sec 3S-37 •# W% /TTnAtJasi^ TWENTY-FIVE VILLAGE SERMONS, BY CHARLES' KINGSLEY, Jun., RECTOR OF EVERSLEY, HANTS, CANON OF MIDDLEHAM, YORKSHIRE, AND AUTHOR OF "ALTON LOCKE," ETC. FROM THS LAST LONDON IDITIOl PHILADELPHIA: H. HOOKER, CORNER OF CHESTNUT AND EIGHTH STS. 1854. W. S. IOUNG, PRIXTl:r CONTENTS. SERMON I. GOD'S WORLD. PAGE. Lord, how manifold are Thy works ! in wisdom hast Thou made them all : the earth is full of Thy riches. — (Psalm civ. 24.) ..... 9 - SERMON II. RELIGION NOT GODLINESS. He watereth the hills from His chambers : the earth is satisfied with the fruit of Thy works. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man : that he may bring forth food out of the earth; and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strength- eneth man's heart. — (Psalm civ. 13 — 15.) . . 21 IV CONTENTS. * SERMON III. LIFE AND DEATH. PAGE. Lord, how manifold are Thy works ! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches. That Thou givest them they gather: Thou openest Thine hand, they are filled with good: Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled : Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust: Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, and they are created: and Thou renewest the face of the earth. — (Psalm civ. 24, 28—30.) ...... 33 • SERMON IV. THE WORK OF GOd's SPIRIT. Do not err, my beloved brethren : every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.— (James, i. 16, 17.) . 43 * SERMON V. FAITH. The just shall live by faith.— (Habakkuk, ii. 4.) . 55 SERMON VI. THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH. 1 say, then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other. — (Galatians, v. 16.) 68 CONTENTS. Y ■ SERMON VII. RETRIBUTION. PAGE. Be sure your sin will find you out. — (Numbers, xxxii. 23.) . . . . . .80 • SERMON VIII. SELF-DESTRUCTION. The Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these Thy Prophets.— (1 Kings, xxii. 23.) . . .90 ' SERMON IX. HELL ON EARTH. And, behold, the evil spirits cried out, saying, What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time'? — (Matthew, viii. 29.) . . . . .99 SEUMON X. NOAH'S JUSTICE. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. — (Genesis, vi. 9.) . 112 ■ SERMON XI. THE NOACHIC COVENANT. And God spake unto Noah, and his sons with him, say- ing, And I, behold I, establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you. — (Genesis, ix. 8, 9.) . 115 VI CONTENTS. SERMON XII. Abraham's faith. PAGE. By faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same pro- mise. For he looked for a city, which hath founda- tions, whose builder and maker is God. — (Hebrews, xi. 9, 10.) . . . . . .133 SERMON XII [. Abraham's obedience. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only-begotten son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called; accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. — (Hebrews, xi. 17—19.) . . . . •■• . .147 " SERMON XIV. OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.— (Uohn, ii. 13.) . . .157 SERMON XV. THE TRANSFIGURATION. Jesus taketh Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth • .< them up into a high mountain apart, and w T as trans- figured before them. — (Mark, ix. 2.) . . 168 * SERMON XVI. THE CRUCIFIXION. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter. — (Isaiah, liii. 7.) ...... 181 Pfi. vii ■ ' m ■ " SERMON XVII. THE RESURRECTION. PAGE. He is not here — He is risen. — (Luke, xxiv. 6.) .187 SERMON XVIII. IMPROVEMENT. The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree : he shall grow like the cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing. — (Psalm xcii. 12.) ...... 199 - SERMON XIX. man's working day. Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, be- cause he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him. — (John, xi. 9, 10.) 208 - SERMON XX. ASSOCIATION. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. — (Galatians, vi. 2.) . 218 * SERMON XXI. HEAVEN ON EARTH. Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.— (1 Cor., x. 31.) 228 Vlll CONTENTS. - SERMON XXII. NATIONAL PRIVILEGES. PAGE. Blessed are the eyes which see the things which ye see : for I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.— (Luke, x. 23.) . 236 * SERMON XXIII. LENTEN THOUGHTS. Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Consider your ways. — (Haggai, i. 5.) . . . . 247 SERMON XXIV. ON BOOKS. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. — (John, i. 1.) . . 256 SERMON XXV, THE COURAGE OF THE SAVIOUR. Then after that saith He to His disciples, Let us go into Judea again. His disciples say to Him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone Thee, and goest Thou thither again?— (John, xi. 7, 8.) . . . 267 VILLAGE SERMONS SERMON I. GOD'S WORLD. "0 Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches."— Ps. civ. 24. Wpien we read such psalms as the one from which this verse is taken, we cannot help, if we consider, feeling at once a great difference between them and any hymns or religious poetry which is commonly written or read in these days. The hymns which are most liked now, and the psalms which people most willingly choose out of the Bible, are those which speak, or seem to speak, about God's deal- ings with people's own souls, while such psalms as this are overlooked. People do not care really about psalms of this kind when they find them in the Bible, and they do not expect or wish nowa- days any one to write poetry like them. For these psalms of which I speak praise and honour God, not 2 10 god's world. [sekm. for what He has done to our souls, but for what He has done and is doing in the world around us. This very 104th psalm, for instance, speaks entirely about things which we hardly care or even think proper to mention in church now. It speaks of this earth entirely, and the things on it. Of the light, the clouds, and wind — of hills and valleys, and the springs on the hill-sides — of wild beasts and birds — of grass and corn, and wine and oil — of the sun and moon, night and day — the great sea, the ships, and the fishes, and all the wonderful and nameless crea- tures which people the waters — the very birds' nests in the high trees, and the rabbits burrowing among the rocks — nothing on the earth but this psalm thinks it worth mentioning. And all this, which one would expect to find only in a book of natural his- tory, is in the Bible, in one of the psalms, written to be sung in the temple at Jerusalem, before the throne of the living God and His Glory which used to be seen in that temple, — inspired, as we all believe, by God's Spirit, — God's own word, in short: that is worth thinking of. Surely the man who wrote this must have thought very differently about this world, with its fields and woods, and beasts and birds, from what we think. Suppose, now, that we had been old Jews in the temple, standing before the holy house, and that we believed, as the Jews believed, that there was only one thin wall and one curtain of linen between us and the glory of the living God, I.] god's world. 11 that unspeakable brightness and majesty which no one could look at for fear of instant death, except the high-priest in fear and trembling once a year — that inside that small holy house, He, God Almighty, appeared visibly — God who made heaven and earth. Suppose we had been there in the temple, and known all this, should we have liked to be singing about beasts and birds, with God Himself close to us ? We should not have liked it — we should have been ter- rified, thinking perhaps about our own sinfulness, perhaps about that wonderful majesty which dwelt inside. We should have wished to say or sing something spiritual, as we call it; at all events, something very different from the 104th psalm about w T oods, and rivers, and dumb beasts. We do not like the thought of such a thing: it seems almost irreverent, almost impertinent to God to be talking of such things in His presence. Now does this show us that we think about this earth, and the things in it, in a very different way from those old Jews? They thought it a fit and proper thing to talk about corn and wine and oil, and cattle and fishes, in the presence of Almighty God, and we do not think it fit and proper. We read this psalm when it comes in the Church-service as a matter of course, mainly because we do not believe that God is here among us. We should not be so ready to read it if we thought that Almighty God was so near us. 12 god's world. [serm. That is a great difference between us and the old Jews. Whether it shows that we are better or not than they were in the main, I cannot tell; perhaps some of them had such thoughts too, and said, "It is not respectful to God to talk about such com- monplace earthly things in His presence ; " perhaps some of them thought themselves spiritual and pure- minded for looking down on this psalm, and on David for writing it. Very likely, for men have had such thoughts in all ages, and will have them. But the man who wrote this psalm had no such thoughts. He said himself, in this same psalm, that his words would please God. Nay, he is not speaking and preaching about God in this psalm, as I am now in my sermon, but he is doing more; he is speaking to God — a much more solemn thing if you will think of it. He says, "0 Lord my God, Thou art become exceeding glorious. Thou deckest Thyself with light as with a garment. All the beasts wait on Thee; when Thou givest them meat they gather it. Thou renewest the face of the earth." When he turns and speaks of God as "He," say- ing, "He appointed the moon," and so On, he can- not help going back to God, and pouring out his wonder, and delight, and awe, to God Himself, as we would sooner speak to any one we love and ho- nour than merely speak about them. He cannot take his mind off God. And just at the last, when he does turn and speak to himself, it is to cay, i.] god's world. 13 "Praise thou the Lord, my soul, praise the Lord," as if rebuking and stirring up himself for being too cold-hearted and slow, for not admiring and honour- ing enough the infinite wisdom, and power, and love, and glorious majesty of God, which to him shines out in every hedge-side bird and every blade of grass. Truly I said that man had a very dif- ferent way of looking at God's earth from what we have ! Now, in what did that difference lie ? What was it? We need not look far to see. It was this, — David looked on the earth as God's earth; we look on it as man's earth, or nobody's earth. We know that we are here, with trees and grass, and beasts and birds, round us. And we know that we did not put them here; and that, after we are dead and gone, they will go on just as they went on before we were born, — each tree, and flower, and animal, after its kind, but we know nothing more. The earth is here, and we on it; but who put it there, and why it is there, and why we are on it, instead of being anywhere else, few ever think. But to David the earth looked very different; it had quite another meaning; it spoke to him of God who made it. By seeing what this earth is like: he saw what God who made it is like; and we see no such thing. The earth ? — we can eat the corn and cattle on it, we can earn money by farming it, and ploughing and digging it; and that is all most men know about it. 2* 14 god's world. [serm. But David knew something more — something which made him feel himself very weak, and yet very safe ; very ignorant and stupid, and yet honoured with glorious knowledge from God, — something which made him feel that he belonged to this world, and must not forget it or neglect it, that this earth was his lesson-book — this earth was his work-field; and yet those same thoughts which showed him how he was made for the land round him, and the land round him was made for him, showed him also that he be- longed to another world — a spirit-world; showed him that when this world passed away he should live for ever; showed him that while he had a mortal body he had an immortal soul too ; showed him that though his home and business were here on earth, yet that, for that very reason, his home and business were in heaven, with God who made the earth, with that blessed One of whom he said, "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure; they all shall fade as a garment, and like a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed; but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail. The children of Thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall stand fast in Thy sight." "As a garment shalt Thou change them," — ay, there was David's secret ! He saw that this earth and skies are God's garment — the garment by which we see i.] god's world. 15 God ; and that is what our forefathers saw too, and just what we have forgotten; but David had not for- gotten it. Look at this very 104th psalm again, how he refers every thing to God. We say, "The light shines : " David says something more ; he says, "Thou, God, adornest Thyself with light as with a curtain." Light is a picture of God. "God," says St. John, "is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." We say, 'The clouds fly and the wind blows,' as if they went of themselves ; David says, " God makes the clouds His chariot, and walks upon the wings of the wind." We talk of the rich airs of spring, of the flashing lightning of summer, as dead things; and men who call themselves wise say, that lightning is only matter, — 'We can grind the like of it out of glass and silk, and make lightning for our- selves in a small way;' and so they can in a small way, and in a very small one: David does not deny that, but he puts us in mind of something in that lightning and those breezes which w T e cannot make. He says, God makes the winds His angels, and flaming fire his ministers ; and St. Paul takes the same text, and turns it round to suit his purpose, when he is talking of the blessed angels, saying, 'That text in the 104th Psalm means something more; it means that God makes His angels spirits, (that is winds) and His ministers a flaming fire.' So showing us that in those breezes there are living spirits, that God's angels guide those thunder- 16 GOD'S WORLD, [SEEM. clouds ; that the roaring thunderclap is a shock in the air truly, but that it is something more — that it is the voice of God, which shakes the cedar- trees of Lebanon, and tears down the thick bushes, and makes the wild deer slip their young. So we read in the psalms in church; that is David's account of the thunder. I take it for a true account; you may or not as you like. See again. Those springs in the hill-sides, how do they come there? 6 Rain-water soaking and flowing out,' we say. True, but David says something more; he says, God sends the springs, and He sends them into the rivers too. You may say, 'Why, water must run down hill, what need of God?' But suppose God had chosen that water should run w^-hill and not down, how would it have been then? — Very different, I think. No; He sends them; He sends all things. Wherever there is any thing useful, His Spirit has settled it. The help that is done on earth He doeth it all Himself. — Loving and merciful, — caring for the poor dumb beasts ! — He sends the springs, and David says, "All the beasts of the field drink thereof." The wild a '.rials in the night, He cares for them too, — He, the Almighty God. We hear the foxes bark by night, and we think the fox is hungry, and there it ends with us; but not with David: he says, "The lions roaring after their prey do seek their meat from God," — God, who feedeth the young ravens who call upon Him. He is a God ! "He did not make the i.] god's world. 17 world," says a wise man, " and then let it spin round His finger," as we wind up a watch, and then leave it to go of itself. No; "His mercy is over all His works." Loving and merciful, the God of nature is the God of grace. The same love which chose us and our forefathers for His people while we were yet dead in trespasses and sins; the same only-begotten Son, who came down on earth to die for us poor wretches on the cross, — that same love, that same power, that same Word of God, who made heaven and earth, looks after the poor gnats in the winter time, that they may have a chance of coming out of the ground when the day stirs the little life in them, and dance in the sun- beam for a short hour of gay life, before they return to the dust whence they were made, to feed creatures nobler and more precious than themselves. That is all God's doing, all the doing of Christ, the King of the earth. "They wait on Him," says David. The beasts, and birds, and insects, the strange fish, and shells, and the nameless corals too, in the deep, deep sea, who build and build below the waters for years and thousands of years, every little, tiny creature bringing his atom of lime to add to the great heap, till their heap stands out of the water and becomes dry land ; and seeds float thither over the wide waste sea, and trees grow up, and birds are driven thither by storms; and men come by accident in stray ships, and build, and sow, and multiply, and raise churches, and worship the God of heaven, and Christ, the 18 god's world. [seem. blessed One, — on that new land which the little coral worms have built up from the deep. Consider that. Who sent them there? Who contrived that those particular men should light on that new island at that especial time ? Who guided thither those seeds — those birds? Who gave those insects that strange longing and power to build and build on continually? — Christ, by whom all things are made, to whom all power is given in heaven and earth; He and His Spirit, and none else. It is when He opens His hand, they are filled with good. It is when He takes away their breath, they die, and turn again to their dust. He lets His breath, His spirit, rp forth, and out of that dead dust grow plants and herbs afresh for man and beast, and He renews t 1 e face of the earth. For, says the wise man, " all things are God's garment" — outward and visible signs of His unseen and unapproachable glory; and when they are worn out, He changes them, says the Psalmist, as a garment, and they shall be changed. The old order changes, giving place to the new, And God fulfils Himself in many ways. But He is the same. He is there all the time — all things are His work. In all things we may see Him, if our souls have eyes. All things, be they what they ma}^ which live and grow on this earth, or happen on land or in the sky, will tell us a tale of God, — show forth some one feature, at least, of our blessed Saviour's countenance and character, — i.] god's world. 19 either His foresight, or His wisdom, or His order, or His power, or His love, or His condescension, or His long-suffering, or his slow, sure vengeance on those who break His laws. It is all written there outside in the great green book, which God hath given to labouring men, and which neither taxes nor tyrants can take from them. The man who is no scholar in letters may read of God as he follows the plough, for the earth he ploughs is his Father's : there is God's mark and seal on it, — His name, which though it is written on the dust, yet neither man nor fiend can wipe it out ! The poor, solitary, untaught boy, who keeps the sheep, or minds the birds, long lonely days, far from his mother and his playmates, may keep alive in him all purifying thoughts, if he will but open his eyes and look at the green earth around him. Think now, my boys, when you are at your wort, how all things may put you in mind of God, if you do but choose. The trees which shelter you from the wind, God planted them there for your sakes, in His love. — There is a lesson about God. The birds which you drive off the corn, who gave them the sense to keep together and profit by each other's wit and keen eyesight? Who but God, who feeds the young birds when they call on Him? — There is another lesson about God. The sheep whom you follow, who ordered the warm wool to grow on them, from which your clothes are made? Who but the 20 god's world. [serm. i. Spirit of God above, who clothes the grass of the field, the silly sheep, and who clothes you, too, and thinks of you when you don't think of yourselves ? — There is another lesson about God. The feeble lambs in spring, they ought to remind you surely of your blessed Saviour, the Lamb of God, who died for you upon the cruel cross, who was led as a lamb to the slaughter ; and like a sheep that lies dumb and patient under the shearer's hand, so he opened not his mouth. Are not these lambs, then, a lesson from God? And these are but one or two examples out of thousands and thousands. Oh, that I could make you, young and old, all feel these things ! Oh, that I could make you see God in every thing, and every thing in God ! Oh, that I could make you look on this earth, not as a mere dull, dreary prison, and workhouse for your mortal bodies, but as a living book, to speak to you at every time of the living God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ! Sure I am that that would be a heavenly life for you, — sure I am that it would keep you from many a sin, and stir you up to many a holy thought and deed, if you could learn to find in every thing around you, how- ever small or mean, the work of God's hand, the likeness of God's countenance, the shadow of God's glory. SERMON II. RELIGION NOT GODLINESS. "He watereth the hills from his chambers; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may- bring forth food out of the earth ; and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengthened man's heart." — Psalm civ. 13 — 15. Did you ever remark, my friends, that the Bible says hardly any thing about religion — that it never praises religious people? This is very curious. Would to God we would all remember it ! The Bible speaks of a religious man only once, and of religion only twice, except where it speaks of the Jew's re- ligion to condemn it, and shows what an empty, blind, useless thing it was. What does this Bible talk of, then? It talks of God ; not of religion, but of God. It tells us not to be religious, but to be godly. You may think there is no difference, or that it is but a difference of words. I tell you that a difference in words is a very awful, important difference. A difference in words is a 3 22 RELIGION NOT GODLINESS. [SERM. difference in things. Words are very awful and wonderful things, for they come from the most awful and wonderful of all beings, Jesus Christ, the Word. He puts words into men's minds — He made all things, and He makes all words to express those things with. And wo to those who use the wrong words about things ! For if a man calls any thing by its wrong name, it is a sure sign that he under- stands that thing wrongly, or feels about it wrongly ; and therefore a man's words are oftener honester than he thinks; for as a man's words are, so is a man's heart; out of the abundance of our hearts our mouths speak ; and, therefore, by right words, by the right names which w T e call things, we shall be justified, and by our words, by the wrong names we call things, we shall be condemned. Therefore a difference in words is a difference in the things which those words mean, and there is a difference between religion and godliness; and we show it by our words. Now these are religious times, but they are very ungodly times; and we show that also by our words. Because we think that people ought to be religious, we talk a great deal about religion; because we hardly think at all that a man ought to be godly, we talk very little about God, and that good old Bible word "godliness" does not pass our lips once a month. For a man may be very religious, my friends, and yet very ungodly. The heathens were very religious at II.] RELIGION NOT GODLINESS. 23 the very time that, as St. Paul tells us, they would not keep God in their knowledge. The Jews were the most religious people on the earth, they hardly talked or thought about anything but religion, at the very time that they knew so little of God that they crucified Him when He came down among them. St. Paul says that he was living after the strictest sect of the Jews' religion, at the very time that he was fighting against God, persecuting God's people and God's Son, and dead in trespasses and sins. These are ugly facts, my friends, but they are true, and well worth our laying to heart in these religious, ungodly days. I am afraid if Jesus Christ came down into England this day as a carpenter's son He would get — a better hearing, perhaps, than the Jews gave him, but still a very bad hearing — one dare hardly think of it. And yet I believe we ought to think of it, and, by God's help, I will one clay preach you a sermon, asking you all around this fair question : — If Jesus Christ came to you in the shape of a poor man, whom nobody knew, should you know him ? should you admire him, fall at his feet and give yourself up to him body and soul? I am afraid that I, for one, should not — I am afraid that too many of us here would not. That comes of thinking more of reli- gion than we do of godliness — in plain words, more of our own souls than we do of Jesus Christ. But you will want to know what is, after all, the difference 24 RELIGION NOT GODLINESS. [SERM. between religion and godliness? Just the difference, my friends, that there is between always thinking of self and always forgetting self — between the terror of a slave and the affection of a child — between the fear of hell and the love of God. For, tell me, what you mean by being religious? Do you not mean thinking a great deal about your own souls, and praying and reading about your own souls, and try- ing by all possible means to get your own souls saved? Is not that the meaning of religion? And yet I have never mentioned God's name in describing it ! This sort of religion must have very little to do with God. You may be surprised at my words, and say in your hearts almost angrily, 'Why, who saves our souls but God? therefore religion must have to do with God.' But, my friends, for your souls' sake, and for God's sake, ask yourselves this question on your knees this day: — If you could get your souls saved without God's help, would it make much difference to you? Suppose an angel from heaven, as they say, was to come down and prove to you clearly that there was no God, no blessed Jesus in heaven, that the world made itself, and went on of itself, and that the Bible was all a mistake, but that you need not mind, for your gardens and crops would grow just as well, and your souls be saved just as well when you died. To how many of you would it make any differ- ence? To some of you, thank God, I believe II.] RELIGION NOT GODLINESS. 25 it would make a difference. There are some here, I believe, who would feel that news the worst news they ever heard, — worse than if they were told that their souls were lost for ever ; there are some here, I do believe, who, at that news, would cry aloud in agony, like little children who had lost their father, and say, 'No Father in heaven to love? No blessed Jesus in heaven to work for, and die for, and glory and delight in ? No God to rule and manage this poor, miserable, quarrelsome world, bringing good out of evil, blessing and guiding all things and people on earth? What do I care what becomes of my soul if there is no God for my soul to glory in? What is heaven worth without God? God is heaven ! ' Yes, indeed, what would heaven be worth without God ! But how many people feel that the curse of this day is, that most people have forgotten that ? They are selfishly anxious enough about their own souls, but they have forgotten God. They are reli- gious, for fear of hell; but they are not godly, for they do not love God, or see God's hand in every thing. They forget that they have a Father in hea- ven ; that He sends rain, and sunshine, and fruitful seasons ; that He gives them all things richly to enjoy in spite of all their sins. His mercies are far above, out of their sight, and therefore His judg- ments are far away out of their sight too ; and so they talk of the " Visitation of God," as if it was some- 3* 26 RELIGION NOT GODLINESS. [SERM. thing that was very extraordinary, and happened very seldom; and when it came, only brought evil, harm, and sorrow. If a man lives on in health, they say he lives by the strength of his own constitution; if he drops down dead, they say he died by "the visi- tation of God." If the corn- crops go on all right and safe, they think that quite natural — the effect of the soil, and the weather, and their own skill in farming and gardening. But if there comes a hailstorm or a blight, and spoils it all, and brings on a famine, they call it at once "a visitation of God." My friends ! do you think God " visits " the earth or you only to harm you ? I tell you that every blade of grass grows by "the visitation of God." I tell you that every Jiealthy breath you ever drew, every cheerful hour you ever spent, every good crop you ever housed safely, came to you by " the visitation of God." I tell you that every sensible thought or plan that ever came into your heads, —every lov- ing, honest, manly, womanly feeling that ever rose in your hearts, God "visited" you to put it there. If God's Spirit had not given it you, you would never have got it of yourselves. But people forget this, and therefore they have so little real love to God — so little real, loyal, child- like trust in God. They do not think much about God, because they find no pleasure in thinking about Him ; they look on God as a taskmaster, gathering where He has not strewed, reaping where He has not II.] RELIGION NOT GODLINESS. 27 sown, — a task-master who. has put them, very mise- rable, sinful creatures, to struggle on in a very miserable, sinful world, and, though He tells them in His Bible that they cannot keep His command- ments, expects them to keep them just the same, and will at the last send them all into everlasting fire, unless they take a great deal of care, and give up a great many natural and pleasant things, and beseech and entreat Him very hard to excuse them, after all. This is the thought which most people have of God, even religious people ; they look on God as a stern tyrant, who, when man sinned and fell, could not satisfy his own justice — His own ven- geance, in plain words, without killing some one, and who would have certainly killed all mankind, if Jesus Christ had not interfered, and said, "If thou must slay some one, slay me, though I am innocent." Oh, my friends, does not this all sound horrible and irreverent? And yet if you will but look into your own hearts, will you not find some such thoughts there? I am sure you will. I believe every man finds such thoughts in his heart now and then. I find them in my own heart) I know that they must be in the hearts of others, because I see them producing their natural fruits in people's ac- tions — a selfish, slavish view of religion, with little or no real love to God, or real trust in Him; but a great deal of uneasy dread of Him; for this is just the dark, false view of God, and of the good news 28 RELIGION NOT GODLINESS. [SERM. of salvation and the kingdom of heaven, which the devil is always trying to make men take. The Evil One tries to make us forget that God is love; he tries to make us forget that God gives us all things richly to enjoy ; he tries to make us forget that God gives at all, and to make us think that we take, not that He gives ; to make us look at God as a task- master, not as a father; in one word, to make us mistake the devil for God, and God for the devil. And, therefore, it is that we ought to bless God for such scriptures as this 104th Psalm, which He seems to have preserved in the Bible just to contra- dict these dark, slavish notions, — just to testify that God is a giver, and knows our necessities before we ask and gives us all things, even as He gave us His Blessed Son — freely, long before we wanted them, from the foundation of all things, before ever the earth and the world was made — from all eternity, perpetual love, perpetual bounty. What does this text teach us? To look at God as Him who gives to all freely and upbraideth not. It says to us, — Do not suppose that your crops grow of themselves. God waters the hills from above. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and the green herb for the service of man. Do not sup- pose that He cares nothing about seeing you com- fortable and happy. It is He, He only who sends all which strengthens man's body, and makes glad his heart, and makes him of a cheerful countenance. J.] RELIGION XOT GODLINESS. 29 His will is that you should be cheerful. Ah, my friends, if we would but believe all this! — we are too apt to say to ourselves, ' Our earthly comforts here have nothing to do with godliness or God, God must save our souls, but our bodies we must save our- selves. God gives us spiritual blessings, but earth- ly blessings, the good things of this life, for them we must scramble and drudge ourselves, and get, as much of them as we can without offending God;' — as if God grudged us our comforts ! as if godliness had not the promise of this life, as well as the life to come! If we would but believe that God knows our necessities before we ask — that He gives us daily more than we can ever get by working for it! — if we would but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all other things would be added to us ; and we should find that he who loses his life should save it. And this way of looking at God's earth would not make us idle ; it would not tempt us to sit with folded hands for God's blessings to drop into our mouths. No ! I believe it would make men far more industrious than ever mere self- interest can make them; they would say, 'God is our Father, He gave us His own Son, He gives us all things freely, we owe Him not slavish service, but a boundless debt of cheerful gratitude. There- fore we must do His will, and we are sure His will must be our happiness and comfort — therefore we must do His will, and His will is that we should 30 RELIGION NOT GODLINESS. [SERM. work, and therefore we must work. He has bid- den us labour on this earth — He has bidden us dress it and keep it, conquer it and fill it for Him. We are His stewards here on earth, and therefore it is a glory and an honour to be allowed to work here in God's own land — in our loving Father's own garden. We do not know why He wishes us to labour and till the ground, for He could have fed us with manna from heaven if He liked, as He fed the Jews of old, without our working at all. But His will is that we should work ; and work we will, not for our own sakes merely, but for His sake be- cause we know He likes it, and for the sake of our brothers, our countrymen, for whom Christ died. Oh, my friends, why is it that so many till the ground industriously, and yet grow poorer and poorer for all their drudging and working? It is their own fault. They till the ground for their own sakes, and not for God's sake and for their countrymen's sake; and so, as the Prophet says, they sow much and bring in little, and he who earns wages, earns them to put in a bag full of holes. Suppose you try the opposite plan. Suppose you say to yourself, 'I will work henceforward because God wishes me to work. I will work henceforward for my country's sake, because I feel that God has given me a noble and a holy calling when He set m'e to grow food for His children, the people of England. As for my wages and my profit, God will II.] RELIGION NOT GODLINESS. 31 take care of them if they are just ; and if they are unjust, He will take care of them too. He, at all events, makes the garden and the field grow, and not I. My land is filled, not with the fruit of my work, but with the fruit of His work. He will see that I lose nothing by my labour. If I till the soil for God and for God's children, I may trust God to pay me my wages.' Oh, my friends, He who feeds the young birds when they call upon Him; and far, far more, He who gave you His only-begotten Son, will He not with Him freely give you all things? For, after all done, He must give to you, or you will not get. You may fret and stint, and scrape and puzzle; one man may sow, and another man may water ; but, after all, who can give the increase but God? Can you make a load of hay, unless He has first grown it for you, and then dried it for you? If you would but think a little more about Him, if you would believe that your crops were His gifts, and in your hearts offer them up to Him as thank- offerings, see if He would not help you to sell your crops as well as to house them. He would put you in a way of an honest profit for your labour, just as surely as He only put you in the way of labouring at all. "Trust in the Lord, and be doing good; dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed;" for "without me," says our Lord, "you can do nothing." ISo: these are His own words — nothing. To Him all power is given in heaven and earth; He 32 ' RELIGION NOT GODLINESS. [SERM. II. knows every root and every leaf, and feeds it. Will He not much more feed you, oh ye of little faith? Do you think that He has made His world so ill that a man cannot get on in it unless he is a rogue? No. Cast all your care on Him, and see if you do not find out ere long that He cares for you, and has cared for you from all eternity. SERMON III, LIFE AND DEATH. "0 Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all : the earth is full of Thy riches. That Thou givest them they gather : Thou openest Thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled: Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created: and Thou renewest the face of the earth."— Psalm civ. 24, 28—30. I had intended to go through this psalm with you in regular order; but things have happened in this parish awful and sad, during the last week, which I was bound not to let slip without trying to bring them home to your hearts, if by any means I could persuade the thoughtless ones among you to be wise and consider your latter end: — I mean the sad deaths of various of our acquaintances. The death-bell has been tolled in this parish three times, I believe, in one day — a thing which has seldom happened before, and which God grant may never happen again. Within two miles of this church there are now five lying dead. Five human beings, young as well as old, to whom the awful 4 34 LIFE AND DEATH. [SERM. words of the text have been fulfilled : " Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust." And the very day on which three of these deaths happened was Ascension-clay — the day on which Jesus, the Lord of life, the Conqueror of death, ascended upon high, having led captivity cap- tive, and became the first-fruits of the grave, to send down from the heaven of eternal life the Spirit who is the Giver of life. That was a strange mix- ture, death seemingly triumphant over Christ's people on the very day on which life triumphed in Jesus Christ Himself. Let us see, though, whether death has not something to do with Ascension-day. Let us see, whether a sermon about death is not a fit sermon for the Sunday after Ascension-day. Let us see whether the text has not a message about life and death too — a message which may make us feel that in the midst of life we are in death, and that yet in the midst of death we are in life; that however things may seem, yet death has not con- quered life, but life has conquered and will con- quer death, and conquer it most completely at the very moment that we die, and our bodies return to their dust. Do I speak riddles? I think the text will ex- plain my riddles, for it tells us how life comes, how death comes. Life comes from God: He sends forth His Spirit, and things are made, and He re- news the face of the earth. We read in the very III.] LIFE AND DEATH. 35 first two verses of the book of Genesis how the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters at the creation, and woke all things into life. Therefore the Creed well calls the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God, that is — the Lord and Giver of life. And the text tells us that He gives life, not only to us who have immortal souls, but to every thing on the face of the earth; for the psalm has been talking all through, not only of men, but of beasts, fishes, trees, and rivers, and rocks, sun and moon. Now, all these things have a life in them. Not a life like ours ; but still you speak rightly and wisely when you say, 'That tree is alive, and, That tree is dead. That running water is live water — it is sweet and fresh, but if it is kept standing it begins to putrefy, its life is gone from it, and a sort of death comes over it, and makes it foul, and unwhole- some, and unfit to drink.' This is a deep matter, this, how there is a sort of life in every thing, even to the stones under our feet. I do not mean, of course, that stones can think as our life makes us do, or feel as the beasts' life makes them do, or even grow as the trees' life makes them do; but I mean that their life keeps them as they are, without changing or decaying. You hear miners and quar- rymen talk very truly of the live rock. That stone, they say, was cut out of the live rock, meaning the rock as it is under ground, sound and hard — as it would be, for aught we know, to the end of 36 LIFE AND DEATH. [SERM. time, unless it was taken out of the ground, out of the place where God's Spirit meant it to be, and brought up to the open air and the rain, in which it is not its nature to be. And then you will see that the life of the stone begins to pass from it bit by bit, that it crumbles and peels away, and, in short, decays and is turned again to its dust. Its organi- zation, as it is called, or life, ends, and then — what? does the stone lie for ever useless? No! And there is the great blessed mystery of how God's Spirit is always bringing life out of death. "When the stone is decayed and crumbled down to dust and clay, it makes soil — this very soil here, which you plough, is the decayed ruins of ancient hills; the clay which you dig up in the fields was once part of some slate or granite mountains which were worn away by weather and water, that they might become fruitful earth. Wonderful ! but any one who has studied these things can tell you they are true. Any one who has ever lived in mountainous countries ought to have seen the thing happen, ought to know that the land in the mountain valleys is made at first, and kept rich year by year, by the washings from the hills above; and this is the reason why land left dry by rivers and by the sea is generally so rich. Then what becomes of the soil? It begins a new life. The roots of the plants take it up; the salts which they find in it — the staple, as we call them — go to make leaves and seed; the very sand has its III.] LIFE AND DEATH. 37 use, it feeds the stalks of corn and grass, and makes them stiff. The corn-stalks would never stand up- right if they could not get sand from the soil. So what a thousand years ago made part of a mountain, now makes part of a wheat plant; and in a year more the wheat grain will have been eaten, and the wheat straw perhaps eaten too, and they will have died — decayed in the bodies of the animals who have eaten them, and then they will begin a third new life — they will be turned into parts of the animal's body— of a man's body. So that what is now your bone and flesh, may have been once a rock on some hill-side a hundred miles away. Strange, but true ! all learned men know that it is true. You, if you think over my words, may see that they are at least reasonable. But still most wonderful ! This word works right well, surely. It obeys God's Spirit. Oh, my friends, if we fulfilled our life and our duty as well as the clay which we tread on does, — if we obeyed God's Spirit as surely as the flint does, we should have many a heartache spared us, and many a headache too ! To be what God wants us! — to be men, to be women, and therefore to live as children of God, members of Christ, fulfilling our duty in that state to which God has called us, that would be our bliss and glory. Nothing can live in a state in which God did not intend it to live. Suppose a tree could move itself about like an animal, and chose to do so, 4* 38 LIFE AND DEATH. [SERM. the tree would wither and die; it would be trying to act contrary to the law which God has given it. Suppose the ox chose to eat meat like the lion, it would fall sick and die; for it would be acting contrary to the law which God's Spirit had made for it — going out of the calling to which God's Word has called it, to eat grass and not flesh, and live thereby. And so with us: if we will do wicked- ly, when the will of God, as the Scripture tells us, is our sanctification, our holiness; if w r e will speak lies, when God's law for us is that we should speak truth; if we will bear hatred and ill-will, when God's law for us is, Love as brothers, — you all sprang from one father, Adam, — you were all redeemed by one brother, Jesus Christ; if we will try to live as if there was no God, when God's law for us is, that a man can live like a man only by faith and trust in God; — then we shall die, if we break God's laws according to which he intended man to live. Thus it was with Adam ; God intended him to obey God, to learn every thing from God. He chose to disobey God, to try and know some- thing of himself, by getting the knowledge of good and evil; and so death passed on him. He became an unnatural man, a bad man, more or less, and so he became a dead man; and death came into the world, that time at least, by sin, by breaking the law by which man was meant to be a man. As the beasts will die if you give them unnatural food, or III.] LIFE AND DEATH. 89 in any way prevent their following the laws which God has made for them, so man dies, of necessity. all the world cannot help his dying because he breaks the laws which God has made for him. And how does he die? The text tells us, God takes away his breath, and turns His face from him. In his presence, it is written, is life. The moment He withdraws his Spirit, the Spirit of life, from any thing, body or soul, then it dies. It was by sin came death — by man's becoming unfit for the Spirit of God. Therefore the body is dead because of sin, says St. Paul, doomed to die, carrying about in it the seeds of death from the very moment it is born. Death has truly passed upon all men ! Most sad; and yet there is hope, and more than hope, there is certain assurance, for us, that though we die, yet shall we live ! I have shown you, in the beginning of my sermon, how nothing that dies perishes to nothing, but begins a new and a higher life. How the stone becomes a plant, — something better and more useful than it was before ; the plant passes into an animal — a step higher still. And, therefore, we may be sure that the same rule will hold good about us men and women, that when we die, we shall begin a new and a nobler life, that is, if we have been true men; if we have lived fulfilling the law of our kind. St. Paul tells us so positively. He says that nothing comes to life except it first 40 LIFE AND DEATH. [SEEM. die, then God gives it a new body. He says that even so is the resurrection of the dead, — that we gain a step by dying; that we are sown in corrup- tion, and are raised in incorruption ; we are sown in dishonour, and are raised in glory ; we are sown in weakness, and are raised in power; we are sown a natural body, and are raised a spiritual body ; that as we now are of the earth earthly, after death and the resurrection our new and nobler body will be of the heavens heavenly; so that "when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then death shall be swallowed up in victory." Therefore, I say, Sorrow not for those who sleep as if you had no hope for the dead; for "Christ is risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." And I say that this has to do with the text — it has to do with Ascension-day. For if we claim our share in Christ, — if we claim our share of our heavenly Father's promise, "to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him;" then we may certainly hope for our share in Christ's resurrection, our share in Christ's ascension. For says St. Paul (Rom. viii. 10, 11,) "if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raided up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised IIT.] LIFE AND DEATH. 41 up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by His Spirit that dwelleth in you!" There is a blessed promise ! that in that, as in every thing, we shall be made like Christ our Master, the new Adam, who is a life-giving Spirit, that as He was brought to life again by the Spirit of God, so we shall be. And so will be fulfilled in us the glo- rious rule which the text lays down, " Thou, God, sendest forth Thy Spirit, and they are created, and Thou dost renew the face of the earth." Fulfilled? — yes, but far more gloriously than ever the old Psalmist expected. Read the Revelation of St. John, chapters xxi. and xxii. for the glory of the renewed earth; read the first Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians, chap iv. 16-18, for the glorious resur- rection and ascension of those who have died trust- ing in the blessed Lord, who died for them ; and then see what a glorious future lies before us — see how death is but the gate of life — see how what holds true of every thing on this earth, down to the flint be- neath our feet, holds true ten thousand times of men — that to die and to decay is only to pass into a nobler state of life. But remember, that just as we are better than the stone, we may be also worse than the stone. It cannot disobey God's laws, therefore it can enjoy no reward, any more than suffer any punishment. We can disobey — we can fall from our calling — we can cast God's law behind us — we can refuse to do His will, to work out our own 42 LIFE AND DEATH. [SERM. III. salvation ; and just because our reward in the life to come will be so glorious, if we fulfil our life and law, the life of faith and the law of love, therefore will our punishment be so horrible, if we neglect the life of faith and trample under foot the law of love. Oh, my friends, choose! Death is before you all. Shall it be the gate of everlasting life and gh ry, or the gate of everlasting death and misery ? Wi il you claim your glorious inheritance, and be for ever equal to the angels, doing God's will on earth as they in heaven; or will you fall lower than the stones, who, at all events, must do their duty as stones, and not do God's will at all, but only suffer it in eternal wo? You must do one or the other. You cannot be like the stones, without feeling — without joy or sorrow, just because you are immortal spirits, every one of you. Y r ou must be either happy or miserable, blessed or disgraced, for ever. I know of no middle path; — do you? Choose before the night comes, in which no man can work. Our life is but a vapour which appears for a little time, then vanishes away. "0 Lord, how manifold are Thy works ! in wisdom hast Thou made them all : the earth is full of Thy riches. That thou givest them they gather : Thouopenest Thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled : Thoutakest away their breath, they die and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created: and Thou renewest the face of the earth." SERMON IV THE WORK OF GOD'S SPIRIT. "Do not err, my beloved brethren ; every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." — James, i. 16, 17. This text, I believe more and more every day, is one of the most important ones in the whole Bible ; and just at this time it is more important for us than ever, because people have forgotten it more than ever. And, according as you firmly believe this text, according as you firmly believe that every good gift you have in body and soul comes down from above, from God the Father of lights — according, I say, as you believe this, and live upon that belief, just so far will you be able to do your duty to God and man worthily of your blessed Saviour's calling and redemption, and of the high honour which He has given you of being free and christened men, re- deemed by His most precious blood, and led by His most noble Spirit. 44 THE WORK OF GOD'S SPIRIT. [SERM. Now, just because this text is so important, the devil is particularly busy in trying to make people forget it. For what is his plan? Is it not to make us forget God, to put God out of all our thoughts, to make us acknowledge God in none of our ways, to make us look at ourselves and not at God, that so we may become first earthly and sensual, and then devilish, like Satan himself? Therefore he tries to make us disbelieve this text. He puts into our hearts such thoughts as these :■ — Ay, all good gifts may come from God; but that only means all spi- ritual gifts. All those fine, deep doctrines and wonderful feelings that some very religious people talk of, about conversion, and regeneration, and salification, and assurance, and the witness of the indwelling Spirit, — all those gifts come from God, no doubt, but they are quite above us. We are straightforward, simple people, who cannot feel fine fancies; if we can be honest, and industrious, and good-natured, and sober, and strong, and healthy, that is enough for us, — and all that has nothing to do with religion. Those are not gifts which come from God. A man is strong and healthy by birth, and honest and good-natured by nature. Those are very good things; but they are not gifts — they are not graces — they are not spi- ritual blessings — they have nothing to do with the state of a man's soul. Ungodly people are honest, and good-tempered, and industrious, and healthy, IV.] THE WORK OF GOD'S SPIRIT. 45 as well as your saints and your methodists; so what is the use of praying for spiritual gifts to God, when we can have all we want by nature ? ■ Did such thoughts never come into your head, my friends? Are they not often in your heads, more or less? Perhaps not in these very words, but some- thing like them. I do not say it to blame you, for I believe that every man, each according to his station, is tempted to such thoughts ; I believe that such thoughts are not yours or any man's; I believe they are the devil's, who tempts all men, who tempted even the Son of God Himself with thoughts like these at their root. Such thoughts are not yours or mine, though they may come into our heads. They are part of the evil which besets us — which is not us — w hich has no right or share in us — which we pray God to drive away from us when we say, "Deliver us from evil. " Have you not all had such thoughts? But have you not all had very different thoughts? have you not, every one of you, at times, felt in the bottom of your hearts, after all, ' This strength and industry, this courage, and honesty, and good-nature of mine, must come from God ; I did not get them myself? If I was born honest, and strong, and gentle, and brave, some one must have made me so when I was born, or before ? The devil certainly did not make me so, therefore God must? These, too, are His gifts.' 5 46 THE WORK OF GOD'S SPIRIT. [SERM. Did you ever think such thoughts as these? If you did not, not much matter, for you have all acted, more or less, in your better moments as if you had them. There are more things in a man's heart, thank God, than ever come into his head. Many a man does a noble thing by instinct, as we say, without ever thinking whether it is a noble thing or not — without thinking about it at all. Many a man, thank God, is led at times, by God's Spirit without ever knowing whose Spirit it is that leads him. But he ought to know it, for it is willing, reason- able service which God wants of us. He does not care to use us like tools and puppets. And why? He is not merely our Maker, He is our Father, and He wishes us to know and feel that we are His children — to know and feel that we all have come from Him; to acknowledge Him in all our ways, to thank Him for all, to look up lovingly and con- fidently to Him for more, as His reasonable child- ren; day by day, and hour by hour. Every good gift we have comes from Him ; but He will have us know where they all come from. Let us go through now a few of these good gifts, which we call natural, and see what the Bible says of them, and from whom they come. First, now, that common gift of strength and cou- rage. Who gives you that? — who gave it David? For He that gives it to one is most likely to be He that IV.] THE WORK OF GOD'S SPIRIT. 47 gives it to another. David says to God, " Thou teach- est my hands to war, and my fingers to fight ; by the help of God I can leap over a wall: He makes me strong, that my arms can break even a bow of steel :" — that is plain-spoken enough, I think. Who gave Samson his strength, again ? What says the Bible ? How Samson met a young lion which roared against him, and he had nothing in his hand, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion as he would have torn a kid. And, again, how when traitors had bound him with two new cords, the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords which were on his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and fell from off his hands. And, for God's sake, do not give in to that miserable fancy that because these stories are what you call miraculous, therefore they have no- thing to do with you — that Samson's strength came to him miraculously by God's Spirit, and yet yours comes to you a different way. The Bible is written to tell you how all that happens really happens — what all things really are; God is working among us always, but we do not see Him ; .and the Bible just lifts up, once and for all, the veil which hides Him from us, and lets us see, in one instance, who it is that does all the wonderful things which go on round us to this day, that w T hen we see any thing like it happen we may know whom to thank for it. The Great Physician healed the blind and the 48 THE WORK OF GOD'S SPIRIT. [SERM. lame in Judea ; and why ? — to show us who heals the blind and the lame now — to show us that the good gift of medicine and surgery, and the physi- cian's art, comes down from Him who cured the paralytic and cleansed the lepers in Judea — to whom all power is given in heaven and earth. So, again, with skill in farming and agriculture. From whom does that come ? The very heathens can tell us that, for it is curious, that among the heathen, in all ages and countries, those men who have found out great improvements in tilling the ground have been honoured and often worshipped as divine men — as gods, thereby showing that the heathen, among all their idolatries, had a true and just notion about man's practical skill and knowledge — that it could only come from Heaven, that it was by the inspi- ration and guidance of God above, that skill in agri- culture arose. What says Isaiah of that to the very same purpose ? "Doth the ploughman plough all day to sow ? Doth he open and break the clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rye in their place ? For his God doth in- struct him to discretion, and doth teach him." "This also," says Isaiah, "cometh from the Lord of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in work- ing." Would to God you would all believe it! Again; wisdom and prudence, and a clear, power- IV.] THE WORK OF GOD'S SPIRIT. 49 ful mind, — are not they parts of God's likeness ? How is God's Spirit described in Scripture? It is called the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of prudence and might. Therefore, surely, all wisdom and understanding, all prudence and strength of mind, are, like that Spirit, part of God's image; and where did we get God's image? Can we make ourselves like God? If we are like him, He must have formed that likeness, and He alone. The Spirit of God, says the Scripture, giveth us understanding. Or, again ; good-nature and aifection, love, gene- rosity, pity, — whose likeness are they? What is God's name but love? God is love. Has not He revealed Himself as the God of mercy, full of long- suffering, compassion, and free forgiveness; and must not, then, all love and affection, all compassion and generosity, be His gift? Yes. As the rays come from the sun, and yet are not the sun, even so our love and pity, though they are not God, but merely a poor, weak image and reflection of Him, yet from Him alone they come. If there is mercy in our hearts, it comes from the Fountain of mercy. If there is the light of love in us, it is a ray from the full sum of His love. Or honesty, again, and justice, — whose image are they but God's? Is He not The Just One — the righteous God? Is not what is just for man just for God? Are not the laws of justice and honesty, by 5* 50 THE WORK OF GOD'S SPIRIT. [SERM. which man deals fairly with man, Mis laws — the laws by which God deals with us? Does not every book — I had almost said every page — in the Bible show us that all our justice is but the pattern and copy of God's justice, — the working out of those six latter commandments of His, which are summed up in that one command, "Thou shalt love thy neigh- bour as thyself? " Now here, again, I ask: If justice and honesty be God's likeness, who made us like God in this — who put into us this sense of justice which all have, though so few obey it? Can man make himself like God? Can a worm ape his Maker? No. From God's Spirit, the Spirit of right, came this inborn feeling of justice, this knowledge of right and wrong, to us — part of the image of God in which He created man — part of the breath or spirit of life which He breathed into Adam. Do not mistake me. I do not say that the sense, and honesty, and love in us, are God's Spirit — they are the spirit of man, but that they are like God's Spirit, and there- fore they must be given us by God's Spirit to be used as God's Spirit Himself uses them. How a man shall have his share of God's Spirit, and live in and by God's Spirit, is another question, and a higher and more blessed one; but we must master thisquestion first — we must believe that our spirits come from God, then, perhaps, we shall begin to see that our spirits never can work well unless they IV.] THE WORK OF GOD'S SPIRIT. 51 are joined to the Spirit of God, from whom they came. From whom else, I ask again, can they come ? Can they come from our bodies? Our bodies! What are they? — Flesh and bones, made up of air and water and earth, — out of the dead bodies of the animals, the dead roots and fruits of plants which we eat. They are earth — matter. Can matter be courageous? Did you ever hear of a good-natured plant, or an honest stone ? Then this good-nature, and honesty, and courage of ours, must belong to our souls — our spirits. Who put them there? Did we? Does a child make its own character? Does its body make its character first? Can its father and mother make its character? No. Our charac- ters must come from some spirit above us — either from God or from the devil. And is the devil likely to make us honest, or brave, or kindly? I leave you to answer that. God — God alone, my friends, is the author of good — the help that is done on earth, He doeth it all Himself: every good gift and every perfect gift cometh from Him. Now some of you may think this a strange sort of sermon, because I have said little or nothing about Jesus Christ and His redemption in it, but I say — No. You must believe this much about yourselves before you can believe more. You must fairly and really believe that God made you one thing before you can believe that you have made yourselves ano- 52 THE WORK OF GOD'S SPIRIT. [SERM. ther thing. You must really believe that you are not mere machines and animals, but immortal souls, before you can really believe that you have sinned; for animals cannot sin — only reasonable souls can sin. We must really believe that God made us at bottom in His likeness, before we can begin to find out that there is another likeness in us besides God's — a selfish, brutish, too often a devilish likeness which must be repented of, and fought against, and cast out, that God's likeness in us may get the up- per hand, and we may be what God expects us to be. We must know our dignity before we can feel our shame. We must see how high we have a right to stand, that we may see how low, alas ! we have fallen. Now you — I know many such here, thank God — to whom God has given clear, powerful heads for business, and honest, kindly hearts, I do beseech you — consider my words, Who has given you these but God ? They are talents which He has com- mitted to your charge; and will He not require an account of them? He only, and His free mercy, has made you to differ from others ; if you are better than the fools and profligates round you, He, and not yourselves, has made you better. What have you that you have not received? By the grace of God alone you are what you are. If good comes easier to you than to others, He alone has made it easier to you; and if you have done wrong, — IV.] THE WORK OF GOD'S SPIRIT. 53 if you have fallen short of your duty, as all fall short, is not your sin greater than others? for unto whom much is given of them much shall be re- quired. Consider that, for God's sake, and see if you, too, have not something to be ashamed of, between yourselves and God. See if you, too, have not need of Jesus Christ and his precious blood, and God's free forgiveness, who have had so much light and power given you, and still have fallen short of what you might have been, and what, by God's grace you still may be, and, as I hope and earnestly pray, still will be. And you, young men and women — consider; — if God has given you manly courage and high spirits, and strength and beauty — think — God, your Fa- ther, has given them to you, and of them He will surely require an account; therefore, " Rejoice, young people," says Solomon, "in your youth, and let your hearts cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes. But remember," continues the wisest of men, — "remember, that for all these things God shall bring you into judgment." Now do not mis- understand that. It does not mean that there is a sin in being happy. It does not mean that if God has given to a young man a bold spirit and power- ful limbs, or to a young woman a handsome face and a merry loving heart, that he will punish them for these — God forbid ! what He gives He means to 54 THE WORK OF GOD'S SPIRIT. [sERM. IV. be used: but this it means, that according as you use those blessings so will you be judged at the last day: that for them, too, you will be brought to judgment, and tried at the bar of God. As you have used them for industry, and innocent happi- ness, and holy married love, or for riot and quar- relling, and idleness, and vanity, and filthy lusts, so shall you be judged. And if any of you have sinned in any of these ways, — God forbid that you should have sinned in all these ways; but surely, surely, some of you have been idle — some of you have been riotous — some of you have been vain — some of you have been quarrelsome — some of you, alas ! have been that which I shall not name here. Think, if you have sinned in any one of these ways, how can you answer it to God. Have you not need of the blessed Saviour's blood to wash you clean ? Young people! God has given you much. As a young man, I speak to you. Youth is an inestima- ble blessing or an inestimable curse, according as you use it ; and if you have abused your spring- time of youth, as all I am afraid, have — as I have — as almost all do, alas ! in this fallen world, where can you get forgiveness but from Him that died on the cross to take away the sins of the world? SERMON V FAITH. " Tlie just shall live by faith." — Habakkuk, ii. 4. This is one of those texts of which there are so many in the Bible, which though they were spoken originally to one particular man, yet are meant for every man. These words were spoken to Habak- kuk, a Jewish prophet, to check him for his impa- tience under God's hand ; but they are just as true for every man that ever was and ever will be as they were for him. They are world-wide and world-old ; they are the law by which all goodness, and strength, and safety, stand either in men or angels, for it always was true, and always must be true, that if reasonable beings are to live at all, it is by faith. And why? Because every thing that is, heaven and earth, men and angels, are all the work of God — of one God, infinite, almighty, all-wise, all-loving, unutterably glorious. My friends, we do not think 56 FAITH. [SEEM. enough of this, — not that all the thinking in the world can ever make us comprehend the majesty of our Heavenly Father; but we do not remember enough what we do know of God. We think of God, watching the world and all things in it, and keeping them in order as a shepherd does his sheep, and so far so good ; but we forget that God does more than this, — we forget that this earth, sun, and moon, and all the thousand thousand stars which cover the midnight sky, — many of them suns larger than the sun we see, and worlds larger than the world on which we stand, that all these, stretching away millions of millions of miles into boundless space, — a ll a re lying, like one little grain of dust, in the hollow of God's hand, and that if He were to shut His hand upon them, He could crush them into no- thing, and God would be alone in the universe again, as he was before heaven and earth were made. Think of that ! — that if God was but to will it, we and this earth on which we stand, and the heaven above us, and the sun that shines on us, would vanish away, and be no-where and no-thing. Think of the infinite power of God, and then think how is it pos- sible to live, except by faith in Him, by trusting to Him utterly. If you accustom yourselves to think in the same way of the infinite wisdom of God, and the infinite love of God, they will both teach you the same lesson ; they will show you that if you were the greatest, the wisest, the holiest man that ever lived. V.] FAITH. 57 you would still be such a speck by the side of the Almighty and Everlasting God that it would be madness to depend upon yourselves for any thing while you lived in God's world. For, after all, what can we do without God? In him we live, and move, and have our being. He made us, He gave us our bodies, He gave us our life; what we do He lets us do, what we say He lets us say ; we all live on sufferance. What is it but God's infinite mercy that ever brought us here or keeps us here an instant? We may pretend to act without God's leave or help, but it is impossible for us to do so; the strength we put forth, the wit we use, are all His gifts. We cannot draw a breath of air without his leave. And yet men fancy they can do without God in the world ! My friends, these are but few words, and poor words, about the glorious majesty of God and our littleness when compared with Him ; but I have said quite enough, at least, to show you all how ab- surd it is to depend upon ourselves for any thing. If we are mere creatures of God, if God alone has every blessing both of this world and the next, and the will to give them away, whom are we to go to but to Him for all we want? It is so in the life of our bodies, and it is so in the life of our spirits. If we wish for God's blessings, from God we must ask them. That is our duty, even though God in His mercy and long-suffering does pour down many a blessing upon men who never trust in Him for them. 58 FAITH. [SERM. To us all, indeed, God gives blessings before we are old enough to trust in Him for them, and to many He continues those blessings in after-life in spite of their blindness and want of faith. " He maketh. His sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." He gives — gives — it is His glory to give. Yet, strange ! that men will go on year after year, using the limbs, and eating the food, which God gives them, without ever believing so much as that God lias given them, without so much as looking up to heaven once and saying, " God, I thank Thee!" But we must remember that those blessings will not last for ever. Unless a man has lived by faith in God with regard to his earthly comforts, death will come and put an end to them at once ; and then it is only those who have trusted in God for all good things and thanked Him accordingly in this life, who shall have their part in the new heavens and the new earth, which will so immeasurably surpass all that this earth can give. And it is the same with the life of our spirits; in it, too, we must live by faith. The life of our spirits is a gift from God the father of spirits, and He has chosen to declare that, -unless we trust to Him for life, and ask him for life, He will not be- stow it upon us. The life of our bodies He in His mercy keeps up, although we forget Him ; the life of our souls He will not keep up : therefore, for V.] FAITH. 59 the sake of our spirits, even more than of our bo- dies, we must live by faith. If we wish to be loving, pure, wise, manly, noble, we must ask those excel- lent gifts of God, who is Himself infinite love, and purity, wisdom and nobleness. If we wish for ever- lasting life, from whom can we obtain it but from God, who is the boundless, eternal life itself? If we wish for forgiveness for our faults and failings, where are we to get it but from God, who is bound- less love and pity, and who has revealed to us His boundless love and pity in the form of a man, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world? And to go a step further; it is by faith in Christ we must live — in Christ, a man like ourselves, yet God blessed for ever. For it is a certain truth, that men cannot believe in God or trust in Him unless they can think of Him as a man. This was the reason why the poor heathen made themselves idols in the form of men, that they might have some- thing like themselves to worship; and those among them who would not worship idols almost always ended in fancying that God was either a mere no- tion, or else a mere part of this world, or else that He sat up in heaven, neither knowing nor caring what happened upon earth. But we, to whom God has given the glorious news of His Gospel, have the very Person to worship whom all the heathen were searching after and could not find, — one who is " very God," infinite in love, wisdom, and strength, 60 FAITH. [SERM. and yet "very man," made in all points like our- selves, but without sin; so that we have not a high Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who is able to help those who are tempted, because He was tempted Himself like us, and overcame by the strength of His own perfect will, of His own perfect faith. By trust- ing in Him, and acknowledging Him in every thought and action of our lives, we shall be safe; for it is written, " The just shall live by faith." These things are true, and always were true. All that men ever did well, or nobly, or lovingly, in this world, was done by faith — by faith in God of some sort -or other; even in the man who thinks' least about religion, it is so. Every time a man means to do, and really does, a just or ge- nerous action, he does it because he believes, more or less clearly, that there is a just and loving God above him, and that justice and love are the right things for a man — the law by which God intend- ed* him to walk : so that this small, dim faith still shows itself in practice; and the more faith a man has in God and in God's laws, the more it will show itself in every action of his daily life ; and the more this faith works in his life and conduct, the better man he is; — the more he is like God's image, in which man was originally made; — and the more he is like Christ, the new pattern of God's image, whom all men must copy. V.] FAITH. 61 So that the sum of the matter is this: without Christ we can do nothing, by trusting in Christ we can do every thing. See, then, how true the verse before my text must be, that he whose soul is lifted up in him is not upright ; for if a man fancies that his body and soul are his own, to do what he pleases with them, when all the time they are God's gift; — if a man fancies that lie can take perfect care of himself, while all the time it is God that is keeping him out of a thousand sins and dangers ; — if a man fancies that he can do right of himself, when all the time the little good that he does is the work of God's Spirit, which has not yet left him; — if a man fancies, in short, that he can do without God, when all the time it is in God that he lives, and moves, and has his being, how can such a man be called upright? Upright! he is utterly wrong; — he is believing a lie and walking accordingly; and, there- fore, instead of keeping upright, he is going where all lies lead, into all kinds of low and crooked ways, mistakes, absurdities, and at last to ruin of body and soul. Nothing but truth can keep a man up- right and straight, can keep a man where God has put him, and where he ought to be ; and the man whose heart is puffed up by pride and self-conceit, who is looking at himself and not at God, that man has begun upon a falsehood, and will soon get out of tune with heaven and earth. For consider, my friends: suppose some rich and 6* 62 FAITH. [SERM. mighty prince went out and collected a number of children, and of sick and infirm people, and said to them, "You cannot work now, but I will give you food, medicine, every thing that you require, and then you must help me to work; and I, though you have no right to expect it of me, will pay you for the little work you can do on the strength of my food and medicine." — Is it not plain that all those persons could only live by faith in their prince, by trusting in him for food and medicine, and by acknowledging that food and medicine came from him, and thanking him accordingly? If they wished to be true men, if they wished him to continue his bounty, they would confess that all the health and strength they had belonged to him of right, because his generosity had given it to them. Just in this position we stand with Christ the Lord. When the whole world lay in wicked- ness, He came and chose us, of His free grace and mercy, to be one of His peculiar nations, to work for Him and with him; and from the time He came, all that we and our forefathers have done well has been done by the strength and wisdom which Christ has given us. Now suppose, again, that one of the persons of whom I spoke was seized with a fit of pride — suppose he said to him- self, " My health and strength do not come from the food and medicine which the prince gave me, they come from the goodness of my own constitution; V.] FAITH. 63 the wages which I am paid are my just due; I am a free man, and may choose what master I like." Suppose any one of your servants treated you so, would you not be inclined to answer, "You are a faithless, ungrateful fellow; go your ways, then, and see how little you can do without my bounty?" But the blessed King in heaven, though he is pro- voked every day, is more long-suffering than man. All He does is to withdraw His bounty for a moment, to take this world's blessings from a man, and let him find out how impossible it is for him to keep himself out of affliction — to take away His Holy Spirit for a moment from a man, and let him see how straight he rushes astray, and every way but the right; and then, if the man is humbled by his fall or his affliction, and comes back to his Lord, confessing how weak he is, and promising to trust in Christ and thank Christ only for the future, then our Lord will restore His blessings to him, and there will be joy among the angels of God over one sinner that repents. This was the way in which God treated Job when, in spite of all his excellence, his heart was lifted up. And then, when he saw his own folly, and abhorred himself, and repented in dust and ashes, God restored to him sevenfold what He had taken from him — honour, wisdom, riches, home, and children. This is the way, too, in which God treated David. "In my prosperity," lie tells us, "I said, I shall never be moved; thou, 64 FAITH. [SERM. Lord, of Thy goodness hast made my hill so strong" — forgetting that he must be kept safe every mo- ment of his life, as well as made safe once for all. "Thou didst turn Thy face from me, and I was troubled. Then cried I unto Thee, Lord, and gat me to my Lord right humbly. And then," he adds, "God turned my heaviness into joy, and girded me with gladness." (Psalm xxx.) And, again, he says, " Before I was troubled I went wrong, but now I have kept Thy word." (Psalm cxix.) And this is the way in which Christ the Lord treated St. Peter and St. Paul, and treats, in his great mercy, every Christian man when He sees him puffed up, to bring him to his senses, and make him live by faith in God. If he takes the warning, well ; if he does not, he remains in a lie, and must go where all lies lead. So perfectly does it hold throughout a man's whole life, that he whose soul is lifted up within him is not upright; but that the just must live by faith. Now there is one objection apt to rise in men's minds when they hear such words as these, which is, that they take such a "low view of human na- ture; " it is so galling to our pride to be told that we can do nothing for ourselves: but if we think of the matter more closely, and, above all, if we try to put it into practice and live by faith, we shall find that there is no real reason for thus objecting. This is not a doctrine which ou^ht to make us de- spise men; any doctrine that does, does not come y.] FAITH. 65 of God. Men are not contemptible creatures— they are glorious creatures — they were created in the image of God; God has put such honour upon them that He has given them dominion over the whole earth, and made them partakers of His eter- nal reason ; and His Spirit gives them understanding to enable them to conquer this earth, and make the beasts, ay, and the very winds and seas, and fire and steam, their obedient servants ; am) human nature, too, when it is what God made it, and what it ought to be, is not a contemptible thing; it was noble enough for the Son of God to take it upon Him- self — to become man, without sinning or defiling Himself; and what was good enough for Him is surely good enough for us. Wickedness consists in unmanUness, in being unlike a man, in becoming like an evil spirit or a beast. Holiness consists in becoming a true man, in becoming more and more like the likeness of Jesus Christ. And when the Bible tells us that we can do nothing of ourselves, but can live only by faith, the Bible puts the highest honour upon us which any created thing can have. What are the things which cannot live by faith? The trees and plants, the beasts and birds, which, though they live and grow by God's providence, yet do not know it, do not thank Him, cannot ask Him for more strength and life as we can, are mere dead tools in God's hands, instead of living, reason- able beings as we are. It is only reasonable beings, GG FAITH. [SERM. like men and angels, with immortal spirits in them, who can live by faith; and it is the greatest glory and honour to us, I say again, that we can do so — that the glorious, infinite God, Maker of heaven and earth, should condescend to ask us to be loyal to Him, to love Him, should encourage us to pray to him boldly, and then should condescend to hear our prayers — we, who in comparison of Him are smaller than the gnats in the sunbeam in com- parison of men! And then, when we remember that He has sent His only Son into the world to take our nature upon Him, and join us all together into one great and everlasting family, the body of Christ the Lord, and that He has actually given us a share in His own Almighty Holy Spirit, that we may be able to love Him, and to serve Him, and to be joined to Him, the Almighty Father, do we not see that all this is infinitely more honourable to us than if we were each to go on his own way here without God — without knowing any thing of the everlasting world of spirits to which we now belong? My friends, instead of being ashamed of being able to do nothing for ourselves, we ought to rejoice at having God for our Father and our Friend, to enable us to "do all things through Him who strengthens us" — to do whatever is noble, and loving, and worthy of true men. Instead, then, of dreaming conceitedly that God will accept us for our own sakes, let us just be content to be accepted for V.] FAITH. 67 the sake of Jesus Christ our King. Instead of trying to walk through this world without God's help, let us ask God to help and guide us in every action of our lives, and then go manfully forward, doing with all our might whatsoever our hands or our hearts see right to do, trusting to God to put us in the right path, and to fill our heads with right thoughts and our hearts with right feeling; and so our faith will show itself in our works, and we shall be justified at the last day, as all good men have ever been, by trusting to our Heavenly Father and to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the guidance of His Holy Spirit. SERMON VI THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH. " I say, then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other." — Galatians, v. 18. The more we think seriously, my friends, the more we shall see what wonderful and awful things words are, how much more they mean than we fancy, — how we do not make words, but words are given to us by one higher than ourselves. Wise men say that you can tell the character of any nation by its language, by watching the words they use, the names they give to things, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and by our words, our Lord tells us, we shall be justified and condemned. It is God, and Christ, the Word of God, who gives words to men, who puts it into the hearts of men to call certain things by certain names; and, according to a nation's godliness, and wisdom, and purity of heart, will be its power of using words SERM. VI.] THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH. 69 discreetly and reverently. That miracle of the gift of tongues, of which we read in the New Testament, would have been still most precious and full of meaning if it had had no other use than this — to teach men from whom words come. When men found themselves all of a sudden inspired to talk in foreign languages which they had never learnt, to utter words of which they themselves did not know the meaning, do you not see how it must have made them feel that all language is God's making and God's giving? Do you not see how it must have made them feel what awful, mysterious things words were, like those cloven tongues of fire which fell on the apostles? The tongues of fire signified the dif- ficult foreign languages which they suddenly began to speak as the Spirit gave them utterance. And where did the tongues of fire come from? Not out of themselves, not out of the earth beneath, but down from the heaven above, to signify that it is not from man, from man's flesh or brain, or the earthly part of him, that words are bred, but that they come down from Christ the Word of God, and are breathed into the minds of men by the Spirit of God. Why did I speak of all this ? To make you feel what awful, wonderful things words are ; how, when you want to understand the meaning of a word, you must set to work with reverence and godly fear — not in self-conceit and prejudice, taking the word to mean just what suits your own notions 7 70 THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH. [SERM. of things, but trying humbly to find out what the word really does mean of itself, what God meant it to mean when He put it into the hearts of wise men to use that word and bring it into our English lan- guage. A man ought to read a newspaper or a story-book in that spirit; how much more, when he takes up the Bible ! How reverently he ought to examine every word in the New Testament — this very text, for instance. We ought to be sure that St. Paul, just because he was an inspired apostle, used the very best possible words to express what he meant on so important a matter; and what are the best words? The clearest and the simplest words are the best words; else how is the Bible to be the poor man's book ? How, unless the wayfaring man, though simple, shall not err therein ? Therefore we may be sure the words in Scripture are certain to be used in their simplest, most natural, most every- day meaning, such as the simplest man can under- stand. And therefore we may be sure, that these two words, "flesh" and "spirit," in my text, are used in their very simplest, straightforward sense ; and that St. Paul meant by them what working-men mean by them in the affairs of daily life. No doubt St. Peter says that there are many things in St. Paul's writings difficult to be understood, which those who are unlearned and unstable wrest to their own destruction; and, most true it is, so they do daily. But what does "wresting" a thing mean? It means VI.] THE SPIRIT AXD THE FLESH. 71 twisting it, bending it, turning it out of its original, straight-forward, natural meaning, into some new, crooked meaning of their own. This is the way we are all of us too apt, I am afraid, to come to St. Paul's Epistles. We find him difficult because we won't take him at his word, because we tear a text out of its right place in the chapter — the place where St. Paul put it — and make it stand by itself, instead of letting the rest of the chapter explain its meaning. And then, again, people use the words in the text as unfairly and unreasonably as they use the text itself; they won't let the words have their common-sense English meaning — they must stick a new meaning on them of their own. "Oh," they say, "that text must not be taken literally; that word has a spiritual signification here. Flesh does not mean flesh, it means men's corrupt nature;" little thinking all the while that perhaps they understand those words, spiritual, and corrupt, and nature, just as ill as they do the rest of the text. How much better, my friends, to let the Bible tell its own story ; not to b% so exceeding wise above what is written; just to believe that St. Paul knew better how to use words than we are likely to do ; — just to believe that when he says flesh he means flesh. Every body agrees that when he says spirit he means spirit : why, in the name of common sense, when he says flesh should he not mean flesh? For my own part, I believe that when St. Paul talks of 72 t:he spirit ikd the flesh. [serm. Mian's flesh, he means by it man's body, man's heart and brain, and all his bodily appetites and powers— what we call a man's constitution ; in a word, the animal part of man, just what a man has in common "witti the beasts who perish. To understand what I mean, consider any animal — a dog, for instance — how much every animal has in it what men have, — a body, and brain, and heart ; •it hungers and thirsts as we do; it can feel pleasure ;and pain, anger and loneliness, or fear and mad- T-iess; it likes freedom, company, and exercise, praise ■and petting, play and ease; it uses a great deal of cunning, and thought, and courage, to get itself food and shelter, just as human beings do: in short, it has a fleshly nature, just as we have, and yet, after all, it is but an animal, and so, in one sense, we are all animals, only more delicately made than the other animals; but we are something more ; we have a spirit as well as a flesh, an immortal soul. If any one asks, what is a man? the true answer is, an animal with an immortal spirit in it; and this spirit can feel more than pleasure and pain, which are mere- carnal, that is, fleshly things ; it can feel trust, and hope, and peace, and love, and purity, and noble- ness, and independence, and, above all, it can feel right and wrong. There is the infinite difference between an animal and a man, between our flesh and our spirit ; an animal has no sense of right and wrong ; a dog who has done wrong is often, terrified , VI.] THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH. 73 but not because he feels it wrong and wicked, but because he knows from experience that he will be punished for doing it: just so with a man's fleshly nature; — a carnal, fleshly man, a man whose spirit is dead within him, whose spiritual sense of right and wrong, and honour and purity, is gone, when he has done a wrong thing, is often enough afraid; but why? Not for any spiritual reason, not because he feels it a wicked and abominable thing, a sin, but because he is afraid of being punished for it, because he is afraid that his body, his flesh, will be punished by the laws of the land, or by public opinion, or because he has some dim belief that this same body and flesh of his will be burnt in hell-fire; and fire, he knows by experience, is a painful thing — and so he is afraid of it; there is no- thing spiritual in all that, — that is all fleshly, carnal; the heathen in all ages have been afraid of hell- fire; but a man's spirit, on the other hand, if it be in hell, is in a very different hell from mere fire, — a spiritual hell, such as torments the evil spirits, at this very moment, although they are going to and fro on this very earth. This earth is hell to them ; they carry about hell in them, — they are their own hell. Everlasting shame, discontent, doubt, despair, rage, disgust at themselves, feeling that they are out of favour with God, out of tune with heaven and earth, loving nothing, believing nothing, ever hating, hating each other, hating themselves most of all — there is 7* 74 THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH. [SEEM. their hell ! There is the hell in which the soul of every wicked man is, — ay, is now while he is in this life, though he will only awake to the perfect misery of it after death, when his body and fleshly nature have mouldered away in the grave, and can no longer pamper and stupify him and make him forget his own misery. Ay, there has been many a man in this life who had every fleshly enjoyment which this world can give, riches and pleasure, ban- quets and palaces, every sense and every appetite pampered, — his pride and his vanity flattered; who never knew what want, or trouble, or contradic- tion was on the smallest point; a man, I say,. who had every carnal enjoyment which this earth can give to a man's selfish flesh, and yet whose spirit was in hell all the while, and who knew it; hating and despising himself for a mean, selfish villain, while all the world round was bowing down to him and envying him as the luckiest of men. I am trying to make you understand the infinite- difference between a man's flesh and his spirit;, how a man's flesh can take no pleasure in spiritual things, while man's spirit of itself can take no pleasure in fleshly things. Now, the spirit and the flesh, body and soul, in every man, are at war with each other, — they have quarrelled; that is the corruption of our nature, the fruit of Adam's fall. And as the Article says, and as every man who has ever tried to live godly well knows, from ex^- VI.] THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH. 75 perience, "that infection of nature does remain to the last, even in those who are regenerate." So that, as St. Paul says, the spirit lusteth against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit ; and it continually hap- pens that a man cannot do the things which he would ; he cannot do what he knows to be right: thus, as St. Paul says again, a man may delight in the law of God in his inward man, that is, in his spirit, and yet all the while he shall find another law in his members, i. e. in his body, in his flesh, in his brain which thinks, and his heart which feels, and his senses which are fond of pleasure; and this law of the flesh, these appetites and passions which he has, like other animals, fight against the law of his mind, and when he wishes to do good, make him do evil. Now how is this? The flesh is not evil; a man's body can be no more wicked than a dumb beast can be wicked. St. Paul calls man's flesh sinful flesh; not because our flesh can sin of itself, but because our sinful souls make our flesh do sinful things; for, he says, Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh, and yet in him was no sin. The pure and spotless Saviour could not have taken man's flesh upon him if there was any sinful- ness in it. The body knows nothing of right and wrong; it is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can be, says St. Paul. And why? Because God's law is spiritual; deals with right and wrong. Wickedness, like righteousness, is a spiritual thing. 76 THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH- [SERM. If a man sins, his body is not in fault; it is his spirit ; his weak, perverse will, which will sooner listen to what his flesh tells him is pleasant than to what God tells him is right ; for this, my friends, is the secret of the battle of life. We stand between heaven and earth. Above is God's Spirit striving with our spirits, speaking to them in the depths of our soul, showing us what is right, putting into our hearts good desires, making us long to be honest and just, pure and manful, loving and charitable; for who is there who has not at times longed after these things, and felt that it would be a blessed thing for him if he were such a man as Jesus Christ was and is ? Above us, I say, is God's Spirit speak- ing to our spirits; below us is the world speaking to our flesh, as it spoke to Eve's, saying to us, " This thing is pleasant to the eyes — this thing is good for food — that thing is to be desired to make you wise, and to flatter your vanity and self-conceit." Below us, I say, is this world, tempting us to ease, and pleasure, and vanity; and in the middle, betwixt the two, stands up the third part of man — his soul and will, set to choose between the voice of God's Spirit and the temptations of this world — to choose between what is right and what is pleasant — to choose whether he will obey the desires of the spirit, or obey the desires of the flesh. He must choose. If he lets his flesh conquer his spirit, he falls; if he lets his spirit conquer his flesh, he rises; if he lets his flesh VI.] THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH. 77 conquer his spirit, lie becomes what he was not meant to be— a slave to fleshly lust ; and then he will find his flesh set up for itself, and work for itself. And where man's flesh gets the upper hand, and takes possession of him, it can do nothing but e vil_not that it is evil in itself, but that it has no rule, no law to go by; it does not know right from wrong ; and therefore it does simply what it likes, as a dumb beast or an idiot might; and therefore the works of the flesh are— adulteries, drunkenness, murders, fornications, envyings, backbitings, strife. When a man's body, which God intended to be the servant of his spirit, has become the tyrant of his spirit, it is like an idiot on a king's throne, doing all manner of harm and folly without know- ing that it is harm and folly. That is not its fault. Whose fault is it, then? Our fault— the fault of our wills and our souls. Our souls were intended to be the masters of our flesh, to conquer all the weaknesses, defilements of our constitution — our tempers, our cowardice, our laziness, our hastiness, our nervousness, our vanity, our love of pleasure — to listen to our spirits, because our spirits learn from God's Spirit what is right and noble. But if we let our flesh master us, and obey its own blind lusts, we sin against God ; and we sin against God doubly; for we not only sin against God's com- mandments, but we sin against ourselves, who are the image and glory of God. 78 THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH. [SERM. Believe this, my friends; believe that, because you are all fallen human creatures, there must go on in you this sore life-long battle between your spirit and your flesh — your spirit trying to be mas- ter and guide, as it ought to be, and your flesh rebel- ling and trying to conquer your spirit and make you a mere animal, like a fox in cunning, a peacock in vanity, or a hog in greedy sloth. But believe, too, that it is your sin and your shame if your spirit does not conquer your flesh — for God has promised to help your spirits. Ask Him, and His Spirit will teach them — fill them with pure, noble hopes, with calm, clear thoughts, and with deep, unselfish love to God and man. He will strengthen your wills, that they may be able to refuse the evil and choose the good. Ask Him, and He will join them to His own Spirit — to the Spirit of Christ, your Master: for he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit with Him. Ask him, and He will give you the mind of Christ — teach you to see and feel all matters as Christsees and feels them. Ask Him, and He will give you wisdom to listen to His Spirit when it teaches your spirit, and then you will be able to w T alk after the Spirit, and not obey the lusts of the flesh; and you will be able to crucify the flesh with its passions and lusts, that is, to make it, what it ought to be, a dead thing — a dead tool for your spirit to work with manfully and godly, and not a live tyrant to lead you into brutish- ness and folly; and then you will find that the fruit VI.] THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH. 79 of the spirit, of your spirit led by God's Spirit, is really, as St. Paul says, "love, joy, peace, long-suf- fering, gentleness, honesty" — "whatsoever things are true, "whatsoever things are honourable and of good report;" and instead of being the miserable slaves of your own passions, and of the opinions of your neighbours, you will find that, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, true freedom, not only from your neighbours' sins, but, what is far better, freedom from your own. These are large words, my friends, and promise mighty things. But I dare speak them to you, for God has spoken to you. These promises God made you at your baptism; these promises I, on the warrant of your baptism, dare make to you again. At your baptism, God gave you the right to call Him your loving Father, to call His Son your Saviour, His Spirit your Sanctifier. And He is not a man, that He should lie ; nor the son of man, that He should repent. Try Him, and see whether He will not fulfil His word. Claim His promise, and though you have fallen lower than the brutes, He will make men and women of you. He will be faith- ful and just to forgive you your sins, and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. SERMON VII. RETKIBUTION. "Be sure your sin will find you out." — Numbers xxxii. 23. The full meaning of this text is, that every sin which a man commits is certain, sooner or later, to come home to him with fearful interest. Moses gave this warning to two tribes of the Israelites, — to the Reubenites and Gradites, who had promised to go over Jordan, and help their country- men in war against the heathen, on condition of being allowed to return and settle on the east bank of Jordan, where they then were ; but if they broke their promise, and returned before the end of the war, they were to be certain that their sin would find them out; that God would avenge their false- hood on them in some way in their lifetime : in their lifetime, I say, for there is no mention made in this chapter, or in any part of the story, of hea- ven or hell, or any world to come. And the text has been always taken as a fair warning to all gene- SERM. VII.] RETRIBUTION. 81 rations of men, that their sin also, even in their lifetimes, will be visited upon them. Now, it is strange, at first sight, that these texts, which warn men that their sins will be punished in this life, are just the most unpleasant texts in the whole Bible; that men shrink from them more, and shut their eyes to them more than they do to those texts which threaten them with hell-fire and ever- lasting death. Strange ! — that men should be more afraid of being punished in this life for a few years than in the life to come for ever and ever; — and yet not strange if we consider; for to worldly and sinful souls, that life after death and the flames of hell seem quite distant and dim — things of which they know little and believe less, while this world they do know, they are quite certain that its good things are pleasant and its bad things unpleasant, and they are thoroughly afraid of losing them. Their hearts are where their treasure is, in this world; and a punishment which deprives them of this world's good things hits them home : but their treasure is not in heaven, and, therefore, about losing heaven they are by no means so much concerned. And thus they can face the dreadful news that "the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God;" while, as for the news that the wicked shall be recompensed on the earth, that their sins will surely find them out in this life, they cannot face that, — they shut their ears to it, — they try to per- 8 " 82 RETRIBUTION. [SERM. suade themselves that sin will fay them here, at all events; and as for hereafter, they shall get off some- how, — they neither know nor care much how. Yet God's truth remains, and God's truth must be heard; and those who love this world so well must be told, whether they like or not, that every sin which they commit, every mean, every selfish, every foul deed, loses them so much enjoyment in this very present world of which they are so mighty fond. That is God's truth ; and I will prove it true from common sense, from Holy Scripture, and from the tvitness of men's own hearts. Take common sense. Does not common sense tell us that if God made this world, and governs it by righteous and God-like laws, this must be a world in which evil-doing cannot thrive ? God made the world better than that, surely ! He would be a bad law- giver who made such laws, that it was as well to break them as to keep them. You would call them bad laws, surely ! No ; God made the world, and not the devil; and the world works by God's laws, and not the devil's; and it inclines towards good, and not towards evil ; and he who sins, even in the least, breaks God's laws, acts contrary to the rule and constitution of the world, and will surely find that God's laws will go on in spite of him, and grind him to powder, if he by sinning gets in the way of them. God has no need to go out of His way to punish our evil deeds. Let them alone, and they will punish VII.] RETRIBUTION. 83 themselves. Is it not so in every thing? If a tradesman trades badly, or a farmer farms badly, there is no need of lawyers to punish him ; he will punish himself. Every mistake he makes will take money out of his pocket; every time he offends against the established rules of trade or agriculture, which are God's laws, he injures himself; and so, be sure, it is in the world at large, — in the world in which men and the souls of men live, and move, and have their being. Next, to speak of Scripture. I might quote texts innumerable to prove that what I say Scripture says also. Consider but this one thing, — that there is a whole book in the Bible written to prove this one thing, — that our good and bad deeds are repaid us with interest in this life — the Proverbs of Solomon I mean — in which there is little or no mention of heaven or hell, or any world to come. It is all one noble, and awful, and yet cheering sermon on that one text, " The righteous shall be recompensed in the earth, much more the wicked and the sinner," — put in a thousand different lights; brought home to us a thousand different roads, comes the same ever- lasting doom, — "Vain man, who thinkest that thou canst live in God's world and yet despise His will, know that, in every smiling, comfortable sin, thou art hatching an adder to sting thee in the days of old age, to poison thy cup of sinful joy, even when it is at thy lips; to haunt thy restless thoughts, 84 RETRIBUTION. [SERM. and dog thee day and night; to rise up before thee, in the silent, sleepless hours of night, like an angry ghost ? An awful foretaste of the doom that is to come ; and yet a merciful foretaste, if thou wilt be but taught by the disappointment, the unsatisfied craving, the gnawing shame of a guilty conscience, to see the heinousness of sin, and would turn before it be too late." What, my friends, — what will you make of such texts as this: that "he who soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption ?" Do you not see that comes true far too often ? Can it help alivays coming true, seeing that God's apostle spoke it? What will you make of this, too: that "the wicked is snared by the working of his own hands;" — that "evil'' — the evil which we do of its own self — "shall slay the wicked?" What says the w T hole noble 87th Psalm of David, but that same awful truth of God, that sin is its own punishment? Why should I go on quoting texts? Look for yourselves, you w T ho fancy that it is only on the other side of the grave that God will trouble Himself about you and your meanness, your profligacy, your falsehood. Look for yourselves in the book of God, and see if there be any w T riter there, — lawgiver, pro- phet, psalmist, apostle, up to Christ the Lord Him- self, — who does not warn men again and again, that here, on earth, their sins will find them out. Our Saviour, indeed, when on earth, said less about this VII.] RETRIBUTION. 85 subject than any of the prophets before Him, or the apostles after him, and for the best of reasons. The Jews had got rooted in their minds a super- stitions notion, that all disease, all sorrow, was the punishment in each case of some particular sin; and thus, instead of looking with pity and loving awe upon the sick and the afflicted, they were accus- tomed, too often, to turn from them as sinners, smitten of God, bearing in their distress the token of His anger. The blessed One, — He who came to heal the sick and save the lost, — reproved that error more than once. When the disciples fancied a cer- tain poor man's blindness to be a judgment from God, "Neither did he sin," said the Lord, u nor his parents, but that the glory of God might be made manifest in him." And yet, on the other hand, when He healed a certain man of an old in- firmity at the pool of Bethesda, what were His words to him? a Go thy way; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee ; " — a clear and weighty warning that all his long misery of eight-and-thirty years had been the punishment of some sin of his, and that the sin repeated would bring on him a still severer judgment. What, again, does the apostle mean, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, when he tells us how God scourges every son whom he receives, and talks of His chas- tisements, whereof all are partakers. Why do we need chastising if we have nothing which needs 8* 86 RETRIBUTION. [SERM. mending? And though the innocent may sometimes be afflicted to make them strong as well as innocent, and the holy chastened to make them humble as well as holy, yet if the good cannot escape their share of affliction, how will the bad get off? " If the righteous scarcely be saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?" But what use in arguing when you know that my words are true? You know that your sins will find you out. Look boldly and ho- nestly into your own hearts. Look through the history of your past lives, and confess to God, at least, that the far greater number of your sorrows have been your own fault; that there is hardly a day's misery which you ever endured in your life of which you might not say, ' If I had listened to the voice of God in my conscience — if I had ear- nestly considered what my duty was — if I had prayed to God to determine my judgment aright, I should have been spared this sorrow now?' Am I not right? Those who know most of God and their own souls will agree most with me; those who know little about God and their own souls will agree but hardly with me, for they provoke God's chastise- ments, and writhe under them for the time, and then go and do the same wrong again, as the wild beast will turn and bite the stone thrown at him without having the sense to see why it was thrown. Think, again, of your past lives, and answer in God's sight, how many wrong things have you ever VII.] RETRIBUTION. 87 done which have succeeded, that is, how many sins which you would not be right glad were undone if you could but put back the wheels of Time? They may have succeeded outwardly ; meanness will succeed so — lies — oppression — theft — adultery — drunken- ness — godlessness — they are all pleasant enough while they last, I suppose; and a man may reap what he calls substantial benefits from them in money, and such like, and keep that safe enough; but has his sin succeeded? Has it not found him out? — found him out never to lose him again? Is he the happier for it? Does he feel freer for it? Does he respect himself the more for it ? — No ! And even though he may prosper now, yet does there not run through all his selfish pleasure a certain fearful looking forward to a fiery judgment to which he would gladly shut his eyes, but cannot? Cunning, fair-spoken oppressor of the poor, has not thy sin found thee out? Then be sure it will. In the shame of thine own heart it will find thee out; — in the curses of the poor it will find thee out; — in a friendless, restless, hopeless death-bed, thy covetousness and thy cruelty will glare before thee in their true colours, and thy sin will find thee out ! Profligate woman, who art now casting away thy honest name, thy self-respect, thy womanhood, thy baptism-vows, that thou mayest enjoy the foul plea- sures of sin for a season, has not thy sin found thee out? Then be sure it will hereafter, when thou 88 RETRIBUTION. [SERM. hast become disgusted at thyself and thine own infamy, — and youth, and health, and friends, are gone, and a shameful and despised old age creeps over thee, and death stalks nearer and nearer, and God vanishes farther and farther off, then thy sin will find thee out ! Foolish, improvident young man, who art wast- ing the noble strength of youth, and manly spirits which God has given thee on sin and folly, throw- ing away thine honest earnings in cards and drunkenness, instead of laying them by against a time of need — has not thy sin found thee out? Then be sure it will some day, when thou hast to bring home thy bride to a cheerless, unfurnished house, and there to live from hand to mouth, — with- out money to provide for her sickness, — without money to give her the means of keeping things neat and comfortable when she is well, — without a farthing laid by against distress, and illness, and old age ; — then your sin will find you out : then, perhaps, my text, — my words — may come across you as you sigh in vain in your comfortless home, in your im- poverished old age, for the money which you wasted in your youth! My friends, my friends, for your own sakes consider, and mend ere that day come, as else it surely will ! And, lastly, you who, without running into any especial sins, as those which the world calls sins, still live careless about religion, without loyalty to Christ VII.] RETRIBUTION. 89 the Lord, without any honest attempt, or even wish, to serve the God above you, or to rejoice in remem- bering that you are His children, working for Him and under Him, — be sure your sin will find you out. When affliction, or sickness, or disappointment come, as come they will, if God has not cast you off; — when the dark day dawns, and your fool's paradise of worldly prosperity is cut away from under your feet, then you will find out your folly — you will find that you have insulted the only Friend who can bring you out of affliction — cast off the only comfort which can strengthen you to bear affliction — forgotten the only knowledge which will enable you to be the wiser for affliction. Then, I say, the sin of your godless- ness will find you out; if you do not intend to fall, soured and sickened merely by God's chastisements, either into stupid despair or peevish discontent, you will have to go back, to go back to God and cry, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son." Go back at once before it be too late. Find out your sins and mend them — before they find you out, and break your hearts. SERMON VIII. SELF-DESTRUCTION. The Lord hath put. a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets." — 1 Kings, xxii. 23. The chapter from which my text is taken, which is the first lesson for this evening's service, is a very awful chapter, for it gives us an insight into the meaning of that most awful and terrible word — temptation. And yet it is a most comforting chap- ter, for it shows us how God is long-suffering and merciful, even to the most hardened sinner; how to the last He puts before him good and evil, to choose between them, and warns him to the last of his path, and the ruin to which it leads. We read of Ahab in the first lesson this morning as a thoroughly wicked man, — mean and weak, cruel and ungodly, governed by his wife Jezebel, a heathen woman, in marrying whom he had broken God's law, — a woman so famous for cruelty and fierceness, vanity and wickedness, that her name is a by- word even SERM. VIII.] SELF-DESTRUCTION. 91 here in England now — "as bad as Jezebel," we say to this day. We heard of Ahab in this morn- ing's lesson letting Jezebel murder the righteous Naboth, by perjury and slander, to get possession of his vineyard; and then, instead of shrinking with abhorrence from his wife's iniquity, going down and taking possession of the land which he had gained by her sin. We read of God's curse on him, and yet of God's long-suffering qjid pardon to him on his repentance. Yet, neither God's curses nor God's mercy seem to have moved him. But he had been always the same. "He did evil," the Bible tells, "in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him." He deserted the true God for his wife's idols and false gods : and in spite of Elijah's miracle at Carmel — of which you heard last Sunday — by which he proved by fire which was the true God, and in spite of the wonderful victory which God had given him, by means of one of God's prophets, over the Syrians, he still remained an idolater. He would not be taught, nor understand; neither God's threats nor mercies could move him; he went on sinning against light and knowledge ; and now his cup was full — his days were numbered, and God's vengeance was ready at the door. He consulted all his false prophets as to whether or not he should go to attack the Syrians at Ramoth- Gilead. They knew what to say — they knew that their business was to prophesy what would pay them 92 SELF-DESTRUCTION. [SERM. — what would be pleasant to him. They did not care whether what they said was true or not — they lied for the sake of gain, for the Lord had put a lying spirit into their mouths. They were rogues and vil- lains from the first. They had turned prophets, not to speak God's truth, but to make money, to flatter King Ahab, to get themselves a reputation. We do not hear that they were all heathens. Many of them may have believed in the true God. But they were cheats and liars, and so they had given place to the devil, the father of lies : and now he had taken pos- session of them in spite of themselves, and they lied to Ahab, and told him that he would prosper in the battle at Ramoth-Gilead. It was a dangerous thing for them to say; for if he had been defeated, and returned disappointed, his rage would have most pro- bably fallen on them for deceiving him. And as in those Eastern countries kings do whatever they like without laws or parliaments, Ahab would have most likely put them all to a miserable death on the spot. But however dangerous it might be for them to lie, they could not help lying. A spirit of lies had seized them, and they who began by lying, because it paid them, now could not help doing so whether it paid them or not. But the good king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, had no faith in these flattering villains. He asked whether there was not another prophet of the Lord to inquire of? Ahab told him that there was one, Micaiah VIII.] SELF-DESTRUCTION. 93 the son of Imlah, but that he hated him, because he only prophesied evil of him. What a thorough pic- ture of a hardened sinner — a man who has become a slave to his own lusts, till he cares nothing for a thing being true, provided only it is pleasant ! Thus the wilful sinner, like Ahab, becomes both fool and coward, afraid to look at things as they are; and when God's judgments stare him in the face, the wretched man shuts his eyes tight, and swears that the evil is not there, just because he does not choose to see it. But the evil was there, ready for Ahab, and it found him. "When he forced Micaiah to speak, Micaiah told him the whole truth. He told him a vision, or dream, which he had seen. "Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ra- moth-Gilead? And there came forth a spirit, and said, I will go forth, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee." What warning could be more awful, and yet more plain? Ahab was told that he was listening to a lie. He had free choice to follow that lie or not, 9 94 SELF-DESTRUCTION. [SERM. and he did follow it. After having put Micaiah into prison for speaking the truth to him, he went up to Ramoth-Gilead; and yet he felt he was not safe. He had his doubts and his fears. He would not go openly into the battle, but disguised himself, hoping that by this means he should keep himself safe from evil. Fool! God's vengeance could not be stopped by his paltry cunning. In spite of all his disguises, a chance shot struck him down between the joints of his armour. His chariot-driver carried him out of the battle, and " he was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and died at even: and the blood ran out of his wound into the midst of the chariot. And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood there," according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by the mouth of His prophet Elijah, saying, "In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, whom thou slewest, shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine." And do not fancy, my friends, that because this is a miraculous story of ancient times, it has no- thing to do with us. All these things were written for our example. This chapter tells us not merely how Ahab was tempted, but it tells us how we are tempted, every one of us, here in England, in these very days. As it was with Ahab, so it is with us. Every wilful sin that we commit we give room to the devil. Every wrong step that we take knowingly, we give a handle to some evil spirit to lead us seven VIII.] SELF-DESTRUCTION. 05 steps further wrong. And yet in every temptation God gives us a fair chance. He is no cruel tyrant who will deliver us over to the devil, to be led help- less and blindfold to our ruin. He did not give Ahab over to him so. He sent a lying spirit to deceive Ahab's prophets, that Ahab might go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead; but at the very same time, see, he sends a holy and a true man, a man whom Ahab could trust, and did trust at the bottom of his heart, to tell him that the lie was a lie, to warn him of his ruin, so that he might have no excuse for lis- tening to those false prophets — no excuse for follow- ing his own pride, his own ambition, to his destruc- tion. So you see, "Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God tempteth no man, but every one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed." Ahab was led away by his own lust ; his cowardly love of hearing what was pleasant and flattering to him, rather than what was true — rather than what he knew he deserved; that was what enticed him to listen to Zedekiah and the false prophets, rather than to Micaiah the son of Imlah. That is what entices us to sin — the lust of believing what is pleasant to us, what suits our own self-will — what is pleasant to our bodies — pleasant to our purses — pleasant to our pride and self-conceit. Then, when the lying spirit comes and whispers to us, by bad thoughts, by bad books, by bad men, that we shall prosper in our wickedness, does God leave us 96 SELF-DESTRUCTION. [SERM alone to listen to those evil voices without warning No ! He sends His prophets to us, as He sent Micaiah to Ahab, to tell us that the wages of sin is death — to tell us that those who sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind — to set before us at every turn good or evil, that we may choose between them, and live or die according to our choice. For do not fancy that there are no prophets in our days, unless the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is promised to all who believe, be a dream and a lie. There are pro- phets nowadays, — yea, I say unto you, and more than prophets. Is not the Bible a prophet? Is not every page in it a prophecy to us, foretelling God's mercies and God's punishment towards men. Is not every holy and wise book, every holy and wise preacher and writer, a prophet expounding to us God's laws, foretelling to us God's opinion of our deeds, both good and evil? Ay, is not every man a prophet to himself? That "still small voice" in a man's heart, which warns him of what is evil — that feeling which makes him cheerful and free when he has done right, sad and ashamed when he has done wrong — is not that a prophecy in a man's own heart? Truly it is. It is the voice of God within us — it is the Spirit of God striving with our spirits, whether we will hear, or whether we will for- bear — setting beforfms what is righteous, and noble, and pure, and what is manly and God-like — to see whether we will obey that voice, or whether we will VIII.] SELF-DESTRUCTIOX. 97 obey our own selfish lusts, which tempt us to please ourselves — to pamper ourselves, our greedi- ness, covetousness, ambition, or self-conceit. And again, I say, we have our prophets. Every preacher of righteousness is a prophet. Every good tract is a prophet. The Prayer-book, those Psalms, those Creeds, those Collects, which you take into your mouths every Sunday, what are they but written prophecies, crying unto us with the words of holy men of old, greater than Micaiah, or David, or Eli- jah, "Hear thou the word of the Lord?" The spirits of those who wrote that Prayer-book — the spirits of just men made perfect, filled with the Spirit of the Lord — they call to us to learn the wisdom which they knew, to avoid the temptations which they conquered, that w T e may share in the glory in which they shared round the throne of Christ for evermore. And if you ask me how to try the spirits, how to know whether your own thoughts, whether the ser- mons which you hear, the books which you read, are speaking to you God's truth, or some lying spirit's falsehood, I can only answer you, "To the law and to the testimony" — to the Bible; if they speak not according to that word, there is no truth in them. But how to understand the Bible? for the fleshly man understands not the things of God. The fleshly man, he who cares only about pleasing himself, he who goes to the Bible full of self-conceit and selfish- ness, wanting the Bible to tell him only just what he 9* 98 SELF-DESTRUCTION. [SERM. VIII. likes to hear, will only find it a sealed book to him, and will very likely wrest the Scriptures to his own destruction. Take up your Bible humbly, praying to God to show you its meaning, whether it be plea- sant to you or not, and then you will find that God will show you a blessed meaning in it; He will open your eyes, that you may understand the wondrous things of His law ; He will show you how to try the spirit of all you are taught, and to find out whether it comes from God. SERMON IX HELL ON EARTH. "And behold the evil spirits cried out, saying, What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God ? Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?" — Matthew, viii. 29. This account of the man possessed with devils, and of his language to our Lord, of our Lord's casting the devils out of the poor sufferer, and His allowing them to enter into a herd of swine, is one that is well worth serious thought; and I think a few words on it will follow fitly after my last Sun- day's sermon on Ahab and his temptations by evil spirits. In that sermon I showed you what temper of mind it was which laid a man open to the cun- ning of evil spirits; I wish now to show you some- thing of what those evil spirits are. It is very little that we can know about them. We were intended to know very little, just as much as would enable us to guard against them, and no more. The accounts of them in the Scriptures are for our use, not to satisfy our curiosity. But we may find out a great 100 HELL ON EARTH. [SERM. deal about tliem from this very chapter, from this very story, which is repeated almost word for word in three different Gospels, as if to make us more certain of so curious and important a matter, by having three distinct and independent writers to witness for its truth. I advise all those who have Bibles to look for this story in the 8th chapter of St. Matthew, and follow me as I explain it.* Now, first, we may learn from this account, that evil spirits are real persons. There is a notion got abroad that it is only a figure of speech to talk of evil spirits, that all the Bible means by them are certain bad habits, or bad qualities, or diseases. There are many who will say when they read this story, "This poor man was only a madman. It was the fashion of the old Jews when a man was mad to say that he was possessed by evil spirits. All they meant was that the man's own spirit was * "And when He was come to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time ? And there was a good way off from them a herd of many swine feeding. So the devils besought him, saying, If Thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And He said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters." IX ."| HELL ON EARTH. 101 in an evil diseased state, or that his brain and mind were out of order." When I hear such language— and it is very com- mon—I cannot help thinking how pleased the devil must be to hear people talk in such a way. How can people help him better than by saying that there is no devil ? A thief would be very glad to hear you say, " There are no such things as thieves; it is all an old superstition, so I may leave my house open at night without danger;" and I believe, my friends, from the very bottom of my heart, that this new- fangled disbelief in evil spirits is put into men's hearts by the evil spirits themselves. As it was once said, " The devil had tried every plan to catch men's souls, and now, as the last and most cunning trick of all, he is shamming dead." These may seem homely words, but the homeliest words are very often the deepest. I advise you all to think seriously on them. But it is impossible surely to read this story without seeing that the Bible considers evil spirits as distinct persons, just as much as each one of us is a person, and that our Lord spoke to them and treated them as persons. "What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?" And again, " If Thou cast us out, suffer us to go into the herd of swine ?" What can show more plainly that there were some persons in that poor man, besides 102 HELL ON EARTH. [SERM. himself, his own spirit, his own person ? and that he knew it, and Jesus knew it too? and that He spoke to these spirits, these persons, who possessed that man, and not to the man himself? No doubt there was a terrible confusion in the poor madman's mind about these evil spirits, who were tormenting him, making him miserable, foul, and savage, in mind and body— a terrible confusion! We find, when Jesus asked him his name, he answers, "Le- gion," that is an army, a multitude, "for we are many," he says. Again, one gospel tells us that he says, " What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God?" While in another Gospel we are told that he said, "What have we to do with Thee? " He seems not to have been able to distinguish be- tween his own spirit, and these spirits who possessed him. They put the furious and despairing thoughts into his heart; they spoke through his mouth; they made a slave and a puppet of him. But though he could not distinguish between his own soul and the devils who were in it, Christ could and Christ did. The man says to Him, or rather the devils make the man say to Him, "If Thou cast us out, suffer us to go into the herd of swine, and drive us not out into the deep." What did Christ answer him? Christ did not answer him as our so-called wise men in these days would, "My good man, this is all a delusion, and a fancy of your own, about your having evil spirits in IX.] HELL ON EARTH. 103 you — more persons than one in you — for you are wrong in saying we of yourself. You ought to say 'I,' as every one else does; and as for spirits go- ing out of you, or going into a herd of swine, or any thing else, that is all a superstition and a fancy. There is nothing to eonie out of you, there is nothing in you except yourself. All the evil in you is your own, the disease of your own brain, and the violent passions of your own heart. Your brain must be cured by medicine, and your violent passions tamed down by care and kindness, and then you will get rid of this foolish notion, that you have evil spirits in you, and calling yourself a multitude, as if you had other persons in you be- sides yourself." Any one who spoke in this manner nowadays would be thought very reasonable and very kind. Why did not our Lord speak so to this man, for there was no outward difference between this man's conduct and that of many violent mad people whom we see continually in our land ? We read, that this man possessed with devils would wear no clothes; that he had extraordinary strength ; that he would not keep company with other men, but abode day and night in the tombs, exceedingly fierce, crying and cutting himself with stones, trying, in blind rage, which he could not explain to himself, to hurt himself and all who came near him. And, above all, he had this notion, that evil spirits had 104 HELL ON EARTH. [SERM. got possession of him. Now every one of these habits and fancies you may see in many raging maniacs at this day. But did our Lord treat this man as we treat such maniacs in these days ? He took the man at his word, and more; the man could not distinguish clearly between himself and the evil spirits, but our Lord did. When the devils besought him, say- ing, "If thou cast us out, suffer us to go into the herd of swine," our Lord answers "Go;" and "when they were cast out, they went into the herd of swine; and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and pe- rished in the waters." It was as if our Lord had meant to say to the bystanders, — ay and to us, and to all people in all times and in all countries, "This poor possessed maniac's notion was a true one. There were other persons in him besides himself, tormenting him, body and soul: and, behold, I can drive these out of him and send them into something else, and leave the man uninjured, himself, and only himself, again in an instant, without any need of long edu- cation to cure him of his bad habits." It will be but reasonable, then, for us to take this story of the man possessed by devils, as written for our example, as an instance of what might, and perhaps would, hap- pen to any one of us, were it not for God's mercy. St. Peter tells us to be sober and watchful, because IX.] HELL ON EARTH. 105 " the devil goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour;" and when we look at the world around, we may surely see that that stands as true now as it did in St. Peter's time. Why, again, did St. James tell us to resist the devil if the devil be not near us to resist? Why did St. Paul take for granted, as he did, that Christian men were of course not ignorant of Satan's devices, if it be quite a proof of enlightenment and superior knowledge to be ignorant of his devices — if any dread, any thought, even, about evil spirits, be beneath the attention of reasonable men? My friends, I say fairly, once for all, that that common notion, that there are no men now possessed by evil spirits, and that all those stories of the devil's power over men, are only old, worn-out superstitions, has come from this, that men do not like to retain God in their knowledge, and therefore, as a necessary conse- quence, do not like to retain the devil in their know- ledge, because they would be very glad to believe in nothing but what they can see, and taste, and han- dle ; and therefore the thought of unseen evil spirits, or good spirits either, is a painful thing to them. First, they do not really believe in angels, minister- ing spirits, sent out to minister to the heirs of sal- vation; then they begin not to believe in evil spirits. The Bible plainly describes their vast numbers; but these people are wiser than the Bible, and only talk of one — of the devil, as if there were not, as the text 10 106 HELL ON EARTH. [SERM. tells us, legions and armies of devils. Then they get rid of that one devil in their real desire to be- lieve in as few spirits as possible. I am afraid many of them have gone on to the next step, and got rid of the one God out of their thoughts and their be- lief. I said I am afraid ; I ought to have said I know that they have done so, and that thousands in this day, who began by saying evil spirits only mean cer- tain diseases and bad habits in men, have ended by saying, " God only means certain good habits in man. God is no more a person than the evil spirits are persons." I warn you of all this, my friends, be- cause, if you go to live in large towns, as many of you will, you will hear talk enough of this sort be- fore your hairs are gray, put cleverly and eloquently enough: for, as a wise man said, "The devil does not send fools on his errands." I pray God that if you ever do hear doctrines of that kind, some of my words may rise in your mind and help to show to you the evil path down which they lead. We may believe, then, from the plain words of scripture, that there are vast numbers of evil spirits continually tempting men, each of them to some particular sin — to worldliness, for instance; for we read of the spirit of the evil world : to filthiness ; for we read of unclean spirits : to falsehood ; for we read of lying spirits and a spirit of lies : to pride ; for we read of a spirit of pride : — in short, to all sins which a man can commit, to all evil passions to IX.] HELL ON EARTH. 107 which a man can give way. We have a right to believe, from the plain words of scripture, that these spirits are continually wandering up and down, tempting men to sin. That wonderful story of Job's temptation, which you may all read for yourselves, in the first chapter of the book of Job, is, I think, proof enough for any one. But next — and I wish you to pay special attention to this point — we have no right to believe, we have every right not to believe, that these evil spirits can make us sin in the smallest matter against our own wills. The devil cannot put a single sin into us; he can only flatter the sinfulness which is already in us. For, see ! this pride, lust, covetousness, falsehood, and so on, to which the Bible tells us they tempt us, have roots already in our nature. Our fallen nature of itself is inclined to pride, to worldliness, and so on. These devils tempt us by putting in our way the occasion to sin, by suggest- ing to us tempting thoughts and arguments which lead to sin; so the serpent tempted Eve, not by making her ambitious and self-willed, but by using arguments to her which stirred up the ambition and self-will in her: "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil," the devil said to her. So Satan, the prince of the evil spirits, tempted our Lord. And as the prince of the devils tempted Christ, so do his servants tempt us, Christ's ser- vants. Our tempers, our longings, our fancies, 108 HELL OX EARTH. [SERM. are not evil spirits; they are, as old divines well describe them, like greedy and foolish fish, who rise at the baits which evil spirits hold out to us. If we resist those baits — if we put ourselves under God's protection — if we claim strength from Him who conquered the devil and all his temptation, then we shall be able to turn our wills away from those tempting baits, and to resign our will into our Fa- ther's hand, and He will take care of them, and strengthen them with his will; and we shall find out that if we resist the devil, he will flee from us. But if we yield to temptations whenever they come in our way, we shall find ourselves less and less able to resist them, for we shall learn to hate the evil spirits less and less; I mean we shall shrink less from the evil thoughts they hold out to us. We shall give place to the devil, as the Scripture tells us we shall ; for instance, by indulging in ha- bitual passionate tempers, or rooted spite and ma- lice, letting the sun go down upon our wrath : and so a man may become more and more the slave of his own nature, of his own lusts and passions, and therefore of the devils, who are continually pam- pering and maddening those lusts and passions, till a man may end in complete possession; not in common madness, which may be mere disease, but as a savage and a raging maniac, such as, thank God, are rare in Christian countries, though they were common among our own forefathers before they were converted to Christianity, — IX.] HELL ON EARTH. 109 men like the demoniac of whom the text speaks, tor- mented by devils, given up to blind rage and malice against himself and all around, to lust and blas- phemy, to confusion of mind and misery of body, God's image gone, and the image of the devil, the destroyer and the corrupter, arisen in its place. Few men can arrive at this pitch of wretchedness in a ci- vilized country. It would not answer the evil spirit's purpose to let them do so. It suits Ms spirits best in such a land as this to walk about dressed up as an- gels of light. Few men in England would be fools enough to indulge the gross and fierce part of their nature till they became mere savages, like the demo- niac whom Christ cured: so it is to respectable vices that the devil mostly tempts us,— to covetousness, to party spirit, to a hard heart and a narrow mind; to cruelty, that shall clothe itself under the name of law; to filthiness, which excuses itself by saying, "It is a man's nature, he cannot help it;" to idleness, which excuses itself on the score of wealth: to meanness and unfairness in trade, and in political and religious disputes— these are the devils which haunt us Eng- lishmen—sleek, prim, respectable fiends enough; and, truly, their name is Legion ! And the man who gives himself up to them, though he may not become a raving savage, is just as truly possessed by devils, to his own misery and ruin, that he may sow the wind and reap the whirlwind ; that though men may speak well of him, and posterity praise his saying, and 10* 110 HELL ON EAKTH. [SERM. speak good of the covetous whom God abhorreth, yet he may go for ever unto his own, to the evil spirits to whom his own wicked will gave him up for a prey. I beseech you, my friends, consider my words ; they are not mine, but the Bible's. Think of them with fear, — and yet with confidence; for we are baptized into the name of Him who conquered all devils ; you may claim a share in that Spirit which is opposite to all evil spirits, — whose presence makes the agony and misery of evil spirits, and drives them out as water drives out fire. If He is on your side why should you be afraid of any spirit? Greater is He that is in you than he that is against you; and He, Christ Himself, is with every man, every child, who struggles, however blindly and weakly, against temptation. When temptation comes, when evil looks pleasant, and arguments rise up in your mind, that seem to make it look right and rea- sonable, as well as pleasant, then, out of the very depths of your hearts, cry after Him who died for you. Say to yourselves, 'How can I do this thing, and offend against Him who bought me with His blood?' Say to him, 'I am weak, I am confused; I do not see right from wrong; I cannot find my way; I cannot answer the devil; I cannot conquer these cunning thoughts ; I know in the bottom of my heart that they are wrong, mere temptations, and yet they look so reasonable. Blessed Saviour, Thou must show me where they are wrong. Thou IX.] HELL ON EARTH. Ill diclst answer the devil Thyself out of God's Word; put into my mind some answer out of God's Word to these temptations ; or, at least, give me spirit to toss them off — strength of will to thrust the whole temptation out of my head, and say, I will parley no longer with the devil ; I will put the whole matter out of my head for a time. I don't know whether it is right or wrong for me to do this particular thing, but there are twenty other things which I do know are right. I'll go and do them, and let this wait awhile.' Believe me, my friends, you can do this — you can resist these evil spirits which tempt us all ; else why did our Lord bid us pray, "Lead us not into temp- tation, but deliver us from evil?" Why? Because our Father in heaven, if we ask Him, will not lead us into temptation, but through it safe. Tempted we must be, else we should not be men ; but here is our comfort and our strength — that we have a King in heaven, who has fought out and conquered all temptations, and a Father in heaven, who has pro- mised that He will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able, but will, with the temptation, make a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it. Again, I say, draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you, SERMON X. NOAH'S JUSTICE. "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God." — Genesis, vi. 9. I intend, my friends, according as God shall help me, to preach to you, between this time and Christmas, a few sermons on some of the saints and worthies of the Old Testament; and I will begin this day with Noah. Now you must bear in mind that the histories of these ancient men were, as St. Paul says, written for our example. If these men in olden times had been different from us, they would not be examples to us; but they were like us — men of like passions, says St. James, as ourselves; they had each of them a corrupt nature, which was continually ready to drag them down, and make beasts of them, and make them slaves to their own lusts — slaves to eat- ing and drinking, and covetousness, and cowardice, and laziness, and love for the things which they SERM. X.] NOAH'S JUSTICE. 113 could see and handle — just such a nature, in short, as we have. And they had also a spirit in each of them which was longing to be free, and strong, and holy, and wise — such a spirit as we have. And to them, just as to us, God was revealing himself; God was saying to their consciences, as He does to ours, "This is right, that is wrong; do this, and be free and clear-hearted; do that, and be dark and discontented, and afraid of thy own thoughts." And they too, like us, had to live by faith, by con- tinual belief that they owed a duty to the great God whom they could not see, by continual belief that He loved them, and was guiding and leading them through, every thing which happened, good or ill. This is faith in God, by which alone we, or any man, can live worthily, — by which these old heroes lived. We read, in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews, that it was by faith these elders obtained a good report; and the whole history of the Old Testa- ment saints is the history of God speaking to the hearts of one man after another, teaching them each more and more about himself, and the history also of these men listening to the voice of God in their hearts, and believing that voice, and acting faithfully upon it, into whatever strange circumstances or deeds it might lead them. "By faith," we read in this same chapter, — "by faith Noah, being warned of God, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." 114 noah's justice. [serm. Now, to understand this last sentence, you must remember that Noah was not under the law of Moses. St. Paul has a whole chapter (the third chapter of Galatians) to show that these old saints had nothing to do with Moses' law any more than we have ; that it was given to the Jews many hun- dred years afterwards. So these histories of the Old Testament saints are, in fact, histories of men who conquered by faith — histories of the power which faith in God has to conquer temptation, and doubt, and false appearances, and fear, and danger, and all which besets us and keeps us down from being free and holy, and children of the day, walk- ing cheerfully forward on our heavenward road in the light of our Father's loving smile. Noah, we read, " was a just man, and perfect in his generations ;" and why ? Because he was a faith- ful man — faithful to God, as it is written, " The just shall live by his faith ;" not by trusting in what he does himself, in his own works or deservings, but trusting in God who made him, believing that God is perfectly righteous, perfectly wise, perfectly loving; and that, because he is perfectly loving, He will accept and save sinful man when He sees in sinful man the earnest wish to be His faithful, obedient servant, and to give himself up to the rule and guidance of God. This, then, was Noah's jus- tice in God's sight, as it was Abraham's. They believed God, and so became heirs of the righteous- x.] noah's justice. 115 ness which is by faith; not their own righteousness, not growing out of their own character, but given them by God, who puts His righteous Spirit into those who trust in Him. But, moreover, we read that Noah "was perfect in his generations;" that is, he was perfect in all the relations and duties of life; — a good son, a good husband, a good father : these were the fruits of his faith. He believed that the unseen God had given him these ties, had given him his parents, his chil- dren, and that to love them was to love God, to do his duty to them was to do his duty to God. This was part of his walking with God, continually under his great Taskmaster's eye — walking about his daily business with the belief that a great loving Father was above him, whatever he did, ready to strengthen, and guide, and bless him if he did well; ready to avenge Himself on him if he did ill. These were the fruits of Noah's faith. But you may think this nothing very wonderful. Many a man in England does this every day, and yet no one ever hears of him; he attends to all his family ties, doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God, like one who knows he is re- deemed by Christ's blood; he lives, he dies, he is buried, and out of his own parish his name is never known; while Noah has earned for himself a world- wide fame; for four thousand years his name has been spreading over the whole earth as one of the 116 noah's justice. [serm. greatest men who ever lived. Mighty nations have worshipped Noah as a God; many heathen nations worship him under strange and confused names and traditions to this day; and the wisest and holiest men among Christians now reverence Noah, write of him, preach on him, thank God for him, look up to him as, next to Abraham, their greatest example in the Old Testament. Well, my friends, to understand what made Noah so great, we must understand in what times Noah lived. "The wickedness of men was great in the earth in those days, and every imagination of the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually, and the earth was filled with violence through them." And we must remember that the wickedness of men before the flood was not outwardly like wickedness now; it was not petty, mean, contemptible wicked- ness of silly and stupid men, such as could be despised and laughed down; it was like the wicked- ness of fallen angels. Men were then strong and beautiful, cunning and active, to a degree of which we can form no conception. Their enormous length of life (six, seven, and eight hundred years com- monly) must have given them an experience and daring far beyond any man in these days. Their bodily size and strength were in many cases enor- mous. We read that " there were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they x.] noah's justice. 117 bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown." Their powers of invention seem to have been proportiona- bl j great. We read, in the fourth chapter of Genesis, how, within a few years after Adam was driven out of Paradise, they had learned to build cities, to tame the wild beasts, and live upon their milk and flesh; that they had invented all sorts of music and musical instruments; that they had discovered the art of working in metals. We read among them of Tubal- Cain, an instructor of every workman in brass and iron ; and the old traditions in the East, where these men dwelt, are full of strange and awful tales of their power. Again, we must remember that there was no law in Noah's days before the flood, no Bible to guide them, no constitutions and acts of parliament to bind men in the beaten track by the awful ma- jesty of law, whether they will or no, as we have. This is the picture which the Bible gives us of the old world before the flood — a world of men mighty in body and mind, fierce and busy, conquer- ing the world round them, in continual war and turmoil; with all the wild passions of youth, and yet all the cunning and experience of enormous old age; with the strength and the courage of young men to carry out the iniquity of old ones; every one guided only by self-will, having cast off God and conscience, and doing every man that which was 11 118 noah's justice. [serm. right in the sight of his own eyes. And amidst all this, while men, as wise, as old, as strong, as great as himself, whirled away round him in this raging sea of sin, Noah was steadfast ; he, at least, knew his way, — "he walked with God, a just man, and perfect in his generations." To Noah, living in such a world as this, among temptation, and violence, and insult, no doubt, there came this command from God : " The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and I will destroy them with the earth. And behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life ; but with thee will I establish my covenant, and thou shalt make thee an ark of wood after the fashion which I tell thee; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy family, and of every living thing, two of every sort, male and female, shalt thou bring into the ark, and keep them alive with thee ; and take thou of all food that is eaten into the ark, for thee and for them." What a message, my friends ! If we wish to see a little of the great- ness of Noah's faith, conceive such a message coming from God to one of us ! Should we believe it — much less act upon it? But Noah believed God, says the Scripture; and "according as God commanded him, so did he." Now, in whatever way this command came from God to Noah, it is equally wonderful. Some of you, perhaps, will say in your hearts, "No! X.] NO All's JUSTICE. 11 •',