Ex Libris C. K. OGDEN THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES — mm m H ■M Era •*• ■ ~-*>* ** : $s* .* *" : ■ wSm ■■■1 ££v^ SEES ■■J ■■■■ ■ &3a ■ ■ ■ ■■ : & SERMONS PREACHED IN SACKVILLE COLLEGE CHAPEL. SERMONS PREACHED IN SACKVILLE COLLEGE CHAPEL. BY THE LATE REV. J. M. NEALE, D.D., WARDEN OF THE COLLEGE. VOL. IV. iBmor jjtsttuals of tfje Cfjurcf) of ISnglano, .•fourth ISUttion. LONDON : J. MASTERS AND CO., 78, NEW BOND STREET. MDCCCLXXXII. LONDON ! PKINTED BY J. MASTERS AND Co., ALBION BUILDINGS, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE, E.C. -X £ TO THE REV. C. A. FOWLER, M.A., RECTOR OF CRAWLEY, (Hfjcsc Sermons ARE DEDICATED. 1371201 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. The Second Volume of "Readings for the Aged" having been for some time out of print, it was thought well, soon after the death of the Author, to prepare a New Edition. Several Sermons have, however, been added, and in order to commend the volume to general readers the title has been changed from that which seemed to confine it to a few only, to one which the writer appears to have contemplated originally himself, for in his Journal, October 3rd, 1852, there is the fol- lowing entry, " Began my introductory sermon for the set on the ' Black Letter Days :' quod D. O. M. bene vertat." With this prayer this New Edition is given to the public. J. H. East Baekwith Eectoey. Feast of S. Margaret, 1868. PREFACE. The following " Readings" were, like those in the First Series, written for a congregation consisting, for the most part, of aged persons ; and with a special view to their requirements. Their aim has been to choose on each day the lesson most suitable for that particular class ; a class for whom so little has as yet been pub- lished. It is proper to observe that the XIII., XIV., XVIII., and XXIV., are very much indebted to the sermons of the great Portuguese divine, Antonio Vieyra ; that the XV. is mainly from S. Augustine ; that the XXIII. is principally taken from a meditation of Henry Herph, " the third from a Kempis," on the same text ; and that the XXXIII. is from the VII. of S. Hildebert's Sermons for Lent. Batalha, Pobtugal, Rogation Sunday, 1854. CONTENTS. SERMON I. Entrotjuttorp. WHAT AEE THESE ? WHENCE CAME THEY ? PAGE " What are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they ?"— Eev. vii. 13 1 SERMON II. THE FAITH OF THE SAINTS. S. Iftlarp. Sanuarj) 13. " The Loed gave the word : great was the company of the preachers. Kings with their armies did flee and were discomfited : and they of the household divided the spoil." — Psalm lxviii. 11, 12. 9 SERMON III. THE HIDDEN MANNA. THE WHITE STONE. S. ISlasc. JFcbruare 3. " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone ; and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." — Rev. ii. 17 14 SERMON IV. THE PENITENT CLOTHED IN WHITE, AND NOT BLOTTED OUT OF THE BOOK OF LIFE. 5. Ualcnttnc. JFcbruarp 14. " He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white rai- ment ; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father and before His Angels." — Rev. iii. 5 19 xii Contents. PAGE SERMON V. FBUIT IN OLD AGE. 5. Babto. Jttarcb 1. " They also shall bring forth more fruit in their age." — Psalm xcii. 13 24 SERMON VI. god's judgment upon sinnees. S. ©ftati. Jttarrij 2. " And all Israel shall hear and fear ; and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you." — Deut. xiii. 11. . . 29 SERMON YII. THE NEW WAT. S. "aiban. liunc 17. "Ye have not passed this way heretofore." — Josh. iii. 4. . .34 SERMON VIII. DOW OUB EOED COMES TO US. Visitation of tbc 13Icsscti Virgin Jttaro. jiulo 2. " And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Loed should come to me ?" — S. Luke i. 43 40 SERMON IX. THE EESUEEECTION OF THE BODY. translation of S. .{Martin. 3iuln 4. " There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." — Acts xxiv. 15. ........ 46 SERMON X. WHAT WE AEE TO LEAEN FEOM THE EAIN. S. Stoitfjin. jiult} 15. " And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights." — Genesis vii. 12 53 Contents. xiii PAGE SERMON XI. "WHAT THE ONE PEAEL IS. S. Jllargarct. 3luIo 20. "A merchantman, seeking goodly pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it."— S. Matt. xiii. 45, 46 60 SERMON XII. THE TWO SAINT MAEIES AT THE CROSS. S. iltarw Jttagtralcnc. 3iub 22. " There stood by the Cross of Jesus, His mother, and Mary Magdalene." — S. John xix. 25 67 SERMON XIII. "WHY SEBMONS DO SO LITTLE GOOD. S. •anne. 3JuIg 26. " A sower went out to sow his seed." — S. Luke viii. 5. . .72 SERMON XIV. S. PETEB WITH THE KEYS, AND S. PETEB BOUND. ICammas=i3a». August 1. " And Jesus answered and said unto Peter, I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven." — S. Matt. xvi. 17, 19. " Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains." — Acts xii. 6 79 SERMON XV. THE THEEE TABEENACLES. transfiguration. August 6. " For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Loed Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of His Majesty when we were with Him in the holy Mount."— 2 S. Peter i. 16, 18 85 xiv Contents. PAGE SERMON XVI. WHAT THE NAME OF JESUS IS TO HIS PEOPLE. iSamc of Skstts. "august 7. " Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the Name of Jesus Cheist of Nazareth, Whom ye crucified, Whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole Neither is there salvation in any other : for there is none other Name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." — Acts vi. 10, 12. . . 91 SERMON XVII. WHAT IS THE END OF CHRISTIAN CONTEESATION. S. ILiurcncc. august 10. " Whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversa- tion."— Heb. xiii. 7 98 SERMON XVIII. OWNING ONESELF IN THE WRONG. S. Augustine. August 28. " What I have written, I have written." — S. John xix. 22. . 103 SERMON XIX. SPEAKING THE TEUTH BOLDLY. decollation of 5. 3lof)ti baptist. August 29. " And he sent and beheaded John in the prison." — S. Matt. xiv. 10 109 SERMON XX. THE STAG AND THE CITY OF EEFUGE. S. Giles. September 1. " Deliver My soul from the sword : My darling from the power of the dog."— Psalm xxii. 20 115 SERMON XXI. THROUGH MUCH TRIBULATION. S. TEnurchus. September 7. " And that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the Kingdom of God." — Acts xiv. 22. 121 Contents. xv PAGK SERMON XXII. THE LORD'S COMING TO HIS TEMPLE. jgatibitp of tfjc 13Icssctj Utrgin JWars. September 8. " The Lord Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His Tem- ple."— Malachi iii. 1 . .126 SERMON XXIII. HOW CHRIST IS A BUNDLE OF MYRRH. I^oIb CFross Ban. September 14. " A bundle of myrrh is my Well-beloved unto me : He shall lie all night betwixt my breasts." — Cantic. i. 13. . . . . 130 SERMON XXIV. IGNORANT PRATERS. S. Lambert. September 17. " Ye know not what ye ask."— S. Matt. xx. 22. ... 136 SERMON XXV. HE THAT OVERCOMETH. S. ©rjprtan. September 26. "He that OTercometh shall not be hurt of the second death." — Rev. ii. 11 143 SERMON XXVI. THE POUR CARPENTERS. S. Scromc. September 30. " And the Lord showed me four carpenters." — Zech. i. 20. . 151 SERMON XXVII. THE DEATH OF A SERVANT. S. Bcmigius. October 1. " Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." — 1 Cor. xv. 58. . 156 xvi Contents. PAGK SEEMON XXYIII. nOW WE COULD MEET MAETTBDOM NOW. 5. Jrattl). ©ctobcr 6. " When thou passest through the •waters, I will be with thee ; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee : when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned : neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." — Isaiah xliii. 2. . . . .164 SERMON XXIX. S. FAUX ON MAES' HILL. S. Biomjstus tfic Srenpajjite, ©rtobcr 9. " Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed ; among the which was Dionysius, the Areopagite." — Acts xvii. 34. . . 172 SERMON XXX. A BEOTHEE BOEN FOE ADVEESITY. translation of l\tng (£tftoartf. ©ctober 13. " A brother is born for adversity." — Proverbs xvii. 17. . .179 SERMON XXXI. SUFFEEING IN VAIN. S. CFthcloTctia. ©ctober 17. " Have ye suffered so many things in vain ? if it be yet in vain." — Gal. iii. 4 185 SERMON XXXII. HEAETILT WOBK FOE GOD'S SAKE. SS. drtspin antt ©risptan. CDctobcr 25. " And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lobd, and not unto men."— Col. iii. 23 190 Contents. xvii PAGK SERMON XXXIII. SETTING THE PRISONER FEEE. S. leonartr. i^obcmbcr 6. " Shake thyself from the dust : arise and 3it down, O Jerusalem : loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Sion. For thus saith the Lord : Ye have sold yourselves for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without money." — Isaiah Hi. 2, 3. 196 SERMON XXXIV. FAITH AS A GRAIN OF MUSTARD SEED. 5. Jttartin. Jloucm&cr 11. " For verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mus- tard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place ; and it shall remove ; and nothing shall be impossi- ble unto you."— S. Matt. xvii. 20 201 SERMON XXXV. THE -WICKED FORSAKING HIS WAYS. £. 13ritc. j^oucmbcv 13. " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." —Isaiah lv. 7 207 SERMON XXXVI. WHO CANNOT COME WHERE CHRIST IS. a. Jttacbutus. jSobcmbcr 15. " Ye shall seek Me, and shall not find Me : and where I am thither ye cannot come." — S. John vii. 34. ..... 213 SERMON XXXVII. THE GOODLINESS OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. S. laugh, i^oucmbcr 17. " How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel !" — Numbers xxiv. 5. 218 xviii Contents. PAGE SERMON XXXYIII. THE DEATH OF A GREAT MAN. 5. (E&muntJ, Iting anti JJWartpr. i^oucmbcr 20. " And the King said to his servants, Know ye not that there is a Prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel ?" — 2 Sam. iii. 38. 222 SERMON XXXIX. WHAT SOET OF MUSIC THE OLD CAN MAKE. S. Cecilia, iaobcmbcr 22. " And when Jehoshaphat had consulted with the people he appointed singers unto the Loed, and that should praise the heauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Loed, for His mercy endureth for ever." — 2 Chron.xx. 21. 228 SERMON XL. THE SEA GIVING UP HER DEAD. S. Clement. iSoucmbcr 23. " Another book was opened, which is the Book of Life : And the sea gave up her dead which were in it." — Rev. xx. 12, 13. . 234 SERMON XLI. THE WEAK THINGS OF THIS WOELD CONFOUNDING THE WISE. 3. Uatftcrinc. jRoucmbcr 25. " The fear of the Loed is the beginning of wisdom." — Prov. ix. 10. 239 SERMON XLII. UNKNOWN SAINTS. S. $icboIas. December 6. " Thy Father, which seeth in secret, Himself shall reward thee openly."— S. Matt. vi. 4 245 SERMON XLIII. THE BUSH THAT BURNED, AND WAS NOT BURNT. Conception of tbc Blessed Uirgin Jjttarp. December 8. " And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed."— Exodus iii. 2 251 Contents. xix PAGE SERMON XLIV. TAKE NO THOUGHT WHAT YE SHALL SPEAK. S. Xtttg. December 13. " But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak : for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak."— S. Matt. x. 19 256 SEEMON XLV. CHRIST OUR TRUE WISDOM. @ Sapicntia. December 16. " Wisdom reacheth from one end to another mightily : and sweetly doth she order all things." — Wisdom viii. 1. . . . 261 SEEMON XL VI. CHRIST OUR LAWGIVER. © "ationat. December 17. " The Lord is our Lawgiver: He will save us." — Isaiah xxxiii. 22. 266 SEEMON XLVII. THE ROOT OF JESSE. © Baatx Scssc. December 18. " There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse." — Isaiah xi. 1 270 SEEMON XLVIII. CHRISTMAS CAROLS. Christmas Cbc. " Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept." — Isaiah xxx. 29 274 SEEMON XLIX. JESUS STANDING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. Christmas Day, CEbcrung. " These are they that went over Jordan in the first month, when it had overflowed all his banks." — 1 Chron. xii. 15. . . . 279 xx Contents. PAGE SERMON L. OLD MEN AND CHILDREN. Suntfan after Christmas, also 1§ol» Ennoccnts. " Old men and children, praise the Name of the Loed." — Psalm cxlviii. 12. 285 SERMON LI. JESUS CHBIST, THE SAME FOE EVER. S. Stlbcstcr. JBcctmbcr 31. " Jesus Cheist, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." — Heb. xiii. 8 290 SERMON LII. CHANGE. 3Ti)e "East jRtgfit of tfic ©Io $car. " Behold, I show you a mystery : we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." — 1 Cor. xv. 51 295 SERMON I. JhitroUucton). WHAT AKE THESE? WHENCE CAME THEY? " What aee tiiese which aee aerated in white eobes, and whence came they?" — rev. vii. 13. One of Satan's most favourite temptations, (no doubt because he has found it one of the most useful,) is this, that it is a very easy thing to be saved. " What is the use/' he asks us, "of taking so much pains? Other people lead easy lives, and please themselves, and are thought good fathers, and good neighbours, and good Christians, and they will do very well ; and why need you try to be better than they ? All will come right at last, and your prayers and your efforts to keep God's law so very strictly are quite needless. Do as the world does, and do not pretend to be more religious than your neighbours/' We know that this is a temptation, and we ought not to be deceived by it. We know that to live a good life is a trade, like every other trade ; that, if we do not take the utmost pains, we shall never learn it at all ; and that, with all the pains we can take, we shall find it a difficult matter enough to succeed ; " The B 2 What are these ? whence came they ? [Serm. righteous shall scarcely be saved." It will, as the com- mon saying is, be a very near thing. We want all the helps we can have; we must take all that we can get, and thank God that we can get so many. Now, in looking round me to see Avhat help to lead good lives you might have which as yet you have not, I see one which, with God's grace, we will try. And this evening, I will explain to you what it is, and how Ave may use it. You know that, ever since I first came amongst you, we have always observed those days which Ave commonly call Saints' Days ; that is, those Festivals of Saints for which an Epistle and Gospel are appointed. And they are those of the twelve Apostles, of S. John the Baptist, of the Conversion of S. Paul, of the Holy Innocents, of S. Barnabas, and of S. Stephen, besides the glorious festival of All Saints. Before God, perhaps for our own sins, suffered Avicked men to take away from us the power of celebrating the Holy Communion, we always, as some of you well remember, celebrated it on those days. And even now, we go oftener into chapel ; and in the evening, as you know, I speak to you of the lesson that we should learn from the Festival which we are then keeping. But now, if you look in the Calendar at the beginning of the Prayer Book, you Avill find a great many other days marked with the name of some Saint. Take January, for example. On the 8th you find the name of S. Lucian ; on the 13th, of S. Hilary; on the 18th, of S. Prisca; on the 20th, of S. Fabian; on the 21st, of S. Agnes; on the 22nd, of S. Vincent. There are six days, then, which the Church sets before us, as the means of helping us in our way to heaven ; and which, I.] What are these ? whence came they ? 3 therefore, I wish that you should understand something about. I do not like that you should only look on them as names which you cannot understand, — as long, difficult words, with which you have nothing to do. I wish that, when you see the altar vested in red, to signify that it is the day of some Martyr who shed his blood for the Name of Christ : or, when you see it in white, to set forth to you that we are keeping the feast of some one of those A r irgins whom Holy Scripture teaches us to call the brides of the Spotless Lamb; then that you should know something about that Martyr or that Virgin. It is impossible to love those of whom we know nothing. We may believe, indeed, that they were true and faithful servants of Christ, and so far we may admire them, and desire to follow their example; but love them we cannot, unless we know something about them on which our love can fix. Now, therefore, I intend, by God's grace, beginning from this time, as each of these daj r s comes round, to tell you why we keep it, and who it is that we are then called upon to think about. If we were travelling to some place where we were to live all the rest of our lives, should we not wish to know what sort of people we were going among? Should we not be very glad to find any one who could tell us about them ? Should we not beg him to let us know what he could, as to their names, and their ways of going on, and what they liked and disliked ? We should say, " They are to be my companions by-and-by, and I should like to become acquainted with them as far as I can, before I really go to see them." So it is with us. We are journeying to the land which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him. 4 What are these ? whence came they ? [Serm. There are those, already there, who, if ever we are counted worthy to reach it, will be our eternal friends. If we really believe that there is such a place; if we really believe that they are there now, must we not of necessity desire to know something of them ? The half of their doings will not be told us in this life; nevertheless, still we shall rejoice to hear that which has been recorded of them. Now, to go back once again to the Calendar. I dare say you will all have noticed that there are certain letters at the end of the names of the Saints of whom we have been speaking, and you may have been puzzled to know what some of them may mean. Let me now explain this. There are two great divisions of those men whom the Church reckons among the Saints — the Martyrs and the Confessors. By the Martyrs we mean those who laid down their lives for the true faith, whether their murderers were heathens, as in the case of the Apostles, or Jews, as it was with S. Stephen, or heretics, as it has been with some other Saints. By the word Con- fessors, at first, they only were meant who, though they had not the glory of dying for Christ, yet confessed Him by suffering for Him; whether by being thrown into prison, or being put to the torture, or suffering anything else at the hands of wicked men for His Name's sake : but in time, it came to pass that all those Saints who, by the excellency of their lives and the purity of their faith, had confessed Christ, were called His Confessors; and that is the way in which the word is now used by the Church. Every Saint, therefore, being a man, is either a Martyr or a Confessor. But the Church gives honour where honour is due. She I.] What are these ? whence came they ? 5 takes care to mention those of her Saints who were placed in any great office. Thus, besides the letter M., which stands for Martyr, and the letter C, which is put for Confessor, you will find Bishops and Kings more par- ticularly mentioned as such. Thus all through the calendar you will find, at the end of certain names, B., standing for Bishop; A.B., for Archbishop; K., for King. Of these I shall have to speak to you in their turn. But, S. Paul tells us, " in Christ Jesus there is nei- ther male nor female." Women, as well as men, have been counted among the Saints; — and for them also the Church has a division. After the names of several of these you will find the letter V., which stands for Virgin. For these she counts worthy of double honour, accord- ing to the teaching of our Lord, and of His Apostle S. Paul. Among these also we shall find Martyrs ; for the grace of God often among them " out of weakness was made strong." Then comes the question ; how do these days help us on in our way to heaven ? What good do we get by keeping them ? What advantage is it to us to have these Saints in our thoughts ? Much every way. The first and easiest answer to the question is, that we may follow their examples. Not that we shall be called to the same trials as they were : — but that wher- ever we are, and whatever we do, we may imitate their faith, and love, and hope. It is true, of all these our Lord Jesus left us a Pattern, infinitely brighter than any saint ever did or ever could set. But we are apt to think that, since He was God as well as Man, and we are men only, we neither can, nor can be expected to, tread in His footsteps. Well then, in His Saints wc 6 What are these ? whence came they ? [Serm. have men who were of like passions with ourselves. They did nothing that, the Holy Ghost helping us, we may not do also. They had no other means of grace than we have. In Christ, we see what we ought to do : In His Saints, we see what we can do. And the know- ledge that all this lies in our power, that all this wonder- ful strength is really ours, ought to be our comfort and our encouragement in running with patience the race that is set before us. But this is not all ; we say daily, I believe in the Com- munion of Saints. That is, between all holy persons, whether now in the flesh, or now with God, there is a real and true communion. And by the word commu- nion I mean this — that there is a doing something for each other, and with each other. With those who are upon earth it is manifestly so. We pray for each other, we are prayed for by each other ; we all eat the same Body of our Lord, and drink the same Blood ; we use the same prayers, we keep the same festivals ; we feel the same sorrows, and we have the same hope that those sorrows will one day be swallowed up in everlasting joy. But how do we hold communion with Saints that are gone before us? It is not by following their examples, there is no communion in that. That, so to speak, is all on one side. That is what we do ; not what we also receive. How then? If, in keeping the days of Saints, we think of them and praise God for them, we are not for a moment to doubt that they think of us, and pray to God for us. " The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avail- eth much/' But it were strange indeed if the prayer of a righteous man availed much while he was in the flesh — but directly he was gone to appear before God, I.] What are these ? whence came they ? 7 directly lie is in a higher and a better state, it availed no longer. God forbid ! There is no such exception in the Bible; many instances to the contrary. For exam- ple, Elijah, just before he went up by a whirlwind to heaven, said to Elisha, " Ask what I shall give thee be- fore I be taken away from thee." As soon, then, as Elijah stood before the throne of God, he made his re- quest, and it was granted. Again, S. Peter, a little time before his death, wrote in his epistle, " Moreover I will endeavour, after my decease, that ye may be able to have these things always in remembrance.'" That is, that he would intercede in heaven for those whom he had loved on earth. Indeed, how could it be otherwise ? Take any one of us. Suppose that some one of you were at this moment called out of the world, and by God's infi- nite mercy were received into Paradise ; do you think for a moment that he would forget the rest of us? that he would not have the same feeling to this College that he had while in the world? that he would not rejoice in its welfare? It is good to bring these things home to ourselves ; because then we feel the more strongly what a glorious thing is this to which we profess to belong — the Communion of Saints. And if it were a great Saint that was taken away from us (Saints before now have often enough lived in places like this) should I doubt for a moment that, as he had often prayed for us in this life, so he would pray for us, all the more fer- vently, all the more effectually, after his blessed depar- ture? I say again, God forbid ! One remarkable instance how departed Saints have concerned themselves in the affairs of the world, written for our instruction in Holy Scripture, I will mention, be- cause you may never have noticed it. It is in the twenty- 8 What are these ? whence came they ? [Serm. I. first chapter of the second book of Chronicles. There we find that long after Elijah was taken to God, Jeho- ram, king of Judah, did very wickedly : and Elijah sent him a letter out of heaven, telling him that God's ven- geance would fall upon him, as it shortly afterwards did. If these things are so, what a multitude of friends and helpers have we in that heavenly kingdom which we are professing to seek. Those are they, " who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteous- ness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens ; (of whom the world was not worthy :) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." Now I have told you how I purpose that we should learn something of these holy servants of God, and why ; and I have only to say, that on "Wednesday next, which you will find in your Prayer Books to be S. Faith's Day, it is my hope to begin. God grant that all these means of salvation may bring us at last to that place, w^here, with the glorious com- pany of the Apostles, the goodly fellowship of the Pro- phets, the noble army of Martyrs, we shall praise and bless 11 im for ever and ever. Amen. SEEM ON II. THE FAITH OF THE SAINTS. J*>. $>ilnn>. $anuan> 13. " The Loed gave the woed ; geeat was the Company of the Peeachees : Kings with theie aemies did flee and weee discomfited, and they of the household divided the spoil." — psalm lxviii. 11, 12. The Saint of to-day, S. Hilary, was in his day one of the greatest defenders of the true Faith whom the world ever saw. After the Church had rest from her heathen persecutors, the devil, always seeking to do her harm, always on the look-out for opportunities of hurting her, raised up a more dreadful danger. S. Paul had pro- phesied that, after his departure, grievous wolves should enter in, not sparing the flock : and now one of these ungodly men rose up, and taught that our Lord Jesus Christ was not really and truly God, but only a man filled with the wisdom and the power of God. He drew away a great number of people after him, and for a while it seemed as if the Church itself were about to perish. But God raised up two great Saints : the one S. Athanasius, from whom the Creed is named, he came out of the east ; the other, S. Hilary, who came 10 The Faith of the Saints. [Serm. out of France. Both these holy men suffered the loss of all things for the Name of our Loud : S. Hilary was banished, threatened, driven here and there, promised great rewards if he would give in to the new doctrine, and would only say that Jesus Christ was not of one substance with the Father. He was, like S. Paul, in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils among his own countrymen, in perils among the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilder- ness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren ; in weariness and painfullness, in watchiugs often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and na- kedness. All these things were the price at which our Faith was bought for us. These holy men of old thought nothing of all their sufferings, if only they might keep that Faith whole and undefiled : they " came to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty." Every line of the Athanasian Creed is, as it were, written with the blood of Saints. There is not a single sentence in the whole, on which I could not lay my finger and say, Such a Saint died in defence of this, such a Saint was cast into prison because he would not deny that. Take those that speak of our Lord's com- ing into the world : " For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man: God, of the Substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds." For those words an innumerable host of martyrs have died, have been " stoned, sawn asunder, tempted, slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goat- skins ; being destitute, afflicted, tormented ; of whom the world was not worthy :" and these things they suf- II.] TJie Faith of the Saints. 1 1 fered, not from heathens, but from those that called themselves Christians. It goes on, " And Man, of the substance of His Mother, born in the world ;" and here, again, another army of martyrs, at a different time, testified to this truth with their blood. " Perfect God, and perfect Man •" those words, in themselves, cost another tremendous struggle. " Of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting/' and there again, many holy bishops took joyfully the spoiling of their goods because they would not deny the truth here set down. So I might go on, verse by verse, and line by line, and still it would be the same thing over and over again. So that the Church, when she had conquered all her enemies, might well break forth into that hymn, — for a hymn it is, — " Whosoever will be saved : before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except every one do keep whole and un- defined : without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. This is the Catholic Faith : which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved." This Faith, by the mercy of God has been preached in all the world : " the Lord gave the word : great was the company of the preachers •" and so has come even to us. And the first feeling we must have is, What a glorious thing it is to belong to a Church that has such a Faith, — so come down, so fought for, so victorious. Look at those who do not belong to the Church, and see where their faith comes from. There are the Wes- leyans : their faith comes from John Wesley, about 100 years ago. There are the Quakers : their faith comes from one George Fox, and is about 200 years old. There are the Baptists : their faith is about 300 years old. But we Catholic Christians take our name 12 The Faith of the Saints. [Serm. from no man. We have no Master but Jesus Christ. Our Faith comes from Him, through His Apostles, through His Bishops, through His Martyrs. They taught it, they preached it throughout the world, and we this day have it. It was opposed by the kings and great men of the earth; but what of that? the more it was afflicted, the more it multiplied and grew. " Kings with their armies did flee and were discomfited ; and they of the household divided the spoil." They of the household, that is, of God's household ; in His might, and by the truth that was in Him, they overcame. " In the world/' our Lord said, " ye shall have tribula- tion : but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." And so did they too. But one thing more ! if it is a glorious thing to have their Faith, so also it is a most fearful thing. If we dishonour it by our behaviour, if we lead lives of which heretics or heathens might be ashamed, if we do our best to give our Lord the lie, when He said, " By their fruits ye shall know them," and instead of that to say, " By their fruits ye shall not know them," what remains for us but the punishment of that servant that knew his Lord's will, and did it not? Take, for example, S. Hilary this day. He suffered for this truth — that " We worship One God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity." But now, if we live as though we knew no- thing of Him that once came to save us, and hereafter will come to judge us — nothing of Him that regenerated us in Baptism, and Whose temples we are, what is all our knowledge doing for us, but heaping up for us a more fearful judgment? If we say, "There is one Person of the Father," and yet break His command- ments day after day : if we say, " There is another II.] The Faith of the Saints. 13 Person of the Son/' and yet go on adding to those sins which He died to atone for : if we say, " And another of the Holy Ghost," and yet go on resisting all His good motions, stopping our ears to His words; when He speaks, refusing to hear; when He calls, refusing to obey; we shall find this God, Whom we knew, but would not honour; this Saviour, Who gave Himself for us, and yet we would not give ourselves to Him ; this Holy Ghost, to Whom we continually did despite ; — a consuming fire. This is a fearful thought for us. But by God's grace let us rather try so to act up to what we know, so to show that we really do believe what we profess to be- lieve, that when He calls us out of this world, we may see Him face to face, no more wanting faith, no more needing hope, for faith will be swallowed up in certainty, "and what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" So that, w r ith all these great Saints who so laboured and suffered for Him here, we may have a portion in the life to come, for Jesus Christ's sake : to Whom, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, be all glory for ever. Amen. SERMON III. THE HIDDEN MANNA. THE WHITE STONE. d. 33 last, dfrimiarj 3. " TO HIM THAT OVERCOMETH "WILL I GIVE TO EAT OF THE HIDDEN MANNA, AND WILL GIVE HIM A WHITE STONE ; AND IN THE STONE A NEW NAME WRITTEN, WHICH NO MAN KNOWETH, SAVING HE THAT RECEIVETH IT." — EEV. II. 17. This promise is to the Church of Pergamos, and we must look back, as we did before, to understand it. " I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is." That is, the heathen around were more openly and desperately wicked than in the other seven churches ; and the fruits of this we see, for the Epistle goes on — " thou holdest fast My Name, and hast not denied My faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was My faithful martyr." The promise then to-night is to a true-hearted servant of Christ, in the midst of an adulterous and sinful generation ; and who is ready to suffer for His Name's sake, and for the Faith of the Church. Now, the promise to " him that overcometh" at Smyrna and Ephcsus was only one ; here it is twofold. See therefore the great honour that Christ puts on the Scrm. III.] The Hidden Manna. The White Stone. 15 confession of His Name before men. Just as in the Sermon on the Mount, whereas the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, have each one blessing, they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake have two. " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna." Manna, the food that came down from heaven into the wilderness to support the Israelites, that continued with them day by day till they entered the land of Canaan, that was enough for all, and too much for none, that, as the Jews tell us, had for each man the taste that he liked best, this manna is a type of our Lord's Body and Blood as given to us in the Holy Communion. That also is intended to feed us all the days of our pilgrimage in the desert of this world, until we come to the heavenly Canaan : that also comes down from heaven : that also has all sweetness in itself. But it does not say that he that overcometh shall eat of the manna, but of the hidden manna. All, both good and bad, receive the Blessed Sacrament; but the good only have the strength and comfort and sweetness that It can give. And see how victory over our enemies is referred to our feeding upon Christ. All through the Old Testament, in the types and figures that we have of the Holy Communion, the same thing is set forth to us. It was just after the rock was struck in Horeb, and water came out from it — a type of the blood and water shed out of our Lord's most Blessed Side on the Cross — that Israel fought with their first enemy, Amalek, and overcame him. It was just after David's stooping down to drink of the brook in the valley of Elah that he slew Goliath the giant, and took away the reproach from Israel. How should this not be so? It was just before our Lord went forth to His victory 16 The Hidden Manna. The White Stone. [Scrm. over the devil, that He, for the first time, gave His Apostles His Flesh and Blood. In His Flesh and Blood He conquered : and we, feeding upon Them, must conquer too. For this reason it is, that in all straits and difficulties, before all great struggles, when about to enter into all danger, more especially before the greatest strait, the most fearful struggle, the most terri- ble danger, before the hour of death, God's people have with desire desired to eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup. By this Christ's faithful servants have gone forth cheerfully to martyrdom : for they knew that carrying Him along with them, they must be more than conquerors. Strong men have known that, excepting for that, their strength would be weakness; women and children have felt that, with this, they were able to do all things. Therefore, receiving for the last time their Lord's Body and Blood here, they have gone by a short rough passage to sit down at the Supper of the Lamb on high. And that supper of the Lamb, that Marriage feast, whatever be the full meaning of that type, whatever be the pleasures which are set forth by it, all these are set forth by the hidden manna in the text : all are promised to him that overcometh. Hidden those pleasures are for the present : eye hath not seen them, nor ear heard them, but there they are, and de- pend upon it there they are only for the conqueror. But the text goes on : — " I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written." Now we are told all the ground about Pergamos is even to this day covered with such white stones, and therefore the Christians of that city could not stir out without being reminded of the promise " to him that overcometh/' And what is this white stone ? The Church has gene- III.] The Hidden Manna. The White Stone. 17 rally believed that it means the body which Christ's true servants will receive at the resurrection day. For just as nothing is more lasting than a stone, as it cannot be destroyed, as it cannot be worn away, so our bodies will be raised incorruptible, and never more subject to sick- ness or decay. And a white stone, because they will be glorious and shining; just as the face of our Lord in His Transfiguration became white and shining, so as no fuller on earth can whiten. " I will give him a white stone/ 7 then, is the same thing as saying, " I will give him a new and glorious body, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, and the saying shall be brought to pass that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." And this, coming directly after the promise about the hidden manna, is just as our Lord said Himself, " He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath everlasting life, aud I will raise him up again at the Last Day." " And in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." When we are born into this world, we are children of wrath and of the devil ; but when we are born, so to speak, at the Resurrection, we shall be the children of God at our birth. That will be our new name ; we shall have it with our new nature; "old things shall have passed away ; behold all things shall have become new." And that is a name, indeed, the blessing of which none knoweth save he that receiveth. What it is to be so the children of God, as to serve Him without weariness, to love Him fully, to sin no more, to be entirely His, this who can tell, save those who stand before Him ? And they not as yet fully — they have not yet received the 18 The Hidden Manna. The White Stone. [Serm. III. white stone of their Resurrection-bodies ; they without us are not to be made perfect. But, in part, they see God's glory j and they that have been martyrs see Him face to face, enjoying, as the Church believes, the Beatific Vision, that is, the immediate sight of God. Of this number was, and is, S. Blasius, an Armenian Bishop, whose feast we keep this day. He, after suffering great things for the name of Christ, was torn in pieces with wool-combs; and, accordingly, in those parts of England where they have to do with wool, they make much of his day even now. It is thus that he now eats of " the hidden manna/' and that he will at the last day receive " the white stone." "Which God grant that we also may do, for Jesus Christ's sake : to Whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON IY. THE PENITENT CLOTHED IN WHITE, AND NOT BLOTTED OUT OF THE BOOK OE LIFE. H>. 'Falcntuu. dfdnuan) 14. "He that oteecometh, the same shall be clothed in white eaiment ; — and i will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life, but I will confess nis name befoee Mr Fa- ther AND BEFOEE HlS ANGELS." — EEV. III. 5. This promise " to him that overcometh" differs from those that have gone before. They were all declarations that God would give this and that blessing; this is, — " I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life." Now, if Ave look back, we shall see the reason. The verse I just read to you is taken from the Epistle to the Church at Sarclis; a Church that had grievously fallen away from its first love. " Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead, llemember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast and repent. If there- fore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief." And now notice, that God's threatenings are just as true as His promises. Sardis did not repent. And therefore, while all the other churches of which I have spoken, Ephesus, and Smyrna, and Pergamos, and 20 The Penitent clothed in White, [Serm. Thyatira, notwithstanding the persecutions of the cruel Turks, remain to this day; Sardis has been utterly swept away. There are now but a few Christians in all that city ; and they have no priest, no sacraments, and no church. The promise then is to those that overcome after having fallen away from God, and committed great sin. Therefore, it is a message to all of us. In the first place, " He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment. - " We have soiled the white robe of innocence which was given to us in our baptism ; there are the dark and deadly stains of many sins, — some more, some less grievous; some of longer, some of shorter, standing. Yet, even so, we are not left altogether without hope. If now we fight the fight of faith, if now we gird up ourselves to battle with the devil, if now Ave repent with all our hearts, and confess our sins, and that not lightly, and after the manner of those that would try to deceive God, but earnestly and steadily, and perseveringly, — then the Prophet Isaiah says for our comfort, " Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow : though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool ;" then the Apostle John also bears record, saying, " If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, the Blood of Jesus Curist His Son eleanseth us from all sin." God did not give the power of absolving to His priests for nothing. It was the chief means He devised, whereby His banished ones should be brought back to Ilim. It is this power, which, on the true repentance of the sinner can cleanse away the stain of all past sins: and though here those that have fallen into grievous iniquities can never be as if they had not so fallen — yet the time will come when they VI.] and not blotted out of tJie Book of Life. 21 shall be restored to more than the innocence of their baptism, when they shall be made perfectly holy, when they shall be able to sin no more. " He that over- cometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment. " It proceeds : " And I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life." "Where notice that, when we are baptized, our names are written in the Book of Life. There they stay till, by our sins, we separate ourselves from the grace of God, and provoke Him to blot them out. Doubtless there are some in every age and in every country, who have never lost the grace given to them at their baptism, no not for an hour. They are the more blessed. But for those who have, there is comfort yet. If they repent, their names shall be again set in the Book of Life. It is as if God said to the sinner, " Thou hast many times provoked Me to anger, thou hast broken all My commandments, thou hast left undone the things which thou oughtest to have done, and done the things which thou oughtest not to have done : but I will not blot out thy name out of the Book of Life, because My de- light is in mercy. Thou hast forgotten Me clay after day, month after month, year after year, but I have not forgotten thee for an hour. Thou hast followed thine own ways, thou hast done according to thine own heart's lusts, but I have not left thee to thyself. Thou hast blotted Me out of thy thoughts, but I will not blot thee out of the Book of Life. Thou hast not confessed Me before men ; or if thou hast confessed Me with thy lips, thou hast denied Me in thy life ; yet, if thou wilt turn and repent, if thou wilt be ' he that overcometh/ I will confess thy name before My Father, and before His holy angels." 22 The Penitent clothed in White, [Serm. This, it is true, was not the way in which the Martyrs overcame : but if God grant us to come within a thou- sand degrees of them in glory, it will be enough. They have a more glorious portion. " The shield of the mighty men/' says Nahum, " is made red ; the valiant men are in scarlet." The mighty men are the Martyrs : the scarlet is the glorious colour of their own blood. And so again, Solomon, speaking of the Church, says, " She shall not be afraid when the cold cometh, for her household are clothed in scarlet." That is, she shall have no cause to fear when others are falling away from God; seeing that she has so many who have given their lives to prove the strength of their love to Him. And in this sense also we may understand the pro- mise "to him that overcometh." lie that overcometh the wrongs done to him by others by forgiving them, shall be clothed in white raiment : that is, shall have his own sins forgiven and put away. " If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you." But this remember, we can overcome nothing without love, and to-day gives us an example of this love. It was this love for which S. Valentine, the Saint of this day, was so distinguished. He was a Bishop, or as others say, a Priest in Asia, in the time of that great and fierce persecution, the teuth and last persecution that ever heathens raised up against the Church. But though he was honoured to be a martyr for Christ's sake, he has been held in even more honour for the greatness of his love to poor distressed people, and to all men. Other Saints and their deeds have been for- gotten ; this we still remember. Like many another good custom, it may have become an abuse : but the IV.] and not blotted out of the Book of Life. 23 custom of choosing Valentines on this day had its rise in the remembrance of the love of this holy Bishop ; and so had the fable that the birds choose their mates at this time. He overcame, therefore, in many ways : all his life long he overcame evil with good ; and at last he over- came all that the malice of Satan and his servants could do. For he is one of those of whom it is written, " They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of His testimony : and they loved not their lives unto the death." And now he has the re- ward of him " that overcometh/' and is clothed with the white robes of a saint, and with the scarlet of a martyr. And now to Him in Whose strength he overcame, Jesus Christ, be ascribed, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON Y. FRUIT IN OLD AGE. d. Babfo. iHardj 1. "They also shall bring forth more fruit in their age." — ts. xcii. 13. This day calls to our remembrance a saint, who has left, as it were, a pattern of what the old ought to be like. S. David, who was Archbishop of the place in Wales since called S. David's from him, not only served God from his youth up, but continued to serve Him in this world till he was one hundred and forty-six years old. His hoary head was indeed to him a crown of glory, — for he brought in multitudes of sinners to serve the true and living God. He indeed bore the burden and heat of the day, — and a very long day it was : — and no doubt his reward on high was as great as his labours here. Now as this saint is an example to the old, how that up to the last moment of their lives they should be occu- pied in the work of God, — so the text I just read to you ought to be the comfort of the old, — that if they are thus occupied, they shall bring forth more fruit. More fruit than what ? The sense must be, — more fruit than they ever did before. They may be weak, — Serm. v.] Fruit in Old Age. 25 they may be poor, — they may be sickly, — they may be able to do little, — their strength, as the prophet speaks, may be to sit still j — but here is the promise : " they shall bring forth more fruit." Now this is a most important question for most of you : — for, if it be a promise to you that you shall bring forth more fruit, that is, that you shall do more for God's service, now that you are old, than you did when you were young, then it is your parts and duties to see that this promise be fulfilled. When God gives us a promise that we shall be able to do any good deed, then, depend upon it, He intends that we shall avail ourselves of it. But now, what is this fruit which you are now able to bring forth ? — Why, there are several kinds. And the first is, patience. It is not an easy thing for the old to be contented with that state of life to which they are called. It is not easy to say of those whose weak childhood we can remember, but whom we now see starting up to take our places, — " He must in- crease, but I must decrease." It is not pleasant to feel that becoming a burden which was once no burden at all ; — to have less and less to do with things as they go on around us; — to feel, as the proverb goes, that our day is over. And therefore we know that complain- ingness and peevishness are generally the faults of old age ; — faults the more likely to be committed, because, at first sight, they do not seem so very great. Those who would shrink back with horror from some great sin, such as stealing, or lying, or blasphemy, will fall without any difficulty into that which seems to them a far less sin, discontent and mourning all the day long. And the more natural this is, the greater example of grace we give when it is overcome. Those who have 26 Fruit in Old Age. [Serm. old age, and sickness, and poverty together, — if they are cheerful, if they are thankful, this is indeed so let- ting their light shine before men, that their heavenly Father may be glorified. They have more opportunity to show forth this grace in their old age : — it is an oc- casion of pleasing God which He gives them now, but which He never gave them before. Again : — they have more time to serve Him. He graciously calls them off from the business of this life, and forces them, as it were, to look to the Life to come. And for this reason it often happens — whatever you may think to the contrary, — that the old age of the poor has a greater advantage in it than that of the rich. A poor man, who has worked hard with his body all his life, cannot go on working in the same way to the end of his days. He must stop. He is laid aside whether he wall or not. But those who have worked with their minds, are not necessarily laid aside in the same way. I do not know a sadder sight than to see an old man busied about the business of the world, which he neces- sarily must give up so soon : — the lawyer, for example, studying his cases of law to the last : — the merchant making up his books and reckoning his gains to the last. But now from this the poor are laid aside. And to what end? That they may have time for repentance, and time for prayer. You, for example, when you w r ere in your working days could not, with- out sin, have given up that time to God, which, now, you cannot without sin, keep back from Him. Then you had families to attend to; — then you had your bread to earn in the sweat of your brow ; and, as it is written, "If any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, v.] Fruit in Old Age. 27 and is worse than an infidel." Now you have no such thing. Now you may serve God as much as you will. Now, as you are drawing nigh to that other world, so He gives you a breathing time to prepare for it. And this is true, if of any, most of all of you. Would to God that, in every town in the land there were a college like this, where those who are aged might be gathered together, might, to a great degree, be taken out of the world, — where the word of God might be brought very near them, — where the means of grace might be almost forced upon them ! — Think how many a poor servant of God has been left in his old age in some cottage, far from the church, and no means of his getting there, — far from the priest, — and but few oppor- tunities of being visited by him, — far from all the com- mon means of grace, — and then compare his state with yours ! — I might use our Lord's words — " Many righ- teous men have desired to see the things which ye see, and have not seen them, — and to hear the things which ye hear, and have not heard them V And all this, to the end that you should " bring forth fruit." And now one more reason for the saying in the text. Old age is in itself a talent. It gives people influence over others. Just as we think that a learned man's advice must be good, because he has read much, — just as we think that a man who has mixed much with others is worth listening to, because he has seen much, — so what an old man says has weight, because he has had so much experience. We see this in the Bible itself. When David is telling us that the righteous are never forsaken, — he does not say, — I have read much, and am therefore learned, — or, I have had the oppor- tunities of knowing much, because I am a king : but 28 Fruit in Old Age. [Serai. V. " I have been young and now am old." That he gives as the reason why we should believe what he says. So constantly we read of the honour due to old age. Elihu said to Job and to his three friends, " I am young, and ye are very old : wherefore I durst not speak, nor show you mine opinion." — Solomon says : " The hoary head is a crown of glory : if it be found in the way of righteousness." All this gives you influence, — which God expects you to use for Him. If your words have more weight now than they had fifty years ago ; all the more careful you must be then that they are to His glory. All the more zealous you must be that what influence you have should be on God's side, and not on the devil's. Very soon indeed, you will stand before that Judgment seat, where inquiry will be made whether you did bring forth more fruit in old age or not. What answer you will then be able to give, depends on what lives you now lead. And Lent comes to help you still further. God gives you every means of salvation. If you are condemned, there will be no possibility of excuse for you. As Moses said of the Israelites, so I say of you, " Oh that they were wise, — that they would understand this, — that they would con- sider their latter end !" And now to God, the Father, the Sox, and the Holy Ghost, be all glory for ever. Amen. SERMON VI. 1 GOD'S JUDGMENT UPON SINNERS. d. Cljatt. fHanh 2. " And all Israel shall hear and feae ; and shall do no moke any such wickedness as this is among you." — deut. xiii. 11. This day is remarkable for giving us one of the few examples where God has been pleased, in these later times and in this country, to stretch out His arm mi- raculously in defence of His Church. If we are now called to remember the blessed departure of a saint to glory, so we are to tremble at the fearful death of one of God's enemies. First, let me tell you the story. Chad, a very holy man, was Bishop of Lichfield about twelve hundred years ago. When he went to his rest, he left the memory of his good deeds behind him; — and therefore it came to pass, that when they built a cathedral in that city, they called it after his name, — S. Chad's cathedral. So it stood on for many hundred years. At last came the time when many wicked men rose up against their lawful king, Charles the First, and against the Church of England. They hated the Prayer 1 First published in "The Gospel Messenger," Burntisland, 1855. 30 God's Judgment upon Sinners. [Serm. Book, — they hated all things that were to the glory of God in His service, — they hated all churches, — hut above all things they hated cathedrals, as being richer and more beautiful than the others. One of the chief men of that party was called Lord Brooke, — and he lived in that part of the country where Lichfield cathe- dral stands. Accordingly, when the war broke out, he made a vow that he would not leave one stone standing upon an- other in S. Chad's church. And it was a favourite wish of his that he might live to see with his own eyes the destruction of all the cathedrals in England. Accord- ingly he gathered a troop of men together, and marched towards Lichfield. The night before he reached the place, that is, the night of the first of March, two hun- dred and nine years ago, he ordered his chaplain to pray that God would give him a sign whether the work on which he went were pleasing to Him or not. The men of Lichfield were greatly afraid and dis- tressed. They knew that their walls were weak, and they themselves few in number, and the enemy strong ; — and they knew what Lord Brooke had vowed to do to their holy and beautiful house, where their fathers had worshipped God for so many hundred years, and where they themselves had been baptized, and had prayed, and had been fed with the Body and Blood of Christ. The cathedral being strong, they determined to hold it out to the last ; — and accordingly a number of soldiers were sent to defend it. Next day, — that is, as on to-day, — Lord Brooke and his soldiers appeared before the place. On S. Chad's Day he was determined to assault S. Chad's church. Accordingly, as he was about to give the orders to begin VI.] God's Judgment upon Sinners. 31 the attack, and his array were all around him on one side and on the other, he stood forth in the midst, and with a loud voice began to make again the same prayer that he had made before. " I beseech Thee, O Lord," he said, " to give me a sign, whether the work that we are going about be pleasing to Thee ; whether it be Thy will that mine eyes should behold this house of Baal," — so he wickedly called the cathedral, — " cast down to the ground." God heard his prayer. There stood among others on the great middle tower of the cathedral, a man who was deaf and dumb from his birth. This man resting his gun on the battlement, took aim at Lord Brooke, who had just finished his prayer. The others tried to hinder him from firing : — a gun, they said, could not carry so far, — much, less could it do any harm at that distance. But, however, fire he would ; and God di- rected the bullet. Lord Brooke, when he began his prayer, had raised the upper part of his helmet, so as to uncover his forehead. Just as he said Amen, the deaf and dumb man pulled the trigger. The bullet entered at Lord Bi'ooke's eye ; and stretched him dead on the ground. He had asked for a sign, and God gave it him. He had asked for a sign, and he had such a sign as he is like to be known by as long as English history is read. The bullet was guided to such a dis- tance as good soldiers thought it impossible for it to reach : it found out the only part of his body which was not armed ; and it entered at the eye by which he had hoped to see the destruction of all cathedrals. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And now, then, it is our place to beware lest Ave fall into the like condemnation. If we allow sin to 32 God's Judgment upon Sinners. [Serm. reigu in those bodies which are temples of the Holy Ghost, God's vengeance may not come so suddenly on us as it did on this miserable man, — but it will be as certain, and it will be as fearful. We may not be marked to all ages with such a sign of God's punish- ment as Lord Brooke : but how shall we be the better for that, if, for our sins in the body, we are condemned to the worm that cannot die, and the fire that never shall be quenched ? The use of speaking of such ex- amples of God's vengeance is told us in the text, — " All Israel shall hear and fear, and shall do no more such wickedness as this is among you." But now let me go on to tell you what became after all of this church of S. Chad. Although Lord Brooke was slain, his soldiers took it ; and though they did not destroy it, they hurt it very much, and for sixteen years it lay almost in ruins. Then the Church was again restored to this country, and a most holy man, — his name was John Racket, — was appointed Bishop of Lichfield. The cathedral had been turned into a stable ; heaps of filth and rubbish blocked it up, and it seemed almost hopeless to try to restore it again. But on the first morning, the Bishop set out for the building with his servants, and ordered his carriage horses to be brought also. And there they all laboured, day after day. All the money that came from his bishopric the bishop gave to the restoration of his church. He said, as David did of old, " I will not come within the taber- nacle of mine house, nor climb up into my bed; I will not suffer mine eyes to Bleep, nor mine eyelids to slum- ber, neither the temples of my head to take any rest : until I find out a place for the temple of the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob." And at last, VI.] God's Judgment upon Sinners. 33 exactly one thousand years after S. Chad's death, he had the joy of consecrating his church again, and so it stands to this day. Now, all this story ought to be a comfort to us. It shows us that " the Lord's arm is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear." It teaches us the fulness of meaning in which we may take the collect for this week : " Stretch forth the right hand of Thy Majesty to be our defence against all our enemies." We say the words — and yet how little we think what the prayer is ! The right hand of God's Majesty ! Why, how can we dare to be afraid of all that men or evil spirits can do, if that be on our side ? The strongest forms of language too — not only the right hand of God, but the right hand of His Ma- jesty, — that is, His power in its most glorious and fear- ful form. And, thinking of that, how can I end better than with the words of S. Paul: "If God be for us, who can be against us ? I am persuaded" — he does not, you see, speak rashly, as it were, he has thought it over and made up his mind — " I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." To Him, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, be ascribed all honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen. SEEM ON VII. THE NEW WAY. d. Slban. $um 17. " Ye have not passed this way hebetofore."— Josht-a in. 4. This day is very interesting to us for two reasons : first, because S. Alban was an English Martyr; and secondly, because he was the first English Martyr. He lived at a town in Hertfordshire, which was then called Verulam, but now has taken its name from him, and is called S. Alban's. A soldier he was, and a heathen ; but, notwithstanding, when the persecution broke out, he took in and sheltered a Christian Priest, gave him food and lodging, and preserved him from his enemies. No doubt God was well pleased with this deed, even in a heathen. For although good works done before baptism cannot deserve favour, yet He sometimes is pleased to reward them. And so it was here. He gave Alban the grace to become a Christian ; He gave him the grace not to fear them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do ; and so his head was struck off, and he entered into the joy of his Lord. Serm. Vll.] The New Way. 35 The great church that they built over his tomb stands to this day, and you may still see the stone that lies on the very spot where he suffered. But this, of all things, is his great glory — that what S. Stephen was to the whole Catholic Church, that S. Alban was to our own dear Church of England — its first Martyr. To be the first to do or to bear anything for God's sake is an honour which we shall not fully understand till that Great Day when the secrets of all hearts shall be opened. In the first place, it requires more faith. So you read in that chapter of the Book of Joshua where my text is, that when the children of Israel were about to pass over the river Jordan, where there was no bridge, where the water had overflowed all his banks, where they were to trust, simply and quietly, to God's word that He would bring them through ; it was the priests, His more immediate ser- vants, who had to go down to the bank, and as soon as their feet were dipped in the water, but not a moment before, then the waters stood up on one side on a heap, and left a dry passage for all the multitude. Those Priests had the more glorious part, they were the first to obey God's command, though it seemed to lead, them to their certain destruction. And S. Alban's faith was like theirs. God called him to die for the True Faith. We have heard and read of multitudes that have done so; not men only, but women, girls, even infants, that out of weakness have been made strong. But Alban had no such examples before him. " Ye have not passed this way heretofore" was exactly true of him. There had then been no martyrdoms in this England of ours. But it was enough for him to follow where God led. He was a soldier, and he 36 The New Way. [Serm. knew that in all wars some man must march first. He was a Christian, and he could say, "Neverthe- less I am not ashamed; for I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that Day." And another reason why it is more glorious to be the first to obey God's commands is, that it makes us more like Christ. He was the first that conquered Satan; He was the first that burst the bars of death; He was the first to ascend into heaven. Therefore He is called the Captain of our salvation, our Leader, Who bids us do nothing that He has not done Himself. He tells us, when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them. Therefore, when we can go before others, and show them how to obey God, we become in some degree like Him Who went before us all. Not that this going first is easy or pleasant. See where it led our Lord. It led Him to suffer hunger, thirst, weariness ; to be in the wilderness forty days and forty nights; it led Him to be reviled, mocked, spitted on; it led Him in the company of two thieves to the hill of Calvary ; it led Him as high as the Cross, as an example to those that should come after Him. Yes, it is not an easy thing to serve God at all ; but least of all easy is it to serve Him first. It is difficult enough to follow a good example. It is a great deal more difficult to set it. Now, in one sense, these words of Joshua, " ye have not passed this way heretofore," are true to us all every hour of every day. Always new temptations are coming, always new difficulties are rising up, always new troubles are threatening us. Wc may have had like things before, VII.] The New Way. 37 we may have felt and feared something of very nearly the same kind, but not exactly the same. Therefore every day we need the grace and the help of God in something of a different way from that in which we needed it before. But the comfort is, if all these things are changing around us, there is One Who does not change, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Whatever kind of help you need, He is seated at the right hand of the Father to give it you. Fifteen hundred years ago, He was ready to assist S. Alban in his Martyrdom ; He was ready to crown him when it was over. Since that time, think of the multitude of His servants, who in all sorts of distresses, in all kinds of fears, in all manner of temptations, have called on Him, and have found Him a very present help in time of trouble. And His Arm is not shortened now. If He had grace sufficient for the martyrs, depend upon it, He has enough grace to carry us through this life, yes, and through the Valley of the Shadow of Death also. No : His Arm is not shortened. And so you would say if you could see what I have seen within the last few weeks. Only a year ago, in one of the wildest and fiercest countries of Asia, where there are but few Christians, our Lord gave grace to thirty to die for His sake. It seems strange to hear of Martyrdoms in our own time ; but so it is. While I, perhaps, was talking to you of martyrs, than which nothing is more easy, these servants of God were playing the man for His sake, and becoming martyrs. One of them was a Bishop ; the greater part were mere common Christians in that country, what you all might be here. Their bodies, or what remained of them, were brought to the 38 The New Way. [Serm. city of Paris, where multitudes of people go up every day to see them. But the most interesting part I have not told you yet. There was one among these martyrs who was kept to the last ; he had suffered torments for the sake of Christ, but he saw all the others be- headed first, and then his own turn was to come. He was just about to be put to death, (it was by the sea-shore,) when a French ship came into the bay, and the savages were afraid, and let him go. He also is in Paris, with the remains of his com- panions, and you may see the marks of the knives on his arms and hands, of which he has lost the use. " It was God's will," he says, " but, had it not been for that unfortunate French vessel, I should now be in Heaven." With all these examples, then, not only of what God has done, as it was with S. Alban, but of what He still does, as it was with the thirty martyrs of last year, what business have we to doubt that He will not be able to take care of us through this life, and out of it ? What business have we to fear when we come to any new trial, any place or thing of which it may be more particularly said, " Ye have not passed this way here- tofore," that nevertheless we shall not pass it safely ? Only let us be ready to do or to bear what He sends us; only let us try to be the first to hear what His Will is, and the first to attend to it, and if we, the Holy Ghost helping us, take care of that, He will take care of all the rest. They that are first in His service, are first in His favour : " They that seek Mc early shall find Mc." This indeed would be grievous, if we desired to be the first in all earthly things — man's good opinion, money, comfort, and what not else — but in that which VII] The New Way. 39 really alone matters — God's favour — we are content to be last. Last in everything else, if you will ; but let us try to be first in that. And now to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, for ever. Amen. SERMON VIII. HOW OUR LORD COMES TO US. Visitation of t\)t BtoSrtf Virgin Hflarn. 3hilp 2. "Akd whence is this to me, that the mothee of my Lokd should come to me ?" — s. luke i. 43. This day — the Visitation of S. Mary — we here in England look upon as in the very height and best part of summer : while the days are at the longest, while the woods and hedges are at the greenest, while the hay is in the fields, before the great heats have parched the earth or withered the leaves. It is a pleasant summer feast, both the time and the thing we are called to remember. And it is a fit day to be, as it is, the birthday of that divine Hymn, "My soul doth magnify the Lord." To-day it was that S. Mary uttered it : the first Christian hymn that ever was made, the first of a whole multitude of glorious songs that the Saints of the Church have written; Kings, Bishops, Priests, Martyrs, Confessors, who are now singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. They all say in different words the same thing which S. Mary now said : — " My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." And notice Serm. VIII.] How our Lord comes to us. 41 this : as Miriam — which is the same name as Mary — was the first to sing a Hymn in the Old Testament, when the children of Israel had escaped from Pharaoh : " Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed glori- ously : the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea \" so now, the Blessed Virgin was the first in the New Testament to praise God with a Hymn for delivering us from him of whom Pharaoh was a type — the devil. But it was not really in summer that this happened : it was towards the beginning of April. April there is not as it is with us, the month of cold winds and many showers. The vines and the figs are just in full leaf; " the winter is past ; the rain is over and gone ; the voice of the turtle is heard in the land ;" and the fireflies glitter backwards and forwards over the hedges and in the damp grass. I wonder whether S. Mary, in pass- ing along the beautiful valleys of Judah, would call to mind the Song of the Three Children, — a O ye nights and days, bless ye the Lord ; O ye mountains and hills, bless ye the Lord ; O let the earth bless the Lord !" — or whether rather she were so taken up by the wonderful message which she had received but a few days before, that she had no eyes, nor ears, nor thoughts for anything but this: — "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over- shadow thee." Our dear Lord was to travel many weary miles for our sake after His birth j as an Infant when He was carried into Egypt ; as a Child, when He went up to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover; as a Man, when He went about doing good, and healing all that were vexed of devils. And twice before His Birth 42 How our Lord comes to us. [Serm. He journeyed ; first to-day, when His Blessed Mother went to see her cousin, S. Elizabeth; and afterwards, at the end of the same year, when there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed, and Joseph and Mary went up to Bethlehem, because they were of the house and lineage of David. To-day's travel was His first journey of all — a journey of gladness. His last journey was to the top of the Mount of Olives, where His Blessed feet stood upon this earth for the last time before He shall come to judge the quick and the dead; and that also was a journey of gladness. But between those two, what a world of suffering and bitterness did He go through in His journeys for us men and for our salvation, till He journeyed up Mount Calvary with the wood of the Cross, and there said, " It is finished \" And now think for a moment of S. Mary, as she went on. That she was chosen to be the Mother of God ; that she was containing Him Whom heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot hold ; that she was bear- ing Him, Who even then might have said, " The earth is weak and all the inhabiters thereof; I bear up the pillars of it ;" that she was nourishing Him Whose are all the beasts of the forest, and so are the cattle upon a thousand hills. As yet it had not been prophesied to her, "Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also." As yet she little knew by what agonies this great work would be brought to pass ; she could not tell what she herself would suffer in the Passion of her Son (for holy men have not feared to call her the greatest of all the Martyrs.) It must have been all one glorious prospect to her : the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. She knew that from her VIII.] How our Lord comes to us. 43 should come the Son Who should destroy the devil; should ransom from the power of the grave ; should open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. She knew that now the prophecy was on the point of being fulfilled : — " Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, God with us. For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." And were not these her thoughts, passing almost what we can imagine, as she went through the hill country of Judsea ? Yes : I think she could not have had eyes and ears for anything else. And look at S. Elizabeth waiting for her visit: she also to be honoured ; she also a mother by miracle ; she to bring forth a son who should be great, and should go before the Lord God in the spirit and power of Elias. The mother of a Saint — of one of whom it should be said, " Among them that are born of women, there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist •" — but yet only a Saint — and how must she have looked forward to the coming of her that was the Mother of God ? And when they drew nigh, she herself tells us what she felt : " And whence is this to me that the Mother of my Lord should come unto me ?" And notice this : the first time that our Lord Jesus Christ was called by the two names which now we most com- monly give Him, our Lord and our Saviour, was now. Mary said, " My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Sa- viour :" Elizabeth said, " That the Mother of my Lord should come unto me." Whence indeed ? And whence is it to all of us, that 44 How our Lord comes to us. [Serm. our Lord Himself should come to us — should come from the Bosom of the Father into a world that hated Him — should come unto His own, His own receiving Him not — should come to the very men that should persecute Him, revile Him, and slay Him ? Whence is this to us that He should come to the Garden of Gethsemane — should come to the judgment-seat of Annas, Caiaphas, and Herod, — should come and stand before the people, when Pilate said, " Behold the Man \" — should come to Calvary, and to the Cross ? And again ; whence is this to us, that He should come to us on the Altar ? That as He gave His Body to be crucified for us on the Cross, there He should give it us to be our food? Whence is this that the Lord of Glory, the King of Kings, should vouchsafe Himself to come to His sick and dying servants, — to enter miserable cottages, to be received in wretched beds, — to comfort the meanest and the lowest? Why, when an earthly king goes anywhere, people ever after mark the room where he lodged with honour, set up pillars where he stood, point out the road by which he travelled. And yet, probably, there is not a single room in this College in which Christ Himself has not thus visited His servants. Whence is this to us, that in such a way as this our Lord should come to us ? S. John the Baptist has his part in this day. " As soon," said S. Elizabeth, "as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine cars, the babe leaped in my womb for joy." The Lord's messenger was in haste to give His message. And think what a cottage that must have been where, with their Lord and with the Mother of God, all those Saints were met together ! Never was there one like it, except only that cottage at VIII.] How our Lord comes to us. 45 Nazareth where Gabriel gave his glad tidings, " Thou shalt bring forth a Son, and shalt call His Name Jesus." This is the only festival which is not mixed up with sorrow. True, the joy lasted but for awhile ; yet, while it lasted, who can tell how sweet and holy it was? And that should lead us to look forward to the time when our Lord, Who has visited us in this world, shall send for us to visit Him in the next : " Ye shall haste and bring my brethren up hither :" " Father, I will that they whom Thou hast given Me, may be with Me where I am." And we — what shall we say then? Will it be, " When shall I come and appear before God ?" Will it be, " I was glad when they said unto me, We will go into the House of the Lord ?" Or will it be like prisoners going to execution, without love, without hope, that we are dragged out of the body, left by our guardian Angel, Satan standing by us to accuse us, God meeting us as a strict Judge That will by no means clear the guilty ? God grant not ; God grant that, after so often saying here, " Whence is this to me that my Lord should come to me V s we may one day say there, Whence is this to me, that I should go and see my Lord, and dwell with Him for ever ? And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON IX. THE RESUEKECTION OE THE BODY. Cramilatioit of $. JKartin. Sub 4. " Thebe shall be a besttbbection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." — acts xxiv. 15. I shall have to speak to you of S. Martin himself, by God's grace, in November. To-day is kept in memory of his Translation, that is, of the removal of his body from the grave, where it had at first been buried, into a church built to receive it. Therefore, we are led to-day to think how much care the Church takes of the bodies of her saints, because they were once the temples of the Holy Ghost, and because she knows that they will rise again to glory in the last day. Now I am afraid that there are many persons, who say that they believe in the Resurrection, and who do believe in it after a sort, who yet do not really feel that it is the very same bodies which we now have, the very same flesh, and skin, and bones, — which will rise again at the Judgment Day. If they were honestly to say what they believe, it would be that at the Resurrection we should have something like our present bodies, something that would do as well, — not that we should Serm.IX.] The Resurrection of the Body. 47 be exactly as we are now, — the same body, the same soul, joined together, never more to be separated. Yet as it was with our Lord, so it will also be with us. " Handle Me," He said to His Apostles, " and see : for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have." And so truly and perfectly had He a body like ours, after His Resurrection, that we even read how He ate of a broiled fish and of a honey-comb. The differences between our bodies as they are now, and as they will be then, are only three : let us see what they are. In the first place, they can no more sin. This is certain : because, if they could sin, we might be cast out of heaven. But if we once enter that blessed place, we can never be driven out. In S. John's Revelation we read, " Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Temple of My God, and he shall go no more out." And S. Paul says, " So shall we ever be with the Lord." No : heaven would be no heaven if we could lose it. But we are told expressly, " He that is dead hath ceased from sin." Think now what a great multitude of sins come from the body, and so enter into the soul, and then think what a blessed and glorious thing it will be when they are all cast off for ever ! Sin came into the world by the body, — namely, by gluttony ; the first thing that Eve saw concerning the forbidden fruit was, that it was good for food. But after the Resurrection, no more slothfulness, no more gluttony, no more impurity : the former things shall be passed away. That is the chief change. The body, which was always hindering us in God's service here, will there help us in it. It cannot grow weary, it cannot interrupt us by its own feelings; there we shall truly 48 The Resurrection of the Body. [Sera. and perfectly " glorify God in our body and in our spirit, which are God's/' The nest great difference is, that the body will be incorruptible. This does not only mean that it can never die, but it tells us a great deal more. Here, in this world, our bodies are wearing out day by day ; and therefore day by day we have to keep them up by food, and by rest. But there, they cannot wear out; there- fore they will not want food nor rest ; at least that is the belief of the Church. Rest, we know they do not want; for S. John tells us that "they rest not day nor night." And since our Lord has told us that they who shall be counted worthy to enter into the kingdom of heaven " shall neither marry nor be given in mar- riage, but shall be like the Angels," it seems most likely that they will also be like the Angels in not requiring meat and drink. But it is certain there can be no wea- riness ; it is certain there can be no sickness ; the in- habitant," says Isaiah, " shall not say, I am sick :" it is certain there can be no age or decay. As a holy Bishop of old wrote in a hymn : " Here they lire in endless being, Passingness has passed away ; Here they bloom, they grow, they flourish, For decayed is all decay : Life, and health, and strength have swallowed Weakness, pain, and death for aye." But there is yet a third difference between our bodies as they are now, and as they will be. All in heaven will be perfect. Therefore how can children, who have not come to perfection, or the old, like yourselves, who have long passed it, — how can they be found there? Now Holy Scripture tells us very little on this point. IX.] The Resurrection of the Body. 49 But the belief of the Church is that the old will be raised again, not withered, and decayed, and worn out, but as they were when they were in the best part of their earthly lives ; and that children will be raised, not as they were when they were laid in the grave, but as they would have been if they had been spared to their full growth and strength. You are to understand that this is not what we call " an article of faith -," that is, not a thing which a man must believe, or he cannot be saved. It is only what is generally named a "pious opinion :" that is, a belief which the Church recom- mends us to have, or praises us for having, but does not require us to hold. And there are one or two texts in the Bible which seem to say as much. Isaiah, speaking of heaven, says, " There shall be no more thence an infant, nor an old man." And S. Paul says that we shall be all in " the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Now ®ur Lord died for us in the very prime of life, at thirty-three years of age according to the flesh : therefore holy men have thought that at our resurrection we also shall awake up iu the prime of life, even as our Lord did at His. But now, what a thing is this which we say day by day, night by night, " I believe in the Resurrection of the body V I believe, that is, that all the bodies that ever were, or ever will be, — those that have mouldered quietly away in country churchyards, those that have been flung into great pits on fields of battle, those that are tossing about in the huge sea, those that have been burned, those that have been eaten by wild beasts, those that in plagues have been destroyed by quick-lime, those that have been swallowed by sea- monsters, — all E 50 The Resurrection of the Body. [Serm. will come together, muscle to muscle, bone to bone, limb to limb, — yes, and hair to hair, (" even the hairs of your head are all numbered :") of those hundreds of thousands of millions not one wrong, not one mistake; brought together from all parts of the earth, mountains, caves, seas, rivers, lakes, forests, churchyards; all ar- rayed as they were, all joined by His wisdom Who cannot be deceived. This is what we Christians believe in our Creed. As to the heathens, they laughed at the thought. S. Paul was preaching at Athens to the wisest people on the face of the earth. They listened when he spoke to them of the One God, Whom they ignorantly worshipped. But when he spoke of the Resurrection of the Dead, " some mocked, and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter." Even the Jews, many of them, could not believe it. The Sadducees in our Lord's time denied it. And indeed in the Old Testament there are only three clear pro- mises of it. One of them is that glorious prophecy of Job's which we heard, the other day : " I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth : and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God/' The other is in Isaiah, where it is our Lord speaking : " Thy dead men shall live, together with My dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust ; for thy dew is as the clew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." And the third is in Daniel : " Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake." But all this our very children know. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings praise is ordained. One thing more. To be with the Lord Jesus will IX.] The Resurrection of the Body. 51 be the great blessedness of heaven. But nevertheless it will be a blessedness to be with the holy men of old, and with those whom we have loved here. Some people have asked, whether we shall know each other, if we are counted worthy of that happy place? There is no kind of doubt that we shall. The rich man in the parable knew Abraham ; and how is it possible that being the same as we have been, we shall not know each other? I might just as reasonably have doubted, when I was in a foreign country, and counting the days till I should return here, whether I should know you, whether you would remember me, when I came back. Now to end. Remember to whom it is that these glorious things are promised : " They that have done good shall go into life everlasting, and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.'" Have done evil? but how ? Not, God forbid, those who have done any evil, else who could be saved? but those who have done evil and have not repented of it ; but those who have persisted in sin, and gone out of the world in it : those who have quietly given themselves to be servants of the devil, they indeed shall go into everlasting fire. But not those who, though they have sinned, have sought forgiveness ; not those Avho grieve and mourn for their evil doings, not those who are trying, with however many failures, to fight the good fight of faith. Only bear this in mind : there are but these two classes of persons, they that have done good, and they that have done evil. There is no middle class of indifferent persons, with an indifferent place, neither so good as heaven, nor so bad as hell, provided for them. God's or the Devil's you must be. No man can serve two masters here, and 52 The Resurrection of the Body. [Serm. IX. every man shall receive the wages of that master whom he hath served, there. God grant that we may then be found on the right hand, for Jesus Christ's sake : to Whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON X. WHAT WE ARE TO LEARN FROM THE RAIN. d. £fottftut. Shtlj) 15. "And the eain was upon the eaeth fohty days and forty NIGHTS." — GrEN. VII. 12. You all know the common belief about to-day ; that, according as it is fine or wet, so will the next six weeks also be. You most probably do not all know the reason of this belief. S. Swithin, who was Bishop of Winches- ter, gave orders, when he was departing to the Lord, that his body should not be buried in the church, where even then, it was the custom to lay great people, but in the churchyard, where, he said, the rain and the dews of heaven might fall upon it. His disciples, who had loved him dearly, could not bear that his body should be buried in what they thought a less honourable place; therefore they determined to take up his coffin, and to remove it into the church. They fixed this day ; but the rain fell so heavily and so unceasingly both then, and for six weeks afterwards, that they gave up their purpose. S. Svvithin's Day was once a great day here; for the 54 What we are to learn from the Rain. [Serm. church is called after him. People then came up from far and near to keep his feast ; and it was a high holi- day. That is now past ; but it is curious that still the day should be spoken of by those who care, not for the Saint, but for the weather; by those who are labouring, not as he laboured for the bread that perisheth not, but for that earthly food for which it is also our duty to work. Let us for once do as the world does. Every one to-day is talking of the rain; I will also speak of it now. Now see how many things we might learn, if we would, from every shower. God has made the rain a type to us both of His mercy and of His judgment. Let us see how. There was no rain in the Garden of Eden. "The Lord God/' says Moses, " had not caused it to rain upon the earth; but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground/' But some learned men have believed, and I think so too, that till the flood it never rained. Imagine then the terror, when water began to fall from the sky ! Where I was travelling this spring, it had snowed for the first time ; and the people ran to the churches, thinking that the end of the world was come. Judge then how those must have felt, who could no more imagine water falling from the sky than we can imagine a fall of stones ! And see how Moses describes to us the coming on of this rain. " The fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the waters increased and bare up the ark . . . and the waters prevailed, and were in- creased greatly upon the earth, and the ark went upon the face of the waters . . . and the waters prevailed X.] What we are to learn from the Rain. 55 upon the earth and all the high hills were covered . . . fifteen cubits and upwards did the waters prevail, and the mountains were covered." That is, after the high- est mountains, which are about five miles high, were covered, the waters still went on increasing, till they stood twelve yards higher still, and then they began to decrease. The first thought we have about rain, then, is that of judgment. But notice something else. I have often told you how God uses the same thing to save that He had permitted to destroy. As David slew Goliath with his own sword, as Benaiah killed the Egyptian of great stature with his own spear, as Judith cut off the head of Holofernes with his own falchion, so our Lord by death destroyed death, by His crown of thorns changed the curse, " thorns also shall the earth bear unto thee," — by the tree of the Cross atoned for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in a garden triumphed over the sin that had been committed in a garden. So here; as water destroyed every living thing wherein was the breath of life, so water bore up the ark, and saved those that were in it. After the flood, God made a promise to Noah, that He would no more destroy the earth by water. And He said, " I do set My bow in the cloud; and it shall come to pass when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud ; and I will remember My covenant." The plain sense of the words is, that there had never been a rainbow before. Therefore it is that I think that there had never been rain before; for if there had been, there must also, in two thousand years, have been a rainbow. And notice this : the rainbow was the first thing; that was at all like a Sacra- 56 What we are to learn from the Rain. [Serm. ment. It was an outward and visible sign of a grace or favour given to us. So, you see, in the first account we have of rain, we find judgment and mercy together. So we do in the second. This was the seventh plague in the land of Egypt — the plague of rain and hail. The judgment is clear enough. " The Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous ; and the fire ran along upon the ground." But there was mercy also. This was the only plague of which the Egyptians had warning. " Send therefore now," God said the day before, " and gather thy cattle, and all thou hast in the field, for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the fields, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die." Mercy and truth, you see, met together ; any might be saved that would; all that believed God's word, and showed by their deeds that they did believe it, were saved. There is another thing to remember when it rains. Next we come to Gideon's story. God commanded him to deliver Israel from Midian. He was slow to believe, and asked for two signs. The first was that he should put a fleece out at night, and that the dews, which in that country are heavier than with us, should be upon that fleece only ; while all the ground should be dry. The second was that the dew should come down upon all the ground, while the fleece only was dry. These things are a type. The fleece meant the Jews. While the knowledge of Cod belonged to the Jews, then the rest of the world was without it ; now that the kingdom of God is spread all over the earth, the Jews only are left without it. Here is judgment and mercy again : where the dew fell, mercy ; where the X.] What we are to learn from the Rain. 57 dew fell not, judgment. And there is another sense, which David explains to us in one of the Psalms which you heard last night. As the dew fell on the fleece of wool, without hurting or corrupting it, so our Lord Jesus Christ descended into the womb of S. Mary, she remain- ing a most pure virgin both before and after His birth. Now we go on again to Job. Elihu was speaking to Job and to his three friends. He begins in the thirty- second chapter. At the end of the thirty-sixth he mentions the rain. Any one who will read that and the next chapter will see that, as he was talking, a storm came on. First, he says, " He maketh small the drops of water ; they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof." Then the storm grows blacker : he says : " With clouds He covereth the light, and com- mands it not to shine by the cloud that corneth betwixt." Then we have the thunder. " God," says Elihu, " thundereth marvellously with His voice : great things doeth He, which we cannot comprehend." Still the storm continues: "Also by watering He wearieth the thick cloud ; He scattereth the bright cloud." Then it begins to pass off: "The wind," he says, " passeth and scattereth them." After this, there is some glo- rious appearance in the sky ; for Elihu goes on, " Gold cometh out of the north ;" that is, a bright light, yellow as gold; "with God is terrible majesty." And imme- diately it follows, " Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge ?" That storm went before the presence of God, and when it was past, He spoke. Here we have judgment and mercy also : judgment, for God judges Job for his boastings, and for his thinking that he had been hardly used ; mercy, 58 What we are to learn from the Rain. [Serm. for He restored to him health and riches, and state, and all that he had before. Take another example. The kings of Judah, Israel, and Edom, went out to battle against the king of Moab. They marched through the desert, and were ready to perish with thirst. Elisha, who was there, commanded them to make ditches all round the camp. "For thus saith the Lord; Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain ; yet that valley shall be filled with water." The rain, therefore, fell at a distance; for it goes on, "In the morning, when the meat offer- ing was offered, — behold, there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water." But the Moabites, seeing the sun shining redly upon it, took it for blood, and thought that the three kings had fought with each other, and came out hastily to the spoil, and were delivered into the hands of the Israelites. Thus there was mercy for the people of God, who were saved from dying by thirst ; but judgment for His enemies, who were cut to pieces. One thing only further: I mean the parable which our Lord spake concerning the rain. " Whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock : And the rain descended, and the Hoods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of Aline, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house; upon the sand: And the. rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." That is the great thing after all, — the only really great X.] Wliat we are to learn from the Rain. 59 thing, — the only thing that truly matters, whether we are keeping His sayings and doing them, or not. If we could only remember that, whenever we see it rain, happy should we be indeed ! And now I have given you something to think about for these forty days, if the old saying is true, and we have a wet season. This will be more profitable than complaining and lamenting, as every one is so apt to do, for the hay or the crops. God knows best what we really need; and we should all do well if we could truly make such an answer as an old shepherd once did. A traveller going by, said, " What sort of weather shall we have to-day ?" " Whatever weather I like," said the shepherd. " Whatever weather you like ? Why, how can that be ?" " Because it will be whatever God pleases; and what He pleases, that I like." This is the same thing as saying, like the Three Holy Children, " O ye showers and dews, bless ye the Lord ; praise Him and magnify Him for ever." And it will be the likely way to make us say with David, " Thou visitest the earth and blessest it : Thou makest it very plen- teous. Thou waterest her furrows, Thou sendest rain into the little valleys thereof: Thou makest it soft with the drops of rain, and blessest the increase of it. Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness : and Thy clouds drop fatness. They shall drop upon the dwellings of the wilderness : and the little hills shall rejoice on every side. The folds shall be full of sheep : the val- leys also shall stand so thick with corn, that they shall laugh and sing." And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SEEM ON XI. WHAT THE ONE PEA EL IS. $. {Hnrgarct. ghtlo 20. 1 "A MERCHANTMAN, SEEKING GOODLY PEARLS, WHO WHEN HE HAD FOUND ONE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE, WENT AND SOLD ALL THAT HE HAD, AND BOUGHT IT." — S. MATT. XIII. 45, 46. This day is fitted for that which we have been doing on it, and the text suits both. It suits the festival of S. Margaret; it suits also the bringing an infant into the Church, and signing it " with the sign of the Cross, in token that hereafter she shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ Crucified, and manfully to fight under His banner, against sin, the world, and the devil, and to continue Christ's faithful soldier and ser- vant unto her life's end." It suits the festival of S. Margaret. The name Margaret signifies a Pearl. And this Holy Virgin knew well what was that " Pearl of great price" of which our Lord spake ; namely, the Salvation of the soul. The merchantman in the text went and sold all that he had, and bought it; Margaret laid down all 1 Being the day of the reception of an infant into the Church. Sera. XL] What the one Pearl is. 61 that she had, even her life, and won it. She suffered at Antioch, the same place where the disciples were first called Christians; and she was a worthy follower of those great Saints, Peter, Paul, and Barnabas, who so long laboured there. She is generally painted with a dragon at her feet. The story goes that she destroyed by her prayers a dreadful monster, which laid waste the country far and near. Whether she really did this, I know not ; but I know that she did trample down that old dragon called the Devil and Satan, which de- ceiveth the world; and therefore she is numbered with the saints in glory everlasting. But the text also suits that which we have been doing to-day. Let us first clearly understand what that was. That little Margaret, who was to-day openly admitted into the same Church in which her name-saint did such great things for Christ's sake, was, as you know, many weeks since baptized. Baptized, once and for ever : she then became — not now — a member of Christ ; she then was made — not now — a child of God ; she then was admitted — not now — to be an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. All these glorious things she was yesterday, as much as she is to-day. " Doubt ye not therefore/' said the Priest, " that He hath favourably received this present infant ; that He hath embraced her with the arms of His mercy." We did not pray to-day that the Old Adam in this child might be so buried, that the New Man might be raised up in her ; that we knew had been done before. For T hope that none of you have learnt so little about bap- tism as to talk about a child's being " half baptized," or " half christened," when you mean privately bap- tized. We say, many times, " I believe one baptism 62 What the one Pearl is. [Serm. for the remission of sins j" never, " I believe half a baptism." What did we do, then, to-day? The Church, in her love for children, has thought it only right that those who were, by some necessity, baptized at home, — who could not, in the hurry, have godfathers and godmo- thers, — who possibly might be in such imminent danger that even all the prayers could not be said over them, — she has thought it only right that such children should not go without the privileges of others. Therefore, for them, she divides the service of baptism into two parts. Whereas, for others, she makes them first enter into a covenant or agreement with God, and then baptizes them; these she first baptizes, and then, if they live, she makes them enter into that covenant. And the outward token of this covenant is the sign of the Cross. Just as when a man takes service with a master, he puts on his livery ; so we, when we take service with our Great Master, Jesus Christ, put on His livery, namely, the Cross. This is what we have been doing to-day ; not pretending to add anything — Gon forbid ! — to that which the Holy Ghost did before; but pro- claiming for this infant that it is our glory, and that we trust, in time to come, it will be hers, that she is a servant of Christ Crucified, and so may have her part with the holy Margarets that have been before her : with Margaret, the saint of this day ; with Margaret of Scotland, who, though a queen, gave up all earthly things for the love of Christ; and with Margaret of Cortona, who, after falling most foully into sin, rose to a height of grace that has been given to few. I said that the text of the Pearl was fitted for the day. The merchantman went and sold all that he had, XI.] What the one Pearl is. 63 and bought that Pearl. This Pearl, I told you, means Salvation. Our Lord here tells us how we are to get it : we must buy it. He tells us also at what price we must buy it : we must give all we have for it. We must give all our time to God for it — that is, all our time must be spent for Him, in doing His work; either in serving Him directly, or in doing other busi- ness for His sake. We must give all our love for it : that is, we must love other things less than God : we must only love them as far as He would have us; we must be ready to give them up when He calls for them. So of everything else — health, strength, money, talents, influence with others — we must give them all for this Pearl — Salvation. God will have all, or He will have none. If we serve Him to-day, and. ourselves to-morrow, that will not do. If we serve Him with some of our powers, and keep the rest back from His service, that will not do. The merchantman went and sold all that he had ; he did not keep back his houses, or some of his land, or his ships, or his jewels; he gave all. And a wise merchantman he was. He knew that the One Pearl was worth infinitely more than all he had, and that if he could get it at that price it was a bargain, the excellency of which could not be told. Now, what has Baptism to do with this? Every- thing. Till a man is baptized, he has nothing to buy this Pearl with. He can do no good works — I mean good works in a Christian sense. If that merchantman had had nothing to buy with, he clearly never would have got the pearl. If you have nothing to give to God, you will never obtain Salvation ; and till you are baptized, you can have nothing. The Holy Ghost then gives you the power of doing good works. As it was with C> t What the one Pearl is. [Serm. the servants in the parable, — if their Lord, when He went away, had given them nothing to begin with, they could have gained nothing. He gave them five talents, two talents, one talent; and having them, they could go and increase them. He gave them their goods at first, and then He rewarded them, because they brought Him the profits. These two things, then, always keep in your mind. The first, that it is by doing good works that you will have a right to heaven, and in no other way; the second, that you have no glory or praise in doing them, because God gave you the power, and the will. Does it seem difficult to you to understand how you may have a right to heaven, while yet heaven is a gift? S. John tells you that you have a right to it : " Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life." S. Paul tells you that it is a free gift : " By grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God." Take a plain example how this is. At first, clearly, none of you had the least right to the pensions you have from the College. If they had not been given you at all, there would have been no injustice done you. The Patrons might have said, " Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?" Then, when you were admitted pensioners, you were put into possession, under certain conditions, mind you, of the rights that belong to us. What were the words? " Who is to have such lodging, pension, allowance, and other privileges, as the rest of the Brotherhood ; he com- plying in all things with the statutes of the College." So here was a covenant between you and the Patrons. They, for their part, promised to give you certain gifts, XL] What the one Pearl is. 65 you, for your part, promised to obey certain laws. It is an exact type of Baptism. God there, for His part, promised to give you His heavenly kingdom ; you, for your part, promised to keep His commandments. But suppose you do not keep the statutes of the College. Theu would you have a right to its privileges? Certainly not. You would lose your pensions, and be expelled from your rooms. And, in like manner, if you do not keep God's laws, you will have no right to the privileges He gave you at your Baptism, and will be cast out of His kingdom. On the other hand, let us imagine that, after you had been admitted pensioners, and while you were keeping the statutes, your pensions were to be paid you no longer. Why, you would come to me and say, " We have a right to our pensions; we claim them as a right; they are ours." And you would say true. All comes from the Patrons' favour, first and last. They admitted you, they pay you ; but still you have a right to the payment. They admitted you freely, without any merit of your own ; they pay you also without any desert of your own, except what comes from their promise; but that is sufficient. This comparison is near enough for our purpose; but it is not quite exact. I wonder if any of you have seen where it fails? The Patrons freely, and of their own kindness, ad- mitted you into this College by warrant. God, freely and of His love, admitted you into His Church by Baptism. Is that a true type ? Yes. The Patrons admitted you into this College on con- dition that you obeyed its laws. God admitted you into His Church on condition that you kept His com- mandments. Is the type still true? Yes. F 66 Wliat the one Pearl is. [Serm. XI. If you do keep the College statutes, you have a right (entirely owing to the Patrons' kindness) to your pen- sions. If you keep God's laws, you have a right (en- tirely owing to God's love) to heaven. That is a good type also. Where does my example fail, then ? Here. Who gives you power to observe God's laws? — Why, God the Holy Ghost Himself. The Patrons do not give you power to keep the statutes : they made them, and they insist on their being obeyed ; but they do not enable you to obey them. Yes : God gave you the promise, He gives you the power to claim it, He gives you the reward for claiming it. Of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things. The glory is His, first and last. " Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name give the praise, for Thy loving mercy and truth's sake." Loving mercy in giving the promise ; truth in fulfilling it. Now, then, we are still to be engaged in buying the Pearl. Every day we are to pay down something to- wards it. God is no hard task-master; He lets us pay by instalments. Not a single day of our lives should be without making one ; for not one day of our lives is also without doing something which tends to deprive us of the Pearl. Let this name, Margaret, remind us of it : and re- mind us also of that city, whereof the gates are twelve Pearls, each several gate one Pearl. Where God of His mercy vouchsafe to bring us all, for Jesus Christ's sake! To Whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON XII. THE TWO SAINT MARIES AT THE CROSS. $. 0tarj) JKagttalcnc. $u\v 22. "There stood by the Ceoss op Jesus, His Motheb and Maby Magdalene."— S. John xix. 25. If I had not read it in the Gospel, I would not have believed it. God dying for the sins of the world, God become a scorn and derision to men, God made a won- der to the Angels ; — whom did He choose to be near Him while He was bearing the burden and heat of the day, — while He was treading the wine-press alone, — while He was engaged in His great and tremendous battle with the devil ? His Blessed Mother, — that is but natural, to speak after the manner of men. She that was pure enough to carry Him in her womb, was pure enough to stand by Him at the Cross. But Mary Magdalene! She, — the woman that was a sinner; she — out of whom He had cast seven devils; she, — whose presence Simon the Pharisee had thought a disgrace to his house ! Think of them, the two together : S. Mary the Mother of God, the purest and holiest of all created beings : S. Mary Magdalene, that had been the slave 68 The Two Saint Maries at the Cross. [Scrm. of Satan, well known to all among the impure and un- holy. And learn how mighty is the grace of God : it was the same grace which made the Blessed Virgin what she was, and kept her so, and which raised S. Mary Magdalene from being what she had been, and set her at the foot of the Cross. Now, no doubt, this was a greater honour to her than even that it was she to whom our Lokd first appeared. We should think it a greater glory, if a king, going out to war, said to us, " Be near me in the battle," than if he were to say, " Be near me in my triumph." Our Lord chose S. Mary Magdalene to be one of the four of His followers upon whom His dying eyes rested. As perfect Man, He felt as man in death. And whom should we wish to stand by our dying beds, to speak the last earthly words that we shall ever hear, to be the last objects that we can look upon and touch? Would it not be those that we had loved most? Could we give any greater proof of our love than this? I think not. Our Lord chose four to be near Ilis death-bed, the hard wood of the Cross : the three Saint Maries and S. John. There were also the two thieves. And notice that, of the six who were nearest to Him in death, two were penitents: the dying thief and S. Mary Magda- lene. So great an honour lie puts on repentance, that two out of five of the servants who are witli Him in His last battle should be penitents. This we must also remember. If our Lokd showed the exceeding greatness of His love in permitting that S. Mary Magdalene should be at His feet, she, in turn showed even more love than others in desiring to be there. The Chief Priests and Scribes knew perfectly XII.] The Two Saint Maries at the Cross. 69 well who and what manner of woman she had been ; and it is easy to imagine how they scoffed at her for thinking to show honour to any one, — how they re- minded her that she could only bring disgrace and de- filement wherever she went, — how they reviled a King Who could find no better servants than this. And we can imagine also concerning those that had been her companions in sin, but not in repentance, how they also spoke of, and mocked at, her standing by the Cross. S. Paul tells us of martyrs that had trial of cruel mock- ings. I doubt whether any one ever could have endured more than S. Mary Magdalene by the Cross. Others, too, might glory in mockings and revilings; that which their enemies scoffed at, they knew to be their greatest honour. She could not. She could only say with the thief, "And we indeed justly." Truly, the Captain of our Salvation, Who knew what was in man, chose for Himself most valiant soldiers to assist at His Death. His Blessed Mother, whose trust never wavered ; the thief, who, next to her, showed greater faith than any other Saint ; S. Mary Magda- lene, who so resolutely followed His example in des- pising the shame. We read of a captain in the Old Testament, who chose out a place where he knew that the valiant men were. Of all such places that the world has ever seen, the greatest was the foot of the Cross. But there were others looking on at that sight be- sides the Scribes and Pharisees. Satan was beholding, no doubt, that which was done. And what do you think he must have felt, when he saw one of his cap- tives made into such a miracle of grace as this Saint ? One weak woman, standing by the Lord's feet, must have terrified all the powers of hell. If she had thus 70 The Two Saint Maries at the Cross. [Serm. triumphed over them, whom could they ever hope to conquer? If the sin which God hates more than any other — impurity — could not keep her back from Him, what new devices had they to destroy men ? No doubt Satan desired to have S. Mary Magdalene, as much as ever he had desired S. Peter, that he might sift her as wheat: no doubt, also, our Lord prayed for her, that her faith might not fail. She also was made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. Here then our Lord invites, as if from His Cross, the whole world : " I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me." His true and faithful servants, by the example of S. John, — penitents that long tarried with Him, by the example of S. Mary, — those that are as yet impenitent, by the example of the dying thief. There can be no class, no kind, no station, that He does not call. There can be none for whom there is not virtue in the Cross, to give the courage, the strength, the purity, the love, that they need. I know not why, however, we are only to-day to think of S. Mary Magdalene in her sorrow. " Heavi- ness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Her heaviness endured for two nights : that of Friday and that of Saturday. But, if double sorrow, double joy. It was early, at the rising of the sun, that she saw Jesus standing by the sepulchre, and knew not that it was Jesus; and that she heard that most joyful word from her Lord's own mouth, " Mary." By her He was first seen, by her He was first heard, to her He first spake of His Ascension. " Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, to My God and your God." And this is what love to Christ can do. Her sins, XII.] The Two Saint Maries at the Cross. 71 which were many, were forgiven, for she loved much. Lazarus was raised from the grave, because she loved much. She was one of the watchers by the Cross, be- cause she loved much ; and she was the first to see our Lord after the Resurrection, because she loved much. What love did for her, it can do for us. If we truly love, our sins also will be forgiven. If we truly love, our prayers for others will be heard. If we truly love, we shall be found at the foot of the Cross, content to suffer shame and pain with our Lord. And, lastly, if we truly love, we shall see Him with the very same form in which S. Mary Magdalene saw Him, — in the body of His Resurrection. And, if we want to know whether we have this love, S. John will give us a rule for finding it out : — ' ' This is the love of God, that ye keep His Commandments." All comes to that : what- ever we are speaking of ends in nothing else : there is no other rule; as the same S. John tells us in another place: — "Little children, let no man deceive you; he that doeth righteousness is righteous." " There stood by the Cross of Jesus, His mother and Mary Magdalene." We must also be like them. We cannot stand there in the body as they did, but we must go there again and again in thought. It is the only safe place in danger or in temptation. It is the only place that can lead to that glory, where those who stood by Jesus while He suffered, are now with Him while He reigns. Where God vouchsafe to bring us all, for His sake ! To Whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON XIII. WHY SERMONS DO SO LITTLE GOOD. £. aim*. SJuln 26. " A SOWEE WENT OUT TO SOW HIS SEED." — S. l/UKE VIII. 5. Of the blessed Saint of this day I cannot speak to you, because nothing more is known of her than that which you may read for yourselves in the Kalendar of the Prayer Book. She was, as the Church teaches us, Mother to the Blessed Virgin Mary. And a more glorious honour we can scarcely imagine than to be the Mother of the Mother of God. But all that I could say to you would only be what we might imagine, not what we know, of S. Anne. I will rather, this evening, as you are listening to so many sermons, speak to you of preaching itself ; why it does so little good ; why it has so little effect ; why you so often come and hear me, and go away and continue in old habits and yield to old temptations. And we will attend to what our Lord Himself has taught us con- cerning sinners. "A sower went out to sow his seed." You have heard those words many hundred times. Did you ever Serm. XIII.] Why Sermons do so little good. 73 sit down and think how much there was in them ? This sower ivent out. We never read that he turned back. And why not ? We, God's Priests, are the sowers of His Words. When the Bishop laid his hands on our heads, and set us apart for His service, then we made a vow that was to last as long as our lives, the same which you heard in the Second Lesson last night, that we should " preach the Word, should be instant in season and out of season, should reprove, rebuke, and exhort." There is no turning back here. " No man/' our Lord says, " having put his hand to the plough and turning back is fit for the kingdom of God." We must in this be like those living creatures which Ezekiel saw in his vision : " When they went, they went straight forward ; and they turned not when they went." There was once a very holy and a very learned man, who had written more than a hundred books in the service of God. When he was old, a friend one day told him that now he had fairly earned a little rest. " Rest \" he cried. "Shall I not have all eternity to rest in?" Well, then; a sower ivent out to sow his seed. "To sow his seed." We must not go on too fast. Sowing here is a type of preaching. But how is sowing done ? You all know, with the hand. This should teach us that the real true preaching, that which God approves, is done more by works than by words. If you hear a good sermon, and see that the preacher leads a bad life, which will weigh with you most ? No : good words without good deeds are like powder without shot ; it makes a noise, and that is all. The sounds which David struck from his harp, and which drove away the evil spirit from Saul, how did he make them ? With his hand. We must do what we say, or we may as well 74 Why Sermons do so little good. [Serm. let alone the saying it altogether. When S. John the Baptist preached repentance, the multitudes saw his hard and rough life, and they knew he practised what he preached. So it must be with us; preaching must be done by works, just as sowing is done by the hand. Yes; and the oldest preacher now existing in the world proves this. Who do you think that is ? The oldest preacher in the w r orld is the sky. David tells us so. " The heavens declare the glory of God." And yet at the same time he says : " there is neither voice nor language." The heavens declare God's glory by their works, not their words ; by the order with which the stars know their appointed time, and keep to it ; by the beautiful manner in which all, great as well as little, obey the law that God has laid down for them. Let us go on. " A sower went out to sow his seed." His seed, and not any one else's. Let us see what that means. It tells us that Priests are to preach to their people of their own, not of what others have written or taught. Each Priest knows best what his own people want, and what they do not want. Night after night I might preach to you far better sermons written by others, than I can write myself; but then they would not be my own ; and I should not be like our Lord's servant, that went out to sow his seed. So we read that when Christ called S. James and S. John, they were mending their nets ; their nets, not because they had bought them, but because they had made them. Sermons are a net that no one can use well, unless he has made them for himself. " A sower went out to sow his seed." We must stop at that last word, seed. Our Loud docs not say seeds. I do not profess to know anything about farming; but XIII.] Why Sermons do so little good. 75 I fancy that if a sower were to mix wheat, rye, barley, millet, and oats in a basket, and then sow them, the crop would fetch little in the market. So, when we preach, we must preach of one thing at one time. S. John the Baptist did. He preached one word, — Repent- ance ; and he converted multitudes. Jonah did : he preached one thing, — the overthrow of Nineveh : and all the city repented. Very well, then : " A sower went out to sow his seed/' And he was very unsuccessful. " As he sowed, some fell by the road-side, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it ; and some fell upon a rock, and it withered away; and some fell among thorns, and the thorns choked it/' All nature conspired together against him, — men, animals, plants, stones. Men trod it down, birds devoured it, thorns choked it, stones withered it. Could anything more unfortunate be imagined ? "Wherever it fell, it did no good. Either it never took root at all, as that by the highway, — or if it sprang up, other plants sprang up too, and choked it, as that among the thorns, — or if it fairly took root, it withered away, as that among the rocks. But what then ? Did the sower turn back ? I read no such thing. He went forth; but he never returned. And did you ever think, that what happened here to the seed, has also before now happened to the preachers ? In those early times, when the kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers took counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed, all that is here written of the seed happened to the sowers. The seed was trodden under foot, suffocated, parched, eaten. Trodden under foot and despised God's preachers always have been ; but some of them also 76 Why Sermons do so little good. [Serm. have been eaten up, as S. Ignatius, who was torn in pieces by lions ; some of them have been parched, as S. Laurence, who was broiled to death on a gridiron ; some of them have been suffocated, as S. Cassian, who was thrown into a river with a millstone about his neck. But none of these things moved them ; neither counted they their lives dear to themselves so that they might finish their course with joy. Three-fourths of the seed, then, was lost; but what became of the quarter that remained ? " And other fell on good ground, and bare fruit an hundredfold." This comforted the sower for all the rest. Christ says, brought forth a hundred for one : and /should be very well content that it brought forth one for a hundred. If for every hundred sermons one sinner were con- verted, the world would very soon become holy. There were never in the Church of God so many sermons as now, and never so little fruit. Why is this? First I will tell you what is not the reason. The parable says, that some of the seed was lost by reason of the road-side, some of the thorns, some of the rocks : but notice what it does not say. It does not say that any of the seed was lost for want of due sun or rain. What does this teach us ? That the reason why sermons are now-a-days of so little use, does not lie in Gon. His grace is as ready as ever. The Lord's arm is not shortened that it cannot save. No ; it lies partly in the preacher and partly in the hearer. To come home to ourselves : it lies partly in you, and partly in me. How it lies in me, you may see by what I have been saying. I have been telling you how God's Priests ought to preach ; you know how far short I come of this, and I know much better than XIII.] Why Sermons do so little good. 77 you, and God knows much better than either of us. But the fault also lies in you, as your own conscience bears you witness. But before we end, let us learn one thing else from the parable. How often we hear people saying, If I do so and so, if I give up such and such a thing, if I do not act as my neighbours, they will laugh at me. Oh good reason for a servant of Jesus Christ ! Let them laugh, let them ridicule, let them scoff, but let us do our duty. Now see how the parahle teaches us this. Which of the seed was it that the birds — by which our Lord tells us that evil spirits are meant — came and devoured ? Was it that which fell among the thorns ? No. Was it that which fell upon the rocks? No. It was that which fell by the way-side, and was trodden under foot of men. The devil left all the rest alone ; but that he took care to destroy. This means that the only teaching which Satan is afraid of is that which men tread under foot and despise : other teaching, other preaching, such as men like, he has no objection to, because he knows that they can do hi in no harm. But the teaching which is trodden under foot, that he will destroy if he can. The devil has no objection to any sermons but this sort ; and indeed, he is a preacher himself. One of his sermons we read in the Gospels. He took for his text — "He shall give His Angels charge over Thee, to keep Thee;" and from that text he tried to stir up our Lord, not to be despised and rejected, not to be trodden under foot of men, but to make Himself glorious in their eyes — " Cast Thyself down," that they may see this so great miracle, and may admire Thee. There were once two famous preachers who delivered 78 Why Sermons do so little good. [Serm. XIII. a course of sermons before a great king. When they had finished, one of the noblemen inquired which of the preachers his majesty liked best. Why, said the king, when I come out of church from hearing the one, I am beyond all measure pleased with him : when I come out of church from hearing the other, I am beyond all measure displeased with myself. Which of the two do you think did God's work most faithfully ? The thorns choked it, the stones withered it. What are we to do, then? W r hy, we must sow again, and again, and again, on the stones and the thorns. " In the morning sow, and in the evening withhold not thy hand/' says the wise man. It may be that some day these stones will, as our Lord said, cry out in His praise; it may be that these thorns will one day form a glorious crown for the Head of their King. And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON XIV. S. PETER WITH THE KEYS, AND S. PETER BOUND. Eammasi 2Bay. Sugugt 1. "And Jestts answeeed and said tjnto Petee, I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and whatsoetee thou shalt bind on eaeth shall be bound in heaven." — s. Matt. xvi. 17, 19. "Petee was sleeping between two soldiees, bound with two chains." — Acts xii. 6. I have taken two texts; and very different from each other at first sight they seem. S. Peter, having the keys of the kingdom of heaven given to him; and S. Peter bound with two chains, and sleeping between two keepers. " Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven/' says our Lord in the one verse ; and in the other Peter is bound himself, in the power of his enemies, — about, on the next day, to be led forth and put to death. Is it so that Christ fulfils His promises ? Yes; and S. Peter knew it, and never for a moment expected that it would be otherwise. He was not spending the night in complaining that the promise 80 S. Pete?' with the keys, and bound. [Serm. made to him had not been fulfilled ; no, nor yet in re- minding our Lord of it, and therefore praying to be delivered. He was asleep; and very likely the only Christian in Jerusalem that was asleep that night. Now notice, how each of God's servants has his own especial duty, even about the same thing. Peter, hav- ing committed himself to his Master's hands, knew that he had work to do for Him on the morrow which would require all his strength. Therefore he used the means which God has appointed for the refreshment of our bodies : he lay down and slept. But the rest knew that it was not then their duty to sleep, but to be instant in prayer; and therefore they gathered them- selves together to that end at the house of S. John Mark. Now attend to that verse, for it is worth it. " Peter therefore was kept in prison ; but — prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him." Yes : Herod knew very little how much such a but is worth; worth more than all his bars, and his dungeons, and his guards. If the Church prays without ceasing for Peter's deliverance, it matters not a whit where Peter is kept. If you would only remember that for yourselves, how much trouble and misery you might sometimes be spared ! If you knew how much prayer can do, — how the prayer of a poor weak old man or woman is stronger than a great army of warriors, — how much oftener, how much more earnestly, you would pray than you do ! I read of Peter's sleeping three times : once when our Lord was in His greatest earthly glory, namely, at His Transfiguration; once in His deepest humiliation, namely, at His Agony; and once in his own great XIV.] S. Peter with the keys, and bound. 81 need. Those two first times were not sleeps which did him honour; the spirit might be willing, but the flesh was weak. But the last showed Peter's faith and love. He knew that he was to die on the morrow, as James had died before him ; he knew that he was shut out from all earthly hope ; he knew that the little Church of Jerusalem needed him ; but he left everything in Christ's hands, knowing that He would keep that which was committed unto Him. He had seen his Master asleep in the midst of great fear and danger, and now he followed His example. If our Lord had said, " Simon, sleepest thou ?" there would have been no upbraiding in His words now. So, you see, we may sometimes do good service to God, and be working out our own salvation, even while we sleep. But I wish you more particularly to notice the two texts taken together. Suppose that on that night some one had gone to Tiberius, the Ptoman Emperor, and had said to him, " Are you aware that, in your domi- nions, there is now living a man who has the keys of the kingdom of heaven? and that whatsoever he shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever he shall loose ou earth shall be loosed in heaven ?" — " Where and what is this great man ?" the Emperor would have said, " that we may go and do him honour?" " He was a fisherman ; he became a preacher of Christ, Who was crucified in Jerusalem ; and now he is bound with two chaius in prison, and is about to be led out to-morrow, and to be put to death." Imagine the ridicule, the loud laughter, with which the Emperor would have received such a message. And yet there was the very thing — that was the plain, simple truth. He that had the keys of heaven was G 82 S. Peter with the keys, and bound. [Serm. shut up in prison ; lie that could bind on high was bound on earth. And how many things now-a-days there are which seem just as hard to believe — which seem just as con- trary to what we see with our own eyes ! I may tell you, as I often have told you, that to be poor is a more blessed estate than to be rich, — that those who are poor are more likely to be saved than those who are wealthy, — and you listen, and think it sounds very well, and do not really believe it for all that. I may tell you how much one good hearty prayer of any one of you may avail with God ; how much it may do for you if you are in want; how much it may do for you if you are in difficulty ; how much it may do for you when you are in sickness. You believe it in a sort of way, and you pray in a sort of way ; but I want you to believe it as much as you believe that you could get me to do anything in my power for you by asking for it; and to ask as if you believed in God's being able to hear you, as much as you believe in mine. "Except I shall see, I will not believe." That was the saying of an Apostle, I confess; but it was not said like an Apostle. See how foolish this is in worldly matters. An English traveller was once talking to the Emperor of Birmah, (which is a very hot country,) and telling him of different things in England. He spoke about our railroads, and our newspapers, and our shops, and our manufactories; and the Emperor, though he was very much surprised, believed everything. At last the traveller happened to say something about skating, and the Emperor would listen no longer. He said, "You have told me many wonderful things, but I was willing to believe them, because you said them. 13 ut I XIV.] S. Peter with the keys, and bound. 83 never will nor can believe that water becomes hard enough to be walked on. If the whole world told me so, I would not believe it. I see that you are trying to deceive me, and I will listen to you no more." We are ready to smile at this Emperor : but we do exactly the same thing ourselves. We believe what God tells us of the mighty works which He did in our fathers' days, and in the old time before them ; but, that poverty, or sickness, or distress is sent to us be- cause God seeks to do us good, — No ! that we never will believe : He says so, we cannot deny it, but we do not believe it still. Anything else; but not that. Peter, that had the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, bound with two chains ! Yet, after all, what was that to His being bound Who made the Kingdom of Hea- ven, and Who is Lord of it ! What is that to God being judged by man, to the King of kings being scourged by slaves, to the Lord of all things hanging on the Cross between two thieves ! S. Peter was but following his Master. He was condemned for the same reason. "And so Pilate, ivilliny to content the people, delivered Jesus unto them." And Herod, because he saw that the death of S. James pleased the Jews, pro- ceeded further to take Peter also. " If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you/' But the servant was delivered, while the Master was not. The cup could not pass away from our Lord; but, for that time, it did pass away from S. Peter. Christ could have called for twelve legions of angels, and would not; but He sent an angel to deliver His Apostle. Peter had many years of work to do for God, and till that was done, neither Herod, nor all the expectation of the people of the Jews could hurt him. 84 S. Peter with the keys, and bound. [Serm. XIV. Therefore now, when we see any of God's dealings that we do not understand, — when we are tempted to doubt His promises, because they seem to us not to be fulfilled, — when we are disposed to say, as Rebekah did, "If it be so, why am I thus?" — then let us remember that God's ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts ; and let us think of Peter, that had the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and was yet bound between two soldiers with two chains. And now to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, for ever. Amen. SERMON XY. THE THREE TABERNACLES. Crans'figuratttm. August 6. " Foe we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and comino of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty when we were with hlm in the holy mount." — 2 s. peter i. 16, 18. Such an evening as this should teach us something of the glorious sight we keep in mind this day. When we were looking at those long lines of dark-brown gold that lay so quietly in the west, and at the intense brightness between them, where the sun had gone down, we might have remembered Him Who was as at this time transfigured before His disciples ; when His Face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light. And we might have looked on to that day when, if by God's grace we are counted worthy to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, our own bodies will be as His Body was, glorious beyond the power of our hearts now to imagine. How much there is that we might think of again and again in the mystery of to-day ! Moses, and Elias, and 86 The Three Tabernacles. [Serm. the three disciples were there. The body of Moses, about which S. Michael the Archangel had contended with Satan, that body which had been buried by God in a valley over against Beth-peor, no man knowing its resting-place, appeared in glory. The body of Elias, which had been taken up by a chariot of fire and horses of fire, returned once more to earth. The giver of the Law, and the greatest of Prophets, came to bear witness to Him that was Maker of the Law, and the inspirer of the Prophets. Now was fulfilled that which was written by Isaiah, — " Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, and before His an- cients gloriously ." And what did they talk of? If we had not been told, how different a conversation we should have ima- gined ! We should perhaps have thought that they would speak of that kingdom which the Lord had come on earth to establish; that kingdom which shall never be destroyed, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail ; that kingdom which shall be from sea to sea, and from the flood unto the world's end. Nothing less. " They appeared in glory, and spake of His decease." To talk of death in the height of this glory ! To talk of a shameful death, — a death of agony, — amidst such brightness as the world had never before seen ! Yes, but the text does not end so. They " spake of His de- cease which He should accomplish." What a wonder- ful word ! When do we speak thus ? We say that a man accomplishes deliverance from death, but to accom- plish death itself, who would thus talk ? It tells us how freely, how earnestly, our Lord set about His Passion, according to that saying of His : " I have a Baptism to XV.] The Three Tabernacles. 87 be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be ac- complished \" And still further: " they spake of His decease which He should accomplish in Jerusalem." Now Jerusalem means the Vision of Peace. For it was by His death that He reconciled man to Gon. And that indeed was a glorious subject for a season of glory. This was a brighter and better vision than Moses had, when he gat him to the top of Pisgah, and beheld all the land which God had promised to His people. This was a nobler prospect than Elijah had, when the chariot was bearing him up above the clouds, and his mantle fell from off him. "They appeared in glory, and spake of His decease which He should accomplish in Jerusalem." S. Peter would speak: "It is good for us to be here : and let us make three tabernacles, one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias." No, good Peter. This is not what we want. We want not three tabernacles, but one mansion. We want no taber- nacles that can be taken down and removed; we want a house, not made with hands, that can never be shaken. And we only want one. There is but one hiding-place from the wind, one covert from the tem- pest, one Ark. Our Lord Jesus Christ is all this; and He is one. Now notice that in our Lord's life on earth the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity were twice mani- fested together. At His Baptism once. There was the Father in the Voice : the Son in human flesh : the Holy Ghost in a bodily shape like a Dove. At His Transfiguration again. The Father, as before, in the Voice : the Son in a glorified Body ; the Holy Ghost in the Cloud. And why was this? 88 The Three Tabernacles. [Serm. Our Lord's Baptism was a type of our own regenera- tion ; and that is brought to pass by all the Persons of the Godhead : by the Father That made; by the Son That redeemed; by the Holy Ghost That sanctifies. Our Lord's Transfiguration was a type of our own Re- surrection ; and there we also have the act of each Per- son of the Trinity. These bodies were the work of God's Hands ; they were fed with the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, (according to that saying, " Whoso eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath eternal life ; and I will raise him up again at the last day/') and they were the temples of the Holy Ghost. Therefore the Trinity was manifested at Christ's Bap- tism and Transfiguration, because each of Its Three Blessed persons is concerned in the work of our Bap- tism and Resurrection. "This is My Beloved Son; hear Him." Moses speaks; but hear Him. Elias speaks; but hear Him. The Prophets and the Law tell of Him : unless we see Him in all, they are useless to us. Moses and Elias were as it were the vessels : He was the fountain. He gave them their fulness, and of that fulness they minis- tered to others. But now what is this ? "The Disciples fell on their faces : Jesus touched them and said, Arise ! And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only." Here is a great mystery. They fell on their faces to the ground : there the time is signified when we must lie down in the grave. " Jesus touched them, and said, Arise !" — there is set forth that day when all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. And in that they saw no man save Jesus after they were raised, XV.] The Three Tabernacles. 89 we are taught that, after our own resurrection, He will be All in all. There will be no Law then, — no Pro- phecy then : we shall see Jesus face to face, beholding Him as He is. He will remain, when all else is passed away. Now, O Peter, it is time for thee to go down from the mountain. Thou must yet for some short years bear the burden and heat of the day. Thou must preach the Word, must be instant in season and out of season, must reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all long- suffering and doctrine. The time will come when thou shalt have, not a tabernacle on Mount Tabor, but a mansion — one of the many mansions — in the Kingdom of Heaven. And we, if we now desire to see His glory, must do as the Disciples did. They went up into a high moun- tain apart. We must try and get above this world, apart by ourselves, at a distance from the troubles and cares of the earth, and fix our hearts on that land where He now is. I saw this morning, soon after sunrise, that all the hollows and valleys of the country round were filled with thick white mist, but the hills were clear and bright in the sunlight. We are too much like men living in such valleys, surrounded with the fog of this world, unable to lift up our eyes to the brightness of the everlasting hills. It ought not to be so : above all, it ought not to be so with you, who can- not have much longer, in the very nature of things, to dwell in this world. Rather, let that be true, by the grace of the Holy Ghost, of which S. Paul writes: — " But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord :" 90 The Three Tabernacles. [Serm.XV. that so, as He was transfigured, while He dwelt here, in heavenly glory, we, while we are yet in the flesh, may be transfigured to His image ! And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON XYI. WHAT THE NAME OF JESUS IS TO HIS PEOPLE. $anu of 3rtu*. HucruSt 7. " Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Iseael, that by the name of jesus christ of nazaeeth, whom ye cbucified, Whom God eaised feom the dead, even by Him DOTH THIS MAN STAND HERE BEFORE YOU WHOLE. . . . NeITHEE is there salvation in any other : foe these is none othee Name undee Heaven given among men, wheeeby we must be saved." — Acts iv. 10, 12. This day the Church keeps holy to the Name of Jesus. And no wonder. It is everything to us: everything here, everything hereafter. If it were not for That, we should be of all men most miserable ; if it were not for That, we might indeed envy the beasts that perish. For think what that Name means, and to Whom it belongs. It means a Saviour, and it belongs to the Son of God. Both these things are joined together to make this Blessed Name what it is. There have been others that were called " Jesus/' Joshua is the same name; and he did indeed save the children of Israel by bringing them into the land of promise. But no man could be a true Saviour, a real Jesus, to us. It costs more to redeem our souls ; so 92 What the Name of Jesus is to His people. [Serai. that he must let that alone for ever. But when the Son of God takes that Name, then He makes it all our salvation and all our desire. He can save us if He will, for He is Very God ; and He will save us if He can, for His Name is Jesus. He cannot lie ; and if He says that He will be our Saviour, our Saviour He is. Therefore, this Name might well be given by an Angel ; as it was twice. The Archangel Gabriel, when he was sent on that message to Mary, said, " Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a Son, and call His Name Jesus. " The Angel that appeared to Joseph said, " Thou shalt call His Name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins/' And therefore, when our Lord was hanging on the Cross, as if to show to all the world that this prophecy was now fulfilled, then this Blessed Name appears again : " Jesus of Na- zareth, the King of the Jews." And because it stood there, as the sign of all scorn and disgrace, now it is exalted to the height of all honour and glory. We do not bow at the Name of Christ, or of the Son of God, or of our Lord, but at the Name of Jesus; because that is the Name which was reviled, that is the Name which was exalted, that is the Name which saves. Think how many of God's servants have gone out of the world with this most sweet Name on their lips as well as in their hearts ; how many deathbeds have heard that as the last of all earthly words ; how many Mar- tyrs have repeated it just before they received the stroke ; how often, in storms at sea, just before the ship perished, in the midst of accidents, in battles, in sudden dangers, God's servants, if they could say no- thing else, could at least say this ! Think how many XVI.] What the Name of Jesus is to His people. 93 miracles have been wrought by that mighty Name ! "In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk V* How the dead have been raised, the devils have been cast out, the blind received their sight, all manner of sickness and all manner of disease has been cured ! What is there that the Name of Jesus cannot do ? See how it is spoken of in Holy Scripture, in the Old as well as in the New. " For Thy Name's sake," David says, " be merciful unto my sin." What Name ? Why, this very Name of Jesus. Because Thou art called Jesus, a Saviour, therefore be merciful unto my sin. " Some put their trust iu chariots, aud some in horses ; but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God." Why ? Because " a horse is counted but a vain thing to save a man, neither shall he deliver any man by his great strength ;" but Jesus is the Name of Him That is the Mighty God. "O God, according to Thy Name, so is Thy praise unto the world's end ;" according as Thou art called Jesus, so is the praise of those whom Thou hast redeemed : " above all, for Thine inestimable love in the Redemption of the world," as the Prayer Book speaks. " The Name of the Lord is a strong tower : the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." " Bring the Lord the honour due unto His Name : worship the Lord with holy worship. Young men and maidens, old men and children, praise the Name of the Lord ; for His Name only is excellent, and His praise above heaven and earth." And so So- lomon tells us, in his Song : — " Thy Name is as oint- ment, (that is, oil,) poured forth." What does oil do ? It gives light, it gives food, it gives healing. It gives light: for Jesus is "the True Light Which lighteneth every man that cometh into the world." It gives food : 94 What the Name of Jesus is to His People. [Serm. for " His Flesh is meat indeed, and His Blood is drink indeed." It gives healing: for " He Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses." As a holy man of old said, (the same S. Bernard who wrote that hymn which we have just been singing, " Jesu ! the very thought is sweet,") " If you write anything, it interests me not, unless I read there of Jesus. If you speak, I had rather not hear, unless your words are of Jesus. The Name of Jesus is honey in the mouth, music in the ear, joy in the heart." Yes ; for as that other hymn most truly says : " Is there a thing that moves and breaks A heart as hard as stone, Or warms a soul as cold as ice ? 'Tis Jesu's Name alone. One sound of this can truly cheer, And heal the afflicted soul ! What multitudes of broken hearte This living Name makes whole !" Some of you have been wives, and have known what it was to love the very name of husband. This is a weak likeness of what we ought to feel for the Name of Jesus, for He is the Husband of His Church. Some of you have known what it is to love the very name of a child ; this also faintly sets forth to us the love we should bear to Jesus ; " for unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given." Most of you can remember what it was to love the name of a father : that also teaches us the love of Jesus ; for He is the Everlasting Father. Many of you know what it is to love the name of a brother : so also here we learn the love of Jesus; for He is not ashamed to call us brethren. But it is in vain that we try to explain how dear this XVI.] What the Name of Jesus is to His People. 95 Name of Jesus should be to us. S. Bernard tells us so, and he, I hope, knew : " No tongue of mortals can express, No letters write its blessedness ; Alone who hath thee in his heart Knows, love of Jesu ! what thou art." S. Peter speaks, in a few words, what we should believe concerning it : " Be it known unto you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Whom ye crucified, Whom God raised from the dead, even by Him cloth this man stand here before you whole. Neither is there salvation in any other ; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." And as this Name is glorious and sweet to us, so it is fearful and tremendous to evil spirits. They believe, and tremble; they know that the Name of Jesus was given for this reason, that He might destroy the works of the devil ; they know that He is able to save to the uttermost; they know that whoso cometh to Him, He will in no wise cast out; they hate and abhor His glo- rious Name, but they fear it more than they hate it. But what if we have no part or lot in the matter ? What if we say, like the citizens in the parable, " We will not have this Man to reign over us ?" Then shall we have any advantage from the Name? In the Acts, we read of certaiu vagabond Jews, who took upon them- selves to cast out evil spirits by the Name of Jesus ; and they said to the man who was possessed, " We ad- jure you by Jesus Whom Paul preacheth." And what happened? The devil confessed the Name, but he did not obey them that used it. " Jesus I know, and Paul I know ; but who are ye ? And the man, in whom the 96 What the Name of Jesus is to His People. [Serm. evil spirit was, leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded." See that it be not so with us. "This same Jesus Whom we believe to have ascended into heaven, shall so come again in like manner as we believe that He went into heaven." But if we would not love and serve Him here, it will be useless to call upon Him by the Name of Jesus there. With the Name of Jesus then we shall have no more to do. Then He comes to judge, not to save. If we would not receive Him as Jesus on earth, He will not reign over us as Jesus in heaven. And then, like the evil spirits, we shall find that Name the most tremendous and fearful sound that we can hear. It was Jesus Who said on earth, " Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest ;" it will be Jesus that will say then, " Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." " His Name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." So now let us come to Him this very day, " while it is called to-day." Let us call upon Him by that one Name : so glorious and so dear as it should be. Let us remind Him of all it is, and of all it means. Jesus, That should save His people from their sins. Jesus, the Son of the Living God. Jesus, the Father of the poor. Jesus, the Com- fort of the afflicted. Jesus, the Lover of souls. Jesus, the one True Pearl. Jesus, the Shepherd of the sheep. Jesus, Eternal Wisdom. Jesus, Infinite Goodness. Jesus the Joy of the Angels. Jesus, the Master of the Apostles. Jesus, the Teacher of the Evangelists. Jesus, the Strength of the Martyrs. Jesus, the Bold- XVI.] What the Name of Jesus is to His People. 97 ness of the Confessors. Jesus, the Husband of the Virgins. Jesus, the Reward of all Saints. Jesus, That was born for us. Jesus, That suffered His Passion for us. Jesus, That was scourged for us. Jesus, That was crucified for us. Jesus, That died for us. Jesus, That rose again the third day for us. Jesus, That ascended into heaven for us. Jesus, That sitteth on the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty for us. And, therefore, on us, and on all those that trust in His Name, may Jesus have mercy ! And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, might and dominion, for ever. Amen. SERMON XVII. WHAT IS THE END OE CHRISTIAN CONVERSATION. J£. Eauvcnec. August 10. " Whose faith follow, considering the end of theie conversa- tion." — Heb. xiii. 7. S. Laurence, whose memory we keep to-day, ought to be especially dear to the poor. He was archdeacon of the Church of Home and had charge of all its wealth. By this wealth, multitudes of widows and orphans and sick were supported ; and because he refused to give it up for the use of the heathen Emperor, he was broiled on a gridiron. It is of such as he was that S. Paul speaks in the verse I have read you ; — of such that he says, " Whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation." By the word conversation, he means the whole of what they said and did and suffered j the business of their life : that which made them to be what they were. And this end we are to consider. Now, what kind of end was it? Was it honour, or riches, or pleasure ? Was the end of their life glorious in the eyes of the world? Had they friends and chil- dren to stand round them when dying? Did their Scrm.xVIL] The End of Christian Conversation. 99 neighbours call them great and good ? Had they any- one thing in their end which people generally wish to have around their own death-beds? I think not. It was a violent and cruel death to which their conversation brought them — the death of a malefactor, of the worst of malefactors — the death of shame; people pointed and hooted at them as they passed on their road to suffer; they were, for the most part, alone among bitter enemies ; and their dead bodies were cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost ; or, as the Prophet says, " buried with the burial of an ass." "Whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation/' What ! follow their faith because it brought them to this ? One might rather expect to find, whose faith avoid, remembering its end. And even a true and earnest Christian might feel more dis- posed to say, Whose faith follow, though ye know to what it led. But not so S. Paul. He knew better than we what were the tortures and sufferings which Christians then had to endure ; what was the much tribulation through which they were called to enter into the kingdom of God. But then he also knew, — oh how much more than we ! — of the joys and glories which these very tor- tures were preparing for the righteous. He had been caught up in the body into the third heaven, and had there seen the unspeakable things, which words failed him to tell. And having seen both, the sufferings which won, and the glory which was won, he tells us that the sufferings were so to be desired, as to be a reason for following the faith of those that suffered. But these words are said to us, as well as to those 100 TJie End of Christian Conversation. [Scrm. early Christians to whom they were first written. The world indeed does not now persecute in the same way those who hold the truth, but the world hates the truth itself just as much as ever it did ; and will always, in some way or other, try to show its hatred to those that teach it or believe it. Our Lord said so Himself, " If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you." We know it indeed. It called Him a man gluttonous and a winebibber — a friend of publicans and sinners. It said, He hath a devil, and is mad. It said, He casteth out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. It reviled Him, buffeted Him, spat upon Him, mocked Him, and, lastly, crucified Him. He might well say, " If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me be- fore it hated you." And so to this clay, the world hates His service. Why, for example, do people — we all know that many do — dislike to hear our chapel-bell so often, and to know that we may say as David did, " In the evening and morning and at noonday will I pray, and that in- stantly, and He shall hear my voice?" Why do they dislike the every-day prayers of the Church, and call them wearisome and foolish, and name the persons who use them by the worst names of which they can think ? Why do they do all this? It is only the old story over again. It is the world hating Christ's service. " We will not have this Man to rule over us." The world cannot bear that any one should refuse to obey its commands — should serve another Master — should look for another reward. It cannot bear to be reminded that all its own business and cares and pleasures will so very soon come to an end. It likes to carry them XVII.] The End of Christian Conversation. 101 on as if they would last for ever. The end of its con- versation is very different from that of which S. Paul spoke. But what would be the use of our professing to serve God if we were not prepared for all this? What would be the advantage of our hearing of so many Saints and Martyrs, if we are not ready to follow their example ? And what hope that we shall gain that end which they have long since reached, if we do not travel by the like way ? All true Christians may not go by exactly the same road; some may have more, some less worldly sorrow ; but they must all be going in the same direc- tion. Just as with us, — two men may say that they are going to London, and one may start by this road out of the town, and the other by that ; and yet you will believe them both to be in earnest, and both likely to meet at the end of their journey. But if a man tell you that he is going to London, and you see him start on the road that leads from it, you know that either he has been deceiving you, or is deceiving himself. So, different kinds of troubles we may have ; some greater, some lighter ; but without trouble we shall not get to heaven. If you are content to hear the world say, " Well done, good and faithful servant ;" you will never hear Christ say so. If you go the deviPs way here, it will certainly not bring you to our Lord's kingdom hereafter. Those of whom we are speaking followed the Lord here bravely, and now they have sat down with Him gloriously. They said here, " For the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded ; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed :" and now they say, " Thou sufferedst 102 The End of Christian Conversation. [Scrm. XVII. men to ride over our heads ; we went through fire and water; and Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy- place. " A wealthy place indeed is that New Jerusalem with its streets of gold and gates of pearls, and founda- tions of twelve precious stones. If we may only be re- ceived there, we need not shrink from trouble here; if we may only go up to that glorious throne, we need not be afraid of the lions that stand on this side and on that of its steps. If we may see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, we may well first be content to pass through the valley of the shadow of death. And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON XVIII. OWNING ONESELF IN THE WEONG. d. aucruSttnc. 1 SJugu^t 28. " What I have written, I have written." — S. John xix. 22. Pilate said this, as you all know ; and we follow Pilate's example again and again. What I have said, I have said, so a man reasons within his heart. I might be wicked or foolish for saying it ; no matter : it would look mean and poor-spirited to unsay it, or to confess that I am sorry for haviug said it. I know it was wrong, but I will defend it to the last : what I have said, I have said. Or again ; at such a time I did such and such a thing, which I ought to have left undone. If I had the chance, I would not do it again. I see that it has caused harm, but to own that it was foolish — no, never ! What I have done, I have done. That is what we do when the thing is known to our neighbours : we defend, we justify it, we think it a part of our honour not to confess that we are sorry for it. We imitate Pilate very well indeed. But suppose the sin is not known to our neighbours — then what do we do ? We hide it. Every one feels 1 Being the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity. 101 Owning oneself in the wrong. [Serm. this temptation; it is natural to man. Adam did so first of all. After he had eaten the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he hid himself. To confess is the one thing that people will not do. They will say that they are sinners, but they will be deter- mined not to own any particular sin. It is so very hard — it goes so much against the grain — to confess sin, that some men have chosen rather to go to hell than to own it. Murderers have walked up the scaffold with a lie in their mouths, calling God to witness that they were innocent, because they could not bear the shame of confessing their guilt. Most of us, I am afraid, have before now committed a second sin to hide the first, and a third to hide the second. Yes: we all know how difficult it is to say, boldly and plainly, I was mistaken ; and how still more difficult it is to confess, At such a time I committed such a sin ; I stole such a thing ; I told such a falsehood ; T cheated such a person. Now see what an example we have in the Saint of this day — S. Augustine. S. Augustine was the most learned and the most holy writer that God ever raised up in His Church. From his day to this, — and he lived fourteen hundred years ago, — all the great teachers of the Church have looked up to him as their master. Sunday after Sunday, all over the world, as well as here in England, many a preacher tells the people what he himself learnt from Augustine. You have often heard me — if God spares us all, you often will again hear me — teach you here, what S. Augustine has taught me. He wrote one hundred and eighteen books, — sermons, letters, tracts, notes on different parts of the Bible; and they have all been bound together in twenty immense volumes. XYIIL] Owning oneself in the wrong. 105 Well : suppose you were able to read these, and begin at the beginning — what do you think you would find to be the names of the two first works? I will tell you. The first would be the Mistakes of Augustine, — the next, the Confessions of Augustine, and both written by himself. What ! the mistakes and the sins of such a great Saint, and so learned a man ! and these to take up two books ! Yes ; and Augustine was never more like a saint than when thus confessing his sins to the whole world ; and never more like a learned man than when thus acknowledging his mistakes. He had not always been holy. Though he had a most holy mother, his father was a heathen, and he grew up without being baptized. When he became a young man, he fell into open and abominable sin, and he also turned away from the true faith, and became a heretic. His mother, S. Monica, never ceased to pray for him; and she was persuaded that the child of so many prayers would not be lost. As for Augustine himself, he always hoped that some day or other he should repent ; and he used to pray, " Lord, make me holy, but not now V For many years he went on wearying himself in sin ; and when he would have left it off, he could not bear to tear himself away from his favourite temptations. He felt just what S. Paul tells us in the Epistle for to-day ; " The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh ; and these are contrary the one to the other : so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." And this was the way in which he was converted. He had been hearing of some of the Saints of earlier times, — how, for the love of Christ, they gave up every- thing that they had, — how they chose rather to be afflicted 106 Owning oneself in the wrong. [Serm. and poor, and despised in this life, and to reign with Christ hereafter. He rose from his chair, and said to a friend that was with him, " What ! shall men like these, poor, and weak, and ignorant, enter into the kingdom of heaven, while we, with all our learning and all our powers, are going to hell? Why do we not mend our lives at once? why not to-day? why not this very hour?" He went into the garden in great agony of mind, and threw himself on the ground ; thinking how hard it was to give up all his sins, and yet how much harder it would be to be shut out from the king- dom of heaven. While he was thus torn almost in pieces by the struggle, he heard a sweet voice as of a child that cried, " Take up and read! take up and read!" He looked round — there was no one near; and he thought that some children must be at play in the next garden. But he listened, and the voice sounded quite close to him, " Take up and read ! take up and read !" Again he looked round, and he saw a copy of S. Paul's Epistles lying on the grass : he had thrown it down there when he went out into the garden. He took up the book, and opened at this verse : " Not in rioting and in drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying ; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." Then it was that he determined, cost what it might, to take the kingdom of heaven by violence : and to tear himself away from all that might offend God. In time he w r as baptized; and some persons say that, at his baptism, that glorious Hymn was made which Ave so often use, — "We praise Thee, O God : we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord." After some years, he was made a Bishop ; and then XVIII.] Owning oneself in the wrong. 107 he thought that it would be for the glory of God if he gave a history of his former life, and published it to all the world. He set down his sins, and mourned over them ; and then he had the courage to send this book abroad, so that every one might read it. If it is so painful to confess a sin to only one person, think what it must have been to Augustine to make them manifest to all the world ! Thus he speaks of himself: "I wish," he says, "to call to remembrance my past vileness, and the corruptions of my soul, not because I love them, but that I may love Thee, O my God ! I do this for the love of Thy love, calling to mind my most evil ways, that, when I feel the bitterness of my own sin, then I may also feel how sweet Thou art." It is not wonderful that God should have abundantly blessed a book thus written to His honour ; and many and many a sinner, who was going on in sin, has been converted and brought again to God by the Confessions of Augustine. When he was an old man, and looked back on the multitude of books that he had written, he determined to put down all the mistakes he had found out for him- self in them, or that others had shown him. He did so, and thereby proved how different he was from Pilate's spirit, and from ours. He did not say, " What I have written, I have written." He did not think it was any disgrace to own himself in the wrong. And thus he made his very mistakes and sins to glorify God, by the humbleness wherewith he confessed them before men. His last illness was a fever. He caused some of the Psalms to be written out plainly, and pinned up at his bedside, so that they might always be before his eyes. 108 Owning oneself in the wrong. [Serm. XVIII. And he departed to the Lord on this day, the 28th of August, about fourteen hundred years ago, being seventy years old. I said just now, how great must have been the grace of God in Augustine, which enabled him to confess his sins to the world! But remember this; that the time will come when the same thing will happen to all of us, — when the whole mass of sin that we have committed, ever since we had first the power of sinning, will be proclaimed in the hearing of men and of angels ; of sins that we have done, not like Augustine, before we were baptized, but after we were baptized, after we were con- firmed, after we had again and again received our Lord's Body and Blood, after we had all the means of God's grace, after the Holy Ghost had made us His Temples. This will be for all, good as well as bad ; dreadful to all, even to those who enter into everlasting life : but what for those that, after thus having all their sins proclaimed to the world, will be cast into the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death ? He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy. But he must confess them now : it will be too late to confess them then, when, whether he will or not, they will be made known. It is better to suffer any pain or shame here, than hereafter to be tormented with everlasting pain, and to have our portion in ever- lasting shame and contempt. From which God of His mercy deliver us, for Jesus Christ's sake: to Whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON XIX. SPEAKING THE TRUTH BOLDLY. Decollation of $. $ofin ftapttet. . duirrljus. September 7. " And that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God." — Acts xiv. 22. There is, perhaps, no Saint of whom less is known than of the Holy Bishop S. Enurchus, in whose honour we keep to-day. He came from Rome, and he was Bishop at Orleans in France, and there he built a church, which he called by the name of the Holy Cross. That is all that I, or that any one, can tell you of him. But this we know, that, through great tribulations, through great battles with Satan and with himself, through great fears, he entered into the King- dom of God. How do we know it? Because the Holy Ghost, That cannot lie, has said so by the mouth of S. Paul and S. Barnabas, as I just now read to you in the text. But there is something strange in this, too. Those great Apostles were going round to the different cities where they had preached the true faith and encourag- ing those that had believed, to remain constant to it. 122 Through much Tribulation. [Serm. " Confirming the souls of the Disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God !" This is a wonderful way of confirming people in their resolutions, by telling them that they must have great tribulation. Remain firm in the belief we have taught, continue to do the things we have commanded you. Why? Because they will bring you to honour, or riches, or pleasures ? Because they will make you like the kings and great men of the world? Not at all. Because they will bring you to great tribulation. See how different God's ways are from men's. If we want people to follow us, — if we wish them to help us in anything that we have begun, we show them how it will make them happier, or wiser, or richer to do so, God shows them that it will bring them sorrow in this world to keep His Commandments. S. Paul tells us so, very plainly : — " If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." But just notice the text : it is not, we shall, but, we must, — " we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God." No help for it. We must have trouble some- where : but it depends on us where. Trouble in this world, or trouble, even everlasting misery, in hell. Trouble in this world, and joy hereafter : pleasure, such as it is, in this w r orld, and, hereafter, " the worm that dieth not and the fire that never shall be quenched/' You have all of you heard of the gold-diggings. Sup- pose I were to take you there, without telling you where I was going to carry you, you would see men working under the fierce heat of the sun, the sweat pouring from their faces, — sometimes parched in a dry rocky country, sometimes up to the knees in mud and XXI.] Through much Tribulation. 123 water, — living on the vilest food, sleeping in the meanest huts, never able to be without a sword or a pistol, ex- posed to all sorts of dangers — dangers from cold, dangers from heat, dangers from fever, dangers from thieves; — and you would say, "What madmen are these to risk themselves so, to give up all comforts, all pleasures, for a life like this!" "Yes;" they would answer: "but we do it for gold. A few years like this, and we shall return rich men to England. We shall soon forget all our present troubles in our happiness then : a little labour, a little suffering, a little fasting is very well borne now, if we only keep that in sight." Well, perhaps it is : at least the world says it is. But then we, — why do we not say the same thing ? Why do not we make up our minds contentedly to bear what we do not like here, so we may attain to God's Kingdom hereafter ? Suppose the gold-digger gets what he wants, and returns home ; how long has he to enjoy what he has gained with so much trouble, and with so much danger ? And suppose, instead of returning home, he is seized with one of the fevers that are so common in that country, and dies, — then how much good will his gold bring to him ? Now, we, if we are true Christians, need fear neither of these things. Whenever we do enter into our hea- venly possession, it will last for ever ; and a fever, or an accident, or sudden death, can only send us the sooner to it. " We must through much tribulation enter the King- dom of God." But why must we ? Why not pleasure here, and pleasure by-and-by, as well? Because Christ did not so : He Himself went not up to joy, but first He suffered pain : He entered not into His glory before 124 Through much Tribulation. [Serm. He was crucified. He calls us to nothing worse than that which He Himself suffered. To nothing worse? Why what are all the things of which we complain, to the least part of the Lord's Passion? "When He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him." And then, again : — "We must through much tribu- lation enter into the Kingdom of God," because of our sins. Why should a living man complain — a man for the punishment of his sins? He Whom we follow, " did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." What He did, Who deserved it not, shall not we do, who deserve it ? And yet when one hears so much complaining, so much discontent as there is in this world, one would think that it was we who were innocent and who suf- fered unjustly; that God dealt hardly with us: that whereas we had deserved all manner of blessings at His hands, He had given us all manner of sorrow. And all this, whereas in truth it is because He would have us happy hereafter, that He afflicts us now, because He would have us reign hereafter, that we suffer now. Therefore, you see, I had good reason for saying that the Saint of this day had a life of trouble and sorrow ; else he could not now have sat down where there are rivers of pleasures for evermore. We hear this, and we think it is all very well aud very true ; we see the Bible says so, and we say that we believe it : but then, when the least little disappointment troubles us, when we have any pain, or when we think we are treated un- justly, or when we have set our minds on anything and cannot get it, then we are ready with Jonah's answer to the cpuestion, " Doest thou well to be angry? Aud XXL] Through much Tribulation. 125 he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death." It is so very easy to hear, and so very hard to do. We hear enough ; would God that we did a little more. "What do ye more than others?" If that question were asked of us, how should we answer it ? Let us take heed lest we have to say what I told you S. Augustine said : Others, who have far less means of serving God, others, who have not half our privileges, deny themselves, take up their Cross, follow Christ, take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence; and we, with all our going to the House of God, all our ser- mons, all our means of knowing and loving Christ, are cast into hell ! From which God save us, for Jesus Christ's sake, to Whom, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, be all glory, for ever. Amen. SERMON XXII. THE LOWS COMING TO HIS TEMPLE. jlatfbttD of the Elcs^rtJ Tirgtn fHarg. £cpt. 8. "The Loed, Whom xe seek, shall suddenly come to His temple." — malachi iii. 1. There is no festival of S. Mary which has not also to do with our Lord. How should it be otherwise ? She who was so closely and so wonderfully connected with Him as Man, so that He was bone of her bone, and flesh of her flesh, she cannot be divided in our thoughts from Him now. He is still Man, as truly as He ever was; He still has the flesh which He took of her; the same in which He suffered, the same in which He died, the same in which He rose again from the dead. This text has, then, to do both with our Lord and with His Blessed Mother; and we may also apply it to ourselves, and say that it has to do with us. " The Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His Temple." First of all, this prophecy was fulfilled when the Archangel Gabriel was sent to Nazareth with the most wonderful message that was ever heard on earth. " Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy Serm. XXII.] The Lord's Coming to His Temple. 127 womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His Name Jesus." The womb of S. Mary was the temple into which our Lord at that moment entered. There it was that He, Who was the Desire of all nations, — He, Who even then might have said, " The earth is weak, and all the inhabiters thereof: I bear up the pillars of it/' — He, Whom the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain, — there He lay hid for all those long months until the fulness of the time came, and God was born into the world. David, in the Psalms, represents our Lord as anxious to find out this temple for Himself: " I will not give sleep to mine eyes, nor slumber to mine eyelids, neither shall the temples of my head take any rest : until I find out a place for a temple of the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. - " This place, this habitation, He did find out, when the Holy Ghost came upon S. Mary, and the power of the Highest overshadowed her, and the Word of the Fa- ther took flesh in her womb. " The Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple/' And this promise was fulfilled the second time when our Lord was presented in the temple, at the Purification of His Blessed Mother, — in memory of which we keep Candlemas-day. It was His temple, though the Jews little knew it : He, then an infant six weeks old, was the one true Priest, though the High Priest little thought it ; He was Lord of the countless armies of angels, and of all the tribes of men, though He had so few that were truly waiting for Him. " The Lord, Whom ye seek." How many were those that sought Him then ? If I count rightly, four only. See if I am wrong. S. Luke tells us that Anna the pro- phetess " coming in that instant gave thanks like- wise to the Lord, and spake of Him to all them that 128 The Lord's Coming to His Temple. [Scrm. looked for redemption in Jerusalem." All, then, that looked for redemption in Jerusalem were at that mo- ment in the temple — there were none others besides ; and for all that appears, there were only S. Anna her- self, S. Mary, and S. Joseph, and Simeon. Four cour- tiers to wait on such a King ! " The Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple/' This Scripture is fulfilled before us every day ; for every day the Holy Ghost comes down into His temples, the bodies of those who are baptized : He comes suddenly, He comes without preparation, — a few words, a little water, — and His temple is consecrated to Him for ever. As S. Paul tells us, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?" and again, " Know ye not, that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" But those temples must, little by little, day by day, fall to pieces and perish. " This earthly house of our tabernacle must be dissolved," says S. Paul. And when it shall have been, — when earth shall have returned to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, — then also this text shall be fulfilled ; " The Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple." He shall come to it, to raise it up again from the earth, and — if it has been His true temple — to make it His glorious dwelling for ever. And this shall be suddenly, too, as S. Paul also tells us : "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." That will be the last time that our Lord will come to His temple ; for afterwards he shall abide in it for ever. The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of that Holy City, New Jerusalem, which S. XXII.] The Lord's Coming to His Temple. 129 John saw, and which we also some day hope to see : according to that saying, " Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go no more out." Now, what we are to notice in all these comings of our Lord to His temple, is their suddenness. "The Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple/' In one moment He was conceived in the womb of S. Mary ; in one moment He turns the heart of an infant, from being the abode and the den of Satan into His own holy temple; in one moment He will raise up these bodies of ours, turning them from mortal to immortal, from corruptible to incorruptible. God does not stand in need of time to do His wonderful works. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. But we may take this verse in yet one more sense. " The Lord shall suddenly come to His temple," when He comes to each of you at death. Long or short as your last illness may be, still the Lord's coming will be sudden. There is one point, one moment of time, at which you will leave the world and go to Him. Then all our happiness depends on whether the first part of the verse be true : " the Lord, Whom ye seek." If so, all is well. Then His Coming, though it must be dreadful, will also be glorious; then we may make answer with S. John, " He Which testifieth these things, saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen : even so come, Lord Jesus." But suppose the Lord, Whom ye do not seek, should suddenly come to His temple ? . . . . And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. K SEEM ON XXIII. HOW CHRIST IS A BUNDLE OF MYRRH, f^oli) Cross 9a». September 14. " A BUNDLE OF MYEEH IS MY WeLL-BeLOYED UNTO ME : He SHALL LIE ALL NIGHT BETWIXT MY BEEASTS." — CANT. I. 13. This Song of Solomon is now, perhaps, less read than any other book of the Bible. And yet the day has been when holy men have written more about it, have thought more deeply upon it, have learnt more from it, than from any other part of the Old Testament. The reason is, that, unless we have deep love to our Lord, unless we can feel something of that which He has done for us, and of that which we owe Him, this Book is foolishness to us. It needs the especial assist- ance of the Holy Ghost to enable us to read it as it ought to be read. The verse you have heard is that which every Christian soul ought to be able to say to Christ. He is the Well-Beloved. And why it is that He is here called a Bundle of Myrrh it will be well for us to consider at this time, when we are called upon more especially to remember what He did and what He Scrm. XXIII.] Hoiv Christ is a Bundle of Myrrh. 131 suffered for our sakes. For I am reminded to speak to you of His Cross by the very name of the day — Holy Cross Day — which is kept in memory of the recovery of the wood of the Cross from heathens that, six hundred years after our Lord's Death, had carried it away. Now Myrrh is chiefly remarkable for two things : its exceeding bitterness, and its power of healing wounds. By the Bundle, we are to understand all the different works of love which our Lord undertook for us, which cost Him so much — there is the bitterness; which wrought out our salvation — there is the healing. His weariness in His journeys, His labours in teaching, His watchfulness in praying, His temptations in fasting, His tears over sinners, His being plotted against by His enemies ; the spitting, the buffeting, the scourging, the mockings and revilings, which He endured for our sakes. All these things are, as it were, a Bundle of Myrrh ; each brought to Him so much bitterness, each brings to us so much strength and healing. But more than all the rest put together, is the exceeding bitter- ness of His Passion, which, in itself, combines all things necessary to salvation. Therefore S. Paul might well say, " I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." How should he wish to know more, when this is all knowledge in itself? For Christ not only left us an example in what He did, but also in what He suffered. All that He had taught by word, He fulfilled in His most holy Passion in deed. See therefore what the only-begotten Son of God did, that He might gain many other sons to the Father, that He might gain many brethren to Him- self. He came down from His kingdom, even heaven, 132 How Christ is a Bundle of Myrrh. [Serm. alone ; but He would not return thither alone. He re- deemed us, Who was Himself sold ; He exalted us, Who was Himself despised ; He gave us blessings, Who was Himself loaded with curses; He bestowed on us life, Who was Himself condemned to death. And, being in the form of God, He took upon Him the form of a servant, that He might redeem His servants; and being Himself the Tree of Life, He hung on the Tree of Death, namely, the Cross. And this is what we are called at this time to remember. " We all," says S. Paul, " behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord." What? and is this His glory? Is it His glory to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief? To be reviled upon the Cross? To be forsaken by God the Father? To be mocked by them that pass by ? To have no sorrow like His sorrow, no shame like His shame? Yes; this is the example that He set us. Therefore when we eat, every morsel which we put into our mouths should remind us of that morsel which He gave to Judas in the same night wherein He was betrayed ; when we drink, we should call to mind the vinegar and the gall which was given to Him in His thirst; when we lie down, we should remember the last hard bed on which He lay down, the cold aud bare, and painful plank of the Cross ; w r hcn we lay our head on the pillow, we should remember what sort of a pillow it was which He had for His most Sacred Head, — a crown of great sharp thorns ; when we are quietly and easily falling off to sleep, we should desire to call to miud that it was amidst revilings and mockings, in shame and agony, that He sank to His last sleep on the Cross ; when He said, "Father, into Thy Hands I commend My Spirit;" and again when He said, " It is finished." XXIII.] How Christ is a Bundle of Myrrh. 133 And what that It was, — " It is finished \" — who shall venture to tell or to think ? And what do we owe Him for all this bundle of myrrh? for all this, blessing upon blessing, that He has wrought for us? We owe Him much because He created us. But how much more because He redeemed us ! The creation cost Him only a word. "He spake the word, and they were made : He commanded, and they were created." The redemption cost Him thirty- three years and more of labour and misery, and then death, even the death of the Cross. When He created us, He gave us ourselves, that is, our soul and body. When He redeemed us, He gave us Himself, that is, all His sufferings, all His merits, all His victories. We owe all that we can do for Him, because we are His by creation. But what then do we owe Him, because we are His by redemption ? As a good man said of old, " For every drop of crimson dye Thus shed to make me lire, — Oh wherefore, wherefore have not I A thousand souls to give ?" But He only asks that we give Him our love. Is that much ? Is it possible — so we should have said, did we not by bitter experience know better — that we should not give it Him ? Is it possible' that, when we see His Cross, no longer the sign of disgrace and death, but of victory over the devil, — and the Crown of Thorns, which manifests Him the King of kings and Lord of lords, — and the Nails, dropping with His Blood, — is it possible that we should not give Him our whole hearts, our full love ? You know best, each of you, whether you do or not. 134 Hoiv Christ is a Bundle of Myrrh. [Serm. All this shows how true is that saying of David, "The Lord careth for me." The Father, that He might redeem us His servants, spared not His own Son ; the Son, of His own free will, became obedient to death, even the death of the Cross : the Holy Ghost maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And now let us count up this Bundle of Myrrh, and see what it is, and what it does for us. Our Lord gave us His Flesh to be our food, His Blood to be our drink, His Wounds to be our protection, His Cross to be our shield, His Bloody Sweat to be our medicine, His Nails to uphold us, His Crown of Thorns to ornament us, the water of His Side to cleanse us in Baptism. There- fore, the more dreadful His Passion appears, if we look at it with earthly eyes, the more sweet and precious we find it to be, when He gives us grace to see it as it is. The way in which Christ suffered shows that, if it had been necessary, or if it had been possible, He would have suffered ten thousand times as much. There was an old belief that, if a murderer were brought into the presence of the dead body of him whom he had murdered, the wounds would begin to bleed afresh. We are Christ's murderers, because it was for our sins that He died ; and if we look at Him with the eye of Faith, we shall behold His Blood still flowing forth for our guilt, as freshly as on that day when He went up on Mount Calvary. He is as ready to cleanse us now as then. He ever liveth to make in- tercession for us, because His Wounds are ever open to plead for us. On this therefore we are now called to fix our eyes. " Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith, Who, for the joy that was set XXIII.] How Christ is a Bundle of Myrrh. 135 before Him, endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the Right Hand of the Throne of God." And this is what David means, when he says, "Turn again then unto thy rest, O my soul." This is our true repose. We have all rest in Him Who had all labour; we have all peace in Him Wlio had all woe; we have all glory in Him Who had all shame. To Him, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. SERMON XXIV. IGNORANT PRAYERS. i*>. Hambcrt. J^cpUnrbcr 17. . Cyprian, ^cptcmticr 26. " He that ovebcometh shall not be huet of the second death." — eev. ii. 11. Few Martyrs have overcome more gloriously than S. Cyprian, an African Bishop, whose memory we keep to-day. He lived in the time of famine, and plague, and persecution ; he was the good shepherd of his people through all. Many of his writings we have even now, and in them we see how truly and faithfully he followed in the steps of the Shepherd of shepherds, Jesus Christ ; and at last, as on this day, he was beheaded in the pre- sence of a vast crowd of Christians, who glorified God in his death. The text, then, applies to him, but it applies to us also. To see how this is, we must look back to what is said of the Church of Smyrna, to which this Epistle is written. We find that even then it was in great affliction. "I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich;)" and we find also that this affliction was to be increased : " Fear none of those 144 He that overcometh. [Serm. things which thou shalt suffer : behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried ; and ye shall have tribulation ten days : be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." This promise then — like the rest of the Epistle — is given to all of those who are in trouble or temptation of any kind, and who may reasonably look for more. There- fore, it is given to most of you. The last days of life are not its pleasantest days. " The clouds return after the rain" then, as the wise man says ; that is, the times of suffering are no sooner passed, than they come back again : sickness, when it leaves you, does not leave you for long ; and you have very certainly and very soon to look forward to that grievous time of tribulation and distress, when the dust shall return unto the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to Gon Who gave it. Now, then, see how God would comfort you, by seeing how He comforted this poor and suffering Church of Smyrna. How does the letter begin ? " These things saith the First and the Last, Which was dead and is alive." Why, there is comfort even in this. " The First and the Last." The First to bear all the cares and troubles of this life, which are appointed to be the portion of His servants. The First to go through " the valley of the shadow of death," that we might follow Him safely. The First to say, " In the world ye shall have tribula- tion ;" " if a man will not deny himself, and take up his cross, he cannot be My Disciple." And He is the Last : He will remain when all these tribulations shall have passed away. He will be our " exceeding and eternal great reward," when the very name of tempta- tion shall not be so much as heard again. Whatever XXV.] He that overcometh. 145 else is dissolved, He continues "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." In everything else we may trust and be deceived. In Him only, if we put our confidence, we shall never be confounded. If He then suffered so much before us, shall we think it much to suffer after Him? If He ever liveth to receive us at last, shall we think it hard to suffer here, to the end that we may have a home with Him there ? But, again : these words have comfort for us in another sense. . 3Jcromc. J&rptcmbcr 30. " And the Loed showed me four carpenters." — Zech. i. 20. As it pleased God that the Life of our Lord Jesus Christ should be written by four Evangelists, neither more nor less, so it has pleased Him that there should be four Saints who, beyond others, have explained Holy Scriptures for the use of His Church. We call them the four Doctors, — that is, Teachers. They are — S, Gregory, on the 12th of March; S. Augustine, on the 28th of August; S. Jerome, to-day; S. Ambrose, on the 4th of April. All of them wrote a great number of books about the Word of God; all of them have opened its meaning to us more fully than without them we could have known it ; all of them laboured to de- fend the Catholic Faith against all heresies, — that same Catholic Faith which we hold in our hearts, and profess with our lips, to this day. S. Jerome was the only one of the four who was not a Bishop : he was a simple Priest. He long lived near Bethlehem; and people from all parts of the world used to send and ask him 152 The Four Carpenters. [Serin. for the explanation of difficult texts. And besides all his other works, he made a translation of the Bible which is still very famous. Now, in the text, these four Doctors of the Church are likened to carpenters. And why ? Chiefly for this reason : it is the business of carpenters to work in wood, and in nothing else. So the end and aim that these holy men had in view, was to preach the Cross of Christ. And just as carpenters can make a thousand different things out of wood, all useful, all beautiful, so these Doctors turned the Cross of Christ to a great many different uses ; but it was the Cross, and the Cross alone, that they set forth. Sometimes they tell us how it made an atonement for sin ; sometimes, how the devil was conquered by its means ; sometimes, how we must also take up our cross ; sometimes they remind us how we are signed with that sign in our baptism. They might say, as S. Paul did, " I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and Him Crucified. " Now, what we may learn, most profitably for our- selves, is this : how much fulness of meaning there is in every word and letter of the Bible. If great saints and learned men like these Doctors could spend year after year in setting forth its hidden treasures, and after all confess that they are unsearchable, shall we not be ashamed to read and to search the Holy Scrip- tures as we do ? It is not as if God's Word had only the outside meaning which we see at first. Take the story of Abraham and Isaac. You may know the things which happened well enough; but till you have learnt that Isaac is a type of Christ, you cannot be said to understand anything really of the story. And XXVI.] The Four Carpenters. 153 so it is with other stories ; so it is with the history of the Israelites, both in the books of Moses, and in Joshua, and in Judges, and Kings ; and till you have some little idea of these, you can no more be said to understand the Bible, than a child with a nut in his hand, which he cannot crack, understands what the fruit is like. Again : we may w^ll bless God for such holy teachers, when we remember how difficult the Bible is. Not that we are to fix our faith on them. Great and good men as they were, they might be mistaken : it is not they, it is only the whole Catholic Church which can never be mistaken. But still, they had so great a measure of the Holy Ghost, that if ever they fell into mistakes, it was only in small matters, and the truths they have taught are written for our instruction to the end of the world. Yes : the Bible is a difficult book indeed. It is true, some things are written so clearly that we want no one to explain them to us. When we read that Christ Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost, we need no one to tell us that He is indeed the Saviour of the world. When, at the Last Supper, He took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to His disciples saying, " Take, eat, this is My Body," we know and are certain, and are to believe it in spite of all temp- tation, that it is His Body. But when we read texts which seem to contradict each other, as when S. Paul tells us that " a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law," and S. James says, " Ye see, then, how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only," how then are we to understand? When we find texts such as these, " He that doubteth is damned if he 1") i The Four Carpenters. [Serm. eat," — or again, " Touch not, taste not, handle not," — or again, whole chapters together in the Prophets or the Epistles, — how then are we to understand? The fault is in ourselves, not in the Bible ; but how does that help us. To take the text again. Tf we wanted to make a chair or a table, and a man led us into a field, and showed us a fine oak, and gave it to us, but offered us no tools, nor any workmen, how should we be the better ? There, it is true, is wood enough ; but how are we to get at it ? But let us have carpenters, and then indeed we shall be obliged to him. This oak is the Bible. To make it useful to us, we must have the teachers whom God has given to us, who are compared to the carpenters. There are few more crafty temptations of the devil than that by which he would persuade people that they can explain Scripture for themselves. But now, how did these holy Doctors or teachers get their understanding of the Bible? I will tell you. First and foremost, by a holy life, and by much prayer. All other means are nothing without this. If any man, our Lord said, will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine ; but not unless. Then by deep and patient study, by comparing Scripture with Scripture, by learning what the Church before them had taught, what were the old explana- tions, they gained their understanding. And then by their learning: they could read the languages in which the Bible was originally written, and they studied them diligently. Prayer, and study, and a good life, — that was the way they were able to search the Scriptures. Prayer and a good life, we each in our own poor way XXVI.] The Four Carpenters. 155 may try ; and for all the other helps that God gives us, let us praise Him more and more. More especially at this time, when the falling leaves and the stormy skies remind us of sorrow and of death, let us beseech Him to open our eyes, that we may more and more fully believe in Him That is the Resurrection and the Life. God grant us so to read of Him of Whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write, that, by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, we may become wise unto salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord; to Whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON XXVII. THE DEATH OE A SERVANT. £>. 3fUmtcjtug. <©ct. 1. " THEREFORE, MY BELOVED BRETHREN, BE YE STEADFAST, rXSIOYEABLE, ALWAYS ABOUNDING IN THE WORK OF THE LORD." — 1 COR. XV. 58. There must be some great reason which goes before this " therefore." It is no light thing which S. Paul here exhorts us to do. To be steadfast, when we all know how hard it is to fix our hearts on God's service at all ; to be immoveable, when the devil and the world are seeking every moment to cast us down ; to be always abounding in the work of the Lord, when we find it so difficult to do anything at all to the glory of God. It is a great tiling which he sets us to do, and there must be a great reason for doing it. What is it ? Not at all what we should think. S. Paul has been speaking of death, and of the victory whereby we over- come death. It is because these bodies of ours shall be sown in corruption, to be raised in incorruption, — shall be sown in dishonour, to be raised in glory ; be- cause the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be Berm. XXVII.] TJie Death of a Servant. 157 raised incorruptible, and wc shall be changed ; that we are now to be steadfast and unmoveable. "We will try- to see how this is. Now, it is not of the saint of this day, the holy Bishop Remigius, that I am about to speak. He did indeed abound in the work of the Lord for many long years, in preaching the Gospel, in being instant in season and out of season, in reproving, rebuking, ex- horting. But God calls us at this time to look at another example of the text. Since I last spoke to you here, we have all learnt something more of what this fifteenth chapter of the Corinthians means. No long time ago T was reminding you how near death might be to any of us, and must be to some of us. We did not then think how very near — nor to whom. I told you that the elm was probably cut down and seasoned which was to make your coffin ; that the nails were already forged which would hold it together. And so it was : but not as I thought. I thought of an elm somewhere here in this neighbour- hood ; I thought of a coffin to be made here in this place ; I thought of a quiet grave in this churchyard for some of you who have passed what David calls the bounds of our life: "The days of our age are three- score years and ten ; and though men be so strong that they come to four-score years, yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow." But it was not so. One of the youngest of you was taken — taken at the very time when least of all others she might have looked for it. The parable tells us that it was at midnight — that is at the hour when no one would expect it — that the cry was made, " Behold, the Bridegroom cometh : go ye out to meet Him." It was in the very spring of her 158 The Death of a Servant. [Serm. life that those words were true, " The harvest is past, the summer is ended," — but, thank God ! not the end of the verse — " and we are not saved." She went from home, from you all, from the place she knew and loved, to die in a strange town, to lie in a little sea-side churchyard of which she had never heard. But, for all that, " The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them." Consider this. We have been praying this last week that we, being ready both in body and soul, may cheer- fully accomplish those things God would have done. Ready in body ? how ? Why, you say, by being strong for God's service, — able to work hard in it without be- ing tired, — needing little rest before we take it up again. And / say, it may be just the opposite. " That we be- ing ready :" suppose the thing God would have us to do is to die : then still the prayer holds. We pray that we may be ready in body for that — that the earthly house of this our tabernacle may be shaken, and so taken down — that weakness and sickness may come, and gradually disjoin soul and body. Yes, indeed. Whenever it is God's will that so it should be, this prayer asks Him to prepare our bodies for it, — asks Him for pain and sickness. For His will is our salva- tion. "Whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lokd ; whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's." I do not mean that we, if it were left to ourselves, are to wish for so sudden a death. " Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward," are words that we should not wish to hear in a hurry. We pray against it in the Litany. We say every night, " Almighty God grant us a quiet XXVII.] The Death of a Servant. 159 night, and a perfect end •" that is, an end in which we may have all the services of the Church that we can have. Nevertheless, it is no proof of God's anger. The wise man tells us so expressly. " For though the righteous be prevented" — that is, hurried off — " by death, yet shall he be in rest. For honourable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years. But wisdom is the grey hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age. He pleased God, and was beloved of Him ; so that, living among sinners, he was translated. Yea, speedily was he taken away, lest that wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul. He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time." And our Lord teaches us the same thing. u Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching. If He shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch," — that is, whether He shall come when they have reason to expect Him, or when they have not reason to expect Him, — " and find them so, blessed are those servants." We cannot judge certainly — neither must we speak certainly — of any one whom God takes from us. But the hope we have for some may be so very strong, as to be almost certainty. And if we have a right to a hope full of immortality about any one, it is about her of whom I am speaking. I am not afraid to say, Let me die the death that she died, and let my last end be like hers ! Now, if there was one thing above another which makes me say so, it was the way in which she constantly acted up to those commands, " Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men :" and, " If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted 160 The Death of a Servant. [Serm. according to that a man hatli, and not according to that he hath not." It is a great thing to labour for God's sake, and that we may please God. Depend upon it, whatever the world may say, whatever we may think, it is a far more blessed thing to sweep rooms, or to wait at table, or to clean shoes, or anything else that we call most mean, for the sake of God, and remembering Jesus Christ, " Who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor," yes, and a far more glorious thing too, — than to win the greatest battles, — than to write the most learned books, — than to speak the most eloquent speeches, — for the sake of pleasing ourselves. " Do it heartily, as to the Lord :" — if we could only carry that out, as she did, I am bold to say we should not be far from the kingdom of God. What then? Are we to think that, if she did little things for God's service here on earth, now she is not to serve Him at all? God forbid ! It is written : " His servants shalt serve Him." They that have been faith- ful over a few things, shall be made rulers over many things. They that have served God well here, shall serve Him better there. They rest not day nor night there. And this helps to explain the text. Why are we to be " always abounding in the work of the Lord V Because of this very thing. If our ser- vice to God were to end with this life, then it would be a very poor, heartless service, after all. But it is not. It goes on after death; it goes on while the body is mouldering in the grave; it goes on more perfectly when it shall be raised up again never more to be weary, never more to Buffer, never more to die. This is but the beginning of our service. No one can take an in- terest in that which is soon to come to an end. But XXVII.] The Death of a Servant. 161 how much interest we ought to take — how much dili- gence we ought to show — when that which is begun now, is to last for ever ! And for another reason. Those who have gone before us, and have died in the grace of God, they are carry- ing on the same work which we have to carry on here. How, we cannot tell. We may fancy what their em- ployments are, — we may try to imagine how they work the work of God, — but it is all in vain : we must be with them before we can tell. And this is a great comfort as regards them. " I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope." At this very present moment, we, if we are trying to serve God, and she whom we have lost, are carrying on one and the selfsame work. We do not know what she is doing; she may not know — though more probably she does know — what we are doing ; but it is the same work nevertheless. In a battle here, the soldiers at one end of the army cannot tell what the soldiers at the other end are about : they only know that all are engaged under the same leader, all fighting against the same enemy, all hoping for the same victory. Now so it is with us. She, if — as I firmly believe, — she died in God's grace, can never more be overthrown. He that is dead hath ceased from sin. We may. " Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip/' " Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh." The time will come when some one will speak about us, as I am now speak- ing about her; and the rest will sit and hear, and think M 162 Tlie Death of a Servant. [Senn. that it is all very true ; and then many of them will go their ways and forget it. And so on, one after another, till all are gone, others will talk of us as we have spoken of those avIio have gone before ; and we shall go the way that we shall not return. " This know/' our Lord says, " that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched." That is the great thing for all of you. If those that are young please themselves by thinking that their time will not be soon, it is not so with you ; most of you know that it must be soon. There is the less time to watch ; there is the less time to pray. If the servants knew that their Lord was coming before morning, and already the East was beginning to get light — how they would listen for every sound ! how they would strain their eyes to catch the first sight of Him ! So let it be with you. You have but a little longer to wait for Christ here, to work for Him here, to conquer for Him here. You have the examples of those gone before you — how they w r aited, how they worked, how (as we may well believe) they overcame. You know, as I said, that they are still working for Him, — that they are still fellow-workers with us, — that, though we cannot see them, we are knit together in one fellowship with them. What follows? "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovcable, always abouuding in the work of the Lord :" that we may enter in hereafter where they have entered in, — that we may live with them again, — that we may have our part with them for ever. Not as if we were now really separated from thorn, but that hereafter we may see, as well as know, that we are joined with them : XXVII.] The Death of a Servant. 163 " Our brethren once, our brethren now, Still knit in holy love ; We praise and serve Him here below, They praise and serve above." And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON XXVIII. HOW WE COULD MEET MARTYRDOM NOW. £. dFatth. (©ctofccr 6. " When thou passest through the watees, I will be with THEE; AND THROUGH THE RIVERS, THEX SHALL NOT OVERFLOW THEE : WHEN THOU WALKEST THROUGH THE FIRE, THOU SHALT NOT BE BURNED ; NEITHER SHALL THE FLAME KINDLE UPON THEE." — ISA. XLIII. 2. God's ways are not as our "ways, neither His thoughts as our thoughts. If we are asking a favour of any man, we sometimes beg it with the more confidence, because we never troubled him before, because he never gave us anything before. But God loves to be asked in quite a different way. Because He has done so much, therefore He leads us to hope that He will do much more. What does David say, " Because Thou hast been my help, therefore under the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice." What does our Lord Himself speaking as Man say? "Save Me from the lion's mouth : Thou hast heard Me also from among the horns of the unicorns." Something of the same goodness we may see in the text I have just read you. It contains three promises. " When thou passest through the waters, I will be with Serm. XXYIIL] Howwe could meet Martyrdom now. 165 thee," — there is one : " and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee," — that is another; and then the most wonderful of all, " when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." Now, when Isaiah wrote, two of these promises had already been made good to the Jews. They had passed through the waters of the Red Sea, and God had been with them in the pillar of fire : they had gone through the river Jordan, and it had not overflowed them. The third remained to be fulfilled. And you all know how it was brought to pass; how the flame did not kindle upon the Three Holy Children, who said to Nebuchadnezzar, " Be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image that thou hast set up." For we read in the book of Daniel, that " the captains and the king's counsellors being gathered to- gether saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them." Thus this promise was fulfilled to them literally ; that is, according to its plain, first meaning. And it has been so with some others. We read of one holy Bishop, Polycarp by name, that when he was condemned to be burned to death, the flames were driven round him in a circle by a moist whistling wind, and his body shone in the midst like a stone most precious, even like a chrysolite, of the colour of gold. And his persecutors seeing that the fire had no power over him, pierced him with a spear, and thus he ended his course with joy. But there are other cases, and many of them, in which the fire has had power over the bodies of God's 166 How we could meet Martyrdom now. [Senn. servants, even to destroy them ; and it was so with the blessed Saint whose day this is, I mean S. Faith. Her very name shows you that her parents were Christians. They, knowing how precious a thing is faith in the sight of God, thought that they could do no better than give that name to their daughter, and she did not disgrace it. She dwelt in the south of France, at the beginning of the most tremendous persecution that ever happened to the Church of God. For thirty years the kings of this world stood up, and the rulers took counsel against the Lord and against His Anointed. They sent crowds of Martyrs to glory ; they invented tortures too horrible to be thought of; if it had been possible, they would have seduced the very elect. Some, indeed, the devil did overcome; some sacrificed to idols and denied Christ, but the greater part, even hundreds of thousands, remembered our Lord's words, and feared not them that killed the body, and after that had no more that they could do. However, such havoc was made in the Church, that the Roman Emperor, (his name was Diocletian,) thought that he had destroyed it, and he had a medal made to set forth what he had done. On one side was his own head, on the other was a figure trampling on a serpent ; and the letters round it were, " Superstition destroyed." He meant, Christianity destroyed. Well, at the beginning of this persecution lived S. Faith. Her home was at a town called Agen, and there she dwelt with her parents. One day there came news to the place that the governor of the province, whose name was Dacian, was coming to find out all the Christians in Agen, that he might give them their choice of denying Christ, or being put to death. XXVIII.] How we could meet Martyrdom now. 167 It is very easy for me to tell, and for you to hear, of these things. Here we are sitting in a Christian land, in a Christian building, knowing that we may serve God without any man's daring to hinder us. But let us now imagine that the case were different. Suppose that, next week, the High Sheriff of this county were coming to this town, in order that he might put to death all who professed themselves Christians. Suppose that we saw advertisements on the walls that all persons were to present themselves at the Court House, on such a day, on pain of death, to sacrifice to an idol. Suppose that a huge image was set up in that house, and a little fire were kindled before it. Suppose that the High Sheriff, attended by a troop of soldiers, entered the town at the appointed day, and that evening gave a grand banquet at one of the inns. Suppose that we were told that, at nine o'clock on the next morning, we should be sent for to the Court House, and com- manded either to throw incense into the fire set before the idol, which would be to worship it, or to take the consequences. And what consequences? All night long we should be disturbed by the putting up a scaffold in the common field : in the early grey of the morning we should see men moving about with masks on, and setting in order strange, fearful-looking pieces of iron, some like pincers, some with great teeth like saws, some with long pointed hooks; we should see a frame- work like a long table, with pulleys at this end and pulleys at that end, which they would call a rack ; and we should be told that all these things were prepared for those who would not obey the Act of Parliament, which commanded all men to sacrifice to the great idol. Now, do not let us say this is impossible. In all 168 How we could meet Martyrdom now. [Serm. probability, nothing of the kind will ever happen to us. But when Antichrist, whoever and whatever he is, shall come, he will stir up a worse persecution against the Church than it has ever yet known. Then, in this very College, what I am now asking you to suppose, may very probably really take place. We shall not see those days : but we are living in the same rooms, and we worship God in the same chapel, where they who shall really see them will live and will worship. They will then have to choose whom they will obey, God, or the devil. Suppose then, as I say, that these things were come upon us, and that means were taken, as they probably would be, to prevent any of us from escaping, and that to-morrow were the great day. I wonder how many among you would already have made up your minds to deny Christ. I wonder how many more, as soon as they were taken to the Court House, and saw the High Sheriff sitting by the idol, and the officers ready to carry off those who refused to sacrifice, and heard that most of the townspeople had willingly burnt incense, — I say, I wonder how many would find their hearts fail them then. And if they stood firm even then, I wonder how they would act when they were taken into the field, and passing one or two dead bodies, were shown some who were undergoing the torture because they would not worship the idol, and saw the blood pouring down from their sides, and the drops of sweat standing on their forehead, and knew that their own turn was coming next. And I do not say this of you only. I wonder whether I myself, who now find it so easy to talk to you of all this, should then be exhorting you to play the man for Christ's sake; should be reminding you of the crown promised XXVIII.] How ive could meet Martyrdom now. 169 to him that overcometh; should tell you that if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him ; or should say, Well, that after all, you might sacrifice now, and make your peace with God afterwards; that it was impossible to endure such tortures : that God would forgive you for yielding to them ; and all the rest of such devices as the devil would not fail to find us in plenty. But I hope that, even if I did, some there would be among you, who would answer, as S. Paul once said, "Though you, or an angel from heaven preach any other doctrine than that we have received, let him be accursed." These things came, then, really to pass, at Agen on this very day. Faith, remembering our Lord's com- mandment not to run into temptation, would not of her own accord come forward and give herself up to the governor. Therefore, like Mary, she sat still in the house. But a Priest named Caprais, who dwelt in the same city, had not the same courage. He, no doubt, had often exhorted Faith to deny herself, to take up her cross, to follow Christ : he had no doubt again and again given to her His Precious Body and Blood : he was a man, and she a mere girl : he was a Priest, and she only a common Christian. And yet he began to tremble, while she stood firm. But yet the grace of God was in him. If he was afraid to suffer, he was more afraid to sin. He escaped from the city by night, and went into a wood on the brow of a hill hard by. Morning came : the 6th of October. There sat Dacian the Governor in all the glory of the world. Christian after Christian came before him, confessed Christ, and was beheaded. At last some one that stood by told the Governor of Faith. " She is a girl/' they said : " she has been delicately brought up ; she will yield if she be 170 How we could meet Martyrdom now. [Serm. threatened with torture." And Dacian thought so too. For he knew not that God hath chosen the weak things of this world to confound the things that are mighty. So Faith was sent for, came, and had her choice, to sacrifice to the idol, or to be broiled alive. What she said we know not ; it is sufficient for us to know what she did. All this while Caprais was watching from the wood, to see what would happen. Towards noon he saw multitudes of people flocking together to a small com- mon outside the town. He saw some bringing heaps of wood, he saw others carrying straw, and others oil ; he saw the billets set in order on the ground, the oil poured in, and the straw chopped up. Then he heard a sound as of blacksmiths, and saw them hanging a great iron frame over the heap. He saw the fire and the wood ; and soon also he saw the lamb for the burnt offering. They brought Faith to the place, and there, for many hours, hanging on that iron frame, she passed through the fire. And it did kindle upon her. We nowhere read of her, as of some other Martyrs, that she did not feel its agony. How then was the promise fulfilled, " When thou passest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned ?" That, by God's grace, we must consider another time, as another Martyr shall give us the opportunity. Now we will only see what was the end of this fierce and long battle with Satan. Some of the heathen that stood by, seeing how, hour after hour, Faith endured her torments, perceiving the wonderful courage that was given her, and the love, stronger than death, that she bore to her Lord, cried out that the God Whom Faith worshipped was the XXVIII.] How we could meet Martyrdom now. 171 True God ; that as for the gods of the heathen, they were but idols; and that they themselves were Chris- tians. Dacian, enraged beyond measure, gave orders that they should be beheaded. They had no time to be baptized ; but the Church teaches, as I shall have occasion to tell you more at length, that, in the case of such as these, their baptism of blood at their Martyr- dom was sufficient. Caprais saw all this; not only S. Faith's triumph when he was afraid to draw nigh, but he beheld the very heathen entering into the kingdom of heaven before him. The grace of God and his own fears long struggled for the mastery ; but at last the grace of God prevailed. He came down, and professed himself to be a Christian, and was beheaded. And with him Faith also was beheaded ; and thus both entered into the joy of their Lord. Both entered it : but not alike gloriously. She that had the hardest battle in this life, doubtless has now the more exceeding reward. " One star differeth from another star/'' S. Paul teaches us, " in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead/' Here the first was last. The first in age, the first in honour, as being a Priest, the first in this world's strength, as being a man, was the last in confessing Christ, the last in the glory of suffering for Him, — the last, because he followed the example, and S. Faith set it. Yet they are both blessed for evermore; and God grant that we may come only within a hundred degrees of either of them in glory ! And now to the King of Martyrs, Jesus Christ, be ascribed, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, all honour and gloiy for ever. Amen. SERMON XXIX. S. PAUL ON MAES' HILL. I*>. StomiStttS ti)t £lrcopagttc. vJDrtobct: 9. " HOWBEIT CERTAIN MEN CLAVE UNTO HIM, AND BELIEVED ; AMONG THE WHICH WAS DlONTSIUS THE AKEOPAGITE." — ACTS XVII. 34. Athens was the most learned and most beautiful city in the world. It was a kind of University for the whole earth. Men went up from all other nations to study there. There were magnificent temples to the gods, the ruins of some of which remain to this day. There the greatest painters and the greatest poets had lived. There, too, had been wise men, who had spent all their lives in feeling after God, in trying to discover whether there were, or were not, a future state ; men, whose books we have now, and whose writings, for their beauty and their eloquence, surpass every other. It is no wonder, then, that the Athenians believed themselves to be wiser and better than the rest of the world, and looked on all others with great contempt, as ignorant and barbarous people. What do you think, then, they must have felt, when one day it was noised about the city, that a poor Jew had come there, who Serm. XXIX.] S. Paul on Mars' Hill. 173 gave out that he was sent to teach a new religion ; who said that all the temples of the gods would soon perish; that the idols were the work of men's hands — wood and stone ; that they who made them were like unto them, and so were all such as put their trust in them. " He preaches/' one of the philosophers said, " that we are to worship one God only ; and that this God was cruci- fied, about twenty years ago, at Jerusalem/' We can imagine the shouts of laughter among all that heard : how some called the Apostle mad, some took him for an impostor, some said that it would be amusing to hear what such a person could say, some answered that they would not degrade themselves by going near him. " Oh, but," another of the philosophers would say, " that is nothing in comparison of somewhat else that he teaches. He says that we are to believe in the Resurrection." " What is the Resurrection ?" asked another. " Is it a goddess ?" (It is said, you must know, by old writers, that the Athenians, at first, thought that S. Paul was preaching to them a goddess of that name.) " A goddess ! no !" the philosopher answered. " What he says is this, — that, after we are buried, at the end of the world, our bodies will come together again, and will breathe, and will live, and will be just the same as they are now, only more glorious, and that they can never die any more." " The Jew is mad/' they all cried out. " The thing is too absurd even to laugh at. It were best to send the poor man to his friends, if he has any, or else to have him shut up." " Well," the first philosopher said, " all I know is, that he has drawn away multitudes of people to be- lieve in Christ, — that they have given up the gods of their fathers, — that the more they are punished, the 1 74 S. Paul on Mars' Hill. [Serm. faster they increase, — that some have been put to death, and the others envy them, and that, even here in Athens, some wretched persons have been perverted into being Christians." " Then/' said the others, " it is high time to put a stop to Paul's preaching. Let us have him before the Areopagus." Now, what was Areopagus ? That we ought well to understand, that we may also see how very magnificent the whole scene must have been, — the grandest thing in its way which perhaps ever happened in the history of the Church. Areopagus was a court of justice. At this time it had about three hundred judges : all of them had, in their turn, been magistrates ; all of them were men of blameless life, — for to be even suspected of any crime hindered a man from becoming an Areopagite ; most of them were very aged. The Court had such a repute for its wisdom and justice, that, as was said, during a thousand years it lasted, it never gave one unrighteous decision : it was a spotless Court. The reverence paid to it was such, that for any one to laugh while it was sitting, was looked on as blasphemy. Its power was very great : it had authority in all matters which were likely to corrupt people's minds : it overruled all the other courts ; what it decided was received as if it came from the mouth of God ; it was the j ustest, the wisest, the holiest, (if I may use the word so,) of all heathen bodies of men. It was called the Court of Areopagus, which means the Hill of Mars, because it used to sit on a hill where was a Temple of Mars, who was the God of War. Now, all questions about religion came before this Court, and for that reason S. Paul was set before it. Two things more I must tell you about it : it always XXIX.] S. Paul on Mais' Hill. 175 held its sittings in the open air, because that seemed to bring it more into the immediate presence of God ; and it always held them at night, lest the sight of the sor- row and agony of the prisoner might lead the judges to acquit him wrongfully. Now, who was it that brought the Apostle before this great Court? We are told: "certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics." The Epicureans said that, when the body died, the soul died too : that the best thing a man could do was to enjoy himself to the full in this life, for there was nothing to come after it ; and so they ran into all kinds of abominable wick- edness, and led lives worse than the beasts that perish. The Stoics were better men : they thought it was pos- sible that there was a future life for the soul ; they said that a wise man ought to care neither for pleasure nor pain, — that he ought to be like a stock or a stone, and care for nothing. It was these two sets of men that brought S. Paul to Mars' Hill. Now, try for a moment to fancy the thing as it was. A bright, clear night. You must not think that night in that country is like the night here. The clearest, frostiest night you ever saw in England is dim and foggy compared with a night there. The sky looks so deeply blue, and so far off, — the stars stand out of it so clearly, — the moon is so very glorious. Imagine, then, all those wise, reverend-looking Areopagites, seated in rows to hear ; the city of Athens, far beneath them, quiet and still ; labourers and merchants and noble- men, all asleep ; but on every side, the temples of pure white marble, so beautiful and so costly, and so pale in the moonshine. Then imagine a stranger brought in, — one, thought to be a madman, — one, (he says it him- 176 S. Paul on Mars' Hill. [Sera. self,) whose bodily presence was weak and whose speech was contemptible, — one, whose life and death hung on what the Areopagus might say. And then hear how this despised poor man began to speak in the midst of such wisdom and age, and in the sight of so many buildings which seemed as if they were to last for ever ; alone, in the night, among enemies, in a huge city, — hear how boldly he began. " Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' Hill, and said : Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious." Let us fancy, as we go on, how the Areopagites must have gazed at each other in astonishment. They, the first court of justice in the world, — the wisest judges that ever sat, they to be told that they were too superstitious ! and too superstitious in all things ! Did ever a prisoner before so begin his defence ? And now see how telling (so to speak,) another verse is. Paul looked round on the many tem- ples that were glittering in the moonshine, round about, — of the God of War, of the Goddess of Wisdom, of the God of Music, of the God of Health, of the Goddess of Love ; he was speaking to a Court that met in the open air, to be more in the presence of God ; and, no doubt, pointing to the stars that were shining so gloriously down upon them, he went on : " God That made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands ; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things ; that they should seek the Loun, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us." S. Paul knew how the wisest men of Athens had tried XXIX.] S. Paul on Mars' Hill. 177 to find out God j how a learned man, who had studied there not long before, had written a book in which he said, " If it be a mistake to believe that the soul cannot perish, it is a mistake in which I trust I shall die :" for that heathen knew nothing of that Gospel which brought life and immortality to light. And so he went on to speak of the resurrection from the dead. Up to this time the Court had heard him ; but when he spoke of the Resurrection they would hear him no longer. Even their own rules about laughter were for- gotten : " some mocked." They thought the whole thing was so contemptible, that they would not punish the Apostle : they let him go where he would. But now we come to the text I read you, and to the Saint of this day. " Howbeit, certain men clave unto him and believed, among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite." Now, excepting the penitent thief alone, I think that the faith of S. Dionysius is the most won- derful thing in Holy Scripture. Consider : S. Paul had done no miracle, — had not even suffered for the truth ; Dionysius gave up all his character for wisdom, was ridiculed by those whom up to that time he had always believed to be the wisest of men, was cast out of Areo- pagus, was pointed at as a madman and a fool wherever he went ; and all because he looked not at the things that were seen, but at the things which were not seen. It is said of him that he was very learned in the mo- tions of the stars, and of the sun and the moon ; and twenty years before this, when there was darkness over all the earth at our Lord's Passion, that he cried out, " Either the God of nature is distressed, or the frame of the world is being broken up." It is said also that S. Paul made him the first Bishop of Athens ; and no- N 178 S. Paul on Mars' Hill. [Sera. XXIX. thing is more likely. And this is all we know for cer- tain of S. Dionysius the Areopagite. But nearly fifty years afterwards we find a S. Dionysius who was the first Bishop of Paris in France, who is generally called S. Denys ; and who suffered martyrdom, on this day, by being beheaded. Now it is not certain whether this were the same with S. Dionysius the Areopagite, or not. Some learned men have written books to show that he was ; and other learned men have written books to show that he was not. It does not much matter. If there were two Saints of the same name, they are both now before the Throne of God and of the Lamb ; if there were only one, the greatness of his labours has obtained him the greater reward. But the S. Denys that was Bishop of Paris, has left a special example to you. He went as a Bishop to France when he was a hundred and ten years old, thinking it a joy to labour and to suffer for Christ at an age far beyond any of your own. And he bore all his tortures with unshaken courage : he was scourged and crucified and taken down living from the cross and beheaded. So that in him that verse of the Psalms was fulfilled, " They also shall bring forth more fruit in old age." God give you grace so to be faithful to Christ to the end, that you may come to that place where there is no more age and no more weakness ; for His merit's sake, Who liveth and reigneth with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without cud. Amen. SERMON XXX. A BROTHER BORN FOR ADVERSITY. Craitflatwn of 2&ing <£&foav&. <3ct 13. "A BEOTHEE IS BOEN FOE ADVEBSITY." — PeOVEBBS XVII. 17. Among the saints of the Church, we find all ranks and conditions of men. We have been called to praise God for those that were poor and despised : now we are called to glorify Him in a King. Edward the Confessor, as he is generally called, was the best king who ever sat on the throne of England. He was especially noted for his great meekness and mercy; and no doubt he has long since entered into that Land of the Living which is promised to the meek, and has obtained that mercy which is to be the portion of the merciful. The text which I have just now read seems to you, I dare say, to have nothing to do with the day. Let us see whether it has or not. "A brother is born for adversity." Solomon does not say, A brother must expect to meet adversity ; but he is born for it : that was the end for which he came into the world — to bear it. It seems a strange and a hard saying. 180 A Brother born for adversity . [Serm. I do not doubt that, in the first place, it is said of our Lord Jesus. He is our Elder Brother ; and He, indeed, was born for adversity. He tells us so Him- self. " To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I might bear witness to the truth." And whoever does that knows that it will cost him pain and suffering ! and the more earnestly he does it, the more he will have to suffer. There is no kind of adversity for which our Lord was not born. He was born to be poor, in order that He might be able to feel for those that are poor. He was born to be despised, in order that those who are despised might comfort themselves by remembering that they are no w r orse off than their Blessed Master was. He was born to endure hardships — hunger, thirst, cold, weariness, — in order that those of His servants who are an hun- gered, or a thirst, or cold, or weary, might be able to remember that they are so far like Him. He was born to die, that He might take away the sting of death. He was born to die in agony, that He might change the very nature of pain, and might make it a blessing in- stead of a curse. In all these ways, and in a thousand thousand more, this, our Eldest Brother, was born for adversity. And what is true of Him — what is far more true of Him than of any one else — is also true of His servants, and more especially of His Saints. They are all our brethren ; and we have never heard of any very great Saint who was not very greatly tried. The Captain of our Salvation was made perfect through suffering, and His soldiers can only be made perfect the same way. S. Paul tells us so of the Apostles. " T think," he says, " that God hath set forth us the Apostles last, as it XXX.] A Brother born for adversity. 181 were appointed to death ; for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men/' That is, as they had the most of the honour, so also they were to have the greatest part of the suffering. And there is something more than this, as the same S. Paul also tells us. " I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ." Now, notice his words. He does not say only, " I re- joice in my sufferings," but "in my sufferings for you." This whole text seems to show us that there is a cer- tain quantity of suffering which it is appointed for the Church to endure. Therefore, the more that the ser- vants of God suffer themselves, the less they leave for their brethren. This is what S. Paul seems to mean when he speaks of filling up that w r hich is behind of the sufferings of Christ. But when we speak of our Lord's sufferings and those of any Saint, we must remember the infinite difference between them. Our Lord, by His sufferings, made an atonement for sin ; they deserved that sin should be forgiven. No servant of God can do what the Son of God did. But God is pleased to accept their sufferings also, not as deserving in themselves that sins should be forgiven, but as something with which He is well pleased, and which He will reward. Thus of the Saints also it may be said, " A brother is born for adversity." They suffer, not only to set us an ex- ample how to suffer, but really and truly to fill up that which remains for the Church to endure. It is their calling to suffer, and to suffer for us, that is, for our sakes. S. Edward, King though he were, was no exception to this. He was greatly tried in himself, in his family, 182 A Brother born for adversity. [Serm. and in his kingdom ; and, the more he suffered, the more the grace of God shone out in him. One should think that this path of suffering, by which Christ Himself went, and by which all His Saints followed Him, must be a very honourable path : and yet, so it is, that the devil has two quite different temptations which make men shrink from it. Some people think that the least sufferings are a great deal too hard to bear. You may hear them complain, as if God had never tried any one else as He tried them ; as if He were afflicting them unmercifully ; as if He had forgotten to be gracious. They lose sight of this — that their brethren, who were born for adversity, endured a hundred times as much. Take an example. You have all heard of the Camp at Chobham. You know that there a great number of soldiers are living in tents, are exercised in marches and in fights, are made as perfect as they can be in their profession. What should we say if we heard those men complaining of the wet days, and the cold nights, and the damp ground, and the marshes, and the food ? Why, we should say, Soldiers in the same regiment have gone through ten times as much as this in real warfare; they have suffered this and a thousand other things in an enemy's country, — half starved, wearied out, full of wounds ; they have done what you, in your own land, well fed, well rested, in good health, complain of. Why, this is play-work to the marches and the encampments by which your brethren, in old times, conquered other nations, and made England what it is at this day. And so I say to you : what are your sufferings to the least of those of the Martyrs ? or of those who have been imprisoned, or dcspitcfully used for Christ's XXX.] A Brother born for adversity. 183 Name ? Are you not ashamed to name them together with those others? You have not yet resisted unto blood ; they did. But there are others who seem, in some strange way, ashamed of suffering. I think that the aged have most of this feeling. You seem ashamed of growing weak — of finding (as Solomon says) the grasshopper a burden — of not being able to do what once you would have found no fatigue at all. You wish to pass it by as if it were something accidental. If you could only have different weather, or different medicine ; or if you could but do this or the other thing, you should be as strong as ever. But how sad is this ! " We glory in tribulations •" " I rejoice in my sufferings ; most gladly will I glory in my infirmities." So S. Paul says. Why not at once con- fess what all these weaknesses mean ? Look the thing in the face. Did you ever hear what the ostrich does when she is hunted ? She hides her head in the sand, and then fancies, because she can see no one, that no one can see her. If you try to deceive yourselves, by fancying that such weaknesses can be cured by any natural means, you are like this foolish ostrich. You cannot walk so far, you cannot stand so long, you can- not think so much, you get more easily tired : well, so it is. We know that this earthly house of our taber- nacle must be dissolved : it comes to that. I only know one cure for this weakness, this feebleness, this decay. It is a long one. It will go on, from the time God calls you to Himself, to the time that He raises you again. It will go on in the churchyard. There He will be preparing your bodies for strength and beauty, and everlasting health. That is the medicine ; 184 A Brother born for adversity. [Serm. XXX. He is the Physician : the only Medicine, the only Phy- sician. " For this corruptible must put on iucorrup- tion, and this mortal must put on immortality/' Christ was born for adversity ; the Saints were born for adversity. Never, then, be you ashamed of it. When you are called, to it, go to it as an apprentice would to a trade, or a child to a lesson. This is the way, and the only way, by which to reach that home to which all sorrow is intended to bring us, — the home where there shall be no more sorrow, — the city where "the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." And now to God, the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, might and dominion, for ever. Amen. SEEM ON XXXI. SUFFERING IN YAIN. &. etljcttJre&a. October 17. " Have ye suffeeed so many things in vain ? if it be tet in vain." — Gal. hi. 4. Lately I spoke to you of a servant : to-day I speak to you of a queen. See then how glorious a thing this is that we believe, that all those who belong to God's Holy Church, and have departed in His faith and fear, are knit together in one communion and fellow- ship with us. None too low to be shut out from it — none too high to make it their chief glory. We have an especial iuterest in S. Etheldreda, be- cause she was an English queen. She lived in that part of this country which we now call Cambridgeshire. I know the place very well — now a little country village, where her father's palace was, and where she was born : it is called Exning : I have seen the well in which, they say, she was baptized by a holy Bishop of those times, whose name was Paulinus; and I know the Cathedral very well in which she is now awaiting the Lord's Second Coming, the Cathedral of Ely. Her 186 Suffering in Vain. [Serin. whole life was one long tissue of troubles. That is the way the Saints get to Heaven : but we seem to fancy that we have found out a pleasanter road. " That we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God," S. Luke says: but we have discovered that this is too troublesome a text; and one would think that we had altered it too : that we must through much pleasure enter into the Kingdom of God. God grant that they who do so may not find themselves bitterly mistaken when it is too late ! Hear what S. Etheldreda thought of worldly plea- sure. She was seized with a disease in the throat, very painful to bear. " Yes," she said, " and it is a fit punishment to me for the pleasure I once took in wear- ing necklaces and jewels there." However, this is not so much what I have to say to you. You are shut out in a great measure, — partly by being poor, partly by being most of you come to those years of which the wise man says, " There is no pleasure in them/' — from the delights of this world. But all of you, more or less, know what suffering meaus ; all of you must expect to know more of it than you do now. Therefore this question of S. Paul is very useful for you. " Have ye suffered so many things in vain ?" For it shows that you may suffer in vain. Christ suffered, that He may be like us ; but we may suffer, and not be at all like Christ. We read of some in the Old Testament that were the worse, not the better, for pain. King Asa, we are told, in his old age, " was dis- eased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great : yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord." Of King Ahaz, it is written, " And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord : this is that XXXI.] Suffering in Vain. 187 King Ahaz." Take care that it be not said of you, " This is that man, or that woman, whom God sought to bring to holiness ; who was afflicted, that he might see how vain everything in this world was; who had pain, that he might learn to look forward to that world where there is no more pain ; who knew that he could not have much longer to live, and yet clung to this life as if it were his all in all : who had tribulation enough here, but it did not make him fit for eternal happiness hereafter." This is the most miserable of all states, — to lose this world, and not to gain the next ; to be unable to have the pleasures of one, such as they are, and yet not to attain to the pleasures which are at God's Right Hand for ever- more. " If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable/' Lazarus, that was laid at the rich man's gate full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from his table, more- over, the dogs came and licked his sores; if he, when he died, had in hell lifted up his eyes being in torments, would have been wretched indeed. But do not deceive yourselves. It is not because Lazarus was poor, because he was full of sores, that he was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. It was because his poverty and his sores made him a true servant of Him That was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our ini- quities. You may be as poor as Lazarus here, and yet have your portion with the rich man hereafter; just as S. Etheldreda had her portion with the rich man here, and yet now rests, like Lazarus, in Abraham's bosom. " Have ye suffered so many things in vain ?" People are fond of reckoning up how much they have suffered. But, remember, you who do so, that for all these suffer- 188 Suffering in Vain. [Serm. ings God will bring you into judgment. That is, He sent them to you to bring you nearer to Himself; and He will inquire, and that very shortly, whether they did bring you nearer to Himself or not. If not, far from being better off' because you had them, you will be worse off. They were means of grace, and you did not benefit by them ; yes, they were talents, and you did not improve them ; they ought to have made it easier for you to lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset you, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith ; and they did not ; and therefore you will hear, all the more surely, that most terrible voice, " Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness ; there shall be weeping and gnash- ing of teeth. " But S. Paul goes on, and so would I, " if it be yet in vain." I hope not. I hope that these sufferings have been leading you, and are leading you, to God. Then they are blessed sufferings indeed. If we suffer — that is, if we suffer so — we shall reign with Ilim. " I reckon that the sufferings" — that is if this be their end — "of this present time, are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." This is what is more necessary for you to feel than anything else. There are two dangers in suffering. S. Paul tells us of them both : " My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thoa art rebuked of Him." We ought neither to determine not to feel them, not to care about them, to go our own ways, to think our own thoughts, to do our own deeds all the same ; nor yet so to murmur, so to repine, so to be discontented about them, as if wc were treated cruelly and unjustly. XXXI.] Suffering in Vain. 189 ' Have ye suffered so many things in vain ?" The Saints, of whom we are so often called to speak, this Saiut of whom I am speaking, would answer, " By the grace of God, No/' They had their perfect work in us. They taught us not to care for the things of the world. They led us to set our affections on things above. They showed us how to follow Christ, where He suffered as Man, and brought us to sit down with Him where He reigns as God. As God grant that they may all of us, for Jesus Christ's sake : to Whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON XXXII. HEARTILY WORK FOR GOD'S SAKE. J^. Crispin antt Crteptan. <®rt. 25. " And whatsoeveb ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men." — col. iii. 23. Rather more than a fortnight ago, I told you of S. Denys, the first Bishop of Paris, and one of the first preachers of the Gospel in France. The Saints in whose memory we keep to-day, were some of his fellow-la- bourers. There were two brothers, by name Crispin and Crispian, whom S. Denys sent forth to teach the faith to the barbarous nations in the north of France. They took up their abode at a place called Soissons, and there, on the 25th of October, two hundred and eighty-eight years after our Lord's Birth, they ended their life on earth by a glorious Martyrdom. While they were spreading abroad the Gospel, they determined not to receive any present from those whom they had con- verted, lest the heathen round them should say, that they made men Christians only for the sake of getting a living by them. Therefore they supported them- selves by the trade of shoemakers, knowing that no Serm. XXXIL] Heartily ivork for God's sake. 191 honest employment can be a disgrace to a Christian man, if he carries it on because it is his duty, and be- cause he desires to do what it is his business to do, " heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men." Here is the point for us: that, in whatever station of life God has placed us, He has given us the opportunity of honouring Him and adding to His glory. It is not so, it cannot be so, with an earthly King. Suppose that any of you earnestly desired to do the Queen some service, or to honour her in the sight of others : the thing would be impossible. What have you that you could give to her? What is there which you can do for her? But with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords it is quite a different thing. There is none among you who may not, if you please, this very night, before you go to bed, do Him service : service which He will accept now, and which He will reward hereafter. One act of charity to those around you, one word of kindness, will be to Him an acceptable service, if it be done with the wish of pleasing Him. He has said Himself, that to give a cup of cold water to one of His little ones shall in no wise lose its reward. And not only acts of kindness, but acts of duty may be done to His honour and glory. If we could only feel this, as well as know it, there could be no such tiling as mean- ness in any Christian's office. The least every-day duty would become glorious, because by doing it rightly, we can honour so glorious a King. I was reading some verses the other day, which say the same thing very well : — " If wealthy, I stand as the steward of my King ; If poor, as the friend of my Loed ; If feeble, my every-day business I bring ; If able, my pen or my sword. 192 Heartily work for God's sake. [Serm. " For, long as life's journey shall have to be trod, No duty can ever be mean ; The factory man may do work for his God, As well as a King or a Queen." For think of this. A labouring man may be working out his own salvation while he is driving the plough ; a poor boy may be becoming meet to be partaker with the Saints, while he is driving the birds away ; a ser- vant maid may be honouring the Name of our Blessed Lord, while she is scouring her kitchen. God, as our Prayer Book speaks, has ordained and constituted the services of men as well as angels', in a wonderful order. And see how it is His way to turn what was at first a curse, into a blessing. When Adam fell, his two punishments were chiefly these, — death and labour : and see how both have been turned into blessings for the true servants of God. Our Lord was pleased to suffer both ; and thereby He changed altogether their nature. He changed death into a sleep, of which the waking-up will be at the morning of the Resurrection ; and labour He made the means of becoming like Himself, and of gaining God's favour. For just as suffering makes us like Christ, so labour also does. He laboured with His hands as a carpenter; He laboured with His feet in walking so many weary miles for our sakes ; He laboured with His whole strength, when He continued whole nights in prayer to God. We can have no kind of labour in which He has not been beforehand with us; just as we can have no kind of pain of which He has not first tasted. And as by pain He would draw us nearer to Himself, and give us an opportunity of working out our salvation, so it is with labour also. Both one and the other have their dangers. In pain, the danger is lest, XXXII.] Heartily work for God's sake. 1 93 instead of becoming like Him by our patience and giving up our own will to the Will of God, we become more unlike Him by impatience and by feeling that we are hardly dealt with. In labour, the danger is lest, instead of becoming like Him by working for the glory of God, and because He has commanded us to work, we become more unlike Him, by being, like Martha, " care- ful and troubled about many things''' of this world, and forget the one thing that is needful; lest we labour for the sake of laying up for ourselves treasures upon earth, " where the moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal," or for the sake of getting learning, that men may think us wise, or for the sake of getting power, that we may be thought great. Now see how these two holy men, of whom we are this day reminded, carried on their labours. You might have gone into a common shoemaker's shop in that city of Soissons, and have seen two men, hard at work in their trade, and have noticed no difference between them and any other workmen that followed their differ- ent crafts in the same town. But God saw otherwise. He saw that they were labouring in order that they might support themselves, and not put a stumbling- block in the way of the heathen, by allowing themselves to be supported by others ; He saw that they were ex- actly as truly, and exactly as much engaged in His work when they were stitching leather soles, as when they were preaching the Gospel of His Son, in the streets and lanes of the city. It is true, we have not a heathen country to convert, and we cannot go forth as these two Saints did, to pro- claim the glad tidings of the Gospel of Peace ; but, as long as we live in a world of sin, so long we may be, as o 194 Heartily work for God's sake. [Serm. Elijah was, very zealous for the Lord God of Hosts. Our Lord Himself, Who has commanded us not to do good deeds to be seen of men, that we may have glory of them, for that otherwise we shall have no reward in the world to come, has, nevertheless, also said, " Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Which is in heaven/'' This is more particularly the case with us here, not only because, as I have so often said, we have more time than others to do good, but because we are watched more than others, and therefore, if we profess to honour God with our lips, while we dishonour Him in our lives, the more dishonour is done to His holy Name : as our Lord has said, " A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid/' This truth, that each Christian, doing his duty in that state of life to which it has pleased God to call him, however mean that state may be in the eyes of the world, makes it glorious in the eyes of his Lord, is set forth to us by S. Paul in rather a different way. He compares us all to different members of the same body; and so shows us that, while all cannot have the same work, all may equally do work, and equally benefit the other members. All members of the body cannot have the same office : as the Apostle tells us, " If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where were the smelling ?" We have another type of this in a college like ours. If it is to go on, there are a certain number of duties which must be done, and different people must take them. Some must nurse the sick; some must attend to the chapel; some must keep the court in order; some must look after the garden ; some must go out for the money when the rent becomes due : there are many XXXII.] Heartily work for God's sake. 195 members, and each one has his several office. All these duties may not be, in the eye of the world, equally honourable; but all are equally necessary. If the meanest of them is left undone, the whole action, and, so to speak, life of the college goes wrong at once. And so, to look above these types. The Holy Catholic Church, in which we daily profess to believe, is com- pared to a body, of which Christ is the Head. It might just as truly be compared to, or rather it is, one huge college. A college means a set of people collected out of something and into something : the Church is collected or gathered together out of the world, and its members are knit together, and are knit to Christ. In that Church we all have our offices to do ; we have all our parts to play ; we cannot give way, the poorest of us, without, to a certain extent, the whole great Church giving way also, just as if one limb of the body suffers, all the other limbs suffer with it; just as if one member of a college disgraces himself, the whole college is dis- graced also, so, if one member of the Church sins, the whole Church must necessarily suffer. These thoughts seem to come naturally on a day like this. When people at the time spoke of the Martyrdom of S. Crispin and S. Crispian, no doubt what they said was, "Only two low tradesmen being put to death, for teaching the wicked doctrine of the Christians." " They fools/' to speak with the wise man, " accounted their life madness, and their end to be without honour : but they are in peace. How are they numbered with the children of God, and their lot is among the Saints \" To which lot God vouchsafe to bring us also, for Jesus Christ's sake : to Whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world with- out end. Amen. SERMON XXXIII. SETTING THE PRISONER EREE. £. HfonarU. f3oucmbcr 6. " Shake thyself from the dust : aeise, and sit down, Jeru- salem : LOOSE THYSELF FROM THE BANDS OF THY NECK, O CAPTIVE DAUGHTER OF SlON. FOR THUS SAITH THE LORD : Ye HAVE SOLD yourselves for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without money." — Isaiah lii. 2, 3. S. Leonard, whose day this is, was chiefly known for his great love to prisoners ; so here is a text about pri- soners, from which, if the Holy Ghost help us, we may learn something that shall profit ourselves. The words were, in the first place, spoken to the Church, but they are said to each of us. Isaiah and David teach us both the same thing. David says, " My soul cleaveth to the dust;" and Isaiah, " Shake thyself from the dust." One tells us what we do by nature; the other what we ought to do by the grace of God. Now what is here meant by dust? The cares and the pleasures of this world. Dust is the most worthless thing possible; so are they. Dust is easily blown here and there, and never remains long in one place ; so it is with them. Dust defiles those that have to do with Serm.XXXIIL] Setting the Prisoner free. 197 it ; so do they. Dust blinds the eyes of those that stir it up ; so do they. And yet our soul cleaveth to them ; we have no eyes nor ears for anything else. Therefore, God would separate us from them ; and He would have us make the effort to separate ourselves : " Shake thy- self from the dust." We must try — must try hard — must try at once ; to-day, while it is called to-day. If we wait till we are willing to deny ourselves, we may wait for ever. Whenever it is done, it will cost us some trouble and pain ; and the longer we wait, it will cost us the more. He goes on : " Arise, and sit down." He does not mean " sit down" idly — " sit down," as if they were nothing more to be done — " sit down," as if there were no more warfare to be accomplished ; but " sit down" quietly — " sit down" out of the noise and confusion of every-day business — " sit down" to have time to think over your sins, and to repent for them — "sit down" as the children of Israel did in a strange land, as it is written, " By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept." And if we thus weep for our sins in this life God will hereafter cause us to sit down at the Supper of the Lamb. But this is not all. Isaiah goes on : " Loose thy- self from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Sion." And this is what we all are — prisoners. When we were born, we were captives to the devil ; we were bound with the chain of that sin which we had from Adam. But that chain God broke for us at our Bap- tism : we could never have set ourselves free. The Holy Ghost, for the great Love wherewith He loved us, did that for us in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, by His servant the Priest who baptized us. But 198 Setting the Prisoner free. [Serm. since that time, we have let ourselves be bound with new chains. Every sin we have committed is, as it were, a new link to fetter us. And to undo these fet- ters, to tear ourselves from these sins, is the work to which we are called. And mark. He says not, " I will loose thee," but " Loose thyself." Before our Baptism it would have been to no purpose to tell us so. We were able to do nothing for ourselves. But now, through the grace given to us in our Baptism, we are able; and being able, God will have us do what we can. He will not have us sit still, while He does all, as it was when we were baptized. Now He will have us be workers to- gether with Him. "Loose thyself/' He says; and He will help us. After this, Isaiah tells us how we became prisoners. "Ye have sold yourselves for nought." Adam at first sold himself for nought. He gave his own soul and body, and the souls and bodies of all that should after- wards spring from him, for a fruit. A goodly price, indeed, the devil paid to become the priuce of this world ; a fruit, and a lie. A fruit — the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ; and a lie ; — " Ye shall not surely die." And as Adam sold himself for nought, so do we. One man sells his soul for drunken- ness : for the pleasure of making himself a disgrace to mankind, and worse than the beasts that perish, he gives away his eternal happiness. Another man sells himself for riches : for the sake of hoarding up a certain number of pieces of money, which he cannot take away with him when he dies. Another man fof revenge ; another for ease; another for honour; another to es- cape the being laughed at. These are the prices which XXXIII.] Setting the Prisoner free. 199 the devil pays for our souls. He is a good bargainer : he knows how to give little, and to get much. Just as we read of sailors in savage islands, who give the in- habitants beads, and pins, and glass necklaces, and the poor savages give great lumps of gold and silver in ex- change. " Ye have sold yourselves for nought." But God's promise follows : " And ye shall be re- deemed without money." This may mean two things. We have nothing that we can give to God in return for our redemption. He saved us; not because He had any need of us, — not because we could do Him any good, as it is written, " My goods are nothing unto Thee/' — but only and wholly because He loved us, be- cause He delighteth in mercy, because He willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be con- verted and live. So we are redeemed without money, because our redemption is the gift of God : as it is written, " By grace are ye saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God." Or else the text may mean what S. Peter says, when he tells us, " Ye know that we were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the pre- cious Blood of Christ." Ye were redeemed without money. By the Birth and Death of God, — by all that He suffered between His Birth and Death, — was your salvation wrought out; by His fasting forty days in the wilderness ; by His being with the wild beasts ; by His being tempted of the devil; by the miracles He did ; by the sayings He spake ; by the parables He told ; by the good He wrought ; by the evil He en- dured ; by His mockings and revilings, His purple robe and His crown of thorns ; by the pavement and the house of Annas ; by the judgment-seat and the hill of 200 Setting the Prisoner free. [Serm. XXXIII. Calvary ; by the Cross and the sepulchre ; — by all these things, all making the one great price, was your re- demption brought to pass. And now, therefore, what follows ? " Shake thyself from the dust ; loose thyself from the bands of thy neck/' The Physician is prepared to receive you ; the medicine is ready. What medicine ? Why, there are two. " Cease to do evil : learn to do well." And you must take both. As it is written, " What man is he that lusteth to live, - " — that is, to live for ever and ever in glory, — " and would fain see good days V — that is, the glorious and blessed days of heaven — " Let him eschew evil and do good." So David reads us the same lesson with Isaiah ; and God give us grace so to profit by both, that we may finally be received into that Jerusalem, the mother of us all, which is free. And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON XXXI Y. FAITH AS A GRAIN OF MUSTAED SEED. £. 0larttn. ^obcmucr 11. " FOE VEBILT I SAT UNTO YOU, If TE HATE FAITH AS A GBAIN OF MUSTAED SEED, TE SHALL SAT UNTO THIS MOUNTAIN, EEMOVE HENCE TO TONDEE PLACE ; AND IT SHALL BEMOTE ; AND NOTHING SHALL BE IMPOSSIBLE UNTO TOU." — S. MATT. XVII. 20. Next to the Blessed Apostles, no Saint has ever been more regarded than the Saint of to-day, the great Bishop Martin. Many and many a church is dedicated to him in England ; many and many a one more in his own country, France. The oldest church in this land, S. Martin's, at Canterbury, is named from him. And not only so, but he has given a title to all this part of the year; Martinmas-tide we call it, just as we speak of Christmas or Candlemas. Now why is this ? It is not because S. Martin was a Martyr, for he was not ; not because he suffered great things for Christ's Name, for though he did suffer, it was but little in comparison with that which other Saints have undergone; nor because he left many books for the teaching of the Church, for he scarcely 202 Faith as a grain of mustard seed. [Semi. wrote anything. No : it was on account of the great- ness of his faith, which enabled him to perform greater miracles than any other Saint in this Western Church has been able to work. Wherever men heard that he was coming, there they brought sick and impo- tent persons, that he might pray over them and heal them. And just as from the body of S. Paul handker- chiefs and aprons were carried to those who were sick, and cured them, so it was with S. Martin. It was the greatness of his faith, I said, which enabled him to do all these things. But then, this faith must have shown itself by good works ; as it is written : " Faith without works is dead :" and again : " I will show thee my faith by my works/' And the first ac- tion that is recorded of S. Martin shows how closely he trod in the footsteps of Him, Who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor. Before he was bap- tized, and therefore before we might expect that the grace of the Holy Ghost would have been so mighty in him ; while he was yet a soldier, the very situation, of all others, and especially at that time, to harden and close up the heart, he showed a rare instance of love. In the depth of winter, and that in a place where the winters are far more bitter than here, a beggar, miser- ably clad, asked an alms of him for the love of God. Silver and gold had he none, but that which he had he gave him. His soldier's cloak was all that he could call his own. He drew his sword, cut it in half, gave one portion to the poor man, and was content himself with the other. And we may most truly use our Blessed Saviour's words : " Verily I say unto you, he had his reward." That night, in a vision, he beheld our Lord on His throne, and all the blessed company XXXIV.] Faith as a grain of mustard seed. 203 of heaven standing around Him. And as he looked more steadfastly on the Son of God, he saw Him to be arrayed in his own half cloak ; and he heard from those Lips that spake as never man spake, — "This hath Martin, unbaptized, given to Me." Think then of this, you who have (and who has not ?) the opportunity of doing some, the smallest, act of kindness to one of Christ's poor. The cup of cold water, the crust of bread, the single penny, shall in no wise lose its reward. Think that, if you could see our dear Lord, as that Saint of old beheld Him, you might hear the selfsame words concerning your offering, worthless and vile as it might be in itself, — " This hath My servant given to Me." You cannot see Him, it is true, but what of that ? — " Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." So again we read, that as S. Martin was in prayer, a glorious spirit presented itself before him, with a crown of gold, purple raiment, and a beautiful sceptre, like the kings of the earth. And as he still continued instant in prayer, his visitor proclaimed himself to be the Christ, and commanded the Saint to arise and worship him. But Martin, full of the Holy Ghost, answered, — " The Lord Jesus Christ never spake of coming as a king, with a crown, and sceptre, and pre- cious jewels. Unless therefore I see Hitn as He was, with the print of the nails, and the mark of the spear, I will not worship." And no sooner had he thus spoken, than the spirit uttered a loud shriek and disappeared ; clearly proving that it was nothing else than Satan transformed into an Angel of Light. Somewhat of the same faith we also may often be called on to show. Things may come before us which 204 Faith as a grain of mustard seed. [Serm. seem bright and glorious, which have all the appearance of goodness at first sight, and which yet may be nothing but temptations, sent to lure us to our perdition. What are we then to do ? What, but to ask, with S. Martin, for the marks of the Cross? Whatever we find with that, is safe and profitable : whatever cannot show it us, from that we must fly at once. God forbid that we should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ! It is a common belief, and I know that in this part of the country it is more particularly common, that an easy death is a sign of God's grace ; whereas a hard death, as men speak, shows His anger. Often and often we hear the speech, — " Ah ! poor thing ! I hope she is in a better place ; for she went off like a lamb I" Nothing can be a greater mistake than to think that a hard or an easy death proves anything, one way or the other. We may every day see that this is so. Bap- tized infants, who are most undoubtedly saved, die, generally speaking, " very hard." And it is of the wicked, not of the good, that David tells us, " There are no bands/' — that is, there are no great pains, — " in their death." Yes : many an evil man has gone out of the world like a child falling asleep ; many a good man has suffered, not only great agony of body, but great fear and sorrow of spirit, in his last hour. So it was with S. Martin. His disease was a fever, and when it seemed that he was drawing nigh to death, his disciples stood around him and besought him not to leave them. " After your decease," they said, " grievous wolves will enter in among us, not sparing your Hock. Who will feed us then ? Who will protect us ? Who will show us the truth ? Who will keep us from harm V* Martin XXXIY.] Faith as a grain of mustard seed. 205 wept ; and raising his eyes to heaven, said, " Lord, if I am still necessary to Thy people, I refuse not labour : Thy will be done !" And so he continued for some days, hanging between life and death ; till at length those that stood by saw that his spirit was indeed about to pass away. Just before his departure, the devil, knowing that this great Saint was about to escape out of his power for ever, appeared to him to trouble him, and perhaps thought that even now he might be able to destroy him. Martin said, " What dost thou here, Beast of Blood ? Thou shalt find no part in me : I am going to the bosom of Abraham." And having thus spoken, he fell asleep in the Lord. It was the 11th of November, one thousand three hundred and forty-eight years ago. Thus the Faith that had wrought so many miracles in Martin's life, triumphed over the devil in the hour of his death. Martin knew our Lord's words, "My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all : and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's Hand." He might have said, with S. Paul, " I am not ashamed, for I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." The days are getting short, and the wind cold, and the leaves have nearly all fallen ; and everything re- minds us that the year is very near its end. So it is with most of you. Your strength is gone, weakness and sickness have come upon you; and though for a few years you may still hold out, you feel " the end of all things" — to you — " is at hand." There is but one thing that I know of that can com- fort you now, and keep you safe when that end really 206 Faith as a grain of mustard seed. [Serm. XXXIV. comes. It is the same thing which made Martin able to do his mighty works, — Faith. Faith, we are told in Holy Scripture, is the gift of God; and of Him there- fore we are to ask it. So, if when your hour is come to depart out of the world, Satan should try to vex and distress you, as he did of old time to Martin, you will be able, like Martin, to say, " What dost thou here, cruel beast ? Thou hast no portion in me : I am going to Abraham's bosom." To which place God bring us all, for Jesus Christ's sake; to Whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all glory for ever. Amen. SERMON XXXV. THE WICKED FORSAKING HIS WAYS. £>. JJrtcc. f^obcmber 13. 1 " Let the wiceed foesake his way, and the unrighteous man HIS THOUGHTS, AND LET HIM BETUEN UNTO THE LOED, AND He WILL HATE MEECY UPON HIM, AND TO OUE GOD, FOE He WILL ABUNDANTLY PABDON." — ISAIAH LV. 7. This Sunday has, this year, no Epistle and Gospel of its own ; therefore we take those of the last Sunday after Epiphany. And very fit they are for this time, when we are drawing so near to the holy season of Advent. The Epistle tells us what our Lord's Coming will do for us : " We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him." The Gospel tells us what must happen before He can come : how there shall be false Christs and false prophets, and how, if it were possible, they should de- ceive the very elect. Therefore the text I read you just now is very well fitted for the day. Seeing that Christ will come, — seeing that all the things around us shall be dissolved, — seeing that the elements shall melt with fervent heat, — therefore, "let the wicked 1 Being the Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity, 1853. 208 The wicked forsaking his ivays. [Serm. forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts : and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him." And we have an example of this in the saint of to- day, S. Brice. He was a disciple of S. Martin, of whom I spoke to you the day before yesterday ; but he did not, at first, tread in the steps of his master. He led an evil life; he turned away from all rebuke: and because S. Martin found fault with him, he spread about false reports concerning that great Saint; and this he did for some years. But S. Martin always fore- told that he would repent at last ; and so it came to pass. Brice was afterwards made Bishop in the place of S. Martin. But God often punishes us in this life, to the end that we may escape in the next. False re- ports were soon spread against S. Brice, just as he had spread them against S. Martin. He was forced to leave his bishopric ; and he long lived in great poverty and distress. No doubt he said, like the thief, " We indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds." But when he had suffered, God was pleased to restore him to His Church and to his friends; and after serving Christ faithfully for many years, he at last fell asleep in the Lord, on this day, the 13th of November. He is an example to us, that none have sinned so much that they may not take the Kingdom of Heaven after all; that none have wandered so far that they may not be brought back. For this Bishop, once a grievous sinner on earth, now a glorious Saint in heaven, had sinned not only after he was baptized, but after he was ordained a priest ; and yet he returned to God, and found mercy, and to the Lord, and was abundantly pardoned. XXXV.] The wicked forsaking his ways. 209 This text is said to all of us, and it is also for all of us, so far as in us lies, to say to others. Never think that it is only the place of a priest to warn men from falling into sin. It is the business of all of you. It was Cain that said, "Am I my brother's keeper?" You all ought to be so. You all ought to do what you can to hinder men from falling, and to raise them up when they are down. Remember what S. James says : " Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." Now when I was out from you last week, I saw an example of how God fulfils His promise : " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts : and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon/' You, and you may thank God for it, can scarcely imagine the misery and the wickedness of a large manufacturing town. You can- not at all fancy the enormous brick mills, in each of which, from morning till night, hundreds of men and women, and boys and girls, are shut up, without seeing the sun, or feeling the fresh air ; where thousands and thousands of wheels never cease roaring with a noise that prevents a stranger from hearing a word spoken ; and the very river whose water they use becomes hot and coloured with the dyes of the manufactory. These mills used to be dens of wickedness : hundreds of chil- dren worked there, who had never even heard the Name of Christ : God's Name was only spoken to be taken in vain; and from morning till night there were, as S. Paul says, " filthiuess and foolish talking, and jestings, p 210 The wicked forsaking his ways. [Serm. which are not convenient." Close above two of the largest of these mills, eleven years ago, a church was built; and the priests went out into the miserable streets and lanes, exhorting men to repent. Very few listened to them. Then came the cholera year. In the street next to the church, and it is a very short one, forty-three persons died in a few days. Then many of those who had been living in wickedness, turned to God with all their heart and soul. They saw their companions struck down by their sides, and they cried out, ' ' What must I do to be saved ?" Illness or no illness, the mills had to work, and these poor people to be found in them. They worked from 6 to 12, and from 1 to 6, but then the church was crowded for evening prayers. And because no one could tell whe- ther he would live from one evening till another, there was Litany at a quarter before 1 every afternoon ; so that by shortening their dinner time, the workpeople could go to that also. In God's good time He removed the plague. We know what Moses says of the Jews : "When He slew them, then they sought Him, and they returned and inquired early after God ;" but as soon as He took away their affliction, then " they thought not of His hand, and of the day when He delivered them from the hand of the enemy." It was not so here. These people still give up a quarter of an hour out of the one hour they have, coming in their working dress, and as they arc, before they return to the mill in the afternoon. Now, when I was speaking to them some days ago, I thought of you, and wondered if you had thus to work for your daily bread, whether you would not grudge giving up a quarter of the only time you have to the XXXV.] The wicked forsaking his ways. 211 service of God. Yes : those people condemn us all, if ever we, out of the abundance of time that God gives us here, find His service a weariness. Two more weeks only, and we shall have entered upon Advent : the eighth Advent that I have been among you. Look back to the time when I first came, — such of you as can remember it : but of seventeen that then heard me speak, five only now remain. No Advent yet but has been the last to some one of that number ; and this, most probably, will be so also. But, as yet, that promise is true : " Let the wicked forsake his way." There is no exception. Those that have sinned long, as well as those that have only just turned aside from God. And there is no doubt. It is not, I may pardon him, but, " I will pardon him/' We have more than enough examples of God's faithfulness in this; and to-day gives us another. But none of you know how many more you will have. " My Spirit shall not always strive with man. - " " The things con- cerning Me," our Lord says, "have an end." Once pass that wonderful boundary which separates us from the next world, — once let those who stand around us say, " Poor thing, he is gone," — and then it will be no more, " Let the wicked forsake his way." Instead of that, it will be, " He that is unjust, let him be unjust still, and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still." If, — as God be praised it is true, — then " His servants shall serve Him," so, of Satan also, "his servants shall serve him." They would serve him here, and they shall serve him there. And as of the righteous it is said, " They rest not day and night," so of the ungodly also, "they rest not day and night" either. These things ought surely to move us, if God's love does not. And 212 The wicked forsaking his ways. [Scrm. XXXV. yet what more can we need than to hear Him That when on earth received sinners, and ate with them, and now that He is in heaven, receiveth sinners, and giveth them His own Flesh to eat, — Him that was crowned with thorns, that they might be crowned with glory, — Him that was crucified, that they might crucify their sinful lusts, — than to hear Him say, " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the uurighteous man his thoughts : and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly" — for He abundantly poured forth His most precious Blood to this very end, — " He will abundantly pardon." And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen. SERMON XXXVI. WHO CANNOT COME WHERE CHRIST IS. d. jHadjutug. flo&cmbcr 15. " Ye shall seek Me, and shall not eind Me : and wheee I am, THITHEE TE CANNOT COME." — S. JOHN VII. 34. Our Lord said these words: and S. John in the second lesson for to-day tells us that He did : and yet this is a hard saying, who can hear it ? What ! " Ye shall seek Me, and shall not find Me !" when He had pro- mised, " Seek, and ye shall find \" What ! " Where I am, thither ye cannot come/' when He afterwards said, " I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there ye may be also \" It is so indeed ; and all this depends on one little word, Ye. " Ye shall seek Me, and shall not find Me." Ye will have no share or part in Me, now that I am a " Man of sorrows, and ac- quainted with grief. " Ye say, " We will not have this Man to reign over us." Ye despise and reject Me, though I am bearing your griefs and carrying your sorrows. The time will come when I shall return in My glory, and in the glory of the Father. Then "ye shall seek Me, and shall not find Me." There are some 214 Who cannot come where Christ is. [Serm. who are willing to watch with Me now, to labour with Me now, to suffer with Me now : they shall reign with Me then. But ye are not these. " Ye shall seek Me, and shall not find Me : and where I am, thither ye cannot come/' Whither I go, ye will not come now. Ye will not follow Me, because none of the Scribes and Pharisees have believed on Me. Ye will not follow Me up to the garden of Gethsemane, up to the judgment- seat of Pilate, up to Calvary. Therefore, where I am, when I shall have ascended up again to heaven with all My Saints, and they shall reign with Me for ever, — where I am then thither ye cannot come. Our Lord is not speaking to those who were desiring to seek Him at that time. He does not say, Ye seek Me, and cannot find Me, but to those who had a mind to come at the Crown without bearing the Cross ; those who wished to get at the end of their journey without going by the way. And I wonder, if He could now stand among us, to how many He would say these words : You, — or you, — or you, — " shall seek Me, and shall not find Me." I wonder how many know in their own hearts that they are not seeking Christ now. Yet even they — He that cannot lie says so — will seek Him by-and-by. It may be on their death-beds : but even if they should go carelessly and stupidly out of the world, it certainly will be at the last day. And think then what it will be to hear those words, — " Where I am, thither ye cannot come." Ye cannot come into the Presence of God, which is life, nor to His Right Hand, where there are pleasures for evermore. Ye cannot come where all tears shall be wiped from all eyes, and where there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more XXXVI.] Who cannot come where Clirist is. 215 pain. " Ye cannot come to the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable com- pany of Angels, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. " " Where I am, thither ye cannot come." And notice : He does not say, Ye shall not, but, Ye cannot. And why not ? Because, if you were to enter in, bringing all your sinful thoughts and desires with you; if anything were to enter in that defileth, then heaven would cease to be heaven. Your very presence there would end it. The thing is impossible. You chose to go out of this world with sin in your heart, sin on your conscience, sin in your wishes ; and you cannot come into a place where there is no sin. " Where I am, thither ye cannot come." What our Lord said, that all His true servants have also said in their generation. The world has hated them, reviled them, cast out their names as evil, scoffed at them, imprisoned many, tortured many while they were alive ; but no sooner were they gone, than men's minds have changed, aud they have mourned and grieved for those when dead, whom they have abhorred aud despised while living. " Ye shall seek Me, but ye shall not find Me." " They enter into peace, they rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness." They are safe, where no one can reach them, either to hurt them or to ask their forgiveness. But God be praised, it is not true of us who are still alive, who still have the means of grace ; it is not true that either the Saints of the Lord, or the Lord of Saints would say, " Where I am, thither ye cannot come." Where He is, we can come. W T here they are, we can come. It may be as much as we can do, but we can come still. Christ went, to open a way for us; the Saints 216 Who cannot come where Christ is. [Serm. went to show us how to tread in that way. But then we must go by the same way, or we shall never come to the same end. The question is not whether the road is a pleasant one or not; but whether it is the right one. If you happened to be walking to a place which you did not know, and came to a sign-post which pointed out the way to it, what should we think of you if you said, " I do not like the looks of that road at all ; I shall try the other. To be sure, it leads just the opposite way ; but then it is so pleasant." Therefore, this is what Christ says to you, — this is what the Saints of Christ say to you, — "Where I am, thither ye cannot come," unless ye come by the way we went. And that is not all. Suppose at that sign-post you took the right way, but then sat down to rest by the road-side; would you be any nearer to it for all that you had chosen the right turning? Therefore Christ says to you, " Where I am, thither ye cannot come :" therefore the Saints say, Where we are, ye cannot come unless you go as we went. And how was that? Idly and leisurely ? Let S. Paul tell you : " This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those which are before, I press toward the mark, if by any means I may attain." If by any means! If by any means! What a mournful Baying that is ! And how well it proves that we must use all means, if we really mean to reach that blessed place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before. The Saint of this day, Machutus, or Malo, as he is generally called, might well have said this text to the men of his day. He lived about thirteen hundred years ago in a wild part of France called Brittany. There XXXVI.] Who cannot come where Christ is. 217 he laboured long as a Bishop, calling on men to repent, and to do works meet for repentance. It was to no use. They clave to their sins with all their heart, and obliged the Saint to leave that land. He went to a place where he and other holy men could serve God in common and in safety. " Where I am, thither ye can- not come." They had not hearts to give up the world as he did, to follow him in serving God day and night here : and when, as on this day, he was called to the kingdom of heaven, we cannot but fear that " Where I am, thither ye cannot come," was true of his perse- cutors also, for I nowhere read that they repented. Now, therefore, let none of you flatter yourselves with vain hopes. Our Lord said, " Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out." True : but He also said, " Ye shall seek Me, and shall not find Me." He promised, " To him that knocketh, it shall be opened." True : but He also threatened, " Where I am, thither ye cannot come." As the wise man says, " He hath set mercy over against judgment." Only imagine what that will be, — " Where I am, thither ye cannot come/' and it is enough to make us in earnest. We ought not, whatever we do, to hear it without trembling. Now it is not too late to alter the text : now it is not too late to have it — " Where I am, thither ye can come." But the day will be, when, if it stands against us then, it will stand against us for ever. " The harvest is passed, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." Christ grant us so, after the example of S. Ma- chutus and all Saints, to keep His commandments here, that finally we may enter into life everlasting ; to Whom, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, be all glory, for ever. Amen. SERMON XXXVII. THE GOODLINESS OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. &. 5lugl> $2obcmlier 17. " HOW GOODLY ABE THY TENTS, O JACOB, AND THY TABEBNACLES, O Iseael!" — Numbees XXIV. 5. I speak to you with great pleasure of any saint ; but I confess, I have greater pleasure than usual when, as now, it is an English Saint, like the great and good Bishop of Lincoln, Hugh, whose day this is. For though we are part of one and the same army in which all the servants of God have always fought, — though, we have all one great enemy, the Devil, and one Prince, the Captain of our Salvation, Jesus Christ, — yet English Saints, so to speak, are in the same regi- ment with ourselves. We have a more particular interest in them : they have also, God be thanked, a more particular interest in us. You may have heard of the English General, who, when part of his army was very hardly pressed by the French, rode up, and said, " Soldiers, you must never be beat, or what will they say in England ?" Something of the same sort I might say to you. These Saints of our own country are looking down upon us, watching how we bear the burden and heat of the day, helping us as God com- Serm. XXXVII.] The goodliness, §c. 219 mands or allows them. Shall we be beaten in the battle in which they conquered? Why should we? Did they find it easy ? Did they think it a pleasant thing to renounce the devil and all his works, and constantly to obey God's commandments? Indeed not. S. Paul (and I hope he knew how Saints feel,) found it so extremely hard, that he cried out, " Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" So I come again to what that General said : " Soldiers, we must never be beat, or what will they say V — they, our best, true friends, our own friends, our own countrymen, our own Saints. Or if you would rather hear the words of an Apostle than of a General : " wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith." I read you the text, because I was thinking of the glory of our own Church. " How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob ! and thy tabernacles, O Israel \" This place, this college is one of those tents. It is goodly in itself. It was set up for God's glory ; it was intended to help forward His Church : and whatever hindrances or draw- backs there are to this, the fault is in ourselves. Neither this, nor any other help can force you to be saved, whether you will or not. A man may go to hell from a College as easily as if he had never heard the Name of Christ; nay, and a great deal more easily : be- cause " to whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required." But yet this Church to which we belong, does what she can to save her children. If you could see what at this time she is doing; how many new churches are being built ; how many places for the 220 The goodliness of the English Church. [Serm. poor, and sick, and sinful ; how many persons, women more especially, are giving themselves up altogether to the service of God, to teach the ignorant, to nurse the feeble, to go into dens of wickedness, and fight the Devil on his own ground; if you could see how weak helpless women go into infamous streets and alleys, where the police only venture in a good strong party ; if you could know these things, then, I think, you would be ready to say, " How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob ! and thy tabernacles, O Israel \" I will tell you what has been done to-day, what is, perhaps, going on at this moment. There is a large meeting in London, where the Arch- bishop of Canterbury is in the chair, for sending out four new Bishops into the dark places of the earth. One of them, more especially, is to go to a country of which you all know something. You have all heard of the Gold diggings in Australia. Well, — there, where men seem to forget that they came into this world for any other purpose than to heap up money, — where they are wholly given to idolatry, not of images, but of gold, — a Bishop will go forth, to proclaim to them, " What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul V* — to tell them of that true Wisdom, of which Job says, " The gold and the crystal cannot equal it, and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral and of pearls, for the price of Wisdom is above rubies/' But all this is of no use to you, all this can be no pleasure to you unless you, each in your part and ac- cording to your power, fight the same battle with the Devil, in which the whole Church is engaged. The Church fighting with Satan : there is no doubt which will conquer then. " Upon this rock 1 will build My XXXYII.] The ffoodliness of the English Church. 221 Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." But you fighting with Satan, — there, there is every doubt. Nay, if that were all, there would be no doubt at all. Who are you that you should be able to resist the Prince of the power of this world ! Why, the list S. Paul gives us of his armies is very dreadful : "We contend against" — what? — "principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places/' Yes ; but I can tell you for your comfort, that none that ever lived, no Saints, no Martyrs, could ever have conquered him in their own strength ; and I can also tell you for your comfort, that Christ, Who helped them, is as ready to help you, and then, " If God be for you, who can be against you ?" And if He does help you, then there is another and a very blessed sense in which the text may be used, when He shall call you, after doing His will here, to enter into His Paradise hereafter, then indeed you may say, "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob! and thy tabernacles, O Israel !" Yet there, indeed, they will not be tents, pitched to-day, taken up to-morrow; they will be a city which abideth, whose Builder and Maker is God ; they will be that New Jerusalem, " whose light is like to a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal," whose twelve foundations are twelve precious stones, whose twelve gates are each a several pearl. God grant that we all may some day hear these words, may some day say, " I was glad when they said unto me, We will go into the House of the Lord." And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SEEM ON XXX VI II. THE DEATH OF A GREAT MAN. i*>. (EBmuirt, Ittng anto jftartnr. ^obcnvucr 20. " And the King said to his servants, Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fa1len this day in israel?" —2 Sam. hi. 38. Last Thursday, as you all know, the people of England gave such a funeral as has perhaps never been seen be- fore, to their greatest General. You have heard, or read, how for three long miles the streets of London were lined with a crowd that could not be counted ; how sol- diers, and music, and princes, and chiefs, and mighty men went before the coffin ; how the coffin itself, drawn by twelve black horses, rolled on in a brazen carriage, hung with the flags and banners that this great General had won for himself, or that had been given to him by kings as the reward of his bravery : how with the sound of trumpets and drums the procession passed along to S. Paul's; how there, after ashes had been committed to ashes, and dust to dust, a herald proclaimed the titles, the many titles of the Duke of Wellington ; and then all was over. To-day the coffin lies iu the cold, Serm. XXXVIII.] The death of a great man. 223 gloomy vault of S. Paul's ; there are no guards to •watch it there ; there are no flags to wave above it now. The worm is spread over it, and the worms cover it. The one question to the great Duke now is, not how many- battles he won, — not how many banners he obtained, — but whether he died in grace or out of grace ; whether, as we may piously hope, he will find mercy of the Lord in that day. The Holy Ghost tells us that " the fashion of this world passeth away." We can hardly ever have a greater proof of this than that which we have now had. All those crowds that two days ago blocked up the streets of London, are gone ; the scaffoldings and the hangings are taken down ; the whole pomp has passed away like a tale that is told; another week, and people will begin to be tired of the subject: "the fashion of this world passeth away." A thousand years hence, if the world lasts so long, who do you suppose will care that, on the 18th of No- vember, 1852, they buried the Duke of "Wellington with all the honours and glories of this world ? Will any Priest then gather his people together, and tell them of the Duke and his doings ? Most surely not. And now see the difference. Nearly a thousand years ago there reigned a King in England, by name Edmund. His kingdom, which was Norfolk and Suf- folk, was attacked by the Danes, at that time a cruel heathen nation. His own army was too weak to resist. He was not a great general; he felt that he could not conquer after the manner of warriors. He dispersed his soldiers, and resolved to conquer in another manner, namely, that of Martyrs. He was taken, and carried before the Danish king, by name Hinguar. Hinguar 224 The death of a great man. [Serm. offered him not only his life, but his kingdom, if he would deny Christ. Edmund steadfastly refused, say- ing, " How can I do this wickedness and sin against the Lord ?" The Danes tied him to a tree, and scourged him cruelly, and finally shot him to death with arrows. And so he obtained a victory that no earthly power can take away from him; and a crown which will not be dim for ever. And thus see how God, even in this world, makes good His promise : " Them that honour Me I will honour." Here, a thousand years after his time, the name of Edmund is recorded by the Church : from then till now, not in England only, but in other parts of the world, services have been held in his honour. He is honoured, not for having conquered his enemies, but for having overcome himself. He had not, it is true, a funeral full of pomp, and followed by crowds, which was a day's wonder, and then was forgotten ; but they built a glorious Church — one of the largest in England — over his remains ; and the city where he awaits the Lord's Second Coming takes its name from him, and is called from him S. Edmuudsbury, in Suffolk. And a curious thing was lately found out about his Martyrdom. In a wood in Suffolk stood, two years ago, a very old oak tree, which is said to be the same to which S. Edmund had been bound. It was blown down by a high wind ; and when they came to saw it up, they found in it an arrow, over which the wood and bark had grown. Thus the belief that this was the same tree was proved to be true. And the end of the history was, I believe, this. At that time a Priest, whom I knew, was building a Church which was to be dedicated to S. Edmund : when he heard of this tree, he bought it, and XXXVIII.] The death of a great man. 225 used it in the woodwork of that Church. Thus what was once the instrument of this blessed Saint's Martyr- dom is now a part of a building raised in his honour. S. Edmund is the only king named in our Calendar who suffered martyrdom from the heathen. Thus he is an example to us that, though our Lord has said, " It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God/' still, even among the rich and the great men of this world, God has His true Saints, and as to-day shows us, His Martyrs. He had more to give up for God's sake than others, — his crown, and his riches, and his youth : for he was but twenty-eight when he suffered. He might have said with S. Paul, "None of these things move me ; neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy." And he did finish it with joy ; entering into an inherit- ance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Now let us once more compare these two deaths : that which we have just seen, and that of S. Edmund. Which do you suppose was most glorious in the eyes of the blessed company of heaven ? Which would any one of us, if we really think of what we are wishing, most desire to follow ? Do not think that I mean to un- dervalue the great man who has just been taken away from us, or to say for one moment that he may not have been counted worthy of a place in Paradise. But the glory of dying for God, of laying down life for Him Who laid down life for us, of being, in so close a manner, His followers, — this has in it something which, if we cannot fully understand it now, we shall under- stand at the last day. Especially is it glorious for one Q 226 The death of a great man. [Serm. like Edmund, a King and a Martyr, to have thus trod in His steps Who is the King of kings, as well as the Martyr of martyrs. And this may be one meaning of that verse in the Revelation, where S. John, after describing to us that Holy City, New Jerusalem, tells us, that " the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it ; and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it." Not, be sure, their earthly glory, their gold and silver, and precious stones; for what could a city whose light is like a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, need with such riches as these ? No : but the kings of the earth who did or who suffered great things for Christ's Name's sake, who despised the good things of the world, who chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of Gon, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, — these shall bring this, their true honour and glory, to that blessed place, and ascribe them to Him Who gave them grace to do all these things. But, blessed be God, it is not kings only, nor kings chiefly, who can enter in there. S. James teaches us differently. " Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him?" To that king- dom He would have all — the poorest of you — now come, that He may set you with the princes, even with the princes of His people. It does not need wealth or honour, or learning, to enter into that kingdom. " It came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." Our Lord Him- self was never called a King, except in the hour of His Passion; but poor He was indeed, and poor, over and over again, He was called. And to poor men it was XXXVIIL] The death of a great man. 227 that He said, " In My Father's house are many man- sions ; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." Only let us, by His grace, do our duty in that station of life in which He has placed us here, and the time will come when we shall walk in the same light, and join in the same song as His servants, whether kings or poor men, that have gone before us, and shall reign with them for ever and ever. Which God grant, for Jesus Christ's sake : to Whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. SERMON XXXIX. WHAT SORT OF MUSIC THE OLD CAN MAKE. J£. Cecilia, ^obcmbcr 22. "And when Jehoshaphat had consulted with the people he appointed singers ttnto the loed, and that should peaise the beauty of holiness, as they went out befobe the aemy, and to say, peaise the liobd ; fob hls meecy endubeth fob eveb." — 2 chbon. xx. 21. If I were speaking to-day to young persons, I should have no difficulty in knowing what to say. All that we are told of S. Cecilia is that she was a Roman lady who had great skill in music, and who suffered Martyr- dom about one hundred and seventy-six years after our Lord's birth. She is generally said to have invented the organ, and her day has been always observed by musicians, and is chosen for the performance of fine pieces of music. If I were therefore speaking to the young, I should remind them of the special honour which God, from the very beginning, has been pleased to put on music; how He has hallowed it to Himself and to His own service ; and how therefore every one, to the utmost of his power, ought to exercise himself in it; how every one that can sing ought to sing in Serm. XXXIX.] What sort of music the old can make. 229 God's house, and not remain, as we have so many sad examples, dumb, while others are busy about His praises. But it would be useless to tell you this, because old age has made it impossible for you thus to praise God. We may be very sure that He never requires from us that which we cannot do. Those who have the power of singing His praises, have a great privilege ; but those who cannot set them forth with their mouths, can in their hearts. That is a music which God loves well ; when our hearts praise, though our lips cannot. If we remember what S. Paul says about the fruits of the Spirit, we shall perhaps be surprised at that which he puts in the second place. " The fruit of the Spirit," he says, " is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." He sets love first, because without love we cannot please God : as he tells us in another place, " And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." But, directly after love, he sets joy. Now we may be very sure that the more excel- lent a grace is, the more difficult it is to practise it. So love, which is the greatest of all graces, is also the hardest ; and so this which the Apostle here calls joy must also necessarily be very hard. Now, what does this joy mean ? Certainly nothing can be easier than some things which the world calls joy. The pleasures of sin any one may come at who will. The Devil takes care that no one shall be with- out their chance of these. He has different kinds, too, to suit different characters ; but all of them have the same wages : as it is written, " The wages of sin is death." 230 Wliat sort of music the old can make. [Serm. But this joy, of which S. Paul speaks, means that state of mind which is exactly opposite to discontent. Just as some people always see the worst side of every- thing ; are sure, as the proverb says, to find a hole, if there be one ; seem to delight in turning away from the blessings which God gives them to the trials He sends them, — so this great Christian grace leads the man who has it to make the best of everything ; to say in some words which I happened to be reading the other day, " The good which my God shall be pleased to bestow I gratefully gather and prize ; The evil, — it can be no evil, I know, But only a good in disguise." Those who have this grace feel that, whatever God sends them of good, is all of His free bounty, because they have deserved nothing ; whereas all that He sends them of evil is less than their sins have merited. They say as Job, " What ! shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?''' And with Jeremiah, " It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed : because His compassions fail not." Now we know to a proverb that old people are generally discontented and complaining. I do not say this of you particularly, for I think that you are less so than most; and some among you have often struck me by their content and cheerfulness under suffering and want. But still this is one of the besetting sins of old age ; and it is natural that it should be so. It is not pleasant to be obliged to give up what we were once able to do. It is not pleasant to feel our health grow- ing worse, and our strength becoming feebler; and to sec those whom we re member young growing up and XXXIX.] What sort of music the old can make. 231 taking our places, and pushing us out of them. Depend upon it, it requires a great deal of grace to be able to say cheerfully of any one, what S. John Baptist said of our Lord, " He must increase, but I must decrease." All these things, then, are likely to make you dis- contented, and if by God's grace you can show content and cheerfulness notwithstanding, then you will be making music in your hearts which He cares for, and will reward, far more than if you could sing with your lips the finest music that ever was devised, — than if you could sing " with the tongues of men and of angels," as S. Paul says. And this is a kind of temptation which comes upon us, we hardly know how. There are some, I believe, who really are thankful to God for His mercies; who feel, as well as know, that He has not visited them after their sins, nor rewarded them according to their iniqui- ties ; but who yet have such a miserable, melancholy, discontented way of speaking, that, if we were to judge them by that only, we should think that they did not know the meaning of thankfulness. We may be sure that one great means of feeling thankful in trouble is speaking cheerfully about it; setting ourselves to find out the good things which come along with it; com- paring ourselves not with those who are better off, but with those who are worse off, than we are. There is a kind of holy cleverness, if I may use the word, in find- ing out these things ; and it is a kind which the dullest person may practise. I say again, these cheerful words and these cheerful thoughts are pleasanter sounds in God's ear, than the most ravishing music ever made on earth — sweeter to Him than even that which S. Cecilia made in His service. 232 What sort of music the old can make. [Scrm. And then comes the happy thought that, if we by God's grace show this holy joy here, the time will come when we shall enter into that place where music will be one of our great delights. Think how much we read of it in the book of Revelation — of harpers harping with their harps, of the New Song that none can learn save the one hundred and forty-four thousand that are re- deemed from the earth — the Song of Moses and of the Lamb. Then we shall find our tongues that could not praise God here as we wished, unloosed to sing to Him as the angels : according to that prophecy of Isaiah, " the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly." Some of the words that they sing in heaven we know even now. The song of the Elders round about the Throne is this : " We give Thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, Which art, and wast, and art to come, because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned." The Song of Moses and the Lamb is, " Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of Saints." But if we would sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb there, we must do the works of Moses and the Lamb here. Of Moses we read, " the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth ;" and the Lamb of God would have us, as far as we can be, in this world, like Himself, " holy, harmless, undcfilcd, separate from sinners." These gloomy November nights seem almost sent to make us long for that blessed country, where we shall see no more death and decay such as we now see everywhere; where we shall no more have the melan- choly noise of the wind, and the thick clouds, and the XXXIX.] What sort of music the old can make. 233 rain, and the darkness. For the sun that shines there can never be clouded ; for the spring that dwells there can never come to an end. When we think of these things, we may well say, " When, O thou City of my God, Shall I thy streets ascend, Where the assembly ne'er breaks up, The Sabbath hath no end ? " Jerusalem, my happy Home, Name ever dear to me, When shall my labours have an end, In peace, and love, and thee ?" To which rest God bring us all : for Jesus Christ's sake, to Whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen. SERMON XL. THE SEA GIVING UP HER DEAD. $. Clement, fiobcnujcr 23. " Anothee book was opened, which is the Book of Life : And the sea gave up the dead which weee in it." — rev. xx. 12, 13. I can tell you one name that was written in that Book of Life. S. Clement, whose memory we keep to-day, was told, while he was yet in this world, that his name was there. S. Paul says in the Epistle to the Philip- pians, " Clement, and other my fellow-labourers, whose names are in the Book of Life." Others of God's ser- vants have gone on hoping and fearing, struggling and mourning, lest, as S. Paul says, " after they had preached to others, they themselves should be cast away." With S. Clement it was not so. The Holy Ghost, That cannot lie, assured him that he should be saved. And next to the Apostles, he was one of the greatest Saints of the early Church. He wrote two Epistles to the Corinthians, which for many years were read as a part of the Bible. After he had for some time been Bishop of Rome, he was banished into a wild and savage country, which wc now call Georgia, and there Serm. XL.] The sea giving up her dead. 235 he preached Christ to the barbarians. At length, he was taken by the officers of the Emperor, and thrown into the sea, with an anchor round his neck : and thus he finished his course with joy. He is therefore painted with an anchor; and the charity boys of S. Clement Danes church in London have an anchor on their buttons. But now think : suppose it were told us by the Holy Ghost, as it was told S. Clement, that we should cer- tainly be saved, should we not be apt to grow careless at once ? Should we not say, It matters not what I do, or what I leave undone, I shall get to heaven at last, and so I will take my fill of this world's pleasures now ? I am afraid we should. And it shows the great love to God that was in the heart of this blessed Saint, that though he was sure of the prize at the end, still he went on labouring for it, still he went on fighting for it, and at last he laid down his life that he might obtain it. No ; it is a merciful thing for us not to be told it, though our name should be in the Book of Life. And think what a book that must be, in which are written the names of all God's true servants, from righteous Abel, down to the last infant that shall be baptized before the Judgment Day ! Think how, if we could be shown it, we should tremble with exceeding great trembling, as we turned over its leaves, to see whether our names were written there or not ! That we shall never know for certain, while we remain in the flesh. But, by the grace of the Holy Ghost, we may go on, making our salvation more and more sure ; so that, at last, when we are called to go out of the world, we may have a strong consolation, an assured hope, that we shall not be cast out. 236 The sea giving up her dead. [Serm. See now how the Devil, who delights in spoiling all God's works, brings death and sin out of this very Book of Life. He has taught some wicked persons to say thus : " God knows at this moment whether I am to be saved or not. If I am to be saved, nothing can hinder me : if I am not to be saved, nothing can help me. If I am to be saved, I shall be saved, do what I will : and if I am to be damned, I shall be damned, do what I can." You must all know that there are many people who say, and who teach this; and there are many, now in hell, who might have been saved, but for believing it. How is the truth then ? Why, this. We must be- lieve both things. It is certain that God has a Book of Life, in which all those who are to be saved are written down : and yet it is also certain that any of you may be saved who will. Perhaps no man can fully understand how both these things can be true together. Ever since the beginning of the Church, there have been bitter disputes about this, and there have been fearful mistakes on both sides. It is enough for you to believe this firmly ; that God wills you and every man to be saved ; that God gives you and every baptized person grace sufficient to be saved ; that you and every one else may be saved, if you will; that if you do will, and go on persevering to the end, then your names will be found in the Lamb's Book of Life ; but if you do not will, or do not go on willing to the end, then they will not be found there. And S. John tells us what will follow : " And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life, was cast into the lake of fire." This is enough for us to know ; and we may leave others to dispute how this can be, or how that can be. XL.] The sea giving up her dead. 237 Our Lord might say to us, as He did to S. Peter, " What is that to thee ? Follow thou Me." And always let us say, as S. Paul did, " Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark." Thus we shall follow the example of S. Clement. He knew that he was to be saved, and yet he resisted unto blood. We can only hope it, and yet how slothful we are in our Christian life ! But there is another part of the text: — "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it." And S. Cle- ment will be one of those. What a glorious thing it is to be a Christian, and to know this ! Why, if it is difficult to fancy how bone will come to bone, muscle to muscle, tooth to tooth, of those that have mouldered away in the earth, how much more difficult of those that have been cast into the sea ! The waves have washed them to corruption; rocks have dashed them in pieces ; dreadful sea-monsters have swallowed them ; that which was their flesh, who can tell where it is, or what it is ? It has formed the food of fish, it is turned into other substances : — But what of that ? " The sea gave up her dead." If you say, how can these things be ? I shall only answer you as S. Paul does, " Thou fool !" " Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die." Now, every child can tell you this : time has been when the wisest men on earth could not. Of those that have been buried in the sea, this fish may have eaten one part, and that fish eaten another part ; and both those fishes may have been eaten by a third fish, and that third fish have utterly perished these thousand years, and yet God at this instant knows where every particle of that man's body is, — limbs, eyes, 238 The sea giving up her dead. [Serin. XL. teeth, hair, all are safe. How can these things be ? " Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die." And consider this. When, in spring, we have fine warm weather, and we say that it will bring things for- ward, what do we mean ? Why, that it will cause the seeds we have sown to decay more quickly, the young green shoots to burst from the poor worn-out husk, till the plant comes up in all its beauty. And, iu like manner, all the changes of this world are bringing for- ward the bodies that have been sown in it, to what they will be. Every summer, every winter makes them nearer to their last glorious change. They decay more and more thoroughly ; they become a little dust, the dust changes to something else ; and so, from one change to another, till, " in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the trumpet shall sound, and this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." When I was away from you last year, I came to a wide burial ground, with a great gate that led into it : and over the gate, in large letters, were written these words : — " Seed, sown by God, to ripen in the day of sheaves." And so indeed it is. " The dead in Christ," says S. Paul, " shall rise first." And no marvel that S. John says, " Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection." In that S. Clement will have a portion ; and God grant that we may also ! And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SEEM ON XL I. THE WEAK THINGS OF THIS WOKLD CONFOUND- ING THE WISE. £>. Hathnuu. ^olmnbcr 25. "The feae of the Loed is the beginning of wisdom." — Peoveebs ix. 10. It is not always, no nor often, that we know most about the principal Saints of the Church. Even about most of the Apostles, those who, at the last day, shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging kindreds, and nations, and people, we are told very little, either by Holy Scripture, or by the Church. And so it is with the Saint of this day. No Martyr has been more famous than S. Katherine; but we hardly know anything that is certain about her. The stories which we read of her may be true, and are very beautiful ; but they were not heard of till nearly a thousand years after her death. Therefore we cannot feel at all sure of them; but still, there is much that we may learn from them. It is said, then, that S. Katherine lived in Egypt; that she was very rich and very learned ; and that the heathen Emperor wished to make her his wife. She 240 The weak things of this world. [Serm. refused to listen to him again and again, and at length he determined to prove to her that the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, of which she spoke so much, was false; so he gathered together fifty of the wisest men of Egypt, and bade them dispute with her. But it was with her, as we read in the Acts that it was with S. Stephen : " they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which she spake." When the Em- peror saw that the wise men were put to shame, he grew very furious, and commanded that Katherine should be torn to pieces by a wheel, on which were fastened knives and saws. Just as she was about to be bound to it, she prayed that she might be delivered from so cruel a death. Then the lightning of God fell, and dashed the wheel to pieces; and the Emperor com- manded that her head should be struck off with a sword. Then, it is said, the angels carried her body to Mount Sinai, and buried it there. It is in remembrance of the burning of this wheel that those fireworks, which we call Katherinc-wheels, are made. And we here often mention the name of this Saint, when we are little thinking of her; for the proper name of Cutton's Hill, as we now call it, is S. Katherine's Hill ; I suppose, because there was once a chapel there called S. Katherine's Chapel. Because of S. Katherine's great wisdom, and her overthrowing the fifty wise men, she is generally called the Patron Saint of scholars. Yet it is not generally the wise of this world, any more than the rich of this world, whom God has chosen to do Him service. It should be to the comfort of most of you, that that state in which God has been pleased to place you is the same state in which the blessed Apostles were. When they XLL] The weak things of this world. 241 were first examined by the chief Priests, "they per- ceived/' we are told, " that they were unlearned and ignorant men." The wisdom which is sufficient for you, God has given you all. In the first place, the Creeds, to tell you what to believe ; and the Church, to tell you how to believe them. In the next place, He has given you all a conscience, which is His most sure voice tell- ing you what is evil, and what is good. You may have refused to listen to it, and so have deadened it ; but there it is still. It may be more difficult now than it was at first, to hear its voice ; but if you listen atten- tively, it speaks yet. This is what the Prophet means when he says, " Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saving, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left." I will tell you, as we are talking of this matter, a story of the way in which a common every-day labourer once put to shame one of the wisest men in the world. At the time when there were still many heathens, and when there were idols and temples of idols every- where, it happened that a great number of Bishops and Priests, and of others, both men and women, had gath- ered together for a service in the great church of the city where it happened. As they were coming out, a learned heathen, — one of those who called themselves philosophers, — came up, and said, " Christians, I defy any one of you to dispute with me. If he can prove to me that Jesus, Who was crucified in Judea, is Lord and God, then I will worship Him ; but if I can prove that our gods are living and true gods, then ye shall worship them. Give me a man, and let us argue together." While the Bishops were settling who should dispute R 242 Tlie weak things of this world. [Serai. with this proud heathen, a poor old labourer stood up in the midst, and said, " Philosopher ! I myself will dispute with you \" Many of the Christians were very unwilling, fearing that the poor old man might be put to shame : but the Bishops had more faith in God, and told the labourer to go on. " Well, then," he said, " O philosopher, I will begin ; you shall answer, and if you cannot answer, you shall confess that you are beaten. Will you?" The philosopher laughed the old man to scorn, and said, " Yes." "Then," the labourer said, "listen to me. Philo- sopher, there is but one God, Who hath made heaven and earth, and all that therein is ; and one Lord Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord ; and one Holy Ghost, Who comforteth us. You believe that there are many gods, made of wood and stone, that are to be worshipped. Tell me why you say this? But first, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I command thee to be dumb. Now answer !" The tongue of the philosopher clave to the roof of his mouth, and he slunk away, put to shame by a poor labourer. Thus you see how much better and stronger faith is than learning. But, indeed, it is not by reading much, or being learned according to this world's account, that we know best what is the will of God; or become, as the Apostle says, " wise unto salvation." One of the greatest Saints and the most learned men that ever lived, when he was asked how he came by all his marvellous wisdom, pointed to a Cross that stood by ; as much as to say that it was by thinking on that, by following that, that he became what he was. Our Lord Himself has taught us that, XLL] The weak things of this world. 243 " if any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine :" that is, if we act up to the light we have, He will give us more light ; whereas, if we do not use what we have, we shall not only have no more, but that we have shall be taken away. Many of you have tra- velled by the railway, and have gone through a tunnel. You may have noticed what I am going to tell you ; if not, notice it next time. When you are in the thick darkness of a tunnel, the only light you can see is the glimmer of the lamps on the walls of that tunnel. You expect the light of day again ; you watch earnestly for it; and where do you see it first? Not in the thickest part of the darkness, but in the lamp-light : the lamp- lights all begin to look white, before you see the least change in the black darkness elsewhere. That lamp is the conscience; and those who make good use of their conscience will be the first to get the light of God's wisdom in any difficulty or danger that they may have to meet. So many ways God gives us all of pleasing Him ! so many ways He gives us all of working out our own sal- vation ! He lets no state in this world be shut out from it. You who are poor, He calls because you are poor ; you who are unlearned, He calls because you are un- learned. That text has to do with you, " God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise." Who is wiser and craftier than the devil ? Then God has chosen you to confound him, to conquer him, to trample upon him, to be more than conqueror through Him that loved you. Again : " God hath chosen the weak things of this world to confound the things that are mighty." What can be stronger than the corrup- tion of our nature ? Then God calls us to conquer it, 244 The weak tilings of this world. [Serm. XLI. as our Prayer Book speaks, " to crucify the old man, and utterly abolish the whole body of sin." And think of this : — such as were like you, such as have lived here among you, and have departed in God's faith and fear, now know more than the wisest and most learned men on this earth. The difficulties that puzzle us are no difficulties to them ; the many things which here we shall never know are clearer than light to them. "Now," as S. Paul says, " we know in part;" but there they know even as they are known. God grant us so to know Him in this life, that in the life to come we may know all things for Jesus Christ's sake : to Whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON XL 1 1. UNKNOWN SAINTS. £. Jltrftolas. ©camber 6. " Thy Father Which seeth in seceet, Himself shall eewaed thee openly." — s. matt. vi. 4. The Saint of to-day, S. Nicholas, is one of whom we know scarcely anything certain but his name. That he was a Bishop in Asia, and that he did great wonders in the Name of Christ ; this is all that is told of him. But it is enough. His good deeds are written in hea- ven, if they are not written on earth : his crown is none the less bright there, because we know not the way in which he won it here. There is, I think, something in thus keeping the memory of a Saint of whom we know next to nothing, which ought to be very comforting to you. It is what the Church delights to do. The blessed Apostles them- selves, have for the most part, left no long catalogue of their actions behind them. The long, patient toil, the love to those nations among whom they went, their wisdom, their meekness, their miracles, their suffer- 246 Unknown Saints. [Serm. ings, their constancy, their death, are known only to God. And so it is, and it must be, with respect to the greatest number of those who are the followers of Christ. Neither now, nor hereafter, will they be famous in the history of the Church. Just as in a battle, we know nothing of the names of the soldiers who fought, and who conquered ; all we hear is who the generals were : so it is in that great struggle which the Church is now carrying on, and to the end of the world will be carrying on, against the devil and. all his powers. We know nothing of those thousands of true Christians who help on this battle by their prayers and their holy lives. Only those who have the chief posts are known to men, those who by learning, or courage, or talents, are able to do the chief service to God. But remember this : in every battle, it is after all the soldiers, and not the generals, who win it. In the battle between the Church and the devil, it is the meaner and humbler children of the Church who do the most for God. The hearty, earnest cry of a poor man, before he goes out to his day's work, is as accept- able to Christ as the longer prayers of those who have more time for prayer. It is not the length or the learning of the prayer that He looks at, but its faith and its earnestness. And now think, when we say of any, the meanest of God's servants, on his departure out of this world, that we believe him to be happy, that we cannot doubt of his salvation, how much we tell of his history. Look back to the long line of those who, from the foundation of this College, have lived and died where you now live, and where you hope to die. Out of those hundreds, XLIL] Unknown Saints. 247 how many must there be who are now safe in Paradise ! Think then, in these same walls where we now are, how many victories there have been against temptation, how much patience under suffering, how much sorrow for sin, how many resolutions with God's help to re- nounce the devil and all his works ! Probably, nay almost certainly, there is not a single room of all the rooms we live in, from which, at some time or other, a Christian soul has not departed to Paradise. This ought to be a check on all of us, when we are tempted to do evil. How can I do this wickedness, and sin against the Lord here? here, where in past times, some one of God's servants has fallen asleep ; here, where the Angels then were, ready to carry his soul into Abraham's bosom ; here, where he first beheld, how- ever dimly and indistinctly, the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God to help him in that agony of death ? here, where death first began to have dominion over his hody, sown in corruption, that it might be raised in incorruption ? here, where that say- ing has been fulfilled, "Blessed" — and oh, who shall tell how blessed ! — " are the dead which die in the Lord." But what, if I were to remind you of the other thought which might weigh with us when the devil would lead us to sin ? As these rooms have seen some blessed departures — God grant they may have been many, and the more they have been, or shall be, the more His Name be blessed ! — so how can we doubt that some, at least, of those who have formerly lived in them departed from them out of grace, and are now awaiting the resurrection of damnation ? If our Lord's words are true, so it must have been; for He says, 248 Unknown Saints. [Sera. " Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life ; and few there be that find it." So again, each of you may ask yourselves, How can I sin here? here, where the time has been that a man would have given untold wealth for one hour's space of repentance, and found it not ; where he has uttered that exceeding bitter cry, " The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved ;" where he has seen that Christ's Blood had no longer any power to save him, the Holy Ghost no longer any will to strive with him ; when the Church has no longer been able to intercede for him, when he has felt himself shut out from all Chris- tian men, from all good Angels, from all sight and comfort of God, from all light, and from all hope, when devils have taken his soul, and carried it away to dwell with them for ever, and for ever, and for ever ! This is no fancy. These things have happened again and again; have happened here again and again; have happened where we go on sinning and repenting, re- penting and sinning, again and again. Even in hell, those who are lost keep some of their earthly feelings, at least at first they do ; we know it from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. What do you think that they who once dwelt in this place, but who now dwell where the smoke of their torment goeth up for ever and ever, would say, when they see you, their successors, rushing into sin, and going headlong to the same place that is prepared for them ? " Tell them/'' they would say, " that for one morsel of meat we sold our birthright; that we found no place of repentance, though we sought it carefully with tears. Ask them, who among them can dwell with the devouring fire ? who among them can dwell with everlasting burning? XLIL] Unknown Saints. 249 Testify unto them, lest they also come to this place of torment." But who can tell how those miserable ones would urge you? Who can tell what it is — the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched ? A good man of old time, to set forth their state, wrote a poem in which he makes them speak thus : " For ever and ever is a long time ! Were a heap of sand before our eyes Exceeding the whole world in size, And a bird every thousand years should come To take one single grain therefrom, And God would grant deliverance, When the last grain of all were taken thence, We should have hope that some one day Our misery might pass away. But now beneath God's wrath we he, Hopeless and lost, eternally." But, before I end, we will look once more back to those of God's servants who having done His will while they lived in this place, have now gone to a better habitation, that is an heavenly. Would they not, think you, exhort you to run with patience the race that is set before you? Would they not urge you to pray in the very spot where they prayed, to repent in the very spot where they repented, to do your duty in that state of life in which it once pleased God to place them, as it has now pleased Him to place you? Only to pray more earnestly, to repent more deeply, to do your duty more diligently ? Would they not tell you that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with that glory? Would they not exhort you to strive to enter in, because with all your strivings the entrance will be hard enough ? 250 Unknown Saints. [Serm. XLII. They would indeed. And the time will come when these servants of God, of whom, as of the Martyr of this day, we know nothing now, shall be known by all. The poor shall not always be forgotten. God, "Who has their names written in the book of life, will one day proclaim them to men and Angels. And in the mean- time, we are knit together with them in one commu- nion and fellowship. I will tell you how a poet of our own speaks : " But could we lay the body by, And wash our eyesiglit clean, Then look into the boundless sky, How different 'twould be seen ! What now is void and silent space, Were full and vocal then ; Its habitants a heavenly race, Though once our fellow-men." And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON XL 1 1 1. THE BUSH THAT BURNED, AND WAS NOT BURNT. Conception of the 33ltS<$rtJ Vvcgjxi iKaru. Btc. 8. " And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed." — Exodus hi. 2. I have often told you, that it is hardly possible to open a page of the Old Testament without finding some striking type of our Lord. In like manner, here and there His Blessed Mother, Saint Mary, is also set forth to us. Now to-day, when the Church would have us remember her, whom all generations shall call Blessed, we cannot do better than to think over one of these types. It has always been a favourite one with the servants of God ; and sets forth most plainly to us how our Lord, Who was begotten of the Father before all worlds, was nevertheless born in these latter times of a pure Virgin. Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro his father-in- law, the Priest of Midian; and he led them to a part of the desert, where it joined Mount Horeb. We are not 252 The Bush that burned, not burnt. [Serm. to imagine that this desert was only a sandy waste. It was rather like the forest here : one grassy hill beyond another, sprinkled over with a few bushes here and there; but wild and lonely, and without any dwelling of man for many miles round. One of these bushes Moses saw on fire ; and that in itself was nothing un- common. In those hot countries, the beat of the sun now and then sets the withered plant alight, and thus acres of grass and shrubs are sometimes burnt up. But when he looked again, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed : and he turned aside, as well he might, to see this great sight. Then it was that God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and promised to have mercy upon His people Israel. Now what does all this teach us? Just as the bush held this fire in itself, without being consumed, so did the Blessed Virgin Mary contain in herself, just as any other mother, the God Who is compared to a con- suming fire : and yet she herself was not hurt thereby. It was such a wonder as never had been known before : and never can be seen again. " The Word was made Flesh." That God should have been an Infant, should have been wrapped, in swaddling bands, should have been fed as other infants, should have suffered like other infants ; this is truly a miracle which passes all our powers of understanding. But yet it is even more wonderful that God should have lain, like other infants, in the womb of the Virgin ; that there He should have taken to Himself bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh ; that He Who bears up heaven and earth, should have been thus borne by a Virgin; that He Who is Almighty, should have become thus weak ; that He Who is from everlasting to everlasting, should have XLIIL] The Bush that burned, not burnt. 253 become so young; He That is everywhere, so little: He That is worshipped by all the host of heaven, so despised. Thus it was " that the Word became Flesh ;" and we may well have it said to us, as it was by God to Moses, " Put off thy shoes from off thy feet : for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground/' The Bush, then, is a type of the Blessed Virgin : the flame that burnt in it, and yet consumed it not, is a type of our Lord, Who lay in the womb of S. Mary, and yet destroyed her not. But this is not all. This great miracle happened, not in a tall forest tree, but in a bush, a low humble bush. And thus our Lord, when the fulness of the time was come, took on Him our flesh from a poor and despised mother. She tells us herself : " For He hath regarded the lowliness/' that is the low and poor estate, " of His handmaiden." He was not born among " the kings of the earth," but among its poor : just as the fire was not kindled in a cedar, but in a thicket. Then again : Moses only saw this great sight. It did not happen where all the children of Israel could behold it for themselves. There, in the quiet and the loneli- ness of the wilderness of Horeb was the Bush that burned with fire, and yet was not consumed. So it was with Saint Mary. God was to be born of a Virgin : so it was prophesied before. It was the seed of the woman, not the seed of the man, that was to bruise the serpent's head. Isaiah said, " Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His Name Immanuel, God with us," And yet so great a miracle was hidden from the Jews. S. Mary was espoused to Joseph : no doubt for this very reason, that the won- derful manner of our Lord's Birth should not be 254 The Bush that burned, not burnt. [Serm. known. S. Luke expressly tells us, " Jesus Himself began to be about thirty years old, being, as was sup- posed, the Son of Joseph." And as to Moses alone was the miracle of the burning bush shown, so to S. Joseph alone did God make known at first the mystery of our Lord's taking our flesh. The Angel said unto him, "Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife : for That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." Again : the Bush burnt with fire just before God delivered the children of Israel from the cruel slavery of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. So our Lord took upon Him our flesh to this very end, that He might deliver us out of the hand of him of whom Pharaoh was a type, namely, the devil. If God the Word had never lain in the womb, the flesh of man could never have attained eternal life. If God had abhorred to enter the Virgin, man could never have hoped to enter heaven. Christ came to save : but He could only save us by suffering for us. And how could both these things be? Man by himself could not save; God by Himself could not suffer : therefore God became Man : and in that He was God, He saved; and in that He was Man, He suffered. We see His miracles, and we confess that He was God : we see His sufferings, and we acknowledge that He was Man. He died on the Cross; therefore He was Man. He raised Himself from the dead; therefore He was God. He was born of a woman, therefore He was Man; He was born of a Virgin, therefore He was God. And it is His Birth to which we are now looking for- ward. Advent is nearly half over. And how are we preparing ourselves to keep this Christmas? Our Lord XLIIL] The Bush that burned, not burnt. 255 came to save us, if we are willing to be saved. If we would obtain that which He promises, namely, salvation, we must first love that which He commands, namely, holiness. He will not save the unholy. He will not save those that cling to sin. He will save those only who, amidst much weakness, and with much sinfulness, are trying to tread in His footsteps. And then, if we are trying to be like Him here, S. John says, "We know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." God grant it, for Jesus Christ's sake : to Whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. SEEM ON XL IV. TAKE NO THOUGHT WHAT YE SHALL SPEAK. J*>. 5£ucj). Sctcmber 13. " But when they delivee you up, take no thought how ob what ye shall speak : foe it shall be giten tou in that same houb what te shall speak." — s. matt. x. 19. The text is fitting for the day; for when S. Lucy was brought before the heathen magistrate, she comforted herself with this promise. It is but little we know of what she did, or what she suffered, for the sake of Christ. All we can be certain of is this : that it was in the island of Sicily that she lived, that it was in the last and fiercest of the ten persecutions that she glorified God; and that after enduring divers kinds of torments, she was beheaded, and so entered into her rest. Now the promise was made, firstly and chiefly, to the Apostles ; and I do not know that anywhere our Lord's fellow-feeling for us is shown more clearly. He knew that, when they were about to be set before kings and rulers for His Name's sake, it would be natural for them to be very anxious as to what they would say ; to be afraid of not speaking properly, and so of bringing dis- Serm.XLIV.] Take no thought what to speak. 257 honour on His Gospel. He knew that they would be likely to vex and weary themselves in getting ready speeches beforehand, in putting the best words together they could think of, and thus, instead of doing the duty of the moment in the moment, to distress themselves about what they would say or do by-and-by. All this He puts an end to by His kind and loving command : " Take no thought what ye shall speak : for it shall be given you in that same hour." They had no need then to trouble themselves about the words they were to use, when the Holy Ghost would give them His wisdom, and teach them to say exactly the right thing at the right time. And this is one of the few sayings of our Lord which are written in three of the Gospels ; as if He would have it as widely known as possible. S. Matthew and S. Mark mention it once, and S. Luke twice. Now I do not mean to say that this promise is made to us as much, and in the same sense, as it was to the Apostles. But still we may take a great deal of com- fort in it. Half the misery of this world arises, not from what we suffer at any given moment, but by our look- ing forward to the future. " How ever shall I be able to bear so and so ? If so and so happens, then what will it be best for me to do ? Only imagine, if such and such a thing comes to pass, in what a miserable plight I shall be \" Our Lord has given us just as kind a command against all this — the plainest word best explains what I mean — against all this worrying ourselves about the future, as ever He gave His Apostles : "Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself." 258 Take no thought what to speak. [Serm. Only then we must understand the sense in which He said this. One part of the Bible cannot contradict another, because it is all written by that God, Who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Now in some ways we are commanded to look forward to the morrow. The Holy Ghost, by the mouth of Solomon, tells us, " Go to the ant, consider her ways, and be wise." The ant, we know, lays up provision for the future ; and therefore we are not only allowed, but commanded to do the same. Our Lord's words, then, mean this : when the future is altogether out of our power, when it lies wholly in God's hands, and not in ours, when we may indeed vex and distress ourselves about it, but can do nothing to alter it, then we are to take no thought for it. If, for example, any one dear to us is ill, our duty is to do what we can for him by prayer, and by using the means which God has given us ; but we are not to vex and tease ourselves about the consequences. " Unto God the Lord," not to us, "belong the issues from death." So again the farmer is to plough and sow, using his best judgment as to time ; but, the ploughing and sowing over, he is not to worry himself by thinking how bad the weather may be, or how rain may destroy the seed, or frost nip the blade, or blight destroy the full ear. This is in God's hands, not in his. Yet we not only may, but are commanded to, look forward to the future, when we can prepare ourselves the better to meet it. Thus, for example, in this cloth- ing-club which is set up, you do take thought for the morrow ; but you do not break our Lord's words. You do not distress yourselves by looking forward to what you cannot help : but you take advantage of the means God gives you in preparing for what you can help. XLIV.] Take no thought what to speak. 259 There is all the difference in the world between these two things. To see people generally, one would think they were afraid of not being unhappy enough, and did not be- lieve our Lord's saying, " Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof;" or else that they were so full of their own wisdom, as not to be content with doing what God has appointed them to do, but think that they can do what God keeps in His own hands better than He can. They act as if they thought — and they do think so too — that they know how to manage God's affairs better than He does. Therefore it follows that all this anxiety and trouble about the future, of which we hear and see so much, not only causes great misery, but great sin too. It is a want of that faith, without which it is im- possible to please God. For, consider how much more we trust men, who so often deceive us, than we do God, Who cannot lie. When a physician tells us, " You must take such and such a medicine, if you wish to get better/'' we do not stand to reason about it, but we take it at once. If a lawyer tells us, "You must sign such and such a paper, or you will not be able to get what you come to me for," we sign our names, without asking questions why and how it can be so. But God we will not thus trust. He says that, if we love Him, all things shall work to- gether for our good ; yet we vex and torment ourselves by fearing that such and such a thing may work for our evil instead. See now how, by means of Christ's promise that I read you in the text, His Apostles are spared from numberless troubles. See how, following them, the Martyrs and Saints, like S. Lucy to-day, trusted that, 260 Take no thought what to speak. [Serm. XLIV. in the hour when they needed it, the thing they needed would be given them. So with us : if we are God's servants, when we want courage, He will give us cour- age ; when we want wisdom, He will give us wisdom ; when we want the power of bearing, He will give us the power of bearing. And there is one hour, the looking forward to which may well distress us; when, in a certain sense, we shall have to stand before kings and princes ; for the king of evil spirits, the prince of the powers of the air, Satan, will stand at our right hand to resist us. In that hour also, if we have been putting our trust in God, what we need — namely, victory — will be given to us, as it was to S. Lucy to-day. Depend upon it, we shall never know what God's strength is to protect us, till we know what the devil's is to attack. Our Lord said of His people, "My Father, Which gave them Me, is greater thau all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Fa- ther's hand." In that hour it will be given us, that we may not for any pains of death fall from Him; in that hour to know more than we now know how angels are ministering spirits ; in that hour to be more than conquerors, through Him that loved us. And that hour once over, to see, as the blessed martyr of to-day now does, the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living. Where God give us never so low a place beneath His saints and righteous servants, for Jesus Christ's sake; to Whom, with the Father and the Holy Guost, be all glory for ever. Amen. SERMON XLV. CHKIST OUR TRUE WISDOM. <© J*>aptcntta. Srcnnfccr 16. " Wisdom eeacheth feom one end to another mightily : and SWEETLY DOTH SHE OEDEE ALL THINGS." — WlSDOM Till. 1. The nine days before Christmas have always been kept more especially holy by the Church. The Lord is now very nigh at hand ; and, therefore, while we wait for Him, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness ? You will see in the Calendar that, opposite the 16th of December, are put the Latin words, " O Sapientia," that is, " O Wisdom \" And they stand there, because they were the beginning of a kind of short Hymn or Collect which was said on this day, with reference to our Lord's Coming : just as on the next eight days other Collects were said, all, in different ways and under different names, looking forward to His birth as on Christmas Day. The words are these: "O Wisdom, which didst pro- ceed from the mouth of the Most Highest, and dost 2G2 Christ our True Wisdom. [Serm. reach from one end to the other, mightily and sweetly ordering all things, come and teach us the way of Wisdom." It is our Lord Himself Who is here called Wisdom : just as we so often find Him named in the Book of Proverbs. When God prepared the heavens, Wisdom, that is our Lord, says, " I was there : when He set a compass upon the face of the depth. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. Then I was by Him, as One brought up with Him, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him." And so it is that, while at other times we may be called on principally to think of the Love which caused our Lord to take upon Him bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh ; or of the Strength whereby, having taken it to Himself, He conquered the devil in it ; or of the Example which while He was in the world He left us, that as He had walked so we should also walk : to-day we are rather to remember the Wisdom with which He wrought our salvation. In everything He turned the devil's weapons upon himself: "in the thing wherein they dealt proudly He was above them." Let us think this a little over. By means of a woman, death came into the world ; by means of a woman, Life was restored to the world. Eve listened to the voice of an angel, that fallen angel the devil, and fell : Mary believed the voice of an Angel, the holy Angel Gabriel, and conceived the Saviour of all men. In a garden it was that the devil lay hid, that he might bring to pass the destruction of mankind ; in a garden the Lord of Life lay buried, that risen again He might open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers. By eating the fruit of the forbidden tree man died, for God said, "In XLV.] Christ our True Wisdom. 263 the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die ;" by feeding on our Lord's Body and Blood, we gain life, as it is written, " Whoso eateth My Flesh and driuketh My Blood hath eternal life." By a tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, came sin and death : by a tree, the Tree of the Cross, came righteousness and life. Therefore the Passion Hymn says very well : " For the work of our Salvation Needs would have his order so : And the manifold Deceiver's Art by art would overthrow : And from thence would bring the med'cine, Whence the poison of the foe." And this Wisdom, says the Collect, reaches from one end to the other. From one end of time to the other, or from one end of the world to the other ; both are equally true. Always and everywhere this Wisdom is. From the beginning, through all the changes and chances of this world, God has kept and guided His Church ; it has often seemed all but perishing, and then He has delivered it, and made it more glorious than ever. He has opened a way for it where there seemed to be none; just as when Pharaoh and all his host pur- sued after Israel to the Red Sea, and thought that now at last the people of God would fall into his hand, He spake the word, and the waters became a wall of safety to His servants, and destroyed His enemies. It is this same Wisdom That has brought us on, amidst so many difficulties and dangers, to this day, Which has de- livered us from so many troubles, and doth deliver, in which we trust that It will yet deliver us. It is this Wisdom in Which we trust that we shall be guided on through what yet remains of our journey here, till we 261 Christ our True Wisdom. [Serm. come, some way or other, and how, it matters very little, to our home above. And this Wisdom mightily and sweetly ordereth all things. If any of you have ever seen a large machine like a steam-engine, there are three things which you will have chiefly admired in it. Firstly its wisdom, and secondly, its strength ; but thirdly also, the ease with which it does its work. A child may set it on, a child may stop it ; and yet it has strength beyond what we can conceive : strength to drive great ships, in the face of winds and waves, across the sea ; strength to make engines run on the railways with speed that our fathers could not have believed : you will have seen how this wheel works into that wheel, how this strap runs round that smooth piece of iron, how this cog catches that cog, how pins aud wheels and straps and cogs do exactly the right work, and at exactly the right time : and thus, notwithstanding the seeming noise and confusion, there is order and agreement, most beau- tiful and most wise. In like manner, think of all the angry passions and wicked intentions of men in this world; how this man has set his mind on bringing that to pass, and how that man has determined that just the opposite thing shall be done. Think of the strength of kings, and the wisdom of wise men, and the riches of wealthy men, all pulling, as it were, different ways. Yet, out of this, God is quietly bringing His own Will to pass; He is mightily and sweetly ordering all things ; " the Counsel of the Lord, that shall stand." And this is the lesson for us. He Who so wisely ordered the way of our salvation, He Who so wisely brings to pass whatever He will, has Wisdom enough XLV.] Christ our True Wisdom. 2G5 to know what is best, both for our bodies and souls. Our only wisdom is to trust in His Wisdom, just as our strength is to rely on His Strength. He gives Wisdom to those that seek Him ; Wisdom that cannot be deceived and that cannot deceive. " The fear of the Lord, that is Wisdom, and to depart from evil is un- derstanding. - " God grant us thus to fear Him, and to depart from everything that might displease Him, so that we may welcome the appearing of the Great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, to Whom, with the Father aud the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON XLYI. CHEIST OUR LAWGIVER. (© Sttlonat. December 17. " The Lord is ofb. Lawgiver : He will sate us." — Isa. xxxiii. 22. The Collect about which I shall speak to you this evening, is this : — "O Lord, and ruler of the House of Israel, Who didst appear to Moses in a flame of fire in the bush : and didst give the Law in Sinai : come and deliver us with a stretched out arm." I spoke to you the other night of the Bush that burned with fire, and yet was not consumed, and there- fore I shall not now go over that again. I will rather say something about the other part of the Collect, that Jesus Christ came to be a Lawgiver. He came to give us the new law instead of the old, but He came to give us a Law still. This is what I want you to feci more than anything else : that we have a certain work to do for God here, which if we do, we shall be saved, if we do not, we shall perish. God gives us the strength to do it, but then God expects it to be done. Because He gives us Serm.XLn.] Christ our Lawgiver. 267 the strength, all the glory of our best works belongs to Him only : but because He expects us to do it, of our- selves, and will not force us to do it, whether we will or not, therefore it is that, if we keep His command- ments, we have a right to Heaven. For, if I promise any one of you a reward for doing something, and at the same time give you the means of doing it, then if you do it, though it will be entirely of my kindness, first and last, that you are rewarded, still because I promised it, you will have a right to the reward. Now the first difference betweeu the Law of Christ and the Law of Moses is this. The Law of Moses gave commandments, but gave no power to keep them. The Law of Christ gives commandments also : but then it gives power to fulfil them. The Law of Moses said, Thou shalt do this, Thou shalt not do the other ; but it nowhere said, Because all this is so difficult, so impos- sible for you in your own strength, I will give you a new and better strength, which shall make it possible. But Christ's Law does say this. We become subject to His Law when we are baptized. Then He tells us what to do, and what to leave undone. He commands us to renounce the Devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh : to believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith ; and to keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of our life. But then, when we become bound by this Law, we also have power given us to keep it. He gives us, at that moment, a new heart, and He puts a new spirit within us. He changes us, who by nature were children of the Devil, into children of God. He gives new strength, at the same time that He requires us to use it. 268 Christ our Lawgiver. [Serm. Then again; see how much stricter our Lord's Law is than the Law of Moses was. The Law of Moses only concerned itself about what man did : the Law of Christ has also to do with what he thinks and intends. The Law of Moses says; "Thou shalt do no murder:" the Law of Christ says; "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer." The Law of Moses says ; " Thou shalt not steal :" the Law of Christ says ; " Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven." The Law of Moses says : "Thou shalt not commit adultery :" the Law of Christ says, " Whoso- ever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath com- mitted adultery with her already in his heart." Then again, as I was lately saying, the Law of Moses is a law of fear, the Law of Christ is a law of Love. The Law of Moses threatens punishment to them that break it. Christ promises glorious things to them that keep His commandments. Look all through the books of Moses : you will find no such promise as an inherit- ance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. You will hear nothing of a time when God shall wipe all tears from all faces. You will see no such loving words as these, " That where I am, there ye may be also." Now see how the giving of the Law was a type of this. The Law of Moses was given, as we all know, from Mount Sinai : the Law of Christ was given on the Day of Pentecost, that first Whitsun Day, when the Holy Ghost came down on the Apostles. Now notice, the Law was given from the mountain : the Holy Spirit was given in the upper chamber. At Sinai, it was a God afar off Who uttered His voice amidst thunderings and lightnings and thick darkness, and with a voice of the trumpet that waxed exceeding loud — so that all the XL VI.] Christ our Lawgiver. 269 people in the camp trembled, and so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake : the Israelites were kept off, there were bounds set, which if so much as a beast passed, it should be stoned, or thrust through with a dart : but on the Day of Pente- cost, the Holy Ghost came as it were into the room where the Apostles were : He was with them as a Friend: instead of driving them afar off, He drew them to Himself. And now, what do all these things teach us ? That at this time, while we are looking forward to our Lord's Coming to be our Saviour, born for us, living for us, suffering for us, dying for us, rising again for us, we must not forget that He will come to give us a Law : and that hereafter He will come to judge whether we have kept that Law or not. This it is that makes Ad- vent not only a time of comfort, but a time of fear also : a time of comfort, because unto us shall be born a Sa- viour, Which is Christ the Lord ; but a time of fear, because the Saviour comes to give us a Law, which our own consciences condemn us for not keeping : but for keeping or not keeping which He will come again, not an Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, not with the ox and the ass at His side, not the outcast of a country inn : but in the clouds of Heaven, and in the glory of the Holy Angels, He will come again to judge us. God grant us now so to receive Him as a Saviour, that then we may not fear Him as a judge; for His merit's sake, to Whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON XL VI I. THE ROOT OF JESSE. <© 3&afctr 8tMt. ©cccmurv 18. " Theee shall come fobth a rod out of the stem of Jesse." — ISA. XI. 1. The Collect for to-day is : — " O Root of Jesse, Which standest for a sign of the people, at Whom the kings shall shut their mouths, and to W T hom the Gentiles shall pray : come now and set us free, and no longer tarry." It seems at first sight strange that our Lord should be called the Root of Jesse; Jesse, as you all know, was the father of David ; and therefore from him it was that Christ was descended. So that Jesse was the root whence our Lord came. But the Root of Jesse means that Root, in which Jesse, and all the other holy men of old, put their trust: that Root, which has brought forth the fruit of life and salvation to mankind. Now why is our Lord called a Root ? In the first place, because, as a tree, its branches, its beauty, its fruit, everything, depend entirely on the root, so all that the Church of God does, aud all she is, all that any of us Serm. XLVII.] The Root of Jesse. 271 can do, all oar hopes, all our good deeds, all our faith, all our love, comes from Christ alone, and can no more have any being without Him, than a tree can without its root. Then again, a root, we all know, has no beauty to recommend it : it is dark, ugly, rough, the part of the tree that is least pleasing to the sight. So when our Lord was on earth, He had, as Isaiah says, " no form nor comeliness ; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we shall desire Him." It is not so with His Body now. Now it is glorious and beautiful : but in the days of His dwelling on earth, when He was the Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief, it was very different. The Jews said, " Thou art not yet fifty years old," when, according to the flesh, He was but two and thirty years old : and when even His Blessed Mother had not reached the age of fifty. So much had He suffered, and such marks of suffering did He bear ! Again : a root is that part of a tree which is least seen. So with Christ. Thirty years He dwelt in a carpenter's shop at Nazareth ; and when He came forth and began to teach, still He hid Himself from the crowds, and His great miracles were done in secret ; His friends said, " If Thou do these things, show Thy- self to the world." But the Collect goes on, that Christ is to stand " as a sign to the nations :" and so Isaiah said before. When was this ? When He was lifted up on the Cross, that He might draw all men to Him ; a sign of God's love to mankind ; a sign of God's hatred of sin ; a sign of God's justice, in that He spared not His own Son: a sign to which we are to look and live ; a sign on which we fix all our hopes. And " a sign to the nations," because, by means of the death of Christ, all nations, 272 The Root of Jesse. [Serm. and no longer the Jews only, should be saved. Yes, the Cross on which our Lord was lifted up is the sign of every Christian, reminding us Whose we are, and Whom we serve ; what we must expect, for the ser- vant is not above his Master ; and what will be the end of these troubles and afflictions, namely, victory; for it was while hanging on the Cross, that our Lord con- quered the Devil, and set free mankind from his power. It goes on, " At Whom the kings shall shut their mouths." That is, they shall see Him going forth conquering and to conquer, and shall not be able to re- sist ; they shall, as it were, be dumb. From the begin- ning till now the kings of the earth have stood up, and the rulers have taken counsel together, against the Lord, and against His anointed. They have had all the power and learning and riches and strength of the world on their side; tliey have had fire and sword and wild beasts and tortures of all kinds for the servants of Jesus Christ. And what have they been able to do? The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. Once a great Emperor so nearly destroyed the Church, that he had a medal struck in honour of having brought it to an end : and one or two of these medals have been, by God's good Providence, preserved, to stand an everlasting witness of that king's folly. An- other Emperor bent all his efforts to laugh men out of being Christians; and he succeeded in making a great many turn back to the worship of idols. At last, when he was going out to war, he made a vow, that if he came back, he would utterly put an end to " the Galileans," so he called the Christians. He went forth to battle, and was wounded to death ; and while he was lying on the ground, covered with his blood, he cast some of it XLVIL] The Root of Jesse. 273 towards Heaven, and cried out, as if he were speaking to Jesus Christ, " Thou hast conquered, O Galilean !" We pray at the end of the Collect : " come and deliver us now : tarry not." " Deliver us" — from what? The Jews could not understand this. "We are Abraham's seed," they said, " and were never in bondage to any man." Deliver us from the power of the devil, so that the time may come when we shall be vexed by temptations no more ; from the sinfulness of our own hearts, so that we may no longer have to say, " The good that I would, that I do not, but the evil that I would not, that do I ;" from all fear of after all being cast out of Heaven ; from all pain and suffering on earth ; from all sights of the sufferings of others ; from all the injustice and cruelty which Ave see, and hear, in this world. To be delivered from sin, to be delivered from fear, to be delivered from sorrow ; is not this a glorious deliverance to long for ? — and it is this which the Son of God now comes to bestow on us. He comes, if we are only found willing, to take us to that land where we shall see God without any darkuess, serve Him without any weariness, love Him without any coldness, rejoice in Him without any sorrow, obey Him without any rest ; where all tears shall be wiped from all faces : where the inhabitant shall not say, " I am sick :" "where death shall be swallowed up in victory." And now to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON XLVIII. CHRISTMAS CAROLS. Christmas i\bt£ttx. ©ccemfcer 31. "Jesus Chbist, the same yesterday, and to-day, and fob eyeb." — heb. xiii. 8. The text suits both the Saint's Day and the end of the year. Let us see how it is well fitted for each. You all know that the Creed which we say in the Holy Communion is called the Nicene Creed. It is so named because it was drawn up at a place called Nicaea, where the Bishops of all the Churches had come to- gether, to declare what was the true Faith touching Jesus Christ; whether He were God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, or whether, as some heretics said, and do still say, He were a Man like other men. At the time of this Council S. Silvester, in whose memory we keep to-day, was Bishop of Rome. He was too old to go thither himself; but he sent some of his clergy thither, and they agreed iu his name to what was done. That was one thousand five hundred and twenty- eight years ago. And see now, "Jesus Christ the Serm. LI.] Jesus Christ, the same for ever. 291 same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." I have nothing new to tell you about our Lord; nothing but what those great Saints told of Him in their Creed. It was their Faith, it is our Faith, it is the Faith of the holy Church throughout all the world. If I pretended to teach you anything of Jesus Christ that had never been known before, this very pretence would prove what I said to be false. The true belief can never alter, no, not one jot. There are plenty of those who live around us, as you know, who hold new beliefs. There are the Wesleyans, who hold the belief of one John Wesley, and the Independents, who hold the be- lief of one Robert Brown, and the Quakers, who hold the belief of one George Fox. Before those men were born, their beliefs were never heard of. But we, and God be blessed for it, are not built upon the foundation of Wesley, or Brown, or Fox, but upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the head Corner stone. This Faith that we hold has comforted many Martyrs, in the flames, among wild beasts, on the rack ; it has supported many holy Con- fessors banished into savage countries, and obliged to hide in the dens and caves of the earth. Old men have gone out of the world blessing God that they have known and believed it from their cradles ; children have clung to it, who could not understand many of its words, but who have believed it nevertheless. This indeed is a Faith worth suffering for, — ay, and worth dying for. And the reason is because this Faith is like the Lord of Whom it teaches, " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever:" and so the Faith of Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Well ; and it is a comfort that there is one thing in the world that does not change. I remember when I 292 Jesus Christ, the same for ever. [Serm. was coming back to England last summer one stormy night, when the vessel was rolling this way and that way, and tossing up and down, I watched for a long time the light that shone from a light-house on a dis- tant cape. Everything else was in motion, sea, vessel, masts, sails ; no rest, no quiet, only in that. So it is with us. On one side, the changes and chances of this mortal life; on the other, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." And, of all the changing things, we change the most. Who would now know any of you, if they could see you as when you were children ? And our minds change more than our bodies. See how we get used to things that once we could hardly have believed : railways, for example, and telegraphs, and such like inventions. God has given us all the power of changing with things that change, of suiting ourselves to them. Because they alter, we alter too. But how is this? It is our parts and duties, it is the one great thing for which we ought to try, to be made like our Lord. Now put two texts together. Of Him it is written, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Of us it is said, "And we shall be changed." Yes ; we must have one more great change before the time comes when we shall be changed no more. It will take some time to bring it to pass : for it will begin at our death, and not be made perfect till the morning of the Resurrection. This day two hundred years ago, people were sitting in this place as we are now. Where or how should we find their bodies, if we could open their graves? Probably not the least dust, not a speck of anything to mark that a body had ever mouldered there. Fifty years ago, people were also sitting here. LI.] Jesus Christ, the same for ever. 293 What is become of them? We should find probably the bones which were once covered over with their flesh : nothing more. This day last year, some were sitting among us who are now in the quiet churchyard ; how should we find them ? Job tells us. " I have said to corruption, Thou art my father ; to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister." Thus we have different stages in the one long Change ; but they lead us to the Home where we too shall be the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. And there is a thought for this New Year's Eve ! It is certain that some of us who see the beginning of this year will never see its end. The time that God gives them for their work is running very short; the sand is almost out of the hour-glass : but there is time yet. "The night cometh when no man can work-/'' but as yet it hath not come. " Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever" in this also. If He said when He was on earth, " Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out/' He says it now. If S. Paul, eighteen hun- dred years ago, said of Him, "Wherefore He is able to save unto the uttermost," it is true still. It may be the uttermost with some of you. Try His word. See if He is not able to make it good. " Thy word is tried to the uttermost, and Thy servant loveth it." What would become of us if He changed as we change ? What would become of us, if, entering into the coming year, and not knowing what it will bring forth, we had to wonder whether He would still con- tinue to care for us, to love us, to help us to strive for our salvation, to give us grace, and then to be ready to reward the grace He has given ? If this were so, we should be of all men the most miserable. But now, 294 Jesus Christ, the same for ever. [Serm. LI. though \vc know not what temptations, what sufferings, what dangers, what fears, what struggles this year will bring us, yet one thing we know : lie That will allow us to be tempted, He That will send our sufferings, He That will permit us to fall into dangers, He That will know of our fears, and watch our struggles, " He is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Ten, twenty, fifty years ago, if it were true, " God is our hope and strength, a very present help in trouble," it is true still. If " He is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever," it matters nothing to us what else alters, who else changes, how we ourselves are changed. He said it once, "Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am." He has not changed His mind now. With Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. If only we are His — but then this is the if of all ifs — if only we are His, we need trouble ourselves about nothing further. We may say those words now, while we have health and strength, and think we know a little of their meaning, " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." But we shall know something more of it, when we come to find that we are about to pass into His Presence, when the room grows dark, and the air cold, and we cannot see those around us, and cannot understand what they say, and first begin to have some idea of the Spirits, among whom we are going to dwell. If, as I said, if only we are Christ's, then indeed they will be golden words to us: "My flesh and my heart faileth ;" "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." And now to Him, Who was at this time born for us, be ascribed with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, all honour and glory for ever. Amen. SERMON LIT. CHANGE. Cfie East ^tgfit of tty (©l* fear. " Behold, I show tou a mystery ; we shall not all sleep, but WE SHALL ALL BE CHANGED." — 1 COB. XV. 51. This is a fit text for the last night of a year. When we see everything gliding away past us, everything altering around us, there are two things which we want to be our comfort. The first is, that we shall be changed ourselves; the second is, that we have some One Who cannot change. S. Paul tells us the one thing, " we shall be changed :" Malachi tells us the other, " I am the Lord, I change not." There was once a Queen of England who was vain and foolish enough to take this for her motto : always unchanged. But only think what we should be, if that were true of us ! Think of all the sins we commit, of all our weakness, of all our feeling that when we would do good, evil is present with us : — and then who could bear to believe that this state of things was to last for ever? 296 Change. [Serin. No : I need not tell you that this is a world of grief ; I need not tell you that you might say, as Jacob did, " Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been." You have all known what it was to suffer pain ; to lose friends, some by death, some by misunderstand- ings ; to see bright hopes cut off; to have unkindness where you expected to meet with kindness ; to see chil- dren turn out badly ; to be weary ; to be distressed ; to be in want. So it is, so it must be here. But, "we shall be changed I" No pain in that world where we hope some day to be, for it is written, " The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick." No loss of friends by death, for death can by no means enter in there : no loss of friends by misunderstandings, for " there we shall know even as we are known :" no labour and weariness, for " they rest from their labours :" no ingratitude, for there, " love shall be made perfect/' A change, and a glorious change indeed ! But it is what we, if we are true servants of Christ, are looking forward to : " we shall be changed \" And then again, instead of being obliged to remain as now, always on our guard, always expecting an attack of Satan, always afraid lest our own evil hearts should lead us into sin, we shall know what peace means. No- body ever did, nobody ever will, enter into its full meaning while he is in this world ; " without were fightings, within were fears." Next to the sight of God, that sight which we call the Beatific Vision, and which is joy of which we have no more idea than a blind man has of light, this Peace will, no doubt, be the greatest happiness of heaven. So we learn from the very name, Jerusalem, which is, by interpretation, the Vision of Peace. And this is the reason why we pray LIL] Change. 297 for it every clay of our lives in the second evening Col- lect, " Give unto Thy servants that Peace which the world cannot give." So when we see how much quar- relling there is about us, how often the best persons misunderstand each other, how true that is which David says, "They daily mistake my words :" we may remem- ber for our comfort, that " we shall be changed." And so these bodies of ours, which now so often tempt us to sin, which now grow so easily wearied in God's service, which now require so much time for rest, will be changed also : becoming helps meet for the soul, an assistance and not a hindrance, a fellow-worker and not an enemy. Not a single pain we have now, not a single ache, not a single feeling of fatigue (you ought most of you to know very well what all this means,) but should lead us to say, " we shall be changed !" But who are the we ? Is it every one that shall rise again? In one sense, yes. All shall be changed: all shall have their bodies immortal and incorruptible ; they that have done good shall rise to the Resurrection of Life, they that have done evil, to the Resurrection of damnation. But the change we are speaking of, the change from sin to holiness, from weariness to perfect strength, from misery to happiness, — who are the we that shall have that? Is it all of us here? And I am afraid that many of us would say, if they spoke the truth, " I have no wish to be changed, I am satisfied as it is, I want nothing beyond the pleasures that I have, only more of them." Nevertheless it is written, "we shall be changed." They must also. Changed in their souls; all that was here in the image and likeness of God gradually destroyed in them, every evil passion made perfectly 298 Change. [Serm. evil till their own hearts became a hell as well as the hell about them. And their bodies also made strong, made immortal, also never more to grow weary ; but why ? In order that they may be able to bear the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched. *|C 5jC 5j* a" *7v Changed we all have been once in Holy Baptism — changed from the children of the Devil to the children of God, changed from being heirs of wrath to be heirs of everlasting life, changed from being subjects of the Devil to having Christ for our King. But since then we have fallen into sin little by little ; and therefore those, who are now resolved in earnest to fight the good fight of faith, must also be changed day by day. Our Lord said, the seed should spring and grow up, the sower knoweth not how. So it is with most true Chris- tians; little by little they find that they take more pleasure in prayer, they find that when they have sinned they grieve more, they find that they know and feel that they love our Lord Jesus Christ more. It is like the hour hand of a watch, no man can see it move, but let it alone for a little time, and every one will see that it has moved. So with them, by one little step after another, by one little victory after another, they are really making progress : they have been changed : they are changing: they look forward to being more perfectly and fnore blessedly changed. But not all alike. Those that have done most for God here shall receive the greatest reward there. " One star differeth from another star in glory, so also is the Resurrection of the dead." Those that have dedi- cated themselves most fully to His service on earth, shall enter most gloriously into His rest in Heaven. LIL] Change. 299 There is not one single effort we make for His sake which is not written there. If we change. He changes not. He saith of Himself, "I am the Lord, I change not/' He saith again, " Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." " Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may be one as "We are one." " I am the good Shepherd, and know My sheep and am known of Mine." " Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." All our changes here, if we are Christ's true ser- vants, make us more like Him. J. MASTERS AND CO., PBINTERS, ALBION BUILDINGS, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE. April, 1882. NEW BOOKS, AND NEW EDITIONS, PUBLISHED BY J. MASTEES & Co., 78, NEW BOND ST., LONDON. New Volume of Sermons by the Rev. T. T. Carter. PARISH TEACHINGS. The Apostles' Creed and Sacraments. By the Rev. T. T. Carter, M. A., (late Rector of Clewer,) Hon. Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, and Warden of the House of Mercy, Clewer. Crown 8vo., cloth, 4s. 6d. THE COPTIC MORNING SERVICE FOR THE LORD'S DAY. Translated into English by John, Marquess of Bute, K.T. With the Original Coptic of those parts said aloud. Crown 8vo., cloth, 6s. MEDITATIONS ON THE DIVINE LIFE AND THE BLESSED SACRAMENT, together with Considerations on the Transfiguration. By the Rev. G. S. 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"This truly valuable and remarkable Commentary is a work which stands almost, if not entirely, alnne in the theology of Eng- land ; and mie to which ice may fairly chal- lenge Christendom at large to produce any- thing precisely corresponding. It will be found by those who have any taste at all for such studies a rich and valuable mine to which they may again and again recur without running the slightest risk of dig- ging out the contents too hastily."— Guardian. " This Commentary is both theologically and devotionally an immense advance upon any commentary upon any portion of Holy Scripture — not even excepting Dr. Pusey's Minor Prophets — which has yet been writ- ten. 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