{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_5687/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_5687","id":"gutenberg_5687","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5687","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity","Church of England -- Sermons","Sermons, English -- 19th century"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1890 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, email\nccx074@pglaf.org\n\n\n\n\n\n THE WATER OF LIFE\n _AND OTHER SERMONS_\n\n\n * * * * *\n\n BY\n CHARLES KINGSLEY.\n\n * * * * *\n\n London\n MACMILLAN AND CO.\n AND NEW YORK\n 1890\n\n _The right of translation is reserved_\n\n * * * * *\n\n First Edition (Fcap. 8vo), 1867.\n New Edition 1872, Reprinted 1873, 1875.\n New Edition, Crown 8vo, 1879, Reprinted 1881, 1885.\n New Edition 1890.\n\n * * * * *\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n SERMON I.\n Page\nTHE WATER OF LIFE. (_Revelation_ xxii. 17.) 1\n SERMON II.\nTHE PHYSICIAN\u2019S CALLING. (_St. Matthew_ ix. 35.) 14\n SERMON III.\nTHE VICTORY OF LIFE. (_Isaiah_ xxxviii. 18, 19.) 27\n SERMON IV.\nTHE WAGES OF SIN. (_Romans_ vi. 21\u201323.) 40\n SERMON V.\nNIGHT AND DAY. (_Romans_ xiii. 12.) 56\n SERMON VI.\nTHE SHAKING OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH. (_Hebrews_ xii. 68\n26\u201329.)\n SERMON VII.\nTHE BATTLE OF LIFE. (_Galatians_ v. 16, 17.) 83\n SERMON VIII.\nFREE GRACE. (_Isaiah_ lv. 1.) 90\n SERMON IX.\nEZEKIEL\u2019S VISION. (_Ezekiel_ i. 1, 26.) 98\n SERMON X.\nRUTH. (_Ruth_ ii. 4.) 111\n SERMON XI.\nSOLOMON. (_Ecclesiastes_ i. 12\u201314.) 123\n SERMON XII.\nPROGRESS. (_Ecclesiastes_ vii. 10.) 134\n SERMON XIII.\nFAITH. (_Habakkuk_ ii. 4.) 143\n SERMON XIV.\nTHE GREAT COMMANDMENT. (_Matthew_ xxii. 37, 38.) 153\n SERMON XV.\nTHE EARTHQUAKE. (_Psalm_ xlvi. 1, 2.) 164\n SERMON XVI.\nTHE METEOR SHOWER. (_Matthew_ x. 29, 30.) 176\n SERMON XVII.\nCHOLERA, 1866. (_Luke_ vii. 16.) 189\n SERMON XVIII.\nTHE WICKED SERVANT. (_Matthew_ xviii. 23.) 203\n SERMON XIX.\nCIVILIZED BARBARISM. (_Mattthew_ ix. 12.) 213\n SERMON XX.\nTHE GOD OF NATURE. (_Psalm_ cxlvii. 7\u20139.) 233\n\n\n\n\nSERMON I.\nTHE WATER OF LIFE.\n\n\n (_Preached at Westminster Abbey_)\n\n REVELATION xxii. 17.\n\n And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth\n say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will,\n let him take the water of life freely.\n\nTHIS text is its own witness. It needs no man to testify to its origin.\nIts own words show it to be inspired and divine.\n\nBut not from its mere poetic beauty, great as that is: greater than we,\nin this wet and cold climate, can see at the first glance. We must go to\nthe far East and the far South to understand the images which were called\nup in the mind of an old Jew at the very name of wells and water-springs;\nand why the Scriptures speak of them as special gifts of God, life-giving\nand divine. We must have seen the treeless waste, the blazing sun, the\nsickening glare, the choking dust, the parched rocks, the distant\nmountains quivering as in the vapour of a furnace; we must have felt the\nlassitude of heat, the torment of thirst, ere we can welcome, as did\nthose old Easterns, the well dug long ago by pious hands, whither the\nmaidens come with their jars at eventide, when the stone is rolled away,\nto water the thirsty flocks; or the living fountain, under the shadow of\na great rock in a weary land, with its grove of trees, where all the\nbirds for many a mile flock in, and shake the copses with their song; its\nlawn of green, on which the long-dazzled eye rests with refreshment and\ndelight; its brook, wandering away\u2014perhaps to be lost soon in burning\nsand, but giving, as far as it flows, Life; a Water of Life to plant, to\nanimal, and to man.\n\nAll these images, which we have to call up in our minds one by one,\npresented themselves to the mind of an Eastern, whether Jew or heathen,\nat once, as a well-known and daily scene; and made him feel, at the very\nmention of a water-spring, that the speaker was telling him of the good\nand beautiful gift of a beneficent Being.\n\nAnd yet\u2014so do extremes meet\u2014like thoughts, though not like images, may be\ncalled up in our minds, here in the heart of London, in murky alleys and\nfoul courts, where there is too often, as in the poet\u2019s rotting sea\u2014\n\n \u2018Water, water, everywhere,\n Yet not a drop to drink.\u2019\n\nAnd we may bless God\u2014as the Easterns bless Him for the ancestors who\ndigged their wells\u2014for every pious soul who now erects a\ndrinking-fountain; for he fulfils the letter as well as the spirit of\nScripture, by offering to the bodies as well as the souls of men the\nWater of Life freely.\n\nBut the text speaks not of earthly water. No doubt the words \u2018Water of\nLife\u2019 have a spiritual and mystic meaning. Yet that alone does not prove\nthe inspiration of the text. They had a spiritual and mystic meaning\nalready among the heathens of the East\u2014Greeks and barbarians alike.\n\nThe East\u2014and indeed the West likewise\u2014was haunted by dreams of a Water of\nLife, a Fount of Perpetual Youth, a Cup of Immortality: dreams at which\nonly the shallow and the ignorant will smile; for what are they but\ntokens of man\u2019s right to Immortality,\u2014of his instinct that he is not as\nthe beasts,\u2014that there is somewhat in him which ought not to die, which\nneed not die, and yet which may die, and which perhaps deserves to die?\nHow could it be kept alive? how strengthened and refreshed into perpetual\nyouth?\n\nAnd water\u2014with its life-giving and refreshing powers, often with\nmedicinal properties seemingly miraculous\u2014what better symbol could be\nfound for that which would keep off death? Perhaps there was some\nreality which answered the symbol, some actual Cup of Immortality, some\nactual Fount of Youth. But who could attain to them? Surely the gods\nhid their own special treasure from the grasp of man. Surely that Water\nof Life was to be sought for far away, amid trackless mountain-peaks,\nguarded by dragons and demons. That Fount of Youth must be hidden in the\nrich glades of some tropic forest. That Cup of Immortality must be\nearned by years, by ages, of superhuman penance and self torture.\nCertain of the old Jews, it is true, had had deeper and truer thoughts.\nHere and there a psalmist had said, \u2018With God is the well of Life;\u2019 or a\nprophet had cried, \u2018Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,\nand buy without money and without price!\u2019 But the Jews had utterly\nforgotten (if the mass of them ever understood) the meaning of the old\nrevelations; and, above all, the Pharisees, the most religious among\nthem. To their minds, it was only by a proud asceticism,\u2014by being not as\nother men were; only by doing some good thing\u2014by performing some\nextraordinary religious feat,\u2014that man could earn eternal life. And\nbitter and deadly was their selfish wrath when they heard that the Water\nof Life was within all men\u2019s reach, then and for ever; that The Eternal\nLife was in that Christ who spoke to them; that He gave it freely to\nwhomsoever He would;\u2014bitter their wrath when they heard His disciples\ndeclare that God had given to men Eternal Life; that the Spirit and the\nBride said. Come.\n\nThey had, indeed, a graceful ceremony, handed down to them from better\ntimes, as a sign that those words of the old psalmists and prophets had\nonce meant something. At the Feast of Tabernacles\u2014the harvest feast\u2014at\nwhich God was especially to be thanked as the giver of fertility and\nLife, their priests drew water with great pomp from the pool of Siloam;\nconnecting it with the words of the prophet: \u2018With joy shall ye draw\nwater out of the wells of salvation.\u2019 But the ceremony had lost its\nmeaning. It had become mechanical and empty. They had forgotten that\nGod was a giver. They would have confessed, of course, that He was the\nLord of Life: but they expected Him to prove that, not by giving Life,\nbut by taking it away: not by saving the many, but by destroying all\nexcept a favoured few. But bitter and deadly was their wrath when they\nwere told that their ceremony had still a living meaning, and a meaning\nnot only for them, but for all men; for that mob of common people whom\nthey looked on as accursed, because they knew not the law. Bitter and\ndeadly was their selfish wrath, when they heard One who ate and drank\nwith publicans and sinners stand up in the very midst of that grand\nceremony, and cry; \u2018If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink. He\nthat believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, Out of him shall flow\nrivers of living water.\u2019 A God who said to all \u2018Come,\u2019 was not the God\nthey desired to rule over them. And thus the very words which prove the\ntext to be divine and inspired, were marked out as such by those bigots\nof the old world, who in them saw and hated both Christ and His Father.\n\nThe Spirit and the Bride say, Come. Come, and drink freely.\n\nThose words prove the text, and other texts like it in Holy Scripture, to\nbe an utterly new Gospel and good news; an utterly new revelation and\nunveiling of God, and of the relations of God to man.\n\nFor the old legends and dreams, in whatsoever they differed, agreed at\nleast in this, that the Water of Life was far away; infinitely difficult\nto reach; the prize only of some extraordinary favourite of fortune, or\nof some being of superhuman energy and endurance. The gods grudged life\nto mortals, as they grudged them joy and all good things. That God\nshould say Come; that the Water of Life could be a gift, a grace, a boon\nof free generosity and perfect condescension, never entered into their\nminds. That the gods should keep their immortality to themselves seemed\nreasonable enough. That they should bestow it on a few heroes; and, far\naway above the stars, give them to eat of their ambrosia, and drink of\ntheir nectar, and so live for ever; that seemed reasonable enough\nlikewise.\n\nBut that the God of gods, the Maker of the universe should say, \u2018Come,\nand drink freely;\u2019 that He should stoop from heaven to bring life and\nimmortality to light,\u2014to tell men what the Water of Life was, and where\nit was, and how to attain it; much more, that that God should stoop to\nbecome incarnate, and suffer and die on the cross, that He might purchase\nthe Water of Life, not for a favoured few, but for all mankind; that He\nshould offer it to all, without condition, stint, or drawback;\u2014this,\nthis, never entered into their wildest dreams.\n\nAnd yet, when the strange news was told, it looked so probable, although\nso strange, to thousands who had seemed mere profligates or outcasts; it\nagreed so fully with the deepest voices of their own hearts,\u2014with their\nthirst for a nobler, purer, more enduring Life,\u2014with their highest idea\nof what a perfect God should be, if He meant to show His perfect\ngoodness; it seemed at once so human and humane, and yet so superhuman\nand divine;\u2014that they accepted it unhesitatingly, as a voice from God\nHimself, a revelation of the Eternal Author of the universe; as, God\ngrant you may accept it this day.\n\nAnd what is Life? And what is the Water of Life?\n\nWhat are they indeed, my friends? You will find many answers to that\nquestion, in this, as in all ages: but the one which Scripture gives is\nthis. Life is none other, according to the Scripture, than God Himself,\nJesus Christ our Lord, who bestows on man His own Spirit, to form in him\nHis own character, which is the character of God.\n\nHe is The one Eternal Life; and it has been manifested in human form,\nthat human beings might copy it; and behold, it was full of grace and\ntruth.\n\nThe Life of grace and truth; that is the Life of Christ, and, therefore,\nthe Life of God.\n\nThe Life of grace\u2014of graciousness, love, pity, generosity, usefulness,\nself-sacrifice; the Life of truth\u2014of faithfulness, fairness, justice, the\ndesire to impart knowledge and to guide men into all truth. The Life, in\none word, of charity, which is both grace and truth, both love and\njustice, in one Eternal essence. That is the life which God lives for\never in heaven. That is The one Eternal Life, which must be also the\nLife of God. For, as there is but one Eternal, even God, so is there but\none Eternal Life, which is the life of God and of His Christ. And the\nSpirit by which it is inspired into the hearts of men is the Spirit of\nGod, who proceedeth alike from the Father and from the Son.\n\nHave you not seen men and women in whom these words have been literally\nand palpably fulfilled? Have you not seen those who, though old in\nyears, were so young in heart, that they seem to have drunk of the\nFountain of perpetual Youth,\u2014in whom, though the outward body decayed,\nthe soul was renewed day by day; who kept fresh and pure the noblest and\nholiest instincts of their childhood, and went on adding to them the\nexperience, the calm, the charity of age? Persons whose eye was still so\nbright, whose smile was still so tender, that it seemed that they could\nnever die? And when they died, or seemed to die, you felt that THEY were\nnot dead, but only their husk and shell; that they themselves, the\ncharacter which you had loved and reverenced, must endure on, beyond the\ngrave, beyond the worlds, in a literally Everlasting Life, independent of\nnature, and of all the changes of the material universe.\n\nSurely you have seen such. And surely what you loved in them was the\nSpirit of God Himself,\u2014that love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,\ngoodness, which the natural savage man has not. Has not, I say, look at\nhim where you will, from the tropics to the pole, because it is a gift\nabove man; the gift of the Spirit of God; the Eternal Life of goodness,\nwhich natural birth cannot give to man, nor natural death take away.\n\nYou have surely seen such persons\u2014if you have not, _I_ have, thank God,\nfull many a time;\u2014but if you have seen them, did you not see this?\u2014That\nit was not riches which gave them this Life, if they were rich; or\nintellect, if they were clever; or science, if they were learned; or\nrank, if they were cultivated; or bodily organization, if they were\nbeautiful and strong: that this noble and gentle life of theirs was\nindependent of their body, of their mind, of their circumstances? Nay,\nhave you not seen this,\u2014_I_ have, thank God, full many a time,\u2014That not\nmany rich, not many mighty, not many noble are called: but that God\u2019s\nstrength is rather made perfect in man\u2019s weakness,\u2014that in foul garrets,\nin lonely sick-beds, in dark places of the earth, you find ignorant\npeople, sickly people, ugly people, stupid people, in spite of, in\ndefiance of, every opposing circumstance, leading heroic lives,\u2014a\nblessing, a comfort, an example, a very Fount of Life to all around them;\nand dying heroic deaths, because they know they have Eternal Life?\n\nAnd what was that which had made them different from the mean, the\nsavage, the drunken, the profligate beings around them? This at least.\nThat they were of those of whom it is written, \u2018Let him that is athirst\ncome.\u2019 They had been athirst for Life. They had had instincts and\nlongings; very simple and humble, but very pure and noble. At times, it\nmay be, they had been unfaithful to those instincts. At times, it may\nbe, they had fallen. They had said \u2018Why should I not do like the rest,\nand be a savage? Let me eat and drink, for to-morrow I die;\u2019 and they\nhad cast themselves down into sin, for very weariness and heaviness, and\nwere for a while as the beasts which have no law.\n\nBut the thirst after The noble Life was too deep to be quenched in that\nfoul puddle. It endured, and it conquered; and they became more and more\ntrue to it, till it was satisfied at last, though never quenched, that\nthirst of theirs, in Him who alone can satisfy it\u2014the God who gave it;\nfor in them were fulfilled the Lord\u2019s own words: \u2018Blessed are they that\nhunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.\u2019\n\nThere are those, I fear, in this church\u2014there are too many in all\nchurches\u2014who have not felt, as yet, this divine thirst after a higher\nLife; who wish not for an Eternal, but for a merely endless life, and who\nwould not care greatly what sort of life that endless life might be, if\nonly it was not too unlike the life which they live now; who would be\nglad enough to continue as they are, in their selfish pleasure, selfish\ngain, selfish content, for ever; who look on death as an unpleasant\nnecessity, the end of all which they really prize; and who have taken up\nreligion chiefly as a means for escaping still more unpleasant\nnecessities after death. To them, as to all, it is said, \u2018Come, and\ndrink of the water of life freely.\u2019 But The Life of goodness which\nChrist offers, is not the life they want. Wherefore they will not come\nto Him, that they may have life. Meanwhile, they have no right to sneer\nat the Fountain of Youth, or the Cup of Immortality. Well were it for\nthem if those dreams were true; in their heart of hearts they know it.\nWould they not go to the ends of the earth to bathe in the Fountain of\nYouth? Would they not give all their gold for a draught of the Cup of\nImmortality, and so save themselves, once and for all, the trouble of\nbecoming good?\n\nBut there are those here, I doubt not, who have in them, by grace of God,\nthat same divine thirst for the Higher Life; who are discontented with\nthemselves, ashamed of themselves; who are tormented by longings which\nthey cannot satisfy, instincts which they cannot analyse, powers which\nthey cannot employ, duties which they cannot perform, doctrinal\nconfusions which they cannot unravel; who would welcome any change, even\nthe most tremendous, which would make them nobler, purer, juster, more\nloving, more useful, more clear-headed and sound-minded; and when they\nthink of death say with the poet,\u2014\n\n \u2018\u2019Tis life, not death for which I pant,\n \u2019Tis life, whereof my nerves are scant,\n More life, and fuller, that I want.\u2019\n\nTo them I say\u2014for God has said it long ago,\u2014Be of good cheer. The\ncalling and gifts of God are without repentance. If you have the divine\nthirst, it will be surely satisfied. If you long to be better men and\nwomen, better men and women you will surely be. Only be true to those\nhigher instincts; only do not learn to despise and quench that divine\nthirst; only struggle on, in spite of mistakes, of failures, even of\nsins\u2014for every one of which last your heavenly Father will chastise you,\neven while He forgives; in spite of all falls, struggle on. Blessed are\nyou that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for you shall be filled.\nTo you\u2014and not in vain\u2014\u2018The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him\nthat heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever\nwill, let him drink of the water of life freely.\u2019\n\n\n\n\nSERMON II.\nTHE PHYSICIAN\u2019S CALLING.\n\n\n (_Preached at Whitehall for St. George\u2019s Hospital_.)\n\n ST. MATTHEW ix. 35.\n\n And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their\n synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing\n every sickness and every disease among the people.\n\nTHE Gospels speak of disease and death in a very simple and human tone.\nThey regard them in theory, as all are forced to regard them in fact, as\nsore and sad evils.\n\nThe Gospels never speak of disease or death as necessities; never as the\nwill of God. It is Satan, not God, who binds the woman with a spirit of\ninfirmity. It is not the will of our Father in heaven that one little\none should perish. Indeed, we do not sufficiently appreciate the\nabhorrence with which the whole of Scripture speaks of disease and death:\nbecause we are in the habit of interpreting many texts which speak of the\ndisease and death of the body in this life as if they referred to the\npunishment and death of the soul in the world to come. We have a perfect\nright to do that; for Scripture tells us that there is a mysterious\nanalogy and likeness between the life of the body and that of the soul,\nand therefore between the death of the body and that of the soul: but we\nmust not forget, in the secondary and higher spiritual interpretation of\nsuch texts, their primary and physical meaning, which is this\u2014that\ndisease and death are uniformly throughout Scripture held up to the\nabhorrence of man.\n\nMoreover\u2014and this is noteworthy\u2014the Gospels, and indeed all Scripture,\nvery seldom palliate the misery of disease, by drawing from it those\nmoral lessons which we ourselves do. I say very seldom. The Bible does\nso here and there, to tell us that we may do so likewise. And we may\nthank God heartily that the Bible does so. It would be a miserable\nworld, if all that the clergyman or the friend might say by the sick-bed\nwere, \u2018This is an inevitable evil, like hail and thunder. You must bear\nit if you can: and if not, then not.\u2019 A miserable world, if he could not\nsay with full belief; \u2018\u201cMy son, despise not thou the chastening of the\nLord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him. For whom the Lord loveth\nHe chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.\u201d Thou knowest\nnot now why thou art afflicted; perhaps thou wilt never know in this\nlife. But a day will come when thou wilt know: when thou wilt find that\nthis sickness came to thee at the exact right time, in the exact right\nway; when thou wilt find that God has been keeping thee in the secret\nplace of His presence from the provoking of men, and hiding thee\nprivately in His tabernacle from the spite of tongues; when thou wilt\ndiscover that thou hast been learning precious lessons for thy immortal\nspirit, while thou didst seem to thyself merely tossing with clouded\nintellect on a bed of useless pain; when thou wilt find that God was\nnearest to thee, at the very moment when He seemed to have left thee most\nutterly.\u2019\n\nThank God, we can say that, and more; and we will say it. But we must\nbear in mind, that the Gospels, which are the very parts of Scripture\nwhich speak most concerning disease, omit almost entirely that cheering\nand comforting view of it.\n\nAnd why? Only to force upon our attention, I believe, a view even more\ncheering and comforting: a view deeper and wider, because supplied not\nmerely to the pious sufferer, but to all sufferers; not merely to the\nChristian, but to all mankind. And that is, I believe, none other than\nthis: that God does not only bring spiritual good out of physical evil,\nbut that He hates physical evil itself: that He desires not only the\nsalvation of our souls, but the health of our bodies; and that when He\nsent His only begotten Son into the world to do His will, part of that\nwill was, that He should attack and conquer the physical evil of\ndisease\u2014as it were instinctively, as his natural enemy, and directly, for\nthe sake of the body of the sufferer.\n\nMany excellent men, seeing how the healing of disease was an integral\npart of our Lord\u2019s mission, and of the mission of His apostles, have\nwished that it should likewise form an integral part of the mission of\nthe Church: that the clergy should as much as possible be physicians; the\nphysician, as much as possible, a clergyman. The plan may be useful in\nexceptional cases\u2014in that, for instance, of the missionary among the\nheathen.\n\nBut experience has decided, that in a civilized and Christian country it\nhad better be otherwise: that the great principle of the division of\nlabour should be carried out: that there should be in the land a body of\nmen whose whole mind and time should be devoted to one part only of our\nLord\u2019s work\u2014the battle with disease and death. And the effect has been\nnot to lower but to raise the medical profession. It has saved the\ndoctor from one great danger\u2014that of abusing, for the purposes of\nreligious proselytizing, the unlimited confidence reposed in him. It has\nfreed him from many a superstition which enfeebled and confused the\nphysicians of the Middle Ages. It has enabled him to devote his whole\nintellect to physical science, till he has set his art on a sound and\ntruly scientific foundation. It has enabled him to attack physical evil\nwith a single-hearted energy and devotion which ought to command the\nrespect and admiration of his fellow-countrymen. If all classes did\ntheir work half as simply, as bravely, as determinedly, as unselfishly,\nas the medical men of Great Britain\u2014and, I doubt not, of other countries\nin Europe\u2014this world would be a far fairer place than it is likely to be\nfor many a year to come. It is good to do one thing and to do it well.\nIt is good to follow Christ in one thing, and to follow Him utterly in\nthat. And the medical man has set his mind to do one thing,\u2014to hate\ncalmly, but with an internecine hatred, disease and death, and to fight\nagainst them to the end.\n\nThe medical man is complained of at times as being too materialistic\u2014as\ncaring more for the bodies of his patients than for their souls. Do not\nblame him too hastily. In his exclusive care for the body, he may be\nwitnessing unconsciously, yet mightily, for the soul, for God, for the\nBible, for immortality.\n\nIs he not witnessing for God, when he shows by his acts that he believes\nGod to be a God of Life, not of death; of health, not of disease; of\norder, not of disorder; of joy and strength, not of misery and weakness?\n\nIs he not witnessing for Christ when, like Christ, he heals all manner of\nsickness and disease among the people, and attacks physical evil as the\nnatural foe of man and of the Creator of man?\n\nIs he not witnessing for the immortality of the soul when he fights\nagainst death as an evil to be postponed at all hazards and by all means,\neven when its advent is certain? Surely it is so. How often have we\nseen the doctor by the dying bed, trying to preserve life, when he knew\nwell that life could not be preserved. We have been tempted to say to\nhim, \u2018Let the sufferer alone. He is senseless. He is going. We can do\nnothing more for his soul; you can do nothing more for his body. Why\ntorment him needlessly for the sake of a few more moments of respiration?\nLet him alone to die in peace.\u2019 How have we been tempted to say that?\nWe have not dared to say it; for we saw that the doctor, and not we, was\nin the right; that in all those little efforts, so wise, so anxious, so\ntender, so truly chivalrous, to keep the failing breath for a few moments\nmore in the body of one who had no earthly claim upon his care, that\ndoctor was bearing a testimony, unconscious yet most weighty, to that\nhuman instinct of which the Bible approves throughout, that death in a\nhuman being is an evil, an anomaly, a curse; against which, though he\ncould not rescue the man from the clutch of his foe, he was bound, in\nduty and honour, to fight until the last, simply because it was death,\nand death was the enemy of man.\n\nBut if the medical man bears witness for God and spiritual things when he\nseems exclusively occupied with the body, so does the hospital. Look at\nthose noble buildings which the generosity of our fellow-countrymen have\nerected in all our great cities. You may find in them, truly, sermons in\nstones; sermons for rich alike and poor. They preach to the rich, these\nhospitals, that the sick-bed levels all alike; that they are the equals\nand brothers of the poor in the terrible liability to suffer! They\npreach to the poor that they are, through Christianity, the equals of the\nrich in their means and opportunities of cure. I say through\nChristianity. Whether the founders so intended or not (and those who\nfounded most of them, St. George\u2019s among the rest, did so intend), these\nhospitals bear direct witness for Christ. They do this, and would do it,\neven if\u2014which God forbid\u2014the name of Christ were never mentioned within\ntheir walls. That may seem a paradox; but it is none. For it is a\nhistoric fact, that hospitals are a creation of Christian times, and of\nChristian men. The heathen knew them not. In that great city of ancient\nRome, as far as I have ever been able to discover, there was not a single\nhospital,\u2014not even, I fear, a single charitable institution. Fearful\nthought\u2014a city of a million and a half inhabitants, the centre of human\ncivilization: and not a hospital there! The Roman Dives paid his\nphysician; the Roman Lazarus literally lay at his gate full of sores,\ntill he died the death of the street dogs which licked those sores, and\nwas carried forth to be thrust under ground awhile, till the same dogs\ncame to quarrel over his bones. The misery and helplessness of the lower\nclasses in the great cities of the Roman empire, till the Church of\nChrist arose, literally with healing in its wings, cannot, I believe, be\nexaggerated.\n\nEastern piety, meanwhile, especially among the Hindoos, had founded\nhospitals, in the old meaning of that word\u2014namely, almshouses for the\ninfirm and aged: but I believe there is no record of hospitals, like our\nmodern ones, for the cure of disease, till Christianity spread over the\nWestern world.\n\nAnd why? Because then first men began to feel the mighty truth contained\nin the text. If Christ were a healer, His servants must be healers\nlikewise. If Christ regarded physical evil as a direct evil, so must\nthey. If Christ fought against it with all His power, so must they, with\nsuch power as He revealed to them. And so arose exclusively in the\nChristian mind, a feeling not only of the nobleness of the healing art,\nbut of the religious duty of exercising that art on every human being who\nneeded it; and hospitals are to be counted, as a historic fact, among the\nmany triumphs of the Gospel.\n\nIf there be any one\u2014especially a working man\u2014in this church this day who\nis inclined to undervalue the Bible and Christianity, let him know that,\nbut for the Bible and Christianity, he has not the slightest reason to\nbelieve that there would have been at this moment a hospital in London to\nreceive him and his in the hour of sickness or disabling accident, and to\nlavish on him there, unpaid as the light and air of God outside, every\nresource of science, care, generosity, and tenderness, simply because he\nis a human being. Yes; truly catholic are these hospitals,\u2014catholic as\nthe bounty of our heavenly Father,\u2014without respect of persons, giving to\nall liberally and upbraiding not, like Him in whom all live, and move,\nand have their being; witnesses better than all our sermons for the\nuniversal bounty and tolerance of that heavenly Father who causes the sun\nto shine on the evil and the good, and his rain to fall upon the just and\non the unjust, and is perfect in this, that He is good to the unthankful\nand the evil.\n\nAnd, therefore, the preacher can urge his countrymen, let their opinions,\ncreed, tastes, be what they may, to support hospitals with especial\nfreedom, earnestness, and confidence. Heaven forbid that I should\nundervalue any charitable institution whatever. May God\u2019s blessing be on\nthem all. But this I have a right to say,\u2014that whatever objections,\nsuspicions, prejudices there may be concerning any other form of charity,\nconcerning hospitals there can be none. Every farthing bestowed on them\nmust go toward the direct doing of good. There is no fear in them of\nwaste, of misapplication of funds, of private jobbery, of ulterior and\nunavowed objects. Palpable and unmistakeable good is all they do and all\nthey can do. And he who gives to a hospital has the comfort of knowing\nthat he is bestowing a direct blessing on the bodies of his fellow-men;\nand it may be on their souls likewise.\n\nFor I have said that these hospitals witness silently for God and for\nChrist; and I must believe that that silent witness is not lost on the\nminds of thousands who enter them. It sinks in,\u2014all the more readily\nbecause it is not thrust upon them,\u2014and softens and breaks up their\nhearts to receive the precious seed of the word of God. Many a man, too\nready from bitter experience to believe that his fellow-men cared not for\nhim, has entered the wards of a hospital to be happily undeceived. He\nfinds that he is cared for; that he is not forgotten either by God or\nman; that there is a place for him, too, at God\u2019s table, in his hour of\nutmost need; and angels of God, in human form, ready to minister to his\nnecessities; and, softened by that discovery, he has listened humbly,\nperhaps for the first time in his life, to the exhortations of a\nclergyman; and has taken in, in the hour of dependence and weakness, the\nlessons which he was too proud or too sullen to hear in the day of\nindependence and sturdy health. And so do these hospitals, it seems to\nme, follow the example and practice of our Lord Himself; who, by\nministering to the animal wants and animal sufferings of the people, by\nshowing them that He sympathised with those lower sorrows of which they\nwere most immediately conscious, made them follow Him gladly, and listen\nto Him with faith, when He proclaimed to them in words of wisdom, that\nFather in heaven whom He had already proclaimed to them in acts of mercy.\n\nAnd now, I have to appeal to you for the excellent and honourable\nfoundation of St. George\u2019s Hospital. I might speak to you, and speak,\ntoo, with a personal reverence and affection of many years\u2019 standing, of\nthe claims of that noble institution; of the illustrious men of science\nwho have taught within its walls; of the number of able and honourable\nyoung men who go forth out of it, year by year, to carry their blessed\nand truly divine art, not only over Great Britain, but to the islands of\nthe farthest seas. But to say that would be merely to say what is true,\nthank God, of every hospital in London.\n\nOne fact only, therefore, I shall urge, which gives St. George\u2019s Hospital\nspecial claims on the attention of the rich.\n\nSituated, as it is, in the very centre of the west end of London, it is\nthe special refuge of those who are most especially of service to the\ndwellers in the Westend. Those who are used up\u2014fairly or unfairly\u2014in\nministering to the luxuries of the high-born and wealthy: the groom\nthrown in the park; the housemaid crippled by lofty stairs; the workman\nfallen from the scaffolding of the great man\u2019s palace; the footman or\ncoachman who has contracted disease from long hours of nightly exposure,\nwhile his master and mistress have been warm and gay at rout and ball;\nand those, too, whose number, I fear, are very great, who contract\ndisease, themselves, their wives, and children, from actual want, when\nthey are thrown suddenly out of employ at the end of the season, and\nLondon is said to be empty\u2014of all but two million of living souls:\u2014the\ngreat majority of these crowd into St. George\u2019s Hospital to find there\nrelief and comfort, which those to whom they minister are solemnly bound\nto supply by their contributions. The rich and well-born of this land\nare very generous. They are doing their duty, on the whole, nobly and\nwell. Let them do their duty\u2014the duty which literally lies nearest\nthem\u2014by St. George\u2019s Hospital, and they will wipe off a stain, not on the\nhospital, but on the rich people in its neighbourhood\u2014the stain of that\nhospital\u2019s debts.\n\nThe deficiency in the funds of the hospital for the year 1862\u20133\u2014caused,\nbe it remembered, by no extravagance or sudden change, but simply by the\nnecessity for succouring those who would otherwise have been destitute of\nsuccour\u2014the deficiency, I say, on an expenditure of 15,000_l._ amounts to\nmore than 3,200_l._ which has had to be met by selling out funded\nproperty, and so diminishing the capital of the institution. Ought this\nto be? I ask. Ought this to be, while more wealth is collected within\nhalf a mile of that hospital than in any spot of like extent in the\nglobe?\n\nMy friends, this is the time of Lent; the time whereof it is written,\u2014\u2018Is\nnot this the fast which I have chosen, to deal thy bread to the hungry,\nand bring the poor that is cast out to thine house? when thou seest the\nnaked that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own\nflesh? If thou let thy soul go forth to the hungry, and satisfy the\nafflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness\nbe as the noonday. And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and\nsatisfy thy soul, and make fat thy bones, and thou shalt be like a\nwatered garden, and as a spring that doth not fail.\u2019\n\nLet us obey that command literally, and see whether the promise is not\nliterally fulfilled to us in return.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON III.\nTHE VICTORY OF LIFE.\n\n\n (_Preached at the Chapel Royal_.)\n\n ISAIAH xxxviii. 18, 19.\n\n The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that\n go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the\n living, he shall praise thee.\n\nI MAY seem to have taken a strange text on which to speak,\u2014a mournful, a\nseemingly hopeless text. Why I have chosen it, I trust that you will see\npresently; certainly not that I may make you hopeless about death.\nMeanwhile, let us consider it; for it is in the Bible, and, like all\nwords in the Bible, was written for our instruction.\n\nNow it is plain, I think, that the man who said these words\u2014good king\nHezekiah\u2014knew nothing of what we call heaven; of a blessed life with God\nafter death. He looks on death as his end. If he dies, he says, he will\nnot see the Lord in the land of the living, any more than he will see man\nwith the inhabitants of the world. God\u2019s mercies, he thinks, will end\nwith his death. God can only show His mercy and truth by saving him from\ndeath. For the grave cannot praise God, death cannot celebrate Him;\nthose who go down into the pit cannot hope for His truth. The living,\nthe living, shall praise God; as Hezekiah praises Him that day, because\nGod has cured him of his sickness, and added fifteen years to his life.\n\nNo language can be plainer than this. A man who had believed that he\nwould go to heaven when he died could not have used it.\n\nIn many of the Psalms, likewise, you will find words of exactly the same\nkind, which show that the men who wrote them had no clear conception, if\nany conception at all, of a life after death.\n\nSolomon\u2019s words about death are utterly awful from their sadness. With\nhim, \u2018that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; as one\ndieth, so dieth the other. Yea, they have all one breath, so that a man\nhath no pre-eminence over a beast, and all is vanity. All go to one\nplace, all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the\nspirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth\ndownward to the earth?\u2019\n\nHe knows nothing about it. All he knows is, that the spirit shall return\nto God who gave it,\u2014and that a man will surely find, in this life, a\nrecompence for all his deeds, whether good or evil.\n\n\u2018Remember therefore thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil\ndays come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no\npleasure in them. Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the\nwhole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with\nevery secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.\u2019\n\nThis is the doctrine of the Old Testament; that God judges and rewards\nand punishes men in this life: but as for death, it is a great black\ncloud into which all men must enter, and see and be seen no more. Only\ntwice or thrice, perhaps, a gleam of light from beyond breaks through the\ndark. David, the noblest and wisest of all the Jews, can say once that\nGod will not leave his soul in hell, neither suffer His holy one to see\ncorruption; Job says that, though after his skin worms destroy his body,\nyet in his flesh he shall see God; and Isaiah, again, when he sees his\ncountrymen slaughtered, and his nation all but destroyed, can say, \u2018Thy\ndead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake\nand sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of the\nmorning, which brings the parched herbs to life and freshness\nagain.\u2019\u2014Great and glorious sayings, all of them: but we cannot tell how\nfar either David, or Job, or Isaiah, were thinking of a life after death.\nWe can think of a life after death when we use them; for we know how they\nhave been fulfilled in Jesus Christ our Lord; and we can see in them more\nthan the Jews of old could do; for, like all inspired words, they mean\nmore than the men who wrote them thought of; but we have no right to\nimpute our Christianity to them.\n\nThe only undoubted picture, perhaps, of the next life to be found in the\nOld Testament, is that grand one in Isaiah xiv., where he paints to us\nthe tyrant king of Babylon going down into hell:\u2014\n\n\u2018Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming; it\nstirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it\nhath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they\nshall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou\nbecome like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the\nnoise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover\nthee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!\nhow art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the\nnations!\u2019\u2014Awful and grand enough: but quite different, you will observe,\nfrom the notions of hell which are common now-a-days; and much more like\nthose which we read in the old Greek poets, and especially, in the\nNecyomanteia of the Odyssey.\n\nWhen it was that the Jews gained any fuller notions about the next life,\nit is very difficult to say. Certainly not before they were carried away\ncaptive to Babylon. After that they began to mix much with the great\nnations of the East: with Greeks, Persians, and Indians; and from them,\nmost probably, they learned to believe in a heaven after death to which\ngood men would go, and a fiery hell to which bad men would go. At least,\nthe heathen nations round them, and our forefathers likewise, believed in\nsome sort of heaven and hell, hundreds of years before the coming of our\nblessed Lord.\n\nThe Jews had learned, also\u2014at least the Pharisees\u2014to believe in the\nresurrection of the dead. Martha speaks of it; and St. Paul, when he\ntells the Pharisees that, having been brought up a Pharisee, he was on\ntheir side against the Sadducees.\u2014\u2018I am a Pharisee,\u2019 he says, \u2018the son of\na Pharisee; for the hope of the resurrection of the dead I am called in\nquestion.\u2019\n\nBut if it be so,\u2014if St. Paul and the Apostles believed in heaven and\nhell, and the resurrection of the dead, before they became Christians,\nwhat more did they learn about the next life, when they became\nChristians? Something they did learn, most certainly\u2014and that most\nimportant. St. Paul speaks of what our Lord and our Lord\u2019s resurrection\nhad taught him, as something quite infinitely grander, and more blessed,\nthan what he had known before. He talks of our Lord as having abolished\ndeath, and brought life and immortality to light; of His having conquered\ndeath, and of His destroying death at last. He speaks at moments as if\nhe did not expect to die at all; and when he does speak of the death of\nthe Christian, it is merely as a falling asleep. When he speaks of his\nown death, it is merely as a change of place. He longs to depart, and to\nbe with Christ. Death had looked terrible to him once, when he was a\nJew. Death had had a sting, and the grave a victory, which seemed ready\nto conquer him: but now he cries, \u2018O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave,\nwhere is thy victory?\u2019 and then he declares that the terrors of death and\nthe grave are taken away, not by anything which he knew when he was a\nPharisee, but through our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nAll his old Jewish notions of the resurrection, though they were true as\nfar as they went, seemed poor and paltry beside what Christ had taught\nhim. He was not going to wait till the end of the world\u2014perhaps for\nthousands of years\u2014in darkness and the shadow of death, he knew not where\nor how. His soul was to pass at once into life,\u2014into joy, and peace, and\nbliss, in the presence of his Saviour, till it should have a new body\ngiven to it, in the resurrection of life at the last day.\n\nThis, I think, is what St. Paul learned, and what the Jews had not\nlearned till our blessed Lord came. They were still afraid of death. It\nlooked to them a dark and ugly blank; and no wonder. For would it not be\ndark and ugly enough to have to wait, we know not where, it may be a\nthousand, it may be tens of thousands of years, till the resurrection in\nthe last day, before we entered into joy, peace, activity or anything\nworthy of the name of life? Would not death have a sting indeed, the\ngrave a victory indeed, if we had to be as good as dead for ten thousands\nof years?\n\nWhat then? Remember this, that death is an enemy, an evil thing, an\nenemy to man, and therefore an enemy to Christ, the King and Head and\nSaviour of man. Men ought not to die, and they feel it. It is no use to\ntell them, \u2018Everything that is born must die, and why not you? All other\nanimals died. They died, just as they die now, hundreds of thousands of\nyears before man came upon this earth; and why should man expect to have\na different lot? Why should you not take your death patiently, as you\ntake any other evil which you cannot escape?\u2019 The heart of man, as soon\nas he begins to be a man, and not a mere savage; as soon as he begins to\nthink reasonably, and feel deeply; the heart of man answers: \u2018No, I am\nnot a mere animal. I have something in me which ought not to die, which\nperhaps cannot die. I have a living soul in me, which ought to be able\nto keep my body alive likewise, but cannot; and therefore death is my\nenemy. I hate him, and I believe that I was meant to hate him.\nSomething must be wrong with me, or I should not die; something must be\nwrong with all mankind, or I should not see those I love dying round me.\n\nYes, my friends, death is an enemy,\u2014a hideous, hateful thing. The longer\none looks at it, the more one hates it. The more often one sees it, the\nless one grows accustomed to it. Its very commonness makes it all the\nmore shocking. We may not be so much shocked at seeing the old die. We\nsay, \u2018They have done their work, why should they not go?\u2019 That is not\ntrue. They have not done their work. There is more work in plenty for\nthem to do, if they could but live; and it seems shocking and sad, at\nleast to him who loves his country and his kind, that, just as men have\ngrown old enough to be of use, when they have learnt to conquer their\npassions, when their characters are formed, when they have gained sound\nexperience of this world, and what man ought and can do in it,\u2014just as,\nin fact, they have become most able to teach and help their\nfellow-men,\u2014that then they are to grow old, and decrepit, and helpless,\nand fade away, and die just when they are most fit to live, and the world\nneeds them most.\n\nSad, I say, and strange is that. But sadder, and more strange, and more\nutterly shocking, to see the young die; to see parents leaving infant\nchildren, children vanishing early out of the world where they might have\ndone good work for God and man.\n\nWhat arguments will make us believe that that ought to be? That that is\nGod\u2019s will? That that is anything but an evil, an anomaly, a disease?\n\nNot the Bible, certainly. The Bible never tells us that such tragedies\nas are too often seen are the will of God. The Bible says that it is not\nthe will of our Father that one of these little ones should perish. The\nBible tells us that Jesus, when on earth, went about fighting and\nconquering disease and death, even raising from the dead those who had\ndied before their time. To fight against death, and to give life\nwheresoever He went\u2014that was His work; by that He proclaimed the will of\nGod, His Father, that none should perish, who sent His Son that men might\nhave life, and have it more abundantly. By that He declared that death\nwas an evil and a disorder among men, which He would some day crush and\ndestroy utterly, that mortality should be swallowed up of life.\n\nAnd yet we die, and shall die. Yes. The body is dead, because of sin.\nMankind is a diseased race; and it must pay the penalty of its sins for\nmany an age to come, and die, and suffer, and sorrow. But not for ever.\nFor what mean such words as these\u2014for something they must mean?\u2014\n\n\u2018If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.\u2019 And again, \u2018He that\nbelieveth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and he that\nliveth and believeth in Me shall never die.\u2019\n\nDo such words as these mean only that we shall rise again in the\nresurrection at the last day? Surely not. Our Lord spoke them in answer\nto that very notion.\n\n\u2018Martha said to Him, I know that my brother shall rise again, in the\nresurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I _am_ the\nresurrection and the life;\u2019 and then showed what He meant by bringing\nback Lazarus to life, unchanged, and as he had been before he died.\n\nSurely, if that miracle meant anything, if these words meant anything, it\nmeant this: that those who die in the fear of God, and in the faith of\nChrist, do not really taste death; that to them there is no death, but\nonly a change of place, a change of state; that they pass at once, and\ninstantly, into some new life, with all their powers, all their feelings,\nunchanged,\u2014purified doubtless from earthly stains, but still the same\nliving, thinking, active beings which they were here on earth. I say,\nactive. The Bible says nothing about their sleeping till the Day of\nJudgment, as some have fancied. Rest they may; rest they will, if they\nneed rest. But what is the true rest? Not idleness, but peace of mind.\nTo rest from sin, from sorrow, from fear, from doubt, from care,\u2014this is\nthe true rest. Above all, to rest from the worst weariness of\nall\u2014knowing one\u2019s duty, and yet not being able to do it. That is true\nrest; the rest of God, who works for ever, and yet is at rest for ever;\nas the stars over our heads move for ever, thousands of miles each day,\nand yet are at perfect rest, because they move orderly, harmoniously,\nfulfilling the law which God has given them. Perfect rest, in perfect\nwork; that surely is the rest of blessed spirits, till the final\nconsummation of all things, when Christ shall have made up the number of\nHis elect.\n\nI hope that this is so. I trust that this is so. I think our Lord\u2019s\ngreat words can mean nothing less than this. And if it be so, what\ncomfort for us who must die? What comfort for us who have seen others\ndie, if death be but a new birth into some higher life; if all that it\nchanges in us is our body\u2014the mere shell and husk of us\u2014such a change as\ncomes over the snake, when he casts his old skin, and comes out fresh and\ngay, or even the crawling caterpillar, which breaks its prison, and\nspreads its wings to the sun as a fair butterfly. Where is the sting of\ndeath, then, if death can sting, and poison, and corrupt nothing of us\nfor which our friends have loved us; nothing of us with which we could do\nservice to men or God? Where is the victory of the grave, if, so far\nfrom the grave holding us down, it frees us from the very thing which\nholds us down,\u2014the mortal body?\n\nDeath is not death, then, if it kills no part of us, save that which\nhindered us from perfect life. Death is not death, if it raises us in a\nmoment from darkness into light, from weakness into strength, from\nsinfulness into holiness. Death is not death, if it brings us nearer to\nChrist, who is the fount of life. Death is not death, if it perfects our\nfaith by sight, and lets us behold Him in whom we have believed. Death\nis not death, if it gives us to those whom we have loved and lost, for\nwhom we have lived, for whom we long to live again. Death is not death,\nif it joins the child to the mother who is gone before. Death is not\ndeath, if it takes away from that mother for ever all a mother\u2019s\nanxieties, a mother\u2019s fears, and lets her see, in the gracious\ncountenance of her Saviour, a sure and certain pledge that those whom she\nhas left behind are safe, safe with Christ and in Christ, through all the\nchances and dangers of his mortal life. Death is not death, if it rids\nus of doubt and fear, of chance and change, of space and time, and all\nwhich space and time bring forth, and then destroy. Death is not death;\nfor Christ has conquered death, for Himself, and for those who trust in\nHim. And to those who say, \u2018You were born in time, and in time you must\ndie, as all other creatures do; Time is your king and lord, as he has\nbeen of all the old worlds before this, and of all the races of beasts,\nwhose bones and shells lie fossil in the rocks of a thousand\ngenerations;\u2019 then we can answer them, in the words of the wise man, and\nin the name of Christ who conquered death:\u2014\n\n \u2018Fly, envious time, till thou run out thy race,\n And glut thyself with what thy womb devours,\n Which is no more than what is false and vain\n And merely mortal dross.\n So little is our loss, so little is thy gain.\n For when as each bad thing thou hast entombed,\n And, last of all, thy greedy self consumed,\n Then long eternity shall greet our bliss\n With an individual kiss,\n And joy shall overtake us as a flood,\n When everything that is sincerely good\n And perfectly divine,\n And truth, and peace, and love shall ever shine\n About the supreme throne\n Of Him, unto whose happy-making sight alone\n When once our heavenly-guided soul shall climb,\n Then all this earthly grossness quit,\n Attired with stars, we shall for ever sit\n Triumphant over death, and chance, and thee, O Time!\u2019\n\n\n\n\nSERMON IV.\nTHE WAGES OF SIN.\n\n\n (_Chapel Royal June_, 1864)\n\n ROM. vi. 21\u201323.\n\n What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?\n for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from\n sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness,\n and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the\n gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.\n\nTHIS is a glorious text, if we will only believe it simply, and take it\nas it stands.\n\nBut if in place of St. Paul\u2019s words we put quite different words of our\nown, and say\u2014By \u2018the wages of sin is death,\u2019 St. Paul means that the\npunishment of sin is eternal life in torture, then we say something which\nmay be true, but which is not what St. Paul is speaking of here. For\nwages are not punishment, and death is not eternal life in torture, any\nmore than in happiness.\n\nThat, one would think, was clear. It is our duty to take St. Paul\u2019s\nwords, if we really believe them to be inspired, simply as they stand;\nand if we do not quite understand them, to explain them by St. Paul\u2019s own\nwords about these matters in other parts of his writings.\n\nSt. Paul was an inspired Apostle. Let him speak for himself. Surely he\nknew best what he wished to say, and how to say it.\n\nNow St. Paul\u2019s opinions about death and eternal life are very clear; for\nhe speaks of them often, and at great length.\n\nHe considered that the great enemy of God and man, the last enemy Christ\nwould destroy, was death; and that, after death was destroyed, the end\nwould come, when God would be all in all. Then came the question, which\nhas puzzled men in all ages\u2014How death came into the world. St. Paul\nanswers, By sin. He says, as the author of the third chapter of Genesis\nsays, that Adam became subject to death by his fall. By one man, he\nsays, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed\nupon all men, for that all have sinned. And thus, he says, death reigned\neven over those who had not sinned after the likeness of Adam\u2019s\ntransgression.\n\nThat he is speaking of bodily death is clear, because he is always\nputting it in contrast to the resurrection to life,\u2014not merely to a\nspiritual resurrection from the death of sin to the life of\nrighteousness; but to the resurrection of the body,\u2014to our Lord\u2019s being\nraised from the dead, that He might die no more.\n\nThen he speaks of eternal life. He always speaks of it as an actual\nlife, in a spiritual body, into which our mortal bodies are to be\nchanged. Nothing can be clearer from what he says in 1 Cor. xv., that he\nmeans an actual rising again of our bodies from bodily death; an actual\nchange in them; an actual life in them for ever.\n\nBut he says, again and again,\u2014As sin caused the death of the body, so\nrighteousness is to cause its life.\n\n\u2018When ye were the servants of sin,\u2019 he says to the Romans, \u2018what fruit\nhad ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those\nthings is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants\nto God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.\nFor the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life\nthrough Jesus Christ our Lord.\u2019\n\nThis is St. Paul\u2019s opinion. And we shall do well to believe it, and to\nlearn from it, this day, and all days.\n\nThe wages of sin and the end of sin is death. Not the punishment of sin;\nbut something much worse. The wages of sin, and the end of sin.\n\nAnd how is that worse news? My friends, every sinner knows so well in\nhis heart that it is worse news, more terrible news, for him, that he\ntries to persuade himself that death is only the arbitrary punishment of\nhis sin; or, quite as often, that the punishment of his sin is not even\ndeath, but eternal torment in the next life.\n\nAnd why? Because, as long as he can believe that death, or hell, are\nonly punishments arbitrarily fixed by God against his sins, he can hope\nthat God will let him off the punishment. Die, he knows he must, because\nall men die; and so he makes up his mind to that: but being sent to hell\nafter he dies, is so very terrible a punishment, that he cannot believe\nthat God will be so hard on him as that. No; he will get off, and be\nforgiven at last somehow, for surely God will not condemn him to hell.\nAnd so he finds it very convenient and comfortable to believe in hell,\njust because he does not believe that he is going there, whoever else may\nbe.\n\nBut, it is a very terrible, heartrending thought, for a man to find out\nthat what he will receive is not punishment, but wages; not punishment\nbut the end of the very road which he is travelling on. That the wages\nof sin, and the end of sin, to which it must lead, are death; that every\ntime he sins he is earning those wages, deserving them, meriting them,\nand therefore receiving them by the just laws of the world of God. That\ndoes torment him, that does terrify him, if he will look steadfastly at\nthe broad plain fact\u2014You need not dream of being let off, respited,\nreprieved, pardoned in any way. The thing cannot be done. It is\ncontrary to the laws of God and of God\u2019s universe. It is as impossible\nas that fire should not burn, or water run up hill. It is not a question\nof arbitrary punishment, which may be arbitrarily remitted; but of wages,\nwhich you needs must take, weekly, daily, and hourly; and those wages are\ndeath: a question of travelling on a certain road, whereon, if you travel\nit long enough, you must come to the end of it; and the end is death.\nYour sins are killing you by inches; all day long they are sowing in you\nthe seeds of disease and death. Every sin which you commit with your\nbody shortens your bodily life. Every sin you commit with your mind,\nevery act of stupidity, folly, wilful ignorance, helps to destroy your\nmind, and leave you dull, silly, devoid of right reason. Every sin you\ncommit with your spirit, each sin of passion and temper, envy and malice,\npride and vanity, injustice and cruelty, extravagance and\nself-indulgence, helps to destroy your spiritual life, and leave you bad,\nmore and more unable to do the right and avoid the wrong, more and more\nunable to discern right from wrong; and that last is spiritual death, the\neternal death of your moral being. There are three parts in you\u2014body,\nmind, and spirit; and every sin you commit helps to kill one of these\nthree, and, in many cases, to kill all three together.\n\nSo, sinner, dream not of escaping punishment at the last. You are being\npunished now, for you are punishing yourself; and you will continue to be\npunished for ever, for you will be punishing yourself for ever, as long\nas you go on doing wrong, and breaking the laws which God has appointed\nfor body, mind and spirit. You can see that a drunkard is killing\nhimself, body and mind, by drink. You see that he knows that, poor\nwretch, as well as you. He knows that every time he gets drunk he is\ncutting so much off his life; and yet he cannot help it. He knows that\ndrink is poison, and yet he goes back to his poison.\n\nThen know, habitual sinner, that you are like that drunkard. That every\nbad habit in which you indulge is shortening the life of some of your\nfaculties, and that God Himself cannot save you from the doom which you\nare earning, deserving, and working out for yourself every day and every\nhour.\n\nOh how men hate that message!\u2014the message that the true wrath of God,\nnecessary, inevitable, is revealed from heaven against all\nunrighteousness of men. How they writhe under it! How they shut their\nears to it, and cry to their preachers, \u2018No! Tell us of any wrath of God\nbut that! Tell us rather of the torments of the damned, of a frowning\nGod, of absolute decrees to destruction, of the reprobation of millions\nbefore they are born; any doctrine, however fearful and horrible: because\nwe don\u2019t quite believe it, but only think that we ought to believe it.\nYes, tell us anything rather than that news, which cuts at the root of\nall our pride, of all our comfort, and all our superstition\u2014the news that\nwe cannot escape the consequences of our own actions; that there are no\nback stairs up which we may be smuggled into heaven; that as we sow, so\nwe shall reap; that we are filled with the fruits of our own devices;\nevery man his own poisoner, every man his own executioner, every man his\nown suicide; that hell begins in this life, and death begins before we\ndie:\u2014do not say that: because we cannot help believing it; for our own\nconsciousness and our own experience tell us it is true.\u2019 No wonder that\nthe preacher who tells men that is hated, is called a Rationalist, a\nPantheist, a heretic, and what not, just because he does set forth such a\nliving God, such a justice of God, such a wrath of God as would make the\nsinner tremble, if he believed in it, not merely once in a way, when he\nhears a stirring sermon about the endless torments: but all day long,\ngoing out and coming in, lying on his bed and walking by the way, always\nhaunted by the shadow of himself, knowing that he is bearing about in him\nthe perpetually growing death of sin.\n\nAnd still more painful would this message be to the sinner, if he had any\nkindly feeling for others; and, thank God, there are few who have not\nthat. For St. Paul\u2019s message to him is, that the wages of his sin is\ndeath, not merely to himself, but to others\u2014to his family and children\nabove all. So St. Paul declares in what he says of his doctrine of\noriginal or birth sin, by which, as the Article says, every man is very\nfar gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined\nto evil, so that the flesh lusteth against the spirit.\n\nSt. Paul\u2019s doctrine is simple and explicit. Death, he says, reigned over\nAdam\u2019s children, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of\nAdam\u2019s transgression; agreeing with Moses, who declares God to be one who\nvisits the sins of the fathers on the children, to the third and fourth\ngeneration of those who hate Him. But how the sinner will shrink from\nthis message\u2014and shrink the more, the more feeling he is, the less he is\nwrapped up in selfishness. Yes, that message gives us such a view of the\nsinfulness of sin as none other can. It tells us why God hates sin with\nso unextinguishable a hatred, just because He is a God of Love. It is\nnot that man\u2019s sin injures God, insults God, as the heathen fancy. Who\nis God, that man can stir Him up to pride, or wound or disturb His\neverlasting calm, His self-sufficient perfectness? \u2018God is tempted of no\nman,\u2019 says St. James. No. God hates sin. He loves all, and sin harms\nall; and the sinner may be a torment and a curse, not only to himself,\nnot only to those around him, but to children yet unborn.\n\nThis is bad news; and yet sinners must hear it. They must hear it not\nonly put into words by Moses, or by St. Paul, or by any other inspired\nwriter; but they must hear it, likewise, in that perpetual voice of God\nwhich we call facts.\n\nLet the sinner who wishes to know what original sin means, and how actual\nsin in one man breeds original sin in his descendants, look at the world\naround him, and see. Let him see how St. Paul\u2019s doctrine and the\ndoctrine of the Ten Commandments are proved true by experience and by\nfact: how the past, and how the present likewise, show us whole families,\nwhole tribes, whole aristocracies, whole nations, dwindling down to\nimbecility, misery, and destruction, because the sins of the fathers are\nvisited on the children.\n\nPhysicians, who see children born diseased; born stupid, or even idiotic;\nborn thwart-natured, or passionate, or false, or dishonest, or\nbrutal,\u2014they know well what original sin means, though they call it by\ntheir own name of hereditary tendencies. And they know, too, how the\nsins of a parent, or of a grand parent, or even a great-grandparent, are\nvisited on the children to the third and fourth generation; and they say\n\u2018It is a law of nature:\u2019 and so it is. But the laws of nature are the\nlaws of God who made her: and His law is the same law by which death\nreigns even over those who have not sinned after the likeness of Adam;\nthe law by which (even though if Christ be in us, the spirit is life,\nbecause of righteousness) the body, nevertheless, is dead, because of\nsin.\n\nParents, parents, who hear my words, beware\u2014if not for your own sakes, at\nleast for the sake of your children, and your children\u2019s children\u2014lest\nthe wages of your sin should be their death.\n\nAnd by this time, surely, some of you will be asking, \u2018What has he said?\nThat there is no escape; that there is no forgiveness?\u2019\n\nNone whatsoever, my friends, though you were to cry to heaven for ever\nand ever, save the one old escape of which you hear in the church every\nSunday morning: \u2018When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness\nthat he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he\nshall save his soul alive.\u2019\n\nWhat, does not the blood of Christ cleanse us from all sin?\n\nYes, from all sin. But not, necessarily, from the wages of all sin.\n\nJudge for yourselves, my friends, again. Listen to the voice of God\nrevealed in facts. If you, being a drunkard, have injured your\nconstitution by drink, and then are converted, and repent, and turn to\nGod with your whole soul, and become, as you may, if you will, a truly\npenitent, good, and therefore sober man,\u2014will that cure the disease of\nyour body? It will certainly palliate and ease it: because, instead of\nbeing drunken, you will have become sober: but still you will have\nshortened your days by your past sins; and, in so far, even though the\nLord has put away your sin its wages still remain, as death.\n\nSo it is, my friends, if you will only believe it, or rather see it with\nyour own eyes, with every sin, and every sort of sin.\n\nYou will see, if you look, that the Article speaks exact truth when it\nsays, that the infection of nature doth remain, even in those that are\nregenerate. It says that of original sin: but it is equally true of\nactual sin.\n\nWould to God that all men would but believe this, and give up the too\ncommon and too dangerous notion, that it is no matter if they go on wrong\nfor a while, provided they come right at last!\n\nNo matter? I ask for facts again. Is there a man or woman in this\nchurch twenty years old who does not know that it matters? Who does not\nknow that, if they have done wrong in youth, their own wrong deeds haunt\nthem and torment them?\u2014That they are, perhaps the poorer, perhaps the\nsicklier, perhaps the more ignorant, perhaps the sillier, perhaps the\nmore sorrowful this day, for things which they did twenty, thirty years\nago? Is there any one in this church who ever did a wrong thing without\nsmarting for it? If there is (which I question), let him be sure that it\nis only because his time is not come. Do not fancy that because you are\nforgiven, you may not be actually less good men all your lives by having\nsinned when young.\n\nI know it is sometimes said, \u2018The greater the sinner, the greater the\nsaint.\u2019 I do not believe that: because I do not see it. I see, and I\nthank God for it, that men who have been very wrong at one time, come\nvery right afterwards; that, having found out in earnest that the wages\nof sin are death, they do repent in earnest, and receive the gift of\neternal life through Jesus Christ. But I see, too, that the bad habits,\nbad passions, bad methods of thought, which they have indulged in youth,\nremain more or less, and make them worse men, sillier men, less useful\nmen, less happy men, sometimes to their lives\u2019 end: and they, if they be\ntrue Christians, know it, and repent of their early sins, not once for\nall only, but all their lives long; because they feel that they have\nweakened and worsened themselves thereby.\n\nIt stands to reason, my friends, that it should be so. If a man loses\nhis way, and finds it again, he is so much the less forward on his way,\nsurely, by all the time he has spent in getting back into the road. If a\nchild has a violent illness, it stops growing, because the life and\nnourishment which ought to have gone towards its growth, are spent in\ncuring its disease. And so, if a man has indulged in bad habits in his\nyouth, he is but too likely (let him do what he will) to be a less good\nman for it to his life\u2019s end, because the Spirit of God, which ought to\nhave been making him grow in grace, freely and healthily, to the stature\nof a perfect man, to the fulness of the measure of Christ, is striving to\nconquer old bad habits, and cure old diseases of character; and the man,\neven though he does enter into life, enters into it halt and maimed; and\nthe wages of his sin have been, as they always will be, death to some\npowers, some faculties of his soul.\n\nThink over these things, my friends; and believe that the wages of sin\nare death, and that there is no escaping from God\u2019s just and everlasting\nlaws. But meanwhile, let us judge no man. This is a great and a solemn\nreason for observing, with fear and trembling, our Lord\u2019s command, for it\nis nothing less, \u2018Judge not, and ye shall not be judged; condemn not and\nye shall not be condemned.\u2019\n\nFor we never can know how much of any man\u2019s misconduct is to be set down\nto original, and how much to actual, sin;\u2014how much disease of mind and\nheart he has inherited from his parents, how much he has brought upon\nhimself.\n\nTherefore judge no man, but yourselves. Search your own hearts, to see\nwhat manner of men you really wish to be; judge yourselves, lest God\nshould judge you.\n\nDo you wish to go on as you like here on earth, right or wrong, in the\nhope that, somehow or other, the punishment of your sins will be forgiven\nyou at the last day?\n\nThen know that that is impossible. As a man sows, so shall he reap; and\nif you sow to the flesh, of the flesh you will reap\u2014corruption. The\nwages of sin are death. Those wages will be paid you, and you must take\nthem whether you like or not.\n\nBut do you wish to be Good? Do you see (I trust in God that many of you\ndo) that goodness is the only wise, safe, prudent life for you because it\nis the only path the end of which is not death?\n\nDo you see that goodness is the only right and honourable life for you,\nbecause it is the only path by which you can do your duty to man or to\nGod; the only method by which you can show your gratitude to God for all\nHis goodness to you, and can please Him, in return for all that He has\ndone by His grace and free love to bless you?\n\nDo you, in a word, repent you truly of your former sins, and purpose to\nlead a new life? Then know, that all beyond is the free grace, the free\ngift of God. You have to earn nothing, to buy nothing. The will is all\nGod asks. Eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ.\n\nFreely He forgives you all your past sins, for the sake of that precious\nblood which was shed on the cross for the sins of the whole world.\nFreely He takes you back, as His child, to your Father\u2019s house. Freely,\nHe gives you His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Goodness, the Spirit of Life,\nto put into your mind good desires, and enable you to bring those desires\nto good effect, that you may live the eternal life of grace and goodness\nfor ever, whether in earth or heaven.\n\nYes, it is the Gift of God, which raises you from the death of sin to the\nlife of righteousness; and if you have that gift, you will not murmur,\nsurely, though you have to bear, more or less, the just and natural\nconsequences of your former sins; though you be, through your own guilt,\na sadder man to your dying day. Be content. You are forgiven. You are\ncleansed from your sin; is not that mercy enough? Why are you to demand\nof God, that He should over and above cleanse you from the consequences\nof your sin? He may leave them there to trouble and sadden you, just\nbecause He loves you, and desires to chasten you, and keep you in mind of\nwhat you were, and what you would be again, at any moment, if His Spirit\nleft you to yourself. You may have to enter into life halt and maimed:\nyet, be content; you have a thousand times more than you deserve, for at\nleast you enter into Life.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON V.\nNIGHT AND DAY.\n\n\n (_Preached at the Chapel Royal_.)\n\n ROMANS xiii. 12.\n\n The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off\n the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.\n\nCERTAIN commentators would tell us, that St. Paul wrote these words in\nthe expectation that the end of the world, and the second coming of\nChrist, were very near. The night was far spent, and the day of the Lord\nat hand. Salvation\u2014deliverance from the destruction impending on the\nworld, was nearer than when his converts first believed. Shortly the\nLord would appear in glory, and St. Paul and his converts would be caught\nup to meet Him in the air.\n\nNo doubt St. Paul\u2019s words will bear this meaning. No doubt there are\nmany passages in his writings which seem to imply that he thought the end\nof the world was near; and that Christ would reappear in glory, while he,\nPaul, was yet alive on the earth. And there are passages; too, which\nseem to imply that he afterwards altered that opinion, and, no longer\nexpecting to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, desired to depart\nhimself, and be with Christ, in the consciousness that \u2018He was ready to\nbe offered up, and the time of his departure was at hand.\u2019\n\nI say that there are passages which seem to imply such a change in St.\nPaul\u2019s opinions. I do not say that they actually imply it. If I had a\npositive opinion on the matter, I should not be hasty to give it. These\nquestions of \u2018criticism,\u2019 as they are now called, are far less important\nthan men fancy just now. A generation or two hence, it is to be hoped,\nmen will see how very unimportant they are, and will find that they have\ndetracted very little from the authority of Scripture as a whole; and\nthat they have not detracted in the least from the Gospel and good news\nwhich Scripture proclaims to men\u2014the news of a perfect God, who will have\nmen to become perfect even as He, their Father in heaven, is perfect; who\nsent His only begotten Son into the world, that the world through Him\nmight be saved.\n\nIn this case, I verily believe, it matters little to us whether St. Paul,\nwhen he wrote these words, wrote them under the belief that Christ\u2019s\nsecond coming was at hand. We must apply to his words the great rule,\nthat no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation\u2014that is,\ndoes not apply exclusively to any one fact or event: but fulfils itself\nagain and again, in a hundred unexpected ways, because he who wrote it\nwas moved by the Holy Spirit, who revealed to him the eternal and\never-working laws of the Kingdom of God. Therefore, I say, the words are\ntrue for us at this moment. To us, though we have, as far as I can see,\nnot the least reasonable cause for supposing the end of the world to be\nmore imminent than it was a thousand years ago\u2014to us, nevertheless, and\nto every generation of men, the night is always far spent, and the day is\nalways at hand.\n\nAnd this, surely, was in the mind of those who appointed this text to be\nread as the Epistle for the first Sunday in Advent.\n\nYear after year, though Christ has not returned to judgment; though\nscoffers have been saying, \u2018Where is the promise of His coming? for all\nthings continue as they were at the beginning\u2019\u2014Year after year, I say,\nare the clergy bidden to tell the people that the night is far spent,\nthat the day is at hand; and to tell them so, because it is true.\nWhatsoever St. Paul meant, or did not mean, by the words, a few years\nafter our Lord\u2019s ascension into heaven, they are there, for ever, written\nby one who was moved by the Holy Ghost; and hence they have an eternal\nmoral and spiritual significance to mankind in every age.\n\nWhatever these words may, or may not have meant to St. Paul when he wrote\nthem first, in the prime of life, we may never know, and we need not\nknow. But we can guess surely enough what they must have meant to him in\nafter years, when he could say\u2014as would to God we all might be able to\nsay\u2014\u2018I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept\nthe faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,\nwhich the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not\nto me only, but unto all them that love His appearing.\u2019\n\nTo him, then, the night would surely mean this mortal life on earth. The\nday would mean the immortal life to come.\n\nFor is not this mortal life, compared with that life to come, as night\ncompared with day? I do not mean to speak evil of it. God forbid that\nwe should do anything but thank God for this life. God forbid that we\nshould say impiously to Him, Why hast thou made me thus? No. God made\nthis mortal life, and therefore, like all things which He has made, it is\nvery good. But there are good nights, and there are bad nights; and\nthere are happy lives, and unhappy ones. But what are they at best?\nWhat is the life of the happiest man without the Holy Spirit of God? A\nnight full of pleasant dreams. What is the life of the wisest man? A\nnight of darkness, through which he gropes his way by lanthorn-light,\nslowly, and with many mistakes and stumbles. When we compare man\u2019s vast\ncapabilities with his small deeds; when we think how much he might\nknow,\u2014how little he does know in this mortal life,\u2014can we wonder that the\nhighest spirits in every age have looked on death as a deliverance out of\ndarkness and a dungeon? And if this is life at the best, what is life at\nthe worst? To how many is life a night, not of peace and rest, but of\ntossing and weariness, pain and sickness, anxiety and misery, till they\nare ready to cry, When will it be over? When will kind Death come and\ngive me rest? When will the night of this life be spent, and the day of\nGod arise? \u2018Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord,\nhear my voice. My soul doth wait for the Lord, more than the sick man\nwho watches for the morning.\u2019\n\nYes, think,\u2014for it is good at times, however happy one may be oneself, to\nthink\u2014of all the misery and sorrow that there is on earth, and how many\nthere are who would be glad to hear that it was nearly over; glad to hear\nthat the night was far spent, and the day was at hand.\n\nAnd even the happiest ought to \u2018know the time.\u2019 To know that the night\nis far spent, and the day at hand. To know, too, that the night at best\nwas not given us, to sleep it all through, from sunset to sunrise. No\nindustrious man does that. Either he works after sunset, and often on\nthrough the long hours, and into the short hours, before he goes to rest:\nor else he rises before daybreak, and gets ready for the labours of the\ncoming day. The latter no man can do in this life. For we all sleep\naway, more or less, the beginning of our life, in the time of childhood.\nThere is no sin in that\u2014God seems to have ordained that so it should be.\nBut, to sleep away our manhood likewise,\u2014is there no sin in that? As we\ngrow older, must we not awake out of sleep, and set to work, to be ready\nfor the day of God which will dawn on us when we pass out of this mortal\nlife into the world to come?\n\nAs we grow older, and as we get our share of the cares, troubles,\nexperiences of life, it is high time to wake out of sleep, and ask Christ\nto give us light\u2014light enough to see our way through the night of this\nlife, till the everlasting day shall dawn.\n\n\u2018Knowing the time;\u2019\u2014the time of this our mortal life. How soon it will\nbe over, at the longest! How short the time seems since we were young!\nHow quickly it has gone! How every year, as we grow older seems to go\nmore and more quickly, and there is less time to do what we want, to\nthink seriously, to improve ourselves. So soon, and it will be over, and\nwe shall have no time at all, for we shall be in eternity. And what\nthen? What then? That depends on what now. On what we are doing now.\nAre we letting our short span of life slip away in sleep; fancying\nourselves all the while wide awake, as we do in dreams\u2014till we wake\nreally; and find that it is daylight, and that all our best dreams were\nnothing but useless fancy? How many dream away their lives! Some upon\ngain, some upon pleasure, some upon petty self-interest, petty quarrels,\npetty ambitions, petty squabbles and jealousies about this person and\nthat, which are no more worthy to take up a reasonable human being\u2019s time\nand thoughts than so many dreams would be. Some, too, dream away their\nlives in sin, in works of darkness which they are forced for shame and\nsafety to hide, lest they should come to the light and be exposed. So\npeople dream their lives away, and go about their daily business as men\nwho walk in their sleep, wandering about with their eyes open, and yet\nseeing nothing of what is really around them. Seeing nothing: though\nthey think that they see, and know their own interest, and are shrewd\nenough to find their way about this world. But they know nothing\u2014nothing\nof the very world with which they pride themselves they are so thoroughly\nacquainted. None know less of the world than those who pride themselves\non being men of the world. For the true light, which shines all round\nthem, they do not see, and therefore they do not see the truth of things\nby that light. If they did, then they would see that of which now they\ndo not even dream.\n\nThey would see that God was around them, about their path and about their\nbed, and spying out all their ways; and in the light of His presence,\nthey dare not be frivolous, dare not be ignorant, dare not be mean, dare\nnot be spiteful, dare not be unclean.\n\nThey would see that Christ was around them, knocking at the door of their\nhearts, that He may enter in, and dwell there, and give them peace;\ncrying to their restless, fretful, confused, unhappy souls, \u2018Come unto\nMe, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.\nTake My yoke upon you and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart:\nand ye shall find rest unto your souls.\u2019\n\nThey would see that Duty was around them. Duty\u2014the only thing really\nworth living for. The only thing which will really pay a man, either for\nthis life or the next. The only thing which will give a man rest and\npeace, manly and quiet thoughts, a good conscience and a stout heart, in\nthe midst of hard labour, anxiety, sorrow and disappointment: because he\nfeels at least that he is doing his duty; that he is obeying God and\nChrist, that he is working with them, and for them, and that, therefore,\nthey are working with him, and for him. God, Christ, and Duty\u2014these, and\nmore, will a man see if he will awake out of sleep, and consider where he\nis, by the light of God\u2019s Holy Spirit.\n\nThen will that man feel that he must cast away the works of darkness;\nwhether of the darkness of foul and base sins; or the darkness of envy,\nspite, and revenge; or the mere darkness of ignorance and silliness,\nthoughtlessness and frivolity. He must cast them away, he will see.\nThey will not succeed\u2014they are not safe\u2014in such a serious world as this.\nThe term of this mortal life is too short, and too awfully important, to\nbe spent in such dreams as these. The man is too awfully near to God,\nand to Christ, to dare to play the fool in their Divine presence. This\nearth looks to him, now that he sees it in the true light, one great\ntemple of God, in which he dare not, for very shame, misbehave himself.\nHe must cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light,\nnow in the time of this mortal life; lest, when Christ comes in His glory\nto judge the quick and the dead, he be found asleep, dreaming, useless,\nunfit for the eternal world to come.\n\nThen let him awake, and cry to Christ for light: and Christ will give him\nlight\u2014enough, at least, to see his way through the darkness of this life,\nto that eternal life of which it is written, \u2018They need no candle there,\nnor light of the sun: for the Lord God and the Lamb are the light\nthereof.\u2019 And he will find that the armour of light is an armour indeed.\nA defence against all enemies, a helmet for his head, and breastplate for\nhis heart, against all that can really harm his mind our soul.\n\nIf a man, in the struggle of life, sees God, and Christ, and Duty, all\naround him, that thought will be a helmet for his head. It will keep his\nbrain and mind clear, quiet, prudent to perceive and know what things he\nought to do. It will give him that Divine wisdom, of which Solomon says,\nin his Proverbs, that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.\n\nThe light will give him, I say, judgment and wisdom to perceive what he\nought to do; and it will give him, too, grace and power faithfully to\nfulfil the same. For it will be a breastplate to his heart. It will\nkeep his heart sound, as well as his head. It will save him from\nbreaking his good resolutions, and from deserting his duty out of\ncowardice, or out of passion. The light of Christ will keep his heart\npure, unselfish, forgiving; ready to hope all things, believe all things,\nendure all things, by that Divine charity which God will pour into his\nsoul.\n\nFor when he looks at things in the light of Christ, what does he see?\nChrist hanging on the cross, praying for His murderers, dying for the\nsins of the whole world. And what does the light which streams from that\ncross show him of Christ? That the likeness of Christ is summed up in\none word\u2014self-sacrificing love. What does the light which streams from\nthat cross show him of the world and mankind, in spite of all their sins?\nThat they belong to Him who died for them, and bought them with His own\nmost precious blood.\n\n\u2018Beloved, herein is love indeed. Not that we loved God, but that He\nloved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation of our sins.\u2019\n\n\u2018Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.\u2019\n\nAfter that sight a man cannot hate; cannot revenge. He must forgive; he\nmust love. From hence he is in the light, and sees his duty and his path\nthrough life. \u2018For he that hateth his brother walketh in darkness, and\nknoweth not whither he goeth: because darkness has blinded his eyes. But\nhe that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is no occasion\nof stumbling in him. For he who dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and\nGod in him.\u2019\n\nTherefore cast away the works of darkness, and put you on the armour of\nlight, and be good men and true.\n\nFor of this the Holy Ghost prophesies by the mouth of St. Paul, and of\nall apostles and prophets. Not of times and seasons, which God the\nFather has kept in His own hand: not of that day and hour of which no man\nknows; no, not the Angels in heaven, neither the Son; but the Father\nonly: not of these does the Holy Ghost testify to men. Not of\nchronology, past or future: but of holiness; because he is a Holy Spirit.\n\nFor this purpose God, the Holy Father, sent His Son into the world. For\nthis God, the Holy Son, died upon the cross. For this God, the Holy\nGhost\u2014proceeding from both the Father and the Son\u2014inspired prophets and\napostles; that they might teach men to cast away the works of darkness,\nand put on the armour of light; and become holy, as God is holy; pure, as\nGod is pure; true, as God is true; and good, as God is good.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON VI.\nTHE SHAKING OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH.\n\n\n (_Preached at the Chapel Royal_, _Whitehall_.)\n\n HEBREWS xii. 26\u201329.\n\n But now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth\n only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the\n removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made,\n that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore, we\n receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby\n we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our\n God is a consuming fire.\n\nTHIS is one of the Royal texts of the New Testament. It declares one of\nthose great laws of the kingdom of God, which may fulfil itself, once and\nagain, at many eras, and by many methods; which fulfilled itself\nespecially and most gloriously in the first century after Christ; which\nfulfilled itself again in the fifth century; and again at the time of the\nCrusades; and again at the great Reformation in the sixteenth century;\nand is fulfilling itself again at this very day.\n\nNow, in our fathers\u2019 time, and in our own unto this day, is the Lord\nChrist shaking the heavens and the earth, that those things which are\nmade may be removed, and that those things which cannot be shaken may\nremain. We all confess this fact, in different phrases. We say that we\nlive in an age of change, of transition, of scientific and social\nrevolution. Our notions of the physical universe are rapidly altering\nwith the new discoveries of science; and our notions of Ethics and\nTheology are altering as rapidly.\n\nThe era looks differently to different minds, just as the first century\nafter Christ looked differently, according as men looked with faith\ntowards the future, or with regret towards the past. Some rejoice in the\npresent era as one of progress. Others lament over it as one of decay.\nSome say that we are on the eve of a Reformation, as great and splendid\nas that of the sixteenth century. Others say that we are rushing\nheadlong into scepticism and atheism. Some say that a new era is dawning\non humanity; others that the world and the Church are coming to an end,\nand the last day is at hand. Both parties may be right, and both may be\nwrong. Men have always talked thus at great crises. They talked thus in\nthe first century, in the fifth, in the eleventh, in the sixteenth. And\nthen both parties were right, and yet both wrong. And why not now? What\nthey meant to say, and what they mean to say now, is what he who wrote\nthe Epistle to the Hebrews said for them long ago in far deeper, wider,\nmore accurate words\u2014that the Lord Christ was shaking the heavens and the\nearth, that those things which can be shaken may be removed, as things\nwhich are made\u2014cosmogonies, systems, theories, fashions, prejudices, of\nman\u2019s invention: while those things which cannot be shaken may remain,\nbecause they are eternal, the creation not of man, but of God.\n\n\u2018Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.\u2019 Not merely\nthe physical world, and man\u2019s conceptions thereof; but the spiritual\nworld, and man\u2019s conceptions of that likewise.\n\nHow have our conceptions of the physical world been shaken of late, with\never-increasing violence! How simple, and easy, and certain, it all\nlooked to our forefathers! How complex, how uncertain, it looks to us!\nWith increased knowledge has come\u2014not increased doubt\u2014that I deny; but\nincreased reverence; increased fear of rash assertions, increased awe of\nfacts, as the acted words and thoughts of God. Once for all, I deny that\nthis age is an irreverent one. I say that an irreverent age is an age\nlike the Middle Age, in which men dared to fancy that they could and did\nknow all about earth and heaven; and set up their petty cosmogonies,\ntheir petty systems of doctrine, as measures of the ways of that God whom\nthe heaven and the heaven of heavens, cannot contain.\n\nIt was simple enough, their theory of the universe. The earth was a flat\nplain; for did not the earth look flat? Or if some believed the earth to\nbe a globe, yet the existence of antipodes was an unscriptural heresy.\nAbove were the heavens: first the lower heavens in which the stars were\nfixed and moved; and above them heaven after heaven, each peopled of\nhigher orders, up to that heaven of heavens in which Deity\u2014and by Him,\nthe Mother of Deity\u2014were enthroned.\n\nAnd below\u2014What could be more clear, more certain, than this\u2014that as above\nthe earth was the kingdom of light, and joy, and holiness, so below the\nearth was the kingdom of darkness, and torment, and sin? What could be\nmore certain? Had not even the heathens said so, by the mouth of the\npoet Virgil? What could be more simple, rational, orthodox, than to\nadopt (as they actually did) Virgil\u2019s own words, and talk of Tartarus,\nStyx, and Phlegethon, as indisputable Christian entities. They were not\naware that the Buddhists of the far East had held much the same theory of\nendless retribution several centuries before; and that Dante, with his\nvarious _bolge_, tenanted each by its various species of sinners, was\nmerely re-echoing the horrors which are to be seen painted on the walls\nof any Buddhist temple, as they were on the walls of so many European\nchurches during the Middle Ages, when men really believed in that same\nTartarology, with the same intensity with which they now believe in the\nconclusions of astronomy or of chemistry.\n\nTo them, indeed, it was all an indisputable or physical fact, as any\nastronomic or chemical fact would have been; for they saw it with their\nown eyes.\n\nVirgil had said that the mouth of Tartarus was there in Italy, by the\nvolcanic lake of Avernus; and after the first eruption of Vesuvius in the\nfirst century, nothing seemed more probable. Etna, Stromboli, Hecla,\nmust be, likewise, all mouths of hell; and there were not wanting holy\nhermits who had heard within those craters, shrieks and clanking chains,\nand the shouts of demons tormenting endlessly the souls of the lost. And\nnow, how has all this been shaken? How much of all this does any\neducated man, though he be pious, though he desire with all his heart to\nbe orthodox\u2014and is orthodox in fact\u2014how much of all this does he believe,\nas he believes that the earth is round, or, that if he steals his\nneighbour\u2019s goods he commits a crime?\n\nFor, since these days, the earth has been shaken, and with it the heavens\nlikewise, in that very sense in which the expression is used in the text.\nOur conceptions of them have been shaken. The Copernican system shook\nthem, when it told men that the earth was but a tiny globular planet\nrevolving round the sun. Geology shook them, when it told men that the\nearth has endured for countless ages, during which whole continents have\nbeen submerged, whole seas become dry land, again and again. Even now\nthe heavens and the earth are being shaken by researches into the\nantiquity of the human race, and into the origin and the mutability of\nspecies, which, issue in what results they may, will shake for us,\nmeanwhile, theories which are venerable with the authority of nearly\neighteen hundred years, and of almost every great Doctor since St.\nAugustine.\n\nAnd as our conception of the physical universe has been shaken, the old\ntheory of a Tartarus beneath the earth has been shaken also, till good\nmen have been glad to place Tartarus in a comet, or in the sun, or to\nwelcome the possible, but unproved hypothesis, of a central fire in the\nearth\u2019s core, not on any scientific grounds, but if by any means a spot\nmay be found in space corresponding to that of which Virgil, Dante, and\nMilton sang.\n\nAnd meanwhile\u2014as was to be expected from a generation which abhors\ntorture, labours for the reformation of criminals, and even doubts\nwhether it should not abolish capital punishment\u2014a shaking of the heavens\nis abroad, of which we shall hear more and more, as the years roll on\u2014a\ngeneral inclination to ask whether Holy Scripture really endorses the\nMiddle-age notions of future punishment in endless torment? Men are\nwriting and speaking on this matter, not merely with ability and\nlearning, but with a piety, and reverence for Scripture which (rightly or\nwrongly employed) must, and will, command attention. They are saying\nthat it is not those who deny these notions who disregard the letter of\nScripture, but those who assert them; that they are distorting the plain\nliteral text, in order to make Scripture fit the writings of Dante and\nMilton, when they translate into \u2018endless torments after death,\u2019 such\nphrases as the outer darkness, the undying worm, the Gehenna of\nfire\u2014which manifestly (say these men), if judged by fair rules of\ninterpretation, refer to this life, and specially to the fate of the\nJewish nation: or when they tell us that eternal death means really\neternal life, only in torments. We demand, they say, not a looser, but a\nstricter; not a more metaphoric, but a more literal; not a more careless,\nbut a more reverent interpretation of Scripture; and whether this demand\nbe right or wrong, it will not pass unheard.\n\nAnd even more severely shaken, meanwhile, is that medi\u00e6val conception of\nheaven and hell, by the question which educated men are asking more and\nmore:\u2014\u2018Heaven and hell\u2014the spiritual world\u2014Are they merely invisible\nplaces in space, which may become visible hereafter? or are they not\nrather the moral world\u2014the world of right and wrong? Love and\nrighteousness\u2014is not that the heaven itself wherein God dwells? Hatred\nand sin\u2014is not that hell itself, wherein dwells all that is opposed to\nGod?\u2019\n\nAnd out of that thought, right or wrong, other thoughts have sprung\u2014of\nethics, of moral retribution\u2014not new at all (say these men), but to be\nfound in Scripture, and in the writings of all great Christian divines,\nwhen they have listened, not to systems, but to the voice of their own\nhearts.\n\n\u2018We do not deny\u2019 (they say) \u2018that the wages of sin are death. We do not\ndeny the necessity of punishment\u2014the certainty of punishment. We see it\nworking awfully enough around us in this life; we believe that it may\nwork in still more awful forms in the life to come. Only tell us not\nthat it must be endless, and thereby destroy its whole purpose, and (as\nwe think) its whole morality. We, too, believe in an eternal fire; but\nwe believe its existence to be, not a curse, but a Gospel and a blessing,\nseeing that that fire is God Himself, who taketh away the sins of the\nworld, and of whom it is therefore written, Our God is a consuming fire.\u2019\n\nQuestions, too, have arisen, of\u2014\u2018What _is_ moral retribution? Should\npunishment have any end but the good of the offender? Is God so\ncontrolled that He must needs send into the world beings whom He knows to\nbe incorrigible, and doomed to endless misery? And if not so controlled,\nthen is not the other alternative as to His character more fearful still?\nDoes He not bid us copy Him, His justice, His love? Then is that His\njustice, is that His love, which if we copied we should be unjust and\nunloving utterly? Are there two moralities, one for God, and quite\nanother for man, made in the image of God? Can these dark dogmas be true\nof a Father who bids us be perfect as He is, in that He sends His sun to\nshine on the evil and the good, and His rain on the just and unjust? Or\nof a Son who so loved the world that He died to save the world and surely\nnot in vain?\u2019\n\nThese questions\u2014be they right or wrong\u2014educated men and women of all\nclasses and denominations\u2014orthodox, be it remembered, as well as\nunorthodox\u2014are asking, and will ask more and more, till they receive an\nanswer. And if we of the clergy cannot give them an answer which accords\nwith their conscience and their reason; if we tell them that the words of\nScripture, and the integral doctrines of Christianity, demand the same\nnotions of moral retribution as were current in the days when men racked\ncriminals, burned heretics alive, and believed that every Mussulman whom\nthey slaughtered in a crusade went straight to endless torments,\u2014then\nevil times will come, both for the clergy and the Christian religion, for\nmany a yeas henceforth.\n\nWhat then are we to believe? What are we to do, amid this shaking of the\nearth and heaven? Are we to degenerate into a lazy and heartless\nscepticism, which, under pretence of liberality and charity, believes\nthat everything is a little true, everything is a little false\u2014in one\nword, believes nothing at all? Or are we to degenerate into unmanly and\nfaithless wailings, crying out that the flood of infidelity is\nirresistible, that the last days are come, and that Christ has deserted\nHis Church?\n\nNot if we will believe the text. The text tells us of something which\ncannot be moved, though all around it reel and crumble\u2014of a firm\nstanding-ground, which would endure, though the heavens should pass away\nas a scroll, and the earth should be removed, and cast into the midst of\nthe sea.\n\nWe have a kingdom, the Scripture says, which cannot be moved, even the\nkingdom of Him whom it calls shortly after \u2018Jesus Christ, the same\nyesterday, to-day and for ever.\u2019 An eternal and unchangeable kingdom,\nruled by an eternal and unchangeable King. That is what cannot be moved.\n\nScripture does not say that we have an unchangeable cosmogony, an\nunchangeable theory of moral retribution, an unchangeable system of\ndogmatic propositions. Whether we have, or have not, it is not of them\nthat Scripture reminds the Jews, when the heavens and the earth were\nshaken; when their own nation and worship were in their death-agony, and\nall the beliefs and practices of men were in a whirl of doubt and\nconfusion, of decay and birth side by side, such as the world had never\nseen before. Not of them does it remind the Jews, but of the changeless\nkingdom, and the changeless King.\n\nMy friends, lay it seriously to heart, once and for all. Do you believe\nthat you are subjects of that kingdom, and that Christ is the living,\nruling, guiding King thereof? Whatsoever Scripture does not say,\nScripture speaks of that, again and again, in the plainest terms. But do\nyou believe it? These are days in which the preacher ought to ask every\nman whether he believes it, and bid him, of whatever else he repents of,\nto repent, at least, of not having believed this primary doctrine (I may\nalmost say) of Scripture and of Christianity.\n\nBut if you do believe it, will it seem strange to you to believe this\nalso,\u2014That, considering who Christ is, the co-eternal and co-equal Son of\nGod, He may be actually governing His kingdom; and if so, that He may\nknow better how to govern it than such poor worms as we? That if the\nheavens and the earth be shaken, Christ Himself may be shaking them? if\nopinions be changing, Christ Himself may be changing them? If new truths\nand facts are being discovered, Christ Himself may be revealing them?\nThat if those truths seem to contradict the truths which He has already\ntaught us, they do not really contradict them, any more than those\nreasserted in the sixteenth century? That if our God be a consuming\nfire, He is now burning up (to use St. Paul\u2019s parable) the chaff and\nstubble which men have built on the one foundation of Christ, that, at\nlast, nought but the pure gold may remain? Is it not possible? Is it\nnot most probable, if we only believe that Christ is a real, living King,\nan active, practical King,\u2014who, with boundless wisdom and skill, love and\npatience, is educating and guiding Christendom, and through Christendom\nthe whole human race?\n\nIf men would but believe that, how different would be their attitude\ntoward new facts, toward new opinions! They would receive them with\ngrace; gracefully, courteously, fairly, charitably, and with that\nreverence and godly fear which the text tells us is the way to serve God\nacceptably. They would say: \u2018Christ (so the Scripture tells us) has been\neducating man through Abraham, through Moses, through David, through the\nJewish prophets, through the Greeks, through the Romans; then through\nHimself, as man as well as God; and after His ascension, through His\nApostles, especially through St. Paul, to an ever-increasing\nunderstanding of God, and the universe, and themselves. And even after\ntheir time He did not cease His education. Why should He? How could He,\nwho said of Himself, \u201cAll power is given to me in heaven and earth;\u201d \u201cLo,\nI am with you alway to the end of the world;\u201d and again, \u201cMy Father\nworketh hitherto, and I work?\u201d\n\n\u2018At the Reformation in the sixteenth century He called on our forefathers\nto repent\u2014that is, to change their minds\u2014concerning opinions which had\nbeen undoubted for more than a thousand years. Why should He not be\ncalling on us at this time likewise? And if any answer, that the\nReformation was only a return to the primitive faith of the Apostles\u2014Why\nshould not this shaking of the hearts and minds of men issue in a still\nfurther return, in a further correction of errors, a further sweeping\naway of additions, which are not integral to the Christian creeds, but\nwhich were left behind, through natural and necessary human frailty, by\nour great Reformers? Wise they were,\u2014good and great,\u2014as giants on the\nearth, while we are but as dwarfs; but, as the hackneyed proverb tells\nus, the dwarf on the giant\u2019s shoulders may see further than the giant\nhimself.\u2019\n\nAh! that men would approach new truth in that spirit; in the spirit of\ngodly fear, which is inspired by the thought that we are in the kingdom\nof God, and that the King thereof is Christ, both God and man, once\ncrucified for us, now living for us for ever! Ah! that they would thus\nserve God, waiting, as servants before a lord, for the slightest sign\nwhich might intimate his will! Then they would look at new truths with\ncaution; in that truly conservative spirit which is the duty of all\nChristians, and the especial strength of the Englishman. With\ncaution,\u2014lest in grasping eagerly after what is new, we throw away truth\nwhich we have already: but with awe and reverence; for Christ may have\nsent the new truth; and he who fights against it, may haply be found\nfighting against God. And so would they indeed obey the Apostolic\ninjunction\u2014Prove all things, hold fast that which is good,\u2014that which is\npure, fair, noble, tending to the elevation of men; to the improvement of\nknowledge, justice, mercy, well-being; to the extermination of ignorance,\ncruelty, and vice. That, at least, must come from Christ, unless the\nPharisees were right when they said that evil spirits could be cast out\nby Beelzebub, prince of the devils.\n\nHow much more Christian, reverent, faithful, as well as more prudent,\nrational, and philosophical, would such a temper be than that which\ncondemns all changes _\u00e0 priori_, at the first hearing, or rather, too\noften, without any hearing at all, in rage and terror, like that of the\nanimal who at the same moment barks at, and runs away from, every unknown\nobject.\n\nAt least that temper of mind will give us calm; faith, patience, hope,\ncharity, though the heavens and the earth are shaken around us. For we\nhave received a kingdom which cannot be moved, and in the King thereof we\nhave the most perfect trust: for us He stooped to earth, was born, and\ndied on the cross; and can we not trust Him? Let Him do what He will;\nlet Him teach us what He will; let Him lead us whither He will. Wherever\nHe leads, we shall find pasture. Wherever He leads, must be the way of\ntruth, and we will follow, and say, as Socrates of old used to say, Let\nus follow the Logos boldly, whithersoever it leadeth. If Socrates had\ncourage to say it, how much more should we, who know what he, good man,\nknew not, that the Logos is not a mere argument, train of thought,\nnecessity of logic, but a Person\u2014perfect God and perfect man, even Jesus\nChrist, \u2018the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever,\u2019 who promised of old,\nand therefore promises to us, and our children after us, to lead those\nwho trust Him into all truth.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON VII.\nTHE BATTLE OF LIFE.\n\n\n GALATIANS v. 16, 17.\n\n I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of\n the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit\n against the flesh: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.\n\nA GREAT poet speaks of \u2018Happiness, our being\u2019s end and aim;\u2019 and he has\nbeen reproved for so doing. Men have said, and wisely, the end and aim\nof our being is not happiness, but goodness. If goodness comes first,\nthen happiness may come after. But if not, something better than\nhappiness may come, even blessedness.\n\nThis it is, I believe, which our Lord may have meant when He said, \u2018He\nthat saveth his life, or soul\u2019 (for the two words in Scripture mean\nexactly the same thing), \u2018shall lose it. And he that loseth his life,\nshall save it. For what is a man profited if he gain the whole world,\nand lose his own life?\u2019\n\nHow is this? It is a hard saying. Difficult to believe, on account of\nthe natural selfishness which lies deep in all of us. Difficult even to\nunderstand in these days, when religion itself is selfish, and men learn\nmore and more to think that the end and aim of religion is not to make\nthem good while they live, but merely to save their souls after they die.\n\nBut whether it be hard to understand or not, we must understand it, if we\nwould be good men. And how to understand it, the Epistle for this day\nwill teach us.\n\n\u2018Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.\u2019 The\nSpirit, which is the Spirit of God within our hearts and conscience,\nsays\u2014Be good. The flesh, the animal, savage nature, which we all have in\ncommon with the dumb animals, says\u2014Be happy. Please yourself. Do what\nyou like. Eat and drink, for to-morrow you die.\n\nBut, happily for us, the Spirit lusts against the flesh. It draws us the\nopposite way. It lifts us up, instead of dragging us down. It has\nnobler aims, higher longings. It, as St. Paul puts it, will not let us\ndo the things that we would. It will not let us do just what we like,\nand please ourselves. It often makes us unhappy just when we try to be\nhappy. It shames us, and cries in our hearts\u2014You were not meant merely\nto please yourselves, and be as the beasts which perish.\n\nBut how few listen to that voice of God\u2019s Spirit within their hearts,\nthough it be just the noblest thing of which they will ever be aware on\nearth!\n\nHow few listen to it, till the lusts of the flesh are worn out, and have\nworn them out likewise, and made them reap the fruit which they have\nsowed\u2014sowing to the selfish flesh, and of the selfish flesh reaping\ncorruption.\n\nThe young man says\u2014I will be happy and do what I like; and runs after\nwhat he calls pleasure. The middle-aged man, grown more prudent, says\u2014I\nwill be happy yet, and runs after money, comfort, fame and power. But\nwhat do they gain? \u2018The works of the flesh,\u2019 the fruit of this selfish\nlusting after mere earthly happiness, \u2018are manifest, which are\nthese:\u2019\u2014not merely that open vice and immorality into which the young man\nfalls when he craves after mere animal pleasure, but \u2018hatred, variance,\nemulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies\u2019\u2014_i.e._, factions in\nChurch or State\u2014\u2018envyings, murders, and such like.\u2019\n\nThus men put themselves under the law. Not under Moses\u2019 law, of course,\nbut under some law or other.\n\nFor why has law been invented? Why is it needed, with all its expense?\nLaw is meant to prevent, if possible, men harming each other by their own\nselfishness, by those lusts of the flesh which tempt every man to seek\nhis own happiness, careless of his neighbour\u2019s happiness, interest,\nmorals; by all the passions which make men their own tormentors, and\nwhich make the history of every nation too often a history of crime, and\nfolly, and faction, and war, sad and shameful to read; all those passions\nof which St. Paul says once and for ever, that those who do such things\n\u2018shall not inherit the kingdom of God.\u2019\n\nThese are the sad consequences of giving way to the flesh, the selfish\nanimal nature within us: and most miserable would man be if that were all\nhe had to look to. Miserable, were there not a kingdom of God, into\nwhich he could enter all day long, and be at peace; and a Spirit of God,\nwho would raise him up to the spiritual life of love, joy, peace,\nlong-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; and a\nSon of God, the King of that kingdom, the Giver of that Spirit, who cries\nfor ever to every one of us\u2014\u2018Come unto Me, ye that are weary and heavy\nladen, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke on you, and learn of Me,\nfor I am meek and lowly of heart; and ye shall find rest unto your\nsouls.\u2019\n\nLove, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,\ntemperance; these are the fruits of the Spirit: the spirit of\nunselfishness; the spirit of charity; the spirit of justice; the spirit\nof purity; the Spirit of God. Against them there is no law. He who is\nguided by this Spirit, and he only, may do what he would; for he will\nwish to do nought but what is right. He is not under the law, but under\ngrace; and full of grace will he be in all his words and works. He has\nentered into the kingdom of God, and is living therein as God\u2019s subject,\nobeying the royal law of liberty\u2014\u2018Thou shalt love thy neighbour as\nthyself.\u2019\n\n\u2018The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh,\nso that ye cannot do the things that ye would,\u2019 says St. Paul.\n\nMy friends, this is the battle of life.\n\nIn every one of us, more or less, this battle is going on; a battle\nbetween the flesh and the Spirit, between the animal nature and the\ndivine grace. In every one of us, I say, who is not like the heathen,\ndead in trespasses and sins; in every one of us who has a conscience,\nexcusing or else accusing us. There are those\u2014a very few, I hope\u2014who are\nsunk below that state; who have lost their sense of right and wrong; who\nonly care to fulfil the lusts of the flesh in pleasure, ease, and vanity.\nThere are those in whom the voice of conscience is lead for a while,\nsilenced by self-conceit; who say in their prosperity, like the foolish\nLaodiceans, \u2018I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of\nnothing,\u2019 and know not that in fact and reality, and in the sight of God,\nthey are \u2018wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.\u2019\n\nHappy, happy for any and all of us,\u2014if ever we fall into that dream of\npride and false security,\u2014to be awakened again, however painful the\nawakening may be! Happy for every man that the battle between the Spirit\nand the flesh should begin in him again and again, as long as his flesh\nis not subdued to his spirit. If he be wrong, the greatest blessing\nwhich can happen to him is, that he should find himself in the wrong. If\nhe have been deceiving himself, the greatest blessing is, that God should\nanoint his eyes that he may see\u2014see himself as he is; see his own inbred\ncorruption; see the sin which doth so easily beset him, whatever it may\nbe. Whatever anguish of mind it may cost him, it is a light price to pay\nfor the inestimable treasure which true repentance and amendment brings;\nthe fine gold of solid self-knowledge, tried in the fire of bitter\nexperience; the white raiment of a pure and simple heart; the eye-salve\nof honest self-condemnation and noble shame. If he have but these\u2014and\nthese God will give him, in answer to prayer, the prayer of a broken and\na contrite heart\u2014then he will be able to carry on the battle against the\ncorrupt flesh, with its affections and lusts, in hope. In the assured\nhope of final victory. \u2018For greater is He that is with us, than he that\nis against us? He that is against us is our self, our selfish self; our\nanimal nature; and He that is with us is God; God and none other: and who\ncan pluck us out of His hand?\n\nMy friends, the bread and the wine on that table are God\u2019s own sign to us\nthat He will not leave us to be, like the savage, the slaves of our own\nanimal natures; that He will feed not merely our bodies with animal, but\nour souls with spiritual food; giving us strength to rise above our\nselfish selves; and so subdue the flesh to the Spirit, that at last,\nhowever long and weary the fight, however sore wounded and often worsted\nwe may be, we shall conquer in the battle of life.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON VIII.\nFREE GRACE.\n\n\n (_Preached before the Queen at Windsor_, _March_ 12, 1865.)\n\n ISAIAH lv. 1.\n\n Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath\n no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without\n money and without price.\n\nEVERY one who knows his Bible as he should, knows well this noble\nchapter. It seems to be one of the separate poems or hymns of which the\nBook of Isaiah is composed. It is certainly one of the most beautiful of\nthem, and also one of the deepest. So beautiful is it, that the good men\nof old who translated the Bible into English, could not help catching the\nspirit of the words as they went on with their work, and making the\nchapter almost a hymn in English, as it is a hymn in Hebrew. Even the\nvery sound of the words, as we listen to them, is a song in itself; and\nthere is perhaps no more perfect piece of writing in the English\nlanguage, than the greater part of this chapter.\n\nThis may not seem a very important matter; and yet those good men of old\nmust have felt that there was something in this chapter which went home\nespecially to their hearts, and would go home to the hearts of us for\nwhose sake they translated it.\n\nAnd those good men judged rightly. The care which they bestowed on\nIsaiah\u2019s words has not been in vain. The noble sound of the text has\ncaught many a man\u2019s ears, in order that the noble meaning of the text\nmight touch his heart, and bring him back again to God, to seek Him while\nHe may be found, and call on Him while He is near; that so the wicked\nmight forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and return\nto God, for He will have compassion, and to our God, for He will\nabundantly pardon; and that he might find that God\u2019s thoughts are not as\nman\u2019s thoughts, nor His ways as man\u2019s ways, saith the Lord; for as the\nheavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways and thoughts higher\nthan ours.\n\nYes\u2014I believe that the beauty of this chapter has made many a man listen\nto it, who had perhaps never cared to listen to any good before; and\nlearn a precious lesson from it, which he could learn nowhere save in the\nBible.\n\nFor this text is one of those which have been called the Evangelical\nProphecies, in which the prophet rises far above Moses\u2019 old law, and the\nletter of it, which, as St. Paul says, is a letter which killeth; and the\nspirit of it, which is a spirit which, as St. Paul says, gendereth to\nbondage and slavish dread of God: an utterance in which the prophet sees\nby faith the Lord Jesus Christ and His free grace revealed\u2014dimly, of\ncourse, and in a figure\u2014but still revealed by the Spirit of God, who\nspake by the prophets. As St. Paul says, Moses\u2019 law made nothing\nperfect, and therefore had to be disannulled for its unprofitableness and\nweakness, and a better hope brought in, by which we draw near to God.\nAnd here, in this text, we see the better hope coming in, and as it were\ndawning upon men\u2014the dawn of the Sun of Righteousness, Jesus Christ our\nLord, who was to rise afterwards, to be a light to lighten the Gentiles,\nand the glory of His people Israel.\n\nAnd what was this better hope? One, St. Paul says, by which we could\ndraw nigh to God; come near to Him; as to a Father, a Saviour, a\nComforter, a liege lord\u2014not a tyrant who holds us against our will as his\nslaves, but a liege lord who holds us with our will as His tenants, His\nvassals, His liege men, as the good old English words were; one who will\ntake His vassals into His counsel, and inform them with His Spirit, and\nteach them His mind, that they may do His will and copy His example, and\nbe treated by Him as His friends\u2014in spite of the infinite difference of\nrank between them and Him, which they must never forget.\n\nBut though the difference of rank be infinite and boundless\u2014for it is the\ndifference between sinful man and God perfect for ever\u2014yet still man can\nnow draw near to God. He is not commanded to stand afar off in fear and\ntrembling, as the old Jews were at Sinai. We have not come, says St.\nPaul, to a mount which burned with fire, and blackness, and darkness, and\nstorm, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which those\nwho heard entreated that they should not be spoken to them any more: for\nthey could not endure that which was commanded: but we are come to the\ncity of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the Church of the\nfirst-born which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and\nto the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the\nnew covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling.\n\nWe are come to God, the Judge of all, and to Christ\u2014not bidden to stand\nafar off from them. That is the point to which I wish you to attend.\nFor this agrees with the words of the text, \u2018Ho, every one that\nthirsteth, come ye to the waters.\u2019\n\nThis message it is, which made this chapter precious in the eyes of the\ngood men of old. This message it is, which has made it precious, in all\ntimes, to thousands of troubled, hard-worked, weary, afflicted hearts.\nThis is what has made it precious to thousands who were wearied with the\nburden of their sins, and longed to be made righteous and good; and knew\nbitterly well that they could not make themselves good, but that God\nalone could do that; and so longed to come to God, that they might be\nmade good: but did not know whether they might come or not; or whether,\nif they came, God would receive them, and help them, and convert them.\nThis message it is, which has made the text an evangelical prophecy, to\nbe fulfilled only in Christ\u2014a message which tells men of a God who says,\nCome. Of a God whom Moses\u2019 law, saying merely, \u2018Thou shalt not,\u2019 did not\nreveal to us, divine and admirable as it was, and is, and ever will be.\nOf a God whom natural religion, such as even the heathen, St. Paul says,\nmay gain from studying God\u2019s works in this wonderful world around us\u2014of a\nGod, I say, whom natural religion does not reveal to us, divine and\nadmirable as it is. But of a God who was revealed, step by step, to the\nPsalmists and the Prophets, more and more clearly as the years went on;\nof a God who was fully and utterly revealed, not merely by, but in Jesus\nChrist our Lord, who was Himself that God, very God of very God begotten,\nbeing the brightness of His Father\u2019s glory, and the express image of His\nperson; whose message and call, from the first day of His ministry to His\nglorious ascension, was, Come.\n\nCome unto me, ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will refresh you.\n\nCome unto Me, and take My yoke on you: for My yoke is easy, and My burden\nis light.\n\nI am the bread of life. He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he\nthat believeth in Me shall never thirst.\n\nAll that the Father hath given Me shall come unto Me. And he that cometh\nto Me I will in no wise cast out.\n\nNay, the very words of this prophecy Christ took to Himself again and\nagain, speaking of Himself as the fountain of life, health and light;\nwhen He stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come to Me,\nand drink.\n\nCome unto Me, that ye may have life, is the message of Jesus Christ, both\nGod and man. Come, that you may have forgiveness of your sins; come,\nthat you may have the Holy Spirit, by which you may sin no more, but live\nthe life of the Spirit, the everlasting life of goodness, by which the\nspirits of just men, and angels, and archangels, live for ever before\nGod.\n\nAnd what says St. Paul? See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For\nif they escaped not, who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall\nnot we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven.\n\nYes. The goodness of God, the condescension of God, instead of making it\nmore easy for sinners to escape, makes it, if possible, more difficult.\nThere are those who fancy that because God is merciful\u2014because it is\nwritten in this very chapter, Let a man return to the Lord, and He will\nhave mercy; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon,\u2014that,\ntherefore, God is indulgent, and will overlook their sins; forgetting\nthat in the verse before it is said, Let the wicked forsake his ways, and\nthe unrighteous man his thoughts, and then\u2014but not till then\u2014let him\nreturn to God, to be received with compassion and forgiveness.\n\nToo many know not, as St. Paul says, that the goodness of God leads men,\nnot to sin freely and carelessly without fear of punishment, but leads\nthem to repentance. And yet do not our own hearts and consciences tell\nus that it is so? That it is more base, and more presumptuous likewise,\nto turn away from one who speaks with love, than one who speaks with\nsternness; from one who calls us to come to him, with boundless\ncondescension, than from one who bids us stand afar off and tremble?\n\nThose Jews of old, when they refused to hear God speaking in the thunders\nof Sinai, committed folly. We, if we refuse to hear God speaking in the\ntender words of Jesus crucified for us, commit an equal folly: but we\ncommit baseness and ingratitude likewise. They rebelled against a\nMaster: we rebel against a Father.\n\nBut, though we deny Him, He cannot deny Himself. We may be false to Him,\nfalse to our better selves, false to our baptismal vows: but He cannot be\nfalse. He cannot change. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for\never. What He said on earth, that He says eternally in heaven: If any\nman thirst, let him come to Me and drink.\n\nEternally, and for ever, in heaven, says St. John, Christ says, and is,\nand does, what Isaiah prophesied that He would say, and be, and do,\u2014I am\nthe root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And\nthe Spirit and the Bride (His Spirit and His Church) say, Come. And let\nhim that is athirst, Come: and whosoever will, let him take of the water\nof life freely. For ever He calls to every anxious soul, every afflicted\nsoul, every weary soul, every discontented soul, to every man who is\nashamed of himself, and angry with himself, and longs to live a soberer,\ngentler, nobler, purer, truer, more useful life\u2014Come. Let him who\nhungers and thirsts after righteousness, come to the waters; and he that\nhath no silver\u2014nothing to give to God in return for all His bounty\u2014let\nhim buy without silver, and eat; and live for ever that eternal life of\nrighteousness, holiness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, which is\nthe one true and only salvation bought for us by the precious blood of\nChrist, our Lord.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON IX.\nEZEKIEL\u2019S VISION.\n\n\n (_Preached before the Queen at Windsor_, _June_ 26, 1864.)\n\n EZEKIEL i. 1, 26.\n\n Now it came to pass, as I was among the captives by the river of\n Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. And\n upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of\n a man.\n\nEZEKIEL\u2019S Vision may seem to some a strange and unprofitable subject on\nwhich to preach. It ought not to be so in fact. All Scripture is given\nby Inspiration of God, and is profitable for teaching, for correction,\nfor reproof, for instruction in righteousness. And so will this Vision\nbe to us, if we try to understand it aright. We shall find in it fresh\nknowledge of God, a clearer and fuller revelation, made to Ezekiel, than\nhad been, up to his time, made to any man.\n\nI am well aware that there are some very difficult verses in the text.\nIt is difficult, if not impossible, to understand exactly what presented\nitself to Ezekiel\u2019s mind.\n\nEzekiel saw a whirlwind come out of the north; a whirling globe of fire;\nfour living creatures coming out of the midst thereof. So far the\nimagery is simple enough, and grand enough. But when he begins to speak\nof the living creatures, the cherubim, his description is very obscure.\nAll that we discover is, a vision of huge creatures with the feet, and\n(as some think) the body of an ox, with four wings, and four faces,\u2014those\nof a man, an ox, a lion, and an eagle. Ezekiel seems to discover\nafterwards that these are the cherubim, the same which overshadowed the\nark in Moses\u2019 tabernacle and Solomon\u2019s temple\u2014only of a more complex\nform; for Moses\u2019 and Solomon\u2019s cherubim are believed to have had but one\nface each, while Ezekiel\u2019s had four.\n\nNow, concerning the cherubim, and what they meant, we know very little.\nThe Jews, at the time of the fall of Jerusalem, had forgotten their\nmeaning. Josephus, indeed, says they had forgotten their very shape.\n\nSome light has been thrown, lately, on the figures of these creatures, by\nthe sculptures of those very Assyrian cities to which Ezekiel was a\ncaptive,\u2014those huge winged oxen and lions with human heads; and those\nhuge human figures with four wings each, let down and folded round them\njust as Ezekiel describes, and with heads, sometimes of the lion, and\nsometimes of the eagle. None, however, have been found as yet, I\nbelieve, with four faces, like those of Ezekiel\u2019s Vision; they are all of\nthe simpler form of Solomon\u2019s cherubim. But there is little doubt that\nthese sculptures were standing there perfect in Ezekiel\u2019s time, and that\nhe and the Jews who were captive with him may have seen them often. And\nthere is little doubt also what these figures meant: that they were\nsymbolic of royal spirits\u2014those thrones, dominations, princedoms, powers,\nof which Milton speaks,\u2014the powers of the earth and heaven, the royal\narchangels who, as the Chald\u00e6ans believed, governed the world, and gave\nit and all things life; symbolized by them under the types of the four\nroyal creatures of the world, according to the Eastern nations; the ox\nsignifying labour, the lion power, the eagle foresight, and the man\nreason.\n\nSo with the wheels which Ezekiel sees. We find them in the Assyrian\nsculptures\u2014wheels with a living spirit sitting in each, a human figure\nwith outspread wings; and these seem to have been the genii, or guardian\nangels, who watched over their kings, and gave them fortune and victory.\n\nFor these Chald\u00e6ans were specially worshippers of angels and spirits; and\nthey taught the Jews many notions about angels and spirits, which they\nbrought home with them into Jud\u00e6a after the captivity.\n\nOf them, of course, we read little or nothing in Holy Scripture; but\nthere is much, and too much, about them in the writings of the old\nRabbis, the Scribes and Pharisees of the New Testament.\n\nNow Ezekiel, inspired by the Spirit of God, rises far above the old\nChald\u00e6ans and their dreams. Perhaps the captive Jews were tempted to\nworship these cherubim and genii, as the Chald\u00e6ans did; and it may be\nthat Ezekiel was commissioned by God to set them right, and by his vision\nto give a type, pattern, or picture of God\u2019s spiritual laws, by which He\nrules the world.\n\nBe that as it may. In the first place, Ezekiel\u2019s cherubim are far more\nwonderful and complicated than those which he would see on the walls of\nthe Assyrian buildings. And rightly so; for this world is far more\nwonderful, more complicated, more cunningly made and ruled, than any of\nman\u2019s fancies about it; as it is written in the Book of Job,\u2014\u2018Where wast\nthou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast\nunderstanding. Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who\nlaid the corner-stone thereof; when the morning stars sang together, and\nall the sons of God shouted for joy?\u2019\n\nNext (and this is most important), these different cherubim were not\nindependent of each other, each going his own way, and doing his own\nwill. Not so. Ezekiel had found in them a divine and wonderful order,\nby which the services of angels as well as of men are constituted.\nOrderly and harmoniously they worked together. Out of the same fiery\nglobe, from the same throne of God, they came forth all alike. They\nturned not when they went; whithersoever the Spirit was to go, they went,\nand ran and returned like a flash of lightning. Nay, in one place he\nspeaks as if all the four creatures were but one creature: \u2018This is the\nliving creature which I saw by the river of Chebar.\u2019\n\nAnd so it is, we may be sure, in the world of God, whether in the earthly\nor in the heavenly world. All things work together, praising God and\ndoing His will. Angels and the heavenly host; sun and moon; stars and\nlight; fire and hail; snow and vapour; wind and storm: all fulfil His\nword. \u2018He hath made them fast for ever and ever: He hath given them a\nlaw which shall not be broken.\u2019 For before all things, under all things,\nand through all things, is a divine unity and order; all things working\ntowards one end, because all things spring from one beginning, which is\nthe bosom of God the Father.\n\nAnd so with the wheels; the wheels of fortune and victory, and the fate\nof nations and of kings. \u2018They were so high,\u2019 Ezekiel said, \u2018that they\nwere dreadful.\u2019 But he saw no human genius sitting, one in each wheel of\nfortune, each protecting his favourite king and nation. These, too, did\nnot go their own way and of their own will. They were parts of God\u2019s\ndivine and wonderful order, and obeyed the same laws as the cherubim.\n\u2018And when the living creatures went, the wheels went with them; for the\nspirit of the living creature was in the wheels.\u2019 Everywhere was the\nsame divine unity and order; the same providence, the same laws of God,\npresided over the natural world and over the fortunes of nations and of\nkings. Victory and prosperity was not given arbitrarily by separate\ngenii, each genius protecting his favourite king, each genius striving\nagainst the other on behalf of his favourite. Fortune came from the\nprovidence of One Being; of Him of whom it is written, \u2018God standeth in\nthe congregation of princes: He is the judge among gods.\u2019 And again,\n\u2018The Lord is King, be the people never so impatient: He sitteth between\nthe cherubim, be the earth never so unquiet.\u2019\n\nAnd is this all? God forbid. This is more than the Chald\u00e6ans saw, who\nworshipped angels and not God\u2014the creature instead of the Creator. But\nwhere the Chald\u00e6an vision ended, Ezekiel\u2019s only began. His prophecy\nrises far above the imaginations of the heathen.\n\nHe hears the sound of the wings of the cherubim, like the tramp of an\narmy, like the noise of great waters, like the roll of thunder, the voice\nof Almighty God: but above their wings he sees a firmament, which the\nheathen cannot see, clear as the flashing crystal, and on that firmament\na sapphire throne, and round that throne a rainbow, the type of\nforgiveness and faithfulness, and on that throne A Man.\n\nAnd the cherubim stand, and let down their wings in submission, waiting\nfor the voice of One mightier than they. And Ezekiel falls upon his\nface, and hears from off the throne a human voice, which calls to him as\nhuman likewise, \u2018Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak to\nthee.\u2019\n\nThis, this is Ezekiel\u2019s vision: not the fiery globe merely, nor the\ncherubim, nor the wheels, nor the powers of nature, nor the angelic\nhost\u2014dominions and principalities, and powers\u2014but The Man enthroned above\nthem all, the Lord and Guide and Ruler of the universe; He who makes the\nwinds His angels, and the flames of fire His ministers; and that Lord\nspeaking to him, not through cherubim, not through angels, not through\nnature, not through mediators, angelic or human, but speaking direct to\nhim himself, as man speaks to man.\n\nAs man speaks to man. This is the very pith and marrow of the Old\nTestament and of the New; which gradually unfolds itself, from the very\nfirst chapter of Genesis to the last of Revelation,\u2014that man is made in\nthe likeness of God; and that therefore God can speak to him, and he can\nunderstand God\u2019s words and inspirations.\n\nMan is like God; and therefore God, in some inconceivable way, is like\nman. That is the great truth set forth in the first chapter of Genesis,\nwhich goes on unfolding itself more clearly throughout the Old Testament,\ntill here, in Ezekiel\u2019s vision, it comes to, perhaps, its clearest stage\nsave one.\n\nThat human appearance speaks to Ezekiel, the hapless prisoner of war, far\naway from his native land. And He speaks to him with human voice, and\nclaims kindred with him as a human being, saying, \u2018Son of man.\u2019 That is\nvery deep and wonderful. The Lord upon His throne does not wish Ezekiel\nto think how different He is to him, but how like He is to him. He says\nnot to Ezekiel,\u2014\u2018Creature infinitely below Me! Dust and ashes, unworthy\nto appear in My presence! Worm of the earth, as far below Me and unlike\nMe as the worm under thy feet is to thee!\u2019 but, \u2018Son of man; creature\nmade in My image and likeness, be not afraid! Stand on thy feet, and be\na man; and speak to others what I speak to thee.\u2019\n\nAfter that great revelation of God there seems but one step more to make\nit perfect; and that step was made in God\u2019s good time, in the Incarnation\nof our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nForasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also\u2014He\nwhom Ezekiel saw in human form enthroned on high\u2014He took part of flesh\nand blood likewise, and was not ashamed, yea, rather rejoiced, to call\nHimself, what He called Ezekiel, the Son of Man.\n\n\u2018And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we beheld His\nglory.\u2019 And why?\n\nFor many reasons; but certainly for this one. To make men feel more\nutterly and fully what Ezekiel was made to feel. That God could\nthoroughly feel for man; and that man could thoroughly trust God.\n\nThat God could thoroughly feel for man. For we have a High Priest who\nhas been made perfect by sufferings, tempted in all points like as we\nare; and we can\n\n \u2018Look to Him who, not in vain,\n Experienced every human pain;\n He sees our wants, allays our fears,\n And counts and treasures up our tears.\u2019\n\nAgain,\u2014That man could utterly trust God. For when St. John and his\ncompanions (simple fishermen) beheld the glory of Jesus, the Incarnate\nWord, what was it like? It was \u2018full of grace and truth;\u2019 the perfection\nof human graciousness, of human truthfulness, which could win and melt\nthe hearts of simple folk, and make them see in Him, who was called the\ncarpenter\u2019s son, the beauty of the glory of the Godhead.\n\n\u2018He is the Judge of all the earth.\u2019 And why? Let Him Himself tell us.\nHe says that the Father has given the Son authority to execute judgment.\nAnd why, once more? Because He is the Son of God? Our Lord says\nmore,\u2014\u2018Because,\u2019 He says, \u2018He is the Son of Man;\u2019 who knows what is in\nman; who can feel, understand, discriminate, pity, make allowances, judge\nfair, and righteous, and merciful judgment, among creatures whose\nweakness He has experienced, whose temptations He has felt, whose pains\nand sorrows He has borne in mortal flesh and blood.\n\nOh, Gospel and good news for the weak, the sorrowful, the oppressed; for\nthose who are wearied with the burden of their sins, or wearied also by\nthe burden of heavy responsibilities, and awful public duties! When all\nmortal counsellors fail them, when all mortal help is too weak, let them\nbut throw themselves on the mercy of Him who sits upon the throne, and\nremember that He, though immortal and eternal, is still the Son of Man,\nwho knows what is in man.\n\nThere are times in which we are all tempted to worship other things than\nGod. Not, perhaps, to worship cherubim and genii, angels and spirits,\nlike the old Chaldees, but to worship the laws of political economy, the\nlaws of statesmanship, the powers of nature, the laws of physical\nscience, those lower messengers of God\u2019s providence, of which St. Paul\nsays, \u2018He maketh the winds His angels, and flames of fire His ministers.\u2019\n\nIn such times we have need to remember Ezekiel\u2019s lesson, that above them\nall, ruling and guiding, sits He whose form is as the Son of Man.\n\nWe are not to say that any powers of nature are evil, or the laws of any\nscience false. Heaven forbid! Ezekiel did not say that the cherubim\nwere evil, or meaningless; or that the belief in angels ministering to\nman was false. He said the very opposite. But he said, All these obey\none whose form is that of a man. He rules them, and they do His will.\nThey are but ministering spirits before Him.\n\nTherefore we are not to disbelieve science, nor disregard the laws of\nnature, or we shall lose by our folly. But we are to believe that nature\nand science are not our gods. They do not rule us; our fortunes are not\nin their hands. Above nature and above science sits the Lord of nature\nand the Lord of science. Above all the counsels of princes, and the\nstruggles of nations, and the chances and changes of this world of man,\nsits the Judge of princes and of peoples, the Lord of all the nations\nupon earth, He by whom all things were made, and who upholdeth all things\nby the word of His power; and He is man, of the substance of His mother;\nmost human and yet most divine; full of justice and truth, full of care\nand watchfulness, full of love and pity, full of tenderness and\nunderstanding; a Friend, a Guide, a Counsellor, a Comforter, a Saviour to\nall who trust in Him. He is nearer to us than nature and science: and He\nshould be dearer to us; for they speak only to our understanding; but He\nspeaks to our human hearts, to our inmost spirits. Nature and science\ncannot take away our sins, give peace to our hearts, right judgment to\nour minds, strength to our wills, or everlasting life to our souls and\nbodies. But there sits One upon the throne who can. And if nature were\nto vanish away, and science were to be proved (however correct as far as\nit went) a mere child\u2019s guess about this wonderful world, which none can\nunderstand save He who made it\u2014if all the counsels of princes and of\npeoples, however just and wise, were to be confounded and come to nought,\nstill, after all, and beyond all, and above all, Christ would abide for\never, with human tenderness yearning over human hearts; with human wisdom\nteaching human ignorance; with human sympathy sorrowing with human\nmourners; for ever saying, \u2018Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy\nladen, and I will give you rest.\u2019\n\nCherubim and seraphim, angels and archangels, dominions and powers,\nwhether of nature or of grace\u2014these all serve Him and do His work. He\nhas constituted their services in a wonderful order: but He has not taken\ntheir nature on Him. Our nature He has taken on Him, that we might be\nbone of His bone and flesh of His flesh; able to say to Him for ever, in\nall the chances and changes of this mortal life\u2014\n\n \u2018Thou, O Christ, art all I want,\n More than all in thee I find;\n Raise me, fallen; cheer me, faint;\n Heal me, sick; and lead me, blind.\n Thou of life the fountain art,\n Freely let me drink of Thee;\n Spring Thou up within my heart,\n Rise to all eternity.\u2019\n\n\n\n\nSERMON X.\nRUTH.\n\n\n RUTH ii. 4.\n\n And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The\n Lord be with you. And they answered him, The Lord bless thee.\n\nMOST of you know the story of Ruth, from which my text is taken, and you\nhave thought it, no doubt, a pretty story. But did you ever think why it\nwas in the Bible?\n\nEvery book in the Bible is meant to teach us, as the Article of our\nChurch says, something necessary to salvation. But what is there\nnecessary to our salvation in the Book of Ruth?\n\nNo doubt we learn from it that Ruth was the ancestress of King David; and\nthat she was, therefore, an ancestress of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ:\nbut curious and interesting as that is, we can hardly call that something\nnecessary to salvation. There must be something more in the book. Let\nus take it simply as it stands, and see if we can find it out.\n\nIt begins by telling us how a man of Bethlehem has been driven out of his\nown country by a famine, he and his wife Naomi and his two sons, and has\ngone over the border into Moab, among the heathen; how his two sons have\nmarried heathen women, and the name of the one was Ruth, and the name of\nthe other Orpah. Then how he dies, and his two sons; and how Naomi, his\nwidow, hears that the Lord had visited His people, in giving them bread;\nhow the people of Judah were prosperous again, and she is there all alone\namong the heathen; so she sets out to go back to her own people, and her\ndaughters-in-law go with her.\n\nBut she persuades them not to go. Why do they not stay in their own\nland? And they weep over each other; and Orpah kisses her mother-in-law,\nand goes back; but Ruth cleaves unto her.\n\nThen follows that famous speech of Ruth\u2019s, which, for its simple beauty\nand poetry, has become a proverb, and even a song, among us to this day.\n\nAnd Ruth said, \u2018Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following\nafter thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I\nwill lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:\n\n\u2018Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so\nto me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.\u2019\n\nSo when she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go to her, she left\nspeaking to her.\n\nAnd they come to Bethlehem, and all the town was moved about them; and\nthey said, Is this Naomi?\n\n\u2018And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the\nAlmighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord\nhath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the\nLord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?\u2019\n\nAnd they came to Bethlehem about the passover tide, at the beginning of\nbarley harvest, and Ruth went out into the fields to glean, and she\nlighted on a part of the field which belonged to Boaz, who was of her\nhusband\u2019s kindred.\n\nAnd Boaz was a mighty man of wealth, according to the simple fashions of\nthat old land and old time. Not like one of our great modern noblemen,\nor merchants, but rather like one of our wealthy yeomen: a man who would\nnot disdain to work in his field with his own slaves, after the wholesome\nfashion of those old times, when a royal prince and mighty warrior would\nsow the corn with his own hands, while his man opened the furrow with the\nplough before him. There Boaz dwelt, with other yeomen, up among the\nlimestone hills, in the little walled village of Bethlehem, which was\nafterwards to become so famous and so holy; and had, we may suppose, his\nvineyard and his olive-garden on the rocky slopes, and his corn-fields in\nthe vale below, and his flock of sheep and goats feeding on the downs;\nwhile all his wealth besides lay, probably, after the Eastern fashion, in\none great chest\u2014full of rich dresses, and gold and silver ornaments, and\ncoins, all foreign, got in exchange for his corn, and wine, and oil, from\nAssyrian, or Egyptian, or Ph\u0153nician traders; for the Jews then had no\nmoney, and very little manufacture, of their own.\n\nAnd he would have had hired servants, too, and slaves, in his house;\ntreated kindly enough, as members of the family, eating and drinking at\nhis table, and faring nearly as well as he fared himself.\n\nA stately, God-fearing man he plainly was; respectable, courteous, and\nupright, and altogether worthy of his wealth; and he went out into the\nfield, looking after his reapers in the barley harvest\u2014about our\nEaster-tide.\n\nAnd he said to his reapers, The Lord be with you. And they answered, The\nLord bless thee.\n\nThen he saw Ruth, who had happened to light upon his field, gleaning\nafter the reapers, and found out who she was, and bid her glean without\nfear, and abide by his maidens, for he had charged the young men that\nthey shall not touch her.\n\n\u2018And Boaz said unto her, At meal-time come thou hither, and eat of the\nbread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the\nreapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was\nsufficed, and left.\n\n\u2018And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men,\nsaying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not: and\nlet fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them,\nthat she may glean them, and rebuke her not.\n\n\u2018So she gleaned in the field until even, and beat out that she had\ngleaned: and it was about an ephah of barley.\u2019\n\nThen follows the simple story, after the simple fashion of those days.\nHow Naomi bids Ruth wash and anoint herself, and put on her best\ngarments, and go down to Boaz\u2019 floor (his barn as we should call it now)\nwhere he is going to eat, and drink, and sleep, and there claim his\nprotection as a near kinsman.\n\nAnd how Ruth comes in softly and lies down at his feet, and how he treats\nher honourably and courteously, and promises to protect her. But there\nis a nearer kinsman than he, and he must be asked first if he will do the\nkinsman\u2019s part, and buy his cousin\u2019s plot of land, and marry his cousin\u2019s\nwidow with it.\n\nAnd how Boaz goes to the town-gate next day, and sits down in the gate\n(for the porch of the gate was a sort of town-hall or vestry-room in the\nEast, wherein all sorts of business was done), and there he challenges\nthe kinsman,\u2014Will he buy the ground and marry Ruth? And he will not: he\ncannot afford it. Then Boaz calls all the town to witness that day, that\nhe has bought all that was Elimelech\u2019s, and Ruth the Moabitess to be his\nwife.\n\n\u2018And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said, We are\nwitnesses. The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like\nRachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do\nthou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem.\u2019\n\nAnd in due time Ruth had a son. \u2018And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed\nbe the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that\nhis name may be famous in Israel.\n\n\u2018And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of\nthine old age: for thy daughter-in-law, which loveth thee, which is\nbetter to thee than seven sons, hath born him.\n\n\u2018And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse\nunto it.\n\n\u2018And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born\nto Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the\nfather of David.\u2019\n\nAnd so ends the Book of Ruth.\n\nNow, my friends, can you not answer for yourselves the question which I\nasked at first,\u2014Why is the story of Ruth in the Bible, and what may we\nlearn from it which is necessary for our salvation?\n\nI think, at least, that you will be able to answer it\u2014if not in words,\nstill in your hearts\u2014if you will read the book for yourselves.\n\nFor does it not consecrate to God that simple country life which we lead\nhere? Does it not tell us that it is blessed in the sight of Him who\nmakes the grass to grow, and the corn to ripen in its season?\n\nDoes it not tell us, that not only on the city and the palace, on the\ncathedral and the college, on the assemblies of statesmen, on the studies\nof scholars, but upon the meadow and the corn-field, the farm-house and\nthe cottage, is written, by the everlasting finger of God\u2014Holiness unto\nthe Lord? That it is all blessed in His sight; that the simple dwellers\nin villages, the simple tillers of the ground, can be as godly and as\npious, as virtuous and as high-minded, as those who have nought to do but\nto serve God in the offices of religion? Is it not an honour and a\ncomfort, to such as us, to find one whole book of the Holy Bible occupied\nby the simplest story of the fortunes of a yeoman\u2019s family, in a lonely\nvillage among the hills of Judah? True, the yeoman\u2019s widow became the\nancestress of David, and of his mighty line of kings\u2014nay, the ancestress\nof our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. But the Book of Ruth was not written\nmainly to tell us that fact. It mentions it at the end, and as it were\nby accident. The book itself is taken up with the most simple and\ncareful details of country life, country customs, country folk\u2014as if that\nwas what we were to think of, as we read of Ruth. And that is what we do\nthink of\u2014not of the ancestress of kings, but of the fair young heathen\ngleaning among the corn, with the pious, courteous, high-minded yeoman\nbidding her abide fast by his maidens, and when she was athirst drink of\nthe wine which the young men have drawn, for it has been fully showed him\nall she has done for her mother-in-law; and the Lord will recompense her\nwork, and a full reward be given her of the Lord God of Israel, under the\nshadow of whose wings she is to come to trust. That is the scene which\npainters naturally draw; that is what we naturally think of; because God,\nwho gave us the Bible, meant us to think thereof; and to know, that\nworking in the quiet village, or in the distant field, women may be as\npure and modest, men as high-minded and well-bred, and both as full of\nthe fear of God, and the thought that God\u2019s eye is upon them, as if they\nwere in a place, or a station, where they had nothing to do but to watch\nover the salvation of their own souls; that the meadow and the\nharvest-field need not be, as they too often are, places for temptation\nand for defilement; where the old too often teach the young, not to fear\nGod and keep themselves pure, but to copy their coarse jests and foul\nlanguage, and listen to stories which had better be buried for ever in\nthe dirt out of which they spring. You know what I mean. You know what\nfield-work too often is. Read the Book of Ruth, and see what field-work\nmay be, and ought to be.\n\nYes, my dear friends. Pure you may be, and gentle, upright, and godly,\nabout your daily work, if the Spirit of God be within you.\n\nCountry life has its temptations: and so has town life, and every life.\nBut there has no temptation taken you save such as is common to man.\nBoaz, the rich yeoman; Naomi, the broken-hearted and ruined; Ruth, the\nfair young widow\u2014all had the very same temptations as are common to you\nnow, here; but they conquered them, because they feared God and kept His\ncommandments; and to know that, is necessary for your salvation.\n\nAnd, looked at in this light, the Book of Ruth is indeed a prophecy; a\nforecast and a shadow of the teaching of the Lord Jesus Himself, who\nspake to country folk as never man spake before, and bade them look upon\nthe simple, every-day matters which were around them in field and wood,\nand open their eyes to the Divine lessons of God\u2019s providence, which also\nwere all around them; who, born Himself in that little village of\nBethlehem, and brought up in the little village of Nazareth, among the\nlonely lanes and downs, spoke of country things to country folk, and bade\nthem read in the great green book which God has laid open before them all\nday long. Who bade them to consider the lilies of the field, how they\ngrew, and the ravens, how God fed them; to look on the fields, white for\nharvest, and pray God to send labourers into his spiritual harvest-field;\nto look on the tares which grew among the wheat, and know we must not try\nto part them ourselves, but leave that to God at the last day; to look on\nthe fishers, who were casting their net into the Lake of Galilee, and\nsorting the fish upon the shore, and be sure that a day was coming, when\nGod would separate the good from the bad, and judge every man according\nto his work and worth; and to learn from the common things of country\nlife the rule of the living God, and the laws of the kingdom of heaven.\n\nOne word more, and I have done.\n\nThe story of Ruth is also the consecration of woman\u2019s love. I do not\nmean of the love of wife to husband, divine and blessed as that is. I\nmean that depth and strength of devotion, tenderness, and self-sacrifice,\nwhich God has put in the heart of all true women; and which they spend so\nstrangely, and so nobly often, on persons who have no claim on them, from\nwhom they can receive no earthly reward;\u2014the affection which made women\nminister of their substance to our Lord Jesus Christ; which brought Mary\nMagdalene to the foot of the Cross, and to the door of the tomb, that she\nmight at least see the last of Him whom she thought lost to her for ever;\nthe affection which has made a wise man say, that as long as women and\nsorrow are left in the world, so long will the Gospel of our Lord Jesus\nlive and conquer therein; the affection which makes women round us every\nday ministering angels, wherever help or comfort are needed; which makes\nmany a woman do deeds of unselfish goodness known only to God; not known\neven to herself; for she does them by instinct, by the inspiration of\nGod\u2019s Spirit, without self-consciousness or pride, without knowing what\nnoble things she is doing, without spoiling the beauty of her good work\nby even admitting to herself, \u2018What a good work it is! How right she is\nin doing it! How much it will advance the salvation of her own\nsoul!\u2019\u2014but thinking herself, perhaps, a very useless and paltry person;\nwhile the angels of God are claiming her as their sister and their peer.\n\nYes, if there is a woman in this congregation\u2014and there is one, I will\nwarrant, in every congregation in England\u2014who is devoting herself for the\ngood of others; giving up the joys of life to take care of orphans who\nhave no legal claim on her; or to nurse a relation, who perhaps repays\nher with little but exacting peevishness; or who has spent all her\nsavings, in bringing up her brothers, or in supporting her parents in\ntheir old age,\u2014then let her read the story of Ruth, and be sure that,\nlike Ruth, she will be repaid by the Lord. Her reward may not be the\nsame as Ruth\u2019s: but it will be that which is best for her, and she shall\nin no wise lose her reward. If she has given up all for Christ, it shall\nbe repaid her ten-fold in this life, and in the world to come life\neverlasting. If, with Ruth, she is true to the inspirations of God\u2019s\nSpirit, then, with Ruth, God will be true to her. Let her endure, for in\ndue time she shall reap, if she faint not;\u2014and to know that, is necessary\nfor her salvation.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XI.\nSOLOMON.\n\n\n ECCLESIASTES i. 12\u201314.\n\n I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I gave my\n heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are\n done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of\n man to be exercised therewith. I have seen all the works that are\n done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of\n spirit.\n\nALL have heard of Solomon the Wise. His name has become a proverb among\nmen. It was still more a proverb among the old Rabbis, the lawyers and\nscribes of the Gospels.\n\nTheir hero, the man of whom they delighted to talk and dream, was not\nDavid, the Psalmist, and the shepherd-boy, the man of many wanderings,\nand many sorrows: but his son Solomon, with all his wealth, and pomp and\nmagic wisdom. Ever since our Lord\u2019s time, if not before it, Solomon has\nbeen the national hero of the Jews; while David, as the truer type and\npattern of the Lord Jesus Christ, has been the hero of Christians.\n\nThe Rabbis, with their Eastern fancy\u2014childishly fond, to this day, of\ngold, and jewels, and outward pomp and show\u2014would talk and dream of the\nlost glories of Solomon\u2019s court; of his gilded and jewelled temple, with\nits pillars of sandal-wood from Ophir, and its sea of molten brass; of\nhis ivory lion-throne, and his three hundred golden shields; of his\nfleets which went away into the far Indian sea, and came back after three\nyears with foreign riches and curious beasts. And as if that had not\nbeen enough, they delighted to add to the truth fable upon fable. The\nJews, after the time of the Babylonish captivity, seem to have more and\nmore identified Wisdom with mere Magic; and therefore Solomon was, in\ntheir eyes, the master of all magicians. He knew the secrets of the\nstars, and of the elements, the secrets of all charms and spells. By\nvirtue of his magic seal he had power over all those evil spirits, with\nwhich the Jews believed the earth and sky to be filled. He could command\nall spirits, force them to appear to him and bow before him, and send\nthem to the ends of the earth to do his bidding. Nothing so fantastic,\nnothing so impossible, but those old Scribes and Pharisees imputed it to\ntheir idol, Solomon the Wise.\n\nThe Bible, of course, has no such fancies in it, and gives us a sober and\nrational account of Solomon\u2019s wisdom, and of Solomon\u2019s greatness.\n\nIt tells us how, when he was yet young, God appeared to him in a dream,\nand said, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon made answer\u2014\n\n\u2018 . . . O Lord my God, Thou hast made Thy servant king instead of David\nmy father; and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come\nin.\n\n\u2018Give therefore Thy servant an understanding heart to judge Thy people,\nthat I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this\nThy so great a people?\n\n\u2018And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.\n\n\u2018And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not\nasked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor\nhast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself\nunderstanding to discern judgment;\n\n\u2018Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise\nand an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee,\nneither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.\n\n\u2018And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches\nand honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee\nall thy days.\u2019\n\nAnd the promise, says Solomon himself, was fulfilled.\n\nIn his days Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the\nsea-shore, for multitude, eating and drinking and making merry; and\nSolomon reigned over all kings, from the river to the land of the\nPhilistines and the border of Egypt; and they brought presents, and\nserved Solomon all the days of his life. And he had peace on all sides\nround about him. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his\nown vine and his own fig-tree, all the days of Solomon.\n\n\u2018I was great,\u2019 he says, \u2018and increased more than all that were before me\nin Jerusalem; also my wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes\ndesired I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any joy; for\nmy heart rejoiced in all my labour . . .\n\n\u2018Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the\nlabour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and\nvexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.\n\n\u2018And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what\ncan the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been\nalready done.\u2019\n\nYes, my dear friends, we are too apt to think of exceeding riches, or\nwisdom, or power, or glory, as unalloyed blessings from God. How many\nare there who would say,\u2014if it were not happily impossible for them,\u2014Oh\nthat I were like Solomon! Happy man that he was, to be able to say of\nhimself, \u2018I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in\nJerusalem. And whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them; I\nwithheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my\nlabour.\u2019\n\nTo have everything that he wanted, to be able to do anything that he\nliked\u2014was he not a happy man? Is not such a life a Paradise on earth?\n\nYes, my friends, it is. But it is the Paradise of fools.\n\nYet, Solomon was not a fool. He says expressly that his wisdom remained\nwith him through all his labour. Through all his pleasure he kept alive\nthe longing after knowledge. He even tried, as he says, wine, and mirth,\nand folly, yet acquainting himself with wisdom. He would try that, as\nwell as statesmanship, and the rule of a great kingdom, and the building\nof temples and palaces, and the planting of parks and gardens, and his\nthree thousand Proverbs, and his Songs a thousand and five; and his\nspeech of beasts and of birds and of all plants, from the cedar in\nLebanon to the hyssop which groweth on the wall. He would know\neverything, and try everything. If he was luxurious and proud, he would\nbe no idler, no useless gay liver. He would work, and discern, and\nknow,\u2014and at last he found it all out, and this was the sum\nthereof\u2014\u2018Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity.\u2019\n\nHe found no rest in pleasure, riches, power, glory, wisdom itself; he had\nlearnt nothing more after all than he might have known, and doubtless did\nknow, when he was a child of seven years old. And that was, simply to\nfear God and keep His commandments; for that was the whole duty of man.\n\nBut though he knew it, he had lost the power of doing it; and he ended\ndarkly and shamefully, a dotard worshipping idols of wood and stone,\namong his heathen queens. And thus, as in David the height of chivalry\nfell to the deepest baseness; so in Solomon the height of wisdom fell to\nthe deepest folly.\n\nMy friends, the truth is, that exceeding gifts from God like Solomon\u2019s\nare not blessings, they are duties; and very solemn and heavy duties.\nThey do not increase a man\u2019s happiness; they only increase his\nresponsibility\u2014the awful account which he must give at last of the\ntalents committed to his charge. They increase, too, his danger. They\nincrease the chance of his having his head turned to pride and pleasure,\nand falling shamefully, and coming to a miserable end. As with David, so\nwith Solomon. Man is nothing, and God is all in all.\n\nAnd as with David and Solomon, so with many a king and many a great man.\nConsider those who have been great and glorious in their day. And in how\nmany cases they have ended sadly! The burden of glory has been too heavy\nfor them to bear; they have broken down under it.\n\nThe great Charles the Fifth, Emperor of Germany and King of Spain and all\nthe Indies: our own great Queen Elizabeth, who found England all but\nruined, and left her strong and rich, glorious and terrible: Lord Bacon,\nthe wisest of all mortal men since the time of Solomon: and, in our own\nfathers\u2019 time, Napoleon Buonaparte, the poor young officer, who rose to\nbe the conqueror of half Europe, and literally the king of kings,\u2014how\nhave they all ended? In sadness and darkness, vanity and vexation of\nspirit.\n\nOh, my friends! if ever proud and ambitious thoughts arise in any of our\nhearts, let us crush them down till we can say with David: \u2018Lord, my\nheart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself\nin great matters, or in things too high for me.\n\n\u2018Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of\nhis mother; my soul is even as a weaned child.\u2019\n\nAnd if ever idle and luxurious thoughts arise in our hearts, and we are\ntempted to say, \u2018Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take\nthine ease, eat, drink, and be merry;\u2019 let us hear the word of the Lord\ncrying against us: \u2018Thou fool! This night shall thy soul be required of\nthee. Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?\u2019\n\nLet us pray, my friends, for that great\u2014I had almost said, that crowning\ngrace and virtue of moderation, what St. Paul calls sobriety and a sound\nmind. Let us pray for moderate appetites, moderate passions, moderate\nhonours, moderate gains, moderate joys; and, if sorrows be needed to\nchasten us, moderate sorrows. Let us long violently after nothing, or\nwish too eagerly to rise in life; and be sure that what the Apostle says\nof those who long to be rich is equally true of those who long to be\nfamous, or powerful, or in any way to rise over the heads of their\nfellow-men. They all fall, as the Apostle says, into foolish and hurtful\nlusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition, and so pierce\nthemselves through with many sorrows.\n\nAnd let us thank God heartily if He has put us into circumstances which\ndo not tempt us to wild and vain hopes of becoming rich, or great or\nadmired by men.\n\nEspecially let us thank Him for this quiet country life which we lead\nhere, free from ambition, and rash speculation, and the hope of great and\nsudden gains. All know, who have watched the world, how unwholesome for\na man\u2019s soul any trade or occupation is which offers the chance of making\na rapid fortune. It has hurt the souls of too many merchants and\nmanufacturers ere now. Good and sober-minded men there are among them,\nthank God, who can resist the temptation, and are content to go along the\nplain path of quiet and patient honesty; but to those who have not the\nsober spirit, who have not the fear of God before their eyes, the\ntemptation is too terrible to withstand; and it is not withstood; and\ntherefore the columns of our newspapers are so often filled with sad\ncases of bankruptcy, forgery, extravagant and desperate trading, bubble\nfortunes spent in a few years of vain show and luxury, and ending in\npoverty and shame.\n\nHappy, on the other hand, are those who till the ground; who never can\nrise high enough, or suddenly enough, to turn their heads; whose gains\nare never great and quick enough to tempt them to wild speculation: but\nwho can, if they will only do their duty patiently and well, go on year\nafter year in quiet prosperity, and be content to offer up, week by week,\nAgur\u2019s wise prayer: \u2018Give me neither poverty nor riches, but feed me with\nfood sufficient for me.\u2019\n\nThey need never complain that they have no time to think of their own\nsouls; that the hurry and bustle of business must needs drive religion\nout of their minds. Their life passes in a quiet round of labours. Day\nafter day, week after week, season after season, they know beforehand\nwhat they have to do, and can arrange their affairs for this world, so as\nto give them full time to think of the world to come. Every week brings\nsmall gains, for which they can thank the God of all plenty; and every\nweek brings, too, small anxieties, for which they can trust the same God\nwho has given them His only-begotten Son, and will with Him freely give\nthem all things needful for them; who has, in mercy to their souls and\nbodies, put them in the healthiest and usefullest of all pursuits, the\none which ought to lead their minds most to God, and the one in which (if\nthey be thoughtful men) they have the deep satisfaction of feeling that\nthey are not working for themselves only, but for their fellow-men; that\nevery sheaf of corn they grow is a blessing, not merely to themselves,\nbut to the whole nation.\n\nMy friends, think of these things, especially at this rich and blessed\nharvest-time; and while you thank your God and your Saviour for His\nunexampled bounty in this year\u2019s good harvest, do not forget to thank Him\nfor having given the sowing and the reaping of those crops to you; and\nfor having called you to that business in life in which, I verily\nbelieve, you will find it most easy to serve and obey Him, and be least\ntempted to ambition and speculation, and the lust of riches, and the\npride which goes before a fall.\n\nThink of these things; and think of the exceeding mercies which God heaps\non you as Englishmen,\u2014peace and safety, freedom and just laws, the\nknowledge of His Bible, the teaching of His Church, and all that man\nneeds for body and soul. Let those who have thanked God already, thank\nHim still more earnestly, and show their thankfulness not only in their\nlips, but in their lives; and let those who have not thanked Him, awake,\nand learn, as St. Paul bids them, from God\u2019s own witness of Himself, in\nthat He has sent them fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food\nand gladness:\u2014let them learn, I say, from that, that they have a Father\nin heaven who has given them His only-begotten Son, and will with Him\nfreely give them all things needful: only asking in return that they\nshould obey His laws\u2014to obey which is everlasting life.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XII.\nPROGRESS.\n\n\n (_Preached before the Queen at Clifden_, _June_ 3, 1866.)\n\n ECCLESIASTES vii. 10,\n\n Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than\n these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this.\n\nTHIS text occurs in the Book of Ecclesiastes, which has been for many\ncenturies generally attributed to Solomon the son of David. I say\ngenerally, because, not only among later critics, but even among the\nancient Jewish Rabbis, there have been those who doubted or denied that\nSolomon was its author.\n\nI cannot presume to decide on such a question: but it seems to me most\nprobable, that the old tradition is right, even though the book may have\nsuffered alterations, both in form and in language: but any later author,\npersonating Solomon, would surely have put into his month very different\nwords from those of Ecclesiastes. Solomon was the ideal hero-king of the\nlater Jews. Stories of his superhuman wealth, of magical power, of a\nfabulous extent of dominion, grew up about his name. He who was said to\ncontrol, by means of his wondrous seal, the genii of earth and air, would\nscarcely have been represented as a disappointed and broken-hearted sage,\nwho pronounced all human labour to be vanity and vexation of spirit; who\nsaw but one event for the righteous and the wicked, and the wise man and\nthe fool; and questioned bitterly whether there was any future state, any\npre-eminence in man over the brute.\n\nThese, and other startling utterances, made certain of the early Rabbis\ndoubt the authenticity and inspiration of the Book of Ecclesiastes, as\ncontaining things contrary to the Law, and to desire its suppression,\ntill they discovered in it\u2014as we may, if we be wise\u2014a weighty and\nworld-wide meaning.\n\nBe that as it may, it would certainly be a loss to Scripture, and to our\nknowledge of humanity, if it was proved that this book, in its original\nshape, was not written by a great king, and most probably by Solomon\nhimself. The book gains by that fact, not only in its reality and\ntruthfulness, but in its value and importance as a lesson of human life.\nEspecially does this text gain; for it has a natural and deep connection\nwith Solomon and his times.\n\nThe former days were better than his days: he could not help seeing that\nthey were. He must have feared lest the generation which was springing\nup should inquire into the reason thereof, in a tone which would\nbreed\u2014which actually did breed\u2014discontent and revolution.\n\nBut the fact seemed at first sight patent. The old heroic days of Samuel\nand David were past. The Jewish race no longer produced such men as Saul\nand Jonathan, as Joab and Abner. A generation of great men, whose names\nare immortal, had died out, and a generation of inferior men, of whom\nhardly one name has come down to us, had succeeded them. The nation had\nlost its prim\u00e6val freedom, and the courage and loyalty which freedom\ngives. It had become rich, and enervated by luxury and ease. Solomon\nhad civilised the Jewish kingdom, till it had become one of the greatest\nnations of the East; but it had become also, like the other nations of\nthe East, a vast and gaudy despotism, hollow and rotten to the core;\nready to fall to pieces at Solomon\u2019s death, by selfishness, disloyalty,\nand civil war. Therefore it was that Solomon hated all his labour that\nhe had wrought under the sun; for all was vanity and vexation of spirit.\n\nSuch were the facts. And yet it was not wise to look at them too\nclosely; not wise to inquire why the former times were better than those.\nSo it was. Let it alone. Pry not too curiously into the past, or into\nthe future: but do the duty which lies nearest to thee. Fear God and\nkeep His commandments. For that is the whole duty of man.\n\nThus does Solomon lament over the certain decay of the Jewish Empire.\nAnd his words, however sad, are indeed eternal and inspired. For they\nhave proved true, and will prove true to the end, of every despotism of\nthe East, or empire formed on Eastern principles; of the old Persian\nEmpire, of the Roman, of the Byzantine, of those of Hairoun Alraschid and\nof Aurungzebe, of those Turkish and Chinese-Tartar empires whose dominion\nis decaying before our very eyes. Of all these the wise man\u2019s words are\ntrue. They are vanity and vexation of spirit. That which is crooked\ncannot be made straight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.\nThe thing which has been is that which shall be, and there is no new\nthing under the sun. Incapacity of progress; the same outward\ncivilization repeating itself again and again; the same intrinsic\ncertainty of decay and death;\u2014these are the marks of all empire, which is\nnot founded on that foundation which is laid, even Jesus Christ.\n\nBut of Christian nations these words are not true. They pronounce the\ndoom of the old world: but the new world has no part in them, unless it\ncopies the sins and follies of the old.\n\nIt is not true of Christian nations that the thing which has been is that\nwhich shall be; and that there is no new thing under the sun. For over\nthem is the kingdom of Christ, the Saviour of all men, specially of them\nwhich believe, the King of all the princes of the earth, who has always\nasserted, and will for ever assert, His own overruling dominion. And in\nthem is the Spirit of God, which is the spirit of truth and\nrighteousness; of improvement, discovery, progress from darkness to\nlight, from folly to wisdom, from barbarism to justice, and mercy, and\nthe true civilization of the heart and spirit.\n\nAnd, therefore, for us it is not only an act of prudence, but a duty; a\nduty of faith in God; a duty of loyalty to Jesus Christ our Lord, not to\nask, Why the former times were better than these? For they were not\nbetter than these. Every age has had its own special nobleness, its own\nspecial use: but every age has been better than the age which went before\nit; for the Spirit of God is leading the ages on, toward that whereof it\nis written, \u2018Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into\nthe heart of man to conceive, the things which God hath prepared for\nthose that love Him.\u2019\n\nVery unfaithful are we to the teaching of God\u2019s Spirit; many and heavy\nare our sins against light and knowledge, and means, and opportunities of\ngrace. But let us not add to those sins the sin (for such it is) of\ninquiring why the former times were better than these.\n\nFor, first, the inquiry shows disbelief in our Lord\u2019s own words, that all\ndominion is given to Him in heaven and earth, and that He is with us\nalways, even to the end of the world. And next, it is a vain inquiry,\nbased on a mistake. When we look back longingly to any past age, we look\nnot at the reality, but at a sentimental and untrue picture of our own\nimagination. When we look back longingly to the so-called ages of faith,\nto the personal loyalty of the old Cavaliers; when we regret that there\nare no more among us such giants in statesmanship and power as those who\nbrought Europe through the French Revolution; when we long that our lot\nwas cast in any age beside our own, we know not what we ask. The ages\nwhich seem so beautiful afar off, would look to us, were we in them,\nuglier than our own. If we long to be back in those so-called devout\nages of faith, we long for an age in which witches and heretics were\nburned alive; if we long after the chivalrous loyalty of the old\nCavaliers, we long for an age in which stage-plays were represented, even\nbefore a virtuous monarch like Charles I., which the lowest of our\nplaygoers would not now tolerate. When we long for anything that is\npast, we long, it may be, for a little good which we seem to have lost;\nbut we long also for real and fearful evil, which, thanks be to God, we\nhave lost likewise. We are not, indeed, to fancy this age perfect, and\nboast, like some, of the glorious nineteenth century. We are to keep our\neyes open to all its sins and defects, that we may amend them. And we\nare to remember, in fear and trembling, that to us much is given, and of\nus much is required. But we are to thank God that our lot is cast in an\nage which, on the whole, is better than any age whatsoever that has gone\nbefore it, and to do our best that the age which is coming may be better\neven than this.\n\nWe are neither to regret the past, nor rest satisfied in the present;\nbut, like St. Paul, forgetting those things that are behind us, and\nreaching onward to those things that are before us, press forward, each\nand all, to the prize of our high calling in Jesus Christ.\n\nAnd as with nations and empires, so with our own private lives. It is\nnot wise to ask why the former times were better than these. It is\nnatural, pardonable: but not wise; because we are so apt to mistake the\nsubject about which we ask, and when we say, \u2018Why were the old times\nbetter?\u2019 merely to mean, \u2018Why were the old times happier?\u2019 That is not\nthe question. There is something higher than happiness, says a wise man.\nThere is blessedness; the blessedness of being good and doing good, of\nbeing right and doing right. That blessedness we may have at all times;\nwe may be blest even in anxiety and in sadness; we may be blest, even as\nthe martyrs of old were blest\u2014in agony and death. The times are to us\nwhatsoever our character makes them. And if we are better men than we\nwere in former times, then is the present better than the past, even\nthough it be less happy. And why should it not be better? Surely the\nSpirit of God, the spirit of progress and improvement, is working in us,\nthe children of God, as well as in the great world around. Surely the\nyears ought to have made us better, more useful, more worthy. We may\nhave been disappointed in our lofty ideas of what ought to be done. But\nwe may have gained more clear and practical notions of what can be done.\nWe may have lost in enthusiasm, and yet gained in earnestness. We may\nhave lost in sensibility, yet gained in charity, activity, and power. We\nmay be able to do far less, and yet what we do may be far better done.\n\nAnd our very griefs and disappointments\u2014Have they been useless to us?\nSurely not. We shall have gained, instead of lost, by them, if the\nSpirit of God be working in us. Our sorrows will have wrought in us\npatience, our patience experience of God\u2019s sustaining grace, who promises\nthat as our day our strength shall be; and of God\u2019s tender providence,\nwhich tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, and lays on none a burden\nbeyond what they are able to bear. And that experience will have worked\nin us hope: hope that He who has led us thus far will lead us farther\nstill; that He who brought us through the trials of youth, will bring us\nthrough the trials of age; that He who taught us in former days precious\nlessons, not only by sore temptations, but most sacred joys, will teach\nus in the days to come fresh lessons by temptations which we shall be\nmore able to endure; and by joys which, though unlike those of old times,\nare no less sacred, no less sent as lessons to our souls, by Him from\nwhom all good gifts come.\n\nWe will believe this. And instead of inquiring why the former days were\nbetter than these, we will trust that the coming days shall be better\nthan these, and those which are coming after them better still again,\nbecause God is our Father, Christ our Saviour, the Holy Ghost our\nComforter and Guide. We will toil onward: because we know we are toiling\nupward. We will live in hope, not in regret; because hope is the only\nstate of mind fit for a race for whom God has condescended to stoop, and\nsuffer, and die, and rise again. We will believe that we, and all we\nlove, whether in earth or heaven, are destined\u2014if we be only true to\nGod\u2019s Spirit\u2014to rise, improve, progress for ever: and so we will claim\nour share, and keep our place, in that vast ascending and improving scale\nof being, which, as some dream\u2014and surely not in vain\u2014goes onward and\nupward for ever throughout the universe of Him who wills that none should\nperish.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XIII.\nFAITH.\n\n\n (_Preached before the Queen at Windsor_, _December_ 5, 1865)\n\n HABAKKUK ii. 4.\n\n The just shall live by his faith.\n\nWE shall always find it most safe, as well as most reverent, to inquire\nfirst the literal and exact meaning of a text; to see under what\ncircumstances it was written; what meaning it must have conveyed to those\nwho heard it; and so to judge what it must have meant in the mind of him\nwho spoke it. If we do so, we shall find that the simplest\ninterpretation of Scripture is generally the deepest; and the most\nliteral interpretation is also the most spiritual.\n\nLet us examine the circumstances under which the prophet spake these\nwords.\n\nIt was on the eve of a Chaldean invasion. The heathen were coming into\nJudea, as we see them still in the Assyrian sculptures\u2014civilizing, after\ntheir barbarous fashion, the nations round them\u2014conquering, massacring,\ntransporting whole populations, building cities and temples by their\nforced labour; and resistance or escape was impossible.\n\nThe prophet\u2019s faith fails him a moment. What is this but a triumph of\nevil? Is there a Divine Providence? Is there a just Ruler of the world?\nAnd he breaks out into pathetic expostulation with God Himself:\n\u2018Wherefore lookest Thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest\nThy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than\nhe? And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things,\nwhich have no ruler over them? They take up all of them with the line,\nthey gather them with the net. Therefore they sacrifice unto their net,\nand burn incense to their line; for by it their portion is fat, and their\nmeat plenteous. Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare to\nslay continually the nations?\u2019\n\nThen the Lord answers his doubts: \u2018Behold, his soul which is lifted up is\nnot upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.\u2019\n\nBy his faith, plainly, in a just Ruler of the world,\u2014in a God who avenges\nwrong, and makes inquisition for innocent blood. He who will keep his\nfaith in that just God, will remain just himself. The sense of Justice\nwill be kept alive in him; and the just will live by his Faith.\n\nThe prophet believes that message; and a mighty change passes over his\nspirit. In a burst of magnificent poetry, he proclaims woe to the unjust\nChaldean conqueror. All his greatness is a bubble which will burst; a\nsuicidal mistake, which will work out its own punishment, and make him a\ntaunt and a mockery to all nations round. \u2018Woe to him who increaseth\nthat which is not his, and ladeth himself with thick clay! Woe to him\nthat coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest\non high, and be delivered from the power of evil! Woe to him that\nbuildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city with iniquity!\nBehold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labour in\nthe very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?\u2019\nThere is a true civilization for man; but not according to the unjust and\ncruel method of those Chaldeans. The Law of the true Civilization, the\nprophet says, is this: \u2018The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the\nLord, as the waters cover the sea.\u2019\n\nBut what is this to us? Are we like the Chaldeans? God forbid. But are\nwe not tried by the same temptations to which they blindly yielded? A\nnation, strong, rich, luxurious, prosperous in industry at home, and\naggressive (if not in theory, certainly in practice) to less civilized\nraces abroad\u2014are we not tempted daily to that habit of mind which the\nprophet calls\u2014with that tremendous irony in which the Hebrew prophets\nsurpass all writers\u2014looking on men as the fishes of the sea, as the\ncreeping things which have no ruler over them, born to devour each other,\nand be caught and devoured in their turn, by a race more cunning than\nthemselves? There are those among us in thousands, thank God, who nobly\nresist that temptation; and they are the very salt of the land, who keep\nit from decay. But for the many\u2014for the public\u2014do not too many of them\nbelieve that the law of human society is, after all, only that\ninternecine conflict of interests, that brute struggle for existence,\nwhich naturalists tell us (and truly) is the law of life for mere plants\nand animals? Are they not tempted to forget that men are not mere\nanimals and things, but persons; that they have a Ruler over them, even\nGod, who desires to educate them, to sanctify them, to develop their\nevery faculty, that they may be His children, and not merely our tools;\nand do God\u2019s work in the world, and not merely their employer\u2019s work?\nAre they not\u2014are we not all\u2014tempted too often to forget this?\n\nAnd, then, are we not tempted, all of us, to fall down like the Chaldeans\nand worship our own net, because by it our portion is fat, and our meat\nplenteous? Are we not tempted to say within ourselves, \u2018This present\nsystem of things, with all its anomalies and its defects, still is the\nright system, and the only system. It is the path pointed out by\nProvidence for man. It is of the Lord; for we are comfortable under it.\nWe grow rich under it; we keep rank and power under it: it suits us, pays\nus. What better proof that it is the perfect system of things, which\ncannot be amended?\u2019\n\nMeanwhile, we are sorry (for the English are a kind-hearted people) for\nthe victims of our luxury and our neglect. Sorry for the thousands whom\nwe let die every year by preventible diseases, because we are either too\nbusy or too comfortable to save their lives. Sorry for the savages whom\nwe exterminate, by no deliberate evil intent, but by the mere weight of\nour heavy footstep. Sorry for the thousands who are used-up yearly in\ncertain trades, in ministering to our comfort, even to our very luxuries\nand frivolities. Sorry for the Sheffield grinders, who go to work as to\ncertain death; who count how many years they have left, and say, \u2018A short\nlife and a merry one. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.\u2019\nSorry for the people whose lower jaws decay away in lucifer-match\nfactories. Sorry for all the miseries and wrongs which this Children\u2019s\nEmployment Commission has revealed. Sorry for the diseases of artificial\nflower-makers. Sorry for the boys working in glass-houses whole days and\nnights on end without rest, \u2018labouring in the very fire, and wearying\nthemselves with very vanity.\u2019\u2014Vanity, indeed, if after an amount of\ngallant toil which nothing but the indomitable courage of an Englishman\ncould endure, they grow up animals and heathens. We are sorry for them\nall\u2014as the giant is for the worm on which he treads. Alas! poor worm.\nBut the giant must walk on. He is necessary to the universe, and the\nworm is not. So we are sorry\u2014for half an hour; and glad too (for we are\na kind-hearted people) to hear that charitable persons or the government\nare going to do something towards alleviating these miseries. And then\nwe return, too many of us, each to his own ambition, or to his own\nluxury, comforting ourselves with the thought, that we did not make the\nworld, and we are not responsible for it.\n\nHow shall we conquer this temptation to laziness, selfishness,\nheartlessness? By faith in God, such as the prophet had. By faith in\nGod as the eternal enemy of evil, the eternal helper of those who try to\novercome evil with good; the eternal avenger of all the wrong which is\ndone on earth. By faith in God, as not only our Father, our Saviour, our\nRedeemer, our Protector: but the Father, Saviour, Redeemer, Protector,\nand if need be, Avenger, of every human being. By faith in God, which\nbelieves that His infinite heart yearns over every human soul, even the\nbasest and the worst; that He wills that not one little one should\nperish, but that all should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the\ntruth.\n\nWe must believe that, if we wish that it should be true of us, that the\njust shall live by his faith. If we wish our faith to keep us just men,\nleading just lives, we must believe that God is just, and that He shows\nHis justice by the only possible method\u2014by doing justice, sooner or\nlater, for all who are unjustly used.\n\nIf we lose that faith, we shall be in danger\u2014in more than danger\u2014of\nbecoming unjust ourselves. As we fancy God to be, so shall we become\nourselves. If we believe that God cares little for mankind, we shall\ncare less and less for them ourselves. If we believe that God neglects\nthem, we shall neglect them likewise.\n\nAnd then the sense of justice\u2014justice for its own sake, justice as the\nlikeness and will of God\u2014will die out in us, and our souls will surely\nnot live, but die.\n\nFor there will die out in our hearts, just the most noble and God-like\nfeelings which God has put into them. The instinct of chivalry; horror\nof cruelty and injustice; pity for the weak and ill-used; the longing to\nset right whatever is wrong; and, what is even more important, the Spirit\nof godly fear, of wholesome terror of God\u2019s wrath, which makes us say,\nwhen we hear of any great and general sin among us, \u2018If we do not do our\nbest to set this right, then God, who does not make men like creeping\nthings, will take the matter into His own hands, and punish us easy,\nluxurious people, for allowing such things to be done.\u2019\n\nAnd when a man loses that spirit of chivalry, he loses his own soul. For\nthat spirit of chivalry, let worldlings say what they will, is the very\nspirit of our spirit, the salt which keeps our characters from utter\ndecay\u2014the very instinct which raises us above the selfishness of the\nbrute. Yea, it is the Spirit of God Himself. For what is the feeling of\nhorror at wrong, of pity for the wronged, of burning desire to set wrong\nright, save the Spirit of the Father and the Son, the Spirit which\nbrought down the Lord Jesus out of the highest heaven, to stoop, to\nserve, to suffer and to die, that He might seek and save that which was\nlost?\n\nSome say that the age of chivalry is past: that the spirit of romance is\ndead. The age of chivalry is never past, as long as there is a wrong\nleft unredressed on earth, and a man or woman left to say, \u2018I will\nredress that wrong, or spend my life in the attempt.\u2019\n\nThe age of chivalry is never past, as long as men have faith enough in\nGod to say, \u2018God will help me to redress that wrong; or if not me, surely\nhe will help those that come after me. For His eternal will is, to\novercome evil with good.\u2019\n\nThe spirit of romance will never die, as long as there is a man left to\nsee that the world might and can be better, happier, wiser, fairer in all\nthings, than it is now. The spirit of romance will never die, as long as\na man has faith in God to believe that the world will actually be better\nand fairer than it is now; as long as men have faith, however weak, to\nbelieve in the romance of all romances; in the wonder of all wonders; in\nthat, of which all poets\u2019 dreams have been but childish hints, and dumb\nforefeelings\u2014even\n\n \u2018That one far-off divine event\n Towards which the whole creation moves;\u2019\n\nthat wonder of which prophets and apostles have told, each according to\nhis light; that wonder which Habakkuk saw afar off, and foretold how that\nthe earth should be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters\ncover the sea; that wonder which Isaiah saw afar off, and sang how the\nLord should judge among the nations, and rebuke among many people; and\nthey should beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into\npruning-hooks; nation should not rise against nation, neither should they\nlearn war any more; that wonder of which St Paul prophesied, and said\nthat Christ should reign till He had put all His enemies under His feet;\nthat wonder of which St. John prophesied; and said, \u2018I saw the Holy City,\nnew Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven. And the nations of\nthem that are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the\nearth bring their glory and their honour unto it;\u2019 that wonder, finally,\nwhich our Lord Himself bade us pray for, as for our daily bread, and say,\n\u2018Father, thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.\n\n\u2018Thy will be done on earth.\u2019 He who bade us ask that boon for\ngenerations yet unborn, was very God of very God. Do you think that He\nwould have bidden us ask a blessing, which He knew would never come?\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XIV.\nTHE GREAT COMMANDMENT.\n\n\n MATT. xxii. 37, 32.\n\n Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy\n soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great\n commandment.\n\nSOME say, when they hear this,\u2014It is a hard saying. Who can bear it?\nWho can expect us to do as much as that? If we are asked to be\nrespectable and sober, to live and let live, not to harm our neighbours\nwilfully or spitefully, and to come to church tolerably regularly\u2014we\nunderstand being asked to do that\u2014it is fair. But to love the Lord our\nGod with all our hearts. That must be meant only for very great saints;\nfor a few exceedingly devout people here and there. And devout people\nhave been too apt to say,\u2014You are right. It is we who are to love God\nwith all our hearts and souls, and give up the world, and marriage, and\nall the joys of life, and turn priests, monks, and nuns, while you need\nonly be tolerably respectable, and attend to your religious duties from\ntime to time, while we will pray for you. But, my friends, if we read\nour Bibles, we cannot allow that. \u2018Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,\u2019\nwas spoken not to monks and nuns (for there were none in those days), not\nto great saints only (for we read of none just then), not even to priests\nand clergymen only. It was said to all the Jews, high and low, free and\nslave, soldier and labourer, alike\u2014\u2018Thou, a man living in the world, and\ndoing work in the world, with wife and family, farm and cattle, horse to\nride, and weapon to wear\u2014thou shalt love the Lord thy God.\u2019\n\nAnd therefore these words are said to you and me. We English are neither\nmonks nor nuns, nor likely (thank God) to become so. We are in the\nworld, with our own family ties and duties, our own worldly business.\nAnd to us, to you and me, as to those old Jews, the first and great\ncommandment is, \u2018Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.\u2019\n\nWhat, then, does it mean? Does it mean that we are to have the same love\ntoward God as we have toward a wife or a husband?\n\nCertainly not. But it means at least this\u2014the love which we should bear\ntoward a Father. All, my friends, turns on this. Do you look on God as\nyour Father, or do you not? God is your Father, remember, already. You\ncannot (as some people seem to think) make Him your Father by believing\nthat He is one; and you need not, thanks to His mercy. Neither can you\nmake Him not your Father by forgetting Him. Be you wise or foolish,\nright or wrong, God is your Father in heaven; and you ought to feel\ntowards Him as towards a father, not with any sentimental, fanciful,\nfanatical affection; but with a reverent, solemn, and rational affection;\nsuch as that which the good old Catechism bids us have, when it tells us\nour duty toward God.\n\n\u2018My duty towards God is to believe in Him, to fear Him, and to love Him\nwith all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my\nstrength; to worship Him, to give Him thanks, to put my whole trust in\nHim, to call upon Him, to honour His holy Name and His Word, and to serve\nHim truly all the days of my life.\u2019\n\nNow, I ask you\u2014and what I ask you I ask myself,\u2014Do we love the Lord our\nGod thus? And if not, why not?\n\nI do not ask you to tell me. I am not going to tell you what is in my\nheart; and I do not ask you to tell me what is in yours. We are free\nEnglishmen, who keep ourselves to ourselves, and think for ourselves,\neach man in the depths of his own heart; and who are the stronger and the\nwiser for not talking about our feelings to any man, priest or layman.\n\nBut ask yourselves, each of you,\u2014Do I love God? And if not, why not?\n\nThere are two reasons, I believe, which are, alas! very common. For one\nof them there are great excuses; for the other, there is no excuse\nwhatsoever.\n\nIn the first place, too many find it difficult to love God, because they\nhave not been taught that God is loveable, and worthy of their love.\nThey have been taught dark and hard doctrines, which have made them\nafraid of God.\n\nThey have been taught\u2014too many are taught still\u2014not merely that God will\npunish the wicked, but that God will punish nine-tenths, or\nninety-nine-hundredths of the human race. That He will send to endless\ntorments not merely sinners who have rebelled against what they knew was\nright, and His command; who have stained themselves with crimes; who\nwilfully injured their fellow-creatures: but that He will do the same by\nlittle children, by innocent young girls, by honourable, respectable,\nmoral men and women, because they are not what is called sensibly\nconverted, or else what is called orthodox. They have been taught to\nlook on God, not as a loving and merciful Father, but as a tyrant and a\ntask-master, who watches to set down against them the slightest mishap or\nneglect; who is extreme to mark what is done amiss; who wills the death\nof a sinner. Often\u2014strangest notion of all\u2014they have been told that,\nthough God intends to punish them, they must still love Him, or they will\nbe punished\u2014as if such a notion, so far from drawing them to God, could\ndo anything but drive them from Him. And it is no wonder if persons who\nhave been taught in their youth such notions concerning God, find it\ndifficult to love Him. Who can be frightened or threatened into loving\nany being? How can we love any being who does not seem to us kind,\nmerciful, amiable, loving? Our love must be called out by God\u2019s love.\nIf we are to love God, it must be because He has first loved us.\n\nBut He has first loved us, my friends. The dark and cruel notions about\nGod\u2014which are too common, and have been too common in all ages\u2014are not\nwhat the world about us teaches, nor what Scripture teaches us either.\n\nLook out on the world around you. What witness does it bear concerning\nthe God who made it? Who made the sunshine, and the flowers, and singing\nbirds, and little children, and all that causes the joy of this life?\nLet Christ Himself speak, and His apostles. No one can say that their\nwords are not true; that they were mistaken in their view of this earth,\nor of God who gave it to us that it might bear witness of Him. What said\nour Lord to the poor folk of Galilee, of whom the Scribes and the\nPharisees, in their pride, said, \u2018This people, who knoweth not the law,\nis accursed.\u2019\u2014What said our Lord, very God of very God? He told them to\nlook on the world around, and learn from it that they had in heaven not a\ntyrant, not a destroyer, but a Father; a Father in heaven who is perfect\nin this, that He causeth His sun to shine upon them, and is good to the\nunthankful and the evil.\n\nWhat of Him did St. Paul say?\u2014and that not to Christians, but to\nheathens\u2014That God had not left Himself without a witness even to the\nheathen who knew Him not\u2014and what sort of witness? The witness of His\nbounty and goodness. The simple, but perpetual witness of the yearly\nharvest\u2014\u2018In that He sends men rain and fruitful seasons, filling their\nhearts with food and gladness.\u2019\n\nThis is St. Paul\u2019s witness. And what is St. James\u2019s? He tells men of a\nFather of lights, from whom comes down every good and perfect gift; who\ngives to all liberally, and upbraideth not, grudges not, stints not, but\ngives, and delights in giving,\u2014the same God, in a word, of whom the old\npsalmists and prophets spoke, and said, \u2018Thou openest Thine hand, and\nfillest all things with good.\u2019\n\nAnd if natural religion tells us thus much, and bears witness of a Father\nwho delights in the happiness of His creatures, what does revealed\nreligion and the Gospel of Jesus Christ tell us?\n\nOh, my friends, dull indeed must be our hearts if we can feel no love for\nthe God of whom the Gospel speaks! And perverse, indeed, must be our\nminds if we can twist the good news of Christ\u2019s salvation into the bad\nnews of condemnation! What says St. Paul,\u2014That God is against us? No.\nBut\u2014\u2018If God be for us, who can be against us?\n\n\u2018Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God\u2019s elect? It is God that\njustifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea\nrather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who\nalso maketh intercession for us.\n\n\u2018Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or\ndistress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?\n\n\u2018As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are\naccounted as sheep for the slaughter.\n\n\u2018Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that\nloved us.\n\n\u2018For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor\nprincipalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor\nheight, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us\nfrom the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.\u2019\n\nWhat says St. John? Does he say that God the Father desires to punish or\nslay us; and that our Lord Jesus Christ, or the Virgin Mary, or the\nsaints, or any other being, loves us better than God, and will deliver us\nout of the hands of God? God forbid! \u2018We have known and believed,\u2019 he\nsays, \u2018the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth\nin love dwelleth in God, and God in him.\u2019\n\nMy friends, if we could believe those blessed words\u2014I do not say in all\ntheir fulness\u2014we shall never do that, I believe, in this mortal life\u2014but\nif we could only believe them a little, and know and believe even a\nlittle of the love that God has to us, then love to Him would spring up\nin our hearts, and we should feel for Him all that child ever felt for\nfather. If we really believed that God who made heaven and earth was\neven now calling to each and every one of us, and beseeching us, by the\nsacrifice of His well-beloved Son, crucified for us, \u2018My son, give Me thy\nheart,\u2019 we could not help giving up our hearts to Him.\n\nProvided\u2014and there is that second reason why people do not love God, for\nwhich I said there was no excuse\u2014provided only that we wish to be good,\nand to obey God. If we do not wish to do what God commands, we shall\nnever love God. It must be so. There can be no real love of God which\nis not based upon a love of virtue and goodness, upon what our Lord calls\na hunger and thirst after righteousness. \u2018If ye love Me, keep My\ncommandments,\u2019 is our Lord\u2019s own rule and test. And it is the only one\npossible. If we habitually disobey any person, we shall cease to love\nthat person. If a child is in the habit of disobeying its parents, dark\nand angry feelings towards those parents are sure to arise in its heart.\nThe child tries to forget its parents, to keep out of their way. It\ntries to justify itself, to excuse itself by fancying that its parents\nare hard upon it, unjust, grudge it pleasure, or what not. If its\nparents\u2019 commandments are grievous to a child, it will try to make out\nthat those commandments are unfair and unkind. And so shall we do by\nGod\u2019s commandments. If God\u2019s commandments seem too grievous for us to\nobey, then we shall begin to fancy them unjust and unkind. And then,\nfarewell to any real love to God. If we do not openly rebel against God,\nwe shall still try to forget Him. The thought of God will seem dark,\nunpleasant, and forbidding to us; and we shall try, in our short-sighted\nfolly, to live as far as we can without God in the world, and, like Adam\nafter his fall, hide ourselves from the loving God, just because we know\nwe have disobeyed Him.\n\nBut if, in spite of many bad habits, we desire to get rid of our bad\nhabits; if, in spite of many faults, we still desire to be faultless and\nperfect; if, in spite of many weaknesses, we still desire to be strong;\nif, in one word, we still hunger and thirst after righteousness, and long\nto be good men; then, in due time, the love of God will be shed abroad in\nour hearts by the Holy Spirit.\n\nFor that will happen to us which happens to all those who have the pure,\ntrue, and heroical love. If we really love a person, we shall first\ndesire to please them, and therefore the thought of disobeying and\npaining them will seem more and more grievous unto us.\n\nBut more. We shall soon rise a step higher. The more we love them, and\nthe more we see in them, in their characters, things worthy to be loved,\nthe more we shall desire to be like them, to copy those parts of their\ncharacters which most delight us; and we shall copy them: though\ninsensibly, perhaps, and unawares.\n\nFor no one can look up for any length of time with love and respect\ntowards a person better, wiser, greater than themselves, without becoming\nmore or less like that person in character and in habit of thought and\nfeeling; and so it will be with us towards God.\n\nIf we really long to be good, it will grow more and more easy to us to\nlove God. The more pure our hearts are, the more pleasant the thought of\nGod will be to us; even as it is said, \u2018Blessed are the pure in heart,\nfor they shall see God,\u2019\u2014in this life as well as in the life to come. We\nshall not shrink from God, because we shall know that we are not wilfully\noffending Him.\n\nBut more. The more we think of God, the more we shall long to be like\nHim. How admirable in our eyes will seem His goodness, how admirable His\npurity, His justice, and His bounty, His long-suffering, His magnanimity\nand greatness of heart. For how great must be that heart of God, of\nwhich it is written, that \u2018He hateth nothing that He hath made, but His\nmercy is over all His works;\u2019 \u2018that He willeth that none should perish,\nbut that all should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth.\u2019\nAlthough He be infinitely high and far off and we cannot attain to Him,\nyet we shall feel it our duty and our joy to copy Him, however faintly,\nand however humbly; and our highest hope will be that we may behold, as\nin a glass, the glory of the Lord, and be changed into His image from\nglory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord; that so, whether in\nthis world or in the world to come, we may at last be perfect, even as\nour Father in heaven is perfect, and, like Him, cause the sunlight of our\nlove to slime upon the evil and on the good; the kindly showers of our\ngood deeds to fall upon the just and on the unjust; and\u2014like Him who sent\nHis only begotten Son to save the world\u2014be good to the unthankful and to\nthe evil.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XV.\nTHE EARTHQUAKE.\n\n\n (_Preached October_ 11, 1863.)\n\n PSALM xlvi. 1, 2.\n\n God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.\n Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though\n the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.\n\nNO one, my friends, wishes less than I, to frighten you, or to take a\ndark and gloomy view of this world, or of God\u2019s dealings with men. But\nwhen God Himself speaks, men are bound to take heed, even though the\nmessage be an awful one. And last week\u2019s earthquake was an awful\nmessage, reminding all reasonable souls how frail man is, how frail his\nstrongest works, how frail this seemingly solid earth on which we stand;\nwhat a thin crust there is between us and the nether fires, how utterly\nit depends on God\u2019s mercy that we do not, like Korah, Dathan, and Abiram\nof old, go down alive into the pit.\n\nWhat do we know of earthquakes? We know that they are connected with\nburning mountains; that the eruption of a burning mountain is generally\npreceded by, and accompanied with, violent earthquakes. Indeed, the\nburning mountains seem to be outlets, by which the earthquake force is\ncarried off. We know that these burning mountains give out immense\nvolumes of steam. We know that the expanding power of steam is by far\nthe strongest force in the world; and, therefore, it is supposed\nreasonably, that earthquakes are caused by steam underground.\n\nWe know concerning earthquakes two things: first, that they are quite\nuncertain in their effects; secondly, quite uncertain in their\noccurrence.\n\nNo one can tell what harm an earthquake will, or will not, do. There are\nthree kinds. One which raises the ground up perpendicularly, and sets it\ndown again\u2014which is the least hurtful; one which sets it rolling in\nwaves, like the waves of the sea\u2014which is more hurtful; and one, the most\nterrible of all, which gives the ground a spinning motion, so that things\nthrown down by it fall twisted from right to left, or left to right. But\nwhat kind of earthquake will take place, no one can tell.\n\nMoreover, a very slight earthquake may do fearful damage. People who\nonly read of them, fancy that an earthquake, to destroy man and his\nworks, must literally turn the earth upside down; that the ground must\nopen, swallowing up houses, vomiting fire and water; that rocks must be\ncast into the sea, and hills rise where valleys were before. Such awful\nthings have happened, and will happen again: but it does not need them to\nlay a land utterly waste. A very slight shock\u2014a shock only a little\nstronger than was felt last Wednesday morning, might have\u2014one hardly dare\nthink of what it might have done in a country like this, where houses are\nthinly built because we have no fear of earthquakes. Every manufactory\nand mill throughout the iron districts (where the shock was felt most)\nmight have toppled to the earth in a moment. Whole rows of houses,\nhastily and thinly built, might have crumbled down like packs of cards;\nand hundreds of thousands of sleeping human beings might have been buried\nin the ruins, without time for a prayer or a cry.\n\nA little more\u2014a very little more\u2014and all that or more might have\nhappened; millions\u2019 worth of property might have been destroyed in a few\nseconds, and the prosperity and civilization of England have been thrown\nback for a whole generation. There is absolutely no reason whatever, I\ntell you, save the mercy of God, why that, or worse, should not have\nhappened; and it is only of the Lord\u2019s mercies that we were not consumed.\n\nNext, earthquakes are utterly uncertain as to time. No one knows when\nthey are coming. They give no warning. Even in those unhappy countries\nin which they are most common there may not be a shock for months or\nyears; and then a sudden shock may hurl down whole towns. Or there may\nbe many, thirty or forty a-day for weeks, as there happened in a part of\nSouth America a few years ago, when day after day, week after week,\nterrible shocks went on with a perpetual underground roar, as if brass\nand iron were crashing and clanging under the feet, till the people were\nhalf mad with the continual noise and continual anxiety, expecting every\nmoment one shock, stronger than the rest, to swallow them up. It is\nimpossible, I say, to calculate when they will come. They are altogether\nin the hand of God,\u2014His messengers, whose time and place He alone knows,\nand He alone directs.\n\nOur having had one last week is no reason for our not having another this\nweek, or any day this week; and no reason, happily, against our having no\nmore for one hundred years. It is in God\u2019s hands, and in God\u2019s hands we\nmust leave it.\n\nAll we can say is, that when one comes, it is likely to be least severe\nin this part of England, and most severe (like this last) in the coal and\niron districts of the west and north-west, where it is easy to see that\nearthquakes were once common, by the cracks, twists and settlements in\nthe rocks, and the lava streams, poured out from fiery vents (probably\nunder water) which pierce the rocks in many places. Beyond that we know\nnothing, and can only say,\u2014It is of the Lord\u2019s mercies that we are not\nconsumed.\n\nWhy do I say these things? To frighten you? No, but to warn you. When\nyou say to yourselves,\u2014Earthquakes are so uncommon and so harmless in\nEngland that there is no need to think of them, you say on the whole what\nis true. It has been, as yet, God\u2019s will that earthquakes should be\nuncommon and slight in England; and therefore we have a reasonable ground\nof belief that such will be His will for the future. Certainly He does\nnot wish us to fold our hands, and say, there is no use in building or\nimproving the country, if an earthquake may come and destroy it at any\nmoment. If there be an evil which man can neither prevent or foresee,\nthen, if he be a wise man, he will go on as if that evil would never\nhappen. We ever must work on in hope and in faith in God\u2019s goodness,\nwithout tormenting and weakening ourselves by fears about what may\nhappen.\n\nBut when God gives to a whole country a distinct and solemn warning,\nespecially after giving that country an enormous bounty in an abundant\nharvest, He surely means that country to take the warning. And, if I\ndare so judge, He means us perhaps to think of the earthquake, and\nsomewhat in this way.\n\nThere is hardly any country in the world in which man\u2019s labour has been\nso successful as in England. Owing to our having no earthquakes, no\nreally destructive storms,\u2014and, thank God, no foreign invading\narmies,\u2014the wealth of England has gone on increasing steadily and surely\nfor centuries past, to a degree unexampled. We have never had to rebuild\nwhole towns after an earthquake. We have never seen (except in small\npatches) whole districts of fertile land ruined by the sea or by floods.\nWe have never seen every mill and house in a country blown down by a\nhurricane, and the crops mown off the ground by the mere force of the\nwind, as has happened again and again in our West India Islands. Most\nblessed of all, we have never seen a foreign army burning our villages,\nsacking our towns, carrying off our corn and cattle, and driving us into\nthe woods to starve. From all these horrors, which have, one or other of\nthem, fallen on almost every nation upon earth, God has of His great\nmercy preserved us. Ours is not the common lot of humanity. We English\ndo not know the sorrows which average men and women go through, and have\nbeen going through, alas! ever since Adam fell. We have been an\nexception, a favoured and peculiar people, allowed to thrive and fatten\nquietly and safely for hundreds of years.\n\nBut what if that very security tempts us to forget God? Is it not so?\nAre we not\u2014I am sure I am\u2014too apt to take God\u2019s blessings for granted,\nwithout thanking Him for them, or remembering really that He gave them,\nand that He can take them away? Do we not take good fortune for granted?\nDo we not take for granted that if we build a house it will endure for\never; that if we buy a piece of land it will be called by our name long\nyears hence; that if we amass wealth we shall hand it down safely to our\nchildren? Of course we think we shall prosper. We say to ourselves,\nTo-morrow shall be as to-day, and yet more abundant.\n\nNothing can happen to England, is, I fear, the feeling of Englishmen.\nCarnal security is the national sin to which we are tempted, because we\nhave not now for forty years felt anything like national distress; and\nBritain says, like Babylon of old, the lady of kingdoms to whom\nforeigners so often compare her,\u2014\u2018I shall be a lady for ever; I am, there\nis none beside me. I shall never sit as a widow, nor know the loss of\nchildren.\u2019\n\nWhat, too, if that same security and prosperity tempts us\u2014as foreigners\njustly complain of us\u2014to set our hearts on material wealth; to believe\nthat our life, and the life of Britain, depends on the abundance of the\nthings which she possesses? To say\u2014Corn and cattle, coal and iron, house\nand land, shipping and rail-roads, these make up Great Britain. While\nshe has these she will endure for ever.\n\nAh, my friends\u2014to people in such a temptation, is it wonderful that a\ngood God should send a warning unmistakeable, though only a warning; most\nterrible, though mercifully harmless; a warning which says, in a voice\nwhich the dullest can hear\u2014Endure for ever? The solid ground on which\nyou stand cannot do that. Safe? Nothing on earth is safe for a moment,\nsave in the long-suffering and tender mercy of Him of whom are all\nthings, and by whom are all things, without whom not a sparrow falls to\nthe ground. Is the wealth of Britain, then, what she can see and handle?\nThe towns she builds, the roads she makes, the manufactures and goods she\nproduces? One touch of the finger of God, and that might be all rolled\ninto a heap of ruins, and the labour of years scattered in the dust. You\ntrust in the sure solid earth? You shall feel it, if but for once, reel\nand quiver under your feet, and learn that it is not solid at all, or\nsure at all; that there is nothing solid, sure, or to be depended on, but\nthe mercy of the living God; and that your solid-seeming earth on which\nyou build is nothing less than a mine, which may bubble, and heave, and\nburst beneath your feet, charged for ever with an explosive force, as\nmuch more terrible than that gunpowder which you have invented to kill\neach other withal, as the works of God are greater than the works of man.\nSafe, truly! It is of God\u2019s mercy from day to day and hour to hour that\nwe are not consumed.\n\nThis, surely, or something like this, is what the earthquake says to us.\nIt speaks to us most gently, and yet most awfully, of a day in which the\nheavens may pass away with a great noise, and the elements may melt with\nfervent heat, and the earth and the works which are therein may be burnt\nup. It tells us that this is no impossible fancy: that the fires\nimprisoned below our feet can, and may, burst up and destroy mankind and\nthe works of man in one great catastrophe, to which the earthquake of\nLisbon in 1755\u2014when 60,000 persons were killed, crushed, drowned, or\nswallowed up in a few minutes\u2014would be a merely paltry accident.\n\nAnd it bids us think, as St. Peter bids us: \u2018When therefore all these\nthings are dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in holy\nconversation and godliness?\u2019\n\nWhat manner of persons?\n\nRemember, that if an earthquake destroyed all England, or the whole\nworld; if this earth on which we live crumbled to dust, and were blotted\nout of the number of the stars, there is one thing which earthquake, and\nfire, and all the forces of nature cannot destroy, and that is\u2014the human\nrace.\n\nWe should still be. We should still endure. Not, indeed, in flesh and\nblood: but in some state or other; each of us the same as now, our\ncharacters, our feelings, our goodness or our badness; our immortal\nspirits and very selves, unchanged, ready to receive, and certain to\nreceive, the reward of the deeds done in the body, whether they be good\nor evil. Yes, we should still endure, and God and Christ would still\nendure. But as our Saviour, or as our Judge? That is a very awful\nthought.\n\nOne day or other, sooner or later, each of us shall stand before the\njudgment-seat of Christ, stripped of all we ever had, ever saw, ever\ntouched, ever even imagined to ourselves, alone with our own consciences,\nalone with our own deserts. What shall we be saying to ourselves then?\n\nShall we be saying\u2014I have lost all: The world is gone\u2014the world, in which\nwere set all my hopes, all my wishes; the world in which were all my\npleasures, all my treasures; the world, which was the only thing I cared\nfor, though it warned me not to trust in it, as it trembled beneath my\nfeet? But the world is gone, and now I have nothing left!\n\nOr, shall we be saying,\u2014The world is gone? Then let it go. It was not a\nhome. I took its good things as thankfully as I could. I took its\nsorrows and troubles as patiently as I could. But I have not set my\nheart on the world. My treasure, my riches, were not of the world. My\npeace was a peace which the world did not give, and could not take away.\nAnd now the world is gone, I keep my peace, I keep my treasure still. My\npeace is where it was, in my own heart. My peace is what it was: my\nfaith in God,\u2014faith that my sins are forgiven me for Christ\u2019s sake: my\nfaith that God my Father loves me, and cares for me; and that\nnothing,\u2014height or depth, or time or space, or life or death, can part me\nfrom His love: my faith that I have not been quite useless in the world;\nthat I have tried to do my duty in my place; and that the good which I\nhave done, little as it has been, will not go forgotten by that merciful\nGod, by whose help it was done, who rewards all men according to the\nworks which He gives them heart to perform. And my treasure is where it\nwas\u2014in my heart; and what it was,\u2014the Holy Spirit of God, the spirit of\ngoodness, of faith and truth, of mercy and justice, of love to God and\nlove to man, which is everlasting life itself. That I have. That time\ncannot abate, nor death abolish, nor the world, nor the destruction of\nthe world, nor of all worlds, can take away.\n\nChoose, my friends, which of these two frames of mind would you rather be\nin when the great day of the Lord comes, foretold by that earthquake, and\nby all earthquakes that ever were.\n\nWill you be then like those whom St. John saw calling on the mountains to\nfall on them, and the hills to hide them from the wrath of Him that sat\non the throne, and from the anger of the Lamb?\n\nOr will you be like him who saith\u2014God is my hope and strength, my present\nhelp in trouble. Therefore will I not fear, though the earth be shaken,\nand though the mountains be carried into the depth of the sea?\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XVI.\nTHE METEOR SHOWER.\n\n\n (_Preached at the Chapel Royal_, _St. James\u2019s_, _Nov._ 26, 1866.)\n\n ST. MATTHEW x. 29, 30.\n\n Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not\n fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your\n head are all numbered.\n\nIT will be well for us to recollect, once for all, who spoke these words;\neven Jesus Christ, who declared that He was one with God the Father;\nJesus Christ, whom His apostles declared to be the Creator of the\nuniverse. If we believe this, as Christian men, it will be well for us\nto take our Lord\u2019s account of a universe which He Himself created; and to\nbelieve that in the most minute occurrence of nature, there is a special\nprovidence, by which not a sparrow falls to the ground without our\nFather.\n\nI confess that it is difficult to believe this heartily. It was never\nanything but difficult. In the earliest ages, those who first thought\nabout the universe found it so difficult that they took refuge in the\nfancy of special providence which was administered by the planets above\ntheir heads, and believed that the affairs of men, and of the world on\nwhich they lived, were ruled by the aspects of the sun and moon, and the\nhost of heaven.\n\nMen found it so difficult in the Middle Age, that they took refuge in the\nfancy of a special providence administered by certain demi-gods whom they\ncalled \u2018The Saints;\u2019 and believed that each special disease, or accident,\nwas warded off from mankind, from their cattle, or from their crops, by a\nspecial saint who overlooked their welfare.\n\nMen find it so difficult now-a-days, that the great majority of civilized\npeople believe in no special providence at all, and take refuge in the\nbelief that the universe is ruled by something which they call law.\n\nTherein, doubtless, they have hold of a great truth; but one which will\nbe only half-true, and therefore injurious, unless it be combined with\nother truths; unless questions are answered which too many do not care to\nanswer: as, for instance,\u2014Can there be a law without a law-giver? Can a\nlaw work without one who administers the law? Are not the popular\nphrases of \u2018laws impressed on matter,\u2019 \u2018laws inherent in matter,\u2019 mere\nmetaphors, dangerous, because inaccurate; confirmed as little by\nexperience and reason, as by Scripture?\n\nDoes not all law imply a will? Does not an Almighty Will imply a special\nprovidence?\n\nBut these are questions for which most persons have neither time nor\ninclination. Indeed, the whole matter is unimportant to them. They have\nno special need of a special providence. Their lives and properties are\nvery safe in this civilized country; and their secret belief is that,\nwhatever influence God may have on the next world, He has little or no\ninfluence on this world; neither on the facts of nature, nor on the\nevents of history, nor on the course of their own lives; and that a\nspecial providence seems to them\u2014if they dare confess as much\u2014an\nunnecessary superstition.\n\nOnly poor folk in cottages and garrets\u2014and a few more who are, happily,\npoor in spirit, though not in purse\u2014grinding amid the iron facts of life,\nand learning there by little sound science, it may be, but much sound\ntheology\u2014still believe that they have a Father in heaven, before whom the\nvery hairs of their head are all numbered; and that if they had not, then\nthis would not only be a bad world, but a mad world likewise; and that it\nwere better for them that they had never been born.\n\nNevertheless, it is difficult to believe in the special providence of our\nFather in heaven. Difficult: though necessary. Just as it is difficult\nto believe that the earth moves round the sun. Contrary, like that fact,\nto a great deal of our seeming experience.\n\nIt is easy enough, of course, to believe that our Father sends what is\nplainly good. Not so easy to believe that He sends what at least seems\nevil.\n\nEasy enough, when we see spring-time and harvest, sunshine and flowers,\nto say\u2014Here are \u2018acts of God\u2019s providence.\u2019 Not so easy, when we see\nblight and pestilence, storm and earthquake, to say,\u2014Here are \u2018acts of\nGod\u2019s providence\u2019 likewise.\n\nFor this innumerable multitude of things, of which we now-a-days talk as\nif it were one thing, and had an organic unity of its own, or even as if\nit were one person, and had a will of its own, and call it Nature\u2014a word\nwhich will one day be forgotten by philosophers, with the \u2018four\nelements,\u2019 and the \u2018animal spirits;\u2019\u2014this multitude of things, I say,\nwhich we miscall Nature, has its dark and ugly, as well as its bright and\nfair side. Nature, says some one, is like the spotted panther\u2014most\nplayful, and yet most treacherous; most beautiful, and yet most cruel.\nIt acts at times after a fashion most terrible, undistinguishing,\nwholesale, seemingly pitiless. It seems to go on its own way, as in a\nstorm or an earthquake, careless of what it crushes. Terrible enough\nNature looks to the savage, who thinks it crushes him from mere caprice.\nMore terrible still does Science make Nature look, when she tells us that\nit crushes, not by caprice, but by brute necessity; not by ill-will, but\nby inevitable law. Science frees us in many ways (and all thanks to her)\nfrom the bodily terror which the savage feels. But she replaces that, in\nthe minds of many, by a moral terror which is far more overwhelming. Am\nI\u2014a man is driven to ask\u2014am I, and all I love, the victims of an\norganised tyranny, from which there can be no escape\u2014for there is not\neven a tyrant from whom I may perhaps beg mercy? Are we only helpless\nparticles, at best separate parts of the wheels of a vast machine, which\nwill use us till it has worn us away, and ground us to powder? Are our\nbodies\u2014and if so, why not our souls?\u2014the puppets, yea, the creatures of\nnecessary circumstances, and all our strivings and sorrows only vain\nbeatings against the wires of our cage, cries of \u2018Why hast thou made me,\nthen?\u2019 which are addressed to nothing? Tell us not that the world is\ngoverned by universal law; the news is not comfortable, but simply\nhorrible, unless you can tell us, or allow others to tell us, that there\nis a loving giver, and a just administrator of that law.\n\nHorrible, I say, and increasingly horrible, not merely to the\nsentimentalist, but to the man of sound reason and of sound conscience,\nmust the scientific aspect of nature become, if a mere abstraction called\nlaw is to be the sole ruler of the universe; if\u2014to quote the famous words\nof the German sage\u2014\u2018If, instead of the Divine Eye, there must glare on us\nan empty, black, bottomless eye-socket;\u2019 and the stars and galaxies of\nheaven, in spite of all their present seeming regularity, are but an\n\u2018everlasting storm which no man guides.\u2019\n\nIt was but a few days ago that we, and this little planet on which we\nlive, caught a strange and startling glimpse of that everlasting storm\nwhich\u2014shall I say it?\u2014no one guides.\n\nWe were swept helpless, astronomers tell us, through a cloud of fiery\nstones, to which all the cunning bolts which man invents to slay his\nfellow-man, are but slow and weak engines of destruction.\n\nWe were free from the superstitious terror with which that meteor-shower\nwould have been regarded in old times. We could comfort ourselves, too,\nwith the fact that heaven\u2019s artillery was not known as yet to have killed\nany one; and with the scientific explanation of that fact, namely, that\nmost of the bolts were small enough to be melted and dissipated by their\nrush through our atmosphere.\n\nBut did the thought occur to none of us, how morally ghastly, in spite of\nall its physical beauty, was that grand sight, unless we were sure that\nbehind it all, there was a living God? Unless we believed that not one\nof those bolts fell, or did not fall to the ground without our Father?\nThat He had appointed the path, and the time, and the destiny, and the\nuse of every atom of that matter, of which science could only tell us\nthat it was rushing without a purpose, for ever through the homeless\nvoid?\n\nWe may believe that, mind, without denying scientific laws, or their\npermanence in any way. It is not a question, this, of a living God,\nwhether He interferes with His own laws now and then, but whether\ninterference is not the law of all laws itself. It is not a question of\nspecial providences here and there, in favour of this person or that; but\nwhether the whole universe and its history is not one perpetual and\ninnumerable series of special providences. Whether the God who ordained\nthe laws is not so administering them, so making them interfere with,\nbalance, and modify each other, as to cause them to work together\nperpetually for good; so that every minutest event (excepting always the\nsin and folly of rational beings) happens in the place, time, and manner,\nwhere it is specially needed. In one word, the question is not whether\nthere be a God, but whether there be a living God, who is in any true and\npractical sense Master of the universe over which He presides; a King who\nis actually ruling His kingdom, or an Epicurean deity who lets his\nkingdom rule itself.\n\nIs there a living God in the universe, or is there none? That is the\ngreatest of all questions. Has our Lord Jesus Christ answered it, or has\nHe not? Easy, well-to-do people, who find this world pleasant, and whose\nchief concern is to live till they die, care little about that question.\nThis world suits them well enough, whether there be a living God or not;\nand as for the next world, they will be sure to find some preacher or\nconfessor who will set their minds easy about it.\n\nFanatics and bigots, of all denominations, care little about that\nquestion. For they say in their hearts\u2014\u2018God is our Father, whosesoever\nFather He is not. We are His people, and God performs acts of providence\nfor us. But as for the people outside, who know not the law, nor the\nGospel, either, they are accursed. It is not our concern to discuss\nwhether God performs acts of providence for them.\u2019\n\nBut here and there, among rich and poor, there are those whose heart and\nflesh\u2014whose conscience and whose intellect\u2014cry out for the living God,\nand will know no peace till they have found Him.\n\nA living God; a true God; a real God; a God worthy of the name; a God who\nis working for ever, everywhere, and in all; who hates nothing that He\nhas made, forgets nothing, neglects nothing; a God who satisfies not only\ntheir heads, but their hearts; not only their logical intellects, but\ntheir higher reason\u2014that pure reason, which is one with the conscience\nand moral sense. For Him they cry out; Him they seek: and if they cannot\nfind Him they know no rest. For then they can find no explanation of the\nthree great human questions\u2014Where am I? Whither am I going? What must I\ndo?\n\nMen come to them and say, \u2018Of course there is a God.\u2014He created the world\nlong ago, and set it spinning ever since by unchangeable laws.\u2019 But they\nanswer, \u2018That may be true; but I want more. I want the living God.\u2019\n\nOther men come to them and say, \u2018Of course there is a God; and when the\nuniverse is destroyed, He will save a certain number of the elect, or\northodox. Do you take care that you are among that number, and leave the\nrest to Him.\u2019 But they answer, \u2018That may be true; but I want more. I\nwant the living God.\u2019\n\nThey will say so very confusedly. They will often not be able to make\nmen understand their meaning. Nay, they will say and do\u2014driven by\ndespair\u2014very unwise things. They will even fall down and worship the\nHoly Bread in the Sacrament of the Lord\u2019s Supper, and say, \u2018The living\nGod is in that. You have forbidden us, with your theories, to find the\nliving God either in heaven or earth. But somewhere He must be. And in\ndespair, we will fall back upon the old belief that He is in the wafer on\nthe altar, and find there Him whom our souls must find, or be for ever\nwithout a home.\u2019 Strange and sad, that that should be the last outcome\nof the century of mechanical philosophy. But before we blame the\ndoctrine as materialistic,\u2014which, I fear, it too truly is,\u2014we should\nremember that, for the last fifty years, the young have been taught more\nand more to be materialists; that they have been taught more and more to\nbelieve in a God who rules over Sundays, but not over week-day business;\nover the next world, but not over this; a God, in short, in whom men do\nnot live, and move, and have their being. They have been brought up, I\nsay, unconsciously, but surely, as practical materialists, who make their\nsenses the ground of all their knowledge; and therefore, when a revulsion\nhappens to them, they are awakened to look for the living God\u2014they look\nfor him instinctively in visible matter.\n\nBut for the living God thoughtful men will look more and more. Physical\nscience is forcing on them the question, Do we live, and move, and have\nour being in God? Is there a real and perpetual communication between\nthe visible and the invisible world, or is there not? Are all the\nbeliefs of man, from the earliest ages, that such there was, dreams and\nnothing more? Is any religion whatsoever to be impossible henceforth?\nAnd to find an answer, men will go, either backward to superstition, or\nforward into pantheism; for in atheism, whether practical or theoretical,\nthey cannot abide.\n\nThe Bible says that those old beliefs, however partial or childish, were\nno dreams, but instincts of an eternal truth; that there is such a\ncommunication between the universe and the living God. Prophets,\nPsalmists, Apostles, speak\u2014like our Nicene Creed\u2014of a Spirit of God, the\nLord and Giver of Life, in words which are not pantheism, but are the\nvery deliverance from pantheism, because they tell us that that Spirit\nproceeds, not merely from a Deity, not merely from a Creator, but from a\nFather in heaven, and from a Son who is His likeness and His Word.\n\nAnd from this ground Natural Theology must start, if it is ever to revive\nagain, instead of remaining, as now, an extinct science. It must begin\nfrom the keyword of the text, \u2018Your Father.\u2019 As long as Natural Theology\nbegins from nature, and not from God Himself, it will inevitably drift\ninto pantheism, as Pope drifted, in spite of himself, when he tried to\nlook from nature up to nature\u2019s God. As long as men speculate on the\ndealings of a Deity or of a Creator, they will find out nothing, because\nthey are searching under the wrong name, and therefore, as logicians will\ntell you, for the wrong thing.\n\nBut when they begin to seek under the right name\u2014the name which our Lord\nrevealed to the debased multitudes of Jud\u00e6a, when He told them that not a\nsparrow fell to the ground without\u2014not the Deity, not the Creator, but\ntheir Father; then, in God\u2019s good time, all may come clear once more.\n\nThis at least will come clear,\u2014a doubt which often presents itself to the\nmind of scientific men.\n\nThis earth\u2014we know now that it is not the centre, not the chief body, of\nthe universe, but a tiny planet, a speck, an atom among millions of\nbodies far vaster than itself.\n\nIt was credible enough in old times, when the earth was held to be all\nbut the whole universe, that God should descend on earth, and take on Him\nhuman nature, to save human beings. Is it credible now? This little\ncorner of the systems and the galaxies? This paltry race which we call\nman? Are they worthy of the interposition, of the death, of Incarnate\nGod\u2014of the Maker of such a universe as Science has discovered?\n\nYes. If we will keep in mind that one word \u2018Father.\u2019 Then we dare say\nYes, in full assurance of Faith. For then we have taken the question off\nthe mere material ground of size and of power; to put it once and for\never on that spiritual ground of justice and love, which is implied in\nthe one word\u2014\u2018Father.\u2019\n\nIf God be a perfect Father, then there must be a perpetual intercourse of\nsome kind between Him and His children; between Him and that planet,\nhowever small, on which He has set His children, that they may be\neducated into His likeness. If God be perfect justice, the wrong, and\nconsequent misery of the universe, how ever small, must be intolerable to\nHim. If God be perfect love, there is no sacrifice\u2014remember that great\nword\u2014which He may not condescend to make, in order to right that wrong,\nand alleviate that misery. If God be the Father of our spirits, the\nspiritual welfare of His children may be more important to Him than the\nfate of the whole brute matter of the universe. Think not to frighten us\nwith the idols of size and height. God is a Spirit, before whom all\nmaterial things are equally great, and equally small. Let us think of\nHim as such, and not merely as a Being of physical power and inventive\ncraft. Let us believe in our Father in heaven. For then that higher\nintellect,\u2014that pure reason, which dwells not in the heads, but in the\nhearts of men, will tell them that if they have a Father in heaven, He\nmust be exercising a special providence over the minutest affairs of\ntheir lives, by which He is striving to educate them into His likeness; a\nspecial providence over the fate of every atom in the universe, by which\nHis laws shall work together for the moral improvement of every creature\ncapable thereof; that not a sparrow can fall to the ground without his\nknowledge; and that not a hair of their head can be touched, unless\nsuffering is needed for the education of their souls.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XVII.\nCHOLERA, 1866.\n\n\n LUKE vii. 16.\n\n There came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a\n great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his\n people.\n\nYOU recollect to what the text refers? How the Lord visited His people?\nBy raising to life a widow\u2019s son at Nain. That was the result of our\nLord\u2019s visit to the little town of Nain. It is worth our while to think\nof that text, and of that word, \u2018visit,\u2019 just now. For we are praying to\nGod to remove the cholera from this land. We are calling it a visitation\nof God; and saying that God is visiting our sins on us thereby. And we\nare saying the exact truth. We are using the right and scriptural word.\n\nWe know that this cholera comes by no miracle, but by natural causes. We\ncan more or less foretell where it will break out. We know how to\nprevent its breaking out at all, save in a scattered case here and there.\nOf this there is no doubt whatsoever in the mind of any well-informed\nperson.\n\nBut that does not prevent its being a visitation of God; yea, in most\nawful and literal earnest, a house-to-house visitation. God uses the\npowers of nature to do His work: of Him it is written, \u2018He maketh the\nwinds His angels, and flames of fire His ministers.\u2019 And so this minute\nand invisible cholera-seed is the minister of God, by which He is\nvisiting from house to house, searching out and punishing certain persons\nwho have been guilty, knowingly or not, of the offence of dirt; of filthy\nand careless habits of living; and especially, as has long been known by\nwell-informed men, of drinking poisoned water. Their sickness, their\ndeaths, are God\u2019s judgment on that act of theirs, whereby God says to\nmen,\u2014You shall not drink water unfit for even dumb animals; and if you\ndo, you shall die.\n\nTo this view there are two objections. First, the poor people themselves\nare not in fault, but those who supply poisoned water, and foul\ndwellings.\n\nTrue: but only half true. If people demanded good water and good houses,\nthere would soon be a supply of them. But there is not a sufficient\nsupply; because too many of the labouring classes in towns, though they\nare earning very high wages, are contented to live in a condition unfit\nfor civilized men; and of course, if they are contented so to do, there\nwill be plenty of covetous or careless landlords who will supply the bad\narticle with which they are satisfied; and they will be punished by\ndisease for not having taken care of themselves.\n\nBut as for the owners of filthy houses, and the suppliers of poisoned\nwater, be sure that, in His own way and His own time, God will visit\nthem; that when He maketh inquisition for blood, He will assuredly\nrequite upon the guilty persons, whoever they are, the blood of those\nfive or six thousand of her Majesty\u2019s subjects who have been foully done\nto death by cholera in the last two months, as He requited the blood of\nNaboth, or of any other innocent victim of whom we read in Holy Writ.\nThis outbreak of cholera in London, considering what we now know about\nit, and have known for twenty years past, is a national shame, scandal,\nand sin, which, if man cannot and will not punish, God can and will.\n\nBut there is another objection, which is far more important and difficult\nto answer. This cholera has not slain merely fathers and mothers of\nfamilies, who were more or less responsible for the bad state of their\ndwellings; but little children, aged widows, and many other persons who\ncannot be blamed in the least.\n\nTrue. And we must therefore believe that to them\u2014indeed to all\u2014this has\nbeen a visitation not of anger but of love. We must believe that they\nare taken away from some evil to come; that God permits the destruction\nof their bodies, to the saving of their souls. His laws are inexorable;\nand yet He hateth nothing that He hath made.\n\nAnd we must believe that this cholera is an instance of the great law,\nwhich fulfils itself again and again, and will to the end of the\nworld,\u2014\u2018It is expedient that one die for the people, and that the whole\nnation perish not.\u2019\n\nFor the same dirt which produces cholera now and then, is producing\nalways, and all day long, stunted and diseased bodies, drunkenness,\nrecklessness, misery, and sin of all kinds; and the cholera will be a\nblessing, a cheap price to have paid, for the abolition of the evil\nspirit of dirt.\n\nAnd thus much for this very painful subject\u2014of which some of you may\nsay\u2014\u2018What is it to us? We cannot prevent cholera; and, blessed as we are\nwith abundance of the purest water, there is little or no fear of cholera\never coming into our parish.\u2019\n\nThat last is true, my friends, and you may thank God for it. Meanwhile,\ntake this lesson at least home with you, and teach it your children day\nby day\u2014that filthy, careless, and unwholesome habits of living are in the\nsight of Almighty God so terrible an offence, that He sometimes finds it\nnecessary to visit them with a severity with which He visits hardly any\nsin; namely, by inflicting capital punishment on thousands of His beloved\ncreatures.\n\nBut though we have not had the cholera among us, has God therefore not\nvisited us? That would surely be evil news for us, according to Holy\nScripture. For if God do not visit us, then He must be far from us. But\nthe Psalmist cries, \u2018Go not far from me, O Lord.\u2019 His fear is, again and\nagain, not that God should visit him, but that God should desert him.\nAnd more, the word which is translated \u2018to visit,\u2019 in Scripture has the\nsense of seeing to a man, overseeing him, being his bishop. If God do\nnot see to, oversee us, and be our bishop, then He must turn His face\nfrom us, which is what the Psalmist beseeches Him again and again not to\ndo; praying, \u2018Hide not Thy face from me, O Lord,\u2019 and crying out of the\ndepths of anxiety and trouble, \u2018Put thy trust in God, for I shall yet\ngive Him thanks for the light of His countenance;\u2019 and again, \u2018In Thy\npresence is\u2019\u2014not death, but\u2014\u2018life; at Thy right hand is fulness of days\nfor evermore.\u2019 And again, the Psalmist prays to God to visit him, and\nvisit his thoughts,\u2014\u2018Search me, O Lord, and try the ground of my heart.\nSearch me, and examine my thoughts. Look well if there be any wickedness\nin me, and lead me in the way everlasting.\u2019 Shall we pray that prayer,\nmy friends? Shall we, with the Psalmist, pray God to visit, and, if need\nbe, chasten and correct what He sees wrong in us? Or shall we, with the\nsuperstitious, pray to God not to visit us? to keep away from us? to\nleave its alone? to forget us? If He did answer that foolish prayer,\nthere would be an end of us and all created things; for in God they live\nand move and have their being\u2014as it is written, \u2018When Thou hidest thy\nface, they are troubled; when Thou takest away their breath, they die,\nand are turned again to their dust.\u2019 But, happily for us, God will not\nanswer that foolish prayer. For it is written, \u2018If I go up to heaven,\nThou art there; if I go down to hell, Thou art there also.\u2019 Nowhither\ncan we go from God\u2019s presence: nowhither can we flee from His Spirit.\n\nThis is the Scripture language. Is ours like it? Have we not got to\nthink of a visitation of God as a simple calamity? If a man die suddenly\nand strangely, he has died by the visitation of God. But if he be saved\nfrom death strangely and suddenly, it does not occur to us to call that a\nvisitation, and to say with Scripture, \u2018The Lord has visited the man with\nHis salvation.\u2019 If the cholera comes, or the crops fail, we say,\u2014God is\nvisiting us. If we have an especially healthy year, or a glorious\nharvest, we never say with Scripture, \u2018The Lord has visited His people in\ngiving them bread.\u2019 Yet Scripture, if it says, \u2018I will visit their\ntransgressions,\u2019 says also that the Lord visited the children of Israel\nto deliver them out of Egypt. If it talks of death as the visitation of\nall men, it speaks of God visiting Sarah and Hannah to give them\nchildren. If it says, \u2018I will visit the blood shed in Jezreel,\u2019 it says\nalso, \u2018Thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.\u2019 If it says, \u2018At the\ntime they are visited they shall be cast down,\u2019 it says also, \u2018The Lord\nshall visit them, and turn away their captivity.\u2019\n\nIf we look through Scripture, we find that the words \u2018visit\u2019 and\n\u2018visitation\u2019 are used about ninety times: that in about fifty of them the\nmeaning of the words is chastisement of some kind or other: in about\nforty it is mercy and blessing: and that in the New Testament the words\nnever mean anything but mercy and blessing, though we have begun of late\nyears to use them only in the sense of punishment and a curse.\n\nNow, how is this, my friends? How is it that we, who are not under the\nterrors of the Law, but under the Gospel of grace, have quite lost the\nGospel meaning of this word \u2018visitation,\u2019 and take a darker view of it\nthan did even the old Jews under the Law? Have we, whom God hath\nvisited, indeed, in the person of His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, any\nright or reason to think worse of a visitation of God than had the Jews\nof old? God forbid. And yet we do so, I fear; and show daily that we do\nso by our use of the word: for out of the abundance of the heart man\u2019s\nmouth speaketh. By his words he is justified, and by his words he is\ncondemned; and there is no surer sign of what a man\u2019s real belief is,\nthan the sense in which lie naturally, as it were by instinct, uses\ncertain words.\n\nAnd what is the cause?\n\nShall I say it? If I do, I blame not you more than I blame myself, more\nthan I blame this generation. But it seems to me that there is a\nlittle\u2014or not a little\u2014atheism among us now-a-days; that we are growing\nto be \u2018without God in the world.\u2019 We are ready enough to believe that\nGod has to do with the next world: but we are not ready to believe that\nHe has to do with this world. We, in this generation, do not believe\nthat in God we live, and move, and have our being. Nay, some object to\ncapital punishment, because (so they say) \u2018it hurries men into the\npresence of their Maker;\u2019 as if a human being could be in any better or\nsafer place than the presence of his Maker; and as if his being there\ndepended on us, or on any man, and not on God Almighty alone, who is\nsurely not so much less powerful than an earthly monarch, that He cannot\nkeep out of His presence or in it whomsoever He chooses. When we talk of\nbeing \u2018ushered into the presence of God,\u2019 we mean dying; as if we were\nnot all in the presence of God at this moment, and all day long. When we\nsay, \u2018Prepare to meet thy God,\u2019 we mean \u2018Prepare to die;\u2019 as if we did\nnot meet our God every time we had the choice between doing a right thing\nand doing a wrong one\u2014between yielding to our own lusts and tempers, and\nyielding to the Holy Spirit of God. For if the Holy Spirit of God be, as\nthe Christian faith tells us, God indeed, do we not meet God every time a\nright, and true, and gracious thought arises in our hearts? But we have\nall forgotten this, and much more connected with this; and our notion of\nthis world is not that of Holy Scripture\u2014of that grand 104th Psalm, for\ninstance, which sets forth the Spirit of God as the Lord and Giver of\nlife to all creation: but our notion is this\u2014that this world is a\nmachine, which would go on very well by itself, if God would but leave it\nalone; that if the course of nature, as we atheistically call it, is not\ninterfered with, then suns shine, crops grow, trade flourishes, and all\nis well, because God does not visit the earth. Ah! blind that we are;\nblind to the power and glory of God which is around us, giving life and\nbreath to all things,\u2014God, without whom not a sparrow falls to the\nground,\u2014God, who visiteth the earth, and maketh it very plenteous,\u2014God,\nwho giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not,\u2014God, whose ever-creating\nand ever-sustaining Spirit is the source, not only of all goodness,\nvirtue, knowledge, but of all life, health, order, fertility. We see not\nGod\u2019s witness in His sending rain and fruitful seasons, filling our\nhearts with food and gladness. And then comes the punishment. Because\nwe will not keep up a wholesome and trustful belief in God in prosperity,\nwe are awakened out of our dream of unbelief, to an unwholesome and\nmistrustful belief in Him in adversity. Because we will not believe in a\nGod of love and order, we grow to believe in a God of anger and disorder.\nBecause we will not fear a God who sends fruitful seasons, we are grown\nto dread a God who sends famine and pestilence. Because we will not\nbelieve in the Father in heaven, we grow to believe in a destroyer who\nvisits from heaven. But we believe in Him only as the destroyer. We\nhave forgotten that He is the Giver, the Creator, the Redeemer. We look\non His visitations as something dark and ugly, instead of rejoicing in\nthe thought of God\u2019s presence, as we should, if we had remembered that He\nwas about our path and about our bed, and spying out all our ways,\nwhether for joy or for sorrow. We shrink at the thought of His presence.\nWe look on His visitations as things not to be understood; not to be\nsearched out in childlike humility\u2014and yet in childlike confidence\u2014that\nwe may understand why they are sent, and what useful lesson our Father\nmeans us to learn from them: but we look on them as things to be merely\nprayed against, if by any means God will, as soon as possible, cease to\nvisit us, and leave us to ourselves, for we can earn our own bread\ncomfortably enough, if it were not for His interference and visitations.\nWe are too like the Gadarenes of old, to whom it mattered little that the\nLord had restored the madman to health and reason, if He caused their\nswine to perish in the lake. They were uneasy and terrified at such\nvisitations of God incarnate. He seemed to them a terrible and dangerous\nBeing, and they besought Him to depart out of their coasts.\n\nIt would have been wiser, surely, in those Gadarenes, and better for\nthem, had they cried\u2014\u2018Lord, what wilt Thou have us to do? We see that\nThou art a Being of infinite power, for mercy, and for punishment\nlikewise. And Thou art the very Being whom we want, to teach us our\nduty, and to make us do it. Tell us what we ought to do, and help us,\nand, if need be, compel us to do it, and so to prosper indeed.\u2019 And so\nshould we pray in the case of this cholera. We may ask God to take it\naway: but we are bound to ask God also, why He has sent it. Till then we\nhave no reason to suppose that He will take it away; we have no reason to\nsuppose that it will be merciful in Him to take it away, till He has\ntaught us why it was sent. This question of cholera has come now to a\ncrisis, in which we must either learn why cholera comes, or incur, I\nhold, lasting disgrace and guilt. And\u2014if I may dare to hint at the\ncounsels of God\u2014it seems as if the Almighty Lord had no mind to relieve\nus of that disgrace and guilt.\n\nFor months past we have been praying that this cholera should not enter\nEngland, and our prayers have not been heard. In spite of them the\ncholera has come; and has slain thousands, and seems likely to slay\nthousands more. What plainer proof can there be to those who believe in\nthe providence of God, and the rule of Jesus Christ our Lord, than that\nwe are meant to learn some wholesome lesson from it, which we have not\nlearnt yet? It cannot be that God means us to learn the physical cause\nof cholera, for that we have known these twenty years. Foul lodging,\nfoul food, and, above all, natural and physical, foul water; there is no\ndoubt of the cause. But why cannot we save English people from the curse\nand destruction which all this foulness brings? That is the question.\nThat is our national scandal, shame, and sin at this moment. Perhaps the\nLord wills that we should learn that; learn what is the moral and\nspiritual cause of our own miserable weakness, negligence, hardness of\nheart, which, sinning against light and knowledge, has caused the death\nof thousands of innocent souls. God grant that we may learn that lesson.\nGod grant that He may put into the hearts and minds of some man or men,\nthe wisdom and courage to deliver us from such scandals for the future.\n\nBut I have little hope that that will happen, till we get rid of our\nsecret atheism; till we give up the notion that God only visits now and\nthen, to disorder and destroy His own handiwork, and take back the old\nscriptural notion, that God is visiting all day long for ever, to give\norder and life to His own work, to set it right whenever it goes wrong,\nand re-create it whenever it decays. Till then we can expect only\nexplanations of cholera and of God\u2019s other visitations of affliction,\nwhich are so superstitious, so irrational, so little connected with the\nmatter in hand, that they would be ridiculous, were they not somewhat\nblasphemous. But when men arise in this land who believe truly in an\never-present God of order, revealed in His Son Jesus Christ; when men\nshall arise in this land, who will believe that faith with their whole\nhearts, and will live and die for it and by it; acting as if they really\nbelieved that in God we live, and move, and have our being; as if they\nreally believed that they were in the kingdom and rule of Christ,\u2014a rule\nof awful severity, and yet of perfect love,\u2014a rule, meanwhile, which men\ncan understand, and are meant to understand, that they may not only obey\nthe laws of God, but know the mind of God, and copy the dealings of God,\nand do the will of God; and when men arise in this land, who have that\nholy faith in their hearts, and courage to act upon it, then cholera will\nvanish away, and the physical and moral causes of a hundred other evils\nwhich torment poor human beings through no anger of God, but simply\nthrough their own folly, and greediness, and ignorance.\n\nAll these shall vanish away, in the day when the knowledge of the Lord\nshall cover the land, and men shall say, in spirit and in truth, as\nChrist their Lord has said before,\u2014\u2018Sacrifice and burnt-offering thou\nwouldest not. Then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it is\nwritten of Me, that I should do the will of God.\u2019 And in those days\nshall be fulfilled once more, the text which says,\u2014\u2018That the people\nglorified God, saying, A great Prophet, even Christ the Lord Himself,\nhath risen up among us, and God hath visited His people.\u2019\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XVIII.\nTHE WICKED SERVANT.\n\n\n ST. MATTHEW xviii. 23.\n\n The kingdom of heaven is likened to a certain king, which would take\n account of his servants.\n\nTHIS parable, which you heard in the Gospel for this day, you all know.\nAnd I doubt not that all you who know it, understand it well enough. It\nis so human and so humane; it is told with such simplicity, and yet with\nsuch force and brilliancy that\u2014if one dare praise our Lord\u2019s words as we\npraise the words of men\u2014all must see its meaning at once, though it\nspeaks of a state of society different from anything which we have ever\nseen, or, thank God, ever shall see.\n\nThe Eastern despotic king who has no law but his own will; who puts his\nservant\u2014literally his slave\u2014into a post of such trust and honour, that\nthe slave can misappropriate and make away with the enormous sum of ten\nthousand talents; who commands, not only him, but his wife and children\nto be sold to pay the debt; who then forgives him all out of a sudden\nburst of pity, and again, when the wretched man has shown himself base\nand cruel, unworthy of that pity, revokes his pardon, and delivers him to\nthe tormentors till he shall pay all\u2014all this is a state of things\nimpossible in a free country, though it is possible enough still in many\ncountries of the East, which are governed in this very despotic fashion;\nand justice, and very often injustice likewise, is done in this rough,\nuncertain way, by the will of the king alone.\n\nBut, however different the circumstances, yet there is a lesson in this\nstory which is universal and eternal, true for all men, and true for\never. The same human nature, for good and for evil, is in us, as was in\nthat Eastern king and his slave. The same kingdom of heaven is over us\nas was over them, its laws punishing sinners by their own sins; the same\nSpirit of God which strove with their hearts is striving with ours. If\nit was not so, the parable would mean nothing to us. It would be a story\nof men who belonged to another moral world, and were under another moral\nlaw, not to be judged by our rules of right and wrong; and therefore a\nstory of men whom we need not copy.\n\nBut it is not so. If the parable be\u2014as I take for granted it is\u2014a true\nstory; then it was Christ, the Light who lights every man who cometh into\nthe world, who put into that king\u2019s heart the divine feeling of mercy,\nand inspired him to forgive, freely and utterly, the wretched slave who\nworshipped him, kneeling with his forehead to the ground, and promising,\nin his terror, what he probably knew he could not perform\u2014\u2018Lord, have\npatience with me, and I will pay thee all.\u2019\n\nAnd it was Christ, the Light of men, who inspired that king with the\nfeeling, not of mere revenge, but of just retribution; who taught him\nthat, when the slave was unworthy of his mercy, he had a right, in a\nnoble and divine indignation, to withdraw his mercy; and not to waste his\nfavours on a bad man, who would only turn them to fresh bad account, but\nto keep them for those who had justice and honour enough in their hearts\nto forgive others, when their Lord had forgiven them.\n\nWe must bear in mind, that the king must have been right, and acting\n(whether he knew it or not) by the Spirit of God; else his conduct would\nnever have been likened to the kingdom of heaven: that is, to the laws by\nwhich God governs both this world and the world to come.\n\nThe kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of God\u2014Would that men would believe\nin them a little more! It seems, at times, as if all belief in them was\ndying out; as if men, throughout all civilized and Christian countries,\nhad made up their minds to say\u2014There is no kingdom of God or of heaven.\nThere will be one hereafter, in the next world. This world is the\nkingdom of men, and of what they can do for themselves without God\u2019s\nhelp, and without God\u2019s laws.\n\nMy friends, the Jewish rulers of old said so, and cried, \u2018We have no king\nbut C\u00e6sar.\u2019 And they remain an example to all time, of what happens to\nthose who deny the kingdom of God. Christ came to tell them that the\nkingdom of heaven was at hand, and the kingdom of God was among them.\nBut they would have none of it. And what said our Lord of them and their\nnotion? \u2018The prince of this world,\u2019 said He, \u2018cometh, and hath nothing\nin me. This is your hour and the power of darkness.\u2019 Yes; the hour in\nwhich men had determined to manage the world in their way, and not in\nChrist\u2019s, was also the hour of the power of darkness. That was what they\nhad gained by having their own way; by saying\u2014The kingdom is ours, and\nnot God\u2019s. They had fallen under the power of darkness, not of light.\nThe very light within them was darkness. They utterly mistook their road\non earth. At the very moment that they were trying to make peace with\nthe Roman governor, by denying that Christ was their King, and demanding\nthat He should be crucified,\u2014at that very moment the things which\nbelonged to their peace were hid from their eyes. Never men made so\nfatal a mistake, when they thought themselves most politic and prudent.\nThey said among themselves\u2014\u2018Unless we put down this man, the Romans will\ncome and take away our place,\u2019 _i.e._ our privileges, and power, and our\nnation. And what followed? That the Romans did come and take away their\nplace and nation, with horrible massacre and ruin: and so they lost both\nthe kingdom of this world, and the kingdom of God likewise. Never, I\nsay, did men make a more fatal mistake in the things of this world than\nthose Jews to whom the kingdom of God came, and they rejected it.\n\nAnd so shall we, my friends, if we forget that, whether we like it or\nnot, the kingdom of God is within us, and we within it likewise.\n\n1. The kingdom of God is within us. Every gracious motive, every noble,\njust, and merciful instinct within us, is a sign to us that the kingdom\nof God is come to us; that we are not as the brutes which perish; not as\nthe heathen who are too often past feeling, being alienated from the life\nof God by reason of the ignorance which is in them: but, that we are\nGod\u2019s children, inheritors of the kingdom of heaven; and that God\u2019s\nSpirit is teaching us the laws of that kingdom; so that in every child\nwho is baptized, educated, and civilized, is fulfilled the promise, \u2018I\nwill write my laws upon their hearts, and I will be to them a Father.\u2019\n\nGod\u2019s Spirit is teaching our hearts as He taught the heart of that old\nEastern king. It may be, it ought to be, that He is teaching us far\ndeeper lessons than He ever taught that king.\n\n2. We are in the kingdom of God. It is worth our while to remember that\nsteadfastly just now. Many people are ready to agree that the kingdom of\nGod is within them. They will readily confess that religion is a\nspiritual matter, and a matter of the heart: but their fancy is that\ntherefore religion, and all just and noble and beautiful instincts and\naspirations, are very good things for those who have them: but that, if\nany one has them not, it does not much matter.\n\nThey do not see that there are not only such things as feelings about\nGod; but that there are also such things as laws of God; and that God can\nenforce those laws, and does enforce them, sometimes in a very terrible\nmanner. They do not believe enough in a living God, an acting God, a God\nwho will not merely write His laws in our hearts, if we will let Him, but\nmay also destroy us off the face of the earth, if we would not let Him.\nThey fancy that God either cannot, or will not, enforce His own laws, but\nleaves a man free to accept them, or reject as he will. There is no\ngreater mistake. Be not deceived; God is not mocked. As a man sows, so\nshall he reap. God says to us, to all men,\u2014Copy Me. Do as I do, and be\nMy children, and be blest. But if we will not; if, after all God\u2019s care\nand love, the tree brings forth no fruit, then, soon or late, the\nsentence goes forth against it in God\u2019s kingdom, \u2018Cut it down; why\ncumbereth it the ground?\u2019\n\nThere is a saying now-a-days, that nations and tribes who will not live\nreasonable lives, and behave as men should to their fellow-men, must be\ncivilized off the face of the earth. The words are false, if they mean\nthat we, or any other men, have a right to exterminate their\nfellow-creatures. But they are true, and more true than the people who\nuse them fancy, if they are spoken not of man, but of God. For if men\nwill not obey the laws of God\u2019s kingdom, God does actually civilize them\noff the face of the earth. Great nations, learned churches, powerful\naristocracies, ancient institutions, has God civilized off the face of\nthe earth before now. Because they would not acknowledge God for their\nKing, and obey the laws of His kingdom, in which alone are life, and\nwealth, and health, God has taken His kingdom away from them, and given\nit to others who would bring forth the fruits thereof. The Jews are the\nmost awful and famous example of that terrible judgment of God, but they\nare not the only ones. It has happened again and again. It may happen\nto you or me, as well as to this whole nation of England, if we forget\nthat we are in God\u2019s kingdom, and that only by living according to God\u2019s\nlaws can we keep our place therein.\n\nAnd this is what the parable teaches us. The king tries to teach the\nservant one of the laws of his kingdom\u2014that he rules according to\nboundless mercy and generosity. God wishes to teach us the same. The\nking does so, not by word, but by deed, by actually forgiving the man his\ndebt. So does God forgive us freely in Jesus Christ our Lord.\n\nBut more than this, he wishes the servant to understand that he is to\ncopy his king; that if his king has behaved to him like a father to his\nchild, he must behave as a brother to his fellow-servants. So does God\nwish to teach us.\n\nBut he does not tell the man so, in so many words. He does not say to\nhim, I command thee to forgive thy debtors as I have forgiven thee. He\nleaves the man to his own sense of honour and good feeling. It is a\nquestion not of the law, but of the heart. So does God with us. He\neducates us, not as children or slaves, but as free men, as moral agents.\nHe leaves us to our own reason and conscience, to reap the fruit which we\nourselves have sown. Therefore, about a thousand matters in life He lays\non us no special command. He leaves us to act according to our good\nfeeling, to our own sense of honour. It is a matter, I say, of the\nheart. If God\u2019s law be written in our hearts, our hearts will lead us to\ndo the right thing. If God\u2019s law be not in our hearts, then mere outward\ncommands will not make us do right, for what we do will not be really\nright and good, because it will not be done heartily and of our own will.\n\nBut the servant does not follow his lord\u2019s example.\n\nFresh from his lord\u2019s presence, he takes his fellow-servant by the\nthroat, saying\u2014Pay me that thou owest. His heart has not been touched.\nHis lord\u2019s example has not softened him. He does not see how beautiful,\nhow noble, how divine, generosity and mercy are. He is a hard-hearted,\nworldly man. The heavenly kingdom, which is justice and love, is not\nwithin him. Then, if the kingdom of heaven is not in him, he shall find\nout that he is in it; and that in a very terrible way:\u2014\u2018Thou wicked\nservant, unworthy of my pity, because there is no goodness in thine own\nheart. Thou wilt not take into thy heart my law, which tells thee, Be\nmerciful as I am merciful. Then thou shalt feel another and an equally\nuniversal law of mine. As thou doest so shalt thou be done by. If thou\nart merciful, thou shalt find mercy. If thou wilt have nothing but\nretribution, then nothing but retribution thou shalt have. If thou must\nneeds do justice thyself, I will do justice likewise. Because I am\nmerciful, dost thou think me careless? Because I sit still, that I am\npatient? Dost thou think me such a one as thyself?\u2019 And his lord\ndelivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto\nhim.\n\nMy dear friends, this is an awful story. Let us lay it to heart. And to\ndo that, let us pray God to lay it to our hearts; to write His laws in\nour hearts, that we may not only fear them, but love them; not only see\ntheir profitableness, but their fitness; that we may obey them, not\ngrudgingly or of necessity, but obey them because they look to us just,\nand true, and beautiful, and as they are\u2014Godlike. Let us pray, I say,\nthat God would make us love what He commands, lest we should neglect and\ndespise what He commands, and find it some day unexpectedly alive and\nterrible after all. Let us pray to God to keep alive His kingdom of\ngrace within us, lest His kingdom of retribution outside us should fall\nupon us, and grind us to powder.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XIX.\nCIVILIZED BARBARISM.\n\n\n (_Preached for the Bishop of London\u2019s Fund_, _at St. John\u2019s Church_,\n _Notting Hill_, _June_ 1866.)\n\n ST. MATTHEW ix. 12.\n\n They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.\n\nI HAVE been honoured by an invitation to preach on behalf of the Bishop\nof London\u2019s Fund for providing for the spiritual wants of this\nmetropolis. By the bishop, and a large number of landowners, employers\nof labour, and others who were aware of the increasing heathendom of the\nrichest and happiest city of the world, it was agreed that, if possible,\na million sterling should be raised during the next ten years, to do what\nmoney could do in wiping out this national disgrace. It is a noble plan;\nand it has been as yet\u2014and I doubt not will be to the end\u2014nobly responded\nto by the rich laity of this metropolis.\n\nMore than 100,000_l._ was contributed during the first six months; nearly\n60,000_l._ in the ensuing year; beside subscriptions which are promised\nfor the whole, or part of the ten years. The money, therefore, does not\nflow in as rapidly as was desired: but there is as yet no falling off.\nAnd I believe that there will be, on the contrary, a gradual increase in\nthe subscriptions as the objects of this fund are better understood, and\nas its benefits are practically felt.\n\nNow, it is unnecessary\u2014it would be almost an impertinence\u2014to enlarge on a\nspiritual destitution of which you are already well aware. There are, we\nshall all agree, many thousands in London who are palpably sick of\nspiritual disease, and need the physician. But I have special reasons\nfor not pressing this point. If I attempted to draw subscriptions from\nyou by painting tragical and revolting pictures of the vice, heathendom,\nand misery of this metropolis, I might make you fancy that it was an\naltogether vicious, heathen, and miserable spot: than which there can be\nno greater mistake. These evils are not the rule, but the exceptions.\nWere they not the exceptions, then not merely the society of London, and\nthe industry of London, and the wealth of London, but the very buildings\nof London, the brick and the mortar, would crumble to the ground by\nnatural and inevitable decay. The unprecedentedly rapid increase of\nLondon is, I firmly believe, a sure sign that things in it are done on\nthe whole not ill, but well; that God\u2019s blessing is on the place; that,\nbecause it is on the whole obeying the eternal laws of God, therefore it\nis increasing, and multiplying, and replenishing the earth, and subduing\nit. And I do not hesitate to say, that I have read of no spot of like\nsize upon this earth, on which there have ever been congregated so many\nhuman beings, who are getting their bread so peaceably, happily, loyally,\nand virtuously; and doing their duty\u2014ill enough, no doubt, as we all do\nit\u2014but still doing it more or less, by man and God.\n\nI am well aware that many will differ from me; that many men and many\nwomen\u2014holy, devoted, spending their lives in noble and unselfish\nlabours\u2014persons whose shoes\u2019 latchet I am not worthy to unloose\u2014take a\nfar darker view of the state of this metropolis. But the fact is, that\nthey are naturally brought in contact chiefly with its darker side.\nTheir first duty is to seek out cases of misery: and even if they do not,\nthe miserable will, of their own accord, come to them. It is their first\nduty too\u2014if they be clergymen\u2014to rebuke, and if possible, to cure, open\nvice, open heathendom, as well as to relieve present want and\nwretchedness: and may God\u2019s blessing be on all who do that work. But in\ndoing it they are dealing daily\u2014and ought to deal, and must deal\u2014with the\nexceptional, and not with the normal; with cases of palpable and shocking\ndisease, and not with cases of at least seeming health. They see that,\ninto London, as into a vast sewer, gravitates yearly all manner of vice,\nignorance, weakness, poverty: but they are apt to forget, at times\u2014and\nGod knows I do not blame them for it in the least\u2014that there gravitates\ninto London, not as into a sewer, but as into a wholesome and fruitful\ngarden, a far greater amount of health, strength, intellect, honesty,\nindustry, virtue, which makes London; which composes, I verily believe,\nfour-fifths of the population of London. For if it did not, as I have\nsaid already, London would decay and die, and not grow and live.\n\nAm I denying the spiritual destitution of this metropolis? Am I arguing\nagainst the necessity of the Bishop of London\u2019s Fund? Am I trying to\ncool your generosity towards it? Am I raising against it the text\u2014\u2018They\nthat be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick?\u2019 Am I trying\nto prove that the sick are fewer than was fancied, the healthy more\nnumerous; and, therefore, the physician less needed? Would to heaven\nthat I dare so do. Would to heaven that I could prove this fund\nunnecessary and superfluous. But instead thereof, I fear that I must\nsay\u2014that the average of that health, strength, intellect, honesty,\nindustry, virtue, which makes London\u2014that the average of all that, I\nverily believe, is to be counted (though it knows it not) among the sick,\nand not among the sound. It is sick, over and above those personal sins\nwhich are common to all classes; it is sick of a great social disease; of\na disease which is very dangerous for the nation to which we belong;\nwhich will increase more and more, and become more and more dangerous,\nunless it is stopped wholesale, by some such wholesale measure as this.\nThat disease is (paradoxical as it may seem) Want of Civilization;\nBarbarism, which is the child of ungodliness. And that can, I verily\nbelieve again, be cured only (as far as we in the nineteenth century have\ndiscovered) by an extension of the parochial system.\n\nAnd yet\u2014let us beware of that expression\u2014Parochial System. It seems to\nimply that the parish is a mere system; an artificial arrangement of\nman\u2019s invention. Now that is just what the parish is not. It is founded\non local ties; and they are not a system, but a fact. You do not\nassemble men into parishes: you find them already assembled by fact,\nwhich is the will of God. You take your stand upon the merest physical\nground of their living next door to each other; their being likely to\nwitness each other\u2019s sayings and doings; to help each other and like each\nother, or to debauch each other and hate each other; upon the fact that\ntheir children play in the same street, and teach each other harm or\ngood, thereby influencing generations yet unborn; upon the fact that if\none takes cholera or fever, the man who lives next door is liable to take\nit too\u2014in short, on the broad fact that they are members of each other,\nfor good or evil. You take your stand on this physical ground of mere\nneighbourhood; and say\u2014This bond of neighbourhood is, after all, one of\nthe most human\u2014yea, of the most Divine\u2014of all bonds. Every man you meet\nis your brother, and must be, for good or evil: you cannot live without\nhim; you must help, or you must injure, each other. And, therefore, you\nmust choose whether you will be a horde of isolated barbarians\u2014your\nliving in brick and mortar, instead of huts and tents, being a mere\naccident\u2014barbarians, I say, at continual war with each other: or whether\nyou will go on to become civilized men; that is, fellow-citizens, members\nof the same body, confessing and exercising duties to each other which\nare not self-chosen, not self-invented, but real; which encompass you\nwhether you know them or not; laid on you by Almighty God, by the mere\nfact of your being men and women living in contact with each other.\n\nOut of this great and true law arises the idea of a parish, a local\nself-government for many civil purposes, as well as ecclesiastical ones,\nunder a priest who\u2014if he is to be considered as a little constitutional\nmonarch\u2014has his powers limited carefully both by the supreme law, by his\nassessors the church-wardens, and by the democratic constitution of the\nparish\u2014influences which he is bound, both by law and by Christianity, to\nobey.\n\nArising, in the first place, from the fact that our forefathers colonized\nEngland in small separate families, each with its own jurisdiction and\nworship; our country parish churches being, to this day, often the sites\nof old heathen tribe-temples, and this very place, Notting-hill, being\npossibly a little colony of the Nottingas\u2014the same tribe which gave their\nname to the great city of Nottingham; arising from this fact, and from\nthe very ancient institution of frank-pledge between local neighbours,\nthis parochial system, above all other English institutions, has helped\nto teach us how to govern, and therefore how to civilize, ourselves. It\nwas overlaid, all but extinguished, by the monastic system, during the\nlatter part of the Middle Ages. It re-asserted itself, in fuller vigour\nthan ever, at the Reformation. But with its benefits, its defects were\nrestored likewise. The tendency of the medi\u00e6val Church had been to\nbecome merely a church for paupers. The tendency of the Church of\nEngland during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, was\nto become merely a church for burghers. It has been, of late, to become\nmerely a church for paupers again. The causes of this reaction are\nsimple enough. Population increased so rapidly that the old parish\nbounds were broken up; the old parish staff became too small for working\npurposes. The Church had (and, alas! has still) to be again a missionary\nchurch, as she became in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when\nfeudal violence had destroyed the self-government of the parishes\u2014often\nthe parishes themselves\u2014and filled the land with pauperism and barbarism.\nBut that is but a transitional state. Her duty is now becoming more and\nmore (and those who wish her well must help her to fulfil her duty) to\nreorganize the ancient parochial system on a deeper and sounder footing\nthan ever; on a footing which will ensure her being a church, not merely\nfor pauper, nor merely for burgher, but for pauper and for burgher\nequally and alike.\n\nBut some will say that parochial civilization is only a peculiar form of\ncivilization, because its centre is a church. Peculiar? That is the\nlast word which any one would apply to such a civilization, if he knows\nhistory. Will any one mention any civilization, past or present, whose\ncentre has not been (as long as it has been living and progressive) a\nchurch? All past civilizations\u2014whether heathen or Mussulman, Jew or\nChristian\u2014have each and every one of them, as a fact, held that the\ncommon and local worship of a God was a sign to them of their common and\nlocal unity; a sign to them of their religion, that is, the duties which\nbound them to each other, whether they liked or not. To all races and\nnations, as yet, their sacred grove, church, temple, or other place of\nworship, has been a sign to them that their unity and duties were not\ninvented by themselves, but were the will and command of an unseen Being,\nwho would reward or punish them according as they did those duties or\nleft them undone. So it has been in the civilizations of the past. So\nit will be in the civilization of the future. If the Christian religion\nwere swept away\u2014as it never will be, for it is eternal\u2014and a civilization\nfounded on what is called Nature put in its place, then we should see a\nworship of something called Nature, and a temple thereof, set up as the\nsymbol of that Natural civilization. So the Jacobins of France\u2014when they\ntried to civilize France on the mere ground of what they called\nReason\u2014had, whether they liked it or not, to instal a worship of Reason,\nand a goddess of Reason, for as long as they could contrive to last.\n\nTo the world\u2019s end, a church of some kind or other will be the centre and\nsymbol of every civilization which is worthy of the name; of every\ncivilization which signifies, not merely that men live in somewhat better\nhouses, travel rather faster by railway, and read a few more books (which\nis the popular meaning of civilization), but which means\u2014as it meant\namong the Greeks, the Romans, the Jews, the Christians, among those who\ndiscovered the idea and the very words which express it\u2014that each and\nevery truly civilized man is a civis, a citizen, the conscious and\nobedient member of a corporate body which he did not make, but which (in\nas far as he is not a savage) has made him.\n\nHow far from this idea are the great masses of our really wealthy and\nwell-to-do Londoners? How much is it needed, that wise men should try to\nre-awaken in them the sense of corporate life, and literally civilize\nthem once more!\n\nConsider the case, not of the average wretched, but of the average\ncomfortable man. The small shopkeeper, the workman, skilled or\nunskilled\u2014how small a consciousness has he of citizenship. What few\nincentives to regard civism as a solemn duty. For consider, of what is\nhe a member?\n\nHe is a member of a family; and, in general, he fulfils his family duties\nwell.\n\nYes, thank God, the family life of Englishmen is sound. The hearts of\nthe children do not need to be turned to their fathers, or the hearts of\nthe fathers to the children, as they did in Judea of old. Family life,\nwhich is the foundation of all national life\u2014nay, of all Christian and\nchurch life\u2014is, on the whole, sound. And having that foundation we can\nbuild on it safely and well, if we be wise.\n\nBut of what else is the average Londoner a member? Of a benefit-club, of\na trades\u2019 union, of a volunteer corps. Each will be a valuable element\nof education, for it will teach him that self-government, which is the\nschool of all freedom, of all loyalty, of all true civilization.\n\nOr he may be a member of some Nonconformist sect. That, too, will be a\nvaluable element, for it will teach him the solemn fact of his own\npersonality; his direct responsibility to God for his own soul.\n\nAnd I cannot pass this point of my sermon without expressing my sense of\nthe great work which the Dissenting sects have done, and are doing, for\nthis land (with which the Bishop of London\u2019s plan will in no wise\ninterfere), in teaching this one thing, which the Church of England,\nwhile trying to carry out her far deeper and higher conception of\norganization, has often forgotten; that, after all, and before all, and\nthroughout all, each man stands alone, face to face with Almighty God.\nThis idea has helped to give the middle classes of England an\nindependence, a strong, vigorous, sharp-cut personality, which is an\ninvaluable wealth to the nation. God forbid that we should try to weaken\nit, even for reasons which may seem to some devout and orthodox.\n\nBut all these memberships, after all, are only voluntary ones, not\ninvoluntary. They are assumed by man himself\u2014the worldly associations on\nthe ground of mutual interest; the spiritual associations on that of\nidentity of opinions. They are not instituted by God, and nature, and\nfact, whether the man knows of them or not, likes them or not. They are\nof the nature of clubs, not of citizenship. They are not founded on that\nhuman ground which is, by virtue of the Incarnation, the most divine\nground of all. And for the many they do not exist. The majority of\nsmall shopkeepers, and the majority of labourers too, are members, as far\nas they are aware, of nothing, unless it be a club at some neighbouring\npublic-house. The old feudal and burgher bonds of the Middle Age, for\ngood or for evil, have perished by natural and necessary decay; and\nnothing has taken their place. Each man is growing up more and more\nisolated; tempted to selfishness, to brutal independence; tempted to\nregard his fellow-men as rivals in the struggle for existence; tempted,\nin short, to incivism, to a loss of the very soul and marrow of\ncivilization, while the outward results of it remain; and therefore\ntempted to a loss of patriotism, of the belief that he possesses here\nsomething far more precious than his private fortune, or even his family;\neven a country for which he must sacrifice, if need be, himself. And if\nthat grow to be the general temper of England, or of London, in some\ngreat day of the Lord, some crisis of perplexity, want, or danger,\u2014then\nmay the Lord have mercy upon this land; for it will have no mercy on\nitself: but divided, suspicious, heartless, cynical, unpatriotic, each\nclass, even each family, even each individual man, will run each his own\nway, minding his own interest or safety; content, like the debased Jews,\nif he can find the life of his hand; and\u2014\n\n \u2018Too happy if, in that dread day,\n His life he given him for a prey.\u2019\n\nOur fathers saw that happen throughout half Europe, at a crisis when,\nwhile the outward crust of civilization was still kept up, the life of\nit, all patriotism, corporate feeling, duty to a common God, and faith in\na common Saviour, had rotted out unperceived. At one blow the gay idol\nfell, and broke; and behold, inside was not a soul, but dust. God grant\nthat we may never see here the same catastrophe, the same disgrace.\n\nNow, one remedy\u2014I do not say the only remedy\u2014there are no such things as\npanaceas; all spiritual and social diseases are complicated, and their\nremedies must be complicated likewise\u2014but one remedy, palpable, easy, and\nuseful, whenever and wherever it has been tried, is this\u2014to go to these\ngreat masses of brave, honest, industrious, but isolated and uncivilized\nmen, after the method of the Bishop of this diocese, and his fund; and to\nsay to them,\u2014\u2018Of whatever body you are, or are not members, you are\nmembers of that human family for which our Lord Jesus Christ was\ncontented to be betrayed, and to suffer death upon the Cross; over which\nHe now liveth and reigneth, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God,\nworld without end. You are children of God the Father of spirits, who\nwills that all should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth.\nYou are inheritors\u2014that is, members not by your own will, or the will of\nany man, but by the will of God who has chosen you to be born in a\nChristian land of Christian parents\u2014inheritors, I say, of the kingdom of\nheaven, from your cradles to your graves, and after that, if you will,\nfor ever and ever. Behave as such. Claim your rights; for they are\nyours already: and not only claim your rights, but confess your duties.\nRemember that every man, woman, and child in your street is, prim\u00e2 facie,\njust as much a member of Christ as you are. Treat them as such;\nassociate yourselves with them as such. Accept the simple physical fact\nthat they live next door to you, as God\u2019s will toward you both, and as\nGod\u2019s sign to you that you and they are members of the same human and\ndivine family. Enter with them, in that plain form, into the free\ncorporate self-government of a Christian parish. Fear no priestly\ntyranny; from that danger you are guaranteed by the fact, that the great\nmajority of the promoters of this fund are laymen, of all shades of\nopinion. You are guaranteed, still further, by the fact, that in the\nparochial system there can be no tyranny. It is one of the very\ninstitutions by which Englishmen have learnt those habits of\nself-government, which are the admiration of Europe.\n\n\u2018Do, then, the duty which lies nearest you; your duty to the man who\nlives next door, and to the man who lives in the next street. Do your\nduty to your parish; that you may learn to do your duty by your country\nand to all mankind, and prove yourselves thereby civilized men.\n\n\u2018And confess your sins in this matter, if not to us, at least to God.\nConfess that while you, in your sturdy, comfortable independence, have\nbeen fancying yourselves whole and sound, you have been very sick, and\nneed the physician to cure you of the deadly and growing disease of\nselfish barbarism. Confess that, while you have been priding yourselves\non English self-help and independence, you have not deigned to use them\nfor those purposes of common organization, common worship, for which the\nvery savages and heathens have, for ages past, used such freedom as they\nhave had. Confess that, while you have been talking loudly about the\nrights of humanity, you have neglected too often its duties, and lived as\nif the people in the same street had no more to do with you than the\nbeasts which perish.\n\n\u2018Confess your sins. We monied men confess ours. We ought to have\nforeseen the rapid growth of this city. We ought to have planned and\nlaboured more earnestly for its better organization. And we freely offer\nour money, as a sign of our repentance, to build and establish for you\ninstitutions which you cannot afford to establish for yourselves. We\nexcuse you, moreover, in very great part. You have been gathered\ntogether so suddenly into these vast new districts, or rather chaos of\nhouses, and you have meanwhile shifted your dwellings so rapidly, and\nunder the pressure of such continual labour, that you have not had time\nenough to organize yourselves. But we, too, have our excuse. We have\nactually been trying, at vast expense and labour to ourselves, for the\nlast forty years, to meet your new needs. But you have outgrown all our\nefforts. Your increase has taken us by surprise. Your prosperity has\noutrun our goodwill. It shall do so no more. We are ready to do our\npart in the good work of repentance. We ask you to do yours. You are\nmore able to do it than you ever were: richer, better educated, more\nacquainted with the blessings of association. We do not come to you as\nto paupers, merely to help you. We come to you as to free and\nindependent citizens, to teach you to help yourselves, and show\nyourselves citizens indeed.\u2019\n\nI hope, ay, I believe, that such an appeal as this, made in an honest and\nliberal spirit, which proves its honesty and liberality by great and\ngenerous gifts out of such private wealth as no nation ever had before,\nwill be met by the masses of London, in the same spirit as that in which\nit has been made.\n\nI am certain of it, if only the ecclesiastical staff employed by this\nFund will keep steadfastly in mind what they have to do. True it is, and\nhappily true, that they can do nothing but good. If they confine\nthemselves to the celebration of public worship, to teaching children, to\ngiving the consolations of religion to those with whom want and\nwretchedness bring them in contact\u2014all that will be gain, clear gain,\nvast gain. But that, valuable, necessary as it is, will not be\nsufficient to evoke a full response from the people of London.\n\nBut if they will, not leaving the other undone, do yet more; if they will\nattempt the more difficult, but the equally necessary and more permanent\nlabour\u2014that of attacking the disease of barbarism, not merely in its\nsymptoms, but in its very roots and its causes; if they will recognise\nthe fact, that with the disease there coexists a great deal of sturdy and\nuseful health; if they will have courage and address to face, not merely\nthe non-working, non-earning, and generally non-thinking hundreds, but\nthe working, earning, thinking thousands of each parish; in fact, the men\nand women who make London what it is; if they will approach them with\ncharity, confidence, and respect; if they will remember that they are\njustly jealous of that personal independence, that civil and religious\nliberty, which is theirs by law and right; if they will conduct\nthemselves, not as lords over God\u2019s heritage, but as examples to the\nflock; if they will treat that flock, not as their subjects, but as their\nfriends, their fellow-workers, their fellow-counsellors\u2014often their\nadvisers; if they will remember that \u2018Give and take, live and let live,\u2019\nare no mere worldly maxims, but necessary, though difficult Christian\nduties; then, I believe, they will after awhile receive an answer to\ntheir call such as they dare not as yet expect; such an answer as our\nforefathers gave to the clergy of the early Middle Age, when they showed\nthem that the kingdom of God was the messenger of civilization, of\nhumanity, of justice and peace, of strength and well-being in this world,\nas well as in the next. The clergy would find in the men and women of\nLondon not merely disciples, but helpers. They would meet, not with\nfanatical excitement, not even with enthusiasm, not even with much\noutward devotion; but with co-operation, hearty and practical though slow\nand quiet\u2014co-operation all the more valuable, in every possible sense,\nbecause it will be free and voluntary; and the Bishop of London\u2019s Fund\nwould receive more and more assistance, not merely of heads and hands,\nbut of money when money was needed, from the inhabitants of the very\npoorest and most heathen districts, as they began to feel that they were\ngiving their money towards a common blessing, and became proud to pay\ntheir share towards an organization which would belong to them, and to\ntheir children after them.\n\nSo runs my dream. This may be done: God grant that it may! For now, it\nmay be, is our best chance of doing it. Now is the accepted time; now is\nthe day of salvation. If these masses increase in numbers and in power\nfor another generation, in their present state of anarchy, they may be\nlost for ever to Christianity, to order, to civilization. But if we can\ncivilize, in that sense which is both classical and Christian, the masses\nof London, and of England, by that parochial method which has been\n(according to history) the only method yet discovered, then we shall have\nhelped, not only to save innumerable souls from sin, and from that misery\nwhich is the inevitable and everlasting consequence of sin, but we shall\nhave helped to save them from a specious and tawdry barbarism, such as\ncorrupted and enervated the seemingly civilized masses of the later Roman\nempire; and to save our country, within the next century, from some such\ncatastrophe as overtook the Jewish monarchy in spite of all its outward\nreligiosity; the catastrophe which has overtaken every nation which has\nfancied itself sound and whole, while it was really broken, sick, weak,\nripe for ruin. For such, every nation or empire becomes, though the\nminority above be never so well organized, civilized, powerful, educated,\neven virtuous, if the majority below are not a people of citizens, but\nmasses of incoherent atoms, ready to fall to pieces before every storm.\n\nFrom that, and from all adversities, may God deliver us, and our children\nafter us, by graciously beholding this His Family, for which our Lord\nJesus Christ was content to suffer death upon the Cross; and by pouring\nout His Spirit upon all estates of men in His holy Church, that every\nmember of the same, in his calling and ministry, may freely and godly\nserve Him; till we have no longer the shame and sorrow of praying for\nEnglish men and women, as we do for Jews, Turks, infidels, and heretics,\nthat God would take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and\ncontempt of His Word, and fetch them home to that flock of His, to which\nthey all belong!\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XX.\nTHE GOD OF NATURE.\n\n\n (_Preached during a wet harvest_.)\n\n PSALM cxlvii. 7\u20139.\n\n Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto\n our God: who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for\n the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. He giveth to\n the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.\n\nTHERE is no reason why those who wrote this Psalm, and the one which\nfollows it, should have looked more cheerfully on the world about them\nthan we have a right to do. The country and climate of Judea is not much\nsuperior to ours. If we suffer at times from excess of rain and wind,\nJudea suffers from excess of drought and sunshine. It suffers, too, at\ntimes, from that most terrible of earthly calamities, from which we are\nfree\u2014namely, from earthquakes. The sea, moreover, instead of being\nloved, as it is by us, as the highway of our commerce, and the producer\nof vast stores of food\u2014the sea, I say, was almost feared by the old Jews,\nwho were no sailors. They looked on it as a dangerous waste; and were\nthankful to God that, though the waves roared, He had set them a bound\nwhich they could not pass.\n\nSo that there is no reason why the old Jews should think and speak more\ncheerfully about the world than we here in England ought. They had, too,\nthe same human afflictions, sicknesses, dangers, disappointments, losses\nand chastisements as we have. They had their full share of all the ills\nto which flesh is heir. Yet look, I beg you, at the cheerfulness of\nthese two Psalms, the 147th and 148th. In truth, it is more than\ncheerfulness; it is joy, rejoicing which can only express itself in a\nsong.\n\nThese Psalms are songs, to be sung to music, and even in our translation\nthey are songs still, sounding like poetry, and not like prose.\n\nAnd why is this? Because the men who wrote these Psalms had faith in\nGod.\n\nThey trusted God. They saw that He was worthy of their trust. They saw\nthat He was to be honoured, not merely for His boundless wisdom and His\nboundless power: for a being might have them, and yet make a bad use of\nthem. But He was to be trusted, because He was a good God. He was to be\nhonoured, not for anything which men might get out of Him (as the heathen\nfancied) by flattering Him, and begging of Him: but He was to be honoured\nfor His own sake, for what He was in Himself\u2014a just, merciful, kind,\ngenerous, magnanimous, and utterly noble and perfect, moral Being, worthy\nof all admiration, praise, honour, and glory.\n\nThe Psalmist saw that God was good, and worthy to be praised. But he\nsaw, too, that he and his forefathers would never have found out that for\nthemselves. It was too great a discovery for man to make. God must have\nshowed it to them. God had showed His word to Jacob, His statutes and\nordinances to Israel.\n\nHe had not done so to any other nation, neither had the heathen knowledge\nof His laws. And, therefore, they did not trust God; they did not\nconsider Him a good God, and so they worshipped Baalim, the sun and moon\nand stars, with silly and foul ceremonies, to procure from them good\nharvests; and burnt their children in the fire to Moloch, the fire-king,\nto keep off the earthquakes and the floods. God had not taught them what\nHe had taught Israel\u2014to trust in Him, and in His word which ran very\nswiftly, and in His laws, which could not be broken: a faith which, my\nfriends, we must do our best to keep up in ourselves, and in our children\nafter us. For it is very easy to lose it, this faith in God. We are\ntempted to lose it, all our lives long.\n\nOur forefathers, in the days of Popery, lost it; and because they did not\ntrust in God as a good God, who took good care of the world which He had\nmade, they fell to believing that the devil, and witches, the servants of\nthe devil, could raise storms, blight crops, strike cattle and human\nbeings with disease. And they began, too, to pray, not to God, but to\ncertain saints in heaven, to protect them against bodily ills.\n\nOne saint could cure one disease, and one another; one saint protected\nthe cattle, another kept off thunder, and so forth\u2014I will not tell you\nmore, lest I should tempt you to smile in this holy place; and tempt you,\ntoo, to look down on your forefathers, who (though they made these\nmistakes) were just as honest and virtuous men as we.\n\nAnd even lately, up to this very time, there are those who have not full\nfaith in God; though they be good and pious persons, and good Protestants\ntoo, who would shrink with horror from worshipping saints, or any being\nsave God alone. But they are apt to shut their eyes to the beauty and\norder of God\u2019s world, and to the glory of God set forth therein, and to\nexcuse themselves by quoting unfairly texts of Scripture. They say that\nthis world is all out of joint; corrupt, and cursed for Adam\u2019s sin: yet,\nwhere it is out of joint, and where it is corrupt, they cannot show.\nAnd, as for its being cursed for Adam\u2019s sin, that is a dream which is\ncontradicted by Holy Scripture itself. For see. We read in Genesis iii.\n17, \u2018Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it\nall the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth\nto thee.\u2019\n\nNow, that the ground does not now bring forth thorns and thistles to us,\nwe know. For it brings forth whatsoever fair flower, or useful herb, we\nplant therein, according to the laws of nature, which are the laws of\nGod. Neither do men eat thereof in sorrow; but, as Solomon says, \u2018eat\ntheir bread in joyfulness of heart.\u2019 And so did they in the Psalmist\u2019s\ndays; who never speak of the tillage of the land without some expression\nof faith and confidence, and thankfulness to that God who crowns the year\nwith His goodness, and His clouds drop fatness; while the hills rejoice\non every side, and the valleys stand so thick with corn, that they laugh\nand sing\u2014of faith, I say, and gratitude toward that God who brings forth\nthe grass for the cattle, and green herb for the service of men; who\nbrings food out of the earth, and wine to make glad the heart of man, and\noil to give him a cheerful countenance, and bread to strengthen man\u2019s\nheart. Those well-known words are in the 104th Psalm; and I ask any\nreasonable person to read that Psalm through\u2014the Psalm which contains the\nJewish natural theology, the Jew\u2019s view of this world, and of God\u2019s will\nand dealings with it\u2014and then say, could a man have written it who\nthought that there was any curse upon this earth on account of man\u2019s sin?\n\nBut more. The Book of Genesis says that there is none; for, after it has\nsaid in the third chapter, \u2018Cursed is the ground for thy sake,\u2019 it says\nagain, in the eighth chapter, verse 21, \u2018And the Lord said in His heart,\nI will not again curse the ground for man\u2019s sake. While the earth\nremaineth, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, shall\nnot cease.\u2019\n\nCan any words be plainer? Whatever the curse in Adam\u2019s days may have\nbeen, does not the Book of Genesis represent it as being formally\nabrogated and taken away in the days of Noah, that the regular course of\nnature, fruitful and beneficent, might endure thenceforth?\n\nAccordingly, we hear no more in the Bible anywhere of this same curse.\nWe hear instead the very opposite; for one says, in the 119th Psalm,\nspeaking indeed of God, \u2018O Lord, Thy word endureth for ever in heaven.\nThy truth also remaineth from one generation to another. Thou hast laid\nthe foundation of the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day\naccording to Thine ordinance: for all things serve Thee.\u2019 And so in the\n148th Psalm, another speaks by the Spirit of God; \u2018Let all things praise\nthe name of the Lord: for He commanded, and they were created. He hath\nalso established them for ever and ever: He hath given them a law which\nshall not be broken.\u2019\n\nYes, my friends, God\u2019s law shall not be broken, and it is not broken.\nAnd that faith, that the laws which govern the whole material universe,\ncannot be broken, will be to us faith full of hope, and joy, and\nconfidence, if we will remember, with the Psalmist, that they are the\nlaws of the living God, and of the good God.\n\nThey are the laws of the living God: not the laws of nature, or fate, or\nnecessity\u2014all three words which mean little or nothing\u2014but of a living\nGod in whom we live, and move, and have our being; whose word\u2014the\ncreating, organizing, inspiring word\u2014runneth very swiftly, making all\nthings to obey God, and not themselves.\n\nAnd they are the laws of a good God; of a moral God; of a generous,\nloving, just, and merciful God, who, as the Psalmist reminds us (and that\nis the reason of his confidence and his joy), while He telleth the number\nof the stars, and calleth them all by their names, condescends at the\nsame time to heal those who are broken in heart; of a God who, while He\ngiveth fodder to the cattle, and feedeth the young ravens who call on\nHim, at the same time careth for those who fear Him, and put their trust\nin His mercy; of a God who, while His power is great and His wisdom\ninfinite, at the same time sets up the meek, and brings the ungodly down\nto the ground; of a Father in heaven who is perfect in this\u2014that He sends\nHis sun and rain alike on the just and the unjust, and is good to the\nunthankful and the evil; of a Father, lastly, who so loved the world,\nthat He spared not His only-begotten Son, but freely gave Him for us, and\nhas committed to that Son all power in heaven and earth;\u2014all power over\nthe material world, which we call nature, as well as over the moral\nworld, which is the hearts and spirits of men\u2014to that Word of God who\nrunneth very swiftly, who is sharper than a two-edged sword, and yet more\ntender than the love of woman; even Jesus Christ the Saviour, the Word of\nGod, who was in the beginning with God, and was God; by whom all things\nwere made; who is the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh\ninto the world, if by any means he will receive the light of God, and see\nthereby the true and wise laws of Nature and of Spirit.\n\nThis is our God. This is He who sends food and wealth, rain and\nsunshine. Shall we not trust Him? If we thank Him for plenty, and fine\nweather, which we see to be blessings without doubt, shall we not trust\nHim for scarcity and bad weather, which do not seem to us to be\nblessings, and yet may be blessings nevertheless? Shall we not believe\nthat His very chastisements are mercies? Shall we not accept them in\nfaith, as the child takes from its parent\u2019s hand bitter medicine, the use\nof which it cannot see; but takes it in faith that its parent knows best,\nand that its parent\u2019s purpose is only love and benevolence? Shall we not\nsay with Job\u2014Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him? He cannot mean\nmy harm; He must mean my good, and the good of all mankind. He must\u2014even\nby such seeming calamities as great rains, or failure of crops\u2014even by\nthem He must be benefiting mankind. Recollect, as a single instance,\nthat the great rains of 1860, which terrified so many, are proved now to\nhave saved some thousands of lives in England from fever and similar\ndiseases. Take courage; and have, as the old Psalmist had, faith in God.\nBelieve that nothing goes wrong in this world, save through the sin, and\nfolly, and ignorance of man; that God is always right, always wise,\nalways benevolent: and be sure that you, each and all, are\u2014\n\n \u2018Safe in the hand of one disposing Power,\n Or in the natal, or the mortal hour,\n All nature is but art, unknown to thee;\n All chance, discretion which thou can it not see.\n All discord, harmony not understood;\n All partial evil, universal good;\n And spite of pride, in erring reason\u2019s spite,\n One truth is clear\u2014whatever is, is right.\u2019\n\nAnd pray to God that He may fill you with His Spirit, the spirit of\nwisdom and understanding, of knowledge and grace of the Lord, and show to\nyou, as He showed to the Jews of old, His laws and judgments, and so\nteach you how to see that the only thing on earth which is not right,\nis\u2014the sin of man.","title":"The Water of Life, and Other Sermons","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":57464}