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SERMONS. 
 
LONDOK : 
 
 R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, 
 
 BRFAD STREET HILI. 
 
SEBMONS. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEOEGE JEHOSHAPHAT MOUNTAIN, D.P., D.C.T. 
 
 LATE BISHOP OF QUEBEC. 
 
 .PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OP THE SYNOD OP THE DIOCESE. 
 
 LONDON : 
 BELL AND DALDY, 186, FLEET STREET. 
 CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL, AND CO. 
 1865. ■ 
 

 4588 
 
 TH 
 
 I 
 
TO 
 
 THE SYNOD OF THE DIOCESE OF QUEBEC, 
 
 AND TO 
 
 THE CONGREGATION OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH, 
 (TO WHOM THESE SERMONS WERE ALL DELIVERED), 
 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 
 
 I 
 
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EDITOKS NOTE. 
 
 The Editor desires to express his regret at the delay, 
 occasioned by circumstances beyond his control, which 
 has occurred in the publication of this volume. He 
 has thought it better to give the Sermons as an earnest 
 of his desire to comply with the wish of the Synod, 
 so kindly conceived and expressed ; but he must ask for 
 further indulgence in order to be enabled to meet the 
 principal object of the subjoined resolution in a satis- 
 factory manner. The correspondence and documents 
 which he has already examined reach back beyond the 
 beginning of the present century, and it is obvious that 
 the work of selecting and condensing the materials 
 requires considerable time. He has only to add that 
 any profits which he may receive from the sale of this 
 volume wiU be given to the Labrador Mission Fund of 
 the Diocese of Quebec. 
 
6 
 
 Besolution 0/ tlie Synod of the Diocese of Quebec^ adopted at 
 its FiHh Session, July, 1863. 
 
 Moved by Rev. Henry Roe, * 
 
 Seconded hy Mr. Spragoe, 
 
 "That it is the earnest desire of the members of this 
 Synod that a memoir of our late beloved Bishop, the chief 
 ruler of the Church in Canada for so many eventful years 
 of her history, should bo published. 
 
 « That it is also the wish of tlie members of the Church 
 generally to possess some of the eloquent and admirable 
 sermons of that lamented Prelate. 
 
 "That, therefore, a Committee of three be named by the 
 chair to convey to the Rev. A. W. Mountain the unanimous 
 request of this Synod, that he should prepare such a Memoir, 
 and also publish one or more volumes of the Sermons of 
 the late Bishop; and that the Committee be also re- 
 quested to obtain subscribers to the Memoir and Sermons, 
 should it meet the wishes of Mr. Mountain to publish them 
 by subscription. 
 
 ) ! 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 The Trx Viroins— St. Matthew xxv. 1, 2 ...... . ""j 
 
 SERMON II. 
 Thk Judgment of Man— 1 Cor. iv. 3. 1 5 t^ 
 
 SERMON III. 
 The Burden of Dumah— Isaiah xxi. 11, 12 gS 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 The Unproductive Vineyard- Isaiah V. 1 39 
 
 SERMON V. 
 Compliance with Ordinances— Nahum i. 15 / 53 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 The Joy op Christmas— Acts viii. 8 .-- 
 
 67 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 Christ Coming to His OwN-St. John i. 10-13. . . go 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 The Punishment OF SoDOM-St. Luke xvii. 32, 33 .... 93 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 The History or JosEPH-Genesisxxxix. 1 . . jq^ 
 
 b 
 
J< 
 
 »f-«"**^-'- 
 
 ' -""X 
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 The Choice of Moses— Hebrews xi, 24, 25 . . . . ,. . . 122 
 
 SERMON XI. 
 The ThreefoliJ Witness ly Earth — 1 St. John v. 8 . . . 134 
 
 SERMON XII. ^ 
 
 The Prince of this "World— St. John xiv. 29—31 .... 148 
 
 SERMON XIII. , 
 Prayer— St. Luke xviii. 1 160 
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 The JouRNEYiifos of Isba.el a Type of the Christian 
 Pi LGE image— Dent. viii. 2, 3 "iTQ 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 Confirmation and the Sacraments — St. Lake i. 6 ... 191 
 
 SERMON XVI. 
 
 WouDS AND Thoughts Acceptable before God— Psalm xix. 
 14, 15 208 
 
 SERMON XVII. 
 The Mystery of Godliness — 1 Tim. iii. 10 ?20 
 
 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 Sins and Good Works Manifest beforehand—! Tim. v. 
 
 24, 25 233 
 
 SER!,ION XIX. 
 God in Creation and Providence— Isaiah xlv. 78 ... . 246 
 
SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON L 
 
 THE TEN VIRGINS. 
 St. Matt. XXV. 1, 2. 
 
 nm shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgv>is, which 
 tooK their lamps, mid went forth to r^et the bridegroom. And five of 
 them were wise, and five were foolish. , 
 
 The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, if they 
 were opened for the mere pui-pcses of inteUeetual 
 gratification or curious research, would not disappoint 
 the labour so bestowed upon them. Their force, their 
 originality, their genuine and simple pathos, ' their 
 ^mstudied and, at the same time, unequalled sub- 
 hmity-the very peculiar characteristics which attach 
 to them from the extreme antiquity of some portions 
 of the book, and from the connexion of all either with 
 the earliest history of the world, or with the manners 
 and usages of remote times and countries, stiU partially 
 prevaiHng or exhibiting their traces in the East,--all 
 these are sources opened to us in the Bible, which are 
 replete with interest and rich in information. 
 
 Thus, in the parable before us, the illustration is 
 drawn from a custom which was thoroughly familiar 
 
 B 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 \ 
 
 % 
 
 ■S^' 
 
 to the hearers of our Lord ; and it is related by some 
 travellers of modern times that in the matrimonial pro- 
 cession by the light of lamps or torches, which they 
 witnessed in certain parts of the world, the bearers of 
 these lights are provided with an apparatus for carrying 
 a fresh supply of oil to renew them when they begin 
 to fail. ^ 
 
 But let it be hoped that in reading the Word of God 
 we enter upon our task with higher feelings than these. 
 The place whereon we stand is holy ground. Whatever 
 be the views with which we explore the treasuries of 
 human science and learning, we must draw near to 
 Christ as He stands shadowed forth to us under the 
 old covenant, or is made palpable in the assumption of 
 our nature under the new, with the motives and con- 
 victions of those who said to Him, " Lord, to whom 
 shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life." 
 My brethren, let it be thus that we now examine 
 and personally apply to ourselves the parable of the 
 ten virgins, who go forth to meet the bridegroom. These 
 virgins we may consider as representing persons who 
 profess the Christian religion, — I do not mean profisscrrs 
 in a restricted sense, according to the phraseology of a 
 school, but aU, according to the language of our own 
 Liturgy, who profess and call themselves Christians. 
 Wise or foolish, these virgins all alike have their lamps 
 lighted, and fed with a sufficiency of oil to maintain the 
 present flame. The difference lies in this, that the wise 
 virgins had provided a reserve of oU, while this pre- 
 caution had been wholly overlooked by the foolish. 
 
 ..^..■4i«i5'*'-'«* 
 
THE TEN VIRGINS. 3 
 
 Tlie mere lighting of the lamps may be taken to sicmify 
 our adoption of Christianity, our reception into" the 
 Church of God by the rite of baptism, and our sub- 
 sequent recognition of that act by certain formal and 
 customary compliances. The reserve of oil, provided in 
 the other cases, denotes our homefelt reception of the 
 seed of the word of life into the heart, and our rooted 
 attachment to the principles of our religion; it denotes 
 our consistent fulfilment of our Christian obligations • 
 our improvement of that grace assured and conveyed tJ 
 us m the covenant of which we are first made partakers 
 m baptism ; our devout and inteUigent use of all the 
 continued means of that grace ; our constant subjection 
 to the living principle of faith in the Son of God • our 
 earnestcultivationof the/mV../^Ae Spirit, all goodmss 
 and righteousness, and truth: in short, our provided 
 condition, our state oi preparation for death and iudg- 
 ment, those awful events hanging over our destiny as 
 men which are represented by the uncertain coming of 
 the bridegroom. 
 
 The prominent lesson, therefore, of this parable is a 
 warning against the awful danger of indiiferenee and 
 carelessness in religion_a warning against that de- 
 plorable proneness which we see so extensively prevalent 
 among mankind, to neglect their/«< concern, the work 
 of preparation for another world ; to say to themselves 
 mce, when there is no peace," upon the one subject 
 ot supreme importance-their welfare in eternity. They 
 satisfy themselves, they indulge a feeling of security, 
 though in a state of actual difftculty and perU; they 
 
 b2 
 
 :# 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 suffer a fatal sloth to creep over their whole spiritual 
 man, and the seed of all spiritual life to be choked 
 in their breasts by the cares and the riches and the 
 pleasures of the world ; they lose all lively and effectual 
 remembrance of the fact that they have immortal souls, 
 and of the equally certain facts that those souls having 
 contracted sin, their only deliverance from the curse of 
 sin is in the remedies provided in the Gospel, their 
 only hope of profiting by those remedies is inseparably 
 coupled with their own watchfulness in duty and con- 
 stancy in prayer. All this they forget and keep out of 
 sight, as if it were something which did not belong to 
 them, or ■v<rhich they could afford to leave for a more 
 convenient season. In the meantime the Bridegroom 
 is coming ; and, behold ! He comes. They rise at the 
 midnight cry, but their lamps have gone out ; their oil 
 is expended, and where are they to look for more ? In 
 the suddenness of their terror and the agitation of their 
 distress, they fly to others in the hope of relief, but in 
 vain : the wise and provident can, in this case, make no 
 transfer of their store. 
 
 Men would fain reconcile, if it were possible, the 
 hope of eternal happiness in another world with the 
 full liberty of living as they please in this: they 
 shrink from the picture of so great a change — although 
 coupled with the message of mercy and all the promises 
 of grace and glory — as that of turning from their own 
 -way to the way of God ; they regard as an unwelcome 
 task the duty of humbling themselves before Him in 
 repentance, although that repentance be a gracious 
 
r a more 
 
 THE TEN VIEGINS. 5 
 
 work within them, the happy renewal of a poUnted 
 soul ; they revolt against the charge to deny themselves 
 and to take up their cross, although, even with respect 
 to their well-being in this life, sacrifices and acts of self- 
 denial are things plainly essential. The love of God 
 with the whole heart, and the love of their neighbour 
 as themselves, they treat as a %ht above them, and 
 abandon all idea of engaging in it, although, in truth, 
 these two principles are the ground-work of all that is' 
 good or really great among mankind. They do not 
 choose to be disturbed in their lazy acquiescence in the 
 practice and example of the world, although, by the 
 recorded confession of all ages, the world is vain, de- 
 ceitful, and corrupt, and, by the testimony of the faith 
 which they profess, its friendship is enmity against 
 God. They accept, in the place of the Gospel of Jesus 
 Christ, a kind of compromise and accommodation which 
 the world provides for its di^iples-a system of dis- 
 pensations by its infallible and sovereign authority 
 from things which the Bible very plainly requires. 
 " Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am 
 meek and lowly in heart," is the voice of their Saviour 
 and their Friend ; but it falls like the voice of a stranger 
 upon their ears. " Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise 
 from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." is a 
 sound which they hear, and then turn themselves round 
 to sleep again. They cannot be prevailed upon to look 
 upon this world as what it reaU/ ^ .-the school of their 
 traimng for the world to come ; the place of trial in 
 which good and evil, each with its corresponding results 
 
6 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 in another hour, offer themselves promiscuously to 
 their hands, the good often distasteful to immediate 
 inclination, and the evil perpetually in some seductive 
 disguise; a place, therefore, in which they are called 
 upon at all times to discriminate and to determine, to 
 choose with nicety and to reject with firmness. They 
 will not remember that they are afloat upon a stormy 
 sea, where it never can he a justifiable part to drive 
 before the wind and to leave things to themselves, but 
 where they must steer by the chart of Eevelation and 
 the compass of God's eternal truth. No! charm He 
 never so wisely, they refuse to listen to the voice of the 
 charmer. They would be willing enough to please God, 
 if they might take their own method of doing so, and 
 would very readily avail themselves of the tidings that 
 they have an inheritance in heaven, if the terms upon 
 which it is offered would only spare their pride and 
 self-indulgence while on earth. What they are called 
 to seems hard— what they must forego is what they are 
 fond of ; and they do not stay to hear of the promises 
 of succour from Him Whose strength is made perfect in 
 our weakness, or the motives, the springs of action 
 which are imparted, the privileges, the hopes, the 
 prospects which are conveyed, to every believer in the 
 great salvation of our God. All this they forget and 
 put away from their thoughts — it is something foreign 
 to the habit of their minds. Holy affections, spiritual 
 thoughts, earnest concern for their own salvation, love 
 to their fellow creatures for Christ's sake, zeal for the king- 
 dom of God, — these they may admit, when pressed upon 
 
THE TEN VIRGINS. 
 
 the subject, to be very necessary ; but, necessaiy as they 
 are, they do not heed them, till God, in just retribution 
 for their unthankful negligence, withdraws from them 
 the grace which they have despised, and leaves them to 
 be consumed by the enemies of their salvation. " I'rom 
 him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which 
 he seemeth to have." And thus, while they are blindly 
 groping for their way, they encounter the Bridegroom, 
 they are overtaken by " the great and dreadful day of 
 the Lord." 
 
 Turn, then, to the Lord while the day of salvation 
 lasteth, and "exhort one another daily, while it is 
 called to-day, lest any of you be hardened through the 
 deceitfulness of sin." But it is not only to the un- 
 awakened worldling or the frivolous child of vanity 
 that the parable addresses its note of caution and alarm/ 
 Its warnings, my brethren, come home to us all. While 
 the bridegroom tarried, they all, wise as well as foolish, 
 they all slumbered and slept. How truly, how undis- 
 guisedly does the Scripture show us to ourselves I 
 "What? could ye not watch with Me one hour?" is 
 the mild reproach which our Lord had occasion to 
 address to those who were His own closest adherents, 
 and who had just received His own particular and 
 pathetic charge, " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even 
 unto death : tarry ye here and watch!* Alas ! who can 
 say that he has not incurred the liability to many and 
 many a similar reproach from his Master ? that he has 
 not often been dull, and heavy, and unprepared for action, 
 in that service which should enlist all his energies, and 
 
 \ 
 
8 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 kindle all the fervour of his love ? Motives the most 
 spiritual, the most pure, the most exalted, are sometimes 
 found weaker in their power and less availing to endur- 
 'ttice and success than such as, at best, are mixed with 
 some baser alloy: the pride of system in the philo- 
 sopher ; the love of this world's applause and honour in 
 the man of ambition; the prostrate awe or the self- 
 righteous complacency of the superstitious devotee ; the 
 power of a meretricious excitement in the goaded mind 
 of the enthusiast ; the flattering effect of an exhibition 
 of gifts, in religious proceedings of a peculiar stamp,— 
 all these act more readily upon human nature than 
 principles of a higher order, removed from earthly con- 
 tact or animal sense ; and instances are known of their 
 producing effects which serve to reproach the disciples 
 of a better school. 
 
 This weakness of nature and deficiency of perform- 
 ance we cannot too freely or too feelingly acknowledge ; 
 but we must beware of turning the admission into an 
 excuse for any relaxation of our duty. Such a plea 
 could only aggravate our criminality. The conscious- 
 ness of weakness should be the very incentive to our 
 standing upon the guard, and exercising the more 
 earnestness in seeking that grace which we are expressly 
 taught to be ^^ufficient for us. Blessed indeed are those 
 servants, who rise so well above the infirmities of natures 
 that their lamps may almost be said to be always 
 trimmed and burning brightly ; whom their Lord, come 
 when He will, shall find watching. Blessed are they 
 who, like the apostle, know both how to be abased and 
 
THE TEN VIEGINS. 
 
 9 
 
 how to abound, and have learnt to use this world as 
 not abusing it; who, in all changes of this lower 
 atmosphere, protect and preserve their faith, as it were, 
 in its freshness and its flower ; who in all varieties of 
 fortune, in all circumstances of human life, maintain 
 their independence of the things on the earth, and keep 
 themselves unspotted from earthly defilement; who 
 enter into the warfare of the world and sustain their 
 appointed part in its ^affairs; who mix in its business, 
 who thankfully enjoy its comforts, if bestowed upon 
 them, who fulfil all the claims of civil duty, and dis- 
 charge all the courtesies of social intercourse, but whose 
 treasure is not here, whose hope is laid up with Him 
 that seeth in secret, who tmly regard themselves as 
 strangers and pilgrims upon earth, and feel their home 
 to be in the house of their Master above, gone before 
 to prepare a place for them, that where He is, th.re 
 they may be also. 
 
 We are warned also in this parable, as in so many 
 other lessons from the word of God, against the danger 
 of delay. Woe be to him who shifts over to the day of 
 sickness and the bed of death that work which ought 
 to be the work of his whole Ufe. Men may be received 
 at the eleventh hour who can plead that no man has 
 hired them before ; but will this precedent avaU those 
 who from the morning, and all the day through, have been 
 called into the vineyard, and stood idle stiU ? We do 
 not set limits to the grace of God ; but it is rare, indeed, 
 that those who have trifled away their happy opportuni- 
 ties of serving Him through Hfe effectually turn to Him 
 
10 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 ' 
 
 i.i I 
 
 at its close ; and often, where some seeming symptoms of 
 conversion, with prompters, possibly more zealous than 
 judicious, busy round the couch, have served in human 
 judgment to maTce out the case, it may be feared that it 
 is a hollow and fallacious hope. Many such supposed 
 conversions, in the prospect of death, have been lament- 
 ably falsified by an unexpected recovery or a reprieve 
 from the last sentence of the law. But even for such a 
 conversion as this, who can presume upon being indulged 
 with the opportunity ? Who can say that he shall not 
 be surprised by a call too sudden for the slightest pre- 
 paration ? Hurry and consternation are pictured to us 
 as the only portion of those who had left themselves 
 unprovided with a reserve of oil. At midnight there is 
 a cry made, " The bridegroom cometh : go ye out to 
 meet him." Will there be time given, after that cry, to 
 prepare ? Will death or judgment accommodate them- 
 selves to the procrastinations of the infatuated sinner ? 
 
 hang off till he is ready, and has had space io go through 
 some exhibition of repentance ? It is to the coming of 
 Christ to judgment that the parable appears particularly 
 to point; but this warning and all similar warnings 
 have precisely the same force when considered with 
 reference to our own death— for we all know that as 
 death leaves us, judgment will find us. We are so far 
 from having any warrant from the word of God to de- 
 clare the time of judgment, that its being kept from us 
 is a conspicuous feature of His dealings with us, and one 
 to which our attention is pointedly directed ; the utter 
 uncertainty of the period being again and again urged 
 
THE TEN VIRGINS. 
 
 11 
 
 as a special motive for constant preparation. But 
 whether it be far off or near, judgment is coming; and 
 death, which is always near, requires the very same pre- 
 paration as if death and judgment were simultaneous. 
 That we all confess, my brethren— it is a very familiar 
 and a veiy common-place admonition ; but do we all 
 lay it effectually to heart ? Let us remember that our 
 negligence and carelessness in this point are rendered 
 the more inexcusable if occurrences themselves are so 
 ordained to fall that they read us a special lesson, that 
 they preach to us with a voice of power, upon the sub- 
 ject. And have we not— it is not my intention to 
 particularize, nor yet to indulge in descriptive touches 
 which work upon the susceptible feelings of nature— 
 but have we not, looking back upon the past summer, 
 and looking round upon the mourners who go about our 
 streets, and thinking of what has now freshly happened 
 in the highest quarter known within the land— have we 
 not had warning upon warning, alike solemn and tender, 
 to teach us not only how old and long-respected mem- 
 bers of our community will, one by one, drop off, but 
 how death may be close to any of us in unlooked-for 
 shapes— how scenes of preparation for festivity and 
 promised happiness may be changed in a moment to 
 scenes of overwhelming sorrow— how families may be 
 bereaved by one short stroke of their earthly stay— how, 
 by some sudden casualty or the rapid action of some' 
 fatal disease, the sunshine of the domestic circle may be 
 darkened by the gloom of death, and fair hopes and 
 fondly made calculations of our earthly future shattered 
 
12 
 
 SEBMON L 
 
 at once into nothing ?* Let us, then,— returning to the 
 general thought tliat our preparation for judgment and 
 our preparation for death are one and the same, and that 
 the latter may, at any instant, surprise us— possess our 
 minds with these ideas : let us figure to ourselves that 
 the universal crash of nature and the general doom of 
 the world were to come suddenly upon us. Let us sup- 
 pose that now, at this moment, those "things which 
 shall be hereafter," and in which we must rise to have 
 
 our part, were to burst upon our astonished sight, 
 
 that, far more terrible than the nightly alarm of fire, far 
 more hopeless than shipwreck, far more appalling than 
 the rending earthquake, the conflagration of "the great 
 globe itself," the rapid dismemberment and absolute de- 
 struction of the whole frame of the universe, of the 
 whole visible workmanship of God, were to begin, to 
 come near us, to shake the spot where we stand ; and to 
 threaten, like an irresistible tornado, to whirl us in 
 among the fragments of creation. Are we prepared? 
 Can we be glad and full of hope ? Do we feel that our 
 treasure is laid up in heaven? that we shall be caught 
 up to meet the Lord, and to be ever with Him ? And of 
 all the pride, the pomp, the property,— of all ' ^ ^'ndnl- 
 gences, the vanities, the means of pleasure,- ff di the 
 fabrics of human industry, the contrivances of skill, the 
 subjects of eager contention, the materials for sagacious 
 speculation or laborious research which have now served 
 their Jif pnmted end, and, condemned by the fiat of God, 
 are ps-i bin.'? in the ruin which thunders round us,— 
 * Preached in the autumn of 1859. 
 
THE TEN VIRGINS, 
 
 13 
 
 of all these is there nothing to which our strongest 
 hopes and dearest affections are linked so closely as 
 to be involved in their destniction ? Once more, are 
 we prepared ? or have we left our preparation for that 
 hour of confusion and alaim ? Alas ! how shall we 
 make it thrn. in an hour when "the kings of the earth, 
 and tho great men, and the mighty men, and the 
 rich men, and the chief captains, shall hide themselves 
 in dens, and shall say to the mountains and rocks. 
 Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that 
 sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb—" 
 (how much is conveyed in that expression, the wrath of 
 the Lamb, and how high must be the provocation, how 
 deep the curse of unpardoned sin, when the very- 
 emblem of gentleness, and the willing victim offered in 
 expiation for a guilty world, is represented as incensed ?) 
 " Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that 
 sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb : 
 for the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall 
 be able to stand?" No possible resource will then 
 remain to those who have not profited by their day of 
 grace on earth. Vain will be the appeal, as we have 
 already seen, " Give us of your oil, for our lamps have 
 ^one out." Vain will be the expedient suggested, " Go 
 ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves." 
 "Every man shall bear his own burthen." Money 
 can purchase no exemptions: the Church has no 
 market of indulgences, no deposit of unappropriated 
 saintly merits, which (however they may pass current 
 in this world) can be turned to account in the other for 
 
14 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 ; I 
 
 S 
 
 w 
 
 those who have forfeited their interest!, ^lirist. Souls 
 are ransomed, as we are told by an apostle, " not witn 
 corruptible things, as silver and gold, bat with the 
 precious blood rf Christ, as of i lamb without blemish 
 and without spot." " While they went to buy, the bride^ 
 groom came. And they that were ready --^ent in vdth 
 him to t!ie marriage, and the do(yr was shut. And after- 
 wards came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, 
 open to us. But He answered and said, Verily I know 
 you not." horrible and hopeless exclusion, to be for 
 ever disowned by Him who died for us, for ever shut 
 out from blessedness and peace, for ever condemned to 
 suffer the wrath of God ! Prepare, then, my brethren- 
 prepare even now for aU which lies beyond this little 
 life. Do you believe in God ? I will borrow the answer 
 furnished in a similar kind of case by the Apostle, " I 
 know that you believe." Do you regard yourselves as 
 beings made to live for ever? do you admit that you 
 can look for salvation through the blood of Christ 
 alone ? do you seriously consider as realities all that 
 is told you in the Bible of sin, of Satan, of grace, of 
 prayer, of the sacraments, of the inspiration of Scripture, 
 and finally of the resurrection, and judgment, and the 
 Hfe of the world to come ? suffer not then your lamp 
 to go out in darkness, suffer not the light of these awful 
 truths, which should guide your steps in safety, to be 
 obscured and smothered ; suffer not the tumult of public 
 life, the business, the entanglements, the allurements of 
 the world, its mixed and multiplied pursuits, its com- 
 forts or its gaieties (for I do not speak of those plain 
 
THE TEN VIKGINS. 
 
 15 
 
 gross, broad, positive sins which have sway enough 
 within it,) so to occupy your immortal souls that you 
 must bo said to serve the world rather than to serve God. 
 Men and brethren, are these things so? Are we to 
 be either as the angels of God in heaven, or to be the 
 associates of condemned spirits in that place between 
 which and heaven there is fixed a great and impassable 
 gulf? The question is one which might rouse within 
 us some feeling of concern, and prompt us to ascertain 
 whether we are really in the broad or in the narrow 
 way. "Examine yourselves," then, my brethren, with 
 all the closeness of scrutiny, with all the deep and 
 conscientious earnestness of purpose, which so awful 
 an inquiry demands ; "examine yourselves whether ye 
 be in the faith : prove your own selves." 
 
f^ 
 
 ', . » 
 
 }](! 
 
 Fi; 
 
 I 
 
 11 
 
 "il 
 
 SERMON 11. 
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF MAN. 
 
 1 Cor. IV. 3, 4, 5. 
 
 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, 
 or of man's judgment : yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know 
 nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified : but he thatjudgeth 
 7m is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the titne, until the 
 Lord come, Who both will bring to light the hidden things ofdarMcss, 
 and will make manifest the coumels of the hearts: and then shall every 
 man havejpraise of God. 
 
 The fallibility of human judgment is a point which we 
 need not labour to prove. No man denies or can deny 
 it. The very fact that men dififer to an infinite extent, 
 and in every conceivable variety of shade, in the views 
 which they adopt upon the same subject, placed in the 
 same way and under the same lights before their eyes, 
 when coupled with the consideration that their opinions 
 cannot all be right ; that, in truth, that one only can be 
 so which corresponds with the exact reality of the case, 
 while all of them, very often, are proved, in the result, 
 to be totally wrong, this fact, when coupled with this 
 consideration, is of itseK enough. And every person 
 who has reached a certain age must be conscious of 
 many changes which have taken place in his own 
 opinions, many instances in which he has reversed 
 his own previous judgment upon men and things. The 
 unfavourable ideas respecting individuals or parties in 
 
 1 lii 
 
THE JUDGMENT OP MAN. 17 
 
 a community which are formed in other minds, are 
 based, very commonly, upon some prejudice which 
 refuses to discriminate ; upon some envious calumny 
 which has never been examined j upon some suspicious 
 appearance from which an unjust conclusion is hastily 
 formed ; upon the influence of some interfering private 
 interests, or of some offence conceived which creates a 
 feeling of dislike, and engenders a spirit of miscon- 
 stmction. And men, when it suits them, when it 
 serves their advantage, when it conspires with some 
 new indulgence of their passions, when they unite 
 agamst a common antagonist, or perchance when they 
 are warmed together in scenes of convivial good fellow- 
 ship, will as strangely pass round to a new opinion as 
 they had rashly adopted its opposite. The wind shifts 
 and they shift with it. The proverbial inconstancy and 
 fickleness of the multitude are said to have been re- 
 markably exemplified in the case of an niustrious 
 commander of our own country, who, upon being 
 greeted on a public occasion by the most enthusiastic 
 acclamations, significantly pointed (as the report goes) 
 to his own mansion, which bore the sufficiently recent 
 marks of popular violence, prompted by hostUe feelings 
 iof which he was the object. And this variableness of 
 ithe cr,^d may be matched in the circles of society 
 which are above them, and in the individuals of whom 
 tJiose circles are composed. 
 
 Men, therefore, in the survey of all this, who affect 
 a certam philosophy of character, despise and disdain 
 or wish it to be thought that thev despise ^r^d d-dain 
 
I ■] 
 
 :'f 
 
 I 
 
 !■ 
 
 I 
 
 t 
 
 I 
 
 ! ;4 5 
 
 i 
 
 18 
 
 SERMON II, 
 
 the opinion of the world, and, in some instances, pro- 
 fessedly set it at defiance. It is not in such a temper 
 that the Apostle is speaking when he tells the Corinth- 
 ians that he held it to be a very small matter, with 
 reference to the estimation of his ministry, " to be judged 
 of them or of man's judgment." He insists much, in 
 different places, upon the importance to ministerial 
 usefulness of avoiding all needless offence, and pre- 
 serving, so far as might be compatible with the 
 unshrinking discharge of duty and the maintenance of 
 consistent principle, a good name among men, and 
 conciliating their respect and good-will. But the praise 
 of men for its own sake, or their verdict, favourable or 
 unfavourable, as the test of solid excellence and the 
 touchstone of fidelity before God— these are what he 
 would utterly repudiate. He knew well that, in many 
 cases, " that," in the words of Christ Himself, " which is 
 highly esteemed among men, is abomination in the sisht 
 of God ;" and he remembered that the same voice had 
 denounced woe to the disciples, on the one hand, when 
 all men should speak well of them, and proclaimed 
 blessing, on the other, when they should be reviled 
 and persecuted, and all manner of evil should be said 
 against them falsely for their Master's sake. 
 
 The principle, therefore, which he means to establish 
 is his independence of any human judgment as a guide 
 in the execution of his solemn trust— his direct and 
 single reference to the will and pleasure of God, in 
 ascertaining the line which he was to follow and adher- 
 ing to it. And he proceeds to say, "Yea, I judge not 
 
THE JUDGMENT OF MAN. 
 
 la 
 
 mine own self "—I do not set up my poor human judo-, 
 ment upon my own doings as the ultimate criterion of my 
 acceptance before God. Whatever I hope, my hope is 
 founded upon His promise in Christ, and the conviction 
 which I do enjoy that, notwithstanding my faults, 
 known or unknown to myself, I have received mercy to 
 be faithful. Upon these words, " Yea, I judge not mine 
 own self," we find, in antiquated but pithy language, 
 the following marginal note, in our own earlier transla- 
 tion of the Bible :— " How can you judge how much or 
 how little I am to be accounted of, seeing that I myselfe, 
 which knowe myselfe better than you doe, and which 
 dare professe that I have walked in my vocation with 
 a good conscience, dare not yet, notwithstanding, chal- 
 lenge anything to myselfe; for I know that I afn not 
 unblamable, all this notwithstanding; much lesse, there- 
 fore, should I please myselfe as you doe." 
 
 The Apostle then adds the words, " For I know nothing 
 by myself "—i e. as will appear at once to those who may 
 : consult the original, I am not conscious within myself 
 j of being open to any charge against me ; "yet am I not 
 j hereby justified." Upon these last words we may here 
 take in the remark of an excellent commentator of the 
 llast century. The Apostle, he observes, doth not here 
 |(in the words " yet am I not hereby justified " following 
 |upon the declaration of his standing free from reproach) 
 '* intend to say that he and others could have no good 
 lassurance of their present justification and favour with 
 |God from the testimony of an upright conscience, 
 •-vhich, saith St. John (in his first Epistle), gives ' con- 
 
 c2 
 
!■ 
 
 Ml 
 
 1 1 
 
 20 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 M 
 
 I 
 
 : I 
 
 ill! ^ 
 
 fidence toward God ; ' for then farewell all joy aiid 
 comfort in this world ! He doth himself assure us, in 
 his second Epistle to the Corinthians, that their 're- 
 joicing' was this, the testimony of their conscience, that 
 in simplicity and godly sincerity they had their conversa- 
 tion in the world. He adviseth all men, in writing to 
 the Galatians, to * approve ' their actions to themselves, 
 and then shall they have rejoicing in themselves alone, 
 and not in another. His meaning, therefore, is, that 
 our final justification, or absolution from condemnation, 
 depends, not upon the judgment which we pass upon 
 ourselves, but upon that which God the righteous Judge 
 will pass upon us." 
 
 The doctrine of justification by faith, upon which 
 this Apostle so largely and fervently insists, is not his 
 direct and immediate subject in the passage which we 
 are here considering ; but it is so necessarily involved 
 in this part of his argument, and so obviously suggested 
 by the words which we have just noticed, that we shall 
 naturally rest for a moment upon a familiar and prac- 
 tical contemplation of it. And it will be well if we all 
 take occasion to examine, upon this score, our own 
 personal state of relations with our God. 
 
 " How should man be just with God ? " There is 
 many an unthinking sinner to whom the import of this 
 question gives no concern. " God is not iiv all his 
 thoughts," and he scarcely remembers that he has a 
 soul. There are others of a cast somewhat more re- 
 flecting, who admit into their contemplations some 
 sense of human responsibility above, and the necessity | 
 
 • ;l 
 
THE JUDGMENT OF MAN. 21 
 
 of preparation for judgment ; but, unlike the pattern 
 of our text, judge of themselves (although with some 
 confused and imperfect acceptance, perhaps, of the 
 doctrme of atonement, as a dogma belonging to the 
 system which they profess) that they are, in th^melvPs. 
 sufiaciently prepared. They are strangers to all the 
 misgivings of a humble spirit, to all the apprehensions 
 of a tender conscience ; they say that they have need 
 of nothing, and cannot enter into the conception of 
 those views and feelings which, in the veiy fulness 
 which he often and strongly expresses of conscious 
 integrity and faithfubiess, could prompt the prayer of 
 our Apostle to be "found," in the day of account, not 
 having his " own righteousness, but that which is through 
 the faith of Christ," or which could dictate the language 
 of the Psalmist, "Who can tell how oft he offendeth? 
 O cleanse thou me from my secret faults. If thou. Lord 
 wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss, Lord whc 
 may abide it ? Try me, God, and seek the ground of 
 my heart : prove me, and examine my thoughts : look 
 weU if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead 
 , me m the way everlasting." To lament the degeneracy 
 of their nature, to sigh under the sense of their own 
 con-uption, to feel their hourly need of mercy, grace, 
 and light, are emotions which they do not recognise 
 and sentiments which are foreign to the frame of their 
 [mmds. 
 
 But if they are exempt from any trouble about the 
 sinfulness of their nature, or any self-i^proach for the 
 [imperfections of their service, are they thprpfore happy' 
 
22 
 
 SEEMON II. 
 
 Happy ? Can men be happy wlio are not in a condition 
 to appreciate the Gospel, — who do not know the proper 
 meaning of its bringing good tidings of great joy, — who 
 are unacquainted with that joy and peace in believing, 
 which are founded upon a true reception of Christ and 
 His salvation, — who read without any experimental 
 response in their own bosoms to the force and interest of 
 the words, such passages as, " Look how high the heaven 
 is in comparison of the earth, so great is His mercy also 
 toward them that fear Him : look how wide also the east 
 is from the west, so far hath He set our sins from us 1 " 
 Happy ? no ! happiness is not, cannot be their portion 
 here or hereafter. They have built their whole fabric 
 with untempered mortar ; it will fall in the storm, and 
 great and sad will be the fall thereo£ 
 
 The real wants of the soul of man before God appear 
 often in the awakened consciousness, the lively recog- 
 nition of those wants, which take, in default of better 
 guidance, a blind direction, and prompt a recourse to 
 the miserable devices of human superstition. It would 
 be easy to bring examples (and examples of the most 
 shocking description), from the records of Paganism, of 
 effects proceeding from an unappeasable remorse for 
 particular crimes, or from a pervading gloomy terror 
 of an exacting justice above us, or from the delirious 
 imagination of purchasing peace and privilege by self- 
 inflicted tortures or voluntary death. The voice of 
 bewildered nature testifies, in all these instances, to the 
 inherent want of expiation for sin. But it may be 
 useful to look for examples in Christian communities, 
 
THE JUDGMENT OF MAN. ^ 
 
 23 
 
 where the faith of the Cross has been obscured by the 
 additions of men ; and there are two which here offer 
 themselves very similar to each other, and both suffi- 
 ciently striking in their character. The first is that of 
 H^nault, a popular French poet, of a licentious and 
 irreligious vein, in the seventeenth century, who, be^ 
 coming alarmed at the approaches of dissolution, wanted, 
 if the confessor had not, in this instance, been wise 
 enough to prevent it, to receive the viaticum or sacra- 
 ment with a halter about his neck, upon the floor of 
 his bed-chamber. The other is that of Lulli, a cele- 
 brated musician and composer of operas, the cotemporary 
 and countryman of H^nault, who, under the expectation 
 of death, consented, upon the demand of his spiritual 
 adviser, to burn the last of his compositions ; but the 
 appearance of danger passing off, declared jestingly that 
 he had taken care to preserve a copy ; and then relaps- 
 ing and being actually upon his death-bed, sufi'ered the 
 utmost pangs of remorse, and submitted, it is said in 
 the narrative to which I refer, to be laid upon a heap 
 of ashes, with a cord about his neck. In this situation, 
 it is added, he expressed a deep sense of his late trans- 
 gression, and being replaced in his bed, he, farther to 
 expiate his offence (observe that expression, my brethren), 
 sung to an air of his own composing, the following 
 words, "You must die, sinner; you must die." The 
 want which was felt by these unhappy men was the 
 same which was felt by the thief upon the cross, when, 
 not trusting to the expiatory effect of his own disgrace 
 and sufferings, but looking in true penitence and faith 
 
'■I 
 
 t 
 
 
 24 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 to the only quarter in which relief could be found, he 
 received the assurance from the lips of his Lord, " To- 
 day shalt thou be with Me in paradise." 
 
 The thief had no opportunity granted of evincing the 
 genuineness of his faith and repentance by a reformed 
 life. Had his life been prolonged, as is pointed out, 
 after one of the fathers, in our own Homilies, this proof 
 must have been afforded, or his hope would have been 
 forfeit, — and in all correct apprehension whatever of 
 an established state of grace before God, that conscious 
 rectitude of principle, and that careful fulfilment of duty 
 which the Apostle asserts for himself, must combine 
 with the sense of peace and reconciliation through Christ 
 and with the reposing of our cause in His hands alone. 
 Who is " able to keep that which we commit to Him 
 against that day." Men are apt most dangerously to 
 separate what ought to be thus combined, and they do 
 so in different ways. One will be found appealing to 
 his honourable conduct and correct moral deportment, 
 which supersede in his own self-deceiving estimate the 
 necessity of his coming as a helpless and undone sinner 
 before God ; another will be profuse in disclaimers of 
 his own righteousness, and affirm for himself an ab- 
 solutely and sensibly assured interest in the merits of 
 the blessed Redeemer, while he is so deplorably defec- 
 tive in some plain and common duties, as to prove, after 
 all, his rottenness of faith. 
 
 As a practical inference from the fallacy of human 
 judgment, whether having ourselves or other men for 
 its object, the Apostle, with reference to the latter case, 
 
THE JUDGMENT OP MAN. 
 
 25 
 
 gives us the charge, "Therefore judge nothing before 
 the time, until the Lord -come, Who both will bring to 
 light the hidden things of darkness, and will make 
 manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall 
 every man have praise of God." 
 
 It is hardly necessaiy to point out those limitations 
 with which the charge must be understood, to judge 
 nothing before the time, until the Lord come. Men 
 are called upon officially to investigate, to pronounce 
 upon the conduct of others, and to deal with them 
 accordingly. And, in ordinary life, we witness familiar 
 exemplifications of what the Apostle tells us, that " some 
 men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment." 
 These are evidently cases which do not fall within the 
 prohibition of the text; but even in these we should 
 exercise a spirit of charity and allowance, a spirit which 
 rejoiceth not in iniquity. And in all that immense range 
 which is taken by our judgments, extending itself over the 
 diversified field of religion, politics, common transactions 
 of the day, common social intercourse, mutual relations 
 in lifo,--we should carry about with us the spirit of 
 charitable construction, which " hopeth all things, and 
 believeth all things." We should, in this point, as in 
 others, equip ourselves for travelling through this thorny 
 world, by "having our feet shod with the preparation of 
 the Gospel of peace." We should remember that we are 
 the disciples of One Whose own characteristic it was, 
 that He did " not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither 
 reprove after the hearing of His ears;" and Whose injunc- 
 tions are in our hands, "Judge not, that ye be not 
 
 ^•••■»T^v^P~«^»i*;* fi«Jii«»4t-.', 
 
( i 
 
 ]! 
 
 26 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 li'l 
 
 il 
 
 i 
 
 I' 
 
 
 judged ; condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned ;" 
 and again, " Judge not according to the appearance, but 
 judge righteous judgment." Appearance how often de- 
 ceitful, and injuriously deceitful, yet how often, in a 
 manner, greedily laid hold of, to gratify the malice or to 
 ftirnish food for the mere gossip of the world ! How 
 often are false impressions thus propagated abroad, to 
 the prejudice of our fellow-creatures, left perhaps for 
 ever uncorrected in this world ; or like the formal pro- 
 ceedings of some foreign tribunals, in times which have 
 gone by,* corrected by a tardy justice rendered to the 
 memory of those who suffered all their lives under mis- 
 representation. And in how many ways do men mis- 
 judge each other ! how unadvisedly, how rashly, do they 
 pronounce by tests established within their own party, 
 upon the spiritual state and safety of their brethren ! 
 
 " Thinkest thou," says our Apostle in addressing the 
 Romans, " thou that judgest another, thinkest thou that 
 thou shalt escape the judgment of God?" "Judge 
 nothing before the time," then, " until the Lord come." 
 Leave it to Him, in all cases which admit of doubt, 
 to " bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and to 
 make manifest the counsels of the heart." " For He 
 cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth." " But who 
 may abide the day of His coming, and who shall stand 
 when He appeareth ? " think, then, brethren, upon your 
 own preparation ; look into your own hearts, consciences, 
 and lives ; forbear to judge other men, but in this sense do 
 
 * See the Causes c4Uhres. These reversals, however, were after the 
 infliction of death itself ; at least in many, if not all, of the cases. 
 
 
THE JUDGMENT OF MAN. 
 
 27 
 
 judge yourselves, that ye be not judged of tlie Lord. If 
 you have fought a good fight, if you are in the way 
 rightly to finish your course, if you have kept the faith, 
 preserved unblemished the faith which looks to Christ! 
 and Christ alone for salvation, then judgment is nothing 
 terrible to you. Then you will be numbered among 
 those who, whatever may have been the judgment 
 passed upon them in the world, will have praise of God, 
 your poor services being accepted in the Beloved. Then 
 J m will love His appearing, and in and through Him 
 you will receive the crown of righteousness, and enter 
 upon the "inheritance, incorruptible, and undefiled, and 
 that fadeth not jiwtiy," 
 
n 
 
 
 ;ui; 
 
 I 1: 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 THE BURDEN OF DUMAH. 
 Isaiah XXI. 11, 12. 
 
 The burden of Duinah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, 
 what of the night ? Watchman, what of the night 1 
 
 The Watchman said, The morning cmneth, and also the night: if ye 
 will enquire, enquire ye : return, come. 
 
 The prophetic denunciation of heavy judgments from 
 the hand of God is familiarly called in Scripture a lurden 
 —as when Jehu, the appointed instrument of executing 
 the divine purpose against the house of Ahab, having 
 shot King Jehoram, commands Bidkar, his captain, to 
 take him up and cast him in the portion of the field of 
 Naboth, the Jezreelite. For remember, he adds, " liow 
 that when I and thou rode together after Ahab his 
 father, the Lord laid this Urden upon him,"— namely, 
 that the blood of Naboth should be requited in this 
 plat. And thus in the continuous utterance of prophecy 
 after prophecy, against many cities and countries, we have 
 as the introductory title in the several cases, the hurden 
 of Moab, the hurden of Damascus,' the hurden of Egypt, 
 the hurden of the VaUey of Vision, i.e. of Jerusalem, the 
 scene of many visions, occupying a valley among the 
 mountains, and the hurden of other places. In the 
 midst of this catalogue stands the hurden of Dumali,— 
 
THE BURDEN OF DUMAH. 
 
 29 
 
 manifestly the same place, in such variation of the word 
 as constantly occurs in proper names, as Idumca or 
 Edom, the seat of the posterity of Esau, since the voice 
 of enquiry is immediately said to proceed from the 
 mountains of Seir, where Esau himself had planted the 
 race. " He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what 
 of the night ? Watchman, what of the night ? " • 
 
 The watchman set upon the tower to report the 
 motions of the enemy, and to sound an alarm upon the 
 approach of danger, represents here, as in other places, 
 the messenger of God commissioned to warn a thought- 
 less and guilty world. The Edomites, involved in 
 gloomy circumstances, and not knowing what mischiefs 
 may be coming upon them in the darkness of the 
 future— or, as others explain it, referring scornfully to 
 the situation and prospects of the people of God, to 
 whom they stood in the relation of hereditary enemies, 
 —are pictured as enquiring from the watchman the 
 news of the night. To this enquiry the answer is 
 made, " The morning cometh and also the night : if ye 
 will enquire, enquire ye : return, come,"— words which 
 may be understood in some such way as this : you seem 
 to be full of anxious curiosity in the night, and you 
 are looking for morning ; the morning will come, and 
 another night will follow ; but both may be alike charged 
 with perils ; if you are sincere in seeking instruction, 
 and seek it in order to being guided by it, returii to the 
 God of Israel, Whom you have deserted, and coine to the 
 fountain of hope and mercy; or thus. Come again* if 
 
 * Old translation. 
 
30 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 i, 
 
 II 
 
 H 
 
 i ( 
 
 ^ li 
 
 
 
 you now enquire in a proper and humble spirit, and you 
 shall then have a favourable answer. \ 
 
 This is perhaps as correct an explanation as we are 
 able to give of the original meaning of a passage which 
 is not without its obscurity. Let us now consider it in 
 that allowable adaptation of which it is susceptible to 
 our own case and the general case of mankind, and see 
 whether it will not suggest some train of thought which 
 is appropriate to the present season of the ecclesiastical 
 year, in which we are specially reminded to seek the 
 grace of God, that we may cast away the works of 
 darkness, and put upon us the armour of light. 
 
 "We who stand at the altar and occupy the pulpit are, 
 without any pretensions to the prophetic character, in 
 the Scriptural language of our own Ordination Service, 
 the messengers, stewards, and watchmen of the Lord. 
 And we hold our station in a world which by nature 
 lieth in darkness and the shadow of death. The morn- 
 ing Cometh. We descry and we proclaim Him Who, in 
 His own words, is the bright and morning star, and the 
 light of the world ; Who is also described as the Sun of 
 Eighteousness Who arises with healing in His wings 
 radiant with open mercy and wide-spread love, and at 
 once sheltering and vivifying a sickened world. Men 
 want to know something about God and the world 
 unseen. They must have a religion of some sort, and 
 false religions, we know, have been invented for them, 
 without end, to meet this innate desire. They grope 
 about for some assurance ; they catch at what can be 
 gathered from others, in the dimness and incertitude 
 
THE BURDEN OF DUMAH. 
 
 31 
 
 with which they are surrounded ; they ask the watch- 
 man, whoever he may be, or howevet accredited, what 
 of the night ? what of the night ? But alas ! if the 
 true light be brought fairly to shine upon them, which 
 lighteth every man that cometh into the world, how 
 often is it seen that they love darkness rather' than 
 light, because their deeds are evil ! how gladly they run 
 again under the refuge of error and the veil of the cover- 
 ing cast over the surface of all things, and conceaHng 
 their true features ! " For whatsoever doth make mani- 
 fest is light," and the Gospel of salvation, beaming as 
 It does with goodness and mercy, makes most painfully 
 manifest, in order to our appreciation and acceptance of 
 Its remedies and blessings, the character of the world, 
 the case of human nature before God, and the state of 
 the human heart. It pours into every crook and every 
 corner its strong and searching rays, and discloses the 
 bias to evil which lurks in endless shapes in the bosom 
 of man, and the long accumulation of errors and devia- 
 tions which stamp their character upon his life. It 
 detects all the subtle disguises of self-love, and unravels 
 the complicated intricacies of sin. It sets in view what 
 men ought to be, in broad and undeniable contrast with 
 what they are. It shows them that their first duty is 
 to honour their Father which is in Heaven, to do His 
 will upon earth, to walk in His ways, to live, since He 
 graciously invites them to do so, in His company, and 
 to acquaint themselves more and more with His love • 
 and It convinces them of the averseness of their hearts 
 trom all this ; the ingratitude, the coldness, the obdu- 
 
il! !• 
 
 I 
 
 ill 
 
 lit I 
 
 i 
 
 32 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 racy, the undutifulness, the direct, flagrant, repeated 
 disobedience of which they have been guilty towards 
 Him ; their proneness to lose sight of their responsi- 
 bilities here and "of their destiny hereafter — their un- 
 prepared condition to meet the questions which He 
 puts to them : " If I be a father, where is mine honour ? 
 If I be a master, where is my fear?" It exposes the 
 real hideousness and horror of vices and excesses and 
 acts of profaneness at which the world is but too ready 
 to connive ; the vanity and littleness and utter frivolity 
 of objects upon which the foolish heart of man is 
 eagerly set, or with which his mental capacities are filled 
 even to distention. It indicates the base immersion 
 of souls formed for the hope of immortality, in the 
 cares and the riches and the pleasures of this perishable 
 life ; the waste of existence, the unprofitable service, 
 the hiding of the talent, the prostitution, to other ends, 
 of precious gifts bestowed to promote the glory of God 
 and the good of mankind ; the degenerate abandonment 
 either to indolent self-indulgence or to a restless activity 
 in worldly pleasures, of beings who, redeemed by the 
 blood of Christ, ought to present their bodies a living 
 sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is their reason- 
 able service. It betrays to the sight, in their proper 
 malignity, the nest of vipers which poison the vitals of 
 the moral part,— the dark, the impure, and the violent 
 passions of nature in all their several exemplifications. 
 It shows the identity of indulged sin in the heart, and 
 sin tangibly developed in the outward act ; it exhibits 
 the fallacies which men put upon themselves, the 
 
 Ml 
 
THE BURDEN OF DUMAH. 
 
 hollowness of their excuses for the neglect of duty, 
 their vain and destructive self-complacency, their false 
 self-attribution of goodness in actions prompted by 
 motives of an earthly cast, the worthlessness and 
 hypocrisy of all their professions and all their doings 
 in religion itself, if actuated by a spirit of strife and 
 vain-glory, or unaccompanied by a Christian temper 
 and a conscientious discharge of common, and perhaps 
 uninviting duties. It presents man, in short, as wretched 
 and miserable and poor and blind and naked— wanting 
 mercy, and wanting all—having neither hope nor re- 
 source in himself; so constituted within and so acted 
 upon from without, as constantly to require the exercise 
 of watchfulness and self-denial, and force put upon his 
 nature in order to his preserving the way of happiness 
 and safety even for this present life ; and yet without 
 strength of his own to resist the impulse of appetite 
 and passion, or the seductions which lie as snares in his 
 path. All this the light of the Gospel will discover, 
 and thence it is unwelcome to corrupted nature ; it is 
 coupled with great humiliation of soul; it implies the 
 sacrifice of what men naturally love, and it carries 
 alarms to their bosoms in the height of the good, easy 
 condition in which, for anything that they are aware of, 
 they may perfectly well allow themselves to rest. Light, 
 therefore, they do not like, for they do not want to be 
 disturbed ; and the compensations, the comforts of the 
 Gospel, the abundance of its blessings, the fitness of its 
 provisions for the case of human nature, the fulness of 
 ^ its love, the glory of its hopes, these they scarcely look 
 
34 
 
 SERMON in. 
 
 at, "bccaiiso the feature of the systeiri which catclies 
 their attention is that they must take up their cross. 
 
 "But let us sot the words which wo have been con-; 
 sidering in anotlicr point of view. " The morninjf cometh, 
 and also the night." The niorn'r ^ !ito opens freshly 
 and fairly to many among us. ao not anticipate 
 
 the clouds and changes which may he at hand, and, in 
 this stage of. our existence, we are not apt to think of 
 its 7won or its decline. Far less do we generally think 
 of the niyht. But the night cometh — the night when 
 no man can work ; and in every stage of our existence, 
 after we have once reached the power of thought, we 
 ought to think of this. Our day upon earth is passing 
 very fast ; the day of hundreds whom we have known 
 familiarly in life, has been brought to its close before 
 our eyes ; they have disappeared in darkness, their bed 
 is the grave, they sleep the sleep of death, their place is. 
 nowhere found among living men. Have we, then, my 
 my brethren, any patent of exemption from the same 
 summons, any privilege of survivorship to be pro- 
 longed at our own pleasure, that we seem, in so many 
 examples, to be living for this world, as if in an 
 assured perpetuity of enjoyment, and looking for nothing 
 beyond? sailing on with all security of feeling and 
 carelessness of pride upon the ocean of life — 
 
 ■ V 
 
 " Regardless of the sweeping whirl wind's sway, 
 That, hushed in grim repose, expects his evening prey " ? 
 
 I! 
 
 ^1 I 
 
 How many professed Christians do we see — men who, 
 in virtue of that profession, are called upon to redeem; 
 
 !>»> 
 
THE BURDEN OP DUMAH. 
 
 85 
 
 the time because the days are evii,--either getting rid 
 of what, it seems, are the superfluities of their time in a 
 lounging kind of existence, by expedients which serve 
 to beguile them of the way, or scheming with all the 
 stretch of their understandings, and toiling with all the 
 devotedness of their hearts," and strivihg with all the 
 energies which God has confei-red upon them, in the 
 traffic, the tumults, and the competitions of the world ; 
 not utterly neglectful of religious performance, not 
 setting at nought the decorum of moral observance, nor 
 refusing some measure of aid in objects of charity, but 
 failing to be rich towards God ; laying up no treasure in 
 heaven ; recognising no such principles, in affection or in 
 practice, although they do not repudiate them in theory, 
 as that the life which we live in the flesh we should 
 live by the faith of the Son of God; and that He 
 having died for all, we who live again through that 
 death, ought not henceforth to live unto ourselves, but 
 unto Him that died for us and rose again. 
 
 My brethren, let us learn what we are here for, and 
 what we have to do. Let us, in imitation of our Divine 
 Master, work the works of Him that sent us into the' 
 world while it is day, and remember that " there is no' 
 work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the' 
 grave whither" we are going. "And if ye wiU enquire, 
 enquire ye." I do not now advert to the case of scep- 
 ticism : if men have doubts as to the truth of our holy 
 reHgion, and make that a subject of enquiry, let them 
 enquire. We invite them to do so, and will give them,' 
 upon due occasion, all the help of which God may 
 
 d2 
 
 •'J 
 
 r 
 
96 
 
 SERMON in. 
 
 pennit us to be the instruments. But, passing by this 
 case, if your attention is arrested, if your curiosity is 
 excited, if your interest is awakened in any way upon 
 the subject of religion — if you think it a duty to attend 
 upon the instruction of her ministers, do not stop there ; 
 follow up the movement to better purpose; think of 
 your own souls ; enquire ye into their state before God ; 
 examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith ; prove 
 your own selves. Did Christ die for you ? Is it so, or 
 is it not ? Enquire into that. If it is so, is that a 
 reality to be left lying, as it were, in the lumber-room 
 of our memories, while all the occupied chambers of 
 thought and feeling are filled with the comparative 
 nothings of this world ; and all the stir and movement 
 within us have no reference whatever to Him Who suf- 
 fered on the cross, no glance at the cause and the object 
 of "^ose sufferings ? Can we be safe ? Can we hope to 
 Tdc happy in the end, if, with the knowledge of such 
 facts before us as those whidh are recorded in the 
 Gospel, and of all the consequences dependent upon 
 those facts, as well as the exigency on the part of men 
 wMch led the way to them, we o^main unmoved and 
 ninconcerned, affected in no different manner, prompted 
 to no different course of action, from what might have 
 %een^8een in us if \we had never heard of a Saviour at 
 all, and the need of a Savicmr had never once been 
 suggested tto our minds ? 
 
 " If ye wai*enquire," then," enquire ye : return, come." 
 " Return, thou l)a(Sksliding Israel, saith the Lord ; and I 
 will not cause Mine anger ix) fall upon you : for I am 
 
 III 
 
THE LJEDEN OF DUMAH. 
 
 87 
 
 merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for 
 ever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast 
 transgressed against the Lord thy God." Will you deny 
 this ? Put aside man and the opinions of man, and the 
 countenance, the example, the influence of man ; the 
 habits of thinking among men ; cease from man whose 
 breath is in his nostrils ; bring yourself into contact 
 with the aU-holy God. Will you deny that you have 
 sinned against Him ? will you say that you do not want 
 to be forgiven? Oh ! rather you will say, if you can 
 see yourself as you are, that you have sinned, you have 
 done amiss, you have dealt wickedly ; that your sins 
 are more in number than the hairs of your head ; that 
 they have taken such hold upon you^ that you are not 
 able to look up, and that your heart hath failed you ; 
 rather you will smite upon your breast, without daring 
 so much as to lift up your eyes unto heaven, and will 
 say, God be merciful to me a sinner 1 And then the 
 promises of grace and mercy are your own. Then, 
 when you arise and go un>to your Father, and say unto 
 Him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before 
 Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son, 
 your face being turned homeward once more. He sees 
 you while you are yet a great way off, and He opens 
 His arms to clasp you to the bosom of fatherly for- 
 giveness and love. " Israel, return unto the Lord thy 
 
 God ; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity I will 
 
 heal their backsliding : I wiU love them freely." "Eeturn, 
 come." " Beturn unto the Lord, and He wiU have mercy 
 upon" you, "and to our God, for He wiU abundantly 
 
 I if 
 
H '. 
 
 •38 
 
 SEBMON III. 
 
 pardon." " Come, for all things are now ready." " Come 
 unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I 
 will give you rest." "The Spirit and the bride say, 
 Comey The Lord invites you by the inspiration of His 
 "Word and the influences of His grace ; and the Church, 
 by His command, echoes the invitation. " And let him 
 that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take 
 of the water of life freely." 
 
 ' t 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 THE UNPRODUCTIVE VINEYARD. 
 
 Isaiah v. 1. 
 
 Now vjill I sing to My Well-beloved a song of my Beloved to^iching His 
 ; vineyard. 
 
 There are very many passages in the Old and New 
 Testaments, in which the responsibility both of indi- 
 viduals and of communities, in proportion to the advan- 
 tages bestowed upon them, is pictured, in warning 
 representations, before our eyes, and often under familiar 
 imagery like that of our text. As, for example, where 
 the unfruitful fig-tree is condemned to excision, but the 
 stroke is stayed at the plea of the vine-dresser till yet a 
 farther trial, with farther care and culture, shall have 
 been afforded, — the limit, however, of one more year 
 being fixed, after which, in the event of making no 
 return, it is to be abandoned to the sentence of destruc- 
 tion without reprieve. Again, where the whole niation 
 of the Jews, with their teachers in religion at their 
 head, are figured forth, in their treatment of the pro- 
 phets and wise men sent successively among them, and, 
 finally, of the Son of God Himself, as the husbandmen 
 to whom the vineyard was let out, the distant lord 
 of that property, deputing His messengers one after 
 another, and closing the list with His only and well- 
 beloved Sou, in order to demand an account of the 
 
 
 I. 
 
 I, 
 
 I 
 
 UJ 
 
40 
 
 SEEMON IV. 
 
 l> I 
 
 I 
 
 fruit. The conduct of these husbandmen, and the doom 
 pronounced against them, cannot fail to be familiarly 
 remembered. The parable came very home to the 
 hearers of Christ, and He appears to have spoken it 
 not without reference to that which the prophet had 
 addressed, in an age then long gone by, to their fore- 
 fathers : " Now will I sing to My Well-beloved a song of 
 My Beloved touching His vineyard." Christ is the Well- 
 beloved of His Father ; Christ is the Well-beloved of His 
 spouse the Church, when she is faithful to her obliga- 
 tions. It is the Jewish Church which is here repre- 
 sented as the vineyard. The signal advantages enjoyed 
 by that Church are thus portrayed : — 
 
 " My Well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful 
 hili : and He fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, 
 and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower 
 in the midst of it" (as a residence for the keepers), 
 " and also made a winepress therein." All needful pro- 
 vision was fully made, and all wise precaution was 
 carefully taken. God had fixed His earthly seat upon 
 the hOl of Zion, and called the surrounding country His 
 own ; He had fenced off His chosen people from a cor- 
 rupted world by a law from heaven, by statutes and 
 ordinances, and by miraculous protection openly and 
 gloriously displayed in their behalf: He had removed 
 the obstructions which stood in their way from contact 
 with idolaters ; He had planted the vine among them 
 which was designed to be incorporated with Christ 
 Himself, the vine transplanted from heaven ; He had 
 made Jerusalem a place of strength and of glory, mani- 
 
THE UNPEODUCTIVE VINEYARD, 
 
 41 
 
 Testing His presence by visible symbols in the temple, 
 and had furnished all the apparatus required for dis- 
 pensing, in the richest overflow, the blessings of His 
 covenant to the people. To them " pertained the adop- 
 tion and the glory and the covenants and the giving of 
 the law, and the service of God and the promises." The 
 advantage of the Jew and the profit of circumcision 
 were " much every way : chiefly, because that unto them 
 were committed the oracles of God." 
 
 The Lord, therefore, looked, — and it was surely very 
 natural and reasonable that He should do so, — that the 
 vineyard should bring forth grapes. But it produced 
 nothing but wild and worthless fruit. He then, in His 
 supreme condescension, — as in other instances, and par- 
 ticularly where He says, through the prophet Micah, 
 that He will plead with Israel, and asks of His people 
 what He has done unto them, and wherein He has 
 wearied them, — puts the case to themselves : "And now, 
 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I 
 pray you, betwixt Me and My vin^^yard. What could 
 have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not 
 done in it ? " There is no answer to this appeal. Every 
 mouth is stopped before God. He is justified in His 
 saying, and clear when He is judged. And there- 
 fore His righteous wrath must have its course. T^ 
 example must be shown that a wicked abuse of mercies 
 and blessings cannot go unpunished. " And now go to ; 
 
 1 will tell you what I will do to My vineyard : I will 
 take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up ; 
 and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden 
 
 If' 
 
42 
 
 SERMON rV. 
 
 down. And I will lay it waste : it shall not "be pruned 
 nor digged ; but there shall come up briers and thorns : 
 I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain 
 -upon it." How literally, in some particulars, this sentence 
 against the vineyard was executed in successive judg- 
 ments upon the city and territory of Jerusalem ; how, in 
 the figurative aspect of the description, she has remained 
 since her last overthrow, century after century, trodden 
 down of the Gentiles, and the showers of the Divine grace 
 and blessing have been withheld from the hardened soil 
 of her people's hearts, — these are things which it needs 
 not to point out. God only take compassion upon her 
 in His appointed time, and give her abundantly beauty 
 for ashes, and the oil of joy for mourning, when the 
 times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled ! 
 
 In the meantime, let us apply the lesson to ourselves. 
 Has God done less for us than He diu, under the old 
 dispensation, for the Jews ? Can we indicate any defi- 
 ciency, complain of any hardship, point out anything 
 more which might have been done for the vineyard now, 
 which He has not done unto it ? Has He not given for 
 us His only-begotten Son ? Has He not promised the 
 succours of His Divine Spirit ? Has He not engaged to 
 give a new heart to the house of Israel, and to write His 
 law with His own finger in their minds ? Has He not 
 rained upon them freely, on all sides, the manna of His 
 holy word ? Has He not furnished directions to find the 
 way of life, which he may run that readeth? Has He 
 not acted by glorious prospects upon human hope, by 
 awful yet affectionate warnings upon human fear, by 
 
 1 1 ■' 
 
THE UNPRODUCTIVE VINEYARD. 
 
 -a:3 
 
 'immeasurable goodness upon liuman love? Has He 
 not fenced the vineyard, and built the tower, and made 
 the wine-press therein — a ministry being provided in 
 perpetuity, a Church founded immovably upon a rock, 
 sacraments appointed and ordinances established ; so 
 that all is complete and ready " for the perfecting of the 
 saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of 
 the body of Christ ? " And has He not, in our own parti- 
 cular case (let us speak it not boastingly, but trem- 
 blingly), most eminently blessed the English Church 
 and nation, — calling us out from a state of darkness 
 And religious corruption ; preserving to us, at the same 
 time, the ancient model of church government, the pri- 
 mitive usages of worship, and the transmitted line of the 
 ministry from the beginning? — raising up for us, also, 
 holy champions of the faith, who, " for the testimony of 
 Jesus, loved not their lives unto the death," with a long 
 catalogue of doctors, pastors, and teachers, not surpassed 
 among uninspired men ? — farther still, making our 
 country, crowned as she is by a commanding influence, 
 and armed with seemingly inexhaustible Resources, the 
 steward, in a manner, for the world, of that light, 
 liberty, and still advancing civilization, for which she 
 is herself so conspicuously distinguished ? What more 
 could have been done for the vineyard which the Lord 
 has not done unto it ? Testify against Him, if you have 
 any grievance, any omission to represent. 
 
 My bretliren, if all these blessings have been made 
 ours, let us, individually and collectively, remember the 
 principle, that " unto whomsoever much is given, of him 
 
 f 
 
 i 
 
 ' 1! 
 
ii 
 
 U 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 I '> 
 
 shall be much required." We are answerable before God 
 for tlie full improvement of our privileges. We must 
 render the due return of fruit, or we must expect the 
 sontcnco which impends over unfruitfulness. But, in 
 order to come rather more closely and familiarly to 
 the point, let us select for our consideration, by way of 
 example, some of the principal sins and deficiencies 
 which, after his song touching the vineyard, are charged 
 by the prophet upon the Jews ; and wherever we find 
 any approximation, any tendency to these or similar 
 sins among ourselves, there let us seriously, deeply, 
 earnestly bewail our own sinfulness, and, by God's own 
 gracious help, forsake our evil habits, and thoroughly 
 amend our ways and our doings. Let us turn unto the 
 Lord, that He may have mercy upon us, and to our God, 
 that He may abundantly pardon. 
 
 The first wee which is denounced in the chapter under 
 consideration is against a grasping avarice and selfish 
 spirit of aggrandizement, labouring intently in the accu- 
 mulation of property. It is powerfully expressed in the 
 language of amplification. " Woe unto them that join 
 house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, 
 that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth ! " 
 
 Now, in a country and in a community like this in 
 which our lot is cast, where men gifted with enterprise, 
 sagacity, and perseverance have many facilities for 
 pushing their way in the world, and most men, in enter- 
 ing upon life, have their own fortunes to make, there 
 are snares spread in this manner for the soul. There 
 is danger that, in such circumstances as these, a sue- 
 
 
THE UNPBODUCnVE VINEYARD. 
 
 45 
 
 cessful industry, a watchful attention to business, a 
 practised eye for advantageous speculation, will so com- 
 plicate the web of worldly affairs, and so absorb the 
 attention and energy and attention of the mind, as to 
 leave neither interval nor activity of spirit for the ser- 
 vice of God. The world, it is too often found, has 
 drunk up the cup— the dregs only are left for Heaven. 
 Yet the man has an immortal soul: his stake is in 
 eternity, forgotten eternity ; death will soon cut short 
 his earthly calculations : after death he has ah account 
 to render and a judgment to abide : salvation or per- 
 dition must be his portion for ever : salvation it cannot 
 be, if he has not lived for God upon earth: hope cannot 
 be in his end nor happiness beyond it, if he has over- 
 looked his high destiny ; if he has not been awakened to 
 a care for his everlasting interests ; if he has not loved 
 the Saviour Who died for him ; if he has never demeaned 
 himself, never even regarded himself as a child of God j 
 or if he has not used the good things of life as a trust 
 which he is responsible above; if, with means put 
 into his hands of doing good in his generation, he has 
 failed to be fruitful in good works. It is not necessary 
 to suppose that he has been guilty of direct fraud or 
 oppression, or even that he has found it convenient, in 
 the traffic of the world, to discard some nicer scruples 
 of a conscientious integrity, and quietly to take some 
 advantages which may be varnished over by smoother 
 names than they deserve, or to practise some petty 
 deceptions not unusual, and therefore apt to be con- 
 sidered not illicit. Neither is it necessary to suppose 
 
 Vf 
 
m 
 
 SERMON IV, 
 
 ill 
 
 that he has so openly, as well as so devotedly, idolized- 
 Mammon as to have renomiced all decent attention to 
 the stated external duties of religion, or shaken off all 
 thought of religion within the privacy of his own 
 breast. Neither is it necessary to suppose that he has 
 hoarded up his gains with a penurious hand and brooded 
 over them with a miserly jealousy in the dark : his 
 maxim may rather have been that of the rich man 
 in the Gospel, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up 
 for many years : take thine ease ; eat, drink, and be 
 merry." 
 
 Such cases as we have here successively specified, 
 although they may very well occur, are what it is not 
 necessary to suppose. It is enough to ask such ques- 
 tions as these : — Where is his heart ? Where is his 
 treasure truly laid up ? What is his habitual prepara-; 
 tion to meet the face of God ? his actual readiness to 
 answer the summons, if it should come, "This night 
 thy soul shall be required of thee;" his willingness 
 and fitness of heart to say with the holy Psalmist, 
 "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of 
 death, I will fear no evil ; for Thou art with me " ? 
 
 The danger of striving and toiling for earthly gain, to 
 the neglect of the one thing needful for man — of serving 
 the world instead of serving God, is a danger by no 
 means confinied to those w^ho live already in some^ 
 measure of affluence, and can indulge in the exhibition 
 of some worldly style. The sons of industry occupy- 
 ing the lower walks of life, who avail themselves of the 
 openings of a new count y to rise, step after step, abovQ 
 
THE UNPRODUCTIVE VINEYAED. 
 
 47 
 
 their original condition, and to whom prospects more 
 extended still develop themselves as they rise, — such 
 persons, although their exertions, favourably contrasted, 
 in many instances, with the drone-like self-indulgence 
 of inherited wealth and station, ought not certainly to 
 be repressed, nor their desire for the improvement of 
 their circumstances to be discouraged, — such persons 
 are as liable as any to incur the danger of being en- 
 grossed by the world. The prophet, in his denunciation" 
 of judgments, declares in one part of the chapter, that: 
 " the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty 
 man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be 
 humbled/' And so, on the other hand, there is a class of 
 sins of which the coarser and more revolting exhibitions^ 
 to be witnessed among the lowest orders of society, 
 might prompt us to fancy that there is nothing in 
 common with them, in this point, in those circles which: 
 make any pretension to respectability and refinement ;" 
 " Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that 
 they may follow strong drink ; that continue until night, 
 till wine inflame them." This is not a description of the 
 modern habits of polite society, and, whatever we may 
 be inclined to think of the safe and durable operation of- 
 schemes for a great moral renovation among mankind 
 which are based upon a pledge givren to man by those; 
 who disregard their anterior pledges to God, it is at; 
 least certain, and we may be thankful to witness it, that- 
 in the inferior gradations of life, some present and par-: 
 tial check, sufficiently marked, has been put upon, 
 habits of intemperance. Yet enough of them in hideous 
 
SESMON IV. 
 
 |.r| 
 
 
 shapes remains. And let all who indulge in them 
 remember that no drunkard shall " inherit the kingdom 
 of God." But, that we may not lose sight of those who, 
 from their position in society, are less in danger of low 
 excesses and who duly observe the restraints of pro- 
 priety, let us follow the prophet to the end of his woe : 
 " Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that 
 they may follow strong drink ; that continue until night, 
 till wine inflame them ! And the harp, and the viol, 
 the tabret, and pipe, and wine are in their feasts : but 
 they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider 
 the operation of His hands." 
 
 Now we know very well, from the highest possible 
 examples and authorities in the word of God, that 
 neither wine, nor cheerful music, nor attendance at the 
 festive table, is a thing sinful in itself. But, this being 
 understood, are there no instances in which such liberty 
 is too largely taken or too manifestly abused ? Are uhere 
 none among the children of fashion, among the votaries 
 of gaiety, far removed either from the scenes of vulgar 
 nproar and disgusting excess, or from any destructive 
 habit of recourse privately and, as it were, in the dark, 
 to the stimulants of strong drink, to whom the latter 
 part of the prophetic description will apply ? Look at 
 the correct, the respectable company of this world : are 
 there none who, living in plenty, in elegance, in varied 
 pleasure, and in studied amusement from day to day, 
 shut out all homefelt thought of their God and shun 
 all devout and spiritual contemplation — ^listless in every 
 performance of religion — strangers to repentance — 
 
THE UNPRODUCTIVE VINEYARD. 
 
 49 
 
 stupid in faith — and aliens in heart from the cross of 
 Jesus Christ ? 
 
 Let them be warned, for woe has gone out against 
 them from God. 
 
 Woe is denounced also against them " that draw 
 iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with 
 a cart-rope," twining together, as it were, their fabric 
 of fallacies which they have spun out to strengthen 
 themselves in their wickedness, and saying, in the 
 words which follow, "Let Him make speed and hasten 
 His work that we may see it, and let the counsel of the 
 Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come that we may 
 know it." These are infatuated beings of the same 
 stamp spoken of by King Solomon, " Because sentence 
 against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore 
 the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do 
 evil ; " and akin to the scoffers of the last days described by 
 St. Peter as " walking after their own lusts, and saying, 
 "Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers 
 fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the 
 beginning of the creation." And are there no scoffers 
 now ? Are there none who make light of that glorious 
 truth of God which is described as a voice shaking the 
 heavens and the earth ? Are there none who are regard- 
 less of judgment, and if they think of it at all, think of 
 it as something so far off that they need not much con- 
 cern themselves about it now, abusing the long sufferance 
 of their God and treasuring up unto themselves wrath 
 against the day of wrath, and revelation of that righteous 
 judgment to come ? Or are there none now who draw 
 
 '/•»i 
 
50 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 n 
 
 EflMRt 
 
 iniquity with cords of vanity — who cloak their sins by 
 a delusive sophistry, and fortify their evil practice by a 
 recourse to maxims accommodated to their wishes — 
 farther and more fully characterized, under a separate 
 denunciation of woe, as those " who call evil good, and 
 good evil, who put darkness for light, and light for dark- 
 ness, who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter"? Alas ! 
 v/hat a familiar artifice of the world, and how powerful 
 a speF. in the hands of the enemy of souls, is this 
 method of falsely colouring the actions of men, and 
 inverting the true notions of unchangeable right and 
 wrong ! Holiness is accounted hypocrisy — humility is 
 meanness of spirit — uncompromising honesty of prin- 
 ciple is needless and troublesome preciseness — revenge 
 is honourable — unyielding pride is spirit and dignity of 
 mind — a little profaneness, a little irregularity in morals, 
 a little extravagance without the means of supporting 
 it, a little indulgence in show and vanity and pleasure, 
 at the expanse of industrious tradesmen who live, and, 
 perhaps, struggle to give bread to their families, by sup- 
 plying the fancies of luxury ; — these are the pardonable 
 peccadilloes of a good-hearted man — they do not detract 
 from his bearing or his standing as a gentleman — they 
 are borne with, they are connived at by many decent 
 Christians of the world— and with some companions 
 he is rather graced by them than otherwise— nay, 
 with some, " whose glory is in their shame," they actually 
 constitute his special merit. 
 
 What is he in the eye of God ? and what is the effect 
 of these things upon the state and safety of his soul ? - 
 
THE UNPRODUCTIVE VINEYARD. 51 
 
 FinaUy, woe is denounced against those who are 
 " wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own 
 sight." 
 
 A good deal might here be said respecting the dangers 
 incident to some of the very blessings, signal as they 
 . are, of the age in which we live : the great advance and 
 the more general diffusion of science, the immense pains 
 taken, and the prodigious facilities afforded for circu- 
 lating aU kinds of information through all kinds of 
 channels, among all kinds of people,— all these have a 
 tendency, if not counter-worked by a holy influence, to 
 engender a pride of intellect, hard and presumptuous' in 
 its character, in the leaders of the movement, as weU as 
 unwholesome and distempered conceit in the popular 
 mind. Waiving, however, this application of the words 
 (for it is time to pass to the high celebration which is 
 here this day prepared), let us simply consider them as 
 impressing upon us, generally, the necessity, the awful 
 and imperious necessity, of our coming with a humble 
 and teachable heart before our God. Let us learn, my 
 brethren, if we have not yet learned it, to "cast down 
 imaginations and every high thing which exalteth 
 itself against the knowledge of God," and to "receive 
 with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to 
 save " our souls. Let us become fools that we may 
 be wise : divest ourselves of a carping, captious, and 
 misleading philosophy, when we come to be taught 
 in the school of Christ. The wisdom which He imparts 
 is not "the wisdom of this world." The things which 
 
 e2 
 
«9 
 
 SERMON rV'. 
 
 are hid from the wise and prudent are things which 
 the Father reveals, in all their fulness and reality, 
 to babes. "Except ye be converted, and become as 
 little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom 
 of Heaven." 
 
 1 1 
 
ality, 
 le aa 
 jdom 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 COMPLIANCE WITH ORDINANCES.* 
 
 Nahum I. 15. 
 
 ^tlfX^'^// "''""'"".'' ''"^"^ '^""^ ^-^^Oethgood tidings, 
 
 thatjuhhshcthpeo^c. Judak, keep thy solemn feasts : perform thy 
 
 In ancient times of warfare, and in scenes then 
 occurring of trouble and dismay, the watchman was 
 stationed upon the mountains, commanding a view 
 perhaps, of some battle-field where host had closed with 
 host, and the fate of a nation was staked upon the 
 issue ; or simply keeping a look-out for any movement 
 affecting the public interest. From thence he despatched 
 his tidings in all haste, to those who waited for them 
 in anxious expectation, if not in trembling suspense. 
 And right welcome were the feet of the messengers who 
 brought the news of victory or rescue, or who could, at 
 last, promise a happy cessation of any galling ' ppres- 
 sions and harassing alarms. 
 
 The feet or steps of messengers upon the mountains 
 became hence, apparently, a sort of proverbial phrase, 
 to denote the transmission of intelligence ; and the' 
 particular news of comfort and joy to which reference 
 IS made in the text are conceived to have been the 
 destruction, by the angel of death,.of the vast army of 
 Sennacherib, in the days of king Hezekiah, consequent 
 
 * Preached on Christufas Day. 
 
 
 U; 
 
64 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 
 upon which was the deliverance of Jerusalem and her 
 people from a siege in which their case had appeared 
 desperate. In the terrors of this siege they had made 
 many vows before God, and these they are charged by 
 the prophet to remember. There is a closely similar 
 passage in the fifty-second chapter of the Prophet 
 Isaiah, referring, in its original application, to the 
 decree of Cyrus for ending the captivity in Babylon, re- 
 building the temple, and restoring the holy city, but 
 prospectively enveloping a far higher meaning. We see 
 it applied by St. Paul, in the tenth chapter of his epistle 
 to the Romans, to the proclamation of the Gospel abroad 
 over the world, by the heralds of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 It cannot require to be pointed out that the opening 
 words of our text are susceptible of the same sacred ap- 
 plication, and that they harmonize in a very exact manner 
 with the object of this day's celebration in the Church. 
 They find their echo in the voice of the angels lifted in 
 chorus at the birth of our blessed Redeemer. " Behold," 
 says the prophet, " behold upon the mountains the feet of 
 him that brinpfeth good tidings, that publisheth ^peace^ 
 " And suddenly," says the evangelist, " there was with 
 the angel (the single angel who had made the announce- 
 ment to the shepherds of good tidings of great joy) a 
 multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and 
 saying. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, 
 good will towards men." 
 
 We then who, unworthy as we are to be door-keepers 
 in the house of our' God, are the watchmen of Israel, 
 and the messengers upon the mountains, — we who carry 
 
COMPLUNCE WITH 0RDi.^ANCE8. 55 
 
 the comiriission of Christ,~we bring good tidings, and 
 we publish peace. But to whom do we address our good 
 tidings ? to whom do we make these gracious overtures 
 on behalf of God ? To all, my brethren, who are reached 
 by our individually appointed ministrations. " Go ye into 
 all the world, and preach the Gospel (which word, as is 
 well known, is precisely equivalent to good tidings), to 
 every creaturer But do these tidinjxs, in effect, prove 
 good to all ? Alas ! no. They have not aU, as the 
 Apostle says to the Romans, in the use which he makes 
 of the passage from Isaiah, "they have not all obeyed 
 the Gospel." And whose fault is that? Was it the 
 fault of Christ that, when He came to His own. His own 
 received Him not ? Did He place them, or did He leave 
 them, under an inability to profit by the calls of 
 mercy? Let His own words testify :—« Ye will not 
 come to Me, that ye might have life." « Jeru- 
 salem, Jerusalem, thou that kiUest the prophets and 
 stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I 
 have gathered thy children together, even as a hen 
 gathereth her brood under her wings, and ye would not ! 
 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." And so of 
 peace : Christ makes our peace with God, He imparts 
 peace and joy in beUeving ; His Gospel breathes nothing 
 but peace and love ; His special bequest to His disciples 
 runs in the words, « Peace I leave with you, my peace 
 I give unto you ; not as the worid giveth, give I unto 
 you." Yet what is His own declaration respecting the 
 effects which He foresaw from the preaching of the 
 Gospel to a perverse, rebellious worid ? «* Suppose ye 
 
66 
 
 SEEMON V. 
 
 that I am come to give peace on earth ? I tell you nay, , 
 but rather dhdsion." It is a truth which has the air of 
 paradox, that the very condition in man which creates 
 the want of the Gospel, is that which prompts his re- 
 sistance of the Gospel. The corruption of his nature 
 demands that twofold exercise of grace which is found 
 in redemption by the blood of Christ, and renovation of 
 heart by the Divine Spirit : these are freely tendered, 
 but he clings to his corruption ; his sins are dear to 
 him ; his pride enlists itself on the same side ; the world 
 sees him her willing slave, although it is a slavery which 
 will sink him in perdition; the flesh draws him, a 
 yielding victim, to the indulgence of a false and deceit- 
 ful happiness which will be fatal to his soul ; and the 
 cross, which is his only cure, is what he repels from 
 him with impatience and distaste. 
 
 My brethren, what are we here for to-day ? We are 
 here to hail, with prostrate adoration and fervent thank- 
 fulness of heart, the Eedeemer Who came among us as 
 a lowly child. We are here to declare before God Him- 
 self and the world, our acceptance, our appropriation, 
 with deep humility, as well as with devout out-pourings 
 of gratitude, of the good tidings of great joy and the 
 proclamation of peace, witli which the arch of heaven 
 was made to ring at the birth of the Virgin's Child in 
 the stable. let it not be said— tell it not in Gath— 
 publish it not in the streets of Askelon— that too many 
 of us have neither part nor lot in tliis wonder of divine 
 love ! If we do not feel those wants of the human soul 
 before God which find their relief in Christ, and in 
 
COMPLIANCE WITH ORDINANCES. 
 
 57 
 
 Christ alone, then what can we possibly have to do with 
 the joy of Christmas ? Let us think of our destiny, 
 let us look into our preparation, let us become sensible 
 of our own nakedness, let us have recourse to Christ 
 that He may cover us, let us practically learn what it 
 means to be justified by faith, and so to have ^^acc with 
 God by Jesus Christ— peace through the blood of His 
 cross ; it is then that we shall be fuUy qualified to Iccp 
 the solemn feast for which we are here met, and which 
 the Church has appointed as a help to our edification 
 and devotion. 
 
 " Judah, keep thy solemn feasts ; perform tliy vows." 
 This refers, of course, to the stated feasts or religious 
 festivals and other ordinances subsisting under the Law. 
 And, under the Gospel, it can only apply in its spirit, 
 and not according to the Jewish letter. Yet it is very 
 obviously and properly capable of adaptation to the 
 external institutions of the Christian religion, and to the 
 course of observances prescribed in any particular branch 
 of the Church. 
 
 The rites and ceremonies of the Law were designed 
 for one people and for a limited duration. They were 
 emblematical of better things to come, and were pre- 
 scribed with a minuteness, and tied down to an un- 
 deviating form of celebration, which did not suit the 
 expansive and, in the proper sense of the word, the 
 catholic character of the Gospel. 
 
 There must, however, under every system, be ordi- 
 nances and observances to constitute the marks and 
 badges of the worshippers of God, and the tokens of 
 
58 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 their covenant with Him ; to assist in maintaining and 
 perpetuating the sense of religion among mankind, and 
 to liold men together in faith and devotional homage 
 These ordinances and observances, in the day of 
 the Gospel, may be classed under three different 
 heads : — 
 
 First, those which are of distinct, express, and positive 
 imtitiUmi by the authority of God, as the two Sacra- 
 ments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 
 
 Secondly, those which ai-e handed down to us by that 
 Apostolic tradition of which mention is made by St. 
 Paul, being so far noticed in Scripture, luithout positive 
 imtitution, as to satisfy us, when such notice is compared 
 with the early, universal, and continued practice of 
 Christians, that they were delivered down by the 
 Apostles of the Lord : and to this class we must assign 
 the observance of the first day of the week, in sub- 
 stitution for the last ; the admission of inftints as sub- 
 jects for the Sacrament of Baptism; and, we may 
 properly add, the practice of Confirmation, which the 
 Church, in the form of administration, declares to be 
 kept in use " after the example of the holy Apostles." 
 
 Thirdly, those wliich are based purely upon eccle- 
 siastical authority, and are described in the thirtv- 
 fourth of our own Articles of Eeligion as the traditions 
 and ceremonies of the Church ; and these, as is there 
 shown, are susceptible of change and of local variety. 
 They must be taken to comprehend the particular manner 
 of celebration (in points which are not of the essence 
 of the ordinance), and the mere circumstantial appen- 
 
COMPLIANCE WITH ORDINANCES. 
 
 59 
 
 dages belonging to those observances which faU under 
 the two former heads. 
 
 Among the ordinances thus classified, there are some 
 Christians, as the Quakers or Society of Friends, who 
 repudiate the two sacraments; a very few as for 
 example, the Seventh-day Baptists, reject the observance 
 of the first day of the week ; the Baptists at large, or, as 
 they are more distinguishmgly described, the Anti-pa3do- 
 Baptists {i.e. the opposers of the baptism of children^ 
 withhold baptism from infants; and some few of the 
 reformed National Churches, together with all the sects 
 of dissenters (though not, as I have seen occasion at 
 different times to notice, without confessions here and 
 there, in strong language, of an error in having done so), 
 have dropped the rite of Confirmation. 
 
 With these exceptions, the ordinances which we have 
 ranged under the two first heads are received univer- 
 sally among professed Christians, including the un- 
 reformed portion of the Church, in which it is weU 
 known that additions have been made to the number 
 of the sacraments, as also that obs( /ances which rest 
 simply upon ecclesiastical authority, and too many of 
 which are irreconcUeable with the Word of God, are 
 placed upon a level with divine institutions. 
 
 Eespecting these merely ecclesiastical regulations and 
 appointments, it is sufficiently agreed, at least among 
 all the more enlightened followers of the Eeformation, 
 that (so far as essential principle is involved) they are 
 left freely to the discretion of public authority in the 
 Church in this or that country, with no other restrictions 
 
 
60 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 f; 
 
 than that nothing be admitted which is contrary to 
 God's Word, that " all things be done decently and in 
 order," and that every rule and observance be framed in 
 a manner subservient to edification, as well as to the 
 due preservation of reverence in the solemnities of 
 worship. It is only by a combination of the extremes 
 of fanaticism and ignorance, that men can be led to 
 suppose everything to be unlawful in the exterior 
 appointments of public worship which is not laid down 
 in so many words in the Gospel ; and, in truth, as there 
 is nothing laid down there at all upon the subject, the 
 effect of such a principle, consistently carried out, would 
 be to put an end to public worship altogether. 
 
 It is the part of wisdom, also, to pay much respectful 
 regard, in these matters, to the ascertained usage of pure 
 ecclesiastical antiquity, as well as to a-void giving any 
 needless shock to national customs and hereditary asso- 
 ciations or attachments. There are customs, usages, 
 and conventional demonstrations by exterior signs, im- 
 memoriaUy and uninterruptedly associated in the Chris- 
 tian Church with devotional sentiment and feeling, 
 which are of affinity with the proceeding of that 
 multitude who strewed the road of the Saviour with 
 branches and spread their garments in His way, or 
 with other exterior manifestations of affection and 
 reverence * r His person, which we will not stay now 
 to particularize, but which we know to have found 
 acceptance in His sight. And we should do undeniable 
 prejudice to the character and tone of our religion if 
 Wf were to lop away, with an unsparing sternness, every 
 
COMPLIAl^CE WITH ORDINANCES. 61 
 
 ancient observance which may be open to the cavils of 
 utilitarian criticism. 
 
 In the train of our subject, as suggested by the text, 
 it is to the ecclesiastical appointment of certain com- 
 memorative days or seasons that our attention is more 
 particularly directed. And here we will say at once, 
 that we do not judge another man's servant. The days 
 which we thus regard, we regard, as we trust, unto the 
 Lord ; if there are others who do not regard them, we 
 believe that, in the omission of that regard, they equally, 
 in their own way of service, have regard unto the Lord 
 also. But in the quaHty of Church-members, we are 
 not free to take the same dispensation for ourselves; 
 and if we would follow the example of Christ, Who 
 insisted upon punctuaUy fulfilling in His own person all 
 ceremonial as well as all other righteousness, and Who 
 countenanced the observance of festivals which were 
 simply of human institution, we shaU admit it to be 
 the part of duty to heep our awn solemn feasts, and 
 religiously to improve for ourselves the particular system 
 of observances with which we are connected and con- 
 cerned. We are not to decry and disparage everything 
 which does not happen to resemble our own mode of 
 provision for religious homage ; we are not to maintain 
 that no way can be good but our own, or that nothing 
 could be made better among us when the experiment of 
 change can be safely tried ; but having our own, we are 
 to use it, to turn it to account for our own advancement 
 in holiness. And certainly the appointments of the 
 Church afford us, in themselves, a singularly well- 
 
 ^1 
 
62 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 f 
 
 digested series of opportunities for such advancement. 
 Her services are so arranged and distributed as to act 
 like prompters to us in the subjects of Christian devo- 
 tion or instruction throughout the whole of our eccle- 
 siastical year, which thus presents an epitome of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 The season of Advent is a prelude to the celebration 
 of the coming of Christ in the flesh, and brings before 
 us the introductory ministry of St. John the Baptist, 
 with warnings of preparation for the second advent of 
 the Lord. The birth, the circumcision, the temptation, 
 and other marked particulars in the history of our Lord, 
 are statedly and specially commemorated, till at last we 
 reach the crisis — the week in which He suffered, the 
 day on which He died, — the interval in which the tomb 
 still held Him, — the bursting of that prison, by His own 
 Divine power, which speedily followed, and His appear- 
 ance among His followers as a living man, the living 
 man Christ Jesus, again — His triumphant ascension in 
 the clouds of heaven — His glorious execution of promise 
 in shedding down upon the heads of the Apostles the 
 miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost. Thus it is that all 
 the grand points of that wonderful tale which relates to 
 our redemption are, year by year, made prominently 
 familiar to us, and kept in their vivid reality before our 
 eyes : none of them, even in the most dim and cloudy 
 ages of the Church, none of them can escape uf. 
 And thus, with the help of a thoroughly scriptural 
 liturgy, and the consta:i)!. public reading of the word of 
 God itself, together with the special appointment of a 
 
COMPLIANCE WITH ORDINANCES. 63 
 
 Sunday in honour of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, 
 we seem to enjoy every provision and eveiy guard which 
 the wisdom of man could devise, or his piety could 
 prompt, to preserve us, amid aU the fluctuations and 
 irregularities of religious opinion which succeed each 
 other in the world, in the practice of an intelligently 
 spiritual devotion, and the exercise of a sound belief. 
 Nor can it, I believe, be questioned either that these 
 advantages, enjoyed by ourselves, have spread a bene- 
 ficial influence far beyond the immediate circle of our 
 own communion ; or that many a careless sinner, bred 
 within that circle, has, by these means, laid up. with no 
 thanks to himself a treasure of Christian truth and a 
 fund of scriptural knowledge, for which, in the hour of 
 subsequent conversion to God, he has had cause to bless 
 the provident care of the Church. 
 
 Again, we are repeatedly charged in the word of God 
 to set before our eyes, as models, the holy servants of 
 God in ancient times, and the primitive founders of our 
 religion : as when St. Paul, after his enumeration of 
 special instances exempHfjing the power of faith, calls 
 upon us to take pattern from so great a cloud of wit- 
 nesses; or when St. James says to us, "Take, my 
 brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of 
 the Lord, for an example of sufiering afiHction, and of 
 patience." The Church, therefore, is precisely trans- 
 fusing these principles into her worship, when she esta- 
 blishes certain minor festivals in commemoration of the 
 labours or the martyrdom of the holy Apostles and other 
 champions of the cross, who held some special post in 
 
64 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 K 
 
 tho sorvi(ic, as recorded in the books of tlie Now Testa- 
 ment itself. 
 
 The observances of Passion-week, Easter, Ascension- 
 day, anil Whitsuntide, occur on the real anniversaries 
 of tho events which they commemorate, for there 
 were events in tho history of Christ which, in the vast 
 and connected chain of Providence, were ordained to 
 coincide, in point of the precise time of year, with cer- 
 tain stated Jewish observances, by which they had been 
 foreshadowed. Tlie festivals which have been just 
 enumerated, together with that of Christmas, are all 
 observed by the Protestant national Churches of con- 
 tinental Europe, and many of the most eloquent sermons 
 of foreign Protestant divines are compositions pi-epared 
 for those special occasions. Of Christmas, and the fes- 
 tivals dependent upon it for their date, it cannot, I 
 think, with absolute certainty be averred that the cele- 
 bration occurs respectively upon the exact anniversary of 
 the real occurrence ; but it is, perhaps, not inexpedient 
 that there should be an instance in which the Church, in 
 the exercise of her discretion, according to the freedom 
 of the Gospel, should choose a day for the commemora- 
 tion of an event, which, if commemi ative observances 
 be admitted at all, could hardly be dropped out of the 
 catalogue. And we go back to the earliest times of the 
 Church which afford any record respecting such usages 
 — ^times long anterior to the days of declension and 
 corruption — to find the first notices of the season of 
 Christmas. Keep, then, my brethren, your solemn feast; 
 keep it religiously before God, as men who rejoice in 
 
 
 J 
 
COMPLIANCE WITH ORDINANCES. 
 
 66 
 
 His mercy to sinners through Christ, or you do not 
 keep it at all. " I must by all means," says the Apostle 
 Paul, with reference to a festival of the earlier and 
 inferior dispensation, of which the observance then still 
 remained—" I nmst by all means hei^p this feast which 
 Cometh, at Jerusalem." And with reference to the mani- 
 festations of our love and duty to Christ, he says, " Christ 
 our Passover is sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the 
 /rasif "-words which are not to be taken as relating exclu- 
 sively to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, but which 
 most certainly comprehend it in the objects to which 
 they point. Christmas can never be said to be kept by 
 non-communicants who are of age to communicate. 
 Communicants may, of course, be prevented by par- 
 ticular circumstances from attending the holy table- 
 it may so happen— but I speak of those who do not 
 communicate at all. You then, my brethren, who 
 are going to turn your backs upon the ov'niance to- 
 day, and do habituaUy turn your backs upon it, 
 suffer us, not to invite your participation now— we 
 desire to see no precipitate proceeding in such an act of 
 Hehgion us this ; but suffer us to charge it upon you 
 that you rest not, that you must not feel yourselves 
 safe, cannot have any title to be happy in your Eeligion, 
 tm you can " draw near with faith and take this holy 
 sacrament to your comfort." 
 
 Finally, in conjunction with the charge to keep their 
 solemn feasts, the prophet calls, we see, upon the people 
 of Judah to "perform their vows." And are we not 
 aU under vows to God ? Are we not aU baptized as 
 
»/ 
 
 66 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 I ! 
 
 Christians ? you, my T'onthful friends, who are very 
 soon about to seal voluJiiiHly, with your own lips, the 
 vow of your baptiain, aud to seek the solemn ^ ?nedic- 
 tion of your Church, in the name of her Lord— think, 
 think of your early reception into the privileges of 
 the covenant, your early dedication to your God and 
 Saviour, your training now to be brought up to this 
 point of confirmation— your engagements beyond in a 
 holy and blessed service— your duty also in the very 
 article just touched upon, to prepare yourselves for 
 becoming communicants of the Church. And let us, 
 my brethren, who are estal)lished as communicants, pray 
 God that we may, each in his vocation, have grace to 
 remember, and be helped and strengthened this day in 
 remembering, our responsibility to "perform our vows," 
 so that we may utter from the heart, and be kept from 
 subsequently contradicting in our practice, the words 
 of our Prayer-book which we are immediately about to 
 put up : "And here we offer and present unto Thee, 
 Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, 
 holy, and lively (or living) sacrifice unto Thee, humbly 
 beseeching Thee that all we who are partakers of this 
 Holy Communion, may be fulfilled with Thy grace and 
 heavenly benediction." 
 
 Which may God, of His infinite mercy, grant, through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
SERMON VI. 
 
 THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS.* 
 Acts VIII. 8. 
 ^nd there was great joy in that city. 
 
 Wherever the public celebration of glorious and fm- 
 portant events is to be witnessed— wherever the demon- 
 strations of general joy are to be made upon occasion 
 of any success or achievement involving blessings to 
 postenty-wherever any particular day is kept as the 
 anniversary of a national deliverance, or is consecrated 
 m popular observance to the memory of men who have 
 greatly served their country,-a memory doubly en- 
 deared if they have suffered in that service,^there we 
 usually discover the symptoms of a warm interest in the 
 subject; we remark, everywhere, the contagious glow 
 of exultation, the thrill of animated feeling. I very heart 
 beats in unison with the sounds of triumph, every tongue 
 is employed upon the gratifying theme : the whole 
 mass of mind, if we may so express it, in the commu- 
 nity is actuate by sentiments congenial and proper 
 to the occasion : it is carried back into the midst of 
 past transactions : their exciting details come up again 
 fresh and alive : they are entered into with enthusiasm,' 
 an i dwelt upon with gratitude. 
 What, then, are the feelings with which we salute the 
 
 » Preached on Christmas-day, 1862. 
 F2 
 
68 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 II 
 
 11 
 
 festival of to-day? with which we coniineiuorate the 
 oponing scouo of a mighty and marvellous deliverance, 
 sprcadincr in its effects from the rising of the sun to 
 the going down of the same, which was planned and 
 achieved by Almighty God Himself— the entrance upon 
 the world of that dispensation of mystery, hid from ages 
 and generations, which changed, with immeasurable 
 blessing, the condition and prospects of the race ? A 
 change effected by no otlier means than the voluntary 
 abasement, the voluntary sufferings and struggles, the 
 voluntary submission to a frightful death, of One Who 
 was in the beginning with God and was God, but gave 
 Himself for us in love. In His love and in His pity, 
 He redeemed us. Herein is love, not that we loved 
 God— no ! it was because we were sinners at enmity 
 with a holy God, and by that enmity lost in ourselves, 
 • that He came in the flesh, to seek us and to save! 
 Our estimate, then, of what we are engaged upon to-day 
 —our sentiments, our emotions, are they commensurate 
 with an occasion, do they adequately respond to a call, 
 such as this ? 
 
 It must, indeed, be owned that there are not many to 
 whom Cliristmas and its associations are not, from one 
 cause or other, welcome and agreeable. Some pardon- 
 able, if not amiable prejudice— some love for " the good 
 old times," (better they were, in some points, than^'our 
 own, though conspicuously inferior to tliem in others)— 
 some attachment to customs and conventional demon- 
 strations received from our forefathers and transplanted 
 from a land far away, for which our human yearnings 
 
THE JOY OF CIIKISTMAS. 
 remai„,_tl,e,c are feelmRs and habit., of mind wl.icl, 
 ". nmny quartcs, arc ,eo„ to prevail in connexion' 
 « th ho observance. Or the season is found to commend 
 iMf by a certam expansion of heart wl,ich it is unck-r- 
 stood to cnKcndcr-a kindly glow in the circle of 
 k.ndred at the Christmas fireside, a cordial interchange 
 o neighbourly and social good-will.-all of which, prl 
 
 love of r^ '" r'"'"""'^''"" '« "- genuine Christian 
 love of God and man, must be admitted to be in proper 
 n d perfect harmony with the observance, but which 
 otherw.se >s rather poetry tha.r Keligion. Again, n,any 
 I«.-sons are glad of some refreshing relaxati^r fr^nt ^ 
 closeness of laborious employn.ent ; or find that a mere 
 break, of a lively kind, in the routine of ordinary life- 
 a briskness of external impulse communicated to 'the 
 spirits, comes acceptably in their way. Others are 
 
 are fond of Christmas good cheer. Alas ! there are 
 some who go beyond tbis-for with shame and grief it 
 nmst be confessed that such cases do exist -there are 
 Uiose who hail the holy festivals of the Church of Jesus 
 Christ as If they were meant to minister occasion for 
 actual intemperance and excess. r% assuredly " come 
 together for their Christmas celebrations, "noUbr the 
 better but for the wor.e," and can only expect to draw 
 down the heaviest wrath of God upon theii- heads. What ? 
 we must say to such a man, if any such should unhappily 
 be found among us,-will you keep the day which is 
 designed for the honour of God in Christ, as if you were 
 keeping the orgies of the heathen Bacchus? A person 
 
 -fCjSX 
 
70 
 
 SEKMON VI. 
 
 wlio driiik(&tli liimsclf arunk Ix'causo it is Cliristmas- 
 timo, miglit as well think uf honouring tho (hiy by acts 
 of adnltory or thof't. 
 
 lUit let us in.Iuloo tlio liopo on hohalf of all,* if 
 ]>ossil)l-, who aro ]unv. present in this liouso of God, 
 that tlu>y not only entertain the disposition to honour 
 th(> festival, but wish to houour it in a right manner ; 
 and niwer let us admit any inferenee to the preju- 
 dice of tiie festival itself, which is drawn from any 
 occasional instances of its abuse. The very obser- 
 vance of the Lord's own day might h) assailed 
 iip(>n precisely the same grounds. And in matters 
 wliich do not claim to rest upon the inichangeal)le 
 ap])ointment or precedent of Scrijiture, we ought not 
 hastily to depart from the innuenu^rial usage of the 
 Christian Church, nor lightly to regard tho prescribed 
 order of ecclesiastical authority exercised, in our re- 
 formed (.\)mmunion, according to that discretion which 
 Cu)d has given to the dilVerent portions of the Church 
 Catholic. :\ren should not only be careful, when they 
 cut away the diseased branches, to avoid woimding the 
 stem itself, which has often been rashly done, but they 
 should spare also those engrafted shoots which, though 
 not essential to its life and preservation, yet add to the 
 beauty and fruit fulness of the plant. 
 
 Let, then— in the review of all which we have just 
 been saying— let, then, the season be honoured, and, 
 I will add, let all its customary distinctions be cherished 
 and retained- and passed on, as I think we should wish 
 them to be, to those who are to follow us. If we make 
 
THK JOY OF CHRISTMAS. 71 
 
 the aisles aiul urclios of our temple resound with the 
 heavenly nmsic of Handel, specially practised for the 
 occasion ; if we garnish our pillars with evergreens • 
 It we spread a table for some two or three hundred 
 of our school-children in the parish-let us not be met 
 111 any quarter, in the spirit of the question, " Why was' 
 this waste of the ointment made ?" Why are time and 
 money, which might be better spent, spent in this way? 
 Ihe hosannas rung out in praise of Christ have been 
 coupled, before now, with a display of branches, He 
 11 imseli accepting and approving the tribute (as He 
 did also that of tiie costly ointment poured upon His 
 head) ; and the common, customary festivities of mar- 
 vnige have been sanctionc^l by His presence, and pro- 
 moted by His miraculous exercise of power. 
 
 All this, then, being conceded, and conceded freely 
 let us take care, at the same time, that we do really' 
 seriously, devoutly keep in view the ultimate object of 
 these several observances. When we are told in the 
 words of our text, that " there was great joy in thlt city " 
 (the city of Samaria), we find that it was a joy felt 
 among the people, because they had been reached by 
 the tidings of salvation-had recognised, under the 
 ininistry of Philip, the power of the Gospel of grace 
 and had closed with the overtures of mercy. And ifi 
 m this cit3^ my brethren, there are, at the present 
 moment, manifestations of great joy, it ought to be 
 a joy partaking of the same character, and founded 
 upon our home-felt acceptance of the same evangelical 
 truths. It ought to be a joy breathing the full senti- 
 
 
72 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 i 
 
 i ) I 
 
 ment of a well-known prophetic passage, as applied by 
 the Apostle Paul— "How beautiful upon the moun- 
 tains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, 
 that publisheth peace, that publisheth salvation, that 
 saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth ! " How welcome 
 the approach of the Messenger, watched for, as it were, 
 from afar, upon every commanding eminence, by men 
 longing and looking out for their deliverance ! Herald 
 after herald is here pictured to us as age follows upon 
 age, still echoing to an expectant world the message of 
 the angel—" Fear not ; for, behold, I bring you good 
 tidings of great joy." 
 
 Consider the circumstances of that original announce- 
 ment. 
 
 To shepherds abiding in the field and keeping watch 
 over their flocks by night ; to men of humble condition 
 and simple capacity, leading an obscure, unvarying life, 
 and undergoing, at the moment, the customary hard- 
 ships of their condition ; to men who had little concern 
 with any high transactions of the world— who had 
 slight reason to look for any tidings of moment, and 
 could have but slender hope or ambition of bettering 
 their situation by any changes here— to these the met 
 sage came ; to these the envoy of the Lord God Omni- 
 potent address 3d himself: "Fear not; for, behold, I 
 bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to 
 all people : ior unto you is born this day in the city 
 of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." 
 
 Unto us also this message is delivered; unto us 
 this peace is published; unto us a Child is born; unto 
 
THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS. 
 
 73 
 
 US a Son is given. Unto all who will embrace tliem, 
 in every condition of life, high and low, rich and poor, 
 one with another, are tendered the unspeakable mercies 
 of the Most High. " Whosoever will, let him take of 
 the water of life freely." That is the open, unreserved, 
 unrestricted invitation which proceeds from God. We 
 have all a common interest in these tidings of gladness 
 to the world ; we have all a common property in the 
 benefits of this salvation. O may we never turn them, 
 by our neglect and perverseness, to the savour of death ! 
 And O may we be aided, through the grace of our God, 
 in averting such a danger, by the manner in which we 
 now proceed to weigh the purport of this celestial in- 
 telligence, and to examine the grounds of joy which it 
 envelops. 
 
 If, indeed, as is pointed out by the admirable old 
 divine. Dr. Barrow (from whom I am taking here and 
 there some other hints also), we would enumerate all 
 the subjects for thanksgiving which spring from this 
 one, we must comprehend in our view the whole scheme 
 of the Gospel — we must include the whole succession 
 of graces and blessings which flow from the death, the 
 resurrection, ascension, and glorification of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and His effusion of the Spirit from on 
 high. Tor the work of our redemption, undertaken 
 long before, was, in a manner, achieved when our 
 Saviour became incarnate. The movement of that 
 wonderful process began. Nor was there, in all the 
 history of His life and death, with all their circum- 
 stantial and consequent wonders, a single incident more 
 
74 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 iiff 
 
 i , , 
 
 fitted to make the stone "ciy out of the wall and the 
 beam out of the timber" to answer it, if men should 
 hold their peace, than His original submission to infirm 
 mortality. The need, indeed, on the part of* man was 
 great. Here was a moral and responsible agent, won- 
 derfully gifted, but liillen under the power and curse 
 of sin, conscience-stricken and self-condenmed, yet 
 without remedy and without hope, having death, judg- 
 ment, and eternity to face : but who would have looked 
 for such a provision of eternal wisdom to meet this 
 mysterious case of exigency,— nothing less being done 
 than that He who had glory with His Father before the 
 world was shouhl come down and make Himself man 
 —should enter this world a weak, wailing, helpless 
 infant— should draw otir first natural nourishment from 
 the breast of a human mother— should be carried in 
 her arms and laid to rest in a stable, because there was 
 no other room for the Son of God :-what marvel Mdiich 
 followed, in the whole execution of the objects for 
 which He came into the world, could surpass such a 
 marvel as this ? Well might the Apostle say that, 
 "without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness,"' 
 where he proceeds to make it the first point in his 
 enumeration of particulars, that " God was manifest in 
 the flesh." 
 
 Upon this fact, then— the fact of the Incarnation- 
 let us now fix our regards. Look at it— but you are at 
 once carried back to things of the ages preceding, and 
 things which took place before the foundation of the 
 world. It was planned from eternity that the seed of 
 
THE JOY OP CHRISTMAS. 
 
 70 
 
 'g- 
 
 the w(jman should bruise the serpent'-, head. Look at 
 the continuous stream of the Divine purposes, and 
 trace it to its fountain in that promise. Look at the 
 train laid from the beginning for a glorious future. 
 Look at the long preparation of centuries ; the early 
 and reiterated prophecies; the symbolical signs and 
 wonders of old ; the marked typical occurrences ; the 
 emblematical institutions and significant ceremonies of 
 the former covenant ; the severance from the rest of 
 the nations of a peculiar people, from whom was to 
 spring Messiah the Prince ; the providential dircjtion 
 of events below, all things converging to this one grand 
 issue whicli concerned .i.e world at large. We see the 
 tide of ages rolling on, and the promise emerging more 
 and more, till, in the fulness of God's appointed time, 
 the blessed reality was developed and disclosed. Nations 
 and empires and languages had risen and passed away ; 
 sages and conquerors and names of renown had dazzled 
 for their day and slept the sleep of death ; the children 
 of a long, long line of many generations had been 
 gathered to their fathers before that Sun of Righteous- 
 ness arose with healing in His wings, under Whose 
 radiance it is our portion to pass our day upon the 
 earth. But now has the Gospel preached to Adam 
 been made good, and the seed of the woman has sprung 
 up in the siglit vi tliB world : Now has the mystical 
 Isaac, the mirar ulous son of promise, appeared : Now 
 has the grant to Abraham taken effect, that in his seed 
 all the families of the earth should be blessed: Now has 
 that Shiloh come of Whom Jacob foretold that to Him 
 
76 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 should the gathering of the people be : Now is that 
 Mosaic assurance more than verified—" A Prophet shall 
 the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren 
 like unto me" (as the founder of a new covenant), " Him 
 shall ye hear : " Now is that Star come out of Jacob, 
 of which the vision in distance averted the curse of 
 Balaam from the people among whom it was destined 
 to arise : Now is that Divine oath discharged to David 
 — " Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne:" 
 Low are th.^ illustrious predictions of Isaiah exactly 
 fulfilled, such as, "There shall come forth a rod out 
 of the stem of Jesse;" "A virgin shall conceive and 
 bear a son;" "There shall jome out of Sion the de- 
 liverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob : "* 
 Now has that Eighteous Branch sprouted forth which is 
 promised b- 3romyand Zeohariah: Now the One Shep- 
 herd, of E. k t/ ; the Son oi Man, of Daniel; the Ruler 
 of Israel, ^ . ie goings forth have been of old, of Micah ; 
 the Desire of all nations, ot Haggai; the Messenger of 
 the Covenant and Sun of Righteousness, of Malachi, the 
 last of the propliets, have all, in very reality, appeared. 
 Now is that kingdom indefsasibly established which the 
 great series of patriarchs and prophets, of kings and of 
 wise men and righteous men, saw afar off and rajoiced 
 in the prospect, and which is ordained in the counsels 
 of God to be " an eternal excellency, a joy of many 
 generations." 
 
 Before this period, the worid was made up of two 
 very unequal portions, divided by a strong wall of 
 
 * Isaiah lix. 20, as quoted in liomans xi. 26. 
 
THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS. 
 
 77 
 
 partition from each other. The people of God, whose 
 advantage was "much ojvery way," and who enjoyed 
 many and signal privileges, if only they had known how 
 to profit by them, were yet under the yoke of a mere 
 preparatory dispensation, and the ordinances prescribed 
 to them were but the shadowy prefiguration of better 
 things to come in substance. Of the remaining part 
 of the world, the condition was deplorable indeed. 
 Aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers 
 to the covenant of promise, they were without God in 
 the world ; the children of wrath and disobedience ; 
 possessed with base and degrading conceptions of 
 Deity; sunk in monstrous and most filthy idolatries; 
 serving the spirits of darkness who bKnded their minds;' 
 dead in trespasses and sins. 
 
 Such was the sad but real condition of the Gentile 
 world ; such is the condition now of prodigious portions 
 of the globe; such were our own remote forefathers; 
 and such, by fatal consequence, we should have been 
 ourselves. But Christ came in the fle^;!,. The barriers 
 of sf paration were broken down ; Jew and Gentile who 
 would believe were brought into one spiritual fraternity 
 of love, and became the candidates for a common in- 
 heritance of glory. This Gospel of the kingdom, 
 although still in commixture and conflict with the 
 kingdom of darkness (for the tares and the wheat must 
 grow together till the harvest), is gaining, according to 
 God's appointed times and by the steps which He 
 regulates, its destined ascendancy in the world, sub- 
 duing, in its progress, the hearts of men, softening their 
 
 Ml 
 
 ' ifi 
 
'1 
 
 m 
 
 78 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 manners, enlightening their understandings, and purify- 
 ing their lives. The grain of mustard-seed has long 
 ago become a great tree ; the little leaven has operated 
 upon an extensive mass ; the religion of Christ, from 
 small and despised beginnings, has worked its way- 
 through the lapse of ages and the multiplied revolutions 
 of the world. And it v^ill work its way. Neither the 
 varied series of events, the changing policy of nations, 
 nor the perpetually opposing struggle of a depraved 
 nature ; neither persecution from without, nor long and 
 deep corruption within; neither the coldness and in- 
 consistency of its professed followers, nor the high- 
 sounding appeal of infidel pride ; neither the laxity 
 and worldliness of its legitimate guardians, nor the 
 vain jangling of lawless innovators and enthusiasts; 
 neither the disguised sneers of a smooth and skilful 
 sophistry, nor the miserable distractions of heresy and 
 schism, nor the mortifying exposure at different times 
 of wild and wide-spread delusion among believers;— 
 neither these nor any other obstructions, all hitherto 
 ineffectual or ultimately proving subservient to the 
 cause which they had seemed to threaten, shall ever 
 be able to crush the work of God, or forbid its travel- 
 ling on to its appointed mark. For " the gates of hell 
 shall not prevail against it." The earth shall yet " be 
 filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the 
 waters cover the sea." " The multitude of the isles may 
 be glad thereof, and all the ends of the world shall see 
 the salvation of our God." The voice shall penetrate to 
 ths darkest corners of the habitable globe — ''Arise, 
 
THE JOY OP CHRISTMAS. 
 
 79 
 
 shine, for tliy light is come, and the glory of the Lord 
 is risen upon thee !" 
 
 And now, if we descend, in leaving our subject, from 
 all this magnificent and far-spread contemplation, and 
 look into ourselves— scrutinise our own hearts, how do 
 we feel as parts of this whole— as the creatures of the 
 hand of God, who are personally and individually con- 
 cerned in these themes of grandeur and manifestations 
 of grace— who are personally and individually among 
 the subjects of aU this amazing intervention from the 
 realms above ? Are we adequately impressed by this 
 thought?— practically and habitually linder the in- 
 fluence of this conviction?— alive, awake to all the 
 responsibility which it implies ?-prepared to appro- 
 priate the blessings, the consolations, the hopes of 
 glory, with which it is associated ? We look for the 
 kingdom of God abroad and in the future ; we pray 
 every day that it may come ; we forget, too many of 
 us, the warning words of the Redeemer— « Behold, the 
 kingdom of God is within you." 
 
 -«4 
 
I 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 CHRIST COMING TO HIS OWN. 
 
 St. John I. 10—13. 
 
 He was in the xvorld, and the world was made hy Him, and the world 
 kneio Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him 
 not. Bat as many as received Him, to them gave He povjcr to become 
 the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: Which were 
 bom, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, 
 but of God. 
 
 The first statement contained in this remarkable passage 
 presents a fact npon which our minds do not, perhaps, 
 sufficiently dwell, and the magnitude of which we do 
 not, any of us, sufficiently appreciate ; the simple fact, 
 in itself, that " He was in the world." Let us rest a little 
 upon the contemplation of it ; let us familiarize our- 
 seh^es with this great fact and bring it home to our 
 minds. Who was in the world? — not merely by His 
 invisible presence, — not by the ubiquity of His spiritual 
 essence, — not by His pervading providence and rule, but 
 made flesh and dwelling among us, — one of ourselves, — 
 in corporeal and substantial reality, born, growing up, 
 living, treading the earth as a man among men ; was 
 He thus in the world Who was in the beginning, or from 
 all eternity, with God and was God ? He by AVhom all 
 things were made, and without Whom was not anything 
 
 tij 
 
CHRIST COMING TO HIS OWN. 
 
 81 
 
 made that was made ? It must have been a portentous 
 need on our part which brought Him down, and a 
 mighty and marvellous purpose which He came to 
 effect in our behalf; it was such a need and such a 
 purpose as are -^ escribed in the words, *' I looked, and 
 there was none to help, and I wondered that there was 
 nono to uphold: therefore Mine own arm brought 
 salvation unto Me, and My righteousness, it sustained 
 Me." 
 
 Christ, the original creating Word, was in the world. 
 We " believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of 
 heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible." 
 But we also, in the same symbol of our faith, predicate 
 of the "one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of 
 God," that by Him " all things were made." And this is 
 the very statement of Scripture in our text, and in other 
 places which speak the same language. The work of 
 creation is primarily ascribed to the Father, in the 
 distribution, if we may use the term, of the parts sus- 
 tained by the Godhead, with reference to this visible 
 frame of the universe and its inhabitants. But the 
 mysterious plurality of persons in that Godhead of the 
 One true God, is intimated in the very account of the 
 creation itself; and in the words, " Let Us make man in 
 Our image, after Our likeness," a plurality of persons is 
 represented to us as actually engaged in that work. 
 And this was perceived by the Jews and taught by 
 their writers, of course without the benefit of that 
 full development of the doctrine of the Trinity which 
 appears in the New Testament. The Son, as St. Paul 
 
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82 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 i! 
 
 expresses it in one of those passages which plainly 
 clothe the Lord Jesus Christ with the attributes of 
 Divinity, is One by Whom, in mysterious co-operation, 
 the Father made the worlds : and the Spirit, in His 
 genial influence — in more than one sense the author 
 and giver of life— brooded over the unformed mass and 
 infused into it a vivifying energy. 
 
 These are subjects too deep for man to fathom ; such 
 knowledge is too wonderful and excellent for us, wc 
 cannot attain unto it. God has graciously made known 
 as much as we are now fitted to understand, as much as 
 we want for our guidance and comfort ; if we would 
 rudely and rashly break in upon the bounds which 
 He has set around the place of His gloiy, we gain 
 no satisfaction, and only pay the penalty of our pro- 
 faneness. 
 
 Christ, then, by Whom the world was made, was in 
 the world. And He came "to seek and to save that 
 which was lost." But the world, the beings, taken in the 
 mass, who were the subjects of this amazing inter- 
 vention, knew Him not. And now that He has been, 
 long ago, in the world, and has accomplished the objects 
 for which He came into it, and has left behind Him the 
 eternal testimonies of His visit to the children of men, 
 and by His Spirit, by His word, by His sacraments, by 
 the standing and perpetual ministrations of His Church, 
 is among them— alive and breathing still, alive in an 
 unseen but efficacious presence, and breathing the breath 
 of an immortal power— how does the world now know 
 or regard Him? The world— speaking of that portion 
 
CHRIST COMING TO HIS OWN. 
 
 83 
 
 of it which is called Christendom— has adopted the pro- 
 fession of the Christian faith. But how far does this 
 world, this nominally Christian world, really recognise 
 the claims of Christ the Saviour? honestly and prac- 
 tically respond to His own charge, " Take My yoke upon 
 you, and learn of Me " ? experimentally and in earnest 
 accept the principle which He establishes aod own its 
 sovereign sway, " This is life eternal, to know Thee, the 
 only God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent"? 
 What are the prevailing influences, what are the reign- 
 ing sentiments, what are the conventional maxims, what 
 are the common practices, what are the familiar lives 
 and habits to be witnessed among those — take them 
 collectively — who profess and call themselves Christians ? 
 Are they such as carry the holy stamp of the Gospel ? 
 Are they such as mark out this company of people to 
 the eye, as disciples of the lowly Lamb of God ? Let 
 the world, this Christian world, answer for itself; let it 
 testify whether its pretensions to the name of Christian 
 are genuine— whether it is, in fact, identified with the 
 cause in which, by the assumption of that name, it 
 avows itself enlisted ? A worldly man, or a worldly- 
 minded person, does that convey, in the language of the 
 •Christian world, the idea of a person devoted to Christ? 
 So it ought plainly to do, if the Christian world were 
 Christian indeed — if there were not an opposition 
 between this Christian world and Christ. 
 
 " He came unto His own, and His own received Him 
 not." There is a distinction of gender in the original, 
 which cannot be preserved in English, unless we render 
 
 G 2 
 
 il 
 
u 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 ;"n 
 
 the words in some such way as this,--He came to that 
 which belonged to Him, to His own proper possessions, 
 or His own territories, and His own people received Him 
 not. He came to His own,— Kis own, Tiere, refers to 
 things: His own received Him not— it here refers toper- 
 sons. That the Jewish Church and State, in their entire 
 system and constitution, and by the very principle of 
 their existence, belonged immediately to God, and con- 
 stituted the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts, is what it 
 is needless to indicate ; and that Christ the Word, before 
 His incarnation, maintained a special connexion with 
 the affairs of Israel of old, and presided in a peciUiar 
 manner over the destinies of the people, appears from 
 different passages of Scripture. And all which was 
 done for them, and all which was prescribed to them, 
 and all which was made the subject of their national 
 expectation and hope,— all, all centred in the Messiah. 
 He came, therefore, to His own property. And His own 
 people, whom He found there, received Him not. The 
 chosen, the peculiar people whom the Lord their God, 
 by a mighty hand and by r -tretched-out arm, and by 
 great signs and wonders, had separated and set apart for 
 His own, they would not receive His Son. They had 
 maltreated His servants, they had murdered His mes- • 
 sengers ; but a hope yet remained, there was a last great 
 resource which might be tried. "It may be they will 
 reverence " My Son. But no ; the Son is sent, and the 
 husbandmen said, "This is the heir: come, let us kiU 
 him." 
 
 "If we had been in the days of our fathers," said the 
 
CHRIST COMING TO HIS OWN. ;86 
 
 Jews, before this catastrophe, "we would not have been 
 partakers with them in the blood of the prophets" If 
 we had been in the days of the Jews, we, in like 
 manner, shall be at once prompted to say, we would not 
 have been partakers in the blood of Christ. Yet awful 
 as IS the supposition, my brethren, that any of us would 
 then have repudiated the Redeemer and lent ourselves 
 in the natural sequence of things, to His condemnation 
 we must not be too sure of ourselves in this point.' 
 Let us spare a moment to consider and examine this 
 matter, before we pronounce too boldly in our own 
 favour. 
 
 We have succeeded, by external -; -vilege and profes- 
 sion, to the place of the people of God. Our privileges 
 and our proper characteristics were foreshadowed in those 
 of the ancient Israel- and we are, therefore, as Chris- 
 tians, declared by the Apostle St. Peter, in terms drawn 
 from the language of the earlier covenant, to be « a chosen 
 generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar 
 people." A people, he adds, whose vocation it is to « show 
 forth the praises of Him who hath called " them « out 
 of darkness into His marvellous light." Christ, therefore, 
 proposed to us, is proposed to His own— Ria own Church,' 
 His own professed people— His own by deeper obliga- 
 tions, by more constraining ties, by more endearing 
 claims, than those which established His property in the 
 Israel of old. We are not our own, but " bought with 
 a price." And if we try ourselves honestly by this test— 
 the test of the recognition, in our hearts and lives, of the 
 right which Christ has acquired over us, in virtue of 
 
 t.Mil . 1 1 .».". ! ] 1..J.-L'S 
 
mffSsmstsiKf^m 
 
 86 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 that price paid for the ransom of our souls, — ^too many, 
 too many of us, it is to be feared, must be brought to 
 the sad and shameful confession, that Christ has, indeed, 
 been presented to us, and we are numbered among those 
 who are properly His own ; but His own, and we among 
 them, have not received Him. It will not do to say, as if 
 repelling, perhaps indignantly, an offensive imputation. 
 We have never rejected Christ : we believe in the Bible : 
 we claim the benefit of our baptism : we belong to the 
 Church. my brethren, have we received, have we 
 owned Him in our hearts, such as He is in Himself, such 
 as He is portrayed in the Bible, such as He is mystically 
 exhibited in baptism, such as He is proclaimed, it she 
 understand her message, by the Church, — intimately 
 and in the very marrow of our souls, acknowledging the 
 principle laid down by the Apostle, that " the love of 
 Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if 
 one died for all " — one sinless spotless victim for all this 
 vast family of sinners — " theii were all dead " — all lay 
 under condemnation, and without hope of life eternal — 
 and " that He died for all, that they which live should 
 not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him Which 
 died for them and rose again ? " 
 
 If we repudiate these appeals of our Eeligion, in their 
 homefejlt power — if we do not desire to entertain them 
 — if our minds are averse from them — if they are strange, 
 foreign, distasteful to our feelings, — then, in effect, my 
 brethren, we are refusing Him that speaketh, — we are 
 counting the blood of the covenant an unholy or worth- 
 less thing; and, in the figure of speech used by the 
 
CHRIST COMING TO HIS OWN, 
 
 87 
 
 )o many, 
 ought to 
 }, indeed, 
 ing those 
 e among 
 say, as if 
 putatiori, 
 le Bihle : 
 ig to the 
 have we 
 self, such 
 ystically 
 id, it she 
 itimately 
 Iging the 
 B love of 
 }, that if 
 »r all this 
 — all lay 
 jternal — 
 '^e should 
 □a Which 
 
 , in their 
 lin them 
 ) strange, 
 fifect, my 
 —we are 
 >r worth- 
 1 by the 
 
 Apostle, crucifying the Lord afresh and putting Him to an 
 open shame. And if such be, in any instance, our state 
 of mind, the verdict must be rendered upon us, that 
 (supposing our continuance in that state), we should, 
 without any figure of speech, have been led to concur in 
 the crucifixion, had it been our lot to live in the days 
 of the Jews. 
 
 If, on the other hand, we do so receive Christ, as His 
 own ought to receive him,— if we have so learned Christ, 
 have been so schooled in our spirits, as cordially and 
 thankfully to admit His claims upon us, as stated by the 
 Apostle in the passage which has been here cited, — if, 
 with all our manifold and still recurring deficiencies of 
 love and duty, we can, nevertheless, say that the life 
 which we live in the flesh, we "live by the faith of the 
 Son of God " — then mark what are our privileges and our 
 blessings, preserved to us undamaged from our original 
 sealing in the covenant, and how infinitely they surpass 
 all else which is within the reach of man. We are owned, 
 though, of course, in a different sense, as the sons of God, 
 ourselves. " As many as received Him, to them gave He 
 power to become the sons of God, even to them that be- 
 lieve on His name." And the process is described by which 
 this new sonship is eflfected. They receive it, not by 
 natural birth, — not by having the blood of any eminent 
 forefathers running in their veins — not as the result 
 of any particular intermarriage — not by means of any 
 edict or conveyance of privilege personally, by human 
 authority : they " are born, not of blood, nor of the 
 will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." 
 
iiil 
 
 88 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 They are adopted into His family, and receive the Spirit 
 of adoption, whereby they cry, Abba, signifying Father. 
 They are made sensible of being established in such 
 happy relations with God, that they can invoke Him, 
 through Christ, with the affectionate reverence of chil- 
 dren loving Him and loved by Him with an ever- 
 lasting love. They know that, though all claims of 
 earthly kindred should fail, or all natural human affec- 
 tion should become extinct — though Abraham should be 
 ignoranl; of them and Israel should not acknowledge them 
 — though a woman should be found to forget her sucking- 
 child, and cease to have compassion on the fruit of her 
 womb, yet God is their Father by an unchangeable cove- 
 nant, and they as His children will never be forgotten 
 in His sight. He will give them " a place and a name 
 better than of sons and of daughters," even " an ever- 
 lasting name which shall not be cut off." And the literal 
 child, trained to know his God and Saviour, and lifting 
 his little hands to heaven and calling upon God as his 
 Father (to do that is the very first thing which we learn 
 in our Eeligion), the literal child, calling upon God as his 
 Father in the prayer bequeathed to us by Christ Himself, 
 h&s his share in the blessings and acts of grace described 
 in our text. If he can rightly call God his Father, it is 
 plain that he has received power to become the son of God. 
 Nor is their share denied to others who, whatever be the 
 development of their physical stature, are yet but babes 
 in Christ. In fact, the first act of this aflSliation, intro- 
 ductory to all which foUows, is, beyond all question, in 
 our baptism : for we must use means — we must use the 
 
 (I 
 
CHRIST COMING TO HIS OWN. 
 
 89 
 
 be Spirit 
 : Father, 
 ill such 
 ie Him, 
 of chil- 
 .n ever- 
 aims of 
 iD. aflfec- 
 lould be 
 ge them 
 lucking- 
 t of her 
 le cove- 
 )rgotteii 
 a name 
 n ever- 
 e literal 
 . lifting 
 I as his 
 re learn 
 d as his 
 [imself, 
 scribed 
 er, it is 
 of God. 
 be the 
 t babes 
 , intro- 
 ;ion, in 
 use the 
 
 means of God's appointment, and devoutly believe in 
 their efficacy. That is the part of humility and the part 
 of faith ; that is, in reality, the spiritual view of the 
 subject. Without the use of the means, we should have 
 no title, no ground whatever, to look for the ulterior 
 benefits comprehended in tl.3 description of those to 
 whom Christ gives the power to become the sons of God, 
 and who are said to be born of God ; for except a man 
 be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
 the kingdom of God. The administration of the water 
 of baptism is, in the ordinary and established course of 
 things, the first step. He cannot be said to receive 
 Christ, who has not received and will not receive 
 Christ's ordinance. But if we have no warrant, except 
 under extraordinary circumstances, to look for the ulte- 
 rior work of the grace of God without the use of baptism, 
 how many baptized Christians, on the other hand, fall 
 away from all their baptismal engagements, and forfeit, 
 like Esau, their birthright of blessing ! that we could, 
 if it were possible, win them, one and all, back to their 
 Father, and persuade them to receive their Eedeemer,that 
 they may be owned as the sons of God, and be made, in 
 a fresh sense, and by a new exertion of His quickening 
 power, new creatures in Christ Jesus ! Vain, thought- 
 less, vicious, worldly-minded, sceptical, hard-hearted, 
 stupid, and unconcerned about their eternal welfare, 
 whatever be the nature, or whatever the degree of their 
 alienation from God, they are not beyond the reach of 
 His renovating grace. " For this My son was dead and is 
 alive again, and was lost and is found." It is necessary 
 
mm 
 
 mm 
 
 90 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 I II ! 
 
 that this grace should act upon us all ; that we should 
 be " transformed in the renewing of our minds : " that we 
 should be different beings from what nature or the world 
 would have made us, or could make us. A crisis full 
 of marked incident — a sudden excitement at one par- 
 ticular instant of our lives — a vehement struggle, partak- 
 ing of the character of animal sensation, which comes and 
 goes off like a fit — an electrical effect and a sort of dra- 
 matic exhibition of transported feeling, produced by the 
 unsparing application of certain stimulants in religious 
 pharmacy — these, or anything resembling or approach- 
 ing to these, although favoured sometimes and promoted 
 by good men, are not the safest phenomena of the pro- 
 cess, nor such as seem best to correspond with the 
 description of Christ, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, 
 and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
 whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth: so is every 
 one that is born of the Spirit." But means having been 
 used, privileges conveyed and sealed — all conspiring 
 agencies being at work (the word of truth, among 
 others, by which we are expressly said to be begotten 
 again), — the energy of the Spirit gives effect to every in- 
 strument employed, and works upon the man, whether 
 for the daily renewal of the subject and his gradual ad- 
 vancement in holiness, or his recovery to God from a 
 wicked and worldly state. It is the Spirit Who moves 
 him to repentance, prompts him to flee from the wrath 
 to come, and to clasp to his heart the gracious offers of 
 mercy ; enlightens his mind in heavenly truth, brings 
 forth in him the fruits of righteousness, enables him to 
 
CHRIST COMING TO HIS OWN. 
 
 9i 
 
 ^e should 
 " that we 
 the world 
 3risis full 
 one par- 
 B, partak- 
 oines and 
 t of dra- 
 id by the 
 religious 
 ipproach- 
 promoted 
 the pro- 
 w'ith the 
 it listeth, 
 not tell 
 is every 
 dng been 
 3nspiring 
 I, among 
 begotten 
 every in- 
 whether 
 idual ad- 
 d from a 
 10 moves 
 he wrath 
 offers of 
 h, brings 
 s him to 
 
 go on his way rejoicing, and patiently to persevere in 
 good works, abounding therein more and more to the 
 end. 
 
 My brethren, let us look into ourselves, and find out 
 what part or lot we have in this matter. It is worth 
 while, if we believe that we have souls, to enquire whether 
 they are in the way to be saved or to be lost. Here, 
 then, are two pictures : they are drawn by the hand of 
 Christ — which of them will suit us ? which will exhibit 
 our resemblance ? Christ comes to the world, and to 
 those who are nominally His own : they do not know 
 Him ; they do not receive Him. He comes to another 
 class of human beings — (let us dare to hope that those 
 who, here, this day, are about to partake in the commu- 
 nion of the Body and Blood of Christ, belong to this 
 class), they know Him — they receive Him — they believe 
 on His name. They discern in Him, and in Him alone, 
 their salvation : they accept and embrace it : they be- 
 lieve with the heart unto righteousness. To them, in 
 thi most complete and ample sense. He gives power to 
 become the sons of God. Their heart has been reached ; 
 it has found what it wanted, and cannot be mistaken : it 
 passes its testimony to the understanding ; and making 
 always due allowance for strong faith in some cases and 
 weaker faith in others, as well as for many humbling me- 
 mentos of infirmity in all, the declaration is made good, 
 without presumption, without fanatical extravagance, 
 that the Spirit Itself beareth witness with their spirit, 
 that they " are the children of God. And if children, 
 then heirs : heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ." 
 
92 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 Tliey are, in the only happy view of the case, His own : 
 He knows them and is known of them : He speaks to 
 them in reassuring language, " Fear not : for I have re- 
 deemed thee : I have called thee hy thy name : thou art 
 Mine." And to them, in the consummation of all things, 
 belong the glorious words, " They shall be Mine, saith 
 the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up My 
 jewels." 
 
SERMON VIII. 
 
 THE PUNISHMENT OF SODOM. 
 
 St. Luke XVII. 32, 33. 
 
 Remember LoCs un/e. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it • 
 and whosoever sJmU lose his life shall preserve it. 
 
 A GOOD deal of difficulty has been felt respecting certain 
 passages in the Evangelists, where the Coming of the 
 Son of Man is described in some detail by Christ 
 Himself; and a variety of explanations have been offered 
 with the view of conciliating the seeming repugnance 
 of some portions of these passages to other portions of 
 the same. The words appear at one time to point to 
 things then close at hand, and at another to refer to the 
 final judgment of the world. And hence it has been 
 the opinion of some persons, that both events are pre- 
 sented to us throughout, under one description, and they 
 have laboured to explain particular expressions in a 
 manner to make them applicable to, either case ; while 
 others, confining the whole description to one period, 
 have, in a similar manner, adapted their explanations to 
 this supposition. As, for example, wLen the Lord 
 declares that "this generation shall not pass away till aU 
 be fulfiUed," the words, « this generation " have been con- 
 ceived to indicate, not, in the usual sense, simply the 
 
 'N 
 
94 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 generation then living, but "this race of the Jews," which 
 should continue, through successive ages, till the pre- 
 dicted consummation of all things below. It can hardly 
 fail to appear, however, to every reader carefully and 
 without prepossession fctudying these passages, that they 
 do contain some expressions which can only apply to the 
 doom then impending over rebel Jerusalem, and others 
 which can only apply to the general judgment of man- 
 kind at the last day. Of the former class are those 
 intimations respecting flight and escape from the scene, 
 which cannot be appropriate in describing the end of the 
 world, as well as the declaration which closes the 
 chapter where our text is found, that wheresoever the 
 body is, tWther will the eagles be gathered together ; 
 the eagle of the Eoman standard suggesting a ready 
 and apt illustration of that devouring fierceness of the 
 Eoman arms, of which the Jews, wherever found, were, 
 in the times of trouble which were fast coming on, 
 ordained to be specially a prey. 
 
 The prophetic discourse of Christ, therefore, in th^se 
 passages, is of a mixed character ; yet not so mixed 
 but that it is left practicable to separate the parts 
 which belong to nearer events, and those which relate 
 to one more remote, while other pa:ts apply to both 
 alike. His coming to judgment upon Jerusalem, 
 the victorious establishment of His kingdom upon 
 earth, and the judgment r.f the great day, are all in His 
 contemplation, and His notice of ail is nrtturally 
 prompted by such questions as were addressed to 
 Him upon the occasion recorded in the 24th chapter of 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF SODOM. 
 
 95 
 
 St. Matthew. These questions, with whatever degrees of 
 distinctness or indistinctness as to their several objects, 
 in the minds of those who propounded them, will be 
 seen to embrace in their proper import, a very extended 
 range of enquiiy. Adverting to the utter destruction 
 of the temple which their Master had foretold, the 
 disciples there ask Him, "When shall these things be, 
 and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the 
 end of the world ? " 
 
 Without professing to have disposed, in these slight 
 observations, of all the difficulties which may attach to 
 the passages in question, in one of which our present 
 text occurs, we mny pasj? on to remark, that the whole 
 of the description which they contain is so far to be 
 regarded as one, as is implied in the fact that the awful 
 downfall of Jerusalem, with its attendant horrors, 
 emblematically represented the final judgment of the 
 wicked. In this point of view, indeed, the destruction 
 of Jerusalem is identified with the destruction of Sodom 
 and Gomorrah, and with other signal visitations, in 
 which the energy of the wrath of God has been put 
 forth ] and we find that the " day of the Lord " is a term 
 made applicable in Scripture to all such visitations. 
 And all these v/arnings, whether relating to things now 
 past, or to things future, or to both together, — all these 
 warnings, my brethren, "are written for our admonition, 
 upon whom the ends of the world are come," whose lot 
 is cast under the final dispensation of the Gospel. The 
 cities just mentioned are, we are told, " set forth as an 
 example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." They 
 
96 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 are so set forth in the Word of God ; and they are so 
 set forth in the face of nature, whose aspect, upon the 
 spot, carries the traces and constitutes of itself the record 
 of their memorable desolation. Their history, indeed, 
 affords a lively picture of the last outpouring of Divine 
 judgment upon the wicked. "When we read that " the 
 Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone 
 and fire from the Lord out of heaven," and that " the 
 smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace," 
 we can hardly fail to be reminded of the visions of the 
 other world vouchsafed to St. John, in which the portion 
 of the condemned is described by saying that they " shall 
 be tormented with fire and brimstone," and that " the 
 smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." 
 My brethien, we cannot appreciate the mercies of 
 God in Christ unless we estimate rightly the hateful 
 nature of sin in His holy eyes, and the necessity which 
 exists, in the preservation of His perfect attributes, that 
 justice should be executed upon transgression. Too 
 little are these awful truths regarded ; too readily are 
 they, if regarded at all, glossed over, and accommodated, 
 and explained away by a careless, undutiful, ungrr.teful, 
 and infatuated world. The Lord Himself has pointedly 
 directed our attention, in the context of the words which 
 form the basis of our present reflections, to the example 
 of these devoted cities of old, and He has warned us of 
 the more unsuspected among our own dangers, by speci- 
 fying such evidences of want of preparation on the part 
 of the inhabitants, as consisted, not in any of the flagrant 
 impurities and filthy abominations to which they were 
 
 M 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF SODOM. 
 
 97 
 
 notoriously addicted, but in their reckless abandonment 
 to the business and pleasures of the world, without 
 thought of their responsibility to God ; their obHvious 
 immersion in those cares and pursuits and occupations 
 of human life which in themselves are necessaiy or 
 lawful, but which become pernicious, and assume the 
 character of sin, when we make them the object of our 
 existence ; when we live for them, forgetting our higher 
 destiny and the higher demands upon us which are 
 presented in our connexion with the world above; 
 when, in short, we serve these earthly objects instead of 
 serving God. "As it was in the days of Lot ; they did 
 eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, 
 they builded ; but the same day that Lot went out of 
 Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and 
 destroyed them all." Eating and drinking are absolutely 
 necessary to the very preservation of our own being : 
 marrying wives and being given in marriage, mentioned 
 just before in the similar enumeration which refers to 
 the days of Noah, are necessary for continuing the 
 species, in the persons of those who are to succe^ us : 
 buying, selling, planting, and building are requisite 
 proceedings or operations for carrying on the useful 
 purposes of life :— all these things, therefore, are only 
 censurable in their abuse, and the simple fact of our 
 being engaged in any one of them at the moment of the 
 coming of the Son of Man would not prove us un- 
 prepared. But they are abused and become the ministers 
 of sin to the soul, when they absorb the faculties or the 
 attachments of man, and deaden within him the remem- 
 
 H 
 
mSm 
 
 98 
 
 SERMON Vin. 
 
 brance of eternity and the principle of spiritual life. En- 
 grossed by the cares and the riches and the pleasures of 
 this present life— making " provision for the flesh to fulfil 
 the lusts thereof," " serving divers lusts and pleasures," 
 cumbered, perchance, about much serving in domestic 
 details— going " their way, one to his farm, another to his 
 merchandize," and praying to be excused from attending 
 to the calls of God,— the professed followers of Christ 
 may still have a name to Mve, but they are dead ; they 
 may pass in the world as creditable Christians enough, 
 but they are not recognised in that character by the 
 Lord Who " knoweth them that are His," by the great 
 Shepherd, Who knows and is known of His sheep — 
 they have no part in the blessed promise, "they shall be 
 Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make 
 up My jewels." They answer the roll-call of the Church 
 upon the stated returns of her service, and stand; to their 
 arms in the formal discharge of duty upon parade ; but 
 put them to the proof as soldiers of Christ in the actual 
 conflict with the world and the flesh and the devil, and 
 they have no heart to fight, no disposition but to surrender 
 themselves to the foe, upon terms which, falsely indeed, 
 but plausibly promise them ease. What do they know 
 about " the love of Christ which passeth knowledge ? " 
 What do they ca^;^ about comprehending with all saints 
 
 i, e. with all true believers — " what is the breadth and 
 
 length, and depth and height" of that love ? What do 
 they feel about the faith in His salvation, which they 
 should carry about as the animating principle of their 
 lives ? What do they understand, or how do they con- 
 
[fe. En- 
 sures of 
 to fulfil 
 asures," 
 omestic 
 3r to his 
 ;tendmg 
 f Christ 
 d ; they 
 enough, 
 by the 
 he great 
 sheep — 
 shall be 
 L I make 
 5 Church 
 1; to their 
 ide ; but 
 le actual 
 evil, and 
 lurrender 
 y indeed, 
 ley know 
 wledge?" 
 all saints 
 ladth and 
 What do 
 lich they 
 J of their 
 they con- 
 
 THE PUNISHMENT OP SODOM. 
 
 cern themselves about grieving the Holy Spirit of God, 
 whereby they " are sealed unto the day of redemption " ? 
 And yet, if you can get them, in your solicitude for their 
 safety, to stop for one moment in the hurry of their 
 worldly career, and honestly to face the enquiry, can they 
 deny that these are points of the Christian Eeligion with 
 which, if they would be Christians indeed, and would 
 share in the hopes of Christians, it is necessary for them 
 to have a practical and home-felt acquaintance ? 
 
 Our Saviour Christ has come still closer to the point 
 in adverting to the history of Sodom and Gomoriuh, by 
 referring to the individual example of one who was 
 rescued in the first instance from the perdition in which 
 her fellow-citizens were involved, but who became after- 
 wards a signal monument of the Divine vengeance. 
 "Eemember Lot's wife." We know the particulars of 
 the narrative. Lot himself lingers : the angels hasten 
 him ; they take him and his family by the hand ; they 
 bring them forth, the Lord being merciful to him, and 
 they charge him— "Escape for thy life : look not behind 
 thee, neither stay thou in all the plain : escape to the 
 mountain, lest thou be consumed." This charge was 
 not observed by his wife. « His wife looked back from 
 behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." She 
 indulged in some regrets, we may presume, for the things 
 which she had left behind her, and the home which she 
 had possessed in the guilty city— perhaps for some of 
 its guilty company, with Tvh.m she had been wont to 
 beguile the time. The greatness of her deliverance, 
 the horrors from which she was snatched, the awful 
 manifestation of the curse of God upon the place, the 
 
 h2 
 
 
100 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 I' ' i 
 
 contrast of the mercy extended to herself and those 
 belonging to her,— all these considerations did not avail 
 to overpower her criminal predilection for what she had 
 lost. And while she yielded to the perilous attraction, 
 and drew back from those who were m-ging her in the 
 path of safety, she was overtaken by the descending 
 flood, and at once becoming encased and encrusted by 
 the nitro-sulphureous matter, which was poured down 
 from heaven, she stood fast and immovable — the human 
 creature was a pillar of salt. And it is said to have 
 stood for some subsequent ages. 
 
 Alas ! this looking back, what mischief does it not 
 work for us— what dangers does it not bring upon our 
 foolish heads ! Men who have been ensnared in seduc- 
 tive habits of intemperance or dissolute pleasure— in the 
 unhallowed excitement of debauched and profane com- 
 pany — in the destructive fascinations of the gaming- 
 table, or the midtiplied temptations of a course of 
 extravagant vanity and profuse ostentation, receive 
 some providential check ; their ruin is impending, they 
 become alarmed, they are touched with remorse, they 
 listen to advice, they see the necessity of repentance 
 and reform, they abjure their past practices, they 
 resolve to heed the warning voice of their Bibles 
 and to follow their heavenly guide. They seem to be 
 new men; and the language of charitable hope pro- 
 nounces them new creatures in Christ Jesus. But the 
 moral disease is not eradicated from the system, and 
 is ready, under the action of some accidental provo- 
 cative, to break out afresh. The seed has fallen upon 
 stony ground: it has sprung up with a promising 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF SODOM. 
 
 101 
 
 appearance, but it has no sufficient or stable root, and 
 it withers under temptation. Some old companion, 
 exercising an inflaence for ill, and using the persuasions 
 of worldly good-fellowship ; some particular opportunity 
 of indulgence difficult to be resisted ; some circumstances 
 reviving the force of insidious habit, suggest the belief 
 that a slight surrender may be ventured upon, and, in 
 an evil hour, they master the imperfect penitent: he 
 treats the instance as a trifle, and thinks that he may 
 ask, like Lot himself, in his plea to escape to Zoar, " Is it 
 not a little one ? " and he soon and sadly verifies the 
 scriptural adage, that "The dog is turned to his own 
 vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her 
 wallowing in the mire." 
 
 But we have seen already that it is not only against 
 these grosser transgressions that the Lord Jesus would 
 have us stand upon the guard ; nor is it only in such 
 cases that we are liable to the danger of drawing back 
 unto perdition. My brethren, where our treasure is, 
 there are our hearts ; and if our hearts and our treasure 
 are in the world, in its drudging business, in its money- 
 making speculations, in its political agitations, in its 
 ambitious schemes, in its gaudy vanities, in its glittering 
 pleasures,— then it is very plain that our heart is not 
 given to the gracious Lord Who demands it, and that 
 our treasure is not the " one pearl of great price." But 
 if, by the goodness of God, our eyes have been opened 
 to discern the things which belong to our peace— if we 
 do feel that, our lot having been cast in a sinful world, 
 the Lord has done wonderful things for our rescue, and 
 that we are as brands plucked out of the burning, then 
 
i! 
 
 \l 
 
 1 ^ 
 
 iiti 
 
 ilf 
 
 102 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 let us continually watch and continually pray for the 
 succours of His grace, that we may not, because we may 
 be called perhaps to some distasteful sacrifice or exertion, 
 or because we may encounter disappointment in the 
 efforts of our zeal, be found to fall from our steadfast- 
 ness ; and that we may never be ensnared to yield again 
 by little and little to the demands of a corrupt nature 
 and a corrupt world to slacken in our devotion, to become 
 weary in well-doing, and to fall off in any point of 
 holy practice or religious observance, private or publia 
 "Kemember Lot's wife/' Remember that •' no man, having 
 put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the 
 kingdom of God." « If any man draw back, saith the 
 Lord, My soul hath no pleasure in him." Alas ! how little 
 do men in general regard the weight of a sentence like 
 this ! — " My soul hath no pleasure in him." A being with 
 eternity before him, disowned and repudiated by God ! 
 There is great danger that in an easy and respectable 
 situation, where all the decencies of life must be pre- 
 served^ and a large measure of comforts and indulgences 
 may be freely enjoyed, without conspicuously or con- 
 sciously treading on forbidden ground — ^there is great 
 danger in such a situation, that men may mistake the 
 mere smooth and regular tenor of their lives for a con- 
 dition of spiritual safety and acceptance before God, 
 It is well for us to consider, in such a case, that there 
 are, in human life, although they may not appear to 
 threaten or come near us, severe and searching tests 
 of faith and duty,— and to probe ourselves honestly by 
 the supposition of our being thrust into such trials. 
 How should we acquit ourselves? how do we stand 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF SODOM. 
 
 103 
 
 prepared in heart ? Suppose that our lives were put 
 in jeopardy in the cause of Christ, should we rely 
 upon His promise and refuse to draw back from His 
 directions? "Whosoever shall seek to save his life 
 shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life shall 
 preserve it." These words of Christ appear primarily 
 to relate to the protection which would be over the 
 heads of those whom He reserved for His own work 
 upon earth, and to the preservation of their lives, upon 
 their abiding, through the power of faith, by His in- 
 structions, in the fearful scenes which were approach- 
 ing ; while others, distrusting His promise and seeking 
 safety by means of their own devising, would fall 
 the victims of their unbelief. But the words may 
 very plainly be adapted to the case of those who are 
 actual martyrs in His cause ; and who, being able to -zay 
 with the holy Apostle, "Yea, and though I be offered 
 upon the service and sacrifice of your faith, I joy and 
 rejoice with you all," do, by a happy paradox, preserve 
 their lives in losing them. They lose, what they must 
 in any case soon part with, this perishable and troubled 
 life below, and they preserve to themselves the life 
 which "is hid with Christ in God." And such were 
 they, — let me pay them, upon this first opportunity 
 afforded me, some little passing tribute, — such were 
 they* among my own brethren of the clergy who, after 
 voluntarily out-staying their appointed time at the 
 Quarantine Station, have (in addition to previous 
 
 • Reference is made to the deaths, by ship fever, in 1 847, of the Revs. 
 R. Anderson and C. J. Morris, Missionaries of the S.P.G. 
 
 ■ 
 
 I ' 
 
 idH 
 
104 
 
 BEBMON VUL 
 
 I 
 
 victims of the same stamp, in other places) heen 
 taken from us since I left you for a remote part of 
 the Diocese. Honoured be their names among men, 
 and dear be their memories, — although it was not to 
 this reward that they looked, and they have found a 
 better, through Him Whose unprofitable servants they 
 owned themselves, but Whom they served in all humble 
 faith and Icve, — honoured be their names, dear be their 
 memories, and precious and profitable be their example 
 to us all! Mournful, indeed, have been the gaps in 
 the ranks of our clergy, and severe has been our loss 
 of faithful and exemplary men, who rightly counted 
 not their lives dear unto them in meeting a loud and 
 urgent call to minister among the crowds of sick and 
 dying strangers, and to speak words of comfort and 
 extend deeds of mercy to the hundreds of bereaved 
 and desolate survivors. They would not, as some would 
 have urged them to do, leave their poor fellow-Christians 
 to die like dogs ; nor the widow and the fatherless to sit 
 and weep without a pastor to soothe and instruct them. 
 We can hardly be warranted to say yet that "one 
 woe is past " ; but if it be passing, our own experience 
 may surely suffice to teach us that another woe may 
 come quickly : let us always stand prepared, and if 
 we have been at all beneficially schooled by the melan- 
 choly lessons which have been before our eyes, let us not 
 impatiently escape back to the lightness and frivolity 
 and worldliness of heart which possibly attached to too 
 many of us before. " Kemember Lot's wife." 
 
SERMON IX. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 
 
 Gen. XXXIX. 1. 
 
 And Joseph toaa hr<mght down to Egypt. 
 
 The history of Joseph is, in so many points of view, 
 pregnant with interest and instruction, that, although 
 the reflections which it suggests and the practical lessons 
 which it conveys require, for the most part, no laboured 
 elucidation in order to their being properly understood 
 and applied, it can never be a diy nor an unprofitable 
 task to follow them out. And this narrative of patri- 
 archal times being brought before us in successive 
 portions by the Church in her course of Sunday ser- 
 vices, during the present season of the year, it will 
 not be inappropriate to range through its whole extent, 
 in order to select, here and there, some prominent points 
 which may offer themselves to our regard. 
 
 The first feature of the story which it occurs to notice 
 —presuming the story itself, in every part, to be familiar 
 in the recollection of us all— is the unequalled power 
 of that touching and tender simplicity with which it 
 exhibits all the vivid realities of domestic feeling and 
 affection, breaking out in the genuineness of nature, 
 the same 3500 years ago that she is now. A few short 
 strokes, entirely unstudied and unambitious of effect— 
 
106 
 
 8EUM0N IX, 
 
 U 
 
 I 
 
 orrathor, in the dignity of Divine inspiration, produccl 
 in disdain of nil attempt at effect — come liomo to our 
 human bosoms in a way to which no liigh-wrouglit 
 tale of imaginative pathos, no elaborate result of 
 artificial description, could possibly pretend. Wo can 
 hardly, in our modern modes of expression, even point 
 out these excellences without damaging that native 
 delicacy of truth in the picture, which will not bear 
 the touch of any other than the original hand. But 
 wo would indicate, as examples, — referring your memo- 
 ries, my brethren, to the words of the Bible itself,— 
 the force which Joseph is deacribed as having put 
 upon his own feelings, in probing those of his brethren 
 to the quick, in order to work in them, by a seeming 
 severity and harshness, the humbling effect which was 
 necessary for their good; tike effort with which he 
 enquires, with the air of a stranger, while they are 
 bowing themselves before him to the earth, after their 
 welfare, and asks whether tlieir father is well, the old 
 man of whom tliey spake, and whether he is yet alive ; 
 the question, when he lifted up his eyes and saw his 
 brother Benjiunin, liis mother's son, whether this were 
 their younger brother of whom they spake urto him ; 
 the words which then break from him, " God be 7. cioujj 
 unto thee, my son !" ; his inability any longc. . . com- 
 mand himself, because his bowels did yearn upon his 
 brother, and his going apart to weep ; and then, at last, 
 when the crisis has come, the manner in which he 
 disolop'>5 himself, and declares his identity, in all 
 his lei's:!!) oiagnificeuce and power, with the stripling 
 
THE H18T0KY OP JOSEPH. 
 
 107 
 
 whom thoy hnd sold so long before, and, in the full 
 and giiHhing tide of unrepressed fraternal affection, 
 flings himself freely into their arms; and then, in 
 their trouble at his presence, his kind earnestness, 
 his ingenious reasoning, to re-assure their spirits. 
 Again, look at the moving plea of Judah, and his 
 Ronerous offer, dreading the effect upon their grey- 
 haired father, to remain in bonds in the place of 
 Benjamin, the full brother of Joseph himself, and the 
 child to whom the heart of the father now especially 
 clung. Or if we turn to the scenes in which the aged 
 father is pictured to us himself, we may notice the 
 struggles of his mind before he would consent to the 
 departure of Benjamin, and that consent wrung from 
 him at last by the stern necessity of the case, in the 
 midst of sorrowful forebodings prompted by the remem- 
 brance of what was believed to have been the fate of 
 Joseph, the once cherished child of his hopes. 
 
 We see from these few touches in what manner the 
 domestic interests and individual affections of huma« 
 life are portrayed to ua in the Scriptures, and mar- 
 vellously interwoven, sjnce men are the agents, with 
 that vast and continuous chain of Providence which 
 grasps, here and for ever, the destinies of the race. 
 Upon this point, however, we shall have occasion to 
 fix our attention more particularly before parting with 
 our subject: let us now look at some more familiar 
 lessons which are suggested by different portions of 
 the history. 
 
 The partiality, perhaps the undue, although not 
 
 '*I!.'J_«II!K!!'"19 
 
mmm 
 
 W 
 
 
 It' 
 
 108 
 
 SEEMON IX. 
 
 undiscorning partiality, of Jacob for hxs son Joseph, 
 appears to have conspired with some other circum- 
 stances, and particularly with the relation, irom the 
 mouth of Josepu himsell, of tnose dre; ms by which 
 the Almighty was pleased to signify the purposo of 
 his future elevation, — to produce a stron«? feeling of 
 envy and ill-will against him in the minds of his 
 brethren, and to have created l kind of party in the 
 family. And hero is a lesson, not only for parents 
 and children, and members of the same household, 
 but for all persons who, in whatever way, are associated 
 together in life and act in company, to beware of giving 
 occasion for jealousy and offence, and, on the other 
 side, of being drawn into combinations against any 
 individual or individuals who, perhaps very innocently, 
 have become obnoxious. The bad feeling once con- 
 ceived in the heart, materials are never wanting to 
 feed the flame : appearances are misconstrued ; sus- 
 picions are formed and fostered ; grievances are made 
 out of nothing ; jealousy, dislike, and aversion assume 
 a more pronounced character from day to day ; heart- 
 burnings are indulged and aggravated in the private 
 communications which pass between the members of 
 the hostile party, till they are prepared for the first 
 opportunity of mischief and wrong. The resentments 
 which they have been nursing may not break out into 
 crime ; the circumstances of their position may forbid 
 any such consequence; but the seeds of that hatred 
 and malice are germinating in their hearts, which are 
 accounted,— let all tremble to hear it who entertain 
 
 
THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 
 
 109 
 
 injurious grudges, or vindictive and rancorous senti- 
 ments against their neighbour.-which are accounted 
 as murder in tlie sight of God. " Wliosoever hateth his 
 brother is a murderer," - a declaration remarkably 
 exemplified in the issue to which the brethren of 
 Joseph were led on in their irritated repudiation of 
 his pretensions. 
 
 Let us learn, then, what devils in disguise are in 
 the heart of man, and what need there is that they be 
 expelled and supplanted by the Spirit of Grace and 
 Love. If we are Christians, let us never for a moment 
 forget that "this commandment have we from" Christ" 
 "that he which loveth God, love his brother also,"— 
 not only his brother who fraternizes with him' in 
 habits and sentiments and mutual acts of courtesy 
 and kindness— for sinners also do as much as this,— 
 no, it is every brother of the race, however disposed 
 towards ourselves, that we are to lu^^e— regarding our- 
 selves as the disciples of One Who rendered back bless- 
 ing to those from whom He suffered an accursed doom 
 and as the children of that God Who continually and 
 characteristically is kind and good to the unthankful 
 and the evil. 
 
 The troubles of the life of Jacob— things which are 
 linked closely with this portion of sacred history- 
 afford also an instructive lesson. Jacob was a chosen 
 servant of God : his name is associated with the names 
 of Abraham and Isaac in the title and memorial which 
 God proclaimed as His own throughout all generations : 
 he was the father of the twelve patriarchs who founded 
 
 
no 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 II! ' 
 
 the tribes of Israel, and ho was the progenitor of 
 Christ. But in the deception practised in his youth 
 upon his father, under the tuition of his other parent, 
 — although in that very act the overruling hand of 
 God was carrying out the purposes of His eternal 
 wisdom, — Jacob had unquestionably committed a great 
 sin ; and the moral of the story appears in the sequel. 
 The prophetic blessing took effect in the line of Jacob ; 
 but if we trace his own personal and individual history 
 from the day when he fled in terror from the paternal 
 roof, — after which his mother was never permitted to 
 behold the face of her favourite again, — we see, although 
 with a mixture of prosperous circumstances and frequent 
 marks of a special protection from above, of what a series 
 of hardships, vexations, and heart-rending afflictions a 
 great portion of his Kfe was made up, and what ample 
 grounds he had to declare before Pharaoh that f e 7 and 
 evil had been the days of his years upon earth. 
 
 We are by no means warranted to interpret all his 
 trials as judgments for his early delinquency ; his sin, 
 no doubt, was forgiven, and his peace was made ; but 
 this we may note, that whereas he had imposed upon 
 his father to the detriment of his elder brother, it was 
 particularly in domestic life that he suffered anxiety 
 and anguish of spirit. The same kind of principle 
 was carried out which was exemplified in the sentence 
 awarded against King David, that, as he had procured 
 Uriah the Hittite to be slain by the sword, so the sword 
 should never depart from his house. 
 There is too much disposition among men, in the 
 
THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 
 
 Ill 
 
 hour of their own prosperity, to forget the claims of 
 those who have been their companions in the depres- 
 sion of their fortunes or ^'n the struggles of human 
 life ; too much disposition to think no more of the 
 debts of gratitude which they may owe, or the promises 
 which they have freely made to person? whose wants, 
 however great, are obscure, because they are obscure 
 themselves. And this disposition is strongly instanced 
 in the conduct of a high officer in the household of 
 Pharaoh ; one whose mind had been relieved in prison 
 by the power bestowed upon Joseph to interpret his 
 dream, and upon whom Joseph had depended to make 
 interest in his behalf. « Yet did not the chief butler 
 remember Joseph, but forgat him." Such is, as we 
 familiarly speak, the way of the world. And such an 
 experience of the world is apt, in minds which are 
 strangers to the influences at once soothing and cor- 
 rective of our holy faith, to produce sourness, misan- 
 thropy, and settled disgust. But the Christian, whatever 
 oblivion of benefits he may encounter in the world, 
 whatever disappointment of just expectations, whatever 
 coldness and distance in quarters where he is entitled 
 to countenance and favour and friendly regard, supports 
 himself by the reflection that there is One Who does 
 mi forget ; One greater than man. Who never loses sight 
 of the workmanship of His hands ; Who, in His bound- 
 less love. His unfathomable wisdom, and His omnipotent 
 energy of power, pervades His entire creation through- 
 out its details, so that it is declared of the very sparrows, 
 however insignificant they may appear in our eyes, that 
 
 
 i 
 
 u 
 
112 
 
 SEUMON IX. 
 
 I" I 
 
 'A 
 
 ii'i I 
 
 
 »^ 
 
 "not o\w of thoni is fort/oftm Loforo God"; Quo Wlio 
 stumls pknlirod in Clnist to tlio aiiilul childroii of tlio 
 dust, if only tlioy uro Indiovors ; nnd littlo us their 
 porfornmnoos can, in thonisolvtis, bo of bonofit or value 
 to llinj. graciously declares that He is "not nnrhjhtmis 
 to foi'ijvt \\w\y work anil labour whiijh prococHleth of 
 lovts" and Who records and requites the oflering of faith, 
 thou«;h it bo in the form of two mites given by the 
 liand of poverty, or a cuj) of cold water to refresh a 
 brother for whom Christ died : One Who, though a 
 woman may fovgd. her sucking child that she should 
 not have compassion on the fruit of her wond), yet will 
 not fimfd the people whom lie knows and owns— Who 
 bids them to trust in llim, for llo will never, iiovor 
 leave them nor forsake them. 
 
 The workings of ri»morse in the conscience, and tho 
 blessing which it is (if rightly improved) to men who 
 have conuuitted iniquity that they should be brought 
 into straits and nnluced to a condition of alarm and 
 humiliation, are also pictured to us in a lively manner 
 ill tho facts of this remarkable narrative. The brethren 
 of Joseph are before him in their urgent need, seeking 
 relief for the famine of their households. He puts 
 on an air of roughness : professes a distrust of their 
 character and object, and exacts, as a test, the liard 
 eondition that they should go back and bring their 
 youngest brother from his father's side,— one of their 
 number, in tho mean time, being detained in coufiue- 
 nieut as a hostage. And then it is that they are 
 prompted to say one to another— (it all passed in the 
 

 and 
 
 THE IIISTOUY OP JOSEPH. 
 
 113 
 
 iciinntr o 
 
 f .Tos(^pli, wl)om tlioy supprwod not to nndor- 
 
 stund thtur Itinguu^'o) — " Wo 
 
 aro vorily guilty concern- 
 
 ing our brotluT. in that wo saw tlio anguinli of his soul 
 when ho besought us and W(^ would not lieur : thonifore 
 i« this distress come up.m us." And it is brought liome 
 to tlioni by Keuben ; " Uouben answered them, saying 
 Spake I not unto you. saying. Do not sin against the' 
 chdd; and ye w(,uld lu.t hear? tlierefore behold also his 
 blood IS required." So again, in the same consciousness 
 ol ill-desert, when, upon their homeward road, the 
 money is found n.ysteriously restoi-ed in the sack of 
 one of them, their heart failed them, and they were 
 afraid, saying oiu^ to another, " WJiat is this that God 
 hath done unto us ? " 
 
 The checks which God gives us in our career of 
 common worldliness and folly-the manner in which 
 He brings up against us, by particular occurrences 
 hardly to be mistakcui, any notable transgression of 
 which we have thought too lightly, or not thought at 
 all, are among the chiefest of His mercies ; for what is 
 so dangerously stupid as a heart which does not know 
 Its own plague ?-what other infatuation is so deplorable 
 as an ignorance and blinded indifference about our own 
 cankered spots which are eating into the life of our 
 souls? Or where is there so fotal a sophistry as that 
 by which men disguise to themselves the real malignity 
 of those symptoms of which the existence is too palpable 
 to be unperceived ? My brethren, let none of us deal 
 so with our own interest in eternity ; and if we are 
 newly touched, if we are awakened, if our eyes are 
 
 [ 
 
 ii;! 
 
 1 1; 
 
 lllih 
 
 
114 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 opened to our sinfulness, by any providential warning, 
 and we turn at last to God, let us take heed that the 
 work is genuine and complete ; for we read— and it is 
 a very common, but a very frightful and ruinous case— 
 of those who when they were smitten by judgments, 
 " turned them early and enquired after God ; and they 
 remembered that God was their strength, and that 
 the high God was their Eedeemer." A fair appearance 
 this: a seeming promise of something permanently 
 good. « Nevertheless they did but flatter Him with 
 their mouth, and dissembled with Him in their tongue : 
 for their heart was not whole with Him, neither con- 
 tinued they steadfast in His covenant." 
 
 We have glanced, in the earlier portion of these 
 reflections, at that connected train of providential 
 design in which the incidents of private and domestic 
 life, and the changes affecting the plans and move- 
 ments of particular families, were made subservient 
 to those high and far-extended purposes of Divine 
 wisdom for the benefit of the entire family of man, 
 which are carried out into eternity itself. The little 
 spring which oozes obscurely from the ground, enlarg- 
 ing and still enlarging itself in its progress, till, in a 
 long and winding, but plainly traceable course, it is 
 spread into a mighty and imposing stream, mixes 
 itself at last with the interminable ocean. The pro- 
 mises were made to Abraham that his posterity should 
 possess the land of Canaan, with which he had no original 
 connexion, and that in his seed should all the families 
 of the earth be blessed. The grandson of Abraham is 
 
THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 1]5 
 
 the father of the twelve patriarchs : these patriarchs 
 are the founders of that chosen and peculiar people 
 from among whom, after the flesh, the Messiah was to 
 sprmg ; circumstances are ordained to befall in tlie 
 family of Jacob, which, in their result, impress upon 
 the history of that people in its early stage, even as 
 It respects its secular features, such a character as to 
 exhibit a perfect representation, point by point, of the 
 achievements of Christ on behalf of the spiritual 
 Israel. They are no random occurrences ; it is no 
 fortuitous succession of events that we trace • the 
 agency of One supreme Mind, and One unswerving 
 Will IS discoverable throughout : the control of God 
 18 there; and the one great purpose promised from the 
 beginning is kept steadily in view, both in the distri- 
 bution of events to bring about the issue in its ap- 
 pointed time, and in the typical correspondence which 
 we have just noticed between certain facts of a par- 
 ticular national history and the series of transactions 
 m which we all have our part, as subjects of the dis- 
 pensation of Grace. Our rescue from the base bondage 
 of sm and the oppressive tyranny of Satan ; our 
 deliverance from the stroke of the destroyer by means 
 of the sprinkled blood of the Lamb of God • our • 
 entrance through the sacramental element of water 
 upon our journey through the wilderness of life • our 
 march through that wilderness under guidance' and 
 direction vouchsafed to us from above ; our victory 
 over the enemies of our salvation, greater and mightier 
 than ourselves, to be won under the banner of our 
 
 12 
 
 
116 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 m 
 
 W^i 
 
 heavenly Joshua (for Joshua and Jesus, as most of us 
 know, are one and the same name, varied in the passage 
 from one language to another, and the Joshua of the 
 Old Testament is called Jesus where he is mentioned 
 in the New), and finally our establishment by the arm 
 of the same spiritual leader, the Captain of our salva- 
 tion, in the heavenly Canaan, the land of promise 
 which lies beyond this wilderness in which we sojourn, 
 — all these are points of correspondence too familiar 
 and obvious to require that we should insist or 
 enlarge upon them. And the way was paved, the 
 train was laid, for all these typical occurrences — for 
 the bondage, the exodus, and the establishment in 
 Canaan, of the Israelitish people — the train was laid 
 by means of the plots in the family of Jacob against 
 his favourite child, and the subsequent famine which 
 prompted their recourse to Egypt for relief. 
 
 But if we may thus run a parallel between the early 
 history of God's ancient people and His dealings with 
 the spiritual Israel throughout the world, it is well 
 known that in a great multitude of other examples 
 also, — whether in the rites and observances of the cere- 
 monial law, or in the individual history of men eminent 
 of old, as recorded in the Bible, — the greater things 
 of the gospel of salvation and often the personal 
 history of Jesus Christ Himself, in many of its leading 
 particulars, were distinctly foreshadowed. And thus the 
 unity of purpose diffused through the vast and com- 
 plicated whole, and the operation of the hand of God 
 shaping everywhere the course of things and causing 
 
THE IIISTOliY OF JOSEPH. 
 
 117 
 
 all to converge to one point, present themselves in a 
 manner to rouse our feelings of interest, and, at the 
 same time, to inspire a contemplative awe. The history 
 of Joseph furnishes, under several different aspects, 
 an instance in point. 
 
 Joseph, in the early indications of his future gi-eat- 
 ness, and of his designation to a high and special task, 
 was very ill apprehended by those around him; but 
 his father, we are told, " observed the saying : " Christ 
 in His infancy and in His childhood excited a wonder, 
 little accompanied by an intelligent reception of the 
 truth ; but His earthly parent " kept all these things 
 and pondered them in her heart." Joseph, after a plot, 
 against his life, was taken into Egypt: Christ was 
 carried into Egypt to escape the murderous intentions of 
 King Herod. Joseph was hated of his brethren because, 
 in obedience to the dictates of duty, he brought to his 
 father their evil report: Christ was hated by the world 
 because He testified of it that the works thereof were evil ; 
 we are told that "neither did His brethren believe on 
 Him," and " His own received Him not." Joseph, on 
 account of his preternatural wisdom in divine things, 
 received the name of Zaphnath Paaneah, or, the man to 
 whom secrets are revealed: Christ is He "in Whom are 
 hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Joseph 
 is sold by his brethren; the price is counted out in pieces 
 of silver ; he appears in the form of a servant ; he is 
 arraigned as a criminal and made a prisoner, numbered 
 with transgressors, associated with two malefactors, one 
 of whom is pardoned and restored to favour, the other is 
 
118 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 if 
 
 left to coiidomnation : in all these points, the coin- 
 cidences with the case of Christ are what it is needless 
 to indicate. Joseph is, subsequently, — observe, my 
 brethren, in every single particular which now follows, 
 the exact picture in the earthly occurrences of the lifo 
 of Joseph, of sacred, spiritual, and heavenly thin^TS re- 
 lating to the personal histoiy, the acts, and the attributes 
 of Christ the antitype,— Joseph is subsequently exalted 
 to the highest honours, Tharaoh only in the throne 
 being greater than he : Christ is highly exalted in His 
 glorified human nature, and sits down on the right hand 
 of the Majesty in the heavens. All power is given to 
 Joseph over the land of Egypt : all power is given to 
 Christ in heaven and earth. They ciy before Joseph, 
 Bow the knee : wo are told that, at the name of Jesus 
 every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things 
 in earth. Joseph becomes the dispenser of bread, the 
 restorer of life to perishing beings, and by his means the 
 hungry are literally filled with good things : in what 
 manner these expressions will apply to Christ (not to 
 speak here of their literal propriety, if made to describe 
 the miracles of the loaves), cannot fail to be immediately 
 perceived; -to Christ, Who is Himself the Bread Which 
 came down from heaven, and AVho, imparting Himself to 
 the souls of men, makes good His declaration that " they 
 shall be filled " " who hunger and thirst after righteous- 
 ness." Joseph was sent by God, in his own remarkable 
 words, to save the lives of his brethren " by a great 
 deliverance." How this is appropriate to the person of 
 Christ, it must be equally superfluous to point out. Is 
 
THE HISTOllY OP JOSEPH. 
 
 119 
 
 there not here, then, a portrait, in earthly lineaments, of 
 Christ ? and what thougli some points of resemblance 
 which have been exhibited in tracing this parallel from 
 beginning to end, should be regarded by any among us as 
 unimportant or insufficiently made out — or what though 
 the chronological order of the occurrences which it com- 
 prehends, is not always the same in the two cases — can 
 we refuse to recognise the collective force and result of 
 the compared particulars as a whole ? Can we fail, if 
 we contemplate the similar close correspondence, in cir- 
 cumstantial particulars, of the personal history of Isaac, 
 of Moses, of Daniel, and other names of note in the 
 Bible, with the personal history of Christ, — can we 
 possibly fail to see that God was guiding all things to 
 one grand issue, and that He stamped upon successive 
 dispensations, as well the identity of His purpose as 
 the demonstration of His supreme overruling power, 
 ordering and directing the occurrences of this lower 
 world, " after the counsel of His own will ? " 
 
 There is one other point in common between Joseph 
 and Him who was God, yet made Himself man for our 
 sakes, that both were victorious in signal temptation. 
 Christ, indeed, in this aspect, stands alone : He was in 
 all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. That 
 cannot be said of any other who has ever appeared in 
 human shape. It is precisely as to sinners that He 
 stands in the relation to us of a Saviour, and is the 
 sinless High Priest, and the spotless self-offered sacrifice 
 which our case requires. But woe be to us if, in a false 
 and perverted reliance upon this wonderful provision of 
 
120 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 
 Divine mercy, we throw the reins loose to our sinful 
 inclinations, or relax in our resistance of temptation. 
 We are tempted in many ways and under many disguises 
 every day. We are warned of our danger in the simple 
 prayer given us by the Lord, and we are charged by Him 
 to watch as well as pray, lest we " enter into temptation." 
 Whatever would draw us away from maintaining a 
 heavenly frame of mind, from habitually walking with 
 God, from living " soberly, righteously, and godly, in this 
 present world," from strictly keeping "a conscience void 
 of offence toward God and toward men,"— whatever 
 would suggest to us that we may venture to decline 
 from this high standard, and would make us believe that 
 we consult our happiness in doing so,— whatever, my 
 brethren, would produce such effects as these upon our 
 minds, is a temptation from the enemy of our souls. 
 Never let us think that this or that deviation is a little 
 thing, and can do us no great mischief That is what 
 Adam and Eve were persuaded to think when they put 
 forth their hands to the forbidden fmit. « HoHness to 
 the Lord " is the state of preparation in which a Christian 
 should stand. No deviation from holiness is a light or 
 little thing. But there are, perhaps, some among us 
 solicited, and strongly solicited too, to acts of different 
 kinds, so plainly forbidden, that if they sin, they must 
 be said to sin with their eyes open. And if they are not 
 so far gone in the road of ruin as to be abandoned to a 
 course of sin and to glory in it, they plead the strength 
 of the temptation, and think that this will serve for 
 their excuse. let them turn to the example of those 
 
THE HISTOKY OF JOSEni. 
 
 121 
 
 servants of God who have been enabled, through grace, 
 to triumph over combined and violent temptations, and 
 have been saved by the salutary remembrance of all 
 which is enveloped in the question of Joseph, " How can 
 I do this great wickedness, and sin against God V 
 
 
SERMON X. 
 
 THE CHOICE OF MOSES. 
 
 Heb. XI. 24, 25. 
 
 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the so)i 
 of Pharaoh's daughter; dwosing rather to suffer affliction with the 
 people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. 
 
 The early history of Moses, here placed in the Apostle's 
 catalogue of those who have nobly exemplified the 
 power of faith, is familiarly known. The particulars 
 are gathered from the second chapter of Exodus, the 
 seventh of the Acts of the Apostles, and the eleventh 
 of the Epistle to the Hebrews. To save him from 
 perishing by the cruel edict of Pharaoh, which com- 
 manded the slaughter, as soon as they were born, of all 
 the male children of the Hebrews, he was, after being 
 concealed for three months, committed in an ark o*f 
 bulrushes to the river Nile,— left, as we should be apt 
 to speak", to the mercy of the winds and waters, but 
 rather to the mercy and protection of that God Who, 
 in closely similar circumstances (of which these were,' 
 no doubt, ordained to be typical), knew how to deliver 
 His own Son, the founder of thd better covenant, from 
 the rage of the sanguinary Herod. 
 The faith of the parents of Moses in this proceeding 
 
THE CHOICE OF MOSES. 
 
 123 
 
 is notsd in the same honourable record in which his 
 own is set before us. And we find that it was not 
 disappointed. The child was discovered by the daughter 
 of Pharaoh, who went down with her attendants to 
 bathe in the river. The innocence of helpless infancy 
 in such a situation, aided by the sweet aspect of the 
 child (for this is intimated in the expression rendered 
 in our Bible by the words, " a proper child "), appealed 
 strongly to the feelings of nature. " When she saw the 
 ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And 
 when she had opened it, she saw the child : and, behold, 
 the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and 
 said, This is one of the Hebrews' children." By the 
 intervention of his sister, a Hebrew nurse was engaged, 
 and under the gracious providence of God, he was thus 
 restored to the arms of his own mother. His royal 
 patroness continued to watch with interest over a being 
 whom she had been instrumental in preserving: she 
 provided for his education, so that he became " learned 
 in all the wisdom of the Egyptian's," and adopted him 
 as her son, an adoption which, according to the account 
 of some ancient and modern writers, comprehended his 
 nomination to succeed to the crown of Egypt, but which 
 did certainly comprehend very high elevation and splen- 
 dour, and open before him a very dazzling perspective. 
 These privileges were declined. This tempting and, 
 in human estimation, most enviable position was refused. 
 He turned from a prospect covered with all which could 
 flatter his ambition, minister to his self-indulgence, or 
 feed his worldly hopes, and cast his eyes upon the 
 
124 
 
 SERMOX X. 
 
 afflicted people of God. And with a constancy un- 
 shaken by the contrast, he chose his portion with them. 
 Without Kstening to any such suggestions of his own 
 mind as that the same Almighty Hand which had been 
 extended for his signal preservation had now met him 
 in a more advanced point of his pilgrimage, and opened 
 a way for him to befriend his countrymen, by means 
 of his power and influence at court, he rejected the 
 benefits which were within his grasp, and settled it 
 with himself that he was reserved for another destiny, 
 content to leave to the Divine providence and promise' 
 the future rescue of His people from their bondage. 
 But why did he thus calculate and thus decide ? Why, 
 but because he saw that to profit any longer by the 
 intentions of the princess would be to forsake his 
 God ? He must have identified himself with the cor- 
 ruptions of a wicked court and with the abominations 
 of an idolatrous system of religioa Eather than thus 
 *^ to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season," he chose 
 " to suffer affliction with the people of God." 
 
 We must admire the rectitude, and we ought to 
 discern the wisdom, of his choice. For it is wisdom 
 unhesitatingly to sacrifice the world to the calls of 
 religious duty. It is wisdom to prefer the preservation 
 of a conscience void of offence, though coupled with 
 affliction and reproach, to all the smiling promise of 
 pleasure, the indulgences of wealth, the parade of gran- 
 deur, the command of power. If the acquisition or the 
 enjoyment of these partake of sin, it is folly, wretched 
 foUy, however harsh may be our alternative, to pursue 
 
THE CHOICE OF MOSES. 
 
 125 
 
 them. It is blindness to shun the "light affliction 
 which is but for a moment," if, in shunning it, we 
 endanger the "exceeding and eternal weight of glory" 
 which it may contribute to work for us, and if we 
 expose our souls to the peril of eternal condemnation. 
 If " the sufferings of this present time are not worthy 
 to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed 
 in us " who believe in the salvation of Christ, it is a 
 deplorable miscalculation to risk the loss of that hope 
 in order to avoid some restraint, some self-denial, some 
 exertion, some privation (all coupled, be it observed, 
 with peace of conscience and comfort of soul) here 
 below. If our belief be clear and steady, and we have 
 not suffered our light to be dimmed by our immersion 
 in the world, it is impossible that we should hesitate 
 with such a choice presented to our minds. Faith is 
 what we want. " By faith Moses refused to be called the 
 son of Pharaoh's daughter." Faith was the principle 
 which prompted his decision and gave him power to 
 resist the world. He felt the conviction that he should 
 be no loser at the last by anything which he suffered or 
 sacrificed for God and His religion ; he knew that God 
 " IS, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently 
 seek Him ; " and, more than this, we may be assured 
 that, like Abraham, he rejoiced to see the day of 
 Christ, and " saw it and was glad ; " he beheld, through 
 a lengthened vista, the glories of a better covenant, and 
 recognising a personal interest in the scheme of redemp- 
 tion, he anticipated the unseen " recompense of reward." 
 The Apostle tells us of Moses, that he esteem.ed " the 
 
126 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in 
 Egypt." To tliose who consider the disproportion be- 
 tween eternity and time, and remember that they are 
 certainly made to live for ever, nothing in this world 
 can seem either too good to part with, or too hard to 
 undergo, if that surrender or that endurance carry the 
 evidence of their being heirs of gloiy in Christ. It was 
 this which sustained the spirits of the primitive be- 
 lievers in all the varieties of persecution and martyrdom 
 to which they weie exposed, — this immovable per- 
 suasion and holy hope of unspeakable gain to be reaped 
 hereafter through that Master Whom they loved and 
 Who suffered and was glorified before them. Could our 
 minds be so divested of their worldly integuments as to 
 enable us to reason and to discriminate without bias, we 
 should at once see and acknowledge that they who 
 suffer for the truth of God, or who practise self-denial, 
 forego worldly benefit, resist worldly inducement and 
 influence from a sense of duty to Him, do not renounce 
 their happiness, but place it out at interest upon terms 
 more advantageous than this world can know ; and we 
 should be at a loss whether most to lament the sinful- 
 ness, or to compassionate the infatuation, of those 
 nominal believers in Christ who, in fact, live without 
 God in the world ; who form all their decisions, lay all 
 their plans in life, pursue all their interests and pleasures, 
 without taking into their consideration the manner in 
 which their eternal welfare may be affected; who eat 
 and drink, build and plant, marry and are given in 
 marriage, regardless of the flood of time fast mounting to 
 
THE CHOICE OP MOSES. 
 
 127 
 
 its mark, which will surprise them unprepared when it 
 closes over their devoted heads. 
 
 These are considerations which derive much additional 
 . strength from our reflecting upon the mixture of bitter 
 ingredients in all unsanctified enjoyment; the uncer- 
 tainty of its continuance, the brevity at best of its 
 duration, and the wretchedness of its issue. Let us 
 take the example of men who unreservedly yield them- 
 selves up to enjoy the world, and to fulfil the lusts of 
 the flesh, discarding wholly the restraints which are 
 imposed by their duty to God, the care of their souls, 
 the very thought of a world to come. Will they not 
 often be found to verify the saying, that "even in 
 laughter the heart is sorrow^ful, and the end of that mirth 
 is heaviness " ? Will they never be known secretly to 
 suffer by a smothered consciousness of doing wrong, and 
 to feel the worm which corrodes their enjoyment at the 
 core ? Will it not be sometimes seen that, in the words 
 of a truly Christian poet, 
 
 " Scripture is still a trumpet to their fears . . . 
 That scruple checks them. Riot is not loud 
 Nor drunk enough to drown it. In the midst 
 Of laughter their compunctions are sincere, 
 And they abhor the jest by which they shine." 
 
 The effect of the self-reproving voice may be evaded by 
 some plausible sophistry, and the edge of remorseful 
 feeling worn blunt by the habit of sinful indulgence, 
 but it is only when men are abandoned to reprobate 
 hardness of heart, that the power of these checks is 
 wholly gone. Alas ! there are sins which men admire 
 
128 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 in themselves ; excesses and deviations, and acts of 
 irreligion, in which they glorj^ ; it is often unction to 
 their self-love to think themselves men of pleasure and 
 men of the world ; and thus vanity and sinful indulgence 
 play, as it were, into the hands r~ -^ch ocher, and are 
 mutually driven on. But suppos: fullest gratifica- 
 
 tion of both— will any man calmly and soberly say that 
 this is happiness ? It is the delusion of a diseased 
 fancy, the wild intoxication of an hour. No safe and 
 unadulterated pleasure can spring from any source 
 which is tainted in the least degree by sin. And how- 
 ever men may brave, in certain instances, the dis- 
 approving frowns of holiness, or sport in the alarms of 
 purity and the remonstrances of religion, yet there are, 
 as the case is put by one of our older divines, two 
 painful and uneasy passions which attach themselves, in 
 a manner at one day or other to be manifested, to every 
 violation of the Law of God— the passions of shame and 
 fear: shame, overpowered for the moment, but not 
 extinguished, by the false shame of the world, and pro- 
 ceeding from the undefined apprehension of exposure to 
 a dreaded eye ; and fear, from the apprehension, however 
 clouded or however remote, of punishment due to sin. 
 " There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." 
 
 But suppose that the pleasures of sin— that is, the 
 enjoyment of life, whether more gross or more discreet, 
 without reference to the service of God or the welfare 
 of the soul— could be unalloyed; yet, according to 
 the calculation of Moses, it is but " for a season." The 
 pleasure of some sins expires in the very commission : 
 
THE CHOICE OF MOSES. 
 
 129 
 
 there are others which procure a return of worldly 
 delight or advantage, less immediately fleeting in its 
 nature : — but the fruits of all are utterly precarious, 
 and liable to be exchanged for loss and pain. Concede, 
 however, another supposition — suppose them secured 
 for the date of life : what is that to beings who know 
 that they have an immortal part ? What is this life, — 
 which is proverbially a dream, a shadow, •' a vapour that 
 appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away," — 
 to those who are conscious that, beyond it, they enter 
 upon an existence which knows no end ? What can it 
 be but madness to hazard our condition in that here- 
 after, for the sake of anything here ? When we pass 
 hence into the world of spirits, it will avail us but little 
 to have revelled in the abundance of good things or to 
 have dazzled our neighbours by our distinctions and 
 advantages in the world below. All mankind will be 
 set upon a level before the judgment-seat of God : the 
 marks and discriminations of different classes in human 
 society were made only for this world, and will cease 
 with their occasion : tlio only remaining distinction will 
 be that by which God " will discern between the right- 
 eous and the wicked;" between those that serve Him 
 and those that serve Him not ; between the lovors of 
 God and the lovers of their own pleasure. Oh, how 
 infinitely greater will be that difference, how infinitely 
 more marked that separation than any which now exist 
 between the highest and the meanest of mankind. 
 "Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so 
 that they which would pass from hence to you cannot ; 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 lu'itlier can Wwy pitss to us tlmt would conic, from tlionco." 
 "The An^rcls shiill conic (brtli and sever tlu^ wicked from 
 among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of 
 fire." 
 
 The indulf,'cncos, then, which men find it ao hard to 
 forc<;o, are at best only of value in this ])assin}» world, 
 and bear no price at all in that country wluire we are to 
 live for ever ; nor, if it were otlu^'wise, could we then 
 transport them with us. . "We brought nothing into this 
 world, and it is certain we cai\ carry nothing out." 
 Naked we came into it, and naked we shall go out. 
 The proud occupier of palaces, the lord of vast 
 domains, will soon have no other portion in the earth 
 than the narrow grave. " Be not thou afraid though one 
 be nuule rich, or if the glory of his house be increased. 
 For ho shall carry nothing away with him when he 
 dieth, neither shall his pomp follow him." The guilt 
 alone which nuiy have been contracted in the pursuit of 
 worldly gain or pleaisuro will adhere to his unhappy 
 soul, if it have not been washed in the blood of the 
 I^nib. Oh, but when we speak of guilt, and depravity, 
 and stains to be wiped away, and pardon needed for 
 miserable sinners, what is vail this to those who preserve 
 an unblemished chamcter, and are excellent friends and 
 neighbours, and disdain every dishonourable practice, 
 abhor every atrocious proceeding? This is what some men 
 cannot understand. They are not in a state to under- 
 staiid it. They are lulled in a pernicious security about 
 the concerns of their immortal souls : they are enveloped 
 in an uncertain twilight with regard to spiritual things : 
 
 , 
 
THE CHOICE OF MOSES. 
 
 131 
 
 the way wlu(;h thoy triuid tlicy know not— yet they 
 careusssly and uiiconcornodly tread on: tliey walk perhaps 
 upon the verj,'o of destruction and wander in bewildering 
 and deceitful paths, but they have company in thei*^ 
 danger, and that is enough ; they are countenanced by 
 the practice of tlie world, and that suflices for consolation. 
 They believe that there is a place called Heaven and 
 another of which the name is Hell : they know extremely 
 well that there is a liible declaring the will of God, and 
 proclaiming a Saviour Who came into the world : they 
 think it a duty to attend public worship, and they are 
 not aware of anything which they have done,— or at 
 least which they continue to do,— constituting any out- 
 rage upon these principles or seeming to threaten ruin 
 to their souls. But, merciful Heaven ! do they consider 
 for what Christ the Son of God came into the world 
 and died, and what state they are in by nature from 
 which He came to rescue them; and how they can 
 assume to themselves and how preserve alive that close 
 connexion with Hmi which must be csscniial to their 
 safety, if it was necessary for Him to interpose at all? 
 Where is their fixed, their serious, their deep impression 
 of these truths, which if they are truths, are truths so 
 surpassingly, so unspeakably monumtous ? Where are 
 the signs of their having any real fear of God before 
 their eyes, any love to Him kindled within their 
 hearts ? Where are the marks of their having " put 
 on Christ;" of their being "renewed in the spirit of" 
 their minds ; of their having set their " affection on 
 things above ; " of their regarding themselves as " fellow- 
 
 K 2 
 
T>0 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 citizens witli tho saints and of tlio liousuliold of God ; " 
 of their feolinj^ly rucognisincr tho fact tliat they are 
 " houglit with a price," and the principle that " if One 
 died for all, they which live should not henceforth live 
 unto themselves, but unto llini that died for them and 
 rose again " ? How does it appear that they are sensible 
 of tho necessity of working out their "salvation with 
 fear and trembling," and aware at the same time that 
 " it is God that worketh in " them " both to will and 
 to do"? Can they be so deluded as to suppose that 
 they are not to be excluded from the rewards of tho 
 believer, because they have avoided that description of 
 wickedness from the temptations to which they have 
 been exempt ? Labour and warfare are the lot of the 
 Christian : he knows not what his religion is who knows 
 not this : laboiu- and warfare are his lot : prayer and 
 communion with God through Christ are his resource 
 and his solace, and God Himself is his strength : one 
 field is assigned to one man, another to another, but 
 work to all : even if there can be a condition in which 
 there is none abroad, lie finds it within the folds of his 
 own breast. 
 
 " His warfare is vvithiji : there uuaubducd 
 His fervent spirit labours ; tliere ho fights, 
 And there obtains fresh triumphs o'er himself." 
 
 To those who are content with the negative sort of 
 Christianity— the good, easy kind of religion to which 
 some of our remarks have been directed— it is well to 
 propose the question, to urge rather their proposing it 
 to their own hearts, whether they have the principle 
 within which would prevail over the world, in the fiery 
 
THE CHOICE OF MOSES. 
 
 133 
 
 trial ? or how t\uj would luivo chosen, with tlic alter- 
 native which was placed before Moses, or before a 
 greater than IVToses— Christ in His human nature— to 
 Whom all the kin^rdoms of this world, and the -lory (.f 
 them, wore offered for one; single act of forl)idd('n 
 homage ? My brethren, we have, in fact, all of us, some 
 clioico sot before us which so far pait-ikes of the same 
 charactc^r as to furnish a test, of our spiritual state. 
 Every day, in some shape or other, the world or the 
 flesh is found coming in competition with the love of 
 God ; every day, right and wrong are offered to as 
 together— the former distasteful, the latter agreeable, to 
 our natural inclinations. How do we decide ? Whom 
 do we choose to serve ? The question involves tremen- 
 dous consequences. "For what is a man profited, if he 
 shall gain the whole wo«ld and lose his own soul?" 
 And if the earthly prevail over the spiritual principle, 
 in their common and abnost unobserved opposition! 
 then it is easy to see on which side the victory would 
 incline, if severe struggles were to come. " If thou hast 
 run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then 
 how canst thou contend with horses ? and if in the land 
 of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then 
 how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan ? " 
 
SERMON Xr. 
 
 THE THREEFOLD WITNESS IN EARTH. 
 
 
 1 St, John V, 8. 
 
 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, 
 and the blood ; and these three agree in one. 
 
 We can hardly enter upon the consideration of these 
 words without noticing the circumstance of their stand- 
 ing in conjunction with a celebrated text declaratory of 
 the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, to which they bear a 
 strict correspondence of parts, and from which they 
 seem naturally to spring. " There are Three that bear 
 record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy 
 Ghost : and these Three are One. And there are three 
 that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and 
 the blood : and these three agree in one." TJiat text, it 
 is well known, constituting the seventh verse of the 
 chapter, has been the subject of controversy with refer- 
 ence to its genuineness — a controversy, however, not 
 involving any danger to the maintenance of that high, 
 sacred, and fundamental doctrine which it df^clares, 
 because the doctrine is most abundantly established by 
 other means, and it is a controversy with which we are 
 not here immediately concerned. There is no dispute 
 about the words, " There are three that bear record, or 
 
THE THREEFOLD WITNESS IN EARTH. 
 
 135 
 
 witness," — (we have translated the word in the seventh 
 verse, bear record, and in the eif,'hth, bear tvitmss, but in 
 the original it is in both instances the same) — "There 
 are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the 
 water, and the blood." About tlicsc words there is no 
 •dispute. 
 
 This, then, is the declaration which, in all humble 
 supplication that we may view it in a right and profit- 
 able manner, it is now proposed to consider. We do 
 not mean, however, dogmatically to assert the exclusive 
 correctness of the interpretation to be here offered. 
 There are many texts of Scripture susceptible of dif- 
 ferent explanations, and this is one, perhaps, more than 
 ordinarily obscure. However simple may be the Word 
 of God in all essential points of belief and practice, it 
 furnishes matter, in other instances, for the exercise 
 of research and arcjumentative discussion, serving to 
 quicken our interest, to stimulate our curiosity, to ob- 
 viate the stagnation apt to be engendered by an undis- 
 turbed and uniform acquiescence, and to engage in the 
 highest of all studies the powers and attainments by 
 which we investigate, compare, and form our legitimate 
 conclusions. To assist and lead the way in these en- 
 quiries is one of the duties attaching to the IVIinistry of 
 the Church, " the witness and keeper of / Writ," 
 appointed not to have dominion over the faith of the 
 laity, but to be the helper of their joy. We must 
 always, however, approach our subject with reverential 
 steps, and keep within safe and well-understood bounds, 
 avoiding every sort of forced or fanciful exposition in 
 
136 
 
 SERMON XI. 
 
 
 adaptation to preconceived and favourite ideas of our 
 own. The light in which it will be endeavoured to set 
 the passage now before us will, it is hoped, be con- 
 sistent with these rules of proceeding ; and the interpre- 
 tation given will, at least, be one which exhibits truths 
 directly connected with the objects of the text. 
 
 Who, then, or what are the three witnesses described 
 as the Spirit, the Water, and the Blood ? They may be 
 regarded in more than one light. First, under a more 
 general aspect and in a more unrestrained application ; 
 and next as standing and perpetual public witnesses 
 existing before our eyes in a precise tangible shape, 
 and unintermittingly exhibited before the world. In 
 this latter point of view they may be taken to describe 
 the inspired Scriptures and the two sacraments of our 
 religion. Respecting the Spirit, indeed, we can have no 
 possible difficulty or hesitation in prov.juncing that this 
 witness is God the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost 
 has taken the character of a mtness in many ways. 
 God is said to have borne ivitness to the first planters of 
 the faith, "both with signs and wonders, and with divers 
 miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost." "There are di- 
 versities of gifts," says the Apostle Paul, " but the same 
 Spirit ;" and after a specific enumeration of these various 
 gifts, he adds, " but all these worketh that One and the 
 self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He 
 wiU ;" a text intimating very distinctly the personality 
 and the peculiar and appropriate energy of the Holy 
 Ghost. With reference to the miracles of the Lord Himself, 
 " God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holi/ Ghost 
 
THE THREEFOLD WITNESS IN EARTH. 137 
 
 and with power," and according to the most received, and 
 what appears the most natm^al, interpretation, the lias-- 
 phemy against the Holy Ghost is nothing else than the 
 ascription to infernal agency of miraculous operations 
 performed by the communication of that Divine Spirit 
 from above. The loitness thus yielded to the truth of 
 God does not require to be pointed out. It was most 
 conspicuously in this sense, that the proclamation of the 
 Faith came " in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." 
 A blaze of glorious prodigy testified to the divine 
 source of the new religion ; and in the miracle, in par- 
 ticular, of the day of Pentecost, the visible descent of 
 the Spirit upon the Apostles at once constituted in itself 
 a proof of divine agency, and afforded to those who 
 received the gift of tongues the means of testifying 
 abroad over the world the Eevelation of God. 
 
 Another exemplification of the witness of the Spirit 
 is that internal testimony in the breast of man which 
 was unquestionably within the view of the Apostle in 
 our text, since it is almost immediately that he adds the 
 words, " He that believeth on the Son of God hath the 
 witness in himself." Viewed, therefore, in this con- 
 nexion, these last-cited words correspond exactly to the 
 declaration of another Apostle, that " the Spirit itself 
 beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children 
 of God." Not, in these days, by any manifestations 
 which God makes of Himself to the soul, such as those 
 m which He revealed Himself to the saints of old who 
 acted under the impulse and guidance of inspiration— 
 not in the way of sensations, or impressions, or illumi- 
 
138 
 
 SERMON XI. 
 
 nations, perceived at the moment to come directly from 
 heaven — that is what we are not taught nor warranted 
 to expect. Our faith must be content to dispense with 
 such communications, and must repose upon other 
 grounds ; and men often most dangerously deceive 
 themselves and others by substituting what is, in fact, 
 an alloy of gross and carnal excitement for the spiritual 
 influences to which they lay special and perhaps ex- 
 clusive claim. But apart from all rash and presump- 
 tuous extravagance, the believer has " an unction from 
 the Holy One ;" and it is by virtue of this that he knows 
 Whom he has believed — knows "that He is able to 
 keep that which" he has "committed unto Him against" 
 the last day. He has felt the adaptation of the Gospel 
 of mercy to his case ; he has found that it is " tlie power 
 of God unto salvation," supplying, what nothing else can 
 supply, the wants of his immortal soul, and healing, 
 what nothing else can heal, the wounds which have 
 been made in that soul by sin. He clasps its glorious 
 promises to his bosom to sustain him in all the trials 
 and temptations of the flesh. He discerns them as 
 having a character in themselves which does not belong 
 to the things of this world. He traces effects upon his 
 own heart and life which he knows are not the work of 
 human influence or natural reason, nor the issue from 
 any deceiving source ; and although the inward com- 
 forts of a true faith may differ much in different men, 
 and in the most favoured cases the believer will have 
 many alternations of discouragement, many occasions 
 of self-abasement, many roughnesses to endure and evil 
 
 1 
 
THE THREEFOLD WITNESS IN EARTH. 
 
 139 
 
 blasts to encounter, while in this corruptible body, — 
 yet he goes on his way rejoicing, since he carries the 
 deep and unshaken conviction that, through the free 
 and boundless grace of his God, he is numbered among 
 those who are children, adopted and maintaining their 
 adoption in the Gospel; "and if children, then heirs, 
 heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." 
 
 The fruits of the Spirit afford witness, also, in another 
 way — in their effect upon man. The character which 
 is formed by this Divine influence constitutes a forcible 
 recommendation of the faith, and yields testimony in 
 the eyes of all thinking men to its having come out 
 from God. "Herein is My Father glorified, that ye 
 bear much fruit." We see how often it is urged upon 
 the believers, in the Apostolic writings, to have an eye, 
 in cultivating and cherishing the graces of the Spirit, 
 in their temper and demeanour and dealings with other 
 men, to the benefit of the holy cause— the Christian 
 character fairly exhibited carrying upon the face of it 
 a convincing appeal to every accessible mind. 
 
 But there is another testimony afforded by the Spirit 
 — one of a supreme importance and of a specific and 
 tangible kind. " The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of 
 Prophecy," and this, in a larger sense of the word, com- 
 prehends the whole Bible, the book of the Spirit. " All 
 Scripture is given by inspiration of God." « Holy men 
 of old" — the writers of Scripture are the persons in- 
 tended— " spake as they were moved by the Holy 
 Ghost." "David, in Spirit, calleth Him Lord"— "the Holy 
 Ghost saith" — "the Holy Ghost this signifyinf^" these 
 
140 
 
 SEIIMON XI. 
 
 are familiarly the modes of expression in which passages 
 from the Old Testament are cited in the New. The 
 Bible, therefore, proceeds from the Holy Ghost. When 
 the Bible speaks, the Holy Ghost speaks. Just as we 
 say indifferently, in making reference to the writings 
 of men, that such a worh testifies, or its author testifies, 
 to such or such effect. And the Holy Ghost, through 
 this medium, is a witness, not only as the Bible is a 
 declaration to the world of the will, works, and dis- 
 pensations of God, not only as it conveys information 
 to man in things divine, but in the sense of direct and 
 irresistible proof. It carries the stamp of divinity upon 
 its face, and cannot be looked at, unless where the 
 mental vision is disordered and obscured, without the 
 recognition of its exalted claims. It is needless to 
 point out what proof is rendered, what testimony is 
 spread before us by prcyphecy in the more strict and 
 confined acceptation of the term. Take only the 
 example of those predictions relating to the person 
 of Jesus Christ: trace Him in the early promise to 
 our fallen parents — in the shadowed but unequivocal 
 resemblances of historical incident — in the exact cor- 
 respondence of type and antitype exhibited by the 
 ritual observances of the Mosaic law — in the minute 
 and particularizing delineations of the prophetic books : 
 go with Him where He leads you, as He led His dull 
 and dispirited disciples in the walk to Emmaus, when, 
 " beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded 
 to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Him- 
 self ;" and will not your hearts burn within you, as 
 
THE THREEFOLD WITNESS IN EARTH. 141 
 
 He is there distinctly developed to your minds ? Listen 
 to the Apostle Peter : "Ye have also a more sure word 
 of prophecy, whereunto ye do weU that ye take heed, 
 as unto a light that shineth in a dark place." Oh 
 glorious, but too often .despised, Book of God ! how 
 will its forgotten lessons, its unheeded warnings, its 
 rejected pleadings of love tell, in the last day, agJinst 
 its professed disciples, who have heard them with their 
 ears and had them in their hands. My brethren, if we 
 compare with the solemn predictions of Scripture re- 
 specting the indications of an approaching day of the 
 Lm^d—^n expression not limited to one only day,-— the 
 aspect, recent or within easy memory among living men, 
 of affairs in the world; the convulsive heavings of 
 human society ; the shaking of the powers of he^aven 
 (^. e. the powers constituted by the decree of heaven 
 to rule on earth) ; the pestilences, famines, commo- 
 tions in divers places and rumours of war which, long 
 rumbling in distant echoes, are found to burst at length 
 in an ominous collision of all the elements of terror 
 —shall we not, without presumptuously and hardily 
 pronouncing upon the details of unaccomplished pro- 
 phecy, yet feel ourselves caUed upon, as by a voice from 
 heaven, to watch the signs of the times and to prepare 
 for a great crisis which may be at hand in the destinies 
 of the race ? Shall we not earnestly endeavour to 
 assure our portion where it is independent of the 
 changes of this lower world? and shall we not learn 
 to cast our care upon God and to entrench ourselves 
 with holy confidence in the recollection that, in the 
 
142 
 
 SERMON XI. 
 
 words of the 99th Psalm, as translated in the Prayer- 
 book, "The Lord is King, be the people never so 
 impatient ; He sitteth between the cherubims, be the 
 earth never so unquiet." Let us leave the issue of 
 things in His hands, believing that, whether for indi- 
 viduals, for the public, for our country, or for the 
 world. He can bring light out of darkness, and cause 
 the most threatening appearances — or, if it be so 
 ordered, the most terrible struggles — to issue in glorious 
 and blessed results. 
 
 We see, then, in what methods the Spirit bears 
 witness in earth: by the display of power in the 
 days of miracle ; by the inward testimony of the 
 bosom in which the love of God is shed abroad ; 
 by the external testimony of effects upon the character 
 and life, causing our light to shine before men; and 
 by the voice of inspiration in the Bible. 
 
 The vMter also bears witness upon earth. Let us 
 take this statement in its plain literal sense. Literal 
 water will be found in more than one way to bear the 
 kind of witness here in our contemplation. " This is 
 He," says the Apostle, in word?3 shortly preceding our 
 text, " that came by vMter and hlood, even Jesus 
 Christ ; not by water only, but by water and blood." 
 Now let it be remembered that this same St. John, who 
 was present at the crucifixion of our Lord, attaches 
 apparently, in his narrative of that event, a particular 
 importance and interest to the fact — furnishing, medically 
 and anatomically considered, the proof of actual death — 
 that water issued together with the hlood from, the side 
 
Prayer- 
 3ver so 
 be the 
 ssue of 
 or indi- 
 for the 
 d cause 
 ; be so 
 glorious 
 
 t bears 
 in the 
 of the 
 
 abroad ; 
 
 haracter 
 
 3n ; and 
 
 Let us 
 Literal 
 bear the 
 'This is 
 ling our 
 1 Jesus 
 blood." 
 )hn, who 
 attaches 
 articular 
 ledically 
 death — 
 the side 
 
 THE THKEEFOLD WITNESS IN EARTH. 143 
 
 of Christ when pierced with the spear ; and he tells us 
 that he that saw it, i.e. this Apostle himself, hare record 
 (again the same word in the original, which in our 
 present text is rendered hear witness), and his record, 
 or witness, "is true, and he knoweth that he saith true, 
 that ye might believe." Then let us put all this together^ 
 and the most obvious understanding which presents 
 itself of what is said respecting the water in our text, 
 wiU surely be ^7w5— that the Apostle speaks with a 
 reference to that same water in connexion with that 
 same Hood. That water, however, had also an emblem- 
 atical signification ; it represented the washing away 
 of sin in the " fountain opened " " for sin and for unclean- 
 ness ; " the cleansing of the soul from the imputation of 
 guilt by the atonement of Christ, and its purification 
 from the love of sin ; its transformation to holiness by 
 the action of the living waters of grace. The literal 
 water of haptism has precisely the same meaning ; it is 
 appointed as a sensible representation of the process 
 which, by the grace of the gospel, takes efifect upon the 
 soul, and moreover, as a sacrament, it seals and ratifies 
 our admission to the privileges of our faith. To this 
 ordinance of God, therefore, connected with the con- 
 veyance of spiritual benefits, and carrying the lesson of 
 spiritual renovation, we may well suppose that the 
 expression of our text emphatically refers. It refers to 
 that of which the Lord declares Himself, that "except 
 a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot 
 enter into the kingdom of God." In order to our attain- 
 ment of the blessings of the new covenant, the use, in 
 
\l 
 
 f I 
 
 144 
 
 SEEMON XI. 
 
 devout and humble faith, of the outward and visible sign 
 ordained by Christ, must open the way for the sanctifying 
 influences which are to be poured in upon the soul from 
 above, and which renew the inner man day by day. 
 If Christ had never instituted any such sacrament as 
 that of baptism, then we should be obliged to have 
 recourse to some different interpretation of these 
 passages ; but with the ordinance of baptism by water 
 ocfore our eyes, as solemnly commanded by Him, and 
 constituting one of the features of the Christian religion, 
 it would seem strange to suppose that these particular 
 expressions should be chosen if they included no 
 allusion of the kind. 
 
 In the same manner it may be reasonably believed 
 that the hlood, which is mentioned in conjunction with 
 the water, while it is primarily the blood itself which, 
 together with water, was shed upon the crots, is also to 
 be regarded as the instituted memorial of that blood- 
 shedding, — a part of the sacrament, by a well-known 
 figure of speech, being put for the whole. The blood 
 of sprinkling at the death of the Son of God, the victim 
 for our sins, hore witness once for all. Christ Himself 
 was the prince and leader of martyrs, and the term 
 martyr signifies simply a vjitness; it is hence that it 
 has been taken to denote one who is eminently a 
 witness by sealing his testimony with his blood. The 
 blood of Christ, Who, in the words of St. Paul, " before 
 Pontius PUate ivitnessed a good confession," sealed that 
 glorious testimony which was the object of His coming 
 upon earth. " To this end was I born and for this cause 
 
THE THREEFOLD WITNESS IN EARTH. 
 
 145 
 
 ible sign 
 ctifying 
 )ul from 
 by day. 
 iiient as 
 to have 
 f these 
 •y water 
 ]im, and 
 religion, 
 articular 
 ided no 
 
 believed 
 ion with 
 f which, 
 3 also to 
 it blood- 
 I-known 
 le blood 
 le victim 
 Himself 
 ;he term 
 3 that it 
 nently a 
 .d. The 
 , " before 
 lied that 
 s coming 
 his cause 
 
 came I into the world, that I should hear witness unto the 
 truth." But before He became a martyr, He ordained a 
 memorial of His martyrdom,— an actual conveyance, 
 indeed, to the soul, if received in faith, of the effect and 
 blessing of that divine sacrifice, but also, what is more 
 to our immediate purpose, an exhibition, through all 
 ages of the world, of our belief in His martyrdom, and 
 our reliance upon it for salvation. " This do in remem- 
 brance of Me. This cup is the new testament in My 
 blood. As often as ye eat this bread and drink this 
 cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come" 
 
 This, then, as well as the other sacrament, is a stand- 
 ing witness, in all perpetuity, upon earth. Among the 
 Jews, the initiatoiij rite of circumcision and the com- 
 memorative observance of the Passover— the latter re- 
 ferring to all the particulars of their typical deliverance 
 from the bondage of Egypt, and prefiguring the sacri- 
 fice of Christ,— were at once badges of their covenant 
 with God, and institutions which hore testimony, from 
 generation to generation, to facts in their earlier history. 
 Among Christians, who are exempted from the weight 
 of Jewish ordinances, and who worship the Father in 
 spirit and in truth, we yet find the simple initiatory rite 
 of baptism, and the solemn retrospective observance of 
 that same sacrifice upon the cross to which the Jewish 
 paschal celebration jprospectively pointed ; and these 
 Christian ordinances are to us at once badges of our 
 covenant with God, and institutions which hear witness 
 to facts upon which our system is built. There they 
 are- 
 
 c 
 
 L 
 
 -handed down from age to age in the Church — a 
 
\li 
 
 146 
 
 SERMON XI. 
 
 . 
 
 r . 
 
 VI 
 
 »■ t 
 
 sacTament of coinmoii water ; a sacrament of common 
 bread and wine. Trace them to their origin— how did 
 they begin? how did they come to be received and 
 honoured ? who instituted them, and for what object ? 
 What do they mean? what do they represent? The 
 answers to these questions, which we can all furnish, 
 will immediately show that the sacramental water and 
 the representation of the blood of Christ in the sacra- 
 mental wine are ordained and decreed, while the world 
 lasts, to bear ivitncss to the grand truths of our religion. 
 And thus, although there are other ways also (as we 
 have seen) in which the Spirit, and the water, and the 
 blood may be shown, at different times, to have borne 
 or to be bearing witness in earth, yet if we look 
 for the standing fulfilment of the declaration in an 
 unbroken series, in a continuous line, among the or- 
 dinary and public provisions of our religion, by the 
 three means of testimony, acting in conjunction, which 
 are indicated in our text, we nmst rather fix upon the 
 inspired Word of God, together with the sacraments of 
 Baptism and the Lord's Supper as signified respectively 
 by the Spirit, the water, and the blood, than upon any 
 other objects upon which our conjecture can light. And 
 do not these three agree in one ? Do they not all 
 converge to one point? Do they not all tend to the 
 establishment and support of one system, the system 
 of faith in salvation by Christ alone ? What but this 
 only hope of sinners does the Spirit reveal in promise, 
 in type, in prophecy, in warnings to flee from the wrath 
 to come, in the evangelical narratives of facts fulfilling 
 
THE THREEFOLD WITNESS IN EARTH. 
 
 147 
 
 :iommon 
 liow did 
 zed and 
 object ? 
 t ? The 
 furnisli, 
 iter and 
 16 sacra- 
 le world 
 religion. 
 I (as we 
 and the 
 ve borne 
 we look 
 n in an 
 ; the or- 
 , by the 
 m, which 
 upon the 
 raents of 
 pectively 
 upon any 
 ;ht. And 
 not all 
 d to the 
 e system 
 but this 
 promise, 
 he wrath 
 fulfilling 
 
 
 what was foretold in the earlier volume, in the doctrinal 
 writings of the Apostolic body ? What else does the 
 ivatcr of baptism either teach us in figure or assure to 
 us in privilege ? " Eepeut, and l)e baptized, every one of 
 you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of 
 sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, 
 Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins. Know 
 ye not thafc so many of us as are baptized into Jesus Christ 
 are baptized into His death?" What else is held out 
 to us in the consecrated " cup of salvation," containing 
 the lively emblem of the blood of Christ which cleanseth 
 us from all sin ? These three agree in one. They agree 
 in testifying to that great and everlasting reality of 
 achievement by Christ, which, if we use these means 
 aright upon earth, will form the subject of our song in 
 heaven : " Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from 
 our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and 
 priests unto God and His Father, to Him be glory and 
 dominion for ever and ever. Amen." 
 
 l2 
 
I S:i ' 
 
 SERMON XIT. 
 
 THE rillNCE OF THIS WOULD. 
 
 St. John XIV. 29, 30, 31. 
 
 And nmv I h/tve told you he/ore it come to jumt, thnt when it is come to 
 juvia, ye miyht believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you,, for 
 the prince of this world eomcth, and hath nothing in Me. Dut that 
 ti';' VHwld may know that I love the Father ; and as the Father gave 
 Me CO nmandment, even so I do. 
 
 The Evangelist St. John has loft us a largo and full 
 account of the instructions and encouragements given 
 by our Lord Jesus Christ to His Apostles, in the memo- 
 rable scene which immediately preceded His sufferings 
 and death. It extends through several chapters, and is 
 wound up by the prayer which occupies the whole of 
 the seventeenth, and than which there is nothing of 
 deeper interest in Scripture. In the midst of the con- 
 versation which introduces this prayer, we find the 
 passage which has been now chosen for the subject of 
 our retiections. Let us weigh these words of Christ, 
 which, by the aid of the Divine Spirit, may carry 
 important lessons to our hearts. It was by that Spirit 
 that the Apostles were taught, and that all things were 
 brought to their remembrance whatsoever Christ had 
 said unto them: it is by the same influence breathed 
 upon us that, without looking for miraculous direction 
 or sensible communications, we must truly discern and 
 
THE PHINCE OF T'lIS WORLD. 
 
 14!) 
 
 (iff'iictually lay to heart wlmtsoever wo find to have pro- 
 ceeded from Him, either in the record of His own 
 personal sayings or in the whole range of His holy 
 Word. In the exercise of their cyrdinary powers, with 
 minds rightly impressed, under the influence here de- 
 scribed, the disciples, upon different occasions, are stated 
 to have called to remembrance the things spoken by 
 Christ, or written of Him in prophecy, when they wit- 
 nessed the fulfilment of them after His death, and to 
 have then made the proper application of them. This 
 is precisely what, upon the occasion now before us. He 
 declares to have been His object in view. "And now 
 I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is 
 come to pass, ye might believe." 
 
 Look back, then, my brethren, making the case your 
 own, upon all which has come to pass since those words 
 were spoken— words which refer immediately to the 
 intimation just before given of His approaching depar- 
 ture to the Father, and its consequences. Are we not 
 personally concerned in all this? Have we not a 
 property in all that has happened to Christ since the 
 moment here in question ? Did He not die for our sins, 
 and rise again for our justification? Did He not, in 
 re-ascending to heaven, go before to prepare a place for 
 us, that where He is, there we may be also ? Is not 
 the Holy Spirit, who was bestowed as an effect of His 
 being glorified, a Comforter to abide with us for ever, 
 promised not only to the first believers, but to their 
 children and to all that were "afar off; even as many as 
 the Lord our God shall call ?" Are not the sacraments 
 
' ( 
 
 i; I 
 
 150 
 
 SERMON XII. 
 
 instituted in perpetuity as the seals of the covenant, 
 the badges of our Christian profession, the appointed 
 vehicles of grace to our souls ? And is not one of these 
 sacraments, besides its other characteristics, an express 
 memorial of the Kedeemer Himself, a thing to be done 
 in rememhmnce of Him ; a thing only to be left undone 
 if we wish to forget Him, if we repudiate the memory 
 of what He suffered for us ? Has not this " Gospel of the 
 kingdom," which was to be preached to " all nations, 
 beginning at Jerusalem," this everlasting Gospel or- 
 dained to be proclaimed to every nation, and kindred, 
 and tongue, and people, long centuries ago reached the 
 land of our fathers, and numbered us, in external privi- 
 lege and in capacity of salvation, among the people of 
 God ? Is it not, instead of being in heaven, that we 
 should send up for it there, or beyond the sea, that we 
 should have it brought to us from thence, made very 
 nigh to us, and thoroughly familiar in our hands, and 
 mouths, and minds? Have not all these things of 
 which we read been fulfilled for our benefit, and made 
 good in our behalf? If they have so come to pass, then 
 for what have they come to pass ? They have come to 
 pass in the accomplishment of prophecy and promise, 
 that we might believe — not that we might indolently 
 acquiesce in the received system of religion and leave 
 the tyuths of the Gospel undisputed ; but that we might 
 " believe in the Lord Jesus Christ " and " be saved : " 
 that we might " fiee from the wrath to come " to that 
 only Kefuge, and grasp that salvation to our grateful 
 bosoms, in the deep and homefelt conviction — the con- 
 
THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD. 
 
 151 
 
 jovenant, 
 ppointed 
 s of these 
 L exDiess 
 
 be done 
 t undone 
 
 memory 
 pel of the 
 
 nations, 
 ospel or- 
 
 kindred, 
 ched the 
 nal privi- 
 people of 
 
 that we 
 
 that we 
 lade very 
 mds, and 
 ;hings of 
 nd made 
 jass, then 
 ! come to 
 
 promise, 
 adolently 
 md leave 
 we might 
 
 saved : " 
 " to that 
 ■ grateful 
 -the con- 
 
 viction of sinners delivered by a train of wonders 
 wrought by the right hand of Omnipotent Love — that 
 there is no other Name, that there are no other means, 
 under heaven whereby we can be saved at all. 
 
 " Hereafter," adds our Lord, " 1 will not talk much 
 with you : for the prince of this world cometh :" the 
 hour was fast advancing which was to close His own 
 earthly career, the hour of .which He said when it came, 
 in addressing Himself to those who were acting under 
 tlie instigation of Satan, "This is your hour, and the power 
 of darkness." The intervening time was very short, and 
 He could not talk much with them ; they were to pay 
 the more heed to the precious words which were then 
 dropping from His lips, and to gather them as pearls, to 
 be preserved with care. Brethren, the time is short for 
 us all to treasure up the truths of our salvation, and to 
 turn to account the religious advantages which we 
 enjoy. The last hour is swiftly coming upon ourselves ; 
 the little opportunity of a transient and uncertain life 
 is ebbing away : to-morrow, to-night may see any one 
 of us, for what we know, stretched upon the bed of 
 death ; at best a few years, which will fly like those 
 before them, now irrecoverably gone, will conduct us 
 to that solemn issue. Are we profiting by the sacred 
 instructions of our Lord ? have His sayings sunk into 
 our ears ? have we heard and understood ? have we 
 heard these sayings of His and done them? have we 
 practically applied them, and are we ruled by them, 
 formed after them ? Then, indeed, we are like unto the 
 wise man, who built his house upon a rock, and we 
 
1 1 'I 
 
 'iii ' 
 
 152 
 
 SERMON XII. 
 
 are prepared to abide the tempest and the ilood. But 
 if we hear these sayings of Christ and do them not ; 
 if we are trifling away, in unprofitable vanities, the 
 little space of our existence here ; if we are filling it 
 up by the unvarying and absorbing pursuit of the cares 
 and the riches and the pleasures of this life ; if, with 
 eternity to provide for, and with the warnings of the 
 Book of God before our eyes, we are making "provision 
 for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof," — tlien we have 
 built upon a foundation which cannot stand. We raise 
 expectation upon exj)ectation, and throw out project 
 after project, but all rests upon a shifting and treacherous 
 reliance, and at last our structure falls. Our hopes are 
 immediately ruined. Great is the fall thereof Great, 
 indeed, is the fall of a human soul, sparkling with 
 reason and the consciousness of immortality, and set, 
 by receiving revelation, in the midst of the lights of 
 heaven itself: it is a star shot from the firmament to 
 merge in " the blackness of darkness for ever." 
 
 The powers of that darkness, however, have a pro- 
 digious and woeful sway in this lower world. Men sin,' 
 and suffer, and die, and are coffined up for the worm ; 
 and these effects proceed from the energy of mischief, 
 which began to work in Paradise, and works on till the 
 consummation of all things in the day which God has 
 ordained. Amidst all the grandeur of creation ; amidst 
 all the loveliness of nature; amidst all the boundless 
 exhibition of wonders which encircles us, redundant 
 with the proofs of eternal goodness and wisdom, we see 
 also, in the wide-spread and glaring evidences of moral 
 
 m 
 
THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD. 
 
 153 
 
 
 and natural evil, under all tlieir variety of forms, the 
 ceaseless activity of a malignant influence. There is a 
 single historian of the fifth century, the title of whose 
 work, consisting of seven books, may serve to exemplify 
 our present point respecting the aspect and condition of 
 the world. It is entitled "Human Misery," and is 
 stated to contain " an account of the wars, plagues, 
 earthquakes, floods, conflagrations, thunder and light- 
 ning, murder and other crimes, which had happened 
 from the beginning of the world." And can we read 
 the history of any single country upon earth, of which 
 the pages will no^, with deeper or fainter characters of 
 aggravation, tell us the same tale as makes up the 
 materials of these seven books ? And in all this 
 mixture, in all this diversified mass of evil, how 
 prominent everywhere is the evil of sin ! how marked 
 are the evidences of a vitiated nature in man ! how 
 multiplied the instances of a perverse infatuation, or 
 of a revolting debasement of mind! Consider the 
 stupidity of heathen idolatry — the monstrous objects 
 of worship, senseless objects which millions of the 
 human family, verifying the words that "they that make 
 them are like unto them, and so are all they that put 
 their trust in them," are themselves actually so senseless 
 as to adore ; the only exercise of intellect appearing in 
 the ingenuity which is often applied to make them in 
 the utmost conceivable degree hideous and disgusting. 
 Consider the filthiness and the cruelty attaching in 
 very many examples to their religious rites. Consider 
 the oppressions of the powerful, with means of blessing 
 
 fl 
 
i 
 
 H 
 
 M 
 
 154 
 
 SERMON XII. 
 
 in their hand, which are to be witnessed upon earth, 
 and look at the degradation of the low : contemplate 
 all the scenes of bloated pride, of bestial sensuality, of 
 destructive intemperance, of profligate lust, of infuriate 
 anger, of deadly hatred, of unrelenting revenge : survey 
 all the instances of wily deception, of selfish ^-apacity, 
 of unscrupulous aggression, of unprincipled fraud. Turn 
 to those countries which exhibit the fairest picture of 
 the state of man, and in which the eye may most 
 readily rest upon scenes of peace and health and 
 prosperity, the enjoyment of liberty and equal laws, 
 the progress of improvement and the benignly amelio- 
 rating effects of our holy religion : yet there, if under 
 this smiling face of things we explore all the realties 
 of life, if we penetrate all the details of human society, 
 how much wickedness and how much misery will be 
 brought to light! Is there a day in which, in any 
 considerable and dense population, we do not see the 
 mourners go about the streets ? is there a street in 
 which there is not some fellow-creature stretched upon 
 the bed of sickness ? is there a house in which there is 
 not, if not some violence of passion or agony of grief, 
 yet some discomposure of spirit and vexation of heart ? 
 Is there an hour, is there a moment, in which God is not 
 insulted all around us ? In this city of Quebec, how many 
 ]j:^r'jons do we suppose that there are leading an in- 
 famous life ? how many drunkards ? how many swearers ? 
 how many Sabbath-breakers ? how many hardened adepts 
 in dishonesty? how many fraudulent dealers, equally 
 dishonest and with less excuse ? And look at the 
 
THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD. 
 
 155 
 
 refined, and, in the eye of tlie world, correct circles of 
 society ; look at them as made up of professed Christians, 
 followers of Jesus Christ, redeemed by the purchase 
 of His blood out of a corrupted world, possessed with 
 the high aspirations which ought to belong to the 
 believer, and, as they ought to be seen, in full training 
 for the inheritance of glory, — what inconsistency, what 
 worldliness, what frequent and palpable violation of the 
 Christian temper of humility and love, what devotion 
 to the vanities of life, what specious disguises of self- 
 interest, what languor and backwardness in religion, 
 what alienation' from spiritual views, what a disposition 
 to start aside, like a broken bow, from the demands of 
 a holy and elevated faith, what a desire to accommodate 
 the Gospel and the whole system and observances of 
 the Church to the ways of the world ! 
 
 But it is needless to proceed further, and in fact it 
 would be endless to accumulate the exemplifications of 
 an evil and m.ysterious ascendancy in the world which 
 we inhabit, and under which "the whole creation groaneth 
 and travaileth together." Enough has been said to ex- 
 plain and justify the language of Scripture in repre- 
 senting the actual subjugation of mankind to this 
 influence, and describing the author of these effects 
 as the "prince of this world," by which name he is 
 indicated upon different occasions by the mouth of 
 Christ, and " the god of this world," which title is given 
 to him by St. Paul, who also calls him " the prince of 
 the power of the air," because he and his emisearies 
 having a personal, although a spiritual existence, there 
 
I.^ 
 
 m 
 
 I: t 
 
 1 ; 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 •i 
 
 156 
 
 SERMON XII. 
 
 is a locality in their operations, and they range unseen 
 in the atmosphere which we breathe, " going to and fro 
 in the world, and walking up and down in it." And 
 it is to relieve us from the curse of this influence that 
 Christ came into the world. He is the promised Seed 
 of the woman, Who was to bruise the serpent's head. 
 He came " to destroy the works of the devil." He went 
 about, in the days of his flesh, " doing good, and healing 
 all that were oppressed of the devil." 
 
 My brethren, it is thus that we stand between two con- 
 flicting powers, to fall a prize either to the one or to the 
 other. If we c;3cape from an evil world and take refuge 
 beneath the wings of Christ, He is " able to save to the 
 uttermost/' and to bruise Satan under our feet. If, 
 either in their smoother or more broadly repulsive 
 forms, we fall in with and follow the ways of that 
 evil world, then we must be numbered among the 
 children of the wicked one, and cannot have our 
 portion with the children of God. And there is one 
 very unquestionable test of our state : " In this the 
 children of God are manifest and the children of the 
 devil : whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of 
 God." 
 
 " The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing 
 in Me." This was the language of Christ, who, although 
 for the execution of His task He assumed the nature of 
 mortal man, and voluntarily surrendered Hiiiiself to the 
 stroke of death, was exempt in His own person from all 
 shade of moral taint, and therefore not obnoxious to the 
 sentence of death, which came by sin, and which is the 
 
 
 . -. ti 
 
THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD. 
 
 157 
 
 work of the devil. In the language of the Apostle, 
 " Forasmuch, then, as the children (the children whom 
 Christ recognises as His own) are partakers of flesh and 
 blood. He also Himself likewise took part of the same, 
 that through death He might destroy him that had the 
 power of death, that is, the devil." This meritorious death, 
 made efficacious for the life of others, was not like the 
 forfeiture of life by the sinner, under the original 
 sentence: there was no personal guiltiness in the case 
 to contract a liability to death, and it is thus that "the 
 prince of this world," who had the power of death, "had 
 nothing in Him." In the judicial process held upon 
 Eim by man, His innocence is manifest: "I fnd no 
 fault in Him : I have found no cause of death in Him ; 
 I am innocent of the blood of this just Person," is' 
 the language of His judge who surrenders Him to 
 the violence of His enemies ; and it is said of those 
 enemies themselves, that "though they found no cause 
 of death in Him, yet desired they Pilate that He should 
 be slain." So with reference to the moral causes which, 
 in their physical consequence, render all human beings 
 naturally subject to that death of which Satan is the 
 author, the nan Christ Jesus was equally clear and free. 
 He died, be it remembered by all of us, "ih^ just for the 
 unjust, that ;£e might bring us to God." It was to make 
 the due manifestation of His entire conformity to the 
 will of God, and of His perfect and unhesitating dis- 
 charge of tho part which He sustained as the suffering 
 Saviour of the world, that He gave Himself up to 
 death ; it was in fulfilment of the prophetic words, 
 
J 
 
 I 
 
 H 
 
 1/ 
 
 hi 
 
 II I ill 
 
 I' 
 I 
 
 r < 
 
 ! 
 
 158 
 
 SEKMON XII. 
 
 * 
 
 " Buriit-ofTcring and sin-offering hast Thou not required : 
 then said I, Lo I come : in the volume of the book it 
 is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, my God:" 
 it was, as He tells us in the words of our text, " That 
 the world may know that I love the Father ; and as the 
 Father gave Me commandment, even so I do." Even so 
 the blessed Saviour did, and even so must we, faithfully, 
 and, according to the measure of our weak ability, fully 
 do, if we would evince ourselves to be the true followers 
 of our Lord, and heirs, through Him, of the kingdom of 
 heaven. We must learn to practise the most unreserved 
 obedience to the commandments of God, and the most 
 unqualified submission to His will, in whatever trials and 
 temptations may await us below. If we refuse to deny 
 ourselves and to take up our cross, we cannot be His 
 disciples. It is to be feared that too many of us are 
 self-deceived in these matters ; and that is an awful case 
 of self-deception, which concerns the state and prepa- 
 ration of our souls before God. We really do not, in 
 too many instances, remember what we were m;.de for, 
 nor how we are filling our part, nor how responding to 
 the love of our God and Saviour. Men abandon them- 
 selves, without scruple, without uneasiness, without 
 apparent consciousness of any inconsistency or any 
 danger, into the arms of the world ; men who receive 
 as their authority that book which declares that " the 
 friendship of the world is enmity against God," and that 
 " if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not 
 in him." We must use this world, but we must use it 
 as not abusing it ; as not misunderstanding the nature 
 
 ill . i 
 
THE PIIINCE OP THIS WOELD. 
 
 159 
 
 of our connexion with it ; as not making it our home. 
 We must be thankful for earthly blessings; but we 
 must watch and pray against their becoming a snare to 
 our hearts. To the Christian the kingdom of heaven is 
 the " one pearl of great price ;" and " the excellency of 
 the knowledge of Christ Jesus" his Lord, that for which 
 he is ready to " count all things but loss." 
 
I 
 
 
 i' ■ 111! 
 1 !:- 
 
 r M 
 
 III 
 
 I i 
 
 III I 
 
 I i 
 
 // ( 
 
 SERMON XIIT. 
 PRAYER. 
 
 St. LuKh XVlll. 1. 
 
 JIc spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to 
 
 pray, and not to faint. 
 
 The parable which He spake unto them was that of the 
 unjust judge who yiekled to the importunity of the 
 widow ; and the more particular lesson which it conveys 
 is that of perseverance and urgency in prayer. The 
 subject, however, is not so presented to us as to confine 
 our reflections upon prayer to this single point of view. 
 Leaving, therefore, the necessity of closeness and per- 
 severance to form one of the branches of our general 
 subject, let us proceed to consider at large the duiy 
 and benefits of prayer ; and, in the first place, the reasons 
 upon which it is founded. 
 
 To those who have made any advances in a religious 
 course of life, or who are even seriously endeavouring to 
 do so, it cannot be necessary to prove the point itself, 
 that it is right for the reasonable creature to pray to his 
 Creator. But there are doubts and objections which 
 may, possibly, in some minds, make it a question ; and 
 these we will endeavour to dispose of, in the threshold 
 of our argument. 
 
 The particular doubts and objections to which I 
 advert, are such as are founded upon the insignificance 
 
PRAYER. 
 
 161 
 
 always to 
 
 it of the 
 of the 
 conveys 
 r. The 
 I confine 
 of view, 
 uid per- 
 general 
 he duiy 
 I reasons 
 
 religious 
 >ui'ing to 
 at itself, 
 ly to his 
 lS which 
 on ; and 
 hreshold 
 
 which I 
 nificance 
 
 and unworthiness of man, or upon the attribute of 
 goodness united with omniscience and omnipotence in 
 God. 
 
 How can I think of addressing God ?— it is in this 
 shape that the former class of objections may be put — 
 How can I presume to think myself — one frail, wan- 
 dering, offending member of this perishing family of 
 mankind, tliese children of the dust, born to-day and 
 gone to-morrow, tenants of this globe of earth, which, 
 however vast in our eyes, is but a speck in the universe 
 of creation — how can I venture to think myself autho- 
 rized to speak to Him Who dwelleth in eternity, to 
 forget the immeasurable distance at which I stand from 
 Him, and attempt to draw near to God Who is clothed 
 in unapproachable light ? What warrant have I to hold 
 direct personal communication with that awful Being 
 Who 'sitteth in the heavens over all from the beginning,' 
 and to solicit the attention of Heaven to my individual 
 concerns ? 
 
 You have all the warrant that it is possible for you to 
 wish for. You have the warrant of God s own blessed 
 word. Nature, indeed, and reason, although they are 
 miserably deficient guides in religion, might of them- 
 selves pronr)t you to believe that the Author of your 
 being is, in some sort, accessible to the expression of 
 your wants ; and that, whatever power caused you to 
 exist as a rational creature, you must still depend upon 
 that power, who may well be supposed to be interested 
 for your preservation and your welfare. And because 
 this power is something awfully great, and men have 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 SEUMON XIII. 
 
 liil! 
 
 !!l 
 
 ' I 
 
 I' > 
 
 both a feeling of being accountable above, and a con- 
 sciousness of offending, they have, therefore, when^ they 
 have been destitute of Revelation, i)eopled heaven, in 
 the corrupt imagination of their hearts, with baser 
 objects of worship, and ransacked earth for devices to 
 propitiate the wrath of the powers above. But all these 
 wants of nature are provided for in the Gospel of Jesus 
 Christ, Who is both the Propitiation for our sins, and the 
 High Priest through Whose hands our offerings of prayer 
 are rendered acceptable to God. He " is the Mediator of 
 the New Testament." In Him " we have boldness and 
 access " by faith. " He ever liveth to make intercession 
 for us." " No man cometh to the Father but by " Him. 
 But the objector of the other class may draw a dif- 
 ferent conclusion from the same survey of the aspect of 
 things, and may argue, not that our prayers cannot 
 reach the Throne of glory, but that they must be super- 
 fluous. Why should I pray to God? — to God Who 
 made me, and Who supplies all my wants and those 
 of all creation ? Do we not say in the very forms of 
 prayer provided by the Church, that He is " more ready 
 to hear than we to pray," and that He knows both " our 
 necessities before we ask, and our ignorance in asking ? " 
 Does God need the information of our wants which our 
 feeble breath is to convey ? or is it to be recommended 
 to us to persuade Him by dint of argument, to move 
 Him by the charm and force of human eloquence ? 
 Most unquestionably not. But it is so appointed by 
 God, and we are so constituted in nature, that many 
 blessings and acts of grace are made contingent upon 
 
PRAYFR. 
 
 103 
 
 (1 a con- 
 icn* they 
 ;aven, in 
 th baser 
 Bvicea to 
 all these 
 
 of Jesus 
 1, and the 
 of prayer 
 ediator of 
 ness and 
 ;ercession 
 )y"Him. 
 aw a dif- 
 aspect of 
 3 cannot 
 be super- 
 Jod Who 
 ind those 
 
 forms of 
 ore ready 
 }oth " our 
 asking ? " 
 i^hich our 
 mmended 
 
 to move 
 ioquence ? 
 Dinted by 
 ;iat many 
 ;ent upon 
 
 our prayers, I do not notice any refinements which 
 may be found, perhaps, in some modern publications, 
 as if prayer were only an evidence of what God is 
 working in us, and tlie prelude and indication of what 
 has been ordained to follow. Leaving all such books 
 and their perplexities, and going straight to the Bible, 
 you will there find that prayer is a very simple thing. 
 You will see it very plainly and very constantly taught, 
 that what you pray for in faith you will obtain, and 
 what you fail to pray for you will lose ; and that judg- 
 ments, which otherwise would most certainly overtake 
 you, will be withdrawn in consequence of prayer. And 
 the habitual exercise of prayer affords the means of 
 presenting us in a sense of dependence upon God, of 
 j)urifying our affections and drawing our thoughts to 
 the world above. It is what serves to keep in freshness 
 and life our communion with that heaven, through Jesus, 
 the Son of God, for which the earth is our stage of pre- 
 paration. If we live without prayer, we live witliout 
 God. And if we live without God in this world, 
 where, I beseech you, can be our hope for the next? 
 Prayer, therefore, may be made a test to us of our own 
 spiritual safety. If we do sincerely pray to God (for I 
 do not speak of a mere mechanical performance of 
 prayer, as a child repeats by rote a task learnt at 
 school), but if we do sincerely pour out our hearts in 
 prayer before God, we are at least advancing towards a 
 religious life. If, on the other hand, we are too dead to 
 the powers of the world to come, too busy with other 
 thoughts, too deeply implicated in pursuits and plea- 
 
 m2 
 
il 
 
 M 
 
 ill 
 
 164 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 sures, our devotion to which we feel to be inconsistent 
 with the devotion of which God is the object — if we are 
 too much under the power of the shame of this world 
 to prostrate ourselves as needy sinners before Him — if 
 the habit of our minds be averse from all spiritual exer- 
 cises, — then what can we pronounce upon ourselves but 
 that, continuing in such a state, we are strangers alto- 
 gether to God and hope ? Yes — on we go, carelessly 
 and unconcernedly, perhaps, with our sails all set to 
 catch the breeze which wafts us smoothly along, uncon- 
 scious of error, unsuspicious of harm ; but we are only 
 hurrying to make shipwreck of our souls, and to strike 
 upon our inevitable perdition. 
 
 These are the reasons of prayer. And for the same 
 reasons which make it necessary that we should pray at 
 all, it is necessary that we should pray frequently and 
 regularly. Eepctition and assiduity must be employed 
 to resist the ceaseless action of opposite causes, and to 
 preserve oar souls from the rust of the world. The 
 parable was spoken " to this end, that men ought always 
 to pray," and it is said in the same way of the exemplary 
 soldier, Cornelius, that he " gave nmch alms to the people, 
 and prayed to God ahvay." To " pray tuitlwut ceasiyig " 
 is also an Apostolic injunction. The meaning of these 
 expressions is evidently not that our whole lives should 
 be one uninterrupted act of prayer, but that we should 
 keep up the constant practice of prayer, that we should 
 habitually lift our hands and hearts to God. We stand 
 in continual need of His mercy, of His pardon, of His 
 guidance ; we exist only by His bounty, and of aU in 
 
 
I'KAYER. 
 
 165 
 
 ;onsisteiit 
 
 if we are 
 
 his world 
 
 Him— if 
 
 ;ual exer- 
 
 elves but 
 
 ;ers alto- 
 
 carelessly 
 
 all set to 
 
 g, uncon- 
 
 are only 
 
 to strike 
 
 the same 
 d pray at 
 ently and 
 employed 
 es, and to 
 rid. The 
 ht always 
 xemplary 
 he people, 
 
 ceasing " 
 ; of these 
 es should 
 VQ should 
 A'e should 
 We stand 
 )n, of His 
 
 of all in 
 
 
 wliich our hands are engaged, the issue depends upon 
 His providence. :\.nd the causes of devotion occurring 
 so frequently, some correspondence should be seen in 
 the effects. 
 
 Such frequency is indeed essential to the production, 
 the nourishment, the growth and improvement of all 
 religion in the soul. Think only of all that is wanted 
 in this way. To keep alive that clear fire of inward 
 piety which, if it once die, it is hard to rekindle ; to 
 save us from sinking back, in the inner man, into a 
 dangerous ignorance of our own condition ; to maintain 
 the struggling principles of obedience and love against 
 the solicitations of our lusts within, and the assaults of 
 the world without ; to protect the tenderness of con- 
 science and the salutary dread of contact with sin; 
 to fortify our patience and invigorate our hope in all 
 the trials, the provocations, the sad perplexities of life ; 
 to preserve a spiritual state of the affections, a living 
 remembrance of our treasure laid up in heaven, a 
 temper, in our walk upon earth, of Christian humility, 
 gentleness, and love. What recourse have we for all this, 
 but to the promised grace of God, and what possible 
 expectation of that precious help if we neglect our 
 prayers ? Even as among men — (I borrow the illustra- 
 tion from an old divine from whom I now borrow some 
 other ideas besides, and who has left to posterity the 
 richest stores of thought and language) — even as among 
 men, the habit of meeting and conversing produces a 
 freedom of acquaintance, but forbearance of intercourse 
 dissolves or slackens the bonds of amity, and generates 
 
 ;l 
 
 85 
 
 :n 
 

 166 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 an increasing coldness between the parties ; so it is with 
 regard to God Himself. By seeking Him often, we 
 acquire a lively perception of His goodness, a solid and 
 sincere pleasure in approaching Him : but by long inter- 
 mission we become regardless of His favour and insen- 
 sible of His love ; we think of Him but little, remember 
 Him but faintly, and shun that faint remembrance. 
 An estrangement of our affections, a distaste, an aver- 
 sion for divine things, creeps gradually over the heart, 
 and warps also the understanding : abstaining from the 
 presence of God, we form attachments prejudicial to 
 that friendship which He deigns to hold with us ; we 
 contract a familiarity with His enemies, with all those 
 passions, propensities, habits, and influences which are 
 described in Scripture under the general terms of the 
 World and the Flesh ; passions, propensities, habits, and 
 influences which, having once drawn us into an unre- 
 strained acquaintance, soon reduce us to be their slaves. 
 Devotion, in short, must die without exercise. There 
 is, hj nature, a difficulty in abstracting our thoughts and 
 affections from sensible things, and fastening them upon 
 objects purely spiritual ; summoning to this one point 
 our rambling thoughts, and composing the irregular 
 frame of our hearts. Without practice this difficulty of 
 nature cannot be overcome ; with practice it gives way 
 more and more ; for, although the spirit of prayer is the 
 gift of God, it must, like other graces, be improved : " to 
 him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more 
 abundantly ; and from him that hath not, shall be 
 taken away even that which he seemeth to have." The 
 
PRAYER. 
 
 167 
 
 t is with 
 ften, we 
 jolid and 
 ng inter- 
 id iiisen- 
 Biiiember 
 tnbrance. 
 an aver- 
 he heart, 
 from the 
 dicial to 
 L us ; we 
 all those 
 vhiah. are 
 IS of the 
 ibits, and 
 an unre- 
 lir slaves. 
 ;. There 
 ights and 
 leni upon 
 ane point 
 
 irregular 
 Hculty of 
 ives way 
 ^'er is the 
 v^ed : " to 
 ave more 
 
 shall be 
 re." The 
 
 more we draw near to God, the more we feel that He 
 draws near to us ; we acquire in time a devotional habit of 
 mind, a propensity to our religious duties, and a satisfac- 
 tion in the performance of them. Having access through 
 Christ, (jur great High Priest and Intercessor, we come, 
 as St. Paul directs us, " boldly to the Tin-one of grace." 
 We do not, indeed, lose our feelings of humility, our 
 solemn impressions of reverence and awe ; but when 
 we find that " as His majesty is, so is His mercy ; " 
 when we " taste and' see that the Lord is good," that 
 He " is nigh unto all such as call upon Him faithfully ;" 
 when our experience has taught us these refreshing 
 truths, we drop our reluctance and our languor; we 
 cast aside our discouraging apprehensions, and disen- 
 gage ourselves from the embarrassments of doubt : we 
 feel the force of the words used by the Psalmist, and 
 iidopt the resolution which they convey, " Because He 
 liath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call 
 upon Him as long as I live ; " we feel that He is our 
 leliance, our resource, our confidence, our hope, our light 
 and life, our all in all ; we cast our care upon Him as 
 upon a Father who will never, never leave us nor 
 forsake us. 
 
 But are we then to desist, if such feelings do not 
 accompany, if such effects do not follow from, our 
 [)rayers ? What if we must plainly acknowledge that, 
 although we believe the Gospel to be true, respect the 
 institutions of religion, and endeavour not absolutely 
 to scandalize it in our lives, we cannot pretend to be 
 in a state to which the terras of pieti/, or holiness, or 
 
 ' i. 
 
 i 
 
m 
 
 • ' 
 
 ' 'M 
 
 I 
 
 t; 
 
 M 
 
 jii J 
 
 4 8 
 
 ji i 
 
 n 
 
 168 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 heavenhj-mindedness can, with any sort of propriety, be 
 applicable : we may be ready to grant that all this is 
 very insufficient, but so it is — we cannot help it — and 
 are we then to live without prayer till something shall 
 happen to make us excessively religious, and to abstain 
 from offering up our devotions at all, till we can offer 
 them in a really devout spirit ? Alas ! (we may say 
 to those who argue thus), have you any wish to become 
 more religious ? — are you not secretly rather afraid than 
 desirous of becoming so ? Pray, then : for God forbid 
 that we should cut away even the feeblest thread that 
 holdv you to your faith and duty : pray — for you have 
 need enough ; but add it to your prayers that God 
 would give you a better mind, and a sense of the awful 
 nature of things pertaining to your salvation — the sal- 
 vation of those immortal but sinful souls for which the 
 Son of God, Who had glory with His Father before the 
 world V7as, died the bloody and shameful death of the 
 cross. 
 
 But what if, with every disposition and desire to im- 
 prove in religion — what if, with the clearest conviction 
 and the fullest sense of our wants before God, we still 
 find that our hearts are cold in the performance of the 
 task — that, at least, we have no fervency of spirit, no 
 ardour in supplication ; that, whether in our private or 
 public devotions, our thoughts rove, in spite of us, 
 occasionally abroad, and rest upon other objects while 
 our lips repeat their mechanical exercise ? Or what if, 
 having prayed long and earnestly for such as we feel 
 to be fitting objects of prayer — for ability to keep our 
 
PRAYER. 
 
 169 
 
 good rjsolutioiis ; for the correction of some evil habit, 
 or the extinction of some irregular desire ; for the 
 removal of involuntary evil thoughts, or of religious 
 perplexities and doubts ; for the spirit of prayer itself ; 
 for an improved mai ner of participation in all the acts 
 of divine worship ; for changes in our own circum- 
 stances, or in the state of affairs around us, which 
 would seem manifestly calculated to promote our use- 
 fulness or the interests of religion :— what if, having 
 prayed long for any or all of these, we still have prayed 
 in vain, till we begin to think ourselves excluded from 
 the benefit of those encouraging promises, " Ask, and it 
 shall be given you ; ' ek, and ye shall find ; knock, 
 and it shall be opened unto you " — " If ye abide in Me, 
 and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, 
 and it shall be done unto you." We seem to suffer 
 from the principle laid down by St. James, "Ye ask 
 and receive not, because ye ask amiss ; " yet in what 
 point we ask amiss, we are incapable of ascertaining. 
 
 To all these different complaints we must reply, Per- 
 severe, persevere, persevere ! The wanderings and dis- 
 tractions to which we maybe subject, although we ought 
 still to struggle against thsm, will never, perhaps, be 
 totally subdued ; some degree of this imperfection is, 
 probably, inseparable from nature, and how often do we 
 see it feelingly lamented in the posthumous private 
 devotions of lueri who have truly deserved the name of 
 saints/ We havx^ to do'with an indulgent Master, Who, 
 if the heart be truly humble and the spirit truly willing, 
 will not visit it upon us severely that the fiesli is weak. 
 
 i 
 
 M 
 
 itjiJ 
 
1 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 -j 
 
 r 
 
 
 ■' 
 
 ■f i 
 
 !l 
 
 j| 
 
 ii 
 
 J 
 
 r 
 
 
 170 
 
 SKllMON XIII. 
 
 It is also usoful for us that our presumption sliould l)t» 
 chastisod by t\'(^lin<,^ that, wliilo we are eneumberiul with 
 this liouse of chiy, we cannot be exempt from the mix- 
 ture of iuHrmity; and that, alth(mfrh, in ihe resurrection, 
 we shall be as the an;4els of God in heaven, wo never 
 can be so while on earth. I confess, in fact, that I 
 would rather hear a believer hinumt his deticiencies in 
 prayer, than boast of his enjoyments, and shouhl regard 
 it as a better evidence of his spiritual states And when 
 wo speak of defect of ard(>ncy in pi'ayer, it is necessary 
 that we should understand what we mean. Our neces- 
 sities are great, and our sense of them ought to be deep ; 
 our love ought also to ^e lively. And to all this our 
 devotion should corresjiond; yet, possibly, we are covet- 
 ing (if I may so express it) a style of praying which 
 has mo\, to do than we suspect with a fervid tempera- 
 ment, r even with a meretricious excitement of the 
 imagii .= n. Prayer, although it should be earnest and 
 reverent, prompted by a s:aise of our wants before God, 
 spi'inging from fixed principles of faith ami love, and 
 flowing imnnuliately forth fiH)m the depths of the h(\art, 
 yet may be acceptably offered in the I'orm of a calm, 
 solemn, and composed address. And among the varieties 
 aftbrded in the examples of prayei- recorded in Scrip- 
 ture, we see little which exhibits the character of an 
 agitated and tunuiltuous vehemence. Let me not, how- 
 ever, be misunderstood : for God in His mercy keep us 
 from being content watli formality and coldness ! Let 
 me not be supposed to exclude the strivings of the soul 
 when it longs to lift itself on high, and leels that its 
 
(juld 1)1' 
 I'od witli 
 he mix- 
 iTeetidu, 
 '6 never 
 that I 
 iieies in 
 I regard 
 id wlien 
 ecessiiry 
 r nec(!S- 
 )e deep; 
 this our 
 •e covet- 
 g whieh 
 enipera- 
 ; of the 
 lest and 
 )re God, 
 3ve, and 
 le heart, 
 a caliii, 
 ^^arieties 
 I Scrip- 
 sr of an 
 ot, how- 
 keep us 
 s! Let 
 the soul 
 that its 
 
 T'RAYKK. 
 
 171 
 
 wings are clogged with the hase particles of earth ; the 
 sorrow, even the agony, of the heart \inderthe conscious- 
 ness of multiplied failures and transgrcissions ; nor, on 
 the other hand, tiie light and comfort which breaks in 
 upon it in happier intervals, when its ytiarnings are 
 graciously met. 
 
 Jkit, again, with respect to i)rayers long offered in vain, 
 the first step to he recommended is to satisfy ourselves 
 whether we have proved our sincerity, and, at the same 
 time that we have sought the grace of God above, 
 have, in dependence upon llim, maintained the conflict 
 faithfudy, and done all that human weakness couUl do 
 to nuister the object ourselves. And if we have, and 
 still iiave failed, we may confide in Almighty God that, 
 in His own good time, He will remove our trial or tonpta- 
 tion, if to remove it be really for our advantage (with 
 which condition, and the comndttal of our cause into 
 the hands of His wisdom, we ought to qualify our 
 prayers). But, possibly, our struggle with that tempta- 
 tion is precisely the proof of our faith and constancy 
 which it is the will of God to exa^.^t; or the continuance 
 o£' tlie evil which we deprecate is itself the very exer- 
 cise of our perseverance in prayer by which it pleases 
 Him to put us to the test. The text instructs us not 
 only " that men ought ahvai/s to pray," but that they 
 ought " not tofainC Prayer, therefore, itself, is still the 
 cure ; and it is always to be remembered that we are 
 not to look, in general, either for a sendhle effect in 
 immediate answer to our prayers, or an infallible 
 guidance when we seek to be led in the way of truth. 
 
 ,1 
 
 1 
 
it 
 
 I t'itl 
 
 
 i! 
 
 172 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 For this would bo little short of aakiuji a sign from 
 heaven, and would totally subvert the appointed system 
 of our Christian warfan* and ])rol)ation. How couhl 
 there be any trial of faith and patience if men were sure 
 always to gain the object of their prayers by as direct 
 and perceptible a consequence as tluy procure the 
 article for which tliey make payments to their brethren 
 among mankind; or where would there be any fi(dd for the 
 exercise of spiritual discernment, for steadfastness and 
 soundness of belief, for resistance to every passing niiiid 
 of doctrine, if Ood dealt out information to those who ask 
 it by as regular a return as our corres]>ondent8 in the 
 transactions of the world ? The wants which the sin- 
 cere Christian has represimted to his Father will always 
 be supplied at such time and in such measure as the 
 Father knows to be for his happiness and health. The 
 very turn of affiiirs which had disappointed his hopes, 
 and caused him to think the object lost, will, perhaps, 
 issue in some point which his eye could not comma^id, 
 and develop to him, in its subsequent course, the con- 
 duct of a power which sat above him, and saw more 
 than mortal ken. The reward of his perseverance, 
 though seemingly long delayed, will come at last ; 
 "though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely 
 come, it will not tarry." "0 tarry thou the Lord's 
 leisure: be strong, and He shall comfort thine heart." 
 " The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some 
 men count slackness." His measure of the lapse of 
 time is not adjusted to the scale of impatient and 
 short-sighted creatures : — " Hear," says our Saviour 
 
niAYEU. 
 
 173 
 
 in the parable iiitrodiicod by the words of our text, 
 "hear what the unjust judge saith. And .shall not 
 Qod avenge His own elect, which cry day and night 
 unto Him, thuiujh He hear long ivith them V — God, 
 who is not only a just Judge but a merciful Father, — 
 " I tell you that He will avenge them sfpecdily." I shall 
 not here stop to take any coutroverHial view of what is 
 conveyed in the words " His own elect," but shall merely 
 notice, M'ith reference to this point, the important 
 charge addressed to us all by the Apostle, "Give all 
 diligence to make your calling and election sure." Our 
 chief and our only present concern is with that part of 
 the passage which encourages perseverance in prayer. 
 The example proposed to our imitation is that of an 
 importu7iity not to be rebuffed; and there are other ^^as- 
 sages of Scripture, in which terms equally strong and 
 decided are employed to dissipate the scruples and to 
 stimulate the backwardness of nature. In the parable 
 subjoined, in St. Luke's Gospel, to the Lord's prayer, 
 one friend is represented as at first resolutely refusing 
 to be disturbed for a matter of neighbourly accommo- 
 dation, but yielding in the end to the pertinacity of the 
 other; and the word in the original Greek which we 
 there render importunity is of such force as hardly to 
 bear a literal translation, signifying properly his effron- 
 tery, his ivarit of shame. We are instructed also by 
 scriptural precept and example to " continue instant," — 
 to strive " fervently in prayers," and to watch " there- 
 unto with all perseverance." 
 
 But after all that we can say upon the subject of 
 
 
 I 
 
 T' 
 
 
 Jiidi 
 
H 
 
 B 
 
 i-i; I 
 
 II 
 
 ii 
 
 174 
 
 SETIMON XIII. 
 
 I>raypr — the reasons for performing it, the necessity of 
 being frequent and persevering in the performance — we 
 shall soon lose the spirit of supplication, and certainly 
 violate the precept that " men ought olwaya to pray," 
 unless we establish and carefully observe certain rula^ 
 for its stated performance. In determining these rules, 
 and allotting to their devotions the just place in the 
 distribution of their time, men are at liberty to consult 
 their own consciences and exercise their own discretion ; 
 yet there are particular times for this duty, at which 
 it would seem indispensable to perform them — times 
 which Nature herself appears to indicate, in correspond- 
 ence with her unchanging revolutions, which common 
 convenience would also suggest, and which, though 
 never appointed by any specific institution, are sanc- 
 tioned by the practice of men eminently religious of 
 old, and the consenting example of their successors— 
 those times which are recommended by the royal pro- 
 phet, " It is a good thing, O Most High, to shew forth 
 Thy loving-kindness in the morning, and Thy faithful- 
 ness every night." This rule applies also to the duty 
 which we can never omit to urge, though but incident- 
 ally, when we are upon the subject of Prayer— the duty 
 of family worship. AVith the return of day we may be 
 said to receive from our God a renewal of life ; we com- 
 mence or resume our several occupations; we buckle 
 on our armour and go forth, after the intervention of 
 secure repose, again to encounter the battle of the world, 
 its troubles, its business, its temptations : it is then, 
 therefore, peculiarly imperative upon us to thank the 
 
PRAYER. 
 
 175 
 
 Author and Preserver of our lives (for thanks should 
 be always coupled with prayer, and mercies received 
 should h-e acknowledged when fresh mercies are im- 
 plored), to crave His direction and His support, and, by 
 offering the first-fruits of our daily occupations, to con- 
 secrate and ( t^ign them all to His blessing. 
 
 Again, is it not reasonable that before we sink into 
 the arms of sleep, the image of Death, we should close 
 and wind up our cares in the same manner ; that we 
 should wipe off, as it were, the sins and follies of the 
 day, and deposit ourselves and all that is dear to us — 
 our souls and all our earthly concerns — in the custody 
 of that Shepherd of Israel Who never slumbereth nor 
 sleepeth, beseeching Him that when we lie down to our 
 last repose we may be destined to rise again to a joyful 
 resurrection ? 
 
 But where religion is planted in the soil of a faithful 
 heart it is not only with the rising and setting sun that 
 it will exhale to heaven the fragrancy of pmyer. There 
 are numberless occasions in which it wall prompt the 
 secret aspiration ; and in the midst of the crowd and 
 bustle of the world the silent orisons of piety will 
 escape and find their way to the throne of God. There 
 are also conjunctures in human life which cannot wait 
 for the recurrence of stated hours, and in which prayer 
 (as before hinted) is our only solace and resource. In 
 the assaults of temptation — in the difficulties of duty — 
 in the doubts which confuse and darken our path — in 
 the sufferings of the body, the sore anxieties of the 
 mind — in the struggles of danger, the severities of dis- 
 
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 SERMON XIII. 
 
 i; 
 
 I 
 
 Iff 
 
 tress — in the feeling of desolation, and the desertion of 
 all earthly comfort which proceed from the flood of 
 unlooked-for calamity, the crash of cherished hope, the 
 hoUowness of trusted friendship, or the bitter injustice 
 of the world — in all these cases the arms of God are 
 open to us, and to them we should fly for shelter and 
 reliet 
 
 Such is the nature and such are the benefits of the 
 duty of prayer. And will men, will believers in the 
 truth of the Gospel, suffer themselves to lose the habit 
 of devotion — excuse themselves from discharging this 
 duty ? What ! are they too closely engaged in a mul- 
 tiplicity of employments to bestow a thought upon 
 God and their own salvation? Are they careful and 
 troubled about so many things that the one thing need- 
 ful can find no place in their arrangements? Shall 
 worldly business, or worldly pursuits of any kind, be 
 pleaded as the sufficient and satisfactory reason for 
 leaving their souls to go to destruction? And will they 
 even undertake the charge of worldly business, the 
 responsibility of the duties assigned to them, without 
 seeking the blessing and guidance of Him upon "Whom 
 all ultimately depends ? Alas ! how many instances of 
 error and perverseness, how many violations of in- 
 tegrity, prudence, and moderation in the discharge of 
 worldly business, might have been saved if the persons 
 who have committed them had been governed by prin- 
 ciples of piety, and had reposed their affairs in the 
 keeping of God ! 
 
 But some men may possibly plead inability or igno- 
 
 ■ > > ! 
 
PRAYER. 
 
 177 
 
 mnce—want of instruction, want of all practice in 
 spiritual employments. Have you not the ability to 
 tell your wants ? The most uneducated pei-sons are not 
 deficient in appealing, for the reUef of temporal wants 
 and sufferings, to the compassion of their fellow-men : 
 where then is the difficulty of representing your spiritual 
 indigence to God, Who is « no respecter of persons," 
 and Who understandeth even our thoughts afar off? 
 Are you looking for some extraordinary gift of prayer, 
 and imagining that the address which we are charged 
 to make, in the privacy of our closets, to our Father 
 which seeth in secret, can only consist in a certain 
 volubility of phrases, delivered in a peculiar intonation, 
 of which it is possible that you may have witnessed 
 some examples ? The gift of prayer, as has been well 
 observed, is a widely diiferent thing from the spirit ol 
 prayer. Gifts, which may edify the Church or distin- 
 guish its members, may be made matter of exhibition 
 and vain-glory, as were miraculous gifts themselves in 
 Apostolic days ; but the feeling within, however ex- 
 pressed, the breathings of the contrite heart, are what 
 the Lord of Sabaoth regards. And if you pray ill, can 
 you not pray that God would teach you to pray better ? 
 Can you not, as you now are, say so much as, " God be 
 merciful to me a sinner !" a prayer which we know may 
 prove effectual? Can you not borrow some petitions 
 which will suit you from the fifty-first Psalm ? Or can 
 you derive no assistance from some of those short 
 and simple forms adapted to a variety of cases \.'hich 
 are found in the Prayer-book, and in many plain 
 
 N 
 
 
178 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 manuals of devotion? learn to feel your wants 
 before God, and you will make or find some vent for 
 them in words! At least, you can say the Lord's 
 Prayer. Let us take you, then, if necessary, upon that 
 ground alone ; endeavour to say that prayer with the 
 spirit and with the understanding also. How large is 
 its import, how suggestive are all its petitions, is what 
 the time will not permit us to consider now ; but re- 
 member it is your Father Whom you there address. 
 Arise, and go to your Father. Do not hesitate to say to 
 Him, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before 
 Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son." 
 Once turn to Him in a repentant spirit ; He sees your 
 approach ; He is moved with compassion ; He runs to 
 meet you ; He clasps you to the bosom of forgiveness 
 and love. And there shall be a festival made in the 
 house for the joy of your return. " It was meet that we 
 should make merry and be glad ; for this thy brother 
 was DEAD, and is alive again, and was lost, and is 
 
 FOUND." 
 
 if what has been here delivered this day can only 
 prevail upon one unthinki. ^ sinner to bow his knees 
 and his heart before God, and seek, through Christ Who 
 died for him, the mercy which he needs, then one soul 
 may have been led into the way of salvation, and there 
 
 will be " JOY IN THE PRESENCE OF THE ANGELS OF GOD ! " 
 
 This sermon was first preached forty years ago, and is published by 
 particular desire of some who have heard it since, though the 
 thoughts are occasionally taken from Barrow. 
 
r wants 
 vent for 
 B Lord's 
 pon that 
 svith the 
 large is 
 , is what 
 but re- 
 address, 
 bo say to 
 id before 
 by son." 
 ees your 
 runs to 
 'giveness 
 e in the 
 that we 
 brother 
 D, and is 
 
 can only 
 is knees 
 ist Who 
 one soul 
 ad there 
 fGod!" 
 
 iblished by 
 bough the 
 
 SEEMON XTV. 
 
 THE JOURNEYINGS OF ISRAEL A TYPE OF THE 
 CHRISTIAN PILGRIMAGE. 
 
 Deut. VIII, 2, 8. 
 
 And thou shall remember all the way which the Lord thy Qod led thee 
 these forty years in the vnldemess, to humble thee, amd to prove thee, 
 to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His com- 
 mandments, or no. And He humbled thee, and mffered thee to hunger, 
 and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy 
 fathers know ; that He might make thee knov '?mt man doth not live 
 by bread only, but by every word that proccedeth out of the mouth of 
 the Lord doth man live. 
 
 It would not be easy, within the limits prescribed to 
 us in this place, to do full justice to all the topics pre- 
 sented to our contemplation in the passage which has 
 been here selected. We may, however* with the Divine 
 grace and blessing, engage profitably in such considera- 
 tions as we can afford to bestow upon its leading points ; 
 and they may be taken, without aiming at any very 
 formal distribution of a connected subject, in the order 
 in which they stand. 
 
 Moses, in that recapitulation of the law from which 
 the book of Deuteronomy takes its name, reminds the 
 Israelites of all which the hand of God had done 
 among them, and points out the object of all the 
 wonders of mercy, as well as of the signal chastise- 
 
 n2 
 
 I 
 
180 
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 
 ^'': 
 
 ments which they had experienced. They had been 
 rescued, by marvellous exhibitions of power, from their 
 oppressors ; they had enjoyed exalted privileges ; they 
 had been directed by visible guidance from above ; 
 they had been blessed openly by omnipotent succour ; 
 they had been relieved, in their need, by miraculous 
 supplies ; they had passed through many perils and 
 alarms ; they had suffered many privations ; they had 
 been visited by dreadful and sweeping inflictions 
 of Divine vengeance. It was a mixed history, and 
 marked by perpetual alternations of sunshine and 
 storm — radiance of heavenly mercy and thunders of 
 eternal wrath. And now he calls upon them to re- 
 member all the way which they had traversed, under the 
 Divine protection, in the wilderness — " that great and 
 terrible wilderness," as he elsewhere describes it, — and 
 charges it upon them to lay to heart the lessons designed 
 to be conveyed in all the varieties of good and ill 
 which had befallen them. The purpose of God was 
 to humble them •and to pj^ove them, and, as it is added 
 farther on in the same chapter, to do them good at 
 their latter end ; and He would make them know that 
 their lives were in His hand, so Jn&t, in a moment, He 
 could cut them down in all the fulness of their pride ; 
 or, in their lack of all ordinary and natural means of 
 sustenance. He could ^eaJc the word, and other resources 
 were at His command. 
 
 And we, my brethren, are not we called upon to 
 review the way which we may have thus far measured 
 in life, and to reflect, each of us, as well upon the 
 
THE JOURNEYINGS OF ISRAEL. 
 
 isr 
 
 lad been 
 Dm their 
 es ; they 
 
 above ; 
 succour ; 
 iraculous 
 jrils and 
 hej had 
 Qflictions 
 ory, and 
 line and 
 nders of 
 tn to re- 
 inder the 
 [reat and 
 it, — and 
 designed 
 
 and ill 
 God was 
 is added 
 L good at 
 :now that 
 ment, He 
 ;ir pride ; 
 means of 
 resources 
 
 upon to 
 measured 
 upon the 
 
 vicissitudes which may have chequered our individual 
 liistory, as upon the great things which God has done for 
 us all ? God has interposed for effecting our spiritual 
 deliverance in a manner corresponding in every par- 
 ticular (if it were now to our immediate purpose to 
 pursue the parallel) with the typical deliverance of the 
 children of Israel. We find, according to the wonder- 
 ful analogy which runs through the Divine dispensa- 
 tions as one mighty whole, our own case pictured to 
 us in every point. And here we are in this wilderness 
 of life, professing to look for our promised land beyond. 
 But oh ! how much schooling is required to set us and 
 to keep us in the way of preparation for that great 
 hereafter! Pilgrims and strangers upon earth, as all 
 our fathers were, soon, very soon to disappear for ever ; 
 and knowing, all the while, that we then pass into an 
 eternity for which we are here in a state of probation ; 
 how do we, nevertheless, suffer our hearts and affections 
 to grapple themselves to the world, as if we knew of 
 no other destiny awaiting us ! Witlf ample experience 
 of our own weakness, with evidence, on all sides, of 
 the blindness and corruption of nature if left to herself, 
 with abundant warning and direction from above, with 
 the gracious tender proposed to us of all the succour 
 and all the provision for the wants of our case which 
 Divine mercy and wisdom could conspire to supply, 
 with Christ, and His Word, and His Spirit attending us 
 by night and by day to guide our steps,— how con- 
 stantly are we seen to refuse and to rebel ! How prone 
 do we show ourselves to. indulge the wayward wishes 
 
182 
 
 SEEMON XIV. 
 
 li ;• 
 
 of our own hearts, to substitute the maxims of men for 
 the law of God, to wander away from " the Shepherd 
 and Bishop of" our souls, to plunge into courses which 
 cannot consist with the idea of holiness, which cannot 
 be reconciled with any deliberate thought of safety to 
 the soul, which cannot, by possibility, end in peace ! 
 We are, as Christians by profession, the Israel of God— 
 a people " holy to the Lord :" that, unless we repudiate 
 our religion, unless we renounce our baptism, we must 
 admit to be our express vocation. A people holy to 
 the Lord — my brethren, let us deal honestly with our- 
 selves, whatever may or may not be our exemption from 
 the grosser taints of vice, or the more conspicuous 
 characteristics of irreligion, is this, as a title applied 
 to ourselves, a people " holy to the Lord," a sound con- 
 genial to our ears, a statement responsive to our own 
 sentiments, a description accordant with the habitual 
 train and routine of our proceedings and favourite 
 pursuits ? happy for many among us if some season- 
 able check, some «ppropriate chastisement, some salu- 
 tary alarm, shall bring us to a new sense of what we 
 are and what we ought to be before our God, shall 
 serve to humble and to prove us, that we may our- 
 selves better know what is in our heart, whether, in 
 truth, we are keeping the commandments of God or 
 7w>, and where we are to look for help and hope, if we 
 find that we have been going wrong. Happy if we can 
 be made to remember all the way which the Lord hath 
 led us thus far, to muse upon the instructive points of 
 our own career, to mourn over our many wasted oppor- 
 
THE JOURNEYINGS OF ISRAEL 
 
 183 
 
 tunities, our misused advantages, our unheeded respon- 
 sibilities to Him above, our broken resolutions, perhaps, 
 and our inexcusable relapses, after warnings received 
 before, which made, for the moment, some solemn im- 
 pression. And if we have a hope that our hearts have 
 been turned to serve the Lord and that, by His grace, 
 we have been made something better than mere cum- 
 berers of the ground, yet in how many points are we 
 liable to be self-deceived — so deceived, perhaps, that 
 our hope itself is ill-founded. " The heart is deceitful 
 above all things, and desperately wicked : who can 
 know it?" A careful and thoughtful review of our 
 own lives, an awakened religious contemplation of the 
 dealings of God in which we have been comprised, and 
 the incidents of our personal history, — a serious and 
 searching inquiry into the manner in which we have 
 met the calls of God addressed to us, in the general or 
 the particular dispensations of His hand affecting our 
 case, might conduct us to some self-condemnation, 
 which, of course, will be painful, l^jt the seat of that 
 pain is something which it has been very dangerous for 
 us never to have gone deep enough to reach before. 
 We are all subjects of mercy exercised by God : " it 
 is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed : " 
 created, preserved, redeemed by Him, we have been 
 unthankful recipients of His goodness, and have for- 
 feited our title to His favour ; He has tried many ways 
 to win us back, or draw us closer to Himself : all the 
 blessings, th^, comforts, of this life, all the benefits and 
 privileges of our holy faith, constitute one stream of 
 
 
184 
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 
 !/i 
 
 1/ ;i 
 
 mercy poured from one high and hallowed source, 
 which ought to soften and fertilize the soil of the heart, 
 and make it bring forth, in rich abundance, the returns 
 of obedience, gratitude, and love. And if men cannot 
 be worked upon thus — if they rather, like Jeshurun 
 when he " waxed fat and kicked," grow lax and worldly, 
 because they are at ease ; if they become alienated from 
 the life of God in the soul, in proportion to their 
 worldly prosperity and advancement, and not unfre- 
 quently so use their religious advantages as to make 
 them the instruments of a hollow profession and a 
 self-satisfied but empty formality — then the Lord, but 
 still with a purpose of love, has recourse to treatment 
 of a different kind. Then comes the severe discipline 
 of God ; alas ! too often as ill understood as the pro- 
 fusion of His mercies. Pain, sickness, sorrow, calamity, 
 disappointment of earthly hope, injustice received at 
 the hand .^f the world, wearing vexations of heart, 
 humiliating reverses, overwhelming distresses, or appal- 
 ling dangers, — all these we call the trials of life, and it 
 is to try and purify us that they are sent — to humble, to 
 prove us, to know what is in our heart. In the seasons 
 of severe visitation, men who have lived in utter and 
 reckless ignorance of their own spiritual condition, or 
 men of some Christian attainment who have forgotten 
 themselves and fallen back, and have become ensnared 
 in some unguarded point of weakness, may feel a 
 change come over them, and be prompted to ask v^hat 
 they have been doing before God, and what it portends 
 to their souls. They are impelled to look into long- 
 
I 
 
 THE JOURNEYINGS OP ISRAEL. 
 
 185 
 
 long- 
 
 unexplored recesses of the inner man, and unexamined 
 accumulations of trangression are brought to light : 
 tlie shock of adversity, the loud and perhaps sudden 
 disturbance of their thoughtless enjoyment, has waked 
 up the drowsy conscience, and they judge of themselves 
 as they failed to judge before. And then they look 
 back upon former mercies and warnings alike unim- 
 proved, and they stand condemned and alarmed. They 
 feel that they want mercy for the past and grace to 
 serve their God for the future ; and if they follow up 
 the blessed opportunity, they find both one and the 
 other in Christ, the friend of penitent sinners. 
 
 It is by a process very different from that which we 
 lay down in imagination for ourselves, that, when reli- 
 giously disposed and possessed by some good perception 
 of the beauty of holiness, we are advanced and confirmed 
 in a religious state of mind. We are apt to look only at 
 the brightness of our portion. "We forget our wretched 
 imperfections which remain, one after another, to be 
 cured : we think not of the trials and humiliations by 
 which that cure must be effected. 
 
 But let us proceed with the remaining portion of our 
 text. "And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to 
 hunger, and fed thee with manna which thou knewest 
 not, neither did thy fathers know, that thou mightest 
 know that man doth not live by bread only, but by 
 every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the 
 Lord doth man live." 
 
 The wants of the body, and the wants of the soul, 
 are both brought under our contemplation in these 
 
m 
 
 h I' 
 
 I' I 
 
 186 
 
 SEBMON XIV. 
 
 words. As tlio words (i.e. the words which close the 
 pasHiige) are applied by Christ to His own case, in the 
 scene of the temptation, wo see that they are nusant to 
 declare the mandate of God, or simple exercise of His 
 sovereign will, to suffice, when He may see proper, for the 
 sustenance of life in His creatures, by extraordinary as 
 well as by ordinary means, or by no visible and sensible 
 means whatever — by manna showered down upon the 
 Israelites in the wilderness, by the naked energy of 
 Divine power in the forty days' fast of Moses, Elijah, 
 and the Son of God, Wliom the lawgiver and the prophet 
 had typically represented. We stand before God, in 
 every point of view, fuii of wants — always needy, and 
 absolutely and entirely dependent upon His goodness — 
 our wants for the very means of continuing our present 
 existence are perpetually recurring day by day, and per- 
 petually supplied by Him "Who openeth His hand and 
 filleth all things living with plenteousness. We pray 
 for our daily bread ; but we fail, for the most part, to 
 acknowledge in our hearts, with devout thankfulness, 
 blessings which are so common and familiar as the rich 
 and varied provision made by Infinite Wisdom for our 
 corporeal necessities. Yet these ordinary results of 
 many combining operations in nature, as turned to 
 account by the hand of man, himself the workmanship 
 of God, do not constitute a less exercise of power, nor a 
 lower subject of praise and wonder, than the departure 
 from the established train of causes and effects, which 
 it has been His pleasure upon marked occasions to 
 exhibit. And we should always remember that it is the 
 
 I 
 
THE JOURNEYINOS OF ISKAEL. 
 
 187 
 
 efficacy of His Word, in the sense which wo have here 
 in viuw, by whicli all things are hold together and made 
 to proceed in tlieir appointed course. As, in the first 
 instance, " Ho spake the word and they were made. Ho 
 commanded and they were created," so the same 
 Psalmist, in one of his descriptions of the scenes of 
 nature, the objects of creation, the changes of the 
 seasons and the processes of vegetation, applies to all 
 these the words, " He sendeth forth His commandment 
 upon earth ; His word ruimeth very swiftly." 
 
 It is by the Wm-d of Ood, then, by the fiat of the 
 Divine will, that the animal life of man is sustained, 
 whether in the case of any miraculous intervention or in 
 the appointed and regular action of the different qualities 
 and properties of created objects in their mutual adapta- 
 tion—the body being the recipient of food. Things are 
 constituted as we see them, in their effects, depen- 
 dencies, and relations by God Himself : they are not so 
 by any original necessity, but so by His will, and subject 
 always to His dispensing power. But there are other 
 and higher wants of which man is apt to be far less 
 sensible, and for the supply of which he is equally 
 dependent upon the good pleasure of God. Man has a 
 soul, as well as a body ; and it is as necessary to the 
 preservation of his spiritual life, that he should be 
 nourished by the heavenly manna, the living bread 
 which came down from heaven, as it is necessary for 
 the sustenance of his body, that he should partake of 
 ordinary food. We must receive Christ by faith into 
 our souls : we must live upon Him in our spiritual 
 
188 
 
 SERMON XIV, 
 
 )!, 
 
 Vl 
 
 man. The alternative is spiritual death. Yet Low widely 
 dees the Laodicean sentiment prevail, " I have need of 
 nothing ;" and how often is the question practically asked, 
 by those who survey, with a satisfied feeling, their own 
 religious attainments and performances, " What lack I 
 yet !" Ah ! happier, fai happier than this condition, to 
 have wandered ever so far from our Father's home, and 
 to have sunk ever so low in wretchedness and destitu- 
 tion, if only in that perishing condition the prodigal is 
 brought to himself, p.nd prompted to return with a 
 sorrowful confession of his shame. It is then that he 
 will be received with open arms, and clasped to the 
 bosom of paternal love. The Word of God, in most 
 familiar iteration, speaks blessing and encouragement to 
 those who " hunger and thirst after righteousness," a^id 
 assures us that He lilleth " the hungry with good things," 
 while " the rich He " sendeth " empty away." And high 
 is the privilege of those, however lowly may be their con- 
 dition upon earth, to whom the precious promise belongs, 
 — " to him that overcometh will I give of the hidden 
 manna" — the secret influences of heavenly grace, the 
 comfort and refreshment of spirit unknown to the chil- 
 dren of this world, reserved in the person of Christ, as 
 the relic of manna was deposited for a memorial in the 
 emblematical ark of the first covenant. 
 
 Christ, ill accommodation to the wants of our nature, 
 dispenses Himself as the bread of life (in one special 
 way) through standing moiins, and appoints a ministry 
 of distribution in His Church. Such is the ordinaoce of 
 God ; and in this more general sense, as well as more 
 
THE JOURNEYINGS OF ISRAEL. 
 
 189 
 
 y widely 
 ne(3d of 
 ly asked, 
 leir own 
 it lack I 
 lition, to 
 )me, and 
 destitu- 
 jdigal is 
 . with a 
 that he 
 i to the 
 in most 
 sment to 
 !ss," a^id 
 thing'"," 
 Lnd high 
 iieir con- 
 belongs, 
 i hidden 
 race, thd 
 the chil- 
 ^'hrisi, as 
 al in the 
 
 r nature, 
 e special 
 ministry 
 inaoce of 
 . as more 
 
 literally in the particular instance of the ^Y(yrd of Life, — 
 a devout and diligent use of the Holy Scriptures being 
 one grand means of spiritual nutriment, — we may apply 
 the expression that "man liveth by every word that 
 proceedeth out of the mouth of God." 
 
 We are unquestionably to regard, as comprehended in 
 our recourse to the heavenly manna, a faithful obser- 
 vance of those institutions which are of express divine 
 appointment, and a dutiful compliance also with those 
 which are framed by the Church in the discretionary 
 execution of her divine commission, and in consonance 
 with the Word of God. The sacraments of Christ, 
 rightly used (both of which, if they were nothing more, 
 are badges of oir religion, enjoined upon us by its 
 Founder); prayer, public and private, rightly offered; 
 and participation, with tho spirit and with the under- 
 standing, in the several acts of our public worship; 
 all these are among the things which minister to the life 
 of the soul, and without which it cannot possibly thrive 
 or prosper. We need not be at all afraid, — unless in a 
 superstitious use of them which attaches the notion of 
 merit to the performance, and makes the mere quantity 
 of performance of just so much value counted up,--we 
 need not be at all afraid of the frequency of any such 
 acts. It is not by frequency that they pall upon us ; 
 they are most relished, and found to be most reviving, 
 precisely by those w^ho use them with constancy. O 
 that we could imbibe the spirit of the holy Psalmist, who 
 says, " Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, 
 and the place where Thine honour dwelleth !" that we 
 
190 
 
 SEEMON XIV. 
 
 could be like the holy Apostles and their company, who 
 continued " daily with one accord in the Temple," " and 
 were continually in the Temple, praismg and blessing 
 God ! " that we could make some faint approximation 
 in the Church on earth to the unfailing devotions of the 
 Church in heaven, where the mystical living creatures, 
 who were seen in vision surrounding the throne of God, 
 " rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord 
 God Almighty, Which was, and is, and is to come 1' 
 
 (»> 
 
 N (f 
 
SERMON XV. 
 
 li 
 
 CONFIRMATION AND THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 t>» 
 
 St. Luke I. 6. 
 
 And they were both righteous before Ood, walking in all the command- 
 ments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 
 
 My brethren, it is for the merit of our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ alone, by faith, and not for his own works 
 or deservings, that man, as is most scripturally stated in 
 the eleventh of our own Articles of Religion, can be 
 " accounted righteous before God ;" and fatal will be 
 the issue if he goes about to establish his own righteous- 
 ness, and refuses to submit himself to the righteousness 
 of God. It is a constituent part, however, of this very 
 submission, and a perfectly indispensable feature of his 
 faith, that he should walk " in aU the commandments 
 and ordinances blameless :" he must not lie open to the 
 charge of living in the omission of any known duty, 
 either ceremonial or moral, if he would put in his plea 
 to acceptance and justification in the sight of God. He 
 must not, either upon the ground of a worldly wisdom 
 (or rather folly), which cannot see the use of these 
 things, or a spiritual arrogance, which soothes itself in 
 the idea of superior illumination in treating them as 
 non-essentials, take any dispensation, assume any ex- 
 emption, from the obligation of conformity to the example 
 
•tm 
 
 ■MtMa 
 
 192 
 
 SERMON aV. 
 
 of our Tx)rd Jesus Christ in insisting upon receiving 
 baptism at the hands of John. He must not be found 
 acting in opposition to the general principle, the standing 
 maxim in religion which that blessed One then laid 
 down for His followers : " Suffer it to be so now : for 
 thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." 
 
 The commendatory notice, therefore, of Zacharias and 
 Elizabeth, in the text, carries a lesson, plainly and un- 
 questionably, to the disciples of the Gospel ; and if we 
 are released from the yoke of Levitical institutes, we are 
 not therefore suffered to treat with neglect, or to hold 
 as matters of little importance, the fewer and more simple 
 ordinances enjoined by the Christian religion, or the 
 observances, not being repugnant to Scripture, which, in 
 virtue of her divine conmiission, are framed by the 
 authority of the Church. If there are men to be found 
 among our people, who rest in outward forms and religious 
 technicalities, neglecting the cultivation of spiritual 
 religion and failing in the weightier matters of the Law, 
 — an error against which I believe there has never been 
 any deficiency of warnings here, — there are others who, 
 reprobating this error, conceive that they hit the true 
 mark in depreciating, if not despising, the exterior ordi- 
 nances of religion, the appointments of worship, the trans- 
 mitted usages of the Church : whereas, according to the 
 authority of Christ, the primary and fundamental obli- 
 gations of practical duty, and the exhibition of Christian 
 graces in the character, are things which ought to he done 
 — nothing can be substituted for these, nothing can be 
 accepted which does them prejudice,— but even the 
 
CONFIRMATION AND THE SACllAMENTS. 193 
 
 minTitim of religious observance and ecclesiastical rej,ni- 
 lation, are thinfjs tvhich ought not, to he left undone. And 
 this principle of Cunformity,--af^eeal)ly to the tenor of 
 our own 2Gth Article of Keligion, " Of the unwoi-thineHS 
 of the ministers, which hinders not the effect of the 
 sacrament," — is not invalidated by any unhappy incon- 
 sistency to be witnessed in our religious guides. For 
 Christ says again, "The ScriVas and the Tharisees sit in 
 Moses' seat: all therefore whatsoever tliey bid you 
 observe, that obsei-ve and do ; but do not ye after their 
 works ; for they say, and do not." 
 
 I might apply these i)rinciple8 at large and in some? 
 detail to the duty which lies ui)on the professed mem- 
 bers of the Church, in rektion to the received ordinancejs 
 of their religion. I might so treat the subject as to 
 embrace the opportunities of public prayer and praise, 
 —the manner of participation in the forms of worship 
 (take the obvious example of kneeling in prayer)~and 
 the observance, generally, of regulations pre8cril)ed by 
 authority ; canying into our religion what cekainly is 
 not less obligatory upon us in our religious than our 
 civil performance (the thing enjoined being not contrary 
 to the will of God), the rule prescribed for us, "Submit 
 yourselves to every ordinance of man, for the Lord's 
 sake." All, however, which I now propose to do, is to 
 consider with you, my brethren, in a simple and familiar 
 manner, some leading points of three great ritual insti- 
 tutions of our Keligion in the connexion more particu- 
 larly which they have or. with another— namely, the 
 two sacraments and the ordinance of confirmation. 
 
 
 
I; I 
 
 194 
 
 SEEMON XV. 
 
 Wliat is the use of baptism ? There are very few 
 persons, except absolute scoffers, who would be disposed 
 to answer that it is of no use whatever. But there are, 
 I am afraid I must say, a good many persons, them- 
 selves baptized, and not repudiating their baptism, and 
 procuring their children to be baptized like themselves, 
 who seem as if they would be much at a loss to describe 
 what definite meaning they connect with the adminis- 
 tration of the ordinance, and to explain what value they 
 attach to it, what benefit they expect from it. They 
 find and they take it as a custom handed down in the 
 Church, and they have a general indistinct kind of 
 notion that it is by baptism that people are made 
 Christians: moreover it is usually considered, among 
 the high and the low, as an occasion of some festive 
 celebration ; and besides, the child who constitutes a 
 new addition to the family receives its name, and the 
 registration is duly made, which may be necessary to 
 secure evidence hereafter affecting some legal rights.* 
 
 My brethren, I do fear that this, or something like 
 this, is the amount of the conceptions formed and en- 
 tertained in not a few minds, among professed Christian 
 men, in relation to the sacrament of baptism. But 
 there are also persons really religious, and very capable 
 of sustaining religious conversation, and very zealous in 
 communicating their own peculiar views upon religious 
 points, who, if pressed with the same question, " what is 
 the use of baptism ? " would, as a consequence of some 
 
 * There is no general registration of births in Canada by civil 
 authority. 
 
 !:i 
 
CONFIRMATION AND THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 19; 
 
 by civil 
 
 of their own explanations in religious matters, and in 
 harmony with some of their particular predilections, 
 be rather embarrassed in seeking to give any other than 
 a very lame and unsatisfactory sort of leply. For, if 
 baptism were nothing more than they would make it,— 
 if to attach any special importance to this sacrament, or 
 to attribute to it any extraordinary effects, be a mere 
 superstitious reliance upon the charm operated in the 
 ceremonial work,— if men, without any veiy great harm, 
 may dispense with it,— if the manifestation of any serious 
 concern about it, be only a characteristic of that igno- 
 rance which, in some quarters, is held to be the mother 
 of devotion,— if to contend for, to lay any stress upon it, 
 be an evidence of spiritual deficiency and darkness,— 
 then il. would be a little difficult to say what is the use 
 of baptism, or to conceive why such a rite was instituted 
 hy Him Who is the " author and finisher of our faith." 
 It would be a little difficult to say why there should be 
 such a standing and distinguishing ordinance of the 
 Christian religion at all, holding the place in that 
 system which was held under the old covenant by 
 circumcision, or for what object it was solemnly and 
 for all perpetuity appointed, if men maj^ use their own 
 discretion in complying with it, and are rather more 
 wrong in highly appreciating than in disparaging it ; 
 and if all the change to be looked for, in their actual 
 condition and their prospects, from their participation in 
 the Gospel and its privileges, is something totally inde- 
 pendent of this act of baptism. 
 
 But, in the meantime, what says the Bible ?— for that 
 
 02 
 
■»>— 
 
 196 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 f 1 ii: I 
 
 ia the way to settle the enquiry. Does the Bible, then, 
 or does it not, represent our first adoption into the 
 covenant and its privileges, as effected by the means of 
 this sacrament, and the way as thence opened for the 
 ulterior communications of divine grace ? What is the 
 answer rendered by St. Peter to those who were pricked 
 at the heart, and asked, in their trembling anxiety, 
 what they were to do? "Eepent and be baptized, 
 every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for 
 the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of 
 the Holy Ghost : For the promise is unto you and to 
 your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many 
 as the Lord our God shall call." What is the instruction 
 given to St. Paul, in the prostration of his soul under 
 the effect of his miraculous vision, and after the recovery 
 of his sight, emblematically analogous to the removal 
 of his mental darkness ? " Arise, and be baptized, and 
 wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." 
 But, passing over many other testimonies of Scripture, 
 let us consider the language of Christ Himself. Christ, 
 then, in giving the commission for evangelizing the 
 world, and the promise to be with the bearers of that 
 commission to the end of time, has ordained baptism 
 by water, " in the name "—can any form more awfully 
 sacred be conceived?— "of the Father, and of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Christ, as we have 
 seen, by His example in submitting to the inferior 
 baptism of John, and by the maxim which, upon that 
 occasion, He lays down for us in ever-memorable words, 
 has warned us against any presumptuous licence to dis- 
 
ble, then, 
 into the 
 means of 
 i for the 
 liat is the 
 e pricked 
 ; anxiety, 
 baptized, 
 Jhrist, for 
 tie gift of 
 )u and to 
 1 as many 
 ristruction 
 3ul under 
 e recovery 
 e removal 
 itized, and 
 the Lord." 
 Scripture, 
 If. Christ, 
 ;lizing the 
 irs of that 
 d baptism 
 re awfully 
 rD OF THE 
 3 we have 
 le inferior 
 upon that 
 ible words, 
 iuce to dis- 
 
 CONFIKMATION AND THE SACRAMENTS. 19 
 
 pense with, or lightly to esteem such an ordinance, as 
 seeming to our reason either superfluous or inefficacious. 
 Christ has declared that "he that believeth and is 
 baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not 
 shall be damned "—making no promise of mercy, no 
 stipulation for conveying the blessings of the covenant, 
 to unbaptized believers— appointing means which the 
 believer is to use— denouncing the unbeliever— and 
 passingi hj the case of the believer who does not use the 
 means, and who trusts his salvation to the contingePv-^y 
 of his being accepted in the rejection of them, because 
 he believes ; — not, however, that he believes unreservedly, 
 since he withholds his belief from the efficacy of this 
 divine ordinance. Christ has also declared that " Except 
 a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot 
 enter into the kingdom of God." The comparison of 
 this mention of water with the notices of baptism 
 already cited, appears to fix the sense of the word 
 upon the same object, and it is so taken generally by 
 the founders of the Reformed Churches. 
 
 We do not say that no marked subsequent change can 
 be required in the baptized subject— for experience proves 
 too well, in thousands of instances, the necessity of such 
 a change ; nor yet do we deny that there is, in all cases, 
 a work remaining to be carried on, a fuller development 
 to follow, imported in the words, " and of the Spirit : " 
 but, at least, and in the lowest view of the case, there 
 is, according to the admission of all fair and reasonable 
 enquirers, a sense in which a new birth is conveyed in 
 baptism. This, however, is what many persons have 
 
i 
 
 198 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 lii 
 
 not faith to digest (for that is not unfrequently the real 
 secret of the matter). They are prompted to say in 
 their hearts, " This is a hard saying, who can hear it ? " 
 They do not consider that God, Who gave the infant a 
 body and a soul, and caused its natural birth to take 
 place, can communicate to that infant farther benefits by 
 whatever means He sees good to appoint. They do not 
 consider the action of the divine power upon the human 
 subject, as displayed in the example of John the Baptist 
 even within the womb of his mother. And sometimes 
 they would resolve their want of faith into a spirituality 
 which looks higher than to ordinances and beggarly 
 elements. Tlie doctrine of baptism, however, which is 
 here in question, founded upon the plain meaning of 
 words which stand in the Bible, was received from the 
 first by the whole Church, and passed down from age to 
 age : the Prayer-book shows you distinctly enough, and 
 in a great number of places, that it is the doctrine of 
 the Church of England ; and whoever has the oppor- 
 tunity of such research, will find that it is incorporated 
 with the systems of theology adopted by the different 
 national branches of the Eefomiation, and taught by 
 the most celebrated foreign Eeformers, 
 
 It is, therefore, not a little remarkable that, in our own 
 day, many sincerely pious minds should be led to con- 
 ceive an alarm at the language of the Church upon this 
 subject. They imagine that it militates against a cor- 
 rect estimate of vital religion by inspiring men with a 
 dangerous reliance upon outward forms, and, prompting 
 them to build upon these as sufficient for their salva- 
 
CONFIRMATION AND THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 199 
 
 the real 
 
 say in 
 ear it ? " 
 
 infant a 
 L to take 
 inefits by 
 jy do not 
 e human 
 le Baptist 
 jmetimes 
 >irituality 
 beggarly 
 which is 
 waning of 
 from the 
 )m age to 
 Dugh, and 
 jctrine of 
 he oppor- 
 lorporated 
 
 1 different 
 aught by 
 
 n our own 
 }d to con- 
 upon this 
 ast a cor- 
 en with a 
 prompting 
 leir salva- 
 
 tion, draws them off from looking directly to Christ, 
 and lulls in a blinded security those who ought to be 
 awakened to earnest strivings of the soul, in order to a 
 saving process to be wrought in their spiritual man. 
 Now, to men who are jealous for the safety of these 
 liigh interests, we should desire to speak considerately 
 and lovingly— thankful if, at the same time, we can do 
 so convincingly, and glad, so far as their object is con- 
 cerned, to go along with them. But we do conceive 
 not only that their alarm is unfounded, but that 
 nothing, in point of fact, can be more contrary to the 
 effects which they anticipate, than the proper and 
 legitimate consequences of the doctrine of the Church 
 in relation to baptism. The Church declares in her 
 formularies, according to her interpretation of Holy 
 "Writ, that the sacraments are vehicles of grace, and 
 that in baptism we are made "members of Christ, 
 children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of 
 heaven." Here, then, you have something to work 
 upon with advantage indeed. These privileges should 
 be kept constantly before the baptized subject in his 
 Christian training, and in his attendance through life 
 upon the ministry of the Word, as things of which it is 
 matter of unspeakable thankfulness that he has, by the 
 free mercy of God, been made partaker — as things 
 which it is awful beyond description to forfeit, and from 
 which, if he fall away, the loudest call is given to repent 
 and return — things which should operate upon him in 
 every step of his race, as a stimulus for giving all dili- 
 gence to make his calling and election sure, and for 
 
! 1 
 
 ill 
 
 200 
 
 SEUMON XV. 
 
 seeking earnestly that he may be renewed, day by day, 
 by the power of the divine Spirit, and strengthened 
 with might in the inner man. And so it is that St. 
 Paul deals with the believers of the early Chureh ; as, 
 for example, when, in the sixth ehapter of his Epistle to 
 the Romans, he says, " Likewise reckon ye also yourselves 
 to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through 
 fTesus Christ our Ix)rd ; " with all the consecutive ex- 
 hortations to be there found, it will be seen, by an 
 examination of the passage, that he fountls the whohi 
 charge upon the fact of their haptisni. As, again, in 
 the case of the Colossians, where the words occur, "If 
 ye then be Hsen with Christ, seek those things which 
 are above," with all the concomitant matter which he 
 there urges upon that body of believers. And so it is 
 that the Church earnestly prays for the child in the 
 administration of baptism, and so that she affectionately 
 charges the sponsors, whom (according to the true 
 intent of that spiritual provision) she takes as her 
 guarantees that a baptized child shall be religiously 
 brought up. And so she exacts it from himself to 
 promise, in the open face of her people, that, by God's 
 gracious help, he will do, assuming upon himself the 
 vow which had been made by those sponsuid in his 
 name, when, on behalf of her divine Master, ^>>;3 gives 
 him her solemn blessing at his confirmation. 
 
 The signal benefit of an ordinance such as that of 
 confirmation, is here very strongly brought out to view. 
 "We nre /eiy fai'from undertaking to say that, in the real . 
 eXj.v:i'iei.t.£A:? of life, it is always marked as a blessing ; 
 
 il 
 
h 
 
 CONFIRMATION AND THE BACRAMJiNTS. 
 
 201 
 
 r by day, 
 tigthuned 
 
 that St. 
 irch ; as, 
 Cplstle to 
 ourselves 
 
 through 
 utive ex- 
 i, by an 
 lie whole 
 again, in 
 3cur, "If 
 gs which 
 vhich he 
 I so it is 
 d in the 
 tionately 
 the true 
 } as her 
 jligiously 
 mself to 
 by God's 
 nself the 
 Ld in his 
 she gives 
 
 3 that of 
 
 to view. 
 
 1 the real 
 
 blessing ; 
 
 for this wo cannot say of any roligiuus advaiilage 
 enjoyed by man. Men may have ard use the Bible, the ; 
 ordmance of the Lord's-day, the sacraments, and the 
 teaching of tlio Chribtian ministry, and slill be far from 
 God. Either collectively, from the laxity and degene- 
 racy of the times in which they may happen to live, or 
 individually, from their own perverse failure to improve 
 their advantages, they may discharge as a mere empty 
 formality the whole appointed round of their religious 
 duties. All may be lifeless and without fruit. And 
 thus the ordinance of confirmation may happen, here 
 and there, to have been so carelessly managed as only 
 to bring deserved reproach upon the Churcli ; or where 
 pains have been faithfully taken with the subjects of it, 
 and hopes are entertained for them by ministers and 
 friends, the promising appearances may vanish in the 
 trial wliich follows — the blossom of these hopes may go 
 up as dust. It is very disappointing, for example, to 
 find, among the young persons who are confirmed in our 
 communion, so many failures to follow up that solemn 
 act of their lives by enrolling themselves among the 
 habitual communicants of the Church. Yet what, in 
 itself, can be more happily contrived, more beautifully 
 adapted to set forward the youthful pilgrim in the way 
 of life, than this ordinance of confirmation interposed 
 as a link to connect together the two sacraments of our 
 religion, referring him back to his privileges received 
 and his obligations contracted in the former, and passing 
 him up to become a participant in the latter? In all 
 common consistency with these proceedings, he must 
 
^02 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 lA, ii 
 
 f\ i 
 
 walk — happy state, little appreciate Uc uixder- 
 stood by a world, a cold-hearted, thankless, undutiful, 
 infatuated world, which nails itself Christian !~he must 
 walk as a child of the living God. 
 
 Even if this "laying on of hands," therefore, upon 
 baptized persons, with pi ay or and benediction, were 'wt, 
 as we see in Scripture tha*j it is, a practice established 
 by the Apostles in the Church, and mentioned by one 
 Apostle in a manner to indicate it as a standing and 
 perpetual ordinance; even if it were not a practice 
 which was accordingly received in the early ages of the 
 Church throughout the whole Christian world; even 
 if it were not a practice which was retained, upon 
 deliberate examination, as a feature of Apostolic and 
 * primitive usage, in many different branches of the 
 Eeformation besides our own ; even if it were not a 
 practice of which the loss has been most feelingly 
 lamented by men of name in other branches of the 
 Eeformation, who candidly acknowledge an error com- 
 mitted by their own communion in dropping it; — all 
 this, as many of you may be aware, my brethren, it is ; — 
 but even if confirmation did not, upon these grounds, 
 challenge our respect and claim our conformity — sup- 
 pose it were an invention of yesterday : yet what, in 
 itself, could be more appropriate, more seasonable, more 
 impressive, more wisely calculated, so far as means are 
 fitted to ends, to carry on the connected plan of reli- 
 gious training, and to provide for a particular crisis in 
 the stages of human life, than this? Than th'ts, that the 
 Church should step forward at once, carefully to arm 
 
 
 I-'' 
 
CONFIRMATION AND THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 203 
 
 ndutiful, 
 •he must 
 
 re, upon 
 rvere 'lot, 
 ablislied 
 
 by one 
 ling and 
 practice 
 IS of the 
 1 ; even 
 d, upon 
 olic and 
 
 of the 
 •e not a 
 ■eelingly 
 
 of the 
 •or corn- 
 it ; — all 
 it is ; — 
 grounds, 
 y— sup- 
 what, in 
 le, more 
 3ans are 
 
 of reli- 
 nisis in 
 tliat the 
 
 to arm 
 
 and affectionately to charge her youthful recruits, sealed 
 in infancy as tlie soldiers of Christ, — trained, prepared, 
 and examined by their immediate pastors, — and now 
 about to mix in the warfare of the world, and (especially 
 in the case of the male sex) to encounter the battle of 
 new temptations in many dangerous shapes. She may 
 be considered — when, in the ancient form of patriarchal 
 as well as of Apostolic times, she gives them her bless- 
 ing by the imposition of hands— as addressing each of 
 them thus : — 
 
 You are the child of Adam, and, as such, were born 
 the inheritor of sin. Sin carries an everlasting curse, 
 of which the natural death of the body and the count- 
 less evils which exist in the world are the present 
 visible and palpable fruits. This is your real condition ; 
 you must not shrink from the contemplation of it, as 
 you cannot escape from the reality; but you must think 
 of the cure. There is one way of relief from this curse, 
 and one alone ; but that way, if you know how to profit 
 by it, is effectual and sure. It is in Christ, the Son of 
 God, and the seed, at the same time, of the woman, 
 promised, from the day of Adam's fall, to bruise the 
 serpent's head. He has come ; He has fulfilled the pro- 
 mise ; He has suffered in your place ; He has paid your 
 debt; He has recovered for you your lost inheritance 
 of life. He has ordained means. He has provided 
 channels, for the extension of these benefits to man- 
 kind ; He has commissioned pastors to take care of His 
 people; He has confided the book of truth to their 
 hands to be freely and unreservedly dispensed to all ; 
 
Ji H 
 
 tl 
 
 t 1 
 
 204 
 
 m\f- ili 
 if • I 
 
 iii 
 
 SEIIMON XV. 
 
 and has instituted ordinances as tokens and marks of 
 His worsliii)pers, — forms and demonstrations of their 
 lionuif^e, means of hoklin^^ then), together' in the bonds 
 of brotherhood, and vehick^s, by His own express stipu- 
 hition, for conveying gnice and refreshment to their 
 souls. You are compi 'liended in these; bh^ssings ; you 
 have been reached by these merciful provisions. You 
 sprang up by nature a worthless and a noxious weed in 
 the wilderness of this blighted world ; but you were 
 early transplanted into the garden of God llimsel., and 
 culture has been bestowed upon you, by His appoint- 
 ment, upon earth ; and genial influenc(;s have been shed 
 down upon you from heaven — the tender showers of 
 His abundant grace, and the vivifying radiance of His 
 eternal love, — and all to fit you for your future removal, 
 once and for ever, to the Paradise above. But you have 
 many dangers still. Many evil influences still breathe 
 upon you from the tainted atmosphere of tliis lower 
 world ; nuicli infection of nature remains in your core. 
 If you would serve God and save your soul, you must 
 keep close to Him ; you must love Him for His good- 
 ness to you ; you nmst pray to Him for His grace ; you 
 must acquaint yourself with His holy AVord ; you nmst 
 conform yourself to His holy will. Without all this, 
 your baptism will only turn to your reproach, your 
 blessings will only aggravate your iiiin. And yet how 
 many are the thuigs around you and within you, which 
 tend to draw your heart another way! how^ many 
 temptations from the world, the flesh, and the devil, to 
 indispose you to devotion; to rendei" distasteful to you 
 
 I' I 
 
CONFIHMATION AND THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 205 
 
 the duty of watcliinjf your own heart and temper, and 
 the di.scii)line of self-control; to possess you with the 
 love of vanity and pleasure ; to sway you hy the force 
 of evil exanii)l(^; to catch your soul with the baits of 
 sinful indulj^^ence ! And you cainiot he always nurtured 
 and protectc^d by friendly hands which have, thus far, 
 j^mided your weakness. The time is conui (it is thus 
 that the Church is still supposed to be addressinjr him) 
 when you must declare for yourself what shall be your 
 course, and act in your own name. Hear, thciu, the 
 voice of your mother, in whose bosom you have been 
 bred, and the milk of whose doctrine you have drunk 
 as a babe in Christ ; take her blessing and her prayers, 
 and receive her charge. Come forward and tell her 
 whether you will abide by your baptism,— whether you 
 will recognise your obligations to your Saviour ; come 
 forward in the assend)ly of His worshippers, within the 
 walls of His sanctuary, in view of the font of your 
 baptism, in front of the holy table at which, as the next 
 step in the appointed course of her ordinances, you are 
 invited to attend. Keep that sacred duty before your 
 eyes ; and remember that if your confirmation does 
 not, after a reasonable interval — why not at the very 
 first following opportunity ?— bring you to the table of 
 your Lord, you are falling back from your vows. And 
 if you draw back, God declares— and think of the 
 awful import of the words !— that He hath no pleasure 
 in you. He repudiates. He rejects you ; He will not 
 accept, when you offer yourself a living sacrifice to 
 Him, the refuse of your heart. " No man having put his 
 
206 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 hand to the plough and looking back is, fit for the king- 
 dom of God." " Forsake not," then, in this point, " the 
 law of your mother : " she would lead you by the hand 
 to the holy memorials which set before your view the 
 immolation of the Son of God ; and if you decline her 
 invitation, made in His own authority and name, (Jierc 
 will be an evidence at once of something wrong, some- 
 thing unsafe. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supi»er is a 
 test to you to know how things stand between you and 
 God. Christ died for you: Christ commands, Christ 
 chai-ges you affectionately, as it were in His dying 
 words, to make a formal remembrance of His death and 
 sufferings ; And promises, if you are faithfully prepared, 
 to give you blessing in the act, to impart Himself, in 
 spiritual communion, to your soul. The Church invites, 
 prepares, assists, persuades you to come. But no — you 
 see how many there are that say so — this is too serious 
 a matter : when it comes to this point, we must stop. 
 What does such a refusal mean ? I do not speak here 
 of some humble and anxious souls who have not over- 
 come the scruples which make them distrustful of their 
 fitness, although their self-abasement is the very qualifi- 
 cation for their being graciously and tenderly received ; 
 but taking the world of Christians in general, what 
 does the refusal mean ? Why, it means this— neithei 
 more nor less than this : it is not that men decline the 
 Lord's Supper ; it is that they decline being religious. 
 They think there is something about this ordinance (as 
 if there were not something to the same effect about all 
 the observances of religion and all acknowledgment of 
 
CONFIRMATION AND THE SACHAMENTS. 
 
 207 
 
 \ie king- 
 int, " the 
 the liaiid 
 v^iew the 
 liVniQ her 
 ne, i?iere 
 ig, some- 
 [)l>ei' is a 
 
 you and 
 3, Christ 
 LS dying 
 eath and 
 n-epared, 
 niself, in 
 I invites, 
 no — you 
 serious 
 list stop, 
 eak here 
 lot over- 
 
 of their 
 y qualifi- 
 eceived ; 
 al, what 
 —neither 
 cline the 
 religious, 
 lance (as 
 ibout all 
 •ment of 
 
 its tmtli) — sometliing which does not compoit with a 
 worldly and ungodly state of the heart, and that is a 
 state which tliey cannot bring themselves to resign. 
 Let it not be so seen with you. There cannot be a 
 stronger proof of the value of this sacrament and the 
 necessity of participation in it, than this very reluctance 
 to participate ; for here is a touchstone of safety ; here 
 is a candle brought which shows the existence of 
 obstructions in the way of approach to Clod— obstruc- 
 tions, perhaps, otherwise unsuspected, but unequivocally 
 demanding to be removed, before men can be in a riglit 
 and happy state. You are a being who are to live for 
 ever ; and there can be nothing right with you, nothing 
 happy, till you can enjoy the favour of God— till you 
 pray and are heard in your prayer, " Lamb of God, 
 that takest away the sins of the world, Grant us thy 
 peace." There are difficulties in a religious course — that 
 is not concealed from you : there is a cross to be borne, 
 but there is a crown in reserve ; and in the anticipation 
 of that crown, permitted to those who love the appearing 
 of their Lord, and in the exercise of those Christian 
 graces which constitute the preparation for it, there is a 
 peace which the world can neither give nor take away. 
 The lawful enjoyments of this present world are tenfold 
 enhanced, and beyond is the " inheritance incorruptible, 
 undefiled, and that fadeth not away." 
 
r ) 
 
 SERMON XVI. 
 WORDS AND THOUGHTS ACCEPTABLE BEFORE GOD. 
 
 Ps. XIX. 14, 15, P. B. Translation. 
 
 Let the v'ords of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be alway 
 accejdable in, thy sight, Lord, 7mj strength, and my redeeuur. 
 
 A NEEDFUL prayer for man ! Who is there but must be 
 sensible (if ever he thinks about his soul at all) of his 
 deficiency, his natural obliquity, his liability to err, and 
 the accumulated instances of his actual transgression, in 
 his use both of the faculty of speech and of the power 
 of thought ? Who is there that can fail to be conscious, 
 if he at all watches himself, and sits in judgment upon 
 his own doings, of his natural proneness to fly off from 
 the idea of God and heavenly things in the workings of 
 his mind, and, consequently, in the vent which they 
 find and the expression which they give themselves in 
 articulate words ? " I set the Lord always before me," — 
 "I am continually with Thee,"— "Thy face, Lord, will I 
 seek," — these are the sayings and sentiments of the holy 
 Psalmist, and they simply speak the proper language of 
 every accountable being upon earth, subject to the un- 
 ceasing inspection of the God Whose workmanship he is, 
 upon Whose mercy he depends for life and hope, and to 
 Whom he has a reckoning to render for the whole tenor 
 
 I 
 
 i M'l 
 
WORDS AND THOUGHTS ACCEPTABLE BEFORE GOD. 209 
 
 E GOD. 
 
 rt, be alway 
 Icemcr. 
 
 t must be 
 ill) of his 
 err, and 
 ession, in 
 :lie power 
 3onscious, 
 lent upon 
 ' off from 
 )rkings of 
 liich they 
 iselves in 
 re me," — 
 )rd, will I 
 f the holy 
 nguage of 
 :o the un- 
 ship he is, 
 pe, and to 
 bole tenor 
 
 of his service in all its parts and in every shade of its 
 duties. And yet are there not multitudes of professed 
 Christians who, instead of exhibiting any practical 
 remembrance of all this, may rather be described by the 
 words of the same Psalmist, where he says that God is 
 not in all their thoughts— nay, so far as regards any 
 living influence within them to control their thoughts 
 and actions, too often by the words of the same in- 
 spired author still, "The fool hath said in his heart. 
 There is no God"? 
 
 My brethren, that there is a God is what we all, 
 without exception, recognise as an abstract truth ; and 
 men believing this truth must beware of the danger of 
 going on, in this brief life, as if they believed nothing 
 of the kind. God has used means enough to make us 
 think of Him ; if we learn nothing of His eternal power 
 and Godhead from the book of this visible creation, the 
 Apostle assures us that we are left without excuse. How 
 much more if we remain ignorant or regardless of the 
 truths which concern the welfare of our souls, when the 
 book of Eevelation is in our hands ; when the weekly 
 returns of the day which the Lord hath made, the re- 
 iterated calls of His ministers and all the appointed 
 ordinances of His Church, are expressly provided to keep 
 us from forgetting Him, and to teach us that if we 
 would walk in safety through life, and end our walk in 
 hope, we must walk with God. It is impossible, utterly 
 impossible, that we can be entitled, upon any other 
 supposition, to look for any such happy progress below, 
 or happy result above. 
 
i1 
 
 "11 
 
 t ! 
 
 
 ( : 
 
 Wt 
 
 |1 V, 
 
 I! P ^i 
 
 ii i 
 
 [ . ; 6* 
 
 ■ 
 
 210 
 
 SEKMON XVI. 
 
 God grant that the call given to us in the several 
 observances of this very day may, by His efficacious 
 grace and blessing, bring these solemn realities, what- 
 ever may be our actual habits of mind or conversation, 
 more home to all our heart3 ! 
 
 Let us consider first, the necessity for praying and 
 taking heed that the words of our mouth should be 
 acceptable in the sight of God. So multiplied are the 
 sins of the tongue, and so easily are we betrayed into the 
 commission of them, that he that offendeth not in word, 
 as we are taught by the Apostle James, " is a perfect man, 
 and able also to bridle the whole body." But how 
 many among us not only have to lament infirmities of 
 this nature into which they have fallen in unguarded 
 moments, but seem in a manner unconscious of any par- 
 ticular responsibility for the words which pass their 
 lips, and virtually appropriate the sentiment of certain 
 ungodly men of old, " Our lips are our own ; who is lord 
 over us ? " It will be happy if, being convicted in their 
 consciences of their trangression in this particular in- 
 stance — their abuse of the gift of speech — they can 
 thence be convinced, generally, of the perilous state in 
 which they stand. " I say unto you " — they are hardly 
 prepared deliberately to dispute the authority of Him 
 Who makes this declaration — 'I say unto you, that 
 every idle word which men shall speak, they shall give 
 account thereof in the day of judgment. !For by thy 
 words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou 
 shalt be condemned." Let all men consider this, in the 
 first place, who are what the world calls very good and 
 
tie several 
 3fficacious 
 ies, what- 
 versation, 
 
 -ying and 
 should be 
 ed are the 
 id into the 
 t in word, 
 rfect man, 
 But how 
 rmities of 
 mguarded 
 f any par- 
 )ass their 
 of certain 
 'ho is lord 
 id in their 
 icular in- 
 -they can 
 Ls state in 
 3,re hardly 
 y of Him 
 you, that 
 shall give 
 or by thy 
 ords thou 
 his, in the 
 ' good and 
 
 WOEDS AND THOUGHTS ACCEPTABLE BEFORE GOD. 211 
 
 respectable men, and not unobservant of public religious 
 duties, but who now and then, according to a phrase 
 familiarly used to describe the case, are known to rap 
 out an oath. The same men, who say their prayers and 
 pray that God's name may be* hallowed, are known 
 sometimes to take His name in vain by their own pro- 
 fane and irreverent expressions, and to manifest no 
 extraordinary uneasiness at being assured by Himself, 
 that they vnll not he held guiltless for doing so. " Out of 
 the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing." No 
 blessing will return into their own bosom, if so accom- 
 panied. But we will not now enlarge upon the varied 
 offences of the tongue, of which the Apostle just above 
 quoted says that, although it be a little member, "it 
 setteth on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire of 
 hell ; "—we will not pursue in detail all the mischiefs of 
 the inflammatoiy public harangue, the irritating private 
 taunt — the provocation to deep and bloody revenge, or 
 the suggestion of unholy thoughts, by means of the 
 tongue, to other minds— the persuasion to dangerous 
 compliances in opposition to conscience — the mischiev- 
 ous insinuation to serve a selfish purpose — the un- 
 scrupulous false statement — the skilful practice upon 
 the credulity of other men— the frothy ebullitions of 
 boastful vanity — ^the foolish amplifications of the grounds 
 of personal pretension— the hurtful scandal carelessly 
 retailed and still gathering additions from mouth to 
 mouth — the ceaseless and ostentatious outpourings of 
 frivolity and levity and worldliness— the self-compla- 
 cent sarcasm upon persons who are conceived to be 
 
 p2 
 
Hi ,i 
 
 liii. 
 
 I 
 
 II. 
 
 212 
 
 SERMON XVI. 
 
 deficient in such points as challenge consideration in 
 certain circles of society — all of which, common enough, 
 and passing with little censure in the intercourse of the 
 world, are broadly offensive in the sight of God. 
 
 Forbearing to pursue these details, let us consider 
 -how far the words of our mouth are, according to the 
 prayer of the Psalmist, positively acceptable before Him. 
 With reference to God Himself, as the party addressed 
 in the use of speech, the prayer which we offer, the 
 confession which we pour out, to be acceptable, must be 
 the prayer and the confession of the heart; the praise, 
 the profession of faith, to which we give utterance, 
 must be uttered with the spirit and with the under- 
 standing ; and it is little else than a mockery of homage, 
 bringing danger to our souls, if the heart be far from 
 Him, to honour Him with the lips. With reference to 
 our fellow-creatures, it is not required, nor would it be 
 found to promote the cause of religion in the world, 
 that those who fear God should never speak otherwise 
 than in a strain directly religious. It is not forbidden 
 that men should manifest a tone of cheerfulness, or 
 indulge in an occasional playful sally of a chastened 
 character ; nor is it otherwise than desirable that they 
 should have a facility of engaging in conversation upon 
 all general topics. But if they are Christians indeed, 
 as they will never in their actions, so will they never 
 in their words, lose sight of the cause of their Master ; 
 they will not only guard against being provoked to 
 speak unadvisedly with their lips— they will not only 
 pray, in the consciousness of their own infirmity, that 
 
 
WORDS AND THOUGHTS ACCEPTABJE BEFORE GOD. 213 
 
 3ration in 
 n enough, 
 rse of the 
 d. 
 
 consider 
 ig to the 
 fore Him. 
 addressed 
 
 offer, the 
 J, must be 
 lie praise, 
 utterance, 
 he under- 
 f homage, 
 
 far from 
 ference to 
 )uld it be 
 he world, 
 otherwise 
 forbidden 
 Illness, or 
 chastened 
 that they 
 tion upon 
 IS indeed, 
 ley never 
 : Master; 
 )voked to 
 
 not only 
 nity, that 
 
 God would set a watch upon their mouth and keep the 
 door of their lips, lest they offend with their tongue, 
 but the general influence of their conversation upon 
 the minds of other men will be a good influence; it 
 will work, although often insensibly, as a good leaven 
 in the mass ; and they will know, upon due occasion, 
 how to " reprove, rebuke, exhort " their straying fellow- 
 creatures ; to comfort the broken-hearted ; to solace the 
 afflicted ; to encourage the diffident with a view to their 
 spiritual improvement. They will know, also, their own 
 privilege, intimated in the words that "the secret of 
 the Lord is among them that fear Him," and in the 
 description that " they that feared the Lord spake often 
 one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it, 
 and a book of remembrance was written before Him 
 for them that feared the Lord, and that tlwugU upon 
 His name." 
 
 They who feared the Lord and ^ahe often one to 
 another are the same, we see, as they who thought upon 
 His name. So the Psalmist couples, in his prayer, the 
 words of his mouth and the meditation of his heart. All 
 idea of avoiding or of correcting the sins of the tongue, 
 all hope whatever of cultivating the habitual observance 
 of the Apostolic precept, " Let your speech be alway 
 with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how 
 to answer every man," must be founded upon the re- 
 ligious frame of the bosom, upon the occupation of the 
 soul by the high and saving truths of the Gospel of 
 Christ. We must go to the source. " Out of the 
 abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good 
 
I / 
 
 214 
 
 SERMON XVI. 
 
 man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth 
 forth good things ; and an evil man out of the evil 
 treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things." Let 
 us consider, then, as already in the case of our words, 
 the necessity for praying and taking heed that the 
 meditation of our liearts be acceptable in the sight of 
 God. Tlie heart of fallen man, abandoned to itself and 
 to the influences, whether of this world or the world of 
 darkness, which act upon it, will always verify the 
 description of the state of things which preceded the 
 flood, when " God saw that the wickedness of man was 
 great in the earth, and that every imagination of the 
 thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." 
 Alienation from God, averseness from spiritual things, 
 indisposition towards the purifying control of the 
 Gospel, repugnancy to the meek, holy, charitable, and 
 self-denying temper which it would engraft upon us — 
 these are characteristics which, in a more prominent or 
 a more disguised and softened manner of development, 
 attach extensively to the professed Christian world; 
 and being, in our best estate, in contact with all this, 
 and having a remnant of infection uneradicated in our 
 own bosoms, so long as we are here in mortal flesh, we 
 are continually in danger, and the process must be kept 
 continually in operation by which these evil influences 
 are counterworked. The restless activity of the human 
 mind and the ceaseless succession of thoughts sug- 
 gested by the circumstances in which we are placed, 
 by the objects which offer themselves around us, by the 
 remarks which we hear or the conversations in which 
 
WORDS AND THOUGHTS ACCEPTABLE BEFOEE GOD. 215 
 
 bringeth 
 the evil 
 [8." Let 
 ir words, 
 that the 
 sight of 
 ;self and 
 world of 
 ;rify the 
 eded the 
 nan was 
 a of the 
 inually." 
 1 things, 
 
 of the 
 ible, and 
 »on us — 
 linent or 
 lopment, 
 
 world; 
 all this, 
 d in our 
 flesh, we 
 
 be kept 
 ifluences 
 3 human 
 its sug- 
 
 placed, 
 3, by the 
 n which 
 
 we bear our part, demand from us the utmost watchful- 
 ness and the most careful regulation of the inner man. 
 We walk, as Christians, "by faith and not by sight ; " but 
 our faith will soon be dimmed if we do not cultivate 
 the habit of detaching our minds from the things of 
 sense. We are liable to be absorbed, to bo lost in the 
 vortex of our complicated engagements in life. The 
 duties of public office, the share which may fall to us 
 in matters political or municipal, the calculations and 
 competitions of traffic, the improvement of property, 
 the provision to be made for the wants of our families, 
 the economy of our households, the demands of society, 
 the cultivation of favourite sciences or accomplishments 
 — here is ei jugh, without speaking of the snares of 
 sinful pleasure, or the temptations which may assail 
 our integrity of principle — here is enough, in necessaiy 
 or lawful pursuits, to grasp the whole man, to fill up, 
 without his observing it, his time upon earth, and tax 
 the full energies of his naturd But what will be seen 
 in the end thereof, if he have left no room for the ONE 
 THING NEEDFUL of his existence — ^if he have so sur- 
 rendered himself to the claims of the world as to let 
 them interfere with, and therefore (for we cannot serve 
 two masters) as to let them set aside, to let them deaden 
 and obliterate in his heart, the claim of Him Who died 
 for all, and died for all upon the obvious and plainly- 
 stated understanding, that they who " live through Him 
 should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto 
 Him that died for them and rose again " ? 
 
 In this position, therefore, of danger — my brethren, 
 
216 
 
 SKUMON XVI. 
 
 it is n real, a Rivat, a serious, an awful dan^^or — wo 
 inu8t study tho state of our lioarts ; we must ohscrvo 
 tlu) current of our Mioujjjlits, tlio (unuplexiou of our 
 meditations; we nmst f»m])i)le to our souls ilio 8oI(>nni 
 and glorious truths of tlie Ciosjxa ; we must constantly 
 revolve in our miiuls the high destiny wliieh is heforo 
 ns, the transcendent imporlanee of our salvation, and 
 tho utter uncertainty of cur (existence below ; we must 
 familiarise ourselves with the woixl of tlu^ living Ciod, 
 metlitating upon it day and night, and having recourse 
 to all the stamling auxiliary means to ])reserve a stuiso 
 of ivligion in our minds ; and, further, we must lay to 
 lieart tho instructive lessons which surround ua in tho 
 scenes of human life. 
 
 For the first point,— if we do not make that hlessed 
 word our companion and our guide; if we fail to 
 comply devoutly, intelligently, im])rovingly with its 
 positive institutions ; if we att(>nd mechanically, and 
 rather in the way of worldly conformity than anything 
 else, npon the ordinances of worship ; if we disi'egard 
 tho calls io the Holy Communion, or if we just com- 
 municate, as a matter of form and custom, npon high 
 occasions, once or twice a year ; it is well for us to put 
 the question to our bosoms, wlu^thcr, with these un- 
 deniable evidences of defective attention to our spiritual 
 interests, wo are pursuing a safe and hapjjy course ; 
 whether we should be ready, if Ood were to call ns in 
 a day when we look not for it, and in lui hour when we 
 are not aware ; ready to go aad render up our account 
 befoi*e God; ready, so ready, that every night when we 
 
WORDS AND TlIOUflTlTS AnCEPTAW.K IlEFOllE fJOD. 217 
 
 i^r(?r — wo 
 ohscrvo 
 I of our 
 ^ 8()I(>irm 
 iiHtuntly 
 is bi^lbro 
 ion, iuul 
 v« must 
 ing (lod, 
 rocouvRo 
 
 n 8(MIH0 
 
 it lay to 
 J in the 
 
 blessed 
 fail to 
 vitli its 
 ly, and 
 ny tiling 
 isri'^ard 
 sSt coni- 
 m hi^li 
 
 i to put 
 
 ivso un- 
 piritual 
 Bourse ; 
 1 ua in 
 lion we 
 iccount 
 icu we 
 
 lie down to our nvst, w(i lie down truHtin;^ in Christ, 
 that if w<^ w((i*o to wakti in another world we hIiouUI 
 bo found anumg the heira of a glonous i*e8urrection. 
 
 Aj^ain, we an^ called u|Km to profit in the Bame way 
 by the inatruetive oceurrc^nces which tak(i i>laco ai-ound 
 US. Tlioy are alwjiys taking i)laee : at houuj times in a 
 more marked manner than at othorB ; but wo live in a 
 ■world which, at nil tinu>H, is preHenting to us HCfiues of 
 change, of suiVering, of dcMiih. Warning iuHtancoH of 
 sudden <leath, unlooked-for gapH in the eoninmnity, tho 
 disappearance, at a sti-oke, of individuals familiarly and 
 prominently known, or sad bereavements in wcsll-known 
 families, following fust upon each oth(!r, and awakcining 
 the gcintnul symi)athy of the place ; — these aro iK)t only 
 touching appeals to our sensibility, but also solemn 
 le-ssons which, for his own personal improvement, tho 
 living slundd lay to his heart. 
 
 Tho I'salmist, in tho former part of a passage which 
 innuediatt^ly ])rccede8 our text, asks, " Who can tell how 
 oft ho offendeth?" and imiys to bo clcansiul from his 
 " secret faults." And oh what a catalogue is this — tho 
 catalogue of our unoliscrved transgressions, of our un- 
 counted failures in the words which pass our lips, and 
 in the thoughts and inuiginations that lloat up and 
 down upon tho strean), of our minds I 
 
 liefoi'e that God Who understandeth even our thoughts 
 long before, Wlio is about our path, and about our 
 bed, and spieth out all our ways; of Whom it is 
 declared, that "He knoweth tho very secrets of tho 
 heart," of Whom it is asked, " Ho that planted tho ear, 
 
218 
 
 SERMON XVI. 
 
 shall He not hear? He that formed the eye. shall He 
 not see ? "—before that God— that all-holy God, Who 
 
 than to behold" iniquity- _„.,«„,,,_ 
 numerable instances, of which we are ourselves fully cog- 
 nisant, have we been guilty of vain, foolish, irregular, ex- 
 travagant^thoughts ; unchastised and ill-directed wishes ; 
 Httle, low, earthly calculations of the future; glaring 
 abermtions of mind even in our religious duties, from 
 the objects which ought to engage it in fervour and 
 holy aspiration ; distractions and wanderings in the 
 midst of prayers by wliich we are holding communion 
 with God Himself! And if these are among the sub- 
 jects of our own confession when we come before Him, 
 how far beyond this is the account known to Him, Who 
 is greater than our heart and knoweth all things ! What 
 are we to do, and where is our resource, with all this 
 load of sin upon us, with all this conscious helplessness 
 and frailty— lamenting that we have so perpetually been 
 domg wrong, and feeling that we are so little able to do 
 better-what shall we do, and what can we dare to 
 hope? Shall we, with St. Peter in the Gospel (read 
 to-day) say to our God, when the evidences of His 
 greatness and power are brought home to us, « Depart 
 from me : for I am a sinful man, Lord " ? No • we 
 will not say that. We will follow on the prayer of the 
 Psalmist to the end : "Let the words of my mouth and 
 the meditation of my heart be alway acceptable in Thy 
 sight, O Lord my Strength and my Kedeemer." My 
 Strength and my Redeemer ! There, in those two aspects 
 of our Lord God, we find all that we want : our Strength 
 
 /! 
 
WORDS AND THOUGHTS ACCEPTABLE BEFORE GOD, 219 
 
 and our Redeemer. We are weak, even when we are 
 willing, and when our eyes are truly opened to the 
 magnitude and the power of the obstacles to our salva- 
 tion, we sink under the sense of our incompetency to 
 cope with them. But " God is our hope and strength, 
 a very present help in trouble :" it is precisely in our 
 weakness that His " strength is made perfect," and He 
 makes us " more than conquerors " in the end. And as 
 the contemplation of our guilt before Him, together 
 with our dread of its consequences to our souls, no less 
 dismays and overwhelms us, than the consciousness 
 of our native inability to struggle with our corruptions ; 
 this exigency is also relieved, — graciously, abundantly, 
 unfailingly relieved. Sin is not imputed, transgres- 
 sion shall not be mentioned to the believer who has 
 learnt to cast his care upon God, knowing that He 
 careth for him, and the burthen of his sin upon Him 
 Who is " mighty to save." He trembles no more under 
 the weight of his iniquities ; he appropriates, in all its 
 plenitude of consolation, the assurance of his God, 
 " Fear not ; for I have redeemed thee : I have called 
 thee by thy name : thou art Mine." 
 
 I 
 
SERMON XVir. 
 
 THE MYSTERY OF OODLINESS. 
 
 1 Tim. III. 16. 
 
 And inthouf, cmtrovcrsy great is thv. mystery of qodlhms: Ood vm 
 ^mn,jest in t/u^ flesh Justified in the Spirit, seen of anyefs, preaehcd 
 unto the Gentiles, oeheved on in the tvorld, received up into glory. 
 
 There are somo persons iwofcssing tlmmclvcs, like the 
 
 philosophising heathens described by the Apostle, to he 
 
 wue, who think it an evidence of their wisdom to lay 
 
 down i\iQ maxim that where mystery begins, religion 
 
 ends. Now certainly if we were to understmufby 
 
 mystery the shrouding of religion in a certain artificial 
 
 awe, by a particular order of men supposed to be 
 
 initiated in secrets, and possessed of dark attributes 
 
 of power, by which they sway the imaginations, and 
 
 turn to their own account the fears, of mankind, we 
 
 may readily adnn't that where .mch mystery begins, 
 
 there true and pure religion is grievously endangered! 
 
 There we discern the features of priestcraft on the one 
 
 side, and of superstition on the other ; or, as we may 
 
 be warranted to say, in a more indulgent spirit, of 
 
 superstition simply on loth sides ; for there is no 7icccs~ 
 
 sity for supposing that the craft, as such, is consciously 
 
 and deUberately carried on by those who exercise it. 
 
THE MYSTERY OF QODLINESS. 
 
 221 
 
 Their passions and interests are, indeed, enlisted in its 
 support, but tliey liavo not personally contrived it; 
 tluiy nfceivo it and cling to it as a traditional system. 
 The Apostle, however, is no friend to any such jnyntcry 
 as this. " We are not as many," he says to the Corin- 
 thians, "which corrupt the word of God: but as of 
 sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak 
 we in Clirist." And again, "Wo have renounced the 
 hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, 
 nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by 
 manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to 
 every man's conscience in the sight of God." 
 
 liut that there are in the verities of our religion, 
 which we must hold as essential and revere with pro- 
 found devotion of heait, mysterious points unfathom- 
 able by the human intellect, demands made upon us 
 to believe, wonder, and adore where we cannot pene- 
 trate — this the Apostle is so far from disclaiming, 
 that he speaks frequently of the mysteries attaching 
 in different ways to the scheme of redemption, and 
 describes the ministers of the Gospel as " stewards of 
 the mysteries of God." And in our text, before specifying 
 the successive particulars which are to exemplify the 
 declaration, he declares that "without controversy" — 
 beyond all possible dispute— " great is the mystery of 
 godliness : " the mystery presented in those truths of 
 which the acceptance must form the basis of all god- 
 liness in man, all true and practical recognition of his 
 relations with God. 
 
 The Church has very appropriately wound up, by a 
 
till 
 
 222 
 
 SERMON XVII. 
 
 Sunday sot apart for tlio special contemplation of tlio 
 
 doct 
 
 ■ine of the Holy Trinity, the series of obsorvm 
 
 ices 
 
 ^vhi(«h corresponds, point by point, to certain ninrlu^d 
 features of the Cospel history, and striking ch^velop- 
 nienta of the attributes of the Father, the Son, and 
 the Holy d host. On that da" vfore, which is now 
 not far distant, some notice c ,.^steri(^s attaching to 
 the Divine Emnee may naturally bo looked for; and 
 it may be sufTicient to remark, for the pres(uit, that wo 
 are surrounded by mysteries in every department of 
 nature; wo are ourselves an incomprehensible wonder 
 to ourselves ; and is it reasonable, then, that we should 
 expect to pass familiarly within the circle of the sancti- 
 ties above, and to pierce the clouds of glory in which 
 the Godhead is enveloped ? « The corruptible body," 
 according to the words of the Wisdom of Solomon, 
 "presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle 
 weigheth down the mind that nmseth upon many 
 things ; and hardly do we guess aright at the things 
 that are upon earth, and with labour do we find the 
 things that are before us : but the things that are in 
 heaven who hath searched out?" God has graciously 
 revealed Himself to us ; but revelation does not import 
 that we can " by searching find out God :" that we can 
 " find out the Almighty unto perfection." If He has 
 made known what will serve to guide and to save us, 
 that is enough : we must not rudely take hold of the 
 ark of His presence, and think that nothing is inter- 
 dicted to our touch. We do not act a wise, we do not 
 act a reasonable part, if, with aU the stamp of divinity 
 
 
THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS. 
 
 223 
 
 >n of tho 
 !orvaiic(38 
 
 innrk(5d 
 (levolop- 
 ^on, and 
 I is now 
 cliing to 
 for; and 
 that wo 
 nuMit of 
 
 wonder 
 ) should 
 J suncti- 
 ti wliich 
 
 body," 
 olonion, 
 )ornacle 
 
 ninny 
 ! things 
 ind the 
 
 are in 
 iciously 
 import 
 we can 
 He has 
 ave us, 
 
 of the 
 I inter- 
 do not 
 ivinity 
 
 whicli is impressed upon our religion, witli all the irre- 
 fragable and accunndating evidences of its truth, with 
 all the fuhiess of tho provision whicli it makers for 
 the obvious wants of our nature, all its coiigruity to 
 our case, the «m!rflowing love by which it addrcsHses 
 itself to our hearts, and the magnificent incitement by 
 which it meets our yearnings and asinrations ; 1 m\y 
 we do not act a wise or a reasonable part, if, with all 
 this before us, v/e stagger at any strange wonder which 
 it presents, or depth in which our human investigations 
 are lost. This is what we ought to expect. For His 
 thoughts are not our thoughts : neither are our ways His 
 ways. We are nuiking an utter mistake when we irKuisuro 
 the one by the other. "For as the lieavens are higher 
 than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, 
 and My thoughts than your thoughts, saith the Lord." 
 " Without controversy," then, " great is the mystery of 
 godliness." And the first point stated in the enumera- 
 tion of particulars is the myster}^ of the Incarnation : 
 " God V)a8 manifest in the ficshr The mystery of evil 
 let loose upon the work f.f God, the mystery of a sinful 
 bias in human nature, violating the implanted principle 
 of conscience, and prompting mischief within and with- 
 out the man ; the mystery of suffering ; the mystery of 
 death; th? mystery of a visible, broadly legible curse 
 written in varied characters upon the face of all this 
 fair and glorious creation,— these aggregated mysteries, 
 locking in the one with the other, — call for, cry out 
 for some mighty counteracting intervention, and some 
 remedy commensurate with the magnitude of the damage. 
 
224 
 
 flKIlMON XVII. 
 
 And for tins wo inii.sl, look hh lii^'li its to Clod IlimHolf, 
 an(l(Jo(l llimsolf immt look as low iw to coiiu; aiiionp; 
 m in tho pdrHou of ilio Kicnial Son, luul to bciionui ono 
 ol" ourM('lv(5«. And accordinjrly, ,,« h,,,),, ^^ (,],„ <.„r.s(5 
 took ollod, and our ruin hud hmn wrougitt, tlm iruiaiiH 
 of our r(;i!ovi^ry wuro proclaimed. Tho »wi{ of tlio 
 woman was to hruiH(5 tho HcrpiMit's hood. TIuui followed 
 tho \o\)^ train of ])ri)paration — typo.s poraonal or ('(ini- 
 luouinl, which nmdc thoshaihiwy hutcnrtnin ro.sonihhimio 
 of a wondrous futuiti to paas hoforo tho oyoH of nion — 
 tlio voico of propliooy, wliich s<»un(KMl lomhir and spoko 
 luoiv distinctly as a^^'o advanced ui)on ago ; tlm soviTanco 
 from all tho lust of tho world of a flinf»hi po()plo in 
 whoso bosom tho hlossing was to ho loilgcul ; tho ton(lon(5y 
 of events in their series which convisrgiMl to ouo graml 
 issue ordained by llini Who ruhvs tho destinios of men 
 iind empires. And with rosi)oct to tho particular and 
 leadin<; fact, of which tho inlluenco inseparably and 
 essentially pervades tho scluime of tho (jos|)oI dis- 
 pensation in all its parts, tho mystery of God manifest 
 in fJu'JIt's/i, the trumpet tones of in-ophocy followinjr up 
 the orij,nnal promise which compensated tlio expulsion 
 from Paratlise, did, indeed, sp(iak loudly and clearly here. 
 *♦ A vir<,Mii shall conceive, (iud bear a son, and shall call 
 His name Inmaiiud," which word Immanuel si«,niifu)8 
 God H'itlh US. " Unto us a Sou is born, unto us a OMld is 
 given : and the government shall be upon His shoulder, 
 and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselh)r, 
 tiie MiyJUi/ God, tho Everlasting Father, the Pniico of 
 J^eaco." 
 
Il 
 
 THK WVHTKIIY OK CJoDtJNKHH. 
 
 225 
 
 (Jcrlain niiiiii ol.jcotH mu\ nirociH ol' UiIh inyHtnriouH 
 iiKiiinmlioii uni wluit ilio Apontln im)(;('.(!(lH to hUiU); luuX 
 tin- next Hl(>i) iH Unit (}(.(!, tliuH inmiif(!Ht in tlicyW/,, whh 
 .iiiHtili(.(l in tl.o Hpi,rU~iU>H\i iind Spirit Ix-in^ lioro, a« 
 ()lH(nvIi(iiv, oppoRCMl to nnrh otli(!r, l.iit luvrn carryin^r ir, 
 thv'w o|)poHiti<)n tlio lii^li mid Hpficinl Hi^aiilifiution that 
 11(1 Who took upon Ilim oiir IKihIi, and wan mmloiu thn 
 lilomcHH of in(^n, wan HUHtaincd in JliH clainiH to })n an 
 incaniatfj (Jod ]>y tlio tnanilcHlationH oftlK! I )ivin(! Spirit. 
 W(! nuiHt nipird lliin an man nrid wo innut ro<^ard Ifim 
 as (Jod, for II(! was both ; aH Hiircly botli, m wo, Hiniply 
 liuninn boinj^'H, aro most inyHt(!rionHly ooniponndcd of 
 Hon! and body. Ah man, then, in Wh(mi (iw(!lt " all tbt 
 fiilncsH of tho (Jodhoad bodily," ],ut Htill an man, tho 
 y^;/// W/Y/s/ doHccndcd visibly upon Ilim at niHl)a])tiHm ; 
 th(( //o/i/ Ohmt lod Ilim oti to 11 Ih victoriouH onccdintor 
 with Satan in tlu! wilddrncsH; th(i Hoi,/ Ohmt,, acting' in 
 what (accord in-; to tho tiuior of r(!volation afforded npon 
 this point) may bo called lliw pccnliar province in the 
 oi)eration.s of tho Godhead, abundantly Hupplied the 
 Son of Man with ji living' <'ner<ry of wondcsr-working 
 power. The t<}>irit, we aro told, was not given « by mea- 
 sure inito Him ; " and " God anointed J('hus of Nazarfjth 
 witli tho Holi/ O/imf, and with [lower." Tho Ijlaspliemous 
 resistance of this proof of divin(5 agency in the pcjrson 
 of Christ or of Mis delegates after His ascension, is tho 
 sin against the Jfoli/ Ghost. And tlius was Christ 
 justijied in the Spirit. But above all, Ho was justified 
 in the Spirit by the subsofiuent effusion of the Spirit 
 from on high, Whom He had pledged Himself to send 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 SERMON XVII. 
 
 For the Apostlo, aliliough at this i)oiiit of tlio onnmora- 
 tiou of particulars in our text lie had not reached the 
 statement which closes it, that Christ was retmvrd up 
 info (//on/, yet must be sui)posed in l)rin«;inj? in hero the 
 words juMiJicd in t/w Spirii, naturally suggc^sted by the 
 mention of thojlcfih, to be looking at the work and the 
 history of Christ as a wJiofe, and ao to anticipate at this 
 point the fruit of His ascension : above all, then, the 
 incarnate Son of God was jmtified in the /Spirit after 
 He had ascended up on high, and received gifts for men, 
 which He dispensed, in broad disi)lay, to the Church 
 below. In the first instance, by the Pentecostal effusion 
 of the Holy Ghost, Who proceeds alike from the Father 
 and the Son, upon the heads of the Apostles— con- 
 stituting the exact fulfilment of the promise for which 
 He had told them to wait ; and thence onward, by the 
 continued witness supplied to them " both with signs 
 and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy 
 Ghost." There can be no bettoi- commentary upon the 
 words "justified m the Spirii," than in that passage from 
 St. John in which it is said that "the Holy Ghost was 
 not yet given " (in the manner characteristic of the new 
 dispensation) " became tliat Jesus was not yet glorified ; " 
 and that other from the same Evangelist, in which the 
 Saviour says to His disciples, that when the Comforter 
 should come, He w^ould reprove the world of righteous- 
 ness, hecauM Christ Himself was to go to the Father and 
 they would see Him no more. He, the Comforter, would 
 afford the means of conviction (for that is ?:he sense in 
 wliich the word repi^ove is to be here taken) to the world 
 
TJIE MYSTEUY OF GUDLINKSH. 
 
 227 
 
 nnnmpra- 
 Lolu'tl tlio 
 ccivfd up 
 hero tlio 
 !(l by tlio 
 : and tlio 
 ie at this 
 then, tho 
 irit after 
 I for men, 
 5 Clmrch 
 I effusion 
 10 Father 
 es — Con- 
 or which 
 lI, by tho 
 ith signs 
 the Holy 
 upon tlio 
 age from 
 host was 
 the new 
 orified ; " 
 hich the 
 omforter 
 ghteous- 
 ther and 
 ir, would 
 sense in 
 lie world 
 
 of tho rightoousness of Christ, of His i)r(!t(!nHion8 to be 
 tJic, l{ight(u)us Oiui, the Lord our liighteouHiiess, hccnuHe 
 after J lis own disappearanco from the (iaiih, tlui mani- 
 festations of the Spirit would amply nuike good all that 
 He had said. And among these is that manifestation, 
 to the brciast of the individual, of the truth and the 
 reality and tlus ])reciousness of the objects of his faith 
 wliich is described in the words, "The Spirit itself 
 beaieth witness with our spirit, that we anj the sons of 
 God." Or again, "Ho that Ixdioveth on the Son of 
 God hath the witness in himstilf." Not in any fanatical, 
 in any presumptuous interpretation of thos(3 words, as 
 if we were to look for direct, sensible revelation, and 
 perceptible sensations of affinity with the agitation of 
 the animal system in man, but as they describe that 
 homefelt acceptance and personal appropriation of the 
 remedies of tho Gospel of grace which tells us that we 
 have there, as the fallen children of Adam, with death 
 and eternity before them, precisely found what we want, 
 and that the voice of the Bible is the voice of God. 
 We know Whom we have believed, and know that what 
 has been proposed to our belief is not, cannot be, a 
 fabrication, or a fancy of man. 
 
 Christ is also represented, in our text, as having been 
 seen of angels. And from first to last, we read of their 
 watchful and zealous attendance upon His person, and 
 their interest, with all the earnest glow of pure and 
 seraphic natures, in every object of His mission to this 
 fallen world. An angel announced to the shepherds His 
 birth at Bethlehem : " And, suddenly, there was with 
 
 q2 
 
228 
 
 SERMON XVII. 
 
 the anf,'ol, a multitude of tlio hoavcnly host, praising 
 Ood, and .sayin;,^ Ciloiy to God in tlio lii^diest and on 
 oarth poaco, goodwill toward men." "Hereafter," He 
 declares HiniHulf, in a lofty indication of the greatness 
 of the Child of the Virgin, with His retinue and escort 
 of the legions of heaven, "hereafter ye shall see 
 heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and 
 descending upon the Son of Man." He was, in the 
 assumption of our nature, tempted in all things like 
 as we are, and His sorrows surpassed our sorrows, His 
 sufferings our sufferings: but in the scene of the 
 temptation, when the devil left Him, " angels came and 
 ministered unto Him ;" and in the agony of Gethsemane, 
 "there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, 
 strengthening Him." When He was in the hands of 
 His enemies, He says to the follower who undertook 
 to fight in His defence, "Thinkest thou that I cannot 
 now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give me 
 more than twelve legions of angels ?" When He had 
 burst, by divine power, the bars of the tomb, and had gone 
 abroad again a living man, angels were in attendance at 
 the sepulchre, to inform and comfort the mourners who 
 came to visit the place of His remains. When He 
 ascended to heaven, and the disciples were gazing after 
 Him, angels again present themselves, and direct their 
 hopes to that day when He shall return in the clouds 
 of heaven, in the full and overpowering exhibition of 
 His own glory, and His Father's, and that of the holy 
 angels, of whom thousand thousands shall minister 
 unto Him, while ten thousand times ten thousand of 
 
 '/ 
 
 I 
 
 ;! i 
 
THE MYaTERY OF OODLINKSH. 
 
 229 
 
 praising 
 b and on 
 fter," He 
 greatness 
 id escort 
 hall see 
 ling and 
 J, in the 
 ings like 
 ows, His 
 5 of the 
 :ame and 
 isemane, 
 
 heaven, 
 liands of 
 ndertook 
 I cannot 
 give me 
 
 He had 
 had gone 
 dance at 
 lers who 
 hen He 
 ng after 
 jct their 
 3 clouds 
 )ition of 
 the holy 
 minister 
 Lsand of 
 
 human beings shall stand before Him for Judgment. 
 The interest, the enthusiasm such as angels feel, with 
 which they wait on Christ, and witness His achieve- 
 ments, and watch the progress of His kingdom, may be 
 judged of from our being told that the unfoldings of the 
 scheme of redemption were things wliich " the angcla 
 desire to look into ; " that the Apostles, in their suffer- 
 ings and perils for the cause of Christ, were made a 
 spectacle to angels and men ; and that " tliere is joy in 
 the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that 
 repenteth " and is saved in Christ. 
 
 The next point of the statement is that Christ was 
 preached unto the Gentiles. Long before had it been 
 foretold, under the exclusive and preparatory dispen- 
 sation of the law, that the Gentiles should come to His 
 light, and kings to the brightness of His rising; nor 
 are there any passages of the Old Testament more vivid 
 in description, more ft rvent in feeling, more pregnant 
 with the grandeur of glorious anticipations, than those 
 which relate to the calling into the covenant of grace of 
 all the families of the earth, till, at last, " the earth shall 
 be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, 
 as the waters cover the sea." Yet the practical develop- 
 ment of this purpose, in all its amplitude of meaning, and 
 unreservedness of equal blessing to either brar-' '•f the 
 human family, was made the subject of a specie asion 
 to St. Peter, in order to open his mind to new and unex- 
 pected views ; and is described by St. Paul, in writing 
 to the Colossians, as a mystery " hid from ages and from 
 generations." And repeatedly, in other epistles, he 
 
HICUMON XVIT. 
 
 n(Iv(»r(H to it ill Himilnr liui;^ruii|r„.* A ^lorioim dcvfilnp- 
 
 tnciil, it wnM ; iiiid rclnrniijj; to liis own otnirKMitprivilcf^'o 
 
 ami ]K»iMilini' ('oinniiflHion in ilH ikIvujkm}, Im HiiyH, that to 
 
 liini it wnn giv«ui to prciacli anioiij^ tlio (ktUih'H tlio 
 
 loist'ifir/nth/r n'r/ws of Christ, lukliiijr tlic wonlH, "And 
 
 to iiiiikt^ III! iiioii Hoo what is tlio liillowHliip of tlio 
 
 iuyHt(My. vviiicli from tlio lu^glniiing of \\w world hath 
 
 Ihumi hid in Hod, Who nroatod nil thiiifrH by.hwiH (JhriHt." 
 
 And, thns, whoii wo pniy that (Jod'n Idmjdom. may 
 
 come, wo shonM think of such ])aHHn|,'('H m that in tho 
 
 Apoc!i,lypH(\ whoro an an^M>l is i)ictiir('d to uh in viHioii 
 
 as llyinj^' " in tho midst of h(>n,v(Mi, hiiviiig- tluHworliistiii.ty 
 
 (^OHpoI (o ])r(>(U'h to thom that dwoll on tho earth, and 
 
 to ovory nation, and kindri'd, and tongue, and peiJphj." 
 
 Tho Aposll(> sayH also, that Clirist was helitwd on in 
 
 the worlit. AhiH ! if wo take tho world io repres(«nt that 
 
 multitude who pass through the wide gate on tho 
 
 journ(>y of lif(>, and walk in tho • .oad way, wo know 
 
 too well thai Ho is not, to any i»uri)os(\ lidicird on in 
 
 the iror/<t, and that, by a, great i)ortion of it, Me was 
 
 openly, seornfully, and fiercely reje(!ted. " llo was in 
 
 tho world, and tho worUl was mado by llim, and tho 
 
 irorfd kiieir Hii„ „otr " The light shineth in darkness, 
 
 and tho darkness comprehended it not." "Ifyoworo 
 
 of tho world, thi^ world would love his own : but bocauso 
 
 ye aro not of th(< world, but I havo chosen you out of tlio 
 
 world, therefore tho world hateth you." "Tho friendship 
 
 of tho worUl is enmity with (Jod." " Marvel not, my 
 
 brethren, if tho world hate you." These aro among tho 
 
 * Rom. \vi. '.».'. ; 1 l\)r. ii. 7 ; K,,h. iij. 4, 5^ ,^0. ; Col. i. 20. 
 
TIfK MYHTKllY OF OODLINEHH. 
 
 231 
 
 (Icvolop- 
 ltrivil(»^o 
 ^, that to 
 tiU'H tilt? 
 H, "Ami 
 I of* tho 
 rid hath 
 I (JhriHt." 
 ot)h may 
 t in th(5 
 ri vinioii 
 u'lasiing 
 rth, an<l 
 iMjphj." 
 d on in 
 cut that 
 
 on tho 
 know 
 i on in 
 He wan 
 
 was in 
 uid tho 
 U'kness, 
 yo woro 
 hocauso 
 t of tho 
 'ndship 
 lot, my 
 oiig tho 
 
 20. 
 
 Hcatteml paHHaj^oH which Hulliuiontly warn tm tliat whon 
 it is said Ohrini wnH Idiv/ml on in ths vjorld, wo \m\ 
 not t(» Hatinly ournolvciH in falling in with hucIi a bclici 
 aH tho ])ortion of th(5 world at largo to whioli wo may 
 bolong, Ix'infj; now mmiinally (Miristian, may profoHS or 
 ()nt(irtain. Wo muHt Htill apply tho maxim, "IJo not 
 con/ornird to thin world, but bo yo f/mnnformi-d in tho 
 roiuiwing of your minds." IJut within tho limits of the 
 world which wo inhabit, whoro tho taros Jind the whcsat 
 grow t(»gothor till tho harvest, thoro liav(!, from tho first 
 proi)agation of tho Oosik)!, \mm thoso— and thoy will 
 bo soiiii at the last day (with tho addition of thoso who, 
 by anticipation, "looked for rodtjmption in Israel " and 
 " wnJked with (Jod "), to bo " agnsat Tnultitudc, which no 
 man could iiumbor, of all nations, and p(!oplo, and kin- 
 dred, and tongues," who have (iffeotnally closed with tho 
 olTers in nuMry in (Jhrist; who have followed up tho 
 privileg(!s whi(;h wv.rc. sealed to them upon their recep- 
 tion into the (jov(!nant; who havci hungcjred and thirsted 
 after righteousness, and found tho promise made good 
 to them, that they who so hunger and thirst shall be 
 filled. 
 
 Finally, the Apostle tells us that Christ was " received 
 up into (/Ion/." Tho Man Christ Jesus — tho I]a)>e l)orn 
 in tho manger at liethlehem — tho poor Wanderer Who 
 had not where to lay His li(!ad — tho I'risoncr arraigned 
 before Pilate, insulted, sjut upon, and scourged — the 
 Sufferer in the garden — the Martyr on tho tree, — has 
 loosened the bands of death, by which "it was not 
 possible that He should be holden ; " He mixes for a 
 
- ,T.,»'vr'-*?-*„ 
 
 232 
 
 SERMON XVII. 
 
 whil(j witli some fuvounul followers, and thou, all btung 
 rnmlml for which lie cunm down, md all in duo train 
 for planting His church and preaching His salvation 
 upon earth, and all ripo for His return to glory Ho 
 passes up, in their sight, to occupy His phu^o. in' His 
 ex.dted human nature, at Ood's right hand feu- ever- 
 more; '<far above all principality, and power, and 
 "iiglit, and dominion, and every name that is nmncd not 
 only in this world, but in that which is to come " Tiu.re 
 having achieved our redemption, He everliveth to make 
 intercession for us; and as the power which He wii^lds 
 m our behalf is a supreme and illimitable powcu-, so the 
 lountain of His love is never dry. He is gone to 
 prepare a place for us, that where He is, there we nmy 
 he also. Do we want, can we ask, more than this ? 
 lo pass from this world of sin and strife, of suffering 
 that we may share with Him the inheritance of glory ?-' 
 the inheritance (in each of the three points contrasted 
 with the most coveted acquisitions here below) "incor- 
 ruptible, undeliled, and that fadetli not away." 
 
SEIIMON XVIIl. 
 
 SINS AND GOOD WOIIKS MANIFKHT IJEFOKKIIAND. 
 
 1 Tim. V. 24, 2/J. 
 
 So)m men'H sins arc opm hr/orrJmmt, gotna UJorc, tn jwlgmflut ; and 
 mnr, m,m thqi follow after. JAkevmn nfso the good works of no7fUt 
 are manifed hrforchand ; and tlicy that are otherwm cannot he hid. 
 
 It will 1)0 seen from tho iinnuuliuto context of thia 
 l)a,s,sago that tluj Ai)08tl(5, interweavJn<r 8onio pasHing 
 advice and inHtruction of a personal kind to Timothy, 
 one of tho governors of tho early Church, is tr(5ating 
 of two points: first, tho exercise of discipline and 
 Church censure ; and secondly, tho caro and discrimi- 
 nation required in tho admission of aspirantw to ordina- 
 tion. And the words of tho text are h(5nc(5 very gene- 
 rally understood as having a connexion, particuhirly in 
 the former verse, with one or both of these two suhjcjcts. 
 With discipline and Church censure, thus : " Some m(!n's 
 sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment," i.e. 
 they are so flagrant and so plain upon tho very face of 
 tho matter, that all necessity lor any incpiisitorial pro- 
 cess is anticipated ; " and some thoy follow after," i.e. in 
 other instances the conviction of the offender is tho 
 result of investigation, or his bad character only appears 
 by some prolonged opportunity of observation. And 
 as regards the ordination of ministers, thus: "Some 
 
234 
 
 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 men's sins aro open beforehand, going before to judg- 
 ment," i.e. there are some wliose habits and deportment 
 present so obvious a disqualification that the case, upon 
 its first aspect, is decided and disposed of against them ; 
 " and some they follow after"— there are others who 
 may appear to afford satisfaction, and may pass for the 
 time, but who afterwards disappoint all sucli favourable 
 estimate ; and there is therefore the more reason for 
 "laying hands" (as the Apostle speaks just above) 
 "suddenly on no man;" for using the most deliberate 
 caution in the reception of candidates for the holy 
 ministry, in order to guard against the risk of trouble 
 with the delinquents, as well as of scandal in the 
 Church. 
 
 So, on the other, the favourable side— with reference 
 either to the good repute and allowed standing of the 
 laity as consistent and useful members of the Church 
 of God, and their full admission to Church privileges, 
 or with reference to the grounds of satisfaction and 
 comfortable assurance in adopting individuals for the 
 ministerial office, " the good works of some are mani- 
 fest beforehand." Some are so situated, so put forward 
 by circumstances, so gifted in themselves, and so pub- 
 licly tested in the exercise of their gifts, that there can 
 be no question entertained respecting their high and 
 acknowledged place in the general company of believers ; 
 or, as the ca^e may be, their eminent official fitness. 
 " And they that are otherwise cannot be hid." There 
 are qualities and actions different from these— there are 
 men whose Christian graces and excellences are not 
 
to judg- 
 iportment 
 ase, upon 
 ist them ; 
 hera who 
 s for the 
 ivourable 
 eason for 
 it above) 
 leliberate 
 the holy 
 f trouble 
 1 in the 
 
 reference 
 ig of the 
 > Church 
 rivileges, 
 tion and 
 i for the 
 re mani- 
 forward 
 so pub- 
 here can 
 dgh. and 
 elievers ; 
 I fitness. 
 ' There 
 :here are 
 are not 
 
 SINS AND GOOD WORKS MANIFEST BEFOREHAND. 235 
 
 called, in the same way, conspicuously into action : 
 their characters are retiring, their walk in life is per- 
 haps obscure ; yet, by the grace given them, they so 
 keep the noiseless tenor of their way, in an even march 
 of personal holiness, charity, and conscientious dis- 
 charge of duty among men, and devout humility towards 
 God, that from all who can appreciate the solid worth 
 of a disciple of Christ they win golden opinions, as it 
 were, in spite of themselves. 
 
 This appears to be the most natural and just explana- 
 tion of the words, "they that are otherwise cannot be 
 hid." A different explanation has been given, refer- 
 ring the expression, "they that are otherwise," to the 
 contrasted case of evil men, who can no more be hid 
 than those whose good works are manifest. But this 
 would amount to a mere repetition of what is said in 
 the former verse ; and destroys also that correspondence 
 or equilibrium which appears to have been intended 
 between the different parts of the two statements made, 
 respectively, concerning bad and good men. Tliere are 
 some more, some less conspicuously bad, but both bad : 
 some more, some less conspicuously good, but both good. 
 
 My brethren, I have thus endeavoured to explain the 
 passage chosen for our consideration in the particular 
 connexion in which it is found to stand. It is, how- 
 ever, very evidently susceptible of an aspect more com- 
 prehensive than any which relates merely to the exercise 
 of Church discipline, or the choice of ministers. Let 
 us, then, pursue the enquiry rather more at large, and, 
 by God's help, endeavour to profit by it. 
 
 (^ 
 
 A 
 
 l' 
 
 '"•'rT-JDWii 
 
-•"*-«»»!M»fc-<t..»i.. 
 
 236 
 
 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 
 And first of sin, in itself. " Some men's sins are 
 open beforehand : some they follow after." What is 
 this thing called sin, which meets us everywhere in the 
 Bible ; which is associated with danger, with death with 
 judgment, with wrath-the wrath of the everliting 
 God, present and to come ?— this sin of which the uni- 
 versal existence in this world, and the awful conse- 
 quences in the other, lie at the foundation of the whole 
 of that Gospel which we receive ; Christ having come, 
 "not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance ; " 
 having come into the world " to save sinners f having 
 been "made sin for us," exempt from sin Himself, 
 " that we might be made the righteousness of God in 
 Him ;" and presenting in His own person, His own 
 performance, and His own sacrifice, the means by 
 which God « justifieth the ungodly." 
 
 My brethren, the Apostles in different places and with 
 some variety of expression teU us what sin is : svn, 
 they say, "is the transgression of the law: " "where no 
 law is, there is no transgression." " I had not known 
 sin but by the law ; for I had not known lust,"— I 
 should not have been disturbed about the nature or 
 consequences of any irregular desire of whatever kind ; 
 I should not have had any proper perception of them,— 
 "except the law had said: Thou shalt not covet. I 
 was alive without the law once"— had no apprehension, 
 in my ignorance of the law, of incurring the penalty of 
 death ; " but when the commandment came, sin revived, 
 and I died," when the manifestation of the Divine will 
 which I had violated was brought home to me, the 
 
SINS AND GOOD WORKS MANIFEST BEFOREHAND. 237 
 
 image of my sin stood before me as something real and 
 terrific, and I felt that I had forfeited my soul. | 
 
 Yes, my brethren, God has given us a law, and taught 
 us to look forward to a day of judgment : He has given 
 us a conscience— the law written in our hearts : He has 
 given a revelation of His will into our hands. And 
 this law we have broken, and are continually breaking. 
 The great mass of mankind, indeed, but too broadly 
 furnish the illustration of the saying that "God is 
 angry with the wicked every day." But not only so ; 
 for "there is not a just man that Hveth and sinneth 
 not." " All have sinned, and come short of the glory of 
 God." " If we say that we have no sin, we" do, indeed, 
 " deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." It is our 
 nature to sin, the nature which we derive from Adam. 
 The law of God, the law of our own minds rightly in- 
 formed, and discerning things in their real character, is 
 holy, pure, heavenly, elevated, calculated to refine, to 
 exalt, to make us happy, to prepare us for immortal glory. 
 But there is "a law in our members warring against the 
 law of our minds. The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and 
 the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one 
 to the other." There is something continuaUy keeping us 
 down in our endeavours to rise above the baseness and 
 littleness of the world, perpetually dragging us back in 
 our advances towards every object worthy of the im- 
 mortal spirit within us. It is, in one shape or other, a 
 surrender to this corrupt proclivity of nature, inducing 
 an absolute forgetfulness, or at least obliterating any 
 efifectual remembrance of their high destiny, that we see 
 
 IH 
 
 w 
 
238 
 
 SERMON Xnil. 
 
 in most men ; it is a conflict, a struggle still to be main- 
 tained with it, although by the grace of our God, a 
 victorious conflict and struggle, that we see in the best. 
 
 The sins of men, according to the intimation of the 
 Apostle in our text, develop themselves in different 
 forms ; and it must be almost needless to point out 
 some of those sins which " are open beforehand, going 
 before to judgment" — reference being had to the judgment 
 of God Himself. The very fact of their being so open 
 might seem to spare all necessity of describing them. 
 The coarser and more revolting shapes of wickedness, 
 the crimes which carry the stamp of infamy in the 
 world; the scenes of human life which are to be wit- 
 nessed within the walls of the prison, or in the lowest 
 haunts of hardened iniquity, the exhibitions of ragged 
 drunkenness or of roaring profanity — these are portions 
 of the picture before our eyes, which the judgment of no 
 man will be suspended in assigning to their proper class 
 and character ; nor will any possible hesitation be felt 
 in pronouncing how they must appear in the judgment 
 of God. And yet these are the doings of men ; — we are 
 of the same family ourselves, however we may disown 
 connexion with what we regard as its reprobate branches ; 
 — and it is well for us to consider how the sins and 
 vices which prevail in different circles of human society 
 are, after all, so shaded off, that it is the same tint of 
 iniquity which runs through the whole. How many 
 things are tolerated and connived at in the respectable 
 walks of life, which, under whatever varnish of refine- 
 ment, have still the undeniable character of sin, and if 
 
 Ik 
 
 t i 
 
SINS AND GOOD WORKS MANIFEST BEFOREHAND. 239 
 
 brought to this test, hm/j do they look in the sight of God? 
 —the only touchstone of wliat is right or wrong, safe 
 or dangerous to the soul of man— must be put down at 
 once as unequivocally wrong, unquestionably dangerous, 
 " open beforehand, going before to judgment." Neglect 
 of the plainest religious duties— commission of things 
 plainly forbidden— indulgence in habits plainly at va- 
 riance with the purity and holiness and meekness 
 required in the Gospel— a loose and easy morality in 
 the departments of human conduct to which that word 
 is more familiarly applied— an avowed system of re- 
 turning, in certain cases, not good, but evil, for evil, per- 
 haps an exaction of blood for a passing, casual afl'ront— 
 a prodigal, unreflecting, unfeeling pursuit of gratifica- 
 tions beyond all reach of means at command to pay for 
 them— an unscrupulous recourse to intrigue and decep- 
 tion to carry on the public scheme or the political 
 purpose which may be in hand— a received principle, a 
 recognised practice of falsification in substituting the 
 spurious for the genuine article, and other arts of the 
 same stamp, in the common transactions of business- 
 measure all this by the standard of the world, the so- 
 called Christian world, it may pass, or a great deal of it 
 may pass, perhaps, unchallenged ; but is it, my brethren, 
 is it in the broad way, or in the narrow, that men are 
 walking who walk thus ? and what is, respectively, the 
 end of those two roads ? and what does it import to a 
 being with a never-dying soul, that, at the end of his 
 road, he misses life and encounters destruction ? 
 
 So far, then, we have considered cases to which there 
 
 I mil 
 
240 
 
 SERMON XVIir. 
 
 :! 
 
 i 
 
 is no doubt attaching. I do not mean to say (as may 
 appear from remarks already made) tliat all persons 
 will, without doubt, condemn themselves, or be con- 
 demned by others like themselves, who are following 
 the courses which have been just described. The loo.^est 
 livers and the most irreligious characters (practically 
 speaking) will drop, upon occasion, some careless ex- 
 pression, implying their hope of being in the way to 
 heaven. But no person who takes breathing-space to 
 think upon the world unseen, and our preparation for it 
 here, can come to the conclusion that preparation is to 
 be made in such a manner as this. let us, then, 
 conjure the self-destroying sinner, the thoughtless and 
 ungodly child of the world, the alien, of whatever class, 
 from his God — let us conjure him to give himself that 
 breathing-space— to say to himself, " Here I am upon 
 the face of the world, like others that como and go. 
 
 How did I come here ? — what have I to do here ? 
 
 —whither am I going, when I go ? " You came here by 
 the pleasure of the Eternal God. What you have to do 
 here is to serve Him, to do good in your generation, to 
 prepare for a world beyond ; whither you are going 
 when you go, must depend upon your profiting by the 
 mercy of that God in His Son Jesus ^Jhrist, and 
 embracing the salvation which He offers to you. Are 
 you doing that ?— What ! when you are living without 
 
 one serious or effectual thought of God and your soul 
 
 when you are living simply and solely for the things of 
 this world and your own carnal indulgence— when, in 
 the pride of your heart and the fulness of misused 
 
 
 .■ 
 
SINS AND GOOD WORKS MANIFEST BEFOREHAND. 241 
 
 enjoyments, you uctuoUy disdain such a thought as that 
 of taking upon you the yoke of Clirist, and h^arning of 
 Him Who was "meek and lowly in heart " ? Oh no ' 
 you are not-you cannot think that you are laying up 
 treasure for yourself in heaven-you cannot, at this 
 rate, think that your " life is hid with Christ in God • " 
 and if tliat he plainly not the case, what is the alter- 
 native ?--what are you then doing but treasuring up 
 to yourself " wrath against the day of wrath and revola- 
 tion of the righteous j udgment of God ? " " Flee," then 
 in time, " from the wrath to come." Turn, like the pub^ 
 hcan Zaccheeus-like the woman who was a sinnor— 
 like the thief upon the cross-no matter what the 
 description or what the degree of your guUt-if you are 
 not in a state of reconciliation with God through Christ 
 you are lost, and that is enough-turn as they turned' 
 and you will be saved: the words will be spoken to you 
 which were spoken to them: "This day is salvation 
 come to this house; " « Tliy sins are forgiven thee • " and 
 m your dying hour, " To-day shalt thou be with' Me in 
 Paradise." But when we speak of being in a state of 
 reconciliation with God through Christ, we may be a 
 long way from this, although we may be cl.ar of those 
 gross and palpable transgressions, which afford the 
 means of pronouncing at once and beyond all question 
 upon our case. There are many men whose tenor of 
 conduct does not serve to anticipate our unfavourable 
 judgment upon their characters, and to supei-sede all 
 necessity of enquiry, yet who are not sound at heart; 
 
 B 
 
242 
 
 8KKM0N XVIII. 
 
 I 
 
 I . 
 
 nud wo do not hero speak of nion delibomtely uiidor a 
 mask, who 
 
 "have within them undivulgod crimen, 
 Unwhiptof juitice:" 
 
 but men who prosorve, possibly, an unoxcoptionable 
 moral deportment and an exterior decency in re- 
 ligion, yet whoso bosoms aro nntouchod by the 
 living power of religion, and whose principles aro 
 not proof in the hour of trial; whose concealed but 
 uneradicated sins will, perhaps, betray themselves in 
 some unexpected manner, or break out with a sudden 
 vioicViOe, when certain restraints may happen to be 
 removed, or certain circumstances may present a new 
 temptation. Happy for such men if, while they are 
 resting in the mere formalities of duty, they, too, could 
 be brought to look unsparingly into themselves, and to 
 remember that they are under the eye of One Wlio is 
 gi-eater than their own " heart, and knoweth all things ; " 
 One to Whom " all things are naked and open ; " One 
 Wlio will yet "bring every work into judgment with 
 every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it 
 be evn." 
 
 We must now consider briefly the corresponding 
 representation made by the Apostle, in its two parts, of 
 the virtues exhibited by the true Christian : " Likewise 
 also the good works of some are manifest beforehand ; 
 and they that are otherwise cannot be hid." 
 
 The Christian character — the character which belongs 
 to a disciple of Jesus — ^is something engrafted upon the 
 
BINS AND GOOD WORKS MANIFEST DKFOREIIAND. 243 
 
 liuman subjoot. It is not of *ho original growth of tho 
 plant Tho plant, we may well s-iy, is inado to wonder 
 at its new productions and fruits, which are not its own. 
 They ai-e " tho fruits of tho Spirit." The man is therefore 
 said to bo "a new creature in Christ Jesus"— a descrip- 
 tion whiolj, like other equivalent expressions, has been 
 embarrassed in the hands of unskilful, enthusiastic, 
 or vainglorious religionists, with many hurtful human 
 imaginations and many fallacious tests, but which 
 simply imports that his heart - iid temper are moulded 
 anew ; that tho vices of his old nature are cunjd ; that 
 his affections, his sentiments, his motives of action, his 
 pursuits and habits, receive a new character impressed 
 upon them from above, and his hopes are set upon a 
 new object, and for attaining it find a new dependence. 
 ' He recognises, as his ruling principle, the love of Christ 
 "Who died for him, and he guides himself in all things 
 by a constant and direct reference to the Word of God, 
 Kow the light which he thus receives is not given 
 to be "put under a bushel, or under a bed;" it is 
 to be set "on a candlestick, that they which come in 
 may see the light." He is to let his light so shine 
 before men that they may see his good works, and 
 thence be led to glorify his Father Which is in heaven, 
 be prompted to acknowledge the Divine source of a 
 religion which can produce such blessed effects. His 
 advantages capable of being turned to a high and 
 happy account, his opportunities of doing good by his 
 example, his means of usefulness and beneficence, are 
 all so many talents entrusted to him upon which he is 
 
 r2 
 
r*' -a«ui3a ii iifr» < 
 
 244 
 
 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 i 
 
 '!! 
 
 
 V 
 
 to gain. And thus, in proportion as his sphere of 
 action is extended — in proportion as his position is 
 advantageous — ^in proportion as his resources are multi- 
 plied,--in such proportion his "good works are manifest 
 beforehand." And he learns — it is a secret necessary to 
 be learnt in the school of Christ — perfectly to combine 
 and reconcile the observance of those precepts which 
 we have just considered respecting the recommendation 
 of his faith by his personal conduct in tlie eye of the 
 world, and respecting the open part which he is to take 
 in doing the work of God upon earth, with those which 
 charge it upon him to let his alms be in secret, and 
 not to let his left hand know what is done by the 
 right. It is of his Master, not of himself, that he is to 
 think ; it is for the glory of his Master, not for his own 
 credit, that he is to be concerned. And (as we have 
 had occasion to notice before, in the more confined 
 application of our text) however unobtrusive and re- 
 tiring may be his character, however small his oppor- 
 tunities, however shady and secluded the track which 
 he treads, his conduct and deportment in his genuine 
 exercise of Christian graces cannot he hid. They that 
 are otherwise — the performances of some men who are 
 differently situated from those whose " good works are 
 manifest beforehand " — still canvM he hid ; the influence 
 of these men is felt ; and, virtue having gone out from 
 their Lord to work within them a happy effect, a happy 
 contagion is communicated from them to others witli 
 whom they are engaged in life. They are " acceptable to 
 God, and approved of men." And although it be within 
 
 
SINS AND GOOD WORKS MANIFEST BEFOREHAND. 245 
 
 a narrow circle that they are known at all, and by the 
 world at large they are perfectly content to find them- 
 selves overlooked, they cannot, in any case, be hid from 
 Him who saw, in his sheltered retirement, the Israelite 
 indeed in whom was no guile. They stand, in His sight, 
 above many who make a noise, even in religious doings, 
 in the world ; and their case will serve, among other 
 instances, to verify the saying of the Lord, that " many 
 that are first shall be last, and the last first." 
 
 
" T3pffi.---i,:^;f^imff,wft,. 
 
 SERMON XIX. 
 
 GOD IN CREATION AND PROVIDENCE. 
 
 f ■ 
 
 m 
 
 ISA. XLV. 18. 
 
 For thus saiih the Lord tliat created the heavens; Ood Himself that, 
 formed the earth and made it ; He hath established it. He created it 
 not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord, and tliere 
 is none else. 
 
 The survey of creation, in all its amplitude and vast- 
 ness, no less than the examination of its details in all 
 their varied infinity and elaborate minuteness, suggests 
 to the thoughtful mind the profoundest sentiments of 
 awe and veneration, of wonder and grateful devotion. 
 We have, in that survey, a book spread before us, 
 stamped everywhere with the characters of divinity, 
 impressed with the glowing evidences of illimitable 
 power and all-wise contrivance, combining, in their 
 exercise, with inexhaustible goodness and mercy. The 
 lessons which men may thus read as they run, leave 
 them, as is declared by the Apostle Paul, without 
 excuse, if they fail to lay them to heart and to make 
 the inferences which he indicates ; " the invisible things 
 of God," being, as he says in a strong figure of speech, 
 "clearly seen," and the " eternal power and Godhead" 
 of the Almighty " being understood by the things that 
 * Preached before the St. George's Society of Quebec, 1857. 
 
GOD IN CREATION AND PROVIDENCE. 
 
 247 
 
 iare made." So, in his address at Lystra, recorded in 
 the Acts, — earnestly and passionately repudiating the 
 homage offered to himself and his fellow-labourer, and 
 directing it upward to the invisible Supreme, — he points 
 out to the ignorant idolaters that this God had never 
 left " Himself without witness, in that He did good, and 
 gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling 
 our hearts with food and gladness." And it would not 
 be difficult to cite some remarkable passages from the 
 more eminent of the heathen philosophers, exceedingly 
 pertinent here to our purpose — passages tracing, in 
 eloquent language, the Creator through His works, 
 though standing in unhappy conjunction with the 
 grossest darkness upon essential points of religion. 
 They are flashes of light which break out through an 
 almost impenetrable gloom. But the Bible, the book 
 of God's revelation, instructs and prepares us rightly to 
 study the book of nature ; and the voice of revelation 
 continually calls upon us to contemplate with solemn 
 attention, and with fervent gratitude, the wonderful 
 works of God displayed to the eye of sense. The 
 Psalms overflow everywhere '^ ith bursts of devout 
 feeling, prompted by this coi^templation ; and while 
 they point to the heavens as declaring the glory of 
 God, and the firmament as showing His handywork, 
 carry us also into all the departments of this magni- 
 ficent creation, and unfold before us all the scenes and 
 stores of nature, all the large and varied provision 
 which exists for the wants of the animal world ; all the 
 action of the elements, whether in those ordinary opera- 
 
248 
 
 SERMON XIX. 
 
 tions in whicli they minister to the convenience and 
 enjoyment of mankind, or in those occasional forms 
 of terrific disturbance in which they remind us of an 
 awful power, armed with the engines of judicial inflic- 
 tion, as well as clothed with the attributes of grace and 
 mercy, which from end to end controls the universe, 
 and rules the lot of its inhabitants. The same prophet 
 from whom our text has been taken, earnestly warning 
 the people against their continual proneness to adopt 
 or imitate the stupid systems of idolatry by which 
 they were surrounded, appeals as well to their common 
 powers of observation and reflection, as to their trans- 
 mitted and peculiar advantages, and chai^res them in a 
 strain of animated expostulation, such as may be 
 instanced in the words, " Have ye not known ? have ye 
 not heard? hath it not been told you from the begin- 
 ning ? have ye not understood from the foundations of 
 th' earth ? It is He," i.e. it is Jehcvah, the Uving God, 
 "that sitteth upon the circle of the earth." And then 
 pointing out the perverse folly and absurdity of 
 attempting to represent by an artificial likeness, in 
 order to religious veneration, the Author of all the 
 stupendous effects to be witnessed in nature, and the 
 providential Ruler of the world, he adds, further on, 
 " Lift up your eyes on high, and behold Who hath 
 created these things, that bringeth out their host by 
 nur-ber : He calleth them all by their names, by the 
 gre«.ness of His might, for that He is strong in power ; 
 not one faileth." 
 
 The Scripture abounds in similar calls upon the 
 
GOD IN CllEATION AND mOVIDENCE. 
 
 249 
 
 nee and 
 il forms 
 IS of an 
 il inflic- 
 'aeo anci 
 iniverse, 
 prophet 
 warning 
 adopt 
 '■ which 
 iommon 
 ir trans- 
 om in a 
 nay be 
 liavfl ye 
 5 begin- 
 tions of 
 ig God, 
 id then 
 dity of 
 less, in 
 all the 
 md the 
 ler on, 
 hath 
 lost by 
 by the 
 power ; 
 
 )n the 
 
 creature, man, to discern the hand of the Creator in His 
 works. The poor savage, if, as poetically doscribe<l, he 
 saw God in clouds and heard Him in the wind, would 
 so far be right. But neither the untutored child of 
 nature, nor the sago of the civilized and lettered world, 
 nor the collective and concentrated wisdom of nations 
 illustrious in arms and arts, and alive to the necessity of 
 a public religion, have, at any time, in point of fad, — 
 whatever, in point of reason fairly exercised, they ought 
 to have done — arrived at any just notions of God, or of 
 the origin and first formation of the world and its living 
 inhabitants. Those of the most ambitious pretensions 
 among them " professing themselves to be wise, became 
 fools." Nothing, it is well known, can be more childish, 
 nothing more frivolous, nothing can be more gross, 
 nothing more impure and debasing than the fables 
 which, with whatever incidental mixture of traditionaiy 
 truth or of particulars borrowed, but distorted in the 
 bon'owing, from a sacred source, are found in all their 
 varieties, and in all ages, and all parts of the world, to 
 constitute the features of heathen mythology. And 
 with reference to the actual history of creation, it is a 
 subject of which man knows nothing, and can know 
 nothing, except from the simple account, sublime in its 
 simplicity, which is given in the Bible, "In the be- 
 ginning God created the heaven and the earth." The 
 simple fiat of His word, the bare signification of His 
 pleasure, the brief unlaboured promulgation of His will 
 that so things should be, caused them at once to be so. 
 " By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and 
 
iW^-..^> 
 
 [i; 
 
 E'i 
 
 i 
 
 I r 
 
 ! .1'.' 
 
 6 ' 
 
 250 
 
 SERMON XIX. 
 
 all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. 
 For He spake and it was done : He commanded and it 
 stood fast." The principle of creative power, the energy 
 which brought out into existence aU that we see in this 
 rolUng universe, in this moving and breathing world, 
 and which assigned its proper function in perpetuity to 
 every part, is found in those words which are cited as a 
 signal example of sublimity by the celebrated heathen 
 critic Longinus, " And God said, Let there be light ; and 
 there was light." Then comes the order of succession 
 in the several portions of the work, and the gradation 
 observable in its different departments, as distributed 
 through the tis consecutive days, the whole closing with 
 the formation of man,who has been called the masterpiece 
 of ^ God on earth. "And God," we are told, " saw every- 
 thing that He had made, and behold it was very good." 
 Alas ! the change soon came ; the blight quickly passed 
 upon creation ; the mischief which was to mar the 
 scene was not long in breaking loose ; the traces of the 
 early curse which came through sin are intermingled 
 everywhere, and in all the diversified forms and 
 variegated aspects of moral and natural evil, with what 
 amply remains to us of veri/ good— they pervade every- 
 where the glorious workmanship of God. The tares 
 and the wheat grow together till the harvest. The face 
 of creation, the history of the race, and the conscious- 
 ness of his own case in the breast of the individual 
 child of Adam, testify alike to the reality of the tale 
 told us in the Bible. We look abroad upon a world, we 
 recall a past, age by age, we contemplate n, self, all of 
 
GOD IN CBEATION AND PROVIDENCE. 
 
 251 
 
 which bring us to the same result; and, without or 
 within, in that which has been or that which is, we 
 encounter the confirmation of the Fall of man. There 
 is one voice wherever we take our stand, and one voice 
 sent up from all around us, which is the echo of the 
 voice of God in Revelation. And all this suggests the 
 sense of desperate want, and prepares us for the great 
 disclosure of the remedy. Christ, the same Christ Who 
 was the Creating Word, Who " was in the beginnmg with 
 God, and was God," " by Whom all things were made," 
 and without Whom " was not anything made that was 
 made," was promised from the beginning as the Seed of 
 the woman ordained to bruise the serpent's head, was 
 represented all along to the eye of faith, in the con- 
 tinuous chain of prophecy and type, till, in the fulness 
 of time, He came " in the likeness of sinful flesh," a man 
 among men, to repair the ravages of Satan, " to put away 
 sin by the sacrifice of Himself," and to "make all things 
 new " in the establishment of a kingdom of grace. His 
 Church upon earth is ordained to be " an eternal excel- 
 lency, a joy of many generations ;" and the Gospel is 
 travelling on to its appointed mark, till " the earth shall 
 be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as 
 the waters cover the sea." 
 
 The place which man was originally commissioned to 
 fill in creation, and the gradual development of the 
 divine plans for peopling the earth and distributing 
 over its surface, by arrangements which were prospec- 
 tive in their character, the different races of the human 
 family, must be regarded in connexion with a train laid 
 
•M!i|***-i-- 
 
 252 
 
 SERMON XIX. 
 
 ■I 
 
 i:! 
 
 ■I I 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 1^1 
 
 for the advance of human happiness, and the progress 
 of social improvement ; the leaven of the Gospel, in 
 these later ages, working, although often insensibly, its 
 blessed effect upon the mass with which it is in contact, 
 and prompting and helping on the general amelioration 
 of the world. In the blessing conveyed to our first 
 parents before the fall, they are charged to " be fruitful, 
 and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it," 
 and the formal and solemn grant of dominion is made 
 to them, and, in them, to their children, over the whole 
 animal world, together with the use of all the alimentary 
 productions of vegetable nature. Next to that of 
 creation itself, the most remarlcable occurrence in the 
 physical history of the world is the judgment of the 
 Hood ; and the patriarch who, with the seven members of 
 his family, survived that universal catastrophe, receives 
 a renewal, nearly in the same terms, of the grant made 
 in the state of innocence, with the addition— for the 
 death of the creature was now a familiar thing— of 
 the use of animal food. "Into your hand are they 
 delivered," is a commission which, taken in its utmost 
 comprehensiveness, may well be understood as making 
 over to mankind all the benefits of the vast creation of 
 God ; all to be received as a gracious gift, and, at the 
 same time, a responsible trust directly from the hand of 
 Omnipotence. Tlie influences of the planetaiy system, 
 the processes of vegetation, the properties seated in an 
 endless catalogue of natural objects which man is gifted 
 with the sagacity to discover, the calculating power to 
 adapt and combine, and the manual skill to bring into 
 
 
 
GOD IN CREATION AND PROVIDENCE. 
 
 253 
 
 progress 
 )spel, in 
 sibly, its 
 
 contact, 
 lioration 
 our first 
 
 fruitful, 
 xlue it," 
 is made 
 le whole 
 niontary 
 
 that of 
 ! in the 
 
 of the 
 rubers of 
 receives 
 [it made 
 -for the 
 ling — of 
 re they 
 
 utmost 
 making 
 ition of 
 , at the 
 hand of 
 system, 
 i in an 
 3 gifted 
 5wer to 
 ig into 
 
 
 
 activity ; the winds, the tides, the rivers, and the intor- 
 minablo deep ; the fertile bosom of earth, the quarries, 
 the mineral stores within her bowels, the countless 
 varieties of the forest, the tield, and the garden; 
 the wild beasts who yield their shaggy covering, the 
 domestic animals who are formed and contrived in nice . 
 and diversified adaptation to diff(^rent specific re(iuiro- 
 ments on the part of their earthly lord, all are made 
 tributary to man. All which can supply his wants, all 
 which can minister to his convenience and comfort, all 
 which can be turned to account in the commerce of the 
 world and the advancement of science, or can contribute 
 to the embellishment of life— all, all is made ready for 
 his use, and placed freely at his disposal. " Into your 
 hand are they delivered." " The heavens are the Lord's, 
 but the earth hath He given to the children of men." 
 O, happy if they could always recognise the Hand which 
 gives them their daily bread, and in the survey of 
 creation in all its profusion of stores and its loveliness 
 of ornament, could be prompted to break into the 
 devout exclamation of a Christian poet, " My Father 
 made them all!" 0, happy if they could feelingly 
 adopt as a living sentiment within their bosoms, in its 
 application to the material as well as to the spiritual 
 world, the declaration of an Apostle, that " every good 
 gift and every perfect gift is from above." 
 • In tracing that distribution to which we have re- 
 ferred, of different sections of the posterity of Adam 
 over the face of the globe, we find it stated that 
 "the sons of Noah were Shem, Ham, and Japheth," 
 
254 
 
 SERMON XIX. 
 
 (the lapetm of profane story), and of them ultimately 
 " was the whole earth overspread." A remarkable combi- 
 nation, however, ^^ ..covaud, occurring within the lifetime 
 of Noah, ot men who, in forgetfulness if not in open 
 defiance of the God above them, projected and com- 
 .menced a prodigious and unequalled work, by which 
 their own names (as they vainly iimgiued) were to be 
 immortalized, and which was to be the centre and the 
 means of consolidation for a far-extended dominion 
 which they aspired to found. The tower which they 
 were engaged in constructing within their new city was 
 probably an idolatrous temple, it has been supposed 
 by learned men to have been, after completion by other 
 hands, the tower of Bclus, the idol-god Bel of Holy 
 Scripture, which is mentioned by Herodotus, who lived 
 nearly 500 years before Christ, as existing in his own 
 day at Babylon. At least 'it is supposed to have 
 afforded the foundation of that structure. The authors 
 of this combination had it for their professed object to 
 prevent their being " scattered abroad upon the face of the 
 whole earth." But the purpose of God was the opposite 
 of theirs ; and tlie thing which they laid their plans to 
 avert was precisely the thing which was ordained to 
 befall them. " The whole earth was of one language 
 and of one speech." But God Who " made man's 
 mouth," Who framed him with the power of articu- 
 lation, and taught him the use of words— Who can, at 
 any moment, make the mechanism of which He is the 
 author in all the faculties of mind and body bestowed 
 upon man, operate in any new way that He pleases,— 
 
GOD IN CREATION AND PROVIDENCE. 
 
 266 
 
 Who, upo one instructive occasion, put words into the 
 mouth of tlie dumb ass, to rebuke the madness of a 
 prophet— God, at a stroke, confounded their language, 
 tliat they could " not understand one another's speech." 
 It may here be observed, by the way, that this memo- 
 rable exerciso of miraculous power, in which we find 
 the origin of the diversity of tongues among mankind, 
 was, in a manner, reversed, although to a limited extent, 
 in the no loss memorable display of the day of Pen- 
 tecost, and the continuance, for a time, of the gift of 
 tongues, in order to expedite the propagation of the 
 Gospel over the world. Of the miracle now under our 
 notice, the immediate effect was to part off, here and 
 there, in separate bodies, the several portions of the 
 community who respectively spoke the same language, 
 and so to provide for the occupation of new tracts of 
 country, and to lay the foundation of different nations 
 and commonwealths. 
 
 It is a signal and a melancholy illustration of the 
 inherited debasement of our nature, that the leading 
 points of history are intertwined, in the chain of causes 
 and effects, with the record of personal o national sins. 
 The oldest and most authentic history in the world, 
 found in the pages of the Bible, is pregnant with testi- 
 monies of this description. The people marked out by 
 the hand oi God as the depositaries of His truth, and 
 the channel of future blessing to all the families of the 
 earth, — that people, sufficiently notorious themselves 
 fo^ their continual provocations and rebellions, were 
 rescued from their bondage by a series of wonderful 
 
■^aB***-. 
 
 256 
 
 SERMON XIX. 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 n 
 
 ! 
 
 judgments inflicted upon tlieir obdurate masters in 
 1^4,'yi)t, and were seated in the promised land by the 
 awful excision of the Canaanitish nations, whose enor- 
 mities are represented as if tlie very eartli herself vomited 
 them forth from her bosom. The Israelites, under 
 Joshua, in the fresher recollection of all the marvels 
 which had been wrought for them, typically represent- 
 ing the spiritual deliverance of mankind at large by 
 another Je»its, proclaim their determined and unalter- 
 able adherence to the Lord Jehovah, upon the ground, 
 as they state their own case, that " the Lord our God, 
 He it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the 
 land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and Which 
 did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in 
 all the way wherein we went, and among all the people 
 through whom we passed. And the Lord drave out 
 from before us all the people, even the Amorites which 
 dwelt ill the land : therefore will we also serve the Lord, 
 for He is our God." 
 
 It was a noble and happy conclusion to which they 
 were brought ; and to some notice of the circumstances 
 which prompted it we may shortly have occasion to 
 retrrn : let us, in the meantime, consider that the same 
 Almighty Disposer of events Whose intervention in the 
 earlier stages of the world was signalized to the nations 
 in broad miraculous display, directs and controls, to the 
 end of time, the destinies of the race. " He hath made 
 of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the 
 face of the earth, and hath determined the times before 
 
 ;m t 
 
(JOD IN C'lUiATlON AND rUOVIDKNCE. 
 
 2i>i 
 
 appointed, and tlu; bounds of tlioir luibitation, that tliey 
 jsliould 8(wk tlio Lord." 
 
 It is an attributo of the (Jodhoad, a peculiar proroga- 
 tivo of till) Majesty on bij^'b, a feature in tlio adminis- 
 tration of affairs below by supreme and inscrutable 
 wisdom, to use the instnnnentality of free and respon- 
 sible agents, without im])airing their freedom or nullify- 
 ing their responsibility, in carrying on the general phins 
 and accomplishing the, special purposes of Divine 
 Providence. The actions of men and the events of 
 history are ovcwuled to this end ; and, in the very 
 deeds of tlus most atrocious wickedness, ukui are found, 
 with reference to the issue and the (effect, to be doing 
 what His hand and His "counsel determined before to 
 bo done." Tiie time will not permit us to trace our way 
 onward through the historic pages of the lUbh^, or that 
 portion of secular history which is linked with the 
 fortunes of the Church of God. Nor shall I do more 
 than barely glance at those most wonderfully exact 
 prophecies of Daniel which relate to the four great 
 (iarthly empires to be succeeded by the kingdom of 
 (Jhrist on earth, or those sublime and mysterious 
 pictures in the Revelation of St. John, of which the 
 fuller development of events themselves must furnish 
 the key, yet of certain prominent points, in which wo 
 cannot fail to make the plain application to past or 
 existing realities of the world. Suffice it to say, that 
 the train of human affairs is not left loosely to take its 
 own course, and the series of events to jostle fortuitously 
 the one against th^ other. The reins are reserved in 
 
rn'mmm n-'uses^.j^^ . 
 
 253 
 
 SERMON XIX. 
 
 the hands of God. In all the changes and chances of 
 the world, in all the revolutions of kingdoms and states, 
 in all the results worked out by political struggles and 
 convulsions, or other painful experience in what may be 
 called the life of nations, the same great ends of Divine 
 wisdom are kept constantly in view. Look at all the 
 achievements of science, at all the discoveries of virtues 
 and properties in nature, locked against a loner succes- 
 sion of ages, but only laid by for a crisis demanding 
 more extended grants of power to the delegated lords of 
 this lower creation ; such as, in the one instance, the art 
 of printing, in the other the magnetic indication of the 
 north, and, in our own day, the application of steam to 
 the means of vectitation by sea or by land, and that 
 wonder above all these other wonders, the recourse to 
 electricity for the rapid, the almost instantaneous trans^ 
 mission of intelligence, even through the depths of the 
 ocean, to distant lands. Look again, at all the various 
 stimulating incitements of a novel kind, so addressing 
 themselves, in different quarters of the world, to the 
 love of gain, to the spirit of adventure, to the taste for 
 exploring and exhuming the monuments of a remote 
 and mighty past, or to the yearnings of Christian 
 philanthropy on an extended scale, as to give impulse 
 to the continual movement of enterprising individuals, 
 or the migration of large bodies of men ; in all, my 
 brethren, which has been here enumerated, singly or 
 collectively, we behold the development, we discern the 
 practical application of the Divine principle, we see 
 it in activity, that Qod Himself that formed the earth, 
 
 rJ m 
 
GOD IN CREATION AND PEOVIDENCE, 
 
 259 
 
 created it not in vain ; He formed it to he inhabited ; 
 and within His purpose is the recognition on the part 
 of man, of the truth that He is the Lord and there is 
 none else. 
 
 The context of the passage, as may be seen by any 
 who consult it, points distinctly to the extension of 
 Gospel grace to all the ends of the earth. The visible 
 agents in those dazzling enterprises and diversified 
 operations to which we have just adverted, verify too 
 often the words of Scripture applied to another kind 
 of occasion—" Howbeit he meancth not so, neither doth 
 his heart think so"— their energy and zeal are too apt to 
 be absorbed in their worldly object ; but God is opening 
 up the world to ameliorate its general condition, and 
 to draw together more and more, in fraternal bonds of 
 sacred formation, the different branches of the family 
 of maa 
 
 I shall not dwell upon a particular topic, although 
 it has been my aim and desire to suggest it to your 
 
 thoughts in connexion with our subject throughout, 
 
 and indeed it very obviously presents itself upon the 
 present occasion, and has acccrdinglj been noticed upon 
 the occun'ence of the anniversary before — I mean the 
 topic of that great commission which, in the providential 
 distributions of the hand of God, appears to have been 
 given to the Anglo-Saxon race dispersed, and that under 
 different national auspices, far and wide over the globe, 
 to carry abroad in every direction those principles and 
 those privileges which have given them their a&cendancy 
 and eminence in the world. I shall only indicate, upon 
 
260 
 
 SERMON XIX. 
 
 this point, the application which may be made to the 
 case of the British population in these countries of the 
 case of the Israelites of old. There were no such people 
 as the Canaanites in Canada or the suri'ounding regions ; 
 and, if there had been, it would not have been the part 
 of Christians to exterminate them. We are debtors — 
 deeply are we debtors — to these barbarians, to benefit 
 alike their souls and bodies. But it was decreed in the 
 counsels of God, that the race which occupied the land, 
 and in whose hands it would have remained one vast, 
 unbroken, howling wilderness, should give way to a 
 civilized and Christian population, and finally, that the 
 territory should pass, with all the consequences attaching 
 to such a transfer, under the power of the British crown. 
 Within the depths of its dense and boundless forests, 
 while tenanted only by wild beasts, and wilder men, 
 wliat stores, what inexhaustible stores were treasured uj) 
 for tlie subsequent exercise of human industry and art ! 
 Without attempting a complete enumeration, here is n 
 soil ready to teem undei' the hand of labour with agricul- 
 tural proct ice — materials on the spot (besides numerous 
 quarries providing for prouder and more durable edi- 
 fices) for constructing all needful habitations with 
 rapidity and ease, the same materials furnishing a 
 staple article of most extended commerce, as well as 
 the means, in profusion, of a briskly-driven trade in 
 ship-building : Vast chains of communication and con- 
 veyance by river and lake : Abundant fisheries upon a 
 prodigious scale, and yielding large yearly exports, in 
 the Gulf: As the country advances new supplies, new 
 
GOD IN CREATION AND PROVIDENCE. 
 
 201 
 
 resources opened day by day in Lower Canada aloue, 
 reminding us of the " land whose stones are iron, and 
 out of whose Jiills thou niayest dig brass ; " for, take 
 only the eastern townships and the county of Megantic, 
 and you find within those limits that the industry of 
 man is beginning to direct itself to the stores there 
 ready to his hand, of marble, of slate, of copper, of soap- 
 stone believed to be the best in North America, and 
 oth(;r minor productions of the mineral kingdom. The 
 very rigours of the climate answering to a description 
 found in the Psalms, " He giveth snow like wool, and 
 scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes : He casteth forth His 
 ice like morsels : who can stand before His cold ? " afford 
 their share of convenience— incalculable facilities of 
 transport in those earlier stages of settlement which are 
 often marked by almost impracticable summer roads, 
 and ready means for preserving animal food, for months 
 together, in an untainted condition— a compensatory 
 provision, serving to diminish the large demand for 
 fodder which the length of the winter would otherwise 
 create. 
 
 God, Who created not the earth in vain, Who formed 
 it to he inhabited, has opened the door, in these coun- 
 tries, to the redundant population pushed out from 
 the old world. He has introduced, He has established 
 here, a people under British rule. While we cultivate 
 the most friendly and cordial relations with all our 
 fellow-subjects — while we breathe tov/ards all men 
 living a spirit of charity and peace — we may cling, 
 without violation of these principles or sentiments, to 
 
262 
 
 SERMON XIX. 
 
 British institutions; we may indulge English feelings 
 and sympathies; we may cherish the home of our 
 fathers in the associations of memory and thought. 
 
 But, in the meantime, if our advantages are signally 
 high —if during the recent celebration of a marvel* 
 accomplished in the facilities of intercourse between two 
 mighty nations, we took into our survey of conse- 
 quences effects which flatter our national self-satisfac- 
 tion, and n'-uister to many proud anticipations — let us 
 remember, with reference to the good which we are 
 made capable of effecting in the world at large, and the 
 manner of effecting it, and its connexion with the 
 happy influences of our holy faith, that to whomsoever 
 much is given, of them will be much required. Let us 
 keep our heightened responsibility before our eyes. Let 
 us learn the lesson, and lay it to heart, that we must all, 
 collectively and hidividually, in imitation of our divine 
 Kedeemer, "work the works of Him" that placed us 
 here "while it is day: for the night cometh" — it will 
 soon close upon us all — "when no man can work." 
 
 * The completion of the Atlantic telegraph used in 1858, on a Sunday 
 in which year this semion was again preached, with some alterations. 
 The event was marked at Quebec by a public celebration, of which a 
 special service in the Cathedral formed a part. 
 
 LONDON : R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLkR, PRINTERS.