{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_7954/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_7954","id":"gutenberg_7954","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7954","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity","Church of England -- Sermons","Sermons, English"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1849 John W. Parker edition by David Price, email\nccx074@pglaf.org\n\n\n\n\n\n TWENTY-FIVE\n VILLAGE SERMONS.\n\n\n * * * * *\n\n BY\n CHARLES KINGSLEY, JUN.,\n\n RECTOR OF EVERSLEY, HANTS, AND CANON OF MIDDLEHAM, YORKSHIRE.\n\n * * * * *\n\n LONDON:\n JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND.\n\n * * * * *\n\n MDCCCXLIX.\n\n * * * * *\n\n LONDON:\n Printed by G. BARCLAY, Castle St Leicester Sq.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n Page\n SERMON I.\n\n GOD\u2019S WORLD.\n\n PSALM civ. 24.\nO Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou 1\nmade them all: the earth is full of Thy riches\n SERMON II.\n\n RELIGION NOT GODLINESS.\n\n PSALM civ. 13\u201315.\nHe watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is 13\nsatisfied with the fruit of thy works. He causeth the\ngrass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of\nman: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; and\nwine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his\nface to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man\u2019s heart\n SERMON III.\n\n LIFE AND DEATH.\n\n PSALM civ. 24, 28\u201330.\nO Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou 25\nmade them all: the earth is full of Thy riches. That Thou\ngivest them they gather: Thou openest Thine hand, they are\nfilled with good. Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled:\nThou takest away their breath, they die, and return to\ntheir dust. Thou sendest forth Thy spirit, they are\ncreated: and Thou renewest the face of the earth\n SERMON IV.\n\n THE WORK OF GOD\u2019S SPIRIT.\n\n JAMES, i. 16, 17.\nDo not err, my beloved brethren; every good gift and every 35\nperfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father\nof lights\n SERMON V.\n\n FAITH.\n\n HABAKKUK, ii. 4.\nThe just shall live by faith 47\n SERMON VI.\n\n THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH.\n\n GALATIANS, v. 16.\nI say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the 60\nlusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the\nSpirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are\ncontrary the one to the other\n SERMON VII.\n\n RETRIBUTION.\n\n NUMBERS, xxxii. 23.\nBe sure your sin will find you out 72\n SERMON VIII.\n\n SELF-DESTRUCTION.\n\n 1 KINGS, xxii. 23.\nThe Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these 82\nthy prophets\n SERMON IX.\n\n HELL ON EARTH.\n\n MATTHEW, viii. 29.\nAnd behold the evil spirits cried out, saying, What have we 91\nto do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come\nhither to torment us before the time?\n SERMON X.\n\n NOAH\u2019S JUSTICE.\n\n GENESIS, vi. 9.\nNoah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and 104\nNoah walked with God\n SERMON XI.\n\n THE NOACHIC COVENANT.\n\n GEN. ix. 8, 9.\nAnd God spake unto Noah, and his sons with him, saying, And 116\nI, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your\nseed after you\n SERMON XII.\n\n ABRAHAM\u2019S FAITH.\n\n HEBREWS, xi. 9, 10.\nBy faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a 125\nstrange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and\nJacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he\nlooked for a city, which hath foundations, whose builder\nand maker is God\n SERMON XIII.\n\n ABRAHAM\u2019S OBEDIENCE.\n\n HEBREWS, xi. 17\u201319.\nBy faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and 141\nhe that had received the promises offered up his\nonly-begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall\nthy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise\nhim up, even from the dead; from whence also he received\nhim in a figure\n SERMON XIV.\n\n OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN.\n\n 1 JOHN, ii. 13.\nI write unto you, little children, because ye have known 149\nthe Father\n SERMON XV.\n\n THE TRANSFIGURATION.\n\n MARK, ix. 2.\nJesus taketh Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them 160\nup into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before\nthem\n SERMON XVI.\n\n THE CRUCIFIXION.\n\n ISAIAH, liii. 7.\nHe is brought as a lamb to the slaughter 173\n SERMON XVII.\n\n THE RESURRECTION.\n\n LUKE, xxiv. 6.\nHe is not here\u2014He is risen 179\n SERMON XVIII.\n\n IMPROVEMENT.\n\n PSALM xcii. 12.\nThe righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree: he shall 191\ngrow like the cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in\nthe house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our\nGod. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they\nshall be fat and flourishing\n SERMON XIX.\n\n MAN\u2019S WORKING DAY.\n\n JOHN, xi. 9, 10.\nJesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If 200\nany man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth\nthe light of this world. But if a man walk in the night he\nstumbleth, because there is no light in him\n SERMON XX.\n\n ASSOCIATION.\n\n GALATIANS, vi. 2.\nBear ye one another\u2019s burdens, and so fulfil the law of 210\nChrist\n SERMON XXI.\n\n HEAVEN ON EARTH.\n\n 1 COR. x. 31.\nWhether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to 219\nthe glory of God\n SERMON XXII.\n\n NATIONAL PRIVILEGES.\n\n LUKE, x. 23.\nBlessed are the eyes which see the things which ye see: for 228\nI tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to\nsee those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and\nto hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them\n SERMON XXIII.\n\n LENTEN THOUGHTS.\n\n HAGGAI, i. 5.\nNow, therefore, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your 239\nways\n SERMON XXIV.\n\n ON BOOKS.\n\n JOHN, i. 1.\nIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 248\nand the Word was God\n SERMON XXV.\n\n THE COURAGE OF THE SAVIOUR.\n\n JOHN, xi. 7, 8.\nThen after that saith He to His disciples, Let us go into 259\nJudea again. His disciples say to Him, Master, the Jews of\nlate sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again?\n\n\n\n\nSERMON I.\nGOD\u2019S WORLD.\n\n\n PSALM civ. 24.\n\n \u201cO Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them\n all: the earth is full of Thy riches.\u201d\n\nWHEN we read such psalms as the one from which this verse is taken, we\ncannot help, if we consider, feeling at once a great difference between\nthem and any hymns or religious poetry which is commonly written or read\nin these days. The hymns which are most liked now, and the psalms which\npeople most willingly choose out of the Bible, are those which speak, or\nseem to speak, about God\u2019s dealings with people\u2019s own souls, while such\npsalms as this are overlooked. People do not care really about psalms of\nthis kind when they find them in the Bible, and they do not expect or\nwish nowadays any one to write poetry like them. For these psalms of\nwhich I speak praise and honour God, not for what He has done to our\nsouls, but for what He has done and is doing in the world around us.\nThis very 104th psalm, for instance, speaks entirely about things which\nwe hardly care or even think proper to mention in church now. It speaks\nof this earth entirely, and the things on it. Of the light, the clouds,\nand wind\u2014of hills and valleys, and the springs on the hill-sides\u2014of wild\nbeasts and birds\u2014of grass and corn, and wine and oil\u2014of the sun and moon,\nnight and day\u2014the great sea, the ships, and the fishes, and all the\nwonderful and nameless creatures which people the waters\u2014the very birds\u2019\nnests in the high trees, and the rabbits burrowing among the\nrocks,\u2014nothing on the earth but this psalm thinks it worth mentioning.\nAnd all this, which one would expect to find only in a book of natural\nhistory, is in the Bible, in one of the psalms, written to be sung in the\ntemple at Jerusalem, before the throne of the living God and His glory\nwhich used to be seen in that temple,\u2014inspired, as we all believe, by\nGod\u2019s Spirit,\u2014God\u2019s own word, in short: that is worth thinking of.\nSurely the man who wrote this must have thought very differently about\nthis world, with its fields and woods, and beasts and birds, from what we\nthink. Suppose, now, that we had been old Jews in the temple, standing\nbefore the holy house, and that we believed, as the Jews believed, that\nthere was only one thin wall and one curtain of linen between us and the\nglory of the living God, that unspeakable brightness and majesty which no\none could look at for fear of instant death, except the high-priest in\nfear and trembling once a-year\u2014that inside that small holy house, He, God\nAlmighty, appeared visibly\u2014God who made heaven and earth. Suppose we had\nbeen there in the temple, and known all this, should we have liked to be\nsinging about beasts and birds, with God Himself close to us? We should\nnot have liked it\u2014we should have been terrified, thinking perhaps about\nour own sinfulness, perhaps about that wonderful majesty which dwelt\ninside. We should have wished to say or sing something spiritual, as we\ncall it; at all events, something very different from the 104th psalm\nabout woods, and rivers, and dumb beasts. We do not like the thought of\nsuch a thing: it seems almost irreverent, almost impertinent to God to be\ntalking of such things in His presence. Now does this shew us that we\nthink about this earth, and the things in it, in a very different way\nfrom those old Jews? They thought it a fit and proper thing to talk\nabout corn and wine and oil, and cattle and fishes, in the presence of\nAlmighty God, and we do not think it fit and proper. We read this psalm\nwhen it comes in the Church-service as a matter of course, mainly because\nwe do not believe that God is here among us. We should not be so ready\nto read it if we thought that Almighty God was so near us.\n\nThat is a great difference between us and the old Jews. Whether it shews\nthat we are better or not than they were in the main, I cannot tell;\nperhaps some of them had such thoughts too, and said, \u2018It is not\nrespectful to God to talk about such commonplace earthly things in His\npresence;\u2019 perhaps some of them thought themselves spiritual and\npure-minded for looking down on this psalm, and on David for writing it.\nVery likely, for men have had such thoughts in all ages, and will have\nthem. But the man who wrote this psalm had no such thoughts. He said\nhimself, in this same psalm, that his words would please God. Nay, he is\nnot speaking and preaching _about_ God in this psalm, as I am now in my\nsermon, but he is doing more; he is speaking _to_ God\u2014a much more solemn\nthing if you will think of it. He says, \u201cO Lord my God, _Thou_ art\nbecome exceeding glorious. Thou deckest Thyself with light as with a\ngarment. All the beasts wait on Thee; when Thou givest them meat they\ngather it. Thou renewest the face of the earth.\u201d When he turns and\nspeaks of God as \u201cHe,\u201d saying, \u201cHe appointed the moon,\u201d and so on, he\ncannot help going back to God, and pouring out his wonder, and delight,\nand awe, to God Himself, as we would sooner speak _to_ any one we love\nand honour than merely speak _about_ them. He cannot take his mind off\nGod. And just at the last, when he does turn and speak to himself, it is\nto say, \u201cPraise thou the Lord, O my soul, praise the Lord,\u201d as if\nrebuking and stirring up himself for being too cold-hearted and slow, for\nnot admiring and honouring enough the infinite wisdom, and power, and\nlove, and glorious majesty of God, which to him shines out in every\nhedge-side bird and every blade of grass. Truly I said that man had a\nvery different way of looking at God\u2019s earth from what we have!\n\nNow, in what did that difference lie? What was it? We need not look far\nto see. It was this,\u2014David looked on the earth as God\u2019s earth; we look\non it as man\u2019s earth, or nobody\u2019s earth. We know that we are here, with\ntrees and grass, and beasts and birds, round us. And we know that we did\nnot put them here; and that, after we are dead and gone, they will go on\njust as they went on before we were born,\u2014each tree, and flower, and\nanimal, after its kind, but we know nothing more. The earth is here, and\nwe on it; but who put it there, and why it is there, and why we are on\nit, instead of being anywhere else, few ever think. But to David the\nearth looked very different; it had quite another meaning; it spoke to\nhim of God who made it. By seeing what this earth is like, he saw what\nGod who made it is like: and we see no such thing. The earth?\u2014we can eat\nthe corn and cattle on it, we can earn money by farming it, and ploughing\nand digging it; and that is all most men know about it. But David knew\nsomething more\u2014something which made him feel himself very weak, and yet\nvery safe; very ignorant and stupid, and yet honoured with glorious\nknowledge from God,\u2014something which made him feel that he belonged to\nthis world, and must not forget it or neglect it, that this earth was his\nlesson-book\u2014this earth was his work-field; and yet those same thoughts\nwhich shewed him how he was made for the land round him, and the land\nround him was made for him, shewed him also that he belonged to another\nworld\u2014a spirit-world; shewed him that when this world passed away, he\nshould live for ever; shewed him that while he had a mortal body, he had\nan immortal soul too; shewed him that though his home and business were\nhere on earth, yet that, for that very reason, his home and business were\nin heaven, with God who made the earth, with that blessed One of whom he\nsaid, \u201cThou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the\nearth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but\nThou shalt endure; they all shall fade as a garment, and like a vesture\nshalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed; but Thou art the same,\nand _Thy_ years shall not fail. The children of Thy servants shall\ncontinue, and their seed shall stand fast in Thy sight.\u201d \u201cAs a garment\nshalt Thou change them,\u201d\u2014ay, there was David\u2019s secret! He saw that this\nearth and skies are God\u2019s garment\u2014the garment by which we see God; and\nthat is what our forefathers saw too, and just what we have forgotten;\nbut David had not forgotten it. Look at this very 104th psalm again, how\nhe refers every thing to God. We say, \u2018The light shines:\u2019 David says\nsomething more; he says, \u201cThou, O God, adornest Thyself with light as\nwith a curtain.\u201d Light is a picture of God. \u201cGod,\u201d says St. John, \u201cis\nlight, and in Him is no darkness at all.\u201d We say, \u2018The clouds fly and\nthe wind blows,\u2019 as if they went of themselves; David says, \u201cGod makes\nthe clouds His chariot, and walks upon the wings of the wind.\u201d We talk\nof the rich airs of spring, of the flashing lightning of summer, as dead\nthings; and men who call themselves wise say, that lightning is only\nmatter,\u2014\u2018We can grind the like of it out of glass and silk, and make\nlightning for ourselves in a small way;\u2019 and so they can in a small way,\nand in a very small one: David does not deny that, but he puts us in mind\nof something in that lightning and those breezes which we cannot make.\nHe says, God makes the winds His angels, and flaming fire his ministers;\nand St. Paul takes the same text, and turns it round to suit his purpose,\nwhen he is talking of the blessed angels, saying, \u2018That text in the 104th\nPsalm means something more; it means that God makes His angels spirits,\n(that is winds) and His ministers a flaming fire.\u2019 So shewing us that in\nthose breezes there are living spirits, that God\u2019s angels guide those\nthunder-clouds; that the roaring thunderclap is a shock in the air truly,\nbut that it is something more\u2014that it is the voice of God, which shakes\nthe cedar-trees of Lebanon, and tears down the thick bushes, and makes\nthe wild deer slip their young. So we read in the psalms in church; that\nis David\u2019s account of the thunder. I take it for a true account; you may\nor not as you like. See again. Those springs in the hill-sides, how do\nthey come there? \u2018Rain-water soaking and flowing out,\u2019 we say. True,\nbut David says something more; he says, God sends the springs, and He\nsends them into the rivers too. You may say, \u2018Why, water must run\ndown-hill, what need of God?\u2019 But suppose God had chosen that water\nshould run _up_-hill and not down, how would it have been then?\u2014Very\ndifferent, I think. No; He sends them; He sends all things. Wherever\nthere is any thing useful, His Spirit has settled it. The help that is\ndone on earth He doeth it all Himself.\u2014Loving and merciful,\u2014caring for\nthe poor dumb beasts!\u2014He sends the springs, and David says, \u201cAll the\nbeasts of the field drink thereof.\u201d The wild animals in the night, He\ncares for them too,\u2014He, the Almighty God. We hear the foxes bark by\nnight, and we think the fox is hungry, and there it ends with us; but not\nwith David: he says, \u201cThe lions roaring after their prey do seek their\nmeat from God,\u201d\u2014God, who feedeth the young ravens who call upon Him. He\nis a God! \u201cHe did not make the world,\u201d says a wise man, \u201cand then let it\nspin round His finger,\u201d as we wind up a watch, and then leave it to go of\nitself. No; \u201cHis mercy is over all His works.\u201d Loving and merciful, the\nGod of nature is the God of grace. The same love which chose us and our\nforefathers for His people while we were yet dead in trespasses and sins;\nthe same only-begotten Son, who came down on earth to die for us poor\nwretches on the cross,\u2014that same love, that same power, that same Word of\nGod, who made heaven and earth, looks after the poor gnats in the winter\ntime, that they may have a chance of coming out of the ground when the\nday stirs the little life in them, and dance in the sunbeam for a short\nhour of gay life, before they return to the dust whence they were made,\nto feed creatures nobler and more precious than themselves. That is all\nGod\u2019s doing, all the doing of Christ, the King of the earth. \u201cThey wait\non Him,\u201d says David. The beasts, and birds, and insects, the strange\nfish, and shells, and the nameless corals too, in the deep, deep sea, who\nbuild and build below the water for years and thousands of years, every\nlittle, tiny creature bringing his atom of lime to add to the great heap,\ntill their heap stands out of the water and becomes dry land; and seeds\nfloat thither over the wide waste sea, and trees grow up, and birds are\ndriven thither by storms; and men come by accident in stray ships, and\nbuild, and sow, and multiply, and raise churches, and worship the God of\nheaven, and Christ, the blessed One,\u2014on that new land which the little\ncoral worms have built up from the deep. Consider that. Who sent them\nthere? Who contrived that those particular men should light on that new\nisland at that especial time? Who guided thither those seeds\u2014those\nbirds? Who gave those insects that strange longing and power to build\nand build on continually?\u2014Christ, by whom all things are made, to whom\nall power is given in heaven and earth; He and His Spirit, and none else.\nIt is when _He_ opens His hand, they are filled with good. It is when\n_He_ takes away their breath, they die, and turn again to their dust.\n_He_ lets His breath, His spirit, go forth, and out of that dead dust\ngrow plants and herbs afresh for man and beast, and He renews the face of\nthe earth. For, says the wise man, \u201call things are God\u2019s\ngarment\u201d\u2014outward and visible signs of His unseen and unapproachable\nglory; and when they are worn out, He changes them, says the Psalmist, as\na garment, and they shall be changed.\n\n The old order changes, giving place to the new,\n And God fulfils Himself in many ways.\n\nBut He is the same. He is there all the time. All things are His work.\nIn all things we may see Him, if our souls have eyes. All things, be\nthey what they may, which live and grow on this earth, or happen on land\nor in the sky, will tell us a tale of God,\u2014shew forth some one feature,\nat least, of our blessed Saviour\u2019s countenance and character,\u2014either His\nforesight, or His wisdom, or His order, or His power, or His love, or His\ncondescension, or His long-suffering, or His slow, sure vengeance on\nthose who break His laws. It is all written there outside in the great\ngreen book, which God has given to labouring men, and which neither taxes\nnor tyrants can take from them. The man who is no scholar in letters may\nread of God as he follows the plough, for the earth he ploughs is his\nFather\u2019s: there is God\u2019s mark and seal on it,\u2014His name, which though it\nis written on the dust, yet neither man nor fiend can wipe it out!\n\nThe poor, solitary, untaught boy, who keeps the sheep, or minds the\nbirds, long lonely days, far from his mother and his playmates, may keep\nalive in him all purifying thoughts, if he will but open his eyes and\nlook at the green earth around him.\n\nThink now, my boys, when you are at your work, how all things may put you\nin mind of God, if you do but choose. The trees which shelter you from\nthe wind, God planted them there for your sakes, in His love.\u2014There is a\nlesson about God. The birds which you drive off the corn, who gave them\nthe sense to keep together and profit by each other\u2019s wit and keen\neyesight? Who but God, who feeds the young birds when they call on\nHim?\u2014There is another lesson about God. The sheep whom you follow, who\nordered the warm wool to grow on them, from which your clothes are made?\nWho but the Spirit of God above, who clothes the grass of the field, the\nsilly sheep, and who clothes you, too, and thinks of you when you don\u2019t\nthink of yourselves?\u2014There is another lesson about God. The feeble lambs\nin spring, they ought to remind you surely of your blessed Saviour, the\nLamb of God, who died for you upon the cruel cross, who was led as a lamb\nto the slaughter; and like a sheep that lies dumb and patient under the\nshearer\u2019s hand, so he opened not his mouth. Are not these lambs, then, a\nlesson from God? And these are but one or two examples out of thousands\nand thousands. Oh, that I could make you, young and old, all feel these\nthings! Oh, that I could make you see God in every thing, and every\nthing in God! Oh, that I could make you look on this earth, not as a\nmere dull, dreary prison, and workhouse for your mortal bodies, but as a\nliving book, to speak to you at every time of the living God, Father,\nSon, and Holy Ghost! Sure I am that that would be a heavenly life for\nyou,\u2014sure I am that it would keep you from many a sin, and stir you up to\nmany a holy thought and deed, if you could learn to find in every thing\naround you, however small or mean, the work of God\u2019s hand, the likeness\nof God\u2019s countenance, the shadow of God\u2019s glory.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON II.\nRELIGION NOT GODLINESS.\n\n\n PSALM civ. 13\u201315.\n\n \u201cHe watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with\n the fruit of thy works. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle,\n and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of\n the earth; and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to\n make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man\u2019s heart.\u201d\n\nDID you ever remark, my friends, that the Bible says hardly any thing\nabout religion\u2014that it never praises religious people? This is very\ncurious. Would to God we would all remember it! The Bible speaks of a\nreligious man only once, and of religion only twice, except where it\nspeaks of the Jews\u2019 religion to condemn it, and shews what an empty,\nblind, useless thing it was.\n\nWhat does this Bible talk of, then? It talks of God; not of religion,\nbut of God. It tells us not to be religious, but to be godly. You may\nthink there is no difference, or that it is but a difference of words. I\ntell you that a difference in words is a very awful, important\ndifference. A difference in words is a difference in things. Words are\nvery awful and wonderful things, for they come from the most awful and\nwonderful of all beings, Jesus Christ, the Word. He puts words into\nmen\u2019s minds\u2014He made all things, and He makes all words to express those\nthings with. And woe to those who use the wrong words about things!\u2014For\nif a man calls any thing by its wrong name, it is a sure sign that he\nunderstands that thing wrongly, or feels about it wrongly; and therefore\na man\u2019s words are oftener honester than he thinks; for as a man\u2019s words\nare, so is a man\u2019s heart; out of the abundance of our hearts our mouths\nspeak; and, therefore, by right words, by the right names which we call\nthings, we shall be justified, and by our words, by the wrong names we\ncall things, we shall be condemned.\n\nTherefore a difference in words is a difference in the things which those\nwords mean, and there is a difference between religion and godliness; and\nwe shew it by our words. Now these are religious times, but they are\nvery ungodly times; and we shew that also by our words. Because we think\nthat people ought to be religious, we talk a great deal about religion;\nbecause we hardly think at all that a man ought to be godly, we talk very\nlittle about God, and that good old Bible word \u201cgodliness\u201d does not pass\nour lips once a-month. For a man may be very religious, my friends, and\nyet very ungodly. The heathens were very religious at the very time\nthat, as St. Paul tells us, they would not keep God in their knowledge.\nThe Jews were the most religious people on the earth, they hardly talked\nor thought about anything but religion, at the very time that they knew\nso little of God that they crucified Him when He came down among them.\nSt. Paul says that he was living after the strictest sect of the Jews\u2019\nreligion, at the very time that he was fighting against God, persecuting\nGod\u2019s people and God\u2019s Son, and dead in trespasses and sins. These are\nugly facts, my friends, but they are true, and well worth our laying to\nheart in these religious, ungodly days. I am afraid if Jesus Christ came\ndown into England this day as a carpenter\u2019s son, He would get\u2014a better\nhearing, perhaps, than the Jews gave him, but still a very bad\nhearing\u2014one dare hardly think of it.\n\nAnd yet I believe we ought to think of it, and, by God\u2019s help, I will one\nday preach you a sermon, asking you all round this fair question:\u2014If\nJesus Christ came to you in the shape of a poor man, whom nobody knew,\nshould _you_ know him? should you admire him, fall at his feet and give\nyourself up to him body and soul? I am afraid that I, for one, should\nnot\u2014I am afraid that too many of us here would not. That comes of\nthinking more of religion than we do of godliness\u2014in plain words, more of\nour own souls than we do of Jesus Christ. But you will want to know what\nis, after all, the difference between religion and godliness? Just the\ndifference, my friends, that there is between always thinking of self and\nalways forgetting self\u2014between the terror of a slave and the affection of\na child\u2014between the fear of hell and the love of God. For, tell me, what\nyou mean by being religious? Do you not mean thinking a great deal about\nyour own souls, and praying and reading about your own souls, and trying\nby all possible means to get your own souls saved? Is not that the\nmeaning of religion? And yet I have never mentioned God\u2019s name in\ndescribing it! This sort of religion must have very little to do with\nGod. You may be surprised at my words, and say in your hearts almost\nangrily, \u2018Why who saves our souls but God? therefore religion must have\nto do with God.\u2019 But, my friends, for your souls\u2019 sake, and for God\u2019s\nsake, ask yourselves this question on your knees this day:\u2014If you could\nget your souls saved without God\u2019s help, would it make much difference to\nyou? Suppose an angel from heaven, as they say, was to come down and\nprove to you clearly that there was no God, no blessed Jesus in heaven,\nthat the world made itself, and went on of itself, and that the Bible was\nall a mistake, but that you need not mind, for your gardens and crops\nwould grow just as well, and your souls be saved just as well when you\ndied.\n\nTo how many of you would it make any difference? To some of you, thank\nGod, I believe it would make a difference. Here are some here, I\nbelieve, who would feel that news the worst news they ever heard,\u2014worse\nthan if they were told that their souls were lost for ever; there are\nsome here, I do believe, who, at that news, would cry aloud in agony,\nlike little children who had lost their father, and say, \u2018No Father in\nheaven to love? No blessed Jesus in heaven to work for, and die for, and\nglory and delight in? No God to rule and manage this poor, miserable,\nquarrelsome world, bringing good out of evil, blessing and guiding all\nthings and people on earth? What do I care what becomes of my soul if\nthere is no God for my soul to glory in? What is heaven worth without\nGod? God is Heaven!\u2019\n\nYes, indeed, what would heaven be worth without God? But how many people\nfeel that the curse of this day is, that most people have forgotten\n_that_? They are selfishly anxious enough about their own souls, but\nthey have forgotten God. They are religious, for fear of hell; but they\nare not godly, for they do not love God, or see God\u2019s hand in every\nthing. They forget that they have a Father in heaven; that He sends\nrain, and sunshine, and fruitful seasons; that He gives them all things\nrichly to enjoy in spite of all their sins. His mercies are far above,\nout of their sight, and therefore His judgments are far away out of their\nsight too; and so they talk of the \u201cVisitation of God,\u201d as if it was\nsomething that was very extraordinary, and happened very seldom; and when\nit came, only brought evil, harm, and sorrow. If a man lives on in\nhealth, they say he lives by the strength of his own constitution; if he\ndrops down dead, they say he died by \u201cthe visitation of God.\u201d If the\ncorn-crops go on all right and safe, they think _that_ quite natural\u2014the\neffect of the soil, and the weather, and their own skill in farming and\ngardening. But if there comes a hailstorm or a blight, and spoils it\nall, and brings on a famine, they call it at once \u201ca visitation of God.\u201d\nMy friends! do you think God \u201cvisits\u201d the earth or you only to harm you?\nI tell you that every blade of grass grows by \u201cthe visitation of God.\u201d I\ntell you that every healthy breath you ever drew, every cheerful hour you\never spent, every good crop you ever housed safely, came to you by \u201cthe\nvisitation of God.\u201d I tell you that every sensible thought or plan that\never came into your heads,\u2014every loving, honest, manly, womanly feeling\nthat ever rose in your hearts, God \u201cvisited\u201d you to put it there. If\nGod\u2019s Spirit had not given it you, you would never have got it of\nyourselves.\n\nBut people forget this, and therefore they have so little real love to\nGod\u2014so little real, loyal, childlike trust in God. They do not think\nmuch about God, because they find no pleasure in thinking about Him; they\nlook on God as a task-master, gathering where He has not strewed, reaping\nwhere He has not sown,\u2014a task-master who has put them, very miserable,\nsinful creatures, to struggle on in a very miserable, sinful world, and,\nthough He tells them in His Bible that they _cannot_ keep His\ncommandments, expects them to keep them just the same, and will at the\nlast send them all into everlasting fire, unless they take a great deal\nof care, and give up a great many natural and pleasant things, and\nbeseech and entreat Him very hard to excuse them, after all. This is the\nthought which most people have of God, even religious people; they look\non God as a stern tyrant, who, when man sinned and fell, could not\nsatisfy His own justice\u2014His own vengeance in plain words, without killing\nsome one, and who would have certainly killed all mankind, if Jesus\nChrist had not interfered, and said, \u201cIf Thou must slay some one, slay\nme, though I am innocent!\u201d\n\nOh, my friends, does not this all sound horrible and irreverent? And yet\nif you will but look into your own hearts, will you not find some such\nthoughts there? I am sure you will. I believe every man finds such\nthoughts in his heart now and then. I find them in my own heart: I know\nthat they must be in the hearts of others, because I see them producing\ntheir natural fruits in people\u2019s actions\u2014a selfish, slavish view of\nreligion, with little or no real love to God, or real trust in Him; but a\ngreat deal of uneasy dread of Him: for this is just the dark, false view\nof God, and of the good news of salvation and the kingdom of heaven,\nwhich the devil is always trying to make men take. The Evil One tries to\nmake us forget that God is love; he tries to make us forget that God\ngives us all things richly to enjoy; he tries to make us forget that God\ngives at all, and to make us think that we take, not that He gives; to\nmake us look at God as a task-master, not as a father; in one word, to\nmake us mistake the devil for God, and God for the devil.\n\nAnd, therefore, it is that we ought to bless God for such Scriptures as\nthis 104th Psalm, which He seems to have preserved in the Bible just to\ncontradict these dark, slavish notions,\u2014just to testify that God is a\n_giver_, and knows our necessities before we ask and gives us all things,\neven as He gave us His Blessed Son\u2014freely, long before we wanted\nthem,\u2014from the foundation of all things, before ever the earth and the\nworld was made\u2014from all eternity, perpetual love, perpetual bounty.\n\nWhat does this text teach us? To look at God as Him who gives to all\nfreely and upbraideth not. It says to us,\u2014Do not suppose that your crops\ngrow of themselves. God waters the hills from above. He causes the\ngrass to grow for the cattle, and the green herb for the service of man.\nDo not suppose that He cares nothing about seeing you comfortable and\nhappy. It is He, He only who sends all which strengthens man\u2019s body, and\nmakes glad his heart, and makes him of a cheerful countenance. His will\nis that you should be cheerful. Ah, my friends, if we would but believe\nall this!\u2014we are too apt to say to ourselves, \u2018Our earthly comforts here\nhave nothing to do with godliness or God, God must save our souls, but\nour bodies we must save ourselves. God gives us spiritual blessings, but\nearthly blessings, the good things of this life, for them we must\nscramble and drudge ourselves, and get as much of them as we can without\noffending God;\u2019\u2014as if God grudged us our comforts! as if godliness had\nnot the promise of this life as well as the life to come! If we would\nbut believe that God knows our necessities before we ask\u2014that He gives us\ndaily more than we can ever get by working for it!\u2014if we would but seek\nfirst the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all other things would be\nadded to us; and we should find that he who loses his life should save\nit. And this way of looking at God\u2019s earth would not make us idle; it\nwould not tempt us to sit with folded hands for God\u2019s blessings to drop\ninto our mouths. No! I believe it would make men far more industrious\nthan ever mere self-interest can make them; they would say, \u2018God is our\nFather, He gave us His own Son, He gives us all things freely, we owe Him\nnot slavish service, but a boundless debt of cheerful gratitude.\nTherefore we must do His will, and we are sure His will must be our\nhappiness and comfort\u2014therefore we must do His will, and His will is that\nwe should _work_, and therefore we _must_ work. He has bidden us labour\non this earth\u2014He has bidden us dress it and keep it, conquer it and fill\nit for Him. We are His stewards here on earth, and therefore it is a\nglory and an honour to be allowed to work here in God\u2019s own land\u2014in our\nloving Father\u2019s own garden. We do not know why He wishes us to labour\nand till the ground, for He could have fed us with manna from heaven if\nHe liked, as He fed the Jews of old, without our working at all. But His\nwill is that we should work; and work we will, not for our own sakes\nmerely, but for His sake, because we know He likes it, and for the sake\nof our brothers, our countrymen, for whom Christ died.\u2019\n\nOh, my friends, why is it that so many till the ground industriously, and\nyet grow poorer and poorer for all their drudging and working? It is\ntheir own fault. They till the ground for their own sakes, and not for\nGod\u2019s sake and for their countrymen\u2019s sake; and so, as the Prophet says,\nthey sow much and bring in little, and he who earns wages earns them to\nput in a bag full of holes. Suppose you try the opposite plan. Suppose\nyou say to yourself, \u2018I will work henceforward because God wishes me to\nwork. I will work henceforward for my country\u2019s sake, because I feel\nthat God has given me a noble and a holy calling when He set me to grow\nfood for His children, the people of England. As for my wages and my\nprofit, God will take care of them if they are just; and if they are\nunjust, He will take care of them too. He, at all events, makes the\ngarden and the field grow, and not I. My land is filled, not with the\nfruit of my work, but with the fruit of His work. He will see that I\nlose nothing by my labour. If I till the soil for God and for God\u2019s\nchildren, I may trust God to pay me my wages.\u2019 Oh, my friends, He who\nfeeds the young birds when they call upon Him; and far, far more, He who\ngave you His only-begotten Son, will He not with Him freely give you all\nthings? For, after all done, He must give to you, or you will not get.\nYou may fret and stint, and scrape and puzzle; one man may sow, and\nanother man may water; but, after all, who can give the increase but God?\nCan you make a load of hay, unless He has first grown it for you, and\nthen dried it for you? If you would but think a little more about Him,\nif you would believe that your crops were His gifts, and in your hearts\noffer them up to Him as thank-offerings, see if He would not help you to\nsell your crops as well as to house them. He would put you in the way of\nan honest profit for your labour, just as surely as He only put you in\nthe way of labouring at all. \u201cTrust in the Lord, and be doing good;\ndwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed;\u201d for \u201cwithout me,\u201d says\nour Lord, \u201cyou can do nothing.\u201d No: these are His own words\u2014nothing. To\nHim all power is given in heaven and earth; He knows every root and every\nleaf, and feeds it. Will He not much more feed you, oh ye of little\nfaith? Do you think that He has made His world so ill that a man cannot\nget on in it unless he is a rogue? No. Cast all your care on Him, and\nsee if you do not find out ere long that He cares for you, and has cared\nfor you from all eternity.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON III.\nLIFE AND DEATH.\n\n\n PSALM civ. 24, 28\u201330.\n\n \u201cO Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them\n all: the earth is full of Thy riches. That Thou givest them they\n gather: Thou openest Thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou\n hidest Thy face, they are troubled: Thou takest away their breath,\n they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy spirit,\n they are created: and Thou renewest the face of the earth.\u201d\n\nI HAD intended to go through this psalm with you in regular order; but\nthings have happened this parish, awful and sad, during the last week,\nwhich I was bound not to let slip without trying to bring them home to\nyour hearts, if by any means I could persuade the thoughtless ones among\nyou to be wise and consider your latter end:\u2014I mean the sad deaths of\nvarious of our acquaintances. The death-bell has been tolled in this\nparish three times, I believe, in one day\u2014a thing which has seldom\nhappened before, and which God grant may never happen again. Within two\nmiles of this church there are now five lying dead. Five human beings,\nyoung as well as old, to whom the awful words of the text have been\nfulfilled: \u201cThou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their\ndust.\u201d And the very day on which three of these deaths happened was\nAscension-day\u2014the day on which Jesus, the Lord of life, the Conqueror of\ndeath, ascended upon high, having led captivity captive, and became the\nfirst-fruits of the grave, to send down from the heaven of eternal life\nthe Spirit who is the Giver of life. That was a strange mixture, death\nseemingly triumphant over Christ\u2019s people on the very day on which life\ntriumphed in Jesus Christ Himself. Let us see, though, whether death has\nnot something to do with Ascension-day. Let us see whether a sermon\nabout death is not a fit sermon for the Sunday after Ascension-day. Let\nus see whether the text has not a message about life and death too\u2014a\nmessage which may make us feel that in the midst of life we are in death,\nand that yet in the midst of death we are in life; that however things\nmay _seem_, yet death has not conquered life, but life has conquered and\n_will_ conquer death, and conquer it most completely at the very moment\nthat we die, and our bodies return to their dust.\n\nDo I speak riddles? I think the text will explain my riddles, for it\ntells us how life comes, how death comes. Life comes from God: He sends\nforth His spirit, and things are made, and He renews the face of the\nearth. We read in the very two verses of the book of Genesis how the\nSpirit of God moved upon the face of the waters the creation, and woke\nall things into life. Therefore the Creed well calls the Holy Ghost, the\nSpirit of God, that is\u2014the Lord and Giver of life. And the text tells us\nthat He gives life, not only to us who have immortal souls, but to every\nthing on the face of the earth; for the psalm has been talking all\nthrough, not only of men, but of beasts, fishes, trees, and rivers, and\nrocks, sun and moon. Now, all these things have a life in them. Not a\nlife like ours; but still you speak rightly and wisely when you say,\n\u2018That tree is alive, and, That tree is dead. That running water is live\nwater\u2014it is sweet and fresh, but if it is kept standing it begins to\nputrefy, its life is gone from it, and a sort of death comes over it, and\nmakes it foul, and unwholesome, and unfit to drink.\u2019 This is a deep\nmatter, this, how there is a sort of life in every thing, even to the\nstones under our feet. I do not mean, of course, that stones can think\nas our life makes us do, or feel as the beasts\u2019 life makes them do, or\neven grow as the trees\u2019 life makes them do; but I mean that their life\nkeeps them as they are, without changing or decaying. You hear miners\nand quarrymen talk very truly of the live rock. That stone, they say,\nwas cut out of the live rock, meaning the rock as it is under ground,\nsound and hard\u2014as it would be, for aught we know, to the end of time,\nunless it was taken out of the ground, out of the place where God\u2019s\nSpirit meant it to be, and brought up to the open air and the rain, in\nwhich it is not its nature to be. And then you will see that the life of\nthe stone begins to pass from it bit by bit, that it crumbles and peels\naway, and, in short, decays and is turned again to its dust. Its\norganisation, as it is called, or life, ends, and then\u2014what? does the\nstone lie for ever useless? No! And there is the great blessed mystery\nof how God\u2019s Spirit is always bringing life out of death. When the stone\nis decayed and crumbled down to dust and clay, it makes _soil_\u2014this very\nsoil here, which you plough, is the decayed ruins of ancient hills; the\nclay which you dig up in the fields was once part of some slate or\ngranite mountains, which were worn away by weather and water, that they\nmight become fruitful earth. Wonderful! but any one who has studied\nthese things can tell you they are true. Any one who has ever lived in\nmountainous countries ought to have seen the thing happen, ought to know\nthat the land in the mountain valleys is made at first, and kept rich\nyear by year, by the washings from the hills above; and this is the\nreason why land left dry by rivers and by the sea is generally so rich.\nThen what becomes of the soil? It begins a new life. The roots of the\nplants take it up; the salts which they find in it\u2014the staple, as we call\nthem\u2014go to make leaves and seed; the very sand has its use, it feeds the\nstalks of corn and grass, and makes them stiff. The corn-stalks would\nnever stand upright if they could not get sand from the soil. So what a\nthousand years ago made part of a mountain, now makes part of a\nwheat-plant; and in a year more the wheat grain will have been eaten, and\nthe wheat straw perhaps eaten too, and they will have _died_\u2014decayed in\nthe bodies of the animals who have eaten them, and then they will begin a\nthird new life\u2014they will be turned into parts of the animal\u2019s body\u2014of a\nman\u2019s body. So that what is now your bone and flesh, may have been once\na rock on some hillside a hundred miles away.\n\nStrange, but true! all learned men know that it is true. You, if you\nthink over my words, may see that they are at least reasonable. But\nstill most wonderful! This world works right well, surely. It obeys\nGod\u2019s Spirit. Oh, my friends, if we fulfilled our life and our duty as\nwell as the clay which we tread on does,\u2014if we obeyed God\u2019s Spirit as\nsurely as the flint does, we should have many a heartache spared us, and\nmany a headache too! To be what God wants us!\u2014to be _men_, to be\n_women_, and therefore to live as children of God, members of Christ,\nfulfilling our duty in that state to which God has called us, that would\nbe our bliss and glory. Nothing can live in a state in which God did not\nintend it to live. Suppose a tree could move itself about like an\nanimal, and chose to do so, the tree would wither and die; it would be\ntrying to act contrary to the law which God has given it. Suppose the ox\nchose to eat meat like the lion, it would fall sick and die; for it would\nbe acting contrary to the law which God\u2019s Spirit had made for it\u2014going\nout of the calling to which God\u2019s Word has called it, to eat grass and\nnot flesh, and live thereby. And so with us: if we will do wickedly,\nwhen the will of God, as the Scripture tells us, is our sanctification,\nour holiness; if we will speak lies, when God\u2019s law for us is that we\nshould speak truth; if we will bear hatred and ill-will, when God\u2019s law\nfor us is, Love as brothers,\u2014you all sprang from one father, Adam,\u2014you\nwere all redeemed by one brother, Jesus Christ; if we will try to live as\nif there was no God, when God\u2019s law for us is, that a man can live like a\nman only by faith and trust in God;\u2014then we shall _die_, if we break\nGod\u2019s laws according to which he intended man to live. Thus it was with\nAdam; God intended him to obey God, to learn every thing from God. He\nchose to disobey God, to try and know something of himself, by getting\nthe knowledge of good and evil; and so death passed on him. He became an\nunnatural man, a _bad_ man, more or less, and so he became a dead man;\nand death came into the world, that time at least, by sin, by breaking\nthe law by which man was meant to be a man. As the beasts will die if\nyou give them unnatural food, or in any way prevent their following the\nlaws which God has made for them, so man dies, of necessity. All the\nworld cannot help his dying, because he breaks the laws which God has\nmade for him.\n\nAnd how does he die? The text tells us, God takes away his breath, and\nturns His face from him. In His presence, it is written, is life. The\nmoment He withdraws his Spirit, the Spirit of life, from any thing, body\nor soul, then it dies. It was by _sin_ came death\u2014by man\u2019s becoming\nunfit for the Spirit of God.\n\nTherefore the body is dead because of sin, says St. Paul, doomed to die,\ncarrying about in it the seeds of death from the very moment it is born.\nDeath has truly passed upon all men!\n\nMost sad; and yet there is hope, and more than hope, there is certain\nassurance, for us, that though we die, yet shall we live! I have shewn\nyou, in the beginning of my sermon, how nothing that dies perishes to\nnothing, but begins a new and a higher life. How the stone becomes a\nplant,\u2014something better and more useful than it was before; the plant\npasses into an animal\u2014a step higher still. And, therefore, we may be\nsure that the same rule will hold good about us men and women, that when\nwe die, we shall begin a new and a nobler life, that is, if we have been\ntrue _men_; if we have lived fulfilling the law of our kind. St. Paul\ntells us so positively. He says that nothing comes to life except it\nfirst die, then God gives it a new body. He says that even so is the\nresurrection of the dead,\u2014that we gain a step by dying; that we are sown\nin corruption, and are raised in incorruption; we are sown in dishonour,\nand are raised in glory; we are sown in weakness, and are raised in\npower; we are sown a natural body, and are raised a spiritual body; that\nas we now are of the earth earthy, after death and the resurrection our\nnew and nobler body will be of the heavens heavenly; so that \u201cwhen this\ncorruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have\nput on immortality, then death shall be swallowed up in victory.\u201d\nTherefore, I say, Sorrow not for those who sleep as if you had no hope\nfor the dead; for \u201cChrist is risen from the dead, and become the\nfirst-fruits of them that slept. For as in Adam all die, even so in\nChrist shall all be made alive.\u201d\n\nAnd I say that this has to do with the text\u2014it has to do with\nAscension-day. For if we claim our share in Christ,\u2014if we claim our\nshare of our heavenly Father\u2019s promise, \u201cto give the Holy Spirit to those\nwho ask Him;\u201d then we may certainly hope for our share in Christ\u2019s\nresurrection, our share in Christ\u2019s ascension. For, says St. Paul (Rom.\nviii. 10, 11), \u201cif Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but\nthe Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him\nwho raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ\nfrom the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by His Spirit that\ndwelleth in you!\u201d There is a blessed promise! that in that, as in every\nthing, we shall be made like Christ our Master, the new Adam, who is a\nlife-giving Spirit, that as He was brought to life again by the Spirit of\nGod, so we shall be. And so will be fulfilled in us the glorious rule\nwhich the text lays down, \u201cThou, O God, sendest forth Thy Spirit, and\nthey are created, and Thou dost renew the face of the earth.\u201d\nFulfilled?\u2014yes, but far more gloriously than ever the old Psalmist\nexpected. Read the Revelations of St. John, chapters xxi. and xxii. for\nthe glory of the renewed earth read the first Epistle of Paul to the\nThessalonians, chap. iv. 16\u201318, for the glorious resurrection and\nascension of those who have died trusting in the blessed Lord, who died\nfor them; and then see what a glorious future lies before us\u2014see how\ndeath is but the gate of life\u2014see how what holds true of every thing on\nthis earth, down to the flint beneath our feet, holds true ten thousand\ntimes of men that to die and to decay is only to pass into a nobler state\nof life. But remember, that just as we are better than the stone, we may\nbe also worse than the stone. It cannot disobey God\u2019s laws, therefore it\ncan enjoy no reward, any more than suffer any punishment. We can\ndisobey\u2014we can fall from our calling\u2014we can cast God\u2019s law behind us\u2014we\ncan refuse to do His will, to work out our own salvation; and just\nbecause our reward in the life to come will be so glorious, if we fulfil\nour life and law, the life of faith and the law of love, therefore will\nour punishment be so horrible, if we neglect the life of faith and\ntrample under foot the law of love. Oh, my friends, choose! Death is\nbefore you all. Shall it be the gate of everlasting life and glory, or\nthe gate of everlasting death and misery? Will you claim your glorious\ninheritance, and be for ever equal to the angels, doing God\u2019s will on\nearth as they in heaven; or will you fall lower than the stones, who, at\nall events, must do their duty as stones, and not _do_ God\u2019s will at all,\nbut only _suffer_ it in eternal woe? You must do one or the other. You\ncannot be like the stones, without feeling\u2014without joy or sorrow, just\nbecause you are immortal spirits, every one of you. You must be either\nhappy or miserable, blessed or disgraced, for ever. I know of no middle\npath;\u2014do you? Choose before the night comes, in which no man can work.\nOur life is but a vapour which appears for a little time, then vanishes\naway. \u201cO Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them\nall: the earth is full of Thy riches. That Thou givest them they gather:\nThou openest Thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest Thy\nface, they are troubled: Thou takest away their breath, they die, and\nreturn to their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created:\nand Thou renewest the face of the earth.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nSERMON IV.\nTHE WORK OF GOD\u2019S SPIRIT.\n\n\n JAMES, i. 16, 17.\n\n \u201cDo not err, my beloved brethren; every good gift and every perfect\n gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.\u201d\n\nTHIS text, I believe more and more every day, is one of the most\nimportant ones in the whole Bible; and just at this time it is more\nimportant for us than ever, because people have forgotten it more than\never.\n\nAnd, according as you firmly believe this text, according as you firmly\nbelieve that every good gift you have in body and soul comes down from\nabove, from God the Father of lights\u2014according, I say, as you believe\nthis, and live upon that belief, just so far will you be able to do your\nduty to God and man, worthily of your blessed Saviour\u2019s calling and\nredemption, and of the high honour which He has given you of being free\nand christened men, redeemed by His most precious blood, and led by His\nmost noble Spirit.\n\nNow, just because this text is so important, the devil is particularly\nbusy in trying to make people forget it. For what is his plan? Is it\nnot to make us forget God, to put God _out_ of all our thoughts, to make\nus acknowledge God in none of our ways, to make us look at ourselves and\nnot at God, that so we may become first earthly and sensual, and then\ndevilish, like Satan himself? Therefore he tries to make us disbelieve\nthis text. He puts into our hearts such thoughts as these:\u2014\u2018Ay, all good\ngifts may come from God; but that only means all spiritual gifts. All\nthose fine, deep doctrines and wonderful feelings that some very\nreligious people talk of, about conversion, and regeneration, and\nsanctification, and assurance, and the witness of the indwelling\nSpirit,\u2014all those gifts come from God, no doubt, but they are quite above\nus. We are straightforward, simple people, who cannot feel fine fancies;\nif we can be honest, and industrious, and good-natured, and sober, and\nstrong, and healthy, that is enough for us,\u2014and all that has nothing to\ndo with religion. Those are not gifts which come from God. A man is\nstrong and healthy by birth, and honest and good-natured by nature.\nThose are very good things; but they are not gifts\u2014they are not\n_graces_\u2014they are not _spiritual_ blessings\u2014they have nothing to do with\nthe state of a man\u2019s soul. Ungodly people are honest, and good-tempered,\nand industrious, and healthy, as well as your saints and your methodists;\nso what is the use of praying for spiritual gifts to God, when we can\nhave all we want by nature?\u2019\n\nDid such thoughts never come into your head, my friends? Are they not\noften in your heads, more or less? Perhaps not in these very words, but\nsomething like them.\n\nI do not say it to blame you, for I believe that every man, each\naccording to his station, is tempted to such thoughts; I believe that\nsuch thoughts are not _yours_ or any man\u2019s; I believe they are the\ndevil\u2019s, who tempts all men, who tempted even the Son of God Himself with\nthoughts like these at their root. Such thoughts are not _yours_ or\nmine, though they may come into our heads. They are part of the evil\nwhich besets us\u2014which is _not_ us\u2014which has no right or share in us\u2014which\nwe pray God to drive away from us when we say, \u201cDeliver us from evil.\u201d\nHave you not all had such thoughts? But have you not all had very\ndifferent thoughts? have you not, every one of you, at times, felt in the\nbottom of your hearts, after all, \u2018This strength and industry, this\ncourage, and honesty, and good-nature of mine, must come from God; I did\nnot get them myself? If I was born honest, and strong, and gentle, and\nbrave, some one must have made me so when I was born, or before? The\ndevil certainly did not make me so, therefore _God_ must? These, too,\nare His gifts?\u2019\n\nDid you ever think such thoughts as these? If you did not, not much\nmatter, for you have all acted, more or less, in your better moments as\nif you had them. There are more things in a man\u2019s heart, thank God, than\never come into his head. Many a man does a noble thing by instinct, as\nwe say, without ever _thinking_ whether it is a noble thing or\nnot\u2014without _thinking_ about it at all. Many a man, thank God, is led at\ntimes, by God\u2019s Spirit, without ever knowing whose Spirit it is that\nleads him.\n\nBut he _ought_ to know it, for it is _willing_, _reasonable_ service\nwhich God wants of us. He does not care to use us like tools and\npuppets. And why? He is not merely our Maker, He is our Father, and He\nwishes us to know and feel that we are His children\u2014to know and feel that\nwe all have come from Him; to acknowledge Him in all our ways, to thank\nHim for all, to look up lovingly and confidently to Him for more, as His\nreasonable children, day by day, and hour by hour. Every good gift we\nhave comes from Him; but He will have us know where they all come from.\n\nLet us go through now a few of these good gifts, which we call natural,\nand see what the Bible says of them, and from whom they come.\n\nFirst, now, that common gift of strength and courage. Who gives you\nthat?\u2014who gave it David? For He that gives it to one is most likely to\nbe He that gives it to another. David says to God, \u201cThou teachest my\nhands to war, and my fingers to fight; by the help of God I can leap over\na wall: He makes me strong, that my arms can break even a bow of\nsteel:\u201d\u2014that is plain-spoken enough, I think. Who gave Samson his\nstrength, again? What says the Bible? How Samson met a young lion which\nroared against him, and he had nothing in his hand, and the Spirit of the\nLord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion as he would have torn a\nkid. And, again, how when traitors had bound him with two new cords, the\nSpirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords which were on\nhis arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and fell from off his\nhands. And, for God\u2019s sake, do not give in to that miserable fancy that\nbecause these stories are what you call miraculous, therefore they have\nnothing to do with you\u2014that Samson\u2019s strength came to him miraculously by\nGod\u2019s Spirit, and yet yours comes to you a different way. The Bible is\nwritten to tell you how all that happens really happens\u2014what all things\nreally are; God is working among us always, but we do not see Him; and\nthe Bible just lifts up, once and for all, the veil which hides Him from\nus, and lets us see, in one instance, who it is that does all the\nwonderful things which go on round us to this day, that when we see any\nthing like it happen we may know whom to thank for it.\n\nThe Great Physician healed the blind and the lame in Judea; and why?\u2014to\nshew us who heals the blind and the lame now\u2014to shew us that the good\ngift of medicine and surgery, and the physician\u2019s art, comes down from\nHim who cured the paralytic and cleansed the lepers in Judea\u2014to whom all\npower is given in heaven and earth.\n\nSo, again, with skill in farming and agriculture. From whom does that\ncome? The very heathens can tell us that, for it is curious, that among\nthe heathen, in all ages and countries, those men who have found out\ngreat improvements in tilling the ground have been honoured and often\nworshipped as divine men\u2014as gods, thereby shewing that the heathen, among\nall their idolatries, had a true and just notion about man\u2019s practical\nskill and knowledge\u2014that it could only come from Heaven, that it was by\nthe inspiration and guidance of God above that skill in agriculture\narose. What says Isaiah of that to the very same purpose? \u201cDoth the\nploughman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his\nground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast\nabroad the vetches, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed\nbarley and the rye in their place? For his God doth instruct him to\ndiscretion, and doth teach him. This also,\u201d says Isaiah, \u201ccometh from\nthe Lord of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in\nworking.\u201d Would to God you would all believe it!\n\nAgain; wisdom and prudence, and a clear, powerful mind,\u2014are not they\nparts of God\u2019s likeness? How is God\u2019s Spirit described in Scripture? It\nis called the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of prudence\nand might. Therefore, surely, all wisdom and understanding, all prudence\nand strength of mind, are, like that Spirit, part of God\u2019s image; and\nwhere did we get God\u2019s image? Can we make ourselves like God? If we are\nlike him, He must have formed that likeness; and He alone. The Spirit of\nGod, says the Scripture, giveth us understanding.\n\nOr, again; good-nature and affection, love, generosity, pity,\u2014whose\nlikeness are they? What is God\u2019s name but love? God is love. Has not\nHe revealed Himself as the God of mercy, full of long-suffering,\ncompassion, and free forgiveness; and must not, then, all love and\naffection, all compassion and generosity, be His gift? Yes. As the rays\ncome from the sun, and yet are not the sun, even so our love and pity,\nthough they are not God, but merely a poor, weak image and reflection of\nHim, yet from Him alone they come. If there is mercy in our hearts, it\ncomes from the fountain of mercy. If there is the light of love in us,\nit is a ray from the full sun of His love.\n\nOr honesty, again, and justice,\u2014whose image are they but God\u2019s? Is He\nnot THE Just One\u2014the righteous God? Is not what is just for man just for\nGod? Are not the laws of justice and honesty, by which man deals fairly\nwith man, _His_ laws\u2014the laws by which God deals with us? Does not every\nbook\u2014I had almost said every page\u2014in the Bible shew us that all our\njustice is but the pattern and copy of God\u2019s justice,\u2014the working out of\nthose six latter commandments of His, which are summed up in that one\ncommand, \u201cThou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself?\u201d\n\nNow here, again, I ask: If justice and honesty be God\u2019s likeness, who\nmade us like God in this\u2014who put into us this sense of justice which all\nhave, though so few obey it? Can man make himself like God? Can a worm\nape his Maker? No. From God\u2019s Spirit, the Spirit of Right, came this\ninborn feeling of justice, this knowledge of right and wrong, to us\u2014part\nof the image of God in which He created man\u2014part of the breath or spirit\nof life which He breathed into Adam. Do not mistake me. I do not say\nthat the sense, and honesty, and love in us, _are_ God\u2019s Spirit\u2014they are\nthe spirit of _man_, but that they are _like_ God\u2019s Spirit, and therefore\nthey must be given us _by_ God\u2019s Spirit to be used as God\u2019s Spirit\nHimself uses them. How a man shall have his share of God\u2019s Spirit, and\nlive in and by God\u2019s Spirit, is another question, and a higher and more\nblessed one; but we must master this question first\u2014we must believe that\nour spirits come _from_ God, then, perhaps, we shall begin to see that\nour spirits never can work well unless they are joined to the Spirit of\nGod, from whom they came. From whom else, I ask again, can they come?\nCan they come from our bodies? Our bodies? What are they?\u2014Flesh and\nbones, made up of air and water and earth,\u2014out of the dead bodies of the\nanimals, the dead roots and fruits of plants which we eat. They are\nearth\u2014matter. Can _matter_ be courageous? Did you ever hear of a\ngood-natured plant, or an honest stone? Then this good-nature, and\nhonesty, and courage of ours, must belong to our souls\u2014our spirits. Who\nput them there? Did we? Does a child make its own character? Does its\nbody make its character first? Can its father and mother make its\ncharacter? No. Our characters must come from some spirit above\nus\u2014either from God or from the devil. And is the devil likely to make us\nhonest, or brave, or kindly? I leave you to answer that. God\u2014God alone,\nmy friends, is the author of good\u2014the help that is done on earth, He\ndoeth it all Himself: every good gift and every perfect gift cometh from\nHim.\n\nNow some of you may think this a strange sort of sermon, because I have\nsaid little or nothing about Jesus Christ and His redemption in it, but I\nsay\u2014No.\n\nYou must believe this much about yourselves before you can believe more.\nYou must fairly and really believe that _God_ made you one thing before\nyou can believe that you have made yourselves another thing. You must\nreally believe that you are not mere machines and animals, but immortal\nsouls, before you can really believe that you have sinned; for animals\ncannot sin\u2014only reasonable souls can sin. We must really believe that\nGod made us at bottom in His likeness, before we can begin to find out\nthat there is another likeness in us besides God\u2019s\u2014a selfish, brutish,\ntoo often a devilish likeness, which must be repented of, and fought\nagainst, and cast out, that God\u2019s likeness in us may get the upper hand,\nand we may be what God expects us to be. We must know our dignity before\nwe can feel our shame. We must see how high we have a right to stand,\nthat we may see how low, alas! we have fallen.\n\nNow you\u2014I know many such here, thank God\u2014to whom God has given clear,\npowerful heads for business, and honest, kindly hearts, I do beseech\nyou\u2014consider my words, Who has given you these but God? They are talents\nwhich He has committed to your charge; and will He not require an account\nof them? _He_ only, and His free mercy, has made you to differ from\nothers; if you are better than the fools and profligates round you, He,\nand not yourselves, has made you better. What have you that you have not\nreceived? By the grace of God alone you are what you are. If good comes\neasier to you than to others, _He_ alone has made it easier to you; and\nif you have done wrong,\u2014if you have fallen short of your duty, as _all_\nfall short, is not your sin greater than others? for unto whom much is\ngiven of them shall much be required. Consider that, for God\u2019s sake, and\nsee if you, too, have not something to be ashamed of, between yourselves\nand God. See if you, too, have not need of Jesus Christ and His precious\nblood, and God\u2019s free forgiveness, who have had so much light and power\ngiven you, and still have fallen short of what you might have been, and\nwhat, by God\u2019s grace, you still may be, and, as I hope and earnestly\npray, still will be.\n\nAnd you, young men and women\u2014consider;\u2014if God has given you manly courage\nand high spirits, and strength and beauty\u2014think\u2014_God_, your Father, has\ngiven them to you, and of them He will surely require an account;\ntherefore, \u201cRejoice, young people,\u201d says Solomon, \u201cin your youth, and let\nyour hearts cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of\nyour heart and in the sight of your eyes. But remember,\u201d continues the\nwisest of men,\u2014\u201cremember, that for all these things God shall bring you\ninto judgment.\u201d Now do not misunderstand that. It does not mean that\nthere is a sin in being happy. It does not mean, that if God has given\nto a young man a bold spirit and powerful limbs, or to a young woman a\nhandsome face and a merry, loving heart, that He will punish them for\nthese\u2014God forbid! what He gives He means to be used: but this it means,\nthat according as you use those blessings so will you be judged at the\nlast day; that for them, too, you will be brought to judgment, and tried\nat the bar of God. As you have used them for industry, and innocent\nhappiness, and holy married love, or for riot and quarrelling, and\nidleness, and vanity, and filthy lusts, so shall you be judged. And if\nany of you have sinned in any of these ways,\u2014God forbid that you should\nhave sinned in _all_ these ways; but surely, surely, some of you have\nbeen idle\u2014some of you have been riotous\u2014some of you have been vain\u2014some\nof you have been quarrelsome\u2014some of you, alas! have been that which I\nshall not name here.\u2014Think, if you have sinned in any one of these ways,\nhow can you answer it to God? Have you no need of forgiveness? Have you\nno need of the blessed Saviour\u2019s blood to wash you clean? Young people!\nGod has given you much. As a young man, I speak to you. Youth is an\ninestimable blessing or an inestimable curse, according as you use it;\nand if you have abused your spring-time of youth, as all, I am afraid,\nhave\u2014as I have\u2014as almost all do, alas! in this fallen world, where can\nyou get forgiveness but from Him that died on the cross to take away the\nsins of the world?\n\n\n\n\nSERMON V.\nFAITH.\n\n\n HABAKKUK, ii. 4.\n\n \u201cThe just shall live by faith.\u201d\n\nTHIS is those texts of which there are so many in the Bible, which,\nthough they were spoken originally to one particular man, yet are meant\nfor every man. These words were spoken to Habakkuk, a Jewish prophet, to\ncheck him for his impatience under God\u2019s hand; but they are just as true\nfor every man that ever was and ever will be as they were for him. They\nare world-wide and world-old; they are the law by which all goodness, and\nstrength, and safety, stand either in men or angels, for it always was\ntrue, and always must be true, that if reasonable beings are to live at\nall, it is by faith.\n\nAnd why? Because every thing that is, heaven and earth, men and angels,\nare all the work of God\u2014of one God, infinite, almighty, all-wise,\nall-loving, unutterably glorious. My friends, we do not think enough of\nthis,\u2014not that all the thinking in the world can ever make us comprehend\nthe majesty of our Heavenly Father; but we do not remember enough what we\n_do_ know of God. We think of God, watching the world and all things in\nit, and keeping them in order as a shepherd does his sheep, and so far so\ngood; but we forget that God does more than this,\u2014we forget that this\nearth, sun, and moon, and all the thousand thousand stars which cover the\nmidnight sky,\u2014many of them suns larger than the sun we see, and worlds\nlarger than the world on which we stand, that all these, stretching away\nmillions of millions of miles into boundless space,\u2014all are lying, like\none little grain of dust, in the hollow of God\u2019s hand, and that if He\nwere to shut His hand upon them, He could crush them into nothing, and\nGod would be alone in the universe again, as He was before heaven and\nearth were made. Think of that!\u2014that if God was but to will it, we, and\nthis earth on which we stand, and the heaven above us, and the sun that\nshines on us, should vanish away, and be no-where and no-thing. Think of\nthe infinite power of God, and then think how is it possible to _live_,\nexcept by faith in Him, by trusting to Him utterly.\n\nIf you accustom yourselves to think in the same way of the infinite\nwisdom of God, and the infinite love of God, they will both teach you the\nsame lesson; they will shew you that if you were the greatest, the\nwisest, the holiest man that ever lived, you would still be such a speck\nby the side of the Almighty and Everlasting God that it would be madness\nto depend upon yourselves for any thing while you lived in God\u2019s world.\nFor, after all, what _can_ we do without God? _In_ Him we live, and\nmove, and have our being. He made us, He gave us our bodies, gave us our\nlife; what we do _He_ lets us do, what we say He lets us say; we all live\non sufferance. What is it but God\u2019s infinite mercy that ever brought us\nhere or keeps us here an instant? We may pretend to act without God\u2019s\nleave or help, but it is impossible for us to do so; the strength we put\nforth, the wit we use, are all His gifts. We cannot draw a breath of air\nwithout His leave. And yet men fancy they can do without God in the\nworld! My friends, these are but few words, and poor words, about the\nglorious majesty of God and our littleness when compared with Him; but I\nhave said quite enough, at least, to shew you all how absurd it is to\ndepend upon ourselves for any thing. If we are mere creatures of God, if\nGod alone has every blessing both of this world and the next, and the\nwill to give them away, whom _are_ we to go to but to Him for all we\nwant? It is so in the life of our bodies, and it is so in the life of\nour spirits. If we wish for God\u2019s blessings, from God we must ask them.\nThat is our duty, even though God in His mercy and long-suffering does\npour down many a blessing upon men who never trust in Him for them. To\nus all, indeed, God gives blessings before we are old enough to trust in\nHim for them, and to many He continues those blessings in after-life in\nspite of their blindness and want of faith. \u201cHe maketh His sun to shine\non the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the\nunjust.\u201d He gives\u2014gives\u2014it is His glory to give. Yet strange! that men\nwill go on year after year, using the limbs, and eating the food, which\nGod gives them, without ever believing so much as that God _has_ given\nthem, without so much as looking up to heaven once and saying, \u201cGod, I\nthank Thee!\u201d But we must remember that those blessings will not last for\never. Unless a man has lived by faith in God with regard to his earthly\ncomforts, death will come and put an end to them at once; and then it is\nonly those who have trusted in God for all good things, and thanked Him\naccordingly in this life, who shall have their part in the new heavens\nand the new earth, which will so immeasurably surpass all that this earth\ncan give.\n\nAnd it is the same with the life of our spirits; in it, too, we must live\nby faith. The life of our spirits is a gift from God the Father of\nspirits, and He has chosen to declare that unless we trust to Him for\nlife, and ask Him for life, He will not bestow it upon us. The life of\nour bodies He in His mercy keeps up, although we forget Him; the life of\nour souls He will not keep up: therefore, for the sake of our spirits,\neven more than of our bodies, we must live by faith. If we wish to be\nloving, pure, wise, manly, noble, we must ask those excellent gifts of\nGod, who is Himself infinite love, and purity, wisdom and nobleness. If\nwe wish for everlasting life, from whom can we obtain it but from God,\nwho is the boundless, eternal, life itself? If we wish for forgiveness\nfor our faults and failings, where are we to get it but from God, who is\nboundless love and pity, and who has revealed to us His boundless love\nand pity in the form of a man, Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world?\n\nAnd to go a step further; it is by faith in Christ we must live\u2014in\nChrist, a man like ourselves, yet God blessed for ever. For it is a\ncertain truth, that men cannot believe in God or trust in Him unless they\ncan think of Him as a man. This was the reason why the poor heathen made\nthemselves idols in the form of men, that they might have something like\nthemselves to worship; and those among them who would not worship idols\nalmost always ended in fancying that God was either a mere notion, or\nelse a mere part of this world, or else that He sat up in heaven neither\nknowing nor caring what happened upon earth. But we, to whom God has\ngiven the glorious news of His Gospel, have the very Person to worship\nwhom all the heathen were searching after and could not find,\u2014one who is\n\u201cvery God,\u201d infinite in love, wisdom, and strength, and yet \u201cvery man,\u201d\nmade in all points like ourselves, but without sin; so that we have not a\nHigh Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,\nbut one who is able to help those who are tempted, because He was tempted\nHimself like us, and overcame by the strength of His own perfect will, of\nHis own perfect faith. By trusting in Him, and acknowledging Him in\nevery thought and action of our lives, we shall be safe, for it is\nwritten, \u201cThe just shall live by faith.\u201d\n\nThese things are true, and always were true. All that men ever did well,\nor nobly, or lovingly, in this world, _was done by faith_\u2014by faith in God\nof some sort or other; even in the man who thinks least about religion,\nit is so. Every time a man means to do, and really does, a just or\ngenerous action, he does it because he believes, more or less clearly,\nthat there is a just and loving God above him, and that justice and love\nare the right thing for a man\u2014the law by which God intended him to walk:\nso that this small, dim faith still shews itself in practice; and the\nmore faith a man has in God and in God\u2019s laws, the more it will shew\nitself in every action of his daily life; and the more this faith works\nin his life and conduct, the better man he is;\u2014the more he is like God\u2019s\nimage, in which man was originally made;\u2014and the more he is like Christ,\nthe new pattern of God\u2019s image, whom all men must copy.\n\nSo that the sum of the matter is this, without Christ we can do nothing,\nby trusting in Christ we can do every thing. See, then, how true the\nverse before my text must be, that he whose soul is lifted up in him is\nnot upright; for if a man fancies that his body and soul are his own, to\ndo what he pleases with them, when all the time they are God\u2019s gift;\u2014if a\nman fancies that he can take perfect care of himself, while all the time\nit is God that is keeping him out of a thousand sins and dangers;\u2014if a\nman fancies that he can do right of himself, when all the time the little\ngood that he does is the work of God\u2019s Spirit, which has not yet left\nhim;\u2014if a man fancies, in short, that he can do without God, when all the\ntime it is in God that he lives, and moves, and has his being, how can\nsuch a man be called upright? Upright! he is utterly wrong;\u2014he is\nbelieving a lie, and walking accordingly; and, therefore, instead of\nkeeping upright, he is going where all lies lead; into all kinds of low\nand crooked ways, mistakes, absurdities, and at last to ruin of body and\nsoul. Nothing but truth can keep a man upright and straight, can keep a\nman where God has put him, and where he ought to be; and the man whose\nheart is puffed up by pride and self-conceit, who is looking at himself\nand not at God, that man has begun upon a falsehood, and will soon get\nout of tune with heaven and earth. For consider, my friends: suppose\nsome rich and mighty prince went out and collected a number of children,\nand of sick and infirm people, and said to them, \u201cYou cannot work now,\nbut I will give you food, medicine, every thing that you require, and\nthen you must help me to work; and I, though you have no right to expect\nit of me, will pay you for the little work you can do on the strength of\nmy food and medicine.\u201d\u2014Is it not plain that all those persons could only\nlive by faith in their prince, by trusting in him for food and medicine,\nand by acknowledging that that food and medicine came from him, and\nthanking him accordingly? If they wished to be true men, if they wished\nhim to continue his bounty, they would confess that all the health and\nstrength they had belonged to him of right, because his generosity had\ngiven it to them. Just in this position we stand with Christ the Lord.\nWhen the whole world lay in wickedness, He came and chose us, of His free\ngrace and mercy, to be one of His peculiar nations, to work for Him and\nwith Him; and from the time He came, all that we and our forefathers have\ndone well has been done by the strength and wisdom which Christ has given\nus. Now suppose, again, that one of the persons of whom I spoke was\nseized with a fit of pride\u2014suppose he said to himself, \u201cMy health and\nstrength does not come from the food and medicine which the prince gave\nme, it comes from the goodness of my own constitution; the wages which I\nam paid are my just due, I am a free man, and may choose what master I\nlike.\u201d Suppose any one of _your_ servants treated you so, would you not\nbe inclined to answer, \u201cYou are a faithless, ungrateful fellow; go your\nways, then, and see how little you can do without my bounty?\u201d But the\nblessed King in heaven, though He is provoked every day, is more\nlong-suffering than man. All He does is to withdraw His bounty for a\nmoment, to take this world\u2019s blessings from a man, and let him find out\nhow impossible it is for him to keep himself out of affliction\u2014to take\naway His Holy Spirit for a moment from a man, and let him see how\nstraight he rushes astray, and every way but the right; and then, if the\nman is humbled by his fall or his affliction, and comes back to his Lord,\nconfessing how weak he is and promising to trust in Christ and thank\nChrist only for the future, _then_ our Lord will restore His blessings to\nhim, and there will be joy among the angels of God over one sinner that\nrepents. This was the way in which God treated Job when, in spite of all\nhis excellence, _his_ heart was lifted up. And then, when he saw his own\nfolly, and abhorred himself, and repented in dust and ashes, God restored\nto him sevenfold what He had taken from him\u2014honour, wisdom, riches, home,\nand children. This is the way, too, in which God treated David. \u201cIn my\nprosperity,\u201d he tells us, \u201cI said, I shall never be moved; thou, Lord, of\nThy goodness hast made my hill so strong\u201d\u2014forgetting that he must be kept\nsafe every moment of his life, as well as made safe once for all. \u201cThou\ndidst turn Thy face from me, and I was troubled. Then cried I unto Thee,\nO Lord, and gat me to my Lord right humbly. And THEN,\u201d he adds, \u201cGod\nturned my heaviness into joy, and girded me with gladness,\u201d (Psalm xxx.)\nAnd again, he says, \u201c_Before_ I was troubled I went wrong, but _now_ I\nhave kept Thy word,\u201d (Psalm cxix.) And this is the way in which Christ\nthe Lord treated St. Peter and St. Paul, and treats, in His great mercy,\nevery Christian man when He sees him puffed up, to bring him to his\nsenses, and make him live by faith in God. If he takes the warning,\nwell; if he does not, he remains in a lie, and must go where all lies\nlead. So perfectly does it hold throughout a man\u2019s whole life, that he\nwhose soul is lifted up within him is not upright; but that the just must\nlive by faith.\n\nNow there is one objection apt to rise in men\u2019s minds when they hear such\nwords as these, which is, that they take such a \u201clow view of human\nnature;\u201d it is so galling to our pride to be told that we can do nothing\nfor ourselves: but if we think of the matter more closely, and, above\nall, if we try to put it into practice and live by faith, we shall find\nthat there is no real reason for thus objecting. This is not a doctrine\nwhich ought to make us despise men; any doctrine that _does_, does not\ncome of _God_. Men are not contemptible creatures\u2014they are glorious\ncreatures\u2014they were created in the image of God; God has put such honour\nupon them that He has given them dominion over the whole earth, and made\nthem partakers of His eternal reason; and His Spirit gives them\nunderstanding to enable them to conquer this earth, and make the beasts,\nay, and the very winds and seas, and fire and steam, their obedient\nservants; and human nature, too, when it is what God made it, and what it\nought to be, is not a contemptible thing: it was noble enough for the Son\nof God to take it upon Himself\u2014to become man, without sinning or defiling\nHimself; and what was good enough for Him is surely good enough for us.\nWickedness consists in _unmanliness_, in being unlike a man, in becoming\nlike an evil spirit or a beast. Holiness consists in becoming a _true\nman_, in becoming more and more like the likeness of Jesus Christ. And\nwhen the Bible tells us that we can do nothing of ourselves, but can live\nonly by faith, the Bible puts the highest honour upon us which any\ncreated thing can have. What are the things which cannot live by faith?\nThe trees and plants, the beasts and birds, which, though they live and\ngrow by God\u2019s providence, yet do not know it, do not thank Him, cannot\nask Him for more strength and life as we can, are mere dead tools in\nGod\u2019s hands, instead of living, reasonable beings as we are. It is only\nreasonable beings, like men and angels, with immortal spirits in them,\nwho _can_ live by faith; and it is the greatest glory and honour to us, I\nsay again, that we _can_ do so\u2014that the glorious, infinite God, Maker of\nheaven and earth, should condescend to ask us to be loyal to Him, to love\nHim, should encourage us to pray to Him boldly, and then should\ncondescend to hear our prayers\u2014_we_, who in comparison of Him are smaller\nthan the gnats in the sunbeam in comparison of men! And then, when we\nremember that He has sent His only Son into the world to take our nature\nupon Him, and join us all together into one great and everlasting family,\nthe body of Christ the Lord, and that He has actually given us a share in\nHis own Almighty Holy Spirit that we may be able to love Him, and to\nserve Him, and to be joined to Him, the Almighty Father, do we not see\nthat all this is infinitely more honourable to us than if we were each to\ngo on his own way here without God\u2014without knowing anything of the\neverlasting world of spirits to which we now belong? My friends, instead\nof being ashamed of being able to do nothing for ourselves, we ought to\nrejoice at having God for our Father and our Friend, to enable us to \u201cdo\nall things through Him who strengthens us\u201d\u2014to do whatever is noble, and\nloving, and worthy of true men. Instead, then, of dreaming conceitedly\nthat God will accept us for our own sakes, let us just be content to be\naccepted for the sake of Jesus Christ our King. Instead of trying to\nwalk through this world without God\u2019s help, let us ask God to help and\nguide us in every action of our lives, and then go manfully forward,\ndoing with all our might whatsoever our hands or our hearts see right to\ndo, trusting to God to put us in the right path, and to fill our heads\nwith right thoughts and our hearts with right feeling; and so our faith\nwill shew itself in our works, and we shall be justified at the last day,\nas all good men have ever been, by trusting to our Heavenly Father and to\nthe Lord Jesus Christ, and the guidance of His Holy Spirit.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON VI.\nTHE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH.\n\n\n GALATIANS, v. 16.\n\n \u201cI say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of\n the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit\n against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other.\u201d\n\nTHE more we think seriously, my friends, the more we shall see what\nwonderful and awful things words are, how they mean much more than we\nfancy,\u2014how we do not make words, but words are given to us by one higher\nthan ourselves. Wise men say that you can tell the character of any\nnation by its language, by watching the words they use, the names they\ngive to things, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,\nand by our words, our Lord tells us, we shall be justified and condemned.\n\nIt is God, and Christ, the Word of God, who gives words to men, who puts\nit into the hearts of men to call certain things by certain names; and,\naccording to a nation\u2019s godliness, and wisdom, and purity of heart, will\nbe its power of using words discreetly and reverently. That miracle of\nthe gift of tongues, of which we read in the New Testament, would have\nbeen still most precious and full of meaning if it had had no other use\nthan this\u2014to teach men from whom words come. When men found themselves\nall of a sudden inspired to talk in foreign languages which they had\nnever learnt, to utter words of which they themselves did not know the\nmeaning, do you not see how it must have made them feel that all language\nis God\u2019s making and God\u2019s giving? Do you not see how it must have made\nthem feel what awful, mysterious things words were, like those cloven\ntongues of fire which fell on the apostles? The tongues of fire\nsignified the difficult foreign languages which they suddenly began to\nspeak as the Spirit gave them utterance. And where did the tongues of\nfire come from? Not out of themselves, not out of the earth beneath, but\ndown from the heaven above, to signify that it is not from man, from\nman\u2019s flesh or brain, or the earthly part of him, that words are bred,\nbut that they come down from Christ the Word of God, and are breathed\ninto the minds of men by the Spirit of God. Why do I speak of all this?\nTo make you feel what awful, wonderful things words are; how, when you\nwant to understand the meaning of a word, you must set to work with\nreverence and godly fear\u2014not in self-conceit and prejudice, taking the\nword to mean just what suits your own notions of things, but trying\nhumbly to find out what the word really does mean of itself, what God\nmeant it to mean when He put it into the hearts of wise men to use that\nword and bring it into our English language. A man ought to read a\nnewspaper or a story-book in that spirit; how much more, when he takes up\nthe Bible! How reverently he ought to examine every word in the New\nTestament\u2014this very text, for instance. We ought to be sure that St.\nPaul, just because he was an inspired apostle, used the very best\npossible words to express what he meant on so important a matter; and\nwhat _are_ the best words? The clearest and the simplest words are the\nbest words; else how is the Bible to be the poor man\u2019s book? How, unless\nthe wayfaring man, though simple, shall not err therein? Therefore we\nmay be sure the words in Scripture are certain to be used in their\nsimplest, most natural, most everyday meaning, such as the simplest man\ncan understand. And, therefore, we may be sure, that these two words,\n\u201cflesh\u201d and \u201cspirit,\u201d in my text, are used in their very simplest,\nstraightforward sense; and that St. Paul meant by them what working-men\nmean by them in the affairs of daily life. No doubt St. Peter says that\nthere are many things in St. Paul\u2019s writings difficult to be understood,\nwhich those who are unlearned and unstable wrest to their own\ndestruction; and, most true it is, so they do daily. But what does\n\u201cwresting\u201d a thing mean? It means twisting it, bending it, turning it\nout of its original straightforward, natural meaning, into some new\ncrooked meaning of their own. This is the way we are all of us too apt,\nI am afraid, to come to St. Paul\u2019s Epistles. We find him difficult\nbecause we won\u2019t take him at his word, because we tear a text out of its\nright place in the chapter\u2014the place where St. Paul put it, and make it\nstand by itself, instead of letting the rest of the chapter explain its\nmeaning. And then, again, people use the words in the text as unfairly\nand unreasonably as they use the text itself, they won\u2019t let the words\nhave their common-sense English meaning\u2014they must stick a new meaning on\nthem of their own. \u2018Oh,\u2019 they say, \u2018that text must not be taken\nliterally, that word has a spiritual signification here. Flesh does not\nmean flesh, it means men\u2019s corrupt nature;\u2019 little thinking all the while\nthat perhaps they understand those words, spiritual, and corrupt, and\nnature, just as ill as they do the rest of the text.\n\nHow much better, my friends, to let the Bible tell its own story; not to\nbe so exceeding wise above what is written, just to believe that St. Paul\nknew better how to use words than we are likely to do,\u2014just to believe\nthat when he says flesh he means flesh. Everybody agrees that when he\nsays spirit he means spirit, why, in the name of common sense, when he\nsays flesh should he not mean flesh? For my own part I believe that when\nSt. Paul talks of man\u2019s flesh, he means by it man\u2019s body, man\u2019s heart and\nbrain, and all his bodily appetites and powers\u2014what we call a man\u2019s\nconstitution; in a word, the _animal_ part of man, just what a man has in\ncommon with the beasts who perish.\n\nTo understand what I mean, consider any animal\u2014a dog, for instance\u2014how\nmuch every animal has in it what men have,\u2014a body, and brain, and heart;\nit hungers and thirsts as we do, it can feel pleasure and pain, anger and\nloneliness, and fear and madness; it likes freedom, company, and\nexercise, praise and petting, play and ease; it uses a great deal of\ncunning, and thought, and courage, to get itself food and shelter, just\nas human beings do: in short, it has a fleshly nature, just as we have,\nand yet, after all, it is but an animal, and so, in one sense, we are all\nanimals, only more delicately made than the other animals; but we are\nsomething more, we have a spirit as well as a flesh, an immortal soul.\nIf any one asks, what is a man? the true answer is, an animal with an\nimmortal spirit in it; and this spirit can feel more than pleasure and\npain, which are mere carnal, that is, fleshly things; it can feel trust,\nand hope, and peace, and love, and purity, and nobleness, and\nindependence, and, above all, it can feel right and wrong. There is the\ninfinite difference between an animal and a man, between our flesh and\nour spirit; an animal has no sense of right and wrong; a dog who has done\nwrong is often terrified, but not because he feels it wrong and wicked,\nbut because he knows from experience that he will be punished for doing\nit: just so with a man\u2019s fleshly nature;\u2014a carnal, fleshly man, a man\nwhose spirit is dead within him, whose spiritual sense of right and\nwrong, and honour and purity, is gone, when he has done a wrong thing is\noften enough afraid; but why? Not for any spiritual reason, not because\nhe feels it a wicked and abominable thing, a sin, but because he is\nafraid of being punished for it, because he is afraid that his body, his\nflesh will be punished by the laws of the land, or by public opinion, or\nbecause he has some dim belief that this same body and flesh of his will\nbe burnt in hell-fire; and fire, he knows by experience, is a painful\nthing\u2014and so he is _afraid_ of it; there is nothing spiritual in all\nthat,\u2014that is all fleshly, carnal; the heathens in all ages have been\nafraid of hell-fire; but a man\u2019s spirit, on the other hand, if it be in\nhell, is in a very different hell from mere fire,\u2014a spiritual hell, such\nas torments the evil spirits, at this very moment, although they are\ngoing to and fro on this very earth. This earth is hell to them; they\ncarry about hell in them,\u2014they are their own hell. Everlasting shame,\ndiscontent, doubt, despair, rage, disgust at themselves, feeling that\nthey are out of favour with God, out of tune with heaven and earth,\nloving nothing, believing nothing, ever hating, hating each other, hating\nthemselves most of all\u2014_there_ is their hell! _There_ is the hell in\nwhich the soul of every wicked man is,\u2014ay, is now while he is in _this_\nlife, though he will only awake to the perfect misery of it after death,\nwhen his body and fleshly nature have mouldered away in the grave, and\ncan no longer pamper and stupify him and make him forget his own misery.\nAy, there has been many a man in this life who had every fleshly\nenjoyment which this world can give, riches and pleasure, banquets and\npalaces, every sense and every appetite pampered,\u2014his pride and his\nvanity flattered; who never knew what want, or trouble, or contradiction,\nwas on the smallest point; a man, I say, who had every carnal enjoyment\nwhich this earth can give to a man\u2019s selfish flesh, and yet whose spirit\nwas in hell all the while, and who knew it; hating and despising himself\nfor a mean selfish villain, while all the world round was bowing down to\nhim and envying him as the luckiest of men. I am trying to make you\nunderstand the infinite difference between a man\u2019s flesh and his spirit;\nhow a man\u2019s flesh can take no pleasure in spiritual things, while man\u2019s\nspirit of itself can take no pleasure in fleshly things. Now, the spirit\nand the flesh, body and soul, in every man, are at war with each\nother,\u2014they have quarrelled; that is the corruption of our nature, the\nfruit of Adam\u2019s fall. And as the Article says, and as every man who has\never tried to live godly well knows, from experience, \u201cthat infection of\nnature does remain to the last, even in those who are regenerate.\u201d So\nthat as St. Paul says, the spirit lusteth against the flesh, and the\nflesh against the spirit; and it continually happens that a man cannot do\nthe things which he would; he cannot do what he knows to be right; thus,\nas St. Paul says again, a man may delight in the law of God in his inward\nman, that is, in his spirit, and yet all the while he shall find another\nlaw in his members, _i.e._ in his body, in his flesh, in his brain which\nthinks, and his heart which feels, and his senses which are fond of\npleasure; and this law of the flesh, these appetites and passions which\nhe has, like other animals, fight against the law of his mind, and when\nhe wishes to do good, make him do evil. Now how is this? The flesh is\nnot evil; a man\u2019s body can be no more wicked than a dumb beast can be\nwicked. St. Paul calls man\u2019s flesh sinful flesh; not because our flesh\ncan sin of itself, but because our sinful souls make our flesh do sinful\nthings; for, he says, Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh, and\nyet in him was no sin. The pure and spotless Saviour could not have\ntaken man\u2019s flesh upon him if there was any sinfulness in it. The body\nknows nothing of right and wrong; it is not subject to the law of God,\nneither, indeed, can be, says St. Paul. And why? Because God\u2019s law is\nspiritual; deals with right and wrong. Wickedness, like righteousness,\nis a spiritual thing. If a man sins, his body is not in fault; it is his\nspirit; his weak, perverse will, which will sooner listen to what his\nflesh tells him is pleasant than to what God tells him is right; for\nthis, my friends, is the secret of the battle of life. We stand between\nheaven and earth. Above is God\u2019s Spirit striving with our spirits,\nspeaking to them in the depths of our soul, shewing us what is right,\nputting into our hearts good desires, making us long to be honest and\njust, pure and manful, loving and charitable; for who is there who has\nnot at times longed after these things, and felt that it would be a\nblessed thing for him if he were such a man as Jesus Christ was and\nis?\u2014Above us, I say, is God\u2019s Spirit speaking to our spirits, below us is\nthis world speaking to our flesh, as it spoke to Eve\u2019s, saying to us,\n\u201cThis thing is pleasant to the eyes\u2014this thing is good for food\u2014that\nthing is to be desired to make you wise, and to flatter your vanity and\nself-conceit.\u201d Below us, I say, is _this_ world, tempting us to ease,\nand pleasure, and vanity; and in the middle, betwixt the two, stands up\nthe third part of man\u2014his _soul_ and _will_, set to choose between the\nvoice of God\u2019s Spirit and the temptations of this world\u2014to choose between\nwhat is right and what is pleasant\u2014to choose whether he will obey the\ndesires of the spirit, or obey the desires of the flesh. He must choose.\nIf he lets his flesh conquer his spirit, he falls; if he lets his spirit\nconquer his flesh, he rises; if he lets his flesh conquer his spirit, he\nbecomes what he was not meant to be\u2014a slave to fleshly lust; and _then_\nhe will find his flesh set up for itself, and work for itself. And where\nman\u2019s flesh gets the upper hand, and takes possession of him, it can do\nnothing but evil\u2014not that it is evil in itself, but that it has no rule,\nno law to go by; it does not know right from wrong; and therefore it does\nsimply what it likes, as a dumb beast or an idiot might; and therefore\nthe works of the flesh are\u2014adulteries, drunkenness, murders,\nfornications, envyings, backbitings, strife. When a man\u2019s body, which\nGod intended to be the servant of his spirit, has become the tyrant of\nhis spirit, it is like an idiot on a king\u2019s throne, doing all manner of\nharm and folly without knowing that it _is_ harm and folly. That is not\n_its_ fault. Whose fault is it, then? _Our_ fault\u2014the fault of our\nwills and our souls. Our souls were intended to be the masters of our\nflesh, to conquer all the weaknesses, defilements of our constitution\u2014our\ntempers, our cowardice, our laziness, our hastiness, our nervousness, our\nvanity, our love of pleasure\u2014to listen to our spirits, because our\nspirits learn from God\u2019s Spirit what is right and noble. But if we let\nour flesh master us, and obey its own blind lusts, we sin against God;\nand we sin against God doubly; for we not only sin against God\u2019s\ncommandments, but we sin against ourselves, who are the image and glory\nof God.\n\nBelieve this, my friends; believe that, because you are all fallen human\ncreatures, there must go on in you this sore life-long battle between\nyour spirit and your flesh\u2014your spirit trying to be master and guide, as\nit ought to be, and your flesh rebelling, and trying to conquer your\nspirit and make you a mere animal, like a fox in cunning, a peacock in\nvanity, or a hog in greedy sloth. But believe, too, that it is your sin\nand your shame if your spirit does not conquer your flesh\u2014for God has\npromised to help your spirits. Ask Him, and His Spirit will teach\nthem\u2014fill them with pure, noble hopes, with calm, clear thoughts, and\nwith deep, unselfish love to God and man. He will strengthen your wills,\nthat they may be able to refuse the evil and choose the good. Ask Him,\nand He will join them to His own Spirit\u2014to the Spirit of Christ, your\nMaster; for he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit with Him. Ask\nhim, and He will give you the mind of Christ\u2014teach you to see and feel\nall matters as Christ sees and feels them. Ask Him, and He will give you\nwisdom to listen to His Spirit when it teaches your spirit, and then you\nwill be able to walk after the spirit, and not obey the lusts of the\nflesh; and you will be able to crucify the flesh with its passions and\nlusts, that is, to make it, what it ought to be, a dead thing\u2014a dead tool\nfor your spirit to work with manfully and godly, and not a live tyrant to\nlead you into brutishness and folly; and then you will find that the\nfruit of the spirit, of your spirit led by God\u2019s Spirit, is really, as\nSt. Paul says, \u201clove, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,\nhonesty\u201d\u2014\u201cwhatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honourable\nand of good report;\u201d and instead of being the miserable slaves of your\nown passions, and of the opinions of your neighbours, you will find that\nwhere the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, true freedom, not only\nfrom your neighbours\u2019 sins, but, what is far better, freedom from your\nown.\n\nThese are large words, my friends, and promise mighty things. But I dare\nspeak them to you, for God has spoken to you. These promises God made\nyou at your baptism; these promises I, on the warrant of your baptism,\ndare make to you again. At your baptism, God gave you the right to call\nHim your loving Father, to call His Son your Saviour, His Spirit your\nSanctifier. And He is not a man, that He should lie; nor the son of man,\nthat He should repent! Try Him, and see whether He will not fulfil His\nword. Claim His promise, and though you have fallen lower than the\nbrutes, He will make men and women of you. He will be faithful and just\nto forgive you your sins, and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON VII.\nRETRIBUTION.\n\n\n NUMBERS, xxxii. 23.\n\n \u201cBe sure your sin will find you out.\u201d\n\nTHE full meaning of this text is, that every sin which a man commits is\ncertain, sooner or later, to come home to him with fearful interest.\n\nMoses gave this warning to two tribes of the Israelites,\u2014to the\nReubenites and Gadites, who had promised to go over Jordan, and help\ntheir countrymen in war against the heathen, on condition of being\nallowed to return and settle on the east bank of Jordan, where they then\nwere; but if they broke their promise, and returned before the end of the\nwar, they were to be certain that their sin would find them out; that God\nwould avenge their falsehood on them in some way in their lifetime: in\ntheir lifetime, I say, for there is no mention made in this chapter, or\nin any part of the story, of heaven or hell, or any world to come. And\nthe text has been always taken as a fair warning to all generations of\nmen, that their sin also, even in their lifetimes, will be visited upon\nthem.\n\nNow, it is strange, at first sight, that these texts, which warn men that\ntheir sins will be punished in this life, are just the most unpleasant\ntexts in the whole Bible; that men shrink from them more, and shut their\neyes to them more than they do to those texts which threaten them with\nhell-fire and everlasting death. Strange!\u2014that men should be more afraid\nof being punished in this life for a few years than in the life to come\nfor ever and ever;\u2014and yet not strange if we consider; for to worldly and\nsinful souls, that life after death and the flames of hell seem quite\ndistant and dim\u2014things of which they know little and believe less, while\nthis world they _do_ know, they are quite certain that its good things\nare pleasant and its bad things unpleasant, and they are thoroughly\nafraid of losing _them_. Their hearts are where their treasure is, in\nthis world; and a punishment which deprives them of this world\u2019s good\nthings hits them home: but their treasure is _not_ in heaven, and,\ntherefore, about losing heaven they are by no means so much concerned.\nAnd thus they can face the dreadful news that \u201cthe wicked shall be turned\ninto hell, and all the people that forget God;\u201d while, as for the news\nthat the wicked shall be recompensed on the earth, that their sins will\nsurely find them out in this life, they cannot face that\u2014they shut their\nears to it,\u2014they try to persuade themselves that sin will _pay_ them\n_here_, at all events; and as for hereafter, they shall get off\nsomehow,\u2014they neither know nor care much how.\n\nYet God\u2019s truth remains, and God\u2019s truth must be heard; and those who\nlove this world so well must be told, whether they like or not, that\nevery sin which they commit, every mean, every selfish, every foul deed,\nloses them so much enjoyment in this very present world of which they are\nso mighty fond. That is God\u2019s truth; and I will prove it true from\ncommon sense, from Holy Scripture, and _from the witness_ of men\u2019s own\nhearts.\n\nTake common sense. Does not common sense tell us that if God made this\nworld, and governs it by righteous and God-like laws, this must be a\nworld in which evil-doing cannot thrive? God made the world better than\nthat, surely! He would be a bad law-giver who made such laws, that it\nwas as well to break them as to keep them. You would call them bad laws,\nsurely! No, God made the world, and not the devil; and the world works\nby God\u2019s laws, and not the devil\u2019s; and it inclines towards good, and not\ntowards evil; and he who sins, even in the least, breaks God\u2019s laws, acts\ncontrary to the rule and constitution of the world, and will surely find\nthat God\u2019s laws will go on in spite of him, and grind him to powder, if\nhe by sinning gets in the way of them. God has no need to go out of His\nway to punish our evil deeds. Let them alone, and they will punish\nthemselves. Is it not so in every thing? If a tradesman trades badly,\nor a farmer farms badly, there is no need of lawyers to punish him; he\nwill punish himself. Every mistake he makes will take money out of his\npocket; every time he offends against the established rules of trade or\nagriculture, which are God\u2019s laws, he injures himself; and so, be sure,\nit is in the world at large,\u2014in the world in which men and the souls of\nmen live, and move, and have their being.\n\nNext, to speak of Scripture. I might quote texts innumerable to prove\nthat what I say Scripture says also. Consider but this one thing,\u2014that\nthere is a whole book in the Bible written to prove this one thing,\u2014that\nour good and bad deeds are repaid us with interest in this life\u2014the\nProverbs of Solomon I mean\u2014in which there is little or no mention of\nheaven or hell, or any world to come. It is all one noble, and awful,\nand yet cheering sermon on that one text, \u201cThe righteous shall be\nrecompensed in the earth, much more the wicked and the sinner,\u201d\u2014put in a\nthousand different lights; brought home to us a thousand different roads,\ncomes the same everlasting doom,\u2014\u201cVain man, who thinkest that thou canst\nlive in God\u2019s world and yet despise His will, know that, in every\nsmiling, comfortable sin, thou art hatching an adder to sting thee in the\ndays of old age, to poison thy cup of sinful joy, even when it is at thy\nlips; to haunt thy restless thoughts, and dog thee day and night; to rise\nup before thee, in the silent, sleepless hours of night, like an angry\nghost! An awful foretaste of the doom that is to come; and yet a\nmerciful foretaste, if thou wilt be but taught by the disappointment, the\nunsatisfied craving, the gnawing shame of a guilty conscience, to see the\nheinousness of sin, and would turn before it be too late.\u201d\n\nWhat, my friends,\u2014what will you make of such texts as this, \u201cThat he who\nsoweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption?\u201d Do you not see\nthat comes true far too often? Can it help _always_ coming true, seeing\nthat God\u2019s apostle spoke it? What will you make of this, too, \u201cThat the\nwicked is snared by the working of his own hands;\u201d\u2014\u201cThat _evil_\u201d\u2014the evil\nwhich we do of its own self\u2014\u201cshall slay the wicked?\u201d What says the whole\nnoble 37th Psalm of David, but that same awful truth of God, that sin is\nits own punishment?\n\nWhy should I go on quoting texts? Look for yourselves, you who fancy\nthat it is only on the other side of the grave that God will trouble\nHimself about you and your meanness, your profligacy, your falsehood.\nLook for yourselves in the book of God, and see if there be any writer\nthere,\u2014lawgiver, prophet, psalmist, apostle, up to Christ the Lord\nHimself,\u2014who does not warn men again and again, that here, on earth,\ntheir sins will find them out. Our Saviour, indeed, when on earth, said\nless about this subject than any of the prophets before Him, or the\napostles after Him, and for the best of reasons. The Jews had got rooted\nin their minds a superstitious notion, that all disease, all sorrow, was\nthe punishment in each case of some particular sin; and thus, instead of\nlooking with pity and loving awe upon the sick and the afflicted, they\nwere accustomed, too often, to turn from them as sinners, smitten of God,\nbearing in their distress the token of His anger. The blessed One,\u2014He\nwho came to heal the sick and save the lost,\u2014reproved that error more\nthan once. When the disciples fancied a certain poor man\u2019s blindness to\nbe a judgment from God, \u201cNeither did he sin,\u201d said the Lord, \u201cnor his\nparents, but that the glory of God might be made manifest in him.\u201d And\nyet, on the other hand, when He healed a certain man of an old infirmity\nat the pool of Bethesda, what were His words to him? \u201cGo thy way, sin no\nmore, lest a worse thing come unto thee;\u201d\u2014a clear and weighty warning\nthat all his long misery of eight-and-thirty years had been the\npunishment of some sin of his, and that the sin repeated would bring on\nhim a still severer judgment.\n\nWhat, again, does the apostle mean, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, when\nhe tells us how God scourges every son whom he receives, and talks of His\nchastisements, whereof all are partakers. Why do we need chastising if\nwe have nothing which needs mending? And though the innocent _may_\nsometimes be afflicted to make them strong as well as innocent, and the\nholy chastened to make them humble as well as holy, yet if the good\ncannot escape their share of affliction, how will the bad get off? \u201cIf\nthe righteous scarcely be saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner\nappear?\u201d But what use in arguing when you know that my words are true?\nYou _know_ that your sins will find you out. Look boldly and honestly\ninto your own hearts. Look through the history of your past lives, and\nconfess to God, at least, that the far greater number of your sorrows\nhave been your own fault; that there is hardly a day\u2019s misery which you\never endured in your life of which you might not say, \u2018If I had listened\nto the voice of God in my conscience\u2014if I had earnestly considered what\nmy _duty_ was\u2014if I had prayed to God to determine my judgment right, I\nshould have been spared this sorrow now?\u2019 Am I not right? Those who\nknow most of God and their own souls will agree most with me; those who\nknow little about God and their own souls will agree but hardly with me,\nfor they provoke God\u2019s chastisements, and writhe under them for the time,\nand then go and do the same wrong again, as the wild beast will turn and\nbite the stone thrown at him without having the sense to see why it was\nthrown.\n\nThink, again, of your past lives, and answer in God\u2019s sight, how many\nwrong things have you ever done which have _succeeded_, that is, how many\nsins which you would not be right glad were undone if you could but put\nback the wheels of Time? They may have succeeded _outwardly_; meanness\nwill succeed\nso\u2014lies\u2014oppression\u2014theft\u2014adultery\u2014drunkenness\u2014godlessness\u2014they are all\npleasant enough while they last, I suppose; and a man may reap what he\ncalls substantial benefits from them in money, and suchlike, and keep\nthat safe enough; but has his sin succeeded? Has it not _found him\nout_?\u2014found him out never to lose him again? Is he the happier for it?\nDoes he feel freer for it? Does he respect himself the more for it?\u2014No!\nAnd even though he may prosper now, yet does there not run though all his\nselfish pleasure a certain fearful looking forward to a fiery judgment to\nwhich he would gladly shut his eyes, but cannot?\n\nCunning, fair-spoken oppressor of the poor, has not thy sin found thee\nout? Then be sure it will. In the shame of thine own heart it will find\nthee out;\u2014in the curses of the poor it will find thee out;\u2014in a\nfriendless, restless, hopeless death-bed, thy covetousness and thy\ncruelty will glare before thee in their true colours, and thy sin will\nfind thee out!\n\nProfligate woman, who art now casting away thy honest name, thy\nself-respect, thy womanhood, thy baptism-vows, that thou mayest enjoy the\nfoul pleasures of sin for a season, has not thy sin found thee out? Then\nbe sure it will hereafter, when thou hast become disgusted at thyself and\nthine own infamy,\u2014and youth, and health, and friends, are gone, and a\nshameful and despised old age creeps over thee, and death stalks nearer\nand nearer, and God vanishes further and further off, then thy sin will\nfind thee out!\n\nFoolish, improvident young man, who art wasting the noble strength of\nyouth, and manly spirits which God has given thee on sin and folly,\nthrowing away thine honest earnings in cards and drunkenness, instead of\nlaying them by against a time of need\u2014has not thy sin found thee out?\nThen be sure it will some day, when thou hast to bring home thy bride to\na cheerless, unfurnished house, and there to live from hand to\nmouth,\u2014without money to provide for her sickness,\u2014without money to give\nher the means of keeping things neat and comfortable when she is\nwell,\u2014without a farthing laid by against distress, and illness, and old\nage:\u2014_then_ your sin will find you out: then, perhaps, my text,\u2014my\nwords\u2014may come across you as you sigh in vain in your comfortless home,\nin your impoverished old age, for the money which you wasted in your\nyouth! My friends, my friends, for your own sakes consider, and mend ere\nthat day come, as else it surely will!\n\nAnd, lastly, you who, without running into any especial sins, as those\nwhich the world calls sins, still live careless about religion, without\nloyalty to Christ the Lord, without any honest attempt, or even wish, to\nserve the God above you, or to rejoice in remembering that you are His\nchildren, working for Him and under Him,\u2014be sure your sin will find you\nout. When affliction, or sickness, or disappointment come, as come they\nwill, if God has not cast you off;\u2014when the dark day dawns, and your\nfool\u2019s paradise of worldly prosperity is cut away from under your feet,\nthen you will find out your folly\u2014you will find that you have insulted\nthe only Friend who can bring you out of affliction\u2014cast off the only\ncomfort which can strengthen you to bear affliction\u2014forgotten the only\nknowledge which will enable you to be the wiser for affliction. Then, I\nsay, the sin of your godlessness will find you out; if you do not intend\nto fall, soured and sickened merely by God\u2019s chastisements, either into\nstupid despair or peevish discontent, you will have to go back, to go\nback to God and cry, \u201cFather, I have sinned against heaven and before\nThee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son.\u201d\n\nGo back at once before it be too late. Find out your sins and mend\nthem\u2014before they find you out, and break your hearts.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON VIII.\nSELF-DESTRUCTION.\n\n\n 1 KINGS, xxii. 23.\n\n \u201cThe Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy\n prophets.\u201d\n\nTHE chapter from which my text is taken, which is the first lesson for\nthis evening\u2019s service, is a very awful chapter, for it gives us an\ninsight into the meaning of that most awful and terrible word\u2014temptation.\nAnd yet it is a most comforting chapter, for it shews us how God is\nlong-suffering and merciful, even to the most hardened sinner; how to the\nlast He puts before him good and evil, to choose between them, and warns\nhim to the last of his path, and the ruin to which it leads.\n\nWe read of Ahab in the first lesson this morning as a thoroughly wicked\nman,\u2014mean and weak, cruel and ungodly, governed by his wife Jezebel, a\nheathen woman, in marrying whom he had broken God\u2019s law,\u2014a woman so\nfamous for cruelty and fierceness, vanity and wickedness, that her name\nis a by-word even here in England now\u2014\u201cas bad as Jezebel,\u201d we say to this\nday. We heard of Ahab in this morning\u2019s lesson letting Jezebel murder\nthe righteous Naboth, by perjury and slander, to get possession of his\nvineyard; and then, instead of shrinking with abhorrence from his wife\u2019s\niniquity, going down and taking possession of the land which he had\ngained by her sin. We read of God\u2019s curse on him, and yet of God\u2019s\nlong-suffering and pardon to him on his repentance. Yet, neither God\u2019s\ncurse nor God\u2019s mercy seem to have moved him. But he had been always the\nsame. \u201cHe did evil,\u201d the Bible tells us, \u201cin the sight of the Lord above\nall that were before him.\u201d He deserted the true God for his wife\u2019s idols\nand false gods; and in spite of Elijah\u2019s miracle at Carmel\u2014of which you\nheard last Sunday\u2014by which he proved by fire which was the true God, and\nin spite of the wonderful victory which God had given him, by means of\none of God\u2019s prophets, over the Syrians, he still remained an idolater.\nHe would not be taught, nor understand; neither God\u2019s threats nor mercies\ncould move him; he went on sinning against light and knowledge; and now\nhis cup was full\u2014his days were numbered, and God\u2019s vengeance was ready at\nthe door.\n\nHe consulted all his false prophets as to whether or not he should go to\nattack the Syrians at Ramoth-Gilead. They knew what to say\u2014they knew\nthat their business was to prophesy what would pay them\u2014what would be\npleasant to him. They did not care whether what they said was true or\nnot\u2014they lied for the sake of gain, for the Lord had put a lying spirit\ninto their mouths. They were rogues and villains from the first. They\nhad turned prophets, not to speak God\u2019s truth, but to make money, to\nflatter King Ahab, to get themselves a reputation. We do not hear that\nthey were all heathens. Many of them may have believed in the true God.\nBut they were cheats and liars, and so they had given place to the devil,\nthe father of lies: and now he had taken possession of them in spite of\nthemselves, and they lied to Ahab, and told him that he would prosper in\nthe battle at Ramoth-Gilead. It was a dangerous thing for them to say;\nfor if he had been defeated, and returned disappointed, his rage would\nhave most probably fallen on them for deceiving them. And as in those\nEastern countries kings do whatever they like without laws or\nparliaments, Ahab would have most likely put them all to a miserable\ndeath on the spot. But however dangerous it might be for them to lie,\nthey could not help lying. A spirit of lies had seized them, and they\nwho began by lying, because it paid them, now could not help doing so\nwhether it paid them or not.\n\nBut the good king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, had no faith in these flattering\nvillains. He asked whether there was not another prophet of the Lord to\ninquire of? Ahab told him that there was one, Micaiah the son of Imlah,\nbut that he hated him, because he only prophesied evil of him. What a\nthorough picture of a hardened sinner\u2014a man who has become a slave to his\nown lusts, till he cares nothing for a thing being true, provided only it\nis pleasant! Thus the wilful sinner, like Ahab, becomes both fool and\ncoward, afraid to look at things as they are; and when God\u2019s judgments\nstare him in the face, the wretched man shuts his eyes tight, and swears\nthat the evil is not there, just because he does not choose to see it.\n\nBut the evil was there, ready for Ahab, and it found him. When he forced\nMicaiah to speak, Micaiah told him the whole truth. He told him a\nvision, or dream, which he had seen. \u201cHear thou therefore the word of\nthe Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of\nheaven standing by Him. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that\nhe may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead? And there came forth a spirit,\nand said, I will go forth, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his\nprophets. And the Lord said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also:\ngo forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying\nspirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken\nevil concerning thee.\u201d\n\nWhat warning could be more awful, and yet more plain? Ahab was told that\nhe was listening to a lie. He had free choice to follow that lie or not,\nand he did follow it. After having put Micaiah into prison for speaking\nthe truth to him, he went up to Ramoth-Gilead; and yet he felt he was not\nsafe. He had his doubts and his fears. He would not go openly into the\nbattle, but disguised himself, hoping that by this means he should keep\nhimself safe from evil. Fool! God\u2019s vengeance could not be stopped by\nhis paltry cunning. In spite of all his disguises, a chance shot struck\nhim down between the joints of his armour. His chariot-driver carried\nhim out of the battle, and \u201che was stayed up in his chariot against the\nSyrians, and died at even: and the blood ran out of his wound into the\nmidst of the chariot. And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria;\nand the dogs licked up his blood there,\u201d according to the word of the\nLord, which He spoke by the mouth of His prophet Elijah, saying, \u201cIn the\nplace where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, whom thou slewest, shall\ndogs lick thy blood, even thine.\u201d\n\nAnd do not fancy, my friends, that because this is a miraculous story of\nancient times, it has nothing to do with us. All these things were\nwritten for our example. This chapter tells us not merely how Ahab was\ntempted, but it tells us how _we_ are tempted, every one of us, here in\nEngland, in these very days. As it was with Ahab, so it is with us.\nEvery wilful sin that we commit we give room to the devil. Every wrong\nstep that we take knowingly, we give a handle to some evil spirit to lead\nus seven steps further wrong. And yet in every temptation God gives us a\nfair chance. He is no cruel tyrant who will deliver us over to the\ndevil, to be led helpless and blindfold to our ruin. He did not give\nAhab over to him so. He sent a lying spirit to deceive Ahab\u2019s prophets,\nthat Ahab might go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead; but at the very same\ntime, see, he sends a holy and a true man, a man whom Ahab could trust,\nand did trust at the bottom of his heart, to tell him that the lie was a\nlie, to warn him of his ruin, so that he might have no excuse for\nlistening to those false prophets\u2014no excuse for following his own pride,\nhis own ambition, to his destruction. So you see, \u201cLet no man say, when\nhe is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God tempteth no man, but every\none is tempted when he is led away by his own lust and enticed.\u201d Ahab\nwas led away by his own lust; his cowardly love of hearing what was\npleasant and flattering to him, rather than what was true\u2014rather than\nwhat he knew he deserved; that was what enticed him to listen to Zedekiah\nand the false prophets, rather than to Micaiah the son of Imlah. _That_\nis what entices us to sin\u2014the lust of believing what is pleasant to us,\nwhat suits our own self-will\u2014what is pleasant to our bodies\u2014pleasant to\nour purses\u2014pleasant to our pride and self-conceit. Then, when the lying\nspirit comes and whispers to us, by bad thoughts, by bad books, by bad\nmen, that we shall prosper in our wickedness, does God leave us alone to\nlisten to those evil voices without warning? No! He sends His prophets\nto us, as He sent Micaiah to Ahab, to tell us that the wages of sin is\ndeath\u2014to tell us that those who sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind\u2014to\nset before us at every turn good or evil, that we may choose between\nthem, and live or die according to our choice. For do not fancy that\nthere are no prophets in our days, unless the gift of the Holy Spirit,\nwhich is promised to all who believe, be a dream and a lie. There are\nprophets nowadays,\u2014yea, I say unto you, and more than prophets. Is not\nthe Bible a prophet? Is not every page in it a prophecy to us,\nforetelling God\u2019s mercies and God\u2019s punishments towards men. Is not\nevery holy and wise book, every holy and wise preacher and writer, a\nprophet, expounding to us God\u2019s laws, foretelling to us God\u2019s opinions of\nour deeds, both good and evil? Ay, is not every man a prophet to\nhimself? That \u201cstill small voice\u201d in a man\u2019s heart, which warns him of\nwhat is evil\u2014that feeling which makes him cheerful and free when he has\ndone right, sad and ashamed when he has done wrong\u2014is not that a prophecy\nin a man\u2019s own heart? Truly it is. It is the voice of God within us\u2014it\nis the Spirit of God striving with our spirits, whether we will hear, or\nwhether we will forbear\u2014setting before us what is righteous, and noble,\nand pure, and what is manly and God-like\u2014to see whether we will obey that\nvoice, or whether we will obey our own selfish lusts, which tempt us to\nplease ourselves\u2014to pamper ourselves, our greediness, covetousness,\nambition, or self-conceit. And again, I say, we have our prophets.\nEvery preacher of righteousness is a prophet. Every good tract is a\nprophet. That Prayer-book, those Psalms, those Creeds, those Collects,\nwhich you take into your mouths every Sunday, what are they but written\nprophecies, crying unto us with the words of holy men of old, greater\nthan Micaiah, or David, or Elijah, \u201cHear thou the word of the Lord?\u201d The\nspirits of those who wrote that Prayer-book\u2014the spirits of just men made\nperfect, filled with the Spirit of the Lord\u2014they call to us to learn the\nwisdom which they knew, to avoid the temptations which they conquered,\nthat we may share in the glory in which they shared round the throne of\nChrist for evermore.\n\nAnd if you ask me how to try the spirits, how to know whether your own\nthoughts, whether the sermons which you hear, the books which you read,\nare speaking to you God\u2019s truth, or some lying spirit\u2019s falsehood, I can\nonly answer you, \u201cTo the law and to the testimony\u201d\u2014to the Bible; if they\nspeak not according to that word, there is no truth in them. But how to\nunderstand the Bible? for the fleshly man understands not the things of\nGod. The fleshly man, he who cares only about pleasing himself, he who\ngoes to the Bible full of self-conceit and selfishness, wanting the Bible\nto tell him only just what he likes to hear, will only find it a sealed\nbook to him, and will very likely wrest the Scriptures to his own\ndestruction. Take up your Bible humbly, praying to God to shew you its\nmeaning, whether it be pleasant to you or not, and then you will find\nthat God will shew you a blessed meaning in it; He will open your eyes,\nthat you may understand the wondrous things of His law; He will shew you\nhow to try the spirit of all you are taught, and to find out whether it\ncomes from God.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON IX.\nHELL ON EARTH.\n\n\n MATTHEW, viii. 29.\n\n \u201cAnd behold the evil spirits cried out, saying, What have we to do\n with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment\n us before the time?\u201d\n\nTHIS account of the man possessed with devils, and of his language to our\nLord, of our Lord\u2019s casting the devils out of the poor sufferer, and His\nallowing them to enter into a herd of swine, is one that is well worth\nserious thought; and I think a few words on it will follow fitly after my\nlast Sunday\u2019s sermon on Ahab and his temptations by evil spirits. In\nthat sermon I shewed you what temper of mind it was which laid a man open\nto the cunning of evil spirits; I wish now to shew you something of what\nthose evil spirits are. It is very little that we can know about them.\nWe were intended to know very little, just as much as would enable us to\nguard against them, and no more. The accounts of them in the Scriptures\nare for our use, not to satisfy our curiosity. But we may find out a\ngreat deal about them from this very chapter, from this very story, which\nis repeated almost word for word in three different Gospels, as if to\nmake us more certain of so curious and important a matter, by having\nthree distinct and independent writers to witness for its truth. I\nadvise all those who have Bibles to look for this story in the 8th\nchapter of St. Matthew, and follow me as I explain it. {92}\n\nNow, first, we may learn from this account, that evil spirits are real\npersons. There is a notion got abroad that it is only a figure of speech\nto talk of evil spirits, that all the Bible means by them are certain bad\nhabits, or bad qualities, or diseases. There are many who will say when\nthey read this story, \u2018This poor man was only a madman. It was the\nfashion of the old Jews when a man was mad to say that he was possessed\nby evil spirits. All they meant was that the man\u2019s own spirit was in an\nevil diseased state, or that his brain and mind were out of order.\u2019\n\nWhen I hear such language\u2014and it is very common\u2014I cannot help thinking\nhow pleased the devil must be to hear people talk in such a way. How can\npeople help him better than by saying that there is no devil? A thief\nwould be very glad to hear you say, \u2018There are no such things as thieves;\nit is all an old superstition, so I may leave my house open at night\nwithout danger;\u2019 and I believe, my friends, from the very bottom of my\nheart, that this new-fangled disbelief in evil spirits is put into men\u2019s\nhearts by the evil spirits themselves. As it was once said, \u2018The devil\nhas tried every plan to catch men\u2019s souls, and now, as the last and most\ncunning trick of all, he is shamming dead.\u2019 These may seem homely words,\nbut the homeliest words are very often the deepest. I advise you all to\nthink seriously on them.\n\nBut it is impossible surely to read this story without seeing that the\nBible considers evil spirits as distinct persons, just as much as each\none of us is a person, and that our Lord spoke to them and treated them\nas persons. \u201cWhat have _we_ to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God?\nArt Thou come hither to torment _us_ before the time?\u201d And again, \u201cIf\nThou cast _us_ out, suffer us to go into the herd of swine.\u201d What can\nshew more plainly that there were some persons in that poor man, besides\nhimself, his own spirit, his own person? and that _he_ knew it, and Jesus\nknew it too? and that He spoke to these spirits, these persons, who\npossessed that man, and not to the man himself? No doubt there was a\nterrible confusion in the poor madman\u2019s mind about these evil spirits,\nwho were tormenting him, making him miserable, foul, and savage, in mind\nand body\u2014a terrible confusion! We find, when Jesus asked him his name,\nhe answers \u201c_Legion_,\u201d that is an army, a multitude, \u201cfor we are many,\u201d\nhe says. Again, one gospel tells us that he says, \u201cWhat have _I_ to do\nwith Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God?\u201d While in another Gospel we are told\nthat he said, \u201cWhat have _we_ to do with Thee?\u201d He seems not to have\nbeen able to distinguish between his own spirit, and these spirits who\npossessed him. They put the furious and despairing thoughts into his\nheart; they spoke through his mouth; they made a slave and a puppet of\nhim. But though he could not distinguish between his own soul and the\ndevils who were in it, Christ could and Christ did.\n\nThe man says to Him, or rather the devils make the man say to Him, \u201cIf\nThou cast us out, suffer us to go into the herd of swine, and drive us\nnot out into the deep.\u201d What did Christ answer him? Christ did not\nanswer him as our so-called wise men in these days would, \u2018My good man,\nthis is all a delusion and a fancy of your own, about your having evil\nspirits in you\u2014more persons than one in you\u2014for you are wrong in saying\n_we_ of yourself. You ought to say \u201cI,\u201d as every one else does; and as\nfor spirits going out of you, or going into a herd of swine, or anything\nelse, that is all a superstition and a fancy. There is nothing to come\nout of you, there is nothing in you except yourself. All the evil in you\nis your own, the disease of your own brain, and the violent passions of\nyour own heart. Your brain must be cured by medicine, and your violent\npassions tamed down by care and kindness, and then you will get rid of\nthis foolish notion that you have evil spirits in you, and calling\nyourself a multitude, as if you had other persons in you besides\nyourself.\u2019\n\nAny one who spoke in this manner nowadays would be thought very\nreasonable and very kind. Why did not our Lord speak so to this man, for\nthere was no outward difference between this man\u2019s conduct and that of\nmany violent mad people whom we see continually in England? We read,\nthat this man possessed with devils would wear no clothes; that he had\nextraordinary strength; that he would not keep company with other men,\nbut abode day and night in the tombs, exceeding fierce, crying and\ncutting himself with stones, trying in blind rage, which he could not\nexplain to himself, to hurt himself and all who came near him. And,\nabove all, he had this notion, that evil spirits had got possession of\nhim. Now every one of these habits and fancies you may see in many\nraging maniacs at this day.\n\nBut did our Lord treat this man as we treat such maniacs in these days?\nHe took the man at his word, and more; the man could not distinguish\nclearly between himself and the evil spirits, but our Lord did. When the\ndevils besought Him, saying, \u201cIf thou cast us out, suffer us to go into\nthe herd of swine,\u201d our Lord answers \u201cGo;\u201d and \u201cwhen they were cast out,\nthey went into the herd of swine; and, behold, the whole herd of swine\nran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the\nwaters.\u201d\n\nIt was as if our Lord had meant to say to the bystanders,\u2014ay and to us,\nand to all people in all times and in all countries, \u2018This poor possessed\nmaniac\u2019s notion was a true one. There were other persons in him besides\nhimself, tormenting him, body and soul: and, behold, I can drive these\nout of him and send them into something else, and leave the man\nuninjured, _himself_, and only himself, again in an instant, without any\nneed of long education to cure him of his bad habits.\u2019 It will be but\nreasonable, then, for us to take this story of the man possessed by\ndevils, as written for our example, as an instance of what _might_, and\nperhaps _would_, happen to any one of us, were it not for God\u2019s mercy.\n\nSt. Peter tells us to be sober and watchful, because \u201cthe devil goes\nabout as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour;\u201d and when we look at\nthe world around, we may surely see that that stands as true now as it\ndid in St. Peter\u2019s time. Why, again, did St. James tells us to resist\nthe devil if the devil be not near us to resist? Why did St. Paul take\nfor granted, as he did, that Christian men were, of course, not ignorant\nof Satan\u2019s devices, if it be quite a proof of enlightenment and superior\nknowledge to be ignorant of his devices,\u2014if any dread, any thought even,\nabout evil spirits, be beneath the attention of reasonable men? My\nfriends, I say fairly, once for all, that that common notion, that there\nare no men now possessed by evil spirits, and that all those stories of\nthe devil\u2019s power over men are only old, worn-out superstitions has come\nfrom this, that men do not like to retain God in their knowledge, and\ntherefore, as a necessary consequence, do not like to retain the devil in\ntheir knowledge; because they would be very glad to believe in nothing\nbut what they can see, and taste, and handle; and, therefore, the thought\nof unseen evil spirits, or good spirits either, is a painful thing to\nthem. First, they do not really believe in angels\u2014ministering spirits\nsent out to minister to the heirs of salvation; then they begin not to\nbelieve in evil spirits. The Bible plainly describes their vast numbers;\nbut these people are wiser than the Bible, and only talk of _one_\u2014of\n_the_ devil, as if there were not, as the text tells us, legions and\narmies of devils. Then they get rid of that one devil in their real\ndesire to believe in as few spirits as possible. I am afraid many of\nthem have gone on to the next step, and got rid of the one God out of\ntheir thoughts and their belief. I said I am afraid, I ought to have\nsaid I _know_, that they have done so, and that thousands in this day who\nbegan by saying evil spirits only mean certain diseases and bad habits in\nmen, have ended by saying, \u201cGod only means certain good habits in man.\nGod is no more a person than the evil spirits are persons.\u201d\n\nI warn you of all this, my friends, because if you go to live in large\ntowns, as many of you will, you will hear talk enough of this sort before\nyour hairs are grey, put cleverly and eloquently enough; for, as a wise\nman said, \u201cThe devil does not send fools on his errands.\u201d I pray God,\nthat if you ever do hear doctrines of that kind, some of my words may\nrise in your mind and help to shew to you the evil path down which they\nlead.\n\nWe may believe, then, from the plain words of Scriptures, that there are\nvast numbers of evil spirits continually tempting men, each of them to\nsome particular sin; to worldliness, for instance, for we read of the\nspirit of the evil world; to filthiness, for we read of unclean spirits;\nto falsehood, for we read of lying spirits and a spirit of lies; to\npride, for we read of a spirit of pride;\u2014in short, to all sins which a\nman _can_ commit, to all evil passions to which a man can give way. We\nhave a right to believe, from the plain words of Scripture, that these\nspirits are continually wandering up and down tempting men to sin. That\nwonderful story of Job\u2019s temptation, which you may all read for\nyourselves in the first chapter of the book of Job, is, I think, proof\nenough for any one.\n\nBut next, and I wish you to pay special attention to this point: We have\nno right to believe,\u2014we have every right _not_ to believe, that these\nevil spirits can make us sin in the smallest matter against our own\nwills. The devil cannot put a single sin into us; he can only flatter\nthe sinfulness which is already in us. For, see; this pride, lust,\ncovetousness, falsehood, and so on, to which the Bible tells us they\ntempt us, have roots already in our nature. Our fallen nature of itself\nis inclined to pride, to worldliness, and so on. These devils tempt us\nby putting in our way the occasion to sin, by suggesting to us tempting\nthoughts and arguments which lead to sin; so the serpent tempted Eve, not\nby making her ambitious and self-willed, but by using arguments to her\nwhich stirred up the ambition and self-will in her: \u201cYe shall be as gods,\nknowing good and evil,\u201d the devil said to her.\n\nSo Satan, the prince of the evil spirits, tempted our Lord. And as the\nprince of the devils tempted Christ, so do _his_ servants tempt _us_,\nChrist\u2019s servants. Our tempers, our longings, our fancies, are not evil\nspirits; they are, as old divines well describe them, like greedy and\nfoolish fish, who rise at the baits which evil spirits hold out to us.\nIf we resist those baits\u2014if we put ourselves under God\u2019s protection\u2014if we\nclaim strength from Him who conquered the devil and all His temptations,\nthen we shall be able to turn our wills away from those tempting baits,\nand to resign our wills into our Father\u2019s hand, and He will take care of\nthem, and strengthen them with His will; and we shall find out that if we\nresist the devil, he will flee from us. But if we yield to temptations\nwhenever they come in our way, we shall find ourselves less and less able\nto resist them, for we shall learn to hate the evil spirits less and\nless; I mean we shall shrink less from the evil thoughts they hold out to\nus. We shall give place to the devil, as the Scripture tells us we\nshall; for instance, by indulging in habitual passionate tempers, or\nrooted spite and malice, letting the sun go down upon our wrath: and so a\nman may become more and more the slave of his own nature, of his own\nlusts and passions, and therefore of the devils, who are continually\npampering and maddening those lusts and passions, till a man may end in\n_complete possession_; not in common madness, which may be mere disease,\nbut as a savage and a raging maniac, such as, thank God, are rare in\nChristian countries, though they were common among our own forefathers\nbefore they were converted to Christianity,\u2014men like the demoniac of whom\nthe text speaks, tormented by devils, given up to blind rage and malice\nagainst himself and all around, to lust and blasphemy, to confusion of\nmind and misery of body, God\u2019s image gone, and the image of the devil,\nthe destroyer and the corrupter, arisen in its place. Few men can arrive\nat this pitch of wretchedness in a civilised country. It would not\nanswer the evil spirit\u2019s purpose to let them do so. It suits _his_\nspirits best in such a land as this to walk about dressed up as angels of\nlight. Few men in England would be fools enough to indulge the gross and\nfierce part of their nature till they became mere savages, like the\ndemoniac whom Christ cured; so it is to respectable vices that the devil\nmostly tempts us,\u2014to covetousness, to party spirit, to a hard heart and a\nnarrow mind; to cruelty, that shall clothe itself under the name of law;\nto filthiness, which excuses itself by saying, \u201cIt is a man\u2019s nature, he\ncannot help it;\u201d to idleness, which excuses itself on the score of\nwealth; to meanness and unfairness in trade, and in political and\nreligious disputes\u2014these are the devils which haunt us Englishmen\u2014sleek,\nprim, respectable fiends enough; and, truly, _their_ name is Legion! And\nthe man who gives himself up to them, though he may not become a raving\nsavage, is just as truly possessed by devils, to his own misery and ruin,\nthat he may sow the wind and reap the whirlwind; that though men may\nspeak well of him, and posterity praise his saying, and speak good of the\ncovetous whom God abhorreth, yet he may go for ever unto his own, to the\nevil spirits to whom his own wicked will gave him up for a prey. I\nbeseech you, my friends, consider my words; they are not mine, but the\nBible\u2019s. Think of them with fear;\u2014and yet with confidence, for we are\nbaptised into the name of Him who conquered all devils; you may claim a\nshare in that Spirit which is opposite to all evil spirits,\u2014whose\npresence makes the agony and misery of evil spirits, and drives them out\nas water drives out fire. If He is on your side, why should you be\nafraid of any spirit? Greater is He that is in you than he that is\nagainst you; and He, Christ Himself, is with every man, every child, who\nstruggles, however blindly and weakly, against temptation. When\ntemptation comes, when evil looks pleasant, and arguments rise up in your\nmind, that seem to make it look right and reasonable, as well as\npleasant, _then_, out of the very depths of your hearts, cry after Him\nwho died for you. Say to yourselves, \u2018How can I do this thing, and\noffend against Him who bought me with His blood?\u2019 Say to Him, \u2018I am\nweak, I am confused; I do not see right from wrong; I cannot find my way;\nI cannot answer the devil; I cannot conquer these cunning thoughts; I\nknow in the bottom of my heart that they are wrong, mere temptations, and\nyet they look so reasonable. Blessed Saviour, _Thou_ must shew me where\nthey are wrong. Thou didst answer the devil Thyself out of God\u2019s Word,\nput into _my_ mind some answer out of God\u2019s Word to these temptations;\nor, at least, give me spirit to toss them off\u2014strength of will to thrust\nthe whole temptation out of my head, and say, I will parley no longer\nwith the devil; I will put the whole matter out of my head for a time. I\ndon\u2019t know whether it is right or wrong for me to do this particular\nthing, but there are twenty other things which I _do_ know are right.\nI\u2019ll go and do _them_, and let this wait awhile.\u2019\n\nBelieve me, my friends, you _can_ do this\u2014you can resist these evil\nspirits which tempt us all; else why did our Lord bid us pray, \u201cLead us\nnot into temptation, but deliver us from evil?\u201d Why? Because our Father\nin heaven, if we ask Him, will _not_ lead us _into_ temptation, but\n_through_ it safe. Tempted we _must_ be, else we should not be men; but\nhere is our comfort and our strength\u2014that we have a King in heaven, who\nhas fought out and conquered all temptations, and a Father in heaven, who\nhas promised that He will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are\nable, but will, with the temptation, make a way to escape, that we may be\nable to bear it.\n\nAgain, I say, draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Resist the\ndevil, and he will flee from you.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON X.\nNOAH\u2019S JUSTICE.\n\n\n GENESIS, vi. 9.\n\n \u201cNoah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked\n with God.\u201d\n\nI INTEND, my friends, according as God shall help me, to preach to you,\nbetween this time and Christmas, a few sermons on some of the saints and\nworthies of the Old Testament; and I will begin this day with Noah.\n\nNow you must bear in mind that the histories of these ancient men were,\nas St. Paul says, written for our example. If these men in old times had\nbeen different from us, they would not be examples to us; but they were\nlike us\u2014men of like passions, says St. James, as ourselves; they had each\nof them in them a corrupt _nature_, which was continually ready to drag\nthem down, and make beasts of them, and make them slaves to their own\nlusts\u2014slaves to eating and drinking, and covetousness, and cowardice, and\nlaziness, and love for the things which they could see and handle\u2014just\nsuch a nature, in short, as we have. And they had also a spirit in each\nof them which was longing to be free, and strong, and holy, and wise\u2014such\na spirit as we have. And to them, just as to us, God was revealing\nhimself; God was saying to their consciences, as He does to ours, \u2018This\nis right, that is wrong; do this, and be free and clear-hearted; do that,\nand be dark and discontented, and afraid of thy own thoughts.\u2019 And they\ntoo, like us, had to live by faith, by continual belief that they owed a\n_duty_ to the great God whom they could not see, by continual belief that\nHe loved them, and was guiding and leading them through every thing which\nhappened, good or ill.\n\nThis is faith in God, by which alone we, or any man, can live\nworthily,\u2014by which these old heroes lived. We read, in the twelfth\nchapter of Hebrews, that it was by faith these elders obtained a good\nreport; and the whole history of the Old-Testament saints is the history\nof God speaking to the hearts of one man after another, teaching them\neach more and more about Himself, and the history also of these men\nlistening to the voice of God in their hearts, and _believing_ that\nvoice, and acting faithfully upon it, into whatever strange circumstances\nor deeds it might lead them. \u201cBy faith,\u201d we read in this same\nchapter,\u2014\u201cby faith Noah, being warned of God, prepared an ark to the\nsaving of his house, and became heir of the righteousness which is by\nfaith.\u201d\n\nNow, to understand this last sentence, you must remember that Noah was\nnot under the law of Moses. St. Paul has a whole chapter (the third\nchapter of Galatians) to shew that these old saints had nothing to do\nwith Moses\u2019 law any more than we have, that it was given to the Jews many\nhundred years afterwards. So these histories of the Old-Testament saints\nare, in fact, histories of men who conquered by faith\u2014histories of the\npower which faith in God has to conquer temptation, and doubt, and false\nappearances, and fear, and danger, and all which besets us and keeps us\ndown from being free and holy, and children of the day, walking\ncheerfully forward on our heavenward road in the light of our Father\u2019s\nloving smile.\n\nNoah, we read, \u201cwas a just man, and perfect in his generations;\u201d and why?\nBecause he was a faithful man\u2014faithful to God, as it is written, \u201cThe\njust shall live by his faith;\u201d not by trusting in what he does himself,\nin his own works or deservings, but trusting in God who made him,\nbelieving that God is perfectly righteous, perfectly wise, perfectly\nloving; and that, because He is perfectly loving, He will accept and save\nsinful man when He sees in sinful man the earnest wish to be His\nfaithful, obedient servant, and to give himself up to the rule and\nguidance of God. This, then, was Noah\u2019s justice in God\u2019s sight, as it\nwas Abraham\u2019s. They believed God, and so became heirs of the\nrighteousness which is by faith; not their own righteousness, not growing\nout of their own character, but given them by God, who puts His righteous\nSpirit into those who trust in Him.\n\nBut, moreover, we read that Noah \u201cwas perfect in his generations;\u201d that\nis, he was perfect in all the relations and duties of life,\u2014a good son, a\ngood husband, a good father: these were the fruits of his faith. He\nbelieved that the unseen God had given him these ties, had given him his\nparents, his children, and that to love them was to love God, to do his\nduty to them was to do his duty to God. This was part of his walking\nwith God, continually under his great Taskmaster\u2019s eye,\u2014walking about his\ndaily business with the belief that a great loving Father was above him,\nwhatever he did; ready to strengthen, and guide, and bless him if he did\nwell, ready to avenge Himself on him if he did ill. These were the\nfruits of Noah\u2019s faith.\n\nBut you may think this nothing very wonderful. Many a man in England\ndoes this every day, and yet no one ever hears of him; he attends to all\nhis family ties, doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God,\nlike one who knows he is redeemed by Christ\u2019s blood; he lives, he dies,\nhe is buried, and out of his own parish his name is never known; while\nNoah has earned for himself a worldwide fame; for four thousand years his\nname has been spreading over the whole earth as one of the greatest men\nwho ever lived. Mighty nations have worshipped Noah as a God; many\nheathen nations worship him under strange and confused names and\ntraditions to this day; and the wisest and holiest men among Christians\nnow reverence Noah, write of him, preach on him, thank God for him, look\nup to him as, next to Abraham, their greatest example in the Old\nTestament.\n\nWell, my friends, to understand what made Noah so great, we must\nunderstand in what times Noah lived. \u201cThe wickedness of men was great in\nthe earth in those days, and every imagination of the thoughts of their\nheart was only evil continually, and the earth was filled with violence\nthrough them.\u201d And we must remember that the wickedness of men before\nthe flood was not outwardly like wickedness now; it was not petty, mean,\ncontemptible wickedness of silly and stupid men, such as could be\ndespised and laughed down; it was like the wickedness of fallen angels.\nMen were then strong and beautiful, cunning and active, to a degree of\nwhich we can form no conception. Their enormous length of life (six,\nseven, and eight hundred years commonly) must have given them an\nexperience and daring far beyond any man in these days. Their bodily\nsize and strength were in many cases enormous. We read that \u201cthere were\ngiants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of\nGod came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them,\nthe same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.\u201d Their\npowers of invention seem to have been proportionably great. We read, in\nthe fourth chapter of Genesis, how, within a few years after Adam was\ndriven out of Paradise, they had learned to build cities, to tame the\nwild beasts, and live upon their milk and flesh; that they had invented\nall sorts of music and musical instruments; that they had discovered the\nart of working in metals. We read among them of Tubal-Cain, an\ninstructor of every workman in brass and iron; and the old traditions in\nthe East, where these men dwelt, are full of strange and awful tales of\ntheir power.\n\nAgain, we must remember that there was no law in Noah\u2019s days before the\nflood, no Bible to guide them, no constitutions and acts of parliament to\nbind men in the beaten track by the awful majesty of law, whether they\nwill or no, as we have.\n\nThis is the picture which the Bible gives us of the old world before the\nflood\u2014a world of men mighty in body and mind, fierce and busy, conquering\nthe world round them, in continual war and turmoil; with all the wild\npassions of youth, and yet all the cunning and experience of enormous old\nage; with the strength and the courage of young men to carry out the\niniquity of old ones; every one guided only by self-will, having cast off\nGod and conscience, and doing every man that which was right in the sight\nof his own eyes. And amidst all this, while men, as wise, as old, as\nstrong, as great as himself, whirled away round him in this raging sea of\nsin, Noah was stedfast; he, at least, knew his way,\u2014\u201che walked with God,\na just man, and perfect in his generations.\u201d\n\nTo Noah, living in such a world as this, among temptation, and violence,\nand insult, no doubt, there came this command from God: \u201cThe end of all\nflesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through\nthem, and I will destroy them with the earth. And behold I, even I, do\nbring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is\nthe breath of life; but with thee will I establish my covenant, and thou\nshalt make thee an ark of wood after the fashion which I tell thee; and\nthou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy family, and of every living\nthing, two of every sort, male and female, shalt thou bring into the ark,\nand keep them alive with thee; and take thou of all food that is eaten\ninto the ark, for thee and for them.\u201d What a message, my friends! If we\nwish to see a little of the greatness of Noah\u2019s faith, conceive such a\nmessage coming from God to one of us! Should we believe it\u2014much less act\nupon it? But _Noah_ believed God, says the Scripture; and \u201caccording as\nGod commanded him, so did he.\u201d Now, in whatever way this command came\nfrom God to Noah, it is equally wonderful. Some of you, perhaps, will\nsay in your hearts, \u2018No! when God spoke to him, how could he help obeying\nHim?\u2019 But, my friends, ask yourselves seriously,\u2014for, believe me, it is\na most important question for the soul and inner life of you and me, and\nevery man\u2014how did Noah know that it was God who spoke to him? It is easy\nto say God appeared to him; but no man hath seen God at any time. It is\neasy, again, to say that an angel appeared to him, or that God appeared\nto him in the form of a man; but still the same question is left to be\nanswered, how did he know that this appearance came from God, and that\nits words were true? Why should not Noah have said, \u2018This was an evil\nspirit which appeared to me, trying to frighten and ruin me, and stir up\nall my neighbours to mock me, perhaps to murder me?\u2019 Or, again; suppose\nthat you or I saw some glorious apparition this day, which told us on\nsuch and such a day such and such a town will be destroyed, what should\n_we_ think of it? Should we not say, I must have been dreaming\u2014I must\nhave been ill, and so my brain and eyes must have been disordered, and\ntreat the whole thing as a mere fancy of ill-health; now why did not Noah\ndo the same?\n\nWhy do I say this? To shew you, my friends, that it is not apparitions\nand visions which can make a man believe. As it is written, \u201cIf they\nbelieve not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe though one\nrose from the dead.\u201d No; a man must have faith in his heart already. A\nman must first be accustomed to discern right from wrong\u2014to listen to and\nto obey the voice of God within him; _that_ word of God of which it is\nsaid, \u201cthe word is nigh thee, in thy heart, and in thy mind,\u201d before he\ncan hear God\u2019s word from without; else he will only explain away\nmiracles, and call visions and apparitions sick men\u2019s dreams.\n\nBut there was something yet more wonderful and divine in Noah\u2019s faith,\u2014I\nmean his patience. He knew that a flood was to come\u2014he set to work in\nfaith to build his ark\u2014and that ark was in building for one hundred and\ntwenty years,\u2014one hundred and twenty years! It seems at first past all\nbelief. For all that time he built; and all the while the world went on\njust as usual; and, before he had finished, old men had died, and\nchildren grown into years; and great cities had sprung up perhaps where\nthere was not a cottage before; and trees which were but a yard high when\nthat ark was begun had grown into mighty forest-timber; and men had\nmultiplied and spread, and yet Noah built and built on stedfastly,\nbelieving that what God had said would surely one day or other come to\npass. For one hundred and twenty years he saw the world go on as usual,\nand yet he never forgot that it was a doomed world. He endured the\nlaughter and mockery of all his neighbours, and every fresh child who was\nborn grew up to laugh at the foolish old man who had been toiling for a\nhundred years past on his mad scheme, as they thought it; and yet Noah\nnever lost faith, and he never lost _love_ either\u2014for all those years, we\nread, he preached righteousness to the very men who mocked him, and\npreached in vain\u2014one hundred and twenty years he warned those sinners of\nGod\u2019s wrath, of righteousness and judgment to come, and no man listened\nto him! That, I believe, must have been, after all, the hardest of all\nhis trials.\n\nAnd, doubtless, Noah had his inward temptation many a time; no doubt he\nwas ready now and then to believe God\u2019s message all a dream\u2014to laugh at\nhimself for his fears of a flood which seemed never coming, but in his\nheart was \u201cthe still small voice\u201d of God, warning him that God was not a\nman that he should lie, or repent, or deceive those who walked faithfully\nwith him; and around him he saw men growing and growing in iniquity,\nfilling up the cup of their own damnation; and he said to himself,\n\u2018Verily there is a God who judgeth the earth\u2014for all this a reckoning day\nwill surely come;\u2019 and he worked stedfastly on, and the ark was finished.\nAnd then at last there came a second call from God, \u201cCome thou and all\nthy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this\ngeneration. Yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth,\nand every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the\nearth.\u201d And Noah entered into the ark, and seven days he waited; and\nlouder than ever laughed the scoffers round him, at the old man and his\nfamily shut into his ark safe on dry land, while day and night went on as\nquietly as ever, and the world ran its usual round; for seven days more\ntheir mad game lasted\u2014they ate, they drank, they married, they gave in\nmarriage, they planted, they builded; and on the seventh day it came\u2014the\nrain fell day after day, and week after week\u2014and the windows of heaven\nwere opened, and the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the\nflood arose, and swept them all away!\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XI.\nTHE NOACHIC COVENANT.\n\n\n GEN. ix. 8, 9.\n\n \u201cAnd God spake unto Noah, and his sons with him, saying, And I,\n behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after\n you.\u201d\n\nIN my last sermon on Noah I spoke of the flood and of Noah\u2019s faith before\nthe flood; I now go on to speak of the covenant which God made with Noah\nafter the flood. Now, Noah stood on that newly-dried earth as the head\nof mankind; he and his family, in all eight souls, saved by God\u2019s mercy\nfrom the general ruin, were the only human beings left alive, and had\nlaid on them the wonderful and glorious duty of renewing the race of man,\nand replenishing the vast world around them. From that little knot of\nhuman beings were to spring all the nations of the earth.\n\nAnd because this calling and destiny of theirs was a great and\nall-important one\u2014because so much of the happiness or misery of the new\nrace of mankind depended on the teaching which they would get from their\nforefathers, the sons of Noah, therefore God thought fit to make with\nNoah and his sons a solemn covenant, as soon as they came out of the ark.\n\nLet us solemnly consider this covenant, for it stands good now as much as\never. God made it \u201cwith Noah, and his seed after him,\u201d for perpetual\ngenerations. And _we_ are the seed of Noah; every man, woman, and child\nof us here were in the loins of Noah when the great absolute God gave him\nthat pledge and promise. We must earnestly consider that covenant, for\nin it lies the very ground and meaning of man\u2019s life and business on this\nearth.\n\n\u201cAnd God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful and\nmultiply, and replenish the earth; and the fear of you and the dread of\nyou shall be upon every living creature. Into your hand they are\ndelivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as\nthe green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life\nthereof, which is the blood thereof shall ye not eat. And surely your\nblood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I\nrequire it, and at the hand of men; at the hand of every man\u2019s brother\nwill I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man\u2019s blood, by man shall\nhis blood be shed; for in the image of God made He man.\u201d\n\nNow, to understand this covenant, consider what thoughts would have been\nlikely to grow up in the mind of Noah\u2019s children after the flood. Would\nthey not have been something of this kind: \u2018God does not love men; He has\ndrowned all but us, and we are men of like passions with the world who\nperished, may we not expect the like ruin at any moment? Then what use\nto plough and sow, and build and plant, and work for those who shall come\nafter us?\u2019 \u2018Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.\u2019\n\nAnd again, they would have been ready to say, \u2018This God, whom our\nforefather Noah said sent floods, we cannot see Him; but the floods\nthemselves we can see. All these clouds and tempests, lightning, sun,\nand stars, are we _stronger_ than them? No! They may crush us, drown\nus, strike us dead at any moment. They seem, too, to go by certain\nwonderful rules and laws; perhaps they have a will and understanding in\nthem. Instead of praying to a God whom we never saw, why not pray to the\nthunderclouds not to strike us dead, and to the seas and rivers not to\nsweep us away? For this great, wonderful, awful world in which we are,\nhowever beautiful may be its flowers, and its fruits, and its sunshine,\nthere is no trusting it; we are sitting upon a painted sepulchre, a\nbeautiful monster, a gulf of flood and fire, which may burst up any\nmoment, and sweep us away, as it did our forefathers.\u2019\n\nAgain, Noah\u2019s children would have begun to say, \u2018These beasts here round\nus, they are so many of them larger than us, stronger than us, able to\ntear us to atoms, eat us up as they would eat a lamb. They are\nself-sufficient, too; they want no clothes, nor houses, nor fire, like us\npoor, weak, naked, soft human creatures. They can run faster than we,\nsee farther than we; their scent, too, what a wonderful, mysterious power\nthat is, like a miracle to us! And, besides all their cunning ways of\ngetting food and building nests, they never do _wrong_; they never do\nhorrible things contrary to their nature; they all abide as God has made\nthem, obeying the law of their kind. Are not these beasts, then, much\nwiser and better than we? We will honour them, and pray to them not to\ndevour us\u2014to make us cunning and powerful as they are themselves. And if\nthey are no better than us, surely they are no worse than us. After all,\nwhat difference is there between a man and a beast? The flood which\ndrowned the beasts drowned the men too. A beast is flesh and blood, what\nmore is a man? If you kill him, he dies, just as a beast dies; and why\nshould not a man\u2019s carcase be just as good to eat as a beast\u2019s, and\nbetter?\u2019 And so there would have been a free opening at once into all\nthe horrors of cannibalism!\n\nAgain, Noah\u2019s descendants would have said, \u2018Our forefathers offered\nsacrifices to the unseen God, as a sign that all they had belonged to\nHim, and that they had forfeited their own souls by sin, and were\ntherefore ready to give up the most precious things they had\u2014their\ncattle, as a sign that they owed all to that very God whom they had\noffended. But are not human creatures much more precious than cattle?\nWill it not be a much greater sign of repentance and willingness to give\nup all to God if we offer Him the best things which we have\u2014human\ncreatures? If we kill and sacrifice to Him our most beautiful and\ninnocent things\u2014little children\u2014noble young men\u2014beautiful young girls?\u2019\n\nMy friends, these are very strange and shocking thoughts, but they have\nbeen in the hearts and minds of all nations. The heathens do such things\nnow. Our own forefathers used to do such things once; they were tempted\nto worship the sun and the moon, and the rivers, and the thunder, and to\nlook with superstitious terror at the bears, and the wolves, and the\nsnakes, round them, and to kill their young children and maidens, and\noffer them up as sacrifices to the dark powers of this world, which they\nthought were ready to swallow them up. And God is my witness, my\nfriends, when one goes through some parts of England now, and sees the\nmine-children and factory-children, and all the sin and misery, and the\npeople wearying themselves in the fire for very vanity, we seem not to be\nso very far from the same dark superstition now, though we may call it by\na different name. England has been sacrificing her sons and her\ndaughters to the devil of covetousness of late years, just as much as our\nforefathers offered theirs to the devil of selfish and cowardly\nsuperstition.\n\nBut see, now, how this covenant which God made with Noah was intended\njust to remedy every one of those temptations which I just mentioned,\ninto which Noah\u2019s children\u2019s children would have been certain to fall,\nand into which so many of them did fall. They might have become\nreckless, I said, from fear of a flood at any moment. God promises\nthem\u2014and confirms it with the sign of the rainbow\u2014never again to destroy\nthe earth by water. They would have been likely to take to praying to\nthe rain and the thunder, the sun and the stars; God declares in this\ncovenant that it is _He_ alone who sends the rain and thunder, that He\nbrings the clouds over the earth, that He rules the great, awful world;\nthat men are to look up and believe in God as a loving and thinking\n_person_, who has a will of His own, and that a faithful, and true, and\nloving, and merciful will; that their lives and safety depend not on\nblind chance, or the stern necessity of certain laws of nature, but on\nthe covenant of an almighty and all-loving person.\n\nAgain, I said, that Noah\u2019s sons would have been ready to fear, and, at\nlast, to worship the dumb beasts; God\u2019s covenant says, \u201cNo; these beasts\nare not your equals\u2014they are your slaves\u2014you may freely kill them for\nyour food; the fear of you shall be upon them. The huge elephant and the\nswift horse shall become your obedient servants; the lion and the tiger\nshall tremble and flee before you. Only claim your rights as men;\nbelieve that the invisible God who made the earth is your strength and\nyour protector, and that He to whom the earth belongs has made you lords\nof the earth and all that therein is. But,\u201d said God\u2019s covenant to\nNoah\u2019s sons, \u201cyou did not _make_ these beasts\u2014you did not give them life,\ntherefore I forbid you to eat their blood wherein their life lies; that\nyou may never forget that all the power you have over these beasts was\ngiven you by God, who made and preserves that wonderful, mysterious, holy\nthing called life, which you can never imitate.\u201d Again, I said, that\nNoah\u2019s children, having been accustomed to the violence and bloodshed on\nthe earth before the flood, might hold man\u2019s life cheap; that, having\nseen in the flood men perish just like the beasts around them, they might\nhave begun to think that man\u2019s life was not more precious than the\nbeasts\u2019. They might have all gone on at last, as some of them did, to\nthose horrors of cannibalism and human sacrifice of which I just now\nspoke. Now, here, again comes in God\u2019s covenant, \u201cSurely the blood of\nyour lives will I require. At the hand of every beast will I require it,\nand at the hand of every man\u2019s brother will I require it. Whoso sheddeth\nman\u2019s blood by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made\nHe man.\u201d This, then, is the covenant which God made with Noah for\nperpetual generations, and therefore with us, the children of Noah. In\nthis covenant you see certain truths come out into light; some, of which\nyou read nothing before in the Bible, and other truths which, though they\nwere given to Adam, yet had been utterly lost sight of before the flood.\nThis has been God\u2019s method, we find from the Bible, ever since the\ncreation,\u2014to lead man step by step up into more and more light, up to\nthis very day, and to make each sin and each madness of men an occasion\nfor revealing to Him more and more of truth and of the living God. And\nso each and every chapter in the Bible is built upon all that has gone\nbefore it; and he that neglects to understand what has gone before will\nnever come to the understanding of what follows after. Why do I say\nthis? Because men are continually picking out those scraps of the Bible\nwhich suit their own fancy, and pinning their whole faith on them, and\ntrying to make them serve to explain every thing in heaven and earth;\nwhereas no man can understand the Epistles unless he first understand the\nGospels. No man will understand the New Testament unless he first\nunderstands the pith and marrow of the Old. No man will understand the\nPsalms and the Prophets unless he first understands the first ten\nchapters of Genesis; and, lastly, no one will ever understand any thing\nabout the Bible at all, who, instead of taking it simply as it is\nwritten, is always trying to twist it into proofs of his own favourite\ndoctrines, and make Abraham a high Calvinist, or Noah a member of the\nChurch of England. Why do I say this? To make you all think seriously\nthat this covenant on which I have been preaching is your covenant; that\nas sure as the rainbow stands in heaven, as sure as you and I are sprung\nout of the loins of Noah, so surely this covenant which binds us is part\nof our Christian covenant, and woe to us if we break it!\n\nThis covenant tells us that we are made in God\u2019s likeness, and,\ntherefore, that all sin is unworthy of us and unnatural to us. It tells\nus that God means us bravely and industriously to subdue the earth and\nthe living things upon it; that we are to be the masters of the pleasant\nthings about us, and not their slaves, as sots and idlers are; that we\nare stewards and tenants of this world for the great God who made it, to\nwhom we are to look up in confidence for help and protection. It tells\nus that our family relationships, the blessed duties of a husband and a\nfather, are sacred things; that God has created them, that the great God\nof heaven Himself respects them, that the covenant which He makes with\nthe father He makes with the children; that He commands marriage, and\nthat He blesses it with fruitfulness; that it is He who has told us \u201cBe\nfruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth;\u201d that the tie of\nbrotherhood is His making also; that _He_ will require the blood of the\nmurdered man _at his brother\u2019s hand_; that a man\u2019s brothers, his nearest\nrelations, are bound to protect and right him if he is injured; so that\nwe all are to be, in the deepest sense of the word, what Cain refused to\nbe, our _brothers\u2019 keepers_, and each member of a family is more or less\nanswerable for the welfare and safety of all his relations. Herein lies\nthe ground of all religion and of all society\u2014in the covenant which God\nmade with Noah; and just as it is in vain for a man to pretend to be a\nscholar when he does not even know his letters, so it is mockery for a\nman to pretend to be a converted Christian man who knows not even so much\nas was commanded to Noah and his sons. He who has not learnt to love,\nhonour, and succour his own family\u2014he who has not learnt to work in\nhonest and manful industry\u2014he who has not learnt to look beyond this\nearth, and its chance, and its customs, and its glittering outside, and\nsee and trust in a great, wise, loving God, by whose will every tree\ngrows and every shower falls, what is Christianity to him? He has to\nlearn the first principles which were delivered to Noah, and which not\neven the heathen and the savage have utterly forgotten.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XII.\nABRAHAM\u2019S FAITH.\n\n\n HEBREWS, xi. 9, 10.\n\n \u201cBy faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange\n country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with\n him of the same promise. For he looked for a city, which hath\n foundations, whose builder and maker is God.\u201d\n\nIN the last sermon which I preached in this church, I said that the Bible\nis the history of God\u2019s ways with mankind, how He has schooled and\nbrought them up until the coming of Christ; that if we read the Bible\nhistories, one after another, in the same order in which God has put them\nin the Bible, we shall see that they are all regular steps in a line,\nthat each fresh story depends on the story which went before it; and yet,\nin each fresh history, we shall find God telling men something\nnew\u2014something which they did not know before. And that so the whole\nBible, from beginning to end, is one glorious, methodic, and organic tree\nof life, every part growing out of the others and depending on the\nothers, from the root\u2014that foundation, other than which no man can lay,\nwhich is Christ, revealing Himself, though not by name, in that wonderful\nfirst chapter of Genesis,\u2014up to the _fruit_, which is the kingdom of\nChrist, and Gospel of Christ, and the salvation in which we here now\nstand. I told you that the lesson which God has been teaching men in all\nages is faith in God\u2014that the saints of old were just the men who learnt\nthis lesson of faith. Now this, as we all know, was the secret of\nAbraham\u2019s greatness, that he had faith in God to leave his own country at\nGod\u2019s bidding, and become a stranger and a pilgrim on the earth,\nwandering on in full trust that God would give him another country\ninstead of that which he had left\u2014\u201ca city which hath foundations, whose\nbuilder and maker is God.\u201d This was what Abraham looked for. Something\nof what it means we shall see presently.\n\nYou remember the story of the tower of Babel? How certain of Noah\u2019s\nfamily forgot the covenant which God had made with Noah, forgot that God\nhad commanded them to go forth in every direction and fill the earth with\nhuman beings, solemnly promising to protect and bless them, and took on\nthemselves to do the very opposite\u2014set up a kingdom of their own fashion,\nand herded together for selfish safety, instead of going forth to all the\nquarters of the world in a natural way, according to their families, in\ntheir tribes, after their nations, as the eleventh chapter of Genesis\nsays they ought to have done. \u201cLet us build us a city and a tower, and\nmake us a name, lest,\u201d they said, \u201cwe be scattered abroad over the face\nof the whole world.\u201d Here was one act of disobedience to God\u2019s order.\nBut besides this they had fallen into a slavish dread of the powers of\nnature\u2014they were afraid of another flood. They set to to build a tower,\non which they might worship the sun and stars, and the host of heaven,\nand pray to them to send no more floods and tempests. They thus fell\ninto a slavish fear of the powers of nature, as well as into a selfish\nand artificial civilisation. In short, they utterly broke the covenant\nwhich God had made with Noah. But by miraculously confounding their\nlanguage, God drove them forth over the face of the whole earth, and so\nforced them to do that which they ought to have done willingly at first.\n\nNow, we must remember that all this happened in the very country in which\nAbraham lived. He must have heard of it all\u2014for aught we know he had\nseen the tower of Babel. So that, for good or for evil, the whole Babel\nevent must have produced a strong effect on the mind of a thoughtful man\nlike Abraham, and raised many strange questionings in his heart, which\nGod alone could answer for him, _or for us_. Now, what did God mean to\nteach Abraham by calling him out of his country, and telling him, \u201cI will\nmake of thee a great nation?\u201d I think He meant to shew him, for one\nthing, that that Babel plan of society was utterly absurd and accursed,\ncertain to come to naught, and so to lead him on to hope for a city which\nhad foundations, and to see that _its_ builder and maker must be, not the\nselfishness or the ambition of men, but the will, and the wisdom, and\nprovidence of God.\n\nLet us see how God led Abraham on to understand this\u2014to look for a city\nwhich had foundations; in short, to understand what a State and a nation\nmeans and ought to be. First, God taught him that he was not to cling\ncoward-like to the place where he was born, but to go out boldly to\ncolonise and subdue the earth, for the great God of heaven would protect\nand guide him. \u201cGet thee out of thy country and from thy father\u2019s house\nunto a land which I will shew thee. And I will bless them that bless\nthee, and curse them that curse thee.\u201d Again; God taught him what a\nnation was: \u201c_I_ will make of thee a great nation.\u201d As much as to say,\n\u2018Never fancy, as those fools at Babel did, that a nation only means a\ngreat crowd of people\u2014never fancy that men can make themselves into a\nnation just by feeding altogether, and breeding altogether, and fighting\naltogether, as the herds of wild cattle and sheep do, while there is no\nreal union between them.\u2019 For what brought those Babel men together?\nJust what keeps a herd of cattle together\u2014selfishness and fear. Each man\nthought he would be _safer_, forsooth, in company. Each man thought that\nif he was in company, he could use his neighbours\u2019 wits as well as his\nown, and have the benefit of his neighbours\u2019 strength as well as his own.\nAnd that is all true enough; but that does not make a nation.\nSelfishness can join nothing; it may join a set of men for a time, each\nfor his own ends, just as a joint-stock company is made up; but it will\nsoon split them up again. Each man, in a merely selfish community, will\nbegin, after a time, to play on his own account as well as work on his\nown account\u2014to oppress and overreach for his own ends as well as to be\nhonest and benevolent for his own ends, for he will find ill-doing far\neasier, and more natural, in one sense, and a plan that brings in quicker\nprofits, than well-doing; and so this godless, loveless,\nevery-man-for-himself nation, or sham nation rather, this joint-stock\ncompany, in which fools expect that universal selfishness will do the\nwork of universal benevolence, will quarrel and break up, crumble to dust\nagain, as Babel did. \u201cBut,\u201d says God to Abraham, \u201cI will make of thee a\ngreat nation. I make nations, and not they themselves.\u201d So it is, my\nfriends: this is the lesson which God taught Abraham, the lesson which we\nEnglish must learn nowadays over again, or smart for it bitterly\u2014that God\nmakes nations. He is King of kings; \u201cby Him kings reign and princes\ndecree judgment.\u201d He judges all nations: He nurtureth the nations. This\nis throughout the teaching of the Psalms. \u201cIt is He that hath made us,\nand not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture;\u201d\nfor this I take to be the true bearing of that glorious national hymn the\n100th Psalm, and not merely the old truism that men did not create\nthemselves, when it exhorts _all_ nations to praise God because it is He\nthat hath made them nations, and not they themselves. The Psalms set\nforth the Son of God as the King of all nations. In Him, my friends,\u2014in\nHim all the nations of the earth are truly blessed.\n\nHe the Saviour of a few individual souls only? God forbid! To Him _all\npower_ is given in heaven and earth; by Him were all things created,\nwhether in heaven or earth, visible and invisible, whether they be\nthrones or dominions, or principalities or powers;\u2014all national life, all\nforms of government, whether hero-despotisms, republics, or monarchies,\naristocracies of birth, or of wealth, or of talent,\u2014all were created by\nHim and for Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things\n_consist_ and hold together. Every thing or institution on earth which\nhas systematic and organic life in it\u2014by _Him_ it consists\u2014by Him, the\nLife and the Light who lighteneth every man that cometh into the world.\nFrom Him come law, and order, and spiritual energy, and loving\nfellow-feeling, and patriotism, the spirit of wisdom, and understanding,\nand prudence\u2014all, in short, by which a nation consists and holds\ntogether. It is not constitutions, and acts of parliament, and social\ncontracts, and rights of the people, and rights of kings, and so on,\nwhich make us a nation. These are but the effects, and not the\nconsequences, of the national life. _That_ is the one spirit which is\nshed abroad upon a country, whose builder and maker is God, and which\ncomes down from above\u2014comes down from Christ the King of kings, who has\ngiven each nation its peculiar work on this earth, its peculiar\ncircumstances and history to mould and educate it for its work, and its\npeculiar spirit and national character, wherewith to fulfil the destiny\nwhich Christ has appointed for it.\n\nBelieve me, my friends, it takes long years, too, and much training from\nGod and from Christ, the King of kings, to make a nation. Everything\nwhich is most precious and great is also most slow in growing, and so is\na nation. The Scripture compares it everywhere to a tree; and as the\ntree grows, a people must grow, from small beginnings, perhaps from a\nsingle family, increasing on, according to the fixed laws of God\u2019s world,\nfor years and hundreds of years, till it becomes a mighty nation, with\none Lord, one faith, one work, one Spirit.\n\nBut again; God said to Abraham, when He had led him into this far\ncountry, \u201cUnto thy seed will _I give this land_.\u201d This was a great and a\nnew lesson for Abraham, that the earth belonged to that same great\ninvisible God who had promised to guide and protect him, and make him\ninto a nation\u2014that this same God gave the earth to whomsoever He would,\nand allotted to each people their proper portion of it. \u201cHe (said St.\nPaul on the Areopagus) hath determined the times before appointed for all\nnations, and the bounds of their habitation, that they may seek after the\nLord and find Him.\u201d Ah! this must have been a strange and a new feeling\nto Abraham; but, stranger still, though God had given him this land, he\nwas not to take possession of a single foot of it; the land was already\nin the hands of a different nation, the people of Canaan; and Abraham was\nto go wandering about a sojourner, as the text says, in this very land of\npromise which God had given him, without ever taking possession of his\nown, simply because it belonged to others already. How this must have\ntaught Abraham that the rights of property were sacred things\u2014things\nappointed by God; that it was an awful and a heinous sin to make wanton\nwar on other people, to drive them out and take possession of their land;\nthat it was not mere force or mere fancy which gave men a right to a\ncountry, but the providence of Almighty God! Now Abraham needed this\nwarning, for the men of Babel seem from the first to have gone on the\nplan of driving out and conquering the tribes round them. They seem to\nhave set up their city partly from ambition. \u201cLet us make us a name,\u201d\nthey said, meaning, \u2018Let us make ourselves famous and terrible to all the\npeople around us, that we may subdue them.\u2019 And we read of Nimrod, who\nwas their first king and the founder of Babel, that he was a mighty\nhunter before the Lord, that is, as most learned men explain it, a mighty\nconqueror and tyrant in defiance of God and His laws, as the poet says of\nhim,\n\n \u201cA mighty hunter, and his game was man.\u201d\n\nThe Jews, indeed, have an old tradition that Nimrod cast Abraham into a\nfiery furnace for refusing to worship the host of heaven with him. The\nstory is very likely untrue, but still it is of use in shewing what sort\nof reputation Nimrod left behind him in his own part of the world. We\nmay thus see that Abraham would need warning against these habits of\nviolence, tyranny, and plunder, into which the men of Babel and other\ntribes were falling. And this was what God meant to teach him by keeping\nhim a stranger and a pilgrim in the very land which God had promised to\nhim for his own. Thus Abraham learnt respect for the rights and\nproperties of his neighbours; thus he learnt to look up in faith to God,\nnot only as his patron and protector, but as the lord and absolute owner\nof the soil on which he stood.\n\nNow in the 14th chapter of Genesis there is an account of Abraham\u2019s being\ncalled on to put in practice what he had learnt, and, by doing so,\nlearning a fresh lesson. We read of four kings making war against five\nkings, against Chedorlaomer, king of Elam or Persia, who had been\nfollowing the ways of Nimrod and the men of Babel, and conquering these\nforeign kings and making them serve him. We read of Chedorlaomer and\nfour other kings coming down and wantonly ravaging and destroying other\ncountries, besides the five kings who had rebelled against them, and at\nlast carrying off captive the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Lot,\nAbraham\u2019s nephew. We read then how Abraham armed his trained servants,\nborn in his own house, three hundred and eighteen men, and pursued after\nthese tyrants and plunderers, and with his small force completely\noverthrew that great army. Now that was a sign and a lesson to Abraham,\nas much as to say, \u2018See the fruits of having the great God of heaven and\nearth for your protector and your guide,\u2014see the fruits of having men\nround you, not hirelings, keeping in your company just to see what they\ncan get by it, but born in your own house, who love and trust you, whom\nyou can love and trust,\u2014see how the favour of God, and reverence for\nthose family ties and duties which He has appointed, make you and your\nlittle band of faithful men superior to these great mobs of selfish,\ngodless, unjust robbers,\u2014see how hundreds of these slaves ran away before\none man, who feels that he is a member of a family, and has a just cause\nfor fighting, and that God and his brethren are with him.\u2019\n\nHere, you see, was another hint to Abraham of what it was and who it was\nthat made a great nation.\n\nAnd now some of you may say, \u2018This is a strange sermon. You have as yet\nsaid nothing of Christ, nothing of the Holy Spirit, nothing of grace,\nredemption, sanctification. What kind of sermon is this?\u2019\n\nMy friends, do not be too sure that I have not been preaching Christ to\nyou, and Christ\u2019s Spirit to you, and Christ\u2019s redemption too, most truly\nin this sermon, although I have mentioned none of them by name. There\nare times for ornamenting the house, there are times for repairing the\nwall, there are times, too, for thoroughly examining the foundation,\nbecause, if that be not sound, it is little matter what fine work is\nbuilt up upon it; and there are times when, as David says, the\nfoundations of the earth are out of course, when men have forgotten sadly\nthe very first principles of society and religion.\n\nAnd, surely, men are doing so in these days; men are forgetting that\nother foundation can no man lay save that which _is_ laid, which is\nChrist; they laugh at the thought of a city, that is, a state and form of\ngovernment, \u201cnot made with hands, eternal in the heavens;\u201d they have\nforgotten that St. Paul tells them in the Hebrews that we _have_ \u201ca city\nwhich hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God,\u201d a kingdom which\ncannot be moved. Yes, men who call themselves learned and worldly wise,\nand good men too, alas! who fancy that they are preaching God\u2019s gospel,\ngo about and tell men, \u2018The men of Babel were right after all. What have\nnations to do with God and religion? Nations are merely earthly, carnal\nthings, that were only invented by sinful men themselves, to preserve\ntheir bodies and goods, and make trading easy. Religion has only to do\nwith a man\u2019s private opinions, his single soul; the government has\nnothing to do with the Church: a Christian has nothing to do with\npolitics.\u2019 And so these men most unwittingly open a door to all sorts of\ncovetousness and meanness in the nation, and all sorts of trickery and\ncowardice in the government. Tell a man that his business has nothing to\ndo with God, and you cannot wonder if he acts without thinking of God.\nIf you tell a nation that it is selfishness which makes it prosperous, of\ncourse you must expect it to be selfish. If you tell us Englishmen that\nthe duties of a citizen are not duties to God, but only duties to the\nconstable and the tax-gatherer, what wonder if men believe you and become\nundutiful to God in their citizenship? No, my friends, once for all, as\nsure as God made Abraham a great nation, so if we English are a great\nnation, God has made us so\u2014as sure as God gave Abraham the land of Canaan\nfor his possession, so did _He_ give us this land of England, when He\nbrought our Saxon forefathers out of the wild barren north, and drove out\nbefore them nations greater and mightier than they, and gave them great\nand goodly cities which they builded not, and wells digged which they\ndigged not, farms and gardens which they planted not, that we too might\nfear the Lord our God, and serve Him, and swear by His name;\u2014as sure as\nHe commanded Abraham to respect the property of his neighbours, so has He\ncommanded us;\u2014as sure as God taught Abraham that the nation which was to\ngrow from him owed a duty to God, and could be only strong by faith in\nGod, so it is with us: we, English people, owe a duty to God, and are to\ndeal among ourselves, and with foreign countries, by faith in God, and in\nthe fear of God, \u201cseeking first the kingdom of God and His\nrighteousness,\u201d sure that then all other things\u2014victory, health,\ncommerce, art, and science\u2014will be added to us, as the first Lesson says.\nFor this is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the nations,\nwhich shall say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding\npeople! For what nation is grown so great, that hath statutes and\njudgments so righteous as these laws, this gospel, which God sets before\nus day by day?\u2014us, Englishmen!\n\nAnd I say that these are proper thoughts for this place. This is not a\nmere preaching-house, where you may learn every man to save his own soul;\nthis is a far nobler place; this building belongs to the National Church\nof England, and we worship here, not merely as men, but as men of\nEngland, citizens of a Christian country, come here to learn not merely\nhow to save ourselves, but how to help towards the saving of our\nfamilies, our parish, and our nation; and therefore we must know what a\ncountry and a nation mean, and what is the meaning of that glorious and\ndivine word, \u201ca citizen;\u201d that by learning what it is to be a citizen of\nEngland, we may go on to learn fully what it is to be a citizen of the\nkingdom of God.\n\nFor this is part of the whole counsel of God, which He reveals in His\nHoly Bible; and this also we must not, and dare not, shun declaring in\nthese days.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XIII.\nABRAHAM\u2019S OBEDIENCE.\n\n\n HEBREWS, xi. 17\u201319.\n\n \u201cBy faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that\n had received the promises offered up his only-begotten son, of whom\n it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that\n God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he\n received him in a figure.\u201d\n\nIN this chapter we come to the crowning point of Abraham\u2019s history, the\nhighest step and perfection of his faith; beyond which it seems as if\nman\u2019s trust in God could no further go.\n\nYou know, most of you, doubtless, that Isaac, Abraham\u2019s son, was come to\nhim out of the common course of nature\u2014when he and his wife, Sarah, were\nof an age which seemed to make all chance of a family utterly hopeless.\nYou remember how God promised Abraham that this boy should be born to him\nat a certain time, when He appeared to him on the plains of Mamre, in\nthat most solemn and deep-meaning vision of which I spoke to you last\nSunday. You remember, too, no doubt, most of you, how God had promised\nAbraham again and again, that in his seed, his children, all the nations\nof the earth should be blessed; so that all Abraham\u2019s hopes were wrapped\nup in this boy Isaac; he was his only son, whom he loved; he was the\nchild of his old age, his glory and his joy; he was the child of God\u2019s\npromises. Every time Abraham looked at him he felt that Isaac was a\nwonderful child: that God had a great work for him to do; that from that\nsingle boy a great nation was to spring, as many in multitude as the\nstars in the sky, or the sand on the sea-shore, for the great Almighty\nGod had said it. And he knew, too, that from that boy, who was growing\nup by him in his tent, all the nations in the earth should be blessed: so\nthat Isaac, his son, was to Abraham a daily sacrament, as I may say, a\nsign and a pledge that God was with him, and would be true to him; that\nas surely as God had wonderfully and beyond all hope given him that son,\nso wonderfully and beyond all hope He would fulfil all His other\npromises. Conceive, then, if you can, what Abraham\u2019s astonishment, and\ndoubt, and terror, and misery, must have been at such a message as this\nfrom the very God who had given Isaac to him: \u201cAnd it came to pass after\nthese things that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and\nhe said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only\nson Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and\noffer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I\nwill tell thee of.\u201d\n\nWhat a storm of doubt it must have raised in Abraham\u2019s mind! How unable\nhe must have been to say whether that message came from a good or bad\nspirit, or commanded him to do a good action or a bad one; that the same\nGod who had said, \u201cWhoso sheddeth man\u2019s blood, by man shall his blood be\nshed;\u201d who had forbidden murder as the very highest of crimes, should\ncommand him to shed the blood of his own son; that the same God who had\npromised him that in Isaac all the nations of the earth should be\nblessed, should command him to put to death that very son upon whom all\nhis hopes depended! Fearful, indeed, must have been the struggle in\nAbraham\u2019s mind, but the good and the right thought conquered at last.\nHis feeling was, no doubt, \u2018This God who has blessed me so long, who has\nguided me so long, whom I have obeyed so long, shall I not trust Him a\nlittle further yet? how can I believe that He will do wrong? how can I\nbelieve that He will lead me wrong? If it is really wrong that I should\nkill my son, He will not let me do it: if it really is His will that I\nshould kill my son, _I will do it_. Whatever He says must be right; it\nis agony and misery to me, but what of that? Do I not owe Him a thousand\ndaily and hourly blessings? Has He not led me hither, preserved me,\nguided me, taught me the knowledge of Himself,\u2014chosen me to be the father\nof a great nation? Do I not owe Him everything? and shall I not bear\nthis sharp sorrow for His sake? I know, too, that if Isaac dies, all my\nhope, all my joy, will die with him; that I shall have nothing left to\nlook for, nothing left to work for in this world. Nothing! shall I not\nhave God left to me? When Isaac is dead will the Lord die? will the Lord\nchange? will He grow weak?\u2014Never! Years ago did He declare to me that He\nwas the Almighty God; I will believe that He will be always Almighty; I\nwill believe that though I kill my son, my son will be still in God\u2019s\nhands, and I shall be still in God\u2019s hands, and that God is able to raise\nhim again, even from the dead. God can give him back to me, and if He\nwill _not_ give him back to me, He can fulfil His promises in a thousand\nother ways. Ay, and He will fulfil His promises, for in Him is neither\ndeceit, nor fickleness, nor weakness, nor unrighteousness of any kind;\nand, come what will, I will believe His promise and I will obey His\nwill.\u2019\n\nSome such thoughts as these, I suppose, passed through Abraham\u2019s mind.\nHe could not have had a man\u2019s heart in him indeed, if not only those\nthoughts, but ten thousand more, sadder, and stranger, and more pitiful\nthan my weak brain can imagine, did not sweep like a storm through his\nsoul at that last and terrible temptation, but the Bible tells us nothing\nof them: why should the Bible tell us anything of them? the Bible sets\nforth Abraham as the faithful man, and therefore it simply tells us of\nhis faith, without telling us of his doubts and struggles before he\nsettled down into faith. It tells us, as it were, not how often the wind\nshifted and twisted about during the tempest, but in what quarter the\nwind settled when the tempest was over, and it began to blow steadily,\nand fixedly, and gently, and all was bright, and mild, and still in\nAbraham\u2019s bosom again, just as a man\u2019s mind will be bright, and gentle,\nand calm, even at the moment he is going to certain death or fearful\nmisery, if he does but know that his suffering is his duty, and that his\ntrial is his heavenly Father\u2019s will: and so all we read in the\nOld-Testament account is simply, \u201cAnd Abraham rose up early in the\nmorning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and\nIsaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt-offering, and rose up,\nand went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day\nAbraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said\nunto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go\nyonder and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of\nthe burnt-offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son: and he took the fire\nin his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac\nspake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father, and he said, Here am\nI, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the\nlamb for a burnt-offering? and Abraham said, My son, God will provide\nHimself a lamb for a burnt-offering. So they went both of them together.\nAnd they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built\nan altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and\nlaid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his\nhand, and took the knife to slay his son.\u201d\n\nReally if one is to consider the whole circumstances of Abraham\u2019s trials,\nthey seem to have been infinite, more than mortal man could bear; more\nthan he could have borne, no doubt, if the same God who tried had not\nrewarded his strength of mind by strengthening him still more, and\nrewarded his faith by increasing his faith; when we consider the struggle\nhe must have had to keep the dreadful secret from the young man\u2019s mother,\nthe tremendous effort of controlling himself, the long and frightful\njourney, the necessity, and yet the difficulty he seems to have felt of\nkeeping the truth from his son, and yet of telling him the truth, which\nhe did in those wonderful words, \u201cGod shall provide Himself a lamb for a\nburnt-offering\u201d (on which I shall have occasion to speak presently); and,\nlast and worst of all, the perfect obedience and submission of his son;\nfor Isaac was not a child then, he was a young man of nearly thirty years\nof age; strong and able enough, no doubt, to have resisted his aged\nfather, if he had chosen. But the very excellence of Isaac seems to have\nbeen, that he did not resist, that he shewed the same perfect trust and\nobedience to Abraham that Abraham did towards God; for he was led \u201cas a\nlamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he\nopened not his mouth,\u201d for we read, \u201cAbraham bound Isaac his son and laid\nhim on the wood.\u201d Surely that was the bitterest pang of all, to see the\nexcellence of his son shine forth just when it was too late for him to\nenjoy him\u2014to find out what a perfect child he had, in simple trust and\nutter obedience, just at the very moment when he was going to lose him:\n\u201cAnd Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his\nson.\u201d\n\nAt that point Abraham\u2019s trial finished. He had shewn the completeness of\nhis faith by the completeness of his works, that is, by the completeness\nof his obedience. He had utterly given up all for God. He had submitted\nhis will completely to God\u2019s will. He had said in heart, as our Blessed\nLord said, \u201cFather, if it be possible, let this woe pass from me,\nnevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt;\u201d and thus I say, he was\njustified by his works, by his actions; that is, by this faithful action\nhe proved the faithfulness of his heart, as the Angel said to him, \u201cNow I\nknow that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine\nonly son from me:\u201d for as St. James says, \u201cWas not Abraham our father\njustified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?\nSeest thou,\u201d says he, \u201chow his faith wrought with his works;\u201d how his\nworks were the tool or instrument which his faith used; and by his works\nhis faith was brought to perfection, as a tree is brought to perfection\nwhen it bears fruit. \u201cAnd so,\u201d St. James continues, \u201cthe scripture was\nfulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him\nfor righteousness; and he was called the friend of God. Ye see then,\u201d he\nsays, \u201chow that by works a man is justified,\u201d or shewn to be righteous\nand faithful, \u201cand not by faith only;\u201d that is, not by the mere feeling\nof faith, for, as he says, \u201cas the body without the spirit is dead, so\nfaith without works is dead also.\u201d For what is the sign of a being dead?\nIt is its not being able to do anything, not being able to work; because\nthere is no living and moving spirit in it. And what is the sign of a\nman\u2019s faith being dead? his faith not being able to _work_, because there\nis no living spirit in it, but it is a mere dead, empty shell and form of\nwords,\u2014a mere notion and thought about believing in a man\u2019s head, but not\na living trust and loyalty to God in his heart. Therefore, says St.\nJames, \u201cshew me thy faith without thy works,\u201d if thou canst, \u201cand I will\nshew thee my faith by my works,\u201d as Abraham did by offering up Isaac his\nson.\n\nOh! my friends, when people are talking about faith and works, and trying\nto reconcile St. Paul and St. James, as they call it, because St. Paul\nsays Abraham was justified by faith, and St. James says Abraham was\njustified by works, if they would but pray for the simple, childlike\nheart, and the head of common sense, and look at their own children, who,\nevery time they go on a message for them, settle, without knowing it,\nthis mighty difference of man\u2019s making between faith and works. You tell\na little child daily to do many things the meaning and use of which it\ncannot understand; and the child has faith in what you tell it; and,\ntherefore, it does what you tell it, and so it shews its faith in you by\nobedience in working for you.\n\nBut to go on with the verses: \u201cAnd the angel of the Lord called unto\nAbraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn,\nsaith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not\nwithheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and\nin multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and\nas the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the\ngate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth\nbe blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.\u201d\n\nNow, here remark two things; first, that it was Abraham\u2019s obedience in\ngiving up all to God, which called forth from God this confirmation of\nGod\u2019s promises to him; and next, that God here promised him nothing new;\nGod did not say to him, \u2018Because thou hast obeyed me in this great\nmatter, I will give thee some great reward over and above what I promised\nthee.\u2019 No; God merely promises him over again, but more solemnly than\never, what He had promised him many years before.\n\nAnd so it will be with us, my friends, we must not expect to _buy_ God\u2019s\nfavour by obeying Him,\u2014we must not expect that the more we do for God,\nthe more God will be bound to do for us, as the Papists do. No; God has\ndone for us all that He will do. He has promised us all that He will\npromise. He has provided us, as He provided Abraham, a lamb for the\nburnt-offering, the Lamb without blemish and without spot, which taketh\naway the sins of the world. We are His redeemed people\u2014we _have_ a share\nin His promises\u2014He bids us believe _that_, and shew that we believe it by\nliving as redeemed men, not our own, but bought with a price, and created\nanew in Christ Jesus to do good works; not that we may buy forgiveness by\nthem, but that we may shew by them that we believe that God _has_\nforgiven us already, and that when we have done all that is commanded us,\nwe are still unprofitable servants; for though we should give up at God\u2019s\nbidding our children, our wives, and our own limbs and lives, and shew as\nutter faith in God, and complete obedience to God, as Abraham did, we\nshould only have done just what it was already our duty to do.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XIV.\nOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN.\n\n\n 1 JOHN, ii. 13.\n\n \u201cI write unto you, little children, because ye have known the\n Father.\u201d\n\nI PREACHED some time ago a sermon on the whole of these most deep and\nblessed verses of St. John.\n\nI now wish to speak to those who are of age to be confirmed three\nseparate sermons on three separate parts of these verses. First to those\nwhom St. John calls little children; next, to those whom He calls grown\nmen. To the first I will speak to-day; to the latter, by God\u2019s help,\nnext Sunday. And may the Blessed One bring home my weak words to all\nyour hearts!\n\nNow for the meaning of \u201clittle children.\u201d There are those who will tell\nyou that those words mean merely \u201cweak believers,\u201d \u201cbabes in grace,\u201d and\nso on. They mean that, no doubt; but they mean much more. They mean,\nfirst of all, be sure, what they say. St. John would not have said\n\u201clittle children,\u201d if he had not meant little children. Surely God\u2019s\napostle did not throw about his words at random, so as to leave them open\nto mistakes, and want some one to step in and tell us that they do not\nmean their plain, common-sense meaning, but something else. Holy\nScripture is too wisely written, and too awful a matter, to be trifled\nwith in that way, and cut and squared to suit our own fancies, and\nexplained away, till its blessed promises are made to mean anything or\nnothing.\n\nNo! By little children, St. John means here children in age,\u2014of course\n_Christian_ children and young people, for he was writing only to\nChristians. He speaks to those who have been christened, and brought up,\nmore or less, as christened children should be. But, no doubt, when he\nsays little children, he means also all Christian people, whether they be\nyoung or old, whose souls are still young, and weak, and unlearned. All,\nhowever old they may be, who have not been confirmed\u2014I do not merely mean\nconfirmed by the bishop, but confirmed by God\u2019s grace,\u2014all those who have\nnot yet come to a full knowledge of their own sins,\u2014all who have not yet\nbeen converted, and turned to God with their whole hearts and wills, who\nhave not yet made their full choice between God and sin,\u2014all who have not\nyet fought for themselves the battle which no man or angel can fight for\nthem\u2014I mean the battle between their selfishness and their duty\u2014the\nbattle between their love of pleasure and their fear of sin\u2014the battle,\nin short, between the devil and his temptations to darkness and shame,\nand God and His promises of light, and strength, and glory,\u2014all who have\nnot been converted to God, to them St. John speaks as little\nchildren\u2014people who are not yet strong enough to stand alone, and do\ntheir duty on God\u2019s side against sin, the world, and the devil. And all\nof you here who have not yet made up your minds, who have not yet been\nconfirmed in soul,\u2014whether you were confirmed by the bishop or not,\u2014to\nyou I speak this day.\n\nNow, first of all, consider this,\u2014that though St. John calls you \u201clittle\nchildren,\u201d because you are still weak, and your souls have not grown to\nmanhood, yet he does not speak to you as if you were heathens and knew\nnothing about God; he says, \u201cI have written unto you, little children,\nbecause ye have known the Father.\u201d Consider that; that was his reason\nfor all that he had written to them before; that they had known the\nFather, the God who made heaven and earth\u2014the Father of our Lord Jesus\nChrist\u2014the Father of little children\u2014my Father and your Father, my\nfriends, little as we may behave like what we are, sons of the Almighty\nGod. That was St. John\u2019s reason for speaking to little children, because\nthey had already known the Father. So he does not speak to them as if\nthey were heathens; and I dare not speak to you, young people, as if you\nwere heathens, however foolish and sinful some of you may be; I dare not\ndo it, whatever many preachers may do nowadays; not because I should be\nunfair and hard upon you merely, but because I should lie, and deny the\ngreat grace and mercy which God has shewn you, and count the blood of the\ncovenant, with which you were sprinkled at baptism, an unholy thing; and\ndo despite to the spirit of grace which has been struggling in your\nhearts, trying to lead you out of sin into good, out of light into\ndarkness, ever since you were born. Therefore, as St. John said, I say,\nI preach this day to you, young people, because you have known your\nFather in heaven!\n\nBut some of you may say to me, \u2018You put a great honour on us; but we do\nnot see that we have any right to it. You tell us that we have a very\nnoble and awful knowledge\u2014that we know the Father. We are afraid that we\ndo not know Him; we do not even rightly understand of whom or what you\npreach.\u2019\n\nWell, my young friends, these are very awful words of St. John; such\nblessed and wonderful words, that if we did not find them in the Bible,\nit would be madness and insolence to God of us to say such a thing, not\nmerely of little children, but even of the greatest, and wisest, and\nholiest man who ever lived; but there they are in the Bible\u2014the blessed\nLord Himself has told us all, \u201cWhen ye pray, say, Our Father in\nheaven;\u201d\u2014and I dare not keep them back because they sound strange. They\nmay _sound_ strange, but they _are not_ strange. Any one who has ever\nwatched a young child\u2019s heart, and seen how naturally and at once the\nlittle innocent takes in the thought of his Father which is in heaven,\nknows that it is not a strange thought\u2014that it comes to a little child\nalmost by instinct\u2014that his Father in heaven seems often to be just the\nthought which fills his heart most completely, has most power over\nhim,\u2014the thought which has been lying ready in his heart all the time,\nonly waiting for some one to awaken it, and put it into words for him;\nthat he will do right when you put him in mind of his Father above the\nskies sooner than he will for a hundred punishments. For truly says the\npoet,\u2014\n\n \u201cHeaven lies about us in our infancy,\n Not in complete forgetfulness,\n Nor yet in utter nakedness,\n But trailing clouds of glory do we come,\n From God who is our home!\u201d\n\nAnd yet more truly said the Blessed One Himself, \u201cThat children\u2019s angels\nalways behold the face of our Father which is in heaven;\u201d and that \u201cof\nsuch is the kingdom of heaven.\u201d Yet you say, some of you, perhaps,\n\u2018Whatever knowledge of our Father in heaven we had, or ought to have had,\nwhen we were young, we have lost it now. We have forgotten what we\nlearnt at school. We have been what you would call sinful; at all\nevents, we have been thinking all our time about a great many things\nbeside religion, and they have quite put out of our head the thought that\nGod is our Father. So how have we known our Father in heaven?\u2019\n\nWell, then, to answer that,\u2014consider the case of your earthly fathers,\nthe men who begot you and brought you up. Now there might be one of you\nwho had never seen his father since he was born, but all he knows of him\nis, that his name is so and so, and that he is such and such a sort of\nman, as the case might be; and that he lives in such and such a place,\nfar away, and that now and then he hears talk of his father, or receives\nletters or presents from him. Suppose I asked that young man, Do you\nknow your father? would he not answer\u2014would he not have a right to\nanswer, \u2018Yes, I know him. I never saw him, or was acquainted with him,\nbut I know him well enough; I know who he is, and where to find him, and\nwhat sort of a man he is.\u2019 That young man might not know his father\u2019s\nface, or love him, or care for him at all. He might have been\ndisobedient to his father; he might have forgotten for years that he had\na father at all, and might have lived on his own way, just as if he had\nno father. But when he was put in mind of it all, would he not say at\nonce, \u2018Yes, I know my father well enough; his name is so and so, and he\nlives at such and such a place. I know my father.\u2019\n\nWell, my young friends, and if this would be true of your fathers on\nearth, it is just as true of your Father in heaven. You have never seen\nHim\u2014you may have forgotten Him\u2014you may have disobeyed Him\u2014you may have\nlived on your own way, as if you had no Father in heaven; still you know\nthat you have a Father in heaven. You pray, surely, sometimes. What do\nyou say? \u201cOur Father which art in heaven.\u201d So you have a Father in\nheaven, else what right have you to use those words,\u2014what right have you\nto say to God, \u201cOur Father in heaven,\u201d if you believe that you have no\nFather there? That would be only blasphemy and mockery. I can well\nunderstand that you have often said those words without thinking of\nthem\u2014without thinking what a blessed, glorious, soul-saving meaning there\nwas in them; but I will not believe that you never once in your whole\nlives said, \u201cOur Father which art in heaven,\u201d without believing them to\nbe true words. What I want is, for you _always_ to believe them to be\ntrue. Oh young men and young women, boys and girls\u2014believe those words,\nbelieve that when you say, \u201cOur Father which art in heaven,\u201d you speak\nGod\u2019s truth about yourselves; that the evil devil rages when he hears you\nspeak those words, because they are the words which prove that you do not\nbelong to him and to hell, but to God and the kingdom of heaven. Oh,\nbelieve those words\u2014behave as if you believed those words, and you shall\nsee what will come of them, through all eternity for ever.\n\nWell, but you will ask, What has all this to do with confirmation? It\nhas all to do with confirmation. Because you are God\u2019s children, and\nknow that you are God\u2019s children, you are to go and confirm before the\nbishop your right to be called God\u2019s children. You are to go and claim\nyour share in God\u2019s kingdom. If you were heir to an estate, you would go\nand claim your estate from those who held it. You are heirs to an\nestate\u2014you are heirs to the kingdom of heaven; go to confirmation, and\nclaim that kingdom, say, \u2018I am a citizen of God\u2019s kingdom. Before the\nbishop and the congregation, here I proclaim the honour which God has put\nupon me.\u2019 If you have a father, you will surely not be ashamed to own\nhim! How much more when the Almighty God of heaven is your Father! You\nwill not be ashamed to own Him? Then go to confirmation; for by doing so\nyou own God for your Father. If you have an earthly father, you will not\nbe ashamed to say, \u2018I know I ought to honour him and obey him;\u2019 how much\nmore when your father is the Almighty God of heaven, who sent His own Son\ninto the world to die for you, who is daily heaping you with blessings\nbody and soul! You will not be ashamed to confess that you ought to\nhonour and obey Him? Then go to confirmation, and say, \u2018I here take upon\nmyself the vow and promise made for me at my baptism. I am God\u2019s child,\nand therefore I will honour, love, and obey Him. It is my duty; and it\nshall be my delight henceforward to work for God, to do all the good I\ncan to my life\u2019s end, because my Father in heaven loves the good, and has\ncommanded me, poor, weak countryman though I be, to work for Him in\nwell-doing.\u2019 So I say, If God is your Father, go and own Him at\nconfirmation. If God is your Father, go and promise to love and obey Him\nat confirmation; and see if He does not, like a strong and loving Father\nas He is, confirm you in return,\u2014see if He does not give you strength of\nheart, and peace of mind, and clear, quiet, pure thoughts, such as a man\nor woman ought to have who considers that the great God, who made the sky\nand stars above their heads, is their Father. But, perhaps, there are\nsome of you, young people, who do not wish to be confirmed. And why?\nNow, look honestly into your own hearts and see the reason. Is it not,\nafter all, because you don\u2019t like the _trouble_? Because you are afraid\nthat being confirmed will force you to think seriously and be religious;\nand you had rather not take all that trouble yet? Is it not because you\ndo not like to look your ownselves in the face, and see how foolishly you\nhave been living, and how many bad habits you will have to give up, and\nwhat a thorough conversion and change you must make, if you are to be\nconfirmed in earnest? Is not this why you do not wish to be confirmed?\nAnd what does that all come to? That though you know you are God\u2019s\nchildren, you do not like to tell people publicly that you are God\u2019s\nchildren, lest they should expect you to behave like God\u2019s children\u2014that\nis it. Now, young men and young women, think seriously once for all\u2014if\nyou have any common _sense_\u2014I do not say grace, left in you\u2014think! Are\nyou not playing a fearful game? You would not dare to deny your fathers\non earth\u2014to refuse to obey them, because you know well enough that they\nwould punish you\u2014that if you were too old for punishment, your\nneighbours, at least, would despise you for mean, ungrateful, and\nrebellious children! But because you cannot _see_ God your Father,\nbecause you have not some sign or wonder hanging in the sky to frighten\nyou into good behaviour, therefore you are not afraid to turn your backs\non him. My friends, it is ill mocking the living God. Mark my words!\nIf a man will not turn He will whet His sword, and make us feel it. You\nwho can be confirmed, and know in your hearts that you ought to be\nconfirmed, and ought to be _really_ converted and confirmed in soul, and\nmake no mockery of it,\u2014mark my words! If you will not be converted and\nconfirmed of your own good will, God, if He has any love left for you,\nwill convert and confirm you against your will. He will let you go your\nown ways till you find out your own folly. He will bring you low with\naffliction perhaps, with sickness, with ill-luck, with shame. Some way\nor other, He will chastise you, again and again, till you are forced to\ncome back to Him, and take His service on you. If He loves you, He will\ndrive you home to your Father\u2019s house. You may laugh at my words now,\nsee if you laugh at them when your hairs are grey. Oh, young people, if\nyou wish in after-life to save yourselves shame and sorrow, and perhaps,\nin the world to come eternal death, come to confirmation, acknowledge God\nfor your Father, promise to come and serve Him faithfully, make those\nblessed words of the Lord\u2019s Prayer, \u201cOur Father in heaven,\u201d your glory\nand your honour, your guide and guard through life, your title-deeds to\nheaven. You who know that the Great God is your Father, will you be\nashamed to own yourselves His sons?\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XV.\nTHE TRANSFIGURATION.\n\n\n MARK, ix. 2.\n\n \u201cJesus taketh Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into a\n high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them.\u201d\n\nTHE second lesson for this morning service brings us to one of the most\nwonderful passages in our blessed Saviour\u2019s whole stay on earth, namely,\nHis transfiguration. The story, as told by the different Evangelists, is\nthis,\u2014That our Lord took Peter, and John, and James his brother, and led\nthem up into a high mountain apart, which mountain may be seen to this\nvery day. It is a high peaked hill, standing apart from all the hills\naround it, with a small smooth space of ground upon the top, very fit,\nfrom its height and its loneliness, for a transaction like the\ntransfiguration, which our Lord wished no one but these three to behold.\nThere the apostles fell asleep; while our blessed Lord, who had deeper\nthoughts in His heart than they had, knelt down and prayed to _His_\nFather and _our_ Father, which is in heaven. And as He prayed, the form\nof His countenance was changed, and His raiment became shining, white as\nthe light; and there appeared Moses and Elijah talking with Him. They\ntalked of matters which the angels desire to look into, of the greatest\nmatters that ever happened in this earth since it was made; of the\nredemption of the world, and of the death which Christ was to undergo at\nJerusalem. And as they were talking, the apostles awoke, and found into\nwhat glorious company they had fallen while they slept. What they felt\nno mortal man can tell\u2014that moment was worth to them all the years they\nhad lived before. When they had gone up with Jesus into the mount, He\nwas but the poor carpenter\u2019s son, wonderful enough to _them_, no doubt,\nwith His wise, searching words, and His gentle, loving looks, that drew\nto Him all men who had hearts left in them, and wonderful enough, too,\nfrom all the mighty miracles which they had seen Him do, but still He was\nmerely a man like themselves, poor, and young, and homeless, who felt the\nheat, and the cold, and the rough roads, as much as they did. They could\nfeel that He spake as never man spake\u2014they could see that God\u2019s spirit\nand power was on Him as it had never been on any man in their time. God\nhad even enlightened their reason by His Spirit, to know that He was the\nChrist, the Son of the living God. But still it does seem they did not\nfully understand who and what He was; they could not understand how the\nSon of God should come in the form of a despised and humble man; they did\nnot understand that His glory was to be a spiritual glory. They expected\nHis kingdom to be a kingdom of this world\u2014they expected His glory to\nconsist in palaces, and armies, and riches, and jewels, and all the\nmagnificence with which Solomon and the old Jewish kings were adorned;\nthey thought that He was to conquer back again from the Roman emperor all\nthe inestimable treasures of which the Romans had robbed the Jews, and\nthat He was to make the Jewish nation, like the Roman, the conquerors and\nmasters of all the nations of the earth. So that it was a puzzling thing\nto their minds why He should be King of the Jews at the very time that He\nwas but a poor tradesman\u2019s son, living on charity. It was to shew them\nthat His kingdom was the kingdom of heaven that He was transfigured\nbefore them.\n\nThey saw His glory\u2014the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full\nof grace and truth. The form of His countenance was changed; all the\nmajesty, and courage, and wisdom, and love, and resignation, and pity,\nthat lay in His noble heart, shone out through His face, while He spoke\nof His death which He should accomplish at Jerusalem\u2014the Holy Ghost that\nwas upon Him, the spirit of wisdom, and love, and beauty\u2014the spirit which\nproduces every thing that is lovely in heaven and earth: in soul and\nbody, blazed out through His eyes, and all His glorious countenance, and\nmade Him look like what He was\u2014a God. My friends, what a sight! Would\nit not be worth while to journey thousands of miles\u2014to go through all\ndifficulties, dangers, that man ever heard of, for one sight of that\nglorious face, that we might fall down upon our knees before it, and, if\nit were but for a moment, give way to the delight of finding something\nthat we could utterly love and utterly adore? I say, the delight of\nfinding something to worship; for if there is a noble, if there is a\nholy, if there is a spiritual feeling in man, it is the feeling which\nbows him down before those who are greater, and wiser, and holier than\nhimself. I say, that feeling of respect for what is noble is a heavenly\nfeeling. The man who has lost it\u2014the man who feels no respect for those\nwho are above him in age, above him in knowledge, above him in wisdom,\nabove him in goodness,\u2014_that_ man shall in no wise enter into the kingdom\nof heaven. It is only the man who is like a little child, and feels the\ndelight of having some one to look up to, who will ever feel delight in\nlooking up to Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of lords and King of kings.\nIt was the want of respect, it was the dislike of feeling any one\nsuperior to himself, which made the devil rebel against God, and fall\nfrom heaven. It will be the feeling of complete respect\u2014the feeling of\nkneeling at the feet of one who is immeasurably superior to ourselves in\nevery thing, that will make up the greatest happiness of heaven. This is\na hard saying, and no man can understand it, save he to whom it is given\nby the Spirit of God.\n\nThat the apostles _had_ this feeling of immeasurable respect for Christ\nthere is no doubt, else they would never have been apostles. But they\nfelt more than this. There were other wonders in that glorious vision\nbesides the countenance of our Lord. His raiment, too, was changed, and\nbecame all brilliant, white as the light itself. Was not _that_ a lesson\nto them? Was it not as if our Lord had said to them, \u2018I am a king, and\nhave put on glorious apparel, but whence does the glory of my raiment\ncome? _I_ have no need of fine linen, and purple, and embroidery, the\nwork of men\u2019s hands; _I_ have no need to send my subjects to mines and\ncaves to dig gold and jewels to adorn my crown: the earth is mine and the\nfulness thereof. All this glorious earth, with its trees and its\nflowers, its sunbeams and its storms, is _mine_. _I_ made it\u2014_I_ can do\nwhat I will with it. All the mysterious laws by which the light and the\nheat flow out for ever from God\u2019s throne, to lighten the sun, and the\nmoon, and the stars of heaven\u2014they are mine. _I_ am the light of the\nworld\u2014the light of men\u2019s bodies as well of their souls; and here is my\nproof of it. Look at Me. I am He that \u201cdecketh Himself with light as it\nwere with a garment, who layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters,\nand walketh upon the wings of the wind.\u201d This was the message which\nChrist\u2019s glory brought the apostles\u2014a message which they could never\nforget. The spiritual glory of His countenance had shewn them that He\nwas a spiritual king\u2014that His strength lay in the spirit of power, and\nwisdom, and beauty, and love, which God had given Him without measure;\nand it shewed them, too, that there was such a thing as a spiritual body,\nsuch a body as each of us some day shall have if we be found in Christ at\nthe resurrection of the just\u2014a body which shall not hide a man\u2019s spirit,\nwhen it becomes subject to the wear and tear of life, and disease, and\ndecay; but a spiritual body\u2014a body which shall be filled with our\nspirits, which shall be perfectly obedient to our spirits\u2014a body through\nwhich the glory of our spirits shall shine out, as the glory of Christ\u2019s\nspirit shone out through His body at the transfiguration. \u201cBrethren, we\nknow not yet what we shall be, but this we do know, that when He shall\nappear, we shall be _like Him_, for we shall see Him as He is.\u201d (1 John,\niii. 3.)\n\nThus our Lord taught them by His appearance that there is such a thing as\na spiritual body, while, by the glory of His raiment, in addition to His\nother miracles, He taught them that He had power over the laws of nature,\nand could, in His own good time, \u201cchange the bodies of their humiliation,\nthat they might be made like unto His glorious body, according to the\nmighty working by which He is able to subdue all things to Himself.\u201d\n\nBut there was yet another lesson which the apostles learnt from the\ntransfiguration of our Lord. They beheld Moses and Elijah talking with\nHim:\u2014Moses the great lawgiver of their nation, Elijah the chief of all\nthe Jewish prophets. We must consider this a little to find out the\nwhole depth of its meaning. You remember how Christ had spoken of\nHimself as having come, not to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to\nfulfil them. You remember, too, how He had always said that He was the\nperson of whom the Law and the Prophets had spoken.\n\nHere was an actual sign and witness that His words were true\u2014here was\nMoses, the giver of the Law, and Elijah, the chief of the Prophets,\ntalking with Him, bearing witness to Him in their own persons, and\nshewing, too, that it was His death and His perfect sacrifice that they\nhad been shadowing forth in the sacrifices of the law and in the dark\nspeeches of prophecy. For they talked with Him of His death, which He\nwas to accomplish at Jerusalem. What more perfect testimony could the\napostles have had to shew them that Jesus of Nazareth, their Master, was\nHe of whom the Law and the Prophets spoke\u2014that He was indeed the Christ\nfor whom Moses and Elijah, and all the saints of old, had looked; and\nthat He was come not to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil\nthem? We can hardly understand the awe and the delight with which the\ndisciples must have beheld those blessed Three\u2014Moses, and Elias, and\nJesus Christ, their Lord, talking together before their very eyes. For\nof all men in the world, Moses and Elias were to them the greatest. All\ntrue-hearted Israelites, who knew the history of their nation, and\nunderstood the promises of God, must have felt that Moses and Elias were\nthe two greatest heroes and saviours of their nation, whom God had ever\nyet raised up. And the joy and the honour of thus seeing them face to\nface, the very men whom they had loved and reverenced in their thoughts,\nwhom they had heard and read of from their childhood, as the greatest\nornaments and glories of their nation\u2014the joy and the honour, I say, of\nthat unexpected sight, added to the wonderful majesty which was suddenly\nrevealed to their transfigured Lord, seemed to have been too much for\nthem\u2014they knew not what to say. Such company seemed to them for the\nmoment heaven enough; and St. Peter first finding words exclaimed, \u201cLord,\nit is good for us to be here. If thou wilt let us build three\ntabernacles, one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.\u201d Not, I\nfancy, that they intended to worship Moses and Elias, but that they felt\nthat Moses and Elias, as well as Christ, had each a divine message, which\nmust be listened to; and therefore, they wished that each of them might\nhave his own tabernacle, and dwell among men, and each teach his own\nparticular doctrine and wisdom in his own school. It may seem strange\nthat they should put Moses and Elias so on an equality with Christ, but\nthe truth was, that as yet they understood Moses and Elias better than\nthey did Christ. They had heard and read of Moses and Elijah all their\nlives\u2014they were acquainted with all their actions and words\u2014they knew\nthoroughly what great and noble men the Spirit of God had made them, but\nthey did _not_ understand Christ in like manner. They did not yet _feel_\nthat God had given Him the Spirit without measure\u2014they did not understand\nthat He was not only to be a lawgiver and a prophet, but a sacrifice for\nsin, the conqueror of death and hell, who was to lead captivity captive,\nand receive inestimable gifts for men. Much less did they think that\nMoses and Elijah were but His servants\u2014that all _their_ spirit and\n_their_ power had been given by Him. But this also they were taught a\nmoment afterwards; for a bright cloud overshadowed them, hiding from them\nthe glory of God the Father, whom no man hath seen or can see, who dwells\nin the light which no man can approach unto; and out of that cloud, a\nvoice saying, \u201cThis is my beloved Son; hear ye Him;\u201d and then, hiding\ntheir faces in fear and wonder, they fell to the ground; and when they\nlooked up, the vision and the voice had alike passed away, and they saw\nno man but Christ alone. Was not that enough for them? Must not the\nmeaning of the vision have been plain to them? They surely understood\nfrom it that Moses and Elijah were, as they had ever believed them to be,\ngreat and good, true messengers of the living God; but that their message\nand their work was done\u2014that Christ, whom they had looked for, was\ncome\u2014that all the types of the law were realised, and all the prophecies\nfulfilled, and that henceforward Christ, and Christ alone, was to be\ntheir Prophet and their Lawgiver. Was not this plainly the meaning of\nthe Divine voice? For when they wished to build three tabernacles, and\nto honour Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, as separate from\nChrist\u2014that moment the heavenly voice warned them: \u2018_This\u2014this_ is my\nbeloved Son\u2014hear ye _Him_, and Him only, henceforward.\u2019 And Moses and\nElijah, their work being done, forthwith vanished away, leaving Christ\nalone to fulfil the Law and the prophets, and all other wisdom and\nrighteousness that ever was or shall be. This is another lesson which\nChrist\u2019s transfiguration was meant to teach and us, that Christ alone is\nto be henceforward our guide; that no philosophies or doctrines of any\nsort which are not founded on a true faith in Jesus Christ, and His life\nand death, are worth listening to; that God has manifested forth His\nbeloved Son, and that Him, and Him only, we are to hear. I do not mean\nto say that Christ came into the world to put down human learning. I do\nnot mean that we are to despise human learning, as so many are apt to do\nnowadays; for Christ came into the world not to destroy human learning,\nbut to fulfil it\u2014to sanctify it\u2014to make human learning true, and strong,\nand useful, by giving it a sure foundation to stand upon, which is the\nbelief and knowledge of His blessed self. Just as Christ came not to\ndestroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil them\u2014to give them a\nspirit and a depth in men\u2019s eyes which they never had before\u2014just so, He\ncame to fulfil all true philosophies, all the deep thoughts which men had\never thought about this wonderful world and their own souls, by giving\n_them_ a spirit and a depth which _they_ never had before. Therefore let\nno man tempt you to despise learning, for it is holy to the Lord.\n\nThere is one more lesson which we may learn from our Lord\u2019s\ntransfiguration; when St. Peter said, \u201c_Lord_! it is good for us to be\nhere,\u201d he spoke a truth. It _was_ good for him to be there;\nnevertheless, Christ did not listen to his prayer. He and his two\ncompanions were not allowed to _stay_ in that glorious company. And why?\nBecause they had a work to do. They had glad tidings of great joy to\nproclaim to every creature, and it was, after all, but a selfish prayer,\nto wish to be allowed to stay in ease and glory on the mount while the\nwhole world was struggling in sin and wickedness below them: for there is\nno meaning in a man\u2019s calling himself a Christian, or saying that he\nloves God, unless he is ready to hate what God hates, and to fight\nagainst that which Christ fought against, that is, sin. No one has any\nright to call himself a servant of God, who is not trying to do away with\nsome of the evil in the world around him. And, therefore, Christ was\nmerciful, when, instead of listening to St. Peter\u2019s prayer, He led the\napostles down again from the mount, and sent them forth, as He did\nafterwards, to preach the Gospel of the kingdom to all nations. For\nChrist put a higher honour on St. Peter by that than if He had let him\nstay on the mount all his life, to behold His glory, and worship and\nadore. And He made St. Peter more like Himself by doing so. For what\nwas Christ\u2019s life? Not one of deep speculations, quiet thoughts, and\nbright visions, such as St. Peter wished to lead; but a life of fighting\nagainst evil; earnest, awful prayers and struggles within, continual\nlabour of body and mind without, insult and danger, and confusion, and\nviolent exertion, and bitter sorrow. This was Christ\u2019s life\u2014this is the\nlife of almost every good man I ever heard of;\u2014this was St. Peter, and\nSt. James, and St. John\u2019s life afterwards. This was Christ\u2019s cup, which\nthey were to drink of as well as He;\u2014this was the baptism of fire with\nwhich they were to be baptised of as well as He;\u2014this was to be their\nfight of faith;\u2014this was the tribulation through which they, like all\nother great saints, were to enter into the kingdom of heaven; for it is\ncertain that the harder a man fights against evil, the harder evil will\nfight against him in return: but it is certain, too, that the harder a\nman fights against evil, the more he is like his Saviour Christ, and the\nmore glorious will be his reward in heaven. It is certain, too, that\nwhat was good for St. Peter is good for us. It is good for a man to have\nholy and quiet thoughts, and at moments to see into the very deepest\nmeaning of God\u2019s word and God\u2019s earth, and to have, as it were, heaven\nopened before his eyes; and it is good for a man sometimes actually to\n_feel_ his heart overpowered with the glorious majesty of God, and to\n_feel_ it gushing out with love to his blessed Saviour: but it is not\ngood for him to stop there, any more than it was for the apostles; they\nhad to leave that glorious vision and come down from the mount, and do\nChrist\u2019s work; and _so have we_; for, believe me, one word of warning\nspoken to keep a little child out of sin,\u2014one crust of bread given to a\nbeggar-man, because he is your brother, for whom Christ died,\u2014one angry\nword checked, when it is on your lips, for the sake of Him who was meek\nand lowly in heart; in short, any, the smallest endeavour of this kind to\nlessen the quantity of evil, which is in yourselves, and in those around\nyou, is worth all the speculations, and raptures, and visions, and\nframes, and feelings in the world; for those are the good _fruits_ of\nfaith, whereby alone the tree shall be known whether it be good or evil.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XVI.\nTHE CRUCIFIXION.\n\n\n ISAIAH, liii. 7.\n\n \u201cHe is brought as a lamb to the slaughter.\u201d\n\nON this day, my friends, was offered up upon the cross the Lamb of\nGod,\u2014slain in eternity and heaven before the foundation of the world, but\nslain in time and space upon this day. All the old sacrifices, the lambs\nwhich were daily offered up to God in the Jewish Temple, the lambs which\nAbel, and after him the patriarchs offered up, the Paschal Lamb slain at\nthe Passover, our Eastertide, all these were but figures of Christ\u2014tokens\nof the awful and yet loving law of God, that without shedding of blood\nthere is no remission of sin. But the blood of dumb animals could not\ntake away sin. All mankind had sinned, and it was, therefore, necessary\nthat all mankind should suffer. Therefore He suffered, the new Adam, the\nMan of all men, in whom all mankind were, as it were, collected into one\nand put on a new footing with God; that henceforward to be a man might\nmean to be a holy being, a forgiven being, a being joined to God, wearing\nthe likeness of the Son of God\u2014the human soul and body in which He\noffered up all human souls and bodies on the cross. For man was\noriginally made in Christ\u2019s likeness; He was the Word of God who walked\nin the garden of Eden, who spoke to Adam with a human voice; He was the\nLord who appeared to the patriarchs in a man\u2019s figure, and ate and drank\nin Abraham\u2019s tent, and spoke to him with a human voice; He was the God of\nIsrael, whom the Jewish elders saw with their bodily eyes upon Mount\nSinai, and under His feet a pavement as of a sapphire stone. From Him\nall man\u2019s powers came\u2014man\u2019s speech, man\u2019s understanding. All that is\ntruly noble in man was a dim pattern of Him in whose likeness man was\noriginally made. And when man had fallen and sinned, and Christ\u2019s image\nwas fading more and more out of him, and the likeness of the brutes\ngrowing more and more in him year by year, then came Christ, the head and\nthe original pattern of all men, to claim them for His own again, to do\nin their name what they could never do for themselves, to offer Himself\nup a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world: so that He is the real\nsacrifice, the real lamb; as St. John said when he pointed Him out to his\ndisciples, \u201cBehold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the\nworld!\u201d\n\nOh, think of that strong and patient Lamb, who on this day shewed Himself\nperfect in fortitude and nobleness, perfect in meekness and resignation.\nThink of Him who, in His utter love to us, endured the cross, despising\nthe shame. And what a cross! Truly said the prophet, \u201cHis visage was\nmarred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men:\u201d in\nhunger and thirst, in tears and sighs, bruised and bleeding, His forehead\ncrowned with thorns, His sides torn with scourges, His hands and feet\ngored with nails, His limbs stretched from their sockets, naked upon the\nshameful cross, the Son of God hung, lingering slowly towards the last\ngasp, in the death of the felon and the slave! The most shameful sight\nthat this earth ever saw, and yet the most glorious sight. The most\nshameful sight, at which the sun in heaven veiled his face, as if\nashamed, and the skies grew black, as if to hide those bleeding limbs\nfrom the foul eyes of men; and yet the noblest sight, for in that death\nupon the cross shone out the utter fullness of all holiness, the utter\nfullness of all fortitude, the utter fullness of that self-sacrificing\nlove, which had said, \u201cThe Son of Man came to seek and to save that which\nwas lost;\u201d the utter fullness of obedient patience, which could say,\n\u201cFather, not My will but Thine be done;\u201d the utter fullness of generous\nforgiveness, which could pray, \u201cFather, forgive them, for they know not\nwhat they do;\u201d the utter fullness of noble fortitude and endurance, which\ncould say at the very moment when a fearful death stared Him in the face,\n\u201cThinkest thou that I cannot now pray to the Father, and He will send me\nat once more than twelve armies of angels? But how then would the\nScriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be?\u201d\n\nOh, my friends, look to Him, the author and perfecter of all faith, all\ntrust, all loyal daring for the sake of duty and of God! Look at His\npatience. See how He endured the cross, despising the shame. See how He\nendured\u2014how patience had her perfect work in Him\u2014how in all things He was\nmore than conqueror. What gentleness, what calmness, what silence, what\ninfinite depths of Divine love within Him! A heart which neither shame,\nnor torture, nor insult, could stir from its Godlike resolution. When\nlooking down from that cross He beheld none almost but enemies, heard no\nword but mockery; when those who passed by reviled Him, wagging their\nheads and saying, \u201cHe saved others, Himself He cannot save;\u201d His only\nanswer was a prayer for forgiveness for that besotted mob who were\nyelling beneath Him like hounds about their game. Consider Him, and then\nconsider ourselves, ruffled and put out of temper by the slightest cross\naccident, the slightest harsh word, too often by the slightest pain\u2014not\nto mention insults, for we pride ourselves in not bearing them. Try, my\nfriends, if you can, even in the dimmest way, fancy yourselves for one\ninstant in His place this day 1815 years. Fancy yourselves hanging on\nthat cross\u2014fancy that mocking mob below\u2014fancy\u2014but I dare not go on with\nthe picture. Only think\u2014think what would have been _your_ temper there,\nand then you may get some slight notion of the boundless love and the\nboundless endurance of the Saviour whom _we_ love so little, for whose\nsake most of us will not endure the trouble of giving up a single sin.\n\nAnd then consider that it was all of His own free will; that at any\nmoment, even while He was hanging upon the cross, He might have called to\nearth and sun, to heaven and to hell, \u201cStop! thus far, but no further,\u201d\nand they would have obeyed Him; and all that cross, and agony, and the\nfierce faces of those furious Jews, would have vanished away like a\nhideous dream when one awakes. For they lied in their mockery. Any\nmoment He might have been free, triumphant, again in His eternal bliss,\nbut He would not. He Himself kept Himself on that cross till His\nFather\u2019s will was fulfilled, and the sacrifice was finished, and we were\nsaved. And then at last, when there was no more human nobleness, no more\nagony left for Him to fulfil, no gem in the crown of holiness which He\nhad not won as His own, no drop in the cup of misery which He had not\ndrained as His own; when at last He was made perfect through suffering,\nand His strength had been made perfect in weakness, then He bowed that\nbleeding, thorn-crowned head, and said, \u201cIt is finished. Father, into\nThy hands I commend my spirit.\u201d And so He died.\n\nHow can our poor words, our poor deeds, thank Him? How mean and paltry\nour deepest gratitude, our highest loyalty, when compared with Him to\nwhom it is due\u2014that adorable victim, that perfect sin-offering, who this\nday offered up Himself upon the altar of the cross, in the fire of His\nown boundless zeal for the kingdom of God, His Father, and of His\nboundless love for us, His sinful brothers! \u201cOh, thou blessed Jesus!\nSaviour, agonising for us! God Almighty, who did make Thyself weak for\nthe love of us! oh, write that love upon our hearts so deeply that\nneither pleasure nor sorrow, life nor death, may wipe it away! Thou hast\nsacrificed Thyself for us, oh, give us the hearts to sacrifice ourselves\nfor Thee! Thou art the Vine, we are the branches. Let Thy priceless\nblood shed for us on this day flow like life-giving sap through all our\nhearts and minds, and fill us with Thy righteousness, that we may be\nsacrifices fit for Thee. Stir us up to offer to Thee, O Lord, our\nbodies, our souls, our spirits, in all we love and all we learn, in all\nwe plan and all we do, to offer our labours, our pleasures, our sorrows,\nto Thee; to work for Thy kingdom through them, to live as those who are\nnot their own, but bought with Thy blood, fed with Thy body; and enable\nus now, in Thy most holy Sacrament, to offer to Thee our repentance, our\nfaith, our prayers, our praises, living, reasonable, and spiritual\nsacrifices,\u2014Thine from our birth-hour, Thine now, and Thine for ever!\u201d\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XVII.\nTHE RESURRECTION.\n\n\n LUKE, xxiv. 6.\n\n \u201cHe is not here\u2014He is risen.\u201d\n\nWE are assembled here to-day, my friends, to celebrate the joyful memory\nof our blessed Saviour\u2019s Resurrection. All Friday night, Saturday, and\nSaturday night, His body lay in the grave; His soul was\u2014where we cannot\ntell. St. Peter tells us that He went and preached to the spirits in\nprison\u2014the sinners of the old world, who are kept in the place of\ndeparted souls\u2014most likely in the depths of the earth, in the great\nfire-kingdom, which boils and flames miles below our feet, and breaks out\nhere and there through the earth\u2019s solid crust in burning mountains and\nstreams of fire. There some say\u2014and the Bible seems to say\u2014sinful souls\nare kept in chains until the judgment-day; and thither they say Christ\nwent to preach\u2014no doubt to save some of those sinful souls who had never\nheard of Him. However this may be, for those two nights and day there\nwas no sign, no stir in the grave where Christ was laid. His body seemed\ndead\u2014the stone lay still over the mouth of the tomb where Joseph and\nNicodemus laid him; the seal which Pilate had put on it was unbroken; the\nsoldiers watched and watched, but no one stirred; the priests and\nPharisees were keeping their sham Passover, thinking, no doubt, that they\nwere well rid of Christ and of His rebukes for ever.\n\nBut early on the Sunday morn\u2014this day, as it might be\u2014in the grey dawn of\nmorning there came a change\u2014a wondrous change. There was a great\nearthquake; the solid ground and rocks were stirred\u2014the angel of the Lord\ncame down from heaven, and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat\nupon it, waiting for the King of glory to arise from His slumber, and go\nforth the conqueror of Death.\n\nHis countenance was like lightning, and His raiment white as snow; and\nfor fear of Him those fierce, hard soldiers, who feared neither God nor\nman, shook, and became as dead men. And Christ arose and went forth.\nHow he rose\u2014how he looked when he arose, no man can tell, for no man saw.\nOnly before the sun was risen came Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary,\nand found the stone rolled away, and saw the angels sitting, clothed in\nwhite, who said, \u201cFear not, for I know that ye seek Jesus, who was\ncrucified. He is not here, for He is risen. Come, see the place where\nthe Lord lay.\u201d\n\nWhat must they have thought, poor, faithful souls, who came, lonely and\nbroken-hearted, to see the place where _He_, their only hope, was, as\nthey thought, shut up and lost for ever, to hear that He was risen and\ngone? Half terrified, half delighted, they went back with other women\nwho had come on the same errand, with spices to anoint the blessed body,\nand told the apostles. Peter and John ran to the sepulchre, and saw the\nlinen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his blessed head,\nwrapped together by itself. They then believed. Then first broke on\nthem the meaning of His old saying, that He must rise from the dead; and\nso, wondering and doubting what to do, they went back home.\n\nBut Mary\u2014faithful, humble Mary\u2014stood without, by the sepulchre, weeping.\nThe angels called to her, \u201cWoman, why weepest thou?\u201d \u201cThey have taken\naway my Lord,\u201d said she; \u201cand I know not where they have laid him.\u201d\n\nThen, in a moment, out of the air, He appeared behind her. His body had\nbeen changed; it was now a glorified, spiritual body, which could appear\nand disappear when and how he liked. She turned back, and saw Him\nstanding, but she knew Him not. A wondrous change had come over Him\nsince last she saw Him hanging, bleeding, pale, and dying, on the cross\nof shame. \u201cWoman,\u201d said He, \u201cwhy weepest thou?\u201d She, fancying it was\nthe gardener, said to Him, \u201cSir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me\nwhere thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away.\u201d Jesus said to her,\n\u201cMary.\u201d At the sound of that beloved voice\u2014His own voice\u2014calling by her\nname, her recollection came back to her. She knew Him\u2014knew Him for her\nrisen Lord; and, falling at His feet, cried out, \u201cMy Master!\u201d\n\nSo Jesus Christ, the Son of God, rose from the dead!\n\nNow come the questions, _Why_ did Christ rise from the dead?\u2014and _how_\ndid he rise? And, first, I will say a few words about how he rose from\nthe dead. And this the Bible will answer for us, as it will every thing\nelse about the spirit-world. Christ, says the Bible, was put to death in\nthe flesh; but quickened, that is, brought to life, by the Spirit. Now\nwhat is the Spirit but the Lord and Giver of Life,\u2014life of all sorts\u2014life\nto the soul\u2014life to the body\u2014life to the trees and plants around us?\nWith that Spirit Christ is filled infinitely without measure; it is _His_\nSpirit. He is the Prince of Life; and the Spirit which gives life is His\nSpirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son. _Therefore_ the gates of\nhell could not prevail against Him\u2014_therefore_ the heavy grave-stone\ncould not hold Him down\u2014_therefore_ His flesh could not see corruption\nand decay as other bodies do; not because His body was different from\nother bodies in its substance, but because _He_ was filled, body and\nsoul, with the great Spirit of Life. For this is the great business of\nthe Spirit of God, in all nature, to bring life out of death\u2014new\ngenerations out of old. What says David? \u201cWhen Thou, O God, turnest\naway Thy face, things die and return again to the dust; when Thou lettest\nThy breath (which is the same as Thy spirit) go forth, they are made, and\nThou renewest the face of the earth.\u201d This is the way that seeds,\ninstead of rotting and perishing, spring up and become new plants\u2014God\nbreathes His spirit on them. The seeds must have heat, and damp, and\ndarkness, and electricity, before they can sprout; but the heat, and\ndamp, and darkness, do not make them sprout; they want something more to\ndo that. A philosopher can find out exactly what a seed is made of, and\nhe might make a seed of the proper materials, and put it in the ground,\nand electrify it\u2014but would it grow? Not it. To grow it must have\nlife\u2014life from the fountain of life\u2014from God\u2019s Spirit. All the\nphilosophers in the world have never yet been able, among all the things\nwhich they have made, to make a single living thing\u2014and say they never\nshall; because, put together all they will, still one thing is\nwanting\u2014_life_, which God alone can give. Why do I say this? To shew\nyou what God\u2019s Spirit is; to put you in mind that it is near you, above\nyou, and beneath you, about your path in your daily walk. And also, to\nexplain to you how Christ rose by that Spirit,\u2014how your bodies, if you\nclaim your share in Christ\u2019s Spirit, may rise by it too.\n\nYou can see now, how Christ, being filled with God\u2019s Spirit, rose of\nHimself. People had risen from the dead before Christ\u2019s time, but they\nhad been either raised in answer to the prayers of holy men who had God\u2019s\nSpirit, or at some peculiar time when heaven was opened, and God chose to\nalter His laws (as we call it) for a moment.\n\nBut here was a Man who rose of Himself. He was raised by God, and\ntherefore He raised Himself, for He was God.\n\nYou all know what life and power a man\u2019s own spirit will often give him.\nYou may have heard of \u201cspirited\u201d men in great danger, or \u201cspirited\u201d\nsoldiers in battle; when faint, wounded, having suffered enough,\napparently, to kill them twice over, still struggling or fighting on, and\ndoing the most desperate deeds to the last, from the strength and courage\nof their spirits conquering pain and weakness, and keeping off, for a\ntime, death itself. We all know how madmen, diseased in their spirits,\nwill, when the fit is on them, have, for a few minutes, ten men\u2019s\nstrength. Well, just think, if a man\u2019s own spirit, when it is powerful,\ncan give his body such life and force, what must it have been with\nChrist, who was filled full of _the_ Spirit\u2014God\u2019s Spirit, the Lord and\nGiver of life. The Lord could not _help_ rising. All the disease, and\npoison, and rottenness in the world, could not have made His body decay;\nmountains on mountains could not have kept it down. His body!\u2014the Prince\nof Life!\u2014He that was the life itself! It was impossible that death could\nhold Him.\n\nAnd does not this shew us _why_ He rose, that we might rise with Him?\nWhat did He say about His own death? \u201cExcept a corn of wheat fall into\nthe ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die it bringeth forth\nmuch fruit.\u201d He was the grain which fell into the ground and died, and\nfrom His dead body sprung up another body\u2014His glorified body; and we His\nChurch, His people, fed with that body\u2014His members, however strange it\nmay sound\u2014St. Paul said it, and therefore I dare to say it, little as I\nknow what it means\u2014members of His flesh and of His bones.\n\nBut think! Remember what St. Paul tells you about this very matter in\nthat glorious chapter which is read in the burial-service, \u201chow when thou\nsowest seed, thou sowest not that body which it will have, but bare\ngrain; but God gives it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed\nits own body.\u201d For the wheat-plant is in reality the same thing as the\nwheat-seed, and its life the same life, different as the outside of it\nmay look. Dig it up just at this time of year, and you will find the\nseed-corn all gone, sucked dry; the life of the wheat-seed has formed it\ninto a wheat-plant\u2014yet it is the same individual thing. The substance of\nthe seed has gone into the root and the young blade; but it is the same\nindividual substance. You know it is, and though you cannot tell why,\nyet you say \u201cWhat a fine plant that seed has grown into,\u201d because you\nfeel it is so, that the seed is the very same thing as the plant which\nsprings up from it, though its shape is changed, and its size, and its\ncolour, and the very stuff of which it was made is changed, since it was\na mere seed. And yet it is at bottom the same individual thing as the\nseed was, with a new body and shape.\n\nSo with Christ\u2019s body. It was changed after He rose. It had gone\nthrough pain, and weakness, and death, gone down to the lowest depth of\nthem, and conquered them, and passed triumphant through them and far\nbeyond their power. His body was now a nobler, a more beautiful, a\nglorified body, a spiritual body, one which could do whatever His Spirit\nchose to make it do, one which could never die again, one which could\ncome through closed doors, appear and vanish as He liked, instead of\nbeing bound to walk the earth, and stand cold and heat, sickness and\nweariness.\n\nYet it was the very same body, just as the wheat-plant is the same as the\nwheat-seed\u2014the very same body. Every one knew His face again after His\nresurrection. There was the very print of the nails to be seen in His\nhands and feet, the spear-wound in His blessed side. So shall it be with\nus, my friends. We shall rise again, and we shall be the same as we are\nnow, and yet not the same; our bodies shall be the same bodies, and yet\nnobler, purer, spiritual bodies, which can know neither death, nor pain,\nnor weariness. Then, never care, my friends, if we drop like ripe grain\ninto the bosom of mother earth,\u2014if we are to spring up again as seedling\nplants, after death\u2019s long winter, on the resurrection morn. Truly says\nthe poet, {187} how\n\n \u201cMother earth, she gathers all\n Into her bosom, great and small:\n Oh could we look into her face,\n We should not shrink from her embrace.\u201d\n\nNo, indeed! for if we look steadily with the wise, searching eye of faith\ninto the face of mother earth, we shall see how death is but the gate of\nlife, and this narrow churchyard, with its corpses close-packed\nunderneath the sod, would not seem to us a frightful charnel-house of\ncorruption. No! it would seem like what it is\u2014a blessed, quiet,\nseed-filled God\u2019s garden, in which our forefathers, after their long-life\nlabour, lay sown by God\u2019s friendly hand, waiting peaceful, one and all,\nto spring up into leaf, and flower, and everlasting paradise-fruit,\nbeneath the breath of God\u2019s Spirit at the last great day, when the Sun of\nRighteousness arises in glory, and the summer begins which shall never\nend.\n\nOne and all, did I say? Alas! would God it were so! We cannot hope as\nfor all, but they are dead and gone, and we are not here to judge the\ndead. They have another Judge, and all shall be as He wills.\n\nBut we\u2014we in whose limbs the breath of life still boils\u2014we who can still\nwork, let us never forget all grain ripens not. There is some falls out\nof the ear unripe, and perishes; some is picked out by birds; some\nwithers and decays in the ear, and yet gets into the barn with it, and is\nsown too with the wheat, of which I never heard that any sprang up\nagain\u2014ploughed up again it may be\u2014a withered, dead husk of chaff as it\ndied, ploughed up to the resurrection of damnation to burn as chaff in\nunquenchable fire; but the good seed alone, ripe, and safe with the\nwheat-plant till it is ripe, that only will _spring up_ to the\nresurrection of eternal life.\n\nNow, consider again that parable of the wheat-plant. After it has sprung\nup, what does it next, but _tiller_?\u2014and every new shoot that tillers out\nbears its own ear, ripens its own grain, twenty, thirty, or forty stems,\nand yet they are all the same plant, living with the life of that one\noriginal seed. So with Christ\u2019s Church\u2014His body the Church. As soon as\nhe rose, that new plant began to tiller. He did not keep His Spirit to\nHimself, but poured it out on the apostles, and from them it spread and\nspread\u2014Each generation of Christians ripening, and bearing fruit, and\ndying, a fresh generation of fruit springing up from them, and so on, as\nwe are now at this day. And yet all these plants, these millions and\nmillions of Christian men and women, who have lived since Christ\u2019s\nblessed resurrection, all are parts of that one original seed, the body\nof Christ, whose members they are, and all owe their life to that one\nspirit of Christ, which is in them all and through them all, as the life\nof the original grain is in the whole crop which springs from it.\n\nAnd what can you learn from this? Learn this, that in Christ you are\nsafe, out of Christ you are lost. But _really_ in Christ, I mean\u2014not\nlike the dead and dying grains, mildewed and worm-eaten, which you find\nhere and there on the finest wheat-plant. Their end is to be burned, and\nso will ours be, for all our springing out of Christ\u2019s root, if the angel\nreapers find us not good wheat, but chaff and mildew. Every branch in\nChrist which beareth not fruit, His heavenly Father taketh away.\nTherefore, never pride yourself on having been baptised into Christ,\nnever pride yourself on shewing some signs of God\u2019s Spirit, on being\nreally good, right in this and right in that,\u2014the question is, not so\nmuch, Are you _in Christ_ at all, are you part of His tree, a member of\nHis body? but, Are you ripening there? If you are not ripening, you are\ndecaying, and your end will be as God has said. And do you wish to know\nwhether you are in Christ, safe, ripening? see whether you are like Him.\nIf the young grain does not shew like the seed grain, you may be sure it\nis making no progress; and as surely as a wheat-plant never brought forth\nrye, or a grape-tree thistles, so surely, if you are not like Christ in\nyour character, in patience, in meekness, in courage, truth, purity,\npiety, and love, you may be of His planting, but you are none of His\nripening, and you will not be raised with Him at the last day, to flower\nanew in the gardens of Paradise, world without end.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XVIII.\nIMPROVEMENT.\n\n\n PSALM xcii. 12.\n\n \u201cThe righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree: he shall grow like\n the cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord\n shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring\n forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.\u201d\n\nTHE Bible is always telling Christian people to _go forwards_\u2014to grow\u2014to\nbecome wiser and stronger, better and better day by day; that they ought\nto become better, and better, because they can, if they choose, improve.\nThis text tells us so; it says that we shall bring forth more fruit in\nour old age. Another text tells us that \u201cthose who wait on the Lord\nshall renew their strength;\u201d another tells us that we \u201cshall go from\nstrength to strength.\u201d Not one of St. Paul\u2019s Epistles but talks of\ngrowing in grace and in the knowledge of God, of being _filled_ with\nGod\u2019s Spirit, of having our eyes more and more open to understand God\u2019s\ntruth. Not one of St. Paul\u2019s Epistles but contains prayers of St. Paul\nthat the men to whom he writes may become holier and wiser. And St. Paul\nsays that he himself needed to go forward\u2014that he wanted fresh\nstrength\u2014that he had to forget what was past, and consider all he had\ndone and felt as nothing, and press forward to the prize of his high\ncalling; that he needed to be daily conquering himself more and more,\nkeeping down his bad feelings, hunting out one bad habit after another,\nlest, by any means, when he had preached to others, he himself should\nbecome a castaway. Therefore, I said rightly, that the Bible is always\nbidding us go forwards. You cannot read your Bibles without seeing this.\nWhat else was the use of St. Paul\u2019s Epistles? They were written to\nChristian men, redeemed men, converted men, most of them better I fear\nthan ever we shall be; and for what? to tell them not be content to\nremain as they were, to tell them to go forwards, to improve, to be sure\nthat they were only just inside the gate of God\u2019s kingdom, and that if\nthey would go on to perfection, they would find strength, and holiness,\nand blessing, and honour, and happiness, which they as yet did not dream\nof. \u201cBe ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect,\u201d\nsaid our blessed Lord to all men. \u201cBe ye perfect,\u201d says St. Paul to the\nCorinthians, and the Ephesians, and all to whom he wrote; and so say I to\nyou now in God\u2019s name, for Christ\u2019s sake, as citizens of God\u2019s kingdom,\nas heirs of everlasting glory, \u201cBe you perfect, even as your Father in\nheaven is perfect.\u201d\n\nNow I ask you, my friends, is not this reasonable? It is reasonable, for\nthe Bible always speaks of our souls as living things. It compares them\nto limbs of a body, to branches of a tree, often to separate plants\u2014as in\nour Lord\u2019s parable of the tares and the wheat. Again, St. Paul tells us\nthat we have been planted in baptism in the likeness of Christ\u2019s death;\nand again, in the first Psalm, which says that the good man shall be like\na tree planted by the waterside; and again, in the text of my sermon,\nwhich says \u201cthat those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall\nflourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in\nold age; they shall be fat and flourishing.\u201d\n\nNow what does all this mean? It means that the life of our souls is in\nsome respects like the life of a plant; and, therefore, that as plants\ngrow, so our souls are to grow. Why do you plant anything, but in order\nthat it may _grow_ and become larger, stronger, bear flower and fruit?\nBe sure God has planted us in His garden, Christ\u2019s Church, for no other\nreason. Consider, again\u2014What is life but a continual growing, or a\ncontinual decaying? If a tree does not get larger and stronger, year by\nyear, is not that a sure sign that it is unhealthy, and that decay has\nbegun in it, that it is unsound at heart? And what happens then? It\nbegins to become weaker and smaller, and cankered and choked with scurf\nand moss till it dies. If a tree is not growing, it is sure in the long\nrun to be dying; and so are our souls. If they are not growing they are\ndying; if they are not getting better they are getting worse. This is\nwhy the Bible compares our souls to trees\u2014not out of a mere pretty fancy\nof poetry, but for a great, awful, deep, world-wide lesson, that every\ntree in the fields may be a pattern, a warning, to us thoughtless men,\nthat as that tree is meant to grow, so our souls are meant to grow. As\nthat tree dies unless it grows, so our souls must die unless they grow.\nConsider that!\n\nBut how does a tree grow? How are our souls to grow? Now here, again,\nwe shall understand heavenly things best by taking and considering the\npattern from among earthly things which the Bible gives us\u2014the tree, I\nmean. A tree grows in two ways. Its roots take up food from the ground,\nits leaves take up food from the air. Its roots are its mouth, we may\nsay, and its leaves are its lungs. Thus the tree draws nourishment from\nthe earth beneath and from the heaven above; and so must our souls, my\nfriends, if they are to live and grow, they must have food both from\nearth and from heaven. And this is what I mean\u2014Why has God given us\nsenses, eyes, and ears, and understanding? That by them we may feed our\nsouls with things which we see and hear, things which are going on in the\nworld round us. We must read, and we must listen, and we must watch\npeople and their sayings and doings, and what becomes of them, and we\nmust try and act, and practise what is right for ourselves; and so we\nshall, by using our eyes and ears and our bodies, get practice, and\nexperience, and knowledge, from the world round us\u2014such as Solomon gives\nus in his Proverbs\u2014and so our eyes, and ears, and understandings, are to\nbe to us like roots, by which we may feed our souls with earthly learning\nand experience. But is this enough? No, surely. Consider, again, God\u2019s\nexample which He has given us\u2014a tree. If you keep stripping all the\nleaves off a tree, as fast as they grow, what becomes of it? It dies,\nbecause without leaves it cannot get nourishment from the air, and the\nrain, and the sunlight. Again, if you shut up a tree where it can get\nneither rain, air, nor light, what happens? the tree certainly dies,\nthough it may be planted in the very richest soil, and have the very\nstrongest roots; and why? because it can get no food from the sky above.\nSo with our souls, my friends. If we get no food from above, our souls\nwill die, though we have all the wit, and learning, and experience, in\nthe world. We must be fed, and strengthened, and satisfied, with the\ngrace of God from above\u2014with the Spirit of God. Consider how the Bible\nspeaks of God\u2019s Spirit as the breath of God; for the very word _spirit_\nmeans, originally, breath, or air, or gas, or a breeze of wind, shewing\nus that as without the airs of heaven the tree would become stunted and\ncankered, so our souls will without the fresh, purifying breath of God\u2019s\nSpirit. Again, God\u2019s Spirit is often spoken of in Scripture as dew and\nrain. His grace or favour, we read, is as dew on the grass; and again,\nthat God shall come unto us as the rain, as the first and latter rain\nupon the earth; and again, speaking of the outpourings of God\u2019s Spirit on\nHis Church, the Psalmist says that \u201cHe shall come down as the rain upon\nthe mown grass, as showers that water the earth;\u201d and to shew us that as\nthe tree puts forth buds, and leaves, and tender wood, when it drinks in\nthe dew and rains, so our hearts will become tender, and bud out into\ngood thoughts and wise resolves, when God\u2019s Spirit fills them with His\ngrace.\n\nBut again; the Scripture tells us again and again that our souls want\nlight from above; and we all know by experience that the trees and plants\nwhich grow on earth want the light of the sun to make them grow. So,\ndoubtless, here again the Scripture example of a tree will hold good.\nNow what does the sunlight do for the tree? It does every thing, for\nwithout light, the soil, and air, and rain, are all useless. It stirs up\nthe sap, it hardens the wood, it brings out the blossom, it colours the\nleaves and the flowers, it ripens the fruit. The light is the life of\nthe tree;\u2014and is there not one, my friends, of whom these words are\nwritten\u2014that He is the Life, and that He is the Light\u2014that He is the Sun\nof Righteousness and the bright and morning Star\u2014that He is the light\nwhich lighteth every man that cometh into the world\u2014that in Him was life,\nand the life was the light of men? Do you not know of whom I speak?\nEven of Him that was born at Bethlehem and died on the cross, who now\nsits at God\u2019s right hand, praying for us, offering to us His body and His\nblood;\u2014Jesus the Son of God, He is the Light and the Life. From Him\nalone our light must come, from Him alone our life must come, now and for\never. Oh, think seriously of this\u2014and think, too, how a short time\nbefore He died on earth He spoke of Himself as the Bread of life\u2014the\nliving Bread which comes down from heaven; how He declared to men, that\nunless they eat His flesh and drink His blood, they have no life in them.\nAnd, lastly, consider this, how the same night that He was betrayed, He\ntook bread, and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, \u201cTake,\neat; this is my body, which is given for you; this do in remembrance of\nme.\u201d And how, likewise, He took the cup, and when He had blessed it, He\ngave it to them, saying, \u201cDrink ye all of this, for this is the new\ncovenant in my blood, which is shed for you and for many, for the\nforgiveness of sins; this do, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of\nme.\u201d Oh, consider these words, my friends\u2014to you all and every one they\nwere spoken. \u201cDrink ye _all_ of this,\u201d said the Blessed One; and will\nyou refuse to drink it? He offers you the bread of life, the sign and\nthe pledge of His body, which shall feed your souls with everlasting\nstrength and life; and will you refuse what the Son of God offers you,\nwhat He bought for you with His death? God forbid, my friends! This is\nyour blessed right and privilege\u2014the right and the privilege of every one\nof you\u2014to come freely and boldly to that holy table, and there to\nremember your Saviour. At that table to confess your Saviour before\nmen\u2014at that table to shew that you really believe that Jesus Christ died\nfor you\u2014at that table to claim your share in the strength of His body, in\nthe pardon of His blood, which cleanses from all sin\u2014and at that table to\nreceive what you claim, to receive at that table the wine, as a sign from\nChrist Himself, that His blood has washed away your sins; and the bread,\nas a sign that His body and His spirit are really feeding your spirits,\nthat your souls are strengthened and refreshed by the body and blood of\nChrist, as your bodies are with the bread and wine. I have shewn you\nthat your souls must be fed from heaven,\u2014that the Lord\u2019s Supper is a sign\nto you that they _are_ fed from heaven. You pray to God, I hope, many of\nyou, that He would give you His Holy Spirit, that He would change, and\nrenew, and strengthen your souls\u2014you pray God to do this, I hope\u2014Well,\nthen, there is the answer to your prayers. There your souls _will_ be\nrenewed and strengthened\u2014there you will claim your share in Christ, who\nalone can renew and strengthen them. The bread which is there broken is\nthe communion, the sharing, of the body of Christ; the cup which is there\nblessed is the communion of the blood of Christ: to that heavenly treat,\nto that spiritual food of your souls, Jesus Himself invites you, He who\nis the life of men. Do not let it be said at the last day of any one of\nyou, that when the Son of God Himself invites you, you would not come to\nHim that you might have life.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XIX.\nMAN\u2019S WORKING DAY.\n\n\n JOHN, xi. 9, 10.\n\n \u201cJesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man\n walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this\n world. But if a man walk in the night he stumbleth, because there is\n no light in him.\u201d\n\nTHIS was our blessed Lord\u2019s answer to His disciples when they said to\nHim, \u201cMaster, the Jews of late tried to stone Thee, and goest Thou among\nthem again?\u201d And \u201cJesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day?\nIf any man walk in the day he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light\nof this world. But if a man walk in the night he stumbleth, because\nthere is no light in him.\u201d\n\nNow, at first sight, one does not see what this has to do with the\ndisciples\u2019 question\u2014it seems no answer at all to it. But we must\nremember who it was who gave that answer. The Son of God, from whom all\nwords come, who came to do good, and only good, every minute of His life.\nAnd, therefore, we may be sure that He never threw away a single word.\nAnd we must remember, too, to whom He spoke\u2014to His disciples, whom He was\ntraining to be apostles to the whole world, teaching them in every thing\nsome deep lesson, to fit them for their glorious calling, as preachers of\nthe good news of His coming. So we may be sure that He would never put\noff any question of theirs; we may be certain, that whatever they asked\nHim, He would give them the best possible answer; not, perhaps, just the\nanswer for which they wished, but the answer which would teach them most.\nTherefore I say, we must believe that there is some deep, wonderful\nlesson in this text\u2014that it is the very best and fullest answer which our\nLord could have made to His disciples when they asked Him why He was\ngoing again to Judea, where He stood in danger of His life.\n\nLet us think a little about this text in faith, that is, sure that there\nis a deep, blessed meaning in it, if we can but find it out. Let us take\nit piece by piece; we shall never get to the bottom of it, of course, but\nwe may get deep enough into it to set us thinking a little between now\nand next Sunday.\n\n\u201cAre there not twelve hours in the day?\u201d said our Lord. We know there\nare, and we know, too, that if any man walks in the day, and keeps his\neyes open, he does not stumble, because he has the light of this world to\nguide him. Twelve hours for business, and twelve for food, and sleep,\nand rest, is our rule for working men, or, indeed, not our rule, but\nGod\u2019s. He has set the sun for the light of this world, to rule the day,\nto settle for us how long we are to work. In this country days vary. In\nsummer they are more than twelve hours, and then men work early and late;\nbut that is made up to us by winter, when the days are less than twelve\nhours, and men work short time. In the very cold countries again, far\naway in the frozen north, the sun never sets all the summer, and never\nrises all the winter, and there is six months day and six months night.\nWonderful! But even there God has fitted the land and men\u2019s lives to\nthat strange climate, and they can gather in enough meat in the summer to\nkeep them all the winter, that they may be able to spend the long six\nmonths\u2019 night of winter warm in their houses, sleeping and resting, with\nplenty of food. So that even to them there are twelve hours in the day,\nthough their hours are each a fortnight long,\u2014I mean a certain fixed time\nin which to walk, and do the business which they have to do before the\nlong frozen night comes, wherein no man can work, because the sun, the\nlight of this world, is hid from them below the ice for six whole months.\nSo that our Lord\u2019s words hold true of all men, even of those people in\nthe icy north. But in by far the most parts of the world, and especially\nin the hot countries, where our Lord lived, there are twelve common hours\nin every day, wherein men may and ought to work.\n\nNow what did our Lord mean by reminding His disciples of this, which they\nall knew already? He meant this,\u2014that God His Father had appointed Him a\ncertain work to do, and a certain time to do it in; that though His day\nwas short, only thirty-three years in all, while we have, many of us,\nseventy years given us, yet that there were twelve hours in His day in\nwhich He must work\u2014that God would take care that He lived out His\nappointed time, provided He was ready and earnest in doing God\u2019s work in\nit\u2014and that He _must_ work in that time which God had given Him, whatever\ncame of it, and do His appointed work before the night of death came in\nwhich no man can work.\n\nThere was a heathen king once, named Philip of Macedon, and a very wise\nking he was, though he was a heathen, and one of the wisest of his plans\nwas this:\u2014he had a slave, whom he ordered to come in to him every morning\nof his life, whatever he was doing, and say to him in a loud voice,\n\u201cPhilip, remember that thou must die!\u201d\n\nHe was a heathen, but a great many who call themselves Christians are not\nhalf so wise as he, for they take all possible care, not to remember that\nthey must die, but to _forget_ that they must die; and yet every living\nman has a servant who, like King Philip\u2019s, puts him in mind, whether he\nlikes it or not, that his day will run out at last, and his twelve hours\nof life be over, and then die he must. And who is that servant? A man\u2019s\nown body. Lucky if his body is his servant, though\u2014not his _master_ and\nhis tyrant. But still, be that as it may, every finger-ache that one\u2019s\nbody has, every cough and cold one\u2019s body catches, ought to be to us a\nwarning like King Philip\u2019s servant, \u201cRemember that thou must die.\u201d Every\nlittle pain and illness is a warning, a kindly hint from our Father in\nheaven, that we are doomed to death; that we have but twelve hours in\nthis short day of life, and that the twelve must end; and that we must\nget our work done and our accounts settled, and be ready for our long\njourney, to meet our Father and our King, before the night comes wherein\nno man can work, but only takes his wages; for them who have done good\nthe wages of life eternal, and for them who have done evil\u2014God help them!\nwe know what is written\u2014\u201cthe wages of sin is death!\u201d\n\nNow, observe next, that those who walk in the day do not stumble, because\nthey see the light of this world, and those who walk in the night\nstumble\u2014they have no light in them. If they are to see, it must be by\nthe help of some light outside themselves, which is not part of\nthemselves, or belonging to themselves at all. We only see by the light\nwhich God has made; when that is gone, our eyes are useless.\n\nSo it is with our souls. Our wits, however clever they may be, only\nunderstand things by the light which God throws on those things. He must\nexplain and enlighten all things to us. Without His light\u2014His Spirit,\nall the wit in the world is as useless as a pair of eyes in a dark night.\n\nNow this earthly world which we do see is an exact picture and pattern of\nthe spiritual, heavenly world which we do not see, as Solomon says in the\nProverbs, \u201cThe things which are seen are the doubles of the things which\nare not seen.\u201d And as there is a light for us in this earth, which is\n_not ourselves_, namely the sun, so there is a light for us in the\nspirit-world, which is _not ourselves_. And who is that? The blessed\nLord shall answer for Himself. He says, \u201cI am the light of the world;\u201d\nand St. John bears witness to Him, \u201cIn Him was life, and the life was the\nlight of men.\u201d And does not St. Paul say the same thing, when he blessed\nGod so often for having called him and his congregations out of darkness\ninto that marvellous light? If you read his Epistles you will find what\nhe meant by the darkness, what he meant by the light. The darkness was\nheathendom, knowing nothing of Christ. The light was Christianity,\nknowing Christ the light; and, more, being _in_ the light, belonging to\nChrist\u2014being joined to Him, as the leaves are to the tree,\u2014living by\ntrust in Christ, being taught and made true men and true women of, by the\nNoble and Holy Spirit of Christ\u2014seeing their way through this world by\ntrust in Christ and His promises,\u2014That was light.\n\nAnd there is no other light. If a man does not work trusting in Christ,\nwhom God has set for the light of the world, he works in the night, where\nGod never set or meant him to work; and stumble he will, and make a fool\nof himself, sooner or later, because he is walking in the night, and sees\nnothing plainly or in a right view. For as our Lord says truly, \u201cThere\nis no light in him.\u201d No light in him? In one sense there is no light in\nany one, be he the wisest or holiest man who ever lived. But this is\njust what three people out of four will not believe. They will not\nbelieve that the Spirit of God gives man understanding. They fancy that\nthey have light in themselves. They try, conceitedly and godlessly, to\nwalk by the light of their own eyes\u2014to make their own way plain before\ntheir face for themselves. They will not believe old David, a man who\nworked, and fought, and thought, and saw, far more than any one of us\nwill ever do, when he tells them again and again in his Psalms, that the\nLord is his light, that the Lord must guide a man, and inform him with\nHis eye, and teach him in the way in which he should go. And, therefore,\nthey will not pray to God for light\u2014therefore they will not look for\nlight in God\u2019s Word, and in the writings of godly men; and they are like\na man in the broad sunshine, who should choose to shut his eyes close,\nand say, \u2018I have light enough in my own head to do without the sun;\u2019 and\ntherefore they walk on still in darkness, and all the foundations of the\nearth are out of course, because men forget the first universal ground\nrules of common sense, and reason, and love, which God\u2019s Spirit teaches.\nI tell you, all the mistakes that you ever made\u2014that ever were made since\nAdam fell, came from this, that men will not ask God for light and\nwisdom; they love darkness rather than light, and therefore, though God\u2019s\nlight is ready for every man, shining in the darkness to shew every man\nhis way, yet the darkness will not comprehend it\u2014will not take it in, and\nlet God change its blindness into day.\n\nNow, then, to gather all together, what better answer could our Lord have\ngiven to His disciples\u2019 question than this, \u201cAre there not twelve hours\nin the day? If a man walk in the day he does not stumble, because he\nseeth the light of this world; but if a man walk in the night, he\nstumbleth, because there is no light in him.\u201d\n\nIt was as if He had said, \u201cHowever short my day of life may be, there are\ntwelve hours in it, of my Father\u2019s numbering and measuring, not of mine.\nMy times are in His hand, as long as He pleases I shall live. He has\ngiven me a work to do, and He will see that I live long enough to do it.\nInto His hands I commend my spirit, for, living or dying, He is with me.\nThough I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He will be with\nme. He will keep me secretly in His tabernacle from the strife of\ntongues, and will turn the furiousness of my enemies to His glory; and as\nmy day my strength will be. And I have no fear of running into danger\nneedlessly. I have prayed to Him daily and nightly for light, for His\nSpirit\u2014the spirit of wisdom and understanding, of prudence and courage;\nand His word is pledged to keep me in all my ways, so that I dash not my\nfoot against a stone. Know ye not that I must be about my Father\u2019s\nbusiness? While I am about that I am safe. It is only if I go about my\nown business\u2014my own pleasure; if I forget to ask Him for His light and\nguidance, that I shall put myself into the night, and stumble and fall.\u201d\n\nWell, my friends, what is there in all this, which we may not say as well\nas our Lord? In this, as in all things, Christ set Himself up as our\npattern. Oh, believe it!\u2014believe that your time\u2014your measure of life, is\nin God\u2019s hand. Believe that He is your light, that He will teach and\nguide you into all truth, and that all your mistakes come from not asking\ncounsel of Him in prayer, and thought, and reading of His Holy Bible.\nBelieve His blessed promise that He will give His Holy Spirit to those\nwho ask Him. Believe, too, that He has given you a work to do\u2014prepared\ngood works all ready for you to walk in. Be you labourer or gentleman,\nmaid, wife, or widow, God has given you a work to do; there is good to be\ndone lying all round you, ready for you. And the blessed Jesus who\nbought you, body and soul, with His own blood, commands you to work for\nHim: \u201cWhatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.\u201d\n\n \u201cWork ye manful while ye may,\n Work for God in this your day;\n Night must stop you, rich or poor,\n Godly deeds alone endure.\u201d\n\nAnd then, whether you live or die, your Father\u2019s smile will be on you,\nand His everlasting arms beneath you, and at your last hour you shall\nfind that \u201cBlessed are the dead that die in the Lord, for they rest from\ntheir labour, and their works do follow them.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XX.\nASSOCIATION.\n\n\n GALATIANS, vi. 2.\n\n \u201cBear ye one another\u2019s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.\u201d\n\nIF I were to ask you, my friends, why you were met together here to-day,\nyou would tell me, I suppose, that you were come to church as members of\na benefit club; and quite right you are in coming here as such, and God\ngrant that we may meet together here on this same errand many more\nWhit-mondays. But this would be no answer to my question; I wish to know\nwhy you come to church to-day sooner than to any other place? what has\nthe church to do with the benefit club? Now this is a question which I\ndo not think all of you could answer very readily, and therefore I wish\nto make you, especially the younger members of the club, think a little\nseriously about the meaning of your coming here to-day. You will be none\nthe less cheerful this evening for having had some deep and godly\nthoughts in your heads this morning.\n\nNow these benefit clubs are also called provident societies, and a very\ngood name for them. You become members of them, because you are prudent,\nor provident, that is, because you are careful, and look forward to a\nrainy day. But why does not each of you lay up his savings for himself,\ninstead of putting them into a common purse, and so forming a club?\nBecause you have found out, what every one else in the world, but madmen,\nought to have found out, that two are better than one; that if a great\nmany men join together in any matter, they are a great deal stronger when\nworking together, than if they each worked just as hard, but each by\nhimself; that the way to be safe is not to stand each of you alone, but\nto help each other; in short, that there is no getting on without bearing\none another\u2019s burdens.\n\nNow this plan of bearing one another\u2019s burdens is not only good in\nbenefit clubs\u2014it is good in families, in parishes, in nations, in the\nchurch of God, which is the elect of all mankind. Unless men hold\ntogether, and help each other, there is no safety for them.\n\nLet us consider what there is bearing on this matter of prudence, that\nmakes one of the greatest differences between a man and a brute beast.\nIt is not that the man is prudent, and the beast is not. Many beasts\nhave forethought enough; the very sleepmouse hoards up acorns against the\nwinter; a fox will hide the game he cannot eat. No, the great difference\nbetween man and beast is, that the beast has forethought only for\nhimself, but the man has forethought for others also; beasts have not\nreason enough to bear each others\u2019 burdens, as men have. And what is it\nthat makes us call the ant and the bee the wisest of animals, except that\nthey do, in some degree, behave like men, in helping one another, and\nhaving some sort of family feeling, and society, and government among\nthem, by which they can help bear each other\u2019s burdens? So that we all\nconfess, by calling them wise, how wise it is to help each other.\nConsider a family, again. In order that a family may be happy and\nprosperous, all the members of it must bear each other\u2019s burdens. If the\nfather only thought of himself, and the mother of herself, and each of\nthe children did nothing but take care of themselves, would not that\nfamily come to misery and ruin? But if they all helped each other\u2014all\nthought of each other more than of themselves\u2014all were ready to give up\ntheir own comfort to make each other comfortable, that family would be\npeaceful and prosperous, and would be doing a great deal towards\nfulfilling the law of Christ.\n\nIt is just the same in a parish. If the rich help and defend the poor,\nand the poor respect and love the rich, and are ready to serve them as\nfar as they can,\u2014in short, if all ranks bear each other\u2019s burdens, that\nparish is a happy one, and if they do not, it is a miserable one.\n\nJust the same with a nation. If the king only cares about making himself\nstrong, and the noblemen and gentlemen about their rank and riches, and\nthe poor people, again, only care for themselves, and are trying to pull\ndown the rich, and so get what they can for themselves,\u2014if a country is\nin this state, what can be more wretched? Neither a house, nor a\ncountry, divided against itself, can ever stand. But if the king and the\nnobles give their whole minds to making good laws, and seeing justice\ndone to all, and workmen fairly paid, and if the poor, in their turns,\nare loyal, and ready to fight and work for their king and their nobles,\nthen will not that country be a happy and a great country? Surely it\nwill, because its people, instead of caring every man for himself only,\nhelp each other and bear one another\u2019s burdens.\n\nAnd just in the same way with Christ\u2019s Church, with the company of true\nChristian men. If the clergymen thought only of themselves, and\nneglected the people, and forgot to labour among them, and pray for them,\nand preach to them; and if the people each cared for himself, and never\nprayed to God to give them a spirit of love and charity, and never helped\ntheir neighbours, or did unto others as they wished to be done by; and\nabove all, if Christ, our Head, left His Church, and cared no more about\nus, what would become of Christ\u2019s Church? What would happen to the whole\nrace of sinful man, but misery in this world, and ruin in the next? But\nif the people love and help each other, and obey their ministers, and\npray for them; and if the ministers labour earnestly after the souls and\nbodies of their people; and Christ in heaven helps both minister and\npeople with His Spirit, and His providence and protection; in short, if\nall in the whole Church bear each other\u2019s burdens, then Christ\u2019s Church\nwill stand, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.\n\nThus you see that this text of bearing one another\u2019s burdens is no new or\nstrange commandment, but the very state in which every man is meant to\nlive, both in his family, his parish, his country, and his Church\u2014all his\nlife helping others, and being helped by them in turn. And because\nfamilies and nations, and the Church of Christ above all, are good, and\nholy, and beautiful, therefore any society which is formed upon the same\nplan\u2014I mean of helping each other\u2014must be good also. And, therefore,\nbenefit societies are right and reasonable things, and among all the good\nwhich they do they do this one great good, that they teach men to\nremember that there is no use trying to stand alone, but that the way to\nbe safe and happy is to bear each other\u2019s burdens.\n\nThus benefit societies are patterns of Christ\u2019s Church. But now, my\nfriends, there is another point for each of you to consider, which is\nthis\u2014the benefit club is a good thing, but are you a good member of the\nclub? Do you do your duty, each of you, in the club as Christian men\nshould?\n\nI do not ask whether you pay your subscriptions regularly or not\u2014that is\nquite right and necessary, but there is something more than that wanted\nto make a club go on rightly. Mere paying and receiving money will never\nkeep men together any more than any other outward business. A man may\npay his club-money regularly and yet not be a really good member. And\nhow is this? You remember that I tried to shew you that a family, and a\nnation, and a church, all were kept together by the same principle of\nbearing one another\u2019s burdens, just as a benefit club is. Now, what\nmakes a man a good member of Christ\u2019s Church,\u2014a good Christian, in short?\nA man may pay his tithes to the rector, and his church-rates to repair\nGod\u2019s house, and his poor-rates to maintain God\u2019s poor, all very\nregularly, and yet be a very bad member of Christ\u2019s Church. These\npayments are all right and good; but they are but the outside, the letter\nof what God requires of him. What is wanted is, to serve God in the\n_spirit_, to have the spirit\u2014_the will_, of a Christian in him; that is,\nto do all these things for _God\u2019s_ sake\u2014not of constraint, but\nwillingly\u2014\u201cnot grudgingly, for God loveth a cheerful giver.\u201d No! If a\nman is a really good member of Christ\u2019s Church, he lives a life of faith\nin Jesus Christ, and of thankfulness to Him for His infinite love and\nmercy in coming down to die for us, and thus the love of God and man is\nshed abroad in his heart by God\u2019s Spirit, which is given to him.\nTherefore, that man thinks it an honour to pay church-rates, and so help\ntowards keeping God\u2019s house in repair and neatness. He pays his tithes\ncheerfully, because he loves God\u2019s ministers, and feels their use and\nworth to him. He pays his poor-rates with a willing mind, for the sake\nof that God who has said, \u201cthat he who gives to the poor lends to the\nLord.\u201d And so he obeys not only the letter but the spirit of the law.\n\nBut the man does more than this. Besides obeying not only the letter but\nthe spirit of the law, he helps his brethren in a thousand other ways.\nHe shews, in short, by every action that he believes in God and loves his\nneighbour.\n\nAnd why should it not be just the same in a benefit club? There the good\nmember is _not_ the man who pays his money merely to have a claim for\nrelief when he himself is sick, and yet grudges every farthing that goes\nto help other members. That man is not a good member. He has come into\nthe club merely to take care of himself, and not to bear others\u2019 burdens.\nHe may obey the letter of the club-rules by paying in his subscriptions\nand by granting relief to sick members, but he does not obey the spirit\nof them. If he did, he would be glad to bear his sick neighbour\u2019s burden\nwith so little trouble to himself. He would, therefore, grant club\nrelief willingly and cheerfully when it was wanted,\u2014ay, he would thank\nGod that he had an opportunity of helping his neighbours. He would feel\nthat all the members of the society were his brothers in a double sense;\nfirst, because they had joined with him to help and support each other in\nthe society; and, next, that they were his brothers in Christ, who had\nbeen baptised into the same Church of God with himself. And he would,\ntherefore, delight in supporting them in their sickness, and honouring\nthem when they died, and in helping their widows and orphans in their\naffliction; in short, in bearing his neighbour\u2019s burdens, and so\nfulfilling the law of Christ. And do you not see, that if any of you\nsubscribe to this benefit society in such a spirit as this, that they are\nthe men to give an answer to the question I asked at first, \u201cWhy are you\nall here at church to-day?\u201d They come here for the same reason that you\nall ought to come, to thank God for having kept them well, and out of the\nwant of relief for the past year, and to thank Him, too, for having\nenabled them to bear their sick neighbours\u2019 burdens. And they come,\nalso, to pray to God to keep them well and strong for the year to come,\nand to raise up those members who are in sickness and distress, that they\nmay all worship God here together another year, as a company of faithful\nfriends, helping each other on through this life, and all on the way to\nthe same heavenly home, where there will be no more poverty, nor sorrow,\nnor sickness, nor death, and God shall wipe away tears from all widows\nand orphans\u2019 eyes.\n\nAnd now, my friends, I have tried to put some new and true thoughts into\nyour head about your club and your business in this church to-day. And I\npray, God grant that you may remember them, and think of this whole\nmatter as a much more solemn and holy one than you ever did before.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXI.\nHEAVEN ON EARTH.\n\n\n 1 COR. x. 31.\n\n \u201cWhether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory\n of God.\u201d\n\nTHIS is a command from God, my friends, which well worth a few minutes\u2019\nconsideration this day;\u2014well worth considering, because, though it was\nspoken eighteen hundred years ago, yet God has not changed since that\ntime;\u2014He is just as glorious as ever; and Christian men\u2019s relation to God\nhas not changed since that time; they still live, and move, and have\ntheir being in God; they are still His children\u2014His beloved; Christ, who\ndied for us, is still our King; God\u2019s Spirit is still with us, God\u2019s\nmercy still saves us: we owe God as much as any people ever did. If it\nwas ever any one\u2019s duty to shew forth God\u2019s glory, surely it is our duty\ntoo.\n\nWorth considering, indeed, is this command, for though it is in the\nBible, and has been there for eighteen hundred years, it is seldom read,\nseldomer understood, and still more seldom put into practice. Men eat\nand drink, and do all manner of things, with all their might and main;\nbut how many of them do they do to the glory of God? No; this is the\nfault\u2014the especial curse of our day, that religion does not mean any\nlonger, as it used, the service of God\u2014the being like God, and shewing\nforth God\u2019s glory. No; religion means, nowadays, the art of getting to\nheaven when we die, and saving our own miserable, worthless souls, and\ngetting God\u2019s wages without doing God\u2019s work\u2014as if that was godliness,\u2014as\nif that was any thing but selfishness; as if selfishness was any the\nbetter for being everlasting selfishness! If selfishness is evil, my\nfriends, the sooner we get rid of it the better, instead of mixing it up\nas we do with all our thoughts of heaven, and making our own enjoyment\nand our own safety the vile root of our hopes for all eternity. And\ntherefore it is that people have forgotten what God\u2019s glory is. They\nseem to think, that God\u2019s highest glory is saving them from hell-fire.\nAnd they talk not of God and of the wondrous majesty of God, but only of\nthe wonder of God\u2019s having saved them\u2014looking at themselves all the time,\nand not at God. We must get rid of this sort of religion, my friends, at\nall risks, in order to get rid of all sorts of irreligion, for one is the\nfather of the other.\n\nIt is a wonder, indeed, that we are saved from hell, much more raised to\nheaven, such peevish, cowardly, pitiful creatures as the best of us are:\nand yet the more we think of it, the less wonder we shall find it. The\nmore we think of the wonder of all wonders,\u2014God Himself, His majesty, His\npower, His wisdom, His love, His pity, His infinite condescension, the\nless reason we shall have to be surprised that He has stooped to save us.\nYes, do not be startled\u2014for it is true, that He has done for sinful men\nnothing contrary to Himself, but just what was to be expected from such\nunutterable condescension, and pity, and generosity, as God\u2019s is. And so\nrecollecting this, we shall begin to forget ourselves, and look at God;\nand in thinking of Him we shall get beyond mere wondering at Him, and\nrise to something higher\u2014to worshipping Him.\n\nYes, my friends, this is what we must try at if we would be really\ngodly\u2014to find out what God is\u2014to find out His likeness, His character, as\nHe is: and has He not shewn us what He is? He who has earnestly read\nChrist\u2019s story\u2014he who has understood, and admired, and loved Christ\u2019s\ncharacter, and its nobleness and beauty\u2014he who can believe that Jesus\nChrist is now, at this minute, raising up his heart to good, guiding his\nthoughts to good, he has seen God; for he has seen the Son, who is the\nexact likeness of the Father\u2019s glory, in whom dwells all the fulness of\nthe Godhead in a bodily shape. Remember, he who knows Christ knows\nGod,\u2014and that knowledge will help us up a noble step farther\u2014it will help\nus to shew forth God\u2019s glory. For when we once know what God\u2019s glory is,\nwe shall see how to make others know it too. We shall know how to _do\nGod justice_, to set men right as to their notions of God, to give them,\nat all events, in our own lives and characters, a pattern of Christ, who\nis the Pattern of God; and whatsoever we do we shall be able to do all to\nGod\u2019s glory.\n\nFor what is doing every thing to the glory of God? It is this;\u2014we have\nseen what God\u2019s glory is: He is His own glory. As you say of any very\nexcellent man, you have but to know him to honour him; or of any very\nbeautiful woman, you have but to see her to love her; so I say of God,\nmen have but to see and know Him to love and honour Him.\n\nWell, then, my friends, if we call ourselves Christian men, if we believe\nthat God is our Father, and delight, as on the grounds of common feeling\nwe ought, to honour our Father, we should try to make every one honour\nHim as He deserves. In short, whatever we do we should make it tend to\nHis glory\u2014make it a lesson to our neighbours, our friends, and our\nfamilies. We should preach God\u2019s glory to them day by day, not by\n_words_ only, often not by words at all, but by our conduct. Ay, there\nis the secret.\u2014If you wish other men to believe a thing, just behave as\nif you believed it yourself. Nothing is so infectious as example. If\nyou wish your neighbours to see what Jesus Christ is like, let them see\nwhat He can make _you_ like. If you wish them to know how God\u2019s love is\nready to save them from their sins, let them see His love save _you_ from\n_your_ sins. If you wish them to see God\u2019s tender care in every blessing\nand every sorrow they have, why let them see you thanking God for every\nsorrow and every blessing you have. I tell you, friends, example is\nevery thing. One good man,\u2014one man who does not put his religion on once\na-week with his Sunday coat, but wears it for his working dress, and lets\nthe thought of God grow into him, and through and through him, till every\nthing he says and does becomes religious, that man is worth a ton of\nsermons\u2014he is a living Gospel\u2014he comes in the spirit and power of\nElias\u2014he is the image of God. And men see his good works, and admire\nthem in spite of themselves, and see that they are Godlike, and that\nGod\u2019s grace is no dream, but that the Holy Spirit is still among men, and\nthat all nobleness and manliness is His gift, His stamp, His picture; and\nso they get a glimpse of God again in His saints and heroes, and glorify\ntheir Father who is in heaven.\n\nWould not such a life be a heavenly life? Ay, it would be more, it would\nbe heaven\u2014heaven on earth: not in versemongering cant, but really. We\nshould then be sitting, as St. Paul tells us, in heavenly places with\nJesus Christ, and having our conversation in heaven. All the while we\nwere doing our daily work, following our business, or serving our\ncountry, or sitting at our own firesides with wife and child, we should\nbe all that time in heaven. Why not? we are in heaven now\u2014if we had but\nfaith to see it. Oh, get rid of those carnal, heathen notions about\nheaven, which tempt men to fancy that, after having misused this\nplace\u2014God\u2019s earth\u2014for a whole life, they are to fly away when they die,\nlike swallows in autumn, to another place\u2014they know not where\u2014where they\nare to be very happy\u2014they know not why or how, nor do I know either.\nHeaven is not a mere _place_, my friends. All places are heaven, if you\nwill be heavenly in them. Heaven is where God is and Christ is. And\nhell is where God is not and Christ is not. The Bible says, no doubt,\nthere is a place now\u2014somewhere beyond the skies\u2014where Christ especially\nshews forth His glory\u2014a heaven of heavens: and for reasons which I cannot\nexplain, there must be such a place. But, at all events, here is heaven;\nfor Christ is here and God is here, if we will open our eyes and see\nthem. And how?\u2014How? Did not Christ Himself say, \u2018If a man will love Me,\nMy Father will love him; and we, My Father and I, will come to him, and\nmake our abode with him, and we will shew ourselves to him?\u2019 Do those\nwords mean nothing or something? If they have any meaning, do they not\nmean this, that in this life, we can see God\u2014in this life we can have God\nand Christ abiding with us? And is not that heaven? Yes, heaven is\nwhere God is. You are in heaven if God is with you, you are in hell if\nGod is not with you; for where God is not, darkness and a devil are sure\nto be.\n\nThere was a great poet once\u2014Dante by name\u2014who described most truly and\nwonderfully, in his own way, heaven and hell, for, indeed, he had been in\nboth. He had known sin and shame, and doubt and darkness and despair,\nwhich is hell. And after long years of misery, he had got to know love\nand hope, and holiness and nobleness, and the love of Christ and the\npeace of God, which is heaven. And so well did he speak of them, that\nthe ignorant people used to point after him with awe in the streets, and\nwhisper, There is the man who has been in hell. Whereon some one made\nthese lines on him:\u2014\n\n \u201cThou hast seen hell and heaven? Why not? since heaven and hell\n Within the struggling soul of every mortal dwell.\u201d\n\nThink of that!\u2014thou\u2014and thou\u2014and thou!\u2014for in thee, at this moment, is\neither heaven or hell: and which of them? Ask thyself\u2014ask thyself,\nfriend. If thou art not in heaven in this life, thou wilt never be in\nheaven in the life to come. At death, says the wise man, each thing\nreturns into its own element, into the ground of its life; the light into\nthe light, and the darkness into the darkness. As the tree falls so it\nlies. My friends, who call yourselves enlightened Christian folk, do you\nsuppose that you can lead a mean, worldly, covetous, spiteful life here,\nand then the moment your soul leaves the body that you are to be changed\ninto the very opposite character, into angels and saints, as fairy tales\ntell of beasts changed into men? If a beast can be changed into a man,\nthen death can change the sinner into a saint,\u2014but not else. If a beast\nwould enjoy being a man, then a sinner would enjoy being in heaven, but\nnot else. A sinful, worldly man enjoy being in heaven? Does a fish\nenjoy being on dry land? The sinner would long to be back in this world\nagain. Why, what is the employment of spirits in heaven, according to\nthe Bible (for that is the point to which I have been trying to lead you\nround again)? What but glorifying God? Not _trying_ only to do every\nthing to God\u2019s glory, but actually succeeding in _doing_ it\u2014basking in\nthe sunshine of His smile, delighting to feel themselves as nothing\nbefore His glorious majesty, meditating on the beauty of His love,\nfilling themselves with the sight of His power, searching out the\ntreasures of His wisdom, and finding God in all and all in God\u2014their\nwhole eternity one act of worship, one hymn of praise. Are there not\nsome among us who will have had but little practice at that work? Those\nwho have done nothing for God\u2019s glory here, how do they expect to be able\nto do every thing for God\u2019s glory hereafter? (Those who will not take\nthe trouble of merely standing up at the psalms, like the rest of their\nneighbours, even if they cannot sing with their voices God\u2019s praises in\nthis church, how will they like singing God\u2019s praises through eternity?)\nNo; be sure that the only people who will be fit for heaven, who will\nlike heaven even, are those who have been in heaven in this life,\u2014the\nonly people who will be able to do every thing to God\u2019s glory in the new\nheavens and new earth, are those who have been trying honestly to do all\nto His glory in this heaven and this earth.\n\nThink over, in the meantime, what I have said this day; consider it, and\nyou will have enough to think of, and pray over too, till we meet here\nagain.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXII.\nNATIONAL PRIVILEGES.\n\n\n LUKE, x. 23.\n\n \u201cBlessed are the eyes which see the things which ye see: for I tell\n you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things\n which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which\n ye hear, and have not heard them.\u201d\n\nTHIS is a noble text, my friends\u2014and yet an awful one, for if it does not\nincrease our religion, it will certainly increase our condemnation. It\ntells us that we, even the meanest among us, are more favoured by God\nthan the kings, and judges, and conquerors of the old world, of whom we\nread this afternoon in the first lesson; that we have more light and\nknowledge of God than even the prophets David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and\nEzekiel, to whom God\u2019s glory appeared in visible shape. It tells us that\nwe see things which they longed to see, and could not; that words are\nspoken to us for which their ears longed in vain; that they, though they\ndied in hope, yet received not the promises, God having provided some\nbetter things for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.\n\nNow, what was this which they longed for, and had not, and yet we have?\nIt was this,\u2014a Saviour and a Saviour\u2019s kingdom. All wise and holy hearts\nfor ages\u2014as well heathens as Jews\u2014had had this longing. They wanted a\nSaviour,\u2014one who should free them from sin and conquer evil,\u2014one who\nshould explain to them all the doubt and contradiction and misery of the\nworld, and give them some means of being freed from it,\u2014one who should\nset them the perfect pattern of what a man should be, and join earth and\nheaven, and make godliness part of man\u2019s daily life. They longed for a\nSaviour, and for a heavenly kingdom also. They saw that all the laws in\nthe world could never make men good; that one half of men broke them, and\nthe other half only obeyed them unwillingly through slavish fear, loving\nthe sin they dared not do. That men got worse and worse as time rolled\non. That kings, instead of being shepherds of their people, were only\nwolves and tyrants to keep them in ignorance and misery. That priests\nonly taught the people lies, and fattened themselves at their expense.\nThat, in short, as David said, men would not learn, or understand, and\nall the foundations of the earth, the grounds and principles of society,\npolitics and religion, were out of course, and the devil very truly the\nking of this lower world; so they longed for a heavenly kingdom\u2014a kingdom\nof God, one in which men should obey God for love, and not for fear, and\nman for God\u2019s sake; a spiritual kingdom\u2014a kingdom whose laws should be\nwritten in men\u2019s hearts and spirits, and be their delight and glory, not\ntheir dread. They longed for a King of kings, who should teach all kings\nand magistrates to rule in love and wisdom. They longed for a\nHigh-priest, who should teach all priests to explain the wonder and the\nglory that there is in every living man, and in heaven and earth, and all\nthat therein lies, and lead men\u2019s hearts into love, and purity, and noble\nthoughts and deeds. They longed, in short, for a kingdom of God, a\ngolden age, a regeneration of the world, as they called it, and rightly.\nOf course, the Jewish prophets saw most clearly how this would be brought\nabout, and how utterly necessary a Saviour and His kingdom was to save\nmankind from utter ruin. They, I say, saw this best. But still all the\nwise and pious heathens, each according to his measure of light, saw the\nsame necessity, or else were restless and miserable, because they could\nnot see it. So that in all ages of the world, in a thousand different\nshapes, there was rising up to heaven a mournful, earnest prayer,\u2014\u201cThy\nkingdom come!\u201d\n\nAnd now this kingdom is come, and the King of it, the Saviour of men, is\nJesus Christ, the Son of God. Long men prayed, and long men waited, and\nat last, in the fulness of God\u2019s good time, just when the night seemed\ndarkest, and under the abominations of the Roman Empire, religion,\nhonesty, and common decency, seemed to have died out, the Sun of\nRighteousness rose on the dead and rotten world, to bring life and\nimmortality to light. God sent forth His Son made of a woman, not to\ncondemn the world, but that the world, through Him, might be saved. He\nsent Him to be our Saviour, to die on the cross for our sins and our\nchildren\u2019s, that all our guilt might be washed away, and we might come\nboldly to the throne of grace, with our hearts sprinkled from an evil\nconscience, and our bodies washed in the waters of baptism. He sent Him\nto be our Teacher in the perfect law of love, our pattern in every thing\nwhich a man should be, and is not. He sent Him to conquer death by\nrising from the dead, that He might have power to raise us also to life\nand immortality. He sent Him to fill men with His Spirit, the Spirit of\nreason and truth, the Spirit of love and courage, that he might know the\nwill of God, and do it as our Saviour did before us. He sent Him to\nfound a Church, to join all men into one brotherhood, one kingdom of God,\nwhose rulers are kings and parliaments, whose ministers are the clergy,\nwhose prophets are all poets and philosophers, authors and preachers, who\nare true to their own calling; whose signs and tokens are the sacraments;\na kingdom which should never be moved, but should go on for ever, drawing\ninto all honest and true hearts, and preserving them ever for Christ\ntheir Lord.\n\nAnd that we might not doubt that we, too, belonged to this kingdom, He\nhas placed in this land His ministers and teachers, Christ\u2019s sacraments,\nChrist\u2019s churches in every parish in the land, Christ\u2019s Bible, or the\nmeans of attaining the Bible, in every house and every cottage; that from\nour cradle to our grave we might see that we belonged, as sworn servants\nand faithful children, to the great Father in heaven and Jesus Christ,\nthe King of the earth.\n\nThus, my friends, all that all men have longed for we possess; we want no\nmore, and we shall have no more. If, under the present state of things,\nwe cannot be holy, we shall never be holy. If we cannot use our right in\nthis kingdom of Christ, how can we become citizens of God\u2019s everlasting\nkingdom, when Christ shall have delivered up the dominion to His Father,\nand God shall be all in all? God has done all for us that God will do.\nHe has given us His Son for a Saviour, and a Church in which and by which\nto worship that Saviour; and what more would we have? Alas! my friends,\nhave we yet used fairly what God has given us? and if not, how terrible\nwill be our guilt! \u201cHow shall we escape if we neglect so great\nsalvation?\u201d And yet how many do neglect\u2014how few live as if they were\ncitizens of Christ\u2019s kingdom! It seems as if God had been too good to\nus, and heaped us so heavily with blessings, that we were tired of them,\nand despised them as common things. Common things? They are the very\nthings, as I said, which the great and the wise in all ages have longed\nfor and prayed for, and yet never found! Surely, surely, God may well\nsay to us, \u201cWhat could have been done unto my vineyard which has not been\ndone to it?\u201d What, indeed? I wish I could take some of you into a\nheathen country for a single week, that you might see what it is not to\nknow of a Saviour\u2014not to be members of His Church, as we are. Why, we\nhere in England are in the very garden of the Lord. We have but to\nstretch out our hand to the tree of life, and eat and live for ever.\nFrom our cradle to our grave, Christ the King is ready to guide, to\nteach, to comfort, to deliver us. When we are born, we are christened in\nHis name, made members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors by hope\nof the kingdom of heaven. Is that nothing? It is, alas! nothing in the\neyes of most parents! As we grow older, are we not taught who we\nare\u2014taught call God our Father\u2014taught about Jesus Christ, who He is, and\nwhat He is? Is that, too, nothing? Alas! that knowledge is generally a\nmere meaningless school-lesson, cared for neither by child nor by man.\nAt confirmation, again, we solemnly declare that we belong to Christ\u2019s\nkingdom, and that we will live as His subjects, and His alone. And we\nare brought to His bishops, to be received as free, reasonable, Christian\npeople, to claim our citizenship in the kingdom of God. Is that nothing?\nYet that, too, is nothing with three-fourths of us. Nothing? Hear me,\nyoung people\u2014as I have often told you\u2014you are ready enough to excuse\nyourselves from your confirmation vows, by saying you were not taught to\nunderstand them\u2014were not taught how to put them into practice. That may\nbe true, or it may not; your sin is just the same. No one with any\ncommon honesty or common sense could answer as you have to the bishop\u2019s\nquestions at confirmation, without knowing that you did make a promise,\nand knowing well enough what you promised\u2014and you who carried to\nconfirmation a careless heart and a lying tongue, have only yourselves to\nblame for it!\u2014But to proceed. Is not Christ present, or ready to be\npresent, with us? Sunday after Sunday, for years, have not the churches\nbeen opened all around us, inviting us to enter and worship Christ,\nknowing that where two or three are gathered together, there is Christ in\nthe midst of them. Is that nothing? This Creed\u2014these Lessons\u2014these\nprayers, which Sunday after Sunday you have used;\u2014are they nothing? Are\nthey not all proofs that the kingdom of God is come to you, and means\nwhereby you can behave like children of the kingdom? And not on Sundays\nalone. Have we not been taught daily, in our own houses, in our own\nhearts, in all danger, and trouble, and temptation, to pray to Jesus\nChrist, our King, knowing that He will hear and save all them that put\ntheir trust in Him?\n\nIs that nothing? On our happy marriage morn, too, was it not in God\u2019s\nhouse, before Christ\u2019s minister, in Christ\u2019s name, that we were married?\nSurely the kingdom of God is come to us, when our wedlock, as well as our\nsouls and bodies, is holy to the Lord. Is that nothing? How few think\nof their marriage-joys as holy things\u2014an ordinance of Christ\u2019s kingdom,\nwhich He delights in and blesses with His presence and His special smile,\nseeing that it is the noblest and the purest of all things on earth\u2014the\npicture of the great mystery which shall be the bridal of all bridals,\nthe marriage of Christ and His Church! People do not, nowadays, believe\nin marriage as a part of their religion; and so, according to their want\nof faith it happens to them; their marriage is not holy, and the love and\njoy of their youth wither into a peevish, careless, lonely old age;\u2014and\nyet over their heads these words were said, \u201cThey are man and wife\ntogether, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy\nGhost!\u201d comes of not believing in Christ\u2019s presence and Christ\u2019s favour;\nof not believing, in short, in what the Creed truly calls the Holy\nCatholic Church. Neither after that does Christ leave us. Every time a\nwoman is churched, is not that meant to be a sign of thankfulness to\nChrist, the great Physician, to whom she owes her life and health once\nmore? Then, season after season, is the sacrament of Christ\u2019s body and\nblood offered you. Is that no sign that Christ is here among us? Ah!\nblessed are the eyes which see that\u2014blessed are the ears which hear those\nwords, \u201cTake, eat; this is My body which is given for you.\u201d Truly, if\nthat honour\u2014that blessing\u2014is so vast, the love and the condescension of\nChrist, the Lamb of God, so unutterable, that prophets and kings,\nwhatever they believed, never could have desired, never could have\nimagined, that the Son of God should offer to the sons of men, year after\nyear, in their little parish churches, His most precious body, His most\nprecious blood. And another thing, too, those prophets and kings would\nnever have imagined,\u2014that when Christ, in those churches, offers His body\nand His blood, nine-tenths of the congregation, calling themselves\nChristians, should quietly walk out, and go home, and leave the\nsacraments of Christ\u2019s body and Christ\u2019s blood behind as a useless and\nunnecessary matter! That, indeed, the old prophets and kings never saw,\nand never expected to see\u2014but so it is. Christ is among us, and our eyes\nare holden, and we know Him not.\n\nAnd then at last, after all these blessed privileges, these tokens of\nGod\u2019s kingdom have been neglected through a long life, does Christ\nneglect us in the hour of death? Ah, no! He is at the grave, as He was\nat the font, at the marriage-bed, at His own holy table in God\u2019s house;\nand the body is laid in the ground by Christ\u2019s minister, in the certain\nhope of a joyful resurrection. But what\u2014a sure and certain hope for each\nand all? The resurrection is a joyful hope\u2014but is it so for all? Only,\ntoo often, a faint, dim longing that clings to the last chance, and dares\nnot confess to itself how hopeless must be the death of that man or woman\nwhose life was spent in the kingdom of God, in the midst of blessings\nwhich kings said prophets desired in vain to see, and yet who neglected\nthem all, never entered into the spirit of them\u2014never loved them\u2014never\nlived according to them, but despised and trampled under foot the kingdom\nof God from their childhood to their grave, as three-fourths of us do.\nChrist came to judge no man, and therefore Christ\u2019s ministers judge no\nman, and read the Christian funeral service over all, and pray Christ to\nbe there, and to remember His blessed promise of raising up the body and\nsoul to everlasting life. But how can they help fearing that Christ will\nnot hear them\u2014that after all His offers and gifts in this life have been\ndespised, He will give nothing after death but death; and that it were\nbetter for the sinful, worldly sham Christian, when lying in his coffin,\nif he had never been born? How can those escape who neglect such great\nsalvation?\n\nAh, my friends\u2014my friends, take this to heart! Blessed, indeed, are the\neyes which see what you see, and hear what you hear; prophets and kings\nhave desired to see and hear them, and have not seen or heard! But if\nyou, cradled among all these despised honours and means of grace, bring\nforth no fruit in your lives\u2014shut out from yourselves the thought of your\nhigh calling in Jesus Christ; what shall be your end but ruin? He that\ndespises Christ, Christ will despise him; and say not to yourselves, as\nmany do, We are church-goers\u2014we are all safe. I say to you, God is able,\nfrom among the Negro and the wild Irishman\u2014ay, God is able of these\nstones to raise up children to the Church of England, while those of you,\nthe children of the kingdom, who lived in the Church of your fathers, and\nnever used or loved her, or Christ, her King, shall be cast into outer\ndarkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXIII.\nLENTEN THOUGHTS.\n\n\n HAGGAI, i. 5.\n\n \u201cNow, therefore, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways.\u201d\n\nNEXT Wednesday is Ash-Wednesday, the first day of Lent, the season which\nour forefathers have appointed for us to consider and mend our ways, and\nreturn, year by year, heart and soul to that Lord and Heavenly Father\nfrom whom we are daily wandering. Now, we all know that we ought to have\nrepented long ago; we all know that, sinning in many things daily, as we\ndo, we ought all to repent daily. But that is not enough; we do want,\nunless we are wonderfully better than the holy men of old,\u2014we do want, I\nsay, a particular time in which we may sit down deliberately and look our\nown souls steadily in the face, and cast up our accounts with God, and be\nthoroughly ashamed and terrified at those accounts when we find, as we\nshall, that we cannot answer God one thing in a thousand. It is all very\nwell to say, I confess and repent of my sins daily, why should I do it\nespecially in Lent? Very true\u2014Let us see, then, by your altered life and\nconduct that you have repented during this Lent, and then it will be time\nto talk of repenting every day after Lent. But, in fact, a man might\njust as well argue, I say my prayers every day, and God hears them, why\nshould I say them more on Sundays than any other day? Why? not only\nbecause your forefathers, and the Church of your forefathers, have\nadvised you, which, though not an imperative reason, is still a strong\none, surely, but because the thing is good, and reasonable, and right in\nitself. Because, as they found in their own case, and as you may find in\nyours, if you will but think, the hurry and bustle of business is daily\nputting repentance and self-examination out of our heads. A man may\nthink much, and pray much, thank God, in the very midst of his busiest\nwork, but he is apt to be hurried; he has not set his thoughts especially\non the matters of his soul, and so the soul\u2019s work is not thoroughly\ndone. Much for which he ought to pray he forgets to pray for. Many sins\nand feelings of which he ought to repent slip past him out of sight in\nthe hurry of life. Much good that might be done is put off and laid by,\noften till it is too late. But now here is a regular season in which we\nmay look back and say to ourselves, \u2018How have I been getting on for this\ntwelvemonth, not in pocket, but in character? not in the appearance of\ncharacter in my neighbour\u2019s eyes, but in real character\u2014in the eyes of\nGod? Am I more manly, or more womanly\u2014more godly, more true, more\nhumble, above all, more loving, than I was this time last year? What bad\nhabits have I conquered? What good habits have grown upon me? What\nchances of doing good have I let slip? What foolish, unkind things have\nI done? My duty to God and my neighbours is so and so, how have I done\nit? Above all, this Saviour and King in heaven, in whom I profess to\nbelieve, to whom I have sworn to be loyal and true, and to help His good\ncause, the cause of godliness, manliness, and happiness among my\nneighbours, in my family, in my own heart,\u2014how have I felt towards Him?\nHave I thought about Him more this year than I did last? Do I feel any\nmore loyalty, respect, love, gratitude to Him than I did? Ay, more, do I\nthink about Him at all as a living man, much less as my King and Saviour;\nor, is all really know about Him the sound of the words Jesus Christ, and\nthe story about Him in the Apostles\u2019 Creed? Do I really _believe_ and\ntrust in \u201cJesus Christ,\u201d or do I not? These are sharp, searching\nquestions, my friends,\u2014good Lenten food for any man\u2019s soul,\u2014questions\nwhich it is much more easy to ask soberly and answer fairly now when you\nlook quietly back on the past year, than it is, alas! to answer them day\nby day amid all the bustle your business and your families. But you will\nanswer, \u2018This bustle will go on just as much in Lent as ever. Our time\nand thoughts will be just as much occupied. We have our livings to get.\nWe are not fine gentlemen and ladies who can lie by for forty days and do\nnothing but read and pray, while their tradesmen and servants are working\nfor them from morning to night. How then can we give up more time to\nreligion now than at other times?\n\nThis is all true enough; but there is a sound and true answer to it. It\nis not so much more _time_ which you are asked to give up to your souls\nin Lent, as it is more _heart_. What do I talk of? _Giving up_ more\ntime to your souls? And yet this is the way we all talk, as if our time\nbelonged to our bodies, and so we had to rob them of it, to give it up to\nour souls,\u2014as if our bodies were ourselves, and our souls were\ntroublesome burdens, or peevish children hanging at our backs, which\nwould keep prating and fretting about heaven and hell, and had to be\nquieted, and their mouths stopped as quickly and easily as possible, that\nwe might be rid of them, and get about our true business, our real\nduty,\u2014this mighty work of eating and drinking, and amusing ourselves, and\nmaking money. I am afraid\u2014afraid there are too many, who, if they spoke\nout their whole hearts, would be quite as content to have no souls, and\nno necessity to waste their precious time (as they think) upon religion.\nBut, my friends, my friends, the day will come when you will see\nyourselves in a true light; when your soul will not seem a mere hanger-on\nto your body, but you will find out _that you are your soul_. Then there\nwill be no more forgetting that you have souls, and thrusting them into\nthe background, to be fed at odd minutes, or left to starve,\u2014no more talk\nof _giving up_ time to the care of your souls; your souls will take the\ntime for themselves then\u2014and the eternity, too; they will be all in all\nto you then, perhaps when it is too late!\n\nWell, I want you, just for forty days, to let your souls be all in all to\nyou now; to make them your first object\u2014your first thought in the\nmorning, the last thing at night,\u2014your thought at every odd moment in the\nday. You need not neglect your business; only for one short forty days\ndo not make your business your God. We are all too apt to try the\nheathen plan, of seeking first every thing else in the world, and letting\nthe kingdom of God and His righteousness be added to us over and above\u2014or\n_not_ as it may happen. Try for once the plan the Lord of heaven and\nearth advises, and seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,\nand see whether every thing else will not be added to you. Again, you\nneed not be idle a moment more in Lent than at any other time. But I\ndare say, that none of you are so full of business that you have not a\nfree ten minutes in the morning, and ten minutes at night, of which the\nbest of uses may be made. What do I say? Why, of all men in the world,\nfarmers and labourers have most time, I think, to themselves; working, as\nthey do, the greater part of their day in silence and alone; what\nopportunities for them to have their souls busy in heaven, while they are\npacing over the fields, ploughing and hoeing! I have read of many, many\nlabouring men who had found out their opportunities in this way, and used\nthem so well as to become holy, great, and learned men. One of the most\nlearned scholars in England at this day was once a village carpenter, who\nused, when young, to keep a book open before him on his bench while he\nworked, and thus contrived to teach himself, one after the other, Latin,\nGreek, and Hebrew. So much time may a man find who _looks_ for time!\n\nBut after all, and above all, believe this\u2014that if your business or your\nwork does actually give you no time to think about God and your own\nsouls,\u2014if in the midst of it all you cannot find leisure enough night and\nmorning to pray earnestly, to read your Bible carefully,\u2014if it so\nswallows up your whole thoughts during the day, that you have no\nopportunity to recollect yourself, to remember that you are an immortal\nbeing, and that you have a Saviour in heaven, whom you are serving\nfaithfully, or unfaithfully,\u2014if this work or business of yours will not\ngive you time enough for that, then it is not God\u2019s business, and ought\nnot to be yours either.\n\nBut you have time,\u2014you have all time. When there is a will there is a\nway. Make up your minds that there shall be a will, and pray earnestly\nto God to give it you, if it is but for forty days: and in them think\nseriously, slowly, solemnly, over your past lives. Examine yourselves\nand your doings. Ask yourselves fairly,\u2014\u2018Am I going forward or back? Am\nI living like a child of God, or like a mere machine for making food and\nwages? Is my conduct such as the Holy Scripture tells me that it should\nbe? You will not need to go far for a set of questions, my friends, or\nrules by which to examine yourselves. You can hardly open a page of\nGod\u2019s blessed Book without finding something which stares you in the face\nwith the question, \u2018Do I do thus?\u2019 or, \u2018Do I not do thus?\u2019 Take, for\nexample, the Epistle of this very day. What better test can we have for\ntrying and weighing our own souls?\n\nWhat says it? That though we were wise, charitable, eloquent\u2014all that\nthe greatest of men can be, and yet had not charity\u2014_love_, we are\nnothing!\u2014nothing! And how does it describe this necessary,\nindispensable, heavenly love? Let us spend the last few minutes of this\nsermon in seeing how. And if that description does not prick all our\nhearts on more points than one, they are harder than I take them for\u2014far\nharder, certainly, than they should be.\n\nThis charity, or love, we hear, which each of us ought to have and must\nhave\u2014\u201csuffers long, and is kind.\u201d What shall we say to that? How many\nhasty, revengeful thoughts and feelings have risen in the hearts of most\nof us in the last year?\u2014Here is one thought for Lent. \u201cCharity envies\nnot.\u201d\u2014Have we envied any their riches, their happiness, their good name,\nhealth, and youth?\u2014Another thought for Lent. \u201cCharity boasts not\nherself.\u201d Alas! alas! my friends, are not the best of us apt to make\nmuch of the little good we do,\u2014to pride ourselves on the petty kindnesses\nwe shew,\u2014to be puffed up with easy self-satisfaction, just as charity is\n_not_ puffed up?\u2014Another Lenten thought. \u201cCharity does not behave\nherself unseemly;\u201d is never proud, noisy, conceited; gives every man\u2019s\nopinion a fair, kindly hearing; making allowances for all mistakes. Have\nwe done so?\u2014Then there is another thought for Lent. \u201cCharity seeks not\nher own;\u201d does not stand fiercely and stiffly on her own rights, on the\ngratitude due to her. While we\u2014are we not too apt, when we have done a\nkindness, to fret and fume, and think ourselves deeply injured, if we do\nnot get repaid at once with all the humble gratitude we expected? Of\nthis also we must think. \u201cCharity thinks no evil,\u201d sets down no bad\nmotives for any one\u2019s conduct, but takes for granted that he means well,\nwhatever appearances may be; while we (I speak of myself just as much as\nof any one), are we not continually apt to be suspicious, jealous, to\ntake for granted that people mean harm; and even when we find ourselves\nmistaken, and that we have cried out before we are hurt, not to consider\nit as any sin against our neighbour, whom in reality we have been\nsilently slandering to ourselves? \u201cCharity rejoices not in iniquity,\u201d\nbut in the truth, whatever it may be; is never glad to see a high\nprofessor prove a hypocrite, and fall into sin, and shew himself in his\ntrue foul colours; which we, alas! are too apt to think a very pleasant\nsight.\u2014Are not these wholesome meditations for Lent? \u201cCharity hopes all\nthings\u201d of every one, \u201cbelieves all things,\u201d all good that is told of\nevery one, \u201cendures all things,\u201d instead of flying off and giving up a\nperson at the first fault. Are not all these points, which our own\nhearts, consciences, common sense, or whatever you like to call it (I\nshall call it God\u2019s spirit), tell us are right, true, necessary? And is\nthere one of us who can say that he has not offended in many, if not in\nall these points; and is not that unrighteousness\u2014going out of the right,\nstraightforward, childlike, loving way of looking at all people? And is\nnot all unrighteousness sin? And must not all sin be repented of, and\nthat _as soon as we find it out_? And can we not all find time this Lent\nto throw over these sins of ours?\u2014to confess them with shame and\nsorrow?\u2014to try like men to shake them off? Oh, my friends! you who are\ntoo busy for forty short days to make your immortal souls your first\nbusiness, take care\u2014take care, lest the day shall come when sickness, and\npain, and the terror of death, shall keep you too busy to prepare those\nunrepenting, unforgiven, sin-besotted souls of yours for the kingdom of\nGod.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXIV.\nON BOOKS.\n\n\n JOHN, i. 1.\n\n \u201cIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the\n Word was God.\u201d\n\nI DO not pretend to be able to explain this text to you, for no man can\ncomprehend it but He of whom it speaks, Jesus Christ, the Word of God.\nBut I can, by God\u2019s grace, put before you some of the awful and glorious\ntruths of which it gives us a sight, and may Christ direct you, who is\n_the_ Word, and grant me words to bring the matter home to you, so as to\nmake some of you, at least, ask yourselves the golden question, \u2018If this\nis true, what must we _do_ to be saved?\u2019\n\nThe text says that the Word was from the beginning with God,\u2014ay, God\nHimself: who the Word is, there is no doubt from the rest of the chapter,\nwhich you heard read this morning. But why is Christ called the Word of\nall words\u2014the Word of God? Let us look at this. Is not Christ _the\nman_, the head and pattern of all men who are what men ought to be? And\ndid He not tell men that He is _the_ Life? That all life is given by Him\nand out of Him? And does not St. John tell us that Christ the Life is\nthe light of men,\u2014the true light which lighteth every man who cometh into\nthe world?\n\nRemember this, and then think again,\u2014what is it which makes men different\nfrom all other living things we know of? Is it not speech\u2014the power of\nwords? The beasts may make each other understand many things, but they\nhave no speech. These glorious things\u2014words\u2014are man\u2019s right alone, part\nof the image of the Son of God\u2014the Word of God, in which man was created.\nIf men would but think what a noble thing it is merely to be able to\nspeak in words, to think in words, to write in words! Without words, we\nshould know no more of each other\u2019s hearts and thoughts than the dog\nknows of his fellow dog;\u2014without words to think in; for if you will\nconsider, you always think to yourself in _words_, though you do not\nspeak them aloud; and without them all our thoughts would be mere blind\nlongings, feelings which we could not understand our own selves. Without\nwords to write in, we could not know what our forefathers did;\u2014we could\nnot let our children after us know what to do. But, now, books\u2014the\nwritten word of man\u2014are precious heirlooms from one generation to\nanother, training us, encouraging us, teaching us, by the words and\nthoughts of men, whose bodies are crumbled into dust ages ago, but whose\nwords\u2014the power of uttering themselves, which they got from the Son of\nGod\u2014still live, and bear fruit in our hearts, and in the hearts of our\nchildren after us, till the last day!\n\nBut where did these words\u2014this power of uttering our thoughts, come from?\nDo you fancy that men first, began like brute beasts or babies, with\nstrange cries and mutterings, and so gradually found out words for\nthemselves? Not they; the beasts have been on the earth as long as man;\nand yet they can no more speak than they could when God created Adam: but\nAdam, we find, could speak at once. God spoke to Adam the moment he was\nmade, and Adam understood Him; so he knew the power and the meaning of\nwords. Who gave him that power? Who but Jehovah\u2014Jesus\u2014the Word of God,\nwho imparted to him the word of speech and the light of reason? Without\nthem what use would there have been in saying to him, \u201cThou shalt not eat\nof the tree of knowledge?\u201d Without them what would there have been in\nGod\u2019s bringing to him all the animals to see what he would call them,\nunless He had first given Adam the power of understanding words, and\nthinking of words, and speaking words? This was the glorious gift of\nChrist\u2014the Voice or Word of the Lord God, as we read in the second\nchapter of Genesis, whom Adam heard another time with fear and\nterror,\u2014\u201cThe voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the\nday.\u201d\u2014A text and a story strange enough, till we find in the first\nchapter of St. John the explanation of it, telling us that the Word was\nin the beginning with God\u2014very God, and that He was the light which\nlighteth every man who cometh into the world. So Christ is the light\nwhich lighteth every man who cometh into the world. How are we to\nunderstand that, when there are so many who live and die heathens or\nreprobates,\u2014some who never hear of Christ,\u2014some, alas! in Christian\nlands, who are dead to every doctrine or motive of Christianity? yet the\nBible says that Christ lights _every man_ who comes into the world.\nDifficult to understand at first sight, yet most true, and simple too, at\nbottom.\n\nFor how is every one, whether heathen or Christian, child or man,\nenlightened or taught, to live and behave? Is it not by the words of\nthose round him, by the words he reads in books, by the thoughts which he\nthinks out and puts into shape for himself? All this is the light which\nevery human being has his share of. And has not every man, too, the\nlight of reason and good feeling, more or less, to tell him whether each\nthing is right or wrong, noble or mean, ugly or beautiful? This is\nanother way by which the light which lighteth every man works. And St.\nJohn tells us in the text, that he who works in this way,\u2014he who gives us\nthe power of understanding, and thinking, and judging, and speaking, is\nthe very same Word of God who was made flesh, and dwelt among men, and\ndied on the Cross for us; \u201cthe Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of\nthe world!\u201d\n\nHe is the Word of God\u2014by Him God has spoken to man in all ages. He\ntaught Adam,\u2014He spoke to Abraham as a man speaketh with his friend. It\nwas He Jehovah, whom we call Jesus, whom Moses and the seventy elders\nsaw\u2014saw with their bodily eyes on Mount Sinai, who spoke to them with\nhuman voice from amid the lightning and the rainbow. It must have been\nonly He, the Word, by whom God the Father utters Himself to man, for no\nman hath seen God at any time; only the Word, the only-begotten Son, who\nis in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. And who put into\nthe mouth of David those glorious Psalms\u2014the songs in which all true men\nfor three thousand years have found the very things they longed to speak\nthemselves and could not? Who but Christ the Word of God, the Lord, as\nDavid calls Him, put a new song into the mouth of His holy poet,\u2014the\nsweet singer of Israel? Who spake by the prophets, again? What do they\nsay themselves?\u2014\u201cThe Word of the Lord came to me, saying.\u201d And then,\nwhen the Spirit of God stirred them up, the Word of God gave them speech,\nand they said the sayings which shall never pass away till all be\nfulfilled. And who was it who, when He was upon earth, spake as never\nman spake,\u2014whose words were the simplest, and yet the deepest,\u2014the\ntenderest, and yet the most awful, which ever broke the blessed silence\nupon this earth,\u2014whose words, now to this day, come home to men\u2019s hearts,\nstirring them up to the very roots, piercing through the marrow of men\u2019s\nsouls,\u2014whose but Christ\u2019s, the Word, who was made flesh and dwelt among\nus, full of grace and truth? And who since then, do you think, has it\nbeen who has given to all wise and holy poets, philosophers, and\npreachers, the power to speak and write the wonderful truths which, by\nGod\u2019s grace, they thought out for themselves and for all mankind,\u2014who\ngave them utterance?\u2014who but Christ, the Lord of men\u2019s spirits, the Word\nof God, who promised to give to all His true disciples a mouth and\nwisdom, which their enemies should not be able to gainsay or resist?\n\nWell, my friends, ought not the knowledge of this to make us better and\nwiser? Ought it not to make us esteem, and reverence, and use many\nthings of which we are apt to think too lightly? How it should make us\nreverence the Bible, the written word of God\u2019s saints and prophets, of\nGod\u2019s apostles, of Christ, the Word Himself? Oh, that men would use that\ntreasure of the Bible as it deserves;\u2014oh, that they would believe from\ntheir hearts, that whatever is said there is truly said, that whatever is\nsaid there is said to them, that whatever names things are called there\nare called by their right names. Then men would no longer call the vile\nperson beautiful, or call pride and vanity honour, or covetousness\nrespectability, or call sin worldly wisdom; but they would call things as\nChrist calls them\u2014they would try to copy Christ\u2019s thoughts and Christ\u2019s\nteaching; and instead of looking for instruction and comfort to lying\nopinions and false worldly cunning, they would find their only advice in\nthe blessed teaching, and their only comfort in the gracious promises, of\nthe word of the Book of Life.\n\nAgain, how these thoughts ought to make us reverence all books.\nConsider! except a living man, there is nothing more wonderful than a\nbook!\u2014a message to us from the dead\u2014from human souls whom we never saw,\nwho lived, perhaps, thousands of miles away; and yet these, in those\nlittle sheets of paper, speak to us, amuse us, terrify us, teach us,\ncomfort us, open their hearts to us as brothers.\n\nWhy is it that neither angels, nor saints, nor evil spirits, appear to\nmen now to speak to them as they did of old? Why, but because we have\n_books_, by which Christ\u2019s messengers, and the devil\u2019s messengers too,\ncan tell what they will to thousands of human beings at the same moment,\nyear after year, all the world over! I say, we ought to reverence books,\nto look at them as awful and mighty things. If they are good and true,\nwhether they are about religion or politics, farming, trade, or medicine,\nthey are the message of Christ, the Maker of all things, the Teacher of\nall truth, which He has put into the heart of some man to speak, that he\nmay tell us what is good for our spirits, for our bodies, and for our\ncountry.\n\nAnd at the last day, be sure of it, we shall have to render an account\u2014a\nstrict account, of the books which we have read, and of the way in which\nwe have obeyed what we read, just as if we had had so many prophets or\nangels sent to us.\n\nIf, on the other hand, books are false and wicked, we ought to fear them\nas evil spirits loose among us, as messages from the father of lies, who\ndeceives the hearts of evil men, that they may spread abroad the poison\nof his false and foul messages, putting good for evil, and evil for good,\nsweet for bitter, and bitter for sweet, saying to all men, \u2018I, too, have\na tree of knowledge, and you may eat of the fruit thereof, and not die.\u2019\nBut believe him not. When you see a wicked book, when you find in a book\nany thing which contradicts God\u2019s book, cast it away, trample it under\nfoot, believe that it is the devil tempting you by his cunning, alluring\nwords, as he tempted Eve, your mother. Would to God all here would make\nthat rule,\u2014never to look into an evil book, a filthy ballad, a\nnonsensical, frivolous story! Can a man take a snake into his bosom and\nnot be bitten?\u2014can we play with fire and not be burnt?\u2014can we open our\nears and eyes to the devil\u2019s message, whether of covetousness, or filth,\nor folly, and not be haunted afterwards by its wicked words, rising up in\nour thoughts like evil spirits, between us and our pure and noble\nduty\u2014our baptism-vows?\n\nI might say much more about these things, and, by God\u2019s help, in another\nsermon I will go on, and speak to you of the awful importance of spoken\nwords, of the sermons and the conversation to which you listen, the awful\nimportance of every word which comes out of your own mouth. But I have\nspoken only of books this morning, for this is the age of books, the\ntime, one would think, of which Daniel prophesied that many should run to\nand fro, and knowledge should be increased. A flood of books,\nnewspapers, writings of all sorts, good and bad, is spreading over the\nwhole land, and young and old will read them. We cannot stop that\u2014we\nought not: it is God\u2019s ordinance. It is more: it is God\u2019s grace and\nmercy, that we have a free press in England\u2014liberty for every man, that\nif he have any of God\u2019s truth to tell he may tell it out boldly, in books\nor otherwise. A blessing from God! one which we should reverence, for\nGod knows it was dearly bought. Before our forefathers could buy it for\nus, many an honoured man left house and home to die in the battle-field\nor on the scaffold, fighting and witnessing for the right of every man to\nwhom God\u2019s Word comes, to speak God\u2019s Word openly to his countrymen. A\nblessing, and an awful one! for the same gate which lets in good lets in\nevil. The law dare not silence bad books. It dare not root up the tares\nlest it root up the wheat also. The men who died to buy us liberty knew\nthat it was better to let in a thousand bad books than shut out one good\none; for a grain of God\u2019s truth will ever outweigh a ton of the devil\u2019s\nlies. We cannot then silence evil books, but we can turn away our eyes\nfrom them\u2014we can take care that what we read, and what we let others\nread, shall be good and wholesome. Now, if ever, are we bound to\nremember that books are words, and that words come either from Christ or\nthe devil,\u2014now, if ever, we are bound to try all books by the Word of\nGod,\u2014now, if ever, are we bound to put holy and wise books, both\nreligious and worldly, into the hands of all around us, that if, poor\nsouls! they must need eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, they may\nalso eat of the tree of life,\u2014and now, if ever, are we bound to pray to\nChrist the Word of God, that He will raise up among us wise and holy\nwriters, and give them words and utterance, to speak to the hearts of all\nEnglishmen the message of God\u2019s covenant, and that he may confound the\ndevil and his lies, and all that swarm of vile writers who are filling\nEngland with trash, filth, blasphemy, and covetousness, with books which\nteach men that our wise forefathers, who built our churches and founded\nour constitution, and made England the queen of nations, were but\nignorant knaves and fanatics, and that selfish money-making and godless\nlicentiousness are the only true wisdom; and so turn the divine power of\nwords, and the inestimable blessing of a free press, into the devil\u2019s\nengine, and not Christ\u2019s the Word of God. But their words shall be\nbrought to nought.\n\nMay God preserve us and all our friends from that defilement, and may He\ngive you all grace, in these strange times, to take care what you read\nand how you read, and to hold fast by the Book of all books, and Christ\nthe Word of God. Try by them all books and men; for if they speak not\naccording to God\u2019s law and testimony, it is because there is no truth in\nthem.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON XXV.\nTHE COURAGE OF THE SAVIOUR.\n\n\n JOHN, xi. 7, 8.\n\n \u201cThen after that saith He to His disciples, Let us go into Judea\n again. His disciples say to Him, Master, the Jews of late sought to\n stone thee, and goest thou thither again?\u201d\n\nWE all admire a brave man. And we are right. To be brave is God\u2019s gift.\nTo be brave is to be like Jesus Christ. Cowardice is only the devil\u2019s\nlikeness. But we must take care what we mean by being brave. Now, there\nare two sorts of bravery\u2014courage and fortitude. And they are very\ndifferent: courage is of the flesh,\u2014fortitude is of the spirit. Courage\nis good, but dumb animals have it just as much as we. A dog, a tiger,\nand a horse, have courage, but they have no fortitude,\u2014because fortitude\nis a spiritual thing, and beasts have no spirits like ours.\n\nWhat is fortitude? It is the courage which will make us not only fight\nin a good cause, but suffer in a good cause. Courage will help us only\nto give others pain; fortitude will help us to bear pain ourselves. And\nmore, fortitude will make a fearful person brave, and very often the more\nbrave the more fearful they are. And thus it is that women are so often\nbraver than men. We, men, are made of coarser stuff; we do not feel pain\nas keenly as women; and if we do feel, we are rightly ashamed to shew it.\nBut a tender woman, who feels pain and sorrow infinitely more than we do,\nwho need not be ashamed of being frightened, who perhaps is terrified at\nevery mouse and spider,\u2014to see her bearing patiently pain, and sorrow,\nand shame, in spite of all her fearfulness, because she knows it is her\nduty\u2014that is Christ\u2019s likeness\u2014that is true fortitude\u2014that is a sight\nnobler than all the \u201cbull-dog courage\u201d in the world. For what is the\ncourage of the bull-dog after all, or of the strong quarrelsome man? He\nis confident in his own strength, he is rough and hard, and does not care\nfor pain; and when he thrusts his head into a fight, like a surly dog, he\ndoes it not because it is his duty, but because he likes it, because he\nis angry, and then every blow and every wound makes him more angry, and\nhe fights on, forgetting his pain from blind rage.\n\nThat is not altogether bad; men ought to be courageous. But, oh! my\nfriends, is there not a more excellent way to be brave? and which is\nnobler, to suffer bravely for God\u2019s sake, or to beat men made in God\u2019s\nimage bravely for one\u2019s own sake? Think of any fight you ever saw, and\nthen compare with that the stories of those old martyrs who died rather\nthan speak a word against their Saviour. If you want to see true\nfortitude, think of what has happened thousands of times when the heathen\nused to persecute the Christians.\u2014How delicate women, who would not\nventure to set the sole of their foot to the ground for tenderness, would\nsubmit, rather than give up their religion and deny the Lord who died for\nthem, to be torn from husband and family, and endure nakedness, and\ninsult, and tortures which make one\u2019s blood run cold to read of, till\nthey were torn slowly piecemeal, or roasted in burning flames, without a\nmurmur or an angry word,\u2014knowing that Christ, who had borne all things\nfor them, would give them strength to bear all things for Him, trusting\nthat if they were faithful unto death, He would give them a crown of\nlife. There was true fortitude\u2014there was true faith\u2014there was God\u2019s\nstrength made perfect in woman\u2019s weakness! Do you not see, my friends,\nthat such a death was truly brave? How does bull-dog courage shew beside\nthat courage\u2014the courage which conquers grief and pain for duty\u2019s-sake,\ninstead of merely forgetting them in rage and obstinacy?\n\nAnd do you not see how this bears on my text? How it bears on our Lord\u2019s\nwhole life? Was he not indeed the perfectly brave man\u2014the man who\nendured more than all living men put together, at the very time that he\nhad the most intense fear of what he was going to suffer? And stranger\nstill, endured it all of His own will, while He had it in His power to\nshake it all off any instant, and free Himself utterly from pain and\nsuffering.\n\nNow, this speech of our Lord\u2019s in the text is just a case of true\nfortitude. He was beyond Jordan. He had been forced to escape thither\nto save His life from the mad, blinded Jews. He had no foolhardiness; He\nknew that He had no more right than we have to put His life in danger\nwhen there was no good to be done by it. But now there _was_ good to be\ndone by it. Lazarus was dead, and He wanted to raise him to life.\nTherefore He said to His disciples, \u201cLet us go into Judea again.\u201d They\nknew the danger; they said, \u201cMaster, the Jews of late sought to stone\nThee, and goest Thou thither again?\u201d But He would go; He had a work to\ndo, and He dared bear anything to do His work. Ay, here is the secret,\nthis is the feeling which gives a man true courage\u2014the feeling that he\nhas a work to do at all costs, the sense of duty. Oh! my friends, let\nmen, women, or children, once feel that they have a duty to perform, let\nthem once say to themselves, \u2018I am bound to do this thing\u2014it is right for\nme to do this thing; I owe it as a duty to my family, I owe it as a duty\nto my country, I owe it as a duty to God, who called me into this station\nof life; I owe it as a duty to Jesus Christ, who bought me with His\nblood, that I might do His will and not my own pleasure.\u2019\u2014When a man has\nonce said that _honestly_ to himself, when that glorious heavenly\nthought, \u2018_It is my duty_,\u2019 has risen upon his soul, like the sun upon\nthe earth, warming his heart and enlightening it and making it bring\nforth all good and noble fruits, then that man will feel a strength come\nto him, and a courage from God above, which will conquer all his fears\nand his selfish love of ease and pleasure, and enable him to bear\ninsults, and pain, and poverty, and death itself, provided he can but do\nwhat is right, and be found by God, whatever happens to him, working\nGod\u2019s will where God has put him. This is fortitude\u2014this is true\ncourage\u2014this is Christ\u2019s likeness\u2014this is the courage which weak women on\nsick beds may have as well as strong men on the battle-field. Even when\nthey shrink most from suffering, God\u2019s Spirit will whisper to them, \u2018It\nis _thy_ duty, it is thy Father\u2019s will,\u2019 and then they will find His\nstrength made perfect in their weakness, and when their human weakness\nfails most God will give them heavenly fortitude, and they will be able,\nlike St. Paul, to say, \u201cWhen I am weak, then I am strong, for I can do\nall things through Christ, who strengtheneth me.\u201d\n\nAnd now, remember that there was no pride, no want of feeling to keep up\nour Lord\u2019s courage. He has tasted sorrow for every man, woman, and\nchild, and therefore He has tasted fear also; tempted in all things, like\nas we are, that in all things He might be touched with the feeling of our\ninfirmities,\u2014that there might be no poor soul terrified at the thought of\npain or sorrow, but could comfort themselves with the thought, Well, the\nSon of God knows what fear is. He who said that His soul was troubled\u2014He\nwho at the thought of death was in such agony of terror, that His sweat\nran down to the ground like great drops of blood,\u2014He who cried in His\nagony, \u201cFather, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,\u201d\u2014He\nunderstands my pain,\u2014He tells me not to be ashamed of crying in my pain\nlike Him, \u201cFather, if it be possible let this cup pass from me\u201d\u2014for He\nwill give me the strength to finish that prayer of His, and in the midst\nof my trouble say, \u201cNevertheless, Father, not as I will, but as Thou\nwilt.\u201d Remember, again, that our Lord was not like the martyrs of old,\nforced to undergo His sufferings whether He liked them or not. We are\ntoo apt to forget that, and therefore we misunderstand our Lord\u2019s\nexample; and therefore we misunderstand what true fortitude is. Jesus\nChrist was the Son of God; He had made the very men who were tormenting\nHim; He had made the very wood of the cross on which He hung, the iron\nwhich pierced His blessed hands; and, for aught we know, one wish of His,\nand they would all have crumbled into dust, and He have been safe in a\nmoment. But He would not; He _endured_ the cross. He was the only man\nwho ever really endured anything at all, because He alone of all men had\nperfect power to save Himself, even when He was nailed to the tree,\nfainting, bleeding, dying. It was never too late for Him to stop. As He\nsaid to Peter when he wanted to fight for Christ, \u201cThinkest thou that I\ncannot pray to my Father, and He will send me instantly more than twelve\nlegions of angels?\u201d But _He would not_. He had to save the world, and\nHe was determined to do it, whatever agony or fear it cost Him. St.\nPeter was a _brave_ man. He drew his sword in the garden, and attacked,\nsingle-handed, that great body of armed soldiers; cutting down a servant\nof the high-priest\u2019s. But he was only brave, our Lord was more. The\nblessed Jesus had true fortitude; He could _bear_ patiently, while Peter\ncould only rage and fight uselessly. And see how Christ\u2019s fortitude\nlasted Him, while Peter\u2019s mere courage failed him. While our Lord was\nwitnessing that glorious confession of His before Pilate, bearing on\nthrough, without shrinking, even to the cross itself, where was Peter?\nHe had denied his Master, and ran shamefully away. He had a long lesson\nto learn before he was perfect, had Peter. He had to learn not how to\nfight, but how to suffer\u2014and he learnt it; and in his old age that\nstrong, fierce St. Peter had true fortitude to give himself up to be\ncrucified, like his Lord, without a murmur, and preach Christ\u2019s gospel as\nhe hung for three whole days upon the torturing cross. There was\nfortitude; that violence of his in the garden was only courage as of a\nbrute animal,\u2014courage of the flesh, not the true courage of the spirit.\nOh, my friends, that we could all learn this lesson, that it is better to\nsuffer than to revenge, better to be killed than to kill. There are\ntimes when a man must fight\u2014for his country, for just laws, for his\nfamily, but for himself it is very seldom that he must fight. He who\nreturns good for evil,\u2014he who when he is cursed, blesses those who curse\nhim,\u2014he, who takes joyfully the spoiling of his goods, who submits to be\ncheated in little matters, and sometimes in great ones, sooner than ruin\nthe poor sinful wretch who has ill-used him; that man has really put on\nChrist\u2019s likeness, that man is really going on to perfection, and\nfulfilling the law of love; and for everything he gives up for the sake\nof peace and mercy, which is for God\u2019s sake, God will reward him\nsevenfold into his bosom. There are times when a man is bound to go to\nlaw, bound to expose and punish evil-doers, lest they should, being\nunpunished, become confident and go on from bad to worse, and hurt others\nas well as him. A man sometimes is bound by his duty to his neighbours\nand to society to defend himself, to go to law with those who injure\nhim,\u2014sometimes; but never bound to revenge himself, never bound to say,\n\u2018He has hurt me, and I will pay him off for it at law;\u2019 that is abusing\nlaw, which is God\u2019s ordinance, for mere selfish revenge. You may say, it\nis difficult to know which is which, when to defend oneself, and when\nnot. It is difficult; without the light of God\u2019s Spirit, I think no man\nwill know. But let a man live by God\u2019s Spirit, let him pray for\nkindliness, mercifulness, manliness, and patience, for true fortitude to\nbear and to forbear, and God will surely open his eyes to see when he is\ncalled on to avenge an injury, and when he is called on to suffer\npatiently. God will shew him\u2014if a man wishes to be like Christ, and to\nwork like Christ, at doing good, God will teach him and guide him in all\npuzzling matters like this. And do not be afraid of being called cowards\nand milksops for bearing injuries patiently\u2014those who call you so will be\nlikely to be the greatest cowards themselves. Patience is the truest\nsign of courage. Ask old soldiers, who have seen real war, and they will\ntell you that the bravest men, the men who endured best, not in mere\nfighting, but in standing still for hours to be mowed down by\ncannon-shot; who were most cheerful and patient in shipwreck, and\nstarvation and defeat,\u2014all things ten times worse than fighting,\u2014ask old\nsoldiers, I say, and they will tell you that the men who shewed best in\nsuch miseries, were generally the stillest and meekest men in the whole\nregiment: that is true fortitude; that is Christ\u2019s image\u2014the meekest of\nmen, and the bravest too. And so books say, and seem to prove it, by\nmany strange stories, that the lion, while he is the strongest and\nbravest of beasts of prey, is also the most patient and merciful. He\nknows his own strength and courage, and therefore he does not care to be\nshewing it off. He can afford to endure an affront. It is only the\ncowardly cur who flies out and barks at every passer-by. And so with our\nblessed Lord. The Bible calls Him the Lion of Judah; but it also calls\nHim the Lamb dumb before the shearers. Ah, my friends, we must come back\nto Him, for all the little that is great and noble in man or woman, or\ndumb beast even, is perfected in Him; He only is perfectly great,\nperfectly noble, brave, meek. He who to save us sinful men, endured the\ncross, despising the shame, till He sat down at the right hand of the\nMajesty on high, perfectly brave He is, and perfectly gentle, and will be\nso for ever; for even at His second coming, when He shall appear the\nConqueror of hell, with tens of thousands of angels, to take vengeance on\nthose who know not God, and destroy the wicked with the breath of His\nmouth, even then in His fiercest anger, the Scripture tells us, His anger\nshall be \u201cthe anger of the Lamb.\u201d Almighty vengeance and just anger, and\nyet perfect gentleness and love all the while.\u2014Mystery of mysteries!\u2014The\nwrath of the Lamb! May God give us all to feel in that day, not the\nwrath, but the love of the Lamb who was slain for us!\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n\n{92} \u201cAnd when He was come to the other side, into the country of the\nGergesenes, there met Him two possessed with devils, coming out of the\ntombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. And,\nbehold, they cried out, saying, What have we do with Thee, Jesus, Thou\nSon of God? Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time? And\nthere was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding. So the\ndevils besought him, saying, If Thou cast us out, suffer us to go away\ninto the herd of swine. And He said unto them, Go. And when they were\ncome out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd\nof swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in\nthe waters.\u201d\n\n{187} Von Stolberg.","title":"Twenty-Five Village Sermons","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":68949}