punishments upon them, in delivering\nthem from their enemies, or allowing them to fall into captivity. By\nmeans of them--through their history, their Prophets, their Psalmists,\nand their Kings--He made known that grand revelation of Himself which\nis recorded in our Bibles. All these acts were done, and their memory\nis preserved, in order that all the world might see and learn that\nin knowledge of Him, in obedience to Him, in love to Him and prayer\nto Him, is life and health, in body and soul, in this world and in\nthe next. Let us be assured that that remains His purpose, and the\nguiding rule of His providence, throughout all history, and in our\nown, to the present day. If God has given us wealth, and strength, and\nprosperity, and imperial power, we may be sure that it is in order that\nwe may be His instruments for the spread of His Kingdom, for bringing\nthe knowledge of Christ and of Christ\u2019s salvation to the ends of the\nearth, that the love of Christ, the example of Christ, the law of\nChrist may be established throughout the world. Do not let us suppose\nthat there is any other object whatever in God\u2019s dispensations. The\nmanifestation of God in Christ, and the bringing of all human souls,\nall human life, into harmony with it, into the full enjoyment of it,\nand consequently into perfect obedience to His will--this is the end of\nall the struggles, of all the wars, of all the sufferings of mankind,\nmysterious as they are, and utterly baffling to our feeble apprehension.\n\nThere is surely an infinite comfort in realizing this great revelation.\nIf we grasp the assurance that this is the sure and certain end\nof God\u2019s dispensations, we can bear with patience, and even with\nthankfulness, the sufferings and sorrows through which they are worked\nout. While we bitterly mourn the loss of those who are sacrificed in\nsuch a war as this, we can feel that they have laid down their lives\nin the eternal battle in which Christ is the Commander, and in which\nwe are all taking part, and that we remain one with them, and they one\nwith us, in serving Christ and asserting the will of God.\n\n One army of the Living God,\n To His command we bow,\n Part of the host have crossed the flood,\n And part are crossing now,\n\nor will be crossing soon. Only let us take care, if we are to have the\nreward, hereafter, of having served in this great army, that we are\nworking, fighting, dying, and suffering bereavement, in the cause of\nthis great Commander and in accordance with His will.\n\nBut if these are the purposes with which God has directed all history,\nand controls all wars, we cannot dare to come before Him, and ask for\nHis help, unless the spirit in which we are joining in this war is\nin harmony with His, and unless we mean, with His help, to act and\nfight in entire devotion to Him, and in obedience to Christ. If we\nfought merely to gain victory, to assert the supremacy of our Empire,\nto establish our superiority over other nations, we could not expect\nHis countenance and help, and we should be affronting His Majesty and\nHis Holiness by asking for it; but these are not our aims. They are,\nit appears, in the main, those of our enemy, and for that reason we\nmay be confident that God\u2019s face will be against them. But, so far as\nwe are fighting for a kingdom and an Empire which acknowledges in all\nthings the sovereignty of our Lord Jesus Christ, which endeavours to\nact, to govern, and to serve in accordance with His will, and which\nwill promote and protect the spread of His Kingdom--so far as we are\nconscious in our consciences that that is our aim--we may confidently\ncome before Him and appeal to Him to help us with His right hand and\nHis holy arm. But we cannot thus serve Him and obey Him as a nation\nunless we obey and serve Him in our own individual lives; and when\nwe kneel, therefore, before Him to-day we are called upon to pledge\nourselves, with the utmost sincerity and earnestness, to give our\nhearts and wills and lives up to Him in all things, with greater truth\nand singleness of heart than we have ever yet realized.\n\nIf we look candidly into the recent life of our nation, it must, I\nfear, be acknowledged that we have in many respects grievously failed\nin this Christian spirit. The habits of our people have in too many\nrespects declined from the Christian standard which was set us by our\nforefathers in their best days. The worship and service of God and\nChrist have not been held so high among us as the supreme duty of life.\nWe see it in the increasing neglect of the public worship of God, in\na less general piety of life, in a growing disposition to acquiesce\nin standards of action which are not in all respects those of the New\nTestament; in the failure to look to the authority of Christ and His\nApostles as the supreme rule in all the relations of life, in the\nrelations of men and women, in the ideals of domestic and private life.\nWe have lived too much for this life and too little for the next. We\nhave cared too much for time and too little for eternity. We shall not\nbe able to fulfil the purposes of God for our nation and for the world\nunless we amend our lives in these respects, unless we humbly confess\nour failure before Him, and set ourselves resolutely to live more\nChristian lives in the future. If we kneel before Him this evening in\nthis spirit of confession for the past, and of heartfelt devotion for\nthe future, we may come boldly to His throne of grace; and we may be\nthankful to be assured that our country and our country\u2019s cause, and\nthe welfare of all who are dear to us, here and hereafter, are in His\nhands. You are invited to begin your supplication this evening with\nthat penitential Psalm, in which David confessed from the bottom of his\nheart his own grievous sin, but was also inspired by God\u2019s Holy Spirit\nto seek comfort and regeneration, righteousness and peace. That is the\nspirit in which we should approach God at all times, but especially\nin a time of sore trial like the present; and if we do so, we may\nconfidently join in the concluding petition, in which the Psalmist\nbeseeches God\u2019s blessing upon His nation. \u201cThe sacrifice of God is\na troubled spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, shalt Thou\nnot despise. O be favourable and gracious unto Zion; build Thou the\nwalls of Jerusalem. Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifice of\nrighteousness,\u201d with the devoted offerings and service of a regenerated\nand Christian nation. God grant it, for Christ\u2019s sake.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ETERNAL SOURCE OF GOODNESS.\n\nPREACHED AT HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, MARGATE, NOVEMBER 7, 1915.\n\n \u201c_Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh\n down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither\n shadow of turning._\u201d--St. James i. 17.\n\n\nIn these words a singularly vivid picture is set before us. God is\nrepresented to us as the Sun in the Heavens, from Whom light and warmth\nare perpetually streaming. The text does not merely say that all good\ngifts come from above and that none but good gifts come from thence.\nIt means also that those good gifts are perpetually being poured upon\nus, just as light and heat are perpetually flowing from the sun. But\nit points out one great difference between the physical sun and this\nDivine source of grace and glory. The sun and the other lights of the\nheavens which are dependent upon it are all liable to be obscured or\neclipsed. They are \u201csubject to variableness and shadow of turning,\u201d\nthat is, to the shadows occasioned by their turning in their daily\nrevolutions, so that daylight is succeeded by the darkness of night,\nand the moon waxes and wanes. But the light of the Divine glory and\ngrace is never thus obscured from us. It is perpetually shining, and\nwe can enjoy its blessed influence at every moment. God is the Father\nof Lights--the Father of Light of all kinds; and all grace and truth\nare perpetually proceeding from Him. \u201cEvery good gift and every perfect\nboon is from above,\u201d coming down continually from \u201cthe Father of Lights\nwith Whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.\u201d This is the\ngreat truth which is embodied in the beautiful words of the Collect\njust used, \u201cLord of all power and might Who art the Author and Giver of\nall good things.\u201d\n\nThis is the first grand truth which is revealed to us by our Christian\nfaith. It is involved in the revelation of God to us as our Father in\nHeaven, and it is impressed on us in the Sermon on the Mount, when our\nLord bids us live as \u201cthe children of our Father which is in Heaven:\nWho maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth\nrain on the just and on the unjust.\u201d It would be well for us to realize\nthis more fully and constantly. We see the sun in the Heavens; we are\nsensible of its lifegiving influences day by day; but we do not always\nhave so vividly before us the Supreme Sun of the spiritual Heavens,\nand we are tempted to live without the constant realization of His\npresence. There are, indeed, experiences which are a great trial to our\nfaith in this constant Presence, and which even make men and women ask\nthemselves in perplexity whether there can be, in reality, any such\nperpetually Divine source of all good things--whether any Divine Power\nis really at all times pouring the best blessing upon mankind. What is\nthe meaning, for instance, many anxious hearts have asked themselves\nat a time like this--what is the meaning and the explanation of such\nfearful miseries as the world is now suffering through the present war?\nCan it be a God from Whom all good things are perpetually coming Who\npermits half the world to fall into such distresses and agonies as we\nhave heard of lately, and are daily hearing? The evil in the world has\nat all times been a perplexity to faith, and when manifested on such a\ntremendous scale, when it rises before us in the monstrous form of an\nawful war, the question presses upon our hearts and minds with painful\nforce. But the privilege of the Christian is to maintain through all\nthese distresses the proclamation that the love of God, the goodness\nof God, the mercy of God, the blessing of God are still at work,\nnotwithstanding the clouds with which they seem obscured. Clouds and\ndarkness may be round about Him, but righteousness and judgment are the\nhabitation of His throne.\n\nThe general explanation of this great mystery is that these sufferings\nare the means by which God asserts the supremacy of righteousness and\ntruth. He has so ordered the world that unrighteousness, ungodliness,\nuntruth, immorality of all kinds inevitably punish themselves by\nleading to appeals to force, and so provoke the wars and fightings\nof which St. James speaks in this Epistle. \u201cFrom whence,\u201d he says,\n\u201ccome wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your\nlusts, that war in your members? Ye lust and have not; ye kill, and\ndesire to have and cannot obtain\u201d--can there be a truer description,\nin brief, of the origin of the present war? These are God\u2019s judgments,\nin which He so orders the world that nations and individuals punish\nthemselves for their indulgence in covetous and unbridled passions.\nThey will not submit to be checked by conscience or by reason, and\ntherefore God leaves them to the natural consequences of their mutual\nlusts and violences. In fact, the miseries of war are a conspicuous\ninstance of the great truth that good things are always coming from\nGod. Vengeance for evil is a good thing; and the punishment, even\nthe bitter punishment, of selfishness, whether in individuals or in\nnational life, the severest punishments of covetousness, arrogance,\nforgetfulness of God, disobedience to Christ--these punishments are\ngood things; and if God is chastising Europe for such sins, and\nourselves in no small measure, He is doing it at once in judgment and\nin mercy. It is a warning to every nation, and to every man and woman,\nto consider in what respect they have been failing in their duty to God\nand to Christ, to their neighbour, and even to themselves, and to pray\nGod to open their eyes and enable them to repent and amend. What we see\nbefore us in a convulsion like this, is the outburst of the lightnings\nand thunders of righteous judgment, and if it brings men to their knees\nin penitence and amendment of life, it may prove one of God\u2019s greatest\nblessings to the world.\n\nWe may understand this the better if we consider, more particularly,\nthe means by which God is always pouring upon the world those blessed\ninfluences of goodness and righteousness of which the text and the\nCollect speak. They tell us that He is like the sun in the heavens\npouring His bright beams upon us and the world at large. Where is that\nSun? It is in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, in all His words\nand deeds, and in those Scriptures which, as He said, testify of Him.\nThe answer is contained in the truth that \u201cGod, Who, at sundry times\nand in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers, by the\nprophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, Who is\nthe brightness of His glory and the express image of His Person.\u201d \u201cNo\nman,\u201d we are told, \u201chath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son\nWho is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.\u201d He declares\nHim in various ways. In the first place, the grace and truth and glory\nof God are seen in the Face of Jesus Christ, in His life as recorded\nin the Gospels, and in His words. \u201cHe that hath seen me,\u201d said our\nSaviour Himself, \u201chath seen the Father.\u201d It is God Himself Who is seen\nin every act and word of Jesus Christ, and if we want to know God, to\nrealize His character and His will, we have only to study the life and\nwords of our Lord, and we see it all in vivid human features. God in\nChrist is as visible to the eyes of our hearts and minds as the sun in\nthe heavens. As the physical sun is visible to every human eye, so the\nsun of the spiritual world--God Himself--is visible to every human mind\nin the person of our Lord. This comparison is as old as the Psalms.\n\u201cThe heavens,\u201d says the 19th Psalm, \u201cdeclare the glory of God, and the\nfirmament sheweth His handiwork,\u201d and then it proceeds, \u201cthe law of\nthe Lord is perfect, converting the soul, the testimony of the Lord\nis sure, making wise the simple.\u201d The law of the Lord of which the\nPsalmist spoke was that revelation of the Will of God which was given\nto the Jews at sundry times and in divers manners, and is recorded\nin the ancient Scriptures. But that law is now summed up, explained,\nenlarged, and perfected in the face of Jesus Christ, and in His words.\nIn Him is God to be seen. In Him is the source of the highest moral and\nspiritual goodness.\n\nThe Collect goes on to pray \u201cGraft in our hearts the love of Thy Name,\nincrease in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness.\u201d The Name\nof God means the character of God, and if we are to love character we\nmust see it, and we can see it in Jesus Christ and nowhere else. If\nyou wish to love God, you must learn to love Jesus Christ. To love God\nis to love righteousness, truth, and goodness, and in Jesus Christ we\nsee them in life and in human reality. Righteousness, goodness, truth,\npurity, grace, may be loved, indeed, in the abstract; but the love\nfor them must be infinitely deepened if we see them concentrated in a\nliving person, so that the love of them is identified with the love of\nHim. If, in fact, we would keep the love of these great things alive\nin our hearts, if we would continually deepen it, if we would have\nthe eyes of our minds and hearts opened more and more, the supreme\nnecessity is that we should learn more and more of Jesus Christ, live\nwith Him by constant study of His deeds and words, and so open our\nsouls to the impress of His grace and truth. The history of the world\nsince He lived and died is the sufficient proof of this fact. The\nChristian Church, which is charged with the duty and the privilege of\nliving in His spirit and working in His name, has, notwithstanding many\nfailures and faults, held up before the world the highest standard\nof goodness and truth. There is no more conspicuous illustration of\nthis influence of Christ and His Church than the fact that the noble\nSocieties which, by their devoted care of the wounded, now mitigate the\nhorrors of war, are called \u201cRed Cross\u201d Societies, and were founded and\nmaintained in obedience to the spirit of Christ. Since Christ came,\nit is through Him that all these good things do come, and if we would\nenjoy them we must live and work in His light.\n\nBut this is far from being the sole means by which Christ is the source\nof all good things. He promised His disciples before He died, that He\nwould send the Holy Spirit into the world Who should bring to their\nremembrance all things that He had told them, and should be to them and\nto their followers an adviser and comforter, such as He had Himself\nbeen while He was with them--Who should convince them of sin, of\nrighteousness and judgment--teach them, that is, what sin is, and what\nrighteousness is, and bring home to them the nature of the judgment of\nGod. He formed them into a Society, to be a perpetual witness of Him to\nthe world; and He established two ceremonies (which we call Sacraments)\nto be a perpetual pledge to His followers of His love and of His grace,\nand to be a special means by which that grace should be bestowed on\nthem; so that the source of this Divine illumination and bounty is not\nmerely Christ in the past, in His life on earth, as we read of Him in\nthe words of the New Testament, but Christ living and working in His\nChurch by means of those words, and by means of the Sacraments which\ntestify of them and bring them home to every individual soul. The\nwords of Christ and the Sacraments of Christ are means which can be\nseen and handled, by which the grace of God is manifested and conveyed\nto us.\n\nMoreover, He has told us, as I have mentioned, that the Old Testament\nthroughout, the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, speak of Him,\nreveal His character and His Will. To the Jews, who had only the Old\nTestament, He said, \u201cSearch the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye\nhave eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me.\u201d Combined,\nthese are the visible, tangible, and audible instruments by which the\n\u201cLord of all power and might, the Author and Giver of all good things,\u201d\nshines into our hearts and speaks to our inmost souls. There are,\nindeed, and always have been, other influences in the world by which\ngoodness and truth are impressed upon us; and there are, and always\nhave been, many gracious human influences by which they are upheld in\nour hearts and in the world at large; but these are all imperfect,\nand liable to perversion, in comparison with the influence of Jesus\nChrist and His Church and the Holy Scriptures; and we can never be\nsure of their being kept true and unperverted, except so far as they\nare brought to the test, and subjected to the influences, through the\nPerson of Jesus Christ and of His words in the Holy Scriptures, of that\nLord of all power and might from whom all good things do come.\n\nThese considerations may help to explain to us the source of the evils\nwhich have plunged Europe into its present convulsions and they will\nbe the best guide to ourselves for our own action in the present and\nthe future. It is, unhappily, an unquestionable matter of fact that a\ngreat part of Europe, and especially of Germany, has lost sight for a\ngeneration or two of that Sun of Righteousness, Who is the Author and\nGiver of all good things. They have rejected the authority of Christ,\nand denied the Divine reality of the revelation of God\u2019s will in the\nOld Testament. The consequence is that they have deprived themselves\nof the influences of that Divine light, and have been setting up\nstandards of right and wrong in national and individual life, which\nare inconsistent with it. Some of the best instincts of a strong and\nmanly nation have consequently been perverted. National ideals have\nbeen pursued which are inconsistent with Christian civilization, and\nmen have been driven by these perverted instincts and passions into the\nhell of war. We may be sure that Europe will not again enjoy permanent\npeace until, by the merciful correction of that Lord from Whom all good\nthings do come, the love of His Name has again been grafted in their\nhearts, and the true religion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ\nrevived and increased.\n\nBut it becomes us to apply to ourselves, very seriously, the same\nconsiderations. Must we not admit that among ourselves also a similar\ndisregard of the only source from Whom all good things do come has\nbeen sadly and increasingly prevalent of late years, and perhaps for a\ngeneration or two past? What is the meaning of the acknowledged falling\noff in attendance at Divine Worship, of the increasing disuse of family\nPrayers, and of the daily reading of Scripture in the family, and of\nthe less distinctively Christian tone of much of our literature and\nof our stage? Let us put it to our own consciences whether we live,\nas we ought, in the constant sense that it is only in the word of God\nand of Christ, as contained in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New\nTestaments, in constant subjection to His word and to the influences\nof His Spirit, that we can be sure of finding the true light to our\npaths, and a rod and a staff to comfort us amidst the temptations and\nperplexities of the world? Do we live under the constant influences of\nthe Scriptures, and of the ordinances and Sacraments of Christ? If not,\nit can only be because we do not believe the blessed assurances of this\ntext, and of our Church\u2019s Collect. Unless men and women are blinded for\nthe time by the influence of some strong passions, or of some perverted\nteaching, could they fail to submit themselves day by day to the Lord,\nfrom Whom all good things do come, so that those good and gracious\nthings may sink more and more deeply into their souls, mould their\ncharacters, and guide them more and more into the way that leadeth to\neverlasting life? Men will travel far to sunny lands for the healing\ninfluences of this world\u2019s sun upon their bodily health. Can they\nfail, if they realize the blessing offered them day by day, to seek the\ncompanionship of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Father, for the sake of\ntheir spiritual health in this world and in the next?\n\nLet us then, in the first place, be led back by these present trials\nand agonies to the only source of all truth and light for this world\nand the next, to the words which God spake \u201cin sundry times and in\ndivers manners,\u201d in ages past, and above all, to those which He spake\nby His Son, the brightness of His glory and the express image of His\nPerson; and if we feel their supreme preciousness for ourselves, let\nus do everything in our power to promote and spread those sacred\nwords and that divine light throughout the world, as you are asked to\nhelp in doing this morning. Here lies the only hope for ourselves,\nthe only hope for our people at large, for our nation and empire.\nLet us henceforth join with a new earnestness in the prayer of the\nCollect: \u201cGraft in our hearts the love of Thy Name, increase in us true\nreligion, nourish us with all goodness, and of Thy great mercy keep us\nin the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nTHE NATIONAL IDEAL.\n\nPREACHED IN CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, JANUARY 3rd, 1915.\n\n \u201c_Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded\n you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye\n may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess._\u201d--Deut. v.\n 33.\n\n\nWe have been summoned this evening by our King and by the Chief Pastor\nof our Church, to a Service of humble prayer and intercession to\nAlmighty God on behalf of our Nation and Empire now engaged in war;\nand in the Form of Humble Prayer in which we have just joined there\nis an exhortation explaining and urging upon us the spirit in which\nthat intercession should be made. In addressing you this evening I\nwould draw special attention to one point in that exhortation. Before\nall else, we are told, we must remember that those who would receive\ngood at the hands of God must go to Him in humility, with a due sense\nof their many faults and continual short-comings in His sight. In\nother words, a humble prayer must be before all else a prayer of\nhumiliation. It is a principle which is impressed upon us every day\nin the Exhortation at the beginning of our prayers. \u201cThe Scripture,\u201d\nwe are told, \u201cmoveth us in sundry places to acknowledge and confess\nour manifold sins and wickednesses; and that we should not dissemble\nnor cloke them before the face of Almighty God our Heavenly Father;\nbut confess them with a humble, lowly, penitent and obedient heart; to\nthe end that we may obtain forgiveness of the same, by his infinite\ngoodness and mercy,\u201d and we are surely bound, on an occasion like this,\nto take to heart the words which follow, viz., that \u201calthough we ought\nat all times humbly to acknowledge our sins before God: yet ought we\nmost chiefly so to do, when we assemble and meet together\u201d as we do\nto-day, to implore His special mercy in the greatest crisis which our\nnation and Empire has ever had to encounter. If every morning and\nevening ought to waken in us a humble, lowly, and penitent confession\nof our sins, surely an hour when, as a whole Nation, we are seeking\nGod\u2019s merciful and gracious help calls for still deeper and humbler\nconfession of our sins.\n\nThere has been, I fear, some reluctance among us to yield ourselves\nto this penitent humiliation, and it will be well therefore to remind\nourselves a little of the reasons there are for it. Now the first\nand most patent of all the reasons why we should recognize our sins\nand wickedness is the bare and ghastly fact of this war in itself.\nWe are all distressed and grieved by it, and are all saying what a\nhorrible thing it is that war--and such a war--should be possible in a\nChristian Europe. But what we should first of all realize is that it\nis a horrible exhibition of the sin and wickedness of human nature.\nJust contrast what Europe was a few months ago with the scenes that\nare now exhibited in Belgium, France, and Poland. A few months ago,\nEurope was a prosperous country, full of wealth, comfort, and enjoyment\nof all kinds. Its many millions were engaged in quiet occupations\nwhich employed their energies happily. \u201cThey ate, they drank, they\nbought, they sold, they planted, they builded.\u201d Fathers and mothers\nand children, families young and old, cities and villages were in the\nenjoyment of plenty, and full of hope for the future. God had prospered\nthem, and there was much hope that the wants and sufferings which\nwere still the lot of too many among them might be gradually removed\nby benevolent legislation and mutual help; but, on a sudden, at a few\ndays\u2019 notice, this scene of happiness, and hope, and well-being is\noverthrown as if by an earthquake. Some parts of it are overwhelmed\nby \u201cblood and fire and vapour of smoke,\u201d and the whole of it, from\nthe extreme west of our Isles to the East of Russia, from the Baltic\nto the Mediterranean is transformed into a vast Barracks, in which\nsons and fathers are torn from their families, leaving behind them\ntoo often the lamentation and mourning of wives and mothers, weeping\nfor those who are not. The language of the prophet is not too strong\nfor the occasion \u201cThe land was a Garden of Eden and is become a\ndesolate wilderness.\u201d I ask you, is not such a sudden and disastrous\ntransformation the most clear proof we could have of some deadly evil\nbeing at work in human nature? What else, but some deadly, inherent\nevil could in a few weeks or days blot out all peace in Europe and let\nloose a sort of hell in human society and human life. We were proud\nof the growth of civilization, and were constructing all sorts of\nschemes of social and political development, when, on a sudden, our\ncivilization explodes, and we find ourselves surrounded by its wrecks\nin fire, and ruin, and carnage, and hatred, and violence of all kinds.\nAll this explosive force of evil must have been there. There must have\nbeen corruptions, and sins, and vices at work which we did not surmise;\nand fair as the life of Europe seemed outside, it must really have been\nin some respects rotten to the core. This war has not been imposed\nupon Europe from without, as it was when the great barbarian invaders\npoured over it fourteen hundred years ago. All this horror, and misery,\nand bloodshed, and ruin has sprung out of the materials--out of the\ncivilized materials--provided by Europe itself, and it must be some\ninternal disease, some original vice and corruption which is revealed\nto us in the ghastly spectacle which is now presented by so large a\npart of the most favoured lands of the world.\n\nSome one perhaps may be tempted to say that this indictment applies to\nthe countries which have provoked this war, but not to Europe at large;\nbut that, I am sure, would be, if not unjust to those countries, at\nleast not candid with respect to ourselves. Is it not the case that, to\nan increasing extent of late years, the civilization of Europe has been\nunited, and marked in the main by similar characteristics? Have not the\nliterature and many of the ideas of Germany penetrated the literature\nand the thought of France and England? Has there been conspicuous\namong us any protest against the habits of thought, the tendencies\nof religious belief or unbelief, the luxuries if not the waste of\nliving, which have prevailed elsewhere? If the life and civilization\nof Europe has ended in this great catastrophe, can we honestly stand\naside and claim to be free of all blame, and to have had no share in\nthe tendencies and evils which have produced so horrible a result?\nWe shrink from them in their full development, we denounce them, we\nresolve to fight against them to the last, and to re-establish sounder\nand more Christian principles of public and social life, but dare we\nsay that we have not dallied with them? Can we honestly claim to have\nrepudiated them at their source, so as to be free from any part or lot\nin sins and errors which have led to so hideous a result? I will not\ntry to drive such painful questions further home. I will only say that\nif we are honest with ourselves, we shall not venture to adopt the\nPharisee\u2019s attitude and exclaim, on a day like this, \u201cGod, I thank Thee\nthat I am not as other men are, or even as this German.\u201d In a word, we\nhave had some share, at all events, in the tone of thought and life\nwhich has prevailed in Europe for the last two generations, and we\nshall be more true to God and to ourselves if we are content, on this\nday of humble confession and intercession, simply to exclaim \u201cGod be\nmerciful to me a sinner.\u201d\n\nBut confession of sin should be but the first step to amendment of\nlife, and for the purpose of that amendment we must endeavour to\nrealize more particularly what the sins are, which in God\u2019s righteous\njudgment have brought this misery upon us. Many of them we have\nacknowledged in the Litany in which we have joined. We have prayed\nfor deliverance from those sins wherein as a nation we have grieved\nGod. We have confessed to pride, boasting, and self-sufficiency, to\ncovetousness, worldliness, and indifference to the needs of others, to\ndrunkenness, impurity, and all manner of self-indulgence, to trusting\nin our own strength and forgetting God, to want of faith in God, to\nwant of love to Him and to one another, to a want of charity towards\nall men. These are the sins charged upon us by the chief pastors of\nour Church, and they constitute surely a grievous catalogue of vices,\nsufficient in themselves to account for the failure of the civilization\nof which we form a part, and to require us to humiliate ourselves very\ndeeply before God. We are called upon by the Archbishops not merely\nto pray, as we do in our daily Litany, against those evils, but to\nacknowledge that they are sins wherein, as a nation, we have grieved\nGod. Now it must be left to our individual consciences to apply those\ngrievous confessions to our own hearts and lives. Of some of them,\nperhaps, we shall all acknowledge ourselves to have been guilty; and\nwe are bound to put it earnestly to our hearts and consciences how\nfar we have individually been guilty of them. But it is not for the\npreacher, who is deeply sensible of his own sins, to press such charges\nupon others. I would rather adopt this evening the more gracious, and,\nI hope, more helpful course of reminding you of the one supreme and\nsufficient method by which all such sins, whatever they may have been,\nmay be overcome, and may be averted for the future.\n\nIt is the method and the obligation impressed upon us in the text by\nthe great Law Giver of Israel when he was laying the foundation of the\nJewish nation. It is instructive to remember that the discourses of\nMoses recorded in the Book of Deuteronomy are described as having for\ntheir first and immediate object to lay down the principles on which\nthe Jewish people could realize the great purpose which God had in view\nfor them, and could become a strong and prosperous nation. \u201cThese,\u201d\nsaid Moses, in the verses following the text, \u201care the commandments,\nand the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded\nto teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to\npossess it: that thou mightest fear the Lord Thy God, to keep all His\nStatutes and His Commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son,\nand thy son\u2019s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be\nprolonged. Hear, therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it\nmay be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily.\u201d And then he\nproceeds to sum up those statutes and judgments in the momentous words\nwhich Our Lord Himself selected as the first and great commandment of\nthe Law, \u201cHear O Israel,\u201d said Moses, \u201cThe Lord our God is one Lord:\nand thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with\nall thy soul, and with all thy might.\u201d That, in the words of the book\nin which our Saviour sought the great principles of His own life, and\nwhich He quoted again and again as laying down eternal truths--that\nis the great principle on which a sound moral, religious, and secure\nnational life must be founded--the principle of loving the Lord our\nGod with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our might.\nThe God Whom the people of Israel were thus called on to love with all\ntheir heart, soul, and might, was the God Who had delivered them out of\nEgypt and its bondage, and Who was about to establish them in the land\nof Canaan by wonders and signs which could only have been wrought by\nHis supreme power, and Who, in the most solemn and awful circumstances,\nhad declared at Mount Sinai the cardinal laws of social and national\nlife. The God to whom our Saviour applies the principle was His Own\nFather, the God Who is seen in His Own words and in His ministry, Whose\nwill is so graciously explained to us in the records of His life and in\nthe words of His Apostles, and Whose character, therefore, and will are\nclearly and distinctly revealed. Our Lord, when He adopted these words\nof Moses, declared to the whole world that in order that they may live,\nand that it may be well with them, and that they may prolong their\ndays in the peace and happiness He designed for them, the one supreme\ncondition is that they should love the God Who is His Father, with all\ntheir heart, soul, mind, and strength. If they do that, if the whole\nof their lives is submitted to His will as revealed by His Son Jesus\nChrist, then they will have a supreme authority, a secure guide in\ntheir personal, their family, and their social life; and He adds to the\nassurance of Moses the promise of His Holy Spirit to interpret His will\nto them and to assist them in their struggles. That is the one and the\nsufficient condition for realizing here on earth the blessing of the\npeace which God designs for us. Life animated by that love would secure\nit--and that alone.\n\nNow the one question it would be well for us to put to ourselves on\nthis day of confession and self amendment is whether it has not been\nthe chief wickedness, and the growing wickedness, of Europe at large,\nand of ourselves in particular, to fail to make this love of God,\nthis submission to God and to Christ, the one supreme principle and\ninspiration of our whole life, private, social, and public. I would\nask whether religion, as people generally understand it, has not been\nallowed to become of late years, in an increasing degree, too much of a\nprivate and personal matter--a matter of individual preference, a part\nof a man\u2019s character which could hardly be treated as an absolute duty,\nso that a man who did not live a religious life was, as it were, within\nhis rights, and that he could not be treated as neglecting a supreme\nobligation? Has it not been our temptation, as a nation, to legislate\nwithout a supreme regard to this first duty, so as even to allow our\nchildren and the children of the nation to be educated without supreme\nregard to it? Has not attendance at Divine Worship been grievously\nneglected of late years as a consequence of this growing decay of the\nlove of God? Have not the words of our Lord and His Apostles been\nlosing the authority which they used to possess among us, and which\nthey must possess with all who believe them to be a revelation of the\nsupreme Will of Almighty God? As a consequence of all this, has there\nnot been a grievous loss among us of the sense that we are all under\nthe judgment of God, that we shall all stand before the judgment seat\nof Christ, to give account of all that we have done in the body, good\nor bad? And has not the most momentous of all controlling influences\nbeen thus grievously weakened in our own lives? It is enough for one\nlike myself to suggest the question. It needs a prophet with a Divine\nMission to drive it home.\n\nBut the concluding considerations I would urge from such a review of\nthe condition of the Christian world, and of our own world at this\nmoment, is that if we would overcome the sins which have undermined\nthe peace of Europe and brought about the present awful convulsion,\nif we would restore and re-establish among ourselves those principles\nof Christian Faith which alone can make the nation great and happy,\nand keep it so, the one effectual means which includes all others,\nthe one means which would at once enable us to know what we ought to\ndo and would provide us with the grace and power to fulfil it, is to\ndeepen in our own souls, and to revive all around us and among our\npeople at large, that love of God in Jesus Christ which reveals to us\n\u201cwhatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever\nthings are of good report,\u201d which gives us a supreme and eternal motive\nfor following it, and which ensures us the power to overcome the\nterrible temptations which beset us. Let us go home from these prayers,\nnot merely resolved to amend one particular fault, or to combat one\nparticular evil of our day, but surrendering ourselves more absolutely\nthan we have yet done to the will and love of God our Saviour, in all\nthings bringing the revelation of His will, in our Lord Jesus Christ\nand in the Scriptures, to bear more than ever on our private, social\nand public duties. In short, in the words of the text, let us resolve,\nas the supreme law of our life, to walk in the ways which the Lord our\nGod and our Saviour Jesus Christ have commanded us, that it may be well\nwith us, and that we may prolong our days in the country and the Empire\nin which His providence and His mercy have placed and supported us.\n\n\n\n\nRELIGION AND THE WAR.\n\nFROM \u201cTHE RECORD,\u201d SEPTEMBER 23, 1916\n\n\nThe way in which this war is stirring the deepest thoughts of our\npeople has received a striking illustration during the last three weeks\nin a discussion in the pages of the _Westminster Gazette_. In that able\njournal religious questions have not ordinarily so congenial a home\nas in the _Spectator_, and it is the more illustrative of the tone of\nthe public mind that, since August 28th last, hardly a day has passed\nwithout the appearance in its columns of letters of great earnestness\non the subject of \u201cReligion and the War.\u201d The discussion was opened\non that day by an anonymous article under that title, which opened\nwith these words: \u201c\u2018Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself.\u2019 The\nwords of the Prophet come back to me when I hear the preachers trying\nto reconcile the terrors and horrors of this war with the idea of an\nall-powerful and all-beneficent Creator\u201d; and around the difficulty\nthus started the whole discussion has turned. The writer says he has\nlistened, during the last few months, to many sermons, and read many of\nthe articles and pamphlets and books \u201cin which Divines and Philosophers\nhave endeavoured to plumb these deep waters,\u201d and he states briefly\nthe principal arguments that he has found in them. It is not necessary\nfor the present purpose to quote them all, especially as I think the\nwriter has been unfortunate in his pulpits and his books. Several of\nthe pleas he quotes are mere platitudes, such as \u201cthat the ways of God\nare unfathomable, and that one must walk in faith and believe that\nthings are somehow good.\u201d The point to which he reduces the question is\nthat under the strain of our present experience \u201cpeople see suddenly\nthat the doctrine of an omnipotent and all-loving Creator, as commonly\nexpounded in pulpits, is at war with the plain facts of the visible\nworld.\u201d To this problem all the subsequent letters are directed, and\nthey afford impressive and painful evidence of the distress with which\nmany men and women seem to be groping in perplexity. There are many\nstriking and touching observations in them, and sometimes, as by Lord\nHalifax, the central principles of the Christian Faith are applied\nto the problem. But it is disappointing to find that it is not in\nthe Bible or in the Christian Faith that most of the writers seek\nfor a solution of their difficulties. Too many of them seek refuge\nin philosophical discussions of matters like the Divine omnipotence\nand the abstract problem of evil. The first writer comes to the\nconclusion that \u201ctheology remains tangled up in its own conception of\nomnipotence--which brings us at best to the conclusion that God has\nso limited His own power as to permit the existence of evil, and at\nworst invests Him with attributes which are the reverse of benevolent,\u201d\nand to this philosophical question writer after writer returns. The\nconsequence is that the light which is thrown upon the whole problem\nby the Scriptures and by our Lord Himself is obscured in a maze of\nphilosophy and words.\n\nWhat, then, has revelation to say upon the subject? The first thing,\nand the most important, which it has to say is almost ignored in the\ndiscussion. As has been said, the problem propounded by the opening\nwriter is to reconcile the terrors and horrors of this war with the\nidea of an \u201call-powerful and all-beneficent Creator.\u201d From the point of\nview of the Bible, of the Psalms in particular, and of our Lord, that\ndescription of the Creator leaves out His most important attribute.\nIf we add as the Psalms invariably imply, \u201can all-righteous Creator,\u201d\nan element is introduced into the problem which raises entirely fresh\nconsiderations. If you merely ask the question how the pain and\nmisery of the war are compatible with perfect beneficence and perfect\nomnipotence, the answer is obscure. But if you introduce the question\nof the compatibility of the permission of such suffering with perfect\nrighteousness combined with benevolence, the problem is radically\naltered. God is dealing with a creature who is not merely capable of\npain and happiness, but of a righteousness and a truth like His own;\nand to bestow upon this creature happiness without righteousness would\nbe inconsistent with the main object for which he was created, and\nsuch an idea would, in fact, involve a contradiction in terms. Once\nrecognize that there is no happiness possible for man except in the\nharmony of his nature with the Divine righteousness, and it is evident\nthat the main object of an all-benevolent Creator must be to produce\nthis righteousness in man, and to repress and extirpate, by whatever\nmeans may be requisite, the evil which is incompatible with his\nhappiness.\n\nNow the Scriptures, from the third chapter of Genesis to the last\nchapter of Revelation, exhibit God as employing suffering as a remedy\nfor unrighteousness or sin. It is a punishment, but it is also a cure.\nIt may be such suffering as is involved in the condemnation of man to\neat his bread by the sweat of his brow, instead of being able to \u201cput\nforth his hand\u201d and seize whatever he craved without effort. It may be\nthe severer remedy of the punishment of death, or the bitter surgery\nof war. But what the Scriptures reveal is that all the suffering of\nlife, slight or severe, is instituted by God, and employed by Him, to\npromote and uphold that righteousness in man which can alone qualify\nhim for that harmony with God, which is the happiness for which he was\nintended. The free will, whatever its degree, with which man has been\nendowed, must be educated by the suffering which follows its misuse,\nas well as by the satisfaction which is conferred by its right use.\nAccordingly it appears to be the cardinal fact of man\u2019s constitution\nthat unrighteousness throws his nature into disorder, and brings a\nsimilar disorder into his whole social condition. Families, societies,\nand nations can only realize their true purposes, they can only\nexhibit a true order, when the individuals of whom they are composed\nare righteous, and are thus qualified for their true functions. Let\nthe individuals or component parts become disordered, and the whole\nsociety must be disordered, and involved in confusion and perhaps ruin.\nI have sometimes imagined the case of a visitor introduced to some\nvast machine, working under immense pressure, and being told by his\nguide that unfortunately every part of the machine was more or less\nimperfect, and some of the parts almost rotten. Would the visitor care\nto expose himself long to the risks of the inevitable explosion? But\nthat is exactly the case of every human society, small or great. All\nthe individuals of which it is composed are grievously imperfect, and\nsome of them are positively vicious. Is it any wonder that it develops\nantagonistic forces within itself, and that sooner or later it bursts\ninto a great conflagration--the conflagration of a revolution or a\nwar? God, in fact, by this constitution of mankind, has provided that\nunrighteousness shall punish itself. He does not intervene, as a rule,\nto inflict a special punishment. He leaves men to work out their own\npunishment, and to realize from it that there was some corruption at\nwork in their lives.\n\nIf it be asked whether an all-powerful and all-beneficent Being could\nnot have provided some less distressing method of education, the\nfirst reply may be that of Bishop Butler--that it is foolish for such\ncreatures as we are to try to devise schemes for the construction of\nbetter worlds than the one we live in. But the Gospel has provided an\nanswer which removes all temptation to such folly. It reveals the\nmomentous fact that \u201cGod, of His tender mercy, did give His Only Son,\nJesus Christ, to suffer death upon the Cross for our redemption.\u201d\nThere is no need to enter upon theories of the Atonement in order to\nappreciate the bearing of that solemn truth upon this problem. Christ,\nWho lived and died for our redemption, found it necessary for that\npurpose to submit to the sufferings of the Cross--sufferings at least\nas bitter as any that are inflicted in war--and He said He submitted to\nthem because it was the will of His Father--of the God Whom He called\n\u201cHis Father and our Father, His God and our God\u201d--that He should do\nso. It is one satisfactory feature in this discussion that the moral\nauthority of Christ is generally recognized; but it is very little\nnoticed, if at all, that that authority declares, both by repeated\nassurances, and by the most touching personal experience, that the\ninfliction and endurance of death and agony are compatible with the\nmost perfect relations of love and tenderness between God and the\nSufferer.\n\nOur Lord has thus given His blessed personal sanction to what, after\nall, has been the instinctive belief of human nature, even before He\nlived and died. Cicero, for instance, in his _De Officiis_, states it\nmore than once as a cardinal principle of human life and duty that\nit is more contrary to nature to do or allow unjust acts than to\nendure any suffering, loss, or even death. But the Cross of Christ\nelevates this inspiring and consoling conviction to the height of a\nDivine revelation and consolation; and to those who realize it, the\nmain practical problem of the sufferings of war is solved. All such\nsuffering is God\u2019s remedy for moral evil, and is allowed because it is\nthe only means by which man\u2019s nature can be purified and renovated.\nFrom this point of view it becomes quite unnecessary to perplex\nourselves with philosophical questions respecting omnipotence. When God\nhas once established a constitution, either for nature or for human\nnature, He has limited His Own action by the laws of that constitution\nso long as it lasts. He can, indeed, interfere with it for good cause;\nand He has done so, both in nature and human nature, by miracle. But\nto interpose by miracle to avert all distressing consequences of those\nlaws would be to abolish the constitution altogether, and this He will\nnot do until the present dispensation is brought to an end. For the\npresent, God is governing and educating men by means of the laws which\nHe has established, both physical and moral, and He leaves men to take\nthe consequences of their moral violations of those laws, no less than\nof their physical.\n\nThe example of Christ, in His submission, should be enough to prevent\nany man \u201creplying against God\u201d for this constitution of things. The\nreflection which should be aroused in our minds by such \u201cterrors and\nhorrors\u201d as those of this war is, on these principles, that there\nmust have been something terribly false and vicious in the condition\nof the nations of Europe to produce so awful a manifestation of the\nconsequences of evil. They are the consequences which, under the laws\nof human nature established by God, inevitably follow the prevalence\nof unrighteousness; and for that reason they are justly described in\nScripture as the manifestation of \u201cthe wrath of God\u201d against evil.\nOn the principles of the Christian Faith, in short, there is one\ncertainty amidst all our perplexities in this matter. The war and all\nits miseries reveal to us the fact that great injustices and moral\nevils were prevalent in Europe, and the greatness of the misery may\nbe taken as a measure of the greatness of the evil. We think we see\nthese moral and religious evils in the state of our enemies, and\nparticularly in the state of German life and religion. But we shall\nmake a fatal mistake if we allow ourselves to think that all the evil\nand unrighteousness has been on their side. If we are candid with\nourselves, we shall recognize that a disregard of God and Christ,\na grievous disbelief in the revelation and the guidance they have\ngiven us, and a consequent decay of religion, and looseness of moral\nobligations of all kinds, have been making way among us, and have\naffected not only our private life, but our standards of public action.\nWe are discovering more clearly, day by day, that if we are to meet\nthe terrible dangers by which we are threatened, we must revive, both\nin public and in private, the standards of Christian principle which\nwe formally acknowledge--self-denial, self-control, truth in word and\ndeed, the fear of God, and the love of Christ; and in proportion as we\nsucceed in these efforts shall we find that the problems of \u201creligion\nand the war\u201d are much simpler, better understood by our fathers, and\nmore easily grasped by ourselves, than is supposed in the discussion\nfrom which we started.\n\n\n\n\nPRAYER FOR THE DEAD.\n\nFROM \u201cTHE RECORD,\u201d NOVEMBER 20, 1914\n\n\nThe question of Prayers for the Dead, and particularly of the adoption\nof such prayers in the public services of the Church, has for some time\nbeen pressed forward among us, and under the strain of the distressing\nbereavements of the present war it is likely to become urgent. An\nattempt has more than once been made at St. Paul\u2019s to celebrate what\nwould have been a formal _Requiem_ for those who have fallen; and\nthough it has not yet been fully successful, it may very likely be\nrenewed. In the forms issued by authority, both at the time of the Boer\nWar and during the present war, supplications on behalf of the dead\nhave been introduced, which provoked a gentle remonstrance from even\nso moderate and tolerant an Evangelical as the Bishop of Durham. Other\nforms will no doubt be prepared by authority for use at the national\nintercession on the first Sunday of next year; and in many quarters\nmuch anxiety is felt lest the introduction of such supplications\nshould be further extended.\n\nThis anxiety will not be lessened by the deliberate observations on the\nsubject which were made by the Primate, in a sermon he preached at All\nHallows, Barking, on All Souls\u2019 Day, which is fully reported in the\n_Guardian_ of November 5. He said that \u201cwe are not forgetful of the\nlong and mischievous abuse of the devotion\u201d of praying for the dead \u201cin\nthe later medi\u00e6val days, until,\u201d as Dr. Mason said \u201cit might almost\nbe said that the main object of religion in the fifteenth century had\nbeen to deliver souls out of the ever-heightening horrors of Purgatory,\nand to ensure the living against incurring them.\u201d \u201cWe understand,\u201d\nsaid the Archbishop, \u201cwhy repression of these mischiefs, prevention of\nthese perils, took in our formularies and our Prayer Books so stern,\nso drastic, a character that no explicit Prayers for the departed at\nall were admitted into the public language of the Church, and people\nwere taught to rely, in those public offices, upon that alone which\ncan be definitely proved by Holy Scripture. I have no word of censure\nfor those men--Laud and Andrewes, remember, were among them--who thus\nhandled the difficulties which they had to face. But,\u201d the Archbishop\nsignificantly proceeded, \u201csurely now there is place for a gentler\nrecognition of the instinctive, the natural, the loyal craving of the\nbereaved; and the abuses of the chantry system and the extravagances of\nTetzel need not now, nearly four centuries afterwards, thwart or hinder\nthe reverent, the absolutely trustful, prayer of a wounded spirit, who\nfeels it natural and helpful to pray for him whom we shall not greet\non earth again, but who, in his Father\u2019s loving keeping, still lives,\nand, as we may surely believe, still grows from strength to strength\nin truer purity and in deeper reverence and love. I must not dwell on\nthat to-day, but in our thought of what our College of Clergy can do,\nand has already done, \u2018for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work\nof the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,\u2019 I do not like\nto pass unmentioned a task of wise teaching and of careful guidance,\nwhich at a time of such special opportunity and need may appropriately\nbe ours.\u201d\n\nThese, I think it must be felt, are very significant words. They\nindicate clearly that, in the mind of the Archbishop\u2019s advisers, the\npresent time of bereavement and distress affords an opportunity for\nauthorizing the use of Prayers for the Departed, which go beyond \u201cthat\nalone which can be definitely proved by Holy Scripture.\u201d Now, I hope\nthat, without any lack of respect, I may say at once that, while there\nare, as I believe, many members of the Evangelical School to whom some\nmodification in the language of our Prayer Book in reference to the\ndeparted would not be unwelcome, we should be unanimous in deprecating\nin the strongest manner the introduction of anything beyond \u201cthat which\ncan be definitely proved by Holy Scripture\u201d--meaning, as no doubt the\nArchbishop does, that which can be proved to be conformable to Holy\nScripture. Supplications which are not strictly conformable to Holy\nScripture may be \u201cnatural\u201d--too natural--\u201cinstinctive,\u201d and prompted by\na \u201cloyal craving.\u201d But the very place and function of Holy Scripture\nis to direct and control our natural and instinctive cravings; and to\nallow such natural and instinctive cravings to carry us beyond the\nlimits which a strict adherence to Holy Scripture would prescribe, is\nto abandon an essential principle of the Church of England, and to\nforsake the sure guidance which the revelation of the Gospel affords us.\n\nThis, in fact, is the very source of the superstitions by which the\nworship of God has been corrupted in the Church of Rome. There is no\nbetter illustration of this danger than is afforded by those abuses\nin connection with the belief in Purgatory, which the Archbishop so\nseverely denounces. The Roman system of Prayers for the Dead did not\noriginally rise from the doctrine of Purgatory, though in their extreme\nform they were based on that doctrine. But, historically, the doctrine\nof Purgatory was developed out of an undue and unscriptural indulgence\nof Prayers for the Dead; and in so far as natural instincts are allowed\nat the present day to dictate any such unscriptural indulgence, a\ntendency will again be encouraged towards a belief in some form of\nPurgatory. The Archbishop asks whether we need be afraid of the abuses\nof four centuries ago. But it is not a question of the circumstances\nof four centuries ago; it is a question of the dangers of human\nnature in every century, and not least in a century like the present,\nwhen there prevails in the Church an avowed drift towards the errors\nagainst which, as the Archbishop says, even Laud and Andrewes thought\nit necessary to be on their guard. The condition of the departed is\na matter on which nature can tell us nothing. Our whole knowledge\nrespecting it, all our hopes respecting it, are derived from the\nrevelations of our Lord and His Apostles in the New Testament; and if\nwe wish our prayers in relation to the dead to be in accordance with\ntruth, and to be acceptable to God, we have more reason on this subject\nthan on any other \u201cto rely in our public offices upon that alone which\ncan be proved by Holy Scripture.\u201d\n\nThis is so cardinal a principle of our Church that I cannot but feel\nconfident that it is by an inadvertence, if language is used by\nany persons in authority which seems to imply a disregard of it. I\napprehend that what it really means is that our Reformers excluded from\nour Prayer Book forms of Prayer for the Dead which were in use in the\nprimitive Church; and that an appeal is being made to that primitive\nexample as an authority for their reintroduction. Now, I fully admit\nthat primitive practice has a _prima-facie_ claim to favourable\nconsideration; and, as I have urged for years, if that principle were\nonly acted upon, the Romish practices which are being forced upon our\nChurch by the ritualistic party would be at once condemned. What,\nthen, let us ask, were the Prayers for the Dead which were in use in\nthe primitive Church? The description of them given by Bingham in his\naccount of the ceremonies at the interment of Christians in the ancient\nChurch (vol. viii., Oxford edition, p. 151) is in perfect harmony with\nthat of Field and Ussher, and will not, I think, be questioned. At the\ninterment, as at the Communion Service, \u201ca solemn commemoration was\nmade of the dead in general, and prayers offered to God for them--some\nEucharistical, by way of thanksgiving for their deliverance out of\nthis world\u2019s afflictions, and others by way of intercession that God\nwould receive their souls to the place of rest and happiness, that\nHe would pardon their human failures, and not impute to them the sins\nof daily incursion, which in the best men are remainders of natural\nfrailty and corruption; that He would increase their happiness, and\nfinally bring them to a perfect consummation with all His Saints by\na glorious resurrection.\u201d The spirit and purpose of these prayers\nis illuminated by an observation of Archbishop Ussher (_Answer to a\nJesuit_, chapter vii): \u201cIn these and other prayers of the like kind we\nmay descry evident footsteps of the primary intention of the Church in\nsuch supplications for the dead, which was, that the whole man, not\nthe soul separated only, might receive public remission of sins and a\nsolemn acquittal in the judgment of that Great Day, and so obtain a\nfull escape from all the consequences of sin, _the last enemy being\nnow destroyed, and death swallowed up in victory_, and a perfect\nconsummation of bliss and happiness. All which are comprised in that\nshort prayer of St. Paul for Onesiphorus, though made for him while he\nwas alive: _The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord\nin that day_.\u201d\n\nIn other words, all these prayers are for those mercies and blessings\nwhich are revealed and promised in Holy Scripture, and for them\nalone. They are not prayers for any alteration in the condition of\nthe Christian soul during the mysterious period between death and\nthe Resurrection, respecting which very various opinions have been\nheld by the Fathers of the Church. They are simply prayers for the\nfulfilment, especially at the Day of the Resurrection, of those\npromises of justification or acquittal, and of final glory in body\nand soul, which are definitely given us in the New Testament. The\nobjection has been raised that of the fulfilment of these promises we\nhave certain assurance, and that therefore we need not pray for them.\nBut, as Ussher and Field abundantly show, this objection is based\nupon a serious misconception of the nature of prayer. The ancient\nChurch, in accordance with the whole spirit of the Scriptures, realized\nthe privilege of receiving everything from God in the nature of a\ngift, and therefore prayed to Him for the very things He had most\nsurely promised. It is in that gracious childlike spirit that these\nsupplications for the Christian dead were made in primitive Christian\ntimes; and though that spirit has become, unhappily, somewhat obscured\namong us, yet no one can use the petition \u201cThy Kingdom come\u201d without\nbeing sensible that he is praying for a blessing which is most certain.\nFor these prayers of the early Church, therefore, there was a full\nwarrant in Holy Scripture, and there is no occasion to appeal to any\nother authority for them.\n\nWhy, then, it will be asked, should they not be used in the Church of\nEngland? The first and chief answer is that, in substance, they are\nused. In the Burial Service we pray \u201cthat it may please Thee shortly\nto accomplish the number of Thine elect and to hasten Thy kingdom that\nwe, with all those that are departed in the true faith of Thy Holy\nName, may have our perfect consummation and bliss in Thy eternal and\neverlasting glory.\u201d That is a prayer in the very spirit described by\nBingham and Ussher as that of the primitive Church. Nor can I interpret\nin any less comprehensive sense the prayer in our Communion Service,\n\u201cthat we and all Thy whole Church may obtain remission of our sins,\nand all other benefits of His passion.\u201d Field\u2019s statement (vol.\nii., Cambridge edition, p. 97) is fully justified by these prayers.\n\u201cTouching Prayer for the Dead, it is well known that Protestants\ndo not simply condemn all prayer in this kind; for they pray for\nthe Resurrection, public acquittal in the Day of Judgment, and the\nperfect consummation and bliss of them that rest in the Lord, and the\nperfecting of whatsoever is yet wanting in them.\u201d\n\nIf, therefore, in the Revision of the Prayer Book now pending, or\nin official forms of intercession now under consideration, it is\ncontemplated to add anything to the language of the Prayer Book,\nwhat we have to ask is that such additions may be kept within these\nscriptural and primitive limits, and may not introduce petitions\nwhich imply suppositions respecting the condition of the soul in\nthe intermediate state, of which Scripture tells us nothing. Even\nthe Archbishop\u2019s language might give some encouragement to such\nsuppositions, when he speaks of praying \u201cfor him ... who still lives\nand, as we may surely believe, still grows from strength to strength,\nin truer purity and in deepened reverence and love.\u201d Whoever believes\nthat does so without warrant of Scripture, and prayer based on such a\nbelief has no authority in revelation. The hope of the Christian is\nnot that his soul will be gradually purified after death, but that, in\nthe words of the commendatory prayer in the Service of the Visitation\nof the Sick, it may, in death itself, be washed in the blood of that\nimmaculate Lamb, and presented, when it leaves the body, \u201cpure and\nwithout spot\u201d unto God. Prayers, in short, which have any tinge of a\npurgatorial view are unauthorized by Scripture, and inconsistent with\na most blessed element of Evangelical hope and faith. Short of this, I\ncould wish, for my own part, that we might imitate the purer forms of\nprayer in the early Church by more specific mention of the departed,\nas in what seems to me the beautiful expressions of the earlier Burial\nService. \u201cWe commend into Thy hands of mercy, most merciful Father,\nthe soul of this our brother departed, and his body we commit to the\nearth, beseeching Thine infinite goodness to give us grace to live in\nThy fear and love, and to die in Thy favour; that when the judgment\nshall come, which Thou hast committed to Thy wellbeloved Son, both this\nour brother and we may be found acceptable in Thy sight.\u201d After all,\nin presence of the mysteries of death, and of the condition of those\nwe have lost, what prayer can be more comforting than one which simply\ncommends to our Father\u2019s gracious hands, through our Saviour\u2019s merits\nand grace, the beloved soul after which we yearn? That is a Prayer for\nthe Dead which may be offered without scruple and without cessation,\nand in which we may find, day by day, and in every moment of sorrow and\ndistress, our refuge and our consolation.\n\n\n\n\nCHRIST AND THE SOLDIER.\n\nADDRESS AT THE CHURCH PARADE, IN THE NAVE OF THE CATHEDRAL, SEPT. 27,\n1914.\n\n \u201c_Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in\n Me._\u201d--St. John xiv. 1.\n\n\nMy brethren, when your Commanding Officer did me the honour to ask\nme to address you, I thought I would try to bring before you, in the\nsimplest and briefest form, the special message which is brought by the\nGospel of Christ to men in such a position as that in which you now\nstand--a position of great anxiety and solemn responsibility. You will\nmeet that responsibility, of course, in the manly and cheerful spirit\nwhich has marked soldiers of great races at all times, from the Jews,\nGreeks, and Romans to our own days. But the Gospel of Christ has the\ncharacteristic privilege of bringing good news to human nature in all\ncircumstances. It sheds a new and blessed light on life and all its\nduties, on death and all its fears, and I would fain impress on you, in\none sentence of our Saviour, what is the supreme blessing and guidance\nwhich it affords, especially to soldiers.\n\nThat blessing is contained in the few words of my text: _Ye believe in\nGod; believe also in Me_. They are the first words of our Saviour\u2019s\naddress to His disciples, at the moment when they were in great trouble\nand anxiety, on account of His having told them that He was about to be\nviolently taken from them. It was no ordinary trouble that they were\nabout to encounter, but one of the greatest and bitterest that ever\nbefell human beings. Yet He begins, at once, by bidding them not be\ntroubled. _Let not your hearts be troubled_, He said. But how were they\nto avoid it? He gives them a short and sufficient reason: _Ye believe\nin God; believe also in Me_. Remember who they were. They were Jews,\nfull of the faith of the old Covenant; familiar with the psalms which\nwe sing every day, believing in God as Abraham did, as David did, as\nIsaiah did, and as He Himself had taught them to believe. That was\nand is, a grand faith to live in. But our Lord brought an addition to\nit, which made it, and makes it, infinitely better. _Ye believe in\nGod_, He said; _believe also in Me_. He uses the same word of belief\nin Himself which He had used of belief in God. \u201cYou put your trust in\nGod,\u201d He seems to say; \u201cYou give yourselves up to Him, to obey His\nwill for life and for death. Do the same for Me. Give yourselves up\nalso to Me, to obey Me, to trust Me and to love Me.\u201d The privilege of\ndoing that is the reason He gives them for not letting their heart be\ntroubled. If they would obey and trust Him with the same faith which\nthey gave to God, they would have still surer ground for comfort and\nstrength than if they only believed in the God of their fathers.\n\nThis was a great claim for our Lord Jesus Christ to make. But He went\non to shed His blood on the Cross in attestation of it; and, according\nto His promise, He rose again after being put to death, to assure us\nthat He was the living Son of God He claimed to be; and that is our\nsufficient reason for believing it. For that reason we take His word\nfor it, and trust everything He said. But why does this assurance bring\nthat special comfort to His disciples, and to ourselves, which He\npromises? There are many reasons; but on this occasion I will mention\nonly the one which He Himself proceeds to state. He goes on to declare\nat once what is perhaps the greatest of all the comforts which He\nbrings. He tells us what is our eternal Home, whither He was Himself\ngoing, and where we are meant to go. He says at once: _In My Father\u2019s\nhouse are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go\nto prepare a place for you; and if I go and prepare a place for you,\nI will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am there\nye may be also._ Every one of us must ask himself, sooner or later,\nwhere he is going; what is his eternal Home? More especially must we\nask ourselves this question when we are brought face to face, in any\nway, with the great issues of life and death. When nations are marching\nin their millions to conflicts which must mean an early death to many\nof them, we must crave for an answer, more than ever, to the question,\nWhat is beyond death? What is the life into which we shall pass from\nthis world?\n\nNow, in these few words, our Saviour gives us an assurance on this\nquestion which is more than sufficient. We shall go into a world in\nwhich He is ready to meet us, and in which He is preparing mansions\nfor us. Without the Gospel, there is a complete veil over the future\nlife. But to the Christian that veil is lifted by the Saviour and His\nApostles in some glorious details, and above all--far above all--in\nthis: that the Lord Jesus Christ, that living Man of whom you read\nin the Gospels, Whose character stands out so clearly there, in all\ngraciousness, justice, love, and power, is preparing homes for us, and\nwill be there to receive us unto Himself. David was inspired to sing,\n_When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear\nno evil, for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff comfort me_. It\nwas a great height of inspired faith to be able to utter that prayer\nof trust in the great God of his fathers, surrounded, as he then was,\nby clouds and darkness. But what a vastly greater blessing it is to\nbe able to say it of the Lord Jesus Christ, Whom we are privileged\nto know, not only as God, but as Man in flesh and blood, and to be\nassured that in death, as in life, we have with us all the sympathy,\nall the tenderness, as well as all the righteousness and justice, which\nHe showed during His life on earth. Had He not reason to say: _Let not\nyour hearts be troubled; believe in Me_?\n\nBut if it is to be a comfort to us to know that we shall be received by\nthe Lord Jesus Christ when we pass from this world, and that, whether\nwe pass suddenly or slowly, we shall find ourselves in His hands, we\ncannot fail to realize that one condition on our own part is essential.\nWe must come to Him with a character, and in a condition, which He\ncan approve. He will meet us in two capacities; first, as our Saviour\nand friend, but also as our Judge. Without waiting for that ultimate\njudgment which He has announced, the thought of our closer approach to\nHim at death must make us deeply apprehensive of His personal judgment\non our character and our lives. If we desire to meet Him in happiness,\nwe must be preparing ourselves, while we are here, so as to be at least\nin general harmony with His will and His character. In consequence of\nthose inveterate sins of mankind, which bring about wars and all other\nsuch miseries, He Himself, with His own deliberate consent, was brought\nto death, and sacrificed His life as an atonement for our evil; and\nby that sacrifice He has won from God the Father, His Father and our\nFather, the right to forgive us and to judge us mercifully. We may be\nsure accordingly that He will receive us into the arms of His mercy,\nand pardon our innumerable failures and offences, if we truly repent of\nthem. But if we are to be at peace with Him hereafter, in His mansions,\nHe must needs expect us, while we are here, to be trying to grow like\nHim, and to be doing His will. This accordingly is the second main\npoint which follows from this assurance of our Lord. It places us under\nthe strongest possible obligation to live here as Christ would have us,\nin order that we may look forward with full hope to living with Him\nhereafter.\n\nConsequently, this promise of Christ obliges us to Christen, as it\nwere, or to Christianize, the work of our lives, and every duty or\nprofession in which we are engaged. This is a principle which has\ninnumerable applications; and I will only apply it this morning to one\naspect of the profession of a soldier. Men had great ideals before\nChrist came. Few things are nobler, in the profession of arms, than\nthe examples of self-sacrifice, of bravery, of generosity, exhibited\nby the ancient Jews, Greeks, and Romans, and, in our own days, by the\nJapanese. But the history of the Christian world has shown that it\nis possible to raise those ideals, if not to a higher, yet to a more\ngracious, height by adding a Christian touch or colour to them. The\nknighthood of the Middle Ages, for instance, exhibited the highest\nqualities of a manly soldiery, elevated, purified, and illuminated\nby the supreme graces of gentleness, of mercy, of tenderness for the\nweak, of that impulse to save the suffering and the crushed, which is\nembodied in our Lord\u2019s character as \u201cthe Saviour.\u201d The knight of the\nMiddle Ages was essentially the saviour of the weak, the champion of\nwomen, bound by oath to uphold all right and righteousness, to avenge\nwrong, to maintain, in the midst of his stern duties, the mercies and\ngraces of Christian feeling. One of them, as he stood at the bier of\nthe most famous knight of his day, is described in the old romance as\nexclaiming: _And now, I daresay, that Sir Lancelot, there thou liest:\nthou wert never matched of none earthly knight\u2019s hands; and thou wert\nthe courtliest knight that ever bare shield; and thou wert the truest\nfriend to thy lover that ever bestrode horse; and thou wert the truest\nlover of a sinful man that ever loved woman; and thou wert the kindest\nman that ever stroke with sword; and thou wert the goodliest person\nthat ever came among press of knights; and thou wert the meekest man\nand the gentlest that ever ate in hall among ladies; and thou wert the\nsternest knight to thy mortal foe that ever put spear in the rest_.\nCan we fail to be sensible that, even in such an imperfect example,\nsomething of the grace of Christian tenderness has been shed over the\ncharacter--an essence of Christian feeling, which would make impossible\nin such a soldier any brutal violence or wilful injustice? It was, in\nfact, the conscious example of Christ which controlled them. They all,\nmore or less, resembled the knight of our own noble poet Spenser:\n\n For on his breast a bloody cross he bore,\n The dear remembrance of his dying Lord:\n For Whose sweet sake that glorious badge he wore,\n And dead, as living ever, Him adored;\n Upon his shield the like was also scored,\n For sovran hope which in his help he had.\n\nThat is the true badge not only of Christian service to the wounded,\nbut of Christian warfare itself.\n\nSuch, my brethren, is the spirit in which you can apply to your present\nduties the exhortation of our Saviour in this gracious and cardinal\ntext. It bids you to add the belief in the presence of Christ, the\nobligation of obedience to Christ, trust in Christ and love towards\nHim, to all the other principles by which you are animated. The fact\nthat you are here, that you are making great sacrifices, that you are\nready to make the greatest sacrifice of all, for your country, is proof\nenough that you are animated by high and generous motives, that you\nwish to live and die for the greatest of all causes, for righteousness\nand justice, for your King and your country. But if you would do the\nbest you can, do one thing more. Take care to add the spirit of Christ\nto these motives and impulses; strive to enter more deeply, day by\nday, into His heart and will, to realize more and more, even in the\nmidst of war, that \u201cnew commandment\u201d which He gave us, _that we should\nlove one another_; and so prepare yourselves to meet Him whenever you\nhave to do so, as we all have, soon or late, in such a character that\nHe may be able to say to you: _Well done, good and faithful servant,\nenter thou into the joy of thy Lord_. In a word: You believe in God,\nand in all that the Name of God stands for--righteousness, truth,\ngoodness of all kinds: believe also in Christ, and let His love, His\nmercy, His purity, His absolute self-sacrifice, add His own peculiar\ngrace to all your words and deeds, and then you may cherish the\nconfident hope that _where He is there you will be also_.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ETERNAL LIFE OF THE SOUL.\n\nPREACHED IN THE NAVE OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, AT THE MILITARY CHURCH\nPARADE, OCTOBER 15, 1916.\n\n \u201c_O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee._\u201d--Psalm lxiii. 1.\n\n\nThese words ought to be in the heart and the mouth of every soul in\nthis congregation. They are the first words of a Psalm, which has been\nused as a morning Psalm by many generations of Christians, and it is\nthe privilege of all of us to echo them. But let us consider carefully\nwhat they mean. Who is the God to Whom they speak? We are in the House\nof God, to worship God; and we open our worship, every Sunday, with\na Psalm which tells us who He is. \u201cThe Lord,\u201d it says, \u201cis a great\nGod, a great King above all Gods. In His hand are all the corners of\nthe earth, and the strength of the hills is His also. The sea is His,\nand He made it: and His hands prepared the dry land. O come, let us\nworship and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker.\u201d That is\nthe God to whom the Christian speaks. He is the God Who made heaven and\nearth, and whose will and power upholds them from hour to hour. He is\nour maker, \u201cand we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His\nhand.\u201d In other words, \u201cAll things were made by Him, and without Him\nwas not anything made that was made.\u201d\n\nThe word \u201cGod\u201d is too often used lightly in common conversation among\nus, but without due remembrance that it is the Name of the Most awful\nand supreme reality that can be thought of. We do not use lightly the\nname of our King, but God is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Our\nlives and our souls are in the hollow of His hand every moment; and if\nwe considered only His supreme Majesty and our weak and passing frames,\nwe are perfectly insignificant beings before Him. But it is to this\nBeing that the Psalmist addresses the words \u201cO God, Thou art my God;\nearly will I seek Thee.\u201d We may all say that, as well as the Psalmist.\nIt is our privilege to speak to the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords,\nas our own; we may call Him our God, our own God, we may tell Him that\nwe seek Him, that we seek Him above all things, and we may say, as the\nPsalmist goes on to say, \u201cMy soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh also\nlongeth after Thee: in a barren and dry land where no water is. Thus\nhave I looked for Thee in the sanctuary (in a Cathedral like this) that\nI might behold Thy power and glory.\u201d How is it that humble and feeble\ncreatures like ourselves can thus call the God of heaven and earth our\nown, and speak to Him, and tell Him, in this earnest language, that we\ncannot do without Him? Where, above all, can we find Him and approach\nHim?\n\nThe Psalmist used these words, and we may use them too, because this\nGod is the nearest of all things in the world to us, and because we are\nin daily contact with Him in our hearts and souls. It is true He is so\ngreat and infinite, that He has made the world, and all its marvels\nand glories; but we are more concerned to realize that He has made\nour own selves, and our minds and hearts and consciences, and when we\nlook into those hearts, and listen to those consciences, we are only\nexperiencing, in ourselves, the work of His hands, and listening to His\nvoice. Above all other things, God made right and wrong, He made us to\nrealize the difference between right and wrong; He made the truth, and\nenabled us to love it, and to hate what is false; in a word, He made\nour consciences and our minds; and He lives and works in them, as much\nas He does in the world at large. It is very well for us to look up\nto the heavens, to think of Him as the Creator of all those stars and\nworlds, or to look into the infinite mysteries of this world\u2019s life,\nits minute elements and atoms; but it is more important for us to think\nof Him as the Giver, and Ruler, and Guide of our very souls and bodies,\nWho determined what we were made for, and what we ought to do, what\nsort of a life we ought to live, putting into our hearts the knowledge\nof our duty, warning us of it by the constant voice of our consciences,\nand bidding us realize that He will judge us, for our obedience or\ndisobedience to His will and His commands. Think of God, by all means,\nin His greatness and His Majesty, and His awful powers, but then think\nof Him as actually in contact with you in your own souls, teaching you\nand speaking to you in your consciences, and calling to you, by your\nsense of right and wrong, to remember that He is your judge, and that\nyour very life and happiness depend upon your union with Him. That is\nthe thought of God that should be incessantly in our minds. As the\nScripture says more than once, you need not go to the heavens to seek\nHim there, you need not go into the depths of the earth to seek Him\nthere, but He is near you, nearer to you than anything else, in your\nvery souls and consciences; you hear His voice there, you feel the\ninfluence of His Spirit; there you can always find Him, you can turn to\nHim at any moment and say \u201cO God, Thou art my God; early will I seek\nThee.\u201d\n\nThere is no reality in the world which can be compared, in its\nmomentous importance, to this. It must be brought home to us, by the\nexperience which is thrust upon us by the Great War, that everything\nelse with which we have to do, everything else in the world, passes\naway from us. So it does indeed from everybody, at all times, whether\ntimes of war or of peace. There comes a time to every soul when it\nhas to leave the body, and, with the body, everything else with which\nit has been associated in this world. We all know it when we think\nseriously about it; but the misfortune is that, in ordinary life, men\ndo not think seriously about it. All their thoughts and interests\nare engaged in the business and the pleasures and the interests of\nthis life, and they seldom look beyond. But in days like the present\nwe are forced to look beyond them. You, above all, who, at the call\nof duty, have laid behind you, for the present, all the ordinary\ninterests of life, and are offering yourselves to all the risks of the\nbattlefield--you have reason to ask, with supreme earnestness, what\nis the reality for which you are making this sacrifice, and what will\nremain to you if the full sacrifice should be exacted from you.\n\nIt is the grand answer of our religion, to say that, whatever happens,\nGod remains to you. This God, moreover, is not a distant God, not\nmerely the Maker of the heavens and the earth, but your God, the God\nof your inmost soul, the God of your conscience, the God whose eye\nsees into your hearts, and Whose hand has been with you from your\nchildhood, to help you, to guide you, and to inspire you with all the\nthoughts of truth, of manliness, of faithfulness, of purity, which you\nhave felt working in you. Whenever the outward clothing of our souls\ndrops off from us, whether in the death of old age, or the death of\nsickness, or the death of the battlefield, our souls will certainly\nbe in the immediate presence of One Supreme Reality; and that is the\nGod with Whom, in our conscience, our souls have been in contact day\nby day, and night by night, throughout our lives. That is why we come\nto worship Him here, that is why we pray to Him day by day, and I hope\nhour by hour, and minute by minute. That is why we should say to Him\nlike the Psalmist \u201cO God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee.\u201d\nNothing else is of permanent and everlasting consequence to us, but our\nrelation to Him, and our union with Him--His relation to us, and His\nlove of us. While everything is shaking around us, while the kingdoms\nare moved, and lives seem thrown away as things of small value, let\nus remember that one great Living Being remains to all of us, to those\nwhose lives are lost on earth, and to those who remain, and that is\nthe Eternal God, the Giver of all truth, and righteousness and love;\nand the greater the strain and stress of life and death, the more may\nwe confidently exclaim, in the tumult of the battlefield as much as in\nthe peace of this sanctuary, \u201cO God, Thou art my God; early will I seek\nThee.\u201d\n\nBut when and where are you to seek Him? The question has been answered\nin the truths of which I have reminded you. Seek Him in obedience to\nthat Voice of His, which you hear in your consciences, seek Him in\nobedience to those principles of right, as against wrong, which He has\nimplanted in you, and which His Spirit is continually reviving in you;\nseek Him in trying, day by day, to do His Will as He has revealed it to\nyou in His word, especially as He has revealed it to you in the life\nand teaching of His Own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Seek Him in those\nsacraments and ordinances of His Church which he has instituted for\nour comfort. If you obey our Lord Jesus Christ, and try to follow His\nlife, His Spirit will speak to you continually in your consciences,\nwill help you to know your duty and to do it, and you will be saying\nin practice what you say in words: \u201cO God, Thou art my God; early will\nI seek Thee.\u201d Our Lord has told you that if you are true hearted in\ntrying to do this, He will forgive you your failures and weaknesses,\nthat He has died to make atonement for them, that He will take you\nby the hand as you pass from this life to the next, and will be your\nadvocate and sponsor before the face of the righteous and Almighty God.\nLet us bring this spirit into all we do and all we think, and we shall\nthen be able to join in the succeeding words of this Psalm, \u201cHave I not\nremembered Thee in my bed: and thought upon Thee when I was waking?\nBecause Thou hast been my helper: therefore under the shadow of Thy\nwings will I rejoice. My soul hangeth upon Thee: Thy right hand hath\nupholden me.\u201d May God grant us all this faith and this eternal life\nthrough Jesus Christ our Lord.\n\n\nHunt, Barnard & Co., Ltd., Printers, London and Aylesbury.\n\n\n\n\nWORKS BY HENRY WACE, D.D.,\n\nDean of Canterbury.\n\n\nSOME QUESTIONS OF THE DAY.\n\n BIBLICAL, NATIONAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. First Series, cheaper re-issue.\n Demy 8vo., Cloth, Gilt, =2/-= net.\n\n\nSOME QUESTIONS OF THE DAY.\n\n NATIONAL, ECCLESIASTICAL AND RELIGIOUS. Second Series. Demy 8vo.,\n Cloth, Gilt, =3/6= net.\n\n\nPROPHECY, JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN.\n\n Considered in a Series of Warburton Lectures at Lincoln\u2019s Inn. Cheaper\n re-issue. Crown 8vo., Cloth, Gilt, =1/6= net.\n\n * * * * *\n\n\nPAMPHLETS. One Penny each.\n\n =The Atonement.=\n\n =The Estimate and Use of the Holy Scripture in the Church of England.=\n\n =The Church of England and Roman Vestments.=\n\n =The Main Purpose and Character of the XXXIX Articles.=\n\n\nLondon: CHAS. J. THYNNE.\n\n\n\n\n * * * * *\n\nTranscriber\u2019s Note\n\nMinor punctuation errors have been corrected (i.e. missing periods).\nOriginal spellings and variations (i.e. civilization and civilisation)\nhave been retained, except for the following apparent typographical\nerrors:\n\nPage 35, \u201ctemporaly\u201d changed to \u201ctemporal.\u201d (for the things which are\nseen are temporal)\n\nPage 89, \u201celeswhere\u201d changed to \u201celsewhere.\u201d (a picture not adequately\ndescribed elsewhere)\n\nPage 94, \u201cidolators\u201d changed to \u201cidolaters.\u201d (whoremongers, and\nmurderers, and idolaters)\n\nPage 106, \u201cthoughout\u201d changed to \u201cthroughout.\u201d (gracious throughout\ntheir vast Empire)\n\nPage 223, \u201crepecting\u201d changed to \u201crespecting.\u201d (respecting which very\nvarious opinions have)\n\nChapter VIII\u2019s sermon, Resistance Unto Blood, was incorrectly labeled\nas having taken place April 3, 1916. It has been corrected to read\nApril 21, 1916. (The correct date was listed in the Table of Contents.)\n\nThe following inconsistencies were present in the original text:\n\nDifferences in the titles given in the Table of Contents and chapter\nheadings for these sermons:\n\n Chapter IX\n Chapter XI\n\nDifferences in the dates given in the Table of Contents and chapter\nheadings for these sermons:\n\n Chapter XIII, Reasons for Intercession\n Chapter XVI, Religion and War","title":"The War and the Gospel: Sermons and Addresses During the Present War","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":49476}