RW v . 
 
 HI
 
 SERMONS 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 REV. CHARLES GUTCH, B.D. 
 
 OF s. CVPR FAN'S, MARYLEBONE 
 
 WITH A SHORT MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. ROBERT LINKLATER, D.D. 
 
 VICAR OF HOLY TRINITY, STROUD GREEN 
 
 WITH PORTRAIT 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 
 
 1898 
 All rights reserved
 
 I HAVE been asked to prepare for publication these 
 few sermons of the late Rev. Charles Gutch, B.D., 
 Senior Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, 
 and for thirty years Priest of S. Cyprian's, Marylebone. 
 They are put forth by some of his most loving friends 
 and disciples, first as a thankoffering to our Lord for 
 blessings received through the faithful ministry of 
 His devoted priest, and in memory of the sainted 
 dead ; secondly, in order that the faithful members of 
 our Church of England may know something of this 
 valiant lion-hearted champion, who was very famous 
 in the early days of the Tractarian movement, but 
 who of late years, in his humility and self-effacement, 
 was content to labour on in a hidden and most con- 
 tracted sphere unknown to the rising generation of 
 young Churchmen, and having outlived the greater 
 number of his former friends. 
 
 Mr. Gutch was the youngest of four sons of the 
 Rev. Robert Gutch, M.A., Rector of Seagrave, Leicester- 
 shire, and Rural Dean, and was born January 12, 
 1822. He was thus nearly seventy-five years of age 
 when he died, on October 1, 1896. 
 
 It is interesting to know, and a strong argument 
 in favour of heredity, that his father and grandfather 
 were both distinguished scholars. His father was 
 Seventh Wrangler at Cambridge, in 1801, and became 
 Fellow of Queen's ; his grandfather (who was also in 
 holy orders) was Registrar of the University of
 
 vi MEMOIR. 
 
 Oxford. His mother must also have been a remark- 
 able woman, from the intense love and respect she 
 inspired in her son. 
 
 He was sent to Christ's Hospital when he was 
 about seven. I have been charmed in reading the 
 delightfully boyish letters, written to his mother from 
 school, during the years 1830-1837. They are worthy 
 of separate publication as graphic pictures of school 
 life and London life in the good old days. He comes 
 up to school, of course, on the top of a coach ; and of 
 course he often arrives wet through : he has to wait an 
 hour before he can get any one to carry his box. Of 
 course his letters to the Leicestershire home are full 
 of thanks for lozenges and flannel shirts. If the usual 
 couple of ducks and " largess " are not delivered to 
 his school nurse, or, rather, if she does not find them 
 when she opens his box, delicacy does not prevent 
 the worthy woman from interviewing the little boy, 
 and sending her compliments home in the next letter, 
 and " she is sure there is some mistake." A Sir John 
 Richardson seems to be the family postman, and 
 letters and parcels are duly delivered by him. The 
 poor little chap is full of compunction because he 
 thinks he has disappointed his father and mother 
 by his slow promotion in the school, but "I hope, 
 by the grace of God, still I may get on." His pro- 
 motion was not really slow, since he was a Deputy 
 Grecian at the age of fourteen. "We learn Homer, 
 Demosthenes, Scriptores Grseci, Horace, Cicero, Greek 
 Testament, Terence, and make Latin and English 
 verses alternately, and Latin and English themes " 
 not a bad curriculum for a boy of fourteen. Things 
 are improving in the school. " The meals have been 
 altered much for the better : we have roast mutton 
 now four times a week, and roast beef every Sunday ; 
 we are going to have trenchers like plates soon." I 
 must conclude this epoch with one more quotation.
 
 MEMOIR. vii 
 
 " The two first Grecians made a speech on the 21st 
 (September, 1833) ; the Lord Mayor came down in his 
 shirt ! ! ! we went to church at S. Butolfs, Alders- 
 gate Street. They got (the Grecians) about 140 
 between them." The marks of admiration are in the 
 original. 
 
 When he was sixteen years of age he left Christ's 
 Hospital and went to King's College, London; and 
 in 1840 he went up to S. John's, Cambridge, from 
 whence he migrated to Sidney, where he was Prize- 
 man in Classics and in Divinity in May, 1842, 
 Nothing is said of his mathematics, in which he 
 ultimately took honours. In 1844 Mr. Gutch was 
 in for the Mathematical Tripos, and came out in 
 the middle of the Wranglers, nineteenth out of thirty- 
 seven. He was elected Fellow of his College that 
 year, and remained so for life more than half a 
 century. Canon Betham, who was his school and 
 college friend, and who has furnished a great deal of 
 matter for this memoir, writes that, " in the Lent term 
 of 1845, at his suggestion, as well for discipline as 
 for instruction, we bound ourselves to meet for 
 Divinity studies quite early before morning chapel 
 (7.30 a.m.), so that it was a Spartan arrangement to 
 get our private readings over before that time on 
 wintry mornings." During all his time at Cambridge, 
 Mr. Gutch seems to have been an enormous power 
 for good with the men of his standing, and to have 
 been a prominent champion of catholic principles. 
 
 After leaving Cambridge, Mr. Gutch did Trojan 
 service at S. Margaret's, Leicester, in steadying the 
 congregation during the crisis of 1848. His valuable 
 work here attracted the attention of Dr. Pusey, who 
 sent him to S. Saviour's, Leeds, in 1849, during the 
 similar unhappy trial of faith and loyalty there. Dr. 
 Pusey offered him the living, but this he declined. 
 In 1858 he was curate at Stoke Newington ; in 1859
 
 viii MEMOIR. 
 
 at S. Paul's, Knightsbridge. In that same year he 
 removed to All Saints, Margaret Street, where he 
 worked with the late Mr. Upton Richards for several 
 years. 
 
 Desirous of getting a church of his own in London, 
 and of managing a district on his own lines, he at 
 length, in 1866, succeeded in getting a portion of the 
 huge Marylebone parish set apart as a separate 
 district, and began to collect subscriptions for a 
 church ; but alas ! the site could never be obtained, 
 and he was compelled to continue working on for over 
 thirty years in a building converted by Street out of 
 some cottages and a stable in Park Street, Dorset 
 Square. The building would only seat some two 
 hundred people: but round this centre he soon had 
 gathered Schools, several Homes, an Orphanage and 
 Bethesda ; and, in fact, the machinery and equipment 
 formed a parish of considerable dimensions. 
 
 I say Mr. Gutch was compelled to work on under 
 these depressing and unfavourable conditions; but, 
 as Senior Fellow of his College for many years, he had 
 the offer of various livings as they became vacant 
 and could, of course, have moved elsewhere ; but he 
 nobly stuck to his post, and his people, and the work 
 he had initiated. 
 
 His labours at S. Cyprian's constituted a remark- 
 able record of the energy of practically one man. 
 Though occasionally compelled to absent himself on 
 account of illness or accident, Mr. Gutch always rose 
 at 6.30 a.m. up to the last, and often took three or 
 four services on weekdays and five on Sundays. He 
 had to finance and control all the Homes, as well as 
 the Church and Schools ; and, in addition to this, he 
 edited his magazine, New and Old. All this, as well 
 as the preparation of sermons, meditations, and cate- 
 chising (for he always took the children's catechising 
 on Sundays until a year or so of his death), to say
 
 MEMOIR. ix 
 
 nothing of a large correspondence, carried on without 
 secretary or amanuensis, shows Mr. Gutch to have 
 been a man of remarkable energy and capacity, as 
 well as of the highest principle and unswerving 
 devotion to duty. 
 
 The writer wishes he could produce for his readers, 
 in faintest outline, a picture of the hard and self- 
 denying life of this great scholar and great saint, the 
 primitive simplicity of his surroundings, his patriarchal 
 tigure and venerable features passing down the poor 
 courts and alleys of his parish. He never seemed to 
 be aware that his life might have been otherwise ; he 
 never spoke of the bitter disappointment it must have 
 been to him that the limited capacity of his mission 
 church crippled his opportunity of delivering his 
 Message to the teeming multitudes that throng that 
 neighbourhood. He bore his heavy cross in silence, 
 and he gave his best talents to the handful of poor 
 people who frequented the " upper room." 
 
 Mr. Gutch died in harness. It was during the 
 Dedication Festival of his little church and on 
 Michaelmas Day, 1896, that the call came. He was 
 seized for death in the street as he was struggling 
 towards the Altar of God, bowed down with weakness 
 and pain. He was with difficulty helped back to the 
 house and to his bed, and in two days he was at rest. 
 
 In a beautifully written notice of him it is said, 
 " Any account of him, however small, would be 
 absolutely incomplete without touching on that to 
 which he dedicated so much of his time, namely, his 
 work as a director and guide of souls. Hour after 
 hour did he spend in his church ministering to those 
 who came with burdened consciences from all parts. 
 It would almost be an impertinence to try and define 
 the methods which made his help so strong and so 
 efficient, yet two points would strike all who had the 
 privilege of being his spiritual children. One was
 
 x MEMOIR. 
 
 his own absolute self-effacement. His object was to 
 draw the soul nearer to God, and to be self-dependent, 
 or, rather, God-dependent ; to train the conscience to 
 be clear, God-enlightened, quick, and true. 
 
 " The other point made him appear at times ' strict 
 and severe.' He had such an intense realisation of the 
 spiritual capacities of each Christian. We could all 
 be so good and holy if only we used grace, denied 
 ourselves, and made all the efforts we were perfectly 
 capable of. This applied to all, children included. 
 Again, time was so precious : a day spent in self- 
 restraint and earnest endeavour was a preparation for 
 a better to-morrow. Combined with this, the horrible 
 dishonour to God, of sin in Christians, and the glory 
 their life might be, made him firm, earnest, and faith- 
 ful in enforcing the highest ideal on all with whom 
 he had to do. Who of those so taught has not cause 
 to be grateful that no sorrow, temptation, or difficulty 
 was allowed to be an excuse for standing still, or fall- 
 ing back ? They were all, properly used, helps to 
 progress. Those with whom he was most strict 
 loved him best. 
 
 " ' Who knows a man save the spirit of man that is 
 in him ? ' Yet there are outward signs of the Holy 
 Spirit within, differing in different lives, and altogether 
 making up in some sense, even here, a perfect whole. 
 In thinking of ' the father ' of S. Cyprian's, two 
 verses of the Scripture, perhaps, best set forth what 
 impressed others : ' He counted all things but loss so 
 that he might win Christ, and be found in Him,' 
 with the daily practical application, ' Let him deny 
 himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.' Those 
 who knew him best will feel how he despised and put 
 on one side all ambition, all worldly considerations, 
 and what a personal love and desire he had for our 
 blessed Lord. Few, perhaps, quite so fully saw, 
 for he lived such a hidden, silent life, how much
 
 MEMOIR. xi 
 
 self-denial he practised, to notice one point only 
 though that, perhaps, the hardest in the mortification 
 of his natural affections. The kindest and warmest of 
 hearts, with a keen natural love of social happiness, 
 it was all subdued, kept under, restrained, for the 
 good of others as well as for himself. He often 
 allowed himself to be misunderstood and misrepre- 
 sented, in the practice of that daily discipline." 
 
 The sermons which we present to our readers bear 
 manifest evidence to the truth of this estimate of the 
 preacher's character. In reading them for the press 
 they have seemed instinct with life one has seen 
 him, and heard his voice. Many of them seemed 
 mysteriously prophetic of himself, especially the one 
 on " All Saints' Day," which reads like second sight 
 a preparation for his own death. 
 
 All the sermons are valuable an excellent collection 
 for a mother to give to her son growing up into 
 manhood, or to her boy going to a public school and 
 a most appropriate gift to any candidate for Holy 
 Orders. But we most especially prize the first sermon, 
 which is an utterance worthy of a S. John Baptist 
 magnificently brave and outspoken, and yet most 
 delicately pure. Not one single word that could injure 
 an innocent mind. We are quite sure that readers 
 will thank God that such words are preserved for our 
 use. 
 
 He being dead yet speaketh. He, a very Samson, 
 will speak to more in his death by this one sermon 
 than ever he did in his life. We conclude by append- 
 ing part of Mr. Gutch's own preface to this one 
 particular sermon. 
 
 The writer prints the subjoined sermon, by the advice of others, 
 with the fearless conviction that it will commend itself, by its 
 honesty of purpose and its plainness of speech (after the pattern of 
 God's own Word), to all pure-minded, zealous Churchmen. He 
 does not appeal to men of the world for a verdict in its favour. 
 It was preached to please not man, but God. The offence of the
 
 xii MEMOIR. 
 
 Cross has not yet ceased. He knows beforehand how the un- 
 believing and impure will receive the sacred truth of Christian 
 sanctification which it upholds ; will mock and joke about the 
 fearful sin against which it raises a solemn warning. Neither 
 does he expect that in the circle of refined and so-called " good 
 society " much commendation will be bestowed upon it. The 
 subjects of which it treats, viz. the holiness of the Christian's body, 
 and its defilement ~by deadly sin, lie beyond the sphere of mere 
 refinement and good breeding. Society knows not, nor cares to 
 hear, that its great social evil is destructive of all holiness, and 
 moreover is a deadly sin against the All-holy God. 
 
 God's name for the sin is only heard by the refined and polite 
 in a church ; and there men and women must hear, whether they 
 like it or no, not only the name, but everything else they may 
 at other times forget, about the shame and punishment of such 
 wickedness shame in God's sight, before the Great White Throne ; 
 exclusion from the society of saints and angels for ever. 
 
 And it was in God's own house, with the consciousness of His 
 presence and of His holy ones about him, and with the invocation 
 of His Spirit, that the preacher was bold to speak the painful, 
 undisguised truth. He spoke in his Master's cause, of which he 
 trusts he shall never be ashamed ; with His commission to preach 
 His Word, to be instant in season and out of season, to reprove 
 even, to rebuke even, to exhort with all long-suffering and 
 doctrine ; and without " respect of persons," or craven fear, or 
 any suspicion that the words of the Holy Ghost could offend (they 
 may pain) a true believer. He spoke for the sake of converting 
 sinners, even rich and great sinners, who cannot le saved without 
 conversion ; and therefore need those warnings from God's 
 ministers which He will carry home to the heart of each one 
 with demonstration and power, when by manifestation of the 
 truth they commend themselves to every man's conscience in the 
 sight of God. 
 
 He spoke to startle and drive back the innocent and simple, 
 the too-confiding and unsuspicious, from approaching, even in secret 
 thought, the edge of the corrupt abyss ; and thus hoped to save 
 them, through time and eternity, from the incalculable misery 
 of an unclean heart. And further, he spoke to impress upon all 
 the exceeding awfulness of their own regenerate being as 
 members of Christ, temples of the Holy Ghost, sons and daughters 
 of the Lord Almighty. 
 
 E. L. 
 EASTERTIDE, 1898.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 THE WILL OF GOD OUK SANCTIFICATION. 
 
 " This is the will of God, even your sanctiflcation." 1 THESS. 
 
 iv. 3 1 
 
 THE OLD PATHS; OR, PRINCIPLES OF THE ENGLISH BEFOR- 
 MATION. 
 
 " Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways and see, and 
 ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk 
 therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." JER. 
 vi. 16 18 
 
 THE ENGLISH CHUBOHMAN, IN DANGER OF FALLING BACK, 
 ENCOURAGED TO GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 
 
 " Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, 
 let us go on unto perfection. . . . For it is impossible 
 for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of 
 the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy 
 Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the 
 powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to 
 renew them again unto repentance ; seeing they crucify 
 to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an 
 open shame. . . . But, beloved, we are persuaded better 
 things of you, and things that accompany salvation, 
 though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to 
 forget your work and labour of love, which ye have 
 showed toward His Name, in that ye have ministered to 
 the saints, aud do minister. And we desire that every 
 one of you do show the same diligence to the full assur- 
 ance of hope unto the end : that ye be not slothful, but 
 followers of them who through faith and patience inherit 
 the promises." HEB. vi. 1-12 42
 
 xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREJUDICE AGAINST THE CHURCH SYSTEM IN GENERAL, AND 
 HER DOCTRINE OP CONFESSION IN PARTICULAR. 
 
 " The wisdom that is from above ia first pure, then peace- 
 able, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and 
 good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." 
 S. JAMES iii. 17 66 
 
 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 
 
 "And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told 
 Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let My 
 people go, that they may hold a feast unto Me in the 
 wilderness. 
 
 " And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey 
 His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither 
 will I let Israel go." EXOD. v. 1,2 90 
 
 WHITSUNTIDE. 
 
 " An habitation of God through the Spirit." EPH. ii. 22 . . 124 
 
 CHRISTMAS DAY. 
 
 " Let us now go even unto Bethlehem," etc. S. LUKE ii. 15 . 137 
 
 CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST. 
 
 "In Whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision 
 made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins 
 of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ : buried with 
 Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him 
 through the faith of the operation of God, Who hath 
 raised Him from the dead." COL. ii. 11, 12 151 
 
 SCHISM. 
 
 "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the Name of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that 
 there be no divisions among you; but that ye be per- 
 fectly joined together in the same mind and in the same 
 judgment."! COB. i. 10 163
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 THE KEYSTONE OP THE CHXJBCH. 
 
 " Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the 
 week, when the doors were shut where the disciples 
 were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and 
 stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto 
 you." S. JOHN xx. 19 184 
 
 GRACE RECEIVED IN VAIN. 
 
 " We beseech you, that ye receive not the grace of God in 
 
 vain." 2 COR. vi. 1 199 
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 " All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profit- 
 able for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc- 
 tion in righteousness." 2 TIM. iii. 16 214 
 
 CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 
 
 " And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the 
 Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also 
 hath put away thy sin ; thou shalt not die." 2 SAM. 
 xii. 13 230 
 
 MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER. 
 
 " Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him 
 in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. 
 For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to 
 have her." S. MATT. xiv. 3, 4. 
 
 " And Jesus answered and said, Have ye not read, that He 
 which made them at the beginning made them male 
 and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave 
 father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and 
 they twain shall be one flesh ? Wherefore they are no 
 more twain, but one flesh." S. MATT. xix. 4-6 .... 243 
 
 OUR MANIFESTATION. 
 
 "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; 
 that every one may receive the things done in his body, 
 according to that he hath done, whether it be good or 
 bad." 2 COB. v. 10 . . . 252
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 ALL SAINTS' DAY. 
 
 " And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the 
 altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of 
 God, and for the testimony which they held : and they 
 cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy 
 and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on 
 them that dwell on the earth ? And white robes were 
 given unto every one of them; and it was said unto 
 them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until 
 their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should 
 be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." REV. vi. 
 9-11 265 
 
 THE SAINTED DEAD. 
 
 " Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great 
 a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and 
 the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run 
 with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto 
 Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith ; Who for the 
 joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising 
 the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the 
 throne of God." HEB. xii. 1,2 280 
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTED DEAD. 
 
 " And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, 
 Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from hence- 
 forth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from 
 their labours ; and their works do follow them." REV. 
 xiv. 13 . 290
 
 THE WILL OF GOD OUR 
 SANCTIFICATION. 1 
 
 " This is the will of God, even your sanctification." 1 THESS. iv. 3. 
 
 BEFORE we proceed to consider these words in 
 their practical bearing on the conduct of our daily 
 life, I would direct your attention to their real 
 theological import as a statement of dogmatic 
 truth ; and its connection with the other founda- 
 tion truths of the Gospel. In this aspect they 
 are very remarkable words and full of meaning. 
 They contain within themselves the very pith and 
 marrow of the Gospel For what is the main 
 purpose and end of the Gospel? Why did the 
 Son of God take our nature upon Him, and die 
 upon the cross, and rise again, and ascend in that 
 nature to the highest heaven where He was 
 before ? Was it not, you will answer, that atone- 
 ment should be made for the sins of the world 
 that pardon should be proclaimed to rebellious 
 sinners that peace should again dwell among 
 them and in them ? Yes ! all this, blessed be God, 
 
 1 A sermon preached at S. Paul's, Knightsbridge, in Lent, 1859. 
 /*. B
 
 2 THE WILL OF GOD OUR SANCT1FICATION. 
 
 is the design of the Gospel and something more. 
 The Son of God became the Son of man, that 
 sons of men might become sons of God and heirs 
 of eternal life : that they should be members of 
 Christ of His flesh and of His bones temples of 
 the Holy Ghost, dwelt in by the Holy Ghost, and 
 so perfectly holy, even as He. 
 
 This, brethren, is the object of the Incarnation. 
 Not merely that atonement should be made for 
 man, and he should be pardoned, or that he should 
 know that he is pardoned, and should feel at peace 
 with his Maker ; but that he should be restored to 
 that state of holiness which he had before he fell ; 
 that he should again be created in the image of 
 God in righteousness and true holiness once more 
 be a partaker of the Divine nature through the Holy 
 Ghost, which by the Incarnation is given to us. 
 
 This is the great purpose of the Incarnation, 
 that we should become holy even as God is holy 
 holy by our membership with Christ, holy by 
 the Holy Ghost dwelling in us. 
 
 And so the Apostle truly says, "This is the 
 will of God, even your sanctification." Mark, 
 brethren, by way of contrast, what the Apostle 
 does not say. He does not say, " The will of God 
 is your redemption ; " for, when he wrote the text, 
 man had been redeemed once and for ever by 
 the Blood of Christ. Neither does he say the 
 will of God is your pardon, or joy, or peace, or
 
 THE WILL OF GOD OUR SANCTIF1CAT10N. 3 
 
 final salvation but your sanctification. It is God's 
 will, undoubtedly, that we should receive pardon 
 of all our sins through the Blood of Christ; that 
 we should even now have joy and peace in 
 believing ; that we should be finally saved. But 
 S. Paul speaks not now of these or any other 
 blessings which Christians may enjoy in time or 
 eternity, although we are assured it is God's will 
 all should be ours. S. Paul affirms here that God's 
 will is our holiness God wills, he means God 
 purposes, God devises, and plans, and works, that 
 we by His grace in and through Christ should be 
 holy. And this is something different from saying 
 God intends and wills our forgiveness, or that 
 we should be at peace with Him, or be finally 
 saved. Now, why is this ? Why does S. Paul's 
 language differ, as I think will be allowed, in a 
 very striking and material manner from what is 
 in most Christians' mouths at the present day? 
 The generality would more readily express them- 
 selves in this way the will of God is that you 
 should believe and be saved; or that you should 
 know the truth; or that you should repent and 
 believe the Gospel ; or that you should have joy 
 and peace in believing ; or that you should feel 
 your sins forgiven ; or have a full assurance. This 
 is the way in which many teachers of religion, 
 no less than the great majority of the taught, 
 would most naturally express themselves : and I
 
 4 THE WILL OF GOD OUR SANCTIFICATION. 
 
 do not say wrongly; but only that it is not the 
 teaching of S. Paul in the text. There we learn 
 the will of God is our sanctification. And why 
 is this ? Because, in the teaching of the Holy 
 Ghost and the system of the Catholic faith, sancti- 
 fication is that one gift of God which underlies all 
 the rest which includes all the rest; that one 
 state of heart and soul which is essential to present 
 pardon and peace, and without which future 
 salvation cannot possibly be gained. If a man 
 is holy, he is pardoned, and at peace with God. 
 If he continue holy, he shall be finally saved ; but 
 without holiness there is no present peace, and 
 no future seeing the Lord. Holiness is the gift 
 of the Spirit : it is the Holy Spirit Himself dwell- 
 ing in the souls of the faithful, hallowing them 
 and making them His temples. But where the 
 Spirit of Christ dwells, there must be every work 
 and gift of the Spirit, according as we in our 
 measure and degree can receive them. 
 
 It is not, then, too broad a statement to say, 
 that every blessing we Christians can enjoy flows 
 out of our present sanctification flows from that 
 well of living water which is opened in the soul 
 of every true Christian, and springs up into ever- 
 lasting life. 
 
 That well, brethren, was opened for us, first of 
 all at our Baptism : in Holy Baptism we are first 
 washed and sanctified with the Holy Ghost; we
 
 THE WILL OF GOD OUR SANCTIFICATION. 5 
 
 have the beginning of our Christian life, and enter 
 into the enjoyment of all the privileges of the 
 children of God. But all these privileges are 
 forfeited and gone, if we lose our sanctification. 
 If we cease to be holy (as is the case if we 
 commit wilful deadly sin), we lose our sense of 
 present peace, our hopes of future safety. We kill 
 faith outright. We become spiritually dead. We 
 fall back into a state of alienation from God ; we 
 come once more under His wrath and curse. Of 
 sanctification, then, we may truly affirm, not only 
 that it is the chiefest gift of the Spirit, but that 
 on its existence in the soul depends our capacity 
 for enjoying all things that pertain to life and 
 godliness : it is not only the surest token of the 
 Holy Spirit in the soul the very pledge of His 
 presence, but the best fruit, the most solid pos- 
 session of that godliness which has the promise of 
 the life that now is, and of that which is to come. 
 For it is the work of the Spirit within : it is the 
 very presence of the Comforter, making our souls 
 and bodies His temples by His dwelling in them. 
 
 S. Paul then might well remind the Thessalonians 
 that the will of God was their sanctification; 
 because all other gifts and blessings of the Christian 
 covenant, which it is the will of God we should 
 enjoy in time or eternity, accompany the gift of 
 holiness, flow out of it, depend upon it for their 
 reality and enjoyment.
 
 6 THE WILL OF GOD OUR SANCTIFICATION. 
 
 But the Apostle had a special reason and a very 
 practical one for speaking of sanctification on this 
 present occasion; because, as you may remember, 
 he was counselling his converts, the inhabitants of 
 a wicked heathen city, of the way in which they 
 should walk as worthy of their Christian calling ; 
 warning them to flee from those terrible sins of 
 the flesh in which the heathen indulged without 
 scruple, but which are utterly destructive of all 
 holiness in the Christian. 
 
 Let us briefly review the Apostle's teaching in 
 this matter, which the Church has brought before 
 us in the epistle for the day. But before we do 
 so, because the subject is one which cannot be 
 approached without danger to the unguarded soul ; 
 and to speak of this awful sin even in the very words 
 of the Holy Ghost is to some persons of corrupt 
 minds only an occasion of lasciviousness : I would 
 earnestly beg each one of you secretly to join with 
 me in praying the Holy Spirit of God to be present 
 with us resting on my tongue, burning in your 
 hearts ; that no word preached may offend Him 
 or hurt you; and that He will so cleanse the 
 thoughts of all our hearts by His inspiration that 
 we may receive His warnings with pure affection, 
 and perfect holiness in the fear of God. 
 
 " Let the words of my mouth and the meditations 
 of my heart be alway acceptable in Thy sight, O 
 Lord, my Shield and Sanctifier. Amen."
 
 THE WILL OF GOD OUR SANCTIF1CAT10N. 7 
 
 " We beseech you, brethren," begins the Apostle, 
 "and exhort you by the Lord Jesus" see how 
 earnest and affectionate he is, and what a motive 
 he presses on them by all your hopes in Christ 
 Jesus, by your love for Him and His love for you ; 
 " that as ye have received of us how ye ought to 
 walk and to please God, so ye will abound more 
 and more : " i.e. that ye will not look back or stop 
 in your Christian course, but will press forward in 
 your high calling, walking worthy of the Lord 
 unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good 
 work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. 
 " For," he adds, " ye know," and I need not now 
 repeat, " what commandments we gave you by the 
 Lord Jesus." Mark again the authority he gives 
 for the command not his own, but the Lord's 
 by the authority of the King Himself. " For this 
 is the will of God, even your sanctification, that 
 ye should abstain from fornication " more than any 
 other sin : because this is so hateful to the God of 
 Purity ; this is such a defilement of the dwelling- 
 place of the Holy Ghost, which a Christian's soul 
 really is. " For as a swine," to apply the words of 
 S. Chrysostom, " full charged with mire, wherever 
 he enters fills all places with his ill-savour and 
 chokes the senses with dung, so, too, does this dis- 
 gusting sin utterly, and until repented of, pollute 
 the soul. For it is an evil not easy to be washed 
 away. And when some even who are married
 
 8 THE WILL OF GOD OUR SANCTIFICAT10N. 
 
 commit it, what excuse have they ? How excessive 
 is the outrage ! " 
 
 S. Paul continues, " This is the will of God, that 
 every one of you," young as well as old, men no 
 less than women, " should know how to possess his 
 own vessel i.e. his own body in sanctification 
 and honour." He calls the body a vessel, not 
 merely for the reason why even the heathen 
 honoured it, and gave it that name, because it is 
 the vase or receptacle of the soul, but because the 
 Christian's body is like a vessel set apart in the 
 temple for God's use ; nay, more, because it is itself, 
 in a most true sense, a temple of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 And perhaps he says his own vessel, TO tavroi 
 (TKtuoe, because, as he argues in another place, 
 " Every (other) sin that a man doeth is without 
 the body, but he that committeth fornication, 
 sinneth " in some awful, mysterious way, " against 
 his own body." 
 
 And by saying that every one should know how 
 to possess his own vessel, he implies that it is a 
 matter to be learnt, and that diligently. There 
 are rules to be observed, discipline to be practised, 
 if we are to preserve ourselves in holiness and 
 honour, and not live " in the lust of concupiscence," 
 tv iraOti tTTiOvfjiiae, in the inordinate raging 
 appetites of "the heathen, who know not God," 
 and are given up by Him to uncleanness, through 
 the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their
 
 THE WILL OF GOD OUR SANCTIFICATION. 9 
 
 own bodies between themselves. But in them it 
 is not surprising, it is even to be expected because 
 they know not the God of Holiness, they have no 
 fear of Him, they do not expect to suffer punish- 
 ment. 
 
 S. Paul then advances a step further, and speaks 
 of others who are over-reached and injured as 
 must be the case in all such acts of defilement, but 
 especially when either transgressor is married : 
 " that no man go beyond " the bounds which God, 
 by nature and revelation, has appointed, " and de- 
 fraud his brother " Christian " in any matter " of 
 this sort, as he assuredly does by invading the 
 sanctity of a home, and corrupting a child or wife. 
 And although the Apostle calls it fraud or robbery, 
 yet we all feel it is really more cruel than any 
 robbery, for when riches are carried off it may 
 be borne; but what adequate satisfaction can be 
 given when marriage is invaded ! " Wherefore," 
 he adds as a further reason for avoiding such an 
 enormous sin, " because that the Lord is the 
 Avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned 
 you and testified." 
 
 See, brethren, how many motives the Apostle 
 urges home to them. He had first of all besought 
 and exhorted by the Lord Jesus to please God and 
 abound more and more; then he reminded them 
 that the will of God was the sanctification of their 
 body, not its defilement; then he alluded to the
 
 io THE WILL OF GOD OUR SANCTIFICATION. 
 
 shame and degradation of a Christian living as the 
 heathen, who know not God ; next he calls the 
 injured person brother as he really is in Christ 
 and so aggravates the cruelty ; and, lastly, he adds 
 the principal reason for avoiding such a sin, because 
 the Lord is the Avenger. And, surely, when we 
 realise this bring it home to our hearts and con- 
 sciences there is no subject in all Scripture so 
 terrible ; because the punishment of such sins God 
 reserves to Himself. 
 
 In point of fact, human laws do not punish these 
 sins ; human laws cannot really reach them ; human 
 courts and decrees do but expose, they cannot 
 restrain them. Like the crimes of some mighty 
 despot who is above all law, and defies all human 
 opinion, and steels his heart against all cries of the 
 oppressed, and nought remains for them but to 
 remember there is a God to Whom vengeance 
 belongeth, and to look forward to the time when 
 He will show Himself, and will reward the proud 
 after their deserving; and mighty men will be 
 mightily tormented. So, brethren, these dreadful 
 sins of whoredom and adultery God reserves for 
 His own judgment. He is the Avenger. Man 
 cannot adequately punish, man cannot find them 
 out. But He knows all; all is done under His 
 Holy Eye; He will bring every secret thing to 
 light. "Whoremongers and adulterers He will 
 judge." He is the Avenger not merely of the
 
 THE WILL OF GOD OUR SANCT1FICATION. \\ 
 
 injured husband or wife, who can get no earthly 
 redress, but of His own self His own honour 
 which is insulted His own will which is defied. 
 " And He hath not called us " out of the world and 
 baptized us "unto uncleanness, but into holiness." 
 We are called with a holy calling ; our very bodies 
 are to be held in reverence, because they are set 
 apart by the Holy Unction that is within they 
 are parts of Christ's Body, and the abodes of His 
 Spirit. "And, therefore," concludes the Apostle, 
 "he that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, 
 Who hath also given unto us His Holy Spirit." 
 
 Here again is expressed the whole matter; and 
 the greatness of the sin is once more set forth by its 
 being committed against God ; but with this aggra- 
 vation : He is despised ; not defied merely, as a 
 sovereign lord may be by subjects who rise in 
 mad rebellion against him, and put out their full 
 strength, knowing all along the hopelessness of 
 their struggle, and trembling for the coming doom ; 
 but He is despised, set at nought, forgotten, as if 
 He were nobody ; and yet He has honoured us so 
 much as to give us His Holy Spirit. God is 
 despised. Many others, indeed, are despised, but 
 God most of all. It has been well said, "The 
 peculiar effect of such sins is this : they harden and 
 take away the heart, and alienate it from God ; 
 and this is shown by light indifference and con- 
 tempt. Such an one despises in heart ; he sets at
 
 12 THE WILL OF GOD OUR SANCTIF1CATION. 
 
 nought all those by whom he may be advised and 
 admonished parents, friends, teachers, ministers, 
 all good people. He secretly mocks at them ; in 
 heart he sets them at defiance. He is determined 
 to have his own way, and no man shall hinder." 
 
 And, besides these, there are others whom he 
 despises the husbands, parents, relatives of his 
 victims; and, again, those victims themselves, 
 whose souls and bodies he defiles. He despises 
 their good name, their peace of mind, their holiness, 
 and all the gifts and graces with which the great 
 God in His goodness has adorned and beautified 
 them. The selfish voluptuary, for his own base 
 ends, sets at nought all considerations human and 
 Divine; he destroys the peace of families, breaks 
 hearts, brings grey hairs in sorrow to the grave, 
 degrades his victims into the very dust, brands 
 them with shame before the world ; consigns them, 
 it may be, to a life of infamy here, to undying tor- 
 ments hereafter. Who can repay such a hardened 
 villain perhaps an accomplished, noble villain 
 what he really deserves, except the Avenger whom 
 he has defied and despised most of all ? For the 
 sin is the same in all. It matters little in God's 
 sight of what rank the injured are ; whether the 
 victim be a king's daughter, or a poor governess, or 
 a groom's child, or the lowest of women the crime 
 is the same. God's law is broken, not man's. 
 God's will is defied, not man's. God is despised,
 
 THE WILL OF GOD OUR SANCTIFICATION. 13 
 
 and not man. Indeed, very often man is feared, 
 while God's vengeance is quite forgotten. And yet, 
 according to our human judgments, the higher the 
 rank of the injured, the greater the indignity; the 
 larger the favours bestowed, or the more intimate 
 the friendship, the baser the ingratitude of such a 
 return. And what then are we to think of the 
 insult when it is God, the King of heaven and 
 earth, that is despised ; or of the ungrateful folly 
 of sinning against One Who has given unto us His 
 Spirit ! 
 
 He has given us His Holy Spirit to enable us to 
 resist temptation ; but if we dally with temptation, 
 that Blessed Being is first grieved and then 
 quenched by wilful sin, and then oh, terrible 
 desertion ! He leaves us altogether. 
 
 And what, brethren, can be a more fearful 
 punishment than this ? Not to be exposed before 
 the world, not to be punished by your fellow-man, 
 but that God, Who dwells in the soul of the pure 
 in heart, and rewards them with a knowledge of 
 Himself, and leads them on to the bliss of heaven, 
 should withdraw altogether from the unclean, let 
 them go on from one wickedness to another, until 
 the measure of their iniquity is full ; and then cast 
 them into the lake of fire. For assuredly the 
 saying of the wise man of these sinners is in great 
 measure true, " They will not leave off till they 
 die." They will not repent till they die, and then
 
 H THE WILL OF GOD OUR SANCTIFICAT10N. 
 
 repentance is too late. And why ? Because they 
 despise God and all the warnings He sends them 
 within and without, and then He takes from them 
 His Holy Spirit. 
 
 Such a sinner saith in his heart, "Who seeth 
 me ? I am compassed about with darkness ; the 
 walls cover me, and nobody seeth me ; what need 
 I to fear ? The Most High will not remember my 
 sins." Such an one feareth the eyes of man and 
 knoweth not that the eyes of the Lord are ten 
 thousand times brighter than the sun; and that 
 " He will bring every secret thing into judgment," 
 and " will reward every man according to his 
 works." 
 
 Here, then, is the warning which we should all 
 carry away from what has been said. 
 
 If there is any one here this morning who is 
 now indulging these sins and it is quite pos- 
 sible ; I have known such persons come to church 
 to keep up appearances or, if there is any one 
 present who has sinned in times past, I would have 
 him remember the teaching of the Apostle, not 
 only that the will of God is our holiness, and 
 without holiness no man shall see the Lord ; that 
 by such sins God is despised, and He has given us 
 His Spirit, Who will not live in a soul subject to 
 sin; but that God is the Avenger of such deeds, 
 and He will by no means spare the obstinate 
 guilty.
 
 THE WILL OF GOD OUR S A NOTIFICATION. 15 
 
 If you have sinned, however long ago, be sure 
 your sin will find you out : and nothing can expiate 
 your sin nothing can save you from eternal 
 punishment but a deep, life-long repentance, and 
 a pardon from God Himself through the Blood of 
 Christ, which was shed to take away even your 
 sin, but which you have so recklessly despised. 
 
 You can have no peace, real peace I mean a 
 false peace is very easily gained by closing your 
 eyes, hardening your heart, and despising more 
 and more ; but you can have no true peace from 
 God, no acceptance with Him, no holiness, until 
 you have humbled yourself into the very dust 
 before the offended Majesty of heaven until, like 
 David, you acknowledge your fault, and have it 
 ever before you ; until you can say, " Against Thee 
 only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy 
 sight ; " until you offer to God the sacrifice of a 
 broken will, and that contrite heart which He 
 will not despise. 
 
 You must, my brother, become a humble disciple 
 in the school of repentance. There, on the lowest 
 form, you may learn, what you ought ever to have 
 known, how to possess your vessel in sanctification 
 and honour, by observing those rules of self- 
 discipline which are enjoined by all masters of the 
 spiritual life for the preservation of purity, the 
 control of all irregular desires, the effectual check 
 on every evil imagination in the heart. I say
 
 1 6 THE WILL OF GOD OUR SANCTIFICATION. 
 
 rules of self-discipline, for other things are needed 
 besides prayer and fasting for driving out the 
 unclean devil from the soul. The chain of sin is 
 too strong, the occasions of temptation too sudden 
 and impetuous, the consciousness of God's presence 
 too weak, His voice in the soul has too often been 
 despised, to make it an easy thing for any, even of 
 the most resolute will, to break off such sins 
 entirely, without the assistance and advice of 
 others. Prayer and fasting are most needful ; our 
 Lord says, "This kind goeth not out except by 
 prayer and fasting." But when you have fasted 
 and prayed, the word will still apply if you wish 
 to be entirely free, " These ought ye to have done, 
 and " even then " not to leave the other undone." 
 
 Use all means of grace suitable to your release 
 prayer, fasting, confession of sin, consultation with 
 some holy man who will speak the plain truth and 
 deal faithfully with your soul works of mercy for 
 the souls and bodies of others, in restitution for the 
 untold misery you have wrought on those whom 
 you have injured and despised, and then you may 
 humbly hope that in the absolution of the Church 
 your sin will be forgiven, in the Sacrament of 
 Christ's Body and Blood your soul may be cleansed, 
 strengthened, comforted, and once more made 
 partaker of that holiness which by sin has been 
 utterly forfeited and destroyed. 
 
 Whoever of us has been mercifully saved from
 
 THE WILL OF GOD OUR SANCT1FICATION. 17 
 
 these deadly sins and God grant it may be the 
 great majority let him humbly thank God for it : 
 let him ascribe all the glory to His sovereign grace, 
 and earnestly strive and pray that he may still be 
 shielded from temptation, still strengthened against 
 allurement to sin. Let him not be content with 
 abstaining from outward acts of sin, but keep a 
 check on his words and looks, watch over the 
 thoughts and intents of his heart. Let him beware 
 of reading any book, looking at any picture, which 
 might suggest evil. Let him avoid all places of 
 resort where he knows Christian purity is made 
 light of, holiness despised. Let him abound more 
 and more in watchings, fastings, and prayer, and 
 every good work ; mortifying all his evil and 
 corrupt affections by a life of self-denial ; keeping 
 under his body, and bringing it into subjection, 
 that he ma} 7 present himself, body, soul, and spirit, 
 pure and spotless, as a chaste virgin unto Christ.
 
 THE OLD PATHS ; OR, PRINCIPLES OF 
 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 
 
 " Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask 
 for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and 
 ye shall find rest for your souls." JEB. vi. 16. 
 
 WHEN the Church of England, three hundred years 
 ago, awoke at the Divine touch from her long 
 slumber in prison, and girded herself for the great 
 work whereunto God had called her in the world 
 viz. the purification of her own sanctuary in the 
 first place, in order that, secondly, she might hand 
 011 the torch of Catholic truth to the real " Church 
 of the future," and in time to be a light to lighten 
 the Gentiles, and proclaim the Gospel even unto 
 the ends of the earth she aimed at a reformation 
 after a model of the first and purest days of the 
 Christian faith. Or, to speak more exactly, and 
 with a more distinct recognition of the super- 
 intending providence which watched over her 
 throughout that terrible convulsion, her efforts to 
 reform herself were directed aright ; sons were 
 raised up for her need, mighty in the Scriptures, 
 and well acquainted with the writings of antiquity ;
 
 THE OLD PATHS. 19 
 
 and the result of their labours was a reformation 
 in truth ; one, I mean, not according to the fancies 
 of men, but the Word of God ; one, which was 
 based not on the opinions of individual reformers, 
 but on the judgment of the universal Church before 
 it was divided. 
 
 She stood in the ways, and saw, and asked for 
 the old paths, where was the good way : by God's 
 great mercy it was pointed out to her : she walked 
 therein, and her children found rest unto their 
 souls. 
 
 Now, humanly speaking, it might have been far 
 otherwise. No earthly reason can be assigned 
 why the course of the Reformation in England, 
 from the very first, took an upward and not a 
 downward direction, as it did in those European 
 countries where the yoke of the oppressor was 
 broken at the time of our own deliverance. 
 Germany was the very cradle of the Continental 
 innovations. Switzerland, but especially Geneva, 
 saw them shaped into a system under the fostering 
 care of Calvin. In Sweden the prince and his 
 nobles treated the Church much in the same way 
 as Henry and his courtiers did here : they laid 
 violent and sacrilegious hands on her property, and 
 then began their so-called reformation. But in 
 none of these countries did the Church of Christ 
 survive in a purified state. Communities of 
 Christians there were in them, who had renounced
 
 20 THE OLD PATHS; OR, 
 
 the domination of the Pope ; but only to submit to 
 as bad, if not a worse bondage worse, because 
 voluntarily submitted to, and most arbitrarily 
 imposed upon the conscience, under the name of 
 religious liberty, by other masters of earth. In 
 the countries referred to men changed the name of 
 Romanist or Papist for that of Lutheran, Calvinist, 
 Zuinglian, and the like. They denied the Papal 
 infallibility only to believe in that of the reformers, 
 or their own. And how has it fared with them 
 since ? What is their state now ? In Germany 
 a proud Rationalism has eaten out the heart's core 
 of whatever good there was in Luther's system. 
 Reason has overthrown faith. The great doctrines 
 of the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Inspiration 
 of the Scriptures and sacramental grace are every- 
 where preached against and denied. Three years 
 ago, at a meeting of the pastors of four hundred 
 congregations from all parts of Germany, for the 
 purpose of drawing up a confession of faith which 
 should supersede the old worn-out one of the 
 Church at this meeting of the clergy of the 
 country, the Apostles' Creed was held up to scorn 
 and reproach, and but one individual had the 
 courage or the faith to maintain the cardinal 
 doctrine of Christianity, the Incarnation of the Son 
 of God. So much for miserable Germany in her 
 reformation and its results. In Geneva, where 
 Calvin ruled with an iron hand for more than
 
 PRINCIPLES OF THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 21 
 
 twenty years, his system of arbitrary decrees of 
 reprobation and election has yielded to a more 
 consistent form of unbelief. The professors of 
 theology in Geneva are now Socinians. Their 
 iron-hearted predecessor maintained that the All- 
 merciful One had decreed from all eternity that 
 millions of souls should perish, and that they had 
 been created solely for that end. He refused to 
 accept the scheme of salvation devised by God, 
 who sent His Son to die for the sins of the whole 
 world, and willeth not that any should perish, but 
 that all should come to repentance, and believe and 
 be saved : in a word, he taught that God is not 
 love ; and his successors have likewise most con- 
 sistently denied the chiefest instance of His love 
 the meritorious sufferings, and the efficacious 
 atonement of the Saviour of men. In Sweden, 
 where Lutheranism was established, the state of 
 things is much the same as in Germany, but with 
 this additional feature of degradation that the 
 State or the Crown is supreme : the establishment 
 is not free ; it is but the creature of an earthly 
 master, a department of his government : and, like 
 all other earthly things, its end is at hand ; like all 
 false things, it will " perish and come to a fearful 
 end." 
 
 But not so the Church of this land. Hers has 
 been no downward career. Her lamp is not grow- 
 ing dim; nor can we believe will it ever be put
 
 22 THE OLD PATHS; OR, 
 
 out in obscure darkness. Her wise and dutiful 
 children, when the voice plainly and imperatively 
 bade them go forth from the tottering fabric of 
 Romish corruption, separated not, as Lot from 
 Abraham, in strife ; founded not each his own city 
 of confusion ; nor did they unite and seek to build 
 a new Church on the ruins of the old, but simply 
 to reform the old one. " With all teachableness 
 and much meek wisdom they turned themselves to 
 the purest, youngest, days of Christ's Virgin 
 Church, and in her doctrine and discipline, in her 
 solemn and decent ceremonial took care to fashion 
 everything according to the pattern God showed 
 them in the primitive Church." They none of 
 them, I mean her own sons (not the foreigners who 
 unhappily for a time were allowed to interfere), 
 had theories of their own to try, no untempered 
 mortar of human invention to spread upon the 
 sacred walls. No one of them did enough to have 
 it considered as his own work. It was not finished 
 in one, or two, or in ten generations. It is not 
 finished now. Each century since the Reformation 
 has seen its true principles of reforming and 
 edifying the Church, on the model of the ancient 
 one, more and more carried out. One by one, in 
 successive convocations, have truths been rescued, 
 doctrines confirmed, usages revived, points of order 
 established, deficiencies supplied, abuses rectified, 
 ambiguities diminished, innovations swept away ;
 
 PRINCIPLES OF THE ENGLISH REFORM A TION. 23 
 
 and this not by the commandment of princes or 
 the will of the people, but by the Church herself 
 acting in her corporate capacity, through her own 
 representatives, sitting for free deliberation in her 
 own Parliament, the two Houses of Convocation. 
 At every critical period of her existence she, by 
 God's guidance, has behaved herself most wisely, 
 and with a moderation and charity unexampled, 
 towards her bitterest, most deadly foes. For in 
 this, as in other respects, she listened to the voice 
 of the text. While she stood in the ways, and 
 saw, at one time, the licentious extravagances of 
 Puritan division, at another the cruel enforcement 
 of Romish conformity, she first asked for the old 
 paths, where was the good way not of indifference 
 to truth, but of toleration of error and she walked 
 therein; once more exhibiting to the world a 
 pattern of that forbearance towards men's bodies, 
 that tenderness for their conscientious belief, that 
 respect for their prejudices, that meekness in the 
 midst of strife, that long-suffering under trial, that 
 love for all, in the unfailing exercise of which the 
 first Christians won the admiration even of their 
 enemies, and found rest unto their souls. 
 
 And when we come down to our own times, or, 
 rather, examine what has been done for the Church 
 during the last twenty years, and hence draw an 
 augury for a bright and glorious future, we shall 
 see that the true principles of the Reformation
 
 24 THE OLD PATHS; OR, 
 
 in England have still influenced the hearts, and 
 moulded the work, and shaped the course of all 
 who have been permitted by Divine providence 
 in any sort to renovate the sanctuary, to repair 
 its breaches, to strengthen its bulwarks, or only to 
 hew wood and draw water for its use. 
 
 Twenty years ago there was a mighty famine in 
 this land; "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst 
 for water, but of hearing the Word of the Lord." 
 In saying this, no aspersion is cast on the many 
 holy and earnest men who were then working in 
 the Church's way, or in their own way, for God's 
 glory and her good. But it cannot be denied that 
 they were the exceptions. A century of inaction 
 and indifference in the Church at large was coming 
 to a close. Nay, worse than this. To speak only 
 of ourselves, as our subject requires " Worldliness, 
 carelessness, formality, avarice, were, in its early 
 period, eating out the very heart of the Establish- 
 ment ; convocation, because it spoke the truth, 
 was silenced ; a Hoadly and a Clayton were pro- 
 moted for heresy; a Blackburn was running his 
 career of licentiousness, unchecked ; infidelity was 
 rampant ; a defender of the Church allowed ' It 
 seems now to be generally taken for granted that 
 the Christian religion has been discovered to be 
 an imposture ! ' We find that the highest teaching 
 of the Church was confined to dissertations on the 
 authenticity and credibility of the Holy Scriptures
 
 PRINCIPLES OF THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 25 
 
 to proofs that the Apostles were in all likelihood 
 sincere, and our Blessed Lord probably not an 
 impostor: an Arian court, a cringing episcopate, 
 a drinking and sporting clergy : all the higher 
 mysteries of the faith, the atonement, the indwell- 
 ing of the Holy Ghost, the power of the keys, 
 expunged from sermons and from treatises : earnest- 
 ness ridiculed as the badge of a schismatic : one 
 bishop only who made any pretensions to sanctity 
 and ecclesiastical learning. A reaction followed. 
 But the Church fought hard for many weary 
 years against earnestness, and cast it out of her 
 bosom: yes, and she fought hard against truth, 
 too ; and her favourite teacher said that the being 
 born again 'meant nothing' nothing, that is, to 
 us, and in our circumstances. And when earnest- 
 ness forced its way into her pale, it, in its turn, 
 attacked the Catholic faith. Calvinisn spread 
 further and further, lifted its head higher, and 
 ruled with a stronger hand. All that was orthodox 
 was lifeless ; all that had energy was unsound." 
 
 The words of the prophet were fulfilled : " They 
 shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north 
 even to the east; they shall run to and fro to 
 seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it " 
 (Amos viii. 12). 
 
 And why found they it not ? Because they 
 sought not in "the old paths, where is the good 
 way." Wesley and Whitfield were men of an
 
 26 THE OLD PATHS; OR, 
 
 indomitable will and immense self-reliance; but, 
 unhappily for the Church and their vast body of 
 followers, they had small respect for antiquity 
 in doctrine or practice. They, or, at least, their 
 followers, set at nought the customs, the doctrines, 
 the order, the very existence of the Church ; and 
 the bitter results of their private judgment we 
 are bewailing in our present most unhappy 
 divisions. They shone for a time with the dazzling 
 splendour of wandering stars, in a night of deepen- 
 ing gloom, and lit up many a dark corner, and 
 irradiated many a despairing heart with the truths 
 and consolations of the Gospel. Let us rejoice with 
 the Apostle that Christ was preached so zealously, 
 though it might sometimes be through strife and 
 envy, as well as for love of souls. Let us mourn 
 that these great men failed where they did in 
 deference to authority; for if, in spite of their 
 schismatical spirit and their partial views of truth, 
 they yet were in a great degree the very salt 
 which saved the nation from absolute corruption, 
 what must we imagine they would have been had 
 they never divided the Church, but taught her 
 doctrines and obeyed her commands ? 
 
 And after they had gone to their rest, others 
 were raised up within the Church, of pious and 
 earnest lives, and, therefore, in striking contrast 
 to the general worldliness and lukewarm propriety 
 of their age. Instead of a heathen morality or
 
 PRINCIPLES OF THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 27 
 
 dry essays on the evidences of religion, they 
 appealed to men's hearts, and preached home to 
 them those great truths of revelation "the cor- 
 ruption of our nature, and our natural helplessness 
 and need of a Redeemer." Many of you, brethren, 
 know this for a truth : in Leicester the names of 
 a Robinson or a Vaughan cannot easily be for- 
 gotten. But the truth must be spoken other 
 doctrines of great importance were lost sight of. 
 This is not said in disparagement of those good 
 men. God forbid. They did what they could. 
 But nothing was more natural than that, realising 
 as they did the peculiar wants of the times, and 
 knowing by their own experience that the pre- 
 vailing system of teaching was quite useless for 
 the conversion of sinners, still less for the perfect- 
 ing of saints it would have been most extra- 
 ordinary had they not dwelt even with undue 
 force on particular doctrines, and so given them a 
 prominence, which threw all others into the shade. 
 They preached Christ, and Him crucified (and 
 blessed be God for their preaching), but theyforgat 
 comparatively His Church. Possessed with a deep 
 abhorrence of Popery, whose strength was then 
 supposed to lie in antiquity, and too much identi- 
 tifying with her system that pure and Apostolic 
 form of Church government which existed long 
 before her corruptions began (and is, in truth, 
 most opposed to them), the vision into the past
 
 28 THE OLD PATHS; OR, 
 
 of such men as Venn and Cecil was bounded by 
 the horizon of the sixteenth century, the era of 
 the Reformation. Then it was that the Church 
 of England freed herself from the yoke, and 
 renounced the errors of the Papacy; then it was 
 that she translated the pure word of God into 
 the common tongue, and recognised its supreme 
 authority as the rule of faith ; " so that what- 
 soever is not read therein, nor may be proved 
 thereby, is not to be required of any man that 
 it should be believed as an article of faith, or be 
 thought requisite or necessary to salvation." Is it 
 surprising that men of a deep Scriptural piety, 
 an intimate knowledge of the word of God, an 
 ardent attachment to the reformed Church, should 
 have not only venerated the martyred reformers, 
 as I trust we all do, but accepted their private 
 opinions even as conclusive, and considered them 
 as fathers in the faith, to the neglect of those 
 greater saints, whom Rome claimed most falsely 
 as her own, the Chrysostoms, Gregorys, Ambroses, 
 and Augustines, to whom the reformers themselves 
 appealed as authorities, and were indebted for so 
 much of their knowledge in matters ecclesiastical 
 and spiritual ? 
 
 If they slighted antiquity and Church authority 
 without a due regard to which the doctrine of 
 private judgment is a delusion and a snare it 
 was in an age when the Church had ceased to
 
 PRINCIPLES OF THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 29 
 
 command, and her ancient landmarks had been well- 
 nigh blotted out. If in their zeal for the doctrine 
 of conversion they forgot that of regeneration in 
 Baptism, and taught not that the grace then given 
 might through neglect be entirely lost, but was 
 intended to be preserved, and stirred up, and 
 manifested by a patient continuance in well-doing 
 and a holy life they "had not so learned Christ; " 
 the age was one of unusual wickedness ; " children 
 were corrupters ; " and sensible experiences were 
 commonly reckoned among the highest marks of 
 the Divine favour. If they dropped the Daily 
 Service of the sanctuary, and unconsciously ele- 
 vated preaching above prayer and sacraments, 
 theirs was an unbelieving age; "the grace of 
 Christ was considered as little more than an out- 
 ward help, coming in aid of man's natural powers," 
 not as the infusion of the powers of a new life 
 into the soul ; and men of deeper principles than 
 theirs actually attempted the Daily Service, but 
 gave it up again, complaining that the spirit of 
 the day was too strong against them. 
 
 In a word, if they forgot to walk in some of 
 the old paths, or scarcely knew where to look for 
 them, let us not hastily condemn. They were 
 burning and shining lights in their generation, and 
 many perhaps of yourselves rejoiced in their light : 
 they lived in a cold, a formal, aye, and an infidel 
 age, " when earnestness was ridiculed as the badge
 
 30 THE OLD PATHS ; OR, 
 
 of a schismatic," and a man could scarcely say his 
 private prayers, certainly could not hope to join 
 in family prayer without being laughed at : they 
 by God's providence prepared the way for our- 
 selves, by instructing the generation which has 
 instructed us ; and were they once more on earth 
 living in the full blaze of knowledge and privi- 
 leges they never dreamt of, who can for a moment 
 doubt that their saintly lives, their self-denying 
 labours, Christian heroism, and deeds of matchless 
 love would immeasurably exceed and put to shame 
 our highest endeavours, as our opportunities of 
 doing good to man, and serving God, far far 
 outnumber theirs. 
 
 If we leave them and come down to the next 
 generation immediately preceding our own, we 
 shall find abundant proof that something was 
 wanting in their teaching to identify it with the 
 full doctrines of the Church ; failing to impart 
 which to their successors their system tended 
 rapidly to decay. 
 
 An apologist thus pleads for them 
 " While they maintained in larger numbers than 
 at any former period the genuine principles of the 
 Gospel, it may admit of doubt whether the tone 
 of personal piety had not suffered a decline as 
 compared with former years. The successors of 
 Venn, and Cecil, and Newton, and Scott, and Milner, 
 while in the main holding their doctrines and
 
 PRINCIPLES OF THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 31 
 
 adopting their views of truth, failed possibly in 
 exhibiting that Holy Unction and deep spirituality 
 of mind which characterised those eminent ser- 
 vants of God, and fitted them to become champions 
 for the truth. Their pulpit discourses partook 
 of the same decline, more suited, in many cases, 
 to catch the popular ear than to reach the con- 
 science and affect the heart. Secular duties multi- 
 plied. Public institutions rising on eveiy side 
 required attention. Large parishes demanded 
 ceaseless superintendence. This tide of active 
 duties was necessarily unfavourable to prayer, 
 devotion, separation from the world, private medi- 
 tation, a close walk with God." 
 
 And then this apologist goes on to say that 
 " these men with large parishes to guide . . . could 
 not be expected to leave the work entrusted to 
 them by God, in order to delve into the recesses 
 of ancient theology." 
 
 Thus far a successor and ardent admirer of these 
 men, who, you see, is obliged to admit that twenty 
 years ago his brethren in the ministry, the repre- 
 sentatives of what are called Evangelical principles, 
 " were secular in life, and debased in spirituality 
 that they preached merely popular sermons, and 
 neglected prayer and devotion and were on 
 principle ignorant of theology." 
 
 My Christian brethren, I myself could never 
 have published to the world one of these things :
 
 32 THE OLD PATHS; OR, 
 
 had I even realised this their lamentable declension 
 from the true spirit and practice of the Gospel, in 
 the very first generation after such leaders as Venn 
 and Cecil, it is not for such an one as I am to be 
 the accuser of the brethren ; nor, yourselves being 
 judges, has the teaching of this place ever been 
 personal. The words are those of one who would 
 fain make the best of an untenable position, and 
 vindicate his own and others' consistency. 
 
 You yourselves might draw a darker picture. 
 You can, perhaps, bear personal testimony to such 
 wretched facts as these following : " The Divine 
 commission of the priesthood and the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost received by imposition of the bishop's 
 hands, and the uninterrupted succession of those 
 bishops from the Apostles these doctrines were 
 scarcely ever, if at all, put forward as a real mark 
 of the Church, and urged as her great claim upon 
 the obedience and love of the people. The true 
 doctrine of Baptism was never unfolded; the 
 Church's meaning of regeneration was explained 
 away; so little sense had men that Baptism was 
 a sacrament that we even now constantly hear the 
 Holy Communion spoken of as the Sacrament, as 
 though Holy Baptism were none at all. The very 
 services in the Prayer-book were altered and 
 mangled to suit their views, by those who at their 
 ordination, the most solemn moment of their lives, 
 had given their unfeigned 'assent and consent'
 
 PRINCIPLES OF THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 33 
 
 to it. The Daily Service was all but extinct ; the 
 observance of Saints' Days and the holy season of 
 Lent was almost confined to a few old people ; 
 even the Wednesday and Friday Service was 
 becoming every year rarer ; the Athanasian Creed 
 was habitually disused ; long extempore prayers 
 and unauthorized hymns appeared in too many 
 places ; the Marriage Service was curtailed to half 
 its length ; one sentence of the Exhortation to the 
 Holy Communion was all that was ever heard ; 
 the sole standard of acceptableness being who 
 could most nearly adapt the services and teaching 
 of the Church to the taste of Dissenters. ' Time 
 was,' we are told by a leading Dissenter, alluding 
 to this very period, 'when Evangelical clergymen 
 recognised, or were thought to recognise, Presby- 
 terian, Independent, or other ministers as ministers 
 of Christ ; to admit that the Episcopal was not 
 the exclusive and only Church ; to reject the notion 
 of a priesthood under the Christian dispensation, 
 except as applying literally to Christ, and figura- 
 tively to the entire body of the faithful ; and to 
 deny that regeneration by the Holy Ghost mark 
 these words of an honest, straightforward Non- 
 conformist could in any sense be considered as 
 effected through Baptism.' " 
 
 Thus had men, the guides of people, left the 
 " old paths, where is the good way ; " thus had 
 they " committed two evils : they had forsaken " 
 
 D
 
 34 THE OLD PATHS; OR, 
 
 the Church's system, that " fountain of living 
 water, and hewed them out cisterns broken 
 cisterns, that could hold no water." And the pro- 
 phetic word was again fulfilled, " A wonderful and 
 horrible thing is committed in the land ; " " Like 
 people,like priest;" "The prophets prophesy falsely; 
 and the priests bear rule by their means ; and My 
 people love to have it so ; " " For they healed the 
 hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, 
 Peace, peace ; when there was no peace ; " for 
 " there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." 
 
 And thus was there " a mighty famine " in the 
 land ; and the children, having gone into a far 
 country away from the true object of their affec- 
 tions, the system of the Church " began to be in 
 want," and they "filled their bellies," not with 
 angels' food, but with the dry "husks " of Calvin- 
 istic teaching the unreal, unnatural, unsacra- 
 mental, and, therefore, the unspiritual system of 
 modern Evangelicalism. 
 
 And then men "came to themselves." There 
 was a reaction a revival and, surely, such a 
 revival as has never been vouchsafed to any branch 
 of the Church. " The wind bloweth where it 
 listeth, and thou nearest the sound thereof, but 
 canst not tell whence it cometh." "Suddenly, 
 almost at the same moment, in different minds, 
 here and there, it seems to have suggested itself to 
 many earnest men to betake themselves to their
 
 PRINCIPLES OF THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 35 
 
 ancient mother." "A Voice seemed to sweep 
 throughout the length and breadth of England a 
 mighty Voice, stirring up the secret depths of 
 men's hearts, recalling ancient truths, suggesting 
 half-forgotten duties, telling of unknown and 
 neglected privileges, inspiring confidence, promising 
 the strength of Heaven." 
 
 "Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; 
 put on thy beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the 
 Holy City : for henceforth there shall no more 
 come into thee the Uncircumcised and the unclean. 
 Shake thyself from the dust ; arise, and sit down, 
 O Jerusalem : loose thyself from the bands of thy 
 neck, captive daughter of Zion." 
 
 " Like all other great reformations, whether for 
 good or evil, its course has been from below 
 upwards." The bishops of the Church, for the 
 most part, have been silent, or actually impeded it. 
 Like all other great reformations, it has not listened 
 to the Voice, nor stereotyped the opinions of one 
 man, but has gone back to antiquity, and bowed to 
 the judgment of the Church universal. 
 
 "Like all other great reformations, it has gone 
 on silently and steadily, not a great victory and 
 then a pause, and then another victory and then 
 another pause ; it has sprung up, how we cannot 
 tell ; it has come not ' with observation.' Persons 
 seemed to have imbibed truths which they had 
 never heard. Year after year the movement has
 
 36 THE OLD PATHS; OK, 
 
 continued in an accelerated ratio in spite of all 
 opposition. Year after year the stream has spread, 
 not in breadth only, but in depth. Like the pro- 
 phetic river, the waters were to the ankles. Years 
 passed, the waters were to the knees. Years again 
 passed, the waters were to the loins. And how, 
 then, can we doubt that the time shall be when 
 they will become a river ' that cannot be forded 
 waters risen, waters to swim in, a river that cannot 
 be passed over ' ? " 
 
 Why this rapid growth, this confidence for the 
 future ? Because it is the work of God. If it had 
 not been of God, man would long ago have over- 
 thrown it. 
 
 What have been the chief characteristics or 
 principles of this movement in which you, brethren, 
 find yourselves involved, hardly knowing how or 
 why ? To speak in the most general terms, one 
 might say, The object of the movement was to 
 rouse the Church to self-knowledge ; to force our 
 holy mother, so to speak, to a consciousness and to 
 an open avowal of her gifts, and heavenly calling, 
 and heavenly privileges, which she had allowed to 
 sleep ; and in order that she might completely 
 fulfil the great ends for which she had been insti- 
 tuted, by her Divine Head, to act up to her real, 
 however forgotten, character. And the means to 
 this end were the revival of such truths as these ; 
 the doctrine of the Apostolical Succession, as
 
 PRINCIPLES OF THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 37 
 
 pledging Christ's presence in His Church ; and from 
 hence, as far as the individual soul was concerned, 
 the certainty of receiving in this Church the true 
 sacraments of salvation true sacraments being 
 those which are " duly administered " by " lawful 
 ministers " such sacraments being not " bare 
 signs " of things absent, but the " means whereby 
 we receive " in the one " a death unto sin, and a 
 new birth unto righteousness," and in the other 
 " the Body and Blood of Christ, which are verily 
 and indeed taken and received by the faithful in 
 the Lord's Supper ; " and that the Church had 
 "authority in controversies of faith," had the 
 power to " decree," to " teach," to " excommunicate " 
 (I quote the very words of the Articles), and did 
 not give every individual preacher, much less every 
 individual Christian, permission to take down his 
 Bible and make out from it his own scheme of 
 doctrine, or system of Church government, or 
 interpretation of Scripture, but in the case of all 
 her authorised ministers, required them "first to 
 take care that they taught nothing in their sermons 
 to be held by the people as a matter of religion but 
 what was agreeable to the doctrine of the Old and 
 New Testament, and which the Catholic Fathers 
 and ancient bishops had collected from that same 
 doctrine" (Canon, 1571); and in the case of all 
 others, that " whosoever would be saved, before all 
 things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic
 
 38 THE OLD PATHS; OK, 
 
 faith, and that if any man do not keep this faith 
 whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish 
 everlastingly." 
 
 Such are the truths which have been gradually 
 recalled to men's minds during the last twenty 
 years. They are the truths of the ancient Church 
 of England; the truths which the Reformation 
 secured to ourselves, while all other bodies of 
 Christians neglected or missed them altogether; 
 the truths which are embodied in our Book of 
 Common Prayer, where any that is of a docile, 
 humble, reverential spirit may seek for them, and, 
 seeking, shall most surely find. In short, they are 
 some of the old paths; and many of you know 
 that with them is the good way you have walked 
 therein, and have found rest unto your souls. 
 
 But, if so, it is objected, how is it that they are 
 so unpopular ? Surely men would not hold up to 
 scorn and ridicule, and speak so uncharitably of 
 the truth ? But God's Word assures us that the 
 world will only believe a lie, and not receive the 
 truth. Christ, the Incarnate Truth, was to a 
 wicked and adulterous generation a deceiver. 
 When the people crucified Him, they knew not 
 what they did. So it is now. There never was a 
 great spiritual work in the world without exciting 
 its most bitter opposition. When the evil spirit is 
 going to be cast out, then is he most fierce and 
 raging; then does he tear his poor victim, throw
 
 PRINCIPLES OF THE ENGLISH REFORMA TION. 39 
 
 him on the ground, about to leave him half dead, 
 wallowing and foaming. 
 
 Never were the plain scriptural doctrines of the 
 Church placed before the simple multitude, but 
 Satan abused their minds with counterfeits, with 
 false doctrines, misrepresentation, and used every 
 artifice to prevent their acceptance. So now. The 
 kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers take 
 counsel together : the people are moved and make 
 much ado ; and we, in this hitherto quiet place, are 
 wondering, perhaps, at the roaring of the waves 
 and the madness of the people. For to a calm and 
 patient observer of the signs of the times it is 
 too evident against what rock the worldliness, and 
 covetousness, and luxury, and indifference, and 
 sectarianism, and cold scepticism, and blank in- 
 fidelity of the age are really dashing themselves : 
 not against the Protestant sects in England ; not 
 against Romanism in England; but against the 
 Church. The spirit of the age finds itself opposed, 
 not by Rome, i.e. as she is (it is her boast that 
 she can adapt herself and her system to any 
 age or society) ; not by Geneva (no human system, 
 still less a heartless Socinianism, can be at variance 
 with the world), but by the spirit of the Church 
 of England, which is no other than the spirit of 
 the ancient Church the Spirit of Christ. The 
 world is now maddened not by the Roman claim 
 to infallibility, but by the Church's assertion of
 
 40 THE OLD PATHS; OK, 
 
 authority ; not at the sight of novelties of Rome, 
 but at the mention of the old paths; not by 
 Romish corruptions, but by Evangelical truth, and 
 Apostolical order ; not against forced auricular 
 confession, but any priestly control, or inter- 
 ference whatsoever; not against the mystery of 
 iniquity, whatever that be, and it will shortly be 
 revealed, but against the mysteries of sacraments, 
 and other effectual means of grace. 
 
 And hence we are led to believe that the poor 
 Church of England would not now be so shame- 
 fully handled by the world, her voice suppressed, 
 her rights withheld, her liberty denied, were she in 
 spirit less at variance with the world than she is. 
 
 She would then be placed at least on a level 
 with the sects around her, and have a fair field 
 granted to carry out her own system, as dissent 
 already has done, and Rome is now permitted to do. 
 
 She would then be permitted in her own peculiar 
 way to cope with, and by her own inherent 
 strength to defeat, the latest aggression of (alas ! 
 the truth must be spoken) her most unscrupulous, 
 her bitterest, deadliest foe. For, I would observe, 
 this late act of the Pope in sending a schismatical 
 archbishop into this country is an insult and 
 aggression not so much on the Crown, as on the 
 Church of England. The supremacy of the Crown, 
 or to speak more correctly of the House of Commons 
 and its leader, is not impugned in this matter.
 
 PRINCIPLES OF THE ENGLISH REFORM A TION. 41 
 
 That supremacy was virtually given up five years 
 ago, when Parliament, in spite of warning and past 
 experience, repealed every Act which might now 
 have been in force against Romish encroachments. 
 It is the Church who never repealed her canons 
 against popery five years ago, nor gave secret 
 permission since for the intrusion of such 
 " treacherous wolves " into her pastures ; it is the 
 Church whose very existence is ignored ; it is 
 yourselves, brethren, as Christians, who are now 
 deemed no better than heathens or infidels by 
 Rome. Churchmen and the Church are they who 
 ought to be indignant and alarmed at this pro- 
 ceeding. And it is the Church which can only repel 
 consistently and effectually repel such an invasion 
 of her rights, such an attack upon her very life, 
 as the only true spiritual mother of all Christians 
 in this realm. 
 
 In the mean time I will only say our course of 
 
 / / 
 
 action must be consistent with the principles of 
 the Reformation. We must once more " Stand in 
 the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, which 
 is the good way," and if we walk therein, not as 
 Englishmen or citizens merely, but as Churchmen 
 exclusively, we shall most assuredly seek the 
 peace of Jerusalem and find rest for our souls.
 
 THE ENGLISH CHURCHMAN, IN DANGER 
 OF FALLING BACK, ENCOURAGED TO 
 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 1 
 
 " Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let 
 us go on unto perfection. . . . For it is impossible for those who 
 were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and 
 were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good 
 word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall 
 fall away, to renew them again unto repentance ; seeing they 
 crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an 
 open shame. . . . But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of 
 you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. 
 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of 
 love, which ye have showed toward His Name, in that ye have 
 ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that 
 every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance 
 of hope unto the end: that ye be not slothful, but followers of 
 them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." 
 HEB. vi. 1-12. 
 
 AT whatever point we have individually arrived 
 in our Christian course, we all stand in need of 
 encouragements, or warnings, or both, to persevere 
 humbly and hopefully to the end. And, accordingly, 
 the Church, on this the first festival of her year, 
 makes use of both these incentives to rouse our 
 wills, and spur us on to win the prize of our high 
 1 Preached at Cambridge, S. Andrew's Day, 1863.
 
 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 43 
 
 calling in Christ Jesus. The warnings of Advent 
 Sunday are still ringing in our ears, which bid us 
 wake out of sleep and prepare for the coming of 
 our Lord ; while to-day we are being cheered with 
 the high example of S. Andrew, and have seen 
 how prompt obedience, like that of Abraham, leads 
 on to noblest deeds of faith, and finds in Christ's 
 cross its exceeding great reward : how for things 
 earthly, He gives heavenly ; for temporal, eternal ; 
 how in exchange for the trials, the entanglements, 
 the prizes of the world, He will bestow rich 
 blessings of grace, a share in His own ministry of 
 love, a throne of glory in His kingdom ; aye, we 
 learn that if we, and such as we, renounce the 
 world, and curb the flesh, and cast out Satan, and 
 cast in our lot with Christ and His saints, and 
 take up our cross daily, and follow the Master 
 whithersoever He leads us, the time may come 
 when even we, most unworthy as we are, will 
 not only endure the cross, shrinking from it as we 
 now do, but embrace the cross, love the cross, glory 
 in the cross, and rejoice to die upon the cross, as 
 S. Andrew did. 
 
 You cannot, brethren, have failed to notice how 
 both these topics of warning and encouragement 
 are blended together and made subservient to the 
 Apostle's one practical exhortation, " Let us go on 
 unto perfection." And what nobler, more elevating 
 subject can we have to attract our hearts and
 
 44 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 
 
 absorb our thoughts in these stirring times ? 
 What is more congenial to the day or to the season, 
 or to the circumstances of our position as Church- 
 men ? What is more likely to sustain us under 
 the temptations that beset, and the trials that 
 provoke us ; to refresh us in the weariness of our 
 conflict ; strengthen us for our common work ; 
 infuse fresh hope of attaining our common reward ? 
 Let us, then, briefly investigate the design of the 
 Apostolic teaching in this Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 and try to apply that teaching to ourselves. And 
 may God the Holy Ghost be so present with us, 
 with me who speak and with you who hear, that 
 none of His living words may have been written 
 in vain. 
 
 The object which the inspired author had before 
 him in writing this Epistle seems to have been 
 simply this, to fortify the Hebrew Christians in 
 their faith in Christ, against the temptations 
 peculiar to their position arising from heathen and 
 Jewish persecution, and from the natural partiality 
 with which they regarded their old system, and 
 were disposed more or less to re-embrace it. 
 
 Before their embracing Christianity, it had been 
 difficult for the Hebrews to realise at all that the 
 religious system which had been appointed by God 
 Himself, in which they had been trained, and on 
 which they had been taught to rely for all blessings 
 temporal and eternal, was to wax old and vanish
 
 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 45 
 
 away. They were zealous of the Law, took delight 
 in its services, trusted to its ordinances, believed 
 them to be eternal : how hard was it, then, for flesh 
 and blood to give up the Law and embrace the 
 Gospel; to walk by faith and not by sight; to 
 renounce the world instead of possessing it ; to 
 mortify the flesh instead of pleasing it ; in a word, 
 to take up the cross, and with entire self-surrender 
 to put away their own righteousness, and to depend 
 for salvation on the alone merits of a crucified 
 Saviour ! Yet, blessed be God, the grace to do this 
 was never wanting to the true Israelite. 
 
 But suppose he lost grace, and grew proud and 
 self -sufficient ; or suppose persecutions arose, and 
 both Jews and heathen raged against the Chris- 
 tians ; or suppose the way through the wilderness 
 was long and weary, and the flesh rebelled, and the 
 spirit loathed the heavenly manna, and there was 
 no water to drink, and the pillar of the Divine 
 presence was withdrawn from the unfaithful soul, 
 how readily would the indulgent, fearful, self- 
 sufficient Hebrew Christian fall back upon the 
 carnal and safe system of his youth, which he 
 knew was Divine, but which he had given up 
 solely at the call of a Moses who no longer cared 
 for him, as he supposed, who had ceased to work 
 miracles on his behalf, who had so hidden himself 
 that it could not be known what had become of 
 him (Exod. xxxii. 1).
 
 46 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 
 
 Hence it is that the Apostle takes so much pains 
 to show that the Gospel is superior to the Law ; 
 that the Aaronical priesthood was fulfilled and 
 abolished by Christ, Who is a Priest for ever after 
 the order of Melchisedec; that all the sacrifices 
 and ceremonies of the Law were but types and 
 shadows of Christian realities ; that Christians are 
 on a higher level than the Jews, have received 
 more grace, inherited better promises ; hence, too, 
 the encouragements to persevere with which the 
 Epistle abounds, and the solemn warnings, than 
 which there are none more awful or thrilling in 
 the whole Scriptures, that if we fall from the grace 
 of the Gospel as the Jews fell from their covenant, 
 we shall not enter into our rest our punishment 
 will be so much sorer than theirs, as our blessings, 
 our hopes, are immeasurably greater. 
 
 Yes ! our hopes and rest, our fall and punish- 
 ment : for it is time, brethren, to apply the subject 
 to ourselves. We are now partakers of the heavenly 
 calling ; we have been sprinkled with the precious 
 blood of Jesus in our baptism, sanctified by His 
 spirit, brought within the bond of the covenant, 
 signed with the cross in token of our sustaining 
 a faithful and brave and continual warfare under 
 His banner ; and our dangers are many and most 
 ensnaring, not from worldly persecution (we are 
 not good or true enough for that just yet), but 
 from worldly favour, worldly friendships, earthly
 
 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 47 
 
 happiness, secular aims, academical or ecclesiastical 
 success. In this semi-Christian and self-indulgent 
 age, our temptation is not to throw up Christianity 
 altogether, but to get rid of its supernatural 
 element; not to forsake the Church, but to regard 
 her as a human institution and a creature of the 
 State; not to quarrel with Christian sanctity 
 and the fruits of sanctity "where they are seen to 
 be real, but to decry those means by which alone 
 they can be gained and retained prayer and 
 fasting and habitual mortification ; not to dis- 
 believe in Christ, but to doubt the inspiration of 
 His Word, and to think lightly of the authority 
 of His duly ordained ministers ; not to neglect 
 the assembling of ourselves together, but to 
 have itching ears, and to exalt preaching 
 above prayer and sacraments. We are liable to 
 be shaken by that unfair criticism of the Bible 
 which sets out by treating it as a common book, 
 and by the rash speculations of science (falsely so 
 called) on the antiquity of man, the unity of the 
 human race, and its origin, which ignore the in- 
 spired statements altogether. We find it difficult 
 not to be fascinated and led astray by the brilliancy 
 of imaginative men at home and abroad, who are 
 professing to re-write the sacred history from a 
 merely human point of view. Or we may be 
 disposed to give too much attention to the mere 
 externals of religion music, ritual, architecture,
 
 48 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 
 
 and other accessories to the neglect of its sub- 
 stance prayer, Holy Communion, mortification, 
 obedience, poverty of spirit, purity of heart. Our 
 very first principles of morality, of justice, fair 
 dealing, and truth, are in danger of being sapped 
 and overthrown by our acquiescence in the iniquities 
 of a Divorce Court, our acceptance of false maxims 
 of political economy and trade, our toleration of 
 unreal clerical or university subscription. Or, if 
 our faith is superior to these trials, we have still 
 to face the difficulties of our position in a divided 
 Christendom, and the consequences of our own 
 unhappy differences at home. We may be tempted 
 to seek for unity in some communion where 
 primitive truth is not ; and, when our eyes are 
 opened by bitter disappointment, we may become 
 indifferent to all truth, or care no more for it than 
 the harlot of old cared for the living child, not her 
 own, when she said, " Let it be neither mine nor 
 thine, but divide it." Or, to come closer home 
 still, a man's natural love of ease will hold him 
 back from fighting for the Church's faith; his 
 timidity or complaisance or anxiety not to differ, 
 will cause him to betray it. In short, brethren, 
 we are all in danger from the allurements of the 
 world, the pleasures of sense, the sophistries of 
 misbelief, a lax morality, the absence of all 
 discipline in the Church, the encouragement the 
 world awards to amiable but scarcely veiled
 
 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 49 
 
 unbelief: and so we may decline, almost without 
 knowing it, from the high standing of the Catholic 
 religion : and even if we do not make total ship- 
 wreck, may sink down to a very low standard of 
 practice, and rest satisfied with a system of worship, 
 a rule of obedience and a measure of faith and love, 
 very little removed from the forms and shadows 
 and the self-indulgence and spiritual deadness of 
 the Jew, who knew not, or had actually despised, 
 the grace of the Gospel. 
 
 Knowing all this, let us give heed to the Apostle's 
 exhortation to go on, to press on, unto perfection 
 (ITT! TTJV reXttoTrjTa QtpwfjitSa). For remember, if we 
 go not forward we shall certainly fall back ; if we 
 do not reach the perfection which God has fore- 
 ordained for each one of us, there is none other to 
 which we can be called our crown and throne 
 will be wholly lost : instead of " shining as the sun 
 in the kingdom of our Father," we shall be only 
 stars fallen from their sphere, "for whom is re- 
 served the blackness of darkness for ever." 
 
 Many of you, beloved brethren, I know, are 
 going on to perfection. Many of you, in years 
 gone by, have truly learnt the first principles (the 
 A B C) of Christian doctrine, and are now prac- 
 tising the higher lessons of the supernatural life ; 
 wisely rearing an edifice of good works on the one 
 foundation of faith in Christ Jesus. Having been 
 baptized into the death of Christ, and sealed with 
 
 E
 
 50 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 
 
 the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, you 
 have, in a sense, become rAcTot, by partaking of 
 the body and the blood, and are followers of your 
 dear Lord in the way of His holy cross : by 
 mortification of the flesh you are evincing faith 
 in the resurrection of the flesh; by patient con- 
 tinuance in well-doing you are preparing for the 
 eternal judgment, for that solemn sentence which 
 will decide eternity for you. 
 
 But do not all of you, of whom we are persuaded 
 these good things which accompany salvation, need 
 to be reminded of the greatness of your calling in 
 Christ Jesus, of the exceeding excellence of your 
 spiritual gifts, the awful responsibility of your 
 sacramental privileges, and the constant danger 
 you are in, from enemies within and without, of 
 growing lukewarm, slothful, unbelieving, and 
 falling away ? Need you not to be stirred up, 
 by the example of God's saints and by the con- 
 sciousness of His remembrance of every self-denial 
 and labour of love, to perseverance in well-doing, 
 whereby you may make your calling and election 
 doubly sure ? 
 
 And, on the other hand, have not all wavering, 
 backsliding Christians good reason to listen to 
 the awful voice which warns them that they may 
 go on unto perdition ; that they may settle down 
 into such hardness and impenitency, as to justify 
 the assertion, "it is impossible to renew them
 
 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 51 
 
 again unto repentance ; " that they may become, 
 slowly, but surely, such dry, withered branches 
 of the vine, that nothing remains for the husband- 
 man but to cut them out and to cast them into 
 their own place in the fire that never shall be 
 quenched ? 
 
 But these are not the persons to whom the 
 Apostle primarily addresses himself. He is writing 
 to real genuine believers like ourselves. He implies 
 that they have received great gifts of grace, 
 and still retain those gifts; and yet he plainly 
 teaches in the text and elsewhere that they may 
 lose those gifts and entirely fall away. 
 
 But more than this. Some Christians are 
 more advanced than others ; their sanctity is pre- 
 eminently great; to their souls God has vouch- 
 safed special tokens of His love and inspiration ; 
 they are conscious in their own selves of these 
 marks of His favour S. Paul was such an one 
 and yet even these are warned that they may 
 undo the work of Christ in their souls, frustrate 
 the purpose of His will towards them, sin wilfully, 
 crucify the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an 
 open shame. 
 
 Oh, how hard it is to accept the words of 
 Scripture in their plain literal meaning ! What 
 faith, meekness, freedom from prejudice, submis- 
 sion of the will, are necessary before a man will 
 unhesitatingly receive the engrafted Word, and
 
 52 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION, 
 
 believe it solely on the authority of Him Who is 
 the Faithful and True Witness, and cannot lie ! 
 How unwilling, brethren, are men to take just 
 what the Bible teaches them on the eternity of 
 punishment, the personality of Satan, demoniacal 
 possession, witchcraft, the necessity of atonement, 
 the grace of Holy Baptism, the food of the Holy 
 Eucharist, or ministerial absolution, the indissolu- 
 bility of marriage, the defectibility of grace, the 
 freedom of the regenerate will, the possibility of 
 a saint's reprobation ! Does it not seem impossible 
 that a great saint should fall away ? We judge 
 of him by our own standard, not God's ; we look 
 at him from beneath, not from above ; we see the 
 surface of his character, not the bias of his will and 
 the sin of his heart ! We are blind to the sins 
 which he himself confesses. In our eyes he is 
 perfect. And then we comfort ourselves with the 
 assurance that grace, which has made him what 
 he is, will carry him forward, as a bark upon a 
 flowing stream ; that God, according to His promise, 
 will continue the good work which He has begun, 
 and complete it up to the day of Christ. Yes ! 
 blessed be God, we have such comfortable as- 
 surances in the word of truth. But then, my 
 brethren, each of God's servants knows that all 
 promises of future help and progress are con- 
 ditional. He knows that he must respond will- 
 ingly to the grace given; must be obedient and
 
 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 53 
 
 faithful to God's inspiration ; must watch and 
 pray against temptation; must "keep under his 
 body and bring it into subjection;" must guard 
 against spiritual sins of pride and presumption; 
 must distrust self and submit to guidance and 
 authority, and bring every imagination into 
 captivity to the obedience of Christ : in a word, 
 by a life of mortification and self-sacrifice he 
 knows he must be wholly conformed to the image 
 of Jesus crucified, otherwise he will never see 
 Jesus glorified, he will never be " partaker of the 
 inheritance of the saints in light." Such an one 
 cavils not at that word " impossible," or any other 
 of the Apostle's expressions : he receives them with 
 awe and self-abasement. " It is not impossible for 
 me," he owns, " to fall away ; for, alas ! I know 
 my great weakness, the dangers of my path, the 
 deceitfulness of my besetting sin." 
 
 And we may not ascribe this conviction of his 
 liability to fall to the humility of a saint. Still 
 less may we affirm that the Apostle could not 
 really mean what his words do mean; that one 
 who has full experience of the blessings of the 
 Gospel can lose them; that one who has been 
 enjoying the consolations of the Spirit and a 
 foretaste of heaven itself may return to sin, forget 
 Christ, become an open infidel, an apostate from 
 the faith he once approved and adorned. The 
 Apostle does not say it is impossible for a saint to
 
 54 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 
 
 suffer this tremendous downfall, to be stained with 
 all this hideous guilt. And we, as we reverence 
 the words of the Holy Ghost, may not twist their 
 meaning or explain it away, as some unlearned 
 and unstable do, who " wrest this and other 
 Scriptures to their destruction " (2 S. Pet. iii. 16). 
 The parables of the Sower, the Wise and Foolish 
 Virgins, of the Vine and the Branches, the Un- 
 profitable Servant, all teach the same truth, that 
 we may " receive the grace of God in vain " (2 Cor. 
 vi. 1). S. Paul's warning is, "Let him that 
 thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." 
 S. Paul's practice was, "I keep under my body 
 and bring it into subjection," because his fear was, 
 " lest I be a castaway." And that fear was a 
 genuine fear, inspired by God, strengthened by 
 special warnings in Holy Scripture, and witnessed 
 to by the experience of the holiest believers. Nor 
 does he say here, it is impossible to fall, but some- 
 thing far more awful, viz. "It is impossible for 
 those who were once enlightened (baptized), and 
 have tasted the good word of God, and the powers 
 of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to 
 renew them again unto repentance ; seeing they 
 crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and 
 put Him to an open shame." 
 
 He is warning us of the great guilt and danger 
 of apostasy. It is the extreme case, blessed be 
 God, which he is putting ; but still it is a possible
 
 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 55 
 
 and real case, not a hypothetical one ; and one to 
 which all lesser falls, and careless neglects, and 
 wilful sins, tend and gradually pave the way. It 
 is as if the Apostle were a guide to a party of 
 travellers striving to reach a mountain-top by a 
 footpath which is safe and sure to a wary 
 traveller, but becomes more and more dangerous 
 to the unwary, because every step takes him nearer 
 to more frightful precipices, a fall from which is 
 certain and instant destruction. 
 
 So it is with God's saints, with the whole family 
 of the baptized and confirmed who are journeying 
 heavenward ; but especially with communicants, 
 with those who have made some advance and have 
 outstripped their fellows, and are on the giddy 
 height of a sanctity which the majority do not 
 attempt or dream of. To these, as they walk in 
 their solitary glory, looking down on a world 
 which they seem to us to have left far below, the 
 Apostle's words chiefly apply ; for if they grow 
 careless or confident, the punishment of their 
 presumption may come in an instant; they may 
 fall, never to rise again. The very height to 
 which they have attained will make their fall 
 more hopeless, their recovery, humanly speaking, 
 impossible. 
 
 I say humanly speaking, for the Apostle is not 
 here saying it is impossible with God : " with God 
 all things are possible." He can soften the hard
 
 56 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 
 
 heart of the rich worldling ; He can give faith to 
 the proud infidel, repentance to the apostate. He 
 converted the blasphemer on the cross. He raised 
 the dead. He has forgiven Christians even the 
 most horrible blasphemies against Himself and the 
 Holy Ghost, of which He gave them grace to 
 repent. But these are special miracles of mercy, 
 which neither the tenor of His Word nor His 
 general dealings with us give us any ground to 
 expect will be wrought in our favour. According 
 to the known method of His ordinary dealings 
 with us, if we neglect His grace we gradually lose 
 it ; if we disobey His calls He ceases to give them ; 
 if we tamper with conscience it will not guide us 
 truly ; if we once taste the blood of sin, we are in 
 danger ever afterwards of thirsting for it ; if we 
 cultivate not the soil of our heart and keep it 
 fruitful in good works, the briars and thorns of sin 
 will spring up, the clouds will rain no rain upon 
 it (Isa. v. 6); it will be rejected as "nigh unto 
 cursing," its end is only to be burned. If we 
 accustom ourselves to do evil, we may as soon hope 
 to see the blackamoor white and the leopard with- 
 out spots, as to see our souls freed from the stains 
 of their corruption; if for years the branches of 
 the vine have been growing more and more 
 crooked, fruitless, and sapless, it is not the miracle 
 of restoration to life and vigour we look for that 
 we say is impossible we only wait the inevitable
 
 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 57 
 
 hour of their cutting out or dropping oft', and of 
 their gathering for the fire. 
 
 Let no one of us, then, deceive himself in a 
 matter of such vast importance ; let no one 
 imagine, because he is now, he humbly hopes, in 
 the right way, and zealously walking in it, or 
 because he has received many proofs of God's 
 mercy, pardon, and peace, and strength against 
 temptation, and knowledge of the truth, and com- 
 forts of the Holy Ghost, and lives by rule a 
 mortified life, that therefore he cannot grow luke- 
 warm, be again defiled, lose all and become a 
 castaway. Still less let any one say in his heart, 
 " I have no need to be so careful, I will yield to 
 temptation this once only one look, one glass 
 more, one sentence of the forbidden book will do 
 no harm ; repentance is easy ; there is confession 
 and absolution ; I have faith in the precious blood 
 which will wash all away ! " My brethren, it may 
 not be done ; the warning is clear and terrible, and 
 I for one dare not soften it down for you, " It is 
 impossible if you," who are now in a state of grace, 
 who have received the gift of the Holy Ghost, who 
 have knelt at the altar and there partaken, through 
 the sacrament of Christ's body and blood, of the 
 Divine nature the greatest, most priceless gift 
 the Creator can bestow upon His creatures "if 
 you fall away " (and wilful sin after communion 
 is a fearful stride on the downward road) " it is
 
 58 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 
 
 impossible to renew you again unto repentance." 
 " If we," communicants, " sin wilfully after the 
 knowledge of the truth," such experimental know- 
 ledge of such truths as these, " there remaineth no 
 more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking 
 for of vengeance and fiery indignation, which shall 
 devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' 
 law died without mercy under two or three 
 witnesses : of how much sorer punishment, suppose 
 ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden 
 under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the 
 blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, 
 an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the 
 Spirit of grace ? For we know Him that hath 
 said, Vengeance belongeth unto Me, I will recom- 
 pense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall 
 judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into 
 the hands of the living God." 
 
 No, beloved brethren, instead of looking back 
 and going back unto perdition, let us, with one 
 heart, one will, one step, press forward unto per- 
 fection. Let us each day take one step forward, 
 do some one thing perfectly, practise some grace, 
 say some prayer, prepare for lecture, do any other 
 ordinary thing perfectly ; and let us each year 
 conquer some one sin effectually, and we shall soon 
 be perfect men. The word " perfection " seems to 
 scare us, but it need not do so. For Christian 
 perfection is really reached by our doing each little
 
 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 59 
 
 duty of our daily life as well and as perfectly as 
 we can: were they all done perfectly we should 
 have reached perfection. But we have "not yet 
 attained," we are " not yet perfect." The mountain- 
 top is still in " a land very far off." " Let us 
 press forward." Let us not suppose that any past 
 efforts will release us from a continuance in well- 
 doing ; that any past denials will compensate for 
 future bearing of the cross ; or that any gifts we 
 have already received, any knowledge, zeal, faith, 
 love, have been given, except to be used with fresh 
 earnestness and unabated diligence in making our 
 calling and election sure. Whatever be our position, 
 age, or calling, all our energies are needed for the 
 work before us. For that work is nothing less 
 than this so to do our several duties in that 
 state of life to which God has called us, humbly, 
 obediently, perfectly, that we may glorify God, 
 spread His truth, adorn His Church, edify our 
 neighbour, save his and our own souls in the great 
 day. But our chief work is to save our own souls. 
 " Whatever thou doest for others," says a holy man, 
 " neglect not thyself." Thou art put in charge of 
 thine own soul far more than of others' souls ; and 
 in keeping thine own soul holily, thou wilt most 
 surely keep others', most effectually serve the 
 Church. For our own work will always be 
 measured by what we ourselves are. There is no 
 force so powerful in the world as the will of him
 
 60 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 
 
 who has conquered the world and self; no influence 
 like the might of Christian meekness ; no eloquence 
 so telling and persuasive as "the visible rhetoric 
 of a holy life." Aim, then, at these results in all 
 your work and labour of love ; while you strive to 
 be diligent students and press on to all college and 
 University distinction, forget not that there is a 
 wisdom which is only found in the closet by the 
 prayerful and the penitent ; a prize at the foot of 
 the altar which none receive but the pure in heart. 
 While as members of the English Church Union 
 your watchword is Pro Ecclesia Dei, remember 
 it is not by a cry that you can promote her cause, 
 but by your own willing obedience to her rules, 
 your cheerful acceptance of her standards of 
 doctrine, your unsuspected loyalty to her mind 
 and will. And here I may say a word of caution 
 before I close : and as it comes from one who most 
 thoroughly goes along with you and wishes you 
 all success, I have no fear of giving offence. Let 
 not your good be evil spoken of. Believe me, you 
 are a city set on a hill; a light in a dark place. 
 But you are closely watched : there are many cold 
 unsympathising critics, many adversaries. If it is 
 seen that your Churchmanship extends no further 
 than to externals, a love of choral service, or talk 
 about ritual vestments, or an outlay of time and 
 money only on the idol of your affections ; if it is 
 known that after all your talk and show you are
 
 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 61 
 
 not a man of prayer, of a bridled tongue, and a 
 mortified life ; if it should only be suspected that 
 you have no true inward sanctity, are not really 
 converted to God, have no living faith in a crucified 
 and risen Saviour ; oh ! believe me, my brethren 
 (nay, you know it already), all you do and say 
 will be regarded by friend and foe as a great sham, 
 and nought but contempt and disappointment and 
 defeat will deservedly come upon you. Let not 
 your good, then, be evil spoken of. 
 
 The road to perfection is the way of the Holy 
 Cross, and in that way there are not many luxuries 
 of religion ; at all events, one seeking perfection 
 cares not much for them in comparison of greater 
 good. When men worshipped God in the cata- 
 combs, in the dens and caves of the earth, the 
 chalices were of wood, the priests and faithful of 
 "fine gold." 
 
 The steps to perfection are humility, penitence, 
 patience, self-control, consideration for others, sub- 
 mission to authority, fasting, continence, kind 
 words, charitable deeds, zeal for God, love for 
 souls, prayers, eucharists, and all acts of faith and 
 love. By this road and these steps the blessed 
 Andrew and all the saints have mounted upwards. 
 And we, brethren, if we be true Andrews avfymot 
 manly and consistent Churchmen, not talkers, 
 complainers, theorists, sickly sentimentalists ; if we 
 be not slothful, but followers of the saints in faith,
 
 62 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 
 
 patience, self-sacrifice, loyalty, love, we shall with 
 them inherit the promises. 
 
 We shall have no more doubt or wavering or 
 drawing back ; we shall arrive at that point in our 
 course when faith, hope, and understanding shall 
 have their full assurance of final salvation ; when 
 the perfected saint can cry out with S. Paul, " I 
 have finished my course, I have fought the fight, 
 I have kept the faith ; henceforth there is laid up 
 for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, 
 the righteous Judge, will give me in that day." 
 " For if ye do these things," says S. Andrew's 
 brother, " we shall never fall : for so an entrance 
 shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the 
 everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
 But, lastly, are there any here who are not going 
 on to perfection, but have wandered out of the 
 way of holiness, although at one time they "did 
 run well " ? is any one conscious that he has 
 neglected and utterly wasted his great gifts of 
 grace ? or is any one here who has hitherto been 
 entirely ignorant of his Christian privileges and 
 duties, who has never known that repentance and 
 faith, baptism and confirmation, are first principles 
 of Christianity, the very foundation stones of the 
 Christian life ? Are the awful words to be under- 
 stood of them, that, having overthrown the 
 foundation, undone all the work of grace of their
 
 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 63 
 
 early years, sinned wilfully, "it is impossible to 
 renew them again unto repentance " ? God forbid 
 that any of you should regard your case as hope- 
 less, or apply such a sentence without qualification 
 to yourselves. You are in great danger. You are 
 hanging over a precipice, supported by a rope 
 which the edge of the cliff is gradually wearing 
 through. You are gliding down a stream, and may 
 plunge at any moment into the foaming cataract. 
 Were you to die as you are, you could not be 
 saved. But God (oh, blessed be His Name !) spares 
 your life, gives you another warning, another 
 exhortation to repent and believe the gospel. Oh, 
 " refuse not Him that speaketh ! " It is God, your 
 Father, your Saviour, your Friend, speaking to 
 your inmost heart, and urging you, while there is 
 yet time, to flee from the wrath to come. You are 
 not a hardened apostate ; you have not yet wilfully, 
 consciously " trodden under foot the Son of God," 
 and " counted the blood of the covenant an unholy 
 thing." Although you have " crucified " to your- 
 self " the Son of God afresh and put Him to an 
 open shame," yet you may truly plead that wondrous 
 prayer, " Father, forgive them ; for they know not 
 what they do." You have indeed grieved and 
 " done despite to the Spirit of Grace," yet I will 
 not believe you have entirely quenched His gracious 
 influences in your soul : your coming here is a 
 proof that there is some good in you, that you
 
 64 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 
 
 wish to be different, that you intend to forsake 
 the broad road, and to get back into the narrow 
 way that leadeth unto life. 
 
 S. Paul's words, then, my brethren, do not apply 
 without limitation to you. So far from its being 
 impossible, I will boldly say, it is possible for you 
 to turn and lead a holy life. It is possible for 
 you to cry in earnest prayer, " Turn Thou me, and 
 I shall be turned." " Wash me throughly from 
 my wickedness." " Create in me a clean heart, O 
 God, and renew a right spirit within me." It is 
 possible to go and take advice about your wretched 
 state ; to confess your sins to one of God's priests ; 
 to bring forth the fruits of a true repentance, and 
 to receive pardon, cleansing, and peace, through 
 the precious blood of your Redeemer, Who died 
 for you, and ever liveth to make intercession for 
 you. It is possible to lay again the foundation of 
 repentance from dead works and of faith toward 
 God ; to receive back again the grace of baptism 
 and confirmation which you have lost ; to live 
 henceforth in hope of the resurrection to life, in 
 fear of the eternal judgment. It is possible for 
 the stony ground to be broken up, for the thorns 
 and briars of evil habits to be rooted out, and 
 wholly burnt in the fire of God's love and your 
 own zealous repentance. It is possible for your 
 soul to become like a field which the Lord hath 
 blessed, sown with good seed, watered with
 
 GO ON UNTO PERFECTION. 65 
 
 abundant grace, and bringing forth fruit with 
 patience, thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold. 
 
 All this is possible, if it be done in time, if 
 without delay you " redeem the time ; " if you now 
 awake out of past sloth and cast off all works of 
 darkness, and begin to walk in the light as a 
 humble penitent believer in Jesus, as a follower 
 in the way of the holy cross of those who through 
 faith and patience inherit the promises. It is 
 possible, if you will now respond to the call God 
 gives you ; if you will take one step forward, offer 
 one prayer for mercy, and beg for grace to per- 
 severe. For all depends upon your own will. 
 Life and death are before you. Oh, choose life ! 
 Do not delay. Now is the accepted time. Now 
 is the day of salvation. But the night cometh 
 how soon you know not when it is impossible 
 to work.
 
 PREJUDICE AGAINST THE CHURCH 
 SYSTEM IN GENERAL, AND HER 
 DOCTRINE OF CONFESSION IN PAR- 
 TICULAR. 
 
 " The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, 
 gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, 
 without partiality, and without hypocrisy." S. JAMES iii. 17. 
 
 " PREJUDICES are not necessarily bad things ; 
 although they may often do a great deal of harm. 
 There are good prejudices as well as evil ones. 
 There are prejudices which it is good for men to 
 have, which good men always have, which a man 
 could scarcely be good if he had not. This is 
 only another way of saying that there are certain 
 things which men are bound to believe in, and to 
 love before they can give any reason for it." For 
 instance, we are bound to have a prejudice in 
 favour of our own parents, our own personal 
 friends, our own opinions, our own creed, our own 
 Church. Not to have such a prejudice, nay (I 
 will use a word which many repudiate and shudder 
 at in this age of indifference) not to be well-nigh
 
 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 67 
 
 a blind bigot on such matters, not to be most 
 unwilling to be convinced that our unreasoning 
 love is not only a very instinct of our nature, 
 but cannot be mistaken in its object the man 
 who has not some such prejudice as this is no 
 true man, no true Christian ; he is a waverer in 
 opinion, a Gallio or Pilate, who in heart cares not 
 for truth at all. A man who cares for truth, or 
 what he believes to be truth, as most Englishmen 
 still do (and the very bitterness of our party 
 warfare at once proves this ; for why so much 
 bickering and controversy about what is of no 
 moment ?), such an one will have a natural 
 feeling of jealousy about everything connected 
 with the truth which he has been accustomed 
 to respect or admire. He looks with fear and 
 suspicion upon whatever seems to threaten the 
 truth in the smallest of its circumstantials, or 
 to detract from his admiration of it. For example, 
 if a man has a friend, dearly loved, of whose 
 integrity he cannot doubt, or whose actions he 
 cannot believe wrong, he listens with distrust, 
 often with dislike, to anything which seems to 
 reflect upon the character of his friend. He feels 
 that he himself is concerned in the matter. This, 
 of course, is neither more nor less than a preju- 
 dice. Yet it is a prejudice which we love, which 
 none would wish another to be without, which 
 we ought to treat with delicacy, kindness, and
 
 68 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 
 
 gentleness, all the while thinking better of a man 
 for being actuated by it. 
 
 "Now, there are prejudices of precisely this 
 sort," at the present day, against many doctrines 
 and practices which we as Churchmen believe, 
 and by our own experience know to be good and 
 true. Some of these I intend to deal with, 
 gently and reverently. And may the good Lord, 
 my beloved brethren, Who alone can "make 
 men to be of one mind in an house," take away 
 from each one of us here assembled, and from all 
 others who name the Name of Christ, " all hatred 
 and prejudice and whatsoever else " doth still 
 so lamentably "hinder us from godly union and 
 concord." May He give unto us "the Spirit of 
 wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 
 the eyes of our understanding being enlightened," 
 that each one of us may no longer "judge after 
 the sight of his eyes, or after the hearing of his 
 ears," but may know, by a Divine teaching, what 
 is " the hope of his calling ; " and, having a " right 
 judgment in all things," may "approve things that 
 are excellent ; " and, being all of one mind and one 
 doctrine, may be "united in one holy bond of 
 truth and peace, of faith and charity," to the 
 praise and glory of God through Jesus Christ. 
 
 The first prejudice to be noticed is one against 
 the doctrine of the one Catholic and Apostolic 
 Church; and in this article we include all those
 
 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 69 
 
 peculiar doctrines which are designated Church 
 doctrines or sacramental ones; as, for instance, 
 that the two sacraments are real channels of grace 
 to the soul; that the ministers of the Church 
 are priests under Christ ; that, without an act 
 of consecration by a priest, there is no true 
 sacrament; that the benediction and absolution 
 of a priest are, by Divine appointment, effectual 
 means of grace ; that, in confirmation, the gift 
 of the Holy Ghost is vouchsafed "by the laying 
 on " of the bishop's hands ; and the like. Against 
 this whole class of doctrines, or against the one 
 doctrine of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, 
 with which they are, in idea, inseparably bound 
 up, there is this great prejudice in many persons' 
 minds, " that they lead us away from Christ." I 
 do not say you, brethren, have this prejudice to 
 the same extent as other people, or even at all. 
 It would be very strange, indeed, if you had. For 
 what has been the teaching of this place for many 
 years past but the teaching of the Church ? What 
 has been put forward here most prominently 
 during the last three years but the system of the 
 Church, i.e. a sacramental one ? And yet can 
 any one of all those who have habitually attended 
 in this house for the last three years, and have 
 recognised the importance of sacraments, and other 
 (sacramental) means of grace, by constantly fre- 
 quenting them, say that during this time he has
 
 70 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 
 
 been " led aivay from Christ " ? Because we have 
 often spoken to you of the " blessedness of being in 
 the Church," i.e. in Scripture language, " the body 
 of Christ," have we let you " forget its Head " ? 
 Because we " dwelt much upon sacraments as 
 the channels of His grace," have we therefore 
 allowed you to " forget the ' Fountain of all Good- 
 ness,' of Whose grace they are the channels " ? 
 Because you have been taught to believe that 
 " Holy Baptism conveyed a new life to infants," 
 did we lead you "to suppose that that life and 
 grace must remain in the careless and evil liver " ? 
 Because you have been instructed " that the Holy 
 Eucharist is to the faithful receiver the ' Body and 
 Blood of Christ/ " have we ever implied that " it 
 was so in any other way than by virtue of the 
 Word of Christ, or was life, not death, to the 
 profane " ? Because we have taught you that a 
 power of benediction and absolution is entrusted 
 to the priesthood, i.e. that we are commissioned 
 at our ordination, and by virtue of it, to bless the 
 people of God among whom we minister; and 
 have also "power and commandment to declare 
 and pronounce to that people the absolution and 
 remission of their sins;" because you have been 
 told this, have you for one moment been allowed 
 to suppose that that power is more than minis- 
 terial ; or, if judicial, in this sense only, that 
 the priest must exercise his own judgment and
 
 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES, ^l 
 
 discretion in using it ; but that in no way, for one 
 moment, can he release the individual conscience 
 from responsibility, or render the penitent less 
 accountable for every action at the day of doom, 
 when he hopes to receive from the lips of the 
 Great High Priest Himself that final absolution 
 of which all others are foretastes and assurances ? 
 Because we spoke of fasting, and urged you to 
 listen to the Church's voice commanding, in the 
 name of her Lord, the observance of Lent, and 
 vigils, and other penitential days, did we ever 
 advise you to do more than what Christ enjoined, 
 and Apostles found most needful, for the subjec- 
 tion of the flesh ? Did we ever insist on such 
 exercises as in themselves meritorious, or as pos- 
 sessing any efficacy whatever, except when coupled 
 with frequent earnest prayer and self-denying 
 alms-deeds, to raise the soul to heaven ? Because 
 we have bidden you to festivals, has it been with 
 any other object than to celebrate the glory of 
 Christ in His saints ("not the martyrs, but the 
 God of the martyrs," as they said of old), and to 
 bring you forth into the house of God, in the 
 voice of praise and thanksgiving, among such as 
 keep holy day ? 
 
 Because we have had frequent daily services, 
 with " plain song " and comely ceremonial, have 
 we ever aimed at anything more than making this 
 church in very deed a house of prayer, and trying
 
 72 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 
 
 to worship God after the custom of our fathers, 
 who bent their knees in His sanctuary seven times 
 a day, and praised Him with " the voice of melody," 
 " in the beauties of holiness " ? Have we ever 
 wished that you should enter these courts, except 
 with the "desire and longing" of David, with 
 " heart and flesh rejoicing in the Living God " ? 
 or for mere form's sake, and not with a childlike 
 trust in the Divine promise, that here Christ is in 
 the midst of His worshippers, here He is " made 
 known " to the faithful soul " in the Breaking of 
 Bread," here He is found of them that seek Him 
 " the Succour of the succourless, the Hope of the 
 hopeless, the Saviour of the tempest-tost," " a 
 Hiding-place from the wind," " the Shadow of a 
 great rock in a weary land " ? 
 
 And have not some of you oh, dear little flock ! 
 poor indeed in the gold of Arabia, but rich in the 
 incense of prayer and praise, and the myrrh of a 
 mortified life, day by day " knelt before the King's 
 Son," and now know beyond a doubt that they 
 who trust in Him are "hid privily by His own 
 presence from the provoking of all men, kept 
 secretly in His tabernacle from the strife of 
 tongues " ? Is not God's holy place, in a way 
 ineffable, the gate of heaven, " where the wicked 
 cease from troubling, and the weary are at 
 rest"? 
 
 You, brethren, have all along been well assured
 
 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 73 
 
 of the real effect of our teaching, viz. that so far 
 from " leading you away from Christ," it has ever 
 led fyou to Him ; is the only way in which He 
 Himself, and not the Church, nor her ministers, 
 can engage chief attention, and catch the eye from 
 every quarter, as the one fixed centre, round which 
 all sacraments, ordinances, prayers, preachings 
 ceaselessly revolve. 
 
 He Himself is the great beacon-light in the 
 house built upon the rock; the waves of this 
 troublesome world continually dash themselves 
 at its base, hoarsely roaring ; and the frail bark of 
 your spiritual life might ever and anon have been 
 in danger from the whirlpools of sin, or the rocks 
 of presumption, or the blasts of vain doctrine, or 
 from a pilotage, which however sure and skilful in 
 your own eyes, is still human, and therefore liable 
 to err ; you might, I say, before now, have been 
 in grievous danger on the sea of life, and even 
 made shipwreck of your souls, had we, your 
 teachers, left you at any time to trust to your- 
 selves or others, and not urged you to gaze fixedly 
 on the One Beacon, raised on high, whose light, 
 unchanging in itself, streams forth with a variable 
 splendour over the waste of waters, now bright 
 and dazzling, now dimmed and almost hidden, but 
 is known, by blessed experience, to be an unfailing, 
 unerring guide to the haven of rest where contrite, 
 humble souls desire to be.
 
 74 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 
 
 But what has been so plain to you, and espe- 
 cially to those who with meekness and reverence 
 and pure affection receive our word, is not plain 
 to thousands of others, who have never enjoyed 
 such teaching, but have perhaps been brought up 
 under a system differing essentially from ours, and 
 inJierit deep prejudices against it. To them the 
 full sacramental system of the Church is identical 
 alas! that the word should be spoken with 
 popery ; and of course all who teach it, and carry 
 it out consistently in their daily lives, are little 
 better than Papists they have been even called 
 Jesuits in disguise. This could never have been 
 said, had not prejudice in favour of their own 
 system, and prejudice, i.e. a pre-judgment against 
 the Church's scriptural, evangelical system pre- 
 vented these weak brethren from seeing clearly 
 the real character of the latter. And the reason 
 of this, apart from early training, the influence of 
 favourite teachers, and the bias of a man's own 
 will, which always inclines to that which is most 
 human, and instinctively shuns whatever is high, 
 and awful, and sacramental, and Divine, the 
 main reason of this perhaps consists in the dis- 
 position to " dwell only on portions of the Bible, 
 to pick and choose and assort and systematise 
 certain favourite doctrines of Holy Scripture," to 
 put them forward as articles of a Creed, under the 
 sanction of the venerated name who first deemed
 
 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 75 
 
 them exclusively important. Thus it has come to 
 pass, men trusting too much to human teachers 
 and human means, have forgotten the Divinely 
 appointed system of the Church, and are now 
 positively "afraid of it, and that too for the 
 strangest and newest of all reasons, because it 
 leads them from Christ." How wonderful a thing 
 is prejudice ! how blinding ! " Surely on the very 
 first view of this matter, they ought to say it 
 cannot be true. It must be a prejudice ; a pre- 
 judice doing a great deal of harm, yet to be re- 
 spected, because of the good things out of which 
 it comes." 
 
 " A person unaccustomed to the Church's system 
 is not unfrequently struck at the perpetual recur- 
 rence of the word ' Church ' in the sermons, the 
 writings, and even the conversation of those who 
 differ from him, or at least think they differ. But 
 he soon gets a step further than this. He sees 
 that not only does this word ' Church ' come in 
 very frequently, but that it comes in, in most 
 cases, where he would have used one or other of 
 our Saviour's names. If he is a hasty, proud, or 
 uncandid man, he dismisses the matter at once, 
 and rests, where shallow and uncharitable reli- 
 gionists delight to rest, in an appropriate pithy 
 mis-quotation of Holy Scripture. For instance, 
 confounding, as is not uncommon, Jewish things 
 and Christian things, such a man would imagine
 
 76 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 
 
 that he had at once accounted for, answered and 
 condemned this language by the words of Jere- 
 miah, ' The temple of the Lord, the temple of the 
 Lord, the temple of the Lord are these ; ' for- 
 getting that on the other side it might with equal 
 reason be said, ' Not every one that saith unto 
 Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven ; ' or that other sentence of rebuke, ' Many 
 will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we 
 not prophesied in Thy Name, and in Thy Name 
 have cast out devils, and in Thy Name have done 
 many wonderful works ? And then will I profess 
 unto them, I never knew you : depart from Me, 
 ye that work iniquity.' " " Such is the use some 
 Christians nowadays make of the Word of 
 Almighty God ! They make epigrams out of it. 
 With these men we can have nothing to do. There 
 are others who are pained at the frequency of the 
 word ' Church,' and, as it seems to them, the in- 
 frequency of the holy Name Jesus." Many 
 persons have this most unaccountable prejudice, 
 that unless we very often use that Name at which 
 devils tremble, angels bow, the true Gospel is not 
 preached; in other words, faithfulness, in their 
 opinion, consists in doing a thing which, in our 
 opinion, is nothing less than taking God's Name 
 in vain. Between these persons and Church 
 views there is standing just this one prejudice. 
 A jealousy of the Church, lest it should lead us,
 
 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 77 
 
 our thoughts, our hopes, and our affections from 
 Christ. Now, this shows that these love their 
 Master truly, sincerely, fervently. They are good 
 and pious people ; and although another may 
 think their love not according to knowledge, yet 
 he must have a cold, dull, ungenerous heart if he 
 does not feel drawn towards them, seeing that they 
 do really love their Saviour with so much warmth 
 and simplicity. They, like Mary, have chosen 
 the good part. They have seated themselves at 
 the feet of Jesus ; and they look upon this doctrine 
 of the Church, and Church forms, and Church 
 Sacraments, as something which, like a veil, will 
 separate them from Christ ; " something which 
 will allure them from that one spot where alone 
 grace is ever dropping from the anointed Son of 
 God; something of human invention with the 
 marks of man's wisdom and man's intellect about 
 it ; something which if admitted will distract the 
 Evangelical singleness of their hearts." Alas ! 
 that such persons, with all their zeal, their patience, 
 their faith in Christ, their works and labour of 
 love, their high estimate of truth, " should think 
 so. Yet to speak harshly or bitterly of them to 
 say high and scornful things of them" to lay 
 to their charge things, base and vile, which they 
 know not "to argue them down," or without 
 argument, but a great deal of prejudice, to declaim 
 against them in public, among unbelievers, as
 
 78 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 
 
 deceivers, hypocrites, betrayers of their Master, all 
 this would be to act, not as gentlemen, still less 
 as Christians, but as I have no word sufficiently 
 expressive of pain and astonishment which will 
 characterise such conduct it is to treat those who 
 are brethren, Christ's children quite as much as 
 you and I, as He has foretold the world would 
 treat them with contumely, disdain, and bitter 
 persecution ; and, therefore, so far from convincing 
 such brethren of the error of their ways, or leading 
 them to a clearer knowledge of the truth, such 
 treatment is certain only to confirm them in their 
 prejudices, to make them more bigoted than ever, 
 and compel them to set their faces like a flint 
 against every overture for reconciliation ; for they 
 possess evidence overpowering that they are in- 
 deed disciples of Him who was called a Deceiver, 
 and rejected of men, and Who by His Psalmist 
 foretold, that He should be " compassed about 
 with words of hatred and fought against without 
 a cause." 
 
 No ! beloved, let the world and men of the world 
 let unbelievers, and men of no creed but the 
 comprehensive one of religious indifference let 
 these speak and rail as they will ; this is not the 
 Christian way of meeting prejudices, exposing error, 
 and upholding truth. We are bound, as we value 
 men's souls, and really love the truth, and do not 
 stand up for the world's applause as clever but
 
 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 79 
 
 shallow champions of it, we are bound, as Chris- 
 tians and followers of Him who is love, as well as 
 truth, Incarnate, to display towards all men, even 
 the basest and most deceitful, not more the wisdom 
 of the serpent, than the meekness, the softness, the 
 peculiar tenderness of the dove. We are bound to 
 show those who most differ from us in matters of 
 Church doctrine and Church discipline " that our 
 love for Christ is as strong and fresh, as jealous and 
 vigorous as theirs : but that we express it, whether 
 in speaking or acting, in a different way ; and that 
 our reason for so doing is only because we think 
 the different way the scriptural, Divine way ; and, 
 as such, more free from error, more full and satis- 
 fying and spiritual ; and, because it springs from 
 obedience, more acceptable in the sight of Him 
 Whom we all adore and love. Surely, if a man 
 would take his Bible, and Book of Common Prayer, 
 and patiently unfold all this from them both, many 
 who now start back from the Church, as if it were 
 a substitute for Christ, would come in gladly to the 
 old and Apostolic view of it, when they found that 
 Christ was ever there, clearer, brighter, more full 
 of promises, more abounding in every gift " of hope, 
 of strength, and consolation, " than elsewhere ; and 
 that we are enabled to get closer to Him than we 
 otherwise could do ; " yea, to be, in an ineffable 
 manner, one with Him, which no other system but 
 a sacramental one can effect, or even dreams of.
 
 8o PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 
 
 Unhappily, the Church of Rome, our old enemy, 
 remains our enemy still, inasmuch as she is the 
 cause, or one great cause, of so many prejudices 
 existing in people's minds against Church doctrines. 
 
 Men nowadays seem to believe that everything 
 ancient and primitive, high and sacramental, must, 
 by the nature of the case, be Roman and nothing 
 else. And yet, what is this but a prejudice, a deep- 
 rooted prejudice, which will cling to some persons 
 to their dying day; and which others will only 
 give up by most slow degrees, after the most perse- 
 vering, the most painstaking, the most loving 
 attempts have been made over and over again to 
 show them wherein their own error lies, and the 
 full measure of the truth really consists ? 
 
 And one reason of this is, that men when young 
 have not had the full truth, as the Church teaches 
 it, laid before them ; they have too much listened 
 to favourite teachers, and forgot that the best of 
 men are, after all, only the representatives and 
 spokesmen of the Church, whose teaching, as it is 
 embodied in the Prayer-book, should ever be the 
 standard of their own. And another reason is, 
 that they have necessarily a very imperfect know- 
 ledge of the errors of Rome and the real truth 
 mixed with those errors, and of the grounds on 
 which, as Churchmen, we should reject the one, and 
 retain and appreciate the other. No wonder that 
 men have such prejudices against the Church and
 
 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES, 81 
 
 her doctrines, when they will not even allow that 
 the Communion of Rome, abroad, is a Church, 
 although here in this country it is rightly judged a 
 schismatical body, and nothing else. This assertion 
 shows such an amount of ignorance and prejudice, 
 that the person making it is quite unqualified to 
 deal impartially with the subject, or in other matter 
 to recognise the truth. But this is not the only 
 point on which a prejudice exists. Men believe 
 and teach that the doctrine of Sacraments is popish ; 
 that Baptismal Regeneration is popish (which is the 
 more remarkable as it is the doctrine, undoubtedly, 
 of the Prayer-book) ; that the Church's teaching on 
 the other sacrament viz. the Body and Blood of 
 Christ are verily and indeed given by the priest, 
 taken and received by the faithful, in the Lord's 
 Supper this doctrine, although in the Catechism, 
 and every page of the Communion Office, is yet 
 denounced as popish, and mistaken for the novel 
 dogma of Transubstantiation, although really as 
 old as Christianity itself. If this has been the 
 opinion of any of you, let me ask whether you 
 know really and truly what Transubstantiation is, 
 or have you only been supplied with some loose 
 and popular definition of it ? If any confound the 
 doctrine of the Catechism with Transubstantiation, 
 he is profoundly ignorant, not only of theology, 
 but of the commonest facts of history. For who 
 does not know that our own reformer, Ridley, died 
 
 G
 
 82 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 
 
 at the stake for denying the Roman doctrine, but 
 maintaining the one which is in the Prayer-book, 
 and which we believe to be true ? 
 
 Again, prejudice is strong, very strong, against 
 the doctrine of Absolution and Confession; and 
 yet the latter is not merely recommended to all 
 persons of weak and tender conscience in the Com- 
 munion Office, but in the " Visitation of the Sick " 
 the priest is expressly enjoined to examine the sick 
 person respecting his repentance, and finding him 
 truly penitent is to absolve him of all his sins, if 
 he heartily desire it. Now there is a strong preju- 
 dice against these two doctrines ; and the ground 
 on which it rests has, I fear, been in great measure 
 prepared by the Church of Rome. People who 
 know not by experience what is the inestimable 
 blessing of confession such as our Church enjoins, 
 nor the peace and strength and confidence which 
 absolution, rightly administered and rightly 
 received, imparts to the weary and heavy laden 
 such persons in declaiming against these catholic 
 usages speak without knowledge, without experi- 
 ence, against knowledge, against experience ; from 
 prejudice, excusable, perhaps, but most mistaken. 
 Is there anything unscriptural or hateful to God 
 and man in a person consulting with his proper 
 pastor about the state of his soul, in unburdening 
 his griefs and "receiving the benefit of abso- 
 lution together with ghostly counsel and advice to
 
 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 83 
 
 the quieting of his conscience and the avoiding 
 of all scruple and doubtfulness " ? Thank God, 
 there are many who never would have been 
 (as far as they can see) what they are, but for 
 their belief and practice in this respect. And if 
 you ask us, the ministers of Christ, who teach 
 this doctrine, and dare not withhold it, because 
 we know there is a necessity laid upon us by 
 the Church to receive all who willingly come to 
 us, and whom to refuse to receive would be a 
 cruelty for which there could be scarcely any 
 atonement if you ask us what grounds we have 
 for thinking this means of grace of such impor- 
 tance, we reply : " There is no one part of all our 
 ministry which God has so distinctly, visibly 
 blessed. If there be one part of our office, as to 
 the fruits of which we look with hopefulness and 
 joy to the day of judgment, it is to the visible 
 cleansing of souls, the deepened penitence, the 
 increased fervour, ' the repentance unto salvation 
 not to be repented of,' the hope in Christ, the fresh- 
 ness of grace, the joy of forgiven souls, the evident 
 growth in holiness, the angel-joy ' over each sinner 
 that repenteth/ which this ministry has disclosed 
 to us. We have often in the subsequent growth in 
 grace and ' transformation ' of the soul, by the 
 ' renewing of the mind,' not been able to recall to 
 ourselves the former self which we knew of, when 
 first a person sought to hear through our ministry,
 
 84 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 
 
 his Saviour's voice, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee; 
 go in peace : ' 
 
 ' In these a pastor dare delight, 
 A lamb-like, Christ-like throng ; ' 
 
 for His likeness has anew by Himself been traced 
 upon them. 
 
 " We have seen the reality of the work of the 
 Divine grace in their souls. We have seen it too 
 uniformly, too vividly, too variedly, too abounding 
 in manifold fruits, as ' God divideth to every one 
 severally as He will,' to have a shadow of a doubt 
 about it. To us all questioning seems like calling 
 in question the work of God the Holy Ghost, 
 ' which our own eyes have seen.' When we see 
 the dry and parched ground clad with verdure 
 which gladdens the eye, we doubt not that God 
 hath ' sent a gracious rain upon His inheritance, 
 and refreshed it when it was weary.' When we 
 see the fever abate, the wasted form recover 
 strength, the sunken eye look full and thankful to 
 Heaven, we doubt not of His hand Who ' bringeth 
 down to the ground and bringeth up.' When we 
 hear how one bowed down lifted up herself, how 
 the blind saw, the lepers were cleansed, the deaf 
 heard, we know from Whom virtue went forth to 
 heal them. When we see spiritual cures the 
 spiritual sight restored, the taste in heavenly things 
 given back, the senses deadened to the things of 
 sense ; the conscience once dulled, now tender : the
 
 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 85 
 
 proud heart like a little child ; the hardened heart 
 flow in tears of penitence ; the soul more alive to 
 its remaining infirmities, than it once was to whole 
 heaps of deep deadly sin : or that great triumph of 
 Divine power, where one becomes eminent for the 
 grace most opposed to his deepest besetting fault, 
 we must adore the miracles of Divine grace. Satan 
 does not cast out Satan. It was His Name, through 
 faith in His Name, which gave them their spiritual 
 life and power and victory in Him." 
 
 Brethren, I should be false to myself, false to 
 you to whom I ever wish to speak the truth, false 
 to those who have confided their sorrows to my 
 safe keeping, did I not now when the very 
 subject of prejudice requires me to notice the 
 chiefest of them speak out distinctly, and let you 
 know what I, nay, not I only, but far abler, more 
 experienced guides, really believe on this matter. 
 And why is there prejudice on this point ? Because 
 men think that confession of sin and absolution 
 are not only Roman ordinances, exclusively, but 
 also carried out in a Roman way. The truth is, 
 they are means of grace in the Catholic Church, 
 and so many could never have reaped the benefit 
 of them, or become such devout and earnest, such 
 pure and holy members of their Lord, had they 
 ever been carried out in any other way than as an 
 earnest and a realisation, and an exact miniature 
 (if possible) of the trial, and searching, and
 
 86 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 
 
 cleansing before the great Judge Himself at the day 
 of doom. 
 
 Brethren, I entreat you, cease to be prejudiced 
 except for what is really good, and what you have 
 yourselves proved and experienced to be good. 
 Blot these doctrines out of the Prayer-book, and 
 then with perfect consistency you may condemn 
 us and them. Speak against them, ridicule them, 
 hold up to reproach those who believe and practise 
 them, and you, as members of the Church of 
 England, with most daring inconsistency, are doing 
 the work, not of Rome, but the infidel. For who 
 will believe anything as truth, fixed and dogmatic, 
 when men, priests even, explain away or deny 
 altogether the plain meaning of their standard of 
 truth ? " O ye sons of men, how long will ye 
 blaspheme Mine honour, and have such pleasure in 
 vanity, and seek after leasing ? " 
 
 And what is more likely to drive a person out 
 of our Church than to be told that these plain 
 doctrines of the Prayer-book are unscriptural and 
 wrong ; only Roman ? The person so addressed will 
 beyond all doubt repudiate the former epithets, 
 but too probably accept and act upon the latter. 
 He will say, If the priests of the English Church, 
 but especially my own parish priest, will not allow 
 me to consult them about the state of my soul, let 
 me unburden my griefs to them, put myself under 
 their care and guidance, and in the end give me
 
 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 87 
 
 absolution all which things the very instincts of 
 my regenerate nature assure me to be good and 
 lawful and true, if I cannot get this from my 
 appointed pastors, I must go elsewhere for it. Such 
 will be the lamentable consequence of this preju- 
 dice to many weak brethren : not that such persons 
 would be justified in their secession (nothing but 
 a voice from heaven, perhaps not even that, can 
 justify that step : no man's salvation depends 
 necessarily on private absolution; whereas, if he 
 commit an act of schism, he imperils his soul) ; but 
 I am speaking of weak consciences, of burdened 
 ones ; and who will be hasty to condemn such as 
 these in flying to what they believe the only source 
 of relief? 
 
 Brethren, if any of you care not for these bless- 
 ings in the English Church, condemn not those 
 who value and know how to use them. Let not 
 another's liberty gall and fret your conscience. 
 Beware of prejudices; remember that you are 
 Englishmen, whose boast is, you are enlightened, 
 dispassionate, rational, consistent, unprejudiced, 
 without partiality, and oh, may I not say, there- 
 fore without hypocrisy ? If you have prejudices, 
 you are partial; if you are partial, you will be 
 inconsistent ; and if you are inconsistent, will you 
 not try, for very shame's sake, to appear consistent, 
 and only gain that appearance at the expense of 
 truth in other words, by becoming hypocrites ?
 
 88 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 
 
 " The wisdom that is from above is first pure, 
 then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, 
 full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, 
 and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteous- 
 ness is sown in peace of them that make peace. 
 
 "Finally, be ye all of one mind, having com- 
 passion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, 
 be courteous " (the very character of a Christian 
 gentleman). " Not rendering evil for evil, or rail- 
 ing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing 
 that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit 
 a blessing. 
 
 " For he that will love life, and see good days, 
 let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips 
 that they speak no guile : let him eschew evil, 
 and do good : let him seek peace, and ensue it. 
 
 " For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, 
 and His ears are open unto their prayers : but the 
 face of the Lord is against them that do evil. 
 
 "And who is he that will harm you, if ye be 
 followers of that which is good ? 
 
 "But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, 
 happy are ye : and be not afraid of their terror, 
 neither be troubled ; but sanctify the Lord God in 
 your hearts : and be ready always to give an answer 
 to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope 
 that is in you with meekness and fear : 
 
 " Having a good conscience ; that, whereas they 
 speak evil of you, as of evil-doers, they may be
 
 PREJUDICE AGAINST CHURCH PRINCIPLES. 89 
 
 ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation 
 in Christ. 
 
 " For it is better, if the will of God be so, that 
 ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. For 
 Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for 
 the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being 
 put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the 
 Spirit. . . . Who is gone into heaven, and is on 
 the right hand of God ; angels and authorities and 
 powers being made subject unto Him."
 
 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 
 
 "And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, 
 Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let My people go, that they 
 may hold a feast unto Me in the wilderness. 
 
 " And Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His 
 voice to let Israel go ? I know not the Lord, neither will I let 
 Israel go." EXOD. v. 1, 2. 
 
 SEE here, Christian brethren, what a creature, 
 weak, fallible, and mortal as man, comes to, when 
 he is raised to high worldly position, and exercises 
 influence, and wields power in God's world, over 
 God's creatures, apart from God, independent of 
 God. Pride, intense superhuman pride, possesses 
 him. The plain commands of God are openly set 
 at defiance. The very existence of God is ignored, 
 or impiously questioned and denied. " Who is the 
 Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go ? 
 I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." 
 In other words : " Am I not Pharaoh, the King of 
 Egypt, that mighty kingdom, the first of the 
 nations in civilisation, in wealth, in learning, in 
 law, in conquest, in religion, to whom these 
 Israelites are a despised and abominable race of
 
 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 91 
 
 slaves ? Who is their God, that I should care for 
 Him, or fear Him ? As His people are, so is He. 
 I rule His people, and they crouch before the 
 meanest of my servants ; and shall I obey Him ? 
 No ! He is beneath my notice. I have no 
 evidence before me that He is a Power in the 
 world at all ; or that He even exists. I know not 
 the Lord; and I shall not obey Him. Here in 
 Egypt my will is law : I am supreme. I shall not, 
 I will not let Israel go." 
 
 So do the Pharaohs, so do the Jabins, the 
 Siseras, Sennacheribs, Nebuchadnezzars, Belshazzars, 
 Caesars of this world array themselves in their 
 pride and self-sufficiency and unbelief against 
 Him from Whom alone they derive power, by 
 Whose permission alone they reign " the great 
 and only Potentate, the King of kings, the Lord 
 of lords." They are His creatures formed out of 
 the dust by His hand ; they are endowed by Him 
 with great faculties and powers, and are placed by 
 Him in positions of vast influence for the ruling 
 of empires and the carrying out of His counsels 
 towards the world and His Church : and yet these 
 men, blinded by pride, intoxicated with worldly 
 glory, recognising no will but their own, with 
 fleets and armies ready to execute their smallest 
 bidding, and no subject daring to disobey these 
 men, as all Scripture and Church history testify, 
 regard not the voice of God coming to them
 
 92 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 
 
 through His prophets, resist His will when He 
 tells them He would set His people free, go on 
 enslaving or persecuting His Church, go on 
 obstinately closing their eyes to the tokens of 
 Divine interference around their path, harden their 
 hearts, through the encouragement of false prophets, 
 under the increasing severity of the plagues with 
 which an offended God scourges them, until the 
 appointed time in God's counsels has arrived, " the 
 year of His redeemed is come," when Israel goes 
 out of his bondage with a high hand; while the 
 haughty oppressor, glad to be rid of him, is laid 
 low ; becomes " the basest of the kingdoms," never 
 to rise again. 
 
 But perhaps some of you may be thinking 
 What is all this to us ? We are not great potentates 
 like Pharaoh, with armies at our command and 
 slaves at our feet. We are the loyal subjects of a 
 Queen who rules us with fixed laws, and we 
 willingly obey her mild sway. We are Christians 
 living in a Christian country, worshipping the God 
 of our fathers peaceably in the order of His 
 Church. We have never been in bondage to any 
 man, as the Israelites were. We have never defied 
 or blasphemed the Almighty, as Pharaoh did. 
 How then can the subject be profitable to us for 
 instruction or warning ? 
 
 Ah ! beloved brethren, you will perhaps be 
 surprised to hear me affirm that the conduct of
 
 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 93 
 
 Pharaoh, the oppression of the children of Israel, 
 finds its parallel amongst ourselves in this age, in 
 more ways than one. 
 
 For instance, Pharaoh is the type of the proud, 
 worldly man the successful man of business, 
 sharp, shrewd, irreligious; who has known how 
 to get on in the world by his own efforts, and to 
 enrich himself at the expense of others whom he 
 has been clever enough to make his tools and 
 victims. Many a merchant or tradesman has so 
 got rich through the moral weakness of his 
 apprentices and dependents whom he has compelled 
 to lie for him, and to deal falsely, or to leave his 
 employment. Many a lawyer has so acquired 
 possessions by taking advantage of the ignorance 
 and insuspicion of his clients. And when 
 remonstrated with for his hard dealings, such an 
 one laughs aloud at the simplicity of mankind ; 
 congratulates himself that the spoils are safe ; and 
 resolves that he will enjoy them in his retirement 
 for many a year, and that no one shall disturb his 
 ease, or make him afraid. So that even when 
 some Moses comes before him and speaks of mercy 
 or judgment, suggests restitution and alms, or 
 warDs of the anger of One, " a Father of the 
 fatherless and a Judge of the widows," Who hates 
 robbery and oppression, he only hardens his heart 
 under the reproof of the man of God, " strengthens 
 himself in his wickedness," asking secretly, " Who
 
 94 THE PROFANE NESS OF PHARAOH. 
 
 is the Lord, that I should obey His voice ? to let " 
 all my hard-earned gains "go? I know not the 
 Lord." I have never known Him. I will not be 
 just and honest: I will not yield and make 
 restitution : I will not humble myself and repent 
 in slavish fear of the dream of future punishment 
 I will not obey His voice. 
 
 Or, Pharaoh may be taken as an example of all 
 those who love this world, its prizes, and pleasures ; 
 to whose consciences, nevertheless, the Holy Spirit 
 of God sooner or later speaks plainly, requiring 
 them to give up some object of temporal advantage 
 or attachment which is keeping them back from 
 Him ; and they cannot make up their minds fully 
 to surrender the object and to let it go. All such 
 persons, if they would examine the state of their 
 souls in the briefest manner, would find out that 
 they have " an evil heart of unbelief " as truly as 
 Pharaoh had. It may not be so hard, so grasping, 
 so forgetful of others, so unbelieving, so impiously 
 wicked as Pharaoh's, but still it is the evil heart of 
 pride, worldliness, independence, unbelief. Why, 
 think they, should I give up this advantage, this 
 pleasure, this object of sinful affection? Why 
 cannot I keep it, and be kind and honest, and say 
 my prayers, and serve God, and keep the Command- 
 ments, in an ordinary way, just as well as if I let 
 it go ? Doubtless this was the way in which 
 Herod argued with himself when the holy Baptist
 
 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 95 
 
 fearlessly warned him, " It is not lawful for thee 
 to have thy brother's wife." Very probably the 
 rich young man reasoned thus with himself when 
 our Lord cut at the very root of his self-complacency 
 with, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that 
 thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt 
 have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." 
 There is the pride, the independence, the self- 
 pleasing of Pharaoh in all such cases: there is 
 the heart which clings to this world, which loves 
 this world more than God, which will not believe 
 what the Lord hath spoken : " If any man will come 
 after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his 
 cross daily, and follow Me." " Where your treasure 
 is, there will your heart be also." 
 
 Or again, Pharaoh represents to us the man in 
 authority, who has rule over others and can exact 
 their obedience. And this he does in a rude, coarse, 
 overbearing way, without one thought or feeling 
 of consideration for others. Many a master of a 
 family is thus "a lion in his house, and frantic 
 among his servants." Many a master of a school, 
 many an officer in the army and navy, is such a 
 Pharaoh, making his own will law, and resolved 
 that none thwart or disobey him with impunity. 
 Sic volo, sic jubeo. Aye, many a boy at school, 
 many a girl at home, plays the petty tyrant over 
 their weaker fellows. Many a so-called Christian 
 lady wears out the temper and the life of her
 
 96 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 
 
 obsequious servants with her sharp tongue and 
 hard exactions, caring no more for their souls or 
 bodies than Pharaoh cared for oppressed, degraded 
 Israel. 
 
 Thus we might go on, and see how in all grades 
 of society there are Pharaohs, male and female, of 
 every age ; proud, worldly, selfish, self-indulgent, 
 unbelieving, who are always ready to return 
 answer to the monitor who on religious grounds 
 reasons with and corrects them : " Who is the 
 Lord, that I should obey His voice ? " and change 
 my conduct, and no longer please myself, but be 
 kind and considerate, unselfish and humble, and 
 do to all men, especially to those under me, who 
 are timid, weak, and helpless, as I would they 
 should do to me ? I know not this new doctrine 
 of courtesy and forbearance, self-control, meekness, 
 love. It is in the New Testament, I allow. But 
 I don't read much or often in so dry a Book. 
 Besides, we are told the Gospel is intended to 
 make us saints ; but I don't pretend to saintship. 
 I live in the world, and go with the world, so I 
 need not trouble myself with such strict notions. 
 "I know not the Lord;" and I will not, for I 
 cannot, " obey His voice." 
 
 But, leaving the cases of these obscure, ordinary 
 Pharaohs, let us look higher at the real Pharaohs 
 of the world, the masters of political power, the 
 kings of thought and the rulers of public opinion,
 
 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 97 
 
 as they stand out before us in word and deed at 
 the present time. 
 
 A word of caution, however, is first of all 
 necessary : First, do not imagine I am going to 
 bid you to look off from yourselves on to others, 
 especially those in high places, in order that we 
 may criticise their sins and failings, as if you and 
 I, brethren, had no share in them. That were 
 most unwise, unprofitable, and wrong. Alas! we 
 are all concerned in what I am about to call 
 attention to. And we are all, in this free country, 
 responsible before God, for the wrong-doings of 
 those in authority, unless we repudiate in every 
 possible way and with the whole energy of our 
 wills, whatever we know and see in their public 
 acts which is contrary to the will of God, and 
 dishonourable to Him. 
 
 Secondly, let no one accuse these statements 
 that follow of being simply political. No doubt 
 they have a bearing upon worldly politics, as 
 all religious truth has, as the greater portion of 
 God's Word, in the Old Testament, bears upon 
 them. For the Church is in the world for the 
 very purpose of her probation and the world's 
 condemnation ; and she comes in contact with the 
 world, and the world resists her influence and 
 oppresses and enslaves her. Her whole existence, 
 in consequence, is one great battle with the world, 
 if she be true to her liege Lord : just as in God's 
 
 H
 
 98 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 
 
 Book we read how Egypt and Canaan, Assyria, 
 Greece, Rome, behaved themselves towards the 
 ancient people of God, and how God in return 
 signally judged them. 
 
 Thirdly, let not any one say that such a subject 
 is not suitable at this peculiarly holy season of 
 meditation on our Lord's passion. For our Lord 
 is still persecuted and dishonoured by the world 
 in His Church. The world is now ignorantly 
 crucifying His truth. Pilate is asking in indiffer- 
 ence or contempt, " What is truth ? " 
 
 Consider, then, what is the attitude of the world 
 and the Pharaohs of the world towards God's 
 Church at the present time. Very much what it 
 has ever been in every age from the day of 
 Pharaoh onwards one of instinctive antagonism 
 (for the spirit of the world is entirely opposed to 
 the mind of Christ), one of suspicion, hatred, fear ; 
 out of which has sprung a determination, in self- 
 defence, to keep down the Church; to deprive 
 her of liberty; to ignore her supernatural cha- 
 racter ; to reject her claims to be the one channel 
 of God's grace, the one witness of God's truth to 
 the nation; and to put her on a level with the 
 sects around her, to reduce her even to a depart- 
 ment of the State, make her a subservient creature 
 of the Civil Government. Hence it is that suc- 
 cessive Governments with very few exceptions 
 have regarded her offices as prizes of political
 
 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 99 
 
 importance, rather than centres of spiritual influence 
 for the good of souls and the extension of Christ's 
 kingdom ; and they have bestowed bishoprics, 
 deaneries, and other preferments, not always on 
 those whom the Church herself would have 
 selected for the work or honour. Hence, too, the 
 deaf ear which has been turned again and again 
 to all petitions from the Church for an increase 
 of her episcopate, an expansion of the working 
 powers of her convocation, and (not to mention 
 other things) an alteration of the Court of Final 
 Appeal in matters of doctrine that Court in which 
 the State, not the Church, now declares what 
 clergy she will legally recognise and uphold as 
 teachers of religion in her establishment, what 
 doctrines she will permit to be taught, without 
 legal hindrance or temporal loss, whatever the 
 Church in her formularies or by the voice of her 
 synods may say to the contrary. 
 
 Thus it is that the world at the present time is 
 actuated towards the Church, unconsciously but 
 truly, instinctively, by the very same spirit which 
 moved Pharaoh of old to reduce the children 
 of Israel to bondage, because he was afraid of them ; 
 and to keep them in bondage, because they had 
 become profitable to him. 
 
 The Church, Christian brethren, is now asking 
 to be set free to do her Lord's bidding in the 
 promotion of His glory in the world, and in caring
 
 loo THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 
 
 for the souls of the myriads of the unconverted He 
 died to save from eternal damnation. She wants 
 to take them forth out of Egypt into the wilderness, 
 to keep High Festival before her Lord, as on Easter 
 Day ; and Moses and Aaron go in unto Pharaoh, 
 and point out how certainly the Divine judgments 
 are hanging over our heads, so long as God's will is 
 not regarded, and no adequate effort is made to 
 meet the appalling spiritual destitution of millions 
 of our countrymen ; but all the answer they get is, 
 " No ! ' fulfil your works, your daily tasks ; ' ' get you 
 to your burdens ; ' ' ye are idle, ye are idle ; ' at all 
 events, I will not help you, I will not set you free." 
 Nor is this all. I wish it were all ; I wish no 
 heavier charge could be laid at the door of the 
 Pharaohs of our State than that they disregard 
 the voice of the Church crying out in her bondage, 
 and refuse her aid, refuse her the same right of 
 self-government, and the same freedom of election 
 and action which the smallest, feeblest sect enjoys. 
 But as Pharaoh of old went on from one wickedness 
 to another, and advanced step by step from tyran- 
 nising over the people of the Lord, to the utmost 
 height of impiety ; and in and through resisting 
 their just, their inalienable claim to freedom, set at 
 nought the revealed will of God, and called in 
 question His very existence, even so, I fear, it is 
 now. There is, at least, something very like it. 
 I can place before you a very close parallel.
 
 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 101 
 
 Recall what the Legislature of this professedly 
 Christian country did in the matter of the Divorce 
 Bill. Surely, if there is a subject on which 
 the revealed will of God has most plainly come 
 to us from the lips of our Lord Himself, it 
 is, that divorce is entirely wrong; that marriage 
 with a woman divorced is adultery. If there is 
 a truth of God, to which the Church has borne 
 uniform, unmistakable witness from the beginning, 
 it is that Christian marriage is indissoluble ; 
 that man and wife are one, joined together 
 by God, and therefore not by man to be put 
 asunder. And yet what did the Parliament boldly 
 decree ? That man or woman might obtain 
 divorce for divers causes ; that he or she might 
 marry again in each other's lifetime; that the 
 State would legalise their adultery and uphold 
 them in it. And although Moses and Aaron, and 
 all the elders of our Israel, went to Pharaoh, and 
 said, " Thus saith the Lord ; " although eleven thou- 
 sand of the clergy petitioned against that Bill, on 
 the ground of its being directly contrary to the 
 teaching of the Church of Christ and His revealed 
 will, yet the only answer was the passing of the 
 Bill ; and the only answer up to this hour has been 
 the continuance of the Divorce Court, as a horrible 
 focus and sink ef defilement to the national 
 morality, as an instrument of iniquity and deadly 
 ruin to the souls and bodies of Christ's members,
 
 102 THE PRO FANE NESS OF PHARAOH, 
 
 an outrage to the holiness, a defiance of the will of 
 Almighty God. Now, was not this act of our 
 Legislature to reply in the words of the text, " Who 
 is the Lord, that I should obey His voice ? " What 
 is His voice to me ? I want a Divorce Court. I 
 want more room for my self-indulgence. I cannot 
 restrain my appetites, as the Gospel tells me. I 
 know nothing of the Gospel, nor of Christian 
 sanctity. "I know not the Lord" Jesus. I care 
 not for the Lord Jesus or His commands. I will 
 not obey His voice. 
 
 Christian brethren, followers of the Holy One, the 
 Crucified, is not this a subject for Lenten humili- 
 ation and repentance from this whole nation ? Is 
 not the pure and holy Jesus mocked, spitted on, 
 His ears filled with insults, His soul vexed with 
 the filthy conversation of the wicked, every time 
 this Court sits and hears causes ? Is He not 
 stripped again of His garments, and put to an open 
 shame, every time the hideous immoralities of 
 Christian adulterers and adulteresses are exposed in 
 open day ? Is He not regarded as a god of Egypt, 
 a nonentity on whom any unclean bird may sit and 
 plume itself, whenever His Word, which endures 
 for ever in heaven, is thus signally, ostentatiously 
 blotted out of the earth ; whenever His will is not 
 done by sinful men on earth as it is by the holy 
 angels in heaven ? Is there no call upon us, in 
 Passion-tide, to bewail in secret places the public
 
 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 103 
 
 indignity thus offered to our bound, our blindfolded, 
 our silent Master and Friend and Head ? 
 
 Again. Years ago the Church of England was 
 defending her doctrine of Baptismal grace against 
 a heresy which denied it. She had to take her 
 cause into the Court of Final Appeal a Court 
 which was never intended at the first to adjudicate 
 in spiritual causes ; and we all know how the case 
 was decided in favour of the heresy, against the 
 Church's truth. Although the Church bore witness 
 most plainly, " Thus saith the Lord ; " this is God's 
 voice about the grace of Holy Baptism, as He has 
 revealed it to us in His Word, and as His Church 
 has taught and guarded it from the very beginning 
 yet the decision of the Court was, practically It 
 shall henceforth, among clergy of the Church of 
 England, be an open question. Or more exactly 
 A minister of the English Establishment may 
 legally teach what he likes on this abstruse subject 
 either that grace is given or that grace is not 
 given in Holy Baptism and we will uphold him 
 in his teaching against all spiritual censure, and 
 secure his preferments. 
 
 But what was this decision of the highest judi- 
 cature of our land, but the very answer of Pharaoh 
 to the people of God: "Who is the Lord, that I 
 should obey His voice ? " I do not recognise His 
 Word as in any way guiding me in my judgment. 
 I do not regard as an authority the unchangeable
 
 104 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 
 
 faith of Christendom, once for all delivered to the 
 saints. I only concern myself with particular 
 documents of the Establishment. And, accordingly, 
 I decree according to the light of my reason ; or 
 rather, as I want to befriend the appellant, and give 
 a sanction to his opinion, I decree contrary to 
 reason as well as to faith, that henceforth the 
 doctrine of Baptism, vital, fundamental though it 
 be, shall be an open question. But is not this 
 the unbelief of mocking Pilate who asked of the 
 truth itself, " What is truth ? " Is not this crucify- 
 ing the truth ? May not you and I, brethren, by 
 approval and acquiescence, share the guilt of this 
 deed? Have we not reason this very Passion-tide 
 to pray, " Father, forgive them ; for they know not 
 what they do"? 
 
 Once more. Since then we have seen this 
 same Court, although not the same functionaries 
 composing it, sitting again as a Court of Appel- 
 late Jurisdiction on matters of even greater 
 moment and awfulness than the cardinal doctrine 
 of baptismal regeneration the inspiration of 
 Holy Scripture, the everlasting punishment of the 
 wicked. 
 
 Now, one would have thought that on subjects 
 of such unspeakable importance to the souls of 
 myriads, to the eternal salvation of men yet 
 unborn, mere laymen, however able and con- 
 scientious in their own province as judges of
 
 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 105 
 
 temporal rights and expounders of civil law (and 
 no one for a moment doubts their conscientiousness 
 and distinguished ability in such matters), yet 
 inasmuch as they make no pretensions to sacred 
 learning, have had no theological training, are 
 quite unfamiliar with the mind of the Church, 
 they would have held back from a rash handling 
 of sacred subjects, would have shrunk from 
 touching the ark of God's truth, as if it were a 
 common thing; or would have inquired of the 
 Church through her representative synod, or con- 
 vocation, what was the real and only meaning 
 of her formularies, the true faith once for all 
 delivered to the saints, of which she is the ap- 
 pointed witness and keeper, expounder and teacher 
 in God's Name; or at least, inasmuch as they 
 have owned their incompetency to act at all as a 
 spiritual tribunal, that they would have begged 
 the State, their mistress, to release them from the 
 perilous office of defining Church doctrine, or 
 harmonising conflicting theological statements, or 
 tampering with and explaining away God's truth. 
 But no; the Court would seem to prefer to 
 manipulate the dead letter rather than learn the 
 one truth from the living Voice: it proceeds to 
 judgment; and that judgment is once more in 
 favour of heresy and against God's truth. The 
 Bible, it says in effect, while arguing in support 
 of the appellant, is not so inspired as that all of
 
 106 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 
 
 it is to be received as the Word of God. The 
 punishment of the wicked need not be believed to 
 be so everlasting as that we may not entertain a 
 hope that they will escape from hell, and be 
 restored to God's favour. That is, although the 
 Lord hath said by the mouth of His Apostle that 
 " all Scripture, every Scripture, is given by in- 
 spiration of God;" "Holy men of God spake as 
 they were moved by the Holy Ghost;" although 
 the Truth Incarnate Himself has assured us, 
 " These (on the left hand) shall go away into 
 everlasting punishment," " into hell, into the fire 
 that never shall be quenched; where their worm 
 dieth not, and the fire is not quenched," yet this 
 Court leaves it undecided whether all Scripture 
 is inspired, whether the punishment of the wicked 
 is everlasting. But what is this but in very word 
 and deed to say with Pharaoh of old, " Who is the 
 Lord, that I should obey His voice ? " I know 
 not His voice. His utterances do not guide me, 
 do not influence me. I am only concerned to find 
 out the literal meaning of certain statements 
 in the Prayer-book, and to compare them with 
 other statements which are said to contradict 
 them. The Lord may say His Word is inspired, 
 and the punishment of the wicked endless, and 
 His Church may have always testified to these 
 doctrines as the truth of God, yet I decree, in 
 accordance with the principles which were laid
 
 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 107 
 
 down for guidance of this Court, that hence- 
 forth the clergy of the Church of England may 
 condradict these doctrines, at least so far as the 
 appellant has done, and that they may look to be 
 upheld by the full sanction of the law in their 
 contradiction. 
 
 Thus does the State, in jealously guarding the 
 temporal privileges of her establishment, proclaim 
 aloud by the mouth of a Court, which from the 
 first was incompetent to decide a spiritual cause, 
 and was never intended to entertain it, that she 
 regards those privileges (what are they but the 
 golden baits and chains with which she captivates 
 and enslaves the fallen bride of Christ ?) of more 
 importance in her eyes than the maintenance 
 of the Christian faith, or the vindication of God's 
 truth, or the freedom from sin and eternal blessed- 
 ness of His people. Thus she evinces her indiffer- 
 ence to truth or falsehood in matters of religion ; 
 and is practically teaching men the infidels' creed, 
 " There is no revelation of truth, no God of truth ; 
 there is no Christ ; no Lord." Thus is she prepar- 
 ing the way for the rapid approach of those last 
 dismal times when iniquity shall abound; when 
 truth shall fail, when justice and equity shall be 
 cast out, when the faith shall hardly be found in 
 the earth, when men shall deny the Lord that 
 bought them ; when the heathen of apostate 
 Christendom shall furiously rage, and the kings of
 
 108 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 
 
 the earth shall stand up, and the rulers take 
 counsel for the last rebellion against the Lord and 
 against His Christ, saying, "Let us break their 
 bands asunder, and cast away their cords from 
 us;" when the king shall appear, of whom the 
 proudest, mightiest Pharaohs are the types and 
 precursors ; who " shall do according to his own 
 will, and shall exalt himself, and magnify himself 
 above every god, and shall speak marvellous things 
 against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the 
 indignation be accomplished," taking away the daily 
 sacrifice, wearing out the saints of the Most High ; 
 when that dread being shall arise, the beast out 
 of the sea of nations, to whom the dragon will 
 " give his power and his seat and great authority ; " 
 who will " open his mouth in blasphemy against 
 God to blaspheme His Name ; " and it will be 
 " given unto him to make war with the saints, and 
 to overcome them, and power will be given him 
 over all kindreds and tongues and nations. And 
 all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, 
 whose names are not written in the book of life 
 of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
 world : " when unbelieving men, who reject the 
 miracles, and cannot appreciate the moral beauty 
 of the Gospel, will be utterly deceived by the 
 "lying wonders" with which the false prophet 
 shall support the pretensions of the false Christ; 
 and under an " energy of delusion," sent judicially
 
 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 109 
 
 by God Himself, shall " believe the lie," and do the 
 bidding and share the doom of the " lawless one 
 whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of 
 His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness 
 of His coming." O day of delusion ! in which 
 snares will be rained on the ungodly, and the very 
 elect will be all but deceived, and nothing but a 
 firm faith in the inspired Word of God, and a holy 
 mortified life, and the very seal of the living God 
 shall secure the poor of the flock from the great 
 water-flood, which will sweep away every house 
 not built up by consistent, loving obedience to the 
 crucified ; not founded in faith on the rock of His 
 incarnation and His eternal pre-existence in the 
 bosom of the Father. fearful day of worse than 
 Egyptian darkness ! when the Sun of Righteousness 
 shall not enlighten the world, when the moon shall 
 be eclipsed, and the stars in the Church's firma- 
 ment shall all be hid ; when the heart of Pharaoh 
 and of his servants shall be hardened more and 
 more as the avenging angels, one after another, 
 pour out of their vials the seven last plagues of 
 the wrath of Almighty God ; and men shall gnaw 
 their tongnes for pain, and shall " curse their King 
 and their God, and look upward," and shall seek 
 death, and it shall flee from them ; and nothing 
 will await them but the wrath of the Lamb, Whose 
 loving mercy they have despised ; nothing but to 
 drink of the cup of His indignation, and to be
 
 i io THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 
 
 tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence 
 of the holy angels, and in the presence of the 
 Lamb ! Lamb of God, that takest away the sin 
 of the world, have mercy upon us, and save us 
 from Thy wrath, now and everlastingly ! 
 
 I have pointed out to you, my Christian brethren, 
 some of the appalling consequences of State inter- 
 ference with the Church ; what an attitude of 
 impiety and rebellion against the Most High is 
 unconsciously adopted by the State when she 
 arrogates to herself a power, in her judicature, of 
 hearing spiritual causes, and in her Legislature, of 
 abrogating God's moral law, to suit the opinions 
 and pander to the lusts of a loose and unbelieving 
 age ! And mark ! all this profaneness of Pharaoh 
 is brought about by the unwillingness of the State 
 to set the Church free, and allow her to adjudicate 
 for herself in these spiritual causes, and to listen to 
 her voice and act upon it, whenever she plainly 
 witnesses by the mouth of her spirituality " thus 
 and thus hath the Lord spoken." 
 
 Christian brethren, this is a most painful subject 
 to me who speak, to you who hear. I would 
 gladly have been silent at such a season. But I 
 dare not. " A dispensation is committed unto 
 me ; " " necessity is laid upon me ; yea, woe is unto 
 me, if I preach not the Gospel ; " if I tell you not 
 God's truth ; if I warn you not in Christ's name of 
 what is dishonourable to Him and deadly to the
 
 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. in 
 
 souls He has redeemed. When the proud had the 
 Psalmist exceedingly in derision, yet he shrinked 
 not from God's law. When princes persecuted him 
 without a cause, his heart stood in awe of God's 
 Word. " I will speak of Thy testimonies even 
 before kings, and will not be ashamed." " For I 
 remembered Thine everlasting judgments, O Lord, 
 and received comfort." But " I am horribly afraid 
 for the ungodly that forsake Thy law." " Son of 
 man," it was said to Ezekiel, " I send thee to the 
 children of Israel, to a rebellious nation . . . and 
 thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God. 
 . . . And thou shalt speak My words unto them, 
 whether they will hear, or whether they will for- 
 bear. . . . Son of man, I have made thee a watch- 
 man unto the house of Israel : therefore hear the 
 word at My mouth, and give them warning from 
 Me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt 
 surely die ; and thou givest him not warning, nor 
 speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, 
 to save his life ; the same wicked man shall die in 
 his iniquity ; but his blood will I require at thine 
 hand. ... If thou warn the righteous, that the 
 righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall 
 surely live, because he is warned ; also thou hast 
 delivered thy soul." " Hear ye, and give ear," cried 
 Jeremiah to the Church and State of Israel; "be 
 not proud : for the Lord hath spoken. Give glory 
 to the Lord your God, before He cause darkness,
 
 112 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 
 
 and before your feet stumble upon the dark 
 mountains, and, while ye look for light, He turn it 
 into the shadow of death, and make it gross dark- 
 ness. . . . Say unto the king and to the queen, 
 Humble yourselves, sit down. . . . Lift up your 
 eyes, and behold them that come from the north : 
 where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful 
 flock ? What wilt thou say when He shall punish 
 thee ? for thou hast taught them to be captains, 
 and as chief over thee : shall not sorrows take thee, 
 as a woman in travail ? . . . This is thy lot, the 
 portion of thy measures from Me, saith the Lord ; 
 because thou hast forgotten Me, and trusted in 
 falsehood. . . . But if ye will not hear it, my soul 
 shall weep in secret places for your pride; and 
 mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, 
 because the Lord's flock is carried away captive." 
 
 For what priest, what Churchman does not feel 
 it a "burden" he would gladly escape from, to 
 point to the Word of the Lord, and to say of the 
 Parliament or judicature of his country See how 
 the spirit of Pharaoh exhibits itself, erects itself, 
 and rules in the foremost places of this empire ; 
 see how the wealth and luxury and pride of 
 intellect and the worldly policy of this nineteenth 
 century blind men to God's truth, and lead them 
 on to resist His will, or openly to defy Him ? And 
 what Christian Englishman, with any spark of 
 patriotism in his soul, is not filled with most
 
 THE PROFANE NESS OF PHARAOH. 113 
 
 melancholy forebodings as to what the future of 
 his country must be, if the State and its Pharaohs 
 go on as they have begun, turning a deaf ear to all 
 our warnings, determined to keep the Church in 
 chains, resolved to make the things of Caesar of 
 first moment, the things of God of no moment at 
 all ? Surely if she continue this downward career 
 there can be but one punishment and one end the 
 end of those nations that will not hear the Church, 
 the punishment of those who fight against God. 
 For " no weapon that is formed against Thee shall 
 prosper ; and every tongue that shall rise against 
 Thee in judgment Thou shalt condemn." "The 
 nation and kingdom that will not serve Thee, shall 
 perish ; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." 
 " Then," at the moment of their greatest impiety 
 and power, "shall He speak unto them in His 
 wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure." 
 ' ' And I saw heaven opened, and, lo ! a white horse ; 
 and He that sitteth upon him is called Faithful and 
 True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make 
 war. His eyes are as a flame of fire, and on His 
 head are many crowns. . . . And out of His mouth 
 goeth a sharp two-edged sword, that with it He 
 may smite the nations : and He Himself shall rule 
 them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the 
 winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty 
 God. And He hath on His vesture and on His 
 thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of 
 
 I
 
 114 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 
 
 lords. . . . And I saw the beast, and the kings of 
 the earth, and their armies, gathered together to 
 make war against Him that sitteth on the horse, 
 and against His army. And the beast was taken, 
 and his ally the false prophet that wrought the 
 miracles before him, with which he deceived them 
 that had received the mark of the beast, and them 
 that worship his image. These both were cast 
 alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. 
 And the remnant were slain with the sword of 
 Him that sitteth upon the horse, which sword pro- 
 ceedeth out of His mouth : and all the fowls were 
 filled with their flesh." 
 
 True it is that this vision of the Apocalypse is 
 a prophecy of things to come, of the working and 
 the doom of the very last anti-Christian con- 
 federacy ; but the vision is for them that can even 
 now read the signs of the times, and who can see 
 in the political and intellectual movements of our 
 day, in the Acts of Parliaments which sum up and 
 enforce the deliberate purpose of the nation to set 
 aside the Law of God and ignore Christianity 
 altogether, in the latitudinarianism and indiffer- 
 ence of dissent, in the growing scepticism of merely 
 scientific and literary men, above all, in the un- 
 belief and immorality and practical heathenism of 
 the de-Christianised millions whom the wealthiest 
 nation in the world cares not, wills not, to evan- 
 gelise the germs of a still wider and more
 
 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 115 
 
 rampant, more cruel infidelity, the sure precursors 
 of that apostate God-denying, God-blaspheming 
 world-power, which is yet "to be revealed in its 
 time," proudly usurping a sovereignty over the 
 consciences and wills of men, which is His alone 
 who is watching, guiding, overruling all political 
 combinations, all dynastic changes, all the dis- 
 coveries of science, all the corruptions of heresy 
 and the oppositions of infidelity, the surging of the 
 ocean of evil " and the madness of the people," " to 
 do whatsoever His hand and His counsel have 
 determined before to be done " for the punishment 
 of His enemies, the salvation of His elect, the 
 establishment of His kingdom, the vindication of 
 His justice, the increase of His glory. 
 
 What remains for us, beloved brethren, and for 
 all who love God's truth, and are loyal to His 
 Church, and fear His judgments, and hate "the 
 abomination that maketh desolate," but to lift up 
 our voice and oppose our wills against all acts 
 and decrees and theories and principles which are 
 opposed to the all-holy law of God, which usurp 
 upon, or set aside, the rights and authority of His 
 Holy Catholic Church? What is our clear duty 
 as citizens who enjoy the advantages and bear the 
 responsibility of living under the representative 
 system of a constitutional sovereign, but to do 
 all that lies in our power by public protest, by 
 petition, to all lawful authorities in Church and
 
 Ii6 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 
 
 State, by conscientious voting for members of 
 Parliament at all elections, especially the general 
 election, to bring the full influence of the Church 
 to bear on the mind and the will of the State, to 
 constrain the State to unloose the bands of the 
 Church, to constrain her to know the Lord, Whom 
 she has now forgotten, and to obey His voice ? 
 
 This we must do collectively and singly if we 
 would deliver our souls from all participation in 
 the acts and spirit of Pharaoh, neither approving 
 nor, by silence, acquiescing in them. For ours is 
 a free country : we are self-governed : the making 
 of the laws, the abolishing of courts, and the 
 creating them, rests absolutely with the House 
 of Commons, which is composed of our repre- 
 sentatives. We are, therefore, involved in their 
 acts, in their misdeeds, and are responsible before 
 God for them, unless we wholly repudiate them. 
 
 But more than this: we must not forget that 
 "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but 
 mighty through God to the pulling down of strong- 
 holds " of the enemy ; and the one weapon which 
 we may all use effectively, without the daily perse- 
 vering use of which all other means of relief and 
 deliverance will be of no avail, is prayer. When 
 the children of Israel felt their bondage, they cried 
 unto the Lord in their trouble, and He sent Moses 
 and Aaron, and deli vered them out of their distress. 
 " I sought the Lord," says the Psalmist of his own
 
 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 117 
 
 experience, "and He delivered me out of all my 
 fear." The poor widow prayed, "Avenge me of 
 mine adversary," and the unjust judge at length 
 yielded to her importunity. "And shall not God 
 avenge His own elect which cry day and night 
 unto Him, though He bear long with them? I 
 tell you, He will avenge them speedily." Who 
 is this poor woman but the widowed Church ? 
 Who is the unjust judge but the worldly power 
 that hearkens not to her voice, but would rob her 
 of her inheritance, deprive her children of life, 
 mutilate her truth, and keep her in perpetual 
 bondage ? 
 
 Pray, then, brethren, for all orders of men in 
 our civil and ecclesiastical state. Pray for our 
 gracious Queen, that her throne may be established 
 in truth and righteousness, and that she may be 
 crowned hereafter as a true defender of the Faith. 
 Pray for her advisers, that with wise counsels 
 they may guide the bark of the State through 
 perilous seas. Pray for the Houses of Parliament, 
 that the advancement of God's glory and the good 
 of His Church may be the aim and end of all 
 their consultations. Pray for the judges of the 
 land, that they may be endued " with a true sense 
 of the mind of the Church, as well as with a 
 spirit of equity " towards her, " as between man 
 and man." Pray for our bishops, "that, by the 
 Holy Ghost dwelling in them, they may keep
 
 ii8 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 
 
 the good deposit both of doctrine and sacraments." 
 Pray for all priests and preachers, that they may 
 speak the word with all boldness, and with all 
 faithful diligence may drive away from their cures 
 all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to 
 God's Word. Pray for all electors, that they may 
 give their votes for no mere party purpose, but 
 conscientiously, and with the fear of God and of 
 His last scrutiny before their eyes. Pray for all 
 kings of thought and leaders of opinion, that they 
 may be loyal to the Church's faith, and may speak 
 or write "nothing against, but for the truth." 
 Pray for the millions of the unconverted, that the 
 heart of this nation may be turned back again. 
 Pray that all who have erred and are deceived may 
 see our common dangers, and may courageously 
 acknowledge their faults and retrace their steps. 
 Pray especially that the judges of the highest 
 Court may become alive to the great wrong they 
 have inflicted on the Church, the great dishonour 
 they have offered her Lord, by discussing her 
 doctrines as if they were only so many words 
 of an old title-deed, as if the salvation of myriads 
 of souls were not endangered by their literalism. 
 Pray that they may be moved to represent to the 
 Legislature that they feel their incompetency to 
 form a tribunal for spiritual causes ; and that they 
 will not, as they value their own souls, intrude 
 any more into the office of the spiritualty, and
 
 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 119 
 
 tamper with God's truth. Pray, lastly, that God, 
 of His mercy to us all, will give His wisdom to 
 our leading men to constitute a fitting Court of 
 Appeal in matters of doctrine, and penitence to 
 the Parliament to abolish the Divorce Court; ay, 
 faith and fear in Him to tear out of the law book 
 of this realm that " statute of Omri " which is the 
 foulest blot on the annals of Christian England, 
 the greatest provocation this favoured country has 
 ever flung in the face of the Most High. 
 
 So praying, so acting, we shall be doing the 
 will of God and promoting His glory; we may 
 save our country, and avert the Divine chastise- 
 ment it deserves ; at least, we shall free ourselves 
 from all share in the nation's guilt, and save our 
 own souls by our righteousness. Nay, more : we 
 shall be ranging ourselves on the Lord's side, and 
 be fighting His battle, and shall certainly share 
 His victory. For God fights for His Church now 
 as in the days of old. " God is in the midst of 
 her, therefore shall she not be moved; God shall 
 help her, and that right early." I am not afraid 
 for the future of the English Church. The Church 
 is not committed to this judgment, nor to the 
 Divorce Court. None but those who, having eaten 
 of her bread, now miserably lift up the heel against 
 her, will hold her responsible for the acts and 
 decrees of Pharaoh, which she in her fettered con- 
 dition cannot alter, but prays against and endures
 
 120 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 
 
 until such time as her Lord sets her free. But 
 " I am horribly afraid for them that forsake God's 
 law," for the State and its Pharaohs, its prophets 
 and its people, who enslave His Church and will 
 not obey His voice. What Avill she and her 
 establishment do in the day of their calamity, 
 when " the Lord falls upon us with pestilence or 
 the sword " ? " O daughter of Babylon, who art 
 to be destroyed, happy shall he be that rewardeth 
 thee, as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be 
 that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against 
 the stones." 
 
 Far otherwise is the end of those who love the 
 Divine law, and are not offended at it. They may 
 be in bondage, in great heaviness ; but it is only 
 for a season. When Israel sighed by reason of the 
 bondage, their cry came up unto God, . . . and 
 God heard their groaning, and He said, " I have 
 surely seen the affliction of My people ; I have 
 heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters ; 
 for I know their sorrows, and I am come down to 
 deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians." 
 Yes ; God's eye is on His Church ; His ear is open 
 unto her prayers ; His succours are at hand to cheer 
 her ; His hosts will yet avenge her. And it will 
 be by her prayers and eucharists, by her trusting 
 to His unseen arm, by following the pillar of His 
 presence in simple faith, by her readiness to give 
 up all that the world most prizes, by her gladness
 
 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 121 
 
 to suffer all with her suffering Lord, when she goes 
 forth into the wilderness to prophesy for Him in 
 sackcloth and poverty, that she and her truth shall 
 be mighty and prevail ; mighty through the in- 
 dwelling Spirit to prevail against all the heresies 
 that afflict her, all the foes that would rejoice to 
 humble her mighty, it may be, to win the hearts 
 and bend the wills of even Pharaoh's councillors, 
 who shall then be found (O miracle of transform- 
 ing grace !) sitting at her feet in their right mind, 
 and saying, " Verily, we now know and see what 
 before, in the pride of worldly wisdom, in the 
 plenitude of worldly power, we were entirely 
 blind to. We know it by experience; we are 
 conscious of it to the saving of our souls, that the 
 Lord is in thee, and that His ' word in thy mouth 
 is truth.' " 
 
 One word more. Let no one say this is a subject 
 out of season. S. Paul even bids us preach out of 
 season as well as in season. But this is the season 
 of our Lord's passion and His Church's sorrow. 
 It is the world's hour and the power of darkness. 
 He Whose voice was heard from the excellent glory 
 " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me ? " still 
 suffers in His members. He Who stood before the 
 governor, and was condemned by His own people 
 for witnessing a good confession of the truth, is 
 now arraigned at the bar of public opinion in this 
 country, awaiting the sentence which cannot touch
 
 122 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 
 
 Him, but will prove our loyalty to His cause, and 
 perhaps decide our national or individual doom; 
 for each of us must take his side either for or 
 against His truth. Each of us is even now in will 
 and heart, if not in words, crying out, " Hosanna 
 to the Son of David," or "Not this man, but 
 Barabbas." Each of us is even now preparing to 
 mock, to buffet, to crucify the word of the Holy 
 One, or to come to the help of the Lord against 
 the mighty, to fight or even die for it. God grant 
 we be not found among His enemies, as Balaam 
 and Judas were. While some counsel and commit 
 pollution, may we, with Phinehas zeal, wielding 
 the sword of the Spirit, abhor it and cut it down. 
 While others kiss the truth only more easily to 
 betray it, may we hold it fast and never let it go. 
 While Herodians subordinate its teaching to the 
 decrees of Caesar, and Sadducees scoff at its solemn 
 warnings, and scribes dress up its majestic form 
 in the tinsel of an earthly imagination, and 
 Pharisees only seek in its living words their own 
 party Shibboleth, and Pilate in craven fear yields 
 it up to the will of the rulers, and the weak in 
 faith are offended, and the faint of heart forsake 
 and flee ; while it is being racked on the cross 
 of " science falsely so called," and mangled by 
 rationalistic exposition, and the multitude are 
 crying out against it in scorn, or stand gazing afar 
 off in indifference, or bewilderment, or awe, as the
 
 THE PROFANENESS OF PHARAOH. 123 
 
 light of their souls and the solace of their hearts 
 is being extinguished for them " in the house of 
 friends," and they begin to grope at noonday, and 
 to fear for those things which are coming on the 
 earth ; let us, my beloved brethren, stand firm and 
 faithful to our trust as witnesses and keepers of 
 God's Holy Word ; let us discern the Divine eye 
 which looks out upon us from every one of its 
 pages under every concealment ; out of its abundant 
 armoury let us take weapons wherewith to answer 
 all the suggestions of the tempter; submit our 
 reason and imagination and prejudices to its in- 
 fallible guidance; obey its smallest precepts with 
 a large and generous devotion ; believe that all its 
 threats as well as promises will " stand sure ; " let 
 us entreat for those who corrupt and defame it 
 "Father, forgive them; for they know not what 
 they do ; " and if none dare make mention of its 
 name, let us at least enshrine it in our hearts, 
 wrapping it round with the fine linen of pure 
 affection, making it fragrant with the spices of 
 prayer and praise and a mortified life ; and then 
 calmly and in faith await the time of its rising 
 again to a new and more glorious existence, when 
 it will re-assert its power over the intellect and 
 the hearts of men, and go forth to a wider 
 dominion among the nations, "conquering and to 
 conquer." 
 
 "THANKS BE TO THEE, O LORD."
 
 WHITSUNTIDE. 
 
 "An habitation of God through the Spirit." EPH. ii. 22. 
 
 WHO is He, brethren, in Whose honour we are 
 keeping this festival ? Who is He Who came down 
 upon the Apostles at the first Whitsuntide, accord- 
 ing to our blessed Lord's promise, " If I go away, I 
 will send the Comforter unto you " ? Who is this 
 Comforter? Who is the Spirit of Truth and the 
 Spirit of Holiness, by which names our Lord also 
 spake of Him ? It is not every Christian nowa- 
 days who can give a right answer to these ques- 
 tions, still less meet the sophistry of any one who 
 of set purpose pares down Christian dogma and 
 explains it away. Unbelievers and misbelievers 
 have asked, " Is not the Spirit a spirit of holiness 
 and a spirit of truth in the sense in which we 
 often speak of a spirit of error or a spirit of light- 
 ness ; or when we say such an one has a brave 
 spirit, or a generous spirit, meaning thereby only 
 a moral habit or disposition ? So that we are to 
 understand our blessed Lord as speaking of a 
 quality or attribute of God and nothing more ? "
 
 WHITSUNTIDE. 125 
 
 No, my brethren ; far otherwise. If Holy Scrip- 
 ture is to be our teacher, we learn from its pages 
 that the Holy Spirit is no mere influence or 
 operation. He is no quality or attribute of God. 
 He is no created personality, as the good and the 
 bad angels are, but an uncreated Being. He is 
 the third Person in the ever-blessed Trinity, of 
 one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father 
 and the Son, the very and eternal God. So that 
 what the Father is and the Son is, such is the 
 Holy Ghost. As the Father is almighty and the 
 Son almighty, so is the Holy Ghost almighty. 
 As the Father is eternal and the Son eternal, so 
 is the Holy Ghost eternal. As the Father is God 
 and the Son God, so is the Holy Ghost God. As 
 the Father is Lord and the Son Lord, so is the 
 Holy Ghost Lord. And if there are any other 
 things to be said and believed of the Father and 
 the Son, in order to distinguish Them from all 
 Their creatures, the same should we predicate, 
 pronounce, or affirm of the blessed Spirit, in order 
 to distinguish Him from His creatures, and to 
 make Him equal to the Father and the Son. 
 
 Moreover, while we are to believe of the Father 
 that He is neither created nor begotten, and of the 
 Son that He is not made nor created, but be- 
 gotten, we are taught, respecting the Holy Ghost, 
 that He is neither made, nor created, nor begotten, 
 but proceeding. He is the Spirit of the Father
 
 126 WHITSUNTIDE. 
 
 and of the Son proceeding from the Father and 
 the Son, existing from all eternity with the Father 
 and the Son, the bond of union of Them Both, 
 together with the Father and the Son to be 
 worshipped and glorified, the very and eternal 
 God. 
 
 Such is the exact way in which the Church 
 teaches us, in her creeds, to think and speak of the 
 most blessed Spirit, the Holy Ghost. And thus 
 do we answer the question with which I opened 
 this sermon, Who is He in Whose honour we are 
 keeping festival to-day ? He is a Divine Person 
 not a mere influence or operation but a Person, 
 an intelligent agent and doer, of whom we speak 
 as " He," and not " it." He is represented in Holy 
 Scripture as One who is acting and working and 
 willing and grieving. Thus, in one place, the 
 Apostle spake, " It seemed good to the Holy Ghost 
 and to us." In another we read, " The Holy Ghost 
 said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the 
 work whereunto I have called them." In another, 
 " Take heed to the flock over which the Holy 
 Ghost hath made you overseers." He it was Who 
 in the beginning moved on the face of the deep, 
 and of Whom it was said, " My Spirit shall not 
 always strive with man." He filled Bezaleel with 
 wisdom ; He rested on the seventy elders ; He 
 came down upon Balaam and Saul, making them 
 prophesy. He upheld David and comforted him,
 
 WHITSUNTIDE. 127 
 
 and led him forth into the land of righteousness. 
 Of Him Job could say, " The Spirit of God hath 
 made me ; " and Isaiah, " The Spirit of the Lord is 
 upon me ; " and David, " The Spirit of God spake 
 by me." Of Israel of old it is written, "They 
 vexed His Holy Spirit ; " while St. Paul warns us 
 that we Christians may grieve the Holy Spirit, 
 just as we may grieve our friends and drive them 
 away from us. 
 
 Hence we conclude, from these and like passages, 
 that the blessed Spirit of God is not an influence, 
 or a gift of grace, but a Person, requiring us to 
 speak of Him as " He," and not " it." 
 
 Further : He is not a creature, however exalted, 
 as the holy angels, but the Lord of all creatures, 
 existing before all creatures, brooding over the 
 abyss in the beginning, and giving life. He is 
 eternal : " the eternal Spirit." He is omnipresent : 
 " Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit ? " He is 
 God: "Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie 
 unto the Holy Ghost? thou hast not lied unto 
 men, but unto God." And it is because He is so 
 great and awful a Being, the very and eternal 
 God, that one particular sin against Him is declared 
 by our Lord unpardonable, which it is difficult to 
 believe it could be, if He were not God. 
 
 Now, of this most glorious and holy Being we 
 further believe that, although He has always been 
 with man, to teach and guide and control him,
 
 128 WHITSUNTIDE. 
 
 and although it has been by His inspiration and 
 help only that any man, whether Jew, or heathen, 
 or savage, has ever been able to abstain from evil, 
 and to think and to speak what is good, yet it has 
 been only in these last days, the days of the Gospel 
 dispensation, that He came down in His fulness 
 and has been poured out on all flesh, and dwells 
 in all Christian souls; so that now He does not 
 merely influence us from without, as the wind 
 that blows upon the cheek, or as the fire that gives 
 warmth, but He inspires, as the very breath by 
 which our soul now lives. 
 
 And He inflames, as a fire kindled in the hearth 
 of your own heart, the very source of all vital 
 heat and spiritual movement ; so that, if He were 
 to cease to inspire them or to inflame them, the 
 souls of men would become spiritually torpid, cold 
 and dead. 
 
 Moreover, this mighty Spirit does not now, as 
 formerly, single out a chosen few from one race, 
 to be His instruments and prophets in the world, 
 passing by the rest of mankind, leaving them com- 
 paratively out of the reach of His influence and 
 operation, but, beginning with the Apostles and 
 first believers on the Day of Pentecost, He took 
 possession of them, and, uniting them to Christ by 
 baptism, formed them into the Catholic Church, 
 with which all other believers are now incorporated 
 and united, so that they now form one body under
 
 WHITSUNTIDE. 129 
 
 one Head, enjoying one common life, believing one 
 truth, obeying one Will, even as our natural body, 
 with all its members, is but one body, with one 
 heart, one mind, one will, one life. Or, to use 
 another metaphor taken from the famous Temple 
 of the Old Dispensation to which the Apostle refers 
 us in the text, the men whom the Spirit now 
 takes possession of are like stones of a temple, not 
 dead, but " living stones," not separate, but collected 
 together, jointed and compacted built up one by 
 one upon the foundation of the Apostles and 
 Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief 
 Corner Stone ; in Whom all the building fitly 
 framed together groweth unto an holy temple in 
 the Lord : in Whom we also are builded together 
 for an habitation of God through the Spirit. 
 
 Now, from these living truths there flow many 
 lessons of great practical importance; but I will 
 only take two of them on which to say a few 
 words, and then make an end. 
 
 1. If the Holy Ghost has come down to dwell in 
 His Church, to be its strength and life and soul, 
 we ought to have sure and abiding sense of the 
 safety and perpetuity of the Church. We ought 
 firmly to believe that no arm of flesh can prevail 
 against her, that no spirits of darkness can over- 
 throw her. We ought to believe that by His 
 secret working, in ordering the events of the world, 
 and by controlling the wills of men, the purposes 
 
 K
 
 1 30 WHITS UNTIDE. 
 
 of God towards His Church are now being ful- 
 filled, and that the revival of its worship, the 
 preservation of its doctrine, the freedom of its 
 action, the restoration of its discipline and unity, 
 will, in spite of all opposition, be completed and 
 maintained. 
 
 What a thought, brethren, is this for our comfort 
 and guidance in days of division, unrest, betrayal, 
 unbelief like the present ! 
 
 We, my friends, are now very much in the 
 position of the Jews of old, on their return from 
 captivity, striving to rebuild our Zion, the city of 
 our solemnities, in troublous times. Against us 
 are banded the Geshems and Tobiahs and San- 
 ballats of Dissent ; ay, and the heathen, " Christian 
 heathen," and worse than the heathen, the infidels, 
 know-nothings, and men who say with the fool, 
 " There is no God." All these are content to sink 
 their own differences, and to patch up their quarrels, 
 in order that they may be able to array themselves 
 against the one Truth, and the one Church, which 
 they all long to destroy. We are but a little band 
 compared with our opponents, the irreligious mul- 
 titude " a flock of kids," while " the Syrians fill 
 the country." Were we to depend for the defence 
 of our cause, or for its extension, upon our numbers, 
 our personal gifts, our political influence, our social 
 position, we might well despair, in the face of the 
 difficulties that surround us, and the powers of the
 
 WHITSUNTIDE. 131 
 
 world that are arrayed against us. But here is 
 our watchword : " Not by might, nor by power, but 
 by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." " The 
 weapons of our warfare," says one who knew how 
 to wield them, " are not carnal, but mighty through 
 God to the pulling down of strongholds." They 
 are " the armour of God " i.e. the armour which 
 is provided by God Himself for the battle the 
 girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, 
 the sword of the Spirit, the shield of faith, to- 
 gether with those constant earnest prayers and 
 supplications in the Spirit, whereby we call on the 
 great Captain Himself to arise and maintain His 
 own cause, to save, defend, restore, reunite His 
 own Church. 
 
 And, therefore, knowing all this, we need not 
 fear or doubt what the end will be. The promise 
 is sure : " Upon this rock " i.e. upon the confession 
 of His Divinity " I will build My Church, and the 
 gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The 
 Church is the bride of Christ. He will most surely 
 cleanse and protect His bride. She is the temple 
 of the Holy Ghost, and against all her ruthless 
 enemies runs the warning, " If any man defile the 
 temple of God, him shall God destroy." 
 
 But these great truths have a closer and more 
 personal application to ourselves the individual 
 members of the body of Christ. 
 
 2. The Holy Ghost came not only to reside in
 
 132 WHITSUNTIDE. 
 
 the Church at large, but to take up His abode in 
 the heart of each single Christian, to be the bosom 
 Friend and personal Sanctifier of each one. " I will 
 send you another Comforter, Who shall dwell in 
 you, and be with you." And this promise was not 
 made only to the favoured few who heard our Lord 
 speak, but to all who, through their means, should 
 believe on Him and would accept the Gospel. In 
 other words, He came not only to endue Apostles 
 with power, to inspire Evangelists, to strengthen 
 martyrs, to inflame ascetics, or to enlighten doctors, 
 to guide bishops, or to preside in Church Councils, 
 but to guide, to help, to comfort, to edify all the 
 members of Christ, however humble and feeble 
 they may be, and to make them all, although many, 
 one body, by His own all-pervading presence and 
 life. He it is by Whom we are new-born and 
 made sons of God, baptized into the one body, 
 justified and sanctified. He it is by Whom the 
 love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, Who 
 helps our infirmities, teaches us how to pray, 
 enables us to cry, " Abba, Father ! " He it is Who 
 writes the law of God upon our hearts, Who gives 
 us grace to love that law, and to find it one of 
 perfect freedom. He it is Who convinces the soul 
 of sin, gives life to the dead, compunction to the 
 penitent, strength to the tempted, refreshment to 
 the weary, comfort to the mourner, faith to the 
 doubting, peace to the troubled, and holiness to
 
 WHITSUNTIDE. 133 
 
 all. He is that living uncreated Fire which puri- 
 fies the soul, consuming all its chaff and dross; 
 which enlightens the understanding, inflames the 
 will, kindles all spiritual desire, lifts up the whole 
 man from earth to heaven, and causes it to rest in 
 Divine contemplation. And as fire penetrates the 
 metal which is put into it, so does this awful 
 Person penetrate the whole nature of man, trans- 
 forming that nature, communicating His own 
 nature, making each of us one spirit with Himself 
 by a union of perfect love ; just as the iron that is 
 hard and cold by nature, when it is penetrated by 
 fire, becomes one with the fire, of whose nature 
 and substance it has partaken, without losing its 
 own. 
 
 But if all this be so, if the Holy Ghost is dwell- 
 ing in our souls, making them His temple and 
 shrine, far more closely and intimately than He 
 ever dwells in temples of wood and stone, what 
 a thought is this, brethren, to carry about with 
 us in our daily life ! What a fountain of humili- 
 ation and self-abasing sorrow have we here, when 
 we think of our own past waywardness and in- 
 gratitude ! What a check is it to all proud, self- 
 pleasing thoughts, to all ambitious aims, to all 
 envious, discontented feelings ! 
 
 On the other hand, what a source have we here 
 of holy desires, and good resolutions, and loving 
 aspirations after higher things for all time to
 
 134 WHITSUNTIDE. 
 
 come ! For if God the Holy Ghost is dwelling in 
 my soul as its very breath and life, then how must 
 all my thoughts, inclinations, and desires how 
 must all the affections of my heart, and every 
 purpose of my will, be as real to Him as my words 
 and actions are to my fellow-men ! how must 
 every wish and aspiration after good be prompted 
 by Him! how must every secret prayer and 
 feeling of sympathy or consideration for others, 
 and every effort for patience and self-control, every 
 curbing of my appetites and affections, meet with 
 His approval and enlarge my soul more and more 
 for the fulness of His indwelling ! 
 
 But, on the other hand, how must all wrong 
 desires, all yearnings of unchastened affection, all 
 proud, profane thoughts, all covetous, unkind, dis- 
 contented, jealous, unchaste imaginations offend 
 His holiness, defile His dwelling-place, stifle the 
 life which He would ever invigorate with His 
 presence ! Ay, how must they even quench the 
 fire which He kindles with His breath, and which 
 He would ever keep burning on the altar of a 
 heart that is devoted to His service ! 
 
 Ah, brethren, think for a moment, if you dare, 
 what thoughts, feelings, desires you, a confirmed 
 Christian, perhaps a communicant even, have at 
 times allowed to dwell in your soul, where the 
 Holy One has assured you that He dwells ! Would 
 you like to tell your fellow-sinners what evil
 
 WHITSUNTIDE. 
 
 '35 
 
 imaginations, what uncharitable suspicions, what 
 malice, coldness, or reserve, what petty jealousy, 
 what brooding over fancied wrongs, what intense 
 longings for human affection, what flippancy, 
 murmuring, discontent, self-will, self-love you 
 harbour there ? Would you not be ready to sink 
 into the very earth if you knew that your brother, 
 or sister, or friend suspected what was going on ? 
 How, then, is it you are not ashamed at His 
 knowing, who is nearer and holier than all beside ? 
 How is it you are not horribly afraid at His 
 presence, before Whose awful purity the very 
 heavens are not clean ? How is it you do not 
 sometimes wake up in the darkness and dreariness 
 of your own soul, and say, " ' Surely God is in this 
 place, and I knew it not ! ' I knew it not ; for 
 had I known it, had I remembered that angels 
 were around me, and God Himself within me, I 
 could not have listened to the whispers of devils ; 
 with heaven open and all its glories in sight, I 
 would not have closed my eyes and trodden the 
 path of hell " ? 
 
 But suppose you hate these suggestions of the 
 evil one, and are striving earnestly to resist him, 
 then, in the last place, I would bid you take 
 comfort and encouragement from this very truth 
 which to the ungodly is so awful and overwhelm- 
 ing. For if God the Holy Ghost has come to 
 renew our fallen nature by dwelling within us
 
 136 WHITSUNTIDE. 
 
 and our battling with evil, our hatred of sin, is a 
 sure sign of His presence then there is hope for 
 the vilest, there is encouragement for the most 
 rebellious, if they will only steadfastly resolve to 
 rebel and to corrupt themselves no more. And, 
 therefore, fearful as it is to think of Him as so 
 very near, and as knowing all we do and think, 
 yet we must not say, with S. Peter, " Depart from 
 me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord," rather we 
 must pray with the penitent psalmist, in the full 
 consciousness of guilt, " Cast me not away from 
 Thy presence ; take not Thy Holy Spirit from 
 me." We must come boldly to the throne of 
 grace, to find help in time of need, remembering 
 the words of our blessed Saviour, " If ye, being 
 evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
 children, how much more shall your heavenly 
 Father give the Holy Spirit unto them that ask 
 Him." 
 
 Therefore, in all seasons of trial and danger, 
 stir up the gift that is in thee, fully believing 
 that the presence of the Comforter is with thee, 
 like a wall of fire round about to keep off all 
 beasts of prey ; and rest assured that the word 
 of the Prophet will have its fulfilment in thine 
 own experience : " When the enemy cometh in 
 like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a 
 standard against him, and he shall not prevail."
 
 CHRISTMAS DAY. 
 
 " Let us now go even unto Bethlehem," etc. S. LUKE ii. 15. 
 
 IT was but last night that the story of the 
 shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over 
 their flock, and of the angel of the Lord coming 
 upon them, seemed to have happened, and seemed, 
 moreover, to have a special application to ourselves, 
 inasmuch as we, according to our opportunity and 
 our faith, were watching and praying for those 
 over whom God has given us a charge, and were 
 trying to realise the wonders of that first Christmas 
 Eve. 
 
 Yes ; to the eye and ear of faith, all that 
 happened more than eighteen centuries ago is as 
 real and plain as if it happened yesterday. 
 
 And more than this, these things are but a 
 similitude of spiritual realities which go on in the 
 Church of Christ, wherever are gathered the sheep 
 of His pasture, with shepherds watching through 
 the night of this dark age, and with angels coming 
 and going, giving light, soothing fears, bringing 
 home to us the glad tidings of a Saviour's love.
 
 138 CHRISTMAS DAY. 
 
 And after last night's watching and praying, has 
 there not been here, in our Bethlehem, the Catholic 
 Church, a multitude of the heavenly host, and with 
 them another multitude of human beings, meeting 
 in their glad Eucharistic worship on Christmas 
 Morn, praising God, and saying, " Glory to God in 
 the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward 
 men " ? 
 
 True, indeed, two thousand years have well- 
 nigh passed away since the heavens were visibly 
 opened and the midnight flood of light and 
 harmony ushered in the birth of the Great 
 Deliverer ; and still does the chorus of that celestial 
 song vibrate throughout creation ; still does it 
 kindle thoughts of unspeakable joy and stir depths 
 of holiest affection in all childlike souls on earth, 
 in all saints in Paradise, in all angels and arch- 
 angels around the throne; yea, in One on the throne 
 itself. For One sitteth on the throne Who has a 
 human heart, and He joys as we, His redeemed 
 ones, joy : " He sees of the travail of His soul " in 
 the progress and perfection of His saints, " and is 
 satisfied ; " His joy is the joy of us all. 
 
 Thus the "glad tidings of great joy" are 
 continuous and eternal, and fill heaven and earth. 
 
 " Like circles widening round upon a clear blue river, 
 Orb after Orb, the wondrous sound is echoed on for ever." 
 
 Verily the echo of that song has come down the 
 ages even to us in this nineteenth century. For
 
 CHRISTMAS DAY. 139 
 
 why are we keeping festival to-day ? Is not our 
 festival a witness to the truth which we believe ? 
 Is it not a proof even (considering that there has 
 never been a time from the year of the Ascension 
 when Christmas has not been kept by the Church 
 of Christ) of that truth, the great mystery of 
 godliness the Incarnation ? 
 
 An echo I have called it ; but there is never an 
 echo without there being also a voice. The voice 
 sounded centuries ago ; the echo is heard by our 
 ears to-day. Therefore let it surprise no one that 
 angelic songs come to us in the stillness of the 
 winter's night. Let no one be so unreasonable as 
 to say that we cannot see the messengers with the 
 eye of faith, nor hear them speak to the inward 
 ear devout; or venture to affirm that the hearts 
 of the pure and simple do not now respond to the 
 sounds of heavenly sweetness and peace, saying 
 with the shepherds, "Let us now go even unto 
 Bethlehem, and see this thing which has come to 
 pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us." 
 
 For have we not come with eager desires to our 
 Bethlehem, or House of Bread, where we know 
 not what saints and angels may be in attendance 
 on the King of heaven and earth ? Have we not 
 come here, not only to gaze at the wondrous sight 
 of an Incarnate God afar off (as we might gaze at 
 a splendid star suddenly appearing, whose light 
 had been travelling for more than eighteen hundred
 
 I 4 o CHRISTMAS DAY. 
 
 years through the vast regions of infinity, until it 
 had penetrated our gloomy atmosphere and was 
 discerned by our feeble eyes), but to gaze on a 
 God Who is very nigh, in order that we may 
 worship Him, yea, may open our hearts to Him, 
 so that He may make them His dwelling-place, 
 and that we may carry Him away with us, and 
 we may return to our homes, wrapt in wonder at 
 the Mystery in the flesh, glorifying and praising 
 God for all the things that we have heard and 
 seen, handled and feasted on, at this season of 
 holy Christian joy ? 
 
 Now, who may not see that all that was done 
 by those shepherds on the night of our Lord's 
 birth is a Divine parable with an application to 
 ourselves ? Let us look at it a little more closely. 
 
 " There were shepherds abiding in the fields, 
 keeping watch over their flock by night." Who 
 are the shepherds' brethren ? Who are the flock ? 
 Why, just so far as any of us do not pass the night 
 of this present life in sleep or drowsiness to religious 
 things, in worldliness or self-indulgence, but are 
 alive to the things of faith and are caring for those 
 we have to look after, we, whether pastors, or 
 masters, or parents, or uncles, or elder brothers, or 
 friends, are truly watching, keeping guard against 
 the prowling lion, looking out for the coming of 
 the Saviour, the Chief Shepherd of our souls. 
 
 Next : as the Divine Babe was first manifested
 
 CHRISTMAS DAY. 141 
 
 to those who were abiding in the field during the 
 cold winter's night, there doing their appointed 
 duty, foregoing sleep and comfort in order to 
 watch over their flock and to give a good account 
 to their master even so it is now. He reveals 
 Himself to those who lead a stricter life than 
 others, who forego the luxuries and comforts others 
 over-enjoy, who toil in His service and for the 
 good of others, who make secret sacrifices in order 
 to please Him and do His will. He was not 
 seen by the wealthy and luxurious of Jerusalem. 
 Neither is He seen by the worldly and self- 
 indulgent now. 
 
 And once more: when He was seen He tried 
 man's faith. For He was not born in a palace 
 of the Holy City, nor proclaimed in the temple, 
 nor welcomed by the nobles and chief priests. He 
 first saw light in a mean village, in an underground 
 cave (as the tradition, probably true, informs us), 
 among the brute cattle, and upon the straw. How 
 must all these tokens of poverty and neglect have 
 tried the faith of those who were looking for their 
 Messiah and Lord. Nothing but the voice of 
 angels, fore-announcing the swaddling bands and 
 the manger, could have settled the doubts of the 
 shepherds and constrained them to believe. So 
 now it is not before a king surrounded by his 
 courtiers, not before a popular leader amid the 
 acclamation of his followers, that we Christians
 
 142 CHRISTMAS DAY. 
 
 have to do our Christmas homage, but before a 
 Babe, weak and helpless, Who yet, our Creed 
 teaches us, is no sin-stained child of human parents, 
 but a Divine Person, the very Son of God ; " the 
 Father's Image bright," Whose will rules the uni- 
 verse 
 
 " Whose arm upholds earth and the starry height." 
 
 Oh, does not this mighty truth try the faith of 
 some to the uttermost ? 
 
 Once again : we must still " go even unto Beth- 
 lehem" to seek Christ Jesus; but it must be to 
 such a House of Bread as the one in which we 
 are now assembled. For here is the figure again 
 fulfilled; not because this little chapel was once 
 a stable, and is now a place of Christian worship, 
 but because here, as in every assembly of believers 
 who meet in Christ's Name for sacramental worship, 
 He is really present among us, ready to receive our 
 homage, and to feed us with the bread of life 
 eternal. For the Bread which came down from 
 heaven to be the food of the world lieth in the 
 manger of the Church. The altar is our manger. 
 He cometh after the Consecration Prayer to be 
 worshipped, and then eaten, by devout communi- 
 cants: and thus far more blessed than those shep- 
 herds are we. They only came and gazed and 
 wondered at the sight of so much beauty in so 
 mean a place (we read nothing of their worship 
 and adoration) ; but we worship and adore and eat
 
 CHRISTMAS DAY. 143 
 
 and drink to our eternal good. Nay, the wonder, 
 the miracle, presented to our faith is greater still. 
 They marvelled to see the Christ, the Lord of all, 
 lying in a manger. Well might they marvel, if 
 they realised the mystery of Incarnate Love. For 
 how could God, Who is a Spirit, have the flesh and 
 bones of a little child ? How could He, the 
 Almighty Word, become speechless ? How could 
 the Eternal become subject to time ? How could 
 He, Whose immensity contains heavens and earth, 
 contract Himself into the body of a babe ? But 
 we, too, marvel at the greatness of our sacramental 
 miracle at the bread becoming the Body of our 
 Lord, the wine becoming His Blood, and yet the 
 bread still remaining bread, the wine still remain- 
 ing wine. We wonder at the Incarnate Son veiling 
 Himself under these poor elements so as to bring 
 Himself near to His creatures, and to be able in 
 the very reality of His glorified human nature to 
 dwell in the souls and bodies of His faithful 
 ones. 
 
 These poor unlettered shepherds, however, had 
 faith to believe the angelic message, although they 
 could in no wise comprehend the Incarnate mystery. 
 So we, if we are pure in life and simple in under- 
 standing, will believe the words of our Lord Him- 
 self, although to all our senses His Holy Sacrament 
 is incomprehensible. And our faith will be more 
 blessed than theirs. They gazed with the outward
 
 144 CHRISTMAS DAY. 
 
 eye only on the human face of the Child ; we see 
 with the mind and heart some of the loveliness 
 of His Divine beauty. They did but touch, with 
 all reverence, doubtless, their Lord's tender flesh ; 
 we now in faith eat and drink His glorified flesh 
 and blood, and can thus "taste and see how gracious 
 the Lord is." They went in to tarry but a little 
 while with the young Child, and then, perhaps, 
 never saw Him more ; we may not only dwell with 
 Him, He vouchsafes also to dwell with us. We 
 visit Him again and again, and carry Him away 
 with us. We say, "Abide with us," and in His 
 most gracious condescension He comes into the 
 soul of every earnest believer, and there tabernacles, 
 and will not depart, except we by wilful sin compel 
 Him to do so. 
 
 Consider, also, not the privilege only, but the 
 warning which may be derived from this mystery. 
 It was but a few shepherds out of the whole nation 
 of Jews who enjoyed that great privilege of hearing 
 the glad tidings and of seeing the infant Saviour. 
 So now it is but a very few out of all the myriads 
 of this great city who come to Bethlehem to-day, 
 " because the Lord hath made known " to them the 
 mystery of His presence with us in the blessed 
 Eucharist. Alas ! my brethren, not all of you who 
 are here this morning have come, or intend to come 
 to the altar, there to receive into your hearts the 
 Bread of Life, that Jesus Christ may be born again
 
 CHRISTMAS DAY. 145 
 
 in you, and may renew what is decayed in you, 
 and may save you from the temptations of the 
 world, and deliver you from the bondage of evil 
 habits and corrupt affections. 
 
 But how many more opportunities may you have 
 of receiving the blessed Sacrament ? The shepherds 
 saw their Saviour that once. Then for thirty years, 
 with the exception of His adoration by the .Magi, 
 and His presentation in the temple, He was un- 
 known to all. Can we, my friends, reckon on many 
 more opportunities ; nay, on one more opportunity 
 of coming to the House of Bread ? Shall we see 
 Him when we come, if we still strive not, resolve 
 not, to do as we are bidden ? He may come no 
 more as a Saviour. We may only see Him as a 
 Judge. Surety to know where He may be found, 
 and yet to turn away wilfully from His altar, 
 counting the food He offers a cheap and useless 
 thing, must be an aggravation of our guilt, and must 
 entail a terrible responsibility. Do we not thereby 
 imperil our entrance into heaven ? Nay, worse 
 still, will it not be more tolerable for Jerusalem and 
 Capernaum in the day of judgment than for us, if 
 we so despise Him ? 
 
 But, on the other hand, would you, who do 
 imitate these shepherds in drawing near to your 
 Lord, have a joy like the shepherds in beholding 
 Him ? You must have a humility and a faith 
 like theirs. You must obey voices from heaven as 
 
 L
 
 146 CHRISTMAS DAY. 
 
 they did. You must obey and believe as Mary 
 did, and be as humble as she was. Blessed was 
 she because she believed, and said, "Behold the 
 handmaid of the Lord ; be it unto me according to 
 Thy word." But it was her humility, more than 
 any other grace, even more than her virgin purity, 
 which made her well-pleasing unto God. " He hath 
 regarded," is the word of her own song not the 
 virginity, but " the lowliness of His handmaiden." 
 Indeed, so great is this grace of humility before 
 the Divine Majesty, that (as we know from this 
 day's mystery) the Son Himself came on earth to 
 set an example of it. Yes, the Eternal Word, the 
 Creator of heaven and earth, emptied Himself of all 
 that was His as God of His glory, power, bliss 
 and became man, became a helpless babe, became 
 flesh, and in flesh humbled Himself unto death, 
 even the death of the cross. 
 
 O earth and ashes, wherefore art thou proud ? 
 Why dost thou exalt thyself and look down on 
 thy fellow-worms ? Why art thou proud of thy 
 wealth or station, when thou seest Jesus emptied 
 of all glory and good things ? Why proud of thy 
 gifts of knowledge or language, when thou knowest 
 that the Eternal Word was as a babe unable to speak 
 a word ? Why covetest thou the praise and admi- 
 ration of men, when the King of Glory willed to be 
 gazed at by rude shepherds ? Or how canst thou 
 indulge anger at any slights or insults when thou
 
 CHRISTMAS DAY. 147 
 
 seest holy Mary and just Joseph refused a bare 
 lodging, and obliged to take refuge with the brute 
 beasts in a stable ? How canst thou long to be 
 known and renowned for any word or deed, when 
 the Son of God is seen hiding His birth from the 
 world, and revealing it only to a few ignorant 
 peasants ? 
 
 earth and ashes, wherefore so proud ? Why 
 dost thou think thyself hardly dealt with in being 
 passed by ? Why resent being put in the lowest 
 place ? Lowest place, indeed ! What is the lowest 
 place among thy fellow-sinners which they would 
 assign thee, if they knew all about thee ; if 
 they only knew what sin it was thou didst 
 commit last week, or last year; or that sin of 
 thy youth, twenty or thirty years ago ? And 
 is that low place really the lowest thou only 
 deservest ? Where oughtest thou to be, if thou 
 hadst thy deserts; if thy sins were adequately 
 punished; if the King of heaven had not humbled 
 Himself to wounds and shame to save thee from 
 eternal woe and shame ? 
 
 Therefore now be humble in the thought of thy 
 shame. So only wilt thou have peace and joy. 
 There is no peace for the proud ; no joy but to the 
 childlike soul. " God resisteth the proud, but 
 giveth grace to the humble." Or, to put the same 
 in other words there is no joy or peace except 
 in believing. Would you have the joy of the
 
 148 CHRISTMAS DAY. 
 
 shepherds you must have their faith faith in the 
 mystery of the Incarnation ; faith in the new birth 
 of Jesus Christ in thy soul at baptism; faith in 
 the holy words addressed to thy soul in absolution ; 
 faith in the presence of the Babe of Bethlehem 
 amongst us, at this altar-manger, in this our 
 Bethlehem. 
 
 Do you believe in this great mystery the 
 miracle which is daily wrought at this altar ? 
 You do believe. In some degree your very fear to 
 come to the altar is a proof that there is something 
 supernatural here, something that will do you harm 
 if you come unprepared, in a proud, uncharitable 
 spirit, with unchaste thoughts, selfish or worldly 
 ways. 
 
 Well, then, say with the father of old, " Lord, I 
 believe ; help Thou mine unbelief." Make an act 
 of faith this morning, while others are communi- 
 cating, and say in your heart, " I do believe, O 
 good Jesu, that Thou Thyself, equal to the Father 
 in glory and power, very God and very man, wert 
 hidden under the veil of those swaddling clothes 
 and that little infant's body, and wast seen by the 
 shepherds lying in the manger ; and I do also 
 believe with equal faith that Thou art truly and 
 really present after the words of consecration in 
 this holy sacrament, under the forms of bread and 
 wine. For didst not Thou say, Take, eat, this 
 is My body. This is My blood ? And Thy words
 
 CHRISTMAS DAY. 149 
 
 are truth. Lord, I do believe; help Thou mine 
 unbelief." 
 
 Say this, or words to this effect, when thou art 
 tempted to doubt with the unbelieving Jews. 
 " How can this Man give us His flesh to eat ? " 
 And reflect, that the shepherds, had they dis- 
 believed that the infant Jesus was their Saviour 
 and Christ, might have been better excused than 
 any Christian disbelievers in the presence of our 
 glorified Lord with ourselves. For we have the 
 words of our Lord Himself, the witness of the 
 Church of all ages, the belief of the holiest and 
 most humble, to teach us this mystery, and to 
 confirm us in it. 
 
 Say, then, with holy Bishop Ken, "I believe, 
 crucified Jesu, that the bread which we break 
 in the celebration of the holy mysteries is the 
 communication of Thy body, and the cup of 
 blessing which we bless is the communion of Thy 
 blood; and that Thou dost as effectually and 
 really convey Thy body and blood to our souls 
 by the bread and wine, as Thou didst Thy Holy 
 Spirit by Thy breath to Thy disciples ; for which 
 all love, all glory be to Thee. Lord, at this season 
 of Thy nativity, grant me a childlike faith to 
 believe that as Thou didst truly take flesh (our 
 threefold nature in body, soul, and spirit) of Thy 
 blessed mother and wast truly born, and didst truly 
 lie in swaddling clothes in the manger, so Thou art
 
 ISO CHRISTMAS DAY. 
 
 truly present in these holy mysteries, and in them 
 art united, Thy very self, body, soul, spirit, and 
 Divinity, to us." 
 
 Oh, what humility, what faith, what reverence, 
 what love should be ours as we draw near to our 
 manger ! 
 
 In the presence of so great a condescension, let 
 us each say, " Lord, I am vile, I am not worthy, 
 I am not fit that Thou shouldest come under the 
 roof of my soul, for it is all desolate and ruined 
 and defiled with the filth of sin. But as Thou 
 didst vouchsafe to be in the cavern and manger 
 of brute cattle, so deign to receive me, the ruined 
 the wretched and excessive sinner, to the touch 
 and partaking of the immaculate, supernatural, 
 life-giving and saving mystery of Thy body and 
 blood. Come and make Thy abode with me now, 
 in this my day of weakness and humiliation, that 
 I may dwell with Thee in Thy glorious kingdom, 
 and see Thy beauty, and worship and adore Thee 
 for evermore."
 
 CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST. 
 
 " In Whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made 
 without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by 
 the circumcision of Christ : buried with Him in baptism, wherein 
 also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of 
 God, Who hath raised Him from the dead." COL. ii. 11, 12. 
 
 I AM going to make a more than ordinary demand 
 upon your intelligence and attention this morning. 
 The words just read to you are by no means easy 
 to understand, even when we give them our best 
 attention, and they have been variously interpreted 
 by very profound students of Holy Scripture. But 
 they have been also explained in perverse ways 
 by heretical teachers, according to their peculiar 
 systems of doctrine, and their bias against the 
 Catholic faith. Possibly this passage was one of 
 those in the mind of S. Peter when he wrote this 
 warning, " Even as our beloved brother Paul also, 
 according to the wisdom given unto him, hath 
 written unto you ; as also in all his epistles, speak- 
 ing in them of these things ; in which are some 
 things hard to be understood, which they that are 
 unlearned and unstable wrest" i.e. put on the
 
 152 CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST. 
 
 rack and twist contrary to their true meaning, 
 " as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their 
 own destruction." 
 
 Yes, Holy Scripture, easy as it is in large por- 
 tions to be understood, given as it is for " a light 
 to our feet," and able to make us " wise unto salva- 
 tion, through faith in Christ Jesus," is a dangerous 
 book to them that will presume to read it un- 
 worthily, as if it were a common book ; as if the 
 light of natural reason were enough to explain it ; 
 as if by their own cleverness men could screw any 
 meaning out of it to suit their own minds and 
 prejudices, or as if we could dispense with the 
 guidance of the Catholic Church and set aside the 
 interpretation, " according to the proportion of 
 faith" which she teaches, whereas mysteries are 
 revealed to the meek. 
 
 "When Thy Word goeth forth it giveth light 
 and understanding unto the simple" "If any 
 man wills and (is ivilling) to do the will of God, 
 he shall know of the doctrine." " Open Thou mine 
 eyes," is the prayer of the true Christian to the 
 Spirit who wrote Scripture. " How can I under- 
 stand except some man teach me ? " is the confes- 
 sion of the humble, teachable man. And who is to 
 teach him but the Catholic Church, to whom have 
 been entrusted the oracles of God ? For she is the 
 pillar and ground of the truth; who alone has 
 inherited, not Scripture only, but the meaning of
 
 CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST. 153 
 
 Scripture ; and by her creeds defends its meaning, 
 and by her sacramental system illustrates and 
 enforces it. 
 
 I say the danger is great. For Holy Scripture 
 is like the ocean in its shallows and its deeps. It 
 is shallow enough in many places for a child to 
 paddle in, deep enough for an elephant to swim ; 
 it is rocky enough and deep enough in other places 
 to wreck and swallow up all those who, without 
 chart or compass, presume to trifle with its 
 mysteries. 
 
 Now that you and I, brethren, may, in safety 
 and without fear, launch out on the passage before 
 us, we must sail along in the boat of the Catholic 
 Church, and, standing firm on her sacramental 
 doctrine, we must let down the sounding-line of 
 that method of interpretation with which the old 
 Fathers explored the great deeps and brought up 
 such rich treasures of saving knowledge for the 
 edification of all the true members incorporate of 
 the mystical body of Christ. 
 
 In other words, the Church's doctrine that in 
 Holy Baptism we are grafted into Christ and made 
 partakers of His circumcision and death and of 
 all His finished work, and are delivered (through 
 baptism) from the tyranny of ordinances and from 
 the bondage of corruption, and are circumcised (in 
 and by Holy Baptism) with the true circum- 
 cision of the Spirit, so that our hearts and all our
 
 154 CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST. 
 
 members are actually mortified, and may evermore 
 be mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, and 
 we then have given to us the power and will in all 
 things to obey the commandments of God, this 
 great doctrine of our living union with Christ 
 first through Holy Baptism and then afterwards 
 by a living faith, is the key to these difficult words 
 of the Apostle, opening the whole passage easily ; 
 whereas, for the want of this key, or because of a 
 resolute refusal to use it, many a clever student 
 has been baffled and been forced to grope for a 
 meaning at noonday, and has fallen into heresy 
 and schism, and has made utter shipwreck of his 
 faith and salvation. 
 
 Let us now draw out the meaning of the in- 
 spired words. Going back a few verses, we find 
 the Apostle exhorting, " As ye have received Christ 
 Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him" (mark that 
 first instance of sacramental teaching : " Walk in 
 Him," as those who have been grafted into Him by 
 Baptism) : " rooted and built up in Him " (there 
 again we have the grafting, the membership, of a 
 Christian), "and stablished in the faith" (what 
 faith but the Catholic faith, the faith once for all 
 delivered to the saints ?), " as ye have been taught " 
 (taught by the Apostle himself), " abounding therein 
 with thanksgiving." And then comes a caution 
 (for even in S. Paul's day there were false doctrines 
 and false prophets especially the Jurlaizers and
 
 CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST. 155 
 
 Gnostics, or knowing ones) : " Beware lest any one 
 should spoil you " (i.e. lead you away captive as 
 his spoil, from the security of the truth) " through 
 philosophy and empty deceit, according to the 
 tradition of men" (instead of the revelation of 
 God), "according to the elements of the world" 
 (worldly science, Jewish ordinances), "and not 
 according to Christ ; because in Him " (and not in 
 any creatures) " abideth all the fulness of the God- 
 head bodily ; " and therefore to Him alone you are 
 to go for all grace and all knowledge of Divine 
 things. 
 
 And this we are told to do through the Incar- 
 nation; for the Apostle, having spoken of the 
 Divine nature, now goes on to speak of the 
 Incarnation, and of its benefits to us. And here 
 I may quote one of the ancients, S. Hilary, show- 
 ing you a piece of the sounding-line which he 
 has left for our use in investigating this deep 
 passage. He says, " The Apostle, knowing well 
 the mystery of the Incarnation, and that the 
 philosophy of this world cannot comprehend it, 
 gives this caution, ' Take heed that no man spoil 
 you' etc. After which words the Apostle, having 
 declared that the fulness of the Godhead dwells 
 in Christ bodily, immediately proceeds to proclaim 
 the mystery of our assumption into Him, 'And 
 ye have been filled full in Him' For as in Him 
 there is a fulness of Divinity, so we have been
 
 156 CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST. 
 
 filled in Him, i.e. by the assumption of His flesh, 
 by our partaking of His flesh (through Baptism), 
 in which the fulness of Divinity dwells. Here is 
 the source of our hope. In Him the potency of 
 this our hope is not small." 
 
 Thus far S. Hilary, and the Apostle goes on 
 to show how this fulness in Christ is applied to 
 us, and by what means we receive the benefits 
 of Christ's Incarnation and Divinity, and are 
 made partakers of His fulness, viz. by the Sacra- 
 ment of Holy Baptism. Here we have arrived 
 at the words of our text, which are read to us 
 on the Feast of the Circumcision in order to 
 reveal to us the mystery of the circumcision, and 
 the benefit we Christians derive from it, and also 
 its connection with our own baptism. " In Whom 
 ye have been also circumcised by the circum- 
 cision made without hands " (i.e. not by any carnal 
 circumcision), "in the putting off the body of 
 flesh in the circumcision of Christ." 
 
 But how was all this done for us ? How were we 
 circumcised in the circumcision of Christ ? In this 
 way, brethren : as Christ died for all mankind, so 
 was He circumcised for all. And we partake of 
 His circumcision, as well as of His death, when we 
 are baptized. The virtue of His circumcision was 
 imparted to us on our being grafted into Him. For 
 as Christ put off the body of His flesh before He 
 rose to glory, so we mystically put off the body of
 
 CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST. 157 
 
 our flesh, the old man, and put on the new man, 
 the spiritual man, which is to rise to righteousness 
 here, and will also rise, after our putting off the 
 body in the grave, rise to glory hereafter, in and 
 through Christ. 
 
 There was, therefore, no need for the Colossians 
 to be actually circumcised, as their Judaizing 
 teachers urged them, in order to be in covenant 
 with God and to receive His blessing. They had 
 been already circumcised in Christ, because they 
 had been made His members by baptism, and had 
 received His Spirit in baptism ; and because that 
 Holy Spirit, not the knife of the priest, had 
 circumcised and was still circumcising their hearts, 
 cutting off and casting away all their old nature, 
 of which true spiritual circumcision of the Spirit, 
 the Jewish rite, was but a form or sign. 
 
 "When we were buried with Him," says 
 S. Hilary, "in baptism, we died to the old man, 
 because the regeneration of baptism is the power 
 of the resurrection. Thus is the Circumcision of 
 Christ, of which we partake (when we are baptized), 
 not the cutting and wounding of our poor flesh, 
 but the dying wholly with Him, that so we may 
 live wholly to Him. For we rise again in Him, 
 by faith in that God who raised Him from the 
 dead." 
 
 Such is the Apostle's own explanation in the 
 verse immediately following: "Buried with Him
 
 158 CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST. 
 
 in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him 
 by means of your faith in the operation of God, 
 who hath raised Him from the dead," and by that 
 resurrection has given you a pledge and assurance 
 of your spiritual resurrection. With which exactly 
 agrees the teaching of the Church as you have it 
 in the Baptismal Service. Which teaching (as some 
 of you know) was much more plainly set forth in 
 ancient times, when the baptized person, child or 
 adult, was actually dipped under the water, so 
 that he could say, " The old man is smothered in 
 the water, and the new man is raised out of the 
 water, and I am born again in water of the Holy 
 Ghost. 6 merciful God, grant that the old Adam 
 in this child may be so buried (in the water), that 
 the new man may be raised up in him. Grant 
 that all carnal affections may die in him, and all 
 things belonging to the Spirit may live and grow 
 in him." And, again, " Grant that he, being dead 
 unto sin and living unto righteousness, and being 
 buried with Christ in His death, may crucify the 
 old man, and utterly abolish the whole body of 
 sin ; and that as he is made partaker of the death 
 of Thy Son, so he may also be partaker of His 
 resurrection." And, once more, " Baptism doth 
 represent unto us our profession, which is to follow 
 the example of our Saviour Christ, and be made 
 like unto Him ; that, as He died, and rose again 
 for us, so should we, who are baptized, die from
 
 CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST. 159 
 
 sin, and rise again unto righteousness ; continually 
 mortifiying all our evil and corrupt affections, and 
 daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of 
 living." 
 
 Such, then, is the mysterious effect of our baptism. 
 It is the true circumcision of the Spirit, in com- 
 parison of which the Jewish rite was but an 
 outward form and dead ceremony, and it makes 
 us partakers of all the blessings which Christ won 
 for us by His circumcision and His obedience to 
 the law and to death. 
 
 In conclusion, let us note one or two important 
 consequences of this great doctrine, and that 
 briefly. 
 
 1. It is plain how immeasurably superior Holy 
 Baptism, the ordinance of the Christian Church, 
 by which we are taken into covenant with God, 
 is to the Jewish rite of circumcision. The one is 
 spiritual, the other carnal. The one unites us to 
 Christ, the other admitted to outward privileges. 
 The Jewish rite was impotent to convey pardon 
 or bestow grace. By the Christian sacrament we 
 receive remission of sins through the blood of 
 sprinkling, and are regenerated and made par- 
 takers of the Holy Ghost. The one was but a 
 sign of what the Jew ought to do, viz. cast away 
 his evil nature, and to mortify and keep mortified 
 all his corrupt affections. The other is the true 
 circumcision of the Spirit, the gift and indwelling
 
 160 CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST. 
 
 of that Holy Spirit, Who alone can deaden our 
 appetites and staunch our wounds, and cauterise 
 and burn out our corruption ; Who, then, gives us 
 power to become the sons of God, and to prove 
 our sonship by our living faith and loving 
 obedience; even by believing all that Christ and 
 His Church teach us, and by obeying Him, our 
 Head, from the heart in all things, small as well 
 as great, as willingly, as readily, and as eagerly 
 as the members of our bodies move and obey, 
 according to our wills. 
 
 What a departure, then, from scriptural truth 
 and the primitive faith, and even from plain 
 Prayer-book teaching, and what a return to 
 Judaism, with all its formality and deadness, is 
 the notion which so many Christians at the 
 present day entertain respecting the sacrament 
 of Baptism, viz. that it is a mere form, an 
 outward ceremony, conveying no life or grace, 
 working no change in the soul, conferring no 
 holiness, committing us to no high standard of 
 obedience, binding us to no more obligations than 
 a Jew's obligations before Christ came, and laying 
 upon us no greater responsibility ! But let us 
 guard ourselves against misconception. By Holy 
 Baptism we are to understand one of the two 
 sacraments which are necessary to salvation ; and 
 these can only be administered by one of Christ's 
 lawful ministers (not by a layman who pretends
 
 CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST. 161 
 
 to be a minister but), by one ordained by a bishop, 
 who derives his authority direct from the Apostles 
 who were sent by Christ Himself : " As My Father 
 hath sent Me, even so send I you." 
 
 2. But, my friends, in the next place, this baptism 
 of ours does very much increase our obligations 
 and responsibilities, because it does confer so 
 much grace and holiness, by uniting us to Christ, 
 and filling us, according to our capacity, with the 
 Holy Ghost. We cannot, therefore, be as the heathen 
 or the Jew even, much as some of us would 
 desire it, in our obedience to the Commandments, 
 or in our faith in the Lord Jesus. No ; our faith 
 in the Church and her life-giving ordinances, our 
 self-denial and mortification, our abhorrence of all 
 sin, of word and thought as well as of deed, the 
 spirituality of our worship, the earnestness of our 
 prayers, our daily communion with God ; in a word, 
 our hearty child-like love to Him, must be far 
 greater than what a Jew or heathen can render. 
 We cannot be as the Jew or the heathen ; we are 
 under the bond of the covenant. If God through 
 Christ has done such great things for us, and has 
 bestowed such priceless blessings upon us, if Christ 
 has bought us for His slaves (Rom. vi. 16, 22, 
 SoCAot) with His own blood, and has united us to 
 Himself by His Spirit, if the Holy Ghost has 
 deigned to make our souls and bodies His very 
 temples, living in them, working with them, oh, 
 
 M
 
 i6a CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST. 
 
 what manner of men and women, boys and girls, 
 "ought we to be in all holy conversation and 
 godliness," in all self-denial and self-sacrifice, in 
 all purity and charity ! avoiding all approach 
 of evil, " hating even the garment spotted by the 
 flesh," " perfecting holiness in the fear of God," 
 ready to do all, and to suffer all, and to give up 
 all for the sake of our crucified Master, presenting 
 ourselves, our bodies, souls, and spirits, continually 
 at His altar, a living (not a dead Judaic) sacrifice, 
 holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable 
 service, not a material animal one.
 
 SCHISM. 
 
 " Now I beseech you, brethren, by the Name of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no 
 divisions among you ; but that ye be perfectly joined together in 
 the same mind and in the same judgment." 1 COB. i. 10. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 SUCH is the solemn, earnest, and affectionate way 
 in which the great Apostle of us Gentiles exhorts 
 some of his children in the faith to be united, 
 one altogether in the unity of Christ's body. He 
 is solemn, for he adjures them by the Name of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. He is earnest, for he entreats : 
 "I beseech you." He is affectionate, for he 
 addresses them as his very brothers and sisters 
 in Christ : " I beseech you, brethren, by the Name of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 Plainly it is no ordinary subject to which he 
 constrains them to give their attention, but some- 
 thing of the very first and chiefest importance. 
 
 And this is also clear from the place it occupies 
 in his letter the first place ; it is the first thing 
 on which he opens his heart to them, and out of
 
 164 SCHISM. 
 
 its abundance speaks so feelingly : " I beseech you, 
 brethren." 
 
 Obviously he might have addressed them in a 
 very different strain. He might have reminded 
 them that he was their teacher and father in Christ, 
 to whom they owed the submission of children. 
 Or he might have assumed a tone of authority, 
 and as Christ's ambassador have commanded them 
 in his Master's Name to lay aside their differences. 
 Or he might have censured them and threatened 
 them with the loss of Church privileges and 
 of God's favour. He might have pronounced 
 Anathema upon all who were contentious and 
 would not keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond 
 of truth. 
 
 By none of these methods did the Apostle try 
 to coerce their wills. He knew that their religious 
 differences sprang from the love of influence, love 
 of self, from vainglory and pride. And he was 
 well assured that, when humility and consideration 
 for others and love were lacking, neither an Apostle's 
 threats nor a father's commands were likely to be 
 obeyed. And so S. Paul himself sets an example 
 of humility, and speaks in tones of entreaty to 
 his own children in the faith ; and leaving his own 
 office and dignity out of sight, he sets before them 
 their love for Christ, their reverence for His Name, 
 as the one great motive which should win them 
 to obedience and unity and brotherly love. "7
 
 SCHISM. 165 
 
 beseech you, brethren, by the Name of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ" 
 
 And this accounts for a peculiarity in the 
 opening verses of this Epistle, which must have 
 struck us all at some time or other I mean, the 
 constant repetition of the most holy Name of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. In the nine verses immediately 
 preceding the text, the Name of Jesus occurs no 
 less than eight times. The Name of Jesus that 
 Name which S. Paul has taught us in another 
 place is so high and holy, that, " at the Name of 
 Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, 
 and things on earth, and things under the earth ; " 
 that Name of power by which demons were cast 
 out, and the dead were raised, and on which we 
 are to call in order to be saved ; that Name of 
 mercy which is the very token and pledge of God's 
 love to man and of man's peace with God for it 
 means salvation (" He shall save His people from 
 their sins "). In short, it is that Name which all 
 who trust in Him are to honour, to worship, and 
 muse upon, and to cherish in their hearts, and to 
 love with their best affections. It is this Name of 
 honour and worship, and peace and love which the 
 Apostle so frequently repeats in the ears of the 
 Corinthians, and then at length adjures them by 
 it : "7 beseech you by the Name of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 Consider, says S. Chrysostom, how he fastens
 
 1 66 SCHISM. 
 
 them, as it were with nails, to the Name of Christ, 
 and by means of it he weaves together, one may 
 say, his whole preface. Look at it from the 
 beginning. Paul, called to be an Apostle of Jesus 
 Christ, etc. Seest thou the constant repetition of 
 the Name of Jesus ? From whence it is plain that, 
 not by chance, or unwittingly, he does this, but in 
 order that by incessant application of that glorious 
 Name he may draw off their swelling humours and 
 cleanse out the corruption of their disease. 
 
 Yes ! the Apostle's object was to remind his 
 brothers and sisters in the one mystical body, 
 under one Head, who that Head was, even Jesus 
 Christ; and to recall to their minds how meek, 
 and gentle, and patient, and humble, and loving 
 and self-sacrificing He was ; what an example He 
 had set them that they should walk in His steps ; 
 in short, how they ought to walk worthy of their 
 vocation in Christ, " in all lowliness and meekness, 
 longsuffering, forbearing one another in love ; 
 endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in 
 the bond of truth." 
 
 And therefore " I beseech you, brethren, by the 
 Name of our Lord Jesus Christ," Whose members 
 ye are, in Whom ye are sanctified, through Whom 
 ye receive grace and every noble gift, by Whom ye 
 have been enriched in everything, with all utter- 
 ance and all knowledge, for Whose coming to 
 judgment ye are waiting, and before Whom ye
 
 SCHISM. 167 
 
 would be found blameless in that day " I beseech 
 you, brethren, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be 
 no divisions among you ; but that ye be perfectly 
 joined in the same mind and the same judgment." 
 
 Verily, no words of command, no warnings, no 
 threats of punishment, no appeal to any feelings 
 of loyalty or affection towards S. Paul himself, 
 could plead so lovingly, so affectionately as the one 
 motive which the Name of Jesus supplied. "I 
 beseech you," he says, in his loving earnestness, 
 and knowing even then that by himself he could 
 not prevail, he adds, " by the Name of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." I take Him to fight on my side, 
 and to aid me with His Name of power, His injured 
 and dishonoured Name. 
 
 How had they dishonoured and injured it ? By 
 their contentions, their rivalries, their divisions, by 
 their preferring one teacher to another, and even 
 by calling themselves after their favourite teacher's 
 name. 
 
 " I hear," he writes, " that there are contentions 
 among you. Every one of you saith, I am of Paul, 
 and I am of Cephas, or Peter, and I of Christ. Ye 
 are yet carnal, or fleshly: for whereas there is 
 among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are 
 ye not fleshly, and walk as men," not as members 
 of Christ ? 
 
 Alas ! most true. These differences were plain
 
 168 SCHISM. 
 
 proofs to the Apostle that, in spite of all their gifts 
 and graces, their knowledge of the Gospel, and 
 their ability to preach it, their miracles and 
 prophesyings, the Corinthians were still men of a 
 fleshly mind, under the influence of the old man, 
 not filled, not guided, not walking, as they assumed, 
 by the Spirit. Their crafty adversary, the devil, 
 had taken advantage of their earthly dispositions, 
 and had made them proud and vain-glorious of 
 their spiritual gifts, and had so split them up into 
 cliques and parties, each calling itself by the name 
 of some favourite teacher, as to threaten the very 
 rending asunder of the Church. And yet these 
 favourite teachers were not Peter, or Apollos, or 
 any other great man, but some very inferior 
 persons among themselves. " These things," he 
 says, " I have transferred in a figure to Apollos 
 and myself." Not wishing to speak openly of the 
 culprits, he condemns their conduct in his own 
 person, and in that of Apollos and Cephas. For 
 if it was not right to call themselves by the name 
 of Paul or Apollos, much less by the name of any 
 other. And perhaps he wished to soften his 
 reproof by not publishing the real names, knowing 
 that the offenders would apply to themselves what 
 was said of the Apostles. 
 
 And yet if he softens his reproof in one way, he 
 makes his accusation more grievous in another. 
 For he adds, and some say they are of Christ.
 
 SCHISM. 169 
 
 Now, why did he condemn these with the rest ? 
 Because they were more vain-glorious than all 
 the rest. Just as nowadays some say, "We are 
 Wesleyans," and others, " We are Calvinists," while 
 others, more self-sufficient, and more puffed up than 
 all the rest, say, " We belong to Christ," implying 
 that others do not belong to Him. So it was with 
 the Corinthians. Whence it followed necessarily, 
 although they little dreamed of so great a sin, they 
 were really dividing Christ, making a schism in 
 His Body, the Church. Therefore, well might the 
 Apostle, at the prospect of this catastrophe, try in 
 all ways to soothe their waywardness, to abate 
 their pride, to heal their distempers. 
 
 He in his humility and charity knew what the 
 Corinthians in their pride and self-will could not 
 see at all that the schism to which they were then 
 tending was a grievous sin, a dishonour to Christ, 
 contrary to His Spirit, deadly to its authors, most 
 ruinous in all its consequences. 
 
 I want in this paper to speak to you about 
 schism, or division, a very common sin at the 
 present day, when we are told by the Registrar- 
 General that there are no less than one hundred and 
 fifty different sects in England, each with its own 
 doctrine, teacher, and meeting-house. And yet, I 
 fear we think but little of its scandal ; we lay not 
 to heart the grievous opposition to Christ's will, 
 the contempt of His dying prayers, the dangers to
 
 1 7 SCHISM. 
 
 ourselves, which such a multiplication of sects and 
 parties must indicate and foster. 
 
 Now, that schism, or the rending of the Church, 
 the separation of Christians from one another, and 
 setting up meeting-houses apart from the Church, 
 each with its own doctrine and teacher, that all 
 this is very sinful and injurious we cannot be 
 ignorant : for constantly in the Litany do we pray, 
 " From all sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion ; 
 from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism; from 
 hardness of heart, and contempt of Thy Word and 
 Commandment, good Lord, deliver us." 
 
 Here you have schism in very evil company, 
 mentioned with heresy, rebellion, sedition, which 
 are all works of the flesh, the sins of proud, wilful, 
 disobedient men ; and it is followed by hardness of 
 heart, and even contempt of God's Word and Com- 
 mandment. It is, therefore, a deadly sin, cutting 
 off from Christ those who wilfully commit it, de- 
 priving them of His Spirit according to that fearful 
 word of the Apostle, " These are they that separate 
 themselves, sensual, not having the Spirit." Well 
 may you and I pray in these times of lawlessness, 
 indifference to truth and misbelief: "From all 
 false doctrine, heresy, and schism, good Lord, 
 deliver us." 
 
 Let me make this plainer to some of you by a 
 few illustrations. Schism is division or a rent, as 
 when you take a coat or dress and rend it in twain,
 
 SCHISM. 171 
 
 and so spoil it ; or when you take a fishing-net 
 and tear the meshes, so that many of the fish can 
 escape ; or when you break through a man's hedge, 
 make a great gap through which his sheep and 
 oxen can stray away. Such is schism in the 
 Church of Christ. It is a rending of Christ's 
 garments, from the very hem of which virtue goes 
 forth to heal our souls. It is a splitting asunder 
 the net in which the great multitude of His fish 
 are taken, whereby many get out, and are devoured 
 by the Leviathan of the deep. It is a making 
 a gap in the hedge of His fold, through which His 
 sheep get out and the wolves get in, and so the 
 flock is grievously wasted. 
 
 Schism is all this, and something more. It is 
 tearing off the branches of the One Vine, so that 
 they can bring no fruit to perfection, and inevi- 
 tably die. Worst of all, it is the rending off the 
 limbs of a body, so that the body bleeds and gets 
 weak, and the limbs torn off grow corrupt, and 
 putrefy, and die. Yes. The Church is Christ's 
 Body, and we are, one and all of us, members 
 living parts of that Body. The schism of the 
 Church is but feebly illustrated by the tearing of 
 a garment, or the rending of a net, or breaking 
 of a fence, or the pulling off of a branch from a 
 vine. It is the mangling of a living, feeling body. 
 What is more grievous, painful, agonising than 
 the rending of our bodies, when the flesh and
 
 172 SCHISM. 
 
 sinews are torn, the limbs are pulled from their 
 sockets, and the bones broken, and the blood 
 poured out, and the strength departs, and the will 
 can no longer exert itself, and the very life ebbs 
 away ? Who can think of these horrors without 
 shuddering ? Who would like his own child or 
 friend so mangled ? Who, in his senses, would so 
 mangle himself? What is a man worth when he 
 lies bleeding without an arm or a leg, groaning 
 with pain, faint and exhausted, ready to die ? If 
 he recovers, is he ever afterwards himself again ? 
 Has not his constitution received a shock whence 
 he will never quite recover ? Will he not be ailing 
 all his days ? Well, this teaches us, what it is so 
 hard to take in or believe that schism is the 
 rending of the Body of Christ, the wrenching of 
 His limbs from each other, and, therefore, a very 
 great evil, not weakening to the Body, the Church, 
 only, and depriving it of power to work and the 
 will to work, but also a dishonour to its Head and 
 an enfeeblement of all His members, and ruinous, 
 deadly, to many of them. A mortal, deadly sin is 
 schism, against which we pray, "From all false 
 doctrine, heresy, and schism, good Lord, deliver 
 us." 
 
 Yes, schism does as much harm to the Church 
 as wounding the flesh, breaking the bones, tear- 
 ing the limbs, do to our bodies. The Church is 
 grievously injured by it; she loses strength by it;
 
 SCHISM. 173 
 
 cannot possibly do her work. Her very life-blood 
 flows away; her limbs perish; she lies prostrate, 
 crippled, without health, without power to defend 
 or move herself; at the mercy of all who pass by. 
 But what is the end of those who cause divisions ? 
 who leave the Church ? She may live and will 
 live on, because she is the Body. But they, if they 
 remain separate, must die, because they are the 
 members. If a man's limb is torn from him, his 
 life is endangered ; but he may get over it. But 
 what becomes of the limb ? Being no longer part 
 of the body, it necessarily dies. So it is with all 
 rendings of the Body of Christ the Church. 
 Sooner or later the part that is separated the 
 sect, the part cut off dies. It may at the first 
 have an appearance of great life. I have seen in 
 a forest a great branch torn from a noble tree, and 
 retaining so much of its old sap as to put forth 
 leaves again and again ; so that you may say it 
 is not dead, and a child might even think it will 
 live on, as well as the tree under which it lies. 
 But wait a year or two. What then ? Ask the 
 forester, and he will say the branch which is cut 
 off, or torn off, from its parent stem, and is no 
 longer nourished by the new year's sap of the tree, 
 may send out sprouts and leaves for a year or so ; 
 but, after all, it must wither, and die, and be fit 
 only to be burned. 
 
 So, my brethren, most surely is the end of all
 
 174 SCHISM. 
 
 schisms from the Church. You know what John 
 Wesley said to his preachers : " If you leave the 
 Church, I believe Christ will leave you." People 
 who leave the Church, really separate themselves 
 from Christ, they no longer remain in the Vine 
 they, therefore, no longer partake of the life and 
 the sap of the Vine ; that is, they no longer receive 
 the grace of sacraments, which is the only way 
 ordained by God Himself for keeping up the 
 strength and life of their souls. That life, their 
 spiritual life I am not speaking of their intel- 
 lectual or mental and moral life, but their spiritual 
 life, their spiritual life gradually wastes away ; 
 it may show itself by putting forth a few leaves 
 of feeling or profession, but it cannot bring forth 
 any fruit to perfection. In a few short years 
 at the most, in a generation these disappear. 
 Thus the branch withers, no sap circulates in it. 
 It has no roots, the dews of heaven and the balmy 
 breeze and glorious sunshine, which refresh and 
 strengthen every leaf in the forest, cannot minister 
 to its wants, so it all withers and dies. 
 
 All this, if you think at all upon the subject, 
 follows necessarily from our Lord's parable of the 
 vine and the branches, or from S. Paul's parable 
 of the body and its members. If we are branches 
 of the Vine, then to separate ourselves from the 
 Vine is to become barren and good for nothing 
 it is to wither and die. If we are members of the
 
 SCHISM. 175 
 
 One Body, then schism is a rending of the limbs 
 from the Body, and limbs so rent from the Body 
 become corrupt, and sooner or later die. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Thus have I tried very simply to explain to you 
 what schism really is. At the risk of being tedious, 
 I repeat it is illustrated by the rending of a 
 garment, the tearing of a net, the breaking of a 
 fence, the cutting of a branch of a tree. Each of 
 these illustrations teaches some evil result of an 
 act of schism ; but they all fall short of what 
 S. Paul compares it to, and says it really is. He 
 assures us it is the rending of Christ's flesh, tear- 
 ing asunder of His joints, the maiming of His 
 limbs, the wasting of His blood ; in a word, it is 
 the dividing of His Body. And if so, what becomes 
 of the parts which are separated from Him ? They 
 do not, they cannot, become so many new Churches, 
 each entire within itself. They are but separated 
 limbs, with no independent life of their own ; and, 
 therefore, sooner or later, they become corrupt, 
 tainted more and more with heresy and false 
 doctrine, until at length, after spreading a moral 
 pestilence on all around, they are cast out of God's 
 sight, a seething mass of corruption, a shame and 
 abhorring to all flesh. 
 
 In conclusion, let me give you one or two
 
 176 SCHISM. 
 
 examples of the evils of schism, its certain declining 
 more and more from the truth, its miserable end. 
 I will take an extreme case. Look at the sect 
 which calls itself Mormonite, or Latter-day Saints. 
 It is less than fifty years when this delusion sprang 
 up in America. It established itself at the Salt 
 Lake, in the state of Utah. Many from England 
 and Wales joined them, separating themselves from 
 the Church into which they had been baptized, 
 unconsciously rending the Body of Christ. You 
 need not think I should tell you into what depths 
 of heresy and uncleanness those miserable ones 
 have sunk. Are they Christ's at all ? Are they 
 not in their shameless polygamy and concubinage 
 worse than the heathen ? 
 
 Here, then, is one instance an extreme one, I 
 allow of the certain and speedy evils of leaving 
 the Church, the Body of Christ. Their founder, 
 the false prophet Joseph Smith, despised the Body 
 of Christ ; perhaps he knew nothing about it. He 
 tried to make a new body ; what is it now, but a 
 loathsome corpse ? This was in America the 
 land of freedom. 
 
 Turn in another direction, and look at Germany. 
 Large numbers of that distinguished people left the 
 Church at the time of the so-called Reformation, 
 about three hundred years ago ; they did not want 
 to leave the Church, but Rome would make no 
 terms with them ; and as they could get no bishops
 
 SCHISM. 177 
 
 to separate with them, they formed themselves 
 into societies without bishops, or any one else, who 
 could alone administer valid sacraments. What 
 was the result? Year by year they departed 
 farther and farther from the doctrines of the 
 Church, and now the majority have ceased to 
 believe in the Gospel at all. They regard the 
 Bible as a book full of fables ; and all the weapons 
 with which revelation has been attacked during 
 the last generation or two have been drawn from 
 the workshop of German unbelief. This is in the 
 land of Luther; and no other fruit of schism can 
 be found at Geneva, where Calvin preached and 
 ruled. Calvin, you must understand, was never 
 ordained ; he was a simple layman ; and yet he 
 did not hesitate to preach and baptize and to 
 perform all other acts of the Christian ministry. 
 He created a schism, and drew away thousands 
 from the Church, in Switzerland, France, and 
 many other countries, and now their descendants, 
 in our own day, deny the Lord Who bought them. 
 In the very pulpit where Calvin preached, it is 
 now taught, or was taught a few years ago, that 
 Christ is not the Son of God, that His blood does 
 not cleanse from all sin. 
 
 And think you, brethren, that schism in our 
 own country is not a fearful evil, a dishonour to 
 Christ, a rending of His Church, and that its 
 certain fruits are not the loss of light and truth, 
 
 N
 
 178 SCHISM. 
 
 loss of faith and grace, and loss of men's souls ? 
 Thank God we do not yet see the monstrous 
 growths of evil which America, Germany, and 
 Geneva have reared. But are there none among 
 us who deny the Lord Who bought them? Are 
 there none who are utterly indifferent to all 
 Christian truth and about their own salvation ? 
 for this simple reason there are so many sorts of 
 religion among us, there are so many teachers, 
 able, eloquent, plausible, but contradicting. And 
 an ordinary man waits, and holds aloof, until he 
 sees some agreement, which will never come. And 
 the fathers of these teachers, or their forefathers, 
 were they not members of the Church, and at one 
 time believed her doctrines, and received her 
 sacraments, even as you and I now do ? And are 
 there not others who, if they have not reached the 
 lowest depths, have yet, through leaving the 
 Church, lost much of the Catholic faith, and hold 
 doctrines which the Church of Christ has never 
 held, teaching for doctrines the opinions of men ? 
 The faith which was once for all delivered to the 
 saints respecting the new birth in baptism, con- 
 firmation, the threefold ministry, they no longer 
 contend for ; they no longer keep steadfastly to the 
 fellowship of the Apostles, the breaking of the 
 bread, and the Church's prayers. Instead of these 
 springs of grace, they have hewn out for them- 
 selves broken cisterns, which yield none of the
 
 SCHISM. 179 
 
 pure water of life. What, then, will these do in the 
 end of days ? A few years will go by, and by 
 their fruits angels and men will know them. A 
 few years, and the spirit of self-pleasing and self- 
 will and opposition to all lawful authority will 
 grow and increase. The notion that each may do 
 what is right in his own eyes, that each may 
 choose his own teacher, will perpetuate fresh 
 divisions. Sects which are now flourishing will 
 disagree among themselves, break up into parties, 
 and separate, break up again and separate once 
 more, until they have quite departed from their 
 original doctrines and are known for little else 
 besides opposition to the Church, out of whose 
 bosom in an evil hour they had cast themselves. 
 
 Such, brethren, is the end of schism. It begins 
 in a lack of faith, self-will, vanity, lust of power, 
 or in some other wrong disposition of the natural 
 heart, and it ends sooner or later in rending the 
 Church, dividing Christ, denying the faith, destroy- 
 ing the souls of men. 
 
 Would that all people who are in danger of 
 committing this insidious sin would remember 
 S. Cyprian's words, " That man hath not God for 
 his Father who hath not the Church for his 
 mother ; " or Augustine's, " No one has the love of 
 God who loves not the unity of the Church ; " or 
 John Wesley's warning, "I fear if you leave the 
 Church, God will leave you."
 
 i So SCHISM. 
 
 Now, how shall you and I keep clear of this sin ? 
 By giving heed to S. Paul's exhortation, " I beseech 
 you, brethren, by the Name of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that 
 ye be perfectly joined," fitted as the limbs of a 
 body, jointed or articulated "in the same mind 
 and the same spirit." Clearly now, as members of 
 the Church, we may all speak the same thing in 
 our public worship. For have we not the same 
 prayers, the same psalms, the same creeds, and 
 that, not because we belong to one particular 
 congregation, but because we are members of the 
 Church of England, with one Prayer-book and one 
 worship ! Go where you will, into any parish of 
 the land, and you will still pray the same prayers, 
 sing the same psalms, repeat the same creed, receive 
 the same sacraments, in a word, speak the same 
 thing. Leave the Church, join a sect, and you can 
 no longer do this in public worship. 
 
 But this alone will not prevent division. There 
 must be not only agreement in words, but harmony 
 of mind, union of heart and will. S. Paul urges the 
 same mind, the same judgment. We must believe 
 the same thing be perfectly jointed together, as 
 the limbs of our bodies, moved by one will, living 
 in one body through one soul. What is the one 
 thing we are all to believe ? Not any opinion of 
 man, but the Catholic faith, the faith which has 
 come down to us from the first Pentecost, the
 
 SCHISM. 181 
 
 Faith once for all delivered to the saints, which 
 cannot be changed, added to, or taken from, without 
 peril. 
 
 But we must not only believe, and believe aright, 
 we must also love what we believe, love the Author 
 of our faith, and love all in Him and for His sake, 
 and work for Him and them. In other words, 
 ours must be a working faith, a "faith which 
 worketh by love." 
 
 Yes, let a man really love God, and Jesus Christ 
 Whom He has sent, and he will also really love the 
 Church, and will care for its unity, and will do 
 nothing which will tend by word or deed to break 
 that unity. He will love the Church as his spiritual 
 mother, the bride of Christ, because he loves Christ, 
 just as a dutiful and affectionate child not only 
 obeys and reverences his father, but loves and cares 
 for his mother also. He will never forget S. Paul's 
 assurance, "Christ loved the Church, and gave 
 Himself for it." Nor will he think lightly of our 
 Lord's dying prayers, " Neither pray I for these 
 alone, but for them also that shall believe on Me 
 through their word ; that they all may be one, even 
 as Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee, that 
 they also may be one in us, ... that they may be 
 made perfect in one." 
 
 Surely no one, who loves the Lord Jesus in 
 sincerity, will close his heart to this prayer, or to 
 S. Paul's entreaty. He will at least endeavour to
 
 182 SCHISM. 
 
 obey the Apostle, and daily pray with Christ for 
 the unity of the Church. He will at all times, but 
 especially at the ember seasons, pray for all bishops, 
 priests, and deacons, that they may be united and 
 led into the way of truth, that they may be 
 replenished with true doctrine, and endued with 
 innocency of life, so that the word spoken by their 
 mouths may never be spoken in vain. 
 
 Lastly, the man who loves the Lord Jesus in 
 sincerity will show himself a consistent and 
 faithful member of the Church in all he says and 
 does. He will live by her rules, obey her orders, 
 attend her worship, keep her seasons, receive her 
 sacraments. He will never go where he is likely 
 to hear her spoken lightly of, or her doctrines 
 denied. In short, he will listen to the words of 
 one on this point who can be quoted as an 
 impartial witness I mean John Wesley, who at 
 the close of his long and laborious life was warning 
 his people against separation, and solemnly exhorted 
 them in these words, some of which you have 
 already heard. 
 
 "Carefully avoid whatever has a tendency to 
 separate men from the Church. Exhort all our 
 people to keep close to the Church and the sacra- 
 ment. Warn them against despising the prayers 
 of the Church. None who regard my judgment 
 or advice will ever separate from it. For let this 
 be observed : I fear when they do leave the Church,
 
 SCHISM. 183 
 
 God will leave them. As for myself, I declare once 
 more, I live and die a member of the Church of 
 England." 
 
 And so he did, brethren ; he died in communion 
 with the Church, and prayed for her almost with 
 his last breath. When his parched lips were 
 wetted, he devoutly repeated his usual thanks- 
 giving after meat : " We thank Thee, O Lord, for 
 these and all Thy mercies. Bless the Church and 
 the king, and grant us truth and peace through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord, for ever and ever." 
 
 May God in His mercy yet hear this prayer, 
 which he, being dead, yet speaketh. May the one 
 body, the Holy Catholic Church, be so guided and 
 governed by the One Spirit, that all who call 
 themselves Christians may be led into the way 
 of truth, and may hold the faith in the unity of 
 Spirit, and the bond of peace, and in righteousness 
 of life. 
 
 Then shall we all, through the one ministry and 
 partaking of the one bread and one cup, so grow 
 in grace and obedience, and humility and love, as 
 to come at length to perfect knowledge and arrive 
 at the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
 Christ, and stand before His throne, without fear 
 or shame, in the day of revelation and reward.
 
 THE KEYSTONE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 " Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, 
 when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for 
 fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith 
 unto them, Peace be unto you." S. JOHN xx. 19. 
 
 THIS was our Lord's first appearance to His 
 assembled Apostles after He rose from the dead ; 
 and very striking were the immediate effects of 
 this appearance, most important were all its conse- 
 quences. For the Apostles were chosen witnesses 
 of His resurrection. He had solemnly told them 
 again and again that He should be put to death, 
 but that on the third day He should rise again. 
 His own veracity, then, was at stake. The truth 
 of all His words, the faithfulness of all His 
 promises depended on His rising; and, therefore, 
 the whole fabric of Christianity rests upon this 
 miracle of the resurrection as a foundation. All 
 the doctrines of the creed stand or fall with it. 
 For if one is false, how can any others be proved 
 true ? Nay, our own individual happiness at the 
 present time, our own hopes of life to come and 
 immortality are shattered and gone, if there is no
 
 THE KEYSTONE OF THE CHURCH. 185 
 
 certitude about the Lord's resurrection. " If Christ 
 be not risen, your faith is vain," says S. Paul ; 
 " ye are yet in your sins." Ye have not risen in 
 soul to newness of life ; ye will never rise in body 
 from the grave ; ye will die eternally. " Then 
 they also that are fallen asleep in Christ " our 
 own loved ones among the number " have 
 perished ; " we shall never see them more ; and, as 
 a last consequence, " if in this life only we have 
 hope in Christ, then we " Christians, who now 
 are denying ourselves so many pleasures, and are 
 suffering so many troubles, for the sake of Christ, 
 "of all men are most miserable. But now," 
 triumphantly rejoins the Apostle, in answer to all 
 these objections, "is Christ risen from the dead, 
 and become the firstfruits of them that slept." 
 There is no doubt about it. At least you and I, 
 brethren, should have no uncertainty. Why are 
 we here, keeping a joyful Easter, celebrating 
 eucharists, feasting on sacraments and other means 
 of grace, singing alleluias, unless we believe in the 
 glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 are expecting and preparing for our own ? 
 
 Here is a simple and conclusive testimony, Why 
 do we observe the frst day of the week at all, 
 and not the seventh, except that we regard it as 
 the Lord's Day, which has superseded the Jewish 
 sabbath, and because it was appointed by the 
 Apostles, and received from them by the Church
 
 1 86 THE KEYSTONE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 as a memorial to all Christian generations of the 
 first Easter Day, when the Mighty Conqueror 
 broke hell in pieces, burst the bands of death, 
 and thereby gave us the sure and certain hope 
 of rising to eternal life, and of passing to our 
 joyful immortality ? 
 
 " Oh! day of days ! (says the Christian poet of Easter Day) 
 
 shall hearts set free 
 No ' minstrel rapture ' find for thee ? 
 Thou art the sun of other days, 
 They shine by giving back thy rays ; 
 
 " Enthroned in thy sovereign sphere, 
 Thou shedd'st thy light on all the year ; 
 Sundays by thee more glorious break, 
 An Easter Day in every week ; 
 
 " And week days following in their train, 
 The fulness of thy blessing gain, 
 Till all, both resting and employ, 
 Be one Lord's Day of holy joy." 
 
 Brethren, the calendar of the Church is alone 
 sufficient evidence of the truth of the resurrection. 
 Let an unbeliever account in any other way for 
 the Catholic tradition of Christendom, viz. for the 
 observance of the first day as a day of rest instead 
 of the seventh, and then it will be time enough 
 for us to bring further evidence of a fact which is 
 as sure and plain as the shining of the sun at 
 noonday. It will be then time enough to remind 
 such an one that our belief in the resurrection 
 rests not only on the unimpeachable testimony of 
 twelve men, who were eye-witnesses of all they 
 delivered to the Church, who suffered all and gave
 
 THE KEYSTONE OF THE CHURCH. 187 
 
 up all, even life itself, for the maintenance of their 
 belief; but on the accumulated evidence of more 
 than eighteen centuries, during which the faith 
 once delivered to the saints has gone forth 
 conquering and to conquer. 
 
 " The ever-memorable converse of saints in all 
 ages, their supernatural endurance of torments in 
 many persecutions (down to our own times), the 
 overwhelming conversion of all lands to the 
 obedience of faith, without might, or persuasion, 
 or compulsion," but even in opposition to all the 
 corrupt instincts of our fallen nature, the very 
 planting of the cross in the isle of the sea in our 
 own day these wonders are a witness to the 
 truth of God, that He raised up Christ from the 
 dead that it is Jesus Christ of Whom He spake 
 in the second Psalm : " Thou art My Son ; this 
 day have I begotten Thee. Desire of Me, and 
 I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inherit- 
 ance, and the utmost parts of the earth for Thy 
 possession." 
 
 But not Apostles only by their preaching, or 
 martyrs by their blood, or saints by their great 
 holiness, have borne witness to this vital truth ; 
 millions of Christians, simple and unknown by the 
 innocence of their lives and the happiness of their 
 deaths, have testified convincingly to the truth 
 of this great doctrine of the resurrection. A great 
 multitude which no man can number, of all nations,
 
 188 THE KEYSTONE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 languages, and tongues, have lived in the faith of 
 Christ crucified, and have died to the world and 
 flesh through the power of His risen life ; and 
 having adorned the doctrine of God their Saviour 
 in all things, having gone through much tribulation 
 in consequence of their belief, and having washed 
 their robes white in the blood of the Lamb, they 
 are now resting in Paradise, in sure and certain 
 hope of a joyful resurrection. God grant, brethren, 
 that when our time shall come to quit this scene 
 of trial, we may with them sleep in Jesus ! God 
 grant, when the trump of the archangel shall 
 sound, we may be clothed with bodies incorruptible 
 and full of glory ! We shall then with our own 
 eyes see our risen Lord, as the Apostles did ; we 
 shall then partake of His peace as of a river ; we 
 shall then have an assurance of forgiveness which 
 no words from the lips of man can bestow; in 
 short, we shall then be " glad ; " for " in His presence 
 is the fulness of joy, and at His right hand is 
 pleasure for evermore." 
 
 But mark ! Our hope of all this happiness, 
 present and to come, rests on the fact that on the 
 first day of the week our Lord Jesus Christ 
 appeared to His Apostles in council, and gave 
 them many infallible signs and assurances that 
 He had risen from the dead. 
 
 But observe further : Christ's rising is not only 
 the ground of our future hopes, it is a source of
 
 THE KEYSTONE OF THE CHURCH. 189 
 
 present joy. When Jesus stood in the midst, He 
 said, " Peace be unto you ! " 
 
 Mark, my brethren, these are the first words of 
 our Lord to His sorrowful and fearful Apostles 
 after He rose from the dead, " Peace be unto you." 
 Before He left them He had said, " Peace I leave 
 ^uith you, My peace I give unto you. Let not 
 your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." 
 But great trouble had they gone through since He 
 had so spoken ; much fear was even then upon 
 them "the fear of the Jews." So our loving- 
 Saviour, in His compassion, no sooner appeared 
 than He spake comfortably unto them, and gave 
 them the blessing of peace. For " He will speak 
 peace unto His people," it was said of Him in 
 prophecy, " that they turn not again." " In the 
 world ye shall have tribulation." His own assur- 
 ance, " But in Me ye shall have peace." And is it 
 not true, O humble, faithful, loving soul, that 
 when the world is shut out, and the doors are 
 closed i.e. when we have entered into the chamber 
 of the heart and are communing secretly with 
 our heavenly Father, seeking Him with earnest 
 prayers and tears, if haply we may find Him, 
 that then Christ does come secretly, suddenly we 
 know not how and gives us His peace ? 
 
 But there was another reason why our Lord, on 
 this occasion, should speak peace to them. They 
 were not only sorrowful at His loss and afraid of
 
 igo THE KEYSTONE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 the Jews, but they were terrified and affrighted 
 at His presence. 
 
 He came among them so suddenly, late in the 
 evening, without noise of footsteps, or the open- 
 ing of a door, and they thought that He was a 
 spirit. Consider what they saw, and how they 
 saw. 
 
 It was far advanced in the evening; the deep 
 shadows of twilight were around them ; a solitary 
 lamp, perhaps, cast a glimmer of light through the 
 large upper room, and made the darkness visible, 
 while they were standing in a group and eagerly 
 discussing the news of the Resurrection, which, 
 first, S. Mary Magdalene, then S. Peter, then the 
 two disciples from Emmaus had in turn brought 
 in. And casually some one glanced aside into the 
 darkened room, where all was vacancy ; and surely 
 the air was not seen to move but it did move 
 and he looked again, and it moved again, and now 
 a dim outline was seen. And the seer held his 
 breath, and touched his neighbour and whispered. 
 And they looked again, and the shadow had grown 
 again in distinctness, and others saw the shape. 
 And at length it was plainly visible to all, and it 
 stood out in the very midst in the full proportions 
 of a man, although a moment before they could 
 neither see, nor feel, nor hear any one besides 
 themselves. Well might they be filled with fear, 
 and think that they had seen a ghost. Great need
 
 THE KEYSTONE OF THE CHURCH. 191 
 
 had they of hearing those soothing words, " Peace 
 be unto you ! " 
 
 For surely, brethren, it is an awful thing, even 
 in sleep or in waking moments, to become conscious 
 of the presence of beings of another world. 
 
 What was the experience of Eliphaz, the friend 
 of Job ? " In thoughts, in visions of the night, 
 when deep sleep falleth on man, fear came upon 
 me and trembling, which made all my bones to 
 shake. Then a spirit passed before my face. It 
 stood still; but I could not discern the form 
 thereof. An image was before mine eyes. There 
 was silence, and I heard a voice." So was it here. 
 It must have been late at night it was dark 
 there was fear and trembling upon them ; an 
 image was before their eyes; it came and stood 
 in the midst ; there was silence ; they heard a 
 voice. Oh, how tender ! how thrilling ! the voice 
 of One they loved, who had been dead, and was 
 alive again. " Peace be unto you ! " " It is I ; be 
 not afraid." 
 
 Truly, brethren, there is something very won- 
 drous and awful in this appearance of our risen 
 Lord. Which of you, if you had seen one of your 
 neighbours, one whom you loved, stretched on the 
 bed of death, then carried to the grave and 
 publicly buried in the open churchyard, would not 
 be filled with wonder and fear inconceivable if he 
 stood in the midst of your family circle in the
 
 192 THE KEYSTONE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 dimness of the evening; or if you awoke up and 
 saw him standing by your bedside in the stillness 
 of the night ; or if you only came upon him sud- 
 denly in your solitary walk, in all the garb and 
 appearance of the man you had once known ? 
 Would you not be somewhat terrified and af- 
 frighted, and rush home and say you had seen a 
 spirit ? Well, so was it with our Lord's disciples ; 
 and it needed His very words, His own familiar 
 voice, to assuage their fears. "Peace be unto 
 you I " 
 
 But there was something more wonderful still 
 in His first presence with His disciples. You 
 observe He came suddenly and stood in the midst, 
 with the very body in which He lived and 
 suffered ; and yet the doors were shut. The doors 
 did not open, they were shut ; and yet, in spite 
 of their being shut, He came and stood in the 
 midst. How was it possible for Him to get into 
 the upper room when the doors were shut ? This 
 is the wonder this is the miracle ! 
 
 Lift up your minds, brethren, and beg God to 
 give you faith to receive what I am now going 
 to tell you, what has ever been believed in the 
 Church on this mystery. Our Lord's body, after 
 He rose from the dead, was no longer what it once 
 was. "There is a natural body, and there is a 
 spiritual body." Our Lord's body was then, and 
 is now, a spiritual body. It was a BODY, for it
 
 THE KEYSTONE OF THE CHURCH. 193 
 
 ate and drank, moved, talked, was seen and felt. 
 It was, moreover, the same body ; it carried the 
 wounds of His Passion. "He showed them His 
 hands and His side." S. Thomas even was satis- 
 fied. But it was a spiritual body, not a natural. 
 It came and stood in the midst. It vanished out 
 of sight in a moment, without a sign, without 
 noise or motion. It passed through the closed 
 doors or the walls or ceiling, as it had passed 
 through the stone of the sepulchre when He arose 
 noiselessly without disturbing the guard, without 
 breaking the seal of that stone which the mighty 
 angel came from heaven some hours after to roll 
 away. But how could this be ? How was it 
 possible to pass through the stone or the doors ? 
 Surely this is contrary to the ordinary Jaws of 
 nature, under which all our bodies live and move 
 by the will of the Creator. 
 
 Yes ! but our Lord's body after His resurrection 
 was spiritual, not natural ; it was no longer subject 
 to the laws of nature in this lower world ; it was 
 no longer affected by time or space ; it had passed 
 into another sphere of being ; it was living under 
 the conditions of eternity, in eternity, not in time 
 or space at all; it was immortal, subtle, impas- 
 sable, bright and glorious as the light, able to move 
 as the light ; no more stopped by the stone of the 
 sepulchre, or the closed doors, or the surrounding 
 walls, than an angel from heaven, or than the light 
 
 o
 
 194 THE KEYSTONE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 of the sun is stopped by the glass through which 
 it comes and shines. Such was our Lord's risen 
 body, the same body as before, of the same flesh 
 and bones as when it lived and suffered and died 
 on earth, and yet spiritual, able to come and go 
 as the angels, able to ascend up to heaven, able 
 to enter into the unapproachable glory and sit at 
 the right hand of the Father. You know that 
 even in the days of His humiliation that body 
 was transfigured, changed gloriously ; it was dwelt 
 in by all the fulness of the Godhead ; it healed the 
 sick by a touch ; it walked on the waters ; it 
 commanded the winds and sea. We need not, then, 
 be surprised that that same body, after its resur- 
 rection, should have shown itself independent of, 
 and above, all the ordinary laws of nature to which 
 our mortal bodies are still subject; or that it should 
 have passed through the stone of the sepulchre and 
 the closed doors. Only realise whose body it was 
 and is, and nothing will seem hard or impossible. 
 It is the body of the Son of God, the Second Person 
 of the ever-blessed Trinity. All the attributes of 
 the Eternal Word are now communicated to it. It 
 is the perfected instrument of the all-wise, all- 
 mighty, all-searching, all-filling Creator. It can 
 do whatsoever He pleases, and be present whereso- 
 ever He wills, in heaven, in earth, and in all deep 
 places. 
 
 Let us now see, in conclusion, whether these
 
 THE KEYSTONE OF THE CHURCH. 195 
 
 truths respecting our Lord's appearance in His 
 resurrection body have not, like all other high 
 doctrines, a practical bearing on our own faith 
 and conduct. I would apply what has been said 
 in this way. If our Lord's body is thus gloriously 
 changed; if it is not in time, but in eternity; if 
 it is in no way subject, as it once was, to the con- 
 ditions of creaturely existence, as place, time, 
 weight, and motion ; if it is able to come and go 
 without being seen ; if it can stand in the midst 
 and no one know it, until He reveal Himself to 
 the spiritual consciousness of His true disciples ; 
 then, who of us will venture to prescribe the times 
 or the mode of His presence now ? Who of us will 
 venture to affirm He must be present, if at all, in 
 this way or the other, according as we, in our 
 shallowness and ignorance, imagine ? In short, 
 who will reason on what is above reason ? Who 
 can define spiritual presence when we know 
 nothing of the laws of spiritual existence ? Was 
 He not present to S. Stephen in his martyrdom ? 
 to Saul in his conversion ? to S. John in ecstasy ? 
 to S. Paul in a trance ? Could He not have been 
 present to any others at the same moment, when 
 time and place no longer affected Him? And is 
 He not present with us, brethren, in times of 
 solemn service, when two or three are gathered 
 in His Name ? Is He not present especially at 
 Holy Communion, as at no other time, and in no
 
 196 THE KEYSTONE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 other way present after the nature of a sacra- 
 ment ? But what reverent mind can reason about 
 His presence at the altar, or say it must be in one 
 way and not in another, when we know absolutely 
 nothing about it ? Nay, who would care to reason 
 when faith bids us worship .and adore ? Who will 
 doubt at the moment of awful adoration, the 
 sweetest, holiest moment in a Christian's life ? 
 Who will ask, with Nicodemus, "How can these 
 things be?" Or with the Corinthians, "With 
 what body does He come?" If such doubts do 
 arise, let us answer unhesitatingly, "Our blessed 
 Lord has but one body that body He took of the 
 blesed Virgin Mary, in which He was transfigured, 
 in which He lived and suffered thirty-three years 
 and died on the cross, which was buried, which 
 rose again and ascended, and is now sitting at the 
 right hand of God." 
 
 When He, the Truth, says of Himself in the 
 mystery of the Holy Eucharist, " This is My Body," 
 " This is My Blood," who will dare to say that it 
 is not His flesh and blood? Or, "Whoso eateth 
 My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life," 
 who will assert that it does not impart immor- 
 tality ? Or that He is not present among us at 
 the altar, feeding us from His own very wounded 
 side ? Far from us be this spirit of doubt and un- 
 belief. Let ours be the confession of the prophet : 
 " Verily, Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, Thou
 
 THE KEYSTONE OF THE CHURCH. 197 
 
 God of Israel, the Saviour." Let all doubts and 
 fears be hushed in silent adoration "My Lord 
 and my God ! " 
 
 Lastly, consider if our Lord's body is now so 
 marvellously transfigured, what a glorious destiny 
 awaits ourselves in the kingdom of the resurrection ! 
 For we, too, shall be changed. "He will change 
 our vile body into the likeness of His glorious 
 body, through the mighty working whereby He 
 is able to subdue all things to Himself." But if 
 so, "what manner of men ought we to be in all 
 holiness of life and conversation ? " Oh, awful 
 privilege of our regenerate nature ! our bodies are 
 even now the members of Christ, temples of the 
 Holy Ghost ! Shall we defile those temples ? make 
 those members instruments of sin ? God forbid ! 
 But hereafter they are destined to a higher and 
 more glorious blessedness. By virtue of that 
 sacramental flesh and blood which imparts to us 
 our Lord's risen life, and is the very seed and 
 germ of our resurrection body, we hope one day 
 to shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of the 
 Father. But having this hope in us, how ought 
 we to purify ourselves from all filthiness of flesh 
 and spirit, and by habitual mortification check 
 every wrong impulse, banish every evil imagina- 
 tion, and so perfect holiness in the fear of God ! 
 
 For what if we fall short of that glory ! What 
 then? "I believe," says S. Chrysostom, "there
 
 198 THE KEYSTONE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 will be no misery equal to that of a fallen Chris- 
 tian, because he loses glory incorruptible. After 
 this not even the torments of hell will add to his 
 misery ; because, when he might have been made 
 equal unto Christ in glorious beauty, he chooses 
 to cast it all away, and to depart and be with 
 devils." 
 
 God grant, brethren, that you and I may never 
 lose grace already received, may never be unfaith- 
 ful to God's inspiration; then shall we live as 
 Christians, and die in Christ, and rise to eternal 
 glory.
 
 GRACE RECEIVED IN VAIN. 
 
 "We beseech you, that ye receive not the grace of God in 
 vain." 2 COB. vi. 1. 
 
 IT is possible, then, to receive the grace of God 
 and lose it. It is possible to be at one time in a 
 state of grace, and at another later time out of 
 it altogether. It is possible to be fit to die, and 
 certain of being saved, so dying ; and then to be 
 unfit to die, and certain of being lost eternally, 
 if we so die. 
 
 I do not know, brethren, whether you all believe 
 this momentous truth, this tremendous possibility 
 touching your own selves : but I am sure S. Paul 
 believed it ; else, why did he so earnestly beseech 
 the Corinthians to take heed lest they should 
 receive the grace of God in vain ? Ay, and how 
 was it that he feared for his own safety, as he 
 evidently did, when he assured these same 
 Corinthians : " I keep under my body, and bring 
 it into subjection: lest that by any means, when 
 I have preached to others, I myself should be a 
 castaway " ?
 
 200 GRACE RECEIVED IN VAIN. 
 
 And yet I have met with persons, and possibly 
 you have met with the same, who have asserted 
 they could not fall from the grace of God ; that 
 having once been in a state of grace, they could 
 not finally be lost ; that having once received the 
 grace of God, it could not be in vain. And have 
 none of you heard of that memorable inquiry 
 which a man of note in the history of England 
 put to his chaplain in his dying hours ? His 
 conscience was ill at ease. Yet he had been 
 successful in life. He had carried all his schemes, 
 he had risen to the highest point of his ambition, 
 he had made himself the ruler of this great kingdom, 
 and could have worn its crown. But at last he 
 came to die and to fall like one of the princes, and 
 then he was troubled. And well he might be. 
 For he had rebelled against his king, and had 
 brought him to the scaffold. And " who can stretch 
 forth his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be 
 guiltless ? " (1 Sam. xxvi. 9.) Well, so it was with 
 our great English usurper and regicide over two 
 hundred years ago. He lay on his dying bed in 
 Windsor Castle, and the guilty past of turbulence 
 and rebellion, of civil war and rapine, of king 
 murder, desecration, and sacrilege haunted him, 
 and filled his soul with fear. And he turned to 
 his chaplain, and asked a question of tremendous 
 import: "Can a soul that has once been assured 
 of salvation be finally lost ? " The chaplain was a
 
 GRACE RECEIVED IN VAIN. 201 
 
 bold man, and at once answered, " Certainly not." 
 " Then I am safe," was the sick man's reply, " for 
 I know I was once in a state of acceptance." And 
 so he quieted his fears and went to his great 
 account. 
 
 I said the chaplain was a bold man. Had you 
 and I, brethren, been standing by that bedside, we 
 might have hesitated before speaking confidently 
 on a difficult point of theology, and where the 
 eternal interests of a soul were at stake. We 
 might have even given a different answer; for, 
 besides our text and S. Paul's own fears, we might 
 have reasoned out the teaching of such Scriptures 
 as the following : " Let him that thinketh he 
 standeth take heed lest he fall;" "Be not high- 
 minded, but fear ; " " If God spared not the natural 
 branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee ; " 
 " Grieve not the Spirit; " " Quench not the Spirit." 
 
 Or what is plainer than these passages : " It is 
 impossible for those who were once enlightened, 
 and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made 
 partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the 
 good word of God, and the powers of the world to 
 come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again 
 unto repentance ; " " For if we sin wilfully after 
 that we have received the knowledge of the truth, 
 there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins ; " " For 
 it had been better for them not to have known 
 the way of righteousness, than, after they have
 
 202 GRACE RECEIVED IN VAIN. 
 
 known it, to turn from the holy commandment 
 delivered unto them " ? 
 
 Or, we might have taken our stand in some of 
 our Lord's similitudes : " I am the Vine, ye are 
 the branches. ... If a man abide not in Me, he 
 is cast forth as a branch, and is withered ; and men 
 gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they 
 are burned." Or the parable of the sower, or the 
 case of the unprofitable servant might have been 
 deemed conclusive. Or we might have brought 
 forward the parable of the ten virgins, all of 
 whom had lighted lamps, all of whom went forth 
 to meet the Bridegroom; but when the foolish 
 cried, " Lord, Lord, open to us," He said, " I know 
 you not." Or, lastly, the prophet Ezekiel (for the 
 Old Testament is in no way contrary to the New 
 in this doctrine) might teach us : " When the 
 righteous turneth away from his righteousness, 
 and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to 
 all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, 
 shall he live ? All his righteousness that he hath 
 done shall not be mentioned : in his trespass that 
 he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath 
 sinned, in them shall he die." 
 
 Surely, my brethren, in the face of all this 
 evidence from God's own Word, he must be bold 
 indeed who can affirm that, having once been 
 accepted of God, he cannot be cast off; that having 
 once received grace, he cannot quench it by any
 
 GRACE RECEIVED IN VAIN. 203 
 
 sin; that the good Spirit of God will not depart 
 from the soul of a Christian, whatever evil spirits 
 come in and dwell there ! 
 
 Oh, my fellow-sinners, let us not lay this flatter- 
 ing unction to our souls ! " What fellowship hath 
 righteousness with unrighteousness ? and what 
 communion hath light with darkness? and what 
 concord hath Christ with Belial ? or what part 
 hath he that believeth with an infidel ? and what 
 agreement hath the temple of God with idols ? " 
 If we think thus, what do we but sin with the 
 blind Pharisees, who said of themselves, whatever 
 their conduct, " Abraham is our father," and they 
 knew not that the axe was even then laid to their 
 roots, and the trees of the vineyard, not bringing 
 forth good fruit, were about to be hewn down and 
 cast into the fire ? What do we but commit that 
 iniquity, of which S. Paul could only speak with 
 horror the continuing in sin that grace may 
 abound ? What do we but uproot the very foun- 
 dations of morality, deny the free-will of man : 
 destroy his sense of responsibility; make him a 
 mere machine, careless and hopeless about a future, 
 which would be thus beyond his own control ? In 
 short, what is it but secretly to cherish that 
 miserable heresy of an unloving soul Calvin's 
 hideous notion of reprobation viz. that from all 
 eternity the good God has decreed, not the sal- 
 vation, but the reprobation of His creatures ; that
 
 204 GRACE RECEIVED IN VAIN. 
 
 He, Whose very being is love, Whose mercy is over 
 all His works, Who so loved the world as to give 
 His only Son to die for it, created mankind only 
 for one purpose that many of them should not be 
 saved, that they should be lost eternally ? 
 
 But this is not the Gospel ? The grace of the 
 Gospel is free, and for all. God willeth that all 
 men should be saved. He hath no pleasure in the 
 death of the wicked. The Incarnate Son is " the 
 Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe." 
 His own loving words of invitation are, " Come 
 unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, 
 and I will give you rest." But He sorrowfully 
 speaks of some, " Ye will not " (ye are not willing 
 to) " come to Me, that ye might have life " words 
 which imply they might come, if they would, in 
 obedience to Christ's call, and by the help of His 
 grace. But they wilfully disobey the call: they 
 receive the grace all in vain. 
 
 But perhaps some one here may say, This does 
 not apply to me, for I have no reason to believe 
 I have ever received the grace of God at all. 
 
 Now, God help the man who is in this pitiable 
 state of ignorance, and entertains such a delusion 
 about his spiritual condition ! For it is a delusion ; 
 the very counterpart of the heresy which affirms 
 that God gives grace only to a chosen few, and 
 leaves all the rest to be damned. Who, my friends, 
 who can seriously maintain it as true of any one
 
 GRACE RECEIVED IN VAIN. 205 
 
 (I was going to say even of the unbaptized) in a 
 Christian land, that he has not received grace from 
 God, when he can and does attend the public 
 worship of the Christian Church, when he reads 
 his Bible, knows something of the scheme of sal- 
 vation, makes profession of his faith in the Creed, 
 knows that the Son of God became man, that 
 Christ Jesus died to save sinners ? S. Paul says 
 expressly, " No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, 
 except by the Holy Ghost," therefore he must have 
 received grace the Holy Ghost to make this 
 acknowledgment. 
 
 But setting aside exceptional cases, and coming 
 to ourselves, have not all we, brethren, been bap- 
 tized into the one body ? If so, does not the 
 Apostle assure us that " by one Spirit we are all 
 baptized into one body, and have been all made to 
 drink into one Spirit " (1 Cor.xii. 13) ? It follows, 
 then, we have received the grace of God in and 
 by our baptism, even if we have never shared any 
 other Christian privilege from our baptism to this 
 day. Therefore we are responsible to God for the 
 grace of baptism ; and most of us, I suppose, are 
 responsible for much more. 
 
 For have we had no home training ? Have we 
 never said a prayer at a mother's knee ; never 
 received a father's admonition; never seen a 
 Christian example; never admired the virtues of 
 a saintly character, and for a moment wished they
 
 206 GRACE RECEIVED IN VAIN. 
 
 were our own? Have we not sometimes con- 
 demned sin in others ; felt God's voice warning us 
 about our sins sometimes loathed their slavery ; 
 felt their intolerable burden ; longed, resolved, 
 struggled to be free ? If so, we have received the 
 grace of God manifoldly all our lives. Then, it 
 follows, we are responsible to God for that grace ; 
 we cannot be as though we had not received it. 
 We cannot be as the Jew or the heathen, either 
 here or hereafter. A crown of inconceivable glory, 
 or " many stripes " in the place of shame, will be 
 our portion. Yes, indeed; for verily, if we are 
 reprobates (let us not be afraid to face that " if," 
 the awful alternative), if we are reprobates, it will 
 be more tolerable for Sodom, Capernaum, Jerusalem, 
 than for us in the great day. 
 
 Oh, let us not deceive ourselves ! Very certain 
 is it that multitudes of the baptized do receive the 
 grace of God in vain ! The good seed is sown in 
 many soils, but one only brings fruit to perfection. 
 It is quite possible that the grace of God may be 
 received only on the surface of the heart: or it 
 may be received at first with joy as so many 
 young people receive it at their Confirmation and 
 first Communion, and then in time of temptation 
 fall away : or it may be received among briars and 
 thorns, and the cares of this world, the deceitful- 
 ness of riches, and the lusts of other things may 
 choke its growth. Or you may be of the number
 
 GRACE RECEIVED IN VAIN. 207 
 
 of those who hear and do not : or you may be the 
 slothful servant, hiding your Lord's money in a 
 napkin. Or you may be all along indulging some 
 sin, while receiving grace, indulging first a little 
 sin, then a greater ; a few drops first leaking out 
 of your corrupt heart, then a stream, then a great 
 flood of sin, which may quench the Holy Spirit 
 altogether. 
 
 All of us, brethren, I suppose, have been baptized ; 
 many of us have been confirmed ; some of us are 
 even communicants. Oh, I entreat you all to take 
 heed, that you do not receive such grace in vain. 
 You do receive it in vain if you make not a fitting 
 use of it such a use as God intended when He 
 gave it you. A baptized person, for instance, has 
 never yet thought of being confirmed : one con- 
 firmed has never yet cared to communicate. Well, 
 what are we to say ? What would S. Paul say ? 
 Would he not address himself to such an one with 
 an anxiety of fervour worthy of an Apostle : " I 
 beseech you, that ye receive not the grace of God " 
 in baptism, or in confirmation " in vain " ? 
 For why were you baptized ? That you might fight 
 under Christ's banner, and remain Christ's faith- 
 ful soldier and servant unto your life's end. 
 Why were you confirmed ? That you might be 
 strengthened for the conflict, and might tread 
 Satan underfoot, and might partake of Christ's 
 body and blood, and in the strength of that food
 
 208 GRACE RECEIVED IN VAIN. 
 
 might reach perfection, travelling right on to the 
 mount of God. 
 
 But perhaps you are a communicant a frequent 
 communicant; and you receive the grace of God 
 in Holy Communion, hoping therewith to conquer 
 some besetting sin. And yet your besetting sin 
 whether of pride, or temper, or malice, or sloth, or 
 unclean talking, or impure imaginations, or self- 
 will is not conquered, or weakened even, for all 
 your communions. You still fall, as you did years 
 ago. Sometimes, alas ! the Communion day has 
 not passed before you are once more humiliated, 
 your neighbour perhaps scandalised, your Saviour 
 wounded and put to shame. Oh, my poor friend, 
 have you not great reason to fear that you have 
 many times received the grace of God in vain ? 
 
 Or take another view of your condition. The 
 word " grace " may stand not only for the gift of 
 the Holy Spirit in baptism and confirmation, or 
 the pardon of sin in absolution, and the precious 
 body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion, or 
 for any good thing which your heavenly Father 
 has specially granted you, as an answer to earnest 
 prayer. It may mean the favour which God has 
 bestowed upon you in giving you birth in a 
 Christian country, the advantages of a Christian 
 education, a position in which you can influence 
 others for good. The word may be taken for the 
 authority over others, the money, the time, health,
 
 GRACE RECEIVED IN VAIN. 209 
 
 freedom from care, or any other of the five or two 
 talents which the Master entrusts to His servants, 
 in order that they may trade with them, double 
 them, ere He returns. Think, then, my friends, 
 how you are using these talents for which you will 
 one day give account. Are you laying them out 
 to the best advantage ? Are you so spending 
 Christ's time and money, and so exercising Christ's 
 authority, and so enjoying health and freedom, as 
 to minister to His need, carry on His work, spread 
 His Gospel, save the souls He loves ? And are you 
 doing all this in order that at His coming He will 
 look with approval on your work, and reward you 
 accordingly ? Or are you neglecting your great 
 opportunities, frittering away your time and health 
 and money in useless dissipation and fruitless 
 labour ? In a word, are you burying your talent 
 in the earth ? If so, will not the great day 
 show that you received the grace of God all in 
 vain ? 
 
 Or perhaps you are only an ordinary Christian, 
 a church-goer, a Bible-reader, occasionally, four 
 times or yearly, coming to the Table, and yet you 
 are living below the level of the Gospel, even below 
 your own standard, living an easy and self- 
 indulgent life, with no bearing of the cross a 
 formal life of (what I can only call) sanctified, or 
 perhaps unsanctified, respectability. You allow 
 yourself in many things which conscience would 
 
 P
 
 210 GRACE RECEIVED IN VAIN. 
 
 forbid, if you were fearlessly to listen to its voice ; 
 but society at large, or your own little world, 
 sanctions these ways, or your own worldly interest 
 requires them ; and so you yield to temptation. 
 Perhaps you are indulging some secret sin, some 
 unchristian temper of envy, self-will, pride of 
 intellect, love of dress or admiration, of appetite 
 or impurity; or you have never yet been truly 
 penitent for past sin ; or you are now careless in 
 your devotions, or irreverent in your approaches 
 to the altar coming with no sufficient preparation, 
 and not discerning the Lord's body there ; or you 
 talk flippantly, and jest about holy things. 
 
 Well, whatever you are, communicant, confirmed, 
 or only baptized, or whatever the present sinful 
 habit of your life, let me ask you one solemn search- 
 ing question. If you are making no serious effort 
 to conquer the sin that so easily besets you, if 
 you are making no real, efficient use of the grace 
 vouchsafed you, making no real progress in 
 spiritual things have you not great reason to 
 fear that you have been receiving the grace of 
 God, even in His Holy Sacraments, all in vain ? 
 
 But this is not all. The Christian who is thus 
 slothful, or negligent, or inconsistent, or formal, 
 cannot remain as he is. He must insensibly fall 
 away from all true and high religion; he must 
 sink down into a mere worldling, or grow into 
 a Pharisee without faith or love ; or he must
 
 GRACE RECEIVED IN VAIN. 211 
 
 even become a reckless sensualist, or a mocking 
 infidel hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 
 
 And what will his end be, if through life he 
 has gone on year after year professing to be a 
 Christian; attending God's service and all the 
 means of grace; acknowledging, and feeling in 
 his own heart, that a holy life can only make him 
 happy here, or win him a crown of glory here- 
 after; and yet at the last, on his dying bed, 
 when this world's paint and glitter and seducing 
 pleasure are at an end, and he sees in the clear 
 light of eternity that he has been walking in 
 vain show, that he has not been really in heart and 
 will what he professed to be not a follower of 
 the lowly, patient, chaste, crucified Jesus ? When 
 he sees that he has not borne the cross after His 
 Master ; has not mortified his flesh ; has not re- 
 nounced the world, its prizes and gains; has not 
 crucified his will with all its affections and lusts ; 
 what, I ask, will his end be ? I will tell you. 
 
 His life has been a dream ; his religion a sham ; 
 and so his lamp is gone out, and the door is now 
 shut, and the voice says, " I know you not ; " and 
 the crown of glory is gone for ever; and his 
 portion, after all, is not in the heavenly Jerusalem, 
 but in the outer darkness; not in the presence 
 of God, where is fulness of joy, but in the place 
 of torment, with the most reprobate of men and 
 women, with the devil and his angels, where is 
 wailing and gnashing of teeth everlastingly.
 
 212 GRACE RECEIVED IN VAIN. 
 
 For to receive the grace of God entirely in 
 vain is to sink back into a state of alienation 
 from God, which is misery and death, out of which 
 that grace was ready to raise you; it is to miss 
 the bliss of heaven, to be shut out from the 
 fellowship of saints, from the presence of Christ, 
 from the glory and entrancing happiness of the 
 beatific vision, and to cast yourself headlong 
 into the lake of fire. 
 
 And who of us, my brethen, who is not now 
 living a holy Christian life, who is not now making 
 vigorous efforts to conquer his spiritual enemies 
 through the grace continually bestowed for that 
 very, that only purpose who is, I ask, if so care- 
 less, not preparing for that state of complete 
 alienation and misery, is not slowly but surely 
 sliding into that state of utter insensibility and 
 spiritual death, whence there is no awakening 
 but the final one which will too late reveal his 
 inevitable doom ? For " Can the Ethiopian change 
 his skin, or the leopard his spots ? " No more 
 can he do good, and receive the reward of the 
 good at the last, who all his life is accustomed 
 to do evil. Oh ! be not deceived : " God is not 
 mocked ; whatsoever a man soweth, that shall 
 he also reap. He that soweth to the flesh shall 
 of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth 
 to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life ever- 
 lasting."
 
 GRACE RECEIVED IN VAIN. 213 
 
 I beseech you, then, beloved brethren ; I have 
 not the tongue, the eloquence, the zeal, the faith, 
 the love of an Apostle; but I have at least an 
 earnest desire to help some of you to save your- 
 selves, in body, soul, and spirit, from eternal 
 misery ; and, therefore, with these poor words of 
 mine I entreat you to take warning, I beseech 
 you, as you value your own eternal happiness, as 
 you would not lose the love of God, and forfeit 
 the joy of your Lord, and be cast by Him into 
 the lake of fire, take heed to yourselves and to 
 your children that, in your daily receipt of Christian 
 blessing, you do not receive the grace of God in 
 vain. 
 
 God has already given you grace abundantly. 
 Use it well, and He will enlarge His gifts. Use 
 it well at this present time; for, "Now is the 
 accepted time ; now is the day of salvation." 
 
 But if you are negligent and slothful, then once 
 more I warn you : " Be not high-minded, but fear. 
 If God spared not the natural branches, neither 
 will He spare you." 
 
 If you are found at the last to be an unprofitable 
 servant, not a thief or any other gaol-bird, not an 
 adulterer or an extortioner, or any other worker 
 of iniquity against whom society cries out, but 
 a slothful unprofitable servant, there is but one 
 decree and one doom : " Cast ye the unprofitable 
 servant into the outer darkness," etc.
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 1 
 
 "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable 
 for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous- 
 ness." 2 TIM. iii. 16. 
 
 THE Church brings before us at this season, as 
 special helps for preparing us for our Lord's second 
 coming, two of her great means of grace the pure 
 Word of God, and the Christian ministry. 
 
 On this Sunday we are reminded that Almighty 
 God has caused all Holy Scriptures to be written 
 for our learning, in v order that through patience 
 and comfort derived from the reading of His Word, 
 we might have hope of being finally saved. On 
 Sunday next we shall be told of the office and 
 work of Christ's ministers that they are His 
 servants, and stewards of His mysteries, sent to 
 prepare His way by the preaching of repentance, 
 and the administration of sacraments, and all other 
 ordinances in His Name. Now, restricting ourselves 
 this morning to our proper subject, I would have 
 you to remember that the comfort, and every other 
 blessing which may be derived from the reading of 
 1 A sermon preached on the Second Sunday in Advent.
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 215 
 
 the Bible, depends upon its inspiration, and upon 
 our belief in that inspiration. In other words, 
 if the Bible is not the Word of God, i.e. if every 
 word of the original writings, in Hebrew and 
 Greek, has not the sanction of the Holy Ghost for 
 its having been so written down by holy men 
 who spake as they were moved by the Holy 
 Ghost, there is no alternative but one, viz. the 
 one the infidel is striving to force upon us that 
 this Book is not what it professes to be, the record 
 of a Divine revelation ; that it is not even a 
 trustworthy record of human experience, but a 
 forgery, full of fables; and that all its glorious 
 announcements of what is past, and all its in- 
 spiriting assurances of what is yet to come, are 
 no better than the colours of a bubble, which in 
 a moment will break up and all vanish away. 
 
 But, my friends, we cannot allow this monstrous 
 supposition for a moment. "All Christians," we 
 say, " the whole Church for eighteen centuries has 
 witnessed to the inspiration of the writers of 
 the Bible : and we from our childhood have believed 
 in its Divine origin." But have we good grounds 
 for this belief ? Can we give a reason for the hope 
 that is in us ? Or do we waver on this one point ? 
 Are we sometimes staggered by the bold assertions 
 of free-thinkers, who say there are human errors 
 mixed with the Divine truth ? Or are we disposed 
 to listen to the rash speculations of men of science
 
 216 THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 (falsely so-called) who would have us believe their 
 reasonings and their imaginings, instead of the 
 plain words of the Bible, on the creation, the origin 
 and unity of the human race, the fall, the flood, 
 and many other matters, on which they talk so 
 glibly and loftily ? While others are standing firm 
 on the rock of a God-given faith, are some of you 
 trembling in doubt, or sinking in the quicksand of 
 your own opinions and feelings ? If so, what trust 
 can you have in the written Word so as to act 
 upon its precepts readily and in faith ? What 
 security have you individually for your own 
 hopes of succour and consolation in the day of 
 trial ? 
 
 You see, brethren, the question of the inspiration 
 of the writers of the Bible is one which closely 
 concerns us all, and its importance at the present 
 day cannot be over-stated. For we are living in 
 times of great ignorance of the Bible and great 
 misconception of religious truth. We see that men 
 are no longer content to take things on trust from 
 their spiritual mother, the Church, and to believe 
 because their fathers believed before them. No, 
 we have seen the Bible assailed in the seats of 
 learning and explained away in the pulpit, by the 
 very men who have been sworn to defend it. And 
 although such an exhibition of infidelity is in 
 reality a confirmation of the truth of the Bible 
 (inasmuch as the Bible tells us that in the last
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 217 
 
 days there will be false teachers, false prophets, 
 and a great falling away from the faith ; and we 
 see all this coming to pass), yet it only comes to 
 pass by the plague of unbelief spreading more and 
 more through the Church, attacking and pulling 
 down the weak and wavering, who, if they were 
 but truly fortified with a sound knowledge, and 
 had solid grounds for their faith, would be able to 
 unmask all the wiles, and to overcome every 
 temptation, of the destroyer. 
 
 Now, before I point out some of the grounds on 
 which we may securely rest our conviction that 
 the Bible is the Word of God, let us simply consider 
 what it says about itself, what it professes to be. 
 Of course this does not prove its inspiration, any 
 more than the assertions of a witness, or messenger, 
 prove his truthfulness. But we like to hear what 
 a witness, or messenger, has to say of himself; and 
 when he has told us who he is, and what he has 
 come about, we compare his statements with our 
 own knowledge gained from independent sources ; 
 and if his statements and our knowledge agree to- 
 gether, then we receive his accounts of himself with 
 much more confidence, and are prepared to accept 
 whatever else he may be commissioned to deliver. 
 
 What, then, does Holy Scripture say about itself ? 
 " All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." 
 And with this agrees what it says elsewhere. For 
 instance, S. Peter says, " Prophec}^ is not of private
 
 218 THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 interpretation ; but holy men of God spake as they 
 were moved by the Holy Ghost." So our Lord, 
 quoting the hundred and tenth Psalm, says, " David 
 himself said by the Holy Ghost." And S. Peter, 
 "This Scripture must needs have been fulfilled 
 which the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of 
 David;" and in the Epistle to the Hebrews we 
 have, " As the Holy Ghost saith ; " " The Holy Ghost 
 this signifying." And David speaks of his own 
 inspiration, " The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, 
 and His Word was in my tongue." Thus does 
 Scripture bear witness to its own inspiration. 
 
 But how do we know that this witness is true ? 
 How can we be assured that the writings con- 
 taining these assertions are the very Word of 
 God ? What is the evidence on which we might 
 reasonably hope to carry conviction on this point 
 to the mind of an earnest inquirer ? 
 
 First of all, remember it must be such evidence 
 as will stand the scrutiny of foe as well as friend, 
 and convince the reason of an honest heathen as 
 well as satisfy the faith of an enlightened Chris- 
 tian. Not that the heathen, or the unbelieving, 
 can have the same certainty in this matter as 
 the faithful Christian. Scripture appeals to faith, 
 and Scripture is in the last resort its own witness, 
 as the sun in heaven is its own witness, as God 
 is His own witness in the hearts and consciences 
 of His creatures.
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 219 
 
 The Spirit that wrote Holy Scripture dwells in 
 the hearts and understanding of God's children, 
 and gives them an overwhelming evidence of its 
 Divine inspiration. And, of course, an unbeliever 
 can know nothing of this evidence, except he 
 cease to be an unbeliever and become an en- 
 lightened, obedient Christian. But still this evi- 
 dence, or rather this assurance of Christian faith, 
 is superadded to the evidence of natural reason, 
 and does not dispense with it. 
 
 The ground of our believing at all is and must 
 be a reasonable one ; for we are creatures, and the 
 great principle upon which all faith is based is 
 this one. It is impossible for God, Who requires 
 us to believe His Word, to tell a lie. 
 
 The evidence, then, on which we base our belief 
 in the inspiration of Scripture must be such as 
 would commend itself to the reason of a sincere 
 heathen, and would lead him on, after his baptism, 
 to that full assurance of faith and understanding 
 which a true Christian enlightened by the Spirit 
 of God enjoys. 
 
 And such evidence we can produce in the 
 inspiration of those books which we of the Church 
 of England regard as canonical For instance, 
 we believe that the Bible is the Word of God, 
 first of all on the testimony of others our parents, 
 teachers, ministers. Then, as we grow up, we 
 find that these books are regarded with very
 
 220 THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 special reverence by all Christians, that they are 
 publicly read in the service of the Church, that 
 they are appealed to by all as the sole rule of 
 Faith and the sole standard of morality. Thus, 
 the Church now existing calls attention to these 
 books, and by her use of them she bears witness 
 to their peculiar character. And we receive them 
 and believe them on her witness. 
 
 Mark this, brethren. She bears witness. She 
 does not say these writings are inspired because 
 the learned and pious of this or some previous 
 generation have proved them to be true. She 
 does not say, " They contain truth agreeable to 
 my reason, and therefore I hold them to be the 
 Word of God. They have done much good in 
 the world, they have wrought such wondrous 
 effects wherever they have been acknowledged 
 or obeyed, they stir up such feelings of comfort, 
 hope, and joy in pious people, therefore they must 
 be Divine ; their human authors must have written 
 them by the Holy Ghost." 
 
 This is the way the rationalist talks, who exalts 
 reason, or the pietist, who appeals to feeling, both 
 of whom set aside faith. This is the way of the 
 Brahmin, who points to his books, and says, " See 
 how many millions of Hindoos yield obedience to 
 the Vedas; therefore they are Divine." This is 
 the way in which Mahomet actually answered his 
 disciples when they asked for a sign : " Look at
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 221 
 
 the Koran," he said ; " how could I have written 
 it by my own unassisted powers ? I wrote it with 
 the special help of God That is the miracle which 
 establishes your faith in me and my mission." 
 
 Not so the Catholic Church. Her office from 
 the beginning has been to bear witness. She is 
 the pillar and the ground of the truth. The pillar 
 standing out in the great market-place or thorough- 
 fare of the world, on which the truth is visibly 
 inscribed ; she is also the ground or the foundation 
 on which the truth firmly rests. 
 
 She has borne witness from the beginning that 
 the writings of the Old and New Testaments have 
 always been ascribed to certain authors Moses, 
 Samuel, David, the Prophets, the Evangelists, the 
 Apostles and that these men were moved, borne 
 along, by the Holy Ghost to speak and write. 
 For in the Nicene Creed, which is a witness quite 
 independent of the Bible, she bids us profess our 
 belief in the Holy Ghost, "Who spake by the 
 Prophets." And our own Church, in the Sixth 
 Article, speaks thus : " In the name of the Holy 
 Scripture we do understand those canonical books of 
 the Old and New Testament, of whose authority 
 was never any doubt in the Church." And then 
 she enumerates them, one by one, as they stand 
 in our Bibles. 
 
 Therefore our position is this: The Church of 
 this generation received these books from a former
 
 222 THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 generation, and that former generation received 
 them from one earlier still, until you get back to 
 the Apostles themselves, who, with the sanction 
 of their Master, received them from the Jewish 
 Church, to whom God had committed His living 
 oracles, to keep and to hand on to us, reading them 
 in the synagogue every Sabbath day. But other 
 books, the Sixth Article tells us, Ecclesiastical and 
 Apocryphal, are only read for " example of life 
 and instruction of manners," not for the establish- 
 ment or proof of any doctrine. 
 
 And why is this ? Because these books the 
 Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Tobit, the Mac- 
 cabees were never regarded as canonical by the 
 early Church nor by the Jews, who never received 
 them in their canon. One fact may settle this 
 point. In the catalogues of the books of the Old 
 Testament which are found in the writings of 
 Josephus and Philo, two learned Jews of the time 
 of the Apostles, no mention is made of any books 
 except those which our Sixth Article calls canonical. 
 
 With regard to the books of the New Testament 
 the Church has always witnessed to their author- 
 ship, ascribing them to the Evangelists and Apostles 
 of our Lord, and has always believed them to be, 
 not the word of man, but the inspired Word of 
 God. 
 
 Observe, then, to what conclusion we have thus 
 far come. Our acceptance of the Old and New
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE, 223 
 
 Testaments rests on testimony, the testimony of the 
 Church, which has always existed in this land. 
 Her testimony rests on the testimony or witness 
 of the primitive Church, and that is founded on 
 the witness of the Apostles and Evangelists, and 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. 
 
 Now, how can any honest heathen reject this 
 testimony ? He accepts certain books, written by 
 old Greeks and Romans Homer, Herodotus, 
 Cicero, Virgil, Csesar, and the rest simply on the 
 testimony of each generation of scholars who has 
 received those books and handed them on. So 
 each generation of Christians, from the days of the 
 Apostles, has handed on the canonical books, and 
 the existing Church bears witness and assures the 
 world that Moses and other holy men were the 
 authors of those books, and were moved by the 
 Holy Ghost to write them. 
 
 But this is not all. The Church not only bears 
 witness, bidding us to trust her when she tells us 
 the Bible is the Word of God, she bids us examine 
 and weigh ourselves (so far as God has given us 
 the power) all the other evidences, external and 
 internal, which meet together to support and con- 
 firm her testimony. 
 
 " A cloud of witnesses," says Archbishop Laud, 
 " comes in, some for the infidel, some for the be- 
 liever, some for the weak in faith, some for the 
 strong, and some for all.
 
 224 THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 "First comes in the tradition of the present 
 Church (of which I have been speaking) ; then the 
 testimony of former ages; then the harmony of 
 the prophecies and their fulfilment in the Incar- 
 nation and in many other ways ; then there is 
 the wonderful success of the doctrines of the Bible, 
 their spreading through the world, in despite of all 
 the world could do against them ; then there is the 
 constancy of this truth, its unchangeableness, so 
 that throughout all the world's changes it has 
 remained the same. Then there is nothing carnal 
 or monstrous in the doctrine, as there is in the 
 Mahometan and Hindoo religious books. And all 
 along this Bible has gained and kept and exercised 
 more power upon the minds of men, both learned 
 and unlearned, in the increase of virtue and the 
 repression of vice, than any moral philosophy or 
 any legal policy that ever was. All this is external 
 evidence. Then comes the inward light and ex- 
 cellency of its teaching, which is known only to 
 those who obey it. Weigh well what mystery 
 lies there hidden under humility, what depth in 
 the greatest plainness of speech; what delight it 
 works in the soul that is devoutly exercised in it ; 
 how sublimest wits find in it enough to amaze 
 them, while the simplest always find enough to 
 direct them ; how an elephant can swim in those 
 waters, and a child can ford them. 
 
 " Consider all this evidence, external and internal,
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 225 
 
 which has been accumulating for many generations 
 and receives additions from the experience of every 
 sincere believer, and then we shall not wonder if, 
 with the assistance of God's Spirit, Who alone 
 works faith in the soul and belief in the Scriptures 
 and their Divine authority, we grow up to a most 
 infallible assurance, such an assurance as has made 
 many lay down their lives for this truth, so that, 
 though an angel from heaven should preach to us 
 another gospel, we would not believe it. No; 
 though we should see as great and as many miracles 
 done over again to dissuade us from it, as were at 
 first done to win the world to it, we would not be 
 persuaded by them." 
 
 So, then, concludes the archbishop, a Christian 
 receives Scripture as Divine on the same grounds 
 on which he receives the doctrine of the Divine 
 Being. These grounds are three : the teaching of 
 the Church, which leads us to a reverent persuasion 
 of it ; the light of nature or reason, which shows 
 us how necessary such a revealed learning is ; and, 
 thirdly and highest, the light of faith; for in read- 
 ing Scripture the humble and teachable meet 
 there with the Spirit of God, Who inwardly in- 
 clines their hearts, and seals all other evidence 
 with the full assurance of His own witness. And 
 then not before are we certain that Scripture is 
 the Word of God when we have not only reason 
 guiding, and the Church teaching, but this witness 
 
 Q
 
 226 THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 of the Spirit in ourselves, giving us the full cer- 
 tainty of faith. 
 
 As an illustration of what I have been saying on 
 the witness of the Church in recommending Holy 
 Scripture to us, and on the certitude we subse- 
 quently enjoy from our own saving knowledge of 
 the same, let me remind you of the case of those 
 Samaritans who were led by the woman of Samaria 
 to our Lord, and subsequently for two days listened 
 to His own words. Her witness was, " Come, and 
 see a man who told me all that ever I did. Is not 
 this the Christ ? " They came at her persuasion, 
 and then they heard for themselves ; and in the 
 end they said to the woman, " Now we believe, not 
 because of thy saying, for we have heard Him our- 
 selves, and we know that this is indeed the Christ, 
 the Saviour of the world." 
 
 So it is with the Holy Scriptures. The Church 
 witnesses to them as Divine ; teaches us out of 
 them ; appeals to them as revealing all truth, and 
 deciding all controversy, whose voice is not to be 
 questioned, whose word is final. But most of all, 
 she urges us to read, mark, learn, and digest them 
 for ourselves, convinced that they will speak with 
 power to the believer's soul, and give light and 
 understanding unto the humble and teachable, and 
 thus prove beyond a doubt their own inspiration. 
 
 Take an illustration from the natural world. 
 Fancy a person born in a dungeon, and living there
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 227 
 
 for years without seeing the sun or feeling its 
 warmth. He could only believe in it on the wit- 
 ness of others, to whom it is its own witness, as 
 they bask in its warmth and see its glory. But 
 when once a captive had seen and felt for himself, 
 he would not think of the witness of others. 
 
 So the Holy Scriptures bear witness to their 
 own inspiration by the effects they produce in the 
 mind and heart and will of a Christian. For when 
 the eyes of his understanding are enlightened, and 
 he sees Christ everywhere in Scripture, and hears 
 the Holy Spirit of God speaking to his own soul 
 through the warnings and instructions and conso- 
 lations of Scripture ; when he realises from Scrip- 
 ture his own position in God's kingdom, as justified 
 by faith in the Blood of the Lamb, and sanctified 
 by His Spirit ; and when he looks forward to the 
 coming of his Saviour, and to the promised redemp- 
 tion of his body at that coming ; then this inward 
 evidence of faith increases year after year, and 
 produces an amount of certitude which no difficul- 
 ties from his own ignorance, no reasonings of un- 
 belief, can disturb or shake. For this certitude of 
 faith is wrought in him by the Holy Ghost, who 
 dwells in his soul and enlightens his understand- 
 ing, guiding him according to our Lord's promise 
 into .all truth, teaching all things, yea, the deep 
 things of God* 
 
 And now two short observations, and I have
 
 228 THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 done. If Scripture is given by inspiration of God, 
 some measure of inspiration in the soul of the 
 believer must be necessary to understand it. " For 
 what man knoweth the things of a man save the 
 spirit of man which is in him ? Even so the 
 things of God knoweth no man save the Spirit of 
 God, and he to whom the Spirit reveals them, for 
 they are spiritually discerned." If, then, we are 
 to read Holy Scripture with any insight into its 
 true meaning, with any profit to our souls, we may 
 not treat it as if it were a common book, a book 
 written by man alone. We must read it with 
 faith, and by the help of that Holy Spirit, who 
 really wrote it, by the help of the prophets. We 
 must read it in humility and sincerity, and with 
 an earnest purpose of following its guidance, obey- 
 ing its precepts, submitting our reason and our 
 imagination to its most true and steadfast voice. 
 
 Above all, we must be careful not to consult its 
 living oracles while indulging in any sin. For 
 "into a malicious soul wisdom will not enter." 
 Mysteries are hidden from the proud and self-suf- 
 ficient, and revealed only to the meek. "If any 
 one is willing to do God's will, he shall know of 
 the doctrine ; " he shall gain knowledge and com- 
 fort from Scripture ; he shall arrive at last at the 
 full assurance of faith and hope and understanding. 
 For when the Spirit of truth is come into a soul, 
 He will guide it into all truth. He will take of
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 229 
 
 the things of Christ and show them unto us. He 
 will even show us things to come. 
 
 Secondly, if this Book is the very means through 
 which the Spirit of God speaks to the soul of the 
 Christian, and, therefore, is to be prized above all 
 other books, how wise and needful is it to read and 
 study it every day not merely hear it read in the 
 public service, but to take it into our closets, and 
 there, falling on our knees, and humbly praying for 
 guidance, thoughtfully ponder its Divine words, 
 regarding those words as a voice from heaven, the 
 very utterance of the good God, our loving Father, 
 to our own souls. Yes; let us so study Holy 
 Scripture, constantly praying for the Spirit of God 
 to open our eyes, that we may see the wondrous 
 things of His Law, and to write them indelibly on 
 our hearts, and enable us to practise all it teaches 
 in our daily lives ; and then who can doubt that, 
 like Timothy of old, we shall become wise wise in 
 all holy things, aye, wise unto salvation, through 
 faith which is in Christ Jesus ?
 
 CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 
 
 "And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. 
 And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy 
 sin ; thou shalt not die." 2 SAM. xii. 13. 
 
 SEE, my friends, the value and the blessedness of 
 making a frank, ingenuous confession. We know 
 how an apology from a friend who has done amiss 
 disarms resentment and restores to favour ; we 
 know how, when a child acknowledges his fault, 
 the parents are softened, and lessen punishment or 
 remit it altogether. So it is with our Father in 
 heaven. He forgives and forgets, and tempers 
 judgment with mercy, and this in the case of 
 the most heinous offences. What could be a 
 greater provocation of His anger than David's 
 wickedness, and his continuance in sin a whole 
 year, and his stubborn impenitence? And yet 
 when David came to himself under Nathan's 
 parable when, without anger at his faithful 
 adviser, without excuse for himself, without 
 blaming the woman, as Adam did, he honestly 
 and truly owned his sin, the immediate result of
 
 CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 231 
 
 his confession was the forgiveness of sin : " The 
 Lord hath put away thy sin." And in the thirty- 
 second psalm we have David's own account : " I 
 said, I will confess my sins unto the Lord : and so 
 Thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin." 
 
 Yes. I will confess unto the Lord. Why unto 
 the Lord? Because he had sinned against the 
 Lord. He had not sinned against Uriah, or 
 Bathsheba, or against his own family, or the 
 society of which he was the head, and to which 
 he ought to set a signal example of purity and 
 self-restraint and obedience to the Divine Law. 
 He had, indeed, greatly injured all these his fellow- 
 creatures ; he had done a deed which would cause 
 the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme through all 
 time down into this nineteenth century, and would 
 injure their souls and imperil their salvation. But 
 he had not sinned against any of these: for sin 
 is transgression of God's law ; sin is an offence 
 against His holiness, a defiance of His will ; and 
 therefore is that confession made in the fifty-first 
 psalm which has perplexed some who did not 
 realise this distinction. " Against Thee only have 
 I sinned." For however much we may outrage 
 the feelings of our fellow-creatures and do them 
 cruel harm by our wickedness, yet, strictly speaking, 
 we do not sin against them. We sin against 
 God. 
 
 Once again look at this expression, "I will
 
 232 CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 
 
 confess my sin unto the Lord," for that is the 
 mark of a true confession, of one that is accepted ; 
 for such a confession is not of the lips only, but 
 from the heart. Saul's confession was exactly the 
 same as David's as far as the utterance of the lips, 
 "I have sinned;" but how different were the results 
 of these two confessions ! because the one confessed 
 to the Lord, and the other only to man ; because 
 David's confession was the spontaneous language 
 of a broken heart, Saul's was a forced acknowledg- 
 ment after repeated evasions and excuses ; because 
 Saul, although at last he was convicted and 
 silenced, felt no compunction, had no fear towards 
 God, but only dreaded losing the respect of his 
 subjects. Whereas David, as we know by his 
 whole subsequent career, repented in deed as well 
 as in word; not only humbled himself before 
 Nathan, but mourned and fasted before his servants, 
 and accepted all after chastisements and humilia- 
 tions before his subjects without murmuring or 
 repining. And therefore his repentance, being 
 " towards God," as S. Paul speaks in Corinthians 
 (2 Cor. v. 11), and full of humility and self-chastise- 
 ment and loving sorrow, was accepted, and had its 
 fruit in renewed holiness and everlasting life. 
 Whereas Saul's, being only a worldly sorrow, 
 utterly wanting in true humility and earnestness 
 and compunction, failed to secure the Divine favour, 
 and only issued in a long course of deadly wicked-
 
 CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 233 
 
 ness, self-will, malice, and profaneness, and ended 
 in a hopeless death. 
 
 This, then, is the sure result of a true turning to 
 God, the certain fruit of a real confession to Him ; 
 God at once turns to the sinner, God at once 
 forgives his sin ; and that because God needs no 
 
 O ' 
 
 other proof of the reality of our conversion than 
 the movement of our heart towards Him, the 
 submission of our will to His will. When He sees 
 this movement and submission, we may firmly 
 believe that He in one moment, and from the first 
 moment, acquits the penitent. Indeed, we are not 
 left to the deductions of our own reason or the 
 convictions of our own heart in this matter; we 
 have a most gracious assurance from the Apostle 
 of Love : " If we confess our sins, He is faithful and 
 just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from 
 all unrighteousness." 
 
 But although this may be the gracious action of 
 our most merciful Father towards penitents, and 
 with the history of David before us, it would be 
 a sin to doubt it, yet it behoves us, His guilty and 
 weak children, to receive such a blessed truth with 
 all caution and fear. " There is mercy with Thee," 
 the psalmist teaches us, " therefore shalt Thou be 
 feared." Faith indeed assures the penitent that 
 he is forgiven on his true and hearty confession ; 
 but such an one knows his own frailty and liability 
 to be deceived. The heart is deceitful and
 
 234 CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 
 
 desperately wicked. The unclean spirit returns to 
 his house whence he came out, and if he finds it 
 unguarded, he enters in with seven others more 
 wicked than himself. The true penitent, then, will 
 not remain satisfied with a bare confession or 
 with feelings of sorrow, however keen and pro- 
 longed. He will again and again question his 
 feelings and suspect his motives, and test them ; 
 he will seek to deepen his sorrow, and give ex- 
 pression to it in suitable acts of humiliation and 
 mortification ; he will repeat these again and again, 
 and extend them over a long time. He will seek 
 to "bring forth worthy fruits of penance," as the 
 Prayer-book styles them the "fruits meet" or 
 suitable " to his repentance " to which the Baptist 
 exhorted his penitents, i.e. corresponding to his 
 sin, and proving that he has forsaken it and 
 amended his life. Although God forgives him, he 
 will not lightly forgive himself. He will return 
 to his father's house, as a son indeed, because he 
 knows he is reconciled to his father; but in the 
 spirit of the prodigal, who felt he had no right to 
 be there. He will only seek to be as a hired 
 servant there. And thus he guards himself against 
 presumption and future falls; he justifies the 
 Divine mercy in the eyes of men, when he gives 
 his brethren such manifest and sure tokens of 
 penitence and obedience and humility and all 
 amendment. So it was in the case before us.
 
 CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 235 
 
 David, although forgiven by God, forgave not 
 himself. He still prayed for mercy, as in the 
 fifty-first Psalm, and humbled himself, and bore 
 humiliation and chastisement meekly and without 
 repining, and made his repentance life-long ; and 
 thus he fell not back into his old sins but again 
 became a man after God's own heart, and went on 
 to perfection, and died in peace and holiness, and 
 won his crown. 
 
 There is another point deserving of our con- 
 sideration. God forgave David on his sincere 
 confession ; but how did He forgive ? How did 
 He let David know that He had forgiven ? How 
 was David assured of forgiveness ? Not by any 
 impulse of his own heart, not by any excitement of 
 feeling but by an agency external to himself, by 
 the mouth of Nathan, who was sent expressly to 
 reprove, to convince, and then to forgive him. " The 
 Lord hath put away thy sin ; thou shalt not die." 
 
 Here, then, was God, against Whom all sin is 
 committed, and Who alone can forgive sin, con- 
 veying forgiveness and assuring the sinner of 
 forgiveness, not directly by voice from heaven, or 
 by the ministry of angels, but through the ministry 
 of man; anticipating by a thousand years those 
 words of power, whereby the Son of Man has 
 forgiven all sins in the Christian Church through 
 the ministry He has ordained for that very purpose. 
 
 You remember when He appeared to His Apostles
 
 236 CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 
 
 after He had risen from the dead, He breathed on 
 them and said, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost : whose 
 soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven." Here, I 
 say, was our Lord appointing a line of Nathans in 
 the Christian Church, who should be ever ready 
 to help the sinner in his repentance, and to assure 
 him of forgiveness and restoration. Verily, if 
 David confessed his sin before Nathan, and found 
 immediate relief in so doing, we have an encourage- 
 ment to listen to the advice which the Church gives 
 us to open our griefs to'God's minister when we find 
 our consciences burdened with any weighty matter. 
 And if Nathan was commissioned by God to assure 
 the king of forgiveness, what an assistance is this 
 to our faith to accept the teaching of the Church ; 
 that "our Lord Jesus Christ hath left power to 
 His Church, to absolve all who truly repent and 
 turn to Him; and that she, in His name, hath 
 given power and commandment to all priests, to 
 declare and pronounce to His people the absolution 
 or forgiveness of their sins ; and that on this, the 
 very Sunday after Ember Week, her bishops have 
 been entrusting these powers to new-made priests, 
 laying hands on them, and saying, " Receive the 
 Holy Ghost for the office and work of a priest in 
 the Church of God . . . whose sins thou dost for- 
 give they are forgiven." For surely it is no more 
 difficult or strange for God to forgive now by the 
 ministry of a man than it was three thousand years
 
 CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 237 
 
 ago. God could speak to us Christians by a voice 
 from heaven, as He did of old, or could send His 
 angels to absolve us. But He does not now say 
 with His own voice, " Thy sins are forgiven." He 
 does not now use the ministry of angels for this 
 purpose, but the ministry of men like Nathan, 
 men commissioned by Him to speak in His Name, 
 men of just the same natures as our own, with the 
 same weakness, the same temptations, the same 
 impulses, who therefore know by their own ex-. 
 perience what our trials are, and who can thoroughly 
 sympathise with us in them : which an angel from 
 heaven can never do. And "this grace," the 
 Apostle expressly tells us, " He has committed to 
 earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power 
 may be not of man but of God." 
 
 And now, in the third place, after all this great 
 comfort and encouragement from this example of 
 the Divine mercy, let us note how judgment is 
 mingled with it. Observe, then, that although the 
 Divine mercy was thus most fully vouchsafed to 
 the penitent, and he was assured by absolving 
 words that he was pardoned, and that he should 
 not suffer the extreme penalty of his crimes, yet 
 this mercy and reprieve did not exempt him from 
 all temporal punishment. " Thou hast killed Uriah 
 with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy 
 wife. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart 
 from thy house. I will raise up evil against thee
 
 238 CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 
 
 out of thine own house. I will take thy wives 
 before thine eyes and give them to thy neighbour, 
 and I will do this thing before all Israel and before 
 the sun." Nor was the crushing sentence finished 
 until the innocent babe was involved in its parents' 
 punishment. "Because by this deed thou hast 
 given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to 
 blaspheme, the child that is born unto thee shall 
 surely die." 
 
 Let no one, after this, say that David was not 
 punished for his sins : or that he had no punish- 
 ment with his forgiveness. So great and astonish- 
 ing was the fall of this chosen one, and so scan- 
 dalous was it to all believers, such a cause of 
 triumph was it to the wicked and profane, that 
 although God in His mercy blotted out the guilt 
 and remitted the worst punishment, yet for the 
 sake of His justice and truth, and to set a mark of 
 His hatred against all sins of treachery and un- 
 cleanness, He demanded a large satisfaction for the 
 dishonour done to the Divine Majesty, and all the 
 more because David had been a man after God's 
 own heart, inspired by Him, peculiarly protected 
 and blessed. So would the punishment bear some 
 proportion to the character of the sinner, and to 
 the greatness of his privileges, and be a warning 
 to all who came after, that none can sin against 
 the Lord with impunity, least of all the children 
 of His favour and love.
 
 CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 239 
 
 And, therefore, my friends, let us take the warn- 
 ing home to ourselves. The example of God's 
 dealings with David is no encouragement to us to 
 think lightly of any wilful sin, least of all of the 
 sins he was guilty of. Rather, it is a great warn- 
 ing to us Christians. If God chastised a Jew so 
 severely, sending all sorts of evils into his house 
 horrible crimes, sudden deaths, greatest dishonour 
 before the sun, the rebellion of his people and the 
 loss of his crown, breaking his heart, and bringing 
 his grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. If all 
 this happened to one who lived under the lax and 
 indulgent covenant of Moses, who had but an im- 
 perfect knowledge of God's mercy through Christ, 
 and small helps to holiness and self-denial, what 
 may we expect for the like sins, who know what 
 God has done for us through the atoning blood of His 
 own Son, who have been made members of Christ 
 and temples of the Holy Ghost, and know that the 
 will of God is our sanctification, and have the 
 teaching of Christ and examples of His saints to 
 instruct and encourage us, and the fires of hell to 
 drive, and the crowns of heaven to draw us, and 
 all the means of grace which the Church dispenses 
 to sustain and strengthen and lead us on. 
 
 Forget not, my dear friends, that although we 
 Christians by the mercy of God need not fall as 
 David and Bathsheba did, yet we may sin as 
 greatly as they did, and be as guilty as they
 
 240 CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 
 
 were, because we may sin against more knowledge, 
 more light and more grace. Our Lord distinctly 
 says we can commit their sins in the heart, 
 just as His Apostle assures us. If we hate our 
 brother only we are guilty of murder. And the 
 reason is, because the heinousness of sin in God's 
 sight consists in its rebellion against His known 
 will, its defiance of His known law, its despite 
 to His abundant grace. Who will say, then, that 
 we Christians, who have been baptized in the 
 blood of Jesus, and sanctified by His Spirit, and 
 have a far clearer revelation of His will than 
 David had, and brighter visions of eternal happiness, 
 and more abundant strength to fulfill all righteous- 
 ness, and the example of our dear Lord and the 
 memory of His cruel sufferings to constrain us 
 to flee from all sin and to practise all holiness, 
 who will say that we who have such knowledge, 
 such an example, such grace, such hopes, may 
 not sin more, far more terribly, and outrage the 
 purity of Christ more grievously, by our lesser 
 sins of eye and tongue, and hand and heart, than 
 ever David did, and may therefore incur a heavier 
 condemnation than he ? Or to put aside such high 
 motives from the consideration of our spiritual 
 blessings, may not we, my brethren, who live in 
 a civilised Christian country, under laws we dare 
 not break, in a refined society whose very rules 
 and customs check the worst forms of sin,
 
 CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 241 
 
 who will say that we Christians, in our little 
 sins little as we regard them speaking evil, 
 laughing at bad jokes, looking at indecent pictures 
 and statues, reading sensational novels or divorce 
 cases may not be as guilty before God as David was, 
 who lived for years a wild free-booting life, under 
 a very imperfect dispensation, which imposed little 
 restraint upon man's appetites and passions, and 
 supplied them with comparatively very little 
 grace? Is it not true that under that imperfect 
 dispensation God Himself winked at many sins 
 in His chosen ones, allowed a gratification of 
 appetite and an indulgence of retaliation, to a 
 degree which we Christians, who are accustomed 
 to the yoke of Christ, and have been taught the 
 eight Beatitudes, and are under the influence of 
 His Spirit, cannot reconcile with any notion of 
 a state of grace ? 
 
 Therefore let us lay seriously to heart the 
 dignity of our Christian calling, the great gifts 
 of grace we have received, the exceeding holiness 
 of our souls and bodies, which are members of 
 Christ and temples of the Holy Ghost, and the 
 great sacrilege we commit against Christ when 
 we yield ourselves to any impurity of flesh or 
 spirit. Then shall we be better able to resist all 
 solicitations to evil, and say with holy Joseph, 
 "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin 
 against God ? " Then shall we in private, no less 
 
 R
 
 2 4 z CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. 
 
 than in public, shrink from the smallest act or 
 thought of unseemliness, such as becometh not the 
 saints ; and then shall we keep ourselves unspotted 
 from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting 
 holiness in the fear of God.
 
 MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIFE'S 
 SISTER. 
 
 " Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in 
 prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. For John said 
 unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her." S. MATT. xiv. 3, 4. 
 
 "And Jesus answered and said, Have ye not read, that He which 
 made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, 
 For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall 
 cleave to his wife : and they twain shall be one flesh ? Wherefore 
 they are no more twain, but one flesh." S. MATT. six. 4-6. 
 
 I HAVE chosen these two passages because they 
 supply us with a scriptural basis for two argu- 
 ments with which we can steady our hearts and 
 minds in these swirling times, and effectually meet 
 all the sophistries and plausible reasonings that 
 are nowadays urged against the unity and sacred- 
 ness of Christian marriage. I am not going to 
 speak to you on the general subject of marriage, 
 but on one point which is exercising men's minds 
 at the present time, and which will be decided for 
 the weal or the woe of this Church and nation a 
 very few days hence. 
 
 To-morrow week, S. Barnabas' Day, the Deceased 
 Wife's Sister's Bill will once more be brought into 
 the House of Lords, and a great effort will be made
 
 244 MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER. 
 
 by noble lords and royal princes to upset the 
 decision by which the House by a small majority 
 last year rejected the measure, and thereby saved 
 our country for one year more from the unspeak- 
 able evil of having another law in the Statute 
 Book in direct opposition to the law of God and 
 His Church, and from all incestuous abominations 
 and other mischiefs which are sure to come in like 
 a flood upon us, and sooner or later to destroy the 
 peace of families and the souls of men. 
 
 I trust none of you, my brethren, are indifferent 
 to such a subject as this, or are hesitating as to 
 the attitude you ought, as a Christian and a 
 citizen, to take towards it. The agitation for an 
 alteration in the marriage law on this point began 
 rather less than forty years ago. Certain wealthy 
 persons about that time went abroad with their de- 
 ceased wives' sisters, and there got coupled together; 
 but on returning to this country they discovered, 
 if they did not know it before, that such unions 
 were under a ban among us Englishmen, and 
 unlawful, and that their children, in consequence, 
 are all base born and illegitimate. What, then, 
 did such criminous persons do ? Did they sepa- 
 rate, acknowledge their crime, and make reparation 
 for the outrage they had committed against the 
 law of their country, and seek for pardon for 
 breaking God's seventh commandment, and resolve 
 evermore to live in purity, self-discipline, and
 
 MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIFE 'S SISTER. 245 
 
 retirement ? Far from it. They spoke unblush- 
 ingly, without the least shame or reserve, of their 
 new condition as a great grievance and social 
 wrong, and began forthwith to poison the public 
 mind with assertions and arguments in favour of 
 relaxing the law against which they had so greatly 
 sinned, much as a murderer or a thief might 
 complain of the hardship he was under in not 
 being recognised in good society, or being allowed 
 to enjoy the fruits of his misdeeds, and might use 
 all means for getting the sixth and eighth com- 
 mandments abolished. After a while, these guilty 
 creatures got the Government of the day to issue 
 a royal commission for collecting evidence, and 
 making out a case in their favour. Then followed 
 a Bill, which their friends in Parliament hoped 
 would become law, and under which their unions 
 would be legalised and their children made legiti- 
 mate. The Bill was rejected, but, nothing daunted, 
 these law-breakers carried on their agitation, 
 spending enormous sums in hiring lecturers and 
 in publishing pamphlets and flooding the country 
 with a whole literature on this unclean subject. 
 One man alone, it has been said, spent a million 
 of money before his death on the project, and, 
 possibly, he bequeathed more for the same pur- 
 pose. Every year we have seen a fresh Bill in- 
 troduced into the Legislature, and slowly making 
 way there, until we have now arrived at this point
 
 246 MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER. 
 
 that the present House of Commons is certain 
 to pass such a Bill if it has the opportunity ; and 
 although the House of Lords has hitherto rejected 
 it, yet last year it was only by a majority of four, 
 very powerful influence being brought to bear 
 upon many peers who never voted before, while 
 opponents of the Bill consented to be silent out of 
 complaisance to the wishes of an exalted personage. 
 Such, then, is the state of the case at the present 
 moment. In another week or so the marriage law 
 of this country, which hitherto has been based on 
 the law of God and of His Church from the very 
 beginning, may be altered in this one particular 
 that henceforth a man may marry his deceased 
 wife's sister: and the inevitable consequence of 
 this one alteration will be that other alterations 
 will sooner or later follow. For the principle being 
 abandoned on which our marriage law has hitherto 
 been based the principle that man and wife are 
 one flesh, and the will of a majority being accepted 
 in its room, there will be nothing left to prevent 
 that majority again and again altering the law to 
 suit the convenience of those who resent its re- 
 strictions and clamour for their removal. And so 
 it will come to pass in time, by slow degrees, that 
 men will be permitted to marry their nieces, their 
 aunts, their stepmothers, their half-sisters, and I 
 know not who else, as they already do in America 
 and Germany. Nay, we may be quite sure that
 
 MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIPERS SISTER. 247 
 
 the evil one, having broken down the sacred fence 
 of family purity, and having destroyed in men's 
 minds the notion of any obligation to control their 
 affections or their appetites, except so far as an 
 Act of Parliament compels them to do so, Satan 
 will persuade them to do very much according to 
 their own will, and will not stop short of forcing 
 any abomination upon us which human nature, 
 unrestrained by the grace of God and the fear of 
 future punishment, is capable o 
 
 What, then, are you and I, my friends, and all 
 other dutiful Church-people and believers in God's 
 Word, who sigh at the very mention of these 
 wickednesses, and shudder at the prospect of all 
 the evils which will inevitably flood our country 
 as time goes on we have had a quarter of a 
 century's trial of the Divorce Court : (are marriages 
 happier, homes more united, morals purer for the 
 facilities with which men and women can be 
 divorced and remarry ?) what, I ask, are you 
 and I to do at this present time, when so great 
 a change is impending, and it would seem as if 
 we in our humble stations were powerless to stop 
 legislation, or to avert any one of the miseries 
 which these wicked creatures are bringing upon 
 our Church and country ? 
 
 I answer, we are not so powerless as at first 
 sight we seem to be. We are on the Lord's side 
 in this battle for purity and truth, and more are
 
 248 MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER. 
 
 they that are with us than they that be with our 
 enemies. It is with the Lord to save by few if 
 He chooses. He overthrew the Canaanites by 
 Gideon and his three hundred men. He discom- 
 fited the host of Sisera by but a few, and slew 
 Sisera by the hand of a woman. Again and again 
 has He beaten back His foes in answer to the 
 prayers of His people the few, the very few 
 righteous ones who, like Jehoshaphat and Heze- 
 kiah, have called upon Him in their trouble and 
 saved His city from abasement and ruin. Why, 
 then, should we despond or hesitate ? " Call upon 
 Me in the time of trouble, and I will hear thee ; " 
 " Ask and ye shall have ; " " Whatsoever ye ask, 
 believing, ye shall receive." " Verily I say unto 
 you, If two of you shall agree on earth as touching 
 anything ye shall ask in My Name, I 'will do it." 
 
 Relying on these sure promises, let us come 
 boldly to the throne of grace, and ask for help in 
 time of need. In the words of the deprecation of 
 our Litany, let us first of all entreat the Lord not 
 to remember our offences, nor the offences of our 
 forefathers, against His laws of purity, neither to 
 take vengeance of our sins, nor to punish us as we 
 deserve by letting us go on in our downward 
 course, until the full consequences of our self- 
 indulgence and rebellion are visited on us, and we 
 eat the fruit of our own way, and are filled with 
 our own devices. Then let us pray, still in the
 
 MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER. 249 
 
 words of the Litany, to be delivered " from all 
 evil and mischief; from sin, from the crafts and 
 assaults of the devil ; from all blindness of heart ; 
 from fornication, and all other deadly sin ; from all 
 hardness of heart and contempt of His word and 
 commandment." Next let us entreat that it may 
 please the good Lord to keep the queen and all 
 the royal family in righteousness and holiness of 
 life, to rule their hearts in His faith, fear, and 
 love. Then let us beseech Him that He will 
 illuminate all bishops with true knowledge and 
 understanding of His Word, and enable them to 
 set forth that Word boldly and with power in the 
 coming debate. Then, that He will endue the 
 lords of the council, i.e. the queen's ministers, and 
 all the nobility, with grace, wisdom, and under- 
 standing, and give them an heart to love and dread 
 Him, to hear meekly His word, as the archbishop 
 and others will declare it, and receive it with pure 
 affection, and bring forth the fruits of the Spirit. 
 And so we can go on through the rest of the 
 solemn supplications, winding up with the prayer 
 for the high court of parliament, through the 
 constant use of which in our churches, far more 
 than we imagine, the consultations of that assembly 
 have year by year been guided to "the advance- 
 ment of God's glory, the good of His Church, the 
 safety, honour, and welfare " of the queen and her 
 dominions.
 
 250 MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER. 
 
 Thus may we pray day by day, lifting up holy 
 hands without doubting; remembering for our 
 encouragement how that in the earliest conflict 
 which God's people had with His enemies, when 
 Joshua, with the untried levies of Israel, was 
 fighting in the plain with Amalek, Moses was on 
 the hilltop, lifting up his hands in supplication ; 
 and by that supplication, more than by the actual 
 fighting, was the battle decided. For when Moses 
 held up his hands, Israel prevailed, and when he 
 let down his hands Amalek prevailed. Accordingly, 
 Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on 
 the one side and the other on the other, so that 
 hands were extended after the fashion of the great 
 Intercessor on the cross, and the pleading was 
 continual and incessant until the evening, and so 
 Israel prevailed. 
 
 But let it never be forgotten that all this plead- 
 ing must be carried on in Christ's Name, i.e. in 
 union with His intercession, in dependence on His 
 merits, and in an undoubting faith that what we 
 are doing and contending for is agreeable to His 
 will, and will promote His honour, and maintain 
 His truth, and advance His kingdom among men. 
 
 Let me, then, before I conclude, put before you 
 the grounds on which we base our faith that 
 opposition to this evil measure is agreeable to the 
 mind of Christ; in other words, let me mention 
 the two great reasons we have for maintaining
 
 MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIFE 'S SISTER. 251 
 
 that the union of a man with his deceased wife's 
 sister is wrong, and unlawful, and incestuous, simply 
 because it is contrary to the Word and the will 
 of God. 
 
 First, we have an argument from the express 
 prohibition of Almighty God to His people of old, 
 that no one was to marry one near of kin to him, 
 flesh of his flesh, his brother's wife being specially 
 mentioned : Thou shalt not marry thy brother's 
 wife which command, you remember, Herod dis- 
 obeyed, and, on being reproved for it by John the 
 Baptist, put him in prison, for John had said " It 
 is not lawful for thee to have her." But then it 
 follows that if a man may not marry his brother's 
 wife, neither may a woman marry her sister's 
 husband. For the relationship in the two cases, 
 the nearness of kin, is exactly the same. Such 
 is the plain prohibition: a man may not marry 
 his brother's wife, therefore a woman may not 
 marry her sister's husband ; in other words, a 
 man may not marry his deceased wife's sister.
 
 OUR MANIFESTATION. 
 
 " We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ ; that 
 every one may receive the things done in his body, according to 
 that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." 2 COB. v. 10. 
 
 THE word which is here translated "appear" 
 might rather be rendered "manifested," i.e. held 
 up to the light so as to be seen through, just as we 
 hold a garment up to the light to see the holes in 
 it, or a sheet of paper before the candle to see the 
 spots in it, or a piece of glass before the sun to see 
 all the specks and flaws in its very substance. 
 
 So shall we be exposed to the searching light of 
 Christ's Presence when He sits upon the great 
 white throne of judgment, and we are all gathered 
 round to have our works examined, our words 
 weighed, our thoughts scrutinised, our motives 
 sifted, our desires and inclinations looked [into in 
 short, to have the most hidden things of darkness 
 brought to light, in order that each one may 
 receive the reward of what he has done, whether it 
 be good or bad, and may then go to his own place. 
 
 Now, my brethren, of all the terrible sights and
 
 OUR MANIFESTATION. 253 
 
 sounds which will mark the second advent of our 
 Lord God, I can conceive nothing more terrible 
 than this. There will be signs in the sun, and in 
 the moon and the stars; the sun will be turned 
 into darkness and the moon into blood ; the heavens 
 will roll away with a great noise; the mighty 
 voice of the archangel will awake the dead ; a great 
 cry of wailing will be heard from all the tribes of 
 the earth as they see the Son of Man, surrounded 
 by His angels, coming in the clouds with power 
 and great glory ; but none of these circumstances, 
 fearful as they will be, or all of them together, 
 seem to me so fearful as the one event to which 
 they all minister and lead the way the arraigning 
 of my own soul before the Omniscient Judge, and 
 the manifestation there of all my deeds, thoughts, 
 aims, desires, in the light of the white throne of 
 God's justice and truth. 
 
 Only take the case of an earthly tribunal. How 
 fearful is it for a man to be tried for his crimes in 
 a human court of justice ! What a disgrace is it 
 to have all the hidden turpitude of his past life 
 hunted up and dragged to light, and brought home 
 to him by the remorseless officers and witnesses 
 of public justice, and then paraded before the 
 world in the newspapers, and discussed and settled 
 by millions of impartial judges. Rather than face 
 the shame of such an exposure many a man and 
 many a woman ay, boys and girls even have
 
 2$i OUR MANIFESTATION. 
 
 tried to escape for a little while by the sacrifice of 
 what is dearest, life itself. 
 
 Or think of the pain which some of us have 
 endured in childhood when a parent or friend 
 brought home to us some grave fault which we hoped 
 would never have been discovered. But it was 
 found out ; and we would have endured any pain 
 or loss rather than meet the sorrowful, reproachful 
 eye of one whom we most respected and loved. 
 
 But what is this pain and shame compared with 
 the misery of having His eye gazing at the plague- 
 spots of our soul, Who is perfect purity, perfect 
 truth, and perfect love, and Who, as we shall then 
 learn, has ever loved us, more than father or mother 
 dear? What is the investigation of an earthly 
 tribunal, or exposure before our fellow-sinners, 
 compared with the manifestation of the last judg- 
 ment, and the unveiling of the secrets of our hearts 
 before the Lord of glory and His elect angels ? 
 
 For there, my brethren, will be no possibility 
 of concealments on our part, no ignorance, no 
 partiality on the part of the Judge and His 
 assessors. Nay, we shall not be able to disguise 
 the truth from ourselves ; we shall not be able to 
 pass over what we now so readily excuse or easily 
 forget. We shall then be displayed in our true 
 colours. We shall then see ourselves as we really 
 are, as God Himself sees us. "He will bring to 
 light the hidden things of darkness, and make
 
 OUR MANIFESTATION. 255 
 
 manifest the counsels of the hearts." " We shall 
 be manifested " (" seen through ") " before the 
 judgment seat of Christ." 
 
 In the next place, consider the teaching of that 
 word all we shall all. S. John assures us of 
 this truth in his marvellous description of the 
 last judgment. " I saw the great white throne, 
 and Him that sat upon it, from whose face the 
 heaven and the earth fled away ; and I saw the 
 dead, small and great, stand before God." Here, 
 in this life, it is only the few who are brought 
 to justice, and have a small portion of their lives 
 investigated, and that for plain breaches of human 
 law. Many offenders are never found out at all. 
 Some are too great and powerful to be touched 
 by the law, although all men know that they are 
 worthy of death or bonds. Some are so young, or 
 so weak, or so fascinating, or so influential, that 
 their fellow-men wink at their crimes, and will 
 not bring them to justice at all. Sometimes it 
 happens that so many have committed the same 
 crime that it is impossible to punish all ; only one 
 or two are singled out, the rest escape altogether. 
 Not so hereafter. All will be manifested. No 
 one, however rich, or noble, or powerful, or in- 
 fluential, will be exempted on that account from 
 attendance at the bar of Divine Justice. No one, 
 however young, or poor, or mean, will be able to 
 plead his youth or meanness, or obscurity as a
 
 256 OUR MANIFESTATION. 
 
 reason for his escaping in that great multitude. 
 He will not be able to flatter himself that his 
 faults are so small, or so secret, compared with 
 the crimes of great and open sinners, that the 
 Judge's eye should not rest upon him in that day. 
 No. " The dead, small and great, shall stand before 
 God." None so poor, so ignorant, so unknown in 
 the countless millions of the sons of men ; but he 
 shall be brought before the great white throne, and 
 there by himself " give account for his own works " 
 to the righteous Judge, and to the saints and 
 angels who will sit with Him in His glory. 
 
 Next, consider the object for which each one 
 of the assembled myriads is going to be manifested 
 before the judgment seat that he may give ac- 
 count for the things he has done or left undone, 
 and may receive a just sentence, every one accord- 
 ing to his work. "The books will be opened," 
 that is (1), the book of God's law, the Holy Bible ; 
 then, (2), the book of a man's life, kept by the 
 recording angel; then, (3) the books of each one's 
 memory and conscience kept by himself these 
 books will be opened, and men "will be judged 
 out of those things which had been written in 
 the books, according to their works." Then will 
 be brought to light on the one hand all the hidden 
 iniquities and the secret hypocrasies of designing 
 and plausible men, all the frauds and dishonesties 
 and tricks by which men overreach and deceive
 
 OUR MANIFESTATION, 257 
 
 their fellows and enrich themselves. Then will 
 every act of gluttony and uncleanness and yielding 
 to base passions be known ; every evil imagination 
 and impure desire shall start into life; every 
 seducing word and lie be proclaimed upon the 
 housetops. Then will all deeds of cruelty to man 
 and beast be published, all selfish neglects of 
 children, and the sick, and the poor, be seen in 
 their true colours; then will all spiteful and 
 slanderous sayings be read out, all cold and bitter 
 and revengeful feelings be revealed. Then will 
 all looks and glances which now tempt and allure 
 men and women to their ruin be remembered; 
 then, also, will all the proud, the hard, and re- 
 bellious thoughts, with which unbelieving souls 
 have criticised the good providence of God, His 
 justice and mercy, be weighed; then all irreverent 
 and unseemly jokes, which profane people now 
 laugh over, be heard for the last time ; in short, 
 there is no one thing which we have done, or said, 
 or thought against the All-holy will of God, which 
 will not be sifted and turned over and heaped 
 up in a full measure for the shame and pain of 
 ungodly men. 
 
 Moreover, not sins of commission only, but all 
 sins of omission, will be mentioned and examined, 
 especially such sins as neglect of prayers, private 
 and public ; neglect of Sundays and Bible-reading ; 
 neglect of Confirmation and Holy Communion; 
 
 s
 
 258 OUR MANIFESTATION. 
 
 neglect of almsgiving and visiting the widow and 
 the fatherless in their affliction ; neglect of masters 
 and mistresses to look after their servants ; neglect 
 of the rich and the great to care for Christ's poor, 
 and to evangelise the heathen ; in short, in that 
 day of account it will be seen that no word or 
 action which involves a principle of right or wrong 
 will be passed over; no motive or counsel will 
 remain concealed. " The Lord will bring to light 
 the hidden things of darkness, and will make 
 known the counsels of the hearts." 
 
 On the other hand, then will every act of faith 
 and love be brought to light ; then will the cup of 
 cold water and the widow's mite be publicly 
 commended; then will all those alms and fasting 
 and prayers, which men have done before their 
 Father in secret, be rewarded openly ; then will all 
 those kind deeds of the right hand, which the left 
 has not known, be blazed abroad ; then will those 
 ministries of self-denying charity done unknow- 
 ingly to Christ's brethren, be acknowledged ; then 
 will every humble confession of sin, every devout 
 communion, every reverent pondering of God's 
 word, every steady resistance to besetting tempta- 
 tions, every endurance of wrong, every keeping 
 down of anger, every forgiveness of injuries and 
 refusal to speak evil, be heaped together, in 
 order to ratify the Judge's commendation, " Well 
 done, good and faithful servant." Then will all
 
 OUR MANIFESTATION. 259 
 
 the meekness, and charity, and self-sacrifice, 
 and patience, and purity of God's saints shine 
 forth, and be extolled by the King Himself, and 
 win from Him an exceeding weight of eternal glory. 
 Next consider how the Lord of glory will 
 address Himself to those He has judged and 
 separated for final sentence. To all on the right 
 hand He will turn with outstretched arms and 
 radiant face, and with words of ineffable sweetness 
 will say, " Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit 
 the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning 
 of the world." "Well done, good and faithful 
 servant ; thou hast been faithful in a few things, 
 I will make thee ruler over many things : enter 
 thou into the joy of thy Lord." Oh, how great 
 will be the happiness of the elect on seeing their 
 Saviour's smile, receiving His welcome, hearing 
 His commendation ! What ineffable peace and 
 satisfaction will possess their souls as they realise 
 the certainty and unchangeableness of Christ's 
 award ! When they feel that " Come, ye blessed," 
 means, " For you there is no more pain or fear, for 
 you no more crying or shame, for you no more 
 conflict with temptation, suggestions of evil, 
 tyranny of the devil ; you are saved and glorified, 
 and shall be saved and glorified for ever " ! With 
 what rapture will they be transported as they are 
 embraced, not by angels and saints only, but by 
 the Son of God Himself, and return His embrace ;
 
 260 OUR MANIFESTATION. 
 
 and then shall enter the heavenly city, in a 
 glorious triumph, singing Alleluias, praising and 
 loving the blessed Trinity for their redemption and 
 eternal beatitude and glory ! 
 
 But, on the other hand, what will Jesus Christ, 
 the strict and holy Judge, say to the reprobate 
 who have trampled on His law, defied His will, 
 rejected His warnings, despised His love ? They 
 are already self-condemned, and, shuddering with 
 horror, are longing to depart from the presence of 
 His majesty which alone is an intolerable torment. 
 But they must await His sentence; they must 
 hear their doom. 
 
 And what is that sentence ? " Depart from Me, 
 ye that work iniquity." " Cast ye the unprofitable 
 servant into outer darkness ; there shall be weep- 
 ing and gnashing of teeth." " Depart from Me, ye 
 cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil 
 and his angels." " Depart ye are not fit to remain 
 in My presence, or to be companions of My saints 
 in bliss. They are blessed, ye are cursed ; cursed 
 under the guilt and load of sin from which ye 
 never willed to be freed. And therefore now go 
 into the only place in My creation where sin and 
 rebellion may abide into ' the fire prepared for 
 the devil and his angels.' " 
 
 What awaits these miserable lost ones ? After 
 that sentence, imagines a holy man, the reprobate 
 will take a last look at the saints and angels, and
 
 OUR MANIFESTATION. 261 
 
 bid farewell to blessed Mary and the martyrs, and 
 to many, once their own relations and companions, 
 and to some whom they once cared for and loved 
 supremely on earth. " ' Farewell, ye holy and 
 happy ones ! farewell, father and mother ! farewell, 
 brothers and sisters ! farewell, children and little 
 ones ! Oh, a long farewell, for we shall see you 
 again no more for ever ! ' ' 
 
 And then, what next ? Why, probably, as holy 
 men have supposed, in the midst of the valley of 
 Jehoshaphat, where all have been gathered to be 
 judged, the earth will open her mouth and a great 
 abyss will be formed, and all the lost and all the 
 devils will descend into it, and the mouth will 
 close again, and they will be shut up in that dark 
 and fiery prison-house, bewailing their fate, gnash- 
 ing their teeth, cursing themselves and their 
 companions, without one spark of comfort or ray 
 of hope, for the ages of eternity. 
 
 Oh, horrible, horrible! too horrible to think 
 about ! too hard for the mind of man to understand 
 or the heart of man to believe, but that the sure 
 word of Him who cannot lie has solemnly assured 
 us of it ; and we know that in very mercy He has 
 revealed it to us, and that it is as much as our 
 souls are worth not to believe it, or, believing it, 
 not to act upon it. 
 
 But do we really believe these dread realities of 
 our Christian state ? It is necessary to ask the
 
 262 OUR MANIFESTATION, 
 
 question, because we well know how common it is 
 to profess to be Christians, without giving one 
 thought to such unwelcome truths ; we know how 
 easy to engross the mind with something else, to 
 stifle the warnings of conscience with, " Go thy way; 
 at a more convenient season I will" attend to "thee." 
 Therefore, I ask again, do we believe that there 
 will be this awful manifestation at the judgment 
 seat of Christ, and that after judgment given, each 
 one will go to his own place, i.e. the place he is 
 fitted for, the place which he has been choosing and 
 preparing himself for ? Then let me urge you, even 
 now, to prepare for the day of account by judging 
 yourselves truly, without evasion or excuse. For if 
 we judge ourselves before His coming, Christ will 
 not then judge us to our condemnation. We shall 
 all be manifested, it is true, with every other child 
 of Adam we hope but for acceptance, happiness, 
 and glory, not for rejection, shame, and woe. Let 
 us, then, seek to know ourselves thoroughly. Let 
 us study our own hearts and lives by the rule of 
 God's commandments and the light of conscience, 
 in the fear of God. For this purpose, let us read 
 our Bible and other good books, that we may know 
 the standard by which our words and actions will 
 be measured, and not be deceived by the plausible 
 maxims of the world and the flattering judgment 
 of our fellow sinners. For this purpose let us take 
 the advice of friends who are wiser and better than
 
 OUR MANIFESTATION. 263 
 
 ourselves, and not mind the pain, if they sometimes 
 mortify our pride by the freedom of their remarks. 
 
 Nay, more, if we are wise, we shall take note of 
 the chance sayings of companions, and the ill- 
 natured remarks of those who are vexed or dis- 
 pleased with us. There is very often some truth 
 in such spiteful sayings. What others say they 
 see in us is very likely to be there. What all 
 declare us to be, in manner, disposition, ruling 
 passion, is much more likely to be true than our 
 own partial judgment of ourselves. " There is 
 never a smoke but there is afire" says the proverb. 
 If others see the smoke and remark upon it, be 
 sure there is a smouldering fire. Kest we not 
 until we have found it out, and put it out. 
 
 But, best of all, if you desire to grow in self- 
 knowledge, be not afraid to choose some one, wise 
 and good, and take him or her into your confidence, 
 and impart to such an one the secrets of your past 
 life, in order that you may receive help to see more 
 clearly what your besetting weakness is, and may 
 repent more truly and amend more effectually. If 
 you act on this advice, you will have the satisfac- 
 tion of feeling that you have spared no effort to 
 know and judge yourself, and have done what you 
 could to realise the pain and the shame of the great 
 day, when all deeds, words, thoughts will be 
 brought to light before men and angels ; and none 
 will escape pain and shame then but those who
 
 264 OUR MANIFESTATION. 
 
 have put themselves to pain and shame now. " If 
 we judge ourselves we shall not be judged." But 
 " He that covereth his sins shall not prosper." 
 
 Therefore, judge yourselves, O my brethren, con- 
 demn yourselves, chasten yourselves now, while 
 there is time to profit by the chastisement, and to 
 outgrow your infirmities and sins. If you have 
 not been afraid to do or to say wrong before man, 
 or before the holy angels and your Judge, be not 
 afraid to own the wrong and to give up the wrong 
 in the sight of man and God ; and do this without 
 delay, before the end comes, when all wrong must 
 be wrung from you. Throw yourselves on the 
 mercy of Jesus Christ now, and you will not fear 
 His judgment then. " If we confess our sins, He 
 is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to 
 cleanse us from all unrighteousness." If we come 
 to Him through His appointed means of grace (self- 
 examination and confession), we shall not doubt, 
 after the Church's assurance, in Absolution and 
 Holy Communion, that we are washed from all 
 stains in the precious blood, and clothed in white 
 raiment and accepted in the Beloved. Let us go 
 on continually rehearsing the manifestation, hence- 
 forth perfecting holiness in the fear of God, and 
 we shall not be afraid or ashamed in the great 
 day, when the secrets of all hearts will be revealed, 
 and " each one will receive the things done in his 
 body, according to that he hath done, good or bad."
 
 ALL SAINTS' DAY. 
 
 " And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar 
 the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the 
 testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, 
 saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and 
 avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? And white 
 robes were given unto every one of them ; and it was said unto 
 them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow- 
 servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they 
 were, should be fulfilled." REV. vi. 9-11. 
 
 S. JOHN here lifts up the veil and allows us to 
 see where the souls of Christ's martyrs are, and 
 what they are doing during their disembodied 
 state, i.e. from the time of their departure from us 
 up to the day of their reward, in the kingdom of 
 the resurrection. 
 
 The Apostle sees an altar, and under it the souls 
 of them that had been slain for the Word of God, 
 and for the testimony which they held fast. 
 Doubtless, it was their place of rest in Paradise, 
 which S. John, being himself in the Spirit, was 
 privileged to see. But why were they represented 
 as under the altar ? Perhaps we shall best explain 
 this image by recalling the ancient ritual of the
 
 266 ALL SAINTS' 1 DAY. 
 
 temple, and say it was because they had been 
 slain as victims to God. They were represented 
 as under the altar, because they had been sacrificed, 
 or offered up to God as on an altar, and their blood, 
 in which is the life, had been poured out before 
 Him, and it cried out like Abel's from the ground 
 just as in the temple of the first Covenant, the 
 blood of the victims being received in a vessel by 
 the sacrificing priest, was poured out at the foot of 
 the altar, in type and figure of that more precious 
 blood which was shed upon the cross, and was 
 accepted by God the Father as an atoning sacrifice 
 for the sins of the whole world. 
 
 Even so the martyrs of Christ, because they are 
 His victims, being slain for the word of God and 
 for the testimony of Jesus, having offered them- 
 selves in life and death, a living sacrifice to God, 
 are accepted by Him, and are advanced to a place 
 of special honour and nearness to Him, under the 
 very altar of heaven. 
 
 Next, we read that S. John heard these souls 
 crying out with a loud voice. Therefore they were 
 not insensible ; they were not sleeping resting 
 from their labours, but not sleeping; they were 
 awake, conscious and in full possession of their 
 intellectual faculties, recalling the past, looking 
 forward to the future, and earnestly longing and 
 praying for its coming. " How long, Lord, the 
 holy and the true, dost Thou not judge and avenge
 
 ALL SAINTS' DAY. 267 
 
 our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? " 
 They are restless, you see, impatient that the end 
 should come, when all their wrongs will be avenged, 
 when the wisdom and the justice of God's rule in 
 His Church and over the nations will be vindicated, 
 when the righteous and the meek will be advanced 
 to the highest glory and happiness on the earth, 
 and the proud and unbelieving also will be rewarded 
 after their deserving. 
 
 Not that those blessed ones indulge any bitter 
 feeling against their enemies ; but that being 
 inflamed with a great zeal and love for God's 
 justice and glory, and having their wills in perfect 
 union with His will, they long to see the accomplish- 
 ment of His will, in the sweeping away of all sin 
 and evil from God's world, and in the reign of 
 righteousness and peace on the earth. 
 
 Perhaps we shall see more clearly the necessary 
 connection between the overthrow of evil and the 
 reign of righteousness, if we consider two clauses 
 of the Lord's Prayer, and what an ancient writer 
 says about them. " In that prayer," says Venerable 
 Bede, "in which Christ teaches us to forgive our 
 enemies, we are also taught to say, ' Thy kingdom 
 come,' the certain consequence of which coming 
 will be the dispersion and the judgment of those 
 enemies. So do these martyrs pray under the 
 altar, as God inspires them, for judgment and 
 vengeance on those who had slain them, because
 
 268 ALL SAINTS' DAY. 
 
 these enemies continue in open rebellion against 
 God, and up to the last day of their probation 
 reject His mercy." 
 
 Then, thirdly, observe that the time longed for 
 by these souls was not yet come ; for the mystery 
 of iniquity was not yet filled up. 
 
 But their cry was in some degree answered. 
 " A white robe was given " to each of them. Not 
 "robes," but " a robe" a white robe. This has been 
 explained as one and the same robe to all. And 
 what one robe can there be for all alike but the 
 one white robe of Christ's righteousness ? This 
 was given to all ; and for what purpose ? Surely 
 to cover their sins, to make them purer, to impart 
 a fuller consciousness of God's favour, to be a most 
 blissful foretaste of the felicity which still awaited 
 them. In short, this robe was a refreshment to 
 them, an answer to their cry, which stilled their 
 impatience and enabled them to rest yet a little 
 season, until their fellow-servants and their 
 brethren, that were yet to be killed, should be 
 fulfilled. 
 
 Now, leaving the case of these greatest saints, 
 I want you, brethren, at this season of All Saints, 
 to consider whether what is here revealed to us 
 respecting the souls of the martyrs resting under 
 the altar of God and crying out impatiently for 
 the judgment and vengeance, may not in all 
 probability be true, in their degree, of all other
 
 ALL SAINTS' DAY. 269 
 
 holy souls, who are resting in Paradise and 
 waiting for the consummation of their bliss in 
 the kingdom of the resurrection. 
 
 Surely about them we may believe and teach 
 that their disembodied state is far more peaceful 
 and sweet than any state of their mortal life not 
 a state of dull insensibility, but of wakeful con- 
 sciousness and the exercise of all their powers of 
 mind, and heart, and will, and of looking forward 
 in joyful expectation to their full reward of bliss 
 and glory. Moreover, they are entreating God, as 
 on earth they so often earnestly prayed, that He 
 would shortly accomplish the number of His elect, 
 and hasten His kingdom. 
 
 Yes ! from this vision of the souls under the altar 
 we may reverently conclude that all the saints in 
 Paradise are crying out with the whole energy of 
 their sinless wills, " How long, Lord, how long 
 wilt Thou suffer the evil of a fallen world, and the 
 tossing of Thy Church on the waves of unbelief, 
 and the temptations of Thy children, and the perils 
 of the souls of Thy little ones from the devouring 
 lion ? How long dost Thou not judge the wicked, 
 and avenge our wrongs, and reward the proud 
 after their deserving ? " 
 
 And more than this. If they pray for the 
 coming of the kingdom and for all its inevitable 
 consequences, do they not pray specially for the 
 members of that kingdom, their own brethren in
 
 270 ALL SAINTS' DAY. 
 
 Christ, for ourselves, that we may get ready for 
 our crown and reward in the resurrection ? 
 
 Verily, to me it seems a most certain truth and 
 full of comfort, that they who are with Jesus, safe 
 on the shore of eternal life, must often think of us 
 who are still in danger on the deep. And as 
 friends on the shore assist and cheer the storm- 
 tossed mariner with voices and signals, so do our 
 brethren, who are now safe from all ills of this life, 
 assist us with prayers and intercessions, and in 
 other mysterious ways, of which we can form no 
 conception in our holiest, most exalted states. Is it 
 not the dictate of our natural reason, which 
 confirms the loving instinct of the regenerate heart, 
 that if we on this earth, compassed with infirmities 
 and burdened with the flesh, pray for each other 
 and go on praying to the very end, that those 
 blessed saints whose conflict is over, and who are 
 freed from the coils of sins, and are living mightily 
 unto God, must be wishing us well, must be 
 shielding us with their prayers, must be interceding 
 for the whole Church below, that her warfare may 
 be soon accomplished, her peace settled and secured, 
 her rewards enjoyed ? In short, must they not be 
 carrying on the same work that the great 
 Intercessor Himself is carrying on within the veil, 
 in the unapproachable glory, and thereby hastening 
 on the day of God ? 
 
 What, brethren, is the great duty which all
 
 ALL SAINTS* DAY. 271 
 
 Christians are to practise, and to educate themselves 
 for, and to grow more and more perfect in, even up 
 to their dying day ? Is it not praj^er inter- 
 cessory prayer ? Is not a good man learning to 
 pray all his life long ? Is he not growing holier as 
 he prays better? Does he not pray better as 
 he gets older ? Does he not pray for others more 
 and more make longer intercessions for them, 
 include greater numbers in his intercessions ? 
 
 But, on the other hand, we may safely say, that 
 man is making but little advance in the religious 
 life who is not improving week by week and year 
 by year in his prayers, who is not interceding for 
 others with greater earnestness, not laying to heart 
 their unceasing needs, and not realising more and 
 more that he himself can meet those needs by 
 uniting his own prayers with the One Intercession 
 which is always prevailing at the throne of grace. 
 
 Some of you know Bishop Andrewes' "Devotions." 
 His intercessions seem to take in all ranks and 
 states, kings, and princes, and all orders of men 
 down to the lowest, all Churches and all kingdoms, 
 all the heathen as well as all Christians, " all spirits 
 and all flesh." We are told that he spent six hours 
 a day in his devotions, and that the manuscript 
 written by his own hand was almost worn out, 
 blotted with his tears. Well, when Bishop Andrewes 
 went to Paradise think you he left off praying and 
 interceding, or did he more than ever realise the
 
 272 ALL SAINTS* DAY. 
 
 power and necessity of intercession, and prayed as 
 he never did before, for his diocese of Winchester, 
 and for this Church and realm of England, and all 
 the rest, and has gone on interceding for them ever 
 since, and is interceding for them still at this hour, 
 and will go on interceding even to the end ? 
 
 So it must be with all other good men in their 
 degree. I repeat a good man, as he grows in 
 goodness, prays better and better ; he prays with 
 a more entire emptying of himself of all selfish 
 motives and reserves, with a more entire trust in 
 God ; with a more quiet, uncomplaining submission 
 to God's will; with a more hearty desire that 
 God's will, not his own, may be done in heaven 
 and earth ; with more loving penitence, more faith, 
 more hope, more charity. Doubtless, then, a good 
 man's best prayer is that which he utters with his 
 last breath, however short it may be, whatever be 
 his weakness, bodily or mental. Yes, a good 
 man's best prayer is that with which he resigns 
 his spirit into the hands of God Who gave it. And 
 if so, can we believe that this great grace of 
 prayer, in which he has been trained by God's 
 mercy throughout his earthly existence, is to find 
 no exercise in Paradise, where sin and weakness 
 have no place ? Or that his affections, which gave 
 wings to his prayers on earth, and which were 
 strongest when his body was most feeble, are to 
 find no vent in that blessed home where charity
 
 ALL SAINTS 1 DAY. 273 
 
 reigns supreme, where God draws all souls unto 
 Himself, and grants each heart's desire and fulfils 
 all their mind ? 
 
 No, my dear brethren, that last patient, humble, 
 trustful prayer, which your dying relative or 
 friend offered up for you, was only the beginning 
 of that continuous intercession which he will 
 henceforth, in that more genial sphere and with 
 greater acceptance, offer up for his brethren here 
 below. That fervent, but calm, resigned love and 
 tenderness with which the dying husband or father 
 commends his dear ones to God's fatherly care and 
 protection, are a token and pledge of the love with 
 which he still embraces them in the haven of rest 
 where he wants them all to be. 
 
 Now, thus to consider the saints departed as 
 exercising their one ministry of intercession within 
 the veil is not only full of comfort to those who 
 dwell on the thought, but it teaches us lessons of 
 submission and resignation to the will of God in 
 the greatest bereavements. 
 
 We are sometimes perplexed and cast down at 
 the death of good men, especially at times of 
 difficulty and trouble, when we think we have 
 most need of them, and can spare them least. 
 
 Then is the time to lay to heart the words of 
 Isaiah in very evil days, " The righteous perisheth? 
 and no man layeth it to heart : and merciful men 
 are taken away, none considering that the righteous 
 
 T
 
 274 ALL SAINTS* DAY. 
 
 is taken away from the evil to come. He shall 
 enter into peace ; they rest in their beds, each one 
 walking in his uprightness." For their own hap- 
 piness and peace they are taken away, and also 
 for the welfare and advancement of those they 
 leave behind. They are gone within the veil, to 
 carry on a higher ministry of love for us ; still by 
 their prayers their more effectual prayers to 
 gain for us guidance, strength, and all other things 
 which are needful to our growth in holiness and 
 our final victory. 
 
 blessed and holy truth ! Let us open our 
 hearts to its soothing and sanctifying influence, 
 " We walk by faith, and not by sight." By faith 
 we see the virgin souls redeemed from earth sing- 
 ing their new song before the throne. By faith 
 we can see the glorious company of the Apostles, 
 the goodly fellowship of the Prophets, the noble 
 army of Martyrs, all praising the Father, the Son, 
 and the Holy Ghost, for their work of creation, 
 redemption, and sanctification. And by faith we 
 may see our own holy friends, who have just put 
 off the burden of the flesh, rejoicing in their long- 
 sought haven, and putting forth the strength of 
 their renewed life in prayers and intercessions for 
 all who are still in danger on the broad sea. 
 
 O blessed Truth indeed ! What a soothing and 
 invigorating thought is it for all who are longing 
 to be chaste and pure in heart, that the blessed
 
 ALL SAINTS 1 DAY. 275 
 
 Virgin Mary is interceding with her Son for all 
 who need His special grace ! and that S. Peter is 
 still, by his prayers, strengthening his brethren, 
 who, by over- confidence, are in danger of falling ! 
 or that S. John is still asking for the spirit of 
 charity; Mary Magdalene for the grace of loving 
 penitence ; S. Paul for the masterful, that they may 
 say, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " and 
 for the worldly, that they may " count all things 
 but dung, that they may win Christ;" and S. 
 Stephen for strength for all who suffer in a right- 
 eous cause, that they faint not, nor shrink from 
 the conflict, but that, being faithful unto death, 
 they may with him attain the crown of life. 
 
 And now, my brethren, by way of practical 
 conclusion, let me urge you, first of all, very often 
 henceforth to think of the saints at rest. Think 
 how they attained that rest ; by what faithfulness 
 to their baptismal promises and gifts, by what 
 purity, mortification, self-sacrifice, they have 
 reached the haven where we all long to be ! 
 
 Next, think again how many there are now 
 in Paradise above who, having fallen away from 
 the grace of their regeneration, and defiled their 
 robes by grievous sins, had grace given them to 
 turn away from their misdeeds, and by the tears, 
 and self-denials, and sufferings, and bereavements, 
 and manifold distresses of a lifelong repentance, 
 they were conformed more and more to the likeness
 
 276 ALL SAINTS' DAY. 
 
 of their Lord, Who died to save them from the 
 eternal death they had deserved. "These are 
 they who came out of great tribulation, and have 
 washed their robes, and made them white in the 
 blood of the Lamb." By prayer they fought and 
 overcame; by prayer they were valiant unto 
 death. By prayer they wrought righteousness 
 and won their crown. If we would join their 
 company, if we would only take the lowest place 
 among them, only sit at their feet, we must, like 
 them, often fall upon our knees and say, as the 
 publican, " God be merciful to me a sinner." We 
 must often watch unto prayer. 
 
 Then, once more, the thought of the saints 
 departed will help us to be more earnest and 
 heavenly minded. " Seeing we are compassed 
 about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us 
 lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth 
 so easily beset us, and let us run with patience 
 the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus 
 the author and finisher of our faith." Yes, we 
 shall not only repent of all past sins, which have 
 made us so unlike the saints, and free ourselves 
 from all remaining entanglements which keep us 
 back from their society, but we shall press forward 
 under their cheering gaze, and tread in their steps, 
 carrying out their works, fulfilling their wishes, 
 and in all ways living the life of prayer by which 
 they prevailed and were perfected. Thus may
 
 ALL SAINTS' DAY. 277 
 
 we live worthy of our high calling, and prepare 
 ourselves to be numbered with the saints in their 
 eternal beatitude. 
 
 But there is one more inference to be drawn 
 from the subject before us to which I will direct 
 your attention, and then conclude. 
 
 The saints, according to the text, are pleading 
 with God for the destruction of the reign of sin, 
 and for the day of His vengeance upon the enemies 
 of His Church. "How long, Lord, holy and 
 true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood 
 on them that dwell on the earth ? " And, as I have 
 already remarked, the Church visible on earth 
 joins in that cry when she utters the petition, 
 "Thy kingdom come." When that petition will 
 be answered we know not; but this we know, 
 that that day will come with awful suddenness 
 on the whole world, and that few, very few, will 
 be prepared for the Bridegroom at His coming. 
 This we are assured of again and again in Holy 
 Scripture. The day of Christ's second coming 
 will be as the day of Noah before the Flood, as 
 the day of Lot escaping out of Sodom, as the 
 day of Jerusalem when it was utterly destroyed. 
 And the sentence against this guilty world is only 
 delayed because the number of the elect is not 
 yet accomplished, the harvest is not yet gathered 
 in. Meanwhile the mystery of iniquity works 
 on to its fulfilment. The world is more and more
 
 278 ALL SAINTS' DAY. 
 
 alluring, exacting ; the flesh more and more unruly 
 and indulgent ; Satan more crafty, more than ever 
 transforming himself into an angel of light. And 
 the Church on earth is praying more earnestly 
 that Christ's kingdom may be hastened, and the 
 Church invisible strives mightily with this same 
 prayer. 
 
 How does all this affect ourselves ? Are the 
 saints praying for us or against us ? In other 
 words, is the coming of Christ's kingdom what 
 we can really hope for, or, alas ! what we must 
 greatly dread? Are we living a life of faith? 
 Are we regular communicants, and fulfilling all 
 Christian duties paying our tithes, caring for 
 Christ's poor, and in all other matters living up 
 to the standard and requirements of the catholic 
 faith in our own Church ? Or are we living below 
 the level of the Cross: spending all our money 
 upon self, or hoarding it in order that we may one 
 day die richer than our neighbours; passing our 
 time in ease or luxury or worldliness, with scarcely 
 a thought of the end for which we are preparing 
 ourselves our death, the judgment scene, and the 
 eternal unchangeable state beyond, when " he that 
 is unjust will be unjust still, he that is filthy will 
 be filthy still"? 
 
 Let us, each one, take this thought home 
 to-night : I am praying daily that God's kingdom 
 may come. The saints above are all praying for
 
 ALL SAINTS' DAY. 279 
 
 the same. Their prayers must prevail. Whether 
 that coming will be to me a joy or fear depends 
 entirely on my own self, on the choice I am now 
 making in this my time of choice and preparation. 
 If I now use my five or ten talents in my 
 Master's service, for His glory and the advance- 
 ment of His kingdom, He will give me a bright 
 welcome " Well done, good and faithful servant ; 
 enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." But if I 
 squander His gifts, or slothfully bury them in the 
 earth, then there is but one sentence : " Take from 
 him what he has seemed to have. Cast ye the 
 unprofitable servant into outer darkness, where 
 there is weeping and gnashing of teeth." Alas ! 
 alas ! a great ransom, not even the precious blood 
 of Christ, will be able to deliver the sinner from 
 the doom he has chosen !
 
 THE SAINTED DEAD. 
 
 " Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great 
 a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin 
 which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the 
 race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the Author and 
 Finisher of our faith ; Who for the joy that was set before Him 
 endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the 
 right hand of the throne of God." HEB. xii. 1, 2. 
 
 WE commemorate this day, not Peter and Paul 
 and John only, not Polycarp and Chrysostom and 
 Augustine only, not Apostles or martyrs, and con- 
 fessors and doctors, whose names are known to us 
 all, but saints in our own station of life, who 
 lived and died unknown saints who were like 
 Christ Himself while He was on earth, in the 
 poverty, the lowliness, the obscurity of their daily 
 lives. Those faithful servants of Christ, who were 
 once known to ourselves; who were once by our 
 side ; who walked in the same street, dwelt in the 
 same home, shared the same cares ; whose faces 
 and tones of voice we cannot forget, who were 
 worshippers with us in the same house of prayer, 
 who knelt with us at the same altar; all these 
 most dear to ourselves we bring to remembrance
 
 THE SAINTED DEAD. 281 
 
 on such a day as this, must we not bless God 
 especially that their faith and patience and bright 
 example, their obedience and victory over all 
 temptation has been so gloriously rewarded 
 that our own loved ones, bone of our bone and 
 flesh of our flesh, are, as we humbly hope, now 
 enjoying a calm and blissful rest, in the immediate 
 presence of God, looking forward with intense 
 longings to the coming of Christ, and to their 
 reign of glory with Christ, after their resurrection 
 at the last day ? 
 
 And they being dead yet speak What do they 
 speak ? What is the message they send by the 
 hand of one of the chiefest of their number to us 
 who are yet toiling, and stumbling, and have yet 
 to pass the dark river, and know not what are the 
 dangers of the pilgrimage and the passage, or what 
 its end may be ? Do they not tell us to walk in 
 their steps, and to follow them as they followed 
 Christ ? Do they not urge us to live more and 
 more their hidden life, and to practise more 
 steadily the ways by which they sought to detach 
 themselves from the world, its customs, fashions, 
 and influence ? Yes, the great Apostle bids us live 
 a life of faith apart from the world, and above all 
 its vain show, under the very eyes of those who 
 are gone before, and are now, in some very real 
 but incomprehensible way, spectators of our con- 
 flict, eagerly watching our progress, earnestly
 
 282 THE SAINTED DEAD. 
 
 praying for our endurance, and ready to welcome 
 us with songs of joy, as we near the goal and 
 stretch forth the hand to touch the prize. 
 
 Let us look a little more closely at the inspired 
 words, so that we may enter into them for our 
 instruction, edification, and comfort. 
 
 Speaking generally, they contain a revelation, 
 and an exhortation based upon it : and this 
 exhortation may very fitly be considered under 
 three heads. (1) " Let us cast aside every weight, 
 and the sin which doth so easily beset us ; (2) let 
 us run with patience the race that is set before 
 us ; (3) looking unto Jesus," etc. 
 
 That is the threefold exhortation, and the 
 revelation is, " Seeing ^ue are compassed about ivith 
 so great a cloud of witnesses." 
 
 I call this a revelation, because, like many other 
 truths of the Bible, it is entirely beyond the sight 
 and reason of the natural man. What man, without 
 the Bible or those old traditions which have kept 
 up a knowledge of the unseen world among the 
 heathen, thinks or believes about the souls of the 
 departed, their existence or abode, may be gathered 
 from the utterances of unbelievers, in our own day, 
 who deny the supernatural, and affirm that the 
 soul, having no more separate existence from the 
 body than a sound from the vessel out of which 
 it rings, ceases to exist as soon as the body ceases 
 to live. Still less could the unassisted intellect
 
 THE SAINTED DEAD. 283 
 
 of man body forth so splendid an imagination as 
 this which the Apostle bids us receive as an un- 
 doubted truth, viz. that the faithful departed are 
 not removed from us to such a distance, nor are 
 they sunk into such a torpid and unconscious 
 state, that they can no longer look at us, care 
 for us, sympathise with our struggles, cheer us 
 on, assist us to the shore. No, the Apostle 
 speaks of them as compassing us about like the 
 spectators who watch runners and wrestlers in 
 the games. They are like a cloud, in that they 
 gather round us, hang over us, descend, it may be, 
 from time to time, upon us, making themselves 
 almost felt by the mourner and the penitent; or 
 are actually seen by the dying saint as he lifts up 
 his eyes, and discerns in the bright forms around 
 his bed his own loved ones, who have come to 
 greet him, as he passes through the waters and 
 moves on to the gates of the city. 
 
 And this is in entire agreement with other 
 Scripture. " Our conversation is in heaven," says 
 S. Paul, that heaven which our blessed Lord, when 
 He had overcome the sharpness of death, opened 
 to all believers. " Ye are come," the Apostle says 
 in another place, "to mount Sion, and to the 
 heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable 
 company of angels, and to the Church of the first- 
 born, and to the spirits of just men made perfect." 
 And how can it be otherwise with those who are
 
 284 THE SAINTED DEAD. 
 
 members of the one body of Christ ? Are they not 
 united to each other by faith and love ; and are 
 near each other, not because they are close in space, 
 but because they are each of them near and dear 
 to Christ ; and can see each other, and can feel for 
 each other, because the eyes of their understanding 
 being enlightened, and their consciences cleansed 
 from sin, they are among the pure in heart, who 
 can even see God ? 
 
 Well, then, such being our condition with 
 reference to the faithful departed, viz. that we are 
 surrounded by them, are objects of their unceasing 
 interest, and that they remember us, and pray 
 for us, and long for our victory and perfection, 
 in a far higher and more effectual way than they 
 ever did during their life on this earth, what 
 did the Apostle urge us to do, as we run our race, 
 and toil for the prize under their very eyes ? 
 
 "Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin 
 which doth so easily beset us." As runners in a 
 race would be exhorted, especially by their own 
 friends and well-wishers, to get rid of all unnecessary 
 loads, and to take care not to entangle their limbs 
 with any briers or creepers, so we are exhorted 
 to lay aside the burden of old sins the sins of our 
 past lives, which sooner or later must crush us to 
 the earth and also to break off any present sin 
 which will entangle us and impede our running. 
 For otherwise, whether we struggle on under the
 
 THE SAINTED DEAD. 285 
 
 load of the past, never truly repenting of it, never 
 casting it down at the foot of the Cross, fully trust- 
 ing in His atonement on Whom the Lord hath laid 
 the iniquity of us all; or whether, having once 
 got rid of the crushing load, we yield again to 
 our old enemy, and are again entangled with the 
 yoke of bondage ; whichever it be, we shall never 
 be able to continue our running and to win the 
 prize. 
 
 And the motive for doing this, for laying aside 
 the weight of past sin, breaking away from the 
 snares of present ones, is the high and ennobling 
 thought that we are in the presence of those 
 who unquestionably did so, and in consequence 
 gained the prize ; that our own brothers and sisters 
 in Christ are taking the keenest interest in us, 
 and expect us, for their sakes, to become pure, 
 and to give up everything which will prevent 
 our walking in their steps and securing their rest. 
 " Oh, sin not," means the Apostle, " under the very 
 eye of those whom you respect ; pain not by any 
 deed or word of shame those who love you ; cast ' 
 away every hindrance which will keep you from 
 their happy company, their loving embrace." 
 
 Next, " Let us run with patience the race that 
 is set before us." It is not enough to get rid of 
 burdens and to be free from entanglements, if we 
 will not run. It is not enough to run for a while, 
 and then to be shaken ; or to run with a good
 
 286 THE SAINTED DEAD. 
 
 courage the first part of the course, and then to grow 
 weary ; or to run on level ground and soft green- 
 sward, and to give over when the way is hilly and 
 the path stony ; or to run in bright sunshine, and 
 to slink away and cower down when the storm 
 comes on. No, having begun well, we must go 
 on to the end, regardless of all obstacles, indifferent 
 to all storms. We must run with patience ; for 
 patience only can conquer. It is only by enduring 
 unto the end that we shall be saved. 
 
 And what an inducement have we to practise 
 patience in the thought that the saints are witnesses 
 of our efforts, who in their day of trial were just 
 as weak and faltering as we are, just as liable 
 to fall, and to grow weary, and to despair as we ; 
 and yet who went on perseveringly, held on un- 
 flinchingly to the end ; and who, when they could 
 not run, still walked, who, when they could not 
 walk (they were so feeble), yet crawled along 
 crawled into Paradise upon their knees ! 
 
 Yes, patience had her perfect work in all the 
 saints. Not one, from the highest to the lowest, 
 could have got where he now is, unless he had 
 brought forth fruit with patience ; unless he had 
 in patience possessed hia soul under hardship and 
 bereavement and persecution; unless he had felt 
 that only with resistance unto blood was the end 
 to be gained, the salvation of his soul, the glory to 
 be revealed, even the rest of Paradise.
 
 THE SAINTED DEAD. 287 
 
 Do they not, then, encourage us to tread in their 
 cross-marked footsteps? Do they not assure us 
 that no cross under which we may be staggering 
 can be heavier than the cross they carried unto 
 the end ? 
 
 "We," they now cry to us from their secure 
 rest, " hail you as brethren, as our companions in 
 tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of 
 Jesus Christ; but we warn you, if you give in, 
 you can never join us. If you, through sloth or 
 fear, worship the beast, your names will be blotted 
 out of the Lamb's Book of Life." "Here is the 
 patience and the faith of the saints." 
 
 But, thirdly, "Looking unto Jesus." It is 
 not enough to think of the saints only, to dread 
 their reproach, to long for their approval, to 
 follow their steps. Such a motive indeed is 
 good as far as it goes ; it is not to be put aside 
 as unworthy, for it will help every Christian, 
 in his arduous conflict, to remember those who 
 have gone before, and to try to follow them as 
 they followed Christ. But it is " looking unto 
 Jesus " which inspires the soul with most con- 
 fidence, which enables it to go forward with most 
 fervour, with unceasing loyalty and love. " Draw 
 me," she is continually saying, " and I will run 
 after Thee." " Show me Thy ways, and teach me 
 Thy paths," so shall I tread securely and go forward 
 rapidly without distraction ; ever saying, " My
 
 288 THE SAINTED DEAD. 
 
 Beloved is mine, and I am His." " Whom have I 
 in heaven but Thee, and who is there now on 
 earth that I desire in comparison of Thee ? my 
 flesh and my heart faileth ; but God is the strength 
 of my heart, and my portion for ever." 
 
 Yes; the great secret of the success of the 
 saints, the reason why they were so loyal and true, 
 why they conquered the world and the flesh and 
 self, and endured so patiently, was because they 
 were always looking unto Jesus ; looking off from 
 themselves, as the word really means; looking 
 away from all idols of earth and sense; looking 
 away from all their own works, successes, and pro- 
 gress ; looking off from their own feelings, sorrows, 
 happiness on to Him who is the Author and 
 Finisher of their faith, on Whom alone, and not 
 upon His gifts, or His work in their own souls, or 
 the sweetness of His love, and the recompense of 
 His reward, they fixed their gaze, longing to get 
 nearer to Him, striving to be more like Him, to be 
 more conformed to His sufferings even, if so be 
 they might, by dying with Him, attain unto the 
 first Resurrection out of the dead. 
 
 And therefore did they look to Him and medi- 
 tate on His Passion, and derive from it increasing 
 strength, knowing that as He had begun a good 
 work in them, He would carry it on up to the end, 
 even until the day of His appearing ; feeling con- 
 fident that no temptation would take them more
 
 THE SAINTED DEAD. 289 
 
 than they could bear, none other than He for their 
 sakes had endured; being sure that as He had 
 for their sake endured the cross and despised the 
 shame, and had sat down on the right hand of 
 God, so would He help them to endure and despise, 
 and would make them who overcame sit down on 
 His throne, even as He had overcome and sat 
 down on His Father's throne. 
 
 Unto which blessedness and glory may He bring 
 each one of us with all the saints, for His own 
 mercy's sake.
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTED 
 DEAD. 
 
 " And I beard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, 
 Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth : Yea, 
 saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours ; and their 
 works do follow them." REV. xiv. 13. 
 
 WHERE are the sainted dead ? Where are the five 
 wise virgins, who, on the Bridegroom's coming, 
 will sit down at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb ? 
 Where are the faithful servants, who, having used 
 their pounds and talents well, receive the Master's 
 commendation, and enter into the joy of their 
 Lord ? Where are the children of God, from Abel 
 downwards, abiding in their middle state between 
 death and the resurrection ? What are they now 
 doing ? Is their state one of conscious happiness, 
 or are they wrapt in a deep slumber, in which 
 they exercise no powers of soul, neither enjoying 
 present peace nor looking forward to future bliss, 
 nor even looking back with sympathy on those 
 who are still navigating the dangerous sea from 
 which they have escaped into their secure haven ? 
 These, brethren, are questions which again and 
 again present themselves to the mind of a
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTED DEAD. 291 
 
 Christian, and at no time more distinctly than at 
 this season of the year, when the Church holds 
 high festival on behalf of her faithful departed, 
 commemorating not one apostle or martyr, but 
 the whole company of the blessed dead ; not the 
 saints only of early times, whose names and works 
 are known of all, but all God's servants in every 
 age, the small as well as the great, even the very 
 poorest, meanest, youngest, down to the babe who 
 died but yesterday. 
 
 Blessed be God, we are not left in any doubt 
 or uncertainty as to these inquiries. They can be 
 answered. From the sure word of God, and by 
 the teaching of the Catholic Church, we can 
 maintain them in the full assurance of faith and 
 understanding. 
 
 Look at our text. What does Holy Scripture 
 there teach us about the present state of God's 
 saints beyond the grave ? The voice from heaven 
 assured the beloved disciple that the dead were 
 blessed from henceforth, i.e. I suppose, under the 
 Christian dispensation, from the time that the 
 kingdom of heaven was opened by the death of 
 Christ, and He Himself had gone down to Hades, 
 and had led thence captivity captive, and had 
 translated them, as the Church has ever believed, 
 into Paradise, a place of light and joy and special 
 nearness to Himself. Before our Lord's coming 
 souls went down to Sheol, or Hades, a place of 
 dreariness and darkness, the thought of which
 
 292 THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTED DEAD. 
 
 only filled the mind of the devout believer with 
 most dismal apprehensions. Thus Job says in his 
 complaint, " Let me alone, that I may take comfort 
 a little, before I go whence I shall not return, 
 even to the land of darkness and the shadow of 
 death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and 
 of the shadow of death, without any order, and 
 where the light is as darkness." I suppose it was 
 the thought of going to such a place that moved 
 the psalmist to cry out, " My heart is sore pained 
 within me ; and the sorrows of death are fallen 
 upon me : fearfulness and trembling have come 
 upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me." And 
 King Hezekiah is affected in the same way, lest 
 he should go out of the light, and warmth, and 
 happiness of this upper world, and go to the grave, 
 of which he says, " The grave cannot praise Thee ; 
 death cannot celebrate Thee ; they that go down 
 to the pit cannot hope in Thy truth." 
 
 But all this is changed now. From henceforth 
 they that die in the Lord that is, in the faith of 
 Christ, and as His true members are blessed. 
 "Yea, saith the Spirit, they rest from their 
 labours." S. Paul also tells us they " sleep in 
 Jesus;" not that they are in a state of uncon- 
 sciousness, but of rest and expectation : for in the 
 Revelation we have a vision of the souls of the 
 martyrs under the altar crying out, " How long, 
 Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and 
 avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ?
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTED DEAD. 293 
 
 And white robes were given them, and they were 
 told to rest a little season." The state of the good, 
 then, after death, is called a sleep, not because they 
 are unconscious, but because they are in a state 
 of rest from labour, temptation, and sin, and from 
 all earthly cares and disquietudes, a state from 
 which they will awaken with renewed power to a 
 new and higher life. 
 
 Moreover, it is not a state of loneliness and 
 isolation. " They sleep in Jesus." They are with 
 Jesus ; not only with other saints, as Lazarus with 
 Abraham, in whose society must be found great 
 delight, but with Jesus Himself, with Whom they 
 have longed to be, as the Friend, the Saviour, the 
 Lover, the Spouse of souls. And so supremely 
 sweet is this abiding with Jesus, that S. Paul 
 longed to be out of this world, "to depart, and 
 be with Christ," for " to be absent from the body 
 is to be present with the Lord " present, that is, 
 in a way which no nearness to Him now, by 
 visions, or gifts of grace, or devout communion 
 even, can possibly foreshadow or help us to com- 
 prehend. Hence it is that the Church gives thanks 
 over the graves of her children for their deliverance 
 out of the miseries of this sinful world, because 
 they are with the Lord in joy and felicity: and 
 yet, because their happiness is not yet perfect, not 
 the fulness of bliss, the prayer is added, that " God 
 would shortly accomplish the number of His elect, 
 and hasten His kingdom, that we, with all those
 
 294 THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTED DEAD. 
 
 that have departed in the true faith of His holy 
 Name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, 
 both in body and soul, in the eternal kingdom." 
 
 This, then, brethren, in the smallest compass, is 
 the doctrine of Scripture and the Church respecting 
 the saints departed. They are with God. They 
 sleep in Jesus. They are in Paradise, the third 
 heaven, some place above. And yet they are not 
 in heaven, understanding by that word the place 
 of final happiness or the kingdom of glory. No ; 
 they are not yet in that heaven, any more than 
 the souls of the wicked now in Hades are in hell, 
 in the final place of torment. For before the 
 wicked are consigned to that unending woe they 
 will be raised from the dead and clothed with 
 bodies suitable for them bodies of shame and 
 corruption; and in those bodies they will stand 
 before the great white throne, and be judged for 
 the things done in the body and with the body, 
 and receive a sentence according to their works. 
 So also the souls of the righteous are now awaiting 
 their joyful resurrection at Christ's second coming ; 
 waiting to be clothed upon with spiritual bodies 
 bodies from heaven, bodies of light, and beauty, 
 and glory; and in those bodies will they be 
 manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ, to 
 receive the reward of their deeds, and then be 
 admitted to the perfect bliss of heaven which God 
 has prepared for them that love Him. In the 
 body they will be caught up to meet the Lord
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTED DEAD. 295 
 
 in the air; in the body they will see the King 
 in His beauty ; in the body they will be ever with 
 the Lord. But now, so long as they are out of 
 the body, their happiness, like their nature, is in- 
 complete. Still, their state is one of inconceivable 
 joy and peace. For they have seen Jesus ; they 
 are resting still under His gaze, with the full 
 consciousness of His unchanging love and of their 
 own secured salvation and glory. "Our soul," 
 they can say with the psalmist, " is escaped as a 
 bird out of the snare of the fowler ; the snare is 
 broken, and we are delivered." Yes, they have 
 escaped from the dangers, the trials, the sorrows, 
 the infirmities, the sins of this miserable life, and 
 are safe, perfectly safe, in a state of eternal 
 beatitude, where there is no more conflict, or 
 temptation; no more bewilderment, doubt, or 
 despondency ; no more separation, or anguish, 
 or hunger, or thirst, or heat, or cold, or crying, or 
 pain ; for " God shall wipe away all tears from all 
 faces, and the former things will have passed 
 away." Well may they rejoice and be glad, and 
 break forth in a chant of praise. " I will love 
 Thee, Lord, my strength : for Thou hast set me 
 up : and not let my foes triumph over me." " Thou 
 hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from 
 tears, and my feet from falling." " Therefore will 
 I offer unto Thee an oblation of great gladness." 
 " Thou hast turned my heaviness into joy. Thou 
 hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with
 
 296 THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTED DEAD. 
 
 gladness. Therefore shall every good man sing 
 of Thy praise without ceasing. O my God, I will 
 give thanks unto Thee for ever." 
 
 Oh my friends, what blessed utterances are these ! 
 how instructive and satisfying ! What an answer 
 to our fears, and full of comfort ! For are we not 
 anxious to know what will become of us after this 
 life ? Do we not sometimes fear for ourselves ? 
 Are we not anxious about our friends, just on this 
 one point ? They have vanished from us with all 
 their amiable and endearing qualities, all their 
 virtues, all their active powers. Where is that 
 spirit gone, we ask, over the wide universe, up or 
 down, which once thought, felt, loved, hoped, 
 planned, acted in our sight, and which, wherever 
 it goes, must carry with it the same affections and 
 principles, the same desires and aims ? We know 
 that beloved mind, and it knows us, and now it is 
 taken from us. What is it doing ? Where is it ? 
 
 Here Holy Scripture and our spiritual Mother, 
 the Catholic Church, meet us with their unerring 
 guidance. The saints departed are at rest, in 
 Paradise, with Christ. They are not in prison, in 
 a place of anguish and torment, where the flame 
 of a material tire of equal intensity to that of hell 
 cleanses them for an entrance into the kingdom, 
 for which they are not prepared on leaving the 
 body, although they lived here a life of obedience 
 and mortification, charity, and sacramental grace, 
 and died in the Faith, relying solely on the merits
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTED DEAD. 297 
 
 of the precious blood of their Redeemer. Not one 
 word of this fearful doctrine, which is the popular 
 belief of many in Western Christendom, can you 
 find in God's own Book, or in the records of the 
 undivided Church, or in the teaching of the Eastern 
 Church, i.e. the other half of Christendom at the 
 present day. No, my brethren, I really cannot 
 find, either in Scripture or in the liturgies of the 
 Church, or in the writings of her first doctors, that 
 the saints departed are now in a state of suffering, 
 are doomed to pass long years and ages in flames 
 like those of hell, before they can be at peace with 
 Christ Rather, I should say that, being reconciled 
 to God in this life by the blood of His dear Son, 
 and having enjoyed God's peace for many years 
 of a well-spent life, it is more consonant with our 
 belief in the free pardon of sin and the removal of 
 its consequences through the precious blood of 
 the Cross, ay, and more agreeable to the common 
 reason of Christians, to believe that they who have 
 served God here holily, and have died in peace, 
 pass from this world of unrest and sorrow into a 
 state of calmness, repose, and peace. They are 
 resting from their labours (under the altar), in 
 some recess of the tabernacle above, not admitted 
 yet to the fulness of joy, but still refreshed with 
 abundance of peace, having a foretaste of that 
 bliss which they will one day enjoy without mea- 
 sure, when they shall be reunited to their glorified 
 bodies, and have their perfect consummation and
 
 298 THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTED DEAD. 
 
 bliss in body as well as in soul, in the kingdom of 
 the Father. 
 
 Their state one may reverently conceive to be 
 one of joyful waiting and longing expectation, 
 " of heavenly contemplation," just as this world is 
 a discipline of active service, a state of calm and 
 peaceful rest, during which the several graces of 
 their Christian character may be more and more 
 developed ; their fruits of holiness more and more 
 ripened in the garner ; and the good work of the 
 Spirit, begun in them here through the use of 
 sacraments and the ministry of the Word, may 
 there be carried on and perfected by direct know- 
 ledge of God and open vision, until the day of 
 Christ ; so that, continually beholding the out- 
 skirts of the glory of the Lord, they are changed 
 from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord, until 
 they reach the perfect man, the measure of the 
 stature of the fulness of Christ. 
 
 And if S. John saw the souls of the martyrs 
 under the altar crying out for the coming judg- 
 ment and retribution, may we not reverently 
 think and believe of all the saints in Paradise, 
 that they cry out with the whole energy of their 
 sinless wills, " How long, Lord, wilt Thou suffer 
 the conflict of good and evil to go on, and the 
 bark of Thy Church to be tossed by the waves 
 of ungodliness and unbelief; and the souls of Thy 
 redeemed to be a prey to the devouring lion ; and 
 those we love to be separated from us, and our
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTED DEAD. 299 
 
 crowns yet to be withheld ? " And may we not 
 further think it more than a probable opinion 
 yea, a most true and necessary condition of their 
 present state, now that they are safe with Jesus 
 on the shore that they are looking through the 
 dim twilight of the morning at us who are still 
 toiling in rowing, still in great danger on the 
 deep ? And as friends on shore assist and cheer 
 the storm-tossed mariner, so do they sympathise 
 in our trials, and aid us with their prayers and 
 intercessions, which are now poured forth with 
 an earnestness and singleness of purpose, and an 
 endurance, and an energy of love, that cannot in 
 this life be practised or imagined ? 
 
 But if all this be so with them, is it to be a 
 matter of joy or wretchedness to ourselves ? Are 
 we to mourn or to rejoice that God's faithful 
 servants are one by one taken from us, to enter 
 into their rest, and to do the work appointed them 
 within the veil, and to receive the firstfruits of 
 their labours, the foretaste of the joy of their 
 Lord ? Surely, whether they are young or old, 
 whether they are snatched suddenly away in the 
 bloom of opening youth, or gathered in as a shock 
 of corn in full season, yet if here they have lived 
 in faith and charity, and have been partakers of 
 Christ really and truly through His sacraments 
 and His cross, and have served Him faithfully in 
 their station up to the end, the change to them is 
 a happy one, their portion is blessed indeed.
 
 300 THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTED DEAD. 
 
 "We may not sorrow for them as those that have 
 no thankful retrospect, no bright hope. Could 
 they speak to us, they would be the first to rebuke 
 our broken spirit and useless tears. Still less may 
 we in our selfishness wish them back again in this 
 world of sin and conflict ; for then, would they not 
 be sent forth, as the dove from the ark, only to be 
 buffeted again by the angry storm, with no place 
 for the sole of their foot to rest on perhaps never 
 to return to their secure refuge perhaps to be 
 overcome by temptation, to be blasted by the 
 pestilence of sin, and to sink in the dark waves 
 and be lost for ever ? 
 
 Ah ! my brethren, when any of you are disposed 
 to murmur at the hardness of your lot, because 
 it has pleased your heavenly Father in His all- 
 wise love to take from you some one you leaned 
 on, or trusted, or loved as your own soul, think 
 of the rest and peace of Paradise whence your 
 selfishness would drag him down; ay, think of 
 the risks and perils to his soul, which you would 
 have him encounter and possibly succumb to, were 
 your longings for his return to be gratified. Think 
 at least of these things, and resolve to trust God's 
 infinite love and wisdom more, and then you may 
 learn, if not at once, to rejoice yet to be resigned, 
 and to say, " It is the Lord ; let Him do what 
 seemeth Him good." " Father, not my will, but 
 Thine be done." 
 
 Listen, brethren, for a few moments, while I give
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTED DEAD. 301 
 
 you a very remarkable instance of this resignation 
 which occurred only a few years ago. A lady 
 was in deep distress at the illness of her little 
 boy, which she was assured would terminate fatally. 
 Her whole soul was bound up in the life of her 
 child ; she could not endure the thought of losing 
 him; she could not give him up. But she was 
 a religious woman ; she prayed incessantly, with 
 strong crying and tears, that he might be spared. 
 And her prayer was answered, although not as 
 she had first desired. She was asleep, she told the 
 person who told me, tired out with grief and 
 watching, and she had a dream. In her dream 
 one came near her in bright raiment, but with 
 a saddened countenance, and he said to her, 
 " Your prayer may be granted, your son shall live, 
 if you desire it ; but if he lives, he will grow up 
 to be a bad man, and he will die an unbeliever." 
 
 Need I tell you the end ? The mother awoke 
 with her mind and heart entirely changed; she 
 prayed no more for recovery, the alternative was 
 too horrible ; her son died ; and she was not only 
 resigned but rejoiced even, that her lamb was safe 
 in the good Shepherd's arms, whence no evil could 
 pluck him for evermore. 
 
 Lastly, if our contemplation of the happiness 
 of the saints is to be a benefit to us, it must have 
 this practical issue. We must not only be resigned 
 to God's will in hours of bereavement, but cheer- 
 fully obedient at all times in the active keeping
 
 302 THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTED DEAD. 
 
 of His commandments. We must walk in the 
 steps of the saints, and try to live more and more 
 their hidden life, and practise the ways by which 
 they sought to detach themselves from the world, 
 its customs, fashion, and influence. We must seek 
 to live apart from, and above, this vain show, under 
 the eye and in the very presence of the saints. 
 
 Now, mark this, brethren. S. Paul appeals to 
 this motive, when he writes to the Hebrews, 
 " Seeing we also are compassed about with so 
 great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every 
 weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, 
 and let us run with patience the race that is set 
 before us." Verily, this consciousness of the pre- 
 sence of the saints around us, ever watching our 
 movements, and passing sentence upon our actions 
 and motives, may help to deter us from doing 
 and saying many a thing which is contrary to their 
 precepts, or violates the spirit of their holy example. 
 
 Let us, then, realise their presence, and try more 
 and more to copy their ways, and to act up to 
 the spirit of their example, by weaning ourselves 
 from the world, and withdrawing from it; by 
 loving silence and solitude ; by the daily practice 
 of mortification; by subduing our appetites, con- 
 trolling our tempers, bridling our tongues, curbing 
 our wills. Let us prove our faith in the Com- 
 munion of Saints by the frequency of our prayers, 
 the devoutness of our meditations, the reverence 
 of our worship, the abundance of our almsdeeds,
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTED DEAD. 303 
 
 the freeness of our forgiveness, the expansiveness 
 of our charity, and by all the ministries of a self- 
 sacrificing love. For, if we would be with God's 
 saints after death, we must live after their example 
 and in their Communion, now. 
 
 In their communion : for death does not and 
 cannot separate those who are united in the bands 
 of Christian fellowship. Although we cannot unite 
 in visible acts of worship with those who have left 
 us, and shall never more see their faces in the 
 flesh, yet they are united to us as members of 
 the One Body, by virtue of our common union 
 with Christ ; and if so, may we not believe they 
 do not forget us ? May we not hold it, as a 
 certain truth, that they are looking back upon 
 the scenes and trials they have passed through, 
 with deeper interest, and more loving sympathy 
 than ever, and are longing for the safety and 
 happiness of all they have cared for and loved? 
 watching over their work, rejoicing in their 
 victories, and praying that their warfare may soon 
 be accomplished, and that all meet before the 
 throne and sit down at the supper of the Lamb. 
 
 Next as to their example. Let us regard them 
 as our elder brothers and sisters in Christ, striving 
 to consult their wishes, to dwell upon their re- 
 newed image, to praise God for their holy lives ; 
 commending them to His safe keeping ; entreating 
 for them higher blessings, more light, more peace, 
 more purity, more love ; and especially in Holy
 
 304 THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTED -DEAD. 
 
 Communion joining with them and all other 
 blessed spirits round the throne in lauding and 
 magnifying God's holy Name for His great mercies 
 to them, the grace already secured by them, the 
 hopes of glory yet to be revealed. Yes ; for 
 heaven is now open to all believers. "We are 
 come " already, says the Apostle, " to mount Sion, 
 and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly 
 Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of 
 angels, to the general assembly and Church of the 
 first-born, and to God the Judge of all, and to 
 the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus 
 the Mediator of the New Covenant." We are 
 come they are all around us, although we see 
 them not. See, then, brethren, that ye walk 
 worthy of this your high calling and fellowship 
 in Christ Jesus. See that ye so follow the blessed 
 steps of God's saints, that at the last, with those 
 you have loved, whose conversation you have seen, 
 whose parting words and dying breath you have 
 received, you may partake of those unspeakable 
 joys of which they are now tasting, we humbly 
 trust, the firstfruits and assurances. 
 
 PRINTED BV WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLESi