COUNSELS OF FAITH AND PRACTICE BEING SERMONS on Fanous Occasions BY THE REV. W. C. E. NEWBOLT, M.A. VICAR OF S. MATTHIAS, MAI.VERN LINK RIVINGTONS WATERLOO PLACE, LONDON MDCCCLXXXIII THE RIGHT HONOURABLE FREDERICK EARL BEAUCHAMP, LORD-LIEUTENANT OF THE COUNTY OP WORCESTER, AND ONE OF THE COUNCIL OF KEBLE COLLEGE, OXFORD, AT WHOSE BEQUEST THESE SERMONS HAVE BEEN PRINTED, !)tS Walumt i3 SBctfiratcfc BY THE AUTHOR, AS A SLIGHT ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE KINDNESS OF MANY YEARS. PREFACE. THE dedication prefixed to this book will sufficiently explain the reason why these sermons appear in their present printed form, and must serve as the author's apology for intruding himself into a field already fully occupied by those best entitled to speak on the holy subjects herein treated. It is a commonplace, in issuing volumes of sermons, to say that they were never intended to be printed a mode of expression which bears witness to the extreme difficulty which an ordinary preacher of parochial sermons must feel in adapting sermons, which were preached to congrega- tions, whose needs were presumably known, and re- quirements to a certain extent gauged, to an unknown, uncertain, miscellaneous audience, in a mode of address in which he loses all the adventitious helps of his personality and living voice, and must depend on the sheer force of the expressions used as set forth in the passionless evenness of printers' type. In the full consciousness of these difficulties, the author puts forth these sermons, claiming for them no literary merit, for a 3 vi Preface. they have none ; advancing no new theological specula- tion, of which he is incapable ; but asking those who read them to remember, that they were each of them preached with a definite object, to meet the needs of those to whom they were addressed as far as lay within the preacher's power ; and that if, in aiming wider, he is drawing his bow at a venture, no longer with a definite range and aim, it is in the hope that God may find a place for them between the joints of the harness, in appealing to the heart, where they have not force enough to strike home to the intelligence, of the reader. The author wishes to express his thanks to those who have so kindly helped him in preparing these sermons for the press ; and especially his thanks are due to a kind friend, who prefers to remain anonymous, for his careful supervision, and for several valuable notes to the text which he has contributed. October, 1883. CONTENTS. SERMON I. ur frostlg ^nemg. No. I. PAGE ' ' And the devil said unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, command this stcne that it be made bread." S. LUKE iv. 3 i SERMON II. <9ur Gfcostlg (ncmg. No. II. " And the devil, taking Him up into an high mountain, sJiewed unto Him all the kingdoms of the "world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto Him, All this power will I give Thee, and the glory of them : for that is delivered unto me ; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If Thou therefore -wilt worship me, all shall be TJiine. And "Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind Me, Satan : for it is written, Thou shall worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve" S. LuKE iv. 5-8 16 SERMON III. avrwv. They have it, i.e. to the full, there is nothing more to come. 2 Psa. xlix. 17. 8 S. Mark viii. 36, 37. 4 Heb. xi. 27. 8 Gal. iv. 31. Our Ghostly Enemy. 29 future and eternal, but to our present and temporal loss. The far-sighted and the keen-eyed eagle, permitted by God to gaze into the very sun of his mysteries, will not be drawn down by the purblind, near-sighted tempter, to the little vision which lies at his feet. The light will soon fade out of that landscape, and the world's power turn to dust and what have we done for the soul ? Yes, any one who is scorning the royal road of the Cross, who is casting away the glorious destiny which God provides for him, who snatches at this world's good, or this world's opinion, or this world's profit, and forgets his own soul yes, he is losing. Every time we turn from God we are losing. Every Lent we neglect, we are losing. Every Holy Communion we turn from, every prayer we omit, every duty we leave undone, we are losing. Every act of unfaithfulness is a loss, a distinct and awful loss as was his ; " Seven days, we read, a Saint of old Dreamed on in doubt alone ; Seven days of hope and joy untold For evermore were gone." ] We must work on, and not gaze at the view beneath, but ever look upwards to the eye of Christ. Let us go with Him into the mountain. There is an ambition, a noble pride, which He alone can fill. Let Him tell us of those nights spent in prayer on the mountain -top' of the sweetness, the force, the power of prayer. Let Him tell us of the transfigura- tion which turns our dull lives into the silvery light of peace, and transforms us into children of grace. Let Him tell us of those words of love and wisdom 1 " Lyra Iiinocentium," poem v. 3O Our Ghostly Enemy. which held the multitudes entranced, and brought the rocks and the trees to listen to His voice. Let us bend our heads to receive His blessing, which falls from those uplifted hands, and strain our eyes to catch the receding glories of heaven, which the jealous cloud of sight would snatch from the eye of faith. Above all, let us linger with Him on that mount of sacrifice. Let us see the price which he paid for the world, to spoil the spoiler of his prey. Let us " make a covenant with Him with sacrifice." * And if there is a pride, if there is an ambition, which comes to us on that mountain-top, let it be the pride of being- good, the ambition to be heirs of that kingdom which shall last for ever, which shall help us to spurn, once for all, all low and discontented and covetous desires beneath our feet. Men shall take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus. 2 Our faces shall shine with supernatural glow. The deaf and dumb devil shall yield to our touch ; we shall return to Jerusalem with fear and great joy, and be continually in the temple praising and blessing God. 3 For we look for no earthly power, no bewildering, dazzling fruits of covetousness, but " for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." ' 1 Psa. 1. 5. 2 Acts iv. 13. 8 S. Luke xxiv. 52, 53. 4 Heb. xi. 10. SERMON III. HDur afjo.sti No. III. " And he brought Him to Jerusalem, and set Him on a pinnacle of tfie temple, and said unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thy- self down from hence : for it is written, He shall give His angels charge over Thee to keep Thee ; and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." S. LUKE iv. 9-12. WHEN the enemies of the prophet Daniel, weighing well his integrity, and despairing of any loophole of attack in a life so well-ordered and righteous, cast about for some mode of approach for their machina- tions, which were to work his ruin, they said, " We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God." 1 And so the devil failing in the region of sense, failing even more conspicuously in the soul, the region of the imagination, the seat of the empire of the will, where covetousness and ambition and love of power are generally found to exercise some sway tries yet one more region, as yet unexplored, higher up, and therefore with a greater fall the region of the spirit, the higher portion of our purely human nature, the medium of our cognisance of the Divine nature, the 1 Dan. vi. 5. 32 Our Ghostly Enemy. temple within the little city of a man's life, the place of his meeting with God ; * and there tries what pre- sumption will do, where appetite and ambition had failed ; whether he could strain those relations (how intimate he knew not) between the Divine and human nature ; to see if he could enter within the Paradise of the soul ; to see if there was any forbidden tree to be tasted, any limitation to that perfect walking with God, any possibility of introducing his " Yea, hath God said ? " 2 any room to graft presumption upon that trust which refused to gratify even hunger with- out the clear and directing will of God. It is not unknown, alas ! It is a common recognized battle-field with Satan. When all else fails the Spirit. If I can find it in nothing else, I shall find occasion against him concerning the law of his God. Ah ! well did the builders of our old cathedrals and churches carve their grinning fiends and hideous demons, clustering round the roofs and towers of the holy places. The Church and holy things are the scenes of the devil's greatest victories. When men have escaped him everywhere else, in appetite, in the glittering world ; when they have crushed out lust from the body and ambition from the soul, he has met them in the path of their God ; he has laid wait for them between the pages of the Bible ; he has met them on the steps of the altar ; he has come to some Moses, even as the water of the Sacraments was about to gush from the rock ; he has pillowed the bed of death with a false assurance, which is not the comfort of the rod and staff of the Cross. 3 1 See Bishop Ellicott, " Destiny of The Ci'eature and other sermons." 2 Gen. iii. 1. 3 Psa. xxiii. 4. Our Ghostly Enemy. 33 Cast your eye down that weary page of history, the history of heresy and schism ; whence is this sad scene of bitterness and division ? What mean those names cropping up here and there where Christ should be all in all? "Was Paul crucified for you ? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul ? "* What mean those distorted doctrines, upsetting the proportion of faith ? Trust in God, so holy and so noble as it is, has become presumption. Some one has tried to steady the ark with unhallowed hands ; 2 and those who by splendid self-denial and noble self-restraint have con- quered appetite and ambition, lie, like Dagon, prone before the ark of God beaten in the spirit. Oh, it is a temptation, so easy, so insinuating, so fascinating, that its danger is intense. Nowhere is there safety, not within the circle of our own life ; a man is not safe even by himself; not in the world its tempting, dazzling view may shut out God ; and, alas ! not even in the temple. " Even in harbour ships are broken," 3 says S. Augustine. In heaven there was war, and the devil was cast out. 4 In paradise the serpent coiled himself round the tree of God's planting. In the very school of the Saviour, under the eye of His presence, taught by His lips, helped by His grace, Judas fell away. Presumption must make us all tremble ; the sin of good men, the sin of Paradise, the sin in the Holy Place, unlocked for, unsuspected, and sometimes, alas ! unrepented of. 1 1 Cor. i. 13. 2 2 Sam. vi. 6. 3 St. Augustine on Psalm xix. " Nusquam est securitas fratres, neque in Ccelo, neque in Paradise, multo minus in mundo ; in coelo enim cecidit angelus sub prsesentia Divinitatis ; Adam in Paradise, in loco voluptatis ; Judas in mundo de schola Salvatoris." 4 Rev. xii. 7. D 34 Our Ghostly Enemy. I. Perhaps, then, we may venture to say on a subject in which, alas ! it is only too easy to go wrong that it was with some such intent that the devil carries our Lord away to a lofty eminence of the temple, unresisting, in obedience to the will of the Holy Spirit, "Who drove Him into the desert, that He might test here, too, the force of that terrible tempta- tion the temptation of saints. Our Lord was led to the top of some eminence in the temple ; perhaps the gilded dome of the sanctuary ; perhaps the roof of the royal porch, looking down from a dizzy height over the valley of Kidron beneath ; perhaps the top of Solomon's porch, looking down into the court of the Israelites, from which afterwards S. James was hurled. Taking his stand here, the tempter commences his last effort. 1 " If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down from hence, for it is written, He shall give His angels charge over Thee, to keep Thee, and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone." There are several points in this temptation which require our very earnest and serious attention. It has been well pointed out 2 that the temptation was complex in its character and happy in its opportunity ; and whether He were God, or only a Divine man, charged on either hypothesis, with sufficient ruin and destruction. And, first of all, what did the devil want ? What was, in fact, the temptation ? Gratified appetite we can understand as a loud clamorous prompter to rebellion. The surrender of His power, 1 Farrar, " Life of Christ," vol. i. p. 133. 2 Hutchings' "Mystery of the Temptation," sermon v. p. 159. Mill, sermon v. p. 111). Our Ghostly Enemy. 35 and a world-wide empire without the Cross, were a sufficiently tempting bait to conceal the barb of sin. But what was to be gained by a sudden fall from the temple ? What would Satan gain ? What would Christ gain if the offer was closed with and the suggestion carried out ? " If Thou be the Son of God." As far as Satan was concerned, it may well be there was a double end to be secured. Our Blessed Lord might be God. He might be only man. If, stung by his taunts, He would try to prove His Godhead, which did not really belong to Him, by an act of this sort death was certain ; and the prophet of Nazareth was removed for ever from his path. If He were God, on the other hand, then, in the first place, He would be obeying his command ; and in the second place, acting contrary to the whole tenor of God's dealing with man, which as Satan him- self must have known protects trustfulness in danger, but not presumption. He asked Him, in short, to destroy Himself if he were man; to sin if He were God. But was there nothing to point the temptation ? nothing to recommend this violent course ? * As hunger transformed the shape of the stones into soft and welcome bread ; as the view melted into the kingdoms of this world, surrendered without a battle, lying at the feet of Jesus a worthy price for the adoration of a moment so, was there nothing here to take the roughness from suicide, the guilt from presumption ? Yes, beneath them were spread out the courts of the temple, where the priests were offering the victims, and the smoke of incense was ascending, and the chaunts of psalm and thanksgiving were mounting up in waves 1 See Mill on " The Temptation," sermon v. 117, 118. 36 Our Ghostly Enemy. of sound, as they passed before the throne of God. Here would be a fulfilment of prophecy, more real and more complete than heretofore. Not Simeon and Anna, a few faithful souls, should see the Lord, whom they sought, suddenly come to His temple. 1 Here would be no lowly procession on an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass ; but He should appear, upborne by angels, coming on the clouds of heaven 2 as the long looked for Messiah. Every eye should see Him the outpost of the Roman power from the tower of Antonia, the superstitious Pharisee, the sceptical Sadducee, the Erastian Herodian, all should be convinced. The victory of the Messiah should be won by sight, with- out that hard discipline of faith. That heartfelt cry would no longer be realized, 3 "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not ! " Faith would be lost in sight, and the reservation of His glory with- drawn " Cast Thyself down, and the angel-guard shall bear Thee up." The temple suggests this, and Holy Scripture endorses it. Angels will always pro- tect the Son of God. Their hands will always bear Him up. His foot, even, shall not be dashed against a stone. But where ? " In all Thy ways." 5 We must be careful when the devil quotes Scripture. God's angels will protect confident obedience, but will not protect 1 Mai. iii. 1. 2 S. Luke xxi. 27. 8 See Hutchings' " Mystery of the Temptation," lecture v. 4 S. Matt, xxiii. 37. 5 " Ut custodiant te in omnibus viis tuis, numquid_in prse- cipitiis ? " St. Bernard. Quoted by Dr. Mill in loc. Our G /lastly Enemy. 37 rebellious presumption. This way was not one of the ways of God. There were no angels around this path ; but the angel of God with a drawn sword to resist. But, no. His way was different. His hour was not yet come. I, if I be lifted up from the earth, not if I cast Myself down, will draw all men unto Me. 1 No will shall be forced, no ear shall be strained, no eye dazzled. By parables veiling truth ; by miracles worked before a few, and carefully concealed ; by the words spoken to them that had ears to hear ; by the slow education of faith " here a little, and there a little " His sun of truth was to burst upon the world. A vain display was not a way of God. The principle was wrong, and the Scripture that supported it was garbled. If Scripture he wanted, Scripture he should have. It was to presume on God in a path which God had not chosen, to expect a miracle where no miracle was needed. " Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." II. " If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down." It is the peculiar temptation of a son of God, to think that he can walk alone, here in the infancy of his life, without God to support his trembling footsteps ; to think that he can soar out into space on unfledged wing, forgetting the pride of the children of God. " As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings : so the Lord alone did lead him,. and there was no strange God with him.'" Looking at God, we are all tempted, all too ready to presume on that wondrous tender love ; looking at man, we are too apt to take to ourselves the strength 1 S. John xii. 32. * Dent, xxxii. 11, 12. 38 Our Ghostly Enemy. and glory which come from God. " He was marvel- lously helped, till he was strong. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up." 1 The Son of God must never cast Himself down. The height is dizzy, the wind of the world battles it, the flesh trembles and quivers at the fall beneath it, Satan shakes, and grapples, and wrestles to loose our hold. But the Son of God must never cast Himself down, despising the mercy of God, underrating the depth of the fall, and the danger of the descent. Ah, many a child of God who has been carried by God to a pinnacle far above the black and surging waves of this world's crime, through the tender love of a good father and mother, by the dutiful care of the Church, by prayer and sacraments protected in every stage, sheltered, and kept from ill, favoured by God with some especial blessing ah, too often we see him listening to this temptation, " Cast thyself down ; " and if saved from destruction, only to climb again by slow and painful steps, the pinnacle of penitence, and that a lower eminence than that of innocence. For the devil, like Herod of old, if he cannot slay Christ, will slay innocence. It takes the form of superiority to temptation, it will not hurt me ; I am proof against such temptations, / am a son of God. So Balaam the prophet came before God in prayer, went to his rest in security, with the messengers of Balak in his house. A trifling declension from the high and rigid line of pure spirituality could not hurt a prophet of the Lord. He cast himself down. There were no angels to support him, only one to resist him ; -his foot was dashed against the wall, and he perished 1 2 Chron. xxvi. 15, 16. Our Ghostly Enemy. 39 at last on the hard rocks of avarice, an apostate to his God, and a traitor to his conscience. 1 David again the man after God's own heart what could hurt him ? What temptation need he fear ? He cast himself down upon temptation deeper and deeper, through murder and adultery he fell to be arrested only at the voice of the prophet announcing his pardon, while he proclaimed his broken life, " The sword shall never depart from thine house/' 2 Nothing could ever be wrong in a loyal patriotism, thought Jonah ; and he cast himself down upon the temptation of self-will, to dash his foot against trouble, sorrow, peril, and almost death. 3 And day by day, as men taste more and more of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and stretch out their hands in presumption, where God has told them not to eat, saying, " I am safe, it will not hurt me " more and more, we are surprised at the falls of good men. A S. Peter is seen in the high priest's palace at one moment in bravery, at another he is laid low in a terrible denial through cowardice. A Judas, but now the almoner of Christ Himself and the apostles, is dashed to pieces by an impious treachery : Faithful Abraham sins through want of faith, meek Moses in passion, wise Solomon in idolatry. 4 Oh, let us beware how we cast ourselves down ! Let us beware lest we turn dizzy on a pinnacle where 1 Num. xxxi. 8. 2 2 Sam. xii. 10. 3 See for this explanation of Jonah's conduct, Oxford Lent Sermons, 1869, p. 106. 4 Dr. Newman, " Paroch. and Plain Sermons," vol i. p. 41. 40 Our Ghostly Enemy. we thought ourselves safe ! So many bribes are held out to us that we may cast ourselves down. There are some people, we are told, who are alienated by our over-strictness ; let us break down the rigour of our will, that we may make ourselves " all things to all men," * and attract by a shaded light, where the full blaze of truth would repel. There is that companion whom we might elevate, if we would descend to his level, and wean him by degrees from evil influences, and win him to ourselves. The growing vigour of intellect cannot be kept in swaddling bands. If unbelief publishes its assaults upon Kevelation is it not the duty of the believing Christian to read it, that he may the better refute it ? If certain amuse- ments and scenes are frequented by the careless and wicked, is it not the duty of the Christian to mix with evil that he may counteract it and purge it ? Is he not the salt of the earth ? the city set on an hill, which cannot be hid ? 2 Ah, beneath it all listen ! listen well ! and you will hear, " cast thyself down." There is no angel to meet thee in the poison of the fool's folly, who would corrupt thy mind against God. There is no angel to uphold thee, if thou losest the vantage ground of a high life, and triest to meet sin on its own dead level. There is no angel to purify thee, as the leaven of evil spreads its corruption over the whole lump of thy goodness. He who would grapple with sin must elevate the sinner, from the high level of the rock of holiness, not in the same quicksand of engulfing temptation. The Son of God must never cast himself down. " For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but 1 1 Cor. ix. 22. 2 S. Matt. v. 14. Our Ghostly Enemy. 41 against principalities, against powers, . . . against spiritual wickedness in high places." 1 " set me up upon the rock that is higher than I, for Thou hast been my hope, and a strong tower for me against the enemy/' 2 "He shall give His angels charge over thee, 3 to keep thee." Men are only too glad to shut their eyes to the full truth of Holy Scripture, to presume on half truths, and to expect angels to uphold them in the air, instead of meeting them on the steps. 4 We must look for stairs, not angels. God does not work a miracle without a reason, or. allow us to dispense in presumption with the natural laws of His appointing. There is the orderly, stately ladder of the Church's life reaching up to heaven. Angels of God are ascending and descending on it. Passing through the cleansing laver of baptism to the con- firming grace of the Holy Spirit, with the heavenly food of the Body and Blood of Christ the manna in the wilderness to support us ; passing through the cleansing Blood of Christ in prayer, in sacraments and ordinances, with the lantern of God's word, with the warning voice of His ministers, the dizzy descent into the grave is safely passed, the corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, 5 sown by the careful hand of the Church, that it may rise into the full fruit of eternal life. But it is more easy to cast oneself down, to wait to the last, to spurn the warning voice of the Church, to shut out the guiding light, to decry sacraments, to refuse ordinances, to slumber and sleep, and say " the Lord is merciful, and throw ourselves down upon 1 Eph. vi. 12. 2 Psa. Ixi. 3. 3 S. Luke iv. 9, 10. 4 See Bishop Andrews' " Sermon on Temptation," vol. v. p. 512, etc. 5 S. John xii. 24. 42 Our Ghostly Enemy. God's mercy, and expect that the fiery chariot that took up Elias is to come and fetch us up." 1 Oh, if God has spoken, if He has said, " Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation ": 2 if He has said, " Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," 3 he will not be asked twice. There is no fresh warning for disobedient Balaam. God may cease to strive, conscience may cease to warn, but no angels are there to break our fall. If God has said, " Arise and eat ; because the journey is too great for thee," 4 it is idle to expect an angel to stay up our fainting life, when we have refused the cake and the cruse to which he pointed. If God has said, "the wages of sin is death," 5 it is idle to expect an angel to come between us and the master whom we have served. Oh, that men were wise, that they would under- stand this. Whose interest can it be ? whom can it profit ? whom can it serve ? to drive away men from the Word and Sacraments and the Church of God, unless it be him, who lies in wait to deceive, 6 and who is ever whispering "because thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down." III. And surely, gathered together as we are at the end of Lent, as those who have been striving to serve God, and to be near Him, and to continue with Him in His temptations, it would be unwise on our part if we did not notice, and notice well, how familiar the devil is with the pinnacle of the temple. He knew his way there, and is not frightened away 1 Bishop Andrews, vol. v. p. 321. 2 2 Cor. vi. 2. 8 Philip, ii. 12. 4 1 Kings xix. 7. 6 Rom. vi. 23. 6 Eph. iv. 14. Our Ghostly Enemy. 43 by the sanctity of the place, or the apparent security of the worshippers. He knows no law of sanctuary, he despairs of no victim. Is there any danger to us from our very familiarity with the high places of the sanctuary ? If others err in the presumption of contempt, are we in no danger from the presumption of familiarity ? Not without reason was it that " in the year that King Uzziah died" * the king that profaned the temple by undue familiarity with holy things, the prophet Isaiah saw that wondrous vision of God high and lifted up, with His train filling the temple, with the seraphim in adoration before Him, each with his six wings, with twain covering his face, with twain covering his feet, with twain poising himself in mid-air before the awful Presence of God, proclaiming once for all, as with a trumpet, those bounds which must be set around the Mount of God. Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts. Separate, separate, separate, consecrated off from all that is unworthy of that presence, from all which that Majesty would burn up, as a consuming fire. Oh, is there not a danger, as has been said, of "tripping in and out" before that awful Presence, of casting oneself down from that pinnacle of reverence, to let angels supply our lack of service towards Him ? Oh, let us never forget the six wings as we come before God. " With twain he covered his face." : They fear to look upon God. " With twain he covered his feet" 3 they fear that piercing eye of God, lest it should look upon them.* " With twain he did fly" the gentle upbearing of their wings, by an 1 Isa. vi. 1, etc. 2 Ne videanfc. 8 Ne videantnr. 4 See Delitzsch ; Is. vol. i. p. 191. 44 Our Ghostly Enemy. effort, real yet imperceptible, keeps them in His presence. Oh, wondrous type of reverence for all who stand on high places before God. Alas ! alas ! we have not the eye of the eagle ; we cannot gaze at the full sun. Let us veil our faces in reverence of the mystery of the Godhead. Alas ! we dread that voice as we stand before Him. Whence comest thou, Gehazi, to stand before Me ? V We veil our feet, our erring feet, in penitence. Our service flags, our devotion is faint ; we need that constant rousing of our wills, and affections, and understanding, in the flapping wings of prayer. Oh, we must fear lest, in an age of increased out- ward reverence, of multiplied services and enlarged devotion, the devil accustom us to the pinnacle where we stand before God, and bid us err by presumption, where angels fear to tread ; fear, lest we offer the incens,e which was for our High Priest, and carry away with us only the leprosy of a curse, because we entered before God, untouched by the coal of fire, without repentance and without love. Surely this holy season, within whose most sacred recesses we have now entered, will be our safety and our comfort. We see Jesus Christ once more passing through the tabernacle to go within the veil, with the blood of atonement and the incense of intercession in His hands. We know that " He ever liveth to make intercession for us " 2 there ; we know that while we are struggling here below that there is One Whose " hands are steady until the going down of the sun." 3 We know that the blood which He pleads has taken away all power from sin, and has robbed Satan of his 1 2 Kings v. 25. 2 Heb. vii. 25. 3 Exod. xvii. 12. Our Ghostly Enemy. 45 empire. Can it be that we shall refuse so great a salvation offered to us ? Can it be that we shall follow Satan rather than the gracious pleading of our loving High Priest ? Oh, when temptations come to annoy us, and distress us, even when they have ceased to harm, let us see that His presence is with us, His grace to protect us ! " Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them that trouble me." He offers to strengthen us against the temptation, so that Satan when he comes to the house from which he was driven out in baptism, with original sin, may not find the house empty, and prepared for the sevenfold possession of actual sin. " Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath pro- mised to them that love Him" 2 the crown, the symbol of victory ; the crown, the symbol of sovereignty and well-ordered sway ; the crown of the ten cities of heaven, which is promised to him who can administer the one pound of this life. 3 But if Satan seizes the pound here, take care lest he snatch from us the cities hereafter. So shall Lent have been a blessed time to us, if we have learnt to tread the way of salvation. The perils of the way passed do but add joy to the safety of home. The husks of the swine, and the nakedness of the prodigal, do but increase the comforts of his father's house. If the conflict is fierce and long, " They that be with us are more than they that be with them." 4 And " where are conflicts there are crowns also." 1 Psa. xxiii. 5. 2 S. James i. 12. 3 S. Luke xix. 13. 4 2 Kings vi. 16. SERMON IV. Cree of Life. "In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month : and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." REV. xxii. 2. BEFORE entering upon this great subject, to which we have ventured to draw your attention this Advent, perhaps some word of explanation is necessary. 1 1 This sermon forms the first of a series, which was preached during the Advent of 1881, on the subject of the east window, lately presented to the church of S. Matthias, Malvern Link. The following description of the window by the artist, Mr. C. E. Kempe, will perhaps serve to make what follows more intelligible. " The east window of the church is filled with stained glass, showing the somewhat unusual subject known among art students as the ' Tree of the Cross.' A tree of fine white foliage, of the nature of a vine, fills the whole surface of the window, and in its centre, the figure of our Lord crucified is shown, not a figure hanging helplessly in death, but alive, with open eyes, and His arms stretched voluntarily on the boughs, and with a crown on his head, indicating the Royal nature of the Sufferer, Who by His own Will humbled Himself to the death upon the Cross, and thus voluntarily perfected the great act of Atonement. Among the vine branches appear half- length figures of the principal Prophets, who foretold the mystery of the Atonement, each bearing his scroll in relation to that doctrine. Of these we read from Isaiah, ' Surely He hath borne our griefs ; ' from Jeremiah, ' I am the Man who hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath ; ' from Zechariah, ' What are these wounds in Thine hands ? ' from Ezekiel, ' The The Tree of Life. 47 In the first place, just as Christian architecture is meant not only to please the eye, by symmetry and beauty of form, but also to teach us lessons, by the poetry of its symbolism, so art, whether in glass, painting, or sculpture, when it is introduced into our churches, would fail in its object, if it were merely a decoration ; it should elevate, it should teach. And the first step to profit by its teaching, is clearly to understand what is meant by the lesson ; and therefore, we thought it would surely be helpful to try and draw out the meaning of those beautiful forms and conceptions constantly before our eyes, in the east window of this church ; that the sun shining through those colours, with its breathing light, may be only a symbol of the meaning which lies beneath its beauty, of the teaching which it might convey to our leaf thereof for medicine ; ' from Hosea, ' death, I will be thy plagues ; ' and from Malachi, ' I will come near unto you to judgment.' A scroll also on the Tree describes it in the words of the Apocalypse, ' The Tree of Life which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month : and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations,' in illus- tration of which, labels appear attached to the grape-clusters, named with Christian virtues, the results of the Atonement. Under the Tree stand the following figures, witnesses and con- fessors of the doctrine : SS. Mary and John ; S. Matthias, holding a Church in his hand ; S. Augustine of England, carrying the banner of the Cross, with which he presented himself before king Ethelbert; S. Oswald of Worcester, and S. Eadburga. These latter have a local interest. S. Oswald, is said to have died singing the ' Gloria Patri,' and he is accordingly represented holding the Doxology attached to his staff, as well as Worcester Cathedral in his hand ; S. Eadburga, a grand- daughter of Alfred the Great, was in old days commemorated at Pershore, and the church of Leigh was dedicated in her honour ; having despised the wealth of a Court, she is here shown treading on a crown." 48 The Tree of Life. understanding and imagination. And you will have noticed, that the subject which is there set before us is what is called a mystical subject ; i.e. it is not a representation of the Crucifixion as it really took place, in fact it is not the Crucifixion at all ; but it is an attempt to attach a mystical and symbolical meaning to this verse of the Book of Eevelation, " The tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month : and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." And here again it is necessary to make a further digression. Is it right to treat Holy Scripture in this way ? Is it not fanciful ? Is it not playing tricks with it ? Might not Holy Scripture be mystified in this way into meaning anything or nothing ? And here, at all events, as many of us know already, we can start with a clear conscience. Not only is it edifying and beautiful in itself to detect these mystical deeper meanings in Holy Scripture, as we hold it up to different lights, and in different angles, to catch the rays of the sun ; but also we have the very highest authority for this devotional use of Holy Scripture. S. Paul, you remember, uses the precept given by God in Deuteronomy, " Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn," 1 as con- veying the mystical meaning that " the elders who rule well should be counted worthy of double honour." " Out of Egypt have I called my Son," 2 is another instance of a passage of Holy Scripture, spoken in one sense and applied, in a higher and mystical way, in another. So are many passages of the Psalms, as 1 1 Cor. ix. 9 ; 1 Tim. v. 17, 18. 2 S. Matt. ii. 15. The Tree of Life, 49 used by our Blessed Lord and His Apostles. So, you remember, the elaborate allegory in the Epistle to the Galatians, of Agar and Mount Sinai. 1 It is an interpretation of Holy Scripture recognized in Holy Scripture itself, it is edifying and instructive, it provokes thought and research, and has the sanction of the Church in the writings of her Doctors and Divines. And, therefore, we may without hesitation devote ourselves to drawing out this treatment of that passage from the Book of Revelation, which is portrayed for us in the east window of this church. I. And you will notice, first of all, that the great Christian idea is represented as a large tree, with spreading branches, reaching through the earth and up to heaven itself. By its name, " The Tree of Life," we are bidden to carry back our thoughts to that time when, guilty, sorrowful, condemned, our first parents, who had tasted of the tree of knowledge, were driven out of the garden lest they should put forth their hands and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. And we are reminded that there was one bright spot in the gloom which overshadowed them, and that was the promise mingling almost with the words of the curse, that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent. 2 Here was a tree, which already began to grow ; here was the Tree of Life, replanted. Ezekiel had a vision of it, and S. John saw it in the garden of Paradise, so multiplied that it stands on either side of the river of life ; so fruitful that it bears every month ; so versatile that it produces twelve different sorts of fruit ; so accessible, that, instead of 1 Gal. iv. 21. 2 Gen. iii. 15. E 50 The Tree of Life. being protected by a flaming sword, it stands in the very street, and whoever will, may freely pluck off, and eat its fruit. 1 The window, then, sets before us, first, the gradual growth of this Christian idea, this Tree of Life. It is the custom sometimes to speak of Buddhism, and other heathen religions as older than Christianity. Christianity is as old as the world, perhaps older. Certainly it is as old as the Fall. 2 As soon as man had tasted of the Tree of know- ledge, and had fallen, a seed from the Tree of Life was planted in the world ; it grew, and germinated in the soil ; the sacrifices of patriarchal times were its first " two little leaves, unlike that which the plant would 1 See Dr. Vaughan, " Lecture on The Revelation," vol. ii. p. 300. 2 From one point of view it may be said that the Old Testament is full of Christ, the New of God the Father. " No man hath seen God at any time " (i.e. hath seen the First Person of the Holy Trinity). Our Blessed Lord is the Word of God, and the Express Image of His Person. Therefore every appearance of God, in anthropomorphic or other forms, and every audible voice of God recorded in the Old Testament, may well be taken as the appearance of God the Son, not yet Incarnate but assuming a human form by antici- pation, and for a season, or manifested in some other manner, and speaking to the children of men. What man yearned after, however, was the knowledge and the assurance of his filial relation to his Maker. The Old Testament revealed Him as the Creator, the King, the Judge. It said but little of Him as the Father. " Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth ns," was the cry, not only of Philip, but of mankind. And our Lord's answer to the cry is the keynote of the Gospels, " Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, show us the Father." The New Testament is essentially the Revelation of the Fatherhood of God. Compare it with the Old, and this truth will be readily recognized. The Tree of Life. 5 1 have, extended like two little hands to heaven ; "* then its leaves were unfolded in grace, the nearness of God, the freshness of His presence, the Revelation of His will. Then great flowers began to appear upon it one by one ; the prophets, as they grew upon the branches, all indicating the character of the tree ; all pointing on to what the fruit would be, as we may tell the character of the fruit by its precedent flower. And so the tree spread, without men understanding it ; until when the fulness of the time was come the form of the Son of God became visible on the branches. The clusters of grapes shot forth thick and heavy. "Twelve manner of fruits : " fruit for every season, for every month ; fruit for winter and summer, for spring and autumn ; in scorching sun, in biting frost, in growing vigour, in " calm decay." Men tasted of that fruit and lived again, in the fisherman's boat, by the receipt of custom, at the feet of Gamaliel, in the Roman cohorts, in the palace of the Caesars, among the ranks of slaves, on the thrones of kings. " Twelve manner of fruits : " fruit for every month suitable to every condition, suitable to every rank. Each and all of that "great multitude which no man could number," 2 who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, have tasted of that Tree of Life of each of its fruits of that noble elevation of character, that faith, that valour, that piety of those grapes filled with the blood of Jesus, whose form enriches and ennobles, and ripens the tree. And to teach us this lesson, we have gathered before us, beneath that tree, certain typical characters 1 Baring Gould, " Sermons to Children," p. 147. 2 Rev. vii. 9. 52 The Tree of Life. taken from among those who have tasted of its fruit and virtue. First, we have an example of those who have filled difficult posts of responsibility, near to God, before their fellow-men, who have drunk in their strength from the pure blood of those heavenly grapes. Then, we have an example of those who, in the great hierarchy of the Church, have used the office of a Bishop well, and who have chanted in death their "glory to God " as the worthy finish of a life of praise ; whose strength has been this glorious fruit, in the place of the vineyard which God's right hand hath planted, 1 which they defended against the breach of the enemy. Further, we have an example of those who, impelled by that haunting voice, " Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost/' 2 have left home and friends, carrying their lives in their hands facing unknown dangers, and braving all terrors that they might plant the banner of the Crucified on the ramparts of heathendom pioneers of the great mis- sionary band, " who have bound their foal unto the vine and their ass's colt unto the choice vine, who washed their garments in wine, and their clothes in the blood of grapes ; " 3 " whose eyes are red with wine, and their teeth white with milk." Or, lastly, we have an example of those who, like Moses of old, have in all ages esteemed " the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt," 4 who have refused to be called the child of Pharaoh's 1 Psa. Ixxx. 15. 2 S. Matt, xxviii. 19. 3 Gen. xlix. 11. Heb. xi. 26. The Tree of Life. 53 daughter, who having overcome have been allowed " to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God." 1 Such as these stand beneath the tree, as the fowls of the air lodge beneath the shadow of the branches of it ; 2 with her, from whom sprang the human nature of the Divine fruit-bearer ; with him, whose keen eagle eye typifies all who desire to penetrate the mysteries of God, and who study the inner meaning of that great Christian Revelation, that mighty growth of the Christian religion, here called the tree of life ; which has grown until it has become a mighty tree, first flowering with prophets, then ripen- ing into its glorious fruit ; attracting to itself all who hunger and thirst after righteousness, giving fruit to the Israel of God, and healing with its very leaves the Gentile world. These things the angels 3 desire to look into, as they cluster round the Majesty of God. These things holy souls desire to contemplate, who stand, like S. John, gazing at the mystery unfolded before them. II. But it is time that we should try and gather up some practical lesson, on this Advent Sunday. And surely it is this : Most of us have tasted of the tree of knowledge of good and evil ; have we yet tasted of the Tree of Life ? As we gradually are being drawn nearer and nearer to the end, and the sentence of death which has been passed upon us becomes more imminent, have we yet tasted of the Tree of Life ? Ah, we shall be asked before we enter Paradise again, not what riches we have, not what knowledge, nor what intelligence ; but 1 Rev. ii. 7. 2 S. Luke xiii. 19. s 1 S. Pet. i. 12. 54 The Tree of Life. what life ? whether our soul is alive unto God ? whether we have known Him ? whether we live by Him ? whether our thoughts, words, and actions have been filled by Him ? whether we dwell in Him, and He in us ? Oh, when hundreds and hundreds are tasting of the tree of knowledge, when the world is so clever, so eager, so wicked, would that more tasted of the Tree of Life, of religion, of holiness, of God ! And, thank God, the Tree of Life is open, accessible to all ; multi- plied it stands on each side of the river, in the wilder- ness and in the promised land. There is an open Church, and an open Bible, and open privileges for every one. God is very near to all : " Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." 1 And let me point out that there is fruit to be found on that tree for all, not only fruit for the good and religious, but twelve manner of fruits ; fruit for every month, fruit for this hard, weary life, fruit for the tempted, fruit for the penitent, fruit for the occupied, fruit for every one. Jesus Christ well nigh exhausts the power of language, to say, that the cherubim's flaming sword is lowered, and that He would have all come to Him : " Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden," 2 ye whose burden would seem most to press you to the earth. The Holy Feast is open to all ; He longs to welcome all who will come prepared. His Church is for all, His Holy Word for all. Twelve manner of fruits ; is there none to suit my taste ? Is weariness, and worldliness, and controversy, and trouble, and want of appreciation, to be a perpetual barrier ? 1 Rom. v. 20. 2 S. Matt. xi. 28. The Tree of Life. 55 Shall I not find refreshment in each and all of these troubles ? Twelve manner of fruits ; fruit every month, fruit for all, fruit all through life, from the cradle to the grave. Oh, blessed are they who go up to the tree, and take hold of the branches thereof, and ask for fruit. Think, how He bends the branches down to us ; how He extends to us the very virtue and fruit of His Incarnation. " Solomon had a vine- yard at Baal-hamon, he let out the vineyard unto keepers ; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver." But now it is, " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money ; come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come buy wine and milk without money, and without price." 2 If the fruit of the land is so beautiful on this side of Jordan, which the spies bring to us, what must it be on the other side in the better land, where we shall see the king in His beauty, where we shall see Him as He is? At least, despise not the leaves. The leaves which are " for the healing of the nations." For those who despise the fruit, for those who fear to crush these grapes in defiled and hard hands still for them there are the leaves. Yes, the very outskirts of religion are blessed ; yes, even to linger in these courts, to hear the voice of God speaking in the psalms, "to go with the multitude, and bring them forth into the house of God," 3 even in the scanty service, the cold devo- tion, the imperfect knowledge, there is a leaf from the Tree of Life ; there may be healing in it. It was such a leaf from this tree that healed the fevered soul 1 Cant. viii. 11. 2 Isa. Iv. i. 3 Psa. xlii. 4. 56 The Tree of Life. of S. Augustine, fluttering to his feet charged with power and virtue. Many an old wound has been healed over by the buried leaves of early training ; many a chance word which has winged its way from the Bible, or some good book or sermon, has proved to be a leaf from the Tree of Life. Ah, yes, if you need healing, if you are full of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, if you shrink from the fruit, still there is healing in the leaves. In the very outskirts of religion there is healing, but not satisfaction. Medicine is not food, but also food must sometimes be preceded by medicine. So, while the Church this Advent reminds you of the approach of death, she holds in her hands the branches of the Tree of Life. Here is life for all ; Fruit for those who press to the heart of the Church's Sacramental life ; leaves, healing leaves, for those who linger on the outskirts ; life to all who put forth their hand to take of the Tree of Life, multiplied in its growth, versatile in its fruits, accessible in its position, whose very leaves are medicine. SERMON V. " And there shall be no night there" REV. xxii. 5. WHEN Adam first saw darkness creeping up over the newly created world, as the sun sank beneath the horizon, and the blue left the sky, as the flowers closed their petals, and the grey hue of advancing night spread itself over the face of the bright earth, and the stars came out, and the moon shone, and that solemn hush of deep stillness fell like a solemn pall over the joyous youth of creation, fresh in all its beauty from the hand of God, surely to him night was but another change of a glad experience, a time of rest and repose, of closer undisturbed union with Him to Whom "the darkness and the light are both alike" ] There was surely no terror in night, no gloomy surroundings, no loneliness and dread. Innocence had no enemies, and a clear conscience no fears. But to us, centuries and centuries of guilt and unfaithfulness have fastened on to night other and more terrible associations. The night has blind- folded the sun, it is the hour for the murderer, the descendant of Cain. The night is a cloak to throw over our fellow men ; it is the hour of the thief who digs through houses in the dark. 2 The night shuts 1 Psa. cxxxix. 12. 2 Job xxiv. 16. 58 Night. off the visible, the seen, the knowable, and fills the guilty conscience with weird shapes and strange visions. It is the punishment of the God-hating Egyptians. The night puts an abrupt stop to the labourer's toil ; it is the symbol of the sudden arrest of vitality in the grave. " The night cometh, when no man can work." 1 Looking at the stillness and the blackness, the stagnation of visible, audible life, the strange drowsiness and loss of power which night brings, it is the symbol of death, of trouble, of gloom, of doubt and difficulty in a fallen world. And so the apostle, in his description of the " there," which needs no further designation, the opposite to the " here " of trouble, gloom, and uncertainty, says, " There shall be no night there ; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun." I. We may not be wrong, then, in taking night first of all as a symbol of sorrow. In Heaven above there will be none of that strange withdrawing of the sun, that hiding of God's face from us, the beauty vanishing out of life, the departure of joy from the earth, as the cold grey cloak of some heavy sorrow is thrown over our life with its deep and gloomy folds. Men shrink within themselves as the sun goes down, the sun of joy and prosperity, and the cold dark night of some sorrow comes upon them. And yet the night is useful, it is blessed. We could not do without it. And some day we shall see why God sends us nights to our days, sorrows upon our joys. It is to give us rest, it is to draw us from our work, our toil and labour, and our pleasure, that we may be alone with Him. 1 S. John ix. 4. Night. 59 Dear friends, have you ever had any great sorrow ? any dark night ? God sent that night for the growth of your soul. " Before I was troubled I went wrong, but now have I kept Thy word." 1 David was in the full burst of a bright sun of successful vice ; God sent him a night in Nathan and his message ; the child whom he loved, the child of his sin, died. S. Peter was ablaze with the lurid light of a threefold denial of his Lord ; God dashed down the light ; he went out into the darkness to weep himself into the light. S. Paul, blinded, and groping in darkness, was turned round by his night to be an apostle and servant of God. And these nights which God sends to us are charged with blessings. Perhaps it is that there has been sin in early youth, or some alienation from God in the past. It has all gone by, a bright noon has succeeded the storms and tempest of the morning, and all is bright ; and then there comes a night, so cold and chill, and dark. Oh, dear friends, let us remember these days of darkness ; they will be, they must be, many, if we are to grow. 2 But "there is no night there ; " there probation and chastisement will have done their work, and sorrow and sighing will have flown away for ever. II. " There shall be no night there." Men stumble in the night, and grope their way in the night ; familiar objects are indistinct and confused. It is a symbol of doubt and evil. Ah, this night is self-caused ; it is the thick dark- ness coming up, while it is yet day, because we have crucified our Lord. It is the wilful rejection of the light, that we may sin in the night. There is the 1 Psa. cxix. 67. 2 Eccles. xi. 8. 60 Night. sun of God's truth shining in the Heavens, there is the candle of the Spirit's guidance in the conscience. But men shut up the windows, and put out the light, and there is darkness. Think of those horrible deeds of sin, those works of darkness, beginning in dark- ness, done in the darkness, producing darkness the drunkenness, the lust, the violence, the crime. Open the windows, light up the candle ; give us light. Or look at the trembling, the uncertainty, the hesitation, the doubt, the feeling which makes men shrink when they hear it said, " And thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth." Let in the sunlight, let the candle of conscience give us light, let us do what is right and true " in scorn of consequence ; " let us drive away that " halting between two opinions," the uncertainty whether to serve God or mammon. God has called us out of darkness into His marvellous light ; 2 let us not go back again into Egypt, and in our hearts turn away from God. Let His word be " a lantern unto our feet, and a light unto our paths," 3 and the night of doubt and difficulty shall roll away ; we shall hear a voice behind us saying, " This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left." 4 "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, . . . the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward," 5 leading you on step by step to heaven, for there is no evil, and no doubt ; " there is no night there." III. And then night is the symbol of death. You have stood by the side of the dead, and have seen all the vital forces stilled and paralyzed the scheming 1 S. Mark xiv. 67. 2 1 S. Pet. ii. 9. s Psa. cxix. 105. 4 Isa. xxx. 21. 5 Isa. Iviii. 8. Night. 6 1 brain, the busy hand, the active mind, all arrested in death. Death is very awful, it is a night with its cold grey hue cast over nature. It is terrible even to the best of us, as it comes creeping on, so certain that no one will be found to doubt its approach, so uncertain that no one will venture to say when. It draws near with all its sepa- ration from everything that a man holds dear ; its gloomy mist envelops one familiar object after another, until it forces itself upon us in all its solemn meaning "I die alone." 1 Terrible in its loneliness, terrible in its irreparable nature, terrible in the im- mensity of its issues, death comes creeping towards us. It has hung like a great pall over all the earth, weighing down the life of man, and causing him to shudder, even while it is yet day. But we know what our Blessed Lord has done for us: "There be some standing here that shall not taste of death;" 2 although all must drink of that cup, yet those who follow Him and love Him shall not taste of it. "I am the Kesurrection, and the life," 3 saith the Lord ; to us who believe death is but "a shadow cast upon nature." 4 Already light breaks in upon those who wait close to the gates of Paradise, light from that joyous dwelling of which we read, " there is no night there." IV. And yet once more ; there is a night, through which His Church is even now bidding us pass, the night of Advent before the dawn of Christmas. The O Church, our kind mother, knows that we fear the 1 Paschal. 2 S. Matt. xvi. 28. 8 S. John xi. 25. 4 Speech of Archbishop Laud. Quoted in Dr. Neale's " Psalms." Psa. xxiii. 4. 62 Night. darkness, and she darkens the room while it is yet day to accustom us to the darkness which we dread. She knows what death is to us with its gloomy terror; she knows how we shrink from judgment, that terrible time, when the Judge shall sit, and the books be opened, and the accuser do his work, and the sentence be awarded ; she knows how little we can see of heaven in the bright glare of this world ; she knows how we are afraid to look into hell. And Advent, therefore, is a sort of rehearsal, in which we may bring up before us all the gloom and terror of death ; it is a night of concentration, in which we may shut out the world and see more of heaven ; it is a night of sorrow, of godly sorrow for sin, of " repentance to salvation not to be repented of ; >n it is a night of repose, in which our souls may grow, under the rest and discipline and shadow of the Church's life. Oh, what do we shrink from now? we shall shrink from the same then. Is it the sight of our sins, in all their blackness and guilt ? We must face them then in the terrors of the last day. Is it the meeting with our Saviour, in the sacrament of His love, here in the quiet morning, here at the peaceful altar of our church, surrounded by friends and com- panions ? We must meet Him then in unveiled glory, seated on His throne, with saints and angels around Him. Is the love of the world strong within us ? Do we shrink from loneliness or retirement ? There is nothing we can carry away with us when we die, and no one but our Saviour may hold our hand as we enter that dark valley. Truly Advent is a blessed time of preparation, that 1 2 Cor. vii. 10. Nig Jit. 63 we may not enter upon these awful moments un- prepared. But Advent, too, will some day have done its work ; probation and trial and times of penitence will cease in the eternal feast-day of the Lord. There will be no Advent in heaven, no probation, no trial in our heavenly home. For we know of a truth that " there is no night there." SERMON VI. JFaitft in tjje J>olp Crmttp. " With the heart man believeth unto righteousness ; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." ROMANS x. 10. ON Trinity Sunday we are in the region of pure faith. We start from what could not be known by man, and we end in what is unknowable. We contemplate a mystery, and not only a mystery, but a mystery of such a kind, that we see at once our human faculties supply us with no instruments whereby we can com- prehend it ; we can simply receive it, and believe it, adore and worship, when we are told that God is One and yet Three, Three and yet One ; Three Persons and One God, in the Unity of the Holy and Ever Blessed Trinity. I. And there rise up before us at once all the guesses after truth, all those " feelings after God," all those endeavours to realize his Maker, which have perplexed the heart of man. 1 Man has gone out into the world around him, seeking to penetrate the awful veil of stillness, which envelops the Being of God, and as he saw the sun rise in its splendour, or the stars moving in their courses, or the moon riding in her glory, or the manifold powers of life and fertility all around, he has worshipped them 1 Acts xvii. 27. Faith in the Holy Trinity. 65 and called them God. Or the pleasures of life, as he deemed them pleasures, have stood up before him ; he has elevated ease, or lust, or his lower passions, and has personified them, and called them God. Or the evils of life have frightened him. He has traced God's ways in misfortunes, His envy in life's difficulties, His malignity in the venom of reptiles, or the teeth of ravenous beasts. He has made images of those things which he feared, and has called them God. Or their great men in- vestigated, their vigorous intellects pushed their dis- coveries further and further, until cause and effect, cause and effect, led them, by stepping-stones to the gates of heaven, and in a great first cause, passion- less, immovable, unalterable, they recognized God. But in the meantime, there had been growing up a more distinct knowledge of the true God. God revealed Himself to a few chosen men, to Enoch, to Abraham, and the patriarchs. He revealed Himself, again, to a chosen nation. The knowledge of His power and goodness became wide-spread and developed, and even if it faded away, it still lingered as a beautiful tradition. Once more He revealed Himself in a Revelation unknown before in the Person of His dear Son ; and He caused that men should commit to writing what may be known of Him, what is good to know, what is possible to know, what is right to know. And God now remains for us, the centre, the author, the finisher, the beginning and the ending of all that is good and holy ; Three Persons and One God revealed to us in a Mystery. II. And can we return ? Can we be now as if God had never spoken ? Can we make our God a F 66 Faith in the Holy Trinity. first cause again, and nothing more ? Can we say that the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is based on one text which is cut out of the Bible by a scholarly revision, and there leave it ? No, if our Creed be true, based, as it certainly is, on Holy Scripture, the heart- felt assent to that Creed is the door of righteousness, and the confession of that Creed is salvation. We cannot be, on Trinity Sunday, as if God had never spoken, as if God had never revealed Himself ; and this for several reasons. First of all, if we believe in the Bible as the Word of God, and in the Church as the keeper and interpreter of Holy Writ, it cannot be consistent with the dignity and power of Almighty God, that we should treat as open questions, or even worse, what He has willed to reveal. In an age sensitively alive to all in- junctions of morality, keenly jealous of innovation, it seems to be at the same time forgotten, that it is possible to reject God's teaching, to do despite to the Spirit of grace, to refuse His counsel, and further, that it is possible, that a wrong belief or wilful unbelief may be just as serious a sin in His sight as many others which appeal to us by their flagrant coarseness and transparent immorality, such as drunkenness, adultery, or theft. These are sins which we recognize and can take cognizance of. But spiritual sins may be just as offensive to Almighty God ; and we remember that the one sin which has no forgiveness is a spiritual sin : the sin against the Holy Ghost. But this is not all. Of course the Majesty of God needs no defence from man ; but, looking at the other side of the question, could we afford, regarding the needs of man, his wants and requirements, could we Faith in the Holy Trinity. 67 afford on this ground, to treat the doctrine of the Holy Trinity as an open question ? Most assuredly we could not part with the true faith without doing serious injury to the cause of truth and progress in the world. It does matter most seriously, whether a man believes or not, that he is responsible to an un- seen God for his actions, that he has a great Father in heaven watching him, that he is working a work for Him, and that he looks for the rewards, and dreads the penalties, which He carries in His hands. It is no light matter that we should be asked to admit into our Legislative Chamber men whose actions are not guided and overshadowed by this solemn conviction, who admit of no higher witness than their own to the sanctity of their name, who are bound by no higher ties to their sovereign than mere allegiance, who own no moral code but their own inclination. Or again, it makes a serious difference to the o * world, whether or not the loving Saviour is deposed from the throne of His Godhead. Christianity has removed the words " Barbarian " and " Gentile," * it has laid the axe to the root of "caste." It is the bulwark of the universal brotherhood of mankind. Take away Christianity, and something is gone from the progress and happiness of mankind. Or again, can the sanctifying Spirit be removed from the forces of the spiritual world with impunity ? Is conscience to be only a moral sense swayed by the passing breath of a conventional morality ? Would the world lose nothing if God's Holy Word were to take the level of Shakespeare ? Have the Church and 1 Col. iii. 11. 68 Faith in the Holy Trinity. the Sacraments been such a doubtful blessing to man- kind that they can afford to part with them ? Oh, the great heart of the world throbs with belief unto righteousness. Its hundred-tongued voice con- fesses unto salvation, when it proclaims the eternal truth of the Holy Trinity, which we could never afford to part with without our distinct and irreparable loss. III. And, of course, equally true is it of each single one here, that faith is the secret of righteous- ness, that this confession is the seal of their salvation. The life of a true Christian is a perpetual " Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost." (1) What could we do in life if we had not the thought of that loving Father to sustain us ? Would not work overwhelm us, would not trouble crush us, and sin deceive us ? Should we ever have courage to rise from the food of swine and the dregs of misery, did we not remember our Father's home, and the plenty of His house ? Now we know what life is, and what it means ; we can see through the chastise- ment of sorrow, the tender love which will not with- hold it ; we can see in temptation the way to escape that we may be able to bear it. 1 Yes, all life, in its chequered course, has a fresh dignity, a fresh responsibility, a fresh awe, as we are conscious of the great Father from Whom it sprang. (2) And could we do without a Saviour ? What has kept us from despair with ourselves and with the world but a Saviour blind and deaf to our miserable imperfections ? " Who is blind, but My servant ? or deaf, as My messenger that I sent ? Who is blind as 1 1 Cor. x. 13. FaitJi, in the Holy Trinity. 69 He that is perfect, and blind as the Lord's servant ?' n What has kept back the waves of sin from us ? Though they toss themselves they have not prevailed, though they roar, yet have they not passed over. 2 What do we look to in sorrow, but to see Jesus crucified at our right hand, in all our sufferings afflicted with us " acquainted with grief ? " What do we look for in the hour of death, but the support and comfort of His rod and staff ? 4 And is the Sanctifying Spirit nothing to us ? Is it nothing that we have His voice in our conscience, saying, " This is the way, walk ye in it," 5 warning us of the approach of danger, cheering us in the paths of good ? Is it nothing that we have God's Holy Word breathed into by His life-giving breath, " that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope ? " 6 Is it nothing that we have the heavenly and Divine Sacraments working mightily to our soul's welfare by the power of His co-operating grace ? Is it nothing that we have the Church, hallowed by His blessed indwelling Presence, to be our support and stay as we journey through the world ? Oh, God is working indeed wonderfully for our deliverance and strength ; and in our better moments we feel it. If any one of us have overcome the wicked one, have attained to any measure of sanctity, have risen above ourselves, surely out of his grateful heart should rise, " Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost ; " to God the Father Who 1 Isa. xlii. 19. 2 Jer. v. 22. 8 Isa. liii. 3. 4 Psa. xxiii. 4. 5 Isa. xxx. 21. 6 Rom. xv. 4 70 Faith in the Holy Trinity. made me, to God the Son Who redeemed me, to God the Holy Ghost Who sanctifieth me. And reaching out from this, feeling what God has been to us, we ask ourselves, what must He be to others ? Can they do without Him ? can they prosper without His help ? can they feel happiness without Him, or attain to deliverance apart from His grace ? And this leads us to be bold in the faith, this sends us out as missionaries, this makes us all burn with a holy zeal to spread abroad this glorious truth. Oh, if on Trinity Sunday we feel any glow of gratefulness for all that God has been to us, for all that God has done for us, let us resolve, with an earnestness based on the deep conviction of our hearts, to hand on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity undimmed and un- impaired. Let us say, I will declare Thy name, Lord, from one generation to another. What our fathers have told us, we have proved to be true, and what we have proved to be true we will hand on to our children. So shall the people give thanks unto Thee, world without end. Amen. 1 1 Psa. xlv. 18. SERMON VII. Clerical assumption, " And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them : wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?" NUMB. xvi. 3. THIS rebellion of the children of Israel you "will have noticed is different in character from many others which disfigure the history of God's people. It was not directed against God, but against Moses. Just as a fretful, petulant nature will sometimes change the object of its attack, so this was a variety, based on a real tangible ground of complaint. What- ever might be the cause of their prolonged stay in the wilderness, and of their numerous troubles, the position of Moses was certainly intolerable. He was now altogether making himself a prince over them, 1 pre- tending to be the mouthpiece of God, making promises which he could not fulfil, holding out vain delusive expectations, and deceiving the people. It was not reasonable to suppose that God should be with him more than with the rest of the people. All were God's people. All were holy. It was time to rebel, 1 Numbers xvi. 13. 72 Clerical Assumption. to assert the rights of the national Church. And the rebellion was a very serious one. It was numerous and important. There were two hundred and fifty princes, or, as we should now say, noblemen, with Dathan and Abiram, and two hundred and fifty Levites, or, as we should say, ecclesiastics, with Korah ; Levites who had already distinguished themselves in the part which they took when Israel sinned in the matter of the golden calf, and who had been expressly honoured by God. 1 It was the protest, then, of men of influence and of men who presumably knew what they were about in ecclesiastical cases, who had studied the question all their lives, and who, perhaps, had seen too much of Moses' tyranny. And whatever Moses might feel, there was no doubt on their side. They were con- fident that they were right. When Moses told all who wished to escape their curse to depart from their tents, Dathan and Abiram came and stood in the doors of their tents, their wives and their sons and their little children ; and Korah no less was willing to accept Moses' challenge, to take his censer and stand to minister before the Lord, and to invite the judgment of God. They had a real grievance, and they were confident that they were right on general, or, as it is sometimes called, a priori grounds, that is to say, what you would have expected, prior to all experience to the contrary. In the nature of things, was it likely that God should choose a man like Moses to be his mouthpiece and agent instead of dealing directly with His people ? And here, of course, was the flaw in their case. 1 See Newman's Sermons, vol. iii. p. 270. Clerical Assumption. 73 God does not act in accordance with those principles which we should have expected in the nature of things ; and these men had, and much more now have we, ex- perience to the contrary. God almost always, it would seem, instead of acting immediately, acts through means or channels. For instance, in the early chapters of Genesis, life is attached to the eating the fruit of a tree. 1 Later on, restoration to health is given to those who were bitten by serpents on the condition of their gazing at the serpent of brass. 2 The walls of Jericho fell down, not by the Almighty fiat of God, but after a sevenfold procession on the seventh of seven days round the walls. 3 Naaman was healed not by the Almighty word of God, not even by the healing word of the prophet, 4 but by washing in the river Jordan, whose humble stream he despised. And so it is in the Christian Church. The whole principle and spirit which breathes through her Sacraments and ordinances is grace through outward means. And further, the ordinary means which God chooses for distributing his gifts are men poor, weak, fallen, sinful men. Some accept this, some do not. And so we find the religious world sharply divided into two great sections: those who believe in a Divine Ministry that God appoints men as " stewards of His mysteries," and those who do not, but who say that God always gives directly, without a medium, and that all the congregation are holy, every one of them. The whole question, it will be seen, really turns upon ordination. Every one will tolerate up to a certain point clergy, preachers, teachers, moral improvers, in 1 Gen. iii. 22. 2 Numbers xxi. 8. 3 Joshua vi. 20. " 2 Kings v. 14. 74 Clerical Assumption. proportion as they have more or less education, or mental endowment. But, on the other hand, considerable antagonism is raised in many minds directly they see any indications of a claim such as this : God has given me a gift for you, not to be obtained ordinarily in another way, so that for certain things I stand in the relation of steward to God ; such a position as appears to be asserted in the words of the ordination commission : " Be thou a faithful dispenser of the Word of God, and of His holy Sacraments, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 1 We ask, then, almost instinctively, is there any trace of such a thing in Holy Scripture to warrant this position and assertion ? And we recognize at once, as a great fact, that one essential part of Christ's plan was to found a kingdom upon earth His Church and that this kingdom at His departure was administered by Apostles, who spoke in this way : " And all things are of God, Who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation ; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them ; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." 1 We find them baptizing, 3 confirming, 4 breaking the Holy Bread, 5 remitting and retaining sins, 6 acting as stewards between God and man. Then, as the Church expanded, still within the pages of God's Holy Word, we see deacons 7 appointed, and elders, 8 or, as we 1 See " Service for Ordination of Priests." 2 2 Cor. v. 18, 19. 3 Acts xvi. 33. 4 Acts xix. 6. 5 Acts ii. 42. 6 2 Cor. ii. 10, 11. 7 Acts vi. 5, 6. 8 Titus, i. 5. Clerical Assumption. 75 should say, priests, or, as they are called in the Pastoral Epistles, bishops, 1 and Bishops (according to our usual idea of the office) under the name of Angels, 2 as we read in the messages to the seven Churches in the book of Kevelation. And these orders, as we find them in the Bible, exist down to the present time. Certainly all history and all language if language has any meaning seem to point to the clergy as believing themselves to be and ordained by God to be, stewards? i.e. agents, bearing God's gifts to men. And an appeal to Holy Scripture seems certainly to leave us with this result, that there have always been certain accredited ministers to whom God imparts gifts, that they may distribute them to their fellow -men. And it has been pointed out 4 that we are accus- tomed to this, as a principle, in other things. God rules this world, but not immediately. His power is distributed through "the powers that be" in all the different departments of political rule, and of social order, from the delegated parental authority of father over son down to the lowest exercise of His governance committed by God to man in the divers relations of daily life. In the same way God gives His support to all. He protects all, and feeds all ; but He lodges wealth in the hands of a few, which it is their privilege to use for the good of the world, and their condemna- tion to misapply. In the same way, again, knowledge is in the hands of the few : there are " priests of 1 1 Tim. iii. 1. 2 Rev. ii. 1. 3 1 Cor. iv. 1. 4 See Dr. Liddon, " University Sermons," 2nd series, p. 194, etc. 76 Clerical Assumption. science," who minister to the good of their fellow-men ; in short, to sum up, " He makes a minority the guardians and trustees of the means of blessing the majority." But where, then, is the difficulty ? For since the days of the Israelites this doctrine has been a difficulty to some. Surely it has come in a good measure, although not entirely, from this there is the con- stantly recurring feeling " ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi ; " " all the congregation are holy." On the one hand, there is the natural pride of man, and, on the other, it is true, men have forgotten, and will forget, that they are stewards. It is true that " all sorts of inferior minds may parade the doctrines, until men say the doctrine itself is detestable." But now we can see what a safeguard there is in ordina- tion. When a man comes with a commission from God, in the power of the Holy Ghost, in obedience to a call distinct and clear, ordained by the Bishop, set apart for his office, what a safeguard there is in all this against thoughts of pride ! How could a man of even ordinary humility venture to set himself up in the congregation to speak to people very often better and wiser than himself, because he simply thought himself clever, or gifted, or with a talent in that direction ? Would not his position be intolerable ? But let him once feel that he is not speaking of himself, or in himself, or for himself, but as a steward, ordained and commissioned, it at once has a tendency to drive away that self- conceit or self-assertion which more than anything else has produced Korahs among the clergy and Clerical Assumption. 77 Dathans and Abirams among the people of the Lord. 1 If this is any way a true statement of the case is it not clear that certain duties devolve upon the people with respect to the clergy ? And, first, I venture to say that reverence should be shown to them, not merely personal, for that they may or may not deserve, but official. Their office is a holy one ; their call is a high one ; their ordination is a special gift of the Holy Ghost conferred upon them. If there have been sons of Aaron who have offered strange fire, if there have been Balaams who have sold their prophetical gifts to the highest bidder, if there have been sons of Eli who have made the Lord's people to transgress, 2 if there have been shepherds who have fed themselves instead of feeding the flock, 3 yes, if there has been a Judas among the Apostles, still the office is a holy one. We must respect the ambassadors of the Lord, if not for themselves, at least for His sake, in Whose Name they come, and Whose interests they represent. Then, secondly, we should make allowances for 1 It will be observed that the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, though having a common object, arose from two different classes. Korah was a Levite, and his revolt would have its exact and literal counterpart in these days in a claim of men without any valid ordination at all, to discharge the functions usually supposed to reside exclusively in the Priesthood, the Diaconate, and Episcopate. Dathan and Abiram, on the other hand, belonged to the tribe of Reuben, and their rising was a lay protest against the claims of any ministerial caste whatsoever, emphasized probably by the fact of their being members of the tribe of the firstborn of the sons of Jacob. It may also have had in it something of a revolutionary spirit, as Moses was a political no less than a spiritual leader. 2 1 Sam. ii. 24. s Ezekiel xxxiv. 2. 78 Clerical Assumption. them. The ministerial office is a very difficult one, and a very- responsible one. They have to offer their liturgy to the Almighty God on the one hand, and, on the other, to minister to man. They have to come very near to holy things, to bring forth out of their treasure things new and old, 1 to stand in the full light of the burning sun, and to concentrate its rays on the heart which God seeks to kindle. Oh, how sad if, while grace is passing through them, they themselves, like the burning glass, are cold all the time, 2 albeit they kindle a flame in the hearts of others ! Oh, how piteous if, like Balaam, they are the mouthpieces of Heavenly truth, to which their base hearts give no response ! Truly there is no office so dangerous and so responsible as the office of those who are brought very near to God, to whom He entrusts the guardianship of His chosen flock ; and does not this danger and responsibility demand at least a fair consideration of their acts at the hands of their judges ? And then we ought to pray for them. It is easy to criticise ; it is hard to wrestle with God in prayer for the priest who is gone within the veil to offer the incense. Surely it is for you to support him while he offers his petition ; it is for you to stay up his hands when he intercedes ; it is for you to strengthen him, when his spirit faints and fails, by sympathy and encourage- ment and help ; it is for you to elevate his character by showing him how much you expect from him, and the depth of his degradation should he fall from grace. Oh, if ever the priest of God is tempted to think 1 S. Matt. xiii. 52. 2 This simile is one of Bishop Wilberforce's. Clerical Assumption. 79 of himself more highly than he ought to think, if he is puffed up by the dignity and greatness of his office, one look at his position should be sufficient to recall him to himself ! As a fellow-sinner he ministers to sinners ; his weakness and his sins and infirmities, seem to stand out in a stronger light, as he is brought nearer to Him Who is the truth itself. For the tender Shepherd of the wandering sheep is at the same time a consuming fire, 1 a God very greatly to be feared in the council of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are round about Him. 2 And it is quite possible that many who are first now in the ungrudging respect of their fellow men, may be last hereafter in the award of unerring judgment, thrust down to hell because they were exalted 3 unto Heaven, and misused their opportunity. 1 Heb. xii. 29. 3 Psa. Ixxxix. 8. 8 S. Luke x. 15. SERMON VIII. " The same day at evening, being the first day of the week, wJien the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you" S. JOHN xx. 19. EASTER has not only left its mark on our faith and hope, transformed our churchyards, and elevated our life, but Easter is also remarkable as leaving a trace behind it in our Church calendar, flashing the good news of Christ's resurrection by the beacon lights of Sunday, from week to week, throughout the Christian year. On Easter day the Church passes from the bondage of the Sabbath into the purer, holier light of Sunday. Week by week, one day shining with borrowed lustre speaks of Christ's resurrection. The Day of light, the Day of peace, the Day of grace, the Day of prayer, the Day of refreshment, the Day of holy work in one word, "The Lord's Day." Pardon me, therefore, if, on this our last service of the Easter festival, I venture to speak quite practically of that which is the reflec- tion, the outcome, the prolongation of this glad festival ; the Christian Sunday. 1 I. First of all, then, I would ask you to notice that the Sabbath and Sunday are two entirely distinct and 1 This sermon was preached on the 1st Sunday after Easter. Sunday. 8 1 different days. They are different in their origin, different in their observance, different in their time. The Sabbath was a day of solemn obligation im- posed upon the Jews for two reasons the one because God rested from His work of creation on the seventh day, 1 the second reason being to remind them of the time when God brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and stretched out arm. 2 To break the Sabbath in old times was to be punished with death. 3 And in our Blessed Lord's day, when all vital religion had for the most part died out, the Jews still clung to this institution with passionate energy, while they overlaid it with countless restrictions and burdensome rules. This we find our Blessed Lord gradually breaking down, while He prepared the way for better things, until after the resurrection the day was changed altogether ; the early Christians keeping holy the first day of the week, at first perhaps together with, then afterwards instead of, the Sabbath or seventh day. There are sundry indications of this in the New Testament. For instance, in the passage quoted above, the apostles were gathered together on the first Easter Day, being the first day of the week ; again, we find them gathered together once more in the same way, eight days afterwards ; 4 again, on the day of Pentecost, which in that year fell on the first day of the week, they were all with one accord in one place ; 5 or again, at Troas, many years after, S. Paul and his companions arrived there ; and " abode seven days. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together 1 Exod. xx. 11. 2 Deut. v. 15. 8 Exod. xxxi. 14. 4 S. John xx. 26. 5 Acts ii. 1. 82 Sunday. to break bread, Paul preached unto them," 1 or again in the Epistle to the Corinthians, S. Paul writes " upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him ; 2 and, later still, we find the Christian assembly taking a definite form, " not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is;" 3 until, in the Book of Revelation, we find that the Christian Sunday is existing with a name and title of its own the Jewish Sabbath has given place to "the Lord's Day/' 4 the seventh to the first, the deliverance from Egypt to the deliverance from death, the rest from the old creation to the rest from the new. The Sabbath has become Sunday, changed by the mind and voice of the Church, in order, as we may believe, to com- memorate Christ's resurrection, and as a day set apart for the honour and glory of the Lord. And so we find it in early Christian writers, directly we emerge from Scripture, spoken of in the same way as, and taking its place in the economy of the Church, with Confirmation, Ordination, Infant Baptism, and all such things, as we may believe that our Lord confided to His Church when He spoke to them during forty days of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. 5 And we must carefully notice these facts connected with the Christian Sunday. It was never confounded with the Sabbath, but always distinguished from it. It was not a day of severe Sabbatical observance, but it was a day of solemn meeting for Holy Eucharist, for prayer, for instruction, for almsgiving. And nowhere is the fourth commandment appealed to as a ground for 1 Acts xx. 6, 7. 2 1 Cor. xvi. 2. s Heb. x. 25. 4 Eev. i. 10. 5 Acts i. 3. Sunday. 83 the observance of the Lord's day. Therefore, we can only look upon the Jewish Sabbath as a type or figure of the reality, the true Day of the Lord. II. Two errors, as it would seem, have sprung up as regards Sunday. The one, which would treat it as a day of worldly festivity, very much like any other day, overlaid with gaiety and pleasure, and with such circumstance as the world gives to its days of rejoicing; the other, which treats it like the Jewish Sabbath, or in accordance with our ideas of the Jewish Sabbath, as a day of gloom, and morose austerity. And in connec- tion with this view it is instructive to notice, that even granted that the observance of Sunday and the Sabbath should be identical, we are probably mistaken in viewing the Jewish Sabbath itself as a day of austere mortification and gloom. 1 It is remarkable to find, that even in our Blessed Lord's time, when the observance of the Sabbath had reached to a pitch of strained fanaticism, that He was invited to the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread with him on the Sabbath day, 2 and that He clothed the details of one of His parables in the imagery suggested by a number of guests, and the eager contest for pre- cedence at the table of their host on that day. A Pharisee, the scrupulous religionist of his time, thinks it compatible with strict religion to give, as we should say, a party on the Sabbath Day. 3 1 " The whole social Rabbinical legislation on the subject (the Sabbath) seems to rest on two sound underlying principles : negatively the avoidance of all that might become work, and positively the doing of all which, in the opinion of the Rabbis, might tend to make " the Sabbath a delight." EDERSHEIM, " The Temple," p. 147. 2 S. Luke xiv. 1. 8 " It appears to have been the custom to close the Sabbath day with a joyous meal." EDERSHEIM, " The Temple," p. 163. 84 Sunday. III. The practical question then remains for us, How shall we keep Sunday the reflection of Easter throughout the year ? Surely the Apostle furnishes us with the key when he calls Sunday the Lord's Day. Monday to Saturday are business days, or pleasure days, Sunday is the Lord's Day a day that is set apart for the worship, praise, honour, thought of, instruction about, God. And let us note carefully, first of all, how Sunday is not kept. Many people think that getting up late, a change of clothes, a walk in the garden, an absolute repose, is keeping Sunday if so, many people keep a perpetual Sabbath. Let us be clear on this point. Idleness is not rest. It is not work that is the curse of the fall, but fatigue. Adam worked at tilling and dressing the garden before he fell into sin ; afterwards it was hard, dreary, un- blessed work work in the sweat of his brow which was his curse. Work in itself is Godlike and Divine, as our Blessed Lord said, " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." 1 No ; ceasing from labour, as labour, is not the point in Sunday observance ; it is ceasing from the labour of the world, to labour for God, to do His work, which is the highest labour, and the hardest labour ; giving God His tithe of the week, the firstfruits of our time, as a mark of the respect and allegiance which we owe to Him. And, therefore, as in the case of the Jew the sacrifice was doubled on the Sabbath, so let us remember that we rest on Sunday from servile labour, that we may work more 1 S. John v. 17. " Idleness is quite as much contrary to the Sabbath law as labour : ' Not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words ' (Isa. Iviii. 13)." EDERSHEIM, "The Temple," p. 161. Sunday. 85 earnestly for God, and that Sunday rest from the service of the world is Sunday leisure for the service of God. How, then, shall I keep Sunday ? The highest, and best and most primitive way, no doubt, is to attend the service of the Holy Communion, as was their habit of whom we read " upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread." x This was the universal custom certainly fifty years after the death of Saint John. This is the way in which we comply with our Blessed Lord's command, "This do in remembrance of Me." 2 This is the way in which we " shew the Lord's death till He come ; " 3 here is the manna in the wilderness, the rock in the desert, the food of immortality ; this is the way in which we can render each Sunday a true Lord's Day. But, short of this, every one can do what is meant by " going to Church ; " nothing should hinder us in this but absolute ill health, because it is the Lord's right, and the Lord's due, that we should "bring presents and come into His courts." Certainly, when we think what is the sequel to those words, "But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came;" 4 when we think of the consequences to him of his absence on one Sunday from the Christian assembly ; and when we compare with this the privilege which fell to the lot of Anna, because she was always in the temple, constantly serving God with fasting and prayer, night and day ; 5 then we are able to see the importance to ourselves of that waiting upon God, that constant attendance in His house, which is one of 1 Acts xx. 7. 2 1 Cor. xi. 24. 8 1 Cor. xi. 26. 4 S. John xx. 24 5 S. Luke ii. 37. 86 Sunday. the privileges of Sunday. Oh, when we lie sick upon our bed and cannot go, then we miss it, and wonder that we should have held it so cheaply before. Yes, and we miss it also, even if we do not recognize the fact, in our daily trials and week-day business. The Gribeonites take us in, we have not asked counsel of God. The enemies of Israel beat us back, the ark of God is not in our midst. The week is unhallowed and unsanctified, "for if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy." And for what remains ; it is true that worship and waiting upon God cannot take up the whole of the day. But at the same time, the thought of Sunday, as being the Lord's Day, should colour and tinge all our recreations. Our walks and conversation should be such as was theirs who found a third companion in Jesus Christ, as they walked into the country in the sad sorrow which overshadowed the morn of the first Sunday. 2 Our books, our amusements, our occupations should all be chosen with this idea. Sunday is the Lord's Day, a day of holy solemnity, if at the same time it is a day of holy joy. So may Sunday help us all on our journey heavenwards, so may Sunday be a day of resurrection in each week ; one stage nearer home, another day of refreshment, another day of grace, another day of rest, another day of the Lord. For the light of our Sundays is to many of us already beginning to pale before the light of that eternal rest which remaineth for the people of God ; whose glory is projected even across the dark valley of the shadow of death. 3 Our ears lose the sound of music here, as heaven's harmonies 1 Rom. xi. 16. 2 S. Liike xxiv. 13. 3 Heb. iv. 9. Sunday. 87 become louder and more clear. Sacraments, and symbols, and signs seem more and more fulfilled with the unveiled light of the presence of God. Oh, may Sunday indeed lead us on here, step by step, "until the day break, and the shadows flee away;" 1 while the Lord directs our hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ, 2 and so instead of turning Sunday into other days, we shall insensibly turn other days into Sunday, waiting for the eternal Easter of heaven. 3 1 Cant. ii. 17. 2 2 Thess. iii. 5. 3 It was a saying of Mr. Keble's, I believe : " So far as you turn other days into Sunday, so far and no farther have you a right to turn Sunday into other days." SERMON IX. Cbe ^atJiour of tbem tfmt " For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the Living God, Who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe." i TIM. iv. 10. THESE words of S. Paul might give a motive, if motive were necessary ; an encouragement, if we needed encouragement ; a great object, if you will, for undertaking the duties and responsibilities of a Guild like this, 1 whose anniversary is being held to-day, which in the Name, and under the immediate protec- tion, as we hope, of the Most Blessed Saviour, is endeavouring to perfect, as far as may be, a small portion of the complicated and vast machinery of mission work in that diocese of Natal to which the eyes of the Church, more than once, and now the eyes of the whole nation, have been turned with great anxiety and apprehension. 2 Labour is more than repaid, reproach is more than wiped away, by the sense of working for such a Master. In all mission work, faithfully undertaken, we are not working for an opinion, or for a principle, 1 This sermon was preached at All Saints', Margaret Street, London, before the members of the Guild of the Most Holy Saviour, Natal, June, 1879. 2 The Zulu war was then going on. The Saviour of them that believe. 89 or for a policy, however good and laudable in itself, but we are working for the living God, Who holds all the forces of life in His hand whether, as Creator, He orders all things by the word of His power, as He clothes the grass of the field with beauty, or writes His sermon on the lilies of the field, or His precepts in the life of the fowls of the air ; or whether, as Kedeemer, He arrests the stream of death, implanting His new law of love in the hearts of men, feeding the soul with heavenly food, or arresting the march of His foes by the all-prevailing intercession before the throne of God ; or whether, as the Sanctifier, He fashioneth the hearts of men, and turneth them whither He will, as the Spirit of order broods upon the face of the troubled waters of heathendom, and God says, "Let there be light," * and the light of the Gospel shines through the gloom. Labour is light, and reproach is glorious, in work- ing for a living God, Who is the Saviour of all men, Who has died for all, Who preserves all, sending His rain on the just and on the unjust, 2 "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth," 3 but Who is more especially the Saviour of those that believe : " Unto " us " which believe He is precious ; " 4 " Unto the godly there ariseth up light in the darkness." 5 The horrors of war are lightened to us by the vision of God sitting above the water- floods, a king for ever. 6 If death comes to us, He slays us in the light, our death is illuminated by the dawn of day. We know we have a Saviour near us in the Sacrament of the altar, a Saviour Who can 1 Gen. i. 3. 2 S. Matt. v. 45. 8 1 Tim. ii. 4. * 1 S. Pet. ii. 7. 5 Psa. cxii. 4. 6 Psa. xxix. 9. 9O The Saviour of them that believe. wash our sins in His own most precious Blood, a Saviour Who is able to do more mighty works in our souls because we believe, and Who, although the Saviour of all men, is on this account more especially the Saviour of those that believe. And this Guild is banded together, then, in the power and in the love of the Saviour. By its link of the two or three gathered together in His name, it claims the especial blessing and presence of the Saviour of those that believe. And then, in the force of a corporate life, it reaches out after those heathen who are saved by the Living God, but who do not as yet know what it is to have the special blessings of the Saviour of those that believe. And therefore this society is one of those earthen vessels, which contain something of the fire which Christ came on earth to kindle. If we can break the pitcher of carelessness and worldliness and indifference, which so often stifles the fire en- trusted to these Guilds, then our flame may mount up steadily, with heat and warmth and power ; and spread, so that " others, too, may catch the living flame " which is burning within. How, then, are we spreading the influence of the Most Blessed Saviour in Natal ? How are we widen- ing the inner circle of believers, and bringing others within the reach of the flame of Christ's love ? I. First of all, we trust to Intercession. The first rule of this society provides that all its members shall intercede for the Church in Natal at their daily prayers, and especially when present at the Celebration of the Blessed Sacrament. Do we realize the greatness of the work which we have undertaken ? What is intercession ? It is, as The Saviour of them that believe. 9 1 its name will tell us, "a coming between," i.e. a coming between God and the natural course of certain events. For instance : here is a man, neglecting or insulting God day after day, injuring himself and others. I come between God and that man ; I ask God to suspend a law of His kingdom, the law of rewards and punishments, because I ask Him. That is, I imagine, that the claim which I have upon God, the interest which I have with Him, will counter- balance the awful cry of sin and indifference mounting up to the ears of God, and clamouring for vengeance. Is it an impotent impertinence, when I compare my persistency in good with the terrible persistency of the sinner in doing evil, " with both hands earnestly," x to think that I shall prevail ? Or God, in His mercy, is preparing some great national chastisement. He puts us to confusion, He goes not forth with our armies. 2 My intercession means, that I am trying to divert God from His purpose, by a claim which I have upon Him. I believe that the royal decrees will be stayed, the avenging army of Heaven recalled, the counsels of God turned back, because I ask Him. Or, to take the daily, the frequent work of this Guild, there is the dense ignorance of heathenism ; there is the inert sluggish force of a corrupt human nature ; there is the worship of devils, the miasma of centuries of false and degraded superstition ; which I am trusting to move, to stir, yes, to utterly disperse, by the strength of that petition which forces spiritual help and weapons from God ; more unyielding in His goodness and justice, which will not put a constraint 1 Micah vii. 3. 2 Psa. xliv. 10. 92 The Saviour of them that believe. upon man's free will, 1 than the unjust judge in the parable, who would not put his justice in motion, but at the lengthened importunity of the persistent widow. If this is intercession, who is sufficient for these things ? But yet it can be done. " Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain : and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." 2 Do we not remember also how God had respect to the prayer, the self-denial, and the holiness of S. Paul, more than to the careless heathenism of the two hundred and seventy-six souls sailing with him, in his voyage to Kome, and addressed to him these cheering words: "Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar : and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee." 3 It can be done. But who is sufficient for these things ? It is then, when we feel the magnitude of the work and our own weakness, that we lift up our eyes and see a ram caught in a thicket by his horns, 4 a sacrifice ready to hand, when faith, devotion, and obedience have done their part ; it is then that we remember the scarlet thread which Eahab bound in her window. 5 It is then that we remember "Who it is that said, " Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name, He will give it you.'" 1 " Non dat nisi petenti, ne det non capienti." S. AUGUSTINE. 2 S. James v. 17, 18. 3 Acts xxvii. 24. 4 Gen. xxii. 13. " Aries hie cornibus hoerens, et suspenses inter vepres, significat Christum in cruce suspensum." See Corn, a Lapide, on Gen. xxii. 13; and the authorities there quoted. 6 Josh. ii. 18. " Quas timuit Deum, cui dictum e&t ut per fenestram mitteret coccum, id est, ut in fronte haberet signum sanguinis Christi." S. AUGUSTINE. 6 S. John xvi. 23. The Saviour of them tliat believe. 93 " This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me." " As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till He come." 2 And we recognize in our altars, the mount of inter- cession ; the levers whereby we may lift the world. " Whatsoever." There is no apparent limit, if only we can plead that Holy Name, if only we can put on the priestly vestment of sacrifice, if only we can wave the censer of prayer, if only we can come with clean hands and a pure heart. Here at the altar to-day, we learn the magnitude, the power, the all-prevailing efficacy of intercession through Jesus Christ. And we feel that intercession is not a light repetition of a few stated prayers, but a real " coming between " of our whole being ; a coming between God and the great difficulties and obstacles of life ; trusting in Him to remove them, through Jesus Christ, the Divine Victim of the altar, Who taketh away the sins of the world. II. And another work which, as I gather, this society has undertaken, is to extend that burning circle of fire in which "the Saviour of those that believe " works, by material means, such as money and other necessaries of practical mission life. We know, alas, to our cost, that an army, however well equipped, must stay for supports, before it can move from its base of operations. And surely it is a work which may well devolve upon those who stay at home, to relieve those who are contending in the front, from the anxiety, the hindrances, the crippled efforts which result from want of supplies. Of course, we know that with many people their sole mission 1 1 Cor. xi. 25. 2 1 Cor. xi. 26. 94 The Saviour of them that believe. work has been to contribute so much money, sent out with no idea of what it was going to effect, without prayer, without thought, as a tax, and not as an offering. And therefore there is a natural dislike, very often, when speaking of missions, to introduce at all the question of supplies, lest mission work, to us who stay at home, should again become a question periodically to be bought off with the hush-money of an annual subscription. But almsgiving, after all, is a religious question. It is a subject which finds a place in that quintessence of Christianity, " the Sermon on the Mount." And as members of this society, all who belong to it surely feel constrained in some way to adjust their theory and practice of almsgiving so as to help in this work. 1 Are my brothers the heathen but the beggar of to-day's gospel, whom I magnificently patronize with a seat at my gates, and with a few crumbs which I should otherwise throw away ? Or am I curtailing my purple and fine linen, and sumptuous living, that I may lift them, beggars as they are, from the dung- hill, who are craving after truth with a hunger which God alone can satisfy, that God may set them with the princes, even with the princes of His people ? Almsgiving is not a commonplace of a missionary sermon. It is a practical portion of the perfection of Christian life. III. And then, lastly, I gather that the remaining rules of the society amount to this : that any one who is a member shall try and feel an interest in mission work. Oh, how we do all need to rouse ourselves to this. Do we not all need to mount with the Apostle 1 Preached in the week after 1st Sunday in Trinity. The Saviour of them t/iat believe. 95 of love in to-day's Epistle, into the higher regions of pure truth, from which to contemplate our fellow- creatures as God sees them. " If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." 1 Our love for man, not only for our friends, our companions, our nation, but our love for man, ought to be of that same character which induced God to send His own Son into the world. Oh, surely, it would be the sign of a high sanctity to be able to take an interest in mission work, as mission work. It is the disciple who leans on Jesus' breast, the disciple who seeks to penetrate the deep mysteries of the Incarnation and the Sacraments, who speaks to us of the blessing, the sanctity, the necessity of love. And the more we seek to know God, the more we are gathered up into Him, surely the more shall we see men as He sees them human beings placed in this world with that grand future, those splendid opportunities, that eternal inheritance, that awful gift of life, reflecting in reason and free will the image, if broken and distorted, still the image of God. Precious possession, bought back by the blood of Christ, " the Saviour of all men." So many souls "for whom Christ died," Temples of the Holy Ghost, the sanctify- ing Spirit, Who puts "no difference between us and them," 2 the same Lord rich unto all that call upon Him. Oh, this interest ! it cannot be galvanized into life in cold and dead hearts. It grows up where the soul is full of prayer, whose daily petition is, " Thy kingdom come." But still we can try to give a portion of our mind to the interest so near to the heart of all Christians. 1 1 John iv. 11. a Acts xv. 9. 96 The Saviour of them that believe. " While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 1 Am I holding back myself from mission work because it does not interest me ? Am I withholding any friend from the mission field because it is full of hardships, with few chances of distinction, much work and little glory ? Am I echoing on that foolish cry, " Why do not the missionaries do more ? " Surely, when we think of Bishop Selwyn, of Bishop Patteson, of Bishop Grey, of Bishop Milman, of Bishop Douglas, of Bishop Venables, and many more, we English people must feel that we have already sent the bones of Joseph into our promised land. The kingdoms of the heathen have become the sepulchres of our fathers ; and God forbid that we should sell them to Ahab, and to Baal the god of this world. Oh, may our circle ever be widening. May the Saviour of us who believe be gathering daily more and more sheep into His fold. He has left a great work for us to do to cut down the boughs of the wood, the wood of the cross, and to lay them on our shoulders as we see Him do ; 2 to stay up His hands on the mount of intercession, until the sun of this world sets for ever, 3 that more and more may be gathered up into His heart of love, Who wishes all to be saved, and all to come to the knowledge of the truth. "The Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe." 1 Rom. v. 8. 2 Judges ix. 48. 8 Exod. xvii. 12. SERMON X. Cfre JE)oi 3[nnocent0. " Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not : for of such is the kingdom of God" S. MARK x. 14. WE can see at a glance that the Church to-day, in the midst of our Christmas joy, bids us contemplate some- thing more than a cruel episode in the early years of the Infant Saviour. The festival of the Holy Innocents is in some sense unique in the Christian year ; and has lessons all its own, which demand our most serious attention. And, first, it will be well to put the facts clearly before us as recorded in the pages of Holy Scripture. Herod, being alarmed at the inquiry of the wise men from the East (whose coming we must probably place after the Purification), apprehending danger to his own kingdom from Him that was born King of the Jews, endeavours first to destroy the Holy Child under the pretence of worshipping Him. God warns the Magi, and they return another way to their homes. This disappointment enrages Herod. He "sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under," 1 hoping thus to involve the young King in the massacre. But in the meantime 1 S. Matt. ii. 16. H 98 The Holy Innocents. Christ had fled into Egypt under the care of Saint Joseph and His mother ; and the exceeding bitter cry goes up from Bethlehem, which was prophesied by Jeremiah, " Rachel (as if the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, who died and was buried at Bethlehem, represented all the mothers of that grief-stricken city), Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not." Now, some may ask, why did God permit this ? Why was the young Child spared and these innocent ones destroyed ? Why was Bethlehem plunged into grief by the presence of the Holy Child at Whose birth angels sang, " On earth peace, good will toward men ? " 2 We can only glance now at the very outskirts of the great question. But does not this murder of innocent children, allowed, yes, even brought about, by the Presence of God, warn us that we have no ground on which to place the balance in which we would weigh the justice of God ? We come with our little souls, from our little life, and feeble light, and ask how God could be good, if He, in the full light of His predestinating knowledge, created Adam and Eve knowing that they would fall ? Or how it is com- patible with the justice and love of God to punish any soul with eternal punishment ? or why He places such penalties and restrictions on the intellectual acceptance of truth ? In all these things we see that we have obviously no rule by which to measure the actions of God. We can but guess at the truth, and feel that in the end we may be wrong. Therefore the thought suggests itself at once ' I. Was God inflicting an injury on these infants ? 1 S. Matt. ii. 18. 2 S. Luke ii. 14. The Holy Innocents. 99 Ponder well those beautiful words of the book of Wisdom, " Honourable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years. But wisdom is the grey hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age. He pleased God, and was beloved of Him ; so that living amongst sinners he was translated. Yea, speedily was he taken away, lest that wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul. . . . He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time. For his soul pleased the Lord : therefore hasted He to take him away from among the wicked." 1 Even the heathen had their saying, that " those whom the gods love die young." If life were all here, if there was no im- mortality, no hope beyond the grave, if there were no crowns and cities there, no rewards of victory, then it might be that these children were robbed, deprived, mulcted of a natural right to live, by the jealous caprice of a tyrant who might have been restrained. But the broken hearts of parents, and ruined homes and blighted hopes, the vacant seat of the prodigal at the fireside, the haunting shadow of a dear one in want in a far country feeding swine ; yes, even those examples which lie open in the book of experience under our eyes all these tell the same tale. Life here is not always a blessing to those who use it ; there are so many turns, and so many to turn aside ; so many briars, so many thorns, so much trouble, so much sin. We can conceive it possible nay, we can see that it is even probable that God may give early death in special cases as a special favour; and deliver the righteous from the evil to come. God was not injuring 1 Wisdom iv. 8-14. ioo The Holy Innocents. these children ; He was calling them home. But more than this, the Church does not hesitate to call them martyrs. Martyrs in deed, although not in will ; accepting unconsciously the baptism of blood, and meriting in the mercy of God the glory and the decora- tions and the renown of the tried soldier of the Cross. No, He was not injuring the children. It was a calling of slaves to the adoption of sons ; it was the crowning of those who had not yet learnt to fight the battle ; it was a largesse of royal bounty on the birth of the King's Son. II. But suffering there certainly was, of some kind. For what can we say of the mothers bereaved of their children, and of the pain and anguish and blood- shedding which made this day so terrible ? But here again, taking man's life as a whole, is suffering an evil ? Christ Jesus distributed suffering almost as a privilege. " All who came near Him, more or less, suffered by approaching Him, just as if earthly pain and trouble went out of Him, as some precious virtue for the good of their souls." 1 His blessed mother, as she clasped Him to her heart, clasped with Him a sword which pierced her soul. S. John Baptist, His forerunner and friend, passed away to meet Him in His triumph from out of a loath- some prison. The twelve apostles gained the steps to their twelve thrones in twelve martyrdoms. 2 The great apostle of the Gentiles was shown how great things he must suffer for Christ's name's sake. 3 This Child was set for the fall and rising again of 1 Dr. Newman, " Plain and Parochial Sermons," vol. ii. p. 62. 2 S. John being a martyr in will bat not in deed. 3 Acts ix. 16. The Holy Innocents. ior many in Israel. 1 Pontius Pilate, who was appointed unwillingly to try Him, ended his days in exile. Jerusalem, which He came to save, within forty years was in ruins, after unspeakable anguish. Run through the list of your friends and acquaintances ; take those who seem to follow Christ nearest ; what does He seem to give them most often ? Suffering of body, anguish of spirit, or trouble of mind. " If I find Him, if I follow, What His guerdon here ? ' Many a sorrow, many a labour, Many a tear.' " Therefore, suffering cannot be unmixed evil. May it not be that it is pure good ? The suffering which Christ sends is remedial. For there are three sorts of suffering which man inflicts in punishment of offenders. First, there is vengeance, which the law takes on criminals to satisfy justice for the advantage of the offended ; then, there is punishment which is inflicted as a deterrent to others for the advantage of the com- munity ; and then, thirdly, there is punishment which is inflicted for the good of the offender, which is called correction, and this is the suffering which Christ sends to those whom He loves correction for the good of their souls. Such suffering a poor wounded soldier longs for on the field of battle the sharp knife of the doctor, which alone can save his life. Such suffering the poor patient in the hospital sends for, pays for the sharp suffering which is to restore health. And so suffering is the only way in which, sometimes, the Good Physician can save our souls. Something has to be cut away, 1 S. Luke ii. 34. IO2 The Holy Innocents. something to be driven out. And hence it comes to pass, that " Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." 1 And therefore in the agony of Bethlehem, we see something of the curse culminating, " In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children." 2 The great Man Child is born into the world, and is surrounded at His birth by the sorrow of mothers. But, also, we see suffering ap- proaching Him, that suffering which He carried in His hand, and carries still, to cut and to burn, to purge and to renew the fallen nature of man. III. And almost the first suffering falls upon children ; God loves little children, and says, " Suffer the little children to come unto Me." It is a day for us to remember the pattern which He gave us for our example, " Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Who- soever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." 3 And the life of a little child presents an ideal, which it is difficult to analyze, yet which we ought to under- stand. These are they whom the King delighteth to honour. There is a freshness, a power of being im- pressed, a docility about little children so many paths all beginning, and as yet only reaching out into a dim future which makes the companionship of a child a refreshment to us who have grown older in this world. " A child, more than all other gifts, Brings hope with it, and forward-looking thoughts." 4 1 Heb. xii. 6. 2 Gen. iii. 16. 8 S. Matt, xviii. 3, 4. 4 Wordsworth. The Holy Innocents. 103 What makes us so jaded, so hard, so finished off ; moulded to some shape or another, growing to the things of this world and taking their form ? It is that we are spoiled children. We have done what we were told not to do ; we have wearied ourselves out with play, and a satiety of lower things ; we have lost " the guidance of His eye," and now bit and bridle can scarcely hold us. 1 Can we make ourselves young again ? Can we shut up the book of knowledge of good and evil ? Can we throw aside the playthings of this world, and begin life's work ? Ah, yes, we can go straight to our Father's knees, and ask Him to teach us, instead of this weary world, whose gospel is ever altering, where the mistakes of one generation are the sport of the next, and whose reed-like support goes through the hand and pierces it. We can go straight to God, and ask Him, " Lord, what wouldest Thou have me to do ? " Not what the world says I may do, or what other people do ; not what my circumstances, or position, or tradition permit ; but, looking in my Father's face, waiting for His look, for the indication of His Providence : " Lord, what wouldest Thou ? " Yes, and we can shut up that book of evil. If we dream of it, if a sinful memory haunts us, still we can read no more. We can satisfy our mind with right and proper food, and close the door to evil. And we can try to please ; we can anticipate His wishes, we can obey His commandments, we can follow Etis advice. We call Him " Father ; " He calls us " Sons," and He wishes His sons to be, not mere men of this world, but dutiful children, who will learn from Him. 1 Psa. xxxii. 9, 10. TO4 The Holy Innocents. Christ, then, on this festival honours infants, con- secrates suffering, holds up to us the minds of little children ; and it is another radiance and beauty added to the manger throne of Bethlehem, that from it streams the gospel of the poor, the gospel of the lonely, the gospel of the sick, the lost, the afflicted, the gospel of little children. The wisdom of Greece and Rome, could only spare at this time a push, or a threat, or a curse, which said to the little, the poor, the weak, Depart ; get you out of the way j 1 it was left for the glorious gospel of the Blessed Lord, to say, " Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God." We are reminded to-day of the great company standing upon Mount Sion, before the throne, worship- ping the Lamb with praise and honour and blessing, and the harpers are there, harping with their harps. 2 Men whose lives have been strung, and drawn, by the tension of suffering, until they have emitted in the blows of martyrdom, the song of praise acceptable before God. 3 And, to-day, they sing a new song. It is the song of infant wailing ; an inarticulate cry ; the voice of those whose only language is a cry. The new song of Christianity, which Stoic and Epicurean had failed to learn ; the dignity, the force, the power of simple suffering. Oh, that great blessing of Christianity ! Suffering is all useful, part of the world's expiation, part of the soul's purification ; a work to do, a binding to the cross. This was indeed a new song to the world ; yes, a new song to heaven ; because before the cross there was no one to elevate suffering. 1 See Dnpanloup, " Life of Christ," introduction. 2 Rev. xiv. 1. 3 Dr. Neale. The Holy Innocents. 105 There they stand, these harpers, singing the new song, the songs, indeed, which have no words, no achievements, no great actions to commemorate ; a song mixed up with no imperfection, and no sin. Think of the words of the songs of the greatest saint ! of a S. Peter, a S. Paul, a S. James, or a S. John, or a S. Thomas something is amiss, something is wrong but these are without fault before the throne of God. 1 Let us try, then, and learn this new song, which can only be learnt by children ; " Except ye be con- verted and become as little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." While we learn to forget forgetting those things which are behind, let us have the child's faith, to reach forward to those things which are before, 2 and in the child's loving, earnest trust, patiently wait for Christ. 1 Rev. xiv. 5. 2 Phil. iii. 13. SERMON XL Heligtous 3[ntJOlence. " Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will of My Father Which is in heaven''' S. MATT. vii. 2 1. THERE is nothing, I suppose, in which the natural indolence of corrupt human nature betrays itself so much as in religion. Wherever we turn, we meet with indications that religion is a hard and difficult matter; and yet almost everywhere, also, we find devices and shifts to throw off its burden, and lessen its re- sponsibilities. For proof of this statement, take, first, the two revealed religions of the Bible, which yet are only one, Judaism and Christianity (for these are not really distinct religions, but Christianity is the com- pletion, the development, the full growth of Judaism, differing only as the fruit from the flower out of which it grew), and you will see that in both these systems of religion the obligations imposed are immense. We can see at a glance, the time, the trouble, and the expense which his religion must have cost the Jew, in all its solemnity as a religion coming straight from God. And one glance at the Sermon on the Mount, on the other hand, with the law of the Beati- tudes, the spiritualized law of the Ten Commandments, and the three great Christian duties of fasting, alms- Religious Indolence. 107 giving, and prayer, will equally serve to show that our Christian obligations are no less severe ; rather a great deal heavier, entering into the inmost recesses of the mind and spirit. If we look outside the actual religious precepts of revelation, we see just the same thing. A Roman general, ignorant of all art, is said to have discovered the extreme value of some work of art which the fortune of war had brought into his possession, only by the great price offered for it, when he wished to part with it. And so, as it seems to me, if any think religion to be a light matter, he should look at the price paid for our Redemption ; he should weigh well the lowliness of the Incarnation, the bitter- ness of the Passion, the humiliation of the Cross, the loneliness of the Grave. He should contemplate, bring within the field of his vision, all that is meant by the Atonement ; and at the same time, growing out of this, consider the minute care, and provident love, which distinguishes the foundation of the Church on earth. On every ordinance and every rite is stamped God's care and man's need. Yes, one glance at the cross, and the Kingdom of God, must show us again that we live and move under a, law of great obligations. And there is only one other place, where we should turn our eyes, and that is within, as we open the door of our heart, and are conscious of that mighty rush and roar going on there. What is to curb those passions, and control those appetites, and subdue those impulses ? Is a whim, or a wish, or a sentiment, or a feeling, strong enough to check that mighty flow which dashes itself against the barriers which restrain it, and which threaten every moment to sweep away and overmaster the will, and to obliterate the whole io8 Religious Indolence. being in a ruinous overthrow ? It is the same story everywhere. God proclaims, the Cross postulates, our weakness demands, that religion should be a strong and weighty matter, adequate to the work which it has to perform, commensurate with the vigour and energy which has called it into being. And yet, as I said, side by side with this, human indolence is ever seeking to slip out of the strain. The Jew compounded with minute ritual observance and shifted to the tithing of mint, anise and cummin, the responsiblity to perform judgment, mercy, and faith, and the weightier matters of the law. 1 And with Christians, also, there has been a tendency at all times, to rest upon some religious formula, or religious rite, and to slip out of the strong responsibilities and obligations that religion imposes. And one of the most common forms which this tendency has taken, and one most disastrous in its effect, is alluded to here by our Blessed Lord, when He says, "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father, Which is in heaven," that spirit which lingers in the phraseology and forms of religion, while neglecting to do the will of God, which is the basis of all religion. It saves trouble, it is soothing, it lulls to sleep, to live in the gentle murmur of " Lord, Lord," and to forget the stern necessity of doing something for our religion, of work- ing out our own salvation with fear and trembling, 2 of pushing beyond the mere idle formula of assent to the stedfast doing of the will of God. II. Now religion is the force which has to grapple 1 S. Matt, xxiii. 23. 2 Phil. ii. 12. Religious Indolence. 109 with the motions of death within us. If we had grown up in the ways of God, all would have been easy ; as temptations grew, strength would have grown to resist them, grace would have added to our spiritual stature inch by inch and step by step, 1 until we came to the perfect man, " the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." 2 But as it is now, with most of us, religion has to divide itself into three forces. One has to deal with the past ; another with the present ; a third with the possibilities of the future ; and in each and in all of these there is need of vigorous energy and effort. And human indolence is ever resisting the effort, and trying to slip out of the obligation and lessen the task. (1) It is a serious question with all of us, what are we to do with the arrears ? What are we to do with the past ? Are we to hide our head in the sand and forget it? all those wasted "years that the locust hath eaten/' 3 all those open and notorious sins, all those secret and hidden sins, that waste of grace and opportunity, those rebellious wanderings from God's love ? Can we imagine that God, Who has entrusted us with the few pounds of life, will be contented with a buried pound, or a lost pound, or a terrible diminu- tion of that which He entrusted to us ? Here man in his indolence looks to a " Lord, Lord." He will go on, as it appears, even to the last day, when men shall stand without, with their " Lord, Lord, open unto us," and shall begin to say, " we have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast 1 See Dr. Newman, " Plain and Parochial Sermons," vol. i. p. 97. 2 Eph. iv. 13. 3 Joel ii. 25. no Religious Indolence. taught in our streets." 1 It is to be with them as it was with the penitent thief, one convulsive " Lord, remember me/' 2 is to open for them the gate of Paradise ; it is to be with them, as with the great Saint Paul, one mighty burst of light and glorious ' O v C2