MUD]
Liii&ai<ai.ii:i:2iiiS^J
Ex Libris
C. K. OGDEN
# LIBRARY,
ED.- — —
JEW OXFORD STREET,
) 132. KENSINGTON HIGH STREET.W.
^
48. QUEEN VICTORIA ST, ^.C
SUBSCRIPTION. 6
HALF A GUINEA PER ANNUM & UPWARDS.
N
n
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
\ ^i>- ri ^ ' >' ? Z
' 6Af»li ^U^^^t/M.. SitV.
THE
HEAVENLY VISION
A SECOND SELECTION OF SERMONS PREACHED BY
GEORGE HOWARD WILKINSON, D.D.
Somewhile Vicar of S. Peter s^ Eaton Square^ S.IV. ;
also^ Lord Bishop of Truro ; and^ at his death^ O^ost Rev. the
Bishop of S. Andrews, Primus of the Scottish Church
" / fvas not disobedient to the Heavenly Vision "
A. R. MOWBRAY & CO. Ltd.
London : 28 Margaret Street, Oxford Circus, VV.
Oxford : 9 High Street
First impression, 1909
ex
INTRODUCTORY NOTES
A FIRST selection of sermons preached by Bishop
Wilkinson was published in May, 1908, under
the title of The Invisible Glory. It has been received
with intense gratitude by those who knew the preacher,,
and it awakened interest in a larger public. This, a
second selection, has nothing of the " less good " about
it. It is only another volume ; complete in itself, as
useful to adults at Confirmation, or for any other pur-
pose of private reading ; yet it is carefully arranged
so as to carry on the previous teaching and to break
fresh ground as far as possible.
The Heavenly Vision is a series of instructions upon
the ever-present features of the Christian warfare. Its
motto is derived from S. Paul's statement as to his own
conduct after Baptism. For its main thread it takes
four prayers from the Baptismal Service : like all those
aspirations which have come down to us through the
ages, succinct and devotional as they deal with the
more prominent engagements of The Good Fight.
By God the Father's mercy, and the Son's atoning
love, the soul accepts " one Baptism for the Remission
of Sins," and it emerges from darkness, original and
(in the case of adults) actual sin. The Bishop strongly
preached, and here still preaches, the absolute necessity
with many of conversion after regeneration.
iv INT1{0DUCT0RT .T^OTES
At this stage, as is next shown, the " carnal affec-
tions " are still strong. Nothing but the expulsive
force of spiritual life — the work of God the Holy
Ghost — keeps it true to grace. This is explained in
Book II.
In the third place, when some progress has been
made, the soul begins to realize the nature of the
enemy, in the threefold division of " the devil, the
world, and the flesh." Here all strife is conscious,
definite, and against an aroused enemy.
It is probably in this section that the most excep-
tional features of the present book will be noted.
Sermons, and least of all these sermons, rarely can be
read as preached. But the fact that these uncom-
promising words were thoughts brought out, in their
full personal earnestness, before the highest and pro-
bably the most busy men and women in the land —
persons who had to meet at least the world at its
strongest — is in itself a lesson for those whose arena
is smaller. The Bishop notes that a very small object
to some is as proportionately great a temptation as the
sphere of highest ambitions is to others.
In such cases, and where there is a lesson of " treat-
ment " to be learnt, the local allusions and temporal
dates have not been wholly expunged. According to
the Bishop's own methods, this has been the case in
other sermons : a few were corrected by himself,
although not published in his lifetime. In some, it
should be further understood, that the preacher began
by local allusion which, as he said of such utterances,
" had done its work." It may also be noted, in case
of any unacquainted with the life of the Bishop taking
up this volume, that there are many papers and volumes
of teaching by the Bishop which supplement what is
INTTipDUCTORT .7(pTES v
here said. This collection is not essentially for
Churchworkers and Rctreatants, as such : the former
have been provided lately with Spiritual Counsels to
District Visitors and Others^ and possibly a selection of
the Bishop's Retreat Notes may eventually see the
light — in addition to a small volume entitled One by
One, published in 1909, for bishops and clergy only.
Lists of other publications may be obtained from any
bookseller.
Although individual dealing with and by the workers
of the Church is not directly included in the fourth
section, which assumes its hearers to be consciously
within the Communion of Saints, there is strong
insistence upon the corporate life of the Church. In
this place a sermon has been inserted as preached at
the consecration of Dr. Maclagan and others (p. 271),
and, here too (p. 285) will be found the "first
sermon " mentioned in the Memoir (A. J. Mason,
D.D., 2 vols., Longmans, 1909), which, preached
immediately after ordination, yet contains the germ
of the thoughts of the future shepherd of souls.
Scottish readers will turn with deep interest to the
first public utterance in Scotland (p. 320). They may
know now — in words of one dear to their Bishop — ■
*'That everything seemed dark and strange, and it
was only his faith that enabled him not to refuse
the bishopric. He went into the cathedral, knelt
down and sought ' inspiration ' for his enthronement
sermon, saw the Alpha and Omega in the east
window, the text came to him, and this sermon was
the result."
It may be of interest, as showing the Bishop's
attitude to his own work, to quote his words as to the
vi INTT^ODUCTORl^ ,'^(pTES
" Gospel of the Kingdom," which has been printed as
a pamphlet, many years ago : —
The defects of the following Sermon are so great that, in
the first instance, I declined to allow it to be published.
I believe that the thoughts which it contains are from God,
however imperfect the language in which they are expressed.
May He bless them to His Church, in this glorious but
critical period of her history.
By means of this volume, may we too in this our
day be enabled to recognize the value of the " glorious
and critical " period in which we live. Some of these
sermons might have been preached at this time, instead
of having done their first work — to those best
acquainted with religious circles, a great and historical
work — chiefly in the 'seventies of the nineteenth century.
But, as was said by Canon Body in reviewing the
Memoir by Dr. Mason, in the Church Quarterly Review
for October, 1909 : —
" The greatest force in that influence was the personality of the
man himself. Other things contributed to it, but were subordinate
to this. He was a special spiritual influence because he lived in the
spiritual himself, and was at home in it. He had a vision of Him
Who is invisible, and was continually in communion with Him.
... If in each of God's saints some special feature of the Christian
character is to be recognized, in Wilkinson what arrests is the power
and beauty of devotion."
And yet, in very consequence of the light of the
Invisible Glory, and as impulsive force derived from the
Heavenly Vision, came the practical side. The Bishop
set forth at the outset of his work in Truro that he
desired to say at death : " My Father, I have tried
to finish the work which Thou gavest me to do."
CONTENTS
PART I
a JBeatf) unto 5>tn
SERMON PAGE
I. The Prophets' Message - - - 3
" I sent unto you all My servants the prophets, rising
early and sending them, saying. Oh, do not this
abominable thing that I hate." — Jer. xliv. 4.
II. The Great Refusal - - - ~ "•^Z
" O Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . how often would I
have gathered thy children together, even as a hen
gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would
not ! " — 5. (Matt, xxiii, 37.
III. Sin against the Lord - - - 25
" David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the
Lord." — 2 ^am. xii. 13.
IV. The Need of Light - - - _
" Lord, that our eyes may be opened."
5. UAatt. XX. 33.
V. The Larger Vision - - _ _
" Lord, that our eyes may be opened."
5. Matt. XX. 33.
" It had been better for them not to have known the
way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to
turn from the holy commandment delivered unto
them." — 2 S. Pet. \\. 21.
vii
34
44
vill C0.7VT£:7VT5
VI. The Call of Suffering - - - 52
" Also the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire
of thine eyes with a stroke : yet neither shalt thou
mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down." —
Szek.. xxiv. 15, 16.
\'II. The Power of the Lord - - "65
"I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save."
ha. Ixiii. i.
PART II
a Xfh) I3irtt) unto ilvigijtrousnfss
IRMON I'AGE
I. Carnal Affections - - - "77
" If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are
lost : in whom the god of this world hath blinded the
minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the
glorious gospel of Christ, Who is the image of God,
should shine unto them." — 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4.
II. One Thing Lacking - - - - 85
" Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him,
One thing thou lackest." — S. Mark x. 21.
III. The Loans of God - - - - 91
"Then ]esus beholding him loved him, and said
unto him. One thing thou lackest : go thy way, sell
whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou
shalt have treasure in heaven : and come, take up the
cross, and follow Me." — S. (Mark^ x. 21.
I\'. They that have Riches - - - 100
"Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said
unto him, One thing thou lackest : go thy way, sell
whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou
shalt have treasure in heaven : and come, take up the
cross, and follow Me. And he was sad at that saying,
and went away grieved : for he had great possessions.
And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto His
disciples. How hardly shall they that have riches enter
into the kingdom of God ! " — 5. 3^ark x. 21-23.
COCNJE.VXJS ix
V. Thk Dispensation of the Spirit - - i lo
" With Whom is no variableness, neither shadow of
turning." — S. James i. 17
\^I. The Voice of the Spirit - - - 127
" That was not first which is spiritual, but that which
is natural ; and afterward that which is spiritual. "^ —
I Cor. XV. 46.
VII. The Work of the Spirit - - -139
" Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but
that which is natural ; and afterward that which is
spiritual." — I Qor. xv. 46.
VIII. Gifts from Above - - - " ^53
" Every good gift and every perfect gift is from
above." — S. James i. 17.
IX. Living and Growing - - - 165
"Every good gift . . . cometh down from tlie
Father of lights." — S. James i. 17.
PART III
^otoer anil Strfngtt
SERMON PAGE
I. The Heavenly Vision - - - 179
" Hear, O Israel : The Lord our God is one
Lord." — Deut. vi. 4.
II. Resistance to the Devil - - - 187
" Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
S. James iv. 7.
III. The Good Fight - - _
" Be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will
of the Lord is." — Bph. iv. 17.
IV. Ahab the Worldling - - _
" Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he
did, and the ivory house which he made, and all the
cities that he built, are they not written in the book
of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?" — i Kings
xxii. 39.
197
207
X CO,?(TEC\CTS
V. A Reprobate Mind - . - - 217
" Because that, when they knew God, they glorified
Him not as God, neither were thankful ; even as they
did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God
gave them over to a reprobate mind." — Rom. i. 21, 28.
VI. God or Mammon _ _ . . 229
" There was none like unto Ahab, which did sell
himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord,
whom Jezebel his wife stirred up." — i K^ngs xxi. 25.
VII. The Ways of the World _ _ . 239
" Thus saith the Lord of Hosts : Consider your
ways." — Hag^ai i. 7.
VIII. Temperance _ _ _ _ 248
" Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded,
saying, Go?" — Judges iv. 6.
IX. Sowing and Reaping - - - - 257
" Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
Gal. vi. 7.
PART IV
SERMON PAGE
I. The Gospel of the Kingdom - - - 271
" Thus saith the Lord God : I will even deal with
thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in
breaking the covenant. Nevertheless I will remember
My covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and
I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant." —
Szck. xvi. 59, 60.
II. Filial Love and Fear (First Sermon, 1852) - 285
" When ye pray, say, Our Father."
5. Lu/^e xi. 2.
III. A New Thing _ _ _ - 296
" Remember ye not the former things, neither con-
sider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new
thing ; now it shall spring forth ; shall yc not know
it ?" — Isa. xliii. 1 8, 19.
CO^HJE^NJS xi
IV. The Blessed Saints - - - . 908
" Lo, a great multitude." — T^z/. vii. 9.
V. A Vision of Christ - - - _ -^20
" I saw seven golden candlesticks ; and in the midst
of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son ot'
Man." — %ev. i. 12, 13.
VI. The Return of our Lord . _ _ -529
"This same Jesus, Which is taken up from you into
heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen
Him go into heaven." — ^cts i. 1 1.
VII. What Christ Foretold
" This same Jesus, Which is taken up from you into
heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen
Him go into heaven." — Jets i. i i.
VIII. The King of Glory
339
349
" This same Jesus, Which is taken up from you into
heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen
Him go into heaven." — Jets i. i i.
IX. Hope and Holy Fear _ _ . ^58
" This same Jesus, Which is taken up from you into
heaven, shall so come in like manner as yc have seen
Him go into heaven." — Jets i. i i.
PART I
A DEATH UNTO SIN
" merciful Qod^ grant that the old Adam in these
persons may be so buried^ that the new man may be raised
up in them^
I
THE PROPHETS' MESSAGE
" / sent unto you all My servants the prophets^ rising early
and sending them^ ^^^y'^^g-, Oh^ do not this abominable thing
that I hate'' — Jer. xliv. 4.
THE origin of evil, my brethren, has not been
explained unto us. It is shrouded in a deeper
darkness than that mysterious gloom which fell over
the city of Jerusalem as the Lord was hanging on His
Cross. Christianity is not responsible for the difficulty.
Philosophers were perplexed, and sought in vain to
penetrate the gloom and to answer the question for ages
before God became Incarnate.
The Bible is written for our practical guidance.
From the beginning, early and late, by prophecy and
by miracle, by word and by deed, the Eternal God —
loving each one of His children, longing as the mother
longs to snatch the babe from the burning flame — the
Eternal Father has addressed to the children whom
He has created the solemn warning of my text, Oh,
do not, yield not to, touch not, this abominable sin
which I hate.
Yes, in the past, and in the present, and in the
future, all whose eyes have not been blinded by self-
indulgence and worldliness, all whose hearts have not
been hardened by the deceitfulness of that indwelling
3
4 ^ DEATH UDiJO SIN
corruption, all who have eyes to see or ears to hear,
whether they look to the past or to the present or to the
future, can hear the voice of the Lord God speaking
unto them, saying, "Oh, do not this abominable thing
that I hate."
I. God speaks to us by the records of the past.
The Holy Spirit takes us, as it were, by the
hand and leads us to the fair garden of Paradise, and
bids us watch that withering blight, those withered
flowers, and those withering downcast forms of our first
parents, driven forth by the flaming sword, because they
have done the abominable thing that God hated. Or —
rising above the noise of the rushing waters, from the
heights of the mountains where the refuse of the human
family are striving in vain to escape from the all-encircling
deluge — we hear the voice of the Living God amid the
desolation of the flood, saying to His children. Be
warned ; touch not that abominable thing which I
hate.
So is it through all the inspired volume. In its
pages, God warns us by the sword, by the famine, by
the pestilence, by the hissing flame, by the overwhelmed
cities. He warns us by the prophet of God mounting in
lonely misery those heights of Pisgah, looking out in
vain upon the Canaan for which he yearned ; shut out
from that glorious inheritance, because once, and once
only, he had done the abominable thing which God hated.
In Moses' voice we seem to hear the echo. Take heed ;
be warned ; by sin I have been overcome ; by sin I have
lost the promised inheritance. In all the wanderings of
the wilderness ; in the ruin of Jerusalem, in the desola-
tion of the city, in the cries of the thousand exiles driven
hither and thither, the banished outcasts of Israel ; by all
and by every means, from the beginning even unto the
end of the Bible, God sends unto us His prophets,
THE PROPHETS' MESS^QE 5
saying, Oh, do not, touch not, this abominable thing
that I hate.
2. And the same message is sent to us as we look
round on the ordinary circumstances of life.
We are taken by the hand of some wise physician,
and he leads us into the wards of some of the great
hospitals of this mighty city. He leads us through one
court after another, and he points to diseased children,
and the vacant stare of idiots. And we ask him how the
dreadful seed was sown that has come up in that deadly
harvest of a blighted childhood and a ruined life. And
he tells you that in those particular cases it was the " wild
oats " that were sown by the father — it may be — fifty
years previously ; these are results of men's sins, com-
mitted in youth, although perhaps forgiven in penitence,
and blotted out of God's Book so far as future
punishment was concerned ! These cripples and these
idiots are the children of drunkards and of men who
were " fast " (as the world calls it) in earlier life. Or
there is a case of the mother who wilfully and carelessly
left her little child to the neglect of a nurse, that she
might dance and drink in of this world's pleasure, and
you see the fruit in the blighted, wasted life. The
abominable thing has been touched, and although with
weeping and with mourning she has confessed her sin, it
finds her out in the broken heart, the miserable, feeble
womanhood, of the girl whom now she loves dearer than
her own life. Thus God's warning to-day is heard in the
voice of every wise physician in this our London, "Touch
not this abominable thing that 1 hate."
3. Then God the Holy Spirit leads us on to gaze
at the heavenly vision ot the future.
He shows us the glory of heaven ; He entrances us
with the echo of the angels' songs ; He tells us of the
6 ^ DEATH UO^O SIN
home where pain and sin and suffering shall be no more
where they shall hunger no more nor thirst any more
where every longing of the heart shall be satisfied
where every difficulty of the mind shall be solved
where every aspiration of the immortal spirit shall be
realized. And then, as the veil is lifted up and we gaze
upon " the ten thousand times ten thousand," and watch
those waiting in Paradise, and know them in their long-
ing to welcome those for whom they pray into the
glory of that invisible kingdom ; even thence a voice
Cometh forth from the eternal glory. Watch ; pray ;
touch not this abominable thing that I hate, unless thou
wouldst lose for ever the heavenly vision — the rest of
Paradise and the glory of heaven.
So is it in the past and in the present, and so we gaze
on to the future. Early and late, our all-loving God,
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, pleads with us,
saying. Touch not, do not, that abominable thing which
I hate.
And yet, my brethren, all the teaching of the past
and the present and the future seems gathered up to-day ^
into the three quiet hours in which we are assembled
together in this house of prayer. Amid the mysterious
gloom of Calvary we seem to some extent at any rate to
realize what sin must appear before the blessed ones in
Paradise, and the angel-band, and in the sight of the
ever-blessed Trinity. We draw near to Calvary, and we
listen to the bitter mocking, we mark the cruel scourging,
we see men changed into fiends as they walk up and
down triumphing over their defenceless Prisoner, wag-
ging their heads at Him with fiendish malice. We soon
enter into the little company of the blessed ones, and we
hear S. Peter denying Him with cursing and swearing.
We watch one who had kissed His sacred cheek, one for
' Good Friday, 1877.
THE PROPHETS' MESS^QE 7
whom the glorious throne was prepared, on which he was
to have sat in the regeneration judging the twelve tribes
of Israel. We watch the power of evil in the careless
crowd, in the defiant mob, in the inner circle of the
Lord's own disciples. And even yet we have not learned
the fullness of the teaching that Calvary would give unto
us. Even yet the voice of the Lord God has not been
heard in all its distinctness saying to us, Loathe, hate,
repudiate for ever, the abominable thing that nailed the
Son of God to the accursed tree.
Yes, my brethren, mysterious though it is to see men
changed to-day into fiends, fearful though it is to listen
to men like S. Peter uttering those foul oaths, the mere
sight of that lonely Figure on that deadly Cross seems to
speak to us with a power more eloquent than any human
words. When every prophet's voice had fallen in vain
upon the self-satisfied world, then God sent unto us His
Son, preaching with the outstretched arms on Calvary,
and saying, — Oh, by that Agony, by that bloody
Sweat, by that Cross and Passion, I beseech you. My
children, saith God your Father, do not that abominable
thing which I hate.
For the mystery is not explained. It would be an
impertinence to dwell on such a thought. All that
is certain is this, that the Son of God died. He
Who was very God ; He Whom angels adore ; He
Who, surrounded by Cherubim and Seraphim, shall
judge each child of Adam : He was hanging upon
that Cross, He Who is very God. And it was this
hidden principle of evil, this strange force which we
cannot explain, but of which we are so awfully con-
scious every hour of our lives : it was this that caused
the Son of God to die. O Father, forgive — He
would say — " forgive them, for they know not what they
do." Forgive the poor blinded eyes that see no glory in
8 ^ DEATH U.7^0 SIN
the Cross. Forgive the poor hearts, deadened with this
world, who can listen to no message, even though a
crucified God is, sending it unto their souls. God help
you if you can listen unmoved to that wondrous story of
the Cross. No thoughtful man or woman, who allows
himself one quiet hour to contemplate the fact that (in
our human language) God had to die for sin, will ever
require a human voice, 1 think, to send home the mes-
sage of my text, " Do not this abominable thing that I
hate."
So, as the practical conclusion of the whole subject, if
God speaks to us in the past and in the present and in
the future, we will answer likewise for the past and for
the present and for the future, " Speak, Lord, for Thy
servant heareth."
I. We will answer God with humble, lowly, penitent,
and obedient hearts to-day. O my God, we will say,
open my blinded eyes ; show me what that past sin
really appeared in Thy sight. O men and brethren, to
whom I speak with no power at all, because it is only
God Who can break up a heart that has been hardened
by a life of self-pleasing ! — O ye women of England, who
have drugged your consciences with the sweet opiates of
an easy, self-indulgent, harmless (as the world would say)
life ! — kneel down and pray your God to unfold the
past to-day. Pray God to show you what that one day
of neglected prayer really looked like to the holy angels
and the invisible kingdom. Pray God to show you what
was the true nature of those " mere wild oats." Drag
out each sin into the light : cover it not over. Brethren
beloved in Christ, I plead with you by the love of
Him Who died for you, beware of a half-repentance.
Beware of that miserable delusion that saith, I am doing
differently now, and the past is gone. God saw the
past. He knew it from the day when you were baptized
THE PROPHETS' MESS^QE 9
to this very moment in which the prophet's voice rings
home into your heart. Open the door of your heart
to-day, and recall the neglected prayer, or the un-
opened Bible, the forgotten poor, God saw the self-
indulgent heaping up of wealth, the covetousness, and all
the sins which in the Bible He has condemned ; He is
aware of all the pride and the vanity, the grasping
of things that man loves — things that may make us
prosper in the world, but which are all part of the
abominable thing which the God hates before Whom you
and I have to stand. Be warned when a man sends
you a message, as one has done from his death-bed
this morning, saying, " Oh, let my sin be told to
every man — I care not what he has done — if from my
death-bed I can save a soul ; ask them to pray for me,
not that I may recover, but that God may forgive me ;
that God may have mercy on my soul, that God may
make my sin the means of bringing others to repent-
ance." Such is the message which came from the
far-away shores of the Mediterranean, wafted here to
S. Peter's this morning : the man was what hundreds in
the church are. God open your eyes to the past.
Rest not till your sins have been acknowledged, till
you know that they are forgiven, and your peace is made
with Him before Whose judgement-seat you may soon
be standing.
2. And, then, for the present : let us implore
Almighty God to give us courage to read over the
history of the Passion of Jesus Christ. God careth
not where you are — in church, or in your own room,
but on your knees, with your Bible and your Prayer
Book, read about Jesus Christ. Read of the Passion,
till that unutterable Love take possession of you. The
fear of hell may frighten us, the joy of heaven may draw
up our hearts to God ; but nothing will keep us in real,
c
lo c/f DEATH U:}{TO SJN
earnest contrition, nothing will make the softened tears
flow and the heart rise up determined to live to God,
nothing will help us to get rid of the covetousness and
the fear of the world and the idolatry of things that are
passing away : nothing, save only the knowledge of the
love of Jesus Christ.
You have heard of that marble statue in the lonely
garden, of which the fable tells us that all the night it
was cold and dead and lifeless ; and (so runs the old
legend) the moment the rays of the bright gladdening
sunbeam fell on it, at once it was vocal with heavenly
harmony. Oh ! believe me, when once we realize (if it
be but on a lonely Good Friday) how He does love us,
how He must have loved us to give those Hands to be
pierced with those cruel nails, to let those thorns pierce
that sacred Brow ; when we look up simply on that
Lord, and say. Whatever be the explanation of the
Atonement, I know that that is a fact, and that He died,
and if He died He must love me ; oh, brethren, it is
then that there comes, not the feverish excitement, the
wild uncontrolled emotion, which is succeeded by the
black ashes of despair ; but the calm, solemn, concen-
trated contrition that melts and yet gladdens the heart.
This is what S. Paul felt, when he said, "The love of
Christ constraineth me" : binds me, that is, as with iron
bands of love ; carries me away (for that is what the
Greek word means) as the deep-rolling stream with its
calm, solemn current bears us on, carrying every obstacle
before it. The love of Christ binds, constrains, impels
me ; not to live for myself, but for Him Who loved me
and gave Himself for me. It is then, when we realize
for a moment even, the love of Christ, that, looking
upon Him Whom we pierced, we mourn. It is then
that we give up ourselves, body, soul and spirit, to His
service.
THE PROPHETS' MESS^QE ii
3. And as with the present and with the past, so for
a single moment as regards the future.
Never, after the love of Christ has been realized, can
we again join the crowd of fools who make a mock at
sin ! We have learned what was the cost of sin to Christ.
We have learned that it is the abominable thing that sent
Him to Calvary. For instance, when we are tempted (as
we are all tempted at times) to laugh when we watch
some person who has had a trifle more than he ought
to have had, observing his face flushed, or his excite-
ment and jubilant feelings, we should rather shudder and
say, " That is the abominable thing God hates; that is
the beginning of that drunken habit that will drag that
boy or man, that girl or woman, into hell." It is an
abominable thing — a child of God laughing at that sin.
Or, proud feelings come, and self-complacent feelings,
and all the great rush of earthly desires. Then, as men
who have knelt at the foot of the Redeemer Who died
on the Cross, as men who remember that pride was the
abominable thinp; that brought the devils out of heaven
and cast them into hell, that pride was the abominable
thing that lost Paradise to our first parents, that pride
was the accursed evil that caused the Son of God to have
to die on the Cross, we say : Lord, by Thy Cross and
Passion, from all pride and self-seeking, from all want
of love to God or man, from every lust of the flesh,
from every tempting assault of the world — however
popular it may make me — from every subtle snare of the
devil, when he would drive me to unbelief and despair :
oh, by Thine Agony and bloody Sweat, good Lord,
deliver me !
My brethren, learn the prophetic teaching of the past
and the present and the future. Listen to (if you have
never yet heard) the voice of the Lord God, rising up
early, sending to you — however imperfect the human
12 ^ DEATH UJ{TO SIN
ministry may be — still sending to you to-day His prophets.
It says in the Name of God to every one, Touch not the
abominable thing ; repent of thy sin, confess it to thy
God to-day. Rest not till it is forgiven ; mourn over
it ; and never, never, make a mock, or speak lightly, of
that abominable thing which thy God hateth.
THE QREAT T^EUFSJL 13
II
THE GREAT REFUSAL
" O Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . how often vpould I have
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings, and ye yvould not V — S. Matt.
xxlii. 37.
IN the branch of the great Catholic Church to which
we belong, every saint's day, as quickly as possible,
leads our thoughts away from S. Paul, or S. Peter, or
whoever it may be whose festival is kept : away from
man to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God,
by Whom the words of my text were spoken : the Eternal
Son of God ! More than once I have been asked to say
publicly, before God and man, that I did believe that
Jesus Christ was God. At first I put the request aside,
until once the letter was full of piteous entreaty. The
writer said, " I believe you are an honest man, and you
would not say out in your church that you did believe
that Jesus Christ was God, if you did not ; and every-
body that is near me says that this is an idea that men
are abandoning. Will you say it .^ " And I say it. I
believe in Jesus Christ, very God ; God of God, Light
of Light, Very God of Very God.
There is one reason why many do not believe.
Before I give the rule I own that there are exceptions to
it. There are great scientific men who, of necessity, in
the work that God has entrusted to them, of learning
His revelation in nature, have so concentrated their
14 =^ DEATH UD^O SIN
thoughts upon the things of nature, as not to leave
themselves leisure for developing fully the spiritual side
of their being, or bringing their mind to bear upon what
I may call, for want of a better word, spiritual facts.
And there are many who may have had religion put
before them in such a miserable — I was goins^ to use
stronger language — in such a miserable form. They
have had God painted as a Being delighting in the
torture of His children, instead of as a God Who,
though obliged to let some suffer, does it ever with the
breaking Heart of the Father mourning over the children
whom He loves. Or else, they have seen people making
a great profession of religion, always at services or at
meetings, full of talk. They have become sickened of
the whole subject, and they have said. Well, I shall
leave faith and religion alone, and I shall try to be an
honest man, and to do my duty in this life, if that is
not religion.
But, my dear brethren, I have never myself known,
with these rare exceptions, any man who had not got
some secret sin that made him afraid of committing him-
self to Christ, made him afraid of believing that there
was a God and a judgement to come, afraid of acknow-
ledging Christ to be God, because he would be obliged
to pluck out the right eye or cut off the right hand ; I
have never known an honest man give up one year — and
a year is surely not much to decide a matter upon which
eternity depends — give up a year to the patient study of
evidences, without coming back joyfully to acknowledge
with all other Christians that Jesus Christ is God.
Out of the hundreds of arguments, I will just touch
upon one for a moment in passing. Our Lord Jesus
Christ distinctly claimed to be God. About that there is
no doubt. Either, therefore. He was deliberately deceiv-
ing people, doing evil that good might come ; or else
THE QREAT "REFUSAL 15
He was Himself deceived, an enthusiast carried away
by His emotions. Now, He could not have deliberately
deceived, because any infidel of common intelligence
who has written upon the life of Christ, acknowledges
Him to be beautiful, pure, and holy. One of the most
interesting signs of the present day, I think, is the way
in which men of all shades of opinion are longing to rally
round Christ. They say, We do not understand the
dogma, but we want to follow that example ; come with
us. There is a great fallacy under the words, but that
is not my business this morning. I only mention it as a
fact, that all who have studied the subject bear witness
that Christ was a good and a holy man, and therefore
not a liar, and a deliberate deceiver.
But was He carried away by His emotions .'' Here,
again, there are two types of character. There is the
emotional man, easily impressed ; and there is the self-
disciplined, self-controlled man, keeping his emotions
under, and only allowing them now and then to appear.
Which of these was Jesus Christ } A few texts will
answer the question. When His followers were excited,
He said, " Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven." A
number of people gathered round Him and said.
Blessed is the mother that bare Thee ! Yes, He
said, but more blessed are they who hear the Word
of God, and keep it. But the most striking text
is yet to be given. Our Lord was gathering round
Him a little company who were to go out and
transform the whole aspect of the world. He was
kindling their enthusiasm ; and yet, in the middle ot all
that kindling of their enthusiasm. He kept so calm and
still that He told them they must expect persecution,
that they must expect to be misunderstood. O dear
Christian workers, what joy there is in this ; that they
1 6 ^ DEATH UU^O SIN
must expect, the more good they did, the less the world
would thank them for it ; that they must be prepared
often for apparent failuce, and no results ; that the more
they were winning people for God, the more Satan would
attack them, and dry up the joy of their own inner life ;
so that they would often hardly be able to pray, so terribly
would they be bound in that hour of darkness !
But more than that. He said. Remember this.
When people take you, and bring you before rulers,
and bare your back, and you feel the scourge falling upon
you, and then are dragged to some cruel tree to be cruci-
fied, never judge them. I, your God, tell you before-
hand that those who treat you in that way will think that
they are doing God service : they being in their way as
earnest as you are. Therefore you must be calm and
strong, and not carried away by your natural feelings to
think that they are a lot of wicked sinners who are
behaving in that way.
Now I ask, was that the emotional man, carried away,
borne on the tide of popular favour } I leave it to you.
Therefore Jesus Christ, as we saw, could not deceive
and be a liar ; and by the very laws of nature and of
psychology it is plain that His was not the class of mind
that was likely to be found amongst a self-deceived band
of enthusiasts.
But, as the Apostle says — when he looked back upon
that marvellous life, when he looked at the hiding of the
Omnipotence, when he thought of the manger in Beth-
lehem and the village home at Nazareth, of the Face
that man had looked on, when Christ was tired, with-
out a place where to lay Himself : when he thought of
the Son of Mary wandering about among the poor,
without bread to eat, or water with which to quench
His thirst — marvelling at that strong self-abnegation, he
says that the Lord Jesus did not think His Godhead a
THE QREAT T{EFUSAL 17
matter to be snatched at, and grasped. It was not to be
taken hold of and kept, every bit of it, just as we — all of
us — keep every bit of our good character, every bit of
our position, every bit of any credit we may have for
religious or for intellectual force ; snatching at it, and
keeping it, and being hurt if anybody does not ascribe
honour to us exactly in the measure in which we deserve
it. The Lord Jesus, S. Paul says, did not snatch at His
Godhead, but emptied Himself of it, and became Man.
Yes ! He is very Man as well as very God. And
that was the side of His Being that He put forward.
He knew how in this age, and in every other age, the
very humiliation of His life would be thrown in His face.
He knew for what reasons He would be despised and
rejected by the world, as He is being rejected now in
this great London of ours. But He loved us so dearly,
He knew that a man of sorrows, a suffering Christ,
would win more souls than a king triumphing in His
Godhead. He knew that there is a peculiar power —
O dear people, if some of you are in sorrow just now,
remember this and cherish it — He knew that there is a
peculiar power which can only be won by suffering. He
knew that this power is only won after perhaps a year of
spiritual darkness, in which God has seemed hidden from
us ; or only after years (known only to Himself) in which
One Face has seemed never away from us in each pause
from the busy outer life. He knows that it is by suffer-
ing that man wins a power of gentleness and love for
others, a power of helping, a glorious priesthood !
Deliberately, no man taking His life from Him, He
determined to be a suffering Man ; suffering in child-
hood, suffering all through His life, to the last great
agony of Calvary. He went about as Man amongst men.
Come, He said, to Me. Come to Me. I am a Man
of sorrows ; I am acquainted with grief. Come, if you
D
1 8 ^ DEATH U:NJ0 SIN
find the work hard ; come, if the business presses upon
you ; come, when the head aches with the overstrain.
Come, you poor heavy laden ones, come to Me, and I
will give you rest. And when the people were going
away, that great Heart of love fastened its eyes upon
them. Will you also. He said, go away } Will you
go away .'' Him that cometh to Me, whatever the past
has been, I will never send away.
And then, when some did go away — when they could
not really take the bother of carrying His yoke every
day, it seemed so tiresome, they thought ; when they
could not quite make up their mind to be different from
other people ; when they could not make up their mind
really to do that which in their hearts they knew would
be the best — He just was silent. And when they got
angry with His silence. He let them do with Him what
they liked. He let them drag Him as a lamb to the
slaughter, and, as a sheep before her shearers, He was
dumb. He did not resist their will. He knew that the
best thing that He could do for the world now was to die
for it ; and so, at any rate, He would do that. He hung
upon the Cross there, with the nails and the thorns. And
before He died. He did them all the good He could ;
just as His Father goes on sending down the rain upon
the just and the unjust, and making His sun to shine
upon the evil and the good. He went on doing what
good He could. He opened the blind eyes, and made
the deaf hear, and fed the hungry ; and almost His last
act was to touch the ear of the soldier who had come to
take Him to prison.
But His Heart was just breaking ; for He knew that
it was as impossible for fire not to burn, as for those
people to reach heaven who were loving the world, and
caring what the men in Jerusalem said more than they
cared for what His Father said — unless they were
THE QREAT T^EFUSAL 19
changed. He saw that they would not be changed. He
saw that every day they were just fixing a great gulf
between themselves and heaven, which very soon they
would not be able to pass for ever. He saw that their
character every day was hardening : that they were
coming to think it was wrong not to do what everybody
did, however God might have spoken : that they were
coming to think it was actually necessary to put self first,
and the world second, and God last.
He saw this going on under His very eyes ; and He
knew that unless He crushed their free-will, that unless
He broke down their freedom, that unless He made
them into dumb animals. He could do nothing more.
And so, I say. He did all that was left Him : He died
for them. And before He died His Heart just broke,
and the tears flowed down His cheeks, and He said, O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I have loved you ! How My
Soul has yearned over you ! How often from that hill
of Olivet have I looked down upon your streets and
seen that false religion, that religion without power, that
worldliness, that love of self ! Oh, how often would
I have gathered you, as the hen gathers the poor little
helpless chickens under her wings, and ye would not !
Oh ! the unutterable sadness of my Christ, that caused
Him to utter those words of sorrow !
What can I, dear brethren, say more .'' Only perhaps
this, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
and to-day, and for ever. He is alive, alive ! Thank
God for it ! What could we do without Him ?
And He is the same, with the same mind and the
same Heart. His last message, as He went up into
heaven, and the clouds received Him out of their sight —
the last message to the disciples was this, This same
Jesus, this same Jesus ! The Jesus that you read of in
20 c^ DEATH U:XTO SIN
the Gospels, the Jesus Who cannot break a man's free-
will, the Jesus Who can only break His own Heart when
the world will not come to Him, the Jesus Who said,
Come unto Me, the same ! And He is looking down
on us to-day. He has been gathering us.
Oh ! how wonderfully various are the ways in which
He has gathered us ! Before I came across to the
church I ran over a book of mine, where I have a few of
the names of those who have entered into their rest ;
who, so far as man dare judge, have had an abundant
entrance, and gone with joy into the other world. And
I could not help thinking how marvellous was the
manifold wisdom of God ; how wonderful were the
different ways in which they had been brought ! There
was the man who had never thought of religion till God
gave him one to love him with all her heart ; and I
remember the day when he came over to the old vicarage
and said, " God is good ; God has been good to me,
I wish I had been a better man ! Oh, would to God
that 1 had been able to say what I can never say again on
earth — but, Mr. Wilkinson, I am going to start afresh,
God helping me, He has been so kind to me." And oh,
the joy of being able to tell him in those weeks before
his marriage of the power of the Blood of Christ, of the
magnificence of the new creation, of the kingdom of the
new Jerusalem : that every man who will come to
Christ with an honest heart shall be welcomed as the
poor prodigal in the parable was welcomed, when the
father came to meet him down that dusty road, and fell
on his neck and kissed him ; and when the better people
were saying that he destroyed morality by treating a bad
man in that way, he only silenced them with. My son !
it is my son that was dead and is alive again ; it is my
son that was lost and is found !
Oh, what joy it was ! and then on that bright mar-
THE QREAT "REFUSAL 21
riage morning, to feel that it was a new start, that the
love of God had broken down his heart !
And then, think of other trials : bankruptcy, sorrow,
long-lingering illness; pain in little children, that seemed
at first so hard to look at, but which became at last an
angel from heaven ; times when some were almost
ruined ; when they were standing on the very brink of
a precipice, with things that would have disgraced them
for life, and God never let anybody know ; and so that
tremendous love broke down their hearts, and they are
living to Him.
I dare not, I must not go on. You can under-
stand, my people, how my heart seems to go back to it
all ; how, as I see you around me, 1 recall all those
conversations and prayers, and the wonderful ways in
which the Lord has gathered us. And if any one has
gone astray, what is to bring him back on this bright
S. Peter's morning ? Just this, Christ loves me.
Christ says, Will you go away again } Will you
break My Heart again } That is all.
And oh, I dare not, I cannot end as 1 intended.
I did intend to have worked out, with you, that solemn
thought that all science is now teaching us, the tremen-
dous force of law in the kingdom of God. We are
coming to see that if a stupid, pig-headed man will not
learn what science can teach him about the laws of health,
and will not look properly to the sanitary arrangements
of his home, though God loves the wife and loves the
little children, the typhoid comes, and the blood is
poisoned, and misery comes into the home. God is
showing that there are great principles that cannot be
broken even on earth. And He says, Have you not
understanding .'' Do you not see that it is an equally
true principle, that what a man sows in spiritual things
he reaps } Do you not see that, by the law of your
22 c/f DEATH UD^O SIN
freedom, you are every day and every night that you live
either softening or hardening your character ? " Every
time you do an act of self-denial, every time you sacrifice
yourself for others, every time you lose a friend rather
than laugh at something that ought never to be men-
tioned, every time you lose what the world has got to
give you for the sake of the Christ Who died for you,
you are fixing a great gulf between yourself and the
torments of the lost. And on the other hand, every day
and every hour in which you are just yielding up your
will — never mind whether it is wicked, or if it seem
as innocent as you like — every time you yield up your-
self to the power of this present world that crucified
Christ, and surrender yourself to the mastery of the
principles which brought Christ to His death in Jewry,
you are as surely fixing a great gulf between yourself and
heaven as ever that poor man did in the parable : who
did nothing wrong, but only got blinded by the glitter
and deafened by the noise of this world, and so never
saw him whom God had sent to be his angel of
deliverance, lying at his very door. Do you not see it ^
I wanted to have worked it all out with you, but it is too
awful !
One cannot bear sometimes to dwell upon that hour,
that may have come to some, of the wailing and gnashing
of teeth. It is so terrible. When Christ has done all
that He can, when the being has made up its mind, then
one of two things happens. Sometimes it becomes
perfectly happy, with no more prickings of conscience ;
gives enough money, and does enough work to satisfy
itself. Christ has done all He can. He can only leave
it quietly, and hope ; and, of course. He does not give
any trouble that can possibly be avoided ; just as the
Father lets the rain come down and the sun shine on the
evil and the good. The dear little children grow up
THE QREAT 'J^EFUSAL 23
better than other people's children, and the home is
happier, and the wife is good. All goes well. But
Christ is saying, Oh, if you had known, in that your
day, the things that belong to your peace, but now they
are hid from your eyes ! And sometimes it seems
the kindest thing to take the man out of the world
altogether.
I had an awful thing happen last week, I can hardly
speak of it. A few months ago some poor people in a
country parish wrote to me, and besought me to get
them the means of grace ; besought me to get a little
mission-house built, where they could just have the
Gospel preached to them, and say a few prayers. And
I earnestly entreated a man who had the property, and
could do it, to help to do it. And he would not do it.
And he persuaded himself that he could not do it. And
I never judged him. He wrote me a beautiful letter, in
which he said he could not ; but he could have done
this : he could have come over to me, and he could have
said, " 1 cannot aiford to do this, but will you pray with
me, and we will see how it can be managed for the poor
people." If he had loved God, if he had loved souls —
for the great gulf had not then been fixed ; God grant it
was never entirely fixed ; I am not judging — he could
never have read those poor people's prayer for help, and
not have come over at any rate to see what could be
done. And I was very unhappy, and I saw years before
me in that parish, with no provision for the outlying
hamlet. And one morning the rural dean wrote to me
that an awful thing had happened ; he said, " So-and-so
went to bed, and he died in the night ! "
And another man came into the property, and 1
pleaded with him ; and at first he was touched, and he
said he would. But, then, his wife found the house very
uncomfortable, and there was a great deal to do to it.
24 ^ DEATH U^NJO SIN
I am not judging the man. There was a great deal to
do ; it was really very necessary to spend a great deal of
money. And the last letter I had from him was that it
was no use trying ; nobody would do it, and he did not
see how it was to be done. And again I could only
think, " Oh, would that the man had known the joy,
even when you cannot give, of praying that others who
can may give." And on Friday morning, when my
letters came up, one letter was, " So-and-so was walking
along, and he has fallen down dead I "
My dear brethren, I cannot tell you what I feel
about it. It is one instance, out of hundreds of instances
that I have seen, where, when a man appears to have
made up his mind that the world shall be all he cares tor,
and that Christ shall not have all his being, and God
sees that perhaps he would do harm if he were allowed to
remain on earth any longer, he dies. Die, die, die ! I
seem to hear the cry of those dying men in my ears 1
Dear people, let Christ gather you. Let Him never
have to say of you, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often
— oh, even to that S. Peter's Day — would 1 have gathered
you, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and ye would not !
SIN AGAIUiST THE LORT> 25
III
SIN AGAINST THE LORD
" David said unto Nathan^ I have sinned against the Lord.''
2 Sam. xii. 13.
HOW startling, brethren, at first sight, is the life of
David-; how strangely do the contrasts of those
forty years pass before our minds !
Reared from his childhood in the Faith of God,
he appears at the commencement of his history in
all the varied characters which are calculated to
awaken our sympathy and to command our admira-
tion. As the champion of Israel against the blas-
phemers of Jehovah, as the conqueror of Goliath
(the proud warrior of Philistia), as the loyal soldier, the
brave adventurer, the firm unflinching friend, he has
been from our earliest years our favourite Bible char-
acter. Then suddenly, and almost without a word of
warning, the whole scene is changed. The lion-hearted
son of Jesse remains at home in listless cowardice. The
strong man, who had borne with unflinching hardihood
the trials of exile, is transformed into the effeminate idler.
The warm-hearted trusting friend betrays, with well-
weighed subtilty, the simple-minded captain of his army.
The sweet Psalmist of Israel, whose holy spirit had borne
him, as on angels' wings, to the very gates of heaven, is
hustled by one dread fall into the depths of deceit and
adultery and murder. Strange, brethren, is all this, and
yet the Word of God dares to lay before us the failings
£
2 6 ^ DEATH UOiJO SIN
as well as the excellences, the sins as well as the virtues,
of its heroes. Freely it speaks to us of the patriarchs
and prophets. Freely it tells us of the impatience of
Moses and the falsehood of Abraham and the despon-
dency of Elijah and the cowardice of the Apostle Peter.
Freely it paints for us the whole life in all its varied
colouring.
And is it not, brethren, this holy freedom which
renders the examples of these Scripture saints of such
real value to us in our busy working life ? Is it not
this mingling of good and evil which makes us realize
that they were men like ourselves, struggling as we are
struggling, tried as we are tried, and tempted as we are
tempted ? Yes, this history of David is, in broad out-
line, the heart experience of every Christian. True that
we may not have risen to the same heights of spiritual
love, and may, by God's grace, have been preserved from
so fearful a fall ; yet however much our life may differ
from that of the sovereign of Israel in degrees both of
good and evil, its main features are substantially the
same.
All real Christians can say with David that their souls
thirst for God — for the living God. All, alas ! can tell
of days of falling away — cold, lifeless times when sin is
strong and faith is weak and love is wellnigh quenched.
All, thank Goo, can speak of hours of repentance, blessed
hours in which the Holy Spirit has entered into the
heart and wrung out from their half-reluctant lips the
confession of the text, "I have sinned against the Lord."
It is with this last stage of David's history that I am
especially concerned to-night. We know that his repent-
ance was a true repentance and was accepted by God.
We know also that there is in this world an immense
amount of false repentance, a sort of spurious sorrow for
sin which deadens the conscience and ruins the spiritual
SIN y^GA].'^ST THE LORT) 27
life. I would suggest, therefore, to those who are using
this Lent in self-examination and special prayer, that they
should take Psalm li, verse by verse, and compare their
feelings with the feelings of the Psalmist, their repentance
with his repentance.
Observe, for instance, the deep sorrow, " the broken
and contrite heart " of which he speaks. The longing
for cleansing and pardon, " Purge me with hyssop, and
I shall be clean." The thorough surrender of his whole
heart to God, "Wash me throughly from my wickedness,
and cleanse me from my sin." The longing to work for
God and help others forward in the divine life, " Then
shall I teach Thy ways unto the wicked : and sinners shall
be converted unto Thee." We can trace the fullness of
the pardon received, the joy of forgiveness which breathes
out in every utterance of Psalm xxxii, " Blessed is he
whose transgression is forgiven, and whose sin is covered."
In order to help you in this work which I have
suggested, I wish to dwell at length on two features in
this repentance, praying that the Holy Ghost may bless
to us all, for Christ's sake, the word spoken.
First, then, let us observe David's humility. He
confesses his sin to the Lord. He confesses it to
Nathan the prophet. He confesses it to the whole
congregation. He makes no excuse, he does not attempt
to cast the blame upon others. He does not say with
Adam, " The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me,
she gave me of the fruit, and I did eat." It is not with
him as with Saul, "The people spared the best of the
flocks, and compelled me to break the commandment of
the Lord." Without any reserve, humbly and honestly
David takes upon himself the entire burden of his sin,
" / have sinned. I acknowledge my transgressions : and
my sin is ever before me,"
Now, brethren, this humility is by no means so
2 8 c/f DEATH UCNJO SIN
common as might at first sight appear. Many who
fancy that they have repented have never truly humbled
themselves. It is marvellous to observe the different
ways in which our pride will try to spare us the pain of
real self-abasement. Sometimes it will endeavour to
save us from lowering ourselves before man. It is true,
this great enemy seems to whisper, it is true that you
have sinned against man as well as against God, but why
acknowledge your shortcoming to your neighbour .''
Why give him an opportunity of lording it over you ?
Tell it, if you will, to your Maker, but do not humble
yourself before man ! At other times this subtle pride
will tempt us to be content with only a half-humiliation
in the presence of God Himself. " You are no worse,"
it says, " than others, not so bad as many. True that
you have sinned, but your trial was so great, the circum-
stances in which you were placed were so difficult, your
nature is so feeble that you may surely be excused,"
and so forth.
It would be easy enough to expose these fallacies. It
would be easy to show how sins which have been com-
mitted against our neighbours, as a general rule, should, at
any rate, be confessed to those whom we have injured. It
would not be difficult also to prove that the excuses to
which I have referred are nothing less than mere tamper-
ings with conscience. Friends may have tempted us and
our position may have been very trying, our nature may
be encompassed with human weakness, but what pallia-
tion is there in all this for a Christian's transgression ?
What excuse do they offer, for one who has a power
within greater than all the powers of evil which are
ranged against him, for one whose body is the temple of
the Holy Ghost, who had only to ask and to receive all
the help which he required from that Saviour Whose
strength is perfected in human weakness .'' Time would
SIN JGJI.XST THE LORT> 29
fail me to answer all the arguments which this great
spirit of pride is ever suggesting to our hearts. I can
only press upon you this truth, gathered alike from the
Bible and from all experience. All who really repent are
ready to pass with David through the valley of humilia-
tion. The man who truly repents is ready, if need be, to
humble himself before his fellow-man, to say with the
prodigal of old, I will arise and go to the father, the
wife, the friend, the stranger, the minister whom I have
wronged, and however painful the effort, I will say to
him, I have sinned not merely against heaven, but in
thy sight. And still more ready is he to lower himself
before his Maker ; without any reserve or any excuse,
without dissembling or cloaking his transgressions, he
unfolds the whole of their dark catalogue to his Father
in heaven. With a lowly, penitent, and obedient heart
he pours out his soul in sorrowful confession. On
bended knee and with a broken, contrite spirit he
echoes the cry of the royal mourner of Israel : Mine
iniquity will I not hide. " I acknowledge my transgres-
sions : and my sin is ever before me." I have left
undone the things which I ought to have done. I have
done the things which I ought not to have done. There
is no health in me. " I have sinned against the Lord.
I have sinned against the Lord''
The last clause of the text suggests a second sign of
true repentance as distinguished from its many counter-
feits. The sin is chiefly bewailed because it has grieved
God. "I have sinned against the Lord." These words,
brethren, are very remarkable, if we consider the circum-
stances under which they were spoken.
A very heavy penalty had just been denounced
against David by Nathan, the prophet of Jehovah. "I
will raise up evil against thee, saith the Lord, because
thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and
30 ^ DEATH UJ\(JO SIN
hast taken his wife to be thy wife . . . the sword shall
never depart from thine house." Here, to a man of
David's temperament, were gathered into one dark heap
the greatest earthly troubles. He felt even for the death
of a disobedient child, he used such touching words in
mourning over the reprobate who had insulted his grey
hairs and brought misery to his home, saying of the
rebellious, godless Absalom, " O my son Absalom, my
son, my son Absalom ! would God I had died for thee,
O Absalom, my son, my son ! "
Surely, a man who was so wrapped up in his
family was not likely to be unaffected by that stern
punishment which the Almighty had inflicted. Surely
he, above a// others, would not weigh lightly that heavy
sentence which was to change his happy home into
a scene of continual discord, which was to raise up
against him enemies from the midst of his own house-
hold, which was to send him forth from the hill of Zion
which he loved, into a lonely homeless exile. No,
brethren, David felt all these calamities. His heart no
doubt was pierced by them as with a sharp two-edged
sword ; and yet alike in the words of the text and in the
whole Psalm they appear to be entirely forgotten. They
are, as it were, overshadowed by a still darker cloud.
" I have sinned against the LordT " Against Thee, Thee
only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight."
" I have sinned against the Lord " — against my kind,
loving Father. "Cast me not away from Thy Presence :
and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. O give
me the comfort of Thy help again : and stablish me
with Thy free Spirit."
Here, brethren, we have a touchstone to which we
may bring our penitence, if we desire to understand
whether or no it is the work of the Holy Spirit.
There may be abundance of sorrow after sin, and yet
SIN AGJir^(ST THE LORD 31
no true repentance for sin. When the drunkard has
wasted his strength and squandered his fortune, unless
he is mad he will be sorry for his folly. When the thief
is dragged from his home to pay the penalty of his
crime in the lonely prison, he will naturally be filled with
sorrow and self-reproaches. When the parent who has
neglected his children is reaping the harvest of his care-
lessness in their extravagance and profligacy, he will, of
course, regret the feeble way in which he discharged the
responsibilities of a father. The youth who is disgraced
in the sight of his fellows, the girl whose character is
blighted, may, and doubtless will, shed abundance of
bitter tears. The poor sinner, when he feels the lash of
the Almighty Judge already descending upon him, when
he thinks of the agony of that dreary abode wherein no
ray of hope can enter, when the punishment of sin has
thus become a reality to his heart, he may curse the
madness with which his life has been wasted : he may cry,
like Esau, with an exceeding bitter cry, "Hast Thou not
a blessing for me, even for me also, O my Father.''" and
yet in all these wails of despair there may be no true
repentance.
In all the cases which I have sketched there may be
no sorrow for having grieved the Lord, no tears because
His law has been broken, no heartfelt confession,
" Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done
this evil in Thy sight,"
But go, brethren, to any real Christian in the time of
his humiliation, and ask him what is the cause of his
greatest sorrow, when the devil has broken down his
defences, and through that opened breach has poured the
long train of evils into his heart. He will tell us that
it is not the worldly loss, though that is hard to bear, not
the contempt of his fellow-men, though of that he is not
forgetful, no, not the fear of hell itself which is the
32 c/f DEATH U:NJ0 SIN
bitterest drop in his cup of agony, but the thought that
he has offended a loving Father, that he has crucified
his Saviour afresh, that he has grieved the Holy Spirit
of God. It is this which oppresses his soul in his hour
of penitence, it is this which causes him to abhor himself
as in dust and ashes when the graves of past sins are
opened, and one after another of their dread inhabitants
are appearing before him. In plain words, brethren,
though God in His mercy often employs the reproach of
man, or worldly shame, or tear of hell as instruments by
which to lead us to repentance, He never leaves the soul
which has been given up unto His gracious discipline
until by the power of the Holy Ghost He has taught it
to echo the cry of the royal mourner of Israel, " Against
Thee, Thee only, have I sinned " ; yea, I have sinned
against the Lord.
Thus, brethren, have I set before you marks of real
repentance. Have you ever repented } Have you so
repented as to humble yourself before God and without
any excuse acknowledge yourself a helpless, guilty sinner }
Have you so repented as to humble yourself before man,
to acknowledge to those against whom you have sinned
the evil word or evil deed by which they have been
injured } Have you so repented as to feel sorry for
your sin because it has grieved your Saviour }
It is quite possible to give up some of our evil deeds
without ever having repented of those sins. When you
were young, perhaps, you broke that fifth command-
ment. To that sin you are now no longer tempted. The
parents whose hearts you saddened, whose last years you
embittered by your disobedience, are now at rest. No
longer can your angry passions disturb their peace. But
your sin was against God. Have you ever telt it as
against God } Have you ever repented as in His
sight ? Or again, you are now settled in life. Those
SIN AGAID^ST THS LORD 33
early lusts of the flesh no longer tempt you — you are
now thoroughly respectable ; but that impure act, which
the world calls " sowing your wild oats," that sin was
against God. It is recorded in God's Book of remem-
brance. Have you ever repented of it as in His sight .''
Has it cost a single tear ?
O men and brethren, our whole life is crowded with
evil ; our sins compass us about. They are more in
number than the hairs of our head. Let us awake from
our dreams of self-satisfaction and false peace. Let us
allow ourselves time to drag out our sins from their long
closed hiding-places : the sins of childhood ; sins of
youth ; sins of riper years ; sins against God ; sins
against man.
Men and brethren, let us be honest. Down on our
knees let us tell them all to that Saviour Whom David
longed to see but never saw on earth. Let us beseech
Him to make us really sorry, to blot out, as a thick cloud,
our transgressions : sins of thought, sins of word, sins
of deed, sins that we can remember, sins that we have
forgotten. Let us beseech Him to wash all away in
His own most precious Blood. There, before His Cross,
let us kneel, day by day, till we can see His love and
realize His pardon, till His own blessed peace streams
into our souls, and we have learnt, in our own experience,
the happiness which follows on a hearty repentance and
humble trust in the Redeemer — till we can say with
the Psalmist of old, " Blessed is he whose unrighteousness
is forgiven, and whose sin is covered."
" I said, I will confess my sins unto the Lord, and so
Thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin."
34 ^ DEATH UDiJO SIN
IV
THE NEED OF LIGHT
" Lor^j that our eyes may he opened^
S. Matt. xx. 33.
THIS prayer is suited for all sorts and conditions of
men. It is needed by the sinner as he stands, all
unconscious, on the brink of everlasting ruin ; and it is a
petition for the holiest and most saintly of God's children,
as they wait on the brink of Jordan's stream, racked, it
may be, with pain, and shrinking from the severance of
the ties which bind them to those whom they love
dearer than life itself. It is a cry to the Everlasting
Father, when heart and flesh are failing, that the chariots
of fire may be revealed, and the band of ministering
angels, by whom the spirit is to be borne into everlasting
bliss, may be manifested ; and, above all, that He may be
seen Whom to know is life eternal.
By how many, I wonder, has the prayer been uttered,
either in the letter or in the spirit 1 How many in that
great congregation who have worshipped here have said
in the letter, I repeat it, or in the spirit, " Lord, that I
may receive my sight " — Lord, open my eyes .'' God
knows.
Last Sunday they were asked to do this, but the idea
that hearing a sermon involves a responsibility is an idea
which numbers even of professing Christians have never
grasped. No word of God, however feebly it may have
been uttered, can ever return unto Him void. For every
sermon the account shall be rendered in that day when
THE NEET> OF LIQHT 35
the books are opened, and the Judge is seated on His
throne. The question then will be, not " Who preached
to you?" but, "What was the message of God, and
what was the text, and what was the answer of thy soul
to the loving God Who spake to thee ? "
There is nothing, I think, more awful, in the right
sense of the word " awe-ful," than to hear a clergyman
thanked for " a beautiful sermon," when, if any word of
that sermon were according to the mind of God, the
person to whom it was preached, and who enjoyed it,
is in reality himself under its condemnation. It is
awful how men and women with a certain amount
of Christianity are trifling with eternal verities. But
some, I doubt not — God grant that it may have been
many — some have been saying from their heart, " Lord,
that my eyes may be opened."
Now, dear brethren, there is great need of caution
here, for we live surrounded, as we are told, by prin-
cipalities and powers of evil. Satan, the great adversary,
is going about ever seeking whom he can devour ; and,
just as the blind man in the story of old was hindered
when he would have run after Jesus Christ in order that
his vision might be restored, so we may rest assured that
we shall not be allowed to draw near to the Fountain of
light and life and blessing without many weighty hin-
drances being thrown in our way. And I purpose, by
the help of the Holy Spirit, to direct your attention this
morning to one or two at least of these hindrances.
May God the Holy Ghost, Who knows each secret
of your hearts, each longing after a higher life, and each
desire to please that Lord Who was crucified for you on
Calvary — may that Blessed Spirit so guide my words and
so open your hearts that the devices of Satan may be
defeated, and many a soul be brought into the glorious
light of God's revealed truth !
36 c/f DEATH UCh(TO SIN
First, then, we read in the Gospel as our Blessed
Lord appeared to His disciples in that upper room at
Jerusalem, though He came with words of blessing and
of peace, though He came with the pierced hands and
the wounded side again to claim their confidence, that
at first they were terrified and aflFrighted. And we read
in the Old Testament history that, when the great type of
Jesus Christ was going to overcome all the cruelty and
evil of his brethren by an act of surpassing love, he began
by making himself strange unto them. So oft-times is it
in the dealings of the Divine Master with the soul that
has said, " Lord, that my eyes may be opened." For
instance, we have perhaps been longing to see clearly
that God has forgiven us. We understand it with our
head ; we know that the Blood that was shed upon Cal-
vary cleanses from all sin. We know that God's people
are safe in their Lord, and are at peace with God
through Jesus Christ. But we feel none of that inward
peace or joy ourselves, and we long that a communication
of that blessing may be vouchsafed unto us, and so we
pray to our Lord. Or it may be that we have heard of
the power of Jesus Christ in delivering men from evil.
We have been told that greater is He that is with us
than all the powers of evil that are against us, and that
whatever may be our peculiar temptations, of temper, or
to indolence, or sloth, or whatever it may be, Christ has
the power to crush the evil, to sanctify us entirely — body,
soul, and spirit — and to present us without spot or stain
of sin before the Eternal Father. We are longing either
for acceptance or for sanctification, and we have said, it
may be for years, this prayer. Lord, that I may receive
my sight, and see clearly the power and the love of my
Lord.
But, instead of matters improving, everything seems
to go wrong with us. We cannot pray, and our temper
THE NEET> OF LIQHT 37
is worse than ever. We seem, even while we are plead-
ing with God, more than usually tempted with wandering
thoughts. Everything seems to us as if we were mere
hypocrites, and as if we were only bringing down upon
ourselves wrath instead of blessing by any language
addressed to the mercy-seat of heaven.
Let us try to see the meaning of this dealing of our
Lord Jesus Christ with us. He knows perfectly well
that if we had a certain amount of success at this crisis of
our life, if we gained a little mastery over our besetting
sins, we should be so buoyed up that we should soon
become confident in ourselves, and never really submit
and kneel down at His feet to receive the pardon that
He alone can give, or to obtain the mastery over evil
which can only be permanent in so far as it is vouchsafed
by Himself. It is, in fact, very much in the same way
that a human physician deals with his patient. A man,
for example, has been long ill ; stimulants of different
kinds have become almost a necessity to him ; he feels that
it is impossible for him to exist without them ; and when-
ever he has taken them — I am not speaking of drunken-
ness now — whenever he has taken them he can do much
more work, and he feels more equal to the various emer-
gencies of his life, whatever it may be. But the physician
says to him, " That very feeling which these stimulants
give you is doing you harm " — I am not speaking now
about teetotalism — " whatever acts in this way upon your
constitution is radically wrong, and all that patching it up
for a few minutes or an hour or two hours is simply
making the mischief more permanent, and the time that
will be required for your recovery more prolonged. The
only hope for you is to have a thorough radical improve-
ment in your constitution." You cannot fail, I think,
to perceive the meaning of the illustration.
Our Lord Jesus Christ knows that we cannot really
38 ^ DEATH UJ^O SIN
be happy till we have found out that we are nothing, that
we are utterly guilty, and helpless, and lost, and undone.
And therefore the kindest thing- He can do is to teach
us this lesson by the bitter experience of utter failure,
that so we may be driven in spite of ourselves to that
prayer which is never uttered in vain :
"Just as I am, without one plea
But that Thy Blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come ! "
So the practical lesson is to go on with the prayer of
the blind man who cast his garments behind him, and
though the people tried to hinder him, determined not to
rest till Jesus had stood still, till his eyes were opened,
and the blessing for which he craved had been vouch-
safed.
Then, secondly, there is another most important
lesson. There is nothing that we admire so much as a
proud man. The world respects pride ; it despises vanity
— petty little vanities — but pride is a grand thing. The
man who does not waver when he has once spoken, the
man who never humbles himself but stands up like some
great mountain in the midst of his fellows, is respected,
and he gains power and influence. People are afraid
of him.
In the kingdom of grace all this is altered. The man
who wills to be proud, the Bible says, is fighting against
God, and, sooner or later, we know how that struggle
will end. God, it says, resists the proud. He resists
him, fights against him for his own good, defeats him
again and again, and if he rises up from the dust still
unhumbled, again God uses His power. God does this
in love, mind ! not in the mere human way of struggling
for mastery, but because the Eternal One knows
THE NEET> OF LIQHT 39
that it is an impossibility for grace to be given to any
man except he is humble. God can only give grace,
help, strength, and power to the humble. You cannot
fill a vessel until it is empty. It is no use. If a vessel
is full of self, self-satisfaction, self-complacency, God
Almighty Himself cannot fill it with divine grace. And
so it is very important, when we are praying for an
Epiphany of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we should
humble ourselves, and put ourselves aside to the very
utmost of our power by the help of the Holy Spirit.
For example, we have been praying to Goo Almighty
to open our eyes, and God has some new set of truths to
teach us in answer to our prayer, something to teach us
that we have not really known before. Perhaps we have
been Churchmen all our life, leading a watchful life of
self-denial and self-restraint. We have been careful in
our preparations for Communion, and careful in our
thanksgivings afterwards. We have been watchful, it
may be, about our confessions, and so forth. But some-
thing, we have felt, has still been wanting, and we have
been led by the Holy Spirit to pray the prayer of the
text. Now, any one who has studied human nature
knows that it is intensely difficult at that crisis of his
spiritual history for a real Churchman to submit himself
to the plain, simple foundation-truth of Jesus Christ
crucified. Again and again persons have said to me,
" Do you mean to tell me that all these years when I
have been trying to obey the Lord God, when I have
been watchful about my prayers and my Communions,
never neglecting a means of grace — do you mean to tell
me that all these years have been wasted, and that 1 am
to begin again at the very beginning, just like the poor
heathen that have never heard of Christ } I cannot
believe it."
Brethren, it is hard to believe this. It is true, too.
40 ^ DEATH UUiJO SIN
that every act of real earnest work for God has been
acknowledged by God. Every habit that you have \
formed of mastery over self will be found useful in ,'
the future. Every bit of that self-discipline, the prepara-
tions and the thanksgivings too, will come in hereafter to
help in building up the temple acceptable to God. But
there is a little bit of God's Gospel that you have never
laid hold of; you have never done the first work, which
is to believe on Him Whom God hath sent. When the
people came to Christ, and asked what they should do
to please God, they were told, " This is the work of God,
that ye believe on Him Whom He hath sent." Trust
in Him. Hide yourself in Him. Christ is made unto
you wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption. God gives you the Saviour, and He tells
you that our dear Lord, by His death and rising again,
has so opened the kingdom of heaven to you who are
baptized into Him, that you may hide yourselves in
Him, that you may shelter, as it were, behind Him, and
so stand accepted in the Beloved. That seems so simple,
and yet it takes a few days of looking up to Jesus Christ,
thinking of Him, and praying to Him, and looking away
from self — a few days before the eyes are opened to
see it.
It is often a very great stumbling-block in the way
of real Churchmen to be broug^ht face to face with this
truth, and unless they are changed so as to become like \
little children they cannot receive it. I remember seeing \
in a great mission one after another coming and learning
that little simple bit of God's Gospel, and then going
back with new life to their Communions, and with new
power to every Christian duty and to every means of
grace.
And so, on the other side, we may take it, a soul has
known the peace and the joy of believing, has known what
THE NEET> OF LIQHT 41
it is to thank God that its sins are washed away in the
precious Blood, and has known what it is to do this, not
with excited utterance, but with calm, confident assurance
based, not on feeling, but on the Word of the Living God
that can never be found false. This soul has known what
it is to be at peace with God, and has rejoiced in that
peace, it may be, for many a year ; and then God in His
love desires to lead that soul onward, to teach it the great
sacramental side of the Church's instruction, to teach it
something about the Body of Christ, to teach it about
the feeding of the soul with the living Bread and the
water that flows from beneath the Throne of God and the
Lamb, and to teach it what is the right position to adopt
to God's ministers, not merely to the one or two whom
we personally like, but to every minister of God who has
been specially ordained for doing His work. Well, all
this, that we call " Church teaching," has now to be
received, and the soul shrinks from it. The man to
whom this truth is taught often speaks thus : " All my
party will think that I have become a Ritualist, or a
Puseyite, or a Romanist. I shall be dishonoured amongst
those who looked up to me as a teacher in Israel. I know
the everlasting Gospel ; I know that God loves me, and if
I cannot always feel it, I make myself feel it ; and if I
die, I will cry as I die. Thanks be to God for the
precious Blood that cleanses from sin ; and you shall
not rob me of it by talking to me about self-examination,
and by all your teaching about your Holy Communions.
It is all a delusion ; I know what God has taught me."
If that soul continues proud, I will not say that it is lost
— though I have seen a very bitter end come to the
proud — but it never goes forward, it makes no progress,
there is no growth in grace, and no influence over others.
It has a name to live, but in the sight of God it is almost
dead.
G
42 o^ DEATH U:NJ0 SIN
But when the soul comes like a little child and says,
Lord, open my eyes, then God Almighty pours in these
satisfying truths : that we are not merely forgiven, but
that we can be made holy ; that God loves to pour new
life into us, so that the old nature shall be gradually
driven out, as darkness vanishes before the early morn ;
that God comes to live in us by the power of the Holy
Spirit, so that we may become not merely what are called
" saved men," but strong men, men able to influence
others as they pursue their onward course, men who by
their very lives shed abroad an influence for all that is good,
and pure, and holy. Oh, the growth in grace of a soul
drawn into evangelical light, and then humbling itself to
receive what God has taught in His holy Church !
Dear brethren, there is not time to dwell longer on
the subject ; I would only warn you, whilst using this
prayer, to beware of the spirit of that proud captain of
the host of the King of Syria of whom you have read in
the ancient story. Let one of God's humblest servants
at least teach to you that lesson, and you can hear it well-
nigh in every church that you may enter in this great
metropolis. You remember the story. He came in all
his barbaric pomp and majesty from the Syrian court to
the prophet of the Lord, and that leprous captain of the
host stood at the door of Elisha, and sent up to ask what
he must do to be recovered of his leprosy. And his
anger was stirred within him because he was not recog-
nized as a great and mighty man — a man not to be
treated as the ordinary poor would be treated. And
Elisha sent to him the message, " Go and wash in Jordan
seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and
thou shalt be clean." And then he went away in a rage.
He thought of those rivers, Abana and Pharpar, in the
grand old city of Damascus, and said. What ! have I
been brought all this distance, and then told to do a little
THE NEET> OF LIQHT 43
thing like that ? — to wash in that little stream, when I
have left behind the deep-rolling current of those Syrian
streams ? No ! But his servants came to him and said,
" My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great
thing, wouldest thou not have done it ? "
My brethren, if God asked a great thing of you
to-day as the price of everlasting joy with the saints and
angels for ever hereafter, you would lay down your
money — even the most covetous man in the church this
morning — though you never really denied yourself a
single fraction of your money for Christ all these many
years that you have lived : you would tell out cheque
after cheque, sovereign after sovereign — O God, any-
thing to be sure of heaven hereafter. And God — by
the voice of His prophet, to-day, for every man standing
in the Name of God, properly ordained, is a witness and
prophet of the Unseen God — gives you this answer,
Humble thyself, trust God if He seems to be making
Himself strange to you, and pray morning, noon, and
night, at every pause from the whirl of the outer life,
God, for Christ's sake, grant that my eyes may be
opened.
44 ^ DEATH UJ\(TO SIN
V
THE LARGER VISION
" Lor^^ that our eyes may he opened T — S. Matt. xx. 33.
" // had been better for them not to have known the way
of righteousness, than, after they have kno-^n it, to turn from
the holy commandment deli'))ered unto them."" — 2 S. Pet. ii. 2 i .
" ^ I ^HAT our eyes may be opened." It is almost
J- impossible to open the Bible without finding
passages in which the responsibility of spiritual enlighten-
ment is pressed upon our notice. Hear the word of the
Living God, of which we have been told in the first lesson
of this morning, that no utterance of His can ever return
to Him empty and void. Take heed, saith God,
how you hear, for whosoever uses what he has, to him
shall more be given ; whosoever uses not what is given,
from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to
have. Seemeth to have ! In the sight of God a man
only possesses really the knowledge that he uses. If
a man hears My words and believes not, said Christ,
I judge him not ; he that rejecteth Me, and receiveth
not My words, does not act upon what he is taught,
there is " One that judgeth him : the word that I have
spoken, the same shall judge him at the last day."
Once more. " See," said the Author of the Epistle
to the Hebrews, or rather the Blessed Spirit speaking
through him, " see that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.
For if they escaped not in olden time who refused Him
THE LATiGER VISION 45
that spake on earth " — if Jerusalem was laid low, and
the Temple devastated, and Israel scattered as a wander-
ing race over the face of the universe — " if they escaped
not . . . who refused Him that spake on earth, much
more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him
that speaketh from heaven." Christ our King, the
Alpha and the Omega, the Being that liveth, and Who
died, but Who is alive for evermore, has heard each
word that was preached, each warning that was uttered,
and each encouragement that ran home into the heart of
the people to whom His prophet was sent.
Now, dear brethren, this truth is quite obvious, if
we look at it for a moment, in earthly matters. Every
one knows that the mere repetition of a feeling, unless
the will is brought to bear upon that emotion, so that
out of it is developed a habit of practical action — every
one knows that the tendency of that reiterated emotion
is to deaden the being, to paralyse the will, and to drive
the man into a state of almost hopeless helplessness.
Every one knows how the very man who faints at the
sight of an operation may become in the course of years
so accustomed to it, that he can smile and talk care-
lessly though surrounded by cries of agony from suffering
patients. A man may live utterly unmoved in the midst
of the most heartrending scenes, hearing the cries of the
agonized and watching their unceasing woe, until he may
come at last to revel in the midst of it, when a stranger
would be stirred with an emotion too big for utterance
at the sight of these things. Any doctor in London who
has any experience can illustrate this principle — the
danger of enlightenment not producing practical action.
He could tell you what is the secret of the malady
of one after another who come to them for advice. The
patients feel weak ; they require something to carry them
through the day ; they crave for the stimulant, the
46 <^ DEATH UD^TO SIN
subtle drug, or the brandy, whichever it may be. The
physician says, " Ruin, sooner or later — stimulants at
irregular times away from your food — ruin — I can do
nothing." Another patient comes. The physician says,
" You have only one hope of ever making full proof
of your earthly ministry in that great position which you
occupy. If you are obliged to dine out you must have
a rule of life, a certain amount that you may drink,
or those dishes that you like so much must be passed
untouched, if you are to be fit for work all the year
round." And the patients — so doctors tell me — the
patients say, " We ought to ; you are quite right " ; but
they return to the old stimulant and the accustomed self-
indulgence. The great physician — I am speaking of the
human physician — has to stand as it were in the midst
of this mighty London to see the patients who come
to him year by year becoming enfeebled, until at last they
lose the very power of trusting in themselves, and sink
down into a degenerate and enfeebled old age. It were
better for them not to have known the right way than
after it had been taught them by God's great teacher —
for next to the preacher ranks the human physician
— to have turned from the wise commandment delivered
unto them.
We pass out of the natural into the spiritual realm —
the God of nature is the God of the spiritual kingdom.
We have not two Gods ; God, Who sends the human
physician for the body, sends likewise the spiritual phy-
sician for the soul ; and when we pass into the spiritual
kingdom, how fearfully is the truth of the text exempli-
fied ! I will not speak this morning of that on which I
have often dwelt, that aspect of the subject which comes
before us when we think of the Living God speaking, and
the creature using its free-will to fight against God and
to say, " I know I ought^ but I catit^ and I wont'' I will
THE LAT{GER VISION 47
not dwell on that side. We will carry on the thought
that has occupied us so far. In the spiritual kingdom
over which God Almighty rules there are eternal prin-
ciples, such as can be seen in the world of nature. Just
as all science reveals to us the general order, the almost
invariable sequence of cause and effect, so the principles
of the spiritual kingdom are established on an equally —
to say the least of it, an equally — firm foundation.
Now, what is the law of the spiritual kingdom "? It is
this — that if prayer ascends to heaven, blessing comes
down ; if a Church prays, the Holy Ghost is outpoured ;
every Sunday that we pray, the power of God descends
by a fixed law in answer to that petition. A father and
mother cannot pray for their son without some influence
entering the heart of that boy for the time, whether he
yield to it or not. The Holy Spirit humbles Himself,
so to speak, to be at the call of the prayer. Now for our
thought. If when this holy commandment is revealed,
if when the eyes are thus opened there is not an honest
response (to use the words of our Lord, the " honest
heart " responding to the full revelation, whatever it be),
do you not see how a person may be living much above
the average of other Christians, and yet relatively to his
light immeasurably below them }
Let me illustrate what I mean. We have been
brought up, perhaps, some of us, in a Christian home.
The father or the mother or the sisters have prayed for
us continually. We received the answer to the prayer :
we saw glimpses of a higher life ; there came wafted to
us from the far-off land the breath, as it were, of the
Living Spirit. We felt what we could be, what we might
become, what could be done by God working in us. But
instead of bringing the strong will to bear upon the
feelings, and to train ourselves into habits of real
response and of surrender to God, we trifled and dallied
48 o/ DEATH UDiTO SIN
with it. We were not so bad as many, but we failed to
answer to the call, we would not say. Speak, Lord, and
then Thy servant will hear. We go on in life, we come
into such a parish as this, either as the clergyman of the
parish, or one of the congregation. Every week at least
a hundred — I think nearer a thousand — prayers go up
for every human being who comes into a church in the
parish of S. Peter. People meet together for no other
purpose than to pray for every one of us, clergymen and
congregation. And the result is that these prayers are
answered. Meltings of consciences, whether I hear of
them in this world or not, must be experienced by
numbers who would be angry if I suggested to them
that their hearts had been touched in this way. It must
be so, because God has said, " Ask, and ye shall receive."
So the eyes are opened, and we respond — whether it be
the clergyman or the people — we respond to a certain
extent, but not to the full call of Almighty God. We do
something, but not all that God would help us to do, and
wishes us to do. So we rise up in the judgement of
the world, and think that we are better than other
people, and infinitely more holy, but in God's sight we
are disobedient to the holy commandment that has been
delivered to us — not responding to the call, living below
our privileges, and disobedient to the heavenly vision.
Now, imagine one of us, preacher or congregation, pass-
ing out into that world where, as the Lord Jesus Christ
says in one of those passages that I read to you, " there
is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested ; neither
was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad.
. . . Take heed what ye hear." We have passed out into
that world ; we find that every appeal was from God ;
we find that every fresh answer to the prayer, " Lord,
that our eyes may be opened," was a new responsibility.
We find that wc have been living far above the average
THE LA'RGER VISION 49
of Christians, but far below the call of the Eternal Father
to our individual soul. Can you not imagine yourself in
that land of light and revelation and eternal verities,
crying with a bitter cry, " Would God I had never lived
in that parish or entered that church ! Would God the
clergyman had never knelt at the Holy Table, and
pleaded there the Passion and the Death of the Eternal
God Who was crucified those hundreds of years ago and
died for me ! Would God that nobody had prayed for
me, for then I should only have lived a good average
sort of communicant. Christian kind of life, just as the
rest of my neighbours, no worse, no better ! Would
God no one had ever prayed for me, and then 1 should
not have been disobedient to the holy commandment that
was revealed in answer to that Epiphany prayer. Lord,
that my eyes may be opened ! " O Blessed Spirit, give
power to the words, and drive Thy message home this
morning !
Now, brethren, what must be the practical conclusion
of the whole matter ? Must it not be what that God is
teaching us in the Gospel for the day ? First of all, saith
Christ to us — what His Mother said at that feast in Cana
of Galilee — "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it." Does
God tell you that you are to believe in Jesus Christ ?
Rest not day or night till you can say, " I know in
Whom I have believed." Does He tell you to do that
work } Do it. Does He tell you that you ought to go
to Communion ^ Begin to prepare for it to-day. Does
He tell you that you must give up the employment that
is ruining your soul by robbing you of the time for
prayer and the study of God's Word .'' Begin to-day to
pray, and look out for the opportunity of altering your
condition ; go on trying to get rid of it till God shall
answer the prayer and make the way clear. Does He tell
H
so ^ DEATH U.?{TO SIN
you that that cord must be cut which, if you should die
to-night, would bind you to the devil and his angels for
ever? Cut it to-night. "Whatsoever He saith unto you,
do it." Submit your mind to the Holy Ghost. If He
has a new truth to teach you, though all your relations
and friends laugh at you for becoming an evangelical, or
becoming a Churchman, or whatever it may be, do it in
the Name of the Living God Who has opened your eyes.
The responsibility of spiritual enlightenment gives mighty
power to the words of the Gospel. You may know God's
will by waiting upon Him prayerfully for two or three
weeks to ascertain what it is. " Whatsoever He " —
Christ, not I, mind — "saith unto you, do it."
The second and last lesson is given in the same
Gospel. Do not, when you have obeyed Christ in one
point, and done that, stop the prayer. Lord, that my
eyes may be opened. Go on praying. Many people
get one answer to one prayer ; perhaps they learn to
believe in Christ, perhaps to give up some bad habit, or
to go more regularly to the Holy Communion ; then
they stop praying. Lord, that my eyes may be opened.
But this must be our prayer continually to the very end
of our lives, dear brethren. " Every man at the begin-
ning doth set forth good wine." At the beginning the
world provides her best, and then when men have well
drunk, that which is worse — old age and feeble health, and
friends leaving you alone to fight the battle of life —
" when men have well drunk, then that which is worse."
Christ keeps the good wine to the end.
Every year we receive a new revelation, as we study
the Bible more carefully, and pray for spiritual enlighten-
ment more truly. Each bit of the Creed gradually comes
out — perhaps, first, Christ the Eternal Son and the dear
Elder Brother ; then God the Father ; then the Holy
Ghost living in us to give light and strength and power ;
THE LAT{GER VISION 51
then the Holy Catholic Church ; then the Communion of
Saints ; then, onward still, " Lord, that our eyes may be
opened " ; onward still, new visions of glory as we read
the Holy Book upon our knees, and new insight into
that spiritual kingdom.
There came once the sovereign of Israel to the
ancient prophet, and in the Name of the Living God,
Elisha said unto Joash, Thou shalt have power and
blessing from heaven ; take that bow and these arrows in
thine hand, and according to thy faith in God, shoot these
arrows ; open the window eastward and begin. And the
man sent the arrow once out of that open window, and
twice and thrice it was discharged. Then his faith failed.
My brethren, open thy window eastward to the land of
light and glory; eastward, where Christ thy King was
born in great humiliation ; eastward, where He shall be
seen coming surrounded by ten thousand times ten
thousand angels. Open thy window eastward, and in
the power of the Living God resolve to-day. What-
soever my God tells me, shall be done, and, as I do
it, I will pray even till my dying hour, Lord, that
my eyes may be opened. Mine eyes shall be opened
more to see the invisible kingdom, opened to see across
the Jordan, to watch those there waiting, waiting for
us — the blessed ones who died in Christ; perhaps
little children or the dear mother who prayed for us
long ago ; the faithful ones waiting to welcome us after
the fight, waiting to watch our joy as the prayer of the
text is at last accomplished, and our eyes are opened
to see the invisible glory.
52 A DEATH UCHJO SIN
VI
THE CALL OF SUFFERING
" Also the voord of the Lord came unto me, ^^yi^^t Son
of man, behold, I ta^e away from thee the desire of thine
eyes with a stroke : yet neither shah thou mourn nor '?oeep,
neither shall thy tears run down." — Ezek. xxiv. 15, 16.
THOSE of us, my brethren, who gathered round the
Holy Table at our earliest Celebration this morning
must have been touched by that appeal which was then
made for our Christian intercession. He for whom the
appeal was made was probably known to none of us here ;
or at most, to only one or two. Many hundred miles
he was away from us. But there was something so
intensely touching in those simple words, " Your prayers
are asked for one who has been suddenly bereaved ; for
a husband who has lost his wife."
Two days ago, he was happy, and thanking God for
the joy of his home. To-night, he is there in his lonely
desolation ! Comfort on earth there was none. The
only sense of comfort was in Him to Whom as a Chris-
tian people we appealed this morning for one who,
though a stranger to ourselves, was linked with us by
the ties of Christian brotherhood, a member of the great
Church of Christ, joined with us in the fellowship of the
saints.
The first lesson for this evening seems, as it were,
the key-note of all such sudden desolations. The voice
of the Lord God came to the prophet Ezekiel saying.
THE 04LL OF SUFFETilNG 53
" Son of man " — as if God had said : 1 know thee ;
I know that human heart ; 1 know the trial with
which 1 am about to visit thee — " Son of man, behold,
I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with
a stroke."
There is something so intensely Fatherly in those
words of the Almighty : obliged, for reasons that we
shall see afterwards, to lay desolate the home of the
prophet, and yet, so intensely feeling for him, as God
ever feels for those who are in sorrow, " Son of man, I
take from thee the desire of thine eyes."
To the world, Ezekiel's wife was as nothing ; it was
not the custom of the prophets to talk of themselves or
their family life. But God knew the strength and the
joy that His prophet had drawn from that loving
sympathy. " I take from thee the desire of thine eyes
with a stroke."
Then follows that stranore command : " Yet neither
o
shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run
down. Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead,
bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy
shoes upon thy feet " (i.e., omit the customary signs of
mourning among the Jews), " and cover not thy lips, and
eat not the bread of men" ; partake not of the tuneral
feast (meats) that will be offered to thee in loving
sympathy. Thou art not to mourn ; thou art the
prophet of God.
Thou must m.ourn, but let the mourning be hidden
in thine own inmost heart. Let no weeping of a broken
spirit mar the grand majestic chorus of the prophet's
voice. Be still ; speak only the word that shall be given
thee to speak.
Ezekiel was a true prophet. It was in the morning
that the sudden message came from the Most High.
That morning, he went out with an aching heart ; all
54 A DEATH UDiJO SIN
that long day, he testified for the Unseen Jehovah ; and
then at night he came home to that desolate dwelling on
the shores of Chebar, and then gave back the spirit of
her whom he loved more than his own life, to her
Father and his Father. That night his wife died.
And then, in the morning, he was seen standing
there, silent, refusing the outward garb of woe, as the
people gathered round him, startled for a time from their
thoughtless levity ; obliged, for a moment at any rate, to
draw near to the prophet to whose message they had so
long been deaf; asking, with a silly curiosity. Tell us,
tell us, what does it mean ? Why are you doing this ?
We are all of us curious — interested. Wilt thou not
tell us — this and this and this ^ Why not eat the
funeral meats .'' Why no sign of mourning ? Tell us !
Oh, what a picture of a world that can find in man's
deepest woe only a subject for its idle gossip ! Tell us
what these things are to us, that thou doest so.
And then came the message. Just as, in after years,
the true Son of Man turned round to those daughters of
Jerusalem, saying, " Weep not for Me, but weep for
yourselves, and for your children" ; just as God sent not
His Son in festal garb to proclaim the sad message of a
coming woe ; as Christ Himselt first became the Man of
Sorrows, and then stood in the midst of them, sadly
proclaiming the coming doom : so it was that Ezekiel,
pale as some statue, with a broken heart, and yet not
one tear flowing down the cheek, spake to the people
in the Name of God.
"Thus saith the Lord God : Behold, I will profane
My sanctuary, the excellency of your strength, the desire
of your eyes, . . . and ye shall do as I have done."
The day is coming, when you shall be visited by the
Almighty with a calamity so terrible that it shall dry up
the fountain of your tears. You shall see the Holy
THE C^LL OF SUFFS'IilNG SS
City devastated ; your sons and daughters carried into
captivity ; and yet, you shall find it impossible to weep.
You shall gaze with a sad and silent sorrow on those
devastated walls of the Holy City. As I am silent in
my sorrow, so also, I tell you in the Name of my God,
the sorrow that is coming on you shall be a sorrow that
shall find no relief in tears.
And then God, with His loving. Fatherly Heart,
knowing what Ezekiel was suffering, seems to have
allowed him, for three years, to be comparatively silent.
A few prophecies to the Amorites and Moabities, and so
forth — nations in whom Ezekiel was not so intensely
interested as he was in his own fatherland — prophecies
that did not tear his very heart to pieces, as the woes
which he was pronouncing against Jerusalem had deso-
lated his spirit — these are all that we find recorded.
God knew what the strain was, to that bereaved husband,
in that sad preaching ; and so God gave him time to
rest. He ever gives His people time to rest, in the
midst of their trials and sorrows. For three years he
was silent ; and then, again, the people came, and a
new message was revealed.
My brethren, the superficial student of the Bible may
speak of our God in this history as a hard Master. He
makes this grand mistake ; he limits his ideas to the
three-score years and ten of this lower life : whereas
God has eternity for which to provide !
God knew that, bitter as was the stroke which had
fallen upon Ezekiel, he would a thousand times rather be
used as God's prophet, than have all earthly joy continued
for the full term of mortal life. And God knew that that
dear wife would willingly die, if she could help on her
husband's work. So God gathered her to the rest of
Paradise, and gave to Ezekiel the time to rest, to gather
in new power, while in silent meditation he communed
S6 A DEATH UC^(TO SIN
with the spirit that had passed away into the quiet land
beyond the grave.
The story which we have been reading, my brethren,
is the teaching of the whole volume of Inspiration. It is
the teaching that was given by the Life of Sacrifice, by
the Death on Calvary, of the Incarnate God.
Ezekiel was a prophet. What mean we by the word
" prophet " ^ Not merely a man who foretells things
to come ; that is but a part of his office. The prophet,
as the Greek word shows, is one who speaks for another.
In the Book of Exodus, Aaron is called the " prophet "
of Moses ; he spoke for him. Moses thought, and
Aaron clothed his thoughts in human words, and uttered
them to Israel.
The prophets received from above some strange
inspiration which it is impossible accurately to define ;
they received an inspiration from the world of spirits,
and clothed it in the imperfect medium of human
language ; they gave out the true thought, however
feebly expressed. God could provide the word as well
as the thought, to those whom He had made His mouth-
piece. The prophets spoke for God.
And why were you and I baptized ^ Why did
Christ die for us on that Cross ? Why were we made
members of the chosen generation, the royal priesthood,
the peculiar people ?
Open your Bibles, and you shall find the reason, in
S. Peter's first Epistle, "That ye may shew forth the
praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into
His marvellous light " ; that we might be mouth-pieces
for God ; that our life, our words, our deeds, our suffer-
ing, might be ever speaking for the Unseen and Eternal
Jehovah.
You and I are " prophets," called by God to speak
for Him to a fallen humanity. There are millions who
THE C^LL OF SUFFETilNG si
have never been baptized ; millions who have never
been grafted into the Body of Christ. We are, at best
— even if we include all who are baptized — but a small
army in the midst of heathendom.
And of those who have been baptized and made
God's children, how few comparatively have realized
their adoption 1 How few there are who have given
their hearts to their Lord ! How few have been taught
by the Holy Spirit to see the meaning of that Blood-
shedding on Calvary ! Look round on the baptized ;
look into your own hearts. What have you realized of
the meaning of your Baptism }
You are a member of Christ, the child of God, an
inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. Have you realized it .''
Have you felt the meaning of "the forgiveness of sins".''
Do you know what is meant by those words : " I have
blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as
a cloud, thy sins" .'' Are you at peace with God, through
Jesus Christ ^ If, next Sunday morning, those who
love you are asking us to pray for them because their
home has been bereaved — if one of you should be in
another world before next Sunday, and we have to pray
that God may comfort those who love you — where will
your soul be .''
Oh, how few, how very few, have learnt even the first
principles of the doctrine of Christ! How few are even
at peace with God through Jesus Christ ! And yet,
that is only the beginning.
But whether we have realized it or not — whatever
our standpoint may be ; whether we are merely baptized,
and content, like selfish creatures, with knowing that we
have been forgiven once, without trying to advance in
the Christian life, to grasp new principles and to grow up
into the fullness of Christ, or whether we are struggling
on (painfully and wearily, perhaps, amid many faults and
I
58 A DEATH UDiTO SIN
disappointments, yet still struggling on) for the prize of
our high calling — whatever be our position, one thing is
true, and will be felt by us to be true for all eternity.
It is this : God has separated you — whatever your past
history, by the mere fact of your Baptism you were
separated — to witness for your God. You are as truly
a " prophet" of the Unseen and Holy Trinity, as Ezekiel
was when he was sent forth in the Name of the Lord
God to bear witness to His people.
We are, all of us, God's prophets, whether we
believe it or not.
The truth which God would teach us, and which
the Church has brought before us in our First Lesson
to-night, is very parallel to the, at first, perplexing verse
(S. Luke xiv. 26). Our Lord saw crowds coming about
Him, and He looked round and said, " If any man come
after Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife,
and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own
life also, he cannot be My disciple." Here again, the
superficial student may raise a difficulty ; but any one
who compares one passage with another — any one who
even understands the original language — will find no
difficulty in seeing what our Lord meant. He wished
to teach the very same truth which, in older times,
Ezekiel had taught by a parable. The dearest of all
love is the love which a man feels for his wife, and that
love, however real and however holy in itself, must be
subordinated by the prophets of God to the voice of
the Unseen and the Eternal.
When God had need of Ezekiel, he must give him-
self up to be used by God, however close might be
the ties by which he was bound to this lower earth.
However absorbing might be the interests of those
Galilean peasants ; however interesting might be the
work of the merchandise and the farm, and so forth, yet.
THE CALL OF SUFFET{ING 59
when the voice of God spake, " Come, for all things are
now ready," each prophet of God must gird up his loins,
and leave behind him the yoke of oxen, and the new
piece of ground, and yield himself up to the God by
Whom he has been redeemed.
This is no hard teaching. The whole of this lower
life is but like a dream. When you and I shall wake up
on the other side of that " narrow stream," the Bible tells
us that this life will appear like a dream of the night
when a man wakes up in the morning ! And, then, what
will matter the difficulty, or the discipline, or the trial,
provided we have been true to the Lord God, Who lives
and reigns, not merely in this lower earth, but in all the
kingdoms of the eternal world .''
We can make allowance for a poor boy just going out
into the world, fancying that every idle pleasure will
satisfy the deepest longings of his soul ; we almost
smile as we watch him going on, still fancying that what
the world calls "pleasure" will make him really happy 1
We have not one hard thought for him ; we are only
sorry that he has wasted so many precious years ; we
know how he will regret it in after-life : but there is no
hard thought for him.
But it is a little pitiable, when grown men and
women such as you and I are, who are called by the
Mighty God to love and suffer and work and speak for
Him, can degrade ourselves by putting into the first
place the pleasure and the money and the interests of
a life that is passing away — that may be terminated at
any moment ! Of course, the work is to be done ; the
recreation is to be enjoyed : and God can make the
recreation a real re-creation, and give to the poor tired
merchant more prosperity, if only he work in submission
to God, than if " without God " he shall go to bed late,
and rise early, and eat the bread of carefulness. God
6o ^ DEATH UC^iTO SIN
wishes us to have all the happiness which does not
interfere with eternal happiness.
But, grown men and women ! when God has given
His Son to redeem us ; when God has told us that,
whatever our past life may be. He will wash away every
stain, and give us strength to walk in newness of life ;
when God has separated us from millions of heathen,
that we may go up and down the world and testify for
Him, by our daily walk, wherever we are : there is,
I say, something degrading in seeing the " prophets "
of God with no ideas — except whether her dress is
becoming, whether she is better dressed than others,
or whether he has " made enough money to retire," when
he may only be going to " retire " to the grave !
God wishes to elevate us above all these things ; and
God gives us trials and disappointments and all the
manifold discipline of our earthly existence on purpose
that we may be weaned from this lower life, that our
home may be sought above, in the only real home, where
alone the God Who made us knows that our heart can be
satisfied.
And for fear that this should seem hard to us — for
fear we should think God a hard Master — He sent His
own Son first : He let Jesus be born in that manger and
live for thirty years in that carpenter's shop, and oft-times
have no place where to lay His head. He made the
Prophet of God, His own well-beloved Son, live a
life of trial, in order that when — for our own good and
for the good of others — God should call us to suffer, as
His prophets, we might bear the trial unflinchingly.
That is the idea in to-day's second lesson, and in the
lesson from Ezekiel : that you and I, as prophets of God,
must ^^ seek Jirst the kingdom of God" ; and if trial comes,
in thus seeking the glory of God, then, in God's Name,
we must bear the trial.
THE C^LL OF SUFFSTi/NG 6i
There are two thoughts in conclusion which suggest
themselves to us. Very often God gives to His people,
His true prophets, whether young or old, some great
trial ; one of the infinite vicissitudes of life ; some earthly
loss, bereavement, or bodily weakness, and Satan, who
is always ready to accuse both God and man, comes
to the child of God, and says, " You are a wretched
sinner, and you deserve to be punished ; and so, God is
punishing you."
That side of human suffering: which is for our own
good 1 shall not touch upon to-night. The point that
I wish to bring out is this : that very often the trials
which come upon us and the sorrows which we have
to bear have nothing to do with our own sins, nor,
except indirectly, with our own spiritual discipline.
As every prophet of God, from the beginning to
the end of the Bible, only became a perfect prophet
by suffering — by drinking of the cup which Jesus drained
to the dregs, so, again and again, you will find, when
you look back upon your past history (no one can see
clearly while he is passing through the furnace, but when
you look back, you shall see) that you, too, were born
to be a prophet ; that as Ezekiel suffered for the sake
of others, so God has allowed you to suffer, for the sake
of some linked to you, it may be by very close ties.
We pray for our children ; we pray for those whom
we love ; and the answer comes through a bankruptcy,
a broken heart, an open grave, a desolated home ! We
know not what it means ; but we " forbear to cry " ; and
then, in the three years of silent meditation by the still
waters of God's sanctuary, God teaches His prophet
that the prayer is answered ; that the sorrow came in
order that the child, the husband, the friend, might be
saved by the suffering of the prophet. The subject
is too wide for the limits of a sermon : I only leave
62 ^ DEATH UU^TO SIN
it with you. If you are living to God, and trying to
love Him, you will often find that your heaviest sorrows
will be God's answer to your prayers. Very often your
heaviest trials will fall upon you not for your own sin
but in virtue of that glorious office into which you have
been baptized — the office of God's prophet.
The second thought also is practical. How are
these trials to be met .'' How is the lesson of to-night
to be learned ? Are you to be always anticipating coming
woe ? If Ezekiel's sorrow falls on me, how can I bear
it r If such and such a trial is given, how shall I endure
it.?
No, that is Satan's teaching, not God's teaching.
The teaching of the Bible is this : " Give us day by day
our daily bread." The manna was provided for the Israel
of God, and one day at a time. He who tried to gather
sufficient for the second day found that the labour had
been spent in vain. Day by day ; for the day ! We are
God's prophets ; make sure of that first. Then, make
sure that you grasp the Christian's privileges. And
then, let there be a full and earnest yielding up of the
spirit every morning to God. My God, I give myself,
body, soul, and spirit, " to be a reasonable, holy, and
lively sacrifice unto Thee." Do Thou, my God, give me
strength to do what is right. Do Thou give me grace to
battle against temptation. Do Thou enable me to bear
any trial that Thou mayest see fit to lay upon me.
And then, as the varied trials of life come on, as one
trial after another is sent by Him with Whom we have
to do, take it quietly. Do not be disheartened if, for
days, this heart and flesh seem to sink under it ; when
earthly circumstances seem to be all going wrong ; when
the home is becoming more and more dreary to you,
as your children have gone away from you, one after
another, and you cannot feel sure that they are true
THE CALL OF SUFFSI^/NG 63
prophets of God. Do not be surprised — mark this —
if, for days, you feel unable to feel or to realize God's
love. Kneel down and say the prayers, even though
your thoughts are wandering from the beginning to
the end.
And so, in the Name of God, bring that sacrifice as
the prophet of God and the priest of God, and bind it
to the horns of the altar, saying, " My God, if my
strength is failing, 1 will bear it ; if my children dis-
appoint me, I will bear it ; if those for whom I have
sacrificed almost my very life treat me with ingratitude,
I will bear it. It will break my heart, O God, to be
known as a bankrupt or a pauper, but 1 will bear it, my
God, in Thy strength."
Never mind, even if you fail ; go back to the precious
Blood ; ask the Lord Jesus to wash out the stain on the
white robe in that Fountain which flowed from Calvary.
Come back, and say, " My God, give me strength to
bear it. My God, give me strength to go out amongst
these young men, and to bear being laughed at. Help
me to take my part with the chosen generation, the royal
priesthood. Help me to tell all who are in the shop
or office with me. My God, even if I fail ninety-nine
times, I will rise up again."
And so, as in the Name of God you try each day
to be a true prophet, God will teach you new truths.
Your mind will be enlarged ; your capacity for knowing
Christ will increase. Your power to love other people
and to bear unkindness, to give back good for evil
and to suffer for Christ, will increase year by year.
Instead of being the poor silly child, carried everywhere
according as the wind may blow, led wherever man's
opinion may guide, doing only what others do, and
living as others live, only kind to those who are kind to
you, only loving those who love you, only blessing those
64 ^ DEATH UNTO SIN
who bless you — you will drink of the Spirit of the
Crucified. You will learn that you are sent out by God,
blessed by Him, in order that you may bless others.
You will learn that the highest dignity of the creature
is to carry out the purpose of the Creator, to be in
harmony with the universe of God.
You will feel that pleasure may be very well, when
we are children ; and money may be very well, before
we have learnt to know the true and incorruptible riches ;
but that God has called us to something higher : that
He calls us to suffer with Christ, to work for Christ,
to take our part in the great onward march of the baptized ;
to take our part in the battle of the great army that is
going up in the Name of God to save the world which
Satan has enthralled.
Yes, Christian men and women, boys and girls, young
and old ! make up your mind, in the Name of God, that
you will be strong and of a good courage, to do and to
bear whatever God may call you to do or to suffer, as the
" prophets " of the Unseen and Eternal Jehovah !
THE TOWER OF THE LORT> 6$
VII
THE POWER OF THE LORD
" / i/iat speak in righteousness^ mighty to soDeT
IsA. Ixiii. I.
IT is not my intention to consider the context of this
passage. 1 regard it to-day rather as the answer
which, sooner or later, God has promised to vouchsafe
to every man and woman and child who shall honestly
persevere in uttering that prayer, " Lord, that our eyes
may be opened." Sooner or later, to every waiting soul,
the vision of the Lord Jesus Christ shall assuredly
be granted, because God, Who cannot lie, has so
promised.
Let me here be clearly understood. I am not
speaking now of any strange and mystic revelation
of the world unseen ; I am not speaking of any
personal vision of Jesus Christ, the result, it may
be, of a highly-wrought imagination, or coming simply
from the delusions of Satan transforming himself into
an angel of light. I am referring now to that most
calm and intelligent knowledge of Jesus Christ, no
longer as a mere abstraction, but as a Living Person.
I am referring to that turning-point — and there are
many such in the experience of every real Christian —
to that turning-point in the life wherein the soul lays
hold, by the power of the Holy Ghost, of this great
fact, that it belongs to a living Christ ; that the loving
Lord has a direct and personal relation to it ; and that
K
66 ^ DEATH UfJ^TO SIN
there are direct communications between its individual
self — between the individual spirit I ought to say — and
that living Jesus Christ.
I refer to that crisis — if the word be not too strong
to express my meaning — that crisis of the soul's history
wherein by the eye of faith, the inner eye of the soul,
it passes out of the range of mere doctrines and imagina-
tions and human teachings and human systems, and comes
on earth into the immediate Presence of Him Who was
born in Bethlehem and manifested. Who died and rose
again and ascended into heaven, and Who Himself has
declared unto us that, wherever two or three are gathered
together in His Name, He is present in their midst,
Who has promised to every trusting heart that He will
come and reveal Himself unto it.
This knowledge of Jesus Christ comes to men at
sundry times and in divers manners. It has come in
the quiet solitude of our chamber, as alone, with no
eye resting upon us, we were studying the Holy Book
and praying for the guidance of the Blessed Spirit.
It has come, as it came in olden days, through the
breaking of bread at the Holy Communion, when the
Lord Jesus said to the disciples, after they had received
that spiritual Food, " Peace be unto you ! " It comes at
some times through the feelings, at others through the
understanding. It may come gradually, a little more
light each week and month and year perhaps, till at
last the King is seen in His living personality. Or it
may come suddenly, through a sermon, or through the
word of a friend. It may be burnt into our very being
in the midst of one of those great crashes of the human
life when we are confronted by Him W^ho holds in His
hands the keys of the grave and of death — those times
when, with the most calm and intelligent conviction, we
know that it depends upon that living Being Whom we
THE TOWER OF THE LORT> 67
met in that most narrow place whether the near future
shall find us in the midst of that invisible world of
which men talk so much but know so little. We know
not on which side of the narrow door the morrow's
dawn will find us : with the spirits that have passed
away, or living, conscious, thanking God for our
deliverance. In whatever way it comes — God lives,
and the Holy Ghost works, in the Church, to take
of the things of Jesus and show them unto us, to
reveal that loving Person to every soul that would
seek for light. Yes ! just as in the olden days the
eyes of the blind were opened : it might be suddenly,
so that all things were clearly manifested ; it might
be with a strange withholding of the full enlighten-
ment, like the poor man who saw at first only men like
trees walking ; it matters not. Who is this, do you
ask, that is coming to me at that turning-point of my
soul's history } Who is this that is coming in His
glorious apparel, travelling in the greatness of His
strength } Who is it : Thy God, thy Saviour, " 1
that speak unto thee in righteousness, mighty to save."
Now, dear brethren, there is every reason why we
should have confidence in this Living Person thus
revealed to us. If it be true, and we know it is true,
that the Lord Jesus Christ is not merely human in
His sympathies, but almighty in His power, speaking
to us in this righteousness of the Eternal Godhead,
mighty to save us — I say there is every reason why
we should repose implicit confidence in Him ; and yet
the great struggle of the Christian life is to know Him ;
and when we know, to trust, this Living Lord. The
difficulty arises from many sources. First, it is owing
to our own natural infirmity, it is the tendency of all ot
us to stop short ; to rest in secondary causes ; not to
press on till we have laid hold of the entire revelation,
68 ^ DEATH UNTO SIN
and till we have obtained the fullness of the blessing that
our God has for us. Let me explain what I mean.
I believe it is quite impossible for any one to under-
value one single iota of God's revealed truth without
grevious injury to his soul. If we are too proud to
receive what is called evangelical truth — if because when
we were young it was presented to us in those repulsive
forms which alienated our understanding and crushed
all power of belief in such a caricature of religion —
I do not say we shall never go to heaven, but if we
refuse to receive God's evangelical teaching, we shall
never know what is meant by rejoicing in the Lord,
and never enjoy the full privileges of those who are
standing firm in the liberty with which Christ has
made them free. And on the other hand there is
danger. If from fear of being unpopular, and despised
as Papists or Puseyites and the like, we will not submit
our will to the entire round of God's truth which the
Lord Jesus has revealed to His bride, the Church — not
speaking of the Church in the narrower sense of the
clergy but of the entire body — if we have nothing
to do with the truth, because the world does not love
it ; if we will take certain portions that are popular,
and toss aside the humbling teaching of self-examination
and the acknowledgement of our sin to Almighty God
with a penitent, lowly, humble, and obedient heart ; if
we toss aside the sacramental system with all its wondrous
mystery and lite-giving power ; if we will have nothing
to do with the grace of the Ministry and the privileges
God gives to the whole body of the faithful through
those who are set apart for that office ; if, in fact, we
toss Churchmanship to the wind and sing for ever
"Jesus only," as if Christ were something different
from His Church, the bride, and as if the Word of the
Lord in one part of the Bible was not as important as
THE TOWER OF THE LORT> 69
the Word of the same God in another part ; then we
shall never — I do not say we shall not be " saved,"
for any one who believes in Jesus Christ really and
truly will be saved — but we shall never grow up into
the fullness of the stature of the manhood of Christ :
we shall be weak, wavering, powerless beings to the
very end of our lives. But, though this is true — and
I cannot express it too emphatically — yet if we stop in
our systems and our dogmas and our half-truths, and
do not use them as the ladders by which to rise up into
the Presence of the King ; if we are satisfied with
having known " the Gospel," or being " Churchmen,"
or with whatever we like ; and if we do not struggle
on in the prayer, " Lord, open mine eyes to see Thyself
coming to me, travelling in the greatness of Thy
strength, glorious in Thine apparel, mighty to save
me " we shall never know even the bemnnin^ of the
higher life, the life hid with Christ in God.
There is a second hindrance to knowledge of, and
confidence in, the Lord Jesus Christ. The devil is
a living person, however much he may have been
eliminated from our thought. God, Who had seen
Satan from the beginning — whenever that was — the
beginning of his being, God Almighty for our guid-
ance has revealed to us in the Bible certain truths
about Satan, and foremost amongst them is the fact
of his personality. God, in His love, has shielded
us from the full knowledge of Satan's power, perhaps
because if we knew what he was, we should all be
powerless to fight against him, and our hands would
hang down in utterly hopeless apathy and helplessness.
But He reveals to us that Satan does live, and that
he hates Christ, and that he hates and persecutes
every soul that is trying to find Christ, or is savingly
united with Him.
70 c/f DEATH UNTO SIN
On earth the way to break a husband's heart is for
the wife to doubt his love ; a father might sooner see his
boy commit some open sin than that he should lock up
his secret thoughts in cold reserve ; every human being
longs for trust and confidence from those it loves. So
the devil knows that the loving desire of the great Heart
of Jesus Christ is the confidence of His people — He
wills that every one for whom He died on the Cross and
redeemed with that priceless Agony should trust Him
implicitly, trust Him as the guide of his life, trust Him as
against the whole universe, trust Him as against the
whole body of the devil's army ranged against him. And
so the devil, to hurt us and to grieve and annoy Jesus
Christ, does all that in him lies to make us not trust
Him.
And yet, once more, the very discipline which in His
eternal wisdom Christ sees to be necessary for us, helps
our fallen nature, and helps in a certain sense this malice
of Satan. When the ancient patriarch in the old history
was to receive the greatest blessing that had ever been
vouchsafed to man on earth, when Abraham was to be
called by God " blessed for ever," " the father of the
faithful," his trust had first to be tested. For three long
days he must journey on side by side with the boy he
loved, seeing no hope of human deliverance. To the
very end he must be tested. The wood must be laid in
order, the hand must be stretched out to bind Isaac,
before the vision of joy is vouchsafed and the deliverer is
revealed, and Jehovah-jireh has provided the ransom and
vouchsafed the deliverance. Even so at every stage of
our life, whether we are beginning, or have attained
to a fuller Christianity, at every crisis of life, if God has
a great blessing for us. He first tests us. All comfort
is taken away, we walk in darkness and see no light ; our
sins take such hold on us that we cannot look up ; we
THE TOWER OF THE LORT> 71
feel more helpless, weak, guilty, and fallen than ever we
did previously. Christ says, Wilt thou trust Me, in
the dark, alone, without human sympathy, without any
consciousness of power in thyself, without anything on
which to stay thy heart, wilt thou trust Me and love Me,
the Living God Who died for thee ?
It is very hard : and those who have gone through it
best know how hard it is. Look at that sea shore for a
moment. Standing on the top of that grassy sward you
see the rugged cliffs around, and you look down and see
the great hard rocks beneath, and watch the waves dash-
ing their whitening foam on the shore. Do you see that
man there down by the sea shore with his arms stretched
out, gazing upwards ? What is it } Look a little further.
Do you see that child a little below the grassy sward on
which you are standing } Do you see him hanging there
by that branch of the tree .'' The child thinks that the
branch will hold him. You from above see the soil all
loosening, and you know it is a question perhaps not of
an hour before the child must be dashed to pieces on
those rocks. And the man below knows it, and he looks
round and he sees the waves dashing and the tide rising,
and he cries in an agony, " Leave that branch ; fall into
my arms ; trust me ; I can't wait longer ; I cannot see
you perish." Oh ! it is hard for the little child to lose
what seems safety, and to trust, to let go that last hold of
life, simply in confidence, because the voice has spoken,
" Let thyself go ; trust in me."
Thus, my brethren, there is this threefold difficulty ;
from Satan, from our own hearts, and from the very
dealing of God with man. You will see in a moment
that Christ is powerless, unless we will trust Him, and
have confidence in Him. Take another earthly illus-
tration. If you have not confidence in your earthly
physician, he can do nothing, nothing. The difference
72 ^ DEATH UNTO SIN
between a wise man and a fool is simply this — a fool
goes to one doctor, and after trying his prescriptions for
a while, goes to another, and then to a third, and wonders
he does not recover. The wise man pauses, considers,
and at last chooses the physician in whom he has con-
fidence. Then, though the cure may be delayed for
weeks or months, he says, " I know whom I have
trusted, and I am persuaded that what he has promised
he is able also to perform." He goes on waiting, not
happily at all, very unhappily perhaps, but patiently,
because he has confidence. And if he refuse that trust,
the wisest doctor that ever lived — I repeat the word — is
utterly powerless. So it is with Christ.
If you read your Bible in the light of these thoughts,
you will see what power our Lord attaches to confidence,
to trust, to faith, how no wickedness is too great for
Him to forgive, how by a word he healed the leper in
the Gospel, and by another word in an instant He cured
the palsied man. Consider, the only thing that hindered
Him from doing mighty works was want of confidence
in Him ; He could not do many mighty works because
of their want of confidence.
Then do you ask, "How can I gain this confidence }''
How } How do you strengthen your confidence in an
earthly friend } If some one tells you he has wronged
you, or he has dealt cruelly with you, what do you do .''
You think of his character ; you take out the old letters
and read them over and over again, and you say, " I
am sure that he is true, though appearances are against
him." If you have the opportunity you talk to him,
and let him speak to you ; you spend time in his
society till you know him, in order that you may be
able to trust him with all confidence and knowledge.
Even so, my brethren, if you wish to gain confidence in
Christ, be alone with our Lord ; read His letters in
THE TOWER OF THE LORD 73
this Holy Book ; read about His life. Think how He
dealt with every one that came to Him on earth ; talk to
Him in simple words, like the simple words that people
spake who came to Him when He went up and down
those hills of Galilee. Take some promise of His, and
thank Him for the promise. Tell Him you cannot realize
it, or feel it, or believe it ; but, all the same, thank Him
that He has said it. Then turn the promise into a prayer,
and as you thank Him, and as you read His blessed
Word, and as you let Him speak to you by the quiet
voice of the indwelling Spirit, turn your prayer now into
a prayer to God the Holy Ghost. The Blessed Spirit
lives to reveal Jesus Christ to us. Pray, then, to Him,
" O God the Holy Ghost, witness for my Lord ; what-
ever the standpoint at which I have arrived, reveal Him
more to me. O Blessed Spirit, open my eyes to see
Christ as my Saviour, to see Him as my Example, to see
Him as the Mighty One Whose omnipotent love can
dash all obstacles away, and cast my guilt into the depths
of the sea. Show Him to me as having power to say to
my leprous soul, ' I will, be thou clean.' Show Him to
me, Blessed Spirit, as having the power to fulfil in me
His own command, * Be not overcome of evil ' — Christ
was never overcome of evil. He overcame evil with good.
O Blessed Spirit, show to me " — let that be your prayer
— " that my Lord lives, with all His power and love, to
overcome the evil that is in me by His own omnipotent
goodness."
PART II
A NEW BIRTH UNTO
RIGHTEOUSNESS
" merciful God^ grant that all carnal affections may
die in them^ and that all things belonging to the Spirit may
live and grow in them.''
75
CARNAL AFFECTIONS
" If our gospel be hid^ it is hid to them that are lost : in
whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not^ lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christy
Who is the image of God^ should shine unto ihemT — 2 Cor.
iv. 3j 4-
THERE is a God, a living God. He is about our
path and about our bed. In the dark hours of the
night, in the weary tossings to and fro of the fever-
stricken patient, there is an invisible Being always nigh.
He is " not far from every one of us."
And " God," as the word expresses, is " good."
Therefore it is His nature to give ; to give all that we
need day by day, the daily bread, and the forgiveness
of sins, and the deliverance from evil. God loves to
give : to give over and over again. Judgement is " His
strange work." It was with tears pouring down His
cheek that our Incarnate Lord said to Jerusalem, " If
thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day,
the things which belong unto thy peace ! but now they
are hid from thine eyes." Dear brethren, has that
thought no power to touch your heart ? For forty
years, perhaps, we have never given anything to Him
Who all the time has been loving us ! We listen to
the story of His love unmoved, many of us ; most of us,
at some period of our life. God have mercy on us !
Our next point is this : God has appointed certain
77
78 A NEW "BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
means, certain instrumentalities, by which He conveys
His blessings to us. He does not give them merely
in some directly spiritual and supernatural way, such as
could only be discovered by the learned and enlightened,
who have leisure to ponder on the deep mysteries of His
working. He has appointed certain outward channels,
through which the inward grace and life are com-
municated. Such, for example, are the Sacraments of
Baptism and Holy Communion ; the Holy Scriptures ;
and the ordinary events of His providence in daily life.
Such also are holy men and women. Such, in a special
degree, are those whom He sets apart to be His ministers.
All these are described in Holy Scripture as appointed by
a God Who loves to give, for a definite object, namely, as
channels of life, of grace, of blessing. When our Lord
led captivity captive and ascended into heaven He
received as Man from His Father certain gifts ; and
these gifts He distributed among men as in olden days
a conqueror scattered largesses amongst the crowds that
had thronged his triumphal chariot. He gave apostles,
prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, to spread life
and grace everywhere around them.
The next thought that we have been considering is
this : all these instruments, appointed by God as His own
means of communicating His gifts to us, are, to a large
extent, allowed by God to remain in their natural con-
dition, that is, with much in them that is unattractive,
or even repulsive. The outside is left as it was. The
wrinkles in the face are not smoothed down by the
painter's art. The old mistakes, the old weak points, in
the good men and women remain — the want of breadth
and judgement, the want of tenderness, perhaps, in God's
ministers ; the one-sided exaggerations, the provincial
accent ; the bad reading. All the outward defects remain.
In Bible history we find the same thing. Those
CARNAL AFFECTIONS 79
whom we now know as saints, those who are now looked
upon as apostles, martyrs, and confessors, were all left
in this condition, " What will these babblers say ? —
unlearned and ignorant men ! They have never been
trained in our schools of learning. The common people
listen to them ; but, as for ourselves — the ' Pharisees,'
the learned, and the intellectual — we consider such
preaching simply * twaddle.' " Such were the ideas of
the ordinary superficial observer, such the kind of
epithets used, with regard to those of whom we read in
the New Testament, whom we now look upon with such
reverence.
And God has been pleased to allow this to continue.
" God hath chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise." " Through the foolishness of
preaching," God is pleased to save them that believe.
Woe be to the country that is doing what England
is doing now ! Woe be to the land that gives her best
to the Army, to the Navy, to the Civil Service, and
considers that anything is good enough to " send into
the Church," as it is called (as if the poor boy had never
been baptized !). Woe be to the land that gives her
worst to the sanctuary ; offering to God, as Malachi says,
" the blind, the lame, and the sick " ; reserving her best
for that which brings abundant earthly honour and
abundant earthly wealth !
And yet, God takes the refuse, takes what the Apostle
calls " the offscouring of the world " : the poor, the weak,
the foolish, the contemptible : and He allows the world
to laugh at them as it laughed at the Apostles ; and,
through the outside, He shows to those who have eyes
to see and ears to hear, something — something more than
that ! There is the " earthen vessel." Any child can
see what common pottery it is. But within that earthen
vessel, as S. Paul says, there is the heavenly treasure :
8o A NEW "BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
"the light of the knowledge of the glory of God."
(2 Cor. iv. 6, 7.) There is One standing in the midst,
Whom we see not — not the poor miserable clergyman,
with all his defects ; not the poor man or woman, tailing
in the home, failing in business, failing perhaps in
everything, crying bitter tears every night for having
dishonoured God so much during the day — but One
"Whom we see not : Jesus Christ. The Father and
the Son and the Holy Ghost desired to use that external
weakness as a channel through which life and blessing
might flow into the home, into the parish, into the
Church, into the world. And Jesus Christ is repeating
the old piteous appeal : If thou knewest the gift of
God, and Who it is that is speaking to you through all
these miserable inconsistencies — if only you had looked
beyond the instrument, beyond the clergyman, beyond
the Bread and Wine at Holy Communion, beyond the
water in the sacred font — you would have asked of Him,
of Him Who was standing in the midst of you, and He
would have given you the living water.
The thought that now forces itself upon us is this :
the Bible history tells us that men and women like
ourselves did make this great mistake, and were perfectly
satisfied with themselves while they were making it.
The Bible tells us that when the Son of God Himself
was upon earth, those who corresponded in earthly
position, in intellectual ability, in spiritual knowledge,
to the ordinary congregation in this church, were so
blind that they saw in Jesus Christ no beauty that they
should desire Him ; that they despised Him, rejected
Him, treated Him as an impostor, and thought that they
did God service by nailing Him to the Cross and putting
Him to death.
If this be so, then I would ask you calmly and
simply. Is there no danger lest we — clergy and laity —
CARNAL ^AFFECTIONS 8i
may be at least as blind as those amongst whom Christ
went all unnoticed, despised, and rejected ? Is it not
possible that there may be something in the Bible,
something in the Sacraments, something in every godly
man and woman among us, that we have never yet
seen, because we are blind ? Is it not possible that
there may be in every sermon, in every chapter that is
read in our hearing from that lectern, something beneath
the surface, that we are allowing to pass by all unnoticed,
so as to lose the gift of a good loving God ? Is there
no danger ?
My brethren, you must see that there is danger. You
must feel, as I feel, what awful words those are in which
our Lord replies to those who came to Him, saying,
" Are we blind also ? ... If ye were blind, ye should
have no sin " — natural blindness would be only an
infirmity — " but now ye say. We see ; therefore your
sin remaineth." (aS. John ix. 40, 41.) Have you never
gone on your knees and said, " My God, do deliver
me from blindness of heart " '^
Imagine what it will be when we see Christ in His
glory, and all the angels and archangels with Him, and
all the saints ; and we review our life, and find that
everywhere, in the house, in the street, in the church,
was a God surrounding us with blessings, channels
of mercy, channels of life — perhaps Holy Communion
every day, if we wanted it, and daily prayers — Christ
ready to meet us over and over again ; channels of
blessing even in the " trivial round " of daily life : what
will it be when we realize that Jesus was standing in
our midst, loving us, and we never saw Him ^
What, then, is the cause of this blindness } Crowds
of angels round us, the glory of the cherubin and
seraphin, all the blessed ones, all the little children
that passed away fresh from their Baptism into the other
M
82 A NEW mRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
world near to us ; and yet some of us see — nothing !
Why is it ?
The Bible tells us plainly. It is because the devil,
the god of this world, has blinded the eyes of those
who believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel
of Christ, Who is the Image of God the Father, should
shine upon them. A being blinds their eyes, and that
being uses the things of this world to hide the glories
of the invisible world by which we are surrounded. This
is the simple explanation which is given to us in His
tender love by God Himself.
Now, there are three classes of sins by which any
one who has studied human nature will tell you that the
god of this world blinds our eyes. It does not follow,
remember, that, because we have yielded to the sins of
which I am to speak, we are " lost." Thank God,
there has been made a complete Atonement ! " Now
is the day of salvation." There is free pardon, thank
God, and grace to begin afresh ! Though we may now
be on the road to ruin, we need not continue on that
broad road a single hour.
But there are three different ways, drawn out for
us in Holy Scripture, by which this veil is drawn over
our eyes.
There is, first of all, the direct attack of the devil, in
pride. When we are proud of ourselves, satisfied with
our spiritual, intellectual, or earthly position ; when we
are satisfied that our party alone is right ; that our
section of the Church has the monopoly of truth ; when
we say, " I, at any rate, am not as other men are "; then
we are falling into that sin which lost the devil his
heaven. The first way in which the devil blinds our
eyes is — I repeat — by any form of vanity or pride.
There is, secondly, the burning fever of impurity.
" Blessed are the pure in heart ; for they shall see God."
CARNAL AFFECTIONS 83
But this sin of impurity blinds the eye ; it takes away
the nerve power ; it leads to softness, effeminacy, and
to a yielding to the conventional standard. Impurity
in thought, impurity in excess of food, impurity in any
of those ways that cannot be particularized in the great
congregation — impurity withers the soul as the burning
fever withers the physical being.
Then there is the slow withering consumption of the
love of this present world, " minding earthly things."
Look on the ground and you see mud. Look up and
you see the stars, and the beautiful clouds and the
heavenly sunset. You do not see both at once. The
more we concentrate our thoughts on the world — our
o
own world, whatever it be, the two or three people or
the thousand, it is no matter which ; the more we
accustom ourselves to judge, as Jesus did not judge,
according to the appearance ; the more we carelessly let
ourselves think as others think, look as others look, see
as others of the world see — the more do we join ourselves
to those who, in the days of Christ, crucified Him.
The whole world then was satisfied that it had done
right, because the god of this world had so blinded the
eyes of those who believed not, that they could see no
beauty, no glory in the Son of God.
Dear brethren, what is it that is blinding your eyes }
— love of this present world } political worldliness }
religious worldliness ? impurity ^ pride } — what is it ,''
Ask yourselves. Many despised Christ, and saw no
beauty in Him. Am I like them ? Many were blinded.
Am I blinded ^ Is the veil over my eyes ? — through
pride, through impurity, religious or secular worldliness }
Come with me, far away, in thought, to that great
American continent. Let us stand in mid-winter near
one of those gigantic lakes, all covered with its icy
shroud. Watch far up in that clear sky the proud
84 A NEW "BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
sovereign of the air, that great eagle, peering up in its
grandeur into the very face of the sun itself, the un-
approachable glory. See the bird there, claiming kindred
with the clouds, companioning, as it were, with God's
eternal firmament. Watch its magnificence, as it poises
its wings in that glorious atmosphere of purity and light
and beauty. Watch it as the sunlight falls upon its
plumes, in all its majestic beauty.
Then below, on that frozen lake lies a dark shadow.
Watch ! It is but a little shadow on that cold, ice-
bound lake. The great sovereign of the air fastens
its eye on it. It minds that earthly thing. It ceases
to look upwards. It ceases to revel in the bright
sunshine. It ceases to look through the open door into
the great firmament of heaven. Its eye has fastened
on that little shadow : something that it can grasp,
something that it can eat, something that will satisfy
its animal nature. With one great swoop it descends ;
it fastens on its prey ! O what hundreds, in my twenty
years of ministry, have I seen — heroes, GoD-sent souls,
boys trained in apostolic homes, girls reared amid the
tears of saintly parents now in Paradise — fasten on some
such dark shadow !
Watch that bird. It has got what it wanted. But
the talons are frozen : bound down to that ice ! And
there it remains — bones, talons, flesh — perishing, dying
by inches, a monument to angels and to men of the
power of the lower nature to destroy the higher : of the
power of the god of this world to blind the eyes of
men, lest they should see the beauty and the magnifi-
cence and the abounding love of Thee, my God and
my King, Who art coming to judge the quick and the
dead !
ONE THINQ LJCKJNG 85
II
ONE THING LACKING
" Jesus beholding him loved him^ and said unto hiniy
One thing thou lackest." — S. Mark x. 21.
A STRIKING picture, my brethren, is drawn for
us in this chapter. In the background is the
scenery beyond the Jordan ; and we watch two figures
on the road leading down to the Jordan stream and
across to Jericho and up to Jerusalem.
There is, first, the Lord Jesus Christ ; that eternal
Saviour, born into the world iox us men and fi^r our
salvation. There is that Lord Who is in the midst
of us this morning, according to His own most sure
promise, " Wheresoever two or three are gathered in My
Name, there am I in the midst of them." There is
that Saviour Who, through His wondrous death upon
the Cross, has made it right for God to send far and
wide by the voice of His messengers to every human
being, whatever his past may have been, an unconditional
oflfer of a complete forgiveness. There is that Lord
Who shed His Blood upon the Cross in order that —
nothing asked from us but the simple rudimentary re-
pentance of turning towards God, of giving up anything
that we know is wicked at the time, and of believing in
the Blood of Jesus Christ — we should have acceptance
in the Beloved. Look at the Face of Him to Whom
all is owinof that makes life bearable and that sheds
brightness on the prospect of the everlasting ages which
86 A NEIV 'BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
have yet to run their course ; Jesus Christ is there, the
Lord Who is in our midst to-day.
Next, the portrait is drawn for us of a man, in good
position in society, a " ruler " (probably " a ruler of the
synagogue ") but young, and one who has lived hitherto
in the eye of man an irreproachable life. He can look
his fellow-men in the face, and he can say, " I have
honoured my father and mother ; I have committed no
murder ; I have never broken the seventh nor the eighth
commandment ; I have not borne false witness ; nor
coveted my neighbour's goods ; I have defrauded no
one.
I need not point out to you many details, such as
that the man had never really dug beneath the surface.
He had never grasped the spiritual meaning of those old
commandments, as brought out for us by the Lord
Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. Although
we read between the lines not a little self-complacency
and vanity in this young man, taking him as a whole
he would have been described, and rightly described,
as " a good sort." He was a thorough, honest, up-
right, straightforward man ; one of a race that, I am
afraid, in England was more common in olden days
than at present — yet one which may God increase in
our midst and multiply a thousandfold ! — and one
which is, perhaps, more often to be found in Eng-
land than in any other nation, unless, indeed, I am
blinded by national vanity.
The man was able to convince everybody, except
sometimes himself, that all was right with him. He
could prove that he had kept the commandments. He
could challenge anybody, as he did the Lord Jesus
Christ, "What lack I yet?" He could satisfy every-
body except himself. There were times, the knowledge
of which he would never have divulged to a single
ONE THINQ LACKJNG 87
human being, when he was not perfectly certain that
the heaven for which every Jew was striving would
really be his eternal possession. And so, when he
observed that Christ Jesus, the great Teacher, had
gone out of the little house, and had started on the
road, evidently intending a long journey, the feeling
came into his mind, " Perhaps I have missed an oppor-
tunity ; perhaps He could tell me something I could
do to make myself, as well as every one else, certain
that I am on the road to eternal life." And so, with
the impulse of a nature longing for all that was good,
he forgot his position, and the appearance that he would
present to the crowd of poor people gathered round
Jesus of Nazareth ; he ran, and fell at His feet, saying.
Good Master, what shall I do to make sure of heaven ?
Our Lord asked him about the commandments,
" All these," he said, half disappointed, " I have kept
from my youth up. What lack I yet .^ " And "Jesus
beholding him loved him " ; and He said. You are
right ; more right when you are nervous at home than
when by loud talking you have convinced yourself as
well as the crowd that you are perfect. You are wanting
in one point ; one thing thou lackest.
Now, let us try if we can (very briefly) see the
characteristics of those in our own day who would be
represented by this ruler. There are many, probably,
here — at least there are in most congregations — poor
as well as rich, servants as well as masters. The
outward circumstances of the life vary, of course,
according to ancestral inheritance, according to the
traditions persons have received from their fathers.
For we are moulded in our outward habits by the
habits of our fathers. That is a solemn thought tor
fathers and mothers. I know many a man who never
would miss family prayer, almost as a matter of super-
88 A NEW 'BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
stition, because his father, and his father before him,
always had the servants in for family prayer. There
is a wonderful power in example, and parents should
remember this power. But, I say, the outward cir-
cumstances vary very much. We form our standard,
and are influenced in it by so many very varying cir-
cumstances. So it is impossible for me to draw an
accurate sketch, but it is something, you know, of this
kind.
The type is a person who may be man or woman, rich
or poor, old or young. Upon rising in the morning,
he would say his prayers, read a verse or two of the
Bible, have family prayer, go out, be quite upright
and straightforward all the day, come home, say his
prayers, go to bed sooner or later. If he is accustomed
to it, he will go, perhaps, to weekday service, or
only go on Sunday. He may go to Communion in
the weekday, or he may only go on the Sunday, or
he will go, perhaps, once a week, or once a month,
or once a quarter, or only at Christmas and Easter,
according to his custom. He may go on a long time
with the old outward habits of a good bringing-up :
habits cling to us in a wonderful manner ! He is
perfectly ready, if anybody is speaking to him about
his religion, to turn round almost angrily and say,
"What more do you want.'' What can I do more ?"
Yet, though such a person can satisfy everybody that
he has kept the commandments, he is not at ease.
We can look up and thank God that there are these
men who keep the commandments, for they are the
salt of the country : good, honest, upright men. Thank
God for it ! What would the Church be without the
money they give, the example they set, the barriers
they present against the inroads of immorality on every
side ? Thank God that they are numbered by hundreds
1
ONE THINQ LACKJNG 89
of men and women in S. Peter's parish ! May God
multiply them a thousandfold ! But, to continue.
This kind of person can prove to perfection to every-
body except himself that all is right. But, when alone,
he is not satisfied ; she is not quite sure — as they read
over the obituary in the Times and see one after another
just reaching the very height of their ambition, and
thence passing out into the Presence of an invisible
God — they are not quite sure that the eternal gates
will be lifted up, and that they will be for ever and
ever with God and with the blessed angels. Then
there is an impulse to come out, to fall down at Jesus'
feet, to smite on the breast and say, " God be merciful !
Lord, what lack I yet ? Tell me."
And the answer to each one from that same Jesus
of Nazareth, Who is in our midst to-day, is this :
"One thing thou lackest." Christ, Who has created
the sense of need ; Christ, Who has awaked your
conscience, has stamped with His approval those solitary
moments when you are doubtful, whether the past
has been a life of progress, and whether the future
(if it be a future in eternity) will be a future of joy.
That misgiving is from God, and God endorses it.
One thing, O noble character, O glorious type of all
that has made England what she is — one thing thou
lackest ; one thing, differing in every case — for it is
not the letter of what our Lord said to that particular
man with which we are concerned — one thing, differing
in each case : father, mother, brother, sister, in the same
family, differing in each case ; one thing. O mother,
pattern of mothers ; child, perfectly obedient ; son, whom
thy father speaks of with such pride and love : one
thing thou lackest !
A poor drunken man once reeled up to old Bishop
Wilberforce in S. James's Square, and said, " Bishop,
N
90 A NEW 'BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
how am I to be sure of getting to heaven ? " The
bishop looked at him, and said, " Don't you know
that ? My mother taught me that as I knelt at her
knee in my childhood. My poor friend " — the poor
wretched creature under the power of strong drink
was reeling at his side — " my poor friend," said the
bishop with that calm, quiet face that we remember
so well, " turn to the right and go straight on."
My brother, take one step to-day. Christ has
not altered. When He was upon earth people came
to Him and said. What am I to do } He said,
This is the first work of God, have confidence in
Him Whom God has sent. Believe that Christ
is near to you, and speak to Him. Take for granted
that He means what He says ; that He is with you
this day and to-morrow and the day following. Go
on till we meet again in God's house, if we are spared
to meet, to carry on the subject, and say, " O my
Lord, Thou hast died for me. Show me, so far as I
can bear the knowledge, what I lack. What lack I yet .'' "
And, secondly, have confidence enough to take
for granted that, as Jesus beholding him loved him,
so Jesus loves you when He beholds you on your
knees, saying, " Lord, I am blind ; open my eyes.
Lord, I have not the courage to tell any one. They
know I have kept the commandments. But what
lack I yet .'' O Lord, if I am dying to-day and
about to meet Thee, what lack I yet .'' Lord, show
me. Lord, that I may receive my sight ! "
"Jesus beholding him loved him." And He loves
you, my brother, and He will answer thy prayer ;
though 1 may never know it on earth. He will teach
you — and He will teach me — " One thing thou lackest."
God knows what the one thing is — "One thing!"
What is it ^
THE LOANS OF QOD 91
III
THE LOANS OF GOD
" Then Jesus beholding him loved him^ and said unto him^
One thing thou lackest : go thy ivay^ sell whatsoever thou hast,
and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven :
and come, take up the cross, and follow Me'' — S. Mark
X. 21.
YOU remember the picture as it has been drawn for
us by the three Evangelists compared together. A
young man, earnest, impulsive, in good position in
society, with great possessions, utterly regardless of
appearance, comes forward and in the middle of the open
street or highway falls down at Jesus Christ's feet :
saying, Good Master, what shall I do that I may go to
heaven ?
Our Lord Jesus Christ referred him to that which
God had already taught him. You know the com-
mandments. He said. He mentioned them. The man
spoke back quite honestly. I believe that there was not
an atom of hypocrisy in him at that time. I believe he
was in the position in which (thank God !) numbers of you
are to-day ; who have been living according to your
light, who have been trying, so far as you knew how,
with many imperfections, of course, to do God's holy
will, to carry oat the old Catechism, to serve God truly
as far as you had light, to honour your father and mother,
and to live an honest life ; not stealing, or lying, or back-
biting, or committing what is called open sin. All
92 A NEJV mRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
these, he said, I have kept from my youth. What do I
want now, what more ?
And then comes one, I think, of the most touching
words in the Bible. "Jesus beholding him loved him."
And He took the man at his word. He said, There is
one thing you want. The Lord knew the idiosyncrasy.
He knew, that is, the particular character of the man.
He knew his thoughts, as He knows your thoughts and
mine. And He knew what was keeping the man back.
He knew the step which, once taken, would let in the
whole light of heaven upon his past life, so that he would,
like the publican, say, " God be merciful to me a sinner."
He knew that one step which, taken that day, would let
the whole light of the glory of God illumine his being ;
so that the man would have gone further forward in a
day than, without taking that step, years of Judaical
observance would ever have led him.
One thing. He said, I ask, or you have asked Me,
rather. One thing. I know you, true heart, 1 love
you. Now, one thing ; go thy way now, sell whatsoever
thou hast ; all of it, no seeking for what may be reserved,
but all ! I, your God : I, Whom, at any rate, you look on
as a Teacher ; I tell you, go ; whatsoever thou hast, dis-
tribute it to the poor. I will not leave you there. I love
you. I want you to come with Me. Come, you shall
have the very thing you have asked for. But I will not
keep you waiting. You are young. You are impulsive.
You have not yet the maturity of after life. You have
not the patience — I do not ask it of you — to wait. Come
now with Me. Take up the cross that I am carrying.
Come bravely with Me ; and remember there is no man
who has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or
mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My sake, but
he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses,
and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and
THE LOANS OF QOD 93
lands, with persecution, as I shall be persecuted. But we
shall go up together, as Abraham and Isaac went up to
the mount of sacrifice, you and I. I love you, and God,
My Father, has drawn you to Me. There is sympathy
between us. We will be friends. Come, take it up now.
Follow Me.
I should spoil the beauty, my brethren, of the narra-
tive if I added a human word. Those who have ears to
hear will perceive the glory and the beauty of those words
of the Incarnate. Never man spoke as He spoke. No
man could have spoken such words.
The countenance fell. The man was sad at that
saying. He went away " very sorrowful," S. Mark says
" grieved " ; they mention sadness as if it had made a
great impression upon them. He went away sad. He
had been fascinated by that Face. Oh, would to God
that we could see It, if only our seeing It would make
us love Him more ! He went away grieved, but he
went. Why was it }
Now let us look for a moment at the subject. Let
us remind ourselves, first of all, that the Lord Jesus is
alive, and that He is with us now. "Where two or
three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in
the midst of them." May the Blessed Spirit help him
who has to preach to grasp this for the few moments in
which he is to speak !
The Lord is alive, and the Lord God is the same
yesterday and to-day and for ever. The only difference
between Christ on earth and Christ now is this : that
whereas then He spoke with the human voice, and the
disciples knew Him after the flesh, now He speaks to
our conscience by the still small voice of His Spirit ;
speaks more quietly, requires of us the use of our facul-
ties, to make sure that we have not mistaken the voice
either for some whisper of Satan or some cry of a heated
94 A NEtV 'BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
imagination. But He speaks as simply and as clearly
now as ever He did when He was upon earth.
I see the like continually, my brethren. The voice
speaks to people in a church like this ; and for weeks and
months they have to consider, and then decide, whether
to go away sorrowful, or to obey the voice.
1. We " go away " when we deliberately refuse to hear
what we know to be the voice of God. Nobody else may
think it is a voice. Nobody may ever know we had the
call. If we ask anybody they would simply say, " Non-
sense ! " But we know that when we meet God, if
there is a God, we shall have to say, "That was a real
voice. I watched ; I waited ; I prayed ; and then, after
weeks of thought, and the use of the common sense Goo
has given me, it was clear that it was His voice." And
having that conviction, we go away if we refuse to obey the
voice. It may be the merest trifle, or it may be what the
world calls a great matter. Very often the turning-point
of a life is a trifle, in spiritual things as in earthly things.
2. And also, we go away when we deliberately refuse
to face the question ; when we will not look it in the face
and say, " Is that voice from God ? " whatever it may be.
It may not be the same as what was said to this man.
The Lord knows each man's peculiar need, and the
voices are difl^erent. But do we put it aside because
(nobody knowing, observe, except God) we are afraid
that if we follow it out it will lead us to something that
we did not intend to do or wish to do ? We may busy
ourselves in anything — business, pleasure, or religious
work, and philanthropic occupations — so as to get rid of
that still, small voice ; and the heart gets hardened, as the
Bible says, and the conscience ceases to speak. We think
no more of it perhaps till our death-bed, or perhaps not
even then ; generally, not then. Yet unless the whole
teaching of the Bible is simply a human delusion, that
THE LOANS OF QOD 95
thought will meet us, that voice will again sound in our
ears, like the echo, of which the sound, it is said, never
dies. I do not know anything about that. But one thing
is certain : the echo of the voice of the Eternal must
be eternal. On and on, through all those long ages,
the voice will ever be heard by that young man who
went away very sorrowful, because — for the reason we
shall see.
Now, my brethren, for a moment, having grasped
this, look with me at the reasonableness of these words.
Let us take a very simple illustration. Suppose
one of you lent me a sum of money, a thousand
pounds, a hundred pounds, and you say to me, " I
gladly lend it to you, but I may be obliged to ask
it back from you without any notice. I may have time
to give you a little notice, or I may have to ask it back
in a moment. I may want it for my own purposes,
or I may desire to lend it to some one else." Sup-
pose that I thankfully take what you had lent me, and
that when you asked it back of me, I refused to give it ;
I would not part with it. Your judgement upon me, of
course, would be so simple that a child could follow it.
You would say, first, that I was ungrateful, for not beino;
thankful for having had the loan for so long ; secondly,
that clearly I was acting dishonourably to you, for that
was the condition on which it was given to me ; thirdly,
1 was not doing my duty to my neighbour, for every
hour in which I kept those persons without the money
that you intended to lend to them, by barricading my
house and not allowing you to come and get it, I was
defrauding those people of that which you had a right to
lend them. And that was exactly the position of that
man ; and it is the position of every one of us who holds
back from God.
God does not ask us to be always looking at every-
96 A NEW "BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
thing and saying, " Perhaps God will take that away
to-day." God does not want the wife to be always
thinking, " Perhaps He will ask my husband before the
night is gone ; perhaps I shall wake up and find him
dead by my side, as other wives have done." All that is
utterly alien to the freedom and the glorious confidence
of the new dispensation. God does not want us to be
looking at our children and saying, " And they may die
to-day" ; and so rob ourselves of all the joy of their
innocent companionship. God does not ask us to be
always thinking, " I wonder what is coming," All that
is breaking the law of the kingdom which tells us not to
look forward ; day by day, sufficient for the day. Nor
does God expect us not to feel it when He asks back
His loan from us. God does not expect us not to feel ;
our Lord Jesus Christ felt all the agony ; the tears
rolling down His cheek, weary, heavy laden. " My
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me."
He expects us to feel.
But it is so commonplace that if I did not know in
my own life how hard it is to act upon it, I should be
ashamed of taking your time in saying it, God has lent
life to us. " In a moment," He says, " I may have to
ask it back." He gives us health ; in a day He may
ask it back, for reasons known to Himself. He gives us
money ; He gives us husbands, wives, children, every-
thing, in His own abundant goodness. " He openeth His
hand and filleth all things living with plenteousness."
But, for our education, for His own glory, for number-
less reasons that there is no time even to touch upon,
every single thing is given on one condition. It is lent
by God with the understanding, the honourable under-
standing between the creature and the Creator, that it
may be asked back at any time ; with or without notice,
suddenly or with preparation, as He sees best.
THE LOANS OF QOD 97
Well, then, my dear brethren, is it not perfectly
obvious, whether it is the young man in the story, or
you or I ? We can set our face against Him, and either
run away that we may not hear what God says, and say
then we do not understand, as the Jews did when they
crucified Christ ; or, having heard, we may deliberately
put it aside. Is it not obvious that then we are simply
acting as the debtor should have acted, if instead of
thanking the creditor for generosity in trusting him with
all that money for such a long period, he had refused to
give it back, and robbed the persons for whom it was
intended ?
My brethren, 1 know how difficult it is ; as I look
back over my own ministerial life ; as I think of those
who have come to talk with me, when the voice has
spoken ; as I think of those servants, feeling that they
could not go to Communion and could not get to church
in that situation, and therefore must go out from
a home of perfect comfort, not knowing whither they
were going ; when I think of that poor woman who came
to me in Windmill Street, with her little shop that
brought in nothing all the week, and on Sunday brought
in enough to keep her in comfort, and, without a word
from myself on the subject, said, "I feel I ought to go to
church and shut up my shop" ; when I remember that
man in the prime of life, one of the most popular men
that ever came to this church, whom everybody liked,
his business was prospering, bringing in three or four
thousand a year, and increasing every year, and the voice
came to him, and he said, " I feel there is nothing else to
be done but to part with all this at once ; leave me three
or four hundred a year, and I must go out and work for
God where others will not go ; I am free, I must do it,
and sell all that I have." Oh, my brethren, when they
came to me, I remember how my heart shrank and sank
o
98 A NEW 'BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
within me ! I thought what it would be, what it would
cost, what a trial — the poor woman without bread, or
almost worse, kept by charity — the poor thing ! Yet it
was not I who told her, but God. She felt sure the
voice was from God, and she said, " I must do it, or
I shall go back, back, back, in my spiritual life." And
all that man's friends saw the influence that he would lose
in London ; how, instead of being looked up to as a man
whose opinion would be taken in a moment by all the
young fellows in London, they would say, " Lost his
head ; that S. Peter's ruined him ! "
Oh, coward that I was ! Cowards that we all are !
As if my God would ever say to a man, " Give up,"
without saying, " Thou shalt have treasure " ; as if it
were not true that no man leaves house, or friends, or
wife, or children for God's sake, but he receives even
here a hundredfold ; as if it were not true that, though
the tears stream down at first, and it is a dark hour when
the child is brought home dead to the mother's arms,
God can repay a thousandfold !
Come, take up this cross, my dear brothers and
sisters. Which way, from north, or south, or east, or
west, is the voice coming ? What is it thou hast to do .''
What is it that thy Lord is asking of thee.'' "Jesus
beholding him loved him." You are living according to
your light to-day ; but are you ready, ready to face the
truth, ready to hear the voice ? Are we living, you and
I, with our life, strength, wife, children, everything, as if
we did not possess them — though loving them, doing
everything we can to make them happy ? Thanking
God we are well and strong, thanking God for our
intellect, thanking God for our reputation, and an
honest name among men — but knowing that, if God
will, to-morrow the character may be blasted by
slander, that to-morrow the money may be gone, that
THE LOANS OF QOD 99
before to-morrow the soul may be asked, the life
taken away ? Are we living so that, though heart and
flesh may fail, though we may cry with a broken spirit,
yet we shall say, " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath
taken away: blessed be the Name of the Lord" ? "Thy
will be done, in earth as it is in heaven."
loo A NEJV 'BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
IV
THEY THAT HAVE RICHES
" Then Jesus beholding him loved him^ and said unto him^
One thing thou lac\est : go thy way^ sell "whatsoever thou
hast^ and give to the poor^ and thou shah have treasure in
heaven : and come, tal^ up the cross, and follow Me. And
he "Vpas sad at that saying, and went away grieved : for he
had great possessions. And Jesus looked round about, and
saith unto His disciples. How hardly shall they that have
riches enter into the kingdom of God T' — S. Mark x. 21-23.
THE more life-like does every detail of the faces
of those two men appear — Jesus of Nazareth and
the young ruler — the more solemn does the dark back-
ground of the picture come out, as we try to enter further
into the meaning of the words which the Blessed Spirit
has recorded for our instruction. We are no longer
surprised that, looking at the human side of the story,
the disciples were so fascinated by it, that every detail,
every look of Jesus Christ and of this young ruler, was
photographed, as it were, upon their minds. We wonder
no longer that God has inspired three out of the four
Evangelists to record the history, for we are brought
here face to face with almost every problem which has
perplexed the wisest and the deepest thinkers ages before
the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. That mys-
terious problem (which is just as mysterious when the
idea of the personal God has been eliminated), why evil,
how evil, can exist in the presence of goodness ; why
THE2'' THAT HAVE TiJCHES loi
evil is permitted at all ; that not less mysterious fact,
which no logic can prove, but of which every human
being is satisfied, the mystery of man's freedom — all
come out here with a distinctness from which it is
impossible for us to escape.
Here is one whom Jesus Christ loved ; loved in
some clear, definite, personal, individualizing manner ;
so that the words are emphatically recorded, Jesus, as
His eye rested upon him, loved him. Here is one who
is fascinated by the perfect love, the unspeakable majesty,
of the Incarnate God. Here is one drawn (as we should
say) within the circle of His influence, who desires to
remain with Him ; who, when the command is given
which he cannot or will not obey, is still miserable. The
words are so striking when we compare the three Gospels.
" His countenance fell," we are told. He became very
unhappy. It was written on his face, " Oh, would to
God I might stay with you. Master, Teacher, Who
lovest me. 1 long for your presence." He was very
unhappy. He was sorry to go. He longed to remain
in that bright circle of Jesus Christ's disciples. He
longed for the courage to leave behind, as James and
John and Peter had done, the home and the nets, and
the father, the lands, everything. He longed to stay.
He was sorry to go. And yet he went away. He was
grieved, but he went.
Now, first of all, let us be on our guard. Whatever
else we lose to-day, let us not lose the teaching of the
chapter by listening to any of the subtle whispers of
Satan. Let us not escape from it, as if Christ Who
lived then is not the same Christ Who is alive to-day,
and present wherever two or three are gathered in His
Name. Let us not escape from it by imagining that we
have not got great possessions, and therefore that the
teaching does not wholly apply to us. The more
I02 A NEW 'BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
thoughtful among you, as you reflect afterwards on the
passage, will see that while, for the sake of distinctness
and brevity, I have to confine myself to the actual words
of the narrative, to the " possessions " or money ;
although all that is said would apply equally well if,
instead of riches, we put bodily vigour, mental force,
a great reputation, or an untarnished name. Whatever
we possess, whatever God has given us, whatever blessing
we enjoy, is held just on the same terms as our money.
Everything that Jesus said to this man here about his
riches would equally apply to us, with reference to any
possession ; husband, wife, children, home, anything.
Whatever we possess, whatever we have, the condition
of having is losing ; the condition of living is dying. If
in this new kingdom to which you and I belong — God
has said it, and the words are eternal — if a man chooses
to keep he loses, if a man will save his life it is lost.
The illustration Jesus Christ has given is so simple.
He said that every single thing we possess we must deal
with just on one condition. You take a corn of wheat
and put it into the ground : and the condition of that
corn of wheat being any real use to you is, that you will
part with it, put it out of sight, bury it, trust God with
it while it becomes black and discoloured and to all
outward seeming is gone. So with character, reputation,
home, wife, children, everything. Unless we are regard-
ing them day by day in the spirit of the Communion
Office, " Here we off^er . . . ourselves, our souls, and
bodies," they are practically no use to us so far as
eternity goes. We are keeping with our will outside
of the first elementary principle of the new dispen-
sation. That is perfectly clear.
Then, secondly, let us bear in mind that everything
in this world is relative. If there be in the church
to-day any of those poor old women for whom your alms
r//£r THAT HAVE RICHES 103
provide a fixed income, so that (having been respectable
all their life) by the organization of our Parochial Council
of Charity we give them so much every week, that they
may have no anxiety for the future : those persons are
relatively rich. There is not a servant who comes to
this church who, compared to hundreds with whom I
have had to deal myself as pastor of poor parishes, is not
rich. They have bread to eat, clothes to wear, a home
in which to live. They have no anxiety about to-morrow
morning. There will be bread for them, and a home.
Therefore, my brethren, keep those two cautions
clearly before you. The Lord Who spoke is alive now.
To every human being, preacher and people, old and
young, masters and servants, rich and poor He speaks
(for He is unchangeable), as He spoke on that way up
to Jerusalem to this young man kneeling at His feet.
" One thing ; sell all." He went away grieved, for
he had great possessions. The greater our possessions,
the greater our difficulty in parting with them and
obeying the law of the kingdom. But Christ, Who
is the same, speaks to each one this morning. To every
human soul there is the same great difficulty. We long
to stay. Yet, O God, Thou knowest how hard it is to
say, " I offer myself ; I sell this morning all that I have.
Nothing in my hand I bring. Just as I am, I come
to Thee."
Having thus cleared the way, a very few words will
be sufficient.
I observe then, first, that this is a hard saying.
And I observe, secondly, that it is so simple as
to be almost a commonplace.
In the light of the rest of the Bible, it is a hard
saying. It would not be true to speak as if great riches
were not a blessing given by God. The Bible tells us
they are ; not merely for the comfort that they bring
I04 A NEW "BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
to us, but for the glorious opportunities that they bestow
upon us of doing good to others. It is not necessary
to enter into detail. Our common instincts, the instincts
God Almighty has given us, tell us that it is a blessing
to be well oiF, to have sufficient means to enable us and
our children to have every advantage in this life. I am
only just reminding you, without dwelling on details, that
riches are a blessing from Almighty God.
And it seems so difficult to be told here by God
Himself that those very possessions, that very comfort,
that very store of health and vigour and intellect, and all
that we covet, and naturally covet, are, as a matter of
fact, made every day by Satan hindrances in entering the
kingdom. We look back upon this man, and we see as
a matter of history that he did not enter into the
kingdom. He had the opportunity of following Jesus.
He had the opportunity of becoming a disciple, of being
baptized, of being put into a state of salvation, of joining
the army who, in the Acts of the Apostles, went forth
and shook the earth to its very foundation ; and, as
a matter of history, the man did not enter into that
kingdom. We have nothing to do with his state in the
other world. God takes him and does what is right
with him, as He does with the heathen. We have
nothing to do with anything more than what God has
told us in these few verses ; that the man lost that
opportunity which we now covet every time we say the
Te Deum : he would not be rewarded with the saints ;
did not join the noble army of martyrs ; nor was one of
the glorious company of the Apostles. He went back
from Christ, and lost the position which, as a matter of
history, S. Peter and S. James and S. John gained. He
rejected the offer that was made to him. God offered
him Christianity in place of Judaism. Then was offered
to him salvation, then was offered to him companionship
THET THAT HAVE RICHES 105
with Jesus Christ ; and he put it all aside. It seems
so difficult for us to realize that the very man of all
others who seemed to have been most blessed by God
should be the one whose history is here recorded for our
warning. It seems so hard. We are not surprised to
read (as we do in the subsequent verses) that the disciples
were astonished. It is repeated that " they were
astonished out of measure, saying among themselves,
Who then can be saved." If a man with money, a
man who can get a good seat and pay for it in a church,
a man who can do what he likes, who can build a private
chapel, and have a chaplain all to himself, a man who
has the power of getting every single thing in heaven
and earth that money will buy — if that man cannot get
salvation, who in the name of heaven can be saved ?
Is the astonishment not natural .? Is there not a
stamp of truth upon the whole story ? " Who then can
be saved ? "
And our Lord looked round, and said to His
disciples — and then comes that wonderful word, " Verily,"
which has such a deep meaning — He looked round and
said. It is hard, but that which is impossible with men
is possible with God. And He looked at the man very
much as He might have looked at a poor paralytic if the
question had been asked, " Can that man walk ? " And
Jesus said, That which is impossible with men is
possible with God. That was the only answer He
gave. It is the greatest difficulty on earth. " How
hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom
of God ! "
And yet, secondly, I observe, my brethren, that
the answer is so simple that it is a mere commonplace,
if I may use the word with reverence. Just consider
with me for a moment the facts of life. Is it or is it
not true, that when we are perfectly comfortable in this
p
io6 A ISIEW 'BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
life, with a wife loving us, children who delight us, no
need to desire anything on earth that we cannot obtain,
good health, able to enjoy our amusements, getting on
well in business, with an unblemished name, a fair
reputation, good ability, rejoicing in all the beautiful
brightness and sunshine of life — is it not a mere
commonplace that this state tends to make us satisfied
with the life that we now possess ? Does not the Bible
tell us, that just as when Jesus came on earth those
Israelites followed Him who were not satisfied with this
life, who were hungering and thirsting for something
more, so, on the other hand, those who had got every-
thing to make them contented here, who had received,
as He expresses it, their consolation, who were comfort-
able, who were happy, and did not want anything else,
went away instead of coming after Jesus of Nazareth ?
Is it not, my dear brethren, a matter of simple
common sense, that the Bible tells us that now the
same Lord God is gathering out of this great world
a little company who long for something more than
earth, whom nothing here can satisfy, who feel that they
are only strangers and pilgrims here, who are always
longing for something higher and better in the glorious
kingdom above — is it not a simple matter of common
sense that those who are bankrupt of fortune, bankrupt
of reputation, bankrupt of health, those who are miser-
able, poor, not having a place where to lay their head
(as the result of a mere natural law), are more likely
to be longing for Jesus to help them ? They have
failed in their own strength, and are longing for
a wise God to guide them ; they have made such
miserable mistakes in their own past life, they desire
some place, instead of the cold shivering nakedness of
the wayside hedge, instead of the degradation of the
common lodging-house, where they shall sit down with
THET THAT HAVE RICHES 107
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God.
Is not the mere force of circumstances in which they
live — provided the two are perfectly equal — certain to
make the man who is miserable more ready to look for
something beyond this life than the one who is happy,
and who, therefore, by the mere force of circumstances,
will gravitate to earth ? Is it not so ? Must it not be
so, that the more we possess, the less we want to part
with it ; the more we have got to make us contented
here, the less likely we are to be crying, " O God, come
back in Thy glory ; O Father, make me ready for the
kingdom of heaven " ?
" Eyes that the preacher's art in vain hath schooled,
By wayside graves are raised ;
And lips cry, * God be merciful,'
That ne'er said, ' God be praised.' "
When we have lost our all, whatever it be, we are
driven to God. How difficult for those who have great
possessions to enter into the kingdom of God !
My dear brethren, I wish not to say one word more
than the Master, Whose words at least I try to teach,
has spoken.
The mystery of the passage before us oppresses the
soul. The love of the Lord Jesus Christ seems shining
out this morning as I speak — beholding you, loving you,
knowing that you are put in a position which He
recognizes as full of difficulty ; I see some of you with
such perfect characters, such unblemished reputations —
thank God for it ! — all of you with many comforts, com-
paratively few unable to write down your names in that
census without any great heart agony. You are contented,
long may you be so ; in one sense happy, long may you
continue so ! In one sense ! and yet He Who loves you,
He Who died for you. He on Whose Passion we are
io8 A NEW "BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
about to gaze, says to you, my own dear people, beloved
in God, that you are in the greatest danger. I am ;
I have confessed it. You are. All of us are. How
difficult for those who have possessions to become as
little children, to sell all, to make sacrifices, instead of
waiting till God has taken them from us !
How hardly ! And yet, surely, surely, that which is
impossible with man is possible with God. If only this
young man had had the strength to remain a little longer
with Jesus Christ, if only he had had the courage to
stay a little — this event happened about a Tuesday
or Wednesday — probably if he had only stayed till
a Friday, he would have seen Jesus open the blind
man's eyes as He went up to Jerusalem ; if he had
stayed a little longer he would have heard at Bethany,
when they spoke with Martha and Mary and Lazarus,
of the wonderful resurrection that had been wrought by
the Incarnate Lord ; if he had only waited over the next
Sunday, then he would have gone on to watch all the
Agony and bloody Sweat, the Cross and Passion, and to
see the glorious Easter ; and in the forty days he would
have cast in his lot with Jesus,
And now for us there is light, and now there is
joy, and now there are the prayers of Christendom rising,
if only we will be strong. Make up your minds on your
knees, my dear brethren, this day. You have wandered
often, I doubt not, on some quiet night, by the shores
of a sleeping sea. You know those nights with which
we are so familiar in this our England ; a night halt
dark, half light, with bright moonbeams and passing
clouds. Look on the surface of that quiet sea. Do you
see it ? Do you see that path of light : the moon's
bright beams reflected on its glassy surface, calm, still ?
Look at it quietly. The one side, the dark shadow and
the lowering cloud ; the other, darkness : dark, light.
THET THAT HAVE RICHES 109
dark. Out from that darkness comes that little vessel.
For a moment you watch it, all irradiated in the light ;
every sail, every rope, every tiny bit of that vessel, all
bright in the moonlight. You watch it. It is a picture,
my brother, of thyself. Thou hast come out of darkness
into light. Thou art now in the presence of Him Who
is the Light : Christ, the Light of the world. Watch
that vessel. Will it remain ? Will it drop anchor and
abide for ever in the light, till the moonbeams pass away
and the glorious sun shineth everywhere ? Or will it
pass out of the light ?
Which shall it be ? This young ruler was in the
light, and he passed out into the deep, deep darkness.
Will you, shall I, in the light to-day, be known for
eternity as the man, the woman, the child, that once was
in light ; and Jesus beholding us loved us, and Jesus
said, " One thing, one thing thou lackest " ?
O God, will it be said of any of us on that day. He
was in the light, and he went out into the darkness ;
very sorry to go, very grieved ; but he went away ?
God grant it may not be so, for him who preaches,
for you who hear, for Jesus Christ's sake !
no A NEW mRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
V
THE DISPENSATION OF THE
SPIRIT
" fVith fVhom is no variableness^ neither shadow of
turning^ — S. James i. 17.
TO the subject of the Person and work of God the
Holy Ghost, the third Person of the Blessed
Trinity, our thoughts are led by all the Gospels of the
later Sundays after Easter ; and to consider it is the
natural preparation for the great Whitsuntide festival.
Yet a little while, and the first manifestation of the
Holy Spirit will be commemorated amongst us ; yet
a little while, and we shall hear, as it were, the echo of
that rushing, mighty wind, and see again in our midst
the tongues of fire, and hear the promise of the Eternal
God as to the new grace and strength that is for ever,
until the return of Jesus Christ, pledged to His Church.
By way of preparation, let us endeavour, depending upon
the help of that Blessed Spirit, to realize to some extent
what a tremendous difference was made in the position ot
the world by that revelation of the third Person of the
Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost.
Few, comparatively, study their Bibles with sufficient
intelligence to observe the different revelations which God
has vouchsafed to mankind. It is a word with which we
are familiar, taken from one of the Epistles, that this is
the " last dispensation." Let us dwell for a moment
THE DISTENSATION OF THE SPIRIT 1 1 1
upon the meaning of that word dispensation, or dispensing.
The word, in the Greek, brings before us the idea of the
ruler of the household, the man to whom is entrusted
the ordering and arranging — whether the arrangement be
made directly or indirectly ; by his own direct interven-
tion or through the instrumentality of others — the agent
to whom is entrusted the ordering and guiding and
ruling of the household. Or, to take a parallel word
in the old Anglo-Saxon, bringing out with still more
beauty the position of our Divine Dispenser, he is the
" loaf-giver " — the giver-out of the portion of bread, the
necessary food that is required for each member of the
household ; or, to use the Bible language, the one who
gives to each " his portion of meat in due season."
We know that with the Ever-blessed and Glorious
Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
there " is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."
God is " the same yesterday, and to-day, and for
ever." " From everlasting to everlasting Thou art
God." " Before the mountains were brought forth, or
ever the earth and the world were made " : there, with-
out the shadow of a change, was that Ever-blessed
Trinity. When this world, with all its changing caprices,
its ever-varying fashions, its miserable, impotent pride,
attempting to scale the very mountains, and to stand on
an equality of thought with the great Creator of the
universe — when all this world shall have shrivelled into
nothingness, and the new heavens and the new earth
shall have been called into being by the word of the
Omnipotent God, He, that Creator and Destroyer of
the universe, will still remain the same, unchanged and
unchanorinor.
But just as a wise parent, watching the growing
capacity of his children, gives out to them, as they are
able to receive it — line upon line, precept upon precept
112 A NEW 'BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
— the knowledge which he himself has acquired, it may
be, through a long lifetime ; so the Eternal Father —
not indeed having had need to acquire knowledge, but
possessing in Himself the fullness of wisdom and know-
ledge — has been pleased to look upon the world in its
completeness as an individual, and to give out to this
child of His creation its portion of meat in due season.
He has been pleased to reveal to humanity, as they
seemed able to receive it, one portion after another of
the eternal truth.
So we find — without entering now into subtle divisions
of Old Testament history — at least three divisions of
God's dealings with men.
There is the revelation of God the Father. There
is the manifestation of the Incarnate One, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And there is the dispensation of the Spirit, of
God the Holy Ghost.
Looking back for a moment into the old story of
Genesis and Exodus and the succeeding books, you see
God revealing to the Church in the earlier ages of the
patriarchal times, the intense personal love with which
the great Heart of the Creator is filled towards His weak
and tempted children. You find Him condescending to
call a man " His friend." You see Him taking a tender
personal interest in a wretched, deceiving, shuffling man
like Jacob, watching him year after year, giving to him
sufficient trial to burn out the dross, that the fine gold
might be manifested in all its clearness ; and yet amid all
the chastisements, amid all those dreary years of banish-
ment from his father's house, amid all the upbraidings of
his conscience, for ever bringing back to him the sins of
earlier life, there is manifested the intense love of God
the Father towards him. We see that love on the first
night, when the poor boy (as he must have appeared to
the angels, whatever might be his age computed by the
THE DISTENSATION OF THE SPIRIT 113
earthly standard, went out from home, friendless, guilty
— remorse behind and the dark, blank future before
him — even then not waiting till the man had proved
the reality of his repentance, not waiting till by some
great act of superhuman devotion he had called down
the Almighty compassion ; but taking him as he was,
in his weakness, in his wretchedness and defilement,
God vouchsafed unto him one of the most glorious
visions with which the Old Testament pages are filled.
He saw the ladder, and the Eternal God, and the angels
ascending with his poor prayers, as he was struggling to
plead out of a wandering mind and a weak and tempted
spirit. There was the ladder, and the angels going up
with the prayers of the wanderer, bringing down the
answer of mercy from the High and Lofty One Who
inhabiteth eternity. And so on, all through his life,
blessing mingled with chastisement. The love of the
Eternal Father was revealed at every turn of his
changing life.
And then, when the love of God had been taught
to mankind, taught to the Church that she might reveal
it to humanity, then came another and a yet sterner
discipline. Amid the thunders of Sinai, and the mountain
that burned with fire, and the crowd kept back and for-
bidden to touch the base of that hill whereon the Presence
of God was revealed, men were taught for the first time
the utter unreality of the fashionable theology of modern
days. They were taught by anticipation the utter
nothingness of that " emasculated form of religion " —
that degradation of the Godhead — which lowers it even
beneath the level of a good and a holy man.
On that mountain the Church of God, and through
the Church humanity, was taught that God is ho/y.
" Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, Which was,
and is, and is to come." The fullness of the revelation
Q
114 A NEW mRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
that those words convey was not yet vouchsafed. But
the keynote was given : Your God is not merely a God
of love ; He is a holy God, and will in no wise clear the
guilty. And so, through the long history of the teaching
of the law, through that hard discipline by which the
offender was stoned, and the adulterer not allowed to
live, God taught men that the /aw must be respected,
that God would bring every secret thought into judge-
ment, that, sooner or later, that sentence which is the
epitome of the law, must have its fulfilment : — " Be
sure " — be sure, whatever your own deceitful heart may
tell you, whatever the world may whisper — " be sure
your sin," that sin which is hidden from all the world,
" will find you out."
Then, after a while, through long preparation of seers
and prophets, the way was made ready for the revelation
of the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He came on earth, very Man, of the
substance of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, full of all
the tenderest sympathy, knowing what it was to hunger
and to thirst, knowing what it was to be so tired that
when they took Him into the little boat on the Sea of
Galilee, He fell asleep from pure human weariness :
very Man, entering into all the sorrows of a suffering
humanity, agonizing in Gethsemane, crying on Calvary
with a loud voice, " My God, My God, why hast Thou
forsaken Me .''" The Lord Jesus Christ, in the verity
of His human nature, came on earth to be for ever mani-
fested as the Example of a purer morality than the world
had ever known, to be the Guide of men in the ascent of
the everlasting hills, to make men know something at any
rate of the character of the God with Whom they had to
live for all eternity. And He came — thank God, that
foundation truth has been preached over and over again
THE DISTENSATION OF THE SPIRIT 115
in this church — He came to be wounded for our trans-
gressions, to be bruised for our iniquities, to take the
whole guilt of the world upon Himself, that His Blood
shed on Calvary might cleanse us from all sin. And then,
after that death on the Cross, He rose again, and ascended
into heaven, there to be for ever at the right hand of the
Father, making intercession for us. Such was the
revelation — for I can only remind you of the old familiar
truths — such was the revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity.
Now comes a point which is often forgotten. Many,
even of those who are to a certain extent students of their
Bibles, have lost altogether the deep significance of those
portions of Scripture which our Church has chosen for
these later Sundays after Easter. If you look through
our Lord's last conversation with His disciples — nay,
even if you take such a passage as that about the well of
water springing up into everlasting life — you will see
how continually the Lord Jesus Christ told His dis-
ciples that all the wonderful miracles which they had
beheld, all the marvellous exhibitions of supernatural
power, the healing of the sick, and the cleansing ot the
lepers, and the raising of the dead, were as nothing com-
pared to the Divine manifestations which were reserved
for the coming dispensation. The Divine Householder
had given out the revelation of a holy and loving
Father in the Old Testament, the revelation of the
GoD-Man in the Gospels had yet a greater wonder to
reveal to the expectant Church, after those ten days of
quiet preparation. Oh, would to God that the Church
now could realize the secret of her power ! not by might,
nor by power, but by the preparation for the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit, the preparation by which Pentecost
was heralded. Those ten days in which the few poor
ii6 A NEM^ "BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
people met together in the upper room at Jerusalem,
those days of prayer prepared the way for the revelation
of the third and last manifestation, the manifestation of
God the Holy Ghost. In that dispensation we live,
separated off from the disciples who were the companions
of Jesus Christ ; separated off by a great gulf from
S. John the Baptist, and all who were baptized into his
community ; separated still further from the patriarchs
and prophets and kings of the older dispensation, any
one of whom, we are told, would gladly have torn off his
purple robe, and cast his royal crown to the ground, if
he had been allowed to know one sentence of the Cate-
chism that is taught to the children in our schools.
" I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver
of life." Let us for a few moments try to grasp
something of the position that we now occupy in these
latter days. What are our privileges ? Let us calmly
count them one by one.
May God the Blessed Spirit give such power and
wisdom to the words spoken, that to many a heart
in this church these privileges, from this day, may
be part of their conscious possession.
First of all, we are perfectly certain that if we
are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, on account
of that complete Sacrifice which He has offered — that
life of perfect obedience, and that atoning death —
the whole of our sin, so far as guilt is concerned,
is buried. The promise has been fulfilled for us, the
promise of the Old Testament prophets, " I will cast
all their sins into the depths of the sea." This, says
the Apostle, is the new covenant, this is the distin-
guishing characteristic of the latter dispensation— "their
sins and their iniquities will I remember no more" —
a complete absolution through Jesus Christ the
Lord.
THE DISTENSATION OF THE SPIRIT 117
Then we have the certain knowledge that the Son
of God, very God, is living to make intercession for
us ; that, however our thoughts may wander, how-
ever poor and imperfect may be our supplications,
if we cast them upon the Lord Jesus Christ, He
assuredly presents them, making them perfect by His
all-prevailing intercession. Just as some poor blun-
dering simpleton will go to a learned lawyer, and will
explain to him in stammering provincial accents, the
difficulties in which he is involved, hardly able even
to explain what he means with sufficient distinctness
for the acute mind of his advocate, and then, having
committed his cause to that trained intellect, returns
home with calm confidence. He believes that all the
subtleties of his neighbours who are perpetually annoy-
ing and irritating him shall be henceforth powerless
with him, because his cause is committed to one in
whom he has confidence. So are we confident : confident,
1 say, because the central truths of Christianity are abso-
lutely certain. The fringe, the outside truths, I grant
you, may be argued about for ever ; but the central
truths, of which I am speaking to-day, are as certain as
anything on earth can be certain ; more so, for they are
based upon the Word of the Living God.
Again, when we are tortured by anxieties for our-
selves, for those whom we love, for the great Church
of God, Satan hinders us, it may be, with a thousand
wandering thoughts, preventing us from praying any
prayer that gives us the slightest comfort or the
least portion of satisfaction ; yet we come and we tell
it to the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as, in the olden
days, the High Priest within the veil was hidden from
the sight of the congregation, and they lay all silent
without, waiting till the work of intercession was com-
pleted, so is it with our great High Priest. Our
ii8 A NEW "BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
words — feeble, poorer than the words of the veriest
clown when listened to in the presence-chamber of
heaven — our poor stammering words are not despised
by that Divine Elder Brother. He bears them on
His Heart, the great Advocate Who ever lives to
make intercession for us. And so we have that cer-
tainty, that whatever we need we can commit to Him
with the unbounded confidence of men who are
reposing upon the Everlasting God.
Further, we are partakers of a privilege which was
only enjoyed in a very limited sense by the Jew, in
the fact of being joined together with all our fellow-
Christians in one communion and fellowship of God's
Holy Catholic Church. There is something depressing
in fighting a battle always alone. There is something
that crushes the spirit in seeing the great world, with
all its time-honoured customs and with all its prestige,
arrayed against you ; to feel, " Who am I, that I can
stand against that mighty army ?" But we know — -as
the weakest child in this church has the right to know
— that we are part of a Body, that we are linked, by
God's eternal counsels, with all the saints and martyrs
and confessors gathered out of every age and every
land ; with that lion-hearted bishop who has gone forth
to Africa, with those who are doing the Lord's work
in India, with the spirits and souls of the righteous
whom God has gathered into Paradise. When we
remember that these are all one with us, there comes
into the heart of a man — if only he has the grace
given him to look above this lower earth — an over-
powering sense of the grandeur of his position and
the dignity of belonging to the Church of Christ.
The knowledge of that exalted position raises us
above many a petty care, and above many a degrading
temptation. The cares are felt, the iron eats into
THE DISTENSATION OF THE SPIRIT 119
the soul ; but the spirit, the higher part of the man,
has communion with the great and the good of every
age and every land. When the battle seems to be
going against the Church in Britain, we read of the
victories that she is winning in wellnigh every quarter
of the globe, and we thank God and take courage.
And all this is the gift of this last dispensation. For
the Jew, though he had a Church, was at best but a
member of an isolated nation shut up in that little land
of Palestine, almost separated off from every onward
movement of the great world in which he lived.
Whereas we, in these latter days, by the very large-
ness, the catholicity of the Church, have sympathy
with every movement that is good and true and holy,
and according to the mind of God, and worthy of the
dignity of humanity. It matters not whether good
come from the Conservative or the Liberal side of
the House, the Church's arms are open to receive it, the
Church's heart beats true, with quick sympathy for
everything that is good, for everything that will elevate
mankind.
And that is not all. Not merely are we linked one
with another, not merely have we a God to pray for us,
not merely have we the certainty that if we believe in
Christ we are washed from our sins in His Blood ; but
by God's own regenerating act, by the Word of God,
according to His own Divine will, we have been baptized
into the Trinity, into the Father, and the Son, and the
Holy Ghost, made members of Christ, and children of
God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. Have
you ever thought what these words mean : baptized into,
covered, as it were, with the ever-glorious Trinity,
baptized into the Father, into the Son, and into the
Holy Ghost ?
O mystery of mysteries ! would that the grand
I20 A NEIV "BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
intellects that God has given to England in this age
were more brought to bear on these great verities of
the Faith ! How much is involved of supernatural
power, of untiring energy, of all-conquering might, in
that one formula which is pronounced over the little
child, baptized into the Father, into the Son, into
the Holy Ghost !
Again, that is not all. Not merely are we baptized
into God, but we are fed with God's own Divine life.
We are made partakers, we are told — and you cannot rob
these words of their meaning — we are made partakers
of the Divine nature. God is pleased to communicate
to the weakest and most trembling believer who kneels
at that Table — simply trusting in the word of the Lord
Jesus Christ Who brake the bread, and poured out
the wine, and said, " Take, eat : this is My Body ; drink
this, for this is My Blood." God has covenanted to
give to that poor, weak child, kneeling there at his first
Communion — What ?
Words fail, my brethren, words fail to define that
stupendous Gift which is contained in those words, " The
Body — the Blood — of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto
everlasting life."
The gift of the new dispensation, the Pentecostal
blessing, is the indwelhng of God, the indwelling of God
the Holy Ghost. He lives in you, dwells in you.
Your body, saith God, is the temple of the Holy
Ghost, Who dwelleth in you. Oh, it is that which
makes a certain class of sin so awful ! The body — the
temple of the Holy Ghost, Who dwelleth in us ! You
are not your own ; you are bought with a price ;
therefore glorify God in your body, and come out from
the unclean crowd and be separate. Let me be to you,
saith God, what I will to be, a Father Almighty.
THE DISTENSATION OF THE SPIRIT 121
In the natural world of God's creation, when
electricity was discovered, it was a wondrous gift and
revelation, that men could communicate their thoughts
to those far distant, in a moment, as it were, of time.
Something like that wondrous transformation was the
change that was effected when the great Dispenser of all
grace, when the Eternal God was pleased to reveal the
third Person of the Blessed Trinity, when God came to
live in us, to take possession of us. Men had seen a
possessed soul ; they had seen devils taking for a time
possession of men, and dragging them down to perdition.
They had seen the awful power of that invisible kingdom
of darkness.
But what is it, that you and I are possessed by God .''
It is that when you have to speak, it is not ye, saith
Christ, who speak, but the Spirit that speaketh in you
and through you. It is that when you have to say with
stammering lips, " I do not think it is right," and you
are laughed at, and you feel that you have blundered
over it, and done more harm than good, God will take
that word and, if He sees fit, all unknown to you, make
it an arrow piercing through and through into the heart
of the man who has laughed at you. Any clergyman
can tell you of instance after instance where a silly, weak
person, just saying, " It is right," or " It is wrong,"
or " I think I ought not so to do it ; I am afraid I cannot
do it," has been made such a power, because he was
possessed by God, that though the enemy had come in
like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord God had raised
up a banner against it, and it was powerless.
Now, the position of Britain at present — it is a
commonplace to say it — is a most critical one ; and I
think that many of the books that we read, and the
sermons to which we listen have oft-times a tendency to
be one-sided. Either the glorious results that have been
122 A NEW 'BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
accomplished are exaggerated, or the dangers are so
magnified, as almost by the perpetual dwelling upon
them, to hasten their accomplishment and realization.
It appears to me that at present there is, on the one
hand, an amount of spiritual activity, a deepening of the
spiritual life, a real honest desire on the part of a number
of lay people, to do their best, according to their light,
to fulfil the will of God in the land. Of course, if
through the carelessness and sluggishness of the Church,
men grow up not knowing what is meant by a Church,
or by Holy Baptism, or the Holy Eucharist, it is not
natural to expect that they should at once embrace all
that God has revealed in His love to those who are
every year being confirmed amongst us. But, according
to the light that God has given them, no one looking
impartially at the world around him can fail to acknow-
ledge that there are numbers trying to do their best
as good, honest Englishmen. And more than that,
unknown to the world, unknown even to the congre-
gations that muster in our churches, there are little
bands meeting together day after day — there are hun-
dreds of souls in the quiet of their own chamber —
praying to God : "Remember not, O Lord, the in-
iquities of our forefathers ; spare our country ; raise up
Thy power and come among us." I speak that which
I know, and I am bearing witness to that which I have
seen.
And yet, on the other hand, it is simply ridiculous
to ignore the signs of danger with which we are every-
where surrounded. Of course, numbers have not time
to read history. Numbers are occupied in different
ways, so that it is impossible for them to gather that
teaching which God gives us in the experience of the
past. But any man, who is familiar even with the
alphabet of history, is aware that there are around us
THE DISTENSATION OF THE SPIRIT 123
now just the outward signs by which the downfall of
some of the mightiest empires in the world has been
heralded. The Roman poet will tell you that when the
home life was losing its purity, that country was tottering
to its fall. Every wise philosopher of the olden time
would have taught you that all the luxury and increase
of money by which we are encompassed are just (unless
they are jealously watched) the harbingers of a nation's
ruin.
Here are these two forces. The country — thank
God, we have seen it on several marked occasions — the
country is still loyal and true, true to God and true to
its sovereign. And on the other hand, impurity, and
dishonesty, and adulteration in trade, and a wretched
servile imitation of the class immediately above, and
a reckless extravagance, and a miserable habit of living
upon money that belongs to the tradesmen whose debts
have never been paid — all these most wretched signs of
a degraded empire are around us.
Now, what is the practical lesson to be learned ? It
is this : the tremendous importance of each individual
man and woman who has been baptized into the Body of
Christ. If it be true that we live in this latter dispen-
sation, if all the glorious privileges of which I have
spoken are ours (and if we believe in the Bible we know
that they are ours) ; if we are aided by the Holy Spirit
in us so that any petition that we offer is sure to be
accomplished in God's own time and in God's own way,
should it be really for our good and the welfare of His
Church ; if it be true that our bodies are the temples of
the Holy Ghost, and that we are thus possessed by the
Living Spirit, then, I say, what a tremendous influence
each Christian man and woman and child can exercise on
the future of the country ! 1 am not speaking of those
whom God has set like a city on a hill, whose light
124 A NEW "BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
cannot be hidden ; I am only speaking of the poorest
and the weakest who are brave enough not to give up
themselves to evil, who will not yield to the spirit of
extravagance, who will not be dragged by the world
wherever it wills, and who will in God's strength dare to
stand alone. I am speaking simply of those who will
really try to be true to the leading of God the Holy
Ghost. Now see the tremendous power they have.
How little those last ten men in Sodom thought that
the whole city depended on them ! — that one man,
perhaps, if he had been true (ten instead of nine),
would have saved his country. There was one man
there, perhaps, whoever it was, who might have saved
his country if he had been true. How little that poor
slave thought that she would be the means of the
salvation of Naaman, and the carrying of the teaching
of God into that Syrian land ! How little those fisher-
men thought, that by simply obeying the call, " Follow
Me," they were to shake the world to its foundation !
How little S. Peter thought that by just saying his
prayers in the middle of the day, when other people
went to sleep in those hot countries, he would receive
the vision which would enable him to open the door of
the Gospel to the Gentiles, so that in the ever-widening
circles its sound has gone forth throughout all the earth !
How little conception has any one of the mighty import
that attaches to his truth, his trust, his GoD-fearing
Christian living, his progress, his life of dependence on
the Holy Spirit ! No one knows these things,
brethren, but God.
If you love this old fatherland, if you believe that it
is a critical time, then let the practical effect be, that
you reconsider your life. Now, at the beginning of this
season, ask yourselves, " Am I really obliged to spend
that money which so-and-so spends ? Am I really
THE DISTENSATION OF THE SPIRIT 125
obliged to read that book because others read it ? Can
I not, even if I am obliged to go to that place of
amusement where everything that is immoral abounds,
if I am obliged by my duty to those whom God has set
over me to go, can I not at least bear witness for my
Christ by saying, " I do not wish to go " ? (That is
a witness.) Can you not ? Is there one who has not
the power to do that ?
Oh, men and brethren, for the sake of England, for
the sake of the children that shall come after us, for the
sake of the God Who became incarnate and died on
Calvary, I beseech you, believe that you are indeed
possessed with the Holy Ghost, that there is a power
in your prayers, that there is a power in the stammering
words at which the world will sneer, that there is a
power in your refusing to do what others do, and to
live as others live around you ! Believe that you may
live the very highest life which God has revealed to you.
I am not preaching any narrow isolation. I am
speaking with the fullest sympathy with all that is joyous,
and pure, and beautiful in life ; I am not grudging the
man his sports, or the young girl her harmless amuse-
ments. Thank God that they have them ! Long may
they live to enjoy them ! But 1 am bearing witness for
the glorious might of every individual man and woman
who is baptized into the Holy Trinity, who has been
made a partaker of the Divine nature, who has God
within him, to be not a cypher, but a power for good in
the great progress of humanity.
Sons and daughters of Great Britain, arise ! Look
round your homes — I am not sent to judge, but to speak
and to help you to know Him Who came to save you —
look round on your homes, look round on the money
that has been spent in the past, look round on the money
you intend to spend in these coming months, look round
126 A NEW 'BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
upon the great Church of God ! Hear the voice of the
Incarnate One, as He stood on that hill-side of Olivet,
and pray Him to give you courage ; that He may never
have to say of Great Britain through your fault. If thou
hadst known, even thou, at least in that thy day !
THE VOICE OF THE SPIRIT 127
VI
THE VOICE OF THE SPIRIT
" That "tpas not first which is spiritual^ but that vohich is
natural ; and afterward that which is spiritual^ — i Cor.
XV. 46.
WE know, I trust, that God the Holy Ghost is
a Person, separate from the Father and the Son,
conscious of separate Being, though of the same substance
with the Father and the Son ; a living Person, as truly
as the Father lives and the Son lives. And we have
traced the progressive revelation of the three Persons.
The Blessed Trinity, of course, was ever the same, three
in One, and one in Three, " most ancient of all mysteries."
But the revelation to man of this threefold personality
has been gradual ; first the Father, then the Son, then
the Holy Ghost. And our position in the last dis-
pensation has been, I trust, clearly defined. Not merely
have we entered into the possession of all that the people of
God enjoyed under the old Covenant, not merely have we
inherited all the high privileges of those who touched the
hands and listened to the very voice of the Incarnate
God ; you and I have advanced a step higher on the
way up to the everlasting hills, for no virtue of our own.
It is not our doing, any more than it is any credit to have
been born in an age when the electric telegraph and all
the mighty machineries of science have been manifested
in the natural world. God, Who loved our fathers just
as much as He loves us, has been pleased to ordain that,
128 A NEJV 'BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
while they were born under the old Covenant or in the
days of Christ's personal ministry, we of this latter dis-
pensation shall have been made partakers of something
far more glorious and Divine than the mind of man in the
olden days had ever been able to conceive. " Eye hath
not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man to conceive, the things that God hath pre-
pared for them that love Him," but observe, the text
is often misquoted — but God has revealed them to us
by the Holy Ghost. We have been made partakers
of the Divine nature ; we have been baptized into the
Trinity, into it; our life hidden with Christ in the God-
head ; the black, hard stone of our fallen nature covered
with the rising tide of the Divine influence of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Ghost, so that in God we
live and move and have our being.
In us God the Holy Ghost dwells as a living
Person, the most tender, sympathizing Friend, able to
make allowance for all our weakness, able to supply
our manifold defects, able and most willing to correct
our manifold faults.
Yes ! God the Holy Ghost is living in you and
in me, to suggest, to hasten, to restrain, to purify, to
strengthen, to lift up into the society of the very angels
our inner man, our immortal spirit, the highest part of
our being. Dwelling in that centre, from the spirit of
the man He influences the soul and the body in like
manner ; dwelling in that inmost citadel. He sends forth
illumination into the mind, purity and fervour into the
affections ; and He will not stay His glorious work till
the last promise has been fulfilled, and the very mortal
bodies have been quickened by the power of the same
Holy Spirit that raised up Christ from the dead in
that new body of His resurrection life.
And so it comes to pass as a simple commonplace in
THS voice OF THE SPIRIT 129
the Christian covenant, that every command of our God
can be fulfilled ; because it is God, Who gave the com-
mand, that is working in us both to will and to do of
His good pleasure. Everything that the Bible describes
as the normal life of the regenerate soul is within our
reach, partially on earth, to a greater extent probably in
Paradise, perfectly in the new heavens and the new earth
wherein dwelleth, as its natural habitation, the Divine
righteousness.
Peace and joy, love to God and man, holy affection,
Christian liberty, wisdom to know God, understanding to
recognize and apply the principles of the eternal king-
dom ; in the idlest child that has wasted its life up to
this year, in the weakest member of this congregation,
each and all of these can be developed in God's own time
and in God's own way, because God hath so willed,
because God hath so promised.
We have seen, further, that the only requisites on our
part are : —
First, not to be satisfied with the dictum of any
preacher, but that from God's own Word, with the help
of our concordance, going down from time to time on to
our knees for Divine enlightenment, and then rising again
to study the pages and compare the texts, we search out
for ourselves from God's own written Word whether that
which has now been said is true.
Secondly, that without relying upon our progress, or
upon our feelings, or upon any human ground whatever,
we definitely resolve at once to accept the Word of the
Living God thus discovered, and to believe that what
God has promised He will most surely perform ; in
other words, to put our confidence in the fullness of
the promise that we have found in Holy Writ.
Thirdly, that we do not hinder the work of the Holy
Ghost by any wilful, deliberate resisting of His blessed
s
I30 ^ NEW "BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
influence. " In many points we offend all," and that
continually ; but that is quite different from wilfully
indulging, persisting, and continuing in that which we
know to be wrong.
Fourthly, that we become fellow-workers with God,
by prayer, by using such means of grace as are put
within our reach, by accepting — and this is very impor-
tant — by accepting any discipline by which God is
humbling self, by which God is robbing the world of
its attractive power, by which God is crushing our own
nature, in order that there may be free course — for that
is the meaning of all God's chastisements — in order that
there may be free course in us for the full joyous progress
of God the Holy Ghost. God never wounds, except to
heal ; God never gives sorrow, except that out of the
sorrow and the suffering there may come the joy unspeak-
able and full of glory.
Fifthly, and above all, that we cherish an unbounded
trust, a patient, persevering trust ; waiting God's time,
resolved to believe not merely in the Word of God but
in the Person of God ; resolving, if need be, if God call
us, to die in faith like the Old Testament saints, even if
we have not received the full realization of the promises.
Let us resolve that we will die with our Creed on our
lips. Make up your mind, brethren, that this shall be
your cry ; resolve whenever and wherever you die, if
you have ever really given yourselves up to Christ,
resolve, whatever may be the assaults of the devil, to die
with your Creed on your lips, saying, " What I see not
now, I shall see, for God hath spoken ; and what I feel
not now I shall feel, for God never lies ; I do not, I cannot
doubt Him." You will try and say it when you die (will
you not ?) wherever it may be, however far it may be from
the old church in which we have worshipped together.
Say, " I stagger not at the promise of God, though all is
THE voice OF THE SPIRIT 131
dark around." Yes ! my brother, with parched lips, it
may be, and with that strange quivering voice of death,
say with a confidence that all the powers of hell cannot
crush, speak out with a faith strong in proportion to the
bodily weakness, " Thanks be to God Who gives me the
victory in Jesus Christ my Lord ; thanks be to God
the Holy Ghost, the Author and the Giver of life."
Thus we have seen the doctrine, and we have seen
the method by which man is to co-operate with this
living Person.
Now, praying the Holy Spirit to control, restrain,
and guide my words, I desire to bring before you another
thought.
Let us look for a little while at the principle of
the text, " That was not first which is spiritual, but
that which is natural, and afterward that which is
spiritual." S. Paul, in the chapter before us, is giving
one special application of this principle. We will
rather for a few moments fix our thoughts on the
principle itself, and, in order to understand about what
we are speaking, let us see what we mean by this
word " natural."
Now, of course, as you know, you and 1 have a double
nature. It requires a little thought here, brethren, or
you lose the after-teaching. You and I have in us, in
our personality, a twofold nature. We have inherited
from Adam what we call a human nature. We have
been made, through God's mercy, partakers of a Divine
nature. There is a divine and there is a human nature.
Now of course you will understand, any of you who
really think of it, that all which would be natural to
that portion of us which is divine, would be supernatural
to that portion of our twofold personality which is human ;
just as the life of the plant is supernatural to the stone,
and the life of angels supernatural to man in the ordinary
132 c/f NEJV "BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
acceptation of the words. So the part of us which is
merely human (speaking in common language and not
guarding every word) naturally would consider things to
be supernatural, which to the angels (who look at us as
simply beings of God's new and divine creation) appear an
ordinary, commonplace part of our normal life.
By " natural," we do not mean that which is natural
in the real sense of our true being, as partakers of the
Divine nature ; but that which is in the ordinary accepta-
tion of the word called " natural." It is the ordinary
outcome of our human life, putting aside for the moment
our Baptism, our regeneration, our spiritual being, com-
municated from Christ, the living Vine. The truth,
then, which the Apostle brings out is this : that in the
general order of God's providence that which is natural
comes first, and afterwards, spiritual development.
For example, although some children are wonderfully
born at their Baptism (like John the Baptist, " wonder-
fully born "), and filled with the Holy Ghost from their
earliest infancy, still, as a general rule, you see in the
child in its earlier years the natural development of
ordinary kindness, or gentleness, or selfishness, or what-
ever it may be : the development of the nature it has
inherited from its parents. And here I would say, in
passing, that it is very desirable for parents to remember
that the faults in their children come from themselves.
Consequently, it is hard for us to blame our children,
however much we may try to correct the faults, because
they are reproducing the nature of their parents or grand-
parents. That which is natural comes first in the ordinary
life of the child. Just as God first developed on earth
the natural life, and only, after ages of preparation, at
Pentecost sowed the seeds in the Church of the spiritual
life, so it is now.
Therefore we must be very careful not to fall into
THE voice OF THE SPIRIT 133
the popular mistake of despising what is natural. Chris-
tian people fall into a terrible mistake when they under-
value mere " natural " habits, as they are called : habits
of obedience, habits of punctuality, habits of order.
There is no right habit, however trifling it may appear,
that is not divine, even though it be what we call
" natural." And there is given to us a distinct promise
that if a man or a child will begin by ordering his
conversation aright, by simply carrying out what we call
the natural principles of truth, and obedience, and
honesty, or whatever else you like to call them — mark
the words — " to him that ordereth his conversation aright
will I shew the salvation of God."
But while in the first place we recognize that the
natural comes first, and while we jealously guard the
natural from being considered as not from God, the
Author of every good and perfect gift, we see, in the
third place, that God has reserved some better thing for
us : that we (our natural being) should not be perfected
without the incoming of something higher, something of
which our Lord spoke when He said, " Ye must be born
from above."
I only touch on some illustrations, hoping, please
God, on another opportunity further to develop the
thought.
This higher influence comes first from above, and
then through the indwelling of God in us. For example,
see what a man does when he has been thoroughly led
by God the Holy Ghost. (Do not here be disturbed,
persons may be good, earnest Christians, and yet not be
thoroughly led by God the Holy Ghost.) When we
are thoroughly led by the Holy Spirit we are taught in
the Bible to expect that instead of merely submitting —
mark the difference — merely submitting to some law (the
law of conscience, or a law of the land, or a law of the
134 ^ NEW mRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
Church, or whatever you like) there shall be in us an
impulse, a love of what is good and pure and beautiful,
that shall come out as naturally in obedience to God's
law, as the devil's life comes out in acts of open
wickedness.
Or another illustration. We are taught to expect
some changes in our point of view after the Holy Ghost
has had a freer course in us. We have known —
good in itself — mere natural sorrow. There is the mere
natural sorrow that the drunkard feels for his intem-
perance and its results ; the mere natural sorrow that
the child feels for having pained its parents or lost a
holiday ; the mere natural regret that an old man feels
when the pulse is beginning to get weaker and strength
is ebbing and he looks back upon not one single
profitable thing done or one profitable word spoken in
an entire life ; the regret for unused opportunities that
a man feels when he sees opening before him on that
death-bed the great company of angels, the Majesty of
God, the glorious society of angels and archangels and
principalities and powers, a beautiful system of law which
he has never learnt, a beautiful system of order of which
he has never tried even to master the first principles ;
the mere natural regret that every one must feel if,
having been put into this world as a school and not
having learnt a single lesson, he is quite unfit, even if
he were admitted into heaven, for the companionship of
God and the angels. Now, we are taught to expect that,
instead of all this mere natural sorrow, there shall be
wrought in us by the Holy Ghost, a chastened —
1 had almost said happy — sorrow for sin. There is a
bitter pain for having grieved the loving Spirit, and
yet side by side with the sorrow comes a happy con-
sciousness that, in spite of all our waywardness, that love
has continued to save us yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
THE voice OF THS SPIRIT 135
Next, there is a very practical truth for earnest
Christians ; it shall be put shortly, because it will not
have much meaning to those not fighting the good fight
of faith. There is a time (known only to God) of
transition from the natural order to the spiritual order
in our life, at the time when God is intending: to bemn
a real development in us of conscious spiritual life. It
may come over and over again. Very often these
transitions come from the natural to the spiritual order,
one part of the natural order transformed to the
spiritual, and so on, at different epochs of our life.
Whenever any of these changes of our outer being occur,
whenever God is going to develop a higher spiritual
being in us, then there comes the manifestation of the
great truth of which S. Paul gives an illustration in this
chapter from the Corinthians. You remember he is
describing there how, just before the grain of corn
develops into the blade that is to come up from it, and
afterwards the full ear — so that seventy times seven,
even to millions of grains, may spring from it — it
appears to man to die.
Just as in the natural creation, when any insect is
going to be manifested in a more beauteous form, there
is a putting off of the old with a sort of death ; so
be prepared. Christian people, for a dark time just before
the higher spiritual life is poured into your souls. In
this, as in other senses, we pass through the grave and
gate, as it were, of death to arise into a resurrection life
of higher beauty and more spiritual development.
So oft-times a man says, " I am losing my nerve ;
I have nothing of the old pluck left." That is the
sound, the voice, of the wind that blows where it
lists ; " and thou hearest the sound, but canst not tell
whence it comes or whither it goes." It is the harbinger
of the work of the Holy Spirit Who dwelleth in us.
136 c/f NEW 'BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
Who is going to give thee, in place of merely physical
pluck, spiritual, divinely implanted courage.
You may often hear Christian workers say, " My
interest in the district and in the Sunday School is
declining, my faith in God is weak, my hope seems to be
all going." Then the devil says, " It has all been a
delusion." Believe him not, my brethren, it is simply
that those natural graces which have been nurtured in
some quiet Christian home must die, in order that the
Divine resurrection life, that will abide with you for
eternity, may be manifested.
Therefore, brethren, die that spiritual death bravely,
as, please God, we have resolved to die the physical
death when it comes, however we may shrink from it.
The last thought now for all of us, whether fighting
the good fight of faith or not, is this : it is one thing to
live in the dispensation of the Spirit ; it is very different
to be conscious of, and to know that you are living in,
the dispensation of the Spirit.
It is one thing to come to church, as you have all
come, and heard truths that I have been afraid to utter —
about which clergy pray in the vestry that God would
" grant that what we teach to others may never rise up
in judgement against ourselves." You have heard truths
about God's kingdom that angels would tremble to
publish, lest they should be adding to the responsibility
of a single soul. [Oh, it is a widely different thing to
have a sermon floating over our ears without it ever
entering into our heart. The Lord God does not go
about to condemn His children. The Lord God would
rather make an excuse (to speak in human words) for
His poor wayward ones, who are so sorely tried by the
world and the flesh and the devil. The only thing that
He cannot and will not bear with is, deliberate tampering
with a conscious sense of what is right and true, accord-
THE voice OF THE SPIRIT 137
ing to the mind of God, a deliberate halting between two
opinions.]
But I say the Lord God does not go about to
condemn His children ; and therefore the last few
solemn words I have to speak to you may not apply to
one-tenth of those who are now sitting in this church,
although, as I have said, they have listened to some of
the most tremendous truths : truths of which God
Himself has pronounced, that if a man deliberately sin
against them, there is no forgiveness, though the Jews
who nailed Christ to the Cross were afterwards forgiven
in thousands.
One thought I now wish to leave with the few, it
may be, who have understood the teaching. My
brethren, you and I now know that when a voice in
us is applying the Word of God to our souls,
any feeling which we possess for the higher, better
life is not a natural impulse to us ; we know that it
is not merely the voice of the conscience that spoke
to Socrates in the olden days ; we know that it is
God, God the Holy Ghost dwelling in us, alive as
the man or woman sitting next to you in that seat.
If the drunkard would not like the mother that
prayed over him to see him tottering through the
streets ; if the girl who knows that she is grieving the
Lord Jesus Christ could not bear Him to stand behind
her and listen to those words spoken and that evil
thought indulged ; if all of us cannot bear to do our
deeds of darkness in the bright light of the presence
of those we love : I ask you, Christian believers in God
the Holy Ghost, have you realized that the voice in
you is God's voice Who lives there } To turn a deaf
ear is to fight against God, and to resist nothing less
than the Holy Ghost. It is to use the freedom that
the great God has given us (to separate us from the
T
138 c/f NEJV "BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
lower animal creation) in deliberate tampering with our
inwrought convictions, in a deliberate palliation of that
which He has taught to be wrong, and in a deliberate
procrastination that is content to say to the Living God,
" Sit quiet in my heart, speak not until the season
is over ; speak not till the money is gained ; speak not
till the temptation is conquered ; speak not to me, O
God the Holy Ghost, for I cannot and I will not
listen."
My dear brethren, the joy and the glory of the
spiritual life is ours, but the responsibilities of it are ours
also, for the Lord God, the Holy Spirit Himself, hath
said, he that makes light of it, he that despises these
breathings within, despiseth not man but God.
From all that blindness of heart, from all that
contempt of God, may the good Lord deliver us !
THE JVORK^ OF THE SPIT^IT 139
VII
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT
^^Hofobeitthaf^as not first which is spiritual^ but thafvohich
is natural ; and afterwards that 'which is spiritual^ — i Cor.
XV. 46.
'' I ^AKING the word " natural " in its ordinary sense,
J- we have seen that while Almighty God is the
Author of all good gifts ; that while what are called
natural graces, natural endowments, natural virtues, and
the like, are by no means to be despised, but to be held
in honour for the sake of Him by Whom they were
created ; that while it is perfectly necessary for us,
especially in dealing with children, to thank Almighty
God for any sign of mere natural virtue that we see
exhibited in their ripening years ; — still God has pre-
pared for us, in these latter days, something better than
the mere natural endowments with which a Socrates, or
even an Israelite under the old Covenant, might expect
to be endowed.
We have seen that it is the prerogative of God
the Holy Ghost to develop out of this old nature
of ours — fallen, yet retaining in itself something of the
image of God — a new creation, a divine being, fit
for the companionship of the angels in the realms
of the redeemed. We have seen that all the circum-
stances of our life, all that happens to us of joy and
of sorrow, all the friends or the enemies by whom
I40 c/f NEJV "BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
we are encompassed, when once we have believed in
God the Holy Ghost — and oft-times before we have
believed in Him, unconsciously, through His grace
abounding, flowing ever beyond all that has been asked
or thought — can be made by Him into the instruments
by which this glorious, this regenerate, this immortal,
this incorruptible nature, can be developed and made fit
for the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Next, I bring before you three aspects of the working
of God the Holy Ghost. It is obvious that if He be
(as we have seen He is) very God, worshipped and
glorified equally with the Father and the Son, of one
substance with the Father and the Son, though separate
from them in His Divine personality ; if God is living
in us, it is obvious that all the work of the Holy Ghost
must of necessity have relation to God. " He that is of
God," saith Jesus Christ, "speaketh the things of God" ;
much more must He Who is God bear witness to the
ever-blessed Trinity, as He liveth in us in order to
reveal. And if you carry this thought with you, you will
have in it a mark whereby to distinguish that which is
merely natural from that which is distinctly spiritual.
1. The Holy Ghost puts God in His proper posi-
tion in the soul of man.
2. He puts man in his proper relation to God ; so
long, I mean, as he continues on this lower earth.
3. And then, by a long, gradual work of restoration,
He uplifts man out of that condition in which he now
is ; He perfects the ideal of the Blessed Trinity in him ;
He makes him fit for that companionship of angels here-
after, for that gazing on the unveiled face of God, for
which, in the long ages of a past eternity, he was
predestinated.
That is the threefold work of God the Holy Spirit,
with which we are concerned ; of course, not limiting the
THE IVORK^ OF THE SPIT^IT 141
work of the Blessed Spirit to anything that finite man
can conceive.
Now, first of all, the Holy Spirit repairs the altar of
God. Recall that symbolic action in Israel where all the
main characteristics of the Holy Spirit, the wind and
the fire and the water, were brought into distinct pro-
minence : in that work of restoration, preparing the way
for the true Elisha, by which Elijah the prophet of God
destroyed the worship of Baal in the land, and lifted up
Israel into a new and regenerate life of surrender to God.
The first work, as you remember, in that evening of the
day — what a picture of this evening of the world's his-
tory, the latter days, the latter dispensation, as it has been
called ! — when men's strength was spent in fruitless
efforts, when men's vain cries had gone up unheard and
unanswered ; then calmly the prophet of God, or rather
God the Holy Ghost Who spake through the prophet
of God, comes forth, and his first symbolic action is to
repair the altar of God ! All man's mistakes have
proceeded from his not choosing (as S. Paul says) to
retain God in his knowledge. You can work it out
in the first and second chapters of the Epistle to the
Romans. So the Holy Ghost, first of all, puts God
into His proper position.
Now try to bring your attention to bear on this ; for
however imperfectly the thoughts may be brought before
you, they are thoughts worthy of our consideration.
Try to grasp them, for they are somewhat difficult of
apprehension. I am not speaking to children in Sunday
School, but to educated men and women.
You must see how God the Holy Ghost, Who
liveth in your hearts and mine, will act directly upon the
highest part of our being, the spirit, the " inner man,"
as it is called in the Bible.
All those who have studied the subject — whether
142 ^ NEW "BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
religious people or not — all who have studied the
subject impartially, have acknowledged that there must
be recognized certain facts in the experience of the
human soul, facts gathered by a long induction, spread
over many generations and the lives of countless saints.
You must recognize such an immediate revelation of
God made on certain remarkable occasions (not merely
in the Bible, but since the canon of Scripture was closed)
which are best described in ordinary language as
"miraculous" and "supernatural," although I would
guard the more thoughtful amongst you against accept-
ing those words without consideration. Such, for
instance, was that vision of God of which S. Paul
speaks, when a living Spirit took possession of his
spirit, and he was borne up, he scarcely knew how, and
heard in Paradise unspeakable words, that he was never
allowed to clothe afterwards in human language ; when
he enjoyed direct intercourse with the Everlasting
Trinity in a manner that is simply inexplicable. Such
are those strange utterances, those unspeakably marvel-
lous visions, which every clergyman — however matter of
fact he may be — cannot help recognizing occasionally
(very seldom perhaps, but occasionally) in those who have
lived very near to God, and are just on the threshold,
passing out into the world of spirits. This is the
truth of which all that wretched " spiritualism " is a
mere caricature ; and it is strang^e — showino^ how God
knows the need of the creatures that He has made — that
numbers who have tossed aside religion, and never kneel
at the Holy Table to be partakers of the Divine nature,
can give themselves up, body, soul, and spirit, to delu-
sions that require a thousand times more faith than to
believe in Jesus of Nazareth.
We descend to that which we can (so to speak)
recognize with our ordinary faculties — and here, again,
THE WORK^ OF THE SPII^T 143
let me remind you that although the various thoughts
must be given in a certain sequence, it does not follow
that God the Holy Ghost always deals with the soul in
that precise order ; He speaks as He wills, just as "the
wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither
it goeth."
So we dwell for a few moments on God's work
in its ordinary course : He first of all repairs the altar
of God by enlightening the understanding. Of all the
subtleties with which the devil has destroyed souls in
the present day, few are more baseless, and, at the
same time, more effective than that idea which he
circulates, that religion has no scope for the under-
standing, that the mind of a man can find nothing
in God's revealed Word, and in the working of
God upon his mind. God begins by enlightening the
understanding as a general rule. He gives unto us
right notions about God. Man's heart is full of wrong
notions, of errors, which have been planted there by the
father of lies ; and so, in breaking down the altar of
Baal and lifting up God to His proper place in the
temple that He has redeemed, the mind of man must be
enlightened.
For example, the Holy Spirit brings a man by the
study of the Bible, and by calm reflection, to understand
that God loves him, and that God is a God of love.
He brings us to see, next, that God is an Almighty God,
that His power is infinite, that He can work in us (if we
will let Him) a complete restoration, that " what is
impossible with man is possible with God." He says
so ; and, as a mere matter of thinking, you observe that,
even if we have lived a very bad life, yet if we have
yielded ourselves to God honestly and truly, God, as
God, can just as easily create a clean thing out of the
144 ^ NEJV "BIRTH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
unclean, as He first brought water out of chaos, and
light out of darkness. The creative power of God — the
power that God has of taking a soul and bringing it out
restored, doing in a week or a year what a man might
not accomplish in the ordinary course of his natural
working in a life-time — is one of the right notions about
God with which the understanding is enlightened.
Then, following close upon that, comes the right
notion (following by hard logic, if you only use your
minds) that if God is Almighty, that if God has the
power of absolutely doing that which to a limited mind
or to a limited power would be simply impossible, then,
also, God can do all that in the Bible He professes to do.
He can absolutely and for ever veil the past. It is not
a mere boast, but the word of the Living God, " I will
cast their sins into the depths of the sea."
These are just some of the right notions which the
Holy Spirit gives to the understanding that He has
enlightened as to the nature of God — the love of God ;
the absolute power of God ; and the recreative, restoring,
absolving power of God.
Closely following upon that there comes to the mind
thinking it out, a conviction that this Living God has
a right to say that there can be no part of our being
taken out of His sovereign jurisdiction ; that wherever
we go, into pleasure or into business, alone or in society
(as a matter, again, of mere hard logic) the Living God
is everywhere the absolute Lord of our being, and He
claims our obedience in our daily work or pleasure as
much as when we are kneeling at the Holy Table and
feeding upon the living Bread.
Next, He enlightens our mind. As a mere matter
of understanding, just as the mind of a man appreciates
a picture, or sees beauty in the glorious tiers of moun-
tains rising in these distant Alps, so the Holy Ghost
THE WORK^ OF THE SPIT^T 145
teaches the understanding to see that there is some-
thing very noble in " God manifest in the flesh." As wc
read the life of Jesus of Nazareth, although our heart
may be still cold as the driven snow — our mind sees His
was a noble Life. Infidels have said it, you know. It
is a grand self-denying life, an utter abnegation of self,
that is manifested in the course of Jesus of Nazareth
from the cradle to the grave. When we see Him in all
the varied aspects of life, our intelligence recognizes
Him as worthy of admiration. That is the work of the
understanding.
Next, the Holy Spirit brings the heart into opera-
tion — the heart, with all its manifold play of feeling
and its infinite emotion. He brings the heart that
it may fasten itself, as it were, upon these right notions,
and draw near to that Person Whose Life and Being have
thus been grasped with the understanding. For example.
He gives faith to lay hold of the absolving power ; He
gives hope to lay hold of the re-creating power ; so
that the man, with a real inward feeling, hopes. He
looks forward to being made absolutely perfect by the
power of the Holy Spirit, if not in this life, at least in
the life to come. Then comes that which we crave for
when we have said — how often we have said it — " I
understand it all, my intellect accepts it ; I know it is
true ; but I cannot feel it." Then comes into play
the emotional part of man's nature ; then God the
Holy Spirit — living in us, observe, and therefore able
to work upon us from within, and so to accomplish what
could never be done from without — the Holy Spirit,
living in us, gives us the faith, gives us the love, gives
us the hope, so that we fasten with our heart's best
affections upon that Being Who is " altogether lovely."
And then is created a calm, deep, restful sense — O my
brethren, I wish that we all realized it more ! We
u
146 ^ NEW BIRTH UCNJO RIGHTEOUSNESS
might know it ; the saints of God are acquiring it
all around us — that calm restful sense that the past
is forgiven : that quiet assurance that God, Who has
begun the good work, will never leave it unfinished till
the day of Christ's appearing. Afterwards will come
the passionate emotion, the burning enthusiasm, that
solemn longing to do anything rather than sin, to do
anything rather than disappoint the God Who dwelleth
in us, the God Who died for us on Calvary, the Father
Who loves us and is watching every step in our onward
progress. Taking here especially the Lord Jesus Christ
— the tender human Saviour, the Almighty God, very
God as well as very Man — witnessing for Jesus Christ,
the Holy Spirit creates in us those passionate longings
which have been the mainspring of a life of devotion ;
that faith, and hope, and love that will last on through
the burning heat, as well as in the springtide ; that
faith, and hope, and love that come from within, like the
well of water of which Christ spake, springing up into
everlasting life ; that love of God Incarnate by which the
world can be subdued, and men are made strong (aye,
and weak women, too) to live, and to suffer, and with
joy, if need be, to die.
I have almost anticipated here the next special action
of the Holy Spirit. Having enlightened the under-
standing, having warmed the heart. He brings into
obedience the will with its definite resolves. The letter
has been clearly written ; the wax has been melted by
the warm emotion ; then God's seal is put upon it all :
" Lo, I come, to do Thy will, O God."
The reason why religion in many cases has fallen into
disrepute, as being a mere thing for the feelings, is that
the work of the Holy Ghost upon the understanding
and upon the will has not been properly recognized.
And the reason why missions, and all the more en-
THE WORJ^OF THE SPIT^IT 147
thusiastic works of God's Church, have been disparaged
is that men have fixed their minds exclusively on the
understanding and on the will, and have ignored the
action of the Blessed Spirit upon the heart with its
emotions.
This, then, is the first work of God the Holy Spirit.
He repairs the altar of God in the heart.
And if you have followed me here, the second
division will be comparatively easy. The Holy Spirit,
if He is to do a real work — and it were irreverent to
imagine the Holy Ghost as not perfecting His work —
the Holy Spirit must show us the truth.
Now, what is the truth .'' What is the fact that
sooner or later we all discover ? What is it ? Are we
perfect ? Is it easier to do right than wrong ? Is it easy
to keep our resolutions ; to crucify the flesh, to stand
against the world, and so forth } Is it ? No. And
why not ^ Why is it that the nature created in the
image of God does not naturally apprehend God, and
love God, and yield up itself to God ? Why ? Because
man has fallen. Account for it as you like ; bewilder
yourselves as you please with theories as to the origin of
evil ; the facts unhappily cannot be ignored. Make
a resolution to-day, come back next year, and tell God
how it has been kept. You will not need any one
to prove to you that the flesh lusteth against the spirit ;
the lower nature against the higher ; that the world and
the flesh and the devil have gained a mighty power over
this renewed spirit that was created in the likeness of the
Blessed Trinity.
Therefore, the second work of the Holy Spirit
is to reveal to man — observe here — his present relation
to God ; in other words, to show him that he is a
sinner in the presence of the Holy Trinity. Here,
148 <vf NEJV BIRTH UJ\(JO RIGHTEOUSNESS
again, the Holy Spirit works by the revelation of Jesus
Christ.
The Holy Ghost then convinces of sin. Here you
have exactly the same course that we followed in the first
division. Sometimes there are what we call supernatural,
almost miraculous, actions of the Holy Spirit upon the
spirit of a man, quite as wonderful as the effect of that
one word on S. Paul, when he fell to the ground and
surrendered himself then and there to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
I must give but two instances. I remember how, in
this church, a soul that had remained untouched by
numberless sermons, was broken down and turned to
God for life, by just these words, "Jesus Christ went
out." The subject was Christ teaching in the Temple at
Jerusalem, His pleading with a soul and then leaving it ;
and these were the words, " Christ went out " ; that was
all. There was nothing in the words, but they caused
the most thorough breaking down, with tears and agony
unspeakable, issuing in a joyous peace and a holy, con-
sistent life. This was what I may call a direct act of the
Spirit of God upon that immortal soul. I remember
another instance where a calm, solemn sermon on the
words, " Be still," had a similar effect. " Be still," that
was all. Those were the words uttered, but the Holy
Ghost laid hold of that spirit, broke it down, and drew
out of it the most humbling acknowledgements of sin
and started it (it is years ago) on a course of holy life
from which it has never departed. These are but two
out of many instances I could give you, out of my own
note-book, of the direct action of the Holy Ghost in the
conviction of sin.
Now, the blessing of such instances is this, it gives
such a faith to our prayers. It is just as easy for the
wind to lay low a whole forest, as to refresh your fore-
THE JVORK^ OF THE SPI7{IT 149
head or mine upon a hot July afternoon. In a moment
the whole of this congregation might be kneeling, utterly
regardless of all the opinion of the world, saying, like the
three thousand on the day of Pentecost, " What must I
do to be saved ? " Sometimes at a mission we see a man
come in and laugh at it all ; and before the end of the
week (nobody knows how, but silent prayer has been
offered for the man who laughed at the beginning of the
mission) we missioners have almost always found just
such a man come again with most utter humiliation.
God has touched the soul, and a man cannot continue
to laugh when God speaks.
Coming down to the more ordinary experience,
through which each of us (or at least many of us) have
passed, the Holy Spirit first enlightens the understand-
ing by showing us that inward sin is guilt, that wicked
thoughts are wicked, that wicked feelings indulged are as
much sin as the overt act which the world recognizes.
The Holy Ghost dwelling within us shows us that
the things that have been left undone, with our time, our
money, our life, the nursing of self, the ignoring of the
claims of God — all that we call sins of omission — the
Holy Ghost, living in us, brings to our remembrance.
He goes on calmly enlightening the understanding,
teaching it out of the Bible its secret sins, and obliging it
(as a mere matter again of hard intellectual work) to
acknowledge that if Christianity is true, and if the Bible
has any meaning, then each must confess : I have sinned
because I have had wicked thoughts, and I have indulged
them ; I have allowed things to be left undone which
ought to be done ; I have sinned in thought, if not in
word or in deed.
Then the Holy Ghost enlightens the understanding
as to the intolerable presumption of a created being (like
an atom in the deep ocean, like a tiny gossamer in this
ISO ^ NE^ BIRTH UOiJO RIGHTEOUSNESS
great atmosphere by which we are surrounded) havhig
dared to question the will of the Omnipotent, having
dared to rebel against a God in Whom it lived, and
moved, and had its being.
The same sort of rational understanding that convicts
a person under authority of insubordination or want of
proper respect to his earthly master, the same under-
standing, enlightened by the Holy Ghost, confesses that
its life has been a life of presumptuous rebellion. We
see that our life has been a self-pleasing, self-indulgent
ignoring of God : the God Whom all creation worships,
the God to Whom all nature raises the unending anthem
of praise and thanksgiving, the God to Whom the great
chorus is ever rising of willing, loving submission. We
see that against that harmony we have transgressed, that
against that God we have rebelled, with an intolerable
presumption, which we should not allow in a child or in
an earthly servant.
And then the Holy Ghost brings out the life of
Christ — I have so often preached on that thought that I
do not dwell upon it so much — brings out, as a matter ot
calm understanding, the ingratitude of letting Christ die
on Calvary, and then refusing to come unto Him that
He may see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.
The Holy Spirit, I say, having enlightened the under-
standing, softens the heart, and brings out what S. Paul
speaks of as " the indignation " with ourselves, the
"fear" lest God may cut us off in the midst of our sin.
It leads to an unutterable " sorrow," like the sorrow of
S. Peter when he saw the face of Jesus Christ and went
out and wept bitterly.
So you see the spiritual letter is written with the
understanding, and the warm heart's emotions melt the
wax, and then comes the seal : a life-long repentance,
accompanied by a joy which you have never tasted if you
THE IVORI^OF THE SPI1{IT 151
do not know Jesus Christ. There is a joy in union
with Jesus Christ ; it is a greater happiness, believe me,
than any of the earthly joys which we have tasted in our
earlier life, however happy we may then have been — and
many of us were very happy.
There comes an unutterable sadness, mingled with an
unspeakable joy, as the will resolves to be penitent all
its life, and yet joyful, rejoicing in the Lord, and full of
faith and hope and love.
So, brethren, beloved in Christ, I have tried hurriedly
to lead you on through the great triumphant working
of the Holy Ghost. I have tried, by His own blessed
help, to unfold to you some of the ways in which He
enlightens the understanding, warms the heart, and gains
the will. The modes of His action differ in different
cases. As a general rule. He begins at the outside and
reverses the order when dealing with the world ; He
begins from the centre and works out to the circum-
ference when acting upon the regenerated believing
spirit.
One caution only. Never be disturbed if at
different times in your life — I am speaking to those
who believe in Jesus Christ — you seem to lose all
hold upon God and unseen verities. That is the
way in which the Holy Ghost creates a hunger,
which is the pledge of after satisfaction. Dwell
upon the symptoms of hunger : the void, the pain, the
weariness, the utter disgust with everything ; and then
apply that to the spiritual life, and whenever that void
is felt, look on it as the divinely created hunger,
and carry out the teaching of Psalm xliv. : though God
may smite you into the place of dragons, never hold up
your hand to any strange god, still less forget the
Covenant. Hold on by God, and out of that death
another resurrection shall be accomplished ; for all the
152 ^A NEW BIRTH U:HT0 RIGHTEOUSNESS
life of the regenerate soul is a succession of dying and
a succession of resurrections.
God enable you, who believe, to lay hold on that
truth : and to all of you, as the last word now, believe,
I pray you, in this blessed truth of the new dispensa-
tion. You have no idea what you can become ; you
have no idea as to the complete absolution ; you have no
idea as to the complete re-creation of the most utterly
fallen spirit. I have watched it every day in those
whom God has given to me. It is marvellous — if we
had not the promise of God to lead us to expect
this — what a poor fallen sinner can become, and
in how short a time the work of re-creation can be
accomplished through the indwelling of the Holy
Ghost. Whatever the past has been, give yourself to
God to be humbled, for God resists the proud.
" Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God."
Give yourself up to Him, and say : " O God, break my
heart ; humble me ; crush this proud spirit ; take this
self-will away ; show me — whatever it costs me, while
I am alive, and while the door of hope is open — show
me, my God, what an utter, wicked sinner I have been !
Oh, show me also Thy power. Thy compassion. Thy
interest in my progress. Thine unfeigned love."
Be of good cheer. Work out your salvation with
fear and trembling ; but work it out with a good hope,
because it is God Who is working in you both to will
and to do of His good pleasure.
1
giFTS FROM ^BOVE 153
I
VIII
GIFTS FROM ABOVE
^'^ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. "^
S. James i, 17.
T is now important that we should clearly recognize
the separation between mere intellectual gifts and
those graces which are described in the Bible as the
effects of God the Holy Ghost working in us. As we
are taught by Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones, God made
the bones, God gave the sinews and the fair outward
covering, just as much as He was the Author and the
Giver of the spiritual life. But there is a distinction ;
and it is important that this distinction should be recog-
nized, for two reasons :
First of all, lest we should remain satisfied with the
mere natural gifts and graces with which God may have
endowed us ; lest we should be satisfied with remaining
in the condition of a Socrates or a Jew under the old
Covenant, or a believer in Christ before the manifestation
of Pentecost. There is something on which we con-
gratulate ourselves when our boy has risen even to the
fifth form ; but good and respectable as the position
may be in itself, it would be a grievous pity if he were
to remain content with that inferior place, when there
was placed within his grasp, requiring only a little more
faith and a little redoubled energy, the higher position
of captain of the school and head of the sixth.
And, secondly, it is important, because without it
X
154 ^ NEff^ BIRTH U0\(JO RIGHTEOUSNESS
we fall into the most hopeless confusion. Unless we
separate the work of God which is described as natural,
which we share with the heathen, from the higher and
the supernatural working, which is the characteristic
of this new dispensation, we must fall into hopeless
confusion. Lovable natures, natures that God in His
providence has made from the beginning amiable, with-
out strong passions, without great tendencies either to
unbelief or to yielding to the lusts of the flesh, or what
not, become uplifted. They mistake that which they
have inherited from their parents for the fruits of God
the Holy Ghost given in answer to prayer, and to
Sacraments, and a hearty surrender of the whole being to
the Lord and Giver of life.
And on the other hand, persons with rugged natures,
with strong downward tendencies, are dispirited, as if
they had no part nor lot in the matter ; whereas the
very downward tendency is intended by Him Who
overcometh evil with good to provoke them by the
very degradation of their falls, to rise out of that depth
of iniquity unto the highest peak of the everlasting hills
whereon the sunlight never sets.
Take one instance. We all see at once that it is
ridiculous to say that religious zeal is necessarily the
work of God the Holy Ghost, that because I am active
and energetic in my parish, therefore I have specially
yielded to the Holy Spirit, or am specially led by Him.
It is obvious, the moment the fact is put before us, that
mere earnestness, the mere natural desire to work and to
do things as well as you can, is a natural gift ; very good
in its way, a great blessing if it is properly used and not
left undisciplined to drag us into undue excess. But in
itself it is a mere natural gift ; and of course (if you try
to follow me with your mind, not merely to listen to a
general declamation, but really to think of what I am
giFTS FROM .ABOVE 155
saying) you will see at once that it matters not whether
we spend this natural energy upon religious work or
upon secular work, it still remains natural zeal ; it is
natural energy even unto the end. Just as a river may
be coloured indeed by the character of the stratum
through which it flows, but in its essential qualities
remaineth the same, the same as the fountain from
which it originally proceeded, even so we may be
spending an intensity of energy upon the most holy work ;
but if it is mere natural energy, it is natural to the end,
as much as if we spent it in declaiming as the leaders
of some great democratic revolution.
The Pharisees were remarkably earnest, God says so.
They compassed sea and land to make a proselyte ; and
yet we know they were utter hypocrites, certainly not led
by the Spirit of God ; they were mere whited sepulchres,
without a particle of God the Holy Ghost really entering
into their being.
It is a remarkable psychological fact, that men of
profligate habits intensely enjoy singing hymns, that they
are most quickly worked up into a religious enthusiasm ;
they, and utterly worldly women — those two classes,
women who are living entirely to the world, and men
who are yielding to their lower nature — are immediately
taken with a mighty religious enthusiasm, and will sing
the most heavenly hymns, without a particle of real
living spiritual life pervading their being.
Therefore it is important that this should be clearly
understood ; because, apart from the instance given to
you, how often it is confused, how very often you hear
people say, " That is a good man ; that is a good
woman ; see how full of good works they are ; see how
active and energetic ; all his time spent on one committee
after another ; all her energies devoted to the cause of
God's Church."
156 ^ NEir BIRTH UUiJO RIGHTEOUSNESS
Secondly, another important point. In all our striv-
ings after the development of the higher life, it is impor-
tant that we begin as God and the Church taught us to
begin, with the Creed, " I believe in God the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost."
Of course there is a blessed benefit in self-examina-
tion, in introspection, in all that side of the Christian life
about which I have so often spoken to you. But as our
Lord said when He was on earth, so will it be even to
the end. If we are to be subjected to the influence of
the Holy Ghost, we must begin " from above." No
amount of struggling to bring ourselves into a condition
in which we can claim the power of the Holy Spirit will
ever land us in anything but hopeless despair. We
should start with this : that " this is the will of God,
even our sanctification " ; I am God's workmanship, I
have been " created in Christ Jesus unto all good works,"
which God, before I was born, prepared for me, and
He intended that I should walk in them. That text
turned a man who had merely been a believer in Christ
and at peace with God, but a powerless Christian, into
one who has ministered now to the spiritual life of
thousands : that one thought breaking on his mind, that
God had created him for the very object that he might
be holy, that he might walk in good works, that he
might abound in the fruits of the Spirit.
It is important not merely to begin but to carry on
that thought. When, for example, we find our own
progress very slow, when we find ourselves continually
falling back, we sink into utter despondency unless we
remind ourselves that God never changes ; that it is God
the Holy Ghost Who is working in us ; that it is God
Who wills that we should be sanctified.
If we fall again and again, then we must examine
ourselves, of course. " Am I using all the means of
giFTS FROM ^BOVE 157
grace ? Am I going to Holy Communion as frequently
as my spiritual digestion will allow ? Am I steadfast in
my Bible-reading, and my prayers, and my works of love,
and so forth ? Am I wilfully resisting His influence by
any sin knowingly indulged, any duty wilfully omitted ?"
Of course we must ask ourselves these questions ; but
this mere questioning will not deliver us from the para-
lysing effects of a fall, of having made little progress, of
having sunk down unexpectedly under the power of the
devil or the world or the flesh. But if it is the habit of
our life to begin and continue and end with God — in
God to live and move and have our being, as it were —
then we remind ourselves that " the husbandman waiteth
long for the precious fruits of the earth," and therefore
we may also patiently wait with confidence even if
the work of our sanctification appeareth to be delayed
beyond that which in earlier life we had ventured to
anticipate.
So also with the little battles of life, the same principle,
believe me, applies. When you begin the battle, you
will find how every word of this is of vital importance.
It has been brought out of the experience of God's saints
for nineteen hundred years — all these words that I am
speaking to you to-day ! When the evil arises we cast
ourselves on God. We recognize the sudden impulse of
the lower nature, the angry feeling, the envy, the jealousy,
the pride, or what not — although we cast ourselves upon
God, no deliverance seems to come. Thus comes the
trial. If we are impetuous, if we are accustomed to look
inward instead of steadfastly fixing our mind and heart on
God, then our faith goes, we lose our head, we drift
on like a rudderless ship, and, unless God avert the
catastrophe, we are dashed to pieces on the rocks.
But if it has become the habit of our life (having once
reminded ourselves that God lives) to trust that soul of
158 ^ NEW BIRTH U:}{TO RIGHTEOUSNESS
ours to Him in the moment of trial, in the midst of
society, wherever we are — the Holy Ghost, Who lives
in us, is everywhere with us — having trusted ourselves to
Him, it becomes natural in the higher life to trust Him
and to wait.
And then perhaps the strong wind rends the
mountain, the strong wind of temptation, and the
Lord seems not to be in the wind. And then there
comes the earthquake, the loud outward clash — it may
be a result of the wayward tempers of those amongst
whom we may have to work in the ordinary course of
our daily routine — and the Lord seems not to be with
us. We are desolate even in the earthquake. And then
there comes the strong fire, the fire of trial that seems to
burn out the very inmost being, and the Lord is not in
the fire. But we wait patiently, like the prophet of
Horeb in his cave, wrapped round with the mantle of
the Redeemer's righteousness, and then we look forth,
and we hear the still small Voice, and we see that the
arrow of prayer was not in vain. The still Voice has
spoken peace ; and in the quiet evening, as we look
back on the day, we say, " I thought the Lord had
forsaken me : I said my God had forsaken me." Can
a woman forget her child .'' Yea, she may forget, yet,
saith God, I will never forget thee, for I have graven
thee on the palms of My hands continually. And all
that would have been lost if we had never recognized the
meaning of the Creed, that the Holy Ghost must do as
He will, because He is the Lord. " I believe in the
Holy Ghost," my Lord. " It is the Lord : let Him
do what seemeth Him good."
Let me to-day simply remind you of what was
sketched out last Sunday, and then practically apply it in
the briefest possible manner. And those of you who
know the power of the Blessed Spirit will help me, that
giFTS FROM ^BOVE 159
if I speak so as to weary the poor tired ones who have
strayed in after a hard week's work in this London
world, I may be taught of God when to speak arid also
when to be silent.
We now recall the words in the final Blessing, " the
peace of God" — in brief, the work of the Holy Spirit
— keeps our minds and our hearts in the knowledge and
the love of God. As we are aware, without ignoring
the direct action of the Spirit of which we spoke last
time. He first uses the understanding and gives us
right notions of things. And then He takes the
emotions, and He brings them into the work : creating
either love or fear from within — always from within, not
from without. He uses outward means, but it is from
within that the Holy Spirit works, creating love or
fear or whatever it may be. And then we pass on. If
I am speaking here to any man who is trained in habits
of thinking, he will understand what I mean — when you
have grasped a thought after long study, you know the
sort of instinctive joy felt, a far better joy than anything
which mere natural enjoyment can afibrd. Well, that
is a parallel case. The Holy Spirit, having given the
right notion to the understanding, creates a passion — joy
or hope or fear or whatever it may be. And so, having
melted the wax of our complex nature. He brings the
will to bear, and the will takes God's seal and stamps it
for ever.
Then God the Holy Spirit brings the body to
work ; makes it get up in the morning, makes it not
dawdle at night but go to rest, makes it go out on the
hot afternoon to see the sick man or woman, instead
of thinking it will do when the wind has changed.
Because the poor weak body regards the action as
work for God, He sends it out with a renewed strength
and vigour : they shall mount up like eagles, they shall
i6o ^ NEW BIRTH UCHJO RIGHTEOUSNESS
run, and not be weary ; they shall walk, and not faint ;
because it is the Giver of life that dwelleth in them.
So in the ways we have seen He repeats the symbolic
action of the great prophet of fire. He first repairs the
altar of God ; puts God in His proper place ; not as
man loves to have it, self first, neighbour second, God
third ; but God first of all. He commands us to love
the Lord our God. And after the altar is repaired,
then, as Elijah did. He divides the Sacrifice, He puts
each part of our complex nature into its appointed place,
each subordinated according to God's primeval decree —
the intelligence, and the emotion, and the will, and the
body — each in its own appointed place, bringing order
out of the wretched chaos into which sin has hurled
our poor fallen humanity. And then, as the prophet
poured the water three times over the sacrifice, so
the Holy Ghost cleanseth us by the mingled life
of repentance and of faith, washing away with a
life-long repentance the stains of the past — by the
fire sent down from heaven that consumeth the
sacrifice — revealing to us the glorious power of the
atoning Blood, of the restoring Spirit, and the never-
failing compassion of the Eternal Father. So, as I say,
by this mingled cleansing of repentance and the fiery
coming down of supernatural life upon this sacrifice laid
in order upon the altar, the Holy Ghost burns out the
evil and develops in us a mighty faith. I am not refer-
ring to the reasons for faith that there may be in our
progress or in the progress of the Church, but only to
that which He develops from within. Then, with this
fire within. He kindles faith and enables us to hope on
to the end, and gives us that love of Christ by which all
social differences are at once reconciled. Some men
have much of this life's honour, but only then they may
account it as a joy, because in their great love for God
giFTS FROM ^BOVE i6i
and man they have great opportunities of imitating
Christ, Who sacrificed everything for the good of others.
Equally if men are poor, they may rise up and count
their poverty a holy estate, because in their great love for
Christ they rejoice to copy Him exactly, Who had not
even a place where to lay His head. Who was the Child of
a poor woman, born in a manger, and dying on Calvary.
And so carrying on still that symbolic action we read
of in I Kings xviii, the Holy Spirit then takes us up
to the everlasting hills. Like Elijah, we cast ourselves
down upon the earth, and an inwrought sense of utter
nothingness and humiliation and weakness is effected in
us : as it was wrought at last, after three years' patient
discipline, in the heart of S. Peter on that night when
upon the melted wax the stamp of God's Divine will was
for ever sealed.
Utterly humbled, we cast ourselves like Elijah upon
the ground ; and we watch, looking upwards ; and we
find that mightier results are now accomplished by our
instrumentality than we ever ventured to anticipate in
the days when we were depending upon physical strength
and the power of our mental vigour, and the practical
wisdom and skill that God might have given us in the
manifold relations of life. We find our power in lying
on the ground as nothing, and using the threefold Name,
and looking seven times for the sevenfold gifts of the
Spirit ; so God Who is in us, God Who rules the
world, God Who has all power in heaven and in earth,
through our utter feebleness accomplishes that which to
have anticipated previously would have been simply the
dreams of a fanatic. We look at the great far-off sky
and see it is covered with clouds ; and we see God's
rain, " the early and the latter rain in its season,"
descending on our hearts, our homes, and the Church of
God ; and we say, " This is from the Lord, this is from
Y
i62 ^ NEIV BIRTH UDiJO RIGHTEOUSNESS
God : glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to
the Holy Ghost."
Very briefly we take the practical thoughts. Gather
up your energy to receive them ; lift up your hearts to
God dwelling in you, to enable you never to forget
them.
If I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and
Giver of life, then it is utterly impossible for me ever
to despair, for myself or for the Church of Christ in
which He dwells. If you think of it quietly afterwards,
you will see this. Does God the Creator live in us .''
In one year He can restore all that the cankerworm and
the locust have eatenJ He can undo what ought to have
been the natural results of your past wicked life. In one
year, absolutely surrendered to Him, you will go forward
so that you who are last to-day shall be first in the
spiritual army before twelve months have passed, if God
so wills. If you believe that the Giver of life is living
in you, then the restoration, the re-creation, that can be
accomplished in the weakest and most sinful, is simply
beyond the power of human words to describe.
That which is true of the individual is true of the
Church. Natural organizations rise, wither, and decay.
But if the Holy Spirit lives in the Church, it follows as
a logical conclusion from the premises that He is God —
work it out if you like in the strictest way — and if God
dwells in the Church, then at any moment He, the Giver
of life, can give life. He can, that is, create in a moment
living men, out of these stones He can raise up
children to Abraham, at any time. He first stirs in
the Church a feeling of despondency and hunger ; then
two or three begin to pray ; then in answer to the prayer
He creates a hero or a leader ; it is quite as easy for God
to call him out as to convert a little child in the Sunday
School. God creates a hero, a man who has power to
giFTS FROM ^BOVE 163
go to Asia or Africa, or wherever you like, and convert
a continent. He quickens the dormant energy of men
in this our London — one here, one there — to spread an
influence by which the whole outward appearance of this
degraded society might be altered. Believe in the Holy
Spirit, and you can never despair as to the creation of
power in yourself, or the creation of divinely born heroes
for the regeneration of the Church of God.
Secondly, unless you bring to God the Holy Ghost
your Bibles, all that has been said and sung, in your
mind will seem like a delusion. Try to feel it, try to
think of it, and you will very soon be tired and give it
up. Bring a text, and allow the Holy Ghost to work
on that text, and you will find that very soon, from
within, such energy will be developed that the impulse
which God has given you, not to receive the grace
of God in vain, will be accomplished beyond all that
yesterday you dared to hope. The Bible — a text brought
to God the Holy Ghost — is not only the means by
which the world is converted, but that by which saints
are edified.
I am not speaking now of the great sacramental
feeding, when that blessed Body and Blood are given to
us by the Holy Spirit in our souls, so that, while the
bread remains bread, and the wine is still wine, we are
" strengthened and refreshed by the Body and Blood
of Christ." I am speaking of the ordinary everyday
outside life.
And, lastly, if you care for your own souls ; if,
brethren, beloved in Christ, God has answered your
prayers for them, leave not the church to-day without
kneeling down quietly (or, if you like it better, when
you go home at night) in the solemn secret chamber of
your own heart, think first of Christ dying, then think
of Christ alive and loving you. Yield yourselves up to
164 ^ NEfT BIRTH UO^TO RIGHTEOUSNESS
Him as if you saw Him, and say, " O Lord, I cannot
see Thee, I do not know what I shall have to do or to
suffer, but by Thy help to-day I give myself to Thee.
Let the Blessed Spirit have free course in me. O God
the Holy Ghost, I give myself to Thee to-day."
God help you to do it, dear people, for Jesus Christ's
sake.
LIVING AND GTiOlVING 165
IX
LIVING AND GROWING
" Every goo / gift . . . cometh down from the Father
of lights^ — S. James i. 17.
THE gifts we have spoken of, as bestowed upon our
fallen humanity, appear to be simply super-
natural ; although, when looked upon in the light of the
holy angels, when regarded by us as those who know
that they have been by God's goodness made partakers
of the Divine nature, they appear to be merely the
natural results, the natural outcoming, of that Divine
nature which by the power of the Holy Spirit has been
communicated to us.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, when He took the man-
hood into God, filled humanity with all the various Divine
perfections and communicated to it the fullness of the
Godhead, so that in Him, the one Person, our Incarnate
Lord, at the right hand of the Father, there dwelleth
now all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. As truly
as the Lord Jesus Christ thus brought down the
fullness of Divine perfection into this fallen humanity
of ours, so truly does God the Holy Spirit, working
within us, communicate to us through the Sacraments,
through meditation and Holy Scripture, through the
manifold ministries of life, the various portions of
that nature of the Lord Jesus Christ which He may
see to be specially required at different times of our
life. According to our need, God the Holy Spirit
i66 ^ NEW BIRTH UCH^TO RIGHTEOUSNESS
at sundry times and in divers manners (forgive me for
using a material illustration for a moment) takes that
portion of the Lord Jesus Christ in which we are
deficient, puts it, as it were, into the inner man wherein
He Himself dwells, that so that portion of the perfect
ideal which was previously wanting in us may be after-
wards manifested in our life, having been communicated
to us from the Perfect Man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I need hardly say to you (our own experience
teaches it to us only too quickly !) that it is a very
remarkable thing to have been put by God into the
dispensation of the Spirit, to be thus encompassed with
Divinity, to have this God dwelling in us with all the
wondrous power of the Godhead. It brings about a
very different state of things thus to have been blessed by
God, and to respond to the will of God so far as to live
in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit and rule our thoughts
and words and deeds according to the principles of the
spiritual kingdom. A large number of persons whom it
is impossible not to account in a certain sense as
believers, yet live and walk altogether (or very nearly)
in the flesh, so far as any outward difference is concerned.
They walk according to the natural self-will of the fallen
humanity. If their instincts are generous, their character
is such as attracts the admiration of men ; if their
instincts are degraded, they are despised and looked
upon as unworthy of the fellowship of the more educated
and refined. But numbers of persons who in a sense
know the Lord Jesus Christ, have never understood
what the Church means when it talks of forsaking all
fleshly affections, of living in the Spirit, walking in the
Spirit, and so forth.
Now, the thought which I wish to bring before you
this afternoon is this : that so far as we are living in the
flesh — living, that is, according to the old nature, sharing
LIVING AND GTiOIVING 167
only in the virtues of a Socrates, or a Jew before the
coming of Christ, or a disciple before the outpouring of
Pentecost — so far as we are living in the flesh and walk-
ing according to the flesh, all our virtues (whatever they
be) become of necessity exaggerated. It is only when we
have surrendered ourselves to God the Holy Spirit
that anything like a proper balance, anything like a right
proportion, anything even approaching to a harmony of
our nature, can be efi^ected. But so far as we are living
in the Spirit, living in communion with God the Holy
Ghost, living in the hourly habit of surrendering our-
selves to His guidance, following His leading so as to
fall down and confess our sin, or rejoice in the Saviour's
Blood, or undertake some disagreeable work, or trust
Him for deliverance from some disquieting thought :
only so far as we are thus living in surrender to the
Holy Spirit is there any balance or harmony. But
when we are thus guided by God the Holy Spirit, Who
dwells in us. He guards one virtue from exaggeration
by developing another from within. This is not accom-
plished by our outward struggles to create it from
without, but is the calm, quiet solemn work of the
Blessed Comforter proceeding from the Father and the
Son, day by day and hour by hour passing, as it were,
in a great triumphal procession through the spirit, the
heart and the very body of the regenerate man.
He will guard us from extravagance, and bring out
something at least like the beautiful ideal that was
present to the mind of the great Creator when He
declared all things to be very good. And that which,
of course, is not thoroughly accomplished in this life,
that which we only know (many of us) by yearning to
see it accomplished in our hearts, shall be one of the
joys of that kingdom of fruition for which we are being
educated.
1 68 ^ NEW BIRTH UUiJO RIGHTEOUSNESS
I confine myself to-day to only one illustration of
this thought, taken from the collect that is said on
S. James's Day.
It would be easy to show you how the Holy Spirit,
when consciously weakening persons in order to create
in them humility, balances that, delivers them from
becoming morbid and useless, when breathing in at the
same time, by the Holy Spirit's inspiration, strong
confidence in the Living God. It would be easy to show
you how, when God the Holy Spirit has developed
remarkable power in any Christian, so that he is going
forth conquering and to conquer, comforting the minds
of men, converting their souls, casting down imagina-
tions, lifting up the banner of the Cross everywhere.
He delivers him from all the natural evils that
would follow on success, by quietly inspiring another
grace, of patience, for example, or of humility, or of
meekness ; and so, all unknown, oft-times scarce recog-
nized by the individual himself, that gentle, loving
Spirit — working in us with a mighty Divine energy
worthy of One Who is very God, equal to the Father
and the Son — that Blessed Spirit within us, all unknown
it may be to the world, half unrecognized by ourselves,
restores by Himself the proportion and the harmony of
the human nature.
Now, the whole idea of a saint's day brings out one
characteristic of the Christian life, without which all talking
about religion is mere sentimentalism ; I refer to separa-
tion. When the Holy Ghost spake in the Acts of the
Apostles, He said, " Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for
the work to which I have called them." And then we
are told a little later on, that they, being pushed forth,
as it were, sent forth out of the old companionship, out of
the old surroundings, sent forth by the Holy Spirit
departed, like Abram, not knowing whither they went.
LIVING AND GROWING 169
So, again, our Blessed Lord tells us that one sign of
the higher life being accomplished in us — though we often
see this sign caricatured — is that others who once were
our friends separate us from their company, do not talk
freely in our presence, do not confide in us as un-
reservedly as they used to do when they knew that we
had precisely the same ideas on the various questions of
religion that they themselves entertained. Blessed, our
Lord says, are ye when men separate you, when the
world separates you from its company, when you find
that you are being quietly dropped. For Christ's sake,
of course, that must be, you observe.
Now, certainly the form which this separation takes
varies in different ages and different characters.
Sometimes it takes a very simple form, such as it did
with S. James. Herod had very little difficulty in sepa-
rating the Apostle from his company. He stretched out
his hand, killed S. James, and there was the end of
him. He was separated off, without any doubt. So was
it with Jeremiah, and S. Stephen, and a number of other
martyrs and confessors. And judging by the experience
of history, a very luxurious age generally prepares the
way, in the children that come after, for a great uprising
of brute force that soon puts Christians " out of the
way," to use the common expression.
Sometimes the separation takes a different form.
Our Lord spoke very sad words — they must have
grieved Him — He said that He would not bring peace
into many families. He wished to do it. He was the
Prince of Peace ; but there would come separation. So
sometimes it comes in the form of outward parting the
one from the other. The one is taken, and the other
left. The call comes from within generally — though it
may be afterwards endorsed — from within, for all real work
of God the Holy Spirit begins from within, however
z
lyo .A NEW BIRTH U^KTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
much, as I have said, it may be endorsed. From within
the impulse comes ; like the wind, we know not whence
it came, or whither it is leading us. And after long
thought and preparation and taking counsel with others,
the soul feels bidden to depart, either to work in the
hospital, or far hence on some mission work amongst the
heathen. And then comes separation in a twofold form.
The one goes out from home and friends ; and the other
— I often think that this is the harder lot of the two, for
which Jesus Christ has perhaps a special sympathy — the
friend or the sister is left behind to the dull routine of
an ordinary family life, with none of the excitement of
mission work, with none of the feeling of self-sacrifice
that comes to those who leave home and friends and go
forth. Both the one that is taken and the one that is left
learn the need of separation.
Or sometimes it simply comes without any outward
alteration. Oh, how often have I watched it, between
those who have loved each other so dearly ! The
thoughts of the one seem to centre more on Christ,
and the others who are merely living for the world
become wearied and tired with the straining after a
higher and more religious course. " Far was the call,
and farther as I follow " — many a Christian in every age
has realized what these words were :
" Far was the call, and farther as I follow,
Grows there a silence round my Lord and me."
That, then, is the idea of all the service — collect,
epistle, gospel, lessons — for any saint's day ; it is separa-
tion. Then I need only in a very few words remind you
that the lesson of love towards God is the one fruit
of the Holy Ghost without which everything else is like
sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. We may have all
gifts : power to influence, unbounded energy, strength
LIVING AND GTipWING 171
to grapple with difficulties, a charity that will part with
every farthing to feed the poor ; but if in our heart there
is no love to God, no love to man, then the work has yet
to be begun, we have yet to pray for the breath of the
Living Spirit that life may be given to the dry bones,
however fair may have been the outward covering with
which they have been shielded from the scorn of men.
Nothing in the sight of God compensates for the want of
love to men. No real work of the Holy Ghost can be
going on in our hearts unless at least the hungering
and the thirsting for that love that thinketh no evil, for
that love that beareth all things, believeth all things,
endureth all things — unless, I say, the hunger for
that love has been created in us by God the Holy
Ghost.
The very Apostle S. James had a long education.
After the work of separation had been begun by the
Holy Spirit, he had to go forth. He wished to bring
down the fire from heaven, " You know not," said the
Divine Master, " what spirit ye are of." He was sent
back to school till he learnt the Son of Man had not
come to curse people but to bless them, not to destroy
men's lives but to save them. Separation, then, and love
are two obvious fruits of the working of the Holy
Spirit.
Now observe how, taking the words in their ordinary
sense, a loving, amiable spirit, or spirit of separation,
unless guarded by God the Holy Ghost, becomes
exaggerated, and does more harm than good both to
ourselves and others. And observe also how, when God
the Holy Spirit is reigning in the heart, the one so
balances the other, that alike the love and the separation
are hindered from degenerating into the merely fleshly
character of sentimental pleasing of others, or of hard
Pharisaical condemnation of others who differ from us.
172 ^ NEW BIRTH Uf^TO RIGHTEOUSNESS
A person is amiable. What is his natural tendency ?
To say things that will be pleasant all round ; to say
just what is the echo of the society in which his lot
may be cast for the day. But if that person is given
up to God the Holy Ghost, He, working in him,
forms the spirit of separation. He brings from without
certain circumstances. He suggests to us, " You must
say that disagreeable word ; you must take that un-
popular line, or you will be false to your King." And
so the mere obeying God the Holy Ghost, without any
effort on our part, without any unnatural straining, will
in the course of a few years issue in our being separated
from all that is wicked, while it has drawn round Christ,
through our example, whatever has been holy and good
in those whom we are trying to influence. The love is
saved by the spirit of separation wrought in us by God
the Holy Ghost from degenerating into softness and
mere pleasing of those amongst whom our lot is cast.
So, on the other hand, there is nothing more repul-
sive, I imagine, nothing that really alienates people from
religion more than the hard, stubborn, self-willed,
judging people who are always condemning others.
One is almost tempted, if it were not irreverent, to
quote the saying of a modern preacher, that they are a
class of people who, he hopes, will be sufficiently altered
in heaven to make their society tolerable ; but so long as
they are on earth he would rather they went to a different
church, and if possible lived in a different neighbour-
hood. It is a bitter, and I doubt whether it is a very
wise, saying, but it certainly brings out strongly the
defects of which we Christians (all of us) are only too
conscious — that sort of rough, rugged saying of disagree-
able things without regarding the feelings of the people
whose hearts we are wounding ; the simple giving out of
what we think to be right without any consideration for
LIVING AND GT(OWING 173
others ; the hard, rough conduct that will not think of
brothers or sisters or parents or any one else in the
family, but simply follows what " I who am separated,
and am different from the others," feel to be right. And
gradually you will find, if you indulge that spirit, how
that which was holy and good at the beginning — for it
was from a real sense of their own interest, a fear of
being led away from Christ, a longing to be holy and
to have the silence deepened between their Lord and
their individual spirit, that this ruggedness first began —
that which began, I say, so well, ends in a drying-up of
the fountains of natural affection. It seems to be the
glory and the pride of some religious people that they are
losing all love for those to whom God has united them
by causing them to be born in one family, to be brought
up under one household.
But now observe : if God the Holy Ghost lives in
you and is working in you, and you are surrendering
yourself to Him, it is impossible for God to be there
without developing more and more of Divine love. And
so, the more we become separate from people, the more
the love for them increases : as in the case of S. Stephen,
who, the more his persecutors threw the paving-stones
around his head, prayed so much the more for them ; or
as a greater than Stephen was only led by the conduct of
His murderers to beseech His Father to forgive them.
So the true children of God — and there are many I have
watched here (thank God for it !) who are growing up
in such a love — the true children of God, led by the
Holy Spirit, care more than they ever cared for the
friends, the brothers, the sisters, and so forth ; even
though they may be obliged in many things to separate
themselves from what they feel to be irreligious, or
worldly, or at any rate doubtful practices.
And so comes that fellowship with Christ's suffer-
174 ^ NEW BIRTH U^NJO RIGHTEOUSNESS
ings. Fellowship with Christ's sufferings is not merely
bearing bodily pain, though of course that is included ;
it is not merely having great trials ; it is not merely, still
less, gazing on Good Friday on the sacred wounds in a
three hours' agony. Fellowship with Christ in His
sufferings is bearing sufferings in the spirit of Christ ;
so that the wife who feels separate from her husband by
the fact of their not agreeing or sympathizing, is more
than ever watchful, not merely to speak lovingly of him,
but to love him, and prays God for Divine love to come
down just in proportion as she feels that they are drifting
in matters concerning faith or sympathy further and
further from each other. And so there comes that real
Christian suffering — a feeling of pain, and yet of loving
the person more than ever in spite of the pain that he
is inflicting.
Of course, my brethren, it is easy for me, with all the
blessings God gives me, to talk in this way. But I am
speaking to many of you who, I know, have this danger ;
sometimes of letting love degenerate into mere senti-
mentalism, sometimes of letting separation develop into
a mere self-pleasing Pharisaical isolation. Let God the
Holy Ghost have free course in you and be glorified,
and then He will deliver you from this danger sooner or
later.
Three short sentences — at least three short practical
applications — and my words are ended.
First, remember what I have so often told you, not
to be disheartened if Satan brings his attacks to bear
specially upon that part of your nature that you desire
to see most strengthened. The part of the wall of
Jerusalem that Nehemiah was rebuilding was the one,
of course, upon which his enemies concentrated their
strength. When we are longing to be humble, or
longing to be gentle, or longing to be unworldly, the
LIVING AND GTipPVING 175
devil is sure to fill our minds with worldly, angry, and
proud thoughts.
Remember, to be tempted is not to sin. If you have
been tempted and have fallen, never rest until you have
gone back under the shadow of the great rock to have
the sin washed out in that Blood that cleanses from all sin.
Secondly, remember this : that you cannot be filled
with one part of God the Holy Ghost's influence and
not with another. God is one. The Holy Spirit either
takes possession of us entirely or not at all. We cannot
say, " O Holy Spirit, give me a good temper, but I
should like to keep my worldliness at the same time.
O Holy Spirit, give me much joy and peace ; I like
these fruits of the Spirit, happy Communions, and great
peace ; but, O Holy Spirit, I want to keep the worldli-
ness and the pride ; I do not like humbHng myself."
God offers to us Himself. Receive Him, or reject Him,
but never let the devil delude you with the idea that you
can keep eating the blessed Bread at that Holy Table
and drinking an equal proportion of poison for the re-
mainder of the day, and yet become led and strengthened
and made holy by God the Blessed Spirit.
Amid all the difficulties and all the falls and all the
temptations, remember the text of our own S. Peter's
Day, "The God of all grace" — not little portions such
as we give at times to each other, but, all grace, for men
and for women, for old and for young : the God of all
grace, for all times and all circumstances — " the God of
all grace. Who called you to His eternal glory by Christ
Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile, perfect, stablish,
strengthen, settle you."
In other words, remember what has been the burden
of to-day's teaching, that God Almighty wills your
sanctification, that God the Holy Ghost lives in you
to will and to do of His good pleasure.
*
PART III
POWER AND STRENGTH
" merciful God, grant that they may have power
and strength to have victory, and to triumph against the
devil, the world, and the fleshy
177 2 A
THE HEAVENLY VISION
** Hear^ O Israel : The Lord our Goa is one Lord^
Deut. vi. 4.
IT may be that some to whom I am now speaking
can recall the impression which was made on their
minds when they were first brought face to face with the
grander manifestations of nature's glory. Up to that
time our experience had been bounded by the limits of
our own island home, with its sloping hills and fragrant
gardens, the little brooklet gently murmuring through
the waving cornfields, the quiet village church nestling
in the shelter of some peaceful valley. There the vast
panorama of the Alps lay outstretched before us, no sign
of human existence visible, no sound of human life heard.
The snow-capped mountains towered unto heaven, their
summits shrouded with black clouds ; sharp needles of
rock seemed floating in mid-air half hidden by a veil of
mist ; white glaciers frowned on every side. The awful
stillness was only broken by the crash of the avalanche,
or the roar of the torrent, as it dashed from rock to rock,
echoing far and wide through the butting crags.
As we thus stood alone in the presence of nature's
God, the spirit was hushed, and we realized our own
impotence. The words of the Hebrew psalm rose un-
bidden to our lips, " O Lord, how manifold are Thy
works ! in wisdom hast Thou made them all." " What
179
i8o POfFER ^AND STRENGTH
is man that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man
that Thou regardest him ? "
So is it also with the doctrine which is this day
brought before us in the services of the Church. To
many, of course, such an idea must appear the veriest
exaggeration. By them all the Festivals are regarded
in much the same light. The mass of men neither know
nor care what they mean, what they teach, what they
involve. But if we try for one half hour to grasp the
truth which is pressed on our attention on each recurring
Trinity Sunday, the mind is almost overpowered by its
mystery. We are able by our own experience to lay
hold of the humbling teaching of Lent ; we can follow
to some extent, at any rate, our Incarnate Lord from
the manger of Bethlehem to the Cross of Calvary, or
picture the resurrection glory of Easter and the final
triumph of Ascension. But to-day we pass out of the
region of experience into the very Presence-chamber of
the Eternal One. We enter into the inmost shrine and
contemplate in spirit the Triune and Infinite God : the
Source of all power, the holy Lord God Almighty, Which
was, and is, and is to come : the first Cause of all
Creation, Who in the depths of a past eternity existed in
the mysterious solitude of His Divine essence. Who will
exist for ever in the eternal future from everlasting to
everlasting, God over all, blessed for evermore.
What is the nature of this Divine Being ? What
does it involve, this doctrine of the Trinity in Unity .''
" Hear, O Israel : The Lord our God is one Lord."
There is none other God but One. This is what we
mean by the Unity, yet side by side with these reiterated
statements as to the oneness of God, the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost are represented to us as so
separate the one from the other, that a threefold per-
sonality can be clearly recognized. The Son, for instance,
THE HEAVE:HLr VISION i8i
promises to pray to the Father in order that, in answer
to that intercession, the Comforter may be vouchsafed to
His Church. The same Lord, when ascending from the
Jordan stream after His Baptism, is acknowledged by the
voice of the Eternal Father, "This is My beloved Son,"
while the Holy Ghost appears like the form of a dove
lighting upon Him. This is what we mean by the
doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine which, I need hardly
remind you, is involved in the conclusion of Morning
and Evening Prayer: "The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of
the Holy Ghost."
How, then, are these truths to be reconciled } This
is the question with which we are at present concerned.
In attempting to answer it I have no intention to explain
at length the articles of that confession of faith in which
the doctrine is most fully defined. Still less do I wish
to guide your thoughts through all the metaphysical
subtleties by which Arians and Sabellians and Mono-
physites have confused the minds of their disciples.
Wellnigh every sentence in that ancient Creed which
this day has been said in our hearing was written to
assert some vital truth which had been openly attacked
or virtually denied. Wellnigh every phrase, now almost
obsolete, stands up like a moss-covered stone on the
time-honoured battlefield, to mark the issue of a conflict
of Christendom — to define the point beyond which no
band of marauders has been allowed to pass into the
heritage of the Church. We stoop down, we brush aside
the dust of ages, we decipher the archaic inscription, and
we see written on its every side, in different dialects, this
one truth, " Thus far shalt thou go and no further."
"Canst thou by searching find out Goo?" "Holy,
Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, Which was, and is,
and is to come."
1 82 POWER ofND STRENGTH
How far, then, may we go ? How may we speak
of God without contradicting that which God has
revealed ?
We may think of heaven and believe that in that
world unseen there are these three Persons — the Father
Who gave us a Saviour ; the Saviour Who shed His
Blood to redeem, and Who, as Man bearing our human
nature, is seated at the right hand of the Father ; the
Holy Ghost Whom Jesus promised to send into His
Church : the Blessed Spirit Who shows us our sins and
leads us to Him Who has borne those sins in His own
Body on the tree. Of these three we may think ; to
these three, as separate the one from the other, we may
pray, "O God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy
Ghost." Yet, on the other hand, when we are tempted
to press this truth of the Trinity beyond the limits which
the Bible has sanctioned, we must correct our error by
remembering the fact of the Unity — by remembering,
that is, that the three Persons are not distinct in their
feelings and characters and wills as three individuals on
earth are separated the one from the other. Thus, if
any one speaks to us of the Father as only a just and
holy God, stern and unbending, while every epithet of
tenderness and love is reserved for the Lord Jesus
Christ, or if he so concentrates his attention on the
two Persons of the Trinity that the Holy Ghost is either
entirely forgotten or at any rate regarded as inferior to
the Father and the Son, we shall at once be able to reply,
" This must be wrong. * But the Godhead of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one : the
Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father
is, such is the Son : and such is the Holy Ghost. . . .
In this Trinity none is afore, or after other : none is
greater, or less than another.' " If the Son is Love,
the Father and the Holy Ghost are Love also ; if the
THE HEAVE:]iLT VISION 183
Father is just and true, justice and truth must be the
qualities alike of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
A principle like this (and may God forgive whatever
is erring in it) will, I think, suffice to enable ordinary
minds to reflect rightly on the nature of the Triune God.
Those to whom He has granted more of ability and of
leisure will delight to plunge deeper into the mystery.
Only let all, whether learned or unlearned, remember
that God is in heaven and that we are on earth ; that it
is with the humble and contrite heart that the High and
Holy One has promised to dwell, that whatever may be
our natural intelligence in the world of sense and experi-
ence, our truest wisdom when we meditate on the nature
of the Eternal God is to bow down with reverence,
saying,
" Have mercy on us, God most High,
Who lift our hearts to Thee,
Have mercy on us worms of earth,
Most Holy Trinity."
In the presence of this our God, let us kneel. Then
let us rise to hear what the Lord our God will say to
each of us assembled in His holy house this day.
This God is our God. If the artist has a right over
his work ; if the parent has a right over his child ; if the
sovereign has a right over his subjects ; then the Creator
of all must have rights over the beings whom He has
created. We simply belong to God. Wherever we are,
we are His. There is no depth of thought or being
into which we can retire and not meet Him, and no spot
of ground of which He is not the owner : " Whither shall
I go from Thy Presence, whither shall I flee from Thy
Spirit .? "
If then this be the case, if we are thus absolutely in
the power of God, surely it is of unspeakable importance
that we should realize the character of that Being.
1 84 POWER ^ND STRENGTH
What then is the character of God as He Himself
has been pleased to reveal it ? I am not speaking to
those who have satisfied themselves that the Bible is a
mere collection of human fancies. I am not even assert-
ing any special theory of inspiration. I simply address
myself to those who in any real sense accept it as the
Word of God, as the revelation of the Father and the
Spirit. And 1 ask what is the character of God which
is there revealed ?
It is true that He is a God of love ; ah, no words can
describe the love of Him Who gave His Son to bleed
on that Cross, no human tongue can do justice to that
all-loving Redeemer Who for thirty-three years lived a life
of sorrow to die at last the death of shame ! God is a
God of love, and in His love He offers freely to
receive us, freely to blot out every stain of sin, freely
to give pardon for the past and strength for the future.
Only He bids us remember that He is essentially a holy
God. " Holy, Holy, Holy " is a hymn which for all
eternity will be chanted in His awful Presence-chamber.
He reveals to us a law of the invisible kingdom which,
though it perhaps may appear to us as inexplicable and
difficult to accept as the deductions of a Faraday would
appear to the untutored mind of a child, is yet as certain
and will hereafter be as surely accepted by all intelligent
creation as those principles of physical science which were
once laughed to scorn, but are now recognized as true by
the whole educated world.
God tells us that without holiness no one can enter
into heaven, that the soul which will not yield itself to be
transformed into His holy likeness must be left to the
only place for which it is fit, that awful world " where
their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."
Is not this a plain, unvarnished statement of the truth
which God has revealed in Holy Scripture ? I appeal
THE HEAEVUiLT VISION 185
fearlessly to any man who will devote but a single week
to its impartial investigation.
Does not God, I ask, prepare us for the very
phenomena by which we are actually surrounded ? Does
He not rather tell us that because judgement is not
executed speedily the hearts of men will be fully set
in them to do evil ? Does He not tell us that they
will despise His forbearance, that their presumption will
increase ? They speak great swelling words of vanity,
promising themselves liberty, though really the slaves
of corruption, driving away every fear by incessant toil
or ever-recurring excitement, persuading themselves that
a man can serve two masters, that he can please God
and the world, that the religious standard is raised too
high, that the life of an amiable heathen will be accepted
from those to whom the death of the Incarnate Goo has
been revealed, and so forth.
Does He not tell us that in some cases the history
of the Flood will be repeated ? Men will laugh at the
"worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched."
They will say in deed if not in word, "God is not " ; at
least, not the God of the Bible, not the God Who will
bring every secret thought into judgement. Are we not
told at the same time that in the midst of all this un-
godliness God lives — longing for the salvation of His
creatures, but unable, for reasons to be hereafter ex-
plained, to alter His eternal laws ? Yes, God lives.
The holy God, strong and patient, patient because He
is strong. He lives. He has bent His bow. He has
taken the arrow from the quiver, but He waits. He
pleads with us. The careless words, the impure jests.
He hears them all. The neglected progress, the Sacra-
ments despised, the unopened Bible, the halting between
two opinions, the Saviour's Blood trampled under foot
for the sake of a world which passeth away — He sees it
2 B
1 86 POWER ^ND STRENGTH
all, and still He waits, still He pleads. The finger of
life's time moves slowly on and on till the appointed
hour has struck, and then the pen falls from the hand
of the writer, and the lips of the orator are closed, and
the soul — your soul, my brother — goes out, alone, alone,
with the world for ever left behind, and before it is
God : the God Whom you have forgotten, the God
Whom you have denied for fear of being laughed at, the
God before Whom the very angels bow low, crying,
" Holy, Holy, Holy."
Brethren, let us not treat our God in this way.
He is very patient. But He is strong. He will keep
silence till the appointed hour is come. He will keep
silence while we mock Him by our indifference, rob
Him of His joy by our idleness, dishonour Him by our
cowardice, insult Him by our open and avowed wrong-
doing. He will keep silence while, by our indecision,
our trifling with conscience, we knock at heaven's door
and challenge Him to come forth and prove His power.
He will keep silence, but all the while God lives. All
the while the finger of life's timepiece is moving.
May God help us this day to realize in some measure
His power and His holiness, for Christ's sake.
RESISTANCE TO THE DEVIL 187
II
RESISTANCE TO THE DEVIL
" Resist the devil^ and he will flee from youT
S. James iv. 7.
THE Gospel brings before us a direct conflict between
Jesus Christ and the kingdom of evil. The
entire season of Lent reminds us of the mysterious
assaults which, during these forty days, were endured by
our Redeemer at the hands of that great adversary of
God and man. The subject of resistance to the devil
cannot be safely ignored by any wise soldier of the
Cross.
Herein let us first grasp the fact that when we talk of
the devil we mean no mere personification of the prin-
ciples of evil, but a living, personal being. No theory
as to the importation into Jewish theology of Babylonian
superstition, no superficial explanation based upon the
supposed adaptation of our Lord's words to the popular
ideas of the age in which He lived, will hold its ground
when brought into the clear light of the plain statements
which can be found with the help of a concordance by
any student of Holy Scripture under these words,
" Satan," " the devil," " the prince of this world," and
the like.
The origin, indeed, of Satan is shrouded in mystery.
So also is the reason why the Almighty God does not
use His Omnipotence, and stretch forth the right hand
1 88 POIVER ^ND STRENGTH
of His Majesty at once, and drive Satan for ever out of
the world which He has created. These are questions
which will only be answered in that day when every veil
will be uplifted, and we shall know, as we are now known
of God ; when, in its deepest meaning the command of
to-day's Epistle i will be addressed to God's elect,
"Awake, awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the
dead, and Christ shall give thee light."
Meanwhile, this fact has been plainly written for us
by God the Holy Ghost in the inspired volume to
which I have referred you for this meditation.
Besides the inborn tendencies to evil with which we
have to struggle ; besides the force of outward circum-
stances, the evil men and the evil influences by which
our onward progress is retarded, we are told that there
lives behind the veil in that invisible kingdom a leader
of the powers of darkness, beneath whose banner are
arrayed those principalities and powers with whom the
regenerate child of God must wrestle (like the ancient
chief against the entwining serpents) until the victory is
won, and he is borne by angels out of the conflict into the
rest of Paradise. So mighty is the presence of Satan,
that the full knowledge of his force was hidden from the
sons of Israel, lest, like the demon-worshippers by whom
they were surrounded, they might be seduced into the
idolatrous deprecation of his wrath, lest they might be
frightened into praying the devil to have mercy upon
them. So powerless also is unaided man to conquer
this relentless foe, that the all-merciful God kept for
long from His faint-hearted children the full revelation
of that overpowering kingdom of evil, lest in their
weakness they should be driven to despair. It was only
when the Stronger — the Stronger than the strong man —
the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, had become
' Third Sunday in Lent.
RESISTANCE TO THE DEVIL 189
Incarnate: it was only after Christ was born in Beth-
lehem that the world was allowed to gaze, as it were,
upon the outline of that kingdom of the power of the
air, and even now the lineaments of that dread form are
hidden to a large extent from our gaze. God help us to
stand firm and to fight the good fight to the end !
Never shall we know in all its terrible fullness what is
meant by the personality of Satan, till the day dawn in
which with the ransomed ones we shall be standing on
the eternal shore, and shall gaze with a chastened
exultation upon the King by Whom he has been
conquered, and shall mark the last struggles of our
foe as he is cast by God for ever into that lake of
fire. On that glorious morning (to use the words of
the Apocalyptic vision) we shall sing the song — have
you ever understood what those words mean ? — sing
the song of Moses the servant of God as well as the
song of the Lamb. We shall sing, that is, that
triumphant anthem, " Sing unto the Lord, for He
hath triumphed gloriously : the horse and his rider
hath He cast into the sea," the devil and his angels
hath He thrown into the lake of fire.
Meanwhile, by all and every means, by the history
of those who have fallen, by the trumpet call of direct
warning, the Almighty Spirit beseeches us not to under-
value our foe, but to recognize the intensity of his power,
the relentless character of his assaults. " My brethren,"
saith the Apostle, writing under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit, "be sober," that is, be temperate; keep
your bodies, keep this world, and all that belongs to it,
under; live a self-restrained life. "Be sober"; be on
your guard ; " because your adversary the devil, as a
roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may
devour : whom resist." My brethren, be strong in the
I90 POWER zAND STRENGTH
Lord ; put on the armour of God ; stand against the
wiles of the devil ; for you are wrestling, not merely
" against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of
this world, against spiritual wickedness " encompassing
you on every side. Be sober ; " resist the devil, and
he will flee from you."
Yes ! Satan can enlist in his service all the desires of
our lower nature. He can employ as his agents our
dearest friends. He can make use of the holiest saints
to tempt us. A man like the Apostle Peter could love
the Lord Jesus Christ with all the intensity of his
nature and yet could unexpectedly be so employed as an
agent of the devil as to bring down upon his head that
stern rebuke from the Incarnate God, " Get thee behind
Me, Satan " — Apostle though thou art, I see thee used
by the spirit of evil ; speaking smooth things to Me,
telling Me to throw off^ the Cross and not to die — get
thee behind Me, Satan, thou art a stumbling block to
Me ; the advice that thou art giving is the advice of the
world and of the lower nature. Get thee behind Me ;
" thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the
things that be of men."
But more than that, Satan is able to work directly
upon the highest part of our being — our spirit. You
have felt it again and again. You have known how,
when you have knelt in prayer, perhaps when you have
been receiving the very Bread and Wine at that Holy
Table, there has come suddenly into your heart such
overpowering thoughts of evil that it has seemed almost
like blasphemy to remain on your knees or to com-
municate at the altar of your God. You have found
yourselves for weeks possessed by temptations of the
most blinding, all-mastering force ; sometimes of the
grosser kind ; sometimes coming in the form of despair,
RESISTANCE TO THE DEVIL 191
unbelief, murmuring ; at other times assailing you with
bitter feelings against those whom you ought to love.
In all these and numberless other ways, Satan, a spirit,
comes direct into the spirit of a man, and lays hold of
him and perplexes him and binds him, and (unless the
man resist the devil) will finally drag him, as he dragged
Judas, into the depths of a spiritual suicide.
Thus, this mighty enemy was able to enter into
Paradise, and by the still waters of God's fair creation
to accomplish his work of destruction, and to desolate
the garden which God had pronounced to be " very
good." He was able to enter into Gethsemane, and to
confront the Second Adam ; so that, though conquered
at last, he did not leave Him till he had wrung out of
His Heart that cry of agony, "O My Father, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from Me." Not till that
Body had been wrung with the Agony and the bloody
Sweat, could Satan depart, and the angels come down to
minister to the suffering, tempted, agonized Champion
of humanity. On the threshold of every church — we are
told, after each sermon — he marshals a mighty phalanx
of spiritual beings. Like the fowls of the air on the
scattered seeds in the wide fields of God's creation, those
invisible foes come down. Saints and sinners alike are
employed to work the work of ruin ; lest (as our Lord
describes it) one word that has been preached should
sink so deep into the heart that the man might believe
and be saved. Those are the words of Jesus Christ.
Immediately, He says, after the sermon has been
preached, cometh the devil, and incessantly — in the
porch, at luncheon, in the afternoon gossip — plucks
away the seeds, because he hates you, because he hates
God and Christ and the kingdom of Christ, and
longs to drag you down into the perdition in which
he himself has been involved. He found for Noah
192 POWER ^ND STRENGTH
the fruit of the vine, and for Lot the riches of
Sodom ; he came to Achan with the wedge of gold
and the Babylonish garment ; for David there was the
beauty of Bathsheba ; for Judas the thirty pieces of
silver ; for Demas the enjoyments of this present
life ; and for Herod, the ambitious man, there was
the crowd of flatterers to say as they echoed his every
sentence, " It is the voice of a god, and not of a
man."
My brethren, we are walking, as it were, every hour
of our life, on the very edge of a precipice. And down
below, on that seashore where the waves are breaking
with their sullen roar, you may watch the whitening
bones of men and women who trod once the selfsame
path that you are treading, who once were called (as you
have been called) to be members of Christ and children
of the Everlasting Father, and heirs of the eternal
inheritance, who once believed, once rejoiced in Christ,
once bid fair to fight the fight, and to win the crown.
They yielded to the invisible spirits of evil and were
slain. Look at them, those bones on that seashore, and
" let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he
fall." " Be sober, be vigilant ; because your adversary
the devil, like a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom
he may devour." Sometimes, like a lion, he crouches
under the trees, seducing you by his very calmness,
making you say " All is peace." The quiet air scarce
sounds around you, and the birds sing sweetly in your
ears, and you are conscious of much spiritual feeling
without the energy to put the feeling into practice ; all is
calm and still around, and you feel as if the toe were
vanquished and the world trodden beneath your feet.
And then, all unexpectedly, he bursts forth from his lair
with a favourite temptation, the pride, the vanity, the
lusts of the flesh, or the lust of the eye, or the pride of
RESISTANCE TO THE DEVIL 193
life, and devours the soul for which the Son of God
was crucified !
And at another time he tries to overpower us
by weeks of darkness, by the loud roar, as if he were
indeed the king of this lower earth, as if God
Himself were powerless to enable His soldiers to
master the subtle temptations with which he was
able to ply every degenerate child of Adam. In all
and sundry ways he goeth about — oh, God enable you
to lay hold of this — he goeth about seeking whom he
may devour. Brethren, beloved in Christ, resist him
or you die.
Do you ask. How shall I resist him ? The Bible,
if you study it, will give you the answer.
I. We must be vigilant. "Watch and pray."
" '■ Christian ! seek not yet repose,'
Hear thy guardian angel say ;
' Thou art in the midst of foes ;
Watch and pray.'
Principalities and powers,
Mustering their unseen array,
Wait for thy unguarded hours ;
Watch and pray.
Watch, as if on that alone
Hung the issue of the day " —
Watch when the old nature rises in any form. You
know the way, if you have ever examined yourself, in
which it is most likely to arise. Watch when you are
in the society of those who care not for the Lord Jesus
Christ, even though you are obliged by duty thus to
enter into temptation. Watch when Satan whispers,
" One Communion ! it matters not ! one prayer put
aside, one Bible-reading neglected, one little compliance
with evil." But, my brethren, by one act of silence
2C
194 POIVER ^ND STRENGTH
when God bids you speak; by one smile over your face
when the words of evil are spoken and your consent
is given by that approving look, by one relaxing of
the warfare, you may sow the seed (my brethren,
I am speaking that which will be re-echoed by many
hearts in this church), of an after sorrow of the
bitterest kind, even if, through God's mercy, you
are finally saved. Watch, if you would resist the
devil.
We must watch humbly — in all humility. The
moment a self-satisfied feeling is arising, the moment we
look with self-complacency upon anything, whatever it
be — ourselves, our children, our success in life, the
manner in which God's work has been done — the
moment the proud thought arises, look upon it as the
pioneer of Satan. He goeth before to fill up the valleys
that ought to be kept low so that the soul in them may
lie humbly before its God. He goeth before, by those
proud, conceited, self-satisfied thoughts, to prepare
the way ; that Satan, the great adversary, may march
into the secret corners of that heart unchecked.
"God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the
humble."
Next, if we would fight, we must fight in Jesus
Christ, realizing our acceptance in Him, laying firm
hold of the blessed fact that we have been baptized into
the remission of sins : that He, like the great scapegoat,
has carried away our iniquities into that far-off desert
land, so that we can look up to God, without any
barrier between us, as reconciled children in Jesus
Christ. We must fight as accepted in Christ, and
with confidence in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We must dwell upon Christ Who suffered — mark the
word in your Bible — " He suffered, being tempted."
Christ "was in all points tempted like as we are,
RESISTANCE TO THE DEVIL i^s
yet without sin." We must think of that glorious
King going before us on the white horse, conquering
and to conquer. Yes, washed in His Blood, and
clothed with the white robe of His righteousness, we
must go forth. That poor negro woman uttered
unconsciously a deep truth of the invisible kingdom,
when she was asked how she dared to confront Satan.
Her answer was this, "I go behind Jesus Christ" —
behind Him, behind the conquering King going
before to deliver His people from the power of evil.
And that thought will give us calmness and sure
confidence of victory.
The Gospel tells us that the Stronger than the strong
man has now entered into the conflict, and has spoiled
the goods of our enemy. There is something cheering
when we are worn out with fighting against the petty sins
of our lower nature, when we have almost come to hate
our friends because they have tempted us to forget our
God and fall short of the high standard which He has ever
put before us — there is something, I say, invigorating to
any man with the spirit of a soldier breathing in his
heart, to know that he is not fighting against himself,
still less fighting merely against the friends who tempt
him (co-heirs with himself of the same glorious im-
mortality), but that he is called to a great conflict which
the Son of God has inaugurated. He is being led on
against a foe worthy of his prowess, that he is entering
the lists which have been filled by saints and martyrs
and confessors ; if he has principalities and powers
against him, he has the saints of God in all their blessed
fellowship of Paradise around him. He has God the
Holy Ghost living in him. He has Christ at the
right hand of the Father interceding for the weakest
soldier in the battle. He has God, the Everlasting
Lord, looking down and knowing the very hour when
196 TOJVER AND STRENGTH
the armour shall be laid aside, when the hard, hard fight
shall be ended, and those words be spoken, which would
be cheaply purchased by a lifetime of suffering : " Well
done, well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast
fought a good fight, enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord ! "
THE gOOD FIGHT i^j
III
THE GOOD FIGHT
" Be ye not unwise^ but understanding ^hat the mil of the
Lord is.'' — Eph. V. 17.
WE have been baptized, my brethren, one by one,
Into a deadly warfare, a warfare that has to be
waged with a relentless foe, a warfare from which there
is no discharge so long as life endures. " We sign him
with the sign of the Cross, in token that ... he shall
. . . fight" — fight manfully — " under [Christ's] banner
against sin, the world, and the devil ; and to continue
Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto his life's end."
But although the warfare is thus deadly, we are
marching onward to an assured victory. Yes ! if only
we will hold fast by our God, and watch and pray and
fight the good fight, the triumph has been promised on
the word of the Everlasting God, Who never deceives
the weakest or the most helpless of His creatures. We
may indeed be compelled, as every true Christian is
obliged at times, to enter into the experience of our
Divine Master. We may have to realize those times of
utter darkness when we seem almost weighed down by
physical infirmity and mental anxiety and spiritual de-
pression : those Calvary hours in which we feel like
some traveller in an unknown region when the mists of
night are gathering around him and the wild breeze
sounds harshly in his ears. We stand, as it were, in the
midst of some mountain torrent or the dried-up bed of
198 TOWER AND STRENGTH
a great river, and heart and flesh are failing, and we
seem almost paralysed by our fears, and our very limbs
refuse to bear us out of the dangers by which we are
encompassed. And we listen to the fountains of the
deep waters broken up in the far distance, and we stand
paralysed as we hear the sullen roar of those great waters
flowing onward surely to overwhelm us. And nothing
seems left for us but to lie down till the great waters
have overwhelmed us and we have utterly perished.
But, even then, out of the very depths of our desolation,
we can thank God (like the Apostles singing hymns of
praise in their dungeon) because we know that our God
has promised that when the enemy comes in like a
flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a banner
against him.
We may be wellnigh disheartened, as we look back
on bygone struggles, as we remember how (like the poor
demoniac in the Gospel) we have bound ourselves with
fetters of earthly resolutions, with the chains of our
human resolves, and the chains have been plucked
asunder, and the fetters have been broken in pieces, and
we have found that no earthly strength could tame that
devil that was ruling within us. And we feel, with almost
a shudder, that if it had not been for the goodness of our
God, we should have been carried down the steep places,
like the swine, into the depths of an utter degradation
forgetting that our bodies have ever been made the
temples of the Living God. But yet, even in the midst
of the gathering gloom, we hold fast and sing our hymn,
" Be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands," v/ith thanksgiving,
" Praise the Lord, O my soul," because we know that
the morning shall break and the darkness shall flee away ;
and, like that poor devil-ridden man on the shores of
that crystal sea, we shall be found clothed with the white
robe of our Redeemer's righteousness, with all the per-
THE gOOD FIGHT 199
plexities of the earthly entanglements gone for ever, the
spirits of evil overwhelmed by the mighty waters of
God's all-conquering might : resting there as the mists
flee away in the quiet morning, clothed and in our right
mind at the feet of Jesus Christ.
So, as we hear the war-cry, " Watch and pray," we
gird on our armour and we look our foe in the face, and
we say, like David of old. Thou, O Satan, art coming
against me with the spear and with the sword and with
the shield, but I come to thee in the Name of the Living
God, the God of the armies of Israel, Whom thou hast
defied.
Only, my brethren, if the battle is to end in victory,
we must not be unwise, but we must understand what
the will of the Lord is.
It is of vital importance that we should understand
that no temptation can take hold of us save that which is
common to man. We must lay hold of the fact that it is
the will of God that we should be tempted — for our
sanctification, that we may be raised to higher heights
of holy communion than those which without his assaults
we should ever have attained. We must understand also
that there is no sin in being tempted ; that the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself, though without sin, was tempted
in all things even as you and I are tempted ; that —
passing through that experience which I have described
— He suffered, being tempted. We come to a higher
understanding of God's will, by recognizing the fact
that temptation is the very sign of our sonship, the
very pledge and assurance to us that we are true
members of the mystical Body, that we are united
to Jesus Christ, that we are walking in the selfsame
road in which the Champion of humanity has gone
before.
The mere intellectual understanding of those rudi-
200 TOWER AND STRENGTH
ments of theology is an unspeakable power when we are
called to confront the great enemy who " goeth about as
a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." We
must have a mental apprehension that it may be the will
of God for us to be tempted every day of our lives, that
there is no sin in being tempted, even if it lasts for years,
that we are the more conformed to the likeness of Christ
in proportion as we are assailed by the manifold assaults
of the devil.
Then, secondly, we must also try to understand what
the will of the Lord is as regards the method of the
campaign. Everything depends upon the mode of war-
fare that we adopt, and the weapons which we use in this
lifelong struggle with this relentless adversary. The
weapons of our warfare are not carnal. The resolutions
of a strong will are all very well in their way. Systems
by which Christian men have trained themselves to wage
the good warfare are excellent as guides and helps in the
conflict. But we can never make steady progress year
after year, we can never carry the warfare into the
enemy's country so as to come back laden with the spoils
of our triumph, unless we fight not with earthly and
carnal but with spiritual weapons ; unless we take the
Bible for our guide, and (fighting as we do with an
invisible enemy) use that mode of warfare which the
invisible God, Who is looking Satan in the face, has
prescribed for us.
Let me briefly remind you then of some particulars
in this warfare against Satan.
First, it is of vital importance that we abide in God.
God has put us into Christ, hidden us, as it were, in
Jesus Christ, encompassed us with all the omnipotence
of the Everlasting Trinity. If we wish to rise up with
any power against Satan, we must abide in God.
I believe (we may say to ourselves) in God the
I
THE gOOD FIGHT 201
Father, however much 1 am tempted. 1 thank God
that I am His own child, that He has promised that
as a mother comforts her babe so will He strengthen me,
that He has promised never to leave me, never to
forsake me. 1 must abide in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I believe in Jesus Christ. 1 know that He liveth to
pray for me. I know that as an elder brother He can
enter into my every difficulty, having Himself passed
through it all in the days of His earthly warfare. I believe
that He is alive, and that in a mysterious manner He is
ever drawing me to His Table to feed my soul with His
own blessed Body and Blood, that from those continual
Communions I may return invigorated for the conflict.
I believe in God the Holy Ghost. I know on the
Word of God that in my inmost being the Living God
is dwelling, that my body is described in the Bible as the
temple of the Holy Ghost, that He Who is fighting in
me is greater than all the principalities and powers by
which I am surrounded ; and therefore while the stuggle
lasts, be it for days or for weeks or for life, I will go on
my way singing " Glory be to the Father, and to the
Son, and to the Holy Ghost."
And, again, our God knows that the invisible power
of the Blessed Trinity oft-times seems so far away from
us that we, with our weak faith, are powerless to lay hold
of the strength which this knowledge is intended to
convey. Therefore it is the will of our God to support
and strengthen us by human companionship and the
consciousness of human sympathy. The man who goes
against a relentless foe in his own solitary individuality
is sure to be destroyed. The victory is won by the
army going up shoulder to shoulder, heart beating true
to heart, each man bound to his fellow-men in the
marvellous union of a perfect organization. And so the
Creed of the Living God has nerved the soldiers of the
2 D
202 TOWER AND STRENGTH
Cross for nineteen hundred years, not merely by belief
in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, but
by belief in the Holy Catholic Church and the Com-
munion of Saints.
We have not merely to abide in God, but to abide
in the Body, to realize that we are members of that
mystical communion ; that round us is the great cloud
of witnesses, the blessed ones in Paradise, watching us
as we lay aside every weight and do good warfare for
Christ our King. We have to remember that every
Sunday millions of prayers go up to heaven for each
individual soldier, that thousands in Europe and Asia
and Africa and America communicate at the one Altar
of the Lord and pray for us, that God will give to us
the strength that we may need for the battle of the day,
for the conflict of the hour. We have to stay ourselves
on the memory of thousands who have fought the good
fight, who were tried as we are tried, tempted as we are
tempted, and now have entered into rest.
And then, we must be calm. In earthly soldiery a
man who loses his head is of little use. We must look
our adversary in the face. " So fight I, not as one that
beateth the air," with my hands up striking out wildly,
but I watch my opportunity. Realize by study of the
Bible the nature of the foe, and be wise : plant your
blows where they will tell.
Let me illustrate what I mean. It is an immense
help in the spiritual warfare, at some quiet time, when
temptation is not pressing very heavily upon us, to
remind ourselves (by reading some of the texts in the
Bible on the subject) that the devil is alive, and then to
speak to him as it were to a living enemy : — " Whenever
you bring against me that deadly temptation, I shall say
* Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the
Holy Ghost ' ; I shall praise God, and as long as you
rue gooD fight 203
continue to tempt me, whatever I am doing, at intervals,
1 shall say that hymn of praise. Therefore, Satan, if you
like to tempt me a thousand times this year, God Whom
you hate, and the blessed angels with whom you once did
deadly warfare, shall hear ascending from my struggling
spirit a thousand hymns of praise."
Or, if we have not courage for that, most of us have
some friend whom we dearly love, whom we know to be
in some deadly peril. Look Satan in the face and tell him
that whenever he assaults that one with some deadly
temptation, you will lift up your heart and pray for that
husband, that wife, that child. Therefore say unto him,
" O thou enemy of my soul, thou mayest try me if thou
wilt, thou mayest break my heart and crush the happiness
out of my life by thy temptations, but thou knowest that
my God hears prayer, and so a thousand prayers will
ascend this year for that soul that is now entangled in
thy bondage."
Or, if we feel that this is too much for us, then (as
our Lord did) let us tell Satan that there shall be a text
of Scripture said over when the assault is most fearfully
upon us.
Or, if even that be more than we have courage to
do, at least as long as the temptation continues, say
calmly : " Lord, help me ; Lord, I know that Thou art
fighting for me ; stretch forth the right hand of Thy
Majesty and be my defence against my enemy." So,
calmly, as in the sight of a God Who loves you, fight,
and Satan will leave you. " Resist the devil, and he
will flee from you."
More than that. Limit your fighting to the day —
day by day. One of the most subtle of Satan's tempta-
tions is that whereby he brings before us the whole
conflict of the life. " How can you," he says, " endure
years of this fighting } How can you bear to go on
204 TOWER ^ND STRENGTH
with this relentless foe till death ? " Throw it back in
his face. Say to him, " My God has taught me only to
pray for the day. Day by day that Table is spread ready
to give me new strength when my heart and my flesh
fail. Day by day I have my Bible to read, and my God
to listen to my prayer. The manna that I gather for
to-day will be found utterly useless when the time of
assault is upon me to-morrow. Sufficient for the day is
the battle and the evil thereof. I will not ask manna for
the morrow, I only fight for to-day."
So, my brethren, I have tried to teach you the
alphabet of the spiritual warfare ; and I have linked the
teaching with the first four letters of the alphabet, so that
a child may carry away the knowledge of this sermon for
the lifelong struggle : Abide, Body of Christ, Calmness,
Day by day. It is the literal A B C D of Christianity.
And, lastly, we must be earnest. My brethren, if we
are to be lost, it is not because God will not help us, not
because the Almighty is not on our side, but because of
that random living. We may go on struggling for a few
hours or a few weeks, but then we relax our energy,
and our poor are not visited, or our prayers are not said,
or we prepare not for Communion, or we enter into
some deadly temptation by going unnecessarily into the
society of those by whom we are always dragged down to
a lower level. We go away for a few weeks, and then
we return to be galvanized by some earnest sermon or
aroused by some sudden death. My brethren, unless
the whole of religion is one mighty sham — unless the
great God has deceived us when He has told us of the
principalities and powers around us — all the lusts of the
flesh and the lusts of the eye and the pride of life, and
the innocent enjoyments and harmless companionships of
our youth, are all being used by Satan to drag us down
into that abyss of ruin in which himself and the first
THE gOOD FIGHT 205
enemies of mankind have been engulfed. If God is true
(and you know He is true !), and He has taught you
that this great enemy robbed Adam of Paradise, and
wounded Noah and Lot, and made David into an adul-
terer (" sweet psalmist of Israel " though he were), and
dragged down S. Peter till with cursing and with swear-
ing he denied the Lord Whom he loved — if God has
told us that he is going about like a roaring lion seeking
whom he may devour — oh, men and brethren, will you
not be wise and understand what the will of the Lord is ?
It is that you should watch and pray, guarding against
the slightest approach of evil, going down on your knees
with humble confession to God the moment you have
yielded, even for an instant, to an impure thought or a
proud feeling, or to an unkind accusation brought by the
spirit of evil against one of your fellow-creatures. My
brethren, will you not be on your guard when Satan
comes with that old temptation, tempting you to pro-
crastinate ? To the young man he says, " After you
have had the pleasure of youth you can be earnest " ; to
the man all absorbed in business, " After you have made
your fortune, then you can think of your soul " ; to the
man resting after the battle of life, " There is time
enough " : leave it to a sick bed, and then the whole
strength is prostrate and the actual power of the mind to
grasp the will of God is gone ! My brethren, the whole
Bible teaches us (and the experience of every Christian will
teach you the same) that Satan longs to delude us, that
he is always trying to soothe the conscience with some
deadly opiate, telling us we are better than other people
or no worse than our neighbours, telling us that all will
be right at last, telling us that God is too good to punish,
too merciful to remind us hereafter of the sins we have
committed. Oh ! in the Name of that God Who sends
you the message this Lent, I pray you to be earnest.
2o6 TOWER .AND STRENGTH
For, brethren, let me speak plainly : there are many in
this church who have said to myself that they know
something of the love of God, who have told me with
their own lips that God has washed away their sin ; yet
who, unless I am mistaken, are being dragged down again
by a relentless foe. In the Name of that God Who alone
can give power to any human words, I beseech you, be
sober, be watchful ; you are fighting not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities and powers. Be not
unwise, but understand — before the day of grace is over
and the door of mercy shut for ever against you — oh,
understand what the will of your God is !
AHAB THE WORLDLING 207
IV
AHAB THE WORLDLING
" A^ow the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he dtd^
and the ivory house yohich he made^ and all the cities that he
built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the
kings of Israel f — i Kings xxii. 39.
IF, my brethren, Ahab had lived in an age after the art
of printing had been discovered, we can easily imagine
the kind of article which would have been written upon
him in the columns of the daily Press. " A great man "
— we seem to read it as I speak — " a great man has fallen
in Israel. He has passed away at Ramoth-gilead after
strenuously avenging the honour of his country against
our national foes. . . . The patriot who has departed
from us was a remarkable man. He was distinguished
by great taste and much self-culture. His knowledge of
architecture was such that he could have earned by it an
honourable living, if circumstances had obliged him to
make it his profession. Few travellers can fail to have
been struck by that summer residence of his, standing on
that gentle eminence commanding that beautiful plain,
with the gently flowing stream, the striking watch-tower
that commands the eastern entrance to Jezreel, the apart-
ments of the queen overlooking the gate. His ivory
house, made with the ivory brought from India, will
attest to succeeding generations the taste of the departed
monarch. Nor was Ahab merely a patriot. He was a
man who, in spite of his high position, was a noble
2o8 TOWER <^ND STRENGTH
patron of religion. We say it with reverence, but surely
it must have been gratifying to the Almighty to have
seen a man with such a position not ashamed of acknow-
ledging the God of his fathers. Far be it from us to lift
the curtain that veils the sacred intercourse of every soul
with its Creator, but we may recall to our readers that
striking scene, when he who died this morning was seen
at the head of his people, humbling himself, fasting,
acknowledging the power of God, and receiving from
Jehovah a special mark of His favour. The cities that
he built, and the ivory house that he made, are they not
written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of
Israel .'*"
Such, my brethren, would have been the world's
judgement upon Ahab. And it was perfectly true.
There is not a letter of exaggeration in the " news-
paper report " which I have ventured to read to you.
And yet, though that was perfectly true, the biographies
of the Bible have this striking advantage over all
other biographies : we have there the judgement of
One to Whom all hearts are open, all desires known,
from Whom no secrets are hid. We have there the
judgement of the Being Whose eye does not stop, as
man's eye, when the corpse is laid in the costly tomb, but
looks beyond the great gulf and marks the entrance of
the spirit into the world unseen. And the judgement of
Jehovah upon this Ahab was this : " Ahab did more to
provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the
kings of Israel that were before him." "There was none
like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wicked-
ness" — not in the sight of man, for his was a spotless
life, saving one fall — " to work wickedness in the sight
of the Lord."
My brethren, God has been pleased in this parish to
give much individual Christian life. There are many
AHAB THE WORLDLING 209
here, thank God, for whom we can only praise His holy
Name, to Whom their redemption, their forgiveness,
their sanctification are to be ascribed. But unless I am
utterly mistaken, this life of Ahab is the representation
of our national life, our parochial life, our life as a con-
gregation. So, God helping me, for this Lent, for the
Sundays that yet remain, I ask you to consider quietly
why it was that the world's judgement and God's judge-
ment, both true, were yet apparently so opposed the one
to the other ; how it was possible for this man, so full of
beautiful taste, so self-cultured, so great a patriot, such
a friend to religion, such a companion to Elijah the
prophet, to be handed down to posterity as the man
whom God's servants regarded as the most repulsive of
all the wicked sovereigns of a degraded race.
And those of you who in former days have helped
the preacher by your prayers, will not be wanting now,
that God in His boundless mercy may be pleased before
the quiet days of Holy Week, to grant unto us as a
congregation something, at any rate, resembling the spirit
of Lent. May we turn to God with real repentance, a
true humiliation, a resolution, God helping us, to leave
the Ahab-life behind, and to arise on that Easter Morn,
either here or in Paradise, to walk in newness ot lite,
I would observe, then, first, that Ahab had received
from God great blessings.
It was a distinct blessing to have that love of nature,
that power of culture, that freedom. Ahab had his own
family life ; he had the blessing of a wife, who watched
his every movement, saw in a moment when the appetite
was failing, and the face of her lord was saddened :
" What aileth my lord } Why dost thou refuse to eat
thy food .''" All these were gifts from God.
And you and I, brethren, though our position in
many respects is so very different, have yet countless
2 E
210 TOWER AND STREj^^GTH
blessings for which to thank Almighty God. There are
few here who have not opportunities some time in the
year of improving their taste by all that refines and
ennobles — music, art, everything which in this great
metropolis is freely offered to us. On purpose I am
not speaking to-day of religious privileges, but all these
opportunities are freely given us by God.
We are bound to thank God for it. As the Lord
said by Moses to Israel of old, it is God that has given
you the power to get wealth. It is Goo that has given
you that happy home. It is God Who has given you
the love for nature, the care for your property, the
patriotism that nerves you to self-denial in behalf of the
old fatherland. God has given us all this, whatever it
be — health, strength, home, children, money, influence,
popularity — all has come from God. And if there be
one thing more repulsive than another to any right-
thinking man, it is the miserable phraseology which
speaks of sorrow and trouble and trial and disappoint-
ment and bereavement as God's will, but which forgets
to ascribe equally to the same hand of the Eternal
Father the happiness and the peace and the wealth and
the joy so freely showered on our path. " It is God's
will," a man says, " and I must bear the sorrow. I
am a lucky man ; it was a good stroke ; I must be
thankful to myself for this and for this, the mercy,
that I have received."
Let that first be clearly stated. Let us bid farewell
to the grudging, unthankful spirit which speaks with
bated breath of the earthly blessings which we have
received from the kind hand of a loving Providence.
But, secondly, I would observe, and you will see it
more clearly if you follow the history with me further
on, that we have in Ahab an instance of that danger
against which the Bishop of the Diocese warned us when
AHAB THE JVORLDLING 211
he opened this church, restored in all its beauty. Some
of you may remember the text that at first seemed to cast
such a chill upon our spirit, rejoicing as we were in the
beautiful church which our God has given us. I at least
felt disappointed when the text was given. " If ye will
not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory
unto My Name, saith the Lord of Hosts, I will even
send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings :
yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it
to heart." This sad state of things would have been
reversed if Ahab had only offered up his entire being to
God ; if he had only brought that human will into sub-
jection to the Divine will, an incalculable blessing would
have come to himself, his country, and his posterity ; but
the very things that God gave in love to be to him for
his wealth were (as the Psalmist says) made by his own
withdrawing of his will from God into an occasion of
falling. The wealth, the freedom, the happy home,
everything that God had given, became a curse after
the man had withdrawn himself from hearty surrender
to the Lord Omnipotent. For God must reign in
heaven and in earth. No other voice can be heard
than this : " The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth."
Every knee must, sooner or later, bow before Him.
It was Ahab's love of nature and perfect taste, un-
disciplined by real religion, which ended in the murder
of Naboth. He could not bear to look out of his
window in the morning when he rose, and to see that
little bit of ground spoiling the beauty of his estate.
Yes, he was undisciplined, and at last practically he
murdered Naboth to obtain the garden of herbs. This
power to do what he liked, his absolute freedom, made
him choose, not the woman who would have lifted him
up to heaven, but the queen who dragged him down to
hell. He went out and married whom he liked ; and
212 TOWER AND STRE.T^TH
the first that he loved was one whom God had forbidden
him to marry, one who belonged to a race of idolators
with whom Israel was to have no contact. So it would
be easy to follow out the thought, and to show that
every blessing which God had given to Ahab was,
through his want of hearty surrender, turned into the
means of his destruction.
Therefore, my brethren, it is that the picture con-
tained in these few chapters of the First Book of Kings
is so fraught with solemn meaning to us. For is
it not true — I speak to myself, I speak to you —
that the very blessings which we enjoy are likely to be to
us the occasion of falling .'' Is it not true ? Was not
our Lord right in saying that if we had this world's
goods, we were in danger of the woe coming upon
us of those who were satisfied and had received their
consolation.'' "Woe unto you! for ye have received
your consolation."
Look at it for a moment quietly. Let me speak,
God helping me, as little as possible with any impassioned
utterance, but calmly. Is it not true what the Bible
says that Christ will at the last day judge us according
to our opportunities ? Is it or is it not true that the
greater the responsibility the larger the account which
will have to be rendered : ten talents, five talents,
one talent.'' Is it not true that freedom, education,
culture, sufficient food, and the like, are responsibilities ?
Is it not true that there is scarcely a human being in this
church who cannot influence another on matters connected
with this world ? Can you not, then, imagine that one who
has received the greatest amount of blessing, having there-
by received the largest amount of responsibility, may at
the last day find that through want of living surrender to
God he has sunk into the condition of this miserable
sovereign of Israel ?
ARAB THE WORLDLING 213
Secondly, is it not natural that those of us who have
no peculiar trouble or difficulty in this world are more
likely to be bound to earth than those who find this
world indeed a vale of tears ? Is it not natural to suppose
that if we are popular, if we are prosperous, if we have
nice refined tastes, if we have received from our parents
a gentle, amiable nature, if things on the whole go well
with us : is it or is it not likely that we should be more
inclined to remain on earth than those who have found
this world a trial and a discomfort ? And what is the
only sign in the Bible of having the spirit for which God
is longing, the spirit which the whole of God's education
is intended to develop ? Is it or is it not the spirit of
those who live as strangers and pilgrims, those who, like
Israel of old, eat their Passover meal with their loins
girded and their staff in their hands, waiting for the order
to march to the other world ?
Contrast two cases, and you will at once, without
further explanation, see what I mean. Some fifteen
years ago, one who has long since departed out of this
life, but who then occupied the leading position (I might
say) in London, second, I think, only to Royalty, said to
me this : " Do you not see, Mr. Wilkinson, how almost
impossible it is for me really to wish to go out of this
world, for I have everything to make me love this
world?" Now contrast that with another man, who
spoke to me some ten years ago. It was late in the
evening, in my old parish of Windmill Street, and I had
been preparing him for Confirmation. And as I looked
at his face, I saw the eye all glazed, and evidently the
man was not attending to what I said. And I asked,
"Are you ill .-^ " He replied, " No, sir, I am not ill." I
said, "What is the matter ?" He answered, " I only feel
a little faint, sir ; for I have been about yesterday and
to-day to see about work, and I have only had a cup of
2 14 TOWER AND STRED^GTH
tea yesterday and to-day, and I feel a bit faint." Now
contrast those two. Who was more likelv to love
earthly things, who was more likely to long for heaven
and the songs of angels, and the place where a man
hungers no more, neither thirsts any more, and where
God wipes away all tears from the eyes } What binds
us to earth }
And, lastly, I would ask you to consider whether the
position that you and I occupy is or is not somewhat
unfavourable to developing that spirit of obedience and
self-restraint which is characteristic of the Christian life }
Look at it only for an instant. Now I ask you, brethren,
to take this as an illustration. I beseech you, as you
value your own salvation, do not when you gossip in the
porch say, " Oh, it was a sermon about keeping Lent."
It is not.
It is a sermon that any Christian evangelist, who
neither believed in a Church or in Baptism or any Sacra-
ment that Christ has ordained, would preach if he were
a true man, however benighted he might be with respect
to other saving truths. Take these forty days as an
illustration. If a Dissenter does not keep the rule of
the body to which he belongs, his class leader comes
down upon him. If a Romanist desires to come to
Communion at Easter, he must make a confession before
Easter Day. Both extremes are under discipline. Here —
do we say "^ — in the Church of England, we are absolutely
free. Thank God for it ! We are perfectly free to
have as much society as ever we like, to go where we like,
do what we like, marry whom we like, live as we like ;
and nobody has the right to say a word to us. We can
get up in the morning when we like ; we can spend a life-
time without any active self-sacrifice ; we need never speak
to another man about Jesus Christ; we have no account
to give of ourselves to anybody. For nineteen hundred
AHAB THE PVORLDLING 215
years Christians may have found the good of shutting
themselves off from the world for these forty days. Our
" enlightened " judgement (I am not now condemning it,
simply stating a fact) says, " Nonsense, ecclesiastical
tyranny ; rubbish, unworthy of the nineteenth century ! "
And the natural man rises up, and he does rather more
(instead of less) in Lent, to show that he is not bound
by any such tyranny.
Well, here are three facts : the responsibility of
blessing, the tendency of earthly blessing to bind to
earth, and the danger of unrestrained liberty. Brethren,
what are you and I to do — for the danger is greater
perhaps for me than those to whom I speak — about
the things of this world ?
First, to acknowledge on our knees the danger.
Secondly, to thank God whenever our will is thwarted,
whenever we have a chance of giving up anything we
like for the comfort of others ; to thank God when
sorrow comes, though our heart breaks ; to thank God
when by bereavement He opens heaven to us, and lifts
us up above this world with all its cares, be they religious
or be they secular ; to recognize the danger and thank-
fully to take every opportunity for self-denial ; to correct
the tendency to please ourselves by all and every possible
means.
And, thirdly, to help the poor indeed, but to pray
most for the rich : for those, whether priests or people,
who are getting on comfortably, who have no particular
reproach cast upon them, who are in no peculiar danger
of being brought under the law of the land ; those who,
like Ahab, are cultured, refined, perfect, except that in
the sight of God they are an abomination, because
they have not given up their will to Him ; because,
through the want of surrender to heaven, they are
turning all the priceless blessings that their Father
2i6 TOWER AND STREDiGTH
has showered upon them into the means of their
eternal destruction :
" When the world around is smiling,
In the time of wealth and ease,
Earthly joys our hearts beguiling,
In the day of health and peace.
By Thy mercy,
O deliver us, good Lord."
A REPROBATE MirNJ) 217
V
A REPROBATE MIND
" Became that^ when they kneyv God^ they glorified Him
not as God^ neither were thankful ; even as they did not like
to retain God in their knoveledge^ God gave them over to a
reprobate mindT — Rom. i. 21, 28.
WE have seen, my brethren, that King Ahab was a
man highly favoured of God. Jehovah bestowed
upon him three great spiritual blessings, besides all the
natural blessings that he received, and which we con-
sidered last Sunday. Jehovah, I say, bestowed upon
him three great spiritual blessings : —
Firstly, the Almighty revealed Himself to Ahab. He
revealed Himself in the very way that was most likely to
lay hold of his will. He revealed Himself to Ahab as a
soldier, under the aspect of the God of battles. He led
him on to victory, as we are told in i Kings xx.
Secondly, He revealed Himself by the instrumentality
of a man more likely to influence the sovereign of Israel
perhaps than any of the ancient prophets. God saw that
Ahab was a man naturally inclined to depend upon
others, and therefore He gave him the strongest of the
company of the prophets to lead him, the dauntless
Elijah.
Thirdly, God knew Ahab to be a man to whose
nature love would speak with a very faltering voice.
Ahab was essentially a selfish man ; and therefore the
2 F
2i8 TOWER AND STRE:?{GTH
Almighty God appealed to his selfishness, and tried to
lay hold upon him by fear. He touched his fear in the
way that he was most likely to be impressed. Devoted as
Ahab was to nature, accustomed as he was to spend his
time among the horses and the cattle and the farm, God's
voice was clearly heard when for years the drought took
possession of the whole country, when the cattle were
perishing, when his money was being wasted. The power
of the Lord was so manifested, that in very fear poor
selfish Ahab was obliged to humble himself, and to seek
mercy from the Most High, Who revealed Himself
again with loving-kindness and tenderness, enabling
Elijah the prophet to intercede and to teach by word
and symbol.
In those three ways God revealed Himself to Ahab,
He said to him, to use the oft-repeated phrase in the
ancient history, " Thou shalt know that I am the
Lord."
The second blessing which God gave to Ahab
was the power to respond. He heard Elijah gladly
— many refuse to listen to a single sermon ! — and
did many things in obedience to the prophet's com-
mands.
Ahab was careful — would to God there were more
Ahabs in London ! — he was very careful that his upper
servants should be men who feared God. He knew, as
every intelligent head of a house knows, how much of
the character of the under servants depends upon the
person who is put into the place of responsibility, and
instead of considering his own likings, Ahab had grace
given him by God to appoint the Goo-fearing Obadiah
to be the head of his household. And it must have cost
him a great effort, because Queen Jezebel, who managed
the house, hated Obadiah, and hated everybody who
believed in God. So God bestowed upon him evidently
A REPROBATE ML?(p 219
great grace, to appoint that GoD-fearing Obadiah to be
the head of his household.
And once more. In spite of the unusual appearance
that he presented — imagine Jezebel and her idolatrous
train laughing at the king — he received such power
from Jehovah that in the face of that idolatrous,
sneering court, he humbled himself, he fasted, he lay-
in sackcloth, he acknowledged Jehovah publicly before
the whole people, till the Lord God sealed the reality
of his repentance (so far as it could be real in such a
weak character) by saying, " Seest thou how Ahab
humbleth himself before Me ? "
And, thirdly, God not merely revealed Himself to
Ahab, He not merely bestowed upon him special grace
to respond to a certain extent to this revelation, but He
took him into companionship with Himself. He allowed
Ahab to share His counsels. He gave him the high
privilege of being a fellow-worker with Omnipotence.
In I Kings xx, three times the prophet comes to Ahab,
three times he teaches him how the battle is to be
arranged ; and when Ahab, conscious of his own
unworthiness, asked who was to be the divinely
inspired leader, God singled him out to be re-
sponsible.
" Who shall order the battle r He answered, Thou."
Thou, O Ahab, whom I have chosen ; thou, the sove-
reign of Israel, to whom I confide My counsels. Be on
thy guard. Strengthen thyself. The people that you
have to fight against will say. The Lord is God of the
hills, and not God of the valleys. Be of good cheer,
Ahab, we are fighting together. You and God are going
up to the battle ; and " I will deliver all this great
multitude into thy hands, and thou shalt know that
I am the Lord."
So God revealed Himself; so God gave grace to
220 POWER AND STREUiGTH
Ahab to respond ; so God treated him almost as a priest
on that great battle-field. Verily this was a man highly-
favoured of heaven ; verily this was a man on the road
to heaven ; verily this was a man whom ages yet unborn
should celebrate as the instrument of Jehovah in defend-
ing Israel, vanquishing their foes, and manifesting the
will of the Eternal.
But, on the other hand, this same Ahab again and
again openly sinned against Jehovah. In spite of all
that Elijah had done for him, in spite of all the godly
counsels that he had received, he was not ashamed of
setting a price upon the head of the prophet, and driving
God's servants into the dens and the caves of the earth.
He was not ashamed to forget all that he owed, as the
father of his people, to protect them, as an honest man
dealing with his fellow-men. He was not ashamed to
come out as the murderer of Naboth the Jezreelite.
Nay, at last he openly defied God. As he had defied
God in his youth by marrying Jezebel, so he defied God
in his old age by going up, in spite of the voice of the
Eternal, to fight against the city that God had told him
not to attack. And he died in the very act of declaring
before God and man that he would deceive God, that he
was stronger than God, that the Word of God would
come to nought, and the will of Ahab would be accom-
plished !
My brethren, what a contradiction ! How strange it
seems as we take those two sides of Ahab's character !
And yet, was I not right on Sunday last in saying that
King Ahab stands out as the representative of this con-
gregation, preacher and people alike ; not, please God, in
his awful end, but in the early and middle period of
his life }
Has not God indeed revealed Himselt to us .'' Is
there a nation on earth that has God so nigh as God is
A REPROBATE MIJ^D 221
nigh unto us ? Do we not as a nation perpetually
acknowledge our belief in Him ? Has He not blessed
us, dear people, as a congregation ? Has He not given
us the desire to listen to His holy Word ? When I sit
sometimes in that chair, watching your faces as some
stranger preaches to you, I am often struck with the rapt
attention, the quiet, respectful silence, the evident desire
to hear, by which the congregation is pervaded.
And further : as a congregation we, like Ahab, have
not merely received the message and tried to attend to it,
but we have been enabled to go out as fellow-workers
with God. By our alms and by our prayers we have
sent out into Africa, into China, into many a desolate
parish in the East of London, missionaries of God. You
have been allowed to fight for the Lord in the great
battle which is now going on in England between good
and evil ; the weak and the helpless ranged on the side
of God (made mighty by the indwelling Spirit of the
Omnipotent), and the whole power of the world and the
flesh and the devil ranged against them. And God has
said to you as you ask, " Who shall order the battle ? "
" Thou." Your example has cheered many a heart —
in this the day of grace, the day when men are entering
into the valley of decision — to come forward on the side
of the Lord against His foes.
And yet, brethren, beloved in Christ, is it not true
(true for you, true for me) that there is another side to
our character } The New Testament reminds us of that
commonplace fact, that every age must be judged by the
light which God has bestowed upon it. The New Tes-
tament tells us that want of kindness in these days is
parallel with the murder of Naboth in days when life was
cheap. Last Sunday's epistle tells us that the dwelling
upon the things of time and sense : the loving money, the
worshipping the seen and the visible, popularity, and the
222 POWER AND STRE.?{GTH
like ; is just the idolatry to which Ahab yielded. In the
light of the New Testament every sin of Ahab comes
back in this our day with all its awful power and reality ;
and preacher and people stand now before the God unto
Whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from
Whom no secrets are hid. He sees when it is a question
of a quiet life, or the sacrifice of everything for the
Lord God Almighty ; when it is a question of just
doing what the favourite Jezebel of the day may wish ;
when it is a question of being popular, holding well with
our friends, keeping with our party, having enough
money to do what we like with, getting up when we like
in the morning, staying quietly at home or entering into
society, or, on the other hand, of going out, where the
Lord is sending us, to battle, to deliver poor wretched
sinners from the power of Satan. He sees when the
question comes whether we marry whom we like, or
some one whom God can bless ; whether we do what we
like, or what God wishes. When some unpleasant truth
is taught us, when God asks us to accept something in
His Word which our reason cannot at present, in this
state of finite intelligence, thoroughly grasp — oh, people,
though we work with God and for God, though we have
received God, though we are afraid of God, though we
have humbled ourselves on our knees before Him, oh,
do we not start aside like a broken bow ? Anything
but this, anything but this teaching, anything but this
sacrifice, anything but this work : anything, in fact,
except what my God has ordered ! How we halt
between two opinions ! One day for God, like Ahab ;
one day, like Ahab, for the world and the flesh and the
devil !
Never, I suppose, was there a better representative —
alike in the (jood and in the evil side of his character —
never was there a better representative of us in our
A REPROBATE MlJip 223
collective capacity, made up of priests and people,
than in this strange contradiction of Ahab, the King of
Israel.
And what was the secret, my brethren, of this con-
tradiction ? How was it that a man who had known
God, that a man who had humbled himself in the sight
of God, that a man who had actually been used by God
as a Church-worker, could have that awful epitaph,
"Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel
to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before
him ; there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell
himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord,"
and did abominably in the eyes of Jehovah ? How was
it ? What was the secret ?
It was this — and that was the reason why for a
moment I passed away from the Old Testament to the
Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as com-
municated to the Romans by the Apostle S. Paul — Ahab
knew God, but he did not glorify Him as God, and he
was not thankful, and he became vain in his imagination,
and so his foolish heart was darkened ; and because he
did not choose to retain God in his knowledge, God
gave him over to a reprobate mind : a mind that at last
became incapable of judging between right and wrong, so
darkened was his understanding. This was the secret.
Men like Joseph and David and Daniel, and all the
Old Testament saints (as the author of the Epistle to the
Hebrews tells us) were alike in this : they accustomed
themselves from boyhood to the practice of the Presence
of God. They trained themselves from childhood to
remind their inner lives continually, " God is by me,
God is seeing me, God is before me." Enoch, you
remember, walked with God, side by side with God.
As you let your little child go before father and mother,
you know, when they are coming to church, Abraham
224 POWER AND STREJ^GTH
walked before God with the Father's eye always on
him. Joseph and Daniel trained themselves into the
same habit of the practice of the Presence of God, and
so it became to them part of their being. When a
great temptation came to Joseph, he just gathered him-
self up according to his custom. It had been his habit,
when he got up in the morning, when he dressed himself,
when he went out to business, when he went to see that
the matters of Pharaoh's house were rightly arranged,
when he went out for his walk, when he dressed for
dinner, in everything, to think of God. And so, when
a great temptation came, he thought for a moment,
and he said, " How can I do this great wickedness,
and sin against God.''"
And when any blessing came to him, a child born,
a happy home given, or anything, directly he thanked
God, and (as you read in the old story) said something
to acknowledge God's goodness. So, when he was put
in a place of great prosperity, when he was highly
honoured, he said, " It is God Who is teaching me
this, and Who is communicating it to the king by me
His servant." This had become the habit of his life.
And Abraham, David, Daniel, they were all alike (you
can see it by studying the Bible afterwards) ; it had
become the habit of their life to retain God in their
knowledge, to let God settle, when they got up in the
morning, what they did with their day, what they worked
at, how long they worked, and in what way they co-
operated with heaven in establishing the kingdom of
righteousness and truth on the earth. In everything,
not merely Sacraments, not merely sacrifices, not merely
church-going (to use modern language), but from morn-
ing to night and from night to morning, there was a
thankful remembrance of God Almighty's great love and
all-pervading Presence.
A REPROBATE MIfNJD 225
And that made them happy? Till we have tried it,
it seems bondage. Bondage ! My brethren, it is the
joy of life to know we have God with us, to know that
God's strength is made perfect in our weakness, to know
that God is working with us and we are working with
Him, to know that God loves us, and that all our happi-
ness and joy and prosperity have come from God, and that
all our trials and sorrows and bereavements are only the
hands of the Eternal clasping us closer to Himself, that
we may know Him better and love Him more truly.
I must not, my brethren, dwell longer on the subject,
but, believe me, this was the secret spring of the life of
the saints, and the want of this was the secret spring of
Ahab's downfall. He did not accustom himself to retain
God in his knowledge ; and therefore, of course, he
could only look at and care for the things that he saw.
He knew the difference between a nice quiet day and
quarrelling all the day long with Jezebel because he
would not kill a few prophets, and so he chose the
ease, and he killed the prophets. It was so natural. He
was not accustomed to think of God Almighty. What
matter could it make, putting up an altar more, or doing
some worship in a grove instead of the sacred place the
Eternal had appointed? He never saw God. He did
not know what it was to see God, and therefore, when
a great temptation came, what had he to stand upon ?
What could he do but take hold of what he believed in,
and lived for, and worked for, and at last (as he did)
died for, and let the Unseen and Invisible God vanish
from his thoughts ?
Of course, when God made Himself felt, when he felt
God's hand upon him, then he was obliged to submit, as
you and I submit. When we are laid on a bed of sick-
ness and are dying ; or when we are bankrupt, or when our
little child suddenly dies, or when we watch some friend
2G
226 POWER AND STRE.?(GTH
in great illness and suffering, then we cannot help seeing
God. He is touching us, and, of course, we know it.
But through the want of the habit of our lives being
the practice of the Presence of God, we all (preacher and
people) are allowing far too much of the life that God
has given to be spent for His glory and for the good of
souls, to be frittered away in self-seeking and the per-
formance of a mere perfunctory round of duties. God
help us all ; some more, some less ; God help us ! What
are we to do ?
First, receive something, dear people, from God.
You can never practise the Presence of God till you
believe in Jesus Christ, till you have given the heart up
to Him, and received that great salvation. How can we
delight in God, how can we love to retain God in our
knowledge, unless we believe that He loves us ^ Oh !
that is the first step : to kneel down and tell our God all
our sins, and thank Him that He has given us a great
salvation, to thank Him that the debt has been paid, that
Jesus His own dear Son has borne our sins in His
own Body on the tree. It is the first step, to receive.
Man's way is to give first, and then to receive some-
thing in exchange. God gives to us everything, and
then afterwards He asks for thankfulness and love and
obedience. But the first step is to receive. Oh ! take
it. Receive this forgiveness. Look up to that
Saviour Who died on the Cross, till you feel flowing
down into your heart that strange unutterable peace of
which the Psalmist spoke, when he said : " Blessed is
he whose transgression is forgiven, and whose sin is
covered."
And then start afresh in the joy of that free forgive-
ness. Start, dear brethren, resolved to look at every-
thing in the light of eternity. Start, resolved never to
trifle with conscience, even if only a morbid conscience.
A REPRO'BAre :MINT> 227
Consider a matter, and then decide ; but never put it
aside, however disagreeable the voice, however distaste-
ful the duty, however painful the sacrifice. Look at
that Cross, and see those pierced hands ; see that fore-
head crowned with thorns; and let the Lord say, "L
gave My life for thee ; wilt thou not do something for
Me ? Wilt thou not offer Me something for a thank-
offering before thy death?"
And, lastly, if we have sunk (as we all do sink
sometimes) into the grovelling condition of slaves, if
the only thing by which God can appeal to us is our
fear, oh ! then let the great God humble Himself as He
will and appeal to our fear ! Have you never known
anybody whom you loved who has died in Christ?
Have you never known any one who believed in Jesus
Christ ? Can you bear the thought of seeing them on the
other side of the gulf, and of hearing the voice saying,
"Son, remember, remember, remember ! " — the voice that
you would not hear, to the conscience that was drugged
with the world's sweet opiates — " between us and you
there is a great gulf fixed." Oh ! if God's love on
Calvary cannot touch us, let rational fear, the dread
of being parted from those whom we have loved, let
that appeal to us !
And if that does not touch us, if we are so selfish
that, provided we have plenty to eat and drink and
everything happy in this world, we would let everybody
who died and belonged to us go where they liked, and
trust to materialism being true, trust to death being the
extinction of our life, trust to there being no future, and
risk it all ; then risk it all ! Yes ! venture it, my
brethren, if you will. If you are right, it will be a
glorious end : a glorious end, to have lived without
having blessed a single human being ! If you are wrong,
if the testimony of God is true, if the testimony of saints
228 POWER AND STREU^TH
and martyrs and confessors — the greatest and the noblest
in every age and land — be true ; if Ahab this day is
looking back on that strange paradox of his life ; if you
and I have to look back some day, the same man,
woman, child, reviewing the history of this earthly
pilgrimage : then let God appeal to our fear. Do
you think that Ahab finds much satisfaction in those
dark chambers of the future world ? Do you think it
is much satisfaction to have had a popular life, to have
been liked by everybody, to have been a good soldier,
a good patriot : to have done, in fact, everything except
honoured God, except given glory to God, except
retained God in his knowledge ? Is it, do you think,
to-day any comfort to Ahab to remember all his good
feelings and all the times when God spoke to him ?
Oh, God help us, the moment the temptation comes,
to let Him speak to our fear ! What is a man profited
if he gains all the world (give him everything, heap it
up !) and then, like Ahab, has that awful verdict : Ahab
sold himself — for the sake of that which he could touch
and see — he sold himself to sin against his God?
gOD OR MAMMON 229
VI
GOD OR MAMMON
" There voas none like unto Ahab^ \Qhich did sell himself
to '9s)ork "voickedness in the sight of the Lord^ -^hom Jezebel his
foife stirred up.'' — i Kings xxi. 25.
THIS chapter, my brethren, contains the account of
a crisis in the life of Ahab. Ahab, as we have seen
in the earlier portion of his history, was only too true a
picture of many amongst ourselves. He was an un-
decided man. He was always halting between two
opinions. He did many things for God. On several
striking occasions he acknowledged Jehovah as the Lord
of his life. And yet he never scrupled to deny the
Lord God of his fathers whenever a bold profession of
religion, whenever doing the right thing (whatever it
was) would have involved a sacrifice of his own ease
and his own comfort. And so he allowed God's people
to be driven into the dens and caves of the earth. He
set a price upon the head of Elijah. He married, in
direct defiance of the Divine law, a godless wife ; and
then he yielded one by one to her godless demands. He
led his people into a distinct stage of national apostasy.
Jeroboam had sinned, but he worshipped the true God,
though it was under the image of the golden calves. But
Ahab went further. He brought in a new system of
religion. He established the foul worship of Baal as a
rival to the pure faith of Jehovah. He took, in fact,
certain steps by which, we are told, he " did more to
230 POWER AND STRED^TH
provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the
kings of Israel that were before him."
Again, dear brethren, let me remind you that this
Ahab was the man who chose holy Obadiah to be the
head of his house. It was he who, on Carmel's heights,
gave the sanction of his royal presence to the destruction
of idolatry, who stood by approvingly while the waters
of Kishon were stained with the blood of the false
prophets. This was the man who was twice saved by
Jehovah out of the hands of his enemies, who was taken
again and again into the very confidence of heaven, who
was employed as the instrument of the Lord in deliver-
ing his people from their Syrian invaders.
Oh, strange contradiction ! Yet, dear brethren, not
more strange than that which is furnished by the lives of
many among ourselves. May God, the Blessed Spirit
Himself, give power to the preacher. Himself apply this
teaching to all our souls, for Jesus Christ's sake.
Now Ahab, like every one else, possessed the myste-
rious gift of a free will. Ahab, like any one else, was
subject to the counter influence of good and evil. And
these counter influences, good and evil, were in his case
embodied in the outward and visible forms of Jezebel
and Elijah. These opposing forces confronted each
other in that chapter from which my text is taken.
We see King Ahab in this chapter alternately under
the influence of Jezebel and Elijah, under the influence
of the world and religion. And then at the end of the
chapter he is obliged to make up his mind. He is
obliged, whether he will or not, to decide once and for
ever whether his being is to be surrendered to the repre-
sentative of heaven or to the prophet of hell.
It is a simple story, my dear brethren, and very
quickly told. Naboth, the Jezreelite, had a pleasant
vineyard. It lay hard by the palace of the king. And
gOD OR MAMMON 231
Ahab was a man of taste ; and the vineyard was much
required to complete his estates. Putting it into modern
EngHsh, it was just this : he wanted to do something
that he knew was not right ; or he shrank from doing
something which he knew in his heart he ought to do.
That is the modern translation of Naboth's history.
His conscience told him that he ought not to touch that
piece of land. Then came the power of evil to him
personified in his idolatrous queen: "Dost thou now
govern the kingdom of Israel ? Why should thy fancy
be thwarted ? Why walk along this thorny path of self-
denial .'' Life is unbearable at such a pressure. What
is the good of being king if you are not able to have
your own way ? Do nothing. Only wait. Do not use
your power in stopping the current of evil. Just go
with the stream." O brethren, is it not what every
cunning devil says, " Do nothing very wicked ; follow
the stream; be quiet.''" "I will give thee the vine-
yard of Naboth." Wrong triumphed. Right was put
aside. Conscience was gradually silenced. The weak
man held his tongue.
That was all. He held his tongue, and sanctioned
by his silence the sin which he durst not himself have
committed. And life in those days was very cheap. It
was not much to kill a man then. So Naboth was put
to death, and the vineyard was seized.
And then once more. The power of God, so
long-suffering : the power of God, Who willeth not
that any should perish : the power of God, Whose
love can never be uttered by human lips and never
fully conceived by human minds — the power of God
drew near : God, Who wishes man to be saved :
God, Who will do anything with a man except
rob him of his liberty, deprive him of his free will : the
power of this loving God is now brought to bear upon
232 POWER AND STRECh(GTH
Ahab. The king is sitting there in the garden of Naboth
in the cool of the evening. It is a fair scene, that lovely
Jezreel, compared by travellers to our own Windsor.
It is a fair scene that lies spread out before him. The
fruit of the vineyard is good for food. His whole
system, fevered by long anxiety and by inward struggles,
is refreshed as he sits there. Watch him, look at him as
he sits in that quiet garden.
He looks up, and there at the open gate stands the
personification of conscience. " There I see him, Elijah
the prophet ! " The flowers have lost their fragrance.
The sweet music of the birds sounds like some awful
discord in his ear. The fruit tastes like ashes, and his
lips scarce touch it. He tosses it aside, for the shadow
of death has fallen upon it.
A strange terror has paralysed his whole system.
He shrinks back, he crouches like a hound beneath the
lash, when he gasps out the words, " Hast thou found
me, O mine enemy } " " I have found thee," said
Elijah, " because thou hast sold thyself to work evil
in the sight of the Lord."
And then, once more, the power of good prevails.
The influence of Elijah, strengthened by the Blessed
Spirit of God, lays hold of his being. " It came to pass,"
we read, " when Ahab heard these words, that he rent
his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted,
and lay in sackcloth, and went softly." He is not —
observe each word, for each sentence here has a meaning
— among the foolish ones who think that there is no
God. He has no sympathy with the multitudes who
have settled down on their lees, and who say in their
hearts, " The Lord will not do good, neither will He
do evil." Ahab does not even justify himself, as
Adam did. He makes no excuses. The rough garb,
the spare diet, the night of hardship, all attest the
gOD OR MAMMON 233
reality of his convictions. Imagine ourselves saying
before the whole congregation that is here, " God be
merciful to me ! I have loved myself. I have loved the
world. I never made a sacrifice for Christ in all my
life." Imagine it. Well, that is what Ahab did.
"To the Lord our God belong mercies." Oh, the
depth of the riches of the loving-kindness of our God !
Anything except rob us of our freedom ! The penitence
is accepted. " Seest thou," said God, " how Ahab
humbleth himself before Me } " Oh, the delight of God
to see that humiliation ! Look at it. " Seest thou how
Ahab humbleth himself .'' " That was his day of grace.
If only that moment he had done two things, if only he
had accepted God's forgiveness as freely as God gave it,
and then had made a thorough surrender of himself; if
only, like the Ephesians in the Acts of the Apostles, who
went out into the market-place and burnt the wicked
books which were the outward and visible sign of their
sin ; if only Ahab had then and there gone out and
broken down the altar of Baal, and with his own hand
hewn in pieces the trees in that idolatrous grove, and
then given Jezebel the choice of either submitting to
God or going back home to her idolatrous friends ; if
only — oh, weak and wavering monarch of Israel, driven
to and fro like the stubble before the wind, standing one
moment on the rock of penitence, then swept back into
the roaring surge ! O Ahab, so near, so near to heaven,
if only thou hadst known in that thy day! O God, if
my people only knew in this their day the things that
belong to their peace !
But we can all imagine, my brethren, what followed.
Jezebel, the representative of the world, would bend
down at first with a sort of sympathy to her husband in
his penitential agony. "It is quite right. You have done
right." And then she would tell him to be careful, to
2 H
234 POWER AND STRE^iGTH
guard against religious enthusiasm. "You ought not
to do anything extreme." And then by degrees, as his
conscience became more quiet, she would gently rally
him. "How ridiculous he looked, did he not.? Was
it not absurd ^ A king, a man, in your position, putting
on sackcloth ! You could have been religious without
any of those extreme measures."
But why dwell on details .'' Ahab's repentance, under
the power of the personification of evil, was very short-
lived. Like morning cloud and early dew it passed
away.
It was his last opportunity. When next he is
brought before us, he is in darkness, deep darkness.
Outwardly he is the same. He is the same highly
cultured gentleman, he is the same brave soldier, he is
the same affectionate husband. The only difference is
that God has left him to himself!
He is calm, contented, in a sense perhaps happier
than he had ever been. He observes the forms of
religion. He has four hundred so-called prophets to
soothe and keep his conscience quiet by pleasant nothings.
But any true man he gets tired of. Men like Micaiah
he sends into prison to be fed on bread and water ; any-
thing to keep them out of his sight. He does well
to himself, he keeps his good character ; and, as the
Psalmist prophesied, all men speak well of him.
He would not practise the Presence of God. He
would not retain God in his knowledge. And so, as
God had said, his understanding is darkened, and his
idea of God becomes so degraded that he compares Him
to the false deities of the Zidonians. The Almighty had
told him. If you go up to Ramoth-gilead to battle you
will be slain. He first disobeys God, for he has made
up his mind to go. And then he tries to cheat God, as
thousands in England are trying to cheat God by a
gOD OR MAMMON 235
system of balancing what they do against what they leave
undone. He tries to cheat God, He diso-uises himself.
He puts off the kingly robes, and imagines that by that
silly stratagem he can deceive the High and the Lofty
One Who inhabits eternity !
Poor self-deceiver ! Then, as ever, the Word of God
stands true. An arrow shot at a venture accomplishes
the will of Jehovah, Ahab dies, with an epitaph
written by the finger of God in letters of fire on the
walls of Hades, " There was none like unto Ahab, which
did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the
Lord."
My brethren, you and I are kneeling with Ahab this
Lent, We are humbling ourselves. God is saying of
us, " Look at that man, that woman, in church, ac-
knowledging himself a miserable sinner." We are
convinced, you and I, that the ordinary religion of
the day is not the religion of the New Testament. We
open our Bibles, and we find men constrained by the
love of God to do nothing: that God did not tell them to
do, to give up anything rather than disobey God. We
find a calm, cultured, refined man, like S. Paul, fired
with that divine enthusiasm, and not caring whether the
old intellectual society, to which he was accustomed,
thought him a madman or not. W^e see a crowd of
o
people looking upon their money, their time, their
influence, their all, only as materials — to use S. Paul's
words — that they can employ for glorifying Christ.
I do count them as nothing, he says, that I may
lay them at the feet of Him Who died for me and
rose again.
And, my brethren, you know that in your con-
science you do not believe that the ordinary life of
the communicants of the present day is the life of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ, And when we are in the
236 POWER AND STT^ENGTH
presence of our Elijah, when we are with the good man
or woman (whoever it may be) who influences us, then
the fire is kindled. Then the prayers for a week or two
become more life-like, then our words become more
guarded, then we make a spasmodic effort to be the
Christians of the New Testament. And then comes
back the world, our Jezebel, whoever it may be.
O brethren, is it not awful, that all these holy
thoughts, all these longings to be better, all these
spasmodic efforts that you and I are making, are signs
that God is with us, that God is pleading with us, that
God is speaking to our souls ^ Or else we should never
wish to be better. We should never desire to go out,
like the Apostle, with our whole being yielded up to the
Crucified. It is God Who has touched us in that illness,
by that open grave, in that moment when we knew that,
however poor the preacher might be in himself, he was
being used as the very mouthpiece of God, to utter the
truth that God wished to speak to our hearts.
Then is it not common sense that if, like Ahab, we
do not respond to these inspirations, if we will not do
these two things : if, first of all, we will be so proud and
self-righteous that we will not humble ourselves to take
freely what God freely offers, the salvation of which I
have tried to preach, which I am trying to explain in our
meditations at present : if we do not receive that, and
then, secondly, if we do not make up our mind that the
Bible shall be the guide of our life, whatever it costs us :
that we will, God helping us, begin a life of real, hearty
surrender : then, dear brethren, in Bible language, you
and I are " selling ourselves." God knows for what.
It may be for something very gross. It may be for
something very beautiful, very refined, very attractive.
God knows.
But we are selling ourselves. The prayer, "Father,
gOD OR MAMMON 237
forgive them, for they know not what they do," cannot
apply to you and to me ; because we do know that there
is that Blood of atonement, and that if we will take the
trouble our sins can be fully and freely and at once
forgiven. Therefore if, because we are so proud, we
trample that Blood under foot, we are selling ourselves,
we are doing it deliberately. If we will not let Christ
have the whole surrender of our hearts to Him, when
we know that He died for us, when we know He is
asking us for all our being because He loves us : then,
my brethren, we are selling ourselves. And it would be
better, far better, believe me, at the last for you or me to
stand before God like the poor benighted heathen, than
to have to meet a Father Whom we have provoked by
this halting service, a Saviour Whose Blood we have
thus been trampling under foot, a Spirit Whose gentle
whispers we have been silencing.
God has brought you out of the darkness into light.
You see it as clearly as if Jesus were present in bodily
form. You know what He offers you. You know
what He asks you. Oh, wondrous sight for God's
angels and the blessed ones in Paradise, father, mother,
brother, sister ! I seem to see those blessed ones all
looking down here. There is the soul in God's light.
Some of those vessels let down their anchor and they
remain in the light. Others go out, out into the dark
shadow and are lost to sight for ever.
So was it with Ahab. God brought him out of the
dark into the light. He paused, as we have seen,
in the light ; and went into the blackness, the
darkness !
O God, Thou seest us in the light this morning !
Men and brethren, which shall it be : to let down the
anchor into the deep sea of God's great love, or to go
into the black darkness of those who are satisfied when
238 POWER AND STT^ENGTH
God is not satisfied : of those who, like Ahab, are
contented and happy when they are hurrying on to
destruction ?
O brethren, you will not, you cannot, deliberately
before God and the blessed angels sell yourselves :
sell yourselves to work wickedness, for fear of being
different to other people, for fear of being laughed
at, for fear of making one brave venture for God
and His Christ ! It cannot be. You cannot look
up at that cross, and hear Jesus crying from His own
awful agony, " Come to Me ; I love you ; I died for
you " — you cannot do that, and then go out and sell
yourselves for anything this world can give.
THE WAYS OF THE WORLD 239
VII
THE WAYS OF THE WORLD
" Thus saith the Lord of Hosts : Consider your Viiays.'"
Haggai i. 7.
OUR lot, my brethren, is cast in days wherein every-
thing is tried by the touchstone of expediency.
"What is the use of it? What results has it produced?"
and so forth. We who belong to the Church of truth
should be the last to undervalue the straightforward
honesty, the hatred of pretentious morality by which such
questions are often prompted. Still less should we waste
our strength in contending against the spirit of the age, so
different from the spirit of the world, which may indeed
be directed, but can never be successfully withstood.
To the test, therefore, of expediency I bring to-day that
ordinance of Lent which whenever we open our Prayer
Book is now forced upon our attention.
I put aside all questions of Church authority and
Church precedent, however great the influence they may
exercise on my own mind, and I venture to think that it
is not difficult to show the utility of that season through
which we are now passing — its utility at all times, but
especially in this our busy century. i May God the
Holy Ghost, without Whom all human words are
powerless, overrule what is said, to His own glory, for
Jesus' sake !
If we believe the teaching of Holy Scripture, one
' Preached at Windsor before Her Majesty Queen Victoria, Lent, 187 1.
240 POfVER AND STT^ENGTH
of the greatest dangers to which we are exposed in the
spiritual life is that of self-deception. From the beginning
it has been the aim of the spirit of evil to lull men's souls
into a false security, to cry " Peace, peace," when there is
no peace ; he fixes our thoughts upon the duties we
perform, upon the words which we speak, upon our good
Churchmanship, on our command of evangelical phrases,
or our freedom from narrow-minded bigotry. He fails
to remind us of the lack of that inward spirit without
which all our outward observances, all fluent utterances,
are valueless in the eye of heaven. He tempts us to con-
found with real advancement that apparent improvement,
which only arises from the fact that our circumstances are
altered, and that the temptations of early days are removed.
With a fatal facility he supplies an excuse for every act
by which our Lord is dishonoured, and the claims of our
immortal spirit subordinated to demands of time and
sense. Our ambition he describes as the laudable desire
to use for the good of others the gift which God has
entrusted to our stewardship. Our cowardice in wit-
nessing for Christ assumes, under his guidance, the name
of a modest shrinking from hypocrisy. Our idleness is
condoned on the ground of invincible humility, or con-
stitutional infirmity. Our extravagance is extenuated,
because we must live as others live, we must spend what
others spend. Yes, while those who love us are mourning
over our defects, and mourning over the golden oppor-
tunities which we are recklessly squandering, or indolently
allowing to fall from our grasp, we can remain utterly
unconscious of the verdict which all around are passing
upon our lives. Yes, like David of old, we can listen to
the very message of God Himself, and all unconscious of
its application can exclaim with unaffected indignation,
" As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing
shall surely die."
THE WATS OF THE WORLD 241
If this is so, if Satan is thus able to blind our eyes,
so that we do not see the abyss into which he is moving
us, to close our eyes so completely that no word of
friendly warning can penetrate into our hearts, if he thus
possesses the deadly power of lulling each fear of an
awakening conscience, of choking the spiritual life by the
cares of the world, or soothing it by its empty pleasures,
of rocking our soul into an unbroken slumber till he has
carried us in that dull, fatal slumber out of time into
eternity, out of the kingdom of light and life and salva-
tion into the blackness of the eternal darkness ; if this
be so, what may be — nay, in all probability, what is the
condition of many in every congregation ? What is our
own state ? Perhaps contented, when it would be better
for us to be wrestling on our knees in all the agony of
a broken heart. Perhaps bound round and round with
Satan's fetters, but dreaming of heaven, and disbelieving
in hell, because he has drugged us with his opiates. Per-
haps deceived by all men speaking well of us, when this
very night we are to meet a God to Whom we are still
unreconciled.
If this be so — and unless you put the Bible aside you
cannot deny that it is possible — surely we can desire no
greater proof of His holy love than that from time to
time He should, as it were, lay hold of our wayward
wills, and compel us to anticipate the Judgement, compel
us to examine our hearts as in the Presence of the Unseen
and Eternal. Now this is precisely the object of Lent.
It is well known that that which can be done at any
time is utterly neglected, so a special season is set apart
for the special work. Thousands of Christians through-
out the world are praying now with redoubled earnestness
to the Incarnate Lord that He will open the eyes which
Satan has closed in spiritual blindness, that He will reveal
to every man, woman, and child their real state in the
2 I
242 POWER AND STI^NGTH
sight of heaven. " Lord, that they may receive their
sight," is the burden of our Lenten message. " Thus
saith the Lord of Hosts : Consider your ways." But
I may go further, and 1 may inquire if there is not
a special force in these remarks, when considered in the
light of this century .''
It is admitted on all sides that our lot is cast in an
age of great material prosperity. Luxuries which were
almost unknown to our forefathers are now brouo^ht
o
within the reach of almost all classes of the community.
The wealth of the country has increased to a marvellous
extent, the facilities of moving from place to place have
been multiplied to a degree which a century ago would
have been considered impossible. Wellnigh every quarter
of the globe is now brought to minister to the comfort of
our island home ; every corner — as has been well said —
is now cushioned, every rough place made smooth, every-
thing which offends is taken out of the way.
Now, I have no wish to undervalue the temporal
blessings which God in His love has bestowed upon
us, rather — as we mark the appliances by which pain is
lessened, and the hard life of the poor to some extent
relieved — are we bound to thank the All-loving Father
in Whom we live, and move, and have our being. Only
it were folly to ignore the fact that there is a great danger
lest by all these increasing comforts and increasing luxu-
ries our national hardihood should be impaired, the strong
backbone of national religion replaced by a nerveless
system of effeminate softness and self-pleasing senti-
mentalism. Let me speak for a moment to those who
are familiar with the history of bygone ages.
As we wander in spirit around the ruins of imperial
Rome, there seem to be ever sounding in our ears the
echoes of those ancient bards who strove in vain to save
their country from the ruin into which it was hurrying.
THE fVATS OF THE WORLD 243
What is the burden of those dirge-like strains ? What
is the future which is there drawn ? The painted faces,
the dyed hair, the domestic life corrupted, the impure
stream flowing on and on till it quenched even the sacred
fires of the home altars ! Truth, honour, and virtue
replaced by falsehood and deceit, and by open and
unblushing vice. Students of the past ! have you lost
the power to mark the facts which are inscribed on the
pages of our national history in this our century ?
Is it not a fact that England can no longer boast
before the nations of the world of the purity of her home
life ? Is it not a fact that persons are now welcomed in
society against whom its doors would once have been
closed ? Is it not a fact that books are now read by
England's daughters which in our fathers' days would
never have been admitted into an English home ? — that
poor, wretched outcasts, whom we should try by God's
help to save, but whose names ought never to be men-
tioned, are now made the topics of conversation : aye, the
very models on which the dress of our English women
are to be fashioned ? Is it not true that our best
merchants are everywhere deploring the lowered tone
of our transactions, that England's honour is no longer,
as in olden days, untarnished ? Is it not a fact that, side
by side with our luxury, we are disgraced as a nation by
a mass of wretched pauperism which refuses any longer
to be ignored ?
Is it not openly acknowledged on every platform that
the ties by which class was bound to class are almost,
if not altogether severed in our metropolis by a mingled
system of foolish flattery and selfish neglect : the " lower
orders," as they are called, being quietly but surely
trained for the coming crisis. We tell them that they
are to be our rulers, and they believe us. They are
shrewd enough to watch the signs of the times ; they
244 POWER AND STRENGTH
mark the strength of England's manhood consuming
itself on self-pleasing or self-aggrandizement ; they look
with a bitter sneer upon the luxury from which they and
their little ones are debarred ; they are waiting till their
day has arrived ; they take our alms, but they feel no
love for the giver. Why should they ? The almsgiving
costs no effort, and that which would involve a real
sacrifice is not bestowed.
A little band of laymen are working right nobly for
God and His poor, but what of the vast majority.''
There is time for " the Row," time for the office, time
for the profitable business, time for the pleasant garden-
party, but there is no leisure to go out and extend the
hand of loving sympathy to the men who minister to
their comfort, and who are dying around our very doors.
My brethren, I speak that which I know to be true ;
I speak, God knows, in no spirit of exaggeration when
1 say that I tremble for my country's future. I tremble
beneath the smooth surface of this fashionable, pleasant,
self-pleasing London life, as I hear the deep sullen roar
of the great upheaving by which, unless we bestir our-
selves, England will ere long be desolated.
If our senses were not entirely stupefied by our selfish
indulgences, if our minds were not intoxicated by our
national vanity, we should have little difficulty in
deciphering the mystic letters which God is even now
writing on the wall of our modern Babylon. Instead of
thanking Him, like the Pharisee of old, that we have not
deserved the chastening by which other lands have been
stricken, we should gladly have responded to our
Church's summons, and while we acknowledge the love
which has not dealt with us after our sins, we should
have fallen low this Lent in our great national humilia-
tion, saying, " Spare Thy people, O Lord, spare Thy
people, and give not Thine heritage to reproach ! Help
THE fVATS OF THE JVORLD 245
us, O God, help us in this our day to see the things
which belong to our peace ! Help us, O God of Hosts,
to consider our ways."
Do you ask, "What has that to do with each of us
here present in God's house to-day ? "
I will tell you. The national life is only the aggregate
life of every individual : in proportion as each member
of the State becomes more GoD-like, in exactly the same
proportion does he uplift his country to a higher platform.
He gains more strength to intercede for its salvation,
more strength to influence those among whom his lot
is cast, and Lent is given for the express purpose of
enabling every man, woman, and child to make a fresh
start and a new beginning. What a blessed fullness of
meaning there is in those words ! Do you ask, " How
can we so observe the few days that are left so as to
obtain this result } " It is not possible, my brethren, to
give a detailed reply to such questions in a single sermon.
What is helpful to one may be injurious to another,
but the general principles are nothing hard to realize.
We must know God ; we must love our brother. We
must subdue the lower creature : less wine, a more spar-
ing use of food, fewer luxuries, more self-denial in dress,
in personal enjoyment. Even a heathen philosopher
could tell us how by this life of watchfulness and self-
restraint the higher part of our being is strengthened
and the lower desires brought into subjection. We must
love our brother, love him, not in word only — that is
easy enough — " but in deed and in truth."
There are numbers of English parishes in which
baptized men and women are living as heathen in a
Christian land. Is it not worth some Lenten sacrifice to
send a minister of the Gospel to help the clergyman now
overwrought in mind and body, to help him to tell those
neglected thousands of the Saviour Who loves them
246 POIVER ANT> STRENGTH
and Whose Blood was shed to redeem them ? Is it
not worth some sacrifice to give one young man the
power of making a new start in life, to rescue even one
poor sufferer who has been left behind in the race of life
from being degraded into the ranks of paupers ?
Is it quite impossible to give up one day, or one
evening in every week, and to visit for Christ's sake the
poor, the suffering, and the bereaved ? We must " love"
our brother by using our influence, be it much or little,
to save his soul from the sins by which it is now
perishing. One of England's greatest needs in the
present day is a band of " district visitors " to the
drawing-rooms, earnest Christian men and women, using
their knowledge of society for Christ and His Church,
who will live in the world, who will sympathize with the
•joys, no less than with the sorrows of those among whom
their lot is cast, who will be full of interest in the
innocent pleasures of the young and the light-hearted,
but at the same time will be " strong^ in the Lord, and in
the power of His might " — strong with the strength
which has been gained by earnest prayer, and in silent
meditation in the presence of their God : strong to
take advantage of every opportunity of acknowledging
their Saviour and their King : strong to check at once
by a gentle remonstrance, or a silence more eloquent
than words, everything which is opposed to the mind of
Him to Whom their heart has been surrendered. Such
I have seen in the London world. May God bless them
a hundredfold in the quiet of these Lenten weeks.
Lastly, and above all, we must honour God — honour
Him, by more frequent attendance at the holy house :
honour Him by snatching from our rest, or work, some
extra time each day for private prayer and study of His
holy Word.
There before that holy Table, or in the quiet of our
THE PFATS OF THE WORLD i^-j
chambers, let us lie low before our God, and plead for
our country in this her day of need. There, in simple
trust, let us intercede for those whom we love, that they
may be saved in these dangerous days from the snares
of the world, the flesh and the devil.
Then let us examine our own hearts as in the sight
of God. There put to our conscience the plain honest
questions : What progress have I made since last Lent .''
What sin has been crushed } What sin have I tried to
crush } What new grace has been developed } Am I
on Christ's side at all in the great battle against evil .''
However blameless my own life, am I living for self, or
for His glory, and the good of others ,''
What have I done for Christ since last Lent from
love to Him } How many real sacrifices have I made
of ease, comfort, health, for the sake of my fellow-men .''
Is my religion any comfort to me } Has " the Water
and the Blood from that riven Side which flowed " been
for my sin " the double cure .^ " Am I at peace with God
through Jesus Christ.'' If I die to-night will my soul
be lost or saved } " From all blindness of heart ; . . .
from all the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the
devil ; ... by Thine Agony and bloody Sweat ; by
Thy Cross and Passion, good Lord, deliver us."
248 TOWER AND STRENGTH
VIII
TEMPERANCE
" Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded^ sayings
Go ? " — Judges iv. 6.
THE holy enterprise/ my brethren, with which we
are concerned to-day, like every other Christian
work, is based upon the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus
Christ. When the Eternal Son of God had accom-
plished on Calvary His great Sacrifice, with its mysterious
influence on the destinies of a fallen humanity : when by
the power of His Divinity He had uplifted the whole
human race into so glorious a position that the most
degraded of its children could be united to the Godhead,
could be made an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven :
when the door of mercy had thus been opened to the
outcast, the prodigal, and the rebellious, the work of
our Redeemer was by no means concluded. The pro-
pitiation indeed had been once and for ever made. The
one perfect Atonement for a world's guilt had been
offered, and nothing was required to add to its in-
exhaustible fullness.
But new mercies were in store for the ransomed
people. A divine society was solemnly established by
the risen Lord : a kingdom divine in its origin, and yet
so framed as to assimilate itself with every form of
human society, and to adapt itself to every variety of
human character : a holy city descending out of heaven,
' Preached in aid of the Temperance Movement of 1877.
TEMPERANCE 2+9
having indeed the glory of God, and reflecting the light
of Him Who is to look upon like the jasper and sardine
stone, but yet a city fitted for the habitation ot human
beings. A holy Jerusalem was revealed by Christ to
the little band of disciples who had surrendered their
lives into His keeping.
Into this sacred organization — composed of laity as
well as clergy, each member with his proper office —
every individual convert was to be baptized. Within
its holy walls he was to be assured, with a deep inward
peace wrought in his heart by God the Holy Ghost,
of entire forgiveness and complete acceptance. He was
to be confirmed with the sevenfold gifts of the same
Divine Comforter ; he was to be fed with the super-
natural Food of the sacramental Bread and Wine ; he
was to be trained to believe that he was surrounded by
an innumerable company of angels ; and, even if alone on
earth, he was living in communion with the spirits of just
men made perfect, the general assembly and Church of
the Firstborn. This Holy Catholic Church our Lord
describes in the Bible in language of the deepest con-
descension and the tenderest love. She is His Body,
and as .the living Head He delights to feed each one of
her members, to use her hands in spreading far and
wide the blessings of her Gospel, to restrain her feet
from wandering, and to send them as His messengers of
mercy to the utmost parts of the earth. She is His
Bride ; and, as a true Husband, He delighteth to shower
down upon her every token of His tenderest love.
Departing Himself for a while into a far country, He
entrusts her in His absence with the charge of all His
worldly goods. He bids her, humbly indeed, but with
perfect confidence, to act on earth as regent in His
absence. He pledges His royal word that, though absent
from her in body, He will be present with her in spirit,
2 K
250 POWER ANT> STRENGTH
that whatever she binds on earth shall be bound in
heaven, that what she looses on earth (these are the
Bible words), shall be loosed in heaven. He promises
that in every difficulty, He, if she will trust Him,
will direct her by His counsel ; and, through His
all-conquering power and His unfailing wisdom will so
overcome evil with good as to cause even her failures
and her mistakes to work together for the accomplish-
ment of His eternal purpose.
Such (thank God for it !) is the teaching of Holy
Scripture. Such is the position of our own true and
living branch of the one universal Church. " As My
Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." " Lo, I am
with you alway, even unto the end of the world." "Jesus
Christ," saith Saint Mark, " was received up into
heaven, and sat on the right hand of God." But the
disciples " went forth, and preached everywhere "
(observe the words), " the Lord working with them."
If this truth be once realized, our duty, my brethren,
is clearly defined. Whenever the enemy of our King,
the prince of the power of darkness, has reared in any
part of the world a stronghold of evil, whenever the
Church — as the representative of her absent Lord, the
regent, ruling by His authority in His absence — when-
ever the Church has given the order to march, then
every true soldier of Christ is obliged to arise and to
gird on his armour and to take his part in the great
crusade, whatever it be, that Christ, speaking by His
Church, has thus inaugurated. Against that Magdala,
however impregnable the fortress may appear, the strength
of the kingdom of God must be directed. To that spot
the best solders must be sent. Till that citadel has been
laid low, there can be no rest for the army of our King.
This, my brethren, is the position which we occupy
in this parish towards the great temperance movement
TEMPERANCE 251
which is now making itself felt throughout the length
and the breadth of England. It would be very easy to
remind you of the havoc which is being caused by drink
alike on the bodies and the souls of our fellow-men. It
would be easy to tell you the long, sad tale of children
killed by drunken mothers, of wives beaten to death by
drunken husbands ; to remind you how, under the bane-
ful power of drink, excited by it, the noblest of our sons
are every night being robbed of their early purity and
are being led into sins by which for ever their conscience
is defiled. I might arouse your indignation against this
enemy of God and man by quoting to you passage after
passage in which England is described by men of un-
doubted knowledge as the destroyer of mankind, the
missionary of drunkenness, the nation which has nullified
all the splendid benefits of her rule by carrying every-
where her national vice, by establishing the deadly
supremacy of drink on the ruins of the noble races that
by its influence she has destroyed.
We have cast in our lot as a parish with the temper-
ance movement, because we have been summoned to it
by Christ our King, speaking to us through the voice of
His Church. Much good work (thank God !) in the
cause of temperance has been done by the brave pioneers,
many of whom have now entered into their rest. Never
let their holy courage be forgotten. Never let them be
robbed of the honour that is due to the men who first
came to the front to rouse England to a sense of her
degradation. The conflict, however, was too severe for
individual efibrt, however heroic. Guerilla warfare is
invaluable ; but it is only by an organized army that
a country can be really subdued. And so the national
Church at last arose to a sense of the importance of the
question. Bishops and clergy, meeting in solemn con-
vocation, consulted long in that Jerusalem Chamber with
252 TOIVER AND STRENQTH
calm and prayerful deliberation, till at last they clearly
recognized the voice of the Lord summoning His true
knights to this holy enterprise. They heard the Lord
God of Israel commanding and saying, " Go."
The next step was to lay the matter before the
faithful laity, for the laity no less than the clergy are
part of the Body of Christ. Those of us who are
longing to restore to England her old constitutional
privilege whereby the living voice of the Church was
clearly expressed, those who are asking for this living
voice to be given back, make it a part of their pro-
gramme that there should be a definite opportunity for
discussion, that there should be a representative assembly
of godly communicant laity by whom every question
should be discussed before it is proposed for public
consideration. We want the laity to speak, we pray
God to give us back again the old national voice of a
living Church. I But in the meantime every effort was
made to gather the feeling of the laity : in conferences,
in meetings, by the public Press. And their opinion was
clearly expressed. The Church as a whole recognized
the voice of the King.
The next step was to send messengers everywhere,
into every part of the country, to call upon every parish
to furnish its contingent to the national army, to send
some men, women, children, who by prayer and work
would take their part in this new crusade. A guild
was formed. This is a committee of men and women
who are obliged not merely to work but to pray for
some definite object. God in these days is so often
forgotten, that you may go to a public meeting of great
importance, and though the Almighty Lord has said
' From 1898 Convocation worked "to finish the beginning" of
practical steps : the Constitution of the Representative Church Council
was formed November, 1905.
TEMPERANCE 253
that you are to acknowledge Him openly if He is to
direct your path, you will see that meeting upon which
a nation's destiny depends, begun, continued, and ended,
without a single word of prayer to acknowledge the
existence of God. And, therefore, in that unfortunate
condition, it is absolutely necessary to remind people
that without prayer every building that they rear will
crumble into dust ; a guild is a committee bound to
pray as well as to work.
The guild is divided into two divisions. No one
judges his brother. Some persons join what is called
the temperance section. Others give their names for
entire abstinence. It is well that the ground of total
abstinence should be put clearly before us. It is simply
this. Men and women feel that example is more power-
ful than mere precept. They should never for an instant
condemn the use of any of God's good creatures. They
should never pretend that they are better because they
entirely abstain. They curtail their Christian liberty for
the sake of others. They do exactly what S. Paul did,
when he said that rather than cause his brother to
stumble he would go without meat till he died. And so
they give up what they like, and that which they have a
perfect right to retain. They brave ridicule : the quiet
sneer, and the more painful trial of being ridiculed as
hypocrites or counted presumptuous. They dare to face
the subtle temptation which the devil always reserves for
those who stand in the forefront of the battle. They
face these dangers deliberately, in the power of God and
His Holy Communion. And instead of going to poor
drunken men and saying, " Do this," they lay tender
hands of sympathy upon them, and they say, " Come
with me and I will do you good. Follow me,"
And now, brethren, beloved in Christ, what is our
duty ,'' We have to look that guild in the face, and
254 TOWER AND STRENQTH
we have to make up our mind, no man judging his
brother, whether we should not join the little society ot
those who are united openly to stem — openly in the face
of the world — that great current of evil. That is a
question upon which I cannot pronounce an opinion.
Every individual must decide. Then, we have to con-
sider the general question : Am / called by God to join
the principle of total abstinence, and set an example to
others .'' This is a question requiring the greatest
thought and common sense. Ask a doctor — one of
those men whom God has given to London in the
present generation, who are neither led away by a
fanatical dream, nor, on the other hand, think it necessary
to give stimulants everywhere : men who have sympathy
with the movement without being dragged at its chariot
wheels. A wise doctor can grive much better counsel in
this matter than any preacher of God, however earnest
he may be. It requires thought : but if at last we hear
the Lord God commanding us for the sake of a world
enthralled by Satan to " go," from that warfare there can
be no discharge. We must arise.
But if we are not called to total abstinence, it is
doubly necessary that we should take our part in the
great temperance crusade.
This we can do — my words are very brief, brethren, I
will only give you the heads — firstly, honour teetotallers.
Never allow them to be disparaged in your hearing.
Above all, never join the company of fools who make
a mock of sin. Never join, even if you cannot control,
that degraded conversation which is so common in
society, which makes the quality of the wine and its
history the one sole topic of conversation. Secondly, pray
with double earnestness lest you should be hindering
the work of God through any mistake that you have
made, or self-indulgence. Thirdly, give your money.
TEMPERANCE 255
In modern warfare the sinews of war are money, and the
victory oft-times rests with the cause that can command
abundant resources. Finally, we must clear our own
minds on this subject, and this is a very disagreeable
work. If we believe that Christ has inaugurated this
crusade, we must henceforth have a definite rule as
to the amount we allow ourselves to drink. We must
give up drinking for enjoyment and begin to drink for
health. Again, masters and upper servants, however
unpopular it may make them, must stop the practice
that is spreading in our midst of giving beer to every
workman who comes into the house to do any common
work however trifling. At the risk of losing our
favourite servant, we are bound to control the amount
of drink that is being used in our houses. We are bound
to review the customs of society, however familiarized we
have been with them from our childhood.
I will give you but one instance, for the time is nearly
exhausted. It is this. I believe that there is an instinct
— and I myself find much in the Bible to confirm it —
an instinct that makes us, as we wish our children all
happiness on their birthday, drink to them in the wine
or the tea or the coffee as we say, " I wish you
every happiness." There is in the Bible — culminating
in Holy Communion — a strange mingling between
worshipping God and eating and drinking. Any man
with a concordance can satisfy himself as to the truth of
this. But when I recall my northern county, when 1
remember the practice there of public dinners continually
given by the working classes — Foresters, Odd Fellows,
and the like — when I remember how those men copied
the customs, which in the upper ranks were perfectly
harmless, giving toast after toast ; when I remember how,
simply " imitating their betters," every night a certain
number of men became drunkards and a certain number
256 TOWER AND STRENQTH
of homes were desolate — I at any rate, without judging
others, can never give my influence for allowing any
toast to be given at any public dinner of which I have
charge. This is but an instance. I may be utterly mis-
taken, taking an entirely exaggerated view. But if you,
dear brethren, had seen those men reeling home from the
public dinner, if you had watched those poor ignorant
creatures and listened to the sobs of the broken-hearted
wives, you, too, would have asked yourself the question,
"Am I justified, because it does me no harm, to inaugurate
a system which ruins the souls of men V
My brethren, the whole enterprise is difficult, intensely
difficult. We are in danger, on the one side, of fanaticism,
on the other of lukewarmness. The only power that will
enable us to go up with the calm, solemn tread that befits
the Church of Christ is realizing that the great movement
now inaugurated is based on the Incarnation of Jesus
Christ.
The Lord God has commanded, and we must go ;
and Christ will take care of the results. His kingdom
must come. His Name will one day be hallowed in that
glorious advent of which the echoes are already wafted
to our ears. A King will reign in righteousness, and
a drunkard will not be found in the regenerated earth.
Already those golden doors are opening, already the
flashes of that advent kingdom come and go, already
1 seem to see in the far-off^ horizon glimpses of the
glorious day for which the widowed Church is watching
and praying, " Come, Lord Jesus, quickly come."
Meanwhile, my brethren, the Lord God has com-
manded you to " go."
SOWING ^ND RSAPINQ 257
IX
SOWING AND REAPING
" Whatsoever a man soyveth^ that shall he also reap.""
Gal. vI. 7.
HOWEVER mysterious, my brethren, may be the
theory of our Blessed Lord's Atonement, the
fact (thank God !) is so simply and so clearly revealed
that a child of ordinary intelligence can receive it. He,
to Whom our whole being is known in its entirety : He,
before Whom past and future were ever present in their
minutest details : He, by His own sovereign will, has
provided one great Sacrifice for this our life-long guilt.
All that was needed — whatever that might be, and the
less we theorize upon that which has not been revealed
the better — all that was required has been done and
suffered for us by our Lord Jesus Christ. Our debt
has been paid ; the deed of condemnation has been
cancelled ; a fountain has been opened in which, like the
Syrian leper, the most guilty may wash and be clean.
Over the wilderness of many hundred years the
echo of that cry of the dying Saviour has been wafted to
every heart which will accept its heaven-sent comfort,
"It is finished." "The Blood of Jesus Christ," saith
God, "cleanseth from all sin." God's message now,
since Calvary, to His sinful children is this : " Return
unto Me, I will receive you graciously, I will love you
freely." God does not wait for a deep repentance.
2 L
258 TOWER AND STRENQTH
God does not delay till the time has elapsed in which to
test the reality of our conversion.
The self-same mercy which baptized us into His
Church is again extended when we desire to come back
to that home from which we have wandered. While the
son is yet a great way off, the father sees him, has com-
passion upon him (because he is his father), banishes his
every fear by the warmth of his embrace ; and the fatted
calf is killed, and the ring of adoption is placed again on
his finger without any delay, and the dark memory of
the past is obliterated, as the weary wayfarer looks up at
that father's face, feels with joy all that father's love
streaming like a flood of light into his inmost being, and
listens to the welcome sound of the father's voice, " This
my son was dead but is alive again ; he was lost, and is
found."
Such, brethren, beloved in Christ, is the royal way
in which God deals with His rebellious children ; He
grants them entire and complete absolution, a forgiveness
as all-embracing as the love of Him from Whose com-
passion it has proceeded. For all whose consciences
have been awakened, the first step is simply like little
children to acknowledge that they have sinned, and then
at once to believe this very day in that Saviour Whom
God has given, to feed this very day upon the promise,
to look up in humble trusting power to that crucified
and ascended Lord, till they can say in the restful calm
of an assured reconciliation, " I have peace with God
through Jesus Christ ; I know on the testimony ot
God's own Word that I am forgiven through Jesus
Christ my Lord."
This, 1 repeat, is the first step. This was the
instruction that Christ gave to those who came to
Him on earth, asking what was the first work of God.
This, said Christ, is the work of God, that you believe
SOWING ^ND REAPINQ 259
on Him Whom God hath sent. Thank God, my
brother, if you are able to enter into the meaning of
the words that have been spoken. Cherish that blessed
consciousness. Do what you can to enable others to
share its unspeakable happiness. Only do not turn
God's great blessing into a curse by being contented
with simply having received from His bounty one of
the earlier gifts of the Christian covenant. Never forget
that because you have been forgiven, because the past
has been washed out in the precious Blood, a life-long
struggle, a daily wrestling with evil, a continual witness-
ing for Christ is before you ; for the eye of your God
is upon you, and the recording angel is entering in the
book of everlasting remembrance every thought and
word and deed of every day. Just as the dying man
oft-times sees before him, as it were, the record of his
life, just as by a lightning flash days long forgotten are
revealed to his awakening conscience, so, my brethren,
when the roll of our life is unfolded in the Presence of
the Eternal Judge, many amongst us will be startled at the
solemn impartiality with which our future portion shall
be assigned. "Be not deceived," saith God — knowing
well the subtlety of the devil and the power of this
present world and the deceitfulness of human nature —
" God is not mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth, that
shall he also reap."
The first application of the text, as many of you are
aware, is to almsgiving. I am glad that to-day I am
making no appeal to you, not asking you for money,
and therefore the edge of this part of the sermon will
not be blunted by the underlying thought that it is
but a charity sermon. There is no special offertory.
But the first application of the text is to almsgiving.
Money is, on this side the grave, the means by which
our varied tastes arc gratified. Hence, if you watch
26o TOWER AND STRENQTH
carefully the objects upon which a man spends his
money, you can form a very fair idea (of course not
perfectly correct, but a very fair idea) as to the main
current of his desires. You describe him in ordinary
conversation as a gluttonous man, as sensual, as refined,
as a man who is proud of his house, as a man who takes
an interest in art, a lover of art or of society, as fond of
horses or of dress, according to the channels through
which his income is disbursed. In whatever direction
you see the main current of his money flow, you are
pretty clear in your own mind that there the man's heart
is mainly fixed.
Now the Bible simply endorses this principle ot
natural religion, simply puts its seal upon that which is
accepted by the mass of mankind. If we try to under-
stand the eighth and ninth chapters of the Second
Epistle to the Corinthians ; if we consider the portions
of Holy Scripture which are read as our offertory
sentences, comparing them with the context and with the
marginal references, we shall, I think, be surprised to
find how God almost seems to make the way in which
we deal with our money the very test of our religion.
It is very striking, when you take the Bible and a
concordance and really write down what God says about
money. Feelings, the Bible says, are very deceptive.
Phrases about God come very easily to some lips,
while other mouths find it almost impossible to frame
them. If we desire to know our real relation to our
God and Father, if we wish to know whether God is
really in all our thoughts or not, we shall not be much
deceived if we bring our profession to this very simple
touchstone, the expenditure of our annual income. If
any man or woman in this church does not desire to
be deceived — some would rather be deceived till they
die, would rather never be troubled or perplexed with
SOJVING ^ND ReAPINQ 261
any misgivings, would rather risk eternity and enjoy
life ; I am not speaking to them : God have mercy
on them ! — if any man or woman really would like
to anticipate the Judgement-day, if any one wishes
honestly to know what his Judge would say, if he
were to die to-night, that man or woman cannot do
better as a preliminary step than to sit down in the
most business-like manner and review the way in
which his annual income is expended. I have received
from God — in the last seven years, or the last year,
or the last twenty years, whatever it may be — so much.
Put it down in black and white. I have received in
allowance, wages, income, capital (it matters not) so
much. I have spent directly upon God and God's
Church, God's poor, God's work, so much. Write it
down.
I have spent (rightly or wrongly : I am not speaking
of that now) on myself, how much } Think ; then write
it down. On my house, on furnishing it, on buying
more property, on increasing my landed estate (perfectly
rightly, possibly ; do not misunderstand me), how
much ? I have spent on my children, my friends, my
country, how much ? And in all this expenditure —
the amount that I have given to myself, my home, my
children, my country — how far, to the best of my
recollection, did I recognize the authority of God in the
distribution ? How far, when I divided my income
or my allowance, did I recognize God, and decide
as to the amount that was to be spent on myself, my
house, my children, the world, by God's revealed will ?
No one, of course, can form the slightest judgement
upon his brother, as to the secret motives by which he
has been actuated. God Almighty knows ; but no one
else, with perfect accuracy. And this investigation, my
brethren, has been the means already of saving many
262 TOWER AND STRENQTH
souls. It takes some time ; but, believe me, the time
will not be wasted.
It is much better for us gradually to discover the
truth now, than to wait till it is burnt into our hearts
for ever by God's great word, " Remember, My son,
remember thou didst receive from Me those good
things." Remember God cannot be mocked. " What-
soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he
that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap cor-
ruption ; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the
Spirit reap life everlasting."
And that which is true of our money is true also of
every talent which God has entrusted to us. While
God refuses to recognize any claim on the part of those
who are at best but pardoned rebels, while all that we
shall ever receive is owing to the free grace of God
given through Jesus Christ, while God — blessed be
His Name! oh, what comfort there is in the thought!
— reserves to Himself the royal prerogative of some-
times taking an earnest penitent and leads him on
by one great spring into the very foremost rank of the
spiritual army, so that the last are literally made first and
the first last : still, as a general rule, science is right,
God is the God of order. As a general rule God deals
with men according to certain fixed principles which are
written in the plainest language in the volume of Holy
Scripture.
My brethren, there is something very solemn in the
practical business-like way in which Almighty God
represents Himself as taking account of His servants.
He describes Himself as overlooking nothing ; even
the cup of cold water that was given in His Name is
remembered and put to our everlasting account ; the
number of the talents that we receive, ten, five, one,
is clearly distinguished in each case ; this man ten, five,
SOLVING ^AND RSAPINQ 263
one : no confusion of thought in the mind of the
Eternal God. Each has received his own opportunities,
more or less : education, influence, time, beauty ; God
only knows the infinite variety ; it would take an hour
to describe it. And the Almighty God gives us that
awful liberty which separates us from the dumb creation.
He gives us ability to take these opportunities, these
hours, this power, these attractive influences that draw
people round us, whatever they be. He allows us
either to devote them to His service or to use them
for ourselves, so that we may be liked by other people,
so that we may gain a character for being popular and
pleasing, so that we may be looked up to for our
intelligence, our wealth, our amazing wisdom, our
practical common sense, our super-eminent holiness.
He gives all these things into our hands, and He says,
*' My child, you are free ; use them." And then, as a
general rule according to the sowing is the reaping in
the spiritual no less than in the natural kingdom. We
have our reward, as God says ; or, as it is in the very
solemn original, " We have our reward, and take it
away with us." We take away the popularity, we are
considered very holy, we are thought extremely good
company, we get a character for never doing a foolish
thing ; we have got it all. The only thing is, that if we
have not carried the cross, of course we do not wear the
crown hereafter. If we have shrunk from using all
these opportunities bravely and boldly for Christ the
King, it would not be right, it would not be (even
according to man's reason) fair, that the person who has
had everything that he wished for as the result of the
earthly sowing, should have over and above the glorious
prizes of the heavenly kingdom, the abundant entrance
into the companionship of angels and archangels, the
close fellowship with God for all eternity. It would not
264 POWER AND STRENQTH
be right that the man who has only used his tongue so
as to be able to frame the sentences that shall commend
him to mankind, should by an inspiration be able
suddenly to take part in the grand chorus of the re-
deemed in heaven.
My brethren, I need not dwell further on the subject.
It commends itself to every impartial man. Cricketing,
and boating, and so forth, are excellent things in their
way. But when the boy goes out into life, he does not
obtain the highest place in the world's arena simply
because he was a good cricketer. If we sow for this life,
we win ; we get what we desire, and God is good to us.
God grants it to us. Only He ever sounds in our ears
that most solemn principle : " Be not deceived ; God is
not mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth " — every
hour scattering the seed, whatsoever, day by day, he
sows — " that shall he also reap."
I have left myself, brethren, a very short time for the
few practical words of conclusion.
First of all, it seems to call us away, who believe
in Jesus Christ, to be brave ; to carry our cross with
more courage ; to have something like the devotion of
the great saints and martyrs, something of the fortitude
of the confessor whose festival we keep to-day. ^ When
Almighty God allows sickness and sorrow and trouble
and failure and bankruptcy to come upon us, when we
are disappointed at being misunderstood, when our best
efforts fail us and our hands hang down and we are
almost tempted to think God is dealing hardly with us,
let us remind ourselves that we were never sowing to
the flesh but sowing to the Spirit. If God gives us
earthly happiness, blessed be His Name : so much over
and above. If God grant to us to have influence with
others and to be loved by others, thank God for it : so
' S, John Baptist.
SOfVING ^ND REAPING 26s
much over and above. But when in His infinite wisdom.
all this is taken away, and our hearts are failing, oh !
men and brethren, let us be brave, let us strengthen
ourselves, and say, " I never sowed for this life, for this
life passeth away. I was sowing for the glorious kingdom
where my God will say to me, *Well done ! thou hast
carried the cross ; thou hast cast thyself without a single
reservation on the great sea of thy Father's love, thou
hast ventured all for Me ; enter into the joy of thy
Lord,'" So we shall rise up into the spirit of that great
confessor. We look back on the Baptist's life and we
marvel at the power that was given him to shake men
out of their slumber. Yes ! but how was the power
won ? By wellnigh thirty years in that lonely desert,
feeding on the locusts and the wild honey, by living
a life that I at any rate (you know how it is with your-
selves) durst never venture. Thus he sowed loneliness,
separation, entire devotion to God ; and he reaped the
harvest of mighty power by which the world was
conquered.
And then there came another opportunity to the
Baptist. He had gained great influence with his
sovereign. He was intensely popular. The world
would have told him to be silent and to hold his tongue,
and not to risk his position. But the Baptist knew that
Herod was committing a sin which would bringr utter
ruin to the country over which that godless sovereign
was reigning. And so, calmly and humbly, he said, " It
is not right ; it is not according to the law of God."
And what was the result ? The world would have told
him, if he had inquired of it, that if he remained silent
he would have gained influence, and done a great deal of
good quietly. But he was sowing for the life eternal,
and he reaped the harvest. The king was angry ; he
sent him to prison ; he martyred him. But the Baptist's
2 M
266 P0PF6R ANT) STRENQTH
spirit lived, and years afterwards Herod trembled when-
ever he heard of a man speaking for God or doing God's
great work. "It is," said he, "John the Baptist, whom
I beheaded ; he has risen from the dead."
My brethren, if you look back on the life of the
Baptist, which of us would not rather have borne that
cross and been cast into prison, than have been like
the poor young ruler, who loved Christ and was
loved by Christ, but was afraid of standing firm to the
truth, afraid of witnessing for a principle, determined to
win in this life, and so went away sorrowing .'' What
a man sows he reaps. Thank God that we are sowing
for the other life now, if we are reaping now and then
tears in this life. Let us thank God if now and then we
have some trial to bear ; it is the badge of discipleship,
it links us to the Crucified.
Lastly, if ever the thought should come unto us —
and it will come, beheve me, to the best and bravest,
when the body is weak, and the mind is almost worn to
death, and the spirit seems so crushed, and God seems so
far away, that it almost seems as if the unbeliever were
true and God never lived — if in these days we are
tempted even for a single moment to give up the life of
cross-bearing, to take care of the money that we can hold,
or the earthly love that we feel, and the popularity which
winds itself imperceptibly round the heart of God's
greatest saints : my brethren, remember here, I beseech
you, by day and by night, the voice of that God speaking
unto you, " What a man sows, he shall reap ; he that
soweth to the flesh must of the flesh reap corruption ;
he that sows for this life must sooner or later see the
house falling and the garments crumbling into dust, and
leave behind him the body that he has pampered as the
food for the crawling worm ; all that is of the earth
earthy must be left behind." Oh ! listen then to the
SOfVINQ AND TiEATINQ 267
voice of that God. Think of that poor man whose story
Christ has told us, who did nothing wrong, but only
forgot to sow the good seed for the everlasting life.
Oh ! anticipate the day when the voice shall ring into
that heart of thine (God grant it may never be so !),
" Remember ! " Oh ! think of it when you are tempted
(as I am tempted, as all of us are tempted at times) to
be false to that glorious God. Oh ! hear the echo
brought from the other side of the narrow gulf : " Re-
member ! oh, son ! remember that thou in thy lifetime
receivedst thy good things." Oh ! look on to the day
when the lesser life must fall from us, when the world's
dream must be broken, when with a shudder we are
obliged to feel that our naked soul in that great black
world must stand face to face with God ! And then
remember how many have died this year in our midst
and say, " O God ! write it on my heart, * Whatsoever a
man soweth, that shall he also reap.' "
PART IV
THE DEDICATED LIFE
" Qrant that whosoever is here dedicated to Thee, by
our office and ministry^ may also be endued with heavenly
Virtues and everlastingly re'ivarded, through Thy mercy^ O
blessed Lord God, Who dost live and govern all things^
world mthout end. Amen.''
269
THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM^
" Thus saith the Lord God ; I will even deal reith thee
as thou hast done, 'which hast despised the oath in breaking the
co'^enant. Nevertheless 1 'will remember My covenant "with
thee in the days of thy youth, and I "will establish unto thee an
everlasting covenant.^' — Ezek. xvi. 59, 60.
THESE words, my brethren, form part of a burning
appeal addressed to the Jewish Church. Under
the figure of a husband pleading with his bride by whom
he has been wronged, Jehovah reminds the idolatrous
nation of the waywardness with which she has wearied
her God, the ingratitude with which she has requited
His manifold blessings, the treachery with which she has
laid the tokens of His affection at the feet of the false
deities of the surrounding nations.
The love wherewith she is beloved of her God,
however, is too deep to allow Him at once to abandon
her to the punishment which her sin has merited. She
is to be chastened, but not entirely destroyed ; she is to
be dealt with as her own stern law was accustomed to
treat the wife who had been false to her marriage vow.
"I will judge thee," saith God, "as women that break
wedlock and shed blood are judged." "They shall
bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone
^ S. John Baptist's Day, 1878, Consecration of the Bishops of
Lichfield (Archbishop Maclagan), Queensland, and Nassau.
271
272 THE "DEDICATED LIFE
thee with stones ; and they shall burn thine houses
with fire." And then, from behind the dark thunder-
cloud, the evening light gleams forth with all its softened
radiance. Humbled and purified, she is to be welcomed
back to the love of her heavenly " Husband." " Thou
hast despised the oath, and broken the covenant " ; but
" I will remember My covenant with thee " — the troth
plighted — " in the days of thy youth, and I will establish
unto thee an everlasting covenant ; then thou shalt
remember thy ways, and be ashamed , . . when I am
pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith
the Lord God."
My brethren, as we read the stirring words of this
glorious prophecy, we seem to be listening to some
divine epic, wherein are recorded the varied fortunes
of this fair Church of England, into which by God's
mercy we have been baptized : her lowly origin, her
barbaric ancestors ; the scorn of imperial Rome ; the
strange intertwining of her supernatural life with the
earthly prosperity of the mightiest empire of modern
civilization ; the prestige of her ancient establishment ;
her spiritual peers, standing in the very forefront of
England's nobles ; the subtle minds and the strong wills
of her children, who have written large their names on
the annals of their country's history, who have directed
her destinies and shaped her future. Thy birth and
thy nativity, O Church of England, is of the land
of Canaan ; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother
a Hittite : and as for thy nativity, in the day that thou
wast born, none eye pitied thee to have compassion on
thee ; but thou wast cast out in the open field. But
I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field,
and thou hast increased and waxen great. I clothed thee
with broidered work — the accidents of thy position —
and I girded thee about with fine linen, and 1 covered
7HE gOSTEL OF THE KJNGT>OM 273
thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, and
I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck,
and I put a jewel on thy forehead, and a beautiful crown
upon thine head. Thou didst eat fine flour ; and thou
wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a
kingdom.
The student of English history, as he listens to the
burden of Ezekiel's vision, sees ever passing before his
eyes the manifold critical periods in which the resurrec-
tion power of the Christ has been manifested on behalf
of the Bride whom He has redeemed. " I passed by
thee ; I said unto thee. Live ! Yea, when I passed by
thee and saw thee polluted, I said unto thee, Live ! "
How marvellous, my brethren, are the noble works
which we have seen in our own day, and which our
fathers have declared unto us ! How wonderful have
been the varied ways in which, even in this nineteenth
century, the Lord God has risen to help and deliver us !
What need is there for me to dwell at length on the
Evangelical awakening whereby the teachings of the old
Catechism as to a free forgiveness, and the glorious
liberty of the ransomed soul, and a present salvation,
were disentombed and revivified } What need is there
for me to recount the varied phases of the great Church
movement by which it was succeeded, when, as the
superstructure, sacramental teaching was reared by
Divine wisdom on the deeply-laid foundation of per-
sonal knowledge of a personal Saviour ; the super-
natural force with which the old doctrines of the Holy
Catholic Church and of the Communion of Saints were
impregnated with a Divine electricity, and burnt into the
hearts of men of truth with a sacred fire enkindled by
God the Holy Spirit } What need is there to eo over
D
the oft-told tale of God's almighty love and unfailing
wisdom, as manifested to this Church of England .''
2 N
274 THE DEDICATED LIFE
And now, if Evangelical phrases seem to have lost
their force — if it be true, as some say, that the words
which once were forged in the fire of the heart-agony
of the lonely Evangelist are degenerating into mere
shibboleths of a party ; if the latter Church Revival is,
in the judgement of some, being perverted into the re-
introduction of mere forms and phrases — if this outward
Church system, once inspired by the breath of the Holy
Ghost, is now being found as powerless to quicken life
as the grave-cloths in which the sacred Body of our
Lord was enshrouded : if both the Revivals of the
nineteenth century have spent their strength, still —
blessed be His Name — we recognize in our midst the
Presence of the Holy One of God — the true Elisha —
the Holy One Who passeth by us continually. He is in
our midst. Who is alive for evermore ; Who holdeth the
seven stars in His right hand, Who walketh in the midst
of the seven golden candlesticks. Who has said unto His
Church, in her corporate capacity — to every living
branch of the one mystic vine, to every living soul
baptized into His sacred fold — " Because 1 live, ye shall
live also." Yes, He Whose eyes flash like a flame of fire
into the very heart of the bride whom He loveth ; He
Who recognizes, as only a true husband can recognize,
by an instinctive sympathy, her every need — He, very
God and very Man, is now vouchsafing unto us the
very revelation that is required by the exigencies of the
age in which our lot is cast : a revelation which con-
tains in itself, and uses with ungrudging confidence and
unmingled thankfulness, all that was good and true and
beautiful in the past, and yet believes that " God fulfils
Himself in many ways, lest one good custom should
corrupt the world," and thus, in union with the ascended
Christ, is itself separate from and superior to all the
mere partial developments by which it has been preceded.
THE gOSTEL OF THE KJNGT>OM 275
And what, my brethren, is this Evangel of the nine-
teenth century, of which I speak in such high-sounding
words ? What is this Gospel that God is sending to
cheer and gladden our hearts, in this nineteenth century ?
It is new, yet old. It is the resurrection of the lite
which was first embodied in the history of the Acts of
the Apostles. It is " the glad tidings of the kingdom,"
which Jesus went everywhere preaching. It is the
Gospel of the kingdom, of which the Apostle Paul
testified, as the only means by which the systematic
organization of worldly power in that and in every age
could be successfully withstood. We are bidden, now,
not to be looking forward to a vague and shadowy
future, but to believe that, in virtue of the Incarnation,
this kingdom of God has been already established in
our midst ; that we have been baptized into a spiritual
world, organized under a living Head, indwelt by the
living Spirit : a world wherein death has been robbed
of its sting : a world of life and light, wherein the visible
and the invisible are blended together into one glorious
fellowship ; members of one living body ; soldiers in
one great conquering army, going up to take possession
of the world, that the glory of the Lord may be revealed,
and all flesh may see it together ; for the mouth of the
Lord hath spoken it.
Yes, my brethren, the very paradoxes by which the
natural man is startled give strength and victory to all
who have risen out of mere Evangelical movements and
Church battles into a broader and wider and deeper life ;
whose eyes have been opened to see the glory of the
new Evangel, the beauty of the heavenly Jerusalem,
sent down from God unto earth. They recognize that
they have already come — not that they will come — " unto
Mount Zion, unto the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of
the Living God ; unto the innumerable company of the
276 THE T>EDICviTED LIFE
angels, the general assembly and Church of the First-
born, to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to
Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant." Instead of
the strong men becoming effeminate (as used to be said
when only half a Gospel was preached), the women now
become men — strong men, by the power of the Living
God that dwelleth in them. For in this kingdom — Oh,
mighty paradox, to the glory of our God ! — weakness,
conscious weakness, is a preparation for abounding
power. In this kingdom, the prayer of a child can
shake the foundations of an empire, when linked with
the might and the glory of the Great High Priest within
the veil. In this kingdom, suffering and failure and
apparently fruitless effort can all be endured, because
the King has told us that the corn of wheat must die,
if much fruit is to result. The outward man must
suffer decay, if the inner man is to be renewed and made
strong. Utter helplessness is to be welcomed, that the
power of the glorious God may be made perfect. We
glory in infirmities, we triumph in every difficulty,
because in the Gospel of the kingdom of heaven we
have been taught to recognize in every distress, in every
perplexity, only the materials whereby the power and
wisdom of the indwelling Spirit shall be more abundantly
revealed.
Wheresoever this Gospel of the kingdom has been
revealed, in one sense, nothing is great ; in another,
nothing is commonplace. The entire world — every
thought, and word, and deed, each struggle and sacrifice
in the home life — the world of art and of science, the
world of commerce and of politics — all is irradiated with
the light of the glory of the supernatural kingdom in
which we that are baptized, and that believe, live and
move and have our being. In the deepest sense, the
text which is written large on the central hall of our
THE gOSTEL OF THE KINGDOM 277
commerce has been realized : " The earth is the Lord's,
and the fulness thereof." Bishops, in such a kingdom,
are obliged to exercise " godly discipline," because they
know that it Is Christ Who is ruling in them. Priests
are obliged, if they believe the New Evangel, to submit
to that "godly discipline," because they hear the voice
of the King in the words of those who are set over them
in the Lord. The entire body of the faithful is lifted
up above this lower earth, as it gazes steadfastly,
through the mist and through the blinding darkness —
right out where S. Stephen looked — into the face of the
glorious Lord Who is living in the midst of us : the
Christ Who baptizes, the Christ Who confirms, the
Christ Who communicates, the Christ by Whom men
are ordained, the Christ Who to-day consecrates those
who are to be sent out in the Name of the Lord.
Yes, my brethren, this living Christ is the centre,
the Alpha and the Omega, of this glorious kingdom.
The New Evangel proclaims that the word of our God
has been fulfilled already in our midst : — I passed by,
I saw thee, and I said unto thee. Live !
" Thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy
beauty." Yes, thank God, in spite of all the uncertain
sound of the human voice, the trumpet of God is being
heard in the uttermost parts of the earth. It is not to
Lichfield only, but to Nassau and Queensland also, that
the messengers of the Gospel of the kingdom are this
day to be sent. To the offertory of to-day, then, give
largely, my brethren ; for upon the work which that
offertory represents depends to a very large extent the
future of this Church of England, i What is a ship,
without its captain ? What is an army, without its
officer ? What is a Church, without its proper supply
^ The Offertory was devoted to the Fund for the Increase of the
Episcopate.
278 THE DEDICATED LIFE
of bishops ? Give, then ; that more bishops — centres
of life and power and godliness — may be established
everywhere through the fair fields of this England of
ours.
Everywhere, thank God, spiritual life is deepening.
The fruit of that Day of Intercession is being carried
into the furthermost corners of the earth. From every
quarter of the globe, the sound is heard of many foot-
steps — the result of prayer in the old Evangelical days,
the result of sacrifices in the great Church-awakening
days, the result of seed sown in tears, now being reaped
in golden harvest ; the sound of many footsteps is heard
— coming to us from north and south and east and west,
coming up to thank God in the Lambeth Conference —
may God prosper it ! — for the Church which they
represent, and for the revelation of the kingdom. All
the effort, and all the absence from dioceses, and all the
long travels by land and by sea, may well have been
ventured, if only for the sake of standing shoulder to
shoulder, and saying with one heart and one voice, in
the face of the world and the powers of evil that hover
around the Church, that ancient Creed, in the power of
which they live and suffer, and are prepared — if God
will — to die : " I believe in God the Father ; I believe
in God the Son ; I believe in God the Holy Ghost ;
I believe in one holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity ; I
believe in the Holy Catholic Church, and the Com-
munion of Saints."
Now, my brethren, what has been our response }
Like Israel of old, we have despised the covenant. Our
root-sin has been theirs : the sin of unbelief. When
God the Holy Ghost was promised. He was to con-
vince the world — not merely the outer world, but the
world-spirit in the Church, in the hearts of the regenerate
THE gOSTEL OF THE KJNGT>OM 279
— He was to convince the world of sin, because men
believed not in Christ.
Some may be weary of the word "faith"; they may
think that it is only a canting utterance ; but " faith "
is the grandest word in human language ! It is by the
power of faith that the Saints in every age have lived
and suffered and died. Want of faith in Christ issues
in dependence upon that which is outward and visible ;
unbelief produces worldliness.
There has been amongst us a want of faith in our
Lord Jesus Christ. And so, there has been a shrinlcing
from those lonely struggles in the wilderness, from those
dark hours spent in solitary wrestlings with God, by
which alone the spiritual muscles can be braced, and men
can be made to go forth, to baptize with the fire of God
the Holy Ghost. We have not faith enough to believe
that human work, and the thousand details of life, can
all be managed by God ; so the quiet hour in which the
fire of our hearts was to have been kindled is postponed,
or only superficially observed.
Thus, as we have not been alone in the wilderness
with God, there has been a sad lack of the power of the
great Baptist whose festival we are keeping to-day.
There has been a want of patient suffering for the
Truth's sake ; there has been a feverish impatience for
results, an impossibility of waiting, and of looking on to
the day when he who soweth and he who reapeth shall
rejoice together. There has been an utter want of faith
in the power of the Holy Spirit to rule and guide the
Church. There has been a want of brave, honest
determination, like that of the Baptist, fresh from the
power of the desert, to constantly speak the truth at all
times and in all seasons — a determination boldly to
rebuke vice, as well as patiently to suffer tor the Truth's
sake. There has been an unworthy longing for a
2 8o THE T>EDIC.ATED LIFE
miserable compromise by which peace can be purchased,
instead of a grand comprehensive publishing of The
Kingdom, wherein every gift can be utilized, and every
power that God has bestowed can be purified and made
into one harmonious whole, by the power of the Holy
Ghost. There has been an awful cowardice in facing
burning questions — as if only the Church of the early
ages was inspired by the Holy Ghost — as if only the
Church of the Apostles had learnt to pray the Whitsun-
tide Collect, that the Living God would " guide us into
all truth," overcome all difficulties, harmonize all con-
flicting opinions, as in the beginning, bring order out of
chaos and light out of darkness.
So we have been content to act as mere tenants of a
day ; as if we had had no faith in the glorious future of
the Church — as if we had no children for whom to
prepare the way of the Lord ! We have been too prone
to shirk difficult and unpleasant questions ; content if
the building in which we dwelt was sufficient to with-
stand the power of the elements raging without ; content
if all went well for our day ; as if we had no belief in
the life everlasting, and had never heard of that kingdom
of God which knows no ending.
The natural result of this want of faith is, of course,
utter worldliness. The poor child who does not believe
that Christ loves her, and does not know that her sins
are forgiven, tries to quench the thirst of an unquiet
heart in the broken cisterns of the world's pleasure.
And so the Bride of the Lord, if she does not believe
that there is the strong arm of her Beloved on which
she can lean, that there is a strong voice speaking
comfortably to her in the wilderness, saying, " Comfort
ye, comfort ye My people," " I have loved you with an
everlasting love," is obliged inevitably to lean upon
that which is outward and material, something which
THE gOSTEL OF THE KJNGTfOM 281
can be touched by the human hand, and seen with the
human eye. Thus, we put our trust in human organiza-
tions ; acting against our own judgement, we would
rather do despite to the Spirit of God, Who teaches us
to be more patient and trustful, than disappoint a little {
band of disciples whom we have taught to cry in our
ears, " Rabbi ! Rabbi ! " We lean — not upon the in-
visible God but on popular opinion, on the judgement
of the great and the learned and the intellectual. We
are afraid to ring out the old Gospel of " foolishness," for
fear of being accounted fools for Jesus Christ's sake.
We leave the living oracles of God for the self-made
oracles that are found in our clubs, or at the corners of
every street. Like rustics in some " vanity fair," we
stand half bereft of our senses, as we gaze on the pomp
and the glory of a world which passes away ; or, to
change the illustration, we follow the crowd whom the
Apostle saw in Apocalyptic vision, that " wondered after
the Beast," the representative of the power of this lower
life. We " wonder " at it, with the refinement of the
leopard, and the brute force of the bear, and the magnifi-
cence and the power and the wisdom of the noble lion, so
grand according to natural development, yet ever bearing
on its face the broken number of man's incomplete
development, just falling short of the divine ideal. Six
in the units, six in the tens, six in the hundreds ; aye,
six for ever ; never, by the power of natural wisdom or
human organization, rising up to the glory of the man-
hood of Christ, the sevenfold perfection of those who
believe in God the Holy Ghost.
What is the result .'' Sin finds us out ; for God is
true. As surely as the spirit of the Baptist rose up to
avenge itself upon the troubled conscience of Herod, so
the Church, and every branch of the Church, must
sooner or later echo the eternal anthem, " Holy, Holy,
2 o
2 82 THE "DEDICATED LIFE
Holy, Lord God A.lmighty." And this is the reason
why the great company that Ezekiel saw has been
brought up against the Bride of the Lord ; this is why
she lies with the sharp stones falling around her, and
every newspaper seems justified in heaping opprobrium
upon her ; it is because God had said, " Stone her, stone
her, stone her, that her sins may be brought to remem-
brance," that she may learn the folly of leaning on the
arm of flesh, and trusting to the power of this present
world. This is the meaning of all our misfortunes.
Let me now utter, in the Name of the Lord, the
conclusion of the whole matter. There is hope in our
latter end ; hope drawn from the character of God ; hope
shadowed forth in this glorious chapter. We all know
the magnificent results of that long Babylonish captivity.
It is not true that the Jews in Babylon learnt the
doctrine of the Resurrection, any more than we in this
generation have learnt the meaning of the Acts of the
Apostles. But it is true that that which was old
became new, through the suffering and loneliness of the
great Babylonish struggle. It was while sitting by the
waters of Babylon, when men's hearts were failing them
for fear, that the Almighty God gave a keener perception
of the resurrection-life, and of the great company of
angels, and of the abominable sin of idolatry, and the
wickedness of all spiritual adultery. It is in the Psalm
of the Return that we find the children of God rejoicing
in the power of God's holy Word, which liveth and
endureth for ever. It was in those days that Daniel was
allowed to see the vision of the " stone " — the very
symbol of all that speaks of the natural man, so cold and
dead and utterly incapable of being revived. It was by
the sorrow and trouble at Babylon that men's eyes were
purified to see and to believe in that Living Goo, Who
THE gOSTEL OF THE KJNG7)0M 283
could shape the dull stone, and make it full of divine
life, so that before it the very oracles of heathendom
should be silenced, and the magnificent towers and
palaces of imperial Rome be crumbled into the dust.
So, my brethren, beloved in Christ, we recall the
words of hope with which this chapter concludes :
" Nevertheless 1 will remember My covenant with thee in
the days of thy youth ... I will establish My covenant
with thee ; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord :
that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and
never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame,
when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast
done, saith the Lord God." We thank God, and take
courage. Yes, we thank God for the eternal counsels
by which our Church has been called to this high
estate. We thank Him for the awful purifying through
which we are now passing, in this England of ours.
Delivered from unbelief, and the curse which falls on
all who depend upon the arm of flesh, we send forth our
brethren in the Name of the Lord, to follow Him Who
is invisible, yet truly going before them, conquering and
to conquer. You of Nassau go to a land where you will
have ever near to you the spirit of one of the truest and
purest soldiers of the Cross : one of the great band of
unknown martyrs who, because he believed in the
eternal kingdom, was content to be silent in the earth
that passeth away. You, my brother of Queensland, go
out to that poor diocese with an income less than what
is squandered in a night in one of London's extrava-
gancies ; you go out to a diocese whose every need
might be supplied by the savings of a single merchant
in a single year ; you go out, ashamed, it may be, of the
Church that can allow bishops to wander from parish to
parish like ecclesiastical mendicants — ashamed of the
miserable response that England has made to the good-
284 THE T>ET>IC^TED LIFE
ness of her God ; but you must, my brother, go in
strong faith, because you believe in the Gospel of the
kingdom.
And you, my dear brother, the friend of twenty
years' standing, the companion of my joys and sorrows,
what shall I say to you ? Thank God, you know — you
have been taught by the Blessed Spirit — how weak you
are. You know that even for the daily strength of the
body that perisheth, you have to depend upon the
prayers of the Church, and upon the mercy of God,
the Giver of life. You go forth with power, because
you are weak — because you are the youngest, like David,
in the house of your fathers ; you will go as the mes-
senger of the priests of God in England ; you will draw
the hearts of the fathers to the children, and of the
children to the fathers ; you will tell our Fathers in God
that two years of prayer have made a mighty difference
in the position of the English Church, a mighty differ-
ence in the relation which once existed between the
clergy and the bishops. You will tell them that their
intercessions have been indeed answered ; that the priests
of God desire in very deed to strengthen instead of
to weaken the hands of their rulers. You will tell them
that we ask for the exercise of the spiritual power of
their high office ; that we desire, not to be persuaded
and argued with, but to be commanded, in the Name of
the God that dwelleth in them, so that the glory of the
Lord may be revealed, and the Gospel of His kingdom
published ; that priests and people, deacons and laity,
men, women, and children, some by working, some by
suffering, some by dying, may advance the glory of the
Lord, and plant in this fair world of ours the banner
of the Crucified, the symbol of the Gospel of the
kingdom.
FILIAL LOVE A.7(p FEAR 285
II
FILIAL LOVE AND FEAR'
" When ye pray ^ say^ Our Father."
S. Luke xi. 2.
MY brethren, if we were asked to express the sub-
stance of Christ's revelation we should answer in
the words which we have selected for our text. They
contain the great feature which distinguishes Christianity
from all previous dispensations. The god of the heathen
was regarded as an intelligent ruler of the universe, care-
less of the happiness of his creatures, and unmoved by
their sorrows. The God of the Jews was a high and
holy Being Whose face no one had ever beheld, Who
spake to His people amid the thunders of Sinai as
He stood upon the mountain which burned with fire.
Even though a dim idea of the paternal character of God
the Deity might sometimes be conceived, it was only to
the bereaved and despairing sufferers that He was so
revealed. It was only when their natural parents had
deserted them that their very misery obliged them to
believe in the existence of a spiritual Father. "Doubt-
less Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant
of us, and Israel acknowledge us not." Even then it was
only the favoured descendants of Abraham, only those
who belonged to the family of Israel, who had every
right to be called the children of God. When, however,
' The first Sermon, when Curate of S. Mary Abbotts, Kensington,
preached June 14, 1857. See (Memoir, edited by A. J. Mason, D.D.,
I- p. 35-
2 86 THE DSDIC^TSD LIFE
the light of nature had failed in producing sufficient
motives for holiness, when fear had proved to be unable
to make men good, Jesus Christ was sent into the world,
that by unfolding the Divine nature more fully He might
give to mankind and men a higher motive of action.
He told mankind that God was their Father, and
that they were His children ; they were rebellious,
separated from their Father by sin, continually fighting
His mighty arm, yet still they were children. They
were prodigals whose substance was wasted, whose
Father was forgotten, yet notwithstanding they were
beloved by the Father Whom they had dishonoured.
He loved them while they were yet in their sins, He
wished to bring them back to their long-deserted home.
He longed to say of each one of them, " This My son
was dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is found "
— not merely yourself, righteous Pharisee, or Jew,
proud of his privileges as a member of the true Church —
but the publicans and the harlots, the very Gentiles who
sat in darkness, and worshipped their blocks of wood
and stone — all, without any distinction, were now declared
to be the children of one common Father.
Yet this was not the whole of the great truth Jesus
made known to men. He proceeded to show them
how He had come, not merely to reveal, but to accom-
plish the will of His Father. By becoming Man, He
united all men to God.
As the Representative of humanity, He confessed the
sin of humanity in rebelling against its Father, and
offered a full atonement for the sins of the whole world.
Finally He gave us His Holy Spirit to teach us the
high privileges which He had procured for us. He sent
Him to tell each one of us of our new inheritance, to bid
each one of us no more to rebel against our reconciled
Father, to help each one of us in our conflicts with the
FILIAL LOVE AD^p FEAR 287
enemies of our souls, to make us not merely in name,
but in very truth, the followers of God as dear children.
Were we not right in saying that " our Father " is the
key-note of the New Testament ?
It was the Father's love which gave His Son to be
the Atonement for our sins — it is because we are sons
that He hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our
hearts, whereby we cry, "Abba, Father." In reliance
then upon the same Spirit, let us try to derive some of
the instruction which these words are so well fitted to
convey. With this view let us examine, firstly, what
is implied in the title, "Our Father" ; let us consider,
secondly, the duties which it imposes upon ourselves.
It is clearly revealed that God is your Father ; He
is the Father of all men, not merely as their Creator,
but as being the Father of that Saviour Who, by taking
our nature upon Him, has become the Representative of
all mankind. God sent forth His Son to redeem or to
buy back from their state of slavery, not one or two
favoured individuals, but the whole human race ; not
merely those who were near, but those who were far off;
not only those who were the children of Abraham, but
those who were strangers and foreigners, aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel. As by the offence of one,
judgement came upon all, so by the righteousness of
One the free gift was given unto all men. Do we find
it difficult to receive this truth, my brethren } Are we
unable to believe that those who have never known the
Name of God are really His children }
Let us look for a moment at that human relation by
which God has chosen to express this great truth. Let
us imagine the case of children who have never seen their
earthly parent. Educated among strangers, living in the
country of an enemy, they may have never even heard
his name. Yet this ignorance would not destroy their
288 THE T>EDTCATED LIFE
relationship to this unknown father, the fact would
remain the same however unproductive it might be of
any change in their life ; nay, we might even conceive
the voice of natural affection to be hushed in these
children. We can imagine them too happy in their
present life to have any desire to return, or accept their
father's invitation to a home of whose pleasures they
were ignorant. Still he whose love had been thus
manifested would not on account of their ingratitude
the less continue to be their father.
So it is with ourselves, my brethren, in our relation
to God. We may be living under the dominion of His
great enemy the devil. We may disbelieve the revela-
tion of the Father Which Jesus Christ has made. We
may resist the Spirit which He has given us, and in spite
of all our high privileges remain careless or rebellious.
Still we cannot cease to be His children. Let us think
well of this, for it is an awful truth. While to the
penitent it is most comforting, it is a dreadful aggrava-
tion to the guilt of a sinner. There is no sight on earth
more terrible than that of a son whose ingratitude has
requited a father's love with rebellious disobedience.
Even the most abandoned would feel a pang of remorse
at being estranged from their father. How awful there-
fore is the condition of one who has thrown off his
obedience to his heavenly Father, has refused to
acknowledge his relationship to God. Oh, if one
thought more than another will add to the intensity to
the cry of anguish which will arise hereafter from the
lost spirits in hell, it will be the recollection of that
Father Whose voice of love they have so often rejected
upon earth !
This consideration brings us to the next fact, which
we gather from the title by which God has chosen to
reveal Himself, the foundation of His government, the
FILIAL LOVE A:KP fear 289
principle by which it is regulated. What is the first idea
which arises on the name of father being mentioned in
our hearing ? Do we picture to ourselves one who is
willing to punish, or a person who is severe in the
distribution of justice ? All these qualities, indeed, are
found in any father who executes aright the solemn trust
that has been committed to him. Yet love is the grand
thought which the word itself presents to our mind. So
is it in your spiritual kingdom.
God indeed is "just, and rendereth to every man
according to his deeds." He will in no wise clear the
guilty, and visits with everlasting punishment those who
rebel against Him. Yet He wishes to be worshipped by
us, not as the consuming fire whose fury must be
quenched, but as the loving Father Whose arms are
extended to receive all who will come to Him through
Jesus Christ. It was love which made Him send forth
His blessed Son to recall us to our lon^-forp-otten home.
o o
It is love which permits no past sin, no present un-
worthiness to separate Him from His children. It is
love which is ever showering fresh mercies upon us, and
removes the difficulties which appeared like mountains
to be obstructing our progress. Even if correction be
needed to subdue our stubborn wills, still it is by a
Father's hand that the punishment is inflicted. "Whom
the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son
whom He receiveth."
Our God is Love. We then proceed to consider, in
the second place, the practical efi^ects which this paternal
character of God should produce upon ourselves. It
should make us come boldly to the throne of grace.
Let us ever hold fast this great truth that God is our
Father. He has not only created us but has bought
us back from that state of slavery into which we had
voluntarily sold ourselves. By uniting us with Christ
2 p
290 THE TfEBlCATEB LIFE
He has made us His adopted and reconciled children.
Let us beware of disbelieving this first principle of our
relio-ion. Who would not be amazed at the folly of that
man who refused to receive the offers of a parent's love,
because he was not certain that such a relation existed
between them ? Who would not despise his weakness,
if, instead of enjoying the comforts of a father's home,
he were consuming the best part of his life in searching
for proofs of his right to the title of a son. In like
manner, let us not waste our strength in searching for
proofs of our right to expect God's love. These we
shall never find, so we had better abandon our fruitless
search. Let us not spend our time in morbid inquiries
whether we are amongst the happy number of those who
can appropriate the privileges of the Gospel. Let us
rather take our stand upon its own blessed words, " Ye
are all the children of God through faith in Jesus
Christ." Let us therefore come boldly to the throne
of grace, never doubting the love of Him Who giveth
liberally and upbraideth not, so shall we find grace to
help, and strength to support us in every time of need.
Again, let us hold fast this our confidence even unto
the end, however severe may be the trials by which we
are beset. If our favourite plans are thwarted, if that to
which we have looked forward for years has been denied
to us, if those who were dearer than our own life have
been removed from our sight, still let us never forget
that it is a Father's love which has inflicted this chastise-
ment upon us. It is He Who has stripped us of all our
earthly covering that in our nakedness we might return
to Him. It is He Who has deprived us of earthly
friends, that we might find in Himself a Friend Who
sticketh closer than a brother. Yes, my Christian
brother, let us hold fast this confidence in that trial
which is the greatest that God can inflict upon us.
FILIAL LOVE A:\P fear 291
When we lose all sense of our Father's Presence, when
words appear to have no meaning, when religion seems
like a dream, when we almost wish that our eternity had
never been revealed to us, and when in this deep dark-
ness the cry of the Saviour rises to our lips, " My God,
my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" then let the
thought that we are God's children be like a star to tell
us of the approach of that Son for Whom we are longing.
Though we cannot see God, still let us hold tast our
confidence in His love, though the trial be bitter, and
bitter indeed it is, still let us say with our Saviour,
"The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not
drink it ? "
Again, let us hold fast this confidence even when we
have sinned most grievously. There are times in the
lives of many of us when sin after sin arises to condemn
us. We see perhaps a frivolous life frittered away in
foolish enjoyments, or a still darker picture may arise,
sins more gross and deadly may seem to separate us
from God. We think that repentance may be of use to
others, but that against ourselves the door of mercy
must now be closed for ever. We can imagine that
forgiveness might be bestowed upon the thief even in his
expiring moments. We cannot believe that for us, who
after knowing our privileges as Christians, after ex-
periencing the love ot our Father, have again fallen into
sin, any place of repentance can be found.
W'e think that nothino- remains for us but a fearful
anticipation of the punishment which we have justly
deserved. My brother, such sins are indeed terrible,
yet the very wish for amendment which God has given
is a proof that His mercy is not yet exhausted.
If it were merely a judge with whom we had to deal,
then the remembrance ot past wickedness, and the con-
sciousness of present guilt might indeed prevent us from
292 THE TfEDIC^TED LIFE
approaching him. Yet how can such fears have any
place, when it is our Father Who is praying us to return.
Who of you who are fathers would hesitate to receive
a penitent son however grievously he might have sinned
against you .'' Who of you who are children would
not return to an earthly parent } If we then, with all
our human weakness, still feel the tie which unites a
father and his child to be so strong, how can we distrust
the far more perfect love of our heavenly Father .^
However grievous, therefore, our sin may be, still let us
not add the greater sin of distrusting our Father's love.
The past, indeed, with all its follies and all its sins, can-
not be recalled — the future, however, is still before us.
Our Father will receive even the tottering forms of
those whose strength has been consumed in the service
of sin. Arise, then, let us be going ! Let us sit no
longer in bitter despair. Let us go to our Father.
He Who forgave the sinful Magdalene because she loved
much will forgive our sins, however grievous they may
have been. He Who sent the first message of love to
the Apostle who had denied Him will anticipate the
words of penitence which our lips refuse to utter. He
will say to us as He said to David after one of the
darkest crimes which the Bible has recorded, " The
Lord hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die."
Another result of the paternal character of God should
be manifested in the freedom of the service which we
render to Him, My son, give Me thy heart, is God's
demand from each one of us. Give me ot Thy tree
Spirit, is the answer of every loving son.
Hence the hope of reward and the fear ot punish-
ment are parts of the spirit of bondage from which we
have been redeemed. It is not the tortures of hell and
the joys of heaven which should have the greatest
influence upon our lives. These, indeed, are powerful
FILIAL LOVE A:\P fear 293
motives in arousing the sinner from his careless slumber.
The Christian, however, will fear separation from God
and ingratitude to a loving Father more than all the
torments which are reserved for the impenitent. He
will abstain from evil not that he may gain heaven, but
that he may be like unto his Father Who is in heaven.
He will be holy because the God Whom he loves, the
God Who has called him, is holy.
Oh, my brethren, how much higher would be the
standard of our Christianity if this free spirit were the
principle of our lives. We should not then be inquir-
ing how much of Sunday might be devoted to ourselves
without incurring God's wrath. We should not then
be trying how much of the world's pleasures might be
enjoyed without forfeiting our eternal happiness. As a
child by loving obedience learns the will of its parent,
so we should know almost instinctively what our
Father would have us to do. We should not merely
observe but enjoy our Sunday. We should shun the
vanities of the world, not because they are forbidden,
but because the happiness of our union with God is
weakened by indulgence in them, because the warmth of
our love to our Father is chilled by their deadening
influence.
Lastly, the paternal character of God cuts at the root
of all Pharisaical ideas of our own superiority. If God
be our Father, then we all are brethren. Yes, brethren,
that outcast in the street is our brother, that wretched
being whose very name we shrink from mentioning is
our sister. Sinful and rebellious though they be, they
are God's children. Let then the unkind judgement be
hushed lest our self-sufiicient pride cast a stumbling-
block in the way of one for whom Christ died.
We are all the children of God, high and low, rich and
poor : we are all brethren.
2 94 THE TDEDIQ^TED LIFE
Let us then, as brethren, each bear our burdens,
and exercise forbearance one towards another. Let the
poor no longer indulge in murmuring against the rich,
but make due allowances for the temptations to selfish-
ness by which they are surrounded. Let the rich speak
tenderly of his poorer brother, and remember how sore
are the trials to which he is exposed. In fact in every-
thing let us strive to realize the great truth that we are
all the children ot one common Father. Let the result
of our belief be seen in the love which we manifest
towards all our brethren. Yet how imperfect are all
our ideas of God ! How feeble are all our efforts to
obey the will of our heavenly Father ! Let us pray for
an increase of that lovingf obedience to which alone the
knowledge of God is vouchsafed. Let us pray for more
of that childlike spirit which was seen in every act of
our Saviour's life. It is only by union with Him that
we can obey, or even understand the will of God. "No
man knoweth the Father save the Son, and He to
Whom the Son will reveal Him." And He will reveal
Him to each one of us if we cherish the gracious
influences of His Spirit. He will be a lamp to our feet
and a light to our paths. He will bring us nearer and
nearer to God till at last the veil v/hich now separates
the Father from His children shall be rent for ever.
Then shall v/e see Him, Whom now having not seen
we love, in Whom though now we see Him not, yet
believing, we rejoice v/ith joy unspeakable and full of
glory. We shall see Him not by the dim and flickering
light of human symbols and human relations, but face
to face. As the Father hath ever known His children,
so will the children then know the Father. We shall
see Him as He is. We shall know Him even as also
we are known.
Thus we have tried to illustrate the great truth
FILIAL LOVE A:}{P fear 2()s
that God is the Father of all men. We have shown
that to each one of us all the blessings which a
Father can bestow have been freely offered. We
have seen the effect which this should produce upon
our lives. We have seen that as children we should
come with childlike confidence to our Father's throne.
We have seen that as children of one common Father
we should show by our love to the brethren that we
remember Him Who is their Father and our Father,
Who is their God and our God.
296 THE TtEDICATED LIFE
III
A NEW THING'
" Remember ye not the former things, neither consider
the things of old. Behold, 1 mil do a nevj thing ; now it
shall spring forth ; shall ye not know itf — Isa. xliil. 18,
19.
WE have endeavoured, my brethren, to brace our
wills by gazing for a while steadfastly upon the
ever-blessed and glorious Trinity. We have contem-
plated God the Eternal calmly surveying past, present,
future, providing for every emergency, calculating on
the loss of strength and power that would result from
the weakness and negligence of His agents ; calculating
for the triumphs of the devil, the victories of the world,
the self-willed rebellion of human beings ; calculating tor
every emergency — I repeat the words, if one may use
human language — and so ordering it that everything,
good and bad, shall be made to work together — like the
varied-coloured threads in some divine tapestry — for the
manifestation before men and angels of the manifold
wisdom of God. This may come through development,
or, it may be, after a long protracted struggle. All is
naked and open in the sight of Him with Whom we
have to deal : the Lord of our life and the God of our
salvation, the Eternal One, the same yesterday, and
to-day, and for ever.
' S. Andrew's Day : the Day of Intercession for Foreign Missions,
1877.
^ .7\jS/F rillNQ 297
We see in the next place that Almighty God reveals
to each age, each nation, each individual, a definite
portion of His truth, to be received at that particular
time ; a definite portion of His holy will to be accom-
plished in that particular age ; the work, in fact, that
He has prepared that we should walk in. He says to
each succeeding age, " The work of the last generation is
not necessarily the work for you. Remember the former
things to gather encouragement and wisdom and holy
courage for the future." But the old order changeth,
and God fulfils Himself in many ways. " Remember
not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
Behold, I will do a new thing ; it shall spring forth."
And this is illustrated in the Bible history, and the
history of the Church at large ; in the history of our
own Church, in the development of different truths in
this England of ours, in the individual life of saints,
martyrs, confessors, down to our own personal ex-
perience.
I desire to carry on this subject now, and to illustrate,
by the help of the Holy Ghost, given in answer to the
prayers of His Church, the thought which is suggested
in my opening remarks. " Almighty God alloweth man
in His own Divine wisdom " : Almighty God allows man to
hinder this work of His, to delay it by want of prayer,
by want of obedience, by want of reverent watching the
signs of the times, by internal divisions and backbiting,
by limiting the power of God through unbelief, and by
manifold forms of self-will. The bride of Christ, the
Church, has the power of wounding her Lord, and
delaying that day when He shall see of the travail of His
Soul and be satisfied.
One of the most subtle forms of self-will is especially
brought before us by the subject that we have been
considerino;. It takes the form of limitingr the will of
2Q
298 THE TfEDI GATED LIFE
God, limiting the power of the Holy One. It is a
strange device of Satan by which he accomplishes that
fiendish work in which he most delights. One of the
ways in which he can (so to speak) parody the power of
God in bringing good out of evil is by turning God's
very blessings into a curse. It is for the time only,
through God's own permission, but the mystery of
iniquity worketh yet, and will work till God sees fit
to stop it — making the very blessings of the power
and love of God into instruments against Himself.
Try to follow what I mean. Almighty God blessed
the Church at large in the past, and that blessing Satan
makes an hindrance to progress ; he makes it the
means by which the Church holds back and refuses to
do the work of her own generation, or to receive the
truth which is specially bestowed upon the age in which
she is then living.
Observe that first in the Bible. God was saying,
" Remember not the former things, neither consider the
things of old ; I am creating a new thing." How did
the people take it ^ They said, " We remember the old
covenant ; we know God spake by Moses ; we know
that the Tabernacle was of God's devising ; we know
that the law came by the ministry of angels ; we know
that God blessed the old Mosaic dispensation ; but as
for this Jesus we know not whence He is, let Him be
crucified ! "
Even the communicants (as we should say) erred in
the same way. They knew that John was a prophet.
They knew that that lonely preacher of repentance
standing by the side of the Jordan had had his work
attested emphatically by the Living God. So they refused
to accept the new revelation of the liberty of the Gospel.
"John's disciples," they said to Christ, "fasted ; Your
disciples are eating and drinking ; You cannot be a true
A :\§,w miNQ 299
Teacher?" The very goodness of God in the days of
the Baptist was made the means of defeating the blessings
the same God was ready to bestow through the Incarnate
Lord. So again, in all Church history, you find the
same thing going on perpetually. One generation catches
a truth ; God gives a new truth in the next age. " Im-
possible ! " they say, " it conflicts with the past, and we
know the past was from God." Yet God is saying,
"Remember not the former things, neither consider the
things of old ; behold, I will do a new thing."
So especially is it in our own Church of England.
Of course, to intelligent people I need not say that it
does not follow, because a thing is new that therefore
it is true :
"Old things need not be therefore true,
O brother-man, nor yet the new ! "
" Consider it again ! " But the new fancy that differs
from the old truth is simply rubbish of man's creation.
And in the next place, if you study the history of the
Church, you will see how from time to time man has
turned the blessing of God into a curse. Especially is
this the case in the Church of England. You see we
are coming from the outside of the circle nearer and
nearer home. Some of you will remember that essay of
Lord Macaulay on Rankes History of the Popes^ showing
the weakness ot the Church ot England : partly through
a conservative spirit, (for which, in the right sense of
the word, God's holy Name be praised 1 long may she
be conservative !), partly from the national want of
the perceptive faculty, or whatever it be. It is a
fact that we in England have wasted and lost more
of God's blessings, I suppose, than any other branch
of the Church. It is melancholy to think of a man
like Simeon suspected to his death ; and a man like
Dr. Pusey misunderstood for years, until at last, quite in
300 THE DEDICATED LIFE
old age, when he comes to a Congress the whole
assembly rises up to cheer him ! There is something
melancholy in it all, to think how God has been saying,
"Remember not the former things," and the Church has
not responded to the call. The movement at Cambridge
was from God ; and the movement at Oxford was from
God ; and yet each time the Church hung back,
trembling, not merely with caution, not merely to wait
and pray for guidance ; but with the old idea of the
Jews in the days of our Lord, " It cannot be true,
because it is not exactly the same truth that was preached
in the days of our forefathers."
And so coming down to our own life, how continually
do we find in it illustrations of the principle we are
considering ! Is it not so, my brethren .'' We look
back on some earlier period of our life and we say, " I
know God blessed me then, I know God loved me, and
yet I did not see this truth." As if God had no gradual
education of m^an, as if God Himself had no further
truth to impart, as if the education of the man at sixty
were to be no advance upon his education at fifty, as if
the position of the man at eighty and of the boy just
leaving school were to be the same, as if the Eternal
Father leaves us from childhood to old age like a pillar
of salt in the wilderness, standing there as a memorial
for men to o-aze at !
o
Oh, my brethren, it is something awful, to any one
who cares in the slightest degree for the glory of God,
when he thinks how the very blessings of God have been
turned in this way into a curse. But how often we find
it so. " My father," some one says, " was a holy man,
he never saw this evangelical teaching ; my mother was
a saint, she knew nothing of daily services and frequent
Communions, and the like. This truth cannot be from
God, or they would have known it. The light they had
A :)iEJv THiNg 301
was sufficient for them. My father never gave more
than so much a year to the Church," and the like.
Again and again the voice of the Living God, yea,
the voice of the crucified King, has come near to His
own peculiar people, near to those who live in His
Presence, who love His Name, who watch for His
appearing, and God says, " Oh, My people, what have
I done to you } Wherein have I wearied you ^ Why
did not you open your mouth wider that I might fill it ?
Why were you not on the watch-tower ^ Why was thine
eye not looking to see the signs of the times : Why
was thine ear not open to hear the call to self-sacrifice ? "
Thy mother was a saint, and thy father was holy, and the
generation of bygone Christians were holy too. But
God, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever, fulfils
His eternal purpose in different ways in each succeeding
age. God has an education for the Church, an education
for the individual.
I wish now to point out how that great principle,
which is of universal application, can be applied to the
Foreign Mission work of the Church. Of course it
applies to all our work.
1 will give you a few illustrations. In bygone days
the Church knew very little about Foreign Missions.
And God in His love " winked at her ignorance " (to
use a Bible phrase) and blessed her according to her
ability and her knowledge, and so a great Bishop like
Bishop Gray had that wondrous blessing which you have
otten, I dare say, considered, and thanked God for it,
it you have read his Life. Now observe the way in which
men have attempted to turn that blessing into a curse.
Over and over again, in every kind of publication, you
find the exact details of the way in which Bishop Gray
was obliged to work held forth as a sort of type for the
Church in her Foreign Missions in all succeeding ages.
302 THE TfEDICATED LIFE
So you are told that because Bishop Gray had a large
diocese, the Church ought to have large dioceses now in
all her new Missions ; and, because Bishop Gray was
obliged, in order to obtain funds to administer his huge
diocese, to spend half his life in secular cares, coming
backwards and forwards to EnMand beo^orino:, therefore
we are to perpetuate the same miserable life for all
succeeding Bishops.
Now, in considering this question we should endeavour
to be unprejudiced, and take the Bible as our guide. 1
am speaking, my brethren, I fear, in what may appear
to be rather a dogmatic manner, but I wish you to
understand that I am only expressing what appears to
me to be the truth. Of course there are numberless
men, better and wiser than myself, who think differently.
But my duty is to put before you as well as I can what
seems to me to be true.
Now, it seems to me that if you go back to the Acts
of the Apostles, if there is one principle enunciated more
clearly than another, it is this : make your centre
strong ; have the heart of your diocese established ; and
only expand your area as God definitely calls you, from
Jerusalem to Judasa, from Judsa to Samaria, and so forth.
I believe that no one starting afresh, with the Acts of the
Apostles for his guide, would ever think of giving an
unhappy Bishop half a continent. He would give him
a small see, not much more than one large town with its
suburbs ; and he would give him a large staff to pray
together and develop the spiritual life. Then as God
blessed him and his work, the circles would enlarge
around the centre ; just as in old Roman days, they took
the sacred fire to light each new hearth where the god
of their fatherland was to be worshipped. The fire will
spread, it must spread, if it comes down from God.
There is an instance in which God's mercy in giving a
A :i^W THINQ 303
certain amount of blessing in the last generation is
turned against Himself as an excuse for carrying on a
weak system.
So again, many noble men, like Henry Martyn, have
done great work for God as isolated workers. And so
Society after Society sends an unhappy man far away
from friends, without perhaps even a companion, with
nobody to pray with, nobody to keep his spirits from
drooping, utterly ignoring God's divine principle that it
is not good for a man to be alone ; simply because God
blessed some one who was alone a hundred years ago !
And therefore, for the mere nonsense of having a large
area covered with a number of missionary posts that we
can show are to a certain extent filled, a poor man is left
to wear out and decay, body, soul, and spirit, and the
Church is dishonoured by the lowered tone of the man
who is left without the Sacraments of his Church and
without the fellowship of the saints. There is another
illustration.
If you survey all the varied details of Foreign
Mission work, you will continually find this argument
used, " It did very well in the past, why alter it t "
This principle fully carried out would derive evil from
the example of the holiest men ; and the very memory
of a great saint like Bishop Wilberforce might be turned
into a curse. Men will tell you, because that mighty
giant in the spiritual life did not see a truth twenty years
ago, therefore God cannot reveal it to our children ; and
so forth.
The whole question of religious education in India
illustrates what I mean. It was not possible probably
in former years not to mingle the Christians with the
heathen ; it was probably a necessity then to have
non-Christian teachers. But now, when the Church's
conscience is aroused, and we know the difference (as
304 THE T)EDICATED LIFE
the early Christians did) between being in the kingdom
and out of the kingdom. It is mere profanation of our
holy mysteries to teach a heathen child (as he is taught
now) the Bible, and to let him compete for Bible prizes,
and yet remain a heathen all the time. It is simply
causing the Bible to be laughed at. Of course every
now and then men were converted under this system,
for God's Word carried a blessing with it in spite of the
bad system, and the poor ignorant children taught in
this way did now and then, aye ! in many cases, through
God's infinite mercy, afterwards come to believe in
Christ. But half the infidelity in England (so I am
informed by those who have thoroughly studied the
subject) can be traced to the fact that we have tossed
our Christianity in that way into the middle of heathen
children. We have taught them to look upon the Bible
as a thing they can learn without ever having been
baptized at all ; and that the Christian doctrine belongs
to those outside the fold just as much as those within it.
And the result is obvious.
If there is no difference between being in the Church
of Christ and outside, why should they sacrifice every-
thing for Christ, and part with home and friends and
almost life itself, like that young lad we read o^ who
sacrificed everything and was dragged back three or four
times (I forget which) by his parents, for aught he knew
to death, and yet stood forth true to Christ and His
Cross ? Why should they do this if there is no deeper
meaning in the grand old truths of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Ghost ? If the Church is nothing —
and they have a fellowship in their caste, they have a
society amongst themselves — if the Church is nothing,
why should they part with that which they have for a
mere figment, an idle dream of a disordered fancy ?
My brethren, there are hundreds of other instances I
A :hsw thinq 305
doubt not, but I have only mentioned two or three that
press most heavily upon me almost every time I go to a
Committee about Foreign Missions. In all cases alike
the old difficulty arises, " God blest us in the last
generation, therefore what more can you want ? Why
cannot you go on in the old road ? " Of course there is
a true side to it. The old paths of the Church in one
sense never alter. They are the same as they were at
the beginning, and will remain the same to the day when
the Lord shall come back again in His glory ; which
day may He in His infinite mercy hasten ! But that
is not what people mean. It is an idle, self-satisfied
praising of ourselves for what we have learned ; and a
dislike to learn any new truth that affects the Church at
large. The cause is plain enough. It is plain enough,
my brethren, what it all springs from, dishonouring God
the Holy Spirit, as if God had only one idea, only one
great thought, and that we had "attained" to it;
utterly ignoring the great truth that even in old days
they learned, " I see that all human things come to an
end, but Thy commandment " — the great principle of
Thy kingdom — " is exceeding broad," taking generations
yet unborn fully to develop it.
My brethren, if we are Christians and really mean
what we so often say, all of us have long ago given up
ourselves and all we possess to our Lord's disposal.
It is the meaning of our Baptism ; we ratified it at
Confirmation ; we never come to the Holy Table
without saying, often in words but always in deed,
" Here I give to Thee myself, body, soul, spirit, to be
a reasonable, holy, lively sacrifice." We all know what
was done with sacrifices in the Old Testament. There-
fore, my brethren, on this day we do not come to
surrender ourselves to Christ. Unless we are all
simply humbugs — I wish to speak plainly, and no other
2R
3o6 THE DEDICATED LIFE
word expresses my meaning — unless we are walking in
a vain shadow, and insulting God consciously or un-
consciously, by mere words, we have given up ourselves
to Him. We have told Him that all we have belongs
to Him, all our money, all our children, everything.
We know it ; we assert it ; all of you say so ; there is
no one who would not admit it. You know it perfectly
well, and you see just as clearly as 1 do, that if the Lord
made it clear to you this year that you were to give up
all your money, you would be obliged to do it. You
dare not refuse ; holy fear would prevent it, if you were
sure the Lord meant you to do so. If the Lord told
you not to keep even one child at home, and you were
quite clear about it, of course you would do it. Any of
you would, as you have given up yourselves to Christ.
That is the meaning of being Christians, belonging to
Christ. The Baptismal Service, the Confirmation Ser-
vice, the Communion Service, all take this for granted.
If our Lord told any of you (dearly as we all love our
home and our Church) to go out to the uttermost parts
of the earth, merely that you might die, that your blood
might be (like that of the martyrs) the seed of the
Church, you would go, any of you, you could not help
it. You could not even come to a Communion after-
wards, if the Lord had told you to go : you must go.
Therefore we are not here to make a new surrender
of ourselves to-day. All we are here for is this — to
remind ourselves of the fact, and then to apply the fact to
the special subject about which we are interceding to-day.
We belong to our Lord. What we are to do is to
go on the watch-tower, and to ask Him whether He has
any new teaching to give us, any new revelation ;
whether He requires of us, for example, more money
than we have given, or more time for intercession for
Foreign Missions, or more definite training of any of
A O^fV THINQ 307
our boys or girls for the work. Suppose He has a
new truth to teach us, we must accept it ; or if He
has some new sacrifice that He wants to ask, it will
have to be made, you know.
Thank God that we belong to Christ ; that we
dwell in Christ and Christ in us; that we are members
of Christ. It is no use worrying our minds with long
speculations as to what possibly may come to us, or
when we shall die ; that is waste of time. We have
only to live from day to day for the day. That is the
law of the kingdom ; to-morrow belongs to God.
But we might just at present look and see whether
we are really giving as much money as we ought in this
great crisis of the Church's history, when God has
answered the prayers of years, and asks definitely for a
large sum. We can look it all over ; only, my brethren,
it is not with man that we are dealing ; it is with the
Living God. The Judge is before the door : He only
knows into which house He will first enter to take an
account of His servants.
Thank God that He has taught you that you belong
entirely to Him. Only to-day pray for yourselves, pray
for your Church, that you may never turn past blessing
into a curse for the future ; that you may not be among
those who will be found in the day of the Lord's
appearing as souls that did run well, that did respond
with all their hearts once to the Divine call, and then
slumbered and slept.
3o8 THE DEDICATED LIFE
IV
THE BLESSED SAINTS
" Lo, a great multitude.''''
Rev. vii. 9.
IN our great Universities, my brethren, every year we
have a special service in which we commemorate the
wise and the munificent, the pure and the saintly, who
have laid the foundations of those time-honoured institu-
tions, or helped, by their love, their bounty, and their
fostering care, to rear them in all their fair proportions.
Even so, from the earliest days, the Church has
deepened her faith, and strengthened her hope, and tried
to fire, with the enthusiasm of a divine love, the hearts
of her children, by commemorating not merely the
leaders of the saintly band, the great Apostles and
founders of Christianity, but the vast company of the
saints : the multitude, of whom to-day's Epistle^ speaks,
which no man can number, of all nations and kindreds
and people and tongues, who stand (or shall stand)
before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with
white robes and palms in their hands, crying with a
loud voice, " Salvation to our God Which sitteth upon
the throne, and unto the Lamb."
In olden days, when the Church was small, the
names of these great heroes were mentioned aloud, as if
they were being summoned out of their quiet rest,
summoned to take their place at the great sacramental
' All Saints' Day.
THE 'BLESSED S^I.?(TS 309
feast. Aloud the thanksgivings were uttered. One by
one, like costly treasures, they were taken out from the
great invisible treasure-house, then given back to the
keeping of the Lord Jesus Christ.
My brethren, what a glorious heritage it is of which
you and I have been made partakers ! Let us, before
the festival has closed, read aloud the beginning of the
long list given to us to-day by the Church in that
marvellous chapter, that wondrous inspiration of God
the Holy Spirit : the long list, commencing with
righteous Abel, who through faith offered unto God the
more excellent sacrifice ; reaching on through the mighty
crowd, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought
righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths ot
lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of
the sword ; out of weakness were made strong, waxed
valiant in fight (the very women receiving their dead
raised to life again) by their faith ; stoned, sawn asunder,
tempted, slain with the sword ; destitute, afflicted,
tormented ; of whom the world was not worthy ; the
great cloud of witnesses by which we are even now
encompassed.
Then let us pass on in thought down the long line
of generations then unborn, who, by considering Jesus
Christ [HeL xii. 3) were saved from yielding to the
power of the world or the flesh or the devil.
Let us think for a moment of righteous Polycarp.
It is an old story now, how he received the tidings,
suddenly communicated, with the simple utterance of
the man who had learned to submit himself, and had
been taught obedience by the things that he suffered.
He was not surprised. The only reply was, " Then the
will of God be done." When the offer of life was given
to him on condition that he would simply speak against
Jesus Christ, and cast a few grains of incense into the
3IO THE DED I COATED LIFE
sacrificial fire of the false god : " Eighty and six years,"
answered the old man, " have I served Christ, and He
has never done me an injury ; how can I blaspheme my
King and my Saviour ? " Then, as he stood there, with
a face all full of peace and joy, they unrobed him, and
bound him to the stake, and the flames began to rise ;
and the words with which his last solemn prayer ended
were the words that you and I have used at our
Eucharistic Feast this morning : " I praise Thee, I bless
Thee, I glorify Thee, my Father, with the Eternal
Jesus Christ, Thy beloved Son, to Whom with Thee
and the Holy Spirit be glory now and for ever."
Then let us think — and if we have never read the
annals of the Church, let us begin to-day — let us think
of Blandina and Sanctus, Maturus and Attalus, of
Perpetua and Felicitas, right on to Cyprian, the glory of
the African Church. You remember, some of you, the
answer that he made to their offer of mercy — for they
loved the man, in spite of his religion — " Sacrifice to the
false gods ! " — " I will not ! " — " Consider well ; thy
life is at stake." — " The case needs no consideration." —
" Then, thou must expiate thy crime with thy blood." —
" God be thanked ! "
Who can rightly unroll this long memorial of the
Church's heroes ,'' Carry on your thoughts, brethren,
down succeeding ages. Think of the names inscribed
on the poorest Christian's pedigree. Think of them,
counting all things but loss, that they might win Christ.
Think of them, enduring all things, that they might fill
up that which was behind of the sufferings of their Lord
for His Body the Church. Think of the shame, the
taunts, the revilings, the hunger, the nakedness, the
bonds, the dungeons, the scourges, the tortures ; the
bodies given up at last to be burned, the necks meekly
bowed beneath the sword of the destroyer.
THE 'BLESSED SAIDiJS 311
It is a great multitude, thank God ! — a great multi-
tude which no man can number, of all nations and
kindreds and people and tongues, who were beheld by
the Apostle standing before the Throne and before the
Lamb.
So, from mediaeval darkness, look on through ages
of twilight (no age so dark as not to find a saint or a
martyr) ; no age so glittering in this world's glory as
not to count it the highest honour to sacrifice its
children to the Crucified ; until the history of the days
in which your own lot is cast. Recall the faces not
merely of martyrs but of saints ; not merely of heroes,
but of the rank and file ; not merely of clergy, but of
laity in the spiritual army ; not merely of men, but of
women and little children ; yes, little ones, borne away
before the burden and the heat of the day, gathered by
the Good Shepherd into the quiet resting-place.
My brethren, try to rise to-day, thinking awhile not
merely of grand men like Bishop Patteson and Bishop
Mackenzie and Bishop Field, but thinking of the num-
bers whom you yourselves have known. Think how
many in this great London have laid down their life at
home to watch at the couch of loathsome sickness or of
slow decay, or struggled with a burden not their own
until their life-springs wore away. See them there, as
they rise before you, one by one : quiet lives, it may be,
they led on earth — hidden with Christ in God ; lives of
which the glory and the power were known only unto
God, or to the few — it might be, only to the one — to
whom the life on earth was in Christ devoted.
My brethren, is there not strength for us, as we
think of these glorious pictures which the Blessed Spirit
is drawing for us to-day, as He brings them out from
the old treasure-house of the Church's memory ?
312 THE DEDICATED LIFE
How ready we are, when we realize it, to do the will
of God, and to carry any cross, if only we can be counted
worthy to follow them, as they followed Christ ! Does
it not give us strength to be humble ? How ready
we feel, on such a day as this, to recognize all earthly dis-
tinctions ; to submit gladly to any who are over us on
earth, to give all honour to those to whom honour is
due ! How strong we feel, in the consciousness of our
own glorious position, to show all fitting respect to those
to whom respect is due !
How strong we feel just now to accept any life
that God may give us ; to count nothing trifling, nothing
unworthy of the Christian warfare ! How ready we are
to be girded by another, and led anywhere that Jesus
Christ may lead us ; not to ask for the glittering of a
life that shall be written in the annals of our country's
history, but willing to perform that trivial round, and
that common task, which shall bind us more closely to
the Crucified, and make us more worthy to join with the
saints and the martyrs and the confessors, the godly men
and women who have passed already to their rest !
And how strong it makes us to bestow love on all
with whom we are brought in contact ! When we realize
what a magnificent heritage we have received ; when we
know that away from the noise and the clamour of the
outer life we have an inheritance incorruptible and
undefiled ; that God is our Father, and Jesus our
Elder Brother, and the Loving Spirit our tenderest
Friend ; and all the noblest and best that have ever
lived on earth, our companions, our fellow-soldiers,
members of the one Body, heirs of the same hope, joined
with us for life and for death and for all eternity ; does
it not make us tender with others, even while we pity
them ? As for lost blessing that they are trampling under
foot, as they seek so eagerly for the earthly treasure that
THE 'BLESSED SAID^TS 313
passes away ; and spend all the strength of their life on
the earthly homes from which they may be parted before
the morrow's dawn. Ought it not, my brethren, to make
us very tender and loving and full of kindness to all the
young, to all who are trying to find their joy in this life ;
full of compassion for them, but very tender and very
forbearing ? Does it not make us strong to fight, and to
hope, and to persevere even to the end, resolved never
to give up our trust in Jesus Christ ? Does it not all
seem so easy, as we recall the deeds of the holy martyrs,
from righteous Abel down to the last saint whom we
ourselves have known and loved ?
They were all, you know, tried as we are tried,
tempted as we are tempted. The little fretting circum-
stances, the " frequent disturbing changes " — they had
them just as we have. Their white robes were often
worn and stained in travel. They were weak and falter-
ing ; they had their burdens, their hindrances, their
times of slumber and weariness, their failures, their
faults, like ourselves, even as we have. Does it not give
us strength } Is not All Saints' Day a glorious begin-
ning for the battle which we have to fight this winter, in
God's Name, with the invisible hosts that are watching
for our fall } Does it not strengthen us with a Divine
enthusiasm, to try and win a few more souls who shall
be added to the glorious company ; that we may not
meet them with withered flowers and empty hands,
merely dragged into heaven, without anything to lay at
the feet of the Kinsr Whom thev love and adore ^
t)
Only, my brethren, remember that life is not easy.
Thank God, He has given us our Church, with her
Celebrations and her uplifting Services of Prayer and
Praise ; thank Goo for it all. But still, I repeat the
2 S
314 THE DEDICATED LIFE
words, life is not easy. You know this ; you have
found it out for yourselves. When people lifted up
their hands and said, " Blessed is the womb that bare
Thee, and the paps that Thou hast sucked," our Lord
said, " Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the Word
of God, and keep it." If He had heard crowds of
people singing hymns of praise to Him, He would
probably have said, " If ye love Me, keep My command-
ments ; obedience is better than sacrifice." You remem-
ber how our Lord never ignored the facts of life. And
the Church never ignores them. How practical is the
conclusion of her collect, " Give us grace so to follow
Thy blessed saints." Their life, remember, was a hard
life. And it will be a hard life for us also, whether we
spend it at home or in Africa. It is a hard battle with
the world and the flesh and the devil ; there are trials to
be borne, pleasures to be given up, temptations to be
endured.
" Give us grace to follow them in all virtuous and
godly living " ; doing our duty to God, and our duty to
our neighbour. That is the point. All these saints,
whatever the outward circumstances were amid which
their lives were spent, are true. They had every night
to confess their sins ; but they were honest. They had
made up their mind, by God's help, to do what was
right. Polycarp and Cyprian were only instances of
what every saint of God has to do, on a smaller scale.
" It does not require consideration." " God's will be
done."
So it must be with you and me. Two lives, two
worlds, two kingdoms are set before us. The question
is simply this : Shall all the glory and joy of this Com-
munion of Saints be ours, through the might of the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit .'' No seeking or feeling,
nothing but the Presence of God the Blessed Spirit will
THE 'BLESSED SJIO^TS 315
bring it in answer to our prayers, and the honest sur-
render of our wills. Shall this Communion of Saints be
ours, to lift us up, so that our life shall be spent in the
power of the New Jerusalem, the invisible Kingdom ?
There, on the one side of us, is the world that we can
see — I need not describe it to you — with all its pleasures
and popularities, with so much that is really fascinating,
especially in its more refined aspects. And then there,
on the other hand, is the world that we cannot see : the
world to come ; the city of God ; the fellowship of
the saints, the sympathy of Jesus Christ, the love of
the Father, the beatific vision. Yes ! we have the
choice : cross and crown, or " no cross and no crown."
And that bright multitude, however diverse they may
be, all " came out of great tribulation," and followed
the Lamb whithersoever He led them. They wandered
away, sometimes, but they came back ; and then they
began again to follow the Lamb whithersoever He led
them.
Some of you may have to choose between the two,
when the Lord Jesus Christ asks you to give up the
joy (and it is a real joy) of a happy home, and to
live alone in life, as the solitary servant of Jesus Christ.
The choice will be offered to you — you are free. You
can stay at home with those you love, or you can go
out and work for Christ. You must then choose
between Christ and the world.
Or you may be one concerning whom the Lord
wills that you should marry. The Lord then gives
the choice, whether you will marry the first person
you fancy, or whether you will begin at the beginning,
as " in the Lord," refusing to allow the heart's love
to go out, save for those who serve the same Christ,
and are living in the fellowship of saints.
And when you are married, then again there will
3i6 THE DEDICATED LIFE
be the same choice. Women join that throng (I am
not now speaking of open wickedness), the popular
crowd of the ordinary young married women of the
present century, who walk by sight, not by faith, are
very popular with men, and much seen in their
society, and who appear never to have realized the
glorious meaning of that holy Service which teaches
us to regard the married life on earth as the outward
and visible sign of the mystical union that exists between
Christ and His Church. There again is the life of
faith, and the life of sight. There is the life that is
popular in London ; and there is the life of the Blessed
Mother, who said, " Behold the handmaid of the Lord ;
be it unto me according to thy word" — who lived quietly
as a holy matron in her home, and pondered what God
had said, in her heart. There are the two lives : the
glitter of the world ; and the lowly life (almost
unhappy some would consider it) which the Gospel
for to-day pictures to us, of the " poor in spirit " ;
of those who " mourn " over their want of love, want
of faith and want of hope ; of the " meek " ; of those
who " hunger and thirst " after righteousness ; of the
" merciful " (those who are kind to dumb animals,
kind to their servants, kind to everybody) ; the " pure
in heart " (who will not look at nor read the immodest
book, nor talk of what is evil, however much they may
be laughed at for their ignorance and prudishness) ;
the " pure " ; the " peacemakers " ; the persecuted
followers of the Crucified.
And once more, when sorrow comes, the same
choice is still offered, you can either put the trouble
away, you can despise the chastening of the Lord, you
can try to drown it in your work, try to banish every-
thing which saddens you ; or you can take the cross
up softly, gently, lovingly ; and when both heart and
THE 'BLESSED SAICh(TS 317
flesh recoil, you can go to that Holy Table, and there
kneel till the Lord God has given you (if not at the
time, afterwards,) a power in which you can carry the
recollection of the past, and even rejoice in the realized
Communion of the Saints. In all these ways we can
either live the life of faith, or the life of sight ; we can
live in the past and the present, or in the future ; we
can live, looking — like Stephen — steadfastly up into
heaven, or downward, grovelling in the dust and the
mire of this lower earth.
My dear brethren, does not our Lord, on such
a day as this, seem to summon us, from that holy
place where He fed us this morning with His blessed
Body and Blood, to arise and walk in newness of life }
Does He not call the holy ones of every age and
every land this night to appear before us } Does He
not bid each one of us to single out, as it were, the
Apostle, the saint, the friend, the one, out of all the
goodly company, whom we chiefly love and reverence,
and never rest till we ourselves are, in our measure,
following their example } And does He not appeal
to us, by all the chivalry of our nature, by everything
in us that is good and true and loyal, to remember
that we are part of that one Body, and pledged to walk
worthy of that high calling, to live as the saints lived,
and fight as the saints fought, that we may die as the
saints died, and reign with the saints, in the one fellow-
ship of the life everlasting ^
The column in the churchyard is not broken. It
is unfinished ; that is all. It is earthly-hewn, and you
are not sufficiently good to complete the capital ; that
must be done by unseen hands within the gates of the
Holy City.
Did you ever stand in some country neighbourhood
on the bridge and watch the noisy gurgling stream as
3i8 THE DEDICATED LIFE
it flowed at your feet ? Have you never seen by the
side of that river little quiet pools, unruffled, from
which no sound seemed to issue, restfully there by the
brink of the flowing river ? And yet, both the noisy
stream and the quiet water at the side were part of
one and the self-same current, flowing from the same
source, flowing down to the same great ocean. And
if you stood long enough, the torrents it might be
had gathered in the mountains, and you watched the
great mass of water rolling down till at last the noisy
little brook was all absorbed as the great river gathered
it up, and you saw neither pool nor gurgling stream,
but one calm solemn deep river flowing on, till it was
lost in the far-off horizon.
My brethren, those little brooks, that noisy gurgling
river, those quiet pools, all gathered up in that great
rolling stream — is it not a picture ?
They rest quietly ; we are in the noise of the storm,
and the roar of the gurgling stream, till the day that
the great resurrection current shall bear us on, till we
realize what we learn in God's Word, the oneness of
the river that proceedeth from the Throne of God.
Aye ! nearer still than this. This would have been
but a figure for the olden days. One of your hands
may be in the dark, and another in the light ; but
both are part of the one body, equally linked with
the one head. One branch may be in shadow, and
the other in full sunshine ; but both, so far as they
arc in the tree, are one.
Does not the Lord Jesus seem to speak to you —
does He not appeal unto you by all that is noble and
chivalrous in your nature, as He bids you look back
upon that long list, and unroll the title-deeds of your
inheritance : one faith, one Church, " one family in Him
wc dwell " .''
THE "BLESSED SAIDiJS 319
Aye, and closer than that. The one hand is in the
light of the invisible kingdom ; the other hand is here
on earth. But both are one ; we and they ; we,
burdened still in the corruptible body ; they, delivered
from it all : sisters, friends, mothers, all that you love.
Two hands, two branches ; still both in the Body ; one
in Christ still ; in Christ, through the power of God's
glorious Incarnation, one ! One, thank God ! through
that which His Church has stamped for ever as part
of our priceless heritage ; one, through that glorious
doctrine which, by the power of the Blessed Spirit
uniting you to Christ, shall make giants of you in
your Christian warfare, the doctrine of the Communion
of Saints !
320 THE T>EDIC^TED LIFE
A VISION OF CHRIST'
"/ saw seven golden candlesticks ; and in the midst of the
seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man.'' — Rev. i.
12, 13.
SUCH, brethren, beloved in Christ, is the vision
which was vouchsafed to the beloved Apostle ;
such is the vision which every day is suggested to us
as we enter our cathedral and look above the altar at
that eastern window. No human pen is able to describe
it, no human artist can delineate its ineffable glory.
Symbols, indeed, are given us — symbols that speak of
power and majesty, of love and of tenderness. " I saw
one like unto the Son of Man . . . His eyes were like
a flame of fire," Like a flame of fire, burning up every
deceitful thought, penetrating into the utmost secrets
of the chamber of man's inmost being, the fire that
burns up all that is impure, that withers everything
that is unreal. " His eyes were like a flame of fire,"
flashing one intensest instinct of perfect sympathy into
every troubled spirit, giving comfort to mourners, joy
to the sorrowful ; the eyes as a flame of fire, lightening
the dark corners of the heart ; the light, the Light of
men, Who is Light of Light as well as very God of
very God. " And His feet were like unto fine brass."
' Preached on April 27, 1893, at the Cathedral Church of S. Ninian,
Perth, at the enthronement, as the Bishop's first public utterance in
Scotland : reprinted from the Scottish Guardian.
A VISION OF CHI^IST 321
Day after day, year after year, age after age, till the
great warfare is accomplished and the victory won,
onward and ever onward He marches, subduing beneath
His feet the power of alien forces, majestic in His
triumphal progress through the world that Satan has
enthralled, delivering His own from the bondage of
evil. " And His countenance was as the sun shineth
in his strength " — sun which makes the difference
between one day and another — that which sheds bright-
ness and happiness over the world — that without which
no vital force could exist. " The sun that shineth in
his strength." O Christ, Revealer of Thyself to Thine
own disciple in the olden days, reveal Thyself to us
in this our day ; manifest Thyself ; let Thine eyes
penetrate our hearts ; let Thy Presence illuminate us
in our going out and coming in, day by day and night
by night, until the hour of Thy advent has arrived 1
" I saw one like unto the Son of Man." It was a very
critical turning-point in the life of S. John. Judged by
any human standard the life of Jesus Christ appeared
on Calvary to be a failure. Betrayed by one disciple,
forsaken by all, crucified by the men whom He came
to save ! Was this the Son of God of Whom ancient
prophet and seer had spoken, coming in His strength,
travelling in the greatness of His might, conquering
and to conquer ? Out of failure the Resurrection was
accomplished. And he to whom this vision was vouch-
safed had asked once to drink of the cup of which his
Master drank. He asked in no light spirit — no mere
heart-yearning to be first of the rest of the disciples.
He had asked that he might be baptized with his
Master's baptism ; and the prayer had been answered :
not yet should he drink of " the cup that I drink of,"
nor with "the baptism wherewith I am baptized" should
he be baptized withal. Now it came — came after days
2 T
322 THE DEBIQATEB LIFE
of joy and exaltation — came after periods in which the
world seemed converted, and all men seemed following
Christ ; it had come to the disciple, the beloved
disciple. Let any lonely widow in this church, any
poor child left fatherless and motherless, cherish this
thought, as years pass onwards. To the beloved
disciple the great baptism had come — into the hands
of the dearest of all His followers the Incarnate God had
put this cup of bitter failure.
Failure ? Yes. All his schemes appeared to have
been frustrated, all his aspirations to have vanished
unfulfilled. The Church that he tended, the souls for
which he cared, the people for whom he was ready to
die — something worse than suffering, and something
worse than death had come to them : heresy, unbelief,
everything that would separate them from the Presence
of our Lord. He had seen it. He had lived long
enough to see the old dream fading away. He had
lived long enough to see the sin and the wickedness.
The evil sower — he could always see him with his
eye — that evil sower of whom Christ had spoken —
going forth in the track of the great Heavenly Sower,
scattering the bad seed that was ripening up everywhere
and in plenteous crops. Whatever his sins, whatever
his unworthiness, at any rate he had tried to be true ; at
any rate he had tried to be brave and very courageous ;
at any rate he had gone where his Master told him, and
done what his Master had bidden him to do. And
what was the result ? No flaming sword appeared to
deliver him safe from his enemies ; no angel's voice
was heard to cheer his heavy soul ; no angel's hands
stretched out to deliver him from the great darkness.
He knew there was a God ; he knew a Christ ; he
knew a Holy Spirit, Had all forgotten him, all ^
Yes, all. Disciple, beloved of thy Lord, thou art
A VISION OF CHILIS T 323
drinking of His own cup, and thou art baptized with
His own baptism. Alone, forsaken on that lonely isle
of Patmos, there, with the wild waves breaking upon
the rugged shore, he sat all desolate, nothing left him
but faith — faith that many waters cannot quench.
Then, then just when the need was sorest, then just
when the dear disciple was almost losing heart, he
looked up, he turned round, he heard the voice, he
felt that marvellous uplifting of the Holy Spirit which
those who have experienced it can never forget.
" I was in the Spirit," he says, " on the Lord's
Day, and I heard a voice, and I turned, and I saw one
like unto the Son of Man." Yes, He is there — He is
there, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Yes,
He is there the same — the same Whom he had known
in the years of His earthly pilgrimage. Whom he had
seen sitting all tired with real human tiredness on
Jacob's well ; Whom he had seen all hungry and
thirsty ; Whom he had known in Gethsemane praying
that bitter prayer, that if it be possible the cup might
pass from Him : "Oh, My Father, let it pass away if
it be possible : but Thy will be done nevertheless."
The same that on the Cross cried, " My God, My God,
why hast Thou forsaken Me.''" It is the same upon
Whose breast he had leant at that last great supper, as
looking up into His face with all the reverent familiarity
of perfect human friendship. He saw it after a while ;
after a while. Not at first ; not at first. Those who
have never known God know no godly fear ; those to
whom God has never been revealed sit unmoved by
storm and tempest, unmoved during every revelation
of Divine Majesty. But that seer and prophet Isaiah,
in the olden days when he saw the glory, fell on his
face, saying, " Woe, woe is me, for I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of
324 THE DEDICATED LIFE
unclean lips." The disciple who was ready to die for
Him, when he recognized that it was the Christ to
Whom he was speaking, had no prayer but this :
" Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."
When the Holy Ghost has convinced a man of sin,
then the first thought before that revelation of the
Eternal Trinity is " Who am I, that I should thus stand
in the Presence of the most high God "? " So was it
even with the beloved disciple. For a moment he fell
at His feet as dead ; no heart beating, no hand moving,
the brain powerless to think. Dead — he lay at His feet
as dead.
And then began the great morning — the morning
of the Divine power and glory. Then came first the
laying the right hand upon him. " Fear not, I am He,
the Living One, and I became dead, and I live for
evermore," and " He laid His right hand upon me, and
strengthened me." There was the first comfort for the
personal life — the individual soul.
These simple words, " I became dead," brought it
all back, at once, to the Apostle — all the mystery of
the Passion, all the glory of the Resurrection, all the
High Priesthood within the veil where He ever sitteth
representing His people, sitting at the right hand of
the Father equally over all and blessed for ever.
S. John realized then that, worthy though he were,
he was unworthy to approach his God. But he realized
then that there was absolution — that the precious Blood
cleanseth from all sin — that he might draw near with
the full assurance of faith ; and he was at peace. The
old words of the upper chamber were again repeated
in his inmost heart : " Peace be unto you." And then,
secondly, when the anxiety about his own soul was set
at rest, there was a revelation which was very comforting
about the Church that he loved. These little flocks
A VISION OF CHILIS T 325
at Smyrna and Ephesus lay on his soul, struggling
out into existence. They were the candlesticks — the
stars, the angels of the Church. "I hold the stars" —
blessed be God for the words — " I hold the stars in
My right hand. I walk up and down in the midst
of the golden candlesticks. Disciple whom I love.
Apostle whom I have sent forth, be thou at peace. Fierce
may be the wild waves. Rest amid it all ; amid the
noise and the din as breaker after breaker dashes on
the Church that you love. Come what will of persecu-
tion, failure, apparent death, I am He that liveth, and
I will live for evermore, and I know the Church — I
know My Bride. I have loved her, and I have washed
her from her sins by My own most precious Blood.
She is Mine, wedded to Me. Poor, insignificant it
may be in the eye of man, but Mine — all that I have I
have given to her." "With all My worldly goods I thee
endow, in the Name of the Father and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost." Oh, heavenly Bridegroom,
blessed be Thy Name Who loveth this Church. " Fear
not," He says to the beloved disciple, " I am the
Ruler, I am Governor of the Churches in Ephesus and
Laodicea and Smyrna and Thyatira."
But that was not all. After the personal question
was settled, after the anxiety about the Church was set
at rest, then he was led out into a lighter atmosphere ;
led away from all that was personal, led away even from
what we should now call ecclesiastical ; led into a great
wide horizon by the Christ Who had never limited
the work of His disciples to any narrow limit ; the
Christ Who had said, " Go and make disciples of all
the nations, go and teach, go and preach, go every-
where, from north to south, from east to west, baptizing,
confirming, feeding them with My Body and My Blood,
sending out godly men chosen by My Spirit every-
326 THE T>EDIC^TED LIFE
where from the whole world — to the whole world I send
you." So the Apostle after all this — in the few brief
moments of such an address as this, one can only touch
on it — the Apostle in this letter tells how he was per-
mitted to see a great door thrown wide open into
heaven and to look upon God, to look on the jasper
and sardonyx stone, and to listen to the songs of the
angels, and to see the spirits and souls of the righteous,
and to watch the great struggle that was to begin
between the powers of evil and the powers of good ;
to see the Church struggling in the wilderness, crushed
by the world, allowed by God Himself to have princi-
palities and powers warring against her, gaining triumphs
over her. It was given to them to make such war with
the saints, and they were allowed to conquer. It was
given him to see it, and then in the far distance on
a quiet evening, when the battle flag was furled and
the war drum throbbed no longer, to see His own King,
the King of Galilee, the King of the Passion, the King
of the Ascension, to see Him there with the hallelujahs
ringing all around Him, with the kings of death and
hell and all that was evil cast into the lake of fire.
My brethren, the application of it all is obvious.
You know, if you are true men and women, my sons
and daughters, you know what sin is and you know
what you need, and that Christ sends you to-day
a message of absolution through that Blood that washes
every sin. Like a child preparing for its Confirmation,
begin with personal religion or you will never conquer
the world. Begin, like a little child preparing for
Confirmation, with penitence and with faith and with
surrender, and then go out and take this branch of the
one Catholic and Apostolic Church to which we belong ;
this branch that has all the marks of God's election,
poverty — small in the eye of man — martyrs, saints,
A VISION OF CH1{IST 327
confessors, holy men, godly matrons, all who have
gone before the King clothed in the white robe pure
and stainless, who have sowed the seed and entered
into rest — this Church that can lift up her hand and
show the mark of the nails. Go out and help her.
Stand by us in our day of need. Stand by us when
the whole world is asking your help. Stand by us
with your prayers. Stand by us with your outspoken
witness. Stand by us with encouraging arms. But
do not stop there. Half the evils of Christendom
have come from the exaggeration either of the personal
life or of the ecclesiastical life. We must go forth. We
are beings — you and I, the poorest crossing-sweeper
who has strayed into the cathedral, who has been
baptized and confirmed, fed with the Body and Blood
of Christ ; we are part of the chosen generation, the
royal priesthood ; priests to the whole world. There
is no problem that men are trying to solve here or
elsewhere, there is no difficulty on which the intellects
of men are now being concentrated, which is not full
of interest to us. There is no corner of the globe,
no band of savages, no cultured Indians, who have
not a share and a right to claim all that we can give ;
given generously in the Name of Christ Who is God
of the whole earth. Yes, look out through the open
door into that unseen world. See there your old
bishop, not dead, as men call it, but alive, as he could
not live when the body was pressing down the incor-
ruptible spirit. See him there with all his great gifts
developed a thousandfold and put to God's service.
See him there, able to pray for you as he never could
pray on earth. See him there watching, wondering
perhaps — for knowledge must be limited for every finite
being — wondering what shall be the next step in God's
eternal counsels for this Scotland which he so truly made
32 8 THE DEDICATED LIFE
his own. Look at him. See around him all that you
have known and loved. See the great band of
Apostles — ten thousand times ten thousand, who have
come out of great tribulation, and washed their robes,
and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. And
so, with the personal question settled, with the ecclesias-
tical system put into its proper proportions, with the
whole world as the garden that we have to tend, we
stand and lay it all, ourselves, body, soul, and spirit, at
His feet — the Son of Man and Son of God.
THE RETUTiN OF OUR LORTf 329
VI
THE RETURN OF OUR LORD
" T/iis same Jesus ^ Which is taken up from you into hea'^en^
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into
heaven.'' — Acts i. 11.
THE object which I propose to myself is so to fix your
thoughts upon the great truth which these words
reveal as to save you from being diverted to those
secondary issues by which oft-times the minds of men
are distracted, and the power of the great Advent of
Jesus Christ practically lost.
It requires a very little reflection to see that the great
thought which God the Holy Spirit in writing these
words desires to fix upon our minds is this : that a
Person will come back ; that we shall look into the face
ot a living Person ; that this Being Who was alive, died,
ascended, is now living, will come back. " This same
Jesus."
The whole Bible seems to circle round the Lord
Jesus Christ ; Old Testament types and prophecies lead-
ing up to Christ ; the Gospels giving us the history of
the life, the Epistles applying the teaching ; the whole
revelation being like a great rainbow with one end rest-
ing on Olivet, the other hidden in the clouds where
Christ has gone up on high, leading captivity captive.
Jesus Christ is born in Bethlehem, He lives the quiet
human life in Nazareth, He journeys up and down over
those hills of Palestine ; He gathers round Him a little
2 u
330 THE DEDICATED LIFE
band of disciples, men of ordinary passions like ourselves,
poor, weak, oft-times perplexed, intensely disliking every
idea that He had to teach them, utterly shrinking from
the ideal that was afterwards to be put before them.
We see Him going up and down healing the sick,
opening the eyes of the blind, cleansing the lepers,
raising the dead ; we watch Him in all that tender
human compassion, with the tears rolling down His
cheek, helping the poor sinful woman of Samaria, falling
asleep like a tired working man at the end of the long
day's struggle to do His Father's will.
But, on the other hand. He distinctly claims to be
very God. His whole character is so calm ; He at once
deprecates all mere emotion ; He shrinks from mere
excited utterances ; He foretells without the slightest
reserve the cross that is intended, the trial, and the
persecution, the shame and the scorn, for which each
one of His followers must be prepared. He bids them
in measured accents to expect that tares be mingled with
the wheat, to anticipate no speedy triumph, to be ready to
win the battle only by suffering and dying. If a man
will save his life, he must first lose it. The corn of
wheat must fall into the ground and die, if it is ever to
bring forth fruit unto life everlasting. He is so calm
that it is utterly to do violence to all the laws of
psychology, it is simply to ignore the whole knowledge
of human character which we have gained in bygone
ages, to imagine such a Man as Jesus of Nazareth a mere
deluded fanatic. He had none of the signs of the
character of the fanatic. Still less, if possible — some of
the great opponents of Christianity would acknowledge
this — still less is it possible to gaze on that pure and
holy life and to imagine Him, the very pattern of
morality, deceived ; as His enemies liked to say, " de-
ceiving the people." No, my brethren, it is far more
THE RETUI^N OF OUR LORT> 331
difficult to believe that Christ was a mad self-deluded
fanatic, far more difficult to believe that He was a
deliberate impostor, than to accept the revelation of
Christ, very God as well as very Man, which has been
handed down to us in the records of the Holy Book, and
endorsed by the testimony of thousands of saints and
martyrs and confessors. This strange mysterious Person,
gathering around Him the representatives of humanity,
trains them for the coming agony ; and then we watch
Him in Gethsemane, and we hear the cry of Calvary,
and we stand by the opened grave on that Easter
morning ; finally we mark the difference between the
natural Body that preceded the Crucifixion and the
spiritual Body, that Body which was more pliable, more
ready to be guided by the Spirit, than the human flesh
and bones to which you and I are accustomed. We see
Him for forty days with a spiritual Body, as the Bible
describes it : not subject precisely to the same physical
laws to which it had been exposed before it was nailed to
the Cross, but yet the self-same ; allowing S. Thomas, if
he liked, to touch His hands and to see the mark of the
nails, and even to put his hand into the wounded side, so
that he might not be faithless, but believing.
Then this Person accustomed these representatives of
the human race to recognize the great fact that He was
with them, as surely when He was invisible as when they
were able to handle Him with their human hands and
gaze on Him with their human eyes. Suddenly, when
they knew it not. He was in their midst ; as suddenly
and unexpectedly He departed. And so, having trained
them to expect something more glorious, to receive a
higher dispensation, than anything which the mind of
man had been able to conceive. He left with them the
promise that, after He had ascended to the Father, they
themselves should be endued with a mysterious super-
332 THE 'DET>IC^TED LIFE
natural power, by which sooner or later the world would
be subdued, not, however, at once, but after ages of
struggling and fighting and testifying for the Crucified.
Then we see Him surrounded by those very men
whom He had trained, who knew Him, as well as you
and I know each other, on the Mount of Ascension.
We watch Him " ascend." We can picture the scene
if we like. The Bible is reticent on these points : thank
God it is !
We can picture, through the help of the Greek word,
the little band of disciples staring — for that is the mean-
ing of the word — staring, gazing, looking, saying, " Is
He really gone } " watching the last faint sign. " Jesus is
gone ; He is gone up ; He said that He would depart ;
and He has ascended."
Now let me try to show you the great mistake that
has been made (giving only one instance to-day) by
which the minds of men have been distracted from this
great truth. What does It mean .'' The very blessing
that God has given us — thank Him for it ! — the very
blessing that God has given us, in this day of more
careful scientific study, increases the difficulty if once
the mind descends to secondary points. What mean we
by that description in the Revelation, " The sun shall
be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and
the stars shall fall from heaven } " What mean we by all
those words, " the trump of God," " the voice of the
archangel," and the like } And so gradually, in the very
act of the intelligent study of Holy Scripture, our minds
are drawn down to considering little petty details, instead
of keeping the soul fixed on that grand principle, " This
same Jesus, Which is taken up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go
into heaven."
Now, brethren, a very few simple words will be
THE RETURN OF OUR LORT> 333
sufficient to show the folly — to use no other word — the
folly of all this. The deep thinkers have recognized the
mystery of life, with very few exceptions. They recog-
nize, as the old patriarch recognized, the impossibility of
proving even that I am alive ; the impossibility of explain-
ing the long process by which man is brought into being,
grows up as the same, and yet he is not the same, through
all the varying periods of his natural life. I ask you to
prove to me that you are alive. You say, " I know it."
I answer you back, " Then, as you know that, so I know
that the truth I believe is of God : I received it on
evidence, I tested the evidence, and now for a lifetime I
have found in my own experience and the experience of
hundreds of others, confirmations of the truth that I first
took on the word of the Living God. I know God lives,
and I know that Jesus is God ; and I can prove it as well
as you can prove that you are alive."
The difficulty arises chiefly from a mass of men who
have studied superficial books. Often they have not
knowledge enough to be conscious of the difficulties by
which everywhere they are surrounded. Every man who
understands anything is perfectly aware that all words
relating to things like time and space are mere forms of
thought, as we call them, and that as soon as we have
passed out of time into eternity, by the very force of the
change, all the illustrations that were drawn from time
must have lost to a large extent their significance. Every
one who has studied or thought is perfectly aware that,
when he asks God to come, or speaks of going to God,
and the like, or talks of God repenting, or of God
feeling, or of God going from place to place, he is using
language that is necessary in order to express the ideas
that he desires to communicate to his fellow-men, but
that with God there is no coming or going — God is
everywhere present.
334 THE TDEDTQATED LIFE
If any of us are alive at the time when Christ comes
back, and if a man should have the leisure, and the
power of self-concentration and of thought : if he is able,
in the midst of those great convulsions as we see the
Lord Jesus Christ visibly present, to retire to his library
and to write an intelligent article for a scientific Review,
I have not, my brethren, the slightest doubt that he
would express the phenomena by which we shall be
surrounded in very different language from that in
which God has seen fit to express it in Holy Scripture.
Do you not see that if God had described things in
modern language, the poor people who lived in the first
and the second and the third centuries would never have
understood a word of their Bible : that if the Bible had
been written in the most accurate way, all, except pos-
sibly two or three of our own day, would find it a sealed
book ? God wrote for all His children. God pro-
claimed truth. God cannot lie, but the truth must be
clothed in language " understanded of the people."
So, to carry out that thought, you will see it is
comparatively little matter to us what is the exact
meaning of these words by which the phenomenon is
described. What God wishes you and me to under-
stand is this : that the Lord Jesus Christ will be seen
by you and by myself, that every eye shall see Him ;
and that, whenever that Advent may be, the best de-
scription that you can have of the natural surroundings
that you will behold with your human eyes is that
which the Living God, the Creator of heaven and of
earth, has given us in Holy Scripture.
Surely, any ordinary man describing what he saw, or
describing what he will see, at the second Advent, would
describe it in those words that God has written over and
over again, not in isolated passages but as the burden
alike of Old Testament prophecy and of New Testa-
THE RETUTiN OF OUR LORT> 335
ment revelation : The loftiness of man will be bowed
down, the haughtiness of men will be made low ; they
shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of
the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His
Majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
In that day a man will run into the clefts of the rocks,
and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the
Lord, and for the glory of His Majesty, when He
ariseth to shake terribly the earth. That is just one
text out of hundreds, I might almost say, in the Old
Testament. And then you have the same teaching in
the New Testament, both in the plain language of the
Gospels, and in the beautiful imagery of the Revelation ;
prophets, evangelists, all combining to express in
different language the same grand idea of God ; in
order that men may be able, even the poorest and most
unlettered, to form a general and imperfect, but yet true,
conception of that which will happen, whether we are
alive on this earth when Christ comes back, or have to
be clothed with our resurrection bodies and to meet
Him in the air. You know the passage as well as I do :
*' Every eye shall see Him." There is no difficulty,
my brethren, in understanding the general idea of
consternation, of perplexity, of fear, contained in this
description of the things that are coming on the
earth, when the inhabitants shall say to the mountains,
" Fall on us, hide us from the face of Him that
sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the
Lamb." No man, I say, who has ever pictured to
himself a mighty world consumed, and men fleeing from
the face of God, can have any difficulty, unless he is
utterly devoid of imagination, in picturing to himself
his own face and the face of his companions when God
ariseth to shake terribly the earth. My brethren, it is
true ; as true as any other fact that God has revealed.
336 THE DEDICATED LIFE
And the practical conclusion is very easily deduced.
" This same Jesus, Which is taken up from you into
heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen
Him go into heaven."
My brethren, what a comfort this is ! In those days
when we are so conscious of our own wickedness, our
negligences and ignorances, our continual failures, our
broken resolutions, our almost hopeless struggles against
the world and the flesh and the devil ; those hours when
we feel that even our best and dearest friend must con-
sider us so unreal, when even our clergyman must doubt
the truth of our profession — oh, is it not an unspeakable
blessing, that we are able to take up that old Gospel,
and follow that tender compassionate One with that
human heart, with that gentleness and compassion, and
power to make allowance for any one of His poor
trembling disheartened followers ? Is it not a blessing
that it is He Whom we have to meet, Jesus Christ
the Son of Mary, very man no less than very God ; that
it is this same Jesus, of Whom the Gospels testify in all
their beautiful details, Who shall so come in like
manner as they saw Him go into heaven ?
But on the other hand, my brethren, is it not
solemn ? Is there not a solemn meaning in the words
that we say so continually : "He shall judge the quick
and the dead" ; "We believe that Thou shalt come to be
our Judge" ; "At Whose coming all men shall rise again,
and give account for their own works" }
My brethren, is there not something very awful in
these words, "Every idle word that men shall speak,
they shall give account thereof" ; "God shall bring every
secret thought into judgement"? How God can do
anything, we know not. That which is impossible with
man, is possible with God. How God createth, how
God gave life to us, how God preserves life, we know
THE RETUliN OF OUR LORD 337
not. How God will judge, we cannot explain ; but
" this same Jesus," to Him we must give an account.
My brethren, I repeat it, is the thought not a solemn
one ? The boy, when he has done wrong, knows how
he shrinks from meeting the mother whose heart will be
broken by his sin. The girl who honours her father
knows what it is to expect his return after a long
absence, and to be obliged to confess that she has broken
his law. The wife who has been false to her husband,
the husband who is afraid of being found out when he is
sinning against his wife, each man and woman and child
that has ever known what it is to face a justly offended
person, can enter somewhat into the meaning of the
words.
It is well to take advantage of each warning ; as when
the doctor tells us we are not as strong as we were, when
one after another dies unexpectedly in our midst. Let
us thank God if we are ready to die and to meet our
Judge ; and although we cannot understand all the
definite circumstances of the Advent, yet the thought of
the Bible is the meeting of a Person, One with eyes like
a flame of fire. " There is mercy with Thee," the Bible
says, " therefore " — observe the words — " therefore Thou
shalt be feared." It is because He is so true, because
He is so able to understand all about us, that He is to
be feared. He knows the opportunities that we have
had ; others may not have had the same. The whole
school may have sinned ; and not one of them may have
sinned in the same way as the boy who knew better.
The whole world may have gone wrong ; and yet we
may be judged by a different standard, because we were
brought up in a different way ; or had different privi-
leges, heard different teaching, and lived where the
Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ was
offered us continually.
2 X
338 THE DEDICATED LIFE
My brethren, these things are realities. Every one
of us must see that Living Lord ; and from the day that
consciousness dawned, to the last expiring moment of
our life, before Him no secret thought is hid. " This
same Jesus Himself shall so come " ; and you and I
must to Him give the whole account of the money, the
time, the prayers, the life ; all that is hidden here.
" Give an account of thyself."
IVHAT CHTi/ST FORETOLD 339
VII
WHAT CHRIST FORETOLD
" This same Jesus, IVhich is taken up from you into hea'^en,
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into
heaven.'" — Acts i. ii.
WE have considered one great mistake by means
of which Satan robs men of the power and the
comfort of Advent teaching. To-day we have to con-
sider another of the crafts and assaults of the devil,
by means of which he has so blinded the eyes, even
of men who in other points are intelligent, that this
grand text has practically lost its power over their
hearts and lives.
Now let us approach it as from a distance. No
book, I think, is treated so unfairly as the Bible. No
human system is handled in so ungenerous, not to say
foolish, a manner as Christianity. To the founder of
no earthly society has so scant a measure of justice
been accorded as to Him by Whom were laid the
foundations of the one Catholic and Apostolic Church.
1 seem to myself to be uttering commonplaces when
I say that the founder of any religious system has
a right to ask that before our verdict is pronounced,
the documents in which the scheme is promulgated be
calmly, impartially, and carefully considered. Has this
been done by you with the person and religion of
Jesus of Nazareth ? Has this common justice been
given to that Holy Book that I hold in my hand .'' Here
340 THE TfEDIC^ATED LIFE
are, to put it into very simple language, the " Objects "
of the Bible : to show men what they have done wrong,
to lead them to be good, to make them holy, as their
God and Father is holy. That is simple enough, is
it not ? This is what the Book just professes to do,
and then it goes on to remind us that it is very
important that we should be thoroughly furnished to
these good works ; that we should thus be taught,
corrected, improved, and the like ; because every man
must give an account of himself and not of his neigh-
bour to God, that every knee must bow before God
sooner or later, and that God will bring every secret
thought into judgement.
Now let us look at this matter from the outside.
If I am told that there is a God, and that I may die
any moment, and that ages yet unborn of my future
happiness or misery depend upon what I do in this
life : I should imagine that it would be of vital, aye !
of pressing importance, to satisfy myself first of all
whether there is a God. And I should subordinate
to that one grand inquiry all my pleasure and business,
and not rest till I either tossed it aside as a figment
of an ancient superstition, or recognized that there was
a God.
If I had satisfied myself there is a God, the next
question would obviously be, What about that Man
Who occupied so prominent a place in the Bible ? Did
He say that He was indeed God, that He came from
God, and returned to God, and was God .? Upon what
is that claim based ?
There is not time to follow out the thought, but you
will see at once that the rational way to deal with the
Book that professes to be given by God (not to teach
us science, which God teaches in other ways, but) to
make us good and holy, that we may be happy here
fVHAT CHT{IST FORETOLD 341
and glorified hereafter, is to settle as the first question,
Is there a God ? And the second question is like unto
it. Did Jesus of Nazareth live, and if so, was He God ?
And if these two questions be settled in the affirmative,
then it is comparatively easy to bring the various truths
and difficulties of life to the touchstone of what Jesus
Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, has said
about them.
Now, my brethren, I ask you again in all calmness, is
this the course which men in our own day are adopting ?
Is it not a fact that two-thirds of the conversation that
you hear about the Bible and about Jesus Christ is
centred upon some question which is either utterly
absurd, or, if of importance, only of secondary impor-
tance compared with the Existence of a God, the Divinity
of Jesus Christ, and the claims of Christ upon the
individual spirit ?
Last week I was speaking to a man — to whom, if
there was the least chance of his ever being here or know-
ing that he had been quoted, 1 should not refer — one in
the prime of life, well educated, thoughtful and intelli-
gent, and for some two or three hours able to converse in
a way that made me sure that sooner or later God would
lead him into the full light of truth. We were speaking
about the things that I am bringing before you this
morning, and he said to me, " There are so many
difficulties." He was a man above the average of my
congregation in intelligence. And I said to him, " What
are the difficulties ? I know, God knows, that there are
difficulties enough in this great mystery of life by which
we are surrounded, but what is the difficulty for you in
the Bible ? " He said, " The whole of those figures in
that Book of Genesis ; to believe that Methuselah really
lived so long is beyond my power as a reasoning being ;
I cannot take it in." And another man will tell me that
342 THE TiEBIC^TEB LIFE
he is perplexed about the numbers of the children of
Israel, and the quantity of people that did certain things,
or were slain at a certain battle. My brethren, is this
not ridiculous ? Where does God ever promise that He
would work a perpetual miracle whenever a manuscript
was copied, especially in earlier days with all the diffi-
culties by which such transcription was surrounded ?
And what earthly matter is it to you or to me whether
Methuselah lived nine years or nine thousand ? We
have to live v/ith God or away from God longer than
nine or ninety thousand years.
Or, again, Vv'hen men come to the Bible you find
them discussing points that the Church, thank God ! has
never pronounced any definite judgement upon, such as
inspiration. What do you mean by inspiration ? How
are the Divine and the human mingled ? How are they
mingled in your own existence ? How are the Divine
and the human mingled in the Person of Jesus Christ ?
It is the fashion nowadays for men to picture to
themselves what I call a fancy religion, a sort of religion
that they think Jesus Christ might have promulgated.
They never ask what Christ, Who came from heaven,
said that Christianity would accomplish. They do not
ask what was in the mind of the Founder, or what were
the promises He gave to His first disciples.
For example, what do you hear on every side .'' How
can I believe that Christ was God, and Christianity from
heaven, when I mark the little effect that it has on the
lives of professing Christians ? When I look round I
see a lack of unity in the Church. I see men divided ;
one believing this, and another something diverse.
When I look from my own Church to the Church of
Rome, I find indeed a profession of unity ; but when-
ever I travel in the countries where the Roman Catholic
Faith is professed, I make the discovery pretty quickly
JVHJT CHT^IST FORETOLD 343
that it is a mere outside profession, that there is as real a
division and as much separation of thought hidden
beneath the surface as has ever been found in the
Anglican Communion.
Then men pass on and they say, If for nineteen
hundred years the Church has lived, why are so few
converted ? Why is the world not better ? Why are
we surrounded on all sides by these gigantic frauds ?
Why do we find men giving a thousand pounds to a
church, and taking ten thousand by swindling their
neighbours ? Why all this inconsistency, this form of
godliness ? Why is it ? It is not from God ; it is all
imposture.
Now, my brethren, it is a commonplace that I am
bringing before you to-day. It is simply worth while
at this stage of our discussion to consider what the
Founder Himself says. He says that every individual
man and woman and child will be judged fairly and
truly by the law of loving justice ; that God has no
pleasure in the death of him that dieth ; that God willeth
all men to be saved ; that He has provided a complete
atonement, so that the past can be buried, man's sin
washed away, and power poured in to walk in newness
of life. But He tells us that He respects the liberty of
the individual, and heaven is not a dungeon in which
men are bound by chains, but that each one in his own
separate individuality has the power of choosing life or
death. There is something intensely sober-minded (if I
may use such a word) in the New Testament, and that is
why I cling to it, apart from that it is the Word of God.
There is in it a practical description of a man giving his
property into some one else's hands, and then coming
back and asking what has been done with the money.
Some had ten pounds, and some had five pounds, and
some one. There is fair unerring justice, tempered by
344 THE DEDICATED LIFE
intense compassion, dealt out to each according to what
he had received. And to-night you or I, instead of
going to sleep, may be standing before our Lord. We
have had unexpected deaths in this parish nearly every
week since Easter.
But whenever you or I meet our Lord, He will
take account of all about us, our childhood, parents,
education, Church, sermons, the few opportunities or
the many, the bad education or the good, the religious
or godless parents, everything. Every one will give
account of himself, of his whole life. The man who
has hardly done anything for God may be far beyond
you or me ; because he may have had so much less
opportunity. We have had the opportunity of giving
abundant proof of our ministry, some of us, we have
had glorious privileges from childhood ; and yet some
poor soul that we despise may be higher in the king-
dom far than ourselves, because he has never had the
opportunities.
But besides all this individual dealing with souls,
the Lord God tells us over and over again that there
are general purposes which are being accomplished by
men and the world, and by the Church ; and that
a great education is going on by the instrumentality
of the Church and the world in which our lot is cast.
(See Eph. iii. lo, ii.) In other words, there are
schemes too deep for the mind of man to penetrate into
the vast abyss. "Canst thou by searching find out God V
"If then," saith Christ, "I tell you earthly things,
and you cannot explain them, how would you under-
stand if I were to tell you of the invisible principalities
and powers of the heavenly kingdom .'' "
But the facts that are revealed are intensely simple
and intensely clear. I love to think of my God mani-
fested in the flesh ; I like to contrast that strong Son
tVHAT CHT{ISr FORETOLD 345
of God with the weak effeminate thinkers of modern
days ; I like to look not merely on the compassionate
Jesus, but on that —
"Strong Son of God, . . . the highest, holiest manhood, Thou !"
Earthly leaders cheer on their followers by the
thoughts of victory and of spoil. Christ set before
them suffering, the cross, and death. And for fear
they should be indignant against their persecutors, He
said, "Do not judge them ; they will not all be wicked
men ; some will think they are doing God service.
My Gospel will not convert the world ; it must be
published for a witness through the world, that is all."
The mystery of iniquity. He said, was to go on ; tares.
He said, were to be mingled with the wheat, inside the
Church wicked and good together. And when men
wanted to turn out all the bad and excommunicate them.
He said, " No, let both grow together till the harvest ;
I will risk the loss, I will risk the misinterpretation, let
both grow together."
My brethren, I wonder whether your minds are
following me. Try and gather them together ; and
if 1 have led you away by any mistake of mine, try and
follow back again.
The Founder said that His Gospel was to be
preached for a witness, but it would not convert the
world, in this dispensation, at any rate. He said that
the tares (that is, wicked people with the form of
godliness but denying its power) should grow mingled
with the wheat. He said that the real devoted disciples
would be a little flock. He said that iniquity would
abound, and the love of Christians for each other would
wax cold.
He said (it it is rightly interpreted it is a wonderful
picture of what is going on now) that the Old and the
2 Y
346 THE DEDICATED LIFE
New Testament would be robbed in men's minds of
all their vitality, and like dead bodies would be tossed
out in the street, and the world would make merry
over them, and say, " They have lost their life and
their power," and for many days they would rejoice
over the Bible that tormented them, tossed out (as it
were) into the middle of the street, and the people
making merry over it. If that be a possible interpre-
tation of the passage, it is a striking picture. At any
rate the fact is plain enough.
And Christ said to His disciples, "When I come
back, do you think I shall find the faith on the earth } "
What exactly He meant of course is uncertain. I
believe what He meant was this : that there would be
among men a popular religion (such the devil does not
find it worth his while stopping, because it does not
make men really holy), but that the faith would be
sealed which was once delivered to the saints, the deep
heart-searching faith that makes a man loathe sin and
count it an abominable thing, the faith that makes man
do his duty not merely to God but to his neighbour,
and fulfil the old Catechism in all its hard teaching.
There would be a popular religion that says a word
or feels a feeling, but neglects the plain duties that
God has inscribed on the conscience of a redeemed
humanity.
And so, again, He says, as years roll on and the
coming of the Lord draweth nigh, men will turn the
very blessing of God into a curse ; now that order in
nature, that fixedness by which we are able to count
on the right time for sowing and reaping, and the due
succession of day and night and summer and winter,
shall be so turned by the devil against the God Who
gave it in His love, that men will say, " It is absurd
to expect another dispensation, it is absurd to expect
M'HAT CITJi/Sr FORETOLD 347
Christ's coming or any alteration, for look, where is
the promise of His coming ? everything continues as it
was from the beginning of the creation, and there is
no personal God at all ; it is all a matter of cause
and effect."
Now, all this was described by the Founder, by the
Man Who founded Christianity, the Man Who knew all
about it, the only Being Who has a right to be heard in
such a question as this. And then He tells us how the
individual boy or man gradually hardens ; there is first
remorse, tears perhaps, a hard struggle to give up Com-
munion, and almost fighting with God in the boy's soul
before he can give up going regularly to church ; and
then gradually it all passes away, the Bible and prayer
are given up, and he is contented, and has not a fear of
death or of judgement. Just as on some winter's day
the snowflakes accumulate as they fall from the grey sky
above, one by one ; although each flake is so tiny that
ere you have looked at it and measured it, it is melted in
your hand ; even so sin to-day and yesterday and the
day before is accumulating.
Precisely in the self-same way has the Founder of
Christianity told us that the world would become worse
and worse, and that the few who were caring about
Christianity would be spreading the Gospel for a witness,
that it might be published in every shore and in every
land. Then, when the world has become as bad as it
could be, and the angels had been taught for eternity not
to trifle with evil, having marked the development of sin
working out into the great mystery of iniquity ; when,
though each individual has been treated according to
perfect love and perfect truth, the world as a whole has
become utterly corrupt ; this dispensation shall be
brought to a close, and the King shall appear, as S. John
saw Him in all the beautiful symbolism of the apocalyptic
348 THE T>EDIC.ATED LIFE
vision, going forth on the white horse conquering and to
conquer.
Yet, brethren, the God of hope will fill you with
such joy and peace in believing that you shall abound
in hope. The more iniquity abounds, the more the love
of many waxes cold, the more you are perplexed by the
heart-burnings and divisions and want of love, even
amongst professing Christians, the more you are
scandalized by those gigantic frauds perpetrated by
professing Christians, the more you will feel hope.
You know what a man knows when the physician has
told him that the effect of the medicine will be first to
make him feel much worse, but that if he only has the
courage to hold on then the recovery is certain !
Yes, thank God for it ! Every saint that you and
I part with — each body we lay in the grave — is but the
outward sign of one spirit more gone to swell the mystic
number, and so make the day nearer when the King can
come back in His glory. Every mission that Goo
blesses in Africa, or India, or the far-off Melanesian
islands is just one step in publishing the Gospel through-
out the world to hasten the Advent of our King.
Amid the consternation of the world and the con-
fusion of the hypocrites, we shall hear, not the sound of
judgement, not the appalling cry that frightens the care-
less unreal hypocrite, but the joyous song. Then shall
the kingdom of heaven be likened unto virgins that went
forth to meet the bridegroom. There shall be the festal
joy and the lamps and the lights burning, for the King
has come back, Christ the glorious King !
Even so, come. Lord Jesus, come quickly !
THE KJNG OF QLORT 349
VIII
THE KING OF GLORY
" This same Jesus ^ Which is taken up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into
heaven'' — Acts i. 11.
I HAVE striven to warn you against that most common
mistake of concentrating the attention on disputed
details connected with the second Advent, instead of
fixing our thoughts upon the awfully solemn truth that
is contained in my text. Many more instances might be
given than those which have been already adduced of
this dangerous tendency. I think sufficient has been said
to warn you against being led away to any of these con-
siderations, however interesting, as to the future of
Israel, the recovery of the ten tribes, the pre-millennial
or post-millennial kingdom of Christ ; and to guard you
also against confusing the gradual amelioration that is
being effected by the ordinary processes of civilization
with that grand regeneration of humanity for which the
whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain.
To put it into plain words : what you and I have to
consider is the thought on which the Church every
Advent fixes our minds ; sooner or later every eye must
look upon Jesus Christ. Each entire life must be
surrendered to Him, the account of every secret thought
and every idle word. Unless He has allowed me to be
deceived, unless His words have no meaning, every
350 THE TfEDIC^TED LIFE
thought and word of my life must be bared, not before
a system, not before a mere abstraction, but before a
living Being. In other words, we have to remember that
the Lord God Almighty, Christ the King, will not ask
what we have been, so far as religious shibboleths and
philosophic systems were concerned, but will take to
pieces our hearts and lives with the most solemn and yet
tender scrutiny.
I desire now to point out to you how the Almighty
God, first by the Gospel, secondly by the discipline
of life, is ever lifting up our hearts with a solemn
joy to the thought of that second Advent which is
now being brought before us in the services of our
Church.
First, God leads us to the Advent by the Gospel.
Let us if possible get rid of the common popular
delusions as to the meaning of this word Gospel, or good
news. If you ask many people what they mean by the
word " gospel," they will tell you, " Of course I mean
the blessed truth that on account of the death of Christ
my sin can be forgiven." Many violent partisans hasten
from church to church, return perhaps having listened to
some of the master-thinkers of our day, and yet with
scorn will tell you that " it was good in its way, but it
was not a gospel sermon." You who frequent this
church are familiar with the oft-repeated teaching that,
of all the blessings that God has given to us, few can be
compared with that unspeakable mercy of our God in
offering Himself freely to us as a Father reconciled
through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. No one can
value more than I do that little bit, that fragment of the
Gospel, which the fancy religion of the present day, the
popular superficial theology, has exalted into the place
occupied in the Bible by that which is emphatically " The
Gospel." But there is more to say.
THE KJNG OF QLORY 351
What, my brethren, is the teaching of the Bible ?
What did the Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles
mean by the Gospel ? " Jesus began to preach the
Gospel." And what was that ? The Gospel, He says,
of the kingdom. And the result of the preaching, and
the surroundings of the preaching were, healing all
manner of sickness and all manner of disease ; deliver-
ing the bodies and the souls of men from the captivity of
Satan. And so the Lord Jesus went on His work of
mercy, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, though
nothing had as yet been said or whispered about His
Atonement, except in private to a few chosen disciples.
Again, we hear of Him preaching the glad tidings, show-
ing forth everywhere the glad tidings of the kingdom.
And then, in the forty days that elapsed between His
Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, having for a
moment, as it were in passing, taught the poor doubting
disciples that it was necessary for Him to die upon the
Cross, He then addressed Himself to His proper work
of publishing the Gospel of the kingdom, as we read in
Acts i. 3, " speaking of the things pertaining to the
kingdom of God."
So you find that the Apostles understood it ; and
that S. Philip, and S. Paul in his entire ministry (up to
the very end of the Acts,) were occupied in bearing
witness to the kingdom of God. If you take a concord-
ance and follow through that word " Gospel " from the
beginning to the end of the Bible, you will find that it is
the evangel, the good news that the kingdom of God has
been established upon earth ; that Christ, having taken
humanity into Himself, taken the manhood, as the Creed
says, into God, has come on earth, has set up a throne,
and has brought down the laws of the supernatural king-
dom so that they can now be embodied in the lives and
the experience of ordinary Christians like ourselves. You
352 THE BED I COATED LIFE
will find that that word " Gospel," if you follow it
through the Bible, includes everything connected with
the birth, the temptation, the teaching, the suffering, the
Resurrection, the Ascension of the Founder. Nay, so
far has popular theology forgotten its meaning, that the
New Testament writers speak of man's being judged, of
that awful scrutiny that shall one day be made into every
thought and word and deed, as being a part of the
blessed Gospel : "they shall be judged according to My
Gospel."
Now, dear brethren, following on this thought, let
us see for a moment what is the idea of this kingdom.
"We find it with its Sacraments and its officers. I am
preaching to you now no " ecclesiastical crotchet."
I am teaching you what you can find in any infidel
historian, however little he may believe in the Sacraments
or value the officers ; I am teaching you what you find
brought out in a book like Ecce Homo^ quite as much
as in any Scriptural account of the life and works of
Jesus Christ.
What is the idea of this kingdom which has (I repeat
the words) its Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's
Supper, and its officers } What is the ruling idea of
Baptism as embodied, for instance, in our own Prayer
Book .'' It is the gathering out of all who will to be
admitted into the kingdom. It is putting the mark
of Christ on each individual forehead to link it on
with the great Founder of Christianity ; to make each
man and woman and child a part of the glorious army
whereby the King eventually will subdue the world
beneath His feet. It is the enlisting into that army,
men of diverse occupations, not merely the clergy. Of
all miserable mistakes, few are more deadly in their
effect than the common talk which describes a man about
to be ordained as "going into the Church," as if he
THE KJNG OF QLORl" i,s2>
had not been baptized when he was a child and made
a member of Christ and the child of the Eternal and
the heir of all the privileges of the kingdom !
What is Baptism, I say, but the gathering of recruits
into the great army, those destined for fighting, suffer-
ing, dying, and at last conquering, with Christ their
King ?
Why is this army enlisted ? What is the object
of this great warfare ? It is that the Son of God may
triumph by the calm solemn power of moral as dis-
tinguished from physical force ; by gaining wills, by
waiting, if need be, for centuries till the free-will of
a sufficient number has yielded unto Him, so that
with their co-operation He may be able to subdue His
enemies beneath His feet. What, I say, is the idea
but the gathering in of numbers, by whose co-operation
the King may gradually be established openly before
the world as the Sovereign of the Universe in the glory
of His Advent ? The whole idea of Baptism is the
gathering people out of the world and thus getting
ready for the return of the King.
If you take the parables of the Church in the con-
cluding chapters of the Gospel of S. Matthew, especially
such parables as the parable of the Talents, of the Pounds,
of the Ten Virgins, you see what the underlying idea
always is, waiting for the Bridegroom, preparing to
give an account to the King Who is coming back to
take account of His servants, and the like. And I need
not, except just in passing, touch upon the words with
which we are so familiar in the service for Holy Com-
munion, taken as you know from the Bible, " you
show forth the Lord's death till He come." We
never communicate, we never hear that office, without
being reminded that this life is an incomplete and a
fragmentary condition ; that we are only, as it were,
2 z
354 "fHE DEDIC^iTED LIFE
preparing for the return of the King, for the coming
of the heavenly Bridegroom.
So, again, take the officers of the Church. And let
us consider this subject without any discussion now
as to what is meant by ministers or priests or anything
of the kind. It is a simple matter of common-sense
that there are certain offices to be filled in the Church,
and there are certain men set apart for these offices ;
just as certain men go into business, and some into
the Army, and some into the Navy, and so forth. All
form part of the army of Christ ; but some are set
apart to be its officers. Now, what is the commission,
what are the marching orders of all Christ's officers,
of every bishop, and priest, and deacon }
" Go," He says. Then He tells them the two-fold
manner in which their message will be received. In
one city, He says, you will be welcomed. Abide in it ;
teach everybody ; say, " The kingdom of God is
established ; Christ has been born and lived and died
and risen and ascended into heaven." Preach, that is,
the Gospel of One Who is very God and very Man.
When you have published your message, appoint pastors
to teach the people, to perfect the saints, to prepare
them for the glorious coming of the King ; and you
yourselves pass on to another city. If you are not
welcomed, as will be the case in many places, shake
off, He says, the dust of your feet. Use no weapons
of war against them. Only as ye depart say, " Be ye
sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come nigh
unto you."
What was the object of all this baptizing and preach-
ing in the mind of the Founder } How does He
describe it to us Himself.'' Why is it that pastors and
teachers are to train the saints } Why is it that evan-
gelists are to go from city to city and from shore to
THE KJNG OF QLORT 355
shore ? In order that — mark the words, for they contain
the essence of this Advent teaching — in order, He says,
not that the world may be converted and then the King
come back, but that the Gospel of the kingdom may be
preached for a witness, for a testimony, amongst all
nations. And then shall the end come. I hope you
have caught the thought, my brethren. There is the
King on Mount Olivet, looking forward to the day
when, surrounded by saints and martyrs and confessors
and ten thousand times ten thousand angels. He shall
appear, no longer (as the Advent collect expresses it)
in humility, but in the magnificence of a recognized
kingdom.
And the link between the two is this Church, the
Bride that He leaves behind. And this Bride has her
Sacraments and her officers. And the whole end and
aim of the Church's mission, the whole idea underlying
her Sacraments and the marching orders of the officers
is : — as quickly as possible to have the message pro-
claimed, not received by everybody, but proclaimed
everywhere ; in order that it may be possible for the
Bridegroom to return to the Bride that has lonor been
mourning His absence, in order that the Advent may
be accomplished, and the primeval idea of the great
Creator be once more embodied on this earth.
I can now merely remind you of the more familiar
side of my subject, the way in which, by the discipline
of life, God is making us ready for the second Advent.
Here great caution of expression is necessary. God
Almighty has not been pleased to reveal to us the reason
why evil has been permitted to enter into this world.
He has not been pleased to explain to us how a God of
holiness can tolerate age after age the abounding iniquity
by which we are everywhere confronted. Again and
again, from the time of David, God's people have cried,
356 THE DEDICATED LIFE
"How long, O God holy and true, how long" shall
iniquity flourish ? How long shall Thy Sacraments be
despised ? How long shall Thy Table be spread only
to be dishonoured ? How long shall the Blood of
Calvary be trampled under foot ? Why pluckest Thou
not Thy hand out of Thy bosom to destroy Thy
enemies ?
God is strong, and God is patient, and God can
afi*ord (if I may use the word) to be misunderstood.
He knows that His children trust Him. No earthly
father expects his boy to consider him a liar and a cheat
and a cruel man until he has proved himself other than a
loving, wise, and true father. Wisdom is justified of her
children, God waits ; and man should be very careful
how he dares to explain what God has left in obscurity.
But one thing is most clearly revealed. One good
which God is accomplishing through all the disorder of
this lower earth, through all the evil and strife and
entanglements by which we are surrounded, is to make
us cry as we should never have cried if we had been
sailing over a calm unruffled sea, " Come, Lord Jesus,
come quickly ! "
Yes, my brethren, if you look into your Bibles a
little more you will, as it were, see some reason for all
the strife and the discord in the Church, all the manifold
hindrances by which we are beset, all our temptations
and struggles after holiness which seem ever to be
ending in failure, all the difficulties of this lower earth
over which you so often groan in secret, praying
Almighty God to deliver you from the evil if His is
indeed the kingdom and the power and the glory. All
this is within the sphere of God the Blessed Spirit. All
this strange discipline of life is being overruled, in order
that we may become more and more dissatisfied with
everything that is of the earth ; in order that we may
THE KJNG OF QLORT 3S7
never look upon this world with its miserable confusion
as the eternal home of the ransomed of the Lord. Ever
and anon we seem to hear, above all the noise and the
discord and the wrangling of this lower earth the quiet
song of the angels, the harbingers of the coming Advent.
Ever and anon, if we study our Bible, the deeper the
darkness the more certain we are of the approaching
dawn. Ever and anon, when heart and flesh are failing,
and men of this world are simply breaking down under
manifold trials and sorrows and bereavements, we may
lift up our hearts and we thank God that His Word is
being fulfilled. Here we have only the thorns and
briars ; here there can be at best but a half-fulfilled idea,
a half-realized anticipation : in order that the bride may
never forget her absent Lord, in order that Sunday after
Sunday each man and woman and child, who has been
baptized into the Body of Christ, and has fed on that
one Bread and is made to drink of that one Cup, may lift
up his heart and voice in the grand old hymn which has
stayed the hearts and strengthened the courage of
thousands of saints and martyrs and confessors : that
hymn with which, God helping us, we utter our Advent
cry —
"O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel."
3S^ THE DEDICATED LIFE
IX
HOPE AND HOLY FEAR
" T/iis same Jesus, Which is taken up from you into heaven^
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into
heaven.'' — Acts i. ii.
T HAVE striven to withdraw your minds from all
-*- unpractical questions. I have striven to bring you
back from all by-paths of speculation, however interest-
ing, into that narrow road of God's written Word. I
have endeavoured to show you now the one end and aim
of the Church's mission — the one object with which the
Gospel of the kingdom is published, ministers ordained,
Sacraments established, the great memorial offered to the
Eternal Father in the Name of the Crucified by the
power of the Holy Spirit. I have tried to point out
how the one end and aim of the Church's life is simply
that, like S. John the Baptist, she may go from place to
place into every nation and language and tongue ; to
awaken the careless by telling them that the day of the
Lord is at hand, to perfect the saints by reminding them
of the glorious hope and the great appearing of their
God and Saviour Christ, to make ready a people pre-
pared for the Lord ; that so, the moment that the Gospel
of the kingdom has been published for a witness in every
nation, the Bridegroom may return, Emmanuel may
come back to deliver His captive Israel from the bondage
of corruption, and to restore them to the glorious liberty
of primeval Paradise.
HOTE AOip HOLT FE^AR 359
To-day the collect reminds us of many hindrances.
"We are sore let and hindered in running the race that
is set before us." That is the pitiable touching appeal of
the children of the great Father to the Eternal Creator.
" Father, raise up Thy power and come among us ; we
are sore let, greatly hindered, bound hand and foot, in
running the race that is set before us."
Then the Church reminds us by the words that she
puts on our lips, that these hindrances, by the very con-
dition of our being (thank God !), can be entirely got
rid of; that Almighty God has put us into a supernatural
kingdom where abounding grace has been covenanted
unto us ; that we have been hidden in Jesus Christ in
order that the life and the power and the glory of the
Incarnate God may so take possession of us that all that
is weak and wavering and earthly shall vanish as the
darkness before the breaking dawn ; that the life-current
that came down from God, and floweth on through the
Incarnate Christ by the ministry of the Holy Spirit,
can drive back the whole tide of the kingdom of death.
Thanks be to God, His might can deliver us from all the
hindrances by which we are beset, and enable us to run
— not to walk with halting steps — to run in the way of
God's commandments. In order to be practical, I would
now fix your minds upon two hindrances. It is the lack
of two special definite gifts of God, hope and holy fear,
which is ruining, or at least, hindering, numberless souls
in our midst. Yet the fact that we are taught to pray
for those gifts is, according to the Divine economy, a
pledge that they shall be supplied unto us if we are not
weary of asking.
Now, first for a moment think about this want of
hope. It would be easy, if time permitted, to enlarge
on this subject ; to point out how one characteristic of
the English character, as distinguished from other races,
360 THE DEDICATED LIFE
is the want of brightness of life, how the very climate
seems to strengthen this depression of temperament
which is almost peculiar to the race. Those who are
familiar with our current literature must often have
observed the signs of that peculiar languor (perhaps that
is as good a word as any to express it) which steals
almost unconsciously over the individual, the Church,
the nation, when the freshness of the morn is over, when
the noontide heat has made itself felt, and the freshening
breeze of eventide has not yet approached.
Those who care to follow out the thought will find it
developed (far better than I have either the time or the
ability to develop it) by him who seems, consciously or un-
consciously, to be used by Almighty God to proclaim the
parables of the nineteenth century for intellectual seekers
after God. You remember that wondrous description,
how " in the afternoon " — every word is, as is always the
case with him, important and has its significance ; you will
not catch it all as I read it, but follow it out afterwards —
" In the afternoon . . . they came unto a land,
In which it seemed always afternoon" —
always afternoon !
" All round the coast the languid air did swoon,
Breathing like one that hath a weary dream :
Full-faced above the valley stood the moon ;
And, like a downward smoke, the slender stream
Along the cliff' to fall and pause and fall did seem . . .
A land where all things always seemed the same 1 "
And then you remember how he goes on to tell us
that, instead of looking forward, the lotus-eaters were
always looking back ; gathering the branches laden with
flowers and fruits, not opening buds with the promise of
coming glory — •
" But evermore
Most weary scem'd the sea, weary the oar."
HOTE A^ip HOLT FE^R 361
They sang —
" Why should life all labour be ?
Let us alone. What is there that will last f . . .
What pleasure ? "
Of course, pleasures are the only end of life —
" What pleasure can we have
To war with evil ? Is there any peace
In ever climbing up the climbing wave ?
All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave
In silence ; ripen, fall and cease :
Give us long rest or death, dark death or dreamful ease."
My brethren, what a marvellous description of
ourselves ! Look round the drawing-rooms ; look
round your own clubs ; look round the House of
Commons when there is no party fight ; look round
hundreds of churches ; we have " come to a land in
which it seemeth always afternoon ! "
It is very hard, nay ! it is impossible for man to
drive back the current of the age. It is impossible
for any human power to arouse a race, a nation, a
Church, out of such a condition as this. So the prophet
of the Lord is bidden to go up and down in the midst
of his brethren, and to proclaim the glad tidings of the
supernatural kingdom. He is to tell men of a bountiful
grace ; to remind them that hope is the gift of God ;
that hope is quite different from the outcome of a good
dis^estion or a sanguine temperament ; that hope is
put in the Bible on the level of faith and love ; and
that the Church has ever taught us to pray, " Pour
into our hearts " — we cannot bring it out of the sand —
" pour into our hearts the living water of this most
excellent gift of hope."
And if you ask me what I mean by all this, and
how hope is to be obtained, a practical answer, God
3A
362 THE DEDIC^ATED LIFE
helping me, shall be given to-day. Take the Bible,
take a concordance, and write out the glorious privileges
of the New Testament under the head of " hope."
See how God promises to give hope, to fill us with
hope, to make us abound in hope ; to give us such
a glorious outlook into the world beyond, that it shall
be almost impossible for us to put in restrained language
the great uplifting of our heart. Having seen your
privileges, secondly, kneel down and thank God for
them. And then, thirdly, ask God the Blessed Spirit
to bring out of the bountitul treasure-house of o-race
and mercy for you this gift of hope. Put it down in
your little book of private prayer. Ask God for it
every day.
Yes ! taught by the Holy Spirit, filled with this
supernatural stream that floweth from beneath the
throne of God and of the Lamb, you shall wonder,
brethren beloved in Christ, as you look round on the
dreary sleepy faces of the men by whom you are
surrounded, and shall look with an unspeakable com-
passion on the poor weary women toiling to kill their
day. You shall thank God Who has filled you with
such an outlook upon the future, upon the coming
King, the glorious development of all and more than
all that the mind of man shall conceive. You shall
leave behind you memory with all that is dark, and
shall come (as the Advent Collect bids us to come) out
of the kingdom of darkness, with all its dreary self-
accusing remembrances of past failures and disappoint-
ment and the like, out of the very grave of man's
ingratitude and disappointed hopes and frustrated
anticipations, out of the very depth of the past, you
shall arise and thank God for hope as the gift of God
and part of the Christian's heritage.
Secondly, you will require holy fear. Hope is
HOTE A!KP HOLY FE^R 363
like one wing, and holy fear the other, that bear us
along ballasted and steady. Our course should be like
that of a ship over the waters, ballasted with fear, borne
on by hope. Holy fear is utterly different from natural
slavish dread of punishment, utterly different from the
idea of the bond-slave afraid of the taskmaster's lash,
utterly different from what I continually have beheld,
a terror, when the doctor says death is drawing near.
Utterly different from terror is holy fear. Holy fear
is more as the calm solemn reverence that obedient
children have for the true parent.
Do you wish to know how this holy fear is to be
gained } My brethren, the answer shall be practical,
God helping me. Again, take your Bible, take the
concordance, write down what God has said on fear.
Thank God the Holy Spirit that this too is part ot
your Christian heritage. And then put it down, and
day by day, at every Communion and at every private
devotion, ask God to give you, out of the bountiful
grace and mercy of which to-day's collect speaks, this
gift of holy fear. It shall come, for God hath said
it.
Human words are as powerless to create it as human
rhetoric is to enkindle Divine hope. I have seen men
without a fear going from the church of God to spend
a Sunday in a way that they knew was wrong, and
I have been powerless to arrest them. I could only
go on my knees and pray God that they might not
die till they had had time to repent. While I have
stood here and proclaimed death and judgement to
come, God has sounded the great funeral knell through
the parish, while soul after soul has passed out into
the glorious light ; and yet men are not afraid to
laugh at God, to be halting between life and death,
to tell you they make no profession of religion, and
364 THE DEDICATED LIFE
that their light is not intended to shine before men.
No, dear brethren, I may love you, and would to God
I loved you more ! I may pray for you, and would
to God I prayed for you more ! But I cannot give you
holy fear.
You may hear every message of God, you may go
on perfectly happy and perfectly contented, satisfied with
outward philanthropy, occasional Communions, a little
improvement since this time four years or seven years
ago ; and all the while it may be nothing but the inter-
cession of the Church or the prayers of some who love
you that is staying the voice from proclaiming that last
sentence, " Thou fool, this night thy soul is required of
thee." I may have said the very words of warning that
you need, and yet I shall see you bright and happy,
though you know you are not fit to die. Oh, brethren,
how powerless is the preacher !
Dear brethren, to know this, to be filled with hope,
to be filled with holy fear, you require to be quiet and
still and alone with God. A few days ago I had a letter
from a man, who said, " I shall be one and twenty on
such a day, I have arranged to spend that day quietly ; I
know I am not living to God, I know 1 am not what I
ought to be, and I want to be better. I wish to have
that day alone with God, will you help me to spend it }""
I saw him, I asked him no questions, except one or two ;
five minutes was the most that was required. But, if
you had seen that man's face — he was a young fellow
just like any of you here to-day — if you had seen him at
night, so calm, so bright, so happy, so thankful ! Oh,
would to God you would just spend, at least one day,
one day quietly with God !
"God be merciful to us and bless us ; the Lord lift
up the light of His countenance on us, and be gracious
to us ! "
"MUDIE'S."
To secure an offer of the
earliest availa"ble second-hand copy
of this "book, send your name and
address to the Manager, Bookselling
Department. A specially selected
copy is thus ensured.
Novels may be obtained three
miOnths after publication at less
than half the published price;
General Literatui^e six months after
publication.
A register is kept for the use
of those desiring to be notified
when books on special subjects are
for sale.
Catalogues sent free to any
address .
MUDIE'S LIBRARY, LTD.,
30-34, New Oxford Street, W. C.
48, Q,ueen Victoria St., S. C.
and 132, Kensington High St., W.
HOTE AOip HOLT FE^R 365
Advent Prayer
O Lord Jesus Christ, Who hast taught us in Thy Holy
Word, that in an hour that we think not, the Son of
Man Cometh ; enable me, by the Holy Spirit, so
steadfastly and without all doubt to believe Thy Word,
that I may ever live, as one who watches for the appear-
ing of the Lord. Spare me, if it be Thy blessed will,
the pains of death — send forth Thy angels to gather me
to Thyself in the day of Thy glorious manifestation.
I know that Thou art ever near me. I know that at
any moment the veil may be withdrawn, and that I may
see Thee and know Thee, even as I am known of Thee.
Let the thought of Thy appearing cheer me in every
trial, and comfort me in every perplexity, and so uplift
me above the things of time and sense, that I may in
heart and mind ascend day by day, and with Thee
continually dwell, O Lord my Saviour. Though I see
Thee not, I desire to love Thee ; though I see Thee not,
yet believing I rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of
glory. Oh, glorious day, which may be so near, when
the light shall break on the everlasting hills, when I shall
see Thee and know Thee, and be able to love Thee with
a perfect love in that everlasting and glorious kingdom,
where Thou art with the Father and the Holy Ghost,
one God, world without end. Am.en.
" Behold I come quickly."
"Even so come. Lord Jesus."
" O come, O come, Emmanuel."
" Thou art coming, O my Saviour."
"With Angels and Archans^els, and with all the com-
pany of heaven, we laud and magnify Thy glorious Name ;
evermore praising Thee, and saying. Holy, Holy, Holy,
Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of Thy
glory : Glory be to Thee, O Lord most High. Amen."
Printed by A. R. Mowbray & Co. Ltd.
London and Oxford
ADVERTISEMENTS
BT THE SAME AUTHOR
Third Impression of
THE INVISIBLE GLORY. Selected Sermons preached
by George Howard Wilkii(ison, D.D., somewhile
Vicar of S, Peter's, Eaton Square, S.W. ; also Lord
Bishop of Truro, and at his death Most Rev. the
Bishop of St. Andrews, Primus of the Scottish
Church. With a Preface by the Lord Bishop of
London. With Photogravure Frontispiece. 5/- net.
SPIRITUAL COUNSELS TO DISTRICT VISI-
TORS AND OTHERS. By the late George
Howard Wilkinson, D.D., Bishop of St. Andrews :
Primus. Cloth, i/- net.
ONE BY ONE : Counsels in Retreat for those in
Priestly or Episcopial Orders. By the late
George Howard Wilkinson, D.D., Bishop of
St. Andrews : Primus. Cloth, 2/6 net.
OUR PRIVATE PRAYERS : Some Practical
Instructions. By the late Bishop Wilkinson.
Second Edition (completing 50,000 copies), id.
The Bishop of London during one of his Lenten Missions recom-
mended his hearers to buy a penny book by that great saint of God
who was recently taken from us — Bishop Wilkinson, Primus of the
Scottish Church, and one of his dear friends. Just before he died he
was asked to write a penny book, and it was called. Our Private Prayers.
They would find it was most beautifully put.
A. R. MOWBRAY & CO. Ltd.
28 Margaret St., Oxford Circus, London, W. ; and Oxford
ADVERTISEMENTS
The
English Churchman's Library
Cloth, with gilt top and marker, i/- net ; Leather,
2/- net.
"The writers are authors of reputation, the matter is good, the
printing is beautifully clear, the size of the books is such that they may
easily be carried in the pocket ; they are bound in cloth with exquisite
taste, and the price is surprisingly low." — Guardian.
The Mysteries of Grace. 'By the Rev. T. A. Lacey, [M.A.
Letters to a Godson (First Series). How to read the Old Testament
in the light of the New. "By the Rev. M. Cyril Bicl^ersteth, M.J.
Letters to a Godson (Second Series). An attempt to give a reasonable
Account of Christian Doctrine, with suggestions for further study.
By the Rey. M. Cyril Bickersteth, M.A.
First Studies in S. Mark. By (^. 31. Ireland Blackburne, with a
Trefatory Note by the Bishop of London.
Spiritual Counsels to District Visitors and Others. By the late
George Howard Wilkinson, D.D., Bishop of St. Andrew's : Trimus.
The Christian Use of the Psalter. By the %ev. A. R. Whitham,
CM. A., Principal of Culham Training College.
Our Working Girls and How to Help Them. By Flora L.
Freeman, Jiuthor of'''' Sunshine of Everyday Life,''' etc.
The Practical Religion. By the Very R^v. Provost Staley, jIuthor of
" The Catholic 'Religion.''
Consciousness of God. Two Lectures on the Antecedents of Revela-
tion. By the Rev. T. J. Lacey, (M.J.
The Work and Influence of the Holy Spirit. By the Rey. the
Hon. Cecil J. Littleton, M.A.
The Book of Common Prayer. Five Sermons. By the Rey. Canon
IV. C. E. Newbolt, M.J.
The Atonement. By the Rey J . J. V. Magee, CM. J.
The Three Creeds of the Church. By the l^ey Qharles Knapp, T>.D.
Other volumes in preparation.
A. R. MOWBRAY & CO. Ltd.
28 Margaret St., Oxford Circus, London, W. ; and Oxford
3 158 00798 1748
UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY EACILITY
'■■■ HI III III |i| Ill III [j [' |i
AA 000 979 249 o