{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_64471/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_64471","id":"gutenberg_64471","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64471","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Epistle of John, 1st, I, 5, IV, 16 -- Sermons","British and Foreign Bible Society -- Sermons","Category: British Literature","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Church of England -- Sermons -- 19th century"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1872 Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer edition by\nDavid Price.\n\n\n\n\n\n                 _THE BOOK OF LIGHT IN THE HAND OF LOVE_:\n\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                  A PLEA\n                                   FOR\n                  The British and Foreign Bible Society.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                 A SERMON\n\n                    PREACHED IN ST. PAUL\u2019S CATHEDRAL,\n                    _ON TUESDAY_, _APRIL 30_, _1872_.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                    BY\n                           C. J. VAUGHAN, D.D.\n                          MASTER OF THE TEMPLE,\n                  AND CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO THE QUEEN.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                          PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                 LONDON:\n                    LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND DYER.\n                                  1872.\n\n\n\n\n_THE BOOK OF LIGHT IN THE HAND OF LOVE_:\nA SERMON.\n\n\n                             1 JOHN i. 5. iv. 16.\n                     \u201c_God is Light_.\u201d  \u201c_God is Love_.\u201d\n\nROUND these two centres revolves the Theology of St. John.\n\nHe is named \u201cthe Divine,\u201d the Theologian; and this is his scheme of\nTheology, his system of Divinity; not an enumeration of doctrines, not an\nenunciation of Articles, not Calvinism, not Arminianism, not Romanism,\nand not Protestantism; but just these two principles, higher and deeper\nthan any question which divides parties or distinguishes sects: the\nfirst, \u201cGod is Light,\u201d and the second, \u201cGod is Love.\u201d\n\nWe are not saying, God forbid! that two brief maxims, one a metaphor, the\nother an abstraction, in such sense comprehend Theology as that there\nshall be no need of express declarations of fact, or of definite\nrevelations of truth, beside or beyond, within or above, them.  Nor are\nwe saying\u2014this, too, would be ignorance, as much as irreverence\u2014that this\nvery Epistle of St. John is destitute of method or system or logical\ncoherence; consists only of a few platitudes and a few tautologies, the\namiable feeblenesses of a pious old age, encouraging the scoffer\u2019s notion\nthat there is nothing in religion but what comes naturally to every man,\nwhether to originate, to utter, to judge, or to refuse.  Of St. John\u2019s\nwritings, more perhaps than of any part of Holy Scripture, is the Divine\nsaying true, \u201cThou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and\nhast revealed them unto babes.\u201d  That which to the self-sufficient critic\nis a simplicity bordering on the puerile, is to the experienced Christian\nrather a profound mystery, of which the Holy Spirit of God keeps the key.\n\n(1)  \u201cGod is Light.\u201d  \u201cIn Him is no darkness at all.\u201d  He is the Light of\ntruth, and the Light of holiness, and the Light of direction, and the\nLight of comfort.  Where He, who is the Light, shines not, or shines only\nin some dim reflection\u2014of Nature, or reason, or conscience, or tradition;\nnot directly, not personally, not in Christ as the Saviour, not in the\nHoly Ghost as the Comforter\u2014there is darkness; darkness four-fold, like\nthe light\u2014the darkness of ignorance, and the darkness of corruption, and\nthe darkness of error, and the darkness of misery.  \u201cGod is Light,\u201d\u2014and\nthe purpose of Light is to shine: but the light itself may be set under a\nbushel, or the thick walls, the opaque windows, of the soul\u2019s dwelling\nmay shut it out.  Vice, superstition, false religion, cowardice,\nindifference, law itself, may bar the entrance of Him who is the Light.\nSuch power is the mystery of mysteries in the present: how God should be\nLight, and yet the darkness may refuse to let the Light in.\n\n\u201cGod is Light\u201d\u2014first and before all else.  They who would know God must\nknow Him thus.  No other attribute, no other manifestation, can be\nsubstituted for this or prefixed to it.  Attempts have been made to\ndisplace it.  To put, for example, the second text first\u2014love before\nlight; or something else\u2014obedience, docility, humility, patience.  It\nwill not answer.  The transposition bewrays itself by the failure.  \u201cGod\nis Light,\u201d and he who would know God must first come to Him as the Light.\n\nSome have said, A half-light is better than none.  Better twilight than\nthick darkness.  So far we agree with them.  But when they have gone on\nto recommend an acquiescence\u2014temporary at least, prudential,\ndeferential\u2014in the half-light; when they have spoken of the necessity of\npreparation for the full light, of the peril of precipitating\nillumination, of the duty of forecasting probable consequences\u2014such as a\ndisarrangement of existing habits and systems, an exposure of errors, an\nunmasking of superstitions, before we have the machinery ready for the\neducation and for the fostering of the man isolated by the very\nenlightenment\u2014then we say, God is Light, and there is no communion\nbetween light and darkness.  Prudence is out of place where the question\nis of the Divine self-manifestation.  At all risks God must shine, and\nGod must be trusted to take care of His shining.\n\nMan, by God\u2019s gift, has a right to the light.  As well might you portion\noff one strip or one chink of the sky, and say to your dependant, I\nforbid you the rest of it\u2014as well might you shut up within prison walls a\nman who had done you no wrong, and tell him that candle or rushlight was\ngood enough for him to see by\u2014as undertake to settle for one class or one\ntribe or one race of mankind the amount of Divine illumination which\nshall suffice for them, on the plea that to give more might disturb\nexisting arrangements of civil or religious polity, or that until you\ncould provide the culture you must hesitate to give the life.  God dealt\nnot thus with us, when He lit the flame of reviving light in this nation\nof England.  First He brought into it, in this house and that, in this\nheart and that, the new-found, the dearly-prized treasure of His Word\nread in the tongue wherein we were born; and then He gave the new-made\nman a Reformed Communion in which to worship.  \u201cGod is Light,\u201d and they\nwho know God must fearlessly let in upon others the light communicated to\nthemselves.\n\n(2)  For, indeed, brethren, the second text is the mouthpiece and\ninterpreter of the former.  \u201cGod is Love.\u201d  The Light is no distant,\nself-contained, abstract thing\u2014like a science or a philosophy which men\nmay study if they will, but which comes not forth itself to invite or to\nembrace its votary.  The Light of which St. John speaks, the Light which\nis God, has another name besides\u2014a name which describes it as offering,\nvolunteering, entreating sympathy\u2014a name which expresses the yearning of\na heart, and the stretching out of a hand, towards an object of concern,\ncompassion, and commiseration.  If \u201cGod is Light\u201d be ambiguous as a\ndirection, \u201cGod is Love\u201d speaks plainly, and is no proverb.  That voice,\nwheresoever it is heard\u2014that voice, which is articulate only in the\nGospel\u2014has set in motion palsied limbs, and quickened dead souls, in the\ntransmission and propagation of a Divine Light.  \u201cSi documentum qu\u00e6ris,\ncircumspice!\u201d  This day, this scene, this assembly, is the proof of it.\n\u201cI looked, and behold, an hand was sent unto me; and lo, a roll of a book\nwas therein.\u201d  The hand was the Hand of Love, and the book was the Book\nof Light.\n\nThe Book was the Book of Light.  When you hold it, as this day, closed in\nyour hand; not opening it, for interpretation\u2014that is not your office\u2014but\ncarrying it forth closed for another to open; when you think of it as a\nwhole, gathering into one the scattered rays of its light, that you may\nsay in a word why it is that you are devoting time and toil and substance\nto its dissemination; this, I think, will be your account of it.\n\n(1)  The Bible is the revelation to me of a living God.  And by a living\nGod, I mean a God whose life is towards me: not such a life as that which\nElijah sketched in mockery as the life of Baal\u2014a kind of life which made\nhim deaf to man\u2019s cry; a life separate and selfish and distant\u2014talking,\npursuing, journeying, per-adventure sleeping.  The very opposite of this.\nA God whose activity is towards this world.  A God whose eye and whose\near is ever open to the conduct and condition of His creatures\u2014whose\nvigilance never tires, and yet is a vigilance even more of concern than\nof observation.  One whom I cannot escape from if I would, but whose\ninevitable Presence is the very cause of my strength, my motion, my\nbeing.  The revelation of a personal God is the first gift of this Bible.\nSo intent is the Bible upon this work, that it risks many taunts, many\nmisconstructions, in securing it.  It is so earnest to make me see God in\neverything, that it cares not if it seems to say, God does everything\nthat happens; even hardens the enemy\u2019s heart, even sends the error which\ninfatuates, even commissions the lying spirit, or punishes the prophet\nfor going where he was bidden.  The Bible risks these things\u2014leaves them\nto be corrected by opposite sayings, or by the intuitions of that\nconscience to which it addresses itself\u2014that it may at least effect\nthis\u2014make me see God, hear God, be conscious of God, everywhere and in\nall things; assure me that nothing is, with God, either too great for His\ncontrol, or too little for His notice, if it affects me\u2014my welfare, my\nhappiness, my work, or my end.  Anything, anything, says the voice of the\nLight, rather than a God too great to act, or a God too sublime to feel!\nSay at once, Where God is, He works.  Call upon Him in thy prosperity,\nthat He may bless thee; call upon Him in the time of trouble, so shall He\nhear thee, and thou shalt praise Him!\n\n(2)  The Bible is the revelation to me of a Divine Saviour.  I carry\nabout me, I carry within me, a burden of guilt and sin.  Ignore this, in\nthy dealing with me\u2014and however eloquent, however wise, however lofty thy\ncounsels, they touch me not, they address not me.  Recognize this when\nthou speakest to me of a God around and above me; and however humble,\nhowever simple, however human thy monitions, they find me out, they\npenetrate me, they thrill me through and through, because they deal with\nme as I am, and they tell me of that which I want.  The Book of Light is\nthe revelation of a Saviour.  From its first page to its latest, it is\nthe testimony of Jesus.  When I see this, all is made plain.  Patriarchs,\nand lawgivers, and psalmists, and prophets, and kings, all, if they are\nin God\u2019s Book, point on to, or point back to, Jesus.  Descriptions of\nlife, personal and national\u2014records of sins and vices and\ncrimes\u2014narratives of wrath and mercy, of judgment and restoration\u2014even\ndetails of ordinance and ritual, which were else trivial or\nwearisome\u2014become instinct with meaning, brilliant with beauty, when I\nread them in the Book of Light, because I know that there they all speak\nof Jesus, and add something\u2014something real, definite, tangible\u2014to the\nhope of pardon and acceptance which is bound up for me in Him.\n\n(3)  The Bible is the revelation to me of an everlasting Heaven.  We\ncannot exaggerate the power of that word.  The experiences of this life\nare various for man and man: for most men they are various from period to\nperiod of the unit life.  We say not whether, on the whole\u2014taking the\naverage of men, and the average also of the life\u2014it is better, if earth\nwere all, to have been or not to have been.  But one thing is\ncertain\u2014that this earth is not, cannot be, for the most fortunate, either\nrest or satisfaction.  Death alone would forbid that.  Change, decay,\nseparation\u2014separation of hearts yet more than of lives\u2014discords and\ndiscrepancies making union here impossible\u2014would alone make a man write\n\u201cvanity of vanities\u201d upon his tomb.  It is this, it is this above all,\nwhich gives the Bible its power.  It reveals Heaven.  It tells of an\nimmortality which shall reconcile differences; an immortality which shall\nredress wrongs; an immortality which shall re-unite the severed, and knit\nall hearts in one, in the haven, and in the Heaven, and in the Heart, of\nGod.  Marvel not if a Book possessing this secret is a Book omnipotent\nover the affections of mankind.  Believe it, and life takes a new colour.\nIf the hand of love carries this roll, it comes indeed for the healing of\nthe nations!\n\n                                * * * * *\n\nThe Hand of Love bears the Book of Light.\n\nQuite inexplicable, without love, the scene before us this day.\nPhilanthropy, without the Gospel, was not.  Charity herself is the\ncreation of Jesus Christ.  How much more that charity which is the love\nof souls!\n\nThis Society, now keeping her sixty-eighth birthday, has chosen a\ndistinct province.  I would commend her to you, brethren\u2014nay, you are\nhere because you love her\u2014on two special grounds.\n\n(1)  She is the witness\u2014as such, God has owned her\u2014to the primary\nimportance of the spiritual life.  Light first, then love.  Illumination\nthe condition of union.  First the quickening, then the combination.\nFirst the spirit, then the body.  First the soul, then the Church.\n\nThe argument is sometimes turned against us.  You set aside the Church.\nYou treat the individual as though he were a unit.  You wait not for\npriest or presbyter; you intrude yourself between the man and the\ncommunity; you care not if you even sow discord\u2014if you even make a man\nsee the lie in the Church\u2019s right hand.  What if one of your agents offer\nyour Book\u2014Divine, of course, it is\u2014to a man prohibited by rule and\ncensure from reading it?  What if, as he reads thus against order your\nDivine Book, he should perceive, in some point or in many points, the\nhollowness, the nakedness of the system in which he has been brought up?\nWhat if you pass on, and leave him an isolated man, a separatist, a\nschismatic, where before he was the member of a body?  And you have done\nthis of the self-will, of the separate schismatical action, which is a\nfeature of your organization!\n\nThe charge is\u2014let us understand it\u2014that in offering the light\npromiscuously, we set the Bible above the Church.  We ought to have\nwaited till Rome gave leave\u2014till Rome unsaid her saying\u2014till the\nunchangeable system changed itself\u2014till Rome gave the Word of God free\ncourse amongst her people!  Till then, we can only give light at the cost\nof love.  We divide, we dissever, we isolate, the life from the\ncommunion.  We leave the man taught of God an Ishmael among his brethren.\n\nBrethren! we are not careful to answer concerning this matter.  If it be\nso; if the possession of light be anywhere, in any Christian community,\ncontraband; if a Church prohibits the Bible; if a member of that Church,\npossessing a Bible, reads in it that Church\u2019s rebuke; if at last, trying\nall means of subordination, he must take his choice between his God and\nhis Church\u2014we did not suggest it; we did all we could to harmonize and to\nreconcile; we even took Rome\u2019s Version, and bade him read out of it the\nwords of life; we know how earnestly the Bible presses communion\u2014how\nstrong will be the pressure upon its student, not to live alone, not to\nisolate himself\u2014on the very contrary, to feel, to cherish, to insist upon\nChurch membership\u2014but if\u2014if the Book of Light does condemn, in the man\u2019s\nconscience, the Church of his birth and of his Baptism\u2014can we, ought we,\nto lie to him?  Can we, ought we, to withhold the light, lest haply the\nlight should condemn?  The light of God is the right of mankind; the hand\nof love must offer it!\n\nThis Society is, we frankly say, a witness to the primary importance of\nthe individual life.  It is God\u2019s order.  Out of the individual\u2014not the\nother way\u2014grows the community.  It was so at Jerusalem, it was so at\nDamascus, it was so at Antioch, it was so at Philippi, it was so at\nEphesus, it was so at Rome.  It was so\u2014to come nearer home\u2014in England, in\nLondon, at Oxford, at Gloucester, at Paul\u2019s Cross, and in Smithfield\nfires.  All God\u2019s mightiest works of grace have sprung out of individual\nconvictions.  To wait till an irreversible judgment is reversed\u2014to wait\ntill a bigoted and tyrannical Church invites her members to read and to\nhear, to meditate and to judge\u2014is, in other words, to decide that God\u2019s\ntruth shall wait man\u2019s convenience, that souls shall live out their days\nignorant of the Word that (through grace) quickens!\n\nMy brethren, we but return to primitive usage, when we claim this\nprerogative, this majesty, for the Book of God.  Dear in all ages has\nthis writing been to the heart of the Church\u2019s martyrs and the Church\u2019s\nsaints.  It is a new view, this, of the right of a community to stand\nbetween a man and his Bible!  Surely it is a putting of proprieties and\ndecorums in the place of truth and experience and the one thing needful.\nIs it thus that God acts?  What greatest of God\u2019s works has been wrought\nby method and rule?  Cornelius and his assemblage receiving the Holy\nGhost before Baptism is a type, surely, for every age, of the manner in\nwhich God Himself, in the free, unfettered breathing of His Divine\nSpirit, passes by at His will the mechanism of order, and reveals Himself\nin the liberty of an elemental strength.\n\n(2)  But while we assert thus earnestly the supremacy of conscience, and\nthe right of the individual man to the possession of the Book of Light,\nwe would also, and not less earnestly, commend to you this great Society\nas the servant and the minister of all the Churches.\n\nVery touching is it, to Christian hearts, to read the simple record of\nher ministrations in this chief capacity.  The destitution of the Church\nin Wales called her into existence.  The Church in Ireland had been for\nmore than a century without an edition of a complete native Bible, when\nshe interposed.  The fortunes of Continental nations have their\nreflection in her history.  The wars of the first French Revolution are\nchronicled in her account-books.  Her first French Bible was printed for\nthe prisoners of war in 1805.  Through her efforts, in the same\ndisastrous time, hundreds of Spanish captives might be seen in prison\nyards reading in their own tongue the living, life-giving Word.  The\ngreat Abolition Act of 1834 suggested the gift of the New Testament to a\nhundred thousand of the then emancipated slaves.  The Spanish Revolution\nof 1868 opened a new country to the Gospel, and has spread already two\nhundred thousand copies of the Holy Scriptures among the people of that\nstill distracted and storm-tossed land.  The consolidation of Italy\u2014last\nof all, the erection of a constitutional throne on the Roman Capitol\nitself\u2014has been followed by the formation of a new Bible Society, to\nwhich we give the right hand of fellowship, and hope ere long to resign\nthe field which is her own.  The protracted agonies of a yet nearer\nneighbour, under a succession of strokes and plagues unexampled in\nhistory, have been soothed by the holy offices of this Society,\nextending, alike to Imperialist, Republican, Communist prisoner, the\ncomfort, in his hour of distress, of that Book not of this world, which\nat once blesses earth and opens Heaven.  Not a country, not a province,\nescapes the notice of that vigilant eye, which watches from the shores of\nEngland each door opened by the Providence of God for the entry of the\nGospel of Jesus Christ.  No Society, of this Church or that, for\nChristian Missions, can dispense with her aid in furnishing the divine\nmaterial.  In two hundred and fifty Versions, of the languages and\ndialects spoken on the face of this earth by nations of the great\ndispersion, more than one hundred millions of copies of God\u2019s Word have\nbeen issued, or aided in the issuing, by this marvellous agency of\nevangelization.\n\nBrethren! an organization thus blessed, thus vivified, by the Omnipotent\nHand, stands no longer on the defensive in the battle-field of\nChristianity.  One by one, unfriendly voices are silenced.  One by one,\nenemies are becoming friends.  Already the reverend rulers of our own\nChurch, with comparatively few exceptions, have seen their way to\nsympathy and co-operation.  It was ungrateful\u2014I know it was\ninvoluntary\u2014to accept help for all manner of Church action, and to refuse\nthanks, or even recognition, to the hands which bountifully supplied it.\nWe thank God, those days are past.  Without ceasing to be the handmaid of\nall Churches, the British and Foreign Bible Society is certainly the\nfriend, the \u201cdeaconess,\u201d of one.  Your presence to-day in this great\nMetropolitan Cathedral\u2014where so lately Royalty itself bowed the knee, in\nthanksgiving for a precious life restored, to the all-ruling Majesty in\nthe heavens\u2014proves that your work is regarded and honoured, as it ought\nto be, by that great National Church of England, of which you are all, I\nwell know, either dutiful members or else cordial well-wishers.\n\nThus our tried and honoured Society sets out on another year of anxious,\nresponsible, yet (under God) most hopeful service.  We give thanks\nto-day, we pray also to-day, for this mighty bulwark\u2014it is so\u2014of the\nnational prosperity!  Every largest, every humblest offering, of time or\nwealth, of effort or sympathy, given to her, is given, be ye well\nassured, to England\u2019s honour, to England\u2019s strength, to England\u2019s\nprosperity.  The land of the Bible is a land of light, a land of peace,\nand a land of liberty.  Nations may war for fame or supremacy, for\ntreasure or territory, for frontier or empire\u2014war may breed war, and an\niron heel alone coerce the savage writhings of an implacable\nfoe\u2014England\u2019s peace, England\u2019s honour, is in surer safe-keeping, so long\nas she acknowledges the Christ of the Bible, and suffers not a creeping\ninfidelity to seduce her from the allegiance of the life-giving God.\n\nBut Oh, brethren, let us not be highminded, but fear!  Let us not boast\nourselves in our light nor in our freedom!  Let us not count but weigh\nour safeguards!  Let us make large allowance for waste, even in our\nblessings!  Holy Scripture is multiplied among us, till it is a very\nproverb of cheapness\u2014see that there be not, concerning it, at once an\narrogance and a despite!  Is the Bible dear to your hearts, as well as\nplentiful in your homes?  Do you not only fight for it, but wrestle with\nGod over it?  Do you draw from it, not your weapons of attack, but your\nhelmet and your shield and your breastplate?  In these days you sorely\nneed them.  Remember how only (St. Paul says) we can wield the Spirit\u2019s\nsword\u2014even by praying always in the Spirit.  Take to your heart the words\nof a great orator of our time, speaking, as a Catholic Priest, in the\nvery centre and focus of Romanism, in behalf\u2014strange, strange, strange\nphenomenon\u2014in behalf of a new Bible Society for Italy!\u2014\u201cCatholics and\nProtestants, but all Christians, behold, we are united in this city,\nwhich has been the cause of our separation!  This Book is our bond of\nunion. . . .  We are all children of the Bible, but we are fallen,\ndivided, powerless. . . .  The Bible has been neglected. . . .  The life\nof the Church is the life of the soul in Christ, and of Christ in the\nsoul. . . .  Direct and vital dealings with God\u2019s Word will give reality\nto our religious life, and will defend us alike from scepticism and from\nsuperstition. . . .  A day is coming\u2014and my heart tells me it is not far\noff\u2014in which the question shall not be whether men are Roman Catholics,\nor Greek Catholics, or Lutheran Protestants, or Reformed Protestants, but\nonly whether they are true Catholics, and, above all, true Christians. .\n. .  We shall enter the city of God, Bible in hand, singing in every\nlanguage, and in every denominational peculiarity, but with one faith and\nwith one heart: and that city of our unity shall be called the city of\nPeace, for it shall be, as saith the Prophet, the city of Truth.\u201d\n\nSuch is God\u2019s order: Truth first, then Peace: Light first, then Love;\nLove out of, because of, the Light.\n\nMay God, of His infinite mercy, realize that hope, grant that prayer, in\nHis time\u2014and bring us all, in the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a\nperfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ!\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n               LONDON: R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS.","title":"The Book of Light in the Hand of Love: A plea for the British and Foreign Bible Society: A sermon preached in St. Paul's Cathedral, on Tuesday, April 30, 1872","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":4152}