^ ''/ic'//.. /^^ — ~ — vJ77 z.6-j^<:^ THE ALTON SERMONS \ THE ALTON SERMONS BY AUGUSTUS W. HARE. ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 7TU BROADWAY, NEW YORK, COkNKK NINTH STREET. yS;H^ THE INHABITANTS OF ALTON BARNES, AND ALTON PRIORS, lEhesc ^crmons are ^tbicatcb, ACCORDING TO THE DESIRE OF THEIR LATE AFFECTIONATE MINISTER, WHOSE DYING PRAYERS, THOUGH HE WAS ABSENT FROM THEM IN THE BODY, . WERE OFFERED UP FOR HIS BELOVED PEOPLE. i I i ^^ *J^>^ftMh.^^^g^4^ '^. ^*. p r-) r -- .A Y, r-- '- --r ^^f^T •i. ^ ^^ -^ J ^ O u- 1 U Xi L i- 'T^HIS collection contains those Sermons of Augustus William Hare which were especially connected with his brief ministerial life amid his beloved people of Alton- Barnes. With an almost more than parental interest both in their spiritual and temporal concerns, he there strove, in his tiny village church, to impress the truths of a loving, large-hearted Christianity upon the souls of his parishioners, and there his words are still treasured, with his memory, by the shepherds and poor working-women who heard them. After his death " The Alton Sermons " obtained, through many editions, a notoriety he had little sought or anticipated; but in later years they have been comparatively forgotten, and it has been suggested that those who are only acquainted with them through *'The Memorials of a Quiet Life" may be glad to receive them in the accompanying volume. HoLMHURST, November, 1873. CONTENTS. } I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. THE PREPARATION THE PREACHER'S BLESSING; OR, THE HAPPY NEW YEAR GRACE, PEACE, AND KNOWLEDGE . GROWTH IN GRACE DO AND YOU SHALL KNOW; OR, THE WILL AND DOCTRINE FAITH THE GOSPEL LEAVEN . • • • THE ANGELS TEXT THE EPIPHANY; OR, FAR AND NIGH REPENTANCE CONVINCE A MAN OF SIN; THE BEST FOR PASSION WEEK . . . • THE ATONEMENT THE GOSPEL NEWS; OR, CHRIST'S VICTORY RISE WITH CHRIST THE ASCENSION CHRIST'S DISINTERESTEDNESS OUR PATTERN CHRIST'S GIFTS HOLY BRANCHES; OR, WHY WAS THE TRINITY VEALED ? THE FOOLISH MOCKERS THE UNJUST STEWARD . , THE EVIL EYE RE' PAGE I 12 31 42 56 64 80 101 112 124 J 135 • 147- 161 172 183 198 215 228 239 X CONTENTS. PAGE XXI. A CONSCIENCE VOID OF OFFENCE ; OR, THE CHRIS- TIAN ON HIS TRIAL 249 XXII. TREES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS 258 XXIII. HARVEST LESSONS 269 XXIV. USE THE BIBLE 278 XXV. THE BEST CHRISTIAN, THE BEST PATRIOT . . 292 XXVI. LOCK AND KEY; OR, PROPHECY AND INTERPRETA- TION OF PROPHECY 302 XXVII. PRINCIPLES ABOVE RULES ; OR, WHEAT IS BETTER THAN BREAD 320 XXVIII. PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT 33O XXIX. PRAY WITH THE UNDERSTANDING .... 346 XXX. liturgy: first part, confession . . . 359 XXXI. liturgy: second part, psalms AND lessons . 371 XXXII. liturgy: third part, collects AND LITANY . 384 XXXIII. THE lord's PRAYER: FIRST PART. THE ADDRESS . 396 XXXIV. THE LORD'S PRAYER : SECOND PART. GOD'S NAME : JUSTICE AND MERCY 408 XXXV. THE lord's PRAYER : THIRD PART. GOD'S THREEFOLD KINGDOM 418 XXXVI. THE lord's PRAYER: FOURTH PART. GOD'S AVILL, NOT OURS 431 XXXVII. THE LORD'S PRAYER: FIFTH PART. DAILY BREAD . 442 XXXVIII. THE lord's PRAYER : SIXTH PART. FORGIVENESS . 456 XXXIX. THE lord's PRAYER : SEVENTH PART. TEMPTATIONS AND EVILS 471 XL. IDOLATRY 487 XLI. THE THIRD AND FOURTH COMMANDMENTS . . 5O1 XLII. THE GOOD OF THE COMMANLMENTS OF THE SECOND TABLE 515 XLIII. OBEDIENCE 524 XLIV. LOVE, THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW . . .538 XLV. ANSWERABLE, AND NOT ANSWERABLE ; OR, WHAT IS CONFIRMATION ? 549 XLVI. god's patience, AND MAN'S PERVERSENESS . . 564 \tiisoloqic:. I. THE PREACHER'S BLESSING; OR, THE HAPPY NEW YEAR. Numbers vi. 22—26. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, and keep thee : the Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee : the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. O UCH, my brethren, was the blessing which Aaron and *^ his successors, the Jewish priests, wera to pronounce by the Lord's appointment over the people of God ; and I know no words of pious greeting better suited to this day. New Year's Day so seldom falls on a Sunday, that, when it does, it would be a pity to let it slip, without wishing you all a happy new year, according to the good old English custom. But, as Jesus Christ once said to his disciples, " Not as the world giveth, give I unto you," — meaning that his gifts are very different from those of the world, — so it becomes the minister of Jesus Christ to say to you on this occasion, "Not as the world wisheth, wish I unto you;" meaning thereby, that the happiness he wishes for you is something very different trom what the world commonly esteems such. B THE ALTON SERMONS. The world's notion of happiness, and the gospel notion of happiness, are very different; and therefore the world's wishes for your happiness, and the preacher's wishes for your happiness, must be very different also. The world, when it wishes a man happiness, means a long life, and strong health, and plenty of money, and a good name, and a thriving family. The preacher, on the other hand, when he wishes you happiness, as I wish you all now, means something very different thereby. What ! (you will perhaps ask,) do I not then wish you life and riches ? Yes, my dear brethren, I wish you, and pray God to give you these things, and far more abundantly than the world can wish them for you, — even a life without end, and an inheritance more to be desired than gold, a crown eternal in the heavens. These are the wishes of the preacher, these are his prayers in your behalf, — everlasting life and everlasting glory after your departure out of this world; and, during your stay on earth, a sound body, a healthy soul, a name in the Book of Life, and a household affectionate and dutiful, lovers of God and his will. Such is the difference between the good wishes of the world, and the good wishes of the preacher. The world's good wishes are like itself, worldly : they look chiefly to the body : they reach not beyond earth, and the things of earth. Whereas the good wishes of the preacher are chiefly for your souls : he looks, and by his office is bound to look, first to the one thing needful : his desires for your welfare are guided by the gospel, and like that would raise you up to heaven. Even with regard to this world, the preacher knows full well, that the greatest happiness we can any of us enjoy, is a peaceful mind, a ^quiet conscience, the feeling that God is reconciled to us, and loves us, and cares for us, and watches over us, and will so order and arrange whatever may befall us, that all things sliall work together for our good. THE PREACHER S BLESSING. 3 These are the very best gifts, — they are the truest good which any man can have in this life : and they are all con- tained in the text. Therefore, what the Jewish priests were commanded to say to their people at seasons of joy and blessing, the same words do I now utter as a New Year's prayer for the whole of my parishioners and my people. To every one of you, my friends, I say in the words of Moses : " The Lord bless thee, and keep thee ; the Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious to thee ; the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." This is my prayer in your behalf. May each of you, young and old, male and female, master and servant, may each of you take the words home to your hearts ! and may God Almighty hear them, and bring them all to pass, to your great and endless good ! But let us look at the text a little in detail ; and let us keep in mind, that this solemn blessing was of God's own appointment ; so that we may expect to find mention of all those things which he knows to be best for his people. The first words are, "The Lord bless thee!" that is, the Lord give thee every good gift, and pour down on thee in due abundance whatsoever is wholesome and profitable, for thy soul first, and also for thy body. " The Lord keep thee !" that is, the Lord watch over thee for good, and shield thee from every kind of evil. Here we have already prayed for everything that is good for you ; and have called on the Almighty (think of that word) to guard you against your enemies of every kind, and to defend you from all sorts of dangers. Is not this enough ? Can we wish for anything more ? We perhaps might have thought it enough ; but God in his bounty does not. At least he is pleased to show forth the overflowings of his loving-kindness by heap- ing blessing upon blessing. The text goes on thus : — " The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious to THE ALTON SERMONS. thee." You all know the difference of feel between a sun shiny and a cloudy day. The real heat may be the same ; nay, the cloudy may be warmer than the sunshiny : for we often have bright sunshine in the clear frosty days of winter, and heavy clouds in the middle of summer. But though the real heat may be the same on both days, — though the thermometer, as it is called, or the glass which measures heat, may tell us that the cloudy day is the warmer of the two, — yet to our feelings it may be quite the contrary. There is something so enlivening in the sun, that I have often known persons come in from a walk on a bright winter's day, and speak of it as very pleasant ; while the same persons, on a damp cloudy evening in July, would be the first to shiver, and to wish for a fire. Now the difference which it makes to a man's body, whether the sun is shining upon him, the same difference does it make to his soul, whether God's face is shining on him or not. Let God's face shine on the soul, it walks in the brightest sunshine : let God veil his face, and cloud it over, the soul seems chilled and is dis- comforted. Thus it is written, " Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled." (Psalm xxx. 7.) Think not, my brethren, that this is a small blessing. 1 said that we often feel the cold on a sunshiny day in winter less than on a cloudy day in summer. Now is not some- thing answering to this often met with in the world ? Do we not see many a man disquieted and ill at ease in the midst of riches and luxuries ; while his poor neighbour, who lives in some sorry hovel, may look always cheerful and contented ? What is this difference owing to ? Not to the health and strength of the poor man : for he may be old, and often a sufferer from cold and wet; and he cannot afford to buy himself the little comforts suited to his years and infirmities. The rich man, on the other hand, may still be young : his disease, if it can be called one, is more THE preacher's BLESSING. of the mind than of the body : he can consult the best physicians : he can travel from place to place in search of pleasure : he is not forced to deny himself any one earthly thing that may tend to his ease and enjoyment. Yet with all this, in spite of his youth and riches, in spite of his having no outward ailment, and possessing every comfort and luxury that heart could wish for, he may be always growling and grumbling ; while the dweller in the old hovel, with the pinching frost of poverty and age, and sometimes sickness to boot, sharp upon him, may be ever making the best of his condition, and finding out something in it to thank God for. This is no mere dream of what might be. Those who see much of the rich and of the poor, may find instances of discontented rich men, and contented poor men, in every part of the land. What then is this difference owing to ? To what cause must we trace the gloomy spirit of the one, who has every worldly good to satisfy him, and the bhthe-hearted contentedness of the other, whose lot in the world's eye is so hard and wretched ? The cause is simply this, that the poor man I have been speaking of, — for what I have said is true only of such, — has led a Chris- tian life, or at least has turned to God in earnest, and repented of his sins betimes ; and so God has allowed his face to shine upon him and to cheer him : while his rich neighbour has been led astray by the deceitfulness of riches, and has been so taken up with his pleasures, or with the cares which riches bring with them, that he could not spare time to think about God. He has turned his face away from God : therefore God has turned away his face from him, and left him in clouds and heaviness. O my brethren ! that you might but know and feel the joy and gladness which the light of God's face can shed on the soul of the Christian ! Wherever it shines, it cheers and warms, and even gilds and beautifies the lowest and meanest lot THE ALTON SERMONS. Where it is wanting, earthly wealth and grandeur can no more make amends for it, than the blaze of lamps and the glare of torches could have made amends for the absence of the sun during those three days of Egyptian darkness, when the people, who had disobeyed the voice of the Lord, were plagued with that thick darkness which, Moses tells us, " could be felt." The next blessing we come to is, " The Lord be gracious to thee !" that is, the Lord receive thy prayers, and hearken to them, as a kind and merciful king hearkens to the petitions of his subjects. That this is one of the things meant by " being gracious," we know from a passage in the Book of Exodus (xxii. 27), where God says of himself, " When the poor man crieth to me, I will hear ; for I am gracious." Here the graciousness of God is declared to consist in his hearing prayer. But God is also called gracious in Scripture, because he forgives sin. Thus, in the Book of Nehemiah (ix. 17), we find him called "a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful." In the Book of Jonah (iv. 2), the prophet says, " I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil." Again in the 77th Psalm, where David for a time is almost tempted to despair of God's forgiveness, after saying, " Will the Lord absent himself for ever ? and will he be no more entreated ? Is his mercy clean gone for ever?" he adds, "hath God forgotten to be gracious?" To pray then that God will be gracious to his people, is to pray that he will listen to your supplications, and grant your requests ; that he will be slow to mark what you have done amiss, and ready to take you into favour, when you forsake your sins, and cry to him for pardon. The next blessing wished for you in the text is, " The Lord lift up his countenance upon you 1 " that is, the Lord THE PREACHERS BLESSING. shew forth his favour and love toward you. We may sup- pose this expression taken from a king sitting on the throne, and looking with eyes of such goodwill on the petitioners who come before him, that the bystanders perceive, and the petitioners themselves feel, that he is their friend : they feel that they have the happiness of being esteemed and loved by him, and that they can reckon with certainty on his protection. To be countenanced thus by the King of kings, to feel that he lets us freely into his presence, to know that we have found favour in his sight, and that he has held out his golden sceptre to us, as King Ahasuerus held his sceptre out to Esther, when she presented herself before him, — this assuredly is the highest privilege a son of Adam can enjoy. It is true, God does not really sit, like an eastern king, on a visible throne : for he dwells in glory unapproachable, and in light which no eye can pierce. Nor does he really lift up his head, or hold out a golden sceptre. But a child may understand, that, when such things are said of God, it is for the purpose of bringing what is declared concerning him to the level of our poor weak minds. Were heavenly things spoken of after a heavenly manner, how could we creeping earth-worms lift up our thoughts to conceive them ? Therefore it has pleased God in Holy Writ to speak of himself in words and images bor- rowed from earthly things, so that we may form some notions, however dim, and gain some knowledge, however scanty, of his infinite power and goodness. Thus in some places of Scripture God is called a king, in others a father. Not that he is like an earthly king, or an earthly father. But we all know what a king is, and what a father is : there- fore, in compassion to our ignorance, God suffers himself to be thus spoken of, that we may in some measure understand what duty and obedience and love we owe to him, and what protection and blessings and mercy we may hope for from 8 THE ALTON SERMONS. him. So again we read in Scripture of God's hands, and God's eyes. Not that God, who is a spirit, has hands and eyes, as we have : but this is said, to warn us that he sees and knows our most secret actions, just as if he had eyes to see them with, and that he can punish us for our sins, and smite us down, just as if he had a strong right hand. You fliust not be surprised therefore by the expressions, "The Lord make his face shine upon thee," and " Hft up his coun- tenance upon thee." For these things too are said in com- passion to our weakness, to teach us that God's favour is as cheering to the soul as sunshine to the body ; and that they who are reconciled to him, and are living in his love, have the same quiet trust that no harm can happen to them, as you and I should have, if we knew ourselves to be coun- tenanced and befriended by the king. If we had the king's countenance, if he had looked favourably upon us, and assured us of his friendship, we should expect to receive some honour or preferment; or at least we should feel certain that, so far as he could hinder, he would not suffer any one to hurt us. So is it with those who have God's countenance, but in a far, far higher degree. For the king, great as he is, is only a man. His power is cut short in a thousand ways, and at the best can only follow us to the grave. When dust to dust is thrown upon our coffins, we are beyond the sway of every earthly prince. But God is the King of kings : his power has no bounds, except his own wisdom and goodness and will : whatever he pleases to do, he can do : above all, in the grave, where human rule is at an end, his rule and sovereignty are doubled. Here he leaves us in great measure to our own devices : he governs us by human means : he rules us by viceroys and stewards. But the moment the soul leaves the body, it passes into his immediate kingdom : it goes to a place where the govern- ment is given in charge, not to any earthly prince, but to THE PREACHERS BLESSING. the only-begotten Son ; who there reigns and judges in person with a boundless power to punish and to reward. My brethren, the friendship and protection of the King of kings is surely well worth having. May he vouchsafe, as the Psalmist expresses it, to " give us everlasting felicity, and to make us glad with the joy of his countenance !" (Psalm xxi. 6.) Since God however does not really sit like a king upon a throne, nor show himself to man face to face, how are we to know whether his countenance has been hfted upon us ? The last blessing mentioned in the text will furnish an answer to this question: "The Lord give thee peace!" For peace is the fruit of God's favour. He who is at peace, and feels himself at peace with God, he who knows himself to be reconciled to his heavenly Father through the sufferings and merits of Jesus Christ, he who knows that he has been admitted and adopted into Christ's family, and feels that obedient reverence and love toward God, which every true son must feel for the best of fathers, — such a person may be quite sure that God has indeed lifted up his countenance upon him. " The effect of righteousness," in both senses of the word, — the effect of justification by faith in the blood of Christ, and of our thereupon living a good and christian life, both of which things in Scripture are often termed righteousness, — the effect of this righteousness, the prophet Isaiah says, "is peace." If we know we are forgiven for Christ's sake, we are at peace; because we know that nothing can hurt us. If, out of gratitude and love to our Master and Saviour, we are hving in obedience to his holy laws, then too we have every ground and reason to be at peace : for, " If we are followers of that which is good, who is he that will harm us?" (i Peter iii. 1 3-) Here I should conclude, but for one caution most needful lO THE ALTON SERMONS. to be given. Some may think, that, because they are at peace, because their conscience does not prick or pain them, therefore all must be well with them. My brethren, it is not every sort of peace that is to be desired, but only that true peace which is the effect of righteousness. There is a false peace, a peace arising out of recklessness and careless- ness and the never thinking about God. Let me warn you against this false peace. Would you say that a man was at peace, who was dropping into a deadly slumber? Would you say that Samson was at peace, when he lay sleeping in the lap of Delilah ? Such, so dangerous, so deadly is, — the peace shall I call it ? or rather, the false security of the self- righteous and the careless. Rouse yourselves, I beseech you, from such fatal slumbers, if any of you have hitherto been sinking beneath them. Awake ! the flames of the fiery lake are flashing in your eyes ; and you see them not, but are sliding sleep-bound toward them. Awake ! behold, the face of the Lord does not shine, but frown upon you. Any fear, any woe, any sting of conscience, will be a blessing to you, which can save you from the wrath of a disregarded and offended God. As the old year has fallen into its grave, and the new year has just opened its eyes to the light of this morning's sun, so let the days of your ungodliness have come to an end, and let this be the first day of a new year of godly fear and hope. This is my prayer for you : this is my new year's blessing. I cannot wish you peace yet. Your false dead peace must be broken up — the crust of ice which covers your hearts must be broken up, before the waters can flow gently and calmly, brightened by the sun- shine of heaven. My brethren, you can now understand a little better, how precious was the blessing which the priest of God among the Jews called down upon the people of God. Let me THE PREACHERS BLESSING. II repeat the words again, as I do from my heart : my brethren, the Lord bless you this year, and keep you [ the Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you ! the Lord Hft up his countenance upon you, and give you peace, now and evermore 1 II. GRACE, PEACE, AND KNOWLEDGE, 2 Peter i. 2. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the know- ledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. /^F the twenty-one epistles handed down to us in the ^^ New Testament, nineteen, — all but two, — open with a prayer for the spiritual well-being of the persons to whom they are addressed. Before the apostles enter on their task of exhortation and instruction, they begin by wiihing their brethren in Christ the choicest spiritual blessings ; and in sixteen of the epistles these blessings are grace and peace. Grace and peace then must be something very precious, seeing that they were the thoughts thus uppermost in the minds of the apostles, the very tirst thoughts to strike them when they sat down to write, and among the first words to drop from their pen. And precious, most precious bless- ings indeed they aie, my brethren. For what do they amount to ? what is the meaning of these two holy, apos- tohcal words ? To begin with the first : grace means favour. To shew grace is to shew favour. To be in a person's good graces is to be in favour with him. An act of grace is an act of favour, of that favour which springs from mercy and love, and which gives or forgives a man more than in GRACE, PEACE, AND KNOWLEDGE. 1 3 justice he has any right to look for. Thus we read that " Joseph found grace (that is, found favour) in the sight of Potiphar." But in the New Testament grace is hardly ever used except in speaking of God, and things of God : and it either means the favour and mercy and love of God, or some gift bestowed on man by that favour and mercy and love : above all, that greatest and most precious of all gifts, the gift of his only-begotten Son, the forgiveness of our sins purchased for us by his blood, and the promise of eternal life, if we will turn to him, and believe in him, and obey him. This too is more especially called the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, with a petition for which, you know, the minister winds up the service. In the text we may perhaps give the word a somewhat wider sense, and take it to stand generally for God's love and favour towards all the true followers of Christ. Moreover, as grace in the text is the grace and favour of God, so peace in the text is that inward spiritual peace, which springs out of God's grace and favour, and which is the greatest of all the blessings it is possible for man to enjoy. Not that peace of other kinds is to be slighted. Peace from foreign enemies, peace from strife and broils in our own land, peace and harmony among neighbours, peace and love in a family, — all these things are blessings to be thankful for, when we have them, and to be prayed for, when we have them not. Again, peace in the Church would be another great blessing : and this too is to be prayed for, that it may please God to heal those divisions and quarrels among Christians, sect against sect, and party against party, which give rise to so much scandal, and are such a handle to the profane. " We see (say they) that even those who take the most thought about religion, cannot be of one mind in it : why then should we set foot in a road where there is so much jangling and jostHng?' 14 THE ALTON SERMONS. Thus talk, and thus think, the profane. And doubtless, could peace and unity be restored to the Church of Christ, were the day to come when " Ephraim shall no more envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim" (Isaiah xi. 13), could the world see the great and glorious sight of Chris- tians holding the same faith, agreeing in the same doctrines, joining in the same worship, and walking along the same path in peace and love, as brethren and partners in one hope ought to do, — doubtless such a living proof of the peacefulness and excellency of Christ's kingdom would bring in many to the truth, who at present have deserted its banner, and enlisted on the side of its enemies. But, though peace in the Church, and all other outward peace, is a great blessing, and though the peace which St. Peter desires to see multiplied amongst us, would turn the whole earth into a garden for every kind of peace to flourish in, still it is clear that the peace he has mainly in view is the spiritual peace which arises out of the favour of God. For so grace and peace stand naturally together; and peace follows grace, and flows from it, and grows out of it, as a stream flows from a spring, and as a blossom grows from a tree ; — both to come to us " through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord." Peace, I say, inward peace, peace of mind, peace of conscience, flows and grows out of God's grace : and this is the only source, the only root, from which it can spring. For think a little : how should we stand toward God, supposing Christ had never come into the world ? or sup- posing that, now he is come, he had not reconciled us to the Father ? God is almighty, and can deal with us according to his will : he has given us just and holy laws : and those laws we have broken again and again in every possible way. There is no man living so good as he ought to be : there is no man living so good as he might GRACE, PEACE, AND KNOWLEDGE. 1 5 well have been, considering his opportunities and advan- tages : there is no man Hving who has not done wrong, wrong in the face and against the law of God, when he might, had he pleased, have done right ; no man who has not done what at the time he well knew to be wrong, and who has not failed in doing what he knew he ought to have done. How then can any man, whose heart has ever warned him, or who has ever been warned of these things, — how can such a man be at peace? When Jehu was asked by the king of Israel, " Is it peace, Jehu ? " he answered, *' What peace, so long as the idolatries of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many ? " (2 Kings ix. 22.) In like manner when a person, who has been awakened to a sense of his duty and of his sins, says to his conscience, " Is it peace, Conscience ? " his conscience makes answer, *' What peace, thou sinner ! when the witchcrafts of that Jezebel within thee, that carnal heart of thine, and its abominations and idolatries are so many ; when thou hast preferred the world and the things of the world, the flesh and the things of the flesh, — nay, when thou hast even preferred those hell-sprung passions, envy, and hatred, and malice, and revenge, to the law of God ; when thou hast made an idol of thyself, and set up thine own will to be the rule and principle of thy thoughts and actions, — having lived thus, O sinner ! what room can there be for peace?" Such must be, such has ever been, the answer of the conscience, when men come to it in search of that inward peace, which always shrinks and flees from every kind of guilt, whether great or small. But if a man's conscience will not allow him to have peace, whither shall he betake himself to find it? Shall he go to his natural reason, to that reason by which the affairs of mankind in this world are ordered and controlled ? That will tell him, that, according to the laws of man, 1 6 THE ALTON SERMONS. every offence has its set punishment. It is no excuse for a person who has broken any one law, that he has kept fifty others. When a man is tried for a robbery, it is of no avail for him to plead that he has never murdered anybody ; nor, if he is tried for stealing, that he is not a highway-robber ; nor, if he is tried for a riot, that he is not a thief ; nor, if he is tried for poaching, that he is not a rioter. A man is bound to keep all the laws. If he breaks any one of them, and is found out, he may be brought to punishment : nay, he is sure of meeting with it, unless from something out of the common way, such as his youth, or the pettiness of the injury, or its being a first offence, he is lucky enough to get a pardon. But can any one say, he never offended God, except when he was very young and knew no better ? Can any one say, he has offended God only once, and in some small matter? If there be such a person, natural reason might perhaps encourage him to look for pardon at God's hands. But we all know, there is no such person in the world, nor ever was. We all know, if we know anything about the matter, that in many ways, and at every season of life, in childhood, in boyhood, in youth, in manhood, in old age, all have offended, and all are still offending God ; some of us more indeed, and some less, but all frequently and all grievously and inexcusably. We know that every man has broken God's law, knowingly and wilfully, over and over again. That law too is a perfect law : and the lawgiver is one whom there is no deceiving or escaping. What peace then can reason bestow ? Its sentence must be. Thou hast broken the law ; therefore thou must abide the penalty of the law. But perhaps some one, after being thus baffled by his conscience and his reason, may think of turning to the Old Testament, to see whether he can find comfort there. Well ! what does he read ? He reads, " Cursed is every one that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them." GRACE, PEACE, AND KNOWLEDGE. (Deut. xxvii. 26.) So that we must do them all: else we are accursed. If we do not keep them all, if we sin against them, then we read this plain sentence, " The soul that sinneth, it shall die." (Ezek. xviii. 20.) Here then we have the sinner, when he becomes aware of his guilt, — and when I say the sinner, I mean you, I mean all, for all are sinners, — going for hope, for comfort, for peace, to conscience and reason : but he gets no hope, or comfort, or peace from them. Conscience tells him, " I have no peace to give thee, because I know thee to be a sinner." Reason tells him, " I have no peace to give thee, because thou hast broken the law; and he who breaketh the law, shall be broken by the law." And if, in the hope of getting a milder answer, he takes up the Old Testament, he there finds many offers of pardon, it is true, and many promises of mercy ; but he also finds the most terrible threats against every kind of iniquity : he finds story after story of God's fearful judgments against sinners : above all, he finds a covenant of works too perfect for man to keep : and he reads those words so appalling to a sinner, who is seeking after peace — " There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." How then is he to find peace ? He cannot find it for himself: nothing on earth can give it him; he must receive it therefore from above ; it must come to him as a free gift from God. That is, it must come to him by grace. If God is graciously pleased to ofi"er us his free pardon, and to take us back into his favour, then, and then alone, can we have peace. Now this way to peace has been opened to us by God's free mercy and grace. When we were yet afar off, nay, before we had ever thought of turning to him, while we were loitering in the fields, among the swine, feeding on the husks of sin and folly, God himself, in the person of his only Son, came to us, to look for us, and to fetch us home c THE ALTON SERMONS. again, and brought us the angel food of truth and holiness, that, having tasted thereof, we might loathe the wretched fare we had till then been feeding on. By this shewing forth of God's great love for us, by this proof that he wishes us to be reconciled to him, by this precious pledge that he longs to pardon us, if we will only let him, the sinner is enabled to find peace. The moment we are sure of being forgiven, our spirits may throw aside their griefs, and fly back to God, and find rest in a humble trust in his mercy; seeing that we may now have a good and certain hope, that God will not leave his work imperfect; that he, who has begun our salvation, will carry it on to the end ; that he, who has given us his only Son to die for us, will with him freely give us all things, which make for the good of our souls. Thus, as an excellent old writer says, " the flower of peace grows upon the root of grace." "" " This persuasion," he continues, " has such a gentle power with it, that it can make our minds clear and bright, like the finest day in summer. ' My peace I give to you,* says Christ, ' let not your hearts be troubled.' All the peace and favour of the world cannot calm a troubled heart ; but where this peace is, which Christ gives, all the trouble and disquiet of this world cannot disturb it." t Have any of you happened to see the effect of a breeze on a pool of deep water in a sheltered valley ? The wind may be sharp enough to ruffle the face of the water for a while ; but its depths are at peace. So is it vnih the Christian. The cares and worries of life cannot pierce below the surface of his spirit : for he is lying beneath the shelter of his Saviour ; and so the depths of his heart are safe from every common trouble and annoyance. Nothing earthly can shake his soul, unless it be one of those heavy storms and whirlwinds ♦ Leighton, vol. i. p. 28. f Ibid., p. 30. GRACE, PEACE, AND KNOWLEDGE. 1 9 of affliction, with which it sometimes pleases God to try the patience of his servants. But God never tasks his children beyond their power ; so that when he tries them with some heart-searching grief, he at the same time sends them strength to bear it. Apart however from these heavy heart- searching woes, which befall us, God be praised, very rarely, the Christian enjoys great peace. To a mind like his, a mind at ease in itself, and feeding on the promises of its God and Saviour, what matter those outward grievances and distresses, which harass and trouble the children of this world ? Truly they are little more to him, than the rattling of the hail on the tiles to a man sitting by a good fire with a plentiful meal before him.* If the man takes notice of the storm out of doors, it is only to say how glad he is to be out of it. So, if the Christian notices those cares and crosses, which his worldly neighbours make so much of, it is only to thank God for having called him to a covert from the gales of life, and placed him in a safe and sheltered haven. What then makes so many people take up such a dislike to religion, as if it were a sour and unpleasant thing ? It is because they see the temperance and the self-denial of the true Christian : they see that he shrinks from every kind of revelry and excess : they see that his very mirth has some- thing quiet and sober in it : and seeing all this, they say ,vithin themselves, " What a poor dull wretched fellow this must be ! I would not be hke him for the world." This is strange language, is it not, for anybody to hold about a Christian ? For every thinking man must know that a true Christian is the child and heir of God. A true Christian is approved by the Father ; a true Christian is loved by the Son; a true Christian has been sanctified by the Holy Ghost ; hereafter he will be the companion of angels ; and * Leighton, vol. i. p. 30. 20 THE ALTON SERMONS. even now his heart is more than half in heaven. For a sinner to speak scornfully of such a person, for a sinner to say of God's servant and child, " I would not be like him for the world," — is surely very strange and foolish talk. Yet how often do we hear such talk ! How often do we see the sinner, perched on the dunghill of his vices, clapping his wings in self-applause, and fancying himself a much grander creature than the poor Christian, who all the while is soaring on high like a lark, and mounting on his way to heaven ! Foolish, however, and worse than foolish as it is, for sinners to despise a Christian, it is not altogether to be w^ondered at that they should sometimes think his lot dull and wretched. For they can only judge by the outside; they cannot look within : they cannot see the inward joy, the gladness of heart, which the true Christian is seldom without, even when in a very hard and low estate. The sinner can- not see this : nor, if he could, would he be able to fathom it, or make it out ; for it is a peace which passeth this world's understanding. Yet it is not a whit the less real, or less delightful ; nor does it less fill the heart. If any of you then have a longing for peace, and put belief in what the Bible tells you, be persuaded to look for peace in the quarter to which I have been pointing you. Make the attempt : it can do you no harm. Give religion a fair trial. Seek for peace in the way of grace, in the way of reconciliation with the Father, in the way of God's love and favour, in the way, the spiritual way, of piety, and meek- ness, and obedience. This is the true and straight road to peace and happiness ; and beside it there is no other. Every other road will end in disappointment. This will lead you to the only happiness which can give a man peace at the last. But perhaps you may ask me how I know there is no otlier road to happiness, besides this way of peace. I know GRACE, PEACE, AND KNOWLEDGE. it for two reasons : first from the nature of the thing ; be- cause nothing short of God can satisfy an immortal soul ; and so long as the soul is unsatisfied, a man cannot be mort- than half happy. Moreover, the wisest man that ever lived Solomon, has told us so. He made the trial. He sought for happiness in a thousand ways, and has left us his recorc. that he found them all to be vanity and vexation of spirit. Now, if he, with every luxury, every enjoyment, every indul- gence, which gold could buy, — if Solomon, with all hif power, all his wisdom, all his glory, all his splendour, all his riches, — if he found life, when away from God, such a poor, vexatious, empty thing, what shall we find it — we, whose utmost worldly pleasures can no more be compared to his, than a cup of muddy ditch-water can be compared to the richest wine ? If you wish for happiness then, look for it in the only road that has ever led to it. Seek for God's grace.. for God's forgiveness, for God's favour ; pray for them ; let them into your souls ; and when they have come, and taken up their abode with you, peace will not long be a stranger. It will come to you, and make you happy. Such, my brethren, is the peace which the apostle desires for you in the text. It is a spiritual peace, arising from a sense of God's great favour and mercy. It is an inward peace, shedding balm over the soul, and preserving it from being galled and fretted by the petty rubs of life. But we shall form a faint notion of the apostle's love and christiar kindness, unless we consider the measure and degree of his good wishes. It is not enough for him to wish us grace and peace : he prays that the grace and peace may be multi- phed. This is indeed blessing us with a good measure of blessings, pressed down, and running over. " Grace and peace be multipHed." Had he been speaking of any earthly blessing, he would have written difterently. He would never have wished you to have riches without stint, THE ALTON SERMONS. or power without stint, or honours without stint. On the contrary, he would have told you, that an abundance of any of these things is the most dangerous trial a man can be put to. Accordingly the wise Agur, in praying against poverty, takes care to pray also against riches. " Give me not riches," he says, " lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord?" (Prov. xxx. 9.) .But in spiritual blessings it is otherwise. Of them there can never be too much. A man can never have too much faith, too much holiness, too much trust in God, too much love for Christ, too much patience, too much humility. Therefore, in speaking of those heavenly blessings, grace and peace, the apostle desires them for us without any stint or limit, saying, " Grace and peace be multiplied to you." Hence we may take a lesson for our own prayers, and learn to ask for earthly things humbly, and with an //, — saying, " If it shall please thee, O God, of thy goodness give me so and so. Thou knowest, O Lord, what is best for thy servant, grant me so and so, if it be good for me." This is the way we ought to pray for earthly blessings : for so prayed even Jesus himself. Even he, when crying to the Father, during that agony of his spirit in the garden of Gethsemane, even Jesus, prayed with an if, — saying, " Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me ; nevertheless not my will, but thine be done." Let us follow our Lord^s example in this; and when we pray for any earthly blessings, beyond the mere necessaries of life, let us ask for them humbly, and with an if ; like persons aware of our own ignorance, and who feel that no one can tell what is truly good for a man in this life. But for heavenly blessings pray without an if. For about them we do know most certainly, that the more we can get of them the better. Therefore ask for them earnestly and repeatedly. Be not afraid of wearying God by your entreaties. Beg and pray to him for his pardon, for his love, for the GRACE, PEACE, AND KNOWLEDGE. 23 help of his Holy Spirit, like men who long to have what they ask for. Beg and pray to him again and again, that his grace and peace may be multiplied and increased to you, without stint, and without measure. Perhaps your petitions may not be granted the first time, nor the tenth time, nor even the hundredth time. Never mind ; pray on the more earnestly, remembering our Saviour's words, " The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force" (Matt. xi. 12); that is to say, you may pull down the blessings of the gospel by constant and hearty prayer. St. Paul too bids us " desire spiritual gifts." (i Cor. xiv. i.) Be desirous, then — nay, be covetous, be greedy of them. It is the only kind of covetousness and greediness which is praiseworthy, and which is sure to be satisfied in the end. " The lions," we read, that is, those who are like lions, those who are greedy of any kind of earthly prey, " do lack and suffer hunger " (Ps. xxxiv. 10) : the more they get, the more they crave ; so that they are never satisfied, and never can be. But those that hunger and thirst after righteousness, and grace, and peace, and the other gifts of God and Christ, they are declared by our Saviour to be " blessed, for they shall be filled." Their wishes will be granted ; and they will v/ant none of those good things for which they have cried to their Father. Such is the measure of the grace and peace which the apostle desires for us. He would have them multiplied and increased to us. But how is this increase and multiply- ing to come to us ? It is to come through " the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." If you wish to receive the multiphed grace and peace, which I have shewn you to be so precious, you must seek it through the appointed channel; you must seek it through knowledge, through a spiritual knowledge, through a living knowledge, of God the Father and the Son. There is a knowledge which, 24 THE ALTON SERMONS. St. Paul tells us, '' puffs a man up, and fills him with a vain conceit " of being wiser than his neighbours. This however can never be the knowledge through which grace and peace are to be multiplied. For instance, a man might be able tc say by heart all the names in the Bible, all the names of the kings of Israel, all the names of the kings of Judah, all the names of the heads of the families that returned with Nehe- miah from Babylon. Yet this knowledge would profit him nothing. It is only a knowledge of the names of men; whereas St. Peter requires a knowledge of God and his Son. Again, a man might be able to tell the number of verses in every chapter all the Bible through ; and he might be able to say the first word of every chapter, or even the first word of every verse. Would that knowledge profit him ? No. It would only be a knowledge of words and numbers : it would not be a knowledge of God and of his Son. Or a man might be able to explain all the hard words, and to tell the meaning of all the hardest texts in the Bible ; and this too, if he knew nothing besides about the Bible, would profit him nothing. It would only be a knowledge of diffi- culties ; it would not be a knowledge of God and of his Son. The knowledge which St. Peter recommends to us in the text, is not a knowledge of words, or names, or num- bers ; it is not a knowledge of what is curious, or learned, or difficult ; but a practical and enlightened knowledge of the truths set before us in the Gospel. It must be a practical knowledge : because religion is in great measure a practical thing ; and practical things are learnt by practice. A man who would learn religion thoroughly, must go through an apprenticeship to it, just as he would to a trade. '* If any man will do God's will," said our blessed Lord, " he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." (John vii. 17.) To the same purpose are David's words : " Come, taste and see how gracious the GRACE, PEACE, AND KNOWLEDGE. 25 Lord is!" (Ps. xxxiv. 8.) The best way of seeing and perceiving the grace of God is to begin by tasting it. This assuredly is the best knowledge that anybody can have of God. He who enjoys this precious knowledge, has the proof of the Gospel in himself. For to him Jesus fulfils the promise, which he made the night before his crucifixion : " If a man love me, he will keep my words ; and my Father will love him; and we will come to him, and make our abode with him." (John xiv. 23.) Still, besides this practical knowledge, every one, poor as well as rich, ought also to have an enlightened knowledge of God and of his blessed Son : and Jesus, when he brought down the Gospel from heaven, purposed that so it should be. The Gospel was meant to be a light to the mind of every one, as well as a strength and comfort to the heart of every one. If christian education had been duly established in this country, so it would be. I am afraid in this we are gone backward, — not indeed since our fathers' time, — for teaching the poor is more attended to now, than it was some years ago : but I fear we have gone backward in this matter since the time of our glorious Reformation ; and we are only beginning to recover our lost ground. Our fore- fathers carried on the education of the poor by frequent and diligent catechizing ; that is, by questioning them over and over about the great truths and facts and doctrines of Chris- tianity. But now that preaching is looked upon as the great thing in every church, this catechizing or questioning has in many places fallen into disuse ; and I think the poor have lost by the change. To profit by a sermon, a man must attend to it : he must hear it thoroughly ; he must understand it ; he must think it over with himself, when he gets home. How few in any congregation will go to all this trouble ! You come, and sit, and hear, and I hope are able in some degree to follow the meaning of what I say to 26 THE ALTON SERMONS. you from the pulpit : yet how far is this from the under- standing and the knowledge by which grace and peace are to be multiplied ! But when a person is catechized, when he is asked questions, and called on to answer them, he must think ; he must brace up his mind : unless he is determined not to learn, he can scarce help being taught something. And those who want to learn, those who feel a wish to improve, and to grow in the knowledge of their Lord and Master, — what progress must they make under such instruction ! When I speak thus of catechizing, do not think I mean to decry preaching. Both are useful in their turns, catechizing to prepare the ground, preaching to crop it. But unless the mind be prepared by catechizing, preaching loses half its use. Thinking as I do of this practice of catechizing, you will not be surprised that I am very anxious the young among you should not neglect the opportunity of instruction, with which I purpose to furnish them this winter. It would be a shame, if, in so small a parish, I could not contrive means for teaching those who are willing to be taught. In great town parishes, where there are sometimes thousands of souls, a minister, with the best wishes for the welfare of his people, cannot find time to do all he wishes : what is he among so many? But here, where we all live so close together, — here, where one small hamlet,— it is hardly more, — contains all the people under my care, if the poor are not duly trained and brought up in the knowledge of God and of his Son, blame and guilt must needs lie somewhere. God grant it lie not with me ! God grant it be not said to me in the last day, " Here is a soul that was committed to your charge : it might have been saved by your watchful- ness : you neglected it ; and it is lost." But if this would to me be a most sorrowful hearing, so as to embitter, if it were possible, the very joys of heaven, how must it steep GRACE, PEACE, AND KNOWLEDGE. 27 the soul in misery on that dreadful day for one of you to hear, " You have no excuse to plead : you had every oppor- tunity of instruction, and you would not learn ; you would not hear : your obstinacy and heedlessness have ruined your soul 1" For there is only one way of attaining to the enlightened knowledge I spoke of. By going to the light. God has given us his word to be a lantern to our feet, and a light to our paths. Go then to that blessed light. Take your Bible, and study it carefully ; and it will teach you all that you have so much need to know both about the Father and the Son. Happily this great and good light which God has given us in his book, is set within the reach of many more persons now, than it was forty years back. Bibles and Tes- taments are now so cheap, that a few pence will buy a New Testament ; and Sunday-schools and other schools are so common, that almost every child may learn to read, who will. Here we have the hght of God's holy word placed within the reach of every one. Is not this a great and glorious privilege — a privilege to be heartily thankful for? If it is, shew your thankfulness to God for this great gift, by making a good use of it. Some of the older persons among you perhaps have never learnt to read : if so, they can best tell what a sad loss it is, to be unable to read with one's own eyes the wonderful works of God in Christ. Do I say this to discourage these poor unlettered persons ? Not so • but to remind them that, if one way of improving their knowledge of Christ, the way of reading, is closed to them, another way is still open, the way of hearing. Let them be the more careful then to learn in that way, since they can learn in no other : and for their comfort, let them remember the apostle's words, *' Faith cometh by hearing." (Rom. x. 17.) In former times, when books were scarce, faith came to the poor in the way of hearing only. In our days it has pleased 28 THE ALTON SERMONS. God to open wider than before a second way to the know- ledge of his will, the way of reading. Still there are elderly persons who cannot read ; and these should beware of neg- lecting any opportunity of coming to this place, to hear the word of God. But children are without excuse, if they do not learn to read, as well as hear. Yes, children, you must learn to read the word of God. When you go to school, above all, when you come to your Sunday-school, do not come as to a task ; but come with hearts full of thankfulness to God, for giving you such means of learning the way to heaven. Come with a wish to learn all you can about God and his blessed Son. Do not think it enough, if you learn to spell, and to read, and to say the words of Scripture : but seek to learn the truths of Scripture. Do as the bees do. A bee, when it sees a flower, does not fly round and round it, and sip it, and then off again, like the foolish idle butterflies : it settles on the flower, and sucks the honey out of it. So should you, when you come to one of the beautiful parables which Jesus spake, or to one of the miracles which Jesus did : you should do as the bees do ; you should settle your thoughts on what you read, and try to suck the honey out of it. But why do I speak of the parables and miracles ? Almost every verse of the New Testament has its honey. Almost every verse contains a spiritual truth fit to nourish some soul or other. Almost every verse of the New Testament, I say, contains a spiritual truth fit to nourish some soul or other. For though every man has equal need to be nourished by the Bible, yet we do not all require the same spiritual food : nay, we may require one kind of spiritual food to-day, and another kind next year. The old have not the same temp- tations as the young : the rich have not the same sort of temptations as the poor : the prosperous and happy have GRACE, PEACE, AND KNOWLEDGE. 29 not the same sort of temptations as the sorrowful. But every age, every rank, every condition of life, has its own trials, and its own temptations ; and perhaps these temp- tations may not be the same a couple of weeks together. For this reason the Bible is not a book to be read through once or twice, and then laid by: it must be read and thought upon again and again. The oftener you go to it for counsel and nourishment, the better, the wiser, the stronger, the happier you will become. Go to it then in youth, for such nourishment as youth needs : go to it in manhood and old age, for such nourishment as manhood and old age need. Let me rather say, go to it for your daily bread. Seek in it whatever may be necessary for the present nourishment of your souls : and pray to the Holy Spirit to open your eyes, that you may find that nourish- ment. • And when you have found it, still do as the bees do ; hive it ; store it up in your memories against the day of trial. Remember, it was by the truth of Scripture, which he had stored up in his memory during youth, that our Saviour himself, when he was tempted in the wilder- ness, was pleased to baffle the wiles of the devil. If we would beat off Satan, as Jesus did, we must use the same weapon as Jesus used : we must oppose him with the word of God. That word, like the spears which the ancients used to fight with, is at once a weapon and a prop : it has a point to drive away the enemy ; it has a staff to support us on our road. Lean on that staff, which is the promises of God : it shall support you, when your heart is ready to sink. Fight with that point, which is the sharp commands of God : and the tempter shall flee before you. So walking, and so fighting, not in your own strength, but in humble reliance upon that Almighty Lord, whose word standeth fast for ever, you shall attain to that knowledge of the Father and the Son, which St. Peter speaks of in the text. You 30 THE ALTON SERMONS. shall see the Father as he is in himself, pure, and severe, and holy ; as he is in his Son, loving, merciful, and forgiving ; the man Jesus, patient and obedient, — the incarnate Son, humbling himself out of the purest love, — the same Son, sitting on his Father's judgment-seat, the punisher of all who have shut their hearts against his mercy. This is the knowledge which leads to grace and peace. In proportion as you come to see the Father and his Christ in these their true and heavenly characters, you will grow to feel God's goodness more and more : you will learn to hate sin more and more : you will learn to love God's law, to be meek and spiritually-minded ; and these things lead to great peace ; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. III. GROWTH IN GRACE. 2 Peter iii. 18. Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. HTHESE are the concluding words of the second epistle "'- general of St. Peter. They contain the last advice which that apostle has left to the Church of Christ. For his epistle is not addressed to any particular Church, or to the Christians of any particular age. It is a general epistle to all who have been called to share in the great and precious promises of the gospel. What is said in it, is said to all Christian people, and of course to us among the number. Let us look then on the text, as the parting exhortation bequeathed by St. Peter to us. Let us con- sider him as saying to us personally, Grow in grace and spiritual knowledge. Do not sit down satisfied with your present progress in religion. Do not fancy you have already attained to that holiness and righteousness which ought to be the mark of Christians. Beware of slumbering or halting on the road. Beware of mistaking words and pro- fessions for Christian faith, a decent behaviour for Chris- tian practice, the outward form for the inward spirit. It is not enough for Christ's soldiers to stand their ground, and 32 THE ALTON SERMONS. maintain their steadfastness : they must press forward and gain more ground. It is not enough for them not to fall from grace: they must make new shoots upwards, and grow in grace ; and this can only be done by growing in religious knowledge also. Such, my brethren, is the purport of St. Peter's farewell charge to us : and surely the last words of so great an apostle must be well deserving of our most serious attention. Let me beg you therefore to give me that attention, while I try to set before you what is meant by growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The grace of God, in its most general sense, stands for his favour and loving-kindness. When we pray for it, we pray God to bestow his favour upon us. But in the New Testament the words are applied more especially to that most wonderful and chiefest instance of God's love, his seeking to save and restore a guilty world through the blood of his Son. Herein, above all, was the grace and goodness of God displayed to us in its whole fulness, — in that, when we had strayed from God, God sent his own Son to lead us back to him, — in that, when expiation and atonement for sin were required by his justice and holiness, the Lamb of God came and offered up himself as a sacrifice in our stead, — in that, to give us a new heart, a heart capable of loving and obeying the Father, the holy and eternal Spirit is waiting to take up his abode within us, to fill our souls with the comfort of his presence, and to make our very bodies his temples. These, my brethren, are the blessings which God is holding out to you, and to me, and to every one who is called by the name of Christ. He invites you to them as to a rich feast, in that noble passage of Isaiah (Iv. i) ; " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money ; come ye, buy, and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." No GROWTH IN GRACE. 33 invitation can be more bountiful, or more pressing : none therefore can be more gracious. It has the grace of con- descension, for the Sovereign of the universe to abase himself so as to invite, and even to entreat his creatures, as he does in many passages of Scripture, where he almost forces them to come in and see the dainties he has prepared for them. It has the grace of bounteousness, to make ready- so nourishing and rich a banquet for all who will be at the pains of going to it. To this we must add that most necessary and precious gift, or favour, or grace, (for the name does not matter, so you understand the thing,) the grace of mercy. When a king grants a pardon to his rebellious subjects, it is called an act of grace. Well then may the universal pardon which the King of heaven has freely offered to his rebellious subjects and children, if they will only come to him and accept it, well may a pardon joined with so much bounteousness and condescension be called pre-eminently the grace of God. From this explanation of grace, it is easy to gather what the being in a state of grace means, and also to perceive when it may be truly said of any one, that he is in such a state. To be in a state of grace is to be at peace with God. It is to have come in and surrendered ourselves, as it were, and confessed our guilt ; and having acknowledged our rebellion, and thrown ourselves on his promised mercy, and pleaded the death and merits of his Son as our only ground of pardon, it is to show our grateful sense of the forgiveness vouchsafed to us by living thenceforward as be- comes the people of God. This is being in a state of grace. For though God's pardon is unbought and not to be bought by any human means, though they who buy it are to buy it without money and without price, still it is not uncon- ditional. He pardons all who come to receive their lives at his hand, but none else. If a man will not come to God, D 34 THE ALTON SERMONS. his sin and guilt cleave to him. When pardon is granted to a rebel, on his surrendering himself to the king's officers, and delivering up his arms, and promising to behave better, it stands to reason that the pardon will hold good only so long as the promise is kept. If the man breaks his word, and commits fresh outrages against the king's authority, his life is once more forfeited. This, which is true of earthly pardons, is equally true of heavenly. Every one who lives in sin, is living at enmity with God. He is living in rebellion against the ruler of the w^orld ; and so long as he continues in such rebellion, he is shut out by his own wilful obstinacy and perverseness from the free pardon which God has offered to mankind. It is impossible to be in a state of grace, so long as we abide in any known sin, whether of body or mind, whether of habit or passion, whether of society or selfishness. Of every sin, and every kind of sin, understand clearly, that the indulging in it is a bar which must shut you out from a state of grace. They who are in a state of grace, have at least set their faces toward the heavenly city : they have passed the strait gate, and have entered on the narrow way that leads to life. It is not enough however for a person to be in a state of grace, unless he afterward persevere and grow in grace. Now what is meant by growth in grace? It means that the beginning of a journey is not the end of it. It means that we must advance in holiness, that, instead of resting on our oars, and priding ourselves on our present small attainments, we must press forward, giving all diligence, as St. Peter expresses it in a former passage of this Epistle, that we may add to our faith virtue, or energy, and to energy knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kind- ness universal charity. Here is a goodly list of qualities wherein to cultivate growth in grace, and to go on all our GROWTH IN GRACE. 35 lives advancing from grace to grace and from strength to strength. But wiiy does the apostle call it growth ? Perhaps to remind us that the improvement he exhorts us to is not a mere mechanical task, which a man can begin and finish for himself; but that it is more like the gradual and secret workings of nature, where, though it is man's duty to dig and plough, and plant and sow, and weed and water, yet, after all is done, God alone giveth the increase ; and unless he is pleased to bless the labours of the husbandman, they will have been in vain. Be this the reason or no, certain it is that in many places of Scripture a godly life is compared to growth. Indeed the very word life would lead us to look for growth : for everything that lives grows or has grown. This, which is true of the lives of animals and plants, is equally true of the lives of Christians. The beginning of a christian life, you know, is called regeneration, or the being born again. But a Christian is not born full-grown in grace, any more than in body. We can enter the kingdom of heaven only as little children ; and from that smallness and weakness of spiritual childhood we are to rise by degrees to the fullness of stature which belongs to christian manhood. Now this great change and increase can only be brought about by the soul's growing in grace, just as the body grows in strength and size. Such growth is indeed most necessary to a christian life ; seeing that, if we live on without it, a thing most shameful will befall us. We shall be old in years, and infants in holiness : infants, not in sinlessness, — for in sins we shall be old enough, — but infants in our want of strength, infants in our want of knowledge, infants in our want of self-control, infants in our utter inability to walk straight, or to stand the least push of temptation. In all these things, if we do not grow in grace, we shall be no better than a tottering child. Our spiritual life will want 36 THE ALTON SERMONS. nerves and sinews; and so we shall draw down on ourselves the reproach of Reuben, — " Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel," (Gen. xlix. 4,) and like him shall forfeit our inheritance. Nay, unless we grow in grace, what shall we become in the end, but as it were so many spiritual dwarfs ? Now what can be more unsightly ? what can be more con- trary to that beauty of holiness, which the Bible so often speaks of ? Few things are so displeasing to the eyes of man, as a little stunted misshapen dwarf, who yet is only a dwarf in body : could you see a dwarf in soul, however, had you spiritual eyes to perceive him with, you would all cry out that he is far more displeasing. The dwarf in body is an object not for mockery but for pity; for his growth was not checked by any fault of his own : it is an affliction which God has sent him. But the dwarf, the hideous dwarf in soul, might have been otherwise if he would. Strive then to grow in grace, and take care that ye be not dwarfs in soul. Let the seed of the word grow within you. Seed, you know, is of no value unless it spring up. So is it with the seed of truth : that too must spring up, and grow, and must bear fruit : or we shall never be able to pay God the rent due to him for the farm of life which he has let to us. You remember how in the parable of the vineyard, when harvest came, the Lord sent a servant to the husbandman to receive his share of the fruit. But whence is the fruit to come, if there be no growth ? In every point of view, then, whether we look on ourselves as God's tenants, who owe him rent, or as babes in Christ, who would fain become perfect men, — in every way there must be growth. But if growth in grace be thus necessary and important, how are we to know for certain whether we are so growing or not ? We may know it by comparing the state of our souls at present, with what it was a twelvemonth ago. Is there any temptation which you have outgrown, and lost GROWTH IN GRACE. 37 your relish for : as a man outgrows the games and sports of his childhood, and loses all relish for the playthings and the cakes which a few years back he was so fond of? Or is there any duty, which a twelvemonth ago was irksome to you, and which you have now learnt to practise, and gained a taste for ? If you can answer these two questions satis- factorily, and find on examination that you have made what looks like an improvement, it remains for you in that case to ask yourselves, whether the improvement is a real one ? Is it a cleansing of the outside of the platter only ? or have you been scouring the inside also ? I mean, the heart. Is it a growth in christian grace ? or m.erely a greater regard for common decency ? While you fancy you have been improving, have you not peradventure been only changing one sin for another ? This is a very important question : because many deceive themselves, to their own mischief, by fancying they are growing better, when in truth they are only growing older, and are laying aside the sinful intem- perance and extravagance of youth, to take up in their stead the no less sinful harshness and worldly-mindedness of old age. In a word, the true question to be answered is, have you since this time twelvemonth been going forward on the road to heaven ? or have you been going backward ? Many will doubtless answer, we have been standing still. But in so saying you pass a judgment against yourselves, and confess that you have been going backward. For life is a stream ; and he who does not work his way up it, is carried down. Throw a stick into a river: will it stand still ? Because, with so many temptations, and so many evil customs, setting down the stream against you, no more will you stand still, if you give way lazily to the current. It will bear you before it, slowly perhaps, but surely ; just as a river, however sluggish, is sure to carry down the stick. Some motion there must be one way or other : if you do / 38 THE ALTON SERMONS. not move toward God, you will be moved away from him. Growth there must be one way or other : if you ^do not grow upward, you will grow downward : if you do not rise up straight like a poplar, you will become as crooked and full of knots as an old crab, Avhich is good for nothing but to be cut down and burnt. There is another test and sign of growth in grace, which I will mention : an increased use of the means of grace, and an increased and increasing delight and relish in using them. Do you come to church oftener than you did? While here do you attend more to the prayers, and try more to join in them? Do you listen more than you did formerly to the sermon, and apply it to yourself as a glass to see your own sins with ? Do you pray oftener when you are alone ? Do you take more delight in prayer ? and when you pray, do you find that you think more about what you are asking from God, that you care more about it, that you wish for it more, than you did some time back ? Do you take up your Bible oftener, and enjoy reading it more, and find you understand it better? Do you feel a greater desire to partake in the Blessed Sacrament, and a greater comfort when you have taken it? These are among the surest signs of growth in grace : and he who finds them in himself, may cheer himself with the thought that he is truly increasing, not in grace alone, but also in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For in this too does the apostle in the text exhort us to grow. Not in mere head knowledge : this of itself is worth nothing. "If ye know these things, (says our Saviour,) happy are ye if ye do them." He does not say, that we are happy if we know them. That by itself can never make us, can never make any one happy. On the con- trary, his words imply, that, if we know them, and do them not, we shall not be happy, but most wretched. Though GROWTH IN GRACE. 39 knowledge however, apart from practice, is worth nothing, yet knowledge of Christ and of his will, as guiding to practice, is most excellent. Nor is it merely excellent : it is necessary. For though we may know, and not do, yet, unless we know, how shall we do? How can men believe in him of whom they have not heard ? Faith must come either by hearing the word of God, or by reading it. Without this, be it reading or be it hearing, without some instruction, without some knowledge of Jesus Christ, there can be no entrance into a state of grace. Religious know- ledge being then in a manner the key of grace, must needs be necessary to all who desire to enter it. Indeed, if you think a little, you will see that knowledge, and nothing else, is at bottom the difference between you and the heathens. They have never heard of Christ ; you have : therefore they do not beUeve in him; and you profess that you do. Had they been bred in a christian country, had they been brought to church from their early years, and sent to school, and had the same advantages which people enjoy here in England, they too would have been called Christians, just as we are. Judge then, whether it be not your duty to increase in religious knowledge as much as possible, that you may not be almost but altogether Chris- tians. Judge, whether it does not behove you to prize the lamp thus entrusted to you ; not allowing it to get dim or smoky through neglect, or to go out for want of oil, but ever trimming it and rubbing it, keeping the glass quite clear, and feeding the flame continually with the best and purest oil, that its light may be the brightest possible. The certainty of aim, the steadiness of will, the single-minded- ness, the calm, noble, unswerving, persevering onwardness of purposes, which a light such as this gives a man, are above all price. Instead of wandering hither and thither, groping his way like a blind or a benighted person, he walks 40 THE ALTON SERMONS. in the light of day. Whatever his object may be, — and some object it will be whereby God may be glorified and man bettered, — that object he sees clearly : he sees too the straight road leading to it : and along that road he keeps ever advancing, overcoming the obstacles in his way by God's assistance, and with a gentle but unyielding hand pushing aside whatever would cross or thwart him. It is not mere head-knowledge however, that St. Peter speaks of when he would have us grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. There is a Hving knowledge, a practical knowledge, a knowledge of the heart, the only knowledge which God loves : and this, we may be sure, is included in the apostle's precept. To describe it in three words, it is knowledge joined with love. If a man wants to know a thing, he will learn it : if the thing be good in his eyes, the more he knows about it, the more he will love it : and again the more he loves it, the more he will give his mind to it : thus his knowledge and his love will foster each other, and the two will grow together apace. Now that a knowledge of this sort will help a man to grow in grace, it cannot take many words to shew. For he that grows in such a knowledge of Christ, is growing at once in christian faith and in christian love. And he who has faith and love, has the two eagle's wings which bear the soul up above the cares and snares of Hfe, to that living fountain of light and joy the Sun of Righteous- ness in the heavens. It is said that young eagles will look upon the sun, and gaze till their bright eyes become clearer and more piercing, by drinking in light from that source of all earthly brightness. Follow their example, my brethren : look at Christ. Gaze day by day at the Sun of Righteous- ness : gaze at him from your youth upward ; and your minds will in like manner become brighter and clearer, GROWTH IN GRACE. 41 your hearts will become purer and stronger. There is a special promise in the 40th chapter of Isaiah, that they who wait upon the Lord shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall mount up, — but whither ? To the throne of grace, that there they may receive grace ; to the presence of Jesus, that they may converse with him and dwell with him. They shall mount, — but how ? As the young bright- eyed eagle mounts, to drink in more and more light by gazing on the Sun of Righteousness. If blessings such as these be ever vouchsafed to us, — and they will if we strive and pray for them earnestly, — then all that will remain for us, will be to cherish God's blessed gift by a deeper sense of what he has thus done for us, by a greater tenderness of conscience, and a livelier shrinking from every blast of sin. We must give heed to walk in all things according to the light we have received. And we must beware of thinking that what we have is enough. We must endeavour heartily to obtain more light, more of the knowledge and love of God, more of the spirit of Christ, more of his love and of the power of his holiness, that we may grow in grace as we grow in years, until we are at last transplanted from earth to heaven, there to grow for ever in the paradise of God. IV. DO AND YOU SHALL KNOW ; OR, THE WILL AND THE DOCTRINE. John vii. 17. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God. HTHE religion of Jesus Christ is altogether a practical -*" thing. There is only one way of learning it ; by practising it. There is only one way of knowing it ; by living according to it. This is what our Lord says in the text. *' They who will do the will of God, they who will put their hand to the plough, and set about doing their best to obey God, shall know of my doctrine, whether it comes from God or not. Its purpose is, not merely to teach men what is good, but to make them good : and it is only by trying the experiment for himself, it is only by striving to do the will of God, that any man can find out what great power there is in my religion, to change him into a new creature, and to make him wise unto salvation. Thus will he be convinced that the words which I speak, and which have such power, I speak not of myself, as a man : but that, as the power in them is the power of God, so the words themselves and the doctrine, must be from God." THE WILL AND THE DOCTRINE. 43 Such is the account which Jesus Christ in the text gives of his doctrine. He does not say, that they who go to church twice every Sunday, shall know of his doctrine, whether it is from God. He does not say, that they who read a couple of chapters of the Bible every day, shall know of his doctrine, whether it is from God. But endeavour to do the will of God ; and then you will know that the doc- trine comes from God. By listening to sermons in church, and by reading the Bible at home, you learn what the doc- trine is ; but by trying to do God's will, you learn something of much greater importance : you learn that it comes from God. You see its truth. You feel its heavenly power of raising man from sin to righteousness, of freeing him from the bondage of Satan, and turning him into a child of God. In a word, by coming to hear sermons, and by reading the Bible, you learn what a Christian ought to be : by striving to do the will of God, you are a Christian. This, our Lord tells us, is the right way to ascertain v/hether his doctrine comes from God. It is the right way, and the only way. Unless we try to do God's will, nothing else can teach us this truth. No labour, no learning, no cleverness, no thought will enable us to find it out. We may read our eyes blind, and wear out our understandings, in poring over the Bible ; it will only be the word of man to us, not the word of God. I began by saying that the religion of Jesus Christ is altogether a practical thing. This is the first and simplest and main reason why we are to learn it practically. Just consider how we are taught anything else that is practical ; how a child, for instance, is taught to read. Is it by hear- ing about reading ? or by being read to ? A child might hear about reading, and might hear reading, all its life long; and, were this all, it would never be able to tell one letter from another. It can only learn to read by trying to read. 44 THE ALTON SERMONS. It must begin by learning its letters : when it knows its letters thoroughly, it must learn to put them together, first in short words or syllables, and afterwards in longer words ; and lastly it must learn to put the words together, and to read them as they follow one another in the book. The same holds of everything else that is practical : whatever it may be, it must be learned by practice. It is not by hear- ing or reading about making shoes, that a man becomes a shoemaker, but by trying to make them. Above all is this true of that which is the most practical of all things, the religion of Christ. I call it the most practical of all things, because it is meant to be the rule and guide of our practice, not merely at certain moments, when we are engaged in any one particular employment, but at all times and in all places ; because it ought to be the source and spring and mould and rule of all our thoughts and words and deeds. Or can you suppose that the service of the God of heaven is so much easier a task than every other, that, while every other thing we want to do must be learned slowly and laboriously and practically, the doing the will of God will come to us naturally and of itself ? No : this too must be learnt by practice, by patient, diligent, steadfast practice. But how, you may ask, are we to do the will of God, — how can we even strive to do it, — unless we know before- hand what it is ? The question seems a very hard one ; and yet the answer is easy : by faith. When a child is learning to read, it has to read at first without knowing how to read. It has to pronounce the letters and the words, without knowing what they are. It has to pronounce them at first after its teacher : by faith in him it learns what they are ; and thus in course of time it gets to know what they are of itself. In like manner God has sent you spiritual teachers, — he has sent you the teaching of his word, — to tell you what his will is, before you can know it for your- THE WILL AND THE DOCTRINE. 45 selves. There is no one, — in all England there is no one — among you assuredly there is no one— who, if he will but try to make the most of the opportunities God has given him of knowing his will, may not attain in the end to the precious knowledge spoken of by our Lord in the text, the knowledge that his doctrine is of God. For this knowledge, like all practical knowledge, comes by degrees. Every slight improvement in practice, — nay, every attempt at an improvement, will lead to an increase of our knowledge : while every increase of our knowledge ought in its turn to lead to an improvement in our practice. Every fresh step we take in Christianity, we see further into it ; and by seeing further into it we learn in what way we are to advance still further. The practice throws light on the wholesomeness of the doctrine : the doctrine on the other hand furnishes new motives and helps to the prac- tice : thus they go on giving and receiving strength, each from and each to the other. They are like the warp and woof in weaving : the doctrine is the warp, into which we weave the woof : every fresh cast of the shuttle brings out more of the warp, until at length the whole is like Christ's coat, without seam, woven from the top throughout. Thus do the knowledge and practice of a Christian meet and unite, and, as it were, grow into one. For what is the doctrine of Christ ? that doctrine which St. Paul, writing to the Colossians, calls "the riches of the glory of the mystery." It is, as St. Paul there sets it forth, that God " hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgive- ness of our sins." It is, that " it pleased the Father that in Christ Jesus should all fullness dwell ; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself: and us too, that were sometimes alienated 46 THE ALTON SERMONS. and enemies in our minds by wicked works, hath he recon- ciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present us holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight, if we continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel." In other words, the doctrine of Christ is that all men are sinners, — that all by their sins have offended the holiness of God, and have fallen under his wrath, — but that he, the eternal Son of God, came down from his throne in the heavens, to be a sacrifice for our sins, and to restore us to his Father's love. Now how can any one have any real and lively knowledge of this doctrine, unless he has set himself in earnest to do the will of God ? A minister once told me, that a sick man, whom he had attended, on being asked what he rested his hopes on, replied that he believed he had always led a regular decent good life. On this the minister said : " That may be very well as far as it goes : but, in speaking of your hope of acceptance with God, have you nothing to say of Jesus Christ?" "Yes! (answered the sick man,) I think he must have something to do with it." Something to do with it ! Was this knowing the doctrine ? Is this like St. Paul's way of speaking, when he calls it " the riches of the glory of the mystery?" But how came it that this poor man had so scanty and faint a sense of what Christ had done for us ? The reason plainly was, that he trusted in his regular decent life : he thought himself safe enough with that, and did not trouble his head about anything beyond. Let me now go a step further, and ask : how came he to trust in his regular life ? Why, because he had never set himself seriously to do the will of God : therefore he had never gained a practical insight into his own sinfulness and weakness. He measured himself not by God's pure and holy law, but by the low and deceitful standard of the world : so he was satisfied with himself, and had no feeling THE WILL AND THE DOCTRINE. 47 of his want of a Saviour. Here is a case of a man failing to arrive at a knowledge of Christ's saving doctrine, because he had never made it his business to do God's holy will, I fear too, the case is a very common one, even among those who call themselves by the name of Christ, and who have read their Bible and come to church all their lives. Not that I mean to speak slightingly of reading the Bible. I have so often exhorted you to study it, you cannot sup- pose I mean that. Let every man know as much of the Bible as he can : no one can know too much of it. But then you must study it with a view to become better • you must take pains that your advance in doing the will of God may keep pace with your advance in knowing it. This is the right way of studying the Bible, and the right use to put it to. Any knowledge of God's will and of God's love but this will be useless to you : and not only will it be useless knowledge, it will also be imperfect knowledge. A true, a thorough, a saving knowledge of the Gospel can only be gained by practice. And a blessed thing it is for you, my people, that God has ordained it so to be. If head-know- ledge, as it is called, had been the high-road to heaven, what would have become of the poor, who have so little time for study? But God in his grace has appointed another way for his people to learn how to serve him : and it is a way which the poor and simple, who have been taught the first principles of their duty, may travel along as easily and safely as the rich and learned. He has made religion a practical matter, to be learnt and perfected in every deed we do, in every word we speak, in every wish and thought of our hearts. Let none say he has no time to learn to be a Christian, if he has time to live and breathe. Have any of you things to vex you ? That is the way God has appointed to teach his people patience. Is any one enjoying an abun- dance of good things ? They are given to train us in tern- 48 THE ALTON SERMONS. perance, and in bounteousness, and in relieving the wants of others. Are some in poverty? It is a lesson of self- denial and contentedness. So whatever may betide you, be it sorrowful or be it joyful, I would have you think that it was sent you to teach and exercise you in such a grace. or to warn you from such a sin. Thus will you be learning Christianity practically. Thus, by carefully striving to do the will of God 5 v/ill you be brought to the most perfect knowledge of the doctrine. Thus the tree of the Gospel will indeed be a tree of Hfe to you, when you have planted a slip of it in your hearts. But will the tree of the Gospel take root then in man's natural, unturned, uncultivated heart? You might as well throw an acorn on a rock, and expect to see it grow up an oak. Our hearts are stony : and they must be broken up. They have no depth of soil ; and new soil must be brought to them. We must do as gardeners do : we must make a new and richer soil to receive the new plant ; else it will never thrive in us. Our hearts are lying under the curse : they bring forth only thistles and briers : and we must endea- vour to purge them from all such weeds, and to fit them for the knowledge of the doctrine, by trying to do the will of God. Some however will perhaps ask me : Can we then do the will of God ? No, my brethren : of ourselves assuredly we cannot. Therefore Christ does not say. He that doeth the will shall know : for that would be like saying, He that flies up into the clouds shall know. What Christ says is, that he who willeth or desireth to do the will, — for this is the true meaning of the passage, — he who earnestly wishes and strives to do the will of God, shall arrive at the knowledge of the doctrine. How ? By doing it ? No : but by finding that he cannot do it : by having his eyes opened to the true state of his soul, to its weakness, its helplessness, its sinfulness. THE WILL AND THE DOCTRINE. 49 This knowledge is the very thing that a man needs, to bring him to embrace the Gospel with all his heart, so as to put his whole faith and trust in it. In other words, this is the same truth which St. Paul declares, when he tells us that the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. That is to say, the knowledge of the obedience which God requires of us, as set forth in the law of Moses, — the conviction that we ought to pay him that obedience, — the feeling that we neither do nor can pay it, — these are the very things to wake a man out of the dream of his own merits, and to tutor and prepare him for receiving the forgiveness of his sins and eternal life as a free gift from God through Jesus Christ. In the first dangerous illness I had after I was grown up, I was forced to keep my bed for a week or more. While I did so, I was not aware how feeble I had become. But when I tried to get up, and could not so much as jout on my clothes without help, I found out my own weakness. Just so it is with the sinner. So long as he is sick unto death, so long as he lies dead and almost buried in his sins, so long does he continue in ignorance of his true state. He dreams in his heart, " There is not much the matter with me ; I shall easily get well, and have little need of a physician." Thus he dreams, till God sends something to rouse him from his deadly slumber. Some great disappointment teaches him the vanity of all earthly plans : or some affliction pierces and startles him. The man opens his eyes, and sees the wrath of God hanging like a drawn sword over him. In his fright he perhaps tries to get up. Get up ! He can no more get up, and quit his evil habits, than I could get up from my sick-bed after my illnessc Back he falls, after finding out his own weakness, which before he had no suspicion of; and there he lies, in the wickedness which he is now con- scious and afraid of, but which he feels he has not strength to forsake. Meanwhile the wrath of God is still hanging 50 THE ALTON SERMONS. over his head, and seems to be drawing nearer every moment. To a sinner in this state of conscious guilt and feebleness the Gospel is indeed a blessing. For what does it shew him? It shews him Jesus Christ stepping between, to shield him from the wrath of God, and receiving the blow into his own heart. And when, in his astonishment at so unlooked-for a deliverance, he cries to his unknown Saviour, — " Who art thou, thus to take on thyself the punishment which I have so richly deserved?" — how must his heart beat on hearing this affectionate rebuke ! "I am Jesus, whom thou hast persecuted all thy life long. Thou wast enrolled among my servants in thine infancy, and didst receive my mark, the sign of the cross, on thy forehead. But when thou grewest up, thou desertedst me. Thou hast broken my laws : thou hast neglected me : thou hast set thy heart on the things which I have forbidden. Thou hast robbed my heavenly Father and me of the honour and love which thou owedst us. Instead of serving God and me, thou hast been serving sin and Satan. For all these offences of thine, my only revenge is dying to save thee. I have died, that thou, and every other sinner, who will only hearken and turn to me, may live. Take thy life, which I have bought so dearly. Arise ; renounce thy sins, betake thyself to repentance and holiness ; and live." Such is the language which Jesus Christ in his gospel speaks to the awakened sinner. And would not words thus touching go straight to the heart of a man who finds himself in the state I have been describing ? To your hearts, it may be, they do not go. Why ? Because you are still asleep ; because you have not yet begun to try to do the will ot God : hence your sinfulness and weakness are still unknown to you. But put yourselves in the place of the man I have been speaking of : picture to yourselves the wrath of God THE WILL AND THE DOCTRINE. 51 ready to fall on you for your misdeeds. I need not tell you that there it is, hanging over every sinner, whether he sees it or no, and that " on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." (Matt. xxi. 44.) Suppose then that your eyes were opened, and that you saw it there over your heads, would not the offer of pardon for Christ's sake at once become the very best news I could bring you ? Would not the great truth, that Christ died for us, come home to your heart and soul with quite another force, if you could behold him receiving the blow in your place, and drawing off the lightning on his own head ? Would not this make you feel the meaning of those blessed words, — Christ has died for me? Surely these things must needs move you, were you to see them. But the conscience of the awakened sinner does see them : therefore they move and shake him to the bottom of his stony heart. The Scripture says, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink : for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head." (Rom. xii. 20.) This is just the way in which our Saviour tries to work upon the sinner. As soon as he has come to himself, so as to be awake to his own danger, Christ appears to him, and shews him his hands and his side, and says to him, " I have paid all." Does not this heap coals of fire on the sinner's head ? Does not this bow him down to the very dust in shame and sorrow, that he should have been so ungrateful and re- bellious against his best friend and only Saviour? Does not this open his eyes also, to see the hatefulness of sin ? Before, he had thought but lightly of it. Now however the guilt of sin stares him in the face. Turn where he will, he sees it ever before him, written in the blood of the Son of God. Such is the manner in which the first great doctrine of Christianity, the doctrine of the atonement by the sacri- fice and death of Christ, v^^orks on the heart and soul of the 52 THE ALTON SERMONS. sinner, when he begins to feel an earnest wish to do the will of God. And can he, after thus feeling the power of the doctrine, — can he doubt whether it comes from God ? He carries the proof that it does so within him, in his grateful sense of God's goodness, and in his longing thus kindled in his heart to lead a more godly life. But how is this longing to be satisfied? In my illness, as soon as I found out my weakness, I began wishing that I was a little stronger. But my wishes did not make me stronger : and when I first tried to walk across the room, in spite of all my wishes I should have fallen if I had not had a friendly arm to hold me up. So is it with the sinner. Christ has saved him from punishment, and in so doing has suppHed the first and most grievous of his wants. But he has still another very great and very pressing want. He wants the strength to lift him up from his evil habits to a life of holiness and obedience. He cannot lift himself up ; and Christ as yet has not done this for him. He has said to him, Thy sins are forgiven thee : but he has not yet completed the work of mercy : he has not yet said to him, Arise and walk. It is here, in this hour of conscious feeble- ness, when the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, that the other great doctrine of our faith steps in : I mean, the help of the Holy Ghost. The man begins to see that he has a new strength put into him, in addition to his own, and far beyond it. He finds that he can do to-day what he was unable to do yesterday. At first perhaps this may puff him up somewhat; and, as a sick man, on gaining a little strength, is apt to fancy he shall be quite well in a few days ; so the sinner, when he has been enabled to with- stand a temptation or two, may perhaps fancy that he is already become a master in holiness. But he is soon cured of this mistake. The Spirit of God withdraws, and leaves him to himself; and all his former weakness comes back THE WILL AND THE DOCTRINE. 53 upon him. Then in his distress does he call upon the Lord, and cry to his God ; and the Spirit of God returns to him, and again takes him by the hand, and lifts him up, and enables him to walk safely. This goes on time after time, until his experience at length convinces him that so long as he trusts wholly to God, he is borne up along the path of righteousness ; but that, the moment he tries to walk by his own strength, his feet slip under him, and he falls. Thus we have the other great doctrine of Christianity brought home to a man's heart, by his striving to do the will of God. He can now say of the promise of the Holy Spirit, as he before said of forgiveness by the blood of Christ, I know that the doctrine comes from God. Now can you think it possible, my brethren, when a person has been thus thoroughly convinced by his own experience of the truth of these two great doctrines, that any arguments of the most subtle man in the world should shake his faith in them ? It cannot be. A mere nominal Christian indeed may easily have his belief in these doctrines shaken, if not overthrown : because to him they are only words, to which he attaches no living meaning. But once make a man feel the power of the doctrines, — let him have been healed by the balm of Christ's blood, let him have leant his frail resolutions on the arm of the Holy Spirit, — what can shake his faith in them then ? He has the witness of their truth in himself. He knows it on the strength of the blessings he himself has derived from them. Therefore all the arguments in the world can no more make his faith in them waver, than the arguments of a blind man, however hard to shake off, would persuade you that you do not see. This is what our Saviour calls knowing the doctrine. It is the true way of knowing religious truth : and whereas St. Paul says of the vain-glorious knowledge and false philosophy of the Corinthians, that it shall vanish away, the 54 THE ALTON SERMONS. knowledge I am speaking of, — the humble practical heart- knowledge of the great things which the Son and Spirit of God have done and are still doing for our souls, — this know- ledge shall never fail, but shall go on increasing for ever. What has been said of the doctrines of Christ, is equally true of the means of grace by which those doctrines are brought home to us. Their value to the soul can only be learnt practically, from our own experience. Would you know the blessing of prayer ? Pray. Would you know the blessing of God's word ? Study it. But you must pray with your heart, study with your heart, with an earnest wish to know God's will, and to do it. The man who comes to church, and yawms through the service, — the man who reads his chapter in the New Testament as a task on a Sunday evening, — can never have a notion what a delight and high privilege it is to the Christian to pray, or what exceeding light and comfort the Christian draws from the Scriptures. As for prayer, the nominal Christian probably does not know what praying is. He has heard that he ought to say his prayers ; and so he says them now and then : and he mostly finds it a wearisome unprofitable ceremony. But saying prayers is no more praying, than a corpse is a living man. Would a creature that had only seen a corpse, be able to make out from it what a living man is ? No more can a person, who is only accustomed to say his prayers with his lips, conceive the life and power of a prayer which bursts forth from a beseeching heart. To know what pray- ing is, a man must begin by praying himself : and the more earnestly he prays, the more ^vill he learn to prize the ines- timable blessing God has given us in allowing us to speak to him in prayer. In like manner is it with the study of the Scriptures. Those who read the Bible as a mere form, may think that many other books are more entertaining. Those who read it with no view beyond the knowledge they wish THE WILL AND THE DOCTRINE. 55 to gain from it, may even fancy that there are other books still more instructive. But they who read it for the sake of doing the will of God, will see God's will written in every page of it* Every page will yield them consolation : every page will be a lantern to their steps. But it is above all with regard to the promises and higher graces of Christianity, that this practical knowledge is required. The peace of God, as you hear every Sunday, passeth all understanding : that is to say, the mere natural man cannot understand it, cannot frame any notion of it. Learning cannot teach it him. To know what it is, we must feel it. To the children of this world it is as sound to the deaf : to those whose religion is a mere form, it is as music to a man who has no ear. But the children of God have an ear for it ; so that it finds an answer within them, and tunes all the strings of their hearts. The happiness it bestows is such as nothing on earth can give, such as nothing on earth can overthrow. Only look at the glowing expres- sions of that happiness, which are strewn so richly through the epistles of St. Paul. Only read the beautiful letter to the Philippians, which he wrote when in bonds and in peril of his life. The peace of God breathes through it. His very dangers seem to make him more joyful, more triumphant, as if he was already at the gates of heaven. ' ' Every way (he says) Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will re- joice. Yea, and if I be offered up on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all." Do ye desire, brethren, to feel this joy, that nothing can trouble? You must begin by doing the will of God. You must begin, as St. Paul exhorts the Philippians, by working out your salvation with fear and trembling : and after you have done this faithfully and steadfastly, you may perhaps hear him calling to you, as he called to them, "Rejoice in the Lord ahvay ; and again I say, Rejoice." FAITH. Hebrews xi. i. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. /^F all God's gifts to man the most comforting and ^^ strengthening is faith. "How can that be?" methinks I hear some of you asking. " when St. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians tells us so plainly that charity is greater than faith." If what I have just said be true, if faith be indeed the most strengthening and the most comforting gift we can receive, it may seem a hard saying that even charity, or love, should be better than faith. Can anything be better than that which strengthens us and comforts us ? I will answer this question by asking one. Can anything be better than that which gives health? Yes surely : health itself is better than that which gives health. So is strength itself better than that which strengthens. But faith is only that which strengthens. Charity or love is strength itself. The latter is the offspring of the former, the sweetest and most pleasant fruit that the tree of faith bears. Could love be separated from faith it would be no better than a windfall. But true love cannot : whether it be toward God, or toward our brother. Nay, so closely are they bound together, that, as faith begets love, love in its turn fosters faith. It is so FAITH. 57 even in our earthly affections. What should we say of that love, whether of a friend for a friend, of a child for a parent, or of husband for a wife, which did not begin in confidence, and end in confidence ? Surely we should all say that it did not deserve the name of love ; that it was suspicion, that it was jealousy, that it was doubt, and that these are all of them things most alien and contrary to love. This is the sentence we should pass on such distrust and want of confidence between man and man ; and is there less ground for our faith, less assurance for our trust, when the parties are man and God ? God is our Father ; Christ has called us friends : our Lord has espoused the Church, and united her to him in a mystical bond which is never to be loosed. Friend, husband, father, — all the seeds of trust and love are here. Let them sink deep into your hearts, brethren; and pray earnestly to God, who giveth the increase, and sendeth his rain to make the earth fruitful, beseeching him to pour down his Holy Spirit upon you, that the good seed may take root in you, and may bring forth a rich spiritual harvest of holy thoughts and heavenly desires, of meekness, gentleness, humility, patience, and godly perseverance in all the works and offices of love. This love, as I have already said, must spring from faith ; and by faith must be continually fed. It is chiefly from bearing so excellent a fruit, that the tree is such a precious gift to man. Still it does bear that fruit : and as there must be a tree to gather the fruit from, before we can hope to gather fruit, so must faith have grown up and blossomed within us, before we can cool our dry and feverish natures with love and the other fruits of the Spirit. In this sense, as the only true parent of the other christian graces, is faith so highly spoken of in the New Testament, where it is said by St. Peter " to purify the heart," by St. Paul " to work righteousness," and by St. John to be " the victory that overcometh the world." 58 THE ALTON SERMONS. What, then, is this faith ? Not this hypocritical show of faith reproved by St. James. That is only an outward lying mockery of faith, and no more faith itself, than crocodile's tears, as they are called, are the true sorrow of the heart, no more than the wolves our Lord speaks of became real sheep by putting on sheep's clothing. The faith which God approves is not feigned but true. It springs sometimes in the head, oftener in the heart, but in each case flows on till it has filled both. For it is such a hearty belief in God and in his Son, such a steadfast conviction of the truth of all that he has taught us in the Bible, as mixes itself up with our whole life, spreading, like a finer leaven, through every part of our nature, and leavening what before was hard and heavy, until we become like the shewbread of which we read in the law of Moses, fit, when we have been hallowed by the incense of prayer, to be brought to God's holy table. This is what the apostle means, when he calls faith " the substance of things hoped for." In like manner it might be called the substance of things feared. For what is a sub- stance ? A thing of the reality of which we can fully satisfy ourselves ; a thing we can see, and feel, and handle, so as to convince ourselves by these and the like methods, that it is a real thing, and not a shadow. Hence you may easily see how faith is the substance of things hoped for or feared. It gives them a substance, by bringing God's promises and threatenings home to our hearts, and keeping them before our minds, and making us feel their truth. When faith reaches this strong growth, it is sure to do its right work, in holding us back from evil, and spurring us on to good. It is quite sure to do this : because God has so fashioned us, has so made the desires of our hearts shape themselves according to the full convictions of our understandings, that no man in possession of his senses will either wish for what FAITH. 59 he knows to be utterly impossible, or try what he is quite sure will do him much more harm than good. Infants will often stretch out their Httle hands and catch at a flame. Why do grown-up people never put their hands into it? Because we know the certain consequence ot meddling with fire, which an infant does not. We have felt the pain ot burn- ing, and are afraid of it : and so the thought of playing with the beautiful flame never crosses us. My brethren, hell is hotter than any earthly fire : why then are we not afraid of playing with it? Plainly, because we do not thoroughly believe what our Lord has said and threatened ; because we think that it is possible to serve two masters, though Christ has told us that it is not : because we still listen to the whispers of the serpent, and flatter ourselves that we shall not surely die. Moreover, as a hearty belief in the threatenings of the Bible would scare men from all sin, so would a hearty belief in its glorious promises stir them up to all goodness. For as the proper business of man in this world is to do the will of God, faith, which is a man's proper principle, is a stirring, active principle. Look at the power which a strong per- suasion and beUef has in the affairs of this world ; and you may judge what ought to be its power in the affairs of heaven and of eternity. Only give a man good grounds for believing that he will make a great fortune by going to India ; he will leave his home, and cross the seas, and bear all manner of hardships, and expose himself to the dangerous diseases common in hot climates : he would do all this readily and cheerfully : and though he should fail once and again, he will persevere until at last he succeeds. Now were any one to ask this man why he runs into all these toils and perils, what would be his answer? '' I do all this because I believe that I shall grow very rich thereby." Our Lord, you remember, compares his kingdom to a merchant, who, 6o THE ALTON SERMONS. when he had found a pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. Men will do this for the sake of obtaining a pearl. They will do thus much for the sake of gaining a thing that they truly believe to be desirable and precious. Should not we then, if our faith were as strong as the faith of the children of this world, — if we as thoroughly believed that joys and glories, greater than we can ask or conceive, are stored up in heaven for such as are diligent in fulfilling their duty to God and their neighbour, — should not we, if we really believed this, do as much to obtain this happiness as the merchant to get his pearl ? He, we read, *'sold all that he had." Which of us has ever done as much, or half as much, or a tenth part as much, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven ? Alas ! it is still as it was in our Lord's days : the children of this world are still wiser in their generation than the children of light. We profess to believe that treasures in heaven are far better than treasures on earth. Were any one to ask us, we should say, that there is not the slightest comparison between them. Yet for the latter, which we declare to be of Httle worth, we labour from morning to night ; while we leave the former, though above all worth, to take their chance. Does not this prove that our faith is only lii>deep, a string of words, and nothing more, — that things hoped for have no substance in our eyes, — that we do not heartily believe heaven to be worth so very much, or that there will be any great difficulty in getting there ? We shall arrive there at last, we flatter ourselves, if we live long enough. Meanwhile there can be no great harm in stopping a little, and idling a little, and sleeping a little by the way. But what if we do not live long enough ? What if the night of death, when no work can be done, overtake us in the middle of our journey ? What if a storm break over us ? Where shall we take refuge ? where shelter ourselves from the wrath of God ? FAITH. 6 1 My brethren, would you think thus lightly, thus carelessly of heaven, if you, hke St. John, had seen the holy city coming down from God ? if you had heard the great voice saying, " There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying ; neither shall there be any more pain : behold, the tabernacle of God is with men ; and he will dwell with them ; and they shall be his people ; and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." (Rev. xxi. 3, 4.) If you had heard these gracious promises with your bodily ears, if you had seen this glorious city with your bodily eyes, would you think of loitering and dallying on the road ? When you read the Bible, if you had but faith, you would hear all these things with the ears, and see them with the eyes of faith. St. John, who heard and saw them, has written them in the book of Revelation for our instruction, that, knowing what a prize is set before us, we may walk worthy of our calling, and give all diligence to make it sure. Hitherto I have spoken of faith solely as it regards the things of eternity. But there is also a faith which regards the things of this world. For God is not the God of heaven only : he is also the God of earth : and our belief in him must apply to our state here, as fully and strongly as to our state hereafter. We must look up to him as the Father of all mercies, as the giver of every good we enjoy or hope for, as our counsellor in doubt, our friend in need, our comfort and support in sorrow. We must believe him to be all these things ; because the Bible tells us that he is so. If we do not, the plain truth is, we do not believe the Bible. Are we not told that not a sparrow falls to the ground without our heavenly Father.? that the very hairs of our head are all numbered ? Are we not commanded to make all our desires known to God ? And can we truly believe that these, and numberless other Hke passages, do indeed come from God ? yet at the same time feel doubts about the 62 THE ALTON SERMONS. events in our own lives whether they are ordained by God or no? The real Christian feels no such doubts. In all that happens in this world he tries to discern the finger of God. In all that happens to himself, he sees the dispensa- tions of a loving Father, — if his lot be dark, his merciful chastenings, — if bright, his gracious bounty. This is that dutiful trust or reliance in God, which shines so in the patriarchs of the Old Testament, above all in Abraham, who was ready to offer up even his son, his only son, Isaac, at the Lord's command. Therefore did he obtain the glorious name of the Father of the Faithful. Would we approve ourselves his children, we must imitate his faith, by resting wholly on the goodness of God as our only staff and com- forter. For this is faith, as shewn forth in the concerns of this mortal life. It is to trust in the promises of God, when sorrow and death are gathering round us. It is to uphold ourselves in the lowest nakedness of poverty, by throwing ourselves on his fatherly care. It is to be cheerful in the midst of gloom, to smile when all around is frowning, to be content under the pressure of tribulation, and to feel that all things are working together for our good under the guidance of all-wise love. It is to strengthen ourselves in God when we are weakest, to beUeve when we see no hope, to give back all God's best gifts to him without a murmur, parents, brothers, sisters, friends, wife, children, whenever he is pleased to call for them. All these things are impossible to the natural man : but all things are possible to faith : and blessed are they who have such a faith as will enable them to work these miracles. I will conclude by exhorting you in the words of St. Paul: " Examine yourselves, brethren, whether ye be in the faith ; prove your own selves." (2 Cor. xiii. 5.) How is this to be done? St. Paul goes on : " Know ye not that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" This is the touch- FAITH. 63 Stone of faith. If Jesus Christ dwells in us, we are true believers : if he does not, we have no faith. But how shall we know whether Christ dwells in us or not ? St. Paul tells us this also : " If Christ be in you, the body is dead, by reason of sin ; but the spirit h life, by reason of righteous- ness." (Rom. viii. 10.) This is the Christian's mark, and the sign of a true beHever, — a death unto sin, and a living unto righteousness, — a mortified body and a quickened spirit.* By this we see what we have to trust to. For such believers, and such only, as bear this Christian mark, will be acknowledged by Christ to be his servants and his brethren, in that great day when hope and trust shall give place to assurance and possession : and when they who have been faithful in a few things, that is, they who, while they lived, were full of a sincere, active, humble faith, shall enter into the joy of their Lord. * From the conclusion of the Discourse on Faith in Taylor's Life of Christ. VI. THE GOSPEL LEAVEN. Matt. xiii. 33. The kingdom of heaven is hke unto leaven, vi^hich a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal» till the whole was leavened. 'T'^HERE are two things we should always keep in mind, -■" — what we ought to be, and what we are. In fixing our eyes on what we ought to be, we see the good we should aim at : in looking at what we are, Ave see the evil we should get rid of. If we thought only of what we ought to be, we might pass through life without ever finding out our own sinfulness, and might even fall into fancying that, because we know and approve what is good and right, we must be good and right ourselves. On the other hand, if we kept our eyes only on what we are, we should grow so accustomed to our sins, and to the sins of those about us, that we should cease to think of the great guilt and danger of such common every -day matters, and perhaps should get almost to look upon them as things of course. A man may walk with his eyes bent on the ground, till he grows double ; a man may live in sin, and hear of sin, and look on sin, till he loses all sense of uprightness. For these reasons the two things, — what we ought to be, and what we are, — should often be compared together. When this is done, and they THE GOSPEL LEAVEN. 65 are brought before a man, and the difference between them is pointed out to him, — when the preacher says to us, " Look here ! this glorious pattern of excellence is what God designed you to be ; but, alas ! that Httle puny, crooked, stunted thing is what you are," — the glaring contrast between what we ought to be, and what we are, may awaken even the proudest and most conceited to a sense of their manifold imperfections, and may move them for very shame to set about mending and improving. Now what we ought to be, we may learn from the parable which I have chosen for my text. " The kingdom of heaven is hke leaven, which a woman took and hid in three mea- sures of meal, till the whole was leavened." You all know what leaven is, or at least you know what yeast is, which is nearly the same thing. You know too that, if you want to have good bread, you must begin by getting good yeast, and must knead it up with the flour, so that the dough may rise and become hght, instead of being heavy and lumpish. Now Jesus Christ in this parable tells us, that as yeast is mixed up with flour, and works its way through every part of it, in order to turn it into bread, in like manner must his Gospel be mixed up with the hearts of men, and must work through every part of them, before they can be turned from children of death into what children of life ought to be. The leaven of his word must work in them, until the whole is leavened, — not only their outward behaviour, but their inward feelings also, — not only their deeds, but their words, and their very thoughts, — and not only those feelings and thoughts which seem to belong more nearly to religion, but all their feelings and all their thoughts. Whether in church or out of church, at home or abroad, in business or in pleasure, whether with his family, or with his servants, or with his friends, — wherever the Chris- tian may be, and whatever he may be about, the leaven F 66 THE ALTON SERMONS. of the Gospel will be living and working in him. Whatever he does, he will do as unto God, always bearing in mind tlmt he is God's child and God's servant. As a good child, and a good servant, always keeps his father's or his master's will steadily in view, and endeavours to perform it, so does the follower of Christ try to follow Christ in doing the will of his Father. As light cannot hide itself, or check itself, but when a candle is burning in a room, it fills the whole room with light, and leaves no corner of it in darkness ; so, when the light of the Gospel is burning in a man, it must needs spread through every part of him, and fill every part with light : and it enables him to walk in everything, and to act in everything, not blindly, as in darkness, but seeingly, so that he knows what he ought to do, and is able to do it. This, I say, it must needs do, unless there be something within him to check it : for the light will not check itself, or stop of itself. The leaven will work through his whole heart and soul and mind, raising them all, turning them all from heavy lumps of dough into nourishing wholesome bread. There is no part of a man's nature which the Gospel does not purify, no relation of Hfe which it does not hallow. It does not make him less a husband, less a father, less a son, less a servant, than he was before : it does not rob him of one of his finer feelings, of one of his home affections, of one of his powers of body or of mind : but it gives them all a lift, and sanctifies them all, and makes them all rise heavenward. This, I say, is what we ought to be : this is the effect which the Gospel ought to produce on a man's character, and which it would produce, if it were received with child- like simplicity and devotion. But does it in fact produce this effect ? does it do so frequently and commonly ? Has it done so in all of us, in whom it ought to have been working ever since we were baptized into the name of THE GOSPEL LEAVEN. 67 Jesus ? Are we what we ought to be? This is the second question : What are we ? What is the nature of the cha- racters which we find among the bulk of men calHng them- selves Christians ? This is the subject on which I am going to preach to you to-day. I am. going to speak to you of the truth, not as it is in Christ Jesus, and as it ought to be in you, pure and beautiful and spotless, — but of the truth as it is to be seen in too many calling themselves Christians, corrupt and deformed and full of spots. I am going to shew you how in point of fact the leaven of the Gospel does work, or rather how its working is checked and hin- dered, in the bosoms of too many, who would be shocked and angry if I told them that they are far from the kingdom of God. Yet if it be true that, in whatever man the prin- ciples of christian holiness exist in spirit and in power, they must needs go on working, until the whole man is leavened, what must we think of those persons who are content to stop short of that total leavening ? I say, who are content to stop short ; for I am not speaking of those faithful Christians, who, conscious of their failings, are striving to press on toward perfection. To them I have only to say, God speed you on your road ! Many however are making no such efforts : some of these are not yet leavened at all ; some may be a quarter leavened, some half leavened, and some three parts leavened. But whatever differences there may be among these four classes, they all agree in this, — that they are content to stop short of that total leavening, which alone proves the authority of God and of his Son to reign above all and over all in the heart. Now willingly to stop short of this total leavening is willingly to stop short of heaven. For what says the text? The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened. The whole then must be leavened, or at least must be in a fair way of 68 THE ALTON SERMONS. being leavened : else the principle at work within us is not the pure and living principle of Christ's kingdom : it is not Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God, unto salvation. For Christ's power is almighty. He did not, when on earth, cast six devils out of Mary Magdalene, and leave one : he cast out all the seven. He did not partly cure the lame man at the pool of Bethesda : he made him every whit whole. So was it during our Saviour's stay on earth : and so must it be with us his people, now that he is King in heaven. Every high thing that exalteth itself within us against the known will of God must be cast down : every thought must be brought into obedience to Christ. Less than this must not satisfy us, if we would be numbered among Christ's true people. What then ought we to think of those who are satisfied with less ? Yet we ourselves are perhaps among the number. We have perhaps been content to go on hitherto with an unleavened heart, with an un- leavened will, with an unleavened tongue, with an unleavened temper; and, unmindful of what we ought to be, are satisfied to continue as we are. Surely a danger of this kind deserves to be well guarded against. Look then on the pictures I am about to set before you : listen to the descriptions I shall now draw, first of those unhappy persons who are not leavened at all, next of those who are a quarter leavened, thirdly of those who are half leavened, and fourthly of those who are three parts leavened : and as each of these four pictures passes before your eyes, say to yourselves, Is this my state ? First, there are persons, I fear, in every congregation, who as yet are not leavened at all. And who are they ? Why, they are those who put on their religion with their Sunday clothes, and with their Sunday clothes take it off again. They come to church, when they have nothing else to do : they say the Lord's Prayer now and then : if they can r-^ad, THE GOSPEL LEAVEN. 69 they sometimes read a chapter in the New Testament. This makes up the sum of their rehgion. Except at those parti- cular times when they have a Bible or Prayerbook in their hands, they act, and think, and speak, as if there were no righteous God in hesiven. Can we say of such persons that they are leavened ? They have not even begun to be leavened. The leaven of the Gospel has not begun to shew itself in any part of their behaviour. There is nothing in their lives, which proves them to be the better for all they may have learnt of God and Christ. Therefore I can only liken them to flour into which leaven has been put ; but, from some- thing wrong or other, it has not begun to work. If flour in such a state deserves to be called bread, then may men in such a state deserve to be called Christians. Now can this be a safe state to loiter and to sleep in ? Can they be safe, who have not so much as taken the first step toward becom- ing Christians in anything more than name ? If any such be here present, I beseech you, weigh this well. Perhaps you have reached the noon of life ; nay, perhaps you are already in the evening of your days, and the shades of night, the shades of death, are closing round you. You have a great deal of work on your hands ; you have a long journey to take; and you have not even put your hands to the plough : you have not yet entered upon the road to God. Is this a safe state for any one to tarry in a moment longer ? Up and work, while it is yet day with you ; up and on your road to heaven. Hasten to Christ; for he has said, I am the door, and the way, and the life. Faith in him is the only door, keeping his commandments the only way, that can lead you to life eternal. But there is a second class of persons, a shade better than the former, persons who have some general notions and faint feelings about religion, but are held in bondage by some known sin. These I call the quarter leavened. 70 THE ALTON SERMONS. Religion has begun to make some slight impression on them. Perhaps the threatenings of the Gospel have startled them ; or its promises have caught their fancy. Perhaps the goodness of their Saviour has kindled a spark of grateful love in their hearts. They would fain go to heaven, and tlee from hell, and follow Christ, and own him for their Lord and Saviour, if they could do it all without pains or cost. But they cannot. Heaven is not to be reached so easily. They must work out their salvation : they must strive to enter in at the strait gate, and to walk along the narrow way : they must follow Christ with a cross upon their shoulders : they must deny themselves : they must fight against the sin to which they have hitherto been captive, and not only fight against it, but conquer it ; and not only conquer it, so as to be free from it in practice, but they must even learn to hate it. Now all this effort, and striving, and battling, is more than they can make up their minds to. Yet until they have resolved on this, and have done it, they cannot be called Christ's people. For what does St. Paul say ? " They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts." So that, unless we have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts, — unless, to say the very least, we are doing our utmost for Christ's sake to mortify and destroy all the evil passions and desires so agreeable to our corrupt nature, we are none of Christ's ; we have no claim to be numbered among his people. But perhaps you will tell me that these men are to be pitied for living, as they do, in sin. You will plead in their behalf, that they do not love their sin, but sin against their better judgment ; that they are carried away in spite of themselves by the force of habit, by temptation, by the example of others. I answer, God forbid that they should love their sin ! if they did, they would not be so much as a quarter leavened. Still it is quite enough to condemn a man, that he is habitually guilty of what he THE GOSPEL LEAVEN. 7 1 knows to be sinful. Hear what St. Paul says of such a man : he calls him the slave of sin ; and his wages are to be death. These men then, even by the shewing of those who speak the best of them, are slaves, the slaves of sin. Until the Gospel leaven has spread through the hearts and lives of these poor slaves, until Christ has set them free from the chain of their sins, until they have become Christians in feeling and deed, as well as in wish and word, they must not cherish a hope of that eternal life which Christ has pre- pared for such as truly love him. For everlasting life is the gift of God : and he will never give so good a gift to the slaves of sin ; he will keep it for his own servants, who have served him faithfully and from the heart. The third class I am to speak of are the half leavened. I call those half leavened, who divide their life into two parts, confining their religion to particular times, when they are engaged in the worship of God, while they carry on their worldly affairs in a worldly spirit. These persons are generally well enough as far as the external form goes. They are free from all gross vices; they are decent and orderly in their way of living ; they observe all the cere- monies of religion : if God were satisfied with outward wor- ship, they would be as good Christians as any. But follow them to their shop, to their business, to their families, and what becomes of their religion ? It is nowhere to be seen. Ask after it : they will tell you that they are not methodists, that religion is a very good thing in its proper place, that they are quite as strict as their neighbours, that they never swear, nor do anybody any harm, that they would not be guilty of anything really wicked on any account, but that, living in the world, they must needs do as the world does, to avoid being cheated and laughed at. This, or something like it, is the language of the half leavened. But is this the language oi the Gospel ? Look the whole New Testament 72 THE ALTON SERMONS. through, from the first chapter of St. Matthew to the last of the Revelation, and see if you can find a single word in favour of doing as the world does. Not one such word will you find there : but you will find many words, many texts, many warnings, many commands against it. You will find St. Paul (Rom. xii. 2) telling us not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed, or changed so completely, as to become quite new men. You will find St. John (i ii. 15) exhorting us not to love the world, nor the things of the world ; for, if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. You will find St. James (iv. 4) declaring that the friendship of the world is enmity with God; so that whoever will be friends with the world, is the enemy of God. As for doing as others do, if that is to be the rule of right, what is the meaning of all those texts, which tell us that Christ came to redeem us to himself for a peculiar people? Peculiar in what? Why, in acting differently from others. We must be peculiar, if we are Christ's people, in utterly renouncing Mammon. We must be peculiar in acting upon those christian principles, which are foolishness to the worldly. We must be peculiar in taking God's law for our rule, God's Son for our pattern, God's love for our motive, God's glory and approbation for our end and aim. Christ's people are peculiar in living unto God, in keeping him always before their eyes, in giving him the first place in their thoughts, in making it their chief study and delight to please him. Above all, they are peculiar in setting their hearts, not on anything which this world can bestow, but on the blessed prospect of living, after death, with Christ and God. These are the things which Christ's people are peculiar in : these, in other words, are the marks of the true Christian. In proportion as a person has these divine marks in him, in the same proportion is he a true Christian. But if so, the man who THE GOSPEL LEAVEN. 73 professes to do as others do, and to take the world for his guide and model, must be very far from being a tru« Chris- tian. He may pass for a respectable and worthy man in the opinion of his fellows ; but their opinion will stand him in little stead at the judgment-seat of his Lord. There the question will be, not what men thought of him, but what Christ thinks of him. He will be asked, not merely whether he was sober, and orderly, and honest, according to the scant low measure which the decencies of the world require ; but whether he was in all points a follower of his crucified Master to the best of his means and power. This is the question we shall be asked there : therefore this is the question which, if we are wise, we shall be careful to ask ourselves here. We should each say to himself, What answer shall I be able to make, when Christ asks me this searching question? or what will it profit me to gain the praise of men, if I draw down the condemnation of God ? In speaking about this class of persons, assuredly I have spoken too favorably, when I have called them half leavened. The leaven has not worked its way into their hearts : it has not worked its way into their daily life and conduct. Therefore their Christianity in the eye of God is only so much outside show. There is none of the pulp or juice in them : their religion is merely rind and parings. But, as it is not enough to be half leavened, neither is it enough for us to be only three parts leavened. The whole must be leavened. I call those persons three parts leavened, who are truly religious in the main. They have a strong sense of their duty to God, a strong sense of their duty to their neighbour : they act more or less from a religious principle : they are diligent in reading the word of God : they often help the poor : they are anxious for the conversion of Turks and Jews and heathens : they like to hear of what is doing by the Missionaries, who are preach- 74 THE ALTON SERMONS. ing Christ in foreign countries : and they are ready to give their nyte toward furthering so good a work. What then do they lack ? Why, they lack, if they have nothing more than this, the all-pervading leaven of the Gospel. The yeast has worked in them, and worked well : but still there are often parts in such people, which are not yet quite leavened. I will instance the temper and the tongue. I know not why it is, that sourness and tartness of temper are so often complained of in religious people. It may be, the world is on the watch against such persons, and takes count of failings in them, which in others pass unnoticed. It may be, that, among those who are religious, many have been led to religion by sickness or by age ; and sickness and age do not improve the temper. It may be, that, in order to become religious, they have had to fight many hard battles with their own hearts : they may have had much reason to be dissatisfied with themselves for their slow progress in holiness : perhaps they have suffered vexation and persecution from their less religious friends and neighbours and relations : and all these things are likely to hurt and sour the temper. But whatever be the reason, certain it is that religious people are charged with being harsh, and even uncharitable in temper, often er than with any other fault. Another fault not seldom found in religious persons is an unruly tongue. Not that they are more guilty on this score than others : on the contrary they are less so. Still it is a fault they are often guilty of: and it is one of those spots which one does not much heed, when the whole character is ungodly, but which looks very black and ugly on the whiteness of a Christian's coat. By unruliness of tongue I do not of course mean those grosser sins of swearing or of slandering: such things can never come from a Christian's mouth : I mean all that idle tattling THE GOSPEL LEAVEN. 75 about our neighbour's business, which is commonly called gossiping. This gossiping has been too frequent a fault among Christians, even from the earliest times : for we find St. Paul reproving the tattlers and busybodies, who wander about from house to house, speaking things which they ought not. These two kinds of faults then, — or let me rather call them plainly sins, sins of the temper, and sins of the tongue, — are often met with in those who are only three parts leavened. Now when such persons are aware of these sins of theirs, if they grieve over them, and strive against them, and pray to God to enable them to keep a better guard over their tongues and tempers, the leaven is still working in their hearts ; and we may hope that with the help of the Holy Spirit, they may go on still further toward perfection. But too often this is not the case. Too often per- sons sit down satisfied with the progress they have already made, and measure themselves with the ungodly, instead of measuring themselves by Christ's perfect law. Too often they are content with being better than those about them, and think there can be no great harm in being a little fretful, or a little sullen at times, or in speaking a little harshly of a neighbour, or in busying themselves with other people's affairs. These and the like faults according to them are only natural infirmities, which there is little or no need to correct, and which God will not be quick to notice. Now this is a great mistake. God is not quick to mark those faults which we grieve over and fight against : on the contrary, he has promised to forgive all such, and to help us to get the better of them. But the moment we indulge ourselves in any one sin, and cease to strive against it, that moment it becomes a presumptuous sin ; and no presumptuous sin is small. With regard to the particular faults in question, hear what St. James says of the tongue : " If any one 76 THE ALTON SERMONS. among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, he deceiveth his own heart, and his religion is vain " (i. 26). Can this be a small fault, which is enough to make the whole of a man's religion good for nothing? So necessary is it to set a watch over our mouth, and to keep the door of our lips, lest we be guilty of offending with our words. And as it behoves a Christian to put a bridle on his tongue, so must he do his best to put a bridle on his temper. Nor is it enough to bridle our tempers ; we must also strive to change their nature. If ye be led of the Spirit, says St. Paul, if ye are under the guidance of God's Holy Spirit, walk in the Spirit, and sow to the Spirit ; that is, walk as Christ would have you, and cherish those graces and dis- positions which belong to the children of God. And which are they? St. Paul reckons them up in the 5th chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians : among them are love, joy, peace, gentleness, and meekness. Who then dares say of Christ's religion that it is a harsh, sour, unpleasant thing? It is not religion that makes men harsh and sour, but the want of it. The harshness and sourness only shew that the fruit is not yet ripe. Truly Christian tempers, those tem- pers which are thoroughly leavened by the Spirit, so far from being harsh and sour, are the sweetest and gentlest that can be seen. I speak from my own observation : for I have known some such persons myself, persons in whose company it was scarcely possible to be, without feeling that one was breathing the very air of Christ's kingdom. But if this perfection can be attained, every follower of Christ is bound to strive after it : and how far are they from the full growth of the Gospel, whose temper and tongues are still unleavened ! Truly, notwithstanding the progress they may have made, those who are only three parts leavened are still too far from the kingdom of God. THE GOSPEL LEAVEN. 77 Thus have I described to you four classes of men, all calling themselves Christians, all perhaps thinking them- selves safe, and yet all coming far short of that total leaven- ing, which alone proves the love and the fear of God to hold their rightful sway over a man's heart. Therefore it becomes each of us to ask ourselves very seriously, " Do I belong to any of these four classes ? and to which of them ? Have I such a practical sense of my duty to God, that I may ven- ture to deem myself three parts leavened ? Have I merely a sense of the seemhness of religion, and so am only half leavened ? Have I nothing but a wish and a feeling about the matter? and am I only a quarter leavened? Or am I in that worst state of all, in which the leaven has not yet begun to work ? " In one or other of these four states many of every congregation may assuredly be numbered. Let each of you ask himself, " In which of these states am I ? " that, thus comparing what you are, with what you ought to be, you may be better enabled to set about correcting and amending what is amiss in you. But perhaps some of you may be inclined to say, " Can a man be so very perfect as all this ? Are no allowances to be made for the weakness of human nature ? " I answer, a man can be as perfect as this ; because many have been so. Nay, many, I trust, who are as perfect as this, are now alive. And they would be the very first to tell you, that even they need all the allowances, all the mercy, all the grace of Jesus Christ. They would be the first to tell you of themselves, " We feel how very far short we come of that perfection which Jesus has set before us : we feel how far short we fall of that command of his. Be ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect." For this is the true standard, which we should set before us and endeavour to reach, the goodness and righteousness and loving-kindness and purity of God, as shewn to us in his blessed Son. That 78 THE ALTON SERMONS. Son was the express image of his Father's excellency : so that the more we become like the Son, the more we shall be like the Father. But how is it possible for us to become like the Son of God, until our hearts, and minds, and words, and thoughts, and ^vishes, are fully leavened with the spirit of the Gospel, the spirit of holiness and love ? The only remaining question is, How are we to get this precious and all-hallowing leaven, which is to change the dross of our natures into gold? First, I would have you search for it in the New Testament. The words of Jesus and of his apostles are the true leaven, which you are to apply to your hearts. But it is not enough to put leaven to the flour, unless we also knead it into the flour, and mix them well together. So it is not enough to store our me- mories with the leaven of God's word, unless we work it thoroughly and diligently into our hearts, by self-examina- tion and by prayer. The Bible and other godly books teach you what you ought to be : let self-examination shew you what you are : and then compare the two together. Some people have a dread of self-examination, as if it were a very difficult and frightful thing : and difficult it certainly is, if a person puts it off, until he finds that in a single day perhaps he has to reckon up the sins of years. But if you would practise it regularly, nothing can be easier. Is it not easy to ask oneself, when one goes to bed, " Have I prayed to God heartily, or thought of him all day ? Have I behaved to my neighbour as I would have him behave to me ? I made a bargain to-day with such a man : did I make it on such terms as I should have thought fair, had I been in his place ? I had to do such a piece of work for my master : did I do it as I would have done it, had I been working for myself? I had a quarrel with such a one this morning : was the fault mine or his? Did I say anything to pro- voke him? Did I remember that a soft answer tumet^ THE GOSPEL LEAVEN. 79 away wrath? Was I slow to take offence, and quick to forgive it ? " Look thus at yourselves every night, my brethren, by the bright and piercing light of the Gospel. Carry the lamp of God's law in your hands, and search through every corner of your hearts. Never lay your head on your pillow without doing so : for in this sense also most assuredly sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. Cast your thoughts over what you have done, and compare it with what you ought to have done. Think what you have been, and then think what Christ was. After such an examination you will never be able to close your eyes, until you have fallen on your knees, and besought God to send his Holy Spirit, to circumcise what is still uncircumcised in you, and to leaven what is still unleavened. VII. THE ANGELS TEXT. Luke ii. 14. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. OUCH was the text of the angels on the night of aur ^ Saviour's birth ; and to that text our Saviour's life furnished the sermon. For it was a life of holiness and devotion to his Father's service, a life spent in doing good to the bodies and souls of all around him ; and it was ended by a death undergone on purpose to reconcile man with God, and to set earth at peace with heaven. Here is a practical sermon on the angels text, the best of all sermons, a sermon not of words, but deeds. Whoever will duly study that practical sermon, whoever with a teachable, inquiring heart will study the accounts of our Saviour's words and actions handed down in the four Gospels, will need little else to enlighten him in the way of godliness. Nevertheless, since it has pleased God that faith should come by hearing, and hearing by the multitude of preachers, I will say a few words to you on each of the heads into which this, the angels text, divides itself. The first words of it are. Glory to God ! and a most weighty lesson may we draw for ourselves, from finding the THE ANGELS TEXT. 8 1 angels put that first. A world is redeemed. Millions on millions of human beings are rescued from everlasting death. Is not this the thing uppermost in the angels' thoughts ? Is not this mighty blessing bestowed on man the first thing that they proclaim ? No, it is only the second thing : the first thing is, Glory to God ! Why so ? Because God is the giver of this salvation ; nay, is himself the Saviour, in the person of the only-begotten Son. Moreover because in heavenly minds God always holds the first place, and they look at everything with a view to him. But if this was the feeling of the angels, it is clear we cannot be like angels until the same feeling is uppermost with us also. Would we become like them, we must strive to do God's will as it is done in heaven ; that is, because it is God's will and because we are fully persuaded that whatever he wills must needs be the wisest and best and rightest thing to do, whether we can see the reasons of it or not. We must have God ever in our thoughts, just as most men have themselves ever in their thoughts. I do not mean that we should be always considering what God is like ; any more than a selfish man is always considering what he himself is like. But the selfish man does everything with a view to self, to his own pleasure, to his own interest, to his own profit, and convenience, and no more dreams of crossing his own wishes, or his own will, than of cutting and maiming his body. This, you must be well aware, is the way most men look to them- selves. Now I Avould have you look to God exactly in the same manner. But why say, / would have you ? The Bible would have you, Jesus Christ would have you, make a habit of trying to obey and to please God in everything, and thereby ofi'ering and devoting to him all your daily doings. Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, you should do all to God's glory. Then will you be like the angels who began their text with, Glory to God ! G 82 THE ALTON SERMONS, The next branch of the text is, Peace on earth. Our Saviour is especially called the Prince of Peace, because his great purposes were to bring down peace to man, and to plant and foster peace within man. He brought down peace to man ; for he came with a message of free pardon from the Father to proclaim that God was willing to reconcile the world to himself, and would not impute their trespasses to men, if they would only turn to him, and believe in him. Had not Jesus brought us this blessed message, he would not have been the Messiah. For it was prophesied of him in the Psalms, that he should speak peace to his people, and to his saints (Ixxxv. 8) ; and again in the prophet Zechariah, " He shall speak peace to the heathen" (ix. lo); and more strongly still in that sublime passage of Isaiah, where the prophet says, " Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God : speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem ; and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished." Here is a plain proclamation of j^eace : for the warfare is said to be accompHshed, or to be at an end. But when war is over, peace begins. This however is not all. The prophet adds how the war was to end : " her iniquity is pardoned." From these last words we learn that the war is a war with God ; and that he puts a stop to it by a pardon. Well then might the angels sing. Peace on earth ! when He was appearing upon earth, who was the ambassador of peace with Heaven. But Jesus was not content with proclaiming peace to man. He further made it one of his prime objects to plant and foster peace within man. Peace was his legacy to his apostles. " My peace I leave with you," were his words to them the night he was betrayed. But what kind of peace ? Truly every kind which man can enjoy : peace of conscience, such as a man enjoys, who knows his sins to be forgiven : peace of heart, such as a father may feel even in the hour of his bitterest sorrow, if he knows that the child, whom death THE ANGELS TEXT. 8^ has just taken away, is only sleeping, as the daughter of Jairus slept, and that Christ will hereafter come to wake him ; peace of a mind at ease about worldly matters, such as befits persons who have been taught that only one thing is really needful to a reasonable and immortal spirit, that our heart and treasure should both be in heaven, and that, with regard to our earthly wants and wishes, everything here below is in the hands of God, who cares for us, has no plea- sure in afflicting us, and has promised to make all things work together for our good, if we will only love and fear him; lastly, peace and union between brethren, that we may all make up one body under Jesus Christ our head. This is the fourfold peace which our Saviour came to plant and foster in the hearts of men. Now let each of us ask himself with all seriousness, do I feel anything of this godly peace? Ask yourselves, for instance, whether you have the peace arising out of the humble hope that your sins are pardoned. But remember, it is impossible to arrive at this, without being first convinced of sin. He that knows not the danger and the misery of being at war with God, will not feel the blessedness of being at peace with him. Ask yourselves again whether you have the peace of heart and mind growing out of a thorough trust in God through Christ. Do you look to him, as a child looks to its parent, for the fulfilment of all your wishes ? When he thwarts you, do you bow down? When he chastens you, do you kiss the rod ? When he blesses you, do you ascribe the blessing to the only Author of every good gift ? When he takes away some object of earthly love, which has struck its roots so deep into you, it tears your very heart to part with it, do you, — instead of weakly sinking under the blow, or proudly hardening yourself against it, do you meekly sorrow over it, with a patient and hopeful sorrow, like men who know that the spirits of such as die in the Lord are blessed; and that $4 THE ALTON SERMONS. it is good for the departed to be taken away, though it is bitter for the survivor to be left behind ? There is still another kind of peace, concerning which you should examine yourselves : I mean, peace and union v/ith your christian brethren. Let each ask himself whether lie feels anything of that. It is no common good fellowship, it is no weak tie, that will suffice. We are to love our neighbour as ourselves : so says Christ. We are to love him, not in word only, but in deed and in truth : so says St. John. We are to be one with our christian brethren, so as all to make up one family. Nay, this is not enough. St. Paul's words are still stronger : he would have us all be as it were one body, one in interests, one in affections, one in heart and mind and soul and spirit. This can only be brought about by our emptying ourselves of ourselves, that the love of Christ may flow into us and fill us all with the same affections and desires. Have we thus emptied ourselves ? But it is useless to ask the question. Of course we have not. This is the last and highest step towards christian perfection, which a man is allowed to take here below : and of course we have not taken it. But have we ever so much as made the attempt ? Have we ever begun to fight against our own selfishness ? Have we ever determined to deny ourselves, to mortify ourselves, to esteem others better than ourselyes, to look not only to our own feelings and interests, but also to those of others ? Have we ever begun to seek this peace and union, far as we may be from having attained to it? If we have not done so, if our hearts cannot bear us true witness that we have any of these difterent kinds of peace within us, what share have we in Christ's coming ? What good is it to us that peace on earth has been proclaimed, if we are still lying under God's wrath, still a prey to eating cares, still tossed about and torn by raging passions, so that THE ANGELS TEXT. 85 our hearts are full of war ? The same holy book, which tells us in one place that the angels proclaimed peace on earth, tells us likewise in another place, " there is no peace, saith God, to the wicked." Yet, brethren, though Christ may have failed on all former occasions to bring home peace to some of you, let him not fail of doing so now. He has come to you once more to-day. Once more have we been permitted to hear the story of his birth, the message of the angels, the song of the heavenly choir. We have followed the shep- herds to the humble stable ; and our souls have looked on the wondrous babe, the Son of God, the maker of the world, lying, where none of you would suffer a child of yours to lie, among the cattle in a manger, and all to bring us peace. Will you again refuse the precious gift, which he has come from beyond the stars to offer you ? Accept it this time for his sake, for your own sakes. Begin now, whatever you may have done heretofore, to seek his peace, and to pursue it. There is a third part of the angels text, — namely, " Good- will to men : " and a very important part it is. For it sets forth the ground of our salvation. It was no excellency or merit of ours, that drew our Saviour down from heaven : for we were full of nothing but demerits. It was the wretchedness of our fallen state, the seeing how impossible it was for us ever to recover by our own strength, that moved Almighty God in his infinite lovingkindness to send his Son to rescue and redeem us. He saw that there was none to save ; therefore his own arm, the arm of God, brought us salvation ; the righteousness of God was manifested to sustain us. Well then might the angels proclaim goodwill to man at Christ's birth, since his birth was so great and wonderful a showing forth of God's goodwill to us. For herein, as St. Paul tells us, " God commendeth, or showeth forth, his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 86 THE ALTON SERMONS. (Rom. V. 8.) To the same purport are the words of 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." (i John iv. 10.) But though this love of God for his sinful creatures is worthy of all gratitude and praise, the goodwill declared in the angels text means something more than mere love. The word, which we translate goodwill, is a word very full of meaning, and signifies that mixture of goodness and kind- ness and wisdom, which leads to good and wise plans. The goodwill then in the angels text is no other than the great and merciful purpose of our redemption : and had one of the angels enlarged on the text, we may conceive him expressing himself after the following manner : " This night, O man, is our Father and your Father carrying into effect that wonderful plan, which he has prepared ever since the fall of Adam. The prophecy to Adam, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, — the prophecy to Abraham, that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed, — the prophecy of Malachi, that the Sun of Righteousness should arise with healing on his wings, — these and all the other prophecies which speak of the Messiah's coming, are now fulfilled. The eternal counsels of the Lord are now about to take effect. His faithfulness, his truth, liis righteousness, his mercy are coming down from heaven to dwell among men,, that men may see with their bodily eyes, and hear with their bodily ears, the goodness of their Father and their God, who has brought to light a marvellous way of reconciling his justice with his mercy, and of approv- ing himself the eternal and implacable enemy of sin, at the very moment when he is most forgiving to repentant sinners. It is this union of goodness, of wisdom, and of mercy, that we now proclaim and announce to you, under the name of goodwill to men." THE ANGELS TEXT. 87 Now to apply this part of the angels text to ourselves, have we any proper sense and feeling of this goodwill ? If we have, we shall be humble ; inasmuch as we are saved, not by our merits, but by the love of God, in spite of our manifold demerits. We shall be thankful • for surely kind- ness like this ought to fill our hearts with gratitude. God's love toward us should beget in us love toward him. Above all, we should be full of faith, trusting that he who has begun so excellent a work, will bring the same to good eflect, — that he who for our sakes gave his only Son to live a poor and humble life, and to die a painful and shameful death, will together with that Son freely give us all things. We cannot suppose it was a pleasure to the Son of God to suffer the pains of infancy, the labours and mortifications and trials of manhood, the pangs of a cruel death. It was no pleasure to him to quit the glories of heayen, in order to dwell in lowliness and contempt. Why then did he undergo all this ? From goodwill, to save man. And think you he will leave this salvation imperfect and so render his incarna- tion, and birth, and human life and death, of no avail ? O no ! he must desire to finish his work ; he must be anxious to make up the crown he has toiled and bled for, by placing in it all the jewels, all the souls he can gather. He will never be wanting to us, if we are not wanting to ourselves. Thus have I spoken to you on the angels text, and in so doing have spoken of man's salvation. The end of the whole is God's glory ; the means is peace on earth ; the sole motive is goodness and lovingkindness to us miserable sin- ners. But there are still three words in the text, which I have not noticed. The angels did not simply say, Glory to God ; but. Glory to God in the highest, that is, in heaven. Here is a wonderful, a glorious, a soul-sustaining scene opened to us. The angels in the veiy presence of God are moved by our sufferings and our redemption. Even to them, 88 THE ALTON SERMONS. with all their knowledge of God, and his divine works, even to them, that the Word should stoop to be made flesh, unfolded new view ^ of the eternal Father's goodness, and furnished a fresh theme for their songs of praise. Even the angels strike their golden harps at the joyful news of man's salvation. Shall they glorify God for his goodness to us, and shall we forget to glorify him for his goodness to our- selves? Shall, they rejoice over us, and feel for us, and shall we be so insensible, so deaf-hearted, as neither to re- joice nor to feel for ourselves, — for our escape from sin and hell, — for our restoration to the hope of heaven? Our Saviour threatened the impenitent Jews, that the men of Nineveh should rise up in judgment against them, and con- demn them. A more glorious and awful set of witnesses, if we are impenitent, will be arrayed against us Christians. The very angels will testify against us, and condemn us : because, when they had proclaimed glory to God in the highest, he was forgotten and dishonoured among men ; because, when they had announced the coming of peace on earth, men rejected the blessed offer, and remained at enmity with God, and with themselves, and with each other ; because, when they had assured us of goodwill from God to men, our bosoms did not echo the answering cry of love and gratitude and obedience from man to God. Brethren, may none of us be among the wretched multitude, against whom this testimony will be offered ! Let us bethink ourselves in time, and be reconciled to God in time, that, as Jesus on this day brought the Godhead down from heaven to earth, so, by the work of his Spirit on our willing and obedient hearts, he may raise us up from earth to heaven. VIII. THE EPIPHANY; OR, FAR AND NIGH. Ephesians ii. 12, 13. At that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus ye, who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. nPHESE words were spoken by St. Paul to the converts ^ he had made at Ephesus, who, before he preached to them, and brought them to a knowledge of the truth, were in the miserable state here described. They were without Christ : they were ahens from the commonwealth of Israel : they were strangers from the covenants of promise : they were without hope, and without God. This was their wretched plight, so long as they were far off. But through the grace of God, who was pleased to send his servant Paul to declare the Gospel of salvation to them, their con- dition underwent a wonderful change. They were made nigh by the blood of Christ. By that blood they were reconciled to God : they were made partakers in the cove- nant of promise, fellow-citizens with the saints, became 90 THE ALTON SERMONS. entitled to all the glorious privileges of God's people, and were admitted to dwell in his house, and to share in the blessings and honours of his family. It is of this marvellous and happy change, that St. Paul reminds the Ephesians in the text. To make them feel their blessedness as Christians, he sets before them their wretchedness as Gentiles, or heathens ; when, as we read in the book of Acts, they were worshippers of the great god- dess Diana, and of the statue which in their fond conceits they imagined to have fallen from heaven : that is, they were blind idolaters, and bowed down to gods that were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Nor was this the case with the people of Ephesas alone, before the coming of Christ. The Jews indeed had been favoured from the earliest times with a knowledge of the one true God : and through their teaching, in almost every great city there was a congregation, larger or smaller, of devout men, or proselytes, as they were called, who had left the idols of their fathers, and worshipped the great Jehovah. But with these exceptions the whole earth was lying dead in darkness and in wickedness. Even the city of Athens, which among the heathens passed for the light of the world, was wholly given up to idolatry. The account which we read in the Epistle to the Romans applied, under one form or other, to all the Gentiles : " they had changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and even to creeping things." Their souls were bound to the footstool of any dumb idol that chance had set up among them. Why do I speak of these things to you ? For the same reason which led St. Paul to speak of them to the Ephe- sians : to remind you of the fearful depths of evil, out of which through God's mercy you have been brought, that THE EPIPHANY. 91 your hearts may be stirred to thankfulness, and that, feeHng how much you owe to God for his goodness, you may be roused to do your best towards paying off your great debt of love to him, by giving yourself up to his service, and striving to walk before him in holiness and righteousness. For we too are not of the seed of Abraham after the flesh : we too by birth are Gentiles, as the Ephesians were : and if the mercy of God had not been revealed to our forefathers, as well as to them, — if our forefathers, having sometimes been far off, had not been made nigh by the blood of Christ, — we at this day should still be what they were, and what so many millions of idolaters m all quarters of the world are even now : we should be aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise : we should be without hope, and without God, even in the midst of God's own world. But, blessed be God ! it pleased him to call our fathers to the knowledge of the truth in Christ Jesus. Nay, it has pleased him to enrich them with one spiritual blessing after another, and to exalt them with religious privileges and religious knowledge, not merely above the heathens, but, I might almost say, above every other christian people. Moreover they have been allowed to hand down those religious privileges, a rich and precious inheritance, the richest and most precious of all earthly inheritances, to us, their children ; and we are now enjoying them. At least it is our own fault, our own sin, if we are not. Thoughts of this kind can never be out of season ; for it can never be out of season to meditate on the great mercies that God has vouchsafed to us. But they are more especially fitted for the festival we are this day celebrating. To-day is the feast of the Epiphany, as it is called, that is, of the manifestation or shewing forth, — a feast kept in remem- brance of the great and glorious day, when Christ was first 92 THE ALTON SERMONS. manifested and shewn to the Gentiles. In the Gospel for the day we read how it pleased God, by means of a won- derful star, to make the birth of Jesus known to the wise men, and how they came from their own country in the East to Jerusalem, and how the words on their lips, when they got there, were, " Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and are come to worship him." Nor did they come empty-handed. According to the prophecy in the 72nd Psalm, that the kings of Arabia and Saba should bring gifts, they had brought the riches of those very countries, which abound in gold and spices, to offer to the new-born King. And where, and how did they find him ? In a splendid palace, in the midst of a mighty city, surrounded by guards, with the lords and ladies of the land taking pride in waiting upon him ? He was in a small house, in the petty village of Bethlehem, with nobody to nurse or tend him but his virgin mother. Had they arrived a little sooner, they would have found him, as the shepherds did, in a stable. But probably some kind-hearted person had been moved with pity for the Virgin's forlorn condition, and had taken her in with her babe : for we read, that, when the wise men came to the spot over which the star stood still, they went into the house, and saw — what ? — only a young child, with its mother, holding it in her arms, or sitting by it, and perhaps praying over it, with the humble anxious fervour of a pious mother's prayer. Now was the time when the wise men showed themselves to be most truly wise. They were wise, after the wisdom of their own country, when they were standing night after night on their w^atch-tower, following the stars in their glorious courses. They were wise, when, at the sight of the new star, — which reminded them, it may be, of the great prophecy uttered by Balaam, that a star should come out of Jacob, and a sceptre should rise out of THE EPIPHANY. 93 Israel, — they undertook a long and weary journey to offer their homage to the promised king. But wise as they were at the beginning of their journey, their wisdom shone still brighter at the end of it. They shewed the greatest wisdom, — because they shewed the greatest faith, — when they had reached the house and entered in. How many would have been scandalized and shocked at the mean appearance of the infant ! How many would have been troubled with doubts, and would have begun to say within themselves, "Surely there must be some mistake here : this child can never be born a king ! " How many again would have felt their pride hurt, and would have been half angry, half ashamed, at having taken such a long journey to see a poor child in a cottage ! But the wise men felt none of this false pride, none of this false shame. They knew that they might trust the star : the star and its Maker could not lie. Therefore they trusted it to the utmost, notwithstanding that all which met their eyes would have led them to think its tidings could not be true. When they saw it stop over a cottage at Bethlehem, mean as the place was, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy; and when they were come in, and saw the young child, with Mary his mother, they fell down, — these princes and wise men fell down in the lowliness of their wisdom; — and although he whom they beheld was reputed to be nothing more than the son of a carpenter, yet under his form they worshipped the Saviour and the Maker of the world. " And they opened their treasures, and presented gifts to him, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh ; " thereby fulfilling the pro- phecy in the 72nd Psalm, that "to him shall be given of the gold of Arabia," and that, which you heard in the lesson from Isaiah, that " they from Sheba shall bring gold and incense." But to return to the main subject of my sermon : Avhy is the story of these wise men of such interest and importance to us, that the Church has thought fit that a day in every 94 THE ALTON SERMONS. year should be set apart to keep alive the memory of Christ's manifestation to them ? Because in manifesting himself to the wise men, Our Saviour manifested himself to the Gentiles. They were the first-fruits of the Gentile world, who came to the rising of the Sun of Righteous- ness. Therefore, in rejoicing, as the Church does on this day, that God was pleased, by the leading of a star, to manifest Jesus to the Gentiles, we should likewise feel a thankful joy that he was manifested to our forefathers, and through them has been made known to us. We should bear in mind that we have had Christ shewn to us, not in his cradle, but, I might almost say, in our own cradles. Almost from our cradles upward have we been taught to know Christ, and to love him. We have had no toilsome journey to take in search of him : he is near to us, even at our very doors. We have had no questions to ask, like the wise men, when they came to Jerusalem, in order to find out the King of the Jews. Go east, or west, or north, or south, into every corner of this favoured land ; in every parish you will find a church, and in thousands of cottages you will find New Testaments, to shew you the plain straight way to Jesus, the King of the world. Nor is our faith put to the trial of seeing our King in the guise of a poor infant. The same book, which tells us that Jesus was laid in a mianger, and brought up under the roof of a village carpenter, tells us also that he was the image of the invisible God, that he was the first-born before every creature, and that, as a recompense for his taking our nature upon him, and sub- mitting to the death of the cross, God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name, that at his name every knee should bow, not only in earth, but in heaven also, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil, ii. 9 — II.) All these things we have heard from our very THE EPIPHANY. 95 childhood. Christ has never been made known to us, except as a Prince and a Saviour, who came down to earth for a time on the errand of our redemption, but whose true and right home is heaven, where he is now sitting at the right hand of God. Is it a small thing, my brethren, to have had all this revealed to us ? Remember, " many prophets and righteous men have desired to see the things which we see, and have not seen them." (Matt. xifi. 17.) Yet to us they have been made known from the hour when we began to talk. Without our seeking, they have come to us. They have been forced upon us. We could not shut our eyes and ears to them if we would. Is it a small thing to have been made nigh to God, by the blood of his only Son ? — we, whose fathers at one time were far off, and neither knew God, nor wished to know him. Just think for a few moments, out of what a state we have been delivered, by being called to the know- ledge of our God and Saviour, — by being born here, in this Christian Protestant land, instead of under heathen darkness. "We should have been aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise. It has pleased Almighty God to set up a spiritiial kingdom upon earth, and to make gracious promises to all the people of his kingdom, that is, to every member of his Church. He has entered into a covenant with them by sacrifice, even by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Now would it not be a misery to have been shut out from God's earthly kingdom ? to have no share in God's promises ? to be excluded from the covenant which he has made with his people and his servants? Would not this be a grievous misery? My belief is, that we cannot in this life fathom all the depths of this misery. We know, and may understand, how much worse it is to be born a slave, than to be born free, — how much worse it must be to be born a savage, than to g6 THE ALTON SERMONS. come into life and be bred up in a civilized, orderly, quiet land. This we may all of us in some measure understand. But the woe it would be to a man to be born a heathen, instead of a Christian, we cannot fully make out, until we are let in to see the secrets of eternity. Still there are two things mentioned by St. Paul, which may give us some notion of the wretched forlorn state of such as are far off without Christ. He tells us, that they are without hope, and without God. So too should we have been, if we had been born heathens. If the star of the Gospel had not shone in the eyes of our fathers, and called them to worship Christ, we too should have been born without hope and without God. Now cast in your minds, how much would you strike off from every good man's happiness, if you took away his hope and his God from him ? Surely there is no one here, who, however faulty his practice may be, would consent to part with his hope, and to give up his knowledge of God, that he might go and be a king among the heathens. So that the poorest man in a christian land is infinitely better off than the richest and most powerful in the countries where Christ is not known. For they who are far off and without Christ, are doomed to live without those hopes, which are far more precious than the crown of a king, and without that knowledge of God, which is far mightier than the sceptre of a king. Being without Christ, they are without God. For it is only through Christ that we can come to God, even to know him, much more to love him, and to obey him. All who are without Christ must needs be without God. And what is man without God? He is like a ship tossed about on a stormy sea, without chart or compass. The ship drifts as the waves carry it : the night is dark : the pilot knows not which way to steer : he may be close to rocks and quicksands : perhaps a flash of lightning falls on a rock, or he hears the waves breaking THE EPIPHANY. 97 over it. But how shall he escape ? or how prepare to meet the danger? Shall he trust in Providence? What Pro- vidence has he to trust in ? Poor man ! he is without God. Shall he throw out an anchor? But he has no anchor : he wants the best and only fast anchor, — hope, the anchor of the soul. Such is the state of man, when he is far off, without a God to trust in, without hope to comfort and support him. But give the same man a true and Hvely faith in Christ, — tell him of a merciful and loving Father, who careth for us, and would have us cast all our cares upon him, — shew him that hope which is firm to the end ; and straightway you make a happy man of him. You give him a course to steer : you give him a chart and compass to guide him ; you give him an anchor which will enable him to withstand the buffeting of every storm : you insure him against shipwreck ; and you assure him of a blessed haven, where at length he will arrive and be at rest. Such is a slight outline of the difference between Gentiles, or heathens, and Christians, — between those who are far ofif, and those who are nigh : or rather, to speak more correctly and more profitably, such may be the difierence between them. But as, in receiving the body and blood of Christ, the danger is declared to be great, if we, receive the same unworthily, so is it with the privileges of the christian cove- nant. * The danger attending them is likewise great, if we receive them unthankfuUy and unworthily, — if we put them to a bad use, or to no use, — if, being born nigh to Christ, we choose to depart from him like the Prodigal Son into a far country, — if, bearing the name of Christ, we live the life of heathens. The danger, if we live thus, is great. For in so living we are guilty of the body and blood of Christ our Saviour. It is by the blood of Christ, the apostle expressly says, that we are made nigh. If then, having been bought at such a H 98 THE ALTON SERMONS. price, and brought out of a world where we were without God, to the very foot of God's throne, we throw away the inestimable advantages thus vouchsafed to us,— if we run off from the foot of God's throne, and go and hide ourselves in one of those caverns of sin which are yawning on every side of us, — do we not shew that we neither prize the privileges obtained for us, nor regard the price which Jesus paid for them ? Assuredly we thereby prove that we think no more of the blood of Christ, wherewith we have been sanctified, than if it were so much common blood. We prove, to use the awful language of the apostle, that we count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing. (Heb. x. 29.) Such behaviour moreover is utterly inexcusable. The heathen may plead that he has rarely, if ever, heard of Christ, and that, having been bred up in a different religion, he had many strong prejudices to fight against and over- come, before he could embrace the Gospel : and these pleas, so far as they are brought forward in sincerity, God, we may be sure, will mercifully listen to. The heathen, I say, may plead this excuse. But we, — what excuse have we to plead ? we, who have been born beneath the full sun- shine of Gospel truth, — we, who have been bred up, as it were, in the innermost chamber of God's earthly temple, — we, who have been mercifully placed within the skirts of Christ's glory. What excuse can we plead for not beHeving in him, for not loving him, for not obeying him? You cannot, — none of you can plead ignorance. In the New Testament you have the best teachers that ever lived, the Son of God himself, and his chosen apostles. You have had the Scriptures read to you, you have had them explained to you, from your very childhood ; and they contain the words of eternal life. Ignorance then you can in no wise plead : for none need be ignorant, unless they choose it. Will any of you plead your small capacity ? your want of THE EPIPHANY. 99 opportunity? To ensure you plenty of opportunity, God has kept one day for himself out of every seven, on purpose that the very busiest, that even those who are forced to work all day long for their bread, may have an abundance of time for learning to know his will. As for dullness of understanding, it is not a sharp or strong head that is wanted to make a Christian, but a sincere and honest heart. Only be earnest in seeking the true and right way : you will have no difficulty in finding it. But perhaps you will say that your nature is weak, and prone to sin. True, most true, it is so : and therefore the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, has deigned to promise that he will come down from heaven to us, and dwell with us, and strengthen us against all our infirmities. However weak we may be in ourselves, surely he can make us strong enough. Away then with all such excuses ! Those who do not serve Christ in this country, do not, because they will not. He has called them, — time after time he has called them ; — but they will not come. He has placed them near him : but they will not stay. They will not accept eternal life from him on the gracious terms on which he has offered it. No, they cry in their madness, let us have hell instead. No, they still cry, when Christ is set before them, we will not have this man to reign over us. Our lusts shall reign over us ; our vices shall reign over us ; our enmities shall reign over ns ; covetousness shall reign over us : there is nothing so paltry, so vile, so foul, so hate- ful, but we will set it up to be our king, rather than the King of heaven. What is this but sinning with our eyes open ? What is it but crucifying the Son of God, and not the Son of man ? What is it but saying, like the Jews, Not Jesus, but Barabbas ? My brethren, it is an awful thing to slight the gifts, and to trample on the blessings of the living God. As sure as lOO THE ALTON SERMONS. God liveth, it shall not be done for ever with impunity. He has chosen us Englishmen, as he chose the Jews of old he has given us a birthright in the commonwealth of Israel he has bound himself to us by the covenant of promise he has made us nigh by the blood of his Son. He has enriched us with every opportunity of learning his will. He has ordained that no hand of man shall hinder us in doing it. He has scattered the seed of his word through the land with an abundance elsewhere unheard of. Blessed be his name for all his blessings to us ! If we despise them how- ever, if we turn our backs on them, if we defile the blood of the covenant, by mingling it with our sacrifices to the idols of our lusts, — God's judgments on Jerusalem will then be but a weak type of his more fearful judgments upon us : upon us, I say, — upon you, and me, and whoso- ever may be guilty of refusing this great salvation. There- fore, my beloved brethren, do not reject the proffered mercies of your God, which, being rejected, turn to curses. But put them to a right use. Make them the seeds and the forerunners of still greater blessings, which he is waiting and longing to bestow on you. As you have been brought nigh to Christ, strive daily to come nearer and nearer to him ; nor slacken your eftorts until you have become one with him in his heavenly glory. IX. REPENTANCE. Genesis xix. 17. Escape for thy life : escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. HTHERE is a time to laugh, says the Preacher : and there -■- is also a time to weep. This we all know to be true with regard to the affairs of this world. Among the events that befall us in the course of our Hves, there are some that make the heart glad, and others that wring it with anguish. So too in our spiritual life, in the matters that concern our souls, are there seasons for godly joy, and seasons likewise for godly sorrow. For many are the engines which God sets at work in order to bring us to him. Sometimes he draws us toward him with the cords of love, which have mostly the strongest hold on gende spirits. At other times he sends judgments and visitations of various kinds to warn us, that a wholesome fear may be wrought in our minds, and that ' we may flee in time from the wrath to come. When we look at what God has done and is ever doing for us, at the many marvellous proofs of his mercy, the many glorious offers of salvation set before us, we may well be joyful in the Lord, and serve him with gladness. When on the other hand we turn our eyes inward, and consider how I02 THE ALTON SERMONS. we have behaved toward God, — when we think of the deaf ear we have so often turned to those offers of salvation, of the stubbornness with which we have shut our eyes against those proofs of mercy, — our sins and our ingratitude may well cover us with sorrow and shame. Hence it is right and fitting that we should have seasons set apart more especially for spiritual joy, when our chief employment may be thanksgiving to God for all that he has done for us, and seasons for spiritual sorrow, wherein we may confess our sins, and mourn over them, and repent of them. Therefore the Church has appointed set times, when, as the year rolls round, these duties are to be brought solemnly before us. One great season for holy joy and thanksgiving is Christmas, which we have lately passed through. The chief season for sorrow and repentance is Lent, on which we are now entering. Such then being the purpose of the Church in ordaining that the forty days of Lent should be observed in a particular manner, — repent- ance being the feeUng which she designs should at this season be uppermost in the hearts of her members, — it be- hoves us to consider what repentance is, and why it is of such importance, that so large a portion of every year should be set apart for it. What then is repentance ? You will perhaps tell me, it is the being sorry for having done wrong. This however is far from enough. The apostle speaks of " a godly sorrow which worketh repentance ;" so that repentance must be something different from sorrow, even from a godly sorrow. It is the fruit of a godly sorrow. When there is anything about us, that afflicts us and makes us grieve, we naturally wish, if possible, to be quit of it ; and the more grievous our affliction, the stronger is our desire to get rid of that which causes it. Accordingly, if we are stirred with a hearty and godly sorrow for having turned away from God, and REPENTANCE. . 103 given ourselves up to sin, we must needs desire to forsake our sins, and to turn from them to God. This, at the very least, is necessary to make up anything that can claim to be called repentance. When the angel came to Lot in Sodom, what did he tell him ? To grieve over the sins of Sodom? Had Lot done no more than this, he would have perished in the destruction of Sodom. The angel bade him flee out of Sodom, and escape for his life : he bade him flee to the mountain, lest he should be consumed. He who sincerely ; and heartily repents of his sins, will not be content to tarry \ in the midst of them, nor even in the plain in their neigh- j bourhood : he will endeavour to escape to the mountain ; he will strive to climb up God's hill, the holy hill of Sion. ' It is a very common, and a very sad mistake, for people to fancy that, when they are sorry for their sins, when they abuse sin, and condemn it, and regret that they have fallen into it, they are repenting. But it is not so. We may speak ill of a thing with our lips ; and yet our hearts may cleave to it all the while. So long as we continue in sin, so long at least as we do not strive to get out of it, there is no jot of true repentance in our hearts. For the repentance which is wrought by a godly sorrow, is a repentance unto salvation : but a repentance which did not move us to for- sake our sins, would be a repentance unto destruction. We should be destroyed along with them, even as Lot would have been destroyed if he had stayed in Sodom. Hear what the prophet Isaiah says, when he is exhorting the people to repentance. " Wsish. you ; make you clean : put away the evil of your doings: cease to do evil; learn to do well" (i. 16). In like manner John the Baptist, when he preached repentance, laid the stress of his sermon on the fruits of repentance. It was not enough, he said to the Pharisees and Sadducees, to come and be baptized, and to confess their sins : they were also to bring forth fruits meet for I04 ' THE ALTON SERMONS. repentance : for every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit, — I pray you, brethren, mark his words : he does not say, every tree which brings forth bad fruit, but every tree which does not bring forth good fruit, — every barren tree, every tree that bears nothing, is to be cut down, just as much as the vine spoken of by the prophet, which brought forth wild and poisonous grapes. Both are to be hewn down by the axe of justice : both are to be cast into the fire. Indeed, the very words in the original, which in our Bible are rendered by the English words repent and repent- ance,— the very words by which the Evangelists describe the preaching of the Baptist, and that of our Lord himself, — mean far more than is usually understood by the English words that answer to them. The original word means a change of mind, a change of heart, a change of thought and of feeling. Therefore when you read or hear any of our Saviour's gracious promises of forgiveness to those who will repent, you must understand them as applying solely to those who have.begun to lay aside their old thoughts about sin, and to look at it, not according to the evil customs of the world, but according to the law of God. So long as a man asks, " What great harm can there be in this or that thing?" when God has forbidden it; so long as he sayi^ "I am very sorry for what I do, but I can't help it;" so long as he comforts himself with the thought that he is no worse than other men ; — so long is he only deceiv- ing himself to his ruin, by applying Christ's promises of forgiveness to his own case. Christ's promises are to those whose minds are changed. Is that man's mind .changed, who does not see the great harm, the shame, the guilt, the danger of disobeying God ? Is that man's mind changed, who says he cannot help his sins? when Jesus Christ came from heaven on purpose to bring him help, and REPENTANCE. 105 to enable him to live unto righteousness. As for that habit of comparing ourselves with other men, and comforting our- selves if we find that we are not worse than they, among all the deadly snares which Satan is ever setting for souls, hardly any is more destructive, hardly any catches more victims, and entangles them in sin and death, than this very temptation by which he beguiles us into measuring our- selves among ourselves, and comparing ourselves one with another, instead of trying our lives and actions by the only true test, the word of God. In a word, unless we are heartily desirous to forsake sin, — and to forsake it too on right grounds, not because it may hurt our welfare in this world, but because it is hateful to God, — unless we do our best to flee from sin, it is a mere pretence to say that we repent. There may be momentary pangs of sorrow ; there may be stings of remorse ; there may be a fear of punish- ment ; but, unless the remorse makes us hate sin, unless the fear makes us turn to God, unless the sorrow settles down into an earnest desire of leading pure and righteous lives in future, we are not among the number of those who have given heed to the cry calling them to repentance; and it will be no blessing to us that the kingdom of heaven is come. This brings me to consider why we are to repent. Not on account of any pleasure or satisfaction found in the work of repentance itself. I will not conceal from you that the duty of repentance is neither easy nor pleasant. The very name given to the first day of Lent shows that this was not designed to be a season for gladness. It is called, as you know, Ash Wednesday ; because on that day the Christians in former ages used to sprinkle their heads and cross their foreheads with ashes, saying one to another, "Remember, O man, that thou art ashes, and unto dust thou shalt return." To cover the head with ashes was regarded of old as a mark I06 THE ALTON SERMONS. of the deepest sorrow. Thus we read that Tamar in her grievous affliction put ashes on her head. Thus, when the wicked Haman had persuaded Ahasuerus to send forth a decree against the Jews, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes : and in every province there was great mourning among the Jews, fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. In like manner, when Jonah preached repentance to the people of Nineveh, the king arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And you cannot but remember our Saviour's words, in which he cries, " Woe to Chorazin ! and woe to Bethsaida ! for, if the mighty works done in them had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes." Thus has repentance ever been deemed a thing sad and painful and humiliating ; and thus, when we repent, must we too, like the king of Nineveh, strip off all the pride of our nature, all that the flesh and the eye delight in, to cast ourselves on the ground, and to cover ourselves with the bitter ashes of our former pleasures. Nor does our blessed Master ever speak of repentance except as a thing hard to flesh and blood. You remember his words about John the Baptist, the great preacher of repentance : " What went ye out to see ? a man clothed in soft raiment ? Behold they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses." The preacher of repentance is not among those who wear soft clothing. His dwelling is in the wilderness ; and they who give heed to his preaching, must also go forth into the wilderness. They must deny all that they have hitherto been accustomed to pamper, and must forsake all where- with they have hitherto pampered themselves. They must curb their tempers : they must fortify their inclinations : they must be content to fare without the comforts and in- dulgences to which they have been used all their lives. REPENTANCE. 107 Pains must be taken, sacrifices must be made, by all who would enter in at the strait gate. Restraints must be borne, self-denial must be practised, by all who desire to recover from the deadly disease of sin. It can hardly be necessary to remind you, what a tedious work it is to recover from a severe and dangerous illness, — what a long time it takes, — how much care is needed to keep us from falling back, and losing the little ground we have gained. In how many ways is the sick man compelled to deny himself ! for instance, in abstaining wholly from strong drinks, and from certain meats, which, when he was well, did him no harm, but which will not suit his present weakly state. The remedies too are often painful, the medicines distasteful. All this care and abstinence the sick man may have to practise for months, until he has regained his strength. Nor is the recovery of the soul less difficult than that of the body : on the con- trary, it is far more difficult, inasmuch as the malady is of far longer standing. It is far more difficult : it takes a longer time : it is still more liable to be interrupted by relapses : it requires a still more watchful self-restraint and self- denial. The likeness between the diseases of the body and those of the soul will also supply us with an answer to the ques- tion which I put just now : why, if repentance be so pain- ful, are we to repent ? Were .i man, who was lying on a bed of sickness, to be asked, why he sent for a physician, — why he took so much nauseous medicine, — why he did not eat and drink like other men, — would he be at a loss for an answer ? Would he not say at once, " Because I wish to live, rather than to die ; so I am taking the only means whereby I can hope to save my life ?" Such should be the penitent sinner's answer, when asked why he is taking the bitter medicine of repentance. This question is very likely to be put to him at the outset, by his passions, which are not Io8 THE ALTON SERMONS. used to be checked, — by his will, which grows outrageous at being curbed, — by his former companions, who are vexed to see him quitting, and thereby condemning them, — by every evil thing, in short, both within him and around him. When such a question is asked him, he too should answer, " Because I wish to live, rather than to die, to live for ever, rather than to die for ever." Nothing can be stronger than our Saviour's words on this point. If our right eye offend us, that is, if it tempt us to sin, — as numbers are tempted to sin by the lusts of the eye, — we are to pluck it out and cast it from us. If our right hand prove a temptation to us, we are to cut it off. And along with this command, so hard to flesh and blood, our Lord has been graciously pleased to tell us the reason why we are to obey it : because it is better for us to enter into life halt or maimed, or with one eye, than to be cast into everlasting fire with two legs, and two hands, and two eyes. This, my brethren, is the reason why we are to repent : because, irksome as repentance may be, it is only through the strait gate that we can enter into life. Does any man think of doubting whether recovering from sickness is a good thing ? Did any man in his senses ever blame another for choosing to get well at whatever cost and trouble, when he might have saved himself all this annoyance by letting him- self be lifted out of bed into his coffin ? for choosing to have a mortified leg cut off, when he might have kept it on, and become a corpse ? Nay further : did any man in his right mind ever say, " It is true, I am very ill. Every day that I put off taking medicine, I grow worse, and there is less and less chance of my recovery. Notwithstanding I will delay getting well for another twelvemonth ; and then I will set about it in good earnest?" If such language would be downright madness, with regard to the disorders of the body, how comes it to be less than madness when used of the REPENTANCE. 109 disorders of the soul ? How comes it that so many think these mad thoughts, and speak these mad words, about repentance ? How comes it that so many go on year after year putting off the time of taking the only medicine, which can restore us through God's help to our natural health, and make us ourselves again ? For man, as he now is, is not himself. He is not what God made him. God made him to lead a holy and godly life; and such is the life to which Jesus Christ came to restore him. This therefore is our true nature, the nature in which man was made, the nature which Christ came to restore. Sin however has become a kind of second nature to us. In an ancient story-book we read of a great warrior, who was persuaded through the malice of his enemy to put on a poisoned robe ; and the robe stuck to his body, so that it was impossible to pull it off, without tearing off some of the flesh. It stuck to him as if it had been glued on ; and the poison ate into his flesh, and killed him. Thus is it with sin. It cannot be torn off, without drawing blood from our souls : but if we let it remain on, it kills us. There- fore must we tear it off, without shrinking or flinching from the pain it may cost us to do so. We must escape to the mountain; because we are fleeing from Sodom; and be- cause we cannot tarry in Sodom without being consumed by its fire. It is impossible to press this point too strongly : so I will try to enforce what I have said by another parable. On the seashore, many of you must know, there are often rocks. Now suppose a man, walking among these rocks, and finding the stones painful to his feet, thinks he shall walk more easily and pleasantly on the smooth sand below. He quits the rocks, and goes down to the sands. The tide is out ; the sea is calm ; the waves are a long way off : there can be no danger: so he walks on. Presently the wind no THE ALTON SERMONS. begins to rise. Still there can be no danger : it is only rounding that jutting cliff: there is plenty of time; and then he will be safe. Meanwhile the sea comes on, gradually, gradually, wave after wave, like so many lines of horsemen in battle array riding one after the other. Every moment they advance a step or two ; and before the man has got to the jutting cliff, he sees them dashing against its feet. What is he to do ? On one side of him is a steep and rugged ledge of rocks ; on the other side the sea, which the wind is lashing into a storm, is rushing toward him with all its might and fury. Would a man in such a plight think of losing another moment? Would he stop to consider, whether he should hurt his hands by laying hold of the sharp stones ? Would not he strain every nerve to reach a place of safety, before the waves could overtake him ? If his slothfulness whispered to him, " It is of no use ; the ledge is very steep ! you may fall back when you have got half-way ; stay where you are ; perhaps the wind may drop, or the waves may stop short; and so you will be safe here;" — if his slothfulness prompted such thoughts as these, would he listen to them? Would he not reply, " Hard as the task may be, it must be tried, or I am a dead man. God will not work a miracle in my behalf : he will not change the course of the tides, and put a new and strange bridle on the sea, to save me from the effects of my own laziness. I have still a few minutes left : let me make the most of them, and I may be safe : if they sHp away, I must be drowned." This picture is not a mere piece of fancy. Many stories are told of the risks people have run by the coming in of the tide, when they were straying heedlessly along the sands. Some by great efforts, aided by God's good providence, have escaped. Others have perished miserably. Now the sinner is just in the situation of the man I have been speaking of. On one side of him is the steep ledge of REPENTANCE. repentance ; on the other the fiery waves of the bottomless pit are every moment roUing on toward him. Could his eyes be opened, as the eyes of Ehsha's servant were, he would see those fiery waves already beginning to surround him. Is this a situation for a man to stop in? Will any one in such a plight talk about the difficulty of repentance ? Let passion cry out, "It is hard to deny oneself:" faith must make answer, "It is harder to dwell amid endless burnings." There is one great difference however between the man walking on the seashore, and the sinner loitering on the edge of the fiery lake. The former will try to climb the rocks, because they offer him a chance of escaping ; but if we try to climb the ledge of repentance, our escape is certain, provided we begin in time. Jesus Christ himself is standing at the top of that ledge, crying to us, " Why will ye perish ? " He stretches out his hands to us, to help us up : we have only to lay hold on them, and we are safe. But then we must begin in time. If a man sets about climbing a steep cliff when he is young and active, and has the free use of his fimbs, he has a great advantage : the old and the crippled are pretty sure to fail. So is it with repentance. The young can mount the hill, if they set about it in good earnest, with much less toil. But they who are old in sin, they whose souls have become stiff through years of wickedness, and have grown double, so to say, by always looking earthward, — how can they make the efforts which are needed for such a task ? Of all hopeless miracles the miracle of a death-bed repentance seems to me one of the most hopeless. Therefore repent in time ; that is, repent now : for now is the accepted time ; now is the day of salvation. X CONVINCE A MAN OF SIN; THE BEST PREPARATION FOR PASSION WEEK. Romans vii. 23. I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. ^1 TE are already half through Lent; and it is time we ^^ should turn our minds to those thoughts and to those subjects which will best prepare us for Passion week, more especially for Good Friday, the most solemn day, the most shameful day, and the saddest day in the christian year. But what is Passion week ? It is the week of the Passion : that is to say, the week of suffering. For passion in old English means suffering, more particularly the suf- fering of Jesus Christ. Thus you read in the book of Acts, that Jesus shewed himself alive after his passion, that is, after his suffering on the cross. Thus too in the Litany we beseech our blessed Lord to deliver us by his agony and bloody sweat, by his cross and passion, or by the cross and all that he suffered on it. Again in the Communion Service we are exhorted to give most humble and hearty thanks to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, for the redemption of the world by the death and passion, or THE BEST PREPARATION FOR PASSION WEEK. II3 sufferings, of our Saviour Christ, both God and man. Passion week then is the season when we are more espe- cially called upon to commemorate and call to mind and ponder and think over the sufferings of our Saviour Christ, during that dreadful week, when he was betrayed into the hands of wicked men, and by them was falsely accused, reviled, mocked, scourged, crowned with thorns, and at last crucified. Now to the end that we may keep Passion week in a proper manner, by thinking and feeling about Christ's suffer- ings as we ought to do, the Church has appointed the forty days of Lent to be a sort of preparation for Passion week and Easter, just as it has appointed the four Sundays in Advent to be a preparation for Christmas. For there are two great seasons in the year which it behoves every Chris- tian to keep, who wishes to pay dutiful honour to his Saviour, or who would awaken and stir up his heart to a thankful recollection of what Christ has done for mankind. The first season is Christmas, in honour of Christ's birth, to preserve the memory of his wonderful loving-kindness in coming down from heaven, and putting on the nature of man. The other season is Passion week and Easter, to commemorate his love in dying for us, and to celebrate the glory of his Resurrection. Both these seasons are so im- portant, and it is of such moment to the welfare of your souls that you should keep them both in a godly manner, that the Church has set apart the Sundays in Advent, which come before Christmas, and the forty days of Lent, which come before Passion week, as a time of preparation for them. The use of such a preparation is plain enough. In the first place it answers the same purpose that the early bell on Sunday is meant to answer. As that bell calls us to get ready for church, so do Advent and Lent call on us to get I 114 THE ALTON SERMONS. ready for Christmas and for Easter. When a musical instru- ment has been laid by a while, it needs being put in tune ; or it will make but sorry music. The minds and hearts of most Christians too require to be got into tune, before they can bear their part fitly and harmoniously in the services by which the Church commemorates the birth and death and resurrection of her Lord. But there is another use in these, times of preparation. They are, or ought to be, times of teaching and instruction. They are times when a minister is especially called upon to teach his flock all that it concerns them so much to know, first about the great purpose for which Christ came into the world, and secondly about his wonderful loving-kindness in dying for mankind. The purpose for which our Saviour came into the world was, that he might give us light. He was a light, a heavenly light, to lighten the Gentiles : he came to give light to those who were sitting in darkness and the shadow of death : and he is therefore called in Scripture the Sun of Righteousness. Now the best way of preparing you to rejoice heart and soul at the coming of that heavenly light, — the best way of leading you thankfully to hail the rising of the Sun ol Righteousness, — is to give you a picture of the gross dark- ness which pressed like a heavy mildew on the hearts and consciences of men, before our Lord came down from heaven, and scattered the fog of sin and death, just as the sun scatters the night-fog at his rising. Thoroughly to enjoy the blessing of light, we must know what a woe darkness is, when it comes with all its terrors. Therefore one of the ways in which a minister is to prepare his people for Christ- mas, is, by telling them of the wretched ignorance and con- tented wickedness in which the Gentiles, and I might almost say, the Jews too, were lying sunk at the time when oui Saviour was born. THE BEST PREPARATION FOR PASSION WEEK. I15 But how is he to prepare them for Passion week ? By speaking to them of sin. For it was sin that caused Christ's death. He is the Lamb of God who died for the sins of the whole world, — that by his precious blood-shedding he might reconcile and reunite us to the Father, and might obtain the Holy Ghost for us, to regenerate us, and, as it were, spiritually re-create us, so that we might become new men, and be turned from the power of Satan to God. This was the main reason why Christ died, that he might procure us the pardon of our past sins, and grace to help us for the future. Now is it not plain, that, in order to understand the value of this mercy, we must begin with being convinced of the hatefulness and danger of sin ? Suppose I were to tell a heathen of Christ's mercy in dying for sinners, to purchase for them God's forgiveness and the help of the Holy Ghost. If the heathen were righteous in his own eyes, he would answer, " What is that to me ? I want no pardon. I am no sinner. I never robbed or murdered any one. As for the help of the Holy Ghost, I have no need of that either. I am good enough without." Such would be the answer of a heathen who was righteous in his own eyes, were I to speak to him of the benefits of Christ's death. But begin with convincing him of sin; hold the glass of truth up to his soul, that he may see its loathsome- ness and its weakness ; make him feel that God is of purer eyes than to behold any iniquity, — not great iniquities, mind, the Bible does not say that, — not horrid and abomin- able crimes only, but all offences, all iniquities, — that the very heavens are not pure in his sight, and that he charges even his angels with folly; make the heathen understand that God requireth truth in the inward parts, in other words, that it is not enough to keep from outward acts of sin, but that we must govern our very thoughts and wishes : and, when you have thus set the law of God before him in all its n6 THE ALTON SERMONS. depth and breadth and purity, bid him look within ; shew him the law in his members, the corrupt affections and propensities of his fallen nature, warring against and over- powering the law in his soul, the law of God written in his heart, and proclaimed by his reason and his conscience, so that the good, which he approves, he does not, and the evil, which he condemns, he does ; and what will this heathen say then ? Will he not start back in affright from this picture of his misery and weakness ? will he not cry with an exceeding bitter cry, " Wretched man that I am ! who will deliver me from the body of this death ? " These are St. Paul's own words, my brethren : and now mark the words which come after them. " I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Hence we learn that our thankful- ness for the death and sufferings of Jesus Christ springs out of, and is in proportion to, our sense of our own guilt and weakness. For if we are guilty, we need pardon ; if we are weak, we need help : and both has Christ purchased for us. On the other hand, if we are not guilty, we want no pardon ; if we are not weak, we want no help : why then should we feel grateful to Christ for bringing us gifts which we have no need of? In a word, the guilt of man, and the weak- ness of man, which spring hke two crooked and blighted stems, with all their poisonous fiuitage, from one and the same evil root, the corruption of his nature, — that guilt and that weakness are the first elementary truths which meet us at the very threshold of Christianity : and unless you feel these truths, and are as much convinced of them, as you are that fire bums, you can no more make advances in religion, than a man can read a chapter in the Bible without knowing his alphabet. Accordingly when St. Paul, in the Epistle from which the text comes, is about to set forth the great doctrine of justifi- cation by faith, and salvation through the merits and blood THE BEST PREPARATION FOR PASSION WEEK. II7 of Christ, he begins by a catalogue of the sins of the Gentiles and of the Jews, which he gives at such length that it fills the first two chapters. Not that he had any liking to think and talk about such foul and wicked prac- tices : he says himself in another place, that it is a shame even to speak of such things : but he knew from his Master's teaching, that it is not the healthy that need a physician, but the sick, and that therefore, until he had convinced his patients, both Jews and Gentiles, that they were sick at heart, he could not hope that they would be brought to seek a cure from the great Physician of souls. In like manner, Isaiah, the evangelical prophet, as he is called, for speaking so fully of Christ and his kingdom, ushers in his prophecy of the manifold blessings of that kingdom, — how? by telling us of God's great goodness? No : but by telling us of man's great wickedness. " Hear, O heavens ! (he cries) and give ear, O earth ! for the Lord hath spoken : I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib ; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah, sinful nation ! a people laden with iniquity," — observe the words, laden with iniquity, as if it were a sore burthen, too heavy to be borne — "a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters!" — boys and girls that, as soon as they can run about, or at any rate by the time they are ten or twelve years old, corrupt one another, and teach and learn of each other not all the good they can, but all the evil. " They have forsaken the Lord : they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint." Assuredly it is not by chance that the most evangelical of the prophets, and the most doctrinal of the apostles, both begin in the same way, by speaking of the sinfulness of man, of the weakness and sickness oi" our souls. They did Ij8 the ALTON SERMONS. it, because they knew it was as necessary for them to begin thus, as for a builder, who would have his house stand, to lay a deep and strong foundation. The only support of christian holiness is christian faith and love : and the only true, the only possible foundation, humanly speaking, for christian faith and love, is a deep and strong conviction of all that Christ has borne and wrought for us, — a conviction of our need of his pardon, of our need of his help, — a con- viction how utterly ruined and lost we are without that par- don and aid, — in a word, a conviction of the exceeding sin- fulness of sin, and of the utter helplessness of our nature. This is the only foundation of christian doctrine, the only root of the christian graces. We must be convinced that our helplessness is such as can only arise from an evil bias in our nature, — that we are sinners, and cannot become otherwise through any power of our own, — that sin is born in the bone, as the saying is, and will not out of the flesh ; — that there is indeed a law in our members, warring against the law of our reason and con- science, and bringing us into captivity to the law of sin, which is in our members. Now this doctrine, which so humbles and casts down all the pride and vain boastings of man, seems to many people very hard; so that they will even say they do not believe it. They tell us it is impos- sible,—that we are God's favourite creatures, — that he has made us the lords of the creation, and heirs of eternal life, — and that therefore it is quite impossible that we should be so prone to sin, as the Bible, and our Church, setting forth the doctrine of the Bible in her Articles and Homilies, declare us to be. Now the plain answer to this fine reason- ng is : it may seem to you impossible, but the fact is so notwithstanding. This is the answer, and a full answer, and in truth the only answer that can be made. If we were not men ourselves, and merely knew that such animals lived THE BEST PREPARATION FOR PASSION WEEK. I 19 in some other place, — in the moon for instance, or in that beautiful star which shines so brightly of an evening, there would be nothing unreasonable in trying to guess and fancy what such creatures might be. But seeing that we are our- selves men, and can look into ourselves, and can see and feel in some sort what our hearts are made of, the question is not what we are likely to be, but what we really are. Where the fact lies at a man's door, there is no room for guess-work. The question whether we are not prone to sin from our cradles upward, is a mere question of fact. It is a fact too which everybody can speak to for himself: he has only to look within. Look within then, my brethren, into your own hearts : I advise, I exhort, I entreat you, — in God's name I command you, in the name of our blessed Saviour and Master I entreat you, to look within. Look into your hearts and tell me what you find there. Is it good? or is it evil ? You will say, a little of both. Be it so : tell me then, or rather tell yourselves, honestly and truly, which of the two cost you the most trouble to learn ? the good, or the evil? Which of the two came the easiest and the most naturally ? Is there a doubt ? Can any one doubt that it is easier to get bad habits than good ones? Can any one doubt that it is easier for a sober man to become a drunkard, than for a poor miserable besotted drunkard to trace his steps back and to become sober ? One reason of this is plain : because God's service is per- fect freedom; and so we may leave it when we please. Whereas the devil's service is a miserable bondage. No master is more cruel ; no servitude is more wearying ; no chains are heavier or stronger, or harder to break. If you doubt this, ask the drunkard, whether he would not wish to become sober, whether he would not wish to leave off a habit which gives him sore eyes and shaking hands, a habit I20 THE ALTON SERMONS. which turns him into a brute beast, which clothes him in rags and poverty, which is hurrying him to the grave in this world, and will send him to a worse grave in the next : ask the poor wretch this ; and he will tell you, he would give anything to become as sober as he was in his childhood. Ask him then, why he does not leave off drinking ; since he knows the habit is so bad, and wishes so much to leave it off ? His answer will be, " Because I can't." What is this but saying, " Sin has got so strong a hold on me, I cannot escape from her clutches ?" This then is one reason why bad habits are so much harder to break through than good ones. Another reason, and the chief one is, because our nature is corrupt, and apter to evil than to good, to wrong than to right, to do the devil's work than to do God's work. Let us look at the question from another point of view. Ask mothers who have seen and watched children from their infancy, whether every child they ever saw had not some- thing to learn that was good, and something to unlearn that was evil. Now where did this evil come from ? It cannot have been taught to the child ; for I am speaking of a time before all teaching. But if the evil was not taught to the child, the child must have had it naturally. So it is in other things. The good wheat must be sown and well looked after ; or it will never come to much. The weeds sprout up and spread of themselves ; and it is as great a labour to keep them down, as to get the good wheat up. The truth is, man is naturally prone to sin : his nature is corrupt : and without God's help he can no more mend it, than a sick man can mend and cure himself without the help of a physician. But some may say, if this be so, if we are naturally so given to evil, it cannot be our fault if we do wrong. It is our misfortune : we cannot help it : and God will never THE BEST PREPARATION FOR PASSION WEEK. 121 blame or punish us for not being better than he made us. You might as well blame a sick person for dying, as blame a maa for sinning, if his nature is so corrupt and evil. No doubt, it would be very hard, — I have spoken a bold word ; but St. Paul speaks as bold a one, — it would be very hard and unjust to punish men for what they cannot help. It would be very unjust to blame a sick man for dying, pro- vided there were no physicians. But in a country where there are plenty of physicians, and the sick have only to send for them, — if in such a country a sick man is obstinate, and will not send for a physician, and will not take the means of being made well, he is to blame ; and if he dies, he is guilty of his own death. Suppose now that the phy- sician does not wait to be sent for, that he comes of his own accord to the sick man's bed-side, that he brings a medicine of rare herbs in his hand, and says to the sick man, " My friend, I heard you were very ill, and so I am come to see you. You certainly are very sick indeed, worse than you are aware of: for the fever gives you false spirits. Your disease is the leprosy ; but it is a kind of leprosy, which, instead of breaking out openly, burns and dries up the inside. However, I have brought you a medicine, which will cure you, if you will take it. It is a medicine of rare herbs that come from the Indies ; and I have paid a great price for it. I cannot bear to see a fellow-creature so near death, without helping him. Never mind your poverty ; I want no payment. I will give you the medicine freely, with all my heart, if you will only take it." But the sick man refuses to take it. He does not like its look ; or he tastes it, and finds it bitter, and will not swallow it ; or he believes a neighbour, who tells him not to trust the physician, and that a glass of good wine is worth all the physic in the world. He will not take the physic ; he drinks the wine instead ; and the next morning he dies. Who is to blame ? 122 THE ALTON SERMONS. My brethren, this is our case. We have this leprosy. We cannot cure ourselves. But Jesus Christ is come to us, the great physician of the soul. We could not go to him ; but he is come to us. He has warned us of our danger. He gives us his medicine without money and without price. And well it is for us that he does so : for the medicine is so precious, that, if this church were a lump of gold, it would be as worthless as a grain of dust, compared with one drop of that healing medicine. He alone was rich enough to pay the price of the medicine : and that price was his own life. He died, that we might live, — that we might be healed of our deadly sickness, — that we might be washed and made clean from the leprosy of sin, — that our flesh might come again like the flesh of little children, — and that so we might be healed, and might live indeed, the only life worth living, a life of holiness and godliness, of honesty and soberness and purity. He has done all this for us. He has brought the medicine to our door : shall we refuse to take it ? shall we say that we know better than he does, what will do us good ? that we will have none of his medicine ? We may say this if we please : for we are free to take the medicine or to leave it. But if we refuse to Hsten to him, and die in our sins, who will be to blame ? No one except ourselves : and we shall be the losers and the sufferers. This then is the right preparation for Passion week, to think seriously of our sins, which were the cause of Christ's sufferings, to sorrow over them, and to repent of them : and therefore Lent is appointed by the Church to be a season of humiliation and mortification and penance, that by passing through the strait gate we may be pre- pared to receive the pardon of the sins, of which we have repented, declared to us from the cross of Christ. My brethren, have you, each of you, such a sense of the sinfulness, the vileness Oi sin, as covers you with THE BEST PREPARATION FOR PASSION WEEK. 1 23 shame, fills you with godly sorrow, and leads you to seek pardon and comfort where alone it can be found, at the foot of the cross ? Then shall ye be meet to hear the prayer which Jesus from that cross offers up for you to his Father, that he will forgive you. Have you such a thorough convic- tion of your own weakness, are you so fully aware that there is a law in your members warring against the law of God, and tempting you to what you know to be wrong, as leads you to pray heartily to God, that he will send his Holy Spirit to dwell with you, and help you to all holiness of living ? If you have, happy are you ; for then you are in the road to heaven. But if you have not this sense of your sinfulness and your weakness, if you are without christiar fear, and without christian thankfulness, if you neither think of Christ as a Saviour, nor pray for the Holy Ghost as a Comforter, then are you living in a christian country strangers to the very elements of Christianity : and it will be better in the day of iudgment for Jews and heathens, who have never heard these truths, than for you who have heard them, but not heeded them. XL THE ATONEMENT. I Timothy i. 15. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. " /^HRIST JESUS came into the world to save sinners." ^^ He left all the glories of heaven : he came from the bosom of the Father, and was made man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief : and, after a life of toil and heavy- care, he died a painful and shameful death upon the cross. Do you ask why he did this ? why he gave up so much glory and blessedness ? why he underwent so much pain ? why he suffered the Jews to put him to such a cruel death ? St. Paul tells you : he did it to save sinners. He did it to reunite us to the Father, and as it were to fasten and cement us to holiness and godliness with his most precious blood. Being God as well as man, I need not tell you, that he bore all those dreadful pains and insults and injuries, which you read of in the 26th and 27th chapters of St. Matthew, and in the latter chapters of the other Gospels, — I need not tell you that Jesus bore all these things of his own free will. It was with his own consent that the Jews nailed his innocent feet and hands to the cross. It was with his own consent that they spat on him, that they scourged him, that they dragged THE ATONEMENT. 25 him before Pilate, that they condemned him to die, that they made him bear the cross, that they wagged their heads at him and reviled him. If he had not permitted them to do all this they could not have done it. The power of his word, which had calmed the fury of the sea, and tamed such as were possessed by devils, would easily have quieted and put down the violence of those wicked men. A wish, a single wish would have been enough to free him : a single wish would have been enough to scatter all his enemies, in the midst of their blasphemies, of their mockery, of their malignant taunts, " Thinkest thou," he says, " that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels ? " armies of heavenly soldiers, with their chariots of fire and horses of fire, any one of them powerful enough to destroy a world. But Jesus uttered no such prayer : and he telk us the reason why : " Because thus it must be, that the Scriptures must be fulfilled." Which is as much as to say, God's word must be kept : his will must be done : his prophets have promised redemption and pardon to the children of Adam through the blood of the Lamb of God. I am that Lamb. I am going therefore as a lamb to the slaughter : I must be gentle as a lamb ; I must be unresisting as a lamb ; that the great sacrifice, which is to be offered for the sins of the world, may be perfected, and that man may be freely pardoned, and united again to God. This is the great secret and the foundation stone of Christianity; that man is reconciled to God by the blood of Christ. This is the great mystery, — let me rather call it the great marvel and miracle, of the atonement, which no love less than God's could have desired, which no wisdom less than God's could have devised, which no power less than God's could have accomplished. It is of this, God's wonderful and wonder-working scheme for the redemption 126 THE ALTON SERMONS. and salvation of his fallen creatures, that St. Paul is speaking in the text ; and how does he speak of it ? He tells us, that " it is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation :" which means, that it is true, and a truth which concerns us very nearly. Many things are true, which do not concern us, and which we are neither the better for knowing, nor the worse for not knowing. It is true for instance, that a king of England was put to death by his subjects something more than a hundred and eighty years ago. It is true, that in some countries the people live chiefly on fruits and rice. It is true again, that there are two distant points on the earth, where the sun only rises once and sets once in a year ; so that each day and each night lasts six months. But, though these facts are true, the knowledge of them does you no good. It does not make you happier : it does not in any way make you better. Therefore no one would think of calling these truths worthy of all acceptation. The truth, on the other hand, that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, is of quite another kind. It is a truth we are to turn to practical use, a truth we are to live by, a truth we are to be saved by. Therefore St. Paul calls it worthy of all accep- tation ; not of a little acceptance, but of all. We are not to receive it with a slight welcome, and then think no more about it, as we might receive a neighbour, when he happens to call in for a few minutes. We are to receive it heartily and joyfully and entirely, with all acceptation, as a man would welcome his bride to his house, who is to be the inmate of it for life. This is the way that the great doctrine of redemption and salvation by the blood of Christ ought to be received by every one. It deserves, it is worthy of entire and universal acceptation. Let me entreat you to lend me your ears, while I try to give you some account of it, and to shew you how excellent, how comfortable, how hopeful a doctrine it is. THE ATONEMENT. 1 27 h In the first place it is clear that, if Jesus Christ came to save sinners, there must be sinners to be saved. Unless we know and feel that the heart of man naturally loves sin, and that nevertheless, when we love sin, we love a thing which we ought to hate, and which is a disease and disgrace to us, the suffering and death of Christ will be as great a stumbling- block to us, as they were to the Jews, provided we never think about them. If our thoughts do not turn that way, of course we shall not stumble at that stumbling-block : just as a man who keeps away from the narrow gate spoken of in our Saviour's parable, will never see and feel that it is narrow. This is the reason why there are so many people in the world, who call themselves Christians, yet live the life of heathens. They never think about the matter ; and Christian seems to them as good a name as any other : so they are content to be called by the name of Christ, and to wear his livery, as long as they have no service to do him. But God will not allow himself to be thus mocked. Remember the end of the man who hid his talent in a napkin. •' Wicked and slothful servant " is the name his master calls him. God has given us the power of thinking : and for not using that power, or using it amiss, and employing it only on worldly things, he will surely call us to a strict account. Is the mind of man God's best and noblest gift ? and is it the only thing on earth that is to lie fallow year after year ? There are more parables, I believe, , in the New Testament against taking no thought about | heavenly things, and taking too much thought about earthly things, than against any other fault whatsoever. But, if you do think, the whole mystery and miracles of the death and sufferings of our Saviour Christ will be a stumbling-block at the very outset, unless you know and feel the meaning of these four words, sin, and guilt, and justice, and punishment. " I came not to call the righteous, but 128 THE ALTON SERMONS. sinners," says Christ himself. It was useless to call those who fancied themselves righteous : they were satisfied already, and so would not come to him. " They that are whole," he says in another place, " have no need of a physician, but they that are sick." Does he mean that anybody is really whole ? Not so : for we know that, in the language of Isaiah, " the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores " (i. 5, 6). Our Saviour's meaning is this : just as a man who thinks his body is in good health, will not go to a physician, so the man who thinks his soul in good health, will not come to me. It is the sick man, the man who knows him- self to be at death's door, that sends the most anxiously for a physician. It is the man who feels that he has the deadly disease of sin upon him, that runs the most readily to Jesus, the great physician of the soul. Now this deadly disease we all have : and by nature it is utterly incurable. Do any of you doubt what I say ? Do any of you doubt your being sinners? Look into your hearts. Do you find the love of God there ? Do you find the love of your neighbour there ? Alas ! it is a great thing, if, instead of love, you do not find hatred. Do not be startled, and think it impossible there should be anything so wicked as hatred in that good, kind heart of yours. Look a little closer ; probe a Httle deeper. What ! no little grudge there against one neighbour for the affront he offered you a short time ago ? No pleasure in speaking ill of somebody, who may have passed for a sort of pattern person in the next parish, if he or she, or their son or daughter, happen to have made a slip ? No jealousy of another for being a little better off, or a little smarter, or a little more favoured in some way than you are ? " But he does not deserve it." Por this is the common answer to such a charge. And THE ATONEMENT. 129 what does that answer prove? It proves that you are looking at your neighbour's more prosperous condition with a sharp and unfriendly eye. If the same good fortune had befallen you or your child, would you have been so very scrupulous about rejoicing at it, because you, perhaps, do not deserve it either ? Why then this difference in the two cases? Because you are not jealous of yourself; and you are jealous of your neighbour. In other words, because you have an ill-will to your neighbour in comparison with the good- will which you bear to yourself. Now what must that heart be, where all these little dirty selfish grovelling spiteful feelings find a place ? Is it in a sound state ? — in such a state as a heart ought to be ? Yet I have not spoken of the greater sins, the grosser breaches of God's law. I have not said a word about that violence, that covetousness, that lust, that drunkenness, that revenge, which turn a common news- paper into a list and string of crimes. Such is the state of man without religion ; bad and vile at the best; and for the most part desperately wicked. What, then, was God to do? Laws he had tried : and tha holier the laws, the more pleasure men seemed to take in) breaking them. Besides, laws only tell us what is right : they arm us with no power of doing it. They are like so many looking-glasses, which show us our ugliness and deformity, but cannot give us new faces and shapes. More- over, laws threaten punishment ; and man had need to hear of pardon. Their language is — " Cursed is he that doeth not all the words of this law." " He that is guilty in one point is guilty of all." " The soul that sinneth, it shall die," This is the terrible language of the law. Apply it, I beseech you, to your own case. Have you sinned ? You are con- demned to die. Have you broken any one of God's laws, in any one tittle, at any moment of your life? You know you have broken them in a thousand ways : many of you K 130 THE ALTON SERMONS. live in utter disregard of them. Alas ! you are then accursed; and the Bible tells us what the fate of the accursed is to be, " Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." Must this indeed be so ? " Must I indeed go, merciful God ! to dwell for ever w4th evil spirits in wailing and unutterable woe ?" Such is the natural cry that would burst from every heart at hear- ing so fearful a sentence. Yet, if we look into the matter, I see not where, out of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the sinner can turn for reasonable grounds of comfort. For we all know that God is just and true : and he has said he " will by no means clear the guilty." Now we are guilty : how then is he to clear us ? Is the Almighty Ruler of heaven and earth not to rebuke and punish wickedness ? Is he to allow the w^hole assembled universe of angels and men, and every order of created spirits, to witness a sight so monstrous, so offensive to all reason, as an open rebellion against his authority, continual breaches of his law, a forgetfulness of his will for years and years, and yet to withhold his hand, and not to punish ? " Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord ? " But why say for years and years ? Were the sun one morning to refuse to rise, were he to quit his place in the sky at mid-day, or to change his course and turn east- Avard, what dismay, what confusion, what destruction would it cause, even were he to do so once only ! And has not your soul, which is better than a thousand suns, which shall outlive that glorious sun for thousands of years, which was made originally in the image of God himself, — has not your soul abandoned its place on earth, forgotten its duty, and gone back from the w^ay of God's commandments ? I verily believe, or I should not dare to say so in this holy place, — I should not dare to lie to my own heart before God, even for the sake of winning you to Christ, — I verily believe, that were one of those pure and mighty spirits, who keep watch round the throne of God, to stand at this moment before THE ATONEMENT. 131 our eyes, he would tell us that a deliberate and wilful sin is a sadder and more dreadful thing, an evil more difiicult to amend and repair, than if the sun were to go out in mid heaven, and darkness to usurp the place of light. He would tell you, that he and his brethren could soon repair or replace the sun ; but that for the wickedness, the stubbornness, the presumptuous rebellion of sin, he knew no remedy : he only knew that, unless God found a remedy, it must end in death and hell ; and that he had sorrowed over it with a great but unavailing sorrow. Is it then come to this ? Must millions of millions of human beings, who have dwelt on this earth since the time of Adam, be all cast into endless torments ? Is there to be sorrow in heaven over God's fallen creatures, and a jubilee among the devils for having ruined God's best work ? Not so, my brethren. God himself has found the remedy : none but God could. He has sent his Son, to take our nature upon him., and to die on the cross, a ransom and a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. Join with me in adoring the wisdom and the love of this great plan : its wisdom : for it has enabled God to pardon us, and yet to show how deeply he hates sin. Can any one pretend that God is in- different about sin ; can any one dare to fancy that sin is a light and trivial thing ; when God, before he pardoned it, sent his only Son into the world to die for it ? If he had pardoned sin without a sacrifice, we should have been led to doubt whether sin was really displeasing to God. But God has required a sacrifice : and that sacrifice is the life and death of Christ. He has given his well-beloved Son to suffer in the stead of a rebellious world : and, through this shewing forth of the most awful justice, he publishes the fullest and freest pardon. There is a story told of an ancient lawgiver, that, among the laws by which he endeavoured to uphold purity of lite among his people, one was, that whoever com- 132 THE ALTON SERMONS. mitted adultery should lose both his eyes : having sinned through the lust of the eye, the eyes which ensnared him into sin were to be forfeited. Now it fell out that his own son was found guilty of adultery soon after. The father condemned him to lose both his eyes. So beloved however was he by the people, that all the city besought him to spare his son. At length he yielded. But how ? He commanded the executioner to pluck out one of his own eyes, and then one of his son's. Thus the law was satisfied ; yet the guilty son was spared the loss of his sight : and the lawgiver, in the very act of setting aside the law, established it more firmly than ever. The story of a human lawgiver may help you to understand the manner in which God teaches us, — and teaches too at the very moment when he is pardoning us, — that he cannot loosen or break the chain, which fastens sin and woe together. That chain remains unbroken : yet the criminal is pardoned : the outcast is invited back ; the prodigal son is welcomed home to his Father's house, and received again into full favour. But the cross of Christ not only shows the exceeding sin- fulness of sin, and proves the justice and the holiness of God, who would not pardon it without the sacrifice of the blood of his dear Son : it also proves the unspeakable love of our merciful Father for his sinful and rebellious children. " Herein is love," says St, John ; " not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and gave his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (i John iv. lo.) This is the proof of God's love : a stronger cannot be imagined. Would he have sent his only Son to die for us, if he had not loved us ? If any of you are fathers, if any here are mothers, ask yourselves, would you give the life of one of your children for anything you did not love ? But God gave the life of his only Son for the salvation and redemption of mankind. What a wonderful, what an awful, what a comfortable proof does THE ATONEMENT. 13: this give of God's love ! Surely it is a love that passeth knowledge. " God so loved the world," says our Lord himself, " that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoso- ever believeth m him should not perish, but have everlast- ing life." (John iii. 16.) This then, my brethren, is the blessed truth, which St. Paul calls worthy of all acceptation. While man was making a mock at sin, God came down from his throne of glory, and suffered death as a creature, the representative of sin- ners ; and having done this, he declares to the world that sin can be forgiven. Here ''mercy and truth are met together ; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." (Psalm Ixxxv. 10.) We are justified freely; but we are justified' through the blood of Jesus Christ. If a man can hear this, without loving God, and striving to obey him, without loving Christ, and following him, without hating sin, which caused Christ's death, without loving his neigh- bour, for whom Christ died, — no more can be done for such a man. God has no second Son to send, no second ransom to offer. So teaches the apostle to the Hebrews : " There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation" (x. 26, 27). To such a man, to the stubborn reckless sinner, the death of Christ is a fearful thing : for he is in fact as guilty of Christ's death, as if he had himself driven the nails into his hands and feet. He is crucifying the Son of God afresh : he is putting him by his evil deeds to open shame. To such a man, I say, the death of Christ ought to be a fearful thing. But to the penitent, humble, pious, and . thankful Christian, it is the happiest, the most comfortable, | the most blessed event that ever took place. It wipes out his transgressions : it confirms his pardon : it secures his acceptance with God. " What shall we say to these things ? " The words are St. Paul's : and I know not how I can con- 134 THE ALTON SERMONS. elude better than by repeating them. " What shall we then say to these things ? If God be for us, who can be against us ? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth : who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principaHties, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. viii. 31-39.) But remember, my brethren, that, as St. John tells us, " he who hath this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as Christ is pure." XII. THE GOSPEL NEWS; OR, CHRIST'S VICTORY. Isaiah Hi. 7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace ! 'T^HE message which our Saviour brought down to us -*- from heaven, is called in the New Testament the Gospel, or the good news, of Jesus Christ : and the words spoken by the angel to the shepherds were much to the same pur- pose : " Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy." Now what are these good tidings ? what is this good news, which our Lord took so long and so toilsome a journey to bring us ? this good news, the light of which brightened his feet as he trod over the tops of the mountains, when he came to declare it to those who were sitting in the valley of the shadow of death ? Those among you who are old enough to remember the late war, will be best able to answer this question. For they will know what good news in time of war means. In those days, if one heard the woxdi?, good 7ieius, one immediately asked: ''What! have we gained a great victory by sea } or a great victory by land } 136 THE ALTON SERMONS. Have our sailors taken the enemy's fleet ? or our soldiers beaten the enemy's army ? And is the victory so complete a one as to give any hopes of peace ?" These are the questions which everybody was wont to ask some years ago, when mention was made of good news. Now if in answer to these questions we had been told, *' The good news just received is not solely about a victory by land, nor solely about a victory by sea, nor solely about peace, but about all three together : for we have beaten all our enemies in every possible way : we have beaten them both by sea and by land, and so thoroughly, that we are sure of making a safe and glorious peace to-morrow, provided we do not throw away the opportunity," — if, I say, we had heard an answer of this sort to our questions about the good news, how happy, how proud, how well satisfied should we have been ! We should have said, *' This surely is the very best news that was ever brought to England." Now the good news which our Lord brought us from heaven, is just news of this kind. He came on purpose to help us in our warfare : because he saw we were getting the worst. I need not remind you in what warfare the children of Adam were engaged at his coming : for the same warfare is going on now. Nor is there any necessity that I should tell you who our enemies were : for they were the same against whom we are still enlisted, against whom we have still to wage battle. Sin and death were in those days, as they are still, the great enemies of mankind; and there seemed to be no possible end of the war, short of our utter discomfiture and destruction. Sin and Death were fighting side by side against us : the devil, like a mighty warrior, who had never found his match, was raging fiercely : and all whom he caught and seized, the grave, opening its wide mouth, swallowed up : so that there seemed to be no hope left for man. It was in this sad state of the war, when GOSPEL NEWS. 1 37 things were thus going against us, that Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, came down to our help and rescue. Have you ever thought of David delivering the lamb out of the lion's mouth, and smiting the lion and the bear, that had come to attack his father's flock ? You will then have a lively image of our helplessness in the clutches of Sin and Death, until Jesus vouchsafed to come and deliver us from those iron clutches. For we are God's flock ; and out of that flock, Satan, that roaring lion, was not merely taking a single lamb : he was carrying off the whole flock one by one, to tear and mangle and devour, when the glorious Son of David, seeing and pitying our wretchedness, came to our aid, and fought and conquered for us, and delivered us from the jaws of our destroyer, and therewith from the power and fear of death. This is the good news, — news of a victory over Sin, news of a victory over Death, — news lastly of a reconciliation with our God and Father, against whom we had been lured by our enemy Sin to be guilty of treachery and rebellion. And is not this the best of all news ? Is it not a good thing to know that we can now resist Sin through the grace of Christ, who makes us more than conquerors ? Is it not a good thing to know that we have no more to fear Death, now that Christ has brought life and immortality to light, and set it clearly before our eyes? Above all, is it not a blessed thing to be assured that God wiU receive us into favour, notwithstanding our manifold offences, if we will turn to him, and trust in his promises, and believe that he can and will forgive us, and act as becomes the penitent who have been pardoned ? Is not this, I say, the very best of news ? Now this is the very news that Jesus brought us. He has not put an end to the war as yet ; but he has set it quite on a new footing. Sin is still abiding in the world, notwithstanding the victories of Jesus, just as a remnant of the Canaanites was left on the 138 THE ALTON SERMONS. borders of the promised land, notwithstanding the victories of Joshua. Those Canaanites, the Bible tells us, were left to try the children of Israel, and to teach them war (Judges iii. 1,2): and it is perhaps for a like reason that Sin is still left on earth, in order that we may be put to the test, to prove whether we choose to obey God or no, and that we may be trained to our duties as Christ's soldiers by a course of hard service against God's enemies. These seem to be among the reasons why Sin is still permitted to carry on war against us, and w4iy Death, which is inseparable from Sin, still goes on prowling about the world. But though the w^ar is still raging between the children of Adam on the one side, and Sin and Death on the other side, how different are the prospects of that war since Jesus came to our aid ! Before his birth the struggle seemed hopeless. Here and there perhaps one or two might be enabled to make a fight ; like good old Simeon, and Anna the prophetess, and righteous Zachariah, and Nathanael, and the good centurion : and doubtless there were a few more, whose names are known to God only. But for the great bulk of mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, the battle against Sin was in those days quite hopeless. Sin was every day waxing stronger, and spread- ing wider ; goodness, on the other hand, was growing weaker and rarer. Man felt himself to be overmatched by Sin : he was utterly unable to make head ; indeed he could scarcely lift up his hand against it. Such was the state of the war at Christ's coming. Satan was carrjang all before him : and man had no chance of victory. But all this is now changed, and most blessedly tor the better. We are no longer the weaker side. While the power of Sin and Satan has been much lessened by Christ's coming, our weakness has been much strengthened by helps of various kinds : so that he who fights under Christ's standard, may fight with good courage, knowing GOSPEL NEWS. 139 what those helps are ; — knowing that his heavenly Captain has provided armour of proof for him, a helmet of salvation, a breastplate of righteousness, a shield of faith, armour strong enough, if we only put it on, to save us from all the darts and bullets of the enemy. Nor is the giving us this armour all that Christ has done, to aid us in our hard warfare. He has sent his Spirit to strengthen us while we are standing. He has given us his cross to catch hold of when we are fall- ing. He has proclaimed that we are at peace with God, that we may fight with a better heart. He has promised and assured us of a glorious triumph for every one who will fight his best. Moreover he has declared that, though Death is allowed for the present to mow down the bodies of his faithful soldiers, its power over them shall cease after a time, and that then he will raise them up to life again. Rejoice, therefore, ye that mourn ; be comforted, ye that are in affliction : let your tears be turned into smiles, your sobs into thanksgivings ; for the Lord has brought you good tidings of consolation concerning all who have died in his faith and fear. Such is the news which Jesus has brought us. Such is the blessed change in the prospects of our warfare, which our Lord has wrought for his faithful soldiers. Whereas men before could not cope with sin, we may now be sure of overcoming it. Whereas men before shuddered at the thought of death, as the dark and dismal end of all things, we have now been taught to look upon it as the gate of a more glorious life. Whereas men before felt that they were at enmity with God, and therefore could not love him or take pleasure in him, they now know that he is ready to receive them into favour, and will treat them as sons, if they will only behave to him as such. But some of the more unlearned among you may perhaps ask, " How can we be sure that these things are so ? " I40 THE ALTON SERMONS. Because they are all written in the New Testament; in which the good news of Jesus Christ is published and declared to the sons of men, and is handed down from generation to generation, without the possibility that any- thing should be added to it, or anything taken away from it, or anything altered in it. There it stands unchanged and unchangeable in every essential point, the very same good news which St. Peter and St. John and St. Paul preached to the people of their time, and then wrote down for our instruction. That the New Testament does indeed set forth all I have been telHng you about the good news of Jesus Christ, and the great advantages of his coming, three texts from St. Paul will suffice to prove. The first of them describes the wretched plight in which even the better part of mankind were before the coming of Christ, because they felt themselves unable to contend with sin : the second speaks of the victory which Christ has given us : the third of the happy peace which he has made between sinners and the God of heaven. The first text is this : " O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? " (Rom. vii. 24.) That is to say, who shall deliver man from the yoke of sin, which hangs like a dead weight about him, clogging and hindering him in his efforts after holiness ? Can any words be stronger ? Could a man more feelingly express the loathsomeness of the sin which held him in its bondage, than by calling it a body of death, and likening it to a dead body which he could not help carrying about with him ? And who has delivered man from this dead body ? The answer is given in the next verse : " I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." God has delivered us from this crushing load of sin ; and he has done it through Jesus Christ. But this glorious truth of our deliverance is still more GOSPEL NEWS. 1 41 Strongly, or at least more clearly, stated in the second text : " The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the law." (i Cor. XV. 56.) Here death is represented as a serpent with a sting, which draws all its venom, all its terrors, and all its danger from sin : whereby we are to understand that, were there no such thing as sin in this world, we should have no reason to fear death. Why should men, why do they, — men I mean who have never heard of the Gospel, — shrink from lying in their coffins, more than from lying in their beds ? Simply because they know not what may happen to them after death : and the consciousness of having offended God, the fear of what may befall them from his wrath, must needs haunt and trouble a man, and keep him from dying calmly. These are the worst, the most painful, the most incurable terrors, which the thought of death can awaken ; and they draw all their poison from sin. It is sin too that gives death all its dangers : for sin alone can kill the soul. After having thus represented death as a serpent, the apostle goes on to speak of sin as an enemy ; which is the same figure as I have been making use of above : *' the strength of sin is the law." Here Sin is described as a strong enemy coming against us. And how is he armed ? in what does his great strength lie ? In the law : not in the law of Moses merely, but in the law written in the hearts of all who have the gift of reason and conscience. This law Sin, before the coming of Christ, brandished in every man's face, crying with a sneer of scorn, " Do this or die. Look, wretched man, look here at this law which I am holding up to your eyes ! Behold here what God requires of you. These are his laws, his com- mandments ! Have you kept them ? Have you done them ? all ? always ? You have not, I know you have not. I read your guilt in your face. Your conscience is bearing witness against you, that you have not kept these righteous 142 THE ALTON SERMONS, 1 iws. Here is my indictment against you : here is a warrant Irom God, whose laws you have broken : here is a sentence pronounced on you by the just Judge. He condemns you for your disobedience : he banishes you from his presence : he gives you over to me, to be my slave and victim : for I am Sin." Such is the boasting language which we may suppose Sin or Satan to have uttered in the heart of a thinking man before the coming of Christ. When thus armed with the law of God, Sin is too much for us. So that man is represented by St. Paul as in a twofold danger ; from the venomous serpent, Death, and from the strong enemy, Sin. Now mark what comes next ; for it justifies all I have told you about the good news of Jesus Christ : " But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ ! " Here St. Paul plainly tells us that, notwithstanding the strength of sin, notwithstanding the poison of death, God has given us the victory over sin and death, through Jesus Christ. The third text I promised to lay before you, was to shew that Christ has made peace between sinners and the King of heaven. A very few words from the Epistle to the Romans (v. i) will prove that. ''Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Thus have I set before you three texts, — the first describ- ing the wretchedness of our state before the coming of Christ, — the second shewing how poisonous death, and how strong and irresistible sin would be, unless Christ had given us the victory over them, and assuring us that Christ has indeed given us that victory, — the third declaring in plain terms that we are now at peace with God. This then is the blessing of the Gospel : this is the good news which Christ has brought us. If peace with the King of kings, — if the being reconciled to our heavenly Father, — if a glorious GOSPEL NEWS. 1 43 victory over Sin and Death, — if our deliverance from a heavy and loathsome yoke, which none but Christ could have taken off our necks, — if all this deserves the name of good news, — then is the Gospel the very best news ever uttered in the ears of mortal man. Shall we not rejoice at this good, this glorious, this blessed news ? No, my brethren ; not just now. This is no day for rejoicing. The battle | of Trafalgar was the greatest naval victory the English) ever won. It wholly crushed the power of the enemy by sea. It destroyed the gi-eat fleet which he had fitted out and manned to invade and conquer England. Yet when the news of this great victory came, there were few eyes that did not shed a tear, few hearts that did not heave a sigh. The joy of the nation was dashed with sorrow. For the admiral, to whose courage and skill we owed that vic- tory, fell himself at the moment of gaining it. He bought it for us with his life : and even in the midst of our triumph we could not but grieve for the loss of so brave a com- mander. My brethren, the joy of a Christian, at the very best, must be dashed with awe and sorrow. Even when we rejoice in the Lord, we must rejoice with trembling. But this is no day for rejoicing at all. It is a day for sorrow, a day for humiliation and shame. You have heard in the second lesson and the Gospel for the day, how great, how inestimable a price was paid for the victory which Christ won for us. You have heard how the Captain of our salva- tion not only fought and conquered, but died for us. Nay, it was by dying that he conquered for us. His death was not a chance of war, like that of other captains : he laid his life down by his own will and deed : of his own accord he underwent all those horrid pains and insults : he came from heaven on purpose to undergo them : because it had pleased his Father to decree that without bloodshedding there should be no remission of sins, that except through the 144 THE ALTON SERMONS. blood of the holy Jesus, there should be no salvation for mankind. It is this that makes the story so touching, so full of woe. We see the Lamb of God, with all the help- lessness of a lamb, coming meekly and resignedly to the sufferings, which his human nature shrank from. We see him leaning over the deep gulf, which was yawning darkly before his feet, — looking down into it with a trem- bling eye, which pierced to its lowest depths, and counted up all its miseries and horrors, — and then saying, " This pit is very terrible ; but, if it be thy will, O my Father, that I should suffer this, I am content. If there be no way to save mankind from falling into this gulf, except by falling into it myself, let them lead me and cast me in." Surely when we are commemorating this painful, this merciful sacrifice and self-devotion of the Son of God for our sakes, the good news of the Gospel, full of comfort as it is, should awaken us to sorrow and shame. Yes, my brethren, we should be smitten with shame, as well as with sorrow, by the thought of Christ's sufferings. Indeed the sorrow would be unprofitable, without the shame. For why did Christ undergo all this extreme anguish and agony ? what was the cause of his sufferings ? Your sins and mine. He died for our sins. How then, with this dismal truth staring us in the face, how can we carry our heads aloft, as if we had no reason for self-abasement? What would you have done if you had been Jews, and if, after having stood among the mob around Pilate's judgment- seat, — after crying out, "Not this man, but Barabbas !" — you had been converted by the preaching of the apostles ? Such Jews there must no doubt have been : some assuredly must have been converted by the apostles after our Lord's ascension, who but a while before had joined in crying, '' Crucify him! crucify him ! Not this man, but Barabbas !" Now I ask, had you been among those Jews, how would GOSPEL NEWS. 1 45 you have felt when Good Friday came round again ? Would it have been a pleasant thought to you, that on that day }'ear, or two years, you had been boisterously lifting up your voice against your Saviour, the innocent and holy Jesus? Would you have felt quite satisfied with yourselves, when the return of that day brought the remembrance of Christ's sufferings home to you ? Would you not rather have humbled yourselves to the earth at the recollection of your crime ? If you would, humble yourselves now. If you have ever been guilty of any wilful sin, humble yourselves now. For whoever commits any action which Jesus has forbidden, whoever cherishes any feeling or temper which Jesus disapproves, whoever prefers a gainful injustice, an angry passion, an evil lust, to the service of his Lord and Master, every such person by his deeds, if not by his words, declares as plainly as the Jews did, " I will not have this man to reign over me : not this man, but Barabbas ! I will have none of the purity and self-denial of Jesus : I like drunkenness and rioting and debauchery far better. I will have none of his humility : give me pride. I will have none of his gentleness : give me anger. I will have none of his tender-heartedness : give me an easy careless indif- ference to the sufferings and griefs of others." How many in every place think thus, though they may not say it ! Yet there can be no doubt that every sinful action is an open rejecting of our Lord and Master, and a preferring of some vile Barabbas to him. Methinks, however, some one among you is whispering to himself, — " This may be all very true of my neighbours ; but happily it is not true of me. God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are. I have never swerved from the path of duty. I have kept all the commandments from my youth upwaixl. Therefore I have no need to humble myself." Yes, — I would say to the man, who has this flat- L 146 THE ALTON SERMONS. tering, this mistaken, this false opinion of himself, — yes, even you have great need of humbling yourself, for not loving God and his Son more. Your words prove that you do not love God : if you did love him, you could never look on yourself as righteous before him. The self-righteous and self-satisfied have no idea of spiritual love : yet, if they are without that, they are nothing. To love our God, our Lord tells us, is the first and great commandment : how then can any one pretend that he has kept all the commandments, when the love of God has no place in his heart? Nor is it enough to love the Father, unless we love the Son also, for having done and suffered such great and terrible things on our behalf. The man who can read the story of the Cruci- fixion, and know that it was for his sake, for his redemption, that Christ gave up the happiness of heaven, and vouchsafed to become man, and to undergo a lingering and shameful death, — the man, I say, who can know all this, without returning love for love, and feeling most deeply thankful for such wonderful, such unmerited goodness, — such a man may be decent in his behaviour ; he may lead a respectable life ; he may be esteemed a man of honesty and honour ; but assuredly he has not the heart of a man, much less the spirit of a Christian. Humble yourselves therefore, ye self- righteous, and grieve over your want of love : humble your- selves, and cast yourselves on the ground before your cruci- fied Lord. XIII. RISE WITH CHRIST. COLOSSIANS iii. I. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. " /~^HRIST is risen !" Such is the greeting in Russia on. ^-' the morning of Easter Day. In the great city of Moscow, and throughout the whole country, when two friends met on this morning, one of them says to the other, " Christ is risen ! " Among all the customs I ever read of, this to my mind is one of the most christian and most beau- tiful. It is seeing the resurrection of Jesus Christ in its true light, not as a fact which we are merely to believe, because it is written in the New Testament, without thinking or caring much about it, but as a piece of good news to our- selves, which we cannot help speaking of for joy. What the Russians then have said to each other on Easter Day for hundreds of years, let me say to you : let me now say to you with a joyful and thankful heart, " Christ is risen." The battle is over. The great contest between God, the incarnate Son, fighting for us, and Sin and Death fighting ^' against us, is decided. Sin, having first been baffled by the life of blameless holiness, and unwearied active goodness, which the man Jesus so long led, was conquered upon Good 148 THE ALTON SERMONS. Friday on the cross. Death, the last and only remaining enemy, was conquered this morning by the Resurrection. The victory is complete. Their yoke is broken : their sting is taken away : we have nothing more to fear from either. For Christ has risen, and by his rising has assured us that we shall rise also. This is one of the reasons why the resurrection of Christ is so joyous, so heart-stirring an event : because it assures us that, if we follow the steps of his holy life, we too shall rise from the grave as he did. But there is also another (resurrection of Christ's followers, of which the apostles are w^ont to speak, and of which they are wont to consider their Lord's resurrection as a type. And this resurrection is to take place even while we continue in this life, before we are laid in the grave. All who believe in Christ, says St. Paul again and again, have risen with him, — not, will rise with him, but have risen with him already. If ye be risen ivith Christ, are the words of the text, — not, if you are to rise with him hereafter, but if you are actually risen with him at this time, — seek the things which are above. Now what resurrection can this be? In what sense can a Christian, so • ong as he is carrying about this frail and perishable body, be said to be risen? In the chapter before the text, the apostle tells the Colossians, that they are '' buried with Christ in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him, through faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins, hath he quickened together with him." Thus again, when writing to the Romans, he tells them, that " so many as are baptized into Jesus Christ are buried with him by baptism into death, that, like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." For this reason baptism is called the washing of regeneration, that is to say, of a new or second birth. This too is what the RISE WITH CHRIST. 1 49 Catechism teaches us, namely, that the inward and spiritual grace of baptism, or the spiritual benefit to which we are admitted by it, is a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness. Hence we learn that all who have been baptized, all who have been received into Christ's family, ought to look upon themselves as having died with Christ, which death in them should be a death unto sin. Moreover, they should "consider themselves as having risen with Christ, by a new birth unto righteousness. And having so risen, they should shew that they have indeed risen with Christ, by leading a new life, ^ and seeking the things which are above. As Christ did not break loose from the grave to tarry on earth, but, having risen from the dead, ascended into heaven, so, instead of lingering among the things of earth, we too, as the Collect for Ascension-day expresses it, should ascend into heaven in heart and mind, and dwell there with him continually. In the first place every member of Christ's Church should look upon himself as having died with Christ, which death in him must be a death unto sin. " They that are Christ's (says St. Paul) have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts" (Gal. V. 24): that is to say, they have done their utmost to root out and destroy the evil passions and inclina- tions natural to sinful man. St. Peter in the same spirit, and nearly in the same words, writes thus : " Christ bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness" (i. ii. 24). But why is the forsaking sin, — which of course is the thing signi- fied,—called a death unto sin ? It seems to be so called for two reasons : to express the completeness of the reformation and amendment which the Gospel requires from the sinner; and to express its difficulty and its painfulness. For, if we are to crucify the flesh, with its affections and lusts, it is clear that sin is not a thing to be played or trilled 150 THE ALTON SERMONS. Avith, or to be treated tenderly. We are not to make any (covenant or truce with it, nor to shew it any mercy. Death, Ideath is the word. We are to treat sin, as Saul was com- manded to treat those sinners, the Amalekites : we are to give it no quarter : we are to fight against it until it is utterly destroyed. Death, which is the portion of the rebel, — — death, which is the portion of the murderer, — death, wliich is the certain doom of vipers, and hornets, and other evil and venomous creatures, whenever we can get at them to kill them, — death, and nothing less, is the sentence which God has passed upon sin. And what can be juster or more fitting, even by our own rules ? For is not sin the great, the universal murderer, that first brought death into the world ? Is not it poisonous and deadly to the bodies and souls of men ? No wonder then that sentence of death has been pronounced against it! a sentence from which there is no reprieve. We must execute it on and in our- selves, if we would not have it executed upon us. As Saul lost the kingdom of Israel by sparing Agag and the best of the sheep and oxen, so shall we lose the kingdom of heaven, if we spare a single one of those sins, which we are com- manded utterly to destroy. If the Gospel then had said no more than this, kill and destroy sin, pluck it up by the roots and cast it from you, — it would have laid down a rule wholly irreconcilable with all that parleying and truce-making, with all that harbouring and pampering of sin, which unhappily is so common. But Scripture not only bids us destroy sin : it says. Die unto I sin. Mark the strength of the expression : Die unto sin . The dead know not, nor care for anything in this world. Their love and hatred and envy are clean wiped out. A dead man is as cold and niotionless as a stone, to all that the living make the greatest stir about. How perfectly then, how entirely, ought we to be free from sin, in order to RISE WITH CHRIST. 151 be dead to it ! It is not enough to keep from outward acts of sin, if the heart cherishes any secret hking for it. This is not dying to it. Before we can attain to that perfect sinlessness, our hearts must be as completely closed against i the tempter, as if we were nailed down in our coffins ; our ears must be deaf to his voice; our eyes must be blind to his charms. We must not only give up every evil practice ; we must also stifle every evil desire. Nothing less can deserve the name of being dead to sin. This then is the perfection of innocency which we are to strive after. I do not say, that we shall ever reach it; but by the help of God's Holy Spirit we may advance toward it : we may, and we ought all, to be ever getting nearer and nearer to it. Nor does this scriptural expression of dying to sin, merely bespeak the completeness of the deliverance which the Christian ought to enjoy from the yoke and chains of Satan: it also denotes the painfulness and difficulty of our first steps in that deliverance. For we have steps to take toward that end ; and sometimes very painful ones. Christ has not done so much for us, as to leave us nothing to do for ourselves. He is the door; but we must enter in at the door : he is the way ; but we must walk along the way. He is our most merciful and only Saviour : but in such wise, that we have still a salvation to work out, and that too with fear and trembling. Now the beginning of this work of ours is often so painful, the struggle a man has to go through in parting with his sins is at times so hard, the wrench needed to tear him from his evil habits is not seldom so ^ sharp, that the Gospel compares it to dying. After death, as you know, the body has no sense or feeling. But before we can arrive at the quiet state of death, we must first die : and though death is calm and painless, dying is often diffi- cult and painful. Many an ache must be undergone, many a struggle made, before the soul can work her way through 152 THE ALTON SERMONS. the walls of the fleshly prison, in which she has grown and been shut up. Thus it is when a separation takes place between the soul and body; and thus too it is w^hen a separation takes place between the soul and sin. Though the soul, when it has once broken away, and got loose from what held it captive, even from the chains of Satan, when it has escaped from the snare of the fowler, being free, is happy and at ease, still the exertion needed to make the escape, the effort to break the chain is often very trying : so that, though the being free from sin is a calm and peaceful state, which the Scripture compares to death, the getting free from it is oftentimes attended with such hard and grievous strugglings, that the Gospel likens it to dying. Thus, you see, Christianity begins where everything else ends. It begins with death. Death, which is the goal of all earthly things, is the starting-point in the christian race. We are to set out on our course toward God by dying unto sin. This however is only the beginning. It is good to get rid of sin. It is good at any price to escape from the company of those miserable persons, who, as St. Peter expresses it, are in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. But, though this is good, as far as it goes, it does not go far enough. It is not enough to die unto sin, unless we live afterward unto righteousness. For consider what death is. It is a state in which a man can do nothing. If he has no longer the power of doing ( wrong, he is equally without the power of doing right. The 1 dead cannot serve God : for in death no man remembereth him ; nor can any give him thanks in the pit. Nor can a dead man do anything for his fellow- creatures : for there is no work, or device, or knowledge, or wisdom in the grave. What then is he good for ? For nothing, but to be buried and put out of the way. Nor is death merely a useless state to be in : it is also a joyless state. If a man can do no RISE WITH CHRIST. I 53 good to Others in the grave, neither can he receive any good in it himself. A corpse has no more feeling than a log of wood, and is just as incapable of enjoying pleasure, or any sort of happiness or satisfaction. Now can such a useless, such a joyless, such an insensible and loglike state, be a state that the Lord of life and happiness can take delight in ? When God created the world, did he make it in a state of death ? Nay, the world was dead before ; for an uncreated or unborn thing is all one as if it were dead. But God at the creation called it out of death, and gave, not to man only, but to all the kinds of animals, to the four- footed beasts, and to the birds and fishes and insects, — to each of these at the creation God gave such a life as to his wisdom and goodness seemed fitting for them. It is life, and not death, that God delights in. It was to break the bonHs'of the grave, to rescue man from death, that Christ came down from heaven. Are Christ's people then to be exceptions to the great rule ? Can we suppose that in their case, and in theirs only, God, who in all other things and creatures takes pleasure in life, and gives it, will be satisfied with a state of death ? Did Christ come to redeem a dead people to himself? Far from it, my brethren : he came to bring us life, not in the next world only, but in this world also. Therefore, after dying to sin, we are not to continue dead ; but we are to be born again, as the Scripture calls it, and to begin living in good earnest. We are to live a christian life. You know what life is, better than I can tell you. You know it to be the opposite to death. Is death an inactive, a torpid, a useless state ? a state in which a man can do no good ? Life should be an active, energetic, useful state : and its business should be to do good. Such is life, and the business of it. What then is a christian life ? It is a life in which all these things are done in a christian spirit. 154 THE ALTON SERMONS. It is a life of which the activity, the energy, the usefulness, and the business are christian. But I will set this before you in another light. Let us look at it with reference to Christ himself. He, being God on earth, led a divine life during his stay here. Now what proof did he give us of this life ? You will tell me perhaps, that he healed the sick, that he raised the dead, that he calmed the raging of the sea, and did many other mighty works, such as no mere man can do. These however, though proofs of his possessing more than human power, are not the chief signs of his divinity. The greatest proof of that i^vas his perfect union of heart and mind and pur- pose with the Father. It was his " meat," as he tells us, *' to do the will of him that sent him," and to finish his work. This, my brethren, is the best proof which Christ gave, or indeed could give, that the life he led was divine. Would you lead a christian life ? Lead such a life as Christ led. No life unlike his can be a christian life ; and every life, in proportion as it comes near to his, will in that same degree be christian. Our Saviour did not undergo all those grievous pains for us, merely that we should cease to commit sin. It is not for that negative, that slumbering, for that sluggish and inglorious virtue, that he has prepared the glories of his kingdom. He did not come to reign over the dead : nor was it any part of his purpose to people heaven with drones and sleepers. As his life on earth was active, as he spent his days in working the work of him that sent him, so must all Christians do Christ's work : and they must strive to do it as cheerfully, as faithfully, and as constantly as Christ did the work of his Father. Here in a few words you have an account of the outward signs of the christian life. The Christian is just as busy as other men; nay, often far busier. He is quite as painstaking, quite as careful to fit his means to his end ; in RISE WITH CHRIST. 155 a word, he is quite as much alive as any grovelling child of earth can be. The difference between them is, that the child of earth seeks his own glory, his own pleasure, his '. own advantage ; while the Christian, who has been born again a child of heaven, toils and labours and tasks his mind for the glory of God, and for the good of his fellow- creatures. In the man of the world, self in some shape or other is uppermost : whereas in the Christian, in proportion as he is a Christian, that same hateful and greedy self is undermost. This is one great difference between them. A^_£ecaiid. .difference- is pointed out in -our text. The true Christian,! being risen with Christ, seeks the things which are above : ' while the man who is no Christian at heart, whatever he may be in name, — and many, alas ! are called Christians ; may none of us be among the number ! who have no more love for Christ, or thought about him, than the untaught heathens, — such men, I say, have all their [thoughts and affections set on things below. Their plans, their views, their wishes and desires, never rise an inch above the earth. To hear them speak, or see them act, one would suppose they had made a league with death, and had found some secret, known only to themselves, for sealing and stopping up the grave. One would imagine that they fancied them- selves certain of living on for ever here ; or at least that they were quite sure, if by any accident they should happen to die, of being never called to live again hereafter. Yet these are the worldly-wise : at least so the world esteems them. Wisdom forsooth ! What would these wise men say of a person who knew that he was to start ere long on a journey to some distant country, — that he was to go, for instance, to the burning wilderness, where the water-springs are so rare and scanty, and the rays of the sun so scorching ; or that he was to be sent to some newly discovered and yet 156 THE ALTON SERMONS. unpeopled land, where a man is sure to have a hard time of j it, unless he takes a stock of needful things with him ; — and yet the man knowing all this, knowing that he must go sooner or later, knowing that he may be called to set out at a moment's notice, makes no preparation for his journey' is not even at the pains to acquaint himself with the nature of the country he is going to, consults no books, asks no ques- tions, takes no steps to ascertain the soil and climate, to find out how to guard against any diseases which may prevail there, or how to lead a comfortable and happy life when he gets there, — what would the worldly-wise say of such conduct in any man ? Would they esteem it wise ? Would they not censure and ridicule it as arrant folly ? Yet what is the improvidence of the traveller, who makes no preparations for his destined journey to the wilderness, or to the desert and unpeopled land, when compared with the carelessness and the madness of those self-admiring sons of worid'y wisdom, who go on year after year without making a single preparation for death, and the judgment, which they must needs know will certainly come after death, who go on without a thought or care for heaven. The Christian, fool as the world considers him, has certainly none of this wisdom. He thinks it best to suit his plans to his condition. Being aware that he is God's servant, he tries to live and act as becomes a servant of God. Knowing himself to be an heir of immortality, he is diligent to sow and foster in his heart the seeds of those christian graces, which are sure to outlive the grave. Trusting that he shall be admitted hereafter to dwell with Christ in heaven, he endeavours to prepare himself for that blissful state during the time he remains below, by seeking those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of the Father. Now what are those things ? Generally we may be sure RISE WITH CHRIST. I 57 that, by the things which are above, must be meant all such heavenly things as can be brought down to earth and under- stood here. Therefore every feeling and every disposition, which can gain admittance into heaven, and meet with favour before God, must be included among those things which are above, and which the apostle commands us to seek. t^ And' first undoubtedly comes hoHness, without which no man can see the Lord. But what is holiness? It is the likeness of God in the soul of man. God is the Holy One : and they who are fashioned after the likeness of his image, must needs be holy also. " Be ye holy, as I am holy," is the rule which God has given us in his law (Levit. xi. 44) ; and Jesus, the Holy One of God, has shown us how we are to keep it. But you will tell me that no man can make himself holy ; since holiness is the gift of the Holy Spirit of God. True, my brethren, most true. Yet still it is neces- sary that you should become holy : and holy you may become, although you cannot make yourself so. For, in the first place, you can abstain from all those unholy and sensual deeds, which St. Paul reckons up in the Epistle to the Galatians, calling them works of the flesh. These works, drunkenness, revellings, uncleanness, and the rest, which are as opposite to holiness as darkness to light, and which stain and blacken the soul, — these foul and unholy works you can all abstain from. Indeed, if you are a Christian in truth, as I said above, you must be already dead to all such things. . Next, you can all pray for the help of the Holy Ghost. But God has promised the Holy Ghost to all who pray for that help earnestly. " If ye, (says Christ) being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, much more will your heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him." Therefore, if you pray for tiie Holy Ghost earnestly, he will come to you : if you con- 15S THE ALTON SERMONS. tinue to pray for him, he will dwell with you : and if he dwells with you, he will make you holy. HoHness then is one of the things above, which every Christian is to seek. The second, which I shall mention, is love. God, St. John tell us, is love : therefore, as God is in heaven, love must be in heaven; and heaven must be the abode of love. Hatred can no more gain admission into heaven, than murder : for he that hateth is a murderer ; that is, in his bosom he cherishes that poisonous seed of ill-will and malice, which when ripened by provocation and oppor- tunity, brings forth the deadly plant of murder. I do not say, that everybody who harbours a grudge against his neighbour, would be ready to kill him, if he could do it secretly. In very many cases such a wicked thought never crosses the hater's mind. Were he taxed v/ith being a murderer, he would answer, as Hazael did, when the pro- phet Elisha told him of the cruel deeds he was about to perform, "Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great and horrible thing ?" Do you think me so abominably wicked, so utterly lost to all sense and feeling of human kindness, as to commit this foul crime ? Hazael at the moment thought he could not commit such a crime. Yet the very day after his return to the king of Syria, " he took a thick cloth and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died." (2 Kings viii. 15.) In the same way, so deceitful is the heart, and, when unchecked by religion and by the Spirit of God, so prone to every kind of wicked- ness, that the man who suffers himself to hate another, can never be sure where he will stop. He has the cockatrice- egg of murder in his bosom, an egg which by God's grace may never be hatched : but there it is ; and, if a man allows his mind to brood on it, who can tell what mischief may ensue ? Therefore God, who foreknows things before they come to pass, and who beholds the effect in the cause, RISE WITH CHRIST. 159 the action in the motive, has declared that hatred is mur- der, because it is the root of murder ; just as he has declared lust to be adultery, because it is the root and spirit of adultery. If the murderer of his neighbour will be shut out from heaven, so will the hater of his neighbour. If the first can gain no entrance into the new Jerusalem, neither can the other, until his hate be melted into love. Love then is one of the things above, which a Christian is to seek. But what kind of love ? A real, sincere, hearty, earnest, fervent, active love, — a love " not in u^ord or in tongue, but in deed and in truth," — a love like the love of Jesus Christ, who went about doing good, — a love striving to be like him who left the glories of heaven to die on the cross for our sakes. The third of the things above, which I would have you seek, is peace. Christ is the Prince of peace. When his warfare and ours against sin is accomplished, when Sin and Death have been cast into the lake of fire, then will the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the peacefulness of Christ's kingdom be fulfilled, and peace shall be for ever upon the Israel of God. Those therefore, who would begin their heavenly life on earth, must be careful seekers after peace, avoiding all strife, shunning all bitterness and evil- speaking and contention, and even waging the war, which we are bound to carry on against wickedness, in a mild and peaceful spirit. For these are the Christian's surest arms, —forgiveness, gentleness, patience, steady and persevering kindness ; and hard indeed must be the heart which they cannot pierce and subdue. Lastly, we must seek truth. For God is truth, and loveth truth. All lies, on the other hand, all manner of falsehood and deceit, all underhand tricks and juggling and cheating, come from the devil, from him who is a liar, and the father of lies. Now observe how all these christian graces strengthen l6o THE ALTON SERMONS. and support and fit and dovetail into each other, thus supplying what at first might seem wanting, so that bv the union of them all the servant of Christ is thoroughly furnished and supplied for every good work. Might love and gentleness weaken the character, and unfit it for walk- ing in the rougher paths of duty, from fear of giving offence ? We are commanded to follow after truth ; and thus will that weakness be corrected. On the other hand, has truth a sternness, which might frighten sinners away, instead of winning them over and reclaiming them ? We are charged, " If a man be overtaken in a fault, to restore him in the spirit of meekness." (Gal. vi. i.) Thus what might be too severe is to be softened by the gentleness of the affections ; and what might be too weak is to be strengthened by upright straightforward principle. It is this union of principle and of love, of everything most zealous in action with everything most patient in endurance, that made up the perfect beauty of our Saviour's character, while he lived on earth ; and if we are his people, his disciples, his followers, his brethren, we must endeavour to grow like-minded with him. If we are indeed risen with Christ, we must set our affections on things above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. XIV. THE ASCENSION. Psalm Ixviii. i8. Thou art gone up on high, thou hast led captivity captive, and received gifts for men : yea, even for thine enemies, that the Lord God might dwell among them. " I ^HE Psalm from which these words are taken, was -*- written by David to celebrate the removal of the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to Jerusalem. The fullest account of this event you will find in the 1 5th chapter of the first Book of Chronicles, where we read that David, and the elders of Israel, and the captains over thousands, went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with joy. It must have been a glorious sight to see David, and the singers, and the Levites who were carrying the ark upon their shoulders, with its golden staves, all in their robes of fine linen, and then the thousands and tens of thousands who were following with shouts and music. To see this procession moving up Mount Zion, to the sound of trumpets and psalteries and cymbals and harps, while the singers were singing with heart and voice the beautiful 68th Psalm, which David had written for this great occasion, must indeed have been a glorious sight, and one to make the heart of every pious Jew leap within him. But we are not Jews : the splendour of the Levitical service has passed M 1 62 THE ALTON SERMONS. away : the ark itself has perished : and so many things concern us more nearly than the Jewish feasts and cere- monies considered in themselves can do, that, if the 68th Psalm spake of nothing greater than the recovery of the ark from the Philistines, and the carrying it up the hill of Zion, beautiful as that Psalm is, I should not have gone to it for a text, at least at the present season. But we know from St. Paul (Ephes. iv. 8), that it does speak of an event beyond all comparison greater and more interesting to us, and that, while David perhaps only meant to celebrate the bringing back of the ark of the covenant from a heathen land, and the bearing it triumphantly up the sacred hill, the Holy Ghost led him to sing of Christ's return to heaven after his abode on this wicked earth. The same is the case with many other prophecies. We are not to suppose that the prophets in every instance knew that they were inspired to speak of some great and distant event. In many cases they seemed to have designed to write about the things which happened to interest the Jewish people at the time. But it was ordained by the Holy Ghost that their words should have a further mean- ing: so that what they said about matters near at hand, should be prophetical of greater matters afar off. Thus for example in the Song of Solomon, the immediate subject doubtless is the marriage of Solomon and his Egyptian bride. Still a greater than Solomon is there : and the union of our Saviour and his Church is the chief thing treated of. Thus too the 45th Psalm was probably also written in honour of Solomon and the Egyptian princess. But, under the figure of this marriage, the majesty and grace of Christ's kingdom, and its increase among the Gentiles, are the real things pro- phetically described. Thus again, when the heart of king Ahaz, and the hearts of his people were troubled by the tidings that the king of Syria and the king of Samaria were THE ASCENSION. 163 coming up to war against them, Isaiah was sent to comfort and assure them that the league should come to nothing. Now what was the sign promised ? That "a virgin should conceive and bear a son, and that they should call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us : " a prophecy which evidently points to the coming of the Son of God in the flesh, and which cannot be said to have been fully accomplished until Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary. Lastly, not to multiply examples, the very Psalm from which my text is taken, was certainly intended to celebrate the return of the ark of God to Jewry : and so it did : but it likewise cele- brates the return of the Son of God to heaven. Such prophecies are called double prophecies; because they relate to two things, one of them usually near at hand, and comparatively unimportant, the other far off, and of very great importance. Now a remarkable thing about these double prophecies, — and it well deserves notice, as being the clearest proof that they were inspired, — a remarkable thing in these double prophecies is, that the words used in them are often better suited to the more distant and greater of the two events, than to the matter which the writer him- self had in view. So is it for example in the Psalm before us. Look at the words of the text ; and you will find that they do not apply to the bringing back of the ark so closely, they do not fit it so exactly, nor describe it so faithfully, as they describe the ascension of our Saviour. For what is the first thing asserted in them of the ark ? That it had gone up on high. And so it did, in a certain limited sense ; for the hill of Zion is a high hill. But what is the height of the hill of Zion, when compared to those highest heavens whereunto our Lord ascended? Of him then, far more than of the ark, can it be truly said that he went up on high. So with regard to the rest of the text, — "thou hast led 164 THE ALTON SERMONS. captivity captive, thou hast received gifts for men : yea, even for thine enemies, that the Lord God might dwell among them," — apply these words to the ark, and they seem too great for the occasion, glorious as that occasion was. Apply them to the ascension of the Son of God, and we feel them to be no more than the simple truth. For he did indeed lead captivity captive; he did indeed receive gifts from his heavenly Father to bestow on his enemies, that the Lord God might dwell among them. Is not this now passing strange and wonderful, that when a man means to speak of one thing, he should use words which are found to apply much more closely and accurately to something else, something at a great distance, something which in all probability the speaker little thought of? Wonder- ful it certainly is ; and many would say, it is unaccountable. But we will not call it unaccountable : for we are able to account for it very easily. We know from St. Peter (2. i. 20), that no prophecy is of private interpretation : that is, pro- phecies were never meant by God to refer solely to the events of the times when they were spoken ; but they pointed far into the future, to the coming of the Son of God. So that the prophets themselves did not understand them. They spake, as they were moved by the Holy Spirit : the words they uttered were not their own words, but such as God put into their mouths. Their tongues were guided and over-ruled by the Spirit of God himself, to bear witness to the divinity, to the birth, to the sufferings, and to the glories of the blessed Jesus. Having thus explained the nature of these double pro- phecies to you, I shall lead you step by step through the particular prophecy in the text. It consists of four several parts. Thou hast gone up on high ; thou hast led captivity captive ; thou hast received gifts for men ; yea, even for thine enemies, that the Lord God might dwell among them. Each of these will furnish us with matter for a distinct head ; THE ASCENSION. 1 65 the first two may be considered now j the others I must keep for another day. First then, our Saviour has ' gone up on high :' that is, he went up from earth in his human form, and was exalted far above all creatures to the right hand of God the Father. I need scarce repeat what I have said to you before, that, when we speak of the right hand of God, we use what is called a figure of speech. God is a Spirit. God has no body, as we have : therefore he cannot have hands. Still the expression is a very good one, and not hard to be understood. We are assured by it that, just as an earthly king would place his favourite son next to himself on his right hand, this being accounted the post of chief honour, — so the highest place in the universe, the greatest honour, the nearest and closest intimacy with the almighty and eternal Father, were all bestowed on Jesus after he ascended into heaven. But how do we know this? We know it first from St. Stephen, who, " being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God :" that is, he saw that bright and shining light, which was always understood by the Jews to betoken God's more immediate presence ; and he saw Jesus standing at the side of it : " and he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God." Again we know it from St. Paul, who, as he was journeying to Damascus before his conversion, on the way saw a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, the very light which Stephen saw, and called the glory of God; and he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" And when Saul answered, "Who art thou. Lord?" the voice said to him, " I am Jesus." We know it also from several passages of the New Testament, in St. Matthew, in St. Mark, in St. Luke, in St. Peter and St. Paul's Epistles : in all 1 66 THE ALTON SERMONS. which passages we are told plainly that Christ is seated at the right hand of God, at the right hand of power, at the right hand of the Majesty on high. That Christ went up into heaven, we likewise know, because the apostles saw him ascend. Hear St. Luke's account of this, as it is written partly at the beginning of the Acts, and partly in the last chapter of his Gospel. " And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and lifted up his hands and blessed them ; and while he blessed them, he was parted from them : and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, and said. Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Christ therefore ascended in a bodily shape : the man Jesus is gone up into heaven, and there, O great and wonderful exaltation ! is sitting at the right hand of God. Yet why do I call it a wonderful exaltation ? If we look into the matter, we shall be satisfied, I think, that the ascension of our Saviour had nothing wonderful in it : and the same may be said of his resurrection. For just consider who our Saviour was, — that he was the Son of God most high, — that he was Immanuel, or God with us, — that not- withstanding his merciful humility in taking our mortal form, he was that eternal Word, of which St. John says, that in the beginning he was with God, and was God. How then can we wonder that this Divine Being, though he did vouchsafe to die for our sakes, though he allowed himself to be put to a shameful death, — can we wonder that his death should have been different from other deaths, and that his Father did not suffer him to lie unheeded in the grave? Hear what St. Peter says on this point in his sermon on the day of Pentecost. " Him God raised up, THE ASCENSION. 167 having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it." (Acts ii. 24.) For God would never leave the human soul of his Son in the region of departed spirits ; neither would he suffer the flesh of his Holy One to see corruption. You hear what this great apostle says, that it was not possible for Jesus to be kept prisoner in the grave. At first, when the apostles were told of their Lord's resurrection, they deemed it an idle tale, because then they knew not the Scriptures. But when their understandings had been opened, when Jesus had explained to them the various prophecies in the Old Testament about himself, and they had learnt to know that he was indeed the Son of God, then the truth flashed upon their minds. How could we be so ignorant as to suppose that death could get the mastery over the Prince of life ? Hence they declare to the people in their very first sermon, that it was impossible, in the highest and deepest sense of the word, impossible according to God's justice, impossible according to God's love, im- possible according to God's truth, impossible according to Christ's own divine nature that he should not have risen from the dead. And having thus risen, what had he to do more on earth ? The earthly purposes for which he came were accomplished. He had fulfilled the law of God by a perfect life : he had suffered the penalty of the law by a shameful death : he had been oflered a spotless sacrifice and sin-offering for the sins of the world : he had provided his Church with teachers and with sacraments, to instruct and support his people : having done all this, he had completed his work below, and naturally went home to heaven. Wonder not then either at the Resurrection or the Ascension. It is not wonderful that the Lord of life should have burst the bonds of death. It is not wonderful that the Son of God, after finishing his appointed task, should have gone back to l68 THE ALTON SERMONS. his loving Father. The true wonder is, that he should ever have come down from heaven, that he should ever have been made man, that he should ever have died. The birth of Christ, and the death of Christ, his meekness in taking our nature upon him, his mercy in submitting to be crucified for our offences, these are the things to wonder at, and not the Resurrection and Ascension. I have said that Jesus, before his Ascension, had finished his appointed work. This brings me to the second head of my text, that he led captivity captive. For though Christ is in one sense the Prince of Peace, because he came to make ■ peace between God and man, and to open a way for recon- ciling the truly penitent to their offended but still loving Father, yet in another sense, he is the Captain of our Sal- vation ; because in this world of sin and strife the only road to peace is through war. Hence our Saviour, in many pro- phecies of the Old Testament, is described as a mighty warrior: for instance, in the 45th Psalm, where we read as follows : " Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most Mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously ; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things : thy arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies." Here you see Christ represented as a captain going forth to war with sword and arrows. I need not remind you that, as the warfare spoken of was a spiritual warfare, so the weapons of that warfare were spiritual weapons. But the struggle was not the less real, nor the less dangerous on that account. It was a battle against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the dark- ness of this world, against spiritual wickedness. With these had Jesus to contend from his birth to his death. He had to fight in the shape of man against those tyrannous enemies of man, sin and death. The first he conquered by his holy life : the last he conquered by his resurrection. This is THE ASCENSION. 169 called leading captivity captive ; because, before the time of Jesus, sin and death were holding the human race captive in their hard bonds. These bonds Jesus brake : he threw open the prison doors, so that all who please may come forth: and then, having vanquished those who had van- quished all before, he ascended in triumph to heaven, lead- ing the captors captive. Sin and death, then, are both captives to Jesus Christ. But if they are captives to him, they are hkewise captives to ; his servants. Therefore we need not fear them, provided we are his servants, not in name only, but in deed and in truth. How then is it that we so often hear Christians say- ing, they cannot help this or that sin ? In a hearhen, or even in a Jew perhaps, such language might be natural and pardonable. But in a Christian, for whom Jesus has broken the strength of sin, and plucked out the sting of death, — in a Christian's mouth such language would indeed be strange, were it not so common that we forget how strange we ought to deem it. If you cannot help your sins, what are you better than the heathens ? What has Christ done for you by leading captivity captive, if you remain still enslaved to sin ? And if you cannot help your sins, it is evident you j are slaves : for slavery is nothing but unwilling service. He ' whom his master can compel to serve him, whether he will or no, is the slave of that master ; he therefore, who is com- pelled to serve sin, must needs be the slave of sin, and if so, of Satan too. Reason and Scripture agree in this. Hence, when the apostles are recounting the benefits we have re- ceived from Christ's coming, they generally put in the first rank, that his victory has made us free from sin, — from sin, mind, and not merely from the punishment of sin. For men are apt to make a great mistake on this point. The deliver- ance they wish for is a deliverance from punishment. The deliverance which Christ offers them is a deliverance from sin. « 170 THE ALTON SERMONS. Are the hearts of any of you, my brethren, deaf to this oft'er ? Do you feel that you do not care for it ? The reason of this deafness, this coldness, is too plain. It is because you love your sin. If you love that, you cannot love Christ. Do not mistake my meaning. When I spoke of your being free from sin, I did not mean that you would at once be made perfect, that you would be set free from every sin, as soon as you became sincere Christians. Still less did I mean that you would be free from all temptations. You will still be forced to watch : you will be liable to surprises. You will have a constant struggle, a warfare to maintain. A child is not bom with the strengdi of a grown man ; but he goes on and grows from strength to strength. So is it with the Christian : he too must go on from spiritual strength to strength. He will have enough to exercise him till the end of his course. But the difference which has been brought about in his favour by Christ's victory, is that his warfare will now be full of hope. As in time of war, when an Eng- lish ship met a French one of equal force, the sailors were fully aware that the Frenchman would not yield without a blow, and thus went into action, knowing they must have a battle and a struggle for it, but never doubting of the issue ; so will it be in your warfare against sin. You will go to the battle, not indeed rashly, nor unnecessarily, remembering that our Saviour has taught us to pray not to be led into temptation. Much less will you enter into battle trusting in your own strength, lest God, who resisteth the proud, should permit you to fall before your enemies. But when the temptation comes upon you, and you are called to with- stand it, you will not be afraid to meet it, even if it were as big as a Goliath, but will face it in the name of the Lord, who enableth us to overcome our enemies. The honour of the victory will indeed be due to Christ, through whose might alone you can be conquerors : but though the merit THE ASCENSION. 171 will be Christ's, and Christ's only, the rewards of his over- coming will be yours. For such is our Saviour's bountiful loving-kindness toward all who truly march under his banners, that he has made us these glorious promises by his servant in the Revelation : " He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death : and I will make him a pillar in the temple of God : and I will grant him to sit with me on my throne ; and he shall inherit all things." XV. CHRIST'S DISINTERESTEDNESS OUR PATTERN. Psalm Ixviii. i8. Thou hast received gifts for men. T N my sermon on the first part of this verse, I shewed you ■'" that it contained a prophecy of our Lord's Ascension, and of his victory over sin and death. We saw how our Lord went up on high : we saw how he led captivity captive. The next thing declared of him in it is, that he received gifts for men : and this is the point on which I mean to speak to you to-day. It was the custom in ancient times, as it is now amongst us, that a victorious general, on his return from war, should be rewarded with great gifts, and tokens of favour and honour. To this custom we may suppose the Psalmist to refer in the first words of the text, coming as they do just after the mention of our Saviour's triumph and victory. Having told us that Christ had gone up on high, and had led captivity captive, the text goes on to say, that he has received gifts, that is to say, such gifts and honours as are the rewards of victory. Now, that Christ after his Ascension was indeed rewarded by God the Father with the greatest rewards, and honoured with the highest honours, we know most certainly from Scripture. He was seated at the right hand of God most high : a name was given him above every name : honour CHRIST'S DISINTERESTEDNESS OUR PATTERN. 1 73 and majesty were laid upon him : he was set over all blessed for ever. All these rewards of victory our Saviour received. But these are not the gifts spoken of in the text. The honours and rewards I have just mentioned, were bestowed on our Savio\ir for himself : whereas the gifts in the text are said to be given to him for others. " Thou hast received gifts for men." So that a part of our Saviour's reward, for all he went through on earth, consisted in receiving gifts for men. But why do I say, a part of his reward, when this was in truth the whole of it ? Everything which he received for himself on his Ascension, was merely a restoration to what was his own before. What new power or majesty or honour could be given to the Son after he took our flesh upon him, beyond what he had enjoyed from all eternity ? When the Word became incarnate, he descended, he stooped, he humbled himself, he came down from the highest summit of power and glory for our sakes. When his work on earth was finished, he went home again, and mounted until he reached the same glorious height from which he had come. But he could not go higher. He was God before he came to earth : could he become more than God, when he went back to heaven? God is incapable of increase. If Christ was God from the beginning, then from the beginning was he enjoying the utmost glory and power and happiness : and to that utmost nothing could be added. Nothing can be higher than the highest ; nothing can be greater than the greatest; nothing can be more blessed than the most blessed. The man Jesus indeed was very highly exalted : for in him, as the Athanasian Creed expresses it, the man- hood was taken into God. The human part of Christ, the part which he inherited from his mother, became capable of being raised to glory and happiness unspeakable, and was so raised. But the divine part of Christ, which St. John calls the Word, and which had dwelt in the bosom of the 174 THE ALTON SERMONS. Father, could not receive any increase of glory or bliss, which must have belonged to him as God in their utmost fullness from all eternity. Therefore Christ, when he prayed to his Father the night before his Crucifixion to glorify him, did not ask for any new glory ; for that he could not have : he only asked to be reunited to the Father, and restored to the glory which he had always had : " Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." But if this be so, if God the Son could receive no new honour and dignity after the Ascension, greater than he enjoyed before the Incarnation, what did he gain, if I may use such a word in speaking of God, what did he obtain, what was his reward and recompense for coming down to earth, and suffering so much during his stay here ? My brethren, he gained our happiness. This was the only reward he looked to, and the only recompense he could have. The only gifts he did or could receive were for men. This is what sets the goodness of our Lord and Saviour in the strongest light. It shews that he underwent everything simply and purely for our sakes. We, if we are called on to give up anything for God, are lured to do so by great and precious promises. We are told that whatever we give up for his sake shall in the end be made up to us a hun- dredfold. We are assured that our light afflictions, which last but for a moment, shall work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Yet all this will not do. Notwithstanding all the rewards set before us, scarcely .one in twenty can be found to give up a single earthly Ipassion, a single fleshly lust, a single foolish vanity, a single ^Tigry feeling, a single ^vrongful gain, a single sin, to the pod who made, and to the Saviour who has redeemed us. But Christ gave up all the glories of heaven for a season, without the possibility of gaining anything for himself, Christ's disinterestedness our pattern. 175 merely to do us good. His coming was to save us. His dying was to atone for us. His very rewards for all his sufferings and humiliation, for his perfect obedience to his Father's will, and his glorious victory over his Father's enemies, — his rewards for all these things are gifts for men. My brethren, there are some blasphemers of God and our holy faith, who, because our heavenly Father has been pleased to promise his faithful people an eternal inheritance of glory, taunt us with serving God from interested motives, and charge the Gospel with teaching men to be selfish. This taunt is not a new invention. It is as old as the time of Job : of whom Satan, when he could find nothing else to bring against him, said, " Does Job serve God for nought?" u. But is the charge true? Is it true that the Gospel teaches men to be selfish? The Gospel teaches men to follow Christ. This is the sum of it. Do as Christ did ; think as Christ thought; act as Christ acted. Was Christ selfish? Was it selfish in the only-begotten Son of God to come down from his throne of greatness for the sake of us miserable sinners? Was it selfish in him to become the Son of man, and die a shameful death, that we might be made sons of God, and raised to a life of glory ? Was he selfish, when the very prize of his victory is only gifts for men ? Such is the selfishness which the Gospel sets before us, — to do everything, and to suffer everything, in obedience toJiod, and for the good ofjnen. The Gospel Tulergiven us by Christ himself, is, that as he hath loved us, so should we love one another. As he hath loved us : that is to be the measure of our love for one another. Therefore our love for each other should be without bounds : it should be a disinterested love : it should be a self-denying love : it should be a love not easily provoked. If it fail in any of these respects, it will be very unlike the love which Christ has left us for a pattern. 176 THE ALTON SERMONS. First, our love should be without bounds. When it is in our power to do any real good for our neighbour, we must not shut our hearts against him with such thoughts as these, — " I have done enough for him already : I will do so much for him, and no more." If Christ had set any bounds to his love for us, where should we all be now ? We need not be afraid that we shall go too far in serving others, unless we tie ourselves up not to go beyond a certain point. There is no danger that any of us will ever go too far in the walk of active love. There is no likelihood that any of us will become too bountiful, too friendly, too kind, too helpful to his neighbour. Human nature will be sure to stop quite soon enough. The real danger lies the other way, lest we should stop too soon. For though we are none of us likely to do too much for our neighbour, we are all of us likely to do too litde. Therefore this is the danger we are to guard against. , But you will ask, perhaps, are there then no bounds at all to the good we are to do for others ? I answer, that, provided the good be a real good, and the doing it does not cross any plain duty, or break any express command of God, I know of none, and can find none in the New Testa- ment. The good of course must be a real good : it must be such a good as true love would prompt us to do, and true wisdom would approve. Had we the riches of Solomon, we should not be called upon to give a guinea to every beggar or to clothe the children of the poor in silks and satins: not because the expense would be too great; but because, by so spending our money, we should be doing more harm than good. By giving a guinea to every beggar, we should be encouraging idleness, which is a bad thing : by dressing up poor children in rich clothes, we should give them a fondness for finery, which is a bad thing. There- fore, the money so spent would be squandered foolishly and Christ's disinterestedness our pattern. 177 hurtfully, in fostering evil habits : and this of course we ought never to do. Nor are we called upon, or allowed, to do good to our neighbour to the neglect of any plain duty, or to the breach of an express command of God's. We must not go abroad to nurse a sick neighbour, when our mother is lying ill at home : because our duty to her comes first. We must not rob, for the sake of relieving a person in need : because God has said, " Thou shalt not steal." We must not tell a lie, to help a neighbour out of a scrape : because God has said, " Thou shalt not bear false witness." So we must not, under a mistaken notion of hospitality, make the people that come to our house drunk : because God has forbidden drunkenness ; and we are not to put temptations in the way of others, nor to be partakers in other men's sins. This is the meaning of the command, that we are to love our neighbour as ourselves. All that we may do for ourselves, we are to do for him, if need be. But a thing which we are forbidden to do for ourselves, we are forbidden to do for him likewise, let him wish and ask for it ever so much. We must not get drunk ourselves; and therefore we must not make our neighbour drunk. We must not lie to screen ourselves ; and therefore we must not lie to screen him. We must not steal for ourselves ; and therefore we must not steal for him either. In a word, we must not do wrong to please another person, any more than to please ourselves. Mark this, ye young women, who are so liable to be led into wickedness, under the sacred name of love : mark this, and do not allow your best and kindliest feelings any more than your worst, to be turned into engines against your souls. But in everything right and good, in everything that reason approves, in everything that would be of real service to our neighbour's soul or body, — in these things we cannot do too much for him, if we would follow Christ : for Christ's love to us was boundless. N 178 THE ALTON SERMONS. Moreover our love must be disinterested. We must not do a service to our neighbour, from a hope of getting back the same or greater in return. This would be trading and bartering, not loving. I do not mean that we are to refuse to receive help and kindness on occasion from those whom we may have assisted. This would betoken a proud and sullen spirit. A man should know how to accept a favour, as well as how to bestow one. But in doing a kindness to another we ought not to count on a return. Much less ought we to narrow our kindnesses to such as are able to return them, but rather should rejoice to prove the dis- interestedness of our christian love, by doing good to the needy, who can make us no return, and even to the thank- less, who will not. For so our Saviour teaches us : " If ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye ? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again : and your reward shall be great ; and ye shall be the children of the Highest : for he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil." (Luke vi. 33-35.) f Again, our love should be self-denying. What is the value of services which cost the doer nothing, in comparison with those which cost him pains and trouble ? It is the pains a friend will take to serve you, the sacrifices he will make for your sake, that prove his love to be sincere. A man may do many kind things from good-nature and easiness of temper : but call on him to exert himself, to deny himself, to put himself to trouble, to undergo a little hardship and privation on your account ; and you bring his affection to the trial. If it stand this test, you may trust it. What is true of friendship between man and man, is equally true of christian love. No deed in which there is not some sort of Christ's disinterestedness our pattern. 179 self-denial, can have any right to the glorious name of a deed of charity. Here let me point out to you an advantage which the poor have in this respect, although perhaps few of them are aware of it. It is an easier matter for a poor man to be charitable, than for a rich man. " What ! (you exclaim) how can a poor man be more charitable than a rich man ? when the rich man may give away his hundreds, or, if he is very rich, his thousands, and not miss them ; while a poor man cannot even give a penny or a crust of bread, without feeling the loss : he cannot even go to help or nurse a friend, without forfeiting a part of his wages." True : and for this very reason, — because a poor man cannot do any service to his neighbour without some loss, some self-denial, — it is easier for him to shew the sincerity of his christian love. He who for Christ's sake shares his one loaf with the hungry, casts more into the treasury, than they who out of their abundance scatter hundreds or thou- sands they will never miss. I know, when one hears any- body called charitable, one takes it for granted that he must have plenty of money : and it is a very rare thing to hear poor persons so called. Yet I trust it is not rare for them to be so. Piteous indeed would be the condition of the poor, if their poverty shut them out from the noblest privilege which God has bestowed upon mankind, the privilege of helping each other, the privilege of shewing christian charity in the various exercises of brotherly love. But it does not. If any of you have ever fancied that, because you are poor, you have nothing to give, and that the duties of christian charity do not concern such as you, drive such a notion out of your minds. The poorest of you may do as much, — what in God's eyes will be accounted as much, — as the richest can do. You of your poverty may give your all ; and they at the utmost can do no more. This however they may do too. They may make sacrifices l8o THE ALTON SERMONS. in various ways, though not so easily as you can. They may shew their love by giving their time, by giving their labour, by giving their thoughts, by giving up their tastes, by giving up their prejudices. They too may go forth, like St. Paul : though the weakness of men nowadays will hardly come noar the graces of that holy apostle, they too may go forth in the service of Christ to minister to their brethren, " in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings and cold." That is to say, there is no outward hindrance to keep them from doing so. If the love of Christ burns in their hearts, as it did in his, they may do so. Nay, unless they do this in one way or other, unless they deny themselves for the love of Christ and of their brethren, the love of Christ and of their brethren has no place in their hearts. One way in which this self-denial must be shewn is in overcoming our passions. Our love must not be easily pro- voked. Charity, the apostle tells us, suffereth long, and is kind. It takes its pattern from the long-suffering of Christ. Ever since the fall of Adam the sins of mankind had been provoking God to wrath : yet God would not be provoked, save to a far more exceeding and wonderful display of his love. Instead of baring the arm of his vengeance, and cut- ting us off in our iniquity, he stretched forth the arm of his mercy, and sent his Son to bring us back to the fold. It is only when love will not be provoked, except to fresh deeds of love, that it proves itself to be pure, and thoroughly dis- interested, and to spring from the only pure source, the love of God and of Christ. For even the natural man desires to be loved by his brethren, and will love them for the sake of gaining their love : but when the natural man finds that his love is only met by thanklessness, it fades and dies. Chris- tian love on the other hand in its outward workings is like God's love : it embraces the thankless as well as the thank- CHRIST S DISINTERESTEDNESS OUR PATTERN. l8l ful. Nay, as God has done more for sinners, than ever could have been done for man, if he had continued in righteousness, so will christian love be most active and diligent in trying to soften and win the hearts which need it the most. Such must be our love, if we would shape it into any likeness to Christ's love for us, of which at best it can never be more than a very faint and lame copy. For his love was truly boundless ; ours will be cramped and hemmed in on every side by the weaknesses and wants of our nature. His love was perfectly disinterested ; ours is evermore dis- turbed by the wish for some manner of return. He gave up the glories of heaven ; we can only give up a little of the dross of earth. He forgave sins without number and excuse; we can only forgive what we have no right to resent. Feeble however and unworthy as our love may be, it is the only return we can make to Christ ; and as such, Christ vouch- safes to accept it. The love which we shew to our brethren, he vouchsafes to accept as shewn to himself. " Inasmuch as ye have done it," he says, " to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." The one object for which Christ came down on earth, was to make men holy and blessed. The one reward which he received when he went home to heaven, was gifts for men, to make them holy and blessed. This then, my brethren, if we love Christ, is what we must strive to do for Christ. We must strive to work under the guidance of his Spirit, in order to win souls for him, in order to help our brethren on along the road of holiness and blessedness. In this work we may all do some- thing : in this work every Christian may be a fellow-labourer with Christ. Christ's reward on his Ascension, I have said, was the bestowing gifts on men. But that is only for a time, only as the means toward the. reward which he will receive on the last day. That wi^^ his true reward, the 0X 1 82 THE ALTON SERMONS. reward for the sake of which he died, the reward for the sake of which he is still ever giving gifts to men. In the ^ay when he makes up his jewels, in that day will the souls ^f all those whom he has redeemed be gathered into a crown of glory around his eternal head. Every soul that is saved will be a jewel in Christ's crown : every soul that is lost will be a jewel out of Christ's crown. Woe then, bitter woe, to those through whose fault a jewel is lost out of Christ's crown ! How will they dare make answer, when he asks them, Where are my jewels ? Blessed on the other hand, most blessed on that day, will they be, through whose patient endurance in christian love any jewels for Christ's crown have been gained. XVI. CHRIST'S GIFTS. Psalm Ixviii. i8. Thou hast received gifts for men, yea, even for thine enemies, that the Lord God might dwell among them. T N my last sermon on this verse I set before you the ■^ wonderful goodness and love manifested by our Lord and Saviour in coming down from heaven so entirely for our sakes, that his very rewards were gifts for men. He went through all, and bore all, not for the sake of receiving, but of giving, that he might as it were earn the privilege of bestowing greater graces and blessings upon us. But we shall take an imperfect view of our debt to him, unless we consider for whom Christ received these gifts, for whom he made so great a sacrifice, — namely, for his enemies. This is the point which the apostles urge so strongly, as the most wonderful and convincing proof of God's boundless love. Thus St. Paul says in the 5th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans : " While we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. Now scarcely for a righteous man will one die." Scarcely, he says : because one or two might perchance be found with courage enough to die for the sake of a good man and a good cause. " But God com- mendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet I $4 THE ALTON SERMONS. sinners, Christ died for us." Again a verse or two after, "when we were enemies," — the very word the Psalmist uses, — " we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son." And again in the Epistle to the Ephesians, " God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ : for ye were strangers from the cove- nants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world, but now ye are made nigh to him by the blood of Christ" (ii. 4, 12). St. John's words in the first Epistle are to the same purpose. '' In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love;" — or this is the great, the astonishing proof of God's love, — that " before we loved God, God loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Truly, if we would give our minds to the matter, we must needs esteem it a very wonderful act of loving-kindness, on the part of the great Ruler of heaven and earth, to come to us poor worms, and entreat us to make peace with him. For to this it amounts. The Gospel message is, be ye reconciled to God. The Gospel doctrine is, that Christ came down from heaven, and died on the cross, in order that God, without doing violence to his holiness and justice, might hold out the sceptre of his mercy to us, and call us to him, and bid us live, — yea, live for ever, — and might offer us the countless treasures and endless blessings of his kingdom. This is the Gospel doctrine, that "God so loved the world," — that world which, we are told in another place, lieth in wicked- ness,—" that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John iii. 16.) Now does not this love far surpass anything we could ever have dared to hope for, if God had not plainly set it CHRIST S GIFTS. 185 forth in Scripture ? Put the case of yourselves : are you so ready, even when you are in the wrong, to go to a neigh- bour and ask him to make it up with you ? Yet God, who can never be otherwise than right, comes to us, and stretches out his merciful hands to us, and begs us to be reconciled to him, and to accept his pardon, and to cease from sinning against him, and to come to him for the gifts which his Son will give us here, and for the ten thousand other more glorious and precious gifts which are laid up for us above. The Son too himself is always saying to you, — yes, he says to you at this moment by me, his minister, — "Do not go on sinning in this headstrong way ; take pity on yourselves ; do not force me to condemn you; accept the forgiveness, and the graces and gifts of all kinds, which I have purchased for you with my blood. Do not stand aloof, because you feel yourselves to be sinners, and because you know that you have behaved like the enemies of God. Even if you are enemies, come : yea, come boldly. Even for my enemies have I received these gifts. Sinners, enemies, come for them, and take them." Can any message be fuller of gracious love, than this which I have just delivered to you in the name of my Master, Jesus ? And can you bring yourselves to reject it ? Can you find it in your hearts to say, " Christ may hold out his hand to me ; but I will not take it : he may call to me ; but I will not come : he may knock at my door ; but I will not open it : I will have none of his gifts : I will continue his enemy: I will not be reconciled to God?" If you heard a man saying such things with his mouth, what would you think of him ? Would not you be shocked, and tremble for him, and be almost ready to fall down on your knees and pray God to forgive him his horrid words and wicked thoughts ? My brethren, there are two ways of saying a thing. A man may say, — I will not be reconciled to God, lS6 THE ALTON SERMONS. —with his lips ; and you would shudder at his daring. But he may also say, — I will not be reconciled to God, — with his life : and if he is living in sin he does say so. Every man who is living in sin says, as plainly as deeds can speak, I will not be reconciled to God 7iow, He may not always mean to say so, but he does say it notwithstanding ; nay, and often means it too. When a man says, '' I will repent and become religious next year," is not this the same as saying, " I will not become religious now. I will not make my peace with God as yet : I will go on in my rebellion against him a while longer ?" Do not deceive yourselves, beloved brethren : open your eyes, and see the truth. The wicked man is God's enemy. He then who chooses to con- tinue in wickedness, chooses to continue God's enemy. But why do I speak of continuing in wickedness as if gross wickedness were necessary to prove a man to be at enmity with God ? The Scripture rule is clear : he that is not with me, is against me. He that is not with Christ, he that has not come to him, and is not serving him, that man is against Christ ; and therefore he is against God. Against God ! is any such here present ? Alas ! I fear there must be. I cannot flatter myself that every one who hears me is sincerely striving to please God ; and if you are not, you are God's enemy. Young or old, it matters not, — richer or poorer, it matters not, — man or woman, it is the same thing, if you are not striving to serve God, you are God's enemy, in a christian church, — God's enemy, with the cross on your forehead, — God's enemy, with the grave, and the pit below the grave, ready to catch you, and opening their jaws wide for you, like wild beasts gaping for their prey. Shall we not shudder for you then, seeing you hanging by one single little thread of life, which an accident any hour may snap asunder? Yet by that one thread, if you are God's enemy, you are hanging over the pit of hell. Tremble, Christ's gifts. 187 tremble for yourselves : hasten to lay hold on the pardon and grace which Christ offers you : pray to him for those gifts, which the text tells us he has received for his enemies. But pray to him in good earnest, like a person who feels he is praying for his life, — as the disciples prayed when the storm overtook them, and they cried, " Lord, save us ! we perish;" — as Peter prayed, when he was beginning to sink, and cried, "Lord, save me!" — as the Canaan itish woman prayed, who would take no denial : so pray thou. I say unto thee, whoever thou art, whose conscience tells thee that thou art God's enemy, pray thou with the same fervour as these did : and the same Jesus who stilled the raging storm, and upheld the sinking Peter, and cast out the unclean spirit from the Canaanitish woman's daughter, — will hear thee, and will help thee, as he helped them, and will pluck thee out of the mire of wickedness, and will deliver thee from the evil one, and will still the raging passions in thy breast, and will reconcile thee to thy offended Maker, and turn thee from an enemy into a penitent and obedient son. Christ's reward, we have seen, consisted in receiving gifts for men ; and that too at a time when the whole world were strangers and aliens from God ; nay, when by following their lusts and the evil devices of their hearts, all mankind were at enmity with God ; when they had set up other gods in the place of him who is the only God, and paid these all the worship and service which are rightfully due to him. Such was the state of the whole earth at Christ's coming : and even now such is the state of all those parts of it, where the religion of Christ has not yet taken root. It is of great importance to bear this in mind : because it proves that the whole of our salvation from first to last is the work of Christ's free and gracious love. Man neither did, nor can do, any thing to deserve it, or to give him any sort of claim upon 1 88 THE ALTON SERMONS. God for it. Mankind were not walking toward God, when Jesus came to seek them ; they had turned their backs on God, and were walking away from him. It is true they had not the same advantages as we have now : they did not know their duty so clearly as we do now. They were living under a kind of twilight ; for the Sun of Righteousness was not yet risen. But they had not made the most, or near the most of that twilight. The heathens had not profited as they ought to have done, or anything like it, by the light of nature. Full of holes and flaws as their philosophy was, it was ample enough to condemn them. Nor had the Jews profited as they ought to have done, or anything like it, by that treasure of theirs, the Old Testament. As the light of nature condemned the heathens, so the Old Testament condemned the Jews. Both had neglected and abused the means which God had afforded them for becoming wise and good. But, blessed be God ! he did not forsake or cast off his sinful creatures, nor leave them to walk in their own darkness. Although they ran away from him, he only followed them the more : or rather he fetched a compass about, and came and met them in their wanderings. You remember the parable of the wicked husbandmen in the 2 1 St chapter of St. Matthew. They paid their lord no rent for the vineyard he had lent to them ; and when he sent his servants for his share of the fruits, they beat the servants, and stoned them, and killed them. Now call to mind how their lord treated them after all these wicked outrages. He did not turn them out of their farm, and punish them as they deserved: but he determined to give them another chance, and that a better than ever. He sent his son to them, saying, " They will reverence him." This parable is an exact setting forth of God's dealings with mankind, in calling them, when they were enemies, to a knowledge of his merciful Gospel. We had been unfaithful in a few Christ's gifts. 189 things ; yet God entrusted us with many things. We had misused our means and opportunities : yet God said, "Your opportunities and means shall be increased tenfold." We had shut our ears against all the teachers sent into the world in former ages ; nay, the Jews had been deaf to the voice of God himself, speaking to them from the top of Sinai : and God said, " What shall we do with man ? I have sent him teachers of his own flesh and blood, and have enlightened them with my Spirit, and have given them the word of power ; yet man will not repent and come to me. I have spoken to him myself out of a cloud on Mount Sinai, and have set my law plainly before him : and yet he cleaves to his iniquity. Still I will not utterly forsake him : one more trial is left for him in the counsels of my mercy. I will go to him myself : yea, the only-begotten of my love shall go and dwell with him in his own form ; yea, in the form of a man shall he dwell with him. It may be he will hearken to him. Surely he will reverence my Son." But they, who had always been enemies and rebels against the Father, now became the enemies of the Son. His meekness, his gentleness, his purity, his loving-kindness, his whole life spent in doing good to them, could not soften the hardness of their hearts. They laid hands upon him and slew him. They persecuted him during his life ; and at length they nailed him as a criminal to the cross. Still even this did not move him to cast away his merciful pur- pose. While he was hanging on the cross, he conquered sin : and that victory he gained for his enemies. When he was laid in the grave, he conquered death : and this victory again was for his enemies. When he went up on high, he received gifts from the Father : and these gifts too were all for his enemies, for those very enemies whose sins had nailed him to the cross. What however are those gifts, which Christ has received igo THE ALTON SERMONS. for his enemies? This is the last question which remains for us, in order to fill up our view of this great and blessed subject. These gifts, so far as the Bible enables us to understand their nature, may be divided into two classes : the first consists of such gifts as Christ offers to men, while | they are still his enemies ; the second, of such as he bestows f on those whom he has reconciled to God. The gifts in the former class, which Christ offers to men while they are still his enemies, are two. But those two gifts are so excellent, that the happy man on whom they are bestowed has all that can be necessary for turning him from God's enemy into God's friend. He that has indeed re- ceived these two gifts into his heart, has ceased to be God's enemy : and so he comes within the circle of those further gifts, which are designed for such as are reconciled to God. Now what are these two excellent and wonder-working gifts, which have power to turn all such as receive them in a right spirit from God's enemies into God's friends ? St. Peter tells us in the 5th chapter of the Acts, where, speaking to the Jewish council, he says of Jesus, " Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." Repentance and forgiveness of sins, then ; forgiveness as soon as we repent, and the power to repent in order to our forgiveness, are the two gifts which Christ offers to men, while they are still enemies to God. In the first place, he offers them forgiveness as soon as they have repented. So long as sinners continue in their sins wilfully, obstinately, and against their better knowledge, so long there can be no forgiveness for them. Christ has not procured our pardon, to the end that we may keep on sinning : but he has obtained the assurance of our pardon the moment we forsake our sins. He offers the fullest for- giveness to all his enemies, as soon as they repent and turn to Gud. Christ's gifts. 191 "And what boots, what avails such an offer to me?" many a sinner's heart will murmur : " What am I the better for being promised forgiveness after I have repented, when I feel too deeply I cannot repent ? " To tear up all pre- tence for such a murmur by the roots, and to leave the sinner wholly without excuse, if he continues at enmity with God, Christ to his first gift of forgiveness adds a second gift of repentance. Not only will he forgive the sinner who repents : he will also enable him to repent, in order that he may be forgiven. Suppose one of you owed a rich man a hundred pounds : and that, instead of seUing your goods, and throwing you into prison, he were to offer to forgive you the whole sum, on condition that you would thank him in writing, and give him a promise under your hand never to run in debt again. In such a case some of you would say, " Sir, your offer is very kind : but it will do me no good : for I cannot write." Now suppose the rich man were to answer : " Well then, I will teach you to write ; and when you have learnt, you may give me the written promise which I ask." This twofold kindness on the part of the rich man, — in offering to forgive you your debt, if you would but thank him in writing, and in teaching you to write, that you might be able so to thank him, — is a sort of picture of our Saviour's goodness to his enemies, in not only promising them full pardon on their repentance, but enabling them likewise to repent that they may obtain the pardon. Repentance and forgiveness then are the first two gifts which Christ offers to every sinner. If he accepts them, if he does indeed repent, if he seeks the forgiveness which is ^ granted to all such as seek for it earnestly, his offences are V blotted out, his debt is cancelled : he is changed from an enemy into a child of God : and is let in and becomes entitled to a share in the privileges which Christ bestows on his people. But if the sinner does not accept these gifts, if 192 THE ALTON SERMONS. he slights God's proffer of forgiveness, if he scorns the help which would enable him to repent, then does he continue an enemy to Christ, and a rebel against God : and as such, when the day of judgment comes, he will be delivered to the executioner. Therefore once more I call upon you, and say to you, Sinners, enemies of God, — if there be any such amongst us, — hasten to accept the repentance and forgive- ness which Christ so mercifully sets before you. The repentance and forgiveness, I say : for you must take both, or neither. Christ will not part his two gifts. You must take them both ; or you must leave them both : you cannot have one without the other. Unless you repent and turn to God, you will not, you cannot be forgiven. Suppose however that we have profited by these first gifts, and through them been reconciled to our heavenly Father, then has Christ a second and larger class of gifts, to forward us in the way of holiness, and to bring us into the presence of God. For such is our Saviour's bounty, that nothing can set limits to his gifts, except our unfitness to receive them. If your heart be large, your thirst great, if your prayer to him for grace be fervent, you will receive more : if your heart be small, your thirst little, your prayer faint, you will receive less. Therefore St. Paul exhorts to covet the best gifts ; because, in proportion to the strength of our desires, will be the gifts bestowed on us. Of these spiritual gifts, which you ought to covet, the chief is the new heart and the new spirit, which are thcj- mark of God's true children. None can be truly a child of God, unless he has been born of God. Now he that is regenerate, or born again of God, receives what the Bible calls a new heart. Thus it is written in the Book of Ezekiel : " A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes ; and ye shall keep my judgments and do them." The meaning of Christ's gifts. 193 this promise is clear : and the gift is one of the most precious that can be bestowed on man. A new heart ! Much need in truth have we of a new heart : for the old one is bad enough. " Out of the heart (says our Saviour) proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covet- ousness, wickedness, deceit, an evil eye, blasphemies, pride, foolishness." (Mark vii. 21, 22.) Ought we not to long to get rid of such a heart, and to receive a different heart in its stead ? a heart pure and loving, kind and gentle, true and humble, holy and pious, — a heart that covets heavenly treasures, and does not vex itself about the pelf, the amuse- ments, or the honours, which the old-hearted world are grasping after. The new heart and new spirit, which Christ gives to his people, must surely be very precious. Nor can you be ignorant what is meant by it. Nicodemus, indeed, when our Lord told him that man must be born again, was simple enough to ask, " How can a man be born when he is old ? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born ? " But none can be so simple nowadays. Were such a question to be asked by any one now in a christian land, it could only be out of mockery and profaneness. When the Bible or the preacher speaks to you of this new heart and new spirit, none of you can be at a loss to under- stand, that by the new heart is meant a new feeling, leading to such a change in our affections, — and by the new spirit a new principle leading to such a change in our conduct, — that the alteration could scarcely be greater if we were made altogether anew. What then is this new feeling ? what is this new principle ? which Christ is ready to bestow on every one, when he has accepted his offer of pardon, and has forsaken his sinful courses, and is trying to Hve as the Gospel commands, and has begun to pray regularly, and to read his Bible, and to listen to sermons, — when, in short, he o 194 THE ALTON SERMONS. has taken all those first steps which betoken a man's repent- ance, and shew that he is anxious about his soul. A man in this state will soon find how incapable he is of attaining to that inward purity and truth, which the law of God requires. Outward acts of sin he may get to abstain from : though even that, if he has been accustomed to any sinful practice, will cost him many a hard struggle. But purity of heart, meekness, patience, lowliness, — these, his Bible tells him, are the things which God looks for : and will he attain to these by his own efforts ? Alas ! he will soon find that, while the law is spiritual, he himself is carnal. He will find that, much as his reason and conscience may approve God's law, his fallen and corrupt nature is too strong for him. He will feel it hanging like a clog about his soul, and keeping it from rising up to heaven. If any of you, my brethren, are in this state, a state which St. Paul describes so touchingly in the 7th chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, — if any of you are ready to cry out in the bitterness of your heart, " O wretched man that I am, who shall deHver me from the body of this death ? " — remember St. Paul's answer : " I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." God is ready to deliver you from your thraldom through Jesus Christ our Lord. He is waiting to be gracious, if you will only ask him. Therefore, instead of despairing, and giving yourselves up for lost, and slackening your prayers as of no avail, redouble them. Pray to Christ your King ; tell him that you need his gifts, that you need a new heart, that you need a new spirit ; beseech him for his mercy's sake to send them to you, that you may be delivered from the bondage of your evil nature. Pray thus to our Lord and Saviour ; and be assured he will hear you, and ere long will send you the new feeling and the new principle which are to change and better your nature. This brings me back to the question which I asked a CHRIST S GIFTS. 195 while ago : what is this new feeling and this new principle, which are powerful enough to work such wonders, as to change the very wishes of our hearts, and to make our thoughts and lives savour of heaven? The principle is faith, that faith in praise of which St. Paul is so full and frequent. A degree of faith, which we will call belief, the Christian must of course have from the outset. He would never have left the service of sin, unless he had believed that the wages of sin is death. The threats which God denounces against the wicked, must have made an impres- sion on his mind : else he would never have taken the pains of breaking off his evil habits. So must he have believed that God hears prayer : else he would not have prayed. He must have believed the Bible to be the word of truth, and must have been led by what is called the preventing or guiding grace of God, — that grace which comes and knocks at the sinner's heart, to rouse him from his deadly slumber, — he must have been led by that grace to apply the threaten- ings of the Bible to himself, and thus to feel his danger. This degree of belief every sinner must have, before he will begin to shake off his sins. But this is a very different thing from that mixture of belief and trust, which makes up a saving faith. Of this more perfect faith it is not too much to say, that it is strong enough to carry a man through all dangers, through all hardships, through all temptations, through all distresses, for the sake of him in whom we believe. In the words of St. John, " This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." (i John v. 4.) But if this principle be not sufficient for us, Christ has another equally powerful gift in store, in the shape of a new feeling to purify and strengthen our hearts, just as faith enlivens and strengthens our souls. This new feeling is love, the love of God, which marks the new-hearted or christian man, just as the love of self marks the old-hearted 196 THE ALTON SERMONS. or worldly man. Now this love and this faith may exist in Christians in almost every degree. There are babes in Christ, as well as grown men. But even babes live, and have a spirit and principle of life in them, and learn to love their father and mother, long before they have learnt to say so. Thus must it be with babes in Christ. Even they must have a principle of faith and a feeling of love toward God. If they have not, if they have not this new spirit, and this new heart, which always goes along with it, the christian life has not even begun in them. Judge therefore your- selves, brethren, and examine yourselves, whether you really love Christ, whether you have a hearty trust in God. Unless you have these only certain signs of a christian life in you, your Christianity is a dead letter and an empty show. I feel sure however that some at least among you have these signs of a true christian life. Let us go on therefore a step further, and see what other gifts you are to look for. The Scriptures speak of many such, the gift of Christ's flesh, which is the Christian's food, — the gift of Christ's peace, which is the Christian's balm, — the gift of Christ's joy, which is the Christian's sunshine, — and finally the gift of an eternal inheritance, which is the Christian's reward and haven. But the largest gift of all, the gift in which all the others are embraced, is the gift of the Holy Spirit. " It is expedient for you," said our Saviour, " that I go away : for, if I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you ; but if I depart, I will send him to you." (John xvi. 7.) To him is committed the whole work of our sanctification. It is he, the Holy Ghost, that makes us holy. He gi^-es us that holiness, without which no man can ever seL^ God. This indeed is the gift which the Psalmist seems to have had chiefly in view: for to this end, he tells us, did Christ receive gifts for men, "that the Lord God might dwell amongst them." Yes, my brethren, so wonderful is the Christ's gifts. 197 loving-kindness of our Almighty Father, so precious the gift which Christ has obtained for us, that the Holy Spirit of God has vouchsafed ever since to come down and dwell amongst us ; and not only amongst us, but i7i us, in all such as come to Christ with a simple and faithful heart. For this is what St. Paul says to the Corinthians (i. iii. 16) : " Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? " This question, which St. Paul put to the Church of Corinth, I put to you : know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Beware therefore, dear brethren, lest ye defile the temple of God, by anything impure or sinful, whether in thought or word or deed ; "for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." XVII. HOLY BRANCHES; OR, WHY WAS THE TRINITY REVEALED? Romans xi. i6. If the root be holy, so are the branches. 'T^HE purpose of our Saviour's coming was to redeem and -■- deliver us from all iniquity, and to purify us as a peculiar people, zealous of good works. This is the great end of his teaching ; and this end all the doctrines of his religion further. For instance, the doctrine of the everlast- ing pains of hell, — why has that been made known to us, except to frighten us from sin ? Why again has the doc- trine of the unspeakable joys of heaven been made known to us, except to comfort and encourage us in well-doing ? In like manner all the other doctrines of our faith are designed either to warn us against going astray, or to quicken our steps along the right path, or at least in some way or other to keep us firm and steadfast in our duty. So that our religion may not unfitly be compared to a great tree ; of which the doctrines are the roots, and uprightness is the trunk, and godly deeds and all the ministries of love are the outspreading branches, and piety is the heavenward pointing head. As a tree grows up from its roots, and they HOLY BRANCHES. 99 nourish and support it ; so do the duties of religion grow out of its doctrines, and rest on its doctrines, and draw their life from them. If the trunk of a tree be separated from the roots, it falls : nor will a man's morality be able to stand, unless it be rooted and anchored deep in the great truths of religion. Any hour of trial, a gust of passion, a sharp blast of tempta- tion from an exposed quarter, would lay such unsupported virtue low. It would fall, like the house built on the sand ; and great and sad would its fall be. But as a tree is nothing without its roots, so the roots on the other hand are nothing without the tree. It is for the sake of support- ing the branching, wide-spreading tree, that there are any roots at all. No one ever saw a root growing by itself and for itself. A root without a tree would be the same sort of thing among God's works, as a foundation without a house among man's works. Nor is this less true of the spiritual roots of faith. God, who does nothing in vain, has not revealed any doctrine to us for the mere sake of feeding our curiosity, or of making us stare and wonder. Doctrines from which nothing springs would be as much out of place in the book of God's word, as roots from which nothing grows would be in the book of nature. Such roots are not living, but dead. Whenever therefore you come to any doctrine in the Bible, bear in mind that the Scriptures were not written to make us wise merely, in that which the world deems wisdom, — but wise unto salvation. Instead of stumbling over the doctrine, as a bHnd or heedless man might stumble over a root that lay in his path, and stood a little way out of the ground, — instead, I say, of stumbling over it, and being offended at it, say to yourselves, '' Here is another root of godly living, a root which, if I can only plant it in my heart, is sure to bring forth a goodly tree of some christian grace or other." Thus it is with all the great truths, with all the great THE ALTON SERMONS. doctrines of our faith : nor is it otherwise with the greatest and most mysterious of all its doctrines, with the doctrine which embraces all the others, the doctrine of the ever-blessed Trinity. But what is the doctrine of the ever-blessed Trinity? Some of you may perhaps be glad to hear a short and simple explanation of it. And much does it behove you to understand what the Scrip- tures have revealed to us on this matter: seeing that it is the very doctrine into which you were all baptized, when you were baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. On this great and wonderful mystery it becomes the ministers of Christ to speak, humbly indeed, but plainly and boldly, so far as Scripture bears them out, — no further. Where the Bible stops, we must stop too. Were you walking over a moun- tainous country, beset with steep and dangerous precipices, so long as the sun lit up your path, and shewed you a safe footing, you would go on cheerfully and fearlessly. Still safer and more confident would you feel, if an angel were leading you by the hand. But if the sun went down, if a thick mist arose, if the angel let go your hand, if you found yourself in this dangerous country without light and without a guide, would you go on then ? Surely the true wisdom would be to stop the moment the light faded away, lest, by walking rashly on, you might stumble or slip into the jaws of death. Thus, when we are talking of the Trinity, so long as we keep within the bounds of Scripture, we may walk safely : for the light of God is upon us, and his angel is leading us by the hand. But when the Bible stops, we 'nust stop also. Every step beyond the written word is dangerous, and rash and foolish. Still, though it would be most unwise to follow the danc- ing lights of our own fancies, where the risk of a false step is so great, yet, as long as the light of the Bible is on our HOLY BRANCHES. 20I path, we may, we ought, to go on, under the assurance that God has revealed nothing in his word, except what it behoves us to know. We may not be able to reach the very top : but let us mount as high as we can, keeping in mind that we are not walking by our own light, but by God's light, and therefore walking humbly, as befits those who can do nothing of themselves. For as 'an excellent writer has said, " What would it profit us to speak never so wisely of the Trinity, if by speaking proudly we offended the Trinity ?" In this humble spirit would I speak, in this spirit would I have you listen to what I shall say, concerning the Holy Trinity. "The Catholic faith (as you have just heard in the Athanasian Creed) is this : that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity." This is the Catholic faith ; that is to say, the universal faith, the faith held by every faithful part and member of Christ's Church. By whatever name the various branches of that Church may be called, — Roman Catholics, Greeks, Lutherans, we of the Church of England, our brethren of the Church of Scotland, — however they may disagree and differ on other points, — and alas! these differences are so many and so violent, that Christ's coat, which was woven without seam from top to bottom, setting forth the perfect union which ought to subsist among true believers, has been shamefully rent and almost torn to tatters amongst them, — still, these many violent differences notwithstanding, the several churches of Christendom all agree in this, that they worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity. Therefore this faith is called catholic, or universal ; because it is held by all the churches. For this is the meaning of the word catholic : the Catholic faith is that which is held by all true believers : the Catholic Church is that which embraces and is made up of all true believers ; and everybody is a member of that Church, who holds all 202 THE ALTON SERMONS. the great doctrines of the christian faith. This is the Holy CathoUc Church which we profess in the Creed to beUeve in. This is the CathoHc Church for which we pray in the prayer for all sorts and conditions of men, and in the Litany, where we call it the holy Church universal. Now, the great doctrine of that Church, the doctrine which is held by every branch of that Church, — the doctrine by which whoever holds it becomes a member of that Church, while whoever rejects it ceases to belong to that Church, and becomes a heretic, — is the doctrine of the Trinity : that is to say, the doctrine that in the Godhead there are three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God : and that yet there are not three Gods, but one God. To the carnal understanding this doctrine sounds strange and hard to believe : it is strange and hard to believe, that three should be one, and that one should be three. Why then does the whole body of the Cathohc Church hold this doctrine? Because it is plainly set down in Scripture. Because the Scripture tells us on the one hand that God is one, and on the other hand that the Father is God, that our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, the Word that was with God from the beginning, is God, and that the Holy Ghost is God. Because moreover we are convinced that it is not in man, by seeking, to find out God, and that we cannot know anything of God, except what God himself is graciously pleased to make known to us. This then is the Catholic faith, that we acknowledge the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, to be each of them God, and yet that they are not three Gods, but one God. How these three Persons are so united as to make up only one God, we are nowhere told in Scripture : therefore on this, as with regard to so many lesser matters, we must be HOLY BRANCHES. 203 content to remain ignorant. Does this seem a great hard- ship to the pride of the would-be wise ? Let them come forward then, and prove their right to be admitted into the innermost mysteries of heaven, by shewing that they have fully mastered all the lesser mysteries of earth. Let them tell me why the needle of the compass always turns toward the north. Perhaps they will say, because it is its nature to do so. But that is no answer. My question is, why does the needle so turn? What secret and invisible hand twists it round, and teaches it to point always the same way ? Or, if this be too puzzling a question, perhaps these wise men, who think it so great a hardship that they are not permitted to understand God, may tell us a little about themselves. They can perhaps teach us how it comes to pass that the blood keeps on flowing unceasingly through our veins without our being aware of it, except when we are in a high fever. We grow tired with labour, or with exercise ; we tire even with doing nothing ; we need sleep at certain seasons to refresh us for the taskwork of the morrow : but the blood never wearies. On it flows, from the hour of our birth, day and night, summer and winter ; year after year it keeps on its silent round, never felt when we are in health, yet never stopping, and never sleeping, until it stops once for all, and sleeps the sleep of death. How, I ask, can these things be ? What, again no answer ! Tell me then at least, how it is that I dream ; or if you cannot, — and no one can, — let those who know nothing about the how and the why in so many of the commonest earthly matters, not be so very much surprised that they cannot understand the essence of that invisible, that eternal, that infinite Spirit, whom we call God. But though the Scripture has only told us that these things are, without teaching us how they are, yet for the sake of shewing that the mystery of the Trinity is not so 204 THE ALTON SERMONS, Utterly at variance with what we find in earthly things, as unbelievers would fain persuade us, — for the sake of proving how possible it is, even according to our limited notions, for that which is three in one sense, to be one in another sense, — learned and pious men have busied themselves in seeking out likenesses for the Trinity among the things of this world. It is most true indeed, and should be borne in mind, that these likenesses must be very imperfect, and that they cannot give us anything approaching to a full and just idea of the glorious Trinity. For so the prophet teaches us when he exclaims, " To whom will ye liken God ? or what likeness will ye compare to him ? Have ye not known ? have ye not heard ? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers : that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in." (Isaiah xl. i8, 22.) To whom then, or to what created thing can we liken God, and not fall immeasurably below the glory of his infinite perfec- tions ? Still, although no likeness to which we can liken God, can be of any avail toward shewing him to us as he is, yet since so many find a stumbling-block in the mystery of the Trinity, and so many cast it as a stumbling-block in their brother's path, there can be no harm, and there may be some good, in comparisons, which shew that it is not altogether unlike what we find in the natural world. More- over such comparisons may help you in attaching some sort of notion, though a very dim and imperfect one, to the words of your Creed, which declare that God is one, and yet that there are three Persons in the Godhead. They may keep these words from lying dead in your minds, or rather on your tongues. One of the comparisons or likenesses I am speaking of is taken from the most glorious object which our eyes see, the sun. That ball of light and heat, which we call most pro- HOLY BRANCHES. 205 perly the Sun, may be compared to the Father, from whom both the Word and the Spirit come. From this sun the light issues, and is as it were a part of it, and yet comes down to our earth and gives light to us. This we may compare to the Word, who came forth from the Father, and came down on earth, and was made man, and who, as St. John tells us, is " the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." But beside this there is the heat, which is a different thing from the light : for we all know, there may be heat without light : and so may there be light, — moonlight for example, and starlight, — without any perceivable heat. Yet the two are blended and united in the sun ; so that the same rays, which bring us light to enlighten us, bring us heat also to warm us, and to ripen the fruits and herbs of all kinds which the earth bears. This heat of the sun may not unfitly be compared to the Holy Spirit, that Lord and Giver of life, as the Creed calls him, for heat is the great fosterer of life : as we see for example in an egg. As that is hatched by the warmth of the parent bird, sitting on it lovingly, and brooding over it, until it is quickened into life; just so does the Holy Spirit of God brood with more than dove-like patience over the heart of the believer, giving it life and warmth ; and though he be driven away again and again by our backslidings, he still hovers round our hearts, desiring to return to them, and to dwell in them, and cherish them for ever. Moreover, if any seed of the Word has begun to spring up in any heart, the Spirit descends like a sunbeam upon it, and ripens the ear, and brings the fruit to perfection. Thus have we first the sun in the sky, secondly, the light, which issues from the sun, and thirdly, the heat, which accompanies the light, — three separate and distinguishable things : yet distinct as they are, what can be more united than the sun and its rays, or than the light and heat which those rays shed abroad? 206 THE ALTON SERMONS. The comparison which I have just set before you, is taken from the most glorious of the heavenly bodies known to us, the sun. Another is sometimes taken from the purest of earthly bodies, water. Here too we have first the fountain, high up among the rocks, far out of man's reach, answering to the Father ; secondly, the stream, which issues from the fountain, and flows down into the valley for the use of man, and which may be likened to Jesus Christ, the Son ; thirdly, the mist, which rises from the water, and falls in rain or dew upon the thirsty ground : this, I need hardly say, answers to the Holy Spirit, who in the days of the apostles came down visibly, like the rain, with a sound as of a rushing mighty wind, but who now descends gently and silently, like the dew in the silence of night, on the heart of the humble believer, to refresh it, to soften it, and to make it fruitful. Do not mistake me, my brethren. I do not mean that these comparisons will enable us to understand the mystery of the Trinity ; any more than a farthing rushlight will enable us to understand the sun. But supposing a man, who had never seen the sun, were to say, " it is impossible for the light to abide in the sun, and yet to be shed abroad over the earth," a farthing rushlight would suffice to shew him that the light, though it fills the room, may yet abide with the candle. In like manner the comparison I have been setting before you may suffice to convince you that the difficulty, by which so many have been offended, in the mystery of the Trinity, is not so irreconcilable with what we find in God's created works, as we are apt to fancy it. And this is all that we need. What God is in himself,— how the eternal Word is the only-begotten of the Father,— how the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son,— how the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost abide for ever in indissoluble union and unity, — these are questions of no importance to HOLY BRANCHES 207 the practical government of our lives. Therefore God has not thought fit to reveal them to us more clearly. That which it concerns us to know, that which is to act upon our hearts and souls, and through them on our conduct, has been declared to us. The holy root lies hid underground : the holy branches spread abroad before our sight, and offer us a safe shelter from all the evils of this world. Know- ledge, a wise man has said, is power ; but it is power only when we use it. Knowledge not applied, or misapplied, profits nothing. What good would knowing all the herbs and simples in the world do a sick man, if he did not use them to cure his sickness ? Neither would it profit us to know the most secret mysteries of the divine nature, unless that knowledge helped us on in the paths of holiness and godliness. But what, you may ask, are the practical uses and pur- poses, for which the doctrine of the Trinity was revealed to us ? What good can it do us to know that the Son is God, and that the Holy Ghost is God, as well as the Father, and yet that there are not three Gods, but one God ? What are the holy branches which spring from this most holy root ? Now, if the purpose and end of Christianity be, as it doubtless is, to bring us near to God in heart and life, it is easy to see, how much the revealing the doctrine of the Trinity to us is fitted to further that end. I say the reveal- ing it to us : because there might have been a Trinity ; the Son of God might have died to save us ; the Holy Ghost might come and sanctify us ; and yet we might know nothing of the matter. Even this would doubtless have been a great mercy, and a great blessing. But the having that mercy revealed to us so plainly,— the knowledge that these things are so, — the being made acquainted with the great works which have been done, and are doing by the Son of God and the Spirit of God for our sakes, — this 2o8 THE ALTON SERMONS. multiplies our debt, and makes the blessing and the mercy much greater. For consider what would be the state of a sinner, on waking from his sin, if he did not know himself to be par- doned. What dread ! ^vhat horror ! what despair ! what distracting thoughts of God's righteous indignation ! What an ever-present vision of hell yawning to devour him ! What a doleful voice ever ringing in his ears, Judgment ! Judgment ! Who could remain long in such a state ? What mind could go on dwelling on such terrible and dismal thoughts, and not be driven mad ? Yet this would be the state, the natural and reasonable state, of a sinner awaking from the sleep of sin, if he did not know of the propitiatory sacrifice which Christ has offered up for sin. But now that the good news of pardon and acceptance with God through the blood of Christ has been proclaimed to all who repent, the light of hope is let into the prison- house of sin : so that they who sat in darkness and the shadow of death, fast bound in misery and iron, — they who naturally could have nothing to look for but judgment and fiery indignation, for the misdeeds they have been wilfully guilty of, — for their drunkenness, for their lust, for their foul and evil-speaking, for the pains they have taken to learn mischief, for the opportunities of instruction and improve- ment which they have thrown away, — even these, on awaking from their slumber, and coming to a right mind, have only to lift up their eyes to heaven, to see the beams of mercy and forgiveness shining and ready to descend. They have only to take up their Bibles ; and they will read there— what? That sin is a light matter? Far from it. That it does not signify whether a man goes on sinning or not ? By no means. That God is easy, and will let sinners go unpunished ? Quite the contrary. They will find that sin is hateful to God, that punishment must follow it, that HOLY BRANCHES. 209 God " will by no means clear the guilty," but, according to their deeds, will repay " tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil." (Rom. ii. 9.) Yet in the midst of all these terrible passages, which so awfully repre- sent God's justice, they will find the freest and fullest and most merciful promises of pardon for Christ's sake, to every one without exception who repents and truly turns to God in time. They will read that "the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin " (i John i. 7) ; that God gave his only- begotten Son in order that all true believers in him should have everlasting life (John iii. 16); and many other pas- sages to the same effect. These will be sufficient, not to banish the sinner's shame and sorrow for his past life, — God forbid that they should ! — but they will make that shame and sorrow bearable. They will prevent his soul from sinking to the earth under an insupportable fear of God's wrath. They will save him from that recklessness and despair, which harden the heart and make it devilish. Instead of looking on himself as an outcast doomed to eternal torment, he will get to feel that he is pardonable, yea, and already pardoned, if he will only return home to God. He will learn that, during all his wanderings, he has been followed with a watchful eye by his merciful and heavenly Father : and then the thought of having wilfully offended such a father, of having run away from him to go and eat the husks of sin, — that thought, coming with a prospect of forgiveness, will soften his stubborn heart, and will make him sorrow with the godly sorrow which worketh repentance not to be repented of. Such are some of the blessed effects likely to be produced in the sinner's mind, by knowing that Christ came down from heaven to suffer death for sinners. Here then you see the benefit of know- ing at least so much about the Trinity, as to be aware of all that the second Person of it, the eternal and only-begotten p 2IO THE ALTON SERMONS. Son of God, has been pleased to do and suffer for our redemption. The good of knowing what is done for us by the third Person of the Trinity is also very great and plain. It is a great benefit for us to have been taught that the Holy Ghost is ever ready to help us in our endeavours after holiness. I have set before you the case of a sinner, whose eyes have been opened to see the danger and the wickedness of offend- ing God, and who is anxious to lead a better life. Let us follow this penitent a few steps on his road, and see what he will do next. Doubtless he will begin his reformation by studying the law of God ; for to keep it, he must know it. The first steps will perhaps be easy enough. Not to murder, not to commit adultery, not to steal, not to bear false witness, crimes like these he may never have had any mind to : at any rate now he would rather die than be guilty of anything so wicked. But on reading a little fur- ther, he meets with other commandments as difficult as the first were easy; commandments far surpassing the utmost reach of human virtue, such as "be ye holy as God is holy," and "perfect as God is perfect;" commandments the most contradictory to flesh and blood, such as, that we must love them that hate us, that we must deny ourselves, that we must take up our cross and follow Jesus ; commandments reaching to the very smallest actions, and even thoughts, such as, that we must cleanse and purify our hearts, that we muot bridle our very tongues. Now who is sufticient for such things ? Who can hope, try he never so much, to become perfect like God ? The more a man thinks what God is, and what great goodness he requires from us, the more he learns of the divine law, how exceeding broad and high and deep it is, the further he sees into the spiritual nature of the service which we owe him, — the more he must needs feci his utter inability to serve and obey God as he HOLY BRANCHES. 21 1 ought to do. Here then a new despair threatens to over- whelm the penitent, a despair of being able to pay God a sufficient and acceptable service. He sees, and is forced to confess, to use St. Paul's words, " that the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good." But what does this profit him when the holiness of the command- ment only shews him his own crookedness, but gives him no means of becoming upright ? What does it avail him that he delights in the law of God and feels its excellence and purity so long as he sees another law in his members bringing him into captivity to sin, or at least crippling him from attaining to the purity he admires and longs for? Truly it avails and profits him just as much, and no more, than it profited the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda to be desirous of being made whole, and to lie on the edge of the healing waters, which he had not strength to step into. But thanks be to God ! a remedy has been pro- vided for this our natural weakness by the gracious kindness of the Holy Ghost; just as a remedy has been provided for our natural sinfulness by the blood-shedding of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God takes the sinner out of the hands of the blessed Jesus : he nurses him ; he cherishes him ; he feeds him ; he supports and strengthens him ; and finally he takes up his abode within him and purifies him, and gradually changes his whole nature, filling him with love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Surely the knowledge that the Spirit does all this is an inestimable benefit to the young Christian. It gives him courage : it excites him to persevere and struggle on : it sets before him the certainty of conquering, if he be not wanting to him,self. Instead of crying out, as otherwise he might have done, " O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death !" he now exclaims, with humble confidence, " I can do all things, through 212 THE ALTON SERMONS. Christ that strengtheneth me : in spite of tribulation and temptation, through Christ I shall be more than con- queror." Nor is it merely to the sinner, or to the penitent, that the knowledge of the Son and of the Spirit of God is a root yielding blessed fruit. To the true followers of Jesus Christ, to those who have already made advances in holiness, to those who have tasted and learnt how gracious the Lord is, — to such persons the knowledge of these great truths is still more precious than to any others. Think of knowing that you have a Friend, a Saviour, a prevailing Advocate in heaven. Think of knowing that you have the Spirit of all peace and joy and purity dwelling in you. Think of knowing that, come what will, you have an almighty Shep- herd, who once died to save you, and who now ever liveth to protect you. " Who will harm you," says St. Peter, " if ye be followers of that which is good?" Let me wax bolder, and ask, what can harm you ? What can harm you, if ye be followers of Christ? Can Satan, whom he has trampled on? can the world, which he made, and will destroy ? can sin, which he expiated on the cross ? can death, whose chains he burst at his resurrection? Fears then there can be none, except from human weakness, to the faithful followers of Jesus. Nor can there be doubts or lasting sorrow. What doubts can there be to that man, who hath God's word pledged for his salvation, and who has the promise of the Holy Spirit to teach him every necessary truth ? As to sorrow, are we not expressly told that all things work together for good to them that love God ? What room then to such blessed persons can there be for any lasting sorrow? Even that most incurable of earthly griefs, the grief for the loss of those who are gone before us, — even of that St. Paul speaks in these words : " I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning HOLY BRANCHES. them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope ; for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." (i Thess. iv. 13-18.) The sum of the whole is this : though the nature of God must needs be mysterious to our understandings, there is no mystery in the benefits we receive from him nor any dark- ness in the duty we owe him. Without comprehending how the three Persons of the Godhead are united in one eternal God, we may glorify each for his excellent greatness and goodness to man. We may glorify the Father, the original fountain of all things, who sent his only Son to work out our salvation. We may glorify the Son, who undertook and has accomplished that salvation. We may glorify the Holy Ghost, who is graciously present with the faithful in Christ to write his words in their hearts, to comfort and succour them, and to lead them in the steps of their Redeemer to the gates of heaven which he has opened. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, were not revealed to us that we might be more knowing, than the heathens. We were told of the Father, that we might obey the Father : we were told of the Son, that we might be delivered from our sins by the Son : we were told of the Holy Ghost, that we might welcome him into our hearts, and throw them open to receive him. What will it avail us to have heard of the Father, if we choose to be cast out for ever from his presence ? what, to have heard of the Son, if we reject the atonement of his blood ? what, to have been brought up in the knowledge of the Holy Ghost, if we despise his warnings, drive him from our hearts by our impurities, and remain, like Gideon's fleece, dry in the midst of so much moisture, unregenerate and unsanctified amid the largest offers of the freest and most overflowing sanctification ? Do not deceive 214 THE ALTON SERMONS. yourselves so fatally, my brethren : do not repeat the error of the Jews. Do not fancy that knowing is doing, that right notions make a saving faith. True faith and true love, the trust in God and the love of God, — a trust shown by resig- nation to his will, a love proved by keeping his command- ments,— these are the only things to rely on. Cling to them, and they will bear you through the world to heaven, where all mysteries will be cleared up, and all difficulties will be done away : for we shall be let into the presence of God, and shall see him as he is. And what is better, if possible, even than seeing and knowing God, wq shall be ever growing more and more like him. XVIII. THE FOOLISH MOCKERS. Proverbs xiv. 9, Fools make a mock at sin. " "OLESSED is the man, (says David at the beginning of ■"-^ the Psahiis,) who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, and hath not sat in the seat of the scornful." These words, it is plain, are meant to describe the course and progress of a wicked life, going on from bad to worse, until it arrives in the end at the most hardened and reckless impiety. Therefore to sit in the seat of the scornful must be a very dreadful state : inasmuch as it amounts, in the language of the Psalmist, to fixing oneself resolutely and boastfully in evil. In like manner the prophet Jeremiah, when speaking of certain persons from whose company and conversation he kept aloof, makes use of nearly the same expression : "/ sat ?iot in the assembly of the mockers " (xv. 17). Now who are these scornful persons, these mockers, whom holy men of old were so careful to shun ? They are the very persons of whom Solomon is speaking in the text, the fools, as he calls them, who make a mock at sin. If you bear in mind what sin is, — that it is an open rebellion against the God of heaven, that it is a deiiance of him who is Almighty, — you may 2l6 THE ALTON SERMONS, know what you ought to think of persons who are daring enough to make a mock at it. To make a mock is to speak hghtly and slightingly of a thing, or, as we should say in common English, to make a jest of it. But what must be the state of a man's mind, when he can make a jest of offending God ? Can he be in his senses ? He has lost the most precious of all senses, the sense of right and wroog. Therefore the Bible, which takes no account of any wisdom, except that which goes along with righteousness in this world, and leads to blessedness in the next, calls all such persons fools : " Fools make a mock at sin." Angels, we have reason to believe, mourn for sin, and weep, if they can weep, over the state of sinners. How foolish then must that man be, who can laugh at what angels weep at ! A laugher at a funeral would be a wise man to such a person. This is so plain a truth, that none of you, I should think, can doubt it. No man, at least no man who ever set foot in a church, can doubt the foolishness and madness of opposing and contradicting God, by either calHng or think- ing a thing light and harmless and laughable, which he has declared to be a sin, and therefore hateful in his holy all- seeing eyes. But perhaps you may be disposed to ask, " What is the use then of preaching on such a subject ? why take the pains of proving what nobody doubts ? why warn people against the folly of a sin that nobody is ever guilty of?" My brethren, did I really believe that nobody, or that very few persons were ever guilty of making a mock at sin, assuredly I should not preach against it. But is this quite certain ? Is it quite certain that nobody here present has ever made a mock at sin ? Alas, if we consider the various ways in which this may be done, I am afraid that, arrant as this folly is, it will turn out to be much commoner than we fancy. I am afraid that, if we were to question our consciences strictly, few of us would have the satisfaction of THE FOOLISH MOCKERS. 21 7 finding that they have always been firmly bent, like the pro- phet, not to sit in the assembly of the mockers. The various ways in which men make a mock at sin, may be summed up under two heads : by their words, and by their actions. We shew our scorn and contempt of a thing in our words, when we speak carelessly of it, or laugh at it, or turn it into ridicule. We shew it in our actions, when we live in such a manner as proves that we have no value or regard for it. Words may be uttered thoughtlessly and hastily : but let a person manifest his feelings and sentiments in action, above all in a continued and persevering line of action ; let him express his opinions and declare his thoughts by his deeds ; and he must indeed be speaking from the abundance of the heart. If a servant, a tenant, a subject were to persist in a course of stubborn resistance to the commands of his master, his landlord, or his king, notwith- standing admonition upon admonition, warning upon warn- ing, threat upon threat, could it be said with the least colour of reason that he respected or cared for him, — that he did not treat him with slight ? Suppose that, after many repeated acts of disobedience and resistance, the servant or subject were to go to his master or to his king, and to tell him in a long speech, how much he feared him, how entirely he was devoted to him, while he meant in his heart all the while to go on disobeying and resisting him, exactly as he had done before, — would not such conduct be adding a new and grosser insult to all the former ones ? Would it not be a downright mockery ? even as it was a mockery in the soldiers, when they crowned Christ, and called him king, and bowed the knee before him, and then rose up and smote him, and spat on him. This then would be the chief count in my indictment against the main part of tho>e who call themselves Christians, — that they call Jesus Lord, and yet do not the things which he would have them do, insult- 2l8 THE ALTON SERMONS. ing him by their disobedience, while they mock him by their lip-service. Even of the first kind of mockery, the mockery of words, few are Avholly innocent. Of the last kind of mockery, the mockery of deeds, all have been more or less guilty. Under the former head come all those grosser offences against piety, and even against common decency, those scoffs at the word and at the laws of God, the mad babble of the unbeliever, and the obscene ribaldry of the libertine, the mire in which the swine walloweth, and the vomit to which the dog returneth. These barefaced mocks at sin, — let me rather call them mocks at God, — are still however by God's blessing rare amongst us, at least in country parishes : and wherever the lessons of christian education are duly extended to the body of the people, wherever the Gospel is duly preached and taught, as Christ ordained it should be, to the poor, — there by God's blessing they shall still continue rare. But there are a number of other offences, less glaring indeed than those I have just spoken of, which come under the same head of mocks at sin, and which, I am afraid, are by no means uncommon : though they too are ruinous to all purity of heart, and to all holiness of life. Such are all irreverent appHcations of scripture phrases, all idle jokes on the mysteries, the ceremonies, and the ordinances of religion, wherein many, especially among the ^oung, are too fond of indulging, thus destroying that reverence for the things of God, which it behoves all to feel. To the same class belong the songs of the drunkard, and all that foolish talking and jesting, which St. Paul forbids as not convenient, that is to say, as ill-suited to the character of a Christian, and at variance witli that spotlessness of thought and word which our Lord requires from his people. These things, common though they be, every one knows and feels to be wrong ; they are so evidently mocks at sin, THE FOOLISH MOCKERS. 219 nobody has a word to say in excuse of them. Yet when any of us employ any of those little mincing phrases, under which people are so fond of disguising broad and open crimes, when we use any of those gentler names for sins, which the world has cunningly substituted for the plainness of christian language, — are not we ourselves guilty of some- thing like the same offence ? Are not we, by a weak com- pliance with a mischievous and unholy custom, speaking lightly of the sins which God has heavily condemned, when we speak of them by a light name ? This is a matter which people ought to consider more seriously than they do, see- ing that names go so far in governing the world. If a lie were always called a lie, and nothing else, — if a theft were always called a theft, and nothing else, — if whoredom and adultery were always called whoredom and adultery, and nothing else, — we should have much fewer Hars, fewer thieves, fewer whores and adulteresses, than are now seen walking about, lifting up their heads without shame in the light of the sun. For in that case the sin would be ever set before us in its naked hideousness and horror; and the imagination and the conscience would start from a sight so frightful and revolting. But wrap up the same crime in a soft unmeaning phrase, so that the ear shall not be shocked, nor the conscience scared, call a lie a story or a fib, call the sin of whoredom a slip, — and they who are tempted too readily fancy there can be no great harm in that of which the world speaks so mildly and indulgently. That the wretches, whether of high or low degree, who wish to further Satan's work on earth, and to decoy new victims to his net, — that they, who are the devil's agents, should employ the devil's craft, — is not surprising. But that the great majority of the world, who have no desire to lead their fellow- creatures into evil, who have no wish to set up the empire of sin, who would rather see men honest and sincere and 2 20 THE ALTON SERMONS. chaste and sober, than the contrary, — that we should fall as almost all have done, into this most mischievous practice of miscalling sins, is indeed a matter of wonder and regret. And yet who can say that he has always spoken of sins, as sins ought to be spoken of? Who can say that he has never used any of those gentle, delicate phrases, by which some of the blackest crimes are frittered down into failings, into errors, into pardonable weaknesses, which it is harsh to censure too severely ? It is idle to plead, that the thing remains the same, whatever name you call it by. The softer name does not grate on the ear, does not alarm the soul, and frighten it off the forbidden ground. Call the sin by its true name ; and we see and feel that it is a thing hateful to man, and condemned by the law of God. Indeed this is the very reason why people blink the true name : they are loth to speak too much evil of it. Mealy-mouthed in this matter alone, they are loth to speak evil of sin. Who on the other hand can say that he has always spoken of piety and holi- ness, as piety and holiness ought to be spoken of? For here again the world is wont to speak through the devil's trumpet : here again it has a set of misnomers, another set of mocks. While it speaks of the foulest sins by harmless and familiar names, turning stains into spots, and spots into specks, it no sooner catches a glimpse of anything that looks like piety, than it sets up a cry against it, ridiculing it, scoffing at it, magnifying every petty act of self-denial into a piece of pharisaical hypocrisy. And here again even those who profess to be Christians, even those who profess to wish that their neighbours should be good Christians, are too apt to follow the example of the world, to jeer where the world jeers, and to rail where the world rails. This is one, and all must acknowledge, a very common vv'ay, in which the world at present is wont to make a mock at sin. Another and worse form of the same otfence, yet, I THE FOOLISH MOCKERS. 221 fear, a ver)^ common one also, is when men, in looking at any wicked conduct, suffer themselves to be dazzled by- some of its accompaniments, so as to lose sight of its wickedness, and in speaking of it, instead of expressing a righteous indignation at its sinfulness, will talk with admira- tion of the agreeable qualities with which the criminal has adorned his crime, or of the talents which he has misapplied to it. Who has not heard the reveller and the libertine, if he happens to be lively and companionable, praised as pleasant and goodhumoured ? Who has not heard rogues highly spoken of for their dexterity, and almost applauded when sharpwitted? Who has not witnessed how in the opinion of the world cleverness, or courage, covers a multi- tude of sins ? Yet, common as such judgments are, surely they stamp the mark of folly on the brow of all who so judge of sin. No one thinks of praising a poison for being either sweet or strong. No one takes young tigers into his house, and rears them as playmates for his children, because their claws are so sharp, and their gripe so crushing. Yet the same man, who would never think of trusting his child with the sweet or strong poison, who could not sleep in his bed, if he knew that a beast of prey was prowling about his dwelling, will talk in the presence of his family as if there were no harm in wickedness, provided it be pleasant, or clever, or audacious, that is to say, provided it be great and dangerous and attractive, and all but inexcusable. Now how are we to account for this glaring difference between our judgments with regard to physical and moral evil? How comes it, that, if a thing be deadly to the body, we care not for its sweetness, and dread it in proportion to its power, whereas, if a thing be deadly to the soul, we prize it for its attractiveness, and admire it for its power, although both these qualities render it more deadly ? The reason is plain : we have a prudent and wholesome dread of bodily 222 THE ALTON SERMONS. pain and death, and are foolishly careless about what can only hurt and kill the soul. Sin in our eyes is a small matter, so small, that the very qualities which render it more sinful, strip it in our eyes of its oftensiveness, and so conceal that offensiveness, that we are ready to embrace and make friends with it. Thus here we have another way in which men are very apt to make light of sin, and to shew their want of clear sightedness, their want of sound judgment, their want of right feeling, in a word, to shew their foohsh- ness in so doing. This is a matter on which it is needful to speak plainly: because it is truly monstrous that, in a christian country, the thing most frequently left out of account in speaking or judging of any action should be its righteousness or sinfulness. Nor would anything that man can do work more powerfully to the encouragement of goodness, and to the discountenancing of irrehgion and immorality, than a strict stern habit of calling everything, be it good or be it evil, by its true and christian name. Thus we have seen that, even in England, and in our days, there are many ways in which people still make a mock at sin in their words, and that such conduct richly deserves the charge of foolishness given to it in the text. But there is also another way of making a mock at sin, in deed. If all pretence and makebelieve be more or less a mockery, then assuredly a long-continued course of such pretences, in which the tongue goes on crying VeSj while the heart all the time is muttering JVa, must prove a man to be habitually and insolently regardless of the thing or person that he treats with such solemn contempt. Such, we say, would be the case, if a servant, alter disobeying his master, — a tenant, after defrauding his landlord, — a subject, after rebelling against his king, — should go and make dutiful promises without any intention of performing them. Such too, if we are God's subjects and servants, — if we are his THE FOOLISH MOCKERS. 223 tenants, holding our life and health and all our' enjoyments solely under him, and at his will, — such must also be the case with us Christians, whenever we turn our hearts away from God, and yet draw near to him with a thoughtless or hypocritical lip-service. This question may be brought to a speedy issue. We are assembled here in church, to entreat God's pardon for our sins, to acknowledge that we have failed to do what we ought to have done, and have done what we ought not to have done : for all these faults we have entreated to be forgiven, and have besought God to give us his gracious help, that we may lead better lives in future. Now let every person ask himself this simple ques- tion : '* Did my heart go along with my lips, and with the voice of the minister, when these petitions were repeated? Did I really feel the slightest touch of grief at having made so base and worthless a return to my King and Master for all his manifold loving-kindnesses to me? Was I in any degree sorry for having offended God ? Have I at this moment any sort of wish to serve him better in future?" If you have not felt any of these things, you must be well aware that your prayers have been only so much froth, and that your whole service this evening has been no better than a grave mockery. Yet it is probably the only service that many of you render God from one week's end to the other. Is it not too true then, my brethren, that of this sinful mockery, this mockery by deeds, we have all of us been more or less guilty ? God grant that we may not be so now, or that, if any are so now, they may never be so again ! But some of you will perhaps say, that you mean to repent and turn to God by-and-by, and so what you do now does not much signify. Unholy and godless as your hves may be now, Christ's merits are sufficient to wash away all sin ; and you mean to take advantage of them, when you 2 24 THE ALTON SERMONS. have given your passions a run some years longer. And is not this a fresh mock, and perhaps the worst of all ? To take advantage of a person usually means to cheat him ; and so in fact do they who talk or think in this way, purpose in their hearts to cheat Christ. Because Christ died to deliver us from our sins, that we may live a life of righteous- ness, therefore do they continue in their sins, and plead the mercy of God as a ground for cleaving to their iniquity. If men really valued that mercy, as they say they do, if they duly estimated the price it cost to purchase their forgiveness, would they dare so abuse it ? But the guilt of such mockery is too plain : let me rather speak of its folly. It is the folly of playing with death. It is the folly of provoking God to cut us off in the midst of our calculating wickedness. We know, he can read our hearts : we know, he can see our purpose to cheat him. What then ! do we think we can outwit God ? Above all is such conduct folly, because we are disabling our hearts and souls every day more and more for the work of repent- ance ; without which, we know and believe, we can have no part in the promises of the Gospel. For nothing is more certain than that, the longer a man persists in sin, the harder it is to leave it off. His heart is deadened ; his conscience is blunted ; his soul closes itself by little and little against the impulses of the Holy Spirit. Thus at last it becomes as impossible, — the word is a fearful, but a true one, — it becomes as impossible, naturally speaking, for the hardened sinner to shake off his nature and do well, as for the Ethiopian to change his skin, or for the leopard to change his spots. Yet be the difficulty of repentance what it may, repent we must : or we shall be found wanting in the day of judg- ment. I need not tell you by whom we are to be tried. You know,— every one here must know, — that he is to be THE FOOLISH MOCKERS. 225 tried by Jesus Christ. Yes, that Saviour, whose name, and whose Father's name, the hardened sinner has so often taken in vain, — whose words were read in church, but he would not come, or, if he came, would not listen, — whose body and blood were set before him on the sacramental table, but he refused to be fed with that living bread, and to drink of that blessed cup, — that Saviour, at whose name, at whose words, at whose mercy, at whose love, the hardened sinner has all his lite been making mock, will then be his judge. God " will judge the world (says St. Paul, Acts xvii. 31) by that man whom he has ordained," even by his own Son, who in the beginning created man, and afterwards was himself made man, and died for man, and knoweth everything that is in man. Is it a great comfort to have so good a judge? Is it a great comfort to the sincere believer that God should appoint his own Son, the Friend of man, the Advocate of man, to exercise judgment on that great day ? Can he feel more confidence in laying bare the weaknesses of his heart to Him who was in all things tempted like as we are ? Do we feel certain that he will pity the poor and ignorant, inasmuch as he himself was poor, and chose out his apostles from the poor and ignorant ? I grant it ; and praised be God for it ! Else who could stand before that dreadful judgment-seat, if justice were not to be tempered with mercy ? But on the other hand it must needs heighten the fears of every hardened sinner, that our Saviour, his anointed King, gracious to all who will accept his grace, but, to all who will not, terrible, is to come in person, with ten thou- sand of his saints, to execute judgment on all the wicked. Then shall they look on him whom they have pierced by their rebellious folly and ingratitude. They shall see him whom they have crucified, — crucified afresh, the apostle says, — ^by sinning and making mock at sin. O righteous Lord, who can abide thee on that dreadful day ! Come to Q 2 26 THE ALTON SERMONS. US mercifully in this world, we beseech thee, that we be not separated from thee in the world to come. For all, my brethren, all who are not united to God here, must never expect to be united to him hereafter. And who are these wretched people, who can never be peiTuitted to dwell with God, or to taste the joys found only in his presence ? They are the persons spoken of in the text, the fools who have made a mock at sin, the disobedient, the careless, the im- penitent, the sabbath-breaker, the drunkard, the lustful, the covetous, the worldly-minded, the hard-hearted. These persons, with their eyes open, have chosen death instead of life. If these things are really so, if the end of these foolish mockers is so certain and terrible, let us, my brethren, seek wisdom, — that true wisdom which cometh from above, and which is first pure, then peaceable, full of mercy and gentle- ness, and of all good works. Happy is the man who findeth this wisdom ! whoso findeth her findeth life, and shall obtain the favour of the Lord. For God delights in her, as most agreeable to his nature, as most resembling himself, as his own gift, the offspring of his own perfection, as begetting honour, love, and hearty obedience to his will, as glorifying him the most truly by best promoting the happiness of his creatures. Let us seek this wisdom, and seek it where it is to be found, — in the Bible, the book of wisdom, and of life; more especially in the gospels, in the words of our blessed Saviour, his commands, his promises, his warnings, his entreaties. Parts of the Bible may be difficult to under- stand : but these are not difficult, except to practice. In truth, were they as easy to perform, as they are to under- stand, we should no longer have need of praying for the coming of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God would be come already; the earth would be transfigured into heaven. Moreover while you seek for the seeds of THE FOOLISH MOCKERS. 227 wisdom in the Bible, you must not allow them to He there. You must pick them up, and try to sow them in your own hearts, weeding your hearts at the same time, by examining them carefully in the light of the Bible, and plucking up everything growing therein, that the Bible condemns. But neither will the seeds we sow grow up, nor shall we be able to root up the weeds, unless God blesses our labours : and his blessing can only be obtained by diligent and fervent prayer. Therefore we must follow the command of St. James, who tells us that, if we lack wisdom, we must ask it of God, who giveth liberally. All who lack wisdom must ask it of God ; that is, all men who have ever lived : for all lack it. No one had ever enough of it : no one has enough of it to learn its value, but wishes earnestly for more. What remains then my brethren, seeing that we all lack wisdom, but that we all unite in praying for it to Him who alone can give it, to God, the Eternal Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ? O Lord, who hast taught us by thy holy apostle, St. James, to pray to thee for wise and understanding hearts, we kneel before thee in humble trust that, what thou hast commanded us to ask for, thou wilt grant us out of the treasury of thy mercies. Therefore, O Everlasting Wisdom, the Maker, Redeemer, and Governor of all things, let some comfortable beams from the great body of thy heavenly light descend upon us, to enlighten our dark minds, to quicken our dead hearts, to kindle them with the love of thee, and to guide our steps along the path of thy laws through the gloomy shades of this world, to that region of eternal light and bliss, where thou, most blessed Jesus, the Wisdom of God, and the Power of God, reignest with the Father and with the Holy Spirit, in glory, and majesty, world without end. XIX. THE UNJUST STEWARD. Luke xvi. 8, 9. And the Lord commended the unjust steward, because lie had done wisely : for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of un- righteousness, that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. '"PHESE words are from the parable of the unjust -^ steward : and there are two points in them by which, owing to a want of clearness in the translation, many persons have been a good deal puzzled. How comes our Lord Jesus, they ask, to commend the dishonest steward ? How again comes he to bid us make friends of the mammon of unrighteousness? or, as most readers nowadays are likely to understand the words, to make the mammon of un- righteousness our friend? If these two difficulties are removed, the parable is clear enough ; and removed they may be in a very few words. In the first place it is not our Lord Jesus Christ, who commends the unjust steward, but the steward's own lord and master; for this is the word which we should use nowadays : it is the steward's master, who, being struck by the cleverness he had shewn, commends it: just as people THE UNJUST STEWARD. 229 now might perhaps speak with admiration of the cleverness and skill displayed by a forger, in copying a very difficult bank note, without in the least intending by so doing to justify or excuse his crime. We should all agree in con- demning that. All would agree in saying it was a sad pity the man had turned his cleverness to such a bad purpose. Still a person may do a bad thing in a sharp, handy manner; and we might praise the manner of doing it, while we utterly reprobated the thing itself. Just so it is with the steward's master in the parable. He can never have meant to praise his servant for defrauding him of his rents : but he was struck with the cleverness of the rogue's contrivance ; and that he commended. As to the other difficulty, it arises altogether from a change in the meaning of the little word of; which our fore- fathers often used, where we should now say by. Thus in the Bible we often find such expressions as "taught of God," " warned of God." Here however, though in these days we should say, " taught by God," " warned by God," still, as the words cannot mean anything else, there is no uncertainty. But there are many passages in which it is otherwise, and we may easily fall into mistakes. For instance, when we read in the ist chapter of St. Matthew, " Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet," — at first thought we should all take these words to mean " what was spoken co7icerning the Lord by the prophet;" whereas their real meaning is, that " all this was done to the end that what was spoken by the Lord through the mouth of his prophet might be fulfilled." I have said thus much about this little word, because I believe very few persons read the New Testament, who do not stumble at my text ; and numbers, even among those who have had what is called a good education, turn away from it in sad perplexity, unable to 230 THE ALTON SERMONS. conceive how Jesus Christ could command them to make the mammon of unrighteousness their friend. And assuredly he does not so command them. What he bids us do, is to make friends by, or by the help of, the mammon of un- righteousness : that is, to employ the mammon of un- righteousness,— mark the words, — to employ that mammon, that riches, which is called unrighteous, because by so many it is gained dishonestly, and spent wickedly, — to employ that riches, which so many employ amiss to their soul's hurt, in making friends for ourselves, who shall receive us into everlasting habitations. In other words, our blessed Lord commands us to make such a use of our money, and of all our other talents, be they what they may, for the glory of God and the good of our brethren, that after our death it may please our God and father to receive us into the heavenly abodes of never-ending peace and joy. The parable having thus been cleared of its main diffi- culties, its general purport may be stated as follows. There was a rich landholder, who entrusted the management of a large estate to his steward. After a time charges were brought against the steward of wasting and injuring the property. So his master sent for him, told him he should turn him off, and bade him bring in his accounts. On hearing this the steward was in despair : he knew he should never get another place, after being sent away in such a manner : and he had saved no money to live upon. " I cannot dig," he said to himself; " I am ashamed to turn beggar. What shall I do?" At last he hit on a device, to gain the goodwill of his master's tenants, so that, when he had lost his home, they might be ready to befriend him. He sent for them; and to the first that came he said, "How much does your rent amount to this year?" To understand this question, and the answer to it, you must bear in mind that it was not the custom in those days for THE UNJUST STEWARD. 23 I the tenant to pay his landlord a fixed sum of money by way of rent. In those countries the land used to be let, and, I believe, still is let on entirely different terms. The tenants are mostly poor men. They have no money to stock their farms, and to manage them on their own account. So the landlord supplies the stock, the seed, the tools, and what- ever else is wanted for the cultivation, of the farm: the tenant, or husbandman, finds the labour : and they divide the produce, whatever it may be, between them. The tenant keeps a certain portion, generally half, to himself, and pays over the remainder to his landlord. It is not hard to see what abuses and what dishonesty this mode of taking land opens a way to. The steward in the parable takes advantage of it, to make friends with the tenants at his master's cost. He asks the first farmer who comes to him, "How much is your rent this year?" And the man says to him, " A hundred measures of oil. My olives have turned out very well this year, and have given a good quantity of oil; and my landlord's share comes to a hundred measures." " What," said the steward again to him ; " a hundred measures of oil from such a small oliveyard as yours ? I am sure my master will be quite satisfied if you pay him half that. So take your bill, and write fifty." Having thus made a friend of the man who farmed the oliveyard, the steward repeated the same piece of roguery with a tenant who rented some corn-land. He, it seems, owed his landlord a hundred measures of wheat. But the steward again said, " It is too much for you to pay," and bade him take his bill, and set down fourscore. By some accident the steward's trick came to the master's ears ; "svho was struck with his cleverness, and though he had been a sufferer by it, commended him for it, — commended him, not for the roguery, but for the forethought and ingenuity it shewed. 232 THE ALTON SERMONS. With this commendation the parable ends. What follows is our Lord's remark on the story, and the moral he would have us draw from it. " In this story (he says) you see an example, how the children of this world are mostly wiser in their generation than the children of light. In this wisdom I would have you follow them. I would have you too endeavour to make friends to yourselves, — not such friends as the unjust steward made; for he made only earthly friends, — nor by the same dishonest practices; for that would be against the law of God and man : but I would have you no less anxious to make friends, no less careful, no less forecasting than he was. Only let your friends be heavenly friends, who will receive you into everlasting habitations. Do you wish to know how such friends are to be gained ? They are to be gained by the help of the mammon of unrighteousness, by making the most of all your earthly means and opportunities of serving God and helping your neighbour." It is impossible to read this parable, and our Lord's remark on it, without being struck by the broad assertion that the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. The children of light are those who have been called to a knowledge of the Gospel, and who have given ear to that call, at least in some measure. They believe in Jesus Christ : at least they profess to believe in him. They come to church, and listen decently to what is read and taught there. Sometimes too they pray, or at least say their prayers, at home. They read a chapter in the Bible now and then. In one way or other they have learnt enough about religion to know the kind of life which, as Christians, they ought to lead, — that they ought to be holy, kind, humble, self-denying. Nay, they have even a wish to lead such a life. Thus much at least is needed to make what our Lord in the text calls a child of light. The THE UNJUST STEWARD. 233 child of this world, on the other hand, is one who, like Gallio, the Roman governor, careth for none of these things. It is not necessary that he should be a professed unbeliever, only he never troubles his head about religion. He may be what the world calls a vicious man, or not ; just as his heart happens to be set on what the world calls pleasure, or on what it calls honour, or gain. But whether he leads a vicious, or a decent reputable life, religion has no place in his heart : he lives without God in the world. Now of these two men, our Lord says, the child of this world is wiser in his generation, mind ; that is, wiser in his own line. Jesus does not say that he is wiser altogether : for that he is not. The folly of making a wrong choice, — the folly of hungering after that which is not bread, and setting his heart on things which cannot satisfy, — the folly of turning his back on his heavenly Father, of living in care- less defiance or neglect of the Almighty Ruler of the world, — the folly of choosing to walk earnestly and busily in a path which leads to death and hell, — with all this heap of follies the child of this world is justly chargeable : and it is such a pitch of foolishness as must entitle him to the first and foremost place in folly. He is the fool of fools ; be- cause he chooses his course of life wrongly : whereas the child of light chooses, or at least professes to choose, his course of life rightly and wisely. But after the choice has been made, a wonderful change takes place. He who chose his path like a fool, walks along it like a wise man ; he who chose his like a wise man, walks along it like a fool. " The children of this world," says Jesus, "in their genera- tion, are wiser than the children of light." How does this happen? you will naturally ask. How comes the fool to act so much more wisely than the wise man ? and the wise man so much less wisely than the fool ? My friends, there 234 THE ALTON SERMONS. can be no doubt, the ground and cause of all this lies in that evil bias of our nature, which, unless the Spirit of God be within us to outweigh and check it, makes it so much easier for us to do wrong than to do right. At all events the fact is certain. The children of this world do, in their own line, and according to their own notions, act much more wisely than the children of light. It is impossible to walk through lire with one's eyes open, and not perceive that this is so. The true child of this world is thorough- going, active, persevering. When he has made up his mind that this or that thing is desirable, he sets his heart upon having it. He casts about and considers, until he has hit on a plan of getting it : and as soon as he is satisfied that his plan is a good one, he straightway begins carrying it into effect. It matters little whether the object of his wishes be great or small, whether it be an estate, or a horse ; if the child of this world wants to buy it, he takes the proper steps for doing so, and loses no time. He does not say, "That horse would just suit me : I never saw one I liked half so much : so the next time I come this way, some six months hence, I will ask the price of it." He is too wise for that: he knows that six months hence the horse may no longer be on sale : he bethinks himself that no time is like the present ; and if he finds that the horse is to be had for a fair price, he closes the bargain at once. It is the same whatever he engages in. It he is a man of business, he gives his mind to his business : he takes more delight in thinking about it, than about anydiing else. No subject interests him so much. Any firstrate book that treats of it, he would be sure to study ; and probably would have its chief rules and directions at his fingers' ends, ready to be applied on all occasions. Ii he cannot learn from books, he takes care to learn from men. He wastes no opportunity of talking about his business with persons of THE UNJUST STEWARD. 235 great experience in it. He is glad to hear what they may- have to say upon it : any practical hints or remarks which they may drop, he stores up and treasures for future use. In a word, he lives in his business, and for his business, and has very few cares or thoughts out of it. Such is the child of this world, if he happens to be a man of business : and assuredly he may well be called wise in his generation. For he has the wisdom to act up to his own notions. He places his happiness in his business ; and thither he goes to seek it. He thinks success in his worldly calling the best thing that can happen to him : and that success he does every- thing man can do to ensure, by diligence, by thought, by care, by painstaking, and very often by denying himself many pleasures and comforts. In a word, Mammon is the god he has chosen for himself: and he serves his god, as a god ought to be served, with all his heart, and with all his mind, and with all his strength. He is wise therefore in his way. Or suppose that, instead of a man of business, the child of this world happens to be a man of pleasure, — will he still be wise in his generation ? Yes, he will still be wise. He will not indeed shew his wisdom in the same way as the man of business : because the road of pleasure is different from the road of business. But in his own way, and on his own road, he will shew his wisdom just as much. He will seek pleasure and amusement with the same eagerness, with the same activity, with the same perseverance, with which the other seeks gain and profit. The true pleasure-hunter, who makes that his object in life, will follow after it early and late. Who so regular as he at the beershop, if he is poor, or at the tavern and gaming-house, if he is rich ? He is sure to be seen at every place of amusement, at every merrymaking, every feast and fair, that he can contrive to find his way to. He is fond of keeping company with per- 236 THE ALTON SERMONS. sons of his own sort. When he is with them, what deUght does he take in telling over his own adventures to them, and in hearing theirs ! His head is full of lewd stories and foolish songs. Thus he too is wise in his generation. For he makes his belief, his words, and his deeds tally. He has placed his happiness in pleasure ; and pleasure he thinks of, pleasure he talks of, pleasure he follows after from year's end to year's end. Everybody who knows him must see that pleasure is the great end of his life. To pleasure he gives himself up. He has chosen Belial, the god of lewd- ness and debauchery, for his god : and Belial he serves, as the other served Mammon, with all his heart, and with all his mind, and with all his strength. This then is the wisdom of the children of this world, that what they do they do thoroughly, — that what they pro- fess to think desirable, they strive in earnest to obtain, — that they do not allow a little thing to stop them, or lure them aside, when pursuing the object of their wishes, — that they worship their false gods with a true and zealous worship. Turn your eyes now to the children of light, and tell me whether you can see the like marks of wisdom in them. We profess to make heaven the object of our lives : are we really and earnestly following after it ? Are we as active, as zealous, as steady and persevering, in seeking after our heavenly inheritance, as the children of this world are in seeking after gain and pleasure ? Are we as much, or half as much, in earnest ? Do we never say, six months hence will be time enough to think seriously, and to repent and turn to God ? Do we take delight in the best book that was ever written, and keep its rules at our fingers' ends, in order to scjuare our behaviour by them ? Are we anxious to seek the company, and listen to the discourse, of such as honour God and keep his commandments ? Do we examme THE UNJUST STEWARD. 237 ourselves regularly, as a merchant examines his accounts ? Do we, on perceiving a fault in our christian life, set about thinking how we may best avoid it for the future, and then, having laid down our plan, carry it immediately and steadily into practice ? Do we rejoice as much in the Lord's day, as the man of business rejoices in his day of sale, and the man of pleasure in his day of amusement ? Or do you not often love your Sunday rather as a day of worldly rest, — which, blessed be God ! he has made it, — than as the day set apart for coming to God, and communing with him in his holy temple ? Alas ! too sure and certain is it, that we do none of these things. We serve our God, the great Maker and Ruler of the world, with less zeal, with less affection, with less heartiness, with less truth, than the man of business his Mammon, or the man of pleasure his Belial. This is the great fault and frailty of our christian life. We do our work by halves ? Is this wise ? is it reasonable ? is it not the height of madness ? to be so sluggish, so indo- lent, so Hstless, so false-hearted, in the service of the God who made us, and of the Saviour whom we declare to have redeemed us, — in the pursuit of the joys of heaven, which we declare to be the only true joys, and which are to last for ever ? If you did not believe the Gospel, if you did not proiess to be Christians, I might then say you were wise in your generation ; I might then exhort you to go on in your present course. But seeing that you do believe in Christ, seeing that you do hope and wish for heaven, take a lesson from the enemy, learn the wisdom of the serpent. Let us imitate the zeal, the perseverance, the prudence, the courage, the unweariableness, in a word, the wisdom, which the children of this world shew in the pursuit of their vain and perishable, of their ruinous and deadly objects. Let us be as active and as determined to please God, as they are to please themselves. Then, on that great day, when all the 238 THE ALTON SERMONS. shows of this world shall have passed away, and every man's work shall be made manifest,— while their wisdom turns out to be the excess of folly, and their labour to have been vanity and vexation, — while, in return for the wind which they have been sowing so diligently, they are reaping the whirlwind of wrath, — the God, who for his Son's sake will vouchsafe to accept our services, and to look with favour on our imperfect attempts to employ the mammon of unright- eousness in his service, will receive us into everlasting habitations. XX. THE EVIL EYE. Matthew xx. 15. Is thine eye evil, because I am good ? O UCH was the question which the householder in the ^ parable put to the labourers when they murmured against him for having been bountiful to their fellow- labourers, while he was only just to them. You probably remember that this householder had gone out early in the morning, and hired men to work in his vineyard for a penny a-day. But the men he hired at first were not enough : so he went out at different times during the day to get more hands. All who would engage with him he hired, but without any fixed agreement, merely promising generally to pay them what was fair and just. In the evening, when work was over, he told his steward to pay the men, and though some of them had worked only one hour, to give them all a whole day's wages. Each was to have his penny. Whereupon those who had been in the vineyard all the day, instead of rejoicing at the good fortune of their fellows, thought themselves hardly treated, because they had only received their due. " They murmured against the good man of the house, saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, who have borne the 240 THE ALTON SERMONS. burthen and heat of the day." "So I have," said the master of the vineyard to one of these murmurers : " I have paid you aHke : but you have received your just due : you have been paid the sum you agreed for ; take that thine is, and go thy way. May not I do as I hke with my own money ? If I choose to make these other men a present of a day's wages, what hurt or what wrong is that to thee ? Is thine eye evil, because I am good ? " These last words I have chosen for my text ; and it is about them that I am going to preach to you to-day. In other words, I intend my sermon to be on that very evil thing, an evil eye. Some perhaps may here ask, what is meant by an evil eye ? I answer, that in different places of Scripture different things may be meant by it. But what is meant in the text is clear enough. The evil eye meant here is such an eye as the labourers in the vineyard had, when they looked askance at their neighbour's good fortune. An evil eye therefore is a grudging eye. To say of any one in this sense that he has an evil eye, is the same as saying that he is of a grudging turn of mind. Now this evil eye, this grudging turn of mind, is far commoner than it ought to be. We have still too often cause to ask the question in the text, Is thine eye evil ? Neither is the evil confined to persons of any one class. High and low, rich and poor, young and old, each may have an evil eye. For examples of this in old times we have only to search our Bibles : where we find that not even the greatest and most powerful persons, not even those to whom God has given the most, are safe from this dangerous malady. When Ahab, the king of Israel, in the midst of his possessions, grudged Naboth his vineyard, and wanted to take it from him, was not this an evil eye ? Again, did not it shew an evil eye in Haman (who was the favourite of king Ahasuerus), to call his friends together, and, after tell- ing them of his riches and poAver, to say to them, " Yet all THE EVIL EYE. 241 this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate, who will not bow to me nor do me reverence." Surely Ahab might have been satisfied with the riches of Samaria. But no : his evil eye grudged Naboth a poor vineyard ; and so, though he was king of Israel, he went to his royal palace, heavy and displeased, and laid himself down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would not eat. So might Haman have been satisfied with the reverence paid him by all the princes of Persia. But no : his evil eye stung his heart, because one single Jew would not do him homage. Such is the form which the malady of an evil eye takes in the great of this world. It quite destroys their relish for the thousand earthly goods they have, because of some paltry trifle which they have not. How general a malady must this be then, when even the highest are not safe from it ! How bad and painful, what a bhghter of happiness must it be, when it can thus turn the most prosperous lot into bitter- ness ! Above all, how dangerous must it be, when it could lead to such wickedness as the murder of Naboth, and Haman's plot for destroying all the Jews throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus ! But let us come down a few steps in the ladder of life, and look at the middle classes of society : shall we find the evil eye among them ? Among them too, I grieve to sa\', we often find the evil eye, — not indeed shewing itself in murders, and in plots for a general massacre : such bad things, God be praised ! are so entirely out of our power, that we do not feel so much as tempted to them. In these days the evil eye does not shew itself in these horrible ways : but it does shew itself in a thousand ugly shapes, and uuvlcr every one of them breeds misery and mischief. What are all those jealousies and rivalries, which are for ever dividing neighbour from neighbour, friend from friend, and some- 242 THE ALTON SERMONS. times even brother from brother, and sister from sister, — what are these but the fruits of an evil eye ? Here you may see a man repining because he is not noticed by the great man of the country, while another is. There a man is vexing himself because his neighbour is more popular, or enjoys more influence, or has more skill and activity and enterprise. In a third place is a family divided against itself, because some one member of it happens to be a greater favourite at home or abroad than the others. Hence that one is envied and hated by those who are nearest to him in blood, just as Joseph was hated by his brethren, because they saw that their father Jacob loved him most of all. Let none say that these little jealousies and rivalries are trifling faults, not worthy to be named in a sermon. If they are trifling faults, then envy, and hatred, and malice, and uncharitableness are trifling faults: for the jealousies and rivalries I have been speaking of are neither more nor less than the envy, hatred, malice, and uncharitableness of our nature, shewing themselves in Httle things. Tme, you will find nothing about such jealousies and rivalries in Scripture. But you will find the same thing under another name. The word which our translators used, to express evil jealousies and rivalries, is emulations. Turn then to the Epistle to the Galatians, and there you will see what St. Paul thinks of emulations, that is, as we should say in modern English, of jealousies and rivalries, such as I have been speaking of. His words are these : " Now the works of the flesh are manifest, hatred, variance, emulations." These emulations then are works of the flesh, and that manifestly. In other words, they so plainly spring from the corrupt and evil, from the ungodly and selfish principle in man, that there can be no question or dispute about it. Now observe what sort of company the apostle classes emulations with: "The works of the flesh are these; THE EVIL EYE. 243 adultery, fornication, idolatry, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, envyings, murders, drunkenness,* and such like." (Gal. v. 19-21.) Such, according to St. Paul, is the parentage and lineage of these emulations, of these rivalries and jealousies, which people nowadays think it no great harm to indulge in. The parent of these emulations is the flesh; for they are the works of the flesh. The brethren of emulations are hatred and variance. The children of emulations are wrath and strife in families, seditions in the state, and envyings in the bosom of indi- viduals. That is to say, a spirit of rivalry in families will lead to wrath and strife ; a spirit of rivalry in kingdoms will lead to seditions and disturbances. Even when this evil spirit is penned up within a single bosom, it will rankle there and fill it with envy. Having thus seen the eflects of this evil eye, of this jealous grudging cast of mind, first in the highest, and then in the middle ranks, let us consider thirdly how it shows itself among the poor. That they are liable to this hateful disease quite as much as others, is clear from the parable whence the text is taken. For who were the people that murmured against the owner of the vineyard for being generous and bountiful to their fellows, when he had only been just to them? Were they not common labourers, who had been hired to work for the day? Day-labourers, then, and their wives, and their children, may all have an evil eye. But as the parable proves that the labouring poor may have this evil eye, so it likewise teaches us the way in which the evil eye most frequently shews itself in them. In them it generally shews itself in a grudging temper, which grumbles and teases itself, because some good has been done to a neighbour, which all do not share alike. Now this is truly the evil eye, — a disorder which, I fear, is quite as common among the poor of England now, as it can have been among 2 44 I'HE ALTON SERMONS. the labourers of Judea eighteen hundred years ago. The chsorder then being so common among all ranks, can we do better than consider how very evil an evil and grudging eye must be? And first among the evils of an evil eye I will put its glaring folly. If a man got any good by grieving at his neighbour's better fortune, there might be some excuse, or at least some worldly wisdom in doing so. But torment and vex yourselves ever so much, you will not be a iarthing the richer. If you cried at your neighbour's good luck from morning till night, you could not cry a halfpenny into your pocket. What folly then, because you are not so fortunate as you want to be, to make yourselves less happy than you need be ! But further, consider the unreasonableness of this grudg- ing evil eye. May not a rich man be bountiful to a few, without being bountiful to all ? Even if he did not choose to be bountiful to any one, he would not be answerable to you. To his God, who, after entrusting him with a store of good things, has commanded him by his apostle to give, and to distribute, — to God the niggardly rich man is indeed accountable : and heavy will his reckoning be. But to man he is not accountable : as far as man is con- cerned, he has a right to hoard if he will. Now if the rich man has a right, so far as this world is concerned, to give to none, — much more has he a right to give only to a few, and to choose who those few shall be. Suppose you had a penny loaf in your pocket, and met four hungry men. You might, if you pleased, divide the loaf among the four. But you might also choose to give it all to one. You might think within yourself, this little loaf will be nothing among four : but it may stay the hunger of one. Would not you have a lull right to give your loaf all to one? and would not you jiave a furtlicr right to choose which of the four you would THE EVIL EYE. 245 give it to ? One might be older than the others ; and per- haps you might Hke to give it to him. Or one might have a child at home ; and you might say to yourself, " That man must be more in want of it because he has a child to pro- vide for; I will give it all to him." Would not you have a right to do so ? If any one questioned you about what you had done, would you not think it enough to say, " The loat was mine, and I gave it as I thought proper ? Is not it lawful to do as I will with my own ? " Now what is true of this loaf, and these four men, is true more or less of all bounty. So long as a man gives a due portion of his worldly goods to the poor and needy, he has a right to use his own judgment as to the kinds of distress he will relieve ; and it is most unreasonable in those who are passed over, to com- plain because they are not relieved also. If I had a sum of money to give away, and chose to set it apart for the sick, would the healthy have any ground to grumble ? Or if I chose to set it apart for the old, would the young have any cause to complain ? Nay, suppose that one sick person happened to be passed over when all the other sick were relieved, or that one old person was passed over, when all the others received something, people might wonder at the exception ; but none would have a right to complain. The money being mine, I have a right, humanly speaking, to bestow it as I think best. This brings me to the injustice of an evil eye. Nothing can be more unjust than the complaints one hears from the discontented poor in every corner of the land. One cannot go east, or west, or north, without hearing people murmur- ing,— " It is very hard I should be left out of such a charity ; I have quite as much right to it as neighbour such a one." The answer to such complaints is very simple : True, you have the same right as your neighbour : and that is none at all. Alms are gifts ; and a man can have no right to a gitt. 246 THE ALTON SERMONS. To your wages, to what you earn, you have a right : just as the labourers in the vineyard had a right to their penny. But they had no right to more : and when they grumbled, because the landlord, after paying them their penny, did not give them something over, they were rebuked for their envious covetousness and warned against an evil eye. Can anything then be more unjust, than being angry with a man, because his bounty does not reach to you ? Nothing, I was going to say ; but on second thought there is one thing more unjust : the finding fault with your neighbour, because he has been more fortunate and more favoured than you. Yet how many do this ! How many are bitter against their neighbours, and look on them with an evil eye, because the overflowings of a rich man's bounty happen to run toward them ! The likelihood is, that they are in some way or other more deserving, either as being more in want, or better behaved : for the worst are always the chief grumblers. But even if they are not more deserving, still the question in the parable returns : May I not do what I will with my own ? May I not give to this family if I please, without giving to you also ? All however that I have said hitherto against an evil eye, — its folly, its unreasonableness, and its injustice, — all this is a mere nothing compared with its unchristian wicked- ness. We Christians have a Master to obey. He has given us a law ; and we should follow it. He offers us his Spirit : and we should seek it. Now the great principle of the christian law, the prime fruit of the christian spirit, is love. This spirit you must have; and its fruits you must have; else you are none of Christ's. " If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." (Rom. viii. 9.) But how can you flatter yourselves that you have the spirit of Christ, if you have so little love for your neighbour, as not even to rejoice when good befalls him ? The Scripture rule is, " Love THE EVIL EYE. 247 your neighbour as yourself." Do you rejoice when good happens to yourself? By that rule you ought to rejoice when good happens to your neighbour. A good man rejoices whenever good is done. If it be done to himself, he thanks God for it : and if it be not done to himself, still he thanks God for it; because somebody at all events is better off, somebody is less wretched, less hungry, less naked, less comfortless to-day than yesterday. Is not this a reasonable, an amiable, a christian motive for rejoicing ? Is not it on the other hand an unreasonable and hateful, and even devilish motive for repining ? God at the beginning made all things good : and the nearer they are brought back to that original good, the more the children of God rejoice. On the other hand the devil brought evil into the world : he brought upon earth the evil of sin, out of which all other ills take their rise. Just then as it belongs to the sons of God to rejoice that good is done, so it belongs to the children of the Evil One to grieve when good is done. Choose ye then, whose children ye will be, — the children of God, or the children of the Evil One. If you would be the children of God, pray to him to give you a good eye. If you would be the children of the Evil One, go on indulging an evil eye. But remember, you cannot be a mixture between the two. You cannot have an evil eye, and be God's chil- dren : God's children must have a good eye. Some however may perhaps tell me, " It is so hard to be contented ; above all, under poverty and distress." I believe it : and therefore I will conclude by pointing, out a way in which you may all be discontented without offence. If you must be discontented, let it be at your lack of godliness. There is no treasure half so precious, none half so lasting ; there is none, above all, whereof an evil-eyed and discon- tented person stands half so much in need. So, if you must be covetous, let it be according to the covetousness which 24S THE ALTON SERMONS. St Paul recommends. Covet earnestly the best gifts, espe- cially the excellent gift of christian charity, which will enable you to look on your neighbour as a part and portion of yourself. This is the crown and perfection of the christian spirit : and there is no attaining to it, except by conquering and killing self. Se//, remember, was the worst seed in Adam's apple. Toward God it is self-will, which is rebel- lion : toward man it is self-love, which is hard-heartedness. It was to root out this evil self from us, and to put in love in its room, that Christ died, and the Holy Ghost comes. Let not that death and that coming be in vain for you. But covet, since you must covet, with a godly covetousness ; and cease not to complain, cease not to cry out, weary the ears of God with prayer, until he frees you from all selfishness, and from that worst mark of it, a grudging and evil eye. XXI. A CONSCIENCE VOID OF OFFENCE; OR, THE CHRISTIAN ON HIS TRIAL. Acts xxiv. i6. Herein I do exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men. nPHESE words were spoken by St. Paul, when he was -■■ standing before Felix, the Roman governor, to answer the charges brought against him by the Jews. Seldom has there been a struggle, which to human eyes must have seemed more unequal, than that which took place on that day before the tribunal of Felix. On the one side were ranged the whole nation of the Jews, represented by their high priest and elders, thirsting for the blood of one man, and bringing charge after charge against him, by the mouth of a practised counsellor, who had doubtless been trained in pleading causes, and was skilled in all the niceties of the law. Such was the force arrayed against Paul, — a whole nation, all his countrymen, coming forward in the persons of the rulers of their church, and with a counsellor able to turn tlie balance of the law to his prejudice. And what was on Paul's side ? So far as men's eyes could see, only Paul himself. To all appearance he stood alone, without a lawyer to plead for 250 THE ALTON SERMONS. him, without a friend of any kind to take his part, or even to cheer him with a look betokening interest in his behalf. But was this really the case ? was Paul indeed alone ? No : lie was enabled to say as his Master had said before him, ''I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me." (John viii. 16.) The Father was indeed with him. Could the eyes of the people present have been opened to see the things of the unseen world, how different would the trial have appeared to them ! It still would have been most unequal : but the first would have become last, and the last would have become first. They would have seen at once that the host of accusers had no chance of carrying their point against the apostle. They would have seen that all the superiority, all the strength, all the certainty of success lay on the side of the one poor prisoner Paul. For they would have seen that, poor and friendless as he was to outward show, he had God and the Spirit of God with him. With these to aid him, what has anybody to fear? How can he fear man, whose breath is in his nostrils, when his help is in the living God ? But some of you may perhaps say, " Be it so : let the advantage have been on the side of the Jews, or on St. Paul's side ; how does this concern us ? what practical les- son are we to draw from it?" My friends, it concerns us very nearly ; and we may draw a very wholesome lesson from it, if we only make allowance for the difference of circumstances between our days and St. Paul's. We are none of us, God be praised ! likely to be brought to trial before a heathen governor for believing in Jesus Christ. This was Paul's trial. It was the trial of many holy men besides in those days of fierce persecution, when almost all the rule and authority of this world was in the hands of idolaters. But it is not likely to be our trial : because the kingdoms of this world have since become, at least in name, THE CHRISTIAN ON HIS TRIAL. 25 1 the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ. But though we have not the same kind of trial that Paul had, are not Christians even in these times tried in divers ways ? P'or instance, are we not all on our trial before a world which has no higher law, nor more certain judgment, no purer righteousness, than that of heathen morality ? and are there not many ever ready to start up and accuse the faithful servant of Christ ? Is he not liable to be laughed at for doing and saying what he believes and knows to be his duty ? Is he not liable to fall into the company of such as care not for Christ, and will mock and scoff at those who do ? Is he not liable to be exclaimed against as over-pre- cise and foohshly scrupulous, for doing what he knows he ought to do, and for not doing what he knows he ought not to do? These then are among his trials. When any of these trials happens to any of us, we shall do well to think of Paul standing alone before Felix, and to endeavour to act as wisely, as bravely, as much like a true Christian as he did. The strength, the power, the numbers of this world may indeed seem to be against us ; we may be two or three against a swarm : but if we are standing up in behalf of any the least of Christ's commandments, the real strength, the real power, the superiority of every sort will be on our side. For remember, God is not dead : he is not changed : he is the living and eternal God, the same to-day that he was yesterday, the same two thousand years hence, that he was two thousand years ago. If he watched over his ser- vant Paul, when brought into jeopardy for the sake ot Christ, in like manner will he watch over you, if you are at any time brought into jeopardy for the sake of Christ. I do not say that you will escape from the contest without a wound. Christ's soldiers must expect to be wounded : they must expect in days of persecution to have their human bodies wounded : they must expect to have their earthly THE ALTON SERMONS. feelings wounded in days of irreligious mockers. Christ's soldiers may be wounded, and will be wounded. This is the way that God takes to exercise our patience, and to mortify and kill the proud flesh, which naturally grows up around the heart. But though Christ's soldiers may be wounded, they cannot be slain; for they that believe in Christ, and love him, and serve him faithfully, even though they die, yet shall they live. As to being conquered, how can they be conquered, when God has promised them the victory for the sake of his beloved Son ? In order however that, when we are brought to trial in any way- before the world, on account of our christian faith or practice, we may be enabled to meet our accusers as fearlessly as Paul met his, we must prepare ourselves against such trials, as Paul did, by exercising ourselves to have a conscience void of offence both toward God and toward man. The accusation which the Jews brought against Paul by the mouth of their spokesman, Tertullus, may be divided into three charges. In the first place they charged him with being a " mover of sedition," or a disturber of the pubUc peace, " among all the Jews throughout the world." Their next charge was, that he " was a ringleader of the sect of Xazarenes," in other words, one of the chief preachers of the gospel of Jesus of Nazareth. Lastly, they charged him with having gone about to profane the temple. Now what answer does Paul give to these three charges ? To the first charge, that he was a stirrer of sedition among the Jews, he answers, that after an absence of many years, he had come a few days before to Jerusalem to bring alms and offerings to his countrymen ; and that, during his stay there, he had never been found haranguing or exciting the people, either in the temple, or in any of the synagogues, or in any other part of the city. The second charge, that he was a ring- leader of the Nazarencs, he does not deny. For the being THE CHRISTIAN ON HIS TRIAL. a Nazarene, or a believer in Christ, was not then a crime by the Roman law. On the contrar}^ he confesses that he worships the God of his fathers, according to the way which they chose to call a heresy, believing all the things written in the law and in the prophets, trusting in God, as his accusers themselves did, that there would be a resurrection of the dead. " Meantime (he says), while I am looking forward to this resurrection, I exercise myself, I take all pains and give all diligence, that I may in all things have a conscience void of offence both toward God and toward man." As to the third charge, that of having profaned the temple, Paul says, " So far is that charge from the truth, that, on the con- trary, I had just been purifying myself in the temple, according to the ordinances of the Mosaic law, quietly, without any crowd or disturbance." He then winds up his defence with this honest and confident appeal to his accusers : " Let them declare if they found any evil doing in me, when I was examined before the council ; unless indeed it was an offence to exclaim, that I was called in question touching the resuirection of the dead." In this way did St. Paul call on his accusers themselves to bear witness to the innocency of his life. He challenges them to bring forv/ard a single unlawful act that he had committed, unless it was unlawful to say that he was accused touching the resurrection of the dead. Thus on the strength of his innocence was he, a single man, enabled to stand his ground against a host of powerful and bloodthirsty accusers. It is in this way that our heavenly Father, even when he does not specially interpose in behalf of his servants, by openly taking their part, and working a miracle to preserve them, still often vouchsafes to assist them. No miracle was wrought to save Paul : the trial went on like any other trial : yet Paul was not condemned. For God had given him a mouth and a wisdom, which his enemies could neiilicr 2 54 THE ALTON SERMONS. gainsay nor condemn. His mouth was not the mouth of human eloquence ; nor was his wisdom, the studied wisdom of human schools. His wisdom was the wisdom of plain truth : his mouth was the mouth of blameless innocence. These were his weapons : and they were sufficient to defend him, single as he was, against a host of powerful accusers. Now we too, my brethren, as I said above, — we too, if we are faithful and diligent servants of our Lord and Master, Christ, are on our trial. Every Christian is on his trial before a godless world, just as Paul was before the heathen governor. There are many persons, who neither love reli- gion, nor hate it. Like Gallio, they care for none of these things : they do not trouble their heads about the matter. But they do not like that others should be better than they are. Therefore every story which can throw discredit on the piety, or on the understanding, of a religious neighbour, — every story which sets him in a blamable or laughable point of view, — every such story is sure to be favourably received by them, and to meet with a ready hearing. It is before persons of this worldly, careless, godless spirit, that the servants of Christ are ever standing a severe trial. Again there are others, who, to judge by their bitter way of speaking, positively disHke, and seem almost to hate such as are in earnest about worshipping and serving God. They are never so happy as when bringing accusations against them, when picking holes in their characters, and holding them up to scorn and reproach. If they can find a fair-seeming plea for taxing one religious person with insin- cerity, a second with being weak and foolish, a third with absurdity and affectation, a fourth with hastiness ot speech, or sharpness, sourness, or gloominess of temper, they seem quite to rejoice in sitting down to such a rich feast of envy, hatred, malice, and uncharitableness ; and their only anxiety is, to get a number of their neighbours to partalcQ THE CHRISTIAN ON HIS TRIAL. 255 of it. These bitter fiamers and spreaders of railing accu- sations against their more reHgious brethren may be com- pared to the Jewish accusers of Paul : while the other class of careless worldly-minded persons, who give ear to those accusations, may be compared to the Roman governors before whom he was tried. Thus we see, the Christian is on his trial before the world. The bitterly irreligious are his accusers : the indo- lently, carelessly irreligious, who make up the great bulk of mankind, are his judges. How then is he to defend him- self on this trial ? He must endeavour to defend himself as Paul did, by the wisdom of truth, and by innocency of life. No other defence will be of avail. Accordingly this is the advice which St. Peter gives to the first Christians. He tells them (i. ii. 15) with well-doing to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. And again (iii. 16) he exhorts them to have a good conscience, — that is, in St. Paul's words, a conscience void of offence, toward God and toward men, — " that whereas they speak evil of you as of evil-doers, they may be ashamed, that falsely accuse your good conver- sation in Christ." And again (ii. 12) he says to them, " Abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that, whereas they speak against you as evil-doers, they may, through your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." This is just what St. Paul did. He not only put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, and the malice of wicked and cruel men ; but by his diligence, his zeal, the strength of his faith, and the purity of his life, he converted numbers of the Gentiles, founded many churches among them, and led them to glorify God. Even P'elix, the Roman governor, was so struck by what he saw and heard, that after the trial was over, he sent for Paul privately, that 256 THE ALTON SERMONS. he might hear him speak of Christ and his doctrine. And who knows but that we too, — if we exercised ourselves, like St. Paul, to keep a conscience void of offence both toward God and man, — might be the blessed means of awakening some relation, some friend, some neighbour, or even some enemy, to take more thought about God, and to set a higher price on heavenly things, than he has hitherto been wont to do ? '' Cast your bread upon the waters (says the Preacher) ; for thou shalt find it after many days." (Eccl. xi. I.) "Blessed (says the prophet) are they that sow beside all waters." (Isaiah, xxxii. 20.) We are to sow, you see, beside all waters. And what are we to sow ? We are to sow the good seed. A word in season, for instance, — that is good seed. A kind action, or a mild answer, — that again is good seed. But the best and most fruitful seed of all is the quiet example of a holy and godly life. Sow that seed then beside all waters. AVhithersoever you go, what- ever you do, in your hours of work, in seasons of business, in times of leisure, at home with your families, abroad among strangers, in all your goings, and all your doings, leave behind you the trace of a good example : sliew by your life that you believe in Christ ; live according to your belief; let people see that herein you exercise yourselves, to have a conscience void of offence, not only toward God, but also toward man, nor only toward man, but also toward God. You must serve them both : you must do your duty to both : you must love both. You must love and serve God for his own sake : you must love and do your duty to man for God's sake ; — because God has commanded it, — because you are all children of the same Father, — because you arc all bought with the same price — because you are all fellow-servants of the same Saviour. This is what St. Paul did, when he exercised himself to have a conscience void of offence. Do you suppose that THE CHRISTIAN ON HIS TRIAL. 257 he is sorry now for having thus exercised himself ? Do you suppose that he wishes now he had not exercised himself so much ? that he wishes he had not taken so much pains to do his duty ? Do you suppose he grudges the labour and self-denial it cost him during his life, to keep himself in all things pure and holy ? Even in this world they who sow plenteously reap plenteously ; and still more plenteous is their harvest in the next world. St. Paul sowed plenteously : he was in labours more abundant : and so there was laid up for him a crown of glory. Would we receive a crown of glory like his? we must first be Hke him in his labours. We are not indeed called upon to suffer hunger and thirst and persecution and nakedness, as he did. From all these trials, so hard to the infirmity of our flesh, God has mercifully spared us. Nor are we called to bear the brunt of an accu- sation from Jews, and of a trial for our lives before heathens. But we too have our trials to bear and to stand : and if we bear them and stand them as he did, — if we abound in faith, in love, in long-suffering, in patience, in all the work of the Lord, — if we are diligent in exercising ourselves as he did, to have a conscience always void of offence both toward God and toward man, — we shall find, when the end comes, that God has not overlooked our endeavours to serve and please him : we shall find, unworthy as we are, that for us also has his goodness laid up a crown of reward. XXII. TREES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. Isaiah ki. 3. Trees of lighteousness, the planting of the Lord. ■pj^VERY one who reads his Bible, and minds what he ■'---' reads, must know that it is a very common thing with the sacred writers to compare the growth of rehgion in man's heart with the growth of trees and plants. To go no farther than that part of the Old Testament which is oftenest read in church, — the Book of Psalms, — hear how David speaks in the ist Psalm. "Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord. He shall be like a tree planted by the water-side, that will bring forth his fruit in due season. His leaf also shall not wither," Again in the 92nd Psalm we read: "The righteous shall flourish like a l)alm-tree, and shall spread abroad like a cedar in Lebanon. Such as are planted in the house of the Lord, shall flourish in the courts of the house of our God. They also shall bring forth more fruit in their age, and shall be fat and well-liking." In the New Testament, I scarce need remind you, both John the Baptist and our Saviour make use of nearly the same image, comparing good men to good trees, and evil men to coiTupt or rotten trees. Now in what are men like trees? In what does the TREES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 259 likeness between the spiritual and the vegetable Hfe lie? For unless there be some such strong and striking likeness, the passages I have quoted are words with little more than a shadow of meaning ? Why, in a word, are God's people called in the text, " trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord?" Now you must not fancy, as some may be apt to do, that the sacred writers use images of this kind merely for the sake of ornament, from a fondness for sticking flowers here and there in their pages. These images, if we take them rightly, are so many short parables ; they are brought in to rouse our attention, to awaken our fancy, to set us a-think- ing, and to fix the truth more deeply in our memories by their sharp and pointed manner of putting it. You know how much more easily children are taught a thing by the help of pictures than by mere naked words. This is just the way God takes to teach his children in the Bible. When he compares the wicked to grass, which to-day is green, and to-morrow is withered, — when he compares the righteous to a flourishing and deep-rooted tree, — he speaks pictures to us. Here let me point out to you the great advantage which country-people in this respect have over others, toward the understanding of God's word. The images, or as I just now called them, the pictures in the Bible, are almost all taken from country matters. How should a person who has lived all his life in a town, and never seen a sheep sheared, — how should such a person feel the force of that beautiful passage in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, where our Lord's behaviour before Pilate is compared to a sheep in the shearer's hands? Town-people may understand that the sheep is dumb, and that our Saviour was dumb too, not- withstanding all the insults cast upon him. Thus much tliey certainly may understand, because the prophet sa}s so. 26o THE ALTON SERMONS. But they cannot have the same strong and lively sense of the whole scene, which they might have gained by seeing a sheep sheared. What is true of sheep-shearing is equally true of the other country occupations and sights so often referred to in the Bible. Images and pictures taken from such things ought to come home with more power to your minds than they can to the minds of town-people. So that, if the Bible be the poor man's book, it is especially the book of those who plough, and reap, and tend flocks, — of those who have watched the growth of plants, and daily see the sun rise and set, and are led to mark the clouds as they journey across the sky. These are the sights in the midst of which you have grown up : and these are the very images which the Bible is wont to use for the sake of giving us a sense of spiritual things. Instead therefore of com- plaining that you are unlearned, and making your want of knowledge an excuse, as too many do, for not studying their Bible, you should rather say to yourselves, " God, though he has withheld many advantages and opportunities from me, has given me one advantage, and that a great one : he has cast my lot in the country ; so that from my childhood upward I have been accustomed to see many of the things which the Bible speaks of the oftenest. Let me make the more use of this advantage, because it is my only one. Let me strive to find out and keep in mind the meaning of the images and pictures in God's book. When I see a flock of sheep, let me think of the good Shepherd. Wlien I see a man plougliing, let me remember the sufferings of my Saviour, how ' the ploughers ploughed upon his back, and made long furrows.* (Psalm cxxix. 3.) In this way let me try to make all I see, and all I do, minister to the under- standing of tlic word of God ; praying earnestly to God that he will show me the true spiritual meaning of his pictures, and beseeching him to give me grace, that, the more I TREES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 26 1 know of his grace, and of his plan for our salvation, the more thankful I may be for it, — the more I know of his law, the more anxious I may be to keep it." Having thus shown you the purposes intended to be answered by these images and pictures, which the Bible so often uses, I shall go back to the picture set before us in the text : why are God's people called " trees of righteous- ness ? " In the first place, they are so called for the reason given in the text, because they are "the planting of the Lord." Godliness is not a thing which any craft of man can fashion. A man can no more make himself godly, than he can make a tree, or so much as the seed of a tree. If he becomes so, it must be the work of God. It was the word of God, that in the beginning made " the earth bring forth the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself: " and it is from the seeds of the forest which the earth brought forth in the days when God made heaven and earth, — it is from the seeds of those first and earliest trees, that all other trees have arisen. Some of these have sown themselves, as it were. They have sprung up, and grown, and come to their full stature, without any help from man. Others have been sown by man : and these too have grown up in time to be trees, and have flourished, and been strong and beautiful. So is it with the trees of righteousness. When God gave his blessed word to man, he gave it to be full of seeds. For so it is written : " The seed is the word of God." If this seed be duly sown in the heart, — it matters not by what means, — let it only be sown ; and if it neither be choked by thorns, nor burnt up by the heat, nor killed by the frost, the plant thus sown, if God watches over it and prospers it, will grow up to be a tree of righteousness. It matters not, I say, by what means the word is sown. The means are manifold : for the Lord worketh diverselv. 262 THE ALTON SERMONS. Sometimes the seed is sown in early childhood by godly parents : and happy is it for those children in whom the seed is thus sown. Sometimes it is self-sown, as it were, while we are reading or listening to the Scriptures. Some- times it is sown by what may justly be called an act of more special providence : as when a passage in a book, taken up perhaps for amusement, finds its way to our heart, and drops some good seed into it. But oftener it is sown by the voice of the preacher, or by the counsel of some true friend. Here is a great variety of methods, by every one of which, there can be no doubt, the seeds of divine truth have been planted over and over again, and to such good purpose as to grow up into trees of righteousness. But some may ask, — if the seed can be sown by godly parents, and by christian ministers, how can it be said of such trees, that they are the Lord's planting ? I answer in the words of St. Paul : " I have planted ; Apollos watered ; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, nor he that watereth ; but God, that giveth the increase." (i Cor. iii. 6, 7.) In every case the trees of righteousness must be of God's planting. But God is pleased, as we have seen, to plant in divers ways, — some- times by an act of special providence to awaken us to a sense of his ever-watchful power, — at other times, and more frequently, by the preaching and teaching of the ministers wliom he has set to take care of his people. Nevertheless, even though it were Paul himself that planted, the work would still be God's : to whom alone be therefore ascribed the glory of our merciful planting into life. Even when God is pleased to honour his servants, by making them his instruments in planting, they can only at the utmost sow seeds, the growth of which must be from God. Growth then is a second point of likeness between trees and godliness ; which makes it proper to call the righteous TREES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 263 " trees of righteousness." Without the sun and air and rain, where would be the growth of the tree ? Without the hght and the purifying breath and the dew of God's Holy Spirit, where would be the growth of the Christian ? In this point above all does man feel his utter weakness. He can plant indeed after a fashion, or try to plant : he can put the seed into the ground and into the mind : he can bind line upon line, and precept upon precept : but can he make the seed grow ? AVill the line of duty keep a man straight ? will the precept curb even his outward conduct ? much more, will it tame and govern his heart ? Alas ! these* are things far beyond the power of human teaching. It is God, and God alone, who giveth the growth and increase. But if this be so, if the growth and increase be thus entirely the gift of God, what is left for man to do toward working out his salvation ? I answer, it is left for man to pray. Here we have a strong motive for hearty prayer : for God has promised his Spirit to them that ask him. Do any of you wish for the help of that Spirit, without which you cannot grow up into trees of righteousness ? Ask for it, and you shall have it. God is not a grudging giver: he delights to give bountifully. See how he deals with the plants of the field. How rarely does he withhold his rain from them ! And shall he not much more pour out the influences of his Spirit upon those souls of immortal birth, that yearn to be reunited with him in Christ ? Shall he not, when he has promised so to do ? Bear in mind however : the promise is only to them that ask him. If any one neglects to ask heartily and pressingly, the promise reaches not to him. Nor is prayer the only thing left us to do. The Bible, though it teaches us to be humble-minded, is no encourager of sloth. While it would have us on the one hand look to God for everything, Kke children who know that their food and clothing are the gifts of a good and loving father ; on 264 THE ALTON SERMONS. the Other hand it would have us work out our salvadon as carefully and diligently as if everything depended on our- selves. And do we not deal thus in worldly matters? Every one knows that without rain the trees will not grow, that without sun the fruits will not ripen. Every one knows too that he cannot make the rain fall, or the sun shine, but that both the rain and the sunshine are the gifts of God most high. Yet who was ever hindered by knowing this from doing his best to improve his orchard, trusting in God to bless his labours. So it is with the spiritual orchard. It needs rain and sunshine : therefore we must pray for the rain and sunshine from above. But it also needs to be manured : therefore we must seek manure for it in the con- stant study of God's word, and in diligent attendance on the ordinances of his Church. Nor is it enough to enrich the ground, unless we also weed it : in like manner we must regularly weed our hearts by searching self-examination. He who is the most careful thus to weed and manure his heart, will be the first to feel his need of God's help : and he who prays for that help the most earnestly, will be the likeliest to employ the grace granted him to the purifying and strength- ening of his soul. If he does so employ it, he will grow : he will make shoots upward. Christian graces will sprout from the trunk of such a tree one after another. A third likeness between the spiritual and the natural tree is, that their growth is by degrees. A forest-tree does not spring up in a day, or in a month, or in a year. Nor do the trees of righteousness : they too want time to grow. What madness then must it be in any one to put ofif sowing and fostering the good seed in his heart, until the soil becomes hardened by neglect and age, and till no time, naturally speaking, is left him for the growth of holiness ! Can such persons ever hope to grow up into trees of righteousness ? trees ! when they are to be planted in extreme old age — TREES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 265 perhaps not till death has already begun to lay his hand upon them. Gourds, and not trees of righteousness, would be a fitter name for them : for the suddenness of such would-be growth reminds one of the gourd of the prophet Jonah. But the righteousness which is to spring up like Jonah's gourd, will it not, even if it does spring up, perish also like Jonah's gourd ? You may remember that God prepared a worm : and the worm smote the gourd, that it withered. What if this be the woful lot prepared for the gourds of righteousness ! Plant your tree in good time then, that you may be trees, and not gourds, even such trees as David speaks of, trees whose increase of fruit keeps pace with the increase of their years. The next, and perhaps the most remarkable point of likeness between the spiritual and vegetable life is the sap which flows through a healthy tree, and makes it thrive and grow. Thus is it with the trees of the forest ; and thus it likewise is with the trees of righteousness. " The trees of the Lord (we read) are full of sap." In other words, they are full of christian feeHng, which is the food and nourish- ment of christian practice. You can no more have the fruits of holiness, without the life-blood of christian love, than you can have a tree thriving and growing without sap. Godli- ness, as I have already said, is not a piece of handiwork, but a growth; and there can be no growth without life. Look then, brethren, to your christian life : look to your feelings and principles : look to your hearts ; for out of them are the issues of life. Most of you must remember the pas- sage in which our Saviour, after comparing himself to the vine, and his disciples to the branches, goes on thus : " As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. Without me ye can do nothing : but he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit." (John xv. 4, 5.) Now 266 THE ALTON SERMONS. what is meant by our abiding in Christ ? which Christ him- self thus declares we must, before we can bear much fruit. Thus much, I think, must be clear from the words, taken in their soberest sense, that no outward conformity, no calling oneself a Christian, no cold attendance on the ceremonies of religion, can be called abiding in Christ. There must be a riddance of that pride and self-will, which cut a man off from God. We must ask of God to unite our hearts to him- self, to purify our will, so that it may be one with his will, and to give us the power of making him the object of our daily thoughts, and receiving him into our inmost affections. This is the only union with God which men can strive after or aim at. Call to mind our Saviour's parting words : " Abide in me, and I in you." Abide in Christ, to use his own comparison, as closely as a branch abides in the parent tree. Take his will to be your will ; take his affections to be your affections ; take his thoughts, as far as possible, to be your thoughts. Draw the nourishment of your souls from him. Pray that the sap of his love may flow through your hearts, and give you spiritual life and strength and vigour to obey and serve God in spirit and in truth. For this is the end the sap is to answer. If it does not answer this end, we might as well be without it. " Herein is your Father glorified (says Christ) that ye bear much fruit." " He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit." Here is a sure test to try whether our hearts are right toward God. Are we bearing much fruit ? Because unless we are, the sap of christian feeling and christian principle cannot be flowing through us. The proof of the sap is the healthiness of the tree : the proof of christian love is the holiness of christian practice. If our hearts are christian, our thoughts and tempers and daily behaviour will all be christian. We shall be Christians not in word only, but in deed. TREES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 267 The last points to which I mean to call your attention, are the deep root and tall stem of the tree. The finest trees are rooted deep in earth, and point in their up- rightness to heaven. So too must we have our root of faith strong in Christ : so our hearts must look, our minds must turn, our souls must rise toward heaven. If you cut a tree off from its root, it dies : so does righteousness, if severed from faith. But if the root be strong and healthy, it will bear and feed a healthy and strong tree ; so must faith, if healthy and strong, bear and feed a life of righteous- ness. As the stem however does not stand by its own strength, but by the strength of the root, so neither can righteousness stand by itself: if it stands at all, it must stand by faith. Such are the trees of righteousness which the prophet speaks of in the text. Their planting is from God's word ; their growth is from God's Spirit ; their root is faith ; their sap is love ; they are full of the fruits of holiness ; they mount far above the earth in their beautiful uprightness : they grow and point toward God. And shall they after all die? Verily I say to you, not one of them shall die. The Psalmist compares them to the straight palm and the strong cedar, the noblest and most imperishable of trees. And straight indeed are the truly righteous, in all their plans and all their ways, straight as the purest truth and the most self-denying honesty can make them ; noble too, from having their hearts lifted so high above the meanness which earth and the things of earth are wont to breed. As for being imperishable, how can they perish ? they, whom the Father loves, for whom the Son has died, whose sap is the Spirit of immortality. They shall be immortal as the Spirit who lives in them. They must be cut down indeed by death : but it will only be to spring up again, straighter, purer, higher, fuller of love, fuller of holiness, perfected 2 68 THE ALTON SERMONS. through God's mercy, to be brought into his immediate pre- sence. Christ shall bruig them to his Father, and say to him, " Behold these are the trees which thou hast given me of thy planting. I have watered them with my blood : I have nourished them with my Spirit. They took root, and gathered strength, and bore fruit to thy glory, even in the barren soil of a corrupt world. Grant, O Father, for thy word's sake, and for thy mercy's sake, that they may flourish in the courts of thy house." Would it delight you, brethren, to have words like these spoken of you ? Do your hearts burn within you at the thought of being the objects of such favour, the heirs of such glory, the enjoyers of such heavenly happiness? If you do desire all this, be diligent to do your part. Pray for that Spirit which must feed your Hfe : watch the seed which God has planted : turn to God in early youth, that you may have time to go on from strength to strength. Offer God a free-will offering of the best and brightest of your days : weed the heart ; prune the heart ; that your life may be a life of righteousness. Such as I have described, and no other, were the beautiful trees, wherewith Solomon built and adorned his glorious temple. Such, and no other, must be the christian souls, wherewith a greater than Solomon will build his spiritual Church, and adorn the very courts of God. As for the mis- shapen and crooked and stunted tree, as for the fruit-tree which refuses to bear fruit, as for the tree of whatever kind that is dead and sapless at heart, — against that tree the sen- tence is gone out : it was uttered by Christ's own mouth ; and I, as Christ's ambassador, entreat you all to lay it to heart. The sentence against the barren, the unimprovable tree is— Cut it down. XXIII. HARVEST LESSONS. Proverbs x. 5. He that gathereth in summer is a wise son ; but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame. T N my last sermon I set before you, how the Bible is wont •*■ to speak of spiritual truths in images and figures taken from country life : and I advised you to bear this in mind, so that, whether you ploughed or sowed, whether you saw the sun rise or set, you might turn whatever you do, and whatever you see, into food and matter for pious thought. Try (such was my advice to you) to find a spiritual mean- ing in all your daily work. It should be much easier for you to do so, than for people born and bred in towns : because the Bible says comparatively little about town matters, while it speaks often and largely about country matters. Look out then for the images and pictures which the Bible takes from country objects : store them up in your minds : and when at any time you meet with one of those objects, say within yourselves, "This should remind me of such a spiritual truth." For instance, sheep-shearing should remind you of the innocent and patient Jesus, the Lamb of God; how in the words of the prophet Isaiah, " he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and, as a sheep before her shearers is 270 THE ALTON SERMONS. dumb, so he opened not his mouth." In the same way the hardness of the ground in a dry season, and the parched and withered state of all the herbage, should remind you of our great need of divine grace : which is such, that, unless God sends the rain of his Spirit on our hearts, they too will be dry and hard, and as barren as the barest common. If you would thus accustom yourselves, with the help of Scripture, to seek for God and Christ in everything you do and see, — if you would get the habit of looking on earthly things as so many finger-posts and steps to guide and raise you to the knowledge and thought of spiritual things, — it is wonderful what improvement you would find. The more you tried to do this, and the more you prayed to God to enable you to do it, the more delightful the practice would become to you. You would feel yourselves brought ever- more nearer to God in mind and thought. You would per- ceive new meanings in things. You would learn to see God everywhere. All your daily business would be hallowed to you ; because God, or his Son, or his Spirit, his goodness to you, and your duty to him, would be traceable in every- thing you do. In a word, you would have God always before you ; and thus your eyes would be open to discern the wondrous things of his law. But example, they say, is better than precept : so I mean to give you an example of the way in which your daily business may be made to minister to the good of your souls. You have lately been busy about your harvest ; and it is of harvest that I am going to speak to you. Now every attentive reader of the New Testament, as soon as he hears the word harvest, will be reminded of the harvest, which our Saviour speaks of in the parable of the tares. You may remember that, when the dis- ciples asked him to shew them the meaning of that parable, he said: "The harvest is the end of the world; HARVEST LESSONS. 27 the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire ; so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels ; and they shall gather out them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire." (Matt. xiii. 39-42.) Now if, when you have gone out to your daily task of reaping the corn which God has given us, you had kept these words of our Saviour's well in mind ; — if, every day that you left your homes to reap, or to overlook your reapers, you had said within yourselves, " This present harvest is certainly of great importance to my worldly interests ; but it is nothing in comparison of the harvest which is to come : that is the harvest to look forward to : that is the harvest to prepare for. God grant me his grace that during this present harvest I may behave as his child and servant, that I may not fall into condemnation at that dreadful harvest, when angels are to be the reapers, and sinners are to be treated like so many hurtful weeds, which are fit for nothing but to be burnt ;" I put it to each of you, my brethren, whether it would not have been profitable to your souls, if you had accustomed yourselves through the present harvest never to begin your morning's work without some such seasonable thoughts. Would not much improper talk have been stopped by it, which has gone on not only among the men, but I fear I must add, among the women also ? Would not your joy, as you brought the sheaves home, have been purer and gentler, and fuller of thankfulness to the Lord who giveth the increase ? In a word, would not this have been a holier harvest to every one of you, if the thought of that last harvest, which our Saviour speaks of, had been continually before your minds ? But though this harvest at the end of the world, with the burning of the tares and chaff, and the gathering of the good sheaves into God's barn, which we are told shall then 272 THE ALTON SERMONS. take place,— though these are doubtless the first spiritual truths which a reader of his Bible will think of when he is going to harvest-work, yet these are not the only spiritual lessons to be drawn from the time of harvest. There are other very good and useful practical lessons to be drawn from that time besides. Some oi these practical lessons I shall now point out to you, in speaking on the words which I have chosen for my text : " He that gathereth in summer is a wise son : but he that sleepeth in harvest causeth shame." Taking these words in their literal and worldly sense, and applying ihem simply to the corn harvest, their meaning and truth are plain enough. Everybody will understand, that a father, who is old and past work, must be pleased to have a son on his farm so careful and active, as to watch his opportunities, and put forth all his strength just at the right time for housing the crop in the best condition. Such a son would be a pleasure to any father. On the one hand, a son who was the reverse of this, a son who slept, that is, who loitered and idled away his time in harvest, a son who wasted a fine day in going to a wake or merrymaking, instead of loading and hurrying on the waggons in his father's field, — such a son would bring shame on himself and on his family, when, owing to his sloth and idleness, the crop was left out too long, and so got damaged by a change of weather. The truth of all this is plain : and if there had been nothing deeper than this in the proverb, I should never have taken it for a text. It might have been a verse for lads to get by heart ; but it would not have been a verse to preach on. In the Bible however we may be sure that the marks of some spiritual truth, the seeds of some practical instruction, lie in every nook and corner. Let us pierce then through this first and most literal meaning of the text. HARVEST LESSONS. 273 Let us try to get to the under soil, and see what lesson the words, when spiritually interpreted, will give us. " He that gathereth in summer is a wise son." Summer, you know, is the right season for gathering in the harvest. To say then that it is wise to gather in summer, is only saying in other words, that a wise man will make the most of his opportunities, and will gather whatever he has to gather at the best and fittest season. Now is not this a practical lesson ? a lesson too which many need ? Is it not a practical lesson for children, as soon as they begin to learn? Their summer, so far as learning is concerned, is the time that they spend at school. That time is just as much the season for them to learn in, as the month of August is the season for their fathers to reap in. The same God who appointed the one season, has equally appointed the other. It is as much his will that children should learn at school, as that reapers should reap in summer. Let every child then, who goes to school, draw this lesson from the text. Let him say to himself, " This is the time for me to lay up a litde store of knowledge. It is the time God has given me on purpose that I may learn his word. It is the time he has given me to learn prayers and hymns. If I miss this opportunity, perhaps I may never have another. Let me not throw it away then. Let me not be like the fool who sleeps in harvest, or I shall come to great shame." Again, is it not a practical lesson for those who are in the prime and strength of life? These are in the summer of their days, so far as practice is concerned. The seeds of the good principles which were sown in them during their childhood should now be springing up in them, and ripening, and bearing fruit. You have all had opportunities of learn- ing the great outlines of your duty to God and man. None of you can be ignorant that you have a God who made you, a Redeemer who died for you, a Holy Spirit who will make T 2 74 THE ALTON SERMONS. you holy, if you will receive him into your hearts, and sub- mit to his guidance. None of you can be ignorant that sin is exceedingly hateful in God's sight, that you are by nature prone to sin, that you have a continual need of God's help, to keep you from falling into some sin or other, and that this help must be sought for by diligent and hearty prayer. Nor can any of you be ignorant of the greatness of your debt to God : that you owe him everything you have : that every good thing you have enjoyed from the moment of your birth till now, every good thing you can hope to enjoy in this world or the next,— all is a gift, a free gift to you from God. On the other hand you cannot be ignorant what God requires from you in return for all his goodness; that he requires every^thing, — all your love, all your trust, all your fear, all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul. Or, to say the same thing more plainly by. coming down to particu- lars, you cannot be ignorant that God requires you to pray to him, to praise him, to honour his name, his day, his word, to take every opportunity of learning his will, and to do all this with a true heart, out of love and thankfulness to him, and to his blessed Son who redeemed us-with his blood. So too with regard to your duties to your fellow-men, you must all know that God requires you to speak the truth every one to his neighbour, to set a guard upon your mouths, to be careful that no untrue, or unholy, or impure, or violent, or bitter words, issue from your lips ; that he requires you to be per- fectly honest and upright in all your dealings, temperate in your food, plain and modest in your dress, sober, quiet, and self-denying in your amusements ; that he requires you to be perfectly pure and chaste, not only by abstaining from adul- tery and fornication, and the Hke heathenish and open sins, but by keeping a watch over your very thoughts, and endea- vouring to be pure in heart. Lastly, you must all be aware that God requires you to be peaceable, gentle, yielding, for- HARVEST LESSONS. 275 giving, humble, kind to all, mild and affable to those below you, respectful to those above you, faithful and active in all your trusts and duties, doing these and every other good thing, not from any worldly or selfish motive, but as unto God, out of love to him, and because he commands you so to do. Thus much of your duty, I say, you must all know : at least if you do not (I am speaking of those who are arrived at manhood) if after living from your birth in a christian land, with a church open to you Sunday after Sun- day, you are still ignorant of these things, the fault must needs be your own. Well ! " if ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them : " and the time for doing them is now^ now that you are in the summer of life. You have learnt these great principles and rules of your duty to God and man, not for the sake of laying them up in your memories, nor to enable you to say that you know them. You were planted with them in your childhood, that in your riper age you might bring forth much fruit to the glory of God. And the time .for bringing forth that fruit, if you are wise sons, wise sons of God, and faithful brethren of Christ, — I repeat it, the time is now. Do not sleep in this your spiritual harvest of duty to God and man. If you are far gone in manhood, and have slept hitherto, call to mind St. Paul's words, that now it is high time for you to awake out of that sleep. (Rom. xiii. II.) If you are just entering into manhood, beware of falling into sleep. Remember that God requires from us the first-fruits of our days, just as he required from the children of Israel the first-fruits of their corn and oil. In every case avoid the too common snare of putting off the beginning of a christian life to a more convenient season. A more convenient season ! What would you say of the farmer, who when his wheat was ripe on the ground, and the sun was shining in its summer strength, instead of putting 276 THE ALTON SERMONS. the sickle to the com, began to make excuses, and say : " No, it is rather hot to-day ; and it may rain next week : and there is a wedding I wish to go to at the other end of the county. I will put off my harvest for a month or so. The season then will be more convenient to me." If you would count such talk folly and madness in a farmer, what must it be in you ? Surely " the life is more than meat." If it would be madness to put off the harvest of the bread that perishes, how worse than madness must it be to put off the harvest of holiness and obedience ! Again, another practical application of the text may be ' made to the way of keeping Sunday. Sunday is to the rest of the week in spirituals, what summer is to the rest of the year in temporals. It is the chief time for gathering know- ledge to last you through the following week, just as summer is the chief season for gathering food to last you through the following twelvemonth. Do you make the most of this weekly summer ? Do you, like wise sons, gather instruction by Hstening to the reader and the preacher? Do you gather fresh stores of grace and strength by diligent and humble attendance on the ordinances of God ? Or do you sleep ? Surely this question may well be asked in church. For many do sleep away their Sunday, some at church, and some at home : and many who keep the eyes of their body open, allow the eyes of their mind to close, and are no wiser and no better for all they hear with their ears and repeat with their lips in this place, than if they had not set their foot in it. Verily I must warn you, brethren, such sleepers do indeed cause shame. They are a shame to their minister, whose teaching they refuse to profit by. They are a shame to the Church, which received them when infants into her bosom. They are a disgrace to the Lord and Master, whose name they bear, but whose word they pay no heed to, and whose day they waste in sloth and carelessness. HARVEST LESSONS. 277 Such are some of the simplest ways in which the text may be applied to spiritual and practical truths. Such are some of the various harvests which we are called to gather in ; the harvest of youth, when we should gather knowledge, — the harvest of manhood, when we should gather holiness, — the harvest of the sabbath, when we should gather spiritual instruction, and meat for our soul's need. At all these seasons and in all these ways, it behoves us, my friends, to gather. Do you ask, how much? Why, all we can. Let your harvest then increase, until you yourselves are gathered to the Lord by Jesus Christ in the great harvest, according to the saying of the Psalmist : " He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him" (cxxvi. 6). You see the Psalmist says, doubtless he shall come again. And so it must needs be. He who came once as a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief, bringing us the precious seed of God's word, will doubtless return again ; but he will return no longer sorrowing. He will have seen of the tra- vail of his soul, and be satisfied. He will have collected the fruits of his glorious labours, the souls he has won, the spirits he has purified. So will he come again rejoicing, bringing these his sheaves with him. That you, my brethren, may have a place in that blessed harvest-home, God of his infinite mercy grant ! XXIV. USE THE BIBLE. Luke viii. ii. The seed is the word of God. "VTEVER were there so many Bibles in the world as ''' ^ within the last few years. Our first feeling on hear- ing this ought to be thankfulness to God, for having sown the seed of eternal life so plentifully. But this brings the parable of the sower into our thoughts. One cannot help remembering the sad lesson it teaches, — that a great deal of seed may be sown to very little purpose ; and that, if we are not careful how we hear and read, the mere reading and hearing can do us no good. Thus we are led to look a little closer into the matter, and to ask ourselves such questions as these : — Has the increase of godliness amongst us kept pace with the increase of our Bibles ? Are we as much better as we ought to be with our more abundant means ? Has the fresh seed scattered over the land produced a proportionate increase in the harvest ? These are very important questions. For, if the Lord of the farm, if the great Sower does not see the promise of a crop in some measure answering to the good seed he has bestowed on the land, he will be sure to ask, " Why is this ? Did I not sow good seed in the fields of USE THE BIBLE. 279 England ? How then come they to be so full of tares ? so full of thistles ? so full of poppies ? How is it that in some parts of the farm I even see the foxglove and the deadly nightshade? Useless weeds, gaudy weeds, weeds that overrun the ground, even poisonous weeds I see in it. But I see not the plenty of good wheat which I ought to find, and which alone can be stored in my barn. Why has the crop failed so shamefully?" The failure of a crop must be owing to one or more of these four causes. Either the seed must be bad ; or the season must be bad ; or the land must be bad ; or the tillage must be bad. Now the failure of a crop of holiness, if the crop has failed, in England, cannot be owing to the first of these causes ; for the seed is as good as ever. The Bible has not grown worse, or lost any of its virtue. It is the same book it always was ; and is just as able now, as it can ever have been of yore, to make men wise unto salva- tion. Nor is the failure of the crop owing to any peculiarly bad season. The influence of the Holy Ghost still falls, like mild showers, gently and plentifully on men's hearts, to soften and fit them for receiving the word of God. The Sun of Righteousness still shines and reigns in heaven; and from his golden throne, when the good wheat has sprung up and come to ear, he pours down warmth enough to ripen it and bring it to perfection. Nor again is the failure of the crop owing to the badness of the soil. Bad enough it is, to be sure, naturally ; but we know how much the very worst soil may be bettered by care and labour. At any rate, it is not worse now. Man's heart is not worse now than it was formerly. If it brought forth fruit formerly, — nay, if in thousands and thousands of cases, it is made to bring forth good fruit now — fruit that we can see and judge of in the holiness, the uprightness, the meekness, the patience, the humble faith of sincerely guod Chiiatiaus, — 28o THE ALTON SERMONS. then it clearly cannot be the badness of the land that causes the failure of the crop. The land might be brought into cultivation in spite of its natural badness, — the heart might be reclaimed in spite of its natural corruption, — were proper care and pains bestowed on it. But in too many cases they are not. This is the woful truth ; and to this is the scantiness of the crop owing. It is owing, we can trace it, to no other cause : it is owing to nothing but badness of tillage. The land is no worse than it used to be ; the sea- sons are as good as ever : the Sun of Righteousness still sheds light and warmth ; the dew of the Holy Spirit still falls ; the word is still the seed of eternal life ; it is scattered much more plentifully ; much more land is sown ; and yet, owing to the sloth, or the folly, or the dishonest negligence of the men to whom God has let his farm, the crop with all these advantages has not increased in due proportion. Think you, then, God will leave his farm in the hands of persons who so neglect it ? Think you, he will continue to pour down the riches of his grace on us in such abundance, if we continue to disregard it, and to make him no return for it? Remember the barren fig-tree. These are some of the thoughts and questions, which spring up in the mind of a thinking person on his hearing what a vast number of Bibles and New Testaments have been sold and given away in the course of the last few years. But another step is wanting to make these questions practically useful ; and that is, to apply them to ourselves. Have we made the most of the opportunities which God has vouchsafed to us, of reading his word and learning his will? Some of us have enjoyed these opportunities from childhood upward ; and these have the more to answer for. Others have had fresh opportunities of the kind offered them in later life. But what use have you made of them ? Have you used the Bible at all? Have you used it regu- USE THE BIBLE. 281 larly ? Have you read it for the purpose of trying to learn the will of God ? Have you read it thankfully, and felt grateful to God, that, while so many of the wise and rich heathens are pining from lack of food for their souls, you have plenty, — that while they are left in darkness, you see ? Have you read it devoutly, and prayed to God that he would enable you to understand what you read ? so that you might apply the promises and the threats of Scripture, each to his own wants. Above all, have you endeavoured to practise what you have learnt? Have you kept well in mind that it is useless to read about God's will, unless we also do it ? In a word, have you wished, and tried, and prayed to become, not wiser only by your reading, but better? These are home and searching questions, perhaps; but they are no way the worse for that. If they help you to search out the nature of your soul's disorder, be it spiritual sloth, or thoughtlessness, or a disregard for God's holy word, — be your spiritual malady what it may, — if these questions lead you to search it out, one of these days you will be thankful for them. As to their being home questions, what is the pulpit made for ? why is the preacher set here, except to call you homel Home, ye lost sheep, to the fold of Christ your Shepherd ! Home, ye prodigal sons, to the house of your loving Father ! Home, ye truant children ! your God is calling, your Master and Saviour is waiting for you ; hasten home to him. Sin is not your home ; for ye are heaven-born spirits ! Earth is not your home ; for Christ has redeemed you from its bondage ! You are free to go where you please : back, then, to your only true home, to heaven. These are the very invitations which we, who have received the ministry of reconciliation, are to utter before you in Christ's name. The preacher is ordained on purpose to call your wandering hearts homeward. If the questions I have been putting to you help to do so, — if 282 THE ALTON SERMONS. they awaken you to bethink yourselves that you have all a journey to take, — some of you perhaps a long one, — and that the Bible is a book of rules and directions, given you by your heavenly Father, to guide you on this journey, and to show you the true and only road to his great mansion, — if they remind you that a book is of no use unless it is read, and that reading is of no use unless we practise what we read, — if these questions stir up thought of this kind within you, or put you in timely remembrance of these plain but most important truths, they do just what they ought to do. May God render them, and whatever else I may say to you in his name, and as his messenger, profitable to the welfare of your souls ! But questions are of no use, unless they are answered, and answered truly. I would therefore advise every one who owns a Bible or a New Testament, to think well what answer he can make to the questions I have been asking. They who can say yes, from the bottom of the heart, to all those questions, — they whose conscience bears them witness that they have regularly, thankfully, and with prayer to God searched the Book of Life, for the sake of learning to live, — these have good reason to rejoice, for they may feel sure that their prayers will be heard, and that their search after God will be rewarded. Though he may seem to hide him- self from them for a season, it is only to draw them on to seek him with greater earnestness. He is near them all the time, and sooner or later will unveil himself. Just as men see, and can bear to look on the image of the sun in a clear fountain, so shall all such persons see God reflected in the character of his Christ. They shall see him in Christ's purity ; they shall see him in Christ's patience ; above all, they shall see him in Christ's love. He will teach them every truth necessary for their souls : he will lead them by his Spirit along the paths of holiness. On them the good USE THE BIBLE. 283 seed will not be thrown away; but they shall bring forth the fruit of good living every year more and more, until their Master sends Death to reap them, and gather them into his heavenly bam. Such will be the blessed lot of those who are making a right use of God's good book, if they only persevere as they have begun. If they do not persevere, I need hardly tell you, all they have done hitherto will go for nothing. Their object as farmers is to house their corn : their object as travellers is to reach their home. If a man had to receive a legacy by going to Bristol, what good would it do him to set out on his way thither, unless he went all the way ? Would he get anything by going as far as Melksham, or even as far as Bath, unless he went still further? The legacy is to be paid at Bristol, and nowhere else ; and if the man is lazy or fickle enough to stop before he gets to Bristol, not a sixpence of it will he receive. Therefore we must persevere unto the journey's end, if we would have a share in Christ's great legacy. Or how would it iare with the farmer, if he were to leave his crop to rot on the ground, rather than be at the pains to harvest it ? What good will his having sown it do him ? Sowing is nothing unless we also reap ; and even reaping the corn is nothing unless we afterward house it. But perhaps you will tell me, I am talking of impossibilities ; for no man who thought a legacy worth going after was ever known to stop half-way ; nor did any person, after ploughing and sowing his field, ever fail, when summer came, to harvest it. You would say truly. These are impossibilities in earthly matters ; but are tliey impossibilities in heavenly matters? Do persons, after starting on their heavenly journey in the morning of life, with a heart full of godly resolutions, never flag ? never loiter? never stop short? never turn round and ride back again? Do they, after putting their hand to the plough, never leave 284 THE ALTON SERMONS, it in mid-furrow ? Would it were so ! Heaven would be much fuller than it is. God's army is weakened not so much by desertion, as by straggling ; and for one wretch who goes over openly and gives himself up to Satan, twenty are cut off by him, while they are idling and lingering in the rear. Hitherto I have been speaking to those who have been making a good use of their Bibles, and New Testaments : and I have said such things as seemed likely to stir them to perseverance. But are there not some among you who have neglected to use their books ? To them I will only say, Begin. Ii the miser's folly is great, who starves amid his chests of treasure, — if the sailor's folly would be great, who tried to steer without chart or compass, — if the farmer's folly would be great, who left his fields unsown, — how much greater must your folly be, who make no use of the charts and compass God has given you to guide you through the shoals of this world, who let your minds lie fallow of holi- ness, and who, with the food of angels on your shelves, starve your souls to death. Remember, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. God's word is a portion of the food he has given to man to live by. It is the spiritual sustenance he has provided to support the spiritual part of us, the soul. For the soul, as well as the body, requires its fitting food. Both must be supported and nourished, if we would have them thrive. Were a man to feed nothing but the spiritual part of him, were he to do nothing but read and think and pray, we all know he would die of hunger. His body would pine away for want of bodily sustenance. And think you, if a man feeds nothing but his body, that his soul does not in like manner fall away and grow weaker and weaker for want of that spiritual food, which is its proper nourishment? I tell you, at last it would become so feeble, were it to go without all spiritual food, that a mere straw of a temptation USE THE BIHLE. 285 would be Strong enough to overthrow its strongest resolu- tion. The truth however is, that a man's soul is never left quite without all spiritual nourishment, so long as he comes to church, and attends to what goes on there. But church comes only once a week : and if the soul gets no spiritual food, beyond what it may pick up there, I leave you to judge whether it is likely to shoot up into a strong and healthy growth of godliness. Wonder not that I speak to you of spiritual food. Does not all nature cry, from every part of the creation, that everything earthly must be fed ? Fire must be fed : water must be fed : even the earth itself, which feeds all things, must be fed : else it will crumble into dust, or harde n into a rock. So is it with the soul. That too, as well aS the body, must be fed with food suited to its nature. This is so plain, that the heathens themselves knew it. They were fully aware that the soul would never thrive, unless it was nourished with food suitable to it : and to find that food was the great desire of the best and wisest men among them. With this view they betook themselves to philosophy, as they called it, that is, to the study of wisdom, in the hope of nourishing their souls with that. Alas ! if we take out the few good grains which they found among the sweep- ings of the granary of tradition, if we take out the cmmbs which some few of them had picked up under the children's table, their philosophy was little better than the acorns which the prodigal son was fain to stay his hunger on, be- cause he could get nothing else. They stayed their spiritual hunger on the acorns of philosophy : because with all their search they could get nothing sounder or better. Now if they did this, they who only knew that their spirits required food, from feeling them crave for it, what will God say to us, if we are less anxious about the nourishment of our souls? We have been taught that man does not live by THE ALTON SERMONS. bread alone : we have been exhorted by Christ himself not to labour only for the meat that perisheth, but rather for that good meat which endureth to everlasting life. Thus we have not been left to find out of ourselves, that our souls need support : we have this truth declared to us ; and a command has been given us to feed them. Moreover the food is set before us. Those who have Bibles or New Testaments have it on their shelves : they have only to take and eat. If we then, who, instead of the acorns of man's wisdom, have the word of God, which is the bread of life, that word which our hearts can thrive on, that word which our souls may live by ages after this world has past away, — if we will not take this heavenly food, even when it has been so bountifully placed within our reach, how inex- cusable shall we be ! For the Bible is not a charm, that keeping it on our shelves, or locking it up in a closet, can do us any good. Nor is it a story-book to read for amusement. It is sent to teach us our duty to God and man, to show us from what a height we are fallen by sin, and to what a far more glorious height we may soar, if we will put on the wings of faith and love. This is the use of the Bible ; and this use we ought to make of it. Use it then for this purpose, each according to his means. All indeed have not time for much reading; but every one who wishes it may at least manage to read a verse or two, when he comes home of an evening, and of a morning before going to work. Now a couple of verses well thought over will do a man more good than whole chapters swallowed without thought. Do but this little, my brethren ; and God, who judges us according to our means, and who looked with greater favour on the two mites of the poor widow, than on all the golden offerings of the rich, will accept your two verses and enable your souls to grow and gain strength by this their daily food. Christ, who is the way of life, will USE THE BIBLE. 287 open your eyes to see the way. He will send you the wings I just spoke of; and they shall bear you up to heaven. For this must be always kept in mind, that God alone giveth the increase. Unless he gives it, no increase shall we receive. Our light will not be increased ; so that we shall gain no new insight into the wondrous things of God's law. Our joy will not be increased; so that the study of God's book will continue an irksome task. Our labour will be without fruit ; because it has been without a blessing ; and we shall have to say, as the apostles did, before Jesus came to help them in their fishing, "We have toiled all night, and have caught nothing." (Luke v. 5.) The only way of insuring that our labour shall not be thus fruitless, is by prayer : the only way of drawing down a blessing on our study, is to ask for it. Let us pray then to Jesus, the author of our faith, that he will finish the good work he has begun. Let us beseech him to come to us by his Spirit and join himself to us, as he came and joined himself to the apostles, that our studies may prosper, and our labour be successful, and that out of the living waters of salvation we may draw truth, and hope, and constancy in well-doing, and gentleness, and active love towards all our fellow-creatures. Let us beseech him that '' through patience and comfort of the Scriptures we may have hope." (Rom. xv. 4.) For unless there be patience there can be no comfort. If a medicine is to do us good, we must take it. If we read the Bible in the spirit of patience, it will bring us to a know- ledge of ourselves. It describes and lays bare every evil propensity, every weakness, every wandering, to which the heart of man is liable. It comes home to our business and to our bosoms. It puts its finger on the dark spot within us, and plainly and loudly utters in the ears of every one those dreadful words, " Thou art the man." As you love 288 THE ALTON SERMONS. truth, as you prize the welfare of your souls, do not shrink from that touch, however painful; do not shut your ears against those warning words, however harsh. Be patient of Scripture truths. Place yourselves honestly, after prayer to God, in the light of those passages of the Bible, which fall the most piercingly on your besetting sin. Look at yourselves narrowly by that light : it will scatter any fogs which may be covering the hollows of your conscience, and will lead you from the darkness of contented ignorance into the pure and marvellous brightness of God. Begin with patience of God's holy word, and you will assuredly get in time to the comfort of it. Let us only be persuaded that our strength at the best is but weakness ; let us be brought to feel that we are labouring under a sickness, which none save God can heal, that we are threatened by dangers which he alone can ward off, that he, and none else, can deliver us from the burden of our sorrow ; let us be made to acknowledge these truths, and the Scriptures will become a well-spring of delight to us. For they, and they alone, shew our Maker to us in the character in which we shall then feel that we want him. We shall no longer ask with the confident lawyer, or with the self-satisfied young man, " What must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke x. 25.) A much more painful question bursts from our stricken and bleeding hearts ; and we cry out with the jailor of Philippi, " What must I do to be saved?" (Acts xvi. 30.) The Bible, and the Bible alone, gives an answer to this question. For it speaks not of God alone, nor of man alone, but of God and man at once, — of God reconciled to man for the sake and merit of his Son : it speaks of the very thing which in our heaviness we long to hear of. Whatever maybe the wounds we are suffering from, it has a balm and a medicine to heal them. As the good Samariian poured oil and wine into the wounds of the bleeding and fainting Jew, so do the USE THE BIBLE. 289 Scriptures apply a like remedy to our wounded hearts, even the blood of the Son of God, which answers to the wine, and the anointing and sustaining influence of the Holy Spirit, which acts the part of the sweet and healing oil. In a word, the Bible sets before us the divine Emmanuel, God with us, who is not ashamed to call us brethren, — who places himself at our head, like a valiant captain, to cheer and lead us on to victory, — and who, having himself endured temptation, knows its danger and its power, and is therefore ready to succour us in the hour of trial, if we will only call to him lor help. This is the great comfort of the Scriptures, even Christ, " the power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation." His glorious coming is called in the Gospel " the consola- tion of Israel." (Luke ii. 25.) When spiritually laid hold of, and practically applied by each man to his own needs, it is still the consolation of every true Christian. To us also, if we so lay hold on it, and so apply it, will it become a prin- ciple of life. Not of a fleshly and animal life, such as we share with beasts and birds : not of a life frail and perish- able, which an accident may snap short at any moment ; nor again of a life gross and sensual, which is merely the life of the baser part of us, the body, but the death or numbness of the soul. The life that God's word sows within us, is pure and spiritual and deathless. It is the blessed hope of everlasting life, which we are to embrace and hold fast through our Saviour. But how can such a life, — this is the last point I shall touch on, — how can a lile of this kind begin here ? It can begin, — and, what is more, it must begin here, or it will never begin at all, — in our putting on the likeness of God and of his Son, whom to know and to follow after is life eternal. He is the true God, says St. John in his ist Epistle, and eternal life. Would you have eternal life, the u 290 THE ALTON SERMONS. hope of it, the foretaste of it in this world ? you must draw r»igh to Christ. He has promised that, if we draw nigh to him, he will draw nigh to us, and at last will come and take up his abode in our hearts, and will light the everlasting lamp of truth and love within us. An eternal life, I need hardly tell you, must be a heavenly life. Lead heavenly lives then and your lives will be eternal. But what are heavenly lives ? such lives as are led in heaven, where all obey God's will. Such a life as our Saviour led on earth, whose meat and drink it was not to do his own will, but the will and the work of God the Father. Follow then after God's will faithfully and steadfastly : take the example and the principles of your Master for your guides : and they will lead you, it may be, through much trouble, — I have no warrant to promise you a freedom from earthly trials, — it may be, through evil report and contempt : for as they called your Master Beelzebub, and St. Paul mad, so will men at times speak ill of you, and think you mean-spirited and foolish. But, if you can bear up under these crosses, — and Christ for your sakes was loaded with a much heavier, — if you can walk along, notwithstanding your afflictions, in the path which Jesus trod before, it will bring you through the valley of the shadow of death to the glorious threshold of heaven. Is the path too rough for the delicate feet of human pride and passions ? Let your feet be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace ; and you will find the path bearable enough. Be it rough, however, or be it smooth, walk along it we must, if we would go to heaven. For I should be deceiving you, if I did not tell you plainly, that the straight, the narrow, and the toilsome road, is the only one that leadeth upward. We must imitate the behaviour of Jesus here, if we would live with him hereafter. That sublime devotion, which made his whole life one unceasing prayer, his pure, meek, self- USE THE BIBLE. 291 denying spirit, his love of all men, his special delight in those who shewed themselves by their faith to be true children of God, — these qualities, which are written in Scripture for our instruction, must all be copied by us, and written in our hearts and lives, before we can hope to have communion with the saints above. Amongst them such tempers, and no others, can gain admission : amongst them such tempers, and no others, could be happy. XXV. THE BEST CHRISTIAN, THE BEST PATRIOT. I Samuel ii. 30. Them that honour me I will honour; and they that despise me shall be Ughtly esteemed. T AM going to speak to you about the historical books "*• of the Old Testament. By the historical books I mean the Book of Joshua, the Book of Judges, the two Books of Samuel, the Books of Kings and of Chronicles, in a word, all those parts of the Old Testament which contain the history of the children of Israel, and relate their dealings and goings on from the time of Joshua, when they first crossed the river Jordan to conquer and take possession of the land of Canaan, down to the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, when Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and the Jewish people were carried away captive far from their native land. These are the chief historical books of the Old Testament : out of them the lessons are taken for thirteen Sundays together, that is, for a quarter of the year. Now what do we learn from the book of God during this quarter of a year? Why has our Church appointed the fourth part of every year for the reading of chapters from these historical books ? What are the chief truths which the great body of Christians are to gather from them ? For THE BEST CHRISTIAN, THE BEST PATRIOT. 293 it must be clear to every one, that these chapters would not be read to you over and over again, year after year, unless the Church had hoped that the hearing them would in some way make you better. Moreover it must be clear to you, that a mere knowledge of the names and facts set down in these historical books can do you no good what- ever. That Jehu was the captain who conspired against his master, that Joram was king of Israel, and Ahaziah king of Judah, — that the prophet Elisha's servant was called Gehazi, — what can it profit a man to know ? Facts of this kind are like the beard of the barley : they are the part which first comes in sight, but yield no nourishment. If a person learnt nothing from Scripture, but a list of names and facts, such as that Samson was the strongest man, and that Solomon was the wisest, he would not be a jot the better for his knowledge. Knowledge of this sort may puff a man up with a vain conceit of his learning and cleverness ; but most assuredly it cannot edify. One little verse from the Sermon on the Mount would be worth it all. The lessons we are to draw from the histories of the Old Testament are not of names and facts, but of laws and prin- ciples. We are to look on those histories as shewing us the wires and springs by which God governs the world. That he does govern the world, that all nations of the earth are subject to him, and that he allots prosperity to this nation, and calamity to that nation, as seems best to him, we know. But in most cases we cannot make out the hows and the wherefores of his dealings with them. We see that one nation is raised, and another lowered : but the reasons of God's ordinances, and the way in which he brings his will to pass, are mostly hidden from us. So that the history of most countries may be likened to a great clock : we see the hands move, and hear the hours strike ; but we cannot see and examine the works by which the hands are set in 2 94 THE ALTON SERMONS. motion, and the hours are made to strike. With thehistor)- of the Jews however it is otherwise. In their case God has hfted up the veil, which mostly covers his dealings with mankind: he has shown us the inside of the clock, and given us the means of observing how the wheels and pulleys act upon the hands. In other words, he has set before us in the Bible, how entirely the welfare of a nation depends upon the piety and true religion of the people. There is no truth appertaining to what is called political wisdom, so useful, so important, so indispensable to be known and kept in mind. In the history of the Jewish people, we see this truth set forth not once and again, but in every page. The bun does not ripen the wheat more regularly or more con- stantly, than God's favour attends the Jews and prospers them, when they are steadfast to walk in his paths. Nor are weeds of all kinds ' more certain to spring up in a neglected piece of ground, than God's judgments to fall on the children of Israel, whenever their hearts are set on evil. I was comparing the world and its goings on to a clock. If a savage were to see a clock, and were not to be told that there are works which make it go, he would probably fancy it a live creature, or at any rate that the hands went of them- selves. But after being shewn the works of any one clock, after some person had explained to him the uses of the wheels, and the pendulum, and the other parts, he would have no difficulty in making out that other clocks move on somewhat of the same principle : and he would never fall back into his former ignorant conceit, that the hands of any clock could go of their own accord. The mistake which I have supposed this ignorant savage to make about the going on of the clock, is the very same which the ignorant and irreligious are wont to make about the goings on of nations. They only see the outside of things. They will talk by the hour about the strength of armies, the size of fleets, the THE BEST CHRISTIAN, THE BEST PATRIOT. 295 amount of revenues : they will tell you, that such a kingdom has done well, because it had this or that able man at its head ; while such another kingdom has fallen into decay, because its manufactures have been neglected, and its trade managed upon unwise principles. Deeper than this the irreligious go not. They never look within, at ihe religious spirit and moral character of a people. Much less do they think of the great Clockmaker, who regulates all the nations of the earth, who alone can wind them up, and without whom they are sure to go down. According to these per- sons a nation goes of itself, just as, according to the savage, the clock goes of itself. But they who have duly learnt the lessons given us by the Jewish history in the Bible, — they who have been let in to a nearer view of the secrets of God's workmanship, and have been taught by a careful study of the Old Testament, that it is righteousness which exalteth a nation, and that thrones are established by holiness, — such persons are prepared to judge of the goings on of the world much more piously, and much more wisely. They refer everything to God's providence. They try to trace the work- ings of his will throughout the web of human afiairs ; being well aware that, unless they follow its guidance, they never can hope to unravel so tangled a knot. Above all, they do their best, if I may so say, to obtain God's tavour for their own country, knowing that, if he will but smile upon it, its safety and happiness are secured. This is the great practical truth to be drawn from the his- torical books of the Old Testament: and the Church of England has wisely allotted a large portion of every year to a course of chapters teaching it : because it is a truth which nearly concerns every one, poor as well as rich, to bear in mind. I repeat it, the truth, that the safety and happiness of kingdoms depends solely on God's blessing, is a truth which it concerns every Englishman, poor as well as rich, to 296 THE ALTON SERMONS. keep in mind : for this plain reason, — because every English- man can lend a helping hand toward drawing down that excel- lent blessing on his country. For what says king David in his 5th Psalm? " Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice; let them even shout for joy, because thou defendest them; let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee ; for thou, O Lord, wilt bless the righteous." To the same effect writes Solomon in the Book of Proverbs (xi. 11) : "By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted ; but it is over- thrown by the mouth of the wicked." From these texts we learn that God blesses the righteous in such a way, that by their means and for their sakes nations are exalted. My brethren, we as a people need no further exaltation. In wealth, in strength, in renown, in extent of rich and culti- vated dominion, in variety of possessions in every quarter of the globe, no nation was ever equal to us. In these respects God has raised us to a height unknown before, and has placed us on the very spire and pinnacle of glory. Let us take good heed that the height does not make us giddy. Let us look well to our footing, that we slip not. And how is this to be done ? By praying to God to hold up our goings in his paths ; by trusting in God that his mercy will preserve us ; by acknowledging the Lord in all our ways, and seeking his heavenly wisdom, whereby alone men walk safely, so that their feet do not stumble. But now who is to do all these things ? Who is it, that for his country's sake is thus to pray to God, and to trust in him, and to acknowledge him, and to seek his heavenly wisdom ? Perhaps you will say, the King. And the King certainly should do so first and foremost : for he is the head of the state, and as it were, its visible representative. In him the majesty of the nation centres ; so that, whatever he does, the nation may be said to do. Besides, he has the choice of the governors and magistrates of the realm : if he THE BEST CHRISTIAN, THE BEST PATRIOT. 297 be righteous, the pious and good will be held in honour ; but if he be irreligious, the wicked and dissolute will be promoted. Therefore, seeing that the piety of the King concerns us all so very nearly, it is with good reason that we are taught to pray every Sunday, that it will please God, not only to keep him in health and wealth, and to give him the victory over all his enemies, but also to endue him plen- teously with heavenly gifts, to fill him with the grace of the Holy Spirit, that he may incline to God's will and walk in his way, and so to rule his heart in the fear and love of God, that he may above all things seek God's honour and glory. But though the King ought certainly to set his people the example of honouring and serving God, unless the nation follow that example, his piety alone will not do. This was the state of things in the reign of the good king Josiah. We read that " Hke him there was no king before him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses ; neither after him arose there any Hke him." Nevertheless, when he sent to inquire of the Lord for himself and for his people, to know whether God would bring on Judah the judgments he had denounced on their iniquities, what answer did the Lord make him ? You will find it in the 22nd chapter of the 2nd Book of Kings. " Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof; even all the words written in the book of the law of Moses, because they have forsaken me. But to the king of Judah, which sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall ye say to him : Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord when thou heardest what I spake against Jerusalem, and the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, I also have heard thee, saith the Lord ; and I will gather thee to thy fathers ; and thou shalt be gathered 298 THE ALTON SERMONS.. into thy grave in peace : and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place." Such are God's dealings when a righteous king is found at the head of an ungodly and hardened people. He does not overlook the wickedness of the nation, for the sake of their pious niler : but he mercifully takes the good king from the evil to come, and then pours out his vengeance upon the guilty land. It is not enough then for the King to devote himself to God's service, unless the body of the nation do so likewise. But who are the body of the nation? and of whom is it made up ? Surely it is made up of the King's subjects. All the English people taken together, all the men and women in England, make up the body of the English nation. Consequently you, my brethren, in your degree, and I in mine, each of us in his calling and station, forms a part, — a very sniall part, it is true, but still a visible part, a living part, an accountable part of this great nation, — a nation of which we and the rest of the people are the body, and the King is the head. Now let me take a step further, and ask you, — supposing a prophet from heaven were to denounce God's judgments against us, for being a sinful nation, what would he mean by the words? Isaiah shall explain them to you. After complaining of Judah for being a sinful nation, he proceeds thus : " A people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers : they have forsaken the Lord, they are gone away backward ; from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it " (i. 4, 6). A sinful nation, in one very plain and important sense of the words, is a nation the people whereof are sinful from top to bottom. And what is the consequence of such sinfulness ? To the sinful Jews it was desolation and destruction. What then have we reason to dread it would be to sinful Christians, whose light is so much brighter, and whose opportunities are so much greater ! THE BEST CHRISTIAN, THE BEST PATRIOT. 299 The truth, therefore, that states and kingdoms flourish and decay according to God's good pleasure, is indeed a prac- tical truth which concerns every one. For we see that the sins of a nation are made up of the sins of all the people in it. The drunkenness of one man, the uncleanness of another, the dishonesty of a third, the op])ression and covetousness of a fourth, the unbelief and prof^meness of a fifth, — these things, small, as each of them may appear to be, make up the gross amount of a nation's guilt ; just as a mountain may be made up of grains of sand, or as the great and deep sea, the very waves of which will rise mountain- high, is made up of a number of drops of water. There is an old and wise Eastern proverb, that it is the last straw which breaks the camel's back ; and we have a saying not unlike it, that it is the last drop which makes the cup nm over. My brethren, who of us can tell how full the cup of God's wrath may even now be against this land ? ^V^^o can tell how many, or rather how few drops it may want, to make it overflow, and whelm us with the waters of bitter- ness. What can move God to stretch out his protecting hand, but the prayer and the repentance of his people ? But God is not unmerciful, to mark the evil only. His eyes are also upon the good. It is for them, for his children, that the events of this world are disposed. It is for the sake of the wheat that the tares are spared, lest, as our Saviour says, while the tares are gathered up, the good wheat be rooted up also. Every additional ear of good wheat, every new convert to Jesus Christ, is so much added to the safety of England. Were all good, the nation would be righteous, and God's favour would rest upon us. The land would be like the garden of Eden, so tliat all who visited it would say, See the land which the Lord hath blessed ! On the other hand if all were evil, if the people had altogether corrupted itself, and forsaken the law of God, THE ALTON SERMONS. the land would soon be turned into a wilderness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. At present we are neither all good, nor, praised be God ! all evil. Bat good and evil, piety and ungodliness, justice and fraud, mercy and oppression, are carrying on a mighty struggle, and dividing the people of the land. In this great war there are no neuters. Every one who is not on Christ's side, is against him. Every one therefore must choose his side. On which side will you be ? I ask you, each of you, will you be on the side of Christ, which is the side of bless- ing ? or will you be on the side of sin, which is the side of cursing ? Will you be on the side of godliness, which calls down blessings upon England ? or will you be on the side of wickedness, which is drawing down curses upon England? Yes, every wicked act tends to draw down a curse upon the country, and in that sense is the worst of treasons. Every good act on the contrary, every holy feeling, every true prayer, every victory over our baser appetites, every sacrifice of our will to the law of God, — every such act adds another stone to the spiritual rampart, which for so many years has surrounded and defended England. That rampart every one amongst us is either building up or pulling down. If the evil in the struggle overpower the good, — and every single desertion from good to evil makes the contest harder and more desperate, — if, I say, the evil should at last over- power the good, — should the rampart of justice and holiness be overthrown, think what a deluge of wickedness will pour in ! and wherever wickedness makes its way, misery and woe follow at its heels. If you would avoid this misery, labour to repair the breaches in the rampart ; lest the words be spoken to us, which were spoken formerly to Ezekiel, " And I sought for a man among them that should make up the liedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it ; but I found none " (xxii. 30). THE BEST CHRISTIAN, THE BEST PATRIOT. 30 1 May such words never be spoken to our country ! Oocl grant that England may never be without men to make up the hedge, and to stand in the gap before the Lord ! God grant that she may never turn away from Him who alone can make up the hedge, who alone can stand in the gap before the Lord I XXVI. LOCK AND KEY; OR, PROPHECY AND INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY. 2 Peter i. 19—21. "We have also a more sure word of prophecy ; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts : knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. P'or the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man : but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. n^HIS is a hard text to understand fully : but its general ^ meaning is clear ; and we shall have no difficulty in ga- thering enough from it to make a very useful lesson. St. Peter had been speaking of the proofs, which he and his brother apostles had received, of our Saviour's power and greatness. He had mentioned the wonderful proof granted them when Jesus was transfigured " in the holy mount," when they were eyewitnesses of his brightness and majesty, and heard the voice from heaven saying, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." After urging this great proof, as a man would, who had seen and heard such wonders, he goes on to a second proof, the proof from prophecy. Of this he says, that Christians would do well to give heed to it ; for LOCK AND KEY. 3OJ that a prophecy is Uke a hght shinmg in a dark place, until the day dawn. As men burn a candle during the night to give light, so was God pleased to set up the lamp of pro- phecy in the world, to save mankind from being left in total darkness during the ages before the coming of Christ. This was the use of the prophecies before Christ's coming. They were designed to preserve a sense of God's goodness, and a recollection of his promises, to keep hope alive in the world, and to awaken men to the expectation of some great mercy, which God was preparing for his people, and would bring to light in due time. But when the Sun of Righteousness had risen and chased away the darkness, the candlelight was no longer needed. Are we to suppose then, that the prophecies ceased to be of any use, when Jesus by his coming fulfilled them ? They did indeed lose their former use of being lights in a dark place ; but they acquired a new use instead. They became what St. Peter calls a surer word ; that is, they became perhaps the strongest of the outward proofs, the most striking of the external testimonies to the truth of our Saviour's mission. Do you ask, what makes their testimony so sure? St. Peter tells us : their not being of private interpretation ; and their having been spoken by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. They were not of private interpretation : that is, they did not refer merely to the events of the time and place when they were spoken, but they pointed far onward into futurity, and had a grander reference and application to the Son of God. Nor were the events which they pointed to so clear that a man on reading the prophecy could say, " This means so and so ; this will be fulfilled in such and such a manner." Even the prophet himself did not understand them. He spake as he was moved by the Spirit of God : he gave utterance to the threats and pro- 304 THE ALTON SERMONS. mises which God put into his mouth : but how those threats and promises were to be fulfilled, neither he nor his hearers knew. So that the prophecies were like a door with a curious lock or secret spring to it. Till the secret of the spring is found out, till the right key is given, we may puzzle ourselves as long as we please, but we shall never open the door. Before the events took place, it was impossible to open the prophecies, so as to get clearly at their meaning. People contrived to peep through the chinks, and saw that the sight within was rich and glorious ; and with that they were forced to be content. But when the events came and fitted the prophecies, just as the right key fits the lock, then the door was unfastened, and many of the prophecies were thrown open, and their meaning, so far as they spake of Jesus, was made manifest. I say, many of the prophecies were thrown open ; because many are still closed. For the prophecies must not be compared to one room with one door, but to a great building with a number of rooms, each having its own door. Many of these rooms have been gra- ciously thrown open to us : we have found them full of treasure : but others are still shut : we have not the right key to them ; and perhaps we shall have to wait for it until the end of the world. Be that as it may, our concern is, not with the prophecies which are closed and dark, but with those which are clear and open. Of these St. Peter says, that they are very sure: in other words, they are strong and satisfactory proofs and testimonies to the truth and character of Christ's mission, testimonies which there is no denying, and proofs which there ought to be no disputing. For just consider, if you saw halt-a-dozen doors with as many different locks to them, so new and strange that not a smith in the country could make a key to fit any one of them, and if a man then came with a key, which fitted all these different locks, and opened LOCK AND KEY. 305 all the six doors, — could you doubt that his was the right key? Could you doubt that the key had been made for the locks? Now this is just the kind of proof which the prophecies afford of the truth and divinity of Jesus. When the Jewish nation was musing what these prophecies could mean, our Saviour said, " Lo I come, to do what is written of me in the volume of the book." I come to explain the prophecies, and to fulfil them. And so he did. The events of his life and the prophecies of the Old Testament fit and tally together so exactly and so wonderfully, in so many different points, that it is clear the agreement must have been designed, — designed by that God who first inspired the prophecies, and then sent his Son to fulfil them. This is a proof which it requires only good plain sense and an unprejudiced mind to judge of. It is a proof too which never wears out. It is just as sure now, as it was in St. Peter's time ; and it will continue to be no less sure for a thousand, or ten thousand years to come. The weight of this proof rests on two simple facts. One is, that the prophecies were written many hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. Of this there can be no doubt ; because the Jews, who are our Saviour's enemies, have always had the Scriptures of the Old Testament in their keeping. The other fact is, that Jesus died the death related in the New Testament. The plainest prophecies are those which describe, not our Lord's actions, but his passion, not his life, but the manner of his death, and his patience under it, not what he did, but what he suffered. Therefore the only question is, did Christ really suffer the death recorded in the gospels ? Of this again there can be no doubt. The Jews cannot deny, the heathens cannot deny, that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified as a malefactor by the Roman governor Pilate. Here are two certain, undeniable facts. The date of the X 306 ' THE ALTON SERMONS. prophecies is quite certain : the death and sufferings of Jesus are also quite certain. Now let any unprejudiced man, bearing these two facts in mind, read the 22 nd Psalm and the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, and then the account of our Saviour's trial and crucifixion in the four Gospels ; and he must needs satisfy himself that David and Isaiah must have been moved by the Spirit of God, when they spoke of Christ ages before his birth, almost in the very words they would have used if they had been eyewitnesses of his death, and had written after the event, instead of hundreds of years before it. For we all know, — the plainest man knows just as well as the most learned, — that such knowledge is too wonderful and excellent for mortal man ; he cannot attain to it. It is not within the powers of man to tell for certain even what a day may bring forth : but to see the future, to speak of it as if it were lying before our eyes, to describe what is to happen upon earth ages after we have mouldered in our coffins, what man can pretend to a power of this kind ? This is the prerogative of God. He, and he alone, can tell what is to happen : because he alone has the ordering of events, and calls them out of the womb of time, at the moment and in the manner that seems best to him. He alone can tell what will be : because he alone can command what shall be. Accordingly when God in Scrip- ture is shewing the vanity and weakness of the heathen idols, he calls on them, if they are really gods, to prove themselves such by this very power of prophesying and foretelling. " Declare us things to come (he says to them), shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods." (Isaiah xli. 22.) When we see a mortal man therefore possessed of this divine power, and employing it, as the prophets of old did, to the glory of God, can we doubt that he must have received this power as a gift from God himself ? Can there be a doubt that the LOCK AND KEY. 307 prophecies came not by the will of man, but that holy men of God must have spoken as they were moved by the Holy Ghost ? Thus far I have been explaining the nature of that proof and evidence from prophecy, which St. Peter speaks of as so very sure. That you may better understand the matter, I will illustrate it by going through the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, to which I have already referred you, and comparing it with the accounts of our Saviour in the New Testament. For it is only by looking closely at this chapter, and taking it verse by verse, that you can discover how accurate the description, and consequently how perfect the proof is. This chapter is a continuation of the 52nd, in which the prophet speaks of the' Lord's redeeming his people without money, of his comforting his people and of his making bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations. It is after declaring these glorious promises, that Isaiah breaks out in the first verse of the 53rd chapter, into that mournful ques- tion, " Who hath beHeved our report ? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ?" In vain do I make you all these promises, says God ; you will not believe them : in vain do I shew you my glorious arm ; you shut your eyes against it. Such is the first prophecy in this chapter : and was it not fulfilled? When Jesus came in the fulness of time, did not the Jews disbelieve and reject him? With an express reference to the prophecy, St. John says, though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him ; that the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, " Lord, who hath believed our report?" (xii. 37, ^S). In vain was the arm of the Lord made bare : in vain was the eternal Son of God revealed to his people. They shut their eyes against him, and would not acknowledge him. Now how did this come to pass? Isaiah tells us in the 308 THE ALTON SERMONS. second verse. " For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground : he hath no form nor comeliness ; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him." This is the reason why Jesus was rejected : because he came in a humble garb, with none of those outward marks of royalty, which the Jews were fondly looking for. Therefore, says Isaiah, they will reject him. Such is the second prophecy : and was not this too fulfilled ? Did not Jesus come in the form of a servant, and make himself of no reputation ? and is it not further true, that on this very account the Jews turned a deaf ear to his preaching, and would not believe in him? Hear what St. Mark says : " Many hearing him were asto- nished, saying. From whence hath this man these things ? and what wisdom is this which is given to him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands ? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary ? And they were offended at him." (Mark vi. 2, 3.) Thus far the prophecy and the event agree exactly. Let us see what comes next. " He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him ; he was despised, and we esteemed him not." This is so undeniable, it is so certain from every page of the New Testament that Jesus was a man of sorrows, that he was afflicted with all the afflictions which can befall mortal man, sin, and those which spring from sin, alone excepted, — it is so certain that he was treated with the utmost scorn, that he was rejected by those whom he came to save, that he was cast out and driven from place to place, and lastly that the wicked cruelty of his murderers was embittered by their insolent brutal mockery, — all this is so certain, that there can be no necessity for me to enter into any details on this point. But perhaps you will ask, how it happened that the Son LOCK AND KEY. 309 of God came to us without form or comeliness ? how it happened that, when the arm of the Lord was revealed, it was not revealed in its power and glory, but in the humble shape of the carpenter of Nazareth ? If we look into this chapter of Isaiah, we shall see the reason in the 4th, 5 th, and 6th verses. " Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows : yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions ; he was bruised for our iniquities ; the chas- tisement of our peace was upon him ; and with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray ; we have turned every one to his own way ; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." This, my brethren, is the reason of Christ's humiliation. For our sakes he went through all : that we might be healed, he suffered stripes : that we might be forgiven, he was bruised and wounded : sinless himself, he was made a sin-offering for us : he bore the punishment of the iniquity of all the sons of men. To the same effect is that verse in the 40th Psalm : " My sins have taken such hold on me, that I am not able to look up ; they are more in number than the hairs of my head : and my strength hath failed me." Compare these prophecies with the account of the agony in the garden, where drops of bloody sweat fell from our Saviour's" forehead : and then determine whether they too have not been wholly fulfilled. When we cry to our Lord in the Litany to deliver us, you know we call upon him, among other things, " by his agony and bloody sweat ; " thus reminding him of what he under- went for the sake of fallen man, and beseeching him to perfect the work he there began for us, that his grievous sufferings may not have been in vain. For whenever any one dies in his sins, Christ has suffered in vain, so far as that person is concerned. He might as well have stayed in heaven, for any good his agony can do to the unrepenting 3IO THE ALTON SERMONS. sinner. Nay, better would it be for the stubborn, impenitent sinner, that Christ had never come at all. Better would it be for him, that there had been no agony, no cross, no sacrifice for sins, no offer of peace and pardon, than that the offer should be rejected, and the sacrifice slighted, and the cross and agony of the Son of God declared to him, without moving his soul to repentance. The word is sad ; but it is most true. It would have been better for the sinner that Christ had never come, than that he should have come, and that the sinner should reject him. But to reject his offered pardon is to reject him ; to reject his love is to reject him ; to reject his doctrine is to reject him ; to reject his laws is to reject him. Let not the sinner say, " I have no such wicked meaning. I have no thought of disowning or reject- ing Christ : I acknowledge him to be my Lord and Master." Hold, sinner, and consider what you are saying. You have no thought of rejecting Christ? Beware then that you are not doing worse ; beware that you are not mocking and in- sulting him. Remember the Roman soldiers. They even bowed their knees, and put a royal robe on him, and set a crown on his head : yet all this was only mockery; and the crown was a crown of thorns. Alas ! the lip-service of the bold sinner is a worse mockery, and goes more to his heart ; the sins of the believer are sharper thorns to him than any his crown was made of. They strike a bitter wound, and pierce deeper. To come into Christ's presence, and say you believe in him, and afterwards by your works to deny it, — is not this mockery ? is not this downright insult ? is it not ingratitude and treason against your benefactor and your King ? That dreadful night of the agony was the night of the power of darkness. Among the temptations which the tempter then employed against Jesus, few could have been more cutting, than the thoughts of the multitudes of human beings to whom his Gospel would be preached in vain, to LOCK AND KEY. 311 whom his sufferings would bring no healing, on whom his death would only draw down a greater weight of wrath and condemnation. Cannot you conceive the tempter urging him with some such crafty words as these ? " Why should you suffer all these things, thou well-meaning but mistaken Jesus ? Think of the thousands who will never be the better for your death. Think of the thousands who will be the worse for your death. Think of all those who will be encouraged to sin on, by the trust that you have bought their pardon. Think of all those to whom your Gospel will bring, not life, but death, — not pardon, but condemnation. With such malicious thoughts may we conceive the father of lies to have assailed Jesus in that hour of bitter- ness : and the woe is, there was some truth in them ; and that truth wrought like the barb of a poisoned arrow : it made the thought stick in the heart of Jesus and rankle there. For undoubtedly the Gospel of Jesus Christ, when it is not a savour of life unto life, is a savour of death unto death. If men do not become better and happier by it, they become more wicked and more wretched. If they do not become true Christians in heart and life, they become worse than heathens. This perhaps may have been the weight which pressed the most heavily on the soul of the tender-hearted Jesus during his agony. Would God that, as these thoughts pressed on his mind, so they would press on ours ! Would God, the thought of the great misery laid up for an unrepentant sinner which shook and wrung the soul of Jesus, so that an angel was sent to comfort him, — would God, this same thought would shake and wring every living sinner, and haunt him day and night, and give him no respite, till he were frightened and driven out of his sins, and brought to lead a holy life ! Bad as are the pains of an .awakened conscience, a sleeping conscience is far worse. 312 THE ALTON SERMONS. For you must awake some time. If you do not come to yourself before you are put into the grave, you must after. Here it is only the smart of a wound, which, however painful, is sure to be cured, if you put the proper salve to it. After death the wound is incurable. The God of truth hath spoken it, of all that die in their wickedness : their worm shall never die. Anything but that, O Lord ! anything but that for the souls thou hast committed to my charge ! Rather let our sins lay hold upon us in this world, and press us down with shame and sorrow, that we may all turn to thee while thou art to be found, and may obtain forgiveness of the past, and the help of the blessed Comforter to heal us, and purify us, and strengthen us for the time to come, that we may love thee and obey thee as we ought to do ! But let us return to Isaiah. Enough has been said to prove the fulfilment of the 4th, 5th and 6th verses of the prophecy, which declare that the Messiah was to bear our griefs and to carry our sorrows, and that the Lord would lay on him the iniquity of us all. Now observe what comes next ; for the prophecy grows more particular and remark- able as it goes on. The next verses, as rendered by the learned Bishop Lowth, are as follows : — " It was exacted, and he was made answerable, and he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter ; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. By an oppressive judgmxcnt he was taken off; and who shall declare his generation ? for he was cut off from the land of the living ; for the transgression of my people was he smitten." In these verses we are told, first, that the Messiah, the promised Christ, was to be made answerable for a sum that was required ; secondly, that he was to be taken off by an oppressive or unjust sentence ; thirdly, that he was dumb and patient before his judges ; fourthly, that LOCK AND KEY. 313 he was to be brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and to be cut off for the sins of God's people. Here are four very extraordinary assertions; yet they are all fulfilled in Jesus. In the first place, he was made answerable ; for what ? Isaiah does not tell us. He only says, " it was exacted." Look into St. Paul however, and you will find what was exacted. The ransom of the world, — the price of our sal- vation. For this was Jesus made answerable. It was exacted from him ; and he paid it to the uttermost, with the trea- sure of his most precious blood. For this reason St. Paul admonishes us that we may not do as we please with our- selves ; for that " we are not our own, but Christ's," seeing that "we are bought with a price." (i Cor. vi. 19, 20.) The second thing foretold of the Messiah in these two verses is, that he was to be taken off by an oppressive or unjust sentence. Can anything be truer ? Could Isaiah have expressed himself more accurately if he had written after the crucifixion ? Was not the sentence against Jesus utterly oppressive and unjust ? What did Pilate say, before he gave him up to be executed ? "I find no fault in him : " so we learn from St. Luke and St. John. " I am innocent of the blood of this just person : " so we read in St. Matthew. Here the judge himself, at the very moment when he is dehvering Jesus up to a most shameful and bitter death, declares the injustice of his own sentence, the cruelty of his own conduct. The third thing prophesied of the Messiah in these two verses is, that he was to be dumb and patient before his judges. Now this is not usual, not likely, not natural. Inno- cent men do not commonly submit to a lawless and cruel sentence, without doing their best to defend themselves, and trying to clear their characters at least, if not to save their lives. Yet this too was fulfilled in the trial of Jesus, as 314 THE ALTON SERMONS. exactly as all the rest. We read in St. Matthew, that, when the council brought false witnesses against Jesus, that they might have something to lay to his charge, Jesus " held his peace ; " not from pride and stubbornness of spirit, but, as he himself tells us (Luke xxii. 67, 68), because he knew that, if he told them the truth, they would not believe him, and that if he asked them questions, or tried to argue with them out of the Scriptures, they would neither answer him, nor let him go. It was not until the high-priest adjured him by the living God, to tell them whether he was the Christ, that Jesus made that noble answer, of which it is hard to say whether we ought most to admire its mildness or its courage. " Thou hast said : nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." (Matt. xxvi. 64.) It was written in the Book of Daniel, that one like the Son of man should come in the clouds of heaven. The Jewish priests therefore were bound to believe that such a sight would one day be vouchsafed to them. Had they cared for justice, they would have given Jesus an oppor- tunity of justifying himself, by asking what proof he could offer of his being the Son of man. Then might he have appealed to his mighty works. There would have been no want of witnesses. Blind Bartimeus restored to sight, the centurion's servant raised from the bed of sickness, the impotent man released by a few words from the infirmity which had crippled him for thirty-eight years; above all, Lazarus raised out of the grave after he had been four days dead. Here would have been proofs of divine power so manifest, that, though they would not have convinced or converted his enemies, they might perhaps have shamed them into silence. But no : the judges gave him no such opportunity of proving his mission. They stop him with the cry, "He hath spoken blasphemy ! " they condemn him to LOCK AND KEY. 315 die, and send him bound to Pilate. Here the same scene of silence is repeated. " When he was accused by the chief priests, he answered nothing. Then said Pilate to him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee ? And he answered him never a word, insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly." In St. John indeed we read of his speaking more than once to Pilate ; but that was in private, and apparently not for his own sake, but for Pilate's. Against the public accusations of his countrymen he made no more answer or defence before Pilate, than he had made before the priests. Thus dumb was Jesus, as Isaiah prophesied he was to be. And was he not also patient? He who, when Peter had denied him thrice, only looked upon him ; he who, when he was suffering all the tortures of the cross, prayed to his Father for his murderers. The fourth thing mentioned in these two verses is, that he was to be brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and to be cut off for the sins of God's people. Hear what St. Peter says : " He did no sin ; neither was guile found in his mouth ; who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, but committed his cause to him that judgeth righteously; who his own selt bare our sins in his own body on the tree." (i Pet. ii. 22, 23.) But why is it said that he was to be brought as a lamb to the slaughter? At first sight this might seem to refer only to his innocence and his meekness. But the expression has a further and a deeper meaning. " Behold the Lamb of God," said John the Baptist of him, "which taketh away the sin of the world ! " In this sense, above all others, is Jesus the Lamb. He is the Lamb ordained to death from the foundation of the world. As it is beautifully expressed in the Communion Service, he is the very paschal Lamb, which was offered for us, and hath taken away the sin of the world. It is as being a sacrifice, no less than for his purity, that 31 6 THE ALTON SERMONS. Jesus is likened by Isaiah to a lamb. He was, what the law of Moses required the paschal lamb to be, without blemish. The next agreement is perhaps still more marvellous. "And his grave was permitted with the wicked," says Isaiah, *' and with the rich man was his tombP For that is the true translation, and not, as our Bible has it, " in his death." Here again the prophecy could scarcely be more accurate, if it had been written after the event. For Jesus did indeed go down to the grave with the wicked ; or as the last verse of the chapter expresseth it, '' he poured out his soul unto death, and was numbered with the trans- gressors." He died as a criminal between two thieves. But where did he afterward find a tomb ? Not with the transgressors, not with the wicked ; but, O wonderful fulfil- ment of a most strange prophecy ! — " when the evening was come " (these are St. Matthew's words), " there came a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple ; he went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock." Thus was this prophecy accomplished to the letter : thus did Jesus, after dying with the transgressors, receive a tomb with the rich. Isaiah, then, as if for fear of being misunderstood, — for fear any one should imagine that the wonderful person, of whom he has been speaking throughout the chapter, had done something worthy of death, and deserved to be counted as a transgressor, — repeats himself, and again declares that all this befell him, though he had done no wrong, neither was there guile found in his mouth ; because it '* pleased Jehovah to crush him with affliction." Was God unmerci- ful or unjust in this ? Far, far from it. For, as the prophet gives us to understand in the very next words, it was done with the Messiah's own consent. The words, when righdy translated, are as follows : " When his soul shall make an LOCK AND KEY. 317 offering for sin." It was the Messiah's soul or life then, that is, the Messiah himself, that was to make this offering. Was not this too accomplished ? was not Jesus willing to die for mankind ? Hear his own words : *' Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life for the sheep. No man taketh it from me ; but I lay it down of myself." God then was not unjust in emptying the vial of his wrath upon Jesus ; nor was he unmerciful in doing so. On the contrary it was the greatest act of mercy that could be. For why did Jesus die ? For our sakes. The punish- ment which was due to us, he vouchsafed to take upon him- self; and so, through the voluntary sin-offering of this one holy victim, thousands upon thousands have been made righteous, have been forgiven, have been purified from their offences, and raised to everlasting life. Nor was the Messiah himself a loser by his sufferings, and by his wondrous love, as Isaiah plainly declares in the last three verses of our chapter, which in Bishop Lowth's translation stand thus : "When his soul shall make an offering for sin, he shall see a seed which shall prolong their days, and the gracious purpose of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Of the travail of his soul he shall see the fruit, and shall be satisfied. By the knowledge of him shall my righteous servant justify many; for the punishment of their iniquities shall he bear. Therefore will I distribute to him the many for his portion ; and the mighty people shall he share for his spoil ; because he poured out his soul unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors, and bare the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgres- sors." The time will not allow me to go minutely into the fulfilment of these last three verses : nor is it needful ; for you yourselves see their fulfihiient. Has not God the Father highly exalted Jesus, that at his name millions of knees have bowed this very day ? Does not Christ see a 3l8 THE ALTON SERMONS. seed which shall prolong their days far beyond the grave ? Has not God's gracious purpose prospered in his hand? It has, it has. Bear witness, ye multitudes in every age, who have been weaned from sin by the doctrines of the blessed Jesus. Bear witness, ye innumerable servants of his, who have felt and declared that ye were reconciled to God through the blood of his dear Son, — declared it, not with your lips alone, — O no ! ye have declared it by your lives, by your holiness, by your humiHty, by your patience, by your diligence in every good work, by that inward peace of heart and conscience, which the world can neither give nor take away. By these proofs have ye shewn in all ages, ye servants of the holy Jesus, that the promise of the pro- phet has been gloriously fulfilled, that the gracious purpose of the God of heaven has indeed prospered in the hands of his Messiah. For what is that purpose, dearly beloved brethren ? St. Paul tells us in half-a-dozen words : " The will of God is your sanctification." His gracious purpose in sending his Son into the world was to bring back the children of men to their duty and allegiance. When they are persuaded to come to him that he may give them life, then is the will of God accomplished, and his gracious purpose prosperously fulfilled. My brethren, will you not do your parts to fulfil God's gracious purpose ? The Father is willing and ready ; the Holy Ghost is willing and ready : Christ has done his part. The price is paid : the iniquity has been borne : the door of reconciliation here, and of heaven after death, has been thrown wide open to you. Will you not do your parts? Will you not come and take the life, which Jesus has bought for you with so much suffering ? Will you not return to God? Thus have we examined this prophecy of Isaiah verse by verse. We have seen every part of it fulfilled in the life of Jesus. Such an agreement, so accurate, so wonderful, in LOCK AND KKY. SO many points, cannot possibly be accidental. Therefore in Jesus we have the true key for the prophetic lock : and Isaiah, who foretold all these things so many hundred years before, must assuredly have spoken, as St. Peter says, not of his own will, but as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. XXVII. PRINCIPLES ABOVE RULES; OR, WHEAT IS BETTER THAN BREAD. COLOSSIANS ii. 20. If ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordi- nances ? '"PHE ordinances here spoken of are the ordinances of the -■- law of Moses, which were only designed for a certain people, and for a certain time. They were designed for the Jewish people, — for that people out of which in the full- ness of time the Saviour of the world was to spring : and they were designed to hold that people together, and to keep the expectation of the Saviour alive in it, until the Saviour himself came, to fulfil the law, and by fulfilling it to prepare the way for the downfall of all such parts of it as had merely been intended for their particular nation and age. Now this is a point in which there is a great and striking difference between the law of Moses and the law of the Gospel. One of the chief excellences of the precepts which we find in the New Testament, is, that they reach far beyond the occasions and purposes they were originally laid down for ; so that, in spite of all the changes which have taken PRINCIPLES ABOVE RULES. 321 place in the world since, they are many of them appHcablc to the letter, and all are still applicable in their spirit, at this very day. If you bear in mind that near eighteen hun- dred years have gone by since the apostles wrote those letters to the christian churches of their age, which we are wont to call Epistles, you will join with me in wondering, not that there should be a few sayings here and there in them dark and hard to be understood, but that there should be such a vast number of verses in them, every word ov' which we may still apply to ourselves, to the purifying of our hearts, and the building up of our souls, and the shaping of our lives. Now to what is this excellence owing ? In other words, what is the peculiar character of the precepts laid down in the New Testament, in consequence of which they do not pass away, like the ordinances of the law of Moses, but spread from land to land, and are handed down from gene- ration to generation, and, wherever the Gospel is known, serve as a guide of life and practice to all classes and con- ditions of mankind ? Their peculiar character is, that the apostles, doing as their Master had done before them, when they gave a rule for what was to be done in any case or on any occasion, were not satisfied with giving the bare rule, but to the rule added the principle, which was the ground of its wholesomeness and worth. Now between a mere rule, which is the applying of a principle to some particular case, and the principle itself, there is just the same sort of difference as between bread and wheat. Let me beg you to attend to this comparison, on which I mean to dwell for a while, as I hope by the help of it to render an important truth clear and almost easy to you. A rule, which has been drawn up for any particular pur- pose, may be likened to a loaf of bread : a principle on the other hand is like a handful of wheat. Every rule that is Y 322 *THE ALTON SERMONS. worth anything must be taken, from a principle, just as a loaf of bread is made of wheat. For the wants and uses of the moment a rule is more serviceable than a principle ; jast as, when a man is hungry, bread is more welcome than wheat. For bread is wheat ready prepared for the sake of satisfying hunger : we have only to take and eat it. Hence for a hungry man a crust of bread is better and handier than so much unground wheat. Yet will anybody say on this account that bread is a better thing than wheat? Suppose a man were going to some far country, where no com grows, which would he take with him? bread, or wheat ? Suppose a sailor were thrown with his family on a desert island^ which would he wish for ? for bread, or for wheat ? Assuredly a single handful of wheat would be a greater godsend to the poor castaway than a whole shipload of bread. Why so ? because he could plant the wheat, and could not plant the bread. The bread after a time would get mouldy and be spoilt. The v/heat, if it were sown, and proper care taken of it, would grow, and flourish, and spread, until large fields were covered with it : and genera- tion after generation might be fed with the produce of the single handful. This is the great advantage which wheat has over bread. Bread may feed us for the moment ; but, when once eaten, it is gone for ever. Wheat on the contrary will bear seed : it will increase and multiply : after one crop has had its day, and been reaped, and stored in the barn, and consumed, another crop, provided seed be preserved, will spring up : and so long as the earth itself lasts, so long will corn last also. Thus too is it with rules and principles. A rule is like a loaf of bread. It is a ready, handy application of a principle, a principle made up for immediate use. By rules we govern and rule our children. We say to them, " Do this," or, " Don't do that." because it is easy for them to PRINCIPLES ABOVE RULES. 323 understand a plain order; but it is not always easy to make them understand the principle or reason of it. When the child however comes to be a man, he puts away childish things. He wants a new set of rules adapted to his new state : for he has outgrown the rules of childhood, so that they no longer fit him. The rules which belong to one stage of life, are many of them ill suited to other stages of life. In like manner the rules which belong to one class of men, or to one people, or to one age of the world, may not suit another class of men, or another people, or another age of the world. Hence different ages and different nations require different rules. To take an instance, the rule, or ordinance, or rite of circumcision, which St. Paul talks so much about, was suited to the nonage of religion : accord- ingly God appointed it as a rule or ordinance to be observed by the Jews, who were living so to say, in the infancy and childhood of religion. But when religion came of age, when by the blessing of Jesus Christ it reached its full growth and stature, it threw away circumcision as a badge of its child- hood. Now if every age of the world, and every people, and every class and order in society, and every stage of life, requires each its own rules, and if the rule which suits one will not suit another, how was God ever to give mankind rules enough to live by? What book is large enough to hold the countless swarms of them that would be wanted ? Supposing that such a book had been written, it would have taken men their whole lives to read and learn it. What a hard matter too would it have been to pick out the rule needed for every particular occasion ! The time for action would have gone by, while we were making out what it behoved us to do. Therefore God, when he was graciously pleased to give us a law which was to serve, not for one country and one people, but for the whole world, did not 324 THE ALTON SERMONS. give us an endless string of rules to be followed according to the letter in each particular case, but gave us the principles which are the ground and sources of all rules, and from which the rules are to be drawn. Even as for the nourishment of our bodies he has not given us bread, but wheat, leaving it for us to sow the wheat, and when it has come up, to reap it, and to thresh it, and to grind it, and to bake it into bread or cakes, or what we please ; in like manner tor the strengthening of our souls has he set before us what is good and right, not for one man more than another man, or for one country more than another country, or for one age more than another age, but for all men, in all countries, and in all ages : and having given us thus much, having given us the seeds of all rules, he has left us in great measure to grow the rules for ourselves ; he has left us to spply the principles to particular cases, and so draw the rules for each case out of them. Thus, when he did away the ordinance of circumcision, at the very time when he took away the rule, he vouchsafed to give us the principle of that rule in its stead. When he abolished the rite by his apostle, St. Paul, he declared the meaning of the rite : he told us that the thing signified was the circumcision or purifying of the heart : and having thus shewn us this great and high principle, — a principle which concerns all mankind, and will concern them all until the end of the world, since all men have hearts to purify, and hearts that greatly need to be purified, — he has left it to the judgment and conscience of each of us to apply the principle to his own wants, and to frame rules for himself accordingly. Do we find that we cannot purge ourselves from carnal thoughts and desires, save by a strict course of abstinence and fasting ? We are bound to circumcise our hearts by abstinence, and to lay down rules for our fasting. Do we find the amusements and going into company nourish the proud flesh within us, and fill PRINCIPLES ABOVE RUf.ES. 325 US with vain and idle imaginations ? We must exercise our hearts by retirement, and must bind ourselves by rules to keep away from places of amusement. I say, we must bind ourselves ; for in neither of these cases has God bound us. In all such matters he has left his people free. He has not said, like the Pharisees of old, Thou shalt fast so many times a week. He has not said, Thou shalt never go to a fair, or a merrymaking, or a cricket-match. But he has laid down the great principles, he has declared the all-embracing truths, that the poor in spirit shall inherit his kingdom, and that the poor in heart shall see him : and he has left each person to make out the bearings of these principles on his own case, and to seek these blessings of humility and purity by such methods, and according to such rules, as may be deemed best and safest, either by the man himself, or by the Church he is a member of. For the Church of each age and nation is bound in all such matters to help and guide its members in the interpretation and application of the principles laid down in Scripture to their own particular need : and it is much to be regretted that the practice of the Church of England in these latter times has been to leave people almost entirely to their own unassisted dis- cretion. I cannot but think that it would be a very happy thing, especially for the poor and ignorant, if a little of the godly discipline, which prevailed in the primitive Church, could be restored. What has been observed of circumcision might be extended pretty nearly to the whole Jewish law, as compared with the excellency of our more spiritual religion. Moses, who had to provide for the wants of a particular people, at a time when religion, as I said above, was only in its child- hood, was instructed to treat them as we treat children, and to give them rules : " Touch not, taste not, hamlle not." These rules St. Paul in the text calls, " the rudi- THE ALTON SERMONS. ments of the world," thus likening them to the rudiments or elements of knowledge, as it were, to the alphabet, which children have to begin with, in order that they may learn to read, and get a footing in the land of knowledge. Jesus Christ on the other hand, the Word and the Wisdom of the Most High, who came to establish religion in the fullness of its strength, and to furnish it with all such good gifts as its riper age required, — Jesus Christ, who spake for all men, for all nations, for all ages, — did not lay down rules, like Moses, — did not say, "Touch not, taste not, handle not." No : by an exertion of his power and wisdom more mar- vellous to a thinking mind than any, even the greatest miracle he ever wrought, he at once, by a few plain words, set religion free from all her former swaddling-clothes and leading-strings : he skimmed off the cream, as it were, of the law of Moses : in the room of burthensome rites and formal rules, he gave us the law of faith and love, and thereby made his doctrine a doctrine of principles, living, active, pure, universal, and eternal. Somebody however may perhaps ask me. What is the worth of these principles, unless they bring forth good lives? You might just as well ask me. What is the worth of seed-corn unless it brings forth wheat, and flour, and bread ? Good seed, if it be duly sown, and the care of the husbandman is not wanting, nmst, under God's blessing, bring forth a good crop of wheat, some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, some a hundredfold. In like manner good prin- ciples, if they are planted in a heart that has been duly ploughed and weeded, must bring forth good deeds, some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, and some a hundredfold. The only difference is, that God's blessing is sometimes denied to the grower of the corn : to him God now and then sends a bad season, for a trial, it may be, of his patience, or to make him feel that he is wholly dependent upon Him who PRINCIPLES ABOVE RULES. 327 is the Lord of the harvest, and the Giver of all good things. But to the diligent grower of good principles, to the man who is anxious to raise up the goodly plants of faith and love in his heart, God's blessing is never denied. His crop is sure not to fail. Sooner or later it will spring up abun- dantly in a rich harvest of good works. Of this we may be sure ; for our Lord himself tells us so. *' Every good tree," these are his words, " bringeth forth good fruit." But why, if this be so, do I lay so much stress on the principles, and not rather speak to you of the good works which are to come from them ? Because in the first place, the works without the principles are worth nothing. It is the motive, as we all know, that more than anything else renders an action good or bad. However fair the look of an action may be, if the right motive is wanting, the action is hollow : if the motive be a bad one, the action is rotten at the core. Who cares for an outward seeming or show of friendship or affection, unless the heart be also friendly and affectionate? Who does not prize a rough outside, when it covers an honest inside, more than the most fawning fond- ness from a heart that is cold and false ? Thus it is right to insist on the principles for their own sake ; because the principles give their value to the action, not the action to the principles. The principles are the gold on which the stamp is to be put : if the gold be not good, the stamp, though it may often deceive people, gives it no real worth ; and he who graves the king's image on base metal, is sent to the gallows for forgery. But further, it is right to enforce the principle rather tlian the action, because a good principle, as we have seen, is sure of producing good actions ; whereas good actions, that is, actions which wear the outward show of goodness, are by no means sure of producing or fostering good prin- ciples. Take for example the giving of alms. There THE ALTON SERMONS. can be no doubt that he who loves his neighbour as himself for Christ's sake, will relieve his wants : therefore there can be no doubt that, wherever there is christian love or charity, it must needs produce the giving of alms, and every other bountiful work. But is it equally certain that chris- tian love will grow out of giving to the poor ? Does not the Gospel tell us of the hypocrites who did their alms in the streets, to be seen of men ? Can you think that a per- son who gave alms from such a corrupt, selfish motive, would be made better by what he did? Can you think that it would render him more bountiful, more compassionate, more affectionate ? We know the contrary. We know that the more a man indulges any evil propensity, the more he falls under its sway, and the worse he becomes. If he indulges his vanity and selfishness, he is sure to become vainer and more selfish. Nor is it too much to say, that every action of seeming goodness, which does not flow from a sincere and honest heart, is so far from helping to make a man better, that it tends directly to make him still more the child of the devil and the slave of sin than he was before. Be not deceived then, my brethren, by the idle talk, which the ungodly are wont to set up, that goodness, which from such lips means the mere outward show of what the world deems to be good, is better than religion ; and that the only thing of importance is to teach children to do right, without caring about bringing them up in the fear and love of God. That goodness is better than religion, I will believe, when any man has convinced me that the rind of an orange is better than the whole orange. That teaching children to be honest, sober, and industrious, is better than bringing them up in christian holiness, I will not believe, until I have seen it proved that it is better to sow bread than to sow wheat. Make the bread ; and take care that your children make the bread. Be careful that you yourselves keep, be careful to PRINCIPLES ABOVE RULES. 329 make them keep, every wholesome rule for the conduct of life : teach them to walk in all the ordinances of the moral law blameless : teach them to do their duty, regularly, faith- fully, exactly. Set them the example of industry, of sobriety, of honesty: and do your best to lead them to follow it. But sow the wheat, as you value your own souls, and theirs. Lose no opportunity, from the cradle upward, of teaching them to fear and to love God. Speak to them of God, of his power, of his purity, of his fatherly goodness : speak to them of Christ, and of his exceeding love in dying for us sinners : speak to them of the Holy Ghost, and bid them pray to him for comfort and help. Do this ; and God, you may trust, will do the rest. He will take charge of the seed which you have dutifully sown. He will send down the dew of his Spirit upon it. The seed will grow up and prosper, and will blossom to everlasting life. XXVIII. PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT. ■ . I Cor. xiv. 15. I will pray with the spirit ; and I will pray with the under- standing also. A MONG the evil customs which had crept into the Church '^^ of Corinth, one was that some of the teachers, or ministers, were wont to disturb the congregation by preach- ing and praying to them in a foreign language, which most of them could not understand : thus misemploying and abusing their gifts, for the sake of making their hearers stare, and of feeding their own vanity. The folly and mischief of such a practice is plain enough. What would you think of me, if I had been reading prayers to you in Latin this morning, or were to begin preaching to you in French? VVhat could you be the better for the prayers ? or what the wiser for the sermon ? Now this is just what St. Paul is reproving in the chapter from which the text is taken. He sets forth the uselessness of speaking to a congregation in a language they are ignorant of. If any man pray, he says, in an unknown or foreign tongue, his spirit indeed prayeth, but his understanding is unfruitful : that is to say, his soul, or spirit may pray ; but his meaning will be hidden from his hearers ; and his words, not being understood by them, will yield them no fruit. Then comes the text, "What is it PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT. 33 1 then ?" or, what ought we do then? " I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also." In other words, when we assemble together for the worship of God, the ministers are not to pray with the spirit, or soul only, for their own edification and improvement ; but every minister ought so to pray, that the people may understand him, and that even the most unlearned, knowing what is asked for, may be able, as we read in the next verse, to say ame7i from the heart, at the end of each petition. This is the strict and primary meaning of the text, the meaning which, if we consider the circumstances of the case, St. Paul had chiefly in view, when he wrote this part of his epistle. His purpose was to reprove and correct the extrava- gant conceit of the prayer-utterers, whose vanity led them to pray before the people in a language nobody could under- stand. Since those times however things are changed, and in this respect happily for the better. No one can now get up in one of our churches, and disturb the congregation by praying in an unknown or foreign tongue. We have a form of sound words given us in the Prayer-book, wliich every minister of the Church of England is bound to keep to, and which every minister does keep to from one end of the kingdom to the other. Go where you will, into whatever church you will, in London, in any country town, in any village, in the most out-of-the-way hamlet, you will every- where hear the same morning service in the morning, the same evening service in the evening : you will hear the same Psalms, the same Lessons, the same thanksgivings, the same prayers. In the furthest corners of England, in "Wales, in Ireland, nay even in the East and West Indies, wherever the brethren of our Church meet together to worship God, you would hear the same wise and sober and hearty and pious and truly christian praises and petitions, wliich you have been used to in this place from your childhood. 332 THE ALTON SERMONS. What shall we say then ? Shall we flatter ourselves that the command in the text, — for such we may deem it, — to pray with the spirit, and to pray also with the understand- ing, cannot apply to us? Shall we fancy that it belongs only to a state of things which is gone by, that it is out of date, and that we have no concern with it ? My brethren, the truths of the Bible can never be out of date. The state of things, which led Jesus and his apostles to set forth certain principles, will of course change; for everything earthly does : but a new state of things arises in its room, on which the same principles bear. The true Christian therefore, feeling that the principles delivered in the New Testament are a solemn trust, which he is to use to the best of his judgment, according to the circumstances he is placed in, will not be satisfied with learning how St. Paul applied a principle in the times wherein he lived, but will rather ask himself, how would St. Paul have applied the same principle now, if he had been living in these days ? For that is the point which concerns us. What was meant by praying with the spirit and with the understanding eighteen hundred years ago, is in great measure a question of curiosity. But how to pray with the spirit and with the understanding now, is a question of plain practice. For surely no one will imagine that it is of less consequence for us, than it was for the first Christians, to employ our minds and our hearts, as well as our tongues, in God's service. No one who knows anything of the New Testament, can fancy it possible lor us to serve God acceptably, unless we worship him in spirit and in truth, and serve him with a reasonable service. Nay, even before the coming of Christ, it was the same. Thus we read at the beginning of the 103rd Psalm, "Praise the Lord, O my soul ! " — not my tongue or my voice, but 7}iy soul: here you have David praying with the spirit: — and what comes next ? *' And all that is within me praise his PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT. 333 holy name." You see, according to David, a man should praise God with all that is within him. Is his understanding within him? He ought to praise God with his understand- ing. Is his memory within him ? He ought to praise God with his memory, by remembering all his benefits. In a word, whatever powers of mind and heart and soul he may be gifted with, David in the 103rd Psalm, and in many other places besides, teaches him to exert them all, when he is praising, and of course also when he is praying to God. But if this was the duty of God's faithful servants even before Christ's coming, how much more must it be so now that ChribL io come, and has set us free from the yoke of rites and cere- monies, and, instead of all those burthensome sacrifices and observances, which pressed so heavily on the Jews of old, requires nothing of us save that we should worship God in spirit and in truth, and serve him with a reasonable service. What, I say, is the change which has taken place in the application of St. Paul's principle, that men should pray with the spirit, and also with the understanding, to the present state of our Church ? The main change is this. When St. Paul wrote the words, he addressed them to the prayer-utterers, to warn them against uttering prayers which the people did not understand. That fault has been cor- rected in the simplest manner, by doing away with prayer- utterers, and establishing prayer-readers. Instead of persons getting up and praying without book, as it is called, which was the practice in early times, and led, as we have seen, to great abuses, our Church, in its wisdom, has appointed regular forms of prayer, which are to be read out of the Prayerbook, so that the people may bear a part in the ser- vice, if they will only attend to it. St. Paul's words there- fore are now addressed not to the prayer-utterers, who in our Church are not to be found, but mainly to the prayer-hearers, that is, to you. It is to yourselves that you are to apply 334 I'HE ALTON SERMONS. the command to pray both with the spirit and with the understanding : for it is to you that St. Paul himself would mainly apply it, were he to come to life again and preach on it. In the first place you should pray with the spirit : that is, you should feel what you say, and should wish for what you ask. If you do not, your prayers will be a mere pretence. When you pray to God to pardon your sins for instance, it is clear that you acknowledge yourselves to have sinned in such a way as to need pardon. Else why do you ask it ? Does any one ask for what he does not want ? Praying too is more than common asking. Praying is asking earnestly as we do when we greatly desire what we ask for. Do we, then, when we pray for God's forgiveness, beg hard for it, as for some boon that we really long for ? If we do not, — and alas ! how few do ! — we cannot be said to pray with the spirit. But you may ask me, how is a man to get to feel such a longing for God's forgiveness, as shall make him pray for it with his heart, or with his spirit, as well as with his tongue ? Some of you may be tempted to say within yourselves : " It is not my fault that I do not feel all this : I have tried to do so, and cannot." To such a man I answer, I believe it, I believe it fully. Nothing is more certain than that we cannot of ourselves call up spiritual feelings in our hearts at pleasure. Man in his natural unassisted state, man without the help of the Holy Ghost, cannot love the things of God. St. Paul's language on this point is clear and positive : and even if he had never written a word about the matter, one could hardly look round the world, one could not look into one's own heart, and not perceive, that it is not natural for man to love the things of God. Many of God's laws we can keep naturally, or at least with no more than the ordinary and scant measure of divine grace which must have PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT. 335 been vouchsafed even to the heathens. For exami)]c, the light of conscience and the checks of laws and education are enough to hold most men back from the grosser offences against their neighbours, such as murder and adultery. Again, a man may be induced to eschew certain vices, by observing their evil consequences in this world. He may see that brawls abroad and sickness at home often follow after strong drink, and for this reason may shun drunken- ness. In like manner he may be led to thrift and industry, by noticing how surely waste and sloth bring a man to rags and hunger. Or he may be rendered cleanly and regular by remarking the discomforts and troubles of dirt, untidi- ness, and disorder. Further, a man, without being a Chris- tian, may do many kind and praiseworthy actions, out of a regard for public opinion, — from the principles to be met with even in such books as have no concern with religion, — or through an easy, cheerful temper, and a compassionate heart. To this pitch of excellence we often see an irreli- gious man may attain. And what does it amount to ? To harmlessness, which is the virtue of the sheep ; to industry, which is the virtue of the ant ; to prudence, which is the virtue of the bee ; to friendliness and generosity, strong traces of which may be found in the half-human dog. I do not say that there may not now and then be an example of an irreligious man rising beyond this, and devoting himself to the service of his fellow-creatures out of what seems to be pure love. But, generally speaking, the virtues of the irreligious are only animal virtues. They are only excel- lences which belong to man as an observing and social animal : the proof of which is, that even the beasts that perish share them with him. Mind, I am not saying that thrift and industry and friendliness are not good qualities. They are good, they are excellent qualities ; and nobody can be a true Christian without them. But, excellent as 33^ THE ALTON SERMONS. they are, they are not spiritual qualities, and, when standing by themselves, can no more make a Christian, than wood without sails can make a ship. A plank of wood, you know, will float of itself, and, if large enough, will bear up a man who lays hold on it. So a person having those animal good qualities, which lie within the reach of the natural man, will float on the tide of this world, and, as the phrase is, \\dll keep his head above water. But would you prepare for the voyage which you must all undertake ? would you speed toward the haven where we shall all one day A\ish to be ? Mere wood will not serve : you must get sails. To the virtues of this world you must add the feelings of another world. To the animal good qualities, which, as animals, we have in common with the gentler and more social of the brutes, you must add those spiritual graces which raise man to a brotherhood with the angels. This is the one thing especially needful ; which yet no man can do for himself. No man can say, " I will love God." No man can say, " I will grieve for having oflended God by my cold- ness and negligence in his service." These feelings are no longer natural to us : we lost them at the Fall ; and ever since a man can no more bid them spring up in his heart, than the hull of a ship can fit itself out for sea, and wing itself with sails for starting. But, if we are commanded to pray with the spirit, and yet so to pray is not natural to man, surely we are in evil case, and God has dealt hardly with us, in requiring a duty which it does not rest with us to pay. Not so, my brethren, God is no such hard taskmaster. All that he demands of his servants is, that they give him back his gifts with increase. Though no one can say of himself, " I will pray with the spirit," every one can say, " I will pray to God so to change my heart, that I may have the heart to pray to him : " and God has promised his Spirit to them that ask him. " I will PRAY WITH THE SPHilT. 337 pour," he says, by the mouth of his prophet Zechariah (xii. lo), " upon the house of David, and upon the inhabi- tants of Jerusalem," — that is, on all the members of Christ's Church, — " the spirit of grace and of supplications ; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced," — that is, on Christ whom we have hurt and pierced by our sins ; — " and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born." No promise can be more express or plainer ; and its parts follow one another in a most instruc- tive order. First we have the spirit of grace and supplica- tion poured on us; for without that we can do nothing. The next step is, that the spirit thus given to us leads us to look on Christ whom we have pierced. In other words, we are moved to think much and often of all that Jesus Christ suffered on the cross ; and then, when our minds are thus filled with pity and honour, to look within and call to mind that it was for our transgressions, lightly as we deem of them, that he was wounded, and that, if he was bruised and smitten and afflicted, it was for our iniquities and sins. The habit thus wrought in us of looking at sin in connexion with the cross of Christ, as the true cause of all his sufferings, and as the curse which he bore for us on the tree, — this habit is fitted to set the guilt and hatefulness of disobeying God in the clearest and strongest light, and is of all ways the like- liest to work on our hearts. Therefore it is not surprising that the prophecy, after telling us that we shall look on him whom we have pierced, should go on to promise that we shall mourn for him with bitter mourning. For, though the love of God is not natural to man, pity and compassion and gratitude are. These sparks of our original brightness, these roots and stumps, if I may so call them, from the land of Eden, we all bear about us more or less. It is natural to grieve for the loss of a dear and kind friend : and if he died z 23^ THE ALTON SERMONS. a violent, a bloody, a painful death, — if he never did any- thing to draw down such a death on himself, — if he bore his sufferings patiently and meekly, — all this is sure to swell our grief. Suppose however that it was for us, and in our defence, that our dear kind friend met his death ; suppose that we were travelling together, and that the villains aimed the blow at us, but our friend stepped between and caught it, and saved our life by sacrificing his own, — would not this add tenfold to our grief and love for him ? Must I go on still further? When we saw him struck down, instead of stand- ing by him, and fighting a little for him, who had just given his life for us, — how shall I speak of such shameful cowardice — we took fright, we ran away, and left him to die ! We meant indeed to alarm the neighbourhood : we vowed within ourselves that we would come back very shortly with all the men we could muster, to seize and punish the murderers. But one of them for fear of this took a purse from our poor friend's pocket, and threw us a few pieces of gold. Some of his blood flowed that way, and there was a red spot on one of them : but what of that? We had a bill to make up ; winter was coming, when work is scarce : seizing the thieves could not bring our friend to life again : so we turned back and picked up the gold, and went halves with the murderers of our preserver. Now I would ask you, when the poor wretches who had been guilty of such cowardice, such baseness, such treachery, such ingratitude, came to them^selves, would they not mourn ? Unless their consciences were utterly seared, surely they must mourn bitterly. Such, or something like it, is the way in which the Holy Spirit brings us to mourn for sin. He places Jesus Christ be- fore us hanging on the cross : he points out his hands, his feet, his wounded side, and then cries to us, '•' This is thy doing." PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT. 339 Should we deny the charge, — as most of us would, protest- ing that we had no hand in the deed, that we have always hated it, that from the bottom of our souls we abhor the wicked Jews, who crucified our Lord and Master, — the Hol\' Spirit sets before us some such parable as I have been tell- ing you, and then stops our mouth with three short ques- tions. The first question is, " Did not Christ die for you ? and must not the curse due to sin have fallen on each of you, if Jesus had not stepped between, and shielded and save