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A SERMON J PREACHED AT THE ANNIVERSARY SERVICE OF THE DIOCESAN CHURCH SOCIETY, IN FREDERICTON CATHEDRAL, ON THURSDAY, JULY 4th, 1889, BY THE REV. JOHN M. DAVENPORT, M. A. PRIEST IN CHARGE OF THE MISSION CHURCH, ST, JOHN, N. B. + ^ublighcb bg l^eqxieet. SAINT JOHN, N. B. : PRINTED BY GKO. A. KNODELL, CHURCH STREET. 1889. a C C(l or mnm )) K John vi. 27,-" Him hath God the Father Scaled." 2 Cor. i. 21, 22 -"Now Ho that stablishoth us with you in Christ "and anointed us is God, seeing that He botii "scaled us, and gave us tlio earnest of tlic Spirit " in our hearts." PtEVEREND Fathers in God and Brethren Beloved jn the Lord nOTH OF THE ClERGY AND LaITY : You may feel assured tliat it was witli considerable trepidation of heart that I accepted the honor proffered me a montli since by our venerable Diocesan of preaching the Anniversary Sermon this year to the members of Synod and the Diocesan Church Society. Our annual meeting is so important an event, and presents so singular an opportunity of saying something which should practi- cally affect the work of the Church throughout the Diocese that one's natural inclination is to refuse to slioulder so great a respon- sibility with a no7i possumiis. I however comfort myself with the thought that in accepting the honour with its weighty liabilities, I am practising the virtue of obedience and may therefore hope that God will use me, as He has from time to time used unworthy instruments, for influencing His people in some way or other for good. My invitation contained a hint wdiich I regarded as somewhat directory of the aim of my discourse. " We w^ant " said our Father in God, " to be stirred to keep up the funds of the Church Society " and to be able to fill up vacant missions." It is of course patent to every one familiar with the work of this Diocese, or who has perused the carefully prepared statistics and summaries of the needs of our diocese recently published, that the two desiderata mentioned by our Diocesan, are its most prominent and crying ones, as indeed they have been for some years past. Notvvitlistaiuliiig the many able and ui-gent ai)[)eals wliicli liavc l)een made by our Bishops and Clergy from time to time throng! r- out the Diocese, our church members have not as yet risen nj) energetically to fulfil their duty to God in the matter. A few earnest lovers of Christ, who make His interests their own, give largely to the common and special funds of our Church Society, and devote much time and energy to further its oljjects ; a small percentage of church people contribute regularly, but by no mea.io, proportionately to thtir means, to its support (judging from the position they are able to sustain in society) ; while a laige ma- jority of people claiming to belong to the church, give not at all, or at best but casually and in miserable dribblets. Further, it must be sorrowfully admitted, that the laity of this Diocese do next to nothing to encourage their sons to study and prepare themselves for the holy and honourable work of the Chris- tian ministry. We still have to look to the mother country, or to other dioceses for our supply of priests and deacons. My brethren, these are surely signs of the existence among us of very grevious faults, such as should alarm us and bring us to our knees in humble penitence, " to search out and try our spirits " whether we be really alive unto God or have merely " a name to live," like that miserable lukewarm church of the Apocalypse, or those priests and people chided by the last of the prophets, who " snuffed at " the worship of the sanctuary and murmured " what a weariness is it." I shall not attempt on the present occasion to touch your hearts and stir up your wills to action by parading in detail the needs of our Diocese, since they are already sufficiently well known to every jne; but, leaving somewhat the well-beaten track, shall endeavour to develope in your minds a line of thought which should issue in aroused consciences, converted lives, and more earnest de- votion to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The texts I have selected to assist this purpose, set before us our Eedeemer as the Victim for Sacrifice, sealed or approved of God ; and the members of His mystical Body, the Church, as Sacri- fices unto God similarly sealed or approved by Him. 5 It is Christ Himself who speaks of Himself as the Muu .sealed by God the Father. The occasion on which He used the expression was one of con- siderable importance, as also of j^reat interest. He had just returned to Capernaum from the other side of the Lake of (Jalilee, where He had but the day before miraculously supplied with food a hun«^ry multitude of pilgrims, bound to Jerusalem for the celebration of the Passover. All the City was moved at the report of the wonder, some in- deed with jealousy, as they perceived their own influence waning; before the new llabbi's, but the majority with excitement and delight. Jesus was found by the pilgrims who had shared His bounty, in the great synagogue. They crowded around Him, in hopes of securing for themselves further benefits, and plied Him with ques- tions. The miracle of the preceding day and its circumstances, sup- plied Him witli a text of wondrous force, whereby to exhibit Him- vself as the True Bread of Life or Living Bread which came down from Heaven ; while the approaching Passover suggested a combi- nation with it of ]tlie Messianic type of the Lamb of Sacrifice. Cavillers indeed professed to see in the feeding of the five thousand a miracle by no means so great as the nourishing of Israel's immense hosts with manna for forty years in the wilder- ness, which they attributed, though wrongly, to Moses. (Moses, of course, merely predicted the manna's advent, whereas Christ multi- plied the loaves and fishes in His own hands, as Creator). Jesus, at once, while refuting in few words the false assertion of the Jewish teachers about Moses, seized upon the Messianic type of manna, as pointing to Himself, saying, " The Father is now giving you the True Bread from Heaven," not mere manna, that is, which though wondrously supplied, nourished but men's bodies for awhile, but that Food which is able to sustain both soul and body unto Eternal life. He then combined it with the Paschal-Lamb type of Himself, by adding these statements, " The Bread which I will give " is my Flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." " Whoso 6 "(jiitotlj iny Fk'sli and drinkiftli my Blood luitli Ktenml life and I " will raise him up at the last day." By this connninglin^' of the two types of manna and the Paschal Land), Jesus not only exhihited Himself as the ( treat Sacrifice for Sin and the true nourishment of those redeemed by Hrs Blood, but He thereby fore-announced the Sacramental Mys- tery of the Christian Altar, wliich He instituted on IMaundy-Thurs- day night a year later. The sixtli chapter of S. John therefore, while revealing many Christian mysteries, may be esteemed as also setting forth preemi- nently Christ's own teaching concerning the lUessed Sacrament, %\hereby we are enabled to present before God the memorial sacri- fice of the Lamb of God, and become also partakers of sacrificial food. It is not however upon this aspect of Christ's teaching I de- sire now to dwell, but on that particular statement of His concern- ing His own sealing by God the Father. The meaning of the expression " Him hath God the Father sealed," though not now apparent to any but students of the Jewish law of the sacrifices, must have been quite clear to the people Christ addressed. They were on their way to the holy city to purchase suitable victims for sacrifice upon the great day of the Passover. For some days past flocks of lambs of a year old without spot or blemish, were being brought into the city from all directions to be submitted to the temple authorities for inspection and approval. Upon the forehead of every lamb which answered to the tests laid down by Moses in the Levitical law, a seal or mark of approval was set, without which, no lamb, however perfect in itself, presented to the sacrificing priests in the court of the great altar, would be accepted, even if it could be palmed off upon some ignorant purchaser by the shepherds or dealers. We see then that the temple seal was at the same time a token of perfection and a mark of dedication to sacrifice, and moreover a mark of dedication to sacrifice because a token of perfection. What a (luptli of inoaninr,' therefore may we not discover in this claim of Christ for Himself, " Him hatii God the Fatlier sealed." It is a claim to be the True Paschal Lamb, " The I^nd) of Goi» that taketh away the sins of the world " sealed or api)roved, not of men but of God Himself " who searcheth the very heart and reins," sealed or approved as i)erfect, holy, spotless, undeliled and as being the one only sacrifice the Father would accept. But it may be asked : — To what })articular act of God the Father did Christ allude in the text ? Was Christ then publicly sealed or marked by God as the victim He would accept ? The answer is unmistakeable. Immediately after His public baptism, Jesus stood, wTapped in prayer, upon the lianks of Jordan, when suddenly the heavens opened and the Holy Ghost descended \\\)0\\ Him in form of a dove, while the voice of the Fatlier was heard saying " This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Yea, surely, the confirmation of Jesus was His scalincj, and in order that no one should mistake the chief object of that sealimj, we hear at once this testimony of the Baptist to his disciples " Behold " the I^nib of God that taketh away the sins of the world." The confirmation of the Man Jesus was at the same time His strengthening for conflict with the great enemy of God and man ; His public anointing with the Holy Ghost for His work as Prophet, I'riest and King among men ; and the seal of God's approval for His life of self-sacrifice and mediatorial death upon the altar of the cross. His public sealing on the banks of Jordan was in short His confirmation, ordination and dedication to sacrifice. He is both Priest and Victim of the human race, their Prophet to instruct and their King to rule them. Now this interpretation of our Lord's claim to be the man sealed of God the Father, pours a flood of light upon S. Paul's refer- ence to the sealing of Christ's redeemed in the passage from the Corinthians which forms part of my text. The apostle is evidently alluding to the significant sacramental ordinance of Confirmation, spoken of in the early church, as in the Eastern church to the present day, as * the sealing.' 8 In apostolic days; in all parts of the church for centuries; as always in the Eastern church, confirmation followed, as in our Lord's own case, close upon baptism. Nevertheless it was not confounded witli baptism, but was held to convey a distinctive gift. It was related indeed to baptism, but by no means was it esteemed to be a mere part of tlie full baptismal ceremonies. This is distinctly shown in the case of the Samaritan confir- i mation recorded for our instruction in Acts viii. SS Peter and I Jolin, we read, prayed for the candidates '' that they might receive m " the Holy Gliost ; for as yet He was fallen upon none of'them, only f " they had been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then " the narative continues " laid they their hands on them and they re- " ceived the Holy Ghost." In baptism the Holy Ghost operates as tlie " Life-giver," as He is called in the Nicene creed, by Whom we are born again." lu confirmation He is given to dwell in us, as in His temple, being shed abroad in our hearts to illuminate and strengthen us. Shortly after, if not actually in apostolic times,anointing with oil formed part of the edifying ceremony of confirmation, as well as the laying on of hands, as an outward token of the anointing grace of (}od given thereby, of which apostles speak. In baptism and confirmation thus administered we discern a reproduction in the case of Christ's followers of the several stages marked in the baptism and subsequent anointing with the Spirit°of tlie Man Christ Jesus at the liiver Jordan. The anointing oil points to the descent of the Holy Ghost, the marking with the cross and laying on of hands symbolizes the voice of the Father approving, as with the seal of heaven's temple, the baptized person, now washed clean fi-om all stain of sin, as fit for, and dedicated to sacrifice to God, while, at the same time, each re- cipiant becomes thus ordained as a member of Christ's kingdom of priests. It is in confirmation that the priesthood of the laity is bes- towed, by virtue of which, they have a right to say "amen" at the Eucharist, and to receive the sacrificial food of the Body and Blood of Christ in the sacrament of the christian altar. f I I I I I 9 Every confirmed person therefore, my brethren, is a victim scaled by God the Father, and imbued with the Holy Crhost, in order to become a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which sacri- fice he himself is bound, in his priestly character, to offer up wil- lingly to God. We are called Christians then, not merely because we are fol- lowers of Christ, the Anointed one, but because through our sub- stantial union with Christ, we share with Him the selfsame anoint- ing of the Spirit. The sacred oil poured without measure upon the liead of our great High-Priest flows down to the very skirts of His clothing. We are each of us anointed to offer spiritual sacrifices and at the same time are mtkd as sacrifices approved and acceptable to (lod in the Beloved. There is a form of Chiistianity which practically leads men to the false conclusion that Christ has done all for them as proxy, and has left them nothing to do but believe such to be the case. Tliey seem to lose sight altogether of the very important fact that the Incarnate Son of God paid the penalty for sin by a life and death of complete self-sacrifice, not in order that sinners miglit escape from sin, its thraldom and eternal consequences, by a painless, easy, effortless progress towards heaven, but to open a way of flight from all these, through persistent sorrow for sin, througii humility, meekness and self-sacrifice, which, without the offering of such a priceless victim as the spotless Lamb of God, and the aid and example of such a devoted leader as Jesus Christ con- stantly at hand, would have remained for ever impassable to them. Many Christians fail practically to recognise in Jesus Christ the greater Moses of a greater exodus tlian that from Egypt, Whom Moses himself predicted, a Deliverer from a tyranny and bondage far more cruel than Pharoah's, and that therefore each member of His redeemed host must share with Him the labours and distresses of the wilderness journey. Judging from a not uncommon phase of Christian thought and life, one might imagine that Christ crucified Himself throuohout 10 life and yielded up His soul upon the cross, in order to remove all crosses from the lives of His redeemed in this world. That, in fact, what S. Paul meant by " the glorious liberty of the sons of God," was repose, ease and self-indulgence for Christ's followers upon earth. One might imagine from the views they hold, that Christ not only vanquished satan in His own Person in single-handed combat, but that He actually destroyed him and drove forever from the earth all his demon host, in order that His own followers mijrht be free from their assaults, and reach heaven as strollers by easy stages. A similar grotesqueness of form may be observed in the notions entertained by this class of minds with regard to the Christian's share in the righteousness of Christ. They picture it as imputed, rather than as wrought in the beings of the redeemed by earnest, willing co-operation with the inspirations and strength of God the Holy Ghost. They regard it as a beautiful shining gar- ment thrown over the sinner, covering his festering corruption with- in from the eyes of God, and not as an inherent holiness shining forth from within outwards, proving a real triumph over sin and satan in the name and power of the Lord, and so the idea, fatal to strenuous efforts in the spiritual life, is encouraged, that heaven is to be peopled with shams. There can be little doubt, my brethren, that we owe this mis- erably perverted view of the gospel to the wiles of the evil one himself, who dreads, more than anything else, to see the all- powerful weapon of Christ-like self sacrifice in the hands of Chris- tians. The Holy Church teaches no sucli gospel as this. From the moment of oar admission into her ranks, she pledges us to follow the greater Moses through the desert to the land of promise, — " to fight manfully under Christ's banner against the devil, the world and the flesh." To be set free from the bondage of satan through the Bed Sea of Christ's blood, is indeed no grant from God of an easy going. 11 self-indulgent life, but, on the contrary, a call from Him to strenuous efforts after holiness of life and heartfelt interest in the progress and success of Christ's pilgrim band. Tlie Royal road to lieaven is the path our Kingly Priest and Victim trod, the via dolorosa, st lined and spotted with His Blood. It is a rougli and thorny way, very trying indeed for flesh and blood, — a path which none can tread but those imbued with the love and strength of Him Who has led the way. To shirk it deliberately for some smoother road, is to go aside altogether out of the way that leadetli to eternal life ; to miss the mark of Christian life ; to fall a prey in the wilderness and never even see the promised land, " Jerusalem which is above," the l)lessed " mother of ns all." You and I, then, my brethren, have been sealed by God, set apart by Him, tliat is, for sacrifice, and the sooner we apply our- selves to realize this fact and all tliat it involves, the better for our spiritual welfare, the better for our Master's cause. When God sets His saal upon a man, He thereby claims for Himself that man's wliole being, body, soul and spirit, not only part of the man — God will have all or none. Moreover, with his bein