{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_64496/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_64496","id":"gutenberg_64496","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64496","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Genesis, II, 7 -- Sermons","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Church of England -- Sermons -- 19th century","Creation","Evolution","Sermons, English -- 19th century"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1871 Rivingtons\u2019 edition by David Price.\n\n\n\n\n\n                           MOSES, _NOT_ DARWIN\n\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                 A Sermon\n\n           PREACHED AT ST. MARK\u2019S, SURBITON, KINGSTON-ON-THAMES\n\n                      _On Friday_, _March_ 31, 1871\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                  BY THE\n                          REV. B. G. JOHNS, M.A.\n\n                 CHAPLAIN OF THE BLIND SCHOOL, SOUTHWARK\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                 London:\n                        RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO PLACE\n\n                       HIGH STREET | TRINITY STREET\n                        Oxford           Cambridge\n                                  1871.\n\n                          _Price One Shilling_.\n\n\n\n\nA SERMON\n_&c._\n\n\n                                 Gen. ii. 7.\n\n    \u201c_And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground_, _and\n    breathed into his nostrils the breath of life_, _and man became a\n    living soul_.\u201d\n\nTHUS, my brethren, in noble and grand words, noble in their strength and\nin their simplicity, we are told of the creation of man, as separate and\ndistinct from that of all other creatures.  Having formed his bodily\nframe out of the dust of the earth, the Almighty breathed into him the\nbreath of life, and man became a living soul, in the image of the living\nGod.  How far, and with what divine beauty, the heavenly image was then\nreflected in its earthly type, the splendour and perfection of God\u2019s\nhandiwork, we know not.  However noble the glory of man\u2019s appearance,\nhowever godlike its outer form, in that day, since then he has fallen\nfrom his high estate, and sin and death, which marred the purity of his\nsoul, have left traces of their deadly leaven in his framework of flesh\nand blood.  And yet not utterly debased or ruined it.  For, still, the\nface of many a little child bears stamped upon it the imperishable marks\nof God\u2019s handiwork, and the beauty, and freshness, and innocence shine\nout, till we think of the faces of the Blessed before the Throne on high.\nWhile all that is fair in the face of woman, and all that is noble and\ntrue in that of man, tells only of the same divine source.  In a word,\nthe whole living man, the body in its strength, pride, and beauty; the\nmind, the keen reason, the swift intelligence, the glowing imagination;\nand the soul, the conscience, and the spirit answering within; lifting\nman out of himself to the Heaven above him, and enabling him on earth to\nhold commune as a spirit with the Father of all spirits\u2014each and all\nwitness to the same truth\u2014the breath that is in him, his framework, his\nwhole being are from the breath of God, and therefore he is a living\nsoul, immortal, and for a life beyond this.\n\nAnd nothing is commoner, even among worldly people, my brethren, than a\nsort of easy, vague acknowledgment that it is so; nothing easier than a\nkind of fluent talk about the soul, and the importance, perhaps the\nnecessity, of saving the soul; if not just at present, certainly at the\nearliest possible opportunity; if not by a life of faith and purity to\nGod, and of truth and goodwill to man\u2014at all events by holding fast to\nsome particular set of opinions, or of texts, some one favourite\ndoctrine, or pet form of outward service to God.  And even below this\nrange of talkers, there are others who say, The soul immortal?\u2014Oh, yes,\nof course, man is to be in Heaven hereafter\u2014if all be well\u2014and we trust\nby the mercy of God that at last we shall reach that land; but, in the\nmeanwhile, they live on from day to day, in one round of easy smoothness,\nworking only for the body, its care, its comfort, its life; as if there\nwere no dwelling-place but earth; as if man\u2019s soul were but a matter of\nconcern for the future; as if Christ had never borne the bitter Cross for\nman\u2019s sin, to open for him the gates of Paradise!\n\nTheir terrible and fatal mistake, you see, is the fashioning out a\nreligion as a thing apart from their daily life, and thinking of their\nsouls as apart from themselves.  Whereas there is no true religion but\nsuch as speaks in a man\u2019s life, and is its vital breath; and the soul is\nno other but the man himself.  They madly look upon religion as a thing\nfor Sundays, for fixed times only, and for set forms; times and forms to\nbe used as a sort of charm against uncomfortable thoughts of death, or\nfear of God\u2019s anger; or as a set-off for the follies, and sins, and\nselfishness of the week; something that shall set all right at the last,\nand make the account square when the balance is against them; or for\nstill worse and weaker reasons: because it is right and decent to go to\nchurch, and do as so many others do whom they know and imitate, and whose\nregard they value.  God help the man\u2014ere it be too late\u2014who trusts to\nsuch a scheme of religion as this; for it is full of deceit and peril!\nIt may end, and it probably will end, in his forgetting his soul\naltogether.  Not forgetting to wish that his soul may be saved at last,\nand that peace may be with him when death comes, and joy beyond it; not\nthis, because every man, however foolish or however wicked, wishes this\nmuch, or will wish it some day; but absolutely forgetting and ignoring\nthe fact that the soul is the man himself; that its life, and passions,\nand desires, and hunger, and thirst, are to be looked to, cared for, and\nfed day by day; that if he hopes for Heaven at all, he must begin to get\nready for it _now_, while life lasts; and that in neglecting this, and\nletting religion slip out of his daily life, he is perilling his very\nexistence, he is dying by inches.  Heart, conscience, soul, spirit, are\nbecoming seared, cold, dark, and dead, while he, to all outward\nappearance in full strength, has the form of religion but not its life;\nthe words in his mouth, but no echo within; the sound of the Gospel in\nhis ears, but neither the spirit, nor life, nor freedom of the truth,\nwhich spring from the abiding sense of God\u2019s unseen abiding presence.\n\nHow shall any such being understand that religion, that prayer, praise,\nand sacrifice are no mere matter between man and man, but only between\nhim and God?  What does it affect him to be told, or to agree, that man\nis a spirit, and that if he seeks to worship the living God it must be in\nspirit and truth?  He scarcely knows what the desires, and passions, and\nwants of the soul are.  To him the words, life and death of the soul, are\nlittle more than vague sounds.\n\nNo wonder, then, that the two great springs of his spiritual life are to\nhim but of light account.  His Baptism, to him, is merely a time when he\ngot his Christian name; his confirmation when he was old enough not to\nneed the help of sponsors any longer.  But, as to his having then entered\ninto a covenant with God, by His divine grace, to live the life of a\nspirit, of one made a living soul; and these vows being on him all\nthrough life, it never even remotely occurs to him!\n\nNo wonder even that the solemn feast in memory of his Saviour\u2019s death is\na matter from which he may turn away just as the whim, or the idle excuse\nof the moment prompts, or neglect altogether through his whole life,\nwithout a thought of peril.  I say _altogether_, yet a day falls on him\nat last, when, in the midst of decaying strength, a clouded mind, and\ndying faculties, as the windows of the soul begin to grow dark, he thinks\nit only right and decent that he should ask for the Holy Communion, as\nall proper people (he says) do under such circumstances\u2014and he takes it;\nnot because it has strengthened and refreshed his soul all through life,\nbut because, without it, the fear of death is too strong for him.  He\ndares not go out of the world, in fact, and enter on his Maker\u2019s presence\nwithout this one final token, as _he_ thinks, of not having utterly\nforgotten Him.\n\nGod forbid, brethren, that I should count little of even this terribly\nlate and weary confession of the God that made him; this tardy,\nunwilling, owning that man is a living soul.  But mark well, brethren,\nnever forget, the wide difference between this and the owning of God our\nCreator, and Christ our Saviour, and the Holy Ghost our Sanctifier, here,\nnow, in our daily work, while life remains, while strength is ours, while\nthe battle is going on all round, and within us; while the devil tempts,\nand the flesh has power, and the world is bright and gay.\n\nSee the difference between offering to God while we have anything to\noffer, and when we have nothing; when all else has failed us; when power,\nand pride, and human pleasures, and human cares have all come to an end,\nand there is no further possibility of indulging either the one or the\nother; but only the intolerable weight of the past, only the deep\nconviction remaining that our trial is over, our time of probation\nfinished, our Judge very near at hand; as the earth crumbles under our\nfeet, and Heaven is opening wide on our amazed distracted eyes.  Ah! or\nit may be Hell yawning beneath our troubled, weary, bewildered feet.\n\nMark well the difference: it is the difference between living Faith that\ncan save, and dead Faith that is worthless.  But if man is a spirit, how\nshall his spirit\u2019s life be maintained?  Not by outward observances only;\nnot by fixed forms and rites only, on fixed days; though all these are\nnoble, and good, and blessed in their degree.  The key to the truth is\nwritten in words older even than the Divine words of the Holy Gospel.\n\u201cBehold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of\nrams.\u201d  \u201cThey that worship God must worship Him in spirit.\u201d  How?  By\nstriving after those blessed things wherein Christ was our example, and\nfar above all human perfection.  Not by leaving all the other outer\nservices undone (for all are good\u2014they flow and always must flow from\ntrue religion, as its natural and happy fruit), but by adding to them\npurity, self-denial, thought of others, generous, unselfish, and\nuntiring; by suffering long and being kind; by love unfeigned; by\nthinking no evil; by hoping all things, enduring all things, believing\nall things; by readiness to forgive; by slowness to condemn; by bold,\nbrave, manly, simple faith; by striving never to forget that unseen\nliving presence which shuts us in all round, which we so often say is\nabout our path and bed, and spieth out all our ways.\n\nThis, brethren, is the spirit of the religion which we want in our daily\nlife, in our shops and in our business; in the market and in the\ncounting-house; in the streets and the family circle\u2014not to be obtruded\nand thrust into men\u2019s faces, as much as to say, \u201cThank God, I am not as\nother men are,\u201d\u2014but to be the life and joy of the heart, the light of the\nhousehold; to be the motive power, the ruling principle; for the one\nreason that we are not mere dust, as other creatures, not to go down into\nthe grave and be forgotten for ever, but to live\u2014live when this world has\nperished, and they who believe in it and swear by its gods alone, are,\nwith all their follies, and errors, and sins, blotted out\u2014until the\nJudgment Day; to live _then_, when true life dawns, and man draws nearer\nand nearer to the fulness of God\u2019s holiness, joy, and peace; and finds in\nHim more than lips can utter or soul imagine.\n\nAnd how can man do less than strive for this if he be God\u2019s son?  If the\nbreath of the Almighty be in him?  His life must be a spirit\u2019s life if he\nbelieves this.  He must know and feel that even here, in this world of\nstrife and sin, and folly and darkness, and worldly pride and false\nambition, and unutterable selfishness, even here, all round him, is the\nworld of spirits.  That unseen and holy beings are near at hand, ready to\nminister to him, even as the land of spirits itself is but a step from\nthis\u2014divided from him but by a narrow line; that though here now hemmed\nin by falsehood, and doubt, and fear, and perplexity, yet in a moment he\nmay be beyond the veil\u2014swiftly passing from darkness to eternal day,\nwhere doubt is unknown and fear comes not\u2014from death to life itself.  No\nman of rational sense, who gives himself time to think, and to pause for\na moment amidst the daily passions, and toils, and cares that consume\nhim, can doubt this; nay, he feels and knows the greater presence still.\nHe knows that the Living God _is_ about him, his very life and breath;\nthat without Him he cannot live for a single moment\u2014in Him he lives, and\nmoves, and has being\u2014whose Divine presence he has felt again and again\nwithin him, deep down in the recesses of his inmost soul, his heart, and\nspirit.  Against this, if he be true to his own convictions, he cannot,\ndare not, resist.\n\nAnd yet, brethren, plain as all this seems, and deep and constant the\nnecessity for man\u2019s thus owning his spiritual life, and that he is indeed\na child of God, living only at the word of a Father in Heaven\u2014strong and\nabundant the conviction of immortality hidden in every man\u2019s heart\u2014how\nvaguely, and loosely, and lightly, is such knowledge often held!  The\ngreat boast of the present age is its claim to universal knowledge.\nThere is no bar to its depths, no limit to its extent.  It takes in all\nsubjects, human and divine; tries them by one standard, weighs them in\none balance.  The inscrutable nature of God, the simpler nature of man.\nIt analyses the atmosphere of the stars, and weighs in a balance the\ndensity of bodies beyond the sun; the laws of light and sound are laid\nbare, and allowed to be wisely based; miracles are declared to be\nimpossible, and cease to have existence; nay, never have existed, seeing\nthat they contradict some few principles of life and matter, of which we\nhave gained a scanty knowledge; or at least seem to contradict them; and\nthat the First Cause (for we have not learned to do without one\u2014as yet)\nwill not and cannot interfere with His own laws, being in fact a God, or\nfirst principle, who is bound by His own edicts, and imprisoned within\nthe fetters of His own rules!\n\nAnd how, my brethren, do such men deal with words like those of the text?\nThere is some little difficulty in evading or openly denying them, for\nthe one reason that in their eyes mind does appear to be immortal, and\nintellect to outlive the body in which it dwells.  But, as to the soul,\nthe conscience, the moral sense, the spirit within a man, so supreme is\nthe power of modern science, so keen the insight into all things human\nand divine, into the cloudy records of past ages, and the thousand\nphenomena of present life; so absolute the sway of intellectual research,\nso abundant and so trustworthy the array of facts, that man can not only\nby searching find out God, but so map out the solemn acts of the\nAlmighty, from the first day of creation to the last, as to leave no\ndoubt that what we as Christians hold dear, our birthright as spirits,\nand our inheritance in the heaven to come as spirits, is a dream, a\nmistake.  They are far more curiously anxious to prove man\u2019s nearness to\nthe beasts that die than to accept his birth from the breath of the\nliving God, as meant and made to be immortal.  So monstrous, so\nincredible, does this seem, that it sounds like a jest; yet this,\nbrethren, is neither time nor place for jesting, least of all with such\nthings as eternal life and eternal death, the birth, the destiny of the\nwhole race of man.  It is no jest, brethren, but the grave and shameful\nteaching of a book now put forth by one of the men of science of this\nvery age; calmly put forth as the inevitable and incomparable result of\nlong, careful, and exhaustive study.  The habits, ways, instincts,\npassions, and peculiarities of hundreds of animals have been minutely\nexamined, and out of them has risen the foul and debasing assertion that\nman has sprung from a race of inferior and filthy creatures; without\nspark of conscience or sense of shame, without perception of evil or of\ngood, without power of speech\u2014and speech is but the fruit of\nthought\u2014without a breath of the living God within them, or a trace of His\nhandiwork in their whole being.  So far from men being sons of God, they\nare the offspring in remote ages\u2014ages too remote to be measured by any\nbut the skill of modern science, the offspring of creatures without a\nsoul\u2014creatures dead to every sense of feeling but hunger, lust, and\nblood; only able to make known their wants or miseries by inarticulate\ncries of rage, pain, or despair; creatures who, in their turn, sprang\nfrom others yet lower down in the cycle of life, fouler, more ferocious,\nand yet more loathsome than the grinning ape.  And from things base as\nthese, we are told, sprang all the noble, great, good, and wise men that\nhave trod the earth.  From such a stock as this all the purest, grandest,\nsongs of truth, of victory, of joy, of melody, and beauty; all the\nnoblest flights of eloquence, all strains of living melody; all that\nsages, bards, and philosophers have uttered in words that can never die;\nall the loftiest ideals of art, in glowing colour or in snowy marble; all\nthe splendour, and glory, and beauty with which man has crowned the\nearth; nay, more than this, the sublime words of prophets, of seers, and\napostles, from him who in solemn grandeur tells of the thunder of Sinai,\ndown to the visions in lonely Patmos; of heaven open, of the great white\nThrone, and the Eternal King; yea, the bravest and purest in every age,\nthe men, and women, and children who have gone undaunted to death, with\njoy on their faces, and peace unutterable in their hearts, rather than\ndeny their Master or their birthright;\u2014all these alike have sprung from a\nthing that has neither speech, nor conscience, nor sense but of being\nfull or empty, whose only weapon is ferocity, and to whom a morsel of\ngarbage is a supreme delight!  And, if it be so, if this incredible boast\nof science be true, our text is a lie.  And if the text be false, the\nwhole book in which the words are shrined is unworthy of belief; the\nwhole framework of the Book of Life falls to pieces, and the revelation\nof God to man, as we Christians know it, is a delusion and a snare.\n\nAnd on what ground are we asked to receive so monstrous and degrading a\nscheme?  Because, forsooth, after careful study of hundreds of various\ncreatures, in different ages and different climes, among their countless\npeculiarities, habits, and ways, in their so-called instincts a man\nfinds, or fancies he finds, here and there, some faint glimmering of a\nresemblance to what is human.  In the plumage of birds, in their love for\ngay colours, which is tacitly assumed, in their little arts and\nartifices, cunning, and ferocity; in the rough or smooth skin of some\nwild creature of the woods or plains, he searches for, and finds, some\nfaint type of what happens among the idle, or silly, or careless among\nourselves, who believe only in brute force, or obey the laws of fashion\nhowever preposterous and absurd; of women who paint what they think God\nAlmighty has not painted aright; who distort their dress, or their\npersons; or of men and women who bedizen themselves; in every conceivable\nform of fantastic and foolish caprice.  For these, and possibly a hundred\nother such paltry reasons, cleverly collected and cunningly adapted to\nensnare the unwary, we are to believe that between man who is immortal\nand the beasts that die, there is no line of distinction.  This is the\nlatest book of Genesis; this the most improved account of the creation.\nBut if so, if there is a particle of truth in this newest science, then\nthe work of creation, the progress from baseness to purity, from darkness\nto light, having once begun, must be now going on, in all its thousand\ngrades and varieties; with still new steps of progress from the lower to\nthe higher, from the foul Ascidian reptile to Man in the image of God!\n\nWhere, then, in the wide universe of created things is any such example\nto be found, half way between the unintelligible gibberish of the ape and\nthe divine faculty of speech?  Where is one, only one, such\nmonstrosity\u2014base, and cruel, and filthy, without a soul, or a ray of\nmoral sense, knowing only the passions of lust and hunger\u2014who is even\nremotely beginning to grow into human likeness or shape?  Not all its\nbrutal deformity lost, and not yet the glory of manhood assumed?  No such\nbeing has ever been found, in the records of ancient travellers or sages,\nor even in the journals and the dainty discoveries of modern science.\nBut still between the highest and most intelligent of creatures of the\nwood and field, and the lowest in human shape, there stretches an\ninfinite gulf.  A gulf not to be crossed but by the shallow and flippant\nphilosopher who scorns all idea of a living personal Creator, and\nadmitting no bound to his own knowledge, and no bar to his understanding,\ndenies the existence of his own soul, and treats all idea of spirit with\nidle contempt.  _Yet_, _my brethren_, _the gulf remains_.  God has drawn\nthe line between man and beast, and no human power can abolish it, no\nhuman sophistry explain it away.  Men may deny it, or turn it to ridicule\nunder the pretence of scientific discovery; just as they deny the\nexistence of God Himself.  Denying Him, the King and Prince of all\nspirits, they may well deny their own spiritual being.  But, still, the\ngrand unalterable truth abides,\u2014\u201c_God breathed into man\u2019s nostrils the\nbreath of life_, _and man became a living soul_;\u201d and as long as the\nworld stands this truth must abide as the foundation of all truth, of all\nreligion, of all progress, step by step in purity, holiness, and faith on\nour way to Heaven.  This is the witness of all human hearts, of all human\nlife.  This is the conviction rooted deep down in man\u2019s inmost being;\nwhich, though he tamper with it, or stifle, or deny it all through life,\nyet on the bed of death will speak to him with unanswerable voice, as he\ndraws nearer and nearer to the unseen presence, to that Divine and\nEternal Spirit from whom his being sprang at the first.\n\nWith this conviction and this confession, my brethren, let us be content.\nIt has outlived centuries of scorn, the wit of philosophy, the\nsophistries of science, the laughter of fools, and the questioning of\nheresy.  It will outlive all centuries, all time.  It will outlive them\nwho deny, and them who believe, it; to the one bringing confusion,\ndarkness, and shame; to the other, peace when the strife is done, the\nbeauty of holiness, the rapture of immortality.\n\nIf any be content to believe they are the mere chance offspring from\ncreatures of lust, ferocity, and shameless strife, so let it be; they\nmust even reap as they sow.  Their next creed is plain enough, and easy\nof practice; eat, then, drink, and to-morrow die.  But let us, as\nChristians, fly to the greater, nobler doctrine than this, for the one\nreason that we are the offspring of the living God, made in His image;\nand having in us the breath of the Almighty, cannot die.  Our very\nframework of flesh and blood was that form and fashion of a man in which\nChrist, the Blessed One, came to us on earth, in which He lived and\nsuffered; was tempted, scorned, mocked, and nailed to the accursed tree.\nIt is in His memory that we keep this solemn season; His whose blood was\nshed, whose body was broken, when the heavens grew dark, and the earth\ntrembled as He yielded up the ghost.  It was to glorify this human shape,\nand to redeem the living soul within it, that He endured the bitter\ncross.  His death, His passion, His resurrection, are to us what they\nare, because wrought in human form, to be crowned with new splendour and\nglory in Heaven.\n\nAgain I say, let us be content with this hope which has been the only\nstay of countless thousands in every age since Christ trod the shores of\nGalilee, and spake to the listening thousands by the sea.  Let us be\ncontent with the plain living words of Him who is Truth itself, who was\nbefore the world began, who spake and there was light, who breathed into\nthe lifeless dust and it lived; Himself, the King and the Prince of all\nLife, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last; who will still\nremain unchanged and unchangeable when this world of sin and shame has\nbecome the kingdom of His Christ; when human philosophy has died out, and\nhuman science failed; but the greater, and purer, and nobler wisdom\nabides\u2014greater, because God, the author of it, is mightier than man;\npurer because it wins men from the base things that perish, and nobler\nbecause Heaven is higher than earth.  Let us hold fast to this belief,\nfirmly, through life; that it fail us not on the bed of death, as we draw\nnear to the twilight of eternal day, and to the fulness of knowledge\nwhich is Life.\n\nWell is it for us that neither the perverseness, nor pride, nor wisdom,\nnor ignorance, nor intolerable vanity of man can snatch from us the\nbirthright of immortality.  And they who basely attempt to unsay what God\nhas said, and to rob us of hope beyond the grave, add but one more proof,\nnot of man\u2019s having risen from the foul beasts of the earth, but having\nfallen from his first high estate.  Their very ignorance, doubt, and\ndefiance of God are but tokens of their own corruption, confusion, and\ndecay.  Meanwhile the earth abides in its appointed course; heaven\nabides, life and death remain; truth is immortal.  Wise men, ripe for the\ngrave, mighty in worldly knowledge, babble of mysteries beyond their\nutmost ken.  So let it be.  God is not unmindful of His own.\n\n    \u201cMan\u2019s little systems have their day,\n       They have their day and cease to be;\n       They are but broken lights of Thee,\n    And thou, O Lord, art more than they.\u201d\n\nFor God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of His\nown eternity; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.\n\n                                                                 LAUS DEO.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n          J. OGDEN AND CO., PRINTERS, 172, ST. JOHN STREET, E.C.","title":"Moses, not Darwin: A sermon preached at St. Mark's, Surbiton, Kingston-on-Thames on Friday, March 31, 1871","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":4630}