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i 
 
\j \*u^ i-^e 
 
 CHILDREN INSTEAD OP FATHERS: 
 
 A CHRISTMAS 
 
 ORDINATION SERMON. 
 
CHILDREN INSTEAD OF FATHERS; 
 
 A CHEISTMAS 
 
 #rlrmati0n 
 
 >«rni0n, 
 
 rUEACHEI) AT 
 
 ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, RED RIVER, 
 
 On Sunday, December 25, 1853. 
 
 BY 
 
 DAVID ANDERSON, D.D., 
 
 lORp BISHOP OF Rupert's land. 
 
 LONDON : 
 THOMAS HATCHARD, 187, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1854. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 Q. J. PAtMBR, SAVOY STREET, STRAND. 
 
TO HIS GRACE 
 
 THE AllOHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 
 
 My dear Lord Archbishop, 
 Indebted to your Grace's good opinion for the 
 position which I hold, I am anxious at once to 
 express my deep sense of personal obligation, 
 and also to give the fullest information of the 
 growth of our Church in this remote diocese. 
 There are, indeed, few duties which I am called 
 upon to perform in which I am not in some 
 way reminded of your Grace. In ordaining, I 
 cannot but think of the seasons at which I 
 was myself ordained deacon and priest by your 
 Grace, and of the paternal counsel which, along 
 with many others, I received on those occa- 
 sions. In preparing my Triennial Charge I as 
 
vi 
 
 6 
 
 naturally revert to those well-weighed words of 
 wisdom to which I was accustomed to listen 
 when one of your Grace's clergy in the diocese 
 of Chester. And in reviewing my present re- 
 sponsibilities, I often endeavour to realise the 
 solemn scene when, in the Cathedral Church of 
 Canterbury, I was consecrated by your Grace for 
 the distant West, and a beloved brother sent forth 
 at the same time to the farthest East. 
 
 I 
 
 In the composition of this Sermon, I have 
 availed myaelf of your Grace's words, written 
 and delivered many years ago, before your eleva- 
 tion to that Bench of which for nearly thirty years 
 you have been so bright an ornament. I met 
 with them for the first time when visiting our 
 most solitary station in the north last summer, and 
 thoy have dwelt upon my mind ever since. They 
 were heard with delight by all when quoted, and 
 especially by those engaged in the work of the 
 ministry, who could best feel their truth and 
 beauty. 
 
 The Sermon possesses nothing in itself to re- 
 
vii 
 
 commend it ; tlio circumstances and associations 
 of the moment gave it an interest, and led perhaps 
 to the request from many that it should be pub- 
 lished. Such as it is, I humbly present it to 
 your Grace, in token of personal gratitude and 
 unfeigned esteem. That God may long preserve; 
 a life so valuable to the Church of Christ, that 
 He may yet enable you to plant many more 
 churches in the remotest dependencies of Britain, 
 and that children instead of fathers may be raised 
 up in each and all of them, is the earnest and 
 heart-felt prayer of 
 
 Your Grace's devoted and humble servant, 
 
 David Rupert's Land. 
 
 St. John's, Red River, 
 January 2, 1H;J4. 
 
 re- 
 
r 
 
 II 
 
 Hunc Psalmum sicut vobiscum cum exultatione cantavimus, 
 ita nobiscum cum adtensione consideretia peto. Cantatur 
 enim de Sanctis nuptiis, de sponso et sponsa, de rege et plebe, 
 de Salvatore et de his qui saWandi sunt. 
 
 S. AuGUSTiN. in Psalm, Sermo ad Pleb. Carthag. 
 
A SERMON. 
 
 lUS, 
 
 itur 
 ibe. 
 
 (C 
 
 Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou 
 mayest make princes in all the earth."— Ps. xlv. 16. 
 
 lag. 
 
 The wise men of the East brought, we are in- 
 formed, their choicest offerings to the infant 
 Saviour soon after His birth, their gold, and fran- 
 kincense, and myrrh. We, too, on this joyful 
 morning, would seek to bring our gifts, yet not 
 any offering of earthly treasure, but that which is. 
 richer by far, to use the words of India's apostolic 
 prelate,* " the heart's adoration." In order, how- 
 ever, that this adoration may not pass away in 
 mere feeling and excitement, it must be fed and 
 cherished by something which may sustain the 
 flame. This, then, our Church would do, not by 
 any appeal to the senses, not by the exhibition to 
 
 * Bishop Heber, Hymn for the Epiphany. 
 
 B 
 
r 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 the eye of the great " mystery of godliness, God 
 manifest in the flesh," but by the presentation of 
 truth to the mind, combining those heavenly rays 
 scattered over the volume of God, so that they 
 may all unite in reflecting the glory of the 
 Saviour. 
 
 Now, if ever our Church seemed guided by 
 the Spirit of God, in making choice of portions of 
 His blessed vrord, adapted to any of our greater 
 festivals, this special wisdom can be traced in the 
 selection for this day. I hope it has produced its 
 effect upon some of us, while the passages fell 
 upon the ear, and, familiar as they have been to us 
 from childhood, I hope they appeared as sweet, as 
 cheering and heavenly as ever before. And yet, 
 to glance at them again may not be without use, 
 to keep alive the flame, and to make it burn 
 more intensely where it already exists ; and in the 
 case of others to lead them to feel that God, even 
 His glory, was in the midst of them, and they 
 knew it not. 
 
 To take the selection of the Psalms,* that 
 manual of devotion of the saints of old and the 
 saints under the Gospel ; in the first, we have the 
 Sun of righteousness, glorious in His works and 
 outward manifestation, yet more glorious as there 
 described in His word. In the second, we have 
 the warrior King, the mighty Conqueror; and, 
 * Ps. xix., xlv., Ixxxv. 
 
3 
 
 I that 
 the 
 the 
 and 
 there 
 Ihave 
 aiitl, 
 
 changing the picture, we have the Bridegroom 
 and the Bride, and in the text the fruit of the 
 royal nuptials, the holy seed raised up in every 
 land. In the third, we have God returning to 
 Jerusalem with mercy, a hymn which we now 
 take up and use with joy, and in which, at a 
 future day, when the veil is taken from his eye, 
 the Jew may unite with us, and cry, " Lord, thou 
 hast heen favourable unto thy land ; thou hast 
 brought back the captivity of Jacob. Thou hast 
 forgiven the iniquity of thy people; thou hast 
 covered all their sin." It is thus prophetic of the 
 union of Jew and Gentile, when they shall sing 
 with one heart and voice, in one fold, under one 
 Shepherd. 
 
 The appointed Lessons * would carry us from 
 David's longing anticipations, when "the Spirit 
 of the Lord spake by him, and His word was in 
 his tongue," to the strains of the evangelical 
 prophet. Seven hundred years beforehand Isaiah 
 beholds in prophetic vision the dawn of the light; 
 he sees it arise on the people walking in dark- 
 ness, and dwelling in the land of the shadow of 
 death. He seems almost to approach the cradle, 
 and to gaze upon the babe, and to hail Him as 
 Judah's long expected hope, as he bursts out, 
 " Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given," 
 and then he would crown Him with many crowns, 
 
 * Is. ix. to V. 8 ; St. Luke ii. to v. 15. 
 
 B 2 
 
f 
 
 and spread over Him names of dignity and 
 honour, rising one above the other, " Wonderful, 
 Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting 
 Father, the Prince of Peace." Such is the 
 sublime attestation of the prophet, claiming for 
 the babe, born for us in the lowly manger, wis- 
 dom, and power, and deity, and a reign of peace. 
 The second Lesson takes us to the very scene, 
 marks out the events in the history of the world 
 which carried Joseph and Mary from Nazareth to 
 Bethlehem, and places us by the manger, that our 
 eyes may behold the holy child as an infant of 
 days. But while we gaze, with rapid transition it 
 introdnces us to the angelic choir, the heavens are 
 opened over the heads of the watching shepherds, 
 and something of the excellent glory shines round 
 about them, and first it may be Gabriel, who de- 
 clared beforehand the times to Daniel, and who 
 had appeared to Zacharias when ministering in his 
 course in the temple, and again to Mary herself; 
 he, we may imagine, is selected to make also to 
 them the glad announcement, " Behold, I bring 
 you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to 
 all people." And then suddenly he is joined by a 
 multitude of the heavenly host, and all together 
 raise over Bethlehem's plains the anthem, the 
 echo of which has not yet died away, " Glory to 
 God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will 
 towards men." 
 
And now, brethren, all might seem to be over, 
 but not the least important, not the least beaU' 
 tiful and impressive portion, still remains — a por- 
 tion which from the Ordination we lose to-day, but 
 without which our sketch would be incomplete. In 
 the Epistle* we have the sublime march of pro- 
 phecy, treading as it were on the high places of the 
 earth ; we have the long period of expectation, the 
 many varied voices, the lengthened note of prepara- 
 tion, and then the one voice as of the well-beloved.f 
 In solemnity few passages of Scripture surpass it. 
 " God who at sundry times and in divers manners 
 spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 
 hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son,** 
 and the very word suggests other glorious attributes, 
 that if Son, He is also the Heir, the Creator and 
 Preserver of all things, the Brightness of the 
 Father's glory, and the express Image of His per- 
 son, the object of worship on earth, and among 
 the angels of heaven. And in the Gospel one 
 passes yet higher still, and beholds the Saviour 
 before prophecy had uttered a voice, before the 
 earth or the world was. The eagle-eyed Apostle 
 
 * The Epistle, Heb. i. 1—12. The Gospel, St. John i. 
 1—14. 
 
 t See Davison on Prophecy, and the remarkable saying Of 
 Bossuet, " Dieu donna k la majestu de son Fils, de faire taire 
 les prophetes duraut tout ce temps, pour teuir son peuple en 
 attente de celui, qui devait etre raccomplisaement de tons leurs 
 oracles . ' ' — Hintoire Univeraelle, 
 
■•!' 
 
 6 
 
 takes us into the past eternity, to view Him who 
 is from everlasting to everlasting. "In the begin- 
 ning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 
 and the Word was God," and then tracing Him 
 downwards we see Him as Life, as Light, as the 
 Light shining in darkness, yet shining full of com- 
 fort on some hearts, those who can say, "The 
 Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we 
 beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten 
 of the Father, full of grace and truth." 
 
 Sucli, my beloved brethren, is the light which 
 our Church casts around the infant Saviour, a 
 light brighter far than any earthly glare or splen- 
 dour, the light of the Spirit which shines inward,* 
 and which will ever carry us the nearest to Him, 
 who dwells in the light which no man can ap- 
 proach unto. Reflect, then, on these united pas- 
 sages, and do not dismiss them from your minds ; 
 carry them with you to that feast of love to which 
 you are invited, and so shall your eyes behold 
 something of the King in His beauty. 
 
 From the whole, we have selected the verse of 
 the text, as that one which may perhaps best com- 
 bine our double subject, uniting that of the Ordi- 
 nation with the glad tidings of the day. As it 
 is not often that this festival falls on a Sunday, 
 
 * Milton's prayer :— 
 
 " So much the rather thou, Celestial Light, 
 Shiac uiward," &c 
 
 Par. Lost, Book iii. 
 
111. 
 
 we thought it the more likely to render it a day of 
 joyful remembrance throughout our lives, to make 
 it also our day of Ordination, delaying the latter a 
 week beyond the usual and prescribed time. 
 And we have, for the same reason, invited those 
 of other congregations to join us, and would only 
 pray that the Holy Spirit might be present in the 
 abundance of His gifts ; that He might be im- 
 parted in His fulness to those on whom are about 
 to be laid a weightier responsibility and trust; 
 yea, that He might be graciously given to all, and 
 so reveal to us the Saviour that we may discern 
 Him in His birth,* discern Him in His word, dis- 
 cern Him at His table, and may feel our hearts 
 burn within us while He talks with us in our 
 pilgrimage, and opens to us the Scriptures. 
 
 Now the words of the text predict clearly a 
 mighty spread of the Gospel, a great addition to 
 the number of God's people. They are addressed 
 to the Bride, who is to forget her own people, 
 and her father's house, and to be joined in ever- 
 lasting espousals to the heavenly Bridegroom. 
 The progeny, it is declared, will be far more 
 numerous than the long line of ancestors in which 
 she gloried, ** Instead of thy fathers shall be thy 
 children, whom thou mayest make princes in all 
 lands.** 
 
 * See the beautiful passage of St. Augustine, "Pulcher 
 Deus, Yerbum apud Deum . . . pulcher natus itifans Verbum 
 .... pulcher in sepulcro, pulcher in ceelo." 
 
i 
 
 8 
 
 The call, then, of the Gentile Church, its dif- 
 ference from the Jewish in extent and univer- 
 sality seems here to be plainly prefigured. Very 
 limited was the Jewish Church even in its widest 
 influence. In Egypt the children of Israel may 
 have left behind some traces of the knowledge 
 of the true God. In Arabia some light may have 
 lingered, some seeds of promise may have been 
 scattered over the land, and the hope of a bright 
 Morning Star may thus have been kept alive. In 
 Babylon and the surrounding region prophecy 
 may have exerted some power, and those of the 
 captivity who never returned may have treasured 
 up some recollection of the appointed weeks. At 
 Rome, too, and other large cities, to prepare the 
 way of the Lord, there were at the period of the 
 Advent Jews carried abroad by the spirit of gain 
 and adventure. But still the people were solitary: 
 " they dwelt alone, and were not numbered among 
 the nations." How different the prospect un- 
 folded in the words before us, which declare that 
 her children shall reign in all lands! There is 
 no limit in them, nor is there in the announce- 
 ment of the angel, when he brings the good 
 tidings of great joy, and speaks of them as ex- 
 tending to all people. And with this had agreed 
 the whole tenor of prophetic song. More, Isaiah 
 had said, were to be " the children of the desolate 
 than the children of the married wife;" more than 
 
9 
 
 " the dew from the womb of the morning will be 
 the dew of thy progeny," * had been the words of 
 David in a Psalm which the Saviour applies to 
 Himself; that is, "Thy children, begotten to 
 thee through the Gospel, shall exceed in number, 
 as well as brightness and beauty, the spangles of 
 early dew."t Nor is it a little remarkable that 
 the two fullest prophetic descriptions of the cross, 
 and the agonies of the suffering Saviour, include 
 also the vision of the Redeemer's countless pro- 
 geny. The prospect is seen in the distance, re- 
 lieving the sorrowful picture of one Psalm, " All 
 the ends of the world shall remember and turn 
 unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the na- 
 tions shall worship before Thee; — a seed shall 
 serve Him." And in Isaiah, in almost similar 
 words, " He shall see His seed. He shall prolong 
 His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall 
 prosper in His hand." Thus were the heathen to 
 be the inheritance of the Redeemer, when exalted 
 to the right hand of power on the holy hill of 
 Zion, and " the uttermost parts of the earth were 
 to be His possession." 
 
 Hath not God, then, fulfilled His promise, " In- 
 stead of thy fathers thou shalt have children, 
 princes in all lands ?" Was it not so in the early 
 Church ? Was not Peter, the Apostle of the Cir- 
 
 * Bishop Luwth's translation. 
 t Bishop Ilorue on I'salni ex. 
 
'(.<' 
 
 10 
 
 cumcision, a Jew? was not Paul a Hebrew of 
 the Hebrews, and brought up after the straitest 
 sect of his religion? was not John living and 
 worshipping as a Jew until called by the Re- 
 deemer to forsake all and follow Him ? But the 
 time had arrived when the things which had been 
 gain to them, those they cor.nted loss for Christ. 
 The Jewish ancestry was to be forgotten, the 
 long line of patriarchs and prophets was to merge 
 in the brighter line of Apostles and Martyrs,* 
 who carried the truth abroad, and watered the 
 seed often with their blood. 
 
 So far had it spread even in the lifetime of St. 
 Paul (and how much farther before the death of 
 St. John?) that we find him dwelling on Old Tes- 
 tament prophecy, and so interpreting it, and 
 pointing out its fulfilment to the darkened eyes 
 of his countrymen. He quotes Hosea as unfold- 
 ing this purpose of God, " I will call them my 
 people which were not my people, and her beloved 
 which was not beloved, and in the place where it 
 was said to them, Ye are not my people, there 
 shall ye be called the children of the living God." 
 He then enters upon the subject, and comments 
 
 * This is well expressed in Merrick's poetical version :— ' 
 
 ** No more the patriarchs of thy line 
 In time's long records chief shall shine ; 
 Thy greater sons, to empire bom, 
 Its future annals shall adorn." 
 
11 
 
 upon it at greater length, and claims for the 
 Gentile a portion in the paternal love and mercy 
 of God, which the Jew would restrict to himself, 
 ''The same Lord over all is rich unto all that 
 call upon Him, for whosoever shall call on the 
 name of the Lord shall be saved.** Anticipating 
 every possible objection, he himself proposes the 
 question, " Have they not heard ?" to which his 
 immediate reply is, "Yes, verily, their sound 
 went into all the earth, and their words unto the 
 ends of the world." Such, then, was the spread of 
 the Gospel even in Apostolic times. They could 
 thank God who " always caused them to triumph 
 in Christ, and made manifest the savour of his 
 knowledge by them in every place." A seed was 
 raised up from the very bosom of the Jewish 
 Church to propagate salvation to the limits of the 
 then known world. 
 
 But, brethren, advance a step, and the founders 
 of the early Church are taken away. As wise 
 master builders they had laid the foundation, some 
 of them cut down, like the first martyr Stephen, by 
 a premature and cruel death; some spared for a 
 longer season, like Paul the aged, and passing 
 through many vicissitudes in many lands ; a few, 
 like John, tarrying on earth to more than the 
 usual limit of man's existence, and perhaps ending 
 life in calmness and an atmosphere of holy love. 
 But, having served their day and generation, they 
 
^i-- 
 
 12 
 
 one after another foil asleep, and of them the next 
 race might say, as they gazed upon their empty 
 seats, " Our fathers where are they, and the pro- 
 phets do they live for ever?" They were removed 
 from the scene of their earthly labours, but in 
 their stead were raised up others to be made 
 princes in all lauds. There was one, who as a 
 son with a father had laboured with Paul in the 
 Gospel, and when the great Apostle had finished 
 his course, his own son in the faith was ready to 
 continue the work, and hand down the light. 
 And long after St. John was taken away, the recol- 
 lection of his words and lessons was treasured up, 
 and was fruitful among the nations. " I can de- 
 scribe," says one, " the very spot in which Poly- 
 carp sat and expounded, and his going out and 
 coming in, and the very manner of his life, and 
 the figure of his body, and the sermons which he 
 preached to the multitude, and how he related to 
 us his converse with John, and with the rest of 
 those who had seen the Lord, how he mentioned 
 their particular expressions, and what things he 
 had heard from them of the Lord, and of his 
 miracles and of his doctrine." * Thus writes 
 Irenseus regarding St. John and Polycarp, de- 
 lighting to treasure up the past in his memory, 
 and to live his youth over again, for, according to 
 his own beautiful expression, " The instructioiis 
 * Ircn. Epist. ad. Fiuriii., quoted by Miluer. 
 
13 
 
 of our childhood grow witli our growth , and ad- 
 here to us most closely." And where was he pro- 
 claiming the tidings of the Gospel ? Not, bre- 
 thren, at Ephesus, or Smyrna, or any of the fa- 
 voured seats of civilization, but in Gaul. History 
 tells us that •* though versed in Grecian literature, 
 he acquired the ruder dialect of Gaul, conformed 
 himself to the rustic manners of an illiterate 
 people, renounced the politeness and elegance of 
 his own country for the love of souls." Such 
 were his labours in life, until after many tor- 
 tures, he sealed his testimony to the truth by a 
 cruel martyrdom, when the streets of Lyons flowed 
 with blood. And as in Gaul and at Lyons, so 
 among the other nations God carried on His own 
 work, raising up instruments and fitting them for 
 His service. Instead of the early founders a 
 spiritual progeny was raised up to occupy their 
 places, and to extend the boundaries of the Re- 
 deemer's kingdom. Nor was this done alone by 
 those who were called to the public ministry: 
 many were those who in private life helped in the 
 Gospel, many who became fellow-workers in the 
 blessed cause. The various providences of God 
 scattered the seed — persecution carried it to fresh 
 regions, and the tide of war and the captive slave 
 became at times the heralds of the Cross. And at 
 last kings were the nursing fathers and queens 
 the nursing mothers of the Church. The counte- 
 
14 
 
 ■m 
 
 ill' 
 
 tf 
 
 nance of the world was extended to the profes- 
 sors of the Gospel, and although grace might not 
 always touch the heart, yet outward homage and 
 respect were paid to the Christian name. The 
 spiritual seed was multiplied, and believers became 
 centres of light. 
 
 Age after age, however, rolled on ; some cen- 
 turies of darkness intervened, during which little 
 was done for the extension of the kingdom, and 
 Christians regarded but little the stewardship com- 
 mitted to them. And even, after the world awoke 
 from its long sleep, when God unlocked His word, 
 and opened to the view also a new hemisphere, 
 still the efforts were only scanty which were made 
 for other lands. There is something very solemn 
 in the succession of genertitions, earth changing 
 her tenants, at least thoi^e who are occupied in the 
 busy scene, one generation coming and another 
 going, yet the earth abiding the same. And as 
 the earth continues, so does the Church of the 
 living God ; in the darkest ages He has some who 
 do not bow the knee to Baal, even under the 
 veil of a corrupt system, He has still some who 
 rise above it and serve Him acceptably, and He 
 ever knoweth them that are His. But there are 
 special seasons when His arm seems bared, and 
 His own finger appears to lead His people on to 
 fresh triumphs. Such, few would doubt, was the 
 case at the Reformation, but while at that time the 
 
16 
 
 Church was purified, there was no mighty and 
 vigorous effort made to carry to the heathen world 
 the message of salvation. Is not, however, the 
 providential preparation plain in the present cen- 
 tury? The desire to spread the Gospel is first 
 enkindled by the Spirit at home, and then, as 
 many rise up filled with zeal and love for souls, 
 the kingdoms open, the most distant are brought 
 near, and man is dispersed over the solitary 
 places of the earth. Has not God appeared to 
 give a fresh charge to His people. Go and occupy 
 the nations ; or rather, we might say, has He not 
 given fresh energy in the fulfilment of a long neg- 
 lected duty ? Many were sent forth to plant and 
 to spread ; some in the ordinary offices of the 
 ministry, as Marsden and Martyn; some in the 
 higher offices of the Church, as Heber, and Wil- 
 son, and Selwyn ; some labouring successively in 
 each, as the apostolic Stewart of Quebec, the de- 
 voted Corrie of Madras, and Gobat, formerly of 
 Abyssinia, now Bishop of Jerusalem ; some have 
 died in the field of their labours, offered on the 
 sacrifice and service of the faith, and their bones, 
 like those of Heber, lie in a foreign soil ; others, 
 like Broughton, are permitted to return, and lie 
 buried in the very spot where they may have wor- 
 shipped in childhood.* 
 
 * W. Grant Broughton, D.D., Bishop of Sydney, educated 
 
;t;, 
 
 ;l 
 
 li' 
 
 i 
 
 
 llli 
 
 
 IG 
 
 But wlierever their aslies may lie, their seed 
 remains : " A nation of Pagans converted to the 
 faith, another Christian people added to the family 
 of God,"* this, the fruit of the labours of Mars- 
 den ; the living word in another tongue, that the 
 imperishable seed left by Martyn; a native minis- 
 try at Calcutta and Madras, here the proof, at the 
 present hour, that Heber and Corrie neither ran 
 nor laboured in vain. The law of the kingdom 
 was still seen to be the same, " Instead of thy 
 fathers thou shalt have children." If strong in 
 faith and in reliance on the Divine promises, they 
 forsook their home and earthly kindred, God gave 
 them as their recompense a spiritual seed. " They 
 have found the fulfilment of the paradoxical pro- 
 mise, manifold more in this present time. The 
 delightful intercourse of earthly friends has been 
 denied them, but they have enjoyed the presence 
 of God. He has come unto them, and made His 
 abode with them. They have borne the burden 
 and heat of the day, but they have realised the 
 promise, that as their day was, so should their 
 strength be. 
 
 In the midst of their usefulness. 
 
 at the King's School, Canterbury, died in that city while on a 
 visit home, and was interred in the Cathedral there. See the 
 sermon preached the Sunday after by Archdeacon Harrison, 
 " The Church's sons brought back to Her from far." 
 
 * The testimony of Bishop Selwyn on his first arrival in 
 New Zealand. 
 
 l> t 
 
17 
 
 death has intercepted their labours, but their hope 
 has been full of immortality." * And when them- 
 selves called away, they have left behind many 
 children to perpetuate the work, and to spread it 
 even more widely. 
 
 View, brethren, the promise in what light you 
 will, turn it in each fresh direction, and cheering 
 and comforting thoughts arise out of it, laws per- 
 vading the spiritual household and economy of 
 God, deduced from the nearest and closest rela- 
 tionship of the earthly family. Children instead 
 of fathers; the believing parent, father of believing 
 children, ^^ot that grace is always hereditary, not 
 that the parent can claim it as a right from God, 
 not that we always see the chain unbroken^ and 
 yet the fault and sin are certainly with man, for 
 the promise is sure, and the charter runs, " Unto 
 you and unto your children," and if pleaded in 
 strong and earnest faith, God will fulfil it to those 
 who humbly trust in Him. " The children of 
 His servants shall continue, and their seed shall 
 stand fast in His sight." Exceptions to this are 
 noted in Scripture for our warning, and are often 
 quoted by the world for our reproach ; the count- 
 
 in 
 
 * The words are extracted from a passage, giving a beauti- 
 ful description of the peculiar trials and consolations of mis- 
 sionary life, in a sermon preached before the Church Mis- 
 sionary Society in 1825, by the Rev. J. B. Sumner, now 
 Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 C 
 
18 
 
 I mv\ 
 
 M 
 
 ,„:. 
 
 ill* 
 
 1 
 
 
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 ; i 
 
 less examples of the rule are not written in any 
 earthly record, and will only be fiilly known by 
 the opening of the Lamb's book of life. 
 
 Children instead of fathers — here, too, the law 
 of increase, which would hold in measure in the 
 spiritual as in the natural family of God. Take 
 the believing parent, surrounded with children, 
 growing up in the fear of God, and, in another 
 generation, a second or a third, what a seed would 
 there be to replenish the earth ! How many the 
 progeny of Jacob when Israel came out of Egypt ! 
 how many they who but for sin and the destroyer 
 might, by a short and easy path, h^\e entered 
 into the land of promise ! And if through in- 
 crease of faith the spiritual seed of believers mul- 
 tiplied as the temporal, how glorious the prospect 
 opened up ! How soon would the prophecy be- 
 come hi&fcory, and " a little one become a thou- 
 sand, and a small one a strong nation." 
 
 Now views of this description afford us, bre- 
 thren, humble confidence, and something of a 
 chastened joy, from the recurrence of such sea- 
 sons as the present. The fathers and founders of 
 our Church are mostly taken from us ; one only 
 entitled to the name still remains, and whom that 
 very pre-eminence would mark out as the one 
 best fitted by years and usefulness for the office to 
 which he is to be raised this week.* But their 
 * The Rev. W. Cockran, now Archdeacon. 
 
19 
 
 children occupy their places; to two of those 
 before me the name applies,— to the one without 
 a figure, to both, I trust, in spiritual meaning. 
 We hope that the day aiTords some token that the 
 roots of the native Church are deepening in the 
 land. The supply of European labourers must 
 always be fluctuating and uncertain, but should 
 they fail, we look to such as you, my brother,* not 
 to forget your kinsfolk, but to labour for their 
 immortal weal. We want such links between 
 the Indian and ourselves. With the Bible in our 
 hands, and our hearts yearning over their souls, 
 and with the interpreter by our side, we are still 
 powerless, comparatively, to declare the things of 
 our God. The words falter on the lip, the sen- 
 tences are broken and interrupted. But no such 
 difficulty or backwardness need paralyse your 
 tongue. Trained in our own schools, you are 
 familiar with our thoughts and feelings, and in- 
 structed in the compass of Scripture, and familiar* 
 too, with the thoughts and feelings of the Indian, 
 you bring salvation near to him, looking back on 
 the method by which God enlightened your own 
 soul. You can sit in friendly intercourse with 
 them, as I have seen you by the Lake, you can 
 dissipate some of their difficulties, and, in effect, 
 preach Jesus unto them. You can offer up the 
 
 * Mr. James Settee^ Native Catechist, then to be ordained 
 Deacon. 
 
 o2 
 

 ipi 
 
 iii 
 
 11! 
 
 III 1 1 
 I' 
 
 r I 
 i 
 
 
 M 
 
 20 
 
 prayer, as I have often heard you, in words wliich 
 carry their hearts upward to the throne of God. 
 Our motive in ordaining you would be the felt 
 confidence that you gain influence over the In- 
 dian mind, and that you use that influence in en- 
 deavouring to lead him to the Saviour. I know 
 that you have sought guidance whence strength 
 alone can come, and that it is in the deep sense 
 of your own insuflSciency, "in weakness, and fear, 
 and in much trembling," that you undertake this 
 oflftce ; and I would only pray that, while we look 
 to you as our mouth to the Indian, the Most 
 High God may be to you for a mouth and 
 wisdom. 
 
 And what a value does the day stamp upon our 
 schools ! How little did you imagine when you 
 first trod the opposite creek, that after the lapse 
 of twenty-nine years you would be set apart here 
 to the service of the sanctuary. He who re- 
 ceived and welcomed you on arrival, he who placed 
 and taught you in the school, and subsequently 
 baptized you, is long since dead ; you are called to 
 honour, but he is not here to know of it,* and, after 
 having laboured for a few short hours in the vine- 
 yard, you may meet him above with some saved 
 souls. Of ten baptized with you, when you stood 
 forth to witness a good confession,! only three 
 
 * Tlie Rev. D. T. Jones. 
 
 t It was then the rule not to baptize any of those taught 
 
21 
 
 survive with yourself. How marvellous will thus 
 be the disclosures of that day, how wonderful the 
 path by which God leads ! 
 
 And to turn to those to be admitted to the 
 higher orders of the ministry, you too, my bro- 
 ther,* would be a proof of the responsibility con- 
 nected with the training of the young. Reared 
 in early years in the very school over which God 
 has now placed you, with the recollection that he 
 also who taught you was himself cut down in the 
 vigour of life,f you need no other voice to tell 
 you, that eternity must try our work, and that the 
 best instruction is that which links most closely 
 heavenly wisdom with every branch of earthly 
 knowledge. View, then, those committed to you 
 as children now, but as those who are to be fathers 
 in Israel hereafter, and may many of them be in- 
 deed " trees of righteousness, the planting of the 
 Lord, that He may be glorified." Some will be- 
 come teachers, a few, it may be, ministers of God; 
 nearly all will be scattered over this wide land ; 
 who can calculate the mighty influence to be 
 exerted by them? 
 
 Nor is the link wanting to-day as in our Ordi- 
 
 in the school until they could repeat the Catechism, and at least 
 a chapter of Scripture. 
 
 * The Rev. Thos. Cockran, B.A., Master of St. John's 
 College School. 
 
 t The B«v. J. Macallum. 
 

 i 
 
 ! .; ■ 1 
 
 ;,...'"' 
 
 Ir 
 
 
 St 1 
 
 22 
 
 nation in 1850, to connect us with the sister 
 churches. You, my brother,* left your home and 
 kindred, thinking to labour in Canada in the midst 
 of a crowded population, and with all the com- 
 forts of civilized life. When looking to mini- 
 sterial work there, God called you to depart, and 
 to undertake a toilsome journey, and He has, I 
 hope, cast your lot in the wilderness for good. 
 Your sphere will possess but little of the attrac- 
 tions presented by a favoured congregation at 
 home, but your reward will be as great, may we 
 not say greater, if we preach Christ where Ke 
 ii^ the most wanted, and build not on another 
 man's foundation. And you will connect us with 
 the mother Church by more than the circumstance 
 of your birth. Your district bears the name of 
 one of her parishes,! into which God would seem 
 to have breathed the spirit of missionary love, and 
 you have the comforting assurance that you have 
 an interest in their prayers, while they so gladly 
 minister to you of their earthly substance. 
 
 Having thus noticed the running fulfilment of 
 the words from age to age, and brought them 
 down to our own day, and so near to our own 
 hearts and bosoms, I am anxious that our attention 
 should dwell yet more minutely on the agency by 
 
 * The Rev. G. O. Corbett, Colonial Church Society, late of 
 Montreal. 
 t Ueadinglcy, near Leeds. 
 
 -l i. 
 
23 
 
 which God carries on these great designs, and the 
 method in which His counsels are gradually de- 
 veloped. 
 
 If it be asked, How is the glorious promise 
 of the text accomplished ? We can have no 
 hesitation in saying, chiefly by the word of God. 
 What else would be the weapon of Him who 
 goes forth conquering and to conquer? When 
 it is said in our Psalm, " Gird thy sword upon thy 
 thigh, O most Mighty, and in thy majesty ride 
 prosperously," what shall we pronounce the sword 
 to be but that of the Spirit, which is the word of 
 God, the same which is said by the Apostle to be 
 " living and powerful, and sharper than any two- 
 edged sword?" What are the arrows which it 
 describes as sharp in the heart of the King's 
 enemies, but arrows of conviction,* drawn at a 
 venture, but taken from the true quiver, and 
 piercing so as to lay bare the thoughts and in- 
 tents of the heart ? And so, too, when in our 
 otber Psalm the all-prevailing power of the Sun of 
 righteousness is set forth, when He is described 
 as "rejoicing as a strong man to run a race;" 
 
 * In preparing this sermon I had forgotten to turn to the 
 four striking sermons of Bishop Horsley on the Psalm. On 
 referring to them since, I find that the Bishop makes the sword 
 aiid the arrow emblems of one and the same thing, of the word 
 of God, in its different effects, " the word of terror is the 
 sword girt upon the Messiah's thigh ; the word of persuasion 
 is the arrow shot from his bow." 
 
f 
 
 I . 
 
 h 
 
 :..:::! 
 
 Jit*' 
 
 M 
 
 ■ f 
 
 24 
 
 when it is said that " His going forth is from the 
 end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends 
 of it, and that there is nothing hid from the heat 
 thereof;" of what is it that David would speak ? 
 Is not all emblematic of that word of which he 
 subjoins the features and effects, that " law which 
 is perfect, converting the soul, that testimony 
 which is sure, making wise the simple ?" Is not 
 that, to use the figure of another of the undoubted 
 Messianic psalms, and another of our Christmas 
 portions,* the rod of Christ's strength which the 
 Lord sends out of Zion, and by which the Re- 
 deemer is to rule in the midst of His enemies. 
 The living proof of this we have before our eyes. 
 The nation which most honours the word, God 
 has raised and exalted on high, and made her as 
 queen among the nations. Her language seems 
 destined at this hour to almost an universal sway, 
 and the noblest monument of the language is the 
 translation of God's own word, by which she 
 speaks already to those of almost every country, 
 and kindred, and clime. 
 
 Connected, however, with the word, and in sub- 
 ordination to it, we would mention the ministers 
 of God, placing them in the very order which, as 
 we have lately seen, they so beautifully occupy in 
 the Collects for the sacred season through which 
 * Psalm ex., for Christinas evening. 
 
2ft 
 
 we have just passed.* For, without limiting and 
 confining the passage, or interpreting the word 
 princes as of ecclesiastical rulers alone, few would 
 deny that the primary application would be to the 
 ministering servants of God. Who are those 
 especially sent forth to bring in the Gentile world, 
 the leaders of the children of God ? who are they 
 who receive the charge, as you, my brethren, will 
 this morning, to seek Christ's sheep that are dis- 
 persed abroad? who are they of whom the Apostle 
 tells us, that the weapons of their warfare are not 
 carnal, but effectual to the pulling down of strong- 
 holds ? Are they not the ministers of God ? Yes, 
 brethren, theirs is, if we view it soberly and 
 calmly, an engine of mighty power; to address 
 the human soul one day in seven, when the mind 
 is solemnised and somewhat withdrawn from the 
 world, on the day which man connects more with 
 heaven than earth, to have the privilege of access, 
 when the heart is the most tender from affliction 
 or bereavement. They are especially as princes 
 in all lands, for what is all the power of this 
 world compared to sway over the soul ? what is 
 victory over the hosts of earth compared to vic- 
 tory, through God aiding us, over Satan, when we 
 are enabled to cast him out from one soul which he 
 held in chains ? Oh ! may we ever use that power 
 for God's glory and seize the golden opportunities 
 * Second and third Sundays in Advent. 
 
20 
 
 h ri|ii 
 
 ii| ■ 
 r 
 
 m 
 
 V ' !■ 
 
 4fj. 
 
 M f 
 
 
 which it places within our reach ; may we use it 
 as faithful stewards, not " as being lords over 
 God's heritage, but ao being ensamples to the 
 flock." 
 
 By this twofold agency, the word and the 
 ministry, or, in a simpler form, by the ministry of 
 the word, it pleases God to extend the kingdom 
 of grace. The effects and blessed results are 
 churches called out of heathen darkness, and in- 
 dividual souls begotten again unto a lively hope. 
 An allegorical picture of this of exquisite beauty 
 is given us in this Psalm.* The daughter of Tyre 
 approaches with her gift and offering, and in her 
 train there is a band of attendant virgins, all pay- 
 ing honour to the royal Bridegroom. In them we 
 may recognize types and figures of the various 
 Gentile churches, and, as comprised under them, 
 individual souls. The variety of raiment has even 
 been explained to betoken the difference of lan- 
 guage and country of the churches, yet though 
 there is variety in outward appearance, there is 
 but one gold, an essential unity of faith and doc- 
 trine, a participation of one Spirit.f They are 
 
 * Matthew Henry has quaintly but truly said of the Psalm 
 that **it is all over Gospel." 
 
 f As St. Augustine, " Alia lingua Afra, alia Syra, alia 
 Graeca, alia Hebrsea, alia ilia et ilia; faciunt istee linguae 
 varietatem vestis reginae hujus. Quaelibet sit varietas lin- 
 guarum, unum aurum praedicatur : non diversum aurum, sed 
 varietas de auro. Varietas in Unguis, aurum in sententiis." 
 
27 
 
 ;d 
 
 the many churches into which the people of God 
 are divided here below, yet together forming the 
 one Church of the Redeemed, the Bride of the 
 Lamb. With gladness and rejoicing they are 
 brought and enter into the King's palace, the tem- 
 ple of the living God, no longer " strangers and 
 foreigners, they are fellow-citizens with the saints 
 and of the household of God," and in this it is 
 seen that children instead of fathers are raised up 
 to the Church. For the words, we doubt. not, 
 admit of this meaning in their most extended signi- 
 fication. They would embrace all who are among 
 the Redeemer's true followers, to whom He gives 
 power to become the sons of God, and who are 
 even now called to be kings and priests, a chosen 
 generation, a royal priesthood. They are the 
 true Israel of God, and by the energy of fervent 
 and importunate prayer, as princes (for the word 
 is the same) they have power with God, and do 
 prevail. 
 
 The only additional result, which we can men- 
 tion, is the personal and growing holiness of be- 
 lievers so united to the Saviour. The Psalm 
 speaks much of the adornment of the Lamb's 
 Bride, the beauty of her clothing, the brilliancy 
 and costliness of the apparel in which she is 
 decked. But the Spirit leaves us not in doubt re- 
 Such a passage comes peculiarly home to our heart, amid the 
 many tongues of this land. 
 
1 ...f 
 
 m 
 
 
 [A 
 
 >r 
 
 I'i* 
 
 28 
 
 garding tho secret meaning. He would teach 
 expressly, that the true ornaments of the believer 
 must be something more precious than gold of 
 Ophir, something hidden from human eye. The 
 King^s daughter is described as all glorious within, 
 as well as arrayed in clothing of wrought gold. 
 Here is that inward purity, which the Spirit can 
 alone create, and in which alone He will deign to 
 dwell, and flowing forth from it, as from a pure 
 fountain, there is that outward holiness which 
 shines in the life, and attracts with magnetic 
 power. Or, perhaps, in even closer accordance 
 with the harmony of Scripture, the former would 
 be the work of the Spirit within, restoring the lost 
 image of God ; the latter, the raiment of wrought 
 gold, that which the Redeemer offers to the 
 churches, that which He has wrought out by His 
 obedience and righteousness, and in which He 
 will " present His bride unto Himself a glorious 
 church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such 
 thing, but holy and without blemish." 
 
 What, then, my beloved brethren, has the sub- 
 ject taught us, as its grand and leading lessons ? 
 
 The Redeemer's joy, if I mistake not, over the 
 gathering in of the children of God. There is 
 little betokening joy to the Redeemer Himself in 
 the view of Him presented to us this day. The 
 stable and the manger rather tell us of Him who 
 on earth had not where to lay His head, who came 
 
20 
 
 unto His own and His own received Him not, who 
 emptied Himself of His glory, an'^. became instead 
 a man of sorrows. But while we commemorate 
 His birth, and more and more, as eacli generation 
 rolls on, we are invited to think of those whom 
 He is not ashamed to call brethren, and of the 
 addition to their ranks, until they shall become 
 the mighty multitude that no man can number in 
 the day of His appearing. Now over such the 
 Redeemer rejoices ; "lie greatly desires their 
 beauty," to use the very words of the Spirit in 
 this Psalm, because they reflect His glory, and will 
 ere long share His throne, and receive from His 
 own hand their crowns. Nor do we And differ- 
 ence and distincti(m among those whom the King 
 so delighteth to honour; they are all called to 
 sonship here, to be kings and priests unto God. 
 " He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and 
 lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set 
 them among princes, and to make them inherit 
 thrones of glory." The souls of all are alike pre- 
 cious in the Redeemer's sight, and His joy is in 
 their rescue from eternal death ; this one was 
 dead and is alive again, was lost and is found. 
 Some that were first shall be last, and the last 
 first, and some of the children of the wilderness, 
 brought in at the eleventh hour, may sit very near 
 to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of 
 heaven. 
 
t1': 
 
 : 1 
 
 |iii:;fe 
 
 ii"^ 
 
 
 tr i; 
 
 ■■ft!; 
 
 h1: 
 
 30 
 
 And the subject teaches us also very beautifully 
 the ministerial office and message. What more 
 affecting, and at the same time more elevating, 
 view of our office can be furnished than that it is 
 like that of Eliezer of Damascus of old, to seek 
 a bride for our master, the Lord of heaven and 
 earth ? Very toucbingly is this brought forward 
 in our own service, where we are enjoined to say 
 to those to be ordained priests, " Have always 
 therefore printed in your remembrance, how great 
 a treasure is committed to your charge. For they 
 are the sheep of Christ, which He bought with His 
 death, and for whom He shed His blood. The 
 church and congregation whom you must serve 
 is His spouse and His body." And, again, as if to 
 impress it more deeply upon all, "Consider, 
 therefore, with yourselves the end of your mini- 
 stry towards the children of God, towards the 
 spouse and body of Christ." And if this be our 
 office, have we not here our very message also ? 
 Oh! what do we long to say to every son and 
 daughter of Adam, every child of sin and sorrow 
 still in darkness — what but this ? — " My heart 
 overfloweth (bubbleth up) with a good matter : I 
 speak of the things which T have made touching 
 the King; my tongue is the pen of a ready 
 writer." What do we covtc for you who are to 
 be sent forth, and for ourselves who minister at 
 God's altar, beyond these two things — a heart full 
 
31 
 
 at 
 ill 
 
 of redeeming love, and a ready tongue to proclaim 
 
 its preciousness ? If ever we want a theme, we 
 
 have only to recur to this Psalm, and speak yet 
 
 once again of the things touching the King. Life 
 
 will have closed upon us, and our tongues have 
 
 become feeble and powerless, long before we have 
 
 exhausted our subject, and fully set forth His 
 
 glory. 
 
 And lastly, brethren, we are all taught that the 
 
 tie which binds the saved soul to the Redeemer 
 
 is none other than the marriage covenant or bond, 
 
 to be consummated and completed only in the 
 
 world beyond the grave. Listen to it, in the 
 
 words of God by a prophet already quoted, " I 
 
 will betroth thee unto me for ever ; yea, I will 
 
 betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in 
 
 judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies ; 
 
 I will even betroth thee unto me 'in faithfulness, 
 
 and thou shalt know the Lord." Our Psalm is but 
 
 the nuptial hymn celebrating the espousal; a song 
 
 for the beloved one, or a song of loves, as the title 
 
 goes ; and the Song of Songs, that of Solomon, 
 
 only carries out the same view in deeper and more 
 
 mysterious strains.'"'^ Listen to it again, in the 
 
 words of the Redeemer himself on the day of His 
 
 * The close resemblance between these two portions of 
 Scripture has been noticed by many. There is, I well re- 
 member, a comparison instituted between them, with some 
 beautiful remarks on our Psalm, in Bishop Lowth's Prselec- 
 tiones de Sacrd Poesi Heb. ; but unfortunately I have not my 
 copy of that work with me here, and from the circumstances 
 
t 
 
 32 
 
 last visit to His earthly temple, " The kingdom of 
 heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a 
 marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants 
 to call them that were bidden to the wedding." 
 Oh! remember that it is the God of heaven and 
 earth making a marriage for His own dear Son, 
 who left His throne to bleed and die, and can it 
 be that they would not come ? When yet pressed 
 farther with the invitation, " All things are ready, 
 come unto the marriage," can they still refuse ? 
 Yes ; the Redeemer has said it, and our eyes be- 
 hold it ; men make light of it, and go their way. 
 With one consent they begin to make excuse ; but 
 heaven shall not want inhabitants, nor the banquet 
 be unfurnished with guests. We go at our Lord's 
 bidding into the highways and byways — into the 
 waste untrodden wilderness, but when we have 
 done all, our encouragement is, "Yet there is 
 room." Yes, there is room in a Saviour's love ; 
 there is room in the many mansions of our Father's 
 house; room for the poor outcast Indians scat- 
 tered over this wide land. There is room for all 
 who may be gathered in by the labours of those 
 now to be sent forth. Oh ! pray that a great door 
 and effectual may be opened for each one of them 
 for the proclamation of God's truth ! 
 
 of the country, I should look for it in vain within many hun- 
 dred miles in any direction. 
 
 LONDON : O. J. PALMER, SAVOT STREET, STRAND.