LIBRA^RY 
 
 Theological Seminary 
 
 PRINCETON, N.J. 
 
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 Slielf, ^jZ/.^..../ Sectro . 
 
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 A DONATION 
 
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THE 
 
 REIGN OF LAW 
 
 AND OTHER SERMONS 
 
 FKEACHED IN 
 
 Cljt Cljaptl 0f Crinitg Cotlegt, 
 
 DUBLIN. 
 
 GEORGE SALMON, D.D. 
 
 Chancellor of St. Patrick's Cathedral, and Regius Professor of Dn'inity 
 in the University of Ditblin. 
 
 Eontron : 
 
 MAC MILL AN AND CO. 
 
 1873- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON. Pa^^'K. 
 
 I.— The Reign of Law. Gal. vi. 7, 8. . .1 
 
 II. — The Fixing of the Spiritual State. Heb. vi. 1-6. iq 
 
 III. — The Evidential Value of the Eucharistic 
 
 Rite. Matt. xxvi. 26-28. . . -37 
 
 Note on Sermon III.— The Irony of St. John. 54 
 
 IV. — Unsuccessful Prayer. 2 Cor. xii. 9. . .69 
 
 V. — Man's Weakness and Christ's Strength. 
 
 2 Cor. xii. 9. . , . . -85 
 
 VI. — Infant Baptism. Mark xvi. 15, 16. . . loi 
 
 VII. — The Parable of the Tares. Matt. xiii. 28, 29. 121 
 
 VIII. — Securus Judicat Orbis Terrarum, Acts 
 
 xxviii. 22. ..... 141 
 
 TX.— Old Testament Moral Difficulties. Gen, xxv. 
 
 29-34. . . . . . .152 
 
 X.— Obedience. Heb. xiii. 17. ... 177 
 
 XL — The Young Ruler. Matt. xix. 16-22. . . 196- 
 
 XTL— Counsels of Perfection. Luke x. 30-32. . 213 
 
 XIII. — Certainty. Luke i. 4. . . . . 229 
 
 XIV.— Certainty, i Peter iii. 15. . . . 246 
 
 XV.— St. Patrick's Day. i Kings xi. 21, 22. . . 261 
 
 XVI.— Present Salvation. John iii. 36. . . 255 
 
 XVII.— The Work of a Disestablished Church. Heb. 
 
 xiii. 8. . . . . . . ^o^ 
 
PKIITOETOIT A% 
 
 \THSOLOGIGiS.Li 
 
 K._<??>rrr.-. . ..-^ ,^ 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 THE REIGN OF LAW 
 
 "Be not deceived ; God is not mocked : for whatsoever a man 
 soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh 
 shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the Spirit 
 shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." — Galatians vi. 7, 8. 
 
 The progress of scientific discovery has now filled 
 the minds of all thinking men with a sense of the 
 universal prevalence of law. If we ascribe events 
 now to chance, the idea we attach to the word is 
 something very difi'erent from the signification which 
 it bore in former days. In early times, when the 
 links connecting events were unnoticed, and their 
 sequences believed to be arbitrary, what struck men 
 most was, how short a way human prudence could 
 go in directing the course of afiairs. Fortune was 
 then felt to be a divinity — blind, indeed, and capri- 
 cious, and inconstant, but all-powerful. With ma- 
 licious joy, she made it her sport to baffle the calcu- 
 lations of the prudent, and chequer with reverses 
 the triumphs of the successful. At her interference, 
 the most deeply-laid schemes of the wise would end 
 in confusion, while she would lavish on some un- 
 deserving object riches and honours. Yet no sooner 
 
^2x SERMON I. 
 
 had he begun to regard them as his own stable pos- 
 session, than she would snatch them from him, and 
 shift the uncertain honours to another. It was then 
 felt to be a rash and foolish thing in any prosperous 
 man to wound the jealousy of heaven by claiming 
 for himself the merit of his own success, or by 
 daring to say of any of his achievements, that in 
 this fortune had no share. No military skill or civil 
 ability could enable a public man to inspire such 
 confidence in his follow^ers, as if he could seem to 
 be able with truth to proclaim himself the favourite 
 of fortune, and assume to himself without dispute 
 the title of Felix. Yet when the facts came to be 
 soberly looked at, it was seen that life is no such 
 lottery as some in their moments of disappointment 
 might proclaim it to be. It is true that occasionally, 
 carefully sown crops may be blighted by the incle- 
 mency of heaven, and never come to perfection ; 
 yet on the whole, whatsoever a man soweth, that 
 he also reaps. As human prudence wrested province 
 after province from the domain subject to the sway 
 of fortune, it was felt that it had been after all 
 nothing but the blind inconsiderateness of men 
 which had made her a goddess, and enthroned her 
 in the heaven. 
 
 If I were to declare now that nothing takes place 
 by chance, the statement would be assented to in 
 different senses by men of two opposite schools. 
 On the one hand, those events which in common 
 talk men ascribe to chance, would be referred by a 
 deeply religious man to the directing providence of 
 an all-overruling God. Such a man would believe. 
 
THE REIGN OF LAW. 3 
 
 that while he himself is blindly groping his way 
 along the path of life, ignorant whither he is going, 
 and what he is about to meet, his steps are, never- 
 theless, watched and governed by One before whom 
 the whole way lies clear. The very aspect of chance 
 and confusion which life assumes, when seen from 
 our very limited range of vision, only serves to 
 elevate his conceptions of the wisdom of Him who 
 evolves from the whole His great designs. Just as 
 to one inspecting the loom in which some gorgeous 
 tapestry is being wrought, the fact that to his un- 
 instructed gaze all appears a confused medley of 
 cards and threads and shuttles, only increases his 
 admiration for the skill of the contriver who has 
 disposed all, so that a regular pattern shall emerge 
 from the seeming disorder. To one who thus looks 
 on life, the word chance, which implies the absence 
 of all plan and forethought, seems unmeaning, 
 since he regards all as exhibiting forethought and 
 wisdom higher than man's. 
 
 But men of a very different school — men, who 
 either disbelieve in a God, or who set aside the 
 whole enquiry as to God's existence as beyond man's 
 powers, and one on which a well-disciplined intellect 
 would know that it was waste of time to enter — such 
 men, also, would feel that the word chance, if used 
 at all, must be employed in a sense very different 
 from the popular one. Physical science has now 
 reduced to order a multitude of phenomena, once 
 supposed to be ungoverned by law. The wandering 
 stars of heaven are now known to follow no vagrant 
 course, but return to their predicted places as surely 
 
4 SEKMON I. 
 
 as the orb of day himself. It were needless to speak 
 of the triumphs which science has already achieved ; 
 but even those realms which she has not already 
 taken possession of, we regard as her rightful pro- 
 perty. We record the changes of the shifting winds, 
 and note down all the vicissitudes of our incon- 
 stant climate, persuaded that although the key to 
 their irregularities has not yet been completely 
 found, yet that undoubtedly order governs all. Nor 
 do human affairs seem less subject to the operation 
 of law, than the changes of inanimate nature. The 
 casualties of life are now made matter of scientific 
 prediction ; not only those which spring from merely 
 material causes, but those also which arise out of 
 human volitions. • The likelihood that a confidential 
 servant will betray his trust, or that a clerk shall 
 forget to address a letter, can be estimated and pro- 
 vided for as accurately as the probability of the 
 occurrence of a storm or a shipwreck. What have 
 seemed to be the happy accidents of the world's 
 history, are now seen to be less and less under the 
 dominion of chance. Has a brilliant thought flashed 
 on the brain of a man of genius, and led him to 
 some discovery of signal benefit to humanity, ere 
 he has well secured for himself the glory of the 
 discovery, there starts up some competitor to dispute 
 the merit with him; and however the controversy 
 between them may be decided, it becomes apparent 
 that the world had been dependent upon neither. 
 The discovery itself was no matter of chance. It 
 had come because the times were ripe for it, a.nd 
 all that chance had to control was, whether it 
 
THE REIGN OF LAW. 5 
 
 should make its appearance in one place or another. 
 One who is much in the habit of taking notice of 
 facts of this kind, comes to regard every phenomenon 
 that takes place, as a natural and necessary evolution 
 from the precedent conditions, and is as little in- 
 clined to attribute any event to chance, as he would 
 be to say that it is by chance the blossom is succeeded 
 by the fruit. Chance is, with him, but a word to 
 express human ignorance of the laws actually in 
 operation ; but he would insist that those things 
 which take place without design or contrivance of 
 ours, are as much the necessary result of causes 
 producing them, as where known causes have been 
 combined by ourselves for the purpose of accom- 
 plishing certain foreseen results. 
 
 Let us ask, however, is there irreconcilable oppo- 
 sition between the view which sees in all phenomena 
 the operation of law and that which delights to trace 
 in them the working out of the plans of God. 
 Whether we find such opposition or not depends very 
 much on the sources whence we have derived our 
 conceptions of God, The first source of power of 
 which we know anything is our own will ; and accord- 
 ingly in the infancy of the world men ascribed every 
 motion and every change to the operation of some 
 will like our own. The courses of the stars, the 
 running of the streams, the blasts of the winds, they 
 believed to be governed each by some intelligence 
 who made that form of energy his own peculiar care. 
 The actions of their divinities they believed to be 
 directed by completely human motives. Not to speak 
 of those tales which ascribed to the jrods some of the 
 
6 SEEMON I. 
 
 grossest forms of human vice, tliey supposed them to 
 be swayed in their conduct by a craving for the 
 honours paid by men, by jealousy of men's neglect, 
 by envy of human prosperity, or by mere caprice. 
 To men with such conceptions of their deities it cost 
 nothing to believe a miracle. It required little evi- 
 dence to induce them to believe that the Divine 
 power had exerted itself in this way or in that, when 
 they could not find that its interference with human 
 affairs was regulated by any law, or directed by any 
 intelligible plan. But if in early times the tendency 
 was to refer the movements of inanimate nature to 
 the operations of mind, the study of physical science 
 has in our days produced the opposite tendency, and 
 has made men find it difficult to see any other laws 
 in nature than those which regulate the movements 
 of inanimate matter. The relation of human voli- 
 tions to the motives which suggest them, has been 
 held to be precisely the same as that between any 
 physical change and the antecedent conditions of 
 which it is the necessary result. And in systems 
 which thus recognize the existence only of material 
 forces, if any room is left for the recognition of a 
 God at all, He seems to be a mere name to express 
 the universal order rather than a force capable of 
 interfering with the working of known secondary 
 causes. 
 
 Perhaps it will help to illustrate the practical bear- 
 ing of those difierent conceptions of the nature of 
 God, if I remind you of the difierent answers which 
 have been given to the question, " Can God forgive 
 sins, and is He likely to do so ?" In the old heathen 
 
THE REIGN QF LAW. 7 
 
 conceptions of God's cliaracter, no doubt was enter- 
 tained that indulgence for human frailty could be ob- 
 tained, and on easy terms. Their divinities were not 
 conceived as being of such a moral character as to 
 feel any strong indignation against sin ; and if their 
 suppliant were careful to pay due honours to the gods 
 themselves, he could bribe them to connive at sin, 
 and leave unpunished offences unatoned for, unre- 
 pented of, and unreformed. Christianity has done 
 much to elevate men's conceptions of God's moral 
 character, even among those who reject her claims. 
 No difficulty, therefore, is felt by any in admitting 
 that God cannot be reconciled to the hardened and 
 impenitent sinner ; but the whole Christian doctrine 
 of atonement has been assailed, because it seems to 
 represent that there are difficulties which must be 
 removed before God can fitly forgive even a sinner 
 who repents. Nay, it is urged, we ourselves think it 
 unbecoming to retain our anger against one who has 
 expressed his sorrow for the offence towards us of 
 which he may have been guilty : can we suppose that 
 a good and merciful God should be less indulgent 
 than we ourselves should be towards one who has 
 wronged us ? Is it not dishonouring to God to ima- 
 gine that He retains any vindictive feelings which 
 need to be propitiated by atonement and sacrifice ? 
 x\nd must we not, therefore, reject the whole Chris- 
 tian account of the efficacy of Christ's sacrifice, and 
 believe that without any such atonement the way lies 
 always open for the sinner to return to the favour of 
 God ? Such was the form of objection to the Chris- 
 tian doctrine of the forgiveness of sin which was at 
 
8 SERMON I. 
 
 one time urged witli most confidence. But in our 
 time men, whose conceptions of God have been de- 
 rived from a study of the i:)hysical order of the uni- 
 verse, have assailed the Christian scheme, not because 
 it represents that there are difficulties in the way of 
 God's forgiveness of sin, but because it represents the 
 forgiveness of sin as too easy. God, it is said, can 
 no more forgive sin than He can undo the past. 
 " An act of sin " (I quote from one of the ablest 
 champions of modern infidelity*) " ought not to be 
 regarded as an injury done to another party for which 
 atonement and reparation can be made, and satisfac- 
 tion can be given, but rather as a deed which cannot 
 be undone, eternal in its consequences ; an act which 
 once committed is numbered with the irrevocable 
 past. In a word, sin contains its own retributive 
 penalty as surely and as naturally as the acorn con- 
 tains the oak. Its consequence is its punishment : 
 it needs no other, and can have no heavier ; and its 
 consequence is involved in its commission, and can- 
 not . be separated from it. Punishment (let us fix 
 this in our minds) is not the execution of a sentence, 
 but the occurrence of an effect. It is ordained to 
 follow guilt by God, not as a Judge, but as the Creator 
 and Legislator of the universe." " A sin without 
 its punishment is as impossible, as complete a con- 
 tradiction in terms as a cause without efi'ect. To 
 pray that God will forgive our sins, is to ask Him to 
 work a miracle in our behalf : to ask Him to violate 
 the eternal and harmonizing order of the universe 
 
 * Greg's Creed of Christendom, p. 2C5. 
 
THE REIGN OF LAW. 9 
 
 for the comfort of one out of the infinite myriads of 
 its inhabitants." 
 
 " If the foregoing reflections are sound," he adds, 
 *' the awful, yet wholesome conviction presses upon 
 our minds, that there can be no forgiveness of sins, 
 that is, no interference with, or remittance of, or pro- 
 tection from their natural effects ; that God will not 
 interpose between the cause and its consequence ; 
 that whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 
 An awful consideration this ; yet all reflection, all 
 experience, confirm its truth. The sin which has 
 debased our soul may be repented of, may be turned 
 from, but the injury is done : the debasement may 
 be redeemed by after efforts, the stain may be oblite- 
 rated by bitterer struggles and severer sufferings, by 
 faith in God's love and communion with His Spirit. 
 But the efforts and the endurance which might have 
 raised the soul to the Toftiest heights are now ex- 
 hausted in merely regaining what it has lost. There 
 must always be a wide difference (as one of our divines 
 has said) between him who only ceases to do evil, 
 and him who has always done well ; between^ the 
 man who began to serve his God as soon as he knew 
 that he had a God to serve, and the man who only 
 turns to heaven after he has exhausted all the indul- 
 gences of earth." 
 
 " Again, in the case of sin of which you have 
 induced another to partake. You may repent, you 
 may, after agonizing struggles, regain the path of 
 virtue, your spirit may re-achieve its purity through 
 much anguish and after many stripes ; but the weaker 
 fellow-creature whom you led astray, whom you made 
 
10 SEKMON I. 
 
 a sharer in your guilt, but whom you cannot make a 
 sharer in your repentance and amendment, whose 
 downward course (the first step of which you taught) 
 3^ou cannot check, but are compelled to witness, what 
 forgiveness of sins can avail you there? There is 
 your perpetual, your inevitable punishment, which 
 no repentance can alleviate, and no mercy can remit." 
 
 '' This doctrine, that sin can be forgiven, and its 
 consequences averted, has been in all ages a fertile 
 source of mischief. Perhaps few of our intellectual 
 errors have fructified in a vaster harvest of evil, or 
 operated more powerfully to impede the moral pro- 
 gress of our race." 
 
 " Let anyone look back upon his past career — look 
 inward on his daily life — and then say what effect 
 would be produced upon him were the conviction 
 once fixedly imbedded in his soul that everything 
 done is done irrevocably ; that even the omnipotence 
 of God cannot uncommit a deed — cannot make that 
 undone which has been done : that every act of his 
 must bear its allotted fruit, according to the ever- 
 lasting laws — must remain for ever inefi'aceably in- 
 scribed on the tablets of universal nature ; and then 
 let him consider what would have been the result 
 upon the moral condition of our race had all men 
 ever held this conviction." 
 
 I have quoted more fully than I should do if I 
 were merely laying before you an objection to be 
 answered ; but what I have read contains a represen- 
 tation of truth, one-sided indeed, and imperfect, yet 
 truth distinctly taught in Scripture, and in particular 
 in the text. As far as the objections to Christianity 
 
THE EEIGN OF LAW. 11 
 
 are concerned, we may safely allow the objectors to 
 reply to each other. If our religion be accused of 
 falsely representing that there are obstacles in the 
 way of God's pardon of sin, for the removal of which 
 an elaborate scheme of redemption was necessary, 
 we may appeal to the testimony I have quoted in 
 proof of the fact that God has written on the laws 
 of nature that it is, indeed, no easy matter to blot 
 out the stain of sin, and restore the transgi*essor to 
 the place from which he fell. But if the iron and 
 unbending laws of nature be presented in such an 
 aspect as to fill the sinner with despair, we may fitly 
 remember that our first conceptions of God are de- 
 rived not from the contemplation of the inanimate 
 world without, but from our experience of the powers 
 of our own mind and will. It is no unreasonable 
 inference that the judgments, which the Author of 
 our being has so constituted us that we cannot help 
 forming, indicate His own character, and that the 
 feelings of indignation against wrong, hatred of 
 untruth, pity for human sufi'ering, mercy, forgiveness, 
 loving-kindness, which go to make up the character 
 which is universally recognized as that of a good 
 man, are not alien to the character of God Himself, 
 who has taught us so to feel and so to judge. A 
 scheme which wholly leaves out of account all that 
 may be learned as to God's character from the study 
 of our own moral nature condemns itself as imper- 
 fect. 
 
 And though it is true that the Christian doctrine 
 of forgiveness of sin has been at times grossly abused; 
 though men despise the long-sufi'ering of God, and 
 
12 SERMON I. 
 
 wilfully continue in sin, trusting that from His un- 
 wearied mercy pardon can at any time be found ; yet 
 infinitely worse consequences would have followed 
 had no method been provided for the return of the 
 transgressor to the favour of God. If it were taught 
 that each slip we made in treading our course was 
 irrevocable, if our daily accumulating sins were felt 
 to be raising a barrier between us and God, which no 
 strength of ours could surmount, such doctrine would 
 wither up the springs of energy in blank despair. It 
 was by giving hope to the hopeless that the Gospel 
 won its first victories. It sought out the publicans 
 and sinners, whom the contempt of society had 
 deprived of self-respect, and it proclaimed there was 
 hope for them. It gave new life to powers which 
 despair had seared and blighted ; it found its way to 
 hearts frozen up by the scorn of men ; and at its 
 warming touch the seeds of new virtues rapidly blos- 
 somed into fruit. Notwithstanding ihe fears which 
 many have expressed, lest the Gospel proclamation 
 of free forgiveness through the blood of Christ, 
 should lead to licentiousness, it has been found that 
 greater results have been derived from gratitude and 
 love than could ever have been obtained by the dis- 
 cipline of terror. It might be imagined that the 
 proclamation — ' ' Though your sins be as scarlet, they 
 shall be as white as snow ; though they be red like 
 crimson, they shall be as wool," was nothing else 
 than a license to commit wrong-doing with impunity ; 
 yet, in point of fact, we have no reason to think that 
 any efforts which fear might have urged men to make 
 in order to keep their garments in purity, could have 
 
THE EEIGN OF LAW. 13 
 
 enabled them to rival the purity of those who have 
 washed their robes and made them white in the blood 
 of the Lamb. 
 
 The sum, then, of what I have been urging is, 
 that our conceptions of God will be erroneous if we 
 do not base them on a study of all His works. We \ 
 shall go wrong, if immersed in the study of physical \ 
 nature, we conceive of God as a machine ruthlessly 1 
 working on its predestined course, deaf to the cry of 
 human agony, and inaccessible to human entreaty. 
 And we shall go wrong if, not looking beyond our 
 own nature, we conceive of a God altogether such as 
 we are, and attribute to Him human frailty and 
 human caprice. Our conceptions of God must neces- 
 sarily, to a certain extent, be anthropomorphic ; for it is 
 from man that we derive our notions of what is meant 
 by intelligence and design, as well our notions of the 
 moral attributes of justice, goodness, and so forth. 
 But we may purge away all the grosser part of our 
 anthroporhorphism, by not only studying the nature 
 with which God has endowed ourselves, but by study- 
 ing also His other works. We thus learn to exclude 
 from our conceptions of Him all that caprice and in- 
 constancy which so often characterize the actions of 
 man, and to know that there is no inconsistency in 
 tracing in events the working out of the plans of God, 
 while we trace in them also the operation of law. 
 For if it be true that man can only conquer nature 
 by obeying her, it is no less true that the Author of 
 nature Himself obeys the rules which He has prescribed 
 for Himself, and is wont to accomplish His mighty 
 ends without violating any of those laws ^vhich He 
 
14 SERMON I. 
 
 has ordained shall regulate the mutual actions of the 
 creatures which He has made. 
 
 I may say that this was the principal merit of 
 Bishop Butler's great work, that He taught us, in- 
 stead of guessing what, according to our notions, it 
 was likely or fitting that God should do, to study His 
 works, and there learn what in similar cases He had 
 done. Thus new evidence was furnished .for the 
 truth of Revelation, when it was shown that state- 
 ments written in His Word had been long since writ- 
 ten in older characters in the Book of His works. It 
 was show^n thus that much which it had been ima- 
 gined took place by arbitrary appointment resulted 
 naturally from the very constitution that God had 
 given things : that, for example, if there be any 
 future life at all, then, unless a special miracle be 
 wrought to prevent it, the characters formed in us 
 here must remain with us and produce their natural 
 fruit, whether of happiness or misery, throughout 
 eternity. But it cannot be said that the truths to 
 which Butler thus directed attention were neiv truths. 
 So Paul, in the text and elsewhere, appeals to the 
 analogy of nature as exhibiting the rules of God's 
 moral government of the world ; and it is repeatedly 
 tauofht in the New Testament that future rewards 
 will proceed from the operation of laws of which we 
 may have present experience : that the first fruits of 
 the Spirit enjoyed here are the earnest of the inhe- 
 ^ ritance of which we are hereafter to be put in posses- 
 <sion, that " he who believeth on the Son of God hath 
 ^everlasting life ; and that he that believeth not is 
 (condemned already, because he hath not believed in 
 Hhe name of the only begotten Son of God." 
 
THE REIGN OF LAW. 15 
 
 I have not left myself time to make the practical 
 application I had wished to do of the truths we have 
 been considering. If, indeed, I have at all impressed 
 you with the existence of natural laws which regulate 
 the consequences of our actions, and which cannot be 
 changed without a miracle, it will need but few words 
 to convince you who are in the seed-time of life to c 
 take heed now what harvest you prepare for yourselves. 
 Will you leave the fields unsown to be occupied by 
 the weeds which rank and wild spring up in neglected 
 ground, or will you, in the hope of a tardy repent- 
 ance, sow to the flesh, and of the flesh reap corrup- 
 tion ? The repentance you hope for may come. That 
 is not certain, perhaps not probable, but it may 
 come, and God may graciously accept it ; and yet 
 long afterwards the bitter fruits may continue to 
 spring up of the harvest you have sown in your 
 youth ; and when you strive to dedicate to God powers \ 
 which have lost their freshness, you will have to ^ 
 mourn over energies exhausted, imagination polluted < 
 by sin, influence on others impaired, as you find | 
 yourselves unable to win back to the ways of peace j 
 those whom your example had tempted into the down- i 
 ward path of sin. 
 
 It is true, with regard to the things of this life, 
 that what a man soweth that he also reaps. If you 
 have begun to indulge in the dreams of ambition, 
 and covet a high and honourable place among men, 
 whether these dreams will ever be realized will de- 
 pend on the exertions you make now ; for God has 
 ordained that persevering and rightly directed labour 
 seldom fails to gain its appropriate reward. Yet it 
 
16 SERMON I. 
 
 may fail ; for the harvests of this world will occa- 
 sionally, because of unfertile soil or of unfavourable 
 seasons, fail to reward the labour of the husbandman. 
 Or you may obtain the reward you coveted, and find 
 it wither in your grasp. You have sowed to the 
 flesh, and have of the flesh reaped corruption. But 
 if you sow to the Spirit you cannot fail. God's pro- 
 mise is sure. You shall of the Spirit reap life ever- 
 lasting. Your reward is certain ; its work abiding, 
 its heavenly fruit fadeth not away. 
 
 Although I have spoken at some length already, I 
 must not conclude without at least saying a few words 
 in reference to the loss we have just sustained in the 
 removal of one who was officially connected with this 
 College as its Visitor, and who, though not originally 
 a member of our University, stands next after the 
 late Lord Primate in the list of its recent benefactors.* 
 I shall say nothing as to his public character ; it was 
 well known to you all, and perhaps might be more 
 fitly estimated by one whose feelings towards him 
 are more cold than mine. And yet I believe that if I 
 chose to say all I thought of it, I could speak of it 
 with more general assent than might have been ex- 
 pected in the case of one who took so active a part 
 in so many controversies, religious and political. For 
 it was his fortune to outlive many prejudices ; and 
 in his later years there were few who did not do 
 justice not only to his ability, but to his thorough 
 honesty and singleness of purpose. But though 
 
 * My affectionate regard for the memory of Archbishop Whately 
 has induced me to include in this collection of Sermons this one 
 preached on the Sunday after his death. 
 
THE REIGN OF LAW. 17 
 
 many knew how much there was in his character de- 
 serving of admiration, only those who were intimately 
 acquainted with him knew how much there w^as in 
 him to be loved. They have lost in him one of the 
 truest of friends, wdiose confidence, if not lightly given, 
 was not easily shaken, and whose most common error 
 of judgment was over-indulgent estimate of the merits 
 of those whom he loved. And perhaps even they 
 will own that they had not fully known all his claims 
 on their affectionate regard until his tedious and 
 painful illness revealed many a gentler grace, for the 
 display of which there had not been opportunity be- 
 fore. He had not only to endure severe and long- 
 continued pain, he had to submit to what was even a 
 hauler trial than pain, when a mind of no ordinary 
 activity, retaining all its energies, found the body 
 unable to respond to its wishes, and he was reduced 
 to a state of utter helplessness peculiarly trying to 
 one of unusual independence of spirit. Under these 
 trials his friends found him full of constant thoughtful 
 consideration for others, present and absent ; most 
 grateful in acknowledgment of services rendered ; 
 supported by a strong sense of Christian duty that 
 survived his bodily decay ; and with pitying admira- 
 tion they saw^ him exert all his force of character to 
 battle down every inclination to murmur, and to sub- 
 due any expression of petulance or impatience which 
 could add to the sorrow of those who ministered to 
 him. 
 
 I own I take more pleasure in recalling these 
 things now than in speaking of the more public and 
 more prosperous part of his life. From that, indeed, 
 
 c 
 
18 SERMON I. 
 
 I might illustrate the lesson of the text, " That 
 which a man soweth he shall reap." I might show 
 how in this world God's gifts, conscientiously used, 
 do bear their natural fruit int he honours with which 
 men unsolicited will surround one whom they have 
 learned to esteem, and whom they know they can im- 
 plicitly trust ; and how the good opinion of others, 
 despised, and even defied, for the sake of the steady 
 pursuance of what is believed to be the right course 
 can be won though slowly, yet more surely, than if it 
 had been made the direct object of pursuit. But I 
 rather take pleasure in the thought that the seed 
 which he sowed was not for that corruptible harvest 
 which can be reaped on earth. The time came to 
 him when pain and sickness level alike the artificial 
 distinctions which external rank, and the natural 
 distinctions which high intellectual gifts place be- 
 tween one man and another. Happy for him then 
 that it was not here he had sought his portion, and 
 that the Saviour, in whose merits alone he trusted, 
 and whose example he had sought to imitate, was 
 with him in his sickness, giving him strength to bear 
 the burden which He laid on him, and in the afilic- 
 tions of his later days ripening those graces which it 
 is His bounty to reward with never-dying fruit. 
 
SERMON II. 
 
 THE FIXING OF THE SPIRITUAL STATE. 
 
 "Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let 
 us go on unto perfection ; not laying again the foundation of repen- 
 tance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of 
 baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the 
 dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God 
 permit. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, 
 and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of 
 the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the 
 powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them 
 again unto repentance ; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son 
 of God afresh, and put him to an open shame," — Hebrews vi, i-6. 
 
 The verses I have read are commonly reckoned among 
 the difficulties of Scripture ; the difficulty, however, 
 being, not that it seems hard to find the doctrine, 
 which, taken singly, the text appears to teach, but 
 that it seems hard to accept that doctrine, and to 
 reconcile it wdth the rest of Scripture. There are so 
 many passages of the Bible which speak of God's 
 willingness to forgive sin, and of His readiness to 
 welcome back the returning prodigal, that we are 
 startled when we meet with a verse which seems to 
 declare that there are some against whom the door of 
 mercy is closed ; some in whose case repentance and 
 forgiveness is impossible. Again, there are passages 
 which speak of the well-grounded confidence which a 
 
20 SERMON II. 
 
 Christian may entertain, that He who has begun a 
 good work in him will perform it until the day of 
 Jesus Christ ; and hence many have found it difficult 
 to understand how apostacy and final falling away 
 could have been possible in the case of persons whose 
 spiritual condition could be described in the language 
 of the 4th and 5th verses, where we read of them as 
 having been once enlightened, as having tasted of the 
 heavenly gift, having been made partakers of the 
 Holy Ghost, having tasted the good word of God, 
 and the powers of the world to come, and yet, as 
 falling away beyond recovery. In early times the 
 difficulty of these verses was felt ; and some have 
 supposed that the teaching of this part of the Epistle 
 was the cause that its apostolic authority was for a 
 considerable time not acknowledged in the Western 
 Church. It would be gross exaggeration wholly to 
 account in this way for the doubts of which I speak, 
 and which certainly arose from dissatisfaction rather 
 with the external evidence then accessible for the 
 authorship of the Epistle, than with its doctrinal 
 teaching. And yet we cannot help thinking that 
 fears as to the injurious tendency of this part of the 
 Epistle may have prolonged the period of hesitation 
 as to its authority, and made Christians less willing 
 to accept the external evidence offered to them. For 
 it is certain that the doubts lasted longest in the 
 place where the controversy on which these verses 
 bear, raged most warmly. 
 
 In our day the questions raised by the verses I have 
 read, may be said in comparison to belong to the 
 department of theoretic and speculative theology ; but 
 
THE FIXING OF THE SPIRITUAL STATE. 21 
 
 in early times they involved some important practical 
 points, on which it was necessary that the rulers of 
 the Church should come to an immediate decision. 
 It may appear strange to us, that a religion of such 
 pure morality as ours should ever have seemed to 
 any immoral in its tendency ; and yet it is certain 
 that many, of decorous and virtuous lives, were 
 shocked at the freedom of the Gospel promises of 
 pardon of sins, and at the welcome it gave even to 
 notorious sinners on their jn'ofession of repentance. 
 You remember how, in our Lord's life-time, the 
 Pharisees, those careful and precise observers of the 
 law, were scandalized at seeing Jesus surrounded by 
 publicans and sinners. Gentile unbelievers learned 
 to bring the same accusation against the Church 
 which He founded, and charged her with encouraging 
 men guilty of the grossest crimes, to think they had 
 nothing to do but to come to her to be forgiven. 
 Thus, for example, it was whispered that the attrac- 
 tion which Christianity presented to the first Christian 
 emperor w^as, that it promised him absolution for 
 crimes which pagan morality was too stern to pardon. 
 And it was true that to souls weighed down by the 
 consciousness of guilt, the preachers of the Gospel 
 did offer release from the pressure of unforgiven sin. 
 Though your sins be as scarlet, they proclaimed, they 
 shall be white as snow. They permitted their con- 
 verts to cast oblivion on that part of their life which 
 had gone by before they had passed through the 
 waters of baptism. In times past they might have 
 been fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, thieves, cove- 
 tous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners ; but now they 
 
22 SERMON II. 
 
 had been washed, had been sanctified, had been justi- 
 fied, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the 
 Spirit of our God. But no immoral consequences 
 resulted from the blotting out of those dark memories 
 of the past. On the contrary, an obstacle was removed 
 which had kept the soul from approaching to God ; 
 the sense of His full and free forgiveness, obtained 
 by the precious blood of His Son, filled the heart 
 with love and gratitude to Him. And nothing can 
 secure, not merely purity of outward conduct, but 
 purity of heart, so well as that love of God, founded 
 on a sense of His unmerited mercy, which brings 
 the soul to feel pleasure in habitual thought of the 
 presence of Him who is of infinite purity. 
 
 But the problem, how to deal with sinners who 
 professed repentance, soon presented itself in a new 
 form. The reformation worked in the character of 
 the Christian converts was not in every case perma- 
 nent. Some, who had escaped the pollutions of the 
 world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, were again entangled therein and over- 
 come. Some, with more or less excuse from terror 
 of persecution, denied the faith, and blasphemed the 
 worthy name by which they had been called. What 
 Avas to be done with those who had been tried and 
 had been found wanting, when they came soliciting a 
 second trial ? The vices of their heathen life had 
 been forgiven ; they had been trusted, and welcomed 
 as born anew in Christ ; and if, after this, those pro- 
 fessed servants of Christ broke out again into their 
 heathen vices, was there any ground to hope that a 
 new forgiveness would not be followed by a new 
 
THE FIXING OF THE SPIRITUAL STATE. 23 
 
 relapse ? We may bring the matter home to our- 
 selves by an illustration drawn from our own times. 
 It is not uncommon now to hear of public advocates 
 of temperance freely owning that in early life they 
 had themselves been under the dominion of the vice 
 which they exhort others to forsake ; or to hear of 
 men engaged in publicly exhorting others to con- 
 version, who do not scruple to acknowledge that, pre- 
 vious to their own conversion, they had been sunk in 
 ungodliness and utter profligacy. And these con- 
 fessions are not found to impair the effectiveness of 
 their preaching. But suppose, after a time, the 
 preacher to relapse into the vices from which he 
 boasts that he had escaped, what a scandal such a 
 fall would be, and how could he expect that any sub- 
 sequent repentance would enable him to be tried and 
 trusted again. Now, when the Grospel was first pub- 
 lished, every Christian was a preacher of righteous- 
 ness, and the apostacy or relapse into profligacy of a 
 private Christian was a scandal to the whole com- 
 munity, such as would be caused among ourselves 
 by the gross sin of a clergyman, or of some one else 
 who is counted to have publicly pledged himself to 
 more than ordinary holiness. There is no difficulty, 
 then, in understanding the strong feeling entertained 
 by many Christians against the re-admission of the 
 lapsed, at least not until after long probation, and 
 on such terms that their sin should be always held in 
 remembrance, and never seem to have obtained com- 
 plete forgiveness. And yet eventually a more merciful 
 view prevailed in the Church. It may have chanced 
 that some who had been stern to their fallen brethren, 
 
24 SERMON II. 
 
 by their own subsequent fall taught others the full 
 meaning of the Apostle's admonition, " If a man be 
 overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore 
 such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering 
 thyself, lest thou also be tempted." And it was 
 found that not only in the case of sins committed 
 in the period of heathen darkness, but also in the 
 case of sins far less excusable, because committed 
 against clearer light and knowledge, (deadly sins 
 wilfully committed after baptism,) it would be wrong 
 to deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly 
 repent. Nay, as in the parable of the two debtors, 
 the recollection how much had been forgiven was 
 a force constantly urging the pardoned sinner to love 
 his merciful Saviour more. Those, then, who had 
 learned by experience the mischievous effects of such 
 excessive rigour as might drive the sinner to despair, 
 were naturally cautious in admitting the apostolic 
 authority of a writing apparently favourable to the 
 more rigorous view. And when the authority of this 
 Epistle came to be generally owned, an interpretation 
 of the text found favour which seemed to lead to no 
 dangerous consequences. The Apostle, it was said, 
 did not mean to deny to the fallen the possibility of 
 repentance ; what he meant to declare was that there 
 was no possibility of a second baptism. It was not 
 possible to renew them, or to make them new, by 
 crucifying for them the Son of God afresh ; words, it 
 was urged, which pointed to baptism, wherein the 
 disciple became a new creature, and wherein, as we 
 learn also from other parts of Scripture, the death 
 and burial and resurrection of our Lord are repre- 
 
THE FIXING OF THE SPIRITUAL STATE. 25 
 
 sented, the convert dying unto sin, crucifying the 
 lusts of his earthly memhers, buried with his Lord 
 in baptism, and rising again to walk in newness of 
 life. 
 
 If this interpretation appear strained to you, we may 
 ask ourselves whether we ourselves always resist the 
 temptation of allowing our interpretations of Scrip- 
 ture to be warped by the exigencies of the contro- 
 versies of our own days ; whether we do not at times 
 turn aside from the obvious meaning of a passage of 
 Scripture, lest it should extort from us a concession 
 of which opponents of ours may make a dangerous 
 use. The remembrance how completely our text has 
 outlived one at least of the controversies on which it 
 seems most directly to bear may remind us that the 
 Bible is a book for all time, whose meaning must not 
 be narrowed down to what we may fancy the require- 
 ments of our own day. In striving, then, to draw 
 for our own instruction some of the lessons contained 
 in the verses I have read, I think it safest avoiding 
 all controversial minuteness, to try to fix your minds 
 on some of the great truths which seem clearly 
 taught in the text. And in the first place, if we are 
 to interpret the writer's words according to their 
 natural meaning, he seems plainly to declare that 
 there are some in this world wdiose spiritual con- 
 dition may be pronounced hopeless. We are accus- 
 tomed to think of this life as a scene of constant 
 change — change often modifying the judgments we 
 have formed of the characters of other men, who in 
 some cases disappoint the hopes we have entertained 
 of them ; in others, unexpectedly return to the right 
 
26 SERMON II. 
 
 way after we had feared that they had wandered from 
 it beyond recovery. But we think of death as fixing 
 a man's condition ; after that there can be no repent- 
 ance ; where the tree has fallen there it must be. But 
 we are here taught that it is not in what we call death 
 that this fixity of condition always first takes place. A 
 soul may appear to men to live, and yet in God's 
 sight have assumed* the stiffness and rigidity of a 
 corpse, its capabilities of spiritual life lost irrecover- 
 ably, save by miracle. This conclusion does not rest on 
 the text merely : there is another well-known j)assage 
 in the tenth chapter of this same Epistle: " If we 
 sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge 
 of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for 
 sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment 
 and fiery indignation which shall devour the adver- 
 saries." And these verses, which speak of the im- 
 possibility of repentance under certain circumstances, 
 connect themselves naturally in our minds with our 
 Lord's awful warning against that sin against the 
 Holy Ghost, which hath never forgiveness, neither in 
 this world nor in that which is to come. The very 
 unlikeness of these warnings to the general tenor of 
 the New Testament is a reason, not for rejecting or 
 turning away our thoughts from them, but for giving 
 them more earnest attention. The whole Gospel is 
 a message of forgiveness, free and unmerited. Its 
 invitations are without restriction or limitation. The 
 blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are told, cleanseth 
 from all sin. The voice of threatening, then, from 
 its very rarity, strikes on our ears with awful signifi- 
 cance. Our attention is arrested when we hear the 
 
THE FIXING OF THE SPIRITUAL STATE. 27 
 
 All-merciful declare that there are bounds to His 
 mercy, when He who is all-powerful to redeem tells 
 us of a depth of sin from which there is no return. 
 We should find it hard to believe this, if told us on 
 le^s weighty authority. Yet now that it has been 
 revealed to us as true, we find on reflection other 
 truths with which it harmonizes. 
 
 We are familiar with the operation of the laws of 
 habit. We know how virtuous exertions once only 
 made at the cost of much self-denial, when daily 
 repeated, require less and less efi'ort, and at last be- 
 come so natural, that it would be a pain to abandon 
 them. We know how temptations once deemed 
 formidable, if manfully resisted, lose their power to 
 entice ; and how thus the ways of holiness become 
 more easy and more pleasant the longer they are 
 walked in. And, on the other hand, we know how 
 progress in the downward path of sin becomes with 
 each step accelerated ; how habit winds closer and 
 tighter the chains of sin round its votaries ; how he 
 who had but intended lightly to taste of sinful plea- 
 sures, intoxicated by the draught, loses power to put 
 away the cup from his lips. We may daily see the 
 process of fixing men's spiritual state going on before 
 our eyes. We may see the lines of their characters 
 deepening and hardening ; carelessness as to the 
 things of God settling into fixed indifference, and 
 proceeding to contempt and rooted aversion. Now, 
 reason and Scripture lead us to think that death 
 makes no abrupt change in man's state. Eather are 
 our future lives only the development of the fruits 
 of the character formed during our probation time on 
 
28 SERMON II. 
 
 earth. The life or death of the soul, which is to last 
 for ever, begins in this world. " He that believeth 
 on the Son hath everlasting life ; he that believeth 
 not is condemned already." It is quite credible, 
 then, that the process of which I speak may go on 
 so far that the lines of men's characters may have 
 been deepened and hardened, so as to become, 
 humanly -speaking, unalterable. On the one hand, 
 we may believe that saints may so grow in grace as 
 to enjoy on earth the safety of heaven. They may 
 not dare to count themselves to have already attained 
 the mark they aim at, or to be already perfect ; yet 
 in God's sight they may stand firm, beyond all dan- 
 ger of fall or slip. And on the other hand, men's 
 hearts may have been so hardened by the deceitful- 
 ness of sin, that recovery shall have become impos- 
 sible for them. Observe the nature of the impossibility 
 of which I speak. The text does not declare that 
 certain sinners, though truly penitent, and mourning 
 their offences, shall be unable to find pardon or 
 atonement for them ; the impossibility of which it 
 speaks is an impossibility of renewing them to re- 
 pentance. If they remain condemned, it is because 
 they do not repent ; and, as I was saying, there is 
 nothing which need seem to us incredible in the 
 statement that \ inner s may be so hardened in 
 their sin that their repentance shall have become, 
 humanly speaking, impossible. We should griev- 
 ously err if we ventured to pronounce of any sinner 
 that he is beyond the grace of God. He himself 
 would grievously err if he were to despair. Nay, 
 however grievously sunk in sin, as long as he can 
 
THE FIXING OF THE SPIRITUAL STATE. 29 
 
 mourn his fall, and hate himself for his departure 
 from God, and sigh after restoration, we have evi- 
 dence that the seeds of repentance are not yet extinct 
 in his soul. But yet it may be that a man of whom 
 God's ministers dare not despair, to whom they are 
 bound to address their word of exhortation, whether 
 he will hear, or whether he will forbear, may, in 
 truth, have so stopped his ears as to be inaccessible 
 to their warnings ; and the stroke of death may not 
 make him, but find him, insensible to the things of 
 God. 
 
 Thus, I think, we have seen that the doctrine con- 
 tained in the solemn warning of the text harmonizes 
 with what we may infer elsewhere from Scripture. 
 And if we now examine a little more closely into the 
 text, and enquire in what circumstances arises the 
 danger of falling into the hopeless condition it de- 
 scribes, the answer also seems plain, that it tells us 
 that the condition of any is more desperate in pro- 
 portion to the greatness of the privileges he has 
 abused, and to the riches of the mercy he has trod- 
 den under foot. Here, too, we are in sight of the 
 general law of God's dealings, that privileges involve 
 responsibility ; that from him to whom much is 
 given, much will be required. Far more hopeless is 
 the condition of the baptized Christian who despises 
 the invitation of the Gospel, than that of the heathen 
 w^ho has never heard the name of Christ. The suf- 
 ferer under some painful disease may cherish hope 
 that when his case has been laid before a skilful 
 physician, a remedy will be found which will restore 
 him to health ; but when all the most skilful physi- 
 
30 SERMON II. 
 
 cians have tried their remedies on him in vain, then, 
 indeed, his state may be pronounced desperate. And 
 so there is hope of the idolaters of some distant isle, 
 that when at length the Gospel sound shall have 
 reached them, they will cast their idols to the moles 
 and to the bats. But if you, who have heard times 
 without number the tidings of the infinite love of 
 God through Christ, hear the wondrous tale un- 
 moved ; the preacher has no message to bring you 
 but that which has been delivered to you already. 
 " For those who despise that sacrifice, there remaineth 
 no more sacrifice for sin." The spotless Lamb of 
 God has been offered once for all ; no new victim can 
 be slain for those who reject Him, nor can He be 
 crucified again for those who disdain the offering He 
 has already made. 
 
 But if the condition of the impenitent baptized 
 Christian is worse than that of the heathen, there is 
 a further gradation. The condition of the careless 
 sinner who has scarcely ever attended to the Gospel 
 message, and in whose ears the preacher's warnings 
 have sounded but as empty words which convey no 
 meaning, is less hopeless than that of him who has 
 heard, and heard with pleasure, whose emotions have 
 been stirred up, and have subsided again without 
 ever fastening on the active principles of his nature 
 and setting them in motion. It may happen, and 
 often does happen, to the one, that he one day sud- 
 denly catches the meaning of words which had often 
 sounded in his ears without exciting any ideas : that 
 the message often heard but never understood before 
 strikes him with all the force of novelty, awaking 
 
THE FIXING OF THE SPIRITUAL STATE. 31 
 
 new emotions, and touching on new springs of action. 
 But in the case of one who has not only heard all 
 that the Gospel announces, but listened to it, allowed 
 his imagination to dwell on it, and his sensibilities 
 to be excited by it, and yet whose emotions have died 
 away without ever becoming practical principles of 
 action, it is harder far to expect a new awakening of 
 heart. His capabilities of religious emotion have 
 been exhausted : the truths that once had power to 
 stir the liveliest feelings move him but languidly 
 now ; and what fruit can we expect in future from 
 appeals and arguments long familiar and long inef- 
 fectual ? 
 
 The connection of the 5th and 6th verses with the 
 beginning of the chapter, may give us a practical 
 lesson as to one of the causes why what seems a 
 promising beginning of the spiritual life is sometimes 
 cut short without leading to any permanent result. 
 To a hasty reader it might seem, when the Apostle 
 declares his intention of not laying again the founda- 
 tion of repentance from dead works and faith towards 
 God, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal 
 judgment, as if he were speaking slightingly of the 
 most fundamental doctrines of the Gospel. But the 
 writer's object in speaking of these fundamental doc- 
 trines, plainly is to urge the danger of laying a good 
 foundation, and building nothing on it. And a mis- 
 take of an analogous kind seems to me to be commit- 
 ted by those who fix their thoughts too exclusively on 
 the first step in the spiritual life — who care to ask 
 themselves no other question than. Have I been 
 converted ? — Have I been born again ? and who, if 
 
32 SERMON II. 
 
 tliey can answer Yes, think the Christian minister 
 has no message to them, hut are willing to hear him 
 exhort others to strive to gain the same privilege. 
 The truth is, a foundation is important, because a 
 building is to be reared upon it. We rejoice at a 
 birth because it is the beginning of a life ; and the 
 birth of a Christian soul is the beginning of a life of 
 daily growth under the influence of God's Holy Spirit, 
 till he attain to the stature of a perfect man in Christ. 
 To remain in thought and wish always at the first 
 point of the spiritual life, is, in other words, to be 
 without growth in grace, that is to say, to be without 
 any true life at all. And the Apostle would warn us 
 that if the spiritual life of a man be stationary, always 
 remaining at the point where it commenced, the 
 attainments he has made, instead of being a ground 
 of confidence to him, should fill him with wholesome 
 fear, lest if, in spite of all these, his soul be in an 
 unprogressive dead condition, it should only be the 
 more difficult to renew it again to repentance. 
 
 I have spoken of what seem to be the most pro- 
 minent truths taught in the text, but I have no wish 
 to evade the question. Does the Apostle here speak of 
 a fall from grace as possible ? And I do not know 
 whether the controversies on this subject, as far at 
 least as they can proceed within the limits of our 
 Church's teaching, are not theoretical, and perhaps 
 verbal rather than practical. It is agreed by all that 
 we learn from this passage that there are workings 
 of God's Spirit upon the hearts of men who are not 
 finally saved. Thus Calvin, in his commentary on 
 this passage, while maintaining that the elect are 
 
THE FIXING OF THE SPIRITUAL STATE. 33 
 
 without danger of fatal loss, yet savs that this hinders 
 him not from owning that God sprinkles on the re- 
 probate also some taste of His grace, irradiates their 
 minds with some sparks of His light, affects them 
 with some sense of His goodness, and in some way 
 writes His Word in their souls. And he quotes the 
 parable of the sower as proving that there may be in 
 the reprobate some temporary faith and knowledge, 
 which, however, fail because the roots are not so 
 deep as they ought to be, or because the seed sown 
 is choked by the thorns of worldly cares and pleasures. 
 So, again, the framers of the Lambeth Articles 
 deliberately rejected the statement that grace fails 
 not in those to whom it has been once given ; and 
 adopted the very different one, that it fails not in the 
 elect ; in other words, admitting, and intending to 
 admit, that to those not elect there may have been 
 given a certain grace which does not bring forth fruit 
 to perfection. As long, therefore, as both parties 
 hold to the doctrine of the 17th Article, that the 
 decrees of God's election are secret to us, the question 
 whether or not grace may fail in the elect, is less o 
 a practical one than might have been supposed. A 
 man may hear the Word gladly, and do many things 
 because of it, and give what seem to be evidences of 
 the work of God's grace in his heart, yet we cannot 
 predict with absolute certainty that he must abide to 
 the end. Only if he fall away we conclude that he 
 was not one of the elect. The result, then, if stated 
 as a theoretical dogma, seems to be — a fall from a 
 certain kind of grace is possible ; but it is impos- 
 sible finally to fall away from that particular kind 
 
34 SERMON II. 
 
 of grace from which final fall is impossible. And 
 the result will prove which kind of grace any man 
 has received. 
 
 Some Avill feel that the explanation I have given con- 
 verts into a barren truism a doctrine which had been a 
 source of precious comfort to their souls. A Christian 
 conscious of much frailty, of frequent coldness of heart, 
 of repeated wanderings from his Father's ways, and 
 full, therefore, of distrust in himself, finds comfort 
 in meditating on the unchanging love of God, which 
 sought him while yet a stranger, inspired in him 
 every good thought he can find in himself, and as it 
 took its origin in no worthiness of his, so he believes 
 it will not forsake him, notwithstanding his stumbles 
 on the heavenly road, but will abide with him to the 
 end. But they who feel thus have already some of 
 the evidences of election of which the article speaks : 
 in the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the 
 works of the flesh and their earthly members, and 
 drawing up their minds to heavenly things. The 
 doctrine of the indefectibility of grace may be a most 
 mischievous one, as held by one full of the spirit of 
 slavish fear, dreading future punishment, and anxious 
 for some infallible sign which will enable him to dis- 
 miss all apprehension of judgment to come. As the 
 manna of old, when laid by for the morrow, bred 
 worms and stank, so the promises which Christ has 
 given for the daily sustenance of His people are abused, 
 if it is attempted to. support present life on the food 
 of a former day. A man will trust to a delusion if, 
 though not living the life with Christ now, he flatters 
 himself that he must be safe, because he is sure he 
 
THE FIXING OF THE SPIRITUAL STATE. 35 
 
 was Christ's formerly. But to a soul that loves God, 
 and grieves that it loves Him so imperfectly, and 
 dreading nothing so much as to lose His love, dis- 
 trusts its own strength, and fears lest it may break 
 away — to such a soul it can do nothing but good to 
 remember that it is not in its own strength it stands ; 
 the Eternal Grod is its refuge, and underneath are the 
 everlasting arms. The doctrine that man's eternal 
 state may be fixed on earth has not only its awful 
 side, it has an aspect full of comfort. The character 
 that is to abide in heaven, may be fully formed in the 
 discipline of earth, and the white robes of the re- 
 deemed worn by men clad in mortal bodies. And 
 every proof of the triumph of God's grace in their 
 souls gives them confidence to say, " Thou, Lord, 
 will perfect that which concerneth me. Thy mercy, 
 O Lord, endureth for ever. Forsake not, then, the 
 work of Thine Own hands." 
 
 I know not whether the precept, " Take no thought 
 for the morrow," has not a spiritual application. We 
 know that in temporal matters our Lord did not mean 
 to forbid forethought and use of means to provide for 
 the future. But if any disquiet himself with the 
 apprehension, I have food and raiment now, shall I 
 always have them ? our Lord would hush all such dis- 
 tracting anxiety with the thought, " Your Heavenly 
 Father knoweth that you have need of these things 
 before ye ask Him." And so I know not whether if 
 any raise the question, I love God now, but shall I 
 always love Him? the very starting of the question 
 does not imply lack of faith. If you love God, can 
 you not trust Him — trust Him not only for the present, 
 
36 SERMON II. 
 
 but for the future. Believe assuredly that when you 
 ask for grace to love Him better, and for strength to 
 continue in His love, you ask only what it is His 
 delight to grant. Such a petition He is more ready 
 to grant than you to put forth. 
 
 As in temporal matters so in spiritual, the knowledge 
 of G-od's love is not intended to release us from the 
 use of means or from the need of vigilance. In 
 spiritual matters as in temporal, God would have 
 us under a constant sense of our dependence on 
 Him, and wishes us to put forth petitions for our 
 daily food. But if ever you are a prey to self- 
 torturing anxieties, rebuke them away with the thought 
 that if you love God at all it is because He first loved 
 you with an infinite love. In spiritual matters, even 
 more than in temporal, He knoweth what you have 
 need of before you ask ; and if no earthly parent 
 refuses to his child the bread which he asks, so He 
 who loves your souls with a love beyond that of the 
 most affectionate earthly father, will neither now nor 
 at any future time deny His Holy Spirit to you that 
 ask him. 
 
SERMON III 
 
 THE EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF THE 
 EUCHARISTIC RITE. 
 
 " And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and 
 brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat ; this is 
 my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to 
 them, saying, Drink ye all of it : for this is my blood of the New 
 Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." — 
 Matthew xxvi. 26-28. 
 
 I DO not know whether it is necessary to offer any 
 explanation of the fact, that of the Gospel history, 
 about one-third part is occupied with the account of 
 the sayings and events of the last week of the 
 Saviour's life on earth. To say nothing of the in- 
 trinsic importance of those deeds and words, we feel 
 how natural it is that the thoughts of any, from whom 
 has been taken one w4iom they loved and valued, 
 should dwell on the memory of all that he said or 
 did immediately before he .was j^arted from them. 
 Parting words live long in the memory ; a dying 
 charge has a peculiar sacredness. There were, then, 
 no words of Christ which it was so impossible for any 
 who heard them ever to forget, as those in which, 
 when about to be separated from His disciples, He 
 
38 SERMON III. 
 
 a2:)pealed to their love, and taught them how it was 
 His wish that they should keep Him in memory after 
 He was gone. And for all who love Him, no words, 
 it might be supposed, are more suggestive of matter 
 for solemn and peaceful meditation. Yet it has come 
 to pass now that with us these words are suggestive 
 of strife ; and I doubt not that many of you, as soon 
 as you heard my text, prepared yourselves to expect a 
 sermon occupied with controversy. The subject is 
 certainly one on which it has now become impossible 
 to escape controversy ; and elsewhere it is my duty 
 this term to enter into a full discussion of it ; but, 
 at present, I intend to speak only of those things, 
 the truth of which we all agree in admitting; and 
 though my treatment of the text will be controversial, 
 the controversy will be directed against those who are 
 without. I wish, in short, to dwell on the bearings 
 on Christian evidences of the history recorded in the 
 text. 
 
 On the revival of learning and the birth of modern 
 critical science, it was discovered that many docu- 
 ments, handed down from previous generations, and 
 which had met from them with unenquiring accept- 
 ance, were unworthy of the reverence which they 
 had received. At first this process of rejection went 
 on but slowly. It seemed presumptuous to question 
 what men in former days, entitled to honour for their 
 learning, had with one consent admitted. Assaults 
 were only made on those works which were least 
 strongly guarded by presci'iptive reverence ; and even 
 with respect to these the battle was, for a considerable 
 time, stoutly contested. But one victory after another 
 
EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF THE EUCHAETST. 39 
 
 emboldened the assailants. At length nothing was 
 too sacred for attack; the records of our faith have 
 been subjected to the severest scrutiny, and, often on 
 grounds which scarcely warranted a suspicion, sen- 
 tence of absolute condemnation has been pronounced. 
 There are symptoms now that the era of merely de- 
 structive criticism is passing away. The adversaries 
 of Christianity do not content themselves now with 
 scofts and objections against the faith which we pro- 
 fess ; they acknowledge the necessity of substituting 
 something of their own ; they own themselves bound 
 to answer the question, what they think of Christ ? 
 what facts must they admit as certainly proved con- 
 cerninsf that real human life on earth, which undoubt- 
 edly has had such abiding influence on the history of 
 our whole race ? For writing the history of this life 
 we have scarcely any materials, but those Gospel 
 narratives which some of the historians, to whom I 
 refer, treat with such scant respect ; and it is, there- 
 fore, well that we should fully use the few oppor- 
 tunities we have of testing the truth of these narratives 
 by independent evidence. One of these opportunities 
 is afforded in that history which I have taken for my 
 subject to-day, that of the Institution of the Christian 
 Sacred Feast — a history which could be established 
 by satisfactory proof, even if none of the four Gospels 
 had reached us. As far as we can trace back the 
 history of our religion, this solemn feast was an 
 essential part of Christian worship. In early times, 
 indeed, there was some reserve as to stating publicly 
 in the presence of the heathen what the Church 
 believed as to the food which they there received. 
 
40 SERMON III. ■ 
 
 " That which the faithful know," was the common 
 phrase when speaking in the presence of the unin- 
 itiated. Yet the veil thus used was so transparent, 
 and those who employ it at one moment, lay it aside 
 so carelessly at another, that their reserve appears to 
 be rather that of reverence than of mystery. Cer- 
 tainly Christians of the very earliest times made no 
 affectation of concealment. In the second century 
 Justin Martyr, in his Apology addressed to heathen, 
 gives a full description of the mode in which the 
 rite was then administered ; and goes on to declare 
 that Christians had been taught that the food over 
 which thanksgiving has been made is the Flesh and 
 Blood of the Incarnate Jesus. " For the Apostles in 
 their memoirs, which are called Grospels, have deli- 
 vered that Jesus so commanded them, that He having 
 taken bread and given thanks, said, ' Do this in remem- 
 brance of me. This is my body ;' and likewise, hav- 
 ing taken the cup and given thanks. He said, ' This is 
 my blood.'" 
 
 The account just cited is professedly founded on thp 
 Gospel History. But we can go back a century earlier 
 for decisive testimony as to the belief of the first gene- 
 ration of Christians ; namely, to the account given by 
 St. Paul in the first Epistle to the Corinthians — an 
 epistle, the genuineness of which is not contested by 
 the most sceptical of critics. St. Paul says, "I have 
 received of the Lord that which I also delivere(,l to 
 you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which 
 He was betrayed, took bread ; and when He had given 
 thanks. He brake it and said. Take, eat ; this is my 
 body which is broken for you : this do in remem- 
 
EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF THE EUCHARIST. 41 
 
 braiice of me. After the same manner also He took 
 the cup, when He had supped, saying. This cup is 
 the new testament in my blood ; this do ye as oft as 
 ye drink it in remembrance of me." This account is 
 in verbal agreement with that given by St. Luke in 
 his Gospel ; but there is no reason to think that the 
 one was copied from the other. On comparing the 
 history of the appearances of our Lord after His 
 resurrection, given in the fifteenth chapter of the first 
 Epistle to the Corinthians, with that given in the 
 Gospel, we have every reason for believing in the 
 independence of the two accounts. In particular, if 
 St. Luke, when writing the Gospel, had before him 
 the Epistle to the Corinthians, it seems unlikely that 
 he would not have told us something more about the 
 appearance to St. James, or about that to the five 
 hundred brethren at once. It is the more remarkable, 
 then, that St. Luke's account of the institution of the 
 Eucharist should be in close verbal agreement with 
 that of St. Paul, though not so with those of Matthew 
 and Mark. Yet the matter receives a very simple 
 explanation, if we only suppose a liturgical usage to 
 be apostolic which we can otherwise trace back very 
 close to apostolic times, namely, that of reciting the 
 history of our Lord's institution of the rite at the 
 time of consecration. For if this were so, St. Lu':e, 
 who must have been so often present when St. Piiul 
 celebrated this memorial of his Lord, must have re- 
 peatedly heard these words recited by St. Paul, and 
 therefore might be expected to record them in his 
 Gospel in the form in which Paul had delivered tliem 
 unto him. On the whole, then, there is absolute 
 
42 SEEMON III. 
 
 historical proof that at the time when the majority 
 were ahve of those who professed to have seen Jesus 
 of Nazareth after He rose from the dead, it was the 
 universal helief among Christians that their Master, 
 on the night He was betrayed, had given to His dis- 
 ciples bread and wine, had assured them that in 
 partaking of that food they should eat His body and 
 drink His blood, and had commanded them to con- 
 tinue that celebration in remembrance of Him ; and 
 it is certain that they did so continue it in obedience 
 to that alleged command. 
 
 The next question is — Is it possible that this 
 belief and this practice could have arisen, if the 
 account which Christians themselves gave of its 
 origin were not the true one ? Keverence forbids 
 me to describe this Christian institution in the lan- 
 guage we should employ if we had never heard of it 
 before, and if we came to know it now for the first 
 time as a religious rite practised by some newly- 
 discovered tribe. But the more there is shocking and 
 seemingly absurd in the language used concerning 
 this institution, the less likely is it that Christians 
 would have spontaneously imagined this mode of 
 doing honour to their Master, and showing their love 
 and gratitude towards Him. We could quite under- 
 stand the Christian society maintaining and ratifying 
 their relations of mutual friendship by the institution 
 of a common meal. The doctrine of the common 
 brotherhood of all, and the duty of mutual love, 
 would be aptly symbolized by all joining on equal 
 terms to partake of a common meal, consisting of 
 bread and wine, the simplest, and in those countries 
 
EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF THE EUCHARIST. 43 
 
 the most universal articles of food ; and while thus 
 owning their mutual fellowship, acknowledging also 
 their dependence on God, whose gifts they owned 
 these blessings to be, to whom they returned thanks 
 for them, and to whom they dedicated not only their 
 offerings, but themselves. If the Eucharistic Teast 
 were nothing more than a simple repast, forcibly ex- 
 pressing the common human wants of all, and their 
 common dependence on the bounty of the same 
 Father, it would commend itself to any one as a 
 reasonable and wise institution, and we should have 
 no difficulty in understanding how good men might 
 have imagined it. But it is mysterious that the 
 disciples should use concerning their rite language 
 which would impl}^ ^that theirs w^as a banquet on 
 human flesh and blood — not ordinary human flesh, 
 but the body of Him whom, when alive, they had 
 most loved, and whom now they worshipped as God. 
 It was no uncommon charge brought of old against 
 different secret societies or bands of dark conspirators, 
 that in order that the members might testify their 
 readiness to sacrifice every prejudice and disregard 
 every law, human or divine, which might interfere 
 with the fulfilment of their duty to the society, they 
 were compelled on their initiation to taste of human 
 blood. Such charges were, no doubt, in many cases 
 as mere calumnies as the accusation of Thyestean 
 banquets commt.nly brought by heathens against the 
 Christian community. In all cases the charges come 
 to us on the testimony of enemies ; but there is no 
 instance of a society really innocent of such practices 
 choosing to use language that implied it was guilty 
 
44 SERMON III. 
 
 of them. Least of all should we expect to hear such 
 language from the lips of Jews. Not merely was food at 
 which all men revolt abhorrent to them, but it was the 
 peculiar boast of a pious Jew^ that nothing common 
 or unclean had ever polluted his mouth. To eat 
 swine's flesh was in their eyes as heinous as an offence 
 against the moral law ; to taste the blood of any 
 animal was as much forbidden as to drink human 
 blood ; the very touch of a dead body was pollution. 
 Now we know for how long a period the obligation of 
 the Mosaic law was insisted on ; how many thousands 
 of Judaizing Christians there were who wished to 
 include this law as an essential part of the Christian 
 system, and that it w^as at least a century after the 
 Apostles' times before these Judaizers were com- 
 pletely separated from the Christian Church. But 
 we can trace the Eucharistic rite as existing from the 
 earliest times, and as common to all parties in these 
 disputes, however strong their attachment to Mosaic 
 ordinances. Again, if the rite were first heard of in 
 a later generation among men to whom Christ was 
 but a mere name, we might explain the language used 
 as some mystical Eastern mode of expressing their 
 desire to enter into most intimate union with Him 
 whom they venerated as their Founder. But St. Paul's 
 testimony makes it certain that Christians spoke of 
 eating our Lord's flesh and drinking His blood, to 
 whom Jesus was not a mere abstract name for typical 
 perfect humanity ; but at a time when the majority 
 were still living of those who professed that they had 
 seen Him after He had risen from the dead ; while 
 those were still alive who had known and loved Him 
 
EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF THE EUCHARIST. 45 
 
 as a human friend ; who had thought no halms or 
 spices too costly to do honour to His mortal remains, 
 and to whom the thought of violating their sanctity 
 would he as revolting as a similar thought in the case 
 of one of our own dead friends would he to any of 
 ourselves. Thus it appears that the origin of the 
 Christian Eucharistic Feast is absolutely inexplicable 
 if we reject the simple account of it given by the 
 sacred writers — that the disciples use no language 
 concerning it except what their Master Himself had 
 taught them to use. 
 
 I dare say I shall seem to many of you to have 
 strangely spent time in painfully elaborating a proof 
 that we may accept as literally true what it never oc- 
 curred to you to doubt— that our Lord on the night 
 He was' betrayed took bread and brake it, and gave it 
 to His disciples with the words : " Take, eat, this My 
 body ; do this in remembrance of Me." I have done 
 so because of the important consequences which I 
 regard as following when this fact is proved ; as to 
 our Lord's Divine foreknowledge, His intention to 
 found a Church, and the relation which He declared 
 that He himself personally bore to the spiritual life 
 of all men — a doctrine involving pretensions extrava- 
 gant on the part of any merely human teacher, but 
 strange, indeed, when coming from the mouth of One 
 who is supposed at the time to have given up all hope 
 of a successful issue to His enterprise, and to be 
 looking forward to the prospect of an approaching 
 shameful death. On account of the importance of 
 these consequences I have desired, before attempting 
 to draw them, to show that our belief in the fact on 
 
46 SERMON III. 
 
 which they are based does not depend on our belief 
 concerning the inspiration of the Gospels, nor even 
 on our belief concerning their antiquity and integrity. 
 Just as we could prove by plain historical evidence, if 
 the Gospels had never come down to us, that the 
 original preachers of Christianity hazarded their lives 
 in attestation of the assertion that their Master rose 
 from the dead, so we can prove independently of the 
 Gospels, that it was their belief that He instituted the 
 rite of which I speak to-day, and I have given reasons 
 for holding that the very existence of such a belief 
 among the first generation of Christians is a sufficient 
 proof of its truth. 
 
 The importance which I attach to the proof of this 
 fact is justified by the reluctance to admit it exhibited 
 by sceptical writers, who are clear-sighted enough to 
 perceive that the fact, if admitted, would compel 
 them to reconstruct all their theories concerning the 
 life and character of Jesus. In Renan's life of Jesus, 
 for example, the institution of the Lord's Supper 
 finds no place. His excuse is, that this event is not 
 recorded by St. John, whom Renan, dift'ering herein 
 from the majority of writers of his school, accepts as 
 giving the most trustworthy account of the closing 
 scenes of his Master's life. He assumes, without a 
 shadow of proof, that the breaking of bread was a 
 mysterious rite of unknown signification habitually 
 practised by our Lord ; and his theory is, that after- 
 wards when the disciples came to look on our Lord's 
 death as a sacrifice superseding the ofterings of the 
 Old Law, then the tendency of legends to gather 
 round the story of the last hours of the life of Jesus 
 
EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF THE EUCHARIST. 47 
 
 referred the breaking of bread to the Last Supper, 
 and made the wine then poured out to symboHze the 
 blood shed for the salvation of the world. But it is 
 needless to say how completely this theory leaves 
 unsolved the problem of the origin of the Christian 
 Eucharistic rite. That the Christians early looked 
 on their Master's death as a sacrifice we readily 
 admit ; but there is an immense gulf between such 
 a belief and the doctrine that Christians were bound 
 in some manner to eat of His body and blood. If 
 we could suppose John's Gospel intended for a com- 
 plete account of all that Jesus said and did, his 
 omission to explain a thing so much requiring expla- 
 nation would be a sufficient reason for rejecting his 
 authority ; and the story, as given by the other 
 Evangelists, would be plainly in preference entitled 
 to credit. But there are numberless proofs on which 
 I have not now time to dwell, that St. John wrote 
 his Gospel for men to whom the main facts of the 
 Gospel history were already known ; indeed, there 
 is every reason to believe for men who had the other 
 Gospels in their hands ;'^ and that, as a general rule, 
 this Evangelist studiously avoids repeating what he 
 might assume was already known to his readers : so 
 that his silence concerning any part of the history 
 cannot be regarded as testimony against it. And 
 certainly his silence concerning the institution of the 
 Eucharist cannot be regarded as testimony against 
 it ; for, strangely enough, one of the arguments used 
 by other sceptical critics against the genuineness of 
 
 * See note at the end of this Sermon. 
 
48 SERMON III. 
 
 this Gospel is the coincidence of the language of the 
 discourse in the sixth chapter with language used in 
 the second century, when Eucharistic doctrine was 
 highly developed. 
 
 Strauss, unlike Renan, prefers the Synoptic Gos- 
 pels to the fourth, and therefore he cannot lay stress 
 on the silence of John with respect to a fact attested 
 by the other three. He hesitates, then, and seems 
 unable to make up his mind how much to admit. 
 He believes that our Lord, on this last evening, was 
 depressed in spirits, understanding His real position, 
 unrelentingly pursued by the fanaticism of desperate 
 enemies, and feebly supported by followers incapable 
 of understanding Him. He thinks it possible, then, 
 that when Jesus, as master of the household, broke 
 the bread and poured out the wine for distribution 
 among His disciples, the thought may have involun- 
 tarily presented itself to Him that even so would His 
 body soon be broken — so would His blood soon be 
 poured foi;th ; and that He may have expressed some 
 such gloomy foreboding to His disciples. Nay, 
 Strauss will admit it to be possible that, looking on 
 His death as a sacrifice. He may have regarded His 
 blood as the consecration of a new covenant between 
 God and mankind ; and in order to give a living 
 centre to the community which He desired to found, 
 might have commanded the perpetual repetition of 
 this distribution of bread and wine. All this he says 
 is possible, but whether it really took place is another 
 question. If Jesus had expressed any anticipation 
 of the approaching violent death, and if the Church 
 had adopted the custom of distributing bread and 
 
EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF THE EUCHARIST. 49 
 
 wine in memory of His death, no doubt, the institu- 
 tion of such a custom would be ascribed to Christ 
 whether he were really the author of it or not ; and 
 if the Church had come to look on that bread and 
 wine as the body and blood of Christ, and the blood 
 as the blood of a new covenant, no doubt, again, the 
 story would soon obtain belief that Christ had Him- 
 self used language to justify such a belief. But who 
 can gtaiit the assumption which this "if" requires ? 
 How was it possible that the Church should come to 
 give bread and wine the names of Christ's body and 
 blood, if He Himself had not authorized their doing 
 so? 
 
 Let us see, then, what follows from the reluctant 
 admission of our adversaries. On the last night of 
 his life, Jesus, though not possessing, as we believe, 
 Divine foreknowledge of the future, had at least 
 human knowledge that the toils of his enemies were 
 closing round Him. He saw that death could no 
 longer be escaped, and that the career which He had 
 planned had ended in failure. Yet even then He 
 calmly looks forward to the formation of a new 
 society, which shall own Him as its Founder. He 
 foresees that that flock of timorous followers, whose 
 dispersion on the next day He ventures to predict, 
 will recover the shock of their disappointment, and 
 unite again. And as for this shameful death, the 
 thoughts of which oppress Him, instead of antici- 
 pating that His followers will put it from their 
 thoughts, and blush to remember their credulit}", when 
 they accepted as their Saviour one unable to save 
 Himself, He commands His disciples to keep that 
 
50 SEEMON III. 
 
 death in perpetual memory. Notwitlistanding the 
 apparent faikire of His course, He conceives Himself 
 to he a unique person in the world's history, and in 
 Strauss' words, he regards his death as the seal of a 
 new covenant between God and mankind. What 
 other man has ever dared to set such a value on his 
 own life ? If such a belief were not true, it would 
 surely he the very frenzy of insanity. More than 
 this — He makes it an ordinance of perpetual obligation 
 to His followers that they shall seek the most in- 
 timate union with His body and blood, and holds out 
 to them this closeness of perpetual union wdth Him- 
 self as the source of all spiritual life. One of the 
 principal grounds on which some have urged us to 
 reject St. John's Gospel is the lofty language which 
 in that Gospel our Lord uses concerning His own 
 person and claims ; pressing these claims, it is said, 
 in an exaggerated way, inconsistent with the meekness 
 and humility which characterize his discourses re- 
 corded in the other Gospels. But in this narrative 
 recorded by the Synoptic Evangelists, and not by St. 
 John, we find Him making higher pretensions than 
 on any other occasion, and making these claims under 
 the very shadow of the cross. It was no after- 
 thought of His disciples to smooth away the offence 
 of the cross by ascribing to His death some mys- 
 terious efficacy; He Himself had taught them to look 
 on His blood as shed for them and for many for the 
 remission of sins. He intimates that the event then 
 taking place was comparable with the first setting 
 apart of the Jewish nation to be God's peculiar 
 people ; and as Moses had then sprinkled the people 
 
E^^DENTIAL VALUE OF THE EUCHARIST. 51 
 
 with blood, saying, Behold the blood of the covenant 
 which God hath made with you, so now He calls His 
 own the blood of the new covenant. This legislation 
 for a future Church was made at a moment when His 
 most attached disciples could not be trusted to remain 
 with Him for an hour, and when He had Himself 
 predicted their desertion and denial. Our adversaries 
 make no dif&culty about admitting that our Lord 
 predicted His death ; for this, they think, did not 
 exceed the powers of human forecast, so plain were 
 the symptoms of the storm gathering round Him. 
 But no ordinary human foresight could then discern 
 that the infant Church would survive the shock of its 
 Master's death, and instead of being ashamed of the 
 cross would glory in it, and look upon His death as 
 the source of all life. Thus, then, we have not only 
 in the Last Supper a spectacle of faith, calm and 
 unshaken in circumstances the most desperate, but 
 we have a prophecy of success improbable in the 
 highest degree, and yet which received the most com- 
 plete fulfilment. 
 
 We all believe that that prophecy was no random 
 guess : that faith, no blind enthusiasm ; we know 
 that Jesus was all He claimed to be ; that His death 
 was the great sin-offering, to restore the broken com- 
 munion between God and man ; union with Him the 
 condition of our spiritual life. And we cannot doubt 
 that it was no empty words which He spoke when 
 instituting that sacred rite. If His words have been 
 perverted so as to give rise to error and superstition, 
 there is the more reason for thinking that He who 
 foreknew these consequences, and yet did not refrain 
 
52 SEBMON III. 
 
 from speaking, wished to make known truths more 
 powerful for good than any of their perversions are 
 for harm. We may believe that He then revealed a 
 covenanted means which will enable those who use it 
 in faith, spiritually to eat His flesh and drink His 
 blood, and to receive therein a pledge of all those 
 blessings which His sacrificed body can yield. Not 
 alone in this rite is He present to those who in faith 
 seek for Him. Where two or three are gathered 
 together in His name He is in the midst of them. 
 Even the private lifting up to Him of a single heart 
 is not unmarked by Him. But we may well believe 
 that an especial blessing attends those who in faith 
 obey His commands, and seek Him in the ordinance 
 He has appointed ; not bewildering themselves in 
 vain speculations hoiv this man shall give us His 
 flesh to eat ; not, on the one hand, denying all super- 
 natural grace, and reducing all beneficial effect to the 
 results of the natural operation of laws of our own 
 minds ; nor, on the other hand, insisting that men 
 shall believe in the reality of miracles, of which there 
 is no evidence, save that it seems to us that, in order 
 to make our explanation of His words true, it is 
 necessary that God should w^ork them. Such philo- 
 sophizing shows want of faith in Christ's true pre- 
 sence, as much as the direct denial of it. Just as 
 God's presence in this world was implicitly denied, 
 not only by those who refused to lift their thoughts 
 above His material works, but by those who strove to 
 localize his presence, and could not recognize Him 
 except where there was some figure to represent Him 
 made by hands of men. But, as I have said, my 
 
EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF THE EUCHARIST. 53 
 
 purpose to-day is not to discuss any of those points 
 on wliicli Christians disagree, but to show the phice 
 among the evidences of our religion occupied by the 
 fact, that Christians have from the first observed this 
 institution ; a fact of which no other explanation can 
 be given, but that contained in the Gospel account of 
 the origin of the rite ; and a fact which proves that 
 our Lord, in the immediate prospect of approaching 
 death, looked on that death not as the end of His 
 religion, but the beginning of it ; a sacrifice for the 
 sins of the world, the source of all good to mankind. 
 He who spoke of Himself thus was confessedly a wise 
 man, a meek and humble man. Could He have been 
 only man ? 
 
NOTE ON SERMON III. 
 
 THE IRONY OF ST. JOHN.* 
 
 In the very first sentence of Kenan's Life of Jesus, 
 he gives a specimen of his critical sagacity, in detect- 
 ing and correcting the blunders of the documents on 
 which his history is founded. He begins with the 
 statement, " Jesus was born at Nazareth, a little town 
 of Galilee." On looking to his notes for the proof 
 of this assertion, we find it to consist in the fact that 
 Matthew and Mark speak of Galilee as " Jesus' own 
 country ; " an expression which is supposed to show 
 that the legend of Christ's birth at Bethlehem did not 
 exist in the original form of the story. Matthew, or 
 whoever reduced his Gospel to its present form, is 
 supposed to have clumsily left in an expression which 
 gives the lie to his formal statement at the beginning ; 
 while Luke, a more cautious and deliberate falsifier 
 of the story, alters this fatal expression into '' Naza- 
 reth where he was brought up." But Kenan's main 
 reliance is on the authority of the fourth Evangelist. 
 
 * In justification of the opinion expressed in the preceding 
 Sermon, as to St. John's acquaintance with the other Gospels, I 
 add, by way of note, the following paper written some time ago 
 for a different purpose. 
 
THE IRONY OF ST. JOHN. 55 
 
 " As for Jolm lie knows nothing of the journey to 
 Bethlehem ; for him Jesus is simply ' of Nazareth/ 
 or ' of Galilee,' on two occasions when it would have 
 been of the highest importance to make mention of 
 the birth at Bethlehem. (See John i. 45, 46, and 
 vii. 41, 42.)" It is perhaps hardly fair to quarrel wdth 
 Eenan for his use of a formula common to him with 
 all writers of his school ; yet I cannot help protesting 
 against the unscientific character of the language he 
 employs. It has been often observed as the differ- 
 ence between the vulgar and the scientific observer, 
 that the latter alone is able to repeat simply the facts 
 that he has observed, while the former always mixes 
 up with his report inferences of his own, Instead of 
 an accurate statement of facts, he substitutes the con- 
 clusion of a syllogism, to which his observation con- 
 tributes only one premiss, while some theory supplies 
 the other. The writers of Kenan's school, when they 
 wish to report the fact, that a certain Evangelist 
 makes no mention of this or that incident of our 
 Saviour's life, can seldom avoid mixing up in their 
 report the assumption, that if the Evangelist had 
 known the incident, he would certainly have men- 
 tioned it. And so the formula is of constant occur- 
 rence. Matthew " knows nothing of the Ascension," 
 John " knows nothing of the institution of the Lord's 
 Supper," and so forth ; a loose and inaccurate mode 
 of speaking, which, for the purposes of scientific in- 
 vestigation, must be resolved into two statements, 
 the statement of fact, the Evangelist is silent about 
 such and sueh CA'cnts ; the statement of opinion he 
 W'Ould not have been silent if he had known them. 
 
56 NOTE ON SEKMON III. 
 
 In the present example tlie fact to wliicli Eenan (or 
 rather De Wette before him) has called attention, is 
 perfectly true, and it is one which ordinary readers 
 of the Gospel fail to notice. John never mentions 
 our Saviour's bii*th at Bethlehem, and on two or three 
 occasions a contrary statement is made and not con- 
 tradicted. In the first chapter Philip tells Nathanael, 
 " We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, 
 and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the 
 son of Joseph;" to which I^athanael answers, "Can 
 any good thing come out of Nazareth ?" an objection 
 to which Philip makes no direct reply. Afterwards, 
 when Nicodemus takes our Lord's part, his brother 
 members of the Sanhedrim exclaim, " Art thou also 
 of Galilee, search and look, for out of Galilee ariseth 
 no prophet." And again, the difficulty which Christ's 
 birth put in the way of his reception, is more strongly 
 stated in the same chapter. (St. John vii.) — " Others 
 said This is the Christ, but some said. Shall Christ 
 come out of Galilee ? Hath not the Scripture said, 
 that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of 
 the town of Bethlehem where David was ? " Thus St. 
 John tells us expressly that there were current ob- 
 jections to the acknowledgment of our Lord's claims 
 which ran thus — " Jesus is not of David's seed, as 
 it was foretold the Messiah should be. Jesus was 
 born at Nazareth, but the prophet foretold that the 
 Messiah should be born at Bethlehem ; therefore 
 Jesus is not the Messiah of whom the prophets 
 spoke." The Evangelist does not tell how these ob- 
 jections were to be got over ; and as there is no pos- 
 sibility of denying that the Jews did understand the 
 
THE IRONY OF ST. JOHN. 57 
 
 prophets to say that the Messiah should be born in 
 Bethlehem ; (in fact the legend that our Lord was 
 born there can only be conceived to have arisen out 
 of the universal belief that the Messiah ought to be 
 born there ;) Eenan apparently would have us under- 
 stand that the Evangelist, in honest simplicity, relates 
 the objection which our Lord's adversaries were accus- 
 tomed to use as a triumphant refutation of His claims, 
 himself being unable to supply any possible answer 
 to it. But I cannot hesitate to believe that the true 
 explanation of the matter is that which has been 
 received by almost every reader of St. John's Gospel 
 since the time of its composition, namelj^, that John 
 gives no answer to the objection, because he knew, 
 and could take for granted that all his readers knew, 
 that the true answer was, that Jesus was indeed of 
 the seed of David, and was born, not at Nazareth, 
 but at Bethlehem, as the prophets had predicted. 
 In fact, we must choose between the suppositions that 
 John did not answ^er the objection, because he did 
 not know how to answer it, or because he did not 
 think it needed any answer. Now the first solution 
 is disproved by the late date, which critics of all 
 schools agree in ascribing to St. John's Gospel, a 
 date certainly later than the prevalence of belief in 
 Christ's birth at Bethlehem. The second solution, 
 therefore, alone remains. This inference, which 
 would be probable, if we found a similar passage 
 in any Christian writer of the same date, is certain 
 to any one who bears in mind what I will call the 
 peculiar irony of St John's style. 
 
 It will be perceived that I have borrowed the title of 
 
58 NOTE ON SEEMON III. 
 
 this note from Bishop Thirlwall's celebrated essay on 
 *' The Irony of Sophocles," (Philological Museum, II. 
 483.) As is pointed out in that essay, besides that ver- 
 bal irony, to which we commonly give the name, where 
 there is opposition between the speaker's thought and 
 his words, there is a dialectic irony, of which Plato 
 and Pascal were tw^o of the greatest masters, where 
 the writer effects his purpose "by placing the opinion 
 of his adversary in the foreground, saluting it with 
 every demonstration of respect, while he is busied in 
 withdrawing, one by one, all the supports on which 
 it rests, and he never ceases to approach it with an 
 air of deference until he has completely undermined 
 it, when he leaves it to sink by the weight of its own 
 absurdity." And, again — there is a practical irony, 
 when there is a strong opposition between the position 
 of any man, as he himself conceives it, and as it 
 really is. Nothing is more dramatically effective than 
 the exhibition of such a contrast, when the character 
 on the stage is ignorant of something known to the 
 spectators, and in his ignorance uses expressions 
 which have a reference that the speaker does not 
 dream of. No finer examples of this kind of irony 
 can be found than in the (Edijpus Rex of Sophocles. 
 The irony, as Thirlwall has remarked, begins with 
 the opening scene, where the king, himself untouched 
 by calamity, receives the petitions of the afflicted city. 
 He who is the object of the wrath of heaven '' stands 
 alone, calm and serene. Unconscious of his own 
 misery, he can feel pity for the unfortunate ; to him 
 all look for succour ; and as in the plenitude of 
 wisdom and power, he undertakes to trace to its 
 
THE IRONY OF ST. JOHN. 59 
 
 secret source the evil of wliicli he is himself the sole 
 cause." And through the play passages recur in 
 which the king uses, concerning the murderer of 
 Laius, phrases which have a terrible double meaning, 
 of which he who utters them has no suspicion, for what 
 he fancies he is sajdng of another he is really saying 
 of himself. The same artifice is as effective in 
 comedy as in tragedy. No scenes are more successful 
 than where a speaker is made unconsciously to pro- 
 nounce his own condemnation in words which, when 
 he utters them, he does not reflect are more applicable 
 to himself than to anybody else. When Terence 
 makes the duped father boast — 
 
 •* Primus sentio mala nostra ; primus rescisco omnia, 
 Primus porro obnuntio ; " 
 
 the spectators at once feel the irony of the contrast 
 between the speaker's fancied knowledge and real 
 ignorance ; and the slave is presently made to put 
 their feelings into words — • 
 
 *' Rideo hunc ; se primum ait scire, is solus nescit omnia." 
 
 Now, passages of the character I have described 
 occur to an unusual amount in St. John's Gospel. I 
 believe that more examples can be found in that 
 Gospel than in all the rest of the New Testament of 
 cases where the characters are introduced as speaking 
 under misapprehensions which the reader knows how 
 to correct. In the second chapter the Jews exclaim, 
 " Forty and six years was this temple in building, and 
 wilt thou rear it up in three days ?" In the third chap- 
 ter, Nicodemus asks, '* How can a man be born when 
 he is old ; can he enter a second time into his mother's 
 
60 NOTE ON SERMON III. 
 
 womb, and be born?" In the fourth chapter the 
 woman of Samaria cries, " Lord, give me this water, 
 that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw." In 
 the sixth chapter the Jews contend, " How shall this 
 man give us His flesh to eat?" About as many 
 examples of this kind as there are chapters can be 
 produced out of St. John. In some cases the Evan- 
 gelist explains and corrects the misapprehensions of 
 the speakers, and these cases cannot fairly be classed 
 under the head of irony; for in irony the reader 
 or spectator is expected to contribute something of 
 his own, which will establish the contrast between 
 the seeming meaning of the words and the real — 
 between the outward appearance of the action and the 
 true state of things. But there are several of the 
 passages to which I have referred in which the detec- 
 tion of the speaker's mistake is left to the intelligence 
 of the reader, and these cases may fairly be reckoned 
 under the head of irony. 
 
 I ought not to omit to say something of the dramatic 
 use of what may be called double irony, where the 
 speaker says something which he intends as ironical, 
 but which the better informed spectator perceives to 
 be literal truth. Without delaying to give examples 
 of this from profane literature, I pass to the signal 
 instance of it which the Gospels contain, the saluta- 
 tion of our Lord as King by His enemies at the time 
 of his crucifixion. The fact is recorded by all the 
 Evangelists ; but St. John in a peculiar manner calls 
 his readers' attention to the irony of the situation, 
 and makes them observe that He was indeed a King 
 who was thus recognized as King. St. John alone 
 
THE IRONY OF ST. JOHN. 61 
 
 relates that Pilate presented our Lord to the Jews 
 with the words, ''Behold jour King;" and that he 
 insisted on putting over His cross the inscription 
 "The King of the Jews," in opposition to the wish 
 of the chief priests^ that the inscription should only 
 state that He had said that He was King of the Jews. 
 The Evangelist adds no word of comment ; hut it is 
 manifest that he intends the thought to rise in the 
 mind of the reader that what had been said in mockery 
 was indeed the truth. To the proofs that the fourth 
 Evangelist had a keen perception of practical irony, 
 I think I may not unfairly add his account of the 
 saying of Caiaphas, that it was expedient that one 
 man should die for the people, in which the Evange- 
 list recognizes a deep truth, of which the speaker was 
 unconscious. 
 
 In connection wdth the fourth Evangelist's predi- 
 lection for the ironical form of expression, may be 
 mentioned his willingness in general to leave un- 
 spoken what he can trust his readers to supply. He 
 does not claim to be the unnamed disciple who heard 
 the testimony of John the Baptist, nor to be the 
 unnamed disciple through whose interest Peter was 
 admitted to the high priest's palace ; yet there can 
 be little doubt that in both cases the impression 
 received by most readers is that which the writer 
 intended them to receive. There can be as little 
 doubt that if the fourth Evangelist were not the 
 Apostle John, he was one who desired to pass for 
 him ; yet so far is the claim from being directly 
 made, that one whose knowledge was obtained solely 
 from this Gospel would never learn that there was an 
 
62 NOTE ON SERMON III. 
 
 Apostle of the name of Jolin ; and the forerunner of 
 our Lord is not called, as in the other Gospels, John 
 the Baptist, but simply John, as if there were no 
 other John from whom it was necessary to distin- 
 guish him. 
 
 Bearing in mind these peculiarities of the style of 
 the fourth Gospel, we must pronounce a critic guilty 
 of downright stupidity who imagines that because 
 the Evangelist records, without an attempt at reply, 
 the objections that Jesus could not be the Messiah 
 because He was not of the seed of David, and was 
 not born at Bethlehem, he really meant his readers 
 to understand that the facts actually were as these 
 objectors assumed. Rather we have here a forcible 
 example of " dialectic irony," where the adversary's 
 opinion is treated with mock deference, while the 
 reader is expected to know that it is entitled to no 
 real respect. With sympathetic triumph the writer 
 and his readers watch the objectors staking the case 
 against the Messiahship of Jesus, on an issue on 
 which the verdict is sure to go against them. 
 
 If this be the true explanation of the passages 
 referred to by Eenan — and I really cannot see how 
 any one of common sense, not to say ordinary critical 
 sagacity, can put any other construction on them — 
 the question whether John was acquainted with other 
 Gospels seems almost determined by the fact that he 
 can state what were felt to be fatal objections against 
 the Messiahship of Jesus without saying one word to 
 refute them. How is it that he can venture to take 
 for granted that his readers would know for certain 
 that Jesus was born at Bethlehem, not at Nazareth ? 
 
THE IRONY OF ST. JOHN. 63 
 
 How is it that lie whose duty it was as an Apostle 
 and an Evangelist to testify about Christ, saw no 
 occasion to deliver any testimony on this fundamental 
 point? I confess that the supposition that John 
 relied on the oral tradition current among Christians, 
 seems to me quite insufficient to meet the exigencies 
 of the case. I do not believe that in the case that 
 there was no authentic record of that tradition, St. 
 John could have been satisfied to state so formidable 
 an objection, without at least indicating by a word or 
 a parenthesis that the answer to it which his readers 
 might be expected to give was a true one. To my 
 mind the objection that Christ must, according to 
 the prophets, be of the seed of David and of the town 
 of Bethlehem, is a plain indication that John knew 
 that his readers had in their hands at least one of the 
 Gospels which contain the genealogy tracing our 
 Lord's descent from David, and in which His birth at 
 Bethlehem is related.*" I draw the same inference 
 from an objection elsewhere recorded by him, and 
 without any attempt to answer it — " Is not this Jesus 
 the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know ? 
 How is it, then, that he saith, I came down from 
 heaven?" 
 
 It is to be observed, that the hypothesis that the 
 writer of the fourth Gospel knew, at least some of 
 
 * Renan calls attention to many points of contact between Luke's 
 narrative and John's, though he does not venture to draw the con- 
 clusion I believe to be ti'ue — viz. , that John was acquainted with 
 Luke's Gospel. The most striking verbal coincidence with another 
 Gospel is the difficult expression fiu^ou vd^ou ^iffrtxti;, common to 
 John and Mark — Mark xiii, 3 ; John xii. 3. 
 
64 NOTE ON SERMON III. 
 
 the others, is intrinsically highly prohable. Critics, 
 with general consent, place an interval of, on a low 
 estimate, twenty years between the publication of Mat- 
 thew's and Luke's Gospel and St. John's. It is hard 
 to believe that St. John all this time lived so completely 
 out of the Christian world that a copy of one of these 
 Gospels should never have made its way to him. On 
 inspection of his work we cannot but be struck by the 
 manner in which he avoids anything that has been re- 
 lated by the other Evangelists. The exception is, when 
 we find in St. John anything that had been recorded by 
 his predecessors ; and when we do, there is usually 
 some obvious reason for its insertion. Thus the 
 miracle of feeding the multitude, though told by all 
 four Evangelists, is used by St. John to introduce a 
 discourse peculiar to himself. Now the feat required 
 in the ancient ordeals of walking blindfold among 
 red-hot ploughshares, without ever touching one of 
 them, is little less miraculous than that the Evange- 
 list should by mere accident thus traverse the entire 
 life of our Lord, without coming into contact with 
 anything which his predecessors had related. 
 
 Several orthodox critics have denied that St. John 
 could have seen the works of the preceding Evange- 
 lists, because in several places where his matter is 
 common with them, his narrative is an independent 
 one, not influenced or modified by theirs. But this 
 objection rests on the assumption that if John 
 knew of their Gospels he would not have thought it 
 right to make his own narrative an independent one. 
 On the contrary, we may well believe that an Apostle 
 would not write, as a second-hand historian might 
 
THE IRONY OF ST. JOHN. 65 
 
 witli other maBuscripts before him, carefully weighing 
 and deciding between the different statements he 
 found in them. An Apostle who depended on no 
 one else for his information would write freely what 
 came within his own knowledge, and his history would 
 be likely to be an independent one ; not, indeed, in 
 real contradiction to any other true narrative, but 
 very probably in apparent opposition. This, then, is 
 one of the cases where one's first thoughts and one's 
 third coincide. The first-sight impression produced 
 by the Gospel is that it was intended to be supple- 
 mental to the others, and so a respectable array of 
 fathers maintain. And though several modern writers 
 have rejected this first-sight impression as not corre- 
 sponding to the results of a closer examination, I 
 believe that a still closer examination brings us back 
 to our first opinion. 
 
 I conclude, then, that the silence of John concern- 
 ing things told by his predecessors is not the silence 
 of ignorance. Neither is it the silence of disparage- 
 ment. The case already discussed of our Lord's 
 descent from David, and His birth at Bethlehem, is 
 alone sufiicient to prove this. The same inference 
 may be drawn from the case of the Ascension, which 
 St. John does not record. It has been often noticed 
 that the Ascension is, however, incidentally referred 
 to by him — vi. 62 — "What and if ye shall see the 
 Son of Man ascend up where he was before ?" But 
 the fact is assumed, not in a single verse, but 
 throughout the Gospel. The Evangelist is never 
 weary of teaching that Jesus is a heavenly person, 
 not an earthly ; His true home heaven, not earth. 
 
 F 
 
66 NOTE ON SERMON III. 
 
 Wliat lie most frequently declares h, tliat Jesns had 
 been in heaven before He came to earth. If he does 
 not equally dwell on the fact that Jesus returned to 
 heaven after He left earth, it can only be that he 
 knew that there was no need for him to bear testi- 
 mony to what was well known to his readers through 
 the attestation of others ; for the doctrine of the pre- 
 existence of Christ is made to smooth away all diffi- 
 culties in admitting the fact of the Ascension — iii. 
 13 — "No man hath ascended up to heaven but he 
 that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, 
 which is in heaven." John is as silent about the 
 command to baptize all nations as he is about the in- 
 stitution of the Eucharist ; yet in the discussions 
 concerning the efficacy of both sacraments, St. John's 
 Gospel occupies the foremost place, and it suggested 
 the name by which in the middle of the second cen- 
 tury baptism was known.* Not to discuss one by 
 one John's other omissions, I may mention John's 
 omission of those transactions of which the Synoptic 
 Evangelists relate him to have been one of three 
 selected witnesses ; such as the Transfiguration, the 
 raising of Jairus's daughter, and, in particular, the 
 Agony in the Garden. Kenan notices John's selec- 
 tion for narration of incidents in which he himself 
 held a prominent place ; and he imputes this to 
 vanity, though it would have been more charitable to 
 think that the Evangelist chose to speak of things to 
 which he could give autoptic testimony. But taking 
 
 * Nothing seems to me more disingenuous than the special plead- 
 ing by which it has been attempted to resist the evidence of Justin 
 Martyr's acquaintance with the fourth Gospel. 
 
THE lEONY OF ST. JOHX. 67 
 
 Eenan's view, we ask, had the Evangehst never heard 
 up to the kite epoch when his Gospel was written, of 
 those stories in which the cycle of evangelic traditions 
 described him as specially honoured with his Master's 
 confidence ? Had he been never interrogated as to 
 the truth or fality of accounts which purported to 
 rest on his own testimony ? Does he mean by his si- 
 lence to intimate that the honour attributed to him was 
 undeserved ? It is not enough to say, for instance, that 
 the agony in the garden did not take place on the last 
 night of our Lord's life. If the argument from St. John's 
 silence proves what it is supposed to prove, it proves 
 that no such incident ever occurred, or at least that 
 St. John was not admitted to witness it. 
 
 On the whole, if there were no other reasons for dis- 
 trusting Kenan's conclusions, this is enough, that he 
 proceeds by a faulty method, and does not know how to 
 use that one of the documents to which he justly attri- 
 butes the highest value. There are some writers who 
 never intend to convey any other impression than that 
 which their words express, and who, consequently, are 
 fully intelligible by a perfect stranger to the things 
 related. There are others with whom the impression 
 intended to be produced is the combined result of 
 the writer's words and the reader's previous know- 
 ledge ; it may be, as in the case of language 
 commonly called ironical, the impression intended 
 being the exact opposite of that expressed in the 
 writer's words. What I have attempted to show is, 
 that St. John distinctly belongs to the latter class of 
 writers, not the former ; so that we can never be sure 
 of understanding him, if we do not enquire what is 
 
68 NOTE ON SERMON III. 
 
 the knowledge which he assumed his readers to pos- 
 sess. One who, actually having this knowledge, strives 
 to divest himself of it for the better understanding of 
 his author, exhibits an uncritical want of perception of 
 the characteristics of the book he is studying, enough 
 to account for any amount of blunders in the results 
 arrived at. 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 UNSUCCESSFUL PRAYER. 
 
 *' My strength is made perfect in weakness." — 2 COR. xii. 9. 
 
 It always strongly affects the imagination, when we 
 see great results brought about by seemingly inade- 
 quate means. In those popular tales which are the 
 delight of childhood, and which are now found to be 
 common to so many different nations, the exaltation 
 of the despised is the favourite theme, and the hero 
 who performs the great achievements is invariably 
 the person who, in previous estimation, had been 
 counted least capable of them. Of sacred story few 
 parts have more charm for the boyish reader than 
 that which tells how the gigantic Philistine, with 
 spear like a weaver's beam, who scared all the cham- 
 pions of Israel, was laid low by the shepherd lad, 
 who encountered him in the name of the Lord his 
 God, with no other arms than a sling and five smooth 
 stones from the brook. So in profane history, ancient 
 or modern, such stories as how the Greeks repelled 
 the Persian invasion, or how a peasant girl drove the 
 English out of France, owe half their fascination to 
 
70 SEEMON IV, 
 
 the contrast between the actual result and what any- 
 one might beforehand have expected. 
 
 The history of the establishment of Christianity in 
 the world affords a striking instance of such a con- 
 trast as I have been speaking of. The words "un- 
 learned and ignorant men," which in the Acts express 
 the view of the Jewish rulers concerning the Apostles, 
 are, perhaps, rendered somewhat too strongly by our 
 translators ; but it is plain from them that the first 
 teachers of the new religion were men who, in the 
 judgment of the highest authorities among their own 
 people, had little claim to fill the office of instructors 
 of others. 
 
 The district whence the new teaching emanated 
 was of little estimation with the Jews. " Can any 
 good thing come out of Nazareth?" was the cry; 
 " Search and look, for out of Galilee ariseth no pro- 
 phet." But whatever might be the likelihood of 
 Galilean fishermen being accepted as teachers of the 
 Jews, still less would have seemed the likelihood of 
 Jews being accepted as teachers of the world. The 
 Bomans, in their pride of power, the Greeks, in their 
 pride of culture, could not be expected to submit to 
 the instruction of a race neither feared by strangers 
 for military prowess, nor respected for intellectual 
 achievements. The Epistle from which the text is 
 taken is full of materials to illustrate how great were 
 the obstacles against which Jewish teachers had to 
 struggle, when they went outside the limits of their 
 own nation. Those obstacles might be supposed re- 
 duced to the lowest in the case of St. Paul. He was 
 not one of the original twelve, but an instrument 
 
UNSUCCESSFUL PRAYER. 71 
 
 subsequently raised up in God's Providence, with 
 special fitness for the great work of Apostleship to the 
 Gentiles which was peculiarly his own. He could not 
 be despised as unlearned by Jewish rabbis ; for he 
 had been brought up at the feet of one of their most 
 distinguished teachers. He had also a tincture of 
 Gentile learning, and had not merely read heathen 
 books, but read them in no narrow Jewish spirit, and 
 was ready to seize on great truths which were there 
 recognized, and to take them as common ground on 
 which to approach those whom he desired to influence. 
 He was a man of no mean intellectual power, and his 
 writings contain passages to which none can refuse 
 the praise of eloquence. On a hasty judgment we 
 might suppose him endowed with such striking ad- 
 vantages as must gain him the respect of his Grecian 
 hearers. Yet, as we study his reception at Athens 
 and Corinth, we see reason to think of him only as a 
 Jew, who laboured under somewhat less disadvan- 
 tages for preaching to Grecians than others of his 
 countrymen. His attempt to make good a footing 
 in Athens ended in what can only be described as 
 failure. Idle babbler was the name which the first 
 announcement of his doctrines fixed on him, and 
 though their novelty gained him from that inquisitive 
 people a hearing for a more detailed statement, the 
 interview ended in mockery and insult, and on quit- 
 ting the city he left behind but a small number of real 
 converts. But at Corinth his stay was longer, and his 
 success greater. He founded there a Church, which 
 owned him as its spiritual father; and we might, 
 perhaps, imagine such a conquest was the natural 
 
72 SERMON IV. 
 
 result of his great natural gifts, and, in particular, 
 liis femd eloquence. A little thought might convince 
 us that Grecian hearers would have much prejudice 
 to overcome, before they could be charmed with the 
 eloquence of one of a nation so despised as the Jewish, 
 speaking, not without solecisms, a language which he, 
 who called himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews, could 
 not acknowledge as his own, and whose tastes and 
 habits of thought had been cast in a different mould 
 from theirs. And so, in point of fact, this Epistle to the 
 Church at Corinth shows that the very disciples whom 
 he had won there murmured at the absence of rheto- 
 rical skill in his addresses to them. They complained 
 that he was rude in speech ; that his bodily presence 
 was weak, his spSech contemptible ; and Paul himself 
 confessed that he came not with excellency of speech 
 or of wisdom, that his speech and his preaching was 
 not with enticing words of man's wisdom. He re- 
 peats, in fact, again and again, that the words which 
 he spoke were not in the words which man's wisdom 
 teacheth. We may well believe that it was the simple 
 truth that Paul was not possessor of those arts by 
 which itching ears are gratified, when we see what 
 befell the Apostle in his own Church of Corinth — 
 that Church which, as he says, he had begotten in 
 the Gospel. There came thither other teachers, who 
 vied with, or surpassed him, in popularity. The 
 whole part of the Epistle from which my text is 
 taken is a struggle to vindicate his authority 
 against these rival pretensions. He was obliged, as 
 he said, to become a fool in glorying ; they had com- 
 pelled him. He was obliged to go over and remind 
 
UNSUCCESSFUL PEAYER. 73 
 
 tliem of all that he had done and suffered for the 
 cause of Christ ; and all to prevent his Corinthian 
 converts from forsaking his teaching for the more 
 specious eloquence of some of these rival teachers. 
 The whole Epistle shows marks of wounded feelings. 
 He writes as one hurt that his love had not been re- 
 turned by his disciples as it ought to be — as one 
 grieved that claims on their gratitude and affection, 
 such as none others could have had, should have been 
 lightly postponed to the attractive novelty of the later 
 teachers, who made themselves heads of parties in 
 the Church of Corinth. 
 
 We learn from the text and its context that besides 
 those disadvantages to which any Jewish preacher 
 would have been subject in Corinth, St. Paul laboured 
 under some peculiar personal disadvantages. He suf- 
 fered from some bodily infirmity, which he describes 
 as a thorn or stake in the flesh, the messenger of 
 Satan to buffet him. What was its exact nature we 
 are not informed ; but it would seem to be of a kind 
 very likely to interfere with his ministerial usefulness. 
 For instance, in Galatians iv. 13, 14, he records it to 
 the honour of the Galatian Churches that they did 
 not scorn him or his message, notwithstanding that 
 there was, as he owned, that about him which might 
 have exposed him to their contempt. " Ye know 
 how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the 
 Gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation 
 which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected, 
 but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ 
 Jesus." And very possibly it is the same thing to 
 which he alludes in the beginning of the first Epistle 
 
74 SERMON IV. 
 
 to the Corinthians, where he says, " I came not 
 with excellency of speech or of wisdom. I was with 
 you in weakness and fear, and in much tremhling." 
 Is it strange that St. Paul, then, should wonder at 
 God's dealings — why it was that He should allow 
 the spreaders of error and schism to triumph in the 
 attraction of eloquence, while he, the apostle of truth, 
 was encompassed with infirmity, unable, as he felt, 
 to do justice to the message with which he had been 
 entrusted ; full of the thought that if he could only 
 speak as he ought to speak, that if God would only 
 remove the stumbling-block which now stood in his 
 way, more souls might be won to God ? 
 
 A Christian man may not unreasonably hesitate 
 before making prayer for temporal blessings. Many 
 things which we think blessings, have in the result 
 proved far otherwise, and heathen as well as Christian 
 moralists have remarked how ruinous to many has 
 been the gaining of the things they longed and prayed 
 for. On this account we feel it to be wisdom as well 
 as piety, in making request for things of earth, not 
 only to express, but to endeavour to cultivate in our 
 minds, absolute submission to the will of Him who 
 knoweth what things we have need of before we ask 
 Him. If, however, prayer for earthly blessings might 
 ever have been urged without reserve, one would 
 suppose that it would be in the case of Paul's prayer 
 that he might be delivered from his thorn in the flesh. 
 He was asking not merely for an increase of ease and 
 comfort to himself. He was asking for the removal 
 of a hindrance to the extension of the Gospel of God. 
 He was asking that he, the ambassador of Christ, 
 
UNSUCCESSFUL PRAYER. 75 
 
 might be enabled to deliver his message more freely 
 — that he might be relieved from infirmities which 
 inclined those to whom he came to despise him, and 
 made them less ready to give him a favourable hearing. 
 
 Accordingly, St. Paul tells us, "For this thing 
 I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from 
 me." I do not know whether it may not seem fanci- 
 ful, but I think I see in this w^ord "thrice" a con- 
 firmation of the fact that St. Paul was one whose 
 experience had led him to expect miraculous answers 
 to his prayers. If a pious clergyman of the present 
 day were describing his conduct under a long-con- 
 tinued bodily trial, which he found a great hindrance 
 to his usefulness, he would possibly say, "I made it 
 for some time a subject of prayer that I might be 
 freed from this burden." Nor would it seem to sur- 
 prise him that his praj^ers should be continued a long 
 time without result. But it does not appear that 
 Paul made this thorn in the flesh an ordinary or 
 habitual topic of prayer : on three distinct occasions, 
 probably when he felt his trial intolerable, he set 
 himself to face this messenger of Satan, and to en- 
 deavour in the power of prayer to put him to flight ; 
 just as if he had resolved to use in his own case the 
 same means which had often proved effectual for the 
 benefit of others, when over those that were sick he 
 had invoked the name of the Lord Jesus, and they 
 had recovered. 
 
 However this may be, it is more important to notice 
 to whom Paul's prayers were addressed. For in the 
 invariable usage of Paul's epistles, the Lord is not, 
 as it popularly is with us, a mere synonym for God, 
 
76 SERMON IV. 
 
 but is the special title of Jesus Christ. . With Paul, 
 as he tells us, there were not gods many and lords 
 many, but one God the Father, of whom were all 
 things, and we in Him ; and one Lord Jesus Christ, 
 by whom are all things, and we by Him. The context 
 is sufficient to show that the present passage is no 
 exception to Paul's ordinary usage, and that it is one 
 of the proofs that the Apostles practically showed 
 their belief in the Godhead of their risen Master by 
 addressing to Him their prayers. The Lord had 
 answered his prayer — " My grace is sufficient for 
 thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." 
 And the Apostle adds, with reference to this answer, 
 *' Most gladly, therefore, will I glory in my weak- 
 nesses, that Christ's strength may rest upon me ;" 
 showing most distinctly that Christ was the Lord 
 whose strength was made perfect in his weakness. 
 *' I rejoice in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, 
 in persecutions, in distresses ; for when I am weak, 
 then I am strong." 
 
 It is plain what a prominent part of Paul's system 
 was his doctrine concerning the person of Christ ; 
 and how accurately an unbeliever summed up his 
 teaching as being concerning " one Jesus, who was 
 dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." Paul had, 
 at first, thought of Jesus as one dead, rightly put to 
 death by the rulers of his nation, whose followers in 
 resisting so manifest demonstration of the falsity of 
 his pretensions, were guilty of criminal disobedience 
 to authority and to reason. But after, on his way 
 to Damascus, he had seen and heard Christ, not a 
 shadow of doubt remained on his mind that He is 
 
UNSUCCESSFUL PRAYEK. 77 
 
 alive ; thenceforward he looks upon Him as a personal 
 li\'ing friend, to whom he can seek for help in every 
 difficulty and distress — with whom he can have such 
 close union, that his strength is Christ's strength, 
 and all he is able to accomplish a revelation of the 
 power of Christ. 
 
 Looking back now upon the history, we are at no 
 loss to see reasons why Christ should exhibit His 
 power in His servant's weakness. By refusing to 
 remove the hindrances which, in Paul's own opinion, 
 made him a less successful preacher of the Gospel 
 than he otherwise would have been, his Lord would 
 teach him that it needed not this to make him a 
 sufficient instrument in His hands. He can bring 
 about His designs by the feeblest instruments, and 
 very often it is exactly such that He does choose to 
 accomplish His purposes. And so St. Paul elsewhere 
 sums up his experience — that the weakness of God 
 was stronger than man ; that God had chosen the 
 foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; the 
 weak things of the world to bring to nought the 
 things that are mighty, that no flesh should glory in 
 His presence. That Paul should be made to feel this 
 by his own experience was one of the sources of his 
 success. Elsewhere, when he disclaims having made 
 use of such means as rival teachers used, to gain the 
 confidence and admiration of the Corinthians, he de- 
 clares that he could on other grounds claim submis- 
 sion from them. His preaching, he says, was not 
 with enticing words of man's wisdom, but with de- 
 monstration of the Spirit, and with power. Li other 
 words, he appeals to the miracles which he had 
 
78 SERMON IV. 
 
 performed among tliem ; or, as he calls tliem, to the 
 signs of an Apostle wrought among them in signs 
 and wonders and mighty deeds, that their faith should 
 stand, not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of 
 God. Yet, if the exhibition of miraculous power was 
 likely to impress the spectators with a deep sense of 
 God's power, it might not necessarily have the same 
 effect on him who performed the miracles, and who, 
 we can see, must be subject to peculiar temptations. 
 Accordingly, it is in express connection with the 
 mention of the extent of Paul's supernatural endow- 
 ments, that he tells us of this thorn in the flesh sent 
 him for the very purpose that he might not be puffed 
 up with the abundance of the revelations vouchsafed 
 to him. 
 
 AVhen we think of the miraculous revolution which 
 was effected by the labours of the Apostles — the over- 
 throw of Paganism, the planting of Christianity in 
 its stead ; when we think of the privileges they en- 
 joyed, the personal intercourse they had had with 
 our Lord Jesus Himself in the days of His flesh, the 
 wonderful works which He enabled them to perform, 
 the spiritual insight, the knowledge of the deep 
 things of God which He communicated to them, we 
 are apt to forget that these Apostles were men of like 
 passions with ourselves, subject to the same human 
 frailties, exposed to the same temptations. Look at 
 it from this point of view, and can you conceive 
 any position in which a man would be more likely to 
 lose his balance than one placed on such a pinnacle 
 as St. Paul. Consider that at his prayer the sick 
 were restored to health, the lame made to walk, 
 
UNSUCCESSFUL PRAYER. 79 
 
 devils were cast out ; at liis word the heathens cast 
 their idols to the moles and to the hats ; nay, he 
 himself was caught up into heaven, and heard words 
 unspeakable, which it was not lawful for a man to 
 utter ; and would it be wonderful if one so honoured 
 had felt that there was some worthiness in himself 
 which made him peculiarly fitted to receive these 
 honours, and that when he saw what great things he 
 had performed he should think that it was his own 
 power and wisdom which had done all this ? 
 
 But God chose to keep His servant humble, by 
 chequering with reverses the career of triumph which 
 he trod. He was dishonoured among his own con- 
 verts ; put to shame before them, as it would seem, 
 by the consequences of some painful and distressing 
 bodily malady; at any rate, strikingly inferior to his 
 rivals in all that could make his teaching attractive. 
 But this was exactly the waj^ in which God ruled it, 
 that the Apostle's own mind should be kept full, not 
 of the things which he had done, but of the things 
 in which he was deficient. His intensity of longing 
 to be freed from his infirmity, his feeling how much 
 this hindered his usefulness in the Gospel work, kept 
 constantly alive in his mind the feeling that it was to 
 no excellency of his that was owing the multitude of 
 converts who had crowned his labours, but that all was 
 due to the power of Christ, who had wrought by him. 
 And here, again, the wisdom of God was manifested ; 
 and, doubtless, God in His own way wrought gi-eater 
 things by the hand of Paul than if He had, as Paul 
 himself desired, made him what men would call a 
 fitter instrument for the preaching of His Word. 
 
80 SERMON IV. 
 
 Greater fluency of speech, greater harmony of lan- 
 guage, a more commanding aspect, a more attractive 
 exterior — all these would, no doubt, have swelled the 
 number of the preacher's auditors, would have brought 
 together greater crowds to hang upon his lips. But 
 would they have increased the number of his true 
 converts ? His words might have more charmed the 
 ear ; but would they have sunk so deep into the 
 heart ? I have no doubt it was those very dealings 
 of God with Paul at which he was at times ' tempted 
 to rebel — those dealings which made him painfully 
 conscious of his own feebleness ; those instances of 
 ill-success in his preaching, of which he felt that his 
 own defects were the cause ; these very things were 
 part of the secrets of Paul's success ; they were part 
 of his training in humility, part of that discipline 
 which made him know that man was nothing, that 
 Christ was all in all, so that out of this deep experi- 
 mental knowledge, speaking from the heart to the 
 heart, he could win souls to Christ in a way which 
 all the oratory in the world could never have accom- 
 plished. 
 
 What I have said would be true, no matter what 
 had been the scene of Paul's labours ; it is especially 
 true with reference to his work in Corinth. To any- 
 one who studies the condition of the Corinthian Church 
 as described in the Epistles, and who compares it 
 with that of other Churches, it will be evident that 
 its character was highly-stimulated activity of intel- 
 lect, together with low morality, and little Christian 
 love. To these causes we may trace the contentions 
 and party spirit for which the Apostle has to rebuke 
 
UNSUCCESSFUL PRAYER. 81 
 
 them ; to these, the eagerness with which they 
 grasped at the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, 
 exercising them for ostentation, not for edification of 
 the Church. Now if Paul had taken that course 
 which, of set purpose, he abstained from taking, or if 
 he had attempted to vie with his rivals in that Church 
 of Corinth, by using the same ornaments of words 
 and embellishments of oratory for which they were 
 admired, in the first place, according to all human 
 probability, he must have failed in the attempt. 
 Success would have been as hopeless as that of 
 David would have been had he essayed, in unproved 
 armour, and with weapons new to him, to encounter 
 one who had been a man of war from his youth. 
 But supposing Paul's mastery of the arts by which 
 popularity could be gained in Corinth to have been 
 ever so great — supposing him to have beaten his 
 rivals on their own ground, he would have left un- 
 assailed the exaggerated importance which the Corin- 
 thians attached to what they counted intellectual 
 achievement, and would have rather confirmed them 
 in the miserable delusion that religion consists in 
 filling the brain with notions instead of filling the 
 heart with Christian motives, and directing the 
 conscience by Christian principles. St. Paul suc- 
 ceeded, not by showing that he could do better than 
 his rivals what they could do well, but by showing 
 that all their fancied knowledge was nothing in com- 
 parison of the knowledge of Jesus Christ and Him 
 crucified. All those dealings of God with Paul, 
 which made him a proficient in that knowledge, were 
 the means of forging the only weapon by which he 
 
 G 
 
82 SERMON IV. 
 
 could triumph. And lie having experienced what 
 Christ could in this way do, owned that God had 
 judged what was hest for him, and said, " Most gladly, 
 therefore, will I glory in my infirmities, that the 
 power of Christ may rest upon me." 
 
 I have occupied our time to-day in dwelling on the 
 one particular case to wdiich the text refers, in which 
 Christ's strength was made perfect in weakness. On 
 next Sunday 1 hope to discuss further this general 
 principle, and some questions which it suggests. For 
 the present I content myself with noticing the lesson 
 of practical consolation, which may he drawn from 
 the history we have heen studying. 
 
 We have seen how God, hy refusing to gi-ant to St. 
 Paul that for which he prayed, did, in truth, giye 
 to his prayer a hetter answer than if He had literally 
 complied with his petition. Let us draw from our 
 study of his history support and consolation for 
 ourselves when our prayers seem to he unheard. 
 When Paul's prayer was set aside, the Lord he- 
 stowed on him a revelation declaring to him why He 
 had so dealt with him. We can expect no such 
 special revelation ; and in those seasons of repulse 
 we must rest our faith on our knowledge of God's 
 character, and on what has heen revealed to us of the 
 manner in which He has formerly dealt with His 
 servants of old. AVe know, of course, that we are 
 liable to mistake what is good for us ; that God is 
 all good and all wise ; that He may have reasons for 
 not complying with our wishes which we cannot now 
 penetrate. Yet there are times when it seems to us 
 that the things we desire are so necessary for our 
 
UNSUCCESSFUL PRAYER. 83 
 
 happiness, so conducive to onr real good, that we 
 cannot understand how it is possible that it can be 
 right that our petitions should be denied us. The 
 case we have been considering was exactly one of this 
 kind. What could seem more a fitting subject for 
 prayer than that of St. Paul ? He was asking not for 
 himself, but for the cause of God. Yet God saw 
 that the wealaiess of His servant could be made in 
 His hands a more powerful instrument than his 
 strength. If God sees fit, then, to deny us what we 
 ask, it may also be the case that He is working out 
 our real good — our good for time and eternity — in a 
 way far more effectual than that by which we had 
 hoped to effect it. 
 
 There may, indeed, be another cause for the failure 
 of our prayers. St. James touches on it in the New 
 Testament — " Ye ask and receive not, because je ask 
 amiss ;" and David, in the Old Testament — " If I re- 
 gard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear 
 me." We may ask of God victory over some form 
 of temptation — the conquest of some besetting sin — 
 and we may wonder that our prayers have not been 
 heard by God, when the fact is that we have not 
 heard these prayers ourselves. The prayers have 
 been but the dreamy expression of wishes not car- 
 ried out by corresponding acts of the will, not followed 
 up by active and energetic resolutions, not productive 
 of increased watchfulness. If these fail, it is because 
 they are not real prayers ; and the remedy is to be 
 sought by increased diligence in prayer — prayer that 
 God would strengthen our desires for good, would 
 make us feel more deeply our need of His grace, and 
 
84 SERMON IV. 
 
 beg for it more earnestly ; for when we pray for our 
 growth in grace, we ask only for what He has pro- 
 mised to give us ; and such prayers, if made with 
 our hearts in the name of His Son, cannot fail. 
 
 But when we ask for other things, our judgments 
 may err. We may ask for what He may see it to be 
 best for us that we should not obtain. It maybe our 
 lot, as it was of One greater than we, to see trials 
 approaching from which our human nature shrinks 
 back ; to cry, " If it be possible, let this cup pass from 
 me," and yet that that cup may be pressed more 
 closely to our lips. If such should be our lot, may 
 we also learn from that perfect example implicit con- 
 fidence in our Father's wisdom and His love — entire 
 resignation to His will ; may we to lear , with all 
 our hearts to say, " Father, not my will, but thine, 
 be done." 
 
SERMON V 
 
 MAN'S WEAKNESS AND CHEIST'S 
 STRENGTH. 
 
 My strength is made perfect in weakness."— 2 Corinthians, 
 xii. 9. 
 
 When I last addressed you, I showed how the gene- 
 ral principle here enunciated was verified in Paul's 
 own case, and how those things which he counted as 
 weakness, and which apparently made him less fitted 
 to he a successful preacher of the Gospel, afforded, 
 according to the hest judgment w^e can form, an 
 opportunity of more fully exhibiting the power of 
 Christ, and so of obtaining for the Apostle success 
 which he otherwise could not have had. 
 
 I remarked also that the whole history of the early 
 progress of Christianity is a history of a triumph of 
 this world's weakness over this world's strength. 
 When Christianity was first promulgated nothing 
 could seem more firmly established than the system 
 of Paganism which it ultimately overthrew. That 
 system dated from immemorial antiquity ; it was in 
 one form or another spread over the whole civilized 
 world ; and, indeed, it was supposed that everywhere, 
 
86 SERMON V. 
 
 without exception, the same divinities, under different 
 names, were worshipped. It had heen adorned by the 
 noblest works of poetry and art ; and so had infinite 
 attractions for the cultivated, while it had all the ter- 
 rors of superstition for the vulgar. It is true that 
 the sceptical few had begun to discern on how little 
 basis of evidence the received system rested, yet, for 
 the most part, they refrained from open assault; 
 and it was not from the philosophers that that system 
 met its overthrow, but from what they would have 
 accounted a superstition less venerable than their own 
 mythology, and quite as irrational. There are scep- 
 tical writers in our own country in the present day ; 
 but nothing they have written would do much to 
 facilitate the enterprise of one who should attempt to 
 persuade us to exchange our own religion for the 
 worship of a prophet who might arise in India, or 
 some other of the nations conquered by England. 
 It is, indeed, remarkable how little the educated 
 pagans were alive to the significance of a movement 
 destined to have such important results. In the 
 scanty notices of the progress of Christianity which 
 we can glean from heathen writers, even after the new 
 religion had had a century of growth or more, it still 
 appears in Koman eyes only a superstition of the 
 subject races ; but none suspect that the axe had 
 been already laid to the root of their own ancient 
 religion, and that the new creed would soon be en- 
 throned in their imperial seat, and rule the world for 
 
 On the last day I compared this victory of Chris- 
 tianity with other triumphs which history records of 
 
man's weakness and Christ's strength. 87 
 
 tlie weak over tlie strong. It is important to observe, 
 however, that, strictly speaking, there is no such 
 thing as a victory of weakness over strength, though 
 it very often happens that before the event men mis- 
 calculate on which side the real strength lies. When, 
 for instance, the countless host of the Persian empire 
 advanced to take possession of Greece, it might well 
 seem beforehand that the odds in favour of the in- 
 vaders were overwhelming. Yet, over and over again, 
 has it been proved — as, for instance, by our own sol- 
 diers in India and elsewhere — how little numerical 
 odds avail against courage and discipline. So the 
 Greeks found it in subsequent contests with the barba- 
 rians ; and then, taught by experience, they advanced 
 to conflict with far- outnumbering hosts, in full confi- 
 dence of superiority, knowing that the wolf counts 
 not how many the sheep be. But their first victories 
 they owed to a diff'erent cause. Then they did not. 
 know that they were the stronger; they believed 
 themselves to be the w^eaker ; but they had a cause 
 on behalf of which they were willing to sacrifice 
 themselves, counting it more glorious to die fighting 
 for country and freedom than to live as slaves ; and 
 so daring to try a contest with, as they believed, all 
 the chances against them, beyond their own expec- 
 tations, they were victorious. 
 
 It is hard to estimate to what accession of strength 
 is equivalent some motive which will induce a man 
 to put forth all the strength he has. Many a time 
 men fail to accomplish great things quite within their 
 reach, from ignorance of their own strength. In 
 many a battle a general has withdrawn his forces 
 
88 SERMON V. 
 
 repelled from tlieir object, because he had not mea- 
 sured the exhaustion of his enemy, and did not know 
 what one effort more would have given him. Young 
 men are not supposed to err generally on the side of 
 forming too modest an estimate of their own powers; 
 yet there is a great difference between an opinion 
 which it ma}^ please them to entertain in their own 
 minds, or to express to others, and a conviction on 
 which they can venture practically to act. And it is 
 certain that many, not commonly supposed to be 
 wanting in vanit}^, might have attained to heights 
 which they never reached if, at the outset of life, they 
 had had sufficient knowledge of their powers to en- 
 courage them to put forth their whole strength on 
 enterprises which they supposed to be above them. 
 On the other hand, prudence obviously counsels that 
 it is folly to dash against the impossible, and that to 
 waste our powers in striving after the unattainable, is 
 not merely to prepare for ourselves disappointment, 
 but to lose all that by a wiser direction of our ener- 
 gies we might have gained. 
 
 For the same reason prudence counsels that if the 
 chances of success are gi-eatly against us, it is better 
 not to make an attempt more likely than not to end 
 in failure. On this account men ordinarily very wisely 
 abstain from testing their powers to the utmost : and 
 those historical instances to which I have referred, of 
 unexpected triumphs of what had been supposed to 
 be weakness over strength, seldom, if ever, occur un- 
 less where there is some strong moral inducement 
 sufficient to embolden men to stake their all upon 
 the cast, and accept the consequences of the probable 
 
man's weakness and Christ's strength. 89 
 
 failure, rather than forego their hopes of the possible 
 success. So if- we were estimating the chances of a 
 conflict between two nations, we might go widely 
 astray if we merely balanced the physical resources of 
 each, and did not take into account their difference 
 in moral strength ; the one, perhaps, being willing to 
 employ all its resources without reserve, and so to 
 submit to hardships and sacrifices which would be 
 grudged by the other. 
 
 It is very wisely, then, that Gibbon has counted 
 first in his enumeration of the causes that brought 
 about the triumph of Christianity, the zeal of the 
 Christians, however inadequate be his explanation of 
 the origin of that zeal. There is no spring of human 
 action which has greater power to urge men to essay 
 all that they can do, regardless of consequences, than 
 such a martyr spirit as elicited that spirit-stirring 
 ''If not," of the Book of Daniel, " Our God whom 
 we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery 
 furnace, and He will deliver us from thy hand, 
 King. But if not, be it known unto thee, King, 
 that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the 
 golden image which thou hast set up." Such a spirit 
 animated the preachers of the Gospel.- " I know," 
 said one of them, " that the Holy Ghost witnesseth 
 in every city, saying, that bonds and afflictions abide 
 me. But none of these things move me, neither 
 count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might 
 finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I 
 have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel 
 of the grace of God." When the Apostles preached 
 there were multitudes who had a languid traditional 
 
90 SERMON V. 
 
 belief in their hereditary divinities ; multitudes who 
 had a superstitious fear of the injuries which Jupiter, 
 Venus, or Isis had power to inflict on them. But 
 what fraction of them could be said to love these 
 deities, to have a real faith in them, to be willing to 
 die for them, as Christians loved the Lord Jesus, 
 and were glad to die for Him. 
 
 What wonder, then, that professors of a religion 
 which had but feeble hold on their hearts, and who, 
 if asked, or if they asked themselves why they be- 
 lieved what they professed, could give no satisfactory 
 account of the grounds of their belief, should be easily 
 influenced by men who seemed to speak from thorough 
 knowledge and conviction, whose whole heart evi- 
 dently was in the cause they advocated, and who were 
 ready, if need be, to die for it. Undoubtedly, then, 
 the zeal of the Christian preachers was one main 
 cause of their success. But whence came that zeal ? 
 Gibbon summarily accounts for it as a kind of off- 
 shoot of the intolerant zeal of Judaism ; but con- 
 sidering that, after the first generation of Christians, 
 a very small fraction of them were Jews, and 
 that the zeal burned with equal strength in men 
 whose habits and whose national traditions afforded 
 no example of anything similar, this explanation 
 cannot be considered satisfactory. This much only 
 we must own, that Judaism and Christianity had this 
 in common, that both religions succeeded in inspiring 
 in their disciples intense faith in the truth of their 
 creeds ; and what, if you please, you may call the 
 intolerant conviction that that truth did not reside in 
 the belief of the surrounding peoples, that the gods 
 
man's weakness and Christ's strength. 91 
 
 of the heathen were but idols, wood and stone, the 
 work of men's hands, So much the two rehgions 
 had in common ; but the Christian did not, like the 
 ordinary Jew, rest in the conviction of the superiority 
 of his creed as a matter of pride and rejoicing, but 
 burned with desire to make known to others those 
 truths which were the comfort of his own life. 
 Christianity and Judaism had in common that both 
 religions taught the existence of a personal God, 
 willing to hear the prayers of His creatures, to whom 
 they might pour out their whole souls, and with 
 whom they might enjoy intimate communion ; and 
 the experience of both religions informs us of this, 
 that men, who make experimental trial of that com- 
 munion, do arrive at as thorough conviction of its 
 reality, as men have in the reality of the external 
 objects which they see and handle every day. But 
 Christianity further taught its disciples to know 
 God as revealed in the person of His Son, and to 
 approach the Father through Him ; and so, as the 
 vagueness to which the worship of an unseen God is 
 liable was removed, far stronger love was felt to God 
 revealed in a character so capable of inspiring love ; 
 while a desire was also inspired to be like that cha- 
 racter, and to imitate Him in whom the Divine 
 perfections were embodied, in His self-sacrificing love 
 to men, even to the unthankful and the evil. The 
 zeal, then, of the Christian preachers had its root in 
 experimental knowledge of the love of Christ, ob- 
 tained by habitual communion with Him ; so that, 
 if their zeal were a great part of their strength, 
 that strength was still the strength of Christ. In 
 
92 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 comparison of this strength, hoth then and since, all 
 differences in intellectual endowments have been in- 
 significant, and he who has lived a Hfe of prayer, 
 whose thoughts have dwelt on Christ, whose heart is 
 penetrated with His love, and who is resolved to 
 endure labours and sacrifices for His sake, though 
 rude in speech, though destitute of the learning the 
 world counts valuable, has been able to win souls to 
 his Master, whom no mere eloquence could have 
 gained over. Thus has God often chosen the foolish 
 things of the world to confound the wise, and the 
 weak things of the world, and base things of the 
 world, and things which are despised, to bring to 
 nought the things that are mighty. Yet if God 
 does in other cases, as He did in St. Paul's, with- 
 hold what men might count advantages for the 
 preaching of His Gospel, He does not really work 
 without the use of means ; He rather chooses those 
 means which He sees to be most effectual, disregard- 
 ing what, however highly esteemed among men, He 
 sees to be of less worth for His service. In short, the 
 idea which on this and on the last day I have been 
 trying to work out is, that God works according to 
 general laws, even in those cases which look like a 
 violation of ordinary laws, and that the paradox that 
 Christ's strength is made perfect in weakness, is no 
 exception to this rule ; for, as the experience of 
 failure and consciousness of weakness have driven 
 men to Christ, they have derived, from their expe- 
 rience of communion with Him, an assured con- 
 viction of the reality of their intercourse with Him, 
 which they now find no difficulty in communicating 
 
man's weakness and chkist's strength. 93 
 
 to others ; as well as such love for Him and zeal for 
 His cause, as inspire them with resolution to put 
 forth without reserve all the strength they have. 
 
 And now arises the question, If man's weakness is 
 so often in God's hands a more powerful weapon than 
 his strength, is it not better to be weak than to be 
 strong ? Shall we not do well to make a voluntary 
 surrender of some of the advantages which God has 
 put within our reach, in order that, unencumbered 
 by them, we may work for Him more effectually ? 
 This season of Lent has been a time during which, 
 for centuries. Christians have been accustomed to 
 abstain from indulgences in themselves perfectly 
 innocent, in order that the flesh being thereby sub- 
 dued to the spirit, they might gain strength to follow 
 God's motions more freely. Others, not content with 
 exhorting, as Scripture sanctions, that their disciples 
 should be willing so to brace their will by temporary 
 abstinence from lawful indulgence, that they should 
 not be enslaved by pleasures from which they knew 
 not how to part, have demanded a permanent sur- 
 render of all that this world prizes. They have in- 
 sisted on life-long vows of chastity and abstinence. 
 They have required that those to whom God has 
 given wealth should cast it away, and live in volun- 
 tary poverty. Others, again, both of the same and 
 of quite an opposite school, persuaded that human 
 learning has no power to win souls for Christ, have 
 insisted that the Christian minister ought not to en- 
 cumber himself with this fleshly weapon, and should 
 determine, in the literal sense, to know nothing but 
 Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 
 
94 SERMOX V. 
 
 ■ It must be conceded that much even of this world's 
 greatness has had its root in humihation. The 
 observation has been frequently in men's mouths 
 during the last two or three months, that the mili- 
 tary greatness to which Prussia has now attained had 
 its origin in the crushing defeat which she suffered 
 at the beginning of this century, and in the few years 
 of bitter humiliation which followed, during which 
 illusions of fancied superiority, founded on her past 
 history, having been dispelled, the foundations were 
 laid of a fabric of solid strength. Lately we have 
 seen the parts reversed that were played at the be- 
 ginning of the century — the conqueror of that day 
 now discovering the emptiness of reliance on a 
 glorious past, and having to suffer at the hands 
 of the then vanquished humiliation no less bitter 
 than he had inflicted. And there are those who 
 augur that now, likewise, the furnace of affliction 
 through which that great nation is passing will but 
 purge away its dross, and prepare it for a nobler 
 future. 
 
 Our ideas are often vague when historians tell us 
 of nations being so enervated by luxury as to be 
 unable to make resistance against invasion. We 
 hardly understand that this opprobrious word luxury 
 may -mean no more than what we see among our- 
 selves—namely, that a number of people, comfoi-t- 
 ably well off, and whose time is felt to be valuable, 
 prefer to leave to others the hardship of military 
 seiwice ; and it may need calamities, such as to 
 make the life of ease they would have preferred abso- 
 lutely impossible, before they are capable of deeds of 
 
man's weakness and Christ's strength. 95 
 
 heroism. Just in the same manner, the obstacle to 
 deeds of heroism in the cause of religion is not 
 necessarily sin or vice. Inability to dispense with 
 ordinary innocent indulgence is quite sufficient. 
 
 Our circumstances do not disclose how much of 
 the martjT spirit is alive among us ; but it is less diffi- 
 cult for us to judge whether the missionary spirit of the 
 Church in our day comes short of the apostolic stan- 
 dard. In the mere cause of gain, at the present time, 
 young men are willing enough to leave their home ; to 
 part with family and friends, and reside for years in a 
 distant country ; especially provided that the climate 
 is not unhealthy, and that there is a fair prospect of 
 ultimate return to their native land. If, therefore, 
 we had to answer our Lord's question, " What do ye 
 more than others ?" some deduction should be made 
 from the actual number — itself not strikingly large — 
 of missionaries, whom we send forth to labour among 
 the heathen. It is plain that the higher the standard 
 of comfort that a man may lawfully and innocently 
 claim, the greater the sacrifice that is made in aban- 
 doning it ; and so that a time of general prosperity 
 is adverse to religious as well as to other heroism. 
 And yet, shall we say that we are unable to work for 
 God, unless He discipline us to His service by cala- 
 mities ? that none save he, " qui zonam perdidit," is 
 a fit soldier for Christ's army ? Thinking of it thus, 
 we see that it is not without reason the duty is com- 
 mended to us, and especially at this season, of making 
 acts of self-denial not actually forced on us, and of 
 so disciplining our wills that we shall not be enslaved 
 by indulgence, but shall sit loose to the pleasures of 
 
96 SERMON V. 
 
 this world, so as to be able to part with them, if need 
 should be. God rewards this victory of the will over 
 the lower part of our nature with a peculiar pleasure 
 of its own — a pleasure so great, that those who have 
 experienced it, often have preferred it to that which 
 the indulgence of appetite affords. And it is a 
 curious example how precisely similar temptations 
 beset us from opposite directions ; that exactly in the 
 same way as many are tempted by the pleasure 
 which attends the satisfying the appetites which our 
 Creator has planted in us, to indulge those appetites 
 for the mere sake of that pleasure to a degree far 
 beyond what is legitimate, and which is really hurtful 
 to them ; so a few have been tempted by the pleasure 
 which attends a victory over appetite to practise 
 asceticisms bordering on lunacy, utterly deranging 
 the healthy constitution of their own nature, and 
 yielding no benefit to their fellow-men. 
 
 But what I had chiefly in view when I proposed 
 the question. Is it lawful or prudent to make a volun- 
 tary surrender of our strength, in the hope that 
 thereby Christ's strength may be more fully mani- 
 fested in us, was in order to say a few words on 
 the question, Is human learning a hindrance to the 
 preacher of the Gospel ? Is it a kind of Saul's 
 armour, of which he who would be victorious in 
 Christ's cause will wisely divest himself? Some 
 things I have said may seem to point to that con- 
 clusion, and experience would appear to confirm it. 
 It is notorious that profound knowledge and great 
 power to influence others do not necessarily, or even 
 commonly, go together — that some of the soundest 
 
man's weakness and Christ's strength. 97 
 
 and most learned divines have been persons incapable 
 of getting a hearing from a popular audience ; and 
 that some most popular and successful preachers have 
 been men of but slender attainments. In the history 
 of opinion, too, it is remarkable how small a part is 
 played by reason and argument, so that one is tempted 
 to say that men in general do not form their opinions 
 by any intellectual process, but catch them like measles 
 from one another. Beliefs the most erroneous have 
 been exposed by thoroughly convincing arguments, 
 yet the faith of hardly a single adherent has been 
 shaken. Subsequently, the whole fabric falls at a 
 single trumpet blast. The strong convictions of one 
 endowed with a sympathetic nature flash electrically 
 into the hearts of multitudes, whose heads would 
 have been impervious to argumentation. Yet it would 
 be a mistake to overlook how much such instantaneous 
 success is often due to the effect of a preparatory 
 process of argument, fruitless though it may have 
 seemed at the time ; so that such a sudden fall as I 
 have described has been no miracle, but the ruin of 
 a structure previously undermined. Victory is not 
 always due to those whose efforts are seen to win it ; 
 not to the valiant soldier who perils his life in the 
 front of the enemy, but to the quiet, silent man who, 
 some miles away, sits over his maps, with telegraph 
 wires close at hand. God's gifts to His creatures 
 are unequally distributed, and he who is singularly 
 endowed with one, will not improbably be deficient 
 in another of a different kind. So he who has been 
 gifted with powers of eloquence may or may not pos- 
 sess discretion and erudition ; but plainly his words 
 
98 SERMON V. 
 
 will have ten-fold weight if they commend themselves 
 not merely to the ear of the multitude, hut to the 
 calm judgment of the thoughtful. And our duty is 
 clear, whatever he the talents with which He who has 
 placed us here has entrusted us, to improve them dili- 
 gently, and use them conscientiously in His service. 
 
 As I said hefore, though Christ's strength is hetter 
 than man's strength, weakness is not hetter than 
 strength. Each power our Maker has given us has 
 its own proper and natural fruit, though it will not 
 accomplish results out of its own province. And God, 
 though not dependent on human instrumentality, or- 
 dinarily chooses His instruments with reference to 
 the work He has for them to do. Ti*ue, God is not 
 dependent on your learning. Nay, answered South, 
 God is not dependent on your ignorance. Learning 
 will not win souls to Christ, eloquence will not win 
 souls to Christ ; still less will souls be won by the 
 power to pour forth a noisy stream of words. But 
 we shall act the part of the slothful and unprofitable 
 servant, if because we discover how little our one 
 talent can do, we neglect to improve that talent to 
 our best ability. In the case of Paul, on which I 
 dwelt at such length on last Sunday, little as he 
 sought for artifices of human wisdom, there can be 
 no doubt that his peculiar training fitted him to do 
 a work of Apostleship among the Gentiles, which the 
 Apostles of purely Jewish education could not have 
 accomplished without a miracle. We have seen that 
 in Paul's case consciousness of weakness drove him 
 closer to Christ, and kept him humble notwith- 
 standing the abundance of the revelations that had 
 
man's weakness and Christ's strength. 99 
 
 been vouchsafed to him. Can any corresponding 
 result be looked for in the case of him whose de- 
 ficiencies cause him no shame nor regret ; who thinks 
 that his uncultivated natural powers are' all that is 
 needed to do Christ's work, and that what has cost him 
 nothing is good enough for Cod ? And we may take 
 a lesson from one higher than Paul. Who can pre- 
 tend to be filled with a burning desire such as His to 
 do His Father's will, and make His ways known 
 among men ? Yet what candidate for the ministry 
 now would not murmur if several years were added to 
 the time which he must spend in silent training, and 
 if he were condemned to do no public work for his 
 Master until thirty years of age ? I would, therefore, 
 exhort every divinity student here to avail himself to 
 the utmost of the opportunities for instruction he 
 enjoys. If, as is most probable. Cod has given you 
 no extraordinary power of eloquence, the defect will 
 not be supplied by your omitting to gain other means 
 of usefulness which He has put within your reach. 
 If He has gifted you with such power, your eloquence 
 will be all the better if it is guided by knowledge. 
 But no natural gifts or added acquirements can make 
 up for the absence of that which alone can qualify 
 Christ's messenger to speak for Him — intimate per- 
 sonal knowledge of Him whose message he bears. 
 Men's hearts will not be touched by the parrot echoing 
 of words you have heard from others. If you hope to 
 do something better hereafter than merely gratify an 
 itching ear, or beguile the tedious hour which con- 
 vention compels men to spend in church, you must 
 be able to speak of truths that have come home to 
 
100 SEKMON V. 
 
 your own heart, and have been proved by your own 
 experience. No other preparation for the ministry 
 can take place of this personal knowledge of Christ, 
 of the endeavour to live close to Him, in constant 
 devout communion with Him, in daily endeavour to 
 be like Him. If you have this knowledge, whatever 
 else God may have denied, you need not fear to go 
 forward in His strength ; and though you may speak 
 for Him with feeble lips and stammering tongue, 
 fear not, Christ's strength will be made perfect in 
 your weakness* 
 
SERMON VL 
 
 INFANT BAPTISM. 
 
 ** And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach 
 the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized 
 shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be damned. " — 
 Mark xvL 15, 16. 
 
 It has often happened to mathematical students to 
 feel temporary perplexity when called on to demon- 
 strate some well-known elementary principle, just 
 because, though they have had frequent occasion to 
 employ it, and to assume its truth, it is long since 
 they had occasion to examine its proof. And so in 
 like manner, in general, men find it easier to support 
 by argument those parts of their belief which they 
 have been accustomed to hear assailed (even though 
 complicated reasoning may be necessary for their 
 defence) than to give good reasons why they hold 
 principles which they do not expect to hear disputed, 
 and for the defence of Avhich they are consequently 
 unprepared. For example, it has often happened 
 that a man who might be described as a skilful theo- 
 logian, as far as regards his power to maintain his 
 doctrines by Scripture proofs, has been silenced on 
 meeting for the first time one who denied the autho- 
 
102 SERMON VI. 
 
 rity of the Bible. The arguments on which he had 
 been accustomed to rely have suddenly become una- 
 vailing, while he has not been prepared at once to 
 give reasons for his submission to an authority which 
 he is surprised and shocked to hear questioned. It 
 is on this account that a clergyman's education must 
 embrace the knowledge of some controversies now 
 extinct, and of others with which it seems unlikely 
 that he will ever be brought in contact. Else he is 
 in danger of being taken unawares when he is called 
 on to maintain principles which he had expected 
 would have been conceded to him without controversy. 
 These introductory remarks are intended to sug- 
 gest my apology if, in bringing before you to-day the 
 subject of Infant Baptism, I should seem to have 
 undertaken to defend a position not seriously in 
 danger. I am about to try to show to you that the 
 whole Christian world has not been in error — in error, 
 without an exception, for 1500 years, and, with insig- 
 nificant exceptions, for the remaining three or four 
 centuries of the Church's existence — in supposing that 
 it was permitted them to bring their children to the 
 Saviour, and from their earliest years to dedicate 
 them to His service. I am about to try to show that 
 our fathers, who have fallen asleep in Christ, lacked 
 nothing essential to their salvation ; that they did 
 not live and die in disregard of their Master's parting 
 commands. I am about to try to show that the bap- 
 tism which alone we and they received, conferred on 
 us when we were helpless infants", was true baptism, 
 and needs not to be repeated. 
 
 Let it be understood that unless our error is alleged 
 
INFANT BAPTISM. 103 
 
 to be deeply grave and important, there is no room 
 for controversy. It will not be disputed that the 
 ceremonies of the Church may be altered from time 
 to time as national customs change, so as better to 
 supply the wants of each changing age. In matters 
 of ritual and Church ordinance there is no absolute 
 right or wrong unless we are tied up by an express 
 command from God Himself. Even with regard to 
 the Sacraments, the obligation of which does depend 
 on Christ's express command, there is no doubt that 
 the mere details of the form of administration have 
 changed from time to time, and may be changed. 
 When anyone, therefore, says that the whole Chris- 
 tian world has been wrong with respect to the sacra- 
 ment of baptism, we ask in what respect do you 
 assert that they have been wrong ? — wrong with re- 
 spect to some non-essential detail, or with respect to 
 something affecting the very essence of the rite ? 
 Now with respect to any non-essential detail, the 
 whole Christian world cannot be -^Tong ; for there is 
 no absolute right or wrong in the matter, and the 
 manner in which the Christian Church has consented 
 to use the rite must be the right one. But if you 
 say that the error reaches to the very essence of the 
 sacrament, (and this is what is asserted ; for baptism 
 conferred in infancy is treated as null, and those who 
 have only received such baptism are baptized anew,) 
 if, then, this be so, it- follows that for hundreds and 
 hundreds of years there was scarcely a single bap- 
 tized Christian in the world ; that at this moment 
 their number can be counted only by hundreds ; that 
 whole generations of Christians eager (superstitiously 
 
104 SEEMON VI. 
 
 eager if you will) to fulfil their Master's commands 
 to baptize all nations, yet misconceived the meaning 
 of so plain a precept, and, consequently, wholly failed 
 to obey it. I must, therefore, try to show that when 
 Christ instituted the sacrament of Baptism, He did 
 not conceal from His followers anything essential to 
 the due performance of the rite. I must show that 
 if He had intended to place any restrictions as to the 
 manner in which the rite was to be performed, or as 
 to the persons to whom it was to be administered. He 
 did not so wholly omit to warn His people of those 
 restrictions that the Imowledge of l^hem perished out 
 of the w^orld, and was not revived until in quite 
 recent times. The question, when stated, seems so 
 to contain its own answer, that I thought it necessary 
 to begin by showing the importance of occasionally 
 going over the proof of truths which seem almost 
 self-evident. In the present instance certainly the 
 fact that there are multitudes who traditionally accept 
 Infant Baptism without ever having reflected what 
 can be said for or against it, is that w^hich alone has 
 given any chance of success to the assaults which at 
 the present time have been made on the principles 
 of our Church,* 
 
 These assaults on the lawfulness of Infant Bap- 
 tism are usually disguised under the form of an 
 attack on the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration. 
 In this form they seem to have the best chance of 
 meeting with a favourable reception from many, who, 
 
 * At the time this sermon was preached, some exertions had been 
 used to circulate in this country a sermon by Mr. Spurgeon on the 
 same text, assailing the practice of Infant Baptism. 
 
INFANT BAPTISM. 105 
 
 imagining the assault to be clirectecl only against 
 extreme views held by a section of our Church, over- 
 look that the attack is really made on principles held 
 by all in common. In what I have now to say, I 
 think it important not to be led away from the real 
 points at issue, into discussions only introduced in 
 the hope of causing division in our own ranks. In 
 any case, a question about facts ought to take pre- 
 cedence of a question about words. If any one 
 asserts that it is unmeaning superstition to baptize 
 an infant, who they imagine is incapable of deriving 
 any spiritual benefit from such a rite, there is a real 
 intelligible difference between his doctrine and that 
 of the Church of England. On the other hand, if 
 two persons are completely agreed as to the nature of 
 the benefits conferred by baptism, and only differ as 
 to whether the word regeneration is fitly used to de- 
 scribe these benefits, then the controversy is only 
 verbal. There is no point in theology in which it is 
 more necessary to distinguish verbal controversies 
 from real, than the subject now before us. For it 
 may be laid down as a rule, that when two persons 
 differ widely as to the doctrine of baptismal regenera- 
 tion, they will invariably be found to use the word 
 regeneration in two different senses. No doubt the 
 importance of the right use of words must, by no 
 means, be underrated ; but still our wisest order of 
 proceeding is first, if possible, to ascertain what the 
 facts are, and then we shall be most likely to agree 
 as to the words by which these facts can be most fitly 
 described. 
 
 I come, then, to the consideration of the text, 
 
106 SERMON VI. 
 
 wliicli I have selected because it has been supposed, 
 I know not why, to be antagonistic to the teaching 
 of our Church. The text consists of two parts, a 
 promise, and a threat. And it is plain at first sight, 
 that two conditions are necessary to bring any one 
 under the class to which the promise is addressed. 
 He must believe and he must be baptized. The text, 
 therefore, seems to be rightly used, when employed 
 to confute any who mutilate our Saviour's message, 
 and leave out either of the two conditions which He 
 has named. On the one hand, if, having read this 
 text, I were to teach you that baptism without faith 
 could save you, I should be in glaring opposition to 
 my text. On the other hand, if having read the text, 
 *' He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved," 
 I were to proceed to say, " Nay, he that believeth is 
 saved, and none has a right to be baptized until he- 
 is saved," it would only require a moment's reflection 
 to enable jou to see that the preacher was saying one 
 thing, and the text another. 
 
 The more fully convinced we are that our salvation 
 is a free gift bestowed on us for the merits of our 
 Saviour, and without any works or deserving of our 
 own, the more willing shall we be humbly to come to 
 Him, and hear at His own lips the terms on which 
 He bestows it. We shall then feel that it does 
 not become us to form our theories first as to 
 the conditions which He ought to impose, and to 
 judge of His statements by our theories, instead of 
 simply hearing His w^ord and obeying it. Thus 
 we should come to the investigation of the text 
 in a wrong spirit, if we were to begin by laying 
 
INFANT BAPTISM. 107 
 
 it clown, that baptism could form no part of His re- 
 quirements, because it seemed to us out of character 
 with the spiritual religion which Christ came to teach, 
 that He should make our salvation in any degree de- 
 pendent on a mere ceremony. This was precisely 
 the spirit in which Naaman came to the prophet 
 Elisha. He began by forming his theory, how it 
 would be in character that the prophet should pro- 
 ceed, and he rejected his command ia wash in Jordan, 
 because he could not see how his cleansing should 
 depend on such a ceremony. It is in a very different 
 spirit we ought to come to our Lord ; we should come 
 in a spirit of teachable humility ; in a spirit of faith 
 and obedience, prepared, if He declare anything, to 
 believe it, if He command anything, to do it. 
 
 It being plain, then, from the text that two things 
 are necessary to bring us under the class to which our 
 Lord^s promise is addressed, that we should believe, 
 and that we should be baptized ; the next question is 
 w^hen, and in what order should these two things be 
 done. It seems to me that there is but one answer, 
 if we really love our Lord, and are anxious to do His 
 will, " Each of those two things at the very first oppor- 
 tunity in our power." We should believe as soon as 
 we are capable of believing ; w^e should be baptized 
 as soon as we are capable of being baptized. Sup- 
 pose that anyone whom you ardently loved, and whom 
 you were eager to please, asked you to do two things 
 for his sake, and prescribed nothing as to the order 
 in which those things were to be done, when, and in 
 what order would you do them ? Plainly you would 
 do each the very first opportunity. If it were quite 
 
108 SERMON YI. 
 
 in your power witli which you would begin, you 
 would begin with that which seemed the more impor- 
 tant ; but if the opportunity presented itself first of 
 doing that which seemed to you the less important, 
 you would not refuse to do it, merely lest you should 
 convey to others a false impression as to the relative 
 importance of the two things asked of you. 
 
 When we ask the question why should we not bap- 
 tize infants ? our first impression is, that they who 
 object must hold far higher opinions than we as to 
 the importance of the rite. We expect them to say, 
 *' This is no ordinary rite, which Christians might use 
 at one time in one form, at another time in another. 
 This is a sacrament in which we must not deviate a 
 hair's breadth from the form in which the Apostles 
 administered it. In their time the majority of those 
 who received it were of adult age. We dare not ven- 
 ture, therefore, now to confer it on children ; in the 
 Apostles' days it was ordinarily administered by 
 immersion, we dare not venture to think that sprink- 
 ling will suffice. W^e care not that all Christians may 
 have baptized for hundreds of years, only in the way 
 that you think lawful, we cannot admit the smallest 
 deviation from what we believe to be primitive usage." 
 Wlien men, I say, treat our baptism as null, and 
 insist on our repeating it, it is natural to think that 
 in their estimation baptism is an important thing, 
 and that they would not endeavour, for any trifling 
 matter, to revolutionize the practice of Christendom. 
 But when these men come to explain themselves, we 
 find that they are actuated, not by an undue sense of 
 the importance of baptism, but by a fear lest it should 
 
INFANT BAPTISM. 109 
 
 be thought too important. It is said that if a man 
 has been baptized before he beHeves, he is in danger 
 of lifting baptism into a saving ordinance, and of 
 overlooking that he is saved by believing and not by 
 baptism, and that the only way to prevent this is to 
 maintain that no man has a right to be baptized until 
 he is saved first. Well, in answer to this I would 
 recur to the illustration I have just employed. If a 
 friend has asked us to do two things, w^e should not 
 show much love to him if we postponed indefinitely 
 the performance of one of them, solely in order to 
 testify our conviction that it w^as less important than 
 the other. And w^e shall not do well, if we think 
 compliance with God's commands a less urgent 
 matter than the establishment of man's theories. If 
 our Master, Christ, fhas given us two commands, w^e 
 show little love to Him if w^e neglect opportunities, 
 and put off the performance of one of them, in order 
 to testify our sense of their relative importance. 
 
 You will see, I think, from what has been said that 
 we are not required to bring proofs of the lawfulness 
 of Infant Baptism. Christ having confessedly insti- 
 tuted Baptism, and ordered His Apostles by that rite 
 to make disciples of all people, the burden lies with 
 those who would place restrictions on it, to give the 
 proofs which justify such restrictions. The text is 
 introduced in words of the widest generality, " Go ye 
 into all the' world, and preach the Gospel to every 
 creature." If any say that there are some to whom 
 Baptism cannot fitly be administered, let them give the 
 Scripture proofs that it w^as our Lord's will that such 
 persons should be excluded. In particular, if it is 
 
110 SERMON VI. 
 
 asserted that our cliilclren may not be brought into 
 covenant relation with Him, let the text be produced 
 where He has forbidden children to come to Him. 
 This is what our opponents are in fairness obliged to 
 do ; and if it were the case that they failed to do so 
 because Scripture w^as completely silent, nothing 
 more would be necessary in order to establish at least 
 the lawfulness of Infant Baptism. 
 
 But we go further, and maintain that this mode of 
 using the sacrament is most conformed to the mind of 
 our Lord Himself, because He has not only not forbid- 
 den us to bring our children unto Him, but encouraged 
 us to do so. In His own lifetime the very question 
 arose about which w^e now dispute. I think if the 
 Bible had not told us how our Lord dealt with it, we 
 should have been uncertain how He would have acted. 
 Eemember how our Lord was pressed by those who 
 thronged to hear the gracious w^ords that proceeded 
 from His lips. We read of the multitude coming 
 together, so that they could not so much as eat 
 bread. We read of our Lord commanding that a 
 small ship should wait on Him, and of His teaching 
 the multitude out of the ship while they stood on the 
 land. We are told that He committed to His dis- 
 ciples the merely ministerial offices of His religion, 
 and that He Himself baptized not, but His disciples. 
 And now does it seem easy to determine how He 
 would act when His teaching was interrupted by 
 parents who brought to Him children of an age inca- 
 pable of profiting by His instructions ? St. Luke 
 describes these children as babes — I3pe(f)7]. The 
 Apostles, we know, concluded that these infants were 
 
INFANT BAPTISM. Ill 
 
 unable to benefit by the presence of our Lord, and 
 rebuked those who brought them to Him. And were 
 we less familiar with the history, might it not seem 
 likely to ourselves also, that their Master would rebuke 
 the superstition of parents who interrupted His teach- 
 ing by asking Him to put His hands upon these chil- 
 dren, and who imagined that these unconscious babes 
 could profit by His touch? But we are told that 
 when He saw the disciples repel these children He 
 was much displeased ; and not only did He take 
 these children in His arms and bless them, as it had 
 been desired, but He made what was done in their 
 case into a general rule — '' Suffer the little children 
 to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is 
 the kingdom of God." 
 
 Well has this history been chosen as the Gospel 
 for the service of Infant Baptism, for it contains by 
 anticipation an answer to every difficulty that can be 
 raised by any who would repel us from bringing our 
 children to the same Saviour who received these chil- 
 dren then. We cannot doubt that these parents then 
 did well in bringing their children to Him. We can- 
 not doubt that the children whom He took in His 
 arms, and whom He blessed, did receive precious 
 benefit from that blessing, unconscious though they 
 were. Yet if any were to ask us to define the nature 
 of that benefit, we should find it quite as hard a 
 problem as to define the nature of baptismal grace. 
 We have no warrant for saying that every child who 
 received that blessing was certain of obtaining eter- 
 nal salvation, or. that he walked this world, signed 
 and sealed in the sight of all men, as a certain inhe- 
 
112 SERMON VI. 
 
 ritor of eternal glory. We cannot say that lie en- 
 joyed any special immunity from temptation. We 
 do not even know for certain that every one of these 
 children grew up to know the Gospel, and to be ad- 
 mitted into the visible Church of Christ. For these 
 children disappear out of the Scripture narrative, and 
 our curiosity as to their subsequent history has been 
 ungratified. Yet, assuredly, any of these children 
 who came in after life to know the Saviour's work, and 
 to believe on Him and love Him, would cherish, as a 
 privilege of unspeakable value, the knowledge that he 
 had in infancy been taken into his Master's arms and 
 received His gracious blessing. And if asked to 
 name the first beginning of his union with Christ, I 
 doubt not that he would not so much think of that 
 time, when with his own conscious intellect and affec- 
 tions, he took hold of the Saviour, as rather think of 
 that earlier time when hands he knew not took hold 
 on him, and love, unearned by deserts of his, em- 
 braced him ; the love of Him of whom we must all 
 confess, " We love Him, because He first loved us." 
 However this may be, from the history of our Lord's 
 receiving these infants we learn these two things : 
 first, that infants are not incapable of receiving a 
 blessing from Him ; and secondly, that whatever 
 difficulties we may have in theorizing as to the 
 nature of that blessing, it may not the less be a very 
 real one, and that our duty to seek it for those we 
 love may be very clear. 
 
 But it remains to notice a difficulty which some 
 have found in the verse chosen for my text. It con- 
 sists of two parts, a promise and a threat. Now, 
 
INFANT BAPTISM. 113 
 
 while the promise mentions two things, belief and 
 baptism, the threat mentions only one — " He that 
 believeth not shall be damned." Hence it is urged 
 that belief is the one and only indispensable requisite 
 to salvation. And since an infant is incapable of 
 belief, it is impossible that he can be in a state of 
 salvation. But if this be so, what then becomes of 
 those infants who die before they are old enough to 
 learn the Saviour's name ? Must Christian parents, 
 mourning over babes untimely snatched away, have 
 the bitterer grief to know that they are eternally 
 separated from their little ones ? must they think of 
 their buds of promise as blighted for ever by some 
 cold unfriendly blast, and not as blossoms early 
 culled by a tender Father's hand ? But there is no 
 more fruitful source of error than to found a system 
 of doctrine on a single text, without regarding how 
 that text is modified by other statements of Scripture. 
 In the present case few have any difficulty in seeing 
 that the general statement, " He that believeth not 
 shall be damned," is modified by our knowledge that 
 God does not demand impossibilities, and that He 
 does not require belief of those who are incapable of 
 believing. I have the less need to argue the matter, 
 because I believe our opponents have no more fears 
 than ourselves for the safety of those little ones whom 
 God removes in infancy. 
 
 But now arises the deeper question, On what 
 grounds can we have good hopes of the safety of 
 such childi-en ? Are we to rest our hopes on their 
 innocency? Are we to say, that having committed 
 no actual sin, they have a natural right to salvation ; 
 
 I 
 
114 SERMON VI. 
 
 that they have no need of a Saviour, and must be 
 safe independently of anything Christ has done or 
 suffered ? If any maintain this, I can only say such 
 is not the doctrine that the Christian Church has 
 always taught. She has always held that all who 
 enter heaven, even though they may not have sinned 
 after the similitude of Adam's transgression, are 
 saved, not by right of their own innocency, but for 
 the sake of Christ. The doctrine taught in the Ninth 
 Article of our Church is no modern invention of hers, 
 but has been handed down to her from primitive 
 times, and, as we believe, can be proved by Scripture 
 and by experience. We hold that there are in every 
 child of fallen Adam tendencies to evil, which only 
 require time and opportunity to ripen into act ; and 
 that this corruption of nature constitutes him in whom 
 it exists a sinner in God's sight, and does need to be 
 pardoned. For this reason we regard it as no idle 
 ceremony to dedicate our children to Christ, and 
 claim for them a part in that salvation which He has 
 declared His willingness to give. We ground our 
 assured trust for them, not in the innocency of their 
 years, but in the fact that there is no impediment to 
 their being united to Christ, and being thus made 
 inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. As a matter 
 of fact, there is seldom any difficulty in acknowledg- 
 ing the propriety of Infant Baptism wherever the 
 doctrine of Original Sin is strongly held : and it was 
 in the ardour of controversy against the Pelagians, 
 who denied Original Sin, that the absolute necessity 
 of baptism was asserted more strongly than it had 
 ever been before. And I may add, that any one who 
 
INFANT BAPTISM. 115 
 
 believes that there are in fallen man tendencies to 
 evil antecedent to their outward manifestation, has 
 no difficulty in admitting it to be possible that ten- 
 dencies to good, implanted by grace, may also be 
 long antecedent to tJielr outward manifestation. 
 
 Before I conclude, it remains for me to notice two 
 objections that have been made to the teaching of the 
 Church of England on the subject of baptism. One 
 is, that experience proves that her doctrine is wrong, 
 because all who have been baptized do not turn out 
 well. Much has been said as to the absurdity of 
 supposing that thieves, and drunkards, and harlots 
 are members of Christ and children of God, or of 
 seeking for inheritors of the kingdom of heaven in 
 the jail or at the gallows. Stripped of all rhetorical 
 amplification, the argument is an attempt to prove 
 that all who are baptized are not ultimately saved. 
 But, surely, it h incumbent on every disputant to 
 try to know something of the opinions of his op- 
 ponents. Who imagines that anyone, Eoman Catholic 
 or Protestant, holds the doctrine that every bap- 
 tized child is saved ? No one dreams that baptism 
 confers any privileges incapable of being lost, or 
 which must result in the eternal salvation of him 
 who receives them. The question at issue, then, is 
 merely this : Is it possible that those who are not 
 finally saved ever can have been partakers of any 
 spiritual privileges ? Now to this question there can 
 be but one answer. Those who hold most strongly 
 the doctrine of the final perseverance of the elect do 
 also acknowledge that there may be strivings of God's 
 Spirit with those who are not elect, and who do not 
 
116 SEEMON VI. 
 
 persevere ; strivings which for a time seem to be snc- 
 cessfuL There a,re those whom our Lord describes 
 as receiving the Word with joy, and as believing for 
 a while, but yet who do not endure to the end, and 
 in time of temptation fall away. There are those 
 whom His Apostle describes as having been once en- 
 lightened, as having tasted of the heavenly gift, and 
 as having been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 
 and yet as falling away. It has seemed strange to 
 some how it is that St. Augustine and some of our 
 great reformers, who took him for their chief guide, 
 should, on the one hand, have spoken so highly of 
 baptismal privileges as to be claimed with confidence 
 as holding the doctrine of baptismal regeneration ; 
 and, on the other hand, have taught doctrines akin 
 to those wdiich in later times were called Calvinistic. 
 And the explanation is, that the holding these latter 
 doctrines is quite compatible with the full recognition 
 of the fact that high privileges may be enjoyed by 
 those who are not elect, and who do not persevere to 
 the end. Those, then, in our Church who rate highest 
 the privileges conferred by baptism are not in the 
 least embarrassed by the fact that all do not retain 
 these privileges to the end ; for from the first they 
 warned their people not to imagine that the posses- 
 sion of such privileges must necessarily terminate in 
 their salvation. All the privileges which members of 
 the Christian Church enjoy may be paralleled in the 
 history of the Jewish Church. And so with a special 
 reference to this subject St. Paul has taught us — " All 
 our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed 
 through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in 
 
INFANT BAPTISM. 117 
 
 the cloud, and in tlie sea. But with many of them 
 God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the 
 wilderness. Now these things were our examples, 
 and they are written for our admonition, upon whom 
 the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him 
 that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." 
 
 But in the last place it is objected that the doctrine 
 of the Church of England deprives her clergy of all 
 power to rebuke sin ; for how, it is said, can they 
 stand up in their pulpits and saj^ to their congrega- 
 tions, Ye must be born again, when their formularies 
 teach that their hearers have all already been born 
 again in baptism. Now certainly it is evident that 
 the exhortation, " Ye must be born again," is one 
 which, from its nature, cannot be addressed to a con- 
 gregation indiscriminately ; for unless a person can 
 be born again several times we are not justified in 
 saying, ye must be born again, to those who may 
 have been born again already. And we frankly con- 
 fess that the Church of England disposes her clergy 
 to address their congregations not as still in their 
 natural state, children of wrath, but as those who 
 have some portion in Christ, and have, through Him, 
 become children of God. I need not look to her 
 teaching about baptism to prove this ; it is the cha- 
 racter of all her services. The clergyman begins her 
 daily service by addressing his people as dearly be- 
 loved hrethren. He goes on to exhort them in deep 
 humility to make confession of their sins, yet he 
 teaches them to address Him from whose ways they 
 have strayed as their Almighty and Most Merciful 
 Father. He asks them to join him in the prayer 
 
118 SERMON Vli 
 
 which our Lord Himself taught His people, in which 
 He gives us a right to address God as our Father, 
 and the whole service proceeds in this tone. But 
 have our clergy on this account less power to warn, 
 to threaten, and rebuke sinners ? What, if we find 
 a prodigal who has w^asted his substance in riotous 
 living, and whose soul is perishing with hunger in a 
 country far from his true home, have we lost our 
 power to rebuke him for his sin, and to warn him of 
 the ruin that is his certain fate if he remain wdiere 
 he is ; have we lost, I say, this power if we address 
 to him the exhortation. Arise and go to thy father ? 
 Nay, is it not in this word father that our strength 
 lies ? Is 'it not this which banishes despair, and 
 makes the sinner know that He whom he has aban- 
 doned will welcome his return. 
 
 Assuredly, brethren, God's way of dealing with 
 the sinner is difi'erent from that which man w^ould 
 deem prudent. Good men have thought that the 
 cause of morality would be lost if we taught that God 
 conferred His pardon on any who had not first earned 
 it by consistent obedience. Others, less disposed to 
 insist on outward good works, still suppose that we 
 must lose all power to deal with a sinner if we allow 
 him to think that God has conferred on him any 
 privileges before his inward state of mind is such as 
 seems to them worthy of those privileges. But God's 
 method is freely to give to those who are unworthy, 
 and by His gifts themselves to make them w^orthy. 
 And His ministers find that exhortations addressed 
 to men's gratitude for what they have already re- 
 ceived, and pointing out the responsibility which such 
 
INFANT BAPTISM. 119 
 
 gifts involve, are quite as powerful as exhortations 
 addressed to men's hope of receiving benefits when 
 they have done something to deserve them. And if 
 those who are already walking worthy of their voca- 
 tion, and bringing forth fruits corresponding to union 
 with Christ, are asked to date the commencement of 
 their union with Him, though it would gratify the 
 pride of their nature to name the time when they 
 had done something for Him, or when, with conscious 
 intellect and affection, they first took hold of Him ; 
 yet they will find their love to Him drawn out more 
 fully by thinking rather how before they themselves 
 had done anything, He who first loved them embraced 
 them with the arms of His mercy, and made them 
 heirs of His salvation. 
 
 Brethren, I have spoken to jovl on a subject on 
 which there is confessedly diversity of opinion among 
 members of our Church ; nor can I suppose that 
 every one of my statements will be assented to by all 
 who hear me. But the amount of our disagreements 
 must not be exaggerated ; for on the most essential 
 points there is a perfect agreement amongst us. We 
 all believe that it is a lawful thing to bring our chil- 
 dren to Christ, and from their earliest years to dedi- 
 cate them to His service. We believe that He has 
 not only not forbidden us, but encouraged us to do 
 so. We believe that when we comply with His ordi- 
 nance it would be an insult to His promise to sup- 
 pose that the prayer of faith would not be attended 
 with a blessing. And if there be any difference 
 amongst us in defining the nature of that blessing, 
 or as to the name by which it may be most fitly 
 
120 SEEMON VI. 
 
 described, all agree that baptismal privileges avail 
 nothing to him who is not united to Christ by a lively- 
 faith. Brethren, if you, in whose name a profession 
 of faith in Christ was made in infancy, believe not 
 on Him ; if you, for whom it was promised that you 
 should keep His commandments, disregard His will ; 
 if you, for whom it was promised that you should 
 renounce sin ai-e the willing slaves of sin, more toler- 
 able will it be in the Day of Judgment for those who 
 have never heard the Saviour's name. 
 
SERMON VII. 
 
 THE PARABLE OF THE TARES. 
 
 "The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and 
 gather them up ? But he said, Nay, lest while ye gather up the 
 tares, ye root up also the wheat with them." — Matt. xiii. 28, 29. 
 
 When Jesus grieved His disciples Ly telling tliem 
 that one of their own number should be His betrayer. 
 He gave as one reason for His warning, " Now I tell 
 you before it come, that when it is come to pass ye 
 may believe that I am He." Shortly after, He pro- 
 ceeded to tell them, in plainer language, that He 
 must be removed from them ; and again He adds, 
 " And now I have told you before it come to pass, 
 that when it is come to pass ye might believe." 
 And then He went on to tell how they too must 
 suffer from the persecutions w^hich had assailed Him- 
 self, so that men should even think they did God 
 service by killing them. And a third time He gives 
 this reason for forewarning them, " These things 
 have I told you, that when the time shall come ye 
 may remember that I told you of them." 
 
 And no doubt when the time did come, the remem- 
 brance of these predictions often held up their faith 
 
122 SEEMON VII. 
 
 from sinking. They could not help recalling to mind 
 how in former days, when tliey had dreamed of no- 
 thing hut success, and immediate establishment of 
 their Master's kingdom, that IMaster had given them 
 warnings which they then believed not, and scarcely 
 understood, of approaching rejection to Himself, and 
 persecutions to them. Every fresh trial, then, which 
 they encountered did not, as it otherwise might have 
 done, suggest a doubt whether their cause were God's 
 cause, and whether their Master were able to deliver 
 them. It was but a new proof of the exactness of 
 His foreknowledge, and a new pledge of the certainty 
 of their arriving at that reward to which He had 
 promised through much tribulation to bring them. ^ 
 
 If we were making, without a guide, a journey 
 through a country unknown to us, we should suspect 
 that we had gone astray if the road which we had 
 taken, and which had seemed to lead us in the right 
 direction, suddenly appeared to lose itself in a morass, 
 or turned off in a direction opposite to that in w4iich 
 we wished to go. But if we had taken this road 
 by the direction of one well acquainted with it, 
 who had told us, at such a spot you will find the 
 road broken and difficult ; some way further on it 
 bends aside, and proceeds for some distance in a 
 different course; why then the very indications which, 
 if we were exploring for ourselves, would have made 
 us suspect that we had gone wrong — if forewarned of 
 them, we recognize as certain marks that we are in 
 the right way. 
 
 The times have gone by when the severest trial of 
 the faith of the followers of Jesus was the temporal 
 
THE PARABLE OF THE TARES. 123 
 
 adversity wliicli His Church must suffer. The days 
 of persecution have passed ; hut even if the Church 
 had to endure affliction and encounter opposition, 
 we have learned that temporal prosperity is not the 
 surest sign of God's favour. AVe know that there 
 are lessons which God is wont to teach His people in 
 the school of affliction ; and we have faith, too, to 
 helieve in the ultimate triumph of His cause. We 
 know that though the progress of the Church may he 
 slow and interrupted, it is still gaining ground, and 
 will one day fill the whole earth. But what is really 
 perplexing is, not that the progress of the Church is 
 so slow, hut that vice and error have found their 
 way into the Church itself. If the Church were all 
 truth and all purity, we could wait more patiently for 
 the day of her compbte victory. But at the very 
 moment that we are tempted to complain that the 
 houndaries of God's vineyard on earth are so slowly 
 enlarged, we look at the ground already included in 
 its limits, and to our perplexity we see the cultivated 
 land so overgrown with weeds as to be scarce distin- 
 guishable from the wilderness without. We profess 
 our belief that the Gospel is the means employed by , 
 God for the regeneration of the world. How, then, 
 are we to explain that the nations to whom that 
 remedy has been applied seem so little the better of 
 it : full of disunion and contention, fighting about 
 the theory of their religion, and even when they are 
 agreed as to the theory, allowing it to have very 
 little influence on their practice. When such is the 
 aspect of Christ's visible Church, does it not seem as 
 if the remedy, which we have been calling God's 
 
124 SERMON VII. 
 
 remedy, had been applied, and had failed? Now, one 
 great support to our faith in this perplexity, is that, 
 whether we can understand the reason of this state 
 of things or not, we have at any rate had warning of 
 it. From the very first our Lord warned His dis- 
 ciples that they were not to form in their minds any 
 different ideal of His Church. It was not to be a 
 scene of perfect truth and perfect holiness. The evil 
 were to be mixed with the good, and no complete 
 outward separation between them was to be made 
 before the time of the end had come. 
 
 I do not know that there is any chapter in the 
 Gospels, which, as often as I read it, conveys to my 
 mind a stronger impression of the Divine foreknow- 
 ledge of our Lord, than this 13th chapter of St. 
 Matthew. I think hardly any one can doubt that we 
 have here a genuine record of His teaching. The 
 parables are peculiarly His own. The New Testa- 
 ment represents to us none of the Apostles, or first 
 preachers of Christianity, as imitating their Master 
 in this form of His teaching ; nor do we find any of 
 the early uninspired Christian teachers having re- 
 course to this method of impressing their doctrines 
 on the minds of their hearers. The form, then, in 
 which these lessons are conveyed, is in itself evidence 
 of the source whence they come. Now it is most 
 remarkable that, in this very first series of parables 
 in which our Lord explains the mysteries of the 
 kingdom of heaven, He announces as the character- 
 istics of the Church which He is founding, those 
 very peculiarities which have caused so much per- 
 plexity to His disciples. He tells us that it is not only 
 
THE PARABLE OF THE TARES. 125 
 
 in the natural world that we may find examples of 
 what may be called the waste of the Author of Nature ; 
 not only there that we find instances of means which 
 He has appointed failing to produce their eff'ects, 
 such as innumerable seeds perishing without coming 
 to maturity; in the world of grace, too, a similar 
 spectacle presents itself. Among the hearts in which 
 the word of life is sown, many are unbenefited by it ; 
 the word has been thrown on the way-side, whence 
 the wicked one carries it away, or cast in stony places, 
 or choked by thorns, and so rendered unfruitful. If 
 it perplexes us now, that the evil in the Church are 
 so intermingled with the good, as to be distinguished 
 from them with difficulty, this also our Saviour 
 foretold in the parable read in the Gospel for to-day, 
 where He clearly intimates that such was the very 
 state of the Church which He contemplated, and 
 that such it was designed to continue to the end. 
 And the same truth is again represented in another 
 parable in the same chapter, that of the draw-net, 
 which, being cast into the sea, gathered of every 
 kind both good and bad, and it is only at the end of 
 the world that He declares the separation shall be 
 effected. 
 
 Now, let it be remembered, that the people among 
 whom Jesus came to minister, had been led by their 
 prophets to expect a time when all defilement should 
 be banished from the city of God. " Awake, awake, 
 put on thy strength, Zion ; put on thy beautiful 
 garments, Jerusalem, the holy city, for henceforth 
 there shall no more come unto thee the uncircum- 
 cised and unclean." " Violence shall no more be 
 
126 SERMON VII. 
 
 heard in tliy land, wasting nor destruction within 
 thy borders, but thou shalt call thy walls salvation 
 and thy gates praise. Thy people also shall be all 
 righteous, they shall inherit the laud for ever." 
 *' They shall call thee the holy people, the redeemed 
 of the Lord." " All thy children shall be taught of 
 the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children. 
 In righteousness shalt thou be established. Thou 
 shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear, 
 and from terror, for it shall not come near thee." 
 We know that the disciples who joined themselves to 
 Jesus did expect that He would fully realize all the 
 predictions of their prophets. We know also that, 
 from a very early period, the name by which the 
 members of their society recognized each other was, 
 the saints or holy ones. If, then, Jesus had been an 
 enthusiast whose imagination had been fired by the 
 prophetic delineations of future purity and glory ; or 
 if He had been one who wished to turn to His own 
 account the state of feeling which such predictions 
 had engendered ; He would have formed on this model 
 His account of the kingdom which He was to establish 
 on earth. At the very first step of His preaching, 
 we should have heard those promises which were 
 reserved for the close of the Canon relating to a time 
 then future : '' There shall in no wise enter into it 
 anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh 
 abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are 
 written in the Lamb's book of life." Instead of this, 
 this first series of parables seems all intended to 
 moderate the expectations of His followers, and to 
 prepare them for that corruption within the Church 
 
THE PARABLE OF THE TARES. 127 
 
 itself of wliicli we have had too melanclioly experi- 
 ence. The choice of topics, then, I say, in this 13th 
 chapter of St. Matthew, is so very unlike what a human 
 teacher would have made, as to he in itself no weak 
 proof of its Divine origin ; and the confusion and 
 disorder in the Church from heing a stumhling-hlock, 
 thus becomes a support of our faith; if the sight of 
 this confusion ever cause a doubt, we seem to hear 
 our Master say, '' Remember that I told you before." 
 
 If, then, we were unable to see any reason why 
 Christ should have permitted defilement to enter the 
 Church which He founded, we might still content 
 ourselves with the knowledge that He had foretold 
 that so it must be, and be satisfied in faith in Him 
 to wait for the time when many a thing which now 
 seems to us mysterious shall be cleared up. But I 
 believe that when we examine into the matter, we 
 shall find good reason to think that the very imper- 
 fections of the Church do enable her better to fulfil the 
 work which God has appointed for her in the world. 
 
 We might, indeed, sufficiently dispose of -the ob- 
 jections which infidels have brought against the 
 Church, founded on the imperfect success with which 
 she has fulfilled her mission, by replying that such 
 objections cannot consistently be made by any believer 
 in natural religion. It is a fact which every one 
 must admit, that God has left a multitude of man- 
 kind in ignorance of His true nature. It is a fact, 
 also, that moral evil has widely and lamentably over- 
 spread the world. Every one who believes in a God, 
 must hold that these facts are, in some way or other, 
 reconcilable with God's power and goodness. There 
 
128 SEEMON VII. 
 
 is no greater difficulty, then, in reconciling with the 
 attributes of God, the fact that the process, which 
 God may have employed for removing ignorance and 
 vice from the world, should be slow, gradual, and 
 interrupted. If God has told us that the process 
 which He has actually employed is of this kind, 
 there is no difficulty in believing it. Yet we cannot 
 but feel it a support to our faith, if we discover that 
 some of those things which at first appeared to us 
 to be imperfections in the means which God employs, 
 do really make them better fitted to do His work. 
 And, therefore, in dealing with the subject suggested 
 by the parable, namely, the corruptions which have 
 sprung up within the Church, I shall not content 
 myself with the reflection that Christ has foretold us 
 that these must needs be, but I shall try to show 
 that there is good reason to think that the Church 
 works more efficiently by casting her nets into the 
 world, and sweeping in bad as well as good, than if 
 she included in her society none but those who are 
 holy in act as well as in profession. 
 
 The imperfections in the Church, which have in 
 different ways been a stumbling-block to the faith of 
 Christians, are of two kinds : failures with respect to 
 truth and with respect to holiness. The deposit of 
 true doctrine which it was her office to preserve has 
 been tainted with an admixture of human error ; and 
 the practice of her members has too often become 
 relaxed and depraved. It is very important to observe 
 that these two kinds of failure are not independent 
 phenomena, but are so connected that the one could 
 not take place without the other. The truths which 
 
THE PARABLE OF THE TAEES. 129 
 
 our religion teaches have au important practical in- 
 fluence on the conduct of him who embraces them ; 
 while again we are taught that the desire to do our 
 Lord's will is the best guide to the perception of the 
 truth of His doctrine. The promise to Christians 
 that their understandings shall be illuminated by the 
 light of God's Spirit, is connected with the promise 
 that their hearts shall be sanctified by the washing 
 of the same Spirit. And in those Old Testament 
 descriptions of the glories of the Church, some of 
 which I cited just now, predictions of purity of life 
 and of purity of doctrine go together, giving us to 
 understand that it is the same period of the Church's 
 history in which it will be true of her that all her 
 people shall be righteous as that at which it shall be 
 true that all her children shall be taught of God. If 
 there were ever a time at which Christians should 
 corrupt or cease to hold the doctrines of the Cross of 
 Christ, then with the loss of the elevating and puri- 
 fying influence of these doctrines a degeneracy of 
 morals must be sure to follow. If there were ever a 
 time w4ien the morals of Christians should become 
 relaxed, so that though nominally members of Christ 
 they should be not truly holy, not truly united to 
 Him, they would have no promise of Christ's Spirit 
 of truth to enlighten them, and must be almost cer- 
 tain to corrupt the simplicity of His teaching. 
 
 I insist on this close connexion between purity of 
 morals and purity of doctrine, because, as you know% 
 Eoman Catholic divines have pursued a difierent course 
 W'hen dealing with the perplexity caused by the diversity 
 of religious teaching among Christians from that which 
 
 £ 
 
130 SEKMON VII. 
 
 they have followed when dealing with the per- 
 plexity caused by the unholiness of their lives. They 
 freely admit the existence of vice in the Church ; 
 they own that there were times when the morals of 
 Christians were frightfully corrupted, and when even 
 the highest seats in the Church were occupied by 
 monsters of iniquity. But they hold it necessary to 
 maintain that error can find no place in the Church ; 
 they do this by denying that any are true members 
 of the Church save those who agi-ee in doctrine with 
 them. They maintain that those promises which 
 speak of the perfect holiness of the Church must be 
 understood in some different way, or referred to some 
 different time from those which speak of its freedom 
 from error ; and they hold that those of its rulers 
 whose own lives were most scandalous, might still be 
 infallible guides to others when error is in question. 
 They act precisely as the servants in the parable 
 would have done, if they had argued that since the 
 householder had sown none but good seed in his 
 ground, it was impossible that tares should spring up 
 in the portion which he had sown ; and if they had 
 then partitioned off a certain portion of the field, 
 which was exclusively to be regarded as his planting, 
 and had asserted that everything which gi-ew within 
 these limits was necessarily pure corn. If they do 
 not follow the same course when the question ■ is 
 about the morality of Christians ; that is to say, if 
 they do not maintain that the practice of their head 
 is to be regarded the criterion of morality as much 
 as his teaching is as the standard of religious truth, 
 it is because there are certain moral truths which 
 
THE PARABLE OF THE TAKES. 131 
 
 God has written so plainly in the hearts of men, that 
 it is easier to get them to helieve an absurdity than 
 to obliterate permanently in their hearts the distinc- 
 tion between right and wrong. 
 
 We do not believe that God is so much more soli- 
 citous for the correctness of men's notions than He 
 is for the purity of their lives : we do not believe 
 that God hates error so much more than He hates 
 sin, that He has miraculously provided safeguards 
 against the intrusion of error into His Church, while 
 He acquiesces in her being overrun with sin. We 
 think that we should betray the cause of Christianity 
 if we were to concede to unbelievers their principle, 
 that it is incredible that God should give man a reve- 
 lation, and yet leave it in his power to mistake and 
 abuse its contents ; and if we were to take issue with 
 unbelievers on the matter of fact, whether the revela- 
 tion in which we profess our belief is protected by 
 infallible safeguards against such mistakes and abuses. 
 When we consider the matter also, we find reason to 
 think that the scheme of Christian truth does in- 
 fluence the heart more powerfully, and does incorpo- 
 rate itself more intimately with a man's whole nature, 
 when his mind has received it by a careful study of 
 God's Word, even though the process be attended 
 with a risk of error or failure, than if he had received 
 the whole system from another without risk and 
 without enquiry. 
 
 I do not wish now to enter into any formal discus- 
 sion of the question of the Church's infallibility. I 
 rather wish to assume, for my present purpose, those 
 results which we have obtained when engaged in 
 
132 SEKMON VII. 
 
 another controversy. In'arguing with Romanists, we 
 have often contended that since God has not provided 
 any infallible safeguards against the intrusion of sin 
 into His Church, we have no right to assume that He 
 must necessarily have provided infallible safeguards 
 against error. I would now use the same argument 
 conversely. We, as Protestants, admit that error has 
 been allowed by Christ to spring up within His 
 Church. We find that this liability to error forms 
 an important part of the moral discipline of Chris- 
 tians; that the exertions which it calls forth make 
 the man of God more perfect, and confirm him in 
 virtue, which is incompatible with the absence of all 
 temptation. This liability to error in the Church 
 being acknowledged, I have argued that it is a phe- 
 nomenon intimately connected with this other one — 
 that the Christian Church is not an assemblage of 
 perfectly holy persons, but one in which the evil are 
 inextricably mingled with the good ; and I wish now 
 to show that this admixture, like the liability to 
 error, is not without some compensating advantages. 
 The dream of an infallible Church is not the only 
 delusion into which men have been led by their dis- 
 regard of Christ's prophecy of tares that must grow 
 up among the wheat. They have been led into other 
 mistakes in their impatience to witness upon earth 
 the spectacle of a glorious Church, not having spot 
 or wrinkle, or any such thing, but altogether holy 
 and without blemish. They could not regard this 
 promise as fulfilled while sinners were tolerated as 
 members of the Church, still less while they offi- 
 ciated as her ministers. Hence when circumstances 
 
THE PARABLE OF THE TARES. 133 
 
 rfevealed, or party-spirit imagined, tlie existence of 
 scandals which Church discipline was too lax to era- 
 dicate, the sight of these tares unweeded out made 
 men douht whether this were indeed the Lord's vine- 
 yard. It is notorious in Church history how small 
 sects have arrogated to themselves the exclusive title 
 of the Church, or have claimed to be recognized as 
 the pure, the holy ; maintaining that other societies 
 of Christians, into wdiich things unclean and defiled 
 were allowed to enter, had by this laxity rendered 
 themselves unfit to be accounted any part of the 
 Church of God. Such attempts have been renewed 
 at intervals down to our own time ; for even still 
 there may be found little societies, ludicrously small 
 in number indeed, but who regard themselves as the 
 sole representatives of Christian purity, and who 
 would even refuse to join in prayer with others not of 
 their society, and of whose holiness, therefore, they 
 feel they have no assurance. But the predictions of 
 the growth and extent of the Church being quite as 
 express as the prophecies of her holiness, none of 
 these attempts could succeed which tried to appro- 
 priate to some narrow section of Christians the title 
 and prerogatives of the universal Church ; and con- 
 sequently, those who have been scandalized by the 
 corruptions of the visible Church have tried another 
 method with more success. It is, while leaving to the 
 visible Church its empty titles of honour, to form a 
 Church within the Church ; a society that is not per- 
 haps called indeed by the name of Church, but having 
 all its essential attributes, having under different 
 names its sacraments of admission, its terms of 
 
134 SERMON yii. 
 
 communion, its profession of special holiness, its al- 
 most exclusive hopes of salvation. 
 
 The most remarkahle of such attempts is the mo- 
 nastic movement. In the establishment of monastic 
 institutions all appearance of schism was avoided ; 
 the utmost respect was paid to those who bore rule 
 in the Church ; and yet, I think, what was done can- 
 not he fairly described in any other way than as tlie 
 foundation of a Church within the Church, the monk 
 being distinguished from ordinary Christians in pre- 
 cisely the same way that the Christian was distin- 
 guished from the heathen ; all the Scripture language, 
 likewise, which relates to the separation of the Chris- 
 tian from among the heathen world, being freely 
 applied to the separation of the monk from other 
 Christians. The monk was admitted to his profes- 
 sion by a public ceremony and solemn vows. He 
 received a new name. He undertook to hate father 
 and mother, and wife and children, and lands, and to 
 give up all to follow Christ. He entered into a new 
 brotherhood of holy persons, all bound by special 
 ties of love to each other. I need not remind you 
 that the phrase, a " religious person " came to be 
 appropriated to those who had made such vows as 
 these ; while the phrase, " the world," which in 
 Scripture is opposed to the Church, came to be applied 
 to those who had not taken monastic vows, such per- 
 sons being spoken of as still in the world. The 
 possibility of the salvation of such persons was not 
 denied, but it was spoken of in little more hopeful 
 language than we might now use when speaking of 
 the case of virtuous persons not members of the 
 
THE PARABLE OF THE TARES. 135 
 
 Christian Cliurcli. And now is it the case that by 
 this association of persons striving after the highest 
 holiness the amount of holiness in the entire Church 
 was increased ? I think we can scarcely say that it 
 was. By the separation from the general mass of 
 Christian society of many of the most holy and self- 
 denying of its members, I fear that the Christian 
 tone of those who remained was more lowered than 
 that of those who retired was elevated. To recur to 
 the illustration before employed, they partitioned off 
 that portion of the field which seemed to them to be 
 free from the admixture of foreign growth, and a 
 tw^o-fold evil in consequence followed. In the part 
 outside too hastily abandoned as irreclaimable, every 
 noxious plant grew unchecked ; w^hile in the part in- 
 side, too hastily assumed to be completely pure, tares 
 were growing also unchecked because unsuspected. 
 Some of the most attractive pictures of monastic 
 holiness which the historians of such bodies have 
 depicted, owe their attractiveness to this : that they 
 stand out in bright relief from the dismal background 
 of a nominally Christian world, sunk into utter god- 
 lessness by the withdraw^al from it of some of the 
 most earnest and pure of its members. While again, 
 within the monastic communities tares of two kinds 
 grew up. They were overrun with the sins against 
 which they were most on their guard, and with others 
 which they were not watching against. Repeatedly 
 must these orders be reformed on account of the 
 increase of the spirit of self-indulgence, verging upon 
 licentiousness, which was most alien to the spirit of 
 their institution. While long before other sins, which 
 
136 SEEMON vir. 
 
 they had not watched against^ had invaded them — • 
 uncharitableness, religious rancour, yiolent party- 
 spirit. Eepeatedly does Church history tell of acts 
 the most unchristian perpetrated by those bound to 
 the highest perfection. Meetings of Christians as- 
 sembled to discuss questions of theology requiring 
 the calmest deliberation, end in tumult and violence, 
 excited by the irruption of hordes of angry monks. 
 Chrysostom, sick and in banishment, prefers to en- 
 counter the certain hardships of a rugged journey, 
 and the probable risk of falling into the hands of 
 barbarian invaders, rather than venture to trust his 
 life to the tender mercy of a company of Christian 
 monks. 
 
 1 should consider that I was occupying your time 
 very idly, in pointing out the failures of a system 
 which I suppose no one in this congi-egation has any 
 inclination to make trial of, if it were not that the 
 same mistake, in which that system took its origin, 
 has been repeated often among ourselves. I mean 
 the mistake of impatience with the spectacle of a 
 mixture of tares and wheat, which the visible Church 
 presents ; the mistake of trying to be wiser than our 
 Master, and of striving to make a separation between 
 them ; not always, indeed, by trying to root out the tares 
 from the wheat, but more commonly by trying to root 
 out the wheat from among the tares, by partitioning off 
 those who are willing to live the higher Christian 
 life into some smaller visible society which may 
 claim that attribute of holiness which the visible 
 Church realizes so imperfectly. In multiplied ways 
 attempts have been made to form two classes of 
 
THE PARABLE OF THE TARES. 137 
 
 Christians. In some cases one sacrament has been 
 made to take the place of the other, and the body of 
 " communicants " have recognized each other as a 
 society distinguished from ordinary Christians, by 
 having undertaken higher pledges and made more 
 solemn vows. The Baptists, in closer conformity 
 with Scripture, have made baptism the rite of ad- 
 mission into their society ; but by so doing, they are 
 forced into a schismatical position, like that of the 
 Donatists of old ; they are forced to arrogate to their 
 own little body the titles and privileges of Christ's 
 Church ; they are forced to deny that persons, not 
 members of their communion, have received true 
 baptism, or are members of the visible Church ; and 
 if Christian charity compels them to admit that they 
 may, notwithstanding, be vitally united with Christ, 
 and receive through Him eternal life, they are ob- 
 liged to suppose that, instead of the visible Church 
 including what we may call the invisible Church 
 within it, it is the latter wdiich includes the former. 
 Instead of being able to compare the visible Church 
 to a tree, containing indeed man}^ barren and withered 
 branches, but still embracing the bulk of those 
 vitally united to the root, we can scarcely see the 
 true vine, surrounded as it is by a multitude of 
 plants preserving a healthy life, although without any 
 visible connection with it. In consequence of the 
 pressure of this difficulty, it has more generally been 
 preferred to leave baptism in its place as the rite of 
 admission into the visible Church of Christ ; but to 
 form some Church within the Church into which 
 admission is to be gained in some other way, as, for 
 
138 ' SERMON VII. 
 
 instance, by a profession of having experienced con- 
 version, the members of which inner society are 
 alone to be regarded as true Christians ; all others 
 being reckoned as the world. Let it not be supposed 
 that I would, for a moment, teach that it is enough 
 for any man to have been received by baptism into 
 the visible Church. The parable, in fact, teaches 
 the reverse. It teaches that that Church includes 
 tares as well as wheat ; it includes nominal Chris- 
 tians who are not real Christians ; a man may have 
 received every privilege that the visible Church can 
 offer, and yet be a castaway. But what the parable 
 also teaches us is, that Christ does not sanction our 
 premature attempts to make a separation between 
 the tares and the wheat. Just as men have craved 
 after some infallible guide to distinguish true doc- 
 trine from false, they have craved after some infallible 
 marks to distinguish the true professor from the in- 
 sincere. They have tried to form within the Church 
 societies more secure against the intrusion of hypo- 
 crisy than the society which He founded. They 
 have endeavoured to attain this end by adding to the 
 professions which are necessary to become a member 
 of His society, other more stringent professions. The 
 result of such attempts to convey to men some 
 stronger assurance that they are Christ's than their 
 membership with the Church can afford them, has 
 been to prove that our Lord has wisely withheld such 
 an assurance. The attempt to give it has been always 
 attended with a two-fold danger — the danger of false 
 security and self-deceit in the case of those who have 
 been admitted into the inner society ; the danger of 
 
THE PARABLE OF THE TARES. 139 
 
 repelling from Christ those who have not. We make 
 om- confession of Christ badly, if we do it in such a 
 manner as to lead others to deny Him. I find from 
 American books that it is no uncommon thing there 
 that one should ask another, '' Are you a Christian?" 
 and should receive the answer, "No, I do not as yet 
 make any profession of Christianity." Does not this 
 show that such persons have been taught by the more 
 pious of their countrymen to regard as absolutely no- 
 thing the stipulations and professions by which they 
 became members of the Christian Church ; and is 
 not the teaching the majority to acquiesce in a state of 
 acknowledged separation from Christ, a mischief not 
 counterbalanced by the closer union with Him, after 
 which the minority strive. For it seems to me as if 
 there the truly godly, of whom there are many there 
 as excellent as can be found in any country, had less 
 power than here to leaven the mass with their senti- 
 ments ; as if, in consequence, the tone of public 
 morality dropped lower ; and as if there the holiness 
 of the few were contrasted with more utter lawless- 
 ness in the case of others. However this may be, 
 I believe it remains true, that, whether in mediaeval 
 , times, or our own, every attempt to render the in- 
 visible Church visible, and to mark off the tares from 
 the wheat by some easily discerned line of division, 
 has done more harm than good. Often thus has the 
 smoking flax been quenched ; and the timid, through 
 fear of having to make a new profession, drawn back 
 from that which they had made already. 
 
 With one word of warning, then, I would conclude. 
 We have seen that, by God's appointment, the evil 
 
140 SERMON VII. 
 
 are so mingled witli the good, that no external' pri- 
 vileges are infallible marks of God's favour. Watch, 
 then, and examine yourselves, whether you be in 
 the faith ; prove your own selves. For, as what 
 Christ has told of the state of His Church was ful- 
 filled, unlike as it was to men's expectation at the 
 time, so that which is still unfulfilled of His pre- 
 dictions will surely be brought to pass. He has 
 warned us that the tares will not always be mingled 
 with the wheat. The reapers shall be directed to 
 gather the tares into bundles and burn them, but 
 to gather the wheat into the barn. When that day 
 of separation comes, may you, my brethren, be 
 found to have been Christ^ s, not in name only but 
 in reality, and to have been united here to Him by 
 ties which neither death nor aught else can dissolve. 
 
SERMON VIII 
 
 SECURUS JUDICAT ORBIS TERRARUM. 
 
 "But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest : for as con- 
 ceming this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against." — 
 Acts xxviii. 22. 
 
 These words, wliicli we read in the second lesson 
 for to-day, recall the memory of the time w^hen the 
 Christian Church did not possess some of those 
 notes which now strike the imagination of men most 
 forcibly — antiquity, extent, catholicity. In those 
 days, when the Christian advocate found an audience 
 willing to give him a patient hearing, the text shows 
 how the words in which his address was invited 
 implied that he had to encounter a formidable pre- 
 sumption against his case — "May we know what 
 this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is ;" '' for 
 thou bringest certain strange things to our ears." 
 
 And the position which the Christian preacher had 
 to assail was strong in the verj^ points where he was 
 weak. He seemed to undertake a hopeless task, when 
 he proposed that her magnificence should be destroyed 
 whom all Asia and the world w^orshipped. He seemed 
 to undertake a hopeless task, when he endeavoured to 
 substitute his upstart religion for beliefs whose origin 
 
142 SERMON VIII. 
 
 was lost in immemorial antiquity. It might indeed 
 be a matter of theoretical belief in the heathen worid 
 that their gods had not always held sway — that there 
 had been a time when Jupiter was still in private 
 station, and Juno yet a maiden, and when the infer- 
 nal shades were ruled by no kings. But these tales 
 of predecessors to the later dynasty of gods seem 
 only invented to exalt the prowess of the conquerors 
 by whom they had been overthrown, and to do greater 
 honour to the existing deities by recording their 
 achievements in times past. It is true, that in one 
 memorable poem the new dynasty is represented as 
 having dispossessed divinities more venerable, and 
 more friendly to man — as exercising its triumph in 
 all the insolence of lawless power — as doomed itself 
 one day to tremble before a foe who could devise 
 flame more piercing than the lightning, noise more 
 terrible than the thunder. But it may be questioned 
 whether this language is not used because it was so 
 opposite to the belief of the hearers that, like the lan- 
 guage put into the mouth of Satan in the " Paradise 
 Lost," it could not possibly be taken for a true re- 
 presentation of the facts. Where an English reader 
 is chiefly struck by the exhibition of the power of an 
 inflexible will to bid defiance to overpowering physical 
 force, a Grecian hearer would see only unbridled 
 insolence overtaken by just punishment. However 
 this may be, assuredly such were never the popular 
 conceptions of the gods. With the bulk of the heathen 
 world, the gods were the supreme, the alway-existing, 
 whose worship had dated from a period for anterior 
 to all historical record, angl of whose dominion none 
 
SECURUS JUDICAT ORBIS TEREARUM. 143 
 
 could predict an end. But the heathen religion 
 possessed the note of catholicity in a higher degree 
 than that of antiquity. All over the world, it was 
 believed, substantially the same gods were worship- 
 ped, although it might be under different names, 
 and although in different places a different order of 
 precedence might be assigned to the divinities. AVhen 
 the Greeks first came into contact with the elder civi- 
 lization of Eg}^pt, they believed that they found there 
 the same gods, and they persuaded themselves that 
 it w^as thence they had derived much of their mytho- 
 logy. It is needless to say how completely the gods 
 of Greece and Eome came to be identified, since it is 
 in quite modern times, and with no small efi'ort of 
 thought, that scholars have been able to distinguish 
 Here and Juno, Artemis and Diana, Hermes and Mer- 
 curius, Vulcan and Hephaestus. When the Romans 
 came to be acquainted with the northern nations, 
 they still made no question that their gods differed 
 only in name from their o^'n. Thus, Julius Caesar 
 reports that Mercurius was the god whom he found 
 most in honour among the Gauls ; that next to 
 him were worshipped Apollo and Mars, Jupiter and 
 Minerva ; and that about these the Gauls held nearly 
 the same opinions as all other nations. Tacitus 
 equally finds among the Germans Mercurius, Her- 
 cules, Mars, and even Isis. And the traces which 
 our language still exhibits of the times when Woden 
 and Thor were worshipped, may remind us that 
 Wednesday and Thursday were long accepted as the 
 exact equivalent to dies Mercurii and dies Jovis. Thus 
 then, as I said, the first preachers of Christianity 
 
144 SERMON VIII. 
 
 found their opponents urging against tliem the 
 argument from the notes of antiquity, extent, and 
 catholicity, with as much confidence as any hody 
 of Christians has ever pressed the same argument 
 against a dissentient minority. The heathen might 
 confidently affirm that that must he true which had 
 been believed from times prior to all history, and 
 among all nations: '^quod semper, quod ah omni- 
 bus, quod ubique." If a sect which everywhere was 
 spoken against dared to condemn the wdiole world, 
 it would seem that argument was unnecessary, and 
 that it would be enough to reply, " Securus judicat 
 orbis terrarum." 
 
 The subject which I wish to discuss to-day is, what 
 is the exact value of these notes of extent and catho- 
 licity of which I have been speaking. Are numbers 
 any test of truth ? Can the opinion of a minority be 
 safely rejected, simply because it is the opinion of a 
 minority? If my object were merely to repel the 
 argument from numbers as used against us by Koman 
 Catholics in controversy, it would be hardly neces- 
 sary to add anything to what has been said already. 
 We have seen already that this weapon was once 
 wielded by Pagans against Christians with infinitely 
 more effect than it has ever been wielded by one sect 
 of Christians against the rest ; and we shall presently 
 show that the very same argument may be urged with 
 equal force at the present day against the claims of 
 Christianity to be the religion of the world. The 
 early preachers of Christianity, in fact, occupied the 
 same position that was held by the Keformers three 
 or four hundred years ago, namely, that of assailants 
 
SECURUS JUDICAT ORBIS TERRARUM. 145 
 
 of prevalent and long-standing superstitions. Con- 
 sequently, it would be easy to quote from writings of 
 early fathers passages in which they insist on the 
 right of truth to prevail against any claims whatever 
 made on the score of antiquity or general acceptance. 
 They urged (the argument is Augustine's) that if an- 
 tiquity might prevail against truth, then murderers, 
 adulterers, and all wicked men might defend their 
 crimes ; for these are ancient practices, and began at 
 the beginning of the world : that the Devil himself 
 is called o apyalo<^ ; that ancient serpent, who was a 
 liar and a murderer from the beginning. '' Custom 
 without truth," says Cyprian, " is but the antiquity of 
 error." " Nobody," says Tertullian, " can prescribe 
 against the truth ; neither space of times, nor the 
 patronage of persons, nor the privileges of countries." 
 It would seem, then, that both reason and authority 
 would justify us in dismissing the argument from 
 antiquity or from consent as utterly worthless. And 
 yet undoubtedly we should mistake if we were to dis- 
 miss thus summarily an argument which has cer- 
 tainly some weight, and which has possessed and will 
 possess with men higher influence than that to which 
 it is justly entitled. For our opinions are influenced 
 even more by our sympathies than by arguments. If 
 an opinion be held by a number of persons whom we 
 respect and like, then without any process of reason- 
 ing to prove that we are right in deferring to their 
 authority, that opinion will tend to become ours by 
 natural assimilation. And we can easily imagine 
 cases where we should pronounce a minority not 
 entitled to a hearing, if it presumed to condemn a 
 
146 SERMON VIII. 
 
 vastly larger body. I take as an example the occa- 
 sion with reference to which the words were written 
 which I have already quoted^ " Securus judicat orbis 
 terrarum." These words if severed, as they have 
 been, from their context, and made into a general 
 rule, would lead to the most absurd results ; but taken 
 in their original connection, they are quite rational 
 and consistent with good sense. The Donatists in 
 Africa, as many of you know, had separated them- 
 selves from their brethren, on what was originally a 
 merely personal question, namely, whether the con- 
 duct in time of persecution of certain priests and 
 bisho^^s had not unfitted them for high office in the 
 Church. And when the Donatist excommunication 
 of the persons alleged to be guilty found no ratifica- 
 tion in the rest of the Christian world, these schisma- 
 tics went on to maintain that the whole Christian 
 world had profaned itself by communion with these 
 unworthy members, whom it had failed to expel 
 from its society. In opposition to such a notion, 
 St. Augustine had no difficulty in showing the 
 unreasonableness of condemning the whole Christian 
 world, because it had not taken a decisive part in a 
 controversy, respecting which it had but scanty infor- 
 mation. Were Christians far apart from Africa to be 
 supposed to have forfeited their privileges, because 
 they had not passed condemnation on men of whose 
 crimes many of them had never heard, and of whose 
 guilt they had no proof. If this were just, how could 
 the African separatists tell whether they might not 
 have forfeited their own privileges by a like remissness 
 in not taking part in some controversy, raging 
 
SECURUS JUDICAT OEBIS TERRAEUM. 147 
 
 perhaps in some distant part of the world, of which 
 the Africans knew as little as the inhabitans of that 
 part of the world knew of Africa. And he argues 
 that the whole Christian world might safely refuse to 
 accept the condemnation passed by the Donatists on 
 their neighbours, when they saw the rashness with 
 which they excommunicated distant nations who had 
 committed no offence at alL It was a fixed principle, 
 that it was better to endure the evil with patience, 
 than to run the risk of condemning the good indis- 
 criminately. And consequently the whole Christian 
 world could decide with confidence, that those were 
 not to be accounted good, whom they saw without 
 reason, excommunicating the rest of the world. This 
 is a fair summary of St. Augustine's argument.* And 
 we do not hesitate to apply the same rule in judging 
 of those little sects, which in modern times have 
 attempted to make in this life a complete separation be- 
 tween the evil and the good, and which maintain the 
 Donatist principle, that that Church has forfeited her 
 privileges which fails to expel unworthy members 
 from her communion. This principle is nearly incom- 
 patible with the existence of a Church at all.' Such 
 is the infirmity of human nature, that in a body be- 
 lieved to be wholly pure, the course of time inva- 
 riably discovers impurities ; so then, by the operation 
 of the rule that has been laid down, new separations 
 and excommunications become necessary; the Church 
 of the pure reduces its numbers from hundreds to 
 tens, and in some cases to units. In such cases the 
 whole Christian world may surely, without examina- 
 * Cont. Epist. Parmeniani iii. 24. 
 
148 SERMON VIII. 
 
 tion, smile at the excommunication which has been 
 passed upon it, and may confidently reject those who 
 trust in themselves that they are righteous, and de- 
 spise others. 
 
 And we may carry the same principle further. If 
 St. Augustine was right in refusing to listen to one 
 small sect when it excommunicated the rest of Chris- 
 tendom (though, indeed, the word small can only be 
 used comparatively, for the four hundred Donatist sees 
 formed no inconsiderable fraction of the whole Chris- 
 tian Episcopate) no more is a large sect to be listened 
 to when it excommunicates the rest of Christendom. 
 The Roman Catholic body, though the largest and 
 most united of the sects into which the Christian 
 world has been broken up, is still decidedly less than 
 the half of the whole, and we, like St, Augustine, may 
 refuse to listen to them when they excommunicate a 
 larger body than themselves. Thus I have shown 
 that the argument from numbers is one not to be 
 summarily rejected as wholly worthless, but that it is 
 one to which we ourselves on some occasions appeal. 
 
 And certainly this argument is one which practi- 
 cally is found to be most influential. It was through 
 the operation of this argument that Eome gained 
 some of the most distinguished of her recent converts 
 from our Church. Any one who will trace the his- 
 tory of that movement will find that the change in 
 position of the men of whom I speak, was induced 
 far less by processes of argument, than by a change 
 of sympathies which resulted from their being brought 
 into contact, either through the writings of antiquity, 
 or through foreign travel, with Christians differing 
 
SECURUS JUDICAT ORBIS TERRARTJM. 149 
 
 from tlie modern Anglican tj^e. It is so much our 
 nature that our opinions should be regulated by our 
 sympathies, that it seems impossible for the assertors 
 of the importance of a great and neglected principle, to 
 preserve sympathy with those who deny it. And hence 
 it would seem to be inevitable that there should be a 
 certain narrowness in the sympathies of every great 
 reformer. The most conspicuous example of this is 
 the Jewish nation, which perhaps never could have 
 fulfilled its mission as the apostle of monotheism in 
 the world, if it had not been fenced off from contact 
 with the surrounding idolatrous nations. It is need- 
 less to quote testimonies to the impression produced 
 on heathens by Jewish exclusiveness, when we have 
 St. Peter's acknowledgment — '* Ye Imow how that 
 it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to 
 keep company, or come unto one of another nation." 
 Now the reaction against Romish errors at the time 
 of the Eeformation entailed a similar intolerance on 
 the part of those who cast off the Papal yoke. They 
 felt that the distance between them and Rome could 
 not be made too wide. Rites or institutions, innocent 
 in themselves, and even venerable for their age, 
 were cast off as polluted, if they were identified in 
 their minds with Rome. They were reluctant to 
 acknowledge that Rome retained any fragments of 
 their common Christianity. Their spirit was ex- 
 pressed in the deprecation in the Litany of our first 
 reformed Prayer Book — " From the tyranny of the 
 Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities, 
 Good Lord, deliver us." And though, in the process 
 of time, the opposition to Rome lost some of its 
 
150 SEEMON VIII. 
 
 bitterness, still the questions at issue between us and 
 Eome were felt to be of importance surpassing that 
 of all others. Consequently, those writers who lived 
 before these questions were agitated, and who, there- 
 fore, spoke ambiguously on them, or who could be 
 claimed on the wrong side of them, were regarded 
 with distrust. While the champions of our Church 
 never abandoned the attempt to prove that antiquity 
 is really on our side, the feeling of the majority was 
 that " to the martyrs and confessors, to whom we owe 
 the Keformation, greater reverence is due than to any 
 guides which the Church has had since the Apostles ;" 
 and that if w^e can trace our religious principles to 
 them, " we trace them to the only human parentage 
 we need be very solicitous to establish for them." In 
 this neglect of antiquity, it came to many as a start- 
 ling novelty, when the publication of Milner's Church 
 History made known to them that Ambrose and 
 Augustine and Chrysostom were Christians who loved 
 the same Bible as themselves, and who had learned 
 from it to feed their spiritual life on the same Gospel 
 truths. Dr. Newman tells us that it was from this 
 work, the product of the Evangelical School, that 
 he himself was early fired with the love of the ancient 
 Church. • Thence he was led to take an interest in 
 studies which familiarized him with a type of Chris- 
 tianity different from that which his boyhood had 
 venerated. And as his acute and sceptical intellect 
 was ever subjugated by his lively and credulous 
 imagination, his views on modern controversies came 
 to be governed by uncertain analogies suggested by 
 the history of the early Church. What, if the iso- 
 
SECURUS JUDICAT ORBIS TERRARUM. 151 
 
 lated religious position of England were but the re- 
 production of that of the African Donatists of old, 
 severed from the whole Christian world. More and 
 more these words haunted his imagination — '' Secu- 
 rus judicat orbis terrarum." At length he resolved 
 to cast off his allegiance to the most venerable names 
 that were enthroned in honour by a single island, if 
 it were incompatible with his veneration of those who 
 were held in honour all over the earth. '' Perish," 
 he exclaimed, " perish a whole tribe of Cranmers, 
 Ridleys, Latimers, and Jewels ; perish the names of 
 Bramhall, Usher, Taylor, Stillingfleet, and Barrow, 
 from the face of the earth, ere I should do aught but 
 fall at their feet in love and in worship, whose image 
 was continually before my eyes, and whose musical 
 words were ever in my ears and on my tongue." 
 
 The same effect that was produced in this case by 
 the study of antiquity, has been produced in others 
 by foreign travel. The peculiar circumstances of our 
 Reformation isolated England as well from the re- 
 formed as from the unreformed on the Continent. 
 And while there was little intercourse with foreign 
 Christians, the isolation was not felt as a hardship. 
 We rather prided ourselves on being the only Church 
 which had combined apostolic order with apostolic 
 purity of doctrine. But it often happened to those 
 who were brought into closer contact with Christians 
 abroad, to be forced to recognize that there were 
 among them men who sincerely loved Christ, and 
 devotedly worked for Him, and thus to be more 
 struck with the points of likeness between us and 
 them, than by our points of difference. Then it was 
 
152 SERMON VIII. 
 
 felt to be painful and grievous that there should be 
 schism between us ; and the mistake was made of 
 imputing the fault of that schism to our rejection of 
 mediaeval novelties, and to our resistance to Papal 
 usurpations, and of overlooking that, in truth, the 
 Papal usurpations were the real impediment to unity ; 
 and so attempts were made to re-impose on us a 
 yoke, which neither our fathers nor we were able to 
 bear. 
 
 However successful the argument from Catholicity 
 may have been in gaining some converts for Rome, 
 it will be found that this is not the use of the 
 argument which is really most formidable. In this 
 case, as in many others, the arguments used by Dr. 
 Newman against Anglicanism are really arguments 
 against Christianity. Exactly in the same way as 
 some have made the comparative smallness of the 
 number of the members of our Church a reason for 
 not examining into her claim to conformity of doc- 
 trine with apostolic times, so have the claims of 
 Christianity herself been set aside by those who have 
 been forced to take notice how far it is, even at the 
 present day, from being the religion of the world. 
 Just as in the history of the contest between Angli- 
 canism and Romanism, so in the history of the 
 contest between Christianity and non- Christianity, 
 a change of feeling has taken place, first through 
 the influence of literature, next through that of 
 foreign travel. There was a long time during which 
 Christians, knowing and caring little about all who 
 lay outside their own pale, were content to think of the 
 whole heathen world as lying in unmixed wickedness. 
 
SECURUS JUDICAT ORBIS TERRARUM. 153 
 
 A great change of feeling took place when, in the 
 revival of learning, heathen poets and philosophers 
 came to he the favourite teachers of Christians. Not 
 to speak of many who were half paganized, even 
 the most orthodox could not think harshly of those 
 " whose musical words were ever in their ears and 
 on their tongue." 
 
 Thus, though Dante denies to the bulk of the 
 heathen sages admission into heaven, he makes their 
 position in limbo one of such dignity and honour, 
 that one of his commentators exclaims, that his 
 author is more courteous to poets who were not 
 Christians, than he is to saints who were not Ghibel- 
 lines. He gladly adopts the legend, that the emperor 
 Trajan had found through the prayers of Pope Gregory 
 admission into paradise. On his own authority, he 
 makes the poet Statins to have been a secret convert 
 to Christianity ; and he gives a place in paradise 
 beside David and Hezekiah to that Trojan prince 
 whom his favourite poet had described as '^justis- 
 simus unus," '*et servantissimus aequi." 
 
 In our own days, increased intercourse with non- 
 Christian peoples has inclined many to judge of them 
 more favourably. A European lady spends months 
 in the midst of Mahometans, and finds them pious, 
 courteous, and even tolerant. Lessons of genuine 
 piety and faith in God are quoted from the religioas 
 works of men who never heard of Pentateuch or Bible. 
 In nations which know not Christ are found men who 
 seem to be fearing God, and working righteousner.s. 
 Then arises the question, Can the exclusive claims 
 of Christianity be maintained ? Is it more than one 
 
154 SEEMON VIII. 
 
 of the forms in which the religious conceptions of 
 men have embodied themselves ? Do we well when 
 we try to force our European forms of thought on 
 Oriental minds, to which they are alien ? Have we 
 realized in thought the vast multitudes of ruillions of 
 our fellow-creatures, to whom our creeds are unknown, 
 or who have refused to receive them ? The number 
 of those in communion with Eome does not bear so 
 high a proportion to the whole of Christendom, as 
 that of those outside of Christianity does to the entire 
 population of the world. So that if Eome can silence 
 opposition by an appeal to the number of her ad- 
 herents, with far better right can those who reject 
 Christianity bar her exclusive claims with the maxim, 
 " Securus judicat orbis terrarum." 
 
 The purport of what has been hitherto said has 
 been but to illustrate the importance of the subject 
 proposed for discussion. To treat that question fully 
 would be impossible in the time that now remains to 
 me, and I can only attempt briefly to indicate the 
 principles that may guide us in the solution of it. 
 And in the first place, it must be acknowledged by 
 all that numbers are no test of truth. Of almost all 
 the truths that are now accounted most valuable, 
 there was a time when everywhere they were spoken 
 against. The greatest discoveries have had to force 
 their way against long opposition. What we hold to 
 be most certain truths, must be rejected if their re- 
 ception is to depend on the length of time for which 
 they have been admitted, or on the universality of 
 their acknowledgment. It is our universal belief now 
 that the apparent motion of the heavenly bodies is 
 
SECURUS JUDICAT ORBIS TERRARUM. 155 
 
 caused by a real motion of the earth, but that belief 
 is only of three or four centuries' standing : the doc- 
 trine, when first propounded, encountered violent 
 opposition, and doubtless at the present day the 
 number of those who hold it is but a small fraction 
 of the population of the earth. If it be true that 
 nothing is harder than to resist the sympathetic 
 influence of the opinions of the multitude among 
 which we live, on the other hand, men feel that their 
 highest honours are due to those heroic souls who 
 are able to resist that influence ; to an Athanasius 
 contra mundum ; to an Elijah maintaining the cause 
 of Jehovah single-handed against an apostate nation; 
 to him with whom, as with Abdiel, "nor number nor 
 example wrought to swerve from truth, nor change 
 his constant mind though single." We find, then, 
 that it is no presumption against the truth of any 
 doctrine that it was long overlooked ; that when dis- 
 covered, it met with violent opposition ; that it had 
 to force its way to acceptance by long and severe 
 struggles ; that at the present day it is far from being 
 universally admitted by mankind. 
 
 But it is a presumption against a doctrine if it 
 shows no tendency to gain this victory. We have 
 faith that that which is true will ultimately prevail. 
 If we see what we regard as error now reigning 
 widely, we can believe that its dominion will not be 
 lasting, if we can trace the causes which give it cur- 
 rency ; and if we can see that with increase of light 
 the half truths now misapprehended must be dis- 
 cerned in their full proportions. 
 
 With respect to Christianity, then, we must owu 
 
156 SERMON VIII. 
 
 that tlie success of her missionary efforts is the crite- 
 rion of her Divine origin. But the question by which 
 she must be tested is not what progress has she 
 ah-eady made in the world, but whether her capacities 
 for progress are exhausted. And surely, if we com- 
 pare what she is now with what she was at the time 
 to which the text refers, then everywhere spoken 
 against, the superstition of a handful of despised 
 men ; now triumphant over those parts of the earth 
 which are foremost in civilization, in expansive power, 
 and in all the arts of progress, we shall feel it to be 
 rash to assert that she cannot gain greater victories 
 now in her mature strength than she formerly did in 
 her infancy. It is true that much remains to be 
 done before she can be owned as supreme over all 
 the earth. Triumphant over Europe, and over those 
 countries which have been colonized from Europe, 
 she has still arrayed against her millions of the 
 eastern world. But we need not think of Christianity 
 as a product of western forms of thought, alien to 
 eastern minds. Christianity herself is a daughter of 
 the East. One of the first things that strikes western 
 travellers to oriental lands is the existence there, at 
 the present day, of manners and customs with which 
 our sacred books have made us familiar ; so that the 
 victory which our rehgion has gained on a continent to 
 which she was a stranger is an argument a fortiori 
 that she is not incapable of gaining a like victory in 
 the land of her birth. 
 
 Nor is it an argument against her that some of the 
 truths which she comes to teach have been owned 
 where she has not been ; that heathens should have 
 
SECURUS JUDICAT ORBIS TERRARUM. 157 
 
 spoken of the fatherhood of God, the consciousness 
 of sin, the fear of retribution, the hope of immor- 
 tality. Nay, rather we ought to hail with gladness 
 and hope those signs of preparedness to receive her 
 lessons. When a conflagration is spreading over some 
 vast prairie, it is no sign that its force is exhausted 
 if tongues of flame are seen to dart forward in ad- 
 vance of the line of fire, and ever and anon patches 
 kindle up where the conflagration has not yet reached. 
 The great Apostle of the Gentiles, when addressing 
 an heathen audience, did not seek to disparage the 
 knowledge they had already attained. He rather 
 sought to make that knowledge a basis for his own 
 instructions : " Certain of yoar own poets have said, 
 For we also are His ofi'spring ;" " whom ye ignorantly 
 worship, Him declare I unto you." He admits that 
 " that which may be known of God is manifest even 
 in the heathen:" that " the invisible things of Him 
 from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being 
 understood by the things that are made." And it 
 will be our wisdom in like manner to avail ourselves 
 of any element of truth or goodness that can be 
 found in the heathen world. These are too few, too 
 scattered, too little able to propagate themselves, to 
 cause any jealousy to the champions of Christianity. 
 The moral and spiritual condition of no pagan land 
 is such as to allow us to imagine that it stands in 
 no need of a Revelation. The patches of light which 
 here and there diversify the general gloom can be no 
 substitutes for the Gospel, but they may be witnesses 
 for it. These symptoms of preparedness to receive 
 the Gospel may strengthen our faith that the time 
 
158 SERMON VIII. 
 
 will come when the whole world will be subject to its 
 sway ; when all over the earth the anthem shall be 
 raised, '' Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent 
 reigneth. The kingdoms of this world are become 
 the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ, and He 
 shall reign for ever and ever." 
 
SERMON IX. 
 
 OLD TESTAMENT MORAL DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 •* And Jacob sod pottage : and Esau came from the field, and he 
 •was faint ; and Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with 
 that same red pottage, for I am faint ; therefore was his name 
 called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. 
 And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die ; and what profit 
 shall this birthright do to me ? And Jacob said, Swear to me this 
 day ; and he sware unto him ; and he sold his birthright unto 
 Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles ; and 
 he did eat and drink, and rose up and went his way. Thus Esau 
 despised his birthright." — Genesis xxv. 29-34. 
 
 A RECENT writer on the subject of miracles has ob- 
 served, that the fact that repugnance to believe in 
 the miraculous stories recorded in the Bible is more 
 general now than in former times, may in part be 
 accounted for by the greater prevalence now of the 
 power of historical imagination. And he defines 
 historical imagination as the habit of realizing past 
 time ; of putting history before ourselves in such a 
 light that the persons and events figuring in it are 
 seen as once living persons and once present events. 
 To the mass of persons the past presents an inani- 
 mate image ; a picture in flat, to which no sense of 
 
160 SERMON IX. 
 
 reality is attached, and where, consequently, the facts 
 represented do not raise the questioning which simi- 
 lar occurrences taking place now would raise. It 
 was the great historical novelist of the last generation 
 who put flesh and blood on the skeletons of the past — 
 who so peopled the scenes of former time with living, 
 breathing figures as to bring it home to us that 
 those scenes were once present, that those characters 
 formed the then living world. And since his time 
 the mode of writing history has been revolutionized. 
 Perhaps few of Dr. Johnson's judgments seem now 
 to us more extravagant than what appears to have 
 been not one of his paradoxes, but his real opinion, 
 that no great abilities are required in a historian ; 
 that in historical composition all the greatest powers 
 of the human mind are quiescent ; that the historian 
 has facts ready to his hand, and has no need of in- 
 vention ; that imagination is not necessary in any 
 high degree ; and that all that is wanting is that a 
 man should give the application which is neces- 
 sary, and tell his story in a graceful manner. Now, 
 on the contrary, we are accustomed to think imagina- 
 tion one of the most needful qualities in a great his- 
 torian. We expect him to make us feel that the men 
 of former days, however difi'erently circumstanced from 
 us, were men of like passions with ourselves. We are 
 pleased when points in their conduct, which former 
 historians had represented as inexplicable, are made 
 plain by being read in the light of the present day : 
 when, for example, the conduct of Athenian dikasts is 
 illustrated by that of English jurymen ; when the 
 panic fury which was caused by the mutilation of the 
 
OLD TESTAMENT MORAL DIFFICULTIES. IGl 
 
 Herm« is made intelligible by comparing it witli 
 that which would be raised in an Italian or Spanish 
 village, by a similar mutilation of their images of 
 the Blessed Virgin ; or when the ingratitude towards 
 the victors of Arginusae is explained by the indigna- 
 tion which would be felt in England if an admiral, 
 after a victory, should return to his moorings with- 
 out delaying to rescue the crews of any of his 
 vessels which had been shattered in the conflict, if 
 we are not making an impossible supposition in ima- 
 gining that English sailors could thus leave their 
 comrades to perish. Nor is it secular history only 
 which is now thus read in the light of the present 
 day. The venerable man who lately went from us, 
 and who showed how the youthful cultivation of a 
 poetical imagination might form part of the train- 
 ing of a great historian, startled and shocked our 
 fathers by calling Abraham an Arabian sheik or 
 emir.* His brother dignitary meets with general ap- 
 proval from the present generation, when he uses his 
 knowledge of the customs of the unchanging East to 
 bring before us more distinct and life-like pictures of 
 what Jewish prophets and patriarchs really were. 
 But now that we no longer look on the characters 
 recorded in Scripture as invested, by their intercourse 
 with Deity, with a mysterious sanctity, extending to 
 all their actions — now that we try to think of them 
 as real, living beings, moving and acting like our- 
 selves, it inevitably follows that we test their life by 
 the standards of the present day ; and so difficulties 
 
 * This Sermon was preached not long after the death of Dean 
 Milman. 
 
 M 
 
162 SERMON IX. 
 
 start to view which had been unnoticed in the dim 
 religious light in which we had before regarded them. 
 Mr. Mozley, whose remark I began by quoting, 
 has shown how this modern habit of thought, this 
 vivifying of past time, places obstacles in the way of 
 accepting testimony to miraculous occurrences. It 
 does practically what Hume's celebrated argument 
 undertook to do theoretically : it makes our present 
 experience the standard of all past time, and disposes 
 us to refuse to admit all that it will not justify. And 
 the same habit of thought explains why we hear so 
 much more now than formerly of the moral difficulties 
 of Scripture. We see those whose history the sacred 
 page records as if they were living before our eyes, 
 and we ask ourselves what we should think of men 
 who should now act as those who were said to be 
 specially beloved of God acted ? And when the ver- 
 dict is unfavourable, difficulties arise, not by any 
 means new, but far more widely and more vividly 
 felt ; not, as in former days, only to be met with in 
 the pages of cavillers against our religion, but dis- 
 tressing earnest and sincere believers in it. 
 
 It will be generally owned that Scripture does not 
 stamp with its approval everything which it records, 
 not even though the things were done by men who 
 had been favoured with supernatural help from God, 
 and other parts of whose conduct were commended 
 by Him ; and we can see that apologists in former 
 days gave themselves needless trouble, when they 
 thought themselves bound to find excuses for bad 
 acts of good men. It will be owned also, that it is 
 unfair to apply the moral standards of the niueleenih 
 
OLD TESTAMENT MORAL DIFFICULTIES. 163 
 
 century after Christ, to the acts of men who lived 
 several centuries before Him ; but the habit of 
 thought of which I spoke makes it difficult to bear 
 this rule in mind, and the more distinctly we conceive 
 the reality of the life of past times, the more we are 
 tempted to apply to it our own rules and measures. 
 This remark of course assumes that in morals, as in 
 other things, God's method of teaching the world 
 has been gradual, and that those who received His 
 earlier revelations, are on a lower level than those 
 who have been taught by Christ. It would be out of 
 place if I were to attempt now to remove the diffi- 
 culties suggested by the fact, that God did not from 
 the first make His revelation as full and complete 
 as we might have thought desirable. Butler, in his 
 Analogy, has suggested several considerations to* 
 solve or mitigate these difficulties. But as to the 
 matter of fact, that God's method of revelation has 
 been thus progressive we need not doubt, since we 
 find our Blessed Lord applying this principle to the 
 morality of the Old Testament. He declares that a 
 lower morality was necessarily tolerated, on account 
 of the imperfect moral training of those for whom 
 Moses legislated, and in this way explains why 
 divorce was permitted by the Mosaic law. When the 
 Puritans two centuries ago assumed that everything 
 recorded without disapproval in the Old Testament, 
 might be taken as a model for Christian conduct, 
 they thought to do honour to the Bible, but was it 
 not really to do dishonour to Christ ? He came as 
 Prophet as well as Priest and King, and in this 
 capacity taught lessons of the purest morality. But 
 
1G4 SEKMON IX. 
 
 should we have a right to reverence Him as a great 
 moral teacher, if they who have thoroughly imhibed 
 His lessons, stand on no higher level than those who 
 lived before His precepts were delivered. When we 
 admit that God's method of training the world has 
 been gradual, we need not wonder that when men 
 had more lessons than one to learn, He often taught 
 them but one at a time ; first impressed that which was 
 most needful to be learned, and waited till later to 
 instruct them in the second. One great lesson He 
 taught the world through the instrumentality of the 
 Jewish people, the fundamental principle of mono- 
 theism — a sublime doctrine, which history shows not 
 to have been the product of advancing civilization, 
 reducing by a process of generalization the many 
 gods which had been worshipped to one. Monothe- 
 ism was the doctrine of the Jews as far as we can 
 trace their history back, and they declared that their 
 ancestors had received it by Kevelation, while their 
 much more civilized conquerors continued to worship 
 an ever-increasing number of gods ; and even after 
 Christ's coming men looked back to the belief of 
 those simple days, when "there was no such crowd 
 of gods as then, and the heavens were content with 
 fewer deities." Yet this early belief of the Jews was 
 a tradition maintained with difficulty, in opposition 
 to a constant tendency of the nation to assimilate 
 their practices to those of their idolatrous neighbours. 
 God's dealing with this people for a series of years 
 was directed to the end of fencing them off from 
 other nations, so that the sacred deposit entrusted 
 to them might be preserved free from corruption. 
 
OLD TESTAMENT MORAL DIFFICULTIES. 165 
 
 We have no right to complain that, while the Jews 
 were busy in being taught those fundamental prin- 
 ciples on w^hich Christianity, with all its beneficial 
 consequences to the world, is based, they were not 
 taught, at the same time, those lessons of tenderness, 
 humanity, regard to the sacredness of life, in which 
 our modern western world differs so much from our 
 own ancestors a hundred years ago, not to say from 
 the ancients. In this respect the Jews of old ranked 
 low as we should count it, but not lower than other 
 eastern nations of the same time, but rather higher. 
 You may ask, if you will, why God did not teach, 
 through the instrumentality of Moses, all that was 
 afterwards taught by Christ, or rather why the same 
 lessons were not taught long before Moses. But once 
 admit that there may be anything gradual in God's 
 mode of instruction, and it seems plain that lessons 
 on the universal brotherhood of men were not suited 
 to the time, when the great object was to keep the 
 Jews distinct from other people, and when, if the 
 Jews were to be brothers to the surrounding heathen, 
 they must be brothers to them in wickedness and 
 in abominable idolatry. 
 
 St. Chrysostom furnishes an example which enables 
 us to compare two methods of solving Old Testament 
 moral difficulties, and which exhibits how defective 
 is that which applies Christian measures to the con- 
 duct of Old Testament saints, and tries to persuade 
 us that they satisfy it, but omits to take into account 
 the elevation which Christ's doctrines have given to 
 the moral tone of His disciples. He undertakes to 
 defend Abraham for having allowed his wife to be 
 
166 SERMON TX. 
 
 taken from him by the kinf]^ of Egypt, and he admits 
 that he ought not to have done so, if by the sacrilice 
 of his Hfe he conld have saved her. But he argues 
 that the sacrifice would have been useless, since 
 Abraham's fear was that they would kill him, and 
 take her. The two crimes then, mur-der and adultery, 
 being threatened, Abraham showed his wisdom, when 
 he could not avert both, in at least averting one of 
 them ; and further, in diminishing as far as he could 
 the Eg}^ptians' guilt in that adultery, by concealing 
 from them the fact that Sarah was his wife, and only 
 owning that she was his sister. Such a defence, 
 which we can scarcely read without a smile, must 
 have given to any thoughtful man who heard it the 
 pain which is felt when difficulties are forcibly stated, 
 and met by unsatisfactory solutions. But we can 
 hear him with pleasure when, taking different ground, 
 he owns the inferiority of those who lived before 
 Christ's revelation : — " Do not blame the righteous 
 man's pusillanimous spirit, but rather admire the 
 goodness of God, who, through Christ, has made 
 death, which was then so terrible, now so easily de- 
 spised. With Abraham the fear of death could master 
 the tyrannical passion of jealousy, which is strong as 
 death, ' cruel as the grave;' which is 'the very rage 
 of a man,' and will not regard any ransom, nor be 
 pacified with gifts. Under the old dispensation, 
 Jacob trembled when death was threatened him by 
 Esau, and Elijah fled in terror before the threats of 
 Jezebel. But Christ has opened to us the hope of 
 immortality. He has taught us that death is a 
 passage from the worse to the better. He Himself 
 
OLD TESTAMENT MORA.L DIFFICULTIES. 167 
 
 descended to the prison-house, and broke the gates 
 of brass ; and now, since He has stripped death of 
 his terrors, not only will Paul exclaim, ' I long to 
 depart and be with Christ, which is far better,' but 
 even youths and tender maidens will smile at meeting 
 that which the greatest saints of the old dispensation 
 trembled to encounter." 
 
 I have not thought it necessary to explain the 
 connection with the text of the remarks I have made 
 on the moral difficulties of the Old Testament. The 
 course of our Sunday lessons brought before us to-day 
 a chapter containing wiiat cannot be called a very 
 perplexing moral difficulty, but still matter in which 
 most persons feel themselves somewhat out of sym- 
 pathy with the narrative. Just as when David and 
 his brethren passed before Samuel, those whom man 
 had chosen were rejected by Him who seeth not as 
 man seeth ; so now, too, we feel that had we been 
 judges w^e should have decided differently between 
 Jacob and Esau, and our sympathies are with the 
 brother whom the Lord rejected. And when we read 
 the narrative which I have coupled with that read for 
 the lesson — a story of two brothers, of whom when 
 the elder returned from hunting, the younger refused 
 to give him the food he desired until he had bartered 
 away his birth-right as its price, our condemnation is 
 ready for that unnatural brother, who could turn his 
 brother's necessities to his own advantage, make a 
 hard bargain with him, and wring from him a price 
 out of all proportion to what he was receiving in its 
 stead. But the Bible has no word of censure for 
 Jacob. It is airainst Esau that the historian cannot 
 
168 SERMON IX. 
 
 suppress liis indignation : *' Thus Esau despised his 
 birth-right." And his name passes into a by- word : 
 " A profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of 
 meat sold his birth-right." 
 
 It must be owned that of the two gi'eat virtues of 
 uncivilized life, bravery and craft, in one of which 
 Esau excelled and in the other Jacob, the former is 
 that which most readily enlists our sympathies ; and 
 the bold, daring hunter excites a more romantic 
 interest than the quiet, thoughtful herdsman. Yet 
 it is not only the Grod of Scripture, but the God of 
 Nature, who gives a triumph to the qualities which 
 we are slowest to admire. The wild beast which the 
 hunter pursues may be his superior in courage and 
 strength, but is conquered by the hunter's patient 
 cunning. And a recent writer has well pointed out 
 what a step in civilization is gained when the hunter 
 gives way to the herdsman : — '' The hunter's habits 
 are those of a beast of prey, every beast on the earth, 
 every bird in the air, being an enemy against which 
 his club will be raised or his arrow drawn. On pass- 
 ing into the state of a herdsman, he finds himself 
 surrounded by a number of animals of tender breed, 
 whom he must pity and tend, bearing with their 
 humours under pain of their loss. If he would feed 
 on their milk and eggs, if he would clothe himself in 
 their wool and skins, he must make it his business 
 to save and guard them, must seek out herbage and 
 water for them, consider their times and seasons, 
 and prepare for them a shelter from the heats of 
 noon and the frosts of night. Thus the man's rela- 
 tions to the lower world undergo a change. Where, 
 
OLD TESTAMENT MORAL DIFFICULTIES. 169 
 
 in his hunter state, he sharpened his knife against 
 every living thing, he has now hecome a student of 
 nature, a nursing-father to an ever-increasing family 
 of beasts and birds." 
 
 But to come to the Scripture narrative, there is no 
 reason for thinking that the birthright which Esau 
 despised had any reference to the possession of this 
 world's goods. It would seem that Esau inherited his 
 father's wealth, and that Jacob's riches were all his 
 own hard earnings in a foreign land. The birthright, 
 I conceive, had reference first to the priestly office, 
 which, under the patriarchal dispensation, the first- 
 born seems to have exercised ; but principally to the 
 promise of that seed, in whom all the families of the 
 earth should be blessed — a promise which, no doubt, 
 the children of Isaac could not understand in its full 
 meaning ; but he who had faith in the God of 
 Abraham and of Isaac knew that it contained deep 
 treasures of good things to come. And it was be- 
 cause Esau was wanting in this faith that he did not 
 value the promise, and was willing lightly to part 
 with it. For the whole tenor of the history gives us 
 to understand that Esau's necessities were by no 
 means so great as he would himself have ns suppose 
 when he says, ''Behold, I am at the point to die, and 
 what profit shall this birthright do me ?" The case of 
 Esau, who, for one morsel of meat, sold his birth- 
 right, was rather that of one whose heart is so madly 
 set on the present gratification of some appetite, that 
 he thinks life not worth possessing without the object 
 of his desire, and that he must have it no matter 
 what price he pays. In fact Esau, as represented in 
 
170 SERMON IX. 
 
 the history, while not destitute of amiable qualities, 
 shows traces only of a mere animal nature, wholly 
 engrossed with the pursuits of this passing scene, 
 and unable to aspire to the lofty hopes for which the 
 promises to his father gave warrant. And so he has 
 a kind of value for his birthright. It is a thing 
 belonging to him which he is sorry to lose, and is 
 vexed at being deprived of. But yet he does not in 
 real truth feel the value of it. And when he is forced 
 to choose whether he will give up this, or some 
 coveted present pleasure, he chooses the object he 
 really does care for^ and exclaims, " What profit shall 
 this birthright do me?" And thus we can under- 
 stand how it was that one, of this sensual animal 
 nature, unable to appreciate spiritual blessings, should 
 have been rejected as unworthy to inherit the pro- 
 mises, and Jacob, with all his faults, preferred in his 
 stead. 
 
 But there is no reason for supposing that the Bible 
 gives its approbation to these faults. We meet in the 
 Bible as we do in real life with actions of a mixed 
 kind, deserving commendation in one point of view, 
 and not in another. Such cases may be expected to 
 occur frequently in the Old Testament ; for the im- 
 perfection of the moral training of God's earlier peo- 
 ple consisted in this, that certain truths were strongly 
 grasped, but the pressure of surrounding evils some- 
 times prevented them from giving due weight to the 
 corresponding counter-truths. And so, to use the 
 words of a recent writer, " Their conduct thus pre- 
 sents a blended texture of good and evil. On the 
 side of good we rank the strong faith in God, the 
 
OLD TESTAMENT MORAL DIFFICULTIES. 171 
 
 strong resolve that righteousness should conquer, the 
 steady determination to root out wickedness. The 
 evil was, that righteousness was not always tempered 
 by mercy, nor faith by truth, nor retaliation by justice. 
 But so far as any of these acts received the expres- 
 sion of God's approbation, we may rest satisfied that 
 His blessing lighted simply on the virtue, while His 
 patient forbearance with His creatures' ignorance for- 
 gave them the accompanying sin."* 
 
 In the present case, Jacob was rewarded for his 
 faith in God's promises, and for his appreciation of 
 them, when they seemed to bring no immediate 
 advantage ; not for the deceit by which he tried to 
 secure them. In this he showed not his faith, but 
 his want of faith. That superiority to his brother, 
 which was the object of all his scheming, had been 
 promised him before his birth. He could not be con- 
 tent, as his grandfather, Abraham, would have been, 
 patiently to wait God's time for the accomplishment 
 of His promises ; but when years went on, and no 
 sign of their fulfilment appeared, he must help God's 
 plans out by his own schemes and contrivances. Deceit 
 did not gain him the promises — they had been his 
 before. It gained him only twenty years of exile 
 from the promised land. It forced him to fly in 
 terror from his father's roof, it filled his return with 
 fears at the lasting wrath of a justly ofi'ended brother. 
 Deceit was made the instrument of his punishment ; 
 it met him in Laban's house, disappointing him of the 
 wife, for whom he had served, defrauding him ten 
 
 * Hannah's Bampton Lectures, p. 177. 
 
172 seHmon IX. 
 
 times, as he complained, of the wages for which he 
 had bargained, and it well nigh brought his grey 
 hairs to the grave in sorrow for the pretended death 
 of a living son. The Scripture narrative itself, then, 
 teaches us that God's approbation was not given to 
 the means which Jacob used to gain the promises, but 
 only to this, that he really did value the promises 
 of God, little fruit in this life though they seemed to 
 bring — that he set his affections on them, and 
 earnestly strove to obtain them. 
 
 You, brethren, are inheritors of promises more 
 full, more distinct, more glorious, than those that 
 inspired the hopes of Jacob. He scarce knew at what 
 he was grasping. He had but dim and shadowy per- 
 ceptions of future glory, and prosperit}^, and deli- 
 verance for himself and his race ; he knew not in 
 what form, or at what time to be realized. But what- 
 ever it was, it was a promise of blessing from God, 
 and he had faith to know, that come in what form it 
 might, that was a thing worth striving and working 
 for. Those things, which Jacob, seeing afar off, 
 could but faintly discern, we who have been brought 
 nigh by the blood of Christ, can clearly see. We 
 know exactly what the promises meant that were held 
 out to him, and we have addressed to ourselves pro- 
 mises of things not less precious. A revelation has 
 been made to us in Him of a love surpassing hurhan 
 experience ; a love undaunted by danger, unrepelled 
 by the un worthiness of its object ; the love of Him 
 who braved tortures, and shame, and death for the 
 sake of enemies, for the sake of ungrateful rebels 
 to His authority, which wearied not till it had 
 
OLD TESTAMENT MORAL DIFFICULTIES. 173 
 
 sought out and brought home its wanderers. The 
 promise hekl out to us is to have a perpetual share of 
 that love, to have Jesus as our friend, our counsellor, 
 our consoler in this life ; to have His Spirit as our 
 support against temptation, our guide in perplexity ; 
 and when the house of our earthly tabernacle is dis- 
 solved, to have prepared for us a house made of 
 God, eternal in the heavens ; to know that death is 
 not our enemy, but only the servant who will bring 
 us close to Him, to be hailed by Him as conquerors 
 over the same enemies against which He fought — sin 
 and the world, and Satan — to partake of the glory 
 into which He entered, to be crowned by Him with 
 the victor's wreath, and sit down w4th Him on the 
 same conqueror's throne, no further enemy remaining 
 to give battle, no danger being left to make our hap- 
 piness insecure. These are the promises held out to 
 us. Brethren, do you care for them ? None of you 
 will say you do not ; you have been taught from 
 your earliest years to look on these promises as yours. 
 Such was the case of Esau : from his childhood he 
 had looked on the birthright as undoubtedly his. No 
 doubt he would at any time, if he had been asked, 
 have said, that he cared for his birthright until the 
 moment of trial came, which proved how little real 
 value he had for it. Brethren, is it only in the same 
 w'ay, that you care for the promises of the Gospel ? 
 Is it that you have a knowledge that they are things 
 which you ought to care for, and that so you regard 
 them with a traditionary respect ? or is it, that in 
 your own hearts you do long for them, and covet the 
 attainment of them ? Because, brethren, if it is only- 
 
 i/ 
 
174 SERMON IX. 
 
 in the former way you care for God's promises, it is 
 easy to predict what the result will be if temptation 
 comes, and if you are compelled to choose between 
 things you really do in your hearts long for, and 
 things which you have taught yourselves to say you 
 wish for, or which you have merely a feeling that you 
 ought to like. Passion will plead strongly that the 
 objects which it covets are essential to the happiness 
 of your life, that you are on the point to die if they 
 be denied you, while the hopes of the Gospel pro- 
 mises retire into cloudy indistinctness, and you say, 
 What profit shall this birthright do me ? Never, per- 
 haps, are you aware of the act you are committing ; 
 never does it occur to you what you are giving up ; 
 you merely put these distant hopes from your thoughts, 
 and resolve to take your fill of present enjoyments, 
 and trust that while you greedily seize on the things 
 of earth, the things of heaven will not cease at some 
 day to be yours. But all the time you may be com- 
 mitting the very act that Esau committed — for one 
 morsel of meat to sell your birthright ! Beware 
 that it be not your case also, afterwards to find no 
 place of repentance, though you seek it carefully with 
 tears. 
 
 Esau is a remarkable instance how that may be 
 highly esteemed among men which is despised in 
 God's sight. Esau, no doubt, held a high place in 
 the respect and admiration of the generation in which 
 he lived. The favourite son of a wealthy chieftain, 
 the bold hunter, the daring captain, the successful 
 warrior ; frank, manly, and generous in his cha- 
 racter, Esau might surely feel that he deserved to be 
 
OLD TESTAMENT MORAL DIFFICULTIES. 175 
 
 respected ; he might surely feel that he was ahove con- 
 tempt ; and yet it is precisely to undying scorn and 
 contempt that Esau's name is handed down in the 
 pages of inspiration as the unthinking fool, who for 
 one morsel of meat sold his birthright. 
 
 And not less miserably foolish is the choice of any 
 man who has allowed himself, in the pursuit of pre- 
 sent enjoyments, to forget the promises made to those 
 who love our Lord. Hovrever successful the earthly 
 career of such a man, however enviable his qualities, 
 he is still in the number of those, who w4ien 
 those that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, 
 shall awake to shame and everlasting contempt. Let 
 not Satan then delude you, brethren, into imagining 
 that any object he can present to your desires is 
 worthy to shut out from your thoughts hopes infi- 
 nitely more precious. If you would secure yourselves 
 against this folly, learn to make Jesus habitually pre- 
 sent to your minds. For if you look on the Gospel as 
 merely containing a promise of some unintelligible 
 kind of happiness to be enjoyed in heaven after death, J 
 such a hope is too vague and too remote to compete 
 successfully with the objects of our present desires. 
 It is if you have learned to find pleasure in commu- 
 nion with our Blessed Lord now, and to know the 
 earnest of His Spirit, as containing a pledge and fore- 
 taste of future happiness, because itself conveying 
 happiness of the same kind as that to be enjoyed 
 hereafter —it is then that you feel yourselves to be not 
 only inheritors, but possessors of a treasure, which you 
 will not be lightly tempted to surrender. Pray then, 
 breihren, to Him who has promised freely to give 
 
176 SERMON IX. 
 
 His Spirit to them that ask Him ; that that Spirit 
 may reveal to you the things of Christ, may make 
 you to know His love, which passeth knowledge ; and 
 thus filling your heart with love for God's promises, 
 give you the hest security for doing that which He 
 commands. 
 
SERMON X. 
 
 OBEDIENCE 
 
 " Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; 
 for they vi^atch for your souls, as they that must give account, that 
 they may do it with joy, and not with grief, for that is unprofitable 
 for you."— Hebrews xiii. 17. 
 
 The most important event in the modern history of 
 the Church of these islands is a revolt against autho- 
 rity. By their declaration that no foreign bishop or 
 potentate has any rightful authority in these realms, 
 our ancestors broke the yoke of obedience to a power 
 which had been the growth of centuries, and had 
 been submitted to by the consent of Western Chris- 
 tendom. At the same time, by an act of private 
 judgment, they cast aside beliefs, for which could be 
 pleaded long prescription, and which were supposed 
 to have the sanction of what was reckoned the highest 
 Church authorit}^ It requires an effort of the 
 imagination for us to understand, in any degree, how 
 very bold and daring that act of rebellion was. Sin- 
 ful and shocking as it seemed to many a good man 
 at the time, we, however, look back to it as the 
 
 N 
 
178 SERMON X. 
 
 origin of the greatest blessings to our Church. To 
 it we owe our free access to the Word of God, our 
 firmer grasp of some of the most important religious 
 truths, our abandonment of some demoralizing super- 
 stitions, and (what has proved more valuable than 
 correct views as to any one truth) freedom of thought. 
 We read with pleasure in the Bible, how the Bereans 
 are commended for their nobleness, in that they 
 thought it right to verify for themselves the teaching 
 of inspii-ed Apostles, by searching whether the Scrip- 
 tures bore out their assertions. And we, too, do not 
 regard any human authority as having a right to 
 debar our access to the fountains of truth, or as having 
 a right to require our acceptance of unproved asser- 
 tions. We demand proof, and claim a right to weigh 
 the proofs offered us, and assure ourselves that they 
 are satisfactory. We are conscious that the freedom 
 thus claimed for the exercise of thought on religious 
 subjects, has largely contributed to our intellectual 
 l^rogress. One science after another has been eman- 
 cipated from bondage to theology, while all have 
 made rapid advances, since it has been understood 
 that reputation is to be no longer gained by retailing 
 the dicta of some venerated authority, but by enquiry, 
 research, and independent thought. The course of 
 our Church history has then had this effect upon her 
 members, that the dangers we most dread are those 
 resulting from the abuse and overstraining of autho- 
 rity ; the extreme we think most unsafe, is that of 
 blind submission, while, by a natural reaction, the 
 just claims of authority run the risk of being slighted. 
 For certainly, to Protestant ears such a text as, 
 
OBEDIENCE. 179 
 
 " Obey tliem that have the rule over you," (the rulers 
 spoken of being, as. the context proves, spiritual 
 rulers,) is less acceptable than such a text as, '* Prove 
 all things, hold fast that which is good." 
 
 The tendencies which have been produced by the 
 religious history of the nation, have been confirmed 
 by our political history. There was a time when it 
 was fashionable to descant on the absolute right of 
 the civil ruler to exact under all circumstances the 
 obedience of his subjects ; not indeed their active 
 obedience when his commands were manifestly unjust 
 and wicked, but at least their passive obedience ; that 
 is to say, their unresisting submission to his dealings 
 with them of whatever kind they might be. These 
 speculations as to the theory of the relations between 
 a ruler and his people, were suddenly overturned by 
 the practical experience of misgovernment. Our 
 civil history, as well as our religious, has witnessed a 
 successful revolt against authority. AVe have had a 
 revolution as well as a reformation. And we are 
 persuaded that the bulk of our people enjoy more 
 security, greater happiness, greater material pros- 
 perity under the constitution under which we live, 
 than they could ever have attained, if they had 
 patiently submitted to the government which they 
 then rejected. Hence from the time of which I speak, 
 the duty of subjects to obey their rulers is a doctrine 
 which we hear much less frequently inculcated ; the 
 advantages of self-government, and the blessings of 
 civil and religious liberty, have been much more 
 favourite topics of declamation. The tendencies of 
 which I speak as existing among ourselves, have 
 
180 SERMON X. 
 
 received still greater development on the other side of 
 the Atlantic. The people of the States which have 
 separated from us can boast of yet one more suc- 
 cessful revolt against authority than we; and they 
 with justice look to that revolt as the foundation of 
 their greatness as a nation. Constantly recurring 
 with triumph, as they do, to this period of their his- 
 tory, they have learned from it to pride themselves 
 on asserting their freedom from control, and their 
 resolution to submit to no dictation. And the feel- 
 ings engendered by their political history they apply 
 to religious matters. There is but small veneration 
 for antiquity or authority. Each citizen chooses his 
 religious guide as he will, follows him as long as he 
 will, and forsakes him when he will. Such men, 
 it may be supposed, are not likely to give a very 
 favourable hearing to the exhortation of the text, to 
 submit themselves obediently to other men whose 
 office it is to rule them, and to watch over their souls. 
 It might seem now that the facts which I have 
 brought forward involve some presumption against the 
 wisdom of the command given in the text. Two nations 
 of the present day, holding the first rank in civilization 
 and power, find that the course of training which 
 has led to their greatness, has indisposed them to 
 accept this command, and has taught them to prefer 
 to a submissive spirit, a spirit of independence and 
 readiness to resist aggression. And, on the other 
 hand, it has been observed, that the nations which 
 in religious matters have paid the greatest reverence 
 to long established authority, are, in the things of 
 
OBEDIENCE. 181 
 
 this life, the most backward, and that the}^ lag 
 behind in the race of civilization. Now, since 
 Scripture and experience have taught us that ''right- 
 eousness exalteth a nation," or, in other words, 
 that compliance with God's commands, as a general 
 rule, leads to happiness in this world as well as 
 in that which is to come, there would be a pre- 
 sumption that a system is not really of Divine origin 
 if it can be said with truth that it generates in those 
 who adopt it, habits inconsistent with their temporal 
 prosperity. It is proper, therefore, to remark that 
 it would be a misrepresentation to say that the 
 English people are characterized by unwillingness to 
 submit to authority. What they have been unwilling 
 to submit to is the unlaivful exercise of power. In- 
 deed one cause of this unwillingness is their respect 
 for law, and their readiness to resent a violation of 
 law. This respect for law is essential to the true 
 greatness of any people. AVhere it has been wanting 
 the absence of restraint on the ambition of the power- 
 ful, and on the violence of party conflict, has soon 
 proved fatal to the state. This respect for law is as 
 essential to the stability of one form of government 
 as of another. The republican institutions of our 
 American kinsmen have been hitherto made to work 
 well, because, on the whole, the supremacy of law 
 was cheerfully maintained by the people, and the rage 
 of party strife was confined within the limits which 
 their constitution imposed. Notwithstanding excep- 
 tional irregularities, the feeling of the majoritj^ has 
 been that what is ordained by law must be submitted 
 to, even by those whom its working unfavourably 
 
182 SERMON X. 
 
 affects. Even the present unhappy civil war* has 
 served to manifest how strong was the general con- 
 viction that this obedience to law is a citizen's first 
 duty. For a peaceable separation between the two 
 parties might not have been impossible, if it had not 
 been for the strong feeling on the one side that law had 
 been violated, whence arose a sense of unjust treat- 
 ment and consequent resentment against antagonists, 
 who, it was complained, had upheld the constitution 
 as long as it gave power to themselves, and desired to 
 overthrow it the moment power passed into the hands 
 of their rivals. Thus, then, those very nations which 
 might be instanced as having made great progress in 
 civilization and prosperity, and as owing that pro- 
 gress to their spirit of fiery independence and unwil- 
 lingness to submit to control, will be found on 
 examination to be characterized by deep respect for 
 the authority of law. If in any parts of either 
 nation that respect does not prevail, it is in the 
 rudest, least civilized, and least prosperous parts of 
 them. But, indeed, it does not require experience 
 on a large scale to establish a truth which forces itself 
 on our daily observation. Men cannot co-operate 
 together successfully for any purpose, unless they 
 comply with the rules which regulate their joint co- 
 operation. Obedience is the key- stone of every so- 
 ciety. In some kinds of societies, such as an army, 
 obedience is almost a necessity of their existence. But 
 compliance with rule is essential to the prosperity of 
 
 * This expression indicates the date when the Sermon was 
 preached. It is needless to say what illustrations a later struggle 
 would furnish of the strength which a community gains by discip- 
 line and habits of obedience to rule. 
 
OBEDIENCE. 183 
 
 eveiy kind of society, small or large. It is as essential 
 to the prosperity of a cricket club as of an empire. 
 
 It is only then what might be expected, that the 
 same rule should hold in things Divine as in things 
 temporal. If human society is held together by the 
 bonds of laws, and threatens to fall to pieces when 
 those laws are disobeyed, far less can we venture to 
 disregard the laws of Him whom to obey is life, 
 whose service is perfect freedom. He has, indeed, 
 as it were, set us the example of obedience to law ; 
 for such is the regularity and uniformity of His oper- 
 ations, that we find it most natural to speak of laws 
 of nature, as if the Author of nature were governed 
 in His actions by eternal laws which He had pre- 
 scribed to Himself. But still more, when God was 
 manifest in the flesh, did He set us an example of 
 obedience. To do His Heavenly Father's will was 
 the object for which He lived on earth ; and not 
 less did He submit Himself to His earthly parent, 
 and to every human authority, to which the circum- 
 stances of His sojourn here gave a claim on His 
 obedience. When, therefore, on His departure from 
 the world He formed His people into a society, the 
 very fact that He did not connect each separately 
 with Himself, but formed all into one body, of which 
 He was to be the head, implied that every Christian 
 comes under the obligation to obey the laws of the 
 body of which he has been made a member, and 
 which, like every other society, cannot continue in 
 prosperity if its laws are disregarded. 
 
 The duty to obey God's laws is one which none of 
 His creatures can have the presumption to dispute ; 
 
184 SERMON X. 
 
 but it is common with many to draw in their minds 
 a sharp line of distinction between God's laws and 
 man's laws, and to profess their readiness to comply 
 implicitly with every command which can be proved 
 to come directly from God ; while they regard the 
 rejection of that which rests only on human authority 
 as rather a meritorious assertion of independence. 
 In controversies which have raged respecting different 
 ecclesiastical institutions, infinite pains have been 
 taken to find Scripture warrant for particular obser- 
 vances, because it has been felt that if a direct Divine 
 command were not in this way made out, there would 
 be left for them, in the minds of many, no authority 
 at all. Now while it is our duty, no doubt, to com- 
 ply with God's commands wherever He has ^iven us 
 any, we must remember that it is one of His com- 
 mands that we shall obey the lawful authority of man. 
 A law to this efi'ect was one of the ten commandments 
 given on Mount Sinai ; and the Apostle has declared 
 that there is no power but of God ; that the powers 
 that be are ordained of God ; that whosoever resisteth 
 the power resisteth the ordinance of God, and that 
 they that resist shall receive damnation. The same 
 Apostle, when treating of the duties special to dif- 
 ferent states of life, wherever he inculcates submis- 
 sion on any — whether on wives towai'ds their hus- 
 bands, children towards their parents, servants towards 
 their masters — always teaches them to regard the 
 service which they offer as paid to the Lord, who has 
 instituted these earthly relations : " With good will 
 doing service as to the Lord and not to men, know- 
 ing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth the 
 
OBEDIENCE. 185 
 
 same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be 
 bond or free." " Obedience for God's sake to a man, 
 clothed with the same circumstances and the same 
 infirmities with ourselves, is a greater instance of 
 humility than to obey God immediately, whose power 
 is infinite, and whose very presence would force obe- 
 dience from us ; just as it is both greater faith and 
 gi-eater charity to relieve a poor saint, for Jesus' sake, 
 than to give anything to Christ Himself if he should 
 appear in the robes of glory and demand it from us." 
 " When saw we thee an hungered or athirst, and did 
 not minister unto thee ?" was the cry of those who 
 had hardened their hearts when the saints, in whose 
 person Jesus had besought them, had pined in their 
 presence. " When didst thou command us, and we 
 refuse to obey ?" may be in like manner the excuse 
 of those who have stiftened their neck, when com- 
 manded by those in whose person Christ Himself 
 commanded them. There would be, after all, little 
 charity and little obedience in giving or obeying at 
 Christ's personal demand, which scarcely any would 
 venture to reject. But true faith is exhibited in 
 recognizing Christ in the calls of daily duty ; in 
 knowing that when we see a brother in need, and 
 shut up our compassion from him, we refuse to hear 
 our Lord's represeneative ; that when wo refuse to 
 obey the lawful authority which He has placed over 
 us, we refuse to obey Him ; in knowing that every 
 duty of the place in life which He has assigned us is 
 work given us to do for Him. Our rule of life, then, 
 is God's law, wherever He has expressly made known 
 to us His will ; but where God's law is silent, our 
 
186 SERMON X. 
 
 rule is man's law, which, when established by right- 
 ful authority, has the full weight of Divine sanction. 
 What has been said as to the sanction impressed 
 by God Himself on the laws of man applies to the 
 laws of secular governments, of which primarily it 
 was said " the powers that be are ordained of 
 God." But specially it applies to the laws of the 
 Church, which is a society which our Saviour Him- 
 self has founded and endowed with special power. 
 If there had been no express revelation of our Lord's 
 will on this matter, we might have inferred from the 
 mere fact that our Lord instituted this society, that it 
 was entitled to demand from its members that obedi- 
 ence which is necessary to the prosperous existence 
 of every society. But this inference has been drawn 
 for us in several passages of Scripture. When our 
 Lord sent forth His disciples at the first, He gave 
 them all the claims on the obedience of those to 
 whom they were sent which were due to Him, whose 
 ambassadors they were. " He that heareth you hear- 
 eth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me, and 
 he that despiseth me, despiseth Him that sent me.'^ 
 And at His last Supper our Lord repeated the same 
 words, "Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that 
 receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me, and he 
 that receiveth me, receiveth Him that sent me." 
 To which may be added the well-known promise, 
 "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound 
 in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth 
 shall be loosed in heaven." The tenor of these pro- 
 mises plainly forbids us to limit the obligations of 
 Christians to obedience to the commands which our 
 
OBEDIENCE. 187 
 
 Lord may have given in person during His stay on 
 earth. We are here taught to yield like obedience 
 to the commands of the society which He formed and 
 invested with such high authority. 
 
 The question, however, arises. Was the power 
 which our Lord then gave, confined to the Apostles 
 on whom it was, in the first instance, bestowed, or 
 is it to be acknowledged as still remaining in force at 
 the present day ? Here we make a distinction ; with 
 regard to doctrines to be believed as necessary to sal- 
 vation, we hold, that the Apostles delivered to their 
 converts all that was necessary to be believed ; that 
 they kept back nothing that was profitable to them, 
 and shunned not to declare unto them the whole 
 counsel of God. We hold, that the way of salvation 
 is the same now as it was then. We believe that, 
 through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall 
 be saved even as they. If, then, we would know 
 what we must believe in order to be saved, it is suf- 
 ficient if we know what the Church in the Apostles' 
 days believed; and we acknowledge in the Church of 
 later times no power of making new articles of faith, 
 or of developing old doctrines into forms quite unlike 
 their original. And again, since we have no trust- 
 worthy record of what the Apostles taught but the 
 Bible, we hold that in the Scriptures alone all neces- 
 sary articles of faith may be found ; and that no Church 
 or teacher has a right to require any man to receive 
 as an essential truth any doctrine that is not taught 
 in the Bible, or else drawn by fair inference from it. 
 
 But the case is difi'erent when we are speaking, not 
 of essential doctrines, but of ceremonies or other 
 
188 SEEMON X. 
 
 similar ordinances. Without some regulations on 
 such matters, a Church could not exist as a society ; 
 and we have seen that her Founder gave her full 
 power to frame such as she might require. These 
 may be changed from time to time as expedience 
 may suggest ; but as long as they are ordained by 
 lawful authority, arc binding on individual members. 
 The private members of the Church would not be 
 justified in demanding a Scripture authority for each 
 of her regulations, before they would yield obedience 
 to it, because we have no right to expect to find a 
 complete code of such regulations in the Bible ; and 
 in point of fact we know that none such is to be 
 found there. Nor again, can they refuse obedience, 
 because the observances enjoined are not the most 
 edifying, or the most expedient that could be chosen. 
 When the laws of any society are being framed, it 
 is of course right that the framers of them should 
 strive to make laws as wise and as convenient as pos- 
 sible ; and if it should in practice be found that the 
 working of some laws is inconvenient, it is right 
 that individuals should use their influence to have 
 them altered ; but still as long as they are laws, 
 private members of the society cannot, without a 
 breach of the duty which they owe to it, refuse to 
 obey them. ''Although the keeping or omitting a 
 ceremony in itself considered is but a small thing, 
 yet the wilful and contemptuous trangression, and 
 breaking of a common order and discipline is no 
 small offence before God. ' Let all things be done 
 among you,' saith St. Paul, ' in a seemly and due 
 order.' The appointment of which order pertaineth 
 
OBEDIENCE. 189 
 
 not to j^rivate men ; therefore no man onglit to take 
 in hand, nor presume to appoint or alter any puhlic 
 or common order in Christ's Church, except he he 
 lawfully called and authorized thereto." Only one 
 thing can justify our refusing to ohey the commands 
 of the Church, or of any other lawful authority ; it 
 is if man's law should be in opposition to God's 
 law ; then our course is clear, we must obey God 
 rather than man. We have in the Articles of our 
 Church the double limitation very clearly expressed, 
 which God's revealed law places on the authority of 
 the Church. With regard to rites and ceremonies, 
 the only limitation is that it ought not to ordain any- 
 thing contrary to God's Word written ; while, with 
 regard to doctrines, it is, that besides the same, it 
 ought not to enforce anything to be believed for 
 necessity of salvation; or, in other words, that it 
 ought not to enforce anything not contained in the 
 same. Thus, at the time of the Eeformation, the 
 multitude of ceremonies had grown to a burdensome 
 excess, and many of these ceremonies were far from 
 edifying ; yet this alone would not have justified a 
 separation from the Church. It was not on these 
 grounds we broke off communion with Kome ; it was 
 because she herself had made communion impossible, 
 because (to mention no other reason) we could not 
 join in her public worship without offering the wor- 
 ship due to God alone, to that which we believe not 
 to be God. 
 
 I may seem to have been stating principles so 
 generally acknowledged as to be hardly worth dwell- 
 ing on; but it would be easy to give instances to 
 
190 SERMON X. 
 
 show that they are very often lost sight of. For ex- 
 ample, a great many Protestants would think that 
 they had done a good thing if they had convinced a 
 Roman Catholic that one kind of food was as accept- 
 able in God's sight as another — one day as another ; 
 and that, therefore, it was irrational to comply with 
 his Church's oi'dinance of abstaining from flesh on one 
 day of the week. Nay, some would even be pleased 
 if they had prevailed on him to disobey in practice, 
 though his conscience might be far from satisfied. 
 Or, again, they might be shocked at finding him 
 learning in his catechism the commandments of God 
 and the commandments of the Church, and would 
 urge on him to observe the former alone. The case 
 is much the same as this : Suppose you have the op- 
 portunity of instructing the child of one whom you 
 believe to be a bad man, ought you to teach that 
 child never to obey his parent ? It might happen, of 
 course, that the parent might be so depraved that the 
 child ought absolutely to be removed from under his 
 control ; but still this is not always possible : and it 
 happens often, for example, to directors of ragged 
 schools to give instruction to children whose parents, 
 it is to be feared, will teach them to lie and steal. 
 What I suppose any one would say would be the right 
 course to pursue with such a child, is to teach him 
 to reverence God's law ; to instruct him that there 
 are some things which he must not do, even if a 
 parent commands ; but that in all indifferent matters 
 he ought dutifully to obey his parent, so that it 
 might be plain that where obedience was refused, it 
 was not from disrespect, but from reverence to a higher 
 
OBEDIENCE. 191 
 
 law. And in dealing with a Roman Catholic, the 
 point to assail is not disciplinary regulations, which 
 it fairly comes within the province of a Church to 
 make ; but if you can show him that his Church re- 
 quires of him that which it would he sinful of him to 
 comply with, then you give him a reason for with- 
 drawing from her communion and refusing her com- 
 mands. 
 
 It is implied in what has been here said, that in 
 the case of no man or society of men, is an individual 
 justified in obeying man's authority so implicitly as 
 to take no heed whether man's law be not in opposi- 
 tion to God's. Yet an opposite doctrine has been 
 taught by those who have most highly exalted the 
 virtue of obedience, I mean by those who have writ- 
 ten about monastic obedience. These writers, in 
 describing the qualities of perfect obedience, before 
 insisting that a meritorious obedience shall be prompt 
 and zealous, and so forth, make it the first requisite 
 that it shall be blind obedience. The individual is 
 required by one act to abandon all exercise of his own 
 conscience ; and having thus put out the eyes of his 
 soul, to resign himself blindfold thenceforward to the 
 guidance of another. Each member of a well-known 
 order is to be as passive an instrument in his supe- 
 rior's hands as a staff in the hands of an old man. 
 Legends are told how this unreasoning obedience has 
 been justified by miracle ; how the monk who, at his 
 superior's command, daily watered the sapless staff 
 thrust into the ground found it grow into a tree ; how 
 he who ran across the lake to execute his superior's 
 commands, found the waters bear up his steps. For 
 
192 SERMON X. 
 
 such a theory of oheclience as this we find no autho- 
 rity in Scripture. The command to obey those who 
 have the rule over us is not compHed with by volun- 
 tarily undertaking obedience to those who have not 
 the rule over us by any appointment of God's, and 
 whose commands cannot always be satisfied without 
 withdrawing obedience from some who have a just 
 claim on our obedience. But even if the power 
 blindly submitted to were not thus radically desti- 
 titute of authority, the kind of obedience offered 
 could not be justified. Those very words so often 
 quoted, " We ought to obey God rather than men," 
 were used to men possessed of no usurped power, but 
 to the highest authority of the Jewish Church and 
 nation. And this alone is sufiicient to show that the 
 obedience we are to ofi"er to even the best grounded 
 authority is not to be blind, mechanical, and irra- 
 tional, but enlightened, and liable to be withdrawn 
 should we at any time discover that the guides whom 
 we are following are leading us astray from the ways 
 of God. 
 
 Yet the practice of even such obedience as this 
 has its attractions. The theory was framed by men 
 who well understood human nature ; and there has 
 been no want of men to adopt it in its most slavish 
 extent. Many of us are apt to take for granted that 
 the happiest thing is to be self-governed, and to be 
 subject to no control ; but if we look to the opinions 
 of the bulk of mankind, including both sexes, we 
 shall find that the vast majority are of the opposite 
 opinion. They show that they feel that the happiest 
 thing is to be well governed ; to be able to lean on 
 
 N^ 
 
OBEDIENCE. 193 
 
 some intellect which they can respect ; to be able to 
 look up to some authority, of the wisdom of whose 
 decisions they can have no doubt, and which shall 
 relieve them from the anxiety of doubt and the ter- 
 rible weight of responsibility. We recognize in this 
 the natural sanction which God has attached to His 
 law of obedience ; and if this pleasure, with which 
 by His ordinance obedience is accompanied, has led 
 men to the excess of obeying where they ought not, it 
 is only in analogy with what takes place in other 
 cases. Our Creator, in His goodness and benevo- 
 lence, has attached pleasure as a natural sanction to 
 those laws which are necessary for our preservation ; 
 and His goodness in so doing is not impeached, be- 
 cause men often, for the sake of this pleasure, indulge 
 their appetites in an excessive and injurious degree. 
 
 I have now endeavoured to state some of the limi- 
 tations with which the command in the text is to be 
 understood. Let me, in conclusion, recommend the 
 command itself to your prayerful consideration and 
 self-examination ; that wherever God in His provi- 
 dence has in any way made you subject to authority, 
 you may endeavour, as in His sight, cheerfully to 
 comply with all its lawful demands ; with good-will 
 doing service as to the Lord, and not to men. 
 
SERMON XL 
 
 THE YOUNG RULEE. 
 
 " And behold, one came and said unto Him, Good Master, what 
 good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And He said 
 unto him, Why callest thou me good ? there is none good but one, 
 that is God ; but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the command- 
 ments. He saith unto Him, Which ? Jesus said, Thou shalt do 
 no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, 
 thou shalt not bear false witness, honour thy father and thy mother ; 
 and, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man 
 saith unto Him, All these have I kept from my youth up ; what 
 lack I yet ? Jesus saith unto him. If thou wilt be perfect, go and 
 sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have 
 treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. But when the young 
 man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful; for he had great 
 possessions." — Matthew xix. 16-22. 
 
 When we read in St. Matthew's Gospel, that our 
 Lord, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw first Peter 
 and Andrew, then James and John, engaged with 
 their nets, that He commanded them to follow Him, 
 and that they straightway forsook all and followed 
 Him, our first impression is, that those whom He 
 personally called by His voice, were enforced to obey 
 the calling in some way different from His manner 
 of dealing with those whom He now calls by His 
 
THE YOUNG RULER. 195 
 
 Spirit. In St. Matthew's brief account we are not 
 told of any previous knowledge of our Lord possessed 
 by these disciples, and it seems like a miracle, that 
 they should give up every thing on the summons of 
 a stranger. But from St. John's fuller account of 
 this early part of our Lord's history, we learn that 
 the disciples had heard Him described by John the 
 Baptist as the Lamb of God which taketh away the 
 sin of the world ; and had received his testimony 
 that the descent of the Holy Spirit had marked Him 
 out as him who was to baptize with the Holy Ghost. 
 On John's testimony they had joined themselves to 
 Jesus, had accompanied Him in His journey from 
 the Jordan to Cana of Galilee, had seen His first 
 miracle ; and it was not until after all this gracious 
 training that He gave them His command to follow 
 Him, and become fishers of men. In the case of 
 others, the command to follow our Lord was not 
 obe^^ed without a struggle. One asked permission 
 first to bury his father ; another, first to bid farewell 
 to those of his own house. In the history read as 
 my text, the invitation was actually refused. Thus 
 the things written aforetime are written for our learn- 
 ing, inasmuch as the dispensation, the history of 
 which is recorded, does not v/holly differ in kind 
 from that under which we live. Then, as now, the 
 constrainirg love of Christ drew some after it without 
 a struggle ; some after hesitation ; some decided to 
 embrace this present world, though casting regretful 
 eyes on the higher path which they abandoned ; others 
 seemed unable to lift their eyes at all above the things 
 of earth. 
 
196 SERMON XI. 
 
 When we compare the accounts given by the Evan- 
 gelists of any history which they all relate, we almost 
 always find reason to see what a mistake there is in 
 the popular notion which regards Mark's Gospel as a 
 mere abridgment of Matthew's or Luke's. It will 
 almost always be found on examination that Mark 
 throws in some vivid touches peculiar to himself, 
 which clearly show that we have the testimony of an 
 eye-witness (most probably, according to early tra- 
 dition, of St. Peter) to things which he himself 
 beheld. In this story, for example, St. Matthew says, 
 '' Behold one came and said to our Lord ; " St. Luke 
 says, " A certain ruler asked our Lord ;" but Mark 
 says, " AVhen He was gone forth into the way, there 
 came one running, and kneeled to Him, and asked 
 Him." St. Mark brings vividly before our eyes the 
 picture of our Lord going along, followed by His dis- 
 ciples, and this young ruler coming running up, and 
 kneeling down before our Lord, earnestly imploring 
 His answer to his question. St. Mark again alone 
 tells the look of love that Jesus cast upon him — 
 " Jesus beholding him, loved him." This is one of 
 several occasions in which St. Mark records the very 
 look and feelings of Jesus. A little further on in this 
 same story, we are told, Jesus looked round about and 
 saith to His disciples, "How hardly shall they that 
 have riches enter into the kingdom of God." Once 
 more in this history St. Mark tells with peculiar vivid- 
 ness the astonishment of the disciples at our Lord's 
 words. He had said that the disciples were astonished 
 at His words. Then Jesus repeats, " It is easier for a 
 camel to enter into the eye of a needle, than for a rich 
 
THE YOUNG RULER. 197 
 
 man to enter into the kingdom of God," and St. Mark 
 repeats, " They were astonished out of measure, say- 
 ing, Who then can be saved ? " 
 
 In the history before us, we have the testimony of 
 Origen that according to his copies there was a dif- 
 ference between the story as told by Matthew, and by 
 Mark and Luke ; a difference still to be found in our 
 most ancient manuscripts, but which has disappeared 
 in the great mass of modern manuscripts, and conse- 
 quently in the authorized version. It is a common 
 thing for differences between the Gospels to disap- 
 pear in the process of transcription ; for the copyist, 
 writing from memory, without carefully looking at 
 the page before him, was often in danger of substi- 
 tuting for the words of the Evangelist he was copying 
 the familiar language of another. In the present 
 case, whereas, according to our authorized version, 
 all the Evangelists agree in making the question to 
 be — " Good Master, what shall I do that I may ob- 
 tain eternal life ?" and our Lord's answer — " Why 
 callest thou me good ? there is none good but one, 
 that is God," according to the old manuscripts and 
 the report of Origen, Matthew, differing from the 
 rest, gives the question — " Master, What good thing 
 shall I do that I may obtain eternal life ?" and the 
 answer — " Why askest thou me about a good thing, 
 there is none good but one." We might suppose 
 this form to be a designed alteration made by some 
 copyist who stumbled at the apparent impeachment 
 of the doctrine of our Lord's Divinity contained in 
 the common form. Yet as there is no reason why a 
 designed alteration should be made in St. Matthew's 
 
1C8 SEEMON XI. 
 
 Gospel and not in the rest, or why the later transcribers 
 should not be as jealous for their Lord's Divinity as 
 the earlier, the best critics, bearing in mind the ten- 
 dency of copyists of which I spoke, accept the read- 
 ing attested by Origen as the genuine one. I think 
 the recovery of this somewhat fuller account of what 
 our Lord said throws light on the difficulty which 
 many of us have felt, why should our Lord seemingly 
 go out of His way to disclaim a title which was His 
 right? '* Good Master," said the young ruler. Well, 
 no doubt, he did not know all the reasons why Jesus 
 deserved that appellation ; but still He was a good 
 Master, and we should have thought that our Lord 
 might have accepted the title, and gone on to answer 
 his question, how he should have eternal life. But 
 we see the question was — " Good Master, what good 
 thing shall I do ?" Li other words, he excessively 
 admired Jesus as a man of great virtue and goodness, 
 and having, as the rest of the storv proves, confi- 
 dence in his own fulfilment of the law, he wants to 
 know by what work of surpassing goodness he may 
 merit eternal life. Thus, the very first thing our 
 Lord sees necessary to do is to correct his whole 
 notion of goodness. " Take heed what thou doest 
 when thou ascribest goodness to me, or when thou 
 speakest of goodness in thyself. There is but One 
 good, by walking through whose gi-ace in the ways of 
 holiness eternal life may be obtained." 
 
 I see nothing to forbid us to think it possible that 
 this young ruler may have been like the son in the 
 parable who, when ordered to work in his father's 
 vineyard at first refused, but afterwards repented and 
 
THE YOUNG RULER. 199 
 
 went. Certainly the words spoken to him hy our 
 Lord on this occasion were calculated, when pondered 
 on, to teach him what he was himself and what 
 was the Master who spoke to him. Was he good ? 
 He thought so when he came to Jesus ; he relied 
 that all the commandments he had kept from his 
 youth up. Could he think so still, when he went 
 away sorrowful, his conscience pointing one way, his 
 will leading him another ; clearly seeing his duty to 
 follow Christ, yet unable to part with the possessions 
 that he showed he loved better than Christ. Thus 
 in his case God's Spirit did its work to convince of 
 sin. 
 
 But was Jesus good ? Who convicted Him of sin ? 
 as He Himself was able to challenge His enemies to 
 say. Nay, the more He was known, the more tho- 
 rough intimacy any gained with His spotless purity, 
 the deeper the conviction that He was good, as no 
 other man was. Then comes the question, there is 
 none good but God : Jesus is good : Who is Jesus ? 
 Certain it is that those who hold our Lord to be only 
 man, do not deny that He was a good man ; good 
 with a kind of goodness of which there is no other 
 example. And the question is, whether this acknow- 
 ledgment does not force them to go a step further. 
 Christ refuses to be recognized as a good master ; to 
 be singled out from men on account of His pre-emi- 
 nence in piety and virtue. Is it not that He is good 
 because He is one with Him from whom all goodness 
 Cometh, and His people good only by being one with 
 Him. Thus, and not by any good act of theirs, can 
 they inherit eternal life. 
 
200 SERMON XI. 
 
 Let us proceed to our Lord's answer to the ruler's 
 question. We can see the frame of mmd in which 
 he asked it. He had all the pleasures riches can 
 bestow on earth, but he wished for something more, 
 and was anxious to inherit eternal life. He felt that 
 he was coming to One who could tell him of it. 
 "Lord, to whom shall we go?" said Peter on an- 
 other occasion, " Thou hast the words of eternal life." 
 But all this time the young ruler had his own answer 
 partially prepared. That some good thing which he 
 should do would secure to him eternal life he fully 
 believed ; all he wanted to know was what it should 
 be. He was very far, indeed, from being able to utter 
 such words as St. Paul afterwards spoke, " I know that 
 in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing."" 
 It was necessary that he should be taught this lesson. 
 Now the Grreat Physician did not deal with all in the 
 same way ; He had different treatment for the de- 
 sponding and the self-righteous, the timid and the 
 proud, the scorned publican and the Pharisee strong 
 in his own good opinion and in that of his neigh- 
 bours. Here He uses the law, as the schoolmaster, 
 to bring this young man to Himself, and gradually 
 to convince him that he could not obtain eternal life 
 in the manner he had proposed to himself. Probably, 
 if we had endeavoured to teach such a one the same 
 lesson, we should have told him that he was a great 
 sinner by defect, if not by act ; that if he had kept 
 the commandments in the letter, he had not acted up 
 to their spirit ; that his heart was wrapped up in his 
 wealth ; and that until he had given up his love of 
 riches he could not enter into God's kingdom. Yet 
 
THE YOUNG RULER. 201 
 
 probably, too, he would have denied our charges, and 
 gone away angiy, not sorrowful. 
 
 Our Lord, by the test which could not be evaded, 
 namely, by His command, " Sell that thou hast," 
 forced him to make a choice between the things of 
 earth and of heaven. And then it became evident 
 with which his heart lay. He wxnt away sorrowful, 
 grieving to abandon Jesus, yet unable to resolve to 
 part with his riches. Henceforward he disappears 
 from the Gospel history ; yet I think we are not for- 
 bidden to hope that the Saviour who loved him may 
 have again repeated to him His command, " Follow 
 me." The sorrow which he felt was, no doubt, real ; 
 and it may have been so lasting as to make him re- 
 consider the wisdom of his choice. And the times 
 were coming when his nation was to pass through 
 bitter trials, and when the wealth of many who 
 trusted in riches was suddenly taken from them. In 
 the ordinary course of nature this young man would 
 have lived on to see this time of great calamity for 
 the Jewish people, and it may well have been that he 
 who would not, of his own accord, give up all for 
 Christ, may afterwards have suffered the loss of all 
 things, and yet have found that it was love that sent 
 the trial, and that the Lord was making good His 
 promise to him of treasure in heaven. I scarcely 
 think it is too bold to guess that something like this 
 may have been the after history of one whom we are 
 told that Jesus loved, and of whom the history shows 
 that though, it may be, self-righteous, he was no 
 hypocrite, but one who spoke earnestly, and really 
 strove to keep, as he believed he had kept, God's 
 
202 SERMON XI. 
 
 commandments. And if it were so, it cannot be 
 supposed that his refusal recorded in the Gospels was 
 not sufficiently punished. If afterwards he came to 
 know Jesus, not as a good Master, a holy and virtuous 
 man, but as very God manifest in the flesh, the Lord 
 of life walking incarnate among men, what could 
 ever afterwards in this life repay him for the loss he 
 had inflicted on himself? He might have been His 
 chosen companion. His loved friend, might have 
 dwelt and companied with Him, heard all the wisdom 
 of His teaching, seen to the full His example, might 
 have given Him his sympathy in His sufferings ; and 
 he had refused. So sad w^ould be such a thought for 
 any man to carry with him during all his life on 
 earth, that I the more like to think he was not for 
 ever separated from our Lord. 
 
 In speaking of this history, it may be proper to say 
 something as to a singular use of it made by Koman 
 Catholic controversialists. They find here, with 
 great ingenuity, an argument in favour of their 
 theory of works of supererogation, an essential part 
 of which is that men may do more to please God 
 than they are bound to do. It is maintained that 
 God has given men certain commands which they 
 must obey in order to obtain eternal life, and that in 
 addition He has given them certain counsels of per- 
 fection, which they need not follow if they do not 
 please; but by following which they will obtain a 
 higher perfection, and so merit a higher reward. 
 Here it is said, " Do not kill, do not commit adul- 
 tery," are commands. " If thou wilt be perfect, sell 
 all that thou hast and give to the poor," is a counsel 
 
THE YOUNG RULER. 203 
 
 which need not be followed by any one who does not 
 aim at high perfection. But if this were the true 
 explanation of the story, the ruler need not have gone 
 away exceeding sorrowful. He might be cheerful 
 enough if he had done all that was necessary to ob- 
 tain eternal life, and if he were doing nothing but 
 declining a counsel to aim at some very exalted pitch 
 of saintliness. No, it is quite plain that what our 
 Lord gave him was not a counsel which he might 
 •reject if he pleased, but a command. He had asked, 
 " What must I do to inherit eternal life ; what lack I 
 yet ?" It was in answer to this question that he got 
 the answer, " If thou wilt be perfect, if thou wilt 
 supply what is lacking, sell that thou hast." This 
 was a command to him, to refuse obedience to which 
 was to refuse to follow Jesus on the way that leads to 
 eternal life. The Lord saw his heart, and knew 
 what sign to require as showing that what filled His 
 place in his heart had been dethroned. He w^ould 
 not have done more than his duty had he obeyed the 
 command. In disobeying it he lacked, that is, he 
 failed to fulfil a plain duty, and so was unfit for the 
 kingdom of God. But though I think the attempt 
 an unfortunate one, which has been made to find 
 counsels of perfection in this passage, yet I freely 
 acknowledge that we all make a distinction between 
 duties which a man cannot omit without sin, and 
 things which we highly praise him for doing, yet do 
 not blame him for omitting ; and the distinction is 
 felt to be a real one, even if it might be difficult ex- 
 actly to draw the line. Imagine that you saw an 
 infant on a railway track where it would be certain to 
 
204 SERMON XI. 
 
 be crushed by an advancing train ; that you had 
 ample time safely to rescue it, and there was no one 
 else to do it ; then, if you passed on and left the 
 child to its fate, you would be counted as a murderer 
 in the sight of God and man. But if the train were 
 so near that interference would involve the imminent 
 risk of your own life, you would not be blamed for 
 refusing to venture ; and a rescue effected under these 
 circumstances would count not as as a simple act of 
 duty, but as one of, it might be, great heroism. 
 So that if we like to word it so, the act of inter- 
 ference would be in the one case a command, in the 
 other a counsel of perfection. All this suggests 
 questions which cannot be followed out without inter- 
 rupting the course of comment on a Scripture nar- 
 rative on which I have engaged to-day ; but next Sun- 
 day I hope to have an opportunity of discussing them 
 more fully. 
 
 After the ruler had departed, Jesus startled His 
 disciples by saying to them, "How hardly shall they 
 that have riches" — or, as He presently explains it, 
 they that trust in riches — " enter into the kingdom 
 of God :" that it was harder for a camel to enter the 
 eye of a needle, than for such a rich man to enter 
 the kingdom of God. The^ disciples exclaim, "Who 
 then can be saved ?" for they had not learned to 
 raise their thoughts above the hopes of a temporal 
 deliverer distributing rewards among his faithful 
 followers. This temper of theirs is seen more plainly 
 in the question put by Peter in the name of the rest 
 — "Lord, we have left all and followed thee ; what 
 shall we have therefore?" We have not held back 
 
THE YOUNG RULER. 205 
 
 like this young man, but have given up everything 
 for thy sake. What they had given up was not con- 
 temptible. James and John, we are told, were rich 
 enough to have hired servants helping them in their 
 fishing. Matthew made a great feast in his house 
 on the occasion of joining our Lord. At any rate, 
 they felt they had a right that that promise of treasure 
 in heaven which the young ruler had slighted, should 
 be repeated, and confirmed to them. In the spirit 
 in which St. Peter put this question, there was some 
 self-complacency, perhaps a proud comparison of 
 himself with others, which deserved blame. On the 
 other hand, what he claimed was only what our Lord 
 had promised to give. And we see Christ does not 
 deny or retract His promise. To those who had made 
 sacrifices for His sake, He promises a hundred-fold 
 what they had given up— father, mother, brethren, 
 sisters, houses, lands, with persecutions, and in the 
 world to come life everlasting. Yet there is a warn- 
 ing : not they who think that they have the best right 
 to claim this promise shall be the first to receive it. 
 There are first which shall be last, and last which 
 shall be first. And the parable immediately following, 
 which Matthew alone records — that of the Labourers 
 in the Vineyard — is intended to bring out this point. 
 Whatever promises the Lord has made He will un- 
 doubtedly fulfil. Yet they who make no bargain 
 with Him beforehand shall receive from His grace 
 and bounty not less than those who would claim 
 their reward as their stipulated due. It may be that 
 those Apostles who bore the burden and heat of the 
 day ; who confessed Christ when He was yet, in the 
 
206 SERMON XI. 
 
 eyes of the world, a man like others ; who hore the 
 storms of persecution, and gave up all for Him — it 
 may be that their reward shall be no greater than 
 that of others, whose circumstances never called for 
 any sacrifice for Him, but who in the eyes of Him 
 who sees the heart were ready to make those sacrifices 
 had He demanded them. I think if j^ou look at this 
 parable in connection with its context, you will see 
 that this is its true explanation. It is a mistake, I 
 think, to suppose that those who are called at the 
 eleventh hour can represent those who are not con- 
 verted till old age. Who is there that has not 
 followed Christ in youth, who if asked why he stands 
 all the day idle, could honestly make the excuse, 
 '' Because no man hath hired us ;" who could say, 
 like these men, that they had obeyed the first sum- 
 mons they had received, and that if they were not 
 working in the vineyard, it was because they had not 
 been called before ? No ; I think the parable, when 
 compared with the context, is intended to teach a 
 difi'erent lesson. It is intended to teach the Christian 
 doctrine of rewards. Kewards we can never deserve 
 by works of ours. But Christ has promised them to 
 His disciples, and He has said that even a cup of 
 cold water given in His name shall by no means lose 
 its reward. But He would have us understand that 
 those rewards are by no means proportioned to the 
 amount of visible work and sacrifice which men can 
 see to have been made for His sake. And He gives 
 no encouragement to a spirit such as Peter's was 
 then — working for Him truly, really making sacrifices 
 for Him, yet thinking more of the promised reward 
 
THE YOUNG RULER. 207 
 
 than of Him for whom the work is done. Another, 
 seemingly doing much less, but working wholly from 
 love, and not thinking of bargaining for reward, may 
 receive a larger portion. 
 
 How faithfully Christ fulfils His promises we can 
 see by looking at the history of those who then re- 
 ceived a promise from Him of a return for what they 
 had given up for Him. Not merely in the world to 
 come, life everlasting, but in this life a hundred-fold 
 more than they had abandoned, houses and lands, 
 father, mother, and sisters, with persecutions. One 
 of the first and most cruel sacrifices a Christian was 
 then called on to make was that he must break the 
 dearest family ties. To become a Christian was to 
 lose the good opinion of all whom he loved. Any of 
 you who have looked into the early Christian apologies 
 know what was the behef common among the heathen, 
 as to what took place at the Christian meetings. 
 Stories were told of banquets on infants' flesh, fol- 
 lowed by scenes of loathsome debauchery. A man who 
 became a Christian lost the good opinion of his friends 
 as completely as you would do by turning Mormon. 
 He was suj^posed to have given in his adherence to a 
 degrading superstition, solely in order that he might 
 be able with less restraint to indulge in sensual ex- 
 cesses. In most cases, then, he who thought of 
 embracing Christianity must count that his kinsmen 
 after the flesh would cast him off, hate him, persecute 
 him. And yet he must not hesitate. If he loved 
 father, or mother, or brethren more than Christ he 
 was not worthy of Him. He must give up earthly 
 love, and rely for compensation on the friendship and 
 
208 SEEMON XI. 
 
 love of One unseen. But no sooner had he consented 
 to do this than he found the earthly love which he 
 had forsaken given back to him. Instead of the 
 brethren after the flesh, who had cast him off, he had 
 a number of Christian brethren, who loved him with 
 more than a kinsman's love. For even the heathen 
 took notice how the Christians loved one another. 
 They would share with him all they had, sympathize 
 with him in his sufferings, stand by him at the tri- 
 bunal of the heathen magistrate. Instead of the 
 earthly father or mother whom he had lost, he had a 
 friend or counsellor in every aged Christian or Chris- 
 tian matron. If a Christian were forced to leave his 
 city, he found when he fled to another that he did not 
 come among strangers, but, that he had there a host 
 of friends, whose resources and active help were all 
 at his disposal. I believe there is every reason to 
 think, that notwithstanding their losses from time to 
 time for conscience' sake, the Christians, as a whole, 
 were a thriving community, the energetic help which 
 each gave to the other, more than making up for 
 what the persecutions of the heathen took from them; 
 so that if any, counting the cost, had resolved to give 
 up all for Christ, and had said to himself. Henceforth 
 I must be alone in the world ; my Saviour's love 
 must be to me now instead of everything else ; never 
 more shall I know the delights of earthly affection : 
 he found that when he had obeyed the call, what he 
 had given up was restored a hundred-fold. Probably 
 he could say, that until he became a Christian he had 
 never known what brotherly love was, and that in the 
 cold and selfish system in which he had been brought 
 
THE YOUNG RULER. 209 
 
 up, liuman affection had never been able to take such 
 growth as under that system of which brotherly kind- 
 ness was the rule. And what if, as often would hap- 
 pen, the father or mother, or brethren that were given 
 back were no strangers, but the very father or mother, 
 or brethren whom he had lost ? How often would it 
 happen that his meekness under reproach, his patience 
 under persecution, would touch the hearts of the 
 kinsmen who had cast him off, and would force 
 them to see that there must be some reality in a reli- 
 gion which could bear such fruits. And then when 
 they had searched and found the same Saviour as he, 
 and had cast themselves into his arms, asking for- 
 giveness for all the injuries that in the times of their 
 ignorance they had done him, how he would feel 
 that Christ had faithfully kept His promise, and that 
 the father or brother in Christ was a hundred-fold 
 more a father or brother than when merely united 
 to him by the bonds of earthly relationship. 
 
 So, looking back on it now, we can see that our 
 Lord's promise was kept, even that which seemed 
 hardest to fulfil ; namely, to compensate in this life 
 those who in times of severe persecution were giving 
 up all for Him. It was an Apostle who regarded not 
 the loss of all things, but counted them as dung, 
 that he might win Christ, who yet was also able to 
 report that godliness is profitable for all things, hav- 
 ing promise of the life that now is, as well as of that 
 which is to come. 
 
 If we look back now on' the choice about which that 
 young ruler was hesitating ; and if we think not of the 
 treasure in heaven, but merely ask which course 
 
 p 
 
210 SERMON XI. 
 
 promised him most happiness in this life, I think we 
 can have no doubt as to the answer. Whether would he 
 he the happier with his treasure in this world, where 
 " rust and moth doth corrupt," and where " thieves 
 break through and steal ;" and at a time when, as 
 we now know, riches were exposed to more than their 
 usual uncertainties, and when it is doubtful how long 
 he could retain those great possessions on which his 
 heart was set ; or if he had exchr^iiged these for a 
 treasure which could not be taken from him, and cast 
 in his lot with Him who could compensate him for 
 the loss of all besides ? "And w^e may well trust that 
 when He says to us, " Follow me," we too shall find 
 our happiness in obeying His call. It is not for us 
 to calculate if we give up this or that for Christ, 
 what shall we have therefore. But if we follow Him 
 in faith, we may be assured that even though He lead 
 us through fire and through water, He will bring us 
 out into a wealthy place. 
 
 In truth, it seems unreal now to speak of making 
 sacrifices for Christ. We can understand what is 
 meant by men in the Apostles' days taking up their 
 cross and following Christ. " But now nothing can be 
 easier than, in the world's opinion, to establish a 
 claim to the future enjoyment of eternal bliss. The 
 good, easy man who quietly drifts down the course of 
 this world's business and pleasures, (if he have obeyed 
 the impulses of his own amiable heart in abstaining 
 from all the more hateful vices, and if he have not 
 outraged society by any profane contempt of the 
 national religion,) may, in the world's opinion, full 
 surely count on a happy immortality. His obedience 
 
THE YOUNG RULER. 211 
 
 has cost him no sacrifice. He has made no toilsome 
 exertions to run his Christian course, yet he is judged 
 worthy of the prize of successful exertion, and with- 
 out a contest puts on the crown of victory. I pray 
 you, brethren, each to try yourselves by a more severe 
 standard than that which in charity we apply to 
 others. Still does Christ call on us to deny ourselves 
 for His sake ; a call to which the season on which 
 we have entered directs our special attention. He 
 may not call on us for one great act of sacrifice as 
 He did the young man, with the command, " Sell 
 that thou hast ;" but His Apostle, in his direction to 
 the Corinthians, does not tell them to sell all, but 
 weekly to lay by them in store, as God has prospered 
 them ; thus prescribing, as the rule for Christians, 
 an habitual, self-denying forethought. The pre- 
 cept given to this young man was an application 
 of the general principle, " If thy hand offend thee, 
 cut it ofi" and cast it from thee" — a principle to be 
 applied by each of us to jOur besetting sins. Is it 
 indolence or love of amusement which is makinof us 
 frivolous and unfit for holy thoughts, then we must 
 cut ofi" what in the case of others would be innocent 
 as that which cannot be harmlessly enjoyed by us. 
 And, in like manner, whatever else our temptations 
 may be. With one it may be to avarice, over- care- 
 fulness for the things of this life, fretting anxiety 
 for the future ; with another it may be to waste and 
 extravagance ; with another to impurity ; with an- 
 other to harsh judgment and evil speaking ; with 
 another to tyranny and selfish disregard of others. 
 Each besetting sin must be given up, whatever it 
 
212 SERMON XI. 
 
 may be, if we would faithfully follow Jesus. He has 
 called us to follow Him, and we must cast off every 
 weight that would keep us back from doing so. That 
 is the broad principle which we must each adapt to 
 his own case. Ask for Christ's Spirit to guide you, 
 and show you the way in which you ought to follow 
 Him ; and ask the same Spirit to make you willing 
 to break through every hindrance that would keep 
 you back from following Him, and then you will find 
 that the path along which He leads you will have 
 the same termination for you as for Him, and that 
 if you be partakers of His sufferings, you shall be 
 also sharers of His glory. 
 
SERMON XII 
 
 COUNSELS OP PERFECTION. 
 
 "And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from 
 Jenisalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him 
 of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half 
 dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way, 
 and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And like- 
 wise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, 
 and passed by on the other side." — Luke x. 30-32. 
 
 On last Sunday I illustrated the difference between 
 commands and counsels of perfection, by sup^Dosing 
 the case of a child in danger of being crushed by 
 an advancing railway train ; then, according to the 
 amount of risk involved in an attempt at rescue, and 
 the probability of making the attempt with success, 
 interference might either be a thing which could not 
 be omitted without barbarous inhumanity, or the 
 omission might be excusable, or the attempt at rescue 
 might be highly heroic, or it might be culpable rash- 
 ness. In reading this parable of the good Samaritan, 
 most persons think of the act of the priest and Levite 
 as one of the first kind, the omission from sheer in- 
 humanity of a simple act of duty ; and in so judging 
 
214 SERMON XII. 
 
 of the case, they lose some of the practical lessons 
 which the parahle teaches ; for of inhumanity such as 
 this they feel they never could be guilty. I think 
 nothing forbids us to think of that priest and Levite 
 as conscientious men, who fully acknowledged the 
 duty that lay on them to love their neighbour as 
 themselves, and were not at all aware that they were 
 overlooking any obligation which that duty imposed 
 on them. If they had been called on to give any 
 help to another man, which it seemed to them that 
 it -was their business to give, for all that appears in 
 the story, they would have given it. In the case 
 actually represented, I suppose they would have ac- 
 quitted themselves of all blame, by reflecting that 
 this man was not their neighbour ; or, in other 
 words, that the case was one in which it was not 
 their business to interfere. What was the case ? 
 They were hurrying along a dangerous road, one well 
 known to be infested with robbers. They see cast by 
 the side of the road, what would seem to be the 
 naked corpse of some victim of a previous robbery 
 and assassination. We are told that this man had 
 been stripped and wounded and left half dead ; and 
 it is likely that his body presented to a hasty passer- 
 by little signs of life. It does not seem very un- 
 natural then, nor perhaps unpardonable, if travellers 
 coming after him on the same road, thought less of 
 him than of themselves. They might exclaim, 
 " Here has been another assassination ; see where 
 these robbers have been at work again ; let us lose 
 no time in hastening past this dangerous part of the 
 road, and getting into a place of safety." If the 
 
COUNSELS OF PERFECTION. 215 
 
 thought occurred to them, perhaps this man is not 
 already dead, perhaps he may stand in need of 
 succour, they might quiet their conscience with the 
 thought that, in all probability, it was now too late to 
 give effectual help to one so far gone ; or that to be 
 of any real use to him would require an amount of 
 trouble and time which it was quite impossible they 
 could give, and that in any case it was no business 
 of theirs. And so they passed on. We have read 
 in tales of shipwreck something of the torture of dis- 
 appointed hope. We have read of the joy spread 
 among the sumvors of some disaster, when, after 
 having for days endured hunger and heat and thirst, 
 they see from their little raft an approaching sail, 
 and imagine their signals have been observed, and 
 feel sure that relief is at hand ; and then of the agony 
 when their hope changes into despair, as the ship 
 proceeds on its course without seeming to have per- 
 ceived them, and as they watch its receding sails, 
 until at last, as far as their eye can range along their 
 horizon, they find themselves in hopeless solitude. 
 And we may fancy that something of the same kind 
 was the disappointment of this wounded traveller, 
 each time that the tramp of the approaching beasts 
 gave him hope that succour was nigh, as the noise 
 passed on and died away, and left him abandoned. 
 Our Lord represents him from whom succour event- 
 ually came as a Samaritan ; one with whom the Jews 
 held no dealings ; one, therefore, who had a better 
 right than others to say that the wounded traveller 
 was no neighbour of his, and that it was not his 
 business to help one whom his own countrymen 
 
216 SERMON XII. 
 
 neglected. But you see this man showed that he 
 alone understood the meaning of the command to love 
 his neighbour as himself, who made that his business, 
 which did not seem to concern him more than others ; 
 who regarded not the difference between Jew and 
 Samaritan ; who regarded not the trouble, nor cost, 
 nor delay, nor danger to himself, but only saw that 
 there was a fellow-creature hanging between life and 
 death, and resolved, at whatever sacrifice to himself, 
 to remain to help him. 
 
 I have no doubt that if the priest and the Levite 
 could have seen the sufferer relieved by one on whom 
 he had claims far less strong than on themselves, 
 their duty would have struck them in quite a new 
 light, and they would have owned with shame that 
 he whom they had neglected to help ivas their neigh- 
 bour. Has it never happened to any of you to ask 
 yourselves whether it was your duty to do something 
 not quite agreeable to you ; and when you had come 
 to the indolent or self-indulgent decision that it was 
 a thing you were not obliged to do, to be shamed at 
 seeing the work that you were refusing to do per- 
 formed by some one of whom you must own that it 
 was less his business than yours? It might be a 
 case exactly parallel to that described in the text, 
 where you happened to be brought into the close 
 neighbourhood of bodily suffering, and you held 
 back from offering your aid because you feared that 
 the sacrifices the effort would impose on yourself 
 were more than you would like to undertake, and be- 
 cause it seemed that the matter did not closely enough 
 concern you ; or it might be a case of bereavement, 
 
COUNSELS OF PERFECTION. 217 
 
 where an afflicted family needed cjomfort and sym- 
 pathy, or perhaps other active help ; or it might be 
 merely some common little acts of neighbourly cour- 
 tesy which were needed, and from which you held 
 back because they would be troublesome, and because 
 it did not seem that you were actually obliged to offer 
 them ; or it might be that wTong words were spoken, 
 or wrong things done in your presence, against which 
 it was a Christian duty that a protest should be 
 made, but where you decided that it was not incum- 
 bent on you to speak. In all such cases if, while we 
 are hesitating, and (what comes practically to the same 
 thing as refusing,) by our delays, neglecting to act, we 
 hear the right word spoken, or see the right thing 
 done by some one else not more bound to do it than 
 ourselves, how quickly a new view of our duty flashes 
 on us. There are many little obligations which no 
 one has a right to compel us to fulfil ; little duties 
 of w^hich we must ourselves be the judge, and very 
 self-indulgent judges we often are. In such cases 
 it is often the sight of the unselfishness of others, 
 and the very different spirit in which they judge what 
 they are bound to do, which teaches us to distrust 
 the judgment we had given in our own case, and 
 makes us submit it to further deliberation. 
 
 After the experience of a few instances of the kind 
 of which I have been speaking, where things which 
 had once seemed to us not duties incumbent on us, 
 as our consciences become more enlightened, are felt 
 to be what cannot be neglected without sin, we per- 
 ceive, I think, how hard it is to draw any definite line 
 separating duties and counsels of perfection. Compare 
 
218 SERMON XII^ 
 
 our modern philanthropy with that of past times, 
 and how many things are there which we regard as 
 plain duties to be performed for the benefit of their 
 poor neighbours by those to whom God has given 
 wealth, which in former days were not dreamed of, 
 and which one who should then have fulfilled, would 
 be regarded as going much out of his way. There 
 was a time when the rich and noble scarce looked on 
 themselves as beings of the same race as the low- 
 born poor. In battle the fate of the knightly anta- 
 gonist was marked with sympathy and respect, but 
 scarce any heed was taken how many of the rascal 
 scum were swept away. At home who thought it his 
 business to mind in what hovels they dwelt, what 
 food they ate, to what seeds of disease they were ex- 
 posed ? If the poor were not patient and submissive 
 in' their misery, they were sternly repressed by law. 
 For sixty years the law of England punished an able- 
 bodied beggar with whipping at the cart's tail for the 
 first offence, with mutilation for the second, with 
 death for the third. Down to almost living memory 
 offences against property were visited with merciless 
 severity. I need not repeat the well-known story of 
 the starving wife of an impressed sailor, put to death 
 because she had taken up and immediately laid down 
 again a piece of goods on a shop counter. In reading 
 of some of the severities of law in former days, I am 
 less startled by the coarse jesting with which some of 
 the unfeeling carried out their work than by the 
 kindly tone of humane judges. They seem to have 
 felt towards the condemned as we might towards men 
 whose limbs had been entangled by some powerful 
 
COUNSELS OF PERFECTION. 219 
 
 machinery ; pitying their fate, yet never dreaming 
 that in the course of nature things could be other- 
 wise. Everyone has heard what prisons were before 
 Howard's time — seminaries of crime and disease, for 
 the horrors of which no one felt himself responsible, 
 and no one thought it his business to reform. Amiable, 
 good, pious men made their fortunes by the slave 
 trade, and never suspected that their money came 
 from a polluted source. It was after his conversion 
 John Newton acted as supercargo of a slaver, and 
 knew not that his employment was work unfit for a 
 Christian man. How slowly it dawned on the minds 
 of the English nation that we owe duties to the souls 
 of the Africans whom we carried from their own 
 lands, or of the natives of the countries which we 
 have colonized. In our own time almost has it been 
 acknowledged that exertion should be made for the 
 religious enlightenment of heathen who were not by 
 God's providence made our spiritual charge. The 
 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, whose 
 special field is the colonies of Great Britain, dates 
 only from the time of William the Third ; the Church 
 Missionary Society, which undertakes completely 
 foreign missions, was founded in our own century. 
 
 When I thus point to duties which we acknowledge, 
 and which our fathers overlooked, it is not in order 
 to make you think with complacency how much we 
 are better than our fathers. Very probably our de- 
 scendants may be able to point with equal wonder to 
 the blindness of this generation to duties which will 
 then appear obvious. My object has been rather to 
 show the difficulty of drawing a definite line between 
 
220 
 
 SERMON XII. 
 
 commancls and counsels of perfection. , A man may 
 seem in his time to be following out a counsel of 
 perfection, who is in truth only quick-sighted to per- 
 ceive a duty which his generation is neglecting. Not 
 one word would I say in diminution of the praise 
 and honour to which such a man is entitled ; but if 
 a theological theory is built on the assumption that 
 he has done something with regard to which God has 
 given no command, to that I must take exception. 
 Who could more be said to have followed out a 
 counsel of perfection than Howard, when he made 
 that his business which was not his more than 
 another's, and devoted to the relief of the sufferings 
 of prisoners his labour, his fortune, his health, his 
 life. Yet if it be said that it was no duty to make 
 exertions for the relief of such misery as that which 
 he encountered, we have onlj^ to ask ourselves should 
 we not each think it a personal reproach if we knew 
 of the present existence of ovils such as he exposed, 
 and if we stirred no hand to remove them ? The 
 exertion would cost us less than it did him, because 
 thousands of ardent helpers would now join in the 
 work at which he laboured single-handed. And 
 similarly it may be said of others, whom we know 
 as having undertaken extraordinary toils for the good 
 of men's souls or bodies, that it is not so much that 
 they have gone beyond God's commands, as that 
 they have understood better than others what is 
 meant by these two great commands, " Thou shalt 
 love the Lord thy God with all thy mind, and all thy 
 heart, and all thy soul, and. Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
 bour as thyself." I am sure these men themselves 
 
COUNSELS OF PERFECTION. 221 
 
 would be the first to own that when they had 
 done all, they were still unprofitable servants — they 
 had done no more than was their duty to do. We 
 claim no merit to ourselves because we recognize and 
 act on duties which men wiser and better than our- 
 selves in former days, as Sir Thomas More, Sir 
 Matthew Hale, did not perceive. Now that God has 
 opened our eyes to see more plainly the answer to 
 that question — "Who is my neighbour?" we feel, 
 that however neglect might be pardonable in others 
 with less light, we cannot without sin act otherwise. 
 Surely, if we in any degree comprehend the depth 
 and width of these two great commandments which 
 I have quoted, we must own that there is no act of 
 love towards God or towards man that is not included 
 in the command ; and any attempt to measure the 
 extent of that command forces from us the exclama- 
 tion, "Who then can be saved?" Nay, by merit of 
 ours none can. Yet we know that we have to deal 
 with a merciful and gracious Judge, who by His 
 blood has purchased pardon for our sins of omission 
 as well as of commission, for our neglects as well as 
 for our trespasses — for those secret sins into which 
 we fall from the bluntness of moral apprehension, as 
 well as those presumptuous sins which we commit in 
 defiance of greater light. And they who have done 
 more than others — who have taken upon themselves 
 the duties which their brethren were neglecting as 
 well as their own — shall doubtless find that nothing 
 which they have done for Christ's sake has been 
 forgotten by Him. We shrink from the word merit, 
 as used by men towards God with reference to works, 
 
222 SERMON XII. 
 
 the best of which, no doubt, are tainted with imper- 
 fection ; but it is quite scriptural to speak of rewards, 
 inasmuch as Christ has promised them to the most 
 trifling service performed for His sake, and has said 
 that even a cup of cold water given in His name 
 shall not lose its reward. We may fully believe, 
 therefore, that those whose pre-eminent self-denying 
 labours in the cause of Christ have been honoured by 
 the love and praise of saints on earth, have also not 
 been unmarked in heaven. Nay, how could it be 
 otherwise ? Is not the love of Christ a thing which 
 inevitably brings its reward with it ? Must it not be 
 that in proportion as a man has given his heart and 
 soul in love to God, so is he capable of knowing the 
 love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and of being 
 filled with all the fulness of God ; so is he capable 
 of feeling and appreciating those pleasures which 
 God bestows on them that love Him ? We may well 
 believe, then, that in the day when " they that be 
 wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, 
 and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars 
 for ever and ever," it will be found also that one star 
 shall differ from another star in glory. 
 
 I was led last Sunday incidentally to speak of 
 counsels of perfection, because the mention of them 
 was suggested by a passage, of which a well-known 
 controversial use has been made. And I, perhaps, gave 
 you reason to expect that I would to-day discuss the 
 question controversially, and shew that Scripture 
 does not really warrant the consequences that have 
 been drawn from it. Yet it seems to me now that it 
 would be unprofitable to spend time in any detailed 
 
COUNSELS OF PERFECTION. 223 
 
 refutation of a system so artificial, that were I to try 
 to drag it out of the schools, and present it before you 
 here, it would drop to pieces in the handling. The 
 whole object of maintaining that some men may do 
 something over and above what God commands, is in 
 order to establish also, that the efficacy of their super- 
 erogatory works can be transferred from the doers to 
 others. Yet, if we admit to the full, that some have 
 been enlightened by God's Spirit to see duties to which 
 their contemporaries have been blind ; that God has 
 given them the will to take on themselves work to 
 which they were not more bound than others ; for the 
 sake of the fulfilment of it to deny themselves com- 
 forts, which they might lawfully have enjoyed ; and 
 if we admit, too, that God not only found means by 
 His love to compensate them richly in this life for 
 what they had given up for Him, but that He is also 
 their everlasting portion ; still how is all this con- 
 sistent with the notion of transfer ? If they whom 
 God has more abundantly filled with His love, are, 
 perhaps, from some special act of God's, but certainly 
 from the constitution which He has imprinted on the 
 nature of things, capable of enjoying in greater fulness 
 those good things which He has prepared for those 
 that love Him, are we to turn about and say this is 
 not so, such men enjoy no greater happiness ; suffi- 
 cient for them be such merit as is enough to gain 
 admission to heaven — let anyi;hing, over and above, 
 be transferred to others? But an assertion so contra- 
 dictory as this to all the arguments on which it 
 has been founded is made by no one : the merits, as 
 they are called, of the saints, are confessed to be in 
 
224 SERMON XII. 
 
 their nature untransferable. But it is said that it is 
 God^s ordinance that every Christian man should, by 
 a certain amount of pain and suffering, in some degree 
 make up to God's honour, the affront it has suffered 
 by his sins, and that every good work has a double 
 efficacy ; by its merit deserving eternal reward, by 
 whatever pain and labour it has cost making satisfac- 
 tion for sin. And it is said, that though merits can- 
 not be transferred, satisfactions may; that a saint 
 may keep all the merit of his good works, and receive 
 an eternal reward in proportion to them, and at the 
 same time transfer the satisfactions of these works 
 over and above what were necessary for himself to the 
 score of some other person paying in purgatory the 
 satisfactions which he had failed during his earthly 
 life to pay. The highly artificial character of this 
 theory seems to make it as needless as it is unsuit- 
 able to discuss it here. It certainly has not the 
 smallest connection with the difficulty which has come 
 under . our consideration. That difficulty may be 
 stated thus. Is it the duty of every man to give up 
 all the comforts of home, and go out as a missionary, 
 or in some other way endure as much toil and priva- 
 tion, and suffering, for the Gospel's sake, as St. Paul 
 did ? Do we sin who neglect to make any such sacrifices ? 
 If we do not, did not St. Paul, and such as he, do 
 something over and above his duty, for which he may 
 justly claim a higher reward than others ? Well, sup- 
 pose we granted that he did, what justification would 
 this give to a theory which proposes that he should 
 be paid twice over, not only receive the reward of 
 his labours himself, but also transfer the benefit of 
 
COUNSELS OF PERFECTION.- 225 
 
 them to others. It is to be judged that this method 
 of applying the good works of saints to reheve the 
 suiferings of sinners in purgatory, is nothing but a 
 fictitious remedy for a fictitious disease. 
 
 But, in truth, the subject which has come before 
 us to-day is one which it is more important to discuss 
 practically than controversially. It was surely not in 
 order to cast odium on the ruling classes of His time 
 that our Lord represented in the parable the priest 
 and the Levite as passing by on the other side. By 
 making a Samaritan the repairer of their neglect, he 
 shewed that his object was not to array one class of 
 Jews against another, but rather to force all Jews, 
 even those most in esteem for piety and virtue, to ask 
 themselves did they fully understand the extent of 
 that command, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as 
 thyself;" and did they in their practice carry it out as 
 it ought to be done ? I have tried to shew that the 
 neglect of duty, for wdiich the names of the priest 
 and Levite in this parable have become a by-word, 
 did not necessarily imply any extraordinary hardness 
 of heart, and that their case rather illustrates that 
 slowness to recognize obligations not strongly enforced 
 by law or by public opinion, of which our own con- 
 sciences must frequently condemn us. I have re- 
 minded you of instances of neglect in past days which 
 shock us now, but which scandalised nobody then. 
 For, both to the eye of the body and of the mind, it 
 constantly happens that there are things which are 
 easily overlooked, which are even hard to see, but which 
 when they have been pointed out to us, and we are 
 once able clearly to distinguish them, ever after appeuj." 
 
226 SERMON XII. 
 
 to us so plain that it seems amazing any could cast a 
 glance without taking notice of them. Surely, it 
 would be absurd to flatter ourselves that we are so 
 clear-sighted now that none of our duties escaj^e our 
 observation, and that the men of this generation need 
 not fear that their descendants should ever wonder 
 at tlieir strange blindness. 
 
 Certainly the men of this w^orld would much prefer 
 that those who pay attention to neglected duties, 
 should profess to follow not duties but counsels of per- 
 fection. If such persons would only own that they are 
 treading on paths where they do not ask others to 
 follow them, they would find favour enough with the 
 world, which likes to have saints as objects of ad- 
 miration, not imitation. But if they profess that 
 the things they undertake are obligations binding on 
 every Christian man, they cast a reproach on others, 
 and at once provoke opposition. It is not inappro- 
 priate to refer to the objections which have been 
 urged against Christian missions. Many of them do, 
 in fact, resolve themselves into this, that the precept 
 to love our neighbour as ourself, cannot possibly 
 apply to men who live so far away, and who have 
 habits and manners so different from ours, and even 
 (for no topic of ridicule has been more effective) who 
 call tlieir hamlets by such uncouth names as those 
 by which the people of Africa absurdly designate 
 their villages. Then it is urged that, if we take an 
 interest in the welfare of a people so far away, our 
 neighbours at home must suffer. I believe exactly 
 the reverse is the truth, and that those whose sym- 
 pathies are quick enough to be touched by distant 
 
COUNSELS OF PERFECTION. 227 
 
 claims, will also be aifected in the most lively way, 
 and be the most ready to respond to calls nearer home. 
 At all events, the parable we have been considering 
 has taught us, when a call for help is made us, not 
 to delay till we have satisfied ourselves. Is the suf- 
 ferer our neighbour ? Is it our business in par- 
 ticular to help? Is there no one else on whom 
 he has stronger claims than he has on us ? True 
 Christian sympathy and love will often make that 
 our business which before had seemed to be any- 
 body's business. True Christian love will discover 
 opportunities of usefulness and means of promoting 
 God's glory, which one, who has not His cause at 
 heart, will overlook. 
 
 Brethren, if you wish to be sharp -sighted in 
 such matters, the method is willingly to obey any 
 call to do God's work wdiich presents itself. For 
 every time you decide that you need not do some- 
 thing which your conscience tells you that you ought 
 to do, you make it less likely that the thought 
 should occur to you again. But on the contrary, 
 ready obedience to what you feel to be God's com- 
 mands will make you quick to hear His voice speak- 
 ing to you again. And the Holy Spirit, who alone 
 can give you the will to work for Him, will also open 
 your eyes to know the wondrous things of God's law, 
 to understand the value of the privileges He bestows 
 on you, to recognize the opportunities He presents 
 to you of promoting His glory. And if, as I said, 
 nothing shames us more out of our indolence and 
 selfishness than the example of others, who, with- 
 out hesitation, fulfil the duties from which we are 
 
228 SERMON XII. ' 
 
 inclined to shrink ; so there is no means which the 
 Holy Spirit is wont to employ more successfully in 
 subduing our selfish love of ease than the example 
 of Him who pleased not Himself, whose whole earthly 
 life was one of self-sacrifice, terminated by that 
 crowning sacrifice, in which He freely gave His own 
 life for us, that we might live through Him. May 
 Grod make us to live the life of Christ on earth, and 
 so make us conformed to His example here, that we 
 may be with Him hereafter in His glory. 
 
SERMON XIII 
 
 CERTAINTY. 
 
 "That thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein 
 thou hast been instructed."- Luke i. 4. 
 
 In the words I have read you will have recognized 
 part of the well-known preface of St. Luke's Gospel, 
 in which the Evangelist declares his object in writing 
 to be, that his disciple might not be dependent for 
 his knowledge of the great facts of the Saviour^s life 
 on the accounts, oral or written, of men not entitled 
 to speak with authority, but might have a trustworthy 
 record of the testimony delivered by those who had 
 been from the beginning eye-witnesses and ministers 
 of the Word. 
 
 In St. Luke's history of the preaching of the 
 Apostles .he gives especial prominence to their office 
 as witnesses of Christ. He describes the capacity to 
 bear this witness as the qualification required for 
 election to the Apostolate. More than once in the 
 specimens of the Apostles' preaching which he has 
 preserved, they attest that they had seen the Saviour 
 many days after His resurrection ; that they had 
 
230 ' SERMON XIII. 
 
 eaten and drunk with Him after He had risen from 
 the dead. You will remember also the language in 
 which another Apostle claims to have personal know- 
 ledge of the things of which he writes. " That which 
 we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, 
 which we have looked upon, and our hands have 
 handled of the Word of life ; that which we have 
 seen and heard declare we unto you." 
 
 The facts thus delivered by men whose sincerity it 
 was impossible to doubt, and who professed to speak 
 from personal knowledge, were received by the first 
 generation of converts with the un doubting confidence 
 with which first-class human testimony is accepted. 
 Convinced by these facts that Jesus was the bearer 
 of a Divine revelation, they accepted with equal con- 
 fidence His assurance of a future resurrection, of 
 wdiich His own resurrection had been the earnest. 
 And so the most striking and attractive feature of 
 the new religion was, that it offered a certain know- 
 ledge of the true solution of great problems, concern- 
 ing which men elsewhere were hopelessly perplexed. 
 I speak of those great questions, the most important 
 which man can put : Is there a Supreme Being who 
 cares for man, and in whose wisdom and goodness 
 man may confide ? Is there an after- life and a retri- 
 bution ? Is there forgiveness of sins with God ? At 
 the time when Christianity was published the old 
 traditional answers which heathenism gave to these 
 questions had been worn out. The poets' tales of 
 subterranean realms, of Styx and its frogs, of Charon 
 and the single boat in which so many thousands of 
 souls must daily cross, were discredited by boys as 
 
CEBTAINTT. 231 
 
 soon as tliey came to he old enougli to be chargeable 
 for admission to the public baths. Educated men 
 regarded it as an insult to their understanding if they 
 were deemed capable of believing these portentous fic- 
 tions of poets and of painters. But philosophy, which 
 swept away the religion of the vulgar, had nothing 
 wherewith to replace it. It either frankly declared 
 that men had nothing to hope for beyond the grave, 
 and had no reason to count on protection or sympathy 
 from any deity here ; or if it ventured to speak in 
 more hopeful accents, did so with such tremulous 
 uncertainty that it won no confidence. At such a 
 time one of the things by which an inquiring heathen 
 was most struck in Christianity was the tone of as- 
 sured conviction in which its professors spoke. Their 
 confidence might be well or ill-founded, but it was 
 an undoubted fact that, while all else was perplexity, 
 there were thousands who declared that their feet 
 had found sure standing-ground in the drifting waters 
 of religious opinion, and who called to all around to 
 plant their feet on the firm rock on which they stood. 
 A lively picture of the attraction which such an invi- 
 tation oftered is presented in a work probably written 
 about the end of the second century, which, though 
 a fiction, is clearly one drawn from real life in the 
 representation it gives of the agonies of doubt and 
 disappointment sufi'ered by a sincere inquirer for 
 truth before he at length found refuge in the sure 
 haven of the soul. " From my youth," says the 
 writer, " I was exercised with doubts which had 
 found an entrance into my soul, I know not how — 
 Will my being end with death ? Will the boundless- 
 
232 SEKMON XTII. 
 
 ness of time in the end consign all things to oblivion 
 and silence ; so that not only we shall cease to be, 
 but there shall be no remembrance that we have ever 
 been ? When was the world created, and what was 
 there before the world ? If it has always existed, 
 will it continue to last for ever ? If it had a begin- 
 ning, will it likewise have an end ? And after the 
 end of the world, what then ? The silence of the 
 grave, or something else of which we can form no 
 notion ? Haunted by such thoughts as these, which 
 came I know not whence, I was sorely troubled in 
 spirit ; I grew pale, and wasted away. When I strove 
 to drive them from me, they returned again and 
 again with increased violence, so that I suffered 
 greatly. I knew not that in these very thoughts I 
 enjoj^ed a friendly companion guiding me to eternal 
 life, not allowing me to rest till I had found it. But 
 while thus pei*]^)lexed, I ran to the schools of the phi- 
 losophers, hoping to find a foundation on which I 
 could rest in safety ; but nought could I see but the 
 building up and tearing down of theories, nought but 
 endless disputes and contradictions. Sometimes, for 
 example, the demonstration prevailed of the soul's 
 immortality, then again of its mortality. When the 
 one prevailed, I was happy ; when the other, I went 
 away sorrowful. But neither doctrine had the power 
 of truth over my heart. I was tossed to and fro by 
 contending arguments, and forced to the conclusion 
 that opinions were accounted true, not from their 
 accordance with the truth of fact, but from the abi- 
 lity of those who maintained them. I grew dizzier 
 than ever. I could neither lay hold on any of those 
 
CEKTAINTY. 233 
 
 things which were spoken as firmly established, nor 
 yet was I able to lay aside the desire of inquiry ; but 
 ever when I would shake it off it recurred with greater 
 force." It were tedious to pursue the story ; but you can 
 easily conceive the contrast which the enquirer found 
 between the doubtful utterances and uncertain gro- 
 pings of a blind philosophy, and the steadfast belief 
 of the Christian teachers who claimed to walk in the 
 light of God's truth. 
 
 They had many opportunities of showing that 
 their conviction was not an assumed confidence. 
 All the power of the rulers of the world was ex- 
 erted to wrest their faith from them. Nay, they 
 might keep their faith if they w^ould but dissemble 
 it. Some trifling compliance, and they were free ; 
 to cast a few grains of incense into the fire, to 
 swear by the fortune of Caesar ; but rather than do 
 aught inconsistent with their Christian name, they 
 preferred the dark stifling dungeon, the rack, the 
 wild beasts, the hot iron chair. The genuine records 
 of their mart^^doms are not scanty ; and one feature 
 is common to them all, that to the sufferers the un- 
 seen world is a greater reality than the things of 
 sense. To use the words of one of those early 
 documents, " they were eager to put off this light, in 
 order that, at the Lord's command, they might pass 
 to the brightness of the eternal dwellings of salvation ; 
 for they preferred the true to the false, the heavenly 
 to the earthly, the eternal to the perishable. By the 
 sufiering of one hour, they gained a joy which never 
 should decay." In their struggles, too, they felt that 
 they were contending against an unseen enemy, and 
 
234 SERMON XIII. 
 
 that they had unseen support. A favourite thought 
 with them was, that it was not so much that they 
 were enduring man's cruelty, as that they were 
 champions chosen by Christ to combat for Him under 
 His eye against Satan in person. They triumphed 
 in declaring that they were trampling under foot the 
 head of the dragon, whose malice had stirred up the 
 wrath of man against them. And they owned the 
 present support of Him for whom they fought. As 
 the spectators of some of their martyrdoms write, 
 " They made it evident to all, that in the midst of 
 those sufferings they were absent from the body, or 
 rather that the Lord stood by them and walked in 
 the midst of them." Repeatedly those histories ex- 
 hibit how an overpowering idea can confer absolute 
 unconsciousness of bodily suffering. A delicate wo- 
 man, when torn by a savage beast, showed indeed 
 her sense of what was passing, by re-arranging her 
 torn raiment, by knotting up her fallen hair, lest the 
 sign of mourning, dishevelled hair, should disfigure 
 the joy of her espousals ; yet, when released, asked 
 when she was to be cast to the beast, and, until 
 shown on her person the marks of the conflict, could 
 not be persuaded that she had already undergone the 
 trial. 
 
 It is needless to inquire what answer would have 
 been given by sufferers, who showed so plainly that 
 to them the things of faith were greater realities than 
 the things of sense, if asked were they certain of the 
 truths for which they were content to give their lives ? 
 
 The age of persecution passed away, and with 
 prosperity an age of speculation succeeded. The first 
 
CERTAINTY. 235 
 
 controversy related to the question, what they were 
 to think of the Master whom all who bore His name 
 agreed in worshipping. Did they pay this honour 
 to a creature, or to one who had existed from eter- 
 nity ? The Emperor, to whom the dispute appeared 
 unpractical, bitterly disappointed to find disunion 
 where he had hoped for peace, strove to silence the 
 controversy. But his efforts being vain, he conceived, 
 as he tells us, by a divine inspiration, the idea of 
 invoking, in order to decide the question, represen- 
 tatives of the whole Christian world. Thus in an 
 age of despotism and political inactivity, was brought 
 together the gTeatest representative assembly which 
 the world had yet seen.* Spectators were reminded 
 of the day of Pentecost by the assemblage of men 
 from every nation under heaven. There came scho- 
 lars from Alexandria, and from the more civiHzed 
 cities of the empire ; there were Copts from the desert, 
 hermits from the East. Outside the limits of the 
 empire, Persia had its representative. There was a 
 Scythian from the extreme North ; a Spanish bishop 
 took a leading part in the proceedings. Among these 
 representatives of universal Christendom, were many 
 venerated for the testimony they had borne in the 
 then recent persecutions. A thrill went through the 
 assembly, as one bishop lifted up to bless them a 
 right hand seared by the fire. Others could show in 
 their bodies other marks of the Lord Jesus, marks 
 of stripes, an eye thrust out, a crippled leg. When 
 it turned out that in an assembly with such claims on 
 
 * See Stanley's " Eastern Church;" De Broglie's " VEglise et 
 V Empire RomameP 
 
236 SEEMON XIII. 
 
 tlie veneration of the Christian world, Arius could 
 not muster a score of followers, and that the vast 
 majority regarded his doctrines as offensive and blas- 
 phemous, it could not be but that in the mind of the 
 great masses of Christians, the question was com- 
 pletely set at rest by the concentrated testimony of 
 the leaders of Christian thought in every part of the 
 empire, as to what the religion taught which they 
 had received from their fathers. And, although the 
 waves of controversy did not at once subside, yet, 
 during every year, that passed of the subsequent 
 peaceful times of the Church, the authority of the 
 men of the heroic age, which had triumphed over the 
 last persecution, waxed greater and greater, and the 
 decisions of the Nicene Council, ratified by subsequent 
 acceptance, were held to be as binding as Scripture. 
 Christians had no hesitation in ascribing to them the 
 attribute of certainty. 
 
 After the settlement of the Arian disputes, new 
 controversies arose in the Church on points more 
 subtle and perplexing ; and the same expedient as 
 before — namely, the assembling of councils — was 
 resorted to for a solution of them. But the success 
 of this expedient was less each time that it was 
 repeated. After each decision of a council there was 
 a longer and longer period of struggle whether the 
 decree should be recognized as authoritative, and 
 more and more numerous dissentients, who ulti- 
 mately withdrew, refusing to be bound by it. Take, 
 for instance, that which is counted as the fourth of 
 these councils, to the conclusions arrived at by which 
 our own Church assents; and it may be said that 
 
CERTAINTY. 237 
 
 among all the councils there was not one which had 
 greater prima facie claims on the respectful sub- 
 mission of the Christian world. The number of 
 bishops was at least twice as great as that which had 
 assembled at Nicea ; the decree was drawn up by 
 one of the ablest and most energetic of the Koman 
 Popes, the only one of them who took an effective 
 part in determining any of the early controversies ; 
 and it was supported by all the authority of the 
 Emperor. Yet it wholly failed to give j^eace to the 
 Church. After the decision of the council, the heresy 
 which it condemned developed itself with fresh vigour. 
 It spread itself over the whole East, enthroned its 
 adherents in some of the chief patriarchal sees, found 
 support in Constantinople itself, and its prevalence 
 was for centuries a source of perpetual weakness and 
 of actual danger to the Empire. The West, however, 
 was not touched by these storms, and Pope Gregory 
 the Great only gave utterance to universal western 
 opinion when he described the four councils as the 
 four-square stone on which the structure of faith 
 rises — whose decisions he received with entire devo- 
 tion, with most complete approbation. 
 
 Still, however, fresh controversies arose, necessitat- 
 ing fresh decisions, and resulting in new separations. 
 Actually, you are aware, the state of the Christian 
 world is, that there is one body claiming indeed to 
 represent the original stock, but which does not in- 
 clude within it half the professed disciples of Christ. 
 In that body, by the double process of silencing of 
 dissentients, and of expelling those who refuse to be 
 silenced, enough of practical unanimity has been 
 
238 SEEMON XIII. 
 
 obtained to allow of decisions being made which are 
 outwardly acquiesced in by all, and which, no doubt, 
 are also in the case of most of those who are not too 
 indifferent to have opinions at all, accepted with 
 internal assent as certain truth. Outside that body 
 there are a number of communions differing among 
 themselves, and in each of which considerable liberty 
 of diverse opinion is permitted ; but on some points 
 also holding very strong convictions, not the least 
 strong being the falsity of the peculiar doctrines 
 asserted by the Church of Rome. The intensity of 
 that conviction they had, through what must be pro- 
 nounced a blunder on the part of their opponents, 
 an opportunity of testifying; for of the Protestant 
 Churches, as well as of the early Christian Church, 
 it was true that the blood of the martyrs was the 
 seed. There are few who are not in some degree 
 affected by the strong and genuine convictions of 
 others ; and it was no small gain to Protestantism 
 that so many of its adherents exhibited by the surest 
 of tests that they had such unhesitating conviction of 
 the truth of their doctrine, that they dared not to be 
 false to the light that was in them ; and when offered 
 the alternative of tortures and death on the one side, 
 recantation on the other, they spurned life when to 
 be had only on the terms of saying one thing with 
 the lips, thinking another in the heart. 
 
 What I have said has been intended to prepare the 
 way for the consideration of the palmary argument, to 
 which in the present day the whole Roman Catholic 
 controversy has reduced itself, namely, that in that 
 Church alone can Christians have certainty of the 
 
CERTAINTY. 239 
 
 truths they are bound to believe. All other lines of 
 argument have now been abandoned. The Boman 
 Catholic advocates have now retired, or have been 
 driven from the field of Scri^^ture and of history. 
 Indeed their own learned men have failed them. We 
 have lately heard outcry in abundance against the 
 pride of human learning presuming to dictate to 
 the Church— an outcry raised, because men whom 
 their Church had hitherto justly accounted its most 
 distinguished ornaments, were not content to take 
 positiveness of assertion as equivalent to proof, but 
 ventured to attempt to verify what they were required 
 to believe. But it is hoped now to replace the failure 
 of all other lines of proof by the one argument to 
 which I have referred. This argument would run 
 somewhat thus :— The mark which, as I said in the 
 beginning, distinguished the Christian teachers from 
 the schools of the philosophers, was that the latter 
 could only profess to follow probable opinions more or 
 less doubtful, while the Christians professed to have 
 certain knowledge of the dogmas they proclaimed. 
 Nothing but this intense faith of its adherents could 
 have saved the religion from being uprooted by the 
 desperate assaults which the Roman rulers made 
 upon it. Faith is indeed the life of every great 
 movement. To doubt, to balance arguments, to 
 criticise, is the intellectual pastime of men of culture 
 and leisure ; but if the result of the process is only 
 negative, if the critics have only been able to destroy, 
 not construct, if they are not capable of feeHng and 
 exciting some high enthusiasm, they have no in- 
 fluence on the workVs history. But the mass of 
 
240 SERMON XIII. 
 
 mankind do not obtain their convictions by the pro- 
 cess of balancing arguments — a process for which 
 they have neither inclination nor leisure; they accept 
 what is delivered to them by authority, and which 
 commends itself to their feelings.* 
 
 It is urged, that where action is necessary, reason- 
 ing keeps us back from action, impressions lead us 
 to it. To most persons argumentation makes the 
 point in hand more doubtful, and considerably less 
 impressive. Life is for action ; to act you must 
 assume, and that assumption is faith. It is argued 
 then that Christ did not leave His people to depend 
 for their knowledge of the truth of His doctrines on 
 the slow and doubtful process of argumentation ; 
 that, on the contrary, he provided in His Church a 
 means of teaching them with authority what they 
 must believe ; and that He bestows on them the 
 supernatural gift of faith, enabling them to hold 
 with perfect certainty what is delivered to them. 
 Certainty, it is alleged, is unattainable by the Pro- 
 testant method of reasoning and proof. All the argu- 
 ments employed are in their nature moral, not 
 demonstrative, and the conclusions can only be re- 
 ceived as true with more or less probability. A Pro- 
 testant may hold that it is no doubt true, with a very 
 high degree of probability, that there is a God, and 
 that He has sent His Son into the world ; but his sys- 
 tem renders him unable to accept these or any other 
 propositions with the unhesitating certainty of faith. 
 The Koman Catholic, on the other hand, receives 
 
 * The arguments quoted are taken from Dr. Newman's " Gram- 
 mar of Assent." 
 
CERTAINTY. 241 
 
 what is delivered to him hy the Church with absolute 
 certainty ; there being no higher evidence for any- 
 thing than the testimony of God Himself. And they 
 proceed to say that this certainty is indefectible. It 
 would be Pyrrhonism to deny that on some subjects 
 men can attain to certain knowledge. Now, whatever 
 we certainly know to be true can never be shown to be 
 false. If, therefore, we have attained to a certainty 
 that the Church of Kome is infallible, it matters not 
 if she goes on to assert doctrines, which we never bar- 
 gained for when we submitted to her ; such as the 
 Immaculate Conception and the personal Infallibility 
 of the Popes ; doctrines, which may appear to our 
 unassisted reason absolutely opposed to the truth of 
 history, and such that it seems that the hampering of 
 the Church with them must indefinitely postpone the 
 conversion of the world. Still, having once had a 
 certitude that the decisions of the Church can 
 never be wrong, we must hold that certitude fast, 
 persuaded that no evidence whatever can possibly 
 overthrow it. 
 
 I had designed to-day to examine this whole theory, 
 and to enquire what certainty of religious truth is at- 
 tainable by man. I had proposed on next Sunday to 
 examine a kindred theory held by Protestants, and .to 
 enquire how far it is true, that men can have certain 
 assurance of present and eternal salvation. I perceive 
 that time will not permit me fully to carry out my 
 plan ; but it is impossible not to notice the resem- 
 blance between the story told of Cromwell, as to how 
 his disquietude as to his religious state was removed, 
 by recalling his former certainty, that he had once 
 
 R 
 
242 SERMON XIII. 
 
 been in a state of grace, and Dr. Newman's theory, 
 that his past certainty as to Roman Infallibility is suf- 
 ficient to quiet any distress caused by proof of actual 
 error committed by the Church of Eome. Although 
 I must postpone to the next day a fuller examination 
 of the argument I have stated, I would remark now 
 that in the whole controversy there is no greater 
 source of fallacy than the abuse of the word certainty. 
 We are said to have a certainty when there is undoubt- 
 ing persuasion in our minds, and when the thing of 
 which we are persuaded is actually true. If we were quite 
 infallible these two things would always go together. 
 But as long as we are liable to mistake, it can only 
 mislead us if we give to our own convictions the name 
 of certainties — to other people's convictions differing 
 from ours, some weaker name ; and if w^e assume, that 
 because truth can never change, therefore, that of 
 which we claim to be certain must never be re- 
 examined, no matter what fresh evidence may offer. 
 On the contrary, no wise man holds any conclusion of 
 his to be absolutely irreversible. There are some 
 things that we may firmly believe with a full per- 
 suasion that no new evidence will turn up to con- 
 tradict them. In this persuasion we may legitimately 
 refuse to attend to opposing evidence that is mani- 
 festly not of the first class. For instance, we should 
 not lightly give heed to stories affecting the character 
 of a person in whom we felt confidence. Yet, if we 
 made it a canon, that on no evidence whatever would 
 we believe anything to that person's disadvantage ; or 
 if in any case we maintained that the conclusions we 
 had drawn from our study of one class of facts must 
 
CERTAINTY. 243 
 
 never be abandoned, no matter what new facts might 
 come to light, then our belief could no longer be 
 called faith : it would be prejudice. 
 
 I do not think that I need regret that I have not now 
 time for a refutation of the Eoman Catholic arguments 
 which I laid before you, because it scarcely needs that 
 I should point out how little is gained by disparaging 
 the kind of certainty we can obtain without help from 
 an infallible Church, since, unless we begin by assum- 
 ing the thing to be proved, we can have no greater 
 certainty that the Church is infallible than that which 
 we can arrive at without her help ; and the logical prob- 
 lem is one of the most hopeless character with which 
 some of the ablest Eoman Catholic divines have been 
 trying for the last two or three years to grapple, 
 namely, how, from probable premisses, we can draw an 
 absolutely certain conclusion : how we can have 
 greater certainty of anything we receive on the 
 Church's authority, than we have of her title to speak 
 with authority. 
 
 It will suffice now to call attention to the practical 
 working of the theory, that the Christian Eevelation 
 will have been a failure, unless we can have as high 
 certainty of the right solution of every problem that 
 speculative theologians can raise, as we have of the 
 truths that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, and 
 rose again from the dead. It is in order to satisfy 
 the supposed necessity for such certainty, that in our 
 own time there has been created — what Christendom 
 existed so many centuries without finding out its 
 need of — a living tribunal competent to give an infal- 
 libly correct answer to every question that may be 
 
244 SERMON XIII. 
 
 propounded to it. We may judge of the need of 
 such a tribunal, by referring to the last occasion on 
 which it exercised its function. A dispute was raised 
 some five centuries ago, between two powerful parties 
 in the Roman Catholic Church, as to whether or not 
 the mother of our Lord had been conceived without 
 original sin. There was no practical difference be- 
 tween the parties as to the honour which was to be 
 paid her. All were united in ojffering her a worship 
 which we believe cannot rightly be given to any 
 creature. All, too, were willing to own that she had 
 been born without original sin. But the point at 
 issue was how long before birth she had been cleansed 
 from it, whether at the very instant of her concep- 
 tion, or as some said, a few moments, or possibly 
 two or three hours afterwards. Thus the problem 
 was to fix the time within a few hours, when a super- 
 natural privilege was conferred some nineteen cen- 
 turies ago, no practical consequence whatever being 
 to follow, no matter which way the question might 
 be determined. We can understand the craving for 
 certainty which the so-called Clement describes him- 
 self to have felt in the passage I already read to you, 
 as his mind brooded over some of the most important 
 questions that afi'ect man's future destiny. But it is 
 difficult to conceive how a craving for certainty as to 
 the right answer to the problem I have just stated, 
 could break the rest or spoil the appetite of a single 
 human being. It must be owned, however, that the 
 point was hotly disputed ; that men called each other 
 heretics, and asserted that the eternal salvation of 
 others was imperilled by wrong opinions on it. But 
 
CERTAINTY. 245 
 
 all this time the Infallible tribunal abstained from 
 interfering. And now that it has broken its centuries 
 of silence, in order to pronounce a decision on an 
 extinct controversy, nothing can be more depressing 
 than the indifierence with which the decision has 
 been received by the lay members of that communion. 
 Can we rightly give the name of Faith to the dis- 
 position which leads a man to acquiesce without in- 
 quiry, while dogmas are added to his creed ; may we 
 not fairly conclude that the same man would be likely 
 to acquiesce with equal ease if dogmas were taken 
 from it ? 
 
 Brethren, I have occupied you to-day with a subject 
 of controversial Theology, but it suggests a practical 
 question, which I would wish you each to put to him- 
 self. You very intelligently reject the superstitious 
 additions which those of another communion have 
 made to their creed ; but what is the nature of your faith 
 in the truths you hold in common with them ? Your 
 faith may be indolent assent to traditional doctrine, 
 it may even rise as high as passionate attachment to 
 the correct enunciation of a theological formula ; but 
 if it has not become the spring of your practical 
 principles of action, if it does not work by love and 
 overcome the world, then your belief in our Lord's 
 death and resurrection is, in God's eyes, of no more 
 value than the belief which others hold of the reality 
 of the apparition of La Sallette, or of the miracle 
 of the melting of the blood of Januarius. 
 
SERMON XIV. 
 
 CEETAINTY. 
 
 ** Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh 
 you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." — 
 I Peter iii. 15. 
 
 The Christian religion makes a double appeal — to 
 the intellect and to the heart. It has shown itself 
 capable of exciting passionate devotion in those who 
 receive it ; yet the power to excite enthusiasm is 
 common to it with many a false religion. Enthu- 
 siasm (both name and thing) is far more ancient 
 than Christianity. We need not doubt the reality of 
 the passionate religious emotion which impelled the 
 Bacchanals to their mountain orgies, or which dic- 
 tated still wilder modes of Eastern w^orship, such as 
 those of which we get a glimpse in Scripture, w^here 
 the prophets of Baal are described as cutting them- 
 selves with knives and lancets till the blood gushed 
 out upon them. But powerful as heathen enthusiasm 
 has been, it seems almost a degradation to Christian 
 enthusiasm to mention one in comparison with the 
 other. The one has been but a temporary possession, 
 impelling the votary to acts on which, when restored 
 
CERTAINTY. 247 
 
 to his right mind, he looks back with surprise or 
 sorrow or shame ; the other is a permanent indwelling 
 of the Divinity, moulding the character of the whole 
 life. And while the heathen religious emotion seems 
 to us irrational, and to our difierent habits of thought 
 almost unaccountable, the Christian w^as ever guided, 
 controlled, and justified by reason. I spoke last 
 Sunday of the power which intense religious convic- 
 tion bestowed on those who were called to suffer for 
 their faith ; how to them the unseen was far more 
 real than the things of sense ; "how they showed 
 themselves indifferent to, and almost unconscious of, 
 bodily torture, so as to move the wonder of heathen 
 spectators at the inconsistence of men who, professing 
 their faith in the resurrection of the body, declared 
 that they thought their bodies so precious that God 
 must needs exempt them from the corruption which 
 appeared to be their natural lot ; yet acted as if 
 nothing were in their eyes more contemptible than 
 their own bodies. But it is striking to notice what 
 an amount of calm good sense, as a general rule, 
 controlled the enthusiasm which was content to brave 
 martyrdom. When we consider that the sufferers 
 for Christ were all through their trial accompanied 
 by the hearty and admiring sympathy of their fellow- 
 believers ; that they were certain, in case they survived 
 the conflict, of holding a permanent position of honour 
 and influence in the Church — if they died, of having 
 their memory so venerated that, as we know happened 
 in the end, the martyrs came to be worshipped as 
 a kind of minor divinities ; and when we consider 
 that they were fully convinced that death would be to 
 
248 SERMON XIV. 
 
 them an exchange of earthly fluctuations and troubles 
 for abiding happiness, with which their light afflic- 
 tion that endureth but for a moment was not worthy 
 to be compared, we need not wonder if martyrdom 
 seemed to them a thing more to be coveted than to 
 be dreaded. There were, consequently, cases from 
 time to time of persons who voluntarily sought for 
 martyrdom, or threw themselves in the way of it ; 
 yet, unless there were some worthy cause exceptionally 
 to justify such an act, it was not stamped with the 
 seal of Church approbation. Nay, to draw back from 
 persecution when sought out for it — that is to say, 
 to flee or conceal oneself from the enemies who sought 
 his life — though objected to by the fanatical, was 
 commended by the prevalent voice of the community 
 as an act of Christian prudence, and justified by our 
 Lord's own command, " When they persecute you in 
 one city, flee into another." Such flight or conceal- 
 ment was actually practised by leading men, who 
 afterwards proved, by the constancy of their death, 
 that want of courage was not the cause why they had 
 not faced the combat sooner. So, again, if there were 
 an external resemblance between the rapt ecstasy of 
 Christian prophets and that of heathen seers, there 
 was the fundamental difference that Christian inspir- 
 ation was consistent wdth complete self-control — that 
 the spirits of the prophets were subject to the prophets. 
 This difference was much insisted on as exposing the 
 falsity of the pretence to inspiration made by certain 
 fanatical sects, whose prophets were the organs of 
 frenzied utterances which they had no power to con- 
 trol. And generally the Christians claimed, not to 
 
CERTAINTY. 249 
 
 have caught up their belief in some unaccountable 
 way by sympathetic contagion, but they declared 
 themselves to be ready, as the words of the text 
 direct, to justify it by proof. Several of the apologies 
 are still extant which were offered, in order to defend 
 by argument the doctrines which they held so firmly. 
 It is plain from what has been said, what a very 
 imperfect view of our religion is taken by those who 
 practically regard it as appealing but to a single part 
 of our nature. There are some who look only to the 
 effects of religion in securing virtuous conduct, and 
 who hold that provided a man's life be in the right, 
 he may allow graceless zealots to dispute about doc- 
 trine as they please. Others again care only for the 
 excitement of religious emotion. It matters not to 
 them that the feelings raised end in nothing, that 
 they die away without having wrought any permanent 
 change of character ; nor do they care to justify by 
 argument the reasonableness of the emotions they 
 value. They regard a preacher's time as] -equally 
 wasted, whether he speak of moral duties, in which 
 case they set him down as a mere legalist, or whether 
 he attempt to maintain by argument either the fun- 
 damental doctrines of the Gospel, or his deductions 
 from them. Anything of mental effort they dislike, 
 and they count all words out of place in the puli)it 
 which are spoken to the head, not the heart. Lastly, 
 others convinced that mere excitement of feeling, if 
 there be not a basis of fact to justify that excitement, 
 is as unpractical as the emotion felt by the spectators 
 of a tragedy, or the readers of a novel, and as 
 irrational as the frenzied passion of the Maenads, 
 
250 SERMON XIY. 
 
 have so devoted themselves to proving the truth of 
 Christianity, that they seem to have forgotten that 
 there was any use to be made of it after it had been 
 proved. They have disparaged the value of the faith 
 of the unlearned, unless it had been commended to 
 their reason by some instruction in evidences ; or they 
 have occupied themselves in controversy and in the 
 refutation of heresy. And there are, doubtless, many 
 to whom the study of the theory of Christianity 
 merely as an intellectual problem has interest ; yet if 
 they occupy themselves exclusively in such studies, 
 and offer their results to others as their spiritual 
 nutriment, their own hearts are forced to confess that 
 their disciples are not without reason when they ex- 
 press their dissatisfaction, and declare that those are 
 dry husks with which their souls cannot be fed. 
 
 In short, then, Christianity is mutilated, if it is 
 regarded exclusively from its intellectual, or its 
 emotional, or its practical aspect. It can never 
 be unimportant what a man's belief is, for his 
 conduct is always liable to be more or less influ- 
 enced by it ; yet conclusions may be admitted by the 
 reason as true, and still may lie dead in the mind 
 for years, never coming into contact with the practical 
 springs of action. It needs that emotion should 
 quicken into life those germs of action, before their 
 fruit can appear. Christian faith, then, does in its 
 idea include an intelligent reception of the great facts 
 which the religion has revealed ; but this alone is 
 nothing, unless emotion lay hold on these facts, de- 
 riving from its sense of their reality a strength, which 
 the most highly raised efforts of the imagination 
 
CERTAINTY. 251 
 
 never could have given it, and thus gaining power to 
 conquer the engrossing influence of sense, and to 
 guide the whole course of life. 
 
 On lastj:Sunday I considered a theory which vir- 
 tually amounted to discarding from the notion of 
 Christian faith all the rational part, and retaining 
 merely the emotional, and it is to he hoped the 
 practical part. It is observed that a state of doubt 
 is incompatible with the excitement of strong feel- 
 ing. If you have received a benefit from an unknown 
 source, you will not be quite indifferent to one who 
 you think may possibly have bestowed it on you ; but 
 until you have received some positive assurance on 
 this point, you are not likely to entertain any lively 
 emotion of gratitude towards him. It was urged, 
 then, that the proofs and evidences, on which it has 
 been attempted to establish a foundation for Christian 
 belief, are in their nature probable, not demonstrative 
 arguments, and are therefore incapable of yielding 
 that certainty which is essential to true faith. And 
 as scarcely any of the beliefs by which mankind are 
 influenced have been argued out by themselves^ but 
 almost all have been taken up on the authority of 
 others, so it is contended that the mode by which God 
 has provided that Christian belief should be generated 
 is not argument, but the authoritative teaching of a 
 Church always inspired to give absolutely correct 
 instruction, and to which they who submit them- 
 selves receive in the supernatural gift of faith un- 
 doubted assurance that they are in the right way. 
 
 And thus it is hoped to meet the obvious difficulty 
 to which I referred on last Sunday — namely, if our 
 
252 SERMON XIV. 
 
 reason cannot give us certainty in our investigation 
 of religious truth, what certainty can we have of our 
 belief that Christ has founded a Church infallibly 
 guarded from error ? what certainty that we have 
 found the Church so guarded if there be one ? what 
 certainty of anything we receive on the authority of 
 the Church whose teaching we have accepted ? It is 
 replied, that it is not by logical proof we discover the 
 Church. Faith must make a venture ; it must begin 
 by assuming the truth of the Church's claims. After 
 you have submitted you find you have done well ; 
 and experiencing in the bosom of the Church rest, 
 peace, certainty, you know that she who has bestowed 
 these gifts on you must be Divine. Assuredly, it 
 cannot be denied that an alleged revelation may 
 powerfully commend itself by internal evidence. He 
 who has received such a revelation on its external 
 proofs may find an additional reason for trusting it 
 in the consistence of its doctrines with each other, 
 their reasonableness, their holiness, their adaptation 
 to the wants of his nature. Such arguments as these 
 go to make up great part of the grounds of the con- 
 viction we all feel that the Bible is the Word of God. 
 But this rational conviction can be felt by no disciple 
 of a Church which claims to be infallible ; for her 
 first principle is that her teaching shall be subject to 
 no criticism. A disciple of the Church of Kome is 
 bound to crush down every doubt as sinful : he must 
 reject as heretical every attempt to test the teaching 
 of his Church by reason, or Scripture, or antiquity; 
 consequently her teaching can never receive any sub- 
 sequent verification. The certainty of her disciples 
 
CERTAINTY. 253 
 
 can never rise higher than it was at the first!moment 
 they submitted to her. A guide who points out to 
 those whom he conducts the land-marks on each step 
 of the way, may give them much additional assurance 
 that they are on the right road, to confirm the'confi- 
 dence which first induced them to put themselves 
 under his guidance. Such was the method adbpted 
 by the ancient Church, and such is the method 
 adopted by our own, which teaches nothing to be be- 
 lieved as necessary to salvation for which she does 
 not ofi'er Scripture proof. But a guide who insists 
 on bhndfolding his passengers can do nothing to add 
 to the confidence they first felt in him. It certainly 
 is no proof of his competence, that those whom he 
 conducts feel great comfort and satisfaction in being 
 relieved from the anxiety and perplexity of having to 
 choose a way for themselves. 
 
 It remains to notice the assertion, that after sub- 
 mitting to the Church we receive a supernatural 
 assurance of her claims, faith being a supernatural 
 gift with which we cannot tamper without impiety. 
 This is an assertion which it is diflScult to discuss, 
 because anyone who declares that he knows some- 
 thing by means of Divine revelation made directly 
 to himself, declares what it is as difficult for anyone 
 else to refute as it is for him to establish it to the 
 satisfaction of others. We do not deny the work of 
 the Spirit of God in producing the faith of the be- 
 liever ; but w.e deny that that work violates any of the 
 laws of our nature. We say that it is performed in 
 strict conformity with these laws, by supplyino- evi- 
 dence which ought to convince, and by removing the 
 
254 SERMON xrv. 
 
 moral hindrances which might impede the fair con- 
 sideration of that evidence, as when He opened the 
 heart of Lydia to attend to the things spoken by 
 Paul. If a Church shows by its conduct that it dare 
 not submit to examination the evidence which it 
 offers, and if it declares that the conviction resulting 
 from that evidence is altogether of supernatural ori- 
 gin, it does its best to justify the infidel scoff that its 
 doctrines are such that, by its own confession, it re- 
 quires a miracle to make a man believe in them. It 
 remains also to explain how it is that others who 
 also claim to have been taught by God's Spirit, are 
 led to quite opposite conclusions. Certainly, to us 
 who stand outside it requires no miracle to account 
 for the feelings of rest and peace experienced by those 
 who submit to the guidance of an infallible Church. 
 There is nothing miraculous in the fact, that men 
 who cease to inquire, and who take their opinions on 
 trust from others, are not troubled with the doubts 
 and anxieties which attend the task of weighing evi- 
 dence, and forming a judgment for ourselves. 
 
 But we may fairly ask — Is the release from such 
 anxiety a blessing or a curse ? In the case of secular 
 knowledge do we think the independent enquirer to 
 be pitied, because, in his investigations, he may have 
 to encounter perplexity, disappointment, failure, and 
 may even fall into error. Do we think him happier 
 who without mental effort gets by heart second-hand 
 knowledge, which gives him as little interest as it 
 has cost him trouble. The independent enquirer may 
 be often baffled, only partially successful ; but what- 
 ever knowledge he has attained has yielded him 
 
CERTAINTY. 255 
 
 infinitely more pleasure than the most accurate infor- 
 mation that has been taken on trust from others. Our 
 Heavenly Father has dealt with us in respect to the 
 supply of knowledge for the mind as He has with 
 respect to the supply of food for our bodies. In nei- 
 ther case has it been His will that the way of acquire- 
 ment should be too easy. The food necessary to 
 sustain life cannot be gained without toil. From 
 time to time some actually perish for want of it. 
 But the struggle has drawn forth man's energies, and 
 braced his powers. In those climates where the 
 struggle has been hardest, the greatest advances in 
 civilization have been made ; and the condition of 
 mankind in those tropical lands where the bounty of 
 nature is greatest, enables us easily to judge into 
 what a state of drowsy inactivity the race would have 
 sunk had the poets' dreams been realized of a golden 
 age, when the leaves dropped honey, and the rivers 
 ran wine. Thus we can understand how it has been 
 that the knowledge which distinguishes the civilized 
 man from the barbarian, essential as it now seems to 
 the comfort and security of our daily life, was not at 
 once bestowed as the common property of mankind, 
 but has been attained with painful effort by slow and 
 successive steps, stimulating and rewarding the re- 
 search of many generations of successful enquirers. 
 
 If, then, with respect to all else the rule holds 
 good, that life gives nothing without toil, is it likely 
 that religious knowledge is the only thing which can be 
 got by indolent effortless reception, that he who seeks 
 for theological truth need bestow no labour of thought, 
 but has an oracle provided, ready to give an infallible 
 
256 SERMON XIV. 
 
 solution of every problem which may be propounded 
 to it. How paralysing the effect of such an institu- 
 tion must be there needs no other example than that 
 which I used last Sunday, the dispute about the doc- 
 trine of the Immaculate Conception. When the point 
 at issue is explained, it is now seen to be quite unprac- 
 tical, and one which in our judgment does not justify 
 the zeal which was roused by it. But at least we 
 must allow, that at the time when men called each 
 other heretics for differing on this subject, and when 
 they threatened eternal damnation to their opponents, 
 they did feel a lively interest in the question debated, 
 and all the faculties of their minds were strained to 
 obtain the true answer to it. All this interest con- 
 tinued so long as there was no practical belief in the 
 Church of a tribunal empovvered infallibly to decide 
 the question ; for that there was no such practical 
 belief is proved by the fact, that the Church autho- 
 rities never dared to pronounce a decision, because 
 they knew that the party which might be defeated 
 would not recognize the decision as infallible, and 
 would make a schism rather than submit to it. In 
 our own time the claim of infallibility has come to 
 be practically recognized, and wherever this has been 
 done, the result has been utter stagnation of religious 
 thought, the laity receiving with profound indifference 
 the sentence which was to decide whether their faith 
 was to embrace a dogma more or less. 
 
 It may be objected that my argument would be suc- 
 cessful if man was a purely intellectual being ; then, 
 indeed, the search for truth might be made the 
 business of this life, and the possession of truth 
 
CERTAINTY. 257 
 
 might be regarded as a subordinate matter. But in 
 religion the case is otherwise. There it is neces- 
 sary, not that we should seek for truth, but 
 that we should have it, that we should embrace 
 it with the full assurance of faith, and that this faith 
 should become our practical spring of action. I 
 admit that this may be truly said with respect to 
 certain great fundamental doctrines ; but this admis- 
 sion does nothing to establish what is really con- 
 tended for, namely, the necessity of a means for 
 obtaining an infallibly correct solution of every theo- 
 logical question that may be debated. For amilogy 
 shows that even if such knowledge be very important, 
 yet in God's dealings with us, its importance may 
 constitute it the fitting reward to stimulate our re- 
 search. Of the great and fundamental truths to which 
 I have referred, we have no cause to complain of want 
 of certainty. It is quite untrue to say that certainty 
 cannot be the result of argument, unless the argument 
 amount to a mathematical demonstration. On the 
 contrary, the convictions which practically regulate 
 our lives are all the result of arguments, which theore- 
 tically would be classed as probable. But the assur- 
 ance produced by such arguments rises exactly in 
 proportion as they are tested by examination, and as 
 the proof of them is found to be convincing by other 
 men. We count that we have absolute certainty 
 that we live on an island, and that there is such a 
 city as Eome, just because we know that men are per- 
 petually acting on the faith, that the maps that make 
 these assertions are correct, and because we have 
 never known any one complain of being deceived 
 
258 SERMON XIY. 
 
 by them. The method of teaching by authority is 
 God's appointed means for the instruction of mankind ; 
 but the confidence with which we can trust such teach- 
 ing is altogether proportionate to its willingness to sub- 
 mit to correction . The teaching of our Church, or of the 
 primitive Church, may be as safely trusted as the un- 
 contradicted statements of the newspaper press in a free 
 country, where we know that anything erroneous that 
 mayle published is likely to be met by an immediate 
 counter- statement : the teaching of a Church which 
 claims infallibility is as little worthy of*confidence as 
 what.is published in the newspapers of a despotic coun- 
 try, where nobody is permitted to deny whatever it 
 may be the will of the government to have believed. 
 The device, therefore, of having an organ, whose 
 utterances shall be subject to no question, so far from 
 giving certainty, actually takes it away. 
 
 It is childish to disparage the assurance we have as 
 to the facts of religion, because the evidence which estab- 
 lishes them belongs to the class which is technically 
 called probable. " Probability is the very guide of 
 life;" and we need not murmur if the facts of religion 
 are established by the same kind of proof as that on 
 vv'hich we act in our most important earthly concerns. 
 You complain that probable arguments will not make 
 it certain to you that there is a God who created you, 
 a Eedeemer who died for you, a Holy Spirit who sanc- 
 tifies you. You might as well complain that you can- 
 not be certain that the couple who reared you are 
 your father and mother — the playfellows, with whom 
 you have been brought up, your brothers and sisters. 
 The evidence on which men believe such facts is not 
 
CERTAINTY. 259 
 
 demonstrative, and instances can be produced of 
 people who have been deceived by trusting to it. 
 
 In conclusion, I would fully concede that we may 
 have reasons for the hope that is in us, w^hich we can- 
 not always easily produce for the satisfaction of other 
 men. We are perpetually forming judgments on the 
 characters of those with whom we mix in daily life. 
 One person we dislike and distrust ; in the upright- 
 ness and integrity of another we have implicit confi- 
 dence ; on the truth of another's love to ourselves, 
 we would stake all we have in the world. We should 
 find it hard to gather into a formal argument all the 
 looks or gestures, chance expressions, or other little 
 circumstances which had resulted in forming one defi- 
 nite impression. And yet, each little incident that 
 may have passed from our own memory was a per- 
 fectly legitimate source of inference, and we have no 
 reason to distrust the conclusions we have drawn from 
 them. In like manner, the belief of the unlearned 
 may be completely rational, and founded on very real 
 arguments, however difficult they might find it to mar- 
 shal them in order. In their study of the Bible, the 
 aggregate impression produced by a number of minute 
 touches, is one of full confidence in the artless truth 
 of the relaters, miraculous although be the facts to 
 which they bear witness. Does not the cha- 
 racter of Paul reveal itself in his writings in the 
 same way as does the character of those with whom 
 we hold oral converse. And if the result of our study 
 of his writings is to produce in us the conviction, that 
 he is one whose word we may safely trust, is not 
 such a conviction as entirely reasonable as a similar 
 
260 SERMON XIV. 
 
 judgment formed of men, in whose characters our in- 
 tercourse with them leads us to put reliance ? There 
 are statements of the Bible, too, which admit of ex- 
 perimental verification ; its doctrines concerning sin, 
 and concerning the need of a Saviour ; its doctrine con- 
 cerning a God willing to answer prayer, and with whom 
 His creatures can have personal intercourse in every 
 time of need. I do not say that the testimony of our 
 hearts and consciences to such doctrines would dis- 
 pense with external proof of the Divine • authority of 
 the hook that contained them ; but yet, when such 
 proof has been furnished, they who are unable to 
 examine it for themselves, in addition to the confidence 
 arising from the knowledge, that their religion fears 
 no light and shrinks from no examination, have 
 accessible to them evidence attested by their own 
 experience, and not by the report of others. And the 
 love of God being shed abroad in their hearts by the 
 Holy Ghost given unto them, they know that their 
 hope is one which maketh not ashamed. 
 
SERMON XV. 
 
 ST. PATRICK'S DAY. 
 
 " And when Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his 
 fathers, and that Joab, the captain of the host, was dead, Hadad 
 said to Pharaoh, Let me depart that I may go to mine own country. 
 Then Pharaoh said unto him. But what hast thou lacked with me 
 that behold thou seekest to go to thine own country ? And he an- 
 swered, Nothing : howbeit, let me go in anywise." — I KINGS xi. 
 
 21, 22. 
 
 The verses preceding the text tell how this Hadad, 
 escaping in his childhood the massacre which aimed 
 at the extermination of his people, found in Egypt 
 shelter, house and land, a royal alliance, reception 
 for his own children among the members of the 
 king's acknowledged family. Yet all this luxury 
 could not weigh against the name of country, or 
 bring him to own Egypt as his home. And no sooner 
 does a chance seem to offer of successfully asserting 
 his country's independence, than he abandons his 
 Egyptian ease for a life of privation and adventure. 
 Something like this had occurred before when Moses, 
 refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 
 preferred to cast in his lot with the fortunes of his 
 
262 SERMON XV. 
 
 own oppressed race. But something more than mere 
 patriotism inspired the resokition of Moses. He, 
 we are assured, was so gifted to put faith in a pro- 
 mised Kedeemer, that the reproach which he esteemed 
 greater riches than the treasures of Egypt might 
 fitly be called the reproach of Christ. In the present 
 case it does not appear that any religious motive 
 actuated Hadad ; and it is doubtful whether his 
 patriotic struggles met with any success. According 
 to the Septuagint, he did ultimately establish himself 
 as a king in Edom. According to Josephus, the 
 power of Solomon was too strong for him there, and 
 he was compelled to content himself with harassing 
 the adversary of his race in conjunction with Syrian 
 allies, but without thereby gaining the liberty of his 
 own people. 
 
 If we wish to speak of patriotism, we are almost 
 compelled, if we desire a Scripture illustration, to 
 turn to the Old Testament. One affecting example, 
 indeed, there is in the New : the tears shed by the 
 Saviour over the doomed city which refused to hear 
 His call ; but yet this is a virtue to which He no- 
 where exhorts His followers, and about which His 
 Apostles, in their Epistles, are equally silent. Are 
 we to consider this as a defect in Christian morality ? 
 It seems as if the Christian teachers were unable to 
 appreciate moral beauty of a kind, the excellence of 
 which it might have been expected that they would 
 have been most ready to acknowledge. The virtue 
 most strongly commended in the New Testament is 
 that of self-sacrifice. The most impressive thing in 
 the Gospel is its exhibition in the highest degree of 
 
ST. PATRICK*S DAY. 263 
 
 the love which prompts a man to give his life for his 
 friends. But patriotism had already elicited ex- 
 amples of this land of self-sacrifice which men had 
 ever repaid with their highest honours. History or 
 legend fondly commemorated the deeds of Codrus, 
 Leonidas, the Decii, many another hero who had not 
 feared to die for his country ; nor was the humblest 
 soldier insensible to the same motives ; and with but 
 little hope of fame for their reward, whole legions 
 had often advanced to posts whence they knew that 
 none of them should return. Admiration of such 
 deeds was felt as keenly by the Jews as by Greeks or 
 Eomans, or any other people ; and not to speak of 
 elder national heroes, the acts of the Maccabees and 
 their followers were, at the time that the Apostles 
 taught, living in the memory and the praises of their 
 countrymen. It may not be amiss, then, to inquire 
 why the New Testament is silent on this subject, and 
 contains no exhortations to the practice of a virtue 
 which heathens admired, and the beauty of which 
 none can dispute. 
 
 I shall not inquire whether, as some have asserted, 
 all sin can be reduced to selfishness ; for it will not 
 be denied that the selfish spirit is utterly opposed to 
 the Christian, and that out of it naturally spring 
 most of the faults and vices which our conscience 
 condemns. And it must be admitted that selfishness 
 is natural to fallen man ; and that not to speak of 
 voluntary sacrifice of our own rights, even due regard 
 to the rights of others is a thing which must be 
 taught by education and training, and by experience, 
 that we are sure eventually to bufi'er ourselves if we 
 
204 SERMON XV. 
 
 disregard what others may claim from us. Yet there 
 are implanted in our nature principles antagonistic 
 to selfishness, the most striking being the domestic 
 affections. Even in the lower creatures we know how 
 parental affection will triumph over the instinct of 
 self-preservation, and how the most timid of animals 
 become courageous in defence of their young. In 
 the case of every animal, instinct impels the mother 
 to grudge no sacrifice of ease or sleep necessary for 
 the care of her little ones during their period of help- 
 lessness ; and in the human species reason prolongs 
 parental care beyond the time of infancy, and calling 
 forth feelings of gratitude and duty in return, estab- 
 lishes the family relations wiience much of our best 
 and purest happiness is derived. UndoubtecTly, as a 
 general rule, to undertake the duties of wedded life 
 is an important step in a man's moral training ; and 
 he who takes upoi^ him to provide for others whom 
 he learns to hold dearer to him than himself, is 
 thereby lifted out of selfishness and placed in a higher 
 moral condition than his whose conduct had no end 
 but to provide for himself the greatest amount of 
 pleasure. Yet wdth many family love is but an en- 
 larged selfishness. With many the duty of providing 
 for those of his own house is but an excuse for rapa- 
 city, of which, without some such apology, he would 
 be ashamed. So mischievous has at times appeared 
 the selfishness of family love, that some legislators, 
 practical or speculative, have regarded it as a thing to 
 be warred against, and have devised plans for train- 
 ing the young, so that they might regard themselves 
 rather as children of the State than as members of a 
 private family. 
 
ST. Patrick's day. 265 
 
 It is a remarkable example of God's power to 
 bring good out of evil, that it is war which has 
 elicited some of man's noblest qualities. In the secu- 
 rity of our daily life we scarcely can conceive a 
 state of things when war was the rule, peace the 
 exception ; when neighbouring states thought it 
 natural to inflict injuries on each other, unless they 
 had made some compact to the contrary ; when no 
 comity tempered the rights of w^ar, and each citizen 
 knew that the overthrow of his state would involve 
 possibly the loss of his life, certainly the loss of his 
 personal liberty, and that of his family. All that he 
 owed to the parents who had shielded his early years 
 from harm, was little in comparison with what he owed 
 to the city, whose laws had given him his moral and 
 political education, and to the fellow-citizens, from 
 whose daily protection he received the enjoyment of 
 every other blessing, wife, children, personal freedom. 
 On each man's consciousness of this obligation, and on 
 his willingness loyally to return it, the safety of the 
 State depended. And thus was generated a state of 
 feeling, in self-sacrificing grandeur rising as much 
 above mere family affection, as that does above the 
 selfishness of the celibate. Each then felt that his 
 life was an offering, w4iich it would be most glorious 
 to pay if demanded as his club-contribution for the 
 common safety. Not merely his own life, but the livts 
 of those most dear to him, must not be grudged if 
 needed by the State, but for whose protection he 
 never could have enjoyed their love ; and thus, a 
 mother, whose son had gone forth to battle in her 
 country's defence, would feel it less painful to see 
 
266 SERMON XV. 
 
 him returning on his shield than without it. Yet, 
 noble as these patriotic feelings are, they too, may, in 
 their narrowness, be chargeable with being but a still 
 enlarged selfishness. The two precepts seemed to 
 have gone together — " Thou shalt love thy neighbour 
 and hate thine enemy." Often has the patriot thought 
 it laudable to aggrandise his own state at any cost to 
 other nations. That they had rights which justice 
 required him to respect he did not dream. Scarcely 
 would he own that they had virtues which demanded 
 his esteem; but representing them to his mind as 
 cruel, insolent, perfidious, he little recked what inju- 
 ries he did them. Greece, which has exhibited some 
 of the noblest examples of patriotism, has exhibited 
 also some of its abuses. Great part of its history is 
 an account of miseries inflicted on each other by 
 inhabitants of cities, of what we should count the 
 same country, and whose geographical proximity 
 marked them out as natural friends. Nothing would 
 seem to us more unnatural than if the relations be- 
 tween Dublin and Bray were the same as those between 
 Thebes and Plataea, or if all the principal cities of our 
 own island were mutually hostile communities con- 
 stantly seeking each others' ruin. We can hardly 
 sympathize with the jealousy with which these 
 Grecian cities guarded their autonomy, and resisted 
 all attempts at amalgamation. And the evils arising 
 from their mutual animosities would have been far 
 greater if it had not been for that fortunate calamity, 
 the common danger of all the Grecian cities from 
 barbaric invasion, which early roused the Hellenic 
 feeling, so that they could never after quite forget 
 
ST. Patrick's day. 267 
 
 their common brotherhood. It was this feeling which 
 saved Athens when she lay prostrate at her enemies' 
 feet, at the end of the Peloponnesian war ; it was 
 this which made it easy for Greeks of different cities 
 to unite in presence of the barbarian, and made, for 
 example, the exploits of the Ten Thousand, matter 
 of pride to every Grecian heart. And there is some- 
 thing resembling this in the feeling of common 
 brotherhood, that in greater or less degree exists be- 
 tween European Christian nations, which mitigates 
 the asperities of war, and continually tends to exempt 
 non-combatants from its severities. We ourselves 
 now are ready to own the injustice of many of the 
 beliefs held by our fathers during the great wan, 
 concerning Frenchmen and their Corsican master. 
 We begin to feel that the conduct of State to State, 
 as well as of individual to individual, ought to be 
 governed by the Christian rule, of not doing to others 
 what we would not that they should do to us ; .and 
 that patriotism itself may be selfishness in disguise, 
 if in zeal for its own country's greatness it transgress 
 the bounds of justice. Thus, then, patriotism marks 
 but a stage in the progress of the expansion of men's 
 sentiments, not the final result. It is much to teach 
 a man that he must live not for himself alone, but 
 for his family, yet if he rests in this, his moral growth, 
 is stunted. Still more, to teach him to live, not for 
 his family alone, but for his city : more again, to 
 teach him to live, not for his city alone, but for his 
 country — for all those who speak the same tongue, 
 or who own a common origin or a common worship. 
 Yet, in each of these cases, that which is a real 
 
268 SERMON XV. 
 
 moral advance, when it is a step in lifting a man out 
 of self, may become mischievous when it is the means 
 of confining or suppressing sympathies which are 
 striving to diffuse themselves more widely. It is one 
 thing for a man to prefer his city's welfare to his 
 own ; another to prefer the welfare of a province to 
 that of an empire. 
 
 And now we can answer the question why the Gos- 
 pels are silent as to the virtue of patriotism. This 
 was, of all others, the duty which the Jews of our 
 Saviour's time least needed to be taught. The time 
 had been when the patriotic feeling of the Jew had 
 in more than one terrible crisis preserved the exist- 
 ence of his nation, and so preserved also the treasure 
 of religious truth deposited in their keeping ; but 
 now, soured by the contrast between their actual state 
 and their former glory, and their hope of future 
 glory, their national pride had degenerated into an 
 intolerant hatred of strangers, presenting externally 
 as narrow and unamiable a form as patriotism had 
 ever assumed. There was no need to stimulate feel- 
 ings already in excess ; and the time had come to 
 teach them the lesson that they were citizens of a 
 better country; to teach them to recognize as fellow- 
 citizens and as brethren men whom they had hitherto 
 hated as aliens in language and in blood. In that 
 city all the distinctions which had heretofore caused 
 jealousy and disunion were to be abolished. There 
 was to be neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or 
 uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, 
 but Christ was to be all and in all. 
 
 Thus far I have only touched on matters undis- 
 
ST. Patrick's day. 269 
 
 puted among Christians, but I come now to what is 
 at the present day a subject of lively controversy. 
 In what sense are we to understand the verse I have 
 just cited ? Is the catholicity which it proclaims 
 absolutely opposed to Nationalism ? If at the time 
 of the Persian invasion an orator had proclaimed 
 that there was now to be neither Athenian, Spartan, 
 Arcadian, Argive, but each was to be Grecian, he 
 might mean one of two things — either the abolition 
 of the autonomy of the separate cities, or he might 
 mean only that all were to be animated by a sense of 
 common brotherhood and common interests, in which 
 their previous jealousies should be forgotten. In 
 which of these two senses are we to understand the 
 corresponding declaration of the Apostle ? The 
 Church of England, you know, holds that the aboli- 
 tion of ilational distinctions in Christianity gives to 
 men of every land equal privileges in the Eedeemer's 
 kingdom ; that it proclaims brotherhood between men 
 in every country who acknowledge the same Master ; 
 but that it does not destroy the autonomy of inde- 
 pendent Christian communities by constituting some 
 central authority to which all are bound to submit ; 
 in particular, that the Bishop of Kome hath no juris- 
 diction in this realm of England. In the unreformed 
 Church also a great stand was made in defence of 
 the principle that national privileges and the reten- 
 tion of national peculiarities are quite consistent with 
 the catholicity of the faith. I allude in particular to 
 the four celebrated propositions of the Galilean clergy 
 in 1682. Now, however, the theory once called ultra- 
 montane seems to be completely in the ascendant in 
 
270 SEEMON XV. 
 
 the Church of Eome, and nationalism is denounced 
 as a deadly heresy. Implicit submission to the de- 
 crees of the See of Eome is declared to be the great 
 duty of Christians ; and even local variation from 
 Koman usage in things indifferent — the use, for in- 
 stance, of a liturgy different from the Koman — once 
 freely permitted, is now as much as possible discou- 
 raged. 
 
 In order to judge whether this were truly the 
 meaning of the Gospel declarations, let us go back 
 to the principles we have already laid down. The 
 New Testament is silent as to the virtue of patriotism ; 
 but passages may be cited from it apparently hostile 
 to the domestic affections. " If any man hate not 
 father and mother, wife, brethren, and sisters, let 
 him not come after me." ''I am not come to give 
 peace on earth, but rather division." '' The father 
 shall be divided against the son, and the son against 
 the father ; the mother against the daughter, and 
 the daughter against the mother. A man's foes shall 
 be they of his own household." ''Ye shall be be- 
 trayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolk, 
 and some of you shall they cause to be put to death." 
 
 We have no difficulty in understanding the mean- 
 ing of these texts. The time was one when undue 
 regard for family ties would have stood in the way of 
 the fulfilment of a higher duty ; but it is quite cer- 
 tain, from other passages, that Christianity, instead 
 of being hostile to the domestic affections, enjoined 
 their highest cultivation. " Let every one of you in 
 particular so love his wife even as himself, and let 
 the wife see that she reverence her husband." Still 
 
ST. Patrick's day. 271 
 
 less, then, does the silence of the New Testament 
 concerning patriotism afford a proof that that virtue 
 is not to be cultivated under the Gospel. The writings 
 of that Apostle who was hated by his own country- 
 men as anti-national, and as an enemy of his country's 
 privileges, contain perhaps the strongest expression 
 of national feeling which is anywhere to be found. 
 " I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ 
 for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." 
 In short, then, the sum is, that in each of the 
 stages of our moral training which I have already 
 sketched, the discovery of a higher duty, though it 
 may sometimes limit the claims of duties previously 
 acknowledged, leaves these claims in full force where 
 the higher duty does not interfere. It may be the 
 duty of a man to sacrifice his own ease, in some ex- 
 treme cases his own life, for the welfare of his family; 
 yet on the whole, it is for the interest of the family 
 that their head should act in the way that rational 
 self-love would direct him to act. Patriotism may 
 sometimes demand that family affection shall not in- 
 terpose to prevent a member of the family from 
 making a sacrifice which his country's good requires. 
 Yet, on the whole, it is for the interest of the country 
 that the sanctity of family ties shall be upheld. Even 
 when different provinces unite to form one kingdom, 
 although, as we unhappily know, there may be an 
 attachment to the part which implies disloyalty to 
 the whole, this is not necessarily so. It is not dis- 
 advantageous to the community that different por- 
 tions of it should strive in honourable emulation with 
 each other, one cultivating with pride memories 
 
272 SERMON XV. 
 
 and associations not common to it with the rest. 
 There is no disloyalty to Great Britain in the attach- 
 ment which a Scotchman feels to his native land, nay 
 even when it leads him to recal former successful 
 struggles with England; nor is there disloyalty in 
 our allowing this day to remind us that we are Irish- 
 men, bound to feel peculiar love and concern for the 
 welfare of our own island ; just as the peculiar con- 
 cern we each feel for the welfare of our own family is 
 perfectly consistent with our duty to our country. 
 And so again, the members of the different nations 
 which constitute the Church universal are not dis- 
 loyal to the whole, because of the attachment and 
 pride with which they regard each his own national 
 Church : just as a soldier feels pride in the exploits 
 of his own regiment, and in the names inscribed 
 upon its colours ; and such a feeling is not incon- 
 sistent with his duty to the army of which his own 
 regiment is a part, but rather the honourable emula- 
 tion between regiment and regiment increases the 
 efficiency of the whole. Our national Church feeling 
 would be wrong if it led us to narrow our sympathies 
 to our own land ; if it made us forget the ties of 
 brotherhood, which bind us with Christians of other 
 nations. Still more w^ould it be wrong if it led us to 
 aggrandize our own Church at the expense of theirs, 
 or to make it tyrannise over them ; as if, for ex- 
 ample, we proclaimed the Church of England to be 
 the mother and mistress of all other Churches, and 
 if we claimed for it the right to give them laws and 
 demand their obedience. As we cannot find that 
 Christ gave to any one bishop the right to constitute 
 
ST. Patrick's day. 273 
 
 himself bishop of bishops, so we desire to show our 
 unity by acts of mutual love and co-operation against 
 the common enemy — the vice and ungodliness of the 
 world — without either making for ourselves, or sub- 
 mitting to in others, a usurpation of authority, to 
 which our Lord has given no sanction. 
 
 It so happens that we can recall with more pride 
 the religious than the political history of our island. 
 There was a time when from this land sounded forth 
 the Word of the Lord ; so that her faith was spoken 
 of through the whole world, and she deserved the title 
 of Isle of Saints. Enjoying, from her remoteness of 
 position, exemption for a time from the foreign inva- 
 sions which left no security elsewhere, her ecclesiastical 
 schools flourished, and this land became the seat of 
 learning and education. From her went forth the 
 missionaries who evangelized first the highlands of 
 Scotland and the north of England, then the nearer 
 German tribes, then the more remote, and even so 
 far as Switzerland, which names an Irishman as its 
 Apostle. And at the Council of Constance the right 
 of England, which was there represented by an Irish 
 prelate, to vote as a separate nation was sustained on 
 the ground of her inheritance of the ancient prero- 
 gatives of Ireland. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be expected that I should say 
 something as to our right to look back on these suc- 
 cessful labours as part of the history of our own 
 Church. We may test the identity of our Church 
 with that which existed in this island in former 
 times, either by comparing our doctrine with that 
 which was anciently held, or by tracing down the 
 
 T 
 
274 SEEMON XV. 
 
 history of the Church, showing that it is the same 
 hody which has continuously existed, bishop replacing 
 bishop, in regular succession, from St. Patrick's time 
 to Primate Beresford's. As to the results of the for- 
 mer method, all parties are coming now to a tolerable 
 agreement. The result is not very different when 
 we compare our doctrine with the remains of St. 
 Patrick, or any other Irish saint, from what we get 
 when w^e compare it with any other writings of equal 
 antiquity. In all cases we find that almost every- 
 thing we most object to in modern Ptomanism seems 
 to be unknown to the ancient writers ; and this is a 
 matter of such notoriety, that the dispute now is not 
 so much about the fact as about the principle whether 
 changes, or as they are euphemistically called, deve- 
 lopments of doctrine, are necessarily improvements, 
 and whether on points concerning which the early 
 Church could find that nothing certain had been 
 revealed, the modern Church has the power of attain- 
 ing infallibly certain truth, and imposing it on its 
 members to be believed for necessity of salvation. 
 
 It would not be reasonable to discuss such a prin- 
 ciple as this at the end of a sermon ; but the very 
 starting this theory of development is significant 
 evidence even to those unacquainted with ancient 
 authors what their testimony is. On one point, I 
 may mention, the evidence of early Irish writers is 
 stronger in our favour than that of English writers 
 of the same date, I mean the supremacy of the Roman 
 See. In any country that had been evangelized from 
 Rome there would naturally be paid as much defer- 
 ence to the Roman See as is paid by the bishops of 
 
ST. Patrick's day. 275 
 
 our own Clmrcli in India to the See of Canterbury ; 
 and examples of such deference are sometimes taken 
 as proving more than they really do. But the early 
 missions to and from Ireland having beeu made with- 
 out reference to Rome, as the diversity of usages 
 proves, there was naturally in the Irish Church a tone 
 of independence of Rome, which we need not expect 
 to find in Rome's daughter Churches. 
 
 With respect to the regular succession of our 
 bishops, it is only recent controversies* that make 
 it necessary that anything should be said. This is 
 not the place, nor would there be time, for entering 
 into any complicated historical discussion ; and I am 
 glad that it is not necessary to do so, and that the 
 main facts of our case admit of being simply stated. 
 It is for the interest of those who desire to obscure 
 the truth to muddy the waters. Most men are too 
 indolent to be willing to examine closely any difficult 
 discussion, and therefore if you show them any con- 
 clusion that they like to adopt, and give them some- 
 thing like a chain of reasoning in its favour, you may 
 safely calculate that if you only make the argument a 
 little hard to follow, they will adopt the conclusion 
 without examining the reasoning. Our Church has 
 many political enemies, who are only too glad to 
 believe anything to her disadvantage, and any Irish 
 
 * At the time of the agitation against the Irish Church Establish- 
 ment, very vigorous efforts were made to show that there had been 
 a failure in the succession from St. Patrick of the bishops of our 
 Church. Although I have scarcely heard anything of such attempts 
 since the passing of the Irish Church Bill, yet in the possibility of 
 their being hereafter revived, I think it better not to suppress what 
 I said on the subject at the time. 
 
276 SERMON XV. 
 
 clergyman who will give them the sanction of his 
 name for so believing, can acquire on the cheapest 
 terms a reputation from them for candour, impar- 
 tiality, and even for learning. I will, however, state 
 the conclusions to which I think a person of real 
 impartiality must come ; and I think I am competent 
 to pronounce judgment in this matter, because, for 
 reasons which I shall presently give, I do not myself 
 regard the question at issue as one of vital importance 
 on the one side or the other. The history, then, of 
 what took place at the accession of Queen Elizabeth, 
 which has hitherto been generally accepted, is as 
 follows : — In England none of the bishops who were 
 found in possession would take part in consecrating 
 the bishops of the Reformed Church, and accordingly 
 Archbishop Parker was consecrated, not by any of the 
 Marian prelates, but by bishops who had been in 
 office before Mary's accession, but were dispossessed 
 or disowned by her. In Ireland, on the contrary, 
 only two bishops refused to conform, and were de- 
 prived by Elizabeth ; and the consecrations, therefore, 
 of new prelates took place without the smallest diffi- 
 culty. One of the Irish bishops appointed by Mary, 
 Archbishop Curwen, took so active a part in the 
 proceedings of the Reformed Church, that with re- 
 spect to him at least no one has ventured to make a 
 question. About fifty years after the event, a ridicu- 
 lous attempt was made by some Roman Catholics to 
 dispute the validity of the English consecrations, 
 and a fable was invented, that for want of bishops to 
 consecrate them, the candidate bishops met at the 
 Nag's-head tavern, and after supper went through 
 
ST. Patrick's day. 277 
 
 some mummery of consecrating each other. This 
 fable is now quite exploded, but at one time it was 
 necessary seriously to argue against it. And one 
 of the arguments relied on was, that there was no 
 necessity for the reformed to have recourse to any 
 irregular process of obtaining consecration. *' Why 
 should a rich man steal?" says Fuller. The letters 
 patent for the consecration of Parker were directed to 
 seven Protestant bishops, and " if there had been 
 any need," says Archbishop Bramhall, in 1653, '' they 
 might have had as many more out of Ireland. For 
 Ireland never wanted store of ordainers, nor ever yet 
 did any man object want of a competent number 
 of consecrators to an Irish Protestant bishop. No 
 man did ever question the ordination of the first 
 Irish Protestant bishops, to this day. They who 
 concurred freely in the consecration of Protestant 
 bishops at home, would not have denied their con- 
 currence in England if they had been commanded." 
 This testimony is proof enough of what is other- 
 wise certain, that for a hundred years after the event, 
 no one dreamt of disputing that the bishops whom 
 Elizabeth's accession found in Ireland, concurred in 
 the consecration of their Protestant successors. From 
 time to time, however, historical paradoxes find sup- 
 porters. Nero is found to have been much maligned ; 
 Kichard the Third to have been well made and hand- 
 some ; Henry the Eighth a conscientious man, com- 
 pelled to behead his queens by a sense of painful 
 duty. For all these paradoxes I think much more 
 can be said than for that started some little time ago 
 by the Roman Catholic Doctor Moran, that the Irish 
 
278 SERMON XV. 
 
 prelates whom Queen Elizabeth's accession found 
 here, refused to conform to the Reformation, or to 
 take part in the consecration of the Protestant 
 bishops ; that Queen Elizabeth was so weak, or so 
 mild and merciful, that she contented herself with 
 the deprivation of two of their body, leaving the rest in 
 quiet possession of their sees; that meanwhile the Pro- 
 testant bishops got consecrated nobody knows how, 
 perhaps by Archbishop Curwen, singly, which might 
 be granted, since he having been consecrated in 
 England, it is supposed could not transmit the Irish 
 succession. I could almost wish that some evidence 
 could be found in proof of this wild imagination. 
 For if so, it would appear that Queen Elizabeth's re- 
 formations were made with such universal assent, and 
 in such complete absence of unfriendly witnesses, 
 that the most flagrant irregularities could be com- 
 mitted in the consecration of the Protestant bishops, 
 yet no one on that account raise the slightest objec- 
 tion to their validity, no one make the smallest men- 
 tion of these irregularities, and no suspicion of them 
 arise for three hundred years, that is to say, until 
 the present day. One would imagine that an hypo- 
 thesis so incredible would not have been put forward 
 unless some new evidence had been discovered dis- 
 proving the received opinion. Now the whole of the 
 new evidence brought forward by Dr. Moran amounts 
 to this, that it appears from Vatican manuscripts, 
 that certain of the bishops who were supposed to 
 have concurred in the Protestant consecrations, 
 were, notwithstanding, till their death recognized at 
 Rome as bishops, the proof of this being, that 
 
ST. Patrick's day. 279 
 
 successors are said to have been appointed to vacancies 
 made by their deaths, showing that they had not 
 been previously deprived. I have no suspicion that 
 Dr. Moran misquotes the manuscripts from v/hich he 
 cites, but it is inconvenient tliat he should bring for- 
 ward witnesses, whom we have no power of cross-ex- 
 amining. It is quite possible that the result of a 
 cross-examination would be to turn this witness 
 against us, to a witness in our favour. For example, 
 suppose that in that document the names of deceased 
 bishops were ordinarily inserted with " bonsB memo- 
 riae," or some other note of praise, the absence of 
 such a note in the case of the majority of the bishops 
 cited by Dr. Moran, would show, that though never 
 actually deprived by the Pope, they had committed 
 acts which had incurred the displeasure of Eome. 
 But if we were even to apply to the entire the note, 
 " bonae memoriae," which is said to be affixed to five 
 out of thirteen, the assertion that a prelate performed 
 certain official acts command*ed by Queen Elizabeth 
 is not contradicted, or even made improbable by the 
 assertion, that he died in good odour with the Pope. 
 In unsettled times, men of not very high principles 
 comply with the demands of the dominant power, and 
 yet strive to retain the favour of the party which may 
 be in power again. PIov; many noblemen attended 
 Parliament, or performed other official acts under 
 William III., and yet contrived to keep in good odour 
 at St. Gerrnains. Some of the Irish Prelates in 
 question were not men of very high principle, and so 
 alienated the property of their sees, that we should 
 notv affix to them the note, *' bonae memorise." Such 
 
280 SERMON XY. 
 
 men were very unlikely to make themselves mar- 
 tyrs in opposition to royal authority. There was 
 no disposition on Elizaheth's part to drive matters to 
 extremity, her wish was rather to make the Church 
 comprehensive ; nor would those who acknowledged 
 her supremacy and complied with her commands, 
 find any difficulty in retaining their sees, even though 
 they held in their hearts many points of Eomish doc- 
 trine. But we are concerned Avith the official acts of 
 these men, and not with their private opinions ; nor 
 do I think is there the smallest pretence for disturb- 
 ing the received opinion, that the prelates of 
 Elizabeth's appointment, from whom our present 
 bishops derive their succession, were duly and regu- 
 larly consecrated by men who held the same office 
 under Queen Mary. 
 
 Many persons, and in my opinion Mr. Froude 
 among the number, have contradicted our assertions 
 from sheer ignorance of wdiat it is that we do assert. 
 And when it is explained to them, they will, perhaps, 
 think that the point for which we contend is one of 
 no great importance. Well, I have said already, that 
 in my opinion the point is not one of vital impor- 
 tance. Those who do not hold the doctrine of Apos- 
 tolic succession, will naturally regard any question 
 of succession of bishops as of no importance at all. 
 They will attach much more importance to the fact, 
 which constitutes the chief strength of Komanism in 
 this country, and which we unfortunately cannot 
 deny, namely, that the Reformation, which was 
 pushed successfully as far as the English language 
 and English influence extended, however successful 
 
ST. Patrick's day. 281 
 
 with the clergy and other educated- classes, did not 
 reach the native Irish-speaking population, who, 
 therefore, knew no reason when emissaries came from 
 Kome, why they should not accept teachers who had 
 at least the merit of being Anti-English. 
 
 But this is not even a question of succession from 
 the Apostles ; it is a question of succession from St. 
 Patrick and other early Irish bishops. When we 
 have proved our case against the Romanists, they 
 are in no worse position in Ireland than they con- 
 fessedly are in England. However long the Eoman 
 Catholic hierarchy in England may last, it can never 
 connect itself with the early Church that existed 
 there previous to the Reformation ; it must be con- 
 tent to trace its origin, not to the mission of St. 
 Augustine, but to the mission of Cardinal Wiseman ; 
 and whatever justification there is for the Bishop of 
 Rome's intruding bishops into occupied sees in Eng- 
 land, the same applies to Ireland. If he can dispense 
 with establishing any connection with St. Augustine, 
 he can dispense equally with St. Patrick. On the 
 other hand, if Roman Catholics could succeed in 
 proving all they have tried to prove against us, our 
 position would not be in the least affected. It is 
 needless to discuss a supposition Avhicli savours so 
 completely of the nineteenth century, as that the 
 new Elizabethan bishops were not consecrated by any 
 body. The very invention of the Nag's Head fable 
 shows that to men of former times it was absolutely 
 inconceivable, that a man could take on himself the 
 work of a bishop without going through, at least, 
 some ceremony of consecration. And in this case 
 
282 SERMON XV. 
 
 there was not the slightest temptation to such irre- 
 gularity, since it is confessed that Archhishop Curwen 
 was at hand, able and willing to perform the con- 
 secration. Even then, on the improbable supposition 
 that he did this work single-handed, he is still 
 left as a link, to connect us with the ancient Irish 
 Church. And this-is sufficient; for, though he was 
 consecrated in England, the connection between the 
 Irish and English Churches was one of old standing, 
 and some of Curwen's English consecrators them- 
 selves traced their ecclesiastical descent to Ireland. 
 One thing is certain, either the succession from St. 
 Patrick has perished, or we have it ; our adversaries 
 certainly have not. For they are compelled to fill 
 up the gap that separates them from the Pre-Refor- 
 mation bishops with the names of men ordained by 
 Italian not by Irish prelates, whose relation to Ire- 
 land was, in many cases, purely titular, and who had 
 no more real connection with the history of Ireland, 
 than a divine just named had with the history of 
 Melipotamus. 
 
 But though, as I have said, the question I have 
 been considering is not one of vital importance, it 
 does not follow that we are not right in defending 
 our position when it is attacked. An officer of the 
 52nd would not forfeit his commission if it could be 
 proved that his regiment had taken no part in the 
 repulse of the Guard at Waterloo, and so far the 
 question might be said to be one of no real import- 
 ance to him ; yet the question is one in w4iich he 
 would most properly feel a lively interest, and we 
 should consider him as deficient in true military 
 
ST. Patrick's day. 283 
 
 spirit if lie had no concern for the historical reputa- 
 tion of his regiment. In any case, those who deny 
 our assertions respecting our Church have no right 
 to raise the question whether these assertions are 
 important. That would be to fling a stone and run 
 away ; first to contradict us, then, when they find 
 that what they have disputed is likely to be proved to 
 be perfectly true, to turn off and say — After all, what 
 does it much matter ? 
 
 What I believe to be the result of the discussion 
 is, that it is a certain historical fact, that both in 
 England and Ireland the succession of bishops, from 
 the earliest evangelizers of these countries, is pre- 
 served in the Established Church, and nowiiere else. 
 This is a point of no importance in our favour if it 
 can be proved that by God's law any foreign bishop 
 has a right to rule over us, and that we sin in assert- 
 ing the independence of our National Church. But 
 if no such right can be established, then foreign 
 interference with us w^as an act of schismatical intru- 
 sion. It is not, however, in a spirit of unreasoning 
 dread of foreign interference, or out of any mistaken 
 pride or love of isolation that we assert the claims of 
 our ancient Irish Church. It is because attacks on 
 the independence of our Church have been combined 
 with attacks on its purity ; and the teaching of doc- 
 trines unknown to St. Patrick and the Church of his 
 time has been a principal cause why our country has 
 lagged behind in enlightenment and civilization. 
 For these reasons we think it no ill-spent time to 
 vindicate our right to recall memories which ought 
 to be dear to all Irishmen ; and in the name of these 
 
284 SERMON XV. 
 
 memories invoke our fellow-countrymen to shake off 
 a foreign yoke, and cast away the superstitions which 
 their foreign instructors have taught tliem. 
 
 Let us ask of God, my brethren, to bestow on our 
 land the blessings of unity and peace ; that its citi- 
 zens may be bound together, not only by their com- 
 mon regard for the country in w^iich they dwell, but 
 because they own each other as fellow-citizens of a 
 better country, Zion, the city of the living God, the 
 heavenly Jerusalem, for whose welfare all work and 
 pray, and to which may He vouchsafe to bring us, 
 there with Him eternally to dwell. 
 
SERMON XVI. 
 
 PRESENT SALVATION 
 
 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." — John iii. t,6. 
 
 Of all the heresies that have disfigured the Christian 
 Church there is scarcely one that has commenced 
 by the assertion of simple falsehood. In most cases 
 the heart of the leader of the movement has been 
 stirred by the rediscovery of some truth which had 
 been lost sight of in the current theology. And in 
 rescuing this truth from disregard, and in proclaiming 
 it to the world, he has done good work. But the 
 evil has been, that commonly this truth becomes in 
 his eyes so large that it eclipses every other, that 
 the favourite texts which assert it come to be his 
 whole Bible, that other truths, which seem to him 
 to be antagonistic to it, are thrown into the back- 
 ground, or even denied, so that in the end, the 
 system which ho teaches is a worse mutilation of 
 the Gospel than that, the imperfections of which 
 had first moved his indignation. 
 
286 SERMON XVI.. 
 
 The danger of this exclusive contemplation of a 
 single truth is exemplified in the case of the doctrine 
 of present salvation, which constitutes the sum and 
 substance of the teaching of a certain class of preach- 
 ers of the present day. This doctrine does contain 
 a great and precious truth, distinctly taught in the 
 text, and in other passages of Scripture ; yet, as we 
 shall presently see, when it is separated from the 
 rest of the Gospel, this very truth itself loses its 
 essential character, and becomes identical in its effects 
 with the falsehood to which it is opposed. But as I 
 say, there are those to whom the whole of the Divine 
 Revelation seems to be compressed into this one text, 
 *' He that believeth hath everlasting life." Their 
 test question, by which they try the state of those 
 whom they meet, is, "Are you saved?" If the 
 person interrogated reply, "I hope to be saved," he 
 has failed to pronounce the Shibboleth correctly, and 
 is discerned to be one of the unconverted. And our 
 Church is condemned, because in so many places its 
 formularies fail to comply with the rules of this new 
 theology. The Prayer-Book puts into our mouths 
 the petitions, '' God, make speed to save us," 
 " Lord, save Thy people," " Show Thy mercy upon 
 us, and grant us Thy salvation" — petitions, it is said, 
 inconsistent with the Scriptural truth, that we already 
 have the salvation which we ask God to grant us. 
 The Prayer-Book teaches us to ask for forgiveness of 
 sins, whereas it is said we ought to believe that our 
 sins have already been forgiven. It contains the 
 prayer, " Lamb of God, that takest away the sins 
 of the world, grant us Thy peace," whereas, it is 
 
PRESENT SALVATION. 287 
 
 said, St. Paul teaches us, that being justified by faith, 
 we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. I may remark in passing, that this very text, 
 which is one of the main pillars of the system of 
 doctrine which I am considering, is now given by 
 the principal critical editors, in the form, " Let us 
 have peace," according to which reading the text 
 changes sides, and makes St. Paul guilty of the same 
 error that is reprehended in our Church, namely, ex- 
 horting his converts to a peace which they had already. 
 I mention this various reading, not that I myself 
 prefer the altered reading, but as the immense pre- 
 ponderance of ancient witnesses, whether manuscripts 
 or early citations, is in favour of it, the example 
 shows how very precarious is the deduction of a 
 doctrine from a single text, and how true is the 
 remark, that a doctrine, which is supposed to rest 
 on a single text, will, on examination, be found to 
 be supported by no text at all. 
 
 In the present case, it is easy to show that Scrip - 
 'ture does not bear out the inference which has been 
 drawn from the use of the present tense in the text, 
 namely, that it is improper to speak of salvation as 
 a future thing — a doctrine, indeed, which amounts 
 to this, that Christians have no better salvation to 
 look forward to than that which they enjoy already. 
 Yv^e can point out that the petitions in our Liturgy, 
 which have been objected to, "0 God, make speed 
 to save us," "0 Lord, grant us Thy salvation," 
 are themselves couched in the words of Scripture. 
 To this it is replied, that the words of an Old 
 Testament writer do not express the privileges that 
 
288 SERMON XVI. 
 
 are enjoyed under the Christian dispensation. I will 
 not delay to examine the correctness of a theory, 
 according to which the Christian Church has been 
 wrong from its first foundation to the present day, in 
 supposing that, whether in its public worship, or in 
 the private devotions of generation after generation 
 of its most saintly members, it could find in the 
 Psalms of David adequate expression for its deepest 
 feelings ; for there are abundant examples from the 
 New Testament, of the use of the future tense in 
 connection with salvation. In St. Peter's address to 
 the Council at Jerusalem, given in Acts xv., he says, 
 '' We believe, that through the grace of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, we shall be saved, even as they." St. Paul, 
 in his description of the Christian's armour, 1 Thess. 
 V. 8, makes the helmet not present salvation, but the 
 hope of salvation. Hope essentially has reference 
 to the future ; for as the same Apostle elsewhere 
 says, " We are saved by hope ; but hope that is seen 
 is not hope ; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet 
 hope for?" It is needless to refer to the number 
 of passages which speak of hope as a Christian grace. 
 That most to my purpose is that in Kom. v., where 
 in proving that the Christian hope maketh not 
 ashamed, the apostle argues, "While we were yet 
 sinners, Christ died for us. Much more, then, being 
 now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from 
 wrath through Him. For if, when we were yet 
 sinners, we were reconciled to God by the death of 
 His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be 
 saved by His life." In like manner, Paul repeatedly 
 breaks the rule which has been deduced from his 
 
PRESENT SALVATION. 289 
 
 writings, that because Christians have peace with 
 God it is improper they should ask for peace. He 
 prays for the Eomans, (Rom. xv. 13,) " The God of 
 hope fill you with all joy and j9Crtce in believing, that 
 ye may abound in hope." He prays for the Thessa- 
 lonians, (2 Thess. iii. 16,) " The Lord of peace 
 himself ^w"e you peace alway by all means." I need 
 not take further pains to show on how superficial an 
 examination of Scripture the teaching of our Church 
 has been objected to, and how inferences have been 
 rashly drawn from one or two texts, without observing 
 whether those inferences were consistent with what is 
 elsew4iere taught in the Bible. 
 
 If we are to do justice to the entire teaching of 
 Scripture, we must give equal prominence to both 
 parts of the truth : to the truth that salvation is not 
 some unknown blessing to be enjoj^ed in the future, 
 but a thing to be grasped in the present, and to the 
 truth that that which w^e can now enjoy is but the 
 earnest or first-fruits of a more perfect future. The 
 Bible speaks of the very admission into the Christian 
 Church as an act of salvation. In the account of the 
 miracle of the day of Pentecost, " being saved " and 
 "being added to the Church," are spoken of inter- 
 changeably. St. Peter exhorted his hearers to be 
 saved from that untoward generation. (Acts ii. 40.) 
 And then it is said, they that gladly received his word 
 were baptized, and there were added on that day 
 about three thousand souls. And subsequently, the 
 Lord added daily, not, as our version has it, those 
 that were afterwards to be saved, but rov^; awt/ofievov^, 
 those that were then being saved. And in remarkable 
 
 u 
 
290 SERMON XVI. 
 
 conformity with this, St. Peter, in his Epistle, speaks 
 of baptism as saving us ; (1 Pet. iii. 21 ;) but yet it 
 would be unscriptural if baptism were represented as 
 anything more than the first step in the Christian 
 life; and in the 2nd Epistle of Peter, (ii. 21,) it is 
 said of those who do not lead their lives according to 
 the beginning then made: "If, after they have 
 escaped the pollutions of the world through the 
 knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 
 they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the 
 latter end is worse with them than the beginning ; for 
 it had been better for them not to have known the 
 way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, 
 to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto 
 them." 
 
 I wish to speak at somewhat more length on this 
 great Christian doctrine of a salvation begun in the 
 present and perfected in the future ; for if we under- 
 stand all that is meant by it, we shall have the best 
 safeguards against the abuses of which this doctrine 
 has been the subject. It cannot be too often repeated 
 that the great characteristic of our Saviour's teaching 
 is His perfect fusion of religion and morality into one 
 homogenous whole. In heathen systems, religion 
 and morality were things apart. Men, who had often 
 seen their best-laid plans shattered by powers against 
 which they were helpless to struggle, listened eagerly 
 when they were told that it was possible to control 
 the unseen forces of the universe. The history of 
 what is called by the opprobrious name of priestcraft, 
 is the history of devices by which certain men gained 
 wealth and power through successful inculcation of 
 
PRESENT SALVATION. 291 
 
 the belief that they specially understood the art of 
 conciliating the favour of the divinities, and so, of 
 gaining the good things of this life for those who 
 employed their services. And in popular heathenism, 
 in order to conciliate the favour of the divinities, 
 morality was not essentially necessary. The gods, 
 conceived as of very imperfect morality themselves, 
 were regarded as willing to make favourites of the 
 men who paid them due sacrifices and other marks 
 of honour, and in consideration of merit of this kind 
 to look with a lenient eye on their failures of duty 
 towards their fellow-men. 
 
 The mere revelation of a future life had not, of 
 itself, the power to bring morality and religion into 
 closer union. It but threw open a wider field in 
 which those tendencies of human nature, which had 
 exhibited themselves in heathenism, might have room 
 to operate. There is nothing essentially holy in the 
 craving after future happness. The same spirit v»'hich 
 prompts a man to push himself forward,. and gain for 
 himself as large a share as he can of the good things 
 of this life, will, if he believe in another, prompt 
 him also to push himself forward, and gain for him- 
 self as large a share as he can of the good things of 
 that. There is identity between the spirit of worldli- 
 ness and the spirit of what Coleridge called other- 
 worldliness. As men's knowledge of natural laws 
 increased, they learned how to govern forces which 
 once had terrified them ; and as far as this life was 
 concerned, they felt less strongly their need of divine 
 assistance to gain for them good things, which they 
 now understood how to win for themselves. But 
 
292 SERMON XVI. 
 
 over that unseen world they were obHged to own that 
 they had no power, and therefore were still ready to 
 welcome the aid of those who undertook to secure 
 their happiness there. 
 
 And it must be owned, there have been professedly 
 Christian teachers who, like the heathen priests of 
 old, have degraded the majesty of heaven by likening 
 the Eternal King to some of those weak earthly 
 sovereigns who, by acts of homage and professions 
 of personal attachment, can be induced to advance 
 unworthy favourites. In various ways, the doctrine 
 has been taught that God cares more for men think- 
 ing rightly about Himself, or about their paying 
 Himself due honour, than He does about their 
 conduct to each other. In one of the earliest hereti- 
 cal writings that have come down to us, (the Pseudo- 
 Clementines,) wrong belief about God is made the 
 worst of sins. We are told that adultery is a terrible 
 sin, insomuch that it deserves the second degree of 
 punishment, for the first degi'ee of punishment is due 
 to those that are in error, even though they live 
 chastely. A similar doctrine has been maintained 
 amongst ourselves. Not long since, it was elaborately 
 argued in the columns of one of the religious news- 
 papers, that a life of unrepentant malignity, falsehood, 
 and impurity, if coupled with accurate orthodoxy, 
 would be a less outrage upon God than a life of 
 unrecanted heresy, coupled with a course of purity, 
 charity, justice, truth, and prayer.* Outrageous as 
 this proposition is, it is but the following out to its 
 
 *See Letters in The Guardian, Sept. 4, and following weeks. 
 
PRESENT SALVATION. 293 
 
 legitimate conclusion the teaching of Roman Catholic 
 Divines, as to the infinite superiority of what are 
 called the theological virtues to any other — a doctrine 
 defended by Dr. Newman, and from which he draws 
 the conclusion that one who has been a bad Catholic 
 may have a hope in his death to wdiich the most 
 virtuous of Protestants are necessarily strangers.^ 
 And it is notorious how this doctrine has been carried 
 into practice ; how, for example, there have been in 
 Roman Catholic countries, robbers and assassins 
 most constant and scrupulous in their acts of piety 
 and devotion. 
 
 But this Antinomian teaching is not confined to 
 Roman Catholics. By Protestants also it has been 
 maintained that provided a man be a true believer, 
 his sins, however great they may be, do not diminish 
 God's love and favour towards him. In our own 
 time, the teaching has been reproduced by Protes- 
 tants almost in identical words, by which Tetzel 
 caused so much scandal at the time of the Reforma- 
 tion, when, as it is said, he undertook to assure his 
 penitents of pardon, not only for their past, but for 
 all future sins. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to remind you how any- 
 thing approaching to Antinomianism is condemned 
 by our blessed Lord. Human teachers have often 
 yielded to the temptation of condoning their disciples' 
 faults in consideration of their personal attachment 
 and their zeal in their cause. Not so He. Those 
 who were bound to Him by the closest ties of 
 
 * Anglican Difficulties. Lecture IX. 
 
294 SERMON XVI. 
 
 eai-thly relationship were not on that account to 
 occupy higher places in His Kingdom. His mother 
 and His brethren were those who heard the word of 
 God and kept it. They who kept it not, albeit they 
 had been on terms of intimacy with Him, and had 
 eaten and drunk in His presence, were warned that 
 they should one day hear from His voice the sentence, 
 " I know you not : depart from me, ye workers of 
 iniquity," . . "Why call ye me. Lord, Lord," He 
 cried, " and do not the things that I say ?" And his 
 Apostles learned from Him to pronounce worthless 
 and unreal all that called itself religion, but which 
 neglected duty towards man, Avhile professing to 
 observe duty towards God. " If a man say, I love 
 God," says one Apostle, '' and hateth his brother, he 
 is a liar : for he that loveth not his brother whom 
 he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath 
 not seen ?" (1 John iv. 20.) " If any man among 
 you seem to be religious," says another Apostle, 
 " and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own 
 heart, this man's religion is vain." (James i. 26.) 
 And future happiness is represented, not as coming' 
 by an arbitrary decree on certain favourites of heaven, 
 but as following in strict conformity with the laws 
 which God has ordained. " Be not deceived," says 
 St. Paul; (Gal. vi. 7;) "God is not mocked: f6r 
 whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 
 For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh 
 reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the Spirit, 
 shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." And it is 
 well to observe that it is in connection with the fulfil- 
 ment of our duty towards our fellow-men that this 
 
PRESENT SALVATION. 295 " 
 
 warning is given, for he goes on to say: — "Let us 
 not be weary in well doing : for in due season we 
 shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore 
 opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially 
 unto them who are of the household of faith." 
 
 From this doctrine, that what a man soweth he 
 must reap, that future happiness or misery is the 
 natural fruit, according to God's appointed order, of 
 the character that is formed in us here, the doctrine 
 of present salvation necessarily follows. Nothing 
 would be more agreeable to the corrupt nature of 
 men, than if some plan could be devised by which 
 they might be Christ's hereafter without being 
 Christ's here, by which they might be enabled to 
 live in this world as they pleased, and yet not fail 
 to secure eternal happiness. But what the New 
 Testament teaches is, you cannot be saved hereafter 
 unless you have been saved here. *' Now is the 
 accepted time ; now is the day of salvation." Only 
 embrace that salvation, only join yourself to Christ 
 now, only strive to be like Him through the aid of 
 that Holy Spirit whom He has promised to give 
 you, and you will not have to wait for a future life in 
 order to taste the happiness which is the portion of 
 His people. Even in this world of care and sorrow 
 and tears, Christ can bestow a peace which the world 
 cannot give, a joy which the world cannot take away, 
 in the assurance of His love, from which nothing 
 earthly can separate us. 
 
 This doctrine, that it is possible — nay, necessary — 
 to begin on earth the life of heaven, is a very different 
 thing from that into which the doctrine of present 
 
■ 296 SERMON XVT. 
 
 salvation has been distorted. Mankind are impatient 
 of doubt, and eager for certainty. Millions of Chris- 
 tians have accepted, without inquiry, the claims of 
 a so-called infallible Church to give them absolute 
 assurance of the true solution of all doctrinal contro- 
 versies, merely because they otherwise would be 
 obliged to own that there was a possibility of their 
 going wrong on points on which they deemed that 
 error would be fatal. Much more would men, be- 
 lievers in a future state, be eager for certain assurance 
 as to their future portion in it. Our Lord more 
 than once warned His disciples that there was a 
 possibility of self-delusion in this matter, self-delu- 
 sion continuing to the last. He represents those 
 whom He would denounce as workers of iniquity as 
 confidently calling on Him to open to them. (Matt, 
 vii. 22.) He represents those placed at the left hand 
 of the Judge as confident that they had never failed 
 in duty towards their Master. (Matt. xxv. 44.) Not- 
 withstanding, men commonly seem practically to 
 hold that self-delusion is a thing impossible, and 
 that the opinion men form as to their own condition 
 in the sight of Grod must necessarily be correct. I 
 recently heard, in the North of England, that a 
 common formula in which a dying man is there 
 addressed by his surrounding friends is, "Lad, art 
 going to heaven? Do say yes." If he can gasp 
 out a "yes," their minds are at ease. He is going 
 to heaven. And I suppose there is scarcely one of 
 ourselves who would not be distressed if a dying 
 friend expressed doubts as to his acceptance with 
 Christ, or whose mind would not be relieved if these 
 
PRESENT SALVATION. 297 
 
 doubts were removed. If a man can thus judge with 
 certainty of his own state before God, it seems only 
 reasonable that he should not wait to the end of life 
 in order to obtain an assurance so important to his 
 peace. And, accordingly, it is taught that if a man 
 can only find courage to pronounce himself saved, 
 he is saved. No matter into what sins he may 
 afterwards fall, his acceptance with God remains 
 unshaken, for he has once for all passed from death 
 into life. Such teaching as this is precisely opposite 
 in its tendency to the doctrine of present salvation 
 as taught in the New Testament. The tendency of 
 New Testament teaching is to draw into closest union 
 the present life and the future, the latter being the 
 natural continuation of the former, the character 
 moulded in the training of this life abiding with us 
 permanently. On the contrary, the doctrine against 
 w^hicli I contend puts an arbitrary break between 
 our future portion and our present life ; nor can I 
 conceive teaching more heathen and less Christian 
 than that sin can take place wdthout injury in the 
 case of those who have once been made favourites of 
 Heaven. 
 
 Take the case of an absolute unbeliever, who, from 
 prudential regard to his happiness in this life, regu- 
 lates his conduct according to strictest rules of 
 morality, but who altogether denies that there is a 
 possibility of punishment in another world. If a 
 man is safe for thinking himself safe, this man is in 
 no danger. But you are alarmed at his state ; you 
 labour to convince him that he is in a position of 
 awful danger: and if you succeed, the next thing 
 
298 SERMON XVI. 
 
 is to assure him that if he will only believe that he 
 is in no danger, he is in none, and that, in regulating 
 his conduct, he may dismiss from his mind any 
 api^rehension that it will affect his condition in the 
 future state. May he not fairly say, "You are hut 
 bringing me back to the point I was at before you 
 preached to me." And the truth is, that if the 
 Gospel be, what some would reduce it to, a mere 
 contrivance for quieting men's fears of hell, it would 
 have been simpler if such fears had never been 
 excited. 
 
 But it will be asked, " Do you teach, then, that the 
 Christian must remain always in doubt, whether or 
 not his sins have been forgiven, always in trembling 
 apprehension whether he may not be eternally parted 
 from his Saviour ?" No, I do not. The cure for such 
 apprehensions is faith ; but by faith I mean, as the 
 New Testament teaches, faith in Christ, not as some 
 modern teachers would have it, faith in ourselves. 
 " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt 
 be saved," was the answer of Paul to the Philippian 
 jailer ; and if it be asked, what is it we are to believe^ 
 Paul tells us in his Epistle to the Komans, " If thou 
 shalt confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus, and 
 shalt believe in thine heart that Cod hath raised 
 Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Nay, 
 it is said there are some who confess with their 
 mouth the Lord Jesus, and yet to whom His Eesur- 
 rection does not in the end prove a source of salva- 
 tion. And the thing that you must believe, in order 
 to be saved, is that you yourself are one of those, 
 whose state of mind in accepting the Gospel message 
 
PRESENT SALVATION. 299 
 
 is such that it will prove to you a savour of life. 
 Nothing is more unscriptural than any teaching 
 which makes your hope depend on your looking into 
 yourself, instead of looking unto Christ. Men's 
 temperaments vary. Make the test of their state 
 before God the confidence they can feel in the reality 
 of their own faith, and the heart of the timid 
 righteous one may be made sad, and the hands of 
 the confident wicked one may be strengthened. Bid 
 them look to Christ ; and though there is no comfort 
 there for those who willingly continue in sin, there 
 is abundant comfort for those who desire to escape 
 from its bondage. If you believe in Christ, you 
 believe in a God who so loved you that He spared 
 not His own Son, but freely gave Him up for us all. 
 You believe in a Redeemer who gave Himself for 
 us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and 
 sanctify us unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous 
 of good works. You believe in a Holy Ghost, ever 
 ready to aid in the conflict we must wage. Can you 
 believe all this, and doubt that God desires our 
 happiness, desires our holiness, (for these two things 
 are one,) more than we can wish it ourselves ? Can 
 you believe this, and doubt with whom the victory 
 must be ? 
 
 Nay, you may say, " I doubt not God; I doubt 
 myself. I doubt not His love to me. But I doubt 
 whether my love for Him will continue as I feel it 
 now, whether I may not fall away as others have 
 done." Such doubts can only'arise from our refusing 
 to admit those rules of practical probability which are 
 the very guide of our present life. Do such doubts 
 
300 SERMON XVI. 
 
 ever disturb the security of earthly love ? Does it 
 ever occur to any man who really loves, to say, I 
 know that the object of my love is abundantly worthy 
 of love, even far greater than I can bestow. I know 
 that my love is returned to a degree immeasurably 
 beyond what I deserve, and I know that it will 
 continue to be so returned ; but since other men 
 have been inconstant, I doubt the permanence of 
 my own feelings. Perhaps my own love will not 
 continue as I feel it now, and perhaps I may prove 
 inconstant, as they have done. If a man asked your 
 advice, who was disquieted by such doubts as' these, 
 and if contempt would permit you to advise him, 
 would you not say, Think no more about your own 
 feelings ; think of the object of your love ; cherish 
 such love as you now feel, and strive habitually to 
 show it forth in act, and have no care beyond. 
 
 We may say something of the same kind as to 
 doubts whether God has forgiven our sins. Ques- 
 tions have been raised, as to the moment when God 
 forgives the sins of those whom He admits to His 
 kingdom ; whether from all eternity, or at the moment 
 of their conversion, or for each sin, at the moment 
 it is repented of with due contrition, or at the 
 judgment day. The doubting sinner may easily 
 entangle himself in a theological labyrinth, if he 
 insist on determining the relation to time of the acts 
 of an Infinite Being. Is it not enough for him to 
 know this, that whatever his past sins may have 
 been, he may trust in Christ^ s atoning work, that 
 they are not an impediment to his now experi- 
 encing the love of God, and obtaining from Him 
 
PRESENT SALVATION, 301 
 
 strength to live the rest of his time in the flesh, 
 no longer to the lusts of men, hut to the will of 
 God ? The blessed doctrine of the forgiveness of 
 sins delivers the soul from cruel and profitless re- 
 morse, and enables it to turn away from the dead 
 past, and make the future its own. If, on the one 
 hand, I must condemn as ungenerous and odious 
 the doctrine, that we are to feel no shame or sorrow 
 for sin because God has forgiven it, just as if it 
 were possible that pardon granted for our offences 
 towards one whom we loved could make us cease to 
 regret these offences; on the other hand, I cannot 
 agree with those who recommend it as an exercise 
 profitable for deepening the spiritual life, to strive 
 artificially to heighten our sorrow for past sin, by 
 reviving the memory of it, meditating on it, and 
 confessing it to others. I do not think that we 
 shall do well in tearing open those sores which we 
 have committed to the healing of the great Physician, 
 gazing on them ourselves, and asking others to gaze 
 on them. Does a sculptor, who aspires at perfection, 
 collect his early works, and spend his time in gazing 
 on them, and mourning their imperfections ? Does 
 he not rather, when once he has recognized their 
 faults, cast them aside, and obtaining the very best 
 model he can, fix his eyes on it, and strive to make 
 his w^ork like that ? And so, when once you have 
 owned that the time past of your life may suffice you 
 to have wrought ungodliness, instead of fixing your 
 eyes on that past, I would have you fix them on 
 Christ, and obtain from Him grace to become such 
 as He was ; assured of this, that you cannot be so 
 
302 SERMON XVI, 
 
 ready to ask that grace as He to give it. In the 
 closeness of your life with Him, you will find present 
 salvation. 
 
 I, too, brethren, would ask each of you the ques- 
 tion — Are you saved ? But saved from what ? Are 
 you saved from sin ? Are you saved from anger, 
 bitterness, uncharitableness, untruthfulness? Are 
 you saved from sloth and frivolousness ? Are you 
 saved from impurity, from unclean thoughts, and 
 words, and deeds ? Are you saved from selfishness 
 in all its manifestations ? Ask those questions to 
 yourselves, ask them of any one who tells you he is 
 saved. If you have learned to mortify these works 
 of your earthly members, bless God for it ; and be 
 confident that He who has begun a good work in you, 
 will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. But if 
 you dream that you can be saved from the punish- 
 ment of sin, without being saved from sin itself, 
 Christ has commissioned me to preach no such 
 Gospel to you. It is not true that you can ; and if 
 it were true, a miserable Gospel it would be. 
 
SERMON XVIL 
 
 THE WORK OF A DISESTABLISHED 
 CHURCH.* 
 
 "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever, 
 Hebrews xiii, 8. 
 
 We live in a world of constant change. All living 
 creatures run the round of birth, growth, develop- 
 ment, maturity, decay, death; and then are suc- 
 ceeded by others w4iich run round the same circle. 
 '' Man Cometh up and is cut down like a flower ; he 
 fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in 
 one stay." For a w4iile one day may pass like 
 another, and we see little mark of change; yet, 
 from time to time, the most quiet lives are startled 
 by events which break their monotony. We have, as 
 it were, been gliding down the current of a quiet 
 sluggish stream, and suddenly we find ourselves in 
 troubled waters. We have to pass through a season 
 of anxiety, distress, perplexity ; and when it is over 
 we may have some loss to mourn, and have to 
 
 * Preached in St. Andrew's Church on January i, 1871, the day 
 on which the Irish Church Act came into operation. 
 
304 SERMON XVII. 
 
 continue our journey under changed circumstances. 
 We are most struck by change, when we are forced to 
 compare the present state of things with that which 
 existed at some interval of time. If we return to a 
 place where we lived some years ago, we are struck 
 by finding, not to speak of outward and visible 
 changes in the aspect of the place, that of the friends 
 we had known there, some are dead, some departed, 
 the survivors greatly altered, and a new generation 
 sprung up who know us not. And occasions like the 
 present — the first day of a New Year, naturally lead 
 us to carry our minds back, and compare the present 
 with the past. Even if we go no further back in our 
 comparison than the first day of last year, it cannot 
 be but that many of you have changes to report. 
 Changes there are certain to be in every one of us, 
 visible to God's eye if not to ours. His eye can see 
 in some, new graces developed by the working of His 
 Holy Spirit, good habits strengthened by exercise, 
 power to resist temptation gained by frequent victory 
 over it ; in others, alas ! His eye may see the fences 
 broken down which early education had raised, while 
 they who have not sought His guidance, stray further 
 and further from the way of peace. Every one of us, 
 too, more particularly if he be young, has gained 
 something in knowledge and experience. But changes 
 there must have been in the outward circumstances 
 of many. In this congregation there must be some 
 in whose family circle death has, during the last year, 
 made' a breach ; and it is certain that those who count 
 their' s entire, know not in what state the beginning 
 of another year will find it. 
 
THE WORK OF A DISESTABLISHED CHURCH. 305 
 
 In public affairs the events of the last year have 
 preached an eloquent sermon on the uncertainty and 
 change in human concerns. Two of the chief of the 
 temporal sovereigns of Europe have been forced to 
 descend from their position. One of them, the Pope, 
 governed but a small extent of territory ; nor do we 
 yet know for certain whether his dethronement will 
 be permanent. Yet, on account of the use he has 
 made of his temporal possessions to support his 
 spiritual pretensions, and on account of the passionate 
 outcries made by his adherents, as to the injury 
 which the interests of their religion are likely to 
 suffer, that change which took place last summer 
 almost without a struggle is a very memorable one. 
 The interests of their religion have, during the last 
 year, received a far more fatal blow in what they 
 regard as a great triumph. They have assembled 
 what they call a general Council for the first time these 
 three hundred years ; and there, in order to do more 
 honour to their ruler, have made a decree so out- 
 rageously at variance with Scripture, tradition, and 
 history, that all the men of real learning in their 
 body, who protested in vain against this new dogma, 
 are now at their wits' end what course to take. They 
 have proclaimed all their lives that they are bound to 
 accept the decrees of a general Council as infallibly 
 true ; and here is a Council which has made a decree 
 which they know to be false, and which they cannot 
 defend in controversy without abandoning the ground 
 of history altogether. 
 
 The other sovereign who has been dethroned, was 
 one whom Europe had been in the habit of watching, 
 in order to know whether it was to have peace or war. 
 
 X 
 
306 SERMON XVII. 
 
 I remember, and so do many of you, how one New 
 Year's day a few years ago, Europe was startled by a 
 speech from him, which announced the breaking out 
 of that Italian war, which was the prelude of many 
 coming changes ; and so on succeeding New Years^ 
 days his words were anxiously marked. This New 
 Year's day there is no one here whose utterances 
 have not almost as much power to influence coming 
 events. A new empire, and it would seem a new 
 Emperor, have seized the foremost place in Europe ; 
 and that great city, which was long the home of 
 luxury, whither lovers of pleasure repaired from many 
 a distant land, is now cut oif from intercourse with 
 its own provinces. 
 
 But we need not go abroad to look for instances of 
 change. To-day, for the first time I may say since 
 Christianity was planted among us, this country, as 
 a State, makes no profession of religion. From 
 henceforth we, the members of what used to be the 
 State Church, cease to enjoy any privilege over our 
 fellow-citizens. We have even lost our property, 
 which had been secured to us firmly by long posses- 
 sion, and by statutes most solemnly sanctioned. On 
 the other hand, every one of us is now given powers 
 in the direction and management of Church affairs 
 which we never exercised before. 
 
 I have tried to describe to you what a world of 
 ■change we live in. Contrasted with this incessant 
 fluctuation, the Scriptures present to us Him who is 
 above all change. '*I am the Lord, I change not," 
 was the character in which He revealed Himself by 
 His prophets. " Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast 
 laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are 
 
THE WORK OF A DISESTABLISHED CHURCH. 307 
 
 the work of thine hands. They shall perish, but 
 thou shalt endure. They all shall wax old as doth 
 a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou change them, 
 and they shall be changed ; but thou art the same, 
 and thy years shall not fail." Among the proofs 
 that our Blessed Lord is God as well as man, this 
 holds a foremost place, that in the New Testament 
 the attributes of God are ascribed to Him, in par- 
 ticular, that attribute of unchangeableness, which 
 belongs to no creature, and that He is described, 
 as I read in the text, as ''Jesus Christ, the same 
 yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." 
 
 Our faith that the great Head of the Church is 
 unchangeable need not in the least be shaken by the 
 fact that He permits His Church, like everything else 
 human, to be affected by change. As men change, 
 He sees that the instrumentality must be changed by 
 which His work in them can be done. As years go 
 on, men's habits of thought change ; new forms of 
 error become attractive ; the truth must be presented 
 in a new form, and be defended by new arguments. 
 If I were to take the best sermons of the ablest and 
 most successful preachers who lived a century or two 
 ago, not to speak of those of still earlier time, and 
 were to preach them to you now, you would feel them 
 to be out of date ; the whole form and style would 
 be different from what you are accustomed to ; you 
 would find things dwelt on at length in which you 
 would take no interest, and other things omitted 
 more suitable for your immediate wants. There is, 
 in fact, a collection of old sermons published by 
 authority for the use of the clergy — I mean the Ho- 
 milies. They were drawn up at the time of the 
 
808 SERMON XVII. 
 
 Keformation, because many of the clerg}' of the 
 unreformed Church had not been in the habit of 
 preaching, and required help in the exercise of this 
 ordinance. They were written by some of the ablest 
 and soundest divines three hundred years ago, and 
 they contain some very clear and beautiful statements 
 of Gospel doctrine. Yet no clergyman now thinks 
 of using them for the purpose for which they were 
 intended, and if he were by any cause prevented 
 from preparing a sermon, he does not think of 
 reading one of the homilies for his congregation. 
 I mention this as an illustration how the instru- 
 mentality well adapted for doing God's work in one 
 generation is often ill suited to another. And this 
 is why God sees that the ministers whom He employs 
 in His Vork must be constantly changed, because 
 with age their character hardens and stiffens, and 
 they are incapable of accommodating themselves to 
 the changed wants of the new generation. So He 
 takes them away when they have done their work, 
 often to our eyes before they have done their work, 
 and while they are still capable of great usefulness, 
 and replaces them by others not better in themselves, 
 but better suited for the work He has for them. It 
 is always a matter of great grief to the Church when 
 men tried and approved are taken from her, and when 
 she has to exchange men of known faithfulness and 
 zeal, hallowed by years of usefulness, and beloved for 
 their work in the Lord, for others of whose qualifica- 
 tions she has had no experience, and who are unable 
 to exercise the same influence. At such times we 
 are bound to remember that we are not dependent 
 for our intercourse with God on a succession of manv 
 
THE WOnK OF A DISESTABLISHED CHURCH. 309 
 
 priests, who are not sutiered to continue by reason of 
 death, but on one great High Priest, who continuing 
 ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood, which passes 
 not by succession from one to another. If His earthly 
 ministers have done work of which we feel the benefit, 
 the work is not theirs but His, and whatever else be 
 taken from us He remains. Perhaps for this reason 
 He changes from time to time the human agents 
 whom He employs, in order that we may look above 
 them to Him, that our faith should not stand in the 
 wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 
 
 And in God's providence not only individuals but 
 institutions are thus taken away and replaced by 
 others. But assuredly the breaking up of the old 
 order is a time of perplexity and anguish of spirit. 
 Men feel sorely the death of the old, but they see 
 not the l^irth of the new ; nor can they perceive how 
 it can possibly make up for the loss of what is taken 
 away. Take, for example, the breaking up of the old 
 Eoman empire by the invasions of swarms of northern 
 barbarians. Nothing could seem more unmixed 
 calamity than this, which was the ruin not only of 
 civilization but of Christianity. The Gospel had 
 painfully won its way from the lowest place in Koman 
 society to the highest. It had begun by being the 
 religion of the slaves and of the poor. At Rome it 
 had been a foreign superstition ; sometimes receiving 
 contemptuous toleration, sometimes attempted to be 
 outrooted by bitter persecution ; and yet, notwith- 
 standing all, ever growing and spreading, until at 
 length it seated itself on the imperial throne, and 
 made itself master of the civilized world. And now 
 all the work had to be done over again. The civili- 
 
310 SERMON XVTT. 
 
 zation which Christianity had conquered was over- 
 thrown ; and the mastery of the world was again in 
 the hands of heathens, fiercer and seemingly less 
 open to the influences of the Gospel than before. 
 What wonder that men's hearts should have sunk' 
 within them ; and yet it proved that all this dismal 
 anarchy attending the break-up of a worn-out organi- 
 zation was the birth of a new system, containing 
 elements of healthy, vigorous life, and that Chris- 
 tianity gained immensely both in purity and in 
 expansive energy as it passed from the effete Eoman 
 empire to the German tribes who constituted our 
 modern Europe. 
 
 Take, again, the Keformation. To us the work it 
 effected seems unmixed good ; but it did not seem 
 so to many pious and excellent men at the time. To 
 them it seemed the introduction of lawless question- 
 ing of everything established by authority. There 
 were many who brought scandal on the Keformers by 
 the extravagance of their doctrines, in which they 
 assailed fundamental principles not only of Chris- 
 tianity, but even of ordinary morality. By these 
 extravagances the minds of many were revolted 
 against all innovation ; and it seemed better to them 
 to bear patiently some things which they owned to be 
 abuses, rather than run the risk, in the removal of 
 them, to destroy the Church which they were trying 
 to amend. 
 
 Take, again, the French Revolution. That was 
 attended with so much bloodshed, so much violence, 
 so pitiless overturning of all old structures, however 
 great their claims to reverence, such bitter hostility 
 against Christianity itself, that the vast majority of 
 
THE WORK OF A DISESTABLISHED CHURCH. 811 
 
 thoughtful men in these islands looked on it with 
 horror as an unmixed calamity. Yet, notwithstand- 
 ing all this great temporary evil, now that it has 
 passed awaj^ a work remains which most of us will 
 acknowledge to he good. Few of us would wish to 
 restore that system of class privileges involving much 
 cruel oppression of the poor hy the rich and noble, 
 which that revolution swept away. But whether we 
 like it or not, we can see that it was the appointed 
 means in God's Providence for reconstituting Euro- 
 pean society on a new basis ; for the Europe of the 
 past is not the Europe of the present and the future. 
 And we may well believe that it is not without cause 
 that God has seen fit that Europe should suffer all 
 the miseries of the present war ; and that when it is 
 over, it will be acknowledged that the new state of 
 things is better than the old. 
 
 My hope and trust is, that we shall be able to make 
 the same acknowledgment about that change which 
 more immediately affects ourselves, and of which I 
 am expected to speak specially to-day. There is no 
 difficulty in understanding that a great change in the 
 political constitution of a society may make a great 
 change necessary in the constitution of the Church, 
 which is best qualified to do God's work amongst 
 them. In former times the State was everything, 
 and the individual nothing. In temporal matters it 
 was thought right that the sovereign should decide 
 what was most for the good of his people, and that 
 they should quietly submit to his decrees. The rule 
 was laid down, that people in general had nothing to 
 do with the laws but to obey them. At such times, 
 too, they naturally were willing to submit to the 
 
312 SERMON XVII. 
 
 guidance of authority in Cliurch matters also, and 
 thought it very little hardship to have no voice in 
 making ecclesiastical laws. But now, that in poli- 
 tical aifairs we like to have a voice in making our 
 own laws, and prefer to do things for ourselves, 
 rather than have them done for us by the wisest 
 rulers, it is natural that we should have the same 
 preference in Church matters also ; and so the sys- 
 tem of State Churches, which was well adapted for 
 old monarchical Europe, may require to be exchanged 
 for a freer organization in our modern democratical 
 society. I think if the change that has taken place 
 in our Church's constitution had gone no further than 
 this, we should all rejoice at it. It had been a couple 
 of hundred years since the Church in this country 
 had any power of legislation for herself, and now that 
 we have recovered our liberty of action, w^e have used 
 it not by reviving convocation in its antiquated form, 
 but by adapting our governing body to the exigencies 
 of the present time. I think we have every reason to 
 be satisfied with the manner in which this work was 
 done last year ; and when we consider that a body of 
 men, wholly inexperienced in working together, was 
 called on suddenly to perform the delicate and diffi- 
 cult task of framing a new Church constitution, the 
 amount of ability that was shown, and the temper in 
 which they acted together, making mutual conces- 
 sions when it was necessary for the sake of agreement, 
 must be pronounced highly creditable to them. But 
 we have had to purchase our freedom at a hea\'y price. 
 Our recovery of the right to legislate for ourselves 
 has been only gained on condition of the forfeiture 
 of the endowments which w^ere intended to secure 
 
THE WORK OF A DISESTABLISHED CHURCH. 313 
 
 the permanent publication of Christ's Gospel in this 
 country. Now, a few years ago it was often discussed 
 whether the voluntary system or a system of endow- 
 ments was the best for the Church. On the one 
 hand, it was urged that the clergy of an endowed 
 Church, whose income in no way depends on the 
 manner in which they do their work, are under temp- 
 tation to be indolent, and also to disregard the reason- 
 able wishes of their people. On the other hand, it 
 was said, that in the voluntary system, the clergy are 
 so dependent on their people, as to be under a temp- 
 tation, instead of faithfully delivering God's message, 
 to tell them only what is agreeable to them ; that for 
 example, when slavery was an institution in the 
 United States, it was defended in the slave states by 
 the clergy of all denominations. It has been urged, 
 and it is a thing that we are justly proud of, that 
 our's has been the Church of the poor, that voluntary 
 Churches are naturally opened where there are con- 
 gregations rich enough to pay the pastor, and that 
 even, when in the migrations of fashion, a part of 
 the town is given up by the rich to the poor, the 
 voluntary Churches in the district are apt to be closed, 
 or else removed to the more fashionable neighbour- 
 hood ; whereas, our Church undertook territorial re- 
 sponsibility, and made it her boast that she brought 
 home the preaching of God's Word impartially to 
 every district, rich or poor. It was urged, and proved 
 by the confession of some of the most brilliant de- 
 claimers in defence of the voluntary system, that 
 the remuneration it provided for the clergy was in 
 many cases miserably insufficient ; that while men 
 of great talents were, no doubt, handsomely paid, 
 
314 SERMON XVII. 
 
 men of ordinary ability found it hard to obtain a 
 mere livelihood : while all alike ran the risk of beins: 
 left destitute if, through age or sickness, decay of 
 mental power, or decay of popularity, their congre- 
 gations deserted them. And then it was asked, 
 When there are so many openings as there are at 
 present for young men of ability, and so much com- 
 petition for their services, how can we, on the volun- 
 tary system, keep up that superiority in learning, 
 ability, and influence which hitherto has honourably 
 distinguished the clergy of our Church ? How shaU 
 we prevent our ministry falling into the hands of an 
 inferior class of men if every young man of ability 
 who thinks of choosing this profession is likely to be 
 told by his friends that, in a worldly point of view, 
 his choice is the most imprudent he can make ? 
 These were the arguments which induced the majo- 
 rity of the members of our Church to resist as long 
 as they were able the attempt to deprive the Church 
 of her endowments ; but now that we have failed, it 
 is our duty to accept cheerfully the condition God in 
 His Providence has seen to be best for us, and to try 
 to gain the full benefit of all the advantages which it 
 offers, while we do our best to guard against the dan- 
 gers to which it is exposed. A man who had inherited 
 a large estate would be quite justified in resisting any 
 attempt to deprive him of it ; but if he failed, it would 
 be childish were he to sit down and lament, as if God 
 had sent him unmixed calamity ; for it is quite pos- 
 sible that his children, forced to earn their own bread, 
 might be happier and even richer in the end than if 
 they had succeeded to an inheritance without any 
 exertion of their own. My own belief is, that if we 
 
THE WORK OF A DISESTABLISHED CHURCH. 315 
 
 take timely measures we may put our Church on a 
 firmer basis than ever ; and that by a mixture of the 
 endowment system and the voluntary system, we may 
 gain all the advantages of both and avoid some of 
 their evils — have all the energy of one, and much of 
 the security of the other. What we aim at doing is 
 the formation of a central fund, sufficient to pay half 
 the salaries of the future clergy. By a central fund 
 we can take care that the wants of the poorer districts 
 are provided for ; for by all sharing together we can 
 make the abundance of one place suj)ply the defi- 
 ciency of another. We can give permanence and 
 security to the position of the clergy, while since 
 there will still be a necessity for a considerable sum 
 to be raised by annual subscriptions, the necessity of 
 harmonious working between clergy and people will 
 be evident to everybody ; and our people will be in 
 no danger of sinking into that state of languid indif- 
 ference into which are apt to fall the members of a 
 State Church which demands no exertion from them. 
 Now the raising of this central fund is possible if ive 
 begin at once, and not otherwise. We of this gene- 
 ration have the power, if we please, of taking all the 
 sweets of disestablishment, and refusing to touch any 
 of the bitters of disendowment. We may claim as 
 our own at once all the rights and privileges of legis- 
 lating for the Church ; and as the services of the pre- 
 sent clergy are secured to us for their lives, we may 
 cast on the next generation the task of paying their 
 successors. So again, if we choose to take a seltish 
 view, we who live in a great city may think the for- 
 mation of an endowment fund a matter of very small 
 importance. It may be expected that_the respectable 
 
316 SERMON XVIT. 
 
 people who form the congregations of the principal 
 Dublin churches would never feel any difficulty in 
 paying their clergy without any help from a central 
 fund. The prophet Ezekiel long since told how there 
 were in his time many who gathered to hear the 
 teaching of the prophet, in the same manner as they 
 would gather to hear the very lovely song of one that 
 had a pleasant voice and could play with an instru- 
 ment ; and so there are many in every large town 
 who, merely for intellectual gratification, will gather 
 round the preaching of a man of ability, and will be 
 willing to pay for the privilege as they w^ould for any 
 other public exhibition ; but I need not tell you that 
 money given from no higher motive than this cannot 
 be set down to the account of Christian charity. If 
 we give from love to Christ we must not think merely 
 how to please ourselves, but must strive to consider 
 how the efficient working of His Church over the 
 whole country can be best provided for. In this 
 country we have to contend with a most powerful or- 
 ganization ; for the Church of Kome sacrifices every- 
 thing, even truth itself, in order to maintain unity of 
 action ; and it is plain that,*humanly speaking, it is 
 only by union among ourselves that we can contend 
 with success ; and that if our efforts are selfish and 
 partial, the end will be the abandonment to the Koman 
 Catholics of all the districts where our people are 
 poor and scattered. But now if we make good use 
 of the interval while we have the services of the pre- 
 sent clergy without charge upon us, we can, without 
 unduly burdening ourselves, secure the permanence 
 of our Church's organization by the raising of a cen- 
 tral fund. It may be said roughly, that by the 
 
THE WORK OF A DISESTABLISHED CHURCH. 317 
 
 operation of compound interest a subscription of £1 a 
 year begun at once will effect as much as one of £^ 
 delayed until the pinch begins to be felt. So that all 
 we have to do is now to raise half the annual sum 
 necessary for the working of our Church. If we are 
 incapable of doing as much as this, what hope have 
 we that the future Church can be sustained ? 
 
 I hear the question sometimes asked by different 
 people, If we raise a central Endowment Fund, what 
 guarantee have we that some future Government will 
 not lay hands on it ? Others say, What guarantee 
 have we that the reforms will be made in the Church 
 which we think desirable ? Others again, What gua- 
 rantee have we that such sweeping changes will not be 
 made, that the money will be hereafter applied to ob- 
 jects of which we completely disapprove ? I think good 
 answers can be given to these questions. For in- 
 stance, it can be said that funds raised by voluntary 
 subscriptions, will stand in the same position of legal 
 security as any other private property ; that Roman 
 Catholics and members of every other religious body 
 have the same interest as ourselves, in maintaining 
 the security of such funds, so that nothing less than 
 a revolution can touch them ; it may be said, that we 
 have given so completely popular a constitution to 
 our Church that it cannot fail to be in thorough har- 
 mony with the feelings of the Protestant people of 
 this country, while we have provided sufficient secu- 
 rities against rash and ill-considered change. These 
 I count sufQcient answers to these questions ; but I 
 would rather reply to the spirit which puts them ; 
 for when God points out to men a work which it is 
 their duty to do for Him, He never condescends to 
 
318 SERMON XVII. 
 
 satisfy them, should they faithlessly insist on first 
 being given some guarantee that their exertions must 
 be sure to be crowned with success. In the manage- 
 ment of our own worldly affairs, we do not insist 
 before we act, on having absolute certainty that our 
 schemes vnll turn out well ; we engage in business, 
 though we cannot be sure of success ; we lay up money 
 for our families, without any certainty that our in- 
 vestments may not turn out differently from what we 
 calculated on. And in the same spirit we must work 
 for God. We send out missionaries. One may bring 
 in a large congregation of converts ; another, equally 
 able and zealous, may not gain a single disciple. 
 God warns us to make this uncertainty of return a 
 reason for trying diligently everj- form of work for 
 Him. " In the morning sow thy seed, and in the 
 evening withhold not thine hand, for thou knowest not 
 whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether 
 they both shall be alike good. Cast thy bread upon 
 the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days." 
 And so I think all that it concerns us to know is, that 
 if we do not use this breathing time before we lose 
 the services of our present clergy, it is certain our 
 Church will fail to provide the means of grace to our 
 poor people scattered over the land, and will shrink 
 into the large towns ; while, according to the best 
 calculations of human prudence, a timely efi'ort now 
 will put our Church on a basis of permanent effi- 
 ciency. If we see this, shall we not have faith to do 
 our part, and leave the result to God ? His promise 
 to be ever with His Church does not prevent any par- 
 ticular Church from having its candlestick removed 
 from its place. Some of the most famous Churches 
 
THE WORK OF A DISESTABLISHED CHURCH. 319 
 
 of former times have fallen away, as for instance, the 
 Churches of Asia Minor, to which St. John was 
 commissioned to send his letters in our Lord's name ; 
 and so if we be unfaithful, our national Church may 
 also fail. But this we may be sure of, that the death 
 of a Church never comes from without. It is not 
 such a blow as that which our enemies have inflicted 
 on us that can injure us. Taking away our wealth 
 or worldly position, does not touch the Church's real 
 life. Such losses only prove us ; and if we do not 
 flourish separated from the State, it will only be be- 
 cause, while united to it, our love has grown cold, 
 so as not to be strong enough to induce us to make 
 the sacrifices and exertions to preserve the union 
 among ourselves that is essential to success. But, 
 brethren, I am persuaded better things ; and I do 
 trust there is enouf]^h of zeal for God's cause amoncr 
 US, as to make such exertions now, that this Church 
 of ours may be, for many long years to come, a 
 witness for God's truth and a blessing to the land. 
 
 One word I would add, that while your present 
 gifts will be acceptable in helping to swell the not 
 inconsiderable sum which I hope w^ill be raised in 
 this diocese to-day, still what is most important of all 
 is that you shall give systematically, and according 
 to your means. 
 
 There are three objects you have to provide for : — 
 you must first make up the annual expenses of the 
 working of your own church — heating, hghting, and so 
 forth, which heretofore were supplied by the Ecclesi- 
 astical Commissioners. Secondly, you must take 
 timely measures for the supply of clergy for vour 
 own church, whenever our Great Hie^h Priest takes to 
 
320 SERMON XVII. 
 
 Himself those ministering servants of His, who are 
 the instruments by which He now does His work 
 among you. And thirdly, I hope you will not be 
 content with providing in this way for yourselves, but 
 that you will also contribute for the needs of the 
 poorer parishes of this city, and of places in other 
 parts of Ireland unable to help themselves. One way 
 in which we may answer these calls is by taking ad- 
 vantage of the weekly collections in Church. In 
 these the sums given by each person have usually 
 been trifling, and the collections have chiefly served 
 as a formal acknowledgment of our duty to give of 
 our substance to the service of Him to whom we owe 
 everything we enjoy. By increasing the amount we 
 are in the habit of giving, we can make these col- 
 lections answer the new calls on us, without injury to 
 those charitable purposes, for which they have been 
 until now applied. We may also undertake to give 
 a certain sum annually, or at such other intervals as 
 best suit our convenience. And by giving to-day we 
 shall give some earnest of the spirit which may be 
 expected to animate us through the year which we 
 commence with the Lord's own day. Ofi'er to Him 
 of your substance, but above all ofi'er to Him your- 
 selves ; and then whatever are the changes and chances 
 of this uncertain life. His everlasting arms will be 
 your support ; He who has been His people's help in 
 ages past will be your never-failing strength in time 
 to come. 
 
 Porteous and Gibbs, Printers, 18 Wicklovv Street, Dublin. 
 
Ju7ie 1872. 
 
 A Catalogue of Theological B ooKS, 
 with a Short Accoimt of their 
 Character and Aim, 
 
 Published by 
 MACMILLAIN^ AISTD CO. 
 
 Bedford Street, Covent Garden, London, 
 
 Abbott (Rev. E. A.)— BIBLE LESSONS. By the Rev. 
 E. A. Abbott, M.A., Head Master of the City of London 
 School. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. A^s. 6d. 
 
 Among the sitbjeds treated in 'this volume are: — ^^ The Times of 
 Christ,'' ''The Life of Christ,'' ''Christ's Miracles," "Christ's 
 Sacrifice," "Love" "Forgiveness" "Faith," and "Prayer." The 
 book is written in the form of dialogues carried on between teacher 
 and pupil, and its main object is to make the scholar think for 
 himself ' ' Wise, suggestive, and really profoujid initiation into 
 religious thought." — Guardian, The Bishop of St. David's, in 
 his speech at the Education Cottference at Abergivilly, says he 
 thinks "nobody could read ther?i without being the better for thei?i 
 himself, and being also able to see hoxa this difficult duty of im- 
 parting a sound religious education may be effected." 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Ainger (Rev. Alfred).— SERMONS PREACHED IN 
 THE TEMPLE CHURCH. By the Rev. Alfred Ainger, 
 M. A. of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Reader at the Temple Church. 
 Extra fcap. 8vo. 6j-. 
 
 This vohinie contains hventy-foiir Sermons preached at various times 
 during the last few years in the Temple Chtirch, and are charac- 
 terised by such qualities as are likely to make them acceptable to 
 cultivated and thoughtful readers. The follozvifig are a few 
 of the topics treated of: — ^^ Boldness;" "■ Mwder, Ancient and 
 Modern f ^'- The Atojiement f '"'■ The Resurrection f^ '■'■ The Fear 
 of Death f^ " The Forgiveness of Sins, the Remissioti of a Debf 
 (i Sermons); ^'- Anger, Noble and Ignoble f '■^Culture and 
 Temptation f ^^ The Religious Aspect of Wit and Humour;^' 
 ''The life of the Ascended Christ.'' ''It is,'' the British Quar- 
 terly says, '' the fresh unconventioizal talk of a clear independent 
 thinker, addressed to a congregation of thinkers . . . . Thoughtful 
 men will be greatly charmed by this little volume." 
 
 Alexander.— THE LEADING IDEAS of the GOSPELS. 
 
 Five Sermons preached before the University of Oxford in 1870 — 
 
 71. By William Alexander, D.D., Brasenose College ; Lord 
 
 Bishop of Derry and Raphao ; Select Preacher. Cr, Svo. 4^. dd. 
 
 Each of these Sermons is on a characteristic text taken successively 
 
 from each of the four Gospels, there being two on that from St. 
 
 John ; viz.— St. Matt. i. i ; St. Mark i. I ; Si. Lukex. 3 ; St. John 
 
 i. I, 14. "Dr. Alexander is eminently fitted for the task he has 
 
 undertaken.- He has a singular felicity of style, which lights tip 
 
 the discou7'se and clothes it zvith great beauty and impressiveness." 
 
 — Nonconformist. 
 
 Arnold.— A BIBLE READING BOOK FOR SCHOOLS. 
 The Great Prophecy of Israel's Restoration (Isaiah, 
 Chapters 40 — 66). Arranged and Edited for Young Learners. By 
 Matthew Arnold, D.C.L., formerly Professor of Poetry in the 
 University of Oxford, and Fellow of Oriel. i8mo. cloth, i.c 
 Mr. Arnold has undertaken this really important task, on account 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 of his conviction *''' of the immense importance in education of what 
 is called letters ; of the side which engages our feelings and imagina- 
 tion.'" Afr. Arnold in this little volume, attempts to do for the 
 Bible what has been so abundantly done for Greek and Roman, 
 as well as English authors; viz. — to take ""^ some whole, of ad- 
 mirable literary beauty in style and treatment, of manageable 
 length, within defined limits ; and present this to the learner in an 
 intelligible shape, adding such expla?iations and helps as may enable 
 him to grasp it as a connected and complete work." Mr. Arnold 
 thinks it clear that nothing could more exactly suit the purpose 
 than the last twetity-seven chapters of the Book of Isaiah, beginning 
 ' ' Comfort ye" dr'r. He has endeavoured to present a perfectly cor- 
 rect text, maintaining at the same time the unparalleled balance 
 and rhythm of the Authorized Version. In the copious notes every 
 assistance is given to the complete understanding of the text. There 
 is nothing in the book to hinder the adherent of any school of in- 
 terpretation or of religious belief from using it. The Preface 
 contains much that is interesting and valuable on the relation of 
 ''''letters" to education, of the principles that ought to guide the 
 makers of a new vei'sion of the Bible, and other important matters. 
 Altogether, it is believed, the volume will be found to forin a text- 
 book of the greatest value to schools of all classes. 
 
 Baring-Gould.— LEGENDS OF OLD TESTAlMENT 
 CHARACTERS, from the Talmud and other sources. By the 
 Rev. S. Baring-Gould, M.A., Author of "Curious Myths of 
 the Middle Ages," "The Origin and Development of Religious 
 Belief," "In Exitu Israel," etc. In two vols, crown 8vo. i6s. 
 Vol. I. Adam to Abraham. Vol. II. Melchizidek to Zechariah. 
 
 Mr. B aring- Gould' s previous contributions to the History of Mytho- 
 logy, and the formatio7i of a science of comparative religion are 
 admitted to be of the highest importance ; the present work, it is 
 believed, will be found of equal value. He has collected from the 
 Tahnud and other sources, Jewish and Mahommedan, a large 
 number of curious and interesting legends concerning the principal 
 characters of the Old Testament, compari7ig these frequently with 
 similar legends current among many of the peoples, savage and 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 civilised, all over the tvorld. '■'■ These volumes contain much that 
 is strange, and to the ordinary English reader, very novel" — 
 Daily News. 
 
 Barry, Alfred, D.D.— The ATONEMENT of CHRIST. 
 Six Lectures delivered in Hereford Cathedral during Holy Week, 
 1871. By Alfred Barry, D.D., D.C.L., Canon of Worcester, 
 Principal of King's College, London. Fcap. 8vo. 2s, 6d. 
 Iti writing these Sermons, it has been the object of Canon Barry to 
 set forth the deep practical importance of the doctJ'inal truths 
 of the Atonement. ^'' The one truth," says the Preface, ^^ which, 
 beyond all others, I desire that these may suggest, is the inseparable 
 unity %vhich must exist between Christian doctrine, even in its more 
 mysterious for jns, and Christian morality or devotion. They are 
 a slight cojitribution to the plea of that connection of Religion and 
 Theology, tvhich in our own time is so frequently and, as it see7ns 
 to me, so unreasonably denied." The Guardian calls them ''^strik- 
 ing and eloquent lectures. " 
 
 Binney.— SERMONS PREACHED IN THE KING'S 
 WEIGH HOUSE CHAPEL, 1829—69. By Thomas Binney, 
 D. D. New and Cheaper Edition. Extra fcap, 8vo. 4^-. 6d. 
 
 In the earnestness and vigour which characterize the sermons in this 
 volume the reader will find a clue to the vast infiuetice exerted by 
 Mr. Binney for forty years over a wide circle, particidarly young 
 men. In the concluding sermon, preached after the publication of 
 the first edition, he reviews the period of his ministry as a whole, 
 dwelling especially on its religious aspects. ^'■Eull of robust in- 
 telligence, of reverent but independent thinking on the most profound 
 and holy themes, and of earnest practical purpose." — London 
 Quarterly Review. 
 
 Burgon.— A TREATISE on the PASTORAL OFFICE. 
 
 Addressed chiefly to Candidates for Holy Orders, or to those who 
 have recently undertaken the cure of souls. By the Rev. John 
 W. BuRGON, M.A., Oxford. Svo. \2s. 
 The object of this work is to expound the great ends to be accomplished 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 by the Pastoral office, and to investigate the various means by which 
 these ends may best be gained. Full directions are given as to 
 preaching and sermon-writing, pastoral visitation, village educa- 
 tion and catechising, and confirmation. Under the heading of 
 ^^ Pastoral Method'''' the author shows how each of the occasional 
 offices of the Church may be most properly conducted, as well as hozu 
 a clergyman^ s ordinary public ministrations may be performed 
 with the greatest success. The best methods of parochial ??ianage- 
 ment are examined, and an effort is made to exhibit the various 
 elements of the true pastoral spirit. ' ' The spirit in which it 
 approaches and solves practical qjiestions is at once full of common 
 sense atid at the same time marked by a deep reverential piety and 
 a largeness of charity which are truly admirable.'''' — Spectator. 
 
 Butler (G.) — Works by the Rev. GEORGE Butler, M.A., 
 Principal of Liverpool College : 
 FAMILY PRAYERS. Crown 8vo. 5>f. 
 
 The prayers in this vohune are all based on passages of Scripture — the 
 morning pi'ayers on Select Psalms, those for the evening on portions 
 of the Neiu Testament. 
 
 SERMONS PREACHED in CHELTENHAM COLLEGE 
 
 CHAPEL. Crown 8vo. 7^. dd. 
 
 These Se^-mons, tzventy-nine in number, zvere delivered at intervals 
 from the opening of Cheltenham College Chapel in 1858, to the last 
 Sunday of the year 186 1, attd contain references to the important 
 events which occurred during that period — the Indian mutiny, the 
 French campaign in Italy, the liberation of Sicily and Naples, the 
 establishment of the kingdom of Italy, the American Civil War, 
 and the deaths of many eminent men, ** These se7'7?wns are plain, 
 
 pi'actical, and well adapted to the auditors We cordially 
 
 recommend the volume as a 7nodel of pulpit style, and for individual 
 and family reading.''"' — Weekly Review. 
 
 Butler (Rev. H. M.)— SERMONS PREACHED in the 
 CHAPEL OF HARROW SCHOOL. By H. Montagu 
 Butler, Head Master. Crown 8vo. 7^-. dd. 
 Whilst these Sermons were prepared to meet the wants of a special class. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Butler (Rev. H. M.) — coiitimied. 
 
 there is a constant reference in them to the great principles 7uhich 
 underlie all Christian thought and action. They deal with such 
 subjects as '■''Temptation^'''' "Courage,'''' ''' Duty without regard to 
 consequences,''^ "Success," " Devout Impulses," and " The SouPs 
 need of God." " These sermons are adapted for every household. 
 There is nothing more striking than the excellent good sense ivith 
 which they are imbued.'''' — Spectator. 
 
 A SECOND SERIES. Crown 8vo. 7^-. 6^. 
 
 '"''Excellent specimens of what sertnons should be, — plain, direct, 
 practical, pervaded by the true spirit of the Gospel, and holding up 
 lofty aims before the minds of the young." — AthentEum. 
 
 Butler (Rev. W. Archer). — Works by the Rev. William 
 Archer Butler, M.A., late Professor of Moral Philosophy m 
 the University of Dublin : — 
 
 SERMONS, DOCTRINAL AND PRACTICAL. Edited, 
 with a Memoir of the Author's Life, by Thomas Woodward, 
 Dean of Down. With Portrait. Eighth and Cheaper Edition, 
 8vo. 8^. 
 
 This volume contains tzoenty-six Sermons by one of the most earnest, 
 thoughtful, and eloquent preachers of his time, treating of almost 
 eveiy point of evangelical doctrine and Christian practice. The 
 follorving selections f'om the titles of the sermons will give a fair 
 idea of the contents of the volume: — "The Mystery of the Holy 
 Incarnation ;" " The Daily Self Denial of Christ;" " The Power 
 of the Resurrection ;" '''' Self Delusion as to our Real State before 
 God;" " The Faith of Man and the Faithfulness of God;" " The 
 Wedding- Garment;" ' ' Himian Affections Raised, not Destroyed by 
 the Gospel;" " The Rest of the People of God;" "The Divinity of 
 our Priest, Prophet, and King;" " Church Education in Ireland" 
 (two Sermons). The Introductory Memoir narrates in consider- 
 able detail and with much interest, the events of Butler'' s brief life ; 
 a7td contains a few specimens of his sweet and tender poetry, and 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Butler (Rev. W. Archer.) — continued. 
 
 a few extracts from his thoughtful addresses and essays, including 
 a long and eloquetit passage on the Province and Duty of the 
 Preacher. 
 
 A SECOND SERIES OF SERMONS. Edited by J. A. 
 
 Jeremie, D.D., Dean of Lincoln. Sixth and Cheaper Edition. 
 
 8vo. "js. 
 
 In this volume are contained other twenty-six of the late Professor 
 Butler'' s Ser?nons, einbracing a wide range of Christian topics, as 
 will be seen by the following selection frotn the titles: — " Christ the 
 Source of all Blessings f^ " The Hope of Glory and tJie Charities of 
 Lifef^ '■''The Holy Trinity f^ ^' The Sorrow that Exalts and 
 Sanctifies f '■'The Growth of the Divine Lifef^ '■'The Folly of 
 Aloj'al Cowardice f^ "Strength and Mission of the Church f 
 *' The Blessedness of Submission ;'''' *■' Etertzal Punishment. ^^ The 
 North British Review says, " Fetv sermons in our language exhibit 
 the same rare combination of excellencies ; imagery almost as rich 
 as Taylor's ; oratory as vigorous often as South' s ; judgiuent as 
 sound as Barrow's; a style as attractive but more copious, 
 original, and forcible than Atterburf s ; piety as elevated as Hozve's, 
 and a fervour as intense at times as Baxter'' s. Mr. Butler'' s are 
 the sermons of a true poet.''' 
 
 LETTERS ON ROMANISM, in reply to Dr. Newman's 
 
 Essay on Development. Edited by the Dean of Down. Second 
 
 Edition, revised by Archdeacon Hardwick. 8vo. \os. 6d. 
 
 These Letters contain an exhaustive criticism, written in the author'' s 
 
 most v'lgorous and polished style, of Dr. Newman' s famous '^ Essay 
 
 on the Developjnent of Chi'istian Doctrine.'^ An atte?npt is made 
 
 to shew that the theory is opposed to the received doctrine of the 
 
 Romish Church ; that it is based on purely imaginary grounds, 
 
 and necessarily carries tvith it consequences in the highest degree 
 
 dangerous both to Christianity and to general truth. Whilst the 
 
 work is mainly polernical in its character, it contains the exposition 
 
 of many principles of far more than mere temporary interest. 
 
 "A ii)ork 7vhich ought to be in the library of every student of 
 
 Divinity." — Bp. St. David's. 
 
 LECTURES ON ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY. See Scien- 
 tific Catalogue. 
 
8 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Cambridge Lent Sermons. — SERMONS preached 
 during Lent, 1864, in Great St. Mary's Church, Cambridge. By 
 the Bishop of Oxford, Revs. H. P. Liddon, T. L. Claughton, 
 J. R. Woodford, Dr. Goulburn, J. W. Burgon, T. T. 
 Carter, Dr. Pusey, Dean Hook, W. J. Butler, Dean Good- 
 win. Crown 8vo. Is. 6d. 
 
 The names of the preachers of these Sermons are a guarantee that they 
 are worth reading. They ivere preached 07i the Wednesdays and 
 Fi'idays during Lent 1864, a7id treat of the following among other 
 subjects: — ^^God in His Perfections the Measure of the Sinful Jiess 
 of Sin in the Creature,'''' by the Bishop of Oxford; ''''Adam hiding 
 himself from the Presence of the Lord,^'' by the Rev. H. P. Liddon; 
 *^God the Hope and Joy of the Penitent,'''' by the Rev. T. T. Carter; 
 ^^ David in his Sin and his Penitence,'''' by the Rev. Dr. Pusey ; 
 * ' God the Consolation of the Afflicted, " by the Very Rev. Deati Hook ; 
 " God the Reivard of the Faithful," by the Rev. W. J. Butler. 
 
 Campbell. — Works by JOHN M'Leod Campbell : — 
 THE NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT AND ITS 
 RELATION TO REMISSION OF SINS AND ETERNAL 
 LIFE. Third Edition, with an Introduction and Notes. 8vo, 
 \os. 6d. 
 
 Three chapters of this work are devoted to the teaching of Luther on 
 the subject of the Atonement, and to Calvinism, as taught by Dr. 
 Owen and President Edwards, and as recently modified. The 
 remaindo' is occupied tuith the different aspects of the Atonejtient as 
 conceived by the anthor himself the object being partly to meet the 
 objections of honest inquirers, but mainly so to reveal the subject in 
 its ozun light as to render selfeindent its adaptation to the spiiitual 
 wants of man. The book has been found richly stiggestive by ?nany 
 of the p^'ofoundest minds in the Ch^irch. Professor Rolleston, in 
 quoting from this book in his address to the Biological Section of 
 the British Association (Liverpool, September, 1870^, speaks of it 
 as ''the great 7t}ork of one of the first of living theologians.'' 
 '■'■ Antong the first theological treatises of this genej-ation.'' — 
 Guardian. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Campbell (J. M'Leod.) — contijiued. 
 
 CHRIST THE BREAD OF LIFE. An Attempt to give 
 a profitable direction to the present occupation of Thought with 
 Romanism. Second Edition, greatly enlarged. Crown 8vo. 45-. dd. 
 
 In this volume the Doctrines of the Infallibility of the Church and 
 Trans nbstantiation are regarded as addressed to real inward needs 
 of hiunanity, and an effort is made to disengage them from the 
 truths whose place they usurp, and to exhibit these truths as 
 adequate to meet human cravings. The ai7n is, first, to offer help 
 to those who feel the attractions to Romanism too strong to be over- 
 come by direct argu7?ients addressed to sense and reason ; and, 
 second, to qjiicken interest in the Truth itself ^^ Deserves the most 
 attentive study by all who interest themselves in the predominant 
 religious controversy of the dayy — Spectator. 
 
 Cheyne. — Works by T. K. Cheyne, M.A., Fellow of Balliol 
 College, Oxford : — 
 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH CHRONOLOGICALLY AR- 
 RANGED. An Amended Version, with Historical and Critical 
 Introductions and Explanatory Notes. Crown 8vo. *js. 6d. 
 The object of this edition is to restore the probable meaning of Isaiah, 
 so far as can be expressed in appi'opriate English. The basis of 
 the vej'sion is the revised translation of 1611, but alterations have 
 been introduced zuherever the true sense of the prophecies appeared to 
 require it. The Westminster Review speaks of it as '■^ a piece of 
 scholarly work, very carefully and considerately done." The 
 Academy calls it "a successful attempt to extend a right under- 
 standing of this itnportant Old Testament writing.'''' 
 
 NOTES AND CRITICISMS on the HEBREW TEXT 
 OF ISAIAH. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 This work is offered as a slight contribution to a inore scieittific study 
 of the Old Testainent Scriptures. The author aims at completeness, 
 independence, and originality, and constantly endeavours to keep 
 philology distinct from exegesis, to explain the form without pro- 
 nouncing on the ?natter. Saad Yah''s Arabic Version in the Bod- 
 
lo THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 leian has been referred to, while Walton and Btixtorf have been 
 carefully consulted. The philological works of German critics, 
 especially Ewald and Delitsch, have been anxiously and repeatedly 
 studied. 7%^ Academy calls the work "a valuable contribution 
 to the jnoj'e scientific study of the Old Testament. ^^ 
 
 Choice Notes on the Four Gospels, drawn from 
 
 Old and New Sources. Crown 8vo. /^s. 6d. each Vol. (St. 
 
 Matthew and St. Mark in one Vol. price gs.). 
 
 These Notes are selected fro7n the Rev. Prebendary Ford's Illustrations 
 of the Four Gospels, the choice being chiefly confined to those of 
 a more simple and practical character. The plan followed is to go 
 over the Gospels verse by verse, and introduce the remarks, mostly 
 meditative and practical, of one or more noted divines, on the verses 
 selected for illustration. The names of the ivriters fi'om whom the 
 remarks are taken are invariably appended to the extracts, and 
 amongst others to be met with, are thefolloimng: — J. Ford, Bona- 
 ventura, William Law, Pascal, Austin, Dr. Donne, Bonnell, 
 Flavel, Bishop Hall, Dr. John Scott, TJiomas Scott, P. Cecil, 
 St. Ambrose, Bengel, Bishop Reynolds, J. H N'ei.vman, George 
 Herbert, Bishop Jewel, Jeremy Taylor, Cardiital Bellarmine, 
 Qiiarles, St. Augustine, Archbishop Trench, Archbishop Leighton, 
 Lord Bacon, Dr. Pusey, St. Chrysostom, Dr. Arnold, llwmas 
 Fuller. Thus the selection is made in a catholic spirit, and the 
 reader will find it a safe and useful companion in his meditations. 
 
 Church.— SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE the UNI- 
 VERSITY OF OXFORD. By the very Rev. R. W. Church, 
 M. A,, Dean of St. Paul's. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. /:^s. 6d. 
 Sermons on the relations between Christianity and the ideas and facts 
 of modern civilized society. The subjects of the various discourses 
 are : — " The Gifts of Civilization, " ' ' Chrisfs Words and Christian 
 Society,'''' ^^ Christ's Example," and ^^ Civilization and Religion." 
 *'■ Thoughtful and masterly. . . We regard these sermons as a 
 landmark in religious thought. They help us to understand the 
 latent strength of a Christianity that is assailed on all sides." — 
 Spectator. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. ii 
 
 Clay.— THE POWER OF THE KEYS. Sermons preached 
 
 in Coventry. By the Rev. W. L. Clay, M. A. Fcap. 8vo. y. 6d. 
 
 In this work an attempt is made to shew in what sense, and to what 
 
 extent, the power of the Keys can be exercised by the layman, the 
 
 Church, and the priest respectively. The Church Review says the 
 
 sermons are ^'^ in many respects of innistial merit." 
 
 Clergyman's Self-Examination concerning the 
 
 APOSTLES' CREED. Extra fcap. 8vo. i^. 6d. 
 
 " These Confessions have been zvritten by a clergyman for his 07.un use. 
 They speak of his own unbelief Possibly they may help some of 
 his brethren, tuho wish to judge themselves that they may not be 
 ashamed before the Judge of all the earth. " He takes each clause 
 of the Creed and examines it in the light of com77ion sense, in order 
 to obtain its real meaning ; searching at the same time his own 
 heart to discover to zvhat extent he really believes the statements so 
 frequently uttered by him. Not only is it calculated to afford 
 material aid to a proper understanding of the Creed, but will also 
 be found extreinely useful as a mamial of devotion. 
 
 Collects of the Church of England. With a beauti- 
 fully Coloured Floral Design to each Collect, and Illuminated 
 Cover. Crown 8vo. 1 2s. Also kept in various styles of morocco. 
 
 In this edition of the Church Collects, the paper is thick and hand- 
 sofne, and the type large and beautiful, each Collect, with a few 
 exceptions, being printed on a separate page. The distinctive cha- 
 racteristic of this edition is the coloured floral design which ac- 
 companies each Collect, and which is generally emblematical of the 
 character of the day or saint to zvhich it is assigned; the flmvers 
 which have been selected are such as are likely to be in bloom on the 
 day to which the Collect belongs. From the variety of plants 
 elected and the faithfulness of the illustrations to nature, the 
 volume should form an instructive and interesting conipanion to 
 all devout Christians, who are likely to find their devotions assisted 
 and guided by having thus brought before them theflozvers in their 
 seasons, God^s beautiful and never-failing gifts to men. The 
 
12 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Preface explains the allusions and the table of contents gives both 
 the popular and scientific name of each plant. There are at least 
 one hundred separate plants figured. '^Carefidly, indeed livingly 
 drawn and daintily coloured,'' says the Pall Mall Gazette. The 
 Guardian thinks it "a successful attempt to associate in a natural 
 and unforced manner the fiowers of our fields and gardens with 
 the course of the Christian year. " 
 
 Cotton. — Works by the late George Edward Lynch 
 Cotton, D.D., Bishop of Calcutta :— 
 SERMONS PREACHED TO ENGLISH CONGREGA- 
 TIONS IN INDIA. Crown 8vo. 7^. 6^. 
 
 These Sermons are selected from those tvhich were preached betzveen 
 the years 1863 and 1866 to English congregations under the vai'ied 
 circumstances of place and season which an Indian Bishop en- 
 countei's. '■'■The sermons are models of what sa-mons shotdd be, 
 not only on account of their practical teachings, but also with 
 regard to the singular felicity with which they are adapted to times, 
 places, and circumstances.'' — Spectator. 
 
 EXPOSITORY SERMONS ON THE EPISTLES FOR 
 THE SUNDAYS OF THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. Two 
 Vols. Crown 8vo. 15^. 
 
 These two vohimes contain in all fifty- seven Sermons. They were 
 all preached at various stations throughout India, and from- the 
 nature of the circumstances which called them forth, the vaned 
 subjects of which they treat are dealt with in such a f?ianner as is 
 likely to prozie acceptable to Christians in general. Each serj?ion, 
 furnishes some account of the context and general scope of the epistle 
 for the day, ivith a careful paraphrase of it, and ivith an explana- 
 tion of any important difficulties occurring in it ; and in con- 
 clusion, draws out the niain truths or precepts of the epistle. The 
 Preface contains some sensible remarks on '■'Complaints against 
 Modern Sermons," "Expository Preaching," "Plan of the Ser- 
 mon" and other topics. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 13 
 
 Cure.— THE SEVEN WORDS OF CHRIST ON THE 
 CROSS. Sermons preached at St. George's, Bloomsbury. By 
 the Rev. E. Capel Cure, M.A. Fcap. 8vo. 3^-. dd. 
 These seven Sermons were preached at St. Geoi'ge^s, Bloomsbury, 
 during the season of Lent, each having for its text one of the seven 
 last sayings of Christ while He hung on the Cross, as they are re- 
 corded in the follo%ving places : — (i) Luke xxiii. 34; (2) Luke 
 xxiii.^2,; (3) fohn xix. 26 -, (4) Matthew xxvii. ^d ', (5) John 
 xix.2^; (6) John xix. TjO', (7) Luke xxiii. ^6. Of these Sermons 
 the John Bull says, " They are earnest and practical f the Non- 
 conformist, '* The Sermons are beautiful, tender, and instructive f 
 ajid the Spectator calls them "A set of 7-eally good Ser?nons.^^ 
 
 Curteis.— DISSENT in its RELATION to the CHURCH 
 OF ENGLAND. Eight Lectures preached before the University 
 of Oxford, in the year 1871, on the foundation of the late Rev. 
 John Bampton, M. A., Canon of Salisbury. By George Herbert 
 Curteis, M.A., late Fellow and Sub-Rector of Exeter College ; 
 Principal of the Lichfield Theological College, and Prebendary of 
 Lichfield Cathedral ; Rector of Turweston, Bucks. 8vo. 14?. 
 Ln these Bampton Lectures the Author has endeavoured to accomplish 
 three things : — /. To shew those who are in despair at the present 
 divided aspect of Christendom, that from the Apostles' time down- 
 tvards there has never been an age of the Church ivithout similar 
 internal conjlicts ; that if well managed, these dissensions may be 
 kept imthin bounds, and made to minister to the life and movement 
 of the whole polity ; but if ill-managed, they are always liable to 
 become a wasting fever instead of a healthy warmth. LL. To 
 present ?naierials by which Churchmen might be aided informing 
 an intelligent and candid judgment as to what precisely these dis- 
 senting denominations really are ; what it is they do, and what 
 they claim to teach ; and why it is they ai'e now combining to bring 
 the Church of England, if possible, to the ground. LLL. To point 
 out some few indications of the wonderful and eviery way deplorable 
 misapprehensions which have clothed the Church of England to 
 their eyes in colours absolutely foreign to her true character ; have 
 ascrsbed to her doctrines absolutely contrary to her meaning; and 
 have interpreted her customs in a way repellant to the Christian 
 Coiumon-sense of Jier own people. 
 
14 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Davies.— Works by the Rev. J. Llewelyn Davies, M.A., 
 Rector of Christ Church, St. Marylebone, etc. : — 
 
 THE WORK OF CHRIST ; or, the World Reconciled to 
 God, With a Preface on the Atonement Controversy. Fcap. 
 8vo. 6s. 
 
 The reader will here find, amongst othei's, sermons on ' ' The forgive- 
 ness of sins,"" " Christ dying for men" '■''Sacrifice,''^ " The Ex- 
 ample of Chi'ist" '' The Baptism of Christ,'' '■'■The Temptation 
 of Christ,"" '•^Love, Divine and Human," " Creation by the Word," 
 '■'■Holy Seasons," and " The Coming of the Son of Man." The 
 Preface is devoted to shelving that certain popular theories of the 
 Atonement are opposed to the moral sense of mankind, and are not 
 imposed on Christians by statements either in the Old or N'ew 
 Testaments. 
 
 SERMONS on the MANIFESTATION OF THE SON 
 OF GOD. With a Preface addressed to Laymen on the present 
 Position of the Clergy of the Church of England ; and an Ap- 
 pendix on the Testimony of Scripture and the Church as to the 
 possibility of Pardon in the Future State. Fcap. 8vo. 6^-. 6d. 
 
 The Preface to this work is 7nainly occupied with the distinction 
 between the essential and non-essential elements of the Christian 
 faith, proving that the central religious controversy of the day relates, 
 not, as many suppose, to such questions as the Inspiration of 
 Scripture, but to the profounder question, whether the Son of God 
 actually has been 77ianifested in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 The grounds on which the Christian bases his faith are also 
 exa??iined. In the Appendix the testimony of the Bible and the 
 Anglican forinularies as to the possibility of pardon in the future 
 state is investigated. The sermons, of which the body of the work 
 is composed, treat of the great principles revealed in the words and 
 acts of Jesus. '■^ This vohime, both in its substance, prefix, and 
 suffix, represents the noblest type of theology now preached in the 
 English Church." — Spectator. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 15 
 
 Davies (Rev. J. Llewelyn) — conti?med, 
 
 BAPTISM, CONFIRMATION, AND THE LORD'S 
 SUPPER, as Interpreted by their Outward Signs. Three Ex- 
 pository Addresses for Parochial use. Fcap. 8vo., limp cloth. 
 IS. 6d. 
 
 The method adapted in these addresses is to set forth the natural and 
 historical meaning of the signs of the tivo Sacraments and of Con- 
 firmation, and thus to arrive at the spiritual realities xvhich they 
 symbolize. The work touches on all the principal elements of a 
 Christian man^ s faith. 
 
 THE EPISTLES of ST. PAUL TO THE EPHESIANS, 
 THE COLOSSIANS, and PHILEMON. With Introductions 
 and Notes, and an Essay on the Traces of Foreign Elements in 
 the Theology of these Epistles. 8vo. 7i. dd. 
 The Author belirues the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians to 
 be specially adapted to the wants of the present age. The chief aim, 
 therefore, of the translations and notes in the present volume is 
 simply to bring out as accurately as possible the apostle's meaning. 
 The General Introduction, treats mainly of the time and circum- 
 stances in which Paul is believed to have wi'itten these Epistles. 
 To each Epistle there is a special critical introduction. The 
 Essay " On the Traces of Foreign elements in the Doctrine of 
 these Epistles'''' discusses the question how far the ideas in the 
 Epistles zuhich resemble gnostical systems are to be found in books 
 and traditions to which St. Paul and his contemporaries had 
 access. "A valuable contribution to the literature of the Pauline 
 Epistles. ' ' — Freeman. 
 
 MORALITY ACCORDING TO THE SACRAMENT 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. Crown 8vo. 3^. 6^/. 
 
 These discoicrses were preached before the University of Camh'idge. 
 They form a continuous exposition, and are directed mainly against 
 the two-fold danger which at present threatens the Church— the 
 tendency, on the one hand, to regard Morality as independent of 
 Religion, and, on the other, to ignore the fact that Religion finds 
 its proper sphei'e and criterion in the moral life. 
 
i6 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Davies (Rev. J. Llewelyn) — continued. 
 
 THE GOSPEL and MODERN LIFE. Sermons on some 
 of the Difficulties of the Present Day, with a Preface on a Recent 
 Phase of Deism. Extra fcap. 8vo. ds. 
 
 The '■'' recent phase of Deisni'^ examined in the preface to this volume 
 is that professed by the ^^Pall Mall Gazette'''' — that in the sphere of 
 Religion tJiere are one or two ^''probable suppositions^''^ but nothing 
 more. The zvriter starts with an assumption that mankind are 
 under a Divine discipline^ and in the light of this conviction passes 
 under review the leading religious problems which perplex thought- 
 fulminds of the present day. Amongst other subjects examined 
 are — ''^Christ and Modern Knowledge^'''' ''^Humanity and the 
 Trinity^ " " Nature, " ' ' Religion, " " Conscience, " ' * Human 
 Coj-ruption,^^ and ^^ Human Holiness.'" ^^ There is probably no 
 writer in the Church faij'er or more thoroughly worth listening to 
 than Mr. Lleivellyn Davies, and this book will do more than sustain 
 his already high reputation.''^ — Globe. 
 
 De Teissier.— Works by G. F. De Teissier, B.D.:— 
 VILLAGE SERMONS, First Series. Crown 8vo. 9^. 
 This volume contains fifty-four short Serjuons, etnbracing many sub- 
 jects of practical importance to all Christians. The Guardian says 
 they are "a little too scholarlike in style for a country village, 
 but sound and practical.''^ The follozuing are a few of the titles 
 of the Sermons:- — ^^ Death of the Prince Consort f ^^ Particular 
 Providence f^ '■^ The Suffo'ing Christ f^ ^^ Charity the Crown of 
 Christianity f ''On Self Deceit;" ''On Hypocrisy f "Christ 
 Risen;" "The Comfort of Religion;" " Good Neighbourhood ;" 
 '■'The Return of Spring;" "A Harvest Sermon;" "Heart- 
 Religion. " 
 
 VILLAGE SERMONS, Second Series. Crown 8vo. ?>s.6d. 
 "This second volume of Parochial Sermons is given to the public 
 in the humble hope that it may afford many seasonable thoughts 
 for such as are Moui'ners in Zion." There are in all fifty -two 
 Sermons embracing a wide variety of subjects connected with 
 Chnstian faith and practice. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 17 
 
 De Teissier (G. F.) — contitiued. 
 
 THE HOUSE OF PRAYER; or, a Practical Exposition 
 of the Order for Morning and Evening Prayer in the Church of 
 England. i8mo. extra cloth. 45-. dd. 
 
 " Thej'e is in these addresses to the Christian reader,''"' says the Intro- 
 duction, an atte77ipt to set forth the devotional spirit of our Church 
 in her daily forms of Morning and Evening Prayer, by sherving 
 how all the parts 0/ them may have a Just bearing upon Christian 
 practice, and so may have a deep influejice upon the conduct of all 
 our honest "worshippers, under eve^y possible relation and circum- 
 stance of life.''^ '^For a certain dez'out tenderness of feeling and 
 religious earnestness of piapose, this little book of Mr. De Teissiej-'' s 
 is really noteivorthy ; and it is a book which grows ztpon you 
 very much ivhen you read it. " — Literary Churchman. 
 
 Ecce Homo. A Survey of the Life and Work of 
 Jesus Christ. 23rd Thousand. Crown Svo. 6j. 
 
 // is needless to say anything in 7'ecommendation of a book so widely 
 knozmi, and whose strildng merit has been recognised by men and 
 periodicals of all vaHeties of opinion. The follo^ddng are a feiv 
 selections from the very favourable notices with which the press has 
 received it. ' ^A very original and j-emarkable book, fill of strikiitg 
 thought and delicate perception; a book which has realised with 
 70onderful vigour and freshness the historical magnitude of Christ's 
 7voi-k, and which here and there gives us readings of the finest kind 
 of the probable motive of His individual woi'ds and actions. " — 
 Spectator. He bates not a jot of Christ's pretensions. Miracles 
 he insists upon as an integral part of the history. With a 
 generous-minded sceptic this book may lead him on to give earnest and 
 persistent attention to Christianity. The best and most established 
 beliezier will find it addiiig so?ne fresh buttresses to his faith. 
 Finally it traces the zvorking of the gj'eat pj-inciples of Christian 
 charity through all the ramifications of character and action. " — 
 Literary Churchman. If we have not jnisunderstood hi??i, zoe 
 have before us a writer who has a right to claim deference from 
 those who think deepest and know most.'''' — Guardian. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Farrar. — Works by the Rev. F. W. Farrar, M.A., F.R.S., 
 
 Head Master of Marlborough Cohege, and Hon. Chaplain to the 
 
 Queen : — 
 THE FALL OF MAN, AND OTHER SERMONS. 
 
 Second and Cheaper Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. \s. ()d. 
 
 This vohune contains tiventy Sermons. N'o attempt is made in 
 these sermons to devclope a system of doctrine. In each discourse 
 some one aspect of truth is taken up, the chief object being to point 
 out its bearings on practical religious life. The Nonconfomiist 
 says of these Sermons, — "J/r. Tarj-ar's Sermons are almost peifect 
 specimens of one type of Sermons, which we may concisely call 
 beautiful. The style of expression is beatitiful — there is beauty in 
 the thoughts, the illustrations, the allusions — they are expressive of 
 genuinely beautiful perceptions and feelings.^'' The British Quar- 
 terly says, — ^^ Ability, eloquence, scholarship, and practical useful- 
 ness, are in these Sermons covibined in a very unusual degree. " 
 
 THE WITNESS OF HISTORY TO CHRIST. Being 
 the Hulsean Lectures for 1870. New Edition. Crown Svo. 5J-. 
 In these Lectures, Mr. Farrar endeavours to grapple %vith the most 
 recent manifestations of infidelity, and endeavours to prove the 
 divinity of Christ and the supernatural origin of Christianity on 
 rational grounds, and by an appeal to the origin and progress oj 
 the Christian Religion itself The copiotis notes contain many 
 references which zuill be found of great use to the enquiring student. 
 The follotving are the subjects of the Five lectures : — /. " The 
 Antecedent Credibility of the Miraculous.''^ II. ^'' The Adequacy 
 of the Gospel Records. ^^ III. ^-^ The Victories of Christianity.''^ 
 IV. ^'■Christianity and the Individual.'^ V. '^Christianity and 
 the Race." The subjects of the four Appendices are: — A. ''The 
 Diversity of Christian Evidences." B. "Confucius." C. "Bud- 
 dha." D. "Comte." "Here," ///^ Standard J^yj, "luehave 
 eloquence combined zvith abundant inforynation on all points of 
 importance, both as regards theology and classical accuracy. This 
 renders the book one of lasting value." 
 
 SEEKERS AFTER GOD. The Lives of Seneca, Epictetus, 
 and Marcvis Aurelius. See Sunday Library at end of Catalogue. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Fellowship : Letters Addressed to my Sister 
 
 Mourners, Fcap. 8vo, cloth gilt. y. 6d. 
 
 The Seven Letters contained in this little volume are written by one 
 who has herself been shrouded in the darkest shadow of affliction 
 consequent on being bereaved of one in tohom her whole life was 
 built up. In these Letters she tells her oiun sorro%vful tale in nn- 
 affected, tender, touching ivords, zuhich cannot but appeal to all 
 zuho are placed in a similar comfortless position. She does not 
 attempt to preach or to aggravate the son-otv and sense of loss of 
 mourners by administering advice zvhich they cannot take, or 
 quoting texts and sentiments calculated only to irritate. She 
 speaks of her loss and consequent giief in such a zvay as only a 
 genuine mourner can ; of the well-meant but aggravating comfort 
 and useless advice admininistered her by her many comforters, and 
 shervs her fellotv-mournej-s by what means, in course of soothino 
 time, she got consolation and arrived at calmness and resignation. 
 '■'■A beautifid little volume, ivritten with genuine feeling, good taste, 
 and a right appreciation of the teaching of Scripture relative to 
 sorrow and suffering." — Nonconformist. "A very touching, and 
 at the same time a veiy sensible book. Lt breathes throicghout the 
 truest Christian spint." — Contemporary Review, 
 
 Forbes.— THE VOICE OF GOD IN THE PSALMS. 
 By Granville Forbes, Rector of Broughton. Cr. 8vo, 6s. 6d. 
 This volume contains a connected series of twenty Sermons, divided 
 into three parts, the ttuo first parts being Introductory. Part I. 
 treats of the ^^ Ground of Faith," and consists of four Sermons on 
 ^^ Faith in God," ^^ God's Voice within zis," '■'Faith in God the 
 Ground of Faith in the Bible," and ''God's Voice in the Bible." 
 Part II. treats of '* The Voice of God in the Law and the Prophets, " 
 on which there are four Sermons; and Part III., occupying the 
 greater part of the volume, deals with ' ' The Voice of God in the 
 Psalms," and consists of tzvelve Sermons. The last Sermon is 
 on "The Voice of God in History." The Literary Churchman 
 says these Sermons are " charactei'ized throt/ghotct by a stron<r 
 realisation of the Providence and Fatherhood of God, and by their 
 vivid apprehension of the Voice of God within man as anszcerij/g 
 to and accepting the Revelation of God to Alan." 
 
20 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Gifford.— THE GLORY OF GOD IN MAN. By E. H. 
 
 GiFFORD, D.D. Fcap. 8vo., cloth. 3^. 6^. 
 
 This is a connected sequence of four Sermons which treat of ' ' The 
 Unrighteousness of Man " " The Righteousness of God,'''' ''''Life in 
 Christ,^^ and " The Love of the Spirit.''^ Notes are appended in 
 which the sentiments of various authors on the statements made 
 are quoted or referred to. " The sermons are short, thoughtful, and 
 earnest discussions of the zveigJity matter involved in the subjects of 
 thejn.'^ — ^Journal of Sacred Literature. 
 
 Golden Treasury Psalter. See p. 50. 
 
 Hardwick. — Works by the Ven. Archdeacon Hardwick : 
 
 CHRIST AND OTHER MASTERS. A Historical Inquiry 
 into some of the Chief Parallelisms and Contrasts between Christ- 
 ianity and the Religious Systems of the Ancient World. New 
 Edition, revised, and a Prefatoiy Memoir by the Rev. Francis 
 Procter, M.A. Two vols, crown 8vo. 15^-. 
 After several inti'oductory chapters dealing with the religious tendencies 
 of the present age, the unity of the human race, and the character- 
 istics of Religion under the Old Testament, the Author proceeds to 
 consider the Religions of India, China, America, Oceanica, Egypt, 
 and Medo- Persia. The h istory and characteristics of these Religions 
 are examined, and an effort is made to bring out the points oj 
 difference and affinity betvueen them and Chi'istianity. The object 
 is to establish the pe7fect adaptation of the latter faith to human 
 nature in all its phases and at all times. " The plati of the work 
 is boldly and almost nobly conceived. . . IVe commend the zourk to 
 the perusal of all those who take interest in the study of ancient 
 mythology, tvithout losing their revei-ence for the suprane authority 
 of the 07'acles of the living God.^' — Christian Observer. 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Middle 
 Age. From Gregory the Great to the Excommunication of Luther, 
 Edited by William Stubbs, M.A., Regius Professor of Modern 
 History in the University of Oxford. With Four Maps constructed 
 for this work by A. Keith Johnston. Third Edition. Crown 
 8vo. los. td. 
 Although the ground-plan of this treatise coincides in many poi fits 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 21 
 
 Hardwick (Archd.) — coiitimied. 
 
 zuith that of the colossal ivork of Schrockh, yet in arranging the 
 materials a very different course has frequently been pursued. 
 With regard to his opinions the late author avowed distinctly that 
 he construed history with the specific prepossessions of an English- 
 man and a member of the English Church. The reader is con- 
 stantly referred to the authorities, both original and critical, on 
 which the statements are founded. For this edition Professor 
 Stubbs has carefully revised both text and notes, making such cor- 
 rections of facts, dates, and the like as the results of recent research 
 warrant. The doctrinal, historical, and generally speculative 
 views of the late author have been preserved intact. ' ^As a Manual 
 for the student of ecclesiastical history in the Middle Ages, we kncnv 
 no English ivork which can be compared to Air. Hardzoick's book^" 
 — Guardian. 
 
 A HISTORY of the CHRISTIAN CHURCH DURING 
 • THE REFORMATION. New Edition, revised by Professor 
 Stubbs. [In the Press. 
 
 This volume is intended as a sequel and companion to the ''^History 
 of the Christian Church during the Middle Age. ^^ The author'' s 
 ' earnest wis hlias been to give the reader a trustzvorthy version of 
 those stirring incidents zvhich mark the Reformation period, with- 
 out relinquishing his former claim to characterise peculia^r systems, 
 persons, and events according to the shades and colours they as- 
 sttme, zvhen contemplated from an English point ofviezv, and by a 
 member of the Chtirch of England. 
 
 Hervey.— THE GENEALOGIES OF OUR LORD AND 
 
 SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST, as contained in the Gospels of 
 
 St. Matthew and St. Luke, reconciled with each other, and shown 
 
 to be in hannony with the true Chronology of the Times. By Lord 
 
 Arthur Hervey, Bishop of Bath and Wells. 8vo. \os. 6d. 
 
 The difficulties and importance of the subject are first stated, the three 
 
 ??iain points of inquiry being clearly brought out. The Author 
 
 then proceeds to shew that the genealogies of St. Matthew's and 
 
 St. Luke's Gospels are both genealogies oj Joseph, and exa?nines 
 
 the principle on zvhich they are framed. In the follozving chapters 
 
 the remaining aspects of the subject are exhaustively investigated. 
 
22 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Hymni Ecclesiae. — Fcap. 8vo. ']s.^d. 
 
 A selection of Latin ILymns of the Mediivval CJuirch,, containing 
 selections from the Paris Breviary, and the Breviaries of Rome, 
 Salisbury, and York. The selection is confined to such holy days 
 and seasons as are recognised by the Church of England, and to 
 special ez'ents or things recorded in Scripture. Tliis collection zvas 
 edited by Dr. Neivmaii while he lived at Oxford. 
 
 Kempis, Thos. A. — DE IMITATIONE CHRISTI. 
 LiBRi IV. Borders in the Ancient Style, after Holbein, Durer, 
 and other Old Masters, containing Dances of Death, Acts of 
 Mercy, Emblems, and a variety of curious ornamentations. In 
 white cloth, extra gilt. ']s. 6d. 
 
 The original Latin text has been here faithfully reproduced. The 
 Spectator says of this edition, it '^ has tnany solid merits, and is 
 perfect in its way. " While the Athenseum says, " The whole work 
 is admirable ; some of the figure compositions have extraordinary 
 merit. " 
 
 Kingsley. — Works by the Rev. CHARLES KiNGSLEY, M.A., 
 Rector of Eversley, and Canon of Chester. (For other Works 
 by the same author, see Historical and Belles Lettres 
 Catalogues). 
 
 Tlie high merits of Mr. Kingsley s Sermons are acknozvledged. 
 Whether preached to the rustic audience of a village Church or to 
 the princely congregation of the Chapel Royal, these Sermons are 
 invariably characterized by intense earnestness and magnanimity, 
 combined zvith genuine charity and wimting tenderness ; the style 
 is always clear, simple, and unafi'ectedly statural, abounding i)i 
 beautiful illustration, the fruit of a rich fancy and a cultivated 
 taste. They are emphatically practical. 
 
 THE WATER OF LIFE, AND OTHER SERMONS. 
 Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3^. dd. 
 
 This volume contains tzventy-ouc Sermons preached at various places 
 — Westminster Abbey, Chapel Royal, before the Queen at Windsor, 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 23 
 
 Kingsley (Rev. C.) — continued. 
 
 etc. Tliefollcnmng are a fetv of the titles:— '■'■The Water of Life ;" 
 '' The Wages of Sin f' '' The Battle of Life;'' ''Ruth;'' ''Friend- 
 ship, or David and Jonathan ;" "Trogress;" "Faith;" "The 
 Meteor Shower" (1866); "Cholera" (1866); "The God of 
 N'ature. " 
 
 VILLAGE SERMONS. Seventh Edition. Fcap. 8vo. -^s.^d. 
 
 The follo7uing are a feiv of the titles of these Sej-jfions : — "God's 
 World;" "Religion not Godliness;" "Self-Destriiction ;" "Hell 
 on Earth;" " A^oah' s Justice ;" "Our Father in Heaven ;" "The 
 Transfignration ;" "The Criuifixioit ;" "The Resurrection;" 
 ' ' I}?iprovement ; " "On Books ;" " The Courage of the Saviour. " 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF THE PENTATEUCH. Second 
 
 Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 2>^. 6d. 
 
 This volume consists of eighteen Sermons on passages taken from the 
 Pentateuch. They are dedicated to Dean Stanley out of g7'atitude 
 for his Lectures on the Jewish Church, under the influence and in 
 the spirit of ivhich they were written, "With your book in my 
 hand" Mr. Kingsley says hi his Preface, "I have tried to write 
 a' few plain Sermons, telling plain people what they will find in the 
 Pentateuch. I have told them that they will find in the Bible, and 
 in no other ancient book, that living working God, %uho?n their 
 reason and conscience demand; and that they will find that He is 
 none other than Jesus Christ our Lord. " 
 
 GOOD NEWS OF GOD. Fourth Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 
 
 3^. (id. 
 
 This volume contains thirty-nine short Sermons, preached in the 
 ordinary course of the author' s parochial juinistrations. A few of 
 the titles are— ' ' The Beatific Vision ;" " The Life of God;" ' ' The 
 Song of the Three Children;" "Worship;" "De Profundis ;" 
 "The Race of Life;" "Heroes and Heroines;" "Music;" 
 ^'Christ's Boyhood;" "Human Nxiture ;" "True Prudence;" 
 "The Temper of Christ;" "Our Deserts;" "The Loftiness of 
 Qpd." 
 
24 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Kingsley (Rev. C.) — co7itinued. 
 
 SERMONS FOR THE TIMES. Third Edition. Fcap. 
 8vo, 3J-. 6^/. 
 
 Here are haenty-two Sermons, all bearing more or less on the eve?y- 
 day life of the present day, including such subjects as these : — 
 ^^Fathers and Children;" "^ Good Conscience;'" '■'■ Names f 
 ^''Sponsorship j'^ ^^Diityand Superstition ;" '"'• England'' s Strength ;''' 
 ''^ The Lord'' s Prayer f '■'Shame;'''' ''Forgiveness''';" The True 
 Gentleman ;'''' "Public Spirit.'''' 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SERMONS. Second Edition. 
 Extra fcap. 8vo. 3^'. dd. 
 
 Sojne of these Sermons zvere preached before the Queen, and some in 
 the pel for mane e of the writer^ s ordinary parochial duty. There are 
 thirty -iti^ie in all, under such titles as the following : — "Ho%v to keep 
 Passion- Week f "A Soldier's Training;''^ "Turning-points;'''' 
 " Work;'" " The Rock of Ages f' " The Loftiness of Hzimility ;" 
 " The Central Sun;'" " Y.v Toutcj Ni/ca ;" " The Eternal Man- 
 hood;'''' "Hypocrisy;'''' " The Wrath of Love." Of these Sermons 
 the Nonconformist says, " They are warm tvitk the fervour of the 
 preacher's own heart, and strong from the force of his own con- 
 victions. There is naivhere an attempt at display, and the clear- 
 ness and simplicity of the style make than suitable for the ycningest 
 or most unintelligent of his hearers.'''' 
 
 SERMONS on NATIONAL SUBJECTS. Second Edition. 
 
 Fcap. 8vo. 3^-. (>d. 
 
 THE KING OF THE EARTH, and other Sermons, 
 a Second Series of Sermons on National Subjects. Second 
 Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3J". 6:/. 
 
 The folloiving extract from the Preface to the-^nd Series zvill explain 
 the preacher's aiin in these Sermons: — " I have tried to pro- 
 claim the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Scriptures, both in their 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 25 
 
 Kingsley (Rev. Q.)—contimied. 
 
 strictest letter and in their general 7netJiod, from Genesis to Re7'e- 
 lation, seem to vie to proclaim Him ; not ?nerely as the Saviour of 
 a few elect souls, but as the light and life of evqy hinnan being 
 who enters into the world ; as the source of all reason, strength, 
 a?id virtite in heathai or in Christian ; as the King and Rider of 
 the ivhole tcniverse, and of ez'ery nation, faj/iily, and man on 
 earth ; as the Redeemer of the whole earth and the whole hzcman 
 
 race His death, as a fidl, perfect, and suffi.cient sacrifice, 
 
 oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the ivhole world, by luhich 
 God is reconciled to the xuhole human race. 
 
 DISCIPLINE, AND OTHER SERMONS. Fcp. 8vo. 3J-. 6^. 
 
 Hei'ein are twenty-four Sa'mons preached on various occasions, so?ne 
 of them of a public nature — at the Volunteer Camp, Wimbledon, 
 before the Prince of Wales at Sandringham, at Wellington College, 
 etc. A fezv of the titles are — ''^Discipline'''' (to Vohmteers ) ; 
 '"''Prayer and Science ;^^ ''''False Civilization;'''' ''^ The End of 
 Religion;" '' The Humanity of God f' ''God's World ;'' ''Self- 
 Help ;''' "Toleration;" "■ The Likeness of God." This volume 
 the Nonconfoi-mist calls, — " Eminc77tly practical a7id appropriate 
 
 Earnest stirring words." The Guardian says, — "There is 
 
 much thought, tenderjtess, and devoutness of spirit in these Sej'??ions, 
 and some of them are models both in 77iatter a7id exp7-ession.'''' 
 
 DAVID. Four Sermons : David's Weakness — David's 
 Strength — David's Anger — David's Deserts. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 These four Ser?7wns we7'e preached before the U7iive7'sity of Caf7i- 
 b7'idge, and are specially addressed toyo7ing 7nen. Their titles are, 
 — ' ' David'' s IVeakness ;" ' 'David's St7-e7igth ; " ' 'David's A nger ; ' ' 
 "David'' s Deserts." The Freeman says — "Every paragraph 
 glows with ?na7tly e7iergy, delivers straightfo7'ward p7'actical truths, 
 in a vig07-ous, so7netimes eve7i passionate way, a7id exhibits an 
 intense sy7npathy with evciything honest, pu}-e, and noble." 
 
26 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Lightfoot.— Works by J. B. LiGHTFOOT, D.D., Hulsean 
 Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge ; Canon of 
 St. Paul's. 
 
 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. A Re- 
 vised Text, with Introduction, Notes, and Dissertations. Third 
 Edition, revised. 8vo. cloth. I2s. 
 
 The subjects treated in the Introduction are — the Galatian people, the 
 Chwches of Galatia, the date and genuineness of the Epistle^ and 
 its character and contoits. The dissertations discuss the question 
 whether the Galatiaits 7cere Celts or Tartars, and the zvhole subject 
 of " The Brethren of tJie Lord,''^ and ^^ St. Paul and the Three.'''' 
 While the Author'' s object has been to make this commentary 
 generally complete, he has paid special attrition to eziery thing re- 
 lating to St. PauVs personal history and his intercourse with the 
 Apostles and CJiurch of the Circumcision, as it is this feature in 
 the Epistle to the Galatians whicJi has given it an ovenvhelming 
 interest in recent theological controversy. The Spectator says 
 ''^ there is no commentator at once of sounder judgment and 7nore 
 liberal than Dr. Lighfoot. '' 
 
 ST.. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. A 
 
 Revised Text, vi'ith Introduction, Notes, and Dissertations, Second 
 Edition. 8vo. 1 2s. 
 
 The plan of this volume is the same as that of " The Epistle to the 
 Galatians. " The Introduction deals with the follo^cuing subjects : 
 — " 6y. Paul in Rome,^' " Order of the Epistles of the Captivity,''^ 
 '* The Chtirch of Philippi,'''' '■''Character and Contents of the Epistle,''^ 
 and its genuineness. The Dissei'tations are on " The Christian 
 Ministry,^'' "St. Paul and Seneca," and " The Letters of Pa? 1 1 
 and Seneca.''^ "N'o commentary in tlie English language ca)i be 
 compared with it in regard to fulness of information, exact 
 scholarship, and laboured attempts to settle everything about the 
 epistle on a solid foundation.'''' — Athenaeum. "Its author blends 
 large and varied learning with a style as bright and easy, as telling 
 and artistic, as that of our most accomplished essayists.'''' — Non- 
 conformist. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 27 
 
 Lightfoot (Dr. J. ^.)— continued. 
 
 ST. CLEMENT OF ROME, THE TWO EPISTLES TO 
 THE CORINTHIANS. A Revised Text, with Introduction 
 and Notes. 8vo. %s. 6d. 
 
 This rolione is the first part of a complete edition of the Apostolic 
 Fathers. The Introductions deal zuith the questions of the genuine- 
 ness and authenticity of the Epistles, discuss their date and character, 
 and analyse their contents. An account is also given of all the 
 diffej-ent epistles zvhich bear the name of Clement of Rome. "-^By 
 far the most copiously annotated edition of St. Clement which we 
 yet possess, and the most convenient in every zvay for the English 
 reader. " — Guardian. 
 
 ON A FRESH REVISION OF THE ENGLISH NEW 
 TESTAMENT. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 The Author begins zuith a fezv words on S. Jeroine's reznsion of the 
 Latin Bible, and then goes on to shew in detail the necessity for 
 afresh revision of the authoi'ized version o)i the follozving grounds : 
 — I. False Readings. 2. Artificial distinctions created. 3. Real 
 distinctions obliterated. 4. Faults of Grammar. 5. Faults of 
 Lexicography. 6. Treatinent of Proper Names, offcial titles, etc. 
 7. Archaisms, defects in the English, errors of the press, etc. 
 The volume is completed by ( i ) a)i elaborate appendix on the words 
 eTriovcrios and Trepioixrios, (2) a table of passages of Scripture 
 quoted, ajid (3) a general index. " The book is marked by careful 
 scholarship, familiarity zvith the subject, sobriety, and circumspec- 
 tion.'''' — Athenseum. ''^ It abounds zvith evidence of the most ex- 
 tensive learning, and of a masterly familiarity zvith the best results 
 of moder)i Greek scholarship.'''' — Standard. 
 
 Luckock.— THE TABLES OF STONE. A Course of 
 Sermons preached in All Saints' Church, Cambridge, by H. M. 
 Luckock, M.A., Vicar. Fcap. 8vo. 3^-. dd. 
 Sermons illustrative of the great pj'inciples of morality, mostly based 
 on texts from the N'ezo Testament Scriptures, 
 
28 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Maclaren — SERMONS PREACHED at MANCHESTER. 
 By Alexander Maclaren. Third Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 4^. 6^. 
 
 These Sermons, twenty-four in number, are well knozvn for the 
 freshness and vigour of their thought, and the wealth of imagination 
 they display. They represent no special school, but deal with the 
 broad principles of Christian truth, especially in their bearing on 
 practical, ez'ery day life. A fezv of the titles are: — *' The Stone of 
 Stumbling,'''' '^^ Love and Forgiveness,''^ ^' The Living Dead,^^ 
 ^^ Memory in Another World,'''' ^'- Faith in Christ,^'' ^^ Love and 
 Fear,^' " The Choice of Wisdofu," " The Food of the World.'' 
 
 A SECOND SERIES OF SERMONS. Second Edition. 
 Fcap. 8vo. 4^-. 6d. 
 
 This 2nd Series, consisting of nineteen Sermons, are marked by the 
 same characteristics as the 1st. The Spectator characterises them 
 as ^^ vigorous in style, full of thought, rich in illustration, and in 
 an tmusual degree interesting.''' 
 
 Maclear.— Works by G. F. Maclear, D.D., Head Master of 
 King's College School, and Preacher at the Temple Church : — 
 A CLASS-BOOK OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. 
 With Four Maps. Sixth Edition. i8mo. 4^. 6^. 
 
 *^ The present volume," says the Preface, '■^forjns a Class-Book of Old 
 Testament History from the Earliest Times to those of Ezra and 
 Nehemiah. In its preparatiofi the most recent authorities have 
 been constdted, aud tvherever it has appeared useful. Notes have 
 been subjoitted illustrative of the Text, and, for the sake of ?}iore 
 advanced students, references added to larger works. The Index 
 has been so ai'ranged as to form a concise Dictionary of the Persons 
 and Places mentioned in the coui'se of the Narrative.'"' The Maps, 
 prepared by Stanford, materially add to the value and usefulness 
 of the book: they are — i. A Map illustrating the Dispei'sion of 
 Noah's Descendants. 2. A Map of Canaan, Egypt, and Sinai, 
 to ilhcstrate the Patriarchal History and the Exodus; with Alt. 
 Sinai enlarged. 3. The Holy Land divided a??iong the Twelve 
 Tribes. 4. Solomon's Dominions, the Kingdoms of yudah and 
 Israel, and the Lands of the Captivities. In the Appendix are 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 29 
 
 Maclear (G. F.) — co7itinued. 
 
 given a variety of Tables of great interest and utility. The 
 British Quarterly Review calls it "A careful and elaborate, 
 thongh brief compendium of all that modern research has done for 
 the illiist7'ation of the Old Testament. We knoio of no work which 
 contains so much ijnportant inforination in so small a compass.''^ 
 
 A CLASS-BOOK OF NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY. 
 Including the Connexion of the Old and New Testament. Fourth 
 Edition. i8mo. ^s. bd. 
 
 The present vohwie forms a sequel to the Author'^ s Class- Book of 
 Old Testament History, and continues the narrative to the close of 
 St. Patd^s second imprisonment at Rome. It is 7?tarked by the 
 same characteristics as the former work, audit is hoped that it may 
 prove at once a usefid Class-Book and a convenient companion to 
 the study of the Greek Testament. TIu work is divided into three 
 Books — /. The Connection between the Old and N'ew Testaments. 
 
 II. The Gospel History. III. The Apostolic History. In the 
 Appendix are given Chronological Tables, I. Of the Jeivs under 
 the Empire. II. The Era of the Ptolemies and Seleucida. 
 
 III. Rise of the Herodian Family. IV. The Gospel History. 
 V. The Apostolic History. Appendix VI. is a Table of the 
 Herodian Fa?nily. There ai'e five Maps, viz. — i. A Map of the 
 Holy Land to illustrate the Asmonean Period. 2. A Map of 
 the Holy Land to illustrate the New Testatnent. 3. The Shores 
 of the Sea of Galilee. 4. Jerusalem in the time of our Lord. 
 5. A Map to illustrate the Apostolic History. The Clerical 
 Journal says, ^^ Lt is not often that such an amount of useful 
 and interesting matter on biblical subjects, is found in so convenient 
 and small a compass^ as in this well-an-anged volu?ue. " 
 
 A CLASS-BOOK OF THE CATECHISM OF THE 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Second Edition. iSmo. cloth. 
 2s. 6d. 
 
 The present work is intended as a sequel to the two preceding books. 
 ^^ Like them, it is furnished with notes and references to larger 
 works, and it is hoped that it ?nay be found, especially in the higher 
 
30 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Maclear (G. F.) — continued. 
 
 forms of our Public Schools, to supply a suitable manual of in- 
 struction in the chief doctrines of our Church, and a useful help 
 in the preparation of Candidates for Confirmation." TJie Author 
 goes over the Church Catechism clause by clause, and gives all 
 needful explanation and illustration, doctrinal, practical, and 
 historical ; the Notes make the work especially valuable to the student 
 and clergyman. After a brief Intj'oduction on the Derivation, 
 Division, and History of the Catechism, -the book is divided into 
 five Parts : — /. The Christian Covenajit. II. The Creed. 
 III. The Ten Coiiiinandrnents. IV. The Lord's Prayer. 
 V. The Sacraments. Appended are a General Index, an Index 
 of Greek and Latin Words, and an Index of the Words ex- 
 plained throughout the book. The Literary Churchman says, 
 '^^It is indeed the work of a scholar and divine, and as such, though 
 extremely simple, it is also extremely instructive. There are few 
 clergy who zoould not find it ttseful in preparing candidates for 
 Confir^nation ; and there are not a few who would find it useful to 
 themselves as well. " 
 
 A FIRST CLASS-BOOK OF THE CATECHISM OF 
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, with Scripture Proofs for 
 Junior Classes and Schools. Second Edition. i8mo. 6^/. 
 
 TJiis is an epitome of the larger Class-book, meant for junior students 
 and elementary classes. Tie book has been cai'cfully condensed, so 
 as to contain clearly and fully, the most important part of the 
 contents of the larger book. Like it the present Manual is sub- 
 divided into five parts, each part into a number of short chapters, 
 one or more of zvhich 7night form a suitable lesson, and each 
 cJiapter is subdivided in a number of sections, each zvith a pro- 
 minent title indicative of its contejits. It will be found a valuable 
 Mamial to all zvho are concerned zvith the religious training of 
 children. 
 
 A SHILLING-BOOK of OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. 
 i8mo. cloth limp. is. 
 This Manual bears the same relation to the lander Old Testament 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 31 
 
 Maclear (G. Y.)— continued. 
 
 History, that the book Just inoitioned does to the larger work on the 
 Catechism. As in it, the small-type notes have been omitted, and 
 a clear and fidl epitoine given of the larger -work. It consists of 
 Ten Books, divided into short chapter's, and subdivided into sections, 
 each section treating of a single episode in the history, the title of 
 which is given in bold type. The Map is clearly printed, and not 
 overcroxvded with names. 
 
 A SHILLING-BOOK of NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY. 
 i8mo. cloth limp, is. 
 
 This bears the same relation to the larger iVezv Testament Histoiy 
 that the work just mentiojied has to the large Old Testament 
 History, and is marked by similar characteristics. 
 
 THE ORDER OF CONFIRMATION. A Sequel to the 
 Class-Book of the Church Catechism, with Prayers and Collects. 
 i8mo. 3r/. 
 
 The Order of Confirmation is given in full, after which the Manual 
 is divided into seven brief chapters : — /, " The Meaning of Con- 
 firmatioh.''^ II. " The Origin of Confirmation.^'' III., IV., 
 V. '•''The Order of Confirmation,'" treating, (i) of " The In- 
 terrogation and Anszver,'^ (2) ^^ The laying on of Hands f 
 (3) ''The Prayers and Benediction,'' VI ''The Holy Com- 
 munion." Chapter VII. consists of a few suitable Prayers and 
 Collects intended to be used by the candidate during the days of 
 preparation for Confirmation. Valuable refej-ences and notes are 
 added. The Manual tvill be found valuable both by candidates 
 and by clergymen. The Literary Churchman calls it "An ad- 
 mirable Manual. Thoroughly sound, clear, and complete in its 
 teaching, with some good, clear, personal advice as to Holy Com- 
 munion, and a good selection of prayers and collects for those 
 preparing for Confirmation, " 
 
32 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Macmillan. — Works by the Rev. HuGH Macmillan. (For 
 other Works by the same Author, see Catalogue of Travels 
 and Scientific Catalogue). 
 
 THE TRUE VINE; or, the Analogies of our Lord's 
 Allegory. Second Edition. Globe 8vo. 6^. 
 
 This work is not merely an exposition of the fifteenth chapter of 
 St. John^s Gospel, but also a general parable of spiritual truth 
 from the world of plants. It describes a fezv of the points in 
 •which the varied realm of vegetable life comes into contact with the 
 higher spiritual realm, and shews how rich a field of promise lies 
 before the analogical mind in this direction. The majority of the 
 analogies are dei'ived from the grape-vine; but the whole range 
 of the vegetable kingdom is laid under contribution for appropj'iate 
 illustration. Indeed, Mr. Macmillan has brought into his service 
 many of the results of recent scientific and historic reseaixh and 
 biblical criticism ; as well as the discoveries of travellers ancient 
 and modern. The work will thus be found not only admirably 
 suited for devotional reading, but also full of valuable and varied 
 instruction. The Nonconformist ^ajj/.r, ^^ It abounds in exquisite 
 bits of description, and in striking facts clea^dy stated.''^ The 
 British Quarterly says, '^ Readers and preachers who are un- 
 scientific will find ?nany of his illustrations as valuable as they 
 are beautiful. " 
 
 BIBLE TEACHINGS IN NATURE. Sixth Edition. 
 
 Globe 8vo. ds. 
 
 In this volume the author has endeavoured to shnv that the teaching 
 of nature and the teaching of the Bible are directed to the same 
 great end; that the Bible contains the spiritual ti uths which are 
 necessary to make tis wise unto salvation, and the objects and scenes 
 of nature are the pictures by which these truths are illustrated. 
 The first eight chapters describe, as it were, the exterior appearance 
 of nature^ s temple — the gorgeous, many-coloured cu7-tain hanging 
 before the shrine. The last seven chapters bring us into the 
 interior — the holy place, where is seen the very core of symbolical 
 ordinances. ' ' He has made the world r7iore beautiful to us, and 
 unsealed our ears to voices of praise and messages ofloz'e that might 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 33 
 
 Macmillan (H.) — continued. 
 
 othei-^inse Juive been unheard.'''' — British Quarterly Revifew. "yl/r. 
 Macmillan has produced a book which may be fitly described as one 
 of the happiest efforts for enlisting physical science in the direct 
 sendee of religion. " — Guardian. 
 
 THE MINISTRY OF NATURE. Second Edition. Globe 
 8vo. ds. 
 
 Mr. Alacmillan believes that nature has a spiritual as well as a 
 material side, — that she exists not only for the natural uses of the 
 body, but also for the sustenajice of the life of the soul. This higher 
 ministry, the author believes, explains all the beauty and wonder of 
 the world, which would often be superfluous or extravagant. In 
 this volume of fourteen chapters the Author attempts to interpret 
 Nature on her religious side in accordance with the most recent 
 discoz'eries of physical science, and to shew how much greater 
 significance is imparted to many passages of Scripture a7td many 
 doctrines of Christianity when looked at in the light of these dis- 
 coveries. Instead of regarding Physical Science as antagonistic to 
 Christianity, the Author believes and seeks to shew that every new 
 discoveiy tends more strongly to prove that Nature and the Bible 
 have One Author. " Whether the reader agree or not with his 
 conclusions, he zvill acknowledge he is in the presence of an origijzal 
 and thoughtful zoriter." — Pall Mall Gazette. " There is no class 
 of educated men and wo??ien that will not profit by these essays.''^ — 
 Standard. 
 
 M'Cosh.— For Works by James McCosh, LL.D., President 
 of Princeton College, New Jersey, U.S., see Philosophical 
 Catalogue. 
 
 Maurice. — Works by the late Rev. F. Denison Maurice, 
 M.A., Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Cam- 
 bridge. 
 
 Professor Maurice'' s Works are recognized as having fuade a deep 
 impression on modern theology. With whatever subject he dealt 
 he tried to look at it in its bearing on living men and their every- 
 day surroundings, and faced unshrinkingly the difficulties which 
 
 3 
 
34 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Maurice (F. D.) — continued. 
 
 occifr to ordinary earnest thinkers in a manner that showed he had 
 intense sytnpathy with all that concei'ns humanity. By all who 
 wish to understand the various drifts of thought during the present 
 century, Mr. Alaurice's works must be studied. An intimate 
 friend of Mr. Maurice's, one who has carefully studied all his 
 works, and had besides many opportunities of knotving the Author' s 
 opinions, in speaking of his so-called ''^obscurity,'''' ascribes it to 
 ^^ the never-failing assumption that God is really moving, teaching 
 and acting ; and that the zvriter' s business is not so much to state 
 something for the reader's benefit, as to apprehend what God is 
 saying or doing. " The Spectator says—^^Feiv of those of our own 
 generation zvhose names will live in English histojy or literature 
 have exerted so profound and so permanent an influence as Mr. 
 Maurice." 
 
 THE PATRIARCHS AND LAWGIVERS OF THE 
 OLD TESTAMENT. Third and Cheaper Edition. Crown 
 8vo. 5^. 
 
 The Nineteen Discourses contained in this volume ivere preached in the 
 chapel of Lincoln's Inn during the year 1 85 1. The texts are 
 taken from the books of Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, 
 foshua, fudges, and Samuel, and involve some of the most in- 
 teresting biblical topics discussed in recent times. In his Preface 
 to the First Edition, Mr. Alaurice endeavours to explain the 
 mission and Just if y the position of the Church of England against 
 the attacks of Dissenters and others ; in his Preface to the Second 
 Edition he comments upon some remarks made by Mr. Mansel 
 on the meaning given by Mr. Maurice to the word ''Eternal.' In 
 the latter Preface the tvriter says, — ^'■My chief object in preaching 
 and writing upon the Old Testament has been to sheia that God 
 has created man in His image ; that being so created he is capable 
 of receiving a revelation from God, — of knowing what God is ; that 
 without such a revelation he cannot be truly a man ; that icithout 
 such knoTvledge he cannot become what he is ahvays feeling that he 
 ought to become." 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 35 
 
 Maurice (F. D.) — contimicd. 
 
 THE PROPHETS AND KINGS OF THE OLD TES- 
 TAMENT. Third Edition, with new Preface. Crown 8vo. 
 IOJ-. (id. 
 
 The prez'iojis tvork brings down Old Testament history to the time of 
 Samuel. The Sermons contained in the present volutne — twenty- 
 seven in number^ coming down to the time of Ezekiel — though they 
 comtnence at that point are distinct in their subject and treatment. 
 Mr. Maurice, in the spirit which animated the compilers of the 
 Church Lessons, has in these Sermons regarded the Prophets more 
 as preachers of righteousness than as mere predictors — an aspect 
 of their lives which, he thinks, has been greatly overlooked in our 
 day, and than which, there is none we have more need to con- 
 template. He has found that the Old Testament Prophets, taken 
 in their simple natural sense, clear up many of the difficulties 
 which beset us in the daily work of life ; make the past intelligible, 
 the present endurable, and the future real and hopeful. In the 
 Preface to this Third Edition, Mr. Maurice propounds his views 
 with regard to the connection of Church and State, with special 
 reference to the recent disestablishment of the Irish Church, and 
 the wish in certain quarters to treat the Church of England in the 
 same way. 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
 A Series of Lectures on the Gospel of St. Luke. Crown 8vo. 9^-. 
 
 Mr. Maurice, in his Preface to these Tzventy-eight Lecttires, says, 
 — ^^ In these Lectures I have endeavoured to ascertain what is told 
 us respecting the life of Jesus by one of those Evangelists who pro- 
 claitji Him to be the Christ, who says that He did come front a 
 Father, that He did baptize with the Holy Spirit, that He did rise 
 from the dead. I have chosen the one who is most directly con- 
 nected with the later history of the Church, who was not an Apostle, 
 who professedly wrote for the use of a man already instructed in 
 the faith of the Apostles. I have follozved the course of the writer's 
 narrative, not changing it under any pretext. I have adhered to 
 his phraseology, striving to avoid the substitution of any other for 
 his.'''' This is necessary on account of the conventional notions 
 
36 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Maurice (F. D.) — contimied. 
 
 which most people are apt to attach to the words of the Gospels ; 
 and hi the remainder of his Preface, Mr. Maurice points out some 
 of these conventional notions, I. In relation to Miracles. 2. On 
 the question. Are the Gospels the announcement of a religion ? 
 3. Concei-ning Eternal Punishment. 4. The Authenticity and 
 Inspiration of the Gospels. 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. A Series of Discourses. 
 
 Third and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6j, 
 
 These Discourses, tzaenty- eight in number, are of a nature similar 
 to those on the Gospel of St. Luke, and will be foimd to render 
 valuable assistance to any one anxious to understand the Gospel of 
 the beloved disciple, so different in maiiy respects from those of the 
 other three Evangelists. Appended are eleven notes illustrating 
 various points ivhich occur throughout the discourses, such as, 
 '■'' Baur''s Theory of the Gospels f^ ^^On the objections to a Revision 
 of the Scriptures f^ ^'On the Resurrection of the Body and the 
 yudgment-day ;'''' ^^On the doctrine of the Atonement — Scotch and 
 English Divinity f '■'■On Corporate Holiness,'''' etc. 77/i? Literary 
 Churchman //«^j- speaks of this volume: — ^''Thorough honesty, 
 reve7'ence, and deep thought pervade the work, zvhich is every way 
 solid and philosophical, as well as theological, and abounding with 
 suggestions which the patient student may draw out more at length 
 for himself'' 
 
 THE EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. A Series of Lectures 
 on Christian Ethics. Second and Cheaper Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6j. 
 77/1?^^ Lectures on Christian Ethics were delivered to the students of 
 the Working Men''s College, Great Ormond Street, London, on 
 a series of Sunday mornings. There are twenty Lectures in all, 
 founded on various texts taken froi7i the Epistles of St. John, which 
 abound in passages bearing directly on the conduct of life, the duty 
 of men to God and to each other. It will be found that a very 
 complete system of practical morality is developed in this volume, 
 in which the most important points in Ethics are set forth in an 
 unconventional and interesting manner. Mr.- Maurice believes 
 that the question in zvhich we are most 'interested, the question which 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 37 
 
 Maurice (F. D.) — co7itiniied. 
 
 most affects our studies and our daily lives, is the question, ivhether 
 there is a foundation for human morality, or whethei- it is de- 
 pendent upon the opinions and fashions of different ages and 
 countries. This important question will be found amply andfaii'ly 
 discussed in this volume, which the National Review calls ^^ Mr. 
 Maurice's most effective and instructive work. He is peculiarly 
 fitted by the constitution of his mind, to throzv light on St. Joh?i^s 
 writings.^' Appended is a note on ^^ Positivisjji and its Teacher.'' 
 
 EXPOSITORY SERMONS ON THE PRAYER-BOOK. 
 
 The Prayer-book considered especially in reference to the Romish 
 
 System. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 5j-. 6d. 
 
 '^ There are certain popular notions zi'hich,'' says the Preface, ^' as- 
 S2ime that the Church of England is the result of a compromise ; 
 that the Articles embody the opinions of one party to the bargain, 
 the Liturgy those of the other; that every time I put my hand to 
 the forjner document I proclaim myself in the strictest sense a 
 Protestant, that eveiy time I use the latter I act as a Papist ; 
 that in fact, I aju neither . ... In delivo-ing these Sermons [in 
 Lincoln's Inn Chapel in 1848-9], / endeavoured to tell laymen 
 why I could zvith a clear heart and conscience ask them to take part 
 with me in this Common Prayer. In publishing them I would 
 address myself zvith equal earnestness and affection to another class, 
 to the younger part of the clergy, and to those who are preparing 
 for Orders. " After an Introductory Sermon, Mr. Maurice goes 
 aver the various parts of the Church Service, expounds in eighteen 
 Sermo7ts, their intention and significance, and shews hozv ap- 
 propriate they are as expressions of the deepest longings and wants 
 of all classes of men. 
 
 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE, or Book of the 
 Revelation of St. John the Divine. Crovv^n 8vo. 10^. 6d. 
 These Tzventy-three lectures on what is generally regarded as the i7iost 
 ??iysterious Book in the Bible, do tiot demand that extensive know- 
 ledge of ancient or modern history zvhich it is necessary to possess 
 to be able to Judge of most modern co7nmentaries on Prophecy. 
 Mr. Maurice, instead of trying to find far-fetched allusions to great 
 historical events in the distant future, endeavours to discover the 
 
38 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Maurice (F. D.) — continued. 
 
 plain, literal, obvious meaning of the luords of the writer, and 
 sheivs that as a rule these refer to e^'ents contemporaneous with or 
 immediately succeeding the time when the book was written. At 
 the same time he shezvs the applicability of the contents of the 
 book to the circumstances of the present day and of all times. 
 Hei-e, as in his other expositions of Scripture, Mr. Maurice at- 
 tempts to shew that the Bible authorises us to believe that the 
 Kingdom of Heaven, instead of being some dull Utopia in the 
 far-distantjuture, is not ''far off from any one ofzis,'' is indeed 
 in our very midst. '■'■Never,'''' says the Nonconformist, "has 
 Mr. Maurice been more reverent, more careful for the letter of the 
 Scripture, more discerning of the purpose of the Spirit, or ?nore 
 sober and practical in his teaching, than in this vohune on the 
 Apocalypse.''^ 
 
 WHAT IS REVELATION? A Series of Sermons on the 
 Epiphany; to which are added, Letters to a Theological Student 
 on the Bampton Lectures of Mr. Mansel. Crown 8vo. los. 6d. 
 Both Sermons and Letters zvere called forth by the doctrine main- 
 tained by Mr. Mansel in his Bamptoft Lectures, that Revelation 
 ■ cannot be a direct Manifestation of the Lifinite Nature of God. 
 Mr. Maurice maintains the opposite doctrine, and in his Sermons 
 explains why, in spite of the high authorities on the other side, 
 he must still assert the principle which he discovers in the Services 
 of the Church and throughout the Bible. In the Lettej-s to a 
 Student of Theology, he has folio-wed out all Mr. ManseVs 
 Statements and Arguments step by step. The sid^jects of the Ser- 
 mons are:— I. The Magians. II. Christ among the Doctors. 
 III. St. Taul at Athens. IV. The Miracles. V. Castifig out 
 the Evil Spirit. VI. Christ's Parables. VII. Practice and 
 Speculation. Among the matters discussed in the letters are: — 
 Sir William Hamilton; Butler ; the Atonement and Incarttation ; 
 the Criterion of Truth ; Philosophy of Consciousness ; the Scotch; 
 Prayer; Knoiving and Being; the Trinity ; Miracles; Kant; 
 Contents and Evidences of the Bible. The Nonconformist says, 
 *' There will be found ample 7naterials to stimulate Christian faith 
 and earnestness, to quicken and give tenderness to charity, and to 
 vivify conceptions of the 'things not seen which are eternal.'"'' 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 39 
 
 Maurice (F. D.) — conti7iued. 
 
 SEQUEL TO THE INQUIRY, "WHAT IS REVELA- 
 TION ?" Letters in Reply to Mr. Hansel's Examination of 
 *' Strictures on the Bampton Lectures." Crown 8vo. ds. 
 
 This, as the title indicates, was called forth by Mr. ManseVs Ex- 
 amination of Mr. Maurice's Strictures on his doctrine of the 
 Jfifnite. 
 
 THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 
 
 10s. 6d. 
 
 *'■ The book,'''' says Mr. Maurice, ^'■expresses thoughts which have 
 been working in viy mind for years ; the method of it has not been 
 adopted carelessly; even the composition has undergofte frequent 
 revision. " There are sevejtteen Essays in all, and although meant 
 primarily for Unitarians, to quote the words of the Clerical 
 Journal, '* // leaves untouched scarcely any topic which is in agita- 
 tion in the religious world ; scaixely a moot point between our 
 ^ various sects ; scarcely a plot of debateable ground between Christ- 
 ians and Infidels, betzveen Romanists and Protestants, between 
 Socinians and other Chi'istians, between English Churchmen and 
 Dissenters on both sides. Scarce is there a misgiving, a dif- 
 ficulty, an aspiration stirring amongst us now, — tiow, when men 
 seem in earnest as hardly ever befoi'e about religion, and ask and 
 de?nand satisfaction with a fearlessness which seems almost awful 
 when one thinks what is at stake — which is not recognised and 
 grappled zvith by Mr. Alaurice.''^ 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF SACRIFICE DEDUCED FROM 
 
 THE SCRIPTURES. Crown 8vo. ^s. 6d. 
 
 Throitghout the Nineteen Sermons contained in this volume, Air. 
 
 Maurice expounds the ideas which he has foi'med of the Doctrine 
 
 of Sacrifice, as it is set forth in va)'ious parts of the Bible. The 
 
 first five Sernions consider various sacrifices refej'red to in the Old 
 
 Testament, while in the remainder the death and resurrection of 
 
 Christ are looked at from different points of view. He has '■'■tried 
 
 to speak of Sacrifice under every aspect in tvhich the Bible pj-esents 
 
 it." In the Dedicatory letter (occupying fifty pages) to the 
 
40 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Maurice (F. D.) — co7itiiiued. 
 
 Members of the Yoimg MetCs Ch^'istian Associaiion, Air. Maurice 
 animadverts on an attack made on his opinions and character, by 
 the Rev. Dr. Candlish of Edinburgh, in an address to that Society 
 in Exeter Hall. " The habitual tone,''"' says the Christian Spec- 
 tator, "/j tJiat of great seriousness and calm, — a seriousness which 
 makes an impression of its own, and a serenity which is only brokeji 
 by some overpozvering feeling forcing itself into expression, and 
 making itself heard in most meaning and stirring words.'''' 
 
 THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD, AND THEIR 
 RELATIONS TO CHRISTIANITY. Fourth Edition. Fcap. 
 8vo. 5j. 
 
 These Eight Boyle Lectures are divided into two parts, of four 
 Lectures each. In the first paj't Mr. Maurice examines the great 
 Religious systems which present themselves in the history of the 
 world, with the purpose of inquiring what is their main cha- 
 racteristic principle. The second four Lectures are occupied with 
 a discussion of the questions, '"'' In tahat relation does Christianity 
 stand to these different faiths ? If there be a faith which is 
 meant for mankind, is this the one, or must we look for another V^ 
 In the Preface, the most important authoi'ities on the various 
 subjects discussed in the Lectui'es are referred to, so that the 7'eader 
 may pursue the subject further. 
 
 ON THE LORD'S PRAYER. Fourth Edition. Fcap. 
 8vo. 2.S. 6d. 
 
 In these Nine Sermons the successive petitions of the Lord''s Prayer 
 are taken up by Air. Maurice, their significance expounded, and, 
 as was usual with him, connected with the every -day lives, feelings, 
 and aspirations of the 7nen of the present time. They were de- 
 livered in the momentous year 1848, and frequent allusions are 
 made and lessons drawn front the events of that year. 
 
 ON THE SABBATH DAY; the Character of the Warrior, 
 
 and on the Interpretation of History. Fcap. 8vo. 7.s. 6d. 
 
 This volume contains Three Sermons on the Sabbath-day, one of 
 
 them being in reference to the proposed opening of the Crystal 
 
 Palace on Sunday — one on the ^''Character of the Warrior,^* 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 41 
 
 Maurice (F. D.) — contimted. 
 
 suggested by the Death of the Duke of Wellington ; the fifth being 
 on ' ' The Divine Interpretation of History, " delivered during the 
 Great Exhibition <?/" 1 85 1 . In this last Mr. Maurice points out 
 a few difiiculties which, judging frojji his own experience, he thinks 
 likely to perplex students of history, explaiiting how the Bible has 
 anticipated and resolved thou. 
 
 THE GROUND AND OBJECT OF HOPE FOR 
 MANKIND. Four Sermons preached befoi-e the University of 
 Cambridge. Crown 8vo. 3J. (id. 
 
 In these Four Sermons Mr. Alaurice vietvs the subject in four 
 aspects : — /. The Hope of the Missionary. II. The Hope of the 
 Fat riot. III. The Hope of the Churchman. IV. The Hope of 
 Man. The Spectator says, '''■It is impossible to find anyivhere 
 deeper teaching than this f^ and the Nonconformist, ^^ We thank 
 him for the manly, noble, stirring words in these Sej'tnons — words 
 fitted to quicken thoughts, to awaken high aspiration, to stimulate 
 to lives of goodness.'^'' 
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER, THE CREED, AND THE 
 
 COMMANDMENTS. A Manual for Parents and Schoolmasters. 
 
 To which is added the Order of the Scriptures. iSmo. cloth 
 
 limp. \s. 
 
 This book is not written for clergymen, as such, but for parents and 
 teachers, who are often either prejudiced against the contents of the 
 Catechism, or regard it peculiarly as the clergyman^ s book, but, 
 at the same time, have a general notion that a habit of prayer 
 ought to be cultivated, that there are some things which ought to 
 be believed, and some things which ought to be dojie. It will be 
 fo7ind to be peculiarly valuable at the present time, when the 
 question of religious education is occupying so much attention. The 
 book consists of four parts: — /. The Lord^s Frayer. II. The 
 Belief (Creed). III. The Commandments. IV. The Scriptures. 
 Eacli part is divided into days, for each day a petition of the 
 Frayer, a clause of the Creed, a Commandment, or a book or con- 
 nected group of books of the Bible is taken, and a fezu words of 
 exhortation, explanation, or refection given on the sentiment sug- 
 gested. 
 
42 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Maurice (F. D.) — continued. 
 
 THE CLAIMS OF THE BIBLE AND OF SCIENCE. 
 
 A Con-espondence on some Questions respecting the Pentateuch. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 4^-. ()d. 
 
 This volume consists of a series of Fifteen Letters, the first and last 
 addressed by a ' Layman ' to Mr. Maui-ice, the intervening thirteen 
 written by Mr. Alaurice himself In the Layman^ s first letter to 
 Mr. Maurice, immediately called forth by the appearance of Bishop 
 Colenso's work on the Pentateuch, the xvriter sets forth so7ne of the 
 difficulties likely to be suggested to an ordinary thinker and believer 
 in Christianity, by recerit criticisms on the Bible of the class to 
 which the works of Colenso belong. Three questions especially he 
 propounds, to which, he thinks, a layman may nattirally at the 
 present time ask for an answer : — i. Do not our faith in Christ, 
 and our belief in the four Gospels as a real history, rest on grounds 
 independent of the results of any ci'itical inquiry into the authorship 
 of the Pentateuch ? 2, May we not continue to read the Pentateuch 
 as the Word of God, speaking of man and to man, without putting 
 a foj'ced construction on the plain meaning of the words, and zvith- 
 out imposing fetters on the freedom of scientific or ci'itical investiga- 
 tion in any matters which God has given us the power to inquire 
 into? 3. Is faith in Christ contingent on the proof or disproof of 
 the existence of certain natural phenomena, whicft seem not to accord 
 with tJu language of the Bible ? Mr. Maurice, in his Thirteen 
 Letters, takes up tfiese and the other points suggested by the Lay- 
 man, and endeavours to clear them icp and to throzv ligJit on tfie 
 all-important Biblical controversy generally. 
 
 DIALOGUES ON FAMILY WORSHIP. Crown 8vo. 6j. 
 
 " The parties in these Dialogues" says the Preface, ^^ are a Clergy- 
 man who accepts the doctrines of the Church, and a Layman 
 whose faith in them is nearly gone. The object of the Dialogues 
 is not confutation, but the discovery of a ground on which ttao 
 Englishmen and two fathers may stand, and on which their 
 country and their children may stand when their places kno7u 
 them no more. " Some of the most important doctrines of the 
 Church are discussed, the whole series of dialogues tending to shrcu 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 43 
 
 Maurice (F. J:i.)—contimied. 
 
 that men of all shades of belief may look up to and worship God 
 as their common and loving Fathei-. The key-words of the Dia- 
 logties are as follow:—!. A Layman's Perplexities. II. A 
 Mother's Faith. III. Male Calvinism. IV. The Regenerate 
 and the Unregenerate. V. The Natural and the Supernatjiral. 
 VL The Revelation atid the Family of Abraham. VII. The 
 Father and the Son. VIII Repentance and Conversion. IX. 
 Fathers in God. X. Heathen and Christian Devotion. XI The 
 Method of Prayer. XII. The Soul and the Spirit. 
 
 THE COMMANDMENTS CONSIDERED AS IN- 
 STRUMENTS OF NATIONAL REFORMATION. Crown 
 8vo. 4i-. 6</. 
 
 This is a book of practical morality and divinity. It was to some 
 extent occasioned by Dr. Norman Macleod's Speech on the Sabbath, 
 and his vieivs of the Commandments. The author endeavours to 
 shew that the Commandments are now, and ever have been, the 
 great protesters against Presbyteral and Prelatical assumptions, 
 and that if we do not receive them as Commandments of the Lord 
 God spoken to Israel, and spoken to every people under heaven 
 now, we lose the greatest witnesses we possess for national morality 
 and civil f redo m. 
 
 MORAL AND METAPHYSICAL PHILOSOPHY. Vol. 
 I. Ancient Philosophy from the First to the Thirteenth Centuries. 
 Vol. II. Fourteenth Century and the French Revolution, with a 
 Glimpse into the Nineteenth Century. Two Vols. 8vo. 25J. 
 
 . This is an edition in two volumes of Professor Maurice's History of 
 Philosophy from the earliest period to the present time. It was 
 formerly issued in a number of separate volumes, and it is believed 
 that all admirers of the author and all students of philosophy -will 
 welcome this compact edition. In a lojtg inti-oduction to this edition, 
 in the forjn of a dialogue. Professor Maurice justifies his own 
 views, and touches upon some of the iiiost importatit topics of the 
 time. 
 
44 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Maurice (F. D.) — contimced. 
 
 SOCIAL MORALITY. Twenty-one Lectures delivered in 
 the University of Cambridge. Cheaper Edition. [/« the Press. 
 
 In this series of Lectiwes, Professor MaiiHce considers, historically and 
 critically, Social Morality in its three main aspects: — /. ^'' The 
 Relations which spring from the Family — Domestic Morality.'''' 
 II. ^^ Relations which subsist a7nong the various constituents of a 
 Nation — National Morality.''^ III. '"''As it concerns Universal 
 Humanity — Universal Morality.'' Appended to each series is a 
 chapter' on ^''Worship:" first, '■'■ Family Worship;" second, 
 '■'■National Worship;" third, '■'■Universal Worship." '■'■Whilst 
 reading it zve are charmed by the freedom from exchisiveness and 
 prejudice, the large chaHty, the loftiness of thought, the eagerness 
 to recognise and appreciate whatever there is of real worth extant 
 in the world, which animates it from one end to the other. We 
 gain new thoughts and new ways of viezving things, even more., 
 perhaps, from being brought for a time under the influence of so 
 noble and spiritual a mind." — Athenaeum, 
 
 THE CONSCIENCE: Lectures on Casuistry, delivered in 
 the University of Cambridge. Second and Cheaper Edition. 
 Crown 8vo. 5^. 
 
 In this series of nine lectures, Professor Maurice, endeavours to 
 settle what is meant by the tvord '■'■Conscience," and discusses the 
 most important questions immediately connected with the subject. 
 Taking ^'■Casuistry'''' in its old sense as being the ^'' study of cases 
 of Conscience," he endeavours to show in what way it may be 
 brought to bear at the present day upon the acts and thoughts of 
 our ordinary existence. He shows that Conscience asks for lajvs, 
 not rules ; for freedom, not chains ; for education, not suppres- 
 sion. He has abstained from the use of philosophical terms, and 
 has touched on philosophical systems only when he fancied ^^ they 
 were interfering with the rights and duties of wayfarers. " The 
 Saturday Review says: '■'■We risefi'onr the perusal of these lectures 
 with a detestation of all that is selfish and mean, andzvith a living 
 impression that there is such a thing as goodness after all." 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 45 
 
 Maurice (F. D.) — continued. 
 LECTURES ON THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 
 OF THE FIRST AND SECOND CENTURIES. 8vo. loj. 6^. 
 
 The -work contains a series of graphic sketches and vivid portraits, 
 bringing forcibly before the reader the life of the early Church in all 
 its main aspects. In the first chapter on ' ' The Jewish Calling,'" besides 
 expounding his idea of the true nature of a " Church,'' the author 
 gives a brief sketch of the position and economy of the Jews ; while 
 in the second he points out their relation to 'f the other Nations.'" 
 Chapter Third contains a succint account of the various Jewish 
 Sects, while in Chapter Fourth are briefly set forth Mr. Maurice's 
 ideas of the character of Christ and the nature of His mission, and 
 a sketch of events is given up to the Day of Pentecost. The re- 
 enabling Chapters, extending from the Apostles' personal Ministry 
 to the end of the Second Century, contain sketches of the character 
 and work of all the prominent ??ien in any way connected with the 
 Early Church, accotmts of the origin and nature of the various 
 doctrines orthordox and heretical which had their birth during the 
 pei'iod, as well as of the planting and early history of the Chief 
 Churches in Asia, Africa and Europe. Besides the Apostles, the 
 work contains characteristic sketches of the lives, position, and 
 influence of Justin Martyr, St. Ignatius, Melito, Polycarp, Mar- 
 cion, Dionysius of Corinth, Clement of Alexandria, Clement of 
 Rome, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and many other's. The three con- 
 duding chapters treat of the relations of the Church to the Emperors, 
 the Philosophers, and the Sects. 
 
 LEARNING AND WORKING. Six Lectures delivered 
 in Willis's Rooms, London, in June and July, 1854.— THE 
 RELIGION OF ROME, and its Influence on Modern Civilisa- 
 tion. Four Lectures delivered in the Philosophical Institution of 
 Edinburgh, in December, 1854. Crown 8vo. 5^. 
 
 In the Dedication and Preface to this volume. Professor Maurice 
 shozvs that these two sets of Lectures have many points of connec- 
 tion. In the flrst series of Lectures the author endeavours to ex- 
 plain to such an audience as was likely to fueet in Willis'' s Booms, 
 
46 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Maurice (F. D.) — continued. 
 
 the scope and aims of the course of education established at the 
 then recently fottnded Working Men\ College, and at the same 
 time expounds his notions of education in general, the pivot of his 
 system being the truth that Learning and Working are not incom- 
 patible. The title to the second series is a sufficient index to their 
 nature. 
 
 Moorhouse.— Works by James Moorhouse, M.A., Vicar 
 
 of Paddington : — 
 
 SOME MODERN DIFFICULTIES RESPECTING the 
 FACTS OF NATURE AND REVELATION. Fcap. 8vo. 
 2s. 6d. 
 
 The first of these Four Discourses is a syste?natic reply to the Essay 
 of the Rev. Baden Powell on Christian Evidences in ''^Essays and 
 Reviews. ^^ The fourth Sermon, on '"'The Resurrection,^'' is in 
 some 7?ieasure complementary to this, and the two together are 
 intended to furnish a tolerably complete view of modern objections 
 to Revelation. In the second and third Sermons, on the " Tempta- 
 tion^'' and '■'■ Passion,'''' the author has endeavoured ^^ to exhibit the 
 pozver and tvonder of those great facts within the spiritual sphere, 
 which modern theorists have especially sought to discredit.'" The 
 British Quarterly says of them, — ''^ The tone of the discussion is 
 able, and throughout conservative of Scriptural truth.'''' 
 
 JACOB. Three Sermons preached before the University of 
 Cambridge in Lent 1870. Extra fcap. Svo. 3^-, 6c/. 
 
 In these TJn-ee Set'mons the author endeavours to indicate the course 
 of that Divine training by which the patriarch Jacob %vas converted 
 from a deceitful and icnscrupulous into a pious and self denying 
 man. In the first Serjnon is considered " The Human Subject,^^ 
 or the nature to be trained ; in the second " The Divine Pouer,''^ 
 the power by which that training was effected ; and in the third 
 " The Great Cha7tge,'" or the course and form of the training. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 47 
 
 Moorhouse (J.) — contimicd. 
 THE HULSEAN LECTURES FOR 1865. Cr. 8vo. 5J-. 
 The following are the subjects of the Four Hulsean Lectwes in this 
 volume: — /. ^'■Bearing of Present Controversies on the Doctrine of 
 the Incarnation^ II. ''How far the Hypothesis of a real Limit- 
 ation in our Saviour'' s Iliwian Knowledge is consistent with the 
 Doctrine of His Divinity. " ///. ' ' The Scriptural Evidence of 
 our Saviour's Sinlessness.''^ IV. ''What Kind and Degree of 
 Human Ignorance were left possible to our Lord Jesus Christ by 
 the fact of His Human Sinlessness. " The three Sermo?is which 
 follow elucidate many difficulties zahich in the lectures could not be 
 investigated with that degree of care and fulness which was desirable. 
 "Few 7nore valuable works have co??ie into our hands for many 
 years . . . a most fruitful and %velco me volufne.^'' — Church Review. 
 
 O'Brien.— AN ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN and ESTAB- 
 LISH THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION by FAITH 
 ONLY. By James Thomas O'Brien, D.D., Bishop of Ossory. 
 Third Edition. Svo. \2s. 
 
 This work consists of Ten Sei-mons. The first four treat of the nature 
 and mutual relations of Faith and Justification ; the fifth and 
 sixth exajjiine the corruptions of the doctrine of Justification by Faith 
 only, and the objections which have been urged against it. The four 
 concluding sermons deal with the moral effects of Faith. Various 
 N'otes are added explanatory of the Author's reasoning. 
 
 Palgrave.— HYxMNS., By Francis Turner Palgrave. 
 
 Third Edition, enlarged. iSmo. \s. 6d. 
 
 This is a collection of tiuenty original Hymns, which the Literaiy 
 Churchman speaks of as "so choice, so peifect, and so refined, — 
 • so tender in feeling, and so scholarly in expression." 
 
 Palmer.— THE BOOK OF PRAISE : From the Best 
 
 Enghsh Hymn Writers. Selected and arranged by Sir Roundell 
 
 Palmer. With Vignette by Woolner. iSmo. ^s. 6d. 
 
 The present is an attempt to present, under a convenioit arrangement, 
 
 a collectioti of such examples of a copious and interesting branch of 
 
48 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 popular literature, as, after several years' study of the subject, have 
 seemed to the Editor most worthy of being separated from the mass 
 to tvhich they belong. It has been the Editor's desire and aim to 
 adhere strictly, in all cases in which it could be ascertaiiied, to the 
 genuine uncorrupted text of the authors themselves. The names of 
 the authors and date of composition of the hymns, when kncnvn, 
 are affixed, while notes are added to the volume, giving further 
 details. The Hymns are arranged according to subjects. *' There 
 is not room for two opinions as to the value of the ''Book of Praise. ' " 
 — Guardian. '■''Approaches as nearly as one can conceive to per- 
 fection.'" — Nonconformist. 
 
 BOOK OF PRAISE HYMNAL. See end of this Catalogue. 
 
 Paul of Tarsus. An Inquiry into the Times and the 
 Gospel of the Apostles of the Gentiles. By a Graduate. 8vo. 
 loi-. 6^. 
 
 The Author of this work has attempted, out of the materials which 
 were at his disposal, to construct for himself a sketch of the time in 
 tvhich St. Paul lived, of the religious systems with which he was 
 broiight in contact, of the doctrine which he taught, and of the 
 work which he ultimately achieved. The Author'' s researches have 
 been pursued with independence, candour, and ability, and it is 
 confidently expected that the work will afford considerable assistance 
 towards the solution of the important question, — By what means, 
 and under what pressure, have the dogmas of later Christianity 
 been developed from the Pauline original ? ' ' Ttirn tvhere zue will 
 throughout the volujne, 7ve find the best fruit of patient inquiry, 
 sound scholarship, logical argicjnent, and fairness of conclusion. 
 No thoughtful reader will rise from its perusal zvithout a real and 
 lasting pj'ofit to himself, and a sense ojfiermanent addition to the 
 cause of truth. " — Standard. 
 
 Prescott — THE THREEFOLD CORD. Sermons preached 
 before the University of Cambridge. By J. E. Prescott, B.D. 
 Fcap. 8vo. y. 6d. 
 
 The title of this volume is derived from the subjects of the first three 
 of these Sermons — Loz'C, Hope, Eaith. Iheir full titles are : — 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 49 
 
 /. '■' Christ the Bringer of Peace — Love.''' II. ''Christ tfie Reno- 
 vator— Hope.'' Ill ''Christ the Light— Faith.'' The fourth, 
 an Assize Sermon., is on ' ' TJie Divinity of Justice. ' ' The Sermons 
 a7-e an attempt to shew that Chi'istian theology is sufficient for the 
 wants of the present day. The Notes throughout the volume direct 
 the reader to valuable sources of infor?nation. The Churchman 
 says the volume ' ' is evidently tlu production of a scholar. Eloquent 
 and striking passages abound throtighout. " 
 
 Procter.— A HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF COMMON 
 PRAYER: With a Rationale of its Offices. By Francis 
 Procter, M.A. Tenth Edition, revised and enlarged. Crown 
 8vo. 10J-. 6i/. 
 
 The fact that in fifteen years nine editions of this volujne have been 
 called for, sheius that such a work was wanted, and that to a large 
 extent Air. Procter's book has supplied the want. ' 'In the course 
 of the last thirty years," the author says, "the whole subject has 
 been investigated by divines of great learning, and it was mainly tuiih 
 a view of epitomizing tJieir extensive publications, and correcting 
 by their help sundry traditional errors or misconceptions, that the 
 present volume was put togetJur. " TJie Second Part is occupied 
 with an account of "The Sources and Rationale of the Offices." 
 The Athenaeum says: — "TJie origin of every part of the Prayer- 
 book has been diligently investigated, — and tliere are few questio?is 
 or facts connected with it which are not either sufficiently explained, 
 or so referred to, that persons interested may work out the truth for 
 themselves." 
 
 Procter and Maclear. — AN ELEMENTARY INTRO- 
 DUCTION TO THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 
 Fourth Edition, Re-arranged and Supplemented by an Explanation 
 of the Morning and Evening Prayer and the Litany. By F. 
 Procter, M.A. and G. F. Maclear, D.D. i8mo. 2s. ()d. 
 
 This book has the same object and follo7vs the same plan as the 
 Manuals already noticed under Mr. Maclear' s name. Each hook 
 is subdivided into chapters and sections. It Book I. is given a 
 detailed History of the Book of Common Prayer down to the 
 
 4 
 
50 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Attempted Revision in the Reign of William III. Book 11, con- 
 sisting of four Farts, treats in order the various parts of the 
 Prayer Book. Valuable Notes, etymological, historical, and critical, 
 are given throughout the book, while the Appendix contains several 
 articles of much interest and importance. Appended is a Gejieral 
 Index and an Index of Words explained in the Notes. The 
 Literary Churchman characterizes it as '^ by far the completest 
 and most satisfactory book of its kind we know. We wish it 
 were in the hands of every schoolboy and eveiy schoolmaster in the 
 kingdom.'*'' 
 
 Psalms of David CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED. 
 An Amended Version, with Historical Introductions and Ex- 
 planatory Notes. By Four Friends. Second and Cheaper 
 Edition, much enlarged. Crown 8vo. %s. 6d. 
 
 One of the chief designs of the Editors, in preparing this volume, 
 was to restore the Psalter as far as possible to the order in which 
 the Psalms were written. They give the division of each Psalm 
 into strophes, and of each strophe into the lines which cotnposed it, 
 and amend the errors of translation. In accomplishing this work 
 they have mainly folloxved the guidance of Professor Henry Ew aid. 
 A Supplement contaijts the chief specimens of Hebrezv lyric poetry 
 not included in the Book of Psalms. The Spectator calls it ^^One 
 of the most instj'uctive and valuable books that have been published 
 for many years. " 
 
 Golden Treasury Psalter. — The Student's Edition. 
 
 Being an Edition with briefer Notes of the above. l8mo. 3J-. M. 
 
 This volume %oill be found to meet the requirements of those who tmsh 
 for a smaller edition of the larger work, at a lower price for family 
 use, and for the use of younger pupils in Public Schools. The 
 short notes which are appended to the vohmte will, it is hoped, 
 suffice to make the meaning intelligible throughout. The aiin of 
 this edition is si?nply to put the reader as far as possible in pos- 
 session of the plain meaning of the writer. ''It is a gem,'''' the 
 Nonconformist says. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Ramsay.— THE CATECHISER'S MANUAL; or, the 
 Church Catechism lUustrated and Explained, for the Use of 
 Clergymen, Schoolmasters, and Teachers. By Arthur Ramsay, 
 M.A. Second Edition. i8mo. is. 6d. 
 
 This Manual, which is in the form of question and ajisiuer, is in- 
 tended to afford full assistance both to learners and teachers, to 
 candidates for Confirmation as well as to clergy7nen, in the 
 tmderstanditig of the Church Catechisjfi, and of all the matters 
 referred to therein. It is divided into seven chapters: — /. '■^ The 
 Church Catechism," in which the meaning and object of the 
 Catechism is explained, as well as the significance and object of 
 Confirmation. II. The various parts of the Catechism are 
 analysed and explained. III. The Creeds — the Apostles\ the 
 AHcene, and the Athanasian. IV. The Apostles' Creed. V. The 
 Commandments. VI. The Lord's Prayer. VII. The Sacra- 
 ments. The English Journal of Education says, — *' This is by 
 far the best Manual on the Catechism we have met with, adapted 
 not only for the use of the national schoolmaster, bitt also for the 
 clergyman and the tutor. 
 
 Rays of Sunlight for Dark Days. A Book of Selec- 
 tions for the Suffering. With a Preface by C. J. Vaughan, D.D. 
 i8mo. Fifth Edition, y. 6d. Also in morocco, old style. 
 Dr. Vaughan says in the Preface, after speaking of the genej-al run 
 of Books of Comfort for Mourners, ''''It is because I think that 
 the little volume now offered to the Christian sufferer is one of 
 greater wisdom and of deeper experience, that I have readily con- 
 sented to the request that I would intj'oduce it by a few words of 
 Preface.'' The book consists of a series of very brief extracts from 
 a great variety of authors, in prose and poetry, suited to the many 
 moods of a mourning or suffering mind. '■'■Mostly gems of the first 
 water. " — Clerical Journal. 
 
 Reynolds.— NOTES OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. A 
 Selection of Sermons by Henry Robert Reynolds, B.A., 
 President of Cheshunt College, and Fellow of University College, 
 London. Crown 8vo. "^s. 6d. 
 This work may be taken as representative of the mode of thought and 
 
52 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 feeling zvhich is most popular amongst the freer and more cultivated 
 Nonconformists. " The reader throughout,'''' says the Patriot, 
 '■^ feels hifnself in the grasp of an earnest and careful thinker.'''' 
 '■^It is long," says the Nonconformist, '■^ since we have met with 
 any piddished sermons bettei' calctdated than these to stijuidate 
 devout thought, and to bring home to the sold the reality of a 
 spiritual life." 
 
 Roberts.— DISCUSSIONS ON THE GOSPELS. By the 
 Rev. Alexander Roberts, D.D. Second Edition, revised and 
 enlarged. 8vo. i6j-. 
 
 This volume is divided into two parts. Pa7-t I. '■'•On the Language 
 employed by our Lord and His Disciples" in zvhich the author 
 endeavours to prove that Greek tvas the language usually employed 
 by Christ Himself in opposition to the common belie/ that Our 
 Lord spoke Aranicean. Part II. is occupied zuith a discussion 
 ^^ On the Oi'iginal Language of St. Mattheid's Gospel" and on 
 " The Origin and Authenticity of the Gospels." The author pro- 
 pounds some novel vinvs on the points discussed, the result of 
 long and deep study and research. The volume abounds in valu- 
 able Notes, and in the Second Part is a chapter bearing chiefly 
 on the proper authenticity of the Gospels as recently challenged 
 by M. Penan. " The author brings the valuable qualifications of 
 learning, temper, and an independent judgment. . . . It is but bare 
 justice to affirm that his arguments render it \Jiis proposition\ 
 extremely probable." — Daily News. "This volume is of intense 
 interest to every Biblical student. It enters a field of inquiry 
 hitherto untrodden." — British Standard. 
 
 Robertson.— PASTORAL COUNSELS. Being Chapters 
 on Practical and Devotional Subjects. By the late John Robert- 
 son, D.D. Third Edition, with a Preface by the Author of 
 " The Recreations of a Country Parson." Extra fcap. 8vo. 6j. 
 These Sermons are the free utterances of a strong and independent 
 thinker. He does not depart from the essential doctrines of his 
 Church, but he expounds them in a spirit of the widest charity, and 
 always having most prominently in vieiv the requirements of prac- 
 tical life. " The sermons are admirable specimens of a practical, 
 earnest, and instructive style of pulpit teaching. " — Nonconformist. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 53 
 
 Rowsell.— MAN'S LABOUR AND GOD'S HARVEST. 
 
 Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge in Lent, 
 
 1 86 1. Fcap. 8vo. y. 
 
 This volume contains Five Sermons, the generar drift of zvhich is 
 indicated by the title. ^^We strongly recommend this little volume 
 to yonng men, and especially to those who are contemplating work- 
 ing for Christ iji Holy Orders.'" — Literary Churchman, "il/r. 
 KowselVs Sermons mnst, we feel sure, have totiched the heart of 
 many a Cambridge Undergraduate, and are deserving of a wide 
 general circulation.'''' — The Ecclesiastic. 
 
 Sanday.— THE AUTHORSHIP AND HISTORICAL 
 CHARACTER OF THE FOURTH GOSPEL, considered in 
 reference to the Contents of the Gospel itself. A Critical Essay. 
 By William Sanday, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. 
 Crown 8vo. 8^. 6c/. 
 
 The object of this Essay is critical and nothing more. The Author 
 attempts to apply faithfully and persistently to the contents of the 
 much disputed fotirth Gospel that scientific method which has been 
 so successful in other directions. ^^ The facts of religion," the 
 Author believes, "(i, e, the documents, the history of religions 
 bodies, &=c. ) are as much facts as the lie of a coal-bed or theforma- 
 tiojz of a coral-reef'' It is believed that the tvork will prove of 
 value to theologians, as well as to all who take an interest in the 
 subject of which it treats. 
 
 Sergeant.— SERMONS. By the Rev. E. W. Sergeant, 
 M.A., BaUiol College, Oxford; Assistant Master at Westminster 
 College. Fcap. 8vo. 2.s. 6d. 
 
 This volume contains Nine Sermons on a variety of topics, preached 
 by the author at various times and to various classes of hearers. 
 The First Sermon is on Free Inquiry. 
 
 Smith.— PROPHECY A PREPARATION FOR CHRIST. 
 Eight Lectures preached before the University of Oxford, being the 
 Bampton Lectures for 1869. By R. Payne Smith, D.D., Dean 
 of Canterbury. Second and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6j. 
 
 The author'' s object in these Lectures is to sheza that there exists in the 
 
54 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Old Testament an element, 7vhich no criticisin on naturalistic 
 principles can either account for or explain azvay: that element is 
 Prophecy. The author endeavours to prove that its force does not 
 consist merely in its predictions. The Bible describes man'' s first 
 estate of innocency, his fall ^ and the promise given by God of his 
 restoration. Virtually the promise meajtt that God would give 
 man a true religion; and the author asserts that Christianity is 
 the sole religion on earth that fulfils the conditions necessary to 
 constitute a true religion. God has pledged His own attributes 
 in its behalf; this pledge He has given in miracle and prophecy. 
 The author endeavours to shew the reality of that portion of the 
 proof founded on prophecy . ''''These Lectures overfioza luith solid 
 learning. " — Record. 
 
 Smith.— CHRISTIAN FAITH. Sermons preached before 
 
 the University of Cambridge. By W. Saumarez Smith, M.A., 
 
 Principal of St. Aidan's College, Birkenhead. Fcap. 8vo. 3J-. 6^. 
 
 The first tivo sermons in this volu^ne have special reference to the 
 
 Person of Christ ; the next two are concerned with the inner life 
 
 of Christians ; and the last speaks of the out%vard development of 
 
 Christian faith. '''Appi'op^'iate and earnest sej'??ions, suited to the 
 
 practical exhortation of an educated congregation."— Guzi'di3.n. 
 
 Stanley. — Works by the Very Rev. A. P. Stanley, D.D., 
 Dean of Westminster. 
 THE ATHANASIAN CREED, with a Preface on the 
 General Recommendations of the Ritual Commission. Cr. 
 8vo. 2S. 
 
 The object of the 7uork is not so much to urge the omission or change 
 of the Athanasian Creed, as to shew that such a 7'elaxation ought 
 to give offence to no reasonable or religious mind. With this 
 view, the Dean of Westminster discusses in succession — (i) t/ie 
 Authorship of the Creed, (2) its Internal Characteristics, (3) the 
 Peculiaj'ities of its Use in the Church of England, (4) its Ad- 
 vantages and Disadvantages, (5) its various Interpretations, and 
 (6) the yudgment passed upon it by the Ritual Commission. In 
 conclusion. Dr. Stanley maintains that the ttse of the Athanasian 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 55 
 
 Stanley ijy^QiVL)— continued. 
 
 Creed should no longer be made compidsory. ' ''Dr. Stanley ptds 
 with ad77iirable force the objections which may be made to the Creed ; 
 eqttally ad}nirable, tve think, in his statement of its advantages.'''' — 
 Spectator, 
 
 THE NATIONAL THANKSGIVING. Sermons preached 
 in Westminster Abbey. Second Edition. CroM^n 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 These Ser7nons are (i) *^ Death and Life,''"' preached Decei?iber 10, 
 1871 ; (2) ''The Trunipet of Patmos,'" Dece7nber 17, 1 871; 
 (3) " The Day of Thanksgim7ig,'" Ma7-ch 3, 1872. It is hoped 
 that these Ser77ions 77iay 7-ecall, in so77ie degree, the se7-iotis ref.ectio7ts 
 co7t7tected with the Pri7ice of Wales'' s illness, which, if the nation is 
 t7-ue to itself, ought not to pC7'ish zvith the 77io77ie7it. The p7'oceeds of 
 the piiblicatio7i ivill be devoted to the Fund for the Restoration of 
 St. Paid''s Cathedral. '' In point offe7'vour and polish by far the 
 best speci77iens inpri7it of Dean Stanle/s eloque7it style. " — Standard, 
 
 Sunday Library. See end of this Catalogue. 
 
 Swainson. — Works by C, A, SWAINSON, D.D,, Canon of 
 Chichester : — 
 
 THE CREEDS OF THE CHURCH IN THEIR RE- 
 LATIONS TO HOLY SCRIPTURE and the CONSCIENCE 
 OF THE CHRISTIAN. 8vo. cloth, 9^, 
 
 The Lectures which co77ipose this volume disciiss, a77iongst others, the 
 following subjects : ''■Faith in God,''' ^ Exercise of our Reason,'''' 
 "Origin and Authority of Creeds,'''' and "Private yudg77ient, its 
 use and exercise.^' " Treating of abstruse poi7its of Sc7-ipture, he 
 applies thetn so forcibly to Ch7'istian duty and p7'actice as to prove 
 e77ii7ie7itly se7'viceable to the Chu7'ch." — ^John Bull. 
 
 THE AUTHORITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, 
 and other LECTURES, delivered before the University of Cam- 
 bridge. 8vo. cloth, \2s. 
 
 The first se7'ies of lectures in this work is on " The Words spoken by 
 the Apostles of Jesus" " The Inspi7'ation of God's Servants,'''' 
 
56 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS, 
 
 *' The Human Character of the Inspired Writers^'''' and " The 
 Divine Character of the Word written.'''' The second embi'aces 
 Lectures on '-'■ Sin as Imperfection " ^"^ Sin as Selfiuill" ^^What- 
 soever is not of Faith is Sin,^^ " Christ the Saviour,^'' and " The 
 Blood of the New Covenant.'''' The third is on '■^Christians One 
 Body in Christ," " The One Body the Spouse of Christ," " Christ's 
 ' Prayer for Unity" " Our Reconciliation shoidd be manifested in 
 common Worship" and '''' Ambassadors for Christ.'' '"'^ All the 
 grave and azuful questions associated ivith hu7na7i sinftdness and 
 the Divine plan of redemption are discussed %mth -minute and 
 painstaking, cai'e, and in the Appendix all the passages of Scripture 
 referring to them are marshalled and critically revieived." — 
 Wesley ail Times. 
 
 Taylor.— THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. New and 
 Revised Edition. By Isaac Taylor, Esq. Crown 8vo. ^s. bd. 
 
 The earlier chapters are occupied with an examination of the primitive 
 history of the Christian Religion, and its relation to the Roman 
 government ; and here, as- well as in the remainder of the %vork, the 
 authm- shetvs the bearing of that history on some of the difficult and 
 interesting questions which have recently been claiming the attention 
 of all earnest men. The book %mll be found to contain a clear and 
 full statement of the case as it at present stands in behalf of Christ- 
 ianity. The last chapter of this Nezu Edition treats of ' ' The 
 Present Position of the Argument concerning Christianity," with 
 special reference to M. Renan's Vie de Jesus. The Journal of 
 Sacred Literature says, — ^''The current of thought zvhich ricns 
 through this book is calm and clear, its tone is earnest, its manner 
 courteous. The author has carefully studied the sticcessive problejns 
 which he so ably handles." 
 
 Temple.— SERMONS PREACHED IN THE CHAPEL 
 of RUGBY SCHOOL. ByF. Temple, D.D., Bishop of Exeter. 
 New and Cheaper Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. /\s. 6d. 
 
 This volume contains Thirty-five Sermons on topics more or less inti- 
 mately connected with every -day life. The folhnving are a feiv of 
 the subjects discoursed upon: — '''' Love and Duty;" '"'' Coming to 
 Christ;" ''Great Men;" ''Faith;" "Doubts;" "Scruples;'-' 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 57 
 
 Temple (F., D.D.) — contumcd. 
 
 ''Original Sin f' ''Friendship;'" '' Helping Others ;" '' The Dis- 
 cipline of Temptation;'''' '■'■Strength a Duty;" '' Worldliness ;" 
 ''III Temper;" " The Burial of the Fast." The Critic speaks of 
 them thus : — ' * We trust that the tender affectionate spirit of practical 
 Christianity which runs through every page of the volume ivill have 
 its due effect. . . . desiring to rouse the youthful hearas to a sense of 
 duty, and to artn them agaittst the perils and dangers of the world 
 against which they are so soon to battle. " 
 
 A SECOND SERIES OF SERMONS PREACHED IN 
 THE CHAPEL OF RUGBY SCHOOL. Extra fcap. 8vo. 
 
 This Second Sej'ies of Forty-two brief pointed, practical Se}'Tnons, on 
 topics intimately comiected with the rueiy-day life of young and old, 
 will be acceptable to all who are acquainted ivith the First Series. 
 The follffiuing are afeiv of the sitbjects treated of : — "Disobedience" 
 "Almsgiving," " The Unknoavn Guidance of God," "Apathy one 
 of our Trials," "High Aims in Leaders," "Doing our Best," 
 * ' The Use of Knowledge, " ' ' Use of Observances, " ' 'Martha atid 
 Mary," "John the Baptist," "Severity before Mercy," "Even 
 Mistakes Punished," "Morality and Religiofi," "Children," 
 "Action the Test of Spititual Life," "Self Respect," "Too Late," 
 "The Terceiite nary." 
 
 A THIRD SERIES OF SERMONS PREACHED IN 
 RUGBY SCHOOL CHAPEL IN 1867— 1869. Extra fcap. 
 8vo. 6s. 
 
 This third series of Bishop Temple's Rugby Sermons, contai?is thirty- 
 six brief discourses, characterized by "a penetrati7ig and direct 
 practicalness, informed by a rare intuitive sympathy with boy- 
 nature ; its keen p>erceptio^n of reality and earnestness, its equally 
 keen sy77tpathy ivith what is noblest in sentiment and feelings." 
 The volume includes the "Good-bye" sei'mon preached on his 
 leaving Rugby to enter on the office he now holds. 
 
5S THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Thring. — Works by Rev. Edward Thring, M.A. 
 
 SERMONS DELIVERED AT UPPINGHAM SCHOOL. 
 Crown 8vo. ^s. 
 
 In this vobime are contained Forty-seven brief Sermons^ all on 
 subjects more or less ijitimately comiected with Public-school life. 
 '"^ These Sermons,'''' the author says, ^'' are sent into the world as 
 farts of a system, and as exponents, in some degree, of tJie ex- 
 perience of working men, that it is possible to have a free and 
 manly school-life, complete in all its parts, neither lost in a crowd, 
 nor shut up in a prison, nor reai-ed in a hot-bedT — '■^We desire 
 very highly to co?nmend these capital Sermons which treat of a bo^s 
 life and tj'ials in a thoroughly practical way and with great 
 simplicity and impressiveiiess. They deserve to be classed with the 
 best of their kind." — Literary Churchman. 
 
 THOUGHTS ON LIFE-SCIENCE. New Edition, en- 
 larged and revised. Crown 8vo. "js. 6d. 
 
 In this volume are discussed in a familiar vianner some of the most 
 interesting problems between Science and Religion, Reason and 
 Feeling. ' Learning and Science," says the Author, ' ^are claiming 
 the right of building up and pulling dozvn everything, especially 
 the latter. It has seemed to me no useless task to look steadily at 
 'what has happened, to take stock as it wej-e of man^s gains, and to 
 endeavour amidst ne^u circtmistafices to arrive at some rational 
 estimate of the bea7'ings of things, so that the limits ofivhat is pos- 
 sible at all events may be clearly marked out for ordinary readers. 
 .... This book is an e?ideavour to bnng out some of the main 
 facts of the world." 
 
 Tracts for Priests and People. By Various 
 Writers. 
 
 The First Series. Crown 8vo. 8j. 
 The Second Series. Crown 8vo. %s. 
 The whole Series of Fifteen Tracts may be had separately, price 
 One Shilling each. 
 
 A series of papers written after the excitement aroused by the publica- 
 tion of ^^ Essays and Reviews" had sojurivhat abcUed, and designed. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 59 
 
 by the exposition of positive truth, to meet the religious difficulties of 
 honest inquirers. Amongst the writers are Mr. Thomas Hughes^ 
 Professor Maurice, the Rev. J. Llewellyn Davies, and Mr. y. M. 
 Ludlow. 
 
 Trench. — Works by R. Chenevix Trench, D.D., Arch- 
 bishop of Dubhn. (For other Works by the same author, see 
 Biographical, Belles Lettres, and Linguistic Cata- 
 logues). 
 
 Archbishop Trench is zuell known as a writer who has the happy 
 faculty of being able to take zuith discrimination the results of the 
 highest criticism and scholarship, and present them in such a shape 
 as will be not only valuable to scholars, but interesting, intelligible, 
 and of the greatest use even to the ordinajy reader. It is generally 
 acknowledged that fezv men have beeti more successful in bringing 
 out the less obvious meanings of the Nezv Testament, or done more 
 for the popular yet scholarly exposition of the Bible generally. 
 
 NOTES ON THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD. 
 Eleventh Edition. 8vo, \2s. 
 
 This zuork has taken its place as a standard exposition and interpret- 
 ation of Chrisfs Parables. The book is prefaced by a7i Intro- 
 ductory Essay in four chapters: — /. On the definition of the 
 Parable. 11 On Teaching by Parables. III. On the Interpret- 
 ation of the Parables. IV. On other Parables besides those in the 
 Scriptures. The author then proceeds to take tip the Parables one 
 by one, and by the aid of philology, history, antiqtiitia, and the 
 researches of travellers, shezv forth the significance, beauty, and 
 applicability of each, concluding zvith zvhat he deems its true moral 
 interpretation. In the numerous Notes are many valuable references, 
 illustrative quotations, critical a7td philological annotations, etc., 
 and appended to the vohwie is a classified list of fifty-six zvorks on 
 the Parables. 
 
 NOTES ON THE MIRACLES OF OUR LORD. 
 Ninth Edition. 8vo. \2s. 
 
 In the ^ Preli7ninary Essay ^ to this zuork, all the ffiofnentous and 
 interesting questions that have been raised in connection zuith 
 
6o THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Trench — continued. 
 
 Miracles, are discussed with considei-able fulness, and the azithor's 
 usual candour and learning. The Essay consists of six chapters : 
 — /. On the Names of Miracles, i. e. the Greek xvords by which 
 they are designated in the Ne%v Testament. II. The Miracles 
 and Nature — What is the difference between a Miracle and 
 any event in the 07'dinary course of Nature? Ill The 
 Authority of Miracles — Is the Miracle to command absolute obe- 
 dience? IV. The Evangelical, compared with the other cycles of 
 Miracles. V. The Assaults on the Miracles — I. The Jezuish. 
 2. The Heathen ( Celsus etc.). 3. The Pantheistic (Spinosa etc.). 
 4. The Sceptical ( Hume). 5. The Miracles only relatively mi- 
 raculous ( Schleiei-macher)'. 6. The Rationalistic (Paulus). 7. 
 The Historico- Critical ( Woolston, Strauss). VI. The Apologetic 
 Worth of the Miracles. The author thett treats the separate 
 Miracles as he does the Parables. 
 
 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. New 
 Edition, enlarged. 8vo. cloth. 12s. 
 
 The study of synonyms in any language is valuable as a discipline 
 for training the ?mnd to close and accurate habits of thought ; 
 m^ore especially is this the case in Greek — " <3; language spoken by 
 a people of the finest ami subtlest intellect ; %vho saw distinctions 
 where others saw notte ; who divided out to different words what 
 others often were content to huddle confusedly tinder a co?n?non 
 term. . . . Who-e is it so desirable that we should miss nothing, 
 that 7ue should lose no finer intention of the zvriter, as in those 
 tvords zvhich are the vehicles of the voy mind of God Himself?'''' 
 This work is recognised as a valuable companion to evejy student 
 of the New Testament in the original. This, the Seventh Edition, 
 has been carefully revised, and a considerable number of new 
 synonyms added. Appended is an Index to the Synonyms, and 
 an Index to many other words alluded to or explained throughout 
 the %vork. '■^Heis,^^ the Athenaeum says, '■'■a guide in this depa7-t- 
 ment of knowledge to whom his readers may intrust themselves with 
 confidence. His sober judgment and sound sense are barriers against 
 the misleading influence of arbitrary hypotheses.^' 
 
THEOLOGICAL BO^OKS. 6r 
 
 T re n c h — contin tied. 
 
 ON THE AUTHORIZED VERSION OF THE NEW 
 TESTAMENT. Second Edition. 8vo. ^s. 
 Archbishop Trench's familiarity with the New Testament makes 
 him peculiarly Jitted to estii}iate the value oj the present translation, 
 and to give directions as to how a new one should be proceeded 
 with. After some Introductory Remarks, in which the p7'opriety 
 of a revision is briefly discussed, the whole question of the merits 
 of the present version is gone into in detail, in eleven chapters. 
 Appended is a chi'onological list of works bearing on the subject, 
 an Index of the principal Texts considered, an Index of Greek 
 Words, and an Index of other IVoi'ds referred to throughout the 
 book. 
 
 STUDIES IN THE GOSPELS. Second Edition. 8vo. 
 IOJ-. dd. 
 
 This book is published under the conviction that the assertion often 
 made is untrtie, — viz. that the Gospels are in the main plain and 
 easy, and that all the chief difficulties of the New Testament are 
 to be found in the Epistles. These ''Studies,'''' sixteen in number, 
 are the fruit of a much larger scheme, and each Study deals 
 with some important episode mentioned in the Gospels, in a critical 
 philosophical, and pi'actical manner. Many learned references 
 and quotations are added to the Notes. Among the subjects treated 
 are: — The Tetnptation ; Christ and the Samaritan Woman; The 
 Three Aspirants; The Transfiguration; ZacchcBus ; The True 
 Vine; The Penitent Malefactor; Christ and the Two Disciples on 
 the way to Emmaus. 
 
 COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLES to the SEVEN 
 CHURCHES IN ASIA. Third Edidon, revised. 8vo. 8^. 6^. 
 Bengel was wont above all things to recommend the study of these 
 Epistles to youthful ministers of Christ's Word and Sacraments; 
 and, as the author says in his Preface, the number of aspects 
 in which they present themselves to us as full of interest, is extra- 
 ordinary. They are full of interest to the student of ecclesiastical 
 history; possess a strong attraction for those who occupy them- 
 
62 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Trench — continued . 
 
 selves with qiustions of pure exegesis, from the fact of their con- 
 taining so many unsolved problems of interpretation ; their purely 
 theological interest is p^eat; their practical interest in their 
 bearing on the whole pastoral and ministerial %i)ork is extreme; 
 and finally, there is about these Epistles a striking originality, 
 an entire unlikeness, in some points at least, to aitything else in 
 Scripture. The present zvork consists of an Introduction, being 
 a commentary on Rev. i. 4 — 20, a detailed examination of each of 
 the Seven Epistles, in all its bearings, and an Excursus on the 
 Historico- Prophetical Inteipretation of the Epistles. 
 
 THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. An Exposition 
 drawn from the writings of St. Augustine, with an Essay on his 
 merits as an Interpreter of Holy Scripture. Third Edition, en- 
 larged. 8vo. \os. ()d. 
 
 The first half of the present work consists of a dissertation hi eight 
 chapters on '■^Augustine as an Interpreter of Scripture,''^ the titles 
 of the seve)'al chapters being as follow : — /. Augustine's Genei-al 
 Views of Scripture and its Interpretation. II. The External 
 Helps for the Interpretation of Scripture possessed by Avigustine. 
 HI AugtiStine's Principles and Canons of Interpretation. IV. 
 Augustinis Allegorical Interpretation of Scripture. V. Illustra- 
 tions of Augustine's Skill as an Interpreter of Scripture. VI. 
 Augustine on John the Baptist and on St. Stephen. VII. Aii- 
 gustine on the Epistle to the Romans. VIII. Miscellaneojis Ex- 
 amples of Augustine' s Interpretation of Scripture. The latter half 
 of the zuork consists of Augustine's Exposition of the Sermon on 
 the Mount, not howevei' a mere series of quotations fi'oin Augustine, 
 but a connected account of his sentiments on the various passages of 
 that Sermon, interspersed with criticisms by Archbishop Trench. 
 
 SERMONS PREACHED in WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 
 Second Edition. 8vo. ioj-. (>d. 
 
 These Sermons embrace a wide variety of topics, and are thoroughly 
 practical, earnest, and evangelical, and simple in style. The 
 following are a few of the subjects: — '■^ Teixentenary Celebration 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Trench — conthmed. 
 
 of Queen ElizabetJi's Accession;''^ '''■Conviction and Convej'sion f 
 '''' The Inerediility of Thomas f " The Angels' Hymn;'''' "Count- 
 ing the Cost;''' " The Holy Trinity in Relation to our Prayers ;''' 
 ''On the Death of General Havelock ;" "Christ Weeping oz>er 
 Jerusalem;'^ " Walking xvith Christ in White,^' 
 
 SHIPWRECKS OF FAITH. Three Sermons preached 
 before the University of Cambridge in May, 1S67. Fcap. 8vo. 
 2s. 6d. 
 
 These Serjnons are especially addressed to young men. The subjects 
 are "Balaam," "Saul," and "Judas Iscariot," three of the 
 mournfoillest lives recorded in Scripture, "for the greatness of 
 their vocation, and their disastj'ous falling short of the sa?)ie, 
 for the uttei' defeat of their lives, for the shipwreck of ez'aything 
 which they made. " These lives are set forth as beacon-lights, 
 "to warn us offf-om perilous reefs and quicksands, which have 
 been the destruction of many, and which might only too easily be 
 ours." 77/^ John Bull says, " they are, like all he writes, affectionate 
 and earnest discourses." 
 
 Tudor.— The DECALOGUE VIEWED as the CHRIST- 
 IAN'S LAW. With Special Reference to the Questions and 
 Wants of the Times. By the Rev. Rich. Tudor, B. A. Crown 
 8vo. los. dd. 
 
 The author's aim is to bring out the Christian sense of the Decalogue 
 in its application to existing needs and questions. The work will 
 be found to occupy ground which no other single work has hitherto 
 filled. It is divided into Two Parts, the First Part consisting of 
 three lectures on "Duty," and the Second Part of twelve lectures 
 on the Ten Commandments. The Guardian says of it, ' 'His voluine 
 throughout is an outspoken and sound exposition of Christian 
 morality, based deeply upon true foundations, set forth system- 
 atically, and forcibly and plainly expressed — as good a specimen of 
 zvhat pulpit lectures ought to be as is often to be found. " The 
 Westminster Review^ says, " There is an earnesttzess in his 
 purpose and evidently a sincere endeavour to apply the words of 
 Scripture to present needs." 
 
64 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Tulloch.— THE CHRIST OF THE GOSPELS AND 
 
 THE CHRIST OF MODERN CRITICISM. Lectures on 
 M. Renan's "Vie de Jesus." By John Tulloch, D.D., 
 Principal of the College of St. Mary, in the University of St. 
 Andrew's. Extra fcap. 8vo. a^s. 6d. 
 
 While Dr. Tulloch does not hesitate to grapple boldly -with the 
 statements and theories of Renan, he does so in a spirit of perfect 
 fairness and courtesy, eschewing all personalities and sinister in- 
 sinuations as to motives and sincerity. The work will be found 
 to be a fair and full statement, in Dr. Tulloch'' s eloquent style, 
 of the case as it stands against Renan'' s theory. ^^ Amongst direct 
 answers, ^^ says the Reader, '■'■ to M. Renan, this volwne zvill not 
 be easily surpassed. . . The style is animated, pointed, and scholaj'ly; 
 the tone fair and appreciative ; the philosophy intelligent and 
 cautious; the Christianity liberal, reverent, a^id hearty." 
 
 Vaughan. — Works by Charles J. Vaughan, D.D., Master 
 
 of the Temple : — 
 
 Dr. Vaughan'' s genuine sympathy with the difficulties, sorrows and 
 struggles of all classes of his fellow- men, his thorough disinterested- 
 ness, and his high views of life have been acknowledged by critics of 
 all creeds. No sermons can be more applicable to the ever- 
 recurring ills, bodily, mental, and spiritual, that flesh is heir to. 
 His commentaries and expositoiy lectures are those of a faithful 
 evangelical, but at the saine t'une liberal-minded interpreter of 
 what he believes to be the Word of God. 
 
 CHRIST SATISFYING THE INSTINCTS OF HU- 
 MANITY. Eight Lectures delivered in the Temple Church. 
 Extra fcp. 8vo. 3J-. (id. 
 
 The object of these Sermons is to exhibit the spiritual wants of human 
 nature, and to prove that all of them receive full satisfaction in 
 Christ. The various instincts which He is shewn to nwet are those 
 of Truth, Reverence, Perfection, Liberty, Courage, Syjupathy, 
 Sacrifice, and Unity. ' ' We are convinced that thei'e are congrega- 
 tions, in number unmistakeably increasing, to whotn such Essays 
 as these, fill of thought and learning, are infinitely more beneficial, 
 for they are more acceptable, than the recognised type of sermons." 
 —John Bull, 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 65 
 
 Vaughan (Dr. C. J.) — continued. 
 
 MEMORIALS OF HARROW SUNDAYS. A Selection 
 of Sermons preached in Harrow School Chapel. With a View 
 of the Chapel. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. lo^'. dd. 
 While these Sermons deal with subjects that in a peculiar way concern 
 the youngs and in a manner that cannot fail to attract their atten- 
 tion and influence their conduct^ they are in every respect applicable 
 to people of all ages. ^ ^ Discussing,'^ says the ]oh.n Bull, ^^ those 
 forms of evil and impediments to duty which pecidiaj'ly beset the 
 young. Dr. Vaughan has, with singular tact, blended deep thought 
 and analytical investigation of principles with interesting earnest- 
 ness and eloquent simplicity.'''' The Nonconformist says '■''the 
 volume is a precious one for family reading, and for the hand 
 of the thoughtful boy or young man entering life.'" 
 
 THE BOOK AND THE LIFE, and other Sermons, 
 preached before the University of Cambridge. New Edition. 
 Fcap. 8vo. \s. 6d. 
 
 These Sermons are all of a thoroiighly practical 7iature, and some of 
 them are especially adapted to those zvho are in a state of anxious 
 doubt. " They meet,''' the Freeman says, ^^ in what appears to us 
 to be the one true method, the scepticisfu and indifference to religious 
 truth which are almost sure to trouble young men who read and 
 thijik. In short, we know no book more likely to do the young and 
 inquiring good, or to help them to gain that tone of mind wanting 
 which they may doubt and ask for ever, because ahvays dotibting 
 and asking in vain. " 
 
 TWELVE DISCOURSES on SUBJECTS CONNECTED 
 WITH THE LITURGY and WORSHIP of the CHURCH" 
 OF ENGLAND. Fcap. 8vo. 6^. 
 
 Four of tJiese discourses tvere published in i860, in a work entitled 
 Revision of the Liturgy; four others have appeared in the form 
 of separate sermons, delivered on various occasions, and pncblished 
 at the time by request ; and four are new. All will be found to 
 
 5 
 
66 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Vaughan (Dr. C. J.) — continued. 
 
 fall strictly under the present title, reviewing the chief matters 
 suggested by the Church Liturgy. The Appendix contains two 
 articles, — one on ^^Subscription and Scruples,'''' the other on the 
 '"'' Rubric and the Burial Service.'''' The Press characterises the 
 volume as '■'■eminently wise and temperate. " 
 
 LESSONS OF LIFE AND GODLINESS. A Selection 
 of Sermons preached in the Parish Church of Doncaster. Fourth 
 and Cheaper Edition. Fcap. 8vo, 3^. 6d. 
 
 This volume consists of Nineteeii Sermons, viostly on subjects con- 
 nected ivith the every-day walk ajtd conversation of Christians. 
 They bear such titles as " The Talebearer,'''' '■'■Features of Charity,''"' 
 *' The Danger of Relapse,'^ " The Secret Life and the Outzuaj'd," 
 ^^ Family Prayer,''^ *^ Zeal without Consistency,^^ '■'■The Gospel an 
 Incentive to Industjy in Business,'" ^^ Use and Abuse of the 
 World. " The Spectator styles them ^^ earnest and human. They 
 are adapted to every class and order in the social system, and zvill 
 be read with wakeful interest by all 7uho seek to amend whatever 
 may be amiss in their natural disposition or in their acqtdred 
 habits.'^ 
 
 WORDS FROM THE GOSPELS. A Second Selection 
 of Sermons preached in the Parish Church of Doncaster. Second 
 Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 4^-. ^d. 
 
 In this vohune are Tcventy-tico Sermons on subjects taken fvm one 
 or other of the four Gospels. The Nonconformist characterises 
 these Sermons as '■^ of practical earnestness, of a thoughtfulness that 
 penetrates the common conditions and experiences of life, and brings 
 the truths and exa?nples of Scnpture to bear on them with singular 
 force, and of a style that otves its real elegance to the simplicity and 
 directness which have fine culture for their roots. ... A hook than 
 which few could give more holy pleasantness and solemn purpose to 
 their Sabbath evenings at home.'''' 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 67 
 
 Vaughan (Dr. C. J.) — continued. 
 
 LESSONS OF THE CROSS AND PASSION. Six 
 Lectures delivered in Hereford Cathedral during the Week before 
 Easter, 1869, Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 This volume contains Six Sermons on sjibjects mainly connected zcith 
 the death and passion of Christ. The titles of the Soyjions are : — 
 /. ^^Too Late" (Matt. xxvi. 45^. //. '"''The Divine Sacrifice and 
 the Human Priesthood.'" III. 'Love not the World." IV. 
 * ' The Moral Glory of Christ. " V. '' Chi ist made perfect through 
 Suffering.'''' VI. '■'■Death the Remedy of Chrisfs loneliness." 
 ''^This little volume" the Nonconformist says, '*■ exhibits all his 
 best characteristics. Elevated, calm, and clear, the Sernions oi.ue 
 much to their force, and yet they seetn literally to owe nothing to it. 
 They are studied, but their grace is the grace of perfect simplicity." 
 
 LIFE'S WORK AND GOD'S DISCIPLINE. Three 
 Sermons. Fcap. 8vo. cloth, is. 6d. 
 
 The Three Sermons contained in this volume have a oneness of aim 
 indicated by the title, and are on the following subjects : — /. ' ' The 
 Work burned and the Worhnen saved. " II. ' ' The Individual 
 Hiring. " ///. ' ' The Remedial Discipline of Disease and Death. " 
 
 THE WHOLESOME WORDS OF JESUS CHRIST. 
 Four Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge in 
 November 1866. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. cloth, y. 6d. 
 
 Dr. Vaughan uses the luord ^^ Wholesome" here in its literal and 
 original sense, the sense in which St. Paul uses it, as meaning 
 healthy, sound, conducing to right living ; and in these Sermons 
 he points out and illustrates several of the '"' zvholesotne" character- 
 istics of the Gospel, — the Words of Christ. The subjects of these 
 Sermons are as follow: — /. '^ Naturalness and Spirituality of 
 Revelation — Grandeur and Self- Control — Truthfulness and Ten- 
 derness." II. '^ Universality and Individuality of Chrisfs Gospel." 
 III. ''' Oblivions and Ambitions of the Life of Grace." IV, 
 '' Regrets and Preparations of Human Life.''"' The John Bull 
 says this volume is '^ replete with all the author'' s well-knotvn 
 vigour of thought and richness of expression. " 
 
68 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Vaughan (Dr. C. '].)— continued. 
 
 FOES OF FAITH. Sermons preached before the Uni- 
 versity of Cambridge in November 1868. Fcap. 8vo. 3^. 6d. 
 
 The ^' Foes of Faith^^ preached against in these Four Sennons are: — 
 /. ^^ Unreality.''^ II. '■^Indolence.'''' III. '''■Irreverence.'''' IV. 
 ^^ Inconsistency,^'' — ^' Foes," says the author, ^^ which must be man- 
 fully/ought against by all %vho would be finally admitted into that 
 holy communion and fellowship zuhich is, for time and eternity, 
 the blessed company of all faithful people, " ' ' They are written,''^ 
 the London Review says, '■^zvith culture and elegance, and exhibit 
 the thoughtful earnestness, piety, and good sense of their author.''^ 
 
 LECTURES ON THE EPISTLE to the PHILIPPIANS. 
 
 Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 'js. 6d. 
 
 Each Lecture is prefaced by a literal translation from the Greek 
 of the paragraph which forms its subject, contains fii'st a minute 
 explanation of the passage on zuhich it is based, and then a 
 practical application of the verse or clause selected as its text. 
 The Press speaks of these Lectures thus: — ''''Replete tuith good 
 sense and practical religious advice. . . The language of the 
 Apostle assumes a practical significance, which it seldom wears 
 in the eyes of any ordinary reader, and Dr. 'VaiigJian's listeners 
 would feel theinselves placed in the position of men receiving 
 inspired instruction on the ordinaiy business of life. We can 
 scaf'cely praise this plan too highly. " 
 
 LECTURES ON THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 
 
 Third and Cheaper Edition. Two Vols. Extra fcap. 8vo. 9.9. 
 
 In this the Third Edition of these Lectures, the literal translations of 
 the passages expou/uied will be found interwoven in the body of 
 the Lctures themselves. In attempting to expound this inost- 
 hard-to-understand Book, Dr. Vaughan, -while taking from others 
 what assistance he required, has not adhei'ed to any particular 
 school of interpretation, but has endeavoured to shew forth the 
 significance of this Revelation by the help of his strong common 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 69 
 
 Vaughan (Dr. C. J.) — continued. 
 
 senscy critical acumen ^ scholarship, and reverent spirit. ^^ Dr. 
 Vaughan' s Sermons,^^ the Spectator ^oyi", ''''are the most practical 
 discourses on the Apocalypse ivith which we are acquainted. " Pre- 
 fixed is a Synopsis of the Book of Revelation, and appended is an 
 Index of passages illustrating the language of the Book. 
 
 EPIPHANY, LENT, AND EASTER. A Selection of 
 Expository Sermons. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. lOi". 6d. 
 The first eighteen of these Sermons ^vere preached during the seasons 
 of 1 860, indicated in the title, and are practical expositions of pas- 
 sages taken fro??i the lessons of the days on which they were delivered. 
 The last eight Sermons tvere added to the Second Edition. As in 
 the case of the Lectures on Philippians, each Lecture is p7-efaccd 
 with a careful and literal 7-endering of the original of the passage 
 of which the Lecture is an exposition. The Nonconformist says 
 that '''in simplicity, dignity, close adherence to the zvords of Scrip- 
 ture, insight into ' the mind of the Spirit, ' and practical thought- 
 fulness, they are models of that species of pidpit instruction to 7vhich 
 they belong.'''' 
 
 THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. For English Readers. 
 Part I., containing the First Epistle to the Thessalonians. 
 Second Edition. Svo, is. 6d. Each Epistle will be published 
 separately in its chronological order. 
 
 It is the object of this work to enable English readers, ti}tacquai}ifed 
 with Greek, to enter zuith intelligence into the meaning, connection, 
 and phraseology of the zvritings of the great Apostle. ( i ) Each 
 Epistle will be prefaced by an Introduction containing information 
 as to the circumstances, design, and order of its composition. (2) 
 The Authorized English Version occupies the foremost place in 
 each page. (3) Beside it, in smaller type, is a literal English- 
 Version, made from the oiiginal Greek. (4) A free paraphrase 
 stands below, in zuhich it is attempted to express the sense and 
 connection of the Epistle. (5) The Notes include both doctrinal 
 explanation and verbal illustration ; occasionally a brief word of 
 application has been introduced. 
 
70 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Vaughan (Dr. C. ].)— continued. 
 
 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. The Greek 
 
 Text, with Enghsh Notes. Third Edition, greatly enlarged. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 'js. 6d. 
 
 This volume contains the Greek Text of the Epistle to the Romans as 
 settled by the Rev. B. F. Westcott, D. D. , for his complete recension 
 of the Text of the Neiu Testament. Appended to the text are copious 
 critical and exegetical Notes, the result, of almost eighteen years' 
 study on the part of the author. The '^ Index of IVords illustrated 
 or explained in the Notes''"' will be found, in some considerable 
 degree, an Index to the Epistles as a whole. ^^ I have desired,^' 
 the author says, ' ' to catch and to represent the meaning of each 
 passage and of the whole, without deriving it from any secondary 
 source. One of my pHncipal endeavours has been, to trace through 
 the Nexv Testament the uses of the more re7narkable words or phrases 
 which occur in the Epistle, arranging them, where the case required 
 it, under their various modifications of sense.''^ Prefixed to the 
 volume is a discourse on ^'- St. PauVs Conversion and Doctrine," 
 suggested by some recent publications on St. PauVs theological 
 standing. In the Preface to the Third Edition, which has 
 been almost entirely rezvritten, among other things, is a Synopsis of 
 the contents of the Epistle. The Guardian says of the work, — 
 '■^For educated young men his commentary seems to fill a gap 
 hitherto unfilled. . . As a whole. Dr. Vaughan appears to us to 
 have given to the world a valuable book of original and careful and 
 earnest thought bestozved on the accomplishjnent of a work which 
 will be of much service and zuhich is much needed.''^ 
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST DAYS. 
 
 Series I. The Church of Jerusalem. Second Edition. 
 " XL The Church of the Gentiles. Second Edition, 
 " III. The Church of the World. Second Edition. 
 
 Fcap. 8vo. cloth. 4^'. ()d. each. 
 
 The work is in three volumes: — /. "77/^ Chu^rh of Jerusalem, ^^ 
 extending from the \st to the %th chapter (inclusive) of the Acts. 
 II. " The CJiurch of the Gentiles,'''' fro77i the^th to the i6th chapter. 
 Ill ''The Church of the World;' from the \^th to the 28/// 
 chapter. Where necessary, the Authorized Ve7'sion has been 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 71 
 
 Vaughan (Dr. C. ] .)—conti?med. 
 
 departed from, and a neiv literal translation taken as the basis of 
 exposition. All possible topographical and historical light has been 
 brought to bear on the subject ; and zvhile thoroughly practical in 
 their aim, these Lectures will be found to afford a fair notion of the 
 history and condition of the Primitive Church. The British 
 Quarterly says, — ^^ These Sermons are worthy of all praise, and 
 are tnodels of pulpit teaching.'" 
 
 COUNSELS for YOUNG STUDENTS. Three Sermons 
 preached before the University of Cambridge at the Opening of 
 the Academical Year 1870-71. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 The titles of the Three Ser?nons contained in this volume are : — /. 
 ' ' The Great Decision. " II. ' ' The House and the Builder. " ///, 
 ' ' The Prayer and the Counter- Prayer. " They all bear pointedly, 
 earnestly, and sympathisingly upon the conduct attd pursuits of 
 young students and young men generally, to counsel whojn, Dr. 
 Vaughan' s qualifications and aptitude are well known. 
 
 NOTES FOR LECTURES ON CONFIRMATION, 
 with suitable Prayers. Eighth Edition. Fcap. Svo. ij-. 6d. 
 In preparation for the Confirmation held in Harrozsj School Chapel, 
 Dr. Vaughan was in the habit of printing zueek by week, and dis- 
 tributing among the Candidates, somewhat full notes of the Lecture 
 he purposed to deliver to them, together with a form of Prayer 
 adapted to the particular subject. He has collected these 7ueekly 
 Notes and Prayers into this little volume, in the hope that it may 
 assist the labours of those zuho are engaged in preparing Candidates 
 for Confirmation, and who find it difficult to lay their hand upon 
 any one book of suitable instruction. The Press says the work 
 "' cof7imends itself at once by its simplicity and by its logical 
 arrangement. . . . While points of doctrine, as they arise^ are not 
 lost sight of, the principal stress is laid on the preparation of the 
 heart rather than the head." 
 
 THE TWO GREAT TEMPTATIONS. The Tempta- 
 tion of Man, and the Temptation of Christ. Lectures delivered in 
 the Temple Church, Lent 1872, Extra fcap. Svo. 3^. (id. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Vaughan. — Works by David J. Vaughan, M.A., Vicar of 
 St. Martin's, Leicester : — 
 SERMONS PREACHED IN ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, 
 LEICESTER, during the Years 1855 and 1856. Crown 8vo. 
 5^. (id. 
 
 These Tioeuty-fivc Sermons embrace a great variety of topics, all 
 of the highest interest, are thoroughly practical in their nature, 
 and calculated to give a hopeful view of life as seen in the light 
 shed ttpoji it by Christianity. 
 
 SERMONS on the RESURRECTION. With a Preface. 
 
 Fcap. 8vo. 3^. 
 
 In the Preface to this luork, the author expounds a7id endeavours to 
 justify his viezu of the Atonement, shezving it to be more reasonable 
 and scriptural than the ordinary doctrine. There are Seven 
 Sermons in all, bearing the following titles : — /. " The Fellowship 
 of Chris fs Sufferings.^'' II. ^''Ch^'ist the Resurrection and the 
 Life:' III ''Christ our Passover.'' IV. ''Christ the Shepherd." 
 V. ''The True light zvhich lighteth every man,'" VI. "The 
 City of Go(J, and the Light thereof'' VII. '''Christ going to the 
 Father, and the Way to the Father. " 
 
 CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES AND THE BIBLE. New 
 
 Edition, revised and enlarged. Fcap. 8vo. cloth. 5^. 6^. 
 
 The main object of this series of Twelve Serjnons is to shew, that, 
 quite irrespective of any theory as to the nature of the Bible and the 
 special inspiration of its authors, there is good and sufficient 7-eason 
 for believing that Jesics ChHst is the Son of God, who reveals and 
 reconciles men to the Father. The author thinks that the true 
 and solid rock, upon which the Church really stands and ojight 
 consciously to stand, is simply the confession that "Jesus is the 
 Christ, the Son of the living God.'''' The Preface to this, the 
 Second Edition, consists of an "Analysis of the Nature of Scien- 
 tific Trjithj''' — the nature of the evidence which is jiniversally held 
 to be sound and conclusive. In the Sermons theinselves the Internal 
 aizd External Evidences of Christianity and cognate subjects are 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 73 
 
 Vaughan (D.J. ) — continued. 
 
 discussed^ and throughout the vohune are sevei-al long ?iofcs on points 
 occurring in the text. Appended is a short Essay on " The Nature 
 and Sphere of Law.'''' — " This little volu7ne," //z^ Spectator says, 
 '^is a model of that honest and revej'ent criticism of the Bible which 
 is not only right, but the duty of English clergymen in such times 
 as these to put forth from the pidpit." 
 
 Venn.— ON SOME OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF 
 BELIEF, Scientific and Religious. Being the Hulsean Lectures 
 for 1869. By the Rev, J. Venn, M.A. 8vo. ds. 6d. 
 
 These discourses a?-e intended to illustrate, explain, and work out into 
 some of their consequences, certain cha7'acteristics by zvhich the attain- 
 ment of religious belief is prominently distinguished from the attain- 
 ment of belief upon most othej' subjects. The first Lecture is an 
 attempt to explain what is the ?iature of the logical foothold for 
 differences of opinion a?iiong men ; to shew what there is in the 
 constitution of the evidence which makes it possible for these differences 
 to cojnmence a7td persist. The second ineets the question. What is 
 the criterion of truth ? How are toe to decide tvhich of the varying 
 but hojzest judgmejtts on the sajne subject is right and which wrong? 
 The third and fourth Lectures are dei'oted to working out into 
 several of their consequeiices the charactei'istics of evidence on re- 
 ligious subjects which zoere explained and illustrated in the first. 
 
 Warington.— THE WEEK OF CREATION ; or, THE 
 COSMOGONY OF GENESIS CONSIDERED IN ITS 
 RELATION TO MODERN SCIENCE. By George War- 
 ington, Author of "The Historic Character of the Pentateuch 
 Vindicated." Crown 8vo. 4^-. 6</. 
 
 The greater part of this work is taken up with the teaching of the 
 Cosmogony. Its purpose is also investigated, and a chapter is 
 devoted to the consideration of the passage in which the difficulties 
 occur. "^ very able vindication of the Alosaic Cosmogony by a 
 writer who unites the advantages of a critical knozuledge of the 
 Hebrew text and of distinguished scientific attainments. " — Spectator. 
 
74 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Westcott.— Works by BROOKE Foss Westcott, D.D., 
 
 Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge ; 
 Canon of Peterborough : — 
 
 The London Quarterly, speaking of Mr. Westcott, says, — ^^To a 
 learning and accuracy which command respect and confidence, he 
 unites what are not always to be found in union with these qualities, 
 the no less valuable faculties of lucid aj'rangement and graceful and 
 facile expression.^^ 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE 
 GOSPELS. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. los. 6d. 
 
 The author'' s chief object in this work has been to shew that there is 
 a true mean betzveen the idea of a formal harmonization of the 
 Gospels and the abandonment of their absolute truth. After an 
 Introduction on the General Effects of the course of Modern Philo- 
 sophy on the popular views of Christianity, he proceeds to 
 determine in what way the principles therein indicated may be 
 applied to the study of the Gospels. The treatise is divided into 
 sight Chapters: — /. The Preparation for the Gospel. II. The 
 Jezuish Doctrine of the Messiah. III. The Origin of the Gospels. 
 IV. TIu Characteristics of the Gospels. V. The Gospel of St. 
 John. VI. and VII. The Differences in detail and of arrange- 
 ment im the Synoptic Evangelists. VIII. The Difficulties of 
 the Gospels. The Appendices contain much valuable subsidiary 
 matter. 
 
 A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE HISTORY OF THE 
 CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT DURING THE 
 FIRST FOUR CENTURIES. Third Edition, revised. Crown 
 8vo. los. 6d. 
 
 The object of this treatise is to deal with the New Testament as a 
 whole, and that on purely historical grounds. The separate books 
 of which it is composed are considered not individually, but as 
 clai^ning to be parts of the apostolic heritage of Christians. The 
 Author has thus endeavoured to connect the history of the A^eiv 
 Testament Canon with the growth and cotzsolidation of the Catholic 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 75 
 
 Westcott (Dr. B. Y .)— continued. 
 
 Church, and to point out the relation existing betiveen the aynount of 
 evidence for the authenticity of its component parts and the ivhole 
 ?nass of Christian literature. ^^ The treatise" says the British 
 Quartei'ly, "zV a scholarly performance, learned, dispassionate, 
 discriminating, woi'thy of his subject and of the present state of 
 Christian literature in relation to it.'''' 
 
 THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH. A Popular Account 
 of the Collection and Reception of the Holy Scriptures in the 
 Christian Churches. Third Edition. i8mo. 43-. 6d. 
 The present volume has been tvritten under the impression that 
 a History of the whole Bible, and not of the New Testament 
 only, would be required, if those unfamiliar with the subject were 
 to be enabled to learn in zvhat manner and with what consent 
 the collection of Holy Scriptures was first made and then enl- 
 arged and finally closed by the Church. Though the work is 
 intended to be simple and popular in its jnethod, the author, for 
 this vejy reason, has aimed at the strictest accuracy. The 
 History of the Bible is brought doiun to the i6th century, and 
 the Appendix contains two articles, — /. *'(9« the History of the 
 Canon of the Old Testaifient before the Chj-istian Era." II. 
 *^0n the Contents of the most ancient MSS. of the Christian 
 Bible." 77z^ Literary Churchman j-^T^/J-, ^'' Mr. Westcotfs account 
 of the '•Canon'' is true history in the very highest sense.'''' 
 
 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE 
 ENGLISH BIBLE. Crown 8vo. los. 6d. 
 
 In the Introduction the author notices briefly the earliest vernacular 
 versions of the Bible, especially those in Anglo-Saxon. Chapter I. 
 is occupied with an account of the Manuscript English Bible fro7n 
 the \dfh centmy downwards ; and in Chapter II. is narrated, 
 with many interesting pei-sonal and other details, the External 
 History of the Brintcd Bible. In Chapter III. is set forth the 
 Internal History of the English Bible, shewing to what extent 
 the various English Translations wei'e independent, and to what 
 
76 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Westcott (Dr. B. Y .)— continued. 
 
 extent the translators were indebted to earlier English and foreign 
 versions. In the Appendices, among other interesting and valu- 
 able matter, ivill be found '"'' Specimens oj the Earlier and Later 
 Wycliffte Versions ;''' '■'' Chronological List of Bibles f^ ''''An Ex- 
 amination of i\Ir. Froudis History of the English Bible." The 
 Pall Mall Gazette calls the work ".4 brief scholarly, ajid^ to a 
 great extent, an original contribution to theological literature." 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, MANIFOLD AND ONE. 
 Six Sermons preached in Peterborough Cathedral. Crown 8vo. 
 2S. 6c/. 
 
 The Six Sermons contained in this volume are the first preached by 
 the author as a Canon of Peterborough Cathedral. The subjects 
 are: — /. '''' life consecrated by the Ascension." II. '■''Many Gifts ^ 
 One Spirit." HI. '■''The Gospel of the Resurrection." IV. 
 ''Sufficiency of God." V. ''Action the Test of Faith." VL 
 "Progress from the Confession of God." The Nonconformist 
 calls them 'BeaiUiful discourses, singularly devout ami tender." 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION. Thoughts 
 on its Relation to Reason and History. New Edition. Fcap. 
 8vo. \s. 6d. 
 
 The present Essay is an endeavour to consider some of the elementary 
 truths of Christianity, as a miraculous Revelation, from the side of 
 History and Reason. The author endeavours to shezv that a 
 devout belief in the Life of Christ is quite compatible with a broad 
 view of the course of human progress and a frank trust in the laws 
 of our oivn minds. After a '''Statement of the Question" and 
 an Introduction on "Ideas of God, Nature, Miracles," Chapter 
 I. treats of " The Resurrection and History f^ Chapter II. " The 
 Resurrection and Man ;" Chapter HI. " The Resurrection and 
 the Church." — " We oive," the Patriot says, "Mr. Westcott a very 
 great debt of gratitude for his very able little treatise, so faithful 
 to the great truths zvhich are so precious to us, so catholic and 
 spirittial in its conceptions of these truths, and, moreoi'er, so 
 philosophical in analysis, organism, and presentation." 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 77 
 
 Wilkins.— THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. An Essay, 
 by A,S. Wilkins, M.A., Professor of Latin in Owens College, 
 Manchester. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 3^-. 6d. 
 This is Ike Hulsean Prize Essay fo)- 1869. The subject proposed by 
 the Trustees was^ '■'The Distinctive Features of Christian as 
 co?npared with Pagan Ethics." This the author treats in six 
 chaptei-s :—L "■The Object and Scope of the Disctission.''^ II. 
 and III. ''Pagan Ethics — their Histoi'ical Development,'''' and 
 their Greatest Perfection." IV. V. and VI. "Christian Ethics 
 — their Method, " their Perfection, " and their Power." The author 
 has tj'ied to shozv that the Christian ethics so far transcend the 
 ethics of any or all of the Pagan systems in method, in purity and 
 in poiver, as to compel us to assume for them an origin, differing in 
 "kind from the origin of any purely human system. " It would be 
 difficult to praise too highly the spirit, the burden, the conclusions, or 
 the scholarly finish of this beautiful Essay." — British Quarterly 
 Review. 
 
 Wilson.— RELIGIO CHEMICL With a Vignette beauti- 
 fully engraved after a Design by Sir Noel Paton. By George 
 Wilson, M. D. Crown Svo. Zs. 6d. 
 
 "George Wilson," says the Preface to this volume, " had it in his 
 heart for many years to write a book corresponding to the Religio 
 Medici of Sir Thomas Browne, with the title Religio Chemici. 
 Several of the Essays in this volume were intended to form chapters 
 of it, but the health and leisure necessary to carry out his plans 
 were never attainable, and thus fragments only of the designed 
 work exist. These fragments, hozvever, being in most cases like 
 finished gems waiting to be set, some of them are now given in 
 a collected form to his friends and the public." The Contents 
 of the volume are : — ' ' Chemistry and Natural Theology. " ' ' The 
 Chemistry of the Stars; an Argument touching the Stars and 
 their Inhabitants." "Chemical Final Causes; as illustrated by 
 the presence of Phosphorus, Nitrogen, and Iron in the Higher 
 Sentient Oiganisms." "Robert Boyle." "Wollaston." "Life 
 and Discoveries of Dalton." " Thoughts on the Resurrection; an 
 Address to Medical Students." — "A more fascinating volume," 
 the Spectator says, "has seldom fallen into our hands." 
 
78 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Wilson.— THE BIBLE STUDENT'S GUIDE TO THE 
 MORE CORRECT UNDERSTANDING of the ENGLISH 
 TRANSLATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, BY RE- 
 FERENCE TO THE ORIGINAL HEBREW. By William 
 Wilson, D. D., Canon of Winchester, Second Edition, carefully 
 revised, 4to, 25^, 
 
 " The azithor believes that the present ivork is the nearest approach 
 to a complete Concordance of every word in the original that has 
 yet been made: and as a Concordance, it may be found of great 
 use to the Bible student, tuhile at the same time it serves the 
 important object offurnishing the means of comparing synonyjiious 
 words, and of eliciting their precise and distinctive meaning. 
 The knowledge of the Hebreiu language is not absolutely necessary 
 to the p7-ofitable use of the luork ; and it is believed that many 
 devout and accurate students of the Bible, entirely unacquainted 
 with it, will derive great advantage from frequent reference to 
 these pages.'''' Introductory to the body of the work, the author 
 gives a sketch of the Construction of Hebreza. The plan of the 
 work is simple: every word occurring in the English Version is 
 arranged alphabetically, and under it is given the Hebrnv word or 
 words, with a full explanation of their meaning, of which it is 
 meant to be a translation, and a complete list of the passages where 
 it occurs. Follozving the general zuork is a complete Hebrew and 
 English Index, which is, in effect, a Hebrew-English Dictionary. 
 Appended are copious exarnples of the Figure Paronomasia, which 
 occurs so frequently in the Bible. 
 
 Worship (The) of God and Fellowship among 
 
 Men. Sermons on Public Worship. By Professor Maurice, 
 and others, Fcap. 8vo. 3^', 6^/, 
 
 This volume consists of Six Sermons preached by various clergymen, 
 and although not addressed specially to any class, zvere suggested by 
 recent efforts to bring the members of the Working Class to our 
 Churches. The preachers zvere — Professor Maurice, I. '■'■Preach- 
 ing, a Call to Worship.'''' II. '■''The Bible, a Revelation of 
 the Beginning and End of Worship.''^ Rev. T J. Rowsell, 
 ^^ Common Prayer, the Method of Worship.'^ Rev. J. LI. Davies, 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 79 
 
 /. '''■Baptism, an Adi)iission to the Privilege of Worships II. 
 ''The Sabbath Day, the Refreshment of Worship:' Rev. D. J. 
 Vaughan, ' ' The Lord's Supper, the 77iost Sacred Bond of Worship. " 
 * ' They ai-e very stiggestive to those who may have to prepare sermons, 
 and ivell calculated to be lent amongst the more thoughtful parish- 
 ioncrs. " — Literary Churchman. 
 
 Yonge (Charlotte M.)— SCRIPTURE READINGS for 
 SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES. By Charlotte M. Yonge, 
 Author of "The Heir of Redclyffe." Globe 8vo. \s. 6d. With 
 Comments, y. 6d. 
 
 A Second Series. From Joshua to Solomon. Extra fcap. 8vo. 
 ly. 6d. With Comments. 2>^. 6d. 
 
 Actual need has led the author to endeavour to prepare a reading book 
 convenient for study with children, containing the very words of 
 the Bible, with only a fezu expedient omissions, and arranged in 
 Lessons of such lettgth as by experience she has found to suit with 
 children's ordinary poiver of accurate attentive interest. The verse 
 form has been retained because of its convenience for children reading 
 in class, and as more resembling their Bibles ; but the poetical 
 portions have been given in their lines. When Psalms or portions 
 from the Prophets illustj'ate or fall in tuith the narrative, they are 
 given in their chronological sequence. The Scripture portion, with 
 a very fezv notes explanatory of mere words, is bound up apart to 
 be used by children, while the same is also supplied with a brief 
 comment, the purpose of tvhich is either to assist the teacher in 
 explaining the lesson, or to be used by more advanced young people 
 to whom it may not be possible to give access to the authorities zvhence 
 it has been taken. Professor Huxley at a meeting of the London 
 School-board, particularly mentioned the Selection made by Miss 
 Yonge, as an example of how selections might be made for School 
 reading. "Her Comments are models of their kind." — Literary 
 Churchman, 
 
8o MACMILLAN'S SUNDAY LIBRARY. 
 
 In crown 8vo. cloth extra, Illustrated, price 4^. 6^. each Volume ; also 
 
 kept in morocco and calf bindings at moderate prices, and in 
 
 Ornamental Boxes containing Four Vols., i\s. each. 
 
 MACMILLAN'S SUNDAY LIBRARY. 
 
 A Series of Original Works by Eminent Authors. 
 
 The projectors of the SUNDAY Library feel that there is a want of 
 books of a kmd that zvill be welcome in many Households for reading 
 on Sundays, and will be in accordance zoith earnest convictions as to 
 the nature of the '^Sabbath Day.'' 
 
 Stinday should contain the theory, the collective viezu, of our work-day 
 lives; and these work-days should be the Sunday in action. Our 
 Sunday Books, therefore, ought to do more than afford abstract sut)- 
 jects of 7neditation ; they should exercise a living pozver, by bringing 
 us into direct contact zvith all that is true and noble in htiman nature 
 and human life, and by shewing us the life of Christ as the central 
 truth of humanity. 
 
 For Sunday readings therefore, we need not o)ily history, but history in 
 its relation to Christianity ; not only biography, but the lives of men 
 7vho have consciously promoted the Christian religion — Christian 
 heroes in art, in science, in divinity, ajul in social action. The 
 history of Christianity, permajicnt and progressive, is also the Jiistory 
 cf 'civilization, and from thegrozvth of the latter we may be strengthened 
 in the faith that the former will ultimately prevail throughout the 
 whole world. 
 
 The Publishers have secured the co-operation of very eminent writers, 
 a list ofivhom, with the works they undertake^ is herezuith given. 
 
MACMILLAN'S SUNDAY LIBRARY. 
 
 THE FOLLOWING VOLUMES ARE NOW READY:— 
 
 The Pupils of St. John the Divine. — By Charlotte 
 
 M. YONGE, Author of "The Heir of Redclyffe. " 
 
 The author first gives a full sketch of the life and work of the 
 Apostle hifuself drazving the material from all the most trustivorthy 
 authorities, sacred and profane ; then follow the lives of his immediate 
 disciples, Ignatius, Quadratus, Polycarp, and others ; ivhich are suc- 
 ceeded by the lives of many of their pupils. The author then proceeds 
 to sketch from their foundation the history of the many chuj'ches 
 planted or superintended by St. John and his pupils, both in the 
 East and West. In the last chapter is given an account of the 
 present aspect of the Churches of St. John, — the Seven Churches of 
 Asia mentioned in Revelations; also those of Athens, of Nimes, of 
 Lyons, and others in the West. Throughout the volu?ne, much of 
 early Church History is necessarily introduced, and details are 
 given of the m,any persecutions to which Christianity was subjected 
 during its struggling infancy. " Yomig and old will be equally 
 refreshed and taught by these pages, in zuhich nothing is dull, and 
 nothing is far-fetched. " — Churchman. 
 
 The Hermits.— By Canon Kingsley. 
 
 In the Introduction to this volume, Mr. Kingsley shews that early 
 hermit-life was a natural outcome of the corrupt condition of 
 Roman society, ^"^ which was no place for honest men,^^ — ^^ where 
 but to think tuas to be full of sorrow and leaden-eyed despair." 
 The hermits ''''were a school of philosophers who altered the whole 
 current of human thought ; their influence is being felt around us in 
 many a puzzle — educational, social, and political f^ these lives afford 
 a " key to many a lock, which just nozv refuses to be tampered with 
 or burst open.'^ The volume contains the lives of some of the most 
 remarkable early Egyptian, Syrian, Persian, and Western hermits. 
 The lives are mostly translations from the original biographies ; 
 ' ' the reader will thus be able to see the men as wholes, to judge of 
 their merits and defects.'''' — "It is from first to last a production 
 full of interest, written zvith a liberal appreciation of what is 
 
 6 
 
82 MACMILLAN'S SUNDAY LIBRARY. 
 
 memorable for good in the lives of the Herjnits, and with a wise 
 forbearance towards legends which may be due to the ignorance^ 
 and, no doubt, also to the strong faith of the early chroniclers^ — 
 London Review. 
 
 Seekers after God. — By the Rev. F. W. Farrar, M.A., 
 
 F.R.S., Head Master of Marlborough College. 
 
 In this volume the author seeks to record the lives, and gives copious 
 samples of the almost ChT-ist-like utterances of with perhaps the 
 exception of Socrates, ' ' the best and holiest characters presented 
 to us in the records of antiquity J''' They are Seneca, Epictetus, 
 and Marcus Aurelius, most appropriately called ^^ Seekers after 
 God,^' seeing that ^^ amid infinite difficulties and surrounded by 
 a corrupt society, they devoted themselves to the earnest search after 
 those truths zvhich might best make their lives ^beautiful before 
 God. ' " The reader will learn from this volume in what kind of 
 atmosphere the influences of Christianity were forced to work. 
 Many details are also given which afford an insight into Roman 
 life and manners, the kind of education bestowed on Roman youth, 
 and the characteristics of the chief systems of ancient philosophy. 
 The volujne contains portraits of Aurelius, Seneca, and Antoninus 
 Pius. '■^We can heartily recommend it as healthy in tone, in- 
 structive, interesting, mentally and spiritually stimulating and 
 nutritious. " — Nonconformist. 
 
 England's Antiphon. — By George Macdonald. 
 
 This volu?ne deals chiefly tuith the lyric or song-form of English 
 religious poetry, other kinds, however, being not infrequently in- 
 troduced. The author has sought to trace the course of our 
 religious poetry frojn the \y:h to the i<)th centuries, from before 
 Chaucer to Tennyson. He endeavours to accomplish his object by 
 selecting the men who have produced the flnest religious poetry, 
 setting forth the circu}?istajices in tvhich they were placed, charac- 
 terising the men themselves, critically estimating their pi'oductions, 
 and giving ample specimens of their best religious lyrics, and 
 
MACMILLAN'S SUNDAY LIBRARY. 83 
 
 quotations from larger poems, illustrating the religious feeling 
 of the poets or their times. Thus the volume, besides providing 
 a concert of the sweetest and purest music, will be found to exhibit 
 the beliefs held and aspirations cherished by many of the noblest, 
 purest, and most richly endowed minds during the last 600 years. 
 — "Z>r. Macdonald has very successfully endeavoured to bring 
 together in his little book a whole series of the stveet singers oj 
 England, and makes them raise, one after the other, their voices in 
 praise of God. "—Guardian. 
 
 Great Christians of France : St. Louis and Calvin. 
 
 By M. GuizoT. 
 
 From among French Catholics, M. Guizot has, in this volume, selected 
 Louis, King of France in the i^th century, and among Pro- 
 testants, Calvin the Reformer in the i6th century, "as two 
 earnest and illustrious representatives of the Christian faith and 
 life, as well as of the loftiest thought and purest morality of their 
 country and genej^ation." In setting forth with cojtsiderable foilness 
 the lives of these prominent and representative Christian men, 
 M. Guizot necessarily introduces much of the political and religious 
 history of the periods during zvhich they lived. '^A very interesting 
 book,'''' says the Guardian. 
 
 Christian Singers of Germany. — By Catherine 
 
 WiNKWORTH. 
 
 In this volume the authoress gives an account of the principal 
 hymn-writers of Germany front the <)th to the l^th century, 
 introducing ample (altogether about 120 translations) specimens 
 fimn their best productions. In the translations, while the 
 English is perfectly idiomatic and harmonious, the characteristic 
 differences of the poems have been carefully imitated, and the general 
 style and metre retained. The book is divided into chapters, the 
 writers noticed and the hymns quoted in each chapter, being re- 
 presentative of an epoch in the religious life of Germany. In thus 
 tracing the course of German hymnology, the authoress is necessarily 
 
84 MACMILLAN'S SUNDAY LIBRARY. 
 
 * ' brought into contact with those great movements which have 
 sth'red the life of the people.''^ — ^''Afiss IVinkwoj-th's volume of this 
 series is, according to our viezv, the choicest production of her pen.'''' 
 — British Quarterly Review. 
 
 Apostles of Mediaeval Europe. — By the Rev. G. F. 
 
 Maclear, D.D., Head Master of King's College School, London, 
 
 In two Introductory Chapters the author notices some of the chief 
 characteHstics of the medicEval period itself ; gives a g7-aphic 
 sketch of the devastated state of Europe at the beginning of 
 that period, and an interesting account of the religions of the 
 three great groups of vigorous barbarians — the Celts, the Teutons, 
 and the Sclaves — who had, wave after wave, overflozaed its surface. 
 He then proceeds to sketch the lives and work of the chief of the 
 courageous men tvho devoted themselves to the stupendous task of 
 their conversion and civilization, during a period extending from 
 the ^th to the \y:h century; such as St. Patrick, St. Columba, St. 
 Columbanus, St. Augustine of Canterbury, St. Boniface, St. Olaf, 
 St. Cyril, Raymond Sull, and others. In narrathtg the lives of 
 these men, many glimpses are given into the political, social, and 
 religious life of Europe during the Middle Ages, and many interest- 
 ing and instructive incidents are introduced. ''''Mr. Maclear will 
 have done a great work if his admirable little volume shall help to 
 break up the dense ignorance which is still prezmiling among people 
 at large.'''' — Literary Churchman. 
 
 Alfred the Great. — By Thomas Hughes, M.P., Author 
 
 of "Tom Brown's School Days." 
 
 " The time is come when we English can no longer stand by as 
 interested spectators only, but in which every one of our institutions 
 7vill be sifted zvith rigour, and will have to shew cause for its 
 existence. ... As a help in this search^ this life of the typical 
 English King is here offered.'''' After two Introductory Chapters, 
 one on Kings and Kingship, and another depicting the condition 
 of Wessex when Alfred became its 7'uler, the author proceeds to set 
 forth the life and zvork of this great prince, shewing hoip he 
 
MACMILLAN'S SUNDAY LIBRARY. 85 
 
 conducted himself in all the relations of life. In the last 
 chapter the author shews the beaHng which Chi'istianity has on the 
 kingship and govej-nment of the nations and people of the world in 
 which we live. Besides other illustrations in the volume, a Map of 
 England is prefixed, shezving its divisions about looo A.D., as well 
 as at the present time. ^^Alr. Httghes has indeed written a good 
 book, bi'ight and readable we need hardly say, and of a vety con- 
 siderable historical value.^'' — Spectator. 
 
 Nations Around. — By Miss A. Keary. 
 
 This vohane contains many details concerning the social and political 
 life, the religion, the superstitions, the literature, the architecture, 
 the commerce, the industry, of the Nations around Palestine, an 
 acquaintance with which is necessary in order to a clear and full 
 understaitding of the history of the Hebrew people. The authoress 
 has brought to her aid all the most recent investigations into the 
 early history of these nations, referring frequently to the fruitful 
 excavations which have brought to light the ruins and hieroglyphic 
 w}'itings of many of their buried cities. ''^ Miss Keary has skil- 
 ftilly availed herself of the opportunity to write a pleasing and in- 
 structive book. " — Guardian. ' ""A valuable and interesting volume. " 
 — Illustrated Times. 
 
 St. Anselm. — By the Very Rev. R. W. CHURCH, M.A., Dean 
 
 of St. Paul's. 
 
 In this biography of St. Anselm, while the story of his life as a 
 man, a Christian, a clergyma7i, and a politician, is told im- 
 partially and fully, much light is shed on the ecclesiastical and 
 political history of the time during which he lived, and on the 
 ititernal economy of the monastic establishments of the period. 
 Of the worthiness of St. Anselm to have his life recorded, Mr. 
 Church says, '"'' It ivould not be easy to find one who so joined the 
 largeness and daring of a powerful and inquiring intellect, with 
 the graces and sweetness and unselfishness of the most loveable of 
 friends, and with the fortitude, clear-sightedness, and dauntless 
 
86 MACMILLAN'S SUNDAY LIBRARY. 
 
 firmness of a hero, forced into a hero's career in spite of himself .^^ 
 The author has drawn his materials from contemporary biographers 
 and chroniclers, while at the same time he has consulted the best 
 recent authors zuho have treated of the man and his time. '^' It is 
 a sketch by the hand of a master, with every line marked by taste, 
 learning, and real apprehension of the subject.'''' — Pall Mall 
 Gazette. 
 
 Francis of Assisi. — By Mrs. Oliphant. 
 
 The life of this saint, the founder of the Franciscan order, and one of 
 the most remarkable men of his time, illustrates some of the chief 
 characteristics of the religious life of the Middle Ages. Mrs. 
 Oliphant, in an Introduction, gives a slight sketch of the political 
 and religious condition of Europe in the iT^th centuiy, in order to 
 shew that the kind of life adopted by St. Francis was a natural 
 result of the influences by xvhich he was surrounded. In the sub- 
 sequent biography much information is given concerning the mis- 
 sionary labours of the saint and his companions, as ivell as con- 
 cerning the religious and monastic life of the time. Many graphic 
 details are introduced from the sainfs contemporary biog)-aphers, 
 which shezv forth the prevalent beliefs of the period ; and ahindant 
 samples are given of St. Francis's ozvn sayings, as tvell as a few 
 speci7nens of his simple tender hymns. "We are gi'atefiil to Mrs. 
 Oliphant for a book of much interest and pathetic beauty, a book 
 xvhich none can read zvithout being the better for it. " — John Bull, 
 
 Pioneers and Founders ; or, Recent Workers in the 
 Mission Field. By Charlotte M. Yonge, Author of "The 
 Heir of Redclyffe," With Frontispiece, and Vignette Portrait of 
 Bishop Heber. 
 
 The author has endeavoured in these narratives to bnng together such 
 of the more distinguished Mis sionanes of the English and Anierican 
 Nations as might best illustrate the character and growth of 
 Mission-zvork in the last two centuries. The object has been to 
 throzv together sjich biographies as are most complete, most illus- 
 
MACMILLAN'S SUNDAY LIBRARY. Z^ 
 
 trative, and have been found most inciting to stir up others — 
 representative lives, as far as possible. The missionaries whose 
 biogi-aphies are here given, are — John Eliot, the Apostle of the Red 
 Indians; David Br ainerd, the Enthusiast ; Christian F. Schwartz, 
 the Councillor of Tanjo7'e ; Henry Marty n, the Scholar- Missionary ; 
 William Carey and Joshua Marshman, the Serampore Missionaries ; 
 thejudson Family ; the Bishops of Calcutta, — Thomas Aliddleton, 
 Reginald Heber, Daniel Wilson ; Samuel Marsden, the Australian 
 Chaplain and Friend of the Maori; John Williajtis, the Martyr 
 of Erromango ; Allen Ga^'dener, the Sailor Martyr; Charles 
 Frederick Mackenzie, the Martyr of Zambesi. ''''likely to be one 
 of the most popular of the ' Sitnday Library^ volujues.'''' — Literary 
 Churchman. 
 
THE "BOOK OF PRAISE" HYMNAL, 
 
 COMPILED AND ARRANGED BY 
 
 SIR ROUNDELL PALMER, 
 
 III the folhnving four forms : — 
 
 A. Beautifully printed in Royal 32nio., limp cloth, price 6d. 
 
 B. ,, ,, SmalllSmo., larger type, cloth limp, Is. 
 
 C. Same edition on fine paper, cloth, Is. 6d. 
 
 Also an edition with Music, selected, harmonized, and composed 
 by JOHN HTJ1.L.AH, in square 18mo., cloth, 3s. 6d. 
 
 The large acceptance which has been given to " The Book of Praise''^ 
 by all classes of Christian people encourages the Publishers in entertaining 
 the hope that this Hymnal, which is mainly selected from it, may be ex- 
 tensively used in Congregations, and in some degree at least meet the 
 desires of those who seek uniformity in common worship as a jjieans 
 towards that unity which pioi^s souls yearn after, and which our Lord 
 prayed for in behalf of his Church. '''The office of a hymn is not to 
 teach controversial Theology, but to give the voice of sojtg to practical 
 religion. No doubt, to do this, it must embody sound doctrine ; but it 
 ought to do so, not after the manner of the schools, but with the breadth, 
 freedom, and simplicity of the Fountain-head. " On this principle has 
 Sir R. Palmer proceeded in the preparation of this book. 
 
 The arrangement adopted is the following : — 
 Part I. consists of Hymns arranged according to the subjects of the 
 Creed— ''God the Creator,'' ''Christ Incarnate,'' "Christ Crucified," 
 '■'Christ Risen," "Christ Ascended," "Christ's Kingdom and Judg- 
 ment," etc. 
 
 Part II. coinprises Hymns arranged according to the subjects oj' the 
 Lords Prayer. 
 
 Part III. Hymns for natural and sacred seasons. 
 
 There are 320 Hymns in all. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: — PRINTF.n BY \. PALMER. 
 

 
 
 
 "* >'*. 
 
 
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