{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_7042/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_7042","id":"gutenberg_7042","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7042","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity","Church of England -- Sermons","Sermons, English -- 19th century"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1881 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, email\nccx074@pglaf.org\n\n\n\n\n\n                                DISCIPLINE\n                            AND OTHER SERMONS\n\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                    BY\n                             CHARLES KINGSLEY\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                 London:\n                             MACMILLAN AND CO\n                                   1881\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                 _The right of translation is Reserved_.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\nSERMON                                             PAGE\n        I.  DISCIPLINE                                1\n       II.  THE TEMPLE OF WISDOM                     11\n      III.  PRAYER AND SCIENCE                       23\n       IV.  GOD\u2019S TRAINING                           40\n        V.  GOOD FRIDAY                              50\n       VI.  FALSE CIVILIZATION                       62\n      VII.  THE NAME OF GOD                          75\n     VIII.  THE END OF RELIGION                      92\n       IX.  THE HUMANITY OF GOD                     103\n        X.  GOD\u2019S WORLD                             112\n       XI.  THE ARMOUR OF GOD                       125\n      XII.  PAUL AND FELIX                          140\n     XIII.  THE GOOD SAMARITAN                      154\n      XIV.  CONSIDER THE LILIES OF THE FIELD        168\n       XV.  THE JEWISH REBELLIONS                   184\n      XVI.  TERROR BY NIGHT                         198\n     XVII.  THE SON OF THUNDER                      212\n    XVIII.  HUMILITY                                225\n      XIX.  A WHITSUN SERMON                        236\n       XX.  SELF-HELP                               250\n      XXI.  ENDURANCE                               259\n     XXII.  TOLERATION                              274\n    XXIII.  THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST                   290\n     XXIV.  THE LIKENESS OF GOD                     303\n\n\n\n\nSERMON I.\nDISCIPLINE.\n\n\n    (_Preached at the Volunteer Camp_, _Wimbledon_, _July_ 14, 1867.)\n\n                               NUMBERS XXIV. 9.\n\n           He couched, he lay down as a lion; and as a great lion.\n                            Who dare rouse him up?\n\nTHESE were the words of the Eastern sage, as he looked down from the\nmountain height upon the camp of Israel, abiding among the groves of the\nlowland, according to their tribes, in order, discipline, and unity.\nBefore a people so organized, he saw well, none of the nations round\ncould stand.  Israel would burst through them, with the strength of the\nwild bull crashing through the forest.  He would couch as a lion, and as\na great lion.  Who dare rouse him up?\n\nBut such a people, the wise Balaam saw, would not be mere conquerors,\nlike those savage hordes, or plundering armies, which have so often swept\nover the earth before and since, leaving no trace behind save blood and\nashes.  Israel would be not only a conqueror, but a colonist and a\ncivilizer.  And as the sage looked down on that well-ordered camp, he\nseems to have forgotten for a moment that every man therein was a stern\nand practised warrior.  \u2018How goodly,\u2019 he cries, \u2018are thy tents, oh Jacob,\nand thy camp, oh Israel.\u2019  He likens them, not to the locust swarm, the\nsea flood, nor the forest fire, but to the most peaceful, and most\nfruitful sights in nature or in art.  They are spread forth like the\nwater-courses, which carry verdure and fertility as they flow.  They are\nplanted like the hanging gardens beside his own river Euphrates, with\ntheir aromatic shrubs and wide-spreading cedars.  Their God-given mission\nmay be stern, but it will be beneficent.  They will be terrible in war;\nbut they will be wealthy, prosperous, civilized and civilizing, in peace.\n\nMany of you must have seen\u2014all may see\u2014that noble picture of Israel in\nEgypt which now hangs in the Royal Academy; in which the Hebrews,\nharnessed like beasts of burden, writhing under the whips of their\ntaskmasters, are dragging to its place some huge Egyptian statue.\n\nCompare the degradation portrayed in that picture with this prophecy of\nBalaam\u2019s, and then consider\u2014What, in less than two generations, had so\ntransformed those wretched slaves?\n\nCompare, too, with Balaam\u2019s prophecy the hints of their moral degradation\nwhich Scripture gives;\u2014the helplessness, the hopelessness, the cowardice,\nthe sensuality, which cried, \u2018Let us alone, that we may serve the\nEgyptians.  Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou brought us\nforth to die in the wilderness?\u2019  \u2018Whose highest wish on earth was to sit\nby the fleshpots of Egypt, where they did eat bread to the full.\u2019  What\nhad transformed that race into a lion, whom none dare rouse up?\n\nPlainly, those forty years of freedom.  But of freedom under a stern\nmilitary education: of freedom chastened by discipline, and organized by\nlaw.\n\nI say, of freedom.  No nation of those days, we have reason to believe,\nenjoyed a freedom comparable to that of the old Jews.  They were, to use\nour modern phrase, the only constitutional people of the East.  The\nburdensomeness of Moses\u2019 law, ere it was overlaid, in later days, by\nRabbinical scrupulosity, has been much exaggerated.  In its simpler form,\nin those early times, it left every man free to do, as we are expressly\ntold, that which was right in his own eyes, in many most important\nmatters.  Little seems to have been demanded of the Jews, save those\nsimple ten commandments, which we still hold to be necessary for all\ncivilized society.\n\nAnd their obedience was, after all, a moral obedience; the obedience of\nfree hearts and wills.  The law could threaten to slay them for wronging\neach other; but they themselves had to enforce the law against\nthemselves.  They were always physically strong enough to defy it, if\nthey chose.  They did not defy it, because they believed in it, and felt\nthat in obedience and loyalty lay the salvation of themselves and of\ntheir race.\n\nIt was not, understand me, the mere physical training of these forty\nyears which had thus made them men indeed.  Whatever they may have gained\nby that\u2014the younger generation at least\u2014of hardihood, endurance, and\nself-help, was a small matter compared with the moral training which they\nhad gained\u2014a small matter, compared with the habits of obedience,\nself-restraint, self-sacrifice, mutual trust, and mutual help; the\ninspiration of a common patriotism, of a common national destiny.\nWithout that moral discipline, they would have failed each other in need;\nhave broken up, scattered, or perished, or at least remained as settlers\nor as slaves among the Arab tribes.  With that moral discipline, they\nheld together, and continued one people till the last, till they couched,\nthey lay down as a lion, and as a great lion, and none dare rouse them\nup.\n\nYou who are here to-day\u2014I speak to those in uniform\u2014are the\nrepresentatives of more than one great body of your countrymen, who have\ndetermined to teach themselves something of that lesson which Israel\nlearnt in the wilderness; not indeed by actual danger and actual need,\nbut by preparation for dangers and for needs, which are only too possible\nas long as there is sin upon this earth.\n\nI believe\u2014I have already seen enough to be sure\u2014that your labour and that\nof your comrades will not be in vain; that you will be, as you surely may\nbe, the better men for that discipline to which you have subjected\nyourselves.\n\nYou must never forget that there are two sides, a softer and a sterner\nside, to the character of the good man; that he, the perfect Christ, who\nis the Lion of Judah, taking vengeance, in every age, on all who wrong\ntheir fellow men, is also the Lamb of God, who shed his own blood for\nthose who rebelled against him.  You must recollect that there are\nvirtues\u2014graces we call them rather\u2014which you may learn elsewhere better\nthan in the camp or on the drilling ground; graces of character more\ndevout, more pure, more tender, more humane, yet necessary for the\nperfect man, which you will learn rather in your own homes, from the\ninnocence of your own children, from the counsels and examples of your\nmothers and your wives.\n\nBut there are virtues\u2014graces we must call them too\u2014just as necessary for\nthe perfect man, which your present training ought to foster as (for most\nof you) no other training can; virtues which the old monk tried to teach\nby the stern education of the cloister; which are still taught, thank\nGod, by the stern education of our public schools; which you and your\ncomrades may learn by the best of all methods, by teaching them to\nyourselves.\n\nFor here, and wherever military training goes on, must be kept in check\nthose sins of self-will, conceit, self-indulgence, which beset all free\nand prosperous men.  Here must be practised virtues which (if not the\nvery highest) are yet virtues still, and will be such to all eternity.\n\nFor the moral discipline which goes to make a good soldier or a\nsuccessful competitor on this ground,\u2014the self-restraint, the obedience,\nthe diligence, the punctuality, the patience, the courtesy, the\nforbearance, the justice, the temperance,\u2014these virtues, needful for\nthose who compete in a struggle in which the idler and the debauchee can\ntake no share, all these go equally toward the making of a good man.\n\nThe germs of these virtues you must bring hither with you.  And none can\ngive them to you save the Spirit of God, the giver of all good.  But here\nyou may have them, I trust, quickened into more active life, strengthened\ninto more settled habits, to stand you in good stead in all places, all\ncircumstances, all callings; whether you shall go to serve your country\nand your family, in trade or agriculture, at home; or whether you shall\ngo forth, as many of you will, as soldiers, colonists, or merchants, to\ncarry English speech and English civilization to the ends of all the\nearth.\n\nFor then, if you learn to endure hardness\u2014in plain English, to exercise\nobedience and self-restraint\u2014will you be (whether regulars or civilians)\nalike the soldiers of Christ, able and willing to fight in that war of\nwhich He is the Supreme Commander, and which will endure as long as there\nis darkness and misery upon the earth; even the battle of the living God\nagainst the baser instincts of our nature, against ignorance and folly,\nagainst lawlessness and tyranny, against brutality and sloth.  Those, the\ndeadly enemies of the human race, you are all bound to attack, if you be\ngood men and true, wheresoever you shall meet them invading the kingdom\nof your Saviour and your God.  But you can only conquer them in others in\nproportion as you have conquered them in yourselves.\n\nMay God give you grace to conquer them in yourselves more and more; to\nprofit by the discipline which you may gain by this movement; and\nbequeath it, as a precious heirloom, to your children hereafter!\n\nFor so, whether at home or abroad, will you help to give your nation that\nmoral strength, without which physical strength is mere violent weakness;\nand by the example and influence of your own discipline, obedience, and\nself-restraint, help to fulfil of your own nation the prophecy of the\nSeer\u2014\n\n\u2018He couched, he lay down as a lion; and as a great lion.  Who dare rouse\nhim up?\u2019\n\n\n\n\nSERMON II.\nTHE TEMPLE OF WISDOM.\n\n\n       (_Preached at Wellington College_, _All Saints\u2019 Day_, 1866.)\n\n                              PROVERBS IX. 1\u20135.\n\n    Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:\n    she hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also\n    furnished her table.  She hath sent forth her maidens; she crieth\n    upon the highest places of the city, Whoso is simple, let him turn in\n    hither: and to him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,\n    Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.\n\nTHIS allegory has been a favourite one with many deep and lofty thinkers.\nThey mixed it, now and then, with Greek fancies; and brought Ph\u0153bus,\nApollo, and the Muses into the Temple of Wisdom.  But whatever they added\nto the allegory, they always preserved the allegory itself.  No words,\nthey felt, could so well express what Wisdom was, and how it was to be\nobtained by man.\n\nThe stately Temple, built by mystic rules of art; the glorious Lady, at\nonce its Architect, its Priestess, and its Queen; the feast spread within\nfor all who felt in themselves divine aspirations after what is\nbeautiful, and good, and true; the maidens fair and pure, sent forth\nthroughout the city, among the millions intent only on selfish gain or\nselfish pleasure, to call in all who were not content to be only a more\ncrafty kind of animal, that they might sit down at the feast among the\nnoble company of guests,\u2014those who have inclined their heart to wisdom,\nand sought for understanding as for hid treasures:\u2014this is a picture\nwhich sages and poets felt was true; true for all men, and for all lands.\nAnd it will be, perhaps, looked on as true once more, as natural, all but\nliterally exact, when we who are now men are in our graves, and you who\nare now boys will be grown men; in the days when the present soulless\nmechanical notion of the world and of men shall have died out, and\nphilosophers shall see once more that Wisdom is no discovery of their\nown, but the inspiration of the Almighty; and that this world is no dead\nand dark machine, but alight with the Glory, and alive with the Spirit,\nof God.\n\nBut what has this allegory, however true, to do with All Saints\u2019 Day?\n\nMy dear boys, on all days Wisdom calls you to her feast, by many weighty\narguments, by many loving allurements, by many awful threats.  But on\nthis day, of all the year, she calls you by the memory of the example of\nthose who sit already and for ever at her feast.  By the memory and\nexample of the wise of every age and every land, she bids you enter in\nand feast with them, on the wealth which she, and they, her faithful\nservants, have prepared for you.  They have laboured; and they call you,\nin their mistress\u2019s name, to enter into their labours.  She taught them\nwisdom, and she calls on you to learn wisdom of them in turn.\n\nRemember, I say, this day, with humility and thankfulness of heart, the\nwise who are gone home to their rest.\n\nThere are many kinds of noble personages amid the blessed company of All\nSaints, whom I might bid you to remember this day.  Some of you are the\nsons of statesmen or lawyers.  I might call on you to thank God for your\nfathers, and for every man who has helped to make or execute wise laws.\nSome of you are the sons of soldiers.  I might call on you to thank God\nfor your fathers, and for all who have fought for duty and for their\ncountry\u2019s right.  Some of you are the sons of clergymen.  I might call on\nyou to thank God for your fathers, and for all who have preached the true\nGod and Jesus Christ His only-begotten Son, whether at home or abroad.\nAll of you have mothers, whether on earth or in heaven; I might call on\nyou to thank God for them, and for every good and true woman who, since\nthe making of the world, has raised the coarseness and tamed the\nfierceness of men into gentleness and reverence, purity, and chivalry.  I\nmight do this: but to-day I will ask you to remember specially\u2014The Wise.\n\nFor you are here as scholars; you are here to learn wisdom; you are here\nin what should be, and I believe surely is, one of the fore-courts of\nthat mystic Temple into which Wisdom calls us all.  And therefore it is\nfit that you should this day remember the wise; for they have laboured,\nand you are entering into their labours.  Every lesson which you learn in\nschool, all knowledge which raises you above the savage or the profligate\n(who is but a savage dressed in civilized garments), has been made\npossible to you by the wise.  Every doctrine of theology, every maxim of\nmorals, every rule of grammar, every process of mathematics, every law of\nphysical science, every fact of history or of geography, which you are\ntaught here, is a voice from beyond the tomb.  Either the knowledge\nitself, or other knowledge which led to it, is an heirloom to you from\nmen whose bodies are now mouldering in the dust, but whose spirits live\nfor ever before God, and whose works follow them, going on, generation\nafter generation, upon the path which they trod while they were upon\nearth, the path of usefulness, as lights to the steps of youth and\nignorance.  They are the salt of the earth, which keeps the world of man\nfrom decaying back into barbarism.  They are the children of light whom\nGod has set for lights that cannot be hid.  They are the aristocracy of\nGod, into which not many noble, not many rich, not many mighty are\ncalled.  Most of them were poor; many all but unknown in their own time;\nmany died, and saw no fruit of their labours; some were persecuted, some\nwere slain, even as Christ the Lord was slain, as heretics, innovators,\nand corruptors of youth.  Of some, the very names are forgotten.  But\nthough their names be dead, their works live, and grow, and spread, over\never fresh generations of youth, showing them fresh steps toward that\nTemple of Wisdom, which is the knowledge of things as they are; the\nknowledge of those eternal laws by which God governs the heavens and the\nearth, things temporal and eternal, physical and spiritual, seen and\nunseen, from the rise and fall of mighty nations, to the growth and death\nof the moss on yonder moors.\n\nThey made their mistakes; they had their sins; for they were men of like\npassions with ourselves.  But this they did\u2014They cried after Wisdom, and\nlifted up their voice for understanding; they sought for her as silver,\nand searched for her as hid treasure: and not in vain.\n\nFor them, as to every earnest seeker after wisdom, that Heavenly Lady\nshowed herself and her exceeding beauty; and gave gifts to each according\nto his earnestness, his purity and his power of sight.\n\nTo some she taught moral wisdom\u2014righteousness, and justice, and equity,\nyea, every good path.\n\nTo others she showed that political science, which\u2014as Solomon tells\nyou\u2014is but another side of her beauty, and cannot be parted, however men\nmay try, from moral wisdom\u2014that Wisdom in whose right hand is length of\ndays, and in her left hand riches and honour; whose ways are ways of\npleasantness, and all her paths are peace.\n\nTo others again she showed that physical science which\u2014so Solomon tells\nus again\u2014cannot be parted safely from the two others.  For by the same\nwisdom, he says, which gives alike righteousness and equity, riches and\nlong life\u2014by that same wisdom, and no other, did the Lord found the\nheavens and establish the earth; by that same knowledge of his are the\ndepths broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.\n\nAnd to some she showed herself, as she did to good Boethius in his\ndungeon, in the deepest vale of misery, and the hour of death; when all\nseemed to have deserted them, save Wisdom, and the God from whom she\ncomes; and bade them be of good cheer still, and keep innocency, and take\nheed to the thing that is right, for that shall bring a man peace at the\nlast.\n\nAnd they beheld her, and loved her, and obeyed her, each according to his\npowers: and now they have their reward.\n\nAnd what is their reward?\n\nHow can I tell, dear boys?  This, at least can I say, for Scripture has\nsaid it already.  That God is merciful in this; that he rewardeth every\nman according to his work.  This, at least, I can say, for God incarnate\nhimself has said it already\u2014that to the good and faithful servant he will\nsay,\u2014\u2018Well done.  Thou hast been faithful over a few things: I will make\nthee ruler over many things.  Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.\u2019\n\n\u2018The joy of thy Lord.\u2019  Think of these words a while.  Perhaps they may\nteach us something of the meaning of All Saints\u2019 Day.\n\nFor, if Jesus Christ be\u2014as he is\u2014the same yesterday, to-day, and for\never, then his joy now must be the same as his joy was when he was here\non earth,\u2014to do good, and to behold the fruit of his own goodness; to\nsee\u2014as Isaiah prophesied of him\u2014to see of the travail of his soul, and be\nsatisfied.\n\nAnd so it may be; so it surely is\u2014with them; if blessed spirits (as I\nbelieve) have knowledge of what goes on on earth.  They enter into the\njoy of their Lord.  Therefore they enter into the joy of doing good.\nThey see of the travail of their soul, and are satisfied that they have\nnot lived in vain.  They see that their work is going on still on earth;\nthat they, being dead, yet speak, and call ever fresh generations into\nthe Temple of Wisdom.\n\nMy dear boys, take this one thought away with you from this chapel\nto-day.  Believe that the wise and good of every age and clime are\nlooking down on you, to see what use you will make of the knowledge which\nthey have won for you.  Whether they laboured, like Kepler in his garret,\nor like Galileo in his dungeon, hid in God\u2019s tabernacle from the strife\nof tongues; or, like Socrates and Plato, in the whirl and noise\u2014far more\nwearying and saddening than any loneliness\u2014of the foolish crowd, they all\nhave laboured for you.  Let them rejoice, when they see you enter into\ntheir labours with heart and soul.  Let them rejoice, when they see in\neach one of you one of the fairest sights on earth, before men and before\nGod; a docile and innocent boy striving to become a wise and virtuous\nman.\n\nAnd whenever you are tempted to idleness and frivolity; whenever you are\ntempted to profligacy and low-mindedness; whenever you are tempted\u2014as you\nwill be too often in these mean days\u2014to join the scorners and the fools\nwhom Solomon denounced; tempted to sneering unbelief in what is great and\ngood, what is laborious and self-sacrificing, and to the fancy that you\nwere sent into this world merely to get through it agreeably;\u2014then\nfortify and ennoble your hearts by Solomon\u2019s vision.  Remember who you\nare, and where you are\u2014that you stand before the Temple of Wisdom, of the\nscience of things as God has made them; wherein alone is health and\nwealth for body and for soul; that from within the Heavenly Lady calls to\nyou, sending forth her handmaidens in every art and science which has\never ministered to the good of man; and that within there await you all\nthe wise and good who have ever taught on earth, that you may enter in\nand partake of the feast which their mistress taught them to prepare.\nRemember, I say, who you are\u2014even the sons of God; and remember where you\nare\u2014for ever upon sacred ground; and listen with joy and hope to the\nvoice of the Heavenly Wisdom, as she calls\u2014\u2018Whoso is simple, let him come\nin hither; and him that wanteth understanding, let him come and eat of my\nbread, and drink of the wine that I have mingled.\u2019\n\nListen with joy and hope: and yet with fear and trembling, as of Moses\nwhen he hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.  For the voice\nof Wisdom is none other than the voice of The Spirit of God, in whom you\nlive, and move, and have your being.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON III.\nPRAYER AND SCIENCE.\n\n\n (_Preached at St. Olave\u2019s Church_, _Hart Street_, _before the Honourable\n                Corporation of the Trinity House_, 1866.)\n\n                           PSALM CVII. 23, 24, 28.\n\n    They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great\n    waters; these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.\n    Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them\n    out of their distresses.\n\nTHESE are days in which there is much dispute about religion and\nscience\u2014how far they agree with each other; whether they contradict or\ninterfere with each other.  Especially there is dispute about Providence.\nMen say, and truly, that the more we look into the world, the more we\nfind everything governed by fixed and regular laws; that man is bound to\nfind out those laws, and save himself from danger by science and\nexperience.  But they go on to say,\u2014\u2018And therefore there is no use in\nprayer.  You cannot expect God to alter the laws of His universe because\nyou ask Him: the world will go on, and ought to go on, its own way; and\nthe man who prays against danger, by sea or land, is asking vainly for\nthat which will not be granted him.\u2019\n\nNow I cannot see why we should not allow,\u2014what is certainly true,\u2014that\nthe world moves by fixed and regular laws: and yet allow at the same\ntime,\u2014what I believe is just as true,\u2014that God\u2019s special providence\nwatches over all our actions, and that, to use our Lord\u2019s example, not a\nsparrow falls to the ground without some special reason why that\nparticular sparrow should fall at that particular moment and in that\nparticular place.  I cannot see why all things should not move in a\ndivine and wonderful order, and yet why they should not all work together\nfor good to those who love God.  The Psalmist of old finds no\ncontradiction between the two thoughts.  Rather does the one of them seem\nto him to explain the other.  \u2018All things,\u2019 says he, \u2018continue this day\nas at the beginning.  For all things serve Thee.\u2019\n\nStill it is not to be denied, that this question has been a difficult one\nto men in all ages, and that it is so to many now.\n\nBut be that as it may, this I say, that, of all men, seafaring men are\nthe most likely to solve this great puzzle about the limits of science\nand of religion, of law and of providence; for, of all callings, theirs\nneeds at once most science and most religion; theirs is most subject to\nlaws, and yet most at the mercy of Providence.  And I say that many\nseafaring men have solved the puzzle for themselves in a very rational\nand sound way, though they may not be able to put thoughts into words;\nand that they do show, by their daily conduct, that a man may be at once\nthoroughly scientific and thoroughly religious.  And I say that this\nAncient and Honourable Corporation of the Trinity House is a proof\nthereof unto this day; a proof that sound science need not make us\nneglect sound religion, nor sound religion make us neglect sound science.\n\nNo man ought to say that seamen have neglected science.  It is the\nfashion among some to talk of sailors as superstitious.  They must know\nvery little about sailors, and must be very blind to broad facts, who\nspeak thus of them as a class.  Many sailors, doubtless, are\nsuperstitious.  But I appeal to every master mariner here, whether the\nsuperstitious men are generally the religious and godly men; whether it\nis not generally the most reckless and profligate men of the crew who are\nmost afraid of sailing on a Friday, and who give way to other silly\nfancies which I shall not mention in this sacred place.  And I appeal,\ntoo, to public experience, whether many, I may say most, of those to whom\nseamanship and sea-science owes most, have not been God-fearing Christian\nmen?\n\nBe sure of this, that if seamen, as a class, had been superstitious, they\nwould never have done for science what they have done.  And what they\nhave done, all the world knows.  To seamen, and to men connected with the\nsea, what do we not owe, in geography, hydrography, meteorology,\nastronomy, natural history?  At the present moment, the world owes them\nlarge improvements in dynamics, and in the new uses of steam and iron.\nIt may be fairly said that the mariner has done more toward the knowledge\nof Nature than any other personage in the world, save the physician.\n\nFor seamen have been forced, by the nature of their calling, to be\nscientific men.  From the very earliest ages in which the first canoe put\nout to sea, the mariner has been educated by the most practical of all\nschoolmasters, namely, danger.  He has carried his life in his hand day\nand night; he has had to battle with the most formidable and the most\nseemingly capricious of the brute powers of nature; with storms, with\nice, with currents, with unknown rocks and shoals, with the vicissitudes\nof climate, and the terrible and seemingly miraculous diseases which\nchange of climate engenders.  He has had to fight Nature; and to conquer\nher, if he could, by understanding her; by observing facts, and by facing\nfacts.  He dared not, like a scholar in his study, indulge in theories\nand fancies about how things ought to be.  He had to find out how they\nreally were.  He dared not say, According to my theory of the universe\nthis current ought to run in such a direction; he had to find out which\nway it did actually run, according to God\u2019s method of the universe, lest\nit should run him ashore.  Everywhere, I say, and all day long, the\nseaman has to observe facts and to use facts, unless he intends to be\ndrowned; and therefore, so far from being a superstitious man, who\nrefuses to inquire into facts, but puts vain dreams in their stead, the\nsailor is for the most part a very scientific-minded man: observant,\npatient, accurate, truthful; conquering Nature, as the great saying is,\nbecause he obeys her.\n\nBut if seamen have been forced to be scientific, they have been equally\nforced to be religious.  They that go down to the sea in ships see both\nthe works of the Lord, and also His wonders in the deep.  They see God\u2019s\nworks, regular, orderly, the same year by year, voyage by voyage, and\ntide by tide; and they learn the laws of them, and are so far safe.  But\nthey also see God\u2019s wonders\u2014strange, sudden, astonishing dangers, which\nhave, no doubt, their laws, but none which man has found out as yet.\nOver them they cannot reason and foretell; they can only pray and trust.\nWith all their knowledge, they have still plenty of ignorance; and\ntherefore, with all their science, they have still room for religion.  Is\nthere an old man in this church who has sailed the seas for many a year,\nwho does not know that I speak truth?  Are there not men here who have\nhad things happen to them, for good and for evil, beyond all calculation?\nwho have had good fortune of which they could only say, The glory be to\nGod, for I had no share therein? or who have been saved, as by miracle,\nfrom dangers of which they could only say, It was of the Lord\u2019s mercies\nthat we were not swallowed up? who must, if they be honest men, as they\nare, say with the Psalmist, We cried unto the Lord in our trouble, and he\ndelivered us out of our distress?\n\nAnd this it is that I said at first, that no men were so fit as seamen to\nsolve the question, where science ends and where religion begins; because\nno men\u2019s calling depends so much on science and reason, and so much, at\nthe same time, on Providence and God\u2019s merciful will.\n\nTherefore, when men say, as they will,\u2014If this world is governed by fixed\nlaws, and if we have no right to ask God to alter his laws for our sakes,\nthen what use in prayer?  I will answer,\u2014Go to the seaman, and ask him\nwhat he thinks.  The puzzle may seem very great to a comfortable\nlandsman, sitting safe in his study at home; but it ought to be no puzzle\nat all to the master mariner in his cabin, with his chart and his Bible\nopen before him, side by side.  He ought to know well enough where reason\nstops and religion begins.  He ought to know when to work, and when to\npray.  He ought to know the laws of the sea and of the sky.  But he ought\nto know too how to pray, without asking God to alter those laws, as\npresumptuous and superstitious men are wont to do.\n\nTake as an instance the commonest of all\u2014a storm.  We know that storms\nare not caused (as folk believed in old time) by evil spirits; that they\nare natural phenomena, obeying certain fixed laws; that they are\nnecessary from time to time; that they are probably, on the whole,\nuseful.\n\nAnd we know two ways of facing a storm, one of which you may see too\noften among the boatmen of the Mediterranean\u2014How a man shall say, I know\nnothing as to how, or why, or when, a storm should come; and I care not\nto know.  If one falls on me, I will cry for help to the Panagia, or St.\nNicholas, or some other saint, and perhaps they will still the storm by\nmiracle.  That is superstition, the child of ignorance and fear.\n\nAnd you may have seen what comes of that temper of mind.  How, when the\nstorm comes, instead of order, you have confusion; instead of courage,\ncowardice; instead of a calm and manly faith, a miserable crying of every\nman to his own saint, while the vessel is left to herself to sink or\nswim.\n\nBut what is the temper of true religion, and of true science likewise?\nThe seaman will say, I dare not pray that there may be no storm.  I\ncannot presume to interfere with God\u2019s government.  If there ought to be\na storm, there will be one: if not, there will be none.  But I can\nforecast the signs of the weather; I can consult my barometer; I can\njudge, by the new lights of science, what course the storm will probably\ntake; and I can do my best to avoid it.\n\nBut does that make religion needless?  Does that make prayer useless?\nHow so?  The seaman may say, I dare not pray that the storm may not come.\nBut there is no necessity that I should be found in its path.  And I may\npray, and I will pray, that God may so guide and govern my voyage, and\nall its little accidents, that I may pass it by.  I know that I can\nforecast the storm somewhat; and if I do not try to do that, I am\ntempting God: but I may pray, I will pray, that my forecast may be\ncorrect.  I will pray the Spirit of God, who gives man understanding, to\ngive me a right judgment, a sound mind, and a calm heart, that I may make\nno mistake and neglect no precaution; and if I fail, and sink\u2014God\u2019s will\nbe done.  It is a good will to me and all my crew; and into the hands of\nthe good God who has redeemed me, I commend my spirit, and their spirits\nlikewise.\n\nThis much, therefore, we may say of prayer.  We may always pray to be\nmade better men.  We may always pray to be made wiser men.  These prayers\nwill always be answered; for they are prayers for the very Spirit of God\nhimself, from whom comes all goodness and all wisdom, and it can never be\nwrong to ask to be made right.\n\nThere are surely, too, evils so terrible, that when they threaten us\u2014if\nGod being our Father means anything,\u2014if Christ being our example means\nanything\u2014then we have a right to cry, like our Lord himself, \u2018Father, if\nit be possible, let this cup pass from me:\u2019 if we only add, like our\nLord, \u2018Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.\u2019\n\nAnd of dangers in general this we may say\u2014that if we pray against known\ndangers which we can avoid, we do nothing but tempt God: but that against\nunknown and unseen dangers we may always pray.  For instance, if a sailor\nneedlessly lodges over a foul, tideless harbour, or sleeps in a tropical\nmangrove swamp, he has no right to pray against cholera and fever; for he\nhas done his best to give himself cholera and fever, and has thereby\ntempted God.  But if he goes into a new land, of whose climate, diseases,\ndangers, he is utterly ignorant, then he has surely a right to pray God\nto deliver him from those dangers; and if not,\u2014if he is doomed to suffer\nfrom them,\u2014to pray God that he may discover and understand the new\ndangers of that new land, in order to warn future travellers against\nthem, and so make his private suffering a benefit to mankind.\n\nThis, then, is our duty as to known dangers,\u2014to guard ourselves against\nthem by science, and the reason which God has given us; and as to unknown\ndangers, to pray to God to deliver us from them, if it seem good to him:\nbut above all, to pray to him to deliver us from them in the best way,\nthe surest way, the most lasting way, the way in which we may not only\npreserve ourselves, but our fellow-men and generations yet unborn;\nnamely, by giving us wisdom and understanding to discover the dangers, to\ncomprehend them, and to conquer them, by reason and by science.\n\nThis is the spirit of sound science and of sound religion.  And it was in\nthis spirit, and for this very end, that this Ancient and Honourable\nCorporation of the Trinity House was founded more than three hundred\nyears ago.  Not merely to pray to God and to the saints, after the\nancient fashion, to deliver all poor mariners from dangers of the seas.\nThat was a natural prayer, and a pious one, as far as it went: but it did\nnot go far enough.  For, as a fact, God did not always answer it: he did\nnot always see fit to deliver those who called upon him.  Gallant ships\nwent down with all their crews.  It was plain that God would not always\ndeliver poor mariners, even though they cried to him in their distress.\n\nThen, in the sixteenth century, when men\u2019s minds were freed from many old\nsuperstitions, by a better understanding both of Holy Scripture and of\nthe laws of nature, the master mariners of England took a wiser course.\n\nThey said, God will not always help poor mariners: but he will always\nteach them to deliver themselves.  And so they built this House, not in\nthe name of the Virgin Mary or any saints in heaven, but, with a deep\nunderstanding of what was needed, in the most awful name of God himself.\nThereby they went to the root and ground of this matter, and of all\nmatters.  They went to the source of all law and order; to the source of\nall force and life; and to the source, likewise, of all love and mercy;\nwhen they founded their House in the name of the Father of Lights, in\nwhom men live and move and have their being; from whom comes every good\nand perfect gift, and without whom not a sparrow falls to the ground; in\nthe name of the Son, who was born on earth a man, and tasted sorrow, and\ntrial, and death for every man; in the name of the Holy Ghost, who\ninspires man with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, and gives him a\nright judgment in all things, putting into his heart good desires, and\nenabling him to bring them to good effect.  And so, believing that the\never-blessed Trinity would teach them to help themselves and their\nfellow-mariners, they set to work, like truly God-fearing men, not to\nhire monks to sing and say masses for them, but to set up for themselves\nlights and sea-marks, and to take order for the safe navigation of these\nseas, like men who believed indeed that they were the children of God,\nand that God would prosper his children in as far as they used that\nreason which he himself had bestowed upon them.\n\nIt is for these men\u2019s sakes, as well as for our own, that we are met\ntogether here this day.  We are met to commemorate the noble dead; not in\nany Popish or superstitious fashion, as if they needed our prayers, or we\nneeded their miraculous assistance: but in the good old Protestant\nscriptural sense\u2014to thank God for all his servants departed this life in\nhis faith and fear, and to pray that God may give us grace to follow\ntheir good examples; and especially to thank him for the founders of this\nancient Trinity House, which stands here as a token to all generations of\nBritons, that science and religion are not contrary to each other, but\ntwin sisters, meant to aid each other and mankind in the battle with the\nbrute forces of this universe.\n\nWe are met together here to thank God for all gallant mariners, and for\nall who have helped mariners toward safety and success; for all who have\nmade discoveries in hydrography or meteorology, in navigation, or in\ncommerce, adding to the safety of seamen, and to the health and wealth of\nthe human race; for all who have set noble examples to their crews,\nfacing danger manfully and dying at their posts, as many a man has died,\na martyr to his duty; for all who, living active, and useful, and\nvirtuous lives in their sea calling, have ended as they lived,\nGod-fearing Christian men.\n\nTo thank God for all these we are met together here; and to pray to God\nlikewise that he would send his Spirit into the hearts of seamen, and of\nthose who deal with seamen; and specially into the hearts of the Royal\nthe Master and the Worshipful the Elder Brethren of this Ancient and\nHonourable House; that they may be true, and loyal, and obedient to that\ndivine name in which they are met together here this day\u2014the name of\nFather, Son, and Holy Ghost, the ever-blessed Trinity, the giver of all\ngood gifts, in whom we live, and move, and have our being; always keeping\nGod\u2019s commandments and looking for God\u2019s guidance, and setting to those\nbeneath them an example of sound reason, virtue, and religion; that so\nthere may never be wanting to this land a race of seamen who shall trust\nin God to teach them all they need to know, and to dispose of their\nbodies and souls as seemeth best to his most holy will; who, fearing God,\nshall fear nought else, but shall defy the dangers of the seas, and all\nthe brute forces of climates and of storms; who shall set in foreign\nlands an example of justice and mercy, of true civilization and true\nreligion; and so shall still maintain the marine of Great Britain, as it\nhas been for now three hundred years, a safeguard and a glory to these\nislands, and a blessing to the coasts of all the world.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON IV.\nGOD\u2019S TRAINING.\n\n\n                            DEUTERONOMY VIII. 2\u20135.\n\n    And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee\n    these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove\n    thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his\n    commandments or no.  And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to\n    hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did\n    thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live\n    by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of\n    the Lord doth man live.  Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither\n    did thy foot swell, these forty years.  Thou shalt also consider in\n    thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God\n    chasteneth thee.\n\nTHIS is the lesson of our lives.  This is training, not only for the old\nJews, but for us.  What was true of them, is more or less true of us.\nAnd we read these verses to teach us that God\u2019s ways with man do not\nchange; that his fatherly hand is over us, as well as over the people of\nIsrael; that we are in God\u2019s schoolhouse, as they were; that their\nblessings are our blessings, their dangers are our dangers; that, as St.\nPaul says, all these things are written for our example.\n\n\u2018And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger.\u2019  How true to life\nthat is!  How often there comes to a man, at his setting out in life, a\ntime which humbles him; a time of disappointment, when he finds that he\nis not so clever as he thought, as able to help himself as he thought;\nwhen his fine plans fail him; when he does not know how to settle in\nlife, how to marry, how to provide for a family.  Perhaps the man\nactually does hunger, and go through a time of want and struggle.  Then,\nit may be, he cries in his heart\u2014How hard it is for me!  How hard that\nthe golden days of youth should be all dark and clouded over!  How hard\nto have to suffer anxiety and weary hard work, just when I am able to\nenjoy myself most!\n\nIt is hard: but worse things than hard things may happen to a man.  Far\nworse is it to grow up, as some men do, in wealth, and ease, and luxury,\nwith all the pleasures of this life found ready to their hands.  Some\nmen, says the proverb, are \u2018born with a golden spoon in their mouth.\u2019\nGod help them if they are!  Idleness, profligacy, luxury, self-conceit,\nno care for their duty, no care for God, no feeling that they are in\nGod\u2019s school-house\u2014these are too often the fruits of that breeding up.\nHow hardly will they learn that man doth not live by bread alone, or by\nmoney alone, or by comfort alone, but by every word that proceedeth out\nof the mouth of God.  Truly, said our Lord, \u2018how hardly shall they that\nhave riches enter into the kingdom of heaven.\u2019  Not those who earn riches\nby manful and honest labour; not those who come to wealth after long\ntraining to make them fit to use wealth: but those who have wealth; who\nare born amid luxury and pomp; who have never known want, and the golden\nlessons which want brings.\u2014God help them, for they need his help even\nmore than the poor young man who is at his wit\u2019s end how to live.  For\nhim God is helping.  His very want, and struggles, and anxiety may be\nGod\u2019s help to him.  They help him to control himself, and do with a\nlittle; they help him to strengthen his character, and to bring out all\nthe powers of mind that God has given him.  God is humbling him, that he\nmay know that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word which\nproceedeth out of the mouth of God.  God, too, if he trusts in God, will\nfeed him with manna\u2014spiritual manna, not bodily.  He fed the Jews in the\nwilderness with manna, to show them that his power was indeed\nalmighty\u2014that if he did not see fit to help his people in one way, he\ncould help them just as easily in another.  And so with every man who\ntrusts in God.  In unforeseen ways, he is helped.  In unforeseen ways, he\nprospers; his life, as he goes on, becomes very different from what he\nexpected, from what he would have liked; his fine dreams fade away, as he\nfinds the world quite another place from what he fancied it: but still he\nprospers.  If he be earnest and honest, patient and God-fearing, he\nprospers; God brings him through.  His raiment doth not wax old, neither\ndoth his foot swell, through all his forty years\u2019 wandering in the\nwilderness.  He is not tired out, he does not break down, though he may\nhave to work long and hard.  As his day is, so his strength shall be.\nGod holds him up, strengthens and refreshes him, and brings him through\nyears of labour from the thought of which he shrank when he was young.\n\nAnd so the man learns that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every\nword that proceedeth out of the mouth of God; that not in the abundance\nof things which he possesses, not in money; not in pleasure, not even in\ncomforts, does the life of man consist: but in this\u2014to learn his duty,\nand to have strength from God to do it.  Truly said the prophet\u2014\u2018It is\ngood for a man to learn to bear the yoke in his youth.\u2019\n\nAfter that sharp training a man will prosper; because he is fit to\nprosper.  He has learnt the golden lesson.  He can be trusted with\ncomforts, wealth, honour.  Let him have them, if God so will, and use\nthem well.\n\nOnly, only, when a time of ease and peace comes to him in his middle age,\nlet him not forget the warning of the latter part of the chapter.\n\nFor there is another danger awaiting him, as it awaited those old Jews;\nthe danger of prosperity in old age.  Ah my friends, that is a sore\ntemptation\u2014the sorest, perhaps, which can meet a man in the long struggle\nof life, the temptation which success brings.  In middle age, when he has\nlearnt his business, and succeeded in it; when he has fought his battle\nwith the world, and conquered more or less; when he has made his way up,\nand seems to himself safe, and comfortable, and thriving; when he feels\nthat he is a shrewd, thrifty, experienced man, who knows the world and\nhow to prosper in it\u2014Then how easy it is for him to say in his heart\u2014as\nMoses feared that those old Jews would say\u2014\u2018My might and the power of my\nwit has gotten me this wealth,\u2019 and to forget the Lord his God, who\nguided him and trained him through all the struggles and storms of early\nlife; and so to become vainly confident, worldly and hard-hearted:\nundevout and ungodly, even though he may keep himself respectable enough,\nand fall into no open sin.\n\nTherefore it is, I think, that while we see so many lives which have been\nsad lives of poverty, and labour, and struggle, end peacefully and\ncheerfully, in a sunshiny old age, like a still bright evening after a\nday of storm and rain; so on the other hand we see lives which have been\nprosperous and happy ones for many years, end sadly in bereavement,\npoverty, or disappointment, as did the life of David, the man after God\u2019s\nown heart.  God guided him through all the dangers and temptations of\nyouth, and through them all he trusted God.  God brought him safely to\nsuccess, honour, a royal crown; and he thanked God, and acknowledged his\ngoodness.  And yet after a while his heart was puffed up, and he forgot\nGod, and all he owed to God, and became a tyrant, an adulterer, a\nmurderer.  He repented of his sin: but he could not escape the punishment\nof it.  His children were a curse to him; the sword never departed from\nhis house; and his last years were sad enough, and too sad.\n\nPerhaps that was God\u2019s mercy to him; God\u2019s way of remembering him again,\nand bringing him back to him.  Perhaps too that same is God\u2019s way of\nbringing back many a man in our own days who has wandered from him in\nsuccess and prosperity.\n\nGod grant that we may never need that terrible chastisement.  God grant\nthat we, if success and comfort come to us, may never wander so far from\nGod, but that we may be brought back to him by the mere humbling of old\nage itself, without needing affliction over and above.\n\nYes, by old age alone.  Old age, it seems to me, is a most wholesome and\nblessed medicine for the soul of man.  Good it is to find that we can\nwork no longer, and rejoice no more in our own strength and cunning.\nGood it is to feel our mortal bodies decay, and to learn that we are but\ndust, and that when we turn again to our dust, all our thoughts will\nperish.  Good it is to see the world changing round us, going ahead of\nus, leaving us and our opinions behind.  Good perhaps for us\u2014though not\nfor them\u2014to see the young who are growing up around us looking down on\nour old-fashioned notions.  Good for us: because anything is good which\nhumbles us, makes us feel our own ignorance, weakness, nothingness, and\ncast ourselves utterly on that God in whom we live, and move, and have\nour being; and on the mercy of that Saviour who died for us on the Cross;\nand on that Spirit of God from whose holy inspiration alone all good\ndesires and good actions come.\n\nGod grant that that may be our end.  That old age, when it comes, may\nchasten us, humble us, soften us; and that our second childhood may be a\nsecond childhood indeed, purged from the conceit, the scheming, the\nfierceness, the covetousness which so easily beset us in our youth and\nmanhood; and tempered down to gentleness, patience, humility, and faith.\nGod grant that instead of clinging greedily to life, and money, and\npower, and fame, we may cling only to God, and have one only wish as we\ndraw near our end.\u2014\u2018From my youth up hast thou taught me, Oh God, and\nhitherto I have declared thy wondrous works.  Now also that I am old and\ngrey-headed, Oh Lord, forsake me not, till I have showed thy goodness to\nthis generation, and thy power to those who are yet to come.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON V.\nGOOD FRIDAY.\n\n\n                             HEBREWS IX. 13, 14.\n\n    For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer\n    sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:\n    How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal\n    Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience\n    from dead works to serve the living God?\n\nTHE three collects for Good Friday are very grand and very remarkable.\nIn the first we pray:\u2014\n\n\u2018Almighty God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for\nwhich our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up\ninto the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross, who now\nliveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever one God, world\nwithout end.  Amen.\u2019\n\nIn the second we pray:\u2014\n\n\u2018Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of the\nChurch is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers,\nwhich we offer before thee for all estates of men in thy holy Church,\nthat every member of the same, in his vocation and ministry, may truly\nand godly serve thee; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  Amen.\u2019\n\nIn the third we pray:\u2014\n\n\u2018O merciful God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast\nmade, nor wouldest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be\nconverted and live: Have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and\nHereticks, and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and\ncontempt of thy Word; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy flock,\nthat they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be\nmade one fold under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and\nreigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.\nAmen.\u2019\n\nNow these collects give us the keynote of Good Friday; they tell us what\nthe Church wishes us to think of on Good Friday.\n\nWe are to think of Christ\u2019s death and passion.  Of that there is no\ndoubt.\n\nBut we need not on Good Friday, or perhaps at any other time, trouble our\nminds with the unfathomable questions, How did Christ\u2019s sacrifice take\naway our sins?  How does Christ\u2019s blood purge our conscience?\n\nMere \u2018theories of the Atonement,\u2019 as they are called, have very little\nteaching in them, and still less comfort.  Wise and good men have tried\ntheir minds upon them in all ages; they have done their best to explain\nChrist\u2019s sacrifice, and the atonement which he worked out on the cross on\nGood Friday: but it does not seem to me that they have succeeded.  I\nnever read yet any explanation which I could fully understand; which\nfully satisfied my conscience, or my reason either; or which seemed to me\nfully to agree with and explain all the texts of Scripture bearing on\nthis great subject.\n\nBut is it possible to explain the matter?  Is it not too deep for mortal\nman?  Is it not one of the deep things of God, and of God alone, before\nwhich we must worship and believe?  As for explaining or understanding\nit, must not that be impossible, from its very nature?\n\nFor, consider the first root and beginning of the whole question.  Put it\nin the simplest shape, to which all Christians will agree.  The Father\nsent the Son to die for the world.  Most true: but who can explain those\nwords?  We are stopped at the very first step by an abyss.  Who can tell\nus what is meant by the Father sending the Son?  What is the relation,\nthe connexion, between the Father and the Son?  If we do not know that,\nwe can know nothing about the matter, about the very root and ground\nthereof.  And we do know little or nothing.  The Bible only gives us\nscattered hints here and there.  It is one of the things of which we may\nsay, with St. Paul, that we know in part, and see through a glass darkly.\nHow, then, dare we talk as if we knew all, as if we saw clearly?  The\natonement is a blessed and awful mystery hidden in God: ordained by and\nbetween God the Father and God the Son.  And who can search out that?\nWho hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor?\nDid we sit by, and were we taken into his counsels, when he made the\nworld?  Not we.  Neither were we when he redeemed the world.  He did it.\nLet that be enough for us.  And he did it in love.  Let that be enough\nfor us.\n\nGod the Father so loved the world, that he sent his Son into the world,\nthat the world by him might be saved.  God the Son so loved the world,\nthat he came to do his Father\u2019s will, and put away sin by the sacrifice\nof himself.  That is enough for us.  Let it be enough; and let us take\nsimply, honestly, literally, and humbly, like little children, everything\nwhich the Bible says about it, without trying or pretending to\nunderstand, but only to believe.\n\nWe can believe that Christ\u2019s blood can purge our conscience, though we\ncannot explain in any words of our own how it can do so.  We can believe\nthat God made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, though we not only\ncannot but dare not try to explain so awful a mystery.  We can believe\nthat Christ\u2019s sacrifice on the cross was a propitiation for sin, though\nneither we, nor (as I hold) any man on earth, can tell exactly what the\nwords sacrifice and propitiation mean.  And so with all the texts which\nspeak of Christ\u2019s death and passion, and that atonement for sin which he,\nin his boundless mercy, worked out this day.  Let us not torment our\nminds with arguments in which there are a hundred words of man\u2019s\ninvention to one word of Holy Scripture, while the one word of Scripture\nhas more in it than the hundred words of man can explain.  But let us\nhave faith in Christ.  I mean, let us trust him that he has done all that\ncan or need be done; that whatsoever was needed to reconcile God to man,\nhe has done, for he is perfect God; that whatever was needed to reconcile\nman to God, he has done, for he is perfect man.\n\nLet us, instead of puzzling ourselves as to how the Lamb of God takes\naway the sins of the world, believe that he knows, and that he lives, and\ncry to him as to the living God,\u2014Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of\nthe world, have mercy on us, and take our sins away.\n\nAnd let us beseech God this day, graciously to behold his family, the\nnations of Christendom, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to\nbe betrayed into the hands of wicked men, and suffer death upon the\ncross.  Let us ask this, even though we do not fully understand what\nChrist\u2019s death on the cross did for mankind.  That was the humble,\nchildlike, really believing spirit of the early Christians.  God grant us\nthe same spirit; we need it much in these very times.\n\nFor if we are of that spirit, my friends, then, instead of tormenting our\nminds as to the how and why of Christ\u2019s sacrifice on the cross, we shall\nturn our hearts, and not merely our minds, to the practical question\u2014What\nshall we do?  If Christ died for us, what shall we do?  What shall we ask\nGod to help us to do?  To that the second collect gives a clear answer at\nonce\u2014Serve the living God.\n\nAnd how?  By dead works?  By mere outward forms and ceremonies,\nchurch-goings, psalm-singings, sermon-hearings?  Not so.  These are right\nand good; but they are dead works, which cannot take away sin, any more\nthan could the gifts and sacrifices, the meats and drinks of the old\nJewish law.  Those, says St. Paul, could not make him that did the\nsacrifice perfect as pertaining to the conscience.  They could not give\nhim a clear conscience; they could not make him sure that God had\nforgiven him; they could not give him spirit and comfort to say\u2014Now I can\nleave the church a forgiven man, a new man, and begin a fresh life; and\ngo about my daily business in joyfulness and peace of mind, sure that God\nwill help me, and bless me, and enable me to serve him in my calling.\n\nNo, says St. Paul.  More than dead works are wanted to purge a man\u2019s\nconscience.  Nothing will do that but the blood of Christ.  And that will\ndo it.  He, the spotless Lamb, has offered himself to God, as a full and\nperfect and sufficient sacrifice, offering, and satisfaction for the sins\nof the whole world; and therefore for thy sins, whoever thou art, be thy\nsins many or few.  Believe that; for thou art a man for whom Christ died.\nClaim thy share in Christ\u2019s blood.  Believe that he has died for thee;\nthat he has blotted out thy sins in the blood of his cross; that thou\nneedest not try to blot them out by any dead works, forms, or ceremonies\nwhatsoever; for Christ has done and suffered already all for thee.  Thou\nart forgiven.  Put away thy sins, for God has put them away; rise, and be\na new man.  Thou art one of God\u2019s holy Church.  God has justified thee.\nLet him sanctify thee likewise.  God\u2019s spirit is with thee to guide thee,\nto inspire thee, and make thee holy.  Serve thy Father and thy Master,\nthe Living God, sure that he is satisfied with thee for Christ\u2019s sake;\nthat thou art in thy right state henceforward; in thy right place in this\nworld; and that he blesses all thy efforts to live a right life, and to\ndo thy duty.\n\nBut how to serve him, and where?  By doing something strange and\nfantastic?  By giving up thy business, money, time?  Going to the ends of\nthe earth?  Making what some will call some great sacrifice for God?\n\nNot so.  All that may be, and generally is, the fruit of mere self-will\nand self-conceit.  God has made a sacrifice for thee.  Let that be\nenough.  If he wants thee to make a sacrifice to him in return, he will\ncompel thee to make it, doubt it not.  But meanwhile abide in the calling\nwherein thou art called.  Do the duty which lies nearest thee.  Whether\nthou art squire or labourer, rich or poor; whether thy duty is to see\nafter thy children, or to mind thy shop, do thy duty.  For that is thy\nvocation and calling; that is the ministry in which thou canst serve God,\nby serving thy fellow-creatures for whom Christ died.\n\nThis day the grand prayer has gone up throughout Christ\u2019s Church\u2014and thou\nhast joined in it\u2014for all estates of men in his holy Church; for all\nestates, from kings and statesmen governing the nations, down to\nlabouring men tilling in the field, and poor women washing and dressing\ntheir children at home, that each and all of them may do their work well,\nwhatever it is, and thereby serve the Living God.  For now their work,\nhowever humble, is God\u2019s work; Christ has bought it and redeemed it with\nhis blood.  When he redeemed human nature, he redeemed all that human\nnature can and ought to do, save sin.  All human duties and occupations\nare purified by the blood of Christ\u2019s cross; and if we do our duty well,\nwe do it to the Lord, and not to man; and the Lord blesses us therein,\nand will help us to fulfil our work like Christian men, by the help of\nhis Holy Spirit.\n\nAnd for those who know not Christ?  For them, too, we can pray.  For, for\nthem too Christ died.  They, too, belong to Christ, for he has bought\nthem with his most precious blood.  What will happen to them we know not:\nbut this we know, that they are his sheep, lost sheep though they may be;\nand that we are bound to pray, that he would bring them home to his\nflock.\n\nBut how will he bring them back?  That, again, we know not.  But why need\nwe know?  If Christ knows how to do it, surely we need not.  Let us trust\nhim to do his own work in his own way.\n\nBut will he do it?  My friends, if we wish for the salvation of all Jews,\nTurks, Infidels, and Heretics, do you suppose that we are more\ncompassionate to them than God who made them?  Who is more likely to pity\nthe heathen?  We who send a few missionaries to teach them: or God who\nsent his own Son to die for them?\n\nOh trust God, and trust Christ; for this, as for all other things.\nBelieve that for the heathen, as for us, he is able to do exceedingly and\nabundantly beyond all that we can ask or think; and believe too, that if\nwe do ask, we do not ask in vain; that this collect which has gone up\nevery Good Friday for centuries past, from millions of holy hearts\nthroughout the world, has not gone up unheard; that it will be\nanswered\u2014we know not how\u2014but answered still; and that to Jew and Turk,\nHeathen and Heretic, this day will prove hereafter to have been, what it\nis to us, Good Friday.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON VI.\nFALSE CIVILIZATION.\n\n\n                              JEREMIAH XXXV. 19.\n\n    Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Jonadab the son of\n    Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever.\n\nLET us think a while this morning what this text has to do with us; and\nwhy this strange story of the Rechabites is written for our instruction,\nin the pages of Holy Scripture.\n\nLet us take the story as it stands, and search the Scriptures simply for\nit.  For the Bible will surely tell its own story best, and teach its own\nlesson best.\n\nThese Rechabites, who were they?  Or, indeed we may ask\u2014Who are they?\nFor they are said to exist still.\n\nThey were not Israelites, but wild Arabs, a branch of the Kenite tribe,\nwhich claimed\u2014at least its chiefs\u2014to be descended from Abraham, by his\nwife Keturah.  They joined the Israelites, and wandered with them into\nthe land of Canaan.\n\nBut they never settled down, as the Israelites did, into farmers and\ntownsfolk.  They never became what we call civilized: though they had a\ncivilization of their own, which stood them in good stead, and kept\nthem\u2014and keeps them, it would seem, to this day,\u2014strong and prosperous,\nwhile great cities and mighty nations have been destroyed round about\nthem.  They kept their old simple Arab customs, living in their great\nblack camels\u2019 hair tents, feeding their flocks and herds, as they\nwandered from forest to forest and lawn to lawn, living on the milk of\nthe flock, and it would seem, on locusts and wild honey, as did John the\nBaptist after them.  They had (as many Arab tribes have still) neither\ncorn, seed-field, nor vineyard.  Wild men they were in their ways, yet\nliving a simple wholesome life; till in the days of Ahab and Jehu there\narose among them a chief called Jonadab the son of Rechab, of the house\nof Hammath.  Why he was called the son of Rechab is not clearly known.\n\u2018The son of the rider,\u2019 or \u2018the son of the chariot,\u2019 seems to be the most\nprobable meaning of the name.  So that these Rechabites, at least, had\nhorses\u2014as many Arab tribes have now\u2014and whether they rode them, or used\nthem to draw their goods about in carts, like many other wild tribes,\nthey seem to have gained from Jonadab the name of Rechabim, the sons of\nRechab, the sons of the rider, or the sons of the chariot.\n\nOf Jonadab the son of Rechab, you heard three Sundays since, in that\nnoble passage of 2 Kings x. where Jehu, returning from the slaughter of\nthe idolatrous kings, and going to slay the priests of Baal, meets\nJonadab and asks him, Is thy heart right\u2014that is, sound in the worship of\nGod, and determined to put down idolatry\u2014as my heart is with thy heart?\nWe hear of him and his tribe no more till the days of Jeremiah, 250 years\nafter, in the story from which my text is taken.  What Jonadab\u2019s reasons\nmay have been for commanding his tribe neither to settle in towns, nor\ntill the ground, it is not difficult to guess.  He may have dreaded lest\nhis people, by settling in the towns, should learn the idolatry of the\nIsraelites.  He may have dreaded, likewise, lest they should give way to\nthat same luxury and profligacy in which the Israelites indulged\u2014and\nespecially lest they should be demoralized by that drunkenness of which\nthe prophets speak, as one of the crying sins of that age.  He may have\nfeared, too, lest their settling down as landholders or townsmen would\ncause them to be absorbed and lost among the nation of the Israelites,\nand probably involved in their ruin.  Be that as it may, he laid his\ncommand upon his tribe, and his command was obeyed.\n\nOf the after-history of these simple God-fearing folk we know very\nlittle.  But what we do know is well worth remembering.  They were, it\nseems, carried away captive to Babylon with the rest of the Jews; and\nwith them they came back to Jerusalem.  Meanwhile, they had intermarried\nwith the priests of the tribe of Levi; and they assisted at the worship\nand sacrifices,\u2014\u2018standing before the Lord\u2019 (as Jeremiah had foretold) \u2018in\nthe temple,\u2019 but living (as some say) outside the walls in their tents.\nAnd it is worth remembering, that we have one psalm in the Bible, which\nwas probably written either by one of these Rechabites, or by Jeremiah\nfor them to sing, and that a psalm which you all know well, the old man\u2019s\npsalm, as it has well been called\u2014the 71st Psalm, which is read in the\nvisitation of the sick; which says, \u2018O God, thou hast taught me from my\nyouth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.  Now also when I\nam old and grey-headed, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy\nstrength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to\ncome.\u2019\n\nIt was, moreover, a Rechabite priest, we are told\u2014\u2018one of the sons of the\nRechabim spoken of by Jeremiah the prophet\u2019\u2014who when the Jews were\nstoning St. James the Just, one of the twelve apostles, cried out against\ntheir wickedness.\n\nWhat befell the Rechabites when Jerusalem was destroyed, we know not: but\nthey seem to have returned to their old life, and wandered away into the\nfar east; for in the twelfth century, more than one thousand years after,\na Jewish traveller met with them 100,000 strong under a Jewish prince of\nthe house of David; still abstaining from wine and flesh, and paying\ntithes to teachers who studied the law, and wept for the fall of\nJerusalem.  And even yet they are said to endure and prosper.  For in our\nown time, a traveller met the Rechabites once more in the heart of\nArabia, still living in their tents, still calling themselves the sons of\nJonadab.  With one of them, Mousa (_i.e._ Moses) by name, he talked, and\nMousa said to him, \u2018Come, and I will show you who we are;\u2019 and from an\nArabic bible he read the words of my text, and said, \u2018You will find us\n60,000 in number still.  See, the words of the prophet have been\nfulfilled\u2014\u201cJonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before\nme for ever.\u201d\u2019\n\nWhat lesson shall we learn from this story\u2014so strange, and yet so\nbeautiful?  What lesson need we learn, save that which the Holy Scripture\nitself bids us learn?  The blessing which comes upon reverence for our\nforefathers, and above all for God, our Father in Heaven.\n\nReverence for our forefathers.  These are days in which we are too apt to\nsneer at those who have gone before us; to look back on our forefathers\nas very ignorant, prejudiced, old-fashioned people, whose opinions have\nbeen all set aside by the progress of knowledge.\n\nBe sure that in this temper of mind lies a sin and a snare.  If we wish\nto keep up true independence and true self-respect in ourselves and our\nchildren, we should be careful to keep up respect for our forefathers.  A\nshallow, sneering generation, which laughs at those who have gone before\nit, is ripe for disaster and slavery.  We are not bound, of course\u2014as\nthose old Rechabites considered themselves bound\u2014to do in everything\nexactly what our forefathers did.  For we are not under the law, but\nunder grace; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is\nliberty\u2014liberty to change, improve, and develop as the world grows older,\nand (we may hope) wiser.  But we are bound to do, not exactly what our\nforefathers did, but what we may reasonably suppose that they would have\ndone, had they lived now, and were they in our places.  We are to obey\nthem, not in the letter, but in the spirit.\n\nAnd whenever, in the prayer for the Church militant, we commemorate the\nfaithful dead, and thank God for all his servants departed this life in\nhis faith and fear, we should remember with honest pride that we are\nthanking God for our own mothers and fathers, and for those that went\nbefore them; ay, for every honest God-fearing man and woman, high or low,\nwho ever did their duty by God and their neighbours, and left, when they\ndied, a spot of this land somewhat better than they found it.\n\nAnd for God; the Father of all fathers; our Father in heaven\u2014Oh, my\nfriends, God grant that it may never be said to any of us, Behold the\nwords of Jonadab the son of Rechab, which he commanded his children, are\nperformed: but ye have not hearkened unto me.  I have sent also unto you,\nsaith God, not merely my servants the prophets, but my only-begotten,\nJesus Christ your Lord, saying, \u2018Return you now every man from his evil\nway, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them,\nand ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your\nfathers.  But ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto me.\u2019\n\nGod grant that that may never be said to any of us.  And yet it is\nimpossible to deny\u2014impossible to shut our eyes to the plain fact\u2014that\nEnglishmen now-a-days are more and more forgetting that there are any\ncommandments of God whatsoever; any everlasting laws laid down by their\nHeavenly Father, which, if they break, will avenge themselves by our\nutter ruin.  We do not go after other gods, it is true, in the sense of\nworshipping idols.  But there is another god, which we go after more and\nmore; and that is money; gain; our interest (as we call it):\u2014not knowing\nthat the only true interest of any man is to fear God and keep his\ncommandments.  We hold more and more that a man can serve God and mammon;\nthat a man must of course be religious, and belong to some special sect,\nor party, or denomination, and stand up for that fiercely enough: but we\ndo not hold that there are commandments of God which say for ever to the\nsinner, \u2018Do this and thou shalt live;\u2019 \u2018Do this or thou shalt die.\u2019\n\nWe hold that because we are not under the law, but under grace, there is\nno condemnation for sin\u2014at least for the special sort of sin which\nhappens to be in fashion, which is now-a-days the sin of making money at\nall risks.  We hold that there is one law of morality for the kingdom of\nheaven, and another for the kingdom of mammon.  Therefore we hold, more\nand more, that when money is in question anything and everything is fair.\nThere are\u2014we have reason to know it just now but too well\u2014thousands who\nwill sell their honour, their honesty, yea, their own souls, for a few\npaltry pounds, and think no shame.  And if any one says, with Jeremiah\nthe prophet, \u2018These are poor, they know not the way of the Lord, nor the\njudgment of their God.  I will get me to the great men, for they have\nknown the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God:\u2019\u2014then will he\nfind, as Jeremiah did, that too many of these great and wealthy\nworshippers of mammon have utterly broken the yoke, and burst the bonds,\nof all moral law of right and wrong: heaping up vast fortunes amid the\nruin of those who have trusted them, and the tears of the widow and the\norphan, by means now glossed over by fine new words, but called in plain\nhonest old English by a very ugly name.\n\nHow many there are in England now, my friends, who would laugh in their\nhearts at those worthy Rechabites, and hold them to be ignorant,\nold-fashioned, bigoted people, for keeping up their poor, simple,\ntemperate life, wandering to and fro with their tents and cattle, instead\nof dwelling in great cities, and making money, and becoming what is\nnow-a-days called civilized, in luxury and covetousness.  Surely\naccording to the wisdom of this world, the Rechabites were foolish\nenough.  But it is the wisdom of this world itself\u2014not simplicity and\nloyalty like theirs\u2014which is foolishness with God.\n\nMy friends, let us all take warning, each man for himself.  When a nation\ncorrupts itself\u2014as we seem inclined to do now, by luxury and\ncovetousness, selfishness and self-will, forgetting more and more loyalty\nand order, honesty and high principle\u2014then some wholesome, but severe\njudgment of God, is sure to come upon that nation: a day in which all\nfaces shall gather blackness: a day of gloominess and thick darkness,\nlike the morning spread upon the mountains.\n\nFor the eternal laws of God\u2019s providence are still at work, though we\nchoose to forget them; and the Judge who administers them is the same\nyesterday, to-day, and for ever, even Jesus Christ the Lord, the\neverlasting Rock, on which all morality and all society is founded.\nWhosoever shall fall on that Rock in repentance and humility, confessing,\nbewailing, and forsaking his worldliness and sinfulness, he shall indeed\nbe broken: but of him it is written, \u2018The sacrifices of God are a broken\nspirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.\u2019\nAnd he shall find that Rock, even Christ, a safe standing-ground amid the\nslippery mire of this world\u2019s temptations, and the storms and floods of\ntrouble which are coming\u2014it may be in our children\u2019s days\u2014it may be in\nour own.\n\nBut he who hardens his heart: he who says proudly, \u2018We are they that\nought to speak; who is Lord over us?\u2019\u2014he who says carelessly, \u2018Soul, take\nthine ease; thou hast much goods laid up for many years\u2019\u2014he who halts\nbetween two opinions, and believes to the last that he can serve both God\nand mammon\u2014he, especially, who fancies that falsehood, injustice,\ncovetousness, and neglect of his fellow-men, can properly be his\ninterest, or help his interest in any wise\u2014of all such it is written, \u2018On\nwhomsoever that Rock\u2019\u2014even the eternal laws of Christ the Judge\u2014\u2018On\nwhomsoever that Rock shall fall, it shall grind him to powder.\u2019\n\n\n\n\nSERMON VII.\nTHE NAME OF GOD.\n\n\n                                ISAIAH I. 10.\n\n    Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his\n    servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light?  Let him trust\n    in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.\n\nTO some persons it may seem strange advice to tell them, that in the hour\nof darkness, doubt, and sorrow, they will find no comfort like that of\nmeditating on the Name of the Ever-blessed Trinity.  Yet there is not a\nprophet or psalmist of the Old Testament who does not speak of \u2018The Name\nof the Lord,\u2019 as a kind of talisman against all the troubles which can\nbefall the spirit of man.  And we, as Christians, know, or ought to know,\nfar more of God than did even prophets or psalmists.  If they found\ncomfort in the name of God, we ought to find far more.\n\nBut some will say\u2014Yes.  Let us think of God, God\u2019s mercies, God\u2019s\ndealings with his people; but why think especially of the Name of the\nEver-blessed Trinity?\n\nFor this simple reason.  That it is by that Name of Father, Son, and Holy\nGhost, that God has revealed himself.  That is the name by which he bids\nus think of him; and we are more or less disregarding his commands when\nwe think of him by any other.  That is the name which God has given\nhimself; and, therefore, it is morally certain that that is God\u2019s right\nname; that it expresses God\u2019s very self, God\u2019s very being, as he is.\n\nTheology signifies, the knowledge of God as he is.  And it is dying out\namong us in these days.  Much of what is called theology now is nothing\nbut experimental religion; which is most important and useful when it is\nfounded on the right knowledge of God: but which is not itself theology.\nFor theology begins with God: but experimental religion, right or wrong,\nbegins with a man\u2019s own soul.  Therefore it is that men are unaccustomed\nto theology.  They shrink from it as something very abstruse, only fit\nfor great scholars and divines, and almost given up now-a-days even by\nthem.  They do not know that theology, the knowledge of God, is full of\npractical every-day comfort, and guidance for their conduct and\ncharacter; yea, that it is\u2014so says the Bible\u2014everlasting life itself.\nTherefore it is that some shrink from thinking of the Ever-blessed\nTrinity, not from any evil intent, but because they are afraid of\nthinking wrongly, and so consider it more safe not to think at all.  They\nhave been puzzled, it may be, by arguments which they have heard, or\nread, or which have risen up in their own minds, and which have made them\ndoubt about the Trinity: and they say\u2014I will not torment my soul, and\nperhaps endanger my soul, by doubts.  I will take the doctrine of the\nTrinity for granted, because I am bidden to do so: but I leave what it\nmeans to be explained by wiser men.  If I begin thinking about it I shall\nonly confuse myself.  So it is better for me not to think at all.\n\nAnd one cannot deny that they are right, as far as they go.  If they\ncannot think about the Trinity without thinking wrongly, it is better to\ntake on trust what they are told about it.  But they lose much by so\ndoing.  They lose the solid and real comfort which they may get by\nthinking of the Name of God.  And, I believe, they lose it unnecessarily.\nI cannot see why they must think wrongly of the Trinity, if they think at\nall.  I cannot see why they need confuse themselves.  The doctrine of the\nTrinity is not really an unreasonable one.  The doubts which come into\nmen\u2019s minds concerning it do not seem to me sound and reasonable doubts.\nFor instance, some say\u2014How can there be three persons in one God?  It is\ncontrary to reason.  One cannot be many.  Three cannot be one.  That is\nunreasonable.\n\nI think, that if you will use your reason for yourselves, you will see\nthat it is those words which are unreasonable, and not the doctrine of\nthe Trinity.\n\nFirst.  A thing need not be unreasonable\u2014that is, contrary to\nreason\u2014because it is above and beyond reason\u2014or, at least, beyond our\nhuman reason, which at best (as St. Paul says) sees as in a glass darkly,\nand only knows in part.\n\nConsider how many things are beyond reason which are not contrary to it.\nI say that all things which God has made are so: but, without going so\nfar, let us consider these simple examples.\n\nIs it not beyond all reason that among animals, like should bring forth\nlike?  Why does an eagle\u2019s egg always produce an eagle, and a dove\u2019s egg\na dove, and so forth?  No man knows, no man can give any reason\nwhatsoever.  If a dove\u2019s egg produced an eagle, ignorant men would cry\nout at the wonder, the miracle.  Wise men know that the real wonder, the\nreal miracle is, that a dove\u2019s egg always produces a dove, and not any\nand every other bird.\n\nHere is a common and notorious fact, entirely above our reason.  There is\nno cause to be given for it, save that God has ordained it so.  But it is\nnot contrary to our reason.  So far from it, we are certain that a dove\nwill produce a dove; and our reason has found out much of the laws of\nkind; and found out that they are reasonable laws, regular, and to be\ndepended upon; so that we can, as all know, produce and keep up new\nbreeds whether of plants or of animals.\n\nSo that the law of kind, though it is beyond our reason, is not contrary\nto our reason at all.\n\nSo much for things which have life.  Take an equally notorious example\nfrom things which have not life.\n\nIs it not above and beyond all our reason\u2014that the seemingly weakest\nthing in the world, the most soft and yielding, the most frail and\nvanishing, should be also one of the strongest things in the world?  That\nis so utterly above reason, that while I say it, it seems to some of you\nto be contrary to reason, to be unreasonable and impossible.  It is so\nabove reason, that till two hundred years ago, no one suspected that it\nwas true.  And yet it is strictly true.\n\nWhat is more soft and yielding, more frail and vanishing, than steam?\nAnd what is stronger than steam?  I know nothing.  Steam it is which has\nlifted up the mountains from the sea into the clouds.  Steam it is which\ntears to pieces the bowels of the earth with earthquakes and volcanoes,\nshaking down cities, rasping the solid rocks into powder, and scattering\nthem far and wide in dust over the face of the land.\n\nWhat gives to steam its enormous force is beyond our reason.  We do not\nknow.  But so far from being contrary to our reason, we have learnt that\nthe laws of steam are as reasonable as any other of God\u2019s laws.  We can\ncalculate its force, we can make it, use it, and turn its mighty powers,\nby reason and science, into our most useful and obedient slave, till it\nworks ten thousand mills, and sends ten thousand ships across the sea.\n\nAbove reason, I say, but not contrary to reason, is the mighty power of\nsteam.\n\nAnd God, who made all these wonders\u2014and millions of wonders more\u2014must he\nnot be more wonderful than them all?  Must not his being and essence be\nabove our reason?  But need they be, therefore, contrary to our reason?\nNot so.\n\nNevertheless, some will say, How can one be many?  How can one be three?\nWhy not?  Two are one in you, and every man.  Your body is you, and your\nsoul is you.  They are two.  But you know yourself that you are one\nbeing; that the Athanasian Creed speaks, at least, reason when it says,\n\u2018As the reasonable soul and the flesh are one man, so God and man is one\nChrist.\u2019\n\nAnd three are one in every plant in the field.  Root, bark, leaves, are\nthree.  And yet\u2014they are one tree; and if you take away any one of them,\nthe tree will die.  So it is in all nature.  But why do I talk of a tree,\nor any other example?  Wherever you look you find that one thing is many\nthings, and many things one.  So far from that fact being contrary to our\nreason, it is one which our reason (as soon as we think deeply about this\nworld) assures us is most common.  Of every organized body it is strictly\ntrue, that it is many things, bound together by a certain law, which\nmakes them one thing and no more.  And, therefore, every organized body\nis a mystery, and above reason: but its organization is none the less\ntrue for that.\n\nAnd there are philosophers who will tell you\u2014and wisely and well\u2014that\nthere must needs be some such mystery in God; that reason ought to teach\nus\u2014even if revelation had not\u2014two things.  First, that God must be one;\nand next, that God must be many\u2014that is, more than one.\n\nDo I mean that our own reason would have found out for itself the mystery\nof the ever-blessed Trinity?  God forbid!  Nothing less.\n\nThere surely is a difference between knowing that a thing must be, and\nknowing that the thing is, and what it is like; and there surely is a\ndifference between knowing that there is a great mystery and wonder in\nGod, and knowing what that mystery is.\n\nMan might have found out that God was one, and yet more than one; but\ncould he have found out what is the essence and character of God?  Not\nhis own reason, but the Spirit of God it is which tells him that: tells\nhim that God is Three in One\u2014that these three are persons\u2014that these\npersons are, a Father, a Son, and a Holy Spirit.\n\nThis is what God has himself condescended to tell us; and therefore this\nis what he specially wishes us to believe and remember when we think of\nhim.  This is God\u2019s name for himself\u2014Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  Man\nmay give God what name he chooses.  God\u2019s own name, which he has given\nhimself, is likely surely to be the most correct: at least, it is the one\nof which God means us to think; for it is the one into which he commanded\nus to be baptized.  Remember that, whenever you hear discourse concerning\nGod; and if any man, however learned, says that God is absolute,\nanswer\u2014\u2018It may be so: but I was not baptized into the name of the\nabsolute.\u2019  If he tell you, God is infinite, answer\u2014\u2018It may be so: but I\nwas not baptized into the name of the infinite.\u2019  If he tell you, God is\nthe first cause, answer\u2014\u2018That I doubt not: but I was not baptized into\nthe name of the first cause.  I was baptized into the name which God has\ngiven himself\u2014Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and I will give him no other\nname, and think of him by no other name, lest I be committing an act of\nirreverence toward God, by presuming to call him one thing, when he has\nbid me call him another.  Absolute, infinite, first cause, and so forth,\nare deep words: but they are words of man\u2019s invention, and words too\nwhich plain, hard-working, hard-sorrowing folks do not understand; even\nif learned men do\u2014which I doubt very much indeed: and therefore I do not\ntrust them, cannot find comfort for my soul in them.  But Father, Son,\nand Holy Spirit are words which plain, hard-working, hard-sorrowing men\ncan understand, and can trust, and can find comfort in them; for they are\nGod\u2019s own words, and, like all God\u2019s words, go straight home to the\nhearts of men\u2014straight home to the heart of every one who is a father or\nmother\u2014to the heart of every one who has a parent or a child\u2014to the heart\nof every one who has the Holy Spirit of God putting into his mind good\ndesires, and striving to make him bring them into good effect, and be,\nwhat he knows he should be, a holy and good man.\u2019\n\nAnswer thus, my friends.  And think thus of the mystery of the\nEver-blessed Trinity.  For this is a thoroughly reasonable plan of\nthought: and more\u2014in thinking thus you will find comfort, guidance,\nclearness of head, and clearness of conscience also.  Only remember what\nyou are to think of.  You are not to think merely of the mystery of the\nquestion, and to puzzle yourselves with arguments as to how the Three\nPersons are one; for that is not to think of the Ever-blessed Trinity,\nbut only to think about it.  Still less are you to think of the\nEver-blessed Trinity under names of philosophy which God has not given to\nhimself; for that is not to think of the Ever-blessed Trinity at all.\nYou must think of the Ever-blessed Trinity as he is,\u2014of a Father, a Son,\nand a Holy Spirit; and to think of him the more earnestly, the more you\nare sad at heart.  It may be that God has sent that sadness to make you\nthink of him.  It may be that God has cut the very ground from under your\nfeet that you may rest on him, the true and only ground of all created\nthings; as it is written: \u2018Who is he among you who walketh in darkness\nand hath no light?  Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon\nhis God.\u2019\n\nSome will tell you, that if you are sorrowful it is a time for\nself-examination, and for thinking of your own soul.  I answer\u2014In good\ntime, but not yet.  Think first of God; for how can you ever know\nanything rightly about your own soul unless you first know rightly\nconcerning God, in whom your soul lives, and moves, and has its being?\n\nOthers may tell you to think of God\u2019s dealings with his people.  I\nanswer\u2014In good time, but not yet; think first of God.  For how can you\nrightly understand God\u2019s dealings, unless you first rightly understand\nwho God is, and what his character is?  Right notions concerning your own\nsoul, right notions concerning God\u2019s dealings, can only come from right\nnotions concerning God himself.  He is before all things.  Think of him\nbefore all things.  He is the first, and he is the last.  Think of him\nfirst in this life, and so you will think of him last, and for ever in\nthe life to come.  Think of the Father, that he is a Father indeed, in\nspirit and in truth.  Think of the Son, that he is a Son indeed, in\nspirit and in truth.  Think of the Holy Spirit, that he is a Holy Spirit\nindeed, in spirit and in truth.  So you will be thinking indeed of the\nEver-blessed Trinity; and will worship God, not with your lips or your\nthoughts merely, but in spirit and in truth.  Think of the Father, that\nhe is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that the perfect Son must\nbe forever perfectly like the perfect Father.  For then you will believe\nthat God the Father looks on you, and feels for you, exactly as does\nJesus Christ your Lord; then you will feel that he is a Father indeed;\nand will enter more and more into the unspeakable comfort of that word of\nall words, \u2018Our Father who art in heaven.\u2019\n\nThink of the Lord Jesus Christ as the perfect Son, who, though he is\nco-equal and co-eternal with his Father, yet came not to do his own will,\nbut his Father\u2019s; who instead of struggling, instead of helping himself,\ncried in his agony: \u2018Not my will, but thine be done;\u2019 and conquered by\nresignation.  So you will enter into the unspeakable comfort of\nconquering by resignation, as you see that your resignation is to be like\nthe resignation of Christ; not that of trembling fear like a condemned\ncriminal before a judge; not that of sullen necessity, like a slave\nbefore his master: but that of the only-begotten Son of God; the\nresignation of a child to the will of a father whom he can utterly trust,\nbecause that father\u2019s name is love.\n\nThink of the Holy Spirit as a person; having a will of his own; who\nbreatheth whither he listeth, and cannot be confined to any feelings or\nrules of yours, or of any man\u2019s; but may meet you in the Sacraments, or\nout of the Sacraments, even as he will; and has methods of comforting and\neducating you, of which you will never dream; one whose will is the same\nas the will of the Father and of the Son, even a good will; just as his\ncharacter is the same as the character of the Father and of the Son: even\nlove which works by holiness; love which you can trust utterly, for\nyourself and for all whom you love.\n\nThink, I say, of God himself as he is; think of his name, by which he has\nrevealed himself, and thus you will\u2014But who am I, to pretend to tell you\nwhat you will learn by thinking rightly of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?\nHow can I dare to say how much you will or will not learn?  How can I put\nbounds to God\u2019s teaching? to the workings of him who has said, \u2018If a man\nlove me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him; and we will\ncome unto him, and make our abode with him\u2019?  How can I tell you in a few\nwords of one sermon all that that means?  How can I, or any man, know all\nthat that means?  Who is one man, or all men, to exhaust the riches of\nthe glory of God, or the blessings which may come from thinking of God\u2019s\nglory?  Let it be enough for us to be sure that truly to know God is\neverlasting life; and that the more we think of God by his own revealed\nname of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the more we shall enter, now and\nhereafter, into eternal life, and into the peace which comes by the true\nknowledge of him in whom we live, and move, and have our being.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON VIII.\nTHE END OF RELIGION.\n\n\n                            EPHESIANS IV. 23, 24.\n\n    Be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put ye on the new man,\n    which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.\n\nTHIS text is exceedingly valuable to us for it tells us the end and aim\nof all religion.  It tells us why we are to pray, whether at home or in\nchurch; why we are to read our Bibles and good books; why we are to be\nwhat is commonly called religious.\n\nIt tells us, I say, the end and aim of all religion; namely, that we may\nput on \u2018the new man, which after God\u2019\u2014according to the likeness of\nGod\u2014\u2018is created in righteousness and true holiness.\u2019  So says St. Paul in\nanother place: \u2018Be ye therefore followers\u2019\u2014literally, copiers,\nimitators\u2014\u2018of God, as dear children.\u2019\n\nNow this is not what you will be told from too many pulpits, and in too\nmany books, now-a-days, is the end of religion.  You will be told that\nthe end of religion is to save your soul, and go to heaven.\n\nBut experience shows, my friends, in all religions and in all ages, that\nthose who make it their first object in life to save their souls, are but\ntoo likely to lose them; as our Lord says, He that saveth his soul, or\nlife\u2014for the words are the same in Scripture\u2014shall lose it.\n\nAnd experience shows that in all religions, and in all ages, those who\nmake it their first object in life to get to heaven, are but too likely\nnever to get there: because in their haste, they forget what heaven is,\nand what is the only way of arriving at it.\n\nGood works, as they call the likeness of God and the Divine life, are in\ntoo many persons\u2019 eyes only fruits of faith, or proofs of faith, and not\nthe very end of faith, and of religion\u2014ay, of their very existence here\non earth; and therefore they naturally begin to ask,\u2014How few good works\nwill be enough to prove their faith?  And when a man has once set that\nquestion before himself, he is sure to find a comfortable answer, and to\ndiscover that very few good works indeed,\u2014a very little sanctification\n(as it is called), a very little righteousness, and a very little\nholiness,\u2014will be enough to save his soul, as far at least as he wishes\nhis soul to be saved.  My friends, all this springs from that selfish\nview of religion which is gaining power among us more and more.  Christ\ncame to deliver us from our selfishness; from being slaves to our selfish\nprudence and selfish interest.  But we make religion a question of profit\nand loss, as we make everything else.  We ask\u2014What shall I get by being\ngood?  What shall I get by worshipping God?  Is it not prudent, and\nself-interested, and business-like to give up a little pleasure on earth,\nin the hope of getting a great deal in heaven?  Is not religion a good\ninvestment?  Is it not, considering how short and uncertain life is, the\nbest of all life-insurances?\n\nMy friends, we who have to earn our bread and to take honest money for\nhonest work, know well enough what trouble we have to keep out of our\ndaily life that mean, base spirit of self-interest, rather than of duty,\nwhich never asks of anything, \u2018Is it right?\u2019 but only \u2018Will it pay\nme?\u2019\u2014which, instead of thinking, How can I do this work as well as\npossible? is perpetually thinking, How can I get most money for the least\nwork?  We have to fight against that spirit in worldly matters.  For we\nknow, that if we yield to it,\u2014if we sacrifice our duty to our pleasure or\nour gain,\u2014it is certain to make us do something mean, covetous, even\nfraudulent, in the eyes of God and man.\n\nBut if we carry that spirit into religion, and our spiritual and heavenly\nduties; if we forget that that is the spirit of the world; if we forget\nthat we renounced the world at our baptism, and that we therefore\npromised not to shape our lives by _its_ rules and maxims; if our thought\nis, not of whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure,\nwhatsoever things are lovely, of good report, whatsoever brings us true\nhonour and deserved praise from God and from man; if we think only that\nintensely selfish and worldly thought, How much will God take for saving\nmy soul?\u2014which is the secret thought (alas that it should be so!) of too\nmany of all denominations,\u2014then we shall be in a fair way of killing our\nsouls; so that if they be saved, they will not at all events be saved\nalive.  For we shall kill in our souls just those instincts of purity,\njustice, generosity, mercy, love, in one word, of unselfishness and\nunworldliness, which make the very life of the soul, because they are\ninspired by the Spirit of God, even the Holy Ghost.  And we shall be but\ntoo likely not to sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus\u2014as St. Paul\ntells us we may do even in this life: but to go to our own place\u2014wherever\nthat may be\u2014with selfish Judas, who when he found that his Saviour was\nnot about to restore the kingdom to Israel, and make a great prince of\nhim there and then, made the best investment he could, under the danger\nwhich he saw at hand, by selling his Lord for thirty pieces of silver: to\nremain to all time a warning to those who are religious for\nself-interest\u2019s sake.\n\nWhat, then, is the end and aim of true Religion?  St. Paul tells us in\nthe text.  The end and aim, he says, of hearing Christ, the end and aim\nof learning the truth as it is in Jesus, is this\u2014that we may be renewed\nin the spirit of our minds, and put on the new man, which after God is\ncreated in righteousness and true holiness.  To put on the new man; the\nnew pattern of manhood, which is after the pattern of the Son of man,\nJesus Christ, and therefore after the pattern and likeness of God.  To be\nfollowers, that is, copiers and imitators of God, that (so says St. Paul)\nis the end and aim of religion.  In one word, we are to be good; and\nreligion, according to St. Paul, is neither more nor less than the act of\nbecoming good, like the good God.\n\nTo be like God.  Can we have any higher and more noble aim than that?\nAnd yet it is a simple aim.  There is nothing fantastic, fanatical,\ninhuman about it.  It is within our reach\u2014within the reach of every man\nand woman; within the reach of the poorest, the most unlearned.  For how\ndoes St. Paul tell us that we can become like God?\n\n\u2018Wherefore,\u2019 he says, \u2018putting away lying, speak every man truth with his\nneighbour: for we are members one of another.  Be ye angry, and sin not:\nlet not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil.\nLet him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with\nhis hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that\nneedeth.  Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but\nthat which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace\nunto the hearers.  And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are\nsealed unto the day of redemption.  Let all bitterness, and wrath, and\nanger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all\nmalice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one\nanother, even as God for Christ\u2019s sake hath forgiven you.\n\nDo that, he says, and you will be followers of God, as dear children; and\nthus will you surely save your souls alive.  For they will be inspired by\nthe Spirit of God, the spirit of goodness, who is the Lord and Giver of\nlife; wherefore they cannot decay nor die, but must live and grow,\ndevelop and improve perpetually, becoming better and wiser,\u2014and therefore\nmore useful to their fellow-creatures, more blessed in themselves, and\nmore pleasing to God their Father, through all eternity.  And thus you\nwill surely go to heaven.  For heaven will begin on earth, and last on\nafter this earth, and all that binds you to this earth, has vanished in\nthe grave.\n\nHeaven will begin on earth, I say.  When St. Paul told these very\nEphesians to whom my text was addressed, that God had made them sit, even\nthen, in heavenly places with Christ Jesus, he did not mean in any\nwise\u2014what they would have known was not true\u2014that their bodies had been\nmiraculously lifted up above the earth, above the clouds, or elsewhere:\nno, for he had told them before, in the first chapter, what he meant by\nheavenly places.  God their Father, he says, had blessed them with all\nspiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ, in that He had chosen\nthem in Christ before the foundation of the world\u2014and for what end?  For\nthe very end which I have been preaching to you.  \u2018That they should be\nholy, and without blame before God, in Love.\u2019  That was heaven.  If they\nwere that,\u2014holy, blameless, loving, they were in heavenly places\nalready,\u2014in that moral and spiritual heaven in which God abides for ever.\nThey were with God, and with all who are like God, as it is written, \u2018He\nthat dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.\u2019\n\nMy dear friends, this is the heaven for which we are all to strive\u2014a\nheaven of goodness, wherein God dwells.  And therefore an eternal and\neverlasting heaven, as eternal as goodness and as eternal as God himself;\nand if we are living in it, we have all we need.  But we may begin to\nlive in it here.  To what particular place our souls go after death,\nScripture does not tell us, and we need not know.  To what particular\nplace our souls and bodies go after the resurrection, Scripture tells us\nnot, and we need not know.  But this Scripture tells us, and that is\nenough for us, that they will be in heavenly places, in the presence of\nChrist and of God.  And this Scripture tells us\u2014and indeed our own\nconscience and reason tell us likewise\u2014that though death may alter our\nplace, it cannot alter our character; though it may alter the\ncircumstances round us, it cannot alter ourselves.  If we have been good\nand pure before death, we shall be good and pure after death.  If we have\nbeen led and inspired by God\u2019s Spirit before death, so shall we be after\ndeath.  If we have been in heavenly places before death, thinking\nheavenly thoughts, feeling heavenly feelings, and doing heavenly deeds,\nthen we shall be in heavenly places after death; for we shall have with\nus the Spirit of God, whose presence is heaven; and as long as we are\nholy, good, pure, unselfish, just, and merciful, we may be persuaded,\nwith St. Paul, that wheresoever we go, all will be well; for \u2018neither\ndeath, nor life, nor angels, nor powers, nor things present, nor things\nto come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to\nseparate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.\u2019\n\n\n\n\nSERMON IX.\nTHE HUMANITY OF GOD.\n\n\n                               ST. LUKE XV. 7.\n\n    I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner\n    that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which\n    need no repentance.\n\nTHERE are three parables in this chapter: all agree in one quality\u2014in\ntheir humanity.  God shows us in them that there is something in his\ncharacter which is like the best and simplest parts of our characters.\nGod himself likens himself to men, that men may understand him and love\nhim.\n\nWhy there should be more joy over the repenting sinner than over the just\nman who needs no repentance, we cannot explain in words: but our hearts\ntell us that it is true, beautiful; that it is reasonable, though we can\ngive no reason for it.  You know that if you had lost a sheep; if you had\nlost a piece of money; if you had had a child run away from you, it would\nbe far more pleasant to find that thing which you had lost, than never to\nhave lost it at all.  You do not know why.  God tells you that it is a\npart of his image and likeness in you; that you rejoice over what you\nhave lost and found again, because God rejoices over what he has lost and\nfound again.\n\nAnd is not this a gospel, and good news?  Is it not good news that we\nneed never be afraid or ashamed to give way to our tenderness and pity?\nfor God does not think it beneath him to be tender and pitiful.  Is it\nnot good news that we need never be afraid or ashamed to forgive, to take\nback those who have neglected us, wronged us? for God does not think it\nbeneath him to do likewise.  That we need never show hardness, pride,\nsternness to our children when they do wrong, but should win them by love\nand tenderness, caring for them all the more, the less they care for\nthemselves? for God does even so to us, who have sinned against him far\nmore than our children ever can sin against us.\n\nAnd is it not good news, again, that God does care for sinners, and for\nall kinds and sorts of sinners?  Some go wrong from mere stupidity and\nignorance, because they know no better; because they really are not\naltogether accountable for their own doings.  They are like the silly\nsheep, who gets out over the fence of his own fancy: and yet no\nreasonable man will be angry with the poor thing.  It knows no better.\nHow many a poor young thing goes wandering away, like that silly sheep,\nand having once lost its way, cannot get back again, but wanders on\nfurther and further, till it lies down all desperate, tired out, mired in\nthe bogs, and torn about with thorns!\n\nThen the good shepherd does not wait for that sheep to come back.  He\ngoes and seeks it far and wide, up hill and down dale, till he finds it;\nand having found it, he does not beat it, rate it\u2014not even drive it home\nbefore him.  It is tired and miserable.  If it has been foolish, it has\npunished itself enough for its folly; and all he feels for it is pity and\nlove.  It wants rest, and he gives it rest at his own expense.  He lays\nit on his shoulders, and takes it home, calling on all heaven and earth\nto rejoice with him.  Ah, my friends, if that is not the picture of a God\nwhom you can love, of a God whom you can trust, what God would you have?\n\nSome, again, go wrong from ignorance and bad training, bad society, bad\neducation, bad example; and in other countries\u2014though, thank God, not in\nthis\u2014from bad laws and bad government.  How many thousands and hundreds\nof thousands are ruined, as it seems to us, thereby!  The child born in a\nLondon alley, reared up among London thieves, taught to swear, lie,\nsteal, never entering a school or church, never hearing the name of God\nsave in oaths\u2014There is the lost piece of money.  It is a valuable thing;\nthe King\u2019s likeness is stamped on it: but it is useless, because it is\nlost, lying in the dust and darkness, hidden in a corner, unable to help\nitself, and of no use to any one.  And so there is many a person, man and\nwoman, who is worth something, who has God\u2019s likeness on them, who, if\nthey were brought home to God, might be of good use in the world; but\nthey are lost, from ignorance and bad training.  They lie in a corner in\ndarkness, not knowing their own value in God\u2019s eyes; not knowing that\nthey bear his image, though it be all crusted over with the dust and dirt\nof barbarism and bad habits.  Then Christ will go after them, and seek\ndiligently till he finds them, and cleanses them, and makes them bright,\nand of good use again in his Church and his kingdom.  They are worth\nsomething, and Christ will not let them be wasted; he will send\nclergymen, teachers, missionaries, schools, reformatories,\npenitentiaries, hospitals\u2014ay, and other messengers of his, of whom we\nnever dream, for his ways are as high above our ways as the heaven is\nabove the earth: with all these he sweeps his house, and his blessing is\non them all, for by them he finds the valuable coin which was lost.\n\nBut there is a third sort of sinner, spoken of in Christ\u2019s next parable\nin this chapter, from which my text is taken, of whom it is not said that\nGod the Father sends out to seek and to save him.  That is the prodigal\nson, who left his father\u2019s house, and strayed away of his own wantonness\nand free will.  Christ does not go out after him.  He has gone away of\nhis own will; and of his own will he must come back: and he has to pay a\nheavy price for his folly\u2014to taste hunger, shame, misery, all but\ndespair.  For understand\u2014if any of you fancy that you can sin without\nbeing punished\u2014that the prodigal son is punished, and most severely.  He\ndoes not get off freely, the moment he chooses to repent, as false\npreachers will tell you: even after he does repent, and resolves to go\nback to his father\u2019s house, he has a long journey home, in poverty and\nmisery, footsore, hungry, and all but despairing.  But when he does get\nhome; when he shows that he has learnt the bitter lesson; when all he\ndares to ask is, \u2018Make me as one of thy hired servants,\u2019 he is received\nas freely as the rest.  And it is worth while to remark, that our Lord\nspends on him tenderer words than on those who are lost by mere\nfoolishness or ignorance.  Of him it is not said, \u2018Rejoice with me, for I\nhave found him,\u2019\u2014but, Bring out the best robe, for this my son\u2014not my\nsheep, not my piece of money, but my son\u2014was dead, and is alive again; he\nwas lost, and is found.\n\nIn this is a great mystery; one of which one hardly dares to talk: but\none which one must think over in one\u2019s own heart, and say, \u2018Oh the depth\nof the riches and of the knowledge and wisdom of God!  How wonderful are\nhis judgments, and his ways past finding out.  For who hath known the\nmind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor?  Or who hath first\ngiven to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?\u2019  Who indeed?\nGod is not a tyrant, who must be appeased with gifts; or a taskmaster,\nwho must be satisfied with the labour of his slaves.  He is a father who\nloves his children; who gives, and loveth to give; who gives to all\nfreely, and upbraideth not.  He truly willeth not the death of a sinner,\nbut rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live.  His will is\na good will; and howsoever much man\u2019s sin and folly may resist it, and\nseem for a time to mar it, yet he is too great and good to owe any man,\neven the worst, the smallest spite or grudge.  Patiently, nobly,\nmagnanimously, God waits; waits for the man who is a fool, to find out\nhis own folly; waits for the heart which has tried to find pleasure in\neverything else, to find out that everything else disappoints, and to\ncome back to him, the fountain of all wholesome pleasure, the well-spring\nof all life fit for a man to live.  When the fool finds out his folly;\nwhen the wilful man gives up his wilfulness; when the rebel submits\nhimself to law; when the son comes back to his father\u2019s house\u2014there is no\nsternness, no peevishness, no up-braiding, no pride, no revenge; but the\neverlasting and boundless love of God wells forth again as rich as ever.\nHe has condescended to wait for his creature; because what he wanted was\nnot his creature\u2019s fear, but his creature\u2019s love; not his lip-obedience,\nbut his heart; because he wanted him not to come back as a trembling\nslave to his master, but as a son who has found out at last what a father\nhe has left him, when all beside has played him false.  Let him come back\nthus; and then all is forgiven and forgotten; and all that will be said\nwill be, \u2018This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is\nfound.\u2019\n\n\n\n\nSERMON X.\nGOD\u2019S WORLD.\n\n\n     (_Preached before the Prince of Wales_, _at Sandringham_, 1866.)\n\n                                GENESIS I. 1.\n\n            In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.\n\nIT may seem hardly worth while to preach upon this text.  Every one\nthinks that he believes it.  Of course\u2014they say\u2014we know that God made the\nworld.  Teach us something we do not know, not something which we do.\nWhy preach to us about a text which we fully understand, and believe\nalready?\n\nBecause, my friends, there are few texts in the Bible more difficult to\nbelieve than this, the very first; few texts which we need to repeat to\nourselves again and again, in all the chances and changes of this mortal\nlife; lest we should forget it just as we feel we are most sure of it.\n\nWe know that it was very difficult for people in olden times to believe\nit.  Else why did all the heathens of old, and why do all heathens now,\nworship idols?\n\nWe know that the old Jews, after it had been revealed to them, found it\nvery difficult to believe it.  Else why were they always deserting the\nworship of God, and worshipping idols and devils, sun, moon, and stars,\nand all the host of heaven?\n\nWe know that the early Christians, in spite of the light of the Gospel\nand of God\u2019s Spirit, found it very difficult to believe it.  Doubtless\nthey believed it a thousand times more fully than it had ever been\nbelieved before.  They would have shrunk with horror from saying that any\none but God had made the heavens and the earth.  But Christians clung,\nfor many hundred years, even almost up to our own day, to old heathen\nsuperstitions, which they would have cast away if their faith had been\nfull, and if they had held with their whole hearts and souls and minds,\nthat there was one God, of whom are all things.  They believed that the\nDevil and evil spirits had power to raise thunderstorms, and blight\ncrops, and change that course of nature of which the Psalmist had said,\nthat all things served God, and continued this day as at the beginning,\nfor God had given them a law which could not be broken.  They believed in\nmagic, and astrology, and a hundred other dreams, which all began from\nsecret disbelief that God made the heaven and the earth; till they\nfancied that the Devil could and would teach men the secrets of nature,\nand the way to be rich and great, if they would but sell their souls to\nhim.  They believed, in a word, the very atheistic lie which Satan told\nto our blessed Lord, when he said that all the kingdoms of the world and\nthe glory of them were his, and to whomsoever he would he gave\nthem\u2014instead of believing our Lord\u2019s answer, \u2018Get thee behind me, Satan:\nit is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt\nthou serve.\u2019\n\nAnd therefore I tell you here\u2014as the Church has told Christian people in\nall ages\u2014that if any of you have any fancy for such follies, any belief\nin charms and magic, any belief that you can have your fortunes told by\nastrologers, gipsies, or such like, you must go back to your Bible, and\nlearn better the first text in it.  \u2018In the beginning God created the\nheaven and the earth.\u2019  God\u2019s is the kingdom, and the power, and the\nglory, of all things visible and invisible; all the world round us, with\nits wonderful secrets, is governed, from the sun over our heads, to the\nsmallest blade of grass beneath our feet, by God, and by God alone, and\nneither evil spirit nor magician has the smallest power over one atom of\nit; and our fortunes, in likewise, do not depend on the influences of\nstars or planets, ghosts or spirits, or anything else: but on ourselves,\nof whom it is written, that God shall judge every man according to his\nworks.\n\nEven now, in these very days, many good people are hardly able, it seems\nto me, to believe with their whole hearts that God made heaven and earth.\nThey half believe it: but their faith is weak; and when it is tried, they\ngrow frightened, and afraid of truth.  This it is which makes so many\ngood people afraid of what is now called Science\u2014of all new discoveries\nabout the making of this earth, and the powers and virtues of the things\nabout us; afraid of wonders which are become matters of course among us,\nbut of which our forefathers knew little or nothing.  They are afraid\nlest these things should shake people\u2019s faith in the Bible, and in\nChristianity; lest men should give up the good old faith of their\nforefathers, and fancy that the world is grown too wise to believe in the\nold doctrines.  One cannot blame them, cannot even be surprised at them.\nSo many wonderful truths (for truths they are), of which our fathers\nnever dreamed, are discovered every year, that none can foretell where\nthe movement will stop; what we shall hear next; what we shall have to\nbelieve next.\n\nOnly, let us take refuge in the text\u2014\u2018In the beginning God created the\nheaven and the earth.\u2019  All that we see around us, however wonderful; all\nthat has been found out of late, however wonderful; all that will be ever\nfound out, however still more wonderful it may be, is the work of God; of\nthat God who revealed himself to Moses; of that God who led the children\nof Israel out of their slavery in Egypt; of that God who taught David, in\nall his trouble and wanderings, to trust in him as his guide and friend;\nof that God who revealed to the old Prophets the fate of nations, and the\nlaws by which he governs all the kingdoms and people of the earth; of\nthat God, above all, who so loved the world, that he gave his only\nbegotten Son, that the world by him might be saved.\n\nThis material world which we do see, is as much God\u2019s world as the\nspiritual world we do not see.  And, therefore, the one cannot contradict\nthe other; and the true understanding of the one will never hurt our true\nunderstanding of the other.\n\nBut many good people have another fear, and that, I think, a far more\nserious one.  They are afraid, in consequence of all these wonderful\ndiscoveries of science, that people will begin to trust in science, and\nnot in God.  And that fear is but too well founded.  It is certain that\nif sinful man can find anything to trust in, instead of God, trust\ntherein he surely will.\n\nThe old Jews preferred to trust in idols, rather than God; the Christians\nof the Middle Age, to their shame, trusted in magic and astrology, rather\nthan God; and after that, some 200 years ago, when men had grown too wise\nto trust in such superstitions, they certainly did not grow wise enough,\nmost of them, to trust in the living God.  They relied, the rulers of the\nnations especially, in their own wit and cunning, and tried to govern the\nworld and keep it straight, by falsehood and intrigue, envy and jealousy,\nplotting and party spirit, and the wisdom which cometh not from above,\nbut is earthly, sensual, devilish,\u2014that wisdom against which we pray,\nwhenever we sing \u2018God save the Queen,\u2019\u2014\n\n    \u2018Confound their politics,\n    Frustrate their knavish tricks,\n    On Thee our hopes we fix,\n       GOD save the Queen.\u2019\n\nAnd since that false wisdom has failed, and the wisdom of this world, and\nthe rulers of this world, came to nought in the terrible crisis of the\nFrench Revolution, eighty years ago, men have been taking up a new\nidolatry.  For as science has spread, they have been trusting in science\nrather than in the living God, and giving up the old faith that God\u2019s\njudgments are in all the earth, and that he rewards righteousness and\npunishes iniquity; till too many seem to believe that the world somehow\nmade itself, and that there is no living God ordering and guiding it; but\nthat a man must help himself as he best can in this world, for in God no\nhelp is to be found.\n\nAnd how shall we escape that danger?\n\nI do not think we shall escape it, if we stop short at the text.  We must\ngo on from the Old Testament and let the New explain it.  We must believe\nwhat Moses tells us: but we must ask St. John to show us more than Moses\nsaw.  Moses tells us that God created the heavens and the earth; St. John\ngoes further, and tells us what that God is like; how he saw Christ, the\nWord of God, by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was\nmade that is made.  And what was he like?  He was the brightness of his\nFather\u2019s glory, and the express image of his person.  And what was that\nlike? was there any darkness in him\u2014meanness, grudging, cruelty,\nchangeableness, deceit?  No.  He was full of grace and truth.  Grace and\ntruth: that is what Christ is; and therefore that is what God is.\n\nThere was another aspect of him, true; and St. John saw that likewise.\nAnd so awful was it that he fell at the Lord\u2019s feet as he had been dead.\n\nBut the Lord was still full of grace and truth; still, however awful he\nwas, he was as full as ever of love, pity, gentleness.  He was the Lamb\nthat was slain for the sins of the world, even though that Lamb was in\nthe midst of the throne from which came forth thunderings and lightnings,\nand judgments against the sins of all the world.  Terrible to wrong, and\nto the doers of wrong: but most loving and merciful to all true\npenitents, who cast themselves and the burden of their sins before his\nfeet; perfect justice and perfect Love,\u2014that is God.  That is the maker\nof this world.  That is he who in the beginning made heaven and earth.\nAn utterly good God.  A God whose mercy is over all his creatures.  A God\nwho desires the good of his creatures; who willeth not that one little\none should perish; who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the\nknowledge of the truth; who wages everlasting war against sin and folly,\nand wrong and misery, and all the ills to which men are heirs; who not\nonly made the world, but loves the world, and who proved that\u2014what a\nproof!\u2014by not sparing his only-begotten Son, but freely giving him for\nus.\n\nTherefore we can say, not merely,\u2014I know that a God made the world, but I\nknow what that God is like.  I know that he is not merely a great God, a\nwise God, but a good God; that goodness is his very essence.  I know that\nhe is gracious and merciful, long suffering, and of great kindness.  I\nknow that he is loving to every man, and that his mercy is over all his\nworks.  I know that he upholds those who fall, and lifts up those who are\ndown; I know that he careth for the fatherless and widow, and executes\njudgment and justice for all those who are oppressed with wrong.  I know\nthat he will fulfil the desire of those who call upon him; and will also\nhear their cry and will help them.  I know, in short, that he is a living\nGod, and a loving God; a God in whom men may trust, to whom they may open\ntheir hearts, as children to their father: and I am sure that those who\ncome to him he will in no wise cast out; for he himself has said, with\nhuman voice upon this earth of ours,\u2014\u2018Come unto me all ye that labour and\nare heavy laden and I will give you rest.\u2019\n\nIn him all can trust.  The sick man on his bed can trust in him and\nsay\u2014In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; and he is full\nof grace and truth.  This sickness of mine comes by the laws of heaven\nand earth; and those laws are God\u2019s laws.  Then even this sickness may be\nfull of grace and truth.  It comes by no blind chance, but by the will of\nhim who so loved me, that he stooped to die for me on the Cross.  Christ\nmy Lord and God has some gracious and bountiful purpose in it, some\nlesson for me to learn from it.  I will ask him to teach me that lesson;\nand I trust in him that he will teach me; and that, even for this\nsickness and this sorrow, I shall have cause to thank him in the world to\ncome.  Shall I not trust him who not only made this world, but so loved\nit that he stooped to die for it upon the Cross?\n\nThe labourer and the farmer can trust in him, in the midst of short crops\nand bad seasons, and say, In the beginning God created the heaven and the\nearth; and he is full of grace and truth.  Frost and blight obey his\ncommands as well as sunshine and plenty.  He knows best what ought to be.\nShall we not trust in him, who not only made this world, but so loved it,\nthat he stooped to die for it upon the Cross?\n\nThe scholar and the man of science, studying the wonders of this earth,\ncan trust in him, and say, In the beginning God created the heaven and\nthe earth; and he is full of grace and truth.  Many things puzzle me; and\nthe more I learn the less I find I really know; but I shall know as much\nas is good for me, and for mankind.  God is full of grace, and will not\ngrudge me knowledge; and full of truth, and will not deceive me.  And I\nshall never go far wrong as long as I believe, not only in one God, the\nFather Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible, but in one\nLord Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, light of light, very God of\nvery God, by whom all things were made, who for us men and our salvation\ncame down, and died, and rose again; whose kingdom shall have no end; who\nrules over every star and planet, every shower and sunbeam, every plant\nand animal and stone, every body and every soul of man; who will teach\nmen, in his good time and way, all that they need know, in order to\nmultiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it in this life, and attain\neverlasting life in the world to come.  And for the rest, puzzled though\nI be, shall I not trust him, who not only made this world, but so loved\nit, that he stooped to die for it upon the Cross?\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XI.\nTHE ARMOUR OF GOD.\n\n\n   (_Preached before the Prince of Wales_, _at Sandringham_, _January_\n                              20_th_, 1867.)\n\n                              EPHESIANS VI. 11.\n\n                       Put on the whole armour of God.\n\nST. PAUL again and again compares himself and the Christians to whom he\nwrites to soldiers, and their lives to warfare.  And it was natural that\nhe should do so.  Everywhere he went, in those days, he would find Roman\nsoldiers, ruling over men of different races from themselves, and ruling\nthem, on the whole, well.  Greeks, Syrians, Jews, Egyptians,\u2014all alike in\nhis days obeyed the Roman soldiers, who had conquered the then known\nworld.\n\nAnd St. Paul and his disciples wished to conquer the world likewise.  The\nRoman soldier had conquered it for C\u00e6sar: St. Paul would conquer it for\nChrist.  The Roman soldier had used bodily force\u2014the persuasion of the\nsword.  St. Paul would use spiritual force\u2014the persuasion of preaching.\nThe Roman soldier wrestled against flesh and blood: St. Paul wrestled\nagainst more subtle and dangerous enemies\u2014spiritual enemies, he calls\nthem\u2014who enslaved and destroyed the reason, and conscience, and morals of\nmen.\n\nSt. Paul and his disciples, I say, had set before themselves no less a\ntask than to conquer the world.\n\nTherefore, he says, they must copy the Roman soldier, and put on their\narmour, as he put on his.  He took C\u00e6sar\u2019s armour, and put on C\u00e6sar\u2019s\nuniform.  They must take the armour of God, that they may withstand in\nthe evil day of danger and battle, and having done all,\u2014done their duty\nmanfully as good soldiers,\u2014stand; keep their ranks, and find themselves\nat the end of the battle not scattered and disorganized, but in firm and\ncompact order, like the Roman soldiers, who, by drill and discipline, had\nconquered the irregular and confused troops of all other nations.\n\nLet me, this morning, explain St. Paul\u2019s words to you, one by one.  We\nshall find them full of lessons\u2014and right wholesome lessons\u2014for in this\nparable of the armour of God St. Paul sketches what you and I and every\nman should be.  He sketches the character of a good man, a true man, a\nman after God\u2019s own heart.\n\nFirst, the Christians are to gird their loins\u2014to cover the lower part of\ntheir body, which is the most defenceless.  That the Roman soldier did\nwith a kilt, much like that which the Highlanders wear now.  And that\ngarment was to be Truth.  Truthfulness, honesty, that was to be the first\ndefence of a Christian man, instead of being, as too many so-called\nChristians make it, the very last.  Honesty, before all other virtues,\nwas to gird his very loins, was to protect his very vitals.\n\nThe breastplate, which covered the upper part of the body, was to be\nrighteousness\u2014which we now commonly call, justice.  To be a just man,\nafter being first a truthful man, was the Christian\u2019s duty.\n\nAnd his helmet was to be the hope of Salvation\u2014that is, of safety: not\nmerely of being saved in the next world\u2014though of course St. Paul\nincludes that\u2014but of being saved in this world; of coming safe through\nthe battle of life; of succeeding; of conquering the heathen round them,\nand making them Christians, instead of being conquered by them.  The hope\nof safety was to be his helmet, to guard his head\u2014the thinking part.  We\nall know how a blow on the head confuses and paralyses a man, making him\n(as we say) lose his head.  We know too, how, in spiritual matters,\nterror and despair deal a deadly blow to a man\u2019s mind,\u2014how if a man\nexpects to fail, he cannot think clearly and calmly,\u2014how often\ndesperation and folly go hand in hand; for, if a man loses hope, he is\nbut too apt to lose his reason.  The Christian\u2019s helmet, then,\u2014that which\nwould save his head, and keep his mind calm, prudent, strong, and\nactive,\u2014was the hope of success.\n\nAnd for their feet\u2014they must be shod with the preparation of the Gospel\nof peace.\n\nThat is a grand saying, if you will remember that the key-word, which\nexplains it all, is Peace, and the Gospel, that is, the good news,\nthereof.\n\nThe Roman soldier had his preparation, which kept him prepared and ready\nto march through the world; and of that St. Paul was thinking, and had\nneed to think; for he had heard the sound of it in every street, on every\nhigh road, from Jerusalem to Ephesus, ever since he was a child\u2014the tramp\nof the heavy nailed boot which the Roman soldier always wore.  The Roman\nsoldiers were proud of their boots,\u2014so proud that, in St. Paul\u2019s time,\nthey nicknamed one of their royal princes Caligula, because, as a boy in\ncamp, he used to wear boots like the common soldiers: and he bore that\nname when he became emperor, and bears it to this day.  And they had\nreason to be proud, after their own notion of glory.  For that boot had\ncarried them through desert and through cities, over mountain ranges,\nthrough trackless forests, from Africa even into Britain here, to be the\nconquerors of the then known world; and, wherever the tramp of that boot\nhad been heard, it had been the sound, not of the good news of peace, but\nof the evil news of war.  Isaiah of old, watching for the deliverance of\nthe Jews from captivity, heard in the spirit the footsteps of the\nmessengers coming with the news that Cyrus was about to send the Jews\nhome to their own land, and cried, \u2018How beautiful upon the mountains are\nthe feet of them that bring good tidings, that publish peace!\u2019  But the\ntramp of the Roman armies had as yet brought little but bad tidings, and\npublished destruction.  Men slain in battle, women and children driven\noff captive, villages burnt, towns sacked and ruined, till wherever their\narmies passed\u2014as one of their own writers has said\u2014they made a desert,\nand then called that peace.\n\nSo had the Roman soldier marched over the world, and conquered it.  And\nnow Christ\u2019s soldiers were beginning their march over the world, that\nthey might conquer it by fulfilling Isaiah\u2019s prophecy.  They were going\nforth, with their feet shod with the good news of Peace; to treat all\nmen, not as their enemies, not as their slaves, but as their brothers;\nand to bring them good news, and bid them share in it,\u2014the good news that\nGod was at peace with them, and that they might now be at peace with\ntheir own consciences, and at peace with each other, for all were\nbrothers in Jesus Christ their Lord.\n\nShod with that good news of peace, these Christians were going to conquer\nthe world, and to penetrate into distant lands from which the Roman\narmies had been driven back in shameful defeat.  To penetrate, too, where\nthe Roman armies never cared to go,\u2014among the miserable and crowded lanes\nof the great cities, and conquer there what the Roman armies could not\nconquer\u2014the vice, the misery, the cruelty, the idolatry of the heathen.\n\nThe shield, again, guarded those parts of the soldier which the armour\ndid not guard.  It warded off the stones, arrows, and darts\u2014fiery darts\noften, as St. Paul says, which were hurled at him from afar.  And the\nChristian\u2019s shield, St. Paul says, was to be Faith,\u2014trust in God,\u2014belief\nthat he was fighting God\u2019s battle, and not his own; belief that God was\nover him in the battle, and would help and guide him, and give him\nstrength to do his work.  To believe firmly that he was in the right, and\non God\u2019s side.  To believe that, when he was wounded and struck\ndown,\u2014when men deserted him, cursed him, tried to take his life\u2014perhaps\ndid take his life\u2014with torments unspeakable,\u2014to have faith to say in his\nheart, \u2018I am in the right.\u2019  When he was writhing under the truly fiery\ndarts of misrepresentation, slander, scorn, or under the equally fiery\ndarts of remorse for his own mistakes, his own weaknesses, still to say\nafter all, \u2018I am in the right.\u2019  That shield of faith, though it might\nnot save him from wounds, torturing wounds, perhaps crippling wounds,\nwould at least save his life,\u2014at least protect his vitals; and, when he\nseemed stricken to the very earth, he could still shelter himself under\nthat shield of faith, and cry, \u2018Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy;\nwhen I fall, I shall arise.\u2019\n\nAnd they were to take a sword.  They were to use only one weapon, as the\nRoman soldier used but one.  For, though he went into battle armed with a\nshort heavy pike, he hurled it at once against the enemy; then he closed\nin with his sword, and fought the real battle with that alone, hand to\nhand, and knee to knee.  The short Roman sword, used by brave men in\nclose fight, had defeated all the weapons of all the nations.  St. Paul\nknew that fact, as well as we; and I cannot but suppose that he had it in\nhis mind when he wrote these great words, and that he meant to bid\nChristians, when they fought God\u2019s battle, to fight, like the Romans,\nhand to hand: not to indulge in cowardly stratagems, intrigues, and\nlawyers\u2019 quibbles, fighting like the barbarians, cowardly and afar off,\nhurling stones, and shooting clouds of arrows, but to grapple with their\nenemies, looking them boldly in the face, as honest men should do, trying\ntheir strength against them fairly, and striking them to the heart.  But\nwith what?  With that sword which, if it wound, heals likewise,\u2014if it\nkills, also makes alive; the sword which slays the sins of a man, that he\nmay die to sin, but rise again to righteousness; the sword of the Spirit,\nwhich is the Word of God, the message of God, the speech of God, the\ncommandment of God.  They were to conquer the world simply by saying,\n\u2018Thus saith the Lord.\u2019  They were to preach God, and God alone, revealed\nin his Son, Jesus Christ, a God of love, who willed that none should\nperish, but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth.\n\nBut a God of wrath likewise.  We must never forget that.  A merely\nindulgent God would be an unjust God, and a cruel God likewise.  If God\nbe just, as he is, then he has boundless pity for those who are weak: but\nboundless wrath for the strong who misuse the weak.  Boundless pity for\nthose who are ignorant, misled, and out of the right way: but boundless\nwrath for those who mislead them, and put them out of the right way.  All\nthrough St. Paul\u2019s Epistles, as through our blessed Lord\u2019s sayings and\ndoings, you see this wholesome mixture of severity and mercy, of Divine\nanger and Divine love, very different from the sentimentalism of our own\ntimes, when men fancy that, because they dislike the pain and trouble of\npunishing evil-doers, God is even such a one as themselves, who sits\nstill and takes no heed of the wrong which is done on earth.\n\nNo.  The Christians were to tell men of both sides of God\u2019s character;\nfor both were working every day, and all day long, about them.  They were\nto tell men that God had, by their mouths, revealed from heaven his wrath\nagainst all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, at the same moment\nthat he had revealed the good news that men might be purified by the\nblood of Christ, and saved from wrath through him.  They were to tell men\nof a God who so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son to die\nfor it; but of a God who so loved the world that he would not tolerate in\nit those sins which cause the ruin of the world.  Tribulation and anguish\nupon every soul of man that doeth evil, and glory, honour, and peace to\nevery man that worketh good\u2014that was to be their message, that was to be\ntheir weapon, wherewith they were to strike, and did strike, through the\nhearts of sinners, and convert them to repentance that they might die to\nsin, and live again to righteousness.\n\nWith this armour, and that one weapon, the Word of God, the Christians\nconquered the souls of the men of the old world.  Often they failed,\noften they were defeated, sadly and shamefully; for they were men of like\npassions with ourselves.  But their defeats always happened when they\ntried other armour than the armour of God, and fancied that they could\nfight the world, the flesh, and the devil with the weapons which the\nworld, the flesh, and the devil had forged.\n\nStill they conquered at last\u2014for God was with them, and the Spirit of\nGod; and they put on again and again the armour of God, _after_ they had\ncast it off for a while to their own hurt.\n\nAnd so shall we conquer in the battle of life just in proportion as we\nfight our battle with the armour of God.\n\nMy friends, each and all of you surely wish to succeed in life; and to\nsucceed, not merely in getting money, still less merely in getting\npleasure, but with a far nobler and far more real success.  You wish, I\ntrust, to be worthy, virtuous, respectable, useful Christian men and\nwomen; to be honoured while you live, and regretted when you die; to\nleave this world with the feeling that your life has not been a failure,\nand your years given you in vain: but that, having done some honest work\nat least in this world, you are going to a world where all injustice\nshall be set right.\n\nThen here, in St. Paul\u2019s words, are the elements of success in life.\nThis, and this only, is the way to true success, to put on the whole\narmour of God.  Truthfulness, justice, peaceableness, faith in God\u2019s\njustice and mercy, hope of success, and the sword of the Spirit, even\nthat word of God which, if you do not preach it to others, you can and\nshould preach to yourselves all day long, continually asking yourselves,\n\u2018What would God have me to do?  What is likely to be his will and message\nupon the matter which I have in hand?\u2019\u2014all these qualities go to make up\nthe character of the worthy man or woman, the useful person, the truly\nable person, who does what he can do, well, because he is what he ought\nto be, good; and all these qualities you need if you will fight the\nbattle of life like men, and conquer instead of being conquered therein.\n\nBut some will say, and with truth, \u2018It is easy to tell us to be good: we\ncan no more change our own character than we can change our own bodies;\nthe question is, who will make us good?\u2019  Who indeed, save he who said,\n\u2018Ask and ye shall receive?\u2019  St. Paul knew well enough that if his armour\nwas God\u2019s armour, God alone could forge it, and God alone could bestow\nit; and therefore he ends his commands with this last command\u2014\u2018Praying\nalways, with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching\nthereto with all perseverance, and supplication for all saints.\u2019  Those\nwho wrote the Church Catechism knew it likewise, and have said to us from\nour very childhood: \u2018My good child, know this: that thou canst not do\nthese things of thyself, nor walk in the commandments of God and serve\nhim without his special grace; which thou must learn at all times to call\nfor by diligent prayer.\u2019\n\nYes, my friends, there is but one way to obtain that armour of God, which\nwill bring us safe through the battle of life; and that is, pray for it.\nAsk, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it\nshall be opened unto you.  You who wish for true success in life, pray.\nPray, if you never prayed before, morning and evening, with your whole\nhearts, for that Spirit of God which is truth, justice, peace, faith, and\nhope\u2014and you shall not pray in vain.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XII.\nPAUL AND FELIX.\n\n\n                                ACTS XXIV. 25.\n\n    And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to\n    come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I\n    have a convenient season, I will call for thee.\n\nTHIS is a well-known text, on which many a sermon has been preached, and\nwith good reason, for it is an important text.  It tells us of a man who,\nlike too many men in all times, trembled when he heard the truth about\nhis wicked life, but did not therefore repent and mend; and a very\nserious lesson we may draw from his example.\n\nBut even a more important fact about the text is, that it tells us what\nwere really the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion in those\nearly times, about twenty-five years, seemingly, after our Lord\u2019s death;\nwhat St. Paul used to preach about; what he considered was the first\nthing which he had to tell men.\n\nLet us take this latter question first.  About what did St. Paul reason\nbefore Felix?\n\nAbout righteousness (which means justice), temperance, and judgment to\ncome.\n\nI beg you to remember these words.  If you believe the Bible to be\ninspired, you are bound to take its words as they stand.  And therefore I\nbeg you to remember that St. Paul preached not about _un_righteousness,\nbut righteousness; not about _in_temperance, but about temperance; not\nabout hell, but about judgment to come; in a word, not about wrong, but\nabout right.  I hope that does not seem to you a small matter.  I hope\nthat none of you are ready to say, \u2018It comes to the same thing in the\nend.\u2019  It does not come to the same thing.  There is no use in telling a\nman what is wrong, unless you first tell him what is right.  There is no\nuse rebuking a man for being bad, unless you first tell him how he may\nbecome better, and give him hope for himself, or you will only drive him\nto recklessness and despair.  You must show him the right road, before\nyou can complain of him for going the wrong one.\n\nBut if St. Paul had reasoned with Felix about injustice, intemperance,\nand hell, one could not have been surprised.  For Felix was a thoroughly\nbad man, unjust and intemperate, and seemingly fitting himself for hell.\n\nHe had begun life as a slave of the emperor in a court which was a mere\nsink of profligacy and villainy.  Then he had got his freedom, and next,\nthe governorship of Jud\u00e6a, probably by his brother Pallas\u2019s interest, who\nhad been a slave like him, and had made an enormous fortune by the most\ndetestable wickedness.\n\nWhen in his governorship, Felix began to show himself as wicked as his\nbrother.  The violence, misrule, extortion, and cruelty which went on in\nJud\u00e6a was notorious.  He caused the high-priest at Jerusalem to be\nmurdered out of spite.  Drusilla, his wife, he had taken away from a\nSyrian king, who was her lawful husband.  Making money seems to have been\nhis great object; and the great Roman historian of those times sums up\nhis character in a few bitter words thus: \u2018Felix,\u2019 he says, \u2018exercised\nthe power of a king with the heart of a slave, in all cruelty and lust.\u2019\n\nSuch was the wicked upstart whom God, for the sins of the Jews, had\nallowed to rule them in St. Paul\u2019s time; and before him St. Paul had to\nplead for his life.\n\nThe first time that St. Paul came before him Felix seems to have seen at\nonce that Paul was innocent, and a good man; and that, perhaps, was the\nreason why he sent for him again, and, strangely enough, heard him\nconcerning the faith in Christ.\n\nThere was some conscience left, it seems, in the wretched man.  He was\nnot easy, amid his ill-gotten honour, ill-gotten wealth, ill-gotten\npleasures; and perhaps, as many men are in such a case, he was\nsuperstitious, afraid of being punished for his sins, and looking out for\nfalse prophets, smooth preachers, new religions which would make him\ncomfortable in his sins, and drug his conscience by promising the wicked\nman life, where God had not promised it.  So he wanted, it seems, to know\nwhat this new faith in Christ was like; and he heard.\n\nAnd what he heard we may very fairly guess, because we know from St.\nPaul\u2019s writings what he was in the habit of saying.\n\nSt. Paul told him of righteousness\u2014a word of which he was very fond.  He\ntold Felix of a righteous and good God, who had manifested to man his\nrighteousness and goodness, in the righteousness and goodness of his Son\nJesus; a righteous God, who wished to make all men righteous like\nhimself, that they might be happy for ever.  Perhaps St. Paul called\nFelix to give up all hopes of having his own righteousness\u2014the false\nrighteousness of forms, and ceremonies, and superstitions\u2014and to ask for\nthe righteousness of Christ, which is a clean heart and a right spirit;\nand then he set before him no doubt, as was his custom, the beauty of\nrighteousness, the glory of it, as St. Paul calls it; how noble,\nhonourable, divine, godlike a thing it is to be good.\n\nThen St. Paul told Felix of temperance.  And what he said we may fairly\nguess from his writings.  He would tell Felix that there were two\nelements in every man, the flesh and the spirit, and that those warred\nagainst each other: the flesh trying to drag him down, that he may become\na brute in fleshly lusts and passions; the spirit trying to raise him up,\nthat he may become a son of God in purity and virtue.  But if so, what\nneed must there be of temperance!  How must a man be bound to be\ntemperate, to keep under his body and bring it into subjection, bound to\nrestrain the lower and more brutal feelings in him, that the higher and\npurer feelings may grow and thrive in him to everlasting life!  Truly the\ntemperate man, the man who can restrain himself, is the only strong man,\nthe only safe man, the only happy man, the only man worthy of the name of\nman at all.  This, or something like this, St. Paul would have said to\nFelix.  He did not, as far as we know, rebuke him for his sins.  He left\nhim to rebuke himself.  He told him what ought to be, what he ought to\ndo, and left the rest to his conscience.  Poor Felix, brought up a\nheathen slave in that profligate court of Rome, had probably never heard\nof righteousness and temperance, had never had what was good and noble\nset before him.  Now St. Paul set the good before him, and showed him a\nhigher life than any he had ever dreamed of\u2014higher than all his viceregal\npower and pomp\u2014and bade him see how noble and divine it was to be good.\n\nBut it is written St. Paul reasoned with Felix about judgment to come.\n\nWe must not too hastily suppose that this means that he told Felix that\nhe was in danger of hell-fire.  For that is an argument which St. Paul\nnever uses anywhere in his writings or speeches, as far as we know them.\nHe never tries, as too many do now-a-days, to frighten sinners into\nrepentance, by telling them of the flames of hell; and therefore we have\nno right to fancy that he did so by Felix.  He told him of judgment to\ncome; and we can guess from his writings what he would have said.  That\nthere was a living God who judged the earth always by his Son Jesus\nChrist, and that he was coming then, immediately, to punish all the\nhorrible wickedness which was then going on in those parts of the world\nwhich St. Paul knew.  St. Paul always speaks of the terrible judgments of\nGod as about to come in his own days, we know that they did come.\n\nWe know\u2014God forbid that a preacher should tell you one-tenth of what he\nought to know\u2014that St. Paul\u2019s times were the most horribly wicked that\nthe world had ever seen; that the few heathens who had consciences left\nfelt that some terrible punishment must come if the world went on as it\nwas going.  And we know that the punishment did come; and that for about\ntwenty years, towards the end of which St. Paul was beheaded, the great\nRoman Empire was verily a hell on earth.  If Felix lived ten years more\nhe saw the judgment of God, and the vengeance of God, in a way which\ncould not be mistaken.  But did judgment to come overtake him in his\nlife?  We do not altogether know; we know that he committed such\natrocities, that the Roman Emperor Nero was forced to recall him; that\nthe chief Jews of C\u00e6sarea sent to Rome, and there laid such accusations\nagainst him that he was in danger of death; that his brother Pallas, who\nwas then in boundless power, saved him from destruction.  That shortly\nafterwards Pallas himself was disgraced, stripped of his offices, and a\nfew years later poisoned by Nero, and it is probable enough that when he\nfell Felix fell with him: but we know nothing of it certainly.\n\nBut at least he saw with his own eyes that there was such a thing as\njudgment to come, not merely thousands of years hence at the last day,\nbut there and then in his own lifetime.  He saw the wrath of God revealed\nfrom heaven against all unrighteousness of men.  He saw the wicked\nmurdering and destroying each other till the land was full of blood.  He\nsaw the Empress-mother Agrippina, who had been the paramour of his\nbrother Pallas, murdered by her own son, the Emperor Nero; and so\njudgment came on her.  He saw his own brother first ruined and then\npoisoned; and so judgment came on him.  He saw many a man whom he knew\nwell, and who had been mixed up with him and his brother in their\nintrigues, put to death himself; and so judgment came on them.\n\nAnd last of all he saw (unless he had died beforehand) the fall of the\nEmperor Nero himself\u2014who very probably set fire to Rome, and then laid\nthe blame on the Christians,\u2014the man of sin, of whom St. Paul prophesied\nthat he would be revealed\u2014that is, unveiled, and exposed for the monster\nwhich he was; and that the Lord would destroy him with the brightness of\nhis coming; the man who had dressed the Christians in skins, and hunted\nthem with dogs; who had covered them with pitch, and burnt them; who had\nbeheaded St. Paul and crucified St. Peter; who had murdered his own wife;\nwho had put to death every good man whom he could seize, simply for being\ngood; who had committed every conceivable sin, fault, and cruelty that\ncan disgrace a man, while he made the people worship him as God.  He saw\nthat great Emperor Nero hunted down by his own people, who were weary of\nhis crimes; condemned to a horrible death, hiding in a filthy hole, and\nat last stabbing himself in despair; and so judgment came on him\nlikewise; while the very heathen felt that Nero was gone to hell, leaving\nhis name behind him as a proverb of wickedness and cruelty for ever.\n\nSo Felix, if he were alive, saw judgment come.  And yet more: he saw, if\nhe were alive, such a time follow as the world has seldom or never\nseen\u2014civil war, bloodshed, lawlessness, plunder, and every horror; a time\nin which men longed to die and could not find death, and, instead of\nrepenting of their evil deeds, gnawed their tongues for pain, and\nblasphemed the God of heaven, as St. John had prophesied in the\nRevelation.\n\nYes, if Felix lived only ten years after he trembled at St. Paul\u2019s words,\nhe saw enough to show him that those words were true; that there was a\nGod in heaven, whose wrath was revealed against all unrighteousness of\nmen; who was coming out of his place to judge the earth, and punish all\nthe tyranny and pride and profligacy and luxury of that Roman world.\n\nGod grant that he did remember St. Paul\u2019s words.  God grant that he\ntrembled once more, and to good purpose; and so repented of his sins even\nat the last.  God grant that he may find mercy in that Day.  But we can\nhave but little hope for him; it is but too probable that he was put to\ndeath with his brother, within five years of the time when St. Paul\nwarned him of judgment to come,\u2014too probable that that was his last\nchance of salvation, and that he threw it away for ever, as too many\nsinners do.\n\nWhat do we learn then from this sad story?  We learn one most practical\nand important lesson, which we are all too apt to forget.\n\nThat the foundation of the Christian religion is not forms and\nceremonies, nor fancies and feelings, but righteousness, temperance, and\njudgment to come.  Judgment, I say, to come whensoever it may seem good\nto Christ, who sits for ever on his throne judging right, and ministering\ntrue judgment among the people.  A dreadful judgment, says the\nCommination Service, is always hanging over the heads of those who do\nwrong, and always ready to fall on them, without waiting for the last\nday, thousands of years hence.  It was by telling men that\u2014by telling\nthem that Christ was righteous and pure, and desired to make them\nrighteous and pure like himself; and that Christ was a living and present\njudge, watching all their actions, ready at any moment to forgive their\nsins, and ready at any moment to punish their sins\u2014by that message the\nApostles converted the heathen.  It was by believing that message, and\nbecoming righteous and good men, temperate and pure men, and looking up\nin faith and hope to Christ their ever-present Judge and Lord, that the\nheathen were converted, and became saints and martyrs.  And that religion\nwill stand, and bring a man through the storm safe to everlasting life,\nwhile all religions which are built on doctrines and systems, on forms\nand ceremonies, on fancies and feelings, on the godless notion that\nsinners are safe enough in this life, for God will not judge and punish\nthem till the last day, are built on a foundation of sand; and the storm\nwhen it comes will sweep those dreams away, and leave their possessors to\nshame and misery.\n\nTherefore, my friends, let no man deceive you.  God is not mocked.  What\na man soweth, that shall he reap.  The wages of sin are death, as Felix\nfound too well; but the fruit of righteousness is everlasting life,\nthrough Jesus Christ our Lord.  Therefore follow after innocency, and\ntake heed to the thing which is right; for that, and that only, shall\nbring a man peace at the last.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XIII.\nTHE GOOD SAMARITAN.\n\n\n                               LUKE X. 33, 34.\n\n    But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when\n    he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up\n    his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast,\n    and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.\n\nNO words, perhaps, ever spoken on earth, have had more effect than those\nof this parable.  They are words of power and of spirit; living words,\nwhich have gone forth into the hearts and lives of men, and borne fruit\nin them of a hundred different kinds.  Truly their sound is gone out into\nall lands, and their words to the ends of the world, for a proof that\nChrist, who spake them, said truly, when he said, \u2018The flesh profiteth\nnothing; it is the spirit which maketh alive.  The words which I speak\nunto you, they are spirit and they are life.\u2019\n\nWhat was the power and the spirit of this parable?  What gave it its\nstrength in the hearts of men?  This\u2014that it told them that they were to\nhelp their fellow-men, simply because they were their fellow-men.  Not\nbecause they were of the same race, the same religion, the same sect or\nparty; but simply because they were men.  In a word, it commanded men to\nbe humane; to exercise humanity; which signifies, kindness to human\nbeings, simply because they are human beings.  One can understand our\nLord preaching that: it was part and parcel of his doctrine.  He called\nhimself the Son of Man.  He showed what he meant by calling himself so,\nby the widest and most tender humanity.\n\nBut his was quite a new doctrine, and a new practice likewise.  The Jews\nhad no notion of humanity.  All but themselves were common and unclean.\nThey might not even eat with a man who was a Gentile.  All mankind, save\nthemselves, they thought, were accursed and doomed to hell.  They lived,\nas St. Paul told them, hateful to, and hated by, all mankind.  There was\nno humanity in them.\n\nThe Greek, again, despised all nations but his own as barbarians.  He\nwould mix with them, eat with them, work for them; but he only looked on\nthe rest of mankind as stupid savages, out of whom he was to make money,\nby the basest and meanest arts.  There was no humanity in him.\n\nThe Romans, again, were a thoroughly inhuman people.  Their calling, they\nheld, was to conquer all the nations of the earth, to plunder them, to\nenslave them.  They were the great slaveholding, man-stealing people.\nMercy was a virtue which they had utterly forgotten.  Their public shows\nand games were mere butcheries of blood and torture.  To see them fight\nto death in their theatres, pairs after pairs, sometimes thousands in one\nday, was the usual and regular amusement.  And in that great city of\nRome, which held something more than a million human beings, there was\nnot, as far as I am aware, one single hospital, or other charitable\ninstitution of any kind.  There was, in a word, no humanity in them.\n\nBut the Gospel changed all that miraculously and suddenly, both in Jew,\nin Greek, and in Roman.  When men became Christians at St. Paul\u2019s\npreaching, all the old barriers of race were broken down between them.\nThey said no more, \u2018I am a Roman,\u2019 \u2018I a Greek,\u2019 \u2018I a Jew,\u2019 but \u2018I am a\nChristian man; and, because I am a Christian, Roman and Greek and Jew are\nalike my brothers.\u2019\n\nThere was seen such a sight as (so far as we know) was never seen before\non earth\u2014the high-born white lady worshipping by the side of her own\nnegro slave; the proud and selfish Roman, who never had helped a human\nbeing in his life, sending his alms to the churches of Syria, or of some\nother country far away; the clever and educated Greek learning from the\nJew, whom he called a barbarian; and the Jew, who had hated all mankind,\nand been hated by them in return, preaching to all mankind the good news\nthat they were brothers, in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ,\nthe Son of Man.\n\nInstead of a kingdom of division, the Church was a kingdom of union.\nCharity, and generosity, and mutual help took the place of selfishness,\nand distrust, and oppression.  While men had been heathens, their pattern\nhad been that of the priest who saw the wounded man lying, and looked on\nhim and passed by.  Their pattern now was that of the good Samaritan, who\nhelped and saved the wounded stranger, simply because he was a man.\n\nIn one word, the new thing which the Gospel brought into the world\nwas\u2014humanity.  The thing which the Gospel keeps in the world still, is\nhumanity.  It brought other things, and blessed things, but this it\nbrought.  And why?  Because through the Church was poured on men the\nspirit of God.  And what is that, save humanity?\u2014the spirit of the\ncompassionate, all generous Son of Man?\u2014the spirit of charity and love?\n\nWhat were the woes of humanity to the heathen?  If a man fell in the race\nof life, so much the worse for him.  So much the better for them, for\nthere was one more competitor out of the way.  One of the greatest Roman\npoets, indeed, talks of the pleasure which men have in seeing others in\ntrouble, just as, when the storm is tossing up the sea, it is sweet to\nsit on the shore, and watch the ships labouring in the waves.  Not, he\nsays, that one takes actual pleasure in seeing a man in trouble, but in\nthe thought that one is not in the trouble oneself.  A rather lame\nexcuse, I think, for a rather inhuman sentiment.\n\nYes, the heathen could feel pleasure in being safe while others were\nafflicted.  And, indeed, our own fallen nature, if we give way to it,\nwill tempt us to the same sin.  But how did men begin to look not only on\nthe afflictions, but on the interest, on the feelings, on the consciences\nof their neighbours, when they began to be led by the spirit of Christ?\nLet St. Paul speak for himself, not in one text only, but in a\nhundred\u2014\u2018Though I be free from all, I have made myself a servant to all\u2014a\nJew to the Jews, a Greek to the Greeks, strong to the strong, weak to the\nweak; all things to all men, if by any means I might save some.  Whether\nwe be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; or whether we\nbe comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.  For the love of\nChrist constraineth us.  For he died for all, that those who live should\nhenceforth not live to themselves, but to him.\u2019\n\nAnd what did he mean by living to Christ?\u2014\u2018Living in weariness and\npainfulness, in watchings often; in hunger and thirst, in fastings often,\nin cold and nakedness; beside that which cometh upon me daily, the care\nof all the Church.  Who is weak, and I am not weak?  Who is offended, and\nI burn not?\u2019\u2014Oh, who does not see in such words as these the picture of a\nnew ideal, a new life for man; even a life of utter sympathy with his\nfellow-men, utter love and self-sacrifice\u2014in one word, utter humanity; as\nfar above that old heathen poet\u2019s selfish notion, as man is above the\nape, or heaven above the earth!\n\nThis is the spirit of God, even the Holy Ghost; the spirit of Christ,\nwhich also is the spirit of humanity; because it is the spirit of Christ,\nwho is both God and man, both human and divine.  This is the spirit of\nlove, by which God created mankind and all the worlds, that he might have\nsomething which was not himself whereon to spend his boundless love.\nThis is the spirit of love, by which he spared not his only-begotten Son,\nbut freely gave him for the sins of all mankind.  This is the spirit of\nlove, by which he is leading mankind through strange paths, and by ways\nwhich their fathers knew not, toward that eternal city of God which all\ntruly human hearts are seeking, blindly often and confusedly, and\nsometimes by utterly mistaken paths: but seeking her still, if by any\nmeans they may enter into her, and be at peace.  This is that spirit of\nlove, by which, having sent forth all souls out of his everlasting bosom,\nhe will draw them home again in the fulness of time, as many as have\neternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord, into his bosom once more, that\nthey may rest in peace, and God be all in all.\n\nTake comfort from these words, my friends; for there is deep comfort to\nbe found in them, if you will look at them aright.  When you hear that\nthe spirit of God is in you, unless you are reprobates; and that if any\nman have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his\u2014do not be afraid, as\nif that spirit were something quite unlike anything which you feel, or\neven think of: as if it was something which must show itself in strange\nvisions or peculiar experiences, which very few persons have, and which\ntempt them to set themselves apart from their fellow-men, and thank God\nthat they are not as other men are.  Remember that the spirit of God is\nthe spirit of Christ, and that the spirit of Christ is the spirit by\nwhich the good Samaritan helped the poor wounded man, simply because he\nwas a man.  Remember that the spirit of God, so far from making you\nunlike a man, comes to make you more perfect men; so far from parting you\nfrom your fellow-men, comes to knit you more to your fellow-men, by\nmaking you understand them, feel for them, make allowances for them, long\nto help them, however different in habits or in opinions they may be from\nyou; that it is, in one word, the spirit of humanity, which comes down\nfrom heaven into your hearts to make you humane, as it descended on\nChrist, that he might be the most humane of all human beings\u2014the very Son\nof Man, who knew, understood, loved, suffered for, and redeemed all\nmankind, because in him all humanity was gathered into one.\n\nThat spirit is not far from any of you.  Surely he is in all your hearts\nalready, if you be worthy of the name of men.  He is in you, unless you\nbe inhuman, and that, I trust, none of you are.  From him come every\nhumane thought and feeling you ever had.  All kindliness, pity, mercy,\ngenerosity; all sense or justice and honour toward your fellow-men; all\nindignation when you hear of their being wronged, tortured, enslaved; all\ndesire to help the fallen, to right the oppressed;\u2014whence do these come?\nFrom the world?  Most surely not.  From the flesh?  St. Paul says not.\nFrom the Devil?  No one, I trust, will say that, save his own children,\nthe Pharisees, if there be any of them left, which we will hope there are\nnot.  No! all these come from the gracious spirit of humanity\u2014the spirit\nof Christ and of God.  Pray to him, that he may take possession of all\nyour thoughts, feelings, and desires, and purge you from every taint of\nselfishness.  Give up your hearts to him; and grieve not, by any\nselfishness, passion, or hardness of your own, his gracious instructions:\nbut let him teach you, and guide you, and purge you, and sanctify you,\ntill you come to the stature of a perfect man, to the fulness of the\nmeasure of Christ, who could perfectly hate the sin, and yet perfectly\nlove the sinner; who could see in every man, even in his enemies and\nmurderers, a friend and a brother.\n\nAnd you who are afflicted, remember, that if the spirit of humanity be\nthe spirit of Christ, the spirit of Christ is also the spirit of\nhumanity.  What do I mean?  This: that if that good Samaritan had\nChrist\u2019s spirit, was like Christ, then Christ has the same spirit, and is\nlike that good Samaritan, utterly humane, for mere humanity\u2019s sake.\n\nYes, thou who art weary and heavy laden\u2014thou who fanciest, at moments,\nthat the Lord\u2019s arm is shortened, that it cannot save, and art ready to\ncry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?\u2014take comfort, and look\nupon Christ.  Thou wilt never be sure of the love of God, unless thou\nrememberest that it is the same as the love of Christ; and, by looking at\nChrist, learnest to know thy Father and his Father, whose likeness and\nimage he is, and see that the spirit which proceeds alike from both of\nthem is the spirit of humanity and love, which cannot help going forth to\nseek and to save thee, simply because thou art lost.  Look, I say, at\nChrist; and be sure that what he bade the good Samaritan do to the\nwounded traveller, that same will he do to thee, because he is the Son of\nMan, human and humane.\n\nArt thou robbed, wounded, deserted, left to die, worsted in the battle of\nlife, and fallen in its rugged road, with no counsel, no strength, no\nhope, no purpose left?  Then remember, that there is one walking to and\nfro in this world, unseen, but ever present, whose form is as the form of\nthe Son of Man.\n\nTo him is given all power to execute judgment in heaven and earth,\nbecause he is the Son of Man.  He is beholding the nations and fashioning\nall their hearts.  Even as I speak now, he is pouring contempt on\nprinces, and making the counsels of the people of no effect.  Even now he\nis frustrating the tokens of the liars, and making diviners mad.  He is\nsmiting asunder mighty nations, and filling the lands with dead bodies.\nEven now he is coming, as he came of old from Bozra, treading down the\npeople in his anger, and making them dumb in his fury; and their blood is\nsprinkled on his garments, and he hath stained all his raiment.  For the\nday of vengeance is in his heart, and the year of his redeemed is come.\nHe who ariseth terribly to shake the nations, has he time, has he will,\nto turn aside to attend to such as thee?\n\nHe has time, and he has will.  No human being so mean, no human sorrow\ntoo petty, but what he has the time and the will, as well as the power,\nto have mercy on it, because he is the Son of Man.  Therefore he will\nturn aside even to thee, whoever thou art, who art weary and heavy laden,\nand canst find no rest for thy soul, at the very moment, and in the very\nmanner, which is best for thee.  When thou hast suffered long enough, he\nwill stablish, strengthen, settle thee.  He will bind up thy wounds, and\npour in the oil and the wine of his spirit\u2014the Holy Ghost, the Comforter;\nand will carry thee to his own inn, whereof it is written, He shall hide\nthee secretly in his own presence from the provoking of men; he shall\nkeep thee in his tabernacle from the strife of tongues.  He will give his\nservants charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways; and when he comes\nagain, he will repay them, and fetch thee away, to give thee rest in that\neternal bosom of the Father, from which thou, like all human souls,\ncamest forth at first, and to which thou shalt at last return, with all\nhuman souls who have in them that spirit of humanity, which is the spirit\nof God, and of Christ, and of eternal life.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XIV.\nCONSIDER THE LILIES OF THE FIELD.\n\n\n                    (_Preached on Easter Day_, 1867.)\n\n                           MATTHEW VI. 26, 28, 29.\n\n    Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap,\n    nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.  Are ye\n    not much better than they? . . . And why take ye thought for raiment?\n    Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not,\n    neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in\n    all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.\n\nWHAT has this text to do with Easter-day?  Let us think a while.  Life\nand death; the battle between life and death; life conquered by death;\nand death conquered again by life.  Those were the mysteries over which\nthe men of old time thought, often till their hearts were sad.\n\nThey saw that they were alive; and they loved life, and would fain see\ngood days.  They saw, again, that they must die: but would death conquer\nlife in them?  Would they ever live again?\n\nThey saw that other things died, or seemed to die, and yet rose and lived\nagain; and that gave them hope for themselves at times; but their hopes\nwere very dim, till Christ came, and brought life and immortality to\nlight.\n\nThey saw, I say, that other things died, or seemed to die, and yet lived\nagain.  Light rose out of darkness every morning and lived: but darkness,\nas they thought, killed the light at even, till it came to life again in\nthe morning, and the sun rose once more.  The sun himself\u2014they thought of\nhim as a glorious and life-giving being, who every morning fought his way\nup the sky, scattering the dark clouds with his golden arrows, and\nreigning for a-while in heaven, pouring down heat and growth and life:\nbut he too must die.  The dark clouds of evening must cover him.  The red\nglare upon them was his dying blood.  The twilight, which lingered after\nthe sun was gone, was his bride, the dawn, come to soothe his dying hour.\nTrue, he had come to life again, often and often, morning after morning:\nbut would it be so for ever?  Would not a night come at last, after which\nhe would never rise again?  Would not he be worn out at last, and slain,\nin his long daily battle with the kingdom of darkness, which lay below\nthe world; or with the dragon who tried to devour him, when the thunder\nclouds hid him from the sight, or the eclipse seemed to swallow him up\nbefore their eyes?\n\nSo, too, they felt about the seasons of the year.  The winter came.  The\nsun grew low and weak.  Would he not die?  The days grew short and dark.\nWould they not cease to be, and eternal night come on the earth?  They\nhad heard dimly of the dark northern land, where it was always winter,\nand the night was six months long.  Why should it not be so in their own\nland in some evil time?  Every autumn the rains and frost came on; the\nleaves fell; the flowers withered; the birds fled southward, or died of\nhunger and cold; the cattle starved in the field; the very men had much\nado to live.  Why should not winter conquer at last, and shut up the sun,\nthe God of light and warmth and life, for ever in the place of darkness,\ncold, and death?  So thought the old Syrians of Canaan, and taught the\nJewish women to weep, as they themselves wept every autumn, over Adonai,\nthe Lord, which was another name for the sun, slain, as they thought, by\nthe winter cold and rain: and then, when spring-time came, with its\nsunshine, flowers, and birds, rejoiced that the sun had come to life\nagain.\n\nSo thought the old Greeks, and told how Persephone, the fair maiden who\nwas the spring-time, was stolen away by the king of darkness who lived\nbeneath the earth; and how her mother earth would not be comforted for\nher loss, but sent barrenness on all the world till her daughter, the\nspring, was given back to her, to dwell for six months in the upper world\nof light, and six months in the darkness under ground.\n\nSo thought our old forefathers; and told how Baldur (the Baal of the\nBible), the god of light and heat, who was likewise the sun, was slain by\ntreachery, and imprisoned for ever below in hell, the kingdom of darkness\nand of cold; and how all things on earth, even the very trees and stones,\nwept for his death: yet all their tears could not bring back from death\nthe god of life: nor any of the gods unlock the gates which held him in.\n\nAnd because our forefathers were a sad and earnest folk: because they\nlived in a sad and dreary climate, where winter was far longer and more\nbitter than it is, thank God, now; therefore all their thoughts about\nwinter and spring were sad; and they grew to despair, at last, of life\never conquering death, or light conquering darkness.  An age would come,\nthey said, in which snow should fall from the four corners of the world,\nand the winters be three winters long; an evil age, of murder and\nadultery, and hatred between brethren, when all the ties of kin would be\nrent asunder, and wickedness should triumph on the earth.\n\nThen should come that dark time which they called the twilight of the\ngods.  Then the powers of evil would be let loose; the earth would go to\nruin in darkness and in flame.  All living things would die.  The very\ngods would die, fighting to the last against the powers of evil, till the\nsun should sink for ever, and the world be a heap of ashes.\n\nAnd then\u2014so strangely does God\u2019s gift of hope linger in the hearts of\nmen\u2014they saw, beyond all that, a dim dream of a new heaven and a new\nearth in which should dwell righteousness; and of a new sun, more\nbeautiful than ours; of a woman called \u201cLife,\u201d hid safe while all the\nworld around her was destroyed, fed on the morning dew, preserved to be\nthe mother of a new and happier race of men.  And so to them, heathens as\nthey were, God whispered that Christ should some day bring life and\nimmortality to light.\n\nMy friends, shall we sneer and laugh at all these dreams, as mere follies\nof the heathen?  If we do so, we shall not show the spirit of God, or the\nmind of Christ.  Nor shall we show our knowledge of the Bible.  In it,\nthe spirit of God, who inspired the Bible, does not laugh at these\ndreams.  It rebukes them sternly whenever they are immoral, and lead men\nto do bad and foul deeds, as Ezekiel rebuked the Jewish women who wept\nfor Thammuz, the dead summer.  But that was because those Jewish women\nshould have known better.  They should have known\u2014what the Old Testament\ntells us all through\u2014what it was especially meant to tell the men who\nlived while it was being written, just because they had their fancies,\nand their fears about summer and winter, and life and death.  And what\nought they to have known?  What does the Old Testament say?  That life\nwill conquer death, because God, the Lord Jehovah, even Jesus Christ, is\nLord of heaven and earth.  From the time that it was written in the Book\nof Genesis, that the Lord Jehovah said in his heart, \u2018I will not again\ncurse the ground for man\u2019s sake: neither will I again smite any more\nanything living, as I have done, while the earth remaineth\u2014seed time and\nharvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night,\nshall not cease\u2019\u2014from that time the Jews were bound not to fear the\npowers of nature, or the seasons, nor to fear for them; for they were all\nin the government of that one good God and Lord, who cared for men, and\nloved them, and dealt justly by them, and proved his love and justice by\nbringing the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\nGod treated these heathens, St. Paul says, as we ought to treat our\nchildren.  His wrath was revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and\nunrighteousness of men.  All wilful disobedience and actual sin he\npunished, often with terrible severity; but not their childish mistakes\nand dreams about how this world was made; just as we should not punish\nthe fancies of our children.  The times of that ignorance, says St. Paul,\nhe winked at till Christ came, and then he commanded all men everywhere\nto repent, and believe in the God who gave them rain and fruitful\nseasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness.\n\nFor he had appointed a day in which he would judge the world in\nrighteousness by that man whom he had ordained; of which he had given\nfull assurance to all men, in that he had raised him from the dead.\n\nSome, who were spoilt by false philosophy, mocked when they heard of the\nresurrection of the dead: but there were those who had kept something of\nthe simple childlike faith of their forefathers, and who were prepared\nfor the kingdom of God; and to them St. Paul\u2019s message came as an answer\nto the questions of their minds, and a satisfaction to the longings of\ntheir hearts.\n\nThe news of Christ,\u2014of Christ raised from the dead to be the life and the\nlight of the world,\u2014stilled all their fears lest death should conquer\nlife, and darkness conquer light.\n\nSo it was with all the heathen.  So it was with our old forefathers, when\nthey heard and believed the Gospel of Christ.  They felt that (as St.\nPaul said) they were translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the\nkingdom of light, which was the kingdom of his dear Son; that now the\nworld must look hopeful, cheerful to them; now they could live in hope of\neverlasting life; now they need sorrow no more for those who slept, as if\nthey had no hope: for Christ had conquered death, and the evil spirit who\nhad the power of death.  Christ had harrowed hell, and burst the bonds of\nthe graves.  He, as man, and yet God, had been through the dark gate, and\nhad returned through it in triumph, the first-born from the dead; and his\nresurrection was an everlasting sign and pledge that all who belonged to\nhim should rise with him, and death be swallowed up in victory.\n\n\u2018So it pleased the Father,\u2019 says St. Paul, \u2018to gather together in Christ\nall things, whether in heaven or in earth.\u2019  In him were fulfilled, and\nmore than fulfilled, the dim longings, the childlike dreams of heathen\npoets and sages, and of our own ancestors from whom we sprung.  He is the\ndesire of all nations; for whom all were longing, though they knew it\nnot.  He is the true sun; the sun of righteousness, who has arisen with\nhealing on his wings, and translated us from the kingdom of darkness into\nthe kingdom of light.  He is the true Adonai, the Lord for whose death\nthough we may mourn upon Good Friday, yet we rejoice this day for his\nresurrection.  He is the true Baldur, the God of light and life, who,\nthough he died by treachery, and descended into hell, yet needed not, to\ndeliver him, the tears of all creation, of men or angels, or that any god\nshould unlock for him the gates of death; for he rose by his own eternal\nspirit of light, and saith, \u2018I am he that was dead, and behold I am alive\nfor evermore.  Amen.  And I have the keys of death and hell.\u2019\n\nAnd now we may see, it seems to me, what the text has to do with\nEaster-day.  To my mind our Lord is using here the same parable which St.\nPaul preaches in his famous chapter which we read in the Burial Service.\nBe not anxious, says our Lord, for your life.  Is not the life more than\nmeat?  There is an eternal life which depends not on earthly food, but on\nthe will and word of God your Father; and that life in you will conquer\ndeath.  Behold the birds of the air, which sow not, nor reap, nor gather\ninto barns, to provide against the winter\u2019s need.  But do they starve and\ndie?  Does not God guide them far away into foreign climes, and feed them\nthere by his providence, and bring them back again in spring, as things\nalive from the dead?  And can he not feed us (if it be his will) with a\nbread which comes down from heaven, and with every word which proceedeth\nout of the mouth of God?\n\nConsider, again, the lilies of the field.  We must take our Lord\u2019s words\nexactly.  He is speaking of the lilies, the bulbous plants which spring\ninto flower in countless thousands every spring, over the downs of\nEastern lands.  All the winter they are dead, unsightly roots, hidden in\nthe earth.  What can come of them?  But no sooner does the sun of spring\nshine on their graves, than they rise into sudden life and beauty, as it\npleases God, and every seed takes its own peculiar body.  Sown in\ncorruption, they are raised in incorruption; sown in weakness, they are\nraised in power; sown in dishonour, they are raised in glory; delicate,\nbeautiful in colour, perfuming the air with fragrance; types of\nimmortality, fit for the crowns of angels.  Consider the lilies of the\nfield, how they grow.  For even so is the resurrection of the dead.\n\nYes, not without a divine providence\u2014yea, a divine inspiration\u2014has this\nblessed Easter-tide been fixed, by the Church of all ages, at the season\nwhen the earth shakes off her winter\u2019s sleep; when the birds come back\nand the flowers begin to bloom; when every seed which falls into the\nground, and dies, and rises again with a new body, is a witness to us of\nthe resurrection of Christ; and a witness, too, that we shall rise again;\nthat in us, as in it, life shall conquer death when every bird which\ncomes back to sing and build among us, is a witness to us of the\nresurrection of Christ, and of our resurrection; and that in us, as in\nit, joy shall conquer sorrow.\n\nThe seed has passed through strange chances and dangers: of a thousand\nseeds shed in autumn, scarce one survives to grow in spring.  Be it so.\nStill there is left, as Scripture says, a remnant, an elect, to rise\nagain and live.\n\nThe birds likewise\u2014they have been through strange chances, dangers,\nneeds.  Far away south to Africa they went\u2014the younger ones by a way they\nhad never travelled before.  Thousands died in their passage south.\nThousands more died in their passage back again this spring, by hunger\nand by storm.  Be it so.  Yet of them is left a seed, a remnant, an\nelect, and they are saved, to build once more in their old homes, and to\nrejoice in the spring, and pour out their songs to God who made them.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\nSome say that the seeds grow by laws of nature; the birds come back by\ninstinct.  Be it so.  What Scripture says, and what we should believe, is\nthis: that the seeds grow by the spirit of God, the Lord and Giver of\nlife; that the birds come back, and sing, and build by the spirit of God,\nthe Lord and Giver of life.  He works not on them, things without reason,\nas he works on us reasonable souls: but he works on them nevertheless.\nThey obey his call; they do his will; they show forth his glory; they\nreturn to life, they breed, they are preserved, by the same spirit by\nwhich the body of Jesus rose from the dead; and, therefore, every flower\nwhich blossoms, and every bird which sings, at Easter-tide; everything\nwhich, like the seeds, was dead, and is alive again, which, like the\nbirds, was lost, and is found, is a type and token of Christ, their\nMaker, who was dead and is alive again; who was lost in hell on\nEaster-eve, and was found again in heaven for evermore; and the\nresurrection of the earth from her winter\u2019s sleep commemorates to us, as\neach blessed Easter-tide comes round, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus\nChrist, who made all the world, and redeemed all mankind, and sanctifieth\nto eternal life all the elect people of God: a witness to us that some\nday life shall conquer death, light conquer darkness, righteousness\nconquer sin, joy conquer grief; when the whole creation, which groaneth\nand travaileth in pain until now, shall have brought forth that of which\nit travails in labour; even the new heavens and the new earth, wherein\nshall be neither sighing nor sorrow, but God shall wipe away tears from\nall eyes.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XV.\nTHE JEWISH REBELLIONS.\n\n\n                               1 PETER II. 11.\n\n    Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from\n    fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.\n\nI THINK that you will understand the text, and indeed the whole of St.\nPeter\u2019s first Epistle, better, if I explain to you somewhat the state of\nthe Eastern countries of the world in St. Peter\u2019s time.  The Romans, a\nshort time before St. Peter was born, had conquered all the nations round\nthem, and brought them under law and regular government.  St. Peter now\ntells those to whom he wrote, that they must obey the Roman governors and\ntheir laws, for the Lord\u2019s sake.  It was God\u2019s will and providence that\nthe Romans should be masters of the world at that time.  Jesus Christ the\nLord, the King of kings, had so ordained it in his inscrutable wisdom;\nand they must submit to it, not for fear of the Romans, but for the\nLord\u2019s sake as the servants of God, who believed that he was governing\nthe world by his Son Jesus Christ, and that he knew best how to govern\nit.\n\nThat was a hard lesson for them to learn; for they were Jews.  This\nepistle, as the words of it show plainly, was written for Jews; both for\nthose who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as the true King of the Jews,\nand for those who ought to have believed in him, but did not.  They were\nstrangers and pilgrims (as St. Peter calls them), who had no city or\ngovernment of their own, but had been scattered abroad among the\nGentiles, and settled in all the great cities of the Roman Empire,\nespecially in the East: in Babylon, from which St. Peter wrote his\nepistle, where the Jews had a great settlement in the rich plains of the\nriver Euphrates; in Syria; in Asia Minor, which we now call Turkey in\nAsia: in Persia, and many other Eastern lands.  There they lived by\ntrade, very much as the Jews live among us now; and as long as they\nobeyed the Roman law, they were allowed to keep their own worship, and\ntheir own customs, and their law of Moses, and to have their synagogues\nin which they worshipped the true God every Sabbath-day.  But evil times\nwere coming on these prosperous Jews.  Wicked emperors of Rome and\nprofligate governors of provinces were about to persecute them.  In\nAlexandria in Egypt, hundreds of them had been destroyed by lingering\ntortures, and thousands ruined and left homeless.  Caligula, the mad\nemperor, had gone further still.  Fancying himself a god, he had\ncommanded that temples should be raised in his honour, and his statues\nworshipped everywhere.  He had even gone so far as to command that his\nstatue should be set up in the Temple of Jerusalem, and to do actually\nthat which St. Paul prophesied a few years after the man of sin would do,\n\u2018Exalt himself over all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so\nthat he would sit in the temple of God, and show himself as God.\u2019\n\nThen followed a strange scene, which will help to explain much of this\nEpistle of St. Peter.  The Jews of Jerusalem did not rise in rebellion.\nThey did what St. Peter told the Jews of Asia Minor to do.  They\ndetermined to suffer for well-doing,\u2014to die as martyrs, not as rebels.\nPetronius, the Roman governor who was sent to carry out the order, was a\nstrange mixture of good and bad.  He was a peculiarly profligate and\nluxurious man.  He wrote one of the foulest books which ever disgraced\nthe pen of man.  But he was kind-hearted, humane, rational.  He had\norders to set up the Emperor\u2019s statue in the temple at Jerusalem; and no\ndoubt he laughed inwardly at the folly: but he must obey orders.  Yet he\nhesitated, when he landed and saw the Jews come to him in thousands,\ncovering the country like a cloud, young and old, rich and poor, unarmed,\nmany clothed in sackcloth and with ashes on their heads, and beseeching\nhim that he would not commit this abomination.  He rebuked them sternly.\nHe had a whole army at his back, and would compel them to obey.  They\nanswered that they must obey God rather than man.  Petronius\u2019s heart\nrelented; he left his soldiers behind and went on to try the Jews at\nTiberias.  There he met a similar band.  He tried again to be stern with\nthem.  All other nations had worshipped the Emperor\u2019s image, why should\nnot they?  Would they make war against their emperor?  \u2018We have no\nthought of war,\u2019 they cried with one voice, \u2018but we will submit to be\nmassacred rather than break our law;\u2019 and at once the whole crowd fell\nwith their faces to the earth, and declared that they were ready to offer\ntheir throats to the swords of the Roman soldiers.\n\nFor forty days that scene lasted; it was the time for sowing, and the\nwhole land lay untilled.  Petronius could do nothing with people who were\nready to be martyrs, but not rebels; and he gave way.  He excused himself\nto the mad emperor as he best could.  He promised the Jews that he would\ndo all he could for them, even at the risk of his own life\u2014and he very\nnearly lost his life in trying to save them.  But the thing tided over,\nand the poor Jews conquered, as the Christian martyrs conquered\nafterwards, by resignation; by that highest courage which shows itself\nnot in anger but in patience, and suffering instead of rebelling.\n\nWell it had been for the Jews elsewhere if they had been of the same\nmind.  But near Babylon, just about the time St. Peter wrote his epistle,\nthe Jews broke out in open rebellion.  Two Jewish orphans, who had been\nbred as weavers and ran away from a cruel master, escaped into the\nmarshes, and there became the leaders of a great band of robbers.  They\ndefeated the governor of Babylon in battle; they went to the court of the\nheathen king of Persia, and became great men there.  One of them had the\nother poisoned, and then committed great crimes, wasted the country of\nBabylon with fire and sword, and came to a miserable end, being\nslaughtered in bed when in a drunken sleep.  Then the Babylonians rose on\nall the Jews and massacred them: the survivors fled to the great city of\nSeleucia, and mixed themselves up in party riots with the heathens; the\nheathens turned on them and slew 50,000 of them; and so, as St. Peter\ntold them, judgment began at the house of God.\n\nWhether this massacre of the Babylonian Jews happened just before or just\nafter St. Peter wrote his epistle from Babylon, we cannot tell.  But it\nis plain, I think, that either this matter or what led to it was in his\nmind.  It seems most likely that it had happened a little before, and\nthat he wrote to the Jews in the north-east of Asia Minor, to warn them\nagainst giving way to the same lawless passions which had brought ruin\nand misery on the Jews of Babylon.\n\nFor they were in great danger of falling into the same misery and ruin.\nThe Romans expected the Jews to rebel all over the world.  And, as it\nfell out, they did rebel, and perished in vast numbers miserably, because\nthey would not take St. Peter\u2019s advice; because they would not obey every\nordinance of man for the Lord\u2019s sake; because they would not honour all\nmen: but looked on all men as the enemies of God.\n\nGood for them it would have been, had they taken St. Peter\u2019s advice,\nwhich was the only plan, he said, to save their souls and lives in those\nterrible times.  Good for them if they had believed St. Peter\u2019s gospel,\nwhen he told them that God had chosen them to obedience, and purification\nby the blood of Christ, to an inheritance undefiled and that faded not\naway.\n\nHe said that, remember, to all the Jews, whether Christians or not.  St.\nPeter took for granted that Christ was Lord and King of all the Jews,\nwhether they believed it or not.  He did not say, \u2018If you believe in\nChrist, then he is your King; if not, then he is not;\u2019 but\u2014Because you\nare Jews, you are all Christ\u2019s subjects; to him you owe faith, loyalty,\nand obedience.  It was of him the old Jewish prophets foretold, and saw\nthat their prophecies of Christ\u2019s coming would be fulfilled, not in their\nown time, but in your time\u2014in the time of the Jews to whom he spoke.\nTherefore they were to give up the foolish practices which had been\nhanded down to them from their forefathers.  Therefore they were to give\nup fleshly lusts, which warred against the soul, and would only bring\nthem to destruction; therefore they were to be holy, even as God was\nholy; therefore they were to purify their souls in sincere brotherly\nlove; therefore they were to keep their conduct honourable among the\nGentiles, that, though they were now spoken against as evil-doers, they\nmight see their good works, and glorify God in the coming day of\nvisitation.  Therefore they were to submit to every ordinance of man for\nthe Lord\u2019s sake; and trust to Christ, their true King in heaven, to\ndeliver them from oppression, and free them from injustice, in his own\ngood way and time.  Free men they were in the sight of God, and unjustly\nenslaved by the Romans: but they were not to make their being free men a\ncloak and excuse for malice and evil passions against the Gentiles (as\ntoo many of the Jews were doing), but remember that they were the\nservants of God; and serve him, and trust in him to deliver them in his\nown way and time, by his Son Jesus Christ.\n\nThose Jews who believed St. Peter\u2019s gospel and good news that Christ was\ntheir King and Saviour, kept their souls in peace.\n\nThose Jews who did not believe St. Peter\u2014and they, unhappily for them,\nwere the far greater number\u2014broke out into mad rebellion again, and\nperished in vast numbers, till they were destroyed off the face of the\nearth (as St. Peter had warned them) by their own fleshly lusts, which\nwarred against the soul.\n\nBut what has this to do with us?\n\nIt has everything to do with us, if we believe that we are Christian men;\nthat Christ is our King, and the King of all the world, just as much as\nhe was King of the Jews; that all power is given to him in heaven and\nearth, and that he is actually exercising his power, and governing all\nheaven and earth.\n\nYes.  If we really believed in the kingdom of God and Christ; if we\nreally believed that the fate of nations is determined, not by kings, not\nby conquerors, not by statesmen, not by parliaments, not by the people,\nbut by God; that we, England, the world, are going God\u2019s way, and not our\nown; then we should look hopefully, peacefully, contentedly, on the\nmatters which are too apt now to fret us; for we should say more often\nthan we do, \u2018It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth to him good.\u2019\n\nWhen we see new opinions taking hold of men\u2019s minds; when we see great\nchanges becoming certain; then, instead of being angry and terrified, we\nshould say with Gamaliel the wise, \u2018Let them alone: if this counsel or\nthis work be of men, it will come to nought; if it be of God, you cannot\noverthrow it, lest haply you be found fighting against God.\u2019\n\nIf, again, we fancied ourselves aggrieved by any law, we should not say,\n\u2018It is unjust, therefore I will not obey it:\u2019 for it would seem a small\nmatter to us whether the law was unjust to us, which only means, in most\ncases, that the law is hard on us personally, and that we do not like it;\nfor almost every one considers things just which make for his own\ninterest, while whatever is against his interest is of course unjust.  We\nshould say, \u2018Let the law be hard on me, yet I will obey it for the Lord\u2019s\nsake; if it can be altered by fair and lawful means, well and good; but\nif not, I will take it as one more burden which I am to bear patiently\nfor the sake of him who lays it on me, Christ my Lord and my King.\u2019\n\nThe true question with us ought to be, Does the law force us to do that\nwhich is wrong?\n\nIf so, we are bound not to obey it, as the Jews were bound not to obey\nthe law which commanded C\u00e6sar\u2019s image to be set up in the Temple.  But if\nany man knows of a law in this land which compels him to do a wrong\nthing, I know of none.  And let no man fancy that such submission shows a\nslavish spirit.  Not so.  St. Peter did not wish to encourage a slavish\nspirit in Jews and Christians.  He told them that they were free: but\nthat they were not to use that belief as a cloak of maliciousness\u2014of\nspiteful, bitter, and turbulent conduct.  And as a fact, those who have\ndone most for true freedom, in all ages, have not been the violent,\nnoisy, bitter, rebellious spirits, who have cried, \u2018We are the masters,\nwho shall rule over us?\u2019 but the God-fearing, patient, law-abiding men,\nwho would obey every ordinance of man for the Lord\u2019s sake, whether it\nseemed to them altogether just or not, unless they saw it was ruinous not\nto themselves merely, but to their country, and to their children after\nthem.\n\nIt is because men in their own minds do not believe that Christ is the\nruler of the world, that they lose all hope of God\u2019s delivering them, and\nbreak out into mad rebellion.  It is because, again, men do not believe\nthat Christ is the ruler of the world, that, when their rebellion has\nfailed, they sink into slavishness and dull despair, and bow their necks\nto the yoke of the first tyrant who arises; and try to make a covenant\nwith death and hell.  Better far for them, had they made a covenant with\nChrist, who is ready to deliver men from death and hell in this world, as\nwell as in the world to come.\n\nBut he who believes in Christ, in the living Christ, the ordering Christ,\nthe governing Christ, will possess his soul in patience.  He will not\nfret himself, lest he should do evil; because he can always put his trust\nin the Lord, until the tyranny be overpast.  He will not hastily rebel:\nbut neither will he truckle basely and cowardly to the ways of this\nwicked world.  For Christ the Lord hates those ways, and has judged them,\nand doomed them to destruction; and he reigns, and will reign, till he\nhath put all enemies under his feet.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XVI.\nTERROR BY NIGHT.\n\n\n                          (_Preached in Lent_.)\n\n                                PSALM XCI. 5.\n\n              Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night.\n\nYOU may see, if you will read your Bible, that the night is spoken of in\nthe Old Testament much as we speak of it now, as a beautiful and holy\nthing.  The old Jews were not afraid of any terror by night.  They\nrejoiced to consider the heavens, the work of God\u2019s fingers, the moon and\nthe stars, which he had ordained.  They looked on night, as we do, as a\nblessed time of rest and peace for men, in which the beasts of the forest\nseek their meat from God, while all things are springing and growing, man\nknows not how, under the sleepless eye of a good and loving Creator.\n\nBut, on the other hand, you may remark that St. Paul, in his Epistles,\nspeaks of night in a very different tone.  He is always opposing night to\nday, and darkness to light; as if darkness was evil in itself, and a\npattern of all evil in men\u2019s souls.  And St. Paul knew what he was\nsaying, and knew how to say it; for he spoke by the Holy Spirit of God.\n\nThe reason of this difference is simple.  The old Jews spoke of God\u2019s\nnight, such as we country folks may see, thank God, as often as we will.\nSt. Paul spoke of man\u2019s night, such as it might be seen, alas! in the\ncities of the Roman empire.  All those to whom he wrote\u2014Romans,\nCorinthians, Ephesians, and the rest\u2014dwelt in great cities, heathen and\nprofligate; and night in them was mixed up with all that was ugly,\ndangerous, and foul.  They were bad enough by day: after sunset, they\nbecame hells on earth.  The people, high and low, were sunk in\nwickedness; the lower classes in poverty, and often despair.  The streets\nwere utterly unlighted; and in the darkness robbery, house-breaking,\nmurder, were so common, that no one who had anything to lose went through\nthe streets without his weapon or a guard; while inside the houses,\nthings went on at night\u2014works of darkness\u2014of which no man who knows of\nthem dare talk.  For as St. Paul says, \u2018It is a shame even to speak of\nthose things which are done by them in secret.\u2019  Evil things are done by\nnight still, in London, Paris, New York, and many a great city; but they\nare pure, respectable, comfortable, and happy, when compared with one of\nthose old heathen cities, which St. Paul knew but too well.\n\nAgain.  Our own forefathers were afraid of the night and its terrors, and\nlooked on night as on an ugly time: but for very different reasons from\nthose for which St. Paul warned his disciples of night and the works of\ndarkness.  Though they lived in the country, they did not rejoice in\nGod\u2019s heaven, or in the moon and stars which he had ordained.  They\nfancied that the night was the time in which all ghastly and ugly\nphantoms began to move; that it was peopled with ghosts, skeletons,\ndemons, witches, who held revels on the hill-tops, or stole into houses\nto suck the life out of sleeping men.  The cry of the wild fowl, and the\nhowling of the wind, were to them the yells of evil spirits.  They dared\nnot pass a graveyard by night for fear of seeing things of which we will\nnot talk.  They fancied that the forests, the fens, the caves, were full\nof spiteful and ugly spirits, who tempted men to danger and to death; and\nwhen they prayed to be delivered from the perils and dangers of the\nnight, they prayed not only against those real dangers of fire, of\nrobbers, of sudden sickness, and so forth, against which we all must\npray, but against a thousand horrible creatures which the good God never\ncreated, but which their own fancy had invented.\n\nNow in the Bible, from beginning to end, you will find no teaching of\nthis kind.  That there are angels, and that there are also evil spirits,\nthe Bible says distinctly; and that they can sometimes appear to men.\nBut it is most worthy of remark how little the Bible says about them, not\nhow much; how it keeps them, as it were, in the background, instead of\nbringing them forward; while our forefathers seem continually talking of\nthem, continually bringing them forward\u2014I had almost said they thought of\nnothing else.  If you compare the Holy Bible with the works which were\nmost popular among our forefathers, especially among the lower class,\ntill within the last 200 years, you will see at once what I mean,\u2014how\nghosts, apparitions, demons, witchcraft, are perpetually spoken of in\nthem; how seldom they are spoken of in the Bible; lest, I suppose, men\nshould think of them rather than of God, as our forefathers seem to have\nbeen but too much given to do.\n\nAnd so with this Psalm.  It takes for granted that men will have terrors\nby night; that they will be at times afraid of what may come to them in\nthe darkness.  But it tells them not to be afraid, for that as long as\nthey say to God, \u2018Thou art my hope and my stronghold; in thee will I\ntrust,\u2019 so long they will not be afraid for any terror by night.\n\nIt was because our forefathers did not say that, that they were afraid,\nand the terror by night grew on them; till at times it made them half mad\nwith fear of ghosts, witches, demons, and such-like; and with the madness\nof fear came the madness of cruelty; and they committed, again and again,\nsuch atrocities as I will not speak of here; crimes for which we must\ntrust that God has forgiven them, for they knew not what they did.\n\nBut, though we happily no longer believe in the terror by night which\ncomes from witches, demons, or ghosts, there is another kind of terror by\nnight in which we must believe, for it comes to us from God, and should\nbe listened to as the voice of God: even that terror about our own\nsinfulness, folly, weakness which comes to us in dreams or in sleepless\nnights.  Some will say, \u2018These painful dreams, these painful waking\nthoughts, are merely bodily, and can be explained by bodily causes, known\nto physicians.\u2019  Whether they can or not, matters very little to you and\nme.  Things may be bodily, and yet teach us spiritual lessons.  A\nbook\u2014the very Bible itself\u2014is a bodily thing: bodily leaves of paper,\nprinted with bodily ink; and yet out of it we may learn lessons for our\nsouls of the most awful and eternal importance.  And so with these night\nfancies and night thoughts.  We may learn from them.  We are forced often\nto learn from them, whether we will or not.  They are often God\u2019s message\nto us, calling us to repentance and amendment of life.  They are often\nGod\u2019s book of judgment, wherein our sins are written, which God is\nsetting before us, and showing us the things which we have done.\n\nWho that has come to middle age does not know how dreams sometimes remind\nhim painfully of what he once was, of what he would be still, without\nGod\u2019s grace?  How in his dreams he finds himself tempted by the old sins;\ngiving way to the old meannesses, weaknesses, follies?  How dreams remind\nhim, awfully enough, that though his circumstances have changed,\u2014his\nopinions, his whole manner of life, have changed\u2014yet he is still the same\nperson that he was ten, twenty, thirty, forty years ago, and will be for\never?  Nothing bears witness to the abiding, enduring, immortal oneness\nof the soul like dreams when they prove to a man, in a way which cannot\nbe mistaken\u2014that is, by making him do the deed over again in fancy\u2014that\nhe is the same person who told that lie, felt that hatred, many a year\nago; and who would do the same again, if God\u2019s grace left him to that\nweak and sinful nature, which is his master in sleep, and runs riot in\nhis dreams.  Whether God sends to men in these days dreams which enable\nthem to look forward, and to foretell things to come, I cannot say.  But\nthis I can say, that God sends dreams to men which enable them to look\nback, and recollect things past, which they had forgotten only too\neasily; and that these humbling and penitential dreams are God\u2019s warning\nthat (as the Article says) the infection of nature doth remain, even in\nthose who are regenerate; that nothing but the continual help of God\u2019s\nSpirit will keep us from falling back, or falling away.\n\nAgain: those sad thoughts which weigh on the mind when lying awake at\nnight, when all things look black to a man; when he is more ashamed of\nhimself, more angry with himself, more ready to take the darkest view of\nhis own character and of his own prospects of life, than he ever is by\nday,\u2014do not these thoughts, too, come from God?  Is it not God who is\nholding the man\u2019s eyes waking?  Is it not God who is making him search\nout his own heart, and commune with his spirit?  I believe that so it is.\nIf any one says, \u2018It is all caused by the darkness and silence.  You have\nnothing to distract your attention as you have by day, and therefore the\nmind becomes unwholesomely excited, and feeds upon itself,\u2019 I answer,\nthen they are good things, now and then, this darkness and this silence,\nif they do prevent the mind from being distracted, as it is all day long,\nby business and pleasure; if they leave a man\u2019s soul alone with itself,\nto look itself in the face, and be thoroughly ashamed of what it sees.\nIn the noise and glare of the day, we are all too apt to fancy that all\nis right with us, and say, \u2018I am rich, and increased with goods, and have\nneed of nothing;\u2019 and the night does us a kindly office if it helps us to\nfind out that we knew not that we were poor, and miserable, and blind,\nand naked\u2014not only in the sight of God, but in our own sight, when we\nlook honestly at ourselves.\n\nThe wise man says:\u2014\n\n    \u2018Oh, would some power the gift but give us,\n    To see ourselves as others see us!\u2019\n\nand those painful thoughts make us do that.  For if we see some faults in\nourselves, be sure our neighbours see them likewise, and perhaps many\nmore beside.\n\nBut more: these sad thoughts make us see ourselves as God sees us.  For\nif we see faults in ourselves, we may be sure that the pure and holy God,\nin whose sight the very heavens are not clean, and who charges his angels\nwith folly, sees our faults with infinitely greater clearness, and in\ninfinitely greater number.  So let us face those sad night thoughts,\nhowever painful, however humiliating they may be; for by them God is\ncalling us to repentance, and forcing us to keep Lent in spirit and in\ntruth, whether we keep it outwardly or not.\n\n\u2018What,\u2019 some may say, \u2018you would have us, then, afraid of the terror by\nnight?\u2019  My dear friends, that is exactly what I would not have.  I would\nteach you from Holy Scripture how to profit by the terror, how to thank\nGod for the terror, instead of being afraid of it, as you otherwise\ncertainly will be.  For these ugly dreams, these sad thoughts do come,\nwhether you choose or not.  Whether you choose or not, you all have, or\nwill have seasons of depression, of anxiety, of melancholy.  Shall they\nteach you, or merely terrify you?  Shall they only bring remorse, or\nshall they bring repentance?\n\nRemorse.  In that is nothing but pain.  A man may see all the wrong and\nfolly he has done; he may fret over it, torment himself with it, curse\nhimself for it, and yet be the worse, and not the better, for what he\nsees.  If he be a strong-minded man, he may escape from remorse in the\nbustle of business or pleasure.  If he be a weak-minded man, he may\nescape from it in drunkenness, as hundreds do; or he may fall into\nmelancholy, superstition, despair, suicide.\n\nBut if his sadness breeds, not remorse, but repentance\u2014that is, in one\nword, if instead of keeping his sins to himself, he takes his sins to\nGod\u2014then all will be well.  Then he will not be afraid of the terror, but\nthankful for it, when he knows that it is what St. Paul calls, the terror\nof the Lord.\n\nThis is why the old Psalmists were not afraid of the terror by night;\nbecause they knew that their anxiety had come from God, and therefore\nwent to God for forgiveness, for help, for comfort.  Therefore it is that\none says, \u2018I am weary of groaning.  Every night wash I my bed, and water\nmy couch with my tears,\u2019 and yet says the next moment, \u2018Away from me, all\nye that work vanity.  The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.  The\nLord will receive my prayer.\u2019\n\nTherefore it is that another says, \u2018While I held my sins my bones waxed\nold through my daily complaining;\u2019 and the next moment\u2014\u2018I said I will\nconfess my sins unto the Lord, and so thou forgavest the wickedness of my\nsin.\u2019\n\nTherefore it is that again another says, \u2018Thou holdest mine eyes waking.\nI am so feeble that I cannot speak.  I call to remembrance my sin, and in\nthe night season I commune with my heart, and search out my spirit.  Will\nthe Lord absent himself for ever, and will he be no more entreated?  Is\nhis mercy clean gone for ever, and his promise come utterly to an end for\nevermore?  And I said, It is mine own infirmity; but I will remember the\nyears of the right hand of the most Highest.  I will remember the works\nof the Lord, and call to mind the wonders of old.\u2019\n\nAnd another, \u2018Why art thou so heavy, O my soul, and why art thou so\ndisquieted within me?  O put thy trust in God, for I shall yet give him\nthanks, who is the help of my countenance, and my God.\u2019\n\nAnd therefore it is, that our Lord Jesus Christ, in order that he might\ntaste sorrow for every man, and be made in all things like to his\nbrethren, endured, once and for all, in the garden of Gethsemane, the\nterror which cometh by night, as none ever endured it before or since;\nthe agony of dread, the agony of helplessness, in which he prayed yet\nmore earnestly, and his sweat was as great drops of blood falling down to\nthe ground.  And there appeared an angel from heaven strengthening him;\nbecause he stood not on his own strength, but cast himself on his Father\nand our Father, on his God and our God.  So says St. Paul, who tells us\nhow our Lord, in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers\nand supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto him that was able\nto save him from death, and was heard in that he feared\u2014though he were a\nson, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being\nmade perfect, he became the Author of everlasting salvation unto all them\nthat obey him.\n\nOh, may we all, in the hour of shame and sadness, in the hour of darkness\nand confusion, and, above all, in the hour of death and the day of\njudgment, take refuge with him in whom alone is help, and comfort, and\nsalvation for this life and the life to come\u2014even Jesus Christ, who died\nfor us on the cross.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XVII.\nTHE SON OF THUNDER.\n\n\n                                ST. JOHN I. 1.\n\n    In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the\n    Word was God.\n\nWE read this morning the first chapter of the Gospel according to St.\nJohn.\n\nSome of you, I am sure, must have felt, as you heard it, how grand was\nthe very sound of the words.  Some one once compared the sound of St.\nJohn\u2019s Gospel to a great church bell: simple, slow, and awful; and awful\njust because it is so simple and slow.  The words are very short,\u2014most of\nthem of one syllable,\u2014so that even a child may understand them if he\nwill: but every word is full of meaning.\n\n\u2018In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word\nwas God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made\nby him; and without him was not anything made that was made.  In him was\nlife; and the life was the light of men.  And the light shineth in\ndarkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.\u2019\n\nThose, I hold, are perhaps the deepest words ever written by man.  Whole\nbooks have been written, and whole books more might be written upon them,\nand on the words which come after them.  \u2018That was the true Light, which\nlighteth every man that cometh into the world.  He was in the world, and\nthe world was made by him, and the world knew him not.  He came unto his\nown, and his own received him not.  But as many as received him, to them\ngave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his\nname: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of\nthe will of man, but of God.  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt\namong us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of\nthe Father), full of grace and truth.\u2019  They go down to the mystery of\nall mysteries,\u2014to the mystery of the unfathomable One God, who dwells\nalone in the light which none can approach unto, self-sustained and\nself-sufficing for ever.  And then they go on to the other great\nmystery\u2014how that God comes forth out of himself to give life and light to\nall things which he has made; and what is the bond between the Abysmal\nFather in heaven, and us his human children, and the world in which we\nlive:\u2014even Jesus Christ, God of the substance of his Father, begotten\nbefore the worlds, and man of the substance of his mother, born in the\nworld.\n\nYes.  The root and ground of all true philosophy lies in this chapter.\nIts words are so deep that the wisest man might spend his life over them\nwithout finding out all that they mean.  And yet they are so simple that\nany child can understand enough of their meaning to know its duty, and to\ndo it.\n\nRemark, again, how short the sentences are.  Each is made up of a very\nfew words, and followed by a full stop, that our minds may come to a full\nstop likewise, and think over what we have heard before St. John goes on\nto tell us more.\n\nYes.  St. John does not hurry either himself or us.  He takes his time;\nand he wishes us to take our time likewise.  His message will keep; for\nit is eternal.  It is not a story of yesterday, or to-day, or to-morrow.\nIt is the story of eternity,\u2014of what is, and was, and always will be.\n\nAlways has the Word been with God, and always will he be God.\n\nAlways has the Word been making all things, and always will he be making.\n\nAlways has the Spirit been proceeding, and always will the Spirit be\nproceeding, from the Word and from the Father of the Word, giving their\nlight and their life to men.\n\nSt. John\u2019s message will last for ever; and therefore he tells it slowly\nand deliberately, knowing that no time can change what he has to say; for\nit is the good news of the Word, Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday,\nto-day, and for ever, because he is God of very God, eternally in the\nbosom of the Father.\n\nNow St. John, who writes thus simply and quietly, was no weak or soft\nperson.  He was one of the two whom the Lord surnamed Boanerges, the Son\nof Thunder\u2014the man of the loud and awful voice.  Painters have liked to\ndraw St. John as young, soft, and feminine, because he was the Apostle of\nLove.  I beg you to put that sentimental notion out of your minds, and to\nremember that the only hint which Holy Scripture gives us about St.\nJohn\u2019s person is, that he was \u2018a Son of Thunder;\u2019 that his very voice,\nwhen he chose, was awful; that he, and his brother James, before they\nwere converted, were not of a soft, but of a terrible temper; that it was\nJames and John, the Sons of Thunder, who wanted to call down thunder and\nlightning from heaven on all the villages who would not receive the Lord.\n\nA Son of Thunder.  Think over that name, and think over it carefully,\nremembering that it was our Lord himself who gave St. John the name; and\nthat it therefore has, surely, some deep meaning.\n\nDo not fancy that it means merely a loud and noisy person.  I have known\ntoo many, carelessly looking only at the outsides and shows of things,\nand not at their inside and reality, fancy that that was what it meant.\nI have known them fancy that they themselves were sons of thunder when\nthey raved and shouted, and used violent language, in preaching, or in\npublic speaking.  And I have heard foolish people honour such men the\nmore, and think them the more in earnest, the more noise they made, and\nsay of him; \u2018He is a true Boanerges\u2014a Son of Thunder, like St. John.\u2019\n\nLike St. John?  The only sermon of St. John\u2019s which we have on record is\nthat which they say he used to preach over and over again when he was\ncarried as an old man into his church at Ephesus.  And that was no more\nthan these few words over and over again, Sunday after Sunday, \u2018Little\nchildren, love one another.\u2019\n\nThat was the way in which St. John, the Son of Thunder, spoke when age\nand long obedience to the Spirit of God had taught him how to use his\nstrength wisely and well.\n\nLike St. John?  Is there anywhere, in St. John\u2019s Gospel or Epistles, one\nviolent expression?  One sentence of great swelling words?  Are not the\nwords of the Son of Thunder, as I have been telling you, peculiarly calm,\nslow, simple, gentle?  Can those whose mouths are full of noisy and\nviolent talk, be true Sons of Thunder, if St. John was one?\n\nNo.  And if you will think for yourselves, you will see that there is a\ndeeper meaning in our Lord\u2019s name for St. John than merely that he was a\nloud and violent man.\n\nYou hear the roar of the thunder, but you know surely that it is not the\nthunder itself; that it is only its echo rolling on from cloud to cloud\nand hill from hill.\n\nBut the thunder itself\u2014if you have ever been close enough to it to hear\nit\u2014is very different from that, and far more awful.  Still and silently\nit broods till its time is come.  And then there is one ear-piercing\ncrack, one blinding flash, and all is over.  Nothing so swift, so\ninstantaneous, as the thunder itself, and yet nothing so strong.\n\nAnd such are those sudden flashes of indignation against sin and\nfalsehood which break out for a moment in St. John\u2019s writing, piercing,\nlike the Word of God himself, the very joints and marrow of the heart,\nand showing, in one terrible word, what is the real matter with the bad\nman\u2019s soul; as the thunderbolt lights up for an instant the whole heavens\nfar and wide.  \u2018If we say that we have fellowship with God, and walk in\ndarkness, we lie.\u2019  In that one plain, ugly word, he tells us the whole\ntruth, frightful as it is, and then he goes on calmly once more.  And\nagain:\n\n\u2018He that saith, I know God, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar.\nHe that committeth sin is of the devil.  He that hateth his brother is a\nmurderer.  If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a\nliar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he\nlove God whom he hath not seen?  He that doeth good is of God; but he\nthat doeth evil has not seen God.\u2019\n\nSuch words as these, coming as they do amid the usually quiet and gentle\nlanguage of St. John\u2014these are truly words of thunder; going straight to\ntheir mark, tearing off the mask from hypocrisy and self-deceiving and\nfalse religion, and speaking the truth in majesty.\n\nAnd yet there is no noisiness, no wordiness, about them; nothing like\nrant or violence.  Such a man is a liar, says St. John: but he says no\nmore.  That is all, and that is enough.\n\nSo speaks the true Son of Thunder.  And his words, like the thunder, echo\nfrom land to land; and we hear them now, this day, in a foreign tongue,\neighteen hundred years after they were written: while thousands of\nbigger, noisier, and frothier words and more violent books have been lost\nand forgotten utterly.\n\nAnd now, my friends, we may find in St. John\u2019s example a wholesome lesson\nfor ourselves.  We may learn from it that noisiness is not earnestness,\nthat violence is not strength.  Noise is a sign of want of faith, and\nviolence is a sign of weakness.\n\nThe man who is really in earnest, who has real faith in what he is saying\nand doing, will not be noisy, and loud, and in a hurry, as it is written,\n\u2018He that believeth will not make haste.\u2019  He that is really strong; he\nwho knows that he can do his work, if he takes his time and uses his wit,\nand God prospers him\u2014he will not be violent, but will work on in silence\nand peaceful industry, as it is written, \u2018Thy strength is to sit still.\u2019\n\nI know that you here do not require this warning much for yourselves.\nThere is, thank God, something in our quiet, industrious, country life\nwhich breeds in men that solid, sober temper, the temper which produces\nmuch work and little talk, which is the mark of a true Englishman, a true\ngentleman, and a true Christian.\n\nBut if you go (as more and more of you will go) into the great towns, you\nwill hear much noisy and violent speaking from pulpits, and at public\nmeetings.  You will read much noisy and violent writing in newspapers and\nbooks.\n\nNow I say to you, distrust such talk.  It may seem to you very earnest\nand passionate.  Distrust it for that very reason.  It may seem to you\nvery eloquent and full of fine words.  Distrust it for that very reason.\nThe man who cannot tell his story without wrapping it up in fine words,\ngenerally does not know very clearly what he is talking about.  The man\nwho cannot speak or write without scolding and exaggeration, is not very\nlikely to be able to give sound advice to his fellow-men.\n\nRemember that it is by violent language of this kind, in all ages, that\nfanatical preachers have deceived silly men and women to their shame and\nruin; and mob-leaders have stirred up riots and horrible confusions.\nRemember this: and distrust violent and wordy persons wheresoever you\nshall meet them: but after listening to them, if you must, go home, and\ntake out your Bibles, and read the Gospel of St. John, and see how he\nspoke, the true Son of Thunder, whose words are gone out into all lands,\nand their sound unto the end of the world, just because they are calm and\nsober, plain and simple, like the words of Jesus Christ his Lord and our\nLord, who spake as never man spake.\n\nAnd for ourselves\u2014let us remember our Lord\u2019s own warning: \u2018Let your Yea\nbe Yea, and your Nay Nay; for whatsoever is more than these cometh of\nevil.\u2019\n\nTell your story plainly and calmly; speak your mind if you must.  But\nspeak it quietly.  Do not try to make out the worst case for your\nadversary; do not exaggerate; do not use strong language: say the truth,\nthe whole truth; but say nothing but the truth, in patience and in\ncharity.  For everything beyond that comes of evil,\u2014of some evil or fault\nin us.  Either we are not quite sure that we are right; or we have lost\nour temper, and then we see the whole matter awry, through the mist of\npassion; or we are selfish, and looking out for our own interest, or our\nown credit, instead of judging the matter fairly.  This, or something\nelse, is certainly wrong in us whenever we give way to violent language.\nTherefore, whenever we are tempted to say more than is needful, let us\nremember St. John\u2019s words, and ask God for his Holy Spirit, the spirit of\nlove, which, instead of weakening a man\u2019s words, makes them all the\nstronger in the cause of truth, because they are spoken in love.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XVIII.\nHUMILITY.\n\n\n                                  LUKE V. 8.\n\n                Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.\n\nFEW stories in the New Testament are as well known as this.  Few go home\nmore deeply to the heart of man.  Most simple, most graceful is the\nstory, and yet it has in it depths unfathomable.\n\nGreat painters have loved to draw, great poets have loved to sing, that\nscene on the lake of Gennesaret.  The clear blue water, land-locked with\nmountains; the meadows on the shore, gay with their lilies of the field,\non which our Lord bade them look, and know the bounty of their Father in\nheaven; the rich gardens, olive-yards, and vineyards on the slopes; the\ntowns and villas scattered along the shore, all of bright white\nlimestone, gay in the sun; the crowds of boats, fishing continually for\nthe fish which swarm to this day in the lake;\u2014everywhere beautiful\ncountry life, busy and gay, healthy and civilized likewise\u2014and in the\nmidst of it, the Maker of all heaven and earth sitting in a poor fisher\u2019s\nboat, and condescending to tell them where the shoal of fish was lying.\nIt is a wonderful scene.  Let us thank God that it happened once on\nearth.  Let us try to see what we may learn from it in these days, in\nwhich our God and Saviour no longer walks this earth in human form.\n\n\u2018Ah!\u2019 some may say, \u2018but for that very reason there is no lesson in the\nstory for us in these days.  True it is, that God does not walk the earth\nnow in human form.  He works no miracles, either for fishermen, or for\nany other men.  We shall never see a miraculous draught of fishes.  We\nshall never be convinced, as St. Peter was, by a miracle, that Christ is\nclose to us.  What has the story to do with us?\u2019\n\nMy friends, are things, after all, so different now from what they were\nthen?  Is our case after all so very different from St. Peter\u2019s?  God and\nChrist cannot change, for they are eternal\u2014the same yesterday, to-day,\nand for ever; and if Christ was near St. Peter on the lake of Gennesaret,\nhe is near us now, and here; for in him we live and move and have our\nbeing; and he is about our path, and about our bed, and spieth out all\nour ways: near us for ever, whether we know it or not.  And human nature\ncannot change.  There is in us the same heart as there was in St. Peter,\nfor evil and for good.  When St. Peter found suddenly that it was the\nLord who was in his boat, his first feeling was one of fear: \u2018Depart from\nme for I am a sinful man, O Lord.\u2019  And when we recollect at moments that\nGod is close to us, watching all we do, all we say, yea, all we think,\nare we not afraid, for the moment at least?  Do we not feel the thought\nof God\u2019s presence a burden?  Do we never long to hide from God?\u2014to forget\nGod again, and cry in our hearts: \u2018Depart from me; for I am a sinful man,\nO Lord\u2019?\n\nGod grant to us all, that after that first feeling of dread and awe is\nover, we may go on, as St. Peter went on, to the better feelings of\nadmiration, loyalty, worship and say at last, as St. Peter said\nafterwards, when the Lord asked him if he too would leave him: \u2018Lord, to\nwhom shall we go? for thou hast the words of eternal life.\u2019\n\nBut do I blame St. Peter for saying, \u2018Depart from me; for I am a sinful\nman, O Lord\u2019?  God forbid!  Who am I, to blame St. Peter?  Especially\nwhen even the Lord Jesus did not blame him, but only bade him not to be\nafraid.\n\nAnd why did the Lord not blame him, even when he asked Him to go away?\n\nBecause St. Peter was honest.  He said frankly and naturally what was in\nhis heart.  And honesty, even if it is mistaken, never offends God, and\nought never to offend men.  God requires truth in the inward parts; and\nif a man speaks the truth\u2014if he expresses his own thoughts and feelings\nfrankly and honestly\u2014then, even if he is not right, he is at least on the\nonly road to get right, as St. Peter was.\n\nHe spoke not from dislike of our Lord, but from modesty; from a feeling\nof awe, of uneasiness, of dread, at the presence of one who was\ninfinitely greater, wiser, better than himself.\n\nAnd that feeling of reverence and modesty, even when it takes the shape,\nas it often will in young people, of shyness and fear, is a divine and\nnoble feeling\u2014the beginning of all goodness.  Indeed, I question whether\nthere can be any real and sound goodness in any man\u2019s heart, if he has no\nmodesty, and no reverence.  Boldness, forwardness, self-conceit, above\nall in the young\u2014we know how ugly they are in our eyes; and the Bible\ntells us again and again how ugly they are in the sight of God.\n\nThe truly great and free and noble soul\u2014and St. Peter\u2019s soul was such\u2014is\nthat of the man who feels awe and reverence in the presence of those who\nare wiser and holier than himself; who is abashed and humbled when he\ncompares himself with his betters, just because his standard is so high.\nBecause he knows how much better he should be than he is; because he is\ndiscontented with himself, ashamed of himself, therefore he shrinks, at\nfirst, from the very company which, after a while, he learns to like\nbest, because it teaches him most.  And so it was with St. Peter\u2019s noble\nsoul.  He felt himself, in the presence of that pure Christ, a sinful\nman:\u2014not perhaps what we should call sinful; but sinful in comparison of\nChrist.  He felt his own meanness, ignorance, selfishness, weakness.  He\nfelt unworthy to be in such good company.  He felt unworthy,\u2014he, the\nignorant fisherman,\u2014to have such a guest in his poor boat.  \u2018Go\nelsewhere, Lord,\u2019 he tried to say, \u2018to a place and to companions more fit\nfor thee.  I am ashamed to stand in thy presence.  I am dazzled by the\nbrightness of thy countenance, crushed down by the thought of thy wisdom\nand power, uneasy lest I say or do something unfit for thee; lest I anger\nthee unawares in my ignorance, clumsiness; lest I betray to thee my own\nbad habits: and those bad habits I feel in thy presence as I never felt\nbefore.  Thou art too condescending; thou honourest me too much; thou\nhast taken me for a better man than I am; thou knowest not what a poor\nmiserable creature I am at heart\u2014\u201cDepart from me; for I am a sinful man,\nO Lord.\u201d\u2019\n\nThere spoke out the truly noble soul, who was ready the next moment, as\nsoon as he had recovered himself, to leave all and follow Christ; who was\nready afterwards to wander, to suffer, to die upon the cross for his\nLord; and who, when he was led out to execution, asked to be crucified\n(as it is said St. Peter actually did) with his head downwards; for it\nwas too much honour for him to die looking up to heaven, as his Lord had\ndied.\n\nDo you not understand me yet?  Then think what you would have thought of\nSt. Peter, if, instead of saying, \u2018Depart from me; for I am a sinful man,\nO Lord,\u2019 St. Peter had said, \u2018Stay with me, for I am a holy man, O Lord.\nI am just the sort of person who deserves the honour of thy company; and\nmy boat, poor though it is, more fit for thee than the palace of a king.\u2019\nWould St. Peter have seemed to you then wiser or more foolish, better or\nworse, than he does now, when in his confused honest humility, he begs\nthe Lord to go away and leave him?  And do you not feel that a man is (as\na great poet says) \u2018displeasing alike to God and to the enemies of God,\u2019\nwhen he comes boldly to the throne of grace, not to find grace and mercy,\nbecause he feels that he needs them: but to boast of God\u2019s grace, and\nmake God\u2019s mercy to him an excuse for looking down upon his\nfellow-creatures; and worships, like the Pharisee, in self-conceit and\npride, thanking God that he is not as other men are?\n\nBetter far to be the publican, who stood afar off, and dare not lift up\nas much as his eyes toward heaven, but cried only, \u2018God be merciful to me\na sinner.\u2019  Better far to be the honest and devout soldier, who, when\nJesus offered to come to his house, answered, \u2018Lord, I am not worthy that\nthou shouldest enter under my roof.  But speak the word only, and my\nservant shall be healed.\u2019\n\nOnly he must say that in honesty, in spirit, and in truth, like St.\nPeter.  For a man may shrink from religion, from the thought of God, from\ncoming to the Holy Communion, for two most opposite reasons.\n\nHe may shrink from them because he knows he is full of sins, and wishes\nto keep his sins; and knows that, if he worships God, if he comes to the\nHoly Communion\u2014indeed, if he remembers the presence of God at all,\u2014he\npledges himself to give up his bad habits; to repent and amend, which is\njust what he has no mind to do.  So he turns away from God, because he\nchooses to remain bad.  May the Lord have mercy on his soul, for he has\nno mercy on it himself!  He chooses evil, and refuses good; and evil will\nbe his ruin.\n\nBut, again, a man may shrink from God, from church, from the Holy\nCommunion, because he feels himself bad, and longs to be good; because he\nfeels himself full of evil habits, and hates them, and sees how ugly they\nare, and is afraid to appear in the presence of God foul with sin.\n\nLet him be of good cheer.  He is not going wrong wilfully.  But he is\nmaking a mistake.  Let him make it no more.  He feels himself unworthy.\nLet him come all the more, that he may be made worthy.  Let him come,\nbecause he is worthy.  For\u2014strange it may seem, but true it is\u2014that a man\nis the more worthy to draw near to God the more he feels himself to be\nutterly unworthy thereof.\n\nHe who partakes worthily of the Holy Communion is he who says with his\nwhole heart, \u2018We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under\nthy table.\u2019  He with whom Christ will take up his abode is he who says,\n\u2018Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof.\u2019\n\nFor humility is the beginning of all goodness, and the end of all wisdom.\n\nHe who says that he sees is blind.  He who knows his own blindness sees.\nHe who says he has no sin in him is the sinner.  He who confesses his\nsins is the righteous man; for God is faithful and just to forgive him,\nas he did St. Peter, and to cleanse him from all unrighteousness.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XIX.\nA WHITSUN SERMON.\n\n\n                            PSALM CIV. 24, 27\u201330.\n\n    O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them\n    all: the earth is full of thy riches. . . .  These wait all upon\n    thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.  That thou\n    givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled\n    with good.  Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away\n    their breath, they die, and return to their dust.  Thou sendest forth\n    thy Spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the\n    earth.\n\nYOU may not understand why I read this morning, instead of the _Te Deum_,\nthe \u2018Song of the three Children,\u2019 which calls on all powers and creatures\nin the world to bless and praise God.  You may not understand also, at\nfirst, why this grand 104th Psalm was chosen as one of the special Psalms\nfor Whitsuntide,\u2014what it has to do with the Holy Ghost, the Comforter,\nthe Spirit of God.  Let me try to explain it to you, and may God grant\nthat you may find something worth remembering among my clumsy words.\n\nYou were told this morning that there were two ways of learning\nconcerning God and the Spirit of God,\u2014that one was by the hearing of the\near, and the Holy Bible; the other by the seeing of the eye\u2014by nature and\nthe world around us.  It is of the latter I speak this afternoon,\u2014of what\nyou can learn concerning God by seeing, if only you have eyes, and the\nsame Spirit of God to open those eyes, as the Psalmist had.\n\nThe man who wrote this Psalm looked round him on the wondrous world in\nwhich we dwell, and all he saw in it spoke to him of God; of one God,\nboundless in wisdom and in power, in love and care; and of one Spirit of\nGod, the Lord and Giver of Life.\n\nHe saw all this, and so glorious did it seem to him, as he looked on the\nfair world round him, that he could not contain himself.  Not only was\nhis reason satisfied, but his heart was touched.  It was so glorious that\nhe could not speak of it coldly, calmly; and he burst out into singing a\nsong of praise\u2014\u2018O Lord our God, thou art become exceeding glorious; thou\nart clothed with majesty and honour.\u2019  For he saw everywhere order; all\nthings working together for good.  He saw everywhere order and rule; and\nsomething within him told him, there must be a Lawgiver, an Orderer, a\nRuler and he must be One.\n\nAgain, the Psalmist saw everywhere a purpose; things evidently created to\nbe of use to each other.  And the Spirit of God told him there must be\nOne who purposed all this; who meant to do it, and who had done it; who\nthought it out and planned it by wisdom and understanding.\n\nThen the Psalmist saw how everything, from the highest to the lowest, was\nof use.  The fir trees were a dwelling for the stork; and the very stony\nrocks, where nothing else can live, were a refuge for the wild goats;\neverywhere he saw use and bounty\u2014food, shelter, life, happiness, given to\nman and beast, and not earned by them; then he said\u2014\u2018There must be a\nbountiful Lord, a Giver, generous and loving, from whom the very lions\nseek their meat, when they roar after their prey; on whom all the\ncreeping things innumerable wait in the great sea, that he may give them\nmeat in due season.\u2019\n\nBut, moreover, he saw everywhere beauty; shapes, and colours, and sounds,\nwhich were beautiful in his eyes, and gave him pleasure deep and strange,\nhe knew not why: and the Spirit of God within him told him\u2014\u2018These fair\nthings please thee.  Do they not please Him who made them?  He that\nformed the ear, shall he not hear the song of birds?  He that made the\neye, shall he not see the colours of the flowers?  He who made thee to\nrejoice in the beauty of the earth, shall not he rejoice in his own\nworks?\u2019  And God seemed to him, in his mind\u2019s eye, to delight in his own\nworks, as a painter delights in the picture which he has drawn, as a\ngardener delights in the flowers which he has planted; as a cunning\nworkman delights in the curious machine which he has invented; as a king\ndelights in the fair parks and gardens and stately palaces which he has\nlaid out, and builded, and adorned, for his own pleasure, as well as for\nthe good of his subjects.\n\nAnd then, beneath all, and beyond all, there came to him another\nquestion\u2014What is life?\n\nThe painter paints his picture, but it has no life.  The workman makes\nhis machine, but, though it moves and works, it has no life.  The\ngardener,\u2014his flowers have life, but he has not given it to them; he can\nonly sow the seemingly dead seeds.  Who is He that giveth those seeds a\nbody as it pleases him, and to every seed its own body, its own growth of\nleaf, form, and colour?  God alone.  And what is that life which he does\ngive?  Who can tell that?  What is life?  What is it which changes the\nseed into a flower, the egg into a bird?  It is not the seed itself; the\negg itself.  What power or will have they, over themselves?  It is not in\nthe seed, or in the egg, as all now know from experience.  You may look\nfor it with all the microscopes in the world, but you will not find it.\nThere is nothing to be found by the eyes of mortal man which can account\nfor the growth and life of any created thing.\n\nAnd what is death?  What does the live thing lose, when it loses life?\nThis moment the bird was alive; a tiny pellet of shot has gone through\nits brain, and now its life is lost: but what is lost?  It is just the\nsame size, shape, colour; it weighs exactly the same as it did when\nalive.  What is the thing not to be seen, touched, weighed, described, or\nunderstood, which it has lost, which we call life?\n\nAnd to that deep question the Psalmist had an answer whispered to him,\u2014a\nhint only, as it were, in a parable.  Life is the breath of God.  It is\nthe Spirit of God, who is the Lord and Giver of life.  God breathes into\nthings the breath of life.  When he takes away that breath they die, and\nare turned again to their dust.  When he lets his breath go forth again,\nthey are made, and he renews the face of the earth.\n\nThat is enough for thee, O man, to know.  What life is thou canst not\nknow.  Thou canst only speak of it in a figure\u2014as the breath, the Spirit\nof God.  That Spirit of God is not the universe itself.  But he is\nworking in all things, giving them form and life, dividing to each\nseverally as he will; all their shape, their beauty, their powers, their\ninstincts, their thoughts; all in them save brute matter and dead dust:\nfrom him they come, and to him they return again.  All order, all law,\nall force, all usefulness, come from him.  He is the Lord and Giver of\nlife, in whom all things live, and move, and have their being.\n\nTherefore, my friends, let us at all times, in all places, and especially\nat this Whitsuntide, remember that all we see, or can see, except sin, is\nthe work of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God.  Let us look on the world\naround us, as what it is, as what the old Psalmist saw it to be,\u2014a sacred\nplace, full of God\u2019s presence, shaped, quickened, and guided by the\nSpirit of God, the Lord and Giver of life.\n\nMy dear friends, God grant that you may all learn to look upon this world\nas the Psalmist looked on it.  God grant that you may all learn to see,\neach in your own way, what a great and pious poet of our fathers\u2019 time\nput into words far wiser and grander than any which I can invent for you,\nwhen he said how, looking on the earth, the sea, the sky, he felt\u2014\n\n    \u2018A presence that disturbs me with the joy\n    Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime\n    Of something far more deeply interfused,\n    Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,\n    And the round ocean, and the living air,\n    And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:\n    A motion and a spirit that impels\n    All thinking things, all objects of all thought,\n    And rolls through all things.  Therefore am I still\n    A lover of the meadows and the woods\n    And mountains; and of all that we behold\n    From this green earth; of all the mighty world;\n    Of eye and ear, both what they half create\n    And what perceive; well pleased to recognise\n    In nature and the language of the sense\n    The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,\n    The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul\n    Of all my moral being.\u2019 {243}\n\n\u2018Of all my moral being.\u2019\n\nYes; of our moral being, our characters, our souls.  By looking upon this\nbeautiful and wonderful world around us with reverence, and earnestness,\nand love, as what it is,\u2014the work of God\u2019s Spirit,\u2014we shall become not\nmerely the more learned, or the more happy, we shall become actually\nbetter men.  The beauties in the earth and sky; the flowers with their\nfair hues and fragrant scents; the song of birds; the green shaughs and\nwoodlands; the moors purple with heath, and golden with furze; the shapes\nof clouds, from the delicate mist upon the lawn to the thunder pillar\ntowering up in awful might; the sunrise and sunset, painted by God afresh\neach morn and even; the blue sky, which is the image of God the heavenly\nFather, boundless, clear, and calm, looking down on all below with the\nsame smile of love, sending his rain alike on the evil and on the good,\nand causing his sun to shine alike on the just and on the unjust:\u2014he who\nwatches all these things, day by day, will find his heart grow quiet,\nsober, meek, contented.  His eyes will be turned away from beholding\nvanity.  His soul will be kept from vexation of spirit.  In God\u2019s\ntabernacle, which is the universe of all the worlds, he will be kept from\nthe strife of tongues.  As he watches the work of God\u2019s Spirit, the\nbeauty of God\u2019s Spirit, the wisdom of God\u2019s Spirit, the fruitfulness of\nGod\u2019s Spirit, which shines forth in every wayside flower, and every gnat\nwhich dances in the sun, he will rejoice in God\u2019s work, even as God\nhimself rejoices.  He will learn to value things at their true price, and\nsee things of their real size.  Ambition, fame, money, will seem small\nthings to him as he considers the lilies of the field, how the heavenly\nFather clothes them, and the birds of the air, how the heavenly Father\nfeeds them; and he will say with the wise man\u2014\n\n    \u2018All the windy ways of men\n    Are but dust that rises up,\n    And is lightly laid again.\u2019\n\nDust, indeed, and not worthy the attention of the wise man, who considers\nhow the very heaven and earth shall perish, and yet God endure; how\u2014\u2018They\nall shall wax old as doth a garment, and as a vesture shall God change\nthem, and they shall be changed: but God is the same, and his years shall\nnot fail.\u2019\n\nAnd as that man grows more quiet, he will grow more loving likewise; more\nmerciful to the very dumb animals.  He will be ashamed even to disturb a\nbird upon its nest, when he remembers the builder and maker of that nest\nis not the bird alone, but God.  He will believe the words of the wise\nman\u2014\n\n    \u2018He prayeth well who loveth well\n       Both man, and bird, and beast.\n    He prayeth best who loveth best\n       All things, both great and small;\n    For the great God who loveth us,\n       He made and loveth all.\u2019\n\nMore quiet, more loving will that man grow; and more pious likewise.  For\nthere ought to come to that man a sense of God\u2019s presence, of God\u2019s\nnearness, which will fill him with a wholesome fear of God.  As he sees\nwith the inward eyes of his reason God\u2019s Spirit at work for ever on every\nseed, on every insect, ay, on every nerve and muscle of his own body, he\nwill heartily say with the Psalmist\u2014\u2018I will give thanks unto thee, for I\nam fearfully and wonderfully made.  Marvellous are thy works, and that my\nsoul knoweth right well.  Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being\nimperfect; and in thy book were all my members written, which day by day\nwere fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.  Whither shall I go\nthen from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence?  If I\nclimb up to heaven, thou art there; if I go down to hell, thou art there\nalso; if I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost\nparts of the sea, even there thy hand shall lead me, and thy right hand\nhold me still.  If I say, Peradventure the darkness shall cover me, then\nshall my night be turned into day.\u2019\n\nYes, God he will see is everywhere, over all, and through all, and in\nall; and from God there is no escape.  The only hope, the only wisdom, is\nto open his heart to God as a child to its father, and cry with the\nPsalmist\u2014\u2018Try me, O God, and search the ground of my heart; prove me, and\nexamine my thoughts.  Look well if there be any way of wickedness in me,\nand lead me in the way everlasting.\u2019\n\nMy dear friends, take these thoughts home with you: and may God give you\ngrace to ponder over them, and so make your Whitsun holiday more quiet,\nmore pure, more full of lessons learnt from God\u2019s great green book which\nlies outside for every man to read.  Of such as you said the wise heathen\nlong ago\u2014\u2018Too happy are they who till the land, if they but knew the\nblessings which they have.\u2019\n\nAnd it is a blessing, a privilege, and therefore a responsibility laid on\nyou by your Father and your Saviour, to have such a fair, peaceful,\ncountry scene around you, as you will behold when you leave this\nchurch,\u2014a scene where everything is to the wise man, where everything\nshould be to you, a witness of God\u2019s Spirit; a witness of God\u2019s power,\nGod\u2019s wisdom, God\u2019s care, God\u2019s love.  Go, and may God turn away your\nhearts from all that is mean and selfish, all that is coarse and low, and\nlift them up unto himself, as you look upon the fields, and woods, and\nsky, till you, too, say with the Psalmist\u2014\u2018O Lord, how manifold are thy\nworks! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy\nriches.  I will praise my God while I have my being; my joy shall be in\nthe Lord.\u2019\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XX.\nSELF-HELP.\n\n\n                               ST. JOHN XVI. 7.\n\n    It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the\n    Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him\n    unto you.\n\nTHIS is a deep and strange saying.  How can it be expedient, useful, or\nprofitable, for any human being that Christ should go away from them?  To\nbe in Christ\u2019s presence; to see his face; to hear his voice;\u2014would not\nthis be the most expedient and profitable, yea, the most blessed and\nblissful of things which could befall us?  Is it not that which saints\nhope to attain for ever in heaven\u2014the beatific vision of Christ?\n\nMy dear friends, one thing is certain, that Christ loves us far better\nthan we can love ourselves, and knows how to show that love.  He would\nhave stayed with the apostles, instead of ascending into heaven, if it\nhad been expedient for them.  Yea, if it had been expedient for him to\nhave stayed on earth among mankind unto this very day, he would have\nstayed.\n\nBecause it was not expedient, not good for the apostles, not good for\nmankind, that he should stay among them, therefore he ascended into\nheaven, and sat down at the right hand of God, all authority and power\nbeing given to him in heaven and in earth.\n\nAnd he gives us a reason for so doing\u2014only a hint; but still a hint, by\nwhich we may see to-day it was expedient for us that he should go away.\n\nUnless he went away, the Comforter would not come.  Now the true and\nexact meaning of the Comforter is the Strengthener, the Encourager\u2014one\nwho gives a man strength of mind, and courage of spirit, to do his work.\nWithout that Comforter, the apostles would be weak and spiritless.\nWithout being encouraged and inspirited by him, they would never get\nthrough the work which they had to do, of preaching the Gospel to the\nwhole world.\n\nWe may surely see, if we think, some of the cause of this.  The apostles,\ntill our Lord\u2019s ascension, had been following him about like scholars\nfollowing a master\u2014almost like children holding by their father\u2019s hand.\nThey had had no will of their own; no opinion of their own; they had\nnever had to judge for themselves, or act for themselves; and, when they\nhad tried to do so, they had always been in the wrong, and Christ had\nrebuked them.  They had been like scholars, I say, with a teacher, or\nchildren with a parent.  Yea rather, when one remembers who they were,\npoor fishermen, and who he was\u2014God made man\u2014they had been (I speak with\nall reverence) as dogs at their master\u2019s side\u2014faithful and intelligent\ntruly; but with no will of their own, looking for ever up to his hand and\nhis eye, to see what he would have them do.  But that could not last.  It\nought not to last.  God does not wish us to be always as animals, not\neven always as children; he wishes us to become men; perfect men, who\nhave their senses exercised by experience to discern good and evil.\n\nAnd so it was to be with the apostles.  They had to learn, as we all have\nto learn, self-help, self-government, self-determination.  They were to\nthink for themselves, and act for themselves; and yet not by themselves.\nFor he would put into them a spirit, even his Spirit; and so, when they\nwere thinking for themselves, they would be thinking as he would have\nthem think; when they were acting for themselves, they would be acting as\nhe would have them act.  They would live; but not their own life, for\nChrist would live in them.  They would speak: but not their own words;\nthe Spirit of their Father would speak in them; that so they might come\nin the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, to be\nperfect men, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.\n\nMy dear friends, this may seem deep and a mystery: but so are all things\nin this wondrous life of ours.  And surely we see a pattern of all this\nin our own lives.  Each child is educated\u2014or ought to be\u2014as Christ\neducated his apostles.\n\nHave we not had, some of us, in early life some parent, friend, teacher,\nspiritual pastor, or master, to whom we looked up with unbounded respect?\nHis word to us was law.  His counsel was as the oracles of God.  We did\nnot dream of thinking for ourselves, acting for ourselves, while we had\nhim to tell us how to think, how to act; and we were happy in our\ndevotion.  We felt what a blessed thing, not merely protecting and\nguiding, but elevating and ennobling, was reverence and obedience to one\nwiser and better than ourselves.  But that did not last.  It could not\nlast.  Our teacher was taken from us; perhaps by mere change of place,\nand the chances of this mortal life; perhaps by death, which sunders all\nfair bonds upon this side the grave.  Perhaps, most painful of all, we\nbegan to differ from our teacher; to find that, though we respected and\nloved him still, though we felt a deep debt of thanks to him for what he\nhad taught us, we could not quite agree in all; we had begun to think for\nourselves, and we found that we must think for ourselves; and the new\nresponsibility was very heavy.  We felt like young birds thrust out of\nthe nest to shift for themselves in the wide world.\n\nBut, after a while, we found that we could think, could act for\nourselves, as we never expected to do.  We found that we were no more\nchildren; that we were improving in manly virtues by having to bear our\nown burdens; and to acquire,\n\n    \u2018The reason firm, the temperate will,\n    Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill.\u2019\n\nAnd we found, too, that though our old teachers were parted from us, yet\nthey were with us still; that (to compare small things with great, and\nChrist\u2019s servants with their Lord) a spirit came to us from them, and\nbrought all things to our remembrance, whatsoever they had said to us;\nthat we remembered their words more vividly, we understood their meaning\nmore fully and deeply, now that they were parted, than we did when they\nwere with us.  We loved them as well, ay, better, than of old, for we saw\nmore clearly what a debt we owed to them; and so it was, after all,\nexpedient for us that they should have gone away.  That parting with\nthem, which seemed so dangerous to us, as well as painful, really\ncomforted us\u2014strengthened and encouraged us to become stronger and braver\nsouls, full of self-help, self-government, self-determination.\n\nAnd so we shall find it, I believe, in our religion.\n\nWe may say with a sigh, \u2018Ah, that I could see my Lord and Saviour.  I\nshould be safe then.  I dare not sin then.\u2019\n\nIt may be so.  I am the last to deny that our Lord Jesus Christ has (as\nhe certainly could, if he chose) shown himself bodily to certain of his\nsaints (as he showed himself to St. Paul and to St. Stephen) in order to\nstrengthen their faith in some great trial.  But if it had been good for\nus in general to see the Lord in this life, doubt not that we should have\nseen him.  And because we do not see him, be sure that it is not good.\n\nWe may say, again, \u2018Ah that the Lord Jesus had but remained on earth,\nwhat just laws, what peace and prosperity would the world have enjoyed!\nWars would have ceased long ago; oppression and injustice would be\nunknown.\u2019\n\nIt may be so.  And yet again it may not.  Perhaps our Lord\u2019s staying on\nearth would have had some quite different effect, of which we cannot even\ndream; and done, not good, but harm.  Let us have faith in him.  Let us\nbelieve in his perfect wisdom, and in his perfect love.  Let us believe\nthat he is educating us, as he educated the apostles, by going away.\nThat he is by his absence helping men to help themselves, teaching men to\nteach themselves, guiding and governing men to guide and govern\nthemselves by that law of liberty which is the law of his Spirit; to love\nthe right, and to do the right, not from fear of punishment, but of their\nown heart and will.\n\nFor remember, he has not left us comfortless.  He has not merely given us\ncommands; he has given us the power of understanding, valuing, obeying\nthese commands.  For his Spirit is with us; the Spirit of Whitsuntide;\nthe Comforter, the Encourager, the Strengthener, by whom we may both\nperceive and know what we ought to do, and also have grace and power\nfaithfully to fulfil the same.\n\nCome to yonder holy table this day, and there claim your share in Christ,\nwho is absent from you in the body, but ever present in the spirit.  Come\nto that table, that you may live by Christ\u2019s life, and learn to love what\nhe commandeth, and desire what he doth promise, that so your hearts may\nsurely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; namely, in the\ngracious motions and heavenly inspirations of the Holy Ghost the\nComforter, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXI.\nENDURANCE.\n\n\n                               I PETER II. 19.\n\n    This is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief,\n    suffering wrongfully.\n\nTHIS is a great epistle, this epistle for the day, and full of deep\nlessons.  Let us try to learn some of them.\n\n\u2018What glory is it,\u2019 St. Peter says, \u2018if, when ye be beaten for your\nfaults, ye take it patiently?\u2019  What credit is it to a man, if, having\nbroken the law, he submits to be punished?  The man who will not do that,\nthe man who resists punishment, is not a civilized man, but a savage and\na mere animal.  If he will not live under discipline, if he expects to\nbreak the law with impunity, he makes himself an outlaw; he puts himself\nby his rebellion outside the law, and becomes unfit for society, a public\nenemy of his fellow-men.  The first lesson which men have to learn, which\neven the heathen have learnt, as soon as they have risen above mere\nsavages, is the sacredness of law\u2014the necessity of punishment for those\nwho break the law.\n\nThe Jews had this feeling of the sacredness of law.  Moses\u2019 divine law\nhad taught it them.  The Romans, heathen though they were, had the same\nfeeling\u2014that law was sacred; that men must obey law.  And the good thing\nwhich they did for the world (though they did it at the expense of\nbloodshed and cruelty without end) was the bringing all the lawless\nnations and wild tribes about them under strict law, and drilling them\ninto order and obedience.  That it was, which gave the Roman power\nstrength and success for many centuries.\n\nBut above the kingdom of law, which says to a man merely, \u2018Thou shalt not\ndo wrong: and if thou dost, thou shalt be punished,\u2019 there is another\nkingdom, far deeper, wider, nobler; even the kingdom of grace, which says\nto a man, not merely, \u2018Do not do wrong,\u2019 but \u2018Do right;\u2019 and not only \u2018Do\nright for fear of being punished,\u2019 but \u2018Do right because it is right; do\nright because thou hast grace in thy heart; even the grace of God, and\nthe Spirit of God, which makes thee love what is right, and see how right\nit is, and how beautiful; so that thou must follow after the right, not\nfrom fear of punishment, but in spite of fear of punishment; follow after\nthe right, not when it is safe only, but when it is dangerous; not when\nit is honourable only in the eyes of men, but when it is despised.  If\nthou hast God\u2019s grace in thy heart; if thou lovest what is right with the\ntrue love, which is the Spirit of God, then thou wilt never stop to ask,\n\u201cWill it pay me to do right?\u201d  Thou wilt feel that the right thou must\ndo, whether it pays thee or not; still loving the right, and cleaving\nsteadfastly to the right, through disappointment, poverty, shame,\ntrouble, death itself, if need be: if only thou canst keep a conscience\nvoid of offence toward God and man.\u2019\n\n\u2018But shall I have no reward?\u2019 asks a man, \u2018for doing right?  Am I to give\nup a hundred pleasant things for conscience\u2019 sake, and get nothing in\nreturn?\u2019  Yes: there is a reward for righteousness, even in this life.\nGod repays those who make sacrifices for conscience\u2019 sake, I verily\nbelieve, in most cases, a hundred fold in this life.  In this life it\nstands true, that he who loses his life shall save it; that he who goes\nthrough the world with a single eye to duty, without selfishness, without\nvanity, without ambition, careless whether he be laughed at, careless\nwhether he be ill-used, provided only his conscience acquits him, and\nGod\u2019s approving smile is on him\u2014in this life it stands true that that man\nis the happiest man after all; that that man is the most prosperous man\nafter all; that, like Christ, when he was doing his Father\u2019s work, he has\nmeat to eat and strengthen him in his life\u2019s journey, which the world\nknows not of.  But if not; if it seem good to God to let him taste the\nbitters, and not the sweets, of doing right, in this life; if it seem\ngood to God that he should suffer\u2014as many a man and woman too has\nsuffered for doing right\u2014nothing but contempt, neglect, prison, and\ndeath; is he worse off than Jesus Christ, his Lord, was before him?\nShall the disciple be above his master?  What if he have to drink of the\ncup of sorrow of which Christ drank, and be baptized with the baptism of\nmartyrdom with which Christ was baptized?  Where is he, but where the Son\nof God has been already?  What is he doing, but treading in the steps of\nChrist crucified; that he may share in the blessing and glory and honour\nwithout end which God the Father heaped upon Christ his Son, because he\nwas perfect in duty, perfect in love of right, perfect in resignation,\nperfect in submission under injustice, perfect in forgiveness of his\nmurderers, perfect in faith in the justice and mercy of God: who did no\nsin\u2014that is, never injured his own cause by anger or revenge; and had no\nguile in his mouth\u2014that is, never prevaricated, lied, concealed his\nopinions, for fear of the consequences, however terrible; but before the\nchief priests and Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, though he\nknew that it would bring on him a dreadful death; who, when he was\nreviled, reviled not again, but committed himself to him who judgeth\nrighteously\u2014the meekest of all beings, and in that very meekness the\nstrongest of all beings; the most utterly resigned, and by that very\nresignation the most heroic\u2014the being who seemed, on the cross of\nCalvary, most utterly conquered by injustice and violence: but who, by\nthat very cross, conquered the whole world.\n\nThis is a great mystery, and hard to learn.  Flesh and blood, our animal\nnature, will never compass it all; for it belongs, not to the flesh, but\nto the spirit.  But our spirits, our immortal souls, may learn the lesson\nat last, if we feed them continually with the thought of Christ; if we\nmeditate upon whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are\nhonourable, just, pure, lovely, and of good report.  Then we may learn,\nat last, after many failures, and many sorrows of heart, that the spirit\nis stronger than the flesh; that meekness is stronger than wrath, silence\nstronger than shouting, peace stronger than war, forgiveness stronger\nthan vengeance, just as Christ hanging on his cross was\nstronger\u2014exercising a more vast and miraculous effect on the hearts of\nmen\u2014than if he had called whole armies of angels to destroy his enemies,\nlike one of the old kings and conquerors of the earth, whose works have\nperished with themselves.\n\nYes, gradually we must learn that our strength is to sit still; that to\ndo well and suffer for it, instead of returning evil for evil, and\nrailing for railing, is to show forth the spirit of Christ, and to enter\ninto the joy of our Lord.\n\nThe statesman debating in Parliament; the conqueror changing the fate of\nnations on bloody battle-fields; these all do their work; and are\nneedful, doubtless, in a sinful, piecemeal world like this.  But there\nare those of whom the noisy world never hears, who have chosen the better\npart which shall not be taken from them; who enter into a higher glory\nthan that of statesmen, or conquerors, or the successful and famous of\nthe earth.  Many a man\u2014clergyman or layman\u2014struggling in poverty and\nobscurity, with daily toil of body and mind, to make his fellow-creatures\nbetter and happier; many a poor woman, bearing children in pain and\nsorrow, and bringing them up with pain and sorrow, but in industry, too,\nand piety; or submitting without complaint to a brutal husband; or\nsacrificing all her own hopes in life to feed and educate her brothers\nand sisters; or enduring for years the peevishness and troublesomeness of\nsome relation;\u2014all these (and the world which God sees is full of such,\nthough the world which man sees takes no note of them)\u2014gentle souls,\nhumble souls, uncomplaining souls, suffering souls, pious souls\u2014these are\nGod\u2019s elect; these are Christ\u2019s sheep; these are the salt of the earth,\nwho, by doing each their little duty as unto God, not unto men, keep\nsociety from decaying more than do all the constitutions and acts of\nparliament which statesmen ever invented.  These are they\u2014though they\nlittle dream of any such honour\u2014who copy the likeness of the old martyrs,\nwho did well and suffered for it; and the likeness of Christ, of whom it\nwas said, \u2018He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall his voice be heard\nin the streets.\u2019\n\nFor what was it in the old martyrs which made men look up to them, as\npersons infinitely better than themselves, with quite unmeasurable\nadmiration; so that they worshipped them after their deaths, as if they\nhad been gods rather than men?\n\nIt was this.  The world in old times had been admiring successful people,\njust as it does at this day.  Was a man powerful, rich?  Had he slaves by\nthe hundred?  Was his table loaded with the richest meats and wines?\nCould he indulge every pleasure and fancy of his own?  Could he heap his\nfriends with benefits?  Could he ruin or destroy any one who thwarted\nhim?  In one word, was he a mighty and successful tyrant?  Then that was\nthe man to honour and worship; that was the sort of man to become, if\nanyone had the chance, by fair means or foul.  Just as the world worships\nnow the successful man; and\u2014if you will but make a million of money\u2014will\nflatter you and court you, and never ask either how you made your money,\nor how you spend your money; or whether you are a good man or a bad one:\nfor money in man\u2019s eyes, as charity in God\u2019s eyes, covereth a multitude\nof sins; and as long as thou doest well unto thyself, men will speak well\nof thee.\n\nBut there arose, in that wicked old world in which St. Paul lived, an\nentirely new sort of people\u2014people who did not wish to be successful; did\nnot wish to be rich; did not wish to be powerful; did not wish for\npleasures and luxuries which this world could give: who only wished to be\ngood; to do right, and to teach others to do right.  Christians, they\nwere called; after Christ their Lord and God.  Weak old men, poor women,\nslaves, even children, were among them.  Not many mighty, not many rich,\nnot many noble, were called.  They were mostly weak and oppressed people,\nwho had been taught by suffering and sorrow.\n\nOne would have thought that the world would have despised these\nChristians, and let them go their own way in peace.  But it was not so.\nThe mighty of this world, and those who lived by pandering to their\nvices, so far from despising the Christians, saw at once how important\nthey were.  They saw that, if people went about the world determined to\nspeak nothing but what they believed to be true, and to do nothing but\nwhat was right, then the wicked world would be indeed turned upside down,\nand, as they complained against St. Paul more than once, the hope of\ntheir gains would be gone.  Therefore they conceived the most bitter\nhatred against these Christians, and rose against them, for the same\nsimple reason that Cain rose up against Abel and slew him, because his\nworks were wicked, and his brother\u2019s righteous.  They argued with them;\nthey threatened them; they tried to terrify them: but they found to their\nastonishment that the Christians would not change their minds for any\nterror.  Then their hatred became rage and fury.  They could not\nunderstand how such poor ignorant contemptible people as the Christians\nseemed to be, dared to have an opinion of their own, and to stand to it;\nhow they dared to think themselves right, and all the world wrong; and in\ntheir fury they inflicted on them tortures to read of which should make\nthe blood run cold.  And their rage and fury increased to madness, when\nthey found that these Christians, instead of complaining, instead of\nrebelling, instead of trying to avenge themselves, submitted to all their\nsufferings, not only patiently and uncomplaining, but joyfully, and as an\nhonour and a glory.  Some, no doubt, they conquered by torture, agony,\nand terror; and so made them deny Christ, and return to the wickedness of\nthe heathen.  But those renegades were always miserable.  Their own\nconsciences condemned them.  They felt they had sold their own souls for\na lie; and many of them, in their agony of mind, repented again, like St.\nPeter after he had denied his Lord through fear, proclaimed themselves\nChristians after all, went through all their tortures a second time, and\ndied triumphant over death and hell.\n\nBut there were those\u2014to be counted by hundreds, if not thousands\u2014who\ndared all, and endured all; and won (as it was rightly called) the crown\nof martyrdom.  Feeble old men, weak women, poor slaves, even little\nchildren, sealed their testimony with their blood, and conquered, not by\nfighting, but by suffering.\n\nThey conquered.  They conquered for themselves in the next world; for\nthey went to heaven and bliss, and their light affliction, which was but\nfor a moment, worked out for them an exceeding and eternal weight of\nglory.\n\nThey conquered in this world also.  For the very world which had scourged\nthem, racked them, crucified them, burned them alive, when they were dead\nturned round and worshipped them as heroes, almost as divine beings.  And\nthey were divine; for they had in them the Divine Spirit, the Spirit of\nGod and of Christ.  Therefore the foolish world was awed,\nconscience-stricken, pricked to the heart, when it looked on those whom\nit had pierced, as it had pierced Christ the Lord, and cried, as the\ncenturion cried on Calvary, \u2018Surely these were the sons and daughters of\nGod.  Surely there was some thing more divine, more noble, more beautiful\nin these poor creatures dying in torture, than in all the tyrants and\nconquerors and rich men of the earth.  This is the true greatness, this\nis the true heroism\u2014to do well and suffer for it patiently.\u2019\n\nAnd thenceforth men began to get, slowly but surely, a quite new idea of\ntrue greatness; they learnt to see that not revenge, but forgiveness; not\nviolence, but resignation; not success, but holiness, are the perfection\nof humanity.  They began to have a reverence for those who were weak in\nbody, and simple in heart,\u2014a reverence for women, for children, for\nslaves, for all whom the world despises, such as the old Egyptians,\nGreeks, Romans, had never had.  They began to see that God could make\nstrong the weak things of this world, and glorify himself in the courage\nand honesty of the poorest and the meanest.  They began to see that in\nChrist Jesus was neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, barbarian,\nScythian, slave or free, but that all were one in Christ Jesus, all alike\ncapable of receiving the Spirit of God, all alike children of the one\nFather, who was above all, and in all, and with them all.\n\nAnd so the endurance and the sufferings of the early martyrs was the\ntriumph of good over evil; the triumph of honesty and truth; of purity\nand virtue; of gentleness and patience; of faith in a just and loving\nGod: because it was the triumph of the Spirit of Christ, by which he\ndied, and rose again, and conquered shame and pain, and death and hell.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXII.\nTOLERATION.\n\n\n   (_Preached at Christ Church_, _Marylebone_, 1867, _for the Bishop of\n                             London\u2019s Fund_.)\n\n                             MATTHEW XIII. 24\u201330.\n\n    The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in\n    his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among\n    the wheat, and went his way.  But when the blade was sprung up, and\n    brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.  So the servants\n    of the household came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good\n    seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?  He said unto\n    them, An enemy hath done this.  The servants said unto him, Wilt thou\n    then that we go and gather them up?  But he said, Nay; lest while ye\n    gather up the tares, ye toot up also the wheat with them.  Let both\n    grow together until the harvest and in the time of harvest: I will\n    say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them\n    in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.\n\nTHE thoughtful man who wishes well to the Gospel of Christ will hardly\nhear this parable without a feeling of humiliation.  None of our Lord\u2019s\nparables are more clear and simple in their meaning; none have a more\ndirect and practical command appended to them; none have been less\nregarded during the last fifteen hundred years.  Toleration, solemnly\nenjoined, has been the exception.  Persecution, solemnly forbidden, has\nbeen the rule.  Men, as usual, have fancied themselves wiser than God;\nfor they have believed themselves wise enough to do what he had told them\nthat they were not wise enough to do, and so have tried to root the tares\nfrom among the wheat.  Men have, as usual, lacked faith in Christ; they\ndid not believe that he was actually governing the earth which belonged\nto him; that he was actually cultivating his field, the world: they\ntherefore believed themselves bound to do for him what he neglected, or\nat least did not see fit, to do for himself; and they tried to root up\nthe tares from among the wheat.  They have tried to repress free thought,\nand to silence novel opinions, forgetful that Christ must have been right\nafter all, and that in silencing opinions which startled them, they might\nbe quenching the Spirit, and despising prophecies.  But they found it\nmore difficult to quench the Spirit than they fancied, when they began\nthe policy of repression.  They have found that the Spirit blew where it\nlisted, and they heard the sound of it, but knew not whence it came, or\nwhither it went; that the utterances which startled them, the tones of\nfeeling and thought which terrified them, reappeared, though crushed in\none place, suddenly in another; that the whole atmosphere was charged\nwith them, as with electricity; and that it was impossible to say where\nthe unseen force might not concentrate itself at any moment, and flash\nout in a lightning stroke.  Then their fear has turned to a rage.  They\nhave thought no more of putting down opinions: but of putting down men.\nThey have found it more difficult than they fancied to separate the man\nfrom his opinions; to hate the sin and love the sinner: and so they have\nbegun to persecute; and, finding brute force, or at least the chichane of\nlaw, far more easy than either convincing their opponents or allowing\nthemselves to be convinced by them, they have fined, imprisoned,\ntortured, burnt, exterminated; and, like the Roman conquerors of old,\n\u2018made a desert, and called that peace.\u2019\n\nAnd all the while the words stood written in the Scriptures which they\nprofessed to believe: \u2018Nay: lest while ye root up the tares, ye root up\nthe wheat also.\u2019\n\nThey had been told, if ever men were told, that the work was beyond their\npowers of discernment: that, whatever the tares were, or however they\ncame into God\u2019s field the world, they were either too like the wheat, or\ntoo intimately entangled with them, for any mortal man to part them.  God\nwould part them in his own good time.  If they trusted God, they would\nlet them be; certain that he hated what was false, what was hurtful,\ninfinitely more than they; certain that he would some day cast out of his\nkingdom all things which offend, and all that work injustice, and\nwhatsoever loveth and maketh a lie; and that, therefore, if he suffered\nsuch things to abide awhile, it was for them to submit, and to believe\nthat God loved the world better than they, and knew better how to govern\nit.  But if, on the contrary, they did not believe God, then they would\nset to work, in their disobedient self-conceit, to do that which he had\nforbidden them; and the certain result would be that, with the tares,\nthey would root up the wheat likewise.\n\nNote here two things.  First, it is not said that there were no tares\namong the wheat; nor that the servants would fail in rooting some of them\nup.  They would succeed probably in doing some good: but they would\nsucceed certainly in doing more harm.  In their short-sighted, blind,\nerring, hasty zeal, they would destroy the good with the evil.  Their\nknowledge of this complex and miraculous universe was too shallow, their\ncanons of criticism were too narrow, to decide on what ought, or ought\nnot, to grow in the field of him whose ways and thoughts were as much\nhigher than theirs as the heaven is higher than the earth.\n\nNote also, that the Lord does not blame them for their purpose.  He\nmerely points out to them its danger; and forbids it because it is\ndangerous; for their wish to root out the tares was not \u2018natural.\u2019  We\nshall libel it by calling it that.  It was distinctly spiritual, the\nfirst impulse of spiritual men, who love right, and hate wrong, and\ndesire to cultivate the one, and exterminate the other.  To root out the\ntares; to put down bad men and wrong thoughts by force, is one of the\nearliest religious instincts.  It is the child\u2019s instinct\u2014pardonable\nthough mistaken.  The natural man\u2014whether the heathen savage at one end\nof the scale, or the epicurean man of the world at the other\u2014has no such\ninstinct.  He will feel no anger against falsehood, because he has no\nlove for truth; he will be liberal enough, tolerant enough, of all which\ndoes not touch his own self-interest; but that once threatened, he too\nmay join the ranks of the bigots, and persecute, not like them, in the\nname of God and truth, but in those of society and order; and so the\nchief priests and Pontius Pilate may make common cause.  And yet the\nchief priests, with their sense of duty, of truth, and of right, however\nblundering, concealed, perverted, may be a whole moral heaven higher than\nPilate with no sense of aught beyond present expediency.  But\nnevertheless what have been the consequences to both?  That the chief\npriests have failed as utterly as the Pilates.  As God forewarned them,\nthey have rooted up the wheat with the tares; they have made the blood of\nmartyrs the seed of the Church; and more, they have made martyrs of those\nwho never deserved to be martyrs, by wholesale and indiscriminate\ncondemnation.  They have forgotten that the wheat and the tares grow\ntogether, not merely in separate men, but in each man\u2019s own heart and\nthoughts; that light and darkness, wisdom and folly, duty and ambition,\nself-sacrifice and self-conceit, are fighting in every soul of man in\nwhom there is even the germ of spiritual life.  Therefore they have made\nmen offenders for a word.  They have despised noble aspirations, ignored\ndeep and sound insights, because they came in questionable shapes,\nmingled with errors or eccentricities.  They have cried in their haste,\n\u2018Here are tares, and tares alone.\u2019\n\nAgain and again have religious men done this, for many a hundred years;\nand again and again the Nemesis has fallen on them.  A generation or two\nhas passed, and the world has revolted from their unjust judgments.  It\nhas perceived, among the evil, good which it had overlooked in an\nindignant haste and passionateness, learnt from those who should have\ntaught it wisdom, patience, and charity.  It has made heroes of those who\nhad been branded as heretics; and has cried, \u2018There was wheat, and wheat\nalone;\u2019 and so religious men have hindered the very cause for which they\nfancied that they were fighting; and have gained nothing by disobeying\nGod\u2019s command, save to weaken their own moral influence, to increase the\ndivisions of the Church, and to put a fresh stumbling-block in the path\nof the ignorant and the young.\n\nAnd what have been the consequences to Christ\u2019s Church?  Have not her\nenemies\u2014and her friends too\u2014for centuries past, cried in vain:\u2014\n\n    \u2018For forms of faith let graceless zealots fight,\n    His can\u2019t he wrong, whose life is in the right.\u2019\n\nOf Christian morals her enemies have not complained: but that these\nmorals have been postponed, neglected, forgotten, in the disputes over\nabstruse doctrines, over ceremonies, and over no-ceremonies; that men who\nwere all fully agreed in their definition of goodness, and what a good\nman should be and do, have denounced each other concerning matters which\nhad no influence whatsoever to practical morality, till the ungodly\ncried, \u2018See how these Christians hate one another!  See how they waste\ntheir time in disputing concerning the accidents of the bread of life,\nforgetful that thousands were perishing round them for want of any bread\nof life at all!\u2019\n\nMy friends, these things are true; and have been true for centuries.  Let\nus not try to forget them by denouncing them as the utterances of the\nmalevolent and the unbelieving.  Let us rather imitate the wise man who\nsaid, that he was always grateful to his critics, for, however unjust\ntheir attacks, they were certain to attack, and therefore to show him,\nhis weakest points.  And here is our weakest point; namely, in our\nunhappy divisions\u2014which are the fruits of self-will and self-conceit, and\nof the vain attempt to do that which God incarnate has told us we cannot\ndo\u2014to part the wheat from the tares.\n\nWe cannot part them.  Man could never do it, even in the simpler Middle\nAge.  Far less can he do it now in an age full of such strange, such\ncomplex influences; at once so progressive and conservative; an age in\nwhich the same man is often craving after some new prospect of the\nfuture, and craving at the same moment after the seemingly obsolete past;\nlonging for fresh truth, and yet dreading to lose the old; with hope\nstruggling against fear, courage against modesty, scorn of imbecility\nagainst reverence for authority in the same man\u2019s heart, while the\nmystery of the new world around him strives with the mystery of the old\nworld which lies behind him; while the belief that man is the same being\nnow as he was five thousand years ago strives with the plain fact that he\nis assuming round us utterly novel habits, opinions, politics; while the\nbelief that Christ is the same now as he was in Jud\u00e6a of old\u2014yea, the\nsame yesterday, to-day, and for ever\u2014strives with the plain fact that his\nfield, the world, is in a state in which it never has been since the\nmaking of the world; while it is often most difficult, though (as I\nbelieve) certainly possible, to see those divine laws at work with which\nGod governed the nations in old time.  May God forgive us all, both laity\nand clergy, every cruel word, every uncharitable thought, every hasty\njudgment.  Have we not need, in such a time as this, of that divine\nhumility which is the elder sister of divine charity?  Have we not need\nof some of that God-inspired modesty of St. Paul\u2019s: \u2018I think as a child,\nI speak as a child.  I see through a glass darkly\u2019?  Have we not need to\nlisten to his warning: \u2018he that regardeth the day, to the Lord he\nregardeth it; and he that regardeth it not, to the Lord he regardeth it\nnot.  Who art thou that judgest another?  To his own master he standeth\nor falleth.  Yea, and he shall stand; for God is able to make him stand\u2019?\nHave we not need to hear our Lord\u2019s solemn rebuke, when St. John boasted\nhow he saw one casting out devils in Christ\u2019s name, and he forbade him,\nbecause he followed not them\u2014\u2018Forbid him not\u2019?  Have we not need to\nbelieve St. James, when he tells us that every good gift and every\nperfect gift cometh from above, from the Father of lights, and not (as we\nhave too often fancied) sometimes from below, from darkness and the pit?\nHave we not need to keep in mind the canon of the wise Gamaliel?\u2014\u2018If this\ncounsel or this work be of man, it will come to nought: but if it be of\nGod, we cannot overthrow it, lest haply we too be found fighting even\nagainst God.\u2019  Have we not need to keep in mind that \u2018every spirit which\nconfesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God;\u2019 and \u2018no man\nsaith that Jesus is the Christ, save by the Spirit of God;\u2019 lest haply\nwe, too, be found more fastidious than Almighty God himself?  Have we not\nneed to beware lest we, like the Scribes and Pharisees, should be found\nkeeping the key of knowledge, and yet not entering in ourselves, and\nhindering those who would enter in?  Have we not need to beware lest,\nwhile we are settling which is the right gate to the kingdom of heaven,\nthe publicans and harlots should press into it before us; and lest, while\nwe are boasting that we are the children of Abraham, God should, without\nour help, raise up children to Abraham of those stones outside; those\nhard hearts, dull brains, natures ground down by the drudgery of daily\nlife till they are as the pavement of the streets; those so-called\n\u2018heathen masses\u2019 of whom we are bid to think this day.\n\nIf there be any truth, any reason, in what I have said\u2014or rather in what\nChrist and his apostles have said\u2014let us lay it to heart upon this day,\non which the clergy of this great metropolis have found a common cause\nfor which to plead, whatever may be their minor differences of opinion.\nLet us wish success to every argument by which this great cause may be\nenforced, to every scheme of good which may be built up by its funds.\nLet us remember that, however much the sermons preached this day differ\nin details, they will all agree, thank God, in the root and ground of\ntheir pleading\u2014duty to Christ, and to those for whom Christ died.  Let us\nremember that, to whatever outwardly different purposes the money\ncollected may be applied, it will after all be applied to one purpose\u2014to\nChristian civilization, Christian teaching, Christian discipline; and\nthat any Christianity, any Christian civilization, any Christian\ndiscipline, is infinitely better than none; that, though all man\u2019s\nsystems and methods must be imperfect, faulty, yet they are infinitely\nbetter than anarchy and heathendom, just as the wheat, however much mixed\nwith weeds, is infinitely better than the weeds alone.  But above all,\nlet us wish well to all schemes of education, of whatever kind, certain\nthat any education is better than none.  And, therefore, let me entreat\nyou to subscribe bountifully to that scheme for which I specially plead\nthis day.\n\nLet me remind you, very solemnly, that the present dearth of education in\nthese realms is owing mainly to our unhappy religious dissensions; that\nit is the disputes, not of unbelievers, but of Christians, which have\nmade it impossible for our government to fulfil one of the first rights,\none of the first duties, of any government in a civilized country;\nnamely, to command, and to compel, every child in the realm to receive a\nproper education.  Strange and sad that so it should be: yet so it is.\nWe have been letting, we are letting still, year by year, thousands sink\nand drown in the slough of heathendom and brutality, while we are\ndebating learnedly whether a raft, or a boat, or a rope, or a life-buoy,\nis the legitimate instrument for saving them; and future historians will\nrecord with sorrow and wonder a fact which will be patent to them, though\nthe dust of controversy hides it from our eyes\u2014even the fact that the\nhinderers of education in these realms were to be found, not among the\nso-called sceptics, not among the so-called infidels; but among those who\nbelieved that God came down from heaven, and became man, and died on the\ncross, for every savage child in London streets.  Compulsory government\neducation is, by our own choice and determination, impossible.  The more\nsolemn is the duty laid on us, on laity and clergy alike, to supply that\nwant by voluntary education.  The clergy will do their duty, each in his\nown way.  Let the laity do theirs likewise, in fear and trembling, as men\nwho have voluntarily and deliberately undertaken to educate the lower\nclasses; and who must do it, or bear the shame for ever.  For in the last\nday, when we shall all appear before Him whose ways are not as our ways,\nor his thoughts as our thoughts\u2014in that day, the question will not be,\nwhether the compulsory system, or the denominational system, or any other\nsystem, satisfied best our sectarian ways and our narrow thoughts: but\nwhether they satisfied the ways of that Father in heaven who willeth not\nthat one little child should perish.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXIII.\nTHE KINGDOM OF CHRIST.\n\n\n                                LUKE XIX. 41.\n\n       And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it.\n\nLET us think awhile what was meant by our Lord\u2019s weeping over Jerusalem.\nWe ought to learn thereby somewhat more of our Lord\u2019s character, and of\nour Lord\u2019s government.\n\nWhy did he weep over that city whose people would, in a few days, mock\nhim, scourge him, crucify him, and so fill up the measure of their own\niniquity?  Had Jesus been like too many, who since his time have fancied\nthemselves saints and prophets, would he not have rather cursed the city\nthan wept over it with tenderness, regret, sorrow, most human and most\ndivine, for that horrible destruction which before forty years were past\nwould sweep it off the face of the earth, and leave not one stone of\nthose glorious buildings on another?\n\nThe only answer is\u2014that, in spite of all its sins, he loved Jerusalem.\nFor more than a thousand years, he had put his name there.  It was to be\nthe salt of the earth, the light of the world, the city set on a hill,\nwhich could not be hid.  From Jerusalem was to go forth to all nations\nthe knowledge of the one true God, as a light to lighten the Gentiles, as\nwell as a glory to his people Israel.\n\nThis was our Lord\u2019s purpose; this had been his purpose for one thousand\nyears and more: and behold, man\u2019s sin and folly had frustrated for a time\nthe gracious will of God.  That glorious city, with its temple, its\nworship, its religion, true as far as it went, and, in spite of all the\ntraditions with which the Scribes and Pharisees had overlaid it,\ninfinitely better than the creed or religion of any other people in the\nold world\u2014all this, instead of being a blessing to the world, had become\na curse.  The Jews, who had the key of the knowledge of God, neither\nentered in themselves, nor let the Gentiles enter in.  They who were to\nhave taught all the world were hating and cursing all the world, and\nbeing hated and cursed by them in return.  Jerusalem, the Holy City set\non a hill, instead of being a light to the world, was become a nuisance\nto the world.  Jerusalem was the salt of the world, meant to help it all\nfrom decay; but the salt had lost its savour, and in another generation\nit would be cast out and trodden under foot, and become a byword among\nthe Gentiles.\n\nOur Lord, The Lord, the hereditary King of the Jews according to the\nflesh, as well as the God of the Jews according to the Spirit, foresaw\nthe destruction of the work of his own hands, of the spot on earth which\nwas most precious to him.  The ruin would be awful, the suffering\nhorrible.  The daughters of Jerusalem were to weep, not for him, but for\nthemselves.  Blessed would be the barren, and those that never nursed a\nchild.  They would call on the mountains to cover them, and on the hills\nto hide them, and call in vain.  Such tribulation would fall on them as\nnever had been since the making of the world.  Mothers would eat their\nown children for famine.  Three thousand crosses would stand at one time\nin the valley below with a living man writhing on each.  Eleven hundred\nthousand souls would perish, or be sold as slaves.  It must be.  The\neternal laws of retribution, according to which God governs the world,\nmust have their way now.  It was too late.  It must happen now.  But it\nneed not have happened: and at that thought our Lord\u2019s infinite heart\nburst forth in human tenderness, human pity, human love, as he looked on\nthat magnificent city, those gorgeous temples, castles, palaces, that\nmighty multitude which dreamt so little of the awful doom which they were\nbringing on themselves.\n\nAnd now, where is he that wept over Jerusalem?  Has he left this world to\nitself?  Does he care no longer for the rise and fall of nations, the\nstruggles and hopes, the successes and the failures of mankind?\n\nNot so, my friends.  He has ascended up on high, and sat down at the\nright hand of God: but he has done so, that he might fill all things.  To\nhim all power is given in heaven and earth.  He reigneth over the\nnations.  He sitteth on that throne whereof the eternal Father hath said\nto him, \u2018Sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool;\u2019\nand again, \u2018Desire of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine\ninheritance, and the utmost ends of the earth for thy possession.\u2019  He is\nset upon his throne (as St. John saw him in his Revelation) judging\nright, and ministering true judgment unto the people.  The nations may\nfuriously rage together, and the people may imagine a vain thing.  The\nkings of the earth may stand up, and the rulers take counsel together,\nagainst the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, \u2018Let us break their\nbonds\u2019\u2014that is their laws,\u2014\u2018asunder, and cast away their cords\u2019\u2014that is,\ntheir Gospel\u2014\u2018from us.\u2019  They may say, \u2018Tush, God doth not see, neither\ndoth God regard it.  We are they that ought to speak.  Who is Lord over\nus?\u2019  Nevertheless Christ is King of kings, and Lord of lords; he reigns,\nand will reign.  And kings must be wise, and the judges of the earth must\nbe learned; they must serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice before him with\nreverence.  They must worship the Son, lest he be angry, and so they\nperish from the right way.  All the nations of the world, with their\nkings and their people, their war, their trade, their politics, and their\narts and sciences, are in his hands as clay in the hands of the potter,\nfulfilling his will and not their own, going his way and not their own.\nIt is he who speaks concerning a nation or a kingdom, to pluck up, and to\npull down, and to destroy it.  And it is he again who speaks concerning a\nnation or kingdom, to build and to plant it.  For the Lord is king, be\nthe world never so much moved.  He sitteth between the cherubim, though\nthe earth be never so unquiet.\n\nBut while we recollect this\u2014which in these days almost all forget\u2014that\nChrist the Lord is the ruler, and he alone; we must recollect likewise\nthat he is not only a divine, but a human ruler.  We must recollect\u2014oh,\nblessed thought!\u2014that there is a Man in the midst of the throne of\nheaven; that Christ has taken for ever the manhood into God; and that all\njudgment is committed to him because he is the Son of man, who can feel\nfor men, and with men.\n\nYes, Christ\u2019s humanity is no less now than when he wept over Jerusalem;\nand therefore we may believe, we must believe, that while Jesus is very\nGod of very God, yet his sacred heart is touched with a divine compassion\nfor the follies of men, a divine regret for their failures, a divine pity\nfor the ruin which they bring so often on themselves.  We must believe\nthat even when he destroys, he does so with regret; that when he cuts\ndown the tree which cumbers the ground, he grieves over it; as he grieved\nover his chosen vine, the nation of the Jews.\n\nIt is a comfort to remember this as we watch the world change, and the\nfashions of it vanish away.  Great kingdoms, venerable institutions,\ngallant parties, which have done good work in their time upon God\u2019s\nearth, grow old, wear out, lose their first love of what was just and\ntrue; and know not the things which belong to their peace, but grow, as\nthe Jews grew in their latter years, more and more fanatical,\nquarrelsome, peevish, uncharitable; trying to make up by violence for the\nloss of strength and sincerity: till they come to an end, and die, often\nby unjust and unfair means, and by men worse than they.  Shall we not\nbelieve that Christ has pity on them; that he who wept over Jerusalem\ngoing to destruction by its own blindness, sorrows over the sins and\nfollies which bring shame on countries once prosperous, authorities once\nvenerable, causes once noble?\n\nThey, too, were thoughts of Christ.  Whatsoever good was in them, he\ninspired; whatsoever strength was in them, he gave; whatsoever truth was\nin them, he taught; whatsoever good work they did, he did through them.\nPerhaps he looks on them, not with wrath and indignation, but with pity\nand sorrow, when he sees man\u2019s weakness, folly, and sin, bringing to\nnaught his gracious purposes, and falling short of his glorious will.\n\nIt is a comfort, I say, to believe this, in these times of change.\nPlaces, manners, opinions, institutions, change around us more and more;\nand we are often sad, when we see good old fashions, in which we were\nbrought up, which we have loved, revered, looked on as sacred things,\ndying out fast, and new fashions taking their places, which we cannot\nlove because we do not trust them, or even understand.  The old ways were\ngood enough for us: why should they not be good enough for our children\nafter us?  Therefore, we are sad at times, and the young and the\nambitious are apt to sneer at us, because we delight in what is old\nrather than what is new.\n\nLet us remember, then, that whatsoever changes, still there is one who\ncannot change, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.\nSurely he can feel for us, when he sees us regret old fashions and old\ntimes; surely he does not look on our sadness as foolish, weak, or\nsinful.  It is pardonable, for it is human; and he has condescended to\nfeel it himself, when he wept over Jerusalem.\n\nOnly, he bids us not despair; not doubt his wisdom, his love, the justice\nand beneficence of his rule.  He ordereth all things in heaven and earth;\nand, therefore, all things must, at last, go well.\n\n    \u2018The old order changes, giving place to the new,\n    And God fulfils himself in many ways,\n    Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.\u2019\n\nWe must believe that, and trust in Christ.  We must trust in him, that he\nwill not cut down any tree in his garden until it actually cumbers the\nground, altogether unfruitful, and taking up room which might be better\nused.  We must trust him, that he will cast nothing out of his kingdom\ntill it actually offends, makes men stumble and fall to their\ndestruction.  We must trust him, that he will do away with nothing that\nis old, without putting something better in its place.  Thus we shall\nkeep up our hearts, though things do change round us, sometimes\nmournfully enough.  For Christ destroyed Jerusalem.  But, again, its\ndestruction was, as St. Paul said, life to all nations.  He destroyed\nMoses\u2019 law.  But he, by so doing, put in its place his own Gospel.  He\nscattered abroad the nations of the Jews, but he thereby called into his\nChurch all nations of the earth.  He destroyed, with a fearful\ndestruction, the Holy City and temple, over which he wept.  But he did so\nin order that the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, even his Church, should\ncome down from heaven; needing no temple, for he himself is the temple\nthereof; that the nations of those which were saved should walk in the\nlight of it; and that the river of the water of life should flow from the\nthrone of God; and that the leaves of the trees which grew thereby should\nbe for the healing of the nations.  In that magnificent imagery, St. John\nshows us how the most terrible destruction which the Lord ever brought\nupon a holy place and holy institutions was really a blessing to all the\nworld.  Let us believe that it has been so often since; that it will be\nso often again.  Let us look forward to the future with hope and faith,\neven while we look back on the past with love and regret.  Let us leave\nunmanly and unchristian fears to those who fancy that Christ has deserted\nhis kingdom, and has left them to govern it in his stead; and who\nnaturally break out into peevishness and terrified lamentations, when\nthey discover that the world will not go their way, or any man\u2019s way,\nbecause it is going the way of God, whose ways are not as man\u2019s ways nor\nhis thoughts as man\u2019s thoughts.  Let us have faith in God and in Christ,\namid all the chances and changes of this mortal life; and believe that he\nis leading the world and mankind to\n\n       \u2018One far-off divine event\n    Toward which the whole creation moves;\u2019\n\nand possess our souls in patience, and in faith, and in hope for\nourselves and for our children after; while we say, with the Psalmist of\nold: \u2018Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the\nearth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands.  They shall perish, but\nthou shalt endure.  They all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a\nvesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be cleansed.  But thou art\nthe same, and thy years shall not fail.  The children of thy servants\nshall continue; and their seed shall stand fast in thy sight.\u2019  Amen.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXIV.\nTHE LIKENESS OF GOD.\n\n\n                            EPHESIANS IV. 23, 24.\n\n    And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new\n    man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.\n\nBE renewed, says St. Paul, in the spirit of your mind\u2014in the tone,\ncharacter, and habit of your mind.  And put on the new man, the new\npattern of man, who was created after God, in righteousness and true\nholiness.\n\nPay attention, I beg you, to every word here.  To understand them clearly\nis most important to you.  According as you take them rightly or wrongly,\nwill your religion be healthy or unhealthy, and your notion of what God\nrequires of you true or false.  The new man, the new pattern of man, says\nSt. Paul, is created after God.  That, is after the pattern of God, in\nthe image of God, in the likeness of God.  You will surely see that that\nis his meaning.  We speak of making a thing after another thing; meaning,\nmake it exactly like another thing.  So, by making a man after God, St.\nPaul means making a man like God.\n\nNow what is this man?  None, be sure, save Christ himself, the co-equal\nand co-eternal Son of God.  Of him alone can it be said, utterly, that he\nis after God\u2014the brightness of God\u2019s glory, and the express image of his\nperson.  But still, he is a man, and meant as a pattern to men; the new\nAdam; the new pattern, type, and ideal for all mankind.  Him, says St.\nPaul,\u2014that is, his likeness,\u2014we are to put on, that as he was after the\nlikeness of God, so may we be likewise.\n\nBut now, in what does this same likeness consist?\n\nSt. Paul tells us distinctly, lest we should mistake a matter of such\nboundless importance as the question of all questions\u2014What is the life of\nGod, the Divine and Godlike life?\n\nIt is created, founded, says he, in righteousness and true holiness.\nThat is the character, that is the form of it.  Whatever we do not know,\nwhatever we cannot know, concerning God, and his Divine life, we know\nthat it consists of righteousness and true holiness.\n\nAnd what is righteousness?  Justice.  You must understand\u2014as any good\nscholar or divine would assure you\u2014that St. Paul is not speaking here of\nthe imputed righteousness of Christ.  He is speaking of righteousness in\nthe simple Old Testament meaning of the word, of justice, whereof our\nLord has said, \u2018Do unto others as ye would they should do unto you;\u2019\njustice, which, as wise men of old have said, consists in this,\u2014to harm\nno man, and to give each man his own.  That is true righteousness and\njustice, and that is the Godlike life.\n\n\u2018And true holiness.\u2019  That is, truthful holiness, honest holiness.  This\nis St. Paul\u2019s meaning.  As any good scholar or divine would tell you, St.\nPaul\u2019s exact words are \u2018the holiness of truth.\u2019  He does not mean true\nholiness as opposed to a false holiness, a legal holiness, a holiness of\nempty forms and ceremonies, or a holiness of ascetism and celibacy; but\nas opposed to a holiness which does not speak the truth, to that sly,\nuntruthful, prevaricating holiness which was only too common in St.\nPaul\u2019s time, and has been but too common since.  Be honest, says St.\nPaul; for this too is part of the Godlike life, and the new man is\ncreated after God, in justice and honesty.\n\nAnd that this is what St. Paul actually means is clear from what\nimmediately follows: \u2018Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man\ntruth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.\u2019\n\nWhat does the \u2018wherefore\u2019 mean, if not that, because the life of God is a\nlife of justice and honesty, therefore you must not lie; therefore you\nmust not hear spite and malice; therefore you must not steal, but rather\nwork; therefore you must avoid all foul talk which may injure your\nneighbour; but rather teach, refine, educate him?\n\nIt would seem at first sight that this would have been a gospel, and good\nnews to men.  But, alas! it has not been such.  In all ages, in all\nreligions, men have turned away from this simple righteousness of God,\nwhich is created in justice and truth, and have sought some righteousness\nof their own, founded upon anything and everything save common morality\nand honesty.  Alas for the spiritual pride of man!  He is not content to\nbe simply just and true! for any one and every one, he thinks, can be\nthat.  He must needs be something, which other people cannot be.  He must\nneeds be able to thank God that he is not as other men are, and say,\n\u2018This people, this wicked world, who knoweth not our law, is accursed.\u2019\n\nIf God had bid men do some great thing to save their souls, would they\nnot have done it?  How much more when he says simply to them, as to\nNaaman, \u2018Wash, and be clean.\u2019  \u2018Wash you,\u2019 says the Lord by the prophet\nIsaiah, \u2018make you clean.  Put away the evil of your doings from before my\neyes.  Cease to do evil.  Learn to do well, seek justice, relieve the\noppressed,\u2019 and then, \u2018though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be\nwhite as snow.\u2019  But no: any one can do that; and therefore it is beneath\nthe spiritual pride of man.  In our own days, there are too many who do\nnot hesitate to look down on plain justice, and plain honesty, as natural\nvirtues, which (so they say) men can have without the grace of God, and\nmake a distinction between these natural virtues and the effects of God\u2019s\nSpirit; which is not only not to be found in Scripture, but is\ncontradicted by Scripture from beginning to end.\n\nNow there can be no doubt that such notions concerning religion do harm;\nthat they demoralise thousands,\u2014that is, make them less moral and good\nmen.  For there are thousands, especially in England, who are persons of\ngood common-sense, uprightness, and truthfulness: but they have not\nlively fancies, or quick feelings.  They have no inclination for a life\nof exclusive devoutness; and if they had, they have no time for it.  They\nmust do their business in the world where God has put them.  And when\nthey are told that God requires of them certain frames and feelings, and\nthat the Godlike life consists in them, then they are disheartened, and\nsay, \u2018There is no use, then, in my trying to be religious, or moral\neither.  If plain honesty, justice, sobriety, usefulness in my place will\nnot please God, I cannot please him at all.  Why then should I try, if my\nway of trying is of no use?  Why should I try to be honest, sober, and\nuseful, if that is not true religion?\u2014if what God wants of me is not\nvirtue, but a certain high-flown religiousness which I cannot feel or\neven understand?\u2019\u2014and so they grow weary in well-doing, and careless\nabout the plain duties of morality.  They become careless, likewise,\nabout the plain duties of religion; and so they are demoralised, because\nthey are told that justice and the holiness of truth are not the Godlike\nand eternal life; because they are told that religion has little or\nnothing to do with their daily life and business, nothing to do with\nthose just and truthful instincts of their hearts, which they feel to be\nthe most sacred things about them; which are their best, if not their\nonly guide in life.  But more: they fall into the mistake that they can\nhave a righteousness of their own; and into that Pelagianism, as it is\ncalled, which is growing more and more the creed of modern men of the\nworld.\n\nToo many religious people, on the other hand, are demoralised by the very\nsame notion.\n\nThey too are taught that justice and truth are mere \u2018morality,\u2019 as it is\ncalled, and not the grace of God; that they are not the foundation of the\nDivine life, that they are not the essence of true religion.  Therefore\nthey become more and more careless about mere morality,\u2014so careless of\njustice, so careless of truth, as to bring often fearful scandals on\nreligion.\n\nMeanwhile men in general, especially Englishmen, have a very sound\ninstinct on this whole matter.  They have a sound instinct that if God be\ngood, then goodness is the only true mark of godliness; and that goodness\nconsists first and foremost in plain justice and plain honesty; and they\nask, not what a man\u2019s religious profession is, not what his religious\nobservances are: but\u2014\u2018What is the man himself?  Is he a just, upright,\nand fair-dealing man?  Is he true?  Can we depend on his word?\u2019  If not,\nhis religion counts for nothing with them: as it ought to count.\n\nNow I hold that St. Paul in this text declares that the plain English\nfolk who talk thus, and who are too often called mere worldlings, and men\nof the world, are right; that justice and honesty are the Divine life\nitself, and the very likeness of Christ and of God.\n\nJustice and truth all men can have, and therefore all men are required to\nhave.  About devotional feelings, about religious observances, however\nexcellent and blessed, we may deceive ourselves; for we may put them in\nthe place of sanctification, of righteousness and true holiness.  About\njustice and honesty we cannot deceive ourselves; for they are\nsanctification itself, righteousness itself, true holiness itself, the\nvery likeness of God, and the very grace of God.\n\nBut if so, they come from God; they are God\u2019s gift, and not any natural\nproduct of our own hearts: and for that very reason we can and must keep\nthem alive in us by prayer.  As long as we think that the sentiment of\njustice and truth is our own, so long shall we be in danger of forgetting\nit, paltering with it, playing false to it in temptation, and by some\ninjustice or meanness grieving (as St. Paul warns us) the Holy Spirit of\nGod, who has inspired us with that priceless treasure.\n\nBut if we believe that from God, the fount of justice, comes all our\njustice; that from God, the fount of truth, comes all our truthfulness,\nthen we shall cry earnestly to him, day by day, as we go about this\nworld\u2019s work, to be kept from all injustice, and from all falsehood.  We\nshall entreat him to cleanse us from our secret faults, and to give us\ntruth in the inward parts; to pour into our hearts that love to our\nneighbour which is justice itself, for it worketh no ill to its\nneighbour, and so fulfils the law.  We shall dread all meanness and\ncruelty, as sins against the very Spirit of God; and our most earnest and\nsolemn endeavour in life will be, to keep innocence, and take heed to the\nthing that is right; for that will bring us peace at the last.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n\n{243}  Wordsworth\u2019s \u2018Ode on Tintern Abbey.\u2019","title":"Discipline and Other Sermons","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":57140}