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 '€hc Chaviti) that QTobcrs a ^ultitttie of Sim. 
 
 ■ <•» «- 
 
 Preached on Sunday, P^ebruary 23RD, 1S79. 
 
 QuiNQUAPxESIMA, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Church of §t. Jllban the ^artgr 
 
 OTTAWA, 
 
 BY 
 
 Jhe j^ECTOR, 
 Canon T. Bedford-Jones, LL.D. 
 
 AND 
 
 Jrintet) bg j^pccial Sequent. 
 
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 ^hc ChnritB that Cobera a #Iultitubc of 4fiin6. 
 
 ^ ^srmon 
 
 Preached on Sunday, February 23RI), 1879. 
 
 QlTINQUAGESIMA. 
 
 IN THE 
 
 dhimh of ^t. Jllban the ^artyr 
 
 OTTAWA, 
 
 BY 
 
 The Rector, 
 
 Canon T. Bedford-Jones, LL.D. 
 
 AND 
 
 
 Pritttet) b^ special gleque^t. 
 
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 -•- 
 

 ^his Sermon 
 
 IS I'RINTEO AT THK RKgUEST, IN THK FIRST INSTANCE, OF A YRRV DEAR AND 
 
 HIGHLY VALUED 
 
 (Thtlioitiau gxmnX antt ^tciflhboMt, 
 
 WHOSE fUMNlON AS TO ITS MERITS IS KNTITLED TO RESPECT, 
 AND in- WHOM n IS KINDI.V OFKeRRD AS A CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS THE 
 
 I.I()riDATIUN OF OUR 
 
 T. B.-J. 
 
 March 21, iSjg. 
 
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 S S'a Sl^ 
 
CHARITY. 
 
 "Charitj) «hnU cobcr a ^lultitubc of cSiue." 
 / Peter^ iv. S. 
 
 The best authorities give the present tense, and 
 render thus : — " Charity {or Love) covereth a multitude of 
 
 stns. 
 
 }} 
 
 This great aphorism of St. Peter 1 take as a text 
 appropriate for this Quinquagesima Sunday. It sums 
 up so well, so forcibly, the sublime Epistle of the Day, 
 that most beautiful description of Charity or Love which 
 only the inspired wisdom of an apostle of Christ could 
 write. As the famous father and scholar, Tertullian, said 
 some 1700 years ago: "This apostolic description of 
 Charity is uttered with the entire powers of the Holy 
 Spiri:." {Totis Spirit us viribus.) So often have we 
 been hearing and reading the 13th chapter of First 
 Corinthians, that few passages in St. Paul's writings are 
 more familiar to our minds. Yet it seems to me that 
 we should never let this Sunday pass without reading 
 the chapter again. Too often it cannot be read. So, 
 my brethren, as there were comparatively few present at 
 our early Kucharistic Service, I may occupy a minute or 
 two of my sermon-time with asking your attention to the 
 Epistle of the Day -. — 
 
 / Cor. xiii. /. 
 
 " Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and 
 have not charity, 1 am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling 
 cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand 
 
/ 
 
 all mysteries, and all knowledge ; and though I have all faith, so 
 that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 
 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I 
 give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me 
 nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind ; charity envieth not ; 
 charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself 
 unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh 
 no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth 
 all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 
 Charity never faileth : but whether there be prophecies,, they shall 
 fail ; whether there be tongues, they shall cease ; whether there be 
 knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part {i.e. ^partially, 
 or imperfectly), and we prophesy in part. But when that which is 
 perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 
 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I 
 thought as a child ; but when I became a man, I put away childish 
 things. For now we see through a glass darkly ; but then face to 
 face ; now I know in part ; but then shall I know even as also I 
 am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three ; 
 but the greatest of these is charity." 
 
 Yes, indeed. The greatest of all spiritual gifts is 
 Charity or Love. " Love is the fulfilling of the laiVy' 
 writes St. Paul to the Roman Christians, and all God's 
 commandments may be summed up in that one word. 
 " Love is of God" writes St. John, " and ez'cry one that 
 loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.'' " Love cover eth 
 a multitude of sins ^' writes St. Peter. Love is the best 
 preparation, this holy apostle tells us, for meeting the 
 Judge of the living and the dead. " The end of all 
 things is at hand. Be ye therefore sober, and watch unto 
 prayer. And above all things — (even above watching 
 and praying) — have ferve?it charity among yourselves. 
 The Greek word for fervent is a peculiarly strong one, 
 and not easy to be translated into English. We have no 
 exact equivalent for it. Bishop Wordsworth gives us 
 
" intense." It implies stretching out earnestly as far as 
 possible. It is used by St. Luke to describe our Re- 
 deemer's more earnest prayer in the Gethsemane agony 
 (xxii. 44) ; and to the prayer ivithout ceasing offered by 
 the Church for the imprisoned Peter (Acts xii. 5). By 
 St. Peter the word is twice appHed to Love or Charity. 
 " See that ye love one another with a pure h^diXi fen'ently 
 (i. 22). " Above all things have charity (says the apostle) 
 which stretches itself ont to the utmost limits amom^ your- 
 selves, for charity covereth a multitude of sins." 
 
 Oh, my brethren, what now am I to say to impress 
 this grace of Charity or Love on your hearts ? If you 
 have it not, what can I say to induce you to regard it as 
 the one pearl of great price, for the sake of which you 
 should sell all you have and seek for it until it be found ? 
 If you have it already, as I hope you have, more or less, 
 then how am I to heighten your admiration for so great 
 a grace, that you may pray to God for more of it, and 
 strive more than ever to practise it ? Perhaps only by 
 one wa}\ What that way is I shall tell you presently. 
 
 But first, let us understand rightly St. Peter's words. 
 I fear they are too often misinterpreted. Charity covereth 
 a multitude of sins. Whose Sins ? People are apt to 
 fancy that the Apostle is earnestly inculcating the grace 
 of Charity, because it compensates for many defects, — 
 atones, as it were, for many failings. But such is not 
 his meaning at all. He does not teach that Charity 
 covers a multitude of one^s own sins, or is a kind of meri- 
 torious substitute before God for a multitude of one's own 
 faults. Nor does he by any means teach that you are 
 to extend a forgiveness to, and an allowance for, yourself 
 which you deny to your neighbours, although this is a 
 
6 
 
 y . 
 
 very usual way of interpreting the aphorism, whether 
 intentionally or otherwise. It is, you know, common 
 enough for us all to let our charity to ourselves cover our 
 own sins in any niwiber. From ourselves, at all events, 
 we try to hide our own sins, when we cannot hide them 
 either from God or our neighbours. No ; neither of 
 these is the meaning of St. Peter. What he says is that 
 Charity covers a multitude oi sins of our brethren — sins of 
 our fellow- Christians ; not oi own sins, but the sins of 
 others. These are the sins a multitude of which true 
 charity covers over. 
 
 And again. What Sins ? Are we to understand 
 that our Charity is to cover up or hide such sins as 
 constitute criminal offences, public immorality, gross 
 profligacy, and those transgressions of Divine and human 
 law which, if not exposed, and if permitted to remain 
 unnoticed and uncensured, and unpunished by the State 
 or the Church, must tend to demoralize the community 
 and degrade the character of a Christian nation in its 
 honour, its virtue, its righteousness ? No, my brethren, 
 these are not the sins which our charity is to cover. The 
 Apostle, observe, does not say that Charity covers all 
 sins, vhough it covers a fnultitude of sins. There are, 
 undoubtedly, some sins which no charity should cover 
 or condone. There are some sins which, before God 
 and man, must be reprobated and denounced, and held 
 up to public view, that they may be by the public shunned 
 and dreaded as a plague spot, as poison. 
 
 But as a matter of fact, the words of St. Paul and 
 St. Peter show us plainly by their context what is meant. 
 That which both these inspired men are so strongly in- 
 culcating is love in daily life — love in the family circle — 
 
love as brethren ioivards brethren of the same household. 
 It is love exhibited in our everyday dealings one with 
 another ; love between Christian people placed in (jod's 
 good providence side by side on earth, in the same city, 
 in the same congregation, beneath the same roof. And 
 these people are all, and every one, more or less imper- 
 fect. They as yet know only in part, they as yet pro- 
 phesy only in part ; that is, all their knowledge of God's 
 truth and God's will is now partial or imperfect. They 
 are therefore, each and every one, continually making 
 mistakes of one kind or another. They are each and 
 every one more or less fallible and frail. They are certain 
 now and then to stumble nnd fall, while '* seeing through 
 a glass darkly y This means, seeing their Lord and His 
 truth only by means of a polished brass mirror — by a 
 reflection. The Corinthians were famous for the manu- 
 facture of these fine polished metal mirrors. There were 
 no such things in ordinary use as what we understand by 
 ^^ looking glasses." The Greek word implies something 
 not to be looked through, but looked in. And St. Paul's 
 metaphor is, that we Christians are now like persons 
 looking at their own or their friends' faces more or less 
 dimly, because only reflected on the surface of a polished 
 mirror of brass o^- silver. The time will come, indeed, 
 when we shall see the Lord and all who surround Him — 
 His very Sun-light Self, His Truth, His Love, and all 
 His glory, face to face, in their bright actual realities. 
 These we see now but darkly, reflected in the mirror of 
 Sacraments, and Scriptures, and Holy Ordinances — the 
 Moonlight of the Church. 
 
 Therefore, beir^g, as we are all, even the best of us, 
 seeing the Lord only dimly, knowing so imperfectly His 
 
 £ 
 
8 
 
 I: 
 
 lit i 
 
 Will and Word, we are prone to make mistakes, we are 
 prone to commit faults, we are prone to fall into manifold 
 errors ; we cannot help it. And these, even a multitude 
 of them, our charity or love must cover. With regard 
 to these, our charity must suffer long, and be kind. 
 With regard to these, our charity must never fail. Try 
 then, dear brethren, to keep in mind that the charity 
 inculcated by Christ's apostles is the common — ah I no, 
 alas ! I ought to say the un-common — virtue of 
 
 LOVE IN DAILY LIFE; — 
 
 Love in daily life, which bears with and should cover the 
 imperfections that are met with daily in husbands and 
 wives, in brothers and sisters, in sons and daughters, in 
 relatives and friends, in members of the same congrega- 
 tion, — aye, in pastor and people, dwelling together, 
 working together, and worshipping together, as brethren, 
 in the same religious household. 
 
 And surely, my friends, we need to have this truth 
 well and often pressed on our attention. Too sadly true 
 is it that there is an unfortunate disposition, both in 
 private and in public, to look out for our neighbours' 
 faults and flaws, and make the worst, instead of the best, 
 of them ; to expose and magnify occasional blunders, 
 petty weaknesses, deplorable failings arising from consti- 
 tutional infirmities, and this, instead of covering them 
 with silence or prayer or mercifully palliating them, 
 throwing over them the pall of Charity as over unsightly 
 dead things to be quickly buried. Well may the poet 
 
 cry — 
 
 " Alas ! for the rarity 
 Of Christian charity 
 
 Under the sun !" 
 
 BHa 
 
9 
 
 I. 
 
 Well may St. Paul say that this grace of love in daily life 
 is a far higher virtue before God than more brilliant gifts, 
 — gifts of lofty human eloquence, giits of angelic speech, 
 gifts of profound scientific attainments, even gifts of 
 deep spiritual learning, gifts of magnificent benevolence 
 and heroic sacrifice of self, even of life — the burning at 
 the stake ! Beyond all these, and higher and better 
 than all before God, is the grace of Charity, — love in 
 daily life — the love that covers a multitude or sins ! 
 
 And why ? Because this is the grace which most of 
 all forms the character for Heaven, as most ot all it 
 contributes to make a heaven of earth. It is the grace 
 that gives most happiness to the homes alike of the rich 
 and the poor ; the grace that lightens the labours of the 
 toiling husband and the careworn wife, of parents anxious 
 for their children, and of children, alas ! sometimes 
 anxious for their parents ; the grace that ennobles human 
 nature and raises it to the exalted level of the God of 
 Love, of Him whose love has covered, and daily covers, 
 the multitude of our many sins — yes, the multitude of 
 your many sins and mine, my dear fellow-sinners ! 
 
 It is now time for me, my friends, to ask you — as it 
 is my duty to ask — is this love, is this charity, yours ? 
 Does your charity (and I hope and believe you all have 
 more or less of this grace) habitually cover the sins of 
 others, a multitude of such sins as I have specified ? It 
 may sound paradoxical, but I may ask, does your charity 
 cover ^ indeed^ your own sins, but as habitually uncover 
 the sins of your neighbours, your relatives, your friends, 
 your fellow-worshippers, your clergyman I There are, 
 alas, unhappy people who seem to find delight in always 
 
10 
 
 •^ ii 
 
 uncovering those sins to which allusion has been made, 
 the petty failings and defects and weaknesses of all around. 
 Such people seem happy only when they can expose a 
 fault, repeat an almost forgotten scandal, or exhibit in 
 exaggerated guise a slander but half true. They take 
 pleasure in keeping open some old sore, or dragging into 
 notice again and again some old delinquency long ago 
 atoned for, perhaps bitterly repented. We all have 
 known such people who seem to enjoy holding up before 
 their eyes some old hasty expression, some foolish action, 
 some unkind remark, some unintentional affront, of 
 which the perpetrator, in all probability, has long been 
 heartily ashamed, and is now as hearti^ ' sorry. It makes 
 no matter to them. No length of time, and no amount 
 of retractation and apology and good-will can induce 
 these brother or sister fellow-Christians to cover the sin. 
 Keep it uncovered they will. They must have it alive, 
 or at any rate, not buried. They stand up its ghastly 
 skeleton before them when all the anivnis has long ago 
 vanished. It is like a chronic sore which they will allow 
 no bandage to hide, no ointment to mollify, but which 
 they will keep open, festering and painful, constantly 
 increasing the inflammatory action, that it may never, 
 never be cured ! We may all have known houses and 
 families in which, for months and months — aye, years — 
 husbands and wives, or brothers and sisters, were not on 
 speaking terms ; where there was so little of this blessed 
 Charity, thai eyes seemed eager only to discover and un- 
 cover every trifling failing, every casual slip, every chance 
 expression, confessedly foolish and unkind, and so the 
 house was turned into a hell, where the devils of discord 
 and hatred, of ill-temper, bad-humonr, and discontent, 
 
11 
 
 had it all their own way. And the worst of all this was. 
 thai perhaps at the beginning a word or two of kindness 
 and forbearance, a soft answer, nay, a look of love^ might 
 have covered up the sin and buried it out of sight for 
 ever. Ah ! my dear friends, too well we know how 
 quickly rusts the exposed hinge of the lid of love that 
 might and ought to cover, to shut down upon, the un- 
 happy fallings-out by the way between those who are 
 often most bound to cherish affection for one another ! 
 The hinge soon grows rustier and stiffer, and it becomes 
 harder, and at last almost impossible, to let down the lid 
 of love and cover the sin. Have we not often experi- 
 enced this ? Has it not often filled our hearts with sorrow 
 and the deepest regret? 
 
 And now, dear friends, how, think you, can we 
 counteract this unfortunate and uncharitable habit of 
 uncovering sins ? How, think you, ca.i we cultivate the 
 blessed grace of Charity ? — the charity of which the two 
 great aposiles write, and which they so earnestly enjoin 
 Charity — the very bond of peace and of all virtues? In 
 one way, at all events. Perhaps in no other way, as 
 certainly, in no better way. You will anticipate me. I 
 point you to the Charity of Jesus Christ. I ask you 
 to keep the love of Christ to yourselves, before your 
 minds, ever more and more. If anything will constrain 
 you to stretch out your love to a farther limit than 
 hitherto, and to go on stretching it out until it covers a 
 multitude of sins around, it is the thinking of, dwelling 
 upon, and endeavoring to imitate, the love of Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. His love, remember, not only to the 
 world at large, but His love, my dear brother, my dear 
 sister, to you — you yourself For you yourself, you know, 
 
12 
 
 has Jesus Christ laid down his life ; for you yourself He 
 came down from Heaven, and by wicked hands was 
 crucified and slain. To-day, His love for you yourself 
 is as great and as real as ever. To-day, for His love's 
 sake, He intercedes for you in Heaven, and warns you 
 and pleads with you on earth. To-day, for His love's 
 sake, at the beginning of another Lenten season. He 
 calls you to repentance and conversion, and asks you to 
 come and ''go up to Jerusalem " along with Him, and 
 there see His arms stretched out on the Cross of Calvary, 
 while He endures the punishment of your sins, and 
 covers them all with His precious blood, though they be 
 a multitude, which no man, not even you yourself, can 
 number. Surely, my brethren, we may join St. John 
 and say, " If God so loved us, we ong/it also to love one 
 atiotherr In spite of insults and scorn, and all manner 
 of reviling ; in spite of cruel torments and unutterable 
 agony, Jesus Christ prayed for His murderers, and He 
 died forgiving them. Even these sins His Iqve covered. 
 There He showed us, His disciples, how love could 
 cover a multitude of sins. All praise and glory be to 
 His holy Name ! 
 
 Now, my friends, go home, and think over what I 
 have been saying. I have no time to apply these words 
 any further, as 1 intended, referring them to errors in 
 our congregational, our church, our religious life, as well 
 as to errors in our daily secular and domestic life. I 
 have said enough to let you finish the application your- 
 selves, suggesting, as I conclude, just one question which 
 you may ask yourselves. Afid on your ktiees to-night I 
 would have you ask it, while the Holy Spirit helps you 
 to answer : 
 
13 
 
 " Does my charity— like the charity of my Saviour, 
 yesus Christ, to w^— cover a multitude of the sins 
 OF others ?" 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 Dear Reader, ' 
 
 If this Sermon commends itself to your con- 
 science, I would ask you now to kneel down and pray 
 the Quinquagesima Collect compiled by our Reformers 
 in 1549 for our English Book of Common Prayer, and 
 ever since offered by tens of thousands who desired to 
 possess and practise the greatest of great graces — 
 
 (Eharitg. 
 
 O Lord, Who Ijast taught us that all our doings 
 without charity are nothing worth : send Thy Holy 
 Ghost, and pour into our hearts {and especially my own 
 heart) that most excellent gift of Charity, the very bond 
 of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever 
 liveth is counted dead before Thee. Grant this for 
 Thine only Son, Jesus Christ's sake. Amen, 
 
14 
 
 ^^mtH'^vmjtx. 
 
 '■^ And now abidethfaith^ hope, charity ^ these three ; but the greatest 
 
 of these is charity, " 
 
 Gracious Sfirit, Holy Ghost, 
 . Taught by Thee we covet most 
 Of Thy gifts at Pentecost 
 Holy, heavenly Love. 
 
 Love is kind and sutfer.s long, ^ 
 
 Love is meek, and thinks no wrong, 
 Love than death itself more strong ; 
 Therefore, give us Love. 
 
 Prophecy will fade away, * - 
 
 Melting in the light of day ; 
 Love will ever with us stay ; 
 Therefore, give us Love. 
 
 Faith will vanish into sight ; 
 Hope be emptied in delight ; 
 Love in heaven will shine more bright : 
 Therefore, give us Love. 
 
 Faith and Hope and 1 ve we see 
 Joining hand in hand agree ; 
 But the greatest of the three 
 And the best is Love. 
 
 From the overshadowing 
 Of Thy gold and silver wing 
 Shed on us, who to Thee sing, 
 
 Holy, heavenly Love. Amen. 
 
't?J/