CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Mr. & Mrs. 
 Bernard Berman 
 
Cornell University Library 
 BX5133.K55W5 1894 
 
 Westminster sermons, 
 
 3 1924 007 506 375 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924007506375 
 
WESTMINSTER SERMONS. 
 
rrinted by C. J. CLAY, 1874. 
 
 Reprinted November, December i-i^i, 1878, 1879, 1882, 1884, 1887. 
 
 i8qo, 1894 
 
WESTMINSTER SERMONS 
 
 WITH A PREFACE 
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY 
 
 Honiron : 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW YORK. 
 1894 
 
 [The Eight of Traitslution is reserved,"^ / 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 SERMON XII. 
 The Reasonable Prayer . . ... 130 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 The One Escape .... 142 
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 The Word of God .... , 151 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 I . ■ i6S 
 
 SERMON XVI. 
 The Cedars of Lebanon -179 
 
 SERMON XVII. 
 Life ..... . . 193 
 
 SERMON XVIII. 
 Death 205 
 
 SERMON XIX. 
 Signs and Wonders 221 
 
 SERMON XX. 
 The Judgments of God . . . . 232 
 
 SERMON XXI. 
 The War in Heaven ... 242 
 
 SERMON XXII. 
 Noble Company .... . 253 
 
 SERMON XXIII. 
 De Profundis 262 
 
 SERMON XXIV. 
 The Blessing and the Curse . . 271 
 
 SERMON XXV. 
 The Silence of Faith 2S0 
 
 SERMON XXVI. 
 God and Mammon .... ... 290 
 
 SERMON XXVII. 
 The Beatific Vision . . ... 302 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface v 
 
 SERMON I. 
 The Mystery of the Cross. A Good Friday Sermon i 
 
 SERMON II. 
 The Perfect Love ■ H 
 
 SERMON III. 
 The Spirit of Whitsuntide .... •■25 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 Prayer .33 
 
 SERMON V. 
 The Deaf and Dumb .... .48 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 The Fruits of the Spirit . , . .61 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 Confusion ■ T 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 The Shaking or the Heavens and the Earth . . 84 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 The Kingdom of God . . -99 
 
 SERMON X. 
 The Law of the Lord no 
 
 SERMON XI. 
 God the Teacher . . . . . . 120 
 
 I — 2 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 latter, I understand what can be learned concerning 
 God Himself. Of natural religion I shall say nothing. 
 I do not even affirm that a natural religion is possible : 
 but I do very earnestly believe that a natural Theology 
 is possible ; and I earnestly believe also that it is most 
 important that natural Theology should, in every age, 
 keep pace with doctrinal or ecclesiastical Theology. 
 
 Bishop Butler certainly held this belief. His Ana- 
 logy of Religion^ Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution 
 and Course of Nature — a book for which I entertain the 
 most profound respect — is based on a belief that the 
 God of nature and the God of grace are one ; and that 
 therefore, the God who satisfies our conscience ought 
 more or less to satisfy our reason also. To teach that 
 was Butler's mission ; and he fulfilled it well. But it 
 is a mission which has to be re-fulfilled again and again, 
 as human thought changes, and human science develops; 
 for if, in any age or country, the God who seems to be 
 revealed by nature seems also different from the God 
 who is revealed by the then popular religion : then that 
 God, and the religion which tells of that God, will 
 gradually cease to be believed in. 
 
 For the demands of Reason — as none knew better 
 than good Bishop Butler — must be and ought to be 
 satisfied. And therefore ; when a popular war arises 
 between the reason of any generation and its Theologj' : 
 then it behoves the ministers of religion to inquire, with 
 all humility and godly fear, on which side lies tlie fault ; 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 I VENTURE to preface these Sermons — which were 
 preached either at Westminster Abbey, or at one of 
 the Chapels Royal — by a Paper read at Sion College, 
 in 187 1 ; and for this reason. Even when they deal 
 with what is usually, and rightly, called "vital" and 
 "experimental" religion, they are comments on, and 
 developments of, the idea which pervades that paper; 
 namely — That facts, whether of physical nature, or of 
 the human heart and reason, do not contradict, but 
 coincide with, the doctrines and formulas of the Church 
 of England, as by law established. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Natural Theology, I said, is a subject which seems 
 to me more and more important ; and one which is just 
 now somewhat forgotten. I therefore desire to say a 
 few words on it. I do not pretend to teach : but only to 
 suggest ; to point out certain problems of natural Theo- 
 logy, the further solution of which ought, I think, to be 
 soon attempted. 
 
 I wish to speak, be it remembered, not on natural 
 religion, but on natural Theology. By the first, I under- 
 stand what can be learned from the physical universe 
 of man's duty to God and to his neighbour ; by the 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 But it was not so to be. The impulse given by- 
 Wesley and Whitfield turned — and not before it was 
 needed — the earnest minds of England almost ex- 
 clusively to questions of personal religion ; and that 
 impulse, under many unexpected forms, has continued 
 ever since. I only state the fact : I do not deplore it ; 
 God forbid. Wisdom is justified of all her children ; 
 and as, according to the wise American, "it takes all 
 sorts to make a world," so it takes all sorts to make a 
 living Church. But that the religious temper of England 
 for the last two or three generations has been unfavour- 
 able to a sound and scientific development of natural 
 Theology, there can be no doubt. 
 
 We have only, if we need proof, to look at the 
 hymns — many of them very pure, pious, and beautiful — 
 which are used at this day in churches and chapels by 
 persons of every shade of opinion. How often is the 
 tone in which they speak of the natural world one of 
 dissatisfaction, distrust, almost contempt. " Change 
 and decay in all around I see,'' is their key-note, rather 
 than " O all ye works of the Lord, bless Him, praise 
 Him, and magnify Him for ever." There lingers about 
 them a savour of the old monastic theory, that this 
 earth is the devil's planet, fallen, accursed, goblin- 
 haunted, needing to be exorcised at every turn before 
 it is useful or even safe for man. An age which has 
 adopted as its most popular hymn a paraphrase of the 
 mediaeval monk's " Hie breve vivitur," and in which 
 
PREFA CE. 
 
 whether the Theology which they expound is all that 
 it should be, or whether the reason of those who impugn 
 it is all that it should be. 
 
 For me, as — I trust — an orthodox priest of the 
 Church of England, I believe the Theology of the 
 National Church of England, as by law established, 
 to be eminently rational as well as scriptural. It is 
 not, therefore, surprising to me that the clergy of the 
 Church of England, since the foundation of the Royal 
 Society in the seventeenth century, have done more 
 for sound physical science than the clergy of any other 
 denomination; or that the three greatest natural theo- 
 logians with which I, at least, am acquainted — Berkeley, 
 Buder, and Paley — should have belonged to our Church. 
 I am not unaware of what the Germans of the eighteenth 
 century have done. I consider Goedie's claims to have 
 advanced natural Theology very much over-rated : but 
 I do recommend to young clergymen Herder's Outlines 
 of the Philosophy of the History of Man as a book — in 
 spite of certain defects — full of sound and precious 
 wisdom. Meanwhile it seems to me that English na- 
 tural Theology in the eighteenth century stood more 
 secure than that of any other nation, on the foundation 
 which Berkeley, Butler, and Paley had laid ; and that 
 if our orthodox thinkers for the last hundred years had 
 followed steadily in their steps, we should not be de- 
 ploring now a wide, and as some think increasing, 
 divorce between Science and Christianity. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 undercurrent — of the very opposite of all this. I pray you 
 bear with me, even though I may seem impertinent. 
 But what do we find in the Bible, with the exception of 
 that first curse ? That, remember, cannot mean any 
 alteration in the laws of nature by which man's labour 
 should only produce for him henceforth thorns and this- 
 tles. For, in the first place, any such curse is formally 
 abrogated in the eighth chapter and 21st verse of the 
 very same document — " I will not again curse the earth 
 any more for man's sake. While the earth remaineth, 
 seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, 
 day and night, shall not cease.'' And next : the fact is 
 not so ; for if you root up the thorns and thistles, and 
 keep your land clean, then assuredly you ^vill grow fruit- 
 trees and not thorns, wheat and not thistles, according to 
 those laws of nature which are the voice of God ex- 
 pressed in facts. 
 
 And yet the words are true. There is a curse upon 
 the earth : though not one which, by altering the laws of 
 nature, has made natural facts untrustworthy. There is a 
 curse on the earth ; such a curse as is expressed, I be- 
 lieve, in the old Hebrew text, where the word " admah " 
 
 — correctly translated in our version "the ground" 
 
 signifies, as I am told, not this planet, but simply the soil 
 from whence we get our food ; such a curse as certainly 
 is expressed by the Septuagint and the Vulgate versions : 
 " Cursed is the earth" — iv tois epyots <tov; "in opere tuo '' 
 " in thy works." Man's work is too often the curse of 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 Stalwart public-school boys are bidden in their chapel- 
 worship to tell the Almighty God of Truth that they lie 
 awake weeping at night for joy at the thought that they 
 will die and see " Jerusalem the Golden," is doubtless a 
 pious and devout age : but not — at least as yet — an age 
 in which natural Theology is likely to attain a high, a 
 healthy, or a scriptural development. 
 
 Not a scriptural development. Let me press on you, 
 my clerical brethren, most earnestly this one point. It 
 is time that we should make up our minds what tone 
 Scripture does take toward nature, natural science, na- 
 tural Theology. Most of you, I doubt not, have made 
 up your minds already ; and in consequence have no 
 fear of natural science, no fear for natural Theology. But 
 I cannot deny that I find still lingering here and there 
 certain of the old views of nature of which I used to 
 hear but too much some five-and-thirty years ago — and 
 that from better men than I shall ever hope to be — who 
 used to consider natural Theology as useless, fallacious, 
 impossible ; on the ground that this Earth did not reveal 
 the will and character of God, because it was cursed and 
 fallen ; and that its facts, in consequence, were not to be 
 respected or relied on. This, I was told, was the 
 doctrine of Scripture, and was therefore true. But when, 
 longing to reconcile my conscience and my reason on a 
 question so awful to a young student of natural science, 
 I went to my Bible, what did I find ? No word of 
 all this. Much — thank God, I may say one continuous 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 did cultivation, driven out, leave the East, and perhaps 
 the deserts long ago robbed of their coverings ; like the 
 wild hordes of old over beautiful Greece, thus rolls this 
 conquest with fearful rapidity from East to West through 
 America; and the planter now often leaves the already 
 exhausted land, and the eastern climate, become infertile 
 through the demolition of the forests, to introduce a 
 similar revolution into the Far West." 
 
 As we proceed, we find nothing in the general tone of 
 Scripture which can hinder our natural Theology being at 
 once scriptural and scientific. 
 
 If it is to be scientific, it must begin by approaching 
 Nature at once with a cheerful and reverent spirit, as a 
 noble, healthy, and trustworthy thing ; and what is that, 
 save the spirit of those who wrote the 104th, 147th, and 
 148th Psalms; the spirit, too, of him who wrote that 
 Song of the Three Children, which is, as it were, the 
 flower and crown of the Old Testament, the summing up 
 of all that is most true and eternal in the old Jewish 
 faith ; and which, as long as it is sung in our churches, is 
 the charter and title-deed of all Christian students of 
 those works of the Lord, which it calls on to bless Him, 
 praise Him, and magnify Him for ever ? 
 
 What next will be demanded of us by physical science? 
 Belief, certainly, just now, in the permanence of natural 
 laws. That is taken for granted, I hold, throughout the 
 Bible. I cannot see how our Lord's parables, drawn from 
 the birds and the flowers, the seasons and the weather, 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 the very planet which he misuses. None should know 
 that better than the botanist, who sees whole regions 
 desolate, and given up to sterility and literal thorns and 
 thistles, on account of man's sin and folly, ignorance and 
 greedy waste. Well said that veteran botanist, the vene- 
 rable Elias Fries, of Lund: — 
 
 "A broad band of waste land follows gradually in the 
 steps of cultivation. If it expands, its centre and its cradle 
 dies, and on the outer borders only do we find green 
 shoots. But it is not impossible, only difficult, for man, 
 without renouncing the advantage of culture itself, one 
 day to make reparation for the injury which he has in- 
 flicted : he is appointed lord of creation. True it is that 
 thorns and thistles, ill-favoured and poisonous plants, 
 well named by botanists rubbish plants, mark the track 
 which man has proudly traversed through the earth. 
 Before him lay original nature in her wild but sublime 
 beauty. Behind him he leaves a desert, a deformed and 
 ruined land; for childish desire of destruction, or thought- 
 less squandering of vegetable treasures, has destroyed the 
 character of nature ; and, terrified, man himself flies from 
 the arena of his actions, leaving the impoverished earth 
 to barbarous races or to animals, so long as yet another 
 spot in virgin beauty smiles before him. Here again, in 
 selfish pursuit of profit, and consciously or unconsciously 
 following the abominable principle of the great moral 
 vileness which one man has expressed — ' Aprfes nous le 
 Ddluge,' — he begins anew the work of destruction. Thus 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 destructive powers over vi^hich he has no control; of the 
 hurricane and the earthquake ; of poisons, vegetable 
 and mineral; of those parasitic Entozoa whose awful 
 abundance, and awful destructiveness, in man and beast, 
 science is just revealing — a new page of danger and 
 loathsomeness ? How does that suit your conception of 
 a God of love ? 
 
 We can answer — Whether or not it suits our concep- 
 tion of a God of love, it suits Scripture's conception 
 of Him. For nothing is more clear — nay, is it not urged 
 again and again, as a blot on Scripture ? — that it reveals 
 a God not merely of love, but of sternness ; a God in 
 whose eyes physical pain is not the worst of evils, nor 
 animal life — too often miscalled human life — the most 
 precious of objects ; a God who destroys, when it seems 
 fit to Him, and that wholesale, and seemingly without 
 either pity or discrimination, man, woman, and child, 
 visiting the sins of the fathers on the children, making 
 the land empty and bare, and destroying from off it man 
 and beast ? This is the God of the Old Testament. And 
 if any say — as is too often rashly said — This is not the 
 God of the New : I answer, But have you read your New 
 Testament ? Have you read the latter chapters of St 
 Matthew ? Have you read the opening of the Epistle to 
 the Romans ? Have you read the Book of Revelation ? 
 If so, will you say that the God of the New Testament 
 is, compared with the God of the Old, less awful, less 
 destructive, and therefore less hke the Being — granting 
 
PREFACE. XIll 
 
 have any logical weight, or can be considered as aught 
 but capricious and fanciful "illustrations" — which God 
 forbid — unless we look at them as instances of laws of 
 the natural world, which find their analogues in the laws 
 of the spiritual world, the kingdom of God. I cannot 
 conceive a man's writing that 104th Psalm who had not 
 the most deep, the most earnest sense of the permanence 
 of natural law. But more : the fact is expressly asserted 
 again and again. " They continue this day according to 
 Thine ordinance, for all things serve Thee." " Thou hast 
 made them fast for ever and ever. Thou hast given 
 them a law which shall not be broken " 
 
 Let us pass on. There is no more to be said about 
 this matter. 
 
 But next: it will be demanded of us that natural 
 Theology shall set forth a God whose character is con- 
 sistent with all the facts of nature, and not only with 
 those which are pleasant and beautiful. That challenge 
 was accepted, and I think victoriously, by Bishop Butler, 
 as far as the Christian religion is concerned. As far as 
 the Scripture is concerned, we may answer thus — 
 
 It is said to us — I know that it is said — You tell us of 
 a God of love, a God of flowers and sunshine, of singing 
 birds and little children. But there are more facts in 
 nature than these. There is premature death, pestilence, 
 famine. And if you answer — Man has control over these; 
 they are caused by man's ignorance and sin, and by his 
 breaking of natural laws : — What v/ill you make of those 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 fashioned, when as yet there was none of them," — in 
 those words, I say, the Psalmist has anticipated that 
 reahstic view of embryological questions to which our 
 most modern philosophers are, it seems to me, slowly, 
 half unconsciously, but still inevitably, returning. 
 
 Next, as to Race. Some persons now have a 
 nervous fear of that word, and of allowing any import- 
 ance to difference of races. Some dislike it, because 
 they think that it endangers the modern notions of 
 democratic equality. Others because they fear that it 
 may be proved that the Negro is not a man and a 
 brother. I think the fears of both parties groundless. 
 As for the Negro, I not only believe him to be of the 
 same race as myself, but that — if Mr Darwin's theories 
 are true — science has proved that he must be such. 
 I should have thought, as a humble student of such 
 questions, that the one fact of the unique distribution of 
 the hair in all races of human beings, was full moral 
 proof that they had all had one common ancestor. But 
 this is not matter of natural Theology. ^Vhat is matter 
 thereof, is this. 
 
 Physical science is proving more and more the im- 
 mense importance of Race; the importance of heredi- 
 tary powers, hereditary organs, hereditary habits, in all 
 organized beings, from the lowest plant to the highest 
 animal. She is proving more and more the omnipresent 
 action of the differences between races : how the more 
 " favoured " race — she cannot avoid using the epithet — 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 always that there is such a Being— who presides over 
 nature and her destructive powers ? It is an awful pro- 
 blem. But the writers of the Bible have faced it valiantly. 
 Physical science is facing it valiantly now. Therefore 
 natural Theology may face it likewise. Remember Carlyle's 
 great words about poor Francesca in the Inferno : "Infinite 
 pity: yet also infinite rigour of law. It is so Nature is 
 made. It is so Dante discerned that she was made." 
 
 There are two other points on which I must beg 
 leave to say a few words. Physical science will demand 
 of our natural theologians that they should be aware 
 of their importance, and let — as Mr Matthew Arnold 
 would say — their thoughts play freely round them. I 
 mean questions of Embryology, and questions of Race. 
 
 On the first there may be much to be said, which is, 
 for the present, best left unsaid, even here. I only ask 
 you to recollect how often in Scripture those two plain 
 old words — beget and bring forth — occur ; and in what 
 important passages. And I ask you to remember that 
 marvellous essay on Natural Theology — if I may so call 
 it in all reverence— namely, the 139th Psalm ; and judge 
 for yourself whether he who wrote that did not consider 
 the study of Embryology as important, as significant, as 
 worthy of his deepest attention, as an Owen, a Huxley, 
 or a Darwin. Nay, I will go further still, and say, that 
 in those great words— " Thine eyes did see my sub- 
 stance, yet being imperfect ; and in Thy book all my 
 members were written, which in continuance were 
 
XVIll PREFACE. 
 
 destruction of a race, not by miracle, but by invasion, 
 because found wanting when weighed in the stem ba- 
 lances of natural and social law ? 
 
 Think over this. I only suggest the thought : but I 
 do not suggest it in haste. Think over it, by the light 
 which our Lord's parables. His analogies between the 
 physical and social constitution of the world, afford ; and 
 consider whether those awful words — fulfilled then, and 
 fulfilled so often since — " The kingdom of God shall be 
 taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the 
 fruits thereof," may not be the supreme instance, the 
 most complex development, of a law which runs through 
 all created things, down to the moss which struggles for 
 existence on the rock. 
 
 Do I say that this is all ? That man is merely a part 
 of nature, the puppet of circumstances and hereditary 
 tendencies? That brute competition is the one law of 
 his life? That he is doomed for ever to be the slave of 
 his own needs, enforced by an internecine struggle for 
 existence ? God forbid. I believe not only in nature, 
 but in Grace. I believe that this is man's fate only as 
 long as he sows to the flesh, and of the flesh reaps cor- 
 ruption. I believe that if he will 
 
 Strive upward, working out the beast, 
 And let the ape and tiger die ; 
 
 if he will be even as wise as the social animals ; as the 
 ant and the bee, who have risen, if not to the virtue of 
 all-embracing charity, at least to the virtues of self 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 exterminates the less favoured ; or at least expels it, 
 and forces it, under penalty of death, to adapt itself to 
 new circumstances ; and, in a word, that competition 
 between every race and every individual of that race, 
 and reward according to deserts, is, as far as we can see, 
 an universal law of Hving things. And she says — for 
 the facts of History prove it — that as it is among the 
 races of plants and animals, so it has been unto this day 
 among the races of men. 
 
 The natural Theology of the future must take count 
 of these tremendous and even painful facts. She may 
 take count of them. For Scripture has taken count of 
 them already. It talks continually — it has been blamed 
 for talking so much — of races ; of families ; of their wars, 
 their struggles, their exterminations ; of races favoured, 
 of races rejected ; of remnants being saved, to continue 
 the race ; of hereditary tendencies, hereditary excellen- 
 cies, hereditary guilt. Its sense of the reality and im- 
 portance of descent is so intense, that it speaks of a 
 whole tribe or a whole family by the name of its com- 
 mon ancestor; and the whole nation of the Jews is 
 Israel, to the end. And if I be told this is true of the 
 Old Testament, but not of the New : I must answer, — 
 What ? Does not St Paul hold the identity of the whole 
 Jewish race with Israel their forefather, as strongly as 
 any prophet of the Old Testament ? And what is the 
 central historic fact, save One, of the New Testament, 
 but the conquest of Jerusalem ; the dispersion, all but 
 K. s. 3 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Now on this point I believe we may answer fear- 
 lessly — If you cannot see it, we cannot help you. If 
 the heavens do not declare to you the glory of God, 
 nor the firmament show you His handy-work, then our 
 poor arguments will not show them. "The eye can 
 only see that which it brings with it the power of seeing." 
 We can only reassert that we see design everywhere; 
 and that the vast majority of the human race in every 
 age and clime has seen it. Analogy from experience, 
 sound induction — as we hold — from the works not only 
 of men but of animals, has made it an all but self-evident 
 truth to us, that wherever there is arrangement, there 
 must be an arranger; wherever there is adaptation of 
 means to an end, there must be an adapter; wherever 
 an organization, there must be an organizer. The exist- 
 ence of a designing God is no more demonstrable firom 
 nature than the existence of other human beings inde- 
 pendent of ourselves ; or, indeed, than the existence of 
 our own bodies. But, like the belief in them, the belief 
 in Him has become an article of our common sense. 
 And that this designing mind is, in some respects, 
 similar to the human mind, is proved to us — as Sir John 
 Herschel well puts it — by the mere fact that we can 
 discover and comprehend the processes of nature. 
 
 But here again, if we be contradicted, we can only 
 reassert. If the old words, "He that made the eye, 
 shall he not see ? he that planted the ear, shall he not 
 hear?" do not at once commend themselves to the 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 sacrifice and patriotism : then he will rise towards a 
 higher sphere ; towards that kingdom of God of which it 
 is written — " He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, 
 and God in him." 
 
 Whether that be matter of natural Theology, I cannot 
 tell as yet. But as for all the former questions ; and all 
 that St Paul means when he talks of the law, and how 
 the works of the flesh bring men under the law, stem 
 and terrible and destructive, though holy and just and 
 good, — they are matter of natural Theology ; and I be- 
 lieve that here, as elsewhere, Scripture and Science will 
 be ultimately found to coincide. 
 
 But here we have to face an objection which you will 
 often hear now from scientific men, and still oftener from 
 non-scientific men ; who will say — It matters not to us 
 whether Scripture contradicts or does not contradict a 
 scientific natural Theology ; for we hold such a science 
 to be impossible and naught. The old Jews put a God 
 into nature ; and therefore of course they could see, as 
 you see, what they had already put there. But we see 
 no God in nature. We do not deny the existence of a 
 God. We merely say that scientific research does not 
 reveal Him to us. We see no marks of design in phy- 
 sical phenomena. What used to be considered as marks 
 of design can be better explained by considering them as 
 the results of evolution according to necessary laws ; and 
 you and Scripture make a mere assumption when you 
 ascribe them to the operation of a mind Hke the human 
 mind. 2 — 2 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Now on this point I believe we may answer fear- 
 lessly — If you cannot see it, we cannot help you. If 
 the heavens do not declare to you the glory of God, 
 nor the firmament show you His handy-work, then our 
 poor arguments will not show them. "The eye can 
 only see that which it brings with it the power of seeing." 
 We can only reassert that we see design everywhere; 
 and that the vast majority of the human race in every 
 age and clime has seen it. Analogy from experience, 
 sound induction — as we hold — from the works not only 
 of men but of animals, has made it an all but self-evident 
 truth to us, that wherever there is arrangement, there 
 must be an arranger; wherever there is adaptation of 
 means to an end, there must be an adapter; wherever 
 an organization, there must be an organizer. The exist- 
 ence of a designing God is no more demonstrable from 
 nature than the existence of other human beings inde- 
 pendent of ourselves ; or, indeed, than the existence of 
 our ovm bodies. But, like the belief in them, the belief 
 in Him has become an article of our common sense. 
 And that this designing mind is, in some respects, 
 similar to the human mind, is proved to us — as Sir John 
 Herschel well puts it — by the mere fact that we can 
 discover and comprehend the processes of nature. 
 
 But here again, if we be contradicted, we can only 
 reassert. If the old words, "He that made the eye, 
 shall he not see ? he that planted the ear, shall he not 
 hear?" do not at once commend themselves to the 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 intellect of any person, we shall never convince that 
 person by any arguments drawn from the absurdity of 
 conceiving the invention of optics by a blind man, or of 
 music by a deaf one. 
 
 So we will assert our own old-fashioned notion boldly: 
 and more ; we will say, in spite of ridicule — That if such 
 a God exists, final causes must exist also. That the 
 whole universe must be one chain of final causes. That 
 if there be a Supreme Reason, he must have reason, and 
 that a good reason, for every physical phenomenon. 
 
 We will tell the modern scientific man — You are 
 nervously afraid of the mention of final causes. You 
 quote against them Bacon's saying, that they are barren 
 virgins; that no physical fact was ever discovered or 
 explained by them. You are right : as far as regards 
 yourselves. You have no business with final causes ; 
 because final causes are moral causes : and you are 
 physical students only. We, the natural Theologians, 
 have business with them. Your duty is to find out the 
 How of things : ours, to find out the Why. If you rejoin 
 that we shall never find out the Why, unless we first 
 learn something of the How, we shall not deny that. It 
 may be most useful, I had almost said necessary, that 
 the clergy should have some scientific training. It may 
 be most useful — I sometimes dream of a day when it 
 will be considered necessary — that every candidate for 
 Ordination should be required to have passed creditably 
 in at least one branch of physical science, if it be only 
 
XXll PREFACE. 
 
 to teach him the method of sound scientific thought. 
 But our having learnt the How, will not make it needless, 
 much less impossible, for us to study the Why. It will 
 merely make more clear to us the things of which we 
 have to study the Why ; and enable us to keep the How 
 and the Why more religiously apart from each other. 
 
 But if it be said — After all, there is no Why. The 
 doctrine of evolution, by doing away with the theory of 
 creation, does away with that of final causes, — Let us 
 answer boldly,— Not in the least. We might accept all 
 that Mr Darwin, all that Professor Huxley, all that other 
 most able men, have so learnedly and so acutely written 
 on physical science, and yet preserve our natural Theo- 
 logy on exactly the same basis as that on which Butler 
 and Paley left it. That we should have to develop it, 
 I do not deny. That we should have to relinquish it, 
 I do. 
 
 Let me press this thought eamesfly on you. I know 
 that many wiser and better men than I have fears on 
 this point. I cannot share in them. 
 
 All, it seems to me, that the new doctrines of evolu- 
 tion demand is this ; — We all agree — for the fact is 
 patent — that our own bodies, and indeed tlie body of 
 every living creature, are evolved from a seemingly simple 
 germ by natural laws, without visible action of any de- 
 signing will or mind, into the full organization of a 
 human or other creature. Yet we do not say on that 
 account — God did not create me : I only grew. We 
 
PREFACE. XXUl 
 
 hold in this case to our old idea, and say — If there be 
 evolution, there must be an evolver. Now the new 
 physical theories only ask us, it seems to me, to extend 
 this conception to the whole universe ; to believe that 
 not individuals merely, but whole varieties and races ; 
 the total organized life on this planet ; and, it may be, 
 the total organization of the universe, have been evolved 
 just as our bodies are, by natural laws acting through 
 circumstance. This may be true, or may be false. But 
 all its truth can do to the natural Theologian will be to 
 make him believe that the Creator bears the same re- 
 lation to the whole universe, as that Creator undeniably 
 bears to every individual human body. 
 
 I entreat you to weigh these words, which have not 
 been written in haste ; and I entreat you also, if you 
 wish to see how little the new theory, that species may 
 have been gradually created by variation, natural selec- 
 tion, and so forth, interferes with the old theory of 
 design, contrivance, and adaptation, nay, with the fullest 
 admission of benevolent final causes — I entreat you, I 
 say, to study Darwin's "Fertilization of Orchids" — a 
 book which, whether his main theory be true or not, 
 will still remain a most valuable addition to natural 
 Theology. 
 
 For suppose that all the species of Orchids, and not 
 only they, but their congeners — the Gingers, the Arrow- 
 roots, the Bananas — are all the descendants of one 
 original form, whicli was most probably nearly allied 
 
XXIV PREFACE. 
 
 to the Snowdrop and the Iris. What then? Would 
 that be one whit more wonderful, more unworthy of 
 the wisdom and power of God, than if they were, as 
 most believe, created each and all at once, with their 
 minute and often imaginary shades of difference? What 
 would the natural Theologian have to say, were the first 
 theory true, save that God's works are even more won- 
 derful that he always believed them to be? As for the 
 theory being impossible: we must leave the discussion 
 of that to physical students. It is not for us clergymen 
 to limit the power of God. "Is anything too hard for 
 the Lord?" asked the prophet of old; and we have a 
 right to ask it as long as time shall last. If it be said 
 that natural selection is too simple a cause to produce 
 such fantastic variety: that, again, is a question to be 
 settled exclusively by physical students. All we have 
 to say on the matter is — That we always knew that God 
 works by very simple, or seemingly simple, means; that 
 the whole universe, as far as we could discern it, was one 
 concatenation of the most simple means; that it was 
 wonderful, yea, miraculous, in our eyes, that a child 
 should resemble its parents, that the raindrops should 
 make the grass grow, that the grass should become 
 flesh, and the flesh sustenance for the thinking brain 
 of man. Ought God to seem less or more august in our 
 eyes, when we are told that His means are even more 
 simple than we supposed? We held him to be Almighty 
 and All-wise. Are we to reverence Him less or more, if 
 
PREFACE. XXV 
 
 we hear that His might is greater, His wisdom deeper, 
 than we ever dreamed? We believed that His care was 
 over all His works; that His Providence watched per- 
 petually over the whole universe. We were taught — 
 some of us at least — by Holy Scripture, to believe that 
 the whole history of the universe was made up of special 
 Providences. If, then, that should be true which Mr 
 Darwin eloquently writes — "It may be metaphorically 
 said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, 
 throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest; 
 rejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up 
 that which is good, silently and incessantly working 
 whenever and wherever opportunity offers at the im- 
 provement of every organic being," — if that, I say, were 
 proven to be true : ought God's care and God's pro- 
 vidence to seem less or more magnificent in our eyes? 
 Of old it was said by Him without whom nothing is 
 made, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.'' 
 Shall we quarrel with Science, if she should show how 
 those words are true? What, in one word, should we 
 have to say but this? — We knew of old that God was 
 so wise that He could make all things : but, behold. He 
 is so much wiser than even that, that He can make all 
 things make themselves. 
 
 But it may be said — These notions are contrary to 
 Scripture. I must beg very humbly, but very firmly, to 
 demur to that opinion. Scripture says that God created. 
 But it nowhere defines that term. The means, the How, 
 
XXVI PREFACE. 
 
 of Creation is nowhere specified. Scripture, again, says 
 that organized beings were produced, each according 
 to their kind. But it nowhere defines that term. What 
 a kind includes; whether it includes or not the capacity 
 of varying — which is just the question in point — is no- 
 where specified. And I think it a most important rule 
 in Scriptural exegesis, to be most cautious as to limiting 
 the meaning of any term which Scripture itself has not 
 limited, lest we find ourselves putting into the teaching 
 of Scripture our own human theories or prejudices. And 
 consider — Is not man a kind? And has not mankind 
 varied, physically, intellectually, spiritually? Is not the 
 Bible, from beginning to end, a history of the variations of 
 mankind, for worse or for better, from their original tjrpe? 
 Let us rather look with calmness, and even with hope 
 and goodwill, on these new theories; for, correct or in- 
 correct, they surely mark a tendency towards a more, 
 not a less. Scriptural view of Nature. Are they not 
 attempts, whether successful or unsuccessful, to escape 
 from that shallow mechanical notion of the universe 
 and its Creator which was too much in vogue in the 
 eighteenth century among divines as well as philoso- 
 phers; the theory which Goethe, to do him justice — 
 and after him Mr Thomas Carlyle — have treated witli 
 such noble scorn; the theory, I mean, that God has 
 wound up the universe like a clock, and left it to tick by 
 itself till it runs down, never troubling Himself with it; 
 save possibly — for even that was only half believed — 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 by rare miraculous interferences with the laws which He 
 Himself had made? Out of that chilling dream of a 
 dead universe ungoverned by an absent God, the human 
 mind, in Germany especially, tried during the early part 
 of this century to escape by strange roads; roads by which 
 there was no escape, because they were not laid down 
 on the firm ground of scientific facts. Then, in despair, 
 men turned to the facts which they had neglected; and 
 said — We are weary of philosophy: we will study you, 
 and you alone. As for God, who can find Him ? And they 
 have worked at the facts like gallant and honest men; and 
 their work, like all good work, has produced, in the last 
 fifty years, results more enormous than they even dreamed. 
 But what are they finding, more and more, below their 
 facts, below all phenomena which the scalpel and the 
 microscope can show? A something nameless, invisible, 
 imponderable, yet seemingly omnipresent and omni- 
 potent, retreating before them deeper and deeper, the 
 deeper they delve: namely, the life which shapes and 
 makes; that which the old schoolmen called "forma 
 formativa,'' which they call vital force and what not — 
 metaphors all, or rather counters to mark an unknown 
 quantity, as if they should call it x or y. One says — 
 It is all vibrations : but his reason, unsatisfied, asks — And 
 what makes the vibrations vibrate? Another — It is all 
 physiological units: but his reason asks — What is the 
 "physis," the nature and innate tendency of the units? 
 A third — It may be all caused by infinitely numerous 
 
XXVllI PREFACE. 
 
 "gemmules:" but his reason asks him — What puts in- 
 finite order into these gemmules, instead of infinite 
 anarchy? I mention these theories not to laugh at them. 
 I have all due respect for those who have put them forth. 
 Nor would it interfere with my theological creed, if any 
 or all of them were proven to be true to-morrow. I 
 mention them only to show that beneath all these theo- 
 ries, true or false, still lies that unknown x. Scientific 
 men are becoming more and more aware of it; I had 
 almost said, ready to worship it. More and more the 
 noblest-minded of them are engrossed by the mystery of 
 that unknown and truly miraculous element in Nature, 
 which is always escaping them, though they cannot escape 
 it. How should they escape it? Was it not written of 
 old — "Whither shall I go from Thy presence, or whither 
 shall I flee from Thy Spirit?" 
 
 Ah that we clergymen would summon up courage to 
 tell them that! Courage to tell them, what need not 
 hamper for a moment the freedom of their investigations, 
 what will add to them a sanction — I may say a sanctity 
 — that the unknown x which lies below all phenomena, 
 which is for ever at work on all phenomena, on the whole 
 and on every part of the whole, down to tlie colouring of 
 every leaf and the curdling of every cell of protoplasm, is 
 none other than that which the old Hebrews called — by 
 a metaphor, no doubt : for how can man speak of the un- 
 seen, save in metaphors drawn from the seen? — but by 
 the only metaphor adequate to express the perpetual and 
 
PREFA CE. XXIX 
 
 omnipresent miracle; The Breath of God; The Spirit 
 who is The Lord, and The Giver of Life. 
 
 In the rest, let us too think, and let us too observe. 
 For if we are ignorant, not merely of the results of experi- 
 mental science, but of the methods thereof: then we and 
 the men of science shall hare no common ground whereon 
 to stretch out kindly hands to each other. 
 
 But let us have patience and faith; and not suppose 
 in haste, that when those hands are stretched out it will 
 be needful for us to leave our standing-ground, or to cast 
 ourselves down from the pinnacle of the temple to earn 
 popularity; above all, from earnest students who are too 
 high-minded to care for popularity themselves. 
 
 True, if we have an intelligent belief in those Creeds 
 and those Scriptures which are committed to our keeping, 
 then our philosophy cannot be that which is just now in 
 vogue. But all we have to do, I believe, is to wait. 
 Nominalism, and that "Sensationalism" which has sprung 
 from Nominalism, are running fast to seed; Comtism 
 seems to me its supreme effort : after which the whirligig 
 of Time may bring round its revenges: and Realism, and 
 we who hold the Realist creeds, may have our turn. Only 
 wait. When a grave, able, and authoritative philosopher 
 explains a mother's love of her newborn babe, as Professor 
 Bain has done, in a really eloquent passage of his book 
 on the Emotions and the WilP, then the end of that philo- 
 sophy is very near; and an older, simpler, more human, 
 ' Second edition, pp. 78, 79. 
 
XXX PREFACE. 
 
 and, as I hold, more philosophic explanation of that 
 natural phenomenon, and of all others, may get a hear- 
 ing. 
 
 Only wait: and fret not yourselves; else shall you be 
 moved to do evil. Remember the saying of the wise 
 man — "Go not after the world. She turns on her axis; 
 and if thou stand still long enough, she will turn round to 
 thee." 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS. A GOOD FRIDAY 
 
 SERMON. 
 
 Philippians II. 5 — 8. 
 
 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus : wlio, 
 being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal 
 with God : but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon 
 Him the form of a slave, and was made in the likeness of men : 
 and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, 
 and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. 
 
 The second Lesson for this morning's service, and the 
 chapter which follows it, describe the Passion of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, both God and Man. They give us 
 the facts, in language most awful from its perfect calm- 
 ness, most pathetic from its perfect simplicity. But the 
 passage of St Paul which I have chosen for my text 
 gives us an explanation of those facts which is utterly 
 amazing. That He who stooped to die upon the Cross 
 is Very God of Very God, the Creator and Sustainer 
 of the Universe, is a thought so overwhelming, when- 
 ever we try to comprehend even a part of it in our 
 small imaginations, that it is no wonder if, in all ages, 
 many a pious soul, as it contemplated the Cross of 
 
THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS. [SERM. 
 
 Christ, has been rapt itself- into a passion of gratitude, an 
 ecstasy of wonder and of love, which is beautiful, ho- 
 nourable, just, and in the deepest sense most rational, 
 whenever it is spontaneous and natural. 
 
 But there have been thousands, as there may be 
 many h«re to-day, of colder temperament ; who would 
 distrust in themselves, even while they respected in 
 others, any violence of religious emotion : yet they too 
 have found, and you too may find, in contemplating the 
 Passion of Christ, a satisfaction deeper than that of any 
 emotion; a satisfaction not to the heart, still less to 
 the brain, but to that far deeper and diviner faculty 
 within us all — our moral sense ; that God-given instinct 
 which makes us discern and sympathise with all that is 
 beautiful and true and good. 
 
 And so it has befallen, for eighteen hundred years, 
 that thousands who have thought earnestly and care- 
 fully on God and on the character of God, on man and 
 on the universe, and on their relation to Him who made 
 them both, have found in the Incarnation and the 
 Passion of the Son of God the perfect satisfaction of 
 their moral wants ; the surest key to the facts of the 
 spiritual world ; the complete assurance that, in spite of 
 all seeming difficulties and contradictions, the Maker of 
 the world was a Righteous Being, who had founded the 
 world in righteousness ; that the Father of Spirits was a 
 perfect Father, who in His only-begotten Son had shewn 
 forth His perfectness, in such a shape and by such acts 
 that men might not only adore it, but sympathise with 
 it ; not only thank Him for it, but copy it ; and become, 
 
I.] THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS. 3 
 
 tliough at an infinite distance, perfect as their Father in 
 heaven is perfect, and full of grace and truth, like that 
 Son who is the brightness of His Father's glory, and the 
 express image of His person. Such a satisfaction have 
 ihey found in looking upon the triumphal entry into 
 Jerusalem of Him who knew that it would be followed 
 by the revolt of the fickle mob, and the desertion of 
 His disciples, and the Cross of Calvary, and all the 
 hideous circumstances of a Roman malefactoi''s death. 
 
 But there have been those, and there are still, who 
 have found no such satisfaction in the story which the 
 Gospel tells, and still less in the explanation which the 
 Epistle gives ; who have, as St Paul says, stumbled at 
 the stumblingblock of the Cross. 
 
 It would be easy to ignore such persons, were they 
 scoffers or profligates: but when they number among 
 their ranks men of virtuous lives, of earnest and most 
 benevolent purposes, of careful and learned thought, 
 and of a real reverence for God, or for those theories of 
 the universe which some of them are inclined to sub- 
 stitute for God, they must at least be listened to 
 patiently, and answered charitably, as men who, however 
 faulty their opinions may be, prove, by their virtue and 
 their desire to do good, that if they have lost sight of 
 Christ, Christ has not lost sight of them. 
 
 To such men the idea of the Incarnation, and still 
 more, that of the Passion, is derogatory to the very 
 notion of a God. That a God should suffer, and that 
 a God should die, is shocking — and, to do them justice, 
 I believe they speak sincerely — to their notions of the 
 K. s. 3 
 
4 THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS. [serm. 
 
 absolute majesty, the undisturbed serenity, of the Author 
 of the universe ; of Him in whom all things live and 
 move and have their being ; who dwells in the light to 
 which none may approach. And therefore they have, 
 in every age, tried various expedients to escape from a 
 doctrine which seemed repugnant to that most precious 
 part of them, their moral sense. In the earlier centuries 
 of the Church they tried to shew that St John and St 
 Paul spoke, not of one who was Very God of Very 
 God, but of some highest and most primeval of all 
 creatures. Emanation, .^on, or what not. In these 
 later times, when the belief in such beings, and even 
 their very names, have become dim and dead, men have 
 tried to shew that the words of Scripture apply to a 
 mere man. They have seen in Christ — and they have 
 reverenced and loved Him for what they have seen in 
 Him — the noblest and purest, the wisest and the most 
 loving of all human beings ; and have attributed such 
 language as that in the text, which — translate it as you 
 will — ascribes absolute divinity, and nothing less, to 
 our Lord Jesus Christ — they have attributed it, I sa)-, 
 to some fondness for Oriental hyperbole, and mystic 
 Theosophy, in the minds of the Apostles. Others, 
 again, have gone further, and been, I think, more 
 logically honest. They have perceived that our Lord 
 Jesus Christ Himself, as His words are reported, at- 
 tributed divinity to Himself, just as much as did His 
 Apostles. Such a saying as that one, " Before Abraham 
 was, I am," and others beside it, could be escaped from 
 only by one of two methods. To the first of them I 
 
I.] THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS. 5 
 
 shall not allude in this sacred place, popular as a late 
 work has made it in its native France, and I fear in 
 England likewise. The other alternative, more reverent 
 indeed, but, as I believe, just as mistaken, is to suppose 
 that the words were never uttered at all ; that Christ — it 
 is not I who say it — possibly never existed at all ; that 
 His whole story was gradually built up, like certain 
 fabulous legends of Romish saints, out of the moral con- 
 sciousness of various devout persons during the first three 
 centuries ; each of whom added to the portrait, as it 
 grew more and more lovely under the hands of suc- 
 ceeding generations, some new touch of beauty, some 
 fresh trait, half invented, half traditional, of purity, love, 
 nobleness, majesty ; till men at last became fascinated 
 with the ideal to which they themselves had contributed ; 
 and fell down and worshipped their own humanity ; and 
 christened that The Son of God. 
 
 If I believed that theory, or either of the others, I 
 need not say that I should not be preaching here. I 
 will go further, and say, that if I believed either of those 
 theories, or any save that which stands out in the text, 
 sharp-cut and colossal like some old Egyptian Memnon, 
 and like that statue, with a smile of sweetness on its 
 lips which tempers the royal majesty of its looks, — if 
 I did not believe that, I say — I should be inclined to 
 confess with Homer of old, that man is the most 
 miserable of all the beasts of the field. 
 
 For consider but this one argument. It is no new 
 one ; it has lain, I believe, unspoken and instinctive, 
 yet most potent and inspiring, in many a mind, in many 
 
 3—2 
 
THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS. [serm. 
 
 an age. If there be a God, must He not be the best 
 of all beings ? But if He who suffered on Calvary were 
 not God, but a mere creature ; then — as I hold — there 
 must have been a creature in the universe better than 
 God Himself. Or if He who suffered on Calvary had 
 not the character which is attributed to Him, — if Christ's 
 love, condescension, self-sacrifice, be a mere imagination, 
 built up by the fancy of man ; then has Christendom for 
 1800 years been fancying for itself a better God than 
 Him who really exists. 
 
 Thousands of the best men and women in the world 
 through all the ages of Christendom have agreed with 
 this argument, under some shape or other. Thousands 
 there have been, and I trust there will be thousands 
 hereafter, who have felt, as they looked upon the Cross 
 of the Son of God, not that it was derogatory to Christ 
 to believe that He had suffered, but derogatory to Him 
 to believe that He had not suffered : for only by 
 suffering, as far as we can conceive, could He perfectly 
 manifest His glory and His Father's glory ; and shew 
 that it was full of grace. 
 
 Full of grace. Think, I beg you, over that one word. 
 
 We all agree that God is good ; all at least do so, 
 who worship Him in spirit and in truth. A\'e adore His 
 majesty, because it is the moral and spiritual majesty of 
 perfect goodness. We give thanks to Him for His great 
 glory, because it is the glory, not merely of perfect 
 power, wisdom, order, justice; but of perfect love, of 
 perfect magnanimity, beneficence, activity, condescen- 
 sion, pity — in one jvord, of perfect grace. 
 
t.] THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS. 7 
 
 But how much must that last word comprehend, as 
 long as there is misery and evil in this world, or in 
 any other corner of the whole universe? Grace, to be 
 perfect, must shew itself by graciously forgiving peni- 
 tents. Pity, to be perfect, must shew itself by helping 
 the miserable. Beneficence, to be perfect, must shew 
 itself by delivering the oppressed. 
 
 The old prophets and psalmists saw as much as 
 this ; and preached that this too was part of the essence 
 and character of God. 
 
 They saw that the Lord was gracious and merciful, 
 slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repented Him 
 of the evil. They saw that the Lord helped them to 
 right who suffered wrong, and fed the hungry ; that the 
 Lord loosed men out of prison, the Lord gave sight to 
 the blind ; that the Lord helped the fallen, and defended 
 the fatherless and widow. They saw too a further truth, 
 and a more awful one. They saw that the Lord was 
 actually and practically King of kings and Lord of 
 lords : that as such He could come, and did come at 
 times, rewarding the loyal, putting down the rebellious, 
 and holding high assize from place to place, that He 
 might execute judgment and justice ; beholding all the 
 wrong that was done on earth, and coming, as it were, 
 out of His place, at each historic crisis, each revolution 
 in the fortunes of mankind, to make inquisition for 
 blood, to trample His enemies beneath His feet, and to 
 inaugurate some progress toward that new heaven and 
 new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, and righteou.s- 
 ness alone. That vision, in whatsoever metaphors it 
 
8 THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS. [SERM. 
 
 may be wrapped up, is real and true, and will be so as 
 long as evil exists within this universe. Were it not 
 true, there would be something wanting to the perfect 
 justice and the perfect benevolence of God. 
 
 But is this all? If this be all, what have we 
 Christians learnt from the New Testament vi'hich is not 
 already taught us in the Old? Where is that new, 
 deeper, higher revelation of the goodness of God, which 
 Jesus of Nazareth preached, and which John and Paul 
 and all the apostles believed that they had found in 
 Jesus Himself? They believed, and all those who 
 accepted their gospel believed, that they had found for 
 that word "grace," a deeper meaning than had ever 
 been revealed to the prophets of old time; that grace 
 and goodness, if they were perfect, involved self-sacrifice. 
 
 And does not our own highest reason tell us that they 
 were right? Does not our own highest reason, which is 
 our moral sense, tell us that perfect goodness requires, 
 not merely that we should pity our fellow-creatures, not 
 merely that we should help them, not merely that we 
 should right them magisterially and royally, without 
 danger or injury to ourselves: but that we should toil 
 for them, suffer for them, and if need be, as the highest 
 act of goodness, die for them at last? Is not this the very 
 element of goodness which we all confess to be most 
 noble, beautiful, pure, heroical, divine? Divine even in 
 sinful and fallen man, who must forgive because he needs 
 to be forgiven; who must help others because he needs 
 help himself; who, if he suffers for odiers, deserves to 
 ■suffer, and probably will suffer, in himself But how 
 
I.] THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS. 9 
 
 much more heroical, and how much more divine in a 
 Being who needs neither forgiveness nor help, and who is 
 as far from deserving as He is from needing to suffer! 
 And shall this noblest form of goodness be possible to 
 sinful man, and yet impossible to a perfectly good God? 
 Shall we say that the martyr at the stake, the patriot 
 dying for his country, the missionary spending his life for 
 the good of heathens; ay more, shall we say that those 
 women, martyrs by the pang without the palm, who in 
 secret chambers, in lowly cottages, have sacrificed and do 
 still sacrifice self and all the joys of life for the sake of 
 simple duties, little charities, kindness unnoticed and un- 
 known by all, save God — shall we say that all who have 
 from the beginning of the world shewn forth the beauty 
 of self-sacrifice have had no divine prototype in heaven? 
 — That they have been exercising a higher grace, a nobler 
 form of holiness, than He who made them, and who, as 
 they believe, and we ought to believe, inspired them with 
 that spirit of unselfishness, which if it be not the Spirit of 
 God, whose spirit can it be? Shall we say this, and so 
 suppose them holier than their own Maker? Shall we say 
 this, and suppose that they, when they attributed self- 
 sacrifice to God, made indeed a God in their own image, 
 but a God of greater love, greater pity, greater gracious- 
 ness because of greater unselfishness, than Him who 
 really exists? 
 
 Shall we say this, the very words whereof confute 
 themselves and shock alike our reason and our con- 
 science? Or shall we say with St John and with St 
 Paul, that if men can be so good, God must be in- 
 
lO THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS. [skrm. 
 
 finitely better; that if man can love so much, God 
 must love more; if man, by shaking off the selfishness 
 which is his bane, can do such deeds, then God, in 
 whom is no selfishness at all, may at least have done a 
 deed as far above theirs as the heavens are above the 
 earth? Shall we not confess that man's self-sacrifice is but 
 a poor and dim reflection of the self-sacrifice of God, and 
 say with St John, "Herein is love, not that we loved 
 God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the 
 propitiation for our sins;" and with St Paul, "Scarcely for 
 a righteous man would one die, but God commendeth 
 His love to us in this, that while we were yet sinners, 
 Christ died for us"? Shall we not say this: and find, as 
 thousands have found ere now, m the Cross of Calvary 
 the perfect satisfaction of our jiighest moral instincts, the 
 realization in act and fact of the highest idea which we 
 can form of perfect condescension, namely, self-sacrifice 
 exercised by a Being of whom perfect condescension, 
 love and self-sacrifice were not required by aught in 
 heaven or earth, save by the necessity of His own 
 perfect and inconceivable goodness? 
 
 We reverence, and rightly, the majesty of God. How 
 can that infinite majesty be proved more perfectly than 
 by condescension equally infinite? We adore, and justly, 
 the serenity of God, who has neither parts nor passions. 
 How can that serenity be proved more perfectly, than by 
 passing, still serene, through all the storm and crowd of 
 circumstance which disturb the weak serenity of man; by 
 passing through poverty, helplessness, temptation, deser- 
 tion, shame, torture, death; and passing through them all 
 
I.] THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS. I I 
 
 victorious and magnificent; with a moral calm as undis- 
 turbed, a moral purity as unspotted, as it had been from 
 all eternity, as it will be to all eternity, in that abysmal 
 source of being, which we call the Bosom of the Father? 
 It is the moral majesty of God, as shewn on Calvary, 
 which I uphold. Shew that Calvary was not inconsistent 
 with that; shew that Calvary was not inconsistent with 
 the goodness of God, but rather the perfection of that 
 goodness shewn forth in time and space: then all other 
 arguments connected with God's majesty may go for 
 nought, provided that God's moral majesty be safe. 
 Provided God be proved to be morally infinite — thai 
 is, in plain English, infinitely good ; provided God be 
 proved to be morally absolute — that is, absolutely un- 
 able to have His goodness affected by any circumstance 
 outside Him, even by the death upon the Cross: then let 
 the rest go. All words about absoluteness and infinity 
 and majesty, beyond that, are physical — metaphors drawn 
 from matter, which have nothing to do with God who is 
 a Spirit. 
 
 But God's infinite power too often means, m the 
 minds of men, only some abstract notion of boundless 
 bodily strength. God's omniscience too often means, 
 only some physical fancy of innumerable telescopic or 
 microscopic eyes. God's infinite wisdom too often means, 
 only some abstract notion of boundless acuteness of brain. 
 And lastly — I am sorry to have to say it, but it must be 
 said, — God's infinite majesty too often means, in the 
 minds of some superstitious people, mere pride, and 
 obstinacy, and cruelty, as of the blind will of some 
 
12 THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS. [serm. 
 
 enormous animal which does what it chooses, whether 
 right or wrong. 
 
 If the mystery of the Cross contradict any of these 
 carnal or material notions, so much the more glory to the 
 mystery of the Cross. One spiritual infinite, one spiritual 
 absolute, it does not contradict: and that is the infinite 
 and absolute goodness of God. 
 
 Let all the rest remain a mystery, so long as the 
 mystery of the Cross gives us faith for all the rest. 
 
 Faith, I say. The mystery of evil, of sorrow, of 
 death, the Gospel does not pretend to solve : but it tells 
 us that the mystery is proved to be soluble. For God 
 Himself has taken on Himself the task of solving it ; 
 and has proved by His own act, that if there be evil 
 in the world, it is none of His ; for He hates it, and 
 fights against it, and has fought agamst it to the death. 
 
 It simply says — Have faith in God. Ask no more of 
 Him — Why hast Thou made me thus ? Ask no more — 
 Why do the wicked prosper on the earth ? Ask no 
 more — Whence pain and death, war and famine, earth- 
 quake and tempest, and all the ills to which flesh is 
 heir ? 
 
 All fruitless questionings, all peevish repinings, 
 are precluded henceforth by the passion and death of 
 Christ. 
 
 Dost thou suffer ? Thou canst not suffer more than 
 the Son of God. Dost thou sympathize with thy fellow- 
 men ? Thou canst not sympathize more than the Son of 
 God. Dost thou long to right them, to deliver them, 
 even at the price of thine own blood ? Thou canst not 
 
I.] THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS. I3 
 
 long more ardently than the Son of God, who carried 
 His longing into act, and died for them and thee. What 
 if the end be not yet? What if evil still endure? What 
 if the medicine have not yet conquered the disease? 
 Have patience, have faith, have hope, as thou standest 
 at the foot of Christ's Cross, and holdest fast to it, the 
 anchor of the soul and reason, as well as of the heart. 
 For however ill the world may go, or seem to go, the 
 Cross is the everlasting token that God so loved the 
 world, that He spared not His only-begotten Son, but 
 freely gave Him for it. Whatsoever else is doubtful, 
 this at least is sure, — that good must conquer, because 
 God is good ; that evil must perish, because God hates 
 evil, even to the death. 
 
SERMON II. 
 
 THE PERFECT LOVE. 
 
 r John iv. io. 
 
 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and 
 sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 
 
 This is Passion-week ; the week in which, according to 
 ancient and most wholesome rule, we are bidden to think 
 of the Passion of Jesus Christ our Lord. To think of 
 that, however happy and comfortable, however busy and 
 eager, however covetous and ambitious, however giddy 
 and frivolous, however free, or at least desirous to be 
 free, from suffering of any kind, we are ourselves. To 
 think of the sufferings of Christ, and learn how grand it 
 is to suffer for the Right. 
 
 And why ? 
 
 Passion-week gives but one answer : but that answer 
 is the one best worth listening to. 
 
 It is grand and good to suffer for the Right, because 
 God, in Christ, has suffered for the Right. 
 
 Let us consider this awhile. 
 
 It is a first axiom in sound theology, that there is 
 nothing good in man, whicli v.-as not first in God. 
 
SERM. ii.J THE PERFECT LOVE. IS 
 
 Now we all, I trust, hold God to be supremely good. 
 We ascribe to Him, in perfection, every kind of goodness 
 of which we can conceive in man. We say God is just ; 
 God is truthful ; God is pure ; God is bountiful ; God is 
 merciful ; and, in one word, God is Love. 
 
 God is Love. But if we say that, do we not say that 
 God is good with a fresh form of goodness, which is not 
 justice, nor truthfulness, nor purity, bounty, nor mercy, 
 though without them — never forget that — it cannot exist? 
 And is not that fresh goodness, which we have not 
 defined yet, the very kind of goodness which we prize 
 most in human beings? The very kind of goodness 
 which makes us prize and admire love, because without 
 it there is no true love, no love worth calling by that 
 sacred and heavenly name? And what is that? 
 
 What — save self-sacrifice ? For what is the love 
 worth which does not shew itself in action ; and more, 
 which does not shew itself in Passion, in the true sense 
 of that word, which this week teaches us : namely, in 
 suffering? Not merely in acting for, but in daring, in 
 struggling, in grieving, in agonizing, and, if need be, 
 in dying for, the object of its love ? 
 
 Every mother in this church will give but one answer 
 to that question ; for mothers give it among the very 
 animals ; and the deer who fights for her fawn, the bird 
 who toils for her nestlings, the spider who will rather die 
 than drop her bag of eggs, know at least that love is 
 not worth calling love, unless it can dare and suffer for 
 the thing it loves. The most gracious of all virtues, 
 therefore, is self-sacrifice; and is there no like grace in 
 
l6 THE PERFECT LOVE. [serm. 
 
 God, the fount of grace? Has God, whose name is 
 Love, never dared, never suffered, even to the death, in 
 the mightiness of a perfect Love ? 
 
 We Christians say that He has. We say so, because 
 it has been revealed to us, not by flesh and blood, not 
 by brain or nerves, not by logic or emotions, but by 
 the Spirit of God, to whom our inmost spirits and highest 
 reasons have made answer — A God who has suffered for 
 man ? That is so beautiful, that it must be true. 
 
 For otherwise we should be left — as I have argued 
 at length elsewhere — in this strange paradox: — that man 
 has fancied to himself for 1800 years a more beautiful 
 God, a nobler God, a better God than the God who 
 actually exists. It must be so, if God is not capable of 
 that highest virtue of self-sacrifice, while man has been 
 believing that He is, and that upon the first Good Friday 
 He sacrificed Himself for man, out of the intensity of 
 a boundless Love. A better God imagined by man, 
 than the actual God who made man ? We have only to 
 state that absurdity, I trust, to laugh it to scorn. 
 
 Let us confess, then, that the Passion of Christ, and 
 the mystery of Good Friday, is as reasonable a belief 
 to the truly wise, as it is comfortable to the weary and 
 the suffering; let us agree that one of the wisest of 
 Englishmen, of late gone to his rest, spoke well when he 
 said, "As long as women and sorrow exist on earth, so 
 long will the gospel of Christianity find an echo in the 
 liuman heart." Let it find an echo in yours. But it 
 will only find one, in as far as you can enter into the 
 mystery of Passion-week; in as far as you can learn 
 
II.] THE PERFECT LOVE. 1/ 
 
 from Passion-week the truest and highest theology; and 
 see what God is hke, and therefore what you must try 
 to be like likewise. 
 
 Let us think, then, awhile of the mystery of Passion- 
 week ; the mystery of the Cross of Christ. Christ Him- 
 self was looking on the coming Cross, during this Passion- 
 week ; ay, and for many a week before. Nay rather, 
 had He not looked on it from all eternity ? For is He 
 not the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world ? 
 Therefore we may well look on it with Him. It may 
 seem, at first, a painful sight. But shall it cast over our 
 minds only gloom and darkness? Or shall we not see 
 on the Cross the full revelation of Light; of the Light 
 which lightens every man that comes into the world : 
 and find that painful, not because of its darkness, but as 
 the blaze of full sunshine is painful, from unbearable 
 intensity of warmth and light ? Let us see. 
 
 On the Cross of Calvary, then, God the Father 
 shewed His o\vn character and the character of His co- 
 equal and co-eternal Son, and of The Spirit which pro- 
 ceeds from both. For there He spared not His only- 
 begotten Son, but freely gave Him for us. On the 
 Cross of Calvary, not by the will of man, but by the 
 determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, was 
 offered before God the one and only full, perfect, and 
 sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sin 
 of the whole world. God Himself did this. It was not 
 done by any other being to alter His will ; it was done 
 to fulfil His will. It was not done to satisfy God's 
 anger; it was done to satisfy God's love. Therefore 
 
THE PERFECT LOVE. [SERM. 
 
 Good Friday was well and wisely called by our fore- 
 fathers Good Friday; because it shews, as no other day 
 can do, that God is good; that God's will to men, in 
 spite of all their sins, is a good will; that so boundless, 
 so utterly unselfish and condescending, is the eternal 
 love of God, that when an insignificant race in a small 
 and remote planet fell, and went wrong, and was in 
 danger of ruin, there was nothing that God would not 
 dare, God would not suffer, for the sake of even such as 
 us, vile earth and miserable sinners. 
 
 Yes, this is the good news of Passion-week ; a gospel 
 which men are too apt to forget, even to try to forget, as 
 long as they are comfortable and prosperous, lazy and 
 selfish. The comfortable prosperous man shrinks from the 
 thought of Christ on His Cross. It tells him that better 
 men than he have had to suffer; that The Son of God 
 Himself had to suffer. And he does not like suflFering; 
 he prefers comfort. The lazy, selfish man shrinks from the 
 sight of Christ on His Cross ; for it rebukes his laziness 
 and selfishness. Christ's Cross says to him — Thou art 
 ignoble and base, as long as thou art lazy and selfish. 
 Rise up, do something, dare something, suffer something, 
 if need be, for the sake of thy fellow-creatures. Be of use. 
 Take trouble. Face discomfort, contradiction, loss of 
 worldly advantage, if it must be, for the sake of speaking 
 truth and doing right. If thou wilt not do as much as 
 that, then the simplest soldier who goes to die in battle 
 for his duty, is a better man than thou, a nobler man than 
 thou, more like Christ and more like God. That is what 
 Christ's Cross preaches to the lazy, selfish man; and he 
 
II.] THE PERFECT LOVE. I9 
 
 feels in his heart that the sermon is true : but he does 
 not Hke it. He turns from it, and says in his heart — 
 Oh ! Christ's Cross is a painful subject, and Passion- 
 week and Good Friday a painful time. I will think of 
 something more genial, more peaceful, more agreeable 
 than sorrow, and shame, and agony, and death; Good 
 Friday is too sad a day for me. 
 
 Yes, so a man says too often, as long as the fine 
 weather lasts, and all is smooth and bright. But when 
 the tempest comes; when poverty comes, affliction, 
 anxiety, shame, sickness, bereavement, and still more, 
 when persecution comes on a man; when he tries to 
 speak truth and do right; and finds, as he toII too often 
 find, that people, instead of loving him and praising 
 him for speaking truth and doing right, hate him and per- 
 secute him for it; then, then indeed Passion-week begins 
 to mean something to a man; and just because it is the 
 saddest of all times, it looks to him the brightest of all 
 times. For in his misery and confusion he looks up to 
 heaven and asks — Is there any one in heaven who under- 
 stands all this? Does God understand my trouble? Does 
 God feel for my trouble? Does God care for my trouble? 
 Does God know what trouble means ? Or must I fight 
 the battle of life alone, without sympathy or help from 
 God who made me, and has put me here? Then, then 
 does the Cross of Christ bring a message to that man 
 such as no other thing or being on earth can bring. 
 For it says to him — God doe's understand thee utterly. 
 For Christ understands thee. Christ feels for thee. 
 Christ feels with thee. Christ has suffered for thee, 
 K. s. 4 
 
20 THE PERFECT LOVE. [serm. 
 
 and sufifered with thee. Thou canst go through nothing 
 which Christ has not gone through. He, the Son of 
 God, endured poverty, fear, shame, agony, death for thee, 
 that He might be touched with the feehng of thine in- 
 firmity, and help thee to endure, and bring thee safe 
 through all to victory and peace. 
 
 But again. Passion-week, and above all Good Fri- 
 day, is a good time, because it teaches us, above all 
 days, what it is to be good, and what goodness means. 
 Therefore remember this, all of you, and take it home 
 with you for the year to come. He who has learnt the 
 lesson of Passion-week, and practises it; he and he only 
 is a good man. 
 
 Nay more. Passion-week tells us, I believe, what is 
 the law according to which the whole world of man and 
 of things, yea, the wliole universe, sun, moon, and stars, 
 is made: and that is, the law of self-sacrifice; that nothing 
 lives merely for itself; that each thing is ordained by 
 God to help the things around it, even at its own ex- 
 pense. That is a hard saying : and yet it must be true. 
 The soundest Theology and the highest Reason tell us 
 that it must be so. For there cannot be two Holy 
 Spirits. Now the Spirit by which the Lord Jesus Christ 
 sacrificed himself upon the Cross is The Holy Spirit. 
 And the Spirit by which the Lord Jesus Christ made all 
 worlds is The Holy Spirit. But the spirit by which He 
 sacrificed Himself on the Cross is the spirit of self- 
 sacrifice. And therefore the spirit by which He made the 
 world is the spirit of self-sacrifice likewise; and self- 
 sacrifice is the law and rule on which the universe is 
 
II.] THE PERFECT LOVE. 21 
 
 founded. At least, that is the true Catholic faith, as far 
 as my poor intellect can conceive it; and in that faith 
 I will live and die. 
 
 There are those who, now-a-days, will laugh at 
 such a notion, and say — Self-sacrifice? It is not self 
 sacrifice which keeps the world going among men, or 
 animals, or even the plants under our feet: but selfish 
 ness. Competition, they say, is the law of the universe. 
 Everything has to take care of itself, fight for itself, 
 compete freely and pitilessly with everything round it, 
 till the weak are killed off, and only the strong survive; 
 and so, out of the free play of the self-interest of each, 
 you get the greatest possible happiness of the greatest 
 possible number. 
 
 Do we indeed? I should have thought that unbridled 
 selfishness, and the internecine struggle of opposing 
 interests, had already reduced many nations, and seemed 
 likely to reduce all mankind, if it went on, to that state 
 of the greatest possible misery of the greatest number, 
 from which our blessed Lord, as in this very week, died 
 to deliver us. At all events, if that is to be the con- 
 dition of man, and of society, then man is not made in 
 the likeness of God, and has no need to be led by the 
 Spirit of God. For what the likeness of God and the 
 Spirit of God are. Passion-week tells us — namely. Love 
 which knows no self-interest; Love which cares not for 
 itself; Love which throws its own life away, that it may 
 .save those who have hated it, rebelled against it, put it 
 to a felon's death. 
 
 My good friends, instead of believing the carnal and 
 
 4—2 
 
22 THE PERFECT LOVE. [serm. 
 
 selfish philosophy which cries, Every man for himself — 1 
 will not finish the proverb in this Holy place, awfully 
 and literally true as the latter half of it is — instead of be- 
 lieving that, believe the message of Passion-week, which 
 speaks rather thus: telling us that not selfishness, but 
 unselfishness, mutual help and usefulness, is the law and 
 will of God; and that therefore the whole universe, and 
 all that God has made, is very good. And what does 
 Passion-week say to men ? 
 
 "Could we but crush that ever-craving lust 
 
 For bliss, which kills all bliss ; and lose our life, 
 Our barren unit life, to find again 
 A thousand lives in those for whom we die : 
 So were we men and women, and should hold 
 Our rightful place in God's great universe, 
 Wherein, in heaven and earth, by will or nature, 
 Nought lives for self. All, all, from crown to footstool. 
 The Lamb, before the world's foundation slain ; 
 The angels, ministers to God's elect ; 
 The sun, who only shines to light a world ; 
 The clouds, whose glory is to die in showers ; 
 The fleeting streams, who in their ocean graves 
 Flee the decay of stagnant self-content ; 
 The oak, ennobled by the shipwright's axe ; 
 The soil, which yields its marrow to the flower; 
 The flower which breeds a thousand velvet worms. 
 Born only to be prey to every bird — 
 All spend themselves on others ; and shall man, 
 Whose twofold being is the mystic knot 
 Which couples earth and heaven — doubly bound. 
 As being both worm and angel, to that service 
 By which both worms and angels hold their lives- 
 Shall he, whose very breath is debt on debt, 
 
II.] THE PERFECT LOVE. 23 
 
 Refuse, forsooth, to see what God has made him? 
 No, let him shew himself the creatures' lord 
 By freewill gift of that self-sacrifice 
 Which they, perforce, by nature's law must suffer ; 
 Take up his cross, and follow Christ the Lord." 
 
 And thus Passion-week tells all men in what true 
 goodness lies. In self-sacrifice. In it Christ on His 
 Cross shewed men what was the likeness of God, the 
 goodness of God, the glory of God — to suffer for sinful 
 man. 
 
 On this day Christ said — ay, and His Cross says 
 still, and will say to all eternity — Wouldest thou be 
 good ? Wouldest thou be like God ? Then work, and 
 dare, and, if need be, suffer, for thy fellow-men. On 
 this day Christ consecrated, and, as it were, offered up 
 to the Father in His own body on the Cross, all loving 
 actions, unselfish actions, merciful actions, generous 
 actions, heroic actions, which man has done, or ever 
 will do. From Him, from His Spirit, their strength 
 came ; and therefore He is not ashamed to call them 
 brethren. He is the King of the noble army of martyrs ; 
 of all who suffer for love, and truth, and justice' sake; and 
 to all such he says — Thou hast put on my likeness, and 
 followed my footsteps ; thou hast suffered for my sake, 
 and I too have suffered for thy sake, and enabled thee 
 to suffer in like wise ; and in Me thou too art a son of 
 God, in whom the Father is well pleased. 
 
 Oh, let us contemplate this week Christ on His 
 Cross, sacrificing Himself for us and all mankind ; and 
 may that sight help to cast out of us all laziness and 
 
24 THE PERFECT LOVE. [serm. II. 
 
 selfishness, and make us vow obedience to the spirit of 
 self-sacrifice, the Spirit of Christ and of God, which was 
 given to us at our baptism. And let us give, as we are 
 most bound, in all humility and contrition of heart, 
 thanks, praise, and adoration, to that immortal Lamb, 
 who abideth for ever in the midst of the throne of God, 
 the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, by 
 Whom all things consist ; and Who in this week died on 
 the Cross in mortal flesh and blood, that He might make 
 this a good week to all mankind, and teach selfish man 
 that only by being un-selfish can he too be good; and 
 only by self-sacrifice become perfect, even as The Father 
 in heaven is perfect. 
 
SERMON III. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF WHITSUNTIDE. 
 
 Isaiah xi. -i. 
 
 The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him ; the spirit of wisdom 
 and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit o( 
 knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. 
 
 This is Isaiah's description of the Spirit of Whitsuntide; 
 the royal Spirit which was to descend, and did descend 
 without measure, on the ideal and perfect King, even on 
 Jesus Christ our Lord, the only-begotten Son of God. 
 
 That Spirit is the Spirit of God ; and therefore the 
 Spirit of Christ. 
 
 Let us consider a while what that Spirit is. 
 
 He is the Spirit of love. For God is love ; and He 
 is the Spirit of God. Of that there can be no doubt. 
 
 He is the Spirit of boundless love and charity, which 
 is the Spirit of the Father, and the Spirit of the Son 
 likewise. For when by that Spirit of love the Father 
 sent the Son into the world that the world through Him 
 might be saved, then the Son, by the same Spirit of love, 
 came into the world, and humbled Himself, and took on 
 Him the form of a slave, and was obedient unto death, 
 even the death of the Cross. 
 
26 THE SPIRIT OF WHITSUNTIDE. [serm. 
 
 The Spirit of God, then, is the Spirit of love. 
 
 But the text describes this Spirit in different words. 
 According to Isaiah, the Spirit of the Lord is the spurit 
 of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and 
 might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the 
 Lord — in one word, that I may put it as simply as I 
 can — the spirit of wisdom. 
 
 Now, is the spirit of wisdom the same as the spirit 
 of love ? 
 
 Sound theology, which is the highest reason, tells us 
 that it must be so. For consider : 
 
 If the spirit of love is the Spirit of God, and the 
 spirit of wisdom is the Spirit of God, then they must be 
 the same spirit. For if they be two different spirits, 
 then there must be two Holy Spirits ; for any and every 
 Spirit of God must be holy, — what else can He be? 
 Unholy? I leave you to answer that 
 
 But two Holy Spirits there cannot be; for hohness, 
 which is wisdom, justice, and love, is one and indivi- 
 sible ; and as the Athanasian Creed tells us, and as our 
 highest reason ought to tell us, there is but one Holy 
 Spirit, who must be at once a spirit of wisdom and a 
 spirit of love. 
 
 To suppose anything else; to suppose that God's 
 wisdom and God's love, or that God's justice and God's 
 love, are different from each other, or limit each other, 
 or oppose each other, or are anything but one and the 
 same eternally, is to divide God's substance ; to deny 
 that God is One : which is forbidden us, rightly, and 
 according to the highest reason, by tlie Athanasian Creed, 
 
III.] THE SPIRIT OF WHITSUNTIDE. ij 
 
 But more; experience will shew us that the spirit of 
 love is the same as the spirit of wisdom; that if any man 
 wishes to be truly wise and prudent, his best way — I 
 may say his only way — is to be loving and charitable. 
 
 The experience of the apostles proves it. They 
 were, I presume, the most perfectly loving and charitable 
 of men ; they sacrificed all for the sake of doing good ; 
 they counted not their own lives dear to them ; they en- 
 dured — what did they not endure? — for the one object 
 of doing good to men; arid — what is harder, still harder, 
 for any human being, because it requires not merely en- 
 thusiasm, but charity, they made themselves (St Paul at 
 least) all things to all men, if by any means they might 
 save some. 
 
 But were they wise in so doing ? We may judge of 
 a man's wisdom, my friends, by his success. We English 
 are very apt to do so. We like practical men. We say 
 — I will tell you what a man is, by what he can do. 
 
 Now, judged by that rule, surely the apostles' method 
 of winning men by love proved itself a wise method. 
 What did the apostles do ? They had the most enormous 
 practical success that men ever had. They, twelve poor 
 men, set out to convert mankind by loving them: and 
 they succeeded. 
 
 Remember, moreover, that the text speaks of this 
 Spirit of the Lord being given to One who was to be a 
 King, a Ruler, a Guide, and a Judge of men ; who was 
 to exercise influence over men for their good. This 
 prophecy was fulfilled first in the King of kings, our 
 Lord Jesus Christ: but it was fulfilled also in His 
 
28 THE SPIRIT OF WHITSUNTIDE. [SERM. 
 
 apostles, who were, in their own way and measure, kings 
 of men, exercising a vast influence over them. And 
 how ? By the royal Spirit of love. In the apostles the 
 Spirit of love and charity proved Himself to be also the 
 Spirit of wisdom and understanding. He gave them 
 such a converting, subduing, alluring power over men's 
 hearts, as no men have had, before or since. And He 
 will prove Himself to have the same power in us. Our 
 own experience will be the same as the apostles' expe- 
 rience. 
 
 I say this deliberately. The older we grow, the more 
 we understand our own lives and histories, the more we 
 shall see that the spirit of wisdom is the spirit of love ; 
 that the true way to gain influence over our fellow-men, 
 is to have charity towards them. 
 
 That is a hard lesson to learn ; and those who learn 
 it at all, generally learn it late ; almost — God forgive us 
 — too late. 
 
 Our reason, if we would let the Spirit of God en- 
 lighten it, would teach us this beforehand. But we do 
 not usually listen to our reason, or to God's Spirit speak- 
 ing to it. And therefore we have to learn the lesson by 
 experience, often by very sad and shameful experience. 
 And even that very experience we cannot understand, 
 unless the Spirit of God interpret it to us : and blessed 
 are they who, having been chastised, hearken to His 
 interpretation. 
 
 Our reason, I say, should teach us that the spirit of 
 wisdom is none other than the spirit of love. For con- 
 sider — how does the text describe this Spirit ? 
 
III.] THE SPIRIT OF WHITSUNTIDE. 29 
 
 As the spirit of wisdom and understanding ; that is, 
 as the knowledge of human nature, the understanding of 
 men and their ways. If we do not understand our fel- 
 low-creatures, we shall never love them. 
 
 But it is equally true that if we do not love them, we 
 shall never understand them. Want of charity, want of 
 sympathy, want of good-feeling and fellow-feeling — what 
 does it, what can it breed, but endless mistakes and igno- 
 rances, both of men's characters and men's circumstances? 
 
 Be sure that no one knows so little of his fellow-men, 
 as the cynical, misanthropic man, who walks in darkness, 
 because he hates his brother. Be sure that the truly 
 wise and understanding man is he who by sympathy puts 
 himself in his neighbours' place ; feels with them and for 
 them; sees with their eyes, hears with their ears ; and 
 therefore understands them, makes allowances for them, 
 and is merciful to them, even as his Father in heaven is 
 merciful. 
 
 And next ; this royal Spirit is described as " the spirit 
 of counsel and might," that is, the spirit of prudence and 
 practical power ; the spirit which sees how to deal with 
 human beings, and has the practical power of making 
 them obey. 
 
 Now that power, again, can only be got by loving 
 human beings. There is nothing so blind as hardness, 
 nothing so weak as violence. I, of course, can only 
 speak from my own experience ; and my experience is 
 this : that whensoever in my past life I have been angry 
 and scornful, I have said or done an unwise thing; I 
 have more or less injured my own cause ; weakened my 
 
30 THE SPIRIT OF WHITSUNTIDE. [serm. 
 
 own influence on my fellow-men ; repelled them instead 
 of attracting them ; made them rebel against me, rather 
 than obey me. By patience, courtesy, and gentleness, we 
 not only make ourselves stronger; we not only attract 
 our fellow-men, and make them help us and follow us 
 willingly and joyfully : but we make ourselves wiser; we 
 give ourselves time and light to see what we ought to do, 
 and how to do it. 
 
 And next; this Spirit is also " the spirit of knowledge, 
 and of the fear of the Lord." Ay, they, indeed, both 
 begin in love, and end in love. If you wish for know- 
 ledge, you must begin by loving knowledge for its own 
 sake. And the more knowledge you gain, the more you 
 will long to know, and more, and yet more for ever. 
 You cannot succeed in a study, unless you love that 
 study. Men of science must begin with an interest in, a 
 love for, an enthusiasm, in the very deepest sense of the 
 word, for the phasnomena which they study. But the 
 more they learn of them, the more their love increases ; 
 as they see more and more of their wonder, of their 
 beauty, of the unspeakable wisdom and power of God, 
 shewn forth in every blade of grass which grows in the 
 sunshine and the rain. 
 
 And if this be true of things earthly and temporary, 
 how much more of things heavenly and eternal? We 
 must begin by loving whatsoever things are true, whatso- 
 ever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, honest, 
 and of good report. We must begin, I say, by loving 
 them with a sort of child's love, without understanding 
 them; by that simple instinct and longing after what is 
 
in.] THE SPIRIT OF WHITSUNTIDE. 3 1 
 
 good and beautiful and true, which is indeed the inspira- 
 tion of the Spirit of God. But as we go on, as St Paul 
 bids us, to meditate on them; and "if there be any virtue 
 and if there be any praise, to think on such things," and 
 feed our minds daily with purifying, elevating, sobering, 
 humanizing, enlightening thoughts : then we shall get to 
 love goodness with a reasonable and manly love; to see 
 the beauty of holiness; the strength of self-sacrifice; the 
 glory of justice; the divineness of love; and in a word — 
 To love God for His own sake, and to give Him thanks 
 for His great glory, which is: That He is a good God. 
 
 This thought — remember it, I pray — brings me to the 
 last point. This Spirit is also the spirit of the fear of the 
 Lord. And that too, my friends, must be a spirit of love 
 not only to God, but to our fellow- creatures. For if we 
 but consider that God the Father loves all; that His 
 mercy is over all His works; and that He hateth nothing 
 that He has made : then how dare we hate anything that 
 He has made, as long as we have any rational fear of 
 Him, awe and respect for Him, true faith in His infinite 
 majesty and power? If we but consider that God the Son 
 actually came down on earth to die, and to die too on 
 the cross, for all mankind: then how dare we hate a 
 human being for whom He died: at least if we have true 
 honour, gratitude, loyalty, reverence, and godly fear in 
 our hearts toward Him, our risen Lord? 
 
 Oh let us open our eyes this Whitsuntide to the 
 experience of our past lives. Let us see now — what we 
 shall certainly see at the day of judgment — that whenever 
 we have failed to be loving, we have also failed to be 
 
32 THE SPIRIT OF WHITSUNTIDE, [serm.iil 
 
 wise; that whenever we have been bHnd to our neigh- 
 bours' interests, we have also been blind to our own ; 
 wlienever we have hurt others, we have hurt ourselves 
 still more. Let us, at this blessed Whitsuntide, ask 
 forgiveness of God for all acts of malice and unchari- 
 tableness, blindness and hardness of heart; and pray for 
 the spirit of true charity, which alone is true wisdom. 
 And let us come to Holy Communion in charity with 
 each other and with all; determined henceforth to feel 
 for each other and with each other; to put ourselves in 
 our neighbours' places; to see with their eyes, and feel 
 with their hearts, as far as God shall give us that great 
 grace; determined to make allowances for their mistakes 
 and failings; to give and forgive, live and let live, even 
 as God gives and forgives, lives and lets live for ever: 
 that so we may be indeed the children of our Father in 
 heaven, whose name is Love. Then we shall indeed 
 discern the Lord's body — that it is a body of union, 
 sympathy, mutual trust, help, affection. Then we shall 
 with all contrition and humility, but still in spirit and in 
 truth, claim and obtain our share in the body and the 
 blood, in the spirit and in the mind, of Him Who sacri- 
 Jficed Himself for a rebellious world. 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 Psalm lxv. i. 
 Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come. 
 
 Next Friday, the 20th of December, 1871, will be 
 marked in most churches of this province of Canter- 
 bury by a special ceremony. Prayers will be offered 
 to God for the increase of missionary labourers in the 
 Church of England. To many persons — I hope I may 
 say, to all in this congregation — this ceremony will seem 
 eminently rational. We shall not ask God to suspend 
 the laws of nature, nor alter the courses of the seasons, 
 for any wants, real or fancied, of our own. We shall ask 
 Him to make us and our countrymen wiser and better, in 
 order that we may make other human beings wiser and 
 better: and an eminently rational request I assert that 
 to be. 
 
 For no one will deny that it is good for heathens and 
 savages, even if there were no life after death, to be wiser 
 and better than they are. It is good, I presume, that 
 they should give up cannibalism, slave-trading, witchcraft, 
 child-niurder, and a host of other abominations ; and that 
 
34 PliA YER. [SERM. 
 
 they should be made to give them up not from mere fear 
 of European cannon, but of their own wills and con- 
 sciences, seeing that such habits are wrong and ruinous, 
 and loathing them accordingly; in a word, that instead of 
 living as they do, and finding in a hundred ways that the 
 wages of sin are death, they should be converted — that is, 
 change their ways — and live. 
 
 Now that this is the will of God — assuming that 
 there is a God, and a good God — is plain at least to our 
 reason, and to our common sense ; and it is equally 
 plain to our reason and to our common sense that, as 
 God has not taught these poor wretches to improve 
 themselves, or sent superior beings to improve them 
 from some other world. He therefore means their im- 
 provement to be brought about, as moral improvements 
 are usually brought about, by the influence of their 
 fellow-men, and specially by us who have put ourselves 
 in contact with them in our world-wide search for wealth ; 
 and who are certain, as we know by sad experience, to 
 make the heathen worse, if we do not make them better. 
 And as we find from experience that our missionaries, 
 wherever they are brought in contact with these savages, 
 do make them wiser and happier, we ask God to inspire 
 more persons with the desire of improving the heathen, 
 and to teach them how to improve them. I say, how 
 to improve them. All sneers, whether at the failure of 
 missionary labours, or at the small results in return for 
 the vast sums spent on missions — all such sneers, I say, 
 instead of deterring us from praying to God on this 
 matter, ought to make us pray the more earnestly in 
 
IV.] PRAYER. 35 
 
 proportion as they are deserved. For they ought to 
 remind us that we possibly may not have gone to work 
 as yet altogether in the right way; that there may be 
 mistakes and deficiencies in our method of dealing with 
 the heathen. And if so, it seems all the more reason 
 for asking God to set us and others right, in case we 
 should be wrong; and to make us and others strong, 
 in case we should be weak. 
 
 We thus commit the matter to God. We do not 
 ask God to raise up such missionary labourers as we 
 think fit : but such as He thinks fit. We do not pray 
 Him to alter His will concerning the heathen : but to 
 enable us to do what we know already to be His will. 
 And this course seems to me eminently rational; pro- 
 vided always, of course, that it is rational to believe 
 that there is a God who answers prayer ; and that if we 
 ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 
 
 Now the older I grow, and the more I see of the 
 chances and changes of this mortal life, and of the 
 needs and longings of the human heart, the more im- 
 portant seems this question, and all words concerning it, 
 whether in the Bible or out of the Bible — 
 
 Is there anywhere in the universe any being who can 
 hear our prayers ? Is prayer a superfluous folly, or the 
 highest prudence ? 
 
 I say — Is there a being who can even hear our 
 prayers ? I do not say, a being who will always answer 
 them, and give us all we ask : but one who will at least 
 hear, who will listen ; consider whether what we ask is fit 
 to be granted or not ; and grant or refuse accordingly. 
 K. s. 5 
 
36 PRA YER. [SERM. 
 
 You say — What is the need of asking such a question? 
 Of course we believe that. Of course we pray, else why 
 are we in church to-day ? 
 
 Well, my friends, God grant that you may all believe 
 it in spirit and in truth. But you must remember that 
 if so, you are in the minority; that the majority of 
 civilized men, like the majority of mere savages, do not 
 pray, whatever the women may do ; and that prayer 
 among thinking and civilized white men has been be- 
 coming, for the last loo years at least, more and more 
 unfashionable; and is likely, to judge from the signs of 
 the times, to become more unfashionable still : after 
 which reign of degrading ungodliness, I presume — from 
 the experience of all history — that our children or grand- 
 children will see a revulsion to some degrading superstition, 
 and the latter end be worse than the beginning. But 
 it is notorious that men are doubting more and more of 
 the efficacy of prayer ; that philosophers so-called, for 
 true philosophers they are not — even though they may 
 be true, able, and worthy students of merely physical 
 science — are getting a hearing more and more readily, 
 when they tell men they need not pray. 
 
 They say ; and here they say rightly — The world is 
 ruled by laws. But some say further; and there they 
 say wrongly ; — For that reason prayer is of no use ; the 
 laws will not be altered to please you. You }'ourself are 
 but tiny parts of a great machine, which will grind on in 
 spite of you, though it grind you to powder ; and there 
 is no use in asking the machine to stop. So, they say, 
 prayer is an impertinence. I would that they stopped 
 
IV.] PRAYER. 37 
 
 there. For then we who deny that the world is a 
 machine, or anything like a machine, might argue fairly 
 with them on the common ground of a common belief 
 in God. 
 
 But some go further still, and say — A God ? We do 
 not deny that there may be a God : but we do not deny 
 that there may not be one. This we say — If He exists, 
 we know nothing of Him : and what is more, you know 
 nothing of Him. No man can know aught of Him. 
 No man can know whether there be a God or not. A 
 living God, an acting God, a God of providence, a God 
 who hears prayer, a God such as your Bible tells you of, 
 is an inconceivable Being; and what you cannot con- 
 ceive, that you must not believe : and therefore prayer 
 is not merely an impertinence, it is a mistake ; for it is 
 speaking to a Being who only exists in your own 
 imagination. I need not say, my friends, that all this, 
 to my mind, is only a train of sophistry and false reason- 
 ing, which — so I at least hold — has been answered and 
 refuted again and again. And I trust in God and in 
 Christ sufficiently to believe that He will raise up sound 
 divines and true philosophers in His Church, who will re- 
 fute it once more. But meanwhile I can only appeal to 
 your common sense ; to the true and higher reason, 
 which lies in men's hearts, not in their heads ; and ask — 
 And is it come to this ? Is this the last outcome of civiliza- 
 tion, the last discovery of the human intellect, the last 
 good news for man ? That the soundest thinkers — they 
 who have the truest and clearest notion of the universe — 
 are the savage who knows nothing but what his five sense? 
 
 5—2 
 
38 PRAYER. [SEKM. 
 
 teach him, and the ungodly who makes boast of his own 
 desire, and speaks good of the covetous whom God 
 abhorreth, while he says, "Tush, God hath forgotten. 
 He hideth away his face, and God will never see it "? 
 
 True : these so-called philosophers would say that the 
 savage makes a mistake in his sensuality, and the world- 
 ling in his covetousness and his tyranny; that from an 
 imperfect conception of their own true self-interest, they 
 carry their philosophy to conclusions which the philoso- 
 pher in his study must regret. But as to their philosophy 
 being correct: there can be no question that if provi- 
 dence, and prayer, and the living God, be phantoms of 
 man's imagination, then the cynical worldling at one end 
 of the social scale, and the brutal savage at the other, are 
 wiser than apostles and prophets, and sages and divines. 
 
 These men talk of facts, the facts of human nature. 
 Why do they ask us to ignore the most striking fact of 
 human nature, that man, even if he were a mere animal, 
 is alone of all animals — a praying animal? Is that strange 
 instinct of worship, which rises in the heart of man as 
 soon as he begins to think, to become a civilizetl being 
 and not a savage, to be disregarded as a childish dream 
 when he rises to a higher civilization still ? Is the expe- 
 rience of men, heathen as well as Christian, for all these 
 ages to go for nought ? Has it mattered nought whether 
 men cried to Baal or to God ; for with both alike there 
 has been neither sound nor voice, nor any that answered? 
 Has every utterance that has ever gone up from suffering 
 and doubting humanity, gone up in vain? Have the 
 prayers of saints, the hymns of psalmists, the agonies of 
 
IV.] PRA YER. 39 
 
 martyrs, the aspirations of poets, the thoughts of sages, 
 the cries of the oppressed, the pleadings of the mother 
 for her child, the maiden praying in her chamber for her 
 lover upon the distant battle-field, the soldier answering 
 her prayer from afar off with, " Sleep quiet, I am in God's 
 hands" — those very utterances of humanity which seemed 
 to us most noble, most pure, most beautiful, most divine, 
 been all in vain ? — impertinences ; the babblings of fair 
 dreams, poured forth into nowhere, to no thing, and in 
 vain ? Has every suffering, searching soul which ever 
 gazed up into the darkness of the unknown, in hopes of 
 catching even a glimpse of a divine eye, beholding all, 
 and ordering all, and pitying all, gazed up in vain ? For 
 at the ground of the universe is "not a divine eye, but only 
 a Hank bottomless eye-socket^;" and man has no Father in 
 heaven; and Christ revealed Him not, because He was 
 not there to reveal ; and there was no hope, no remedy, 
 no deUverance, for the miserable among the sons of 
 men? 
 
 Oh, my friends, those who believe, or fancy that they 
 believe such things, must be able to do so only through 
 some peculiar conformation either of brain or heart. 
 Only want of imagination to conceive the consequences 
 of such doctrines can enable them, if they have any love 
 and pity for their fellow-men, to preach those doctrines 
 without pity and horror. They know not, they know not, 
 of what they rob a mankind already but too miserable b)- 
 its own folly and its own sin ; a mankind which, if it 
 have not hope in God and in Christ, is truly — as Homer 
 1 J. P. Richter. 
 
40 PRA YER. [SERM. 
 
 said of old — more miserable than the beasts of the field. 
 If their unconscious conceit did not make them uninten- 
 tionally cruel, they would surely be silent for pity's sake ; 
 they would let men go on in the pleasant delusion that 
 there is a living God, and a Word of God who has re- 
 vealed Him to men; and would hide from their fellow- 
 creatures the dreadful secret which they think they have 
 discovered — That there is none that heareth prayer, and 
 therefore to Him need no flesh come. 
 
 Men take up with such notions, I believe, most gene- 
 rally in days of comfort, ease, safety. They find the 
 world so well ordered outwardly, that it seems able 
 enough to go on its way without a God. They have 
 themselves so few soitows, struggles, doubts, that they 
 never feel that sense of helplessness, of danger, of igno- 
 rance, which has made the hearts of men, in every age, 
 yearn for an unseen helper, an unseen deliverer, an un- 
 seen teacher. 
 
 And so it is — and shameful it is that so it should be — 
 that the more God gives to men, the less they thank Him, 
 the less they fancy that they need Him ; but take His 
 bounties, as they take the air they breathe, unconsciously, 
 and as a matter of course. 
 
 And therefore adversity is wholesome, danger is 
 wholesome ; so wholesome, that in all ages, as far as I 
 can find, the godliest, the most moral, the most manful, and 
 therefore the really happiest and most successful nations 
 or communities of men, have been those who were in 
 perpetual danger, difficulty, struggle; and who have 
 thereby had their faith in God called out; who have 
 
IV.] PRAYER. 41 
 
 learned in the depth, to cry out of the depth to God ; to 
 lift up their eyes unto the Lord, and know that their help 
 comes from Him. 
 
 I know a village down in the far West, where the 
 i2ist Psalm which I just quoted, was a favourite, and 
 more than a favourite. Whenever it was given out in 
 church — and the congregation used often to ask for it — 
 all joined in singing it, young and old, men and maidens, 
 with an earnestness, a fervour, a passion, such as I never 
 heard elsewhere ; such as shewed how intensely they felt 
 that the psalm was true, and true for them. Of all con- 
 gregational singing I ever heard, never have I heard any 
 so touching as those voices, when they joined in the old 
 words they loved so well. 
 
 Sheltered beneath the Almighty wings 
 
 Thou shall securely rest, 
 
 Where neither sun nor moon shall thee 
 
 By day or night molest. 
 
 At home, abroad, in peace, in war, 
 
 Thy God shall thee defend ; 
 
 Conduct thee through life's pilgrimage 
 
 Safe to thy journey's end. 
 
 Do you fancy these people were specially comfort- 
 able, prosperous folk, who had no sorrows, and lived 
 safe from all danger, and therefore knew that God pro- 
 tected them from all ill ? 
 
 Nothing less, my friends, nothing less. There was 
 hardly a man who joined in that psalm, but knew that 
 he carried his life in his hand from year to year, that any 
 day might see, him a corpse— drowned at sea. Hardly 
 
42 PRA YER. [SERM. 
 
 a woman who sang that psalm but had lost a husband, 
 a father, a brother, a kinsman — drowned at sea. And 
 yet they believed that God preserved them. They were 
 fishers and sailors, earning an uncertain livelihood, on a 
 wild and rocky coast. A sudden shift of wind might 
 make, as I knew it once to make, 60 widows and orphans 
 in a single night. The fishery for the year might fail, 
 and all the expense of boats and nets be thrown away. 
 Or in default of work at home, the young men would go 
 out on voyages to foreign parts : and often never came 
 back again, dying far from home, of fever, of wreck, of 
 some of the hundred accidents which befal seafaring 
 men. And yet they believed that God preserved them. 
 Surely their faith was tried, if ever faith was tried. But 
 as surely their faith failed not, for — if I may so say — 
 they dared not let it fail. If they ceased to trust God, 
 what had they to trust in ? Not in their own skill in 
 seamanship, though it was great : they knew how weak 
 it was, on which to lean. Not in the so-called laws of 
 nature ; the treacherous sea, the wild wind, the uncertain 
 shoals of fish, the chances and changes of a long foreign 
 voyage. Without trust in God, their lives must have 
 been lives of doubt and of terror, for ever anxious about 
 the morrow : or else of blind recklessness, saying, " Let 
 us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Because they 
 kept their faith in God, their lives were for the most part 
 lives of hardy and hopeful enterprise; cheerful always, 
 in bad luck as in good ; thankful when their labours 
 were blest with success ; and when calamity and failure 
 came, saying with noble resignation — " I have received 
 
IV.] PRA YER. 43 
 
 good from the hand of the Lord, and shall I not 
 receive evil? Though He slay me, yet will I trust in 
 Him." 
 
 It is a life like theirs, mixed with danger and uncer- 
 tainty, which most calls out faith in God. It is the life 
 of safety and comfort, in which our wants are all supplied 
 ready to our hand, which calls it out least. And there- 
 fore it is that life in cities, just because it is most safe 
 and most comfortable, is so often, alas, most ungodly, at 
 least among the men. Less common, thank God, is 
 this ungodliness among the women. The nursing of the 
 sick ; the cares of a family, often too sorrows, manifold 
 and bitter, put them continually in mind of human weak- 
 ness, and of their own weakness likewise. Yes. It is 
 sorrow, my friends, sorrow and failure, which forces men 
 to believe that there is One who heareth prayer, forces 
 them to lift up their eyes to One from whom cometh 
 their help. Before the terrible realities of danger, death, 
 bereavement, disappointment, shame, ruin — and most of 
 all before deserved shame, deserved ruin — all the argu- 
 ments of the conceited sophist melt away like the maxims 
 of the comfortable worldling ; and the man or woman 
 who was but too ready a day before to say, " Tush, God 
 will never see, and will never hear," begins to hope pas- 
 sionately that God does see, that God does hear. In the 
 hour of darkness ; when there is no comfort in man nor 
 help in man, when he has no place to flee unto, and no 
 man careth for his soul : then the most awful, the most 
 blessed of all questions is : But is there no one higher 
 than man to whom I can flee? No one higher than 
 
44 PJiA YER. [SERM. 
 
 man who cares for my soul and for the souls of those 
 who are dearer to me than my own soul ? No friend ? 
 No helper ? No deliverer ? No counsellor ? Even no 
 judge? No punisher? No God, even though He be 
 a consuming fire ? Am I and my misery alone together 
 in the universe ? Is my misery without any meaning, 
 and I without hope ? If there be no God : then all that 
 is left for me is despair and death. But if there be, then 
 I can hope that there is a meaning in my misery; that it 
 comes to me not without cause, even though that cause 
 be my own fault. I can plead with God like poor Job 
 of old, even though in wild words like Job; and ask — 
 What is the meaning of this sorrow ? What have I 
 done ? What should I do ? "I will say unto God, Do 
 not condemn me ; shew me wherefore thou contend- 
 est with me. Surely I would speak unto the Almighty, 
 and desire to reason with God." 
 
 " I would speak unto the Almighty, and desire to 
 reason with God." Oh my friends, a man, I believe, can 
 gain courage and wisdom to say that, only by the inspira- 
 tion of the Spirit of God. 
 
 But when once he has said that from his heart, he 
 begins to be justified by faith. For he has had faith in 
 God; he has trusted God enough to speak to God who 
 made him ; and so he has put himself, so far at least, 
 into his just and right place, as a spiritual and rational 
 being, made in the image of God. 
 
 But more, he has justified God. He has confessed 
 that God is not a mere force or law of nature; nor a 
 mere tyrant and tormentor: but a reasonable being, who 
 
IV.] PRAYER. 45 
 
 will hear reason, and a just being, who will do justice by 
 the creatures whom He has made. 
 
 And so the very act of prayer justifies God, and 
 honours God, and gives glory to God; for it confesses 
 that God is what He is, a good God, to whom the 
 humblest and the most fallen of His creatures dare speak 
 out the depths of their abasement, and acknowledge that 
 His glory is this— That in spite of all His majesty, He 
 is one who heareth prayer ; a being as magnificent in 
 His justice, as He is magnificent in His majesty and His 
 might. 
 
 All this is argued out, as it never has been argued 
 out before or since, in the book of Job : and for seeing 
 so much as this, was Job approved by God. But there 
 is a further question, to which the book of Job gives no 
 answer; and to which indeed all the Old Testament gives 
 but a partial answer. And that is this — This just and 
 magnificent God, has He also human pity, tenderness, 
 charity, condescension, love? In one word, have we not 
 only a God in heaven, but a Father in heaven ? 
 
 That question could only be answered by the coming 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ. Truly He said — No one 
 cometh to the Father, but by me. No man hath seen 
 God at any time : but the only-begotten Son, who is in 
 the bosom of the Father, He hath revealed Him. He 
 revealed Him in part to Abraham, in part to Moses, to 
 Job, to David, to the prophets. But He revealed Him 
 perfectly when He said — I and the Father are one. He 
 that hath seen me hath seen the Father. Yes. Now 
 we can find boundless comfort in the words, " Such as 
 
46 PJiA YER. [SERM. 
 
 the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy 
 Ghost" — Love and condescension without bounds. Now 
 we know that there is A Man in the midst of the throne 
 of God, who is the brightness of God's glory and the 
 express image of His character; a high priest who can 
 be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, seeing that 
 He was tempted in all things like as we are, yet without 
 sin. 
 
 To Him we can cry, with human passion and in 
 human words; because we know that His human heart 
 will respond to our human hearts, and that His human 
 heart again will respond to His divine Spirit, and that 
 His divine Spirit is the same as the divine Spirit of His 
 Father; for their wills and minds are one; and their will 
 and their mind is — boundless love to sinful man. 
 
 Yes, we can look up by faith into the sacred face of 
 Christ, and take refuge by faith within His sacred heart, 
 saying — If it be good for me. He will give what I ask : 
 and if He gives it not, it is because that too is good for 
 me, and for others beside me. In all the chances and 
 changes of this mortal life we can say to Him, as He 
 said in that supreme hour — " If it be possible, let this 
 cup pass from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine, 
 be done," sure that He will present that prayer to His 
 Father, and to our Father, and to His God and to our 
 God; and that whatsoever be the answer vouchsafed by 
 Him whose ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts 
 as our thoughts, the prayer will not have gone up to 
 Christ in vain. 
 
 And in such a case as this of missions to the heathen 
 
IV.] PR A YER. 47 
 
 — If we believe that Christ died for these poor heathen; 
 if we beUeve that Christ loves these poor heathen in- 
 finitely more than we, or than the most devoted mission- 
 ary who ever lived or died for them : shall we say — Then 
 we may leave them in Christ's hands to follow their own 
 nature. If He is satisfied with their degradation, so may 
 we be? Shall we not rather say — Their misery and 
 degradation must pain His sacred heart, far more than 
 our sinful hearts; and if He does not come down again 
 on earth to help them Himself, it must be because He 
 means to help them through us. His disciples ? Let us 
 ask Him to teach us and others how to help them ; to 
 enable us and others to help them. Let us pray to Him 
 the one prayer which, unless prayer be a dream, is cer- 
 tam to be answered, because it is certainly according to 
 God's will; the prayer to be taught and helped to do 
 our duty by our fellow-men. And for the rest: let us 
 pray in the words of that most noble of all collects, to 
 pray which is to take refuge from our own ignorance in 
 the boundless wisdom of God's love — "Thou who know- 
 est our necessities before we ask, and our ignorance in 
 asking: Have compassion on our infirmities, and those 
 things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for 
 our blindness we cannot ask, condescend to give us, for 
 the worthiness of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." 
 
SERMON V. 
 
 THE DEAF AND DUMB. 
 
 St Mark vii. 32 — 37, 
 
 And they bring unto Jesus one that was deaf, and had an impedi- 
 ment in his speech ; and they beseech Him to put His hand 
 upon him. And He took him aside from the multitude, and put 
 His fingers into his ears, and He spit, and touched his tongue ; 
 and looking up to heaven. He sighed, and said, Ephphatha, 
 that is. Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and 
 
 the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain 
 
 And they were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath 
 done all things well : He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the 
 dumb to speak. 
 
 Our greatest living philologer has said, and said truly — 
 " If wonder arises from ignorance, it is from that con- 
 scious ignorance which, if we look back at the history of 
 most of our sciences, has been the mother of all human 
 knowledge. Till men began to wonder at the stratifica- 
 tion of rocks, and the fossilization of shells, there was no 
 science of Geology. Till they began to wonder at the 
 words which were perpetually in their mouths, there was 
 no science of Language." 
 
 He might have added, that till men began to wonder 
 at the organization of their own bodies, tliere was no 
 
SERM. v.] TffE DEAF AND DUMB. 49 
 
 science of healing ; that in proportion as the common 
 fact of health became mysterious and marvellous in their 
 eyes, just in that proportion did they become able to ex- 
 plain and to conquer disease. For there is a deep diffe- 
 rence between the wonder of the uneducated or half- 
 educated man, and the wonder of the educated man. 
 The ignorant in all ages have wondered at the exception ; 
 the wise, in proportion as they have become wise, have 
 wondered at the rule. Pestilences, prodigies, portents, 
 the results of seeming accidents, excite the vulgar mind. 
 Only the abnormal or casual is worthy of their attention. 
 The man of science finds a deeper and more awful 
 charm in contemplating the results of law ; in watching, 
 not what seem to be occasional failures in nature : but 
 what is a perpetual and calm success. 
 
 The savage knows not, I am told, what wonder means, 
 save from some prodigy. Seeing no marvel in the daily 
 glory of the sunlight, he is startled out of his usual stu- 
 pidity and carelessness by the occurrence of an eclipse, 
 an earthquake, a thunderbolt. The uneducated, what- 
 ever their rank may be, are apt to be more interested by 
 the sight of deformities, and defects or excesses in na- 
 ture, than by that of the most perfect normal and natural 
 beauty. 
 
 Those, in the same way, who in the infancy of 
 European science, thought it worth while to register 
 natural phenomena, registered exclusively the exceptions. 
 Eclipses, meteors, auroras, earthquakes, storms, and 
 especially monstrosities, animal or vegetable, exercised 
 their barbaric wonder. The mystery and miracle which 
 
so THE DEAF AND DUMB. [SERM. 
 
 underlies the unfolding of every bud, the development of 
 every embryo, the growth of every atom of tissue, in any 
 organism, animal or vegetable — to all this their intelfec- 
 tual eye was blind. How different from such a state of 
 mind, that calm and constant wonder, humbling and yet 
 inspiring, with which the modem man of science searches 
 into the " open mystery " of the universe ; and sees that 
 the true marvel lies, not in the infringement of law, but 
 in its permanence ; not in the imperfect, but in the 
 perfect ; not in disease, but in health ; not in deformity, 
 but in beauty. 
 
 These words are true of all nature ; and specially true, 
 it seems to me, of our outward senses and faculties ; true 
 of sight, hearing, speech. The wonder, I think, with the 
 wise man will be, not that there are deaf and dumb 
 persons to be found here and there among us : but that 
 the average, nay, the majority of mankind, are not deaf 
 and dumb. Paradoxical as this assertion may seem at first, 
 a little thought I believe will prove it to be reasonable. 
 
 Whatever view you take of the origin of sight, hearing, 
 voice, the wonder to a thoughtful mind is just the same ; 
 how, under the storm of circumstances, and through the 
 lapse of ages, those faculties have not been lost again 
 and again, by countless individuals, nay, by the whole 
 species. For we must confess that those faculties are 
 gradually developed in each individual ; that every animal 
 and every human being which is born into the world, has 
 built up, unconsciously, involuntarily, and as it were out 
 of nothing, those delicate and complex organs, by which 
 he afterwards learns to see, hear, and utter sounds. Is 
 
v.] THE DEAF AND DUMB. 51 
 
 not the wonder, that he should, in the majority of cases, 
 succeed without any effort of his own ? 
 
 And if I am answered, that the success is owing to 
 hereditary tendencies, and to the laws by which the off- 
 spring resembles the parents, I answer : Is not that a 
 greater wonder still ? A wonder which all the discoveries 
 of the scalpel and the microscope have been as yet un- 
 able, and will be, I believe, to the last unable, to unravel, 
 even to touch ? A wonder which can be explained by no 
 theories of vibratory atoms, vital forces, plastic powers of 
 nature, or other such phrases, which are but metaphysical 
 abstractions, having no counterpart in fact, and only 
 hiding from us our ignorance of the vast and venerable 
 unknown. The physiologist, when he considers the 
 manifold combination of innumerable microscopic cir- 
 cumstances which are required to bring any one creature 
 into the world with a perfectly hearing ear, ought to con- 
 fess that the chances — ^if the world were governed by 
 chance — are infinitely greater in favour of a child's being 
 born with an imperfect ear rather than with a perfect 
 one. And if he should evade the difficulty; and try 
 to explain the usual success by saying that nature is 
 governed by law : I answer — What is nature ? What is law? 
 You never saw nature nor law either under the micro- 
 scope. They too are metaphysical abstractions, necessary 
 notions and conceptions of your own brain. You have 
 seen nothing but the fact and the custom ; and all you 
 can do, if you be strictly rational, is with a certain 
 modern school to say, with a despairing humility, which 
 I deplore while I respect — deploring it because it is 
 K. s. 6 
 
52 THE DEAF AND DUMB. [serm. 
 
 needless despair, and yet respecting it because it is 
 humility, which is the path out of despair and darkness 
 into hope and light' — to say with them, " Man can know 
 nothing of causes, he can only register positive facts." 
 This, I say, is one path — one which I trust none here 
 will tread. The only other path, I believe, is, to go back 
 to the lessons which we ought to have learnt in our 
 childhood, for those to whom the human race owes most 
 learnt them thousands of years ago ; and to ascribe the 
 ever successful miracles of nature to a Will, to a Mind, 
 to a Providence so like that which each of us exercises in 
 his own petty sphere, that we are not only able to under- 
 stand in part the works of God, but to know from the 
 very fact of being able to understand them — as one of 
 our greatest astronomers has so well said lately — that we 
 are made in the image of God. To say with the old 
 Psalmist, that the universe is governed by "a law which 
 cannot be broken :" but why ? Because God has given it 
 that law. To say "All things continue as they were at 
 the beginning :" but why ? Because all things serve Him 
 in whom we live and move and have our being. To con- 
 fess the mystery and miracle of our mortal bodies, and 
 say with David, " I am fearfully and wonderfully made ; 
 such knowledge is too wonderful and excellent for me, I 
 cannot attain unto it :" but to add the one only rational 
 explanation of the mystery which, thank God, common 
 sense has taught, though it may be often in confused and 
 defective forms, to the vast majority of the human race 
 in all times and all lands— that He who grasps the 
 mystery and works the miracle is God ; that " His eye 
 
v.] THE DEAF AND DUMB. 53 
 
 sees our substances yet being imperfect ; and in His book 
 are all our members written, which day by day were 
 fashioned, when as yet there were none of them." 
 
 And then to go forward with the Psalmist, and with 
 the common sense of humanity ; to conclude that if there 
 be a Creator, there must also be a Providence ; that that 
 life-giving Spirit which presided over the creation of each 
 organism presides also over its growth, its circumstances, 
 its fortunes ; and to say with David, " Whither shall I go 
 then from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from Thy 
 presence ? If I climb up to heaven. Thou art there. If 
 I go down to hell. Thou art there also. If I take the 
 wings of the morning, and remain in the uttermost parts 
 of the sea; even there Thy hand shall lead me; Thy right 
 hand shall hold me still." 
 
 Yes. To this — to faith and adoration — ought right 
 and reason to lead the physical philosopher. And to 
 what ought it to lead us, who are most of us, I presume, 
 not physical philosophers? To gratitude, surely, not 
 unmixed with fear and trembling ; till we say to our- 
 selves — ^Vho am I, to boast? Who am I, to pride 
 myself on possessing a single faculty which one of my 
 neighbours may want? What have I, that I did not 
 receive ? Considering the endless chances of failure, 
 if the world were left to chance; and I may say, the 
 absolute certainty of failures, if the world were left to 
 the blind competition of merely physical laws, is it not 
 only of the Lord's mercies that we are not failures too ? 
 that we have not been bom crippled, blind, deaf, dumb — 
 what not? — by the effect of circumstances over which 
 
 6—2 
 
54 THE DEAF AND DUMB. [SERM. 
 
 we have had no control ; which have been working, it 
 may be, for generations past, in the organizations of our 
 ancestors ? 
 
 But what shall we say of those who have not received 
 what we have received? What shall we say of those 
 who, like the deaf and dumb, are, in some respects at 
 least, failures — instances in which the laws which regu- 
 late our organization have not succeeded in effecting a 
 full development ? 
 
 We can say this, at least, without entangUng and 
 dazzling ourselves in speculations about final causes; 
 without attempting to pry into the mystery of evil. 
 
 We can say this : That if there be a God — as there 
 is a God — these failures are not according to His 
 will. The highest reason should teach us that ; for 
 it must tell us that in the work of the Divine Artist, 
 as in the work of the human, imperfection, impo- 
 tence, disorder of any kind, must be contrary to the 
 mind and will of the Creator. The highest reason, 
 I say, teaches us this. And Scripture teaches it like- 
 wise. For if we believe our Lord to have been as 
 
 He was — the express image of the Almighty Father; 
 if we believe that He came — as He did come — to reveal 
 to men His Father's will, His Father's mind. His Father's 
 character : then we must believe that He acted according 
 to that will and according to that character, when He 
 made the healing of disease, and the curing of imper- 
 fections of this very kind, an important and an integral 
 part of His work on earth. 
 
 "And they brought unto Jesus one that was deaf, 
 
v.] THE DEAF AND DUMB. 55 
 
 and had an impediment in his speech, and besought 
 Him to put His hand upon him. And Jesus took him 
 aside from the multitude, and put His fingers into his 
 ears ; and He spit, and touched his tongue ; and looking 
 up to heaven, He sighed, and said unto him, Ephphatha, 
 that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were 
 opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he 
 spake plain And they were beyond measure as- 
 tonished, saying. He hath done all things well : He 
 maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak." 
 
 Consider this story awhile. He healed the man 
 miraculously, by means at which we cannot guess, which 
 we cannot even conceive. But the healing signified at 
 least two things- — that the man could be healed, and 
 that the man ought to be healed ; that his bodily 
 defect — the retribution of no sin of his own — was con- 
 trary to the will of that Father in Heaven, who willeth 
 not that one little one should perish. 
 
 But Jesus sighed likewise. There was in Him a 
 sorrow, a compassion, most human and most divine. 
 It may have been — may He forgive me if I dare rashly 
 to impute motives or thoughts to Him — that there was 
 something too of a divine weariness — I dare not say 
 impatience, seeing how patient He was then and how 
 patient He has been since for more than 1800 years — 
 of the folly and ignorance of man, who brings on himself 
 and on his descendants these and a hundred other pre- 
 ventible miseries, simply because he will not study and 
 obey the physical laws of the universe ; simply because 
 he will not see that those laws which concern the welfare 
 
S6 THE DEAF AND DUMB. [SERM. 
 
 of his body, are as surely the will of God as those which 
 concern the welfare of his soul ; and that therefore it is 
 not merely his interest but his solemn duty to study and 
 to obey them, lest he bear the punishment of his own 
 neglect and disobedience. 
 
 It is not for man even to guess what thoughts may 
 have passed through the mind of Christ when He sighed 
 over the very defect which He was healing. But it is 
 surely not irreverent in us to say that our Lord had cause 
 enough to sigh, if He foresaw the follies of mankind 
 during an age which was too soon to come. — How men, 
 instead of taking the spirit of His miracles and acting 
 on it, would counterfeit the mere outward signs of them, 
 to feed the vanity or the superstition of a few devotees. 
 How, instead of looking on His miracles as rebukes to 
 their own ignorance and imbecility; instead of perceiving 
 that their bodily afflictions were contrary to the will of 
 God, and therefore curable; instead of setting themselves 
 to work manfully, in the light of God, and by the help 
 of God, to discover and correct the errors which pro- 
 duced them, mankind would idle away precious centuries 
 in barbaric wonder at seeming prodigies and seeming 
 miracles, and would neglect utterly the study of those 
 far more wondrous laws of nature which Christ had 
 proved to be under His government and His guidance, 
 and had therefore proved to be working for the good of 
 those for whom He came to die. Christ had indeed 
 sown good seed in His field. He had taught men by 
 His miracles, as He had taught them by His parables, to 
 Whom nature belonged, and AVhose laws nature obeyed. 
 
v.] THE DEAF AND DUMB. S7 
 
 And the cessation of miracles after the time of Christ and 
 His Apostles had taught, or ought to have taught, man- 
 kind a further lesson ; the lesson that henceforth they 
 were to carry on for themselves, by the faculties which 
 God had given them, that work of healing and deliver- 
 ance which He had begun. Miracles, like prophecies, 
 like tongues, like supernatural knowledge, were to cease 
 and vanish away : but charity, charity which devotes 
 itself for the welfare of the human race, was to abide for 
 ever. 
 
 Christ, as I said, had sown good seed : but an enemy 
 — we know not whence or when — certainly within the 
 three first centuries of the Church — came and sowed 
 tares among that wheat. Then began men to believe 
 that devils, and not their Father in Heaven, were, to all 
 practical intents, the lords of nature. Then began they 
 to believe that man's body was the property of Satan, 
 and his soul only the property of God. Then began 
 they to fancy that man was to be delivered from his 
 manifold earthly miseries, not by purity and virtue, 
 reason and knowledge, but by magic, masked under the 
 sacred name of religion. No wonder if, in such a temper 
 of mind, the physical amelioration of the human race 
 stood still. How could it be otherwise, while men re- 
 fused to see in facts the acted will of God; and sought 
 not in God's universe, but in the dreams of their own 
 brains, for glimpses of that divine and wonderful order 
 by which The eternal Father and The eternal Son are 
 working together for ever through The eternal Spirit for 
 the welfare of the universe? 
 
58 THE DEAF AND DUMB. [SERM. 
 
 We boast, my friends, at times, of the rapid triumphs 
 of modem science. Were we but aware of the vast 
 amount of preventible misery around us, and of the vast 
 possibiHty of removing it, which lies in the little science 
 which we know already, we should rather bewail the 
 slow departure of modern barbarism. 
 
 There has been no period of the world for centuries 
 back, I believe, in which man might not have been 
 infinitely healthier, happier, more prosperous, more long- 
 lived than he has been, if he had only believed that 
 disease, misery, and premature death were not the will 
 of God and of Christ; and that God had endowed him 
 with an intellect which could understand the laws of 
 the universe, in order that he might use those laws for 
 his own health, wealth, and life. Very late is society 
 in commencing that rational course on which it ought 
 to have entered centuries ago; and therefore very cul- 
 pable. And it is not too much to say, that to the 
 average of persons suffering under preventible disease 
 or defect, even though it be hereditary, society owes a 
 sacred debt, which it is bound to pay by making those 
 innocent sufferers from other's sins as happy as possible; 
 where it has not yet learnt — as it will learn, please God, 
 some day — to cure them. 
 
 There is, thank God, a healthier feeling than of old 
 abroad of late upon this point. Men are learning more 
 and more to regard such sufferers not as the victims of 
 God's wrath, but of human ignorance, vice, or folly. 
 And it was with deep satisfaction that I read in the last 
 Report of the Schools for the Deaf and Dumb a state- 
 
v.] THE DEAF AND DUMB. 59 
 
 ment of what were considered the most probable physical 
 causes of deafness and dumbness, and a hope that it 
 would be possible, hereafter, to prevent as well as cure 
 those diseases. 
 
 Whether the causes assigned in that Report are 
 the true ones, is a point of inferior importance for the 
 moment. The really important point is, that the prin- 
 ciple should be allowed, the question raised, by a society, 
 composed of rehgious men, and teaching to those poor 
 deaf and dumb as almost their primary work that true 
 religion which they are just as capable of receiving as 
 we. The right path has been entered — the path which 
 is certain in due time to lead to success. And mean- 
 while our duty is, while we confess that it is the fault 
 of society and not of God, that these afflicted ones exist 
 among us — it is our duty, I say, to cultivate and to 
 develop to the highest every faculty, instinct, and power, 
 in them which God's order has preserved from the effects 
 of man's disorder; to feed the eye with fair and noble 
 sights, though the ear be shut to soothing and inspiring 
 sounds; to cultivate the intellect to such a pitch that 
 it may be able to perform practical work, and if possible 
 to earn a sufficient livelihood, even though the want of 
 speech makes it impossible for them, deaf and dumb, 
 to compete on equal terms with their fellow-men; to 
 awaken in them, by religious training, teaching and 
 worship, those purer and more unselfish emotions by 
 which their hearts may become a field ready and pre- 
 pared for God's grace. To do this; and to regard them, 
 whenever we come in contact with them; not merely 
 
6o THE DEAF AND DUMB. [serm. v. 
 
 with pity, while we remember how much their intellects 
 lose, in losing the whole world of sound ; but with hope, 
 when we see that through the one sense which is left 
 they take in fully not only the meaning of the voluble 
 hands which teach them, but more, the meaning of that 
 meaning — the spiritual truths and feelings which signs 
 express; with wonder, not at the defect, but at the 
 innate health which almost compensates for the want of 
 hearing by concentrating its powers upon the sight; and 
 lastly, with admiration for that humanity which, as it 
 were imprisoned, fettered, maimed, yet can, by the God- 
 given force of the immortal spirit, so burst its prison- 
 bars, and rise, through hindrances which seem to us im- 
 passable, to the tenderest, the noblest, the purest, and 
 most devout emotions. 
 
SERMON VI. 
 
 THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 St John hi. 8. 
 
 The wind bloweth whither it listeth, and thou hearest the sound 
 thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth : 
 so is every one that is bom of the Spirit. 
 
 It is often asked — men have a right to ask — what would 
 the world have been by now without Christianity ? with- 
 out the Christian reUgion ? without the Church ? 
 
 But before these questions can be answered, we must 
 define, it is discovered, what we mean by Christianity, 
 the Christian religion, the Church. 
 
 And it is found — or I at least believe it will be found 
 — more safe and wise to ask a deeper and yet a simpler 
 question still : What would the world have been without 
 that influence on which Christianity, and religion, and 
 the Church depend ? What would the world have been 
 without the Holy Spirit of God ? 
 
 But some will say : This is a more abstruse question 
 still. How can you define, how can you analyse, the 
 Spirit of God ? Nay, more, how can you prove its 
 
62 THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT. [SERM. 
 
 existence ? — Such questioners have been, as it were, 
 baptized unto John's baptism. They are very glad to 
 see people do right, and not do wrong, from any well- 
 calculated motives, or wholesome and pleasant emotions. 
 But they have not as yet heard whether there be any 
 Holy Spirit. 
 
 We can only answer, Just so. This Holy Spirit in 
 Whom we believe defies all analysis, all definition what- 
 soever. His nature can be brought under no terms 
 derived firom human emotions or motives. He is literally 
 invisible ; as invisible to the conception of the brain as 
 He is to the bodily eye. His presence is proved only 
 by its effects. The Spirit bloweth whither it listeth, and 
 thou hearest the sound thereof, but thou canst not tell 
 whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth. 
 
 Such words must sound as dreams to those analytical 
 philosophers who allow nothing in man below the sphere 
 of consciousness, actual or possible ; who have dissected 
 the human mind till they find in it no personal will, 
 no indestructible and spiritual self, but a character which 
 is only the net result of innumerable states of conscious- 
 ness; who hold that man's outward actions, and also 
 his inmost instincts, are all the result either of calcula- 
 tions about profit and loss, pleasure and pain, or of 
 emotions, whether hereditary or acquired. Ignoring the 
 deep and ancient distinction, which no one ever brought 
 out so clearly as St Paul, between the flesh and the 
 spirit, they hold that man is flesh, and can be nothing 
 more ; that each person is not really a person, but is 
 the consequence of his brain and nerves ; and having 
 
VI.] THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT. 63 
 
 thus, by logical analysis, got rid of the spirit of man, 
 their reason and their conscience quite honestly and 
 consistently see no need for, or possibility of, a Spirit of 
 God, to ennoble and enable the human spirit. Why 
 need there be, if the difference between an animal and a 
 man be one of degree alone, and not of kind? 
 
 We answer : That there is a flesh in man, brain and 
 nerves, emotions and passions, identical with that of 
 animals, we do not deny. We should be fools if we did 
 deny it ; for the fact is hideously and shamefully patent. 
 None knew that better than St Paul, who gave a list 
 of the works of the flesh, the things which a man does 
 who is the slave of his own brain and nerves — and a 
 very ugly list it is — beginning with adultery and ending 
 with drunkenness, after passing through all the seven 
 deadly sins. And neither St Paul nor we deny, that 
 in this fleshly, carnal and animal state the vast majority 
 of the human race has lived, and lives still, to its own 
 infinite misery and confusion ; and that it has a per- 
 petual tendency, whenever lifted out of that state, to 
 fall back into it again, and perish. 
 
 But St Paul says, and we say : That crushed under 
 this animal nature there is in man a spirit. We say : 
 That below all his consciousness lies a nobler element ; 
 a divine spark, or at least a divine fuel, which must be 
 kindled into life by the divine Spirit, the Spirit of God. 
 And we say that in proportion as that Spirit of God 
 kindles the spirit of man, he begins to act after a fashion 
 for which he can give no logical reason ; that by instinct, 
 and without calculation of profit or loss, pleasure or 
 
64 THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT. [serm. 
 
 pain, he begins to act on what he calls duty, honour, 
 love, self-sacrifice. But what these are he cannot ana- 
 lyse. Mere words cannot define them. He can only 
 obey that which prompts him, he knows not what nor 
 whence ; and say with Luther of old : " I can do no 
 otherwise. God help me." 
 
 And we say that such men and women are the salt of 
 the earth, who keep society from rotting ; that by such 
 men and women, and by their example and influence, 
 direct and indirect, has Christendom been raised up 
 out of the accursed slough into which Europe and, in- 
 deed, the whole known world, had fallen during the 
 early Roman Empire ; and that to this influence, and 
 therefore to the Holy Spirit of God alone, and not to 
 any prudential calculations, combined experiences, or 
 so-called philosophies of men, is owing all which keeps 
 Europe from being a hell on earth. And we say, more- 
 over, that those who deny this, and dream of a morality 
 and a civilization without The Spirit of God, are uncon- 
 sciously throwing down the ladder by which they them- 
 selves have climbed, and sawing off the very bough to 
 which they cling. 
 
 Duty, honour, love, self-sacrifice — these are the 
 fruits of The Spirit; unknown to, and unobeyed by, 
 the savage, or by the civilized man who — as has too 
 often happened — as is happening now in too many lands, 
 on both sides of the Atlantic, is sinking back into in- 
 ward savagery, amid an outward and material civilization. 
 
 Moreover — and this appears to us a fair experimental 
 proof that our old-fashioned belief in A Spirit of God, 
 
VI.] THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT. 65 
 
 which acts upon the spirit of man, is a true belief — 
 moreover, I say: It is a patent fact, that wherever and 
 whenever there has been a revival of the Christian 
 rehgion ; whenever, that is, amid whatsoever confusions 
 and errors, men have begun to feel the need of the Holy 
 Spirit of God, and to pray for that Spirit, a moral revival 
 has accompanied the religious one. Men and women 
 have not only become better themselves; and that often 
 suddenly and in very truth miraculously better: but the 
 yearning has awoke in them to make others better like- 
 wise. The grace of God, as they have called it, has 
 made them gracious to their fellow-creatures; and duty, 
 honour, love, self-sacrifice, call it by what name we will, 
 has said to them, with a still small voice more potent 
 than all the thunders of the law : Go, and seek and save 
 that which is lost. 
 
 In no case has this instinctive tendency to practical 
 benevolence been more striking, than in the case of that 
 great religious revival throughout England at the begin- 
 ning of this century, which issued in the rise of the 
 Evangelical school : a school rightly so called, because 
 its members did try to obey the precepts of the Gospel, 
 according to their understanding of them, in spirit and 
 in truth. 
 
 The doctrines which they held are a matter not for 
 us, but for God and their own souls. The deeds which 
 they did are matter for us, and for all England; for they 
 have left their mark on the length and breadth of the 
 land. They were inspired — cultivated, highborn, and 
 wealthy folk many of them — with a strange new instinct 
 
66 THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT. [serm. 
 
 that God had bidden them to feed the hungry, to clothe 
 the naked, to visit the prisoner and the sick, to bind up 
 the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, 
 and to preach good tidings to the meek. A strange new 
 instinct : and from what cause, save from the same cause 
 as that which Isaiah assigned to his own like deeds? — 
 Because "The Spirit of the Lord was upon him." 
 
 Yes, if those gracious men, those gracious women, 
 did not shew forth the Spirit and grace of God with 
 power, then there is either no Spirit of God, no grace of 
 God; or those who deny to them the name of saints for- 
 get the words of Him Who said : By their fruits ye shall 
 know them; of Him Who said, too: That the unpardon- 
 able sin, the sin which shewed complete moral perversion, 
 the sin against the Holy Spirit of God, was to attribute 
 good deeds to bad motives, and say: He casteth out 
 devils by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. 
 
 Yes, that old Evangelical School may now have 
 passed its prime. It may now be verging toward old 
 age; and other schools, younger and stronger, with 
 broader and clearer knowledge of dogma, of history, 
 civil and ecclesiastical, of the value of ceremonial, of 
 the needs of the human intellect and emotions, may 
 have passed it in a noble rivalry, and snatched, as it 
 were, from the hands of the old Evangelical School the 
 lamp of truth, to bear it further forward in the race. 
 But God forbid that the spiritual children should be 
 ungrateful to their spiritual parents, though God may 
 have taught them things which their parents did not 
 know. 
 
VI.] THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT. 6j 
 
 And they were our spiritual parents, those old Evan- 
 gelicals. No just and well-informed man who has passed 
 middle age, but must confess, that to them we owe what- 
 soever vital religion exists at this moment in any school 
 or party of the Church of England; that to them we owe 
 the germs at least, and in many cases the full organization 
 and the final success, of a hundred schemes of practical 
 benevolence and practical justice, without which this 
 country, in its haste to grow rich at all risks and by 
 all means, might have plunged itself ere now into an- 
 archy and revolution. And he must confess, too, if he is 
 one who has seen much of his fellow-creatures and their 
 characters, that that school numbered among its disciples 
 — -and, thank God, they are not all yet gone home to 
 their rest — some of the loveliest human souls, whose 
 converse has chastened and ennobled his own soul. 
 Ah, well — 
 
 The old order changeth, giving place to the new ; 
 
 And God fulfils Himself in many ways, 
 
 Lest one good custom should corrupt the world. 
 
 And new methods and new institutions have arisen, and 
 will yet arise, for seeking and saving that which is lost. 
 God's blessing on them all, to whatsoever party, church, 
 or sect they may belong! Whosoever cast out devils in 
 Christ's name, Christ has forbidden us to forbid them, 
 whether they follow us or not. But yet shall we not still 
 honour and love the old Evangelical School, and many 
 an Institution which it has left behind, as heirlooms to 
 some of us, at least, from our mothers, or from women to 
 whom we owed, in long past years, our earliest influences 
 K. s. 7 
 
68 THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT. [serm. 
 
 for good, our earliest examples of a practical Christian 
 life, our earliest proofs that there was indeed a Spirit of 
 God, a gracious Spirit, Who gave grace to the hearts, the 
 deeds, the very looks and voices of those in whom He 
 dwelt; Institutions, which are too likely some of them to 
 die, simply from the loss of old friends r 
 
 The loss of old friends. Yes, so it is always in this 
 world. The old earnest hearts go home one by one to 
 their rest; and the young earnest hearts — and who shall 
 blame them? — go elsewhere; and try new fashions of 
 doing good, which are more graceful and more agreeable 
 to them. For the religious world, like all other forms 
 of the world, has its fashions; and of them too stands 
 true the saying of the apostle: That this world and the 
 fashion thereof pass away. Many a good work, which 
 once was somewhat fashionable in its way, has become 
 somewhat unfashionable, and something else is fashion- 
 able in its place; and five-and-twenty years hence some- 
 thing else will have become fashionable; and our children 
 will look back on our ways of doing good with pity, if not 
 with contempt, as narrow and unenlightened, just as we 
 are too apt to look back on our fathers' ways. And all 
 the while, what can they teach worth teaching, what can 
 we teach worth teaching, save what our fathers and 
 mothers taught, what the Spirit of God taught them, 
 and has taught to all who would listen since the foun- 
 dation of the world, "shewing man what was good:" and 
 what was that — "What doth the Lord require of thee, 
 but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly 
 with thy God?" 
 
VI.] THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT. 69 
 
 Ah ! why do we, even in religious and moral matters, 
 even in the doing good to the souls and bodies of our 
 fellow-creatures, allow ourselves to be the puppets of 
 fashions ? Of fashions which even when harmless, even 
 beautiful, are but the garments, or rather stage-properties, 
 in which we dress up the high instincts which God's Spirit 
 bestows on us, in order to make them agreeable enough 
 for our own prejudices, or pretty enough for our own 
 tastes. How little do we perceive our own danger — so 
 little that we yield to it every day — the danger of mis- 
 taking our fashion of doing good for the good done ; aye, 
 for the very Spirit of God Who inspires that good ; mis- 
 taking the garment for the person who wears it, the out- 
 ward and visible sign for the inward and spiritual grace ; 
 and so in our hearts falling actually into that very error 
 of transubstantiation, of which we repudiate the name ! 
 
 Why, ah why, will we not take refuge from fashions in 
 Him in Whom are no fashions — even in the Holy Spirit 
 of God, Who is unchangeable and eternal as the Father 
 and the Son from Whom He proceeds ; Who has spoken 
 words in sundry and divers manners to all the elect of 
 God; Who has inspired every good thought and feeling 
 which was ever thought or felt in earth or heaven ; but 
 Whose message of inspiration has been, and will be, for 
 ever the same — " Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly 
 with thy God"? 
 
 Could we but utterly trust Him, and utterly believe in 
 His presence : then we should welcome all truth, under 
 whatever outward forms of the mere intellect it was 
 uttered; then we should bless eveiy good deed, by 
 
 7—2 
 
70 THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT, [serm. vi. 
 
 whomsoever and howsoever it was done ; then we should 
 rise above all party strifes, party cries, party fashions and 
 shibboleths, to the contemplation of the One supreme 
 good Spirit — the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the same yester- 
 day, to-day, and for ever; and hold to the One Fashion 
 of Almighty God, which never changes, for it is eternal 
 by the necessity of His own eternal character ; namely, — 
 To be perfect, even as our Father in Heaven is perfect ; 
 because He causes His sun to shine on the evil and on 
 the good, and His rain to fall on the just and on the 
 unjust. 
 
SERMON VII. 
 
 CONFUSION. 
 
 Psalm cxix. 31. 
 I have stuck unto thy testimonies : O Lord, confound me not. 
 
 What is the meaning of this text? What is this which 
 the Psahnist and prophets call being confounded ; being 
 put to shame and confusion of face ? What is it ? It is 
 something which they dread more than death; which 
 they dread as much as hell. Nay, it seems in the mind 
 of some of them to be part and parcel of hell itself; one 
 of the very worst things which could happen to them 
 after death : for what is TOtten in the Book of the Pro- 
 phet Daniel? — " Many of them that sleep in the dust of 
 the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some 
 to shame and everlasting contempt." 
 
 And we Christians are excusable if we dread it like- 
 wise. How often does St Paul speak of shame as an evil 
 to be dreaded ; just as he speaks, even more often, of 
 glory and honour as a thing to be longed for and striven 
 after. That one word, " ashamed," occurs twelve times 
 and more in the New Testament, beside St John's warn- 
 ing, which alone is enough to prove what I allege. 
 
72 CONFUSION. [SERM. 
 
 " that we have not to be ashamed before Christ at his 
 coming." 
 
 And how does the Te Deum — the noblest hymn 
 written by man since St John finished his Book of Reve- 
 lations — how does that end, but with the same old cry as 
 that of the Psalmist in the 119th Psalm — 
 
 " O Lord, in thee have I trusted, let me never be con- 
 founded"? 
 
 Now it is difiicult to tell men what being confounded 
 means; difficult and almost needless; for there are those 
 who know what it means without being told ; and those 
 who do not know what it means without being told, are 
 not likely to know by my telling, or any man's telling. 
 No, not if an angel from heaven came and told them 
 what being confounded meant would they understand 
 him, at least till they were confounded themselves ; and 
 then they would know by bitter experience — perhaps 
 when it was too late. 
 
 And who are they? What sort of people are they? 
 
 First, silly persons ; whom Solomon calls fools — 
 though they often think themselves refined and clever 
 enough — luxurious and " fashionable" people, who do 
 not care to learn, who think nothing worth learning save 
 how to enjoy themselves ; who call it " bad form" to be 
 earnest, and turn off all serious questions with a jest. 
 These are they of whom Wisdom says — " How long, ye 
 simple ones, will ye love simplicity, and the scomers de- 
 light in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge ? I also 
 will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your feat 
 Cometh." 
 
VII.] CONFUSION. 71 
 
 Next, mean and truly vulgar persons; who are shame- 
 less ; who do not care if they are caught out in a lie or 
 in a trick. These are they of whom it is written that out- 
 side of God's kingdom, in the outer darkness wherein are 
 weeping and gnashing of teeth, are dogs, and whosoever 
 loveth and maketh a lie. 
 
 And next, and worst of all, selfconceited people. 
 These are they of whom Solomon says, "Seest thou a 
 man who is wise in his own conceit? There is more 
 hope of a fool than of him." They are the people who 
 will not see when they are going wrong ; who will not 
 hear reason, nor take advice, no, nor even take scorn 
 and contempt ; who will not see that they are making 
 fools of themselves, but, while all the world is laughing at 
 them, walk on serenely selfsatisfied, certain that they, 
 and they only, know what the world is made of, and how 
 to manage the world. These are they of whom it is 
 written — " He that being often reproved, hardeneth his 
 neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without 
 remedy." Then they will learn, and with a vengeance, 
 what being confounded means by being confounded 
 themselves, and finding themselves utterly wrong, where 
 they thought themselves utterly right. Yet no. I do not 
 think that even that would cure some people. There are 
 those, I verily believe, who would not confess that they 
 were in the wrong even in the bottomless pit, but, like 
 Satan and his fallen angels in Milton's poem, would have 
 excellent arguments to prove that they were injured and 
 ill-used, deceived and betrayed, and lay the blame of 
 
74 CONFUSION. [SERM. 
 
 their misery on God, on man, on anything but their own 
 infallible selves. 
 
 Who, then, are the people who know what being con- 
 founded means; who are afraid, and terribly afraid, of 
 being brought to shame and confusion of face? 
 
 I should say, all human beings in proportion as they 
 are truly human beings, are not brutal; in proportion, 
 that is, as they are good or have the capacity of goodness 
 in them; that is, in proportion as the Spirit of God is 
 working in them, giving them the tender heart, the quick 
 feelings, the earnestness, the modesty, the conscientious- 
 ness, the reverence for the good opinion of their fellow- 
 men, which is the beginning of eternal life. Do you not 
 see it in the young? Modesty, bashfulness, shame-faced- 
 ness — as the good old English word was — that is the very 
 beginning of all goodness in boys and girls. It is the 
 very material out of which all other goodness is made ; 
 and those who laugh at, or torment, young people for 
 being modest and bashful, are doing the devil's work, and 
 putting themselves under the curse which God, by the 
 mouth of Solomon the wise, pronounced against the 
 scorners who love scorning, and the fools who hate 
 knowledge. 
 
 This is the rule with dumb animals likewise. The 
 more intelligent, the more high-bred they are, the more 
 they are capable of feeling shame; and the more they are 
 liable to be confounded, to lose their heads, and become 
 frantic with doubt and fear. Who that has watched dogs 
 does not know that the cleverer tliey are, ihe more they 
 are capable of being actually ashamed of themselves, as 
 
VII.] CONFUSION. 75 
 
 human beings are, or ought to be? Who that has trained 
 horses does not know that the stupid horse is never 
 vicious, never takes fright? The faihng wliich high-bred 
 horses have of becoming utterly unmanageable, not so 
 much from bodily fear, as from being confounded, not 
 knowing what people want them to do — that is the very 
 sign, the very effect, of their superior organization: and 
 more shame to those who ill-use such horses. If God, 
 my friends, dealt with us as cmelly and as clumsily as too 
 many men deal with their horses. He would not be long 
 in driving us mad with terror and shame and confusion. 
 But He remembers our frame; He knoweth whereof we 
 are made, and remembereth that we are but dust : else 
 the spirit would fail before Him, and the souls which He 
 hath made. And to Him we can cry, even when we 
 know that we have made fools of ourselves — Father who 
 made me, Christ who died for me, Holy Spirit who teach- 
 est me, have patience with my stupidity and my igno- 
 rance. Lord, in thee have I trusted, let me never be 
 confounded. 
 
 But some will tell us — It is a sign of weakness to feel 
 shame. Why should you care for the opinion of your 
 fellow-men? If you are doing right, what matter what 
 they say of you? 
 
 Yes, my friends, if you are doing right. But if you 
 are not doing right — What then? 
 
 If you have only been fancying that you are doing 
 right, and suspect suddenly that you have been very likely 
 doing wrong — What then? 
 
 When a man tells me that he does not care what 
 
76 CONFUSION. [SERM. 
 
 people think of him; that they cannot shame him: in the 
 first place, I do not quite believe that he is speaking 
 truth; and in the next place, I hope he is not speaking 
 truth. I hope — for his own sake — that he does care what 
 people think of him : or else I must suspect him of being 
 very dull or very conceited. 
 
 And if he tells me that the old prophets, and holy, 
 and just, and heroic men in all ages, never cared for 
 people's laughing at them and despising them, provided 
 they were doing right according to their own conscience: 
 I answer — That he knows nothing about the matter; that 
 he has not honestly read the writings of these men. I 
 say that the Psalmist who wrote Ps. iig, was a man, on 
 his own shewing, intensely open to the feeling of shame, 
 and felt intensely what men said of him; felt intensely 
 slander and insult. We talk of independent and true 
 patriots now-a-days. I will tell you of four of the noblest 
 patriots the world ever saw, who were men of that stamp. 
 I say that Isaiah was such a man; that Jeremiah was 
 such a man; that Ezekiel was such a man; that their 
 writings shew that they felt intensely the rebukes and the 
 contempt which they had to endure from those whom 
 they tried to warn and save. I say again that St Paul, as 
 may be seen from his own epistles, was such a man; a 
 man who was intensely sensitive of what men tliought 
 and said of him; yearning after the love and approbation 
 of his fellow-men, and above all of his fellow-countrj'men, 
 his own flesh and blood; and that that feeling in him, 
 which may have been hurtful to him before he was con- 
 verted, was of the greatest use to him after his conver- 
 
VII.] CONFUSION. 77 
 
 sion; that it enabled him to win all hearts, because he 
 felt with men and for men; and gained him over the 
 hearts of men such a power as no mere human being ever 
 had before or since. 
 
 And I say that of all men the Lord Jesus Christ, the 
 Son of Man, had that feeling; that longing for the love 
 and appreciation of men — and above all, for the love and 
 appreciation of His countrymen according to the flesh, 
 the Jews, He had — strange as it may seem, yet there it is 
 in the Gospels, written for ever and undeniable — that 
 capacity of shame which is the mark of true nobleness of 
 soul. 
 
 He endured the cross, despising the shame. Yes: 
 but there are too many on earth who endure shame with 
 brazen faces, just because they do not feel it. If He had 
 not felt the shame, what merit in despising it? It was His 
 glory that He felt the shame; and yet conquered the 
 shame, and crushed it down by the might of His love for 
 fallen man. 
 
 Do you fancy that in His agony in the garden, 
 when His sweat was as great drops of blood, that it 
 was only bodily fear of pain and death which crushed 
 Him for the moment ? He felt that, I doubt not ; as 
 He had to taste death for every man, and feel all 
 human weakness, yet without sin. But it was a deeper, 
 more painful, and yet more noble feeling than mere 
 fear which then convulsed His sacred heart; even the 
 feeling of shame — the mockeiy of the crowd — the — 
 But I dare not enlarge on anything so awful ; at least 
 I will say this — That he had to cry as none ever crier] 
 
78 CONFUSION. [SERM. 
 
 before or since, "O God, in thee have I trusted, let 
 me never be confounded ;" for he had, it seems, actually, 
 at one supreme moment, to feel confounded ; and to 
 say, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 
 That was the highest and most precious jewel of all his 
 self-sacrifice. Of it let us only say — 
 
 Our Lord and Saviour stooped to be confounded 
 for a moment, that we might not be confounded to all 
 eternity. 
 
 And therefore our blessed Lord is to us an example. 
 As he did, so must we try to do. He entered into 
 glory, by suffering shame, and yet despising it. He 
 submitted to be confounded before men, that He might 
 not be confounded in the sight of God His Father. And 
 so must we, sometimes, at least. Every man who makes 
 up his mind to do right and to be good, must expect 
 ridicule now and then. Rich or poor, boy or man, if 
 you try to keep your hands clean, and your path straight, 
 the world will think you a fool, and will be ready enough 
 to tell you so ; for it is cruel and insolent enough. And 
 the more tender your heart ; the more you wish for the 
 love and approbation of your fellow-men ; the more of 
 noble and modest self-distrust there is in you, the more 
 painful will that be to you ; the more you will be tempted 
 to obey man, and not God, and to follow after the 
 multitude to do evil, merely to keep the peace, and live 
 a quiet life, and not be laughed at and tormented. And 
 thus the fear of man brings a snare ; and naught can 
 deliver you out of that snare, save the opposite fear— 
 the fear of God, which is the same as trust in God. 
 
VII.] CONFUSION. 79 
 
 Joseph of old feared God when he was tempted ; 
 and said, " How can I do this great wickedness, and 
 sin against God?" But I doubt not there were plenty 
 in Egypt who would have called him a fool for his 
 pains. There are hundreds of gay youths in any great 
 city — there may be a few in this Abbey now for aught I 
 know — who would have laughed loudly enough at 
 Joseph for throwing away the opportunity of what certain 
 foolish French have learnt to call, as its proper name, a 
 " bonne fortune " — a piece of good luck. — As if breaking 
 the 7th Commandment could be aught but bad fortune, 
 and the cause of endless miseries in this life and the life 
 to come. 
 
 And it may be, as Joseph was all but confounded 
 and brought to shame, at least from man, when he 
 found that all that he gained by fearing God was — a false 
 accusation, the very shame and contempt from which 
 he most shrank, danger of death, imprisonment in a 
 dungeon. 
 
 But he was true to God, and God was true to him. 
 He trusted in God ; and therefore he feared God : for 
 he trusted that God's laws were just and good, and 
 worth obeying ; and therefore he was afraid to break 
 them. He trusted in God ; and therefore he hoped in 
 God; for he trusted that God was strong enough and 
 good enough to deliver him out of prison, and make his 
 righteousness as clear as the light and his just dealing 
 as the noonday. He cried out of his prison, doubt it 
 not, many a time and oft — " O God, in thee have J 
 trusted ; let me never be confounded." 
 
8o CONFUSION. [SERM. 
 
 And he was not confounded. He came into Egypt 
 a slave. He was cast into prison on a shameful accu- 
 sation : but he came out of prison to be a ruler and a 
 prince, honoured and obeyed by the greatest nation of 
 the old world. He trusted in God, and he was not 
 confounded for ever ; even as the Lord Christ trusted in 
 God and was not confounded for ever ; even as we, if 
 we do not wish to be confounded for ever, must trust in 
 God ; -and instead of being scornful, careless, conceited, 
 must fear Him, and say, " My flesh trembleth because 
 of Thy righteous judgments." And then the laughter 
 of fools will end, where it began, in harmless noise, like 
 (says Solomon) the crackling of thorns under a pot 
 Then, whosoever may scorn you on earth, the great 
 God in heaven will not scorn you. You may be con- 
 founded for a moment here on earth. Worldly people 
 may take advantage of your misfortunes, and cry over 
 you — There, there, so would we have it. Take him and 
 persecute him, for there is none to deliver him ; where 
 is now his God ? So it may be with you ; for as surely 
 as you fall, many a cur will spring up and bark at you, 
 who dared not open his mouth at you while you stood 
 safe. Or — worse by far than that — the world may take 
 hold of your really weak points, of your inconsistencies, 
 of your faults and failings ; and cry — Fie on thee, fie on 
 thee. We saw it with our eyes. For all his high pro- 
 fessions, for all his talk of truth and justice, he is no 
 better than the rest of the world. And that scoff does 
 go very near to confound a man ; because he feels that 
 it is half true, half deserved, and is afraid that it may be 
 
VII.] CONFUSION. 8 1 
 
 quite true and quite deserved : and then confounded 
 indeed he would be, by his own conscience and by God, 
 as well as by man. AH he can do is, to cry to God, like 
 him who wrote the 119th Psalm, — I have stuck unto 
 thy testimonies : O Lord, confound me not. I know I 
 am weak, ignorant, unsuccessful ; full of faults too, and 
 failings, which make me ashamed of myself every day 
 of my life. I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost. 
 But seek thy servant, O Lord, for I do not forget thy 
 commandments. I am trying to learn my duty. 1 am 
 trying to do my duty. I have stuck unto thy testimonies : 
 O Lord, confound me not. Man may confound me. 
 But do not thou, of thy mercy and pity, O Lord. Do 
 not let me find, when I die, or before I die, that all 
 my labour has been in vain ; that I am not a better 
 man, not a wiser man, not a more useful man after all. 
 Do not let my grey hairs go down with sorrow to the 
 grave. Do not let me die with the miserable thought 
 that, in spite of all my struggles to do my duty, my life 
 has been a failure, and I a fool. Do not let me wake in 
 the next life, like Dives in the torment, to be utterly 
 confounded ; to find that I was all wrong, and have no- 
 thing left but everlasting disappointment and confusion 
 of face. O Lord, who didst endure all shame for me, 
 save me from that most utter shame. O God, in thee 
 have I trusted ; let me never be confounded. 
 
 Wake in the next life to find oneself confounded? 
 Alas ! alas ! Many a man wakes in this life to find him- 
 self that; and really somedmes by no fault, seemingly, of 
 his own : so that all he can do is to be dumb, and not to 
 
82 CONFUSION. [SERM. 
 
 open his mouth, for it is God's doing. For a man's worst 
 miseries and sorrows are, too often, caused not by him- 
 self, but by those whom he loves. 
 
 Consider the one case of vice, or even of mere in 
 gratitude, in those nearest and dearest to a man's heart; 
 and of being so confounded through them, and by then), 
 in spite of all love, care, strictness, tenderness, teaching, 
 prayers — what not — and all in vain. 
 
 No wonder that, under that bitterest blow, vaHant 
 and virtuous men, ere now, have never lifted up their 
 heads again, but turned their faces to the wall, and died : 
 and may the Lord have mercy on them. Confounded 
 they have been in this world ; confounded they will not 
 be, we must trust, in the world to come. The Lord of 
 all pity will pity them, and pour His oil and wine into 
 their aching wounds, and bring them to His own inn, 
 and to His secret dwelling-place, where the wicked cease 
 from troubling, and the weary are at rest. 
 
 One word more, and I have done. Do you wish to 
 pray, with hope that you may be heard, — O Lord, con- 
 found me not, and bring me not to shame ? Then hold 
 to one commandment of Christ's. Do to others as you 
 would they should do to you. For with what measure 
 you measure to your fellow-men, it shall be measured to 
 you again. Have charity, have patience, have mercy. 
 Never bring a human being, however silly, ignorant, or 
 weak, above all any little child, to shame and confiision 
 of face. Never, by cruelty, by petulance, by suspicion, 
 by ridicule, even by selfish and silly haste ; never, above 
 all, by indulging in the devilish pleasure of a sneer, crush 
 
VII.] CONFUSION. 83 
 
 what is finest, and rouse up what is coarsest in the heart 
 of any fellow-creature. Never confound any human 
 soul in the hour of its weakness. For then, it may be, 
 in the hour of thy weakness, Christ will not confound 
 thee. 
 
SERMON VIII. 
 
 THE SHAKING OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH. 
 
 Hebrews xii. 26 — 29. 
 
 Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And 
 this word, Yet once more, signifieth tlie removing of those 
 things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those 
 things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we 
 receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, 
 whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly 
 fear : for our God is a consuming fire. 
 
 This is one of the Royal texts of Scripture. It is inex- 
 haustible, like the God who inspired it. It has fulfilled 
 itself again and again, at different epochs. It fulfilled 
 itself specially and notoriously in the first centtuy. But 
 it fulfilled itself again in the fifth century; and again at 
 the Crusades ; and again at the Reformation in the six- 
 teenth century. And it may be that it is fulfilling itself 
 at this very day; that in this century, both in the time of 
 our fathers and in our own, the Lord has been shaking 
 the heavens and the earth, that those things which can 
 be shaken may be removed, as things that are made, 
 while those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 
 
 All confess this to be true, each in his own words. 
 They talk of this age as one of change ; of rapid pro- 
 gress, for good or evil ; of unexpected discoveries ; of 
 revolutions, intellectual, moral, social, as well as political, 
 
SERM. VIII.] THE SHAKING OF THE HEAVENS, &'c. 85 
 
 Our notions of the physical universe are rapidly altering, 
 with the new discoveries of science ; and our notions of 
 ethics and theology are altering as rapidly. The era 
 assumes a different aspect to different minds, just as did 
 the first century after Christ, according as men look for- 
 ward to the future with hope, or back to the past with 
 regret. Some glory in the nineteenth century as one of 
 rapid progress for good ; as the commencement of a new 
 era for humanity ; as the inauguration of a Reformation 
 as grand as that of the sixteenth century. Others bewail 
 it as an age of rapid decay; in which the old landmarks 
 are being removed, the old paths lost ; in which we are 
 rushing headlong into scepticism and atheism; in which 
 the world and the Church are both in danger ; and the 
 last day is at hand. 
 
 Both parties may be right; and yet both may be 
 wrong. Men have always talked thus, at great crises in 
 the world's life. They talked thus in the first century; 
 and in the fifth, and in the eleventh; and again in the 
 sixteenth; and then both parties were partially right and 
 partially wrong; and so they may be now. What they 
 meant to say, what they wanted to say, what we mean and 
 want to say, has been said already for us in far deeper, 
 wider, and more accurate words, by him who wrote this 
 wonderful Epistle to the Hebrews, when he told the Jews 
 of his time that the Lord was shaking the heavens and 
 the earth, that those things which were shaken might be 
 removed, as things that are made — cosmogonies, systems, 
 theories, prejudices, fashions, of man's invention: while 
 those things which could not be shaken might remain, 
 
 8—2 
 
86 THE SHAKING OF THE [sernl 
 
 because they were according to the mind and will of 
 God, eternal as that source from whence they came forth, 
 even the bosom of God the Father. 
 
 " Yet once more I shake, not the earth only, but also 
 heaven.'' 
 
 How has the earth been shaken in our da3's; and the 
 heaven likewise. How rapidly have our conceptions of 
 both altered. How easy, simple, certain, it all looked to 
 our forefathers in the middle age. How difficult, com- 
 plex, uncertain, it all looks to us. With increased know- 
 ledge has come — not increased doubt : that I deny utterly. 
 I deny, once and for all, that this age is an irreverent age. 
 I say that an irreverent age is one like the age of the 
 Schoolmen; when men defined and explained all heaven 
 and earth by k priori theories, and cosmogonies invented 
 in the cloister; and dared, poor, simple, ignorant mortals, 
 to fancy that they could comprehend and gauge the ways 
 of Him Whom the heaven and the heaven of heavens 
 could not contain. This, this is irreverence: but it is 
 neither irreverence nor want of faith, if a man, awed by 
 the mystery which encompasses him from the cradle to 
 the grave, shall lay his hand upon his mouth, with Job, 
 and obey the voice which cries to him from earth and 
 heaven — " Be still, and know that as the heavens are 
 higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than thy 
 ways, and my thoughts higher than thine.'' 
 
 But it was all easy, and simple, and certain enough 
 to our forefathers. The earth, according to the popular 
 notion, was a flat plane ; or, if it were, as the wiser held, 
 a sphere, yet antipodes were an unscriptural heresy. 
 
VIII.] HEAVENS AND THE EARTH. 87 
 
 Above it were the heavens, in which the stars were fixed, 
 or wandered; and above them heaven after heaven, each 
 tenanted by its own orders of beings, up to that heaven 
 of heavens in which Deity — and by Him, be it ahvays 
 remembered, the mother of Deity — was enthroned. 
 
 And if above the earth was the kingdom of hght, and 
 purity, and hoHness, what could be more plain, than that 
 below it was the kingdom of darkness, and impurity, and 
 sin? That was no theory to our forefathers: it was a 
 physical fact. Had not even the heathens believed as 
 much, and said so, by the mouth of the poet Virgil ? 
 He had declared that the mouth of Tartarus lay in Italy, 
 hard by the volcanic lake Avemus; and after the unex- 
 pected eruption of Vesuvius in the first century, nothing 
 seemed more clear than that Virgil was right; and that 
 men were justified in talking of Tartarus, Styx, and 
 Phlegethon as indisputable Christian entities. Etna, 
 Stromboli, Hecla, were (according to this cosmogony) in 
 like wise mouths of hell; and there were not wanting 
 holy hermits, who had heard, from within those craters, 
 shrieks, and clanking chains, and the howls of demons 
 tormenting the souls of the endlessly lost. 
 
 Our forefathers were not aware that, centuries before 
 the Incarnation of our Lord, the Buddhist priests had 
 held exactly the same theory of moral retribution; and 
 that, painted on the walls of Buddhist temples, might be 
 seen horrors identical with those which adorned the walls 
 of many a Christian Church, in the days when men be- 
 lieved in this Tartarology as firmly as they now believe 
 in the results of chemistry or of astronomy. 
 
o8 THE SHAKING OF THE [serm. 
 
 And now — How is the earth shaken, and the heavens 
 likewise, in that very sense in which the expression is 
 used by him who wrote to the Hebrews ? Our concep- 
 tions of them are shaken. How much of that mediasval 
 cosmogony do educated men believe, in the sense in 
 which they beheve that the three angles of a triangle are 
 equal to two right angles, or that if they steal their neigh- 
 bour's goods they commit a sin ? 
 
 The earth has been shaken for us, more and more 
 violently, as the years have rolled on. It was shaken 
 when Astronomy told us that the earth was not the centre 
 of the universe, but a tiny planet revolving round a sun 
 in a remote region thereof 
 
 It was shaken when Geology told us that tne earth 
 had endured for countless ages, during which continents 
 had become oceans, and oceans continents, again and 
 again. And even now, it is being shaken by researches 
 into the antiquity of man, into the origin and perma- 
 nence of species, which — let the result be what it will — 
 must in the meanwhile shake for us theories and dogmas 
 which have been undisputed for 1500 years. 
 
 And with the rest of our cosmogony, that conception 
 of a physical Tartarus below the earth has been shaken 
 likewise, till good men have been fain to find a fresh 
 place for it in the sun, or in a comet ; or to patronize 
 the probable, but as yet unproved theory of a central 
 fire within the earth ; not on any scientific grounds, but 
 simply if by any means they can assign a region in space, 
 wlierein material torment can be inflicted on the spirits 
 of the lost. 
 
VIII.] HEAVENS AND THE EARTH. 89 
 
 And meanwhile the heavens, the spiritual world, is 
 being shaken no less. More and more frequently, more 
 and more loudly, men are asking — not sceptics merely, 
 but pious men, men who wish to be, and who believe 
 themselves to be, orthodox Christians — more and more 
 loudly are such men asking questions which demand an 
 answer, with a learning and an eloquence, as well as 
 with a devoutness and a reverence for Scripture, which — 
 whether rightly or wrongly employed — is certain to com 
 mand attention. 
 
 Rightly or wrongly, these men are asking, whether 
 the actual and literal words of Scripture really involve 
 the mediaeval theory of an endless Tartarus. 
 
 They are saying, "It is not we who deny, but you 
 who assert, endless torments, who are playing fast and 
 loose with the letter of Scripture. You are reading into 
 it conceptions borrowed from Virgil, Dante, Milton, 
 when you translate into the formula 'endless torment' 
 such phrases as 'the outer darkness,' 'the fire of Ge- 
 henna,' 'the worm that dieth not;' which, according to 
 all just laws of interpretation, refer not to the next life, 
 but to this life, and specially to the approaching cata- 
 strophe of the Jewish nation; or when you say that eternal 
 death really means eternal life — only life in torture." 
 
 Rightly or wrongly, they are saying this; and then 
 they add, "We do not yield to you in love and esteem 
 for Scripture. We demand not a looser, but a stricter; 
 not a more metaphoric, but a more literal ; not a more 
 contemptuous, but a more reverent interpretation there- 
 of" 
 
go THE SHAKING OF THE [serm. 
 
 So these men speak, rightly or wrongly. And for 
 good or for evil, they will be heard. 
 
 And with these questions others have arisen, not new 
 at all — say these men — but to be found, amid many 
 contradictions, in the writings of all the best divines, 
 when they have given up for a moment systems and 
 theories, and listened to the voice of their own hearts; 
 questions natural enough to an age which abhors cruelty, 
 has abolished torture, labours for the reformation of 
 criminals, and debates — rightly or wrongly — about abo- 
 lishing capital punishment Men are asking questions 
 about the heaven — the spiritual world — and saying — 
 "The spiritual world? Is it only another material world 
 which happens to be invisible now, but which may be- 
 come visible hereafter : or is it not rather the moral 
 world — the world of right and wrong ? Heaven ? Is 
 not the true and real heaven the kingdom of love, justice, 
 purity, beneficence? Is not that the eternal heaven 
 wherein God abides for ever, and with Him those who 
 are like God ? And hell ? Is it not rather the anarchy 
 of hate, injustice, impurity, uselessness ; wherein abides 
 all that is opposed to God?" 
 
 And with those thoughts come others about moral 
 retribution — "What is its purpose? Can it — can any 
 punishment have any right purpose save the coirection, 
 or the annihilation, of the criminal ? Can God, in this 
 respect, be at once less merciful and less powerful than 
 man? Is He so controlled by necessity that He is 
 forced to bring into the world beings whom He knows 
 to be incorrigible, and doomed to endless misery? And 
 
vill.] HEAVENS AND THE EARTH. 9 1 
 
 if not so controlled, is not the alternative as to His cha- 
 racter even more fearful ? He bids us copy His justice, 
 His love. Is that His justice, that His love, which if we 
 copied, we should call each other, and deservedly, utterly 
 unjust and unloving? Can there be one morality for 
 God, and another for man, made in the image of God ? 
 Are these dark dogmas worthy of a Father wlio hateth 
 nothing that He hath made, and is perfect in this — that 
 He makes His sun shine on the evil and on the good, 
 and His rain fall on the just and on the unjust, and is 
 good to the unthankful and to the evil? Are they 
 worthy of a Son who, in the fire of His divine charity, 
 stooped from heaven to earth, to toil, to suffer, to die on 
 the Cross, that the world by Him might be saved ? Are 
 they worthy of that Spirit which proceeds from the Father 
 and the Son, even that Spirit of boundless charity, and 
 fervent love, by which the Son offered Himself to the 
 Father, a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world — and 
 surely not in vain ?" 
 
 So men are asking — rightly or wrongly ; and they are 
 guarding themselves, at the same time, from the imputa- 
 tion of disbelief in moral retribution ; of fancying God to 
 be a careless, epicurean deity, cruelly indulgent to sin, 
 and therefore, in so far, immoral. 
 
 They say — "We believe firmly enough in moral retri 
 bution. How can we help believing in it, while we see 
 it working around us, in many a fearful shape, here, now, 
 in this life ? And we believe that it may work on, in still 
 more fearful shapes, in the life to come. We believe 
 that as long as a sinner is impenitent, he must be misera- 
 
92 THE SHAKING OF THE [serm. 
 
 ble ; that if he goes on impenitent for ever, he must go 
 on making himself miserable — ay, it may be more and 
 more miserable for ever. Only do not tell us that he 
 must go on. That his impenitence, and therefore his 
 punishment, is irremediable, necessary, endless ; and 
 thereby destroy the whole purpose, and we should say, 
 the whole morality, of his punishment. If that punish- 
 ment be corrective, our moral sense is not shocked by 
 any severity, by any duration : but if it is irremediable, it 
 cannot be corrective ; and then, what it is, or why it is, 
 we cannot — or rather dare not — say. We, too, believe 
 in an eternal fire. But because we believe also the 
 Athanasian Creed, which tells us that there is but One 
 Eternal, we believe that that fire must be the fire of God, 
 and therefore, like all that is in God and of God, good 
 and not evil, a blessing and not a curse. We believe 
 that that fire is for ever burning, though men are for ever 
 trying to quench it all day long ; and that it has been 
 and will be in every age burning up all the chaff and 
 stubble of man's inventions ; the folly, the falsehood, the 
 ignorance, the vice of this sinful world; and we praise God 
 for it; and give thanks to Him for His great glory, that He 
 is the everlasting and triumphant foe of evil and miser)', 
 of whom it is written, that our God is a consuming fire." 
 Such woids are being spoken, right or wrong. Such 
 words will bear their fruit, for good or evil. I do not 
 pronounce how much of them is true or false. It is not 
 my place to dogmatize and define, where the Church of 
 England, as by law established, has declined to do so. 
 Neither is it for you to settle these questions. It is 
 
VIII.] HEAVENS AND THE EARTH. 93 
 
 rather a matter for your children. A generation more, 
 it may be, of earnest thought will be required, ere the 
 true answer has been found. But it is your duty, if 
 you be educated and thoughtful persons, to face these 
 questions ; to consider seriously what these men would 
 have you consider — whether you are believing the exact 
 words of the Bible, and the conclusions of your own 
 reason and moral sense; or whether you are merely be- 
 lieving that cosmogony elaborated in the cloister, that 
 theory of moral retribution pardonable in the middle age, 
 which Dante and Milton sang. 
 
 But this I do not hesitate to say — That if we of the 
 clergy can find no other answers to these doubts than 
 those which were reasonable and popular in an age 
 when men racked women, burned heretics, and believed 
 that every Mussulman killed in a crusade went straight 
 to Tartarus — then very serious times are at hand, both 
 for the Christian clergy and for Christianity itself. 
 
 What, then, are we to believe and do ? Shall we de- 
 generate into a lazy scepticism, which believes that every- 
 thing is a little true, and everything a little false — in 
 plain words, believes nothing at all? Or shall we de- 
 generate into faithless fears, and unmanly wailings that 
 the flood of infidelity is irresistible, and that Christ has 
 left His Church ? 
 
 We shall do neither, if we believe the text. That 
 tells us of a firm standing-ground amid the wreck of 
 fashions and opinions. Of a kingdom which cannot be 
 moved, though the heavens pass away like a scroll, and 
 the earth be burnt up with fervent heat. 
 
94 THE SHAKING OF THE [serm. 
 
 And it tells us that the King of that kingdom is He, 
 who is called Jesus Christ — the same yesterday, to-day, 
 and for ever. 
 
 An eternal and changeless kingdom, and an eternal 
 and changeless King. These the Epistle to the He- 
 brews preaches to all generations. 
 
 It does not say that we have an unchangeable cos- 
 mogony, an unchangeable eschatology, an unchangeable 
 theory of moral retribution, an unchangeable dogmatic 
 system : not to these does it point the Jews, while their own 
 nation and worship were in their very death-agony, and the 
 world was rocking and reeling round them, decay and birth 
 going on side by side, in a chaos such as man had never 
 seen before. Not to these does the Episde point the 
 Hebrews: but to the changeless kingdom and to the 
 changeless King. 
 
 My friends, do you really believe in that kingdom, 
 and in that King ? Do you believe that you are now 
 actually in a kingdom of heaven, which cannot be 
 moved; and that the living, acting, guiding, practical, 
 real King thereof is Christ who died on the Cross? 
 
 These are days in which a preacher is bound to ask 
 his congregation — and still more to ask himself — whether 
 he really believes in that kingdom, and in that King; 
 and to bid himself and them, if they have not beheved 
 earnestly enough therein, to repent, in this time of Lent, 
 of that at least ; to repent of having neglected that most 
 cardinal doctrine of Scripture and of the Christian faith. 
 
 But if we really believe in that changeless kingdom 
 and in that changeless King, shall we not — considering 
 
viu.] HEAVENS AND THE EARTH. 95 
 
 who Christ is, the co-equal and co-eternal Son of God — 
 believe also, that if the heavens and the earth are being 
 shaken, then Christ Himself may be shaking them ? That 
 if opinions be changing, then Christ Himself may be 
 changing them? That if new truths are being dis- 
 covered, Christ Himself may be revealing them ? That 
 if some of those truths seem to contradict those which 
 He has revealed already, they do not really contradict 
 them? That, as in the sixteenth century, Christ is 
 burning up the wood and stubble with which men have 
 built on His foundation, that the pure gold of His truth 
 may alone be left ? It is at least possible ; it is probable, 
 if we believe that Christ is a living, acting King, to 
 whom all power is given in heaven and earth, and 
 who is actually exercising that power ; and educating 
 Christendom, and through Christendom the whole human 
 race, to a knowledge of Himself, and through Himself 
 of God their Father in heaven. 
 
 Should we not say — We know that Christ has oeen 
 so doing, for centuries and for ages ? Through Abraham, 
 through Moses, through the prophets, through the Greeks, 
 through the Romans, and at last through Himself, He gave 
 men juster and wider views of themselves, of the universe, 
 and of God. And even then He did not stop. How could 
 He, who said of Himself, " My Father worketh hitherto, 
 and I work"? How could He, if He be the same yester- 
 day, to-day, and for ever? Through the Apostles, and 
 specially through St Paul, He enlarged, while He con- 
 finned, His own teaching. And did He not do the same in 
 the sixteenth century? Did He not then sweep from the 
 
96 THE SHAKING OF THE [serm. 
 
 minds and hearts of half Christendom behefs which had 
 been held sacred and indubitable for a thousand years ? 
 Why should He not be doing so now ? If it be answered, 
 that the Reformation of the sixteenth century was only 
 a return to simpler and purer Apostolic truth — why, 
 again, should it not be so now? Why should He not 
 be perfecting His work one step more, and sweeping 
 away more of man's inventions, which are not integral 
 and necessary elements of the one Catholic faith, but 
 have been left behind, in pardonable human weakness, 
 by our great Reformers ? Great they were, and good : 
 giants on the earth, while we are but as dwarfs beside 
 them. But, as the hackneyed proverb says, the dwarf 
 on the giant's shoulders may see further than the giant 
 himself: and so may we. 
 
 Oh! that men would approach new truth in some- 
 thing of that spirit; in the spirit of reverence and Godly 
 fear, which springs from a living belief in Christ the 
 living King, which is — as the text tells us — the spirit in 
 which we can serve God acceptably. Oh! that they 
 would serve God; waiting reverently and anxiously, as 
 servants standing in the presence of their Lord, for the 
 slightest sign or hint of His will. Then they would 
 have grace; by which they would receive new thought 
 with grace; gracefully, courteously, fairly, charitably, 
 reverently; believing that, however strange or startling, 
 it may come from Him whose ways are not as our ways, 
 nor His thoughts as our thoughts; and that he who 
 fights against it, may haply be fighting against God. 
 
 True, they would receive all new thought with caution. 
 
VIII.] HEAVENS AND THE EARTH. 97 
 
 that conservative spirit, which is the duty of every Chris- 
 tian; which is the peculiar strength of the Englishman, 
 because it enables him calmly and slowly to take in the 
 new, without losing the old which his forefathers have 
 already won for him. So they would be cautious, even 
 anxious, lest in grasping too greedily at seeming improve- 
 ments, they let go some precious knowledge which they 
 had already attained: but they would be on the look 
 out for improvements; because they would consider 
 themselves, and their generation, as under a divine edu- 
 cation. They would prove all things fairly and boldly, 
 and hold fast that which is good; all that which is 
 beautiful, noble, improving and elevating to human souls, 
 minds, or bodies; all that increases the amount of justice, 
 mercy, knowledge, refinement; all that lessens the amount 
 of vice, cruelty, ignorance, barbarism. That at least must 
 come from Christ. That at least must be the inspiration 
 of the Spirit of God : unless the Pharisees were right after 
 all when thiey said, that evil spirits could be cast out by 
 the prince of the devils. 
 
 Be these things as they may, one comfort it will give 
 us, to believe firmly and actively in the changeless king- 
 dom, and in the changeless King. It will give us calm, 
 patience, faith and hope, though the heavens and the 
 earth be shaken around us. For then we shall see that 
 the Kingdom, of which we are citizens, is a kingdom 
 of light, and not of darkness; of truth, and not of 
 falsehood; of freedom, and not of slavery; of bounty 
 and mercy, and not of wrath and fear; that we live 
 and move and have our being not in a "Deus quidam 
 
98 THE SHAKING OF THE HEAVENS, &=€. [serm.viii. 
 
 deceptor" who grudges his children wisdom, but in a 
 Father of Light, from whom comes every good and 
 perfect gift; who willeth that all men should be saved, 
 and come to the knowledge of the truth. In His 
 kingdom we are; and in the King whom He has set 
 over it we can have the most perfect trust. For us that 
 King stooped from heaven to earth; for us He was 
 born, for us He toiled, for us He suffered, for us He 
 died, for us He rose, for us He sits for ever at God's 
 right hand. And can we not trust Him ? Let Him 
 do what He will. Let Him lead us whither He will. 
 Wheresoever He leads must be the way of truth and 
 life. Whatsoever He does, must be in harmony with 
 that infinite love which He displayed for us upon the 
 Cross. Whatsoever He does, must be in harmony with 
 that eternal purpose by which He reveals to men God 
 their Father. Therefore, though the heaven and the 
 earth be shaken around us, we will trust in Him. For 
 we know that He is the same yesterday, to-day, and 
 for ever; and that His will and promise is, to lead those 
 who trust in Him into all truth. 
 
SERMON IX. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 Luke xxi. •zg — 33. 
 
 And Jesus spake to them a parable ; Behold the fig tree, and all the 
 trees ; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own 
 selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when 
 ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of 
 God is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you. This generation 
 shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. Heaven and earth 
 shall pass away : but my words shall not pass away. 
 
 The question which naturally suggests itself when we 
 hear these words, is — When were these things to take 
 place ? 
 
 If we heard one whom we regarded as at least a per- 
 son of perfect virtue, truthfulness, and earnestness, fore- 
 tell that the city in which we now stand should be de- 
 stroyed. If he told us, that when we saw it encompassed 
 with armies, we were to know that its desolation was at 
 hand. If he told us that then those who were in the 
 surrounding country were to flee to the mountains, and 
 those in the city to come out of it. If he pronounced 
 woe in that day on mothers and weak women who could 
 not escape. If he told us, nevertheless, that when these 
 K. s, 9 
 
100 THE KINGDOM [serm. 
 
 things came to pass we were to rejoice and lift up our 
 heads, for our redemption was drawing nigh. If he told 
 us to look at the trees in spring; for, as surely as their 
 budding was a sign that summer was nigh, so was the 
 coming to pass of these terrible woes a sign that some- 
 thing was nigh, which he called the Kingdom of God. 
 If he told us, with a solemn asseveration, that this gene- 
 ration should not pass away till all had happened. If he 
 went on to warn us against profligacy, frivolity, worldli- 
 ness, lest that day should come upon us unaware. If he 
 bade us keep awake always, that we might be found 
 worthy to escape all that was coming, and to stand be- 
 fore Him, The Son of Man. If he used throughout his 
 address the second person, speaking to us, but never 
 mentioning our descendants ; giving the signs, the warn- 
 ings, the counsels to us only, should we not, even if he 
 had not solemnly told us that the present generation 
 should not pass away till all was fulfilled — should we not, 
 I say, suppose naturally that he spoke of events which in 
 his opinion our own eyes would see; which would, in his 
 opinion, occur during our lifetime ? 
 
 Whether he were right in his expectation, or wrong, 
 still it would be clear that such was his expectation; 
 that he considered the danger as imminent, the warning 
 as addressed personally to us who heard him speak. 
 
 We should leave his presence with that impression, 
 in fear and anxiety. But if we afterwards discovered 
 that our fear and anxiety were superfluous; that the 
 events of which he spoke — the most a-svful and wonderful 
 of them at least — were not to occur for many centuries 
 
TX.] OF GOD. lOI 
 
 to come ; that, even if some calamity were imminent, the 
 immediate future and the very distant future were so 
 intermingled in his discourse, that it would require the 
 labours of commentator after commentator, for many 
 hundred years, to disentangle them, and that their la- 
 bours would be in vain ; that the coming of the Son of 
 Man, and of the Kingdom of God, of which he had 
 spoken, were to be referred to a time thousands of years 
 hence; though we were told in the same breath to look 
 to the fig-tree and all the trees as a sign that it was 
 coming immediately, and that our own generation would 
 not pass away before all had taken place : — would not 
 such a discovery raise in us thoughts and feelings neither 
 wholesome for us nor honourable to the prophet ? 
 
 I cannot think otherwise. We may be aware of the 
 difficulties which beset this, and any other, interpretation 
 of our Lord's prophecies in Matthew, Mark, and Luke: 
 we may have the deepest respect for those learned and 
 pious divines who from time to time have tried to part 
 the prophecies relating to the fall of Jerusalem from those 
 relating to the end of the world and the day of Judg- 
 ment. Yet, in the face of such a passage as the text, 
 especially when we cannot agree with those who would 
 make this " generation " mean this " race " or " nation," 
 we may — we have a right to — decline to separate the 
 two sets of passages. We have a right to say, — He who 
 spake as man never spake, and therefore knew the force 
 of words ; He who knew what was in man — and there- 
 fore what effect His words would produce on His hear- 
 ers — did deliver a discourse — indeed, many discourses— 
 
 9—2 
 
I02 THE KINGDOM [SERM. 
 
 which asserted, as far as plain words could be understood 
 by plain men, that the Kingdom of God was at hand ; 
 and that the coming of the Son of Man would take place 
 before that generation passed away. 
 
 And that all His disciples, and St Paul as much as 
 any, put that meaning upon His words, is a matter of 
 fact and of history, to be seen plainly in Holy Scripture. 
 
 But, while the text compels us to believe that the 
 destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans was a coming 
 of the Son of Man — a manifestation of the Kingdom of 
 God — a day of Judgment, in the strictest and most awful 
 sense ; yet we are not compelled to limit the meaning of 
 the text to the destruction of Jerusalem. 
 
 No prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. 
 Prophets, apostles — how much more our Lord Himself — 
 do not merely indulge in presages ; they lay down laws 
 — laws moral, spiritual, eternal— which have been ful- 
 filling themselves from the beginning ; which are fulfilling 
 themselves now; which will go on fulfilling themselves 
 to the end of time. 
 
 So said our Lord Jesus of His own prophecies con- 
 cerning the destruction of Jerusalem. It was but one 
 example — a most awful one — of the laws of His kingdom. 
 Not in Judaea only, but wherever the carcase was, there 
 would the eagles be gathered together. In the moral, as 
 in the physical word, there were beasts of prey — the 
 scavengers of God — ready to devour out of His kingdom 
 nations, institutions, opinions, which had become dead, 
 and decayed, and ready to infect the air. Many a time 
 since the Roman eagles flocked to Jerusalem has that 
 
IX.] OF GOD. 103 
 
 prophecy been fulfilled ; and many a time will it be ful- 
 filled once more, and yet once more. 
 
 And what else, if we look at them carefully and reve- 
 rently, is the meaning of the words in this my text, 
 •' Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall 
 not pass away"? 
 
 Shall we translate this, — Heaven and earth shall not 
 come true : but My words shall come true ? By so doing 
 we may put some little meaning into the latter half of 
 the verse; but none into the former. Surely there is a 
 deeper meaning in the words than that of merely coming 
 true. Surely they mean that His words are eternal, per- 
 petual ; for ever present, possible, imminent ; for ever 
 coming true. So, indeed, they would not pass away. So 
 they would be like the heavens and the earth, and the 
 laws thereof; like heat, gravitation, electricity, what not 
 — always here, always working, always asserting them- 
 selves — with this difference, that when the physical laws 
 of the heavens and the earth, which began in time, in 
 time have perished, the spiritual laws of God's kingdom, 
 of Christ's moral government of moral beings, shall 
 endure for ever and for ever, eternal as that God whose 
 essence they reflect. 
 
 Therefore I mean nothing less than that the great 
 and final day of Judgment is past; or that we are not to 
 look for that second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 which, as our forefathers taught us to hope, shall set right 
 all the wrong of this diseased world. 
 
 God forbid ! For most miserable were the world, 
 most miserable were mankind, if all that our Lord pro 
 
I04 THE KINGDOM [serm. 
 
 phesied had happened, once and for all, at the destruction 
 of Jerusalem by the Roman armies. But most miserable, 
 also, would this world be, and most miserable would be 
 mankind, if these words were not to be fulfilled till some 
 future Last Day, and day of Judgment, for which the 
 Church has now been waiting for more than eighteen 
 centuries — and, as far as we can judge, may wait for as 
 many centuries more. Most miserable, if the Son of Man 
 has never come since He ascended into heaven from 
 Olivet. Most miserable, if the kingdom of God has 
 never been at hand, since He gave that one short gleam 
 of hope to men in Judsa long ago. Most miserable, if 
 there be no kingdom of God among us even now : in 
 one word, if God and Christ be not our King; but the 
 devil, as some fancy ; or Man himself, as others fancy, be 
 the only king of this world and of its destinies ; if there 
 be no order in this mad world, save what man invents ; 
 no justice, save what he executes ; no law, save what he 
 finds convenient to lay upon himself for the protection of 
 his person and property. Most miserable, if the human 
 race have no guide, save its own instincts and tendencies; 
 no history, save that of its own greed, ignorance and 
 crime, vaned only by fruitless struggles after a happiness 
 to which it never attains. Most miserable world, and 
 miserable man, if that be true after all which to the old 
 Hebrew prophet seemed incredible and horrible — if God 
 does look on while men deal treacherously, and does hold 
 His peace when the wicked devours the man who is more 
 righteous than he; and has made men as the fishes of 
 the sea, as the creeping things that have no ruler over them. 
 
IX.] OF GOD. T05 
 
 I said — Most miserable, in that case, was the world 
 and man. I did not say that they would consider them- 
 selves miserable. I did not say that they would think it 
 a Gospel, and good news, that Christ was their King, and 
 that His Kingdom was always at hand. They never 
 thought that good news. When the prophets told them 
 of it, they stoned them. When the Lord Himself told 
 them, they crucified Him. Worldly men dislike the mes- 
 sage now, probably, as much as they ever did. But they 
 escape from it, either by treating it as a self-evident 
 commonplace which no Christian denies, and therefore 
 no Christian need think of; or by smiling at it as an 
 exploded superstition, at least as a "Semitic" form of 
 thought, with which we have nothing to do. They con- 
 found it, often I fear purposely, with those fancied 
 miraculous interpositions, those paltry special provi- 
 dences, which fanatics in all ages have believed to 
 be worked for their own special behoof Altogether 
 they dislike, and express very openly their dislike, 
 of the least allusion to a Divine Providence " inter- 
 fering," as they strangely term it, with them and their 
 affairs. 
 
 And they are wise, doubtless, in their generation. 
 The news that Christ is the King of men and of the world 
 must be unpleasant, even offensive, to too many, both of 
 those who fancy that they are managing this world, and 
 of those who fancy that they could manage the world 
 still better, if they only had their rights. It must be un- 
 pleasant to be told that they are not managing the world, 
 and cannot manage it : that it is being managed and ruled 
 
I06 THE KINGDOM [serm. 
 
 by an unseen King, whose ways are far above their ways, 
 and His thoughts above their thoughts. 
 
 For then : Prudence might demand of them, that they 
 should find out what are that King's ways, thoughts and 
 laws, and obey them — an enquiry so troublesome, that 
 many very highly educated persons consider it, now-a-days, 
 quite impossible ; and tell us that, for practical purposes, 
 God's laws can neither be discovered, nor obeyed. 
 
 Moreover, their scheme of this world is one which would 
 work — so they fancy — just as well if there was no God. 
 Unpleasant therefore it must be for them to hear, not 
 merely that there is a God, but that He has His own 
 scheme of the world; and that it is working, whether 
 they like or not; that God, and not they, is making history; 
 God, and not they, appointing the bounds and tlie times 
 of nations; God, and not they, or any man or men, dis- 
 tributing good and evil among mankind. 
 
 They do not object, of course, to the existence of a 
 God. They only object to His being what the Hebrew 
 prophets called Him — a living God; a God who executes 
 justice and judgment by His Son Jesus Christ, to whom 
 He has committed all power both in heaven and earth. 
 They are ready sometimes to allow even that, provided 
 they may relegate it into the past, or into the future. 
 They are ready to allow that God and Christ exerted 
 power over men at the first Advent 1800 years ago, 
 and that they will exert power over men at the second 
 Advent — none knows how long hence. But that God 
 and Christ are exerting power now — in an ever-present 
 and perpetual Advent — in this nineteenth century just 
 
IX.] OF GOD. 107 
 
 as much as in any century before or since — that the)' 
 had rather not believe. Their creed is, that though 
 heaven and earth have not passed away; though the 
 laws of nature are working for ever as at the beginning: 
 yet Christ's words have passed away, and fallen into 
 abeyance for many centuries past, to remain in abeyance 
 for many centuries to come. 
 
 In one word — while they believe more or less in a 
 past God, and a future God, yet as to the existence of 
 a present God, in any practical and real sense — they 
 believe — how little, I dare not say. 
 
 Whether this generation will awaken out of that sleep 
 of practical Atheism, which is creeping on them more 
 and more, who can tell? That they are uneasy in the 
 sleep, there are many signs. For in their sleep dreams 
 come of another world, of which their five senses tell 
 them nought. Then do some fly to mediseval super- 
 stitions, which give them at least elaborate and agreeable 
 substitutes for a living God. Some fly to impostors, who 
 pretend by juggling tricks to put them in communication 
 with that unseen world which they have so long denied. 
 Some, again, play with unfulfilled prophecy; and fancy 
 that it is for them, though it was not for the apostles, 
 to know the times and seasons which the Father has put 
 in His own power, and the day and hour of which no 
 man knoweth, no not the angels in heaven, nor the Son, 
 but the Father only. 
 
 Better that, than that they should believe that there 
 is nothing, and never will be anything, in the world, 
 beyond what their five senses can apprehend. 
 
I08 THE KINGDOM [serm. 
 
 But whether they awake or not out of their sleep, their 
 bhndness does not alter the eternal fact, whether men be- 
 lieve it or not. That is true what the Psalmist said of old : 
 "The Lord is King, be the people never so impatient. 
 He sitteth upon His throne, though the earth be never 
 so unquiet." 
 
 The utterances of the old Psalmists and prophets 
 concerning the ever-present kingdom of God are facts, 
 not dreams. Whether men believe it or not, it is true 
 that the power, glory, and righteousness of His king- 
 dom may be known unto men; that His kingdom is 
 an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion endureth 
 throughout all ages; that The Lord upholds all such as 
 fall, and lifts up those that are down; that the eyes 
 of all wait on Him, that He may give them their meat 
 in due season ; that He opens His hand, and filleth 
 all things living with plenteousness; that the Lord is 
 righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works; 
 that He is nigh to them that call upon Him, yea to all 
 who call upon Him faithfully. He that planted the ear, 
 shall He not hear? He that made the eye, shall He 
 not see? He that chastiseth the nations; it is He that 
 teacheth man knowledge : shall He not punish? 
 
 Whether men believe it or not, that is true which the 
 Psalmist said — Whither shall I flee from His Spirit, or 
 whither shall I go from His presence? If I climb up to 
 heaven, He is there; if I go down to hell, He is there 
 also. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in 
 the uttermost part of the sea, even there shall His hand 
 lead me, His right hand hold me still. 
 
IX.] OF GOD. 109 
 
 Whether men believe it or not, that is true which 
 Clirist spake on earth — That the Father hath committed 
 all judgment to Him, because He is the Son of man; 
 that to Him is given all power in heaven and earth ; and 
 that He is with us, even to the end of the world. 
 
 Whether men believe it or not, that is true which 
 S. Paul spake on Mars' hill, saying that the Lord is not 
 far from any one of us, for in Him we live and move 
 and have our being; and that He hath appointed a day 
 in which He will judge the world in righteousness, by 
 that Man whom He hath ordained, and raised from the dead. 
 
 Whether men believe it or not, that is true which Christ 
 spake — Heaven and earth shall pass away; but My words 
 shall not pass away; at least till He has put down all rule 
 and all authority and power, and delivered up the king- 
 dom to God, even the Father, that God may be all in all. 
 
 "That one far-off divine event, toward which the 
 whole creation moves," will be, not the resumption, but 
 the triumph, of Christ's rule ; of a rule which began be- 
 fore the world, which has endured through all the ages; 
 which endures now, punishing or rewarding each and 
 every one of us, and of our children's children, as long 
 as there shall be a man upon the earth. For by Christ's 
 will alone the world of man consists; in Christ's laws 
 alone is true life, health, wealth, possible for any man, 
 family or nation; out of His kingdom He casts, sooner 
 or later, all things which offend, and whosoever loveth 
 and maketh a lie. He said of Himself — Whosoever 
 falleth on this rock shall be broken; but on whomsoever 
 it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder. 
 
SERMON X. 
 
 THE LAW OF THE LORD, 
 
 Psalm i. i , i. 
 
 Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the un- 
 godly, nor stood in the path of sinners, nor sat in the seat oi 
 the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord ; and in 
 his law will he exercise himself day and night. 
 
 The first and second Psalms, taken together, are the 
 key to all the Psalms ; I may almost say to the whole 
 Bible. I will say a few words on them this morning, 
 especially to those who are coming to the Holy Com- 
 munion, to shew their allegiance to that Lord, in whose 
 law alone is life, and who sits on the throne of the 
 universe, King of kings, and Lord of lords : but I say it 
 to the whole congregation likewise ; nay, if there were an 
 infidel or a heathen in the Church, I should say it to 
 them. For in this case what is true of one man is true 
 of every man, whether he knows it or not. 
 
 We all should like to be blessed. We all should like 
 to be, as the Psalm says, like trees planted by the water- 
 side, whose leaves never wither, and who bring forth 
 their fruit in due season. We should all wish to have 
 it said of us — Whatsoever he doeth it shall prosper. 
 
SERM. X.] THE LAW OF THE LORD. Ill 
 
 Then here is the way to inherit that blessing — '■^Blessed 
 is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and 
 who exercises himself in His law day and night." The 
 Psalmist is not speaking of Moses' Law, nor of any other 
 law of forms and ceremonies. He says expressly "The 
 law of the Lord " — that is, the law according to which 
 the Lord has made him and all the world ; and accord- 
 ing to which the Lord rules him and all the world. The 
 Psalms — you must remember — say very little about 
 Moses' law ; and when they do, speak of it almost slight- 
 ingly, as if to draw men's minds away from it to a deeper, 
 nobler, more eternal law. In one Psalm God asks, 
 " Thinkest thou that I will eat bulls' flesh, and drink the 
 blood of goats?" And in another Psalm some one 
 answers, " Sacrifice and burnt-offering thou wouldest not. 
 Then said I, Lo I come, to do thy will, O God. Thy 
 law is within my heart." This is that true and eternal 
 law of which Solomon speaks in his proverbs, as the 
 Wisdom by which God made the heavens, and laid the 
 foundation of the earth ; and tells us that that Wisdom 
 is a tree of life to all who can lay hold of her ; that in 
 her right hand is length of days, and in her left hand 
 riches and honour ; that her ways are ways of pleasant- 
 ness ; and all her paths are peace. 
 
 This is that law, of which the Prophet says — that 
 God will put it into men's hearts, and write it in their 
 minds; and they shall be His people, and He will be 
 their God. This is that law, which the inspired Philo- 
 sopher — for a philosopher he was indeed — -who wrote 
 the 119th Psalm, continually prayed and strove to learn, 
 
112 THE LAW OF THE LORD. [serm. 
 
 intreating the Lord to teach him His law, and make him 
 remember His everlasting judgments. This is that law, 
 which our Lord Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled, because 
 the law was His Father's law, and therefore His own 
 law, and therefore he perfectly comprehended the law, 
 and perfectly loved the law ; and said with His whole 
 heart— I delight to do Thy will, O God. 
 
 The will of God. For in one word, this Law, which 
 we have to learn, and by keeping which we shall be 
 blessed, is nothing else than God's Will. God's Will 
 about us. Wliat God has willed and chosen we should 
 be. What God has -willed and chosen we should do. 
 The greatest philosopher of the i8th century said that 
 every rational being had to answer four questions — 
 Where am I .? What can I know ? What must I do ? 
 Whither am I going ? And he knew well that — as the 
 Bible tells us throughout — the only way to get any 
 answer to those four tremendous questions is — To 
 delight in the law of the Lord; to struggle, think, pray, 
 till we get some understanding of God's will; of God's 
 will about ourselves and about the world ; and so be 
 blessed indeed. 
 
 But to do that, it is plain that we must heed the warn- 
 ing which the first verse of the Psalm gives us — " Blessed 
 is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of tlie un- 
 godly." For it is plain that a man will never learn God's 
 will if he takes counsel from ungodly men who care 
 nothing for God's will, and do not believe that God's will 
 governs the world. Neither must he, as the Psalm says, 
 ' stand in the way of sinners' — of profligate and dishonest 
 
X.] THE LAW OF THE LORD. II3 
 
 men who break God's law. For if he follows their ways, 
 and breaks God's law himself, it is plain that he will learn 
 little or nothing about God's law, save in the way of bitter 
 punishment. For let him but break God's law a little too 
 long, and then — as the 2nd Psalm says — ' God will rule 
 him with a rod of iron, and break him in pieces like a 
 potter's vessel.' But there is even more hope for him — 
 for he may repent and amend — than if he sits in the seat 
 of the scomers. The scorners; the sneering, the frivolous, 
 the uneamest, the unbelieving, the envious, who laugh 
 down what they call enthusiasm and romance ; who de- 
 light in finding fault, and in blackening those who seem 
 purer or nobler than themselves. These are the men who 
 cannot by any possibility learn anything of the law of 
 God ; for they will not even look for it. They have cast 
 awa)' the likeness of rational men, and have taken upon 
 themselves the likeness of the sneering accusing Satan, 
 who asks in the book of Job — " Doth Job serve God for 
 nought ?" When the greatest poet of our days tried to 
 picture his idea of a fiend tempting a man to his ruin, he 
 gave his fiend just such a character as this ; a very clever, 
 courteous, agreeable man of the world, and yet a being 
 who could not love any one, could not believe in anyone; 
 who mocked not only at man but at God and tempted 
 and ruined man, not out of hatred to him, hardly out of 
 envy ; but in mere sport, as a cruel child may torment an 
 insect ; — in one word, a scomer. And so true was his 
 conception felt to be, that men of that character are now 
 often called by the very name which he gave to his Satan 
 — Mephistopheles. Beware therefore of the scornful 
 
114 THE LAW OF THE LORD. [serm. 
 
 spirit, as well as of the openly sinful or of the ungodly. 
 If you wish to leam the law of the Lord, keep your souls 
 pious, pure, reverent, and earnest ; for it is only the pure 
 in heart who shall see God ; and only those who do God's 
 will as far as they know it, who will know concerning any 
 doctrine whether it be true or false; in one word, whether 
 it be of God. 
 
 And now bear in mind secondly, that this law is the 
 law of the Lord. You cannot have a law without a law- 
 giver who makes the law, and also without a judge who 
 enforces the law; and the lawgiver and the judge of the 
 law of the Lord is the Lord Himself, our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Remembering Him, and that He is King, we can 
 understand the fervour of indignation and pity, with 
 which the writer of the 2nd Psalm bursts out — "Why do 
 the heathen rage, and why do the people imagine a vain 
 thing ? The kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers 
 take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His 
 Anointed — 
 
 "Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away 
 their cords from us." 
 
 For the great majority of mankind, in every age and 
 country, will not believe that there is a Law of the Lord, 
 to which they must conform themselves. Kings, and 
 governments, and peoples, are too often all alike in that. 
 They must needs have their own way. Their will is to be 
 law. Their voice is to be the voice of God. They are 
 they who ought to speak ; who is Lord over them ? And 
 because the Lord is patient and long-suffering, and does 
 
X.] THE LAW OF THE LORD. I15 
 
 not punish their presumption on the spot by Hghtning or 
 earthquake, they fancy that He takes no notice of them, 
 and of their crimes and follies ; and say — " Tush, shall 
 God perceive it? Is there knowledge in the most High?" 
 
 But sooner or later, either by sudden and terrible 
 catastrophes, or by slow decay, brought on sometimes 
 by their own blind presumption, sometimes by their own 
 luxury, they find out their mistake when it is too late. 
 And then — 
 
 " He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to 
 scorn. The Lord shall have them in derision. For He 
 has set His King upon the throne " of all the universe. 
 
 Yes, Christ the Lord rules, and knows that He rules ; 
 whether we know it or not. Christ's law still hangs over 
 our head, ready to lead us to light and life and peace and 
 wealth, or ready to fall on us and grind us to powder, 
 whether we choose to look up and see it or not. The 
 Lord liveth ; though we may be too dead to feel Him. 
 The Lord sees us ; though we may be too blind to see 
 Him. Man can abolish many things; and does both- — 
 wisely and unwisely — in these restless days of change. 
 But let him try as long as he will — for he has often 
 tried, and will try again — he cannot abolish Christ the 
 Lord. 
 
 For Christ is set upon the throne of the universe. 
 The Father of all — if we may dare to hint even in 
 Scriptural words at mysteries which are in themselves 
 unspeakable — is eternally saying to Him— Thou art my 
 Son, this day have I begotten Thee. And Christ answers 
 eternally — I come to do Thy will, O God. The nations 
 K. s. 10 
 
Il6 THE LAW OF THE LORD. [serm. 
 
 are Christ's inheritance ; and the utmost parts of the 
 earth are His possession, now, already; whether we or 
 they think so or not. 
 
 And there are times — there are times, my friends — 
 when the awful words which follow come true likewise 
 ^"Thou shalt bruise them with a rod of iron, and break 
 them in pieces like a potter's vessel." 
 
 For as to this world in which we live, so to the God 
 who created that world, there is a terrible aspect. There 
 is calm : but there is storm also. There is fertilizing 
 sunshine : but there is also the destroying thunderbolt. 
 There is the solid and fruitful earth, where man can till 
 and build ; but there is the earthquake and the flood 
 likewise, which destroy in a moment the works of man. 
 So there is in God boundless love, and boundless mercy : 
 but there is, too, a wrath of God, and a fire of God which 
 burns eternally against all evil and falsehood. And woe 
 to those who fall under that wrath; who are even scorched 
 for a moment by that fire. 
 
 "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the 
 Living God." 
 
 We are all ready enough to forget this ; ready enough 
 to think only of God's goodness, and never of His 
 severity. Ready enough to talk of Christ as gentle 
 and suffering; because we flatter ourselves that if He 
 is gentle. He may be also indulgent; if He be suff'ering, 
 He may be also weak. We like to forget tliat He is, 
 and was, and ever will be — Lord of heaven and eartli; 
 and to think of Him only in His humiliation in Judsea 
 1800 years ago, forgetting that during that very humilia- 
 
X.] THE LAW OF THE LORD. 117 
 
 tion, while He was shewing love, and mercy, and miracles 
 of healing, and sympathy and compassion for every 
 form of human sorrow and weakness, He did not shrink 
 from shewing to men the awful side of His character; 
 did not shrink from saying, "Woe unto you. Scribes 
 and Pharisees, hypocrites. Ye serpents, ye generation of 
 vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" — did 
 not shrink from declaring that He was coming again, 
 even before that very generation had passed away, to 
 destroy, unless it repented, the wicked city of Jerusalem, 
 with an utter and horrible destruction. 
 
 Think of these things, my friends : for true they are, 
 and true they will remain, whether you think of them 
 or not And take the warning of the second Psalm, 
 which is needed now as much as it was ever needed — 
 "Be wise now therefore, O ye kings, be learned, ye that 
 are judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and 
 rejoice unto Him with reverence. Worship the Son, 
 lest He be angry, and so ye perish from the right way. 
 If His wrath be kindled, yea, but a little, blessed are all 
 they that put their trust in Him.'' 
 
 But you are no kings, you are no judges. Is it so? 
 And yet you boast yourselves to be free men, in a free 
 country. Not so. Every man who is a free man is a 
 king or a judge, v/hether he knows it or not. Every one 
 who has a duty, is a king over his duty. Every one 
 who has a work to do, is a judge whether he does his 
 work well or not. He who farms, is a king and a judge 
 over his land. He who keeps a shop, a king and a 
 judge over his business. He who has a family, a king 
 
Il8 THE LAW OF THE LORD. [serm. 
 
 and a judge over his household. Let each be wise, and 
 serve the Lord in fear; knowing that according as he 
 obeys the law of the Lord, he will receive for the deeds 
 done in the body, whether good or evil. 
 
 Not kings ? not judges? Is not each and every human 
 being who is not a madman, a king over his own actions, 
 i judge over his own heart and conscience? Let him 
 govern himself, govern his own thoughts and words, 
 his own life and actions, according to the law of the 
 Lord who created him; and he will be able to say with 
 the poet, 
 
 My mind to me a kingdom is; 
 Such perfect joy therein I find 
 As far exceeds all earthly bliss. 
 
 But if he governs himself according to his own fancy, 
 which is no law, but lawlessness: then he will find him- 
 self rebelling against himself, weakened by passions, torn 
 by vain desires, and miserable by reason of the lusts 
 which war in his members; and so will taste, here in 
 this life, of that anger of the Lord of which it is written ; 
 "If His wrath be kindled, yea, but a httle, ye shall 
 perish from the right way.'' 
 
 Therefore let each and all of us, high and low, take 
 the warning of the last verse, and worship the Son of 
 God. Bow low before Him — for that is the true mean- 
 ing of the words^as subjects before an absolute mon- 
 arch, who can dispose of us, body and soul, according 
 to His will : but who can be trusted to dispose of us 
 well: because His will is a good will, and the only 
 
X.] THE LAW OF THE LORD. II9 
 
 reason why He is angry when we break His laws, is, 
 that His laws are the Eternal Laws of God, wherein 
 alone is life for all rational beings ; and to break them is 
 to injure our fellow-creatures, and to ruin ourselves, and 
 perish from that right way, to bring us back to which 
 He condescended, of His boundless love, to die on the 
 Cross for all mankind. 
 
SERMON XI. 
 
 GOD THE TEACHER. 
 
 Psalm cxix. 33, 34. 
 
 Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto 
 the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep Thy Law ; 
 yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. 
 
 This 119th Psalm has been valued for many centuries, 
 by the wisest and most devout Christians, as one of the 
 most instructive in the Bible ; as the experimental psalm. 
 And it is that, and more. It is specially a psalm about 
 education. That is on the face of the text. Teach me, 
 O Lord, Thy statutes, and I shall keep them to the end. 
 These are the words of a man who wishes to be taught, 
 and therefore to learn ; and to learn not mere book- 
 learning and instruction, but to acquire a practical edu- 
 cation, whicli he can keep to the end, and carry out in 
 his whole life. 
 
 But it is more. It is, to my mind, as much a theolo- 
 gical psalm as it is an experimental psalm ; and it is just 
 as valuable for what it tells us concerning the changeless 
 and serene essence of God, as for what it tells us con- 
 cerning the changing and struggling soul of man. 
 
SERM. XI.] GOD THE TEACHER. 121 
 
 Let us think a little this morning — and, please God, 
 hereafter also — of the Psalm, and what it says. For it is 
 just as true now as ever it was, and just as precious to 
 those who long to educate themselves with the true edu- 
 cation, which makes a man perfect, even as his Father in 
 heaven is perfect. 
 
 The Psalm is a prayer, or collection of short prayers, 
 written by some one who had two thoughts in his mind, 
 and who was so full of those two thoughts that he re- 
 peated them over and over again, in many different 
 forms, like one who, having an air of music in his head, 
 repeats it in different keys, with variation after variation ; 
 yet keeps true always to the original air, and returns to 
 it always at the last. 
 
 Now what two thoughts were in the Psalmisf s mind ? 
 
 First: that there was something in the world which 
 he must learn, and would learn; for everything in this 
 life and the next depended on his learning it. And this 
 thing which he wants to learn he calls God's statutes, 
 God's law, God's testimonies, God's commandments, 
 God's everlasting judgments. That is what he feels he 
 must learn, or else come to utter grief, both body and 
 soul. 
 
 Secondly: that if he is to learn them, God Himself 
 must teach them to him. I beg you not to overlook this 
 side of the Psalm. That is what makes it not only 
 a psalm, but a prayer also. The man wants to know 
 something. But beside that, he prays God to teach it to 
 him. 
 
 He was not like too many now-a-days, who look on 
 
122 GOD THE TEACHER. [serm. 
 
 prayer, and on inspiration, as old-fashioned superstitions; 
 who believe that a man can find out all he needs to 
 know by his own unassisted intellect, and then do it by 
 his own unassisted will. Where they get their proofs of 
 that theory, I know not ; certainly not from the history 
 of mankind, and certainly not from their own experience, 
 unless it be very different from mine. Be that as it may, 
 this old Psalmist would not have agreed with them ; for 
 he held an utterly opposite belief. He held that a man 
 could see nothing, unless God shewed it to him. He 
 held that a man could learn nothing unless God taught 
 him ; and taught him, moreover, in two ways. First 
 taught him what he ought to do, and then taught him 
 how to do it. 
 
 Surely this man was, at least, a reasonable and pru- 
 dent man, and shewed his common-sense. I say — com- 
 mon-sense. 
 
 For suppose that you were set adrift in a ship at sea, 
 to shift for yourself, would it not be mere common-sense 
 to try and learn how to manage that ship, that you might 
 keep her afloat and get her safe to land ? You would 
 try to learn the statutes, laws, and commandments, and 
 testimonies, and judgments concerning the ship, lest by 
 your own ignorance you should sink her, and be drowned. 
 You would try to learn the laws about the ship ; namely 
 the laws of floatation, by fulfilling which vessels swim, 
 and by breaking which vessels sink. 
 
 You would try to learn the commandments about her. 
 They would be any books which you could find of rules 
 of navigation, and instruction in seamanship. 
 
XI.] GOD THE TEACHER. 1 23 
 
 You would try to learn the testimonies about the ship. 
 And what would they be ? The witness, of course, which 
 the ship bore to herself. The experience which you or 
 others got, from seeing how she behaved — as they say — 
 at sea. 
 
 And from whom would you try to learn all this? from 
 yourself? Out of your own brain and fancy ? Would you 
 invent theories of navigation and shipbuilding for your- 
 self, without practice or experience ? I trust not. You 
 would go to the shipbuilder and the shipmaster for your 
 information. Just as — if you be a reasonable man — you 
 will go for your information about this world to the 
 builder and maker of the world — God himself. 
 
 And lastly; you would try to learn the judgments 
 about the ship : and what would they be? The results 
 of good or bad seamanship ; what happens to ships, 
 when they are well-managed or ill-managed. 
 
 It would be too hard to have to learn that by ex- 
 perience ; for the price which you would have to pay 
 would be, probably, that you would be wrecked and 
 drowned. But if you saw other ships wrecked near you, 
 you would form judgments from their fate of what you 
 ought to do. If you could find accounts of shipwrecks, 
 you would study them with the most intense interest ; 
 lest you too should be wrecked, and so judgment over- 
 take you for your bad seamanship. 
 
 For God's judgment of any matter is not, as super- 
 stitious people fancy, that God grows suddenly angry, 
 and goes out of His way to punish those who do wrong, 
 as by a miracle. God judges all things in heaven and 
 
124 GOD THE TEACHER. [seem. 
 
 earth without anger — ay, with boundless pity : but with 
 no indulgence. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The 
 ship that cannot swim, it must sink. That is the law of 
 the judgments of God. But He is merciful in this; that 
 He rewardeth every man according to his worL His 
 judgment may be favourable, as well as unfavourable. 
 He may acquit, or He may condemn. But whether He 
 acquits or condemns, we can only know by the event; by 
 the result. If a ship sinks, for want of good sailing or 
 other defect, that is a judgment of God about the ship. 
 He has condemned her. She is not seaworthy. But if 
 the ship arrives safe in port, that too is God's judgment. 
 He has tried her and acquitted her. She is seaworthy ; 
 and she has her reward. 
 
 How simple this is. And yet men will not believe it, 
 will not understand it, and therefore they wreck so often 
 each man his own ship — his own life and immortal soul, 
 and sink and perish, for lack of knowledge. 
 
 For each one of us is at sea, each in his own ship ; 
 and each must sail her and steer her, as best he can, or 
 sink and drown for ever. 
 
 For the sea which each of us is sailing over is this 
 world, and the ship in which each of us sails, is our own 
 nature and character ; what St Paul, like a truly scientific 
 man, calls our flesh ; and what modern scientific men, 
 and rightly, call our organisation. And the land to which 
 we are sailing is eternal Life. Shall we make a prosperous 
 voyage ? Shall we faU, or shall we succeed ? Shall we 
 founder and drown at sea, and sink to eternal death ? Or 
 shall we, as the clergyman prayed for us when we were 
 
XI.] GOD THE TEACHER. 1 25 
 
 baptized, so pass through the waves of this troublesome 
 world, that finally we may come to the land of everlasting 
 life ? Which shall it be, my friends ? Shall we sink, or 
 shall we swim ? Certain is one thing — that we shall sink, 
 and not swim, if we do not learn and keep the law, and 
 commandments, and testimonies, and judgments of God, 
 concerning this our mortal life. If we do not, then we 
 shall go through life, without knowing how to go through 
 life, ignorantly and blindly ; and the end of that will be 
 failure, and ruin, and death to our souls. If we do not 
 know and keep the Laws of God, the Laws of God will 
 keep themselves, in spite of us, and grind us to powder. 
 Do not fancy that you may do ^vrong without being 
 punished ; and break God's Law, because you are not 
 under the law, but under grace. You are only under 
 gxace, as long as you keep clear of God's Law. The 
 moment you do wrong you put yourself under the Law, 
 and the Law will punish you. Suppose that you went 
 into a mill; and that the owner of that mill was your 
 best friend, even your father. Would that prevent your 
 being crushed by the machinery, if you got entangled in 
 it through ignorance or heedlessness ? I think not. Even 
 so, though God be your best of friends, ay, your Father in 
 heaven, that will not prevent your being injured, it may 
 be ruined, not only by wilful sins, but by mere folly and 
 ignorance. Therefore your only chance for safety in this 
 life and for ever, is to learn God's laws and statutes 
 about your life, that you may pass through it justly, ho- 
 nourably, virtuously, successfully. And the man who 
 wrote the 119th Psalm knew that, and said, " Oh that 
 
126 GOD THE TEACHER. [serm. 
 
 my ways were made so direct, that I might keep thy 
 statutes.'' 
 
 But moreover, you must learn God's commandments. 
 He has laid down certain commands, certain positive 
 rules which must be kept if you do not intend to 
 die the eternal death. So says our Lord. " If thou wilt 
 enter into Hfe, keep the commandments." " Thou shalt 
 love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul, and 
 thy neighbour as thyself." There the ten commandments 
 are, and kept they must be ; and if you break one of 
 them, it will punish you, and you cannot escape. And 
 the man who wrote the 119th Psalm knew that, and said, 
 " With my whole heart have I sought thee : oh let me 
 not go wrong out of Thy commandments." 
 
 Moreover, you must learn God's testimonies : what 
 He has witnessed and declared about Himself, and His 
 own character. His power and His goodness, His severity 
 and His love. And where will you learn that, as in the 
 Bible ? The Bible is full of testimonies of God in Clirist 
 about Himself; who He is, what He does, what He re- 
 quires ; and of testimonies of holy men of old, concern- 
 ing God and concerning duty ; concerning God's dealings 
 with their souls, and with other men, and with all the 
 nations of the old world, and with all nations likewise to 
 the end of time. And if people will not read and study 
 their Bibles, they cannot expect to know the way to 
 eternal life. That too the man who wrote the 119th 
 Psalm knew, and said, " I have had as great delight in 
 Thy testimonies, as in all manner of riches." 
 
 Moreover, you must learn God's judgments; the way 
 
XI.] GOD THE TEACHER. 1 2/ 
 
 in which He rewards and punishes men. And those too 
 you will learn in the Bible, which is full of accounts of 
 the just and merciful judgments of God. And you may 
 learn them too from your own experience in life; from 
 seeing what actually happens to those whom you know, 
 when they do right things; and what happens again, 
 when they do wrong things. If any man will open his 
 eyes to what is going on around him in a single city, or 
 in the mere private circle of his own kinsfolk and ac- 
 quaintance; if he will but use his common sense, and 
 look how righteousness is rewarded, and sin is punished, 
 all day long, then he might learn enough and to spare 
 about God's judgments : but men will not. A man will 
 see his neighbour do wrong, and suffer for it : and then 
 go and do exactly the same thing himself; as if there 
 were no living God; no judgments of God; as if all was 
 accident and chance; as if he was to escape scot-free, 
 while his neighbour next door has brought shame and 
 misery on himself by doing the same thing. For it was 
 well written of old, " The fool hath said in his heart — 
 though he is afraid to say it with his lips — There is no 
 God." And the man who wrote the 119th Psalm knew 
 that, and said, " I remembered Thine everlasting judg- 
 ments, O Lord, and received comfort; for I was horribly 
 afraid for the ungodly who forsake Thy law." 
 
 I say again : that the only way to attain eternal life 
 is to know, and keep, and profit by God's laws, God's 
 commandments, God's testimonies, God's judgments ; 
 and therefore it is that the Psalmists say so often, that 
 these laws and commandments are Life. Not merely 
 
128 GOD THE TEACHER. [serm. 
 
 the way to eternal life; but the Life itself, as it is written 
 in the Prayer- Book, " O God, whom truly to know is 
 everlasting life." 
 
 But some will say. How shall I learn ? I am very 
 stupid, and I confess that freely. And when I have 
 learnt, how shall 1 act up to my lesson ? For I am very 
 weak ; and that I confess freely likewise. 
 
 How indeed, my friends? Stupid we are, the cleverest 
 of us; and weak we are, the strongest of us. And if 
 God left us to find out for ourselves, and to take care 
 of ourselves, we should not sail far on the voyage of 
 life without being wrecked; and going down body and 
 soul to hell. 
 
 But, blessed be God, He has not left us to ourselves. 
 He has not only commanded us to learn : He has pro- 
 mised to teach. And — as I said in the beginning of my 
 Sermon — he who wrote the iigth Psalm knew that well. 
 He knew that God would teach him and strengthen him; 
 enlightening his dull understanding, and quickening his 
 dull will; and therefore his Psalm, as I said, is a prayer, 
 a prayer for teaching, and a prayer for light; and he cries 
 to God — My soul cleaveth to the dust. I am low-minded, 
 stupid, and earthly at the best. Oh quicken Thou me ; that 
 is — Oh give me life — more life — according to Thy word. 
 
 Thy Word. The Word of God, of whom the Psalmist 
 says — O Lord, Thy Word endureth for ever in heaven. 
 Even the Word of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, the Son 
 of Man who is in heaven; and who, because He is in 
 heaven, both God and man, can and will give us light 
 and life, now and for ever. 
 
XI.] GOD THE TEACHER. 1 29 
 
 And now take home with you this one thought. 
 There is one education which we must all get; one thing 
 which we must all learn, and learn to obey, or come to 
 utter shame and ruin, either in this world or the world 
 to come; and that is the laws, and commandments, and 
 testimonies of God, — God the Father, God the Son, and 
 God the Holy Spirit; for only by keeping them can we 
 enter into eternal life. And if we wish to know them, 
 God himself will teach us them. And if we wish to 
 keep them, God himself will give us strength to keep 
 them. Amen. 
 
SERMON XII. 
 
 THE REASONABLE PRAYER. 
 
 Psalm cxix. 33, 94. 
 
 O Lord, teach me Thy statutes, and I shall keep them to the end. 
 I am Thine, save me ; for I have kept Thy commandments. 
 
 Some who heard me last Sunday, bodi morning and 
 afternoon, may have remarked an apparent contradiction 
 between my two sermons. I hope they have done so. 
 For then I shall hope that they are facing one of the 
 most difficult, and yet most necessary, of all problems ; 
 namely the difference between the Law and the Gospel. 
 In my morning sermon I spoke of the eternal law of 
 God — how it was unchangeable even as God its author, 
 rigid, awful, inevitable by every soul of man, and certain, 
 if he kept it, to lead him into all good, for body, soul, 
 and spirit : but certain, too, if he broke it, to grind him 
 to powder. 
 
 And in the afternoon, I spoke of the Gospel and 
 Free Grace of God — how that too was unchangeable, 
 even as God its author; full of compassion and tender 
 mercy, and forgiveness of sins ; willing not the death 
 
SERM. XII.] THE REASONABLE PRAYER. 13I 
 
 of a sinner ; but rather that he should be converted, and 
 live. 
 
 But how are these two statements, both scriptural ; 
 both — as I hold from practical experience, true to the 
 uttermost, and not to be compromised or explained 
 away — how are they to be reconciled, I say ? By these 
 two texts. By taking them both together, and never 
 one without the other ; and by taking them, also, in the 
 order in which you find them, and never — as too many 
 do — the second before the first. At least this was the 
 opinion of the Psalmist. He first seeks God's command- 
 ments and statutes, and prays — Give me understanding 
 and I shall keep Thy law, yea, I shall keep it with my 
 whole heart. Make me to go in the path of Thy com- 
 mandments ; for therein is my desire. And then, only 
 then, finding himself in trouble, anxiety, even in danger 
 of death, he feels he has a sort of right to cry to God 
 to help him out of his trouble, and prays — I am Thine, 
 oh save me ! 
 
 And why ? What reason can he give why God 
 should save him ? Because, he says, I have sought Thy 
 commandments. 
 
 Now let all rational persons lay this to heart ; and 
 consider it well. There are very few, heathens and 
 savages, as well as Christians, who will not cry, when 
 they find themselves in trouble — Oh save me. The in- 
 stinct of every man is, to cry to some unseen persons or 
 powers to help him. If he does not cry to the true 
 and good God, he will cry to some false or bad God ; 
 or to some idol, material or intellectual, of his own 
 
 K. S. II 
 
132 THE REASONABLE PRAYER. [serm. 
 
 invention. But that is no reason why his prayers 
 should be heard. We read of old heathens at Rome, 
 who prayed to Mercury, the god of money-making — " Da 
 mihi fallere," — Help me to cheat my neighbours : while 
 the philosophers, heathen though they were, laughed, 
 with just contempt, at such men and their prayers, and 
 asked — Do you suppose that any God, if he be worth 
 calling a God, will answer such a request as that? 
 Nay, in our own times, have not the brigands of Naples 
 been in the habit of carrying a leaden image of St 
 Januarius in their hats, and praying to it to protect them 
 in their trade of robbery and murder ? I leave you to 
 guess what answer good St Januarius, and much more 
 He who made St Januarius, and all heaven and earth, 
 was likely to give to such a prayer as that. 
 
 So it is not all prayers for help that are heard, or 
 deserve to be heard. And indeed — I do not wish to be 
 hard, but the truth must be spoken — there are too many 
 people in the world who pray to God to help them, 
 when they are in difficulties or in danger, or in fear of 
 death and of hell, but never pray at any other time, or 
 for any other thing. They pray to be helped out of 
 what is disagreeable. But they never pray to be made 
 good. They are not good, and they do not care to 
 become good. All they care for, is to escape death, or 
 pain, or poverty, or shame, when they see it staring them 
 in the face : and God knows I do not blame tliem. AVe 
 are all children, and, like children, we cry out when we 
 are hurt ; and that is no sin to us. But that is no part 
 of godliness, not even of mere religion. 
 
XIT.] THE REASONABLE PRAYER. 1 33 
 
 But worse — it is still more sad to have to say it, but 
 it is true — most people's notions of the next world, and 
 of salvation, as they call it, are just as childish, material, 
 selfish as their notions of this world. 
 
 They all wish and pray to be "saved." What do 
 they mean ? To be saved from bodily pain in the next 
 life, and to have bodily pleasure instead. Pain and 
 pleasure are the only gods which they really worship. 
 They call the former — hell. They call the latter — 
 heaven. But they know as little of one as of the other ; 
 and their notions of both are equally worthy of — Shall 
 I say it ? Must I say it .'' — equally worthy of the savage 
 in the forest. They believe that they must either go to 
 heaven or to hell. They have, of course, no wish to 
 go to the latter place ; for whatever else there is likely 
 to be there — some of which might not be quite un- 
 pleasant or new to them, such as evil-speaking, lying, 
 and slandering, envy, hatred, malice and all uncharitable- 
 ness, bigotry included — there will be certainly there — 
 they have reason to believe — bodily pain ; the thing 
 which they, being mostly comfortable people, dread 
 most, and avoid most : contrary, you will remember, to 
 the opinion of the blessed martyrs, who dreaded bodily 
 pain least, and avoided it least, of all the ills which could 
 befal them. Wherefore they are, in the sight of God, 
 and of all true men unto this day — the blessed martyrs. 
 
 But these people — and there are too many of them 
 by hundreds of thousands — do not want to be blessed. 
 They only want to be comfortable in this world, and in 
 the next. As for blessedness, they do not even know 
 
 II 2 
 
134 THE REASONABLE PRAYER. [serm. 
 
 what it means ; and our Lord's seven beatitudes, which 
 begin — " Blessed are the poor in spirit" — are not at all 
 to their mind ; even, alas ! alas ! to the mind of many 
 who call themselves religious and orthodox ; at least 
 till they are so explained away, that they shall mean 
 anything, or nothing, save — I trust I am poor in spirit : 
 and nevertheless I am right, and everyone who differs 
 from me is wrong. 
 
 The plain truth is— when all fine words, whether 
 said in prayers or sung in hymns, are stript off — that 
 they do not wish to go to hell and pain; and therefore 
 prefer, very naturally, though not very spiritually, to 
 go to heaven and pleasure; and so sing of "crossing 
 over Jordan to Canaan's shore," or of "Jerusalem the 
 golden, with milk and honey blest,'' and so forth, without 
 any clear notion of what they mean thereby, save selfish 
 comfort without end ; they really know not what ; they 
 really care not where. And that they may arrive there 
 or at a far better place ; and have their wish, and more 
 than their wish : I for one heartily desire. But whether 
 they arrive there, or not; and indeed, whether they 
 arrive at some place infinitely better or infinitely worse, 
 depends on whether they will give up selfish calculations 
 of loss and gain, selfish choosing between mere pain 
 and pleasure : and choose this ; choose, whatever it may 
 cost them, between being good and being bad, or even 
 being only half good ; as little good as they can afford 
 to be without the pains of hell into the bargain. 
 
 My friends — What if Christ should answer such 
 people — I do not say that He does always answer them 
 
xn.] THE REASONABLE PRAYER. 135 
 
 SO, for He is very pitiful, and of tender mercy; — but 
 what if He were to answer them, Save you ? Help you ? 
 O presumptuous mortal, what have yo'ii done that Christ 
 should save or help you? You are afraid of being 
 ruined. Why should you not be ruined ? What good 
 will it be to your fellow-men if you keep your money, 
 instead of losing it? You are making nothing but a 
 bad use of your money. Why should Christ help you to 
 keep it, and misuse it still more ? 
 
 You are afraid of death. You do not wish to die. 
 But why should you not die ? Why should Christ save 
 you from death ? Of what use is your life to Christ, 
 or to any human being ? If you are living a bad life, 
 your life is a bad thing, and does harm not only to your- 
 self, but to your neighbours. Why should Christ keep 
 you alive to hurt and corrupt your neighbours, and to 
 set a bad example to your children? If you are not 
 doing your duty where Christ has put you, you are of 
 no use, a cumberer of the ground. What reason can 
 you shew why He should not take you away, and put 
 some one in your place who will do his duty ? You are 
 afraid of being lost — why should you not be lost ? You 
 are offensive, and an injury to the universe. You are an 
 actual nuisance on Christ's earth and in Christ's King- 
 dom. Why should He not — as He has sworn — cast out 
 of His Kingdom all things which offend, and you among 
 the rest? Why should He not get rid of you, as you 
 get rid of vermin, as you get rid of weeds ; and cast you 
 into the fire, to be burned up with all evil things ? An- 
 swer that : before you ask Christ to save you, and deliver 
 
136 THE REASONABLE PRAYER. [serm. 
 
 you from danger, and from death, and from the hell 
 which you so much — and perhaps so justly — fear. 
 
 And how that question is to be answered, I cannot 
 see. 
 
 Certainly the selfish man cannot answer it. The 
 idle man cannot answer it. The profligate man cannot 
 answer it. They are doing nothing for Christ ; or for 
 their neighbours, or for the human race; and they cannot 
 expect Christ to do anything for them. 
 
 The only men who can answer it ; the only men, it 
 seems to me, who can have any hope of their prayers 
 being heard, are those who, like the Psalmist, are trying 
 to do something for Christ, and their neighbours, and 
 the human race ; who are, in a word, trying to be good. 
 Those, I mean, who have already prayed, earnestly and 
 often, the first prayer, "Teach me, O Lord, Thy statutes, and 
 I shall keep them to the end." They have — not a right : 
 no one has a right against Christ, no, not the angels and 
 archangels in heaven — not a right, but a hope, through 
 Christ's most precious and undeserved promises, that 
 their prayers will be heard; and that Christ will save 
 them from destruction, because they are, at least, likely 
 to become worth saving ; because they are likely to be of 
 use in Christ's world, and to do some little work in 
 Christ's kingdom. 
 
 They are God's : they are soldiers in Christ's army. 
 They are labourers in Christ's garden. They are on 
 God's side in the battle of life, which is the battle of 
 Christ and of all good men, against evil, against sin and 
 ignorance, and the numberless miseries which sin and 
 
XII.] THE REASONABLE PRAYER. 13/ 
 
 ignorance produce. They are not the profligate ; they 
 are not the selfish, the idle; they are not the frivolous, 
 the insolent ; they are not the wilfully ignorant who do 
 not care to learn, and do not even — so brutish are 
 they — think that there is anything worth learning in the 
 world, save how to turn sixpence into a shilhng, and 
 then spend it on themselves. Not such are those who 
 may hope to have their prayers heard, because they are 
 worth hearing, and worth helping. But they are the 
 people who say to themselves, not once in their lives, not 
 once a week on Sundays, but every day and all day 
 long — I must be good ; I will be good. I must be of 
 use ; I must be doing some work for God ; and therefore 
 I must learn. I must learn God's laws, and statutes, 
 and commandments, about my station, and calling, and 
 business in life. Else how can I do it aright? I dare 
 no more be ignorant, than I dare be idle. I must learn. 
 But how shall I leam? Stupid I am, and ignorant, and 
 the more I try to learn, the more I discover how stupid 
 I am. The more I do actually learn, the more I dis- 
 cover how ignorant I am. There is so much to be 
 learned; and how to learn it passes my understanding. 
 Who will teach me? How shall I get understanding? 
 How shall I get knowledge? And if I get them, how 
 shall I be sure that they are true understanding, and true 
 knowledge ? Mad people have understanding enough ; 
 and so have some who are not mad, but merely fools. 
 Wit enough they have, active and rapid brains : but their 
 understanding is of no use, for it is only misunder- 
 standing; and therefore the more clever they are, the 
 
138 THE REASONABLE PRAYER. [serm. 
 
 more foolish they are, and the more dangerous to them- 
 selves and their fellow-creatures. Knowledge, too — how 
 shall I be sure that my knowledge, if I get it, is true 
 knowledge, and not false knowledge, knowledge which 
 is not really according to facts? I see too many who 
 have knowledge for which I care little enough. Some 
 know a thousand things which are of no use to them, 
 or to any human being. Others know a thousand things : 
 but know them in a shallow, inaccurate fashion ; and so 
 cannot make use of them for any practical purpose. 
 Others know a thousand things : but know them all in a 
 prejudiced and one-sided fashion ; till they see things 
 not as things are, but as they are not, and as they never 
 will be; and therefore their knowledge, instead of leading 
 them, misleads them, and they misjudge facts, misjudge 
 men, and earth, and heaven, just as much as the man 
 who should misjudge the sunlight of heaven and fancy 
 it to be green or blue, because he looked at it through 
 a green or blue glass. How then shall I get tnie know- 
 ledge? Knowledge which will be really useful, really 
 worth knowing? Knowledge which I shall know accu- 
 rately, and practically too, so that I can use it in daily 
 Hfe, for myself and my fellow-men ? Knowledge, too, 
 which shall be clear knowledge, not warped or coloured 
 by my own fancies, passions, prejudices, but pure, and 
 calm, and sound; Siccum Lumen, "Dry Light," as the 
 greatest of English Philosophers called it of old ? 
 
 To all such, who long for light, that by the light tliey 
 may see to live the life, God answers, through His only- 
 
XII.] THE REASONABLE PRAYER. 1 39 
 
 begotten Son, The Word who endureth for ever in 
 heaven : — 
 
 "Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; 
 knock, and it shall be opened to you. For if ye, being 
 evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, much 
 more will your heavenly Father give His Holy Spirit to 
 those who ask Him." 
 
 Yes, ask for that Holy Spirit of God, that He may 
 lead you into all truth ; into all truth, that is, which is 
 necessary for you to know, in order to see your way 
 through the world, and through your duty in the world. 
 Ask for that Holy Spirit; that He may give you eyes to 
 see things as they are, and courage to feel things as they 
 are, and to do your work in them, and by them, whether 
 they be pleasant or unpleasant, prosperous or adverse. 
 Ask Him; and He will give you true knowledge to know 
 what a serious position you are in, what a serious thing 
 life is, death is, judgment is, eternity is ; that you may 
 be no trifler nor idler, nor mere scraper together of gain 
 which you must leave behind you when you die : but a 
 truly serious man, seriously intent on your duty; seriously 
 intent on working God's work in the place and station 
 to which He has called you, before the night comes in 
 which no man can work. 
 
 If a man is doing that; if he is earnestly trying to 
 learn what is true, in order that he may do what is right; 
 then he has — I do not say a right — but at least a reason, 
 or a shadow of reason, when he cries to God in his 
 trouble — 
 
I40 THE REASONABLE PRAYER. [serm. 
 
 "I am Thine, oh save me, for I have sought thy com- 
 mandments." 
 
 "I am Thine." Not merely God's creature: the very 
 birds, and bees, and flowers are that; and do their duty 
 far better than I — God forgive me — do mine. 
 
 "I am Thine." Not merely God's child: the sinners 
 and the thoughtless are that, though — God help them — 
 they care not for Him, nor for His laws, nor for them- 
 selves and their glorious inheritance as children of God. 
 
 And I too am God's child: but I trust that I am 
 more. I am God's school-child. O Lord Jesus Christ, 
 I claim Thy help as my schoolmaster, as well as my 
 Lord and Saviour. I am the least of Thy school-chil- 
 dren; and it may be the most ignorant and most stupid. 
 I do not pretend to be a scholar, a divine, a philosopher, 
 a saint. I am a very weak, foolish, insufficient personage ; 
 sitting on the lowest form in Thy great school-house, 
 which is the whole world; and trying to spell out the 
 mere letters of Thy alphabet, in hope that hereafter I 
 may be able to make out whole words, and whole sen- 
 tences, of Thy commandments, and having learnt them, 
 do them. For if Thou wilt but teach me Thy statutes, 
 
 Lord, then I will try to keep them to the end. For 
 
 1 long to be on Thy side, and about Thy work. I 
 long to help — if it be ever so little — in making myself 
 better, and my neighbours better. I long to be useful, 
 and not useless; a benefit, and not a nuisance; a fruit- 
 bearing tree, and not a noxious weed, in Thy garden; 
 and therefore I hope that Thou wilt not cut me down, 
 nor root me up, nor let foul creatures trample me under 
 
XII.] THE REASONABLE PRAYER. I4I 
 
 foot. Have mercy on me, O Lord, in my trouble, for 
 the sake of the truth which I long to learn, and for the 
 good which I long to do. Poor little weak plant though 
 I may be, I am still a plant of Thy planting, which is 
 doing its best to grow, and flower, and bear fruit to 
 eternal life; and Thou wilt not despise the work of 
 Thine own hands, O Lord, who died that I might live ? 
 Thou wilt not let me perish? I have stuck unto Thy 
 testimonies : O Lord, confound me not. 
 
 Therefore remember this. If you wish to have 
 reasonable hope when you have to pray— "Lord, save 
 me:" pray first, and pray continually — "Teach me, O 
 I^ord, Thy statutes, and I will keep them to the end." 
 
SERMON XIII, 
 
 THE ONE ESCAPE. 
 
 Psalm cxix. 67. 
 
 Before 1 was troubled, I went wrong ; but now have I kept 
 Thy Word. 
 
 Let me speak this afternoon once more about the 119th 
 Psahn, and the man who wrote it. 
 
 And first: he was certainly of a di.Terent opinion 
 from nine persons out of ten, I fear from ninety-nine 
 out of a hundred, of every country, every age, and every 
 rehgion. 
 
 For, he says — Before I was troubled, I went wTong: 
 but now have I kept Thy Word. Whereas nine people 
 out of ten would say to God, if they dared — Before I was 
 troubled, I kept Thy Word. But now that I am troubled ; 
 of course I cannot help going wrong. 
 
 He makes his troubles a reason for doing right They 
 make their troubles an excuse for doing wrong. 
 
 Is it not so? Do we not hear people saying, when- 
 ever they are blamed for doing what tliey know to be 
 wrong — I could not help it? I was forced into it. What 
 would you have a man do? One must live; and so forth. 
 
SERM. XTii.] THE ONE ESCAPE. 143 
 
 One finds himself in danger, and tries to lie himself out 
 of it. Another finds himself in difficulties, and begins 
 playing ugly tricks in money matters. Another finds 
 himself in want, and steals. The general opinion of 
 the world is, that right-doing, justice, truth, and honesty, 
 are very graceful luxuries for those who can afford them; 
 very good things when a man is easy, prosperous, and 
 well off, and without much serious business on hand : but 
 not for the real hard work of life; not for times of ambi- 
 tion and struggle, any more than of distress and anxiety, 
 or of danger and difficulty. In such times, if a man may 
 not lie a little, cheat a little, do a questionable stroke of 
 business now and then ; how is he to live ? So it is in the 
 world, so it always was; and so it always will be. From 
 statesmen ruling nations, and men of business "conduct- 
 ing great financial operations,'' as the saying is now, down 
 to the beggar-woman who comes to ask charity, the rule 
 of the world is, that honesty is not the best policy; that 
 falsehood and cunning are not only profitable, but neces- 
 sary; that in proportion as a man is in trouble, in that 
 proportion he has a right to go wrong. 
 
 A right to go wrong. A right to make bad worse. A 
 right to break God's laws, because we are too stupid or 
 too hasty to find out what God's laws are. A right, as 
 the wise man puts it, to draw bills on nature which she 
 will not honour; but return them on a man's hands with 
 "No effects" written across them, leaving the man to pay 
 after all, in misery and shame. Truly said Solomon of 
 old — The fooKshness of fools is folly. 
 
 But the Psalmist, because he was inspired by the 
 
144 THE ONE ESCAPE. [SERM. 
 
 Spirit of God, was of quite the opposite opinion. So 
 far from thinking that his trouble gave him a right to go 
 wrong, he thought that his trouble laid on him a duty to 
 go right, more right than he had ever gone before; and 
 that going right was the only possible way of getting out 
 of his troubles. 
 
 "Take from me,'' he cries, "the way of lying, and 
 cause Thou me to make much of Thy law. 
 
 I have chosen the way of truth, and Thy judgments 
 have I laid before me. 
 
 Incline mine heart unto Thy testimonies, and not 
 unto covetousness. 
 
 Oh turn away mine eyes, lest they behold vanity, and 
 quicken Thou me in Thy way. 
 
 Thy word is my comfort in my trouble; for Thy word 
 hath quickened me. 
 
 The proud have had me exceedingly in derision, yet 
 have I not shrunk from Thy law. 
 
 For I remembered Thine everlasting judgments, O 
 God, and received comfort. 
 
 Thy statutes have been my songs, in the house of my 
 pilgrimage. 
 
 I have thought upon Thy name, O Lord, in the night- 
 season, and have kept Thy law." 
 
 This was the Psalmist's plan for delivering himself 
 out of trouble. A very singular plan, which very few 
 persons try, either now, or in any age. And therefore it 
 is, that so many persons are not delivered out of their 
 troubles, but sink deeper and deeper into them, heaping 
 
xin.] THE ONE ESCAPE. 1 45 
 
 new troubles on old ones, till they are crushed beneath 
 the weight of their own sins. 
 
 What the special trouble was, in which the Psalmist 
 found himself, we are not told. But it is plain from his 
 words, that it was just that very sort of trouble, in which 
 the world is most ready to excuse a man for lying, cring- 
 ing, plotting, and acting on the old devil's maxim that 
 " Cunning is the natural weapon of the weak." For the 
 Psalmist was weak, oppressed and persecuted by the 
 great and powerful. But his method of defending him- 
 self against them was certainly not the way of the world. 
 
 Princes, he says, sat and spoke against him. But ; 
 instead of fawning on them, excusing himself, entreating 
 their mercy : he was occupied in God's statutes. 
 
 The proud had him exceedingly in derision — as I am 
 afraid too many worldly men, poor as well as rich, work- 
 ing men as well as idlers, would do now — seeing him 
 occupied in God's statutes, when he might have been 
 occupied in winning money, and place, and renown for 
 himself. 
 
 But he did not shrink from God's law. If it was true, 
 he could afford to be laughed at for obeying it. 
 
 The congregation of the ungodly robbed him. But 
 he did not forget God's law. If they did wrong, that 
 was no reason why he should do wrong likewise. 
 
 The proud imagined a lie against him. But he would 
 keep God's commandments with his whole heart, instead 
 of breaking God's commandments, and justifying their 
 slander, and making their lie true. 
 
 Still, it went very hard with him. His honour and 
 
146 THE ONE ESCAPE. [serm. 
 
 his faith were sorely tried. He was dried up like a 
 bottle in the smoke. It seems to have been with him at 
 times a question of life and death ; till he had hardly 
 any hope left. He had to ask, almost in despair — How 
 many are the days of Thy servant? When wilt Thou 
 be avenged of them that persecute me ? The proud dug 
 pits for him, contrary to the law of God ; contrary to 
 honour and justice ; and almost made an end of him 
 upon earth. The ungodly laid wait to destroy him. 
 
 But against them aU he had but one weapon, and one 
 defence. However much afraid he might be of his 
 enemies, he was still more afraid of doing wrong. His 
 flesh, he said, trembled for fear of God; and he was 
 afraid of God's judgments. Therefore his only safety 
 was, in pleasing God, and not men. I deal, he says, 
 with the thing that is lawful and right. Oh give me 
 not over to my oppressors. Make Thy servant to delight 
 in what is good, that the proud do me no wrong. If he 
 could but keep right, he would be safe at last. 
 
 I will consider Thy testimonies, O Lord. I see that 
 all things come to an end. Bad times, and bad chances, 
 and still more bad men, and bad ways for escaping out 
 of trouble — they all come to an end. But Thy com- 
 mandment is exceeding broad. Exceeding broad. There 
 are depths below depths of meaning in that true saying ; 
 depths which you will find true, if you will but read 
 your Bibles, and obey your Bibles. For in them, I tell 
 you openly, you will find rules to guide you in every 
 chance and change of this mortal life. Truly said the 
 good man that there were in the Bible " shallows where 
 
XIII.] THE ONE ESCAPE. 147 
 
 a lamb may drink, and deeps wherein an elephant may 
 swim." 
 
 There are no possible circumstances, good or bad, 
 pleasant or unpleasant, in which you can find yourselves, 
 be you rich or poor, young or old, without finding in the 
 Bible sound advice, and a clear mle, as to how God 
 would have you behave under those circumstances. For 
 God's commandments are exceeding broad, and take in 
 all cases of conscience, all details of duty ; saying to 
 each and every one of us, at every turn — " This is the 
 way, walk ye in it." 
 
 At least this is the teaching, this is the testimony, 
 this is the life-experience, of a true hero, namely, the man 
 who wrote the iigth Psalm; a hero according to God, 
 but not according to the world, and the pomp and glory 
 of the world. 
 
 No great statesman was he, nor conqueror, nor mer- 
 chant, nor financier passing millions of money through 
 his hands yearly; and all fancying that they, and not 
 God, govern the nations upon earth, and decide the fate 
 of empires. 
 
 He was a man who made no noise in the world : 
 though the world, it seems, made a little noise at him in 
 his time, as it does often bark and yell at those who will 
 not go its way ; as it barked at poor Christian, when he 
 went through Vanity Fair, and would not buy its wares, 
 or join in its frivolities. Such a man was this Psalmist ; 
 for whom the world had nothing but scorn first, and then 
 forgetfulness. We do not know his name, or where he 
 lived. We do not even know, within a few hundred 
 
 K. S. 12 
 
148 THE ONE ESCAPE. [serm. 
 
 years, when he Hved. I picture him to myself always as 
 a poor, shrivelled, stooping, mean-looking old man; his 
 visage marred more than any man, and his figure more 
 than the sons of men; no form nor comeliness in him, 
 nor beauty that men should desire him ; despised and 
 rejected of men: a man of sorrows, and acquainted with 
 grief, even as his Master was after him. 
 
 And all that he has left behind him — as far as we can 
 tell — is this one psalm which he wrote, as may be 
 guessed from its arrangement, slowly, and with exceeding 
 care, as the very pith and marrow of an experience 
 spread over many painful years of struggle and of humi- 
 liation. 
 
 I say of humiliation. For there is not a taint of self- 
 conceit, not even of self-satisfaction, in him. He only 
 sees his own weakness, and want of life, of spirit, of man- 
 fulness, of power. His soul cleaveth to the dust. He 
 is tempted, of course, again and again, to give way ; to 
 become low-minded, cowardly, time-serving, covetous, 
 worldly. But he dares not. He feels that his only 
 chance is to keep his honour unspotted; and he 
 cries — Whatever happens, — I must do right. I must 
 learn to do right. Teach me to do right. Teach 
 me, O Lord, teach me; and strengthen me, O Lord, 
 strengthen me, and then all must come right at last. 
 That was his cry. And, be you sure, he did not cry in 
 vain. 
 
 For this man had one precious possession ; which he 
 determined not to lose, not though he died in trying to 
 hold it fast ; namely, the Eternal Spirit of God ; the 
 
XIII.] THE ONE ESCAPE. 149 
 
 Spirit of Righteousness, and Truth, and Justice, which 
 leads men into all truth. By that Spirit he saw into the 
 Eternal Laws of God. By that Spirit he saw who made 
 and who administers those Eternal Laws, even the Eter- 
 nal Word of God, who endureth for ever in heaven. By 
 that Spirit he saw that his only hope was to keep those 
 eternal laws. By that Spirit he vowed to keep them. 
 By that Spirit he had strength to keep them. By that 
 Spirit, when he failed he tried again ; when he fell he 
 rose and fought on once more, to keep the command- 
 ments of the Lord. 
 
 And where is he now ? Where is he now ? Where 
 those will never come — let false preachers and false 
 priests flatter them as they may — who fancy that they 
 can get to heaven without being good and doing good. 
 Where those will never come, likewise, who, when they 
 find themselves in trouble, try to help themselves out of 
 it by false and mean methods ; and so begin worshipping 
 the devil, just when they have most need to worship God. 
 He is where the fearful and unbelievers and all liars 
 can never come. He is with the Word of the Lord, 
 who endureth for ever in heaven. 
 
 With the Word of the Lord, who endured awhile on 
 earth, even as he the Psalmist endured. Who before 
 Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, and endured 
 the cross, despising the shame, because He cared neither 
 for riches, nor for pleasure, for power, nor for glory ; but 
 simply for His Father's will, and His Father's law, that 
 He might do to the uttermost the will of His Father who 
 sent Him, and keep to the uttermost that I^aw of which 
 
150 THE ONE ESCAPE. [ser.m.xiii. 
 
 His Father says to Him for ever — " Thou art my Son, 
 to-day have I begotten Thee." 
 
 Into His presence may we all come at last ! But we 
 shall never come thither, unless we keep our honour 
 bright, our courage unbroken, and ourselves unspotted 
 from the world. For so only will be fulfilled in us the 
 sixth Beatitude — Blessed are the pure in heart, for they 
 shall see God. Unto which may God of His free mercy 
 bring us all. Amen. 
 
SERMON XIV. 
 
 THE WORD OF GOD. 
 
 Psalm cxix. 89 — 96. 
 
 Lord, Thy word endureth for ever in heaven. Thy truth also 
 remaineth from one generation to another : Thou hast laid die 
 foundation of the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day 
 according to Thine ordinance : for all things serve Thee. If 
 my delight had not been in Thy law, I should have perished in 
 my trouble. I will never forget Thy commandments : for with 
 them Thou hast quickened me. I am Thine, oh save me : for 1 
 have sought Thy commandments. Tlie ungodly laid wait for 
 me to destroy me : but I will consider Thy testimonies. I see 
 that all things come to an end : but Thy commandment is ex- 
 ceeding broad. 
 
 This text is of infinite importance, to you, and me, and 
 all mankind. For if the text is not true ; if there is not a 
 Word of God, who endures and is settled for ever in 
 heaven : then this world is a miserable and a mad place ; 
 and the best thing, it seems to me, that we poor ignorant 
 human beings can do, is to eat and drink, for to morrow 
 we die. 
 
 But that is not the best thing we can do ; but the very 
 worst thing. The best thing that we can do, and the 
 
152 THE WORD OP GOD. [serm. 
 
 only thing worth doing is, to be good, and do good, at 
 all risks and all costs, trusting to the Word of God, who 
 endures for ever in heaven. 
 
 But who is this Word of God ? I say who, not what. 
 We often call the Bible the Word of God : and so it is in 
 one sense, because it tells us, from beginning to end, 
 about this other Word of God. It is, so to speak, God's 
 word or message about this Word. But it is plain that the 
 Psalmist is not speaking here of the Bible; for he says — 
 
 " Thy Word endureth for ever in Heaven :" and the 
 Bible is not in heaven, but on earth. 
 
 But in the Bible, usually, this Word of the Lord 
 means not only the message which God sends, but Him 
 by whom God sends it. The Word of God, Word of the 
 Lord, is spoken of again and again, not as a thing, but as 
 a person, a living rational being, who comes to men, and 
 speaks to them, and teaches them; sometimes, seemingly, 
 by actual word of mouth ; sometimes again, by putting 
 thoughts into their minds, and words into their mouths. 
 
 Recollect Samuel : how when he was young the Word 
 of the Lord was precious — that is, uncommon, and al- 
 most unknown in those days; and how the Lord came 
 and called Samuel, Samuel ; and put a word into his 
 mouth against Eli. And so the Lord appeared again 
 in Shiloh; for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in 
 Shiloh by The Word of the Lord. In Samuel's case, 
 there was, it seems, an actual voice, which fell on 
 Samuel's ears. In the case of the later prophets, we 
 do not read that they usually heard any actual voice, 
 or saw any actual appearance. It seems that tlie 'Word 
 
XIV.] THE WORD OF GOD. 153 
 
 of the Lord who came to them inspired their minds 
 with true thoughts, and inspired their lips to speak those 
 thoughts in noble words, often in regular poetry. But 
 He was The Word of the Lord, nevertheless. Again 
 and again, we read in those grand old prophets, "The 
 Word of the Lord came unto me, saying," — or again, 
 "The ^Vord which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, 
 saying." It is not the Bible which is meant by such 
 words as these — I am sorry to have to remind a nine- 
 teenth century congregation of this fact — but a living 
 being, putting thoughts into the prophets' minds, and 
 words into their mouths, and a divine passion too, into 
 their hearts, which they could not resist; like poor 
 Jeremiah of old, when he was reproached and derided 
 about The Word of the Lord, and said, "I will not 
 make mention of Him, nor speak any more in Llis 
 name. But He was in my heart as a burning fire shut 
 up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and 
 I could not hold my peace." 
 
 But now, what words are these which we read of 
 this same Word of the Lord, in the first chapter of St 
 John's Gospel? "In the beginning was The Word: and 
 The Word was with God, and The Word was God. By 
 Him all things were made, and without Him was not 
 anything made that was made. And in Him was life, 
 and the life was the light of men." 
 
 Thus — as always — the Old Testament and the New, 
 the Psalmist and St John, agree together. 
 
 This is the gospel and good news, which the Psalmist 
 saw in part, but which St John saw fully and perfectly. 
 
154 THE WORD OF GOD. [sem. 
 
 But because the Psalmist saw it even in part, he saw 
 that The Word of the Lord endured for ever in heaven; 
 and that therefore his only hope of safety was to listen 
 eagerly and reverently for what that Word might choose 
 to say to him. 
 
 But why does the Psalmist seemingly go out of his 
 way, as it were, to say, "Thou hast laid the founda- 
 tion of the earth, and it abideth. They continue this 
 day according to Thine ordinance, for all things serve 
 Thee"? 
 
 For the very same reason that St John goes, seemingly, 
 out of his way to say, "All things were made by The 
 Word, and without Him was not anything made that 
 was made." 
 
 Why is this? 
 
 Look at it thus: What an important question it is, 
 whether This Word of God is a being of order; a regular 
 being; a law-abiding being; a being on whose actions 
 men can count; who can be trusted, and depended on, 
 not to alter His own ways, not to deceive us poor mortal 
 men. 
 
 The Psalmist wants to know his way through this 
 world, and his duty in this mortal life. Therefore he 
 must learn the laws and rules of this world. And he 
 has the sense to see, that no one can teach him the 
 rules of the world, but the Ruler of the world, and the 
 Maker of the world. 
 
 Then comes the terrible question — too many, alas! 
 have not got it answered rightly yet — 
 
 But are there any rules at all in the world? Does 
 
XIV.] THE WORD OF GOD. 1 55 
 
 The Lord manage the world by rules and laws? Or 
 does He let things go by chance and accident, and take 
 no care about them? Is there such a thing as God's 
 Providence: or is there not? To that the Psalmist 
 answers firmly, because he is inspired by the Spirit of 
 God— 
 
 O Lord, Thy Word endureth — is settled — for ever 
 in heaven. In Thee is no carelessness, neglect, sloth- 
 fulness, nor caprice. Thou hast no variableness, neither 
 shadow of turning. Thou hast laid the foundation of 
 the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day ac- 
 cording to Thine ordinance; for all things serve Thee. 
 The world is full of settled and enduring rules and laws ; 
 and God keeps to them. The Psalmist looks at the 
 sun, moon and stars over his head, each keeping its 
 settled course, and its settled season : and he sees them 
 all obeying law. He looks at summer and winter, seed- 
 time and harvest: and he sees them obeying law. He 
 looks at birth and growth, at decay and death ; and sees 
 them too, obeying law. He looks at the very flowers 
 beneath his feet, and the buds in the woodland, and all 
 the crowd of living things about him, animal, vegetable 
 and mineral : and they too obey law ; each after their 
 kind. The world, he says, is full of law. It is a settled 
 world, an orderly world, made and governed by a Lord 
 of order, who makes laws and enforces laws ; a Lord 
 whose Word endures for ever in heaven. Therefore — he 
 feels — I can trust that Lord. If He has laws for the 
 beasts and birds. He must have, much more, laws for 
 men. If He has laws for men's bodies, much more has 
 
IS6 THE WORD OF GOD. [serm. 
 
 He laws for their souls. What I have to do, is to 
 ask Him to teach me those laws, that I may live. 
 
 But then comes another, and even a more awful 
 question — If I ask Him, will He teach me ? Alas ! 
 alas ! too many have not found the answer yet ; too 
 many of those who know most about the Laws of Nature, 
 and reverence those laws most : and all honour to them 
 for so doing; for, even though they know it not, they 
 are preparing the way of the Lord, and making His 
 paths straight. But they have not found the right answer 
 to that question yet. Still there the question is ; and 
 you and I, and every soul of man, must get some rea- 
 sonable answer or other to it, if we wish to be men 
 indeed, men in spirit and in truth ; and it is this — 
 
 If I ask this Word of God to teach me His Laws — 
 Will He teach me? Will He hear me? Can He hear: 
 or is He Himself a mere brute force, a law of nature 
 and necessity? And even if not, will He hear? Or 
 is He, too, like those Epicurean gods, of whom our 
 great poet sings — a sad and hopeless song : — 
 
 They lie beside their nectar, and tlie bolts are hurled 
 Far below them in the valleys, and the clouds are lightly curled 
 Round their golden houses, girdled with the gleaming world, 
 Where they smile in secret, looking over wasted lands. 
 Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery 
 
 sands, 
 Clanging fights, and flaming towns, and sinking ships, and praying 
 
 hands. 
 
 And praying hands. Oh, my friends, is not the 
 question of all questions for such poor mortal souls as 
 
XIV.] THE WORD OF GOD. 157 
 
 you and me, beset by ignorance and weakness, and 
 passions which are our own worst enemies, and chances 
 and catastrophes which we cannot avert — Is not the 
 question of all questions for such as us — Will this same 
 Word of God — will any unseen being out of the infinite 
 void which surrounds our little speck of a planet, take 
 any notice of our praying hands? Will He hear us, 
 teach us, when we cry? Or is God, and The Word of 
 God, like those old heathen gods? Is He a God who 
 hides Himself, and leaves us to despair and chance : 
 or is He a God who hears, and gives us even a single 
 ray of hope? Is He a gracious God, who will hear every 
 man's tale, however clumsily told, and judge it according 
 to its merits: or even — for that is better than dead 
 silence and carelessness — according to its demerits? Is 
 He a just God? Or has He likes and dislikes, favourites 
 and victims; as human rulers and statesmen, and human 
 parties too, and mobs, are wont to have? May He not, 
 even, like those Epicurean gods, despise men? find a 
 proud satisfaction in deceiving them; or at least letting 
 them deceive themselves? — in playing with their igno- 
 rance, and leaving them to reap the fruits of their own 
 childishness ? 
 
 To that the Psalmist answers — and I know not how 
 he learnt to answer so, save by the inspiration of the 
 Spirit of God; for I know well that neither flesh and 
 blood, the experience of his own brain, thoughts, and 
 emotions, nor the world around him, either of nature or 
 of man, would ever have revealed that to him — to that 
 he answers confidently, in spite of all appearances — 
 
IS8 THE WORD OF GOD. [serm. 
 
 Thy truth, O Lord, abideth from one generation to 
 another. Thou art a truthful God, a faithful God, whose 
 word can be taken. A God in whom is no variableness, 
 neither shadow of turning; who keepeth His promise for 
 ever; true, as man can be true; and truer than the 
 truest man. And I know it, says he, by experience. 
 God has actually taught me His law: for if my delight 
 had not been in it, I should have perished in my trouble. 
 I will never forget His commandments; for by them He 
 has given me life; has taught me what to do, and en- 
 abled me to do it, to prevent the death and ruin of my 
 body, and soul, and spirit. 
 
 Now for the very same reason it is, that St John is 
 so careful, first to tell us that The Word of God made 
 all things ; and then to tell us that He is full of grace 
 and truth. 
 
 He tells us that The Word made all things, that we 
 may be sure that He is a God of order, because all things 
 which He has made are full of order; a God who acts 
 by rules and laws which we may trust. He tells us that 
 The Word made all things, that we may be sure that all 
 things, being His handy-work, will bear witness of Him 
 and teach us about Him, and shew forth His glor)'. 
 
 But he tells us moreover — Oh gospel, and good news 
 for blind and weak humanity ! — that The Word's glory 
 is full of grace; gracious; ready to condescend; ready 
 to teach us, and give us light to see our way through this 
 world which He has made. 
 
 He tells us that The Word's glory is full of truth; 
 that He is truthful, accurate, and to be depended on : 
 
XIV.] THE WORD OF GOD. 159 
 
 and will tell us nothing but what is true. That He is 
 a true Word of God, and when He speaks to us of His 
 Father and of our Father, He tells the truth. 
 
 And so do St John and the Psalmist agree in the 
 same gospel, and good news, of the mystery of Christ 
 The Word. 
 
 There is an eternal Being in heaven, who is called 
 The Word of God; because He speaks of, and revealS' — 
 that is, unveils and shews — to men, and angels, and 
 archangels, and all created beings, that God whom no 
 man hath seen, or can see; a Word who dwells for ever 
 in the bosom of The Father, in the light which no man 
 can approach unto : but who for ever comes forth from 
 thence to proclaim to all created beings — There is a God, 
 and The Word is His likeness; the brightness of His 
 glory, and the express image of His person. None hath 
 seen the Father at any time: but the only-begotten Son, 
 who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared 
 Him. None cometh to the Father, but through Him. 
 But he who hath seen Him, hath seen the Father; and 
 He is none other than Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 He is The Word of God, who speaks to men God's 
 words, because He speaks not His own words but His 
 Father's, and does not His own will but His Father's 
 who sends Him. 
 
 He speaks to us and to all men, in many ways; 
 and to each according to his needs. To all men, Christ 
 speaks through their consciences, shewing them what is 
 good, and warning them of what is evil; for He is the 
 Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the 
 
l6o THE WORD OF GOD. [serm. 
 
 world. To Christians Christ speaks in many ways — 
 to which, alas, too few give heed — through the Bible, 
 through the sacraments, through sermons, through the 
 thoughts and words of all wise and holy men. To 
 the good He speaks with gracious encouragement; to 
 the wicked with awful severity. To the hypocrites He 
 says at times, " Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, 
 how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" To the 
 self-satisfied and bigoted He says, " If ye had been 
 blind, ye had had no sin: but now ye say, We see; 
 therefore your sin remaineth.'' To the careless and 
 worldly He says, " I know thy works, that thou art 
 neither cold nor hot. Thou sayest, I am rich and in- 
 creased with goods, I have need of nothing: and knowest 
 not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and 
 bhnd, and naked." 
 
 To those who are ruining themselves by their own 
 folly He says, " Why will ye die ? I have no pleasure in 
 the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord : but rather 
 that he should be converted, and live." To those who 
 are tormented by their own passions He says, "Take Mv 
 yoke upon you and leam of Me, for I am meek and 
 lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." 
 To those who are wearied mth the burden of their <ym\ 
 sins He says, " Come unto Me, all ye that are weary, 
 and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 
 
 To those who are struggling, however weakly, to do 
 what is right He says, " I know thy works. Behold, I 
 have set before thee an open door, and none can shut it; 
 for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, 
 
XIV.] THE WORD OF GOD. l6l 
 
 and hast not denied My name. Because thou hast kept 
 the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the 
 hour of temptation.'' 
 
 And to those who mourn for those whom they have 
 loved and lost He says, " Fear not, I am the first and 
 the last, I am He that liveth, and was dead ; and be- 
 hold, I am alive for evermore. Amen; and have the keys 
 of hell and of death. He that believeth in Me, though 
 he die, yet shall he live; and he that liveth and believeth 
 in Me shall never die." 
 
 For every one of us, according to his character and 
 his needs, Christ speaks a fitting word from God, because 
 He is The Word of God ; and every word which He 
 speaks to us is true, and sure, and eternal, according to 
 the laws of God His Father. For He is The Word who 
 endures for ever in heaven; and though heaven and 
 earth may pass away, His words cannot pass away. 
 
 Yes ; Christ The Word speaks to all : but most of all 
 to children: to the children, of whom He said — "Suffer 
 the httle children to come to me, and forbid them not;" — 
 of whom He said to grown-up people, not — Except these 
 children be converted and become as you — He left that 
 message for the Pharisees of His own time, and of every 
 age and creed : but — Except you grown people be con- 
 verted and become as little children, you, and not they, 
 shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 Let us tell children that — that Christ Himself is 
 speaking to them. That The Word of God is educating 
 them. That the Light who lightens every man who 
 comes into the world is labouring to enlighten them, 
 
i62 THE WORD OF GOD. [serm. 
 
 their intellect and memory, their emotions and their con- 
 sciences. Let that be the ground of all our education of 
 children. Then it will matter little to us who teaches 
 them what is miscalled secular knowledge. For we shall 
 tell our children — In it, too, Christ is teaching you. 
 The understanding by which you understand the world 
 about you is Christ's gift. The world which you are to 
 understand is Christ's world; for He laid the foundation 
 of the earth, and it abideth. The physical laws of the 
 universe are Christ's laws ; for all things serve Him, and 
 continue this day according to His ordinance. Every 
 natural object is a result of Christ's will, and its organiza- 
 tion a product of Christ's mind ; for without Him was 
 not anything made that was made. The whole course of 
 events, great and small, is Christ's providence; for to 
 Him all power is given in heaven and earth. So far, 
 therefore, from being afraid to teach our children Natural 
 Science, we shall hold it a sacred duty to teach it ; for it 
 is the will and mind of Christ, The Word of God. 
 
 And as for morality — we shall be ready to teach that, 
 as far as the prudential and paying virtues are concerned, 
 as boldly and on the very same grounds as tlie merest 
 Utilitarian. For we shall teach honesty, courtesy, de- 
 cency, self-restraint, patience, foresight, on the warrant of 
 the Bible ; which is, that Christ has made the world so 
 well, that sooner or later every wise and just act rewards 
 itself, every foolish and unjust act punishes itself, by the 
 very constitution of nature and society, which again are 
 laid down by Christ. But what of the nobler, the non- 
 prudential, and non-paying virtues? — call them rather 
 
XIV.] THE WORD OF GOD. 1 63 
 
 graces. — Them we shall teach our children — as I believe 
 we can only teach them rationally and logically, either to 
 children or to grown-up people — by pointing them to 
 Christ upon His cross, and saying to them, " Behold 
 your God ! " 
 
 For so we shall be able to train them in the orthodox 
 doctrine of morals, which is — 
 
 That there is nothing good in man which is not first 
 in God. 
 
 We shall be able to make them comprehend what we 
 mean when we tell them that they are members of Christ, 
 and must live the Life of Christ ; that they are children 
 of God, and as such must imitate their Father, and be- 
 come perfect, even as their Father in heaven is perfect. 
 
 For we shall say — The pure and perfect graces, the 
 disinterested virtues, the unselfish virtues — obedience, 
 mercy, chivalry, beneficence, magnanimity, heroism, — in 
 one word, self-sacrifice — beautiful these are : but are 
 they necessary? are they mere ornaments? or are they 
 sacred duties ? The duty which dares and suffers for the 
 thing it ought to do ; the love which dares and suffers 
 for the thing it loves ; the unselfish spirit which looks for 
 no reward : — why should these dwell in man ? To that 
 we shall answer — Because they dwell for ever in God. 
 If we are asked — Why are they beautiful in man ? we 
 shall answer — Because they are the very beauty and 
 glory of God; the glory which the Incarnate Word of 
 God manifested to men, when He hung on the cross of 
 Calvary; and was more utterly then, if possible, than 
 ever, The Word of God : because He then declared most 
 K. s. 13 
 
164 THE WORD OF GOD. [serm. xiv. 
 
 utterly to men the character and essence of God. Love 
 which is not content — as what true love is? — to be a 
 passive sentiment, a self-contained possibility, but which 
 must go out of itself, pitying, yearning, agonizing, to 
 seek, to struggle, to suffer, and, if need be, to die for the 
 creature which it loves, even if that creature love it not 
 again. 
 
 We need not say this to children. We need only 
 point them to Christ upon His cross, and trust Christ to 
 say it to them, in their heart of hearts, through instincts 
 too deep for words. All we need say to our children is 
 — "Behold your God! He it is, who inspires you with 
 every dutiful, generous, and unselfish impulse you have 
 ever felt; for they are the fruits of His Spirit. By that 
 Spirit He was once unselfish even to the death. By that 
 Spirit He will enable you to carry out in action, as He 
 did, the unselfish instincts which He has given you ; and 
 to live the noble life, the heroic life, the life of self-sacri- 
 fice; the life of God; the life of the Father, and of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Spirit; and therefore the only life 
 fit for those who are baptized into that Holy Name." 
 
 This is the ground and method on which we should 
 educate our children; for it is the ground and method on 
 which The Word of God is educating us. 
 
SERMON XV. 
 
 Psalm cxix. 94. 
 I am Thine, oh save me. 
 
 Let us think seriously this afternoon of one word; the 
 word which is the key-note of this psalm. A very short 
 word; for in our language there is but one letter in it. A 
 very common word; for we are using it all day long when 
 we are awake, and even at night in our dreams; and yet 
 a very wonderful word, for though we know well whom it 
 means, yet what it means we do not know, and cannot 
 understand, no, nor can the wisest philosopher who ever 
 lived; and a most important word too; for we cannot get 
 rid of it, we cannot help thinking of it, cannot help saying 
 it all our life long from childhood to the grave. After 
 death, too, we shall probably be saying that word to 
 ourselves, each of us, for ever and ever. If the whole 
 universe, sun, moon, and stars, and all that we ever 
 thought of, or can think of, were destroyed and be- 
 came nothing, that word would probably be left; and 
 we should be left alone with it; and on what we meant 
 by that little word would depend our everlasting happi- 
 
 13—2 
 
1 66 /. [SEEM. 
 
 ness or misery. And what is this wonderful little word? 
 What but the word I? Each one of us says I — I think, I 
 know, I feel, I ought, I ought not, I did that, and cannot 
 undo it: and why? Because we are not things, nor mere 
 animals, but persons, living souls, though our bodies are 
 like the bodies of animals, only more perfect, that they 
 may be fit dwelling-places for more perfect souls. The 
 animals, as far as we know, do not think of themselves 
 each as I. Little children do not at first. They call 
 themselves by names by which they hear others call 
 them: not in the first but in the third person. After a 
 while there grows up in them the wonderful thought that 
 they are persons, different from any other person round 
 them, and they begin to say — I want this, I like that. I 
 trust that I shall not seem to you as one who dreams 
 when I say that I believe that is a revelation from God 
 to each child, and just what makes the difference between 
 him and an animal; that God teaches each child to say 
 I; to know that it is not a mere thing, but a person, a 
 living soul, with a will of its own, and a duty of its own; 
 responsible for itself; which ought to do some things, 
 and ought not to do other things. And what a solemn 
 and awful revelation that is, we shall see more clearly, 
 the more we think of it 
 
 It may be a very dreadful and tormenting thought 
 It does not torment the mere savage, who has no sense 
 of right and wrong; who follows his o^vn appetites and 
 passions, and has never learnt to say, "I ought," and "I 
 ought not." But it does torment the heathen when they 
 begin to be civilized, and to think; it has tormented 
 
XV.] /. 167 
 
 them in all ages. It tormented the old Greeks and 
 Romans; it torments some Eastern peoples still — that 
 terrible thought — I am I myself, and cannot be any one 
 else. I am answerable for all that I ever did, or shall 
 do; and no one can be answerable for me. All the bad 
 deeds I ever did, the bad thoughts I ever thought, are 
 mine, parts of me, and will be for ever. I can no more 
 escape from them than I can spring off my own shadow. 
 But men have been always trying to escape; to escape 
 from the burden of their own self, and the dread of an 
 evil conscience; and have invented religion after religion, 
 often fantastic enough, often pathetic enough likewise, in 
 hopes of hiding from themselves the secret thought — I 
 am I, and must be myself for ever. But I am not what 
 I ought to be, and therefore I may be wrong, and miser- 
 able for ever. And how many people, in this Christian 
 land, are saying at this very moment to themselves, "Oh 
 that I could get rid of this I myself in me, which is so 
 discontented and unhappy! Oh that I had no conscience! 
 Oh that I could forget myself!" And they try to forget 
 themselves by dissipation, by gaming, by drinking, by 
 taking narcotic drugs, even sometimes by suicide, as a 
 last desperate attempt to escape from themselves, they 
 know not and care not whither. It is all in vain. There 
 is no escape from self. As the pious poet whose bust 
 stands beneath yonder tower has said : 
 
 Each in his separate sphere of joy and woe 
 Our hermit spirits dwell, and range apart. 
 
 I must be I, thou must be thou, he must be he, she must 
 be she, and no one else, throughout our mortal lives, and. 
 
1 68 /. [SERM. 
 
 for aught we can tell, for ever; alone, each of us, with 
 our own souls, our own thoughts, our own actions, our 
 own hopes, our own fears, our own deservings. Stay 
 alone : — with all these ? Yes, and alone with one more. 
 Each of us is alone with God. Face to face with God, 
 seen by Him through and through, and directly answer- 
 able to Him at every moment of our lives, for every deed, 
 and word, and thought. And is that not a more terrible 
 thought than any ? Ah ! my friends, it may be. But it 
 may be also the most comforting of all thoughts, the only 
 really comforting thought, if we will but look at the ques- 
 tion as the Psalmist looks at it, and cry with him to God, 
 " I am Thine, oh save the me whom Thou hast made." 
 
 There are those, and those who deserve a respectful 
 hearing, who will differ from all that I have been saying, 
 and indeed from the beliefs of 999 out of 1000 of the 
 human race in every age. They will say — This fancy 
 that you are an I, a self, individual and indivisible, is but 
 a fancy; one of the many idols which man creates for 
 himself, by bestowing reality and personality on mere ab- 
 stractions like this I and self. Each man is not one 
 indivisible, much less indestructible, thing or being. He 
 is really many things. He is the net result of all the 
 organic cells of his body, and of all the forces which act 
 through them within, and of all the circumstances which 
 influence them from without, ay, and of all the forces 
 and circumstances which have influenced his ancestors 
 ever since man appeared on the earth. But because he 
 remembers many states of consciousness, many moments 
 in which he was aware of sensations within him, and of 
 
XV.] /. 169 
 
 circumstances without him, therefore he strings all these 
 together, and talks of them as one thing which he calls I ; 
 and speaks of them as his remembrances of himself, when 
 really the many tilings are but links of a chain which is 
 perpetually growing at one end and dropping off at the 
 other. To say, therefore, that he is the same person as 
 he was when a child, or as he would be when an old 
 man, — is, when we know that every atom of his physical 
 frame has changed again and again during the course of 
 years, a popular delusion, or at least a misnomer used for 
 convenience' sake ; as when we say that the sun rises and 
 sets, when we know that the earth moves, and not the 
 sun. A man, therefore, according to this school, is really 
 no more a person, one and indivisible, than is the coral 
 with its million polj^pes, the tree with its million buds, or 
 even the thunderstorm with its million vesicles of attract- 
 ing and repelling vapour. 
 
 Now that a truth underlies such a theory as this, I 
 am the last to deny. How much of the character of each 
 man is inherited, how much of it depends on his actual 
 bodily organization; how much of it, alas! on the circum- 
 stances of his youth; how much of it changes with the 
 mere physical change from youth to old age — who does 
 not know all this, who has ever needed to fight for him- 
 self the battle of life ? Only, I say, this is but half the 
 truth ; and these philosophers cannot state their half- 
 truth, without employing the very words which they 
 repudiate ; without using the very personal pronouns, the 
 I and me, the thou and thee, the he and him, to which 
 they deny any real existence. Beside, I ask — Is the 
 
I 70 /. [SERM. 
 
 experience and the conclusion of the vast majority of all 
 mankind to go for nothing ? For if there be one point on 
 which human beings have been, and are still, agreed, it is 
 this — that each of them is, to his joy or his sorrow, an I; a 
 separate person. And, I should have said, this conviction 
 becomes stro ger and stronger in each of them, the more 
 human they become, civilized, and worthy of the respect 
 and affection of their fellow-men. 
 
 For what rises in them, or seems to rise, more and 
 more painfully and fiercely ? What but that protest, that 
 battle, between the everlasting I within them, and their 
 own passions, and motives, and circumstances ; which 
 St Paul of old called the battle between the spirit on one 
 side, and the flesh and the world on the other. The 
 nobler, surely, and healthier, even for a moment, the 
 manhood of any man is, the more intense is that inward 
 struggle, which man alone of all the animals endures. Is it 
 in moments of brave endeavour, whether to improve our 
 own character, or to benefit our fellow-men : or is it in 
 moments of depression, disappointment, bodily sickness, 
 that we are tempted to say? — I will fight no more. I 
 cannot mend myself, or the world. I am what nature has 
 made me ; and what I am, I must remain. I, and all I 
 know, and all I love, are things, not persons ; parts of 
 nature, even as the birds upon the bough, only more 
 miserable, because tormented by a hope which never will 
 be fulfilled; an empty pageant of mere phenomena, 
 blown onward toward decay, like dying autumn leaves, 
 before the "everlasting storm which no one guides." 
 Is this the inward voice of health and strength? or 
 
XV.] /. I/I 
 
 rather, for evil or for good, that voice which bids the 
 man, the woman, in the mysterious might of the free 
 I within, trample on their own passions, defy their own 
 circumstances, even to the death; fall back, in utter 
 need, on the absolute instinct of self; and even though 
 all seem lost, say with Medea in the tragedy — 
 Che resta ? lo ! 
 
 Medea ? — Some one will ask, and have a right to ask — 
 Is that the model which you set before us ? The imperious 
 sorceress, who from the first has known no law but self, 
 her own passions, her own intellect ; who, at last, mad- 
 dened by a grievous wrong, asserts that self by the 
 murder of her own babes ? You might as well set before 
 us as a model Milton's Satan. 
 
 Just so. Remember first, nevertheless, the old 
 maxim, that the best, when corrupted, is the worst ; 
 that the higher the nature, when used aright in its right 
 place, the baser it becomes when used wrongly, in its 
 wrong place. When Satan fell from his right place, said 
 the old Jews, he became, remember, not a mere brute : 
 but worse, a fiend. There is a deep and true philosophy 
 in that. As long as he was what he was meant to be — 
 the servant of God — he was an archangel and more ; the 
 fairest of all the sons of the morning. When he rebelled; 
 when in pride and self-will he tore himself — his person — 
 away from that God in whom he lived and moved and 
 had his being: the personality remained; he could still, 
 like Medea, fall back, even when he knew that he had 
 rebelled against his Creator, on his indomitable self, and 
 reign a self-sufficing king, even in the depths of hell. 
 
1/2 /. [SERM. 
 
 But the very strength and richness of that personality 
 made him, like Medea, only the more capable of evil 
 He stood, that is, his moral health endured, only by 
 loyalty to God. When he lost that, he fell; to moral 
 disease : disease the vaster, the vaster were his own 
 capacities. 
 
 And so it is with you, and me, and every soul of 
 man. Only by loyalty to God can this undying I, this 
 self, this person, which each of us has — or rather which 
 each of us is — ^be anything but a torment and a curse; 
 the more terrible to us, and those around us, the stronger 
 and the richer are the nature and faculties through 
 which it works. 
 
 Wouldest thou not be a curse unto thy self? Then 
 cry with him who wrote the 119th Psalm — I am Thine. 
 Oh save the me, whom Thou, O God, hast made. 
 
 For he who wrote that psalm had an intense convic- 
 tion of his own personality. I, and me, are words for 
 ever in his mouth: but not in self-satisfied conceit; nor 
 in self-tormenting superstition, crying perpetually. Shall 
 I be saved ? shall I be lost ? No. Faith in God delivers 
 him from either of these follies. He is forced to think 
 of self Sad, persecuted, seemingly friendless, he is 
 alone with self : yet not alone. For at every moment he 
 is referring himself to his true place in the universe ; to 
 God ; God's law, God's help. The burden of self — of 
 mingled responsibility and weakness — is to him past 
 bearing. It would be utterly past bearing, if he could 
 not cast it down, at least at moments, at the foot of the 
 throne of God, and cry, I am Thine. Oh save me. 
 
XV.] /. 173 
 
 And if any should ask — as has been asked ere now — 
 But is there not in this tone of mind something undig- 
 nified, something even abject ? thus to cry for help, 
 instead of helping oneself? thus to depend on another 
 being, instead of bearing stoically with manly indepen- 
 dence ? I answer — The Psalmist does bear stoically, 
 just because he cries for help. For the old Stoics cried 
 for help; the earlier and truer-hearted of them, at least. 
 Some here, surely, have read Epictetus, the heathen 
 whose thought most exactly coincides with that of the 
 Psalmist. If so, do they not see what enabled him, the 
 slave of Nero's minion, to assert himself, and his own 
 unconquerable personality; to defy circumstance; and to 
 preserve his own calm, his own honour, his own purity, 
 amid a degradation which might well have driven a good 
 man to suicide ? And was it not this^The intensity of 
 his faith in God? In God the helper, God the guide? 
 
 If any man here have learnt, to his own loss, to 
 undervalue the experience of prophets, psalmists, apostles : 
 then let him turn to Epictetus the heathen; and learn 
 from that heroic slave, that the true dignity of man lies 
 in true faith in God. 
 
 Nay more. It is a serious question, whether ungod- 
 liness — by which I mean, as the Psalmist means, the 
 assertion of self, independent of God — whether ungodli- 
 ness, I say, is ever dignified; whether, as has been often 
 said, Milton's still dignified Satan is not an impossible 
 character; whether Goethe's utterly undignified Mephis- 
 topheles is not the true ideal of an utterly evil spirit. 
 Ungodliness, as we see it manifested in human beings, 
 
1/4 I- [SERM. 
 
 may be repulsive, as in the mere ruffian, whose mouth 
 is filled with cursing, and his feet swift to shed blood. 
 It may, again, be pitiable, as in those human butterflies, 
 who live only to enjoy, or to minister to, what they call 
 luxury and fashion. And it may be again— when it 
 calmly and deliberately asserts itself to be a philosophy, 
 and an explanation of man and of the universe, and 
 gives itself magisterial airs, however courteously and 
 kindly — it may be then, I dare to think, a little ludi- 
 crous. 
 
 But as for its dignity, I leave to you to say which of 
 the two beings is the more dignified, which the more 
 abject — a little organism of ilesh and blood, at most not 
 more than six feet high, liable to be destroyed by a tile 
 off the roof, or a blast of foul gas, or a hundred other 
 accidents ; standing self-poised and self-complacent in 
 the centre of such an universe as this, and asserting that 
 it acknowledges no superior, and needs no guide — or the 
 same being, awakened to the mystery of his own actual 
 weakness, his possible strength ; his own actual ignorance, 
 his possible wisdom; his own actual sinfulness, his possi- 
 ble holiness : and then ; by a humility which is the 
 highest daring; by a self-distrust which is the truest self- 
 assertion, vindicating the divine element within, by taking 
 personal and voluntary service under no less a personage 
 than Him who made him; and crying directly to the 
 Creator of sun and stars and aU the universe — I am 
 Thine. Oh save the me which Thou hast made ? 
 
 Make up your own minds, make up your minds, 
 which of the two figures is the more abject, which the 
 
XV.] /. 175 
 
 more dignified. For me, I have had too good cause, 
 long since, to make up mine. 
 
 And if you wish to judge further for yourselves, 
 whether tlie teaching of the Psalmist is more likely to 
 produce an abject or a dignified character, I advise you 
 to ponder carefully a certain singular — I had almost said 
 unique — educational document, written by men who 
 had thoroughly imbibed the teaching of this psalm ; a 
 document which, the oftener I peruse it, arouses in 
 me more and more admiration ; not only for its theo- 
 logy, but for its knowledge of human nature ; and not 
 only for what it does, but for what it does not, say. I 
 mean the Catechism of the Church of England. 
 
 You will remark at first sight, that it does not affect 
 to teach the child ; with one remarkable exception to 
 be hereafter noticed. It does not tell the child — You 
 should do this, you should not do that. 
 
 It is strictly an Educational Catechism. It tries to 
 educe — that is, draw out — what is in the child already ; 
 its own native instincts and native conscience. There- 
 fore it makes the child speak for itself It makes each 
 child feel that he or she is an I ; a person, a responsible 
 soul. It begins — What is your name ? It makes the 
 child confess that it has a name, as a sign that it is a 
 person, a self, a soul, different from all other persons 
 in earth or heaven; and that its name was given it at 
 baptism, for a sign that God made it a person, and 
 wishes it to know that it is a person, and will teach it 
 how to be a true person, and a good person. It teaches 
 the child to say — I, and me, not in fear and dread, 
 
1 76 /. [SERM. 
 
 like those heathen of whom I spoke just now, but with 
 manly confidence, and self-respect, and gratitude to God 
 who has made it a person, and an immortal soul. 
 
 To say — I am a person ; and in order that I might 
 be a right kind of person, and not a wrong kind, I was 
 made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an in- 
 heritor of the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 To say — I am a person ; and that I may be a right 
 kind of person, I must know and believe certain things 
 concerning God Himself, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 
 I am a person; and that I may be a right kind of person, 
 I must keep certain commandments and do certain 
 duties toward God, and my parents, and my Queen, and 
 my country, and my neighbour, and all toward whom 
 I am responsible for right behaviour. 
 
 And then, and only then, after it has made the child 
 say all this for itself and about itself, the Catechism does 
 begin to teach ; and in a few very short words, tell the 
 child about that which is not itself — 
 
 " My good child, know this, that thou art not able 
 to do these things of thyself, nor to walk in the Com- 
 mandments of God, and to serve Him, without His 
 special grace ; which thou must learn at all times to call 
 for by diligent prayer." 
 
 Now consider these words. There is comfort and 
 strength in them; comfort for the child; comfort for 
 you, and me, and every human being who has awakened 
 to the sense of his own personal responsibility, and finds 
 it too often a burden heavier than he — and, alas, often, 
 she — can bear. 
 
XV.] /. 177 
 
 The Catechism tells the child that it must not merely 
 know doctrines about God, or do duties to God ; but 
 more : that it is alone with God Himself, face to face with 
 God Himself day and night. But that therefore it is to 
 dread God, and look up to God as a taskmaster and tyrant, 
 and try to hide from God's awful eye, and forget God, and 
 forget itself — if it can ? — God forbid ; God forbid. The 
 Catechism leaves such teaching for those Pharisees who tell 
 little children that unless they are converted, and become 
 as them, they shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven. The Catechism says, My good child — not, My 
 bad child — know this. Know that thou art weak : but 
 know that God is strong ; and look up to Him as the 
 Father of all fathers, the Teacher of all teachers, the 
 Helper of all helpers, the Friend of all friends, who has 
 called thee unto His kingdom of grace, that He might 
 shew thee graciousness ; and make thee gracious and 
 graceful in all thy thoughts, and works, and ways : and, 
 therefore, far from trying to hide from Him, call on Him 
 with diligent prayer. For the Father of all fathers is the 
 Father of thy soul, the Son of all sons died for thee upon 
 the Cross, the Holy Spirit of all holy spirits will make 
 thee a holy spirit and person, even as He is a Holy 
 Spirit and Person Himself. 
 
 Believing those words, no one will dare to forget 
 to say his prayers. For when he prays, he is indeed 
 a person. He is himself; and not ashamed, however 
 sinful, to be himself; and to tell God about himself. 
 Oh, think of that. You, each of you, have a right, as 
 God's children, to speak to the God who made the 
 
'7" /. [SERM. XV. 
 
 universe. Therefore be sure, that when you dislike 
 to say your prayers, it is because you do not like to 
 be what you are, a person ; and prefer — ah foolish soul 
 — to be a thing, and an animal. 
 
 Believing those words, no man need long to forget 
 himself, to escape from himself He can lift up himself 
 to God who made him, with reverence, and fear, and yet 
 with gratitude and trust, and say — 
 
 I, Lord, am I ; and what I am — a very poor, pitiful, 
 sinful person. But Thou, Lord, art Thou; and what 
 Thou art— happily for me, and for the whole universe — 
 Perfect. Thou art what Thou oughtest to be — Goodness 
 itself And therefore Thou canst, and Thou wilt, make 
 me what I ought to be at last, a good person. To thee, 
 
 Lord, I can bring the burden of this undying I, which 
 
 1 carry with me, too often in shame and sadness, and ask 
 Thee to help me to bear it; saying — "Thou knowest. 
 Lord, the secrets of our hearts. Shut not Thy merciful 
 ears to our prayers : but spare us, O Lord most Holy, O 
 God most Mighty, Thou worthy Judge Eternal, and 
 suffer us not, for any temptation of the world, the flesh 
 or the devil, to fall from Thee." Guide me, teach me, 
 strengthen me, till I become such a person as Thou 
 wouldst have me be ; pure and gentle, truthful and high- 
 minded, brave and able, courteous and generous, dutiful 
 and useful, like Thy Son Jesus Christ when He increased 
 not only in stature, but in favour with God and man. 
 
 To which may God in His mercy bring us all ! Amen. 
 
SERMON XVI. 
 
 THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 
 
 Psalm civ. i6. 
 
 The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, 
 which He hath planted. 
 
 Let me say a few words this afternoon about the noble 
 
 104th Psalm, which was read this afternoon, as it is now 
 
 in many churches, and most wisely and rightly, as the 
 
 Harvest Psalm. It is a fit psalm for a service in which 
 
 we thank God for such harvest as He has thought best 
 
 to send us, whether it be above or below the average. 
 
 But it is also a fit psalm to be thought earnestly over 
 
 just now, considering the turn which men's minds are 
 
 taking more and more in these times in which it has 
 
 pleased God that we should live. For we have lost, all 
 
 of us, unlearned as well as learned, the old superstitious 
 
 notions about this world around us which our forefathers 
 
 held for many hundred years. No rational person now 
 
 believes that witches can blight crops or cattle, or that 
 
 evil spirits cause storms. No one now believes that 
 
 nymphs and fairies live in fountains or in trees ; or that 
 
 the spirits of the planets rule the fates of men. That 
 
 K. s. 14 
 
t8o the cedars of LEBANON. [seem. 
 
 old belief is gone, for good and for evil, and it was good 
 that it should go ; for it was false : and falsehoods can 
 do no good, but only harm, to any man, in body and in 
 soul alike. It has died out quickly and strangely. Some 
 say that modern science has destroyed it. I can hardly 
 agree to that ; for it has died out — and that almost since 
 my own recollection and under my own eyes — in the 
 minds of country people, who know nothing of science. 
 I had rather say — as I presume the man who wrote the 
 104th Psalm would have said — The Lord has taken the 
 belief out of men's hearts and minds. And I cannot but 
 hope that He has taken it away, and allows us to believe 
 no more in demons and fairies ruling the world around 
 us, in order that we may believe in Him, and nothing 
 but Him, the true Ruler of the world ; in Him of whom 
 it is written, " Him shalt thou worship, and Him only 
 shalt thou serve ;" even God the Father, of whom are 
 all things, and God the Son, by whom are all things, 
 and God the Holy Spirit, who is the Lord and Giver of 
 life, alike to sun and stars over our heads, and to the 
 meanest weed and insect under our feet ; the Lord and 
 Giver of life alike to matter and spirit, soul and body, 
 worm and man, and angel and archangel before the 
 throne of God. I hope it is so. I trust it is so. For 
 we never had more need than now to believe with 
 all our hearts in the living God ; to take into all our 
 hearts the teaching of the 104th Psalm. For now that 
 we have given up believing in superstitions, we are in 
 danger of going to the other extreme, and believing in 
 nothing at all which we cannot see with our eyes, and 
 
XVI.] THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. l8l 
 
 handle with our hands. Now that we have given up 
 behaving in the fabled supernatural; in ghosts, fairies, 
 demons, witches, and such-like : we are in danger of 
 giving up beheving in the true and eternal supernatural, 
 which is the Holy Spirit of God, by whom the whole 
 creation is kept alive and sound. We are in danger of 
 falling into a low, stupid, bnitish view of this wonderful 
 world of God in which we live ; in danger of thinking of 
 nature — that is, of the things which we can see and 
 handle — only as something of which we can make use — 
 till we fall as low as that poor ruffian, of whom the 
 poet says : 
 
 A primrose on the river's brim 
 
 A yellow primrose was to liim, 
 And it was nothing more. 
 
 Lower, that is, than even our OAvn children, whom God 
 has at least taught to admire and love the primroses for 
 their beauty — as something precious and divine, quite 
 independent of their own emotions about them. Men 
 in these days are but too likely to fall into the humour 
 of those poor savages, of whom one who knows them 
 well said to me once — bitterly but truly — that when a 
 savage sees anything new, however wonderful or beau- 
 tiful, he has but two thoughts about it ; first — Will it 
 hurt me ? and next — Can I eat it ? And from that 
 truly brutish view of God's world, we shall be delivered, 
 I beheve, only by taking in with our whole hearts the 
 teaching of the 104th Psalm; which is indeed the 
 teaching of all Holy Scripture throughout. 
 
 The Psalmist, in the passage which I have chosen, is 
 
 14 — 2 
 
1 82 THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. [serm. 
 
 talking of the circulation of water on the earth ; how 
 wisely and well it is ordered; how the vapours rise off 
 the sea, till the waters stand above the mountain-tops, to 
 be brought down in thunder-storms — -for in his country, 
 as in many hot ones, thunder was generally needed, at 
 the end of the dry season, to bring down the rain; how 
 it forms springs in the highland, and flows down from 
 thence in brooks and rivers, making the whole lowland 
 green and fertile. Well — all very true, you may say. 
 But that is simply a matter of science, or indeed of com- 
 mon observation and common sense. It is not a sub- 
 ject for a psalm or for a sermon. 
 
 True : in the words in which I have purposely put it 
 But not in the words in which the Psalmist puts it; and 
 which I purposely left out, to shew you just the difference 
 between even the soundest science, and faith. He brings 
 in another element, which is the true cause of the circu- 
 lation of water; and that is, none other but Almighty 
 God. 
 
 This is the way in which the inspired Psalmist puts 
 it; and this is the truth of it all; this is the very kernel 
 and marrow and life and soul of it all : while the facts 
 which I told you just now are the mere shell and dead 
 skeleton of it — ■" Thou sendest the springs into the 
 rivers." 
 
 Thou art the Lord of the lightning and of the clouds, 
 the Lord of the highlands and of the lowlands, and the 
 Lord of the rainfall and of the drought, the Lord of good 
 seasons and of bad, of rich harvests and of scanty. They, 
 like all things, obey Thine everlasting laws; and of them. 
 
XVI.] THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 1 83 
 
 whatever may befal, poor purblind man can say in faith 
 and hope — "It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth 
 Him good." 
 
 Yes. He was not of course a man of science, in the 
 modern sense of the word, this old Psalmist. But this I 
 know, that he was a man of science in the soundest and 
 deepest sense; an inspired philosopher, as well as an 
 inspired poet; and had the highest of all sciences, which 
 is the science and knowledge of the living God. For he 
 saw God in everything and everything in God. 
 
 But — he says — the trees of the Lord are full of sap ; 
 even the cedars of Lebanon which He hath planted. 
 Why should he say that specially of the cedars ? Did 
 not God make all trees ? Does He not plant all wild 
 trees, and every flower and seed ? My dear friends, 
 happy are you if you believe that in spirit and in truth. 
 But let me tell you that I think you would not have be- 
 lieved that, unless the Psalmist, and others who wrote 
 the Holy Scriptures, had told you about trees of God, 
 and rivers of God, and winds of God, and had taught 
 3'ou that the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof 
 You do not know — none of us can know — how much we 
 owe to the Bible for just and rational, as well as ortho- 
 dox and Christian, notions of the world around us. We, 
 and — thank God — our forefathers for hundreds of years, 
 have drunk in Bible thoughts, as it were, with our 
 mother's milk ; till much that we have really learnt from 
 the Bible we take as a matter of course, as self-evident 
 truths which we have found out for ourselves by commoiv 
 sense. 
 
184 THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. [serm. 
 
 And yet, so far from that being the case, if it had 
 not been for the Bible, we might be believing at this 
 moment, that one god made one tree, and another 
 another; that one tree was sacred to one god, and 
 another flower to another goddess, as the old Greeks 
 believed; and that the wheat and barley were the gift, 
 and therefore the property, of some special deity; and be 
 crying now in fear and trembling to the sun-god, or the 
 rain-god, or some other deified power of nature, because 
 we fancied that they were angry with us, and had there- 
 fore sent us too much rain and a short harvest. 
 
 It is difficult, now-a-days, to make even cultivated 
 people understand the follies of those who, like the 
 heathen round the Jews, worshipped many gods: and all 
 the more because our modern folly runs in a different 
 channel; because we are tempted, not to believe in many 
 gods, but in no God at all; to believe not that one god 
 made one thing and another another, but that all things 
 have made themselves. 
 
 When Hiram, king of Tyre, sent down timber cut 
 from the cedars of Lebanon, to build the temple of God 
 for Solomon; his heathen workmen, probably, were 
 angry and terrified at what they were doing. They said 
 among themselves — "These cedars belong to Baal, or 
 to Melkart, the gods of Tyre. Our king has no right to 
 send them to build the temple of Jehovah, the God of 
 the Jews. It is a robbery, and a sacrilege; and Baal will 
 be angry with us; and curse us with drought and blight." 
 
 But now-a-days men say — "The cedars of Lebanon 
 are not God's trees, nor are any other trees. They 
 
XVI.] THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 1 85 
 
 belong to nature.'' Now I believe in nature no more 
 than I do in Baal. Nature is merely things — a great 
 many things it is true, but only things — and when I add 
 them all up together, and call them nature, as if they 
 were one thing, I make an abstraction of them. There 
 is no harm in that : but if I treat that abstraction as if it 
 really existed, and did anything, then I make of it an 
 idol, the which I have no mind to do. I believe, I say, 
 in nature no more than I do in Baal. Both words v/ere 
 at first symbols; and both have become in due course of 
 time mere idols. But those who worship nature and not 
 God, say now — God did not make trees; they were 
 made by the laws of nature and nothing else. Well : I 
 believe that the so-called philosophers who say that, will 
 be proved at last to be no more right, and no more 
 rational, than those heathen workmen of Tyre. But 
 meanwhile, what the Psalmist says, and what the Bible 
 says, is — Those trees belong to God. He made them. 
 He made all things; the sap — the mysterious life in them, 
 by which each grows and seeds according to its kind — is 
 His gift. Their growth is ordered by Him ; and so are 
 all things in earth and heaven. 
 
 Then why speak of them especially as trees of God ? 
 Because, my friends, we can only find out that something 
 is true of many things, by finding out that it is true of 
 one thing ; and that we usually find out by some striking 
 instance ; some case about which there can be no mis- 
 take. And these cedars of Lebanon were, and are still, 
 such a striking instance, which there was no mistaking. 
 Upon the slopes of the great snow-mountain of Lebanon 
 
1 86 THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. [serm. 
 
 Stood those gigantic cedar-trees — whole forests of them then 
 — now only one or two small groups, but awful, travellers 
 tell us, even in their decay. Whence did they come? There 
 are no trees like them for hundreds, I had almost said 
 for thousands, of miles. There are but two other patches 
 of them left now on the whole earth, one in the Atlas, 
 one in the Himalaya. The Jews certainly knew of no 
 trees like them; and no trees either of their size. There 
 were trees among them then, probably, two and three 
 hundred feet in height ; trees whose tops were as those 
 minster towers ; whose shafts were like yonder pillars ; 
 and their branches like yonder vaults. No king, how- 
 ever mighty, could have planted them up there upon the 
 lofty mountain-slopes. The Jew, when he entered be- 
 neath the awful darkness of these cedars ; the cedars with 
 a shadowy shroud — as the Scripture says — the cedars 
 high and lifted up, whose tops were among the thick 
 boughs, and their height exalted above all the trees of 
 the field ; fair in their greatness ; their boughs multiplied, 
 and their branches long — for it is in such words of awe 
 and admiration that the Bible talks always of the cedars 
 — then the Jew said, " God has planted these, and God 
 alone." And when he thought, not merely of their gran- 
 deur and their beauty, but of their use ; of their fragrant 
 and incorruptible timber, fit to build the palaces of kings, 
 and the temples of gods; he said — and what could he 
 say better? — "These are trees of God;" wonderful and 
 glorious works of a wonderful and a glorious Creator. If 
 he had not, he would have had less reason in him, and 
 less knowledge of God, than the Hindoos of old ; who 
 
XVI.] THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 1 8/ 
 
 when they saw the other variety of the cedar growing, in 
 Hke grandeur, on the slopes of the Himalaya, called them 
 the Deodara — which means, in the old Sanscrit tongue, 
 neither more nor less than " the timber of God," " the 
 lance of God" — and what better could they have said ? 
 
 My friends, I speak on this matter from the fulness of 
 my heart. It has happened to me — through the bounty 
 of God, for which I shall be ever grateful — to have spent 
 days in primeval forests, as grand, and far stranger and 
 far richer than that of Lebanon and its cedars ; amid 
 trees beside which the hugest tree in Britain would be 
 but as a sapling ; gorgeous too with flowers, rich with 
 fruits, timbers, precious gums, and all the yet unknown 
 wealth of a tropic wilderness. And as I looked up, awe- 
 struck and bewildered, at those minsters not made by 
 hands, I found the words of Scripture rising again and 
 again unawares to my lips, and said — Yes : the Bible 
 words are the best words, the only words for such a sight 
 as this. These too are trees of God which are full of 
 sap. These, too, are trees, which God, not man, has 
 planted. Mind, I do not say that I should have said so, 
 if I had not learnt to say so from the Bible. Without the 
 Bible I should have been, I presume, either an idolater 
 or an atheist. And mind, also, that I do not say that the 
 Psalmist learnt to call the cedars trees of God by his own 
 unassisted reason. I believe the very opposite. I be- 
 lieve that no man can see the truth of a thing unless God 
 shews it him ; that no man can find out God, in earth or 
 heaven, unless God condescends to reveal Himself to 
 that man. But I believe that God did reveal Himself to 
 
188 THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. [serm. 
 
 the Psalmist ; did enlighten his reason by the inspiration 
 of His Holy Spirit ; did teach him, as we teach a child, 
 what to call those cedars ; and, as it were, whispered to 
 him, though with no audible voice: "Thou wishest to 
 know what name is most worthy whereby to call those 
 mighty trees : then call them trees of God. Know that 
 there is but one God, of whom are all things ; and that 
 they are His trees ; and that He planted them, to shew 
 forth His wisdom. His power, and His good will to man." 
 And do you fancy that because the Jew called the 
 great cedars trees of God, that therefore he thought 
 that the lentiscs and oleanders, by the brook outside, 
 were not God's shrubs ; or the lilies and anemones upon 
 the down below were not God's flowers? Some folk 
 have fancied so. — It seems to me most unreasonably. I 
 should have thought that here the rule stood true ; that 
 that which is greater contains the less ; that if the 
 Psalmist knew God to be mighty enough to make and 
 plant the cedars, he would think Him also mighty 
 enough to make and plant the smallest flower at his 
 feet. I think so. For I know it was so with me. My 
 feeling that those enormous trees over my head were 
 God's trees, did not take away in the least from my feel- 
 ing of God's wisdom and power in the tiniest herb at 
 their feet. Nay rather, it increased my feeling that God 
 was filling all things with life and beauty ; till the whole 
 forest, — if I may so speak in all humility, but in all 
 honesty — from the highest to the lowest, from the hugest 
 to the smallest, and every leaf and bud therein, seemed 
 full of the glory of God. And if I could feel that, — 
 
XVI.] THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 1 89 
 
 being the thing I am — how much more must the inspired 
 Psalmist have felt it ? You see by this very psalm that 
 he did feel it. The grass for the use of cattle, and 
 the green herb for men, and the corn and the wine and 
 the oil, he says, are just as much God's making, and 
 God's gift. The earth is "filled," he says, "with the 
 fruit of God's works.'' Filled : not dotted over here and 
 there mth a few grand and wonderful things which God 
 cares for, while He cares for nothing else : but filled. 
 Let us take the words of Scripture honestly in their whole 
 strength ; and believe that if the Psalmist saw God's 
 work in the great cedars, he saw it everywhere else like- 
 wise. 
 
 Nay, more ; I will say this. That I believe it was 
 such teaching as that of this very 104th Psalm — teaching 
 which runs, my friends, throughout the Old Testament, 
 especially through the Psalmists and the Prophets — which 
 enabled the Jews to understand our Lord's homely 
 parables about the flowers of the field and the birds 
 of the air. Those of them at least who were Israelites 
 indeed ; those who did understand, and had treasured up 
 in their hearts, the old revelation of Moses, and the 
 Psalmists, and the Prophets ; those who did still believe 
 that the cedars were the trees of God, and that God 
 brought forth grass for the cattle, and green herb for the 
 service of men ; and who could see God's hand, God's 
 laws, God's love, working in them — those men and 
 women, be sure, were the very ones who understood our 
 Lord, when He said, "Consider the lilies of the field, how 
 they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin. And 
 
igo THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. [serm. 
 
 yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not 
 compared unto one of these.'' 
 
 And why should it not be so with you, townsfolk 
 though you are? Every Londoner has now, in the public 
 parks and gardens, the privilege of looking on plants and 
 flowers, more rich, more curious, more varied than meet 
 the eye of any average countryman. Then when you 
 next avail yourselves of that real boon of our modem 
 civilization, let me beg you not to forget the lesson which 
 I have been trying to teach you. 
 
 You may feel — you ought to feel — that those strange 
 and stately semitropic fomns are indeed plants of God ; 
 the work of a cieative Spirit who delights to employ His 
 Almighty power in producing ever fresh shapes of beauty 
 — seemingly unnecessary, seemingly superfluous, seem- 
 ingly created for the sake of their beauty alone — in order 
 that the Lord may delight Himself in His works. Let 
 that sight make you admire and reverence more, not less, 
 the meanest weed beneath your feet. Remember that 
 the very weeds in your own garden are actually more 
 highly organized ; have cost — if I may so say, with all 
 reverence, but I can only speak of the infinite in clumsy 
 terms of the finite — the Creator more thought, more 
 pains, than the giant cedars of Lebanon, and the giant 
 cypresses of California. Remember that the smallest 
 moss or lichen which clings upon the wall, is full of 
 wonders and beauties, as inexplicable as unexpected ; 
 and that of every flower on your own window-sill the 
 words of Christ stand literally true — that Solomon in all 
 his glory was not arrayed as one of these : and bow your 
 
XVI.] THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 191 
 
 hearts and souls before the magnificent prodigality, the 
 exquisite perfection of His work, who can be, as often as 
 He will, greatest in that which is least, because to His 
 infinity nothing is great, and nothing small ; who hath 
 created all things, and for His pleasure they are, and 
 were created ; who rejoices for ever in His own works, 
 because He beholds for ever all that He makes, and it 
 is very good. 
 
 And then refresh your hearts as well as your brains — 
 tired it may be, too often, with the drudgery of some 
 mechanical, or merely calculating, occupation — refresh 
 your hearts, I say, by lifting them up unto the Lord, in 
 truly spiritual, truly heavenly thoughts ; which bring 
 nobleness, and trust, and peace, to the humblest and 
 the most hardworked man. 
 
 For you can say in your hearts — All the things which 
 I see, are God's things. They are thoughts of God. God 
 gives them law, and life, and use. My heavenly Father 
 made them. My Saviour redeemed them with His most 
 precious blood, and rules and orders them for ever. The 
 Holy Spirit of God, which was given me at my baptism, 
 gives them life and power to grow and breed after their 
 kinds. The divine, miraculous, and supernatural power 
 of God Himself is working on them, and for them, 
 perpetually : and how much more on me, and for me, and 
 all my children, and fellow-creatures for whom Christ 
 died. Without my Father in heaven not a sparrow falls 
 to the ground : and am I not of more value than many 
 sparrows? God feeds the birds: and will He not feed 
 me ? God clothes the lilies of the field : and will He not 
 
192 THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. [serm.xvi. 
 
 clothe me ? Ah, me of little faith, who forget daily that 
 in God I live, and move, and have my being, and am, in 
 spite of all my sins, the child of God. Him I can trust 
 in prosperous times, and in disastrous times ; in good 
 harvests and in bad harvests ; in life and in death, in time 
 and in eternity. For He has given all things a law which 
 cannot be broken. And they continue this day as at the 
 beginning, serving Him. And if I serve Him likewise, 
 then shall I be in harmony with God, and with God's 
 laws, and with God's creatures, great and small. The 
 whole powers of nature as well as of spirit will be arrayed 
 on my side in the struggle for existence ; and all things 
 will work together for good to those who love God. 
 
SERMON XVII. 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 Psalm civ. 24, 28 — 30. 
 
 O Lord, how manifold are Thy works ! in wisdom hast Thou made 
 them all : the earth is full of Thy riches. 
 
 That Thou givest them they gather. Thou openest Thine hand, 
 they are filled with good. Thou hidest Thy face, they are trou- 
 bled. Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to 
 their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created: 
 and Thou renewest the face of the earth. 
 
 What is the most important thing to you, and me, 
 and every man ? 
 
 I suppose that most, if they answered honestly, 
 would say — Life. I will give anything I have for my 
 life. 
 
 And if some among you answered — as I doubt not 
 some would — No : not life : but honour and duty. 
 There is many a thing which I would rather die than 
 do — then you would answer like valiant and righteous 
 folk ; and may God give you grace to keep in the same 
 mind, and to hold your good resolution to the last. But 
 you, too, will agree that, except doing your duty, life 
 is the most important thing you have. The mother, 
 
194 LIFE. [SERM. 
 
 when she sacrifices her hfe to save her child, shews 
 thereby how valuable she holds the child's life to be; 
 so valuable that she will give up even her own to 
 save it. 
 
 But did you never consider, again — and a vtry 
 solemn and awful thought it is — that this so important 
 thing called life is the thing, above all other earthly 
 things, of which we know least — ay, of which we know 
 nothing ? 
 
 We do not know what death is. We send a shot 
 through a bird, and it falls dead — that is, lies still, and 
 after a while decays again into the dust of the earth, 
 and the gases of the air. But what has happened to it ? 
 How does it die ? How does it decay ? What is this 
 life which is gone out of it? No man knows. Men 
 of science, by dissecting and making experiments, which 
 they do with a skill and patience which deserve not 
 only our belief, but our admiration, will describe to us 
 the phenomena, or outward appearances, which accom- 
 pany death, and follow death. But death itself — for 
 want of what the animal has died — what has gone out 
 of it — they cannot tell. No man can tell ; for that is 
 invisible, and not to be discovered by the senses. They 
 are therefore forced to explain death by theories, which 
 may be true, or false : but which are after all not death 
 itself, but their own thoughts about death put into their 
 own words. Death no man can see : but only the 
 phenomena and effects of death ; and still more, life 
 no man can see : but only the phenomena and effects 
 of life. 
 
xvn.] LIFE. 19s 
 
 For if we cannot tell what deatli is, still more we 
 cannot tell what life is. How life begins ; how it or- 
 ganizes each living thing according to its kind ; and 
 makes it grow ; how it gives it the power of feeding on 
 other things, and keeping up its own body thereby : of 
 this all experiments tell us as yet nothing. Experiment 
 gives us, here again, the phenomena — the visible effects. 
 But the causes it sees not, and cannot see. 
 
 This is not a matter to be discussed here. But this 
 I say, that scientific men, in the last generation or two, 
 have learnt, to their great honour, and to the great good 
 of mankind — everything, or almost everything, about 
 it — except the thing itself; and that, below all facts, 
 below all experiments, below all that the eye or brain of 
 man can discover, lies always a something nameless, 
 invisible, imponderable, yet seemingly omnipresent and 
 omnipotent ; retreating before the man of science deeper 
 and deeper, the deeper he delves : namely, the life, 
 which shapes and makes all phenomena, and all facts. 
 Scientific men are becoming more and more aware of 
 this unknown force, I had almost said, ready to worship 
 it. More and more the noblest-minded of them are 
 becoming engrossed with that truly miraculous element 
 in nature which is always escaping them, though they 
 cannot escape it. How should they escape it ? Was it 
 not written of old — Whither shall I go from Thy pre- 
 sence ? and whither shall I flee from Thy Spirit ? 
 
 What then can we know of this same life, which is 
 so precious in most men's eyes ? 
 
 My friends, it was once said — That man's instinct 
 K. s, 15 
 
196 LIFE. [SERM. 
 
 was in all unknown matters to take refuge in God. The 
 words were meant as a sneer. I, as a Christian, glory 
 in them ; and ask, Where else should man take refuge, 
 save in God? When man sees anything — as he must 
 see hundreds of things — which he cannot account for; 
 things mysterious, and seemingly beyond the power 01 
 his mind to explain : what safer, what wiser word can 
 he say than — This is the Lord's doing, and it is mar- 
 vellous in our eyes ? God understands it : though I do 
 not. Be it what it may, it is a work of God. From 
 God it comes : by God it is ruled and ordered. That 
 at least I know : and let that be enough for me. And 
 so we may say of life. When we are awed, and all but 
 terrified, by the unfathomable mystery of life, we can 
 at least take refuge in God. And if we be wise, we 
 shall take refuge in God. Whatever we can or cannot 
 know about it, this we know; that it is the gift of God. 
 So thought the old Jewish Prophets and Psalmists ; and 
 spoke of a breath of God, a vapour, a Spirit of God, 
 which breathed life into all things. It was but a figure 
 of speech, of course : but if a better one has yet been 
 found, let the words in which it has been written or 
 spoken be shewn to me. For to me, at least, they 
 are yet unknown. I have read, as yet, no wiser words 
 about the matter than those of the old Jewish sages, 
 who told how, at tlie making of the world, the Spirit, 
 or breath, of God moved on the face of the waters, 
 quickening all things to life ; or how God breathed into 
 man's nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and man be- 
 came a living soul. 
 
XVII.] LIFE. 197 
 
 And in the same temper does that true philosopher 
 and truly inspired Psalmist, who wrote the 139th Psalm, 
 speak of the Spirit or breath of God. He considers his 
 own body: how fearfully and wonderfully it is made; 
 how God did see his substance, yet being imperfect; and 
 in God's book were all his members written, which day 
 by day were fashioned, while as yet there was none of 
 them. "Thou," he says, "O God, hast fashioned me 
 behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me. Such 
 knowledge is too wonderful and excellent for me; I 
 cannot attain to it." "But," he says to himself, "there 
 is One Who has attained to it; Who does know; for He 
 has done it all, and is doing it still : and that is God 
 and the Spirit of God. Whither" — he asks — "shall I go 
 then from God's Spirit? Whither shall I flee from God's 
 presence?" And so he sees by faith — and by the highest 
 reason likewise — The Spirit of God, as a living, thinking, 
 acting being, who quickens and shapes, and orders, not 
 his mortal body merely, but all things; giving life, law, 
 and form to all created things, from the heights of heaven 
 to the depths of hell; and ready to lead him and hold 
 him, if he took the wings of the morning and fled into 
 the uttermost parts of the sea. 
 
 And so speaks again he who wrote the 104th Psalm, 
 and the text which I have chosen. To him, too, the 
 mystery of death, and still more the mystery of life, 
 could be explained only by faith in God, and in the 
 Spirit of God. If things d'ed, it was because God took 
 away their breath, and therefore they returned to their 
 dust. And if things lived, it was because the Spirit of 
 
198 LIFE. [SEKM. 
 
 God, breathed forth, and proceeding, from God, gave 
 them hfe. He pictured to himself, I dare to fancy, what 
 we may picture to ourselves — for such places have often 
 been, and are now, in this world — some new and barren 
 land, even as the very gravel on which we stand was 
 once, just risen from the icy sea, all waste and lifeless, 
 without a growing weed, an insect, even a moss. Then, 
 gradually, seeds float thither across the sea, or are wafted 
 by the winds, and grow; and after them come insects; 
 then birds; then trees grow up; and larger animals arrive 
 to feed beneath their shade; till the once barren land 
 has become fertile and rich with life, and the face of 
 the earth is renewed. But by what? "God," says the 
 Psalmist, "has renewed the face of the earth.'' True, 
 the seeds, the animals came by natural causes : but who 
 was the Cause of those causes? Who sent the things 
 thither, save God? And who gave them life? Who 
 kept the life in floating seeds, in flying spores? Who 
 made that life, when they reached the barren shore, grow 
 and thrive in each after their kind? Who, but the Spirit 
 of God, the Lord and Giver of life? God let His Spirit 
 proceed and go forth from Himself upon them; and they 
 were made; and so He renewed the face of the earth. 
 
 That, my good friends, is not only according to Scrip- 
 ture, but according to true philosophy. Men are slow 
 to believe it now: and no wonder. They have been 
 always slow to believe in the living God; and have made 
 themselves instead dead gods — if not of wood and stone, 
 still out of their own thoughts and imaginations; and 
 talk of laws of nature, and long abstractions ending in 
 
XVII.] LIFE. 199 
 
 ation and ality, like that "Evolution" with which so 
 many are in love just now; and worship them as gods; 
 mere words, the work of their own brains, though not 
 of their own hands — even though they be — as many of 
 them are — Evolution, I hold, among the rest — true and 
 fair approximations to actual laws of God. But before 
 them, and behind them, and above them and below them, 
 lives the Author of Evolution, and of everything else. 
 For God lives, and reigns, and works for ever. The 
 Spirit of God proceedeth from the Father and the Son, 
 giving, evolving, and ruling the life of all created things; 
 and what we call nature, and this world, and the whole 
 universe, is an unfathomable mystery, and a perpetual 
 miracle. The one Author and Ruler of which is the ever- 
 blessed Trinity, of whom it is written — "The glorious 
 majesty of the Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall 
 rejoice in His works." 
 
 I believe, therefore, that the Psalmist in the text is 
 speaking, not merely sound doctrine but sound philo- 
 sophy. I believe that the simplest and the most rational 
 account of the mystery of life is that which is given by 
 the Christian faith; and that the Nicene Creed speaks 
 truth and fact, when it bids us call the Holy Spirit of 
 God the Lord and Giver of life. 
 
 That this is according to the orthodox Catholic Faith 
 there is no doubt. Many mistakes were made on this 
 matter, in the early times of the Church, even by most 
 learned and holy divines; as was to be expected, con- 
 sidering the mysteriousness of the subject. They were 
 inclined, often, to what is called Pantheism — that is, to 
 
200 LIFE. [SERM. 
 
 fancy that all living things are parts of God; that God's 
 Spirit is in them, as our soul is in our body, or as heat 
 is in a heated matter; and to speak of God's Spirit as 
 the soul and life of the world. 
 
 But this is exactly what the Nicene Creed does not 
 do. It does not say that the Holy Spirit is life : but 
 that He is the Lord and Giver of life — a seemingly 
 small difference in words : but a most vast and important 
 difference in meaning and in truth. 
 
 The true doctrine, it seems to me, is laid down most 
 clearly by the famous bishop, Cyril of Alexandria ; who, 
 whatever personal faults he had — and they were many — 
 had doubtless dialectic intellect enough for this, and 
 even deeper questions. And he says — " The Holy Spirit 
 moves all things that are moved; and holds together, 
 and animates, and makes alive, the whole universe. Nor 
 is He another Nature different from the Father and the 
 Son: but as He is in us; of the same nature and the 
 same essence as they." And so says another divine, 
 Eneas of Gaza — " The Father, with the Son, sends forth 
 the Holy Spirit ; and inspiring with this Spirit all things, 
 beyond sense and of sense — invisible and visible — fills 
 them with power, and holds them together, and draws 
 them to Himself" And he prays thus to the Holy 
 Spirit a prayer which is to my mind as noble as it is 
 true — " O Holy Spirit, by whom God inspires, and holds 
 together, and preserves all things, and leads them to 
 perfection." I quote such words to shew you that I am 
 not giving you new fancies of my own : but simply what 
 I believe to be the ancient, orthodox and honest mean- 
 
xvn.] LIFE. 20 1 
 
 ing of that same Nicene Creed, which you just now 
 heard ; where it says that the Holy Spirit is the Lord 
 and Giver of life; and the meaning of the 104th Psalm 
 also, where it says — " Thou lettest Thy breath — Thy 
 Spirit — go forth, and they shall be made, and Thou shall 
 renew the face of the earth.'' 
 
 And now — if anyone shall say — This may be all very 
 true. But what is it to me ? You are talking about 
 nature ; about animals and plants, and lands and seas. 
 What I come to church to hear of, is about my own 
 soul — 
 
 I should answer such a man — My good friend, you 
 come to church to hear about God as well as about what 
 you call your soul. And any sound knowledge which 
 you can learn about God, must be — believe me — of use 
 to your immortal soul. For if you have wrong notions 
 concerning God : how can you avoid having wrong no- 
 tions concerning your soul, which lives and moves and 
 has its being in God? 
 
 But look at it thus. At least I have been speaking 
 of the works of God. And are not you, too, a work of 
 God ? The Lord shall rejoice in His works, even to the 
 tiniest gnat that dances in the sun. Is the Lord re- 
 joicing in you ? I have said — Whither shall a man go 
 from God's presence? Are you forgetting or remem- 
 bering God's presence ? And — Whither shall a man flee 
 from God's Spirit ? Are you, O man, fleeing from God's 
 Spirit, and forgetting His gracious inspirations ; all pure 
 and holy, and noble, and just and lovely and truly hu- 
 man, thoughts, in the whirl of pleasure, or covetousness. 
 
202 LIFE. [SERM. 
 
 or ambition, or actual sin ? If so, look at the tiniest 
 gnat which dances in the air, the meanest flower beneath 
 your feet ; and be ashamed, and fear, and tremble before 
 the Living God, and before His Spirit. For the gnat 
 and the flower are doing their duty, and pleasing the 
 Holy Spirit of God; and you are not doing your duty, 
 and are grieving the Holy Spirit of God. For simply : 
 because that Spirit is the Spirit of God, He is a Holy 
 Spirit, who tries to make you — O man and not animal — 
 holy; a moral, and spiritual, and good being. Because 
 you are a moral and spiritual being, God's Spirit exer- 
 cises over you a moral power which He does not exer- 
 cise over the plants and animals. He works not merely 
 on your body and your brain : but on your heart and im- 
 mortal soul. But if you choose to be immoral, when He 
 is trying to keep you moral ; if you choose to be carnal 
 like the brutes, while He is trying to make you spiritual, 
 like Jesus Christ, from whom He proceeds: then, oh 
 then, tremble, and beware, and be ashamed before the 
 very flowers which grow in your own garden-bed; for 
 they fulfil the law which God has given them. They are 
 what they ought to be, each after its kind. But you 
 are not what you ought to be, after your kind; which is a 
 good man, or a good woman, or a good child. 
 
 Oh beware lest the Lord should fulfil in you the 
 awful words of this Psalm; lest He should hide His face 
 from you, and you be troubled; and lest when He takes 
 away your breath you should die, and turn again to your 
 dust; and find, too late, that the wages of sin are death — 
 death not merely of the body, but of the soul. Rather 
 
XVII.] LIFE. 203 
 
 repent, and amend, and remember that most blessed, 
 and yet most awful fact — that God's Spirit is with you 
 from your baptism until now, putting into your heart 
 good desires, and ready to enable you — if you will— to 
 bring those good desires to good effect : instead of 
 leaving them only as good intentions, with which, says 
 the too true proverb, hell is paved. 
 
 So will be fulfilled in you the blessed words of the 
 next verse — When Thou lettest Thy Spirit go forth, they 
 shall be made; and Thou shalt renew the face of the 
 earth — words which St Augustine of old applied to the 
 work of God's Spirit on the souls of men. 
 
 For well it is with us — as St Augustine says — when 
 God takes away from us our own spirit, the spirit of 
 pride and self-will and self-righteousness; and we see 
 that we are but dust and ashes; worse than the animals, 
 in that we have sinned, and they have not. Confess — 
 he says — thy weakness and thy dust: and then listen 
 to what follows: — Thou shalt take away from them 
 their own spirit; but Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit 
 on them, and they shall be made and created anew. 
 As the Apostle says, "We are God's own workmanship, 
 created in Christ Jesus unto good works." And so — 
 he says — God will indeed renew the face of the earth 
 with converted and renewed men, who confess that they 
 are not righteous in themselves, but made righteous by 
 the grace of the Spirit of God; and so the Lord shall 
 rejoice in His works; you will be indeed His work, and 
 He will rejoice in you. 
 
 Yes. God will indeed rejoice in us, if we obey the 
 
204 LIFE. [SERM. XVII. 
 
 godly inspirations of His Spirit. But again, we shall 
 rejoice in God; if we be but led by His Spirit into all 
 truth, and thence into all righteousness. Then we shall 
 be in harmony with God, and with the whole universe of 
 God. We shall have our share in that perpetual worship 
 which is celebrated throughout the universe by all crea- 
 tures, rational and irrational, who are obeying the laws 
 of their being; the laws of the Spirit of God, the Lord 
 and Giver of life. We shall take our part in that per- 
 petual Hymn which calls on all the works of the Lord, 
 from angels and powers, sun and stars, winds and seasons, 
 seas and floods, trees and flowers, beasts and cattle, to 
 the children of men, and the servants of the Lord, and 
 the spirits and souls of the righteous, and the holy and 
 humble men of heart — " O all ye works of the Lord, bless 
 ye the Lord, praise Him and magnify Him for ever.'' 
 
SERMON XVIII. 
 
 DEATH. 
 
 Psalm civ. 20, 21. 
 
 Thou makesl darkness, and it is night : wherein all the beasts of the 
 forest do creep forth. The lions roar after their prey, and seek 
 their meat from God. 
 
 Let me say a few words on this text. It is one which 
 has been a comfort to me again and again. It is one 
 which, if rightly understood, ought to give comfort to 
 pitiful and tender-hearted persons. 
 
 Have you never been touched by, never been even 
 shocked by, the mystery of pain and death ? I do not 
 speak now of pain and death among human beings: but 
 only of that pain and death among the dumb and irra- 
 tional creatures, which from one point of view is more 
 pitiful than pain and death among human beings. 
 
 For pain, suffering, and death, we know, may be of 
 use to human beings. It may make them happier and 
 better in this life, or in the life to come ; if they are the 
 Christians which they ought to be. But of what use can 
 suffering and death be to dumb animals ? How can it 
 make them better in this life, and happier in the life to 
 
2o6 DEATH. [SERM. 
 
 come ? It seems, in the case of animals, to be only so 
 much superfluous misery thrown away. Would to God 
 that people would remember that, when they unnecessarily 
 torment dumb creatures, and then excuse themselves by 
 saying — Oh, they are not human beings; they are not 
 Christians; and therefore it does not matter so much. 
 I should have thought that therefore it mattered all the 
 more : and that just because dumb animals have, as far 
 as we know, only this mortal life, therefore we should 
 allow them the fuller enjoyment of their brief mortality. 
 
 And yet, how much suffering, how much violent 
 death, there is among animals. How much? The 
 world is full of it, and has been full of it for ages. I 
 dare to say, that of the millions on millions of living 
 creatures in the earth, the air, the sea, full one-half live 
 by eating each other. In the sea, indeed, almost every 
 kind of creature feeds on some other creature: and what 
 an amount of pain, of terror, of violent death that means, 
 or seems to mean ! 
 
 We here, in a cultivated country, are slow to take in 
 this thought. We have not here, as in India, Africa, 
 America, lion and tiger, bear and wolf, jaguar and puma, 
 perpetually prowling round the farms, and taking their 
 tithe of our sheep and cattle. We have never heard, as 
 the Psalmist had, the roar of the lion round the village at 
 night, or seen all the animals, down to the very dogs, 
 crowding together in terror, knowing but too well what 
 that roar meant. If we had; and had been like the 
 Psalmist, thoughtful men : then it would have been a very 
 solemn question to us — From whom the lion was asking 
 
xvni.] DEATH. 20/ 
 
 for his nightly meal; whether from God, or from some 
 devil as cruel as himself? 
 
 But even here the same slaughter of animals by 
 animals goes on. The hawk feeds on the small birds, 
 the small birds on the insects, the insects, many of them, 
 on each other. Even our most delicate and seemingly 
 harmless songsters, like the nightingale, feed entirely on 
 living creatures — each one of which, however small, has 
 cost God as much pains — if I may so speak in all reve- 
 rence — to make as the nightingale itself; and thus, from 
 the top to the bottom of creation, is one chain of destruc- 
 tion, and pain, and death. 
 
 What is the meaning of it all? Ought it to be so, or 
 ought it not? Is it God's will and law, or is it not.^ That 
 is a solemn question; and one which has tried many a 
 thoughtful, and tender, and virtuous soul ere now, both 
 Christian and heathen; and has driven them to find 
 strange answers to it, which have been, often enough, 
 not according to Scripture, or to the Catholic Faith. 
 
 Some used to say, in old times; and they may say 
 again — This world, so full of pain and death, is a very 
 ill-made world. We will not believe that it was made by 
 the good God. It must have been made by some evil 
 being, or at least by some stupid and clumsy being — the 
 Demiurgus, they called him — or the world-maker — some 
 inferior God, whom the good God would conquer and de- 
 pose, and so do away with pain, and misery, and death. 
 A pardonable mistake : but, as we are bound to believe, 
 a mistake nevertheless. 
 
 Others, again, good Christians and good men like 
 
208 DEATH. [SERM. 
 
 wise, have invented another answer to the mystery — ^like 
 that which Milton gives in his 'Paradise Lost.' They 
 have said — Before Adam fell there was no pain or death 
 in the world. It was only after Adam's fall that the 
 animals began to destroy and devour each other. Ever 
 since then there has been a curse on the earth, and this 
 is one of the fruits thereof 
 
 Now I say distinctly, as I have said elsewhere, that 
 we are not bound to believe this or anything like it. The 
 book of Genesis does not say that the animals began to 
 devour each other at Adam's fall. It does not even say 
 that the ground is cursed for man's sake now, much less 
 the animals. For we read in Genesis ix. 21 — "And the 
 Lord said, I will not any more curse the ground for man's 
 sake." Neither do the Psalmists and Prophets give the 
 least hint of any such doctrine. Surely, if we found it 
 anywhere, we should find it in this very 104th Psalm, and 
 somewhere near the very verse which I have taken for my 
 text. But this Psalm gives no hint of it. So far from 
 saying that God has cursed His own works, or looks on 
 them as cursed: it says — "The Lord shall rejoice in His 
 works." 
 
 Others will tell us that St Paul has said so, where he 
 says that "by one man sin entered into the world, and 
 death by sin." But I must very humbly, but -s-ery firml)-, 
 demur to that. St Paul shews that when he speaks of 
 the world he means the world of men; for he goes on to 
 say, "And so death passed upon all men, in that all have 
 sinned." By mentioning men, he excludes the animals; 
 he excludes all who have not sinned : according to a 
 
XVIII.] DEATH. 209 
 
 sound rale of logic which lawyers know well. What St 
 Paul meant, I believe, is most probably this : that Adam, 
 by sinning, lost his heavenly birthright; and put on the 
 carnal and fleshly likeness of the animals, instead of the 
 likeness of God in which he was created; and therefore, 
 sowing to the flesh, of the flesh reaped corruption; and 
 became subject to death even as the dumb beasts are. 
 
 Be that as it may, we know — as certainly as we can 
 know anything from the use of our own eyes and common 
 sense — that long ages before Adam, long ages before men 
 existed on this earth, the animals destroyed and ate each 
 other, even as they are doing now. We know that ages 
 ago, in old worlds, long before this present world in 
 which we live, the seas swarmed with sharks and other 
 monsters, who not only died as animals do now, but who 
 did devour — for there is actual proof of it — other living 
 creatures; and that the same process went on on the 
 land likewise. The rocks and soils, for miles beneath 
 our feet, are one vast graveyard, full of the skeletons of 
 creatures, almost all unlike any living now, who, long 
 before the days of Adam, and still more before the days 
 of Noah, lived and died, generation after generation; and 
 sought their meat — from whom — if not from God? 
 
 Yes, that last is tlie answer — the only answer which 
 can give a thoughtful and tender-hearted soul comfort, 
 ■ at the sight of so much pain and death on earth — In 
 every unknown question, to take refuge in God. And 
 that is the answer which the inspired Psalmist gives, in 
 the 104th Psalm — "The lions roaring after their prey do 
 seek their meat from God." And if they seek it from 
 
2IO DEATH. [SERM. 
 
 God, all must be right: we know not how; but He who 
 made them knows. 
 
 Consider, with respect and admiration, the manful, 
 cheerful view of pain and death, and indeed of the whole 
 creation, which the Psalmist has, because he has faith. 
 There is in him no sentimentalism, no complaining of 
 God, no impious, or at least weak and peevish, cry of 
 "Why hast Thou made things thus?" He sees the 
 mystery of pain and death. He does not attempt to 
 explain it: but he faces it; faces it cheerfully and man- 
 fully, in the strength of his faith, saying — This too, mys- 
 terious, painful, terrible as it may seem, is as it should 
 be ; for it is of the law and will of God, from whom come 
 all good things; of The God in whom is light, and in 
 Him is no darkness at all. Therefore to the Psalmist the 
 earth is a noble sight; filled, to his eyes, with the fhiit of 
 God's works. And so is the great and wide sea likewise. 
 He looks upon it; "full of things creeping innumerable, 
 both small and great beasts,'' for ever dying, for ever 
 devouring each other. And yet it does not seem to him a 
 dreadful and a shocking place. What impresses his mind 
 is just what would impress the mind of a modem poet, 
 a modern man of science; namely, the wonderful variety, 
 richness, and strangeness of its living things. Their 
 natures and their names he knows not. It was not given 
 to his race to know. It is enough for him that known 
 unto God are all His works from the foundation of the 
 world. But one thing more important than their natures 
 and their names he does know; for he perceives it with 
 the instinct of a true poet and a true philosopher — 
 
XVTIT.] DEATH. 211 
 
 " These all wait upon thee, O God, that Thou mayest 
 give them meat in due season.'' 
 
 But more. — "There go the ships;'' things specially 
 wonderful and significant to him, the landsman of the 
 Judsean hills, as they were afterward to Muhammed, the 
 landsman of the Arabian deserts. And he has talked 
 with sailors from those ships; from Tarshish and the far 
 Atlantic, or from Ezion-geber and the Indian seas. And 
 he has heard from them of mightier monsters than his 
 own Mediterranean breeds; of the Leviathan, the whale, 
 larger than the largest ship which he has ever seen, roll- 
 ing and spouting among the ocean billows, far out of 
 sight of land, and swallowing, at every gape of its huge 
 jaws, hundreds of living creatures for its food. But he 
 does not talk of it as a cruel and devouring monster, 
 formed by a cruel and destroying deity, such as the old 
 Canaanites imagined, when — so the legend ran — they 
 offered up Andromeda to the sea-monster, upon that very 
 rock at Joppa, which the Psalmist, doubtless, knew full 
 well. No. This psalm is an inspired philosopher's re- 
 buke to that very superstition; it is the justification of 
 the noble old Greek tale, whicli delivers Andromeda by 
 the help of a hero, taught by the Gods who love to teach 
 mankind. 
 
 For what strikes the Psalmist is, again, exactly what 
 would strike a modern poet, or a modern man of science : 
 the strength and ease of the vast beast ; its enjoyment 
 of its ovm life and power. It is to him the Leviathan, 
 whom " God has made to play in the sea;" " to take his 
 pastime therein." 
 
 K. s. i6 
 
212 DEATH. [SERM. 
 
 Truly this was a heal thy -minded man; as all will be, 
 and only they, who have full faith in the one good God, 
 of whom are all things, both in earth and heaven. 
 
 Then he goes further still. He has looked into the 
 face of life innumerable. Now he looks into the face of 
 innumerable death; and sees there too the Spirit and the 
 work of God. 
 
 Thou givest to them ; they gather : 
 Thou openest thy hand ; they are filled with good : 
 Thou hidest thy face; they are troubled: 
 Thou takest away their breath; they die, and are 
 turned again to their dust. 
 Poetry ? Yes : but, like all highest poetry, highest philo- 
 sophy; and soundest truth likewise. Nay, he goes further 
 still— further, it may be, than most of us would dare to go, 
 had he not gone before us in the courage of his faith. 
 He dares to say, of such a world as this — " The glory of 
 the Lord shall endure for ever. The Lord shall rejoice 
 in His works." 
 
 The glory of the Lord, then, is shewn forth, and en- 
 dures for ever, in these animals of whom the Psalmist 
 has been speaking, though they devour each other day 
 and night. The Lord rejoices in His works, even though 
 His works hve by each other's death. The Lord shall 
 rejoice in His works — says this great poet and philo- 
 sopher. 
 
 But what Lord, and what God ? Ah, my friends, all 
 depends on the answer to that question. " There be," 
 says St Paul, "lords many, and gods many:" and since 
 his time, men have made fresh lords and gods for them- 
 
XVIII.] DEATH. 213 
 
 selves, and believed in them, and worshipped them, while 
 they fancied that they were believing in the one true 
 God, in the same God in whom the man believed who 
 wrote the 104th Psalm. 
 
 Do we truly believe in that one true God, Father, 
 Son and Holy Spirit ? 
 
 Let me beg you to consider that question earnestly. 
 The Psalmist, when he talked of the Lord, did not mean 
 merely what some people call the Deity, or the Supreme 
 Being, or the Creator. You will remark that I said — 
 What. I do not care to say, Wliom, of such a notion ; 
 that is, of a God who made the world, and set it going 
 once for all, but has never meddled with it; never, so to 
 speak, looked at it since : so that the world would go on 
 just the same, and just as well, if God thenceforth had 
 ceased to be. No : that is a dead God; an absentee 
 God — as one said bitterly once. But the Psalmist be- 
 lieved in the living God, and a present God, in whom 
 we live and move and have our being; in a God who 
 does not leave the world alone for a moment, nor in the 
 smallest matter, but is always interested in it, attending 
 to it, enforcing His own laws, working — if I may so 
 speak in all reverence — and using the most pitifully in- 
 sufficient analogy — working — I say — His own machinery; 
 making all things work together for good, at least to 
 those who love God ; a God mthout whom not a sparrow 
 falls to the ground, and in whose sight all the hairs of 
 our heads are numbered. 
 
 In one word, he believed in a living God. If anyone 
 had said to the Psalmist, as I have heard men say now- 
 
 16 — 2 
 
214 DEATH. [SERM. 
 
 a-days — Of course we believe, with you, in a general 
 Providence of God over the whole universe. But you 
 do not surely believe in special Providences ? That 
 would be superstition. God governs the world by law, 
 and not by special Providences. Then I believe that 
 the Psalmist would have answered — Laws? I believe 
 in them as much as you, and perhaps more than you. 
 But as for special Providences, I believe in them so 
 much, that I believe that the whole universe, and all that 
 has ever happened in it from the beginning, has hap- 
 pened by special Providences; that not an organic being 
 has assumed its present form, after long ages and genera- 
 tions, save by a continuous series of special Providences; 
 that not a weed grows in a particular spot, without a 
 special Providence of God that it should grow there, and 
 nowhere else; then, and nowhen else. I believe that 
 every step I take, every person I meet, every thought 
 which comes into my mind — which is not sinful — comes 
 and happens by the perpetual special Providence of God, 
 watching for ever with Fatherly care over me, and each 
 separate thing that He has made. 
 
 And if a modern philosopher — or one so called — had 
 said to him, — ' This is unthinkable and inconceivable, 
 and therefore cannot be. I cannot "think of" — I can- 
 not conceive a mind — or as I call it — " a series of states 
 of consciousness," as antecedent to the infinity of pro- 
 cesses simultaneously going on in all the plants that 
 cover the globe, from scattered polar lichens to crowded 
 tropical palms, and in all the millions of animals which 
 roam among them, and the millions of millions of insects 
 
xvm.] DEATH. 215 
 
 which buzz among them:' — Then the Psalmist would 
 have answered him, I believe, — ' If you cannot, my 
 friend, I can. And you must not make your power of 
 thought and conception the measure of the universe, or 
 even of other men's intellects ; or say — " Because I can- 
 not conceive a thing, therefore no man can conceive it, 
 and therefore it does not exist." But pray, O philoso- 
 pher, if you cannot think and conceive of the omni- 
 presence and omnipotence of God, what can you think 
 and conceive ? ' 
 
 Then if that philosopher had answered him — as some 
 would now-a-days — ' I can conceive that the properties 
 of very different elements, — and therefore the infinite 
 variety and richness of nature which I cannot conceive 
 as caused by a God — that the properties — I say — of 
 different elements result from differences of arrangement 
 arising by the compounding and recompounding of ulti- 
 mate homogeneous units' — Then, I think, the Psalmist 
 would have replied, as soon as he had — like Socrates of 
 old in a like case — recovered from the ' dizziness ' caused 
 by an eloquence so unlike his own — ' Why, this proposi- 
 tion is far more "unthinkable " to me, and will be to 999 
 of 1000 of the human race, than mine about a God and 
 a Providence. Alas ! for the vagaries of the mind of 
 man. When it wants to prove a pet theory of its own, it 
 will strain at any gnat, and swallow any camel.' 
 
 But again — if a philosopher of more reasonable mood 
 had said to him — as he very likely would say — ' This is a 
 grand conception of God : but what proof have you of 
 it ? How do you know that God does interfere, by spe- 
 
2l6 DEATH. [SERM. 
 
 cial Providences, in the world around us; not only, as 
 you say, perpetually; but even now and then, and 
 at all?' 
 
 Then the Psalmist, like all true Jews, would have 
 gone back to a certain old story which is to me the most 
 precious story, save one, that ever was written on earth; 
 and have taken his stand on that. He would have gone 
 back — as the Scripture always goes back — to the story of 
 Moses and the Israelites in Egypt, and have said — 
 ' Whatever I know or do not know about the Laws of 
 nature, this I know — That God can use them as He 
 chooses, to punish the wicked, and to help the misera- 
 ble. For He did so by my forefathers. When we Jews 
 were a poor, small, despised tribe of slaves in Egypt, 
 The God who made heaven and earth shewed Himself 
 at once the God of nature, and the God of grace. For 
 He took the powers of nature; and fought with them 
 against proud Pharaoh and all his hosts; and shewed 
 that they belonged to Him ; and that He could handle 
 them all to do His work. He shewed that He was 
 Lord, not only of the powers of nature which give life 
 and health, but of those which give death and disease. 
 Nothing was too grand, nor too mean, for Him to use. 
 He took the Hghtning and the hail, and the pestilence, 
 and the darkness, and the East wind, and the spring- 
 tides of the Red sea; and He took also the locust- 
 swarms, and the frogs, and the lice, and the loathsome 
 skin-diseases of Egypt, and the microscopic atomies 
 which turn whole rivers into blood, and kill the fishj 
 and with them He fought against Pharaoh the man-God, 
 
XVIII.] DEATH. 217 
 
 the tyrant ruling at his own will in the name of his father 
 the sun-God and of the powers of nature; till Egypt was 
 destroyed, and Pharaoh's host drowned in the sea; And 
 He brought out my forefathers with a mighty hand and 
 an outstretched arm, because He had heard their cry in 
 Egypt, and saw their oppression under cruel taskmasters, 
 and pitied them, and had mercy on them in their slavery 
 and degradation.' That is my God — the old Psalmist 
 would have said. Not merely a strong God, or a wise 
 God; but a good God, and a gracious God, and a just 
 God likewise; a God who not only made heaven and 
 earth, the sea, and all that therein is, but who keepeth 
 His promise for ever; who helpeth them to right who 
 suffer wrong, and feedeth the hungry. 
 
 Yes, my friends, it is this magnificent conception of 
 God's living and actual goodness and justice, which the 
 Psalmist had, which made him trust God about all the 
 strange and painful things which he saw in the world — 
 about, for instance, the suffering and death of animals; 
 and say — ' If the lion roaring after his prey seeks his 
 meat, he seeks his meat from God: and therefore he 
 ought to seek it, and he will find it. It is all well: I 
 know not why : but well it is, for it is the law and will of 
 the good and righteous and gracious God, who brought 
 His people out of the land of Egypt. And that is 
 enough for me.' 
 
 Enough for him? and should it not be enough for us, 
 and more than enough? — We know what the Psalmist 
 knew not. We know God to be more good, more right- 
 eous, more gracious than any Prophet or Psalmist could 
 
2 1 8 DEA TH. [SERM. 
 
 know. We know that God so loved the world, that He 
 spared not His only-begotten Son, but freely gave Him 
 for us. We know that the only-begotten Son Jesus 
 Christ so loved the world that He stooped to be born 
 and suffer as mortal man, and to die on the cross, even 
 while He was telling men that not a sparrow fell to the 
 ground without the knowledge of their heavenly Father, 
 and bidding them see how God fed the birds and clothed 
 the hlies of the field. Ah, my friends, in this case, as in 
 all cases, rest and comfort for our doubts and fears is to 
 be found in one and the same place — at the foot of the 
 Cross of Christ. If we believe that He who hung upon 
 that Cross is — as He is — the maker and ruler of the 
 universe, the same from day to day and for ever : then 
 we can trust Him in darkness as well as in light ; in 
 doubt as well as in certainty; in the face of pain, dis- 
 ease, and death, as well as in the face of joy, health, and 
 life; and say — Lord, we know not, but Thou knowest. 
 Lord, we believe, help Thou our unbelief Make us 
 sure that Thou, Lord, shalt save both man and beast. 
 For great are Thy mercies, O Lord; and the children 
 of men shall put their trust under the shadow of Thy 
 wings. 
 
 Yes, my friends, this is, after all, a strange world, a 
 solemn world, a world full of sad mysteries, past our un- 
 derstanding. As was said once by the holiest of mo- 
 dern Englishmen, now gone home to his rest — whose 
 bust stands worthily in yonder chapel — This is a world 
 in which men must be sometimes sad who love God, 
 and care for their fellow-men. 
 
XVIII.] DEATH. 219 
 
 But it is not over the dumb animals that we must 
 mourn. For they fulfil the laws of their being; and 
 whatever meat they seek, they seek their meat from 
 God. 
 
 Rather must we mourn over those human beings 
 who, being made in the likeness of God, and redeemed 
 again into that likeness by our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 baptized into that likeness by the Holy Spirit, put on 
 again of their own will the likeness of the beasts which 
 perish ; and find too often, alas ! too late, that the wages 
 of sin are death. 
 
 Rather must we mourn for those human beings who 
 do not fulfil the laws of their being: but break those 
 laws by sin; till they are ground by them to powder. 
 
 Rather must we mourn for those who seek their 
 meat, not from God, but from the world and the flesh; 
 and neglect the bread which cometh down from heaven, 
 and the meat which endureth to eternal life, whereof the 
 Lord who gives it said — Seek ye first the kingdom of 
 God, and His righteousness, and all other things shall 
 be added unto you. 
 
 Rather must we pray for ourselves, and for all we 
 love, that God's Spirit of eternal life would raise us up, 
 more and more day by day, out of the likeness of the 
 old Adam, who was of the earth, earthy; of whom it is 
 written that — like the animals — dust he was, and unto 
 dust he must return; and would mould us into the hke- 
 ness of the new Adam, who is the Lord from heaven, 
 into the likeness of which it is written, that it is created 
 after God's image, in righteousness and true holiness. 
 
220 DEATH. [serm. XVIII. 
 
 the end of which is not death, but everlasting life through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 And so will be fulfilled in us the saying of the Psalm- 
 ist; and the Lord shall rejoice in His works: for we too, 
 not only body and soul, but spirit also, shall be the work 
 of God; and God will rejoice in us, and we in God. 
 
SERMON XIX. 
 
 SIGNS AND WONDERS. 
 
 John iv. +8 — 50. 
 
 Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will 
 not believe. The nobleman saith unto him. Sir, come down ere 
 my child die. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son 
 liveth. 
 
 These words of our Lord are found in the Gospel for 
 this day. They are a rebuke, though a gentle one. He 
 reproved the nobleman, seemingly, for his want of faith : 
 but He worked the miracle, and saved the life of the 
 child. 
 
 We do not know enough of the circumstances of 
 this case, to know exactly why our Lord reproved the 
 nobleman ; and what want of faith He saw in him. 
 Some think that the man's fault was his mean notion 
 of our Lord's power; his wish that He should come 
 down the hills to Capernaum, and see the boy Himself, 
 in order to cure him ; whereas he ought to have known 
 that our Lord could cure him — as He did — at a distance, 
 and by a mere wish, which was no less than a command 
 to nature, and to that universe which He had made. 
 
222 SIGNS AND WONDERS. [serm. 
 
 I cannot tell how this may be : but of one thing T 
 think we may be sure — That this saying of our Lord's is 
 very deep, and very wide ; and applies to many people, 
 in many times — perhaps to us in these modem times. 
 
 We must recollect one thing — That our Lord did 
 not put forward the mere power of His miracles as the 
 chief sign of His being the Son of God. Not so : He 
 declared His almighty power most chiefly by shewing 
 mercy and pity. Twice He refused to give the Scribes 
 and Pharisees a sign from heaven. "An evil and adul- 
 terous generation," He said, " seeketh after a sign : but 
 there shall be no sign given them, but the sign of the 
 prophet Jonas.'' And what was that, — but a warning 
 to repent, and mend their ways, ere it was too late } 
 
 Now the shghtest use of our common sense must 
 tell us, that our Lord could have given a sign of His 
 almighty power if He had chosen ; and such a sign as no 
 man, even the dullest, could have mistaken. What 
 prodigy could He not have performed, before Scribes 
 and Pharisees, Herod, and Pontius Pilate ? " Thinkest 
 thou,'' He said Himself, " that I cannot now pray to 
 My Father, and He will send Me presently more than 
 twelve legions of angels?" Yet how did our Lord use 
 that miraculous and almighty power of His ? Sparingly, 
 and secretly. Sparingly; for He used it almost entirely 
 in curing the diseases of poor people ; and secretly ; for 
 He used it almost entirely in remote places. Jerusalem 
 itself, recollect, was at best a remote city compared with 
 any of the great cities of the Roman empire. And even 
 there He refused to cast Himself down from a pinnacle 
 
XIX.] SIGNS AND WONDERS. 223 
 
 of the temple, for a sign and wonder to the Jews. If 
 He, the Lord of the world, had meant to convert the 
 world by prodigious miracles, He would surely have 
 gone to Rome itself, the very heart and centre of the 
 civilized world, and have shewn such signs and wonders 
 therein, as would have made the Caesar himself come 
 down from his throne, and worship Him, the Lord of all. 
 
 But no. Our Lord wished for the obedience, not of 
 men's lips, but of their hearts. It was their hearts which 
 He wished to win, that they might love Him — and be 
 loyal to Him — for the sake of His goodness ; and not 
 fear and tremble before Him for the sake of His power. 
 And therefore He kept, so to speak, His power in the 
 background, and put His goodness foremost ; only shew- 
 ing His power in miracles of healing and mercy ; that 
 so poor neglected, oppressed, hardworked souls might 
 understand that whoever did not care for them, Christ 
 their Lord did ; and that their disease and misery were 
 not His will ; nor the will of His Father and their 
 Father in heaven. 
 
 But because, also, Christ was Lord of heaven and 
 earth ; therefore — if I may make so bold as to guess at 
 the reason for anything which He did — He seems to 
 have interfered as little as possible with those regular 
 rules and customs of this world about us, which we now 
 call the Laws of Nature. He did not offer — as the 
 magicians of His time did offer — and as too many have 
 pretended since to do — to change the courses of the 
 elements, to bring down tempests or thunderbolts, to 
 shew prodigies in the heaven above, and in the earth 
 
224 SIGNS AND WONDERS. [serm. 
 
 beneath. Why should He? Heaven and earth, moon 
 and stars, fire and tempest, and all the physical forces 
 in the universe, were fulfilling His will already ; doing 
 their work right well according to the law which He had 
 given them from the beginning. He had no need to 
 disturb them, no need to disturb the growth of a single 
 flower at His feet. 
 
 Rather He loved to tell men to look at them, and 
 see how they went well, because His Father in heaven 
 cared for them. To tell people to look, not at prodigies, 
 comets, earthquakes, and the seeming exceptions of 
 God's rule : but at the common, regular, simple, peaceful 
 work of God, which is going on around us all day long 
 in every blade of grass, and flower, and singing bird, and 
 sunbeam, and shower. To consider the lilies of the 
 field how they grow : which toil not, neither do they 
 spin : and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his 
 glory was not arrayed like one of these. — And the birds 
 of the air : They sow not, neither reap, nor gather into 
 bams ; and yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. 
 How much more will He feed you, who can sow, and 
 reap, and gather into barns ? — O ye of little faidi, who 
 fancy always that besides sowing and reaping honestly, 
 you must covet, and cheat, and lie, and break God's 
 laws instead of obeying them ; or else, forsooth, you 
 cannot earn your living? To see that the signs of 
 God's Kingdom are not astonishing convulsions, terrible 
 catastrophes and disorders : but order, and peace, and 
 usefulness, in creatures which are happy, because they 
 live according to the law which God has given them, 
 
XIX.] S/G/\rS AND WONDERS. 225 
 
 and do their duty — that duty, of which the great poet of 
 the Enghsh Church has sung — 
 
 Stem Lawgiver I Thou yet dost wear 
 The Godhead's most benignant grace 
 Nor know we anything so fair 
 
 As is the smile upon thy face. 
 Flowers laugh before thee on their beds, 
 And fragrance in thy footing treads ; 
 Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong, 
 And the most ancient heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong. 
 
 But men would not beheve that in our Lord's time ; 
 neither would they believe it after His time. Will they 
 believe it even now? They craved after signs and won- 
 ders; they saw God's hand, not in the common sights 
 of this beautiful world; not in seed-time and harvest, 
 summer and winter; not in the blossoming of flowers, 
 and the song of birds: but only in strange portents, 
 absurd and lying miracles, which they pretended had 
 happened, because they fancied that they ought to have 
 happened : and so built up a whole literature of w«reason, 
 which remains to this day, a doleful monument of human 
 folly and superstition. 
 
 But is not this too true of some at least of us in this 
 very day? Must not people now see signs and wonders 
 before they believe in God? 
 
 Do they not consider whatever is strange and inex- 
 plicable, as coming immediately from God? Wliile what- 
 ever they are accustomed to, or fancy that they can ex- 
 plain, they consider comes in what they call the course 
 
226 S/GNS AND WONDERS. [serm 
 
 of nature, without God's having anything to do with 
 it? 
 
 If a man drops down dead, they say he died "by 
 the hand of God," or "by the visitation of God:" as 
 if any created thing or being could die, or live either, 
 save by the will and presence of God : as if a sparrow 
 could fall to the ground without our Father's know- 
 ledge. But so it is; because men's hearts are far from 
 God. 
 
 If an earthquake swallowed up half London this very 
 day, how many would be ready to cry, "Here is a 
 visitation of God. Here is the immediate hand of God. 
 Perhaps Christ is coming, and the end of the world at 
 hand." And yet they will not see the true visitation, 
 the immediate hand of God, in every drop of rain which 
 comes down from heaven; and retumeth not again void, 
 but gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater. 
 But so it always has been. Men used to see God 
 and His power and glory almost exclusively in comets, 
 auroras, earthquakes. It was not so very long ago, that 
 the birth of monstrous or misshapen animals, and all 
 other prodigies, as they were called, were carefully noted 
 down, and talked of far and wide, as signs of God's 
 anger, presages of some coming calamity. — Atheists while 
 they are in safety, superstitious when they are in danger 
 — Requiring signs and wonders to make them believe — 
 Interested only in what is uncommon and seems to break 
 God's laws — Careless about what is common, and far 
 more wonderful, because it fulfils God's laws — Such have 
 most men been for ages, and will be, perhaps, to the end; 
 
XIX.] S/GJVS AMD WONDERS. 22/ 
 
 shewing themselves, in that respect, carnal and no wiser 
 than dumb animals. 
 
 For it is carnal, animal and brutish, and a sign of 
 want of true civilization, as well as of true faith, only to 
 be interested and surprised by what is strange ; like 
 dumb beasts, who, if they see anything new, are attracted 
 by it and frightened by it, at the same time : but who, 
 when once they are accustomed to it, and have found out 
 that it will do them no harm, are too stupid to feel any 
 curiosity or interest about it, though it were the most 
 beautiful or the most wonderful object on earth. 
 
 But I will tell you of a man after God's own heart, 
 who was not like the dumb animals, nor like the ungodly 
 and superstitious ; because he was taught by the Spirit of 
 God, and spoke by the Spirit of God. One who saw no 
 signs and wonders, and yet believed in God — namely, 
 the man who wrote the 139th Psalm. He needed no 
 prodigies to make him believe. The thought of his own 
 body, how fearfully and wonderfully it was made, was 
 enough to make him do that. He looked on the perfect 
 order and law which ruled over the development of his 
 own organization, and said — " I will praise Thee. For I 
 am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvellous are Thy 
 works, and that my soul knoweth right well. Thine eyes 
 did see my substance, yet being imperfect \ and in Thy 
 Book were all my members written, which day by day 
 were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. 
 How dear are Thy counsels unto me, O God ! how great 
 is the sum of them !" 
 
 And I will tell you of another man who needed no 
 K. s. 17 
 
228 SIGNS AND WONDERS. [sERM. 
 
 signs and wonders to make him believe — the man, namely, 
 who wrote the 19th Psalm. He looked upon the perfect 
 order and law of the heavens over his head, and the 
 mere sight of the sun and moon and stars was enough for 
 him; and he said — " The heavens declare the glory of 
 God, the firmament sheweth His handy-work. One day 
 telleth another, and one night certifieth another. There 
 is neither speech nor language, where their voice is not 
 heard among them." 
 
 And I will tell you of yet another man who needed 
 no signs and wonders to make him believe — namely, the 
 man who wrote the 104th Psalm. He looked on the 
 perfect order and law of the world about his feet ; and 
 said, — " O Lord, how manifold are Thy works. In wis- 
 dom hast Thou made them all : the earth is full of Thy 
 riches. So is the great and wide sea also, wherein are 
 things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. 
 These all wait upon Thee, that Thou mayest give them 
 their meat in due season. Thou givest to them ; they 
 gather. Thou openest Thy hand; they are filled with 
 good. Thou hidest Thy face ; they are troubled. Thou 
 takest away their breath, they die, and return to their 
 dust. Thou sendest forth Thy breath, they are created ; 
 and Thou renewest the face of the earth. The §lory of 
 the Lord shall endure for ever. The Lord shall rejoice 
 in His works." 
 
 My friends, let us all pray to God and to Christ, that 
 They will put into our hearts the Spirit by which those 
 psalms were written : that They will take from us the 
 evil heart of unbelief, which must needs have signs and 
 
XIX.] SJGNS AND WONDERS. 229 
 
 wonders, and forgets that in God we live and move and 
 have our being. For are we not all — even the very best 
 of us — apt to tempt our Lord in this very matter? 
 
 When all things go on in a common-place way with 
 us — that is, in this well-made world, comfortably, easily, 
 prosperously — how apt we all are — God forgive us — to 
 forget God. How we forget that on Him we depend for 
 every breath we draw ; that Christ is guarding us daily from 
 a hundred dangers, a hundred sorrows, it may be from a 
 hundred disgraces, of which we, in our own self-satisfied 
 blindness, never dream. How dull our prayers become, 
 and how short. We almost think, at times, that there is 
 no use in praying, for we get all we want without asking 
 for it, in what we choose to call the course of circum- 
 stances and nature. — God forgive us, indeed. 
 
 But when sorrow comes, anxiety, danger, how changed 
 we are all of a sudden. How gracious we are when 
 pangs come upon us— like the wicked queen-mother in 
 Jerusalem of old, when the invaders drove her out of her 
 cedar palace. How we cry to the Lord then, and get us 
 to our God right humbly. Then, indeed, we feel the 
 need of prayer. Then we try to wrestle with God, and 
 cry to Him — and what else can we do ? — like children 
 lost in the dark ; entreat Him, if there be mercy in Him 
 — as there is, in spite of all our folly — to grant some 
 special providence, to give us some answer to our bitter 
 entreaties. If He will but do for us this one thing, then 
 we will believe indeed. Then we will trust Him, obey 
 Him, serve Him, as we never did before. 
 
 Ah, if there were in Christ any touch of pride or 
 
 17 — 2 
 
230 S/G^S AND WONDERS. [serm. 
 
 malice ! Ah, if there were in Christ aught but a mag- 
 nanimity and a generosity altogether boundless ! Ah, if 
 He were to deal with us as we have dealt with Him ! 
 Ah, if He were to deal with us after our sins, and reward 
 us according to our iniquities ! 
 
 If He refused to hear us; if He said to us, — You 
 forgot me in your prosperity, why should I not forget you 
 in your adversity ? — What could we answer ? Would that 
 answer not be just? Would it not be deserved, however 
 terrible? But our hope and trust is, that He will not 
 answer us so ; because He is not our God only, but our 
 Saviour ; that He will deal with us as one who seeks and 
 saves that which is lost, whether it knows that it is lost 
 or not. 
 
 Our hope is, that the Lord is very pitiful and of 
 tender mercy ; that because He is man, as well as God, 
 He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; 
 that He knoweth our frame, He remembereth of what 
 we are made : else the spirit would fail before Him, and 
 the souls which He has made. So we can have hope, 
 that, though Christ rebuke us. He will yet hear us, if our 
 prayers are reasonable, and therefore according to His 
 will. And surely, surely, surely, if our prayers are for 
 the improvement of any human being ; if we are praying 
 that we, or any human being, may be made better men 
 and truer Christians at last, and saved from the tempta- 
 tions of the world, the flesh, and the devil — oh then, 
 then shall we not be heard? The Lord may keep us 
 long waiting, as He kept St Monica of old, when she 
 wept over St Augustine's youthful sins and follies. But 
 
XIX,] S/GJVS AND WONDERS. 23! 
 
 He may answer us, as He answered her by the good 
 bishop — "Be of good cheer. It is impossible that the 
 son of so many prayers should perish.'' And so, though 
 He may shame us, in our inmost heart, by the rebuke — 
 "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe" 
 — He will in the same breath grant our prayer, un- 
 deserved though His condescension be, and say — " Go 
 in peace, thy son liveth." 
 
SERMON XX. 
 
 THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD. 
 
 Luke xiii. i — 5. 
 
 There were present at that season some that told him of the Gali- 
 Iseans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 
 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these 
 Galileeans were sinners above all the Galiteans, because they 
 suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, 
 ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the 
 tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were 
 sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, 
 Nay : but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. 
 
 This story is often used, it seems to me, for a purpose 
 exactly opposite to that for which it is told. It is said 
 that because these Galilaeans, whom Pilate slew, and 
 these eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell, were 
 no worse than the people round them, that therefore 
 similar calamities must not be considered judgments and 
 punishments of God ; that it is an offence against Chris- 
 tian charity to say that such sufferers are the objects of 
 God's anger ; that it is an offence against good manners 
 to introduce the name of God, or the theory of a Divine 
 Providence, in speaking of historical e\'ents. They must 
 
SERM. XX.] THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD. 233 
 
 be ascribetl to certain brute forces of nature ; to certain 
 inevitable laws of history ; to the passions of men, to 
 chance, to fate, to anything and everything : rather than 
 to the will of God. 
 
 No man disagrees more utterly than I do with the 
 latter part of this language. But I cannot be astonished 
 at its popularity. It cannot be denied that the theory 
 of a Divine Providence has been much misstated ; that 
 the doctrine of final causes has been much abused ; that, 
 in plain Enghsh, God's name has been too often taken 
 in vain, about calamities, private and pubhc. Rational 
 men of the world, therefore, may be excused for begging 
 at times not to hear any more of Divine Providence ; 
 excused for doubting the existence of final causes ; ex- 
 cused for shrinking, whenever they hear a preacher begin 
 to interpret the will of God about this event or that. 
 They dread a repetition of the mistake — to call it by the 
 very gentlest term — which priests, in all ages, have been 
 but too ready to commit. For all priesthoods — whether 
 heathen or Christian, whether calling themselves priests, 
 or merely ministers and preachers — have been in all ages 
 tempted to talk as if Divine Providence was exercised 
 solely on their behalf; in favour of their class, their 
 needs, their health and comfort ; as if the thunders of 
 Jove never fell save when the priesthood needed, I had 
 almost said commanded, them. Thus they have too 
 often arrogated to themselves a right to define who was 
 cursed by God, which has too soon, again and again, 
 degenerated into a right to curse men in God's name ; 
 while they have too often taught men to believe only 
 
234 THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD. [serm. 
 
 in a Providence who interfered now and then on behalf 
 of certain favoured persons, instead of a Providence who 
 ruleSj always and everywhere, over all mankind. But 
 men have again and again reversed their judgments. 
 They have had to say — The facts are against you. You 
 prophesied destruction to such and such persons ; and 
 behold : they have not been destroyed, but live and 
 thrive. You said that such and such persons' calamities 
 were a proof of God's anger for their sins. We find 
 them, on the contrary, to have been innocent and vir- 
 tuous persons ; often martyrs for truth, for humanity, for 
 God. The facts, we say, are against you. If there be 
 a Providence, it is not such as you describe. If there 
 be judgments of God, you have not found out the laws 
 by which He judges : and rather than believe in your 
 theory of Providence, your theory of judgments, we will 
 believe in none. 
 
 Thus, in age after age, in land after land, has fana- 
 ticism and bigotry brought forth, by a natural revulsion, 
 its usual fruit of unbelief. 
 
 But — let men beHeve or disbelieve as they choose — 
 the warning of the Psalmist still stands true — "Be wise. 
 Take heed, ye unwise among the people. He that 
 nurtureth the heathen ; it is He that teacheth man know- 
 ledge, shall He not punish?" For as surely as there is 
 a God, so surely does that God judge the earth ; and 
 every individual, family, institution, and nation on the 
 face thereof; and judge them all in righteousness by His 
 Son Jesus Christ, whom He hath appointed heir of all 
 things, and given Him all power in heaven and earth ; 
 
XX.] THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD. 235 
 
 who reigns and will reign till He hath put all enemies 
 under His feet 
 
 This is the good news of Advent. And therefore it 
 is well that in Advent, if we beheve that Christ is ruling 
 us, we should look somewhat into the laws of His king- 
 dom, as far as He has revealed them to us; and among 
 others, into the law which — as I think — He laid down in 
 the text. 
 
 Now I beg you to remark that the text, taken 
 fully and fairly, means the very opposite to that popu- 
 lar notion of which I spoke in the beginning of my 
 sermon. 
 
 Our Lord does not say — Those Galiteans were not 
 sinners at all. Their sins had nothing to do with their 
 death. Those on whom the tower fell were innocent 
 men. He rather implies the very opposite. 
 
 We know nothing of the circumstances of either 
 calamity : but this we know — That our Lord warned the 
 rest of the Jews, that unless they repented — that is, 
 changed their mind, and therefore their conduct, they 
 would all perish in the same way. And we know that 
 that warning was fulfilled, within forty years, so hideously, 
 and so awfully, that the destruction of Jerusalem remains, 
 as one of the most terrible cases of wholesale ruin and 
 horror recorded in history; and — as I believe — a key to 
 many a calamity before and since. Like the taking of 
 Babylon, the fall of Rome, and the French Revolution, 
 it stands out in lurid splendour, as of the nether pit itself, 
 forcing all who believe to say in fear and trembling — 
 Verily there is a God that judgeth the earth — and a 
 
236 THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD. [serm. 
 
 warning to every man, class, institution, and nation on 
 earth, to set their houses in order betimes, and bear fruit 
 meet for repentance, lest the day come when they too 
 shall be weighed in the balance of God's eternal justice, 
 and found wanting. 
 
 But another lesson we may leam from the text, which 
 I wish to impress earnestly on your minds. These Gali- 
 laeans, it seems, were no worse than the other Galilasans: 
 yet they were singled out as examples: as warnings to 
 the rest. 
 
 BeHeving — as I do — that our Lord was always teach- 
 ing the universal through the particular, and in each 
 parable, nay in each comment on passing events, laying 
 down world-wide laws of His own kingdom, enduring 
 through all time — I presume that this also is one of the 
 laws of the kingdom of God. And I think that facts — 
 to which after all is the only safe appeal — prove that it is 
 so; that we see the same law at work around us every 
 day. I think that pestilences, conflagrations, accidents 
 of any kind which destroy life wholesale, even earth- 
 quakes and storms, are instances of this law; warnings 
 from God; judgments of God, in the very strictest 
 sense; by which He tells men, in a voice awful enough 
 to the few, but merciful and beneficent to the many, 
 to be prudent and wise; to learn henceforth either 
 not to interfere with the physical laws of His universe, 
 or to master and to wield them by reason and by 
 science. 
 
 I would gladly say more on this point, did time 
 allow : but I had rather now ask you to consider, whether 
 
XX.] THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD. 237 
 
 this same law does not reveal itself throughout history; 
 in many great national changes, or even calamities; and 
 in tlie fall of many an ancient and time-honoured institu- 
 tion. I believe that the law does reveal itself; and in 
 forms which, rightly studied, may at once teach us 
 Christian charity, and give us faith and comfort, as we 
 see that God, however severe, is still just. 
 
 I mean this — The more we read, in history, of the 
 fall of great dynasties, or of the ruin of whole classes, or 
 whole nations, the more we feel — however much we may 
 acquiesce with the judgment as a whole — sympathy with 
 the fallen. It is not the worst, but often the best, speci- 
 mens of a class or of a system, who are swallowed up by 
 the moral earthquake, which has been accumulating its 
 forces, perhaps for centuries. Innocent and estimable 
 on the whole, as persons, they are involved in the ruin 
 which falls on the system to which they belong. So far 
 from being sinners above all around them, they are often 
 better people than those around them. It is as if they 
 were punished, not for being who they were, but for 
 being what they were. 
 
 History is full of such instances; instances of which 
 we say and cannot help saying — What ha\'e they done 
 above all others, that on them above all others the 
 thunderbolt should fall? 
 
 Was Charles the First, for example, the worst, or the 
 best, of the Stuarts; and Louis the Sixteenth, of the 
 Bourbons ? Look, again, at the fate of Sir Thomas 
 More, Bishop Fisher, and the hapless monks of the 
 Charterhouse. Were they sinners above all who upheld 
 
238 THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD. [SERM. 
 
 the Romish system in England ? Were they not rather 
 among the righteous men who ought to have saved 
 it, if it could have been saved? And yet on them — 
 the purest and the holiest of their party — and not on 
 hypocrites and profligates, fell the thunderbolt. 
 
 What is the meaning of these things? — for a meaning 
 there must be ; and we, I dare to believe, must be meant 
 to discover it; for we are the children of God, into whose 
 hearts, because we are human beings and not mere 
 animals, He has implanted the inextinguishable longing 
 to ascertain final causes; to seek not merely the means 
 of things, but the reason of things; to ask not merely 
 How? but Why? 
 
 May not the reason be — I speak with all timidity and 
 reverence, as one who shrinks from pretending to thnxst 
 himself into the counsels of the Almighty — But may not 
 the reason be that God has wished thereby to condemn 
 not the persons, but the systems? That He has punished 
 them, not for their private, but for their public faults ? 
 It is not the men who are judged, it is the state of things 
 which they represent; and for that veiy reason may not 
 God have made an example, a warning, not of the worst, 
 but of the very best, specimens of a doomed class or 
 system, which has been weighed in His balance, and 
 found wanting ? 
 
 Therefore we need not suppose that these sufferers 
 themselves were the objects of God's wrath. We may 
 believe that of them, too, stands true the great Law, 
 "Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth 
 every son whom He receiveth." We may believe that 
 
XX.] THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD. 239 
 
 of them, too, stands true St Paul's great parable in i Cor. 
 xii., which, though a parable, is the expression of a per- 
 petually active law. They have built, it may be, on the 
 true foundation: but they have built on it wood, hay, 
 stubble, instead of gold and precious stone. And the 
 fire of God, which burns for ever against the falsehoods 
 and follies of the world, has tried their work, and it is 
 burned and lost. But they themselves are saved; yet as 
 through fire. 
 
 Looking at history in this light, we may justify God 
 for many a heavy blow, and fearful judgment, which 
 seems to the unbeliever a wanton cruelty of chance or 
 fate; while at the same time we may feel deep sympathy 
 with — often deep admiration for — many a noble spirit, 
 who has been defeated, and justly defeated, by those 
 irreversible laws of God's kingdom, of which it is written — 
 "On whomsoever that stone shall fall, it will grmd him 
 to powder." We may look with reverence, as well as 
 pity, on many figures in history, such as Sir Thomas 
 More's; on persons who, placed by no fault of their own 
 in some unnatural and unrighteous position; involved 
 in some decaying and unworkable system; conscious 
 more or less of their false position; conscious, too, of 
 coming danger, have done their best, according to their 
 light, to work like men, before the night came in which 
 no man could work; to do what of their duty seemed 
 still plain and possible; and to set right that which 
 would never come right more: forgetting that, alas, the 
 crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is 
 wanting cannot be numbered; till the flood came and 
 
240 THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD. [serm. 
 
 swept them away, standing bravely to the last at a post 
 long since untenable, but still — all honour to them — 
 standing at their post. 
 
 When we consider such sad figures on the page of 
 history, we may have, I say, all respect for their private 
 virtues. We may accept every excuse for their public 
 mistakes. And yet we may feel a solemn satisfaction at 
 their downfall, when we see it to have been necessary 
 for the progress of mankind, and according to those laws 
 and that will of God and of Christ, by which alone the 
 human race is ruled. We may look back on old orders 
 of things with admiration; even with a touch of par- 
 donable, though sentimental, regret. But we shall not 
 forget that the old order changes, giving place to the 
 new; 
 
 And God fulfils Himself in many ways, 
 
 Lest one good custom should corrupt the world. 
 
 And we shall believe, too, if we be wise, that all 
 these things were written for our example, that we may 
 see, and fear, and be turned to the Lord, each asking 
 himself solemnly, \\'hat is the system on which I am 
 governing my actions ? Is it according to the laws and 
 will of God, as revealed in facts ? Let me discover that 
 in time : lest, when it becomes bankrupt in God's books, 
 I be involved — I cannot guess how far — in the common 
 ruin of my compeers. 
 
 What is my duty ? Let me go and work at it, lest 
 a night come, in which I cannot work. What fruit am 
 I expected to bring forth? Let me train and cultivate 
 
XX.] THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD. 24 1 
 
 my mind, heart, whole humanity to bring it forth, lest 
 the great Husbandman come seeking fruit on me, and 
 find none. And if I see a man who falls in the battle of 
 life, let me not count him a worse sinner than myself; 
 but let me judge myself in fear and trembling; lest God 
 judge me, and I perish in like wise. 
 
SERMON XXI. 
 
 THE WAR IN HEAVEN. 
 
 Rev. XIX. ii — 16. 
 
 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse ; and he that 
 sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness 
 he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, 
 and on his head were many crowns ; and he had a nam.e written, 
 that no man Icnew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a 
 vesture dipped in blood : and Ills name is called The Word of 
 God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon 
 white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of 
 his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the 
 nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he 
 treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty 
 God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name 
 written, King of kings, and Lord of lords. 
 
 Let me ask you to consider seriously this noble passage. 
 It was never more worth men's while to consider it than 
 now, when various selfish and sentimental religions — 
 call them rather superstitions — have made men alto- 
 gether forget the awful reality of Clirist's kingdom; the 
 awful fact that Christ reigns, and will reign, till He has 
 put all enemies under His feet. 
 
SERM. XXI.] THE WAR IN HEA VEN. 243 
 
 Who, then, is He of whom the text speaks ? Who 
 is this personage, who appears eternally in heaven as 
 a warrior, with His garments stained with blood, the 
 leader of armies, smiting the nations, and ruling them 
 with a rod of iron ? 
 
 St John tells us that He had one name which none 
 knew save Himself But he tells us that He was called 
 Faithful and True; and he tells us, too, that He had 
 another name which St John did know; and that is, 
 " The Word of God." 
 
 Now who the Word of God is, all are bound to know 
 who call themselves Christians ; even Jesus Christ our 
 Lord, who was bom of the Virgin Mary, crucified under 
 Pontius Pilate, rose again the third day, ascended into 
 heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God. 
 
 He it is who makes everlasting war as King of kings 
 and Lord of lords. But against what does He make 
 war ? His name tells us that. For it is — Faithful and 
 True; and therefore He makes war against all things 
 and beings who are unfaithful and false. He Himself is 
 full of chivalry, full of fidelity ; and therefore all that is 
 unchivalrous and treacherous is hateful in His eyes ; and 
 that which He hates. He is both able and willing to 
 destroy. 
 
 Moreover, He makes war in righteousness. And 
 therefore all men and things which are unrighteous and 
 unjust are on the opposite side to Him ; His enemies, 
 which He will trample under His feet. The only hope 
 for them, and indeed for all mankind, is that He does 
 make war in righteousness, and that He Himself is faith- 
 K. s. 18 
 
244 THE WAR IN HEAVEN. [serm. 
 
 ful and true, whoever else is not ; that He is always 
 just, always fair, always honourable and courteous ; that 
 He always keeps His word; and governs according to 
 fixed and certain laws, which men may observe and cal- 
 culate upon, and shape their conduct accordingly, sure 
 that Christ's laws will not change for any soul on earth 
 or in heaven. But, within those honourable and cour- 
 teous conditions, He will, as often as He sees fit, smite 
 the nations, and rule them with a rod of iron ; and 
 tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Al- 
 mighty God. 
 
 And if any say — as too many in these luxurious 
 unbelieving days will say — What words are these? 
 Threatening, terrible, cruel ? My answer is, — The words 
 are not mine. I did not put them into the Bible. I 
 find them there, and thousands like them, in the New 
 Testament as well as in the Old, in the Gospels and 
 Epistles as well as in the Revelation of St John. If 
 you do not like them, your quarrel must be, not with 
 me, but with the whole Bible, and especially with St 
 John the Apostle, who said — " Little children, love one 
 another •" and who therefore was likely to have as much 
 love and pity in his heart as any philanthropic, or senti- 
 mental, or superstitious, or bigoted, personage of modem 
 days. 
 
 And if any one say, — But you must mistake the 
 meaning of the text. It must be understood spiritually. 
 The meek and gentle Jesus,' who is nothing but love and 
 mercy, cannot be such an awful and destroying being 
 as you would make Him out to be. Then I must 
 
XXI.] THE WAR IN HEAVEN. 245 
 
 answer — That our Lord was meek and gentle when on 
 earth, and therefore is meek and gentle for ever and 
 ever, there can be no doubt. " I am meek and lowly 
 of heart," He said of Himself. But with that meekness 
 and lowliness, and not in contradiction to it, there was, 
 when He was upon earth, and therefore there is now 
 and for ever, a burning indignation against all wrong 
 and falsehood ; and especially against that worst form 
 of falsehood — hypocrisy ; and that worst form of hypo- 
 crisy- — covetousness which shelters itself under religion. 
 
 When our Lord saw men buying and selling in the 
 temple, He made a scourge of cords, and drove them 
 out, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, 
 and said, — "It is written, my Father's house is a house 
 of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves." 
 
 When He faced the Pharisees, who were covetous, 
 He had no meek and gentle words for them : but, " Ye 
 serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape 
 the damnation of hell.''" 
 
 And because His character is perfect and eternal : 
 because He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, 
 we are bound by the Christian faith to believe that He 
 has now, and will have for ever, the same Divine in- 
 dignation against wrong, the same determination to put 
 it do-vvn : and to cast out of His kingdom, which is 
 simply the whole universe, all that offends, and whoso- 
 ever loveth and maketh a lie. 
 
 And if any say, as some say now-a-days — "Ah, but 
 you cannot suppose that our Lord would propagate His 
 Gospel by the sword, or wish Christians to do so." 
 
246 THE WAR IN HEAVEN. [SERM. 
 
 My friends, this chapter and this sermon has nothing 
 to do with the propagation of the Gospel, in the popular 
 sense ; nothing to do with converting heathens or others 
 to Christianity. It has to do with that awful government 
 of the world, of which the Bible preaches from beginning 
 to end; that moral and providential kingdom of God, 
 which rules over the destiny of every kingdom, every 
 nation, every tribe, every family, nay, over the destiny 
 of each human being ; ay, of each horde of Tartars on 
 the furthest Siberian steppe, and each group of savages 
 in the furthest island of the Pacific ; rendering to each 
 man according to his works, rewarding the good, pun- 
 ishing the bad, and exterminating evildoers, even whole- 
 sale and seemingly without discrimination, when the 
 measure of their iniquity is full. Christ's herald in this 
 noble chapter calls men, not to repentance, but to in- 
 evitable doom. His angel — His messenger — stands in 
 the sun, the source of light and life ; above this petty 
 planet, its fashions, its politics, its sentimentalities, its 
 notions of how the universe ought to have been made 
 and managed ; and calls to whom ? — to all the fowl that 
 fly in the firmament of heaven — " Come and gather 
 yourselves together, to the feast of the great God, that 
 ye may eat the flesh of kings, and of captains, and of 
 mighty men ; and the flesh of horses and of them that 
 sit on them ; and the flesh of all men, both free and 
 slave, both small and great." 
 
 What those awful words may mean I cannot say. But 
 this I say, that the Apostle would never have used such 
 words, conveying so plain and so terrible a meaning to 
 
XXI.] THE WAR IN HEAVEN. 247 
 
 anyone who has ever seen or heard of a battle-field, if he 
 had really meant by them nothing like a battle-field 
 at all. 
 
 It may be that these words have fulfilled themselves 
 many times — at the fall of Jerusalem — at the wars which 
 convulsed the Roman empire during the first century 
 after Christ — at the final fall of the Roman empire before 
 the lances of our German ancestors — in many another 
 great war, and national calamity, in many a land since 
 then. It may be, too, that, as learned divines have 
 thought, they will have their complete fulfilment in some 
 war of all wars, some battle of all battles ; in which all 
 the powers of evil, and all those who love a lie, shall be 
 arrayed against all the powers of good, and all those who 
 fear God and keep His commandments : to fight it out, 
 if the controversy can be settled by no reason, no per- 
 suasion ; a battle in which the whole world shall discover 
 that, even in an appeal to brute force, the good are 
 stronger than the bad ; because they have moral force 
 also on their side; because God and the laws of His 
 whole universe are fighting for them, against those who 
 transgress law, and outrage reason. 
 
 The wisest of living Britons has said, — " Infinite Pity, 
 yet infinite rigour of Law. It is so that the world is 
 made." I should add. It is so the world must be made, 
 because it is made by Jesus Christ our Lord, and its 
 laws are the likeness of His character ; pitiful, because 
 Christ is pitiful; and rigorous, because He is rigorous. 
 So pitiful is Christ, that He did not hesitate to be 
 slain for men, that mankind through Him might be 
 
248 THE WAR IN HEAVEN. [serm. 
 
 saved. But so rigorous is Christ, that He does not 
 hesitate to slay men, if needful, that mankind thereby 
 may be saved. War and bloodshed, pestilence and 
 famine, earthquake and tempest— all of them, as sure as 
 there is a God, are the servants of God, doing His awful 
 but necessary work, for the final benefit of the whole 
 human race. 
 
 It may be difficult to believe this : at least to believe 
 it with the same intense faith with which prophets and 
 apostles of old believed it, and cried — " When Thy judg- 
 ments, O Lord, are abroad in the earth, then shall the 
 inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.'' But we 
 must believe it : or we shall be driven to believe in no 
 God at all ; and that will be worse for us than all the 
 evil that has happened to us from our youth up until 
 now. 
 
 But most people find it very difficult to believe in 
 such a God as the Scripture sets forth — a God of bound- 
 less tenderness ; and yet a God of boundless indig- 
 nation. 
 
 The covetous and luxurious find it very difficult to 
 understand such a being. Their usual notion of tender- 
 ness is a selfish dislike of seeing any one else uncom- 
 fortable, because it makes them uncomfortable likewise. 
 Their usual notion of indignation is a selfish desire of 
 revenge against anyone who interferes -ndth their comfort. 
 And therefore they have no wholesome indignation 
 against wrong and wrong-doers, and a great deal of un- 
 wholesome tenderness for them. They are afraid of any 
 one's being punished ; probably from a fellow-feeling ; a 
 
XXI.] THE WAR IN HEAVEN. 249 
 
 suspicion that they deserve to be punished themselves. 
 They hate and dread honest severity, and stern exercise 
 of lawful power. They are indulgent to the bad, severe 
 upon the good; till, as has been bitterly but too truly 
 said, — " Public opinion will allow a man to do anything, 
 except his duty." 
 
 Now this is a humour which cannot last. It breeds 
 weakness, anarchy, and at last ruin to society. And then 
 the effeminate and luxurious, terrified for their money 
 and their comfort, fly from an unwholesome tenderness 
 to an unwholesome indignation ; break out into a panic 
 of selfish rage ; and become, as cowards are apt to do, 
 blindly and wantonly cruel ; and those who fancied God 
 too indulgent to punish His enemies, will be the very 
 first to punish their own. 
 
 But there are those left, I thank God, in this land, 
 who have a clear understanding of what they ought to be, 
 and an honest desire to be it ; who know that a manful 
 indignation against wrong-doing, a hearty hatred of false- 
 hood and meanness, a rigorous determination to do their 
 duty at all risks, and to repress evil with all severity, may 
 dwell in the same heart with gentleness, forgiveness, ten- 
 derness to women and children ; active pity to the weak, 
 the sick, the homeless; and courtesy to all mankind, even 
 to their enemies. 
 
 God grant that that spirit may remain alive among us. 
 For witliout it we shall not long be a strong nation ; not 
 indeed long a nation at all. And it is alive among us. 
 Not that we, any of us, have enough of it — God forgive 
 us for all our shortcomings. And God grant it may 
 
250 l^HE WAR IN HEAVEN. [SERM. 
 
 remain alive among us ; for it is, as far as it goes, the 
 likeness of Christ, the Maker and Ruler of the world 
 " Christian," said a great genius and a great divine, 
 
 "If thou wouldst learn to love, 
 Thou first must learn to hate." 
 
 And if any one answer — " Hate ? Even God hateth no- 
 thing that He has made." The rejoinder is, — And for 
 that very reason God hates evil ; because He has not 
 made it, and it is ruinous to all that He has made. 
 
 Go you and do likewise. Hate what is wrong with 
 all your heart, and mind, and soul, and strength. For so, 
 and so only, you will shew that you love God with all 
 your heart, and mind, and soul, and strength, likewise. 
 
 Oh pray — and that not once for all merely, but day 
 by day, ay, almost hour by hour — Strengthen me, O 
 Lord, to hate what Thou hatest, and love what Thou 
 lovest ; and therefore, whenever I see an opportunity, to 
 put down what Thou hatest, and to help what Thou lovest 
 — That so, at the last dread day, when every man shall 
 be rewarded according to his works, you may have some 
 answer to give to the awful question — On whose side 
 wert thou in the battle of life ? On the side of good men 
 and of God, or on the side of bad men and the devil ? 
 Lest you find yourselves forced to reply — as too many 
 will be forced — with surprise, and something like shame 
 and confusion of face — I really do not know. I never 
 thought about the matter at all. I never knew that there 
 was any battle of life. 
 
 Never knew that there was any battle of life? And yet 
 
XXI.] THE WAR IN HEAVEN. 25 I 
 
 you were christened, and signed with the sign of the 
 Cross, in token that you should fight manfully under 
 Christ's banner against sin, the world, and the devil, and 
 continue Christ's faithful soldier and servant to your life's 
 end. Did it never occur to you that those words might 
 possibly mean something ? And you used to sing hymns, 
 too, on earth, about "Soldiers of Christ, arise. And put 
 your armour on.'' What prophets, and apostles, and 
 martyrs, and confessors meant by those words, you should 
 know well enough. Did it never occur to you that they 
 might possibly mean something to you? That as long as 
 the world was no better than it is, there was still a battle 
 of life; and that you too were sworn to fight in it? How 
 many will answer — Yes — Yes — But I thought that these 
 words only meant having my soul saved, and going to 
 heaven when I died. And how did you expect to do 
 that? By believing certain doctrines which you were 
 told were true ; and leading a tolerably respectable life, 
 without which you would not have been received into 
 society? Was that all which was needed to go to heaven? 
 And was that all that was meant by fighting manfully 
 under Christ's banner against sin, the world, and the 
 devil? Why, Cyrus and his old Persians, 2,400 years 
 ago, were nearer to the kingdom of God than that. 
 They had a clearer notion of what the battle of life 
 meant than that, when they said that not only the man 
 who did a merciful or just deed, but the man who 
 drained a swamp, tilled a field, made any little comer of 
 the earth somewhat better than he found it, was fighting 
 against Ahriman the evil spirit of darkness, on the side 
 
252 THE WAR IN HEAVEN. [serm. xxi. 
 
 of Ormuzd the good god of light ; and that as he had 
 taken his part in Ormuzd's battle, he should share in 
 Ormuzd's triumph. 
 
 Oh be at least able to say in that day, — Lord, I am 
 no hero. I have been careless, cowardly, sometimes all 
 but mutinous. Punishment I have deserved, I deny it 
 not. But a traitor I have never been ; a deserter I have 
 never been. I have tried to fight on Thy side in Thy 
 battle against evil. I have tried to do the duty which 
 lay nearest me ; and to leave whatever Thou didst 
 commit to my charge a little better than I found it. I 
 have not been good: but I have at least tried to be 
 good. I have not done good, it may be, either: but I have 
 at least tried to do good. Take the will for the deed, 
 good Lord. Accept the partial self-sacrifice which Thou 
 didst inspire, for the sake of the one perfect self-sacrifice 
 which Thou didst fulfil upon the Cross. Pardon my 
 faults, out of Thine own boundless pity for human weak- 
 ness. Strike not my unworthy name off the roll-call of 
 the noble and victorious army, which is the blessed com- 
 pany of all faithful people; and let me, too, be found 
 written in the Book of Life: even though I stand the 
 lowest and last upon its list. Amen. 
 
SERMON XXII. 
 
 NOBLE COMPANY. 
 
 Hebrews xii. 21, 23. 
 
 Ve are come to the city of the living God, and to the spirits of just 
 men made perfect. 
 
 I HAVE quoted only part of the passage of Scripture in 
 which these words occur. If you want a good employ- 
 ment for All Saints' Day, read the whole passage, the 
 whole chapter; and no less, the nth chapter, which 
 comes before it : so will you understand better the mean- 
 ing of All Saints' Day. But sufficient for the day is the 
 good thereof, as well as the evil ; and the good which I 
 have to say this morning is — You are come to the spirits 
 of just men made perfect; for this is All Saints' Day. 
 
 Into the presence of this noble company we have 
 come : even nobler company, remember, than that which 
 was spoken of in the text. For more than 1800 years 
 have passed since the Epistle to the Hebrews was writ- 
 ten: and how many thousands of just men and women, 
 pure, noble, tender, wise, beneficent, have graced the 
 earth since then, and left their mark upon mankind, and 
 helped forward the hallowing of our heavenly Father's 
 
254 NOBLE COMPANY. [serm. 
 
 name, the coming of His kingdom, the doing of His 
 will on earth as it is done in heaven ; and helped there- 
 fore to abolish the superstition, the misrule, the vice, and 
 therefore the misery of this struggling, moaning world. 
 How many such has Christ sent on this earth during the 
 last 1800 years. How many before that; before His 
 own coming, for many a century and age. We know 
 not, and we need not know. The records of Holy 
 Scripture and of history strike with light an isolated 
 mountain peak, or group of peaks, here and here through 
 the ages; but between and beyond all is dark to us now. 
 But it may not have been dark always. Scripture and 
 history likewise hint to us of great hills far away, once 
 brilliant in the one true sunshine which comes from God, 
 now shrouded in the mist of ages, or literally turned 
 away beyond our horizon by the revolution of our 
 planet: and of lesser hills, too, once bright and green 
 and fair, giving pasture to lonely flocks, sending down 
 fertilizing streams into now forgotten valleys; themselves 
 all but forgotten now, save by the God who made and 
 blessed them. 
 
 Yes: many a holy soul, many a useful soul, many a 
 saint who is now at God's right hand, has lived and 
 worked, and been a blessing, himself blest, of whom the 
 world, and even the Church, has never heard, who will 
 never be seen or known again, till the day in which the 
 Lord counteth up His jewels. 
 
 Let us rejoice in that thought on this day, above all 
 days in the year. On this day we give special thanks to 
 God for all His servants departed this life in His faith 
 
xxii.] NOBLE COMPANY. 255 
 
 and fear. Let us rejoice in the thought that we know 
 not how many they are; only that they are an innumer- 
 able company, out of all tongues and nations, whom no 
 man can number. Let us rejoice that Christ's grace is 
 richer, and not poorer, than our weak imaginations can 
 conceive, or our narrow systems account for. Let us 
 rejoice that the goodly company in whose presence we 
 stand, can be limited and defined by no mortal man, or 
 school of men : but only by Him from whom, with the 
 Father, proceeds for ever the Holy Spirit, the inspirer of 
 all good ; and who said of that Spirit — " The wind 
 bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound 
 thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whi- 
 ther it goeth. So is every one who is born of the Spirit" 
 — and who said again, "John came neither eating nor 
 drinking, and ye said. He hath a devil. The Son of man 
 came eating and drinking, and ye say. Behold a man 
 gluttonous and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and 
 sinners. But I say unto you, Verily wisdom is justified 
 of all her children" — and who said again — when John 
 said to Him, "Master, we saw one casting out devils in 
 Thy name, and he followeth not us" — "Forbid him not. 
 For I say to you, that he that doeth a miracle in My 
 name will not lightly speak evil of Me" — and who said, 
 lastly — and most awfully — that the unpardonable sin, 
 either in this life or the life to come, was to attribute 
 beneficent deeds to a bad origin, because they were per- 
 formed by one who differed from us in opinion; and to 
 say, "He casteth out devils by Beelzebub, prince of the 
 devils." 
 
2S6 NOBLE COMPANY. [serm. 
 
 These are words of our Lord, which we are specially 
 bound to keep in our minds, with reverence and godly 
 fear, on All Saints' Day, lest by arranging our calendar of 
 saints according to our own notions of who ought to be a 
 saint, and who ought not — that is, who agrees with our 
 notions of perfection, and who does not — we exclude our- 
 selves, by fastidiousness, from much unquestionably good 
 company; and possibly mix ourselves up with not a little 
 which is, to say the least, questionable. 
 
 Men in all ages, Churchmen or others, have fallen 
 into this mistake. They have been but too ready to limit 
 their calendar of saints; to narrow the thanksgivings 
 which they offer to God on All Saints' Day. 
 
 The Romish Church has been especially faulty on 
 this point. It has assumed, as necessary preliminaries 
 for saintship — at least after the Christian era — the 
 practice of, or at least the longing after, celibacy; and 
 after the separation of the Eastern and Western Churches, 
 unconditional submission to the Church of Rome. But 
 how has this injured, if not spoiled, their exclusive 
 calendar of saints. Amid apostles, martyrs, divines, 
 who must be always looked on as among the very 
 heroes and heroines of humanity, we find more than 
 one fanatic persecutor; more than two or three clearly 
 insane personages; and too many who all but justify the 
 terrible sneer — that the Romish Calendar is the "Pan- 
 theon of Hysteria." 
 
 And Protestants, too — How have they narrowed the 
 number of the spirits of just men made perfect; and con- 
 fined the Paean which should go up from the human race 
 
XXII.] NOBLE COMPANY. 25/ 
 
 on All Saints' Day, till a "saint" has too often meant 
 with them only a person who has gone through certain 
 emotional experiences, and assented to certain subjective 
 formulas, neitlier of which, according to the opinion of 
 some ofthe soundest divines, both of the Romish, Greek, 
 and Anglican communions, are to be found in the letter 
 of Scripture as necessary to salvation; and who have, 
 moreover, finished their course — doubtless often a holy, 
 beneficent, and beautiful course — by a rapturous death-bed 
 scene, which is more rare in the actual experience of cler- 
 gymen, and, indeed, in the conscience and experience of 
 human beings in general, than in the imaginations of the 
 writers of religious romances. 
 
 But we of the Church of England, as by law established 
 — and I recognize and obey, and shall hereafter recognize 
 and obey, no other — have no need so to narrow our All 
 Saints' Day; our joy in all that is noble and good which 
 man has said or done in any age or clime. We have no 
 need to define where formularies have not defined; to 
 shut where they have opened; to curse where they either 
 bless, or are humbly, charitably, and therefore divinely, 
 silent. With a magnificent faith in the justice of the 
 Father, and in the grace of Christ, and in the inspiration 
 of the Holy Spirit, our Church bids us — Judge not the 
 dead, lest ye be judged. Condemn not the dead, lest ye 
 be condemned. For she bids us commit to the earth the 
 corpses of all who die not " unbaptized," " excommunicate," 
 or wilful suicides, and who are willing to lie in our conse- 
 crated ground; giving thanks to God that our dear bro- 
 ther has been delivered from the miseries of this sinful 
 
2S8 NOBLE COMPANY. [serm. 
 
 world, and in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to 
 eternal life. 
 
 At least: we of the Abbey of Westminster have a 
 right to hold this; for we, thank God, act on it, and 
 have acted on it for many a year. We have a right to 
 our mde, free, charitable, and truly catholic conception 
 of All Saints' Day. Ay, if we did not use our right, 
 these walls would use it for us; and in us would our 
 Lord's words be fulfilled — If we were silent, the very 
 stones beneath our feet would cry out. 
 
 For hither we gather, as far as is permitted us, and 
 hither we gather proudly, the mortal dust of every noble 
 soul who has done good work for the British nation; 
 accepting each and all of them as gifts from the Father 
 of lights, from whom proceedeth every good and perfect 
 gift, as sent to this nation by that Lord Jesus Christ who 
 is the King of all the nations upon earth; and acknow- 
 ledging — for fear of falling into that Pelagian heresy, 
 which is too near the heart of every living man — that all 
 wise words which they have spoken, all noble deeds 
 which they have done, have come, must have come, 
 from The One eternal source of wisdom, of nobleness, of 
 every form of good; even from the Holy Spirit of God. 
 
 We make no severe or minute inquiries here. We 
 leave them, if they must be made, to God the Judge of 
 all things, and Christ who knows the secrets of the 
 hearts; to Him who is merciful in this : that He reward- 
 eth every man according to his works. 
 
 All we ask is — and all we dare ask — of divine or 
 statesman, poet or warrior, musician or engineer — of 
 
XXII.] NOBLE COMPANY. 259 
 
 Dryden or of Handel — of Isaac Watts or of Charles 
 Dickens — but why go on with the splendid diversities of 
 the splendid catalogue ? — What was your work ? Did 
 we admire you for it ? Did we love you for it ? And 
 why? Because you made us in some way or other 
 better men. Because you helped us somewhat toward 
 whatsoever things are pure, true, just, honourable, of 
 good report. Because, if there was any virtue — that is, 
 true valour and manhood; if there was any praise — that 
 is, just honour in the sight of men, and therefore surely 
 in the sight of the Son of man, who died for men; you 
 helped us to think on such things. You, in one word, 
 helped to make us better men. 
 
 Welcome then, friends unknown — and, alas ! friends 
 known, and loved, and lost — welcome into England's 
 Pantheon, not of superstitious and selfish hysteria, but of 
 beneficent and healthy manhood. 
 
 Your words and your achievements have gone out 
 into all lands, and your sound unto the ends of the 
 world; and let them go, and prosper in that for which 
 the Lord of man has sent them. Our duty is, to guard 
 your sacred dust. Our duty is, to point out your busts, 
 your monuments around these ancient walls, to all who 
 come, of every race and creed; as proofs that the an- 
 cient spirit is not dead; that Christ has not deserted the 
 nation of England, while He sends into it such men as 
 you; that Christ has not deserted the Church of Eng- 
 land, while He gives her grace to recognize and honour 
 such men as you, and to pray Christ that He would 
 keep up the sacred succession of virtue, talent, benefi- 
 K. s. 19 
 
26o NOBLE COMPANY. [serm. 
 
 cence, patriotism; and make us, most unworthy, at last 
 worthy, one at least here and there, of the noble dead, 
 above whose dust we now serve God. 
 
 Yes, so ought we in Westminster to keep our All 
 Saints' Day; in giving thanks to God for the spirits of 
 just men made perfect. Not only for those just men 
 and women innumerable, who — as I said at first — have 
 graced this earth during the long ages of the past : but 
 specially for those who lie around us here; with whom 
 we can enter, and have entered already, often, into spi- 
 ritual communion closer than that, almost, of child with 
 parent; whose writings we can read, whose deeds we can 
 admire, whose virtues we can copy, and to whom we 
 owe a debt of gratitude, we and our children after us, 
 which never can be repaid. 
 
 And if ever the thought comes over us — But these 
 men had their faults, mistakes — Oh, what of that ? 
 
 Nothing is left of them 
 Now, but pure manly. 
 
 Let us think of them: not as they were, compassed 
 round with infirmities — as who is not ? — knowing in part, 
 and seeing in part, as St Paul himself, in the zenith of 
 his inspiration, said that he knew; and saw, as through a 
 glass, darkly. 
 
 Let us think of them not as they were, the spirits of 
 just men imperfect : but as the spirits of just men made, 
 or to be made hereafter, perfect; when, as St Paul says, 
 " that which is in part is done away, and that which is 
 perfect is come." And let us trust Christ for them, as 
 
XXII.] NOBLE COMPANY. 261 
 
 we would trust Him for ourselves; sure "that the path 
 of the just is as a shining light, which shineth more and 
 more unto the perfect day." 
 
 Ah, how many lie in this Abbey, to meet whom in 
 the world to come, would be an honour most unde- 
 served ! 
 
 How many more worthy, and therefore more likely, 
 than any of us here, to behold that endless All Saints' 
 Day, to which may God in His mercy, in spite of all our 
 shortcomings, bring us all. Amen. 
 
 '9- 
 
SERMON XXIII. 
 
 DE PROFUNDIS. 
 
 Psalm cxxx. 
 
 Out of the deep have I called unto Thee, O Lord : Lord, hear my 
 voice. O let Thine ears consider well the voice of my complaint. 
 If Thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss, O 
 Lord, who may abide it? For there is mercy ^\'ith Thee, there- 
 fore shalt Thou be feared. I look for the Lord ; my soul doth 
 wait for Him : in His word is my trust. My soul fleeth unto 
 the Lord before the morning watch : I say, before the morning 
 watch. O Israel, trust in the Lord : for with the Lord there is 
 mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall 
 redeem Israel from all his sins. 
 
 Let us consider this psalm awhile, for it is a precious 
 heirloom to mankind. It has been a guide and a com- 
 fort to thousands and tens of thousands. Rich and poor, 
 old and young, Jews and Christians, Romans, Greeks, 
 and Protestants, have been taught by it the character of 
 God; and taught to love Him, and trust in Him, in 
 whom is mercy, therefore He shall be feared. 
 
 The Psalmist cries out of the deep ; out of the deep 
 of sorrow, perhaps, and bereavement, and loneliness ; or 
 out of the deep of poverty ; or out of the deep of per- 
 secution and ill-usage ; or out of the deep of sin, and 
 
SERM, xxm.] DE PROFUNDIS. 263 
 
 shame, and weakness which he hates yet cannot conquer; 
 or out of the deep of doubt, and anxiety — and ah! how 
 common is that deep ; and how many there are in it that 
 swim hard for their hves : may God help them and bring 
 them safe to land; — or out of the deep of overwork, so 
 common now-a-days, when duty lies sore on aching 
 shoulders, a burden too heavy to be borne. 
 
 Out of some one of the many deeps into which poor 
 souls fall at times, and find tliemselves in deep water 
 where no ground is, and in the mire wherein they are 
 ready to sink, the Psalmist cries. But out of the deep he 
 cries — to God. To God, and to none else. 
 
 He goes to the fountain-head, to the fount of deliver- 
 ance, and of forgiveness. For he feels that he needs, not 
 only deliverance, but forgiveness likewise. His sorrow 
 may not be altogether his own fault. What we call in 
 oui folly "accident" and "chance,"' and "fortune," — but 
 which is really the wise providence and loving will of 
 God — may have brought him low into the deep. Or 
 the injustice, cruelty, and oppression of men may have 
 brought him low; or many another evil hap. But be that 
 as it may, he dares not justify himself He cannot lift up 
 altogether clean hands. He cannot say that his sorrow 
 is none of his own fault, and his mishap altogether un- 
 deserved. If Thou, Lord, wert extreme to mark what is 
 done amiss, O Lord, who could abide it ? " Not I," says 
 tlie Psalmist. " Not I," says every human being who 
 knows himself ; and knows too well that — " If we say we 
 have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not 
 in us." 
 
264 DE PROFUNDIS. [serm. 
 
 But the Psalmist says likewise, " There is forgiveness 
 with Thee, therefore shalt Thou be feared." 
 
 My friends, consider this; the key of the whole 
 psalm ; the gospel and good news, for the sake of which 
 the psalm has been preserved in Holy Scripture, and 
 handed down to us. 
 
 God is to be feared, because He is merciful. It is 
 worth while to fear Him, because He is merciful, and of 
 great kindness, and hateth nothing that He hath made ; 
 and willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he 
 should turn from his wickedness and live. 
 
 Superstitious people, in all ages, heathens always, and 
 sometimes, I am sorry to say, Christians likewise, have 
 had a very different reason, an opposite reason, for fear- 
 ing God. 
 
 They have said : Not — there is mercy : but there is 
 anger with God : therefore shall He be feared. They 
 have said — We must fear God, because He is wrathful, 
 and terrible, and ready to punish ; and is extreme to 
 mark what is done amiss, and willeth the death of a 
 sinner : and therefore they have not believed, when Holy 
 Scripture told them, that God was love, and that God so 
 loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, 
 and sent Him to visit the world in great humility, that 
 the world through Him might be saved. 
 
 God has seemed to them only a proud, stern, and 
 formidable being; a condemning judge, and not a merci- 
 ful Father; and therefore, when they have found them- 
 selves in the deep of misery, they have cried out of 
 it to saints, angels, the Virgin Mary; or even to sun, 
 
xxiii.] DE PROFUNDIS. 265 
 
 moon, and stars, and all the powers of nature; or even, 
 again — what is more foolish still, — to astrologers, wizards, 
 mediums, and quacks of every shape and hue; to any 
 one and any thing, rather than to God. 
 
 But do not you do so, my friends. Fix it in your 
 hearts and minds; and fix it now, before you fall into 
 the deep, as most are apt to do before they die; lest, 
 when the dark day comes, you have no time to learn 
 in adversity the lesson which you should have learnt in 
 prosperity. Fix in your hearts and mmds the blessed 
 Gospel and good news — "There is mercy with Thee, 
 O God; therefore shalt Thou be feared." There is mercy 
 with Him, pity, tenderness, sympathy; a heart which 
 can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; which 
 knoweth what is in man; which despiseth not the work 
 of His own hands; which remembereth our weak frame, 
 and knoweth that we are but dust : else the spirit would 
 fail before Him, and the souls which He has made. 
 Think of God as that which He is — a compassionate 
 God, a long-suffering God, a generous God, a magnani- 
 mous God, a tnily royal God; in one word, a Perfect God; 
 who causeth His sun to shine on the evil and on the 
 good, and sendeth His rain on the just and on the un- 
 just; a God who cannot despise, cannot neglect, cannot 
 lose His patience with any poor soul of man; who sets 
 Himself against none but the msolent, the proud, the 
 malicious, the mean, the wilfully stupid and ignorant and 
 frivolous. Against those who exalt themselves, whether 
 as terrible t)Tants or merely contemptible boasters. He 
 exalts Himself; and will shew them, sooner or later. 
 
266 DE PROFUNDIS. [serm. 
 
 whether He or they be the stronger; whether He or 
 they be the wiser. But for the poor soul who is abased, 
 who is down, and in the depth; who feels his own weak- 
 ness, folly, ignorance, sinfulness, and out of that deep 
 cries to God as a lost child crying after its father — even 
 a lost lamb bleating after the ewe — of that poor soul, 
 be his prayers never so confused, stupid and ill-ex- 
 pressed — of him it is written: "The Lord helpeth them 
 that fall, and lifteth up all those that are down. He 
 is nigh to all that call on Him, yea, to all that call 
 upon Him faithfully. He will fulfil the desire of those 
 that fear Him, He also will hear their cry and will help 
 them." 
 
 Yes. To all such does God the Father, God who 
 made heaven and earth, hold up, as it were. His only- 
 begotten Son, Christ, hanging on the Cross for us ; and 
 say: Behold thy God. Behold the brightness of God's 
 glory, and the express image of God's person. Behold 
 what God gave for thee, even His only-begotten Son. 
 Behold that in which God the Father was well pleased : 
 in His Son; not condemning you, not destroying you, 
 but humbling Himself, dying Himself awhile, that you 
 may live for ever. Look; and by seeing the Son, see 
 the Father also — your Father, and the Father of the 
 spirits of all flesh; and know that His essence and His 
 name is — Love. 
 
 Therefore, when you are in the deep of sorrow, what- 
 ever that depth may be, cry to God. To God Himself; 
 and to none but God. If you can go to the pure foun- 
 tain-head, why drink of the stream, which must have 
 
xxin.] DE PROFUNDIS. 267 
 
 gathered something of defilement as it flows ? If you 
 can get light from the sun itself, why take lamp or candle 
 in place of his clear rays ? If you can go to God Him- 
 self, why go to any of God's creatures, however holy, 
 pure, and loving? Go to God, who is light of light, and 
 life of life ; the source of all light, the source of all life, 
 all love, all goodness, all mercy. From Him all goodness 
 flows. All goodness which ever has been, shall be, or 
 can be, is His alone, the fruit of His Spirit. Go then to 
 Him Himself Out of the depth, however deep, cry 
 unto God and God Himself. If David, the Jew of old, 
 could do so, much more can we, who are baptized into 
 Christ; much more can we, who have access by one 
 Spirit to the Father; much more can we, who — if we 
 know who we are and where we are — should come boldly 
 to the throne of grace, to find mercy and grace to help 
 us in the time of need. 
 
 Boldness. That is a bold word : but it is St Paul's, 
 not mine. And by shewing that boldness, we shall shew 
 that we indeed fear God. We shall shew that we reve- 
 rence God. We shall shew that we trust God. For so, 
 and so only, we shall obey God. If a sovereign or a 
 sage should bid you come to him, would you shew 
 reverence by staying away ? Would you shew reverence 
 by refusing his condescension? You may shew that 
 you are afraid of him; that you do not trust him; but 
 that is not to shew reverence, but irreverence. 
 
 If God calls, you are bound by reverence to come, 
 however unworthy. If He bids you, you must obey, 
 however much afraid. You must trust Him; you must 
 
268 DE PROFUNDIS. [serm. 
 
 take Him at His word; you must confide in His good- 
 ness, in His justice, in His wisdom: and since He bids 
 you, go boldly to His throne, and find Him what He is, 
 a gracious Lord. 
 
 My friends, to you, every one of you — however weak, 
 however ignorant, ay, however sinful, if you desire to 
 be delivered from those sins — this grace is given ; liberty 
 to cry out of the depth to God Himself, who made sun 
 and stars, all heaven and earth; liberty to stand face to 
 face with the Father of the spirits of all flesh, and cling 
 to the one Being who can never fail nor change; even to 
 the one immortal eternal God, of whom it is written, 
 "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation 
 of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. 
 They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure. They all 
 shall ivax old, like a garment, and as a vesture shalt 
 Thou change them, and they shall be changed. But 
 Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail." 
 
 But it is written again, " My soul waits for the Lord." 
 Yes, if you can trust in the God who cannot change, you 
 can afford to wait; you need not be impatient; as it is 
 written — "Fret not thyself, lest thou be moved to do 
 evil;" and again — "He that believeth shall not make 
 haste." For God, in whom you trust, is not a man that 
 He should lie, nor a son of man that He should repent. 
 Hath He promised, and shall He not do it ? His word 
 is like the rain and dew, which fall from heaven, and 
 return not to it again useless, but give seed to the sower 
 and bread to the eater. So is every man that trustefh 
 in Him. His kingdom, says the Lord, is as if a man 
 
xxm.] DE PROFUNDIS. 269 
 
 should put seed into the ground, and sleep and wake, 
 and the seed should grow up, he knoweth not how. So 
 the seed which we sow — the seed of repentance, the seed 
 of humihty, the seed of sorrowful prayers for help — it too 
 shall take root, and grow, and bring forth fruit, we know 
 not how, in the good time of God, who cannot change. 
 We may be sad; we may be weary; our eyes may wait 
 and watch for the Lord as the Psalmist says; more than 
 they that watch for the morning: but it must be as 
 those who watch for the morning, for the morning which 
 must and will come, for the sun which will surely rise, 
 and the day which will surely dawn, and the Saviour who 
 will surely deliver, and the God who is merciful in this — 
 that He rewardeth every man according to his work. 
 
 "Oh trust in the Lord. For with the Lord there is 
 mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption; and He 
 shall deliver His people from all their sins." 
 
 From their sins. Not merely from the punishment 
 of their sins; not always from the punishment of their 
 sins in this life : but, what is better far, from the sins 
 themselves; from the sins which bring them into fresh 
 and needless troubles; and which make the old troubles, 
 which cannot now be escaped, intolerable. 
 
 From all their sins. Not only from the great sins, 
 which, if persisted in, will surely destroy both body and 
 soul in hell : but from the little sins which do so easily 
 beset us; from little bad habits, tempers, lazinesses, 
 weaknesses, ignorances, which hamper and hinder us all 
 every day when we try to do our duty. From all these 
 will the Lord deliver us, by the blood of Christ, and by 
 
270 DE PROFUNDIS. [serm. xxm. 
 
 ihe inspiration of His Holy Spirit, that we may be able 
 at last to say to children and friends, and all whom we 
 love and leave behind us — 
 
 "Oh taste and see that the Lord is gracious. Blessed 
 is the man that trusteth in Him." 
 
 Yes. This at least we may do — Trust in our God, 
 and thank God that we may do it; for if men may not 
 do that, then is that true of them which Homer said of 
 old — that man is more miserable than all the beasts of 
 the field. For the animals look neither forward nor 
 back. They live but for the present moment; and pain 
 and grief, being but for the moment, fall lightly upon 
 them. But we — we who have the fearful power of look- 
 ing back, and looking forward — we who can feel regret 
 and remorse for the past, anxiety and terror for the 
 future — to us at times life would be scarce worth having, 
 if we had not a right to cry with all our hearts — 
 
 "O God, in Thee have I trusted, let me never be 
 confounded." 
 
SERMON XXIV. 
 
 THE BLESSING AND THE CURSE. 
 Preached on Whit-Sunday. 
 
 Deut. XXX. 19, 20. 
 
 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I Iiave 
 set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore 
 choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: that thou 
 niayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey His 
 voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him : for He is thy 
 life, and the length of thy days : that thou mayest dwell in the 
 land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to 
 Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. 
 
 These words, the book of Deuteronomy says, \vere 
 spoken by Moses to all the Israelites shortly before his 
 death. He had led them out of Egypt, and through the 
 wilderness. They were in sight of the rich land of 
 Canaan, where they were to settle and to dwell for many 
 hundred years. Moses, the book says, went over again 
 with them all the Law, the admirable and divine Law, 
 which they were to obey, and by which they were to 
 govern and order themselves in the land of Canaan. He 
 had told them that they owed all to God Himself; that 
 God had delivered them out of slavery in Egypt; God 
 
272 THE BLESSING [serm. 
 
 had led them to the land of Canaan ; God had given 
 them just laws and right statutes, which if they kept, they 
 would live long in their new home, and become a great 
 and mighty nation. Then he calls heaven and earth to 
 witness that he had set before them life and death, 
 blessing and cursing. If they trusted in the one true 
 God, and served Him, and lived as men should, who 
 believed that a just and loving God cared for them, then 
 they would live ; then a blessing would come on them, 
 and their children, on their flocks and herds, on their 
 land and all in it. Bui if they forgot God, and began to 
 worship the sun, and the moon, and the stars, the earth 
 and the weather, like the nations round them, then they 
 would die; they would grow superstitious, cowardly, lazy, 
 and profligate, and therefore weak and miserable, like 
 the wretched Canaanites whom they were going to drive 
 out; and then they would die. Their souls would die 
 in them, and they would become less than men, and at 
 last — as the Canaanites had become — worse than brutes, 
 till their numbers would diminish, and they would be left, 
 Moses says, few in number and at last perish out of the 
 good land which God had given them. 
 
 So, he says, you know how to live, and you know 
 how to die. Choose between them this day. 
 
 They knew the road to wealth, health, prosperity and 
 onler, peace and happiness, and life: and they knew the 
 road to ruin, poverty, weakness, disease, shame and 
 death. 
 
 They knew both roads; for God had set them before 
 them. 
 
xxiv.l AND THE CURSE. 2/3 
 
 And you know both roads ; for God has set them 
 before you. 
 
 Then he says — I call heaven and earth to witness 
 against you this day, that I have set before you life and 
 death, blessing and cursing. 
 
 He called heaven and earth to witness. That was 
 no empty figure of speech. If you will recollect the 
 story of the Israelites, you will see plainly enough what 
 Moses meant. 
 
 The heaven would witness against them. The same 
 stars which would look down on their freedom and pros- 
 perity in Canaan, had looked down on all their slavery 
 and misery in Egypt, hundreds of years before. Those 
 same stars had looked down on their simple forefathers, 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, wandering with their flocks 
 and herds out of the mountains of the far north. That 
 heaven had seen God's mercies and care of them, for 
 now five hundred years. Everything had changed round 
 them: but those stars, that sun, that moon, were the 
 same still, and would be the same for ever. They were 
 witnesses to them of the unchangeable God, those hea- 
 vens above. They would seem to say — Just as the 
 heavens above you are the same, wherever you go, and 
 whatever you are like, so is the God who dwells above 
 the heaven ; unchangeable, everlasting, faithful, and true, 
 full of light and love; from whom comes down every 
 good and perfect gift, in whom is neither variableness 
 nor shadow of turning. Do you turn to Him con- 
 tinually, and as often as you turn away from Him : and 
 
274 THE BLESSING [serm. 
 
 you shall find Him still the same ; governing you by un- 
 changeable law, keeping His promise for ever. 
 
 And the earth would witness against them. That fair 
 land of Canaan whither they were going, with its streams 
 and wells spreading freshness and health around; its rich 
 corn valleys, its uplands covered with vines, its sweet 
 mountain pastures, a very garden of the Lord, cut off 
 and defended from all the countries round by sandy 
 deserts and dreary wildernesses ; that land would be 
 a witness to them, at their daily work, of God's love 
 and mercy to their forefathers. The ruins of the old 
 Canaanite cities would be a witness to them, and say — 
 Because of their sins the Lord drove out these old hea- 
 thens from before you. Copy their sins, and you will 
 share their ruin. Do as they did, and you will surely die 
 like them. God has given you life, here in this fair land 
 of Canaan ; beware how you choose death, as the Canaan- 
 ites chose it They died the death which comes by sin ; 
 and God has given you life, the life which is by righteous- 
 ness. Be righteous men, and just, and God-fearing, if you 
 wish to keep this land, you, and your children after you. 
 
 And now, my dear friends, if Moses could call heaven 
 and earth to witness against those old Jews, that he had 
 set before them life and death, a blessing and a curse, 
 may we not do the same ? Does not the heaven above 
 our heads, and the earth beneath our feet, witness against 
 us here ? Do they not say to us — God has given you 
 life and blessing. If you throw that away, and choose 
 instead death and a curse; it is your own fault, not 
 God's ? 
 
XXIV.] AND THE CURSE. 275 
 
 Look at the heaven above us. Does not that witness 
 against us ? Has it not seen, for now fifteen hundred 
 years and more, God's goodness to us, and to our fore- 
 fathers? All things have changed; language, manners, 
 customs, religion. We have changed our place, as the 
 Israelites did; and dwell in a different land from our 
 forefathers: but that sky abides for ever. That same 
 sun, that moon, those stars shone down upon our heathen 
 forefathers, when the Lord chose them, and brought them 
 out of the German forests into this good land of England, 
 that they might learn to worship no more the sun, and 
 the moon, and the storm, and the thunder-cloud, but to 
 worship Him, the living God who made all heaven and 
 earth. That sky looked down upon our forefathers, 
 when the first missionaries baptized them into the 
 Church of Christ, and England became a Christian land, 
 and made a covenant with God and Christ for ever to 
 walk in His laws which He has set before us. From 
 that heaven, ever since, hath God been sending rain and 
 fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness, 
 for a witness of His love and fostering care; prospering 
 us, whensoever we have kept His laws, above all other 
 nations upon earth. Shall not that heaven witness 
 against us ? Into that heaven ascended Christ the Lord, 
 that He might fill all things with His power and His rule, 
 and might send from thence on us His Holy Spirit, the 
 Spirit whom we worship this day, the spirit of wisdom 
 and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the 
 spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. By that 
 same Spirit, and by none other, have been thought all 
 K. s. 20 
 
2/6 THE BLESSING [serm. 
 
 the noble thoughts which Englishmen ever thought. 
 By that Spirit have been spoken all the noble words 
 which Englishmen ever spoke. By that Spirit have 
 been done all the noble deeds which Englishmen 
 have ever done. To that Spirit we owe all that is 
 truly noble, truly strong, truly stable, in our English 
 Hfe. It is He that has given us power to get wealth, to 
 keep wealth, to use wealth. And if we begin to deny 
 that, as we are inclined to do now-a-days; if we lay our 
 grand success and prosperity to the account of our own 
 cleverness, our own ability; if we say, as Moses warned 
 the Israelites they would say, in the days of their success 
 and prosperity, not — " It is God who has given us power 
 to get wealth," but — " Mine arm, and the might of my 
 hand, has gotten me this wealth;" — in plain words — If 
 we begin to do what we are all too apt to do just now, to 
 worship our own brains instead of God: then the heaven 
 above us will witness against us, this Whitsuntide above 
 all seasons in the year; and say — Into heaven the Lord 
 ascended who died for you on the Cross. From heaven 
 He sent down gifts for you, and your forefathers, even 
 while you were His enemies, that the Lord God might 
 dwell among you. And behold, instead of thanking God, 
 fearing God, and confessing that you are nothing, and 
 God is all, you talk as if you were the arbiters of your 
 own futures, the makers of your own gifts. Instead of 
 giving God the glory, you take the glory to yourselves. 
 Instead of declaring the glory of God, like the heavens, 
 and shewing his handiwork, hke the stars, you shew forth 
 your own glory and boast of your own handiwork. Be- 
 
XXIV.] AND THE CURSE. 2'J'J 
 
 ware, and fear; as your forefathers feared, and lived, be- 
 cause they gave the glory to God. 
 
 And shall not the earth witness against us ? Look 
 round, when you go out of church, upon this noble 
 English land. Why is it not, as many a land far richer 
 in soil and climate is now, a desolate wilderness; the land 
 lying waste, and few men left in it, and those who are 
 left robbing and murdering each other, every man's hand 
 against his fellow, till the wild beasts of the field increase 
 upon them? In that miserable state now is many a 
 noble land, once the very gardens of the world — Judsea, 
 and almost all the East, which was once the very garden 
 of the Lord, as thick with living men as a hive is with 
 bees, and vast sheets both of North Africa, and of South 
 and of North America. Why is not England thus? 
 Why, but because the Lord set before our forefathers 
 life and death, blessing and cursing; and our forefathers 
 chose life, and lived ; and it was .well with them in the 
 land which God gave to them, because they chose bless- 
 ing, and God blessed them accordingly ? In spite of 
 many mistakes and shortcomings — for they were sinful 
 mortal men, as we are — they chose life and a blessing; 
 and clave unto the Lord their God, and kept His cove- 
 nant; and they left behind, for us their children, these 
 churches, these cathedrals, for an everlasting sign that 
 the Lord was with us, as He had been with them, and 
 would be with our children after us. 
 
 Ah, my friends, while we look round us over the face 
 of this good land, and see everywhere the churches 
 pointing up to heaven, each amid towns and villages 
 
278 THE BLESSING [serm. 
 
 which have never seen war or famine for now long cen- 
 turies, all thriving and improving year by year, and which 
 never for 800 years have been trodden by the foot of an 
 invading enemy, one ought to feel, if one has a thought- 
 ful and God-fearing heart — Verily God has set before 
 us life and blessing, and prospered us above all nations 
 upon earth ; and if we do not cleave to Him, we shall 
 shew ourselves fools above all nations upon earth. 
 
 And then when one reads the history of England ; 
 when one thinks over the history of any one city, even 
 one country parish ; above all, when one looks into 
 the history of one's own foolish heart : one sees how 
 often, though God has given us freely life and blessing, 
 we have been on the point of choosing death and the 
 curse instead ; of saying — We will go our own way and 
 not God's way. The land is ours, not God's; the houses 
 are our own, not God's ; our souls are our own, not 
 God's. We are masters, and who is master over us? 
 That is the way to choose death, and the curse, shame 
 and poverty and ruin, my friends ; and how often we 
 have been on the point of choosing it. What has saved 
 us ? What has kept us from it ? Certainly not our own 
 righteousness, nor our own wisdom, nor our o^vn faith. 
 After reading the history of England ; or after recollect- 
 ing our own lives — the less we say of them the better. 
 
 What has kept us from ruin so long? We are all 
 day long forgetting the noble things which God did 
 for our forefathers. Why does not God in return re- 
 member our sins, and the sins of our forefathers ? Why 
 is He not angry with us for ever ? Why, in spite of all 
 
XXIV.] AND THE CURSE. 279 
 
 our shortcomings and backslidings, are we prospering 
 here this day? 
 
 I know not, my friends, unless it be for this one 
 reason, That into that heaven which witnesses against 
 us, the merciful and loving Christ is ascended ; that He 
 is ever making intercession for us, a High-priest who 
 can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities ; and 
 that He has received gifts for men, even for His enemies 
 — as we have too often been — that the Lord God might 
 dwell among us. Yes. He ascended on high that He 
 might send down His Holy Spirit; and that Spirit is 
 among us, working patiently and lovingly in many hearts 
 — would that I could say in all — giving men right judg- 
 ments ; putting good desires into their hearts ; and 
 enabling them to put them into good practice. 
 
 The Holy Spirit is the life of England, and of the 
 Church of England, and of every man, whether he 
 belongs to the Church or not, who loves the good, and 
 desires to do it, and to see it done. And those in whom 
 the Holy Spirit dwells, are the salt of England, which 
 keeps it from decay. They are those who have chosen 
 life and blessing, and found them. Oh may God in- 
 crease their number more and more ; till all know Him 
 from the least unto the greatest ; and the land be filled 
 with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the 
 sea. 
 
 And then shall all days be Whit-Sundays ; and the 
 Name of the Father be hallowed indeed, and His king- 
 dom come, and His will be done on earth, as it is in 
 heaven. 
 
SERMON XXV. 
 
 THE SILENCE OF FAITH. 
 
 Psalm cxxxi. 
 
 Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty : neither do I 
 exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. 
 Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is 
 weaned of his mother : my soul is even as a weaned child. Let 
 Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever. 
 
 We know not at what period of David's life this psalm 
 was written. We know not what matters they were 
 which were too high for him to meddle with ; matters 
 about which he had to refrain his soul ; to quiet his 
 feelings; to suspend his judgment; to check his curiosity, 
 and say about them simply — Trust in the Lord. 
 
 We do not know, I say, what these great matters, 
 these mysteries were. But that concerns us little. Hu- 
 man life, human fortune, human history, human agony — 
 nay, the whole universe, the more we know of it, is full 
 of such mysteries. Only the shallow and the conceited 
 are unaware of their presence. Only the shallow and 
 the conceited pretend to explain them, and have a Wliy 
 ready for every How. David was not like them. His 
 was too great a mind to be high-minded ; too deep a 
 
SERM. XXV.] THE SILENCE OF FAITH. 28 1 
 
 heart to have proud looks, and to pretend, to himself or 
 to others, that he knew the whole counsel of God. 
 
 Solomon his son had the same experience. For him, 
 too, in spite of all his wisdom, the mystery of Providence 
 was too dark. Though a man laboured to seek it, yet 
 should he not find it out. All things seemed, at least, to 
 come alike to all. There was one event to the righteous 
 and to the wicked; to the clean and to the unclean. 
 Vanity of vanity; all was vanity. Of making books there 
 was no end, and much study was a weariness to the flesh. 
 And the conclusion of the whole matter was — Fear God, 
 and keep His commandments. That — and not to pry 
 into the unfathomable will of God — was the whole duty 
 of man. 
 
 Job, too : what is the moral of the whole book of Job, 
 save that God's ways are unsearchable, and His paths 
 past finding out ? The Lord, be it remembered, in the 
 closing scene of the book, vouchsafes to Job no explana- 
 tion whatsoever of his affliction. Instead of telling him 
 why he has been so sorely smitten ; instead of bidding 
 him even look up and trust, He silences Job by the mere 
 plea of His own power. Where wast thou when I laid the 
 foundation of the earth? Declare, if thou hast under- 
 standing. ^Vhen the morning stars sang together; and 
 all the sons of God shouted for joy. Shall he that con- 
 tendeth with The Almighty instruct Him? He that re- 
 proveth God, let him answer. 
 
 But, it may be said, these are Old Testament sayings. 
 The Patriarchs and Prophets had not that full light of 
 knowledge of the mind of God which the Evangelists and 
 
282 THE SILENCE OF FAITH. [serm. 
 
 Apostles had. What do the latter, the writers of the 
 New Testament, say, with that fuller knowledge of God, 
 which they gained through Jesus Christ our Lord ? 
 
 My friends — This is not, I trust, by God's great good- 
 ness, the last time that I am to preach in this Abbey. 
 What the Evangelists and Apostles taught, which the 
 Prophets and Psalmists did not teach, I hope to tell you, 
 as far as I know, hereafter. 
 
 But this I am bound to tell you beforehand — That 
 there are no truer words in the Articles of the Church of 
 England than those in the Vllth Article — that the Old 
 Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the 
 Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to 
 mankind by Christ, the only Mediator between God and 
 man, being both God and man. 
 
 Yes. That the Old Testament is not contrar}' to the 
 New, I believe with my whole heart and soul. And 
 therefore to those who say that the Apostles had solved 
 the whole mystery of human life, its sins, its sorrows, its 
 destinies, I must reply that such is not the case, at least 
 with the most gifted of all the writers of the New Testa- 
 ment. We may think fit to claim omniscience for St Paul : 
 but he certainly does not claim it for himself. 
 
 When he is vouchsafed a glimpse of the high counsels 
 of God, he exclaims, as one dazzled — " Oh the depth of 
 the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! How 
 unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past find- 
 ing out ! For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who 
 hath been His counsellor?" — While of himself he speaks 
 in a very different tone — "Even though he have been," 
 
XXV.] THE SILENCE OF FAITH. 283 
 
 as he says, "caught up into the third heaven, and heard 
 words unspeakable, which it is not lawful for a man to 
 utter," yet " he knows," he says, " in part ; he prophesies 
 in part ; but when that which is ])erfect comes, that which 
 is partial shall be done away." He is as the child to the 
 full-grown man, into which he hopes to develop in the 
 future life. He " sees as in a glass darkly, but then face 
 to face." He "knows now in part." Then — but not till 
 then — will he " know even as he is known." Nay, more. 
 In the ninth chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, he 
 does not hesitate to push to the utmost that plea of 
 God's absolute sovereignty which we found in the book 
 of Job. 
 
 " He has mercy on whom He will have mercy; and 
 whom He will He hardeneth." And if any say, " Why 
 doth He then find fault? For who hath resisted His 
 will ?" " Who art thou that repliest against God? Shall 
 the thing formed say to him that formed it. Why hast 
 thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over 
 the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel to honour, 
 and another to dishonour ?" 
 
 What those words may mean, or may not mean, I do 
 not intend to argue now. I only quote them to shew you 
 that St Paul, just as much as any Old Testament thinker, 
 believed that there were often mysteries, ay, tragedies, in 
 the lives, not only of individuals, nor of families, but of 
 whole races, to which we shortsighted mortals could 
 assign no rational or moral final cause, but must simply 
 do that which Spinoza forbade us to do, nameh' — " In 
 every unknown case, flee unto God;" and say — " It is 
 
284 THE SILENCE OF FAITH. [serm. 
 
 the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him good ;" — certain 
 of this, which the Cross and Passion of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ shewed forth as nothing else in heaven or earth 
 could shew — that the will of God toward man is an 
 utterly good will ; and that therefore what seemeth good 
 to Him, will be good in act and fact. 
 
 It is this faith, and I believe this faith alone, which 
 can enable truly feeling spirits to keep anything like 
 equanimity, if they dwell long and earnestly on the mise- 
 ries of mankind ; on sorrow, pain, bereavement ; on the 
 fate of many a widow and orphan ; on sudden, premature, 
 and often agonizing death — but why pain you with a 
 catalogue of ills, which all, save — thank God — the 
 youngest, know too well ? 
 
 And it is that want of faith in the will and character 
 of a living God, which makes, and will always make, 
 infidelity a sad state of mind — a theory of man and the 
 universe, which contains no gospel or good news for 
 man. 
 
 I do not speak now of atheism, dogmatic, selfsatis- 
 fied, insolent cynic. I speak especially to-night of a form 
 of unbelief far more attractive, which is spreading, I 
 believe, among people often of high intellect, often of 
 virtuous life, often of great attainments in art, science, 
 or literature. Such repudiate, and justly, the name of 
 theists : but they decline, and justly, the name of athe- 
 ists. They would — the finest and purest spirits among 
 them — accept only too heartily the whole of the Psalm 
 which I have chosen for my text, save its ascription 
 and the last verse. We too — they would say — do not 
 
XXV.] THE SILENCE OF FAITH. 285 
 
 wish to be high-minded, and dogmatize, and assert, and 
 condemn. We too do not wish to meddle with matters 
 too high for us, or for any human intellect. We too 
 wish to refrain ourselves from asserting what — however 
 pleasant — we cannot prove ; and to wean ourselves — 
 however really painful the process — from the milk, the 
 mere child's food, on which Mother Church has brought 
 up the nations of Europe for the last 1500 years. But 
 for that very reason, as for asking us to trust in The 
 Lord, either for this life, or an eternal life to come, 
 do not ask that of us. 
 
 We do not say that there is no God ; no Providence 
 of God ; no life beyond the grave : only we say, that 
 we cannot find them. They may exist : or they may 
 not. But to us; and as we believe to all mankind if 
 they used their reason aright, they are unthinkable, and 
 therefore unknowable. God we see not : but this we 
 see — Man, tortured by a thousand ills ; and then, alas, 
 perishing just as the dumb beasts perish. We see death, 
 decay, pain, sorrow, bereavement, weakness ; and these 
 produced, not merely by laws of nature, in which, how- 
 ever terrible, we could stoically acquiesce j but worse 
 still, by accident — the sports of seeming chances — and 
 those often so slight and mean. Man in his fullest 
 power, woman in her highest usefulness, the victim not 
 merely of the tempest or the thunderstroke, but of a 
 fallen match, a stumbling horse. 
 
 Therefore the sight of so much human woe, without 
 a purpose, and without a cause, is too much for them : as, 
 without faith in God, it ought to be too much for us. 
 
286 THE SILENCE OE FAITH. [serm. 
 
 And therefore in their poetry and in their prose — 
 and they are masters, some of them, both of poetry 
 and of prose — there is a weary sadness, a tender despair, 
 which one must not praise : yet which one cannot 
 watch without sympathy and affection. For the mystery 
 of human vanity and vexation of spirit; the mystery 
 which weighed down the soul of David, and of Solomon, 
 and of him who sang the song of Job, and of St Paul, 
 and of St Augustine, and all the great Theologians of 
 old time, is to them nought but utter darkness. For 
 they see not yet, as our great modem poet says. 
 
 Hands 
 Athwart the darkness, shaping man. 
 
 They see not yet athwart the darkness a face, most 
 human yet divine, of utter sympathy and love ; and hear 
 not yet — oh let me say once more not yet of such fine 
 souls — the only words which can bring true comfort to 
 one who feels for his fellow-men, amid the terrible 
 chances and changes of this mortal life — 
 
 " Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God, 
 and believe also in Me." 
 
 " All power is given to Me in heaven and in earth.'' 
 " Lo I am with you even to the end of the world." 
 Oh let us, to whom God has given that most un- 
 deserved grace, by the confession of a true faith to 
 acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the 
 power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity — Let 
 us, I say, beseech God that He would give to them, as 
 well as to us, that comfortable and wholesome faith; 
 
XXV.] THE SILENCE OF FAITH. 287 
 
 and evermore defend diem and us — if it seem good in 
 His gracious sight — from all adversity. 
 
 And surely we need that faith — those of us at least 
 who know what we have lost — in the face of such a cata- 
 strophe as was announced in this Abbey on this day 
 week ; which thrilled this congregation with the awful 
 news — That one of the most gifted men in Europe ; the 
 most eloquent of all our preachers — the most energetic 
 of all our prelates ; the delight of so many of the most 
 refined and cultivated ; the comforter of so many pious 
 souls, not only by his sermons, not only by his secret 
 counsels, but by those exquisite Confirmation addresses, 
 to have lost which is a spiritual loss incalculable — those 
 Confirmation addresses which touched and ennobled 
 the hearts alike of children and of parents, and made so 
 many spirits, young and old, indebted to him from 
 thenceforth for ever — That this man, with his enormous 
 capacity and will for doing his duty like a valiant man, 
 and doing each duty better than any of us his clergy had 
 ever seen it done before — with his genius too, now so 
 rare, and yet so needed, for governing his fellow-men — 
 That he, in the fulness of his power, his health, his 
 practical example, his practical success, should vanish in 
 a moment : and that immense natural vitality, that organ- 
 ism of forces so various and so delicate, just as it was 
 developing to perfection under long and careful self- 
 education, should be lost for ever to this earth : leaving 
 England, and her colonies, and indeed all Christendom, 
 so much the poorer, so much the more weak; and 
 inflicting — forget not that — a bitter pang on hundreds of 
 
288 THE SILENCE OF FAITH. [serm. 
 
 loving hearts : and all by reason of the stumbling of a 
 horse. 
 
 And why? Our reason, our conscience, our moral 
 sense ; that, by virtue of which we are not brutes, but 
 men, forces us to ask that question : even if no answer 
 be found to it in earth or heaven. What was the im- 
 portant TJuhy which lay hid behind that little how ? — The 
 means were so paltry : the eifect was so vast — There 
 must have been a final cause, a purpose, for that death : 
 or the fact would be altogether hideous — a scribble with- 
 out a meaning — a skeleton without a soul. Why did he 
 die? 
 
 "I became dumb and opened not my mouth; for it 
 was Thy doing." 
 
 So says the Burial psalm. So let us say likewise. 
 
 "I became dumb:" not with rage, not with despair; 
 but because it was Thy doing; and therefore it was done 
 well. It was the deed, not of chance, not of necessity: 
 for had it been, then those who loved him might have 
 been excused had they cursed chance, cursed necessity, 
 cursed the day in which they entered a universe so cruel, 
 so capricious. Not so. For it was the deed of The 
 Father, without whom a sparrow falls not to the ground; 
 of The Son, who died upon the Cross in the utterness of 
 His desire to save; of The Holy Ghost, who is the Lord 
 and Giver of life to all created things. 
 
 It was the deed of One who delights in life and not 
 in death; in bliss and not in woe; in light and not in 
 darkness; in order and not in anarchy; in good and not 
 in evil. It had a final cause, a meaning, a purpose : and 
 
XXV.] THE SILENCE OF FAITH. 28g 
 
 that purpose is very good. ^Vhat it is, we know not: 
 and we need not know. To guess at it would be indeed 
 to meddle with matters too high for us. So let us be 
 dumb: but dumb not from despair, but from faith; dumb 
 not like a wretch weary with calling for help which does 
 not come, but dumb like a child sittmg at its mother's 
 feet; and looking up into her face, and watching her 
 doings; understanding none of them as yet, but certain 
 that they all are done in Love. 
 
SERMON XXVI. 
 
 GOD AND MAMMON 
 
 Matthew vi. ■24. 
 Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. 
 
 This is part of the Gospel for this Sunday; and a 
 specially fit text for this day, which happens to be St 
 Matthew's Day. 
 
 On this day we commemorate one who made up his 
 mind, once and for all, that whoever could serve God 
 and money at once, he could not: and who therefore 
 threw up all his prospects in life — which were those of 
 a peculiarly lucrative profession, that of a farmer of 
 Roman taxes — in order to become the wandering dis- 
 ciple of a reputed carpenter's son. He became, it is 
 true, in due time, an Apostle, an Evangelist, and a 
 Martyr; and if posthumous fame be worth the ambition 
 of any man, Matthew the publican — Saint Matthew as we 
 call him — has his share thereof, because he discovered, 
 like a wise man, that he could not serve God and money; 
 and therefore, when Jesus saw him sitting at the receipt 
 of custom, and bade him "Follow Me,'' he rose up, and 
 
SERM.xxvi.] GOD AND MAMMON. 29 1 
 
 left his money-bags, and followed Him, whom he after- 
 wards discovered to be no less than God made man. 
 
 "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.'' 
 
 It is very difficult to make men believe these words. 
 So difficult, that our Lord Himself could not make the 
 Jews believe them, especially the rich and comfortable 
 religious people among them. When He told them that 
 they could not serve two masters; that they could not 
 worship God and money at the same time, the Pharisees, 
 who were covetous, derided Him. They laughed to 
 scorn the notion that they could not be very religious, 
 and respectable, and so forth, and yet set their hearts 
 on making money all the while. They thought that 
 they could have their treasure on earth and in heaven 
 also; and they went their way, in spite of our Lord's 
 warnings; and made money, honestly no doubt, if they 
 could, but if not, why then dishonestly; for money must 
 be made, at all risks. 
 
 St Paul warned them, by his disciple Timothy, of 
 their danger. He told them that the love of money is 
 the root of all evil; and that those who will be rich fall 
 into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and 
 hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and per- 
 dition. 
 
 St James warned them even more sternly; and told 
 the rich men among the Jews of his day to weep and 
 howl for the miseries which were coming on them. They 
 had heaped up treasure for the last days, when it would 
 be of no use to them. They were fattening their hearts 
 — he told them — against a day of slaughter. 
 
 K. s. =' 
 
292 GOV AND MAMMON. [serm. 
 
 But they listened to St Paul and St James no more 
 than they did to our Lord. After the fall of Jerusalem, 
 even more than before, they became the money-makers 
 and the money-lenders of the whole world. And what 
 befel them ? Their wealth stirred up the envy and the 
 suspicion of the Gentiles. They were persecuted, robbed, 
 slaughtered, again and again for the sake of their money. 
 And yet they would not give up their ruinous passion. 
 Throughout all the middle ages, here in England, just as 
 much as on the Continent, they lent money at exorbitant 
 interest; and then their debtors, to escape payment, 
 turned on them for not being Christians; accused them 
 of poisoning the wells, and what not; massacred them, 
 burnt them alive, and committed the most horrible 
 atrocities; fulfilling the warnings of our Lord and His 
 Apostles, only too terribly and brutally, again and again. 
 
 Do I say this to make any man dislike or despise 
 che Jews ? God forbid. The Jews have noble qualities 
 in them, by which they have prospered, and for the sake 
 of which — as I believe — God's blessing rests on them to 
 this day. They have prospered: not by their love of 
 money, not even by their extraordinary courage, persist- 
 ence, and intellectual power; but by their keeping two 
 at least of the commandments, as no other people on 
 earth has kept them. They have kept the second com- 
 mandment; and hated idolatry, and any approach to it, 
 with a stern and noble hatred, which would God that all 
 who call themselves Christians would imitate. They 
 have kept, likewise, the fifth commandment; and have 
 honoured their parents, as no other people on earth have 
 
XXVI.] GOD AND MAMMON. 293 
 
 done, except it may be the Chinese, who prosper still, in 
 spite of many sins. Their family affections are so intense, 
 their family life is so pure and sound, that they put to 
 shame too many Christians; and where the family life is 
 sound, the heart of a people is sure to be sound likewise ; 
 and all will come right with them at last : and meanwhile 
 the days of the Jews will be long in whatsoever land the 
 Lord their God shall give them, till the day of which St 
 Paul prophesied, when the vail shall be taken off their 
 hearts, and they shall acknowledge that Christ, whom 
 their forefathers crucified in their blindness, for their 
 King, and Lord, and God; and so all Israel shall be 
 saved. Amen. Amen. 
 
 And meanwhile, who are we that we should complain 
 of the Jews now, or the Jews of our Lord's time, for 
 being too fond of money? Is anything more certain, 
 than that we English are becoming given up, more and 
 more, to the passion for making money at all risks, and 
 by all means fair or foul ? Our covetousness is — alas ! 
 that it should be so — become a by-word among foreign 
 nations; while our old English commercial honesty — 
 which was once our strength, and protected us from, 
 and all but atoned for, our covetousness — is going fast ; 
 and leaving us, feared indeed for our power; but suspected 
 for our chicanery; and odious for our arrogance. 
 
 And it is most sad, but most certain, that we are like 
 those Pharisees of old in this also, that we too have 
 made up our mind that we can serve God and Mammon 
 at once ; that the very classes among us who are most 
 Utterly given up to money-making, are the very classes 
 
294 GOD AND MAMMON. [serm. 
 
 which, in all denominations, make the loudest religious 
 profession; that our churches and chapels are crowded 
 on Sundays by people whose souls are set, the whole 
 week through, upon gain and nothing but gain ; who 
 pretend to reverence Scripture, while they despise the 
 warning of Scripture, that the love of money is the root 
 of all evil. 
 
 Have we not seen in our own days persons of the 
 highest religious profession, whose names were the fore- 
 most on every charitable subscription list, so devoured 
 by this mad love for money for its own sake, that though 
 they had already more money than they could spend, or 
 enjoy in any way soever, save by saying to themselves — 
 I have got it, I have got it — they must needs, in the 
 mere lust for becoming richer still, ruin themselves and 
 others by frantic speculations ? Have we not seen — but 
 why should I defile myself, and you, and this holy place 
 by teUing you what I have seen; and what I hope, and 
 hope alas! in vain, that I shall never see again, among 
 those who must needs serve God and Mammon ? Has 
 not the love of money become such a chronic disease 
 among us, that we can actually calculate, now, when the 
 disease will come to a head; and relieve itself for a 
 while : though alas ! only for a while ? 
 
 About every eleven years, I am informed, we are to 
 expect a commercial crisis; panics, bankruptcies, and 
 misery and ruin to hundreds; a sort of terrible but 
 beneficent thunderstorm, which clears the foul atmo- 
 sphere of our commercial system at the expense, alas! 
 not merely of the guilty, but of the innocent; involving 
 
XXVI.] GOD AND MAMMON. 2g$ 
 
 the widow and the orphan, the poor and the simple, in 
 the same fate as the rich and powerful whom they have 
 trusted to their own ruin. And yet we boast of our 
 civilization and of our Christianity; and hardly one, here 
 and there, lays the lesson to heart, but each man, like a 
 moth about a candle, unwarned by the fate of his fellows, 
 fancies that he at least can flutter round the flames and 
 not be burned; that whoever else cannot serve God and 
 Mammon, he can do it; and holds, by virtue of his 
 superior prudence, a special dispensation from the jjlain 
 warnings of Holy Scripture. 
 
 But every reasonable man knows what advantages 
 money, and nothing but money, will obtain, not only for 
 a man himself but for his children; and answers me — If 
 I wish to rise in life, if I wish my children to rise in 
 life, how can I do it, without making money? 
 
 God forbid that I should check an honourable am- 
 bition, and a desire to rise in life. We all ought to rise 
 in life, and to rise far higher than most of us are likely 
 to rise. But I ask you to consider very seriously what 
 you mean by rising in life. 
 
 Do you mean by rising in life, merely becoming a 
 richer man; living in a larger house, eating, drinking, 
 clothing, better; having more servants, carriages, plate? 
 Is that to be the highest triumph of all your labours ? Is 
 that your notion of rising in life? If it is, you are not 
 singular in your notion. There are thousands who call 
 themselves civilized and Christians, and yet have no 
 higher notion of what man's highest good may be. But 
 do you mean by rising in life, simply becoming a nobler, 
 
296 GOD AND MAMMON. [serm. 
 
 because a better man? For if you mean that latter, I 
 seriously advise you to hearken to what the Creator and 
 Governor of all heaven and earth, Jesus Christ our Lord, 
 has told you on that matter, when He said — "Seek ye 
 first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all 
 these things shall be added unto you." 
 
 Seek ye first the kingdom of God. Alas ! this money- 
 making generation talks a great deal about religion and 
 saving their souls, being quite indifferent to the serious 
 question — whether their souls are worth saving or not : 
 but as for the kingdom of God, of which our Lord and 
 His Apostles speak so often, they have forgotten alto- 
 gether what it is. They talk too, a great deal, about the 
 righteousness of Christ : but they have forgotten also what 
 the righteousness of Christ, which is also the righteous- 
 ness of God, is like. 
 
 The kingdom of God ; the government of God ; the 
 laws and rules by which Christ, King of kings, and King, 
 too, of every nation and man on earth, whether they 
 know it or not, governs mankind, that is whst you have 
 to seek, because it is there already. You are in Christ's 
 kingdom. If you wish to prosper in it, find out what its 
 laws are. That will be true wisdom. For in keeping 
 the commandments of God, and in obeying His laws ; in 
 that alone is life ; life for body and soul ; life for time and 
 for eternity. 
 
 And the righteousness of God, which is the righteous- 
 ness of Christ ; — find out what that is, and pray to Christ 
 to give it to you ; for so alone will you be what a man 
 should be, created after God in righteousness and true 
 
XXVI.] GOD AND MAMMON. 297 
 
 holiness, and renewed into the image and likeness of God. 
 You will find plenty of persons now, as in all times, who 
 will tell you that you need not do that; that all you need, 
 for this world or the world to come, is some righteousness 
 of the Scribes and Pharisees ; calling that — oh shame 
 that such a glorious and eternal truth should be so 
 caricatured and degraded by man — justification by faith : 
 while all they mean is, justification not by faith, but by 
 mere assent; assenting to certain doctrines; keeping cer- 
 tain religious watch- words in your mouth, and, over and 
 above, leading a tolerably respectable life. But what says 
 our Lord? "Except your righteousness exceed the 
 righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no 
 wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." Not merely — • 
 not dwell in it for ever, but not even enter it, not even 
 get through the very gate, and cross the very threshold, 
 of it. The merely assenting, merely respectable, even 
 the so-called religious and orthodox life will not let you 
 into the kingdom of heaven, either in this life or the life 
 to come. No. That requires the noble life, the pure 
 life, the just life, the gentle life, the generous life, the 
 heroic life, the Godlike life, which is perfect even as our 
 Father in heaven is perfect, because He lets His sun 
 shine on the evil and on the good, and His ra'n fall on 
 the just and on the unjust. But how will this help you 
 to rise in life? Our Lord Himself answers — and our 
 Lord should surely know — " Seek ye first the kingdom of 
 God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be 
 added to you." Have faith in God, and in His promise; 
 and your faith in God shall be rewarded. You shall find 
 
298 GOD AND MAMMON. [serm. 
 
 that your heavenly Father knows that you have need of 
 all these things ; and has arranged His kingdom, and the 
 whole universe, accordingly. The very good things of 
 this world — wealth, honour, power, and the rest, for the 
 sake of which worldly men quarrel, and envy, and slan- 
 der, and bully, and cringe, and commit all basenesses 
 and crimes — all these shall come to you of their own 
 accord by the providence of your Father in heaven and 
 by His everlasting Laws, if you will but learn and do 
 God's will, and lead the Christlike and the Godlike life. 
 Honour and power, wealth and prosperity, as much of 
 them as is justly good for you, and as much of them as 
 you deserve — that is, earn and merit by your own ability 
 and self-control — shall come to you by the very laws of 
 the universe and by the very providence of God. You 
 shall find that godliness hath the promise of this life, as 
 well as of the life which is to come. You shall find that 
 God's kingdom is a well-made and well-ordered kingdom; 
 and that His laws are life, and are far more worth trust- 
 ing in than the maxims of that ill-made and ill-ordered 
 world of man, which you all renounced at your baptism. 
 You shall find that the promises of Scripture are no 
 dreams, but actual practical living truths, which come 
 true, and fulfil themselves, in the lives and histories of 
 men. 
 
 Choose, young men; choose now; and make up 
 your minds which way you will rise in life ; by merely 
 getting money; or by getting wisdom and honour and 
 virtue. The Psalmists of old, yea our Lord Himself, 
 tell you what will happen in each case. If you want 
 
XXVI.] GOD AND MAMMON. 299 
 
 only to be rich, why then be rich ; if you are clever 
 enough. The Lord may give you what you want, in this 
 evil world. He may give you your portion in this life, 
 and fill you with His hid treasure. He may let you 
 heap up money which you do not know how to spend, 
 and be a laughing-stock to others while you live ; and 
 after you die, your children will probably squander what 
 you have hoarded ; while you will carry away nothing 
 when you die, neither will your pomp follow you : and 
 take care lest you wake, after all, like Dives in the tor- 
 ment, to hear the fearful but most reasonable words — 
 " Son, thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, 
 and therefore thou art tormented." Those words too, I 
 fear, will come true, in this very generation, of many a 
 wretched soul who while he lived counted himself a 
 happy man ; and had all men speaking well of him, be- 
 cause he did well unto himself. On whose souls may 
 God have mercy. 
 
 Choose, young men: choose; now in the golden days 
 of youth, and strength, and honour, ere you have laid a 
 yoke on your own shoulders — even the yoke of money- 
 worship; — not light and easy, like the yoke of Christ, but 
 heavier and heavier as the years roll on, while you, with 
 fading intellect, fading hopes, and it may be fading credit, 
 and certainly fading power of any rational enjoyment, 
 have still, like the doomed souls in Dante's Inferno, to 
 roll up hill the money-bags which are perpetually slipping 
 back. I have seen that, and more than once or twice; 
 and it is, I think, the saddest sight on earth — save one. 
 
 Choose, I say again, then, young men, before you 
 
300 GOD AND MAMMON. [SERM. 
 
 have spread a net round your own feet, which, as in 
 disturbed dreams, grows and tangles more and more each 
 time you move — even the net of greed and craft, which 
 men set for their neighbours; and are but too apt, ere all 
 is done, to be taken in themselves; the net of truly bad 
 society, of the society of men who have set their hearts 
 on making money, somehow or other; and with whom, if 
 you cast in your lot, you may descend — O God, I know 
 full well what I am saying — to depths from which your 
 young spirits now would shrink; till your higher nature 
 be subdued to the element in which it works; and the 
 poet's curse on all who bind themselves to natures lower 
 than their own come true of you — 
 
 Thou shall lower to their level, day by day, 
 
 All that once was fine within thee growing coarse to sympathize 
 with clay. 
 
 Or you may choose — God grant that you may choose 
 — the other path; the path of the law of Christ, and of 
 the Spirit of Christ; the kingdom of God and His right- 
 eousness. And then shall come true of you, as far as 
 God shall see good for your immortal soul, those other 
 promises — - 
 
 "Come, ye children, and hearken unto me, and I -will 
 teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is he that 
 loves life, and would fain see good days? Let him keep 
 his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no 
 deceit. Let him eschew evil and do good ; let him seek 
 peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over 
 the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers... 
 
XXVI.] GOD AND MAMMOX. 30I 
 
 For the Lord ordereth a good man's going, and maketh 
 his way acceptable to Himself. Though he fall he shall 
 not be cast away, for the Lord upholdeth him with His 
 hand. ..I have been young, and now am old, and yel 
 never saw I the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging 
 their bread. Flee from evil, and do the thing that is good, 
 and dwell for evermore. For the Lord loveth the thing 
 that is righteous. He forsaketh not His that be godly, 
 but they are preserved for ever.'' 
 
 Choose that; the better part which shall not be taken 
 from you ; for it is according to the true laws of political 
 and social economy, which are the laws of the Maker of 
 the Universe, and of the Redeemer of Mankind. And 
 then, whether or not you leave your children wealth, you 
 will, at all events, leave them an example by which they, 
 and their children's children, must prosper to the world's 
 end. And your prayer will be, more and more, as you 
 grow old and weary with the hard work of life — 
 
 " I will go forth in the strength of the Lord God, 
 and make mention of His righteousness only. Thou, O 
 God, hast taught me from my youth up until now. 
 Therefore will I tell of Thy wondrous works. Forsake 
 me not, O Lord, in my old age, when I am grey-headed, 
 till I have shewn Thy strength unto this generation ; and 
 Thy power unto those that are yet to come." 
 
 To which end may Christ bring us all, of His infinite 
 mercy. Amen. 
 
SERMON XXVII. 
 
 THE BEATIFIC VISION. 
 
 Psalm lvii. 
 
 A Psalm of David when hefledfrojn Saul in the cave. 
 
 Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me, for my soul 
 trusteth in Thee, and under the shadow of Thy wings shall be 
 my refuge, until this tyranny be over-past. I will call unto the 
 most high God, even unto the God that shall perform the cause 
 which I have in hand. He shall send from heaven, and save me 
 from the reproof of him that would eat me up. God shall send 
 forth His mercy and truth : my soul is among lions. And I lie 
 even among the children of men, that are set on fire, whose 
 teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. 
 Set up Thyself, O God, above the heavens, and Thy glory above 
 all the earth. They have laid a net for my feet, and pressed 
 down my soul : they have digged a pit before me, and are fallen 
 into the midst of it themselves. My heart is fixed, O God, my 
 heart is fixed: I will sing, and give praise. Awake up, my 
 glory J awake, lute and harp : I myself will awake right early. 
 I will give thanks unto Thee, O Lord, among tlie people, and I 
 will sing unto Thee among the nations. For the greatness of 
 Thy mercy reacheth unto the heavens, and Thy trath unto the 
 clouds. Set up Thyself, God, above the heavens, and Thy 
 glory above all the earth. 
 
 Some people now-a-days would call this poetry; and so 
 it is. But what poetry ! They would call it a Hebrew 
 song, a Hebrew lyric ; and so it is. But what a song ! 
 
SERM. XXVII.] THE BEATIFIC VISION. 303 
 
 There is something in us, if we be truly delicate and 
 high-minded people, which will surely make us feel a 
 deep difference between it and common poetry, or com- 
 mon songs ; which made our forefathers read or chant it 
 in church, and use it, as many a pious soul has ere now, 
 in private devotion. 
 
 David did not compose it in church or in temple. 
 He never meant it, perhaps, to be sung in public wor- 
 ship. He little dreamed that we, and millions more, 
 in lands of which he had never heard, should be repeat- 
 ing his words in a foreign tongue in our most sacred 
 acts of worship. He was thinking, when he composed 
 it, mainly of himself and his own sorrows and dangers. 
 He intends, he says, to awake early, and sing it to lute 
 and harp. Perhaps he had composed it in the night, 
 as he lay either in the cave of Adullam or Engedi, hiding 
 from Saul among the cliffs of the wild goats ; and meant 
 to go forth to the cave's mouth, and there, before the 
 sun rose over the downs, he would, to translate his 
 words exactly, "awake the dawning" with his song in 
 the free air and the clear sky, singing to his little band of 
 men. 
 
 And to some one more than man, my friends. For 
 his poetry was poetry concerning God. His song was a 
 song to God. He does not sing of his own sorrows to 
 himself, as too many poets have done ere now. He 
 does not sing to his men ; though he no doubt wished 
 them to hear him, and learn from him, and gain faith 
 and comfort and courage from his song. He sings of his 
 sorrows to God Himself; to the God who made heaven 
 
304 THE BEATIFIC VISION. [serm. 
 
 and earth ; the God who is above the heavens, and His 
 glory above all the earth. 
 
 This is the secret, the virtue, the charm of the song; 
 that it sings to God. This is why it has passed into 
 many lands, into many languages, through hundreds and 
 hundreds of years, and is as fresh, and mighty, and full 
 of meaning and of power, now, here,, to us in England, 
 as it was to David, when he was a poor outlaw, wander- 
 ing in the hills of the little country of Judtea, more than 
 2000 years ago. 
 
 The poet says, 
 
 A thing of beauty is a joy for ever, 
 
 and this psalm is most beautiful, and a joy for ever to 
 deUcate and noble intellects. But more, a thing of truth 
 is a help for ever. And this psalm is most true, and a 
 help for ever to all sorrowing and weary hearts. For the 
 Spirit of truth it was, who put this psalm into David's 
 heart and brain ; and taught him to know and say what 
 was true for him, and true for all men ; what was true 
 then, and will be true for ever. 
 
 And what in it is true for ever ? The very figures, 
 the metaphors of the psalm are true for ever. "Under 
 the shadow of Thy wings shall be my refuge" — that is a 
 noble figure; can we not feel its beauty? And more. Do 
 none of us know that it is true? David did not believe any 
 more than we do, that God had actual wings. But 
 David knew — and it may be some of us know too — 
 that God does at times strangely and lovingly hide us; 
 keep us out of temptation ; keep us out of harm's way ; 
 
XXVII.] THE BEATIFIC VISION. 305 
 
 as it is written, "Thou shalt hide tliem privately in Thy 
 presence from the provoking of all men. Thou shalt 
 keep them in Thy tabernacle from the strife of tongues." 
 Ah, my dear friends, in such a time as this, when the 
 strife of tongues is only too loud, have you never had 
 reason to thank God for being, by some seemingly mere 
 accident, kept out of the strife of tongues and out of 
 your chance of striving too, and of making a fool of 
 yourself like too many others ? The image of the mother 
 bird, hiding her brood under her wings, seemed to David 
 just to express that act of God's fatherly love, in words 
 which will be true for ever, as long as a brooding bird 
 is left on the earth, to remind us of David's song ; and of 
 One greater than David, too, who said — "O Jerusalem, 
 Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children, 
 as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and 
 thou wouldest not." God grant that we all may do, 
 when our time comes, that which those violent conceited 
 Jews would not do; and therefore paid the awful penalty 
 of their folly. 
 
 And the darker and more painful figures of the 
 psalm : are they not true still ? Is not a man's soul, even 
 in this just and peaceful land, and far oftener in lands 
 which are still neither just nor peaceful — Is not a man's 
 soul, I say, sometimes among lions? — among greedy, 
 violent, tyrannous persons, who are ready to entangle 
 him in a quarrel, shout him down, ay, or shoot him 
 down; literally ready to eat him up ? Are not the chil- 
 dren of men still too often set on fire ; on fire with wild 
 party cries, with superstitions which they do not half 
 
306 THE BEATIFIC VISION. [serm. 
 
 understand, with brute excitements which pander to their 
 basest passions, running like fire from head to head, 
 and heart to heart, till whole classes, whole nations some- 
 times, are on fire, ready like fire to consume and destroy 
 all they touch; and like fire, to consume and destroy 
 themselves likewise ? 
 
 Are there none now, too, whose teeth are spears and 
 arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword ? Such use the 
 pen now, rather than the tongue : but they know, as well 
 as those whom David met, how to handle the spears and 
 arrows of slander, and the sharp sword of insult. Are 
 there none left, who set nets for their neighbours' feet, 
 by gambling, swindling, puffing, by tricks of trade and 
 tricks of party? — none who, like the Scribes of old, try 
 to entangle men in their talk, and make them offenders 
 for a word; and who, like David's enemies, fall now and 
 then into the very pit which they have digged, and ruin 
 themselves in trying to ruin others ? 
 
 My friends, such men will be, as long as there is sin 
 upon the earth. Their weapons are very different now 
 from what they were in David's time: but their hearts 
 are the same as they were then. "The works of the flesh 
 they do, which are manifest;'' and a %ery ugly list they 
 make ; as all who read St Paul's Epistles know full well. 
 
 But such men have their wages. God is merciful 
 in this ; that He rewards every man according to his 
 work. And He is merciful to the whole human race, 
 in rewarding such men according to their work. To the 
 flesh they sow, and of the flesh they shall reap cor- 
 raption. Of old it was written — -"The w.iges of sin 
 
xxvil.] THE BEATIFIC VISION. 307 
 
 are death;" and that, hke all God's words, is a Gospel 
 and good news to poor human beings. For if the wages 
 of sin were not death, what end could there be to sin, 
 and therefore to misery ? 
 
 But while such men exist, how shall a man escape 
 them? How shall he defend himself from them? Not 
 by craft and falsehood, not by angry replies, not by 
 fighting them with their own weapons. The honest man 
 is no match for them with those. The man who has 
 a conscience is no match for the man who has none. 
 The man who has no conscience does what he wills; 
 everything is fair to him in war; and there — in his 
 imscrupulousness — lies his evil strength. The man who 
 has a conscience dares not do what he likes. His 
 scruples — in plain words, his fear of God — hamper him, 
 and put him at a disadvantage, which will always defeat 
 him, as often as he borrows the devil's tools to do God's 
 work withal. 
 
 He must give up those weapons, as David threw 
 off Saul's armour, when he went to fight the giant. It 
 was strong enough, doubt not : but he could not go in 
 it, he said; he was not accustomed to it. He would 
 take simpler weapons, to which he was accustomed ; and 
 fight his battle with them, trusting not in armour, but 
 in the name of the living God. 
 
 In the name of the living God. That is the only 
 sure weapon, and the only sure defence. In that David 
 trusted, when he went to fight the giant. In that he 
 trusted, when he was hid in the cave. And because 
 he trusted in God, he prayed to God. He spoke to 
 
 K..S. " 
 
308 THE BEATIFIC VISION. [serm. 
 
 God. Remember that, and understand how much it 
 means. David, the simple yeoman's son, the outlaw, 
 the wanderer, despised and rejected by men, one who 
 was no scholar either, who very probably could neither 
 read nor write, and knew neither sciences nor arts, save 
 how to play, in some simple way, upon his harp — 
 this man found out that, however oppressed, miserable, 
 ignorant he was in many respects, he had a right to 
 speak face to face with the Almighty and Infinite God, 
 who had made heaven and earth. He found out that 
 that great God cared for him, protected him, and would 
 be true to him, if only he would be true to God and 
 to himself What a discovery was that ! Worth all the 
 wealth and power, ay, worth all the learning and science 
 in the world. — To have found the pearl of great price, 
 the secret of all secrets ; I, David, may speak to God. 
 
 Ah, my friends, consider the meaning of that. Con- 
 sider it, I say. For when that great thought has once 
 flashed across a man's mind, he is a new creature thence- 
 forth. He need speak to no father-confessor or director ; 
 to no saints or angels; to no sages or philosophers. For 
 he can speak to God Himself, and he need speak to no 
 one else. Nay, at times he dare speak to no one else. 
 If he can tell his story to God, why tell it to any of God's 
 creatures ? 
 
 He is in the presence of God Himself, God his 
 Father, God his Saviour, God his Comforter; Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost. God is listening to him. To 
 God he can tell all his sorrows, all his wrongs, all his 
 doubts, all his .'ins, all his weaknesses, as David told his ; 
 
XXVII.] THE BEATIFIC VISION. 309 
 
 and God will hear him; and instead of striking him dead 
 for his presumption or for his sinfulness, will comfort him; 
 comfort him with a feeling of peace, of freedom, of being 
 right, and of being safe, such as he never had before; till 
 all the troubles and dangers of this hfe shall seem light 
 to him. Let the world rage. Let the foolish people 
 deal foolishly, and the treacherous ones treacherously. 
 For if God be with a man, who can be against him? 
 He has no fears left now. He has nothing to do, save 
 to thank God for his boundless condescension; and to 
 trust on. To trust on. If he has set his heart on the 
 Lord, he need not fear what man will do to him. If his 
 heart is fixed; if he is sure that God cares for him, he 
 will, as it were by instinct, sing and give praise to God, 
 as the bird sings when the rain is past, and the sun 
 shines out once more. 
 
 But I think that when a man has reached that state 
 of mind, as David reached it, he will rise, as David rose, 
 to a higher state of mind still. He will rise, as David 
 rises in this psalm, from thoughts about his own soul, to 
 thoughts about God. In one word, he will rise from 
 religion to that which is above even rehgion, namely 
 theology. 
 
 His first cry to God was somewhat selfish. He went 
 to God about himself; about his own sorrows and 
 troubles. That is natural and harmless. The child in 
 pain and terror cries to its mother selfishly to be helped 
 out of its own Uttle woes. But when it is helped, and 
 comforted, and safe in its mother's bosom, and its 
 
3IO THE BEATIFIC VISION. [serm. 
 
 sobbing is over, then it forgets itself, and looks up into 
 its mother's face, and thinks of her, and her alone. 
 
 And so it should be with the man whom God has 
 comforted. When the deliverance has come; when the 
 peace of mind has come; then surely, if he be worthy of 
 the name of man, he will forget himself, and his own 
 petty sorrows; and look up to God, to God Himself, 
 and say within his heart — This great awful Being, 
 eternal, infinite, omnipotent, who yet condescends to 
 take care of a tiny creature like me, who am, in com- 
 parison with Him, less than the worm which crawls 
 upon the ground, less than the fly which lives but for 
 an hour — This God, so mighty and yet so merciful: 
 who is He? What is He like? He is good to me. Is 
 He not good to all ? He is merciful to me. Is not His 
 mercy over all His works? Nay, is he not good in 
 Himself? The One Good ? Must not God be The One 
 Good, who is the cause and the fountain of all other 
 goodness in man, in angels, in all heaven and earth? 
 But if so — what a glorious Being He must be. Not 
 merely a powerful, not merely a wise, but a glorious, 
 because perfect, God. Then will he cry, as David 
 cries in this very psalm — "Oh that men could see 
 that. Oh that men could understand that. Oh that 
 they would do God justice; and confess His glorious 
 Name. Oh that He would teach them His Name, 
 and shew them His glory, that they might be dazzled 
 by the beauty of it, awed by the splendour of it. 
 Oh that He would gladden their souls by the beatific 
 vision of Himself, till they loved Him, worshipped Him, 
 
xxviT.] THE BEA TIFIC VISION: 3 I I 
 
 obeyed Him, for His own sake ; not for anything which 
 they might obtain from Him, but solely because He is 
 The perfectly Good. Oh that God would set up Himself 
 above the heavens, and His glory above all the earth ; 
 and that men would lift up their eyes above the earth, 
 and above the heavens likewise, to God who made 
 heaven and earth ; and would cry — Thou art worthy, O 
 Lord, to receive glory and honour and power ; for Thou 
 hast made all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and 
 were created ; and Thy pleasure is, Peace on Earth, and 
 Goodwill toward men. Thou art the High and Holy 
 One, who inhabitest eternity. Yet Thou dwellest with 
 him that is of a contrite spirit, to revive the heart of the 
 feeble, and to comfort the heart of the contrite. AVe 
 adore the glory of Thy power; we adore the glory of 
 Thy wisdom : but most of all we adore the glory of Thy 
 justice, the glory of Thy condescension, the glory of Thy 
 love.'' 
 
 And now, friends — almost all friends unknown — and 
 alas ! never to be known by me — you who are to me as 
 people floating down a river ; while I the preacher stand 
 upon the bank, and call, in hope that some of you may 
 catch some word of mine, ere the great stream shall 
 bear you out of sight — oh catch, at least, catch this one 
 word — the last which I shall speak here for many months, 
 and which sums up all which I ha\e been trying to say 
 to you of late. 
 
 Fix in your minds — or rather, ask God to fix in your 
 minds — this one idea of an absolutely good God ; good 
 with all forms of goodness which you respect and love 
 
312 THE BEATIFIC VISION. [serm. xxvii. 
 
 in man ; good as you, and I, and every honest man, un- 
 derstand the plain word good. Slowly you will acquire 
 that grand and all-illuminating idea ; slowly, and most 
 imperfectly at best : for who is mortal man that he should 
 conceive and comprehend the goodness of the infinitely 
 good God? But see then whether, in the hght of that 
 one idea, all the old-fashioned Christian ideas about 
 the relations of God to man ; whether a Providence, 
 Prayer, Inspiration, Revelation; the Incarnation, the 
 Passion, and the final triumph, of the Son of God — 
 whether all these, I say, do not begin to seem to you, not 
 merely beautiful, not merely probable ; but rational, and 
 logical, and necessary, moral consequences from the one 
 idea of An Absolute and Eternal Goodness, the Living 
 Parent of the Universe. 
 
 And so I leave you to the Grace of God. 
 
 CAMBRinnK : rniNTED BY c. J. clay, m. a. and sons, at thk university PBE3S.