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FROM 
 
 CALEB DAVIS BRADLEE, 
 
 LOCK BOX NO. 33, 
 
 STATION A, 
 BOSTON, MASS. 
 
SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 BY 
 
 CALEB DAVIS BRADLEE, D.D. 
 
 PASTOR (PRO TEM.) OF CHRIST'S CHURCH, LONGWOOD 
 
 UBIVBKSIT7 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 GEO. H. ELLIS, 141 FRANKLIN STREET 
 1893 
 
7 
 
 COPYRIGHT 
 
 Bv GEO. H. ELLIS 
 1893 
 
 OEO. H. ELLIS, PRINTER, 141 FRANKLIN ST., BOSTON. 
 
To MY FRIEND OF MANY YEARS 
 
 THE HONORABLE AND JUDGE FREDERICK W. RICORD 
 
 OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IN 1888 I gave to the public a volume of sermons, en- 
 titled " Sermons for All Sects." 
 
 This book was so kindly received, I have ventured to 
 make another offering to those who may choose to accept 
 the same. I have selected the title " Sermons for the 
 Church," because I wish to speak to all of every church 
 who are disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 CALEB DAVIS BRADLEE. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1. HOLY GROUND, 9 
 
 " Put off thy shoes from thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is 
 holy ground." ACTS vh. 33. 
 
 2. OUR MOTHERS, 21 
 
 "There stood by the cross of Jesus his mother." ST. JOHN xix. 25. 
 
 3. OUR MANSIONS IN HEAVEN, 34 
 
 " In my Father's house are many mansions." ST. JOHN xiv. 2. 
 
 4. MORDECAI SITTING AT THE KING'S GATE, 46 
 
 " All this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai, the Jew, sitting at 
 the king's gate." ESTHER v. 13. 
 
 5. NEW THINGS, 56 
 
 " Some new thing." ACTS xvii. 21. 
 
 6. CAN GOD BE DISCOVERED? 67 
 
 " Canst thou by searching find out God? " JOB xi. 7. 
 
 7. THE FATAL SUBSTITUTE, 77 
 
 " Send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send." Ex. iv. 13. 
 
 8. ILLUSIONS, 87 
 
 " What is your life ? A vapor ? " ST. JAMBS iv. 14. 
 
 9. THE CORONATION OF FAILURE, 97 
 
 "Thou shalt not go over." DKUT. xxxiv. 4. 
 
 10. DISCONTENT, 109 
 
 " Oh that I had wings like a dove ! " Ps. Iv. 6. 
 
 11. LOOKING TO THE FUTURE 120 
 
 " I will fetch my knowledge from afar." JOB xxxvi. 3. 
 
8 CONTENTS 
 
 PACK 
 
 12. TRANSIENT SIGHT OF GOD, 129 
 
 " How little a portion is heard of him !" JOB xxvi. 14. 
 
 13. TRUE CHRISTIANS, 137 
 
 "One fold, one shepherd.*' ST. JOHN x. 16. 
 
 14. THE EXCLUSIVE SPIRIT, 149 
 
 " No room for them in the inn." ST. LUKE ii. 7. 
 
 15. THE GLORY OF NAZARETH 158 
 
 " Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth ? " ST. JOHN i. 46. 
 
 16. THE WEDDING GARMENT, 169 
 
 "Friend, how earnest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment?" 
 ST. MATT. xxii. 12. 
 
 17. THE OMNIPRESENCE OF THE ALMIGHTY, 181 
 
 " Not far from every one of us." ACTS xvii. 27. 
 
 18. THE SOUL'S WEIGHT, 190 
 
 " Thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting." DAN. v. 27. 
 
 19. THE CHRISTIAN MARK, 202 
 
 " They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." ACTS iv. 13. 
 
 20. THE GRACE OF GOD, 212 
 
 " By the grace of God, I am what I am." i COR. xv. 10. 
 
 21. PLEASANT WORDS, 222 
 
 " Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul." PROV. xvi. 24. 
 
 22. SPIRITUAL CLIMBING, 232 
 
 " O God, set me up on high.' 1 Ps. Ixix. 29. 
 
 23. THE COMMANDS OF GOD, 243 
 
 "Thus saith the Lord." Ex. xi. 4. 
 
 24. THE BREVITY OF LIFE, 256 
 
 " Knoweth that he hath but a short time." REV. xii. 12. 
 
 25. A POSTPONED CONCLUSION, 267 
 
 " But the end is not yet." ST. MATT. xxiv. 6. 
 
i. 
 
 HOLY GROUND. 
 
 " Put off thy shoes from thy feet ; for the place whereon thou stand- 
 cst is holy ground." ACTS vil 33 
 
 LET us never forget, and let us always keep the 
 fact in our minds, as a sparkling, uplifting, 
 and celestial truth, that every place where we stand is 
 "holy ground." Let us never rest patiently with that 
 easy and wicked creed which, while allowing that 
 some places are sacred, tacitly admits that there are 
 other places where we all can do as we please. No: 
 we can never get away from the sight of God, and we 
 can never escape out of the region of duty. 
 
 The temple is holy; and so is the house, the street, 
 the place of business, and every spot upon the earth. 
 
 Of course, certain localities and certain buildings, 
 from the very fact of being especially dedicated to 
 religion, obtain an additional sanctity, and stand out 
 prominently as worthy of our deepest veneration. It 
 would be but a poor philosophy in us, however, to say 
 that, because some things are especially sacred, that 
 all other things are profane. Everywhere the ground 
 is holy, and in all places we must put off the shoes of 
 anything and everything that may be flavored with 
 weakness and wrong. All the world is the audience- 
 

 10 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 chamber of Heaven ; and we are living in a vast whis- 
 pering-gallery, so that every breath is reported at the 
 throne of Almighty God. 
 
 Yes, the world is all holy ground. Certainly, 
 there is sin enough in it, sorrow enough in it, and 
 mystery enough about it, to make us think at times 
 but very little about its sacredness, nay, enough to 
 turn our eyes entirely another way, ay, almost 
 enough to arouse our scepticism, to stir up our misan- 
 thropy, and to bury us in the deepest gloom. But 
 is there not also a great deal of glory that can be 
 detected if one will only turn the eyes the right way? 
 Are we obliged always to look on the dark side, and is 
 it wise to endeavor to put out the sun? Look with 
 me, if you please, at the holy side of life. It is holy 
 because of the power of friendship that it offers. 
 There is such a thing as true friendship; and it runs 
 its blessed trails of light all along the relationships 
 of life, being found often in its most benignant form 
 in husband and wife, in parent and child, in brother 
 and sister, in neighbor with neighbor, and in friend 
 with friend. I am aware that there are some philoso- 
 phers who will sneer at such remarks as these. 
 
 There are some who believe that all the people in 
 the world are actuated by selfishness, who confidently 
 assert that there is no higher motive ruling all hearts 
 than self-seeking; but they are wofully mistaken! I 
 do not doubt that in their own souls they are prom- 
 inent illustrations of what they assert; but they 
 should not attempt to measure all humanity from 
 
HOLY GROUND II 
 
 their own shrivelled, dilapidated, and empty stand- 
 point. Tell me, O philosopher, is the wife selfish, 
 as she watches her sick husband day after day, night 
 after night, and week after week, until the roses fade 
 from her cheek, the strength creeps from her limbs, 
 and she herself falls into stillness, as the one for 
 whom she cared gets well? I have known such a 
 case. Is the mother selfish who gives up everything 
 for her child, yet is so very self-forgetful as never to 
 call it giving up? Such occurrences are very com- 
 mon. Ah! all around us, daily and hourly, are plenty 
 of stirring examples of disinterested love, filling the 
 air with a delicious aroma, and consecrating the 
 ground where they occur. 
 
 Only with the right mind and the willing heart 
 let us take a good look on the bright side of life, and 
 we shall be satisfied that all souls are not soaked in 
 a pitiable selfishness. Again, life is holy because 
 it is a field of usefulness. There are always plenty 
 of noble deeds waiting for our fellowship, and oppor- 
 tunities are constantly occurring by which we can do 
 vast good. Never a day rolls by when we cannot, if 
 we will, make our influence fragrant, touching, and 
 beautiful. It is done by a smile, by a tear, by a 
 shake of the hand, by a cup of cold water, by a ge- 
 nial word, and by almost anything that leaps hot from 
 a loving heart upon a waiting, anxious, and hungry 
 soul. All of us can, if we will, become spiritually 
 great. Spiritual diamonds, pearls, rubies, and all 
 sorts of precious gems are profusely scattered from 
 
12 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 Heaven at our feet; while, if we are only clothed 
 with a blessed, a glorious, and a happy insight, we 
 can very easily stoop down and pick them up. 
 
 When we come to die, how sacred will be the ret- 
 rospect, if we find that all our earthly pilgrimage is 
 thoroughly perfumed with benefactions, and if we 
 discover that we have passed our days as fountains of 
 refreshment to all within our possible reach! Then 
 the last breath will be sweet, the cold perspiration 
 gathering upon the brow will be a sparkling constel- 
 lation of glory, and the ascending spirit will be 
 engirdled by a guard of rejoicing angels. 
 
 Again, life is holy because of the spiritual privi- 
 leges with which it is enshrined. I am aware that 
 there are not many who stop to think of this. I know 
 that many of those who do think of it and acknowl- 
 edge it dwell upon the fact but briefly. Yet, my 
 friends, can anything be more sublime than this 
 bounty of God, by which all men have souls, and 
 souls, too, that can grow? Is it nothing that we can 
 think, feel, and speak? Is it nothing that we can 
 understand the names of God and Christ, and that we 
 can realize the great truth of immortality? It appears 
 to me that the very fact that we can worship, that 
 we can anoint time with the grandeur of prayer, bathe 
 it with the sobs of penitence, and swathe it with 
 good resolutions, this very fact is itself peculiarly 
 sublime, strangely comforting, and sweetly sacred. 
 
 Tell me is not everything here on earth very 
 solemn, when we consider that our stay here is so 
 
HOLY GROUND 13 
 
 short, that events are so uncertain, and that every- 
 thing is so prophetic? We are swimming on a sea 
 of immense possibilities; and is not every ripple on 
 its surface full of mighty suggestions that are preg- 
 nant with grandeur? Take a reverent view of the 
 space that must be traversed, of the billows that must 
 be mastered, and of everything that occurs on the 
 voyage of life. Keep on the watch all the time for 
 that which will stir the heart to gratitude, rouse it to 
 devout wonder, and thrill it with holy joy. Travel 
 with open eyes and listening ears, that all the time 
 inspiration may salute the soul, making salvation 
 sure. 
 
 Yes, even our temptations and pains, rightly 
 viewed and righteously treated, may prove to us not 
 a hindrance, but a gain, and may enable us to make 
 the ground holy. Are not temptations resisted and 
 pains nobly endured a splendid and an inspiriting 
 sight? If you see a man or a woman, all covered 
 over with enticements to do wrong, and solicited by 
 every art of persuasion, yet standing firm, calm, and 
 persistently pure, without a scar, and without a stain, 
 perfectly clean, does not earth then appear to you 
 something more than common, and is it not anointed 
 with a gorgeous transfiguration, and do you not feel 
 somehow consecrated by the beautiful sight? You 
 see, too, a man or a woman bearing suffering pa- 
 tiently, keeping very radiant, very serene, and full 
 of a vital hope, overflowing with buoyant trust, 
 thanking God even for stripes, and christening blows 
 
14 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 with a sweet submission, as gifts disguised : does not 
 then all about them and all near to them seem holy? 
 Have they not anointed their very neighborhood with 
 a celestial fragrance? Are they not so many way- 
 marks set up upon the earth to prove to us all that 
 heaven is not far away, nor the road thither blocked 
 up? 
 
 Of old it was promised that five good people should 
 save Sodom. Are there not a much larger number 
 than this who will save and spiritualize us to-day? 
 "Put off thy shoes." This was the command of old, 
 because the place was consecrated, and it was not 
 meant that anything rough should contaminate it; 
 and it has a meaning and a warning for us this day. 
 It means that we must give up our loose ideas of life 
 as a game of chance, or as a spasm of mere pleasure, 
 or as a prison-house of despair. We must not look at 
 existence with sceptical and misanthropic eyes, as if 
 there were no hope, no sanctity, and no brilliancy 
 about it. We must stand within the vast cathedral of 
 life with an august spirit of true veneration. We 
 must hear its magnificent vesper services, as they 
 sweep upon the air with tremendous power and with 
 thrilling melody. 
 
 We must listen to its great organ, the greatest 
 that was ever built, with its wonderful vox humana 
 stop, that can give us every tone ever known: then 
 we shall become enraptured with the music as it is 
 echoed to remotest space. Heaven's choirs are all 
 around us, and they are chanting all the time. Can 
 
HOLY GROUND 15 
 
 we not hear them, or are we so deaf that nothing but 
 the resurrection trump will cause us to listen? Oh, 
 let us open our ears, put off every obstruction, culti- 
 vate a spirit of devotion, encourage the feeling of 
 submission, stir up the exhilarating influences of 
 hope, understand our mighty privileges, be swathed 
 with a consciousness of our awful responsibilities, 
 and be dazzled, bewildered, and sanctified by the 
 majestic thought of our future possible glory! 
 
 Life is very much what we make it; and let us 
 make it sublime, let us lift its valleys into hills, 
 change its hills to mountains, and raise its mountains 
 into heaven, keeping ourselves ever upon the summit ! 
 Why need we ever get tame, discouraged, morose, and 
 sinful? Why need we ever surround ourselves with 
 marshy land, living in the morass, and being con- 
 tented with swamps? Certainly, there is something 
 better for us all than such things. 
 
 "Holy ground." Of course, all the land about 
 Palestine we are quite ready to call holy ground. 
 We all have a great desire to see the sacred places 
 there; and a large majority of us, if we had the means 
 and the time, would start for the East at once, would 
 make a long stay, and would return home with many 
 precious suggestive and holy relics. Who would 
 not like a quiet sail on the Sea of Tiberias? Who 
 would not wish to stand on the Mount of Transfigura- 
 tion? Who would not be pleased to sleep one night 
 in the Garden of Gethsemane? Would it not be 
 pleasant to walk through Bethlehem, and to search out 
 
10 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 all the familiar spots at Nazareth, and to tarry at 
 Jerusalem awhile? Ah! these names, and others 
 equally precious, call up many fragrant thoughts! 
 
 We feel that by the great privilege of travel we 
 could bring Jesus near; while we are apt to consider 
 that that distant land is, in a peculiar sense, very 
 holy. But, my friends, to-day, if we will, Jesus can 
 be brought very near to us; and to-day all the ground 
 around us may be rendered sacred by his holy tread. 
 We may have a Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem, and 
 everything we want in our own hearts. We should 
 become so closely allied to our Master that all Script- 
 ural history may be somewhat enacted in our own 
 experience; and then, and not till then, will the mis- 
 sion of our Lord Jesus Christ be fully carried out. 
 
 Do we talk about going to the Holy Land? Why, 
 we are not fit to go there till we have become holy our- 
 selves. The Crusaders years ago would have accom- 
 plished something if every man in their ranks had 
 been really a disciple. If Peter the Hermit had also 
 been Peter the saint, the visit to Jerusalem would 
 have been with power, while now we should not find 
 unbelievers guarding the sacred city. Reverence for 
 localities is a good thing, but reverence for our own 
 souls is a much better trait of character. Oh, let us 
 not abate one jot nor one tittle our veneration for any 
 spot that reminds us of heaven! Yet, at the same 
 time, let us have everywhere and in all emergencies 
 the "kingdom of heaven" within us, so that our good- 
 ness may shine more and more unto the perfect day. 
 
HOLY GROUND 17 
 
 Let Sunday always be kept by us in solemn regard, 
 and the services in the sanctuary be constantly ac- 
 knowledged; and let us look at the Bible as at no 
 other book, and fulfil thoroughly all the rites of relig- 
 ion! But may we remember, also, that every day 
 must be a day of worship, and that our hourly duties 
 must be transfigured by a light from the celestial city. 
 "The place where thou standest is holy ground." 
 "Where thou standest." That is, everyplace where 
 you are. There is an ancient legend something like 
 this: A mighty giant wanted to find a power that 
 was greater than his own, in order that he might 
 change his habits of life, and from a ruler become a 
 servant ; and so he went to a king who was noted for 
 his bravery, and he thought that he had found one 
 unto whom he might with dignity submit. For a 
 long while all things went smoothly; and the giant 
 did mighty work for his master, both in peace and 
 war and in sorrow and mirth, until one day the king 
 was thrown into terrible fear by hearing a minstrel 
 utter the name of "Satan." Then said the giant, "If 
 k Satan ' be so great, he shall be my next ruler " ; but, 
 after serving him for a long time, they both happened 
 to see a Cross, when the evil one trembled, and said: 
 
 ""Twas there Christ Jesus died; 
 
 Wherever stands a cross like that, 
 I may not, dare not, bide.' 
 ' Ho, ho,' the giant cried again, 
 
 Surprised again, perplexed, 
 ' Then Jesus is the greatest king : 
 
 I seek and serve him next.'" 
 
l8 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 So the restless one goes around the earth to find 
 Jesus, and at last comes to a hermit's cell, who 
 directs him to fast and pray, and then he tells him he 
 will find what he desires. But these directions, after 
 a short time, were not pleasant to the seeker, so the 
 hermit says to him (and I will give the words in the 
 poetical garb of an unknown writer from whom I have 
 already quoted) : 
 
 " Then said the hermit, * Giant, since 
 
 Thou canst not fast nor pray, 
 I know not if our Master will 
 
 Serve thee some other way. 
 But go down to yon river deep, 
 
 Where pilgrims daily sink, 
 And build for thee a little hut, 
 
 Close on the river's brink, 
 And carry travellers back and forth 
 
 Across the raging stream. 
 Perchance this service to our King 
 
 A worthy one will seem.' 
 For many a year, in lowly hut, 
 
 The giant dwelt content 
 Upon the bank, and back and forth 
 
 Across the stream he went, 
 And on his giant shoulders bore 
 
 All travellers who came 
 By night, by day, or rich or poor, 
 
 All in King Jesus' name : 
 But much he doubted if the King 
 
 His work would note or know, 
 And often with a weary heart 
 
 He waded to and fro. 
 One night, as wrapped in sleep he lay, 
 
 He sudden heard a call, 
 
HOLY GROUND 19 
 
 * O mighty giant, come carry me ! ' 
 Down on the bank a little child 
 
 He found, a piteous sight, 
 Who, weeping, earnestly implored 
 
 To cross that very night. 
 With gruff good will he picked him up, 
 
 And on his neck to ride 
 He tossed him, as men play with babes, 
 
 And plunged into the tide ; 
 But, as the water closed around 
 
 His knees, the infant's weight 
 Grew heavier and heavier 
 
 Until it was so great 
 The giant scarce could stand upright, 
 
 His staff shook in his hand, 
 His mighty knees bent under him, 
 
 He barely reached the land, 
 And, staggering, set the infant down, 
 
 And turned to scan his face, 
 When, lo ! he saw a halo bright, 
 
 Which lit up all the place ; 
 And then the giant fell down, afraid 
 
 At marvel of the thing, 
 And dreamed not that it was the face 
 
 Of Jesus Christ, his King, 
 Until the infant spoke and said, 
 
 * O mighty one, behold ! 
 I am the Lord, whom thou hast served : 
 
 Rise up, be glad, and bold.' " 
 
 This legend strikingly teaches us that, when we do 
 our duty, we are on holy ground, that service to our 
 fellow-creatures illuminates and sanctifies every spot 
 that we tread, and that even the cup of cold water 
 given in the name of a disciple changes earth to 
 heaven. 
 
20 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 "Put off thy shoes." We all know what it is that 
 we have to put off before we are fit to stand where we 
 are. The weakness is different with each one of us, 
 but very powerful with all of us. A great deal 
 depends upon our education, our habits, our circum- 
 stances, our transmitted tendencies, and our vacillat- 
 ing or toughened will. But, whether our sin be little 
 or great, be natural or inherited, be tightly hold of 
 us or joined to the soul by a frail thread, we must 
 resolutely, believingly, and thoroughly piit it off. 
 Let there be no compromise, no dallying, no soft 
 words, and no murmured excuses! Let us put it off 
 with a toss or with a wrench, no matter which, as 
 long as it goes : then each of us can stand up a man 
 or a woman or a child on consecrated ground! 
 
 Then we shall be all ready to stand up without 
 trembling, as the trumpet shall call us into the New 
 Jerusalem, where we shall never regret any sacrifice 
 that we have made by which the heart became better 
 and by which the whole inner life was transfigured. 
 
 So doing, our welcome will be very sure, comfort- 
 ing, and hearty. 
 
II. 
 
 OUR MOTHERS. 
 
 " There stood by the cross of Jesus his mother." ST. JOHN xix. 25. 
 
 WHO better could be selected as the witness of 
 that last terrible agony than the Master's 
 mother? At such an hour he needed one who was so 
 very near and so very dear. Yet would it not have 
 been better, had she kept away? How could she en- 
 dure such a sight ? It was her son that was covered 
 with such a temporary shame and filled with such 
 awful pangs. You know, in the engraving that repre- 
 sents the scene, she is supported from almost the 
 faintness of death by some of the other female dis- 
 ciples. Poor woman! Her heart was broken, as well 
 it might be, under such a load as that. Why was she 
 there? Mary, I do you dishonor by such a question! 
 Mothers of the race, I impeach your devotion by the 
 mere supposition of her absence! Where else could 
 that gentle parent be than where the loved one was 
 pouring out his life? Keep away? That was not 
 possible. She must look on, although the nerves 
 snap, one by one, while numbness creeps silently over 
 the whole frame. She must be present, although 
 every nail driven breaks a cord of the heart, and al- 
 though she be worse than crucified herself by the sight 
 
22 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 of the torture. As we carry ourselves back and stand 
 at the cross, we involuntarily cry out, " God pity and 
 help that mother!" 
 
 I would speak to-day of our mothers, Heaven bless 
 them! If they are faithful, their names are wreathed 
 around the soul, and are written in bright and glorious 
 letters in the Book of God. The nearest friend that 
 we have on earth and in heaven, God and Christ, of 
 course, being excepted, is our mother. I speak this 
 with caution, and out of a solemn conviction. I know 
 that there is another relation, tender, true, sacred, 
 close, and beautiful; but no other tie can wipe out nor 
 tarnish in the least nor remove one iota the obligations 
 of our birth, while he or she who, because they are mar- 
 ried, forget the head of their early home, must sooner 
 or later pay a heavy penalty for the sin. Of course, the 
 relations of a man or a woman to their early home 
 alter with each advancing year, beginning at first 
 with implicit obedience, and then growing into re- 
 spect, affection, and service. Among true Christians 
 there will be no clashing of interests, since both sides 
 and all sides will readily understand their respective 
 positions, and will claim no more than their due share 
 of attention, while the name "mother-in-law" will 
 cease to be repulsive. I claim, then, for the first 
 place in your heart your mother, first, because 
 placed there first, because she has sacrificed so much in 
 order to earn that position, and because you your- 
 selves wish to secure just that stand in the affection 
 of your own children. I say that she has earned the 
 
OUR MOTHERS 23 
 
 right of the highest place in your regard, and I chal- 
 lenge a denial ! How many sleepless nights and anx- 
 ious days she has undergone for our sakes! How 
 readily she has sacrificed all social pleasures that the 
 little ones in the house might not be neglected! 
 How nimbly her fingers have worked, in order that she 
 might obtain the necessary clothing for each season, 
 as it rapidly rolled around! 
 
 How patiently she has watched the growing child, 
 gazing intently at each look and each movement, and 
 examining each tone and each breath, in order to 
 ascertain if all things run smoothly and well ! How 
 frequently she has retired to her chamber that she 
 might quietly pray for the lambs, thus gaining the 
 right spirit, by the power of which she could properly 
 train their young souls ! How careful she has been 
 of her own expenses, so as to have a large margin by 
 which she may get comforts for the little ones, such 
 as she feels they so much need! How kindly she 
 listens to all the trials that come up, yielding her 
 smiles or her tears or her gentle rebukes, as occasion 
 requires! How often she overlooks a great deal be- 
 cause she knows that it is not worth while to be all 
 the time finding fault, and because she is wise enough 
 to understand that a great deal of naughtiness is 
 simply an excess of animal life, which must not be 
 tamed too much ! What constant lessons she gives of 
 carefulness, politeness, honesty, good nature, and re- 
 ligion! She has taught the children how to pray; 
 and often, too, she has prayed with them. She has 
 
24 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 become acquainted with all the teachers of her dear 
 ones, showing an interest both in their Sunday and 
 secular instruction. She has made herself acquainted 
 with all the companions and playmates of the house- 
 hold, weeding out such as were unworthy. 
 
 As the boys or girls have come forward into man- 
 hood or womanhood, she has stood by them as coun- 
 sellor and friend; and, when they have married, she 
 has welcomed the new comer for their sakes, writing 
 his or her name upon her heart, that most difficult 
 task of all. So on, through all their changes, she 
 has stood sentinel, until at last, her work done, God 
 calls her away; and then the memory of her is fra- 
 grant from generation to generation, as her children 
 and her children's children rise up and call her 
 blessed. 
 
 Of course, sisters in Christ, I have spoken of the 
 good mother, such as I hope you have all possessed, 
 and such as I hope that every one who is named 
 mother will become. Let me now address myself to 
 mothers, with some suggestions and recapitulations of 
 their duties. First, think of the responsible office 
 that you fill. We hear every day of "woman's 
 rights" ; and they have rights such as they do not now 
 possess, and such as they will in time receive, and 
 may God hasten the blessed day! But I know of no 
 rights more grand, more lofty, more sacred, more sub- 
 lime, more far-reaching, more deep, more rich, and 
 more eternal than the right, the privilege, and the 
 glory of educating souls. You want to step into the 
 
OUR MOTHERS 25 
 
 pulpit, you want to plead at the bar, you want to offi- 
 ciate in surgery, and you want to be merchants. 
 Well, let such as are able go that way; but you may 
 be all these, and yet not step out of the beautiful pri- 
 vacy of your own homes. 
 
 Train up your sons, by nature or by adoption, to 
 walk in these ways, and then will you move the world. 
 Ay, you do move the world; and what more do you 
 want ? It is your mind and your heart that are writ- 
 ten on the brows and the lips of every orator, every 
 statesman, every scholar, and every great man that 
 ever lived. 
 
 Think, then, as you deal with the children, of the 
 majestic power that rests in your hands! You are 
 touching the keys of the world's great organ, while 
 you must do so, as a spiritual artist, so that the music 
 shall be very sweet, uplifting, and pure. Again, 
 remember that these souls are not only to play their 
 little part in this earthly kingdom that is so transi- 
 tory, but bear in mind that they are to last forever, 
 and remember they are to become citizens of the 
 spirit-world. Then will you not only teach them 
 lessons of worldly prudence, such as courtesy, for- 
 bearance, generosity, studiousness, carefulness, so- 
 briety, activity, and tact, but also will you add 
 instruction concerning God, Christ, and eternity, 
 with the obligations of every human being in refer- 
 ence to these great realities. I like to insist upon 
 this point, because there are so many who think it 
 but of little account, and so many, too, who neglect it 
 
26 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 altogether. You know how apt many are to commend 
 success rather than character, brightness rather than 
 goodness, politeness rather than purity, shrewdness 
 rather than philanthropy, intellect rather than heart, 
 and caution rather than honesty. How many say, 
 Make a great man or woman, make a brilliant match, 
 aim at an enviable notoriety, strive to be clothed in 
 purple and fine linen, and endeavor by all means to 
 enter the first circles, instead of saying, First of all 
 be true, be pure, and be holy : then, if prosperity be 
 yours, very well, and, if not, quite as well! Keep 
 a clear conscience, and then leave results. 
 
 As your children enter into the marriage state, be 
 resolved that their partners shall respect and love 
 you, whether they wish to do so or not, and make it 
 a certain thing that your gentleness shall thaw their 
 icy hearts, although they may be frozen all up into 
 solid lumps. If it takes years to bring about what 
 you wish, still work on, in faith, love, and prayer; 
 for the thaw will surely come. I have seen case after 
 case where both parties mother-in-law and daugh- 
 ter-in-law were excellent people, ay, in many 
 cases, superior people, but where, by some strange 
 coincidence, a terrible clashing has come. The fault 
 is often wholly on one side, but perhaps more often 
 on both sides. Of course, there must be a great deal 
 of giving up, while one side must give up a great 
 deal more than the other. The trial is certainly 
 greater to you, mothers. You have brought up your 
 sons or your daughters in a way that you deemed just 
 
OUR MOTHERS 27 
 
 and right : you have educated them to the best of your 
 ability, and certain habits you have taught them that 
 have appeared to you proper, equitable, respectful, 
 and holy. Now another party steps into your place, 
 who is very apt to call in question your whole man- 
 agement, and perhaps is quite apt to say that your 
 tuition has been a failure simply because that other 
 party was brought up in a different way. 
 
 Well, how can it be helped? When you were mar- 
 ried, you probably did the same thing, although you 
 have now forgotten it, or, if you did not say anything, 
 you undoubtedly kept up a tremendous amount of 
 thinking; or, if you are wholly innocent either of 
 speaking or thinking such unpleasant things, then 
 you are just that sort of person who deserves to have 
 the praise and the admiration of all the holy on the 
 earth and in heaven ! Try in every way to keep down 
 this friction that is so unpleasant; and, if the other 
 side will not pour their oil into the rough places, 
 then take a good supply out of the canister of your 
 own soul, and throw it on, and keep throwing it on, 
 until the wheels all work smoothly and gracefully. 
 Then will you have gained, instead of losing, a child. 
 I know that I am asking a great deal of you ; but it is 
 my duty in this, as in every case, to take the highest 
 Christian standpoint, and to urge you up to the very 
 topmost peak of righteousness. If you cannot reach 
 the summit, go as far as you can. Never put an end 
 to your acts of kindness to your children because they 
 have gone away and have found another home. Let 
 
28 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 them know that the old ark is always open for their 
 visits, and for the coming of all who are dear to them. 
 Bless them often by gifts of your own handiwork. 
 You know best of all what they most need and like. 
 Surprise them often with little comforts, with delica- 
 cies for the table, and with some article of clothing 
 not easily purchased. Many a man and many a 
 woman will show you with pride anything that their 
 mother made. Everything that comes from the early 
 home is worth twice as much from that very fact. Do 
 not cease to pray for your offspring because you no 
 longer kneel at their side and no longer hold their 
 little hands. Pray for them? Yes, they need it all 
 the more now that they are away from your fostering 
 care. For often the clouds lower and the thunder 
 rattles and the lightning gleams, while life itself is 
 wreathed in darkness. Your prayers will give them 
 courage, hope, peace, faith, and joy; and then they 
 can stand up to their post with a holy serenity and 
 with a lofty enthusiasm. They can stand there with- 
 out a tear and without a frown, when they know 
 that they are gloriously panoplied by your daily 
 intercessions. 
 
 If, in the course of Providence, you are called to 
 survive those who by the course of nature would seem 
 to be ordained as your survivors, provided it be possi- 
 ble, be with them when they die. Then no face will 
 they crave so much as yours. They will want your 
 last kiss and the pressure of your hand, as they ascend 
 to God. If you are not present at such a time, they 
 
OUR MOTHERS 29 
 
 will go away into the new country very lonely. You 
 have been so closely connected with them from their 
 birth that, as they are about to enter the new birth, 
 they will want your holy encouragement and your 
 beautiful benediction. Keep your departed children 
 ever green in your memories. Do not strive, as some 
 do, to drive the thought of them away, as an intrusion 
 and as an affliction. 
 
 I would not have you mourn all the time, wearing a 
 gloomy look and acting as if you did not believe in 
 the other and the better life. No, never. But let the 
 departed somehow be around you and with you, as 
 "guardian angels," if you will, so that all loneliness 
 shall be gone, so that somehow, in a new and in a 
 very bright sense, on this side, the dead shall be 
 alive. Thus will your influence over those who re- 
 main become more sweet, and thus will your example 
 over all that you know be made powerful for good. 
 
 Sisters in Christ, are you good mothers? There is 
 a great deal of discussion to-day about family govern- 
 ment. "Young America," it is said, is running 
 away with us. The order of many homes is anything 
 but what it should be. Parents and children have 
 sometimes changed places, while the sceptre is 
 wielded by tiny hands. "Woe unto a nation whose 
 king is a child!" Woe unto the house whose mon- 
 arch is a boy or a girl ! 
 
 How is it, my friends, with us? Do we find it 
 very hard to say no? Has it become a very easy and 
 a very fatal habit with us, in order that we may save 
 
30 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 ourselves from annoyance, to say yes to every whim 
 of the children? If such be the case, then the future 
 is indeed dark for us, while we have good reason for 
 dreading an earthquake in our own dominions. Of 
 course, we must say yes a great many times, and some 
 of us much more frequently than we do ; but there are 
 times when all of us must say no, and must say it 
 right in the face of teasing, fretting, crying, and all 
 opposition whatsoever. Else the future of our off- 
 spring will be very apt to be either sickness and a 
 grave or shame and a jail. 
 
 "There stood by the cross of Jesus his mother." 
 Let that mother be the model for the mothers of all 
 time! Study her history, as far as the New Testa- 
 ment gives it ; and then you will be surprised at the 
 many splendid traits that are suggested and revealed. 
 Although we cannot think it right that we should 
 make Mary an object of direct worship, we all of us, 
 I know, the more we become acquainted with her 
 character, will be willing to hold her in the highest 
 regard, will love to speak of her with the most tender 
 interest, and will try to follow in her steps as far as 
 God shall give us grace. Mother! Thanks be to 
 God that he has given us that name! I would ever 
 speak it with a sweet tenderness and with a holy rev- 
 erence. I would wear it as a celestial jewel upon 
 my heart, and as one of the best gifts of the good 
 Father. I would lift it up with many choice bless- 
 ings, as I hold my secret intercourse with the Eternal 
 One. 
 
OUR MOTHERS 3 1 
 
 Oh, may all understand the fragrance that is 
 wrapped up in the title, the glory that engirdles the 
 relationship, and all the power, all the beauty, and 
 all the grandeur that sweeten and hallow the circle of 
 its blessed influence! 
 
 A friend one day placed in my hand a beautiful 
 piece of poetry, entitled "My Mother at the Gate." 
 The author I do not know; but the sweet spirit 
 that pervades the whole of it let us all cordially 
 acknowledge : 
 
 " Oh, there's many a lovely picture 
 
 On memory's silent wall, 
 There's many a cherished image 
 
 That I tenderly recall ! 
 That sweet home of my childhood, 
 
 With its singing brooks and birds ; 
 The friends who grew beside me, 
 
 With their loving looks and words ; 
 The flowers that decked the wildwood, 
 
 The roses fresh and sweet, 
 The blue-bells and the daisies 
 
 That blossomed at my feet, 
 All, all are very precious, 
 
 And often come to me, 
 Like the breezes from a better land, 
 
 Beyond life's troubled sea. 
 But the sweetest, dearest picture 
 
 That memory can create 
 Is the image of my mother, 
 
 My mother at the gate. 
 
 " It is there I see her standing, 
 
 With her face so pure and fair, 
 With the sunlight and the shadows 
 On her snowy cap and hair. 
 
32 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 I can feel the soft, warm pressure 
 
 Of the hand that clasped my own ; 
 I can see the look of fondness 
 
 That in her blue eyes shone ; 
 I can hear her parting blessing 
 
 Through the lapse of weary years ; 
 I can see, through all my sorrows, 
 
 Her own sweet, silent tears. 
 Ah ! amid the darkest trials 
 
 That have mingled with my fate, 
 I have turned to that dear image, 
 
 My mother at the gate. 
 
 " But she has crossed the river, 
 
 She is with the angels now, 
 She has laid aside earth's crosses, 
 
 And the crown is on her brow. 
 She is clothed in clean white linen, 
 
 And she walks the streets of gold. 
 O loved one, safe forever 
 
 Within the Saviour's fold, 
 No sorrowing thoughts can reach thee, 
 
 No grief is thine to-day. 
 God gives thee joy for mourning, 
 
 Thy tears are wiped away ! 
 Thou art waiting in that city 
 
 Where the saints and angels wait, 
 And I'll know thee, dearest mother, 
 
 When I reach the pearly gate ! " 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 "What is wanting," said Napoleon one day to 
 Madame Campan, " in order that the youth of France 
 be well educated? " "Good mothers," was the reply. 
 The emperor was most forcibly struck with this an- 
 
OUR MOTHERS 33 
 
 swer. "Here," said he, "is a system in one word." 
 Abbott. (Ballon.) 
 
 " If there be aught surpassing human deed or word 
 or thought, it is a mother's love." Marchioness de 
 Spadura. (Ballon.) 
 
 "The future destiny of the child is always the work 
 of the mother."- Napoleon. (Ballou.) 
 
 "Youth fades, love droops, the leaves of friendship 
 fall: a mother's secret hope outlives them all." 
 Holmes . (Ballou . ) 
 
 "An ounce of mother," says the Spanish proverb, 
 "is worth a pound of clergy." T. W. Higginson. 
 (Ballou.) 
 
 "Stories first heard at a mother's knee are never 
 wholly forgotten, a little spring that never quite 
 dries up in our journey through scorching years." 
 Raffini. (Ballou.) 
 
 "Even He that died for us upon the cross, in the 
 last hour, in the unutterable agony of death, was 
 mindful of his mother, as if to teach us that this holy 
 love should be our last worldly thought, the last 
 point of earth from which the soul should take its 
 flight for heaven." Longfellow. (Ballou.) 
 
 "Maternal love! thou word that seems all bliss." 
 Pollok. (Ballou.) 
 
III. 
 
 OUR MANSIONS IN HEAVEN. 
 
 " In my Father's house are many mansions." ST. JOHN xiv. 2. 
 
 THANKS be to Almighty God for that blessed 
 assurance that is given to us by the holy 
 Lord that in heaven there are many mansions! We 
 could not all of us live together in one house on the 
 earth, however large the house; nor will it be well 
 for us to do so in the Celestial City, at least right 
 away, and just as we are when we leave the taber- 
 nacle of clay. 
 
 Then, again, I know no reason why the family 
 circle should be entirely broken at death, nor why we 
 cannot have our little special circles above as well 
 as here on the earth. 
 
 Of course, in the spiritual world everything that 
 savors of exclusiveness, pride, and ambition will be 
 forever banished. If you would have a better locality 
 there than I have, your main desire will be to lift 
 me up to your level. Then, again, we shall all know 
 each other there, love each other, and work for each 
 other in all good ways; while jealousy, ill will, and 
 criticism will be unknown. The affinities of heaven 
 may perhaps be divided into three ascending stages : 
 first, the attractions of families and kindred; sec- 
 
OUR MANSIONS IN HEAVEN 35 
 
 ondly, the fellowship of mental powers; but, lastly, 
 and best of all, the communion of progressive souls. 
 I love to think of an unbroken family circle in God's 
 holy city. Even the totally depraved cannot be always 
 shut out from the ministrations of those who on earth 
 were the nearest and the dearest ; but certainly those 
 who have tried to do their duty while in the flesh 
 must, in the city of the New Jerusalem, be in the 
 closest bonds of a beautiful communion. 
 
 The idea which prevails so extensively in some 
 classes of minds that in eternity we are all thrown 
 together in one promiscuous crowd all the time, with 
 our special relationship entirely and thoroughly ig- 
 nored, appears to be absurd, unreasonable, and un- 
 devout. 
 
 That we shall, as saints, on certain occasions 
 assemble together for the praise of God and the 
 Lamb, I do not doubt. Nay, it would be very strange 
 indeed if we did not have our harps in our hands and 
 our songs upon our lips very frequently; but that this 
 should be all that we do would be equally strange 
 and terribly sad. No, there, without any doubt, will 
 be our own mansion. It will be marked with our 
 own name, and it will be sacred to our own dear ones, 
 where we can spend many private hours in a goodly, 
 happy, and glorious fellowship. Were this not the 
 case, our homes here would be a mockery, yes, a 
 terrible and a strange delusion. 
 
 What a satire upon the dearest spot on the earth, 
 if we maintain that it is only bounded by breath, 
 
36 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 and if we assert that there must at last, and that 
 very briefly, be thrown an awful pall upon its mighty 
 possibilities, a thick cloud upon its holy friend- 
 ships, and a thorough eclipse upon its splendid 
 culture! 
 
 Ah! can it be that husband and wife, father and 
 mother, son and daughter, and brother and sister, 
 mean nothing whatever save on the mortal side? 
 We do not ask that these names shall signify the 
 same in heaven as they do here; but have we not an 
 undoubted reason to suppose that they will mean 
 the same thing in a spiritualized sense? Probably 
 one reason why death causes such a fearful chill in so 
 many hearts as dear ones are removed is a feeling that 
 the grave is all, or that the other life is so undefined, 
 so shadowy, so ghost-like, and so entirely different 
 from anything seen or known here as to be almost as 
 good as no life whatever, or as about equivalent to 
 non-existence. Yet state to all troubled ones that 
 the other world is a great deal like this world, only 
 a great deal better; that no ties of the heart are 
 severed and no real fellowship broken; that there are 
 houses there with vacant chambers for those not yet 
 arrived; and that everything is real, and more real 
 than here. Then all things are consecrated: sorrow 
 becomes illuminated, excessive grief is dispelled, 
 heaven attracts rather than repels, life gains in splen- 
 dor, trials have their golden side, sickness wears a 
 robe of light, and even death has its diamond experi- 
 ence; while the name of home becomes resplendent 
 with power, honor, and glory. 
 
OUR MANSIONS IN HEAVEN 37 
 
 Many are the poets that speak of home. 
 Goldsmith says, 
 
 " Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam 
 His first, best country ever is at home." 
 
 Cotton says, 
 
 " The world has nothing to bestow. 
 From our own selves our joys must flow, 
 And that dear hut, our home." 
 
 Payne says, 
 
 " 'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, 
 Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home." 
 
 So, undoubtedly, millions of others might be quoted 
 who speak of the benediction of home; but would 
 they have so written, or would they have thought 
 home a benediction, unless they believed in its per- 
 petuity, seeing on the other side of the beautiful 
 river only its reglorification and its sure baptism of 
 light? 
 
 Home ! Your home and my home ! How different 
 our gaze at it, as we say temporal or as we say eternal ! 
 If transient, why, then, what clouds hang over every 
 birth, what woes cluster around every marriage vow, 
 and how the family altar is ever draped in black! 
 
 If permanent, then every babe is an evangel from 
 the skies, every true marriage service an anthem from 
 heaven; while the family altar is ever festooned with 
 flowers. Oh, can we hesitate on which side to place 
 our faith, when one side is so dark and the other side 
 
38 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 so light; when with one view our true identity is but 
 of brief continuance, while by the other prospect all 
 heaven is studded with peaceful homes and loving 
 hearts, like as some bright night you see the whole 
 firmament paved with stars? 
 
 And with this joyous view of "home" as eternal, 
 with this blessed faith that, though the household 
 here below may have its vacant chambers and its 
 broken hearts, still, above with God, the shattered 
 strings are readjusted and the family harp set to bet- 
 ter and loftier music, and to nobler tone, and a per- 
 fect and beautiful harmony reached, with such a view. 
 I say, do these earthly dwellings become lighted up 
 with majestic splendor, and the inward altar is contin- 
 ually adorned and strengthened by cherubim and sera- 
 phim. Nay, then, when the funeral bell tolls, there 
 is no utter despair, no complete rebellion, no desire 
 to question the doings of God, but the grand concep- 
 tion that the loved are not lost, the dear ones not 
 really vanished, but that the reunion will come and a 
 new mansion be established, where no more partings 
 can possibly take place. 
 
 Secondly, we have the fellowship of mental powers 
 in heaven, or mansions of congenial minds. Here is 
 a most important truth. Often here on earth we are 
 thrown in perpetual contact with those who can never 
 appreciate us. There seems to be no point of a true 
 communion. But not so will it be in God's city. 
 There a Plato will find a Plato; Socrates, another one 
 like himself; Fenelon, Fenelon; so on through the 
 
OUR MANSIONS IN HEAVEN 39 
 
 eternal range. Even Jesus finds God, of whom he is 
 the perfect image. 
 
 How often we each say here, "I am misunder- 
 stood " ! but that we can never say there. 
 
 For every lofty idea, for every brilliant thought, 
 and for every kindling resolve there is a beautiful 
 companionship, so that Milton and Newton and Pascal 
 can take each other by the hand; nay more, so that 
 all struggling students can find an applauding crowd. 
 
 I know some say, "Oh, he was a brave scholar 
 here, but that will avail nothing in heaven; and all 
 his brilliant culture is but so much waste power there, 
 for there are no dividends after death for the loftiest 
 brain that ever lived, and ideas are only of the earth, 
 earthy." 
 
 I say, no such thing! God forbid! Because mind 
 is not everything, it does not follow that it is noth- 
 ing. Newton and the idiot do not stand on a level 
 right away on the other side. 
 
 Why, how empty all scholarship would be, how 
 hollow all genius, and what a mournful dirge all the 
 gracious scintillations of a great mind, if the expir- 
 ing breath closed the account, so that the owner 
 never again could claim his own creation! 
 
 Then a huge library would be one of the saddest 
 sights in the world; for, as we read off the names of 
 the various authors there revealed, we should be ap- 
 palled by the thought that the giants were now babes, 
 and their dearest efforts of no avail in the great sweep 
 of eternity. Not so, my brother! Never so, my sis- 
 
40 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 ter! Everything we know here will have its splendid 
 fruitage in God's city. Knowledge is power forever. 
 The mind never dies. If Newton picked up his peb- 
 bles of truth on the shore of infinite truth while he 
 dwelt here, so much the more now, and so much the 
 easier and the better now, from the fact of a former 
 blessed experience, does he pick up larger pebbles 
 nay, huge diamonds in the "City of our God." 
 
 Nay, more ! Not only does he pick these diamonds 
 up, but he has a large circle of friends who know 
 that they are diamonds, and who can, with him, 
 search out the great mysteries of God's glories. I 
 love to think of mental homes, where the great minds 
 frequently gather. Just let us enter one of them by 
 dream. Letting alone the great minds of the Bible, 
 whom else of later days do we find gathered there? 
 Chaucer, Kempis, Hooker, Pascal, Milton, Newton, 
 Addison, Franklin, Everett, Edwards, Ballou, Chan- 
 ning, King, Brooks, Walker, ay, thousands of 
 others, each helping the other and all full of the fire 
 of acquisition. 
 
 Ah, could we but just hear them speak, how much 
 better would they teach us now ! Of course, now they 
 see that a great deal of that which on earth seemed to 
 them true is only partially true, and much that they 
 called grand is to them now but as the rattle of the 
 child to the grown-up man. They see with larger 
 eyes, they hear with finer ears; and all clogs are 
 taken away from their thoughts, so that now, were 
 they to rewrite their works, they would make a great 
 
OUR MANSIONS IN HEAVEN 41 
 
 many changes. Yet they thank God, I know, that 
 here they gave their minds full sweep, and tried to 
 the best of their strength to find out the secrets of the 
 world. Is it not, then, a grand idea that we lose 
 nothing by thinking and by studying, and that every 
 investment which we make of the mind's best powers 
 shall yield its glorious dividend in the bank of 
 heaven? But, last and best of all, there are man- 
 sions in heaven where the most finished, cultured, 
 and growing souls can have a happy communion. 
 
 Soul-mansions we may call them. Goodness takes 
 the lead in heaven. I love to think of homes there, 
 where all the good ones from the days of Genesis till 
 now frequently gather to chant the glory of God and 
 to find some way of enlarging and enriching charac- 
 ter. Here, too, I believe these noble spirits converse 
 together as to the best way of helping those less 
 noble. 
 
 They form their glorious plans how to train lower 
 spirits, so that those in the primary school of heaven 
 can in time reach the highest class in God's college. 
 Nay, more: I believe they apportion certain numbers 
 to visit earth as guardian angels over poor mortals, 
 that we may be saved from temptation, become peni- 
 tent for sin, be soothed in sorrow, be prepared to die, 
 and have an easy passage into eternity. I believe, 
 too, that these good ones influence us all the time on 
 our better side, so that many of the noble deeds done 
 upon the earth are but the unconscious echoes of the 
 whispers of angels. 
 
42 SERMONS FOR T^E CHURCH 
 
 It is not a fancy that every one of us has a special 
 guardian angel around us all the time, night and day, 
 till the last breath be taken. 
 
 So, too, up in that great council chamber of the 
 noble angels there are reports given of our character, 
 of our growth and our loss, of our gains and our 
 slips; and new efforts are * suggested for our advance 
 or rescue. 
 
 You had a wrong thought last week, or you told a 
 falsehood, or you performed a naughty or wicked deed. 
 Well, your guardian angel saw all that you did; and 
 your conduct, not in anger nor even blame, was re- 
 ported, while the purest spirits in heaven held a coun- 
 cil how to save you. And I sometimes think they 
 will not let you alone till they do save you: they will 
 beset you continually till they get you straight on 
 your feet. 
 
 Now, when you consider how many people there are 
 in the earth, and when you think that each one is cer- 
 tainly guarded by one angel and many by whole 
 legions of angels, you must be aware that there will 
 be enough to do in the council chambers of the holy 
 all the time for the upbuilding and cleansing of the 
 world. You may call all this fancy. So is every- 
 thing in the world before it becomes fact. Fancy 
 always precedes fact. So all our greatest discoveries 
 have been reached. Everything is guessed out before 
 it is worked out. 
 
 Thus we get the law of gravity, the full power of 
 electricity, the force of steam, the history of the 
 
OUR MANSIONS IN HEAVEN 43 
 
 stars, and the curious facts of all science. Thus, 
 without doubt, are we allowed to grasp many of the 
 grandest of God's truths. The Bible is sprinkled 
 full of glorious hints and problems that we must work 
 out. Ah, my friends! we reach reality only through 
 the holy baptism of thought and from a deep and 
 earnest communion of the spirit with the mysterious 
 truths of God. 
 
 We want a ladder placed between our hearts and the 
 holy city, that we may constantly climb for clearer 
 proofs of the kind Providence that watches our every 
 breath and step. Let us always be willing to keep 
 open ears and consecrated hearts, that thus our way 
 on earth may be bright, beautiful, sweet, grand, and 
 sacred, and our entrance into the higher life an 
 apocalypse of glory and splendor. 
 
 "In my Father's house are many mansions." Yes, 
 my friends; but we shall get into those mansions 
 safely only in one way, through the aid of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Alice Gary, who a few years ago passed over the 
 river, has beautifully said : - 
 
 " One sweetly solemn thought 
 
 Comes to me o'er and o'er : 
 I am nearer home to-day 
 Than I ever was before. 
 
 " Nearer my Father's house, 
 
 Where the many mansions be, 
 Nearer the great white throne, 
 Nearer the jasper sea. 
 
SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 " Nearer the bound of life, 
 
 Where we lay our burdens down, 
 Nearer leaving the cross, 
 Nearer wearing the crown. 
 
 " Saviour, perfect my trust, 
 
 Strengthen my might of faith, 
 Let me feel as I would when I stand 
 On the rock of the shore of death. 
 
 " Feel as I would when my feet 
 Are slipping over the brink ; 
 For it may be I'm nearer home, 
 Nearer now than I think." 
 
 Yes, my friends, the many mansions wnere families 
 are gathered, where mental power meets its beautiful 
 fellowship, and where holy souls are blessed with a 
 joyous companionship, can only be reached with full 
 peace when Jesus is at our side and holds our hand. 
 May he, our Redeemer and our Lord, have mercy 
 upon us! May he, in God's good time, lead us safely 
 into everlasting joy! 
 
 Now, in those mansions who are waiting for us? 
 
 What dear ones are lonely without us whose depart- 
 ure almost made our hearts marble and sent a deep 
 cloud over all our future? Is it the little child, 
 whose beaming face, joyous laugh, confidential talk, 
 and constant companionship made every day celestial 
 and all our thoughts glad? Well, that child is still 
 bright and beautiful, and watches us yet with tender 
 and holy interest, and is waiting to clasp us once 
 more in a greeting that shall be eternal. 
 
OUR MANSIONS IN HEAVEN 45 
 
 Is it the grown-up son and daughter that have gone 
 into the eternal home just when most needed here, 
 just when panoplied for a grand earthly success, and 
 just as we were rejoicing with a holy and just pride 
 for the great gift God so graciously put into our 
 hands? Well, those lost ones are all safe, and still 
 full of hope, joy, and faith, and still worthy of our 
 congratulation and fellowship. They also stand by 
 our side with watchful eyes and constant gifts, shield- 
 ing and helping and blessing us continually. 
 
 Is it old age that has gone from us, old in good- 
 ness, rich in holy fruit, and mellowed and hallowed 
 by a long practice of beneficence and love, a father 
 or mother, honored, trusted, and served, ay, almost 
 worshipped? Well, it is all right. The dear ones 
 are not gone, they are not lost, they are not a great 
 way off; and they still befriend, sanctify, and besiege 
 our steps with choice benedictions and with gracious 
 smiles. 
 
 Yes, my friends, all those that we have seemingly 
 lost are keeping house on the other side of the river; 
 and they will be waiting at the door when we, too, are 
 called, and, oh, such a greeting! 
 
 Ah, the bliss, the joy, and the glory of that sacred 
 and touching hour, as we take each other again by the 
 hand and look each other again in the eye, and meet 
 never more to part ! 
 
IV. 
 
 MORDECAI SITTING AT THE KING'S 
 GATE. 
 
 "All this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai, the Jew, 
 sitting at the king's gate." ESTHER v. 13. 
 
 KING AHASUERUS had raised Haman to a 
 position of great eminence, mighty power, and 
 splendid renown, where he could secure large wealth, 
 an extensive influence, and be honored abundantly in 
 the nation where he dwelt ; and Esther, the wife of 
 the king, had invited Haman to a feast which she had 
 prepared for her husband and his distinguished min- 
 ister. Yet, while encircled by all these advantages, 
 at the very flush of his great success, as he was the 
 first man in the kingdom and was living like a prince, 
 Haman was dissatisfied, a cloud was upon his brow, 
 and a canker rested upon his heart. So he returned 
 to his home. Then he sent and called for his friends 
 and Zerish, his wife, and told them of the glory of his 
 riches, the multitude of his children, all the things 
 wherein the king had promoted him, how he had 
 advanced him above the princes and servants of the 
 king, how Esther, the queen, did let no man come in 
 with the king unto the banquet which she had pre- 
 pared but himself, and that on the morrow he was 
 
MORDECAI SITTING AT THE KING'S GATE 47 
 
 again invited to the banquet; yet Haman said, "All 
 this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai, 
 the Jew, sitting at the king's gate." 
 
 Now, this Mordecai, the Jew, was the only man who 
 refused to do honor to the wicked Haman ; for he had 
 read his character thoroughly, notwithstanding the 
 coat of varnish that somewhat concealed it, and so he 
 had too much self-respect to do homage to one who so 
 little deserved it. And simply because this one man 
 of a nation despised, who was a foreigner and who 
 was living in the kingdom only by permit, simply 
 because this stranger at the gate would not notice the 
 prime minister, all the rest of the great man's privi- 
 leges, glories, and honors crumble to dust, while all 
 his life becomes sadly embittered, poisoned, and 
 shattered ! The whole scene is so richly descriptive 
 of every-day life, so clearly, so forcibly, and so ear- 
 nestly reveals a vein in everybody's nature, and there 
 are so many Hamans and Mordecais living to-day, that 
 I have felt it a duty, as well as a pleasure and a privi- 
 lege, as well as an inclination, to derive from the 
 account some lesson that shall lead us to a deeper, a 
 holier, and a more genial consecration of our whole 
 hearts to goodness, to honor, and to truth. Every 
 one of us would be perfectly happy, were it not for 
 the lamentable fact that some " Mordecai " sits at our 
 gate. 
 
 We have all that we need, are covered, crowned, 
 and overwhelmed with bounties, and God has been 
 exceedingly liberal with us, and the sunshine of his 
 
48 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 favor is ever constant, bright, and beautiful, and all 
 these things we are ready to allow; but, oh, that ever- 
 lasting, that ever-shameful, and that always terrible 
 "but"! There is some mole-hill in our way, some 
 little defect, a small spot of dust, that to our dis- 
 torted vision looks just like a mountain; and so our 
 whole life is thereby shadowed, outraged, and dis- 
 torted, and over all our hopes, favors, and deeds a 
 fearful gloom is spread. Something is in our way. 
 Perhaps no real thing, only a phantasy raised in the 
 brain, only a poisoned vapor exhaled by the bewitched 
 imagination, a creation of nervousness, a product of 
 fear, the spasm of a dream, a mote in the air, some- 
 thing impalpable, thin, and made up of foam; but, 
 oh, how real it seems to us, how threatening, how 
 impenetrable, how like a great rock or a huge moun- 
 tain! It is our Mordecai, sitting at the gate, making 
 faces at us, insulting us, and aiming at us deadly 
 weapons for our sure destruction; and, brothers and 
 sisters, if we will only use our judgment, reason, tact, 
 and common sense, such obstructions will vanish, the 
 enemy will be gone, and our foolish visions will 
 dissolve into nothingness. It has been said by those 
 well versed in the history of the human race that it 
 would be an impossible thing to discover a perfectly 
 contented person; that is, to find anybody who had 
 all that was wanted, who desired nothing more, who 
 was wholly free from envy, jealousy, ambition, and 
 who cast no longing eyes on the possessions, gifts, 
 and advantages of anybody else. 
 
MORDECAI SITTING AT THE KING'S GATE 
 
 49 
 
 We are always wanting a little more than what God 
 has given to us, while the more we receive the still 
 more craving do we become, and there is no limit to 
 our demands; while the slightest difficulty obstructing 
 us in our Teachings after greater gains, although the 
 trouble be as fine as the point of a needle, vitiates, 
 poisons, and shuts out our gratitude for what we have 
 already received, and converts us into miserable mis- 
 anthropes, fills us with a wretched peevishness, cor- 
 rupts our whole existence, changes us into very 
 unhappy specimens of humanity, and God must con- 
 tinually give to us, or by some strange fatality we 
 always think that we have a right to complain. It is 
 a curious fact in human nature that a great many 
 people seldom, if ever, attempt to count their bless- 
 ings, but are constantly looking the other way, and 
 are ever brooding over real or supposed deprivations, 
 and are gazing at the spectres in the air. Should a 
 man for seventy years be especially favored by Provi- 
 dence with health, fortune, and friends, and then at 
 once lose, or seem to be in danger of losing, one or 
 all, the years of providential watching, bounty, and 
 benediction would gradually fade out of sight, escape 
 out of memory, and float into thin vapor, while pres- 
 ent misery or the fear of it would suffocate the affec- 
 tions and erase all piety from the soul. 
 
 When everything goes well with us, and when our 
 whole life is one constant victory, we are apt to con- 
 centrate our thoughts upon ourselves, so that we for- 
 get heaven, earth, and everything except our own 
 
50 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 glory and power. But let a reverse come, then we 
 exclaim, quite readily, Why has God so dealt with us? 
 I have always been convinced that God does more 
 for us than against us; and I know that, if we looked 
 only on the bright side of life, and traced the golden 
 streaks that permeate, invest, and glorify life with 
 the splendors that arch it so wonderfully, we should 
 find all our trials melting away, or taking a new, brill- 
 iant, and gracious color, .and putting on a fresh, an 
 attractive, and spiritual nature. But no: this is not 
 the way with a great many. They'prefer to live in a 
 storm, and look all the time purposely, petulantly, 
 and sadly to where "Mordecai sits at the gate." 
 Now where is our Mordecai ? Gaze at a few imagi- 
 nary cases. One has wealth, to all appearances, 
 abundance of it. It keeps increasing year by yean 
 and vast are the comforts which it secures for its pos- 
 sessor. And yet this one is not happy; for he sees 
 with his troubled eyes somebody more honored, per- 
 haps not commanding the use of so much coin, but 
 gaining more credit, respect, and authority, and then 
 all his pleasure departs, his gold becomes dross, and 
 he lives poverty-stricken in the centre of his splen- 
 dors, opulent in everything save in that which of all 
 things is most desirable, save in character, reputa- 
 tion, and the sweet peace of the heart. One has 
 great learning, understands many languages, is full 
 of book knowledge, and is a perfect encyclopaedia of 
 facts, and yet, notwithstanding these immense advan- 
 tages, lacks, perhaps, practical force, and is disheart- 
 
MORDECAI SITTING AT THE KING'S GATE 51 
 
 ened, mortified, and overwhelmed by seeing another 
 man, not half so learned, wielding a larger literary 
 power, securing a wider influence, and taking captive 
 the ears and the hearts of the public. 
 
 Again, some one has striven hard to be a Christian, 
 to become devout in faith, liberal in practice, chari- 
 table to all men, and yet is cast down, saddened, and 
 made morose at seeing another whose principles are 
 false, whose heart is hollow, but whose hypocrisy is 
 deep, gaining great reputation for sanctity, standing 
 higher than himself (who is really the earnest, persist- 
 ent, and holy disciple), attracting more attention in 
 the opinions of Christians, and gazed upon, until the 
 fall comes, as one of the bulwarks of the Church. So 
 the man of wealth, the man of letters, and the man of 
 piety all have their Mordecais; while their coin, liter- 
 ature, and religion are somewhat corrupted, and their 
 whole characters considerably tinged and darkened 
 thereby. 
 
 Friends, am I sketching pictures of fancy merely? 
 Have I gone, in my illustrations, beyond the regions 
 of common experience and common sense? And have 
 I been dwelling in dreamland, and outside entirely of 
 anything that relates to daily events and to each 
 one's human nature? Let us ask our own hearts. 
 Let us sift our own biographies, and let a week's liv- 
 ing speak for us; and then I am willing to abide the 
 reply ! Now, how are we to get rid of our Mordecais ? 
 If they are with us, if they sit at our gate, and if they 
 continually excite our pride, anger, and ambition, 
 
52 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 why the sooner they are put out of our way and out of 
 our thoughts the better; for of no use would a gaze at 
 the difficulty become unless we were to plan some 
 way of rooting it out and of consigning it to oblivion. 
 
 We are not to follow Haman's plan of cure, and we 
 must not copy his high-handed measures, else per- 
 chance we may perish, like him, on the same scaffold 
 which we prepare for our enemies; for every ill thing 
 which we prepare for the injury of another is very apt, 
 sooner or later, to rebound against ourselves. It will 
 do us no good, and it will do our seeming opponents 
 no harm, to rail at them, and to attempt to injure 
 them in any way; and, in fact, our ill speech and ill 
 usage will only confirm them in their opposition, in- 
 crease our own bad temper, heighten the difficulty 
 instead of removing it, and throw us into a deeper 
 distress. But, friends, instead of abusing, let us 
 treat with a distinguished courtesy, a hearty kindness, 
 and a holy benevolence all those who seem to stand 
 in our way; for nothing will so soon drive away the 
 mirage that obscures our vision as this gentle method 
 of dealing with our rivals. 
 
 Had Haman endeavored to obtain Mordecai's 
 friendship, engirdled him with favors, disregarded 
 entirely his lack of courtesy, and always addressed 
 him tenderly, sought his advice, and encouraged him 
 in all ways, he would have completely conquered his 
 enmity, he would have stolen all the iron from his 
 heart, and he would have secured the good will of 
 Esther and Ahasuerus, have built up securely his own 
 
MORDECAI SITTING AT THE KING'S GATE 53 
 
 prosperity, and have found in the Jew an ardent ad- 
 mirer and a confidential friend. 
 
 We can only get rid of our difficulties by changing 
 them into helps, we can only conquer our opposers 
 by making them friends; and there is a great deal of 
 good common sense in the command of the apostle 
 Paul when he says that we must heap coals of fire 
 upon the heads of our enemies; for he means, as we 
 see by the chapter, the fire of kindness, for nothing 
 will so quickly thaw an icy hatred as a hearty, holy, 
 and blessed love. We may always be sure that we 
 shall baffle our opponents when we prove to them 
 that, do what they will for our harm and plan what 
 they can for our injury, that we still look upon them 
 as friends, shall still treat them, as far as we are 
 able, with a hearty, a holy, and a splendid good will ; 
 and seeming, or real, enemies, thus treated, are at- 
 tacked on the very side not fortified for defence, are 
 forced to surrender against such an unexpected con- 
 tagious and blazing fire, their hearts are torn right 
 open, and they cannot be Mordecais any longer, while 
 their whole natures become sweetened, and they at 
 once enlist on our side, become our royal defenders, 
 thorough champions, and everlasting friends. But, 
 supposing we had no human way of getting rid of our 
 difficulties, that we had tried everything, while every- 
 thing had failed; suppose, in spite of all we can do, 
 think, and say, the Jew will continue to sit at the 
 gate, and mock, irritate, and abuse us in all ways, 
 upsetting all our plans, throwing us into great confu- 
 
54 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 sion, and putting thorns in the flesh forever, is 
 there, then, no help, light, peace, and joy? Are we 
 ever to be in the dark, are we to call life a failure, 
 and are we to label opportunity only as a delusion? 
 Ah, no! we still have an escape, help, and light, if 
 we will follow strictly the spirit of Christ's com- 
 mands; for Jesus tells us not to lean on arms of flesh, 
 and not to trust to man, to look only to God and him- 
 self, and keep our eyes so upward fixed as to care for 
 no earthly trial and be ruffled by no worldly dis- 
 appointment. Mordecai sits at the gate! Well, let 
 him sit there forever; and we will not look at him 
 nor think of him nor care about him, for we have 
 better work to do than to be troubled about his con- 
 cerns. Our duty calls us another way, and we care 
 for no approbation nor disapprobation save that which 
 comes from Almighty God. 
 
 If we keep in this Christ-like spirit, we shall 
 always conquer our troubles, disarm our opponents, 
 and easily dismantle their cannon, demolish their 
 forts, and cause them to beat a disastrous retreat. If 
 we will only aim highly enough, all the teasing an- 
 noyances of life will quickly fade away; and, if we 
 will only "look aloft," our brows will never be dis- 
 composed, our whole existence will be serene, and we 
 shall at last sweetly sink to sleep, leaving behind us, 
 as a precious legacy, an aroma of goodness that will 
 charm many a soul into loyal discipleship and lead 
 whole crowds into the ranks of the Good Shepherd 
 and Bishop of souls. And God grant that we may 
 
MORDECAI SITTING AT THE KING'S GATE 55 
 
 thus dispose of all things that trouble us, and charm 
 all our difficulties into vacuity. "All this availeth 
 me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai, the Jew, sit- 
 ting at the king's gate." 
 
 Availeth us nothing, do we say? Then it is our 
 own fault, our own disgrace; and we ought to be 
 ashamed to make the confession, and still more 
 ashamed to cherish such a troubled, sharp, and acid 
 disposition. This is what I would say to all the 
 Hamans all over the earth, that they are bidden by 
 God, Jesus, all good angels, by the claims of honor, 
 truth, and purity, because they have souls and are 
 immortal, they are bidden, and seriously urged, to 
 make their seeming disadvantages and all their dis- 
 cipline avail them something, to make them the bul- 
 wark of their safety, the chart of their saintship, and 
 the very buttress and true foundation of their spiritual 
 life. Let us all throw aside envy, despair, a false 
 ambition, and then let us strive to obtain an unsullied 
 greatness, a spotless goodness, and a real good-nature 
 through a glorious, a sublime, and an everlasting fel- 
 lowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. So may it be, 
 Almighty God! 
 
V. 
 
 NEW THINGS. 
 
 "Some new thing." ACTS xvii. 21. 
 
 LET it be clearly understood that in what I have 
 to say I do not intend to impeach the old or the 
 new, but I wish to bring the best part of both into a 
 holy reconciliation. Some new thing! That was the 
 great trouble with the Athenians, the looking for 
 new things. It is a disease that is common to us all, 
 and it is an affliction which will be very likely to 
 continue for a great while. For some people make it 
 their creed that anything old is bad, and that any- 
 thing fresh, just because it is fresh, must be right, 
 true, and grand; and such persons change with every 
 drifting tide of circumstance, and are whirled along 
 by the gales of events, so that you never know where 
 to find them, for you look and they are there, and you 
 look again and they are gone, and what they are 
 to-day is by no means a test of what they will be to- 
 morrow, and the next year they will deny all they 
 have said and advocated the three hundred and sixty- 
 five days before. And they call their advance prog- 
 ress; and, if progress means motion, commotion, 
 revolution, and a whirlwind, they are right! Now I 
 wish to set forth that the peace of society is disturbed 
 
NEW THINGS 57 
 
 by such innovators ; and I would maintain that they 
 do as much harm nay, more harm than the old 
 settlers, however much mistaken they may be, who 
 never want to change their base, who are satisfied 
 with things as they are, and who are afraid of any- 
 thing new. The great question with the human heart 
 should be, not always a new thing, not always an old 
 thing, but forever the right thing, be it new or be it 
 old, and no matter whether it have the white locks of 
 the patriarch or the few scattering hairs of the infant. 
 Of course, no great raging desire is planted in the 
 human bosom that does not betoken some grand real- 
 ity as its pith, prophecy, and intended result, so that 
 the longing for novelty really has its better side, its 
 inspiriting hintings, its grand echoes, and is not all 
 the mark of a restless folly, the foam of an empty 
 spirit, and the sign of a revolutionary soul. 
 
 The triumphs of religion, the arts, the sciences, 
 and of everything good, spring from this embryonic 
 principle of uneasiness; and civilization is a contin- 
 ued revelation obtained by the striving for something 
 more and something fresh, or by the dressing up of 
 the old with another garment. Many think that the 
 world is ever repeating itself, so that everything which 
 is has been, seemingly discovered by us, but many 
 times discovered before; but, however this may be, 
 one thing is certain, that every age must have its 
 dissatisfactions, must try to find, must inquire for, 
 and must search after a new thing. I cannot say, and 
 no one can say, that the power of steam, ether, and 
 
58 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 electricity is something that our own age has devel- 
 oped; but this we can say, that the proclamation of 
 that power came in this age, because the need was 
 felt just in our day. 
 
 So of religion: people may talk as eloquently as 
 they please of one unchangeable religion all the way 
 along from Christ till now, or all the way along from 
 Adam till now, if you will, and, thanks be to God, 
 it is the one unalterable truth ! but the way of con- 
 veying its simplest facts to the minds of the people 
 must vary with each age, or else religion on the 
 human side will ever be in its infancy, and the dis- 
 satisfaction arising in many souls against any form of 
 religion as yet presented, provided the objectors do 
 not wish to touch any of the cardinal points of faith, 
 but only rebel against the robes that such points have 
 worn, and simply offer what seems to be a more be- 
 coming dress, does not invalidate in the least the 
 claims of the restless ones to a Christian fellowship, 
 courtesy, and name. For only by just such recloth- 
 ing, during the centuries that have passed, has 
 Christianity obtained its beautiful, sacred, and ma- 
 jestic hold of the hearts of the race. 
 
 I have spoken of the yearning for added revelations, 
 so widely prevalent, on its better side, simply to 
 assure you that, while I intend mainly to arraign the 
 innovating spirit as an offence, I have not been un- 
 aware of the pleas that such spirit would offer in its 
 defence, nor forgetful that it had a better side, nor 
 disposed to deny that all gains are based on constant 
 
NEW THINGS 59 
 
 changes. Now let me say that this perpetual longing 
 for something new, intellectually, legally, morally, 
 and theologically, tends to create a vast amount of 
 confusion, and leads frequently to a terrible amount 
 of evil; and I believe in holding on to what we have, 
 until we can clearly see our way to something better. 
 Intellectually, we get in the dark by craving variety 
 rather than reality, by loving a smart idea rather than 
 a sound thought, by catering to brilliancy rather than 
 bowing before power, by preferring the fireworks of 
 the imagination to the cannon-balls of the judgment. 
 Take that simplest fact of the books that are used by 
 our children at school, and do we not sometimes think 
 that change is not always improvement? Any one 
 who has been a member of the " Board of School Com- 
 mittee," or connected at any time with a publishing 
 house, or who has been a teacher in any of our public 
 schools, will readily see that during the last fifty 
 years, while there have been myriad of changes in the 
 way of instruction and in the volumes that are used, 
 yet no one under the new plan has exceeded in mental 
 power Edward Everett or Daniel Webster or Rufus 
 Choate. Said a cultivated teacher to me, "The books 
 that are constantly being introduced into our schools 
 are sometimes so very peculiar that I have to study 
 them all out at home before I dare to use them with 
 the class, and I have never yet seen any real advant- 
 age in so many troublesome changes." 
 
 But not in school alone, but all through life, the 
 presentation of ideas, under fresh formulas, has as 
 
60 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 often mystified as enlightened the race; and all the 
 books issued are by no means an advance on the old 
 methods of proclamation. Nay: they often obscure 
 what they would illustrate, and throw over what 
 would otherwise have been plain a massive cloud; 
 and the promised better frequently turns out to be a 
 solid worse. 
 
 How many lives of Christ have been written! some 
 of them, too, very good ; but have they any of them 
 added very greatly to the beauty, strength, and glory 
 of the simple evangelical account? And, since Gali- 
 leo, Copernicus, Newton, and Kepler, how many 
 philosophers and philosophies have arisen! and yet 
 have we met with any very decided gains? 
 
 Legally, too, what is called progress is often only 
 a loss, a blur, and a mistake; and there really has not 
 been much acquired in this way since the Roman 
 laws were made so compact, strong, and grand, or, 
 perhaps, the cardinal points of law have not been 
 strengthened since the great lawgiver, Moses, estab- 
 lished the principles of justice, unless we exclude in 
 this judgment the softer tints, the sweeter fragrance, 
 and the more glorious echoes of the "Sermon on 
 the Mount." All the lawgivers in the world may 
 meet and legislatures may legislate till eternity ends, 
 and the grand fundamentals of right will remain the 
 same; and all the oratory in the world carmot swing 
 them from their base with any advantage to the chil- 
 dren of God. Murder has been murder ever since 
 Cain killed Abel, and so with all the other vices; 
 
NEW THINGS 6 1 
 
 and no new rhetoric or logic can alter the stern and 
 tremendous fact, for justice came to earth full clad 
 from the very beginning of the ages, and nothing 
 could be added to it since then to enhance its dignity, 
 increase its glory, and make it any the more promi- 
 nent and potent in the regulation of the affairs of 
 men. Nor can any code of morals be brought for- 
 ward as having any superiority to that which we find 
 established and set forth in the Bible, but most espe- 
 cially and clearly in the New Testament; for duty 
 has the advantage of being old. 
 
 While, of course, there may be ever-changing 
 applications of principles, the principles are the same 
 forever. The " Sermon on the Mount " cannot be 
 improved ; and it only remains for us to carry out its 
 spirit more and more, and to develop, with all possi- 
 ble power, its hidden beauty, sacred unction, and 
 holy splendor. When any one looks me in the face 
 and tells me that somebody to-day can teach just as 
 well, or better, than Jesus Christ, my Lord and my 
 Redeemer, I feel that such a person is laboring under 
 a great, terrible, and fatal mistake. You may tell me 
 that it is only a theory with such a speaker, and as 
 such betokens nothing and can do no possible harm; 
 but I tell you such a theory, that strives to emascu- 
 late the New Testament, that makes Jesus only one 
 among many other teachers, and not a perfect charac- 
 ter that can never be copied, and that calls the pre- 
 cepts of our Lord good for that time, but not good for 
 all time, promising something better for a refresh- 
 
62 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 ment to-day, such a theory will not stay in the 
 regions of the brain, and will not wreathe itself 
 merely upon the fancy, but will drop, in a great many 
 cases, its gall upon the heart, scatter its poison into 
 the hand, and make us all unsafe and unhappy. 
 
 So every day do we hear scholars talking about 
 a new theology; and we have been promised a new 
 theology ever since Christ left the earth, while the 
 Church, on the human side of it, has been splintered 
 into fragments by the vague promises, empty perform- 
 ances, and futile gifts of those who want to give us 
 something better than the good old Bible. The very 
 attempt in the early Christian centuries to improve 
 the simplicity of the gospel by binding it to strict 
 formulas of man-made definitions was a blow at the 
 grandeur of the great Book that has recoiled against 
 the authors ever since; for God's Book, in every 
 necessary part, was plain enough without any mortal 
 dictionary, and the very moment that definition came 
 obscurity commenced. They were called "Chris- 
 tians " first at Antioch; and what a pity that any other 
 name was ever invented ! for, in striving after greater 
 things, the Church fell into the mire at once, and it 
 will stay in the mire till we go back to Antioch, and 
 take our Bible and our Master, and nothing more and 
 nothing less, for our guide, motto, and inspiration, 
 and then will the world soon be swept clean of all 
 sin, idolatry, and confusion. 
 
 Gracious Father, a new theology ! and how can this 
 thing be? A new Theou Logos, a fresh definition of 
 
NEW THINGS 63 
 
 God? Why, who shall write it, who shall think it, 
 and who shall dare make it known? For it must be 
 some one better than Christ and better than God, for 
 the old discourse about God came through the Father 
 by the Son, and was ratified as a complete revelation 
 at the time of its grand, majestic, and sacred dis- 
 closure; and who, then, shall this wonderful teacher 
 be? I say, let us go back instead of going forward 
 here. 
 
 Let us go back to Nazareth, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, 
 to all Judea, and to all Syria, let us go back to the 
 first Christian church, at its early start, and we shall 
 learn all that is necessary about the great Ruler of 
 the heavens and the earth, while much that obscures 
 our faith at the present hour will be entirely thrown 
 into oblivion. I stand up to-day, then, to plead for 
 all old things that are good, while I protest most 
 heartily against that rash spirit of the age that would 
 cut itself entirely off from the past, and rush headlong 
 into the future; and I am always afraid of progress 
 when it throws off the balance-wheel of experience. 
 Nay : advance, that strives to cauterize what has been, 
 destroys itself; and it would be as if the roof of a 
 house should order every story below it to be demol- 
 ished, which is simply, indirectly, and only asking 
 for its own grave at the same time. I believe in 
 growth; but it must be like that which is seen when 
 the youth issues from the babe, and like that which is 
 developed when the man springs from the youth, 
 that is, it must be step by step, while identity is con- 
 
64 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 stantly preserved and the forward must ever be linked 
 to the backward by precious memories, sacred disci- 
 pline, and the fragrance of noble victories. 
 
 There are divine laws that regulate events, gains, 
 revelations, and new things as well, as closely, and 
 as sacredly as they do all life, so that development 
 outside of Heaven's law will simply be another name 
 for shame, destruction, and death; and the laws of a 
 true growth can be easily ascertained by the thoughtful 
 mind, religious heart, and loving soul if a few hun- 
 dred years be faithfully scanned, for then it will be 
 seen that the movements of Providence are slow, 
 steady, and sure, and are links in a chain reaching 
 way backward to creation and way forward into eter- 
 nity. Some new thing! Well, if it be true, as some 
 say, that there is no new thing under the sun, but 
 that all things which we call so are but photographs 
 of some forgotten discoveries that are buried in the 
 dim ages of the past, there is yet a way of looking at 
 the matter by which we may most certainly be encour- 
 aged; namely, there are new methods of describing 
 what we suppose we invent, fresh illustrations, kind- 
 ling descriptions, racy, burning, and uplifting rhet- 
 oric, such as no ages of the past could possibly reveal, 
 and, then again, there is a moral and a spiritual view 
 of looking at the world and at God's dealings with his 
 children that will give the most glorious, comforting, 
 and blessed definitions to everything that occurs, by 
 which we not only obtain "new things," but a new 
 way of looking at everything, and there is what we 
 
NEW THINGS 65 
 
 may call an optimism as well as a pessimism in the 
 definition of events. Here are a few paragraphs that 
 fell into my hands the other day, and they gave me 
 great pleasure : 
 
 " Two boys went to hunt for grapes ; and one was 
 happy because he found them, and the other was angry 
 because he found seeds in them." 
 
 "Two men recovered from sickness. One said, 
 ' 1 am better to-day ' : the other said, ' 1 was worse 
 yesterday.' " 
 
 "Two persons gazed at a bush. One said, 'It has 
 a rose': the other said, 'It has a thorn.'' 
 
 "'I am glad that I live,' said one man: 'I am sorry 
 that I must die,' said his brother." 
 
 "Two persons had bees. One called them 'honey- 
 bees' : the other said they were 'stinging bees.' ' 
 
 So it is ever, my friends; for we discover pretty 
 much what we like, or what by our carefulness we 
 strive to obtain, or what by the grace of Almighty 
 God our eyes are open to see. 
 
 We want some new thing. Well, the more we be- 
 come acquainted with the Christ, who is the same 
 yesterday, to-day, and forever, and the more we obey 
 his glorious precepts, the more clearly, fully, and 
 gloriously shall we receive what we want; for that 
 character has ever something beautiful to reveal to 
 the earnest seeker, and the precepts of the Lord are 
 so full of wisdom, righteousness, and glory that it 
 will take more than eternity to exhaust their splendid 
 power, beautiful promise, and holy consolation. Let 
 
66 SERMONS, FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 us cling, then, to Jesus Christ, so that everything 
 shall be bright, sweet, sacred, fresh, glorious, and 
 triumphant, and so that, as we enter the kingdom 
 above, each one of us shall hear those uplifting 
 words : " Well done, good and faithful servant ! 
 Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!" 
 
VI. 
 CAN GOD BE DISCOVERED? 
 
 " Canst thou by searching find out God? " JOB xi. 7. 
 
 YES, to a certain extent, we can find out God. 
 That is to say, we are not able to measure the 
 whole of the Infinite, since that would be impossible, 
 even on the ground of philosophy alone ; for how can 
 finite grasp Infinite? Yet God we can apprehend, 
 find out, realize, and appropriate, if we may rever- 
 ently say so, by degrees, little by little, as our souls 
 grow toward heaven, and as our hearts become spirit- 
 ualized; for it is promised "that the pure in heart 
 shall see God." 
 
 But perhaps even here we should make a qualifica- 
 tion that what we want to say this morning may be 
 clearly understood; namely, the nature of God is a 
 mystery, and no human plummet, however deep or 
 rich or strong or beautiful or grand or mighty, can 
 unravel that. But the character of the dear Father of 
 us all grows more plain, more clear, more grand, and 
 more sublime as we grow more holy; and it is re- 
 vealed in ever renewed and increased glory, giving 
 us fresh splendors, like the revolving kaleidoscope, 
 every time that we cause our sanctified will to move 
 in the right line. What, then, are the laws of our 
 
68 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 access to God, keeping always in mind, of course, 
 that our own spiritual life is the mightiest lever for 
 lifting us into this great light? The Father is re- 
 vealed in nature and in revelation and in our own 
 souls ; and the best men and the best women in the 
 world are the ones who can see this fact the clearest 
 and the most gratefully acknowledge it with a true joy 
 and a sacred love. 
 
 For a long while in the history of the world it was 
 only in nature that the gods were found; and then 
 puzzled minds, forgetting that Infinite Power needed 
 only a unit for its expression, thought that a Deity 
 must be created for every special need. Still, the 
 expression of worship, even under this sad mistake, 
 was a mark of devotion and trust for which every soul 
 to-day ought to be glad. 
 
 "Canst thou by searching find out God?" Why, 
 yes, ever since man was made in the very twilight of 
 the ages, ere the auroral light hardly tinged the sky 
 of time, we find the mortal looking after the Eternal 
 Father in sun, moon, and stars, in forests and waters, 
 in everything and all things that human ken could 
 not grasp nor earthly strength manage. Certainly, 
 all the good that ever came to the ancients reached 
 them in this way. In spite of idolatry and sin, let- 
 ting alone base superstition and idle fancy and every- 
 thing strange and sad, yet here, in the upturned eye 
 and in the outstretched hand and in the prostrate 
 body, I cannot help seeing and admiring the presence 
 and the spirit and the might of worship, the infant's 
 
CAN GOD BE DISCOVERED 69 
 
 prattle concerning eternal realities; and sometimes, 
 too, we hear exclamations that startle us by their 
 grandeur, and are full of promise and peace. Listen 
 to a few of these breathings toward heaven. Some 
 one says, thousands of years ago: "In the beginning 
 there arose the Source of golden light. He was the 
 only born Lord of all that is. He established the 
 earth and the sky. Who is the God to whom we 
 shall offer our sacrifice? He who gives life, he who 
 gives strength, whose blessing all the bright gods 
 desire, whose shadow is immortality, whose shadow is 
 death." 
 
 Yet more: "I see Thy glory still like sunset on 
 a mountain's head. . . . God, all knowing, deliver 
 from the crooked path of sin! From the unreal lead 
 me to the real, from darkness to light, from death to 
 immortality." And again: "There is no end to mis- 
 ery save in the knowledge of God. . . . The Creator, 
 the Being without fear, without enmity, Everlast- 
 ing One, the Self-existing. . . . O God, under thy 
 power all has been done: naught is of myself." 
 Such, my friends, are the words of those who had 
 nature alone for their teacher; and what do you think 
 of such grand inspirations? Would you treat harshly 
 those that have such liftings up of the spirit? Would 
 you not say that a great deal of heaven's truth is let 
 down into all minds? But, if once the voice was so 
 great, so tender, and so sublime to those apparently 
 so benighted, how now to-day, this hour, with us, 
 with all the privileges that nineteen centuries have 
 
70 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 poured upon us, with such majestic beauty and with 
 such splendid profusion? Can we not find out a great 
 deal up above, all around, down beneath, and every- 
 where from this grand cathedral of space in which 
 God has placed us, even supposing for a moment 
 there were no Bibles, and nothing whatever but what 
 the outward sight reveals? 
 
 Do you tell me that science votes the other way, 
 and that, the wiser we grow, the thicker are our denials 
 and the deeper distrust we have of everything save 
 our own keen wit? Do you point me to a number of 
 astronomers and anatomists and geologists who are 
 arrant sceptics and seeming atheists, and then smil- 
 ingly assume that we had better keep in the dark un- 
 less we want to be all dark forever? I tell you, Nay. 
 I am sure that all such statements that are derogatory 
 to knowledge are a mournful impeachment against the 
 Eternal Mind, by whom all things are governed and 
 sustained. So, too, would I confidently assert that 
 the majority of our strong men in "natural philoso- 
 phy " are men of large faith, who seem to have all 
 heaven beating on their hearts. I care not what two 
 eminent scholars said a few years ago (and their 
 words found a passage through the cable with a won- 
 derful and a mournful echo), yet I still affirm that the 
 weight of intellect is on the believing side; and why 
 not? By what quicker road can I travel to God and 
 to a good God than by astronomy, that, throughout all 
 its minutest items, bathes me in such splendors that 
 must inevitably lead me at once to adore the Author 
 and Maker of us all? 
 
CAN GOD BE DISCOVERED 71 
 
 If I am whirling around the sun with a fearful 
 rapidity, who keeps me from being dizzy, and who 
 saves me from falling, and who holds me safe from 
 death? If the sun carries such intense heat, what 
 saves the world from being destroyed by fire? What 
 holds the stars up that they do not fall, and who 
 causes the moon to act as servant to the sun, so that 
 the darkness of the night shall not reign supreme? 
 
 What keeps the constantly recurring comets from 
 touching the earth, and thus closing the account with 
 all of us? When the rain falls, why not a perpetual 
 flood? And, as the snowflakes come, why are we 
 not buried out of sight by the whirling drifts? You 
 may tell me of laws; but I reply, Laws are dumb. 
 Then I ask you, Who made the laws of which you 
 speak? You have discovered them, or twinkles of 
 them, perhaps; but you did not make them, and they 
 were not self-created, and I confidently appeal unto 
 the Maker of them all. Like Saint Paul of old, I 
 appeal to the great King of kings. So, too, look at 
 your body. How did all these bones leap into sub- 
 stance and slide into place and borrow flesh for a gar- 
 ment ? Also, when these bodies of ours were formed, 
 how came we to have a brain and a soul? Do you 
 answer, Mere chance? Nothing but madness can say 
 that; for how is it that chance has once done that 
 which it has never been able to copy in anything else, 
 or to surpass at any time? And how is it that acci- 
 dent is so often repeated in just the same shape age 
 after age? The study of ourselves inevitably, irre- 
 
72 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 sistibly, and immediately leads us up to the great 
 King of kings. 
 
 Again, take geology through all its secret grandeur 
 and all its massive revelations, way back in the 
 beginning and way up to the present hour, and you 
 must in every rock and in every stone and in every 
 clod of earth, way down in the deep crust and way 
 through all the stratas, in each age as it appears, and 
 in all the relics that are upheaved, you must, I say, 
 find an organizing mind more than mortal's, that is 
 eternal in the heavens. Do you tell me, again, that 
 rock can create rock, that mere material substance 
 can produce a succession forever and ever, and that 
 thus materialism is the secret of all growth, splen- 
 dor, and beauty? Well, then, you simply give a 
 different name to God, but a name that is an absurd- 
 ity, unless a Divine Being is behind and in and 
 through it all. Once more, do you tell me that I 
 must let science alone if I want to be soundly, de- 
 voutly, truly religious, and a real child of God? Is 
 it possible that you mean what you say? 
 
 Here are the footprints of the great Architect; and 
 must I wash those footprints out, as of no meaning 
 and as of dangerous tendency, and as not girdled with 
 any spiritual power? Again I tell you nay. God 
 has written me a letter, in all the splendors of this 
 earth and of the heavens; and I must and I will read 
 it, wherever I please, and, as I read it, every line 
 speaks of him, of his might, of his beauty, of his 
 grandeur, of his protecting care, of his overwhelming 
 
CAN GOD BE DISCOVERED 73 
 
 goodness, and of his all-pervading presence. But, 
 thanks be to his holy name, he has not only written 
 me a letter, but he has sent me a Messenger, fearing 
 I might not perhaps read all of this letter aright; and 
 this is my second point, that we find him, the 
 Father, through revelation, as of course it appears 
 after Christ has been to this world, and after he, the 
 blessed Lord, has given us the key to all needed mys- 
 teries. "Canst thou by searching find out God?" 
 Yes, Job: from Genesis to Apocalypse, if I search 
 for God with a reverent mind and with a teachable 
 spirit, guided all the time by the inspiration of the 
 Holy Ghost, I shall find out a great deal about him; 
 and so would you, if you only had stood when your 
 words were spoken just where I stand to-day. 
 
 I find that he is the Creator of the world. I find 
 that he preserves all things by his ever-blessed help. 
 I find that nothing leaps really outside of his eternal 
 Will. I find, too, that none of us can slip away from 
 his care and his yearning throughout everlasting 
 ages; for he has promised, "I will never leave thee 
 nor forsake thee." I find, too, for he has pro- 
 claimed it through his Son, that he is my Father 
 and my best Friend, and that his goodness and his 
 kindness are beyond all possible measurement. O 
 Job, again I speak to thee, Have I not discovered 
 a good deal? Can earth be lonely now? Can the 
 other life be a dread mystery? Is not the destiny of 
 us all something sublime? and, under these great 
 definitions, does not duty become resplendent and 
 opportunity transcenclently glorious? 
 
74 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 My hearers, not only do I believe in science, but 
 I believe in the Bible and in the important truths 
 that it contains; and I believe that there is enough 
 in that great Book that all of us can understand, 
 that, rightly received into heart and practice, will 
 make each life full of harmony, beauty, and strength. 
 Let each one of us take what is plain and touching 
 and beyond any shadow of a question, and have just 
 that select portion for continued help and comfort, 
 and a wonderful enlightenment will fall upon every 
 heart, and the very gates of heaven will be opened, 
 and angels will descend and ascend up and down be- 
 tween earth and heaven. 
 
 Again, inwardly, in each one's soul, God resides; 
 and he can be found there if we will only search dili- 
 gently. I admit that he has a very small place some- 
 times (the head of a needle might perhaps be a 
 generous description of the space that some people 
 give to him); but all entertain him somehow, and 
 even those who deny the fact altogether are yet unwit- 
 tingly making him a guest. He will not let us alone. 
 He is there now, my brother and my sister, in a 
 large or in a small chamber, right in the centre of 
 your inward life. He wants more room given to him 
 by all of us, and he desires that all of us should 
 search for him the more, that we may continually feel 
 his presence, own his power, and be uplifted by his 
 gracious benediction. Most certainly, too, shall he 
 be found at some moment, even by those who the most 
 stoutly deny his presence. Job says, Find out God; 
 
CAN GOD BE DISCOVERED 75 
 
 but perhaps he would have done better, had he said 
 that, by our searching, God in time would be willing 
 to find us out, and would be very glad to own us as 
 his beloved children. 
 
 How many things you and I possess that we do not 
 really love and value; but when, through some strik- 
 ing experience, something that was unconsciously 
 ours has become in a special way important to us, 
 how we prize the gift as never before! So, in a 
 higher way, does Almighty God prize us, when we 
 begin to prize him. Always, of course, we belonged 
 to him; but, when we own the relationship and when 
 we rejoice in the privilege and when we are earnest, 
 believing, and loving children, what added joy must 
 spring into that all-gracious Heart! So, as we find 
 God and as God finds us, do we gain all our victories, 
 reach all our gifts, attain all our powers, and become 
 heroes and heroines in the great domain of nature and 
 of spirit. We may think, in the full flush of worldly 
 triumph, that we have lighted our own fires, that we 
 have found our own fuel, and that we have worthily 
 earned the blaze and the heat that are so comfortable 
 and so grand; but we are mistaken, for only as we 
 are in God and as God is in us do we reach unto any- 
 thing great and majestic and worth the keeping, and 
 there is no victory save the victory that is regulated 
 and secured by Eternal Providence. 
 
 Even the great Roman orator, who stood outside of 
 Christ, thus eloquently spoke: "We may admire our- 
 selves, conscript fathers, as much as we please: still, 
 neither by numbers did we vanquish the Spaniards, 
 
76 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 nor by bodily strength the Gauls, nor by cunning the 
 Carthaginians, nor through the arts the Greeks, but 
 through our devotion and our religious feeling." 
 
 Can we by searching find out God? I think that 
 Jesus says, expressly, Yes. For he says, "He that 
 hath seen me hath seen the Father " ; and he also says 
 "that those who go to him he will in no wise cast 
 out." Perhaps we could throw the whole argument 
 and spirit of what we have attempted to say, with the 
 noble plea and call of the Lord, in some such lines as 
 these that I have taken the liberty to throw together 
 in a poetic form:- 
 
 Go, then, to Christ, and ask of him 
 
 The way to God and right, 
 And all the mighty secrets win 
 
 Of truths so pure and bright. 
 
 Go, then, to Christ, and he will say 
 
 Why Nature is so grand, 
 So filled with God, the light, the way 
 
 That seeking souls demand. 
 
 Go, then, to Christ, and see how clear, 
 
 By revelation's light, 
 Our God is seen! how very near 
 
 To each and every sight ! 
 
 Go, then, to Christ ; for he will show 
 
 The voice within is found, 
 That all the sons of God may know 
 
 What place is holy ground. 
 
 Thus search out God, and find your peace, 
 
 And grow in grace and love, 
 And give your faith a large increase, 
 
 Till all shall meet above. 
 
VII. 
 THE FATAL SUBSTITUTE. 
 
 "Send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send." 
 Ex. iv. 13. 
 
 THESE words are idiomatic, but in our own lan- 
 guage would probably read thus : Send any- 
 body, send everybody; but do not send me. Send 
 somebody else, get a substitute: let me be excused. 
 
 And the words were evidently a giving up of the 
 trust, a declination of the honor, and a setting aside, 
 for a moment, of the grand opportunity; for we read 
 in the next verse that the Lord was displeased at the 
 reply of Moses, and would not excuse him from his 
 task, but set him at work at once, with Aaron to help 
 him. 
 
 "Send somebody else." So Moses really said. So 
 we are all of us apt to say; and it is this bad habit of 
 putting off on to other people what we ought to do 
 ourselves that I wish to speak about at this time. 
 
 I always liked the saying of a former President of 
 the United States, when he thought that it would be 
 best for him to take a position that was opposed by 
 many of the wise men of his day, as he exclaimed, " I 
 will take the responsibility." Not that I approve of 
 all that he said or of all that he did or of all that he 
 
78 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 was, although I cannot help feeling that he was a 
 very remarkable man; but I do admire his spirit of 
 independence, his readiness to carry out his own idea, 
 and his willingness to do what he thought was right, 
 and I am rejoiced that he did not say, Let somebody 
 else do it: let another person take the responsibility, 
 and, in case of failure, give me a chance to creep 
 away from blame. Send somebody else. No: he 
 took up his own duties in his own name, just as he 
 could measure them, and was willing to stand up 
 squarely to what he thought was right. 
 
 Ah! how often we each one of us say, Send some- 
 body else to do my thinking, or to plan my life, or to 
 direct my habits, or to order all my ways, or to do 
 the main part of my work, for we are afraid to take 
 the responsibility; and so we float idly on the stream 
 of time, reduce our lives to zero, and die, leaving no 
 more marks upon the earth than those which are 
 caused by the floating away of the foam on the ocean 
 wave. 
 
 How few people dare to think! With a combina- 
 tion lock on the door of the brain, with a knowledge 
 of all the numbers that must be used in the opening 
 of that singular lock, fully acquainted with the turns 
 of the dial ere any progress can be made, familiar 
 with all the movements that will lead to the sliding 
 back of all obstructions, they give the lesson to some- 
 body else, they hand over the key to a substitute, 
 they let another person open the mental safe, and 
 they let that other person deposit there just what he 
 
THE FATAL SUBSTITUTE 79 
 
 or she may please ; and then they look at the prop- 
 erty, and arrogantly claim it as their own. Well, 
 how much is their own? The ownership of the safe, 
 the understanding of the mysteries that lead to its 
 use, and the keeping of the key; but, after that, they 
 have recklessly given up their privileges to somebody 
 else. 
 
 Oh, what a change would come upon the world, 
 what a glory would descend from the heavens, what 
 opportunities, what splendors, what grand, holy, 
 magnificent, and overwhelming revelations, if every 
 child of God took the full charge of self, managed the 
 thoughts, entered alone, or with Heaven grandly 
 helping, into all the chambers of ideas, and then came 
 before the world fresh, original, strong, sparkling, 
 with glorious thoughts, that are all lighted up by 
 scintillations from God's altar! and, just as we find 
 on the earth copper mines, lead mines, gold mines, 
 silver mines, and iron mines, all different, all valu- 
 able, all eagerly developed, and neither one sliding 
 into the other, but all recognizing the value of each, 
 so in the soil of the mind should we find, under a 
 right, righteous, holy, and special culture, all the 
 metals of intellect, bringing us rich treasures, help- 
 ing all the people, and building up the kingdom of 
 God in all the waste places of the earth. And then 
 the gold would not sneer at the iron, nor the silver 
 challenge the copper; but all would reverently look 
 up to each other, admire each other, compliment each 
 other, and rejoice together in the rich bounties of the 
 
8o SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 universal Giver. To every person that God has 
 created there is given a special deposit of thought, 
 some valuable mineral that can be found by hard, by 
 serious, and by mighty labor, and something that the 
 world needs for its full development; and, when we 
 attempt to cast all minds into one mould, we are try- 
 ing to thwart the gracious, the benevolent, the eco- 
 nomical, and the majestic plans of the Almighty. 
 
 Send somebody else, do you tell me, to do your 
 thinking? Never. God forbid. Somebody else can- 
 not do it; for that other person has a personal work 
 sufficiently large for a life's work, and it will not do 
 for your work to be done by him, for, if the attempt 
 be made, two persons will be weakened, and the 
 whole world will be bereaved. Think for yourself, 
 O man, O woman, solemnly, deeply, tenderly, enthu- 
 siastically, and reverently, looking up as well as in- 
 wardly; and then speak out your holy thought, and 
 bless a waiting, a needy, and a thankful world! 
 Hear, of course, what other people have to say. 
 Look on all sides, compare all sides; recognize the 
 gold, the copper, the iron, and the silver; but stand 
 by your own metal, without the quiver of a doubt, 
 with a spiritual audacity, with a glorious meekness, 
 with a mighty faith, and with a holy eloquence, the 
 echoes of which will reach the very gates of heaven. 
 You have an idea, my friend; it has been in your 
 brain for weeks or months or years, careering, boil- 
 ing, clamoring, eager, impatient, boisterous, chafing 
 under the bonds of captivity, eager to bless a waiting 
 
THE FATAL SUBSTITUTE 8 1 
 
 world, and longing for the bars of the prison-doors to 
 be removed. It is an idea all its own, very original, 
 very sparkling, very comprehensive, and very vital. 
 Why, then, let it escape into the keeping of the 
 world, with all earnest prayer to Almighty God. 
 Send it forth on its mission of grace, and let it go to 
 its appointed work. It may be at first unpolished, 
 very rough, somewhat shallow, and tender, and untu- 
 tored; but so are all babes, when born. Yet time, 
 experience, discipline, and culture will send all 
 impediments out of the way; and your idea will find 
 its right and righteous place forever and ever. 
 Again, the plan of our lives a great many of us are 
 apt to leave to somebody else. What shall we be? 
 What shall we do? What shall we accomplish in the 
 world? What profession take up? How carry out 
 the grand ideas that seethe in the brain? We may 
 think all right. We may tell out our thoughts; and 
 then we may go and live on a lower plane altogether, 
 following not our own appointed career, but walking 
 the path that some other mortal dares to sketch for us. 
 And how many persons by so doing have wrecked their 
 own existence, sent a confusion into a great many 
 places, created a jar among the vibrations of time, 
 and given discordant notes to the " city of our God " ! 
 and thus the world gets seemingly jumbled, dislocated, 
 hedged, and calamities upon calamities are sent as the 
 natural punishment for the grave mistake. If one 
 should preach who was ordained for a healer, if one 
 should be a physician who was ordained for a preacher, 
 
82 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 if the merchant should have been a mechanic, and the 
 mechanic should have been a teacher, if many are 
 in places where every blow they give hits the wrong 
 mark, not alone do they suffer by failure, by misap- 
 preciation, by bitter remorse, but a thousand other 
 people are rifled of their rights, curtailed in their 
 power, fearfully deceived; namely, those unto whom 
 the wrong administration comes, and those who need 
 the one that does harm in one place, but would be a 
 glory, a benediction, and a mighty power in the right 
 place. 
 
 Whatever we are ordained to take up, wherever we 
 ought to go, where Almighty God says plainly, Stand, 
 let us not dare to say, "Send somebody else," not 
 only because by thus doing we dishonor God, but also 
 because by our disobedience we throw over ourselves, 
 our families, our neighbors, and the world, a dark, a 
 thick, and a deadly fog that will injure, sadden, 
 poison, and break many needy hearts. For the sake 
 of God, for the sake of ourselves, for the sake of our 
 dear ones, and for the sake of all humanity, let us 
 take up, let us carry forward, let us hold on to and 
 accomplish our own divinely appointed work, will- 
 ingly, gratefully, patiently, and full of faith, trust, 
 and love. 
 
 Once more, how many of our habits, our ways, and 
 our daily deeds are governed by other people! How 
 often we say, We must do as we are told to do by 
 other people, we must be governed by custom, by 
 fashion, by the majority! and we allow that certain 
 
THE FATAL SUBSTITUTE 83 
 
 things are doubtful, not just right, not according to 
 our real conscience; but we must go with the rest, 
 and let the crowd take the responsibility. 
 
 Do not appoint us to establish new habits, to set 
 up better ways, and to break out a new road, but send 
 somebody else, and let us do as others do: let us be 
 one with the great multitude instead of "one with 
 God." Thus we speak or thus we think. 
 
 So we suppose that we shall save pain, trouble, a 
 good deal of present inconvenience, and we are saved 
 from rebuking those who are .with us by our singular 
 conduct, and we do not wish to be reformers, but con- 
 formers, and thus keep up the peace; but, ah! how 
 sadly we are mistaken! If the limb be broken, it 
 may cause a shriek, a pain, and a remonstrance, as 
 one proceeds to make it right, a long, a loud, an 
 earnest protest, day after day; but, at last, what joy, 
 when all is right, and what thanks to the surgeon who 
 persisted in doing what he thought would be best, 
 despite our inconvenience, our restlessness, and our 
 tears! So, if we, right in the face of a large crowd, 
 insist on living according to our best visions, we 
 shall at last lead all people to be governed by their 
 best visions, and thus shall grandly aid toward the 
 building up of the " kingdom of God." We must not 
 desire that somebody else should be sent to give a 
 good example; but we should each one try, according 
 to our best powers, to set a personal example of obe- 
 dience, harmony, usefulness, and holiness, proving 
 that the monitor within, and not the voices with- 
 
84 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 out, will always be our guide, our help, and our 
 benediction. 
 
 "Send somebody else." Here, perhaps, comes an- 
 other thought. One of the grand secrets of success 
 can be found in our willingness to do what we can by 
 ourselves, to take up our special work, to be at hand, 
 ready, and earnest about our own concerns, and not 
 for a moment to suppose that anybody else can ad- 
 vance our interests any better than we can advance 
 them by our own efforts; that is, as long as we are 
 engaged in any business whatsoever, it will never be 
 safe to leave the whole management of that business 
 to other people. For no one can feel the same inter- 
 est in our welfare that we feel, and agents, however 
 good, brave, and honest, are never able to take com- 
 pletely the part of the principal; and, if we want 
 anything done, well done, and done to our full satis- 
 faction, in nine cases out of ten, we must do it with 
 our own hands. 
 
 You will send somebody else, do you tell me, to 
 make your purchases, to plan your sales, to attend to 
 your business, to do your whole work, and you spend 
 your time for years here, there, and everywhere, with 
 no knowledge whatsoever of your own concerns. Oh, 
 I beseech of you, change your mind, alter your plan, 
 and be governed by more profitable laws; for nobody 
 can strike ten in any concern whatsoever, who puts 
 the work, the responsibility, and the thinking upon 
 "somebody else." 
 
 Our Lord and Master did not say, did not want to 
 
THE FATAL SUBSTITUTE 85 
 
 say, and never would have thought of saying, " Send 
 somebody else " ; and, if he had said that, who, oh, 
 who could have taken his place, who could have set 
 his example, taught his precepts, endured his suffer- 
 ings, died on his cross, and rose again, like him, for 
 our justification? Do you not feel, as you read his 
 life, all parts of it, from his birth to his ascension, 
 that nobody else could have thought as he thought, 
 or planned as he planned, or lived as he lived, or suf- 
 fered as he suffered, or died as he died, or have risen 
 again like him? 
 
 But how grandly he carried forward in every par- 
 ticular the work that he had to do ! With all diffi- 
 culties in his path, he went on conquering and to 
 conquer, with a light in his eye, a grace upon his 
 lips, an elasticity in his steps, a holy power that was 
 sublime beyond all the force of words to describe; 
 and so are we all to go and do likewise. We are told 
 to be like him; but, in one sense, that is not possible. 
 No one's experience can be the exact photograph of 
 another's experience. No one's life can be the per- 
 fect copy of another's life. There are no real twin 
 souls, twin brains, twin hearts in the world; for 
 there is always some difference, and the real Jesus 
 can never be duplicated, even if we, for a moment, 
 let alone his divine nature, and look upon him in his 
 earthly career, as "prophet," "priest," and "king." 
 
 But, in another sense, we can all be like him: he 
 filled up the full measure of his calling, and so can 
 we fill up the full measure of our calling. A teacup 
 
86 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 can be filled, and it will be full, and we must call it 
 full, looking at it in the right light; and so can the 
 ocean be full, and both the teacup and the ocean are 
 perfectly filled, according to their ability. If we 
 each one of us do our best, then we are fulfilling all 
 that is demanded of us by our Lord, and, in a certain 
 way, although in a very limited way, we are like him; 
 and, thus doing, we shall grow more and more like 
 him throughout time and throughout all eternity. 
 So may it be, Almighty God! 
 
 Ella Wheeler Wilcox says something like this; 
 and with her striking words we will close: 
 
 " I may not reach the heights I seek : 
 An inborn strength may fail me ; 
 Or, half way up the mountain peak, 
 
 Fierce tempests may assail me. 
 But, though that place I never gain, 
 Herein lies comfort for my pain : 
 I will be worthy of it. 
 
 " I may not triumph in success, 
 
 Despite my earnest labor : 
 I may not grasp results that bless 
 
 The efforts of my neighbor. 
 But, though my goal I never see, 
 This thought shall always dwell with me : 
 I will be worthy of it." 
 
VIII. 
 ILLUSIONS. 
 
 " What is your life ? A vapor." ST. JAMES iv. 14. 
 
 I DO not know how much the apostle James meant 
 to express by those striking words that we have 
 just quoted, and he undoubtedly had his holy qualifi- 
 cations of the phrase, so that, as he intended that it 
 should be understood, the truth was clear, sound, sug- 
 gestive, alarming, and beyond a question ; and yet, if 
 any uninspired person should say to me, Your life is 
 a vapor, I should impeach the utterance as false to 
 the core, and, in fact, I should say at once that the 
 very words "life" and "vapor" could never coalesce 
 without an explosion, since life can never be vapor, 
 and vapor by no construction can mean life, and 
 neither one has a connection with the other, and both 
 signify the opposite. For, if we are alive, we are 
 not dead and we are not a vapor; and, if we are like 
 vapor, we are not alive, can never be alive, and the 
 whole glory of Christianity rests upon the fact that 
 life never can sink into mist nor fall into nothingness 
 nor leap into a dream, but is forever and ever an 
 eternal reality. Our life, do you tell me, is only a 
 mist? Our life nothing? a life given to us by Al- 
 mighty God, filled with sacred possibilities, guarded 
 
88 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 by angels, surrounded by comforts, flanked by gifts, 
 filled with glory, honor, and beatitudes, bounded by 
 eternity, and ordained to carry out the purposes of 
 Infinite Wisdom! Is such a life all to no purpose? 
 Why, when we say that, we impeach the majesty of 
 eternal goodness, we wipe out all the significance of 
 all the beauties and bounties of nature, we exalt mere 
 materialism into a greater solidity than mortal breath, 
 we throw a satire upon all time, and we deride the 
 benignant gift of immortality. Saint James did not 
 mean, could not mean, did not say, that spiritual life 
 was a vapor. What is your life? A vapor. Well, 
 if we say mortal life, then the statement is partially 
 correct; although even then there are qualifications, 
 since the poorest life ever lived this side of heaven 
 is something more than a mist, and cannot easily 
 escape responsibility under that convenient phrase. 
 
 Perhaps the apostle James did really mean to speak 
 of the tenure of life, the number of years that we 
 spend in the flesh, the short pilgrimage allotted to 
 each one of us, even when we live to a good old age; 
 and that truth we all admit, and every day is the 
 pledge of it. But yet even the shortest life that was 
 ever lived, though it came in the twinkling of an eye 
 and went away from human sight at once, such a life 
 is not a mist, but a reality, and the influence of it 
 goes on here and in heaven forever and ever. I am 
 afraid that, if we content ourselves with looking at 
 our earthly existence as a mere nothing, a smoke, a 
 vision, a dream, a slight spray, we shall probably 
 
ILLUSIONS 89 
 
 make nothing of it, and, in fact, we shall naturally 
 suppose that it is hardly worth while for us to trouble 
 ourselves much about that which has so little reality, 
 and which expires almost as soon as it begins; and 
 we shall be inclined to think that there is nothing for 
 mortal to do but to sail listlessly along, without use 
 of the oars, till our life-boat hits the rocks, becomes 
 disabled, and sinks. 
 
 We shall say, like the Epicureans, "Let us eat and 
 drink, for to-morrow we die." Why worry? Why 
 weep? Why struggle? Why care? The time is so 
 short, the opportunity so small, the reality so dim, 
 and mere existence such a vapor, why not let the 
 whole life drift as it will, and we take it as easily as 
 we can, doing as we like, thinking what we please, 
 saying what we please, and feeling no moral obliga- 
 tion whatsoever? Certainly, if we make life nothing, 
 there is nothing to do, nothing to bear, nothing to 
 hope. But, if we say that life is an eternal rock, 
 imperishable, responsible, momentous, beginning 
 here, ending nowhere, occupying the body only as a 
 temporary shelter, but having an everlasting body, 
 that cannot be destroyed, if we exclaim, Life is a 
 trust, a hope, a power, a growth, an achievement, and 
 a perpetual glory, why, then, we find that the very 
 fact that we are now alive constitutes us as trustees 
 forever, and puts us into an employment that cannot 
 end, and marshals into duty our thought, speech, and 
 deed continually, and fastens forever a line of com- 
 munication between ourselves and Almighty God. 
 
90 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 And then it becomes a very solemn reality that we 
 breathe, and that we each one send eternal echoes 
 through earth and heaven. There has been of late a 
 conflict of thought with some persons as to whether, 
 after all, life were worth living. Preachers have 
 announced as their subject this great question about 
 life; but to me the answer seems to have been given 
 by Almighty God himself, at the very instant of our 
 birth, for, by the very fact of our creation, he has 
 announced to all the earth and to all the inhabitants 
 of heaven that life is worth living, that it is a grand 
 reality, a vast responsibility, a holy opportunity, one 
 of his best, choicest, and grandest of gifts. And, if 
 we begin to question life's worth, we throw a cloud 
 over the wisdom of the King of kings, we call in 
 question his justice, we impeach his mercy, we 
 cruelly arraign him as having no insight, no grace, 
 and no holiness. God did not make a mistake when 
 he made the earth and the heavens and all the inhabi- 
 tants thereof. 
 
 Helen Rich said, and I think by the words she 
 defines the real duty of life, and lifts each day out of 
 vapor into reality: 
 
 " Do the duty nearest, 
 Cling to truth the clearest, 
 Face the ill thou fearest, 
 Hold thine honor dearest, 
 Knowing God is good. 
 
 u Life is worth the living. 
 What foe withstands forgiving? 
 
ILLUSIONS 91 
 
 Love lives but in believing, 
 Peace follows after grieving, 
 And death is only life. 
 
 " All good awaits thy earning, 
 Great souls for light are yearning ; 
 Heaven's lamps are always burning. 
 Bless God there's no returning 
 To our dead and buried past ! " 
 
 As I look at each person that God has created, I 
 am ordered to say, through my commission that is 
 from above, that the very fact that you live is an 
 ordination from Heaven and an installation over a 
 trust that is perpetual ; that, by the grace of the Al- 
 mighty helping, you are put in charge over your- 
 selves, and you must render an account of your 
 stewardship. 
 
 Wordsworth says, "Oft in my way have I stood 
 still, though but a casual passenger, so much I felt 
 the awfulness of life"; and Holmes exclaims, "Life, 
 as we call it, is nothing but the edge of the boundless 
 ocean of existence, where it comes upon soundings." 
 And Emerson writes, "What is our life but an end- 
 less flight of winged facts or events?" And William 
 Penn tells us, "The truest end of life is to know the 
 life that never ends." And we all remember, I hope, 
 Addison's stirring words, 
 
 " The stars shall fade away, the sun himself grow dim with age, 
 
 and nature sink in years ; 
 But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, 
 Unhurt amidst the war of elements, 
 The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds." 
 
92 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 Thus we see that the greatest minds look upon life as 
 something that cannot be extinguished, cannot float 
 away, and cannot in any way lose its identity, having 
 a birth, but illimitable, immortal, perpetual, respon- 
 sible, and a grand reality forever. 
 
 I know sometimes the anxious father or the troubled 
 mother or the distressed business man, or any one 
 who is for a time unhappy, will, when surrounded by 
 the doubt, difficulty, and danger, exclaim petulantly 
 or sorrowfully or defiantly, "What is the use of 
 life?" But let us not gauge the real opinion of any 
 man, woman, or child, when such are engirdled by 
 deep clouds; for all truth is veiled when the storm is 
 present, and the discontented mood will change with 
 the doubter, when the heavy thunder ceases, when the 
 sharp lightning has gone away, when the fearful 
 showers disappear, for then the sun, full of a blessed 
 light and warmth, will shed a cheerful halo over all 
 creation. 
 
 "What is your life? A vapor." Well, Saint James 
 probably meant that what some people call life is 
 only a mist, that wicked people, forgetting life's dig- 
 nity, power, influence, and perpetuity, make a vapor 
 of it, seemingly fill it with nothing new on its 
 earthly side, or pollute it with sin, or make a mummy 
 of it, or dissolve it in trifles, till its whole history 
 vanishes like smoke, and "Vanity of vanities, all is 
 vanity ! " is written upon it, as its record in the body ; 
 and yet Saint James would have us remember that, 
 even in the most useless life in the flesh, or in the 
 
ILLUSIONS 93 
 
 most corrupt life upon the earth, there is something 
 more than smoke, ashes, vapor, and mist, even a ter- 
 rible fruitfulness on the sad side and a giving out to 
 the world of poison, day by day and hour by hour. 
 Oh would that some lives could be only mist, soon 
 disappearing, or mingling without hurt with other 
 lives, and losing the poison by a fresh combination, 
 and saved from further harm by the new life and 
 birth! for, if this could only be so ordered, some of 
 the fearful results of wrong-doing would be neutral- 
 ized and a noxious harvest would be spared. But 
 God has not so ordered it, at least, for this world; 
 and the wheat and the tares must grow together, and, 
 oh, how frequently the tares spring up and choke the 
 wheat! "What is your life? A vapor." Perhaps 
 Saint James, in putting this close question, meant to 
 address each heart that he could then reach, and also 
 wanted to send a message to all hearts that would ever 
 appear through time and through eternity; and it may 
 be that he desired to say to each and all, What are 
 you making of your life? Nothing, or something? 
 Are we working for God, or for self, or for Satan? 
 Or are we going to sleep, and caring not whether the 
 wheat or tares shall grow, and only crying out for a 
 little more sleep and a little more slumber, too lazy 
 to obey God, too selfish to help man, and too careless 
 to bless our own souls? 
 
 Then, like vapor, shall our powers vanish, our 
 glory disappear, our good influence leave us, our 
 name be unknown, and our life be blasted, like vapor, 
 
94 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 for the talent shall be taken away, and given to some- 
 body else, and other hands shall reap the harvest that 
 might have been ours. Ah, to how many people 
 might we say, with the utmost tenderness, with a 
 great solemnity, with tears, it may be, in our eyes, 
 Think what might have been yours, a body strong, 
 healthy, and beautiful, a mind sparkling with ideas, 
 rich in depth, and massive in power, a soul full of 
 God, lighted up by fires from heaven, and increasing 
 day by day in holiness, hosts of friends rising up and 
 calling you blessed, cheered by your presence, helped 
 by your counsel, and saved by your giving hand! 
 With a promise, too, all the time, sealed by a celes- 
 tial bond, of an immortality that can never be im- 
 peached! Yes, think what you might have been, and 
 then persistently and penitently think of what you 
 are! 
 
 Oh, my friends, how many lives are seemingly 
 wasted on this side of heaven! How many zeroes are 
 found among mortals! how much unreality every- 
 where! How to all of us, as the English writer 
 beautifully expresses it, "The golden moments in the 
 stream of life rush past us, and we are nothing but 
 sand : the angels come to visit us, and we only know 
 them when they are gone"! How very few are to 
 any degree aware of the responsibility of breath! and 
 how many people, even if they do not throw utterly 
 away their powers, are doing what will amount to the 
 same thing, devoting their lives, their abilities, and 
 their possessions simply to the building up of self, 
 
ILLUSIONS 95 
 
 the enthronement of self, and the deification of self, 
 forgetting God, Christ, heaven, and everybody on 
 earth save self, and thus becoming cold, like ice, or 
 hard as lead, or like mummies all the time in the 
 soul! Such lives are not as good as vapor; for vapor 
 will go somewhere and help something, and forget 
 itself, and somehow bless the world. But how shall 
 we escape out of the misty life? For this is the 
 mighty question, after all. Only by obeying the pre- 
 cepts of Jesus, and being helped by the spirit of God, 
 through his Son, day by day and hour by hour; and 
 Mrs. Annie S. Hawks had it right when she said : 
 
 " I need thee every hour, 
 Most gracious Lord ! 
 No tender voice like thine 
 Can peace afford. 
 
 " I need thee every hour : 
 
 Stay thou near by. 
 Temptations lose their power 
 When thou art nigh. 
 
 " I need thee every hour : 
 
 Teach me thy will, 
 And thy rich promises 
 In me fulfil." 
 
 Certainly, the older we grow and the more we see 
 of life and take an active part in the doings of the 
 world, the more and the more are we startled by the 
 apparent instability of events, the thousand and one 
 fluctuations of each year, the sudden changes not to 
 be foreseen or understood, or even managed, that 
 
96 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 greet mortals continually; and everything appears to 
 be built upon a mist, or a vapor, or a dream, and 
 human hopes, plans, and deeds seem to find no place 
 where they can establish an anchor, and all things 
 appear to float into insecurity and nothingness. Yet 
 we are fearfully deceived if we call that which seems 
 just what it seems; and, if we become thoroughly 
 consecrated men and women, we shall find that there 
 is a foundation, and that [the Builder and Maker is 
 God. Let us repeat it again and again. A sure trust 
 in God, an unwavering faith in the teachings of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, a constant sense of the perpetual 
 presence of the Holy Spirit, alone will save us from 
 despair, only will place our feet upon the Everlasting 
 Rock, and will make earth not a vapor and life not a 
 mist and deeds not a dream, but will prove that under- 
 neath us, underneath mind, heart, soul, and body are 
 the Rod, the Staff, and the Rock. When we can say 
 that we are children of God and disciples of Jesus, 
 and travellers toward heaven, then delusion will be 
 gone, and reality will have an eternal birth, and we 
 shall find that all things are working together for 
 good to all souls that are in harmony with the Infi- 
 nite Will. We shall then confess that real life is not 
 a "vapor," but a perpetual power, whose boundary 
 lines eternal ages alone can enclose, and whose possi- 
 ble glory only the great King of kings can fully de- 
 scribe. 
 
IX. 
 THE CORONATION OF FAILURE. 
 
 "Thou shalt not go over." DEUT. xxxiv. (part 4). 
 
 MOSES had a sight of all the blessings that he 
 desired, of the victories towards which his 
 anxieties, labors, suffering, and prayers had turned, 
 -and he looked at the goodly land where he sup- 
 posed that he should be the champion to lead his peo- 
 ple; and then he was told oh bitter disappointment, 
 oh sad trial, oh tremendous punishment, oh heavy 
 shame, oh deep and tantalizing and overwhelming 
 pain! was told, right before the beauty, the glory, 
 and in face of the transcendently happy prospect, 
 "Thou shalt not go over." 
 
 Perhaps at first sight, with transient thought, with 
 excited heart, with wild imagination, with reverence, 
 devotion, and holiness in abeyance, we might ex- 
 claim, Where was the need of his seeing that which 
 he could not obtain? Why was he not allowed to die 
 without the prospect? Why was it said to him, 
 Look, drink in the view, go into raptures, and 
 then right before him thrown the curtain of despair, 
 the drapery of impossibility, and the everlasting ex- 
 clusion? My friends, we must remember that Moses 
 
 U&I7ERSITT 
 
98 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 was denied his great privilege because he had not 
 carried out the will of God to its full extent, because 
 he had failed to obey all the divine commands, be- 
 cause he had placed his own weak will, at times and 
 very many times, against the better will of Almighty 
 God; and now it was necessary for him to see what 
 he had lost, by his disobedience, how into other 
 hands must pass the rewards that his own hands had 
 let slip, how neglect of duty must of necessity bring 
 the deprivation of pleasure, and how no life can do as 
 it may please and yet have all that it wants; but 
 still, although the punishment was great, it had its 
 blessed, holy, and glorious alleviations. His people, 
 or their successors, that he had loved so dearly, 
 served so long, and pleaded for so disinterestedly, 
 were not to be set aside; his work was not to come 
 to naught ; his plans were not to be frustrated ; his 
 struggles, anxieties, pains, and agonies were to have 
 a fruitage in the joy of those for whom his soul had 
 writhed: only he himself, and a few others on the 
 earthly side, were to be excluded, shut down, shut 
 out, denied, and dismissed without the prize. 
 
 On the earthly side he paid the penalty, and here 
 is a great thought : he, after acknowledging his sins 
 and giving himself to God, was to pass on to a better 
 work; he was to be lifted to a truer discipline; he 
 was to be promoted to a more joyous service and sum- 
 moned to a real Canaan, to the pardon, the cleansing, 
 and the coronation of Almighty God. Only one side 
 of his nature was debarred, stricken, mortified, and 
 
THE CORONATION OF FAILURE 99 
 
 marked a failure; but his real life was let alone, 
 undisturbed, forgiven, and blessed. And this scene 
 is a grand photograph of the experience of us all, and 
 a little reflection upon it and a cordial application of 
 it will do none of us any harm. "Thou shalt not go 
 over." Well, we all, like Moses, have plans of life, 
 good or bad or indifferent, created by the imagi- 
 nation or by the judgment, or by both, fostered with 
 great care, watched over with deep anxiety, carried 
 forward with enthusiasm, prayed over constantly, har- 
 rowing mind and heart, using up days and nights and 
 years, the one sole purpose of our will, the great, 
 the absorbing, the all-controlling, and the tremendous 
 dream of our earthly lives, to which we dedicate our 
 hands, our time, everything that we have, and towards 
 the accomplishment of which we rapidly approach, 
 dreams, plans, visions, that seem almost to have their 
 blessed fulfilment, the fruits of which are dropping 
 into our hands, ripe, attractive, and splendid, when 
 it is said, "Thou shalt not go over," and the vision 
 vanishes, and the great work of our lives is shattered, 
 despoiled, and upset. 
 
 Then what protests, what sighs, what groans, what 
 rebellion, and what utter discontent and despair! 
 We do not hear that Moses said a word : he took his 
 doom in silence; he did not lift up his finger to 
 object; he went to his fate with resignation, peace, 
 and a perfect submission. But with us how often it 
 is otherwise ! We forget our God, we deny our Re- 
 deemer, we cover ourselves with sackcloth and ashes, 
 
IOO SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 and our whole nature is poisoned, disabled, and 
 upset; and yet, like Moses, we have our compensa- 
 tions, if we will only look at them, weigh them, 
 appropriate them, and glorify them. 
 
 It is something that we have marched right up to 
 a victory, close up to it, within the borders of it, 
 even if we have not grasped it ; for that we have gone 
 so far is really a solid proof, a very strong indorse- 
 ment, a sure expression, and a mighty hint of great 
 labors heroically endured, of large sufferings splen- 
 didly met, of daring aspirations bravely nurtured, 
 such as only a resolute mind, a stalwart soul, and an 
 active hand could possibly display. Nay, to have 
 reached the very verge of accomplishment is a great 
 accomplishment of itself, and proves, indeed, very 
 many superior qualities of character, so that even just 
 missing the mark is a sign of a man of mark, or of a 
 woman of mark, or of a child of wonderful powers; 
 and losing the prize is not always the terrible thing 
 that many so thoughtlessly consider it. 
 
 You tell me that he or she failed, that they almost 
 reached the point desired, and then dropped, ham- 
 pered by sickness, conquered by suffering, smothered 
 by overwork, or chilled by death; and you add, 
 What a cruel shame, what an untimely dispensa- 
 tion, what a fearful loss ! I say, Look on the other 
 side, give credit for what has been done, and do not 
 mark zero on all the steps gained, do not call a blank 
 the acquired powers, do not thrust into obscurity that 
 which has been almost a success and thank God that 
 
IHK CORONATION OF FAILURE IOI 
 
 the disappointed ones did so well as far as they 
 went, which is very much better in a good effort than 
 if they had never started in the race. Many per- 
 sons to-day worship success, altogether too much, label 
 success as the real possession of the prize, and forget 
 all about the spiritual diamonds, pearls, and rubies 
 that are picked up all along on the road to victory. 
 The seemingly disappointed ones may not have ob- 
 tained that for which they aimed; but in the very 
 efforts that they have made they may have reached a 
 maturity of character that is surprising, charming, 
 and glorious. 
 
 Again, it is a great thing to be allowed to stand 
 on Mt. Nebo and to look at the promised land; 
 for the next thing to having is gazing, and gazing is 
 freed from all the responsibility of possession. If we 
 cannot go to Europe, we can obtain the most perfect 
 photographs of all the leading cities, the splendid 
 monuments, the glorious paintings, the massive build- 
 ings, and all things beautiful, grand, and striking; 
 and we can do all this without being sick at sea, 
 without paying large bills, without fatigue, depres- 
 sion, and loss of much time, so that next to going 
 abroad is a good, a long, a loving, a happy, a genial, 
 and an inspiring look at pictures of the other side of 
 the world. 
 
 If we cannot own a glorious estate, with its ponds, 
 its parks, its statues, its conservatories, and all its 
 beauties, we have eyes that can see it, a soul that can 
 appreciate it, and lungs that can breathe its pure air, 
 
102 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 without paying the taxes on it, and without enduring 
 the thousand worries in the care of it. 
 
 Yes, it is a great privilege to look at a prize, even 
 although it may never be ours; for it is surely ours, 
 if we are in the true mood, by sight, insight, faith, 
 trust, and love, in the true mood to appreciate, meas- 
 ure, and appropriate it. 
 
 Yes, we may own the world if we only have a heart 
 large enough to take in the world, and to make it 
 ours through taste, through imagination, and through 
 holy appreciation. 
 
 Of course, to what we have said there must be 
 some decided qualifications. If, like Moses, we have 
 failed of our victory because we have disobeyed God's 
 laws, then in the sight of the prize we certainly are 
 filled with remorse, grief, and disappointment; and 
 yet, even then, I maintain, we ought to thank God for 
 the glimpse of what we might have been. In one of 
 our albums of characters, where each one writes a 
 reply to certain questions that are stated, this answer 
 is given to the query, "What are the saddest words? " 
 namely, "It might have been." 
 
 In one sense it was a good reply, but in a higher 
 sense it was a mistake; for I maintain that what 
 might be, although it never has been, is one of the 
 massive seals to God's great goodness, one of the best 
 pledges of our own possible royalty, one of the glori- 
 ous proofs of our immortality, one of the holy testi- 
 monies for eternity. For, if we have a possible, who 
 is to stop us from some day reaching it? What we 
 
THE CORONATION OF FAILURE 103 
 
 cannot do here may we not do somewhere, and is not 
 the possible a grand excelsior cry to all humanity and 
 the bugle-note that should stir up all hearts? 
 
 When Moses went up the mountain of Nebo, at the 
 top of Pisgah, looked at Gilead, Dan, Naphtali, 
 Ephraim, Manasseh, Judah, and Jericho, and Zoar, 
 almost in his hand, and yet never to be really his 
 property, I think that what might have been, al- 
 though a deprivation, was yet a glory: it was the full 
 bursting out of the possible grandeur that mere human 
 beings could obtain by a strict obedience to the will 
 of Almighty God. 
 
 I wonder what sort of a biography might be written 
 of each one of us if we only were to-day what we 
 all might have been. Might have been if we had 
 only just turned a different corner, just kept down a 
 hasty word, just been true to our best impulses, just 
 put aside a great temptation, just practised a little 
 self-restraint, just had a little more courage; if we 
 had curbed our ambition or smothered our pride or 
 cleansed our imagination; if only some little thing 
 had been different ; if our parents had not met with 
 misfortune or had not passed away when we needed 
 their advice; if husband or wife had been just the 
 opposite to what they are, or children or brothers or 
 sisters had taken a different course, what we might 
 have been. Again, I say, look on the other side. 
 Thank God through our Lord Jesus for what you have 
 gained, for the strength that has come through depri- 
 vation, for the mere outlook upon what might have 
 
104 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 been. So, my friends, with us all, as we look from 
 Nebo upon rewards not ours, it is something, it is a 
 great deal, it is a magnificent glory, that they might 
 have been ours; and it is a hint of what may yet be 
 ours if, through a true penitence, a holy resignation, 
 a divine peace, we bow before the ordinances of the 
 Eternal God. This leads us to the thought that we 
 would repeat again and again, that, although Moses 
 did not get the grand prize that bathed his eyes, he 
 yet, by true penitence, obtained something better: he 
 fell asleep, and entered the "City of the New Jerusa- 
 lem," the promised land for all consecrated souls. 
 
 So with all mortals: we may not get what we want, 
 what we expect, that for which we have diligently 
 worked, may not reach the height of our ambition, 
 the dream of our life, the aim of all our hopes, and 
 our life vision may vanish; yet we may, by giving 
 ourselves up to God, attain unto something much 
 more grand. The earthly Canaan may fade away; 
 but the heavenly Canaan is at hand, where no disap- 
 pointment comes, where no pain is felt, where all 
 agony is finished, where all growth is possible, and 
 where all joy is without limit. Moses went to God; 
 and thus his struggles were ended, his trials were fin- 
 ished, his responsibility was closed, and his real 
 victory was attained. And so all consecrated lives 
 that go to God have reached the victory, although 
 the earthly record may seem unfinished, rough, and 
 strangely mixed up or broken off at the moment of a 
 beautiful completion, and other hands may reap the 
 
THE CORONATION OF FAIU'KK 105 
 
 fruits that seemingly belonged to those who have 
 gone away. 
 
 This brings us to a very important part of what 
 ought to be called one of the blessings of Moses : that 
 he, the prophet, was able to know that his work was 
 not really in vain; that he was assured that his people 
 or their successors should finally obtain all the re- 
 wards, the comforts, the peace, the honors, the victo- 
 ries, and the gains for which he had in their behalf 
 prayed, struggled, and worked; that, although he 
 failed to reach his earthly mark, his loved ones, or 
 their children or their children's children, should be 
 benefited; and he could say, with a sweet comfort, 
 a holy peace, and a joyous exultation, My labors are 
 not lost. 
 
 Thus, my friends, can we in a like situation rejoice 
 for this holy land before our prospect shall belong to 
 somebody and, it may be, come into the hands of 
 those that we love: we may fail, but they shall 
 endure; we may drop the oars, but somebody else 
 shall pick them up, and there shall be a final triumph. 
 And this fact is the real glorification of all work; for 
 every blow tells, every pain has an echo, and all good 
 things shall have a plenteous harvest. Blessed be 
 God! What matter whether you or I pick up the 
 results of our endeavors, reap the advantages of our 
 prayers, are crowned as victors in the battle, if we are 
 only the pioneers to victory, if we only clear the way, 
 open the road, knock down the obstructions, and make 
 it easier for somebody else? 
 
106 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 A zero by itself is not much; but a zero in its 
 proper place, doing its right work, patiently main- 
 taining its position, helps make ten, helps make one 
 hundred, helps to make an infinity of numbers, and, 
 although the zero may never take the prize by itself, 
 some of the figures that it has helped will take the 
 prize, and all owing to what that poor, little, and 
 insignificant zero has accomplished.^/ So, in this way 
 of looking at the matter, we may be sure that no true 
 soul ever fails, that every noble effort tells, and that 
 victory somewhere is the sure award of a consecrated 
 toil. 
 
 "Thou shalt not go over." Did we ever stop to 
 think that not one of those noble men who signed the 
 Declaration of Independence ever went over to the 
 full possession of the grand results of which their 
 daring signatures were the precious seed that was cast 
 into the ground? 
 
 Of course, they lived to see their country acknowl- 
 edged by the other Powers in the world ; they came 
 under the canopy of the stately recognition of the 
 hesitating, critical, and irritable King of England; 
 they marched into the full splendor of a government 
 established and in working order; they beheld thir- 
 teen States interlocking arms and bowing to a central 
 Power that was but faintly understood. But they 
 lived only long enough to bask in the twilight of the 
 grandeur that was to come. They had no panorama 
 of the United States of to-day : they could hardly have 
 dreamed of the present power and wealth and culture 
 
THK CORONATION OF FAILURE 107 
 
 of the nation at this hour, a nation whose flag is 
 respected in every country and whose scholarship and 
 statesmanship and acquired authority call out the 
 admiration and the respect of the world. 
 
 Take the photograph of our country as the United 
 States looked when the Declaration of Independence 
 was signed, and close to it place the photograph of 
 the United States as they appear to-day; and the con- 
 trast will be sublime. 
 
 Now look at our Master. If we judge his work 
 on the earthly side, merely by human measurement, 
 according to the laws of a strictly mathematical repu- 
 tation, as such life has within its circumference only 
 the three years of active manhood, we shall have to 
 exclaim, His plans failed, his labors were cut off, all 
 his exertions faded into thin air; and, instead of the 
 crown that he deserved, he had to take a cross. 
 Well, if our vision be limited to three years only, 
 to the Holy Land for that time and to ancient records 
 alone of that day, our judgment, however sad, is 
 true. But, thanks be to Almighty God, although 
 Jesus Christ did not pass over to the acceptance of 
 the Jews and to the welcome of the Romans, did not 
 conquer the world in his own clay, did not obtain the 
 high honors that he deserved in the temple, only 
 had a view from Pisgah, yet the reward came, the 
 glory was sure, the conquest grand ; and, measured by 
 the circuit of eternity, he becomes the appointed 
 Head, Judge, and Redeemer of the world. And his 
 life teaches us that we are not to measure our lives by 
 
108 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 minutes, hours, and days, but by revolving centuries 
 and by eternal years. 
 Sears says : 
 
 " O bright ideals, how ye shine, 
 
 Aloft in realms of air ! 
 Ye pour your streams of light divine 
 
 Above our low despair. 
 I've climbed and climbed these weary years, 
 
 To come your glories nigh. 
 I'm tired of climbing, and in tears 
 
 Here on the earth I lie. 
 
 " Ah ! this one thought of hope and trust 
 
 Comes with its soothing balm, 
 As here I lay my brow in dust, 
 
 And breathe my lowly psalm, 
 That not for heights of victory won, 
 
 But those I tried to gain, 
 Will come my gracious Lord's ' Well done ! ' 
 
 And sweet, effacing rain." 
 
X. 
 
 DISCONTENT. 
 
 "Oh that I had wings like a dove." Ps. Iv. 6. 
 
 THE Psalmist wanted to get into a better place 
 and into a higher place, and into a locality 
 outside of temptation, care, and struggle, where he 
 could grow, grow fast, have no pullbacks, and feel 
 himself rising, rising, and forever rising up to Al- 
 mighty God. Well, it was a natural feeling for him 
 to indulge, and one which falls into some of our 
 moods to-day; and I would not interpret it, as some 
 do, as wholly weariness on his part. But I would 
 call it an aspiration for a higher level; for, in events, 
 opportunities, and achievements, we would all of us 
 like to fly, if we could, into certainty, victory, peace, 
 and glory. 
 
 Some feel at times that life is terribly tame, the 
 harp of experience giving its music all on one string, 
 and duty fastened to one groove, expectation running 
 into well-known paths, and everything marked out 
 instead of being forced out or thrust unexpectedly 
 upon us. Ella Wheeler Wilcox says something like 
 this: 
 
110 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 " The current of life runs ever away 
 
 To the bosom of God's great ocean. 
 Don't set your force 'gainst the river's course, 
 
 And think to alter its motion. 
 Don't waste a curse on the universe, 
 
 Remember it lived before you. 
 Don't push at the storm with your puny form, 
 
 But bend and let it go o'er you. 
 
 " The whole will never adjust itself 
 
 To suit your whims to the letter. 
 Some things must go wrong your whole life long ; 
 
 And the sooner you know it, the better. 
 It is folly to fight with the Infinite 
 
 And go under at last in the wrestle. 
 The wise man shapes into God's plan, 
 
 And close unto God's goodness will nestle." 
 
 But still the student wants to be in Athens, the 
 dreaming girl at the court of Queen Elizabeth, the 
 martial spirit back in the crusades ; and a great many 
 want to be anywhere but where they are, because 
 where they are seems like the same tread in the mill 
 all the time. To a certain extent this dissatisfac- 
 tion, this sense of unrest, and this dreadful sensi- 
 tiveness are promising, healthy, and prophetic; for 
 the one who is not content with the present will per- 
 haps make a time, by the grace of Almighty God, 
 that shall be holy, bright, and beautiful, and such 
 a one will force blessedness out of the future. That 
 we are not satisfied is sometimes a great thing; for 
 then our ideas are quickened, our reason is purified, 
 
DISCONTENT III 
 
 our judgment is cleansed, and our whole nature is 
 elevated, strengthened, and redeemed. 
 
 Aspiration, when it keeps aloof from ambition, 
 frees itself from pride, abstains from vain and empty 
 desire, and allies itself to the will of Almighty God, 
 is that which makes every man, woman, and child 
 better, holier, safer, and is the power that regenerates 
 the world. 
 
 Why, without aspiration, dreaming, impatient de- 
 sire, and holy determination, the world would go back 
 to the days of Genesis, and all the glory of to-day 
 would be lost. Yet, sometimes, when we long for 
 wings to circumstances, we ought to be satisfied with 
 things as they are; for excitement, novelty, and tre- 
 mendous changes, without a pause, would be a heavy 
 curse to the race, wiping out all observation, putting 
 an end to established facts, and making life like a 
 throw of dice or a game of chance, haphazard, un- 
 certain, and balanced all the time on volcanoes and 
 on earthquakes that are terrible to conceive. There 
 must be in this life a great deal of calm, steady effort 
 and slow progress, in order that, when the storm 
 comes, it may be appreciated; for, if it were always 
 stormy weather, real growth would cease, signal 
 lights would be of no avail, harbor lines would be 
 dashed away, and navigation would end. Do you tell 
 me, young man and young woman, that your life is 
 tame, that you see nothing grand in life, that day 
 after day and week after week you hear the same 
 sounds, do the same things, seemingly bring nothing 
 
112 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 to pass, and that you long for something, even a 
 tempest, if the routine could be only broken and a 
 new turn given to the tide of your destiny? Ah! my 
 friends, you are craving a terrible - gift that you will 
 not be able to bear. You greatly misunderstand and 
 underrate your present ability, and you make alto- 
 gether too little of that which you now possess. For 
 action is not to be developed from without, but from 
 within; and our growth is silently going on in the 
 soul from seeds that are planted by the grace of the 
 Almighty. 
 
 But I am ready to admit that wings are very con- 
 venient if we only know how to use them; but we 
 must remember that not one in a thousand, if they 
 had wings, could fly: they would only flutter and flut- 
 ter, and then they would fall to the ground utterly 
 exhausted. 
 
 With mortals the law is very different from what 
 it is with the birds. A bird, in a very little while, 
 by instinct, learns to sail in the air with great beauty, 
 -perhaps aided at first by maternal solicitude; but 
 in mortal beings the real force, the true struggle, and 
 the mighty energy must be inward, or else all the 
 outward wings in the world will be of no possible 
 avail. Ah! there must be wings to the soul and to 
 the heart and to the mind, or we can never fly. 
 
 Have you not read the words of some of our great 
 thinkers concerning action? Hear what a few of the 
 best minds say. Whittier exclaims, "Speak out in 
 acts: the time for words is passed, and deeds alone 
 
DISCONTENT 113 
 
 suffice." Adam Clarke writes, "I have lived to 
 know that the secret of happiness is never to allow 
 your energies to stagnate." And the great writer of 
 England tells us, "Let us take the instant by the 
 forward top; for we are old, and over our quickest 
 decrees the inaudible and noiseless foot of time steals 
 ere we can effect them." Ah! my friends, to a great 
 extent we must make our excitements, create our sur- 
 prises, and cause the hours of the day to scintillate 
 with honor and with glory ; for it is only as we strike 
 the iron at white heat that we can bend it to our best 
 will. 
 
 Longfellow says : 
 
 " We have not wings, we cannot soar ; 
 
 But we have feet to scale and climb 
 By slow degrees, by more and more, 
 The cloudy summits of our time. 
 
 " The heights by great men reached and kept 
 
 Were not attained by sudden flight ; 
 
 But they, while their companions slept, 
 
 Were toiling upward in the night." 
 
 This brings us to our second point, that the 
 wings of opportunity are desired, and yet, by the 
 brave spirit, they are made almost out of nothing. I 
 have no chance, say many a man and many a woman : 
 only give me the chance, and I will be a hero or a 
 heroine, and the echoes of my deeds shall bound down 
 the generations. No chance! Ah! you are wofully 
 deceived; for you have the same right of way as 
 Galileo or Copernicus or Columbus or Webster or 
 
114 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 Everett, or as any of the great men and women that 
 have lighted up the centuries. And all you have to 
 do is to open your eyes, unstop your ears, brace up 
 your soul, stretch out your hands, and give up de- 
 spair; and then your time will come. 
 
 Oh that you had wings ! Why, you have wings, if 
 you will only see them; and all you have to do is to 
 look them up, to put them on, and to use them. 
 "Take," says one, "all the swift advantage of the 
 hours"; and still another eloquently cries out, "The 
 best men are not those who have waited for chances, 
 but who have taken them, besieged the chance, con- 
 quered the chance, and made the chance their servi- 
 tor." All that we need is to be up and doing, with 
 a clear head, with a warm soul, with an earnest en- 
 deavor, and all will be well. 
 
 Sitting still, grumbling, and Micawber-like "wait- 
 ing for something to turn up," will amount to noth- 
 ing; but we must arise and go hence, go to our 
 duty, march to our destiny, and bring about a glorious 
 victory. 
 
 Again, we wish that our achievements had more 
 wings ; that is, we want whatever we do to be more 
 widely known, and we want all the time to be doing 
 something that shall make a report here and always. 
 Well, perhaps that which we are now doing, mean as 
 it seems to us, lowly, obscured, quiet, and dull, 
 perhaps that, even that, is now sounding a glorious 
 report in the City of the New Jerusalem. Yes, that, 
 even that, is forming gradually the golden wings that 
 
DISCONTENT 115 
 
 will be given to us as we enter heaven; and we shall 
 discover that what we thought little was mighty, 
 beautiful, and transcendently glorious before all the 
 angels of God. 
 
 There is a beautiful legend connected with the site 
 on which the temple of Solomon was erected. It is 
 said to have been occupied in common by two 
 brothers, one of whom had a family; but the other 
 had none. On the spot was a field of wheat. On the 
 evening succeeding the harvest the wheat, having 
 been gathered in sheaves, the elder brother said to his 
 wife: "My younger brother is unable to bear the 
 burden of the heat of the day. I will arise, take off 
 a part of my shocks, and place them with his, without 
 his knowledge." The younger brother, being actu- 
 ated by the same benevolent motives, said within 
 himself: "My elder brother has a family, and I have 
 none. I will contribute to their support. I will 
 arise, take off a part of my shocks, and place them 
 with his, without his knowledge." Judge of their 
 astonishment, when, on the following morning, they 
 found that their respective shocks were undiminished. 
 This course of events transpired for several nights, 
 when each resolved in his own mind to stand guard, 
 and, if possible, solve the mystery. They did so, 
 when, on the following night, they met each other 
 half-way between their respective shocks, with their 
 arms full. Now, neither of these brothers thought 
 much of the deed that was done; yet up in heaven 
 such a thing is recorded, and there it will shine more 
 
Il6 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 and more unto the perfect day. If what we do to-day 
 be done from a right spirit, from a holy motive, and 
 with an earnest purpose, without complaint and with- 
 out rest, as due to God, Christ, and man, it can- 
 not be small, it can never be wholly concealed, and 
 it is filled with glory, honor, power, beauty, and 
 redemption. 
 
 Do not tell me that you are doing nothing, that you 
 are of no account in this great world, and that your 
 life is a failure; for, if you are doing all that you 
 can do, the reverberation of your deeds will roll with 
 a splendid beauty throughout eternal ages. And, if 
 you are not doing what you are perfectly able to 
 do, why, then, wake up at once and do better, and 
 fill out the full measure of your high calling. But, 
 by all means, never stand still disconsolate, disheart- 
 ened, and fearfully cast down, crying out perpetually 
 for wings; but just take the wings that are right 
 before you, and put them on and fly. Some people 
 want to get away from the place where they are, and 
 so they cry out for "wings"; but, unless they can get 
 into God's kingdom, are they sure that the change 
 will do them any good, and will they not find troubles 
 anywhere and everywhere? Then, again, while they 
 are in this discontented state, are they really quite 
 ready for heaven? Will not their distrust of God 
 cast a shade somewhat upon their white robes? I 
 know that we are all apt to think that we should have 
 been better, and that we should have done better, if 
 God had only placed us somewhere else, or if he 
 
DISCONTENT I if 
 
 could only now just change our situation. No such 
 thing I We are very much mistaken; for we can be 
 heroes and heroines where we are, and we can take up 
 our red-hot balls of discipline, and, by a tremendous 
 exertion, by a chemical application, and by the 
 mighty grace of God, we can change them into spirit- 
 ual rubies, diamonds, pearls, and everything beauti- 
 ful. What we really want is a fresh baptism of the 
 Holy Spirit, and then we can gain the "wings" that 
 are made of faith, trust, love, and a deep and an 
 unswerving devotion. 
 
 "Oh that I had wings like a dove!" I suppose 
 that the dove would say, could it only speak, "Oh 
 that I had feet just like the feet of a man!" and 
 then I would accomplish something great and good, 
 and I would move the world. Poor dove! It has 
 wings, and it wants feet. Poor man ! He has feet, 
 and he wants wings. Each is craving what the other 
 has, when both, by making the best use of what is 
 given, will rise to a true glory. 
 
 But the dove, better than the man, does its level 
 best, and acts out its full nature. 
 
 So let it be with us! It is not necessary for us to 
 fly; but it is necessary for us to walk on steadily 
 through life, turning neither to the right nor to the 
 left, keeping an eye upon God, holding the hand of 
 Christ, and helping in all ways our fellow-men. 
 And we should be forever assured that the least we 
 can do is great if glorified by Heaven. 
 
 Near the rocky harbor of New York a little babe 
 
Il8 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 touched the key by which an explosion occurred that 
 shook the city and freed the sea of encumbrances and 
 injured no one. 
 
 So even a babe may do wonders. 
 
 One has thus beautifully told the story: 
 
 " A touch of a baby's finger, 
 
 And the awful force outleapt, 
 And crumbled the granite mountain 
 That the swelling seas o'erswept. 
 
 " At touch of a baby's finger 
 
 Many a heart of rock, 
 Whelmed in the bitterest of waters, 
 Parts as to earthquake's shock. 
 
 " The ancient bowlder burst 
 
 'Neath the touch of the prophet's rod, 
 But the touch of a baby's finger 
 Is the force that is nearest God." 
 
 But, my friends, do not think that I have not 
 spoken enough, all the time that I have been speak- 
 ing, about the grace of God, the love of the blessed 
 Redeemer, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the 
 help which alone prevails that comes down from 
 Heaven. Do not think I for a moment believe that 
 any man, by his own unaided strength, can climb to 
 success, master the world, and attain eternal glory; 
 that any dreams or exertion or consecration will be 
 triumphant without the rod and staff of the Almighty. 
 Oh, no! The wings of the dove will avail nothing, 
 unless those wings are filled, uplifted, and glorified 
 
DISCONTENT 
 
 by the gales that are sent from the celestial city; 
 and, when those gales are sent, the tiniest power will 
 send its report through time and through eternity. 
 When we become children of God, disciples of Jesus, 
 and cleansed by the Holy Ghost, we can do all needed 
 things, attain all gracious success, and receive at 
 least the crown that is prepared for us above. Glory 
 be to God! 
 
XI. 
 
 LOOKING TO THE FUTURE. 
 
 " I will fetch my knowledge from afar." JOB xxxvi. 3. 
 
 IT is a great thing to understand the past, it is a 
 still greater thing to weigh rightly the present ; 
 but it is the mark of the best wisdom when we can 
 see "afar off," when the experience of the past and 
 the discipline of the present, by the aid of a wise and 
 a holy mind and soul, can give to one a map of the 
 future so lighted up that no day will be a surprise, 
 but that all days will be rightly met, conquered, and 
 glorified. 
 
 Historians are useful, diary writers are important, 
 but seers are best of all ; for they take hold of history 
 and grasp the events of to-day, and thus get a chart 
 for all days, for all time, and for all eternity. The 
 old sayings, "What has been will be" and "There is 
 no new thing under the sun," although so often re- 
 peated, commended, and looked upon as the truest 
 philosophy, are only the birth of lazy thinking, of 
 seared affections, and of a stunted soul ; for the real 
 spiritual hero or heroine believes in growth, and in a 
 growth that has a law, a root, a trunk, a stem, and a 
 flower, but no root, no trunk, no stem, and no flower 
 precisely like any other. 
 
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE 121 
 
 "I will fetch my knowledge from afar." 
 I am aware that a great many writers insist upon it 
 that it is not well to see afar off; that we are to live 
 by the day, and not by the years ; that long views are 
 a mistake; that burrowing into coming hours is an 
 impertinence; and that thinking of anything but the 
 present duty is a folly not approved and a crime 
 before God. And such quote for their authority the 
 words that certainly at first sight seem to be unan- 
 swerable, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil 
 thereof " ; " Take no thought for the morrow, for the 
 morrow will take thought for itself " ; and yet these 
 words, rightly understood, will be found to be only 
 a protest against undue anxiety, and are no anathema 
 against a prudent foresight, since, in another place 
 of Holy Writ, it is said, " Gather up the fragments 
 that remain, that nothing be lost " ; and that cer- 
 tainly means, Look ahead and provide for contingen- 
 cies. We must, then, all of us, to a certain extent, 
 look "afar off," the boy or the girl to the time 
 when manhood or womanhood will come; the young 
 man or the woman to the time of mid-life; those 
 in mid-life to the time of old age; and all to the 
 kingdom of God, where all true souls shall be 
 gathered. 
 
 Let us look at this matter a little closely. I know 
 very well the old sayings, Be a boy while you are 
 a boy, be a girl while you are a girl ; and stop look- 
 ing afar off into that manhood and womanhood which 
 will be well enough when revealed, but are not now 
 
122 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 to be the matter of a thought or a dream or a wish. 
 And there is a wisdom, to a certain extent, in such 
 thoughts as these; for what is the use of being 
 troubled about the roof of a house before the corner- 
 stone is laid, or why should we talk about the steeple 
 of a church before the ground is dug on which that 
 church is to be built? There is a great deal of an- 
 ticipation that is a heavy clog to the wheels of prog- 
 ress, that excites the mind unduly, that casts a cloud 
 upon the heart, that will send a paralysis to effort, 
 upset all discipline, and vitiate all culture. In fact, 
 I think that half of those whom we call our stunted 
 men and women came to that disaster by playing the 
 game of men and women years before the right time, 
 and by usurping an authority that was never conferred 
 by God or by man. And the most rebellious children 
 at home and disobedient pupils at school are those 
 who in their childhood pretend to be full grown; for 
 such, feeling that they know everything, have very 
 little that they can learn, and they rebel against 
 order, studies, and everything except their own sweet 
 will. But, after making all these concessions, I still 
 insist upon it that boys or girls must look "afar off"; 
 and only as they do so look will they rightly attain 
 their true growth. 
 
 The posture of the mind and the soul seems to me 
 to be just this, if expressed in words : " I am a boy or 
 I am a girl with much to learn, with many faults, 
 subject to improvement, advice, and correction in the 
 preliminary stage of formation; but I shall be, before 
 
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE 123 
 
 many years, a man or a woman, a free agent, ac- 
 knowledged by the law as a personality freed from all 
 guardianship, responsible to myself, to the commu- 
 nity, and to God, for myself and my doings; and now 
 I must get thoroughly prepared for life's grand apoca- 
 lypse." And the difference between the false looking 
 ahead and the true gaze is really expressed under the 
 two words "assumption" and "consecration." 
 
 The young person that assumes, dictates, and puts 
 on airs, becomes an offence, sends a jar to the heart, 
 and calls out our righteous indignation; but the 
 young person that is truly consecrated, while looking 
 at the days that are to come, is humble, docile, pa- 
 tient, serious, and calls out our deepest love. 
 
 Again, the young man or woman must look forward 
 to the time when life will be half spent, when the 
 eye sees not so well, the ear hears not so quickly, 
 motion is not quite so vigorous, nor imagination 
 quite so glowing, when judgment is ripened and hope 
 somewhat depressed. 
 
 It would not do for young men and women to feel 
 that youth is a perpetuity, that strength can never 
 fail, and that all things are just as they seem. I 
 know that a great many persons say : Let the delusion 
 go on till a crash shall come. Let a sharp experience, 
 the best master of all, be the first revealer of the 
 changes of life. Never let anticipation be clouded, 
 nor dreams be broken, nor the blue sky eclipsed; but, 
 from twenty-one to forty, let every one, of all sexes, 
 build their castles in the air without a protest or a 
 
124 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 challenge or a denial. And, to some extent, the ad- 
 vice is good. 
 
 Take a peach-tree full of blossoms, and suppose that 
 it could understand the human voice, what would be 
 the use of saying to it : A great many of your blos- 
 soms will fall to the ground, and some of the peaches 
 that will be given to you will be hard, and but very 
 little of your fruit will be worth possessing? No, 
 no! Let the peach-tree go on, and do what it can, 
 and learn by time its life of gains or failures; but 
 yet, could we not say to that peach-tree, Your blos- 
 soms are beautiful and fragrant : they anoint the air, 
 they charm the eye, and they bless the heart. And 
 now do what you can to turn all your promises into 
 performance; but do not be discouraged if a part of 
 your plan be broken, for the glory of the holiest 
 growth comes through self-sacrifice, and we must all 
 do our best and leave results to the appointment of a 
 power wiser than our own. But change the peach- 
 tree into a young man or woman, and would it not be 
 better that such a one in this way should glorify the 
 future ? 
 
 Again, those in mid-life must consider the time of 
 old age. I am aware that this time is often looked 
 upon with great reluctance, shame, and agony; as 
 inevitable, but a curse; as a doom, but a tragedy; as 
 a dark cloud rising in the distance. And in no such 
 way as this would I lead your thoughts ; for I never 
 could conceive how so many shrink back from increas- 
 ing years, and try to forget and make others forget 
 
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE 125 
 
 that they are at hand, and sometimes deny the time 
 that has been passed by them, and cling to an assumed 
 youth as a positive benediction. No, no! I never 
 could understand this hanging back; for all through 
 my own life I have looked forward to old age with 
 delight, have welcomed it in advance, have almost 
 challenged it to approach, have seen its manifold 
 blessings and have placed out of sight all its accom- 
 panying weaknesses, and have said to myself, How 
 beautiful it will be when I shall become old, when I 
 shall be counted among the patriarchs, when I shall 
 look back over a long vista of years, and look forward 
 to the eternal years that are so near and so blessed ! 
 Not that I have wished for any longer life than the 
 good Father desired to give to me; but I have made 
 up my mind simply that old age, were it given, would 
 be a benediction, of course, if given with a moder- 
 ate amount of health, with a clear mind, and with 
 shelter and food sufficient for the support and the 
 comfort of the body. But all these material comforts 
 should be left cheerfully to the will of God. But, 
 again, I say all, in the true way, should consider the 
 time of old age that may come, and should make pro- 
 visions for the same, that body, mind, and soul may 
 then be reasonably comfortable, happy, and full of 
 peace. 
 
 Let us not spend our strength too fast, for it may 
 be wanted as a reserve. Let us not starve our mind ; 
 for by and by good thoughts will be a help, when eye- 
 sight fails and friends are but few. Let us build up 
 
126 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 a Christian character, and feed the soul with right- 
 eousness by the grace of God; for there may be a 
 future for us in this earth when our only support will 
 be our faith, our only comfort our prayers, and our 
 only glory our consecration. 
 
 Ay, in this way we all should so look afar off, and 
 prepare for that which is coming. 
 
 I may be old, said one to me, and I am saving a 
 little ahead in case that time should come; for I do 
 not want to be a burden to anybody. And he was 
 right; and we all should carry this rule out in all 
 directions, and put by a supply, financial, physical, 
 mental, and spiritual. And, then, we shall never be 
 taken by surprise, and can always stand up, God and 
 Christ helping us. 
 
 Finally, friends, we must all look afar off to the 
 kingdom of God, where at last all faithful souls will 
 be gathered. There is such a thing as dwelling too 
 much upon heaven, so that the duties at hand are put 
 aside, forgotten, and despised; for it is a solemn fact 
 that, while we live upon the earth, we must pay some 
 attention to the duties of every day. Otherwise, our 
 real spiritual life will be terribly discrowned. 
 
 He who will not care for himself and for his 
 family, said the holy writer, is worse than an infidel ; 
 and there are a great many people who justify their 
 neglect of home and business on the grounds that they 
 must give their whole time to the Church and to 
 Heaven, but they make a sad mistake. 
 
 We have our duties to God, and they must not be 
 
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE 127 
 
 forgotten; but also we have our obligations to each 
 other and to ourselves, obligations that Almighty 
 God himself has imposed upon us, and he, the Infi- 
 nite One, will call us to account if, on the ground of 
 extra holiness, we ignore the work of life. Yet the 
 trouble is not so much with those who think too much 
 of spiritual matters and of eternal realities as it is 
 with those who give but very little thought, if any, to 
 anything of the kind. We must look afar off, into 
 the City of God, where we shall some day go; and it 
 would be very sad indeed if we were found there with- 
 out the wedding garment. In fact, the great rule for 
 all of us may be condensed in a very few words; 
 namely, prepare for manhood or womanhood, prepare 
 for mid-life, prepare for old age, prepare for heaven ; 
 and pray to God, through Jesus Christ, all the time, 
 for help in the great work. 
 
 "I will fetch my knowledge from afar," said the 
 writer of old. There is a seeing into the distance, a 
 weighing of the future, a calculation as to how things 
 will turn out, eminently wise, prudent, and safe. In 
 fact, all education, all prosperity, and all future suc- 
 cess depend not only in clearly understanding the 
 past, in hopefully measuring the present, but in a 
 forecasting of the future that makes all allowances for 
 probabilities and for possibilities, an on-looking that 
 is not carried away by a big hope nor by a wild ex- 
 pectation nor by an unbalanced enthusiasm, but that 
 is cheered, fortified, and consecrated by a firm faith 
 in God and by a wise measurement of human nature. 
 
128 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 It is not safe to expect too much : on the one hand, 
 we must not let our imagination run away with us ; 
 on the other hand, we must not let our forebodings 
 paralyze our efforts. Of course, .we cannot see what 
 is afar off; but we can prepare to meet what comes. 
 We can rightly know our own powers and circum- 
 stances, so that we may really feel sure that we are 
 ready for anything and for everything that may be 
 sent to salute us. 
 
 We cannot outline our future career, we cannot take 
 our instrument and get an exact photograph of all the 
 events that are to greet us year by year. Imagination 
 will avail nothing as a revealer, boasting will amount 
 to nothing as a prophet, and all the promising in the 
 world will explode, unless, with the imagination and 
 with the boasting and with the promising, we have all 
 the time the upward look to God and the onward look 
 to duty; and then we may say, as Job said, "We will 
 fetch our knowledge from afar " ; then we may have our 
 faith lighted up all along the line by the grace of God 
 and the approval of our conscience. And then life 
 will be resplendent, consecration will be grand, and 
 victory will be sure. 
 
XII. 
 TRANSIENT SIGHT OF GOD. 
 
 " How little a portion is heard of him ! " JOB xxvi. 14. 
 
 SAINT AUGUSTINE had a vision. He found 
 himself trying to write out the exact definition of 
 the Divine Being; and, being troubled about explain- 
 ing the subject, he took a walk by the seashore, 
 where he noticed a little child taking cups of water 
 from the ocean and pouring the water into a little 
 hole that he had made in the sand. "What are you 
 doing, my child?" said the great preacher. "I am 
 trying to put the whole ocean into this little place." 
 "But that is impossible, my child." "So is it im- 
 possible," replied the child, "for you to put the nat- 
 ure of God into your small definitions." 
 
 Ah, how little we know about God, Christ, death, 
 heaven, life, time, ourselves, and anything whatso- 
 ever! How slight are the hints that are given, how 
 unsatisfactory our researches, how misty our conclu- 
 sions, how half-shaped our knowledge, how utterly 
 incomplete everything that we say, think, and feel; 
 what a cloud continually upon mind, body, heart, 
 soul, time, and eternity! In our dark moods we call 
 our knowledge glimpses, dreams, fairy tales, guesses, 
 and vapors. Is it so? Tell me, is it really so? 
 
130 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 Are we groping continually in the dark, fumbling 
 along with no chart, no compass, no help, no light, 
 no peace, and gaining no results but an " if " or a 
 "perhaps"? 
 
 If this be the case, pitiable is the very gift of life, 
 and dreary the very outlook into eternity; and all 
 breath seems to be a sad mistake. Of course, at first, 
 we admit, we are obliged to admit, we must 
 accept the verdict that we know but little and very 
 little. How inexpressibly small our knowledge! a 
 twinkle, a mote, a sunbeam, and a drop; and the un- 
 known is like the ocean, and the saying that the 
 words of our text proclaim is true, "How little a 
 portion is heard of him ! " But yet, brothers, sisters, 
 and friends, children of God, disciples of Christ, and 
 heirs of eternity, how grand is that little, how far- 
 reaching, how comforting, how holy, how beautiful, 
 how sublime, and how indestructible! 
 
 The little that we do know will save us ! And the 
 little, if understood, obeyed, and glorified, will bring 
 more knowledge; and by that little every soul can 
 climb to everlasting blessedness by the grace of the 
 dear Father of us all, through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 How little we know of Almighty God ! True, very 
 true, sometimes startlingly true! We cannot pierce 
 into the depths of the eternity that belongs to his past 
 history. We cannot measure the power that encircles 
 his present life. We cannot forecast the glory that 
 will fill up his oncoming eternity. We cannot dis- 
 sect his nature, although some theologians have dared 
 
TRANSIENT SIGHT OF GOD 131 
 
 to try the experiment. We cannot describe him as 
 the anatomist describes the human body, and label 
 every part and parcel of his mighty glory. There is 
 no perfect chart that the human can give to us of the 
 Divine, and such a nature is to a great extent an 
 unexplored labyrinth forever. And yet glory hal- 
 lelujah! a faint insight we can all of us gain. How 
 little! but yet a something, a something that will 
 have an echo, and that little a true benediction. We 
 can find out that God is love, that he is our Father, 
 that in him we live and move and have our being, that 
 he is from everlasting to everlasting, that he is a 
 Judge, that he is too pure to behold iniquity, that he 
 has hidden many things from the wise and prudent 
 and has revealed them unto babes, that he hears and 
 answers prayer, that not a sparrow falls to the ground 
 without his blessed notice, that he orders all things 
 for good to those that love him ; and we can find out 
 a thousand other things that will be enough ay, 
 enough and more than enough to lift us out of our 
 terrible darkness into a marvellous light. 
 
 How little we know of Jesus! say some. Yes; but 
 that little, how great! We know of him as an obedi- 
 ent child, on the mortal side; as a pure and good 
 young man, when he appeared before the world in 
 human garments; as prophet, priest, and king; as 
 Son of God and son of man; as way, truth, and life; 
 as a good shepherd; as the vine; ay, as all that was 
 holy, great, tender, loving, and beautiful; as resigned 
 in suffering, patient in death; as one who conquered 
 
132 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 death and made immortality sure; as the greatest 
 preacher of all ages and the Redeemer of the world, 
 human and divine, of earth and of heaven, the 
 Mediator and Lord; and what more do we need? 
 
 Describe him fully, do you say? Who can? Tell 
 just his relation to God and his affiliation to man, 
 do you demand? Who is able? But we must love 
 him, obey him, acknowledge him, cling to him, and 
 by him be led to Almighty God. But yet, when we 
 arrive in heaven and see Jesus, how small all our best 
 earthly knowledge will appear, how inadequate, 
 how weak, how shadowy, how absolutely poor, at the 
 best ! For we shall find him so much more than our 
 highest dreams, so much better than our deepest rea- 
 sonings, so much more beautiful than our most elo- 
 quent descriptions, everything above what everybody 
 has said of him, that we shall want to go right back 
 to earth to rectify our mistakes, that we may again 
 build up in the human heart a love for Christ; ay, 
 the truest love of all, because spiritual eye has seen, 
 spiritual ear has heard, and spiritual heart conceived, 
 the glory of the risen Lord. 
 
 How little we know about death! It comes into 
 our homes, it breaks up the family circle, it puts ice 
 on the heart, it covers us with clouds. We know not 
 what to do, what to say, where to go; we cry out in 
 our agony, in our fear, in our loneliness, that we can- 
 not bear the blow. And yet, if we will see that in 
 all nature death leads to life, that in all nations, 
 from the earliest time, an eternal death was forever 
 
TRANSIENT SIGHT OF GOD 133 
 
 doubted; if we will read the Christian revelation that 
 death is an impossibility, then our aching hearts 
 will leap up to God in gratitude for the great hope of 
 immortality; and we shall bow before God in lowly 
 submission to his ever holy but mysterious will. 
 How little we know of heaven! So little that many 
 leave the thought of it out of sight altogether, and 
 some try to wipe it away with the huge sponge of 
 denial, and all, or nearly all, or a great many, treat 
 it like a dream or a vision or a very unsubstantial 
 reality, a beautiful future terribly veiled. And 
 yet, as we analyze the little that we do know, are 
 we not abundantly blessed? 
 
 "In our Father's house are many mansions." 
 
 Then there will be a home for us at last, thank 
 God! And it is only moving from one house to 
 another, when we breathe our last. "I go to my 
 Father." Then we have somebody who knows us 
 there. Yes, we have a parent in heaven watching us, 
 guiding us, and waiting for us. 
 
 "He that believeth in me shall never die." Well, 
 we shall find in heaven, then, abundant life; and 
 decay will be unknown. "Where I am, there ye shall 
 be also." We shall find Jesus in heaven; and we 
 shall be with him, and we shall be one with him and 
 with God. 
 
 And so in many and many a place throughout the 
 New Testament can we gather glorious glimpses of 
 the eternal world, side lights, sketches, photo- 
 graphs, echoes, and knowledge enough to set the ach- 
 
134 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 ing heart at peace, if we only rest on the mighty 
 promises of God. 
 
 And how little we know about life, time, ourselves, 
 or anything whatsoever! Life, forever a mystery, 
 from the very moment that the babe cries out in fear 
 as he greets the new world to the hour when the aged 
 saint, with a smile on the face and a glory in the eye, 
 takes the last breath and goes upward. How little 
 we know about the earth journey; how short our 
 sight, how imperfect our insight, how foolish our 
 steps; what a labyrinth all the time; and how we 
 stumble as we go along, fumbling in the dark contin- 
 ually, beset by trials, pains, sickness, seeming death, 
 and being all the time seemingly alone! No, not 
 alone: God is with us, Christ is at our side, the Holy 
 Spirit encompasses our steps, there is a light in the 
 window of heaven. And, if we know but little, that 
 little is yet a good deal; for, if we try to do our best, 
 we know at least that all heaven is on our side. And, 
 although we cannot define life, nor explain it, nor 
 fully manage it, nor in any way understand it, yet 
 we can ask triumphantly, "If God be for us, who 
 can be against us?" And we can be sure that, if 
 we are on God's side, in the end the victory will be 
 ours. 
 
 Time, too, so swift! how little we can explain 
 it I To-day we are infants, to-morrow youths, next 
 day in mid-life; and before we know it, and as we 
 look back, it seems like the twinkling of an eye, we 
 are in old age. And our birth has hardly been pro- 
 
TRANSIENT SIGHT OF GOD 135 
 
 claimed, when it is announced that we are no more 
 upon the earth, and in heaven, it is said, a child is 
 born. And yet, although time can be so little meas- 
 ured, the little measure that we can get of it is a 
 great benediction. We at least can know that it be- 
 longs to Almighty God, that it is united to eternity, 
 that it is a loan to us for a while, that we are respon- 
 sible for the way in which we manage it, and yet, if 
 we will, that we can fill it with holiness, cover it 
 with peace, send it away with glorious gifts, and 
 make it give a good report of our doings at the throne 
 of Almighty God. 
 
 We cannot make time stop, but we can make it 
 bless us while it lasts; and we can send it away in 
 joy, peace, love, and holiness. 
 
 And how little we know of ourselves; how very 
 little we can know of the wonders of the body, even 
 although our anatomical skill be very great ; how little 
 can we know of the glories of the mind, however acute 
 as metaphysicians we may be by all confessed; how 
 little can we understand about the soul, although we 
 try with all our powers to belong to God and Christ 
 and to be crowned with the Spirit! And yet the 
 little that we do know about the human frame leads 
 us to adore the Infinite Wisdom that made us what 
 we are ; the small conception that we have of mental 
 power makes us bow low before the Omniscience that 
 granted to us such twinkling sparks of his almighty 
 thoughts ; and the faint acquaintance that we have of 
 the capacity of the soul makes us reverence with 
 
136 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 peculiar awe the great Soul of souls, by whom all 
 souls are quickened into everlasting life. 
 "How little a portion is heard of him! " 
 Well, we must admit that the direct information 
 about Almighty God is small, very small; and also 
 that that which is told is very hard to be fully under- 
 stood. And yet the indirect knowledge of God is 
 very great, as the echoes come to us through nature, 
 revelation, events, and the human soul; and so, day 
 by day, we gather up hints of his marvellous power, 
 his rich knowledge, and his never-ceasing love, 
 sparks, it may be, when compared with the reality, 
 but sparks that will at some time, in God's holy time, 
 here or hereafter, kindle up a great conflagration of 
 light, glory, splendor, love, and holiness. 
 
 Faber says, and with his words we will close: 
 
 " Workman of God ! oh, lose not heart, 
 
 But learn what God is like ; 
 And in the darkest battle-field 
 
 Thou shalt know where to strike. 
 Thrice blest is he to whom is given 
 
 The instinct that can tell 
 That God is on the field when he 
 
 Is most invisible." 
 
XIII. 
 TRUE CHRISTIANS. 
 
 "One fold, one shepherd." ST. JOHN x. 16. 
 
 I HAVE taken these words just as they stand in 
 the old translation of the New Testament, al- 
 though in this discourse I shall endeavor to preserve 
 the spirit of both the old and the new version. The 
 statement that we find in these words of old is one 
 that no one on the earth can possibly doubt; and it is 
 the only sentence in the Holy Bible, probably, that 
 has not been questioned, for education, prejudice, 
 partisanship, and self-love will always sustain it, vote 
 for it, almost worship it. 
 
 At birth we are introduced, directly or indirectly, 
 into the belief that there is but one right course; 
 and the most liberal fathers and the greatest bigots 
 that have charge of a family teach the children sub- 
 stantially the same lesson as regards the one way, the 
 one fold, and the one Shepherd. Sabbath-schools are 
 founded that the lambs may be taught this glorious 
 fact, while church catechizing, argument, and preach- 
 ing aim to bring all minds to the same striking idea. 
 Why, then, are there so many different ways of 
 thinking, so many standards of the infallible faith, so 
 many roads that are said to be the only way to heaven, 
 
138 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 so many folds that are each marked as special, and so 
 many views of Christ that are all said to be true? 
 
 The why lodges among the mysteries of God, but 
 the fact is so sadly true that we can none of us 
 deny it. 
 
 The universal definition of the words that we have 
 placed at the head of our discourse is "my fold " : this 
 is the correct one. I am right, and you, my neighbor, 
 are wrong; and in the end, if you wish to be saved, 
 you must agree with me, accept my views, and sign 
 my creed. My views of the Redeemer are the sound 
 conceptions that at last will meet the approbation, 
 the acceptance, and the enthusiastic fellowship of all 
 real disciples. Such assertions on each side and on 
 every side are very earnest, striking, and eloquent, so 
 that we cannot doubt that the speakers mean just what 
 they say; for they always use emphatic language and 
 clear English, which cannot be misconceived. Every 
 person also takes pains to spread his views. Vessels 
 are chartered, missionaries are ordained, wealth is 
 expended, books are printed, and churches are built, 
 all that peculiar views of Christianity may be 
 spread everywhere and at all seasons; and time, labor, 
 and expense are accounted as nothing, provided the 
 children of God can be evangelized in one stated way. 
 All parties, too, are apt to claim peculiar immunities, 
 special powers, and inherited graces, and seem to 
 take it for granted that they have the right alone to 
 be God's ambassadors for building up the church of 
 to-day and the church of the future. 
 
TRUE CHRISTIANS 139 
 
 This very pretence, however, explodes itself in the 
 utterance; for all such work is placed in the Re- 
 deemer's blessed hands, and every sect that tacitly 
 admits the possession of it rebels against Heaven, and 
 will suffer for so great and so heavy a claim. 
 
 What are the proofs that any one sect offers that it 
 alone is right, and that all others are wrong? Is it 
 on the ground of being in the majority? Why, then, 
 those who worship idols are right ; for they outnum- 
 ber all others. Or, to come to Christianity, then the 
 Roman Catholics are right; for they outnumber the 
 Protestants. Taking this ground, we must be either 
 pagans or Roman Catholics. Do we use the plea of 
 antiquity? Then we must be Jews or servants of the 
 pope; for back of Judaism no instituted religion can 
 possibly go, and back of the Church of Rome no form 
 of Christianity is able to trace its certain birth. 
 Shall our plea be that the holy Bible indorses our 
 claims? But here we notice a sharp conflict between 
 equally mighty minds and equally pious spirits, who 
 assert clashing doctrines and call upon the Bible as 
 a witness. 
 
 We are surely thrown from our track by maintain- 
 ing a position like this, when it is very evident that 
 mighty holiness and powerful reason in blessed coali- 
 tion are all the time combating enemies of the same 
 stamp. I admire Thomas a Kempis, the Catholic; 
 and so also I love Luther, the Protestant. Yet both 
 read their Scriptures very differently. 
 
 The characters of both Servetus and Calvin are to 
 
140 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 be respected, yet these two were not the best of 
 friends. Pascal and Whately were men of giant 
 minds, yet not of the same church. So I might 
 enumerate till my breath should cease the names of 
 good, great, and holy men who differed in their inter- 
 pretations of the Divine Record. 
 
 Some may say, however, We know that we are right, 
 and there is no need of any discussion. But are we 
 to trust in holy things to limited human knowledge 
 or to Divine Proclamation? If to human knowledge, 
 what special person shall we select as an expositor; 
 and, if to the Divine Proclamation, are not all of us 
 at liberty to judge of that? 
 
 We must either give up our Protestant faith or else 
 we must allow every child of God perfect freedom of 
 thought and expression. 
 
 We are hypocritical Protestants the very moment 
 that we become bigoted; and, if we find ourselves 
 outside of the region of a religious charity, in order 
 to be honest we ought to join the "Mother Church." 
 
 Rome notices strictly our quarrels and our denials 
 to each other of Christian privileges and of the Chris- 
 tian name; and she feeds herself upon the thought 
 that eventually, when we are sick of our false free- 
 dom, we shall be glad to be encircled in her loving 
 arms. 
 
 Where, then, can the one fold and the one shepherd 
 be found? and where shall we look for the true Church 
 of God? 
 
 Among all denominations where there is one true 
 
TRUE CHRISTIANS 141 
 
 spirit and one spiritual life. God is a spirit, and 
 God is life. He takes sides with no one party: he is 
 the Universal Father. He looks not at our lips, but 
 upon our hearts; and he is to be worshipped, not by 
 ritual alone, not by mysticism alone, and not only by 
 articles of confession, however elaborated in writ- 
 ing, but only is he to be reverenced in spirit and in 
 truth. He cares nothing for the badge on the fore- 
 head, whether there be engraved Unitarian or Baptist, 
 Orthodox, Episcopalian, Methodist, Universalist, or 
 Roman Catholic; but he asks for the badge on the 
 heart, whether there be written "Holiness to the 
 Lord," "All that I have is thine," "Thy will be 
 done," and whether there Jesus has placed his pecul- 
 iar mark, and whether there the Holy Spirit beauti- 
 fully rests. 
 
 After all, my dear friends, there is but one rallying 
 point, the cross, and one leader, the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. Just here, brother, sister, whatever your 
 name, we can stand together, holding each other by 
 the hand, lifting our eyes heavenward, and asking 
 unitedly, with fervor, unction, and an abiding love, 
 that our lives may be somewhat in accordance with 
 the "Pattern" that is set before us in the Mount. 
 
 Thus the true ones in all churches can be one in 
 nature, purpose, affection, and hope, having one 
 "Anchor" and looking to one common home as a 
 blessed haven for the weary and penitent soul 
 throughout eternal ages. I never did believe in 
 being too particular about special names ; and in the 
 
142 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 churches that God has given to me those of all 
 denominations have gathered together with God as 
 Father, Jesus as Lord, and the Holy Spirit as Com- 
 forter, and, under such an inspiration, all have hoped 
 to march toward the gate of the Holy City with the 
 banner of a perfect unity held serenely and trustingly 
 before the eyes of all the inhabitants of earth and 
 heaven. May such a spirit dwell with us now, and 
 abide with all people everywhere! The new religion 
 final, perfect, pure was that of Christ and love. 
 His great command, his all-sufficing precept, was it 
 not love? So says Bailey, the Universalist. Hear 
 also the Trinitarian Archbishop Wake's words, 
 " Who would not wish to see those days when, a gen- 
 eral reformation, a true zeal, and a perfect charity 
 passing through the world, we should all be united in 
 the same faith, the same worship, the same commun- 
 ion and fellowship one with another?" 
 
 A Methodist brother remarks that, since the day 
 of our Lord's personal ministry, his disciples have 
 altered the shibboleth of Christianity, that the test 
 question is not now, "Simon Peter, lovest thou me? " 
 but, "Simon Peter, thinkest thou as I do?" From 
 all parts of the Church we have loud dissents to the 
 sectarian spirit ; and we perceive a restless desire that 
 party bonds may be broken, and that true worth may 
 be published, under whatever ecclesiastical gar- 
 ments it may be concealed. 
 
 The real Church is composed of such men as 
 Bailey, Wake, Whitefield, Campbell, Comings, Parr, 
 
TRUE CHRISTIANS 143 
 
 Chalmers, Taylor, Stuart, Bond, James, Magoon, 
 Channing, King, Ballou, Brooks, and millions of 
 others who do not rest content with technicalities, 
 but who love God, however manifested, cling to 
 Jesus, however described, adore the Holy Ghost, 
 whether a personality or a spirit, and who work for 
 the mental and the spiritual culture of man, wherever 
 he is found. The proselyting spirit, if conducted by 
 bigotry, is the spirit of antichrist; and there is no 
 truth that is so palpable as that. If I should attempt 
 to encircle a man with my definitions and to bind him 
 to them alone, I mislead him, I make myself the 
 Christ, and I deny the Lord; for my statements con- 
 cerning divine truth, and your statements, unless we 
 both are divine, contain a great deal of error. 
 
 We have no right to say to any human being, Here 
 is the Bible, and in it recline only such and such 
 truths as we now describe; and, unless you believe 
 those truths, you are certainly lost. But we should 
 say to all, Here is the Bible, and in it abide truths 
 which, if obeyed, will save the soul ; and now search 
 for yourselves what those truths are. 
 
 You all remember, perhaps, that Charles IV., after 
 his abdication, amused himself by trying to make a 
 number of watches go exactly together. But, con- 
 stantly foiled in his attempt, he exclaimed, "What 
 a fool I have been to neglect my own concerns and 
 waste my whole life in a vain attempt to make all 
 men think alike on matters of religion, when I cannot 
 even make a few watches keep time together! " 
 
144 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 The Gospels are full of expositions of their own 
 liberality. 
 
 We read that those who were detected by the dis- 
 ciples in the casting out of evil spirits with the name 
 of Jesus on their lips and with his love in their 
 hearts, although not directly inaugurated into the 
 number of those who followed Jesus, and although 
 reprimanded by the apostles, were acknowledged and 
 commended and received by the Master. 
 
 We find, as we turn over the pages of the Book of 
 Acts, that those were accounted believers who had 
 never even heard of the Holy Ghost, although after- 
 ward their ignorance was dispelled by special in- 
 struction. 
 
 We have heard of the terrible rebuke which the 
 Pharisees received who compassed sea and land that 
 they might gain one convert. 
 
 The moment any body of men, in any sect, claim 
 to be alone in the right, and denounce all others as 
 wrong, that moment these separatists become Phari- 
 sees as the Hebrew name betokens, and that moment 
 the frown of the Lord rests upon them. There is but 
 little difference between the Pharisees of Jerusalem 
 and those of New England at this hour; for they par- 
 take of the same qualities of character, and they are 
 found in greater or less numbers in every sect, vil- 
 lage, and city, and they abide everywhere. 
 
 The preacher is not to point out the persons who 
 are thus Pharisaical, else he himself would err; but 
 the conscience of each one of us must answer guilty 
 
TRUE CHRISTIANS 145 
 
 or not guilty at the bar of Almighty God. What, 
 then, are the true tests by which we can each of us 
 ascertain whether we belong to the one great fold and 
 whether we are following the one true shepherd? Is 
 our faith all the time blossoming and blooming into 
 charity? 
 
 While we believe a certain set of truths clearly, 
 earnestly, and without the shadow of a doubt, do we 
 really love those who think very differently, who treat 
 our most cherished visions with scorn, and who deem 
 that we are standing on a very unsafe foundation? 
 
 Do we pray for our opponents in all sincerity, 
 trusting that they, in time, may be led into that very 
 road which we conceive to be the sure one, or that 
 they may, by some blessed interposition of Almighty 
 God, be uplifted to glory by their own course? Do 
 we believe that heaven has mansions large enough for 
 all phases of disciples, and are we willing that every 
 Christian, under whatever banner he may rally, 
 should be gathered into the great kingdom of the 
 saints? If we can give an affirmative answer to all 
 these searching questions, we are of the true church, 
 and we are enfolded in the tender, gracious, and beau- 
 tiful recognition of the good Shepherd. But we are 
 not of the true church, God says and Jesus and the 
 Holy Spirit declare, no matter what name we take, if 
 we become critical, cynical, and selfish, and more 
 anxious to manage souls than to leave the manage- 
 ment to Almighty God. 
 
 We are not true Christians if we delight in an 
 
146 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 opponent's failure; if we employ wicked stratagems 
 in order to insure success to our cause and to extend 
 our influence; if we speak ill, privately or upon the 
 housetops, of other churches; if we are saddened at 
 the success of rivals; and if we enjoy the thought 
 that we are to be saved and that all others are to be 
 lost. 
 
 We would not, by these remarks, discourage any 
 of the earnest efforts of any denomination that are 
 exerted for the upbuilding of influence and for the 
 increase of disciples; but let only such efforts that 
 claim to be in behalf of Christianity be conducted in 
 a Christian spirit, for temper is sometimes mistaken 
 for religion, and false zeal often works under the pres- 
 tige of the cross. 
 
 The murder of the Huguenots in France is a sad 
 comment upon perverted religious efforts. 
 
 When Mary, Queen of Scots, was put to death, his- 
 tory recorded the terrible fact that enthusiasm is 
 something different from Christianity, that rancor can 
 enter queenly and sacerdotal hearts, and that envy 
 may easily apologize for its outbursts under the con- 
 venient guise of love for the Church. 
 
 When those called Quakers in New England were 
 driven hither and thither, placed in the stocks, 
 scourged and imprisoned, and put to death, the sad 
 wails that ascended from the lips of those meek suf- 
 ferers, piercing with solemnity the centuries, attest 
 that bigotry is a sin, and that persecution is never 
 persuasion, and that it always kills out the spiritual 
 
TRUE CHRISTIANS 147 
 
 life of the persecutors. Freedom must be given to 
 all, or else all are slaves; and the moment that a line 
 is drawn, that moment the spirit of liberty is crushed. 
 
 God has set before all his children certain truths; 
 but he leaves the reception of them, the definition of 
 them, and the application of them to each one of us. 
 And we each one are to answer, not to each other, but 
 to him ; and we each are to judge, not each other, but 
 ourselves. 
 
 "One fold, one shepherd." My friends, unless 
 we establish ourselves upon this broad platform, we 
 shall always be in the dark, and frequently be upset; 
 but, with Jesus for our Leader, with all Christians 
 for our friends, with God as our Father, and with 
 heaven for our home, we are safe, we have found the 
 true church, and we shall gain at last everlasting 
 peace. 
 
 "Onefold, one shepherd." John Taylor says, and 
 with his words we will close: 
 
 "As the good Shepherd leads his sheep 
 
 Through paths secure, 
 And while afold by night they sleep 
 
 Doth keep them sure, 
 
 So the * True Shepherd,' Christ, our souls doth guide, 
 Safe in his eye, protected by his side. 
 
 " Great Shepherd ! do we know thy voice 
 
 And follow thee ? 
 Is thy safe fold our rule and choice 
 
 From bondage free ? 
 
 Upheld by faith, the obedient sheep shall stand, 
 And none shall pluck them from my Father's hand. 
 
148 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 " Shepherd, with joy we hear thy call 
 
 That leads to heaven. 
 Let none from that salvation fall 
 
 So freely given ; 
 
 But, as thy sacred records long foretold, 
 Be the>ide-peopled earth one happy fold." 
 
XIV. 
 THE EXCLUSIVE SPIRIT. 
 
 "No room for them in the inn." ST. LUKE ii. 7. 
 
 I AM inclined to think that there would have been 
 room for them in the inn on that first Christmas 
 Day, spare chambers somewhere; nay, more, all the 
 best houses in the place, if only they had been dressed 
 a little more splendidly, had possessed great names, 
 and had been high priests, or Roman governors, or 
 those well known to have large means. But they 
 were looked upon as only a man and a woman from 
 Bethlehem or Nazareth who applied; ones not very 
 high up according to the scale of mere human meas- 
 urement, and therefore, of course, on the world side 
 there was no room for them in the inn. 
 
 When we apply at a public house for accommoda- 
 tions, it makes all the difference in the world what we 
 are, or what we are thought to be, or what we seem to 
 be, or what we pretend to be, whether we are treated 
 kindly or roughly; and this ought not so to be, yet it 
 always has been and it will be so for some time yet, 
 until we are thoroughly possessed of the Christian 
 spirit and are really willing to live up to what we 
 preach. Certainly, if that landlord of old could have 
 looked into futurity, could have sifted coming days, 
 
150 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 and could have known what you and I know, every 
 room in the inn would have been at the command of 
 the applicants, and nothing for which they asked 
 would have been kept back. 
 
 I have taken this little incident of a past age that 
 we may gain, on this holy Christmas Sabbath, some 
 lessons from it; that we may learn not to be too ex- 
 clusive, not to judge from appearances, and not to 
 weigh any one too hastily. Some of us read charac- 
 ters better than others ; but all of us are more or less 
 dazzled by pretence, judge too hastily from very slight 
 grounds, and are carried away by our fancies. 
 
 Look first on the bad side. There is apt to be no 
 room in many places for the modest man or woman ; 
 and those who will not push themselves into notice 
 are very apt to be kept in the background, so that, 
 really, very often, some very splendid people are 
 working out of sight, are standing in entirely too low 
 a sphere, and are throwing their fragrance away in 
 a small circle, while really humanity aches for their 
 presence, power, and influence. Yet, giants as they 
 are, they stand back, are content with being un- 
 noticed and unknown, and are diamonds concealed, 
 buried, flashing in the dark. And so much is this 
 the case that some wits have said that the best prepa- 
 ration for a lofty station was mediocrity. There is 
 no room in a great many places for the honest man or 
 woman. I am sorry to say that real, genuine honesty 
 is at a tremendous discount, and that we cannot 
 to-day deal with each other thoroughly on the square 
 
THE EXCLUSIVE SPIRIT 151 
 
 without creating considerable of a noise; for fashion, 
 speculation, and notoriety have so sent their fangs 
 into the heart, manners, and habits of the people 
 that it is very hard work to find anybody who never in 
 any way turns aside from the truly straight line. 
 
 "Tell me," said one of my good friends, who came 
 as near being perfect as perhaps any one in the flesh 
 could, "tell me my faults." Yet, good as he was, 
 had I been able to have picked out any weakness, 
 that perhaps only made his virtues more resplendent 
 from the contrast, had I picked them out and said, 
 In just such a place you are weak, lacking, deficient, 
 I know a flush would have come to his cheek, a deeper 
 glow to his heart, and an impatient fire to his eye, 
 while our intimacy would have received a blow that it 
 would have taken an eternity to cure. I cannot tell 
 why it is. I know it ought not so to be, and I am 
 sorry that personal pride is so great; yet all of us 
 recoil more or less from the plain-dealing person 
 having but very little place for him or for her inside 
 of our hearts. In some quarters there is but little 
 room for the strictly and thoroughly Christian man or 
 woman. We all differ so much in our likes and dis- 
 likes, in our impressions and convictions, in our way 
 of looking at the same thing or of speaking of the 
 same object, that in some families, or in some stores, 
 or in many assemblies, the real and solid Christian is 
 out of place. How many dear, good souls, devout, 
 aspiring, earnest, loving, and holy, in the sacred 
 circle of the family, dare not tell what they think, or 
 
152 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 look what they feel, or hardly act as they desire, be- 
 cause so many under the same roof would misunder- 
 stand the exhibition, or ridicule the conviction, or 
 entirely repudiate the reality! 
 
 A wife may cling to the altar, while the husband 
 clings only to mammon; a husband may clasp the 
 cross, while the wife clasps only the world; a daugh- 
 ter may look to heaven, while both parents worship 
 only pleasure; or brothers and sisters may be as far 
 apart from all sympathy as the North from the 
 South Pole. And there sometimes seems to be no 
 possible chance for a good, clear, glorious outpouring 
 of the soul till the angel of death comes, making that 
 formerly seemingly frivolous home a cathedral, re- 
 vealing the saints that had so long been masked, 
 opening fresh avenues of conviction, conversion, and 
 splendor to the thoughtless ones, and re-creating, as 
 it were, those who before had been so icy, severe, and 
 friendless. I am not so opposed to the "confes- 
 sional " as many, could it only be rightly conducted, 
 could it only be placed beyond the tarnish of the 
 slightest sneer, and could the faintest breach of cleri- 
 cal confidence be punished severely as the most ter- 
 rible crime; for then I think, with such a means for 
 the unburdening of the human heart, the regeneration 
 of the world would the more speedily follow, the 
 kingdom of Christ be the more surely set up, and 
 broken hearts get a comfortable healing. But now 
 we dare not speak to anybody, we dare not tell any- 
 body, and we are worn down and out by keeping our 
 
THE EXCLUSIVE SPIRIT 153 
 
 own secrets; and so we brood, worry, agonize, and 
 feel lonely, sad, deserted. We know God is near and 
 Jesus precious, but we want something more; we 
 want something human; we want the pressure of a 
 hand, the glance of an eye, one pitying, consoling, 
 elevating, and redeeming word. But, ah! generally, 
 society has no place where the Christian, or the one 
 who wants to be a Christian, or anybody in trouble or 
 despair or darkness, can go for light, peace, and joy. 
 Let us look now on the good side. 
 
 There really is no true room in this world for any- 
 body but the modest ones; for the question is not, 
 Who have the prizes? but, Who move time and eter- 
 nity, who shake earth and heaven, who finally conquer 
 souls? I tell you the prairie rose is not really 
 wasted. No, although no human eye has ever seen it, 
 no human hands ever plucked it, no graceful parlor 
 been consecrated by its beauty; and I do not believe 
 that God ever put diamond souls in the world only to 
 shine in a dark place, useless, forlorn, and utterly 
 neglected. 
 
 The modest ones do have their say, although they 
 seem not to speak; they do uplift humanity, although 
 they seem not to move; and, like electricity, they 
 permeate and inspire the atmosphere in which they 
 move. You cannot always tell where, how, when, 
 and how much ; yet the power is all around, up- 
 heaving sin, banishing weakness, and establishing 
 rectitude. 
 
 The pygmies, however highly perched, really 
 
154 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 accomplish nothing: they are simply excrescences. 
 They stand on the throne, to be sure; but that is all. 
 But the power is behind the throne, and the kings 
 often are those uncrowned. 
 
 I wish I could gather all the really modest ones in 
 the world together in some one church, and I am not 
 sure that the building would have to be very large 
 even then. I would say to them : You think that you 
 are nothing, but really you are all in all. You seem- 
 ingly occupy the smallest stations, yet I tell you 
 really you are reigning on thrones of gold, while all 
 around your brows are the sparkling jewels of heaven. 
 
 You sometimes think your life a failure; but I tell 
 you it is not, unless light be a failure, air a mistake, 
 breath useless. For I label you as the light, air, 
 breath of humanity, since, without your aid, love, 
 blessing, and silent but potent quickening, all would 
 perish. Do not despond; for your names are written 
 very bright, beautifully large, and gloriously clear 
 in God's list of saints, so that you will some day 
 rejoice in a happy coronation, being placed high up 
 among the royal ones of the Celestial City. 
 
 Again, the honest men or women are the only ones 
 that can be truly happy or useful in this world, the 
 only ones really for whom room should be made. 
 
 It is not, perhaps, necessary to tell all that we 
 think; but it is necessary that all we do tell should 
 be just what we do think, with all varnish, sweeten- 
 ing, and frescoing left off. Those of us who prevari- 
 cate or misstate or tell falsehoods, because it is the 
 
THE EXCLUSIVE SPIRIT 155 
 
 fashion, have really no right to be in a globe where 
 nature never utters a falsehood, where all the oracles 
 of God are true and sure, and where everything in the 
 heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the 
 waters under the earth, is so exact. Certainly, dis- 
 honest ones are out of tune, out of place, and thor- 
 oughly disordered, where all the laws of nature and of 
 nature's God are so punctual, persistent, and unvary- 
 ing. Advance, ye honest ones, and claim the heri- 
 tage of space with which you are in such sacred 
 harmony. Raise up your flag of honor, with its 
 appropriate and grand symbol of righteousness, and 
 never let it get soiled or twisted or abused; and stand 
 by your colors, no matter how many ridicule or injure 
 or try to upset you. Stand by your colors, and then 
 God will stand by you. The good Shepherd will take 
 your hand, leading you into all pleasant and peaceful 
 paths; and the angels will cluster around you in a 
 glorious company, wreathing your brows with spirit- 
 ual garlands, and shouting, too, their hosannas unto 
 heaven that in the great battles of life a few have 
 been found faithful and true. At once take posses- 
 sion of the land; for it is yours by right of gift, by 
 right of inspiration, by right of conquest, and by the 
 inherent right of your unsullied, glorious, and beauti- 
 ful integrity. There really is in this earth no place 
 for any one but the Christian man and the Christian 
 woman. A great many not deserving such a name are 
 occupying the land; but they are usurpers, so that 
 some day there must be an awful reckoning for them 
 
156 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 to meet. I believe firmly in a millennium. I know 
 not when; yet it will come, when the world will be 
 given to those that really own it, namely, the dis- 
 ciples of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 But, really, now only such disciples get the good of 
 life; for only such as they know what real joy, solid 
 peace, and perfect gain are, and they alone can make 
 every day an anthem, every event but a string in the 
 harp on which the choicest spiritual music is played, 
 every joy a sparkling gem, every pain equally bright, 
 and all things like a mosaic richly tessellated by 
 angel fingers and worthy the admiration of the saints. 
 
 Only the Christian can face disaster with a smile, 
 grasp the crown of thorns with no recoil, change tears 
 into pearls, and make heaven everywhere. 
 
 "No room in the inn." 
 
 But, my brother, my sister, have you any room in 
 your soul for faith, hope, love, and all righteousness ? 
 Let us each one put this great question to our souls 
 this glorious Christmas week. Are we prepared to 
 receive God's messengers, are we in so good attune 
 with Heaven that we are sure of making the most of 
 this lower life and of receiving a solid title-deed to 
 all the pleasures and profits that it can possibly 
 yield? 
 
 We all want not only room for us in heaven, but 
 room for us here ; for we do not wish to be out of har- 
 mony even here, and we want to get the most out of 
 each day and each hour in the flesh, and we are not 
 satisfied with picking up pins as we walk along, for 
 
THE EXCLUSIVE SPIRIT 157 
 
 we want to pick up spiritual gold. And, however 
 successful we may be in material gains, we crave 
 something better, something purer, and something 
 holier; but we shall never possess what we need, nor 
 stand where we should, nor become anything like 
 what God means us to be, till we give ourselves up to 
 the gracious keeping of the good Shepherd, and until 
 Jesus Christ is born in our hearts. 
 
 There is no life for the soul, no inn for the heart, 
 and no peace in time and in eternity, without the 
 blessed inspiration of the Holy Ghost, that is con- 
 veyed to earnest believers through the unceasing 
 tenderness, ever-watchful love, and constant benedic- 
 tion of both Father and Son. 
 
 May we each say in borrowed words : 
 
 " I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice, 
 
 And it told thy love to me ; 
 But I long to rise in the arms of faith, 
 
 And be closer drawn to thee. 
 Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, 
 
 To the cross where thou hast died, 
 Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, 
 
 To thy precious bleeding side. 
 
 " Consecrate me now to thy service, Lord, 
 
 By the power of grace divine. 
 Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope, 
 And my will be lost in thine." 
 
XV. 
 THE GLORY OF NAZARETH. 
 
 "Can there be any good thing come out of Nazareth ? " ST. JOHN 
 i. 46. 
 
 I AM not surprised that such a question was asked, 
 for there is something about its whole texture 
 that is extremely natural. Nazareth was an inconsid- 
 erable place, has been so ever since, and will prob- 
 ably continue to be so for many years to come; and 
 it hardly seemed possible then, as it would hardly 
 seem possible now, that it could be the home of any- 
 body very great and holy. And yet, if we will only 
 look into the philosophy of events a little more curi- 
 ously, and run our eyes and souls down the centuries, 
 and place in a line by themselves all the mighty per- 
 sonages of history, we shall be utterly surprised to 
 see that a majority of the leading persons in the 
 world took their start from the most obscure spots, so 
 that, if a rule were to be formed as to the needed con- 
 ditions for the establishment of a great character, fact 
 would force us to say, while inclination would urge 
 us to deny, that his or her birth, or his or her educa- 
 tion, must be in a town or in a city of little or of no 
 reputation. Again, we should be apt to say that 
 mighty events must have a tremendous cause ; that no 
 
THE GLORY OF NAZARETH 159 
 
 city could be built up nor overthrown, no government 
 established nor demolished, no principle be inaug- 
 urated, and nothing grand get supremacy, save by a 
 fearful upheaving or by an awful explosion at the 
 very beginning. 
 
 Still, if we will place the mammoth events of his- 
 tory in a row by themselves and conscientiously sift 
 out their embryonic life, we shall be surprised to 
 detect the tiny mustard-seeds that were the parents 
 of such wonderful disclosures. But, despite evidence 
 and notwithstanding sight and insight, we keep ex- 
 claiming, "Can there be any good thing come out of 
 Nazareth?" The truth is, we none of us really know 
 what is great or little, while every day we get things 
 terribly transposed as we attempt to define them by 
 our spiritual and mental dictionary. Our prejudices 
 run away with our judgment, and the outside of an 
 event takes captive the imagination, while we have 
 no desire and no heart to penetrate to its substance, 
 even to the very core of reality. So that thunder 
 seems more potent to us than the silent rays of the 
 sun, and the flash of lightning more terrible and 
 destructive than noxious air. 
 
 Let us look a little closely at this matter. 
 
 A great many things are viewed as Nazareth now, 
 and are treated with contempt. So we are apt to call 
 all that do not agree with our opinions, do not move 
 in our circle, all that we do not understand and all 
 that a majority of people have united to condemn. 
 People constantly get together in classes, setting up 
 
160 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 certain opinions as infallible, and reading out of 
 sense, good fellowship, and recognition every one 
 who dares to set up an opposition. So every State 
 is filled up with parties who each frown on the other, 
 and esteem as worthy of notice only those carrying 
 their badge; and everything else is Nazarene, not 
 to be allowed, not to be recognized, and not to be 
 complimented for a moment. Ay, some go so far as 
 to say that that one is not honest who does not stand 
 on their platform. I believe, free as we are in the 
 United States of America, that there is no place in 
 the world where the despotism of opinion rages with 
 such savage violence. Some people allow, it is true, 
 all to think as they please; but, if any happen to 
 think as they do not please, they soon give them to 
 understand that they shall in the future avoid their 
 company. 
 
 "You may vote for whom you like," said the chief 
 officer in Napoleon's army: "every one must exercise 
 a free and an unimpeded course, and no one will be 
 influenced in the least; but," he added in a whisper, 
 "those who do not vote for Napoleon will be shot." 
 Of course, the result was a spontaneous, unanimous, 
 and a wonderful victory for the emperor. 
 
 Now, friends, we do not practise shooting in such 
 cases, it is true ; but a great many people go as far as 
 the law will let them go, wishing all the time that 
 they could give harder blows. 
 
 Why, can any one be good for anything who sees 
 truth differently from what we do? 
 
THE GLORY OF NAZARETH l6l 
 
 This is the seething question all the time in the 
 centre of some minds, which perhaps few would like 
 to confess. Ah! we have learned a great deal when 
 we each are enabled to say, I may be wrong. Again, 
 there are some people who do not have a sufficient 
 charity for those who belong to what are falsely called 
 the lower ranks of society. 
 
 Can any good possibly come from what are called 
 the obscure places of the world? 
 
 That is the unkind speech of some of those who 
 call themselves the favored children of God. 
 
 They sometimes dream that privileges are guar- 
 anteed only to a certain elect company; and yet all 
 the time is this false idea exploded by some stalwart 
 soul who steps from the lowest depths with majestic 
 tread, sweeping all opposition into blessed oblivion 
 and making even granite walls crumble to dust at 
 his touch. 
 
 See there in the woods a little homely boy, over- 
 grown, ragged, and splitting rails with all his might 
 and main, that he may get a little bread for his mouth 
 and more clothing for his limbs. He, of course, you 
 say, will come to nothing, no more than the pack- 
 horse in the mill, who treads his weary round till 
 death. So you turn away, you proud one, with a 
 sneer; and you go the other side, you privileged one, 
 laughing at the oddity of the lad. Yet let one lift 
 the vail of history, and there will be seen one of the 
 most distinguished men of America; a man whose 
 name rings around the world as a hero and a martyr; 
 
1 62 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 a man who trampled all classes under his feet, rushed 
 to the topmost round of the social ladder, and passed 
 suddenly from sight at the acme of his fame. And 
 of another one might we speak, honored all over the 
 country during life for integrity, ability, courage, and 
 holiness; a man of principle and a man of prayer; 
 Chief Justice, and chief in justice, honor, truth, and 
 righteousness, one who seemed in early youth ter- 
 ribly put back by the death of his father when he was 
 only twelve years old, yet who stepped in front of all 
 difficulties, and kept rising and rising, from student, 
 school-teacher, lawyer, author, councilman, senator, 
 governor, Secretary of the Treasury, candidate for the 
 Presidency, and finally occupant of that majestic posi- 
 tion in law which he filled so faithfully and power- 
 fully almost up to the very minute that his soul 
 passed through the gate of heaven. 
 
 So with thousands of others that I might name, 
 who have not waited for your smile nor for my appro- 
 bation, nor for anybody's favor, but have taken oppor- 
 tunity with a wrenching hand, a stubborn will, and 
 have caught golden prizes from its tight and holy 
 embrace. 
 
 Again, those we do not understand we are apt to 
 think as not worth much. They may take as high a 
 position or a higher one than we do; but, if we do 
 not understand them, we think they ought to be con- 
 signed to oblivion, as if our poor thought were to 
 be the only measurement of all right and all right- 
 eousness. 
 
THE GLORY OF NAZARETH 163 
 
 I have never yet been able to see what makes so 
 many people think so much of themselves, intellect- 
 ually, morally, and spiritually. The best people, 
 and the brightest, are those who are the most humble 
 and the least forth-putting; while it seems as if those 
 of the false stamp tried to make up in mere foam 
 what they lack in solid weight. Because I cannot 
 comprehend you, or because you cannot comprehend 
 me, is no valid proof that either of us can be called 
 foolish; and he alone is the witless one who dares to 
 call the other a hard and a wicked name. 
 
 Once more, a large number hold it as an estab- 
 lished rule that everything is to be condemned that 
 the majority of the people in the world condemn. 
 
 This in a great many cases is very safe reasoning; 
 but it does not hold good invariably, else Jesus of 
 Nazareth must be wiped out of history immediately at 
 his birth, and all Christianity now must be expunged, 
 while Paganism takes its place. In great crises of 
 natural life or of the world's experience it is the 
 minority who generally have the best of it, as you 
 will readily see as you scan patriarchal records, 
 Hebrew tribes, Christianity through all its vicissi- 
 tudes, and the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers so 
 many years ago. Protestantism itself is yet in the 
 minority. Then, really, it is a very dangerous work 
 for a majority, however noble, to throw sarcasm upon 
 a minority, however dejected and forlorn. I am glad, 
 for one, and I think it was a grand thing, that Jesus 
 did come from both Bethlehem and Nazareth; for 
 
164 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 thus we were taught that worth makes the place, and 
 that no place of itself can really confer honor or 
 shame. I do not care where anybody is born, but I 
 do want to know how people live and what characters 
 they carry into the eternal kingdom. 
 
 I want to know how they have raised themselves 
 up, despite adverse circumstances, and how they have 
 forced a reluctant world to bow to their great honors. 
 Are you the son of a king? Well, you are no better 
 for that, nay, I fear that you are to be pitied; for a 
 great many king's sons have done nothing but run 
 down hill all through life. 
 
 Are you the child of a peasant? Then you are none 
 the worse for that, nay, I think your future must be 
 very brilliant if you will only be faithful to your 
 opportunities; for many of our Alpine men have 
 started from localities that gave no pledge for future 
 splendor. 
 
 Nobody expected that any good would come out of 
 Nazareth. It was altogether too obscure a place. It 
 was not worth a random thought. The scholar and 
 the aristocrat would have preferred Jerusalem for the 
 coming deliverer. Not so thought Almighty God, 
 and not so does he deal with the children of men. 
 He shows the emptiness of mere opinion, the folly of 
 a starched aristocracy, the narrow limits of pretended 
 scholarship, and the weakness of a bigoted supersti- 
 tion, by making the great epoch of the ages culminate 
 in Bethlehem and Nazareth. Never was such a grand 
 blow given to the ideas of the mere people of the 
 
THE GLORY OF NAZARETH 165 
 
 world as when the Son of God was born in a place 
 where least of all the great and the noble wished to 
 find him. 
 
 Yet do we think enough of this mighty fact ? Are 
 the people of to-day any more wise than those of old? 
 What is it now that really commands our deepest 
 admiration? 
 
 I speak to those who call themselves Christians, to 
 those who believe in Jesus, and to those who feel that 
 they are really the consecrated children of Almighty 
 God. What dazzles now the most, worth or show, 
 the golden character or gold in the purse, the noble- 
 man on the throne or the nobleman in rags? Have 
 we not all at this time a prejudice against our Naza- 
 reth, feeling its decided inferiority and the impos- 
 sibility that it shall ever be noted for anything 
 whatever? Just so far as we give way to our preju- 
 dices, and just so far as we are overcome by the mere 
 tinsel of life, and just so far as we blind ourselves 
 against ragged worth and obscure splendor, so far are 
 we like those of ancient days speaking in contempt of 
 the grandest gifts of Almighty God. 
 
 " Can there be any good thing come out of Naza- 
 reth ?" Yes, there can be good in Nazareth ; and there 
 has been, and there will be, good things coming out 
 of just such places all the time. For the dear Father 
 of us all is not tied down to human whim; and where 
 he will he plants his jewels, so that in the darkest 
 and in the deepest places some of the most magnifi- 
 cent specimens of his gracious benevolence can be 
 
l66 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 daily found. Only let us keep our eyes, ears, and 
 hearts open, and we shall be surprised how every- 
 where glory can come, and on all sides beauty spring 
 forth, if we only so will. Oh, what good has come 
 out of Nazareth, and how the force there created has 
 upheaved the world, and how that little place now 
 engirdles in its divine references all the mightiest 
 enterprises of time and all the glorious epochs of 
 eternity! So will it ever be. 
 
 Glory be to Almighty God for the triumphs of the 
 babe in Bethlehem and the grand history of the young 
 life at Nazareth! 
 
 Glory be to his mighty name, that, contrary to all 
 human opinion, in the face of prejudice, rank, and 
 power, despite the proud Pharisee, the sceptical Sad- 
 ducee, the seclusive Essene, the powerful Roman, the 
 polished Grecian, and the fickle crowd, despite all 
 philosophy and all poor mortal guessing, out of two 
 little towns, sparsely settled and not much known, 
 and of inhabitants generally rude and unrefined, there 
 was born and there was educated one both divine and 
 human, our Master and our Lord, by whose simple 
 and majestic voice, by whose sacred and splendid 
 teachings, by whose pure and holy character, there 
 came forth a power which nearly nineteen centuries 
 have not been able to crush, and before which idolatry 
 and superstition and all sin have rushed into silence 
 and fallen into shame! 
 
 Thanks be to the Father that he has thus taught 
 all his children the true nobility of every mortal that 
 
THE GLORY OF NAZARETH 167 
 
 breathes the breath of life, the rich possibilities, the 
 gorgeous splendors, and the august coronations that 
 hover over the brow of every babe, and the strange 
 but beautiful mysteries that cling to his ever gracious 
 guidance! Oh, let us rejoice that, in the unknown 
 future that stands before us all, our destiny is not to 
 be shaped by any poor arithmetic of any mortal 
 prophecy, by any heavy clouds that in the beginning 
 of our enterprises may seem to obstruct the way, and 
 by any seeming disasters and apparent failures and 
 wilful rebuffs. No, no! But all these coming years 
 are to bring their gracious revelations or their more 
 sombre benedictions, as they have been created or 
 shaped or sanctified or redeemed by a wisdom that 
 never errs, a power that never falters, a love that 
 never cools, and a care always sweet and sublime. 
 
 Thus our future is beyond a peradventure, if we 
 keep within the enclosure of a Christian obedience 
 and by the rich valleys of a celestial devotion. 
 
 Think of these great realities, all ye who watch the 
 unknown future, joyful or anxious, hopeful or sad, 
 with a light in the eye or shadows on the brow; for, 
 as you are held up by the almighty arm that can never 
 falter, attended by the good Master's companionship 
 that never forsakes the earnest disciple, girdled by 
 the sacred soothings and the gracious inspirations of 
 the Holy Spirit, and flanked so beautifully and so tri- 
 umphantly by whole legions of angels, every day shall 
 fall into a victory, every hour bring its gift, and the 
 apocalypse of eternity be but one continued revelation 
 
1 68 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 of benediction and peace. So may it be with each 
 and all of us, now and forever! 
 
 CHRISTMAS POEM. 
 
 Hark, the Christmas bells are ringing, 
 And the angel choirs are singing 
 
 That Christ is born. 
 And wrong is conquered by the right, 
 A world is lifted into light, 
 
 No more forlorn. 
 
 All the earth was sad and dreary, 
 And the human heart was weary, 
 
 Till Christ did come. 
 And then the darkness fled away, 
 And holy love began its sway 
 
 O'er hearth and home. 
 
 All glory be to God on high, 
 Let every mortal gladly cry, 
 
 That Christ was given ! 
 May Christ grant all the power to see, 
 As at his name they bend the knee, 
 
 The way to heaven. 
 
XVI. 
 THE WEDDING GARMENT. 
 
 " Friend, how earnest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment ? " 
 ST. MATT. xxii. 12. 
 
 THERE is a beautiful fitness, a musical chant, 
 and inspiriting echoes in all God's works, 
 ways, and promises. The garniture of the earth, 
 however varied ; the clothing of the heavens, however 
 colored; and the constant wonders of nature, all 
 agree with the general design and harmonize with 
 each other: there is no jar, nor discord, nor jostle; 
 and the tones are charmingly sweet, in full accord, 
 and with reconciling power, so that from the wide 
 sweep of infinite space arises an anthem of delight, 
 as a grateful response for the perfect, glorious, and 
 striking fellowship. A comet is not a freak of nature, 
 but a result of law; a volcanic eruption is not an 
 insubordination against authority, but only the devel- 
 oping of a central order and the working out of 
 the divine will; and everything is appropriate in 
 God's creation, while this fact constitutes the gran- 
 deur of this great world that God has given to the 
 children of men. The little wild flower that nestles 
 in the forest has its part to play, its place to fill, and 
 its influence to exert, just as well as the planets and 
 
170 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 the sun ; and the insect that crawls at our feet has its 
 work to do quite as clearly as the lion or the camel or 
 the tiger, who seem made for a purpose more striking, 
 attractive, and startling. In this world nothing is so 
 insignificant as to be detached from the general ser- 
 vice, nothing is so small as to be unnoticed by God, 
 and nothing is so worthless as to be worthy of abuse; 
 and so, on the other hand, nothing is so grand as to 
 stand aloof from companionship, to attempt an inde- 
 pendent career, and to hold in contempt all lesser 
 powers. No: in God's world everything is impor- 
 tant, has its work to do, and all things have a gran- 
 deur of their own, be it leaf or be it star, be it the 
 ocean or be it a dewdrop, be it man or be it an 
 angel. We discover also, if we study nature deeply, 
 cheerfully, and religiously, that each of nature's chil- 
 dren is prepared to work, is attired for the occasion, 
 and has the wedding garment that is especially needed 
 for the glorious service. 
 
 The seasons all march along dressed as they should 
 be, spring with its buds, summer with its flowers, 
 autumn with its fruits, and winter with its snow; and 
 they all shake hands together in a glorious, a splen- 
 did, and an unbroken fellowship. Spring says, I will 
 unlock the frosty ground that winter has starched and 
 chilled, I will tap the trees and make them show their 
 richness, I will start the waters from their icy slum- 
 bers, and I will call to activity a sleeping world. 
 Summer says, I will go farther than this: I will 
 decorate the earth with beauty, fill it with fragrance, 
 
THE WEDDING GARMENT 17 1 
 
 convert it into a paradise, and send a genial heat over 
 all is inmates. And autumn says, I will ask for re- 
 sults, see what all this thawing, blooming, and blush- 
 ing has accomplished, demand fruits, and give to the 
 world a blessed harvest, as the spontaneous offerings 
 of a liberated soil. Winter exclaims, I will put all 
 nature to sleep, for the workers have worked long 
 enough: I will cover the world with a shroud and 
 touch it with a magic wand, so that all things shall 
 rest awhile and find a glorious peace. 
 
 Ah ! these seasons agree to do their part : each one 
 gives way to the other, and they all appear in the 
 garb that is most natural, fitting, and beautiful. So 
 in all the doings of nature we discover the same 
 benignant consistency. And should not the children 
 of God copy this splendid law? 
 
 There is a place for us all : we all must be clothed 
 for that place; and each one of us should take up 
 the special field that is assigned for our culture. 
 
 There is a spring, a summer, an autumn, and a 
 winter in the history of us all; and let them be met, 
 acknowledged, improved, and glorified. 
 
 This fact in material matters is readily, gladly, and 
 earnestly confessed. 
 
 The mechanic must be something of a mathemati- 
 cian, skilled with tools, have a genius for his work, 
 and be clothed with the wonderful gift of inventive 
 curiosity, or else he is a failure, a disgrace, and sinks 
 into oblivion. The merchant must understand the 
 principles of trade; the laws that invest sales and 
 
172 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 purchases, both at home and abroad; the habits, the 
 customs, and the languages of the varied nations all 
 over the globe; the tariff of the commodities that are 
 found in different localities; and the right estimate of 
 exchange. In fact, he must know all about all the 
 thousand intricate regulations that adhere to a busi- 
 ness career, or else he is a poor merchant, and will 
 meet with but very little success. The professional 
 man must be versed in letters, have a sound educa- 
 tion, and the power of giving out thought, or else 
 his profession will lose its dignity, beauty, and 
 power. We all see this clearly enough; and so we 
 build colleges, scientific schools, law schools, theo- 
 logical schools, medical schools, and endow with 
 great liberality the professorships that are needed, 
 striving to do all that we can, so that every man shall 
 enter upon his work thoroughly prepared. This cer- 
 tainly is too evident to need a prolonged explanation. 
 
 If every "doctor" ought to have been a "minis- 
 ter," if every "minister" ought to have been a "mer- 
 chant, " if every " merchant " ought to have been a 
 "mechanic," and if everybody be just where he ought 
 not to be, into what a chaos the world would be 
 thrown, and how quickly we should wish ourselves 
 dead! 
 
 But, my dear friends, in the moral and in the spir- 
 itual character of all of us the law of appropriateness 
 is also to be acknowledged, learned, and obeyed. We 
 are all ordered to be good and to do good, each to a 
 certain extent in a peculiar way; and, although now 
 
THE WEDDING GARMENT 173 
 
 spiritual natures are so discordant, it is meant that 
 they should be in a perfect, glorious, and benignant 
 harmony. 
 
 I do not think that any of us can reach perfection 
 here below, and I know that there is yet a great deal 
 to be done by all of us before we come within sight 
 of the mark which we ought to reach. 
 
 A man acquires a wonderful control of his temper, 
 and then he thinks that he has reached to a very high 
 standard of goodness ; and so he has, but he has not 
 secured everything, as he supposes, and there is much 
 more for him to do. I am glad that he speaks kindly; 
 but does he act kindly, thoughtfully, generously, and 
 is he a man of prayer and principle? Is his heart 
 gentle as well as his tones, and does he relinquish all 
 his bad habits as well as his bad speech? 
 
 Again, a man is thoroughly honest; and then he 
 thinks that honesty is enough. Well, it is a great 
 virtue, in these days of temptation, to tell the truth, 
 to act the truth, and to be full of integrity; but there 
 is much more to be done, and many more virtues to 
 be gained, before one becomes what he ought to be. 
 For one must be devout as well as straightforward, 
 gentle as well as exact, and pure as well as true. 
 
 So I might go on naming special virtues that we are 
 apt to enthrone as great acquisitions, while we keep 
 our eyes blind to our many deficiencies. Let each 
 one who thinks that he is wearing a wedding garment 
 examine himself closely and look to the very centre 
 and circumference of his heart and life; for then it 
 
174 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 will be seen, I am sure, that there has been a false 
 self-estimate. We may have the wedding gloves or 
 the wedding vest, but we are not completely attired 
 in the royal garb. One sad test of the great defi- 
 ciency in the characters of the children of God is 
 their lack of love for each other; and I am amazed at 
 the perfect indifference many people exhibit about 
 the welfare of others. For they live as if they had 
 no concern with any one but their own families, as if 
 all their duties and all their obligations rested at 
 home. Here they are, surrounded by souls that are 
 aching for light: here are their neighbors and their 
 fellow-beings looking to them for counsel; but they 
 wrap themselves up in their own self-sufficiency and 
 say, "Who is my neighbor?" forgetting that every- 
 body within reach is a neighbor, and not thinking 
 that we are all ordained as ministers over God's 
 parish, that is built everywhere and grows everlast- 
 ingly. One of the articles of which the wedding 
 garment is composed is humility; and, as long as we 
 are satisfied with our abundance, or our good family, 
 or our pre-eminent virtues, we shall be short of the 
 material that is needed for the making of our spirit- 
 ual attire. 
 
 I do not advise the breaking down of classes, for I 
 suppose as long as the world exists there must be 
 some kind of a social scale; but I do advise the 
 breaking down of the aristocratic spirit, the utter 
 extinction of Pharisaic exclusiveness, and the crush- 
 ing of that jealous, ambitious, and Satanic temper 
 
THE WEDDING GARMENT 175 
 
 that speaks, even when the voice is not used, to every 
 less favored one, "I am holier or better than thou." 
 
 The words of our text bid us always to be in a 
 devout frame of mind; for there is no occasion, no 
 company, and no possible moment, where it will do 
 for us to put off our religion entirely. 
 
 So, most certainly, on every holy day that is set 
 apart for worship, we should not forget the wedding 
 garment. Have we all of us put that garment on 
 to-day? Is our mind full of adoration, our heart full 
 of peace, our soul full of God? And do we come 
 here feeling ourselves weak? Are we seeking 
 strength from the Father? Are we listening, not 
 critically, but with a teachable spirit, being deter- 
 mined to go away better than we came; and do we 
 always convert spiritual exercises into our deepest 
 culture, so that, whenever we hear a prayer, or listen 
 to a chant, or catch the faintest discourse upon God, 
 goodness, and heaven, we are uplifted, inspired, and 
 renewed ? 
 
 It is no light thing that we gather together week 
 after week for the worship of the Father and for the 
 rededication of ourselves to his blessed service. And 
 this Sunday worship should not merely be a form, 
 should not congeal into a habit and be a fossil of the 
 past; but it should blossom, blush, and ripen into a 
 reality, as real as life, as solemn as death, and as 
 grand as eternity. The Sabbath Day is a spiritual 
 feast that is spread by the Infinite One for the re- 
 freshment, the culture, and the salvation of his 
 
176 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 benighted children. And, no matter who the 
 preacher may be, strong or weak, eloquent or heavy, 
 full of himself or full of God, the day is the Lord's 
 Day. And so also it is our day, and there are other 
 voices than human pleading with our souls; while, if 
 we be clothed in the right spirit, filled with the true 
 thoughts, and if all through our natures the echoes of 
 the Eternal be heard, then the "Lord's Day" will 
 always be to us a delight, a benediction, and a peace. 
 
 But are there not too many everywhere that go to 
 church to be entertained, to listen to grand music, to 
 set a good example, and to pass away idle time, or for 
 some purpose not in full accord with the divine will ? 
 Good music, earnest preaching, and neat and graceful 
 attire are not to be despised; but they are far from 
 indispensable, and we can do without them. For 
 there can be a stirring cathedral service in each one's 
 soul, although never a word be spoken. Although, 
 like those called Quakers, our hour should be passed 
 in meditation; and although in plainest dress we 
 should sit upon rough boards, even then we should 
 be helped, if our hearts were true, tender, and right in 
 the sight of God. 
 
 Ah ! here is the secret : our hearts must be true, 
 and then all things will fall into their proper place; 
 and we shall look not mainly for the wisdom, work, 
 and will of man, but for the voice, grace, and salva- 
 tion of Almighty God. 
 
 It is a sad sign of the decline of religion at this 
 day that people all over the world are seeking for 
 
THE WEDDING GARMENT 177 
 
 something new, striking, and overwhelming all the 
 time. They ask more for show than for substance, 
 and look more for effect than reality. An intelligent 
 man said to me not very long ago that, after all, what 
 was needed in the pulpit was not so much a good ser- 
 mon as a good voice, a fine manner, and an impres- 
 sive delivery; and then he added, no particular 
 matter about the sermon ! I am afraid that man does 
 not always wear his wedding garment ; but how many 
 there are who are like him! Ah! where are we drift- 
 ing, when we look for amusement, eloquence, and 
 masquerade, and when we care so little for the simple 
 gospel and its sublimest terms, new birth, sanctifi- 
 cation, salvation, redemption, Christ, and the cross? 
 Ah! I fear we need to-day an awaking like that when 
 Luther rent the Roman Catholic Church in twain, or 
 when the Wesleys stirred the English Church to its 
 centre. We need to take hold of sacred things with 
 a live spirit; for the Bible must become to us a new 
 book, dearer than ever before, truer than ever before, 
 and not to be too lightly handled, too freely criti- 
 cised, or too much let alone, but to be reverenced, 
 obeyed, studied, and cherished, as containing the 
 voice of Almighty God. 
 
 Let us all wake up from our comfortable slumbers, 
 from our self-complacent habits, and from our listless 
 manner, to a sense of the greatness of our make, the 
 beauty of goodness, the majesty of the soul, and the 
 glory of God. Let us wake up, so that we can en- 
 throne religion in its right place as supreme ruler 
 
178 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 and guide, no longer making it an attendant upon 
 our whims, an embellishment of our characters, and 
 in any way a second-rate concern. Let us wake up, 
 till every thought shall be purified, every desire be 
 cleansed, every word be holy, and every deed be true. 
 Religion first, religion chief, and religion all in all, 
 above business, above pleasure, and above even 
 life! Ah! this should be our motto day by day and 
 hour by hour. Jesus Christ always wore the wedding 
 garment, and he never forgot his high calling; and, 
 place him where you would, he was always himself. 
 
 Whether he stood by priest or by peasant, before 
 a crowd or in the sanctity of a home, on mountain 
 top or in the centre of a lake, in the wilderness, 
 tempted, or on the way to Jerusalem, glorified; trans- 
 figured on the mount or abased on the cross; speak- 
 ing to Pilate in the judgment hall or giving his 
 benediction to the watching disciples as he retreats 
 to the heavens, he is always himself, always ready 
 for the occasion, and ever looks the right look, speaks 
 the right word, and does the right thing. 
 
 It is a great relief to me, when I am wearied with 
 the world's mistakes, oppressed by its weakness, and 
 confounded by its follies, as I turn to my Master, and 
 find One who never did anything out of the way, and 
 who, under all provocations, never lost his self-com- 
 mand ; who regulated his temper and his temperament 
 so thoroughly after the divine law, and went through 
 the world unspoiled by its temptations, unconquered 
 by its trials, and undismayed by its abuses, went 
 
THE WEDDING GARMENT 179 
 
 through with the wedding garment never soiled, 
 never torn, but always fresh, attractive, and beauti- 
 ful, and always full of a splendor past description and 
 a glory not of this world. 
 
 The wedding garment! That is the robe which 
 you and I wish to wear, not only here, but when we 
 enter heaven. 
 
 Certainly, we all of us have a great deal to do about 
 this garment ; for we all of us must soon pass away 
 into the unseen. 
 
 The garment must be purchased, made up, worn; 
 and it must be made richly, full of embroidery, cov- 
 ered with jewels, and magnificent and gorgeous. 
 
 But what is this garment ? Why, it is our charac- 
 ter, our moral and our spiritual character: this is 
 what we must enrich, enlarge, elevate, and spiritual- 
 ize. Let us look to our temper: is it all that it 
 should be, sweet, serene, trusting, and devout? 
 Let us look to our habits : are they methodical, char- 
 itable, and pure? Let us look to our hearts: are 
 they loving, honest, earnest, and holy; and is the 
 world better because we are living in it, and is God's 
 kingdom advanced because we breathe the breath of 
 life? 
 
 Can we find within our souls the temple of the 
 Lord, a temple so built as to encourage worship and 
 work, while there is a place in it where the light of 
 devotion never goes out? 
 
 Never let it be said of us that we are incomplete, 
 out of place, wrongly clothed, careless of our privi- 
 
l8o SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 leges, and forgetful of our dignity. Never let this 
 be said as long as we dwell in time or hope to live in 
 eternity. 
 
 We are invited to the feast of God that is spread 
 for us every day of our mortal and our immortal 
 existence; and let us, then, prepare aright for its 
 enjoyment, and wear the clothing so gloriously recom- 
 mended by the apostle, a clothing which can be 
 obtained if we seriously ask, seek for, and demand it. 
 
 It is thus brilliantly described by Saint Paul : "The 
 loins are to be girt about with truth, the breastplate 
 is to be of righteousness, the feet are to be shod with 
 the preparation of the gospel of peace, the shield is 
 to be of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of 
 the word of God." 
 
 Brothers and sisters, friends, children of God, dis- 
 ciples of Jesus, you who are soon to be angels, the 
 garment is ready; and are you ready to wear it? Let 
 each and all say Amen! 
 
XVII. 
 THE OMNIPRESENCE OF THE ALMIGHTY. 
 
 " Not far from every one of us." ACTS xvii. 27. 
 
 I SUPPOSE that every one of us, at certain times 
 and in peculiar straits, either when the mind is 
 troubled or the body is weak or the heart is sad; at 
 times when self-sufficiency is seemingly buried for- 
 ever out of sight, at such times of overwhelming 
 need, every one of us is oppressed with loneliness, 
 helplessness, and wants comfort, aid, and strength, 
 terribly craves the presence of somebody, a kindling 
 eye, kindly face, an outstretched hand, a cordial 
 word, a heart beating in union, affection, sympathy, 
 encouragement, and benediction. For we all feel at 
 such times that we cannot stand alone, and we cry 
 out for the living God, nay, for anybody living be- 
 sides ourselves who can hold us up, keep our spirits 
 up, give us faith, hope, pluck, nerve, and fresh 
 power; and sometimes, for a while, we seem to be 
 beating the air in vain. 
 
 There are times, too, of unconscious need, when 
 we are none the less objects of pity, claimants for 
 mercy, and utterly good for nothing unless lifted up, 
 sustained, inspired, nourished, and glorified by some 
 outside power. And so, in the hour of conscious and 
 
182 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 unconscious need, we hear glory be to God through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ! the sublime, comforting, 
 holy, and blessed announcement that the Almighty 
 is not far from any one of us; that we are never left 
 alone; that we are always watched, guided, preserved, 
 and loved; and that we cannot slip away from the 
 benignant gaze that forever looks down from above. 
 
 Have you ever seen a little child running away 
 from his father, hiding behind tree or rock or house, 
 and thinking it impossible that the place of retreat 
 can be discovered, and yet the father sees the child 
 all the time? And so God never loses sight of us, 
 even when we run away, hide behind the tree of 
 temptation, are covered by the rock of sin, and are 
 seemingly sheltered in the house of rebellion. Even 
 then God sees, watches, and knows. 
 
 So, too, the little child who runs away from his 
 father is almost afraid all the time that he is hiding 
 that father may not find him; that he will remain 
 concealed forever; that there will be no more home, 
 no more parents, no more brothers and sisters, a 
 grand desolation. And then, when the misery is 
 overwhelming, father comes and takes his hand; and, 
 oh, such a joy, such a laughing, and such inward 
 peace! And so between us and God, if we run away 
 from him, we begin, by and by, to feel that he may 
 not find us, may leave us to ourselves, may never 
 again take our hand; and, in our utter desolation, we 
 find that he is close by us, saying, "My son or my 
 daughter, give me thine heart." He is not far away 
 
THE OMNIPRESENCE OF THE ALMIGHTY 183 
 
 from any one of us, at our birth, in our temptations, 
 in moments of great exigencies, when we are in ter- 
 rible doubt which way to turn, when we travel away 
 from home awhile, in sickness, in sorrow, in death, 
 when we enter heaven, and all through eternity. 
 
 Probably there is no period in our existence when 
 our helplessness is seemingly so great as when we are 
 infants; for we can do nothing for ourselves then, 
 and our food, clothing, and whole care depend on the 
 kindness of somebody else, and our frail life, hanging 
 upon a thread, rests upon the will of Almighty God. 
 
 It has been wisely ordered that the very helpless- 
 ness of childhood should call out a corresponding 
 pity, love, and protection from all within reach. So 
 that any one who would abuse a little child is uni- 
 versally labelled as a monster; and the Italian Pa- 
 drone in New York who maltreated so many little 
 ones was severely punished, not only by the slow but 
 sure process of law, but also by the quick scorn, cen- 
 sure, and indignation of all the fathers and mothers 
 all over the land. 
 
 I think that one of the most glorious testimonies 
 of the never-failing goodness of God is to be found in 
 his constant watchfulness over the childhood of us 
 all; and the human race would perish forever, were it 
 not for this restraining hand. 
 
 What accidents the little ones escape, what provi- 
 dential rescues, what wonderful adventures, that, 
 varied by one hair's breadth, would have proved terri- 
 ble calamities! And cannot we all of us review our 
 
184 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 boyhood or girlhood and wonder at our escapes? 
 where, according to all the laws, we ought to have 
 been burned or drowned or stabbed, and hurried out 
 of existence. And yet we live, because the Infinite 
 was not far from us : his hand tempered the blow, his 
 love covered the disaster, his benediction averted 
 death. And here we are, preserved, uplifted, sancti- 
 fied, and safe, with proofs for a superintending Provi- 
 dence that no logic can drive from our breasts. 
 
 Again, he is not far from us in our temptations, 
 the very time when we should perhaps suppose that 
 he was absent or unconscious or careless about our 
 welfare. What! by us in our temptations, and not 
 drive the tempter away; not take away our inclina- 
 tion to be befooled; not consecrate our will, that it 
 may restrain our lips, tie our hands, and make us 
 safe? What! look on and see us reel, stagger, ques- 
 tion, and almost yield? Can a Father do that? 
 
 Yes ; and, if he did anything else, he would not be 
 a wise Father. Does an earthly father allow a child 
 to have no will, no judgment, no choice, no character, 
 and bind the child to an iron necessity without the 
 possibility of jostling his position one hair's breadth? 
 
 What is innocence worth, till it is made virtue by 
 a personal resistance, until it has faced the foe and 
 put him down, till it has seen the wrong and dis- 
 missed it, till it has fought the good fight and ob- 
 tained the victory? 
 
 The Infinite Father is by when we are tempted; 
 but he is all the time showing us the other side, 
 
THE OMNIPRESENCE OF THE ALMIGHTY 185 
 
 giving us the power to balance the advantages of 
 right and wrong, proving to us by our intuitions that 
 there is a choice, and that, as we may make our 
 choice, so shall we be consecrated or shamed. 
 
 He lets us be tempted, but he never gives us any 
 temptation that we are not able to overpower if we 
 desire; and, if we fall, it is our own fault: we are to 
 blame, we took the responsibility, and of our own 
 accord we marched on the wrong side. 
 
 Again, God is with us in moments of great exi- 
 gencies, when we are in mighty doubt which way to 
 turn, when opportunities come that we cannot exactly 
 measure, at very decisive moments in our discipline. 
 And, if we will only be guided, we shall gain the 
 victory every time; for the opportunity is ours, the 
 "open sesame" is upon our lips, and all we have to 
 do is to shout out the words, and the prizes will fall 
 into our hands. We may be deaf and dumb in the 
 soul; we may halt between two courses, and refuse 
 to hear the bell ringing on the right side; we may 
 shut our eyes upon the light, and pretend to be blind. 
 But then the blame is all our own. 
 
 My friends, look back upon the decisive hours in 
 your lives, when, if you had turned another way, it 
 would have been better or worse ; when one way was 
 life, the other way was death or loss or shame. And 
 do you not now feel that a will mightier than your 
 own, a power richer than mortals, an inspiration from 
 Heaven, coaxed your soul along the right path ; or, if 
 you went the wrong road, a resistance, a setting aside, 
 
l86 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 and a forgetfulness of higher motives, nobler im- 
 pulses, and holier desires, sent you down? Oh, we 
 sometimes say, if we had gone first in the wrong 
 direction, we should have been conquered; and but 
 a hair's breadth saved us. Ah! that hair's breadth 
 was Almighty God, who is not far from any one of 
 us. So, when we travel away from our homes, God 
 is not far away from us, although we often feel that 
 we never can be quite as safe anywhere as we are in 
 our own dwelling, surrounded by our friends, guarded 
 by our many comforts, and seemingly shielded from 
 any accident or trouble or pain. And, when we go 
 away from the family circle, there is a feeling of 
 uncertainty, not only for those who are left, that 
 for a while must care for themselves, not only for our 
 property, that never seems so secure as when we are 
 ^at hand to protect it, but also we are troubled lest 
 in our travelling something may happen, some rail 
 be out of place, some wheel be loosened, some founda- 
 tion be weak, some bridge be broken down, some 
 rock be in the way; and we are apt to forget that God 
 is with us just the same in the cars, in the coach, in 
 the public mansion, by the mountains, or by the sea- 
 side, everywhere with us, and just as kind, good, 
 and loving as when we are in our own dwelling, 
 surrounded by our own dear ones, and seemingly per- 
 fectly safe from all intrusion. And we do not re- 
 member that this same God can be with our dear ones 
 at home just as well as with us, and that he is omni- 
 present with his benedictions, care, and fellowship, 
 
THE OMNIPRESENCE OF THE ALMIGHTY 187 
 
 not far from them, not far from us, and not far 
 from anybody, and protecting all his children wher- 
 ever they may be found. 
 
 Again, in sickness we can trace this near pres- 
 ence, a greater help than the powerful medicine of 
 the skilful physician, or the careful nursing of the 
 self-sacrificing nurse, or the patient watching of 
 devoted friends; a power that made the medicine do 
 its right work, that turned the nursing into a bene- 
 diction, that hallowed the anxious love of dear ones, 
 that filled the room with angelic influences and sent 
 healing graces from the eternal city. 
 
 How did we ever get through those terrible dis- 
 eases that confused the brain, paralyzed the strength, 
 stole the flesh away, broke the nerves in pieces, and 
 left us for a while but shadows, hardly recognized by 
 those who knew us best? And how is it that now 
 we are healthy and strong, as if nothing had ever 
 touched the body and made us prostrate? 
 
 Ah! one word explains it. It is not chance, nor 
 luck, nor skill, nor nature. No, nothing mortal; 
 but that word is God. His voice went forth, and we 
 arose and walked. And so, when death shall come, 
 and when we enter heaven, and through all eternity, 
 God will not be far away from any one of us. The 
 greatest dread about death is, first, the thought of 
 extinction; and, secondly, the thought that the 
 journey is to be taken all alone, the great future to 
 be met without a companion. It is a seeming leap 
 in the dark. 
 
1 88 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 I suppose, if we could take away from all minds 
 the fear of going out, expiring, ending forever, or 
 that other dread of going alone into some unknown 
 place, to an existence shadowy and undefined, death 
 would be viewed only as an incident in life, like 
 going to a meal, making a call, and taking a journey. 
 I know that some will say that they had rather go out 
 than go on they know not where, either because they 
 fear the consequences of living forever or because the 
 other life seems like a ghost-life, and not worth the 
 experiment; but, even then, I doubt if such people 
 say what they mean. 
 
 Go out, go to nothing, be really no more, the " I " 
 extinguished everlastingly? Do they prefer that? 
 
 It cannot be; for then they impeach their birth, 
 they call in question this mortal life, they hurl a 
 satire upon all their joys and friends, and they wrap 
 a winding-sheet over all heaven. 
 
 Why, I had rather live as a ghost, or a fairy, or 
 a dewdrop, than to go out. However, going out, 
 even philosophically, is impossible; for nothing 
 material is ever wasted, and nothing spiritual is ever 
 thrown away. 
 
 We shall go on, and here comes the comfort we 
 shall not go on alone. God is not faraway: he is 
 close by us, he will go with us; and, if he goes with 
 us, and if we are really avowed children of God, we 
 shall go to a good place, to a real life, to sure 
 growth, and the other life will not be a failure. 
 
 And so through all eternity shall we be led on by 
 
THE OMNIPRESENCE OF THE ALMIGHTY 189 
 
 the constant Friend, led on, if we are faithful, from 
 splendor to splendor, from honor to honor, from glory 
 to glory, and experience joys, feel delights, and 
 witness a magnificence that no words can possibly 
 describe. 
 
 But how is it that we find the One who is not far 
 away, how do we get at the blessed reality of his holy 
 presence, and how can we believe these great truths, 
 that One is close to us, at our birth, in our tempta- 
 tions, at critical times, in all our journeyings, in 
 sickness, sorrow, death, and forever and ever? For 
 no one living to-day has seen God at any time, nor 
 heard his voice; and is this whole discourse nothing 
 but a pleasant dream, an idle fancy, a mirage of the 
 mind, and the mere mist of the soul? Well, as be- 
 lievers in Jesus, as readers of the New Testament, as 
 close students of the last nineteen hundred years, we 
 have a foundation for all that we have said: we have 
 One who stamps his holy approval on the truth of the 
 near and dear and helping Father; and he, the Mes- 
 senger of God, his image, his Son, has declared that 
 he and his Father will dwell with all that love the 
 truth. 
 
 The indwelling God is the great proclamation of 
 our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; and "I will never 
 leave nor forsake you " was not only said in the Old 
 Testament, but was re-echoed when Jesus exclaimed, 
 " Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the 
 world!" 
 
XVIII. 
 THE SOUL'S WEIGHT. 
 
 "Thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting." DAN. 
 v. 27. 
 
 EVERYBODY is weighed in the balances, and 
 found wanting; for we all of us have our weak 
 spots, so that, if the tempter could only discover the 
 exact locality of our weakness, there would be but 
 little hope for any one of us. But it is very fortu- 
 nate, however, for a great many people that the weak- 
 est spot is never developed; and thus they are able to 
 go through the world shielded from danger, free from 
 disgrace, and with a very fair moral and religious 
 reputation. 
 
 But, on the other hand, there are many persons who 
 seem continually exposed in their most vulnerable 
 parts, while they, on this account, always stand in 
 the dark; and I presume that there are many men in 
 the prison of the State no worse, perhaps not half so 
 bad, as some outside, who stand high in society and 
 who bask in the sunshine of popular favor. 
 
 I do not mean to say that criminals should never be 
 punished, nor that they are to be somewhat excused 
 because they are unfortunate; but I do mean to de- 
 clare that there are many criminals roving our streets 
 
THE SOUL'S WEIGHT 191 
 
 who have never received their brand, and never will 
 till death disrobes them, till they arrive at the altar 
 of God, and till they are ordered to give an account 
 of their stewardship. Undoubtedly, when we are 
 ushered into the eternal world, we shall be surprised 
 to see how things are managed there; and we shall 
 look for many of those who stood on earth clothed in 
 great power and receiving the homage of the crowd, 
 while we shall find that, in a great many cases, they 
 are placed very low, being obscured by the brilliancy 
 of those whom they once disdained. For our station 
 in life here is no positive mark of the stand that we 
 shall take hereafter. Here there may be a great deal 
 of make-believe, a vast amount of tinsel, and consid- 
 erable masquerade; but there all things will pass for 
 what they are worth, so that no masks will avail one 
 moment towards concealing the tremendous reality. 
 If, then, we all have weak spots, whether we know it 
 or not, even those the most unconscious possessing 
 the greatest number of them, are we not taught the 
 need of charitable construction, should we not look 
 upon our frail fellow-beings with a sympathetic eye, 
 and should we not treat them with all tenderness, 
 good will, and deep sympathy, thus winning them 
 back to righteousness, self-respect, and peace? But 
 is this the usual way? Are we not too ready to 
 spread an evil report, discoloring it by our imagina- 
 tion and imbittering it by our passions? Do we not 
 turn away from the offender with a scornful look, 
 crushing him or her by our contempt ? Are we not 
 
TQ2 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 barricading daily the road by which the sinful one 
 can return to better ways, and are we not making his 
 or her penitence almost hopeless by our severe and 
 unsparing criticism? 
 
 Let us look well to our own hearts, purify the 
 chambers of the inner man, sweep away the rubbish 
 at our own doors, and be very sure that our brain and 
 soul are thoroughly clean, ere we harshly treat an 
 erring one; or else, before we know it, at a feast it 
 may be, or in private, or as we walk the street, or 
 anywhere and everywhere, we shall hear that awful 
 voice, the voice of conscience, which there is no 
 mistaking, and which cannot be easily muffled, say- 
 ing, Thou, not thy neighbor; thou, who art so fright- 
 fully judging; thou, who art priding thyself upon thy 
 holiness and thy honor, art weighed in the balances 
 and found wanting, wanting in a true self-judgment, 
 wanting in charity, and wanting in many of the ele- 
 ments that help to form a solid Christian character. 
 
 "Who art thou that judgest another? " "Take the 
 beam out of thine own eye, then shalt thou see clearly 
 to take the mote from thy brother's eye." "Know 
 thyself " is not only a Grecian, but also a Christian 
 motto; and it is the greatest of all knowledge for us 
 to be acquainted with our own mind, heart, and soul. 
 
 Some persons seem better acquainted with every- 
 body and everything else rather than with themselves, 
 and they have no plummet with which to sound their 
 own worth, no scales with which to weigh their own 
 merits, and no square by which to measure their own 
 
THE SOUL'S WEIGHT 193 
 
 rectitude; and they forget all about the great eye that 
 is looking on their own hearts, the eternal arch that 
 surrounds their own souls, the inward temple where 
 they are commanded to worship, the compass that 
 marks off their responsibilities, and the level that 
 would stretch their own deeds to the strict law of 
 truth. Or, to use less figurative language, they for- 
 get all about the soul that they carry with them, its 
 responsibilities, its possibilities, its discipline, its 
 glories; and they prefer to throw their neighbor into 
 the crucible of their caustic judgment rather than to 
 throw themselves under the full glare, the rich sifting, 
 and the glorious consecration of Christ's precepts. 
 "Thou art weighed in the balances." 
 A man is weighed in the balances sometimes when 
 he least expects it ; for some of us ay, many of us 
 in this world stand for just what we are worth, and 
 no more ; and our real character is better known than 
 we suppose. People may praise us to our face; but 
 they are talking all the time about us when we are 
 absent. And I do not doubt a great many people are 
 living with the comfortable thought that they are 
 highly esteemed by their fellow-men, admired for 
 their genius, praised for their courage, loved for their 
 spasms of generosity, honored for their strict and 
 unflinching integrity, and, in fact, rated at much 
 above their real worth and at a mark very much above 
 what their own souls could possibly justify. Do not 
 let any one be deceived, my friends ; for this is not 
 often the case. Those that know us are slow to praise, 
 
194 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 and are much more ready to blame. So that, how- 
 ever brilliant at times we may be, we are watched at 
 all times; and we are estimated, not by any fits of 
 goodness, but by the ordinary current of our lives. 
 No matter what our occasional appearance may be, if 
 we are in our hearts miserly and in our minds jeal- 
 ous, ill-natured, ambitious, and vain; for all these 
 faults will publish themselves, will be treasured up 
 by the critics, and they will balance fearfully against 
 our occasional explosions of goodness. Our real 
 character betrays itself in our eye, expression, and 
 manner; and we cannot help being detected, however 
 much we may bow and smile, and however sacredly 
 we may talk. Are we misers? Well, everybody 
 knows it; for this fact is revealed in our purchases, 
 sales, in the arrangement of our clothing, the man- 
 agement of our homes, the very words that we utter 
 and the way that we utter them, in a certain twist ot 
 our lips and curve of our brow. 
 
 Are we ambitious? It is seen in the flash of our 
 eyes, in the flush of our cheeks, and in our sensitive- 
 ness to public opinion. 
 
 Whatever we are, we carry the placard with us, 
 with the history written out, so that the discerning 
 ones will read it, however careful we may be. 
 
 Oh, what a startling thought is this, that we carry 
 the proclamation of what we are right before us, just 
 as if each one had a banner marked, "I am a miser," 
 "I am a sensualist," "I am a thief," and "I am a 
 murderer"! Let us be resolved that we will never 
 
THE SOUL'S WEIGHT 195 
 
 carry banners of shame, but that around us shall be 
 written, in letters of gold, "I am the Lord's." 
 
 I may be said, in these remarks, to be trespassing 
 upon the departments of phrenology, physiognomy, 
 physiology, and kindred sciences. Well, be it so; 
 for there is much truth connected with these various 
 departments of knowledge, and, wherever truth has 
 any resting-place, there a religious philosophy is at 
 home. For religion does not confine itself exclu- 
 sively to the Bible nor to a man's mind and soul; but 
 it goes everywhere for illustrations, power, and com- 
 panionship, and it embraces all the sciences and all 
 the arts, as far as they are penetrated with the spirit 
 of holiness. If medical facts and spiritual realities 
 agree, so much the better for both ; for then we have 
 a double evidence for what we wish to establish, and 
 then there is no way of escaping the conclusions to 
 which we come. And I believe that we can never 
 state any great truth of God without having all nature 
 springing up to indorse it. A man's own body 
 chants its reality; the stars proclaim its certainty, 
 illuminating it by their brilliant light; the forests 
 stand guard over it, rustling with approval ; and the 
 waters embrace it, indorsing it with every sparkle, 
 dash, foam, and tumble. 
 
 There need never be any quarrel between God's 
 word and God's works, for they are one: they act 
 together, and they blend their harmonies, interlace 
 their prophecies, substantiate, enlarge, and electrify 
 each other. And they never go alone, but each one 
 
196 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 calls out to the other for help; for both are sentinels 
 that are appointed by the Almighty. "Thou art 
 weighed in the balances." We are sometimes sur- 
 prised when we hear of any one who has suddenly, as 
 we call it, committed a great crime; but we need not 
 be so surprised, for the man only fell when attacked 
 in the very place where he was not fortified, and he 
 had always been weak there, but never before had 
 been tempted. 
 
 A man may establish quite a good reputation for a 
 long while, if only the strong points in his character 
 are called out, if there be no abrasion of the exposed 
 sides ; and he may seem to be a hero in the eyes of 
 all who meet him. But let a gale come on the wrong 
 side, let the wind beat on the frail part, and place all 
 the battering-rams of temptation against the locality 
 where he has forgotten to fortify, and then soon he 
 will be a wreck. 
 
 The public exclamation will be: "What a fall was 
 there ! so good a man, so much trusted, and standing 
 so high ! Is there any reliance to be placed upon any 
 one now, and may not all be quickly led astray?" 
 But, if the public would only look a little deeper, 
 they will find that this man had never been what he 
 ought to have been, and they will see that for years 
 he has been tottering on the brink of the precipice; 
 for no man falls from goodness suddenly, and decay 
 is a long while going on. We may not perceive the 
 failure: the outside may be fair and ruddy, and the 
 very picture of health; but down by the core we shall 
 
THE SOUL'S WEIGHT 197 
 
 see corruption enough, that is waiting only the gra- 
 cious opportunity for a startling manifestation. 
 
 The embryo of many a crime that has been so 
 many years developing in secret, and has at last 
 exploded, may have been a prevarication in childhood 
 or a slight theft then, or an angry look, or a profane 
 word, all small then, and hardly worth noticing, 
 and yet, just like the little worm in the timber of the 
 ship, that kept working year in and year out, till at 
 last it summoned the vessel and all its noble freight 
 of human lives to the bottom of the ocean. 
 
 "Thou art weighed in the balances, and found 
 wanting." 
 
 So, not very long ago, the financial power of one of 
 the cities of the United States was weighed, and found 
 wanting. , 
 
 Credit too far extended and too thinly based, co- 
 quetting with the miser, running wild with the spend- 
 thrift, shaking hands with cunning, bowing pleasantly 
 to fraud, making millionaires of paupers, and thrust- 
 ing the rich into want, ah! these are the things that 
 make banks tremble everywhere, and prove a lack 
 of prudence, foresight, honor, courage, purity, and 
 holiness. 
 
 Ah, yes! there is a great destruction when dishon- 
 esty gains the upper hand ; for then money becomes 
 tissue paper, and the great spider's web that seems to 
 be full of splendid threads of gold comes to pieces, 
 swept clean by the stern blows of reality. 
 
 My friends, the words of our text are the words of 
 
198 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 Christianity to every one who lives. Compare the 
 requisitions of the gospel to each one's thoughts and 
 habits, and then see how sadly deficient we all are. 
 
 We are told "to bring every thought into subjec- 
 tion to Christ " ; but who of us does that ? We are 
 told "that for every idle word we speak we shall be 
 called to account " ; but how many idle words do you 
 and I speak every day of our lives? And we are 
 ordered to make our conversation "yea, yea, and nay, 
 nay," that is, as concise, truthful, and robust as 
 possible; and do we strictly follow this law? 
 
 Ah! when we compare ourselves as we are with 
 ourselves as we ought to be, well may each one of us 
 exclaim, as did one of old, "Lord, be merciful to 
 me a sinner! " 
 
 "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found 
 wanting." 
 
 It seems that Belshazzar, the king, made a great 
 feast for a thousand of his lords, and took sacred ves- 
 sels from the temple, in order that he and his family 
 might use them for drinking-cups. And, while they 
 were drinking wine, worshipping false gods, and were 
 in the midst of their insane revelry, upon the plaster 
 of the wall, over against the candlestick, came forth 
 fingers of a man's handwriting, "Mene, mene, tekel, 
 upharsin." Mene, God hath numbered thy kingdom 
 and finished it: tekel, thou art weighed in the bal- 
 ances, and art found wanting; upharsin, thy kingdom 
 is divided. 
 
 Poor old king! of what use is thy royalty now, and 
 
THE SOUL'S WEIGHT 199 
 
 what is thy feast worth ? For there is a skeleton at 
 the door, the executioner is near, judgment is at 
 hand, and you must pay the price of all thy falsity 
 and crime. 
 
 But, friends, everywhere now where sin is com- 
 mitted there is a handwriting on the wall; and it 
 says, u Beware, repent, turn aside, look aloft, and 
 become a new being!" 
 
 Young man, ere you touch that coin that does not 
 belong to you, on which your eyes and your heart are 
 so terribly cast ; ere you throw the loaded dice that 
 are to bring you an accursed fortune by the spolia- 
 tion of a weak-minded adversary; and ere you drink 
 your senses away, that you may bask in the delirium 
 of irresponsibility, remember, I beseech you, re- 
 member, the handwriting on the wall. Young woman, 
 pause ere you sacrifice soul to sense, honor to expedi- 
 ency, and your heart to the world. For over against 
 every step that you take, though you be ever so 
 secret, there is a writing on the wall. Ah! let us 
 all remember that there is no escaping Belshazzar's 
 sentence, if we follow in Belshazzar's steps, and let 
 us be sure that all roads are fatal but the way that 
 leads to righteousness. Jesus Christ was weighed in 
 the balances, and found not wanting. 
 
 Everything about him was correct, and he was the 
 only one ever clothed in flesh in whom there was no 
 guile. There was a perfect character, there was n 
 finished life, there was a complete example; and only 
 as we lean on his breast, press his hand, and follow 
 
200 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 in his steps, shall we begin to see light, rest, and 
 peace. 
 
 The weak spot about us spoils our happiness, de- 
 ranges our plans, sheds a gloom over all our hours, 
 and makes even our virtues pale, our prayers timid, 
 our best moments unsubstantial, and sends a rust over 
 our ideas, benumbs our affections, palsies all our best 
 efforts; and how shall we get rid of it? Only by the 
 help of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, joined to 
 our constant endeavors. 
 
 How beautifully one has said, speaking of his own 
 need of the Master's help, 
 
 " Jesus, thy loving voice I hear. 
 
 I bow the knee 
 To thy sweet spirit's power near, 
 
 And press to thee. 
 Thou leadest on to God in heaven. 
 
 Lead on ! Thou callest me. 
 
 " Earth's way is long, grief tries me sore, 
 
 I look to thee ; 
 And, though thorns gall my bleeding feet, 
 
 I'll follow thee, 
 Remembering that thy life was given 
 
 To set my spirit free. 
 
 " Through darkest clouds and longest night 
 
 I'll trust in thee; 
 And, when my eyes grow dim for light, 
 
 I'll cry to thee, 
 
 Knowing that from thy home above 
 Thou wilt my comfort be." 
 
THE SOUL'S WEIGHT 2OI 
 
 Ah ! to get rid of the spot the weak spot in our 
 characters is the work of a life; and we must pray 
 earnestly for its removal, must be unyielding to its 
 demands, must keep it away from temptation, and 
 stand guard over it all the time, with a Bible, a 
 chant, and holy deeds. We must never lose sight of 
 its presence, exposures, and power; we must call for 
 legions of angels to surround, fortify, and cleanse it; 
 and we must hedge it around with virtues that will be 
 massive enough to barricade its walls forever. The 
 weak spot will then, in time, be no longer weak; for 
 it will gradually disappear, it will fade beautifully 
 away, it will be subdued, conquered, overcome, and 
 glorified. And then the peace of God will fall with 
 great grace upon our hearts, while we shall be tread- 
 ing on the very boundary lines of the celestial 
 kingdom. 
 
XIX. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN MARK. 
 
 " They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." 
 ACTS iv. 13. 
 
 THERE are a great many signs by which we can 
 almost always distinguish a truly Christian 
 man and a really consecrated woman. The looks are 
 a telegraph to our consciousness of some kind of 
 a character that is in this way made eloquent; and 
 there is something about the eye, mouth, and general 
 expression that is apt to reveal goodness or badness 
 right away. 
 
 I do not agree with those who say that, if one can- 
 not look you directly in the face, there is ground for 
 suspicion, since some of the most adroit villains will 
 try to gaze you out of countenance, while oftentimes 
 an exceedingly modest man or woman never can, for 
 any length of time, keep the eyes in a straight line. 
 Still, as you look at me, I ought to be able to have 
 some idea as to what you are ; not according to that 
 false rule false to the very core that a black eye 
 is temper, a gray one cunning, a blue one good nat- 
 ure, since this rule will very frequently prove entirely 
 wrong, and a true judgment can only be formed by the 
 general appearance, and never by any special mark. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN MARK 203 
 
 Is the general appearance sharp or gentle, repulsive 
 or holy, sceptical or devout, good or wicked; and 
 does he or she look like a child of God or like a child 
 of Satan? 
 
 Here, too, we must guard against prejudice, undue 
 haste, and nervous sensitiveness in forming an opin- 
 ion; and we must be very free from all outside influ- 
 ence, arriving at our decision after much study, 
 careful thought, and a real tender, serious, and con- 
 scientious search. 
 
 So, too, by speech we find out one another; for 
 there is something in the voice of each one of us that 
 tells people what we are. I do not here refer to what 
 we say and to how we say it when we are on our 
 guard, when we are putting on our best behavior, 
 when we want to gain the good opinion of the one 
 with whom we converse, when we are entertaining 
 a visitor, in our dealings with a customer to whom we 
 wish to make large sales, and when we wish to secure 
 favor with any one; for not then will our talk betray 
 us. But let us look at our unguarded moments with 
 wife and children when the doors are closed, with 
 servants when the windows are down and company is 
 gone, with the poor whose services are of no avail, 
 and in moments when we throw off our mask and 
 appear just as we are. Then are our voices a photo- 
 graph of what we are, then do the angels place our 
 pictures in the great album of heaven, and then do 
 our tones, words, and manners declare to men and to 
 angels just what we really are. 
 
204 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 Of course, the best of us are at times impatient, 
 petulant, and once in a while thoroughly excited. I 
 do not refer to occasional infirmities, but to our gen- 
 eral appearance when unobserved. 
 
 A great many apparently very lovely people are 
 anything but lovely when seen in their real disposi- 
 tion; and a great many wives, husbands, children, 
 fathers, and mothers could unmask for us quite a 
 number of the people in the world who have gained 
 the reputation of a complete saintship. 
 
 But there is something even in the tones that we 
 generally use, and in the words that we usually em- 
 ploy, that will unfold a great deal of what we are ; for 
 one with gentle tones and kind words cannot be thor- 
 oughly bad, while one with a harsh voice and savage 
 speech, who never smiles, cannot be thoroughly good. 
 Of course, a flatterer will be weighed for the little 
 that he is worth, a sycophant will be despised, a 
 hypocrite will be discovered, and a poisoned honey 
 will beat once rejected; but reality, although it be 
 real but a few moments, will be weighed, observed, 
 and admired. 
 
 If one should never use impure and profane lan- 
 guage, should never tell a falsehood, should never 
 utter a rough and an unkind word, and should always 
 talk tenderly, purely, and believingly, why, we can- 
 not help thinking that such a one possesses a great 
 many noble traits of character, that are worthy of our 
 deepest regard. 
 
 So, too, if one be always profane, untrue, unholy, 
 
THE CHRISTIAN MARK 205 
 
 light and every way loose in conversation, we cannot 
 help feeling and saying that such a one appears to 
 be far, very far, from the kingdom of heaven, and 
 seems to need very much the grace of Almighty God 
 for a complete sanctification. So, too, by deeds we 
 judge of a person; and this way of judging seems 
 more safe, generous, and catholic than any other. 
 Unfortunate circumstances may affect one's gaze and 
 voice, and may make rough one's talk, so that really 
 very good persons at the core of the heart may be 
 very unpromising in all their outward manifestations, 
 like some splendid nuts, that really are very rough 
 to the handling and exceedingly unpromising on the 
 outside, but grandly good in the meat. 
 
 "By their fruits shall ye know men," was said by 
 the one who possessed the highest wisdom. 
 
 Of course, the one who steals, lies, murders, and 
 disobeys the "Decalogue" in any one particular, 
 cannot be a thoroughly good person. A knave may 
 have a beautiful eye, an open countenance, an attrac- 
 tive manner, and an oily voice; and yet he is nothing 
 but a knave, after all, just as some of our most 
 ruddy apples are found not good for much after the 
 skin is removed. 
 
 Of course, the one who is all the time going about 
 doing good, whom the poor bless and the distressed 
 almost worship, cannot be labelled utterly bad. And 
 so the one who never does any good, whom no one 
 loves, and whom the poor and distressed thoroughly 
 distrust, that one must be bad, even if he or she 
 
206 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 should have the face of an angel and the voice of 
 a seraph. 
 
 What we are doing reveals to God, to man, and to 
 all heaven and earth what we really are. 
 
 If you claim the name of Christian, before I grant 
 your claim I must ask you, What are you doing in 
 the house, street, shop, office, and at the exchange? 
 What are you doing, my brother and my sister, for 
 che growth of the soul, the good of your fellow-men, 
 and for your advance towards heaven? Are you 
 always, in every small item, in sight or out of sight, 
 trying with all your might and main to live strictly 
 on the square? 
 
 If you were to tell me about any one's being par- 
 ticularly good, I should beg leave to propound the 
 following questions in regard to him or her: 
 
 How is Sunday spent by the one of whom you 
 speak, in sleep or in church, in pleasure or in 
 devotion, doing good or trying to kill time, as a 
 burden or as a privilege? Yet more would I ask, 
 How are all the days spent? For one day good and 
 six days bad will bring a most terrible satire upon 
 our make-believe Christianity. Are all the days 
 somehow consecrated to truth, honor, and holiness? 
 Is God kept very near continually ? Does he or she 
 walk with Jesus all the time? Is the sense of a 
 glorious responsibility kept ever bright; and would 
 the right arm be sacrificed before a wrong thought 
 would be cherished, a wicked word be spoken, and 
 a bad deed be performed; and is the perfume of 
 
THE CHRISTIAN MARK 207 
 
 sanctity continually exhaled from everything and all 
 things that are connected with the daily life? How 
 is good fortune met, thankfully, modestly, and 
 religiously? How is bad fortune met, cheerfully, 
 humbly, hopefully, sweetly, sacredly, and trium- 
 phantly? How is an insult taken, patiently, ten- 
 derly, lovingly, and in a forgiving spirit? When 
 sickness comes, or bereavement, or death, what is 
 done? Is there resignation, faith, courage, devotion, 
 and a joyous surrendering of the human will, or, 
 rather, a beautiful blending of it with the divine 
 appointment? 
 
 Have you seen your friend under all circumstances, 
 pleasing or sad, and found that the heart was true in 
 every vicissitude? We know very well that some 
 people are very good, happy, attractive, and splendid 
 Christians, to all appearances, under success and when 
 everything goes well, who are just the opposite when 
 bad days come. 
 
 A great many bear their successes very beautifully, 
 never complain about receiving a large income, 
 never are troubled by a multitude of friends, have 
 very splendid tempers in their palatial homes, and 
 seem thoroughly satisfied with their many comforts; 
 and yet we have, at such times, no true test of the 
 real character of such ones. Nor can we ever get 
 a just estimate as long as the golden streams continue 
 to flow. But let a reverse come, let a storm arrive, 
 let the income stop, let the beautiful house be sold, 
 let those who have had enough or more than enough 
 
208 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 be reduced to a sad poverty, and will they say, and 
 can they say, as Job did once: "The Lord gave, and 
 the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of 
 the Lord"? 
 
 If they can thus bend sweetly, grandly, and glori- 
 ously, then they are saints, indeed ; but, if they grow 
 morose, discontented, unhappy, and unholy, they 
 simply prove that all their seeming gentleness was 
 built upon a very poor foundation. 
 
 We all most especially need, in our hours of pros- 
 perity, the help of Almighty God. Do you say, 
 "Pray for the poor; for they need it, and that is about 
 all that they can get " ? 
 
 Well, my favored friend, I will pray for them, but 
 much more for you; for you need it much more in 
 your abundance. For your temptations must of ne- 
 cessity be very great, your responsibility must be 
 very mighty; and you need, above all, the grace of 
 the Father, that you may worthily enjoy and use your 
 great and glorious privileges. 
 
 A truly good, solid, and genuine character is 
 always independent of circumstances, and is right 
 royal in a palace or in a hut, in sickness or in health, 
 in life or in death, in time or in eternity. 
 
 Heap every comfort upon true souls, and you will 
 not be able to change their spirit out of modesty into 
 pride, out of humility into ambition, out of devotion 
 into self-seeking, and out of God into the world. 
 
 Or take everything away from such, the spirit 
 will be the same: it will not swerve from gentleness 
 
THE CHRISTIAN MARK 2 09 
 
 into discontent, from peaceableness into anger, from 
 trust into misanthropy, from joy into sadness, and 
 from worship into atheism. No, no! For the soul 
 will sing just as sweetly in the cage as in the forest, 
 and it will make every hideous cross a magnificent 
 crown. 
 
 "They took knowledge of them, that they had 
 been with Jesus." 
 
 If we, then, have kept company with Jesus, how 
 shall we show it, and where are the proofs of our royal 
 companionship? 
 
 It will be detected in our patience, gentleness, 
 courage, piety, and holiness. 
 
 Certainly, one of the greatest virtues of the really 
 good man or woman is patience; for all need its 
 beautiful blessing, at all times and everywhere. 
 
 Husbands and wives with each other, parents with 
 their children, brothers and sisters together, friends 
 and neighbors, the seller and the buyer, all need 
 it, and a great deal of it, every clay that life shall 
 last. 
 
 We can place our finger on some homes, and say, 
 All that is wanted just there is patience; and this is 
 the cause of all the care, misunderstanding, mistakes, 
 and troubles, and, this being given, the "Babel" 
 would become a "Bethel." 
 
 We can point to neighborhoods and exclaim, A 
 little more forbearance would make everything more 
 bright and beautiful in all these hearts, would 
 stop ill-feeling, check harsh words, smother miser- 
 
210 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 able misunderstandings, and start up a generous and 
 noble self-denial, hastening the kingdom of God. 
 
 So we might look at the various places of trade, and 
 prove that the lack of patience is the cause of the 
 many losses, the much unhappiness, and the great 
 revolutions that are constantly taking place. So the 
 same might be said about gentleness, courage, piety, 
 and holiness; for all these graces of character are 
 much needed for the ripening of the true soul, and 
 they all must be put in practice for the upbuilding of 
 the kingdom of God, for they make happy families, 
 healthy communities, solid governments, and tend to 
 hasten the time "when the lion and the lamb shall 
 recline together." 
 
 But all these graces, in their sure perfection, are 
 found but in one character, even in "the Lamb of 
 God, who takes away the sin of the world." 
 
 In him alone is seen a patience that never grows 
 tired, a gentleness that becomes more bright in the 
 most trying times, a courage all the more splendid 
 when seemingly the most beset, a piety that no mock- 
 ery can quench, and a holiness which not the bitterest 
 enemy can impeach. 
 
 Look at him, the Son of God, for your example, 
 life, help, victory, and coronation. 
 
 Paul Gerhard has said, and with some of his 
 beautiful words let us close, 
 
THE CHRISTIAN MARK 211 
 
 " A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth, 
 
 The guilt of all men bearing, 
 Laden with all the sin of earth, 
 
 None else the burden sharing. 
 Goes patient on, grows weak and faint, 
 To slaughter led without complaint, 
 
 That spotless life to offer. 
 
 Bears shame and stripes and wounds and death, 
 Anguish and mockery, and saith, 
 
 Willingly all this I suffer. 
 
 " My life-long days would I still thee 
 
 Be steadfastly beholding, 
 Thee ever, as thou ever me, 
 
 With loving arms enfolding. 
 And, when my heart grows faint and chill, 
 My heart's undying light, oh, still 
 
 Abide unchanged before me. 
 Myself thy heritage I sign, 
 Ransomed to be forever thine, 
 
 My only hope and glory. 
 
 " And, when at last thou leadest me 
 
 Into thy joy and light, 
 Thy blood shall clothe me royally, 
 
 Making my garments white, 
 Shall place upon my head the crown, 
 Shall lead me to the Father's throne, 
 
 And raiment fit provide me, 
 Till I, by him to thee allied, 
 By thee, in costume like a bride, 
 
 Stand modestly beside thee." 
 
XX. 
 THE GRACE OF GOD. 
 
 " By the grace of God, I am what I am." i COR. xv. 10. 
 
 AT this present time people are apt to forget, or 
 to ignore, or to deny, or to muffle the thought 
 that they are what they are on their best side, in their 
 most prosperous moments, and at the acme of their 
 holiest success, by the grace of Almighty God. And, 
 in fact, a great many people seem to say, or to imply, 
 or to want everybody else to think that they are what 
 they are by the power of their own right arm, by the 
 brilliancy of their imagination, by the keenness of 
 their wit, by the clearness of their reason, and by 
 some great personal exploit that is based on their own 
 will; and they seem to say, Look at us, not at God; 
 for our right hand has gotten us the victory, that is 
 to say, this is an age of scepticism, a time when many 
 are shutting out the divine impetus, force, spirit, and 
 power: it is the hour of the exaltation of man, the 
 deification of nature, and the worship of second 
 causes. And I am not at all alarmed as to the ulti- 
 mate result of all these questionings, self-assertions, 
 and high-handed claims; and, although I have no 
 sympathy with, and a natural recoil from, and a freez- 
 ing antipathy to, many and to almost all of the state- 
 
THE GRACE OF GOD 213 
 
 ments of those who take these claims and push them 
 before our notice, and give public lectures that they 
 may be notorious, yet, I repeat, I am not alarmed, nor 
 confused, nor in any way seriously troubled. For the 
 whole thing seems to be an approach to God from the 
 wrong side, but, nevertheless, an approach to God 
 that must ultimately bring the great First Cause near, 
 and convince the most sceptical mind that he is near, 
 precious, and all-controlling. 
 
 A denial of a self-evident truth will always end in 
 the explosion of the denial, in the building up of the 
 truth on the most prominent part of the soul, in the 
 glorious reaction of the sceptical spirit, and in the 
 planting of the ladder of faith on the battlements of 
 heaven. 
 
 If I should stand before a stately edifice, beauti- 
 ful in proportion, imposing in appearance, rich in 
 material, showing wondrous skill inside and outside, 
 the admiration of all eyes, and the pride of all hearts, 
 I should be surprised, of course, if that edifice, 
 being able to speak, should say, I am self-created, 
 and I all alone threw all these stones into place, 
 raised up this noble structure, created everything that 
 is grand about myself; and I demand that all praise 
 and gratitude and applause and respect shall be given 
 to myself. I should be surprised, I say, at such 
 a talk, at such an assumption, and at such a daring 
 challenge upon common sense; but I should not be 
 overpowered, nor convinced, nor converted. But I 
 should wait until the building got out of repair, till 
 
214 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 it began to shake and to tremble, till the stones 
 crumbled, the walls leaned, and a general spirit of 
 decay was apparent. And I should then ask the old 
 worn-out, dilapidated, and miserable wreck to repair 
 itself, to work its own renovation, to leap back to its 
 own beauty, and to show a resurrection of its former 
 power. What you have done once, I should exclaim, 
 do again; for, according to your former faith, no 
 builder is needed but yourself, and no architect but 
 your own skill, and no brain but your own wit, and 
 please repeat now the miracle that you have claimed 
 simply rested in your own keeping. Then would be 
 the hour of my religious triumph; and then the build- 
 ing would demand a builder, call out for a restorer, 
 piteously seek for an outside power, or else, by fall- 
 ing to the ground, would proclaim its own impotency, 
 falsity, and fearful mistake. 
 
 When we shut out the grace of Almighty God, my 
 friends, and build on our own foundation, or claim so 
 to do, and hold up our own flag, blow our own trum- 
 pet, announce our personal claims, and place the ever- 
 lasting "I" upon a golden throne, then, when the 
 sky is blue, times are propitious, the gales are easy, 
 and all seems well, then, oh, then, our pride, our 
 self-assertion, and our personal esteem appear to 
 master everybody and to conquer all things. But let 
 a storm come, thunder and lightning, a fearful tem- 
 pest, heavy sickness, terrible losses, stinging pains, 
 and the summons to depart, then very seldom, not 
 once in a thousand times, nay, not once in ten thou- 
 
THE GRACE OF GOD 215 
 
 sand times, do we stand up smiling, boasting, arro- 
 gant, and say, Look at my right arm, gaze at my clear 
 eye, worship my keen judgment, compliment my 
 superior wisdom ; and now look and behold how I can 
 manage myself, and cure, comfort, and support my- 
 self. Oh, no! there is no such conversation then, but 
 most likely the words, "God be merciful to me a 
 sinner!" "Lord, I believe: help thou mine un- 
 belief!" "Why hast thou forgotten me?" " Why go 
 I thus heavily, while the enemy oppresseth me?" 
 " Make haste, O God, to help me ! " 
 
 Ah! how often, when the crust is thoroughly 
 broken, the real, beating, throbbing, loving, believ- 
 ing heart is found! When the crust of selfishness, 
 envy, ambition, pride, and egotism is shattered, then 
 adamant faith is kindled, the tender embers of the 
 soul are roused up, and the real heart is published. 
 "By the grace of God, I am what I am." Saint 
 Paul's experience in this respect was not peculiar; 
 and, however varied his history, strange his trials, 
 wonderful his escapes, and grand his teachings, here 
 he meets us all, and here, in our own biographies, 
 at our most solemn moments, in our most critical 
 experiences, we can cry out that the power that 
 upheld Saint Paul is all the time upholding 
 us. 
 
 I ask you at this holy time to review your lives 
 somewhat, not aloud, not for our hearing, not for 
 any printed record, not as a boast, but secretly, peni- 
 tently, tenderly, and solemnly review your lives, and 
 
2l6 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 look at the steps that you have taken, the paths you 
 have trod, the discipline you have received, the pre- 
 serving, tutoring, shaping, and glorifying of the Eter- 
 nal One, and see if it be not wholly by God's grace 
 that you are where you are, that you have done the 
 good things you have frequently done, and have 
 passed through the cloud, the fire, and the smoke 
 undestroyed. 
 
 Trace your childhood, those hours of wonderful 
 escapes, of merciful supervision, of strange tempta- 
 tions, of peculiar dangers, and of utter helplessness, 
 when the counsel of parents would not help, nor the 
 guidance of friends, nor the rebukes of strangers; 
 when you were apparently left all alone, standing on 
 a straw over chasms of terrible depths. And yet you 
 were not alone, you were not unprotected, you were 
 not unwatched; for one eye was looking, one hand 
 was guiding, one arm was upholding, one spirit was 
 saving, and the straw held you up, and you did not 
 fall, you did not even grow dizzy. And you said, 
 without even knowing how you said it, " Get thee be- 
 hind me, Satan! " 
 
 Ah! the rescuing of boys and of girls from ten 
 thousand calamities seems to me one of the most 
 grand, touching, and overwhelming proofs of the con- 
 stant grace of God; and the great wonder is not that 
 we are here, grown-up men and women, but that we 
 ever escaped from infancy or from our childish years, 
 when the booming shot was pouring around us with 
 unceasing velocity, and we were with hardly any 
 
THE GRACE OF GOD 2 17 
 
 power to provide a shield and to cover our heads 
 in the day of battle, and scarcely able to escape to 
 a place of shelter. O mothers, precious mothers, 
 I would not have you anxious, and in tears, and 
 brooding over possible or probable troubles that your 
 loved ones may meet; but I would have you rejoice, 
 and rejoice forever in the grace of Almighty God, 
 that never leaves our children, that besets them be- 
 hind and before, that overarches them with a beauty, 
 a glory, and a splendor that human language cannot 
 adequately describe, according to the promise, "When 
 thou passest through the waters, 'I' will be with 
 thee." Again, my friends, trace your lives, since 
 you have entered upon manhood or womanhood, and 
 see if you cannot each one of you exclaim, " By the 
 grace of God I am what I am." 
 
 I sometimes think that, if the choice could have 
 been given to us to be or not to be, and of course 
 that supposition is logically impossible, since we 
 must be, in order to hear the question put, yet admit 
 that we could be questioned, and at the same time 
 see the possible pitfalls in our path, should we not 
 reply, and should we not reply quickly, earnestly, 
 and eloquently, We dare not run the risk of exist- 
 ence, we cannot sail safely between Scylla and 
 Charybdis ; and, oh, save us the risk ! For we vastly 
 prefer not to be. And yet, as we look at our lives, 
 we find how graciously, how beautifully, and how 
 grandly the interposing hand of God has led us along. 
 Suppose that this very day we could read in print the 
 
2l8 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 dream of our lives as we dreamed our dream at 
 twenty-one, what we would do, what we should do, 
 and what nothing could stop us from doing; the 
 prizes that would be ours, the gains we would win, 
 the honors wear, the respect receive, the affections 
 challenge, and all the mighty splendors manage, 
 how like a fairy-tale would the account read, call- 
 ing up smiles, evoking tears, challenging laughter, 
 and forcing out criticism. And then, suppose again, 
 that opposite to each page our real life should be 
 given in contrast, item by item and day by day. 
 One side we thought to do this, and on the other side 
 we actually did that; one side the idea, and on the 
 other side the performance; here the beautiful castle 
 in the air, and there the real castle on the ground. 
 Why, sometimes the contrast would be terribly pain- 
 ful, at other times sweetly joyous, and at all times 
 wonderfully strange, suggestive, and startling, what 
 we wanted to do, oftentimes a bubble in the air; and 
 what we have done, frequently a sad, an agonizing, 
 and a stern reality. But, through that reality, 
 again I repeat it, always would I repeat it, let the 
 echo go through time and eternity! we see the 
 merciful hand of God, the grace of the Eternal One, 
 and the splendors of a restraining love. 
 
 We are all of us, as a general rule, where we never 
 expected to be and in situations greater or less than 
 we ever thought possible could be filled by us, and 
 with a power in the community widely known or 
 hardly felt, in a way beyond any of our poor guess- 
 
THE GRACE OF GOD 219 
 
 ing, and morally or spiritually giants or dwarfs, and 
 showing marks of hard service, of great battles, of 
 mighty pains, and of a rough experience. And some- 
 times ay, frequently these truths can be traced in 
 photographs that are taken of us when we were chil- 
 dren as compared with photographs that are taken of 
 us in matured life. 
 
 "By the grace of God, I am what I am." 
 
 Saint Paul said that; and no man could have said it 
 more truly, more eloquently, and with a greater effect 
 upon the minds of the people of his age and of all 
 ages. 
 
 He began his life as a Jew, and as one of the most 
 severe of the Jews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, 
 a bigot, a cynic, and a persecutor; and he would 
 probably have talked at that time in words like these: 
 There is no true body of people save the Jews, and es- 
 pecially the Pharisees; there is no real church but 
 the Church of Moses. The Christians are infidels; 
 and our duty towards this infatuated people is to per- 
 secute and to kill them continually; for, verily, thus 
 shall we do God's service. I, Saul, am one of the 
 best of men, and one of the most zealous of believers. 
 I have had my seat at the feet of Gamaliel. I under- 
 stand the law and the prophets, and the spoken and 
 the unspoken word ; and you can hardly find a fault in 
 my whole life. 
 
 Listen to another man, or, rather, to another kind 
 of a man, and hear him talk. 
 
 He says: "For we preach not ourselves, but Christ 
 
220 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants, for Jesus' 
 sake/' 
 
 He says: "I am the least of all the apostles . . . 
 chosen out of due season." 
 
 He cries out, "To live is Christ, to die is gain." 
 What a different man, we say! And yet, by the 
 grace of Almighty God, the two are one, the same 
 person at different stages of growth ; the young man, 
 unripe fruit, hard, green, and sour; and the more 
 experienced saint, the autumnal gift, rich, juicy, 
 luscious, and nourishing; the young man eaten up by 
 self, and the old man filled with God; the young man 
 preaching about his own right arm, and the older one 
 holding up the cross of Christ; the younger one a 
 sceptic, proud of his intellect, revelling in his 
 superiority, and proclaiming his zeal, but the other 
 one, the old man, bowing low before Almighty God, 
 proclaiming a complete submission to the Lord, and 
 walking through life with a thorough simplicity, a 
 loving sincerity, and a blessed holiness. 
 
 Both these men the same, did I say? I take back 
 my words : I beg their pardon, and I beg your pardon. 
 The one, the younger, had not the real spirit of God ; 
 and the other, the elder, declared of himself that he 
 was not the same as in youth; for he said, "I am 
 a new creature," and added, "in Christ Jesus the 
 Lord." Yes, here is the profound mystery, the 
 glorious annunciation, and the comforting reality, 
 that Saint Paul became, that we can all of us become, 
 renewed in Christ. 
 
THE GRACE OF GOD 221 
 
 It only remains then for me to ask you, each one, 
 Are you, by the grace of God, new creatures in Christ 
 Jesus the Lord; and have you given your hearts to 
 the Saviour, your souls to God, and your lives to 
 holiness? May every one be able to say, Amen and 
 amen! 
 
XXI. 
 PLEASANT WORDS. 
 
 " Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul." PROV. 
 xvi. 24. 
 
 I HARDLY think that a greater truth could have 
 been uttered than the one here set forth in the 
 proverb, while it is delightful for us to think that 
 thousands of years ago people liked the gentle voice 
 and the gracious speech quite as well as they do 
 to-day. It is really very strange, when we all of us 
 know the advantages, the comforts, and the joys that 
 spring from a mild mouth that we so constantly 
 refuse to put honey upon our lips. I believe that 
 a great deal of our lack of success in life can be 
 traced to our rough voice, while I know many a man, 
 and also many a woman, who owe all the good fortune 
 and all the high station that they enjoy to a won- 
 derful facility of winning expression, to a peculiar 
 suavity of tone, and to a splendid tenderness in shap- 
 ing words. 
 
 Notice families; and you will easily see where 
 they keep an ^Eolian harp all the time, and where they 
 keep an instrument out of tune, discordant, harsh, 
 and every way repulsive. Bright eyes are in the one 
 place, a merry face, a radiant manner, and every- 
 
PLEASANT WORDS 223 
 
 thing peaceful and holy; but in the other place you 
 see scowls, thunder-clouds, tight lips, and a very 
 strained and unnatural manner. Why, "please," and 
 "thank you," and "I am much obliged" are words 
 often heard in the one place; but "go," "come," "do 
 this," "do that," and "take this," or "take that," are 
 words quite familiar to the house out of tune. Why, 
 one house seems to be filled with angels, but the 
 other home seems encompassed by bad spirits. I 
 read of a home once that a good mother and cheerful 
 daughter made just as happy as they could, after the 
 bad father was removed to the safer care of the pub- 
 lic. This is the story as it was told: "A citizen of 
 Detroit was sent to the house of correction. The 
 wife, a hard-working woman and sorely afflicted, man- 
 aged to provide food and fuel for herself and child, 
 until all at once death suddenly put an end to her 
 kind ministrations. The little girl, hardly eight 
 years old, was all alone in the house when her mother 
 died. The event occurred at dark, and at midnight 
 the child was heard singing in the darkness. A 
 pedestrian who stopped near the house heard her say, 
 * Mother, won't you wake up and light the lamp? If 
 you will, I will sing some more.' Suspecting what 
 had happened, he roused some of the neighbors ; and, 
 as they went in, the child sat in the darkness holding 
 its mother's cold hand and singing, 
 
 " 'The Lord will lead a little child, 
 And teach me how to pray.' 
 
224 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 "A dark room, death on the bed, poverty, hunger, 
 and cold to make her situation more desolate; and 
 yet the child of shadows was not afraid. She said: 
 fc l kept still a long while to let mother sleep. Then 
 I sang all my songs to keep myself awake. Then I 
 looked out of the window, and didn't move, so that 
 the angels wouldn't be afraid to come and talk to 
 mother and make her smile.' ' So you see that little 
 girl did all she could to make home happy. 
 
 Why, my dear friends, pleasant words at home 
 make all the rough places easy, all the sad hours 
 sweetly sacred, and all the human hearts there 
 gathered buoyant and beautiful. 
 
 We hear a great deal to-day about the huge number 
 of divorces that are granted in this country; and, 
 without doubt, some of the separations are such as 
 are ordained by God. But the list is perfectly fear- 
 ful, causing all who love their fellow-beings and 
 who desire the supremacy of the Christian religion to 
 see what can be done to stay this terrible tide of 
 wrong. Yet I really think that the remedy for the 
 difficulty in some of these cases is a great deal more 
 simple, and certainly more sacred, than any help that 
 the law affords : let one of the parties, or, if possible, 
 both husband and wife, for one month resolve each to 
 see which one will be the more yielding, which one 
 will have the more musical voice, and which one will 
 conquer the other by exquisite tendernes? and by 
 a thorough self-denial, then, in nine cases out 
 of ten, they will not ask again to be put apart, but 
 
PLEASANT WORDS 225 
 
 will hold fast to their affection till the higher call of 
 Heaven severs the human fellowship. 
 
 It is said that there was once a certain place in 
 which, being visited by a husband or a wife, it would 
 be revealed which of the two would die first. 
 
 A couple believing in the superstition, and each 
 out of peace with the other and each wishing the 
 other's quick departure, unbeknown to the other, 
 went at twilight to the famous spot, that, if possible, 
 the tortured mind might be helped by finding itself 
 a widower or a widow. The face of the one who 
 would first go to the eternal home would, according to 
 rumor, rise up to the vision of the questioner. Now, 
 it so happened that these two unhappy ones went by 
 different roads, so that, when they arrived at the en- 
 chanted ground, they faced each other. Each thought 
 they saw a spirit, and each gladly supposed that the 
 other was to go within a year. So they returned 
 home silent, but joyful. 
 
 A year was so short, the husband thought he would 
 do his best to be kind and obliging; while the wife, 
 on the same ground, was just as sweet and just as 
 gentle as she could possibly be, till both, as the time 
 drew near, regretted the departure of the other, and 
 were relieved to find the hour pass without a death. 
 
 Ever afterwards, of course, they were a loving 
 couple, never wishing each other out of the way. 
 
 Ah! this is but another way of showing the power 
 of mutual self-sacrifice, and it is but an illustration 
 of the might of pleasant words. So, too, the rule 
 
 UBXVBRSITT 
 
226 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 holds good in our intercourse with our neighbors. 
 I think, perhaps, as a general rule, that a great many 
 of the people of New England are a little too severe 
 in manner and in speech, and are a little too frosty, 
 critical, and self-asserting, and lack somewhat the 
 suavity, the address, and the complaisance of the 
 people of the other States. Not but that our hearts 
 are as warm, deep, and gushing as the hearts of any 
 one; but our lips are frozen, and there is too much 
 starch in our words. We have altogether too little 
 in New England of genuine neighborly intercourse. 
 The satire of one of our leading preachers is some- 
 what deserved, even if it be a little sharp. "I 
 walked," he says, "one evening around the streets 
 surrounding my home; and there was but very little 
 light in the various dwellings, and everything looked 
 cheerless, while, if I ventured to ring the bell and 
 ask for the family, the servant looked upon me as if 
 I were an intruder." 
 
 Ah! I fear we all of us live too much by ourselves, 
 have but a cold bow and icy words for those we meet, 
 and live and die as if the world were made for us 
 and for ours, and as if all other persons were here by 
 mistake. 
 
 Yet just suppose a moment that one of our fam- 
 ilies were all. I care not which one; but just 
 imagine that to-morrow morning the members of one 
 of these families walk out finding no other soul liv- 
 ing, every house without a tenant and every shop 
 without a keeper, no vehicles in motion, for there 
 
PLEASANT WORDS 227 
 
 would be no one to manage them, everything still 
 as the grave. In such a case, how would such a fam- 
 ily feel? Why, all the members of it would pray 
 God before night to send the people back again. 
 Their agony would be intense, and their self-reproach 
 for lack of sociability would rise up in fearful 
 clouds. They would vow a great and holy vow never 
 again to be so seclusive, and never again to narrow 
 their circle of friendships. 
 
 Ah! why need we wait till such a day of dire 
 calamity? Why not now reform our manners, why 
 not now inundate our speech with the holiest jets of 
 celestial sweetness, and why not now love everybody, 
 and let everybody know that we love them ? 
 
 Again, in trade I plead for pleasant words. I 
 deem, too, that this part of my subject is exceedingly 
 important and vital, both for those who sell and for 
 those who buy. How often you all have said, " I never 
 will go into that store again, because they are so 
 rough and so disobliging " ! Why, every month there 
 are hundreds of dollars lost because salesmen are so 
 severe. 
 
 I would give a hint to all our merchants and to all 
 our clerks that I believe invaluable, would true suc- 
 cess be gained. I would say to them, Cultivate a 
 pleasant voice, learn to have the patience of Job, and 
 study to be obliging, good-natured, and self-sacrific- 
 ing. I do not ask any one to be a hypocrite : I do 
 not ask you to bow and bow with iron at your heart, 
 and I do not want honey on your lips and vinegar on 
 
228 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 your soul ; but I wish you to try both to feel and to 
 exhibit a kindly temper and a genial spirit. I wish 
 you to make every one who enters your place of busi- 
 ness feel better for the visit. I insist upon it, this 
 can be done. 
 
 I have a word for officials also at this time. I have 
 sometimes thought and, if you find that I am 
 wrong, please correct me at some future time that 
 all those who hold a place of power, either under the 
 government of the United States or under the various 
 governments of New England, at the various "banks " 
 and the "courts of justice," were not almost and 
 altogether angels and archangels in temper. While 
 some men are a glorious exception, who hold office 
 with a sweetness thoroughly consoling, there are 
 others that a little might make despots. 
 
 I call here publicly for their immediate removal, 
 for they are unworthy of the place that they so fear- 
 fully desecrate. I would have this week every person 
 who is not a thorough gentleman, to the poor as well 
 as to the rich, immediately degraded; for it is high 
 time that, in this respect, we all of us stood up for 
 common justice. I think that it would be well for 
 the poet to write on a great many hearts those good 
 old words : 
 
 " Speak gently, let not harsh words mar 
 
 The good you might do here. 
 Speak gently, it is better far 
 To rule by love than fear." 
 
PLEASANT WORDS 229 
 
 " Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the 
 soul." I think that we are more affected by gentle 
 tones and gracious words than we are apt to think. 
 
 In one of the books published in France a few 
 years ago that contained, perhaps, some things that 
 never should have been written, and yet gave voice 
 to many noble thoughts that culled from the whole 
 volume and published by themselves would have 
 helped a large number of souls we find this 
 sentence, 
 
 "The women working in the fields, the vintagers 
 at labor among the grapes, the meek-eyed cows look- 
 ing over the stone fences, the team of bullocks draw- 
 ing a timber wagon wearily along, the children filling 
 a pitcher at the roadside water-spout, the old women 
 resting under the wayside crosses, all had words 
 from him, words which left them brighter, braver, 
 happier than they had been before those kindly eyes, 
 shining so lustrous in the sun, had fallen on them. 
 Man and child, woman and animal, felt the influence 
 of glance and word as the languid flowers feel the 
 dew, as the shaded fruit feels the summer warmth." 
 
 Thus we see this man, here described, by his pleas- 
 ant face and genial words created a contagion of hap- 
 piness wherever he went. 
 
 The female race gain their chief power by gentle 
 speech. I know very well that that which most 
 attracts man towards woman is what she says and how 
 she says it. 
 
 A handsome face is very well as far as it goes, but 
 
230 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 it is worth nothing without a splendid utterance; and 
 the homeliest face looks beautiful when the lips are 
 filled with sweetness and covered with strength. 
 
 So I would say to the gentle ones, If you wish to 
 convert the world, if you wish to make us poor men 
 much better and much holier than we are, if you wish 
 to build up the Church, if you wish to spread Chris- 
 tianity everywhere, and if you wish to sanctify the 
 whole earth, oh, cultivate a gracious and a holy way 
 of speaking, and let nothing but pearls and diamonds 
 leap out of your hearts. Then I think that woman 
 would be clothed with true glory, would fill a place 
 highest of all, and could preach, practise, and argue 
 at home as well as in the "pulpit," or at the "bar," 
 or as surgeon, or as physician ; for, then, would she be 
 a splendid lever, lifting all our souls to glory. Sis- 
 ters, are you aware of your mighty power? Christian 
 kindness, politeness, gentleness, chivalry, holy ten- 
 derness with everybody, should be the great law of our 
 lives. A great many years ago there was a teacher 
 who always made a bow to his pupils when he entered 
 the school-room; and he was severely ridiculed by 
 the other teachers, who thought by so doing he forgot 
 his dignity and authority. But he said to those 
 teachers, "I always bow to my pupils, because before 
 me may be future governors, professors, generals, 
 and emperors." Well, my friends, in that class of 
 boys was one whose name was Martin Luther. 
 
 Once more, Jes.us of Nazareth was one gracious in 
 his speech. All men were astonished at this his 
 
PLEASANT WORDS 231 
 
 mighty power; and even his bitterest enemies were 
 held back a long while from doing him harm, owing to 
 the force of his lips. Oh, how I would like to have 
 heard him speak such words as these! "Neither do 
 I condemn thee: go in peace"; "I am the good 
 shepherd " ; "I will not leave you comfortless " ; 
 " Father, forgive them ! for they know not what they 
 do." Ah! all his words were beautiful, and all his 
 tones were sweet and sacred. He knew just how to 
 speak and just what to say. Let us all, then, become 
 more gentle, let us all study to be more quiet, let us 
 not get too much excited, let us think twice before 
 speaking once; and may all that we utter be full of 
 the perfume of heaven. With the words of a friend 
 I will close: 
 
 WE MAY NOT TELL. 
 
 BY CHAS. WM. BUTLER. 
 
 We may not tell what hidden power 
 Lies in the present living hour, 
 Nor how the words therein we speak 
 May keep the strong and soothe the weak, 
 Nor how our deeds have might to thrall 
 Or bless the mightiest of us all ; 
 How smiles of love or flashing scorn 
 Bring daylight's gleams or evening's on ; 
 How smallest look of ours may lift 
 Or send a soul out sea, adrift, 
 May give affliction's tides to swell, 
 Or lands of peace wherein to dwell. 
 We may not tell, we may not tell. 
 
XXII. 
 SPIRITUAL CLIMBING. 
 
 " O God, set me up on high." Ps. Ixix. 29. 
 
 THERE are certain sayings that become fas- 
 tened to the mind and heart of us all, and 
 always seem to be full of clear, uplifting, and spark- 
 ling truths; and among these varied sayings of our 
 ancestors and of ourselves there is one that is to be 
 found that seems to throw light upon the words of our 
 text. It is this: that "nothing ever stands still." 
 Truly, there must be growth, upward or downward, 
 for the better or for the worse; and we are all the 
 time either going forward or backward, for we can 
 never keep quiet. The difference each day may be 
 imperceptible, but it is sure ;~ and there never were 
 two men, nor two trees, nor two days, nor two stars, 
 nor two flowers, nor two rain-drops, nor two snow- 
 flakes alike, nor any one of these the same to-day that 
 it was yesterday. 
 
 This constant motion that affects us one and all is 
 meant for an encouragement as well as for a warning, 
 and is ordained to help, and not to harm us. For 
 the clouds in the sky as they sail along, the trees as 
 they rustle, the waters as they ebb, your pulse as it 
 beats, and the world as it swings in space, making its 
 
SPIRITUAL CLIMBING 233 
 
 punctual circuit around the sun, all these seem to 
 articulate, oh, so sweetly and grandly! Ascend, 
 advance, conquer ! 
 
 As we study all the ages, we shall find ample evi- 
 dence of the progressive law ; for, whether we begin 
 with Eden and its two inhabitants, who at first knew 
 only enjoyment, or come down to the present day, 
 viewing the billions who dwell upon the earth, who 
 understand sorrow, duty, and discipline as well as 
 joy, we shall clearly see "advance" engraved on 
 every century, and we shall detect a rich development 
 in science, ethics, and theology. 
 
 The first parent was created perfectly innocent ; but 
 he did not know everything, else he never could have 
 sinned, and he would have been divine. If we allow 
 that Adam was a man, we must look upon his knowl- 
 edge as limited; and thus we find in the very com- 
 mencement of creation a way opened for growth. 
 
 Genesis is but the beginning, as the name be- 
 tokens; Exodus is a disclosure, or an advance; the 
 Apocalypse is a revelation of what is to be; and the 
 whole Bible seems to utter those pungent words, "Go 
 forward," "More yet to be revealed," "Every hour 
 a growth," from Moses to Isaiah, on to Christ, who 
 himself said, "The Comforter is to come," and on to 
 the apostles, who still pointed to a future and to a 
 second coming of Christ, and who exclaimed with 
 eloquence, " Press forward ! " 
 
 We find, as we study the Bible, nor need the 
 assertion be considered as any impeachment of its 
 
234 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 glorious inspiration, that the science of Moses was 
 only in its infancy, and that his theology was such as 
 Jesus thought fit to correct. For, if Moses had 
 attained to perfection in all points, the New Testa- 
 ment would be of no use and Judaism would have 
 sufficed. But, really, the second revelation is the 
 extension, growth, and improvement of the first. 
 
 The New Testament starts grand principles, lifts up 
 to view majestic facts, and reveals wonderful and 
 astonishing precepts, that will demand a forever for 
 a complete obedience. One dispensation says, "An 
 eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth " ; but the 
 better Testament exclaims, "Forgive your enemies, 
 and bless those who curse you, and pray for those who 
 despitefully use you and treat you." And the people 
 of the earth have hardly got free from the first com- 
 mand, while it will be ages yet before they will fully 
 understand the second, the rim of which they have 
 scarcely yet grazed. If we take a view of theology 
 as it buds and blossoms through the ages, what vast 
 changes we behold! 
 
 God is always the same, but he is not always 
 apprehended alike. 
 
 Idolatry shapes him in a block, atheism fastens 
 him to fate, pantheism enshrines him in universality, 
 Judaism cages him in justice and shuts him up in 
 law, and Christianity engirdles him in all things 
 good and lovely; and yet the Christian idea is far 
 ahead of the general thought, and it calls upon the 
 race "to go up higher" in their conceptions and to 
 
SPIRITUAL CLIMBING 235 
 
 keep grasping more and more clearly celestial reali- 
 ties. Again, let us remember that every man who 
 grows helps others to grow, and that every biography 
 of a noble man that is given to the world is a benefit 
 to the race. For thus is the road to virtue made 
 more easy, thus are bridges thrown over the difficul- 
 ties that oppose us, thus are all of us urged to march 
 on and to march up, and thus are beacon lights 
 thrown in our way, so that we may find the true 
 harbor, and so that dangerous rocks and fearful shoals 
 may be revealed, so that on the heart a radiant light 
 may shine, and on the will a new energy may fall. 
 
 There is a book published entitled "The Christian 
 and Social Life," while the aim of this work is to 
 sketch for public admiration the characters of How- 
 ard, Wilberforce, Budgett, Foster, Arnold, and Chal- 
 mers. One is styled the type of philanthropy; 
 another is called its development; the third is la- 
 belled the Christian merchant; while the others are 
 spoken of as noble specimens of men, who had risen 
 above doubt and above despair into the ripeness and 
 the richness of holiness. Now, do not such men, as 
 we scan their lives, become ladders to us, by which 
 we can climb nearer to heaven? Are not their hands 
 outstretched, that we may be aided in our ascent to 
 glory? Have they not dropped their mantles for our 
 catching? and do they not breathe their choice bene- 
 dictions, even upon our most feeble efforts ? Can we 
 read of goodness without exclaiming, I also am a 
 man ? My capacities can be thus enlarged, my will 
 
236 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 can be thus magnetized, and my soul may also be ren- 
 dered fragrant. For God has given to me also the 
 power to become a hero or a heroine, and he has 
 given to me the invitation and the incentives. I can, 
 like Howard, visit prisoners, and scatter blessings, 
 and plead, suffer, and die for the race. I can, like 
 Wilberforce, devote my life for the oppressed, my 
 genius for those in bonds, my whole influence no 
 matter what the opposition for those whom man 
 subjects. I can become the Christian merchant, the 
 princely donor, the father of hospitals and of libra- 
 ries, the friend of grateful mechanics, and the foun- 
 tain of life to trade and the Church. Or, like 
 Foster, Arnold, and Chalmers, I can wade through 
 distrust, scepticism, and a narrow and a restricted 
 life to the firmest faith, the largest visions, and to 
 a real, earnest, and Christian manhood. I can make 
 all men my brothers, Jesus my Master, and God my 
 Father. 
 
 Longfellow says, and we often sing the words in 
 our Sunday-school : 
 
 " Whene'er a noble deed is wrought, 
 Whene'er is spoken a noble thought, 
 Our hearts in glad surprise 
 To higher levels rise. 
 
 " The tidal wave of deeper souls 
 Into our inmost being rolls, 
 And lifts us unawares 
 Out of all meaner cares. 
 
SPIRITUAL CLIMBING 237 
 
 " Honor to those whose words or deeds 
 Thus help us in our daily needs, 
 And by their overflow 
 Raise us from what is low." 
 
 Yes, my friends, biography charms, quickens, and 
 elevates us. For good men and good women live not 
 only for themselves, but also for others; and every 
 noble deed is infinite in its noble consequences, and 
 heaven is all the more easy of access because up the 
 heights that lead there have marched, in glorious and 
 triumphant procession, the hosts of the obedient, 
 loving, generous, and holy, because up that illumi- 
 nated road have passed patriarch, prophet, apostles, 
 and martyrs. Saintly men, holy women, and lovely 
 children all have made the way to God attractive; 
 and they have also made this world, which is the por- 
 tico and the outward gate to heaven, more full of 
 meaning and more rich in prophecy. What an 
 encouragement this is, that we should anoint our 
 lives with holiness! and what a reward for us, if we 
 do well, that our deeds are prolific, and that their 
 fragrance spreads from century to century, from heart 
 to heart, and from earth to heaven ! 
 
 We ought to go forward and to pray God to set us 
 up on high, so that others may go up, and so that all 
 may be saved. When we come to the life of Jesus, 
 what a mountain height we view, what attractive 
 slopes, and what rich verdure! Up higher, this char- 
 acter says, not higher than my heights, for that 
 would not be possible, but nearer and ever nearer 
 
238 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 to my summit, although you never reach it, and al- 
 though it always seems to be inaccessible. Deeper 
 into the wisdom of his life, closer into the glory of 
 his precepts, more intimately into the richness of his 
 deeds, more grandly into the solemnity, humility, 
 and majesty of his departure, and more devoutly into 
 the certainty, purity, and sublimity of his presence 
 we are to travel, and to travel on as new light bursts 
 upon us, as radiance is heaped upon radiance, majesty 
 is encircled within majesty, and the splendor of man- 
 hood, the glory of Divinity, and the attractiveness of 
 sonship are all made known to the wondering ears and 
 the seeking hearts of the children of God. 
 
 Perfection should always prove a spur, and never 
 a check, to our growth; and we should not be chilled 
 and bewildered by goodness, but ever aided, always 
 strengthened, and gloriously consecrated. 
 
 Like the sun, let goodness penetrate, warm, and 
 vivify the objects that it visits. So, when we gaze 
 upon the Son of God, let us not be driven to flight by 
 the magnitude of his glory; but let us rather be won 
 onward and upward, be lifted out of our low desires, 
 braced with new principles, ashamed of our imperfect 
 lives, glad to escape from the tyranny of sin, and all 
 ready and very joyous to claim friendship, fellowship, 
 and discipleship with one who was without guile and 
 without stain. 
 
 We are told to "mount upwards," but really, and 
 not artificially; not in haste, unprepared; not in 
 pride, hollow at the heart; not without a consecrated 
 
SPIRITUAL CLIMBING 239 
 
 purpose, and not without a good foundation. For the 
 advance is not to be in our professions alone, but in 
 our practice, and not to be made known so much by 
 our outward position as by our inward life. For we 
 are to be, and not to seem; and we are to claim no 
 quality of goodness that will not stand the test, lest 
 in the day of trial our false position should be re- 
 vealed, and all our virtue be found decayed at the 
 core. Too many persons stand above reality: they 
 are rated for more than their spiritual worth. They 
 are pyramids in society, when in real size and actual 
 weight they are terribly belittled; and the very base 
 of the pyramid is erected on marshy ground, that 
 in time will give way and shatter the whole monu- 
 ment. 
 
 Also there are many persons who, like the prairie 
 rose, blush for a time unseen and publish their beauty 
 to the desert air, until perchance some traveller plucks 
 the flower, admires its peculiar and rich color, re- 
 joices in its delicacy, and ever spreads abroad its 
 renown, so that the little one of the desert, by a 
 tender culture, by the skill of the horticulturist, and 
 by the laws of transplanting, becomes a thousand, 
 adorning our homes and sending a charm to the vision 
 of those who pass our doors. To both of these kinds 
 of men it is said, "Ascend." To the first the ascent 
 means, not more false growth, but more solidity; not 
 more show and form, but more reality and substance; 
 not a larger pyramid, but a sounder base; and to the 
 second, the "higher," is a call forward, from worth to 
 
240 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 renown, from an isolated beauty to public acknowl- 
 edgment, from oneness to universality, from a secrecy 
 in the desert to a force, beauty, and glory everywhere. 
 Both are to advance; but the one must go backward 
 first, and must make up for past deficiencies and for 
 past slips, while the other, having a good foundation, 
 is ordered simply with vigor to build upon it and to 
 adorn it, that earth may be blessed and that Heaven 
 may rejoice. The law of progress, without doubt, 
 holds good in heaven; for we are not to suppose that 
 perfection reaches us just as soon as we reach the 
 celestial land. All actual sin, of course, departs; 
 but we do not acquire at once all possible wisdom, 
 a completed honor, a finished knowledge, and a 
 thorough holiness. We are to grow as angels: we 
 are to pass from one rank to another, on and ever on ; 
 and every new gain will be a fresh joy, on, ever on, 
 from angel to archangel, through billions of years, 
 never wearied of the flight, never gaining the summit, 
 but always getting new strength and fresh joy and 
 holy beauty. 
 
 Finally, my friends, the great lesson that we are to 
 gather from our thoughts is this, one that I always 
 like to present, that none of us are good enough, 
 that all of us can be better, and that the very prayer, 
 "O God, set us up on high," betokens that we are 
 lower than we ought to be; and, therefore, there is 
 no time, no reason, and no room for standing still. 
 For the constant call of God, Jesus, the angels, and 
 our own heart, is, Son or daughter, advance, go for- 
 
SPIRITUAL CLIMBING 241 
 
 ward, look aloft, ascend, and mount, higher and 
 higher, ever and forever. 
 
 " O God, set me up on high ! " - set us all up 
 higher! 
 
 Very soon we shall have nothing to do but to go 
 from time to eternity into the higher places of the 
 truest spiritual growth. "Nothing to do but to go." 
 One uttered those words once. Perhaps you have all 
 heard them or heard me repeat them before. 
 
 "NOTHING TO DO BUT TO GO." 
 
 " A wanderer I've been, and have travelled for years 
 
 By the stage-coach, the steam-boat, the train. 
 I have known joyful meetings, have shed parting tears, 
 
 With friends I might ne'er meet again. 
 And I've learned, let my farewells be joyous or sad, 
 
 No haste or distraction to show, 
 But with baggage prechecked and with passage prepaid 
 
 To have nothing to do but to go. 
 
 " The loiterer, when over the iron-clad track 
 
 The train is heard coming apace, 
 For his ticket will clamor and urge for his check 
 
 In a whirl of impatient distress. 
 Whilst others, more timeful, with undisturbed mien, 
 
 Will composedly pace to and fro, 
 Or, quietly seated, will wait for the train, 
 
 With nothing to do but to go. 
 
 " Oh ! thus I have thought, when called to depart 
 
 For the land whence we never return, 
 May we feel we are fully prepared for the start 
 When the death-sounding note we discern. 
 
242 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 With our ticket secured and our cares all at rest, 
 No disquieting thoughts may we know, 
 
 But, tranquilly waiting, be found at the last 
 With nothing to do but to go." 
 
 And, when we go, let us each utter the prayer, 
 " O God, set us up on high ! " high in the way of 
 duty, progress, and holiness, forever and ever. 
 
XXIII. 
 THE COMMANDS OF GOD. 
 
 "Thus saith the Lord." Ex. xi. 4. 
 
 CAN any one imagine any sentence of Scripture 
 that is more imposing, comforting, commanding, 
 beautiful, and suggestive than the one that we have 
 chosen for our lesson at this sacred time ? 
 
 Does not each one's experience, from birth to the 
 present hour, acknowledge, reveal with eagerness, 
 and proclaim with great unction the fact that all 
 through life there has been a guiding voice, which 
 has made clear, uplifting, and glorious to the con- 
 sciousness the right way out of difficulty and the 
 loyal, holy, and blessed means of attaining victory 
 here and glory hereafter? We may all of us have 
 disobeyed our higher intimations: we may have shut 
 out all communication from above, muffled the ears 
 of the soul, and chosen ourselves for guides, prefer- 
 ring to have our own way; yet we dare not deny that 
 God has endeavored to help, bless, and save us dur- 
 ing all our earthly pilgrimage. Every one of us 
 knows full well that often, when beset by temptation, 
 involved in perplexity, and darkened by trial, we 
 have been startled, aroused, and comforted by a voice 
 in the inner chambers of the heart, that articulated 
 
244 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 quite clearly, urgently, and eloquently, with unction, 
 sublimity, and glory, "Thus saith the Lord." If we 
 followed the direction, implicitly obeyed the mes- 
 sage, and with alacrity marched on the appointed 
 way, we have good reason to be grateful for the inter- 
 ference; and we are quite ready and very glad to 
 acknowledge the wisdom, the mercy, and the comfort- 
 ing power of the speaker. But, if we have disobeyed 
 the direction, mocked or scowled at its suggestions, 
 and desired to be guided by our own short wisdom, 
 dwarfed strength, and miserable guessing, then we 
 have good reason to confess our folly, manifest our 
 penitence, and return to the Guide who has been so 
 long, foolishly, and terribly neglected. 
 
 Can we not all of us, in looking upon our past 
 experience, trace the dividing line, the absolute 
 crisis, and the guide-post in our history, the point 
 from which our present prosperity or our present dis- 
 tress can be clearly marked out? 
 
 How often we hear one exclaiming: "My whole 
 life has been a mistake. I started wrong. I had 
 every inducement to go one way, but my obstinacy 
 drove me another way. Friends reasoned with me, 
 my better judgment seconded their appeals ; and yet 
 my perverse will goaded me on to destruction " ! 
 
 How many persons, even if they have not been seri- 
 ously swamped in sin, have yet felt that their whole 
 existence has been clouded by an early mistake, 
 simply because they entered the wrong door, took up 
 the wrong instrument, went against the grain of their 
 
THE COMMANDS OF GOD 245 
 
 genius, and steered right in the face of "Thus saith 
 the Lord " ! 
 
 Then, again, how many hearing God speak, or 
 thinking that he speaks, or sure that he must speak, 
 interpret the voice, obey it, and hold it in high 
 honor, although the career marked out, the duty 
 enforced, the suffering commanded, the peril in- 
 voked, and the hardships of all kinds at hand are sure 
 to come, are fearful to consider, and will be painful 
 to endure ! Yet these heroes pale, it may be, in 
 the face; trembling, perhaps, inwardly in the heart; 
 thinking, too, of dear ones who are anxious march 
 forward, face all trouble, go through all difficulties, 
 see thousands falling on the right and left, and yet 
 are kept up and safely return to their home, with 
 work done, with scars as trophies of fidelity to con- 
 viction, and with a record of honor that can never be 
 wiped out. Our directions from Heaven are entirely 
 personal : they are shaped according to our necessi- 
 ties, have especial reference to us, and, of course, fit 
 and apply to nobody else. So each one of us has to 
 study, not what the world says, not what our neigh- 
 bors or our dearest friends say, but only what Al- 
 mighty God tells us to think, do, and suffer. We 
 are to listen for God's voice marking out our career; 
 we are to seek for that, are to embrace that ; and then 
 we are cordially to give to it a prompt, a holy, and 
 a faithful obedience. Faber speaks beautifully of the 
 sweet will of God: 
 
246 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 " I worship thee, sweet will of God, 
 
 And all thy ways adore ; 
 And every day I live I seem 
 To love thee more and more. 
 
 " When obstacles and trials seem 
 
 Like prison-walls to be, 
 I do the little I can do, 
 And leave the rest to thee. 
 
 " I know not what it is to doubt, 
 
 My heart is ever gay. 
 I run no risk ; for, come what will, 
 Thou always hast thy way." 
 
 A great part of the sins that are prevalent in soci- 
 ety to-day can be traced to the pernicious error that 
 is so common amongst us all of listening for the voice 
 of the multitude, and forgetting the inward voice that 
 comes down from Heaven; that is, a good many 
 people seem to prefer to lean upon arms of flesh 
 rather than to rest patiently in the arms of God. 
 
 You and I, if we have read aright God's intention 
 in our creation, if we understand in the least the 
 teachings of the Bible, and if we have searched to 
 any extent into the mysteries that encircle our being, 
 must be aware that, as far as the formation of char- 
 acter is concerned, we are to get our inspiration, 
 derive our strength, achieve our triumphs, and fight 
 our battles mainly outside of human opinions, with- 
 out any special regard to the verdict of those who are 
 as frail as ourselves, and without looking for any 
 chart save the chart that is written out in the great 
 Book of God. How many are there who can sol- 
 
THE COMMANDS OF GOD 247 
 
 emnly, truthfully, and thankfully assert that their 
 spirituality has never been twisted, their morality 
 never been wrenched, their conscience never darkened, 
 and their career never ordered by the direction of 
 human beings as frail as themselves? 
 
 How many can say that their "Thus saith the 
 Lord " has never received an alloy to its brightness, 
 a tinge to its authority, a diminution of its power, 
 and an abrasion of its glory by the voices of other 
 dictators, such as "Thus saith the public," "Thus 
 say the leading classes," and "Thus custom, expedi- 
 ency, worldly comfort, a good reputation, a splendid 
 prosperity, and a desire for honors, dictate, urge, and 
 command"? Again, there are many scenes in life 
 that are constantly occurring where we can hardly 
 utter a "Thus saith the Lord" without a shudder. 
 Can any one visit any of our hospitals, and notice the 
 multitudes of sufferers, the complexity of diseases, 
 the varied ages and circumstances of the patients, the 
 vast area of space filled with the wounded or the 
 troubled, at the same time bearing in mind the 
 myriad ones far away whose souls are torn with 
 anguish and whose hearts are convulsed with grief 
 as they think of the absent and loved, can any one 
 thus look on these sights, and exclaim without any 
 qualifications, "Thus saith the Lord"? Can any one 
 scan a battle-field, looking at the ploughed earth, 
 gazing at the crushed trees, beholding the image of 
 man shattered, beasts of burden mutilated, stray can- 
 non-balls, muskets that have fallen from palsied 
 
248 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 hands, swords that are to be grasped by their owners 
 no more, all the melee, the dishabille, and the d- 
 bris which a war, like a vast conflagration, spreads 
 around the crimson-stained ground, and say, looking 
 on both sides of the combatants, "Thus saith the 
 Lord" to all engaged? Can any one enter a prison, 
 and notice hundreds of convicts, all punished for 
 varied crimes, all sentenced for different terms; some 
 placed in solitary confinement, others forced into the 
 workshops ; many so feeble as to be placed in the sick 
 ward, can one view these sights, then chant with an 
 admirable composure, with an heroic serenity, and 
 with a glorious hallelujah, "Thus saith the Lord"? 
 No, no. Brethren, an everlasting no to such ques- 
 tions. For it is not obedience to Heaven that has 
 brought calamity, suffering, and desolation upon the 
 earth; for, if all God's children listened to the higher 
 voice, none or but very little of the awful scenes 
 around us would have happened, and crime would be 
 a thing unknown. 
 
 It is because God's voice is not sought, heard, 
 reverenced, obeyed, glorified, that strife is engen- 
 dered, opposition created, warfare called forth, and 
 force invoked; and always in every conflict there 
 must be wrong somewhere, treachery at some point, 
 disloyalty in some heart, and disorder, anarchy, and 
 rebellion in some place. Although it has been said 
 that very slight causes have created the great wars of 
 the world, I say no, an emphatic, earnest, heartfelt 
 no; for, although the apparent cause may be in some 
 
THE COMMANDS OF GOD 249 
 
 cases but a trifle, the real cause is the decay of spirit- 
 uality in some hearts, a turning from God in some 
 direction, a forgetting of holiness, an impeachment 
 of truth, and a denial of religion. For, if everybody 
 in the world were a perfect saint, war would never be 
 known; but, because oftentimes sin rises up, virtue 
 has to rise up, in order to put the sin down. 
 
 Although there would be no battles if all were 
 saints, yet, as all are not saints, ever since creation 
 war, for various reasons, at unexpected times, and 
 with great devastation, has had a hand in the building 
 up of the world ; and in a great many wars there has 
 been a right side and a wrong side, so that those who 
 have been willing to place themselves on the right 
 side have been glad to leave home, ready to endure 
 hardness, toil, and sacrifice, ay, all prepared, per- 
 haps, to lose mortal life for the sake of a noble prin- 
 ciple. And such heroes have been inspired by the 
 one great thought, "Thus saith the Lord." 
 
 Once more, as we gaze at all holy revolutions in 
 Church or in State, we find that the nucleus of their 
 growth rests mainly on a direct or a supposed revela- 
 tion from Heaven. 
 
 The cross seen in the heavens by the Emperor Con- 
 stantine, with the inscription that was embossed upon 
 it, "By this conquer," is simply symbolic of an 
 impressive truth; namely, that the basis of all great 
 movements, the life of all mighty enterprises, and the 
 charter and security for all success and all reputation 
 must be of divine origin. Of every great reformer it 
 
250 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 is asked, and properly, too, Where is your commis- 
 sion? Then, unless the spiritual badge is shown, 
 the people will not believe or follow. Even impos- 
 tors, aware of this philosophical fact, in order to 
 secure for their nefarious schemes an ultimate vic- 
 tory, borrow garments of light. 
 
 Notice, brethren, some of the great movements of 
 the ages, and then see how they are brought about ; 
 and commence your search, if you please, among the 
 heathen. In those dark times you will find that the 
 household penates were constantly consulted ere any 
 enterprise of weight was undertaken; and, What say 
 the gods? was the first question of the Pagan. And 
 then he did not care to go anywhere or to attempt to 
 do anything until he knew what the gods did say, or, 
 rather, what the priests said that they said. 
 
 Turn to the oldest Christian religion known, and 
 then you will perceive that one great force resting in 
 cathedral services and ceremonies, affiliating and 
 attracting many persons to discipleship, is the con- 
 stant reference to celestial things that the devout be- 
 liever is taught each day to make. When he opens 
 his eyes in the morning, there is a prayer for him to 
 repeat; as he rises from his bed, bathes, dresses, goes 
 to his meal, starts for his office, ay, through every 
 crevice of his day's duties, there is a prayer provided. 
 Thus are all temporal concerns covered by eternal 
 realities, and thus God's light is thrown over all 
 earthly darkness. 
 
 The old Church gave to the converted Pagan some- 
 
THE COMMANDS OF GOD 251 
 
 thing that should prove a substitute for his household 
 gods, and, instead of blocks of wood, offered him 
 a book of prayers. 
 
 Again, when the Mother Church was divided, and 
 when Protestantism was born out of her ranks, and 
 when Martin Luther's name became emblazoned in 
 history, the reason assigned for the revolution was 
 wholly a spiritual one. Luther's creed was some- 
 thing like this: God wants faith; God wants every 
 man to read his Bible; God wants prayers oral as 
 well as prayers written, and he asks for less show 
 and more substance. 
 
 Therefore, the seceders from the old Church went 
 away, because they thought that they could get nearer 
 to God. This was their honest plea, and it has been 
 the honest plea of the thousand sects interlining the 
 strata of Christianity ever since. 
 
 "Thus saith the Lord." 
 
 Ah ! these words are emblazoned on the banner of 
 every sect throughout the world; for each church 
 claims to have received a special and a privileged 
 hearing of the divine voice, and boasts of peculiar 
 immunities that are not granted to others, and of rich 
 intercommunications of gifts that are vouchsafed to 
 them alone. But, thanks be to God, all these antag- 
 onistic denominations wish to bring about one grand 
 result; namely, the culture, the salvation, and the 
 coronation of the soul. 
 
 Once more, my friends, remember that many a 
 weak or infamous design may be covered by a good 
 
252 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 name or by a bold front, and many a cruel deed has 
 been varnished and labelled by the performer as an 
 act of holiness; for it is a very comfortable subterfuge 
 to throw the cloak of religion around our private, 
 unholy, and selfish plans, while all the records of the 
 past reveal specimens of this double dealing. 
 
 "For Christ's sake," so said the officers of the 
 "Room of Agony," as they applied the rack and threw 
 their victims into exquisite tortures; "for the Mas- 
 ter's sake," so said the crusaders as they rushed into 
 Asia with blood on their hearts and blood on their 
 hands; "for the sake of religion," so have said many 
 a king and many a queen, as they have signed the 
 warrant for the burning of unbelievers or for the 
 breaking of dissenters upon the wheel; "for the 
 Redeemer's sake," so it is said to-day, when bigots 
 rage, sects wrangle, hard blows are given, and wicked 
 names are called, and thus the whole Christian world 
 is thrown into dire confusion. Ah! how sad to think 
 that human passion and human sin have borrowed 
 divine robes, and have stolen celestial splendors only 
 to hide an inward corruption and to make an apology 
 for that which is so very base, startling, and cruel! 
 
 Hypocrisy, how contemptible! and cowardice, how 
 abject! When we scan the character of our Master, 
 thoroughly sifting the elements of which it is com- 
 posed, we find that its rich beauty, solemn grandeur, 
 magnificent power, and holy courage consisted in the 
 constant heavenly reference that illuminated, sweet- 
 ened, and encircled it. 
 
THE COMMANDS OF GOD 253 
 
 He always followed the higher voice: it carried 
 him into the temple, and sent him back with a gentle 
 and a generous obedience to the home of his earthly 
 guardians; it kept him fasting forty days and nights 
 in the wilderness, exposed him to temptations, en- 
 girdled him with suffering, brought him to the cross, 
 lifted him from the grave, and invested him with 
 glory. Never any hesitation could be detected on the 
 Master's part. As soon as he caught the breath of 
 God, and when the command was issued, it was 
 obeyed. He never questioned, but he performed; 
 and it was not his pleasure to delay, but to 
 march. 
 
 Oh, it was a glorious example of fidelity that he 
 left for us, a very high standard for our admiration, 
 and a majestic picture for our copy. 
 
 "Thus saith the Lord." 
 
 If we are sure of the direction, if we recognize 
 without any reasonable doubts the voice, and if we 
 are confident that we have a telephone connected with 
 the altar of God, why then we must obey the com- 
 munication, no matter where it carries us; for God 
 knows the way, has examined the pitfalls, gauged the 
 precices, ipnoted down the mined roads, counted the 
 broken bridges, is well aware of the impediments that 
 are so thickly set against us on all sides, beholds as 
 well as we do the deadly missiles flying through the 
 air, and can manage if he thinks proper the 
 shells, cannon-balls, and bayonet charges. But our 
 duty is to go forward without dread, without hesita- 
 
254 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 tion, with a devout alacrity, and without a care as to 
 the issue. 
 
 When God says, "Go," we are not to think of and 
 see difficulties and dangers; or, if we cannot help 
 thinking of them or seeing them, we are to rate them 
 as nothing, face them without a shudder, and grapple 
 with them with an earnest and a holy purpose, chant- 
 ing all the while that glorious psalm, "The Lord is 
 my shield and my buckler, of whom shall I be 
 afraid?" 
 
 " We are told that in Cuba, during an insurrection, 
 an Englishman's life was threatened, and soldiers 
 were drawn up, ready to fire. The English consul 
 and the American consul hurried to the spot, sprang 
 from their carriage, and each wrapped their country's 
 flag around the man, and, turning to the angry Span- 
 iards, said, 'Now fire! ' There was a hush. No one 
 dared to fire upon flags that represented the two great- 
 est powers in the world." 
 
 So, my friends, if God wraps around our souls the 
 flag of heaven, we shall be safe anywhere and 
 everywhere. 
 
 "Thus saith the Lord." 
 
 This is the motto, Christian friends, that I wish 
 to see braided into your whole experience. 
 
 It is written in striking, golden, and burning let- 
 ters upon the heavens. Oh, look and read it there, 
 majestic in its grandeur! 
 
 It is ingrained upon the earth. Oh, trace it out 
 with your illuminated genius, and see how each letter 
 
THE COMMANDS OF GOD 255 
 
 of it is irradiated with splendor! May it be im- 
 bedded, too, in your thoughts, cut deep into your 
 hearts, render melodious all your deeds! And then, 
 whether you live or die, enjoy or suffer, are full or 
 are empty, are surrounded by friends or are flanked 
 by enemies, it will be a matter of but very little 
 concern to you ; for, come what may, you are armed, 
 counselled, cheered, certainly safe, and really victori- 
 ous, for all the angels of heaven are on your side. 
 
XXIV. 
 THE BREVITY OF LIFE. 
 
 "Knoweth that he hath but a short time." REV. xii. 12. 
 
 NO more true, striking, solemn, and electric words 
 were ever spoken; and yet probably no truth 
 is ever more put out of sight, speedily dismissed, and 
 thoroughly ignored than that which sets forth the 
 fleetness of time. 
 
 We admit the fact with our lips, but we deny the 
 reality in our lives; we approve of the sentiment, 
 but very seldom in our experience do we make that 
 sentiment blossom into a sacrament; and we are apt 
 to live as if there were time enough, and we squander 
 the hours as if there were plenty of hours to spare. 
 So that, when the day of our death shall come, we 
 shall be very much disturbed because our career is 
 cut off so soon; and we are dismissed with plans half 
 finished and with work half done. 
 
 We leave till to-morrow what ought to be done 
 to-day, as if to-morrow had been promised to us be- 
 yond the quiver of a doubt; and the old saying is 
 very correct that "every man thinks every man 
 mortal except himself." Although death hovers 
 around us in all shapes, although the cemetery is 
 thoroughly peopled and friends and neighbors are 
 
THE BREVITY OF LIFE 
 
 2 57 
 
 disappearing all the time; yet, somehow, each one of 
 us feels secure, as if a higher voice had said, "It 
 shall not come nigh thee." Of course, it is not 
 expected of us that we shall continually moan over 
 the brevity of our earthly being. God does not wish 
 that his children should always be cast down, dis- 
 mayed, and disheartened. The mind would break if 
 it were strained all the time on one note. Health 
 would give way if the brain were forever shadowed; 
 and we might as well live inside of a tomb as to be 
 gazing at a tomb forever. And yet sometimes ay, 
 often the soul needs to come into vital contact with 
 the sad, sharp, and changing side of life; and it 
 must, for its own good, peace, and true growth, 
 ponder very frequently over the shifting days, hours, 
 and years, for thus is energy braced, devotion roused, 
 a mighty work accomplished, and thus do we conquer 
 sloth, fear, and infidelity, and rise into the serene 
 atmosphere of faith, hope, devotion, and good will. 
 "Knoweth he hath a short time." Well, if the time 
 be short for all of us, let us look up for light, march 
 to our duty with an illuminated mind and a transfig- 
 ured soul, and lift our burdens easily, make them 
 a constant benediction, and convert them from dark- 
 ness into a marvellous light. The longest life is 
 short; and even threescore years and ten soon pass 
 away, so that those who are aged speak of their life 
 as a dream. But the average years of life, my 
 friends, are only thirty; and how quickly those thirty 
 years fade out of sight! For we are hardly born into 
 
258 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 one world ere we are summoned into another king- 
 dom. Life and death are all the time struggling 
 together for a blessed reconciliation, and the march 
 from the cradle to the grave has to be taken with 
 lightning speed. Consider how much of our being is 
 taken up with getting ready to live, and how much is 
 smothered by sleep. Think of the years that are used 
 merely for the support of physical wants. Count the 
 time when you are learning how to think, feel, and 
 grow. See how often the blossoms are nipped, and 
 how they cover the ground with a snowy shroud. 
 And look even at the flowers and the fruit, how 
 transitory their glory; "for they are soon cut off, and 
 fly away." The brute, by instinct, springs into ma- 
 turity quickly; but man is a plant of a slow growth, 
 and he develops inch by inch, climbs the ladder of 
 progress round by round, and goes step by step 
 towards eternity. When we think of the slow open- 
 ing of conscience, the tardy steps of judgment, the 
 dilatory advance of reason, the measured tread of 
 a well -furnished and a brilliantly lighted and a 
 gloriously perfumed imagination, the solemn, pro- 
 longed, and wearing advance of burning ideas, then 
 we exclaim, Oh, where is the opportunity for man, 
 and how can he go forward? For he will die before 
 he is able to begin, and by the time that he is ready 
 to live the summons for his retreat will appear. His 
 army will be collected, his weapons purchased and 
 delivered, his powder distributed, the order of battle 
 will be planned, and then, just as the time comes to 
 
THE BREVITY OK LIFE 259 
 
 act, a higher Power will withdraw his commission, 
 revoke his authority, and call him to another com- 
 mand. Just as he wants to go forward, and while he 
 can do so with apparent honor, he will be ordered 
 away; and then all will cry out, Oh, what a pity, 
 what a sacrifice, and what an untimely call! I 
 declare, as I look upon the uncertainties of life, the 
 hasty thought will sometimes come up, Why was man 
 created, what good can he accomplish, and is not ex- 
 istence a terrible mistake? Ah! my friends, a great 
 deal is accomplished, notwithstanding the brevity of 
 the days; and it is really astonishing how much can 
 be done by an earnest, devout, and holy spirit. And 
 some names are graven deeply in history, Because 
 their owners were determined to grasp time, and were 
 resolved to make it pay a ransom for its celerity and 
 a premium on its speed. 
 
 "Oh, time!" they have virtually said, "you may 
 be short; but you shall be sweet; you may love to 
 run, but you shall drop fragrance as you go; and you 
 may not give us many chances, but every chance that 
 you do give to us shall be loaded with opportunities, 
 covered with splendors, and shall yield a rich, an 
 attractive, and a holy harvest. Oh, time! you may 
 be without mercy, you may strike hard, you may 
 strike deep, and you may attempt to trip us up in an 
 unfortunate moment; but we will make you change 
 your tune, reverse your tactics, ground your arms, 
 and surrender unconditionally to our determined will; 
 and you shall be anointed with our good resolutions, 
 
260 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 enriched, sanctified, and uplifted by our earnest 
 prayers, hallowed, glorified, and sweetened by our 
 holy deeds; and, like an ^Eolian harp, when the 
 breath of our consecrated will touches you, you shall 
 waft sweet music, warble heavenly harmonies, and 
 send a breeze of glory into the ears of all who care to 
 listen; while angels shall hear the melody with a 
 thrill of delight. And you shall become our steward, 
 ambassador, friend, brother; and we will crown you 
 with garlands, while all your ways shall be ways of 
 pleasantness and all your paths shall be paths of 
 peace. 
 
 This is taking time, according to the ancient 
 proverb, by the forelock; and this is the turning 
 of its mission from that of a fiend to that of an 
 angel. 
 
 Again, a great deal is accomplished in this world, 
 not by any one man, but by the aggregate of men. 
 Of course, men die, but the race lives; and so fresh 
 hands take up the work that departed ones leave. 
 And thus everything that we do tells, nothing is lost, 
 one age helps another, and all men are bound in cor- 
 dial harmony by a golden chain, from Adam's day till 
 now; and thus, while life is important, no one life is 
 especially so. And thus, when a great or a good man 
 drops out of sight, we are not of necessity thrown 
 into inextricable confusion, nor forced into incurable 
 despair, nor left entirely deserted. And thus the 
 world goes on, no matter what happens to individ- 
 uals; for nothing can stay the march of improvement, 
 
THE BREVITY OF LIFE 261 
 
 nor the triumphal advance of right, nor God's eternal 
 laws. 
 
 Men may die, but principles live; and time for any 
 one person may be short, but all time is adequately 
 long, will be nobly consecrated, and shall have a 
 blessed fruitage. 
 
 God, in the creation of the world and in the mak- 
 ing of man, did not create and did not make a mis- 
 take; for he knew the value of the soul and the worth 
 of the body, how long they ought to be in partner- 
 ship, and when they should separate and lose their 
 relative value. And he never created one man to do 
 everything, and it is but a straw that each one of us 
 can lift; and, if we all lift our straw, then will all 
 things be full of harmony, holiness, and glory. Our 
 work is simple, but grand, short, but sublime; and 
 we are not to complain of it and to crave more time 
 for the accomplishing of it, but we are to do it, and 
 to do it cheerfully, beautifully, and thoroughly, with 
 a right, and with a righteous spirit. The time may 
 be short ; but it is long enough for what we have to 
 do, and plenty long enough for the development of 
 our characters into all that God would have us to be. 
 
 Let us polish our life off, then, with care, adorn it 
 with skill, set it in spiritual diamonds, and make it 
 sparkle forever and ever. The time is long enough 
 for us, through our patience, purity, and consistent 
 holiness, to get our name written in the "Lamb's 
 Book of Life " ; and may our names be written there 
 in bright, large, and glorious letters, and labelled as 
 
262 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 those who are faithful, persistent, patient, and pure, 
 and as those who care only to make earth the step- 
 ping-stone to heaven, the outer portal that leads to 
 the celestial gate, and the door that opens into the 
 chambers of our God. Spiritually, we seem to forget 
 how short are our days of discipline; and we postpone 
 our penitence, consecration, and renewal, as if the 
 future were entirely subject to our command, just 
 as if we had a lease of life, with the privilege of 
 renewing it. 
 
 Time enough, we think, for us to attend to our 
 souls after we have cared for the mind and the body: 
 we will be good just before we die, and then we will 
 do the whole work up at once. For we are too busy 
 to be good now; but by and by, when our houses are 
 built, our stables are full, our bank account is large, 
 and we have retired from the bustle of the market, 
 then we will turn over a new leaf, and turn it over 
 very thoroughly. And those looking at us shall say 
 that we are changed, thoroughly changed for the 
 better. And so we go on, nine out of ten, dropping 
 into the grave before the time of rest, improvement, 
 and growth arrives. And so, too, with those to 
 whom a period of relief comes: it is hardly ever a 
 renovation; for habit has so crisped the mind, en- 
 feebled the heart, and weakened the hand that there 
 is no disposition to change, while the loiterers prefer 
 to go on in the old way. What is worth doing at any 
 time is worth doing now. 
 
 The future that we expect may never come; and, 
 
THE BREVITY OF LIFE 263 
 
 if it should come, every delay in goodness always 
 brings about a loss. And why should we not be good 
 now, why should we lose so many years of keen joy, 
 real delight, solid comfort; and why should we waste 
 in terrible unrest so many precious days? Suppose 
 we do become saints just before we pass from the 
 earth. Will our late discipleship compensate for the 
 wrecks that we have made of the greater part of our 
 existence; and will a few roses make up for so many 
 thistles? Ah! we are wofully short-sighted when 
 we come to deal with our souls; and, however mas- 
 sive may have been our intellect in everything else, 
 in this one great thing we are apt to be very idiotic. 
 In fact, if we governed trade as we govern the heart, 
 trouble, danger, and ruin would soon be our portion, 
 and a perfect chaos would fall upon all mercantile 
 pursuits. If we carry the same energy, enthusiasm, 
 devotion, and affection into the culture of our souls 
 that we carry every day into the pursuit of our daily 
 calling, we shall soon become what God would have 
 us to be. We have but a short time: let us then do 
 the best that we can, for we cannot do too much; and, 
 although we work every minute, we shall still be 
 unfinished, unfurnished, and terribly lacking. The 
 completion of character is a duty that grows larger 
 and much larger the more faithfully it is greeted; 
 and it grows with our growth, expands with our 
 efforts, forms new heights as the old ones are scaled. 
 Its law is ever on and up. It is never satisfied 
 with what is accomplished, and always calls for more; 
 
264 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 and, however good we may be, we are far below the 
 true mark, and we must still "press forward to our 
 high calling in Christ Jesus the Lord." 
 
 Ah! my friends, in the face of the words of the 
 text, contrary to the apostolic seeming statement, 
 and somehow as a paradox after what I have already 
 said, I would declare that time is not short, because 
 life and time merge into eternity. Grand, solemn, 
 and majestic thought! And are we prepared for the 
 sublime reconciliation, the heavenly marriage, and 
 the wonderful apocalypse? Ah! these hours are 
 invested with a sacred privilege, clothed with a fresh 
 power, irradiated with a holy lustre, since we know 
 that they cannot decay, since the chains and the bolts 
 are taken off from them, and since they leap, career, 
 and bound into the gulf of Infinity. Our thoughts 
 now are wonderfully important, our habits must be 
 strictly scanned, our deeds have a meaning they never 
 had before; for there is an echo beyond the grave, 
 there is a reverberation like the sound of a deep- 
 toned bell through endless ages; and what we do in 
 time is to have a resurrection in eternity. 
 
 Let us look well, then, to our ways, and crowd 
 every second with glory; and let the influence that 
 goes from us be constantly pure, serene, golden. 
 And then those who gaze at us shall know that our 
 eyes are upon the " pearly gates, " that we have seen 
 the pure white throne, and that we are longing for 
 the new name that is given only to those whom the 
 Lord approves; and let us make our life like a great 
 
THE BREVITY OF LIFE 265 
 
 organ, whose varied pipes celestial artists carve, 
 whose different notes none but angel ringers touch, 
 and out of which shall come harmonies that sanctify, 
 elevate, and inspire all souls. As a proof how time 
 on earth can be both short and long, let us look at 
 Jesus Christ; and then we shall see how much he 
 made of three years. For in that space he overturned 
 the world. 
 
 Old systems, that thousands of years had fortified 
 and strengthened, crumbled to pieces or were shaken 
 to their very centre, and seeds of truth that never 
 before could find soil enough for moisture or for 
 nourishment, by his blessed aid and sweet inspiration 
 found root and got solid growth. And he gave free- 
 dom to ideas, depth, wealth, and joy to affections, 
 and an eternal echo to deeds. He robed pain in 
 celestial garments, clothed all earthly discipline in 
 a vesture of heavenly white, and robbed death of its 
 terror and name, making the grave a garden; and 
 the future, so dreary and uncertain and every way so 
 uninviting, he filled with a glory, arched with a bene- 
 diction, and fused with a splendor that was meant to 
 dazzle all eyes and subdue, convince, and glorify all 
 hearts. 
 
 Yes, it was three years' ceaseless work, from the 
 time that the sun leaped into its morning brightness 
 till at eventide the same bright orb went to sleep in 
 golden robes. 
 
 He scattered his favors by word, by deed, and by 
 look, from the moment that he issued from his ban- 
 
266 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 ishment and victory in the wilderness till he cried 
 from the cross those terribly significant yet somehow 
 suggestive, inspiriting, and majestic words, "It is 
 finished." 
 
 He never allowed himself to be overcome by 
 fatigue, was always ready to do the Father's will; 
 and, certainly, he, best of all, has taught us the value 
 of the hours ; has clearly proved how much radiance 
 may leap out of even the briefest life; has made it 
 clear that it is the quality of one's existence that 
 makes it long, and not the quantity of it; and has 
 taught that length of days is not to be desired for 
 a moment except so far as we can make our days fra- 
 grant, pure, and beautiful. And let us heed these 
 great, glorious, and soul-stirring lessons. 
 
 Bickersteth says : 
 
 " Our years are like the shadows 
 
 O'er sunny hills that fly, 
 Or grasses in the meadows, 
 
 That blossom but to die, 
 A sleep, a dream, a story 
 
 By strangers quickly told, 
 An unremaining glory 
 
 Of things that soon are old. 
 
 " O Thou, who canst not slumber, 
 
 Whose light grows never pale, 
 Teach us aright to number 
 
 Our years before they fail. 
 On us thy mercy lighten, 
 
 On us thy goodness rest, 
 And let thy spirit brighten 
 
 The hearts thyself hath blessed." 
 
XXV. 
 
 A POSTPONED CONCLUSION. 
 
 " But the end is not yet." ST. MATT. xxiv. 6. 
 
 I THINK that we derive a peculiar satisfaction 
 when we can say of anything that it is finished ; 
 and we are still more happy, comforted, and strength- 
 ened when we can say it is well finished. The bad 
 man likes to have his work done, well over, and the 
 profits gathered, ere conscience has lashed him into 
 remorse, remorse has driven him to penitence, and 
 penitence has stopped him midway on the road to 
 great gains; but, above all, and with a keen relish, 
 the good man views with delight a noble duty fin- 
 ished, a holy contest ended, truth triumphant, phi- 
 lanthropy crowned, and everything beautifully and 
 grandly and gloriously rounded off. Then the toil 
 endured, the rebuffs greeted, the patience taxed, and 
 all the wear and tear undergone in the execution of 
 the work are no more considered, and are rated as tri- 
 fles when compared with the magnificent achievement 
 which is their holy fruitage, beautiful coronation, and 
 sublime compensation. 
 
 Review your own life, each one; and then find out 
 if the truth which I have stated be not indorsed by 
 
268 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 your experience. I will question you only in regard 
 to your good works. Where you have given yourself 
 up to the service of others, to the establishment of 
 right, and to the glorification of souls, no matter 
 how long our service, nor how tedious our labor, and 
 no matter if your strength, temper, and faith almost 
 gave out, yet, when it was done and finished exactly 
 as you desired, have you cared for the time, struggle, 
 life, and health that you have consecrated, have you 
 estimated those things in the least, and are they not 
 wiped out of consideration by your joy, peace, and 
 the holy echoes in your heart? 
 
 Are they not cancelled from your mind by the 
 gratitude of those whom you have helped? and are 
 they not viewed as of no account as you lift up your 
 thanksgivings unto God, from whose gracious love 
 the victory came? Assure me of success in any good 
 thing that I may undertake, and then what do I care 
 for the price, suffering, and penalty? And, though I 
 know that I must lose my sight, or my health, or my 
 mind, or my life, what do I care, and why should I 
 care, as long as I accomplish my holy designs, and as 
 long as Heaven smiles upon my labors? 
 
 God himself, it is said in Holy Writ, "blessed the 
 seventh day, and hallowed it," because on that day 
 the early creation was completed. 
 
 He viewed heaven, earth, light, darkness, dry land, 
 water, day, night, grass, herb, tree, stars, sun, moon, 
 fowls, whales, and all living creatures as a good 
 creation, a well -finished work, and something at 
 
A POSTPONED CONCLUSION 269 
 
 which it was right for him to rejoice. We have the 
 highest authority, then, for sacred delight, when we 
 think that we have done well, when we feel that our 
 work is rightly finished, and when we have carried out 
 a good design. 
 
 Again, Christ on the cross, in that terrible hour of 
 agony when he surveyed a world convulsed by sin, 
 counted up the certain triumphs of the religion that 
 he had inaugurated, was sure that the seed which he 
 had dropped into such unpromising ground would fer- 
 tilize the soil on which it fell, and would become 
 wonderfully productive, and could see the certain 
 advance of Christianity in spite of all the efforts that 
 would be made to defeat it. Christ himself joyfully 
 exclaimed, "It is finished." 
 
 Was there not a glow of satisfaction about him in 
 the thought that his work was done, and must not 
 this thought have been a comfort to him in his dying 
 hour, and did not the angels catch those words up, 
 "It is finished!" chanting them with their grand, 
 beautiful, and glorious hosannas? 
 
 But, my friends, I repeat, whether our work be 
 good or bad, we are glad when it is over. We carry 
 this feeling with us also as we review past ages. 
 However much we may like to study their history, 
 sift their records, probe their great men, admire their 
 achievements, and revel among their splendors, we 
 are nevertheless very glad that these ages are over, 
 that they are never to be repeated, and that we are 
 left unimpeded, so that we can make the days in 
 
270 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 which we live peculiarly our own, shaped by our 
 ideas, words, and deeds. 
 
 I will admit that many speak of the good old times, 
 of the virtues of their ancestors, and of the degener- 
 acy of the present age, while they pretend that they 
 wish that they were back again where their fathers 
 were ; but they forget, as they speak, that, in order to 
 go back, they must wipe out of existence the tele- 
 graph, railroad, steamship, telephone, the advance of 
 letters, the triumphs of the arts and sciences, and the 
 thousand improvements that have made life so impor- 
 tant, time so valuable, and the days so grand. I 
 know that many speak of the good old times, but they 
 mean nothing by what they say : they are dreaming ; 
 and, if you persistently address them with questions, 
 drive them to definite statements, strong arguments, 
 and cogent logic, they will break right down, will 
 acknowledge that they are in the wrong, and will 
 own that all they want of past times is the good, not 
 the bad, and that all that they wish to lose of the 
 present is the bad, and not the good; that is, all that 
 such wish is to have society perfect, men angels, and 
 earth heaven, but for a simple exchange present for 
 past they would not for a moment consent. Again, 
 some people talk in a complaining way of the present, 
 with profuse compliments for the past, not because 
 they know anything of history, for, as a general rule, 
 such persons are the most profoundly ignorant about 
 past ages; but they speak in this way because they 
 are never satisfied with anything, are usually and 
 
A POSTPONED CONCLUSION 271 
 
 always uneasy, and want just what they do not 
 possess. 
 
 They would have made the same complaint a hun- 
 dred years ago, nay, a thousand years ago: ay, they 
 would have said the same in the days of Genesis; 
 while our chief hope is that, if they be allowed at last 
 to enter heaven, their natures may be changed, sweet- 
 ened, and glorified, or else there they will be un- 
 happy, and will be longing for the earth, their bodies, 
 and the good old times. 
 
 Again, as we look back upon our own lives, we do 
 not wish to live them over again. 
 
 I know that many say, "Oh that I could be a child 
 once more I " But ask them what they mean, and 
 they will reply that they want to carry back into their 
 new childhood all the experience that they have 
 gained up to the period in which they have lived; 
 'that is, they want to have the body of a child and the 
 mind of a man. But this they know is an utter im- 
 possibility. No: we do not want to go back to 
 infancy again, in order that we may make the same 
 mistakes when we are growing up that we have 
 already made; for perhaps with the new chance we 
 should fail still more. And we should be afraid to 
 run the risk, and we should prefer to go to God as we 
 are than as we might be under another trial of life. 
 But, my friends, although we like the end of every- 
 thing, think that the end is better than the beginning, 
 and do not want to repeat past work or to call back 
 former ages, yet the words of our text say, "The end 
 
272 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 is not yet " ; and true Christianity affirms also that 
 there is really no end to anything, and that what 
 appears to be so is simply a delusion. 
 
 I suppose that many of us are thinking that on the 
 last Sabbath of the year the year is nearly gone; and 
 so it is about gone, if we refer to months, weeks, 
 days, and minutes. Yes, about departed are its 
 opportunities, nearly disappeared its responsibilities, 
 and almost closed its record. 
 
 Yes, many a keen joy has vanished, many a bitter 
 sorrow has faded away, and the panorama of events 
 cannot again pass before our eyes. 
 
 The last Sunday in the year is always one of pecul- 
 iar solemnity; for into it are gathered so many pre- 
 cious memories, so many holy hopes, so many good 
 resolutions, and so much deep penitence. For we 
 seem to be standing on sacred ground, and we hear 
 God's voice calling us to account. 
 
 We began the year, it may be, with the solemn 
 desire to lead a better life than ever before; and we 
 were determined, both at home and abroad, to be 
 holier men or braver women or more obedient chil- 
 dren. 
 
 We confessed that we ought to turn over a new 
 leaf, act from higher principles, and that in many of 
 our deeds we had been very hasty, inconsiderate, and 
 impious, had not thought enough of God, Jesus, 
 heaven, earth, our fellow-men, and ourselves. 
 
 As we felt this personal deficiency, we were deter- 
 mined that coming days should find us more faithful, 
 
A POSTPONED CONCLUSION 273 
 
 sincere, pure, moral, and religious. And these were 
 good resolutions, noble thoughts, holy desires; and 
 God heard them, I doubt not, with joy, and the holy 
 angels chanted, it may be, their delight. But have 
 we kept such promises? Have we consecrated these 
 good thoughts, and are we very much advanced in 
 Christian manliness, and have we good reason to be 
 religiously satisfied as we gaze at fifty-two weeks 
 closed up, passed by, done with forever? Have we 
 learned to govern our temper, appetites, and desires? 
 Is our word now as good as our bond, are our prayers 
 more frequent, holy, and sincere, and have we grown 
 into noble specimens of God's workmanship, that of 
 us it may be said " we are not far from the kingdom 
 of heaven " ; ay, even more than this, that we are 
 even treading the outer courts of the celestial city? 
 Ah! to our shame be it said that none of us can 
 utter a hearty, holy, and truthful Amen to these 
 searching questions. We kept our vows, it may be, 
 hardly a week. They were early broken, formed 
 again, and again violated; and all the year has been 
 spent in turning over the new leaf, which, after all, 
 seems to be nothing but the old leaf stereotyped. 
 And here we are year after year repeating the same 
 promises, and asking Heaven to smile upon, bless, 
 and hallow our resolutions. 
 
 But is it mummery, after all? Do we not mean 
 what we say? And, when we say that we are sorry 
 that past years have not been more profitable, and 
 when we promise that coming ones shall bear a better 
 
274 SERMONS FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 record of us, are we not perfectly sincere, contrite, 
 and earnest? We may fail in our design the very 
 first day of the new year; but, still, are we not 
 sincere? 
 
 I think that we do mean to be better, and that we 
 are grieved because we have been so weak, and that 
 our failure arises from the fact that we trust too much 
 to our own strength and rely too much on our own 
 right arm. 
 
 Let us go into all coming days with our own 
 strength, but with a portion of God's strength also, 
 a strength so much better than ours, and without 
 which ours will be as nothing, a mere beating of the 
 air. 
 
 Oh, let us kneel before Almighty God in the pri- 
 vacy of our chambers, and confess that we leave all 
 our old years with sad misgivings as to their testi- 
 mony concerning our worth, and that we know on 
 many of their days are black marks against our names ; 
 and let us own that we earnestly look now for pardon, 
 peace, joy> and for a grace that shall be sufficient for 
 us in all approaching hours. 
 
 Ah! these wrestlings with God in private bring 
 thousands and tens of thousands of angels to our help, 
 and clothe us with a celestial armor that cannot be 
 destroyed. 
 
 "The end is not yet." 
 
 Thanks be to God that we have a further opportu- 
 nity for amendment, that we have another chance for 
 retrieving our character, and that the mortgage 
 
A POSTPONED CONCLUSION 275 
 
 against our souls has not been foreclosed ! Farewell 
 to all time that has passed! Let us say to the years, 
 We have been friends together: you have shared with 
 us our joys and sorrows, have seen our eyes beam 
 with gladness at unexpected pleasures and dim with 
 tears when sorrows came uninvited; and in all the 
 vicissitudes of our experience you have been present, 
 watching, helping, and consecrating. Oh, forgive us 
 that we have so little prized and so little hallowed 
 your fellowship, that we have stained your heart with 
 our sins, and speak charitably of us as you appear 
 before God with the tablet that bears the ineffaceable 
 account of our doings, and tell to all sister years that 
 are coming to take your place that we will endeavor 
 to treat them better, and that we hope they may treat 
 us with a holy, blessed, and uplifting gentleness. 
 
 Farewell once more to the passing years! They 
 keep going away, as they must, with our broken vows, 
 unholy deeds, and cold devotions. But God grant, 
 with our sincere penitence, with the certain assur- 
 ance of our future well-being, and with a kindling 
 hope, that, by the mercy of God, we may stand for- 
 given at the great altar of Heaven ! 
 

 
 
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